Quick Wear: Cousin, Come to the Bowl Quickly

As dusk fell, Du Xingzhi saw off the last wave of mourners and walked slowly back to the mourning hall.

Looking at the dark coffin and tablet in the mourning hall, he continued to kneel on the mat somewhat stiffly and added some paper money into the copper basin.

The flames quickly licked the paper money, and a few sparks shot up into the air and quickly died out. His body and face were sweating from the heat, but he seemed not to notice it and just mechanically repeated the movements in his hands.

When Lin Xi arrived, she saw the entire mourning hall was illuminated by fire. A thin young man was kneeling in it. The fire in the copper basin was blazing. Sparks were blown up by the wind and were about to fall on the young man. She hurriedly stepped forward and pulled Du Xingzhi away, and kicked the brazier away a little, saying anxiously, "Cousin! Are you okay?"

Du Xingzhi finally came back to his senses, looked down at Lin Xi who was looking concerned, and tried to pull the corners of his mouth, "It's okay."

Lin Xi seemed to be stimulated by his expression, which was uglier than crying. Her eyes immediately turned red and she choked up and said, "You said you were fine, but you were almost burned by the fire. Cousin, please don't be like this."

The faint smile that Du Xingzhi had been trying hard to maintain disappeared, and his tense shoulders slumped, as if all his energy had been drained away in an instant.

He shook his head, gently broke free from Lin Xi's hand, and bowed down to the spirit tablet again. He knelt on the ground, and his muffled voice came out, "Cousin, I don't have a father anymore."

Lin Xi pursed her lips, walked to the incense table, lit three incense sticks, bowed three times to Du Yan's spirit tablet, and then walked to Du Xingzhi's side and bowed down as well. There was silence in the mourning hall for a moment, and only the two people's light breathing could be heard.

After a long while, Lin Xi heard the rustling of fabrics beside her, and Du Xingzhi finally spoke, "They all advised my mother and I to mourn, but they don't know that when I looked at my father's spirit tablet, I couldn't shed a single tear. If my father knew, he would definitely scold me for being unfilial."

"He has always loved me. I have had a weak body since I was born. He heard from somewhere that there is a master in Gusu with profound Buddhist knowledge. The children blessed by him will be cured of all diseases and have strong bodies. So he brought me to ask for blessings from afar."

"One day, because we were short of money, we stayed in a very cheap hotel. The room was damp and hot, the straw mat was moldy, and there were many bedbugs in the straw on the bed. My father was afraid that I would be bitten by the bedbugs, so he lit them with candle wax. When the sun rose, I saw many wax spots on the straw mat. That night, I slept well with the cool breeze from my father's palm-leaf fan, but my father's eyes were red from staying up all night."

"When I was young, I didn't like reading classics at all. I just liked to follow the older kids up the hills and down the river. One day, I heard that there was a shadow play in the village next door. So I and a few other kids didn't go to the school, but walked dozens of miles to the next village.

"In the end, I didn't get to see the shadow play. On the way back, they disliked me for walking too slowly and left me behind. I was young, so I walked from dawn to dusk by myself and fell several times. I finally got home crying, thinking I would definitely be punished. But my father didn't say anything. He just glanced at me and asked my mother to take me to rest."

"Later, my mother told me that my father had been looking for me for a whole day. When he found out that I was taken far away by some kids, my naturally good-tempered father got angry for the first time and threatened to fight those kids to the death if I got lost. After that, I never hung out with those kids again and could concentrate on my studies."

"He has always been in good health. When we were fleeing, my mother and I both fell ill several times due to sleeping in the open, but he never even caught a cold. There were times when my mother and I were almost unable to hold on, but as long as we looked at his back, which seemed to be always upright, we would suddenly feel endless strength."

……

Lin Xi slowly stood up and quietly listened to Du Xingzhi's recollections of his memories of his father. She couldn't help but think of a sentence she had heard in her previous life: The departure of a loved one is not a rainstorm, but a long dampness in this life. The living are forever trapped in this dampness, and every calm day will bring about a storm.

She thought of her past life. She was born a sickly child and was left to her grandmother at an early age by her parents on the pretext of earning money for her medical expenses. For the next ten years or so, no one had seen her again except for a certain amount of remittance sent back every month.

The thin old lady poured all her love on her, and her parents did not disperse their love for her even when they gave birth to a healthy and smart sister. Unfortunately, the old lady died too suddenly, and the girl she had raised with great effort also died with her after struggling alone for several years.

Later, she experienced many small worlds, playing various roles in them, making herself seem very busy. But at some sudden moment, she would think of the little old lady, and the memories would surge back, pressing her heart to the point of suffocation.

Thinking of this, Lin Xi looked at Du Xingzhi beside her, stretched out her hand, gently but firmly opened his clenched fist, inserted her fingers into his palm, and interlocked their fingers. Her tone was gentle, but with a seriousness that could not be ignored, "Cousin Xingzhi, uncle will not blame you"

Seeing Du Xingzhi looking at her, Lin Xi continued, "I was not in good health when I was a child. I was delirious with fever several times, and I heard my mother say that she was willing to exchange her life for mine. Your uncle loves you so much, how could he blame you for not being able to cry?

"The dead are gone, and the living should look forward to live up to the efforts of the dead. Your uncle was proud of you when he was alive. It would be the greatest comfort to him if you and your aunt live well."

Listening to Lin Xi's comforting words, Du Xingzhi did not say anything else, but Lin Xi felt the force between his fingers slowly tightening.

On the way back, the system started to chatter again: "Host, why didn't you prevent the death of the second male lead's father? If the second male lead has a happy family, wouldn't it be easier for him to avoid a lonely and miserable ending in the future?"

"Heh." Lin Xi snorted but did not answer it.

Du Yan's death was sudden. Based on Lin Xi's experience, this kind of sudden and fatal death was most likely caused by a heart or cardiovascular disease, which could not be prevented in advance.

Even if they are fortunately rescued, they will be left with serious sequelae. Those who are lucky will be bedridden for a few years and finally die silently. Those who are unlucky will hang on for decades without dignity, and the money will be spent and the family will be ruined.

"System, today I will teach you an idiom, which means to send charcoal in the snow."

Lin Xi knew that with Du Xingzhi's intelligence, it was only a matter of time for him to come out of the depression caused by his father's death. All she had to do was to play the role of a confidant when he was depressed. Who could refuse the role of a white moonlight who silently accompanies you and gives you warmth when you feel like the sky is falling?

Lin Xi was giving the system a small lesson in her mind while walking towards her home, but she didn't expect that the moment she stepped through the door, she would run into Mrs. Du with a gloomy face.

System: Okay, the person who will teach you is here.