Chapter 197 (1/2)

Feng Luodi saw her parents.

That city she had lived in for twenty-four years and that house she had lived in for twenty-four years. She could see the calendar on the wall. It had already been thirty-four months since her death.

She knew that she was currently in her soul form. She didn't know how her soul had managed to break away from Feng Luodi's body and come to the place she had once yearned for day and night.

She saw her own black and white posthumous portrait placed beside a guqin. There was a flower vase in front of the photo frame and a yellow wintersweet was inserted in it. She could even smell the flower's strong fragrance.

The display in the living room hadn't changed one bit. Her dad liked to sit on the armchair facing the balcony. When it was a sunny day, the sunlight would s.h.i.+ne the brightest on that spot. Today's sunlight was also very dazzling but her dad wasn't the one sitting there at this moment. Her fat cat, Bobo,was lazily lying there and licking its fur.

The layout in the kitchen was still the same. On the dining table was her mum's favourite blue-grey checkered cloth. There was a white porcelain bottle placed at the corner of the table and it contained the everyday flowers her dad brought home after his early morning stroll.

There were still different coloured sticky notes stuck on the refrigerator door. Her parents used them as reminder notes for things that they shouldn't forget. This turned into a habit for her parents after she entered university, staying at a boarding school.

Her dormitory was at the second storey. Luo Di didn't know what feelings she harboured as she floated upwards.

As expected, Luo Di wanted to smile but was unable to smile. She wanted to cry but a soul had no tears.

Her room also hadn't changed one bit. Her bed was placed further away from the window. On her wardrobe were the doodles she had scrawled in the past. She remembered that her mum chided her for a very long time because of this. At that time, her dad even exhorted her mum by saying that she had quite a bit of imagination and had the air of some master when drawing. Following that, her dad began to praise her continuously, claiming that she wasn't bad in her studies and that she was amazing because she could play the guqin and she could paint. He was proud to have her as his daughter.

Then, her mum would follow along and coldly say that she was also her daughter. She was the daughter that she'd carried in her womb for more than eight months before she gave birth to her.

Luo Di raised her hand to cover her mouth. She knew that no one could hear even if she made a sound but she still couldn't refrain herself from doing so. Her hand was like a s.h.i.+eld, a s.h.i.+eld to prevent her from breaking down.

There were a few pots near the window. She had planted those a very long time ago and it was for the sake of being spiteful and prove her mum wrong. She a.s.sured her mum that she could also keep living things alive and ran to buy a Clivia plant and a Ladyfinger Cactus.

It was easy to raise the Ladyfinger Cactus but the Clivia plant was a little fragile. She always either forgot to water it or loosen the soil, but luckily the Clivia plant stayed alive and well. She only found out after a very long time that her mum had always been secretly helping her to take care of those plants, thus giving her a basis to show off her ability.

Even now, those two pots of plants were still alive and well.

Luo Di pushed the door open, but then she suddenly heard the sound of a door opening, coming from downstairs.

Luo Di quickly floated down. As expected, she saw her parents come in, carrying vegetables and grumbling about one another.

Her dad was still like how he was in the past. He liked to wear a s.h.i.+rt and a knitted vest. He was very refined and looked a lot like a middle school teacher. However, the amount of grizzled hair at his temples and the wrinkles between his eyebrows had increased again. The pair of spectacles on his face was particularly conspicuous. Her dad had aged.

Her mum still liked to coil her hair into a low bun and used that same long clip with complicated decorative designs to fasten her hair. She had piously requested for that by taking three steps and kowtowing when she went to travel in Tibet after her college entrance examinations. Her mum, who doted on her and liked to nag at her to take good care of her health and find a boyfriend, had aged.

Luo Di realised that she was still unable to cry. Ah, she was merely a soul.

”Quickly go and prepare the meal. That bunch of children are about to arrive.” Her dad nagged.

”Got it. You have to come in and help too. Don't just stay idle and do nothing.” Her mum retorted.

Even when her parents had finished preparing a whole table of dishes, she was still a little lost as to what day it was today.

The doorbell rang. Luo Di wanted to go and open the door out of reflex but her hand went past the door handle.

Her mum hastily walked over to open the door.

It was a bunch of familiar faces behind the door.

At the door stood Xiao An and Ah Yue, her childhood friends. There were also her bosom friends, Minmin, Xiaoxiao, Ah Lu, and her colleagues, Zhenhua and Tianjun.

”Auntie, Uncle, happy 30th wedding anniversary. We wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness.”

Xiao An then pa.s.sed them a huge flower basket. Luo Di realised that there were many small gift boxes and red packets[ref]Money is usually wrapped in it and it is used as a gift

[/ref] in it. However, although her mum appeared very attentive on the surface, she was in fact very careless, so she wouldn't notice those for a while.

Everyone at the table was eating, chatting and joking. Then, they took a photo together. All of them were smiling.

How she wished that she was also with them.

This was the source of motivation that had supported her in staying in the Xuan Dynasty for thirty-four months. What she prayed for was that she could call out to them, eat with them and joke around with them.

She had lived in this place for twenty-four years. This was her everything. It was very difficult for one to abandon one's whole life, so she mercilessly chose this life instead of that dream-like thirty-four months.

However, there was constantly a cold voice beside her ear, telling her: You must treat the twenty-four years here as a dream. You should continue living on properly as Feng Luodi.