Chapter 211 Bad News
Zhang Wei finally received an admission letter from Magdalen College, Oxford. She was delighted to think that after three years at a British university, one year as a graduate student, and three years as a doctorate if all goes well, she would be able to become a young doctoral student at the age of 24.
24 years old is really young, and it seems good to think so. However, she is thinking about the future at the beginning of college, which seems a bit too good to be true.
This time she and her roommates in Excellence Building are really going to separate. After seven years of getting along, they have built up some friendships, so they decided to go on a long graduation trip together.
Then the twelve of them each selected twelve places around the world, voted for the top three, and finally everyone went to these three places together.
Zhang Wei could finally relax and have fun, and she was particularly excited. Between going to Switzerland to see Dora and returning to China, she chose City A in China.
The first and second place winners chose a Pacific resort island and a trip to Africa to watch the great animal migration respectively.
The third place winner won by a narrow margin of one vote over Zhang Wei and Alia, so the trip to China was temporarily confirmed.
Then everyone arranged three destinations according to the successful voting rankings. Zhang Wei was also fully prepared and planned to take everyone to visit some scenic spots near City A.
After watching the great animal migration in Kenya, they all got several degrees tanned. However, although the infrastructure there is relatively poor, it is still worth it to see the primitive wild scenes.
Just before they left the Kenyan airport, Zhang Wei received a call from Emma, and she received the bad news - Aunt Mary had passed away.
Zhang Wei didn't react for a moment and asked again into the phone:
"Mom, what did you say?"
"We received a call from the old housekeeper and are now rushing to the country castle. He said that Mary was sitting in a chair basking in the sun when she suddenly passed away..."
Emma's voice was choked with sobs, and Zhang Wei was speechless. Seeing that everyone was looking at her, she only said:
"I may not be able to go to China. My aunt passed away. I have to go back to London immediately. You——"
Before Zhang Wei could finish her words, Tracy said, "I want to go back to London with you. What about you guys?"
She looked at the others, and they looked at each other. Naturally, they had no objection. They immediately changed their itinerary and finally returned to London the next day.
Zhang Wei put her luggage at home. There was no one at home at that time. She changed into formal clothes and took a taxi to the castle in the countryside.
Zhang Wei rushed and finally caught up with his family to go to the church for the memorial service.
The church is in the village near the castle. It is not very big. This was Aunt Mary's last wish.
On the way to the church, Emma told Zhang Wei that the old housekeeper said that at the beginning of this year, Aunt Mary seemed to have some premonition about her future and asked him to do many things, including holding a simple funeral in the countryside after her death.
In the church, apart from the pastor, there were only a few neighbors from the surrounding farms, plus the Wilson family, there were only about ten people in total. It could indeed be described as rather simple and shabby.
Zhang Wei considers herself a person with not very strong emotions, but when she heard the pastor singing hymns, tears could not stop flowing.
Aunt Mary, who looks strict but is very warm to Zhang Wei, accompanies Zhang Wei every summer vacation. Not only her, but also Leida and his three brothers have tears in their eyes.
Charles didn't say anything the whole time, and everyone could see the grief he was trying hard to suppress. Everyone supported each other and went to the cemetery after the memorial service in the church.
This cemetery is not within the Wilson family's jurisdiction, but it is the place that Aunt Mary loves most. It is where her fiancé who died early is buried.
Since he died in a shipwreck, only some clothes and daily necessities could be buried.
No one knew how Aunt Mary negotiated with their family to get them to agree to bury her here. Zhang Wei only admired her deep love for her fiancé.
When the soil was being covered on the coffin, it began to drizzle, as if to highlight the sad mood.
When the coffin was completely out of sight, Emma finally burst into tears, and Charles, who had been pretending to be patient, also burst into tears.
They stayed in the cemetery for a long time, until everyone was soaked, and Charles persuaded everyone to go back, but the old housekeeper refused to leave no matter what.
Although he did not shed tears, he looked as if he was about to die. Although he was old, he was still energetic. The death of Aunt Mary was a great blow to him.
He was almost ninety years old, and it was not good for him to continue being exposed to the rain, so Emma asked Leida and Manny to help him back.
Only after returning to the castle did Zhang Wei realize the difference. Before, she felt that although the castle was old, it was full of Aunt Mary's life atmosphere. But now, when she thought of her deceased Aunt Mary, she felt that it looked a bit decadent.
After Zhang Wei changed his clothes upstairs and went downstairs to the lobby, he saw the old housekeeper directing Namier and others to move things out of the warehouse one by one.
She immediately thought of the time when Aunt Mary and Emma were discussing what jewelry to wear to a party at her family's house.
She shook her head hard to get rid of these scenes from her mind. Her mother Emma was still sitting in the same position on the sofa. Compared with the previous scene, she looked much older with the naked eye.
Although her hair was still black, her face showed signs of aging. She must have suffered from insomnia yesterday, as there were dark bags under her eyes.
Zhang Wei walked over and gently hugged her shoulders and comforted her:
"Mom, don't be sad. Your aunt will be very happy to see her lover again."
Emma touched Zhang Wei's head, which was almost the same height as hers, and said gently, "In the blink of an eye, Vera has grown up."
As the boxes in the living room grew larger and larger, until there was no more room, the old housekeeper coughed and took out a will, saying to everyone:
"Now while everyone is here, I will begin to read the will left by my wife."
The first issue is the ownership of all the collections in the castle warehouse. The list is very detailed, and it can be heard that most of the things handed down from ancestors were left to Charles.
Then all the jewelry was left to Emma, and the rent of the land around the castle and other income she had earned over the years were divided equally among the three brothers, Leida and others.
Up to this point, Zhang Wei's name had not been heard. Although Zhang Wei had expected this result, she couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. It seemed that Aunt Mary still had a gap in her heart about her existence.
But thinking that she had already received the gold pen and two sets of jewelry, she felt that it was enough. After all, she was not a member of the Wilson family.
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