Chapter 30 - Pay Respects
That night neither Shen Li nor Yu Dong had no further conversation regarding the previous Yu Dong. Shen Li of course had numerous questions that he wanted to ask from Yu Dong but he didn’t know where to start, after all even though he had asked Yu Dong about his doubts and have received a positive answer regarding his suspicions .
Shen Li had no idea what to say or think about it. Who will believe him if he were to say that his wife’s body was being occupied by someone else’s soul ? even he couldn’t believe in such a thing.
However the truth was that the Yu Dong he knew was no more. Shen Li had many questions but he knew that right now wasn’t the time to ask about his questions , as Yu Dong’s husband it was his duty to burn some joss paper and incense sticks for his wife’s departed soul.
The evening was declining in a rather fast forward manner as if someone have clicked a magical button to make it vanish even faster in the boiling pot of ink.
Soon the entire sky was covered with twinkling stars and floating clouds, only when the moon appeared high in the sky and night reached its peak did Shen Li returned with a couple of joss paper and incense sticks.
Yu Dong was had just finished cooking the stir fried pork when Shen Li entered the kitchen with the joss paper and burning sticks. Yu Dong noticed the things that he was holding in his hands but didn’t say anything after all the dead indeed deserved the respect of the living, even though the previous Yu Dong was nothing but a living, breathing example of modern scumbag, she was still a human and was the wife of Shen Li and the others.
If Shen Li wanted to pay his respect to Yu Dong ‘s soul there was nothing she could say and she had no right to say anything either . In this family she was nothing but a stranger who arrived out of nowhere and was now taking care of this family in place of the person whose body she was now occupying.
“Do you want me to keep a separate share of this stir fried pork in a clean bowl for offering ?”she asked knowing that generally while paying respect to the dead , people offered something edible to eat with the joss money .
Shen Li paused in his steps, even though he knew that the person in front of him was much more kind than the previous Yu Dong, he was still founding the entire situation a lot surreal – he couldn’t believe that something like this really happened.
Compared to the previous Yu Dong he found it rather awkward to have a conversation with the current Yu Dong because no matter how kind she was to him and the others- she was indeed a stranger to then and despite all her gentