Perhaps due to the fact that Duan Hengye was in the state of a soul, he didn’t sleep for the whole night, but he didn’t feel tired at all. After placing his cell phone on the table again, Duan Hengye sat on the sofa and started to stare. Just at this time, the sunlight outside the window filtered in little by little.
The staff of the Duan family had all been put on vacation for the past few days, and when morning came, there was still no one to clean up the coffee cups on the table, nor was there anyone to go upstairs and pull open the curtains according to the usual practice. Nevertheless, last night, before Duan Hengye’s father left, he left a small gap in the curtains. In the morning, a large piece of sunlight poured in from outside.
Duan Hengye saw that a beam of sunlight reached the coffee table in front of him. Although it was still a few dozen centimeters away from his legs, after seeing the beam of light and thinking about his current identity as a “wandering soul”, Duan Hengye couldn’t help but feel nervous. He stood up from the sofa, and then once again walked downstairs. Sometimes, not feeling sleepy was a very torturous thing. Right now, it was unusually quiet inside the Duan Family mansion, and Duan Hengye thought that it wasn’t a good idea for him to stay at home in this state all the time. He needed to go downstairs and get some clues from other people in the house or elsewhere.
Last night, Duan Hengye’s father had left in a hurry, but his cousins had remained at home. Apparently, they hadn’t slept well that night either, now at the crack of dawn, Duan Hengye saw his cousins appearing one after another in the hall wearing black formal wear. From the looks of it, they were preparing to go out.
Intuition told Duan Hengye that this trip might be related to him. Finally, after a while, some people pushed open the Duan family’s door and walked out. Seeing the sunlight outside that had gradually become blinding, Duan Hengye hesitated for a moment, then clenched his fists tightly and followed behind them as they walked out.
As he went out, Duan Hengye subconsciously closed his eyes and held his breath, and immediately after, his thin eyelids felt the light of the outside world, and after realizing that he had already walked out the door, Duan Hengye finally slowly opened his eyes. The expected terrible things didn’t happen, he smoothly and safely stood under the sun.
It was the beginning of summer in China, and the sunlight had gradually gotten stronger. Although it was still early in the morning, after going out, Duan Hengye immediately felt a dry and hot air coming towards him from all directions. Duan Hengye glanced at the cloudless sky, then quickly followed his cousin who was getting into the car.
It was a black business car, and because it had been parked here waiting for someone, the doors were wide open. After noticing, Duan Hengye hurriedly walked up before the door closed, and then the chill from the air conditioning wrapped him tightly in it. Although the business car was large, it obviously didn’t need to be filled. After a while, two more people came up one after another, and then the black door closed.
The business car started, and no one spoke for a long time. Duan Hengye sat alone in the last row, and his line of sight couldn’t help but move towards the window. The location of the Duan Family mansion was relatively remote, and there were only a few fixed roads to the neighboring city. Although Duan Hengye had been living out in recent years, he obviously wouldn’t forget these roads.
After driving for a while, Duan Hengye realized that this wasn’t the way to the city… On the contrary, the car was getting more and more off center.
Where in the world were they going? There was still no one speaking in the car, and as the scenery outside the window continued to change, Duan Hengye’s doubts grew stronger in his heart.
After half an hour, the car had already driven into the mountains. It was also at this time that Duan Hengye finally saw several familiar cars appear in front of him again.
The owner of the white sedan on the road not far away was none other than Duan Hengye’s mother!
Even though he only saw the back of a car from afar, after recognizing it, Duan Hengye’s emotions instantly flared up. He heard his breathing start to shake involuntarily, and he was obviously very agitated. It was at this time that Duan Hengye saw his statue-like cousin sitting in the front row suddenly turn around and look towards where he was, then turn back with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong?” The person next to him asked.
Only to see the man who just turned around gently shake his head, and after a long while, he slowly said, “…… Nothing, it’s just that my heart is suddenly strange, I feel that there is someone behind me.”
At this time this black business car had driven into the mountains, on both sides were thick green trees, almost all the light on the road were covered. Duan Hengye noticed that in such a patch of darkness, hearing these words, the person driving in front couldn’t help but tremble slightly.
Obviously …… they thought of him.
For the matter of accidentally scaring people, Duan Hengye felt powerless. Only to see that after the conversation ended, the person who had just turned around finally realized that the words were out of place. He laughed dryly and continued, “It’s nothing really, it’s just because the car is too big, so I was just thinking blindly.”
“Okay, we’ll be arriving at our destination soon, organize your thoughts, don’t think nonsense.” The other person also hurriedly changed the topic away. However, after hearing them say ‘arriving at our destination’, Duan Hengye’s spirit finally came to life. Although he still didn’t know exactly where this car was going, the fact that they were about to arrive at the destination still gave Duan Hengye a little bit of hope.
