#16: Cremation

The next day, Wu Ruian first went to the Ministry of Justice, spending the morning reviewing and organizing the case files he hadn’t finished.

After lunch, he went back to Kangping Ward. Di Jiang had said last night that she would be providing medical care in the ward for three days, and Wu Ruian wanted to see if there was any way he could help.

Just as Wu Ruian was about to arrive at Kangping Ward, he saw a plume of black smoke in the sky and smelled a nauseating burnt odor in the air.

The closer he got to the ward, the more prominent the smell became.

Wu Ruian grew worried and quickened his pace. He found the normally bustling Kangping Ward eerily deserted. Along the way, he encountered no more than ten people. Before he could even ask a question, they scurried past him with their hands in their sleeves, saying as they went, “Let’s go. We can’t afford to offend these people.”

Wu Ruian’s confusion deepened. He walked into the center of the ward and saw something being burned in a courtyard where nightsoil buckets were piled up against a wall.

The fire wasn’t large, but the black smoke was thick, and the sickening smell of burning flesh hung heavily in the air.

“Ya’er! Ya’er!” Old Man Xu’s heart-wrenching cries came from the courtyard.

Wu Ruian grew even more anxious and rushed to the front gate. He saw Di Jiang and Wen Yao standing in the courtyard with grim faces.

In the fire in front of them was a charred body, its features unrecognizable and the stench unbearable.

Two servants and four men dressed as guards stood by the fire, preventing anyone from approaching. Three or four neighbors were watching from outside the gate, pointing fingers but not daring to step forward.

“Why are you doing this? Why won’t you even let her go after she’s dead? Why! What did she do to make you do this to her!” Old Man Xu cried hysterically. If Di Jiang and Wen Yao hadn’t held him back, he would have likely charged into the fire to join Xu Ya.

“You should blame your granddaughter for offending my young master even after she died!” The lead servant laughed as he said, “I’m telling you, digging up her body and burning it today is just a warning! If you dare to cause any more trouble, next time I’ll burn your house down! Let’s go!” The servant finished with a laugh, turned around, and saw a person striding toward him.

Wu Ruian raised his hand and threw a punch, knocking the servant to the ground, where he lay for a long time, unable to get up.

“Who are you? Don’t you want to live...” The servant’s next words got stuck in his throat when he recognized Wu Ruian’s face.

His eyes widened in terror, and he held his head, afraid that Wu Ruian would beat him like he beat Gongsun Qi.

But Wu Ruian didn’t waste time on the servant. In the next moment, he rushed into the Xu family’s courtyard, grabbed clothes from a nearby drying rack, and began to beat the flames on Xu Ya’s body.

Seeing that Wu Ruian was too busy to deal with him, the servant and his men scrambled to their feet and ran away.

As soon as they left, neighbors immediately brought basins of water from their homes to help Wu Ruian extinguish the fire.

But Xu Ya’s body had been doused with tung oil, and the fire was fierce. Even with everyone’s help, it was too late to save her. By the time they finally put out the fire, only a pile of bone fragments remained on the ground.

“Oh... poor girl...”

“What a terrible sin...”

The neighbors shook their heads and sighed. Most of them couldn’t bear to watch and left.

Wu Ruian held the clothes, slumped on the ground with a blank expression. Di Jiang stood with her hands clasped in front of her, looking at Xu Ya’s body, also unable to speak for a long time.

Old Man Xu had cried himself hoarse and fainted. Wen Yao was holding him up, her face flushed with anger.

Some things, unless you experience them firsthand, you don’t know that such despair exists in this world.

Although none of them had met the living Xu Ya, after what they had just witnessed, their hearts, along with Old Man Xu’s cries and Xu Ya’s body, were chopped into pieces and burned to ashes.

The joys, sorrows, and emotions of the people at the very bottom of society, living in slums, seemed so insignificant that they could be trampled upon at will.

Yet they were also flesh and blood, just like the people at the top, with passions and emotions. The wanton exploitation by those in power and the exclusion by others forced them to suppress their feelings and even lower their dignity to the dust. Sometimes, a little kindness from others could make flowers bloom in their dusty lives.

But their pain was something that others could never truly feel.

That night, Di Jiang, Wu Ruian, and Wen Yao took Old Man Xu and Xu Ya’s ashes to the Chuyun Nunnery.

