Chapter 4

"Sister Nan, what are you thinking about?"

Bai Lu put the medicine away and then helped her pull down her trouser legs.

Bai Nan snapped out of her daze: "No... cough, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, I just got stuck in the game. I heard from Aunt Wang that Aunt Ying made you do chores again, so I was thinking of asking you to skip work and play games together."

"Who knew that after searching everywhere and not finding you, you were in my room."

Thinking about the embarrassment just now, Bai Nan wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally asked, "Who is he?"

"Oh, his name is Xu Xin. He's related to my aunt. I heard his background is quite complicated."

"complex?"

"Yes, my grandfather didn't even tell me."

When Master Zong was mentioned, Bai Lu curled his lip.

"You've had another argument with Master Zong, haven't you?"

"Tch, he said he didn't even tell me before giving my room to someone else. Shouldn't I be angry?"

"Well—uh, indeed, your grandpa was wrong this time."

Under Bai Lu's warning look, Bai Nan quickly changed his tune.

"That's more like it." Bai Lu finished speaking, then suddenly remembered something: "You don't know, I just saw Bai Di. He was sneaking around by the door, his ear pressed against it, he was definitely eavesdropping!"

What happened to them later?

That was so embarrassing, I completely forgot about Bai Di.

"As soon as I got there, he ran away, faster than a rabbit!"

Bai Nan sighed. What a mess, the blame had fallen on her alone again.

Seeing her strange expression, Bai Lu suddenly realized and said, "Wait a minute! How did you sneak into my room? Was it Bai Di, that troublemaker?"

"Uh... he asked me to get him the handheld console..."

"I knew it! No, I have to find him! He caused you to get hurt and you were almost mistaken for a thief. I have to teach him a lesson!"

"Don't go!" Bai Nan grabbed his sleeve. "He must have realized his mistake to run away. Don't look for him."

To avoid any more unexpected problems.

Bai Lu sat down following her lead: "Hmph! Let's let him go for now. This young master is magnanimous and won't stoop to his level."

"......"

At 7 p.m., everyone gathered in the front yard.

Thanks to Bai Lu, Bai Nan got a good night's sleep and is now sitting next to Bai Di, looking refreshed.

The courtyard, which relatives had decorated together last night, now had about twenty tables of various sizes. Her house was in the northeast corner, and all the tables were arranged in a chessboard pattern to support the mourning hall in the center. A corner of the black coffin was visible under the hall, making it look particularly solemn and dignified.

However, once the chef served the dishes, the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

Before the banquet officially began, Bai Zong tearfully reminisced about the past, and some of the older people listened with tears welling up in their eyes.

The deceased was named Li Laokou, Bai Zong's father-in-law. He was nearly eighty years old and was known for his stinginess, hence the name.

No one ever called him by his real name. Generally, older people disdain being called by their full name. People of good character will call him by a nicer name, while people like Old Man Li will naturally call him by a less pleasant name.

He lost his wife at forty and had three daughters. He should have been busy making a living, but instead, he idled away his days.

I heard that he always bows three times before his wife's memorial tablet every year, just to pray for a son. He also said that his deceased wife always appeared to him in his dreams, telling him to remarry and have a son.

Everyone listened to it as amusement, but to their surprise, he took it very seriously and actually began searching far and wide for women to remarry, leaving his three daughters to be raised by other families, as if he were possessed.

So this is why the funeral seemed somewhat ridiculous: all the attendees were members of the Bai family, who had little to do with Li Laokou, and some even looked down on his usual behavior.

Although everyone wears different masks, they all share the same goal.

At first glance, it seems that Bai Zong is the only one who is truly grieving for him at this funeral.

Grandpa Zong flicked his mourning clothes and turned to go to the mourning hall.

The first day of the funeral banquet officially began, with the older generation raising their glasses in mourning, while the younger generation wolfed down their food.

Bai Zongben's family was small, so to show his filial piety, he invited many distant relatives. These past few days, he relied entirely on these collateral relatives for help and arrangements, so he naturally wouldn't blame them for their unseemly behavior.

Although they are called the younger generation, most of them are actually young adults in their thirties, and the only real children are Bai Nan and his group at their table.

