past
Wen Ya and Si Mucheng stayed in Li City for a while. This time was longer than Wen Ya had expected. Besides the fact that the police needed their cooperation, Si Mucheng's injuries were not suitable for long-distance travel. Moreover, Wen Ya was still considering where to go next.
Grandma Jiang was already reluctant to part with Wen Ya, and when she heard that Wen Ya wouldn't be leaving so soon, she warmly invited her to stay at the Jiang family home.
Wen Ya hesitated for only a second before agreeing.
When Si Mucheng heard that Wen Ya was going to move into the Jiang family, he was a little surprised. After all, Wen Ya had always found things troublesome and she was not used to getting too close to people, even her own family.
Wen Ya's expression remained indifferent; Si Mucheng had already figured out her thoughts quite well. She probably wanted to get some information from the Jiang family.
Sure enough, after moving into the Jiang family's main residence, Old Mrs. Jiang was very happy and doted on Wen Ya, chatting with her every day. However, Wen Ya's answers were always very simple; she wasn't good at pretending, so she usually asked directly. She asked Old Mrs. Jiang about her maternal grandparents.
Si Mucheng knew that Wen Ya suspected her maternal grandfather. In fact, she wasn't the only one; after seeing the ever-burning lamp that day, they all had suspicions.
Grandma Jiang understood Wen Ya's thoughts, of course. She sighed softly and patted Wen Ya's hand: "I used to think that we shouldn't let the younger generation laugh at things from the previous life. But now that you've asked, Xiao Ya, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me anymore. Your grandfather initially disagreed with this marriage..."
Grandma Jiang was lost in her memories.
Wen Ya's maternal grandfather, Wen Tianyan, was born into the Wen family, a prominent Taoist family.
Traditional Taoist sects still retain the ability to exorcise ghosts, but in the mortal world where spiritual energy is scarce, both ghosts and Taoist masters maintain a delicate balance. There are no particularly ferocious ghosts, nor particularly powerful Taoist masters; the profession now emphasizes dispelling evil. Ghosts lingering in the mortal realm due to their obsessions are merely manifestations of the living's love, hate, anger, and delusion. The old methods of suppression are no longer effective; Taoist masters have become exorcists.
Even aristocratic families are not so pure. With limited wealth accumulated by their ancestors, and having experienced war and famine in modern society, only the Wen, Jiang, Shangguan, and Zhao families are still engaged in the business of exorcising souls.
However, everyone needs to eat and live. In this era, no one would spend a fortune to hire a so-called Taoist master to assess feng shui or perform rituals for the deceased. If someone claimed to be a Taoist master, they would most likely be considered a fraud. As a result, various aristocratic families began to seek other avenues for survival. Apart from the Zhao family, whose inherited Taoist temple remained prosperous and preserved some of their original ways, the Shangguan family's main source of income was in trade, and even the Jiang family had other businesses.
Only the Wen family.
The Wen family was always stubborn and single-minded in their pursuit of exorcising spirits. But in those times, stubbornness didn't last, and so the Wen family declined, its members dwindling in number. By the time of Wen Tianyan, this branch of the family had only one child left.
Wen Tianyan's father, Wen Ya's great-grandfather, always wanted to revitalize the Wen family, but at that time he was mostly willing but unable to do so. The proud old man lowered his pride and brought up the agreement made by his fathers.
This agreement dates back even further. During a time of war, the Wen and Jiang families formed a life-or-death bond and made a marriage agreement for their descendants. However, it was never fulfilled after several generations, and the agreement eventually fell to Wen Tianyan.
At that time, the Wen family and the Jiang family did not have a deep relationship, but the head of the Jiang family still acknowledged the marriage. Under the arrangement of Old Master Wen, the Jiang family married their second daughter to Wen Tianyan, who was Wen Ya's maternal grandmother, Jiang Weihua.
“Your maternal grandfather was unwilling. He made a fuss for a long time, but his father was very strict and his word was law. He was forced to marry Hua Mei.” Old Mrs. Jiang sighed, “But he didn’t know that Hua Mei was more than willing, and she was very happy to marry your maternal grandfather.”
Jiang Weihua met Wen Tianyan once when she was around ten years old.
At that time, Wen Tianyan had already traveled all over the country exorcising souls. The Wen family members were all exceptionally tall, and even though Wen Tianyan was not very old at the time, he was considered outstanding among his peers, both in height and ability. Jiang Weihua spotted Wen Tianyan in the crowd at a glance.
It was at an exchange meeting jointly organized by several aristocratic families. The Taoist sect was declining, and the older generation had thought of ways to break through. Even though some families were not so pure, they still strictly followed their ancestral teachings, performed soul exorcism, and let the deceased rest in peace.
There's no official body in this field; unofficial organizations are the leaders. Families have more resources and more members, so the Celestial Masters are still headed by these families. The exchange meetings are essentially gathering the Celestial Masters together to discuss their difficulties and share their experiences. It used to be held once a year, but after the next generation, no one mentioned the exchange meetings anymore, and they were no longer held. That's why Wen Ya and Jiang Shuo never knew about them.
Jiang Weihua admired Wen Tianyan from that time, so when she learned that he was her fiancé, she agreed without hesitation.
