The following day was Saturday, Jin Rulan's birthday.
Ni Sitian got up early to get ready to go to the Xu family's house, but Xu Tingchuan stayed in his study and didn't come out, looking like he didn't want to go.
She knocked on the door and reminded him, "Xiao Zhang is already waiting downstairs, hurry up."
After a while without receiving a response from Xu Tingchuan, she frowned and opened the door to go inside.
As soon as she entered, she was choked by the smoke. Xu Tingchuan was smoking with his back to her.
Ni Sitian approached, coughing, and Xu Tingchuan snapped out of his daze and stubbed out his cigarette.
"Tingchuan." She tilted her head slightly, looked at Xu Tingchuan, and sighed softly, "Is something bothering you?"
He had promised her he would quit smoking and hadn't smoked for a long time. There weren't even any cigarettes left at home, so he must have bought them after his morning exercise.
What kind of troubles made him hide in his room and smoke alone?
"Don't you want to go to the mansion to celebrate Mom's birthday?" Ni Sitian could only think in this direction.
Xu Tingchuan kept his lips tightly pressed together, offering no reply, his gaze fixed on her with a deep and unfathomable intensity.
After a long while, he finally spoke calmly, "Let's go."
Ni Sitian didn't ask any more questions. The matter between him and Jin Rulan was like a window paper that couldn't be broken between him and her. It couldn't be mentioned too much, and the boundaries couldn't be crossed, in order to maintain harmony.
Xu Tingchuan changed his clothes, and the two of them left the house one after the other without saying a word.
Ni Sitian didn't speak because she noticed that Xu Tingchuan seemed to be in a low mood all day.
After getting into the car, Xu Tingchuan said to Xiao Zhang, "Let's go to Qinghua Mountain first."
Ni Sitian was stunned. Qinghua Mountain was a famous cemetery in Yihai City. How could she go to such a place first to celebrate her mother-in-law's birthday?
She turned her head to look at Xu Tingchuan, her face full of doubt, while Xu Tingchuan closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and looked serious.
The two drove in silence until they stopped at the foot of Qinghua Mountain. There was an old woman selling chrysanthemums at the foot of the mountain, and Xu Tingchuan bought the whole basket of chrysanthemums.
"Do you want to go up?" Xu Tingchuan turned around and asked Ni Sitian.
Ni Sitian nodded. Although she didn't know who he was worshipping, anyone who would make him worship on a day like this must be a very important person.
Xu Tingchuan took Ni Sitian's hand and walked up Qinghua Mountain step by step.
After climbing about halfway up the mountain, Xu Tingchuan led her toward a row of cemeteries and stopped in front of a tombstone.
Ni Sitian saw that there was already a bunch of white chrysanthemums in front of the tombstone. She looked at the tombstone next to it and saw a bunch of white chrysanthemums that looked exactly the same. It seemed that someone had come to pay their respects.
Xu Tingchuan squatted down and divided the chrysanthemums in the basket into two portions, one for each of the two adjacent tombstones.
Ni Sitian looked down at the names on the tombstone: the man's name was Gu Huainan, and the woman's name was Lin Youqi.
The photos on the tombstones all show people who were quite young, in their early thirties, and all very good-looking, especially the men.
Moreover, Ni Sitian felt that he looked familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why.
The date on the tombstone was twenty-three years ago, which made Ni Sitian even more curious.
Judging from their surnames, they should have no relation to the Xu family. In addition, Xu Tingchuan was only nine years old when they died. Even if they were good uncles and aunts, he should have had a very faint memory of them. Why would they come to pay their respects at this time?
Xu Tingchuan stood in front of the tombstone, closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time before opening them and saying to Ni Sitian, "Let's go."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