Since they were there to help, no one dared to bring young children to cause trouble, so there were only Bai Nan, Bai Di, Bai Lu, and Xu Xin at the table, just the four of them.

Looking at the delicacies on the table, no one dared to touch their chopsticks first.

Bai Di glanced at his sister's expression, Bai Nan waited for Bai Lu, and Bai Lu squinted at Xu Xin.

This resulted in Xu Xin not moving, and no one else daring to move either.

"I have no appetite."

After a long silence, Xu Xin took the initiative to speak.

Bai Lu immediately breathed a sigh of relief, picked up his chopsticks and first put a few pieces of crab legs on Bai Nan's plate, then took an oyster for himself.

Bai Di immediately placed the abalone rice in front of him, then picked up the lobster and started eating.

Bai Nan only picked up a piece of ice grass with her chopsticks and savored it. After finishing, she quickly glanced at Xu Xin, feeling that the appearance of the grass resembled him.

The summer heat had not completely dissipated by the end of August, and the courtyard was bustling with noise, which made the food even hotter.

"It's so hot today, do you guys want some ice water?" Bai Lu grabbed his collar and stood up, addressing everyone at the table, but glancing at Xu Xin with his eyes.

Bai Nan quietly gnawed on a crab leg and shook his head.

Bai Di: "A bottle of iced cola, please!" Why not take advantage of this opportunity? Such chances don't come often.

Xu Xin stood up and walked to his side: "Together."

After the two left, Bai Di began to feast, gathering all the food he couldn't usually eat onto his plate, and then quickly buried himself in his food.

Bai Nan only grabbed a few oysters and a vegetable platter that Bai Lu liked, and after cleaning the crab legs off her own plate, she didn't touch the rest of her chopsticks.

She usually doesn't eat much, but today she had a rare good appetite and ate her fill.

Twenty minutes later, they returned with several bottles of iced drinks. Bai Lu placed the bottles on the table; there were three bottles of iced beer inside.

Bai Di was patting his round belly and burping when he saw this and exclaimed, "Little Lu, Grandpa Zong won't let us drink, right? I won't drink!"

Bai Lu took out a bottle opener and opened the three bottles of ice-cold beer one by one: "I didn't ask you to drink them, they're for Brother Xin."

Bai Nan was somewhat surprised and unconsciously glanced at Xu Xin. Unexpectedly, the two made eye contact, and she hurriedly looked away.

"Sister Nan, what's wrong?"

"If you're not feeling well, go inside and rest for a while. I'll come up and call you when it's time for the worship ceremony."

Bai Lu noticed a splash of blood on her pale earlobe and assumed she had heatstroke.

"fine."

Bai Nan felt a little awkward. She and Xu Xin had a misunderstanding, and his cold personality made her subconsciously want to avoid him, but unexpectedly, they made eye contact.

Moreover, his gaze was direct, devoid of any subjective emotion, like a sharp sword that made people want to avoid it and dare not look back.

"Bai Nan!" Huang Ying shouted from another table, holding several rolls of hemp rope in her hand, clearly looking for her to do some work.

Just as Bai Nan was about to get up, Bai Lu suddenly pressed down on her shoulder and shouted, "Aunt Ying! Let me help you! I'm stronger!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Ying gave an awkward smile and quickly replied, "No need, no need, Xiao Di, you do it!"

Upon hearing this, Bai Di stood up and walked towards her, grumbling to himself. Before leaving, he didn't forget to take one oyster from the pile of oysters Bai Nan had left behind, slurping it as he walked.

"Sister Nan, you need to learn to say no to her, otherwise she'll always take advantage of you and bully you." Bai Lu was furious at her lack of self-control.

"Hmm." Bai Nan didn't want to say more.

Since returning home at the age of six, and now at seventeen, for a full eleven years, she has grown tired of arguing with them, and the oppression that follows each refusal has become more severe and subtle, leaving her utterly exhausted.

Superficial compliance may be physically tiring, but it doesn't require mental exertion, which is good.

Bai Lu wanted to launch into a long speech, trying to instill in Bai Nan the rebellious spirit that a young person should have, but with Xu Xin, an outsider, present, he could only drink iced cola in frustration.

After the meal, most people followed Bai Zong into the mourning hall.

This mourning hall, a temporary wooden structure, looks like an enlarged, square coffin from a distance.

