Shaojun riding the sea

"Open the coffin!"

As the sound echoed through the sky, the two young men in the grave gritted their teeth and pushed hard. The heavy coffin lid finally came loose and moved away, revealing the "true content" inside the coffin.

Yue Wujiu and Zhonglisheng were naturally the first to see. They looked down, but at the same time they were stunned beside the coffin.

"How, how?"

Zhong Lisheng took in a breath of disbelief, and Shi Xuanling suddenly felt bad and turned around instantly. When she saw the situation in the coffin clearly, her whole body felt like a thunderbolt, and she completely froze in place——

The black and simple coffin was actually empty, and her mother's bones were missing, not in this coffin at all!
Not only was Shi Xuanling so shocked, but the eldest lady who had been noisy before also fell silent instantly. She stared at the empty coffin in the grave with her eyes, her face filled with disbelief, as if she had seen a ghost. , murmuring uncontrollably:

"No, it's impossible. How could it be an empty coffin?"

Shi Xuanqin also covered the injured half of her face with an embroidered handkerchief, looking at the empty coffin in shock. The maids beside her also showed the same expression as hers, and the guards who had been guarding this cemetery for many years They were so shocked that they opened their mouths wide and couldn't believe their eyes.

After so many years of co-writing, this so-called Ying Niang’s tomb turned out to be an empty tomb that was hidden from everyone, and the remains of the deceased were not buried here at all? !
"Auntie, Auntie..."

Shi Xuanling suddenly called out twice absently to the empty coffin. The hand she was holding on to the Splashing Star Bow was trembling slightly. Her brown pupils were wrapped in a cloud of water mist. Her steps were futile, as if even her soul had been sucked out. Get out.

Yue Wujiu, who was standing in the grave, saw that something was wrong with her, his heart twitched, he quickly jumped to her side, stretched his arms around her thin shoulders, and comforted her repeatedly:

"Xuan Ling, calm down. Don't be impatient or panic. Let's find out the matter first. We will definitely find your mother's body. Don't..."

"Where's my grandma?!"

However, Shi Xuanling suddenly broke away from Yue Wujiu and let out a long and shrill scream. Her eyes were blood red and she asked in a hissing voice again towards the empty tomb: "Where is my mother-in-law?"

Naturally, no one would answer her in the freezing cold world. She suddenly turned around and looked at Shi Zhongqing, who was wearing an official robe in the wind. His face was ashen at this moment, and his eyes were staring straight at the inscription on the tombstone. I don’t know what I’m thinking about the four big characters “Ying Niang’s Tomb”.

"Shi Zhongqing, let me ask you, where are my mother-in-law's bones?"

Shi Xuanling's hoarse question made Shi Zhongqing tremble and he suddenly came back to his senses, but there was no answer written in his eyes. He just looked at Shi Xuanling from a distance, his lips moved, and he couldn't say a word. Coming out, it was as if he suddenly became mute at this moment.

"No wonder, no wonder you have been sitting idly by and letting others trample on my grandma's grave..." Shi Xuanling looked directly at Shi Zhongqing with burning eyes, disappointed and resentful. Countless emotions were mixed together, making her every The words all have a vibrato:

"It turns out that this place is just an empty tomb that hides everything. There is nothing. You are all acting from the beginning to the end. Return my mother-in-law to me. Where did you take my mother-in-law's bones? Please tell me quickly. ah……"

Facing a series of cross-examinations, Shi Zhongqing still stood there without saying a word, but his face became paler. However, Shi Xuanling's chest jumped at this moment, and she suddenly remembered something as if she was blessed. She blurted out:
"It was in the lake. You crushed my mother's bones and scattered her ashes into the lake, right?"

She remembered, she finally remembered. At this moment, a vague and distant memory suddenly appeared in her mind. She stood in front of this empty grave and finally remembered it!

When her mother-in-law passed away, the Shi family built a simple mourning hall for her. When she was keeping vigil for her mother-in-law, she fell asleep beside the coffin. In the middle of the night, she was drowsy and heard someone talking in her ear. Coincidentally, the two people talking to each other were the eldest lady and the former housekeeper of Shi Mansion!
Of course, they did not come to worship her grandma with good intentions. On the contrary, in her blur of consciousness, she only heard the eldest lady sneer: "How can such a lowly mountain witch deserve to be buried in the Shi family cemetery? It has simply polluted the resting place of the ancestors. , even if you die, you won’t be able to live in peace, it’s really unlucky!”

"What Madam said is absolutely true. It's a pity that the servants couldn't persuade the master. He was determined to carry this... into the Shi family cemetery. Even if the woman had no name or status, he insisted on doing so and burying her. The date has been set, and there is nothing we can do if we don't follow the rules." "I don't know what kind of ecstasy this witch gave me. She was born a despicable child. She still wants to be buried in the Shi family cemetery. It's better to burn it. Clean it up, throw the ashes into the lake, and make this bitch disappear completely from this world without a trace..."

