Fang Jingsheng
【Wedding invitation rouge with lip painting
Pearl curtains and embroidered screens reflect peach blossoms
White hair and eyebrows
The Three Lives Come to Jintang This Night]
On the seventh night, the lively atmosphere of many people paying their respects passed, the mourning hall was brightly lit with candles, and after the noisy ceremony, the entire hall was immersed in an extraordinary silence.
Tomorrow, his girl would be buried forever under six feet of earth, never to be seen again. Only then did Fang Jingsheng truly realize that all this was real, not a nightmare.
There was silence for a long time, until the fire in the brazier burned out, the incense in front of the memorial tablet burned out, and the night wind blowing through the hall lifted the white sails of the mourning hall. Fang Jingsheng shuddered unconsciously and suddenly came to his senses.
No one interrupted their final moments together. His face, having lost weight rapidly over the past few days, had become eerily pale, devoid of its former handsomeness and spirited spirit. Only his eyes had become increasingly blazing. A flicker of determination flashed across his eyes. He reached out tremblingly for the black wooden coffin, groping for the three-dimensional peony pattern in its center.
After a twist, there was a cracking sound, and a crack suddenly appeared on the bottom of the black coffin, and the entire huge coffin was divided into two parts, upper and lower parts.
Fang Jingsheng gasped heavily, and after a long time he gritted his teeth and pulled out the bottom of the black coffin through the gap. When he looked carefully, he found that there was nothing inside.
His pupils suddenly constricted, his head buzzed, and Fang Jingsheng's hands, which were holding the coffin, shook violently. Cold sweat drenched his back, and his throat felt dry and painful. He nearly screamed, and suddenly raised his head, his face as pale as paper, and his gloomy eyes stared intently at the girl sitting on the other side of the coffin.
Aruo, dressed in plain white, sat beside the coffin, her head bowed quietly as she gazed at Xiaoman, who had rarely put on makeup, her face appearing calm and gentle. "Are you looking for the girl from Doctor Chen's family? She was too polite, staying in the coffin the entire time... I took her home while I was keeping vigil the night before last."
After a pause, she sat up straight, looking down at Fang Jingsheng, who had become frantic because of her words, and said in a calm tone, "Fang Jingsheng, don't do anything that will make Xiaoman feel uneasy, okay?"
Fang Jingsheng's heart skipped a beat, his eyes flickering. The moment he was ruthlessly exposed, he was overwhelmed by a sense of grievance and guilt, feeling completely ashamed. But upon seeing the person lying in the coffin, Fang Jingsheng fiercely pushed back the bottom of the black coffin. His eyes, shrouded in messy hair, glared at Aruo with a gloomy expression. "I won't make her uneasy. I just want her to come back to life. Aruo... if you're a friend, don't stop me."
Aruo stood beside the coffin, looking up at the white banner fluttering above it. It was covered in messy characters, and from a distance it looked like a distorted human figure. The cloth fluttered in the wind, and the figure above it seemed to be constantly twisting and struggling, a terrifying sight at first glance.
"I asked the little ghost to find out. Less than a day after Xiao Man died, the maid you gave her committed suicide. Her birth date and horoscope are exactly the same as Xiao Man's... and you treated that maid's family well."
Fang Jingsheng looked at her warily, the coldness in his eyes slightly softening when his gaze met the white banner. "We're master and servant, wouldn't it be better for me to be more generous? Or do you want to say something?"
"The soul-calling flag... can summon the souls of the deceased. It can be placed here to conceal the ghosts and escape the detection of the heavens. Unfortunately, to refine the soul-calling flag, one needs a willing sacrifice from someone whose birthday coincides with theirs." Aruo lowered his head, his face pale, his clear black eyes filled with pity. "Fang Jingsheng, do you think Xiao Man can be resurrected like this?"
Suddenly, all those unexpressed hopes, the guilt that weighed him down to the point where he could barely stand up, and the fear that erupted in an instant burst out.
"What do you know!" Fang Jing took a fierce step forward, his robe hemming the burning paper basin, sending ashes flying everywhere. He fiercely raised his eyes, filled with pain and paranoid longing, looking mad. "That person said, as long as I find a suitable body on the seventh night, I can kill it... and then I can reincarnate into that body... Xiaoman, my Xiaoman can come back to life."
His dark eyes darkened, and pity flowed in them, while his clear and calm face showed no expression.
"Wake up, Xiao Man is already dead. Are you doing this to her, who died saving others?" Aruo felt a pang in her heart as she watched him, tears silently falling. "Have you ever considered that the one who survives will still be Xiao Man?"
Other people’s appearance, other people’s identities, other people’s families, other people’s destinies, but not her own.
"I don't care, I don't care... I just want her to come back alive, even if it means that, I just want her to live..." He muttered to himself, as if trying to convince himself, but the trembling in his voice betrayed his inner uneasiness and struggle.
Everything in front of him seemed to be covered with a layer of gauze, hazy and dim. Aruo slowly opened the fire starter in his hand.
"What are you going to do!" Fang Jingsheng was so frightened that he rushed over.
At that moment, two figures rushed out from the side and held him down on the left and right.
"Fang Jingsheng, calm down! The dead cannot be resurrected, you can't sacrifice yourself for such a crooked way!" Qin Zhi almost broke free from his struggle, and shouted loudly with red eyes.
