Chapter 256 Old Du Dies

Chapter 256 Old Du Dies

Li Hongguo stared at Du Laoding for a while, then took the bowl and went out.

Old Du sat motionless on the bed, but his expression changed several times. His eyes showed a triumphant joy, but after the joy came tension and fear. At this moment, he was terrified.

"Master, come out for dinner!" Qiaomei called out. "You're still not up? I'll bring the food over, will you eat it on the bed?"

Old Du dared not eat a meal that was out of his sight. He lifted the covers, put on his sheepskin coat, and went out to get rice from the pot himself. When he got to the table, he would see what dishes Du Ming was picking up and pick up the same dishes.

To avoid attracting attention, Li Hongguo pretended not to see what was happening.

After the meal, the suona band arrived. As soon as the suona started playing, Du Ming led his son-in-law and relatives to the cemetery to scout locations and dig graves.

The hired cook brought bowls, plates, tables, and chairs, and the vegetable vendor also delivered vegetables. The women from the village all came over with aprons to help.

Uncle Du was in charge of the funeral arrangements. He walked around the yard with his hands behind his back, instructing who was responsible for washing vegetables, who was responsible for washing dishes, and who was responsible for cooking. He also arranged for several people to stand guard at the ferry crossing at the village entrance, so that they could return and report if any guests arrived.

Li Hongguo came out of the mourning hall and saw Uncle Du leaving. She followed him out and said, "Uncle, I have something to tell you. Could you lend me my eldest cousin? I want him to look after my father-in-law. There are so many people and things going on these days, and I'm worried that if I'm not careful, he might run away."

“I’ve asked your eldest cousin to be in charge of greeting guests at the ferry… That’s fine, I’ll go to the ferry and call him back.” Uncle Du originally planned to have his sons handle the welcoming and seeing off of guests, so he could take the opportunity to build more connections with Du Min. But then he thought that if the guests wanted to talk to Old Ding, the people who were with Old Ding would be more valued.

After a stick of incense had burned, Uncle Du's eldest son and second grandson appeared at the door of the north room. One of them pushed the door open and peeked inside. He saw Old Ding sitting in bed and said with a smile, "Second Uncle, are you cold? Lie down and sleep. If any guests come, I'll wake you up."

Old Du shuddered; he knew he was being kept under surveillance.

"We have guests!" A man rushed in. "Five boats have arrived from the east, loaded with lots of paper effigies and funerary objects. They're clearly heading this way. Has my brother Ming returned? Who will greet them?"

“Du Ming hasn’t returned yet; let his father go greet the guests,” Li Hongguo replied.

“My grandfather can’t speak, so his intervention is useless,” Qiaomei said.

“It’s alright, my second uncle just needs to show up, we’ll take care of greeting the guests,” the eldest cousin said eagerly. “I’ll go get my second uncle dressed right now.”

Old Du was pulled out of bed. Before he could figure out whether to cause trouble, he found himself at the ferry crossing in a daze.

The weather in December was gloomy and cold. The riverbank was damp and the cold was even more intense. Old Du was thin and afraid of the cold. Even after standing by the river for a while wearing a sheepskin coat, he still felt chilly.

The visitors were Meng Chun's brothers-in-law, who had gone to the county town yesterday to buy funeral supplies. They loudly proclaimed to everyone they met that Prefect Du's mother had died, acting as if an emperor had appeared in the village. Upon hearing the news, Wang the cloth merchant's sons immediately began to prepare offerings, buying three boatloads of paper effigies and sacrificial animals. At daybreak today, the visitors arrived in their cargo boat, carrying the offerings and their servants.

One by one, the people guarding the ferry boarded the boat and carried the offerings. Villagers who heard the commotion also rushed over to help.

Before the offerings on the boat were all unloaded, eight more boats carrying paper effigies arrived on the river to the east. It was the magistrate, assistant magistrate, and registrar of Wu County, along with the clerks from the yamen, who came to offer sacrifices.

The eldest cousin hurriedly led Du Laoding and the Wang family back home. The group walked around the courtyard for a while before rushing to the ferry to welcome the people from the yamen.

Just as they led the people from the yamen back, someone else came to report that the monks from Ruiguang Temple had arrived, and the eldest cousin took Du Laoding to greet them.

