When I rushed home with the doctor, it was too late.
Grandma Zhou sat silently on the bed where he had been lying, calmly holding the hand of Grandpa Zhou, who had closed his eyes and passed away peacefully.
With a trembling voice, I called out in a low, hesitant tone, "Father... Mother..."
But Aunt Wang, who was standing to the side, pulled her outside: "Let your mother and the others have some peace and quiet. Everyone needs time to adjust."
But Old Mrs. Zhou calmly walked out of the room: "Ahua, could you please boil some hot water for me? I want to give your father a bath; I can't let him leave so undignified..."
I quickly replied, "Okay, I'll go burn it right now."
Perhaps because it was the first time Grandma Zhou had spoken to me, her calm expression flickered slightly before she nodded at me and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
Then he turned around and exchanged a few pleasantries with Aunt Wang, roughly meaning that he appreciated her kindness in helping him today.
So she found an excuse to send her away. Aunt Wang was even more stunned. Perhaps, given her gossipy nature, she wanted to see Old Lady Zhou unable to accept reality and crying her eyes out.
But Old Mrs. Zhou remained calm and composed, showing no signs of panic.
Having already told her to leave, he could only kindly leave with the words, "I'm right next door. Just call me if you need any help," before turning and departing.
After boiling the water, Wen Heng obediently helped me fill the bathtub with hot water and then took it to Grandma Zhou's room.
Meanwhile, Grandma Zhou was helping Grandpa Zhou groom his sideburns.
Although I have lived alone in the Taihang Mountains for a thousand years and am by nature a cold-hearted person, I do not have a strong concept of life and death in the human world.
But seeing this scene made my nose tingle, and tears kept streaming down my face.
Wenheng saw that I kept crying.
But nervously and at a loss, she reached out her sleeve to wipe away my tears while putting on a grown-up act: "Don't cry, Ahua."
He was fine when he didn't say anything, but after he spoke, it was as if the sadness in my heart was magnified, and my tears rolled down like broken beads, unstoppable.
Seeing that I was crying harder and harder, Wen Heng also started to sob, almost in a sob.
"Don't cry. You're disturbing your father's rest."
Sitting by the bed, Grandma Zhou's words forced Wen Heng and me to hold back our tears.
I knew this day would come, but I never imagined it would arrive before me, and so suddenly.
She continued.
I felt so heartbroken and sad, let alone Grandma Zhou, but the quieter she was, the more uneasy I felt.
I hastily wiped the tears from my face with my sleeve.
He walked up to Old Lady Zhou, took her hand, squatted down in front of her, and habitually rested his head on her knees, rubbing his face against her somewhat cold hands.
With a slightly hoarse voice, she asked worriedly, "Mother, are you alright?"
She didn't give me a direct answer.
But she gently stroked my head with all the tenderness a mother has for her child: "This is the first time I've heard our Ahua truly express her concern and care in words."
"I only recently regained my speech, and I haven't figured out a reason to explain to you. Ah Hua has never had parental love since she was little, and no one has ever loved her like her father and mother have."
I'm afraid that once I become a normal person, you won't love and cherish me as much anymore...
I want to selfishly possess your love even more…
My incoherent explanation.
"Silly child, this is a good thing. What parent in the world doesn't love their child?"
She waved to Zhou Lang again and called out, "Zhou Lang, come here!"
Wen Heng obediently walked over and squatted down around her, mimicking my posture.
She placed my hand and Wenheng's hand together with a look of relief and said, "I'm relieved that Ahua and Zhou Lang will stay together like this from now on..."
I was about to say something when Old Mrs. Zhou interrupted, "I need to help your father wash up. It's getting late, you should go back and rest."
Wen Heng and I were thus dismissed by her.
But I still felt uneasy, so I told Wenheng to go back to sleep first, and I sat at the door silently watching over him.
But Wen Heng pretended not to hear and sat down next to me, just like me.
