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Old sayings often hold truth: ghosts are hard to deal with! Li Nan's Mother, in order to appease her deceased husband and mother-in-law, reluctantly decided to sell some of her jewelry. However, when Li Nan saw the jewelry, his expression darkened instantly.
He pointed to a relatively decent pair of gold bracelets and asked his mother, "Aren't these bracelets Red Flower's? I clearly remember that they were part of her dowry given by her father, and also a keepsake from her mother before she passed away. After we got married, I never saw Red Flower wear them. When I asked her about it, she hesitated, saying that they were too precious and she was afraid of losing them. When Red Flower left us, I searched through her belongings but couldn't find them. How did these bracelets end up in your hands?"
"What do you mean by that? Are you implying that I stole those bracelets from that wretched woman? Let me tell you, Red Flower willingly gave them to me as a gesture of respect," Li Nan's Mother said as she wrapped the bracelets and handed them to Li Nan. "It's fortunate that I accepted them; otherwise, what would you have to pawn today?"
Li Nan knew his mother was being unreasonable, but in times of hardship, he had no choice but to accept her reasoning and silently took the pair of gold bracelets.
What Li Nan didn't know was that outside in the shadows, Red Flower was holding Li Lu's hand and watching them through the window. Ghosts have ears that are more sensitive than humans. Therefore, every word exchanged between Li Nan and his mother reached the ears of the mother and daughter.
Li Lu shook her mother's hand and asked, "Did Mother really give those gold bracelets to the Old Witch willingly?"
Red Flower gently shook her head. "Those were my keepsakes from my mother and my dowry from my father. If it weren't absolutely necessary, I would never give them away."
"So, those gold bracelets were taken from Mother by the Old Witch?" Li Lu said indignantly, a glint of anger flashing in her eyes.
"It doesn't matter anymore! We are no longer in the mortal realm; those material possessions hold no value for us," Red Flower said as she held Li Lu's hand. "Let's go; your Fox Demon godmother is still waiting for us."
"Doesn't Mother want to teach that Old Witch and my heartless father a lesson?"
"With your Fox Demon godmother around? We don't need to teach them; they will receive their comeuppance!" Red Flower replied. She glanced at Li Nan, the man she once deeply loved. Now, looking at him again, she felt he was a dark-hearted man without any sense of responsibility—a cowardly person. If life could start over, she would never marry him again.
With a silent sigh, Red Flower held Li Lu's hand and slowly faded away into the shadows under the trees.
Li Nan pawned the gold bracelets and suddenly thought of Red Flower and their daughter whom he had barely looked at before. An inexplicable feeling of discomfort arose in his heart, prompting him to buy two additional offerings.
At the Li Family ancestral graveyard, Li Nan's father's and grandmother's graves were adjacent to each other. Both graves were overgrown with dry grass and looked desolate. Li Nan's Mother pretended to apologize for a while and cried as she acknowledged a few faults before getting up and taking all the offerings back with her.
Li Nan stood before the graves for a while. Naturally, he couldn't overlook his mother's actions but kept his thoughts to himself. He didn't have much impression of his honest father but remembered how much his grandmother cared for him.
"Both mother and child are ungrateful; although I haven't seen some of my mother's actions, as a son, I should still comply with my mother's wishes. If my father and grandmother knew what was happening below ground, they would direct all their blame towards my mother! I can only do what little I can on the sidelines," he thought.
Li Nan bowed respectfully at both graves and then lifted his robe to clear away all the dry grass before leaving. On his way back, he deliberately took a longer route to visit Red Flower's and Li Lu's graves. Compared to his father's and grandmother's graves, these two looked even more neglected. In just three or four years' time, half of their mounds had collapsed.
For Honghua, Li Nan was not entirely devoid of feelings. Back in the day, when he first saw her, he was taken aback for a moment. It seemed to be an afternoon in early summer; he was feeling drowsy from reading, so he decided to take a walk. As he strolled along, he found himself by the riverbank and caught sight of a red figure that resembled a beautiful sunset in the distance. As he approached, he realized it was a girl about his age, wearing an ill-fitting red dress adorned with patches. However, the patches were so skillfully done that from afar, they looked like embroidered patterns on the garment. The girl's hair was casually styled, with a red flower made of velvet tucked into it, and in the gentle breeze of early summer, the flower appeared quite lovely.
Perhaps sensing the gaze behind her, the girl turned around. It was then that Li Nan noticed she was washing clothes in her hands, so he nodded towards the red flower.
At first, when Honghua saw a young man, she was slightly startled, but upon seeing him nod at her, her surprise quickly turned into shyness. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she lowered her head.