Following the monks, Dr. Xu and the teachers from the prefectural school arrived by boat.

Dujiawan was bustling with visitors. By afternoon, brightly colored paper offerings and funerary objects were laid out from the Du family courtyard to the ferry crossing at the village entrance. The boats moored at the ferry crossing were like rows of chives in a vegetable field, one after another, neatly lined up for two miles. The grandeur of this funeral far surpassed that of the former father of the wealthy Chen.

Du Laoding was blinded by the lively scene and the flattery of the guests. He forgot that his poisoning of his old wife had been discovered, and he also forgot that he was being watched. Whenever a guest came, he would run out and smile at everyone he met.

The daytime scenery filled him with energy, but by evening, the guests had left, the villagers had dispersed, and the liveliness had faded. Old Du began to feel tired; his legs ached, his throat was sore, and his nose was congested. After eating, he cooked himself a bowl of ginger soup, drank it, and went to bed early.

In the middle of the night, Old Du heard a soft knock on the door. He opened his eyes, but the room was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything. It was also quiet outside; there was no sound of talking or walking, only the sound of scratching at the door. He patted the bed, intending to ask who was outside.

The scratching stopped, then started again a few moments later.

Old Du patted the bed again, but this time the scratching at the door didn't stop. He listened carefully for a while, then sat up, got dressed, and groped his way to open the door in the dark.

The wooden door creaked open, but there was no one outside, and the sound ceased.

There was no moon or stars tonight; as far as the eye could see, everything was pitch black, except for a small patch of dim candlelight outside the mourning hall. Old Du stood outside for a moment before walking toward the mourning hall. His black cloth shoes stepped into the dim candlelight, and a paper figure in some corner suddenly collapsed with a "whoosh." His heart skipped a beat, and cold sweat broke out uncontrollably on his back.

Old Du looked outside but saw no one. However, as his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw the shape of a paper figure hidden in the darkness, with a red face and black eyes. He dared not look any longer and quickly turned to look at the mourning hall. Only then did he realize that the mourning hall was empty, and the ashes in the brazier had stopped burning. Only a row of white candles stood burning in front of the black coffin.

The scratching sound at the door came from somewhere again. Old Du looked around in a panic, his breathing becoming rapid. A gust of cold wind hit him, stirring up the ashes in the brazier. He smelled the strong scent of incense, and it seemed that something was approaching him.

Old Du was terrified and broke out in a cold sweat. He tried to run but found he couldn't move. When he finally managed to move, he took two steps, tripped over a wreath, and fell to the ground, burying him.

Old Du screamed in fright.

The three silent rooms stirred with a creaking wooden door, and Li Hongguo, dressed neatly, emerged from the darkness. "Who is it?"

Shi Xian also came out, wearing a coat, and asked, "What's wrong? Is it the old man?"

“It looks like him.” Li Hongguo brought a white candle out of the mourning hall and saw movement under the fallen wreaths. She said, “Come quickly and help. Your grandfather is trapped under the wreaths.”

Du Ming, Qiao Mei, and Jin Shu's wife Yao Xi also came out. The group moved the wreaths and saw Du Lao Ding lying on the ground, still yelling.

"Did you fall and hurt yourself somewhere?" Shi Xian asked.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" Du Ming asked impatiently, pulling the man up. "What are you yelling for? Did you fall?"

"Did you dream about your mother in the middle of the night? Want to go to the mourning hall to burn some paper money?" Li Hongguo teased sarcastically.

"It seems my grandfather hurt his right leg," Qiaomei said. "Dad, please carry my grandfather inside."

Du Ming pinched Du Laoding's right leg twice, and when he pinched his hip, he heard a scream.

"Did you hurt your hip? Quickly carry you inside," Li Hongguo urged.

Du Ming picked up the old man and touched his wet crotch, which was still warm. He looked disgusted and said, "Did you wet your pants? Did you get up to use the outhouse at night? Isn't there a chamber pot for you in the house? You're always causing us trouble. We're busy all day with that, and now you're making things difficult for us at night."

"I'll go boil some water, you can wash him up," Li Hongguo said.

Upon hearing this, Du Ming became furious again, "I'm so unlucky, I'm the one who caused all this filth."

