The first time Mu Liang met the strange old lady was at a grand funeral.
It is indeed a bit strange to use the word grand to describe a funeral, but apart from the word grand, Mu Liang could not find any other adjective.
The entrance to the funeral was filled with low-key yet luxurious Hongqi sedans. He often saw the faces of many of the car owners on the news broadcast.
The funeral entrance, mourning hall, and parking lot were guarded by many soldiers armed with real guns and nuclear bombs and plainclothes officers who did not show their true colors. If Mu Liang had not just been pulled into special forces training by his father during the summer vacation, he would not have been able to recognize the identities of those plainclothes officers.
Mu Liang followed his mother into the mourning hall. The first thing that caught his eye was the portrait placed in the center of the hall - she looked like a kind and amiable old lady.
However, anyone who has taken Chinese and history classes in the second grade of junior high school will not underestimate this old lady who is written into the textbooks.
She struggled hard as a prostitute and eventually became a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Such a wonderful life is even more Mary Sue than the Mary Sue in novels.
The most popular story about the old lady on the Internet is that she mobilized her husband, Marshal Xue, to participate in the revolution, and shot him dead after discovering that Marshal Xue had betrayed the revolution by joining the Kuomintang. Such a ruthless and cruel method naturally became a black spot in the eyes of many people, but Mu Liang admired Mr. Bai even more after knowing this.
If Mr. Bai had not broken with his original class and sacrificed his relatives for the sake of his ideals and beliefs, how could these keyboard warriors whose ancestors have been poor for three generations have the opportunity to talk freely on the Internet?
Moreover, Mr. Bai was led to the revolutionary path by Mr. Li Jingran! The first version of the play script of "Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan" was adapted by Mr. Bai!
As a die-hard fan of Mr. Li Jingran, of course he has to support Mr. Bai!
It was at this time that he discovered the strange old lady. The old lady was wearing black mourning clothes, and was supported by someone to walk forward and put a white rose in front of Mr. Bai's photo.
Against the backdrop of the wreaths all around, this thin white rose stood out. But what surprised Mu Liang was that the bigwigs around didn't say anything. Instead, they nodded to the old lady and whispered to her, seeming to respect her.
Who was she? Was she also an important figure? How come he had never seen her before?
The second time I saw the old lady was also at a funeral.
This time it was General Wang Xiaoni's funeral, and he also saw the old lady.
Mu Liang liked General Wang Xiaoni very much, so he was really sad this time. General Wang Xiaoni was once adopted by Mr. Li Jingran. Later, Mr. Li Jingran was harmed by the Qing Gang, and General Wang Xiaoni was able to continue her studies with the help of Mr. Li Jingran's friends. Later, General Wang Xiaoni chose to join the army after graduating from high school. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, she directly used the name of suppressing bandits and drove a tank to wipe out the Qing Gang to avenge Mr. Li Jingran.
Then there was the funeral of the famous international friend and proletarian revolutionary without borders, Ryota Nakamura, the funeral of the famous patriotic industrialist Mr. Chunyan, and the funeral of Mr. Fu Kemao, the founder of the New China Charity...
I don't know if God suddenly felt lonely, so he recruited countless masters from the Republic of China to accompany him in those years. At the funerals of these masters, he saw the old lady without exception.
She wore black mourning clothes and wandered around countless funerals, like the black god of death or an ominous messenger of mourning.
Finally, after seeing the old lady again at the funeral of the legendary director Mr. Ji Qi, Mu Liang's curiosity about her finally reached its peak.
After the funeral, he boldly walked over and chose to strike up a conversation.
"Grandma, are you Mr. Ji Qi's friend?"
The old lady looked at him in surprise, but did not blame him for his abruptness. She smiled kindly and said, "I am not his friend. My brother is his friend."
"Who is your brother?"
The old lady did not answer his question, but suddenly asked: "How old are you this year? Are you in high school?"
Mu Liang blinked and answered honestly, "I'm 17 years old and I'm a sophomore in high school."
This ordinary sentence seemed to turn on a switch. The old lady's calm eyes immediately became lively. She looked at Mu Liang's face with almost deep affection, and murmured to herself with some sadness: "You are also 17 years old..." She looked at Mu Liang for a while, and suddenly showed a smug smile: "You are not as good-looking as my brother."
Mu Liang was confused and repeated his previous question again: "Who is your brother?"
The old lady still didn't answer his question: "Since you are already in high school, have you ever learned "The Last Man Who Didn't Take Drugs"?"
Mu Liang's heart trembled. The teacher asked them to recite the entire text after school on Friday. He hadn't memorized it yet when he checked on Monday...
He couldn't help but complain, "We've already learned it, but the teacher still asked us to memorize the whole article. It's such a long article, but he only gave us two days to memorize it! The teacher is so perverted!"
The old lady smiled calmly: "What do you think of the article?"
Mu Liang touched his nose and told the truth: "Mr. Li Jingran's article is of course a good one, but compared to "The Last Non-Drug Addict", I still prefer "The Rise of Dynasties"."
The old lady seemed very curious: "Why? The Rise of Dynasties is not finished yet, right?"
When the old lady mentioned this, Mu Liang got angry: "If it weren't for that damn Zhang Tongjue and the Qing Gang, Mr. Wang wouldn't have died so early! He wouldn't have left "The Rise of Dynasties" unfinished! "The Rise of Dynasties" is the ancestor of Chinese time-travel novels, and some of its settings are still being used by people now!" He sighed: "Over the past few decades, I don't know how many people have tried to continue "The Rise of Dynasties", but compared with Mr. Wang's articles, they just lack a little feeling."
