Rebirth at the starting point of happiness

"Oh, you are fine. Mom knows what you want. This gold bracelet is for you. You can sell it for a lot of money, so keep it for yourself. Your life is your own, so take care of yourself."

After saying that, he lay down.

"Oh, I'm tired of talking. Take good care of your father. I've said everything I should have said. If I make trouble after he's gone, don't be polite. It's not okay for him to be restless when he's old."

After saying that, he seemed really tired and fell asleep quietly after a while.

Everyone came out of the ward. Xu Jing wiped her tears, feeling uncomfortable.

Why does the feeling her mother tells her differ from that of others?

But no matter how fierce she was, she knew that this was not the time to talk about these things, and no one would pay attention to her.

After resting for two hours, Xu's mother woke up, but did not sit up. She just said a few words like a younger child.

Especially the two girls of Xu Feng's family. After all, they grew up in front of me. They must be different.

I talked to Wang Yuchen about finding a husband in the future, and asked her to listen to the experiences of her aunts and let Wang Yuran live her life as happily as possible. I like to see her happy smile the most.

Carpenter Xu came in the afternoon. The old couple just lay on the bed and sat beside the bed without saying anything.

But when Carpenter Xu was leaving, it seemed like he suddenly had trouble walking.

At night, Xu's mother closed her eyes peacefully. In the morning, Xu's mother had put on some of her burial clothes after taking a bath. So she dressed very quickly now.

Xu Feng, Xu Hui, Xu Hua and Su Qiuyue wiped the sweat off Xu's mother's face and then put on her funeral clothes.

"Don't cry. Don't let your tears fall."

Xu Feng gritted her teeth as she spoke to them. Her sister-in-law and sister-in-law, who had not come forward, had already started to cry.

"Let the children come in and say goodbye to grandma. The car will be here soon and we will go directly to the funeral home."

After dressing Xu's mother, Xu Feng asked the children to come in. She emphasized that they were not allowed to shed tears on their grandmother and not let her linger in the world.

The younger children did not come, and when the older children came in and saw that Xu's mother seemed to be asleep, they were unable to react at all.

Just when they saw the adults couldn't help sobbing, Xu Feng had already covered Xu's mother's face.

There were soft sobbing sounds in the room. The children were sent back home. None of the brothers and sisters spoke. They didn't cry loudly in the hospital.

After the funeral home's car arrived, Wang Tiejun and several other men went over and carried Xu's mother's body out.

Before the car arrived, Xu Feng had already asked them to wear mourning clothes and cloth.

"Mom! Let's go!"

Xu Hui suppressed his voice and shouted in a muffled voice, and Wang Tiejun and others carried the body out.

As he walked past the door, Xu Hui shouted again.

"Mom, it's over the beam."

"Mom~!"

For some reason, Xu Ling couldn't help but shout out and suddenly burst into tears.

It seemed that from this moment on, her mother was really gone. She had no mother anymore.

When Xu Ling started crying, the others started crying too. Su Qiuyue couldn't make a sound, but just kept shedding tears.

My mind was blank, I didn't want to think about anything and I didn't dare to think about anything. I just followed numbly.

Xu Hui would shout as he passed a door along the way, and he walked all the way to the funeral home with this voice.

They watched as Xu's mother's body was put into the storage cabinet. Then they were about to leave.

Xu Feng had prepared the room long ago. In addition to white and yellow chrysanthemums and funeral couplets, in the middle was the body of Xu's mother. On the altar were photos of Xu's mother that she had taken before.

It was taken on her 70th birthday. Mother Xu smiled beautifully. She was wearing her favorite indigo satin cheongsam.

The room was very cold, even with some paper burning in the brazier. You can't have a vigil at a funeral home. When they left, I don't know why their tears suddenly stopped.

On the way back, Su Qiuyue saw Xu Feng crying silently.

"Miss."

Su Qiuyue's eyes, which had been dry, suddenly became moist after she shouted.

"Oh, it's okay. I just feel like I left my mom there all alone, and it's a bit hard."

After she finished speaking, tears started to fall. Wang Tiejun rarely hugged Xu Feng's shoulders and patted her shoulders soothingly.

Su Qiuyue and the others also sobbed and cried. After returning home, no one could sleep at all, but there was a child who had to be buried tomorrow. They could only toss and turn in a daze.

The whole family went to the funeral home early in the morning. Everyone burned some paper money for Xu's mother. When the time came, the whole family went to the crematorium.