She was only nine years old that year, and she was confused about many things. She left her hometown and entered the imperial city for the first time. She was living in the Shi Mansion and was helpless. Even if she heard that the eldest lady was plotting with the housekeeper, she could not tell anyone. , can only keep guarding her mother-in-law’s coffin until——

She watched with her own eyes as the coffin with her mother's body lying on it was smoothly carried into the Shi family cemetery on the day of burial. She even kept it in mind before entering the cemetery, and used the opportunity to kneel down and kowtow to her mother for the last time. When she got the chance, she proposed to take another look at her mother's remains and put the green sandalwood comb she used to use during her lifetime into the coffin for burial.

At that time, the burial ceremony was about to begin, but Shi Zhongqing looked at her eagerly and agreed to her request. So she got her wish and saw her mother lying quietly in the coffin, and finally used the green sandalwood comb to comb her hair. He bowed his head once and said his final farewell to her with tears in his eyes.

While she was grieving, she was also glad that the eldest lady was just talking about it. Her mother-in-law's body was not destroyed, and her heart that had always been hanging on her was finally relieved.

But she was not qualified to enter the Shi family cemetery, so she could only stay outside the cemetery, waiting quietly for all the burial ceremonies to be over, and everyone finally slowly came out of the cemetery.

Shi Zhongqing walked up to her, just touched her head and said softly: "Your mother has been buried. Don't worry, it's very quiet here and no one will disturb her."

She nodded, tears falling uncontrollably, but she was completely relieved in her heart. Her mother-in-law finally had a place to rest in her grave, and would not be reduced to ashes and become a lonely ghost. .

Later, every year during the Qingming Festival, she was not eligible to enter the Shi family cemetery to worship her grandma. Only on her grandma's memorial day could she follow her father to a lake outside the city, cut off a strand of hair and float it into the lake. , to pay homage to her grandma.

In the Qingli Mountains, if a Die clan member dies, they will indeed perform a special water burial ceremony, and her father has always said the same thing. It seems to be respecting the customs of their clan and making up for her inability to enter the Shi family. Unfortunately for the cemetery, he kept asking her to worship her mother-in-law by the lake. He also said that the flowing water would take her thoughts away, and her mother-in-law would definitely receive her thoughts.

At that time, she did not doubt her father's explanation or intention at all. She just followed him out of the city to the lakeside year after year, silently worshiping her mother-in-law, and burying her strong longing for her in her heart.

But now she looked at this empty tomb and the bones that were missing for no reason in the coffin, and recalled the secret words between the eldest lady and the housekeeper in the mourning hall, and her annual trip to the lake with her father. While worshiping my mother, all these things are connected together, and the truth seems to be revealed——

Her mother-in-law's bones had been destroyed long ago. Back then, the eldest lady didn't just talk about it. She actually colluded with the housekeeper to crush her mother-in-law's bones and scatter them into the lake, calling her her mother-in-law's bones. No existence, disappear completely in this world, leaving no trace!
Obviously, Shi Zhongqing failed to save the remains of his mother-in-law. He may have discovered the eldest lady's behavior after the fact, but he could not undo it, so he had to cover up for the eldest lady, and because he felt guilty, he took her with him every year. He went out of the city to pay homage to her grandma by the lake, not because of the butterfly tribe's custom of water burial, but because her grandma's ashes were crushed into the lake early in the morning!

There is an empty tomb in the Shi family cemetery from beginning to end. Of course no one will pay attention to it. It doesn't matter if it is overgrown with weeds. There is no need for incense and candle offerings in front of the tomb. It is a trivial matter if the tombstone is cracked. There will be no one there every Qingming Festival. Come to pay homage. Anyway, the person who was supposed to be buried in the grave has long since disappeared. Isn’t any care necessary?
Zhong Lisheng even guessed wrong and underestimated the dangers of the human heart. It turned out that the Shi family not only despised, trampled on her mother, and refused to leave any dignity and dignity to the deceased, but they never thought about it from the beginning. Let her mother sleep here peacefully, but they actually directly destroyed her body, crushed her bones and spread her ashes, leaving her with no bones left, and she became a lonely ghost in the lake!
"I understand, I understand everything. It turned out that she was in the lake and she was not buried in peace at all. It was all a lie. They lied to me year after year..."

Shi Xuanling stood in the wind with her face as white as paper. After figuring out all the causes and consequences, she felt cold all over her body, and her hands were shaking so much that she almost couldn't hold the Star Splashing Divine Bow.

Shi Zhongqing saw that something was wrong with her expression, and heard the words she muttered in her mouth, as well as the sudden question from before. His heart beat suddenly, and he subconsciously said: "Xuan Ling, what are you talking about?" , No, everything is not what you think..."

"Shi Zhongqing, how long will you continue to cover up your wife?"

Shi Xuanling suddenly let out a sharp shout, murderous intent emerged in her brown eyes, her robes fluttered, and she suddenly looked at the eldest lady beside Shi Zhongqing——

"Stop pretending, it was you who did it, right?"

The eldest lady's face was full of astonishment. Before she could open her mouth to speak, she was startled by Shi Xuanling's ghost-like face, shrouded in strong murderous intent. She had never felt such a strong sense of oppression in her life.

"It was you, it was you who destroyed my grandma's body, crushed her bones and threw her ashes into the lake, leaving her with no bones left and a lonely ghost in this world. It was all because of your collusion with that person from back then. Butler Qi did it, right?!"