Li Hongguo was too lazy to talk. She told the three younger relatives to go back to their rooms and sleep. "We'll have guests coming early tomorrow morning, and we'll be busy all day. Go and rest."

"The old man's legs..." Shi Xian hesitated.

"You went to find him a doctor in the middle of the night?" Li Hongguo asked.

Shi Xian remained silent.

"Let's go." Qiaomei pulled Shi Xian away.

Li Hongguo went to the kitchen and found there was still hot water on the stove. She scooped a basin of it and took it to the north room. Then she went to the mourning hall, emptied the ashes from the brazier, and rekindled the fire.

Several screams rang out from the north room, and two pairs of urine-soaked trousers were thrown out. A moment later, a basin of steaming water was poured out, and Du Ming also came out.

The two wooden doors closed, and the moans and groans coming from inside immediately subsided.

An hour later, the rooster crowed, and a bluish-gray light appeared on the horizon.

Li Hongguo carried a white candle into the north room. She stood by the bed and saw that the old man was still shivering under a silk quilt and a sheepskin rug. She reached out and touched him, and sure enough, the old man had a fever.

Li Hongguo sent her son-in-law to fetch a doctor, while the rest of the people continued to busy themselves with the funeral arrangements.

On the third day of the mourning period, there were even more mourners than the day before. The teachers of Chongwen Academy, the teachers who had taught Du Min, wealthy merchants from the county, and people who had moved from Huaizhou... From morning to night, there were always guests coming to pay their respects. The suona players who accompanied the host to greet the guests had their cheeks bleeding from playing the suona.

As evening approached, Shi Xian returned from fetching a doctor from the county, and only then did the village helpers learn that Du Laoding had fallen and injured himself.

Amidst the noisy funeral music, the doctor entered the north room. After examining the patient, he said, "The old man has caught a cold, and the symptoms are quite severe. I will prescribe some medicine for him to drink for a while. If the cold can be cured, then we will treat his hip. The hip bone must have been broken in the fall. When people get old, their bones are hard to heal. He should try to get out of bed as little as possible in the future."

Once an elderly person breaks a bone, death is not far off; everyone present understood the doctor's unspoken meaning.

"What happened? Everything was fine yesterday," the villagers asked.

“Last night, the old man got up without a word to burn paper money for the old lady. He tripped over the wreaths and fell, injuring his right hip,” Li Hongguo explained. “During the day, I saw him all smiles, and I even resented him. The old lady had been with him for decades and had given him a successful son. She didn’t shed a single tear when she died. Who would have thought that he would sneak up in the middle of the night to go to the mourning hall to be with the old lady, and end up like this?”

Yesterday, Old Du was busy greeting guests and grinned a lot, which earned him a lot of curses in secret. Many people were thinking to themselves why he wasn't the one who died. Little did they expect that he would suffer retribution today.

"The old couple still have feelings for each other," the villagers said against their will.

"I guess the old lady couldn't bear to part with him, and the two of them wanted to go together," someone else said.

Old Du was still breathing, but the people of Dujiawan had already sentenced him to death.

"Doctor, please prescribe some good medicine for my father-in-law to keep him alive so that my brother-in-law can see him one last time," Li Hongguo said, feigning grief.

The doctor pondered for a moment and said, "I'll give it a try."

For the next few days, until Du's mother was buried, Du Laoding did not show up again.

The doctor went to Dujiawan every day, trying every possible way to keep Du Laoding alive. He was forced to drink bowl after bowl of medicine. He was getting thinner and thinner every day. He recovered from his cold, but his spirit was completely depleted.

On the day of the 49th day after Du's mother's passing, Prefect Zheng came to Dujiawan and learned of Du Laoding's condition. He sent someone to invite the best doctor in the county. However, Du Laoding was already beyond saving, and the doctor was powerless to help.

Three days later, Du Laoding passed away.

With the presence of Governor Zheng, Du Laoding's funeral was even more grand than that of his mother.

After a seven-day mourning period, Du Laoding was buried on the 28th day of the first lunar month.

On the day of the burial, Meng Chun's brother-in-law sent a letter, which he handed to Li Hongguo.

After reading the letter, Li Hongguo immediately threw it into the fire and burned it. He was truly neither a father nor a son.

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Author's note: See you tomorrow night.