The staff lifted the white cloth covering Xu's mother in front of them and asked them to confirm.

Xu Feng and the others couldn't help crying. Su Qiuyue's heart thumped.

I was talking to her yesterday. How come she suddenly didn't recognize me after one night?

The person lying there looked so strange to her. The skin on her face looked fake. If she hadn't been wearing yesterday's shroud, Su Qiuyue wouldn't have believed that this was yesterday's aunt.

She was not the only one who felt this way, everyone paused for a few seconds.

Then a feeling of powerlessness rose in my heart. A feeling of powerlessness about life and death. A feeling of helplessness about birth, aging, sickness and death.

They knew it all, but they couldn't break up emotionally. That's why this change was so strange. So strange that they forgot to cry.

After confirming that everything was done, the staff covered Xu's mother with a cloth and slowly pushed her into the crematorium.

They couldn't see what was inside. There was only one button.

Then Xu Hui knelt in front of the crematorium, holding a black ceramic basin.

"Go ahead and throw it. Once it falls, just press it down."

Xu Feng hired a knowledgeable funeral master. She didn't understand some of the rules, so she just followed the master's instructions.

This ceramic basin was not big and was very thick, but Xu Hui could lift it easily with his physique. However, for some reason, he seemed unable to lift it after trying twice.

"Oh, let's throw it. People are dead, we can't keep them."

Mr. Bai Shier could understand this feeling. Although he had experienced a lot, he couldn't help but sigh every time he saw this scene.

Xu Hui took a few deep breaths and suddenly raised the pottery basin.

"Mom! Have a safe journey!!"

After saying that, he smashed it to the ground with force. With a "pop" sound, the staff pressed the cremation button almost the moment the pottery basin landed on the ground.

It was as if a switch was turned on, and Xu Feng burst into tears.

But since they had broken the basin, they had to get out quickly. The funeral director pulled up Xu Hui, who was kneeling on the ground and felt a little limp, and asked them to go to the waiting room.

In such a hustle and bustle, the whole family staggered into the lounge, sat down and cried for a while before slowly calming down.

They were all in a daze.

"In the past, people buried their dead in the ground. After the pot was broken, they would quickly carry the coffin to the grave, scattering paper money along the way. They would cry all the time.

Now it's cremated, but it's the same, we can't stop. If you break the pot, you have to leave quickly.

This basin represents the bowl of the human world. If the bowl of the human world is broken, you will not be able to eat the food of the human world anymore.

From now on, we will be separated by the Yin and Yang, so hurry up and get on the road so as not to starve."

Seeing that they were all a little depressed, the funeral director explained to them. However, when they heard about the separation of the living and the dead, they couldn't help crying again.

Su Qiuyue cried and her thoughts drifted away. She thought that humans and ghosts were on different paths, separated by the Yin and Yang. Just like what the funeral master said, she couldn't eat food in the world of the living.

What about her? Why didn't she go to the underworld when she died in her previous life? Why is she still in the world of the living? Is it because no one broke the pot for her?

You can’t leave without drying the pots, and then you live another lifetime?

Who made these rules and regulations? How did the people who made them know them? Or is it because each one is just a careful memory of the little things about our loved ones?

Does that mean my aunt has already left this space now, and she won’t be like her in her previous life, floating around and unable to leave or stay.

Su Qiuyue talked about this and that, sometimes about the present and sometimes about the past life. She didn't know what she was thinking about. Her mind was just wandering randomly until someone came in and asked them to take the ashes.

The funeral director asked them to put on gloves, hold the red chess pieces and follow his instructions.

Su Qiuyue originally thought it was a very sad thing, but she didn't expect to be completely unable to react. Everyone was numb and accepted the huge contrast, being directed like puppets.

Because there is an iron drawer in front of them. When they get close, they can feel the temperature inside is very high.

Inside were some broken grayish-white bones.

Mr. Shiraishi took a look first, and then asked them to use quick chess pieces to pick out the bone he pointed out.

Some of them took several tries with shaking hands, while others did it calmly and neatly. They put it in a small iron drawer nearby.

Once it's done, just stand by and wait until the ashes cool down.

Then I placed them on a piece of cloth in the order the gentleman had said, then wrapped them up and put them into the selected urn.

He closed the lid and asked Xu Hui to take it. Then he put it in the storage room.

Until they returned to Xu Feng's house, everyone was silent and no one shed tears. Except for Wang Yuchen, the other children had already rested under the arrangement of the nanny.

"mom."

