My hand clutching Mu Fengyu trembled slightly. My throat felt so clogged that I couldn't utter a single sound for a long time.
Seeing that I didn't say a word, Gu Yuan figured that no matter what he said to me at this moment, I probably wouldn't listen.
Without further explanation, he walked straight out of the door.
When I saw him leave, I immediately closed the door behind me. Leaning against it for a while, I felt a sense of emptiness when I realized he wasn't coming back.
I felt my soul had no support, and I was so weak that I slid down to the floor.
I dug my ten fingers into my hair and rubbed it vigorously. I thought I would cry, but not a single tear rolled down my cheek. It turned out that when a person is at their most heart - broken, they can't shed tears.
I sat there silently all night. It wasn't until He Bi knocked on the door the next day that I got up from the floor with dark circles under my eyes.
When I opened the door, He Bi was stunned.
"Sis, are you okay?"
I let go of the doorknob and slumped onto the sofa dejectedly, motioning for him to come in and talk.
Understanding my intention, He Bi closed the door and sat down beside me. His face looked even more haggard than mine.
"Sis, why don't we just drop this case? You should take a good rest for a while."
Despite his young age, He Bi treated me like a real sister. He was always concerned about me, both in his actions and words.
During the time I was in a coma, I must have caused him a lot of trouble. Now that I was awake but still looking so miserable every day, he must have been even more worried.
I couldn't go on like this. If I continued to be so decadent, my gang might really fall apart.
The Ten Kings of Hell once said that as long as one did more good deeds, they would surely meet the people they were destined to meet. So now I should make more good connections and do more good deeds to accumulate blessings for the deceased.
I sat up straight on the sofa, took a deep breath, and gave He Bi a beaming smile full of energy.
"I'm fine. Tell me about that old lady. We'll go and check it out today."
Seeing me perk up, He Bi also sat up straight. He double - checked with me, "Sis, are you sure you're okay?"
"Don't worry. Let bygones be bygones. Some people will surely meet each other if they are destined to."
From He Bi's expression, it was obvious that he didn't understand what I was talking about. But from my eyes, he could tell that I had pulled myself together and wouldn't be depressed because of Bai Qi's death anymore.
So he told me everything that had happened to that old lady's family.
The old lady's husband's family name was Chu. She was an ordinary peasant woman living in the suburbs of Gangliao.
Her family had a single male heir for three generations. Five years ago, her daughter - in - law died of difficult childbirth after giving birth to a grandson.
The son blamed the baby for his mother's death and ignored him completely. Eventually, he simply threw the newborn into Granny Chu's arms, not caring whether the baby lived or died.
After all, it was her own grandson, so she couldn't just leave him alone. A fortune - teller said that the child had an unlucky fate, so they gave him a humble name, Gou Dan'er, because the older generation believed that a humble name would make the child easier to raise.
Gou Dan'er was a very sensible and obedient boy. Granny Chu's husband had passed away early, so the old woman and the little boy had been relying on each other for six years.
Everything was going well until recently, when Granny Chu accidentally broke her leg and couldn't move.
There were still a few sheep at home that needed to eat grass. So the sensible Gou Dan'er told Granny Chu to rest at home.
He then went up the mountain alone with a cart to cut grass for the sheep.
Granny Chu didn't agree at first, because he was only six years old and it was too dangerous to go up the mountain.
But Gou Dan'er was so quick that before she could finish her words, he had already run out with a sickle in his hand.
Granny Chu was old and her leg was injured, so she couldn't stop him.
She could only shout at him from afar, telling him to just cut some grass near the mountain edge and never go deep into the mountains.
Gou Dan'er readily agreed and soon disappeared from sight.
The boy had grown up in the countryside and was used to being wild, so usually nothing would happen to him. Granny Chu didn't think much of it.
However, she never expected that this would be the last time she would see her grandson.
Not long after Gou Dan'er left, the clear sky suddenly turned dark, and a downpour started without any warning.
Worried that something might have happened to Gou Dan'er, Granny Chu asked Uncle Wang next door to go and look for him.
Uncle Wang searched around the mountain edge several times but couldn't find Gou Dan'er. The rain was getting heavier and heavier, so Uncle Wang came back.
The rain lasted for three days and three nights, and Gou Dan'er didn't come back for three days.
On the fourth day, when the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared, Granny Chu heard the terrible news that someone had found Gou Dan'er at the foot of the mountain. He was soaking in the water, his body had turned white, and he was already dead.
The villagers carried Gou Dan'er back to Granny Chu's house. When she saw her grandson, she almost fainted.
She hugged Gou Dan'er and wailed loudly.
Granny Chu was a poor household in the village. Her family was already poor, and having a son was no different from having none.
Seeing how pitiful they were, the villagers wanted to raise some money to help her bury Gou Dan'er quickly.
After all, it was summer, and they didn't know how long Gou Dan'er had been soaking in the water when they found him. If they waited any longer, there would surely be an unpleasant smell.
At first, Granny Chu agreed with the villagers' suggestion. She just wanted to spend one more day with her grandson, and then she would send him to the crematorium the next morning.
But the next day, when the villagers came, Granny Chu changed her mind.
She insisted that her grandson had come to her in a dream and told her that he wasn't dead and could still be saved. She refused to let the people from the crematorium take her grandson away.
The villagers tried to persuade her for a long time, but Granny Chu seemed to be stuck in a rut and just wouldn't listen. She just wouldn't let anyone take him away.
Three more days passed. Many people in the village tried to talk some sense into her, but Granny Chu was convinced that Gou Dan'er wasn't dead. She thought that his soul had been taken away by something, so she went looking for Taoist priests and fortune - tellers both inside and outside the village.
She was determined to save her grandson, but all those people were either swindlers or just didn't have the real ability.
She somehow heard about us and walked all the way here for a whole day and night, just hoping that there was still a glimmer of hope for Gou Dan'er.
After hearing He Bi's story, I felt so sorry for Granny Chu. The pain of an old person losing a young one was beyond what an ordinary person could bear.
When I saw Granny Chu yesterday, I could tell that she was a kind - hearted person, but unfortunately, she had the fate of a celestial lone star.
I originally thought that she and Gou Dan'er were incompatible in terms of fate. But when He Bi showed me the little boy's birth date, I found that his fate was even stronger. Logically, he shouldn't have had a short life.
There must be something fishy going on. If I wanted to find out what really happened, I had to go to their village and see the little boy with my own eyes.
"He Bi, give me Granny Chu's address. I'll go there right now."