Chapter 141 She Might Not Come
When Achan got up, she found the courtyard quiet. Chen Hui didn't seem to be awake. Instead, Boss Lü had already tidied up and came out of the room.
"Mr. Lü, why are you up so early?"
Lu Ruhui looked at her and replied, "It's already past 9 AM, not early. I'm thinking of going back to my own home to check on things, lest the heavy snow block the door and prevent me from getting in."
Her residence was in Yongpingfang, not too far from here, but after her divorce, she dismissed all the maids who served her, and now there is no one at home.
"Are you in such a hurry to go back? Why don't you have breakfast before you leave?" Achan suggested.
Lü Ruhui politely declined, saying, "I won't bother you any longer."
"Alright, then take some dumplings with you. We can take them home and cook them later." After a year of living this way, Achan's manners are now very impeccable.
This time, Lü Ruhui did not refuse.
Last night they made a lot of dumplings together. The leftover uncooked dumplings were frozen outside. Achan found a food box, picked out a plate of frozen raw dumplings, put them in it, and handed it to Lü Ruhui.
Lü Ruhui took it and thanked her with a smile.
As they saw Mr. Lü out, there was indeed a thick layer of snow outside. Standing at the door, Lü Ruhui said to Achan, "Thank you for your hospitality last night, Miss Ji. I had a very happy New Year."
"Mr. Lü, there's no need for such formalities. Hui Niang and I are very happy that you could come." A Chan's tone was sincere; she wouldn't be polite to people in such matters.
Upon hearing this, Lü Ruhui smiled and said, "Miss Ji, please wait. We'll meet again when the shop reopens on the fifth day of the new year."
"Okay, see you on the fifth day. Be careful on the road."
Lu Ruhui waved to her before turning and walking across the street.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, there were already many pedestrians on the streets. Achan watched Lü Ruhui's figure. She walked very slowly, still wearing the same brightly colored gold-flecked dress from yesterday. Walking on the snow, she looked like a flower blooming in the snow.
After seeing Boss Lü off and returning to her room, Achan realized something was amiss.
Hui Niang usually wakes up the earliest, so why hasn't she woken up yet even after Boss Lü left?
Achan went to check on her in her room. Chen Huiping was lying on the spacious bed, covered with a blanket, and was indeed still asleep.
Her chest rose and fell slightly, and her breathing was shallow. Although it was a simulation, at least it wouldn't scare anyone.
Achan stepped forward and gently nudged Chen Hui, but she didn't react.
After sitting by the bed for a while and observing her, he confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Chen Hui's body. In fact, she looked somewhat like she did when she was in Xiling.
Thinking of this, Achan suddenly realized that they had eaten a whole dragon carp last night, and Hui Niang had eaten most of it. Dragon carp are cultivated from the flesh and blood of dragons, and Hui Niang's transformation into a living corpse was also related to dragon blood. It seemed that the dragon carp had a significant impact on her.
In addition, she had drunk a lot of demon beast blood before, and so much time has passed. It's about time she advanced. I think the dragon carp last night was the opportunity for her to advance.
Ah Chan wasn't worried anymore, but it seemed that Hui Niang might be sleeping for a while.
Before we knew it, it was the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The surrounding shops had calculated the auspicious time to open, lit firecrackers, and officially opened for business.
Hui Niang was still asleep, so A Chan didn't join in the fun and planned to open the shop in a few days.
On this street, the only other shop that wasn't open like hers was the antique shop next door.
When they parted on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Boss Lü said she would see him again on the fifth day, but she did not appear as promised.
After seeing Liu Xiangze at the Lü family's house before the Lunar New Year, Lü Ruhui never expected that he would appear at her doorstep again.
She heard a knock on the door and his voice; he said he had something to say to her.
But Lü Ruhui did not respond to the person outside the door. She walked back into the house with difficulty, lay down on the bed, covered herself with a quilt, and then drank the stone syrup.