He was afraid I would get angry and scold him, so he turned his head away and wouldn't look at me.
What an idiot! You think I can't see you just because you're not looking at me? Never mind...
Let him stay here if he wants; anyway, he's been learning one thing from me and following along for more than just a day or two.
I was too lazy to argue with him.
I looked up at the stars in the night sky and remembered what Uncle Mountain God had once said.
After a person dies, the life soul, one of the three souls, will sleep eternally in the grave, guarding the remains and the spirit tablet.
The earth spirit will follow the ghost messengers to the underworld to settle accounts for the good and evil deeds of his life in the human world.
The celestial soul will transform into stars in the sky to protect its loved ones.
Only after the underworld has settled the karmic debts of the souls in the mortal realm will the three souls reunite.
Depending on their good or evil deeds, they may be reborn into the ranks of immortals or reincarnate as humans again.
"Do you think Uncle Mountain God and our father will also turn into stars and watch over us?" I asked Wenheng.
"..."
There was no response from Wen Heng.
I glanced at him sideways and saw that he was so sleepy that he was frowning, his head was drooping, and he was dozing off with his eyes closed like a chick pecking at rice.
I gently placed his head on my shoulder, and he clicked his tongue before his eyebrows relaxed and he fell asleep.
"Alas... Other people's souls will eventually reunite, but I wonder how long the earth soul missing from your immortal body will wander in the mortal world before it can return to its body?"
And that ungrateful spirit is leading your mind astray somewhere.
I murmured a sigh.
Just then, during our conversation, I suddenly heard a crisp "snap" sound from inside the room.
It was the sound of porcelain shattering.
I immediately sensed something was wrong, and I jumped up and rushed into the room. I found Grandma Zhou and Grandpa Zhou lying side by side on the bed, their clothes neat and their faces calm.
Blood trickled from the corner of Old Mrs. Zhou's mouth, and she stopped breathing. The broken porcelain bottle on the ground contained a potent poison that Aunt Wang from next door had given to the Zhou couple to drive away gnats; once swallowed, it would be fatal.
The two elders had never been able to bring themselves to use their money on those little lives, but now Grandma Zhou was able to bring herself to do so...
Tears streaming down my face, I held the bodies of the two elders and sobbed loudly.
When I was choking back tears and unable to catch my breath, unable to calm my grief...
Suddenly, a clear, cold voice came from above: "Make way, you're in the way of ghosts stealing souls."
Through my teary eyes, with my large, swollen eyes as red as walnuts from crying, I looked up and glanced at them.
It turned out to be Bai Wuchang, a ghost messenger from the underworld, holding a soul-catching lock and looking down at me in a condescending manner as if he were interfering with his official duties.
I gave him a disdainful look but didn't make way for him. Instead, I lay back down and buried my head in my hands, crying even louder.
"Hey, even their own flesh and blood aren't crying here, so why are you, the outsider, crying?"
The white-robed ghost actually started making sarcastic and sarcastic remarks about me.
The Black Impermanence ghost patted my shoulder and comforted me, saying, "Miss Ahua, don't be too sad. I've come to take the two elders to enjoy their old age."
Hmm? The voice sounded somewhat familiar. I looked up and blinked at the burly man in black clothes with a face as black as charcoal for a long while.
I stood up in surprise: "Are you Mr. A Niu?"
He nodded at me.
My voice choked with sobs, almost breaking down as I said, "Why are you dressed up like this? I didn't even recognize you."
Ah Niu smiled bitterly: "If I can no longer enter the ranks of immortals, I can only enter the path of ghosts."
As I wiped my tears with my sleeve, I asked, "So...you're here to pick them up?"
Ah Niu nodded: "To prevent a soul from clinging to its attachment to the human world, the underworld will send a close relative from the underworld to receive it."
I looked at the two elderly people lying peacefully on the bed and finally stopped sobbing. My heart was filled with mixed feelings: "Yes, they must be happy to be taken away by their beloved son, A Niu."
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