As expected, Duan Hengye saw that his mother’s sedan in front of him gradually slowed down, and then the car turned into a fork in the road. However, in a moment, the black commercial car where Duan Hengye was also followed along and turned in. The trees on both sides of the road grew taller and taller, and almost no light could leak in. After a few minutes, the car finally stopped, the people sitting in the front row went down one after another, and Duan Hengye also jumped down from the car before the door closed.
The door of the white sedan in front opened, and a tall woman dressed in black walked out from inside. This was Duan Hengye’s mother … As the wife of the leader of an ancient martial arts family, as well as the chairman of a famous enterprise in China, Duan Hengye’s mother had always appeared in front of the world with the image of a strong woman.
Even in Duan Hengye’s memories, his mother was extremely elegant and in pursuit of perfection, the woman’s clothes were carefully matched every day, and the makeup on her face was always so exquisite. But today, this woman dressed in black looked extraordinarily haggard, and for the first time, Duan Hengye saw a hint of age on the face of the well-maintained woman.
Immediately following Duan Hengye’s mother, his other several older siblings also walked over, without exception, all of these people were dressed in black formal attire. Even his father who appeared last and hadn’t been seen for a night was like that…
After seeing their clothing, Duan Hengye couldn’t help but cast his eyes toward the distance. After discovering the black stone monument in front of him, Duan Hengye finally knew where this was.
Today was Duan Hengye’s funeral.
Duan Hengye suddenly felt that the current scene was a bit ridiculous – he was attending his own funeral? He always saw it as cheesy and got annoyed when he saw it in TV dramas as well as novels, but now, this thing was actually happening to him.
Although the Duan family was considered to be one of the more open-minded ancient martial arts families in China, there were still many rules that had been passed down. For example, a descendant like Duan Hengye who died in a fight in another family wasn’t qualified to enter the Duan Family’s ancestral tomb. Just as the family members gathered to talk, Duan Hengye slowly walked over towards that black, cold stone monument. He squatted down, then reached out his hand and gently pressed it against the stone monument.
Influenced by last night’s novel, before seeing the stone monument, Duan Hengye’s mood was complicated and confused. But after seeing it, Duan Hengye calmed down in an instant. He understood – no matter what was going on with that book, at least this life on Earth was really over.
Not long after Duan Hengye squatted down, his mother slowly walked over. As the wife of the leader of the Duan family, his mother was also an ancient martial arts expert, in normal times, if she walked towards Duan Hengye, not only would she not let him feel her breath, even the high heels on the soles of her feet wouldn’t make a sound. But now, Duan Hengye clearly heard his mother’s footsteps.
He watched as the woman dressed in black slowly squatted down, and then placed a bouquet of white flowers that Duan Hengye didn’t recognize in front of the stone monument. “I’m sorry, mom is late.”
The woman said softly as she reached out her hand towards the stone monument. She suppressed her voice to a low level, but Duan Hengye, who was squatting right across from her, could hear it clearly.
“You …… blame mom, right?” The woman sniffled and said while sighing.
At this moment, Duan Hengye’s tears had begun to pour out uncontrollably. He shook his head while saying to the woman, “No …… I don’t blame you.” But unfortunately, the current Duan Hengye was still in a soul state, and none of the words he said could be heard. It was now noon, and because of this black stone monument as well as the existence of the small mound, there were no trees covering their heads.
Large swathes of sunlight fell from the air recklessly, and even without looking up, one could feel its poisonous and piercing glare. Duan Hengye slowly hugged his knees and sat on the ground, he didn’t know what he had returned to Earth for, he only knew that this experience was really like a nightmare or a punishment for him.
Behind Duan Hengye was still a cold stone tablet, surrounded by the gradually warming air. At this moment, Duan Hengye felt despair from the bottom of his heart. However, just when he was most confused, a voice suddenly came to his ear—
“Professor Duan? Professor Duan? Can you hear me?”
Someone was calling him! Duan Hengye stood up from the ground, then involuntarily looked around. But where his gaze reached, everything was still so calm, the ceremony was being held, and no one dared to yell here. So… who exactly was calling him?
Seemingly sensing the doubts in Duan Hengye’s heart, something else finally came from over there.
“Can you hear me? I’m Wen Xunyin.”
Wen Xunyin? Duan Hengye searched carefully in his mind. If he remembered correctly, Wen Xunyin seemed to be the director of the Ye Tian Empire’s Spiritual Energy Research Institute!
Thanks for new chapter !