As the intense pain subsided, she felt her body grow colder inch by inch, and then gradually lose consciousness.
When that feeling spread to her heart, she suddenly realized clearly that she might not be able to recover today.
She wasn't too afraid, and had long been prepared that she would never wake up again. In fact, she had even rewritten a new will in the past few days.
But I still feel regretful, as if there are many things I haven't finished.
The food box and plates left in the kitchen were not returned to Miss Ji; she didn't get to see Hui Niang and tell her that the dumplings they made together on New Year's Eve were delicious. She didn't go back to the Lü family to expose Lü Ruxin's true colors and let her parents see their youngest daughter's true nature, nor did she open the door to let Liu Xiangze get as far away as possible…
A wave of drowsiness washed over her, and Lü Ruhui slowly closed her eyes, never to open them again.
The knocking had stopped sometime earlier, and the person standing outside had left, leaving only two rows of footprints.
Every day after that, Ah Chan would check the shop next door before going out, but Boss Lü still hadn't come by the tenth day of the month.
Achan knew in her heart that she probably wouldn't come.
People are so fragile; a careless farewell can mean never seeing each other again.
That afternoon, Achan took a nap. When she woke up, it was already late afternoon, and it was pitch black inside and outside the house.
She lit the candles in the room, then remembered that the pair of lanterns outside the front door had not been lit.
She went into the shop, lit the candles in the shop first, then took out two more candles before pushing open the door and going out.
Achan put down the lantern at the door, replaced the candle with a new one, lit it, and then pulled the lantern back to its original place and tied it up.
Soon, a pair of lanterns lit up, illuminating the road in front of the shop.
Achan watched with satisfaction for a while, and just as she was about to close the door, the candle in one of the lanterns suddenly went out.
She stopped closing the door, looked up at the extinguished lantern, and then her gaze moved down. At that moment, a figure appeared under the extinguished lantern.
Ah Chan naturally recognized the figure; it was none other than Boss Lü, whom she hadn't seen for ten days.
At this moment, Boss Lü was not much different from usual, except that his figure was slightly blurry. Clearly, what came today was just a ghost.
Boss Lü stood there motionless, and Ah Chan didn't say anything either, just stood inside the door, looking at him.
Normally, ordinary people rarely become ghosts after death unless they have a great grudge. Boss Lü looked peaceful and didn't seem to have died in agony, so why did he become a ghost?
After a long while, Boss Lü finally looked up at Ah Chan. She opened her mouth and said, "Miss Ji... how did I end up here?"
Her voice carried a hint of bewilderment and unease; compared to Achan, she seemed more like the one who was frightened.
"Mr. Lü, do you remember what happened?"
what happened?
Lü Ruhui recalled, she remembered...
“I remember I was already dead.”
Hearing that she mentioned her death and that there was no resentment in her spirit, Achan was relieved and asked, "On what day did you die?"
"On the fourth day of the first lunar month." Boss Lü spoke more fluently than before, and was no longer as dazed as he had been at the beginning. He gradually became like he was in life.
She added, "That day, my ex-husband came to see me out of the blue, but I suddenly fell ill. I went back to bed and drank some lime water. At that time, I already felt that I might not be able to recover, and then I lost consciousness."
"Seven days have passed," Achan sighed. "Today is the day you were resurrected. It seems that your worries were too deep, which is why you have come to your senses."
"Concern? But there's no one I'm concerned about." Scenes from her life flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern, stirring her emotions to some extent, but that was all.
"So, before you died, did you have any regrets or resentments?" Achan asked again.
Ordinary people also have resentment before they die, but it is difficult for them to become ghosts based on just this emotional fluctuation.
After thinking for a moment, Achan suspected it might be related to the stone paste or the dragon carp. In any case, Boss Lü's soul received a power after her death, which enabled her to regain consciousness on the night of her return to life. This could be considered a stroke of luck.