In that instant, Li Nan felt his heart racing wildly.
Later on, he defied his mother and married Honghua. Initially, he intended to treat her well. However, his mother frequently brought up Honghua's situation and often mentioned how his father and grandmother had passed away early, leaving her to raise him with great difficulty. Caught in a dilemma, he could only temporarily put Honghua at a disadvantage.
Gradually, Honghua no longer wore an expression of grievance on her face, and Li Nan became accustomed to his mother's mistreatment of her. It wasn't until Honghua gave birth to a daughter that he suddenly realized he hadn't cared for Honghua in a long time; he had barely spoken any kind words to her.
That night, he stood outside their room for a long time, intending to go in and comfort Honghua and help her as much as possible in the future. However, when he finally entered and saw Honghua's appearance, the pity he had built up inside vanished completely upon seeing her gaunt and yellowed face.
It turned out that during the days he had ignored Honghua, his once delicate wife had become as unappealing as dry autumn grass. So he turned around and left without even glancing at their newborn daughter.
Later on, for reasons unknown to him, he began deliberately avoiding Honghua and refrained from looking at her. It wasn't until their daughter passed away and his mother forced him to write that divorce letter that he felt an inexplicable sense of relief. The letter was quickly written; he personally handed it to Honghua and saw the despair in her eyes.
At that moment, he felt a tremor in his heart—regret mixed with an unclear discomfort. Yet in the end, without any hesitation, he shoved the divorce letter into Honghua's hands. As she gasped for breath, he let out a heavy sigh of relief.
After Honghua's death, he again defied his mother's wishes and arranged for the burial of both Honghua and their daughter. Li Nan believed that as an ex-husband, he had already done enough for them. But standing before the dilapidated grave now made him feel somewhat like a scoundrel for the first time.
"Honghua, don't hate me! Between you and my mother, I could only choose my mother." Li Nan placed offerings one by one at the grave: "A mother is unique; a wife can be many. I know this isn't fair to you, but my mother raised me with great difficulty too. So Honghua, I know those days were hard on you. But now that you are also a mother yourself, you should understand my predicament too? If you can hear me from beyond the grave, you should empathize with me. In this life, even if I Li Nan have wronged you, please don’t seek me out in your next life; find a husband who truly treats you well!"
Just as Li Nan was about to set down the apple in his hand, another apple suddenly flew up and hit him on the forehead. Out of Li Nan's sight, Li Lu was glaring at him angrily!
"Forget it Lulu; this person doesn't deserve to be your father!"
Honghua stopped her daughter's movement and glanced at the offerings on the ground.
After returning from the Li family home, Honghua initially intended to take her daughter to find Xing Ruyi. However, upon arriving at the shop and discovering that Xing Ruyi was busy at that moment—especially since it was daytime—she thought it would not be good for their business if they showed up unannounced. So she took her daughter back home to wait until nightfall before going again.
Who would have thought that just after returning home they would see someone who shouldn't be there—her cold-hearted ex-husband Li Nan? Although Honghua and Li Lu initially did not want to acknowledge him, upon hearing his words, Li Lu became angry first. Watching as her daughter's nails grew longer—almost poking into Li Nan's neck—Honghua reached out and pulled her daughter back.
"Mother, why are you stopping me? I don't care for a father like him! You don't need to be nice to him anymore."
"It is precisely because you don't care that we shouldn't let him anger us. If you kill him today, it may relieve some of your hatred, but the underworld will also remember your wrongdoing. Lulu, I am just as angry as you are. But it's not worth it; he has already ruined this life for us mother and daughter, and we cannot let him ruin our next life as well."
"But letting him go like this makes me really upset!"
"Have you forgotten what I said before? Your Fox Demon godmother won't allow you to suffer grievances."
"Could it be that the Old Witch saw a ghost last night because of the Fox Demon godmother's interference?"
"Of course! Your Fox Demon godmother personally made that delicious red flower wine." Honghua said, playfully tapping Li Lu's nose. "Let's go home, have a good sleep, and when it gets dark, we'll go find your Brother Yin Yuan to play."
Li Lu nodded and happily walked towards the grave. But just as she was about to enter the tomb, she suddenly got a bit temperamental and blew a cold breath at Li Nan. The chill slipped down Li Nan's neck and into his clothes. He couldn't help but shiver and started coughing.
"Is it going to snow? Why has it suddenly become so cold!"
Li Nan trembled but didn't notice that on the grave, Li Lu was laughing joyfully. Honghua affectionately patted her daughter's head and smiled helplessly.
"You did well, my child!"
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