Di Jiang had always been good friends with Nun Liuyun of Chuyun Nunnery. Although they hadn’t seen each other in years, as soon as Di Jiang mentioned what happened to the Xu family, Liuyun immediately offered to have Xu Ya’s ashes enshrined in the pagoda for a memorial service.

There were dozens of pagodas of all sizes on the back hill of Chuyun Nunnery. They enshrined the relics, scriptures, or ritual objects of esteemed monks from years past.

Old Man Xu, holding the urn with Xu Ya’s ashes, placed it in a newly built pagoda. It was a pagoda that Nun Liuyun had originally intended for herself.

Old Man Xu knelt on the ground, crying incessantly.

“All forms are illusory. While alive, with a mortal body, one repays karma and cultivates merit. After death, the useless shell, the body and skin, are burned to ash and returned to the heavens. The true spiritual nature, without decay, fills the void and pervades all realms. There is no coming, no going; no birth, no death,” Di Jiang chanted softly on the side, while burning the scriptures she had copied by hand.

The flames from the burning scriptures lit up the surroundings. As the bits of ash fluttered in the southern wind, the disturbed hearts of those present seemed to find peace with the sound of the chants.

But even though their hearts were calm at that moment, the hatred and anger had not dissipated.

“I will make Gongsun Qi pay the price!” Wu Ruian clenched his fists, his chest filled with frustration. He punched a nearby tree, causing a large number of leaves to fall.

Seeing this, Old Man Xu immediately frowned and said, “Young master, you must not provoke them! They are not to be trifled with. We can’t afford to offend them!”

Wiping away a tear, Old Man Xu continued, “Gongsun Qi’s father is the Grand Chancellor. Even if he doesn’t have absolute power, he is second only to the Empress. What... what do we have to fight them with? Ya’er, even in the afterlife, would not want you to risk your lives for her! Listen to my advice: just pretend this never happened!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of him. As long as I’m here, I will be at odds with Gongsun Qi!” Wu Ruian’s face was solemn, his eyes filled with determination and anger.

“No, you mustn’t!” Old Man Xu said excitedly. “I used to always advise Ya’er that to live, one must learn to be mediocre and get through each day peacefully... that’s the only way to live a calm, uneventful life. Nothing is more important than safety! But she wouldn’t listen. And now what? She died and didn’t even leave a whole body.”

“So, we should just let them continue to be lawless? I only know that if we don’t stop him, there will be more ‘Ya’ers’ in the future, and their fates will be even more tragic than Ya’er’s!”

Old Man Xu choked, shook his head, and said, “I don’t want to see you risk yourselves for me. You are still young, and I don’t want you to just disappear one day...”

Old Man Xu then looked at Di Jiang and Wen Yao. “I beg you, don’t provoke them. If we can’t fight them, we can at least hide from them, right?”

Di Jiang’s eyes were red, and she said hoarsely, “Old Man Xu, please don’t worry. We know what to do.”

Old Man Xu nodded in approval and looked back at Wu Ruian. “Young master, you should also let this matter go!”

Wu Ruian sneered. “If I didn’t know about this, I might never have become enemies with Gongsun Qi. But now that I do, I won’t let him have an easy life!”

“Oh! Young master! You...” Old Man Xu’s face showed his heartache. He stood up excitedly, but stumbled and almost fell to the ground again. His frail, old body couldn’t withstand repeated shocks and turmoil, and his health had long been depleted.

Fortunately, Wen Yao was quick and held him up.

“Old Man Xu, you should go back and rest first. We’ll talk about future matters later,” Di Jiang advised.

It was getting late. Old Man Xu nodded, and then the group said their goodbyes to Nun Liuyun and left the Chuyun Nunnery.

On the way back to the city, Old Man Xu continued to tirelessly preach his philosophy of “letting sleeping dogs lie” to Wu Ruian and Di Jiang, but Wu Ruian wasn’t listening.

Old Man Xu didn’t know Wu Ruian’s identity, and Wu Ruian didn’t want to tell him. First, he had indeed been friends with Gongsun Qi in the past, and he didn’t want him to overthink it. Second, he wanted Old Man Xu not to worry about him, just as he didn’t really want to tell Di Jiang that Gongsun Qi had been acquitted.

It was much better to bear some heavy burdens alone than to make the people around him worry with him. Much better.