Chapter 256: 239. Death is not the loss of life, but stepping out of time (Life and Death Illusion Realm · Part 3)
[Only those who sleep eternally in the land will never wake, truly departed.]
[Returning home, you, who has always been expressionless, look at the room with no one to light a lamp, at your father’s clothes, even at the bowl used for meals every day, and the cabbage he had stored in the cellar for the New Year.]
[For some reason, you couldn’t hold back and cried uncontrollably.]
[It was at this moment you truly understood, your father is really dead!]
[Time passes slowly.]
[Without your father, you become incredibly lonely.]
[Although you didn’t communicate much with him before, as long as he was there, everything was actually alright.]
[And now, he’s gone. No one will turn on a lamp or warm up a meal for you before you come home.]
[You feel like you’ve become a child utterly abandoned by the world, turned into a tiny dust in the vast heavens and earth.]
[You couldn’t help but gain a new insight, realizing that once parents pass away, life becomes a journey of return.]
[You even ponder in your heart if the end of death is not just emptiness, but a long-awaited reunion?]
[Time passes slowly.]
[After your father passed, you took over his funeral business completely. It was not until you truly supported a family that you couldn’t help but be grateful for your father’s meticulous strictness.]
[It was precisely because of that initial strictness that you gained the composure to handle things now.]
[However, although your family is well-off, due to the taboo nature of the industry you are in, even though you’ve been of age for several years, no matchmaker has come with a proposal.]
[Until the year you turned twenty-something, Granny Wang from the village entrance found you and asked, "Would you consider the girl Xiulian from the neighboring village?"]
[You’ve been lonely for so long. Whenever you see other homes brightly lit and paired couples, how could you not be envious?]
[You neither nodded in agreement nor shook your head in refusal, just softly spoke the words: "Take a look."]
[Granny Wang left with a smile, and a few days later, one morning, she brought two people.]
[Walking in front was a middle-aged farmwoman with broad shoulders and a sturdy waist, dark-skinned, brisk and energetic as she walked, clearly a master of farm work.]
[Following behind was a pale-skinned, delicate-featured, slender girl, her eyes lowered, looking shy.]
[The farmwoman in front tugged at her while grumbling impatiently, "You sickly ghost, hurry up. If you fail to get married today, you can pack up and leave on your own. Your brother and I don’t have time to take care of you."]
[The girl timidly replied and walked forward, needing to catch her breath from time to time, clearly showing poor health.]
[She was Xiulian.]
[Her parents passed away early, and she lived with her cousin from her father’s side.]
[She was born frail, spent her childhood in the woodshed, caught cold and lung disease, unable to work, and coughed terribly in cold weather.]
[In a village where population equates to labor, Xiulian was almost entirely neglected by her family. Her cousin and his wife wanted to get rid of this burden long ago.]
[But every household needed women who could shoulder half the sky; who would want a sickly girl to bring unhappiness into their home?]
[Thus, the two of you, both abandoned by societal norms and filled with insecurity, met.]
[She timidly raised her head, meeting your gaze.]
[The next moment, both of you felt a slight ease in your minds.]
[Though from the start, both had internally decided that as long as the other was not too bad, there was nothing more to demand.]
[But still, there was some worry in your hearts.]
[Xiulian heard that people in the funeral industry often had physical flaws, and on the way, couldn’t help imagining if the person she was going to meet would be an old invalid, covered in acne.]
[But the person she saw was tall and handsome, not exceptionally good-looking, but dignified, with sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes.]
[Almost instantly, her face blushed, and she lowered her head, unable to help wondering if someone like this would even consider someone as sickly as her.]
[Her heart became restless with unease.]
[And you, upon seeing her, knew instantly she was the one!]
[Whether it was love at first sight or infatuation, you couldn’t deny that this fair-skinned, delicate-featured woman before you outshone others far and wide.]
[For other families, a bride was needed for labor, someone robust and capable of farm work.]
[But for you, all you wanted was a woman you found pleasing to the eye.]
[As for whether she could do farm work?]
[To be honest, the wealth accumulated by your family over three generations, combined with your efforts over the years, was unmatched in Huangqiao Town.]
[So, while the matchmaker and the farmwoman were chattering away, their spittle flying, you decisively took out ten taels of silver from your sleeve and slapped it on the table.]
["Oh my heavens, ten taels of silver?" The farmwoman’s eyes widened in disbelief.]