The Rebirth of an Orphan

Uncle Lin went there to deliver gifts for Zhao Xihua this morning. She wanted to pick up her master and was thinking of buying some gifts for the people there as souvenirs. Originally, she was going to go, but what happened to Gu Lun yesterday affected her mood, so she asked Uncle Lin to make the trip for her.

"What did you say?" Zhao Xihua ran to Uncle Lin eagerly.

Uncle Lin's face had changed drastically, and his voice was trembling with tears: "Miss, something bad happened. Ning'an Nursing Home caught fire last night. All the people inside were burned to death. Only a silly woman was left."

Uncle Lin took a breath, but his face was still pale. "Now all the firefighters and police in Yuncheng have been dispatched to deal with the scene. The bodies... the bodies were all burnt beyond recognition... it was too tragic... Miss, I heard that the wind was very strong last night, and the fire... the fire came from the mountain behind..."

Zhao Xihua suddenly felt the blood in her body rushing up and her mind went blank. Suddenly, she pushed away Uncle Lin, who was frightened and incoherent, and ran outside.

"Sister, sister—" Pingshui reacted suddenly and hurriedly chased after her. She grabbed her sister who was like crazy and begged, "Sister, don't worry, do you want to go over? Let Uncle Lin prepare the car, and we will go with you."

Pingshui's words brought Zhao Xihua's thoughts back to reality from her confusion. She now knew very well that the fire was not an accident but man-made. She didn't expect that after so long, almost twenty years, those people still didn't let her master go.

She just wanted to bring her master out so he could spend his old age in peace and tranquility, but some people still didn't want to let her master leave that place.

After Uncle Lin prepared the car, Zhao Xihua and Pingshui got in, and also called a few handymen in the store to go along.

Soon they arrived at the nursing home. The roadside, which was once deserted, was now filled with all kinds of vehicles, including fire trucks, police cars, cars, trucks, and even tricycles.

Most of these people are probably here to identify the bodies. Although most of the people inside are abandoned or have mental problems, the bodies of the dead have to be buried.

There were already many people in the nursing home negotiating with the police and staff, and some were already going through the procedures to claim the bodies of their family members. It was just that with so many people dead, not a single cry of grief was heard from those who had lost their loved ones, which made people feel a little sad.

With the help of Pingshui, Zhao Xihua stumbled to the house where Caiyun lived. The house had been burned into ruins. A pair of black and burnt legs were exposed under a white sheet next to the ruins. Zhao Xihua's eyes suddenly went dark and he almost fell down.

Her legs went limp and she knelt down. She recognized the body in front of her; it was her master's. Her master had an old leg injury and the bones in his feet were slightly turned outward. Even though they were burned beyond recognition, the shape of the bones still retained their original appearance.

Zhao Xihua knelt in front of Caiyun without moving, staring at the charred corpse. His eyes were red and hurt a lot but no tears came out.

"Sister, don't scare me. If you are sad, just cry." Pingshui carefully shook Zhao Xihua, who was kneeling there like a fool, her voice choked with sobs.

Uncle Lin was a man, and he was too embarrassed to pull Zhao Xihua up from the ground. He could only keep persuading her: "Miss, the dead cannot be resurrected, you have to mourn. The problem now is that the body cannot be left like this forever. As the old saying goes, the dead should be buried in peace. We still have to take care of these funeral affairs first. Don't be sad, let's take it slowly, Miss..."

Not long after, an older policeman arrived. This Miss Zhao Si had caused quite a stir in the entire Yuncheng before, and many people knew her.

Although she had been kicked out by the Zhao family, the man still said to Zhao Xihua in a friendly manner: "Miss Zhao Si, please don't stay here. You should go back first. The scene is too chaotic and there are too many things going on today. If you have anything to say, you should come back tomorrow. This corpse..."

"Let's take it back." Before the man finished speaking, Zhao Xihua finally spoke. Pingshui and Uncle Lin also breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhao Xihua looked at the master's body and repeated, "Take the master back. I want to bury the master myself."

The person next to him was a little puzzled. How could the charred man on the ground be Miss Zhao Si's master? Even though he was burned like this, Miss Zhao Si actually wanted to bury him herself. Could it be that she had a problem with her brain? Was she crazy?

But he didn't say anything. He just took Uncle Lin to complete the formalities, and then he and the few people they brought carried Caiyun's body into the car. Zhao Xihua then took everyone back to Huichuntang.

It was already dark when they returned to Huichun Hall. Zhao Xihua had Caiyun's body carried directly into the room that had been prepared for her.

At this moment, she was extremely tired, but she asked everyone to leave and she stayed in the room alone, slowly washing Caiyun's body.

After a sleepless night, the sky in the distance gradually turned white and it would soon be dawn.

Zhao Xihua, already limp all over, sat slumped aside, staring blankly at Caiyun's body wrapped in a silk quilt on the bed. The master who had been holding her hand lovingly before had turned into a pile of bones in the blink of an eye.

She looked at the half fan bone in her hand. It was left to her mother by her father and had been borrowed by the master less than a day ago.

The fan had been burnt, and that half had probably been turned to ashes. The half of the fan bone that remained in the master's hand, which had been burnt black, was tightly held in his palm, and was slowly being pulled out from the burnt hand bones by Zhao Xihua.

She also touched the other bones in the master's body. They were all broken and shattered. She didn't know what kind of pain the master had experienced that night. It was heartbreaking to think about it.

"Miss, everything is ready." Uncle Lin said softly outside the room.

Zhao Xihua slowly stood up and opened the door of the room. Pingshui, who was wearing plain clothes, brought the mourning clothes that had been made overnight to her and helped her put them on.

Zhao Xihua wore heavy mourning clothes for his master, and the coffin was also a very good pearwood coffin that he bought from the coffin shop overnight and had already been placed in the courtyard of Huichun Hall.

The funeral ceremony was simple, but everything was included. Outside, there were curious onlookers everywhere, wondering for whom Miss Zhao Si was handling the funeral?

Although Pingshui secretly gave some money when leaving the nursing home and asked those people to keep it a secret, she didn't know that there is no such thing as a wall without cracks. Many people knew that there was a crazy woman in the nursing home who was Zhao Xi's painting master. It was a very unlucky place.

However, Zhao Xihua was not bothered by the gossip of the people of Yuncheng. The fact that she gave her master such a grand burial won her recognition from some ordinary residents, who thought she was a remarkable woman with integrity and filial piety.