The real black wooden coffin was placed in the center of the mourning hall. Inside the coffin, Li Laokou was facing outwards and inwards, dressed in luxurious clothes, surrounded by a circle of yellow and white chrysanthemums and paper gold and silver treasures.

Many mourning wreaths stood on both sides of the coffin, and in front of the two foremost wreaths was a black wooden square table, on which coarse incense sticks were constantly emitting white smoke.

After finishing his ice-cold beer, Xu Xin went upstairs to rest, leaving the other two to breathe a sigh of relief.

“This is the quietest person I’ve ever met, it’s a bit suffocating,” Bai Lu said, patting his chest.

Bai Nan smiled and said, "Didn't you call me BKing when we were kids?"

"I was wrong. I was narrow-minded and didn't have a long-term vision. Who knew there could be such a cold person?"

"I accidentally made eye contact with him, and I immediately felt less hot."

Bai Lu exaggeratedly described his gaze, while Bai Nan instantly recalled their eye contact from just now.

He has a pair of captivating eyes.

It's clearly the most beautiful eye shape when smiling, yet it appears on an iceberg.

It's a pity, it would be better if there were more smiles.

After listening to Bai Lu's complaints, Bai Nan and Bai Lu went to the mourning hall together.

Logically speaking, only Bai Lu should be the one to pay respects to Li Laokou, since Bai Nan is too distant from him.

But the main reason she begged her parents to bring her here was to see him, so she knelt on the prayer mat next to Bai Lu and kowtowed three times very solemnly.

Hey Li Laokou, I've come to find you.

After kowtowing, she got up and went to Huang Ying's side, where they wove a prayer mat together.

The funeral was to be held for three days, and they didn't have enough prayer cushions for the first day alone, so they had to work through the night to make thirty more.

"...I really don't know what Master Zong was thinking, inviting so many people. Anyone with a poor sense of right and wrong might think he's throwing a gift for his father..."

Huang Ying muttered softly, only Bai Nan, who was nearby, could hear her.

"Hey, Hua Zi's family, do you know how Old Man Li died?" An older woman behind Huang Ying started chatting with her, without interrupting her work.

Huang Ying shifted her position and said to her, "You know what, I actually know how he died."

Just then, Bai Hua came out of the kitchen. He had been in charge of kitchen scheduling these past few days and was the busiest person there, but he felt honored, which showed that Master Zong trusted him.

He sat down next to Huang Ying, hiding behind the crowd, and joined in the gossip.

Huang Ying: "Have you eaten?"

"Yeah, I ate even earlier than you guys." He was quite pleased.

"Alright, stop showing off your love, tell us how this old man died!" the aunt urged.

Huang Ying glanced around and said in a low voice, "They were so angry they died!"

"Wasn't Old Man Li always very healthy? How could he have died of anger?"

"Yeah, he was still flirting with an old lady in our neighborhood the year before last. I heard that the old lady's wife came to his door a few times, but the old man couldn't beat him up. The old guy was so angry that he cursed him in the union group chat for being shameless!"

"Hey~ that's nothing. Just last year, he won the championship in a community fitness competition. All the participants were young people in their twenties and thirties!"

"These have all been compared?"

"You bet, he's got a really strong body, tsk tsk."

"Auntie, you're drooling, hehehe."

Huang Ying mocked her, saying that the woman's husband was a short and thin man who would drool over any strong man he saw, and the two of them had argued about it many times.

The aunt rolled her eyes: "That's nonsense. That old man could be my father. You're just spouting gibberish."

"Yingzi, where did you hear this? Master Zong didn't mention how he died." Bai Hua knew that Master Zong was a shrewd man and would never say such things to outsiders.

"I overheard it in the backyard during the day. Look, it was that woman who said it." Huang Ying gestured with her lips, indicating that they should look across the street.

She was referring to the three women opposite Bai Nan, who were whispering among themselves as they worked, mostly gossiping about the same things.

[You actually died of anger? How ironic.]

Bai Nan lowered her gaze and looked into the coffin. Old Li's head, swollen like a pig's head, seemed to echo her inner mockery.

This made her chuckle.

However, the people around were busy sharing gossip and no one noticed the short, sarcastic laugh.