Chapter 49: The Devoted Hearts of Parents

Changing clothes naturally meant changing into burial garments, a complete set ranging from inner to outer layers for all four seasons.

Burial clothes were generally odd-numbered, adhering to the traditional rule of wearing odd rather than even layers, mostly consisting of three collars and four waistbands, colloquially referred to as the seven levels of a pagoda.

In the Dayuan Dynasty, elderly people usually prepared their burial garments and the "auspicious timber"—which referred to the coffin—well in advance around their birthdays, keeping them stored away until the day they passed away a hundred years later.

During milestone birthdays in ordinary times, some elderly individuals would take out their prepared burial garments and wear them briefly, signifying an increase in blessings and longevity, which was considered very auspicious.

"Mother, you..." Qian Shihai asked with a look of utter shock. Weren't they doing fine? Why summon the morticians, and why change clothes?!

The rest of them also wore expressions of complete bewilderment.

"I know my own body," Old Madam Qian patted the quilt in front of her. "Do as I say."

"Yes," Qian Shihai had no choice but to turn and leave.

"Yunjiao, help me trim my nails," Old Madam Qian instructed further. "All five girls, come and groom me, then help me bathe later. I want to leave this world cleanly. Mother Li, go and take out my burial garments. Once I've finished bathing, the girls will help me put on the inner layers first. The morticians are just a bunch of rough old men; I certainly don't want them touching me!"

"Mother..." Qian Fangru was the first who couldn't help but burst into tears.

The others immediately followed suit, crying out "Mother" in unison as they dropped to their knees, covering their faces and sobbing bitterly.

"What are you crying for!" Old Madam Qian frowned at them. "I am advanced in years, and going now is a joyous funeral. Your father, your eldest brother, and my grandson are all waiting for me outside. There is no need for you to grieve excessively. Live your lives well from now on, so that I may rest in peace down below."

Old Madam Qian dismissed everyone, leaving only Mother Li and a few aunts in the room to cleanse and bathe her, while Yunjiao, Third Uncle, Madam Ding, and the others kept watch outside the door.

"Yunjiao, was it you who asked Qin Nanfeng to look for me?" Qian Shelin asked her.

"Mm," Yunjiao nodded. "Why?"

"Come to think of it, we owe this entirely to him," Qian Shelin said with a hint of emotion. "With the year coming to an end, I had some unsettled accounts in Binzhou that I hadn't collected, so I took your cousin along to collect them. Your second uncle sent people to the house, but they couldn't find me."

Only then did Yunjiao understand; it wasn't that her second uncle hadn't sent anyone to look for her third uncle, but rather that her third uncle happened to be away from home collecting debts.

"Qin Nanfeng truly deserves to be the son of a scholarly family," Qian Shelin said, his face full of admiration. "Because of a single word from you, he actually ran thousands of li away to Binzhou to find me, and then drove a carriage to take me and your cousin back home to fetch Shu'er, escorting us all the way to your second uncle's front gate."

"Where is he now?" Yunjiao asked, somewhat surprised, thinking to herself that this favor had grown considerably heavier. If not for Qin Nanfeng, her third uncle certainly wouldn't have arrived in the nick of time.

"He left right at the gate. I asked him in to sit for a while, but he said he had matters to attend to and hurried off." Qian Shelin praised Qin Nanfeng a few more times as he spoke.

Yunjiao nodded silently, telling herself inwardly that she must find a proper opportunity to thank Qin Nanfeng another day, as he had been of immense help this time.

As the two grew quiet, they heard Madam Ding and Mother Ding whispering to each other nearby.

Mother Ding rolled her eyes and murmured, "It looks like the old madam knows what's coming. No wonder she said 'that's enough' after eating only half a bowl of congee; she probably understands everything in her heart."

Madam Ding looked around stealthily and whispered, "That half bowl of congee was her travel ration for the road."

Yunjiao and Jianjia pricked up their ears to listen for a moment, and suddenly understood.

It turned out they were discussing how Old Madam Qian had been sitting under the veranda earlier, looking around and peering outside. According to old sayings, this was called "scouting the road," and what the old madam saw at that moment was different from ordinary sights—though what exactly it was, no one could know—referring to the path her soul would take after she passed away.

As for eating most of a bowl of congee, there was also a superstition behind it. Old folk called it "travel rations," meant to prepare her for the journey ahead so she wouldn't go hungry on the road or find herself unable to walk. They said that before people died, they always had to eat something, after all, the road to the netherworld was a difficult one to travel.

Hearing this, Yunjiao and Jianjia exchanged glances and stared blankly for a long while. Could ghosts and deities really exist in this world? Otherwise, why did everything have so many complex traditions, and why did they all sound so plausible?

Seeing her second aunt speak so vividly, as if she had witnessed it with her own eyes, Yunjiao almost half-believed it herself.

Jianjia was timid, and hearing this made her even more frightened. She shrank her neck and looked around, "Miss, earlier the old madam said that the old master, the eldest young master, and young master Xiangshan were all waiting for her outside. Are they right now... in this courtyard?"

"Don't talk nonsense," Yunjiao hurriedly nudged her, glancing sharply at Madam Ding. Jianjia had forgotten that the name "Xiangshan" must never be mentioned in front of her second aunt.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Madam Ding froze for a moment before abruptly collapsing onto the ground, bursting into wails, "Xiangshan! My child, the flesh of my mother's heart, my darling, if you're here, show yourself to your mother for just a glance, mother misses you so... Let me die in your place instead of you dying and breaking your mother's heart..."

"Second sister-in-law, don't be like this," Qian Shelin hurriedly went to pull her up.

Mother Ding was also wiping away tears and trying to comfort her from the side.

Yunjiao sighed and shot a glare at Jianjia.

Jianjia guiltily covered her mouth.

Seeing Madam Ding crying so bitterly, Yunjiao couldn't bear it either, and walked over with Jianjia to help her up.

She felt a stirring of emotion; although this second aunt had always been unreasonable, notorious throughout the city as a shrew, unfilial to her parents-in-law, and greedy for money, her love for her child was no different from anyone else's. When all was said and done, it proved the old saying: "Pitiful are the hearts of parents everywhere."

Madam Ding cried harder and harder, and several people tried in vain to lift her to her feet. Amidst the commotion, Qian Shihai hurried back with a group of morticians.

Seeing the scene in the courtyard, a heavy headache washed over him. He walked over, hoisted Madam Ding up from the ground by her collar, and barked, "Get a grip! Look at what time it is, stop stirring up trouble in the middle of all this!"

Hearing this, Madam Ding realized the gravity of the situation. The old matriarch was passing away, and as the mistress of the house, she could not afford to fall apart now.

She hastily choked back her sobs, wiped away her tears, and went to receive the morticians.

At that moment, piercing wails suddenly erupted from the aunts inside the room. Yunjiao's entire body tightened abruptly, a terrible premonition gripping her heart!

Instantly, the door was thrown wide open, and she rushed inside along with everyone else.

There they saw the maternal grandmother wearing the inner layer of her burial garments, propped up on the couch by two aunts. Her complexion was sallow, and it was evident she was exhaling far more than she was inhaling.

Yunjiao immediately let out a cry of grief, lunging forward to shout, "Grandmother! What's wrong!"

"Move, move, make way!"

In the panic, someone shoved Yunjiao aside, but fortunately, Jianjia had sharp eyes and caught her, preventing her from falling.

Following that, the morticians picked up the burial garments and frantically began dressing Old Madam Qian in a flurry of hands.

Madam Ding urged repeatedly from the side, "Hurry, hurry! You must finish dressing her before she draws her last breath, or the garments won't fit onto her body."