The argument in the mourning hall was still raging.
Weisheng He’s father and Li Boyong stood face-to-face, both flushed with anger. The women’s voices overlapped until it was impossible to make out what anyone was saying.
Weisheng He remained in her mother’s arms, her sobs faint.
The coffin rested silently in the center of the mourning hall while the white funeral banners whipped in the wind, like a silent witness to everything taking place.
At the sound of people approaching, the arguing stopped abruptly.
The moment Li Boyong spotted Lord Zhou, his expression changed. He hurried forward and cupped his hands in greeting.
“Lord Zhou, why have you come back?”
Lord Zhou ignored him. His gaze swept across the mourning hall before settling on Weisheng He, who was kneeling on the floor.
Her entire body trembled from crying. She looked like a candle burning before the dead, flickering in the wind and liable to go out at any moment.
She was a pitiful sight.
With just one look, the returning guests found themselves siding with her.
“What happened?” Lord Zhou asked.
Li Boyong hurried to explain.
“Lord Zhou, it’s nothing serious. The clan was simply discussing what arrangements should be made for Yanming’s wife and her children in the future…”
“Discussing?” Weisheng He’s father gave a cold snort. “You call forcing my daughter to remarry in front of her husband’s spirit tablet a discussion?”
Lord Zhou frowned deeply.
“Forcing a widow to remarry?”
Li Boyong’s face alternated between red and pale.
“Lord Zhou, no one is forcing her. We’re discussing it with her. It isn’t easy for Yanming’s wife to raise four children by herself. The clan only wants to find someone she can depend on…”
“She said she won’t remarry,” Weisheng He’s father interrupted.
“She’s still young. She doesn’t understand…”
“She said she won’t remarry.”
“She simply doesn’t know how difficult widowhood is…”
“She said no!”
Weisheng He’s father was so furious that his brows shot upward.
“She. Will. Not. Remarry!”
Li Boyong opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Lord Zhou had more or less understood the situation.
He did not immediately state his position. Instead, he turned to look at the other guests.
They exchanged glances.
Weisheng He was a woman. She could hardly be expected to take over the Li family’s business, and her children were no older than four, so there was even less chance of them doing so.
In the future, the Li family business would most likely fall into Li Boyong’s hands.
Many of those present had business dealings with the Li family.
For the sake of future relations, they could not afford to embarrass Li Boyong too badly.
Still, what the Li family was doing was undeniably improper.
Li Yanming had not even been buried yet, and his family was already forcing his widow to remarry in front of his spirit tablet. If word spread, it certainly would not reflect well on them.
Someone laughed awkwardly to smooth things over.
“It’s a family matter. As outsiders, it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to interfere.”
“That’s right. Boyong means well.”
“Yanming’s wife is still young. Perhaps she’ll think differently in a few years.”
No matter how they phrased it, the meaning was the same.
They did not want to get involved.
Weisheng He understood.
Her sobbing gradually stopped.
Crying is useless now.
Without enough at stake, no one will stand up for me.
I have to find a way out of this myself.
Weisheng He drew a deep breath and looked up at everyone.
“My lords, please hear me out.”
The mourning hall fell silent.
Weisheng He looked sorrowfully at her late husband’s spirit tablet.
“Yanming and I grew up together. We were childhood sweethearts. When I was little, I was mischievous. Once, I climbed a tree to pick locust blossoms for him and fell, breaking my arm. He was the one who found a physician for me and personally changed my medicine. He was well-behaved even as a child. Whenever he wanted to keep an animal, he could only ask me to catch rabbits for him. We raised them together for years.”
Her voice was soft, as though she were recounting something from the distant past.
“When we grew older, he said he wanted to marry me. He knelt in the ancestral hall for three days and three nights before finally wearing Father down enough to gain his consent. Because he was so sincere, I ignored the fact that he was the eldest young master of the Li family, ignored the enormous difference in status between our families, and ignored all the gossip outside. I agreed to the marriage for one reason alone. He was Yanming.”
