Chapter 387: Extra (11)

They said she had half a year left, but a few months later, Grandma Li passed away on the Lantern Festival of the following year. That day, all the Li family’s children and grandchildren returned from afar. Everyone gathered by her bedside, watching as she passed away peacefully with a smile, free of any regrets.

After consulting with both of the Uncle Lis, Grandma Li’s funeral was made an exceptionally grand affair. Passing away at the age of one hundred is considered a celebratory occasion, so the devoted children and grandchildren held a three-day wake. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were interred in the ancestral tomb, laid to rest with Grandpa Li, who had passed away many years ago.

In the aftermath of the funeral, Uncle Li and Aunt Li from the family’s first branch, along with the third branch’s Uncle Li and his wife, fell ill one after another. This put Li Xiu on edge for a long time. He and Zhou Lian stayed by their side until they all fully recovered, then escorted the four elders back to the Capital City.

Upon arriving in the Capital City, Uncle Li and his wife from the third branch moved in directly with Li Bao. Meanwhile, Li Bo was still working in local government. Both Li Cui and Li Yuan wanted to have Uncle Li and Aunt Li come live with them, but in the end, Uncle Li decided they would stay at Li Xiu’s house for a while. He planned for them to go find Li Bo later; the old couple was set on living with their son.

Li Xiu saw his two cousins were both angry and embarrassed, and he spent a long time trying to comfort them. ‘My uncle has always favored sons over daughters,’ he thought. ‘He’s not going to change that habit now that he’s old. Besides, it’s probably for the best that he isn’t going to live with his daughters. Li Cui and Li Yuan are married and busy with work, and given Uncle Li’s temper, it’s really better that they don’t live together.’

Li Xiu’s home had a large estate, so he let Uncle Li and Aunt Li choose a small, private courtyard for themselves. He had Sister Fang assign a good-tempered domestic helper to their courtyard to look after them. Whenever Li Xiu was free, he spent time with them, and with other cousins visiting from time to time, Uncle Li and Aunt Li were quite content with their arrangement.

But just as everything was settled after their return to the Capital City, Li Xiu fell ill. It began with a sudden fever that soon became a high fever that refused to break. He was in the hospital for more than half a month before his condition finally stabilized. Throughout this period, everyone was beside themselves with panic, yet Zhou Lian—the one they expected to be the most overwhelmed—was the calmest of them all.

She calmly reassured the six elders in the family one by one, then made the panicking crowd return to their posts—those who had work went back to work, and those who had school went back to school. As for Zhou Lian, she immediately resigned from her teaching position and stayed at the hospital by herself to watch over Li Xiu.

Even Li Xianglin and Li Xiangrui were shooed back to school by Zhou Lian, who grumbled that they weren’t any help at the hospital and were just getting in the way. Zhou Lian took care of Li Xiu without relying on anyone else, personally seeing to his every need. By the time his condition stabilized after half a month, she had lost more than ten pounds.

Li Xiu’s heart ached watching Zhou Lian bustle around, but he understood her devotion and accepted her care with a clear conscience. After he recovered and left the hospital, Li Xiu found an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor to take Zhou Lian’s pulse and made her stick to a diet of medicinal soups for three months until he was satisfied. After this incident, Li Xiu had eyes only for Zhou Lian, his heart completely and utterly devoted to her.

This series of events forced Li Xianglin and Li Xiangrui to grow up quickly. Meanwhile, Li Xiu, as a father, proved to be a bit irresponsible. Half a year after recovering, seeing that his daughter and son could take care of themselves and that both his parents-in-law and his adoptive parents were in good health, he took Zhou Lian traveling. Their first trip lasted for more than a month.

The trips gradually grew longer—two months, three months, even half a year. Delighted to see that everyone had grown accustomed to it, Li Xiu then took Zhou Lian to Yunnan. This time, he planned for them to explore the entire province. Due to Li Xiu’s sensitive position, he brought bodyguards for safety, including two female guards assigned specifically to protect Zhou Lian. The group drove south, a journey that itself took nearly half a month.

