Miao Family Courtyard

28. Before the funeral

Sun Hongming traveled day and night, and after rushing back to Ancheng, it was already three days later.

Walking out of the station and stepping on the familiar land, Sun Hongming felt relieved for a while.He looked around, looking for the young man from the Miao family who came to pick him up, but he couldn't find any familiar faces.

I stood there and waited for a while, thinking that maybe the family was busy, and it was acceptable if no one came to pick me up, so I prepared to go by myself—it’s not that I don’t know the way anyway.

However, after walking a few steps, he suddenly saw a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old, holding a sign with his name in his hand, standing by the side of the road, looking around boredly.

Sun Hongming walked up to him and asked, "Son, are you from the Miao family?"

The young man waited for a long time, thinking that he had missed someone, but now he finally got someone, and replied pleasantly: "That's right! You are the young master of the Sun family, right? Then come back with me, and I will help you carry the suitcase."

Seeing that the boy was not as tall as his shoulders, Sun Hongming couldn't bear to ask him to be a child to help him carry the box, so he said, "It's okay, I will carry it by myself. What's your name, why have I never seen you before?"

The young boy was leading the way, and when he heard the question, he immediately became very depressed, and said in a difficult voice: "The house is busy these days, and my distant relatives are working in the house, so they asked me to help."

Sun Hongming had a bad feeling and asked, "What is the family busy with?"

The young boy lowered his head and said: "Your condolences, the old lady in the house, went in the middle of the night the day before yesterday."

Sun Hongming got into the rickshaw as if he had been struck by a thunderbolt. He was silent all the way. When he got to the gate of Miao's house and saw the two big white lanterns hanging on the door, he really understood what the boy said.

The front door of Miao's house was wide open, but there was silence when people came and went. Occasionally, when people were heard talking, they all spoke with their throats pressed.

Sun Hongming directly handed over his luggage to the young boy who came to pick him up. Before he could find someone to find his uncles and aunts, he bypassed the crowd and went straight to the lobby.

The lobby was set up as a mourning hall, the white curtains made the wind blow erratically, and even a few pieces of paper money were flying in the air. It was obviously the season of warm spring, but it was so cold that people felt chills in their bones.

When Sun Hongming entered the mourning hall, he saw a slender figure kneeling in front of the coffin from a distance, and he recognized at a glance that it was Shaojue.

He was not in a hurry to offer incense to his grandmother, he first knelt down beside Miao Shaojue and kowtowed to the old lady a few times.

After several knocks, Shaojue beside him didn't respond.Sun Hongming looked at Miao Shaojue, and saw that he had a blank face and dull eyes, like a clay figure.

With trembling hands, Sun Hongming caressed Shaojue's side face, and called softly, "Shaojue?"

Shaojue was still kneeling, as if the whole world was shut out by him.