"Xiao Man is such a kind and carefree girl, how could she let you harm others to save her?" Cai Xin hugged his waist with all her strength, crying for him to wake up. "Fang Jingsheng, please, don't become the person she hates the most..."
"Let me go..." He could let go of all those struggles and pleadings. He just wanted her. Fang Jingsheng looked at the flame with tears in his eyes, quietly destroying everything he had.
The soul-calling banner was lit, and a whirlwind suddenly arose in the entire mourning hall, and a shrill voice came from the air.
Fang Jingsheng's eyes were fierce, and he grasped the edge of the coffin tightly with both hands, forcing himself to move over there, "No... No——"
The soul-calling flag can only be refined once for each soul, and the soul will disperse when the flag is destroyed.
Ashes flew around Aruo, and above her head was a burning spirit-calling banner. She slowly stretched out her hand, and her slender fingers drew beautiful hand flowers in the air. "The souls of thousands of miles away are gathering and returning. The three souls are floating on the way home, and the seven spirits are wandering on the way home. Li Xiaoman, gather!"
As soon as she finished her powerful words, a white light quickly condensed above her palm, and all the ashes around her swirled together to form a rotating eye of the storm.
Fang Jingsheng and the other two were startled by the scene before them, staring in amazement as the wind suddenly dispersed and a translucent figure quietly floated beside Aruo. In the blur, the face could be vaguely seen: it was Li Xiaoman lying in the coffin!
"Xiao Man..." Qin Zhi and Cai Xin loosened their grip at the same time. Fang Jingsheng stumbled over, held the coffin and looked up at her.
"I'm sorry, Fang Jingsheng, this is all I can do..." Aruo's face became paler and the blood color on her lips faded. She tried hard to swallow the fishy and sweet taste surging in her throat, and looked up at Fang Jingsheng with seriousness and determination.
"Fang Jingsheng, let me tell you, if Xiao Man is someone who accepts using someone else's life to extend her own, and regrets dying because of someone else, then today, even if I have to trample on morality and humanity, I will complete this ceremony for you. But Fang Jingsheng, tell me, is she? Is she willing?"
Hearing this, he was visibly startled, tears welling up in his eyes. The person he had been thinking about was right in front of him, and he couldn't deceive himself or humiliate her.
She is not, nor does she want to...
Fang Jingsheng's bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the coffin. The ghost shook its head, shedding two lines of blood and tears. His heart felt like it was being tightly grasped by invisible hands, cruelly torn apart. Regret flooded him like a tide, distorting his face.
He never made her cry when she was alive, so why did he make her cry after she died?
Fang Jingsheng spat out a mouthful of blood with his head raised, then fell to the ground exhausted.
Aruo jumped down, slowly walked to him, squatted down, and took his hand. "I'm sorry... Between you and Xiaoman, I still choose Xiaoman."
On the night of the wake, she unexpectedly heard noises from beneath the coffin. The person inside had been drugged and unconscious, so they shouldn't have been able to make any sound. But she heard it anyway: a faint, mournful cry for help, like sobbing.
As if possessed by some mysterious force, she sensed the peony's strangeness and opened the base. The spirit-calling pennant on top swayed as if being pulled, and she knelt there, crying silently.
The ethereal figure reached out and seemed to touch Aruo's head. Then, he slowly leaned over and embraced the man who was crying like a child.
"I just want you to be alive... I can't bear to leave you... I went to see you secretly... You said you were busy... But you still stayed up late to secretly embroider your wedding dress..." Fang Jingsheng spoke intermittently, his voice hoarse and his words unclear.
They couldn't see each other before the wedding, as it was said to be unlucky, but he couldn't help but sneak off to see her. He clearly said he had a lot of official duties and his hands were clumsy, so he saw the girl, her ears flushed, clumsily embroidering a picture of mandarin ducks playing in the water while listening to her father's teasing.
"I burned your wedding dress for you..." He raised his head, as if afraid that she would be angry, and looked at her pleadingly, "I'm sorry, I, I didn't kill Ayan. Ayan had tuberculosis and was already terminally ill. That day she took poison and came to see me, saying that she wanted to go and accompany you, and only asked me to take care of her family... I didn't kill anyone..."
Thinking of the other girl he had imprisoned at the bottom of a coffin, Fang Jingsheng's face turned pale and he lowered his head in frustration. "I'm sorry... Don't be angry... I just... I just want you to be alive."
The sigh of the soul accompanied by tears of blood was horrible and terrifying, but Qin Zhi and others did not feel fear, but only sadness.
Aruo wiped the tears from her face and smiled. "I disturbed your resurrection. So, as an apology and a gift, I will give you a wedding."
She plucked the hairpin from her head, slashed her palm, and used her blood as ink to draw a special formation. The air seemed to be covered with a layer of water vapor, rippling with water, and the surrounding environment changed instantly.
The mourning hall had become a wedding hall. The wedding dress, never worn, now sat on the heroic woman. There was no bustling noise, no extra guests, and even the elders were absent. Fang Jingsheng, dressed in red, clenched the red silk in his hands and slowly led his beloved wife to the center of the hall. With their close friends as witnesses, they completed the wedding he had dreamed of for years.
Bow to heaven and earth.
Bow twice to your parents.
The couple bowed to each other.
The moment he lifted the veil, he saw not the pale-faced person, but the shy yet stubborn girl peeking at him. His wife, Xiao Man.
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