Tears streamed down her face again, but she did not wipe them away.
“After we married, he treated me so well that sometimes I would wake in the middle of the night, see him sleeping beside me, and wonder if I was dreaming.”
“When I learned he was gone, I felt completely hollow inside.”
Her voice began to tremble.
He’s gone. What meaning is there in staying alive?
We promised we would spend our whole lives together. Wherever he is, that’s where I should be.
If he lost his life, then I should simply follow him.
She looked toward her eldest son and daughter, whom their wet nurses had brought into the mourning hall.
The boy-girl twins were only four years old. Each was held by a wet nurse, staring anxiously at the adults without understanding what was happening.
“But I can’t,” Weisheng He said, her voice suddenly firm. “I have four children. The older two are only four, and the younger two aren’t even a month old.”
Sympathy appeared on the guests’ faces.
“What am I supposed to do? If I die, what happens to my four children? Who in the Li family will raise them? Who will truly raise them?”
She glanced at Li Boyong.
“The clan head can force me to remarry in the mourning hall today. Tomorrow, he could send my children away to some country estate. The day after that, he could divide every last bit of the property Yanming left behind. And when that happens, what will my children eat? What will they wear? Will they even survive?”
Li Boyong’s face turned livid.
“Stop talking nonsense! Yanming’s children bear the Li surname. Naturally, the Li family will look after them. How could they possibly be left to die?”
Weisheng He ignored him.
“So I won’t die,” she said. “I have to raise my children to adulthood. Until then, no one is going to force me to remarry.”
With Shanhu’s help, she rose to her feet.
“If the Li family insists on forcing me to remarry,” Weisheng He said with sudden calm, “then I’ll take all four of my children and smash our heads against the stones here in front of Yanming’s spirit tablet.”
“Our entire family will go to the Yellow Springs together.”
“When I see Yanming again, I’ll be able to tell him something.”
A smile appeared at the corner of her lips, but her voice was chilling.
“I didn’t leave a single one of our children behind. I brought them all to you.”
The mourning hall went deathly silent.
Everyone felt as though they had been thrown straight from the scorching heat of midsummer into the bitterest depths of winter. The hair on their bodies stood on end.
“Waaah!”
A child’s sudden wail shattered the frozen atmosphere.
Everyone turned toward the sound.
It was Weisheng He’s eldest son.
The four-year-old had no idea what the adults were talking about, but the oppressive atmosphere in the mourning hall and the expression on his mother’s face had frightened him.
Crying, he reached both arms toward Weisheng He.
“Mother! Hold me! Hold me!”
When his twin sister saw him crying, she burst into tears as well.
“Father! Mother!”
The children’s shrill cries echoed through the mourning hall and struck straight at the hearts of everyone present.
Some of the guests could no longer hide their pity. The looks they directed toward the Li family now carried unmistakable blame and dissatisfaction.
Weisheng He crouched down and gathered both children into her arms.
“Wait just a little longer. Mother will take you to find Father soon. We’ll bring your little sisters with us too. Then our whole family can travel the road to the Yellow Springs together. None of us will be lonely.”
The Li family could no longer maintain their expressions.
Lord Zhou’s face hardened.
“Li Boyong, husband and wife were deeply devoted to one another. She is willing to observe mourning for her husband, so why must you force her? And discussing remarriage here in the mourning hall of all places? What will people say when word gets out?”
One of the Li family’s longtime friends spoke up as well.
“Remarrying during the mourning period would damage the Li family’s reputation too. And even putting that aside, aren’t you afraid that when their spirits return on the seventh night, your brother and nephew might come looking for you in your dreams?”
Li Boyong’s expression grew even uglier.
He opened his mouth to argue, but after looking around, he realized that aside from the members of the Li clan, everyone present was staring at him with open disapproval.
He had no choice but to swallow the words on the tip of his tongue.