Chapter 687: Extra Chapter 2: Water Burial

Zhao Zixun's words really surprised me, but right now I couldn't feel happy at all; my mind was still full of the Second Young Lady.

Or rather, it was the scene of her begging me for help in my dream.

Such a vibrant life suddenly gone is hard enough to accept, and now it's the seventh day, but what arrived wasn't a burial—it was a wedding in the dead of night. What kind of sense is that?

Zhao Zixun pulled me to a safe, secluded spot and patiently analyzed the situation: "This matter is being kept tight-lipped by everyone in the Marshal's Mansion; even I don't know the details, but it's the Marshal's decision—he's decided it, do you think you and I can change it? Fu Wan, tonight you must keep this to yourself, or else it will bring deadly disaster upon you and those around you. Understand?"

I was stunned.

Yeah, what do I have to go up against Marshal Chen?

If there were any room for maneuver, wouldn't the Matriarch fight for her own daughter?

My momentary impulse would only drag my parents into trouble.

The tears I'd held back all night finally broke the levee, and I choked out, "Zhao Zixun, help me find out what's going on—I want to know whether the Second Young Lady can finally rest in peace."

Zhao Zixun promised, "Alright, I'll send you home first. Give me one day, and I'll come to your house tomorrow night to find you."

What else can I do?

Now I can only pin my hopes on Zhao Zixun.

Zhao Zixun called his horse, helped me mount, and escorted me home all the way.

All day I was uneasy, and my mother kept comforting me: "The Seventh Day for the Second Young Lady has passed; her family must have buried her properly. Wanwan, people must move forward—in these troubled times… we must learn to accept partings and deaths that come at any moment…"

My mother didn't know what happened last night, and I didn't dare tell her, so I could only digest it slowly myself.

Not until after eight in the evening did Zhao Zixun finally arrive.

My parents were surprised to see him come, and they let him in. He said the Second Young Lady had entrusted him with something to hand to me personally, so I led him to my room, closed the door, and we talked.

As soon as we sat down, I eagerly lowered my voice and asked, "How is it? Did you find out?"

"I found out a little," Zhao Zixun said. "Apparently last night's affair was the Matriarch's idea. She's a Buddhist, and she said that since the Second Young Lady died an untimely death before marriage, she might bear a grudge and cause trouble in the afterlife, with no one to protect her, and she might even be bullied—so…"

I understood: "A ghost marriage?"

I've heard of this—when young men and women die an untimely death before marrying, their families ask a fortune-teller to arrange a marriage between the dead.

Supposedly the whole process is no less elaborate than a living wedding—three letters and six gifts, an eight-bearer sedan chair, burial in a joint coffin…

"It wasn't stated outright," Zhao Zixun said. "But tonight at midnight, the Second Young Lady will be buried. Since she died an unnatural death, she won't go into the ancestral grave, and the Second Lady has chosen a water burial for her."

Whether earth burial or water burial, as long as she can be laid to rest peacefully, my worry will be eased.

Zhao Zixun asked, "Fu Wan, do you want to go far off to see the Second Young Lady off?"

I immediately asked, "May I?"

Zhao Zixun nodded: "I can take you far away to have a look, but you must promise me that no matter what you see, you won't do anything impulsive. I think if the Second Young Lady truly has a spirit, she'd also want you to return to normal life as soon as possible."

I replied eagerly, "Okay, I'll follow your arrangements completely."

That night I got on Zhao Zixun's horse again.

I can ride, but I'm not skilled, and this horse of Zhao Zixun's is a warhorse with a fierce temperament—I couldn't handle it.

I sat in front of Zhao Zixun; he reached his hands from behind me, took hold of the reins, and led me toward the Marshal's Mansion.

Along the way we didn't talk much.

I kept my back straight, trying to keep distance so my back wouldn't touch his body.

But the horse's back jolted, shaking me several times; after going over a small bump, the warhorse leapt, I lost my balance, and Zhao Zixun instinctively grabbed my waist with one hand.

From then on, his hand never moved away.

My whole body went stiff, my cheeks burned, I stared straight ahead, and even my breathing became unsteady.

Zhao Zixun brought me to the Pearl Plate River.

Perhaps it was late, or perhaps the Marshal had issued a ban—either way, no one was by the Pearl Plate River.

Zhao Zixun and I dismounted; his horse, being spiritual, returned on its own.

Zhao Zixun had already scouted the spot, and we two kept watch in the dark.

Until midnight, sure enough, a funeral procession came slowly from Wufu Town, scattering paper money as they went, but I heard no crying.

Drawing nearer, I saw that something was standing atop the red-lacquer coffin.

At first I thought it was the Second Young Lady's spirit tablet, but looking closer, I saw that standing on the red-lacquer coffin was actually a yellow weasel with white fur on its back!

What does this mean?!

Since ancient times, it's been a major taboo for an animal to startle a coffin during burial, especially black cats—some are said to cause corpses to feign death.

Why would a yellow weasel be standing on the Second Young Lady's coffin?

Can't the funeral attendees see it?

Obviously not.

Because I saw that yellow weasel standing upright on the coffin, one forepaw held before it, its snout twitching—just like a high monk chanting rites for the Second Young Lady.

I turned to look at Zhao Zixun and saw his brows knit, his fierce eyes locked on that yellow weasel.

Needless to say, Zhao Zixun was also surprised; he hadn't expected an extra yellow weasel in the funeral procession.

And this yellow weasel was clearly no ordinary yellow weasel.

Tonight's funeral, like last night's wedding procession, was strange in every way.

If what Zhao Zixun and I said last night is true—that the Matriarch arranged a ghost husband for the Second Young Lady—then tonight's burial should be a joint interment.

A joint burial calls for a joint coffin.

But what was brought out tonight was still that same red-lacquer coffin from last night.

That means the corpse lying in the coffin right now is only the Second Young Lady's.

And the groom?

Isn't it a joint burial?

I was thinking that when the funeral procession had already reached the banks of the Pearl Plate River.

The funeral procession withdrew one after another, leaving only the red-lacquered coffin, the eight bearers, and that weasel by the riverbank.

The eight bearers carried the red-lacquered coffin toward the water, sending it in, and only after the coffin's front entered the water did they also withdraw.

Next, an astonishing scene occurred.

That red-lacquered coffin was actually pushed by an invisible force, slowly sliding into the river, the coffin body gradually descending until it was completely submerged.

And that weasel remained standing atop the coffin the whole time.

After the coffin was fully submerged, it did not immediately sink to the Underwater; instead, it carried the weasel drifting toward the middle of the river…