The old lady replied as a matter of course: "Of course, after all, I...Mr. Li Jingran is a genius who is ahead of his time. It is impossible for future generations to imitate him."
Mu Liang's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that this big shot of the same generation as Mr. Ji Qi was also a fan of Li Jingran like him. He suddenly felt that the old lady was particularly amiable.
He looked around and saw no one was paying attention to them hiding in the corner, so he bravely lowered his voice and asked the old lady a question he had been curious about for a long time: "Grandma, there are rumors online that Mr. actually wrote down the outline of the sequel to "The Rise of Dynasties" before he died, and then had someone send it to the revolutionary base to guide the revolution..."
The old lady who always looked amiable raised her eyelids and stared at him intently, her cloudy old eyes flashing with a piercing edge. Mu Liang swallowed the next words with a sweat on his forehead and dared not say any more.
The old lady said calmly: "You are already 17 years old, you should know what you can say and what you can't say."
Mu Liang nodded tremblingly and never dared to gossip again.
Mu Liang still saw the old lady at the next few funerals.
She always dressed up to see off the old guys of her generation.
Guests come and go, but the old lady remains forever.
The old lady was alone most of the time, with few people around her. With the sharp eyesight of the children of the compound, he could detect that there were always plainclothes guards around the old lady, which undoubtedly proved that the old lady's identity was not ordinary.
But sometimes Mu Liang still felt sad when he saw the old lady in black mourning clothes leaving alone.
She was the last person to die in her lifetime.
Whenever he thought of this, Mu Liang felt extremely sad and could not feel any respect for the old lady. So every time he met her at a funeral, he would always walk over and talk nonsense with her.
Then at the funeral of Mr. Cao Wanying, a thinker, revolutionary, and initiator of the Chinese equal rights movement, Mu Liang looked at the leaders from all parties who came to pay their respects, and couldn't help but mention to the old lady the funeral of Mr. Bai Shaoyao where they first met.
"That was truly the most grand and magnificent funeral I have ever seen." Mu Liang said with emotion, "It is really worth it to be able to achieve that."
The old lady gathered her silver-white hair and stared at the black-and-white portrait of Mr. Cao Wanying in silence. After a while, she said softly, "I once attended the most magnificent and grand funeral in all of China. The whole city of Beiping was filled with crying."
"Oh?" Mu Liang leaned over with interest: "Whose funeral is it?"
The old lady tilted her head and looked at him with the dull expression common to the elderly. Only through those sparkling eyes did Mu Liang understand that her heart was far from as calm as she appeared.
"Young man, do you want to hear a story from me?" The old lady showed a tired smile: "A story about a funeral several decades ago. Are you interested in listening to it?"
Mu Liang perked up: "Interested!"
Old lady, Li Shuran looked at the young man with glowing eyes in front of her. They were both 17 years old, but some were innocent and naive, while others were covered in blood and sleeping in the ground.
Before we knew it, more than eighty years have passed.
She is also at the age of dying.
How come so much time has passed?
Perhaps it is because people like to reminisce about the past when they get old, or perhaps it is because she has attended many funerals of friends and acquaintances in succession, Li Shuran, who has been silent for decades, now suddenly has the urge to talk about the past.
"It was a cloudy day, with dark clouds rolling and the sound of thunder rumbling faintly..."
…
…
14-year-old Li Shuran stood in the mourning hall, holding her brother's tablet, and looked blankly at the guests who came to pay their respects.
"Please accept my condolences."
They told her this over and over again.
But how could she not be sad?
Lying in the coffin behind her is her brother!
They are her only relatives in this world!
He was killed in a tragic way, and they just told her "I'm sorry"? !
After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Dezhang came over and discussed with her: "It's getting late, it's time to hold the funeral."
Li Shuran, who was groggy, woke up briefly. Yes, it was time for the funeral. Her brother had been lying in the coffin for so long, and it was time for him to rest in peace. She wanted to send her brother to her hometown in Fengtian and bury him in the ancestral tomb.
Li Shuran walked out of the mourning hall holding the tablet like a wandering soul, but she found that many beautiful and charming women had surrounded her outside in three circles, all of them were wearing white mourning clothes without exception.
When they saw Li Shuran, they all knelt on the ground. The leading woman whispered, "I know we are of humble status... but please let us escort you, young lady."
Li Shuran was stunned for a moment before she recognized that the woman who was speaking was Qiu Ju, who played Bai Moli in the drama and movie "Memoirs of a Famous Prostitute".
Li Shuran glanced at the woman kneeling on the ground behind her, and her voice suddenly choked: "Who are you...?"
Someone timidly replied: "Slave... We are all prostitute actresses in Memoirs of a Famous Courtesan."
A guest jumped out to object, "Nonsense! How can we let these bitches ruin the master's funeral?!"
Qiu Ju shuddered, lowered her head, bit her lip and kept silent. The other prostitutes also tried to shrink their bodies, wishing they could just disappear right there.
"Come on." Li Shuran ignored the man and said softly, "If my brother were still here, he would be happy to see you."
Li Shuran walked at the front holding the tablet, followed by the funeral procession with gongs and drums and prostitutes dressed in mourning.
The funeral procession was stopped by the police after only a few steps.
The pot-bellied police officer said in a sarcastic tone that Li Jingran was a criminal and that his funeral could not be held in a grand manner, but only in secret.
The author has something to say:
I guess it’s wrong. I can’t finish this chapter... I will finish the extra chapter tomorrow, June 6th!
In addition to this funeral extra, there will be a future forum extra, so those are the two extras for now. Are there any other extras you'd like to see? Leave a message and let me know, and I'll see if I can write one.
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