"Back then, we all heard about your grandfather's resistance. I was very indignant. It's not like the daughters of the Jiang family can't get married. Anyone could be a good match for them. If it weren't for the marriage agreement from our parents, Wen Tianyan would have been delusional to marry Hua Mei. Why should he be so picky? But Hua Mei didn't think that way. She even advised me that if I was destined to get married, I would be happy to marry someone I liked. But Wen Tianyan didn't like her, so how could she be happy? Hua Mei said that even a stone can be warmed by warmth, and she was confident that she could warm Wen Tianyan's heart as well."
Thus, the pampered Miss Jiang traveled a long and arduous journey to marry into the impoverished Wen family.
Although the Wen family was poor, their only good news was that they were a small family; Wen Tianyan's mother had passed away early, so Jiang Weihua didn't have to deal with mother-in-law issues. However, this also meant they had no one to help them. Household chores needed to be done, and everything inside and outside the house needed to be managed. She had to start working the day after she married into the family, while Wen Tianyan, before even consummating their marriage, had already left home.
Wen Tianyan was originally unwilling to marry Jiang Weihua, and after the marriage, his mind was not on her. He continued to travel around, sometimes not returning home for ten days or half a month.
Jiang Weihua later told her sister that Wen Tianyan was not a stone, but an icicle under the eaves in winter. It was too high and too cold for her to touch. Even if she could pick it down, the ice would not warm up. It would only melt into water and wet her cotton clothes, leaving her wet and cold.
She said, "I give up. He has no heart."
With the sky high and the land far away, and transportation inconvenient, she could not go home. She also had no sense of belonging in the Wen family. She could not understand the dialect, could not see her husband, and the innocent and carefree second young lady became a resentful woman who was left alone in an empty room.
When Old Mrs. Jiang saw her sister again, Jiang Weihua had just given birth. One of the functions of being a married woman wasn't completed until the fourth year. Wen Tianyan was only brought back to consummate his marriage with Jiang Weihua because of his father's dying wish.
“She was in very bad condition. I thought it was just postpartum weakness, so I encouraged her to eat more. But I never imagined that would be the last time I saw her.”
In that era, nobody understood postpartum depression. After giving birth, Wen Tianyan returned home even less often. This made Jiang Weihua feel lost and without purpose. She had received a modern education and knew that everyone should have their own value, so why had she become a tool for the Wen family to continue their lineage?
She couldn't understand it, and her depression worsened. This caused her to wither away like a flower.
Without love or money, she struggled to survive in the Wen family with her dowry. But how long could she hold on?
"When Xiaodie was five years old, her body and mind had reached their limits, and she passed away that year." Grandma Jiang sighed at the end.
Xiao Die was Wen Ya's mother's name. Wen Ya was stunned for a moment when she heard it. Her first thought was that her own mother had never had a mother's protection since childhood.
"After Hua Mei passed away, your maternal grandfather changed. He stopped traveling far and devoted himself to taking care of Xiao Die. I originally thought that if he didn't care about Xiao Die, I would bring her back to the Jiang family. However, on the one hand, the Jiang family is large, and other branches are eyeing it covetously, so I... couldn't make the decision. On the other hand, Xiao Die is the only bloodline of the Wen family, and your maternal grandfather disagreed. Fortunately, he raised Xiao Die to adulthood." Old Mrs. Jiang paused. "It's not that the Jiang family doesn't resent it, but Xiao Die is still Hua Mei's child after all. Even if she's dissatisfied with your maternal grandfather, she still maintains a lukewarm relationship. Later, as you know, your mother grew up, married your father, and had you. The past is just a memory. In retrospect, it was just that Hua Mei married the wrong person."
After Grandma Jiang finished speaking, the room remained quiet for a while.
Wen Ya was still reeling from the memory and hadn't quite processed it yet.
Coming to her senses, she hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back. Because the grandfather that Grandma Jiang described was vastly different from her own memory.
In her memory, her grandfather wasn't such a cold person. He was good to her and her mother, very kind and gentle. But that doesn't prove anything, because love is a personal feeling. Without love, it's like drinking snow in winter—you have to swallow all the bitterness yourself. They weren't her grandmother, so of course they didn't know how much pain her grandmother endured.
only……
Wen Ya frowned: "But Grandpa was buried with Grandma..." Before she could finish, she felt something was wrong. Because they all knew that Grandpa was probably still alive, "but why did he tell the public that he was buried with Grandma?" Only lovers would say "to share the same bed in life and the same grave in death."
Grandma Jiang pondered for a long time: "He must have felt guilty. That's why after Hua Mei passed away, he refused the Jiang family's request to move Hua Mei's grave back to the Jiang family's ancestral grave. He said that since Hua Mei married him, she was a member of the Wen family and should be buried in the Wen family's ancestral grave. After that, a joint tomb for husband and wife was built. But people don't know how to cherish what they have when they are alive, so what's the point of doing such superficial things after they die?"
Wen Ya didn't understand. She remembered that when her grandfather sat in the rocking chair in the main room, lost in thought, he had an expression on his face that she couldn't understand. Her mother told her that her grandfather was thinking about her grandmother.
Later, she encountered all sorts of people and ghosts, and came to understand emotions she had never known. She learned that her grandfather's expression when he was lost in thought contained sadness, guilt, and longing. But why would she say that her grandfather, who displayed such an expression, had never loved her grandmother? She truly didn't understand.
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