Ah Chan's words silenced Lü Ruhui. After a long while, she whispered, "I'm not afraid to admit it, but I was very unwilling before I died. Before I died, I thought I would ignore those people and just peacefully finish my journey. But at the moment before I died, I regretted it and regretted not arguing with them to the end."
Achan listened quietly.
Lu Ruhui continued, “I used to love my ex-husband very much, but he was my sister’s fiancé. Later, I heard that my father would not allow my sister to marry him, so I forced my father to agree to let me continue the engagement in place of my sister and marry him. I thought that as time went by, we would develop feelings for each other, and he would love me as much as I loved him.”
"Doesn't he have it?"
“I don’t know either.” Lü Ruhui twitched her lips slightly. “If there wasn’t, were the past ten years all a lie? But if there was, I told him that I was framed by my adopted son, but he didn’t believe me. I was bothered by him going to see my sister in private, but he refused to explain to me and only blamed me for slandering them.”
"You resent him?"
"It must be resentment."
"Is there anyone else?" Achan asked softly.
“And my parents, they never believed me either,” Lü Ruhui said quietly. “When I got divorced, they blamed me. When I said my sister deliberately had an ambiguous relationship with my ex-husband, they thought I was making things up about her and only knew how to scold me. They taught me to tell the truth when I was little, and I did it, but they still don’t believe me.”
After she finished speaking, Lü Ruhui saw that Achan was listening attentively and couldn't help but smile: "You find these trivial family matters boring, don't you?"
Young girls don't like to hear these kinds of things.
Achan shook her head: "Being falsely accused and not receiving fair treatment is no small matter."
She asked Lü Ruhui, "They've been so unfair to you, do you want revenge?"
"Do I want revenge...?" Lu Ruhui remained silent for a long time, even her soul seemed to tremble slightly.
She resented them; they wouldn't even let her have peace before she died. Even in death, they treated her with such harshness. Of course, she wanted revenge!
"You were able to return to this world because you were unwilling to accept it, weren't you? Why not settle things cleanly this time, so you can leave in peace?"
“But I’m already dead.” Lü Ruhui’s voice gradually lowered. “No one else can see me, and I can’t get into their homes.”
Achan waited until she finished speaking before saying, "I have a fragrance that can give a soul great power, allowing it to do anything it wanted to do in its lifetime."
Lü Ruhui suddenly looked at Achan.
“I can also make a kind of incense candle, but it will only allow you to appear before others as you did in life.” She looked at Lü Ruhui and asked, “Which one do you want?”
"Is either one fine?" Lü Ruhui asked.
"It will be all right."
Instead of making a choice immediately, she asked Achan, "Why should you help me?"
Achan didn't hesitate and answered her directly: "Because of Huiniang, you are Huiniang's friend, I want you to leave in peace."
Lü Ruhui smiled and said, "I choose the second option."
"Don't you want to reconsider?" Achan was somewhat surprised. Although ghosts are the transformations of people after death, their temperament is not stable, otherwise they would not easily transform into vengeful ghosts.
To outsiders, Lü Ruhui's ordeal seemed like nothing more than mundane family matters, and she herself thought so too. But how could an ordinary person bear the weight of one event after another? Especially since she didn't have much time left to live.
Achan thought she would prefer a quick and decisive way of resolving conflicts.
Lu Ruhui shook her head and said to Achan, "My parents gave me life and raised me. They gave me no less than anyone else. They were never bad people, they just weren't good enough to me. Liu Xiangze is the same. I know he didn't do anything wrong to me. So, no matter how much resentment I feel, I won't harm them. It's enough for me to see them."
Ah Chan couldn't help but remind her, "You only have this one chance. Have you made up your mind?"
Lü Ruhui nodded: "Thank you for your trouble, Miss Ji."
“Alright.” Since Boss Lü has made his own choice, Achan will not interfere. “When the lanterns are lit tomorrow night, wait for me here, and I will light incense and candles to help you with your body shaping.”
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