At ten o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Li's eldest and second brothers arrived. As soon as they entered the village, the descendants of the Li family knelt on the ground at the entrance of the village to greet them, and firecrackers were set off. The eldest and second uncles cleared away the smoke and found that their brother-in-law, Old Man Li, was also kneeling. They hurriedly helped him up, and everyone went to the mourning hall.
People came to pay their respects intermittently, including Mrs. Li's family, some old sisters and younger generations in the village. It was not until the sun set and the tired birds returned to their nests that the place became a little quieter. The three brothers of the Li family were busy and sad at the same time, not knowing which came first. It seemed that neither of these two things could be delayed and neither could wait for anyone.
Night began to fall, the sky gradually darkened, and snowflakes began to fall again. Tao Xiaoxi frowned, wrapped in linen, hugging her two daughters, feeling very sleepy, but unable to rest in peace.
After dinner, Old Man Li made another arrangement. The four brothers and sisters would guard the first half of the night, while he would guard the second half. His reason was that he was sleepy and had to go to bed first.
"Dad, just a few of us can come tonight, you go to sleep." Li Nanshan said, and the others agreed.
"Just do as I say. There will be a lot of things waiting for you to do tomorrow. It will be even busier than today. You have to stay alert." Old man Li shook his pipe, patted his butt and went into the house.
Tao Xiaoxi felt that her father-in-law was more and more awake and terrifying, as if he was hanging by a thread, neither gloomy nor cheerful, and there was almost no smell of fireworks on him.
This intuition made her shudder and tremble.
She nudged her husband and said, "Go in and see Dad."
Li Nanshan went there and came out again after a while, "Dad fell asleep."
"So soon?"
"Yeah, I was watching from the window, and he was snoring." Li Nanshan nodded.
"He must be tired. Let Dad sleep." Li Nanqiu said lightly.
The snow continued to fall until late at night without stopping.
Old Man Li kept his word. At the stroke of twelve, he rose. One moment he'd been snoring like thunder, the next, he was wide awake. He carefully donned a thick cotton-padded jacket. As he left the room, he noticed a comb on the washstand that his wife had used before her death. Somehow, it hadn't been burned with them. He grabbed it and, without hesitation, combed his hair. His already sparse hair looked even thinner now that it was neatly trimmed. He even dipped his hair in the basin's water; now, each strand stood out clearly.
When they came outside, their sister-in-law had just cooked noodles for them as a midnight snack. The winter night was long and it should have been a good time to go to bed, but they were staying up all night.
Seeing Old Man Li coming, the sister-in-law served him a bowl of noodles.
"Then eat a bowl. After you finish the noodles, go back to sleep and come and take my place tomorrow morning," said old man Li.
The brothers looked at their father. He seemed the same as before, yet also different.
"Dad, did you have a haircut?" asked the second son.
Old man Li shook his head and said, "No." He slurped the noodles.
"Go back to sleep after you finish eating. You still have things to do tomorrow. Your mother also needs some quiet time. Tomorrow will be a busy day."
When everyone heard this, they felt tired and sleepy, and the eldest and second oldest went back to their rooms to sleep.
"Dad, I'll stay with you a little longer." Li Nanshan said.
Old man Li didn't say anything, nor did he chase the third child away. He pulled a chair over and sat next to Mrs. Li, tucking in the quilt for her.
The surroundings were quiet, the snow fell silently, and Old Man Li and his son hardly said a word. Perhaps it was too late, or perhaps they were both extremely tired. Li Nanshan was about to fall asleep on the stool when he stumbled and woke up again.
Old man Li glanced at his son with a hint of complaint, "I told you to go to bed, but you didn't listen. Now that you've grown up, my words are no longer effective."
Li Nanshan hurriedly explained, "Dad, I'll stay with you for a while."
"Stay if you want. It's almost dawn and there are only a few hours left..." Old man Li kept muttering in a low voice. Some of his words reached Li Nanshan's ears, but he didn't hear some of them.
He felt that he was too sleepy, so he pulled out a chair and told Old Man Li that he would go wash his face and come back soon.
"Nanshan~" Old man Li suddenly called his son.
"Dad, I'm here, please tell me." Li Nanshan turned around.
"Don't use cold water, use some hot water. Be careful not to catch a cold. You can't fall ill again." Old man Li said without thinking.
"Okay." Li Nanshan agreed, feeling extremely sad in his heart.
********
Li Nanqiu dozed off for an hour or so, looking at the dark night outside. Snowflakes were lightly floating between the sky and the earth under the reflection of the lights. She stood up, thinking of bringing a blanket to her father.
Tao Xiaoxi slept in the same bed with her. As soon as she woke up, she woke up too, so she simply got up and went with her.
"Sister-in-law, go to sleep." Li Nanqiu said.
"It's okay, Nanshan is also outside." Tao Xiaoxi said.
The two of them walked into the yard holding a blanket. The mourning hall was hung with plain cloth on three sides, leaving only a blank space opposite the door. When Xiaoxi and Nanqiu walked there, they saw their father, Old Man Li, sitting upright on a stool, his body straight, his eyes closed, his lips pursed, and his hands holding their mother's, motionless.
A few flakes of snow fell on his forehead, and they had not yet melted, obviously they had just fallen.
"Dad?" Li Nanqiu called out, his voice trembling.
"Dad?" Tao Xiaoxi also called out.
"Dad!" Li Nanshan came back from washing his face and knelt down with a thud.
Suddenly an old friend passed through my heart. Looking back at the mountains and rivers, it was already autumn. We were both caught in the snow, missing each other. We will grow old together in this life.
Old man Li and Li Maogen passed away together with their spouses.
The next day, relatives, good friends, fellow villagers and neighbors came to kowtow and express condolences according to the rules of the previous day.
Tao Xiaoxi looked at this scene and felt it was a joke, very funny, as if his father-in-law was playing a joke on everyone. However, he had been a dutiful and timid man all his life. He lived a strict and serious life, and even when living with his wife, he never joked with her. Finally, when he was leaving, he played a big joke on everyone, as if he wanted future generations to remember that their father, their grandfather, and their grandfather-in-law was also a witty and humorous person.
He was being humorous, but his descendants cried bitterly. First they lost their mother, and then they lost their father. It would be hard for anyone to go through this.
The cemetery was widened and a new coffin was ordered urgently. Everything was just as Old Man Li said on the night he passed away, and they became even busier.
I was too busy to feel sad or shed tears. I just wanted to make sure my parents passed away in as dignified a manner as possible.
Tao Xiaoxi suddenly felt a little envious of her mother-in-law. She had lived her entire life under her husband's control and protection, loving him without words. The old man, fearing his wife would be alone on her way to the afterlife, had given up all hope of living and gone with her. She didn't know how much determination it took to let go, to let go of everything and pass away without any worries, but Old Man Li had indeed done it.
Heavy snow fell for a week, seven consecutive days. The mountains and plains were covered in white. Everywhere you looked was covered in snow. Tao Xiaoxi fell ill and she believed from the bottom of her heart that it was all caused by the snow.
On the seventh day after her parents-in-law's death, she was ill and did not go. Li Nanshan took his two daughters to pay tribute to his parents and their grandparents.
The seventh day after death in Mantou Village was always a grand occasion, with erhu and suona instruments even invited. Tao Xiaoxi didn't attend, but she still heard the erhu's sobs and the suona's sobs. There was no one whose tears couldn't be pierced by the erhu, no soul whose spirit couldn't be driven away by the suona. Tao Xiaoxi, covering herself with the quilt, leaned against the headboard, feeling a desolate emptiness in her heart.
Just as a person cannot lift himself up, no one can end the cycle of fate. In a sense, people live to leave.
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