Wang Yuchen sat next to Xu Feng, called her softly, then hugged Xu Feng's waist. Xu Feng also hugged his daughter in return.

Today was the first time in her life that she experienced the separation of life and death. She saw how a living person disappeared from this world.

"mom."

Wang Yuchen called out again.

"Hey. Mom's here. She's here."

As Xu Feng spoke, his eyes became moist.

"She was still talking to us yesterday, but today she has turned into a handful of ash. Why can't I remember what mom looks like all of a sudden?"

Xu Hua was a little dazed. He had never felt so listless before.

"While you guys are smashing pots over there, we'll start burning all the paper money and paper figurines over there. Watching the fire roaring and quickly turning into ashes, it feels like our final farewell."

When Hao Chengmin's parents passed away, they also held a funeral. Although he was not the eldest son, he was the richest one. So he had to take care of it. But the feeling was different. The relationship between him and his parents was ordinary. It was just the feeling of fulfilling his filial duty.

So when his mother-in-law passed away, Xu Feng and her family's behavior made him envious and happy. This is the emotion of a normal family.

But facing death, no matter how you feel, it's all the same. All people are the same after they die, a pile of yellow paper and a handful of ashes.

"Sister, why do I suddenly have no tears?"

Xu Ling asked in confusion. She should be very sad, because she lost her mother, but how could she speak so calmly now, without any emotion and with dry eyes?

Xu Feng shook her head gently, she didn't know either.

"Because what I saw today, I suddenly lost my emotional support. The person who supported your emotions, you saw her turn into dust with your own eyes.

Without photos, memories, and the blood in your body as evidence, this person has completely disappeared."

Su Qiuyue said lightly. She suddenly had no tears. She thought about why all the way. This was the only explanation.

That person full of affection is gone, completely gone. All the sorrow has become a memory.

At a certain moment, you will cry because you miss someone, but the person you miss is no longer here.

No matter what, the sun rises and sets never too late. Three days later, they returned to their hometown with Xu's mother's ashes.

Funeral, burial, and thank-you banquet.

After everyone left, they returned to their old house.

“I used to think our house was quite big, and when Xiao Kuan and I played hide-and-seek in the house, we always felt there were plenty of places to hide.

Now I see that my home has become smaller.”

Xu Ling looked at the old house where she grew up, and old memories came flooding back.

"Yes, I think the kang is very big. It can accommodate my young lady and I to do somersaults, play chess, and read books."

Xu Kuan also took his wife's hand and told her about the naughty things he did when he was a child.

"Wang Nan doesn't know that Xiao Kuan was still breastfeeding when he was four or five years old!"

Xu Feng suddenly remembered the little brother who would rush into his mother's arms every day to suck her.

"Really?! Do you remember?"

Wang Nan asked in surprise. Xu Hui was a little embarrassed.

"Little one. Don't listen to your elder sister. They spoiled me in the first place, and they also said that I took too long to eat."

"Hahaha, actually there is no milk, he just can't stop sucking milk. It's just like the pacifiers now. Even though we spoil him, he still wants it. We are all busy working and tired after a day's work. We don't want to hear him crying and making trouble, so we just let him do what he wants."

Xu Feng ruined the show, Xiao Kuan was very different when he was a child.

"Xiaohua, what about you? What did you do?"

When Hao Chengmin heard them talking about Xiao Kuan, he couldn't help but ask.

"My third sister? Apart from eating and sleeping, she would run outside as soon as she opened her eyes. Later, my cousin settled in the front yard of my house, and she ran there from the back.

He doesn't even go home, but leads Sister Xinyue around the team."

Now it was finally Xu Kuan's turn to make fun of Xu Hua.

"Tsk, you were just too small when you were little. Xiao Ling is not in good health and always rests on the kang. I scared her to death when I made a noise that time, and she never dared to play at home again.

And how can I run away from home?"

Xu Hua was very open and didn't feel embarrassed at all.

Hao Chengmin also asked about the reason. Fu Jianan, who was standing next to him, heard it and tightened his arms around Xu Ling. He didn't expect that Xiao Ling almost died in an accident when she was a child.

"If my eldest cousin hadn't spent almost all of her family savings to rush me to the hospital, I might have really died. It's okay, you see I'm fine. I even gave birth to two sons for you."

Xu Ling smiled at Fu Jianan comfortingly.

The family went to see Su Qiuyue's old house again. It was smaller, but it had more memories.

The house had been sold a long time ago and renovated, and it no longer looked like it used to. They just stood outside and watched.