Yunnan possessed a long, storied history and splendid natural scenery. When Li Xiu and Zhou Lian arrived, it was late spring in the third lunar month. The grass was green and warblers were in flight. From the ancient paths and their roadside pavilions to the village fields of Luoping Pass, everything the eye could see was a brilliant sea of gold.

In Dali, the peak of Cang Mountain was still capped with unmelted snow while a hundred flowers bloomed at its base. The sunlight in the old town was dazzling, and a warm breeze swept over Erhai Lake. Li Xiu and Zhou Lian wandered the shores by Cang Mountain and Erhai Lake, forgetting all the cares of the mortal world. Back then, the area had not yet been overdeveloped. The snowy landscape of Cang Mountain, captured by the verse “Shaded cliffs still wear ancient snow; white stones have marked three thousand autumns,” left Zhou Lian utterly captivated and reluctant to leave.

“Do you really love it that much?” Li Xiu asked with a hint of resignation as he looked at Zhou Lian’s captivated expression. They had already been to Cang Mountain four or five times. While the scenery was undeniably breathtaking, her obsession was making him a little uncomfortable. She had been ignoring him for days in favor of the snow-capped views.

Detecting the gloom in his voice, Zhou Lian turned to face him and asked, confused, “You don’t like it?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it, but does your appreciation have to be this obsessive?”

His obviously jealous tone made Zhou Lian burst into laughter. Her radiant smile completely captivated Li Xiu. ‘We’ve been so busy all these years,’ he reflected, ‘with so little time to just wander around and see the sights with her. It seems she really does prefer natural scenery and historical places over staying in the Capital City.’

“So sour! Tell me, at your age, how is it that your possessiveness just keeps getting stronger? After all these years, haven’t you experienced any aesthetic fatigue? Don’t they say that when a couple is together for a long time, their passion fades? In the best cases, it turns into familial affection. In the worst, the feelings just fizzle out. But you…”

Taking a step forward, Li Xiu pulled her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “After all this time, has my Bao’er gotten tired of looking at me? Have your feelings for me faded?”

“That’s not it at all. But haven’t you heard the old saying about devoted women and faithless men? Women, it seems, are mostly devoted and single-minded, while men tend to love the new and tire of the old—’they only see the new love’s smile, deaf to the old love’s cry.'”

“Then my Bao’er ought to know I’m not like other men. I’ve pursued you across two lifetimes. We fought so hard for this life where our love is finally mutual, so how could you think I’d be foolish enough to trade a pearl for a fish’s eye? You deserve to be punished for even thinking that. A harsh punishment, to make you remember, so you stop having such wild thoughts!”

“Oh, I was just talking! Jin Chen, you said it yourself—our love is mutual. How could I possibly think that way about you? I was talking about other people. You, of course, are different!”

Zhou Lian’s quick surrender made Li Xiu chuckle softly. His warm breath ghosted over her ear, making her instinctively flinch. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she said with a flower-like smile, “I am so happy. With a beautiful scene to admire and a handsome man at my side, aren’t I what people call a winner at life?”

“And I count as the handsome man?” Li Xiu asked quietly, suppressing a laugh at her teasing.

Zhou Lian nodded with a serious expression. “Of course you do. In my heart, you *are* a beauty! A one-of-a-kind beauty!”

She couldn’t help but laugh after she said it. ‘In my last life,’ Zhou Lian reflected, ‘I never once lived for myself. In this life, from the day I married Li Xiu, he has spoiled me rotten. But for the sake of a better life, for our two children, I pushed myself to improve—I went to college, then to grad school. It was a step-by-step journey, and while it was hard, I felt fulfilled. I wasn’t aimless like I was in my last life. But this period of traveling everywhere with Li Xiu… it has let me taste the beauty of true, carefree freedom!’