"I'll come with you to your hometown. That way, if anything comes up, I can lend a hand," Yun Jianyue offered.
"That'd just bring you bad luck. You're supposed to be on vacation, Senior. I'll treat you to a meal when term starts," Zhou Benxin insisted. Being from the north, he was strict about such customs. Even if the deceased was his own grandmother, to Yun Jianyue she was just an outsider. Getting involved in funeral matters like this was considered ill-omened.
Yun Jianyue: I'm just using this to trigger the next quest. What ulterior motives could I possibly have?
"But you're alone. What if you can't manage Grandma's funeral arrangements properly? You already owe me one meal, what's one more?" Yun Jianyue stated firmly, projecting a saintly aura.
After a long hesitation, Zhou Benxin finally nodded. "Alright, but sorry for the trouble. I'll just grab a few things and we'll head out right away."
As Zhou Benxin turned to leave the room, Yun Jianyue couldn't contain her curiosity. "What's behind this one?"
Hearing her question, Zhou Benxin turned back and casually pulled the door open. "Oh, nothing much. Just the deity our family venerates."
Behind the door was a small closet, less than two square meters. The moment it opened, a thick, pungent smell of incense ash washed over them.
Against the wall stood a small altar. On its highest tier, positioned left and right, were two pieces of pitch-black wood. The type of wood was unidentifiable, radiating a strange, innate chill.
Clearly, these two blocks of black wood were what Zhou Benxin's family worshipped.
"What kind of deity is this?" Yun Jianyue frowned.
She wasn't deeply versed in spiritual matters, but she knew ordinary families usually invited gold-painted idols of gods into their homes to venerate.
What god lacks a golden image? Why just two ugly, black blocks of wood?
Zhou Benxin scratched his head. "I'm not really sure. The family's been offering to them ever since I was little. Not just us, actually; everyone in our ancestral village worships this deity. They call it the Twin Gods. Many folks who moved to the city like my family set aside similar small closets to venerate them. Though it's mainly the older generation who worship; my sister and I never really burned incense."
Yun Jianyue had never heard of any Twin Gods. Her gaze returned to the altar. On it sat deep-red candles, a pair burning with a faint, flickering red light.
Clearly, that was the glow she had seen earlier. But how could such weak candlelight have produced that intense, blinding burst of red?
In the end, Yun Jianyue didn't mention the strange red light to Zhou Benxin, keeping the matter to herself.
Zhou Benxin's ancestral village was two hundred kilometers from Jibei City, a drive of several hours.
Riding in Zhou Benxin's car, Yun Jianyue found no chance to discuss the pieces of wood with Lu Changxue.
They arrived at Xianyin Village as dusk was falling.
The village entrance was marked by an immense, ancient Chinese scholar tree. It appeared weathered by time, its bark a dark, burnished black. An evening breeze rustled through its thick foliage, sounding like many snakes slithering through grass.
Several elderly villagers sat beneath the tree, their gaze like stagnant water, silently watching Zhou Benxin's car pass the village entrance.
As Zhou Benxin drove towards the old house deeper in the village, groups of three or five villagers carrying shoulder poles occasionally walked towards the big scholar tree. Their expressions were blank.
Bamboo baskets hung from the ends of the poles, covered by vibrant red cloth that concealed their contents.
Zhou Benxin's old house was at the innermost end of Xianyin Village, nestled against the mountain slope. When he parked the car outside the courtyard wall, two men emerged from the old courtyard.
One was older, around seventy; the other looked younger, perhaps in his fifties.
"Xinzi? Where are your parents?" The middle-aged man frowned deeply as he saw Zhou Benxin and Yun Jianyue get out of the car, his brows knitted tightly enough to crush a fly.
"Second Uncle," Zhou Benxin explained apologetically. "My parents are still abroad. They can't come back. I'm the only one here to handle Grandma's affairs."
Second Uncle Zhou looked at Yun Jianyue, his tone unfriendly. "Is this your girlfriend?"
"No, this is my senior from university. She's come to help me." Zhou Benxin instinctively stepped forward slightly, positioning himself between Yun Jianyue and his uncle.
The older man gave a cold snort. "Your senior? Something big is happening in the village tonight! Outsiders aren't allowed! Tell her to get lost!"
Zhou Benxin's face immediately darkened. He respected them as elders, but that didn't give them the right to curse a friend he'd brought back without reason!
Inside the jade pendant, Lu Changxue flared with rage. What attitude was this? Telling people to get lost? She'd burst out and scare these wretched old men to death!
Just as Lu Changxue prepared to leap forth, Yun Jianyue's hand pressed down on the pendant.
She immediately activated her perfected skill of appearing docile in front of elders, smiling sweetly. "Oh, Uncle, Grandpa, Benxin was just joking! Of course I'm his girlfriend! If I wasn't, why else would I come help with his grandma's funeral?"
Second Uncle Zhou and Old Fifth Zhou (Zhou Ben Gong) exchanged skeptical glances, clearly unconvinced.
Just as Old Fifth Zhou was about to speak, Second Uncle Zhou suddenly leaned close to his ear and whispered something.
"Fine then," Old Fifth Zhou said gruffly. "If you're Xinzi's girlfriend, you can stay. But I warn you both – stay inside tonight. Don't wander! Something big is happening in the village. You handle your grandmother's body yourselves." Having delivered this command, he and Second Uncle Zhou turned and left.
Coincidentally, they too were heading towards the big scholar tree at the village entrance.
When they were out of earshot, Zhou Benxin offered Yun Jianyue a wry, apologetic smile. "Senior, I'm really sorry about that..."
"It's fine," Yun Jianyue replied. "Let's go inside and see to Grandma first."
Zhou Benxin's ancestral home was an old tile-roofed house surrounded by a courtyard with its original bare-earth floor.
They entered the main hall, which the two men had evidently tidied. The most striking object in the room was an altar table identical to the one in Zhou Benxin's city apartment. Two red candles burned upon it, illuminating the same two pieces of black wood.
The door to Grandma Zhou's room stood wide open. Her body lay peacefully on the bed.
The sight unleashed the grief Zhou Benxin had restrained throughout the journey. Striding forward, he threw himself to his knees beside the bed, burying his head beside hers as wrenching sobs wracked his powerful frame.
Yun Jianyue waited patiently for his tears to subside somewhat before gently patting his shoulder. "Find her some clean clothes. I'll change her."
During the drive, Zhou Benxin had explained their local funeral customs. When an elder passed, the body was washed clean, changed into fresh clothes, and laid out at home for a three-day mourning period before burial on the fourth day.
Remarkably, villagers here refused cremation. Despite repeated government appeals and even arrests of uncooperative families, the resistance was unwavering. Attempts at forced cremation provoked threats of mass suicide among the families.