Farming Family's Pocket Dimension: A Charmed Little Lady Comes to Farm

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: There Is a Young Man

Lian’er slowly laid her brother’s body on the ground. She turned to the crowd and began to kowtow, striking her head against the earth. "Kind sirs and madams, I beg you to help me bury my mother and brother. I will spend my next life as an ox or a horse to repay you."

Gu Zhang sighed. "Get up, child. Stop kneeling. It’s only right that we lend a hand."

He turned and shouted, "Gu Qing! Erlang! Help carry her."

"Little Fei, go get the shovel from the cart."

Gu Fei ran back to the inn, grabbed the shovel from the mule cart, and ran back. Gu Zhang quickly took it from her.

Gu Qing and Er Lang carried the woman, while Lian’er carried her little brother on her back. The group rounded a street corner and came to the edge of town.

Gu Zhang found a flat piece of ground and had Sanlang start digging a pit.

Sanlang dug for a while until he was drenched in sweat, then Er Lang took over.

Before long, they had dug a pit a meter deep and about the length and width of a person.

Er Lang and Sanlang lowered the woman into the pit. Gu Fei took a tattered cotton-padded jacket from the woman’s bundle and covered her face with it. Lian’er laid her little brother down beside his mother.

She took the other tattered jacket from the bundle and covered her brother, staring blankly at the two people lying together in the pit.

Gu Erlang drove the shovel into the dirt pile and tossed a spadeful of earth on top of them.

The dirt piled up, more and more. Soon, only a corner of their clothing was visible, and then nothing at all.

Together, they built up a burial mound. Gu Zhang found a wooden plank, intending to stick it in the ground as a marker.

Gu Fei suddenly said, "Father, I have a knife."

She took out a dagger. Gu Zhang nodded, took it, and asked Lian’er, "What were your mother’s and brother’s names? We should at least make a grave marker so they might be found someday."

Lian’er shook her head blankly. "I don’t know. I only know my mother’s surname was Zhang. My grandma called her ’Second Girl,’ and my aunt called her ’Second Sister.’"

"My brother’s name is Liu Song."

Gu Fei’s heart ached with pity. ’In this era,’ she thought, ’women were often nonentities, without even their own names. They were just called whatever was convenient.’

With the dagger, Gu Zhang managed to carve a few words onto the plank: *Grave of Second Sister Zhang and Liu Song.*

Gu Zhang stuck the plank into the earth at the head of the mound. Lian’er knelt and kowtowed a few times.

Aunt Liu pulled her to her feet. "Come on, child. In times like these, passing on isn’t such a bad thing. It saves them from more suffering. They’ve gone to find peace."

Lian’er, still in a daze, let Aunt Liu lead her away as the group turned and headed back to the inn.

They had just entered the back courtyard when Ms. Qian pointed at Lian’er and shrieked, "You worthless girl, where did you run off to? You disappear to slack off right when I’m cooking! I’ll beat you to death!"

Gu Zhang barked, "Sister-in-law, that’s enough!"

"Lian’er’s mother and brother are gone! We were just burying their bodies!"

Ms. Qian froze, then fell silent.

Lian’er walked over numbly and mechanically began stuffing firewood into the stove.

The courtyard fell quiet. Everyone watched the frail girl squatting by the stove to feed the fire, their eyes filled with sympathy.

***

After breakfast and filling their waterskins, the group led the mules out to hitch them to the carts.

Just then, the black-clothed guards from the inn emerged. They moved with practiced efficiency, some leading the horses and others hitching the carriage. In no time, everything was ready.

A beautiful middle-aged woman came out of the inn and was helped into a carriage by several servant girls. The young man emerged as well, now changed into a light blue brocade robe with a black jade hairpin fastened in his hair. He boarded another green carriage.

The carriages slowly began to move.

The young man suddenly lifted the curtain and glanced at the girl in the blue, floral-print cotton dress.

Gu Fei happened to look over at that moment, her gaze meeting the young man’s.

His gaze was cool and clear, like a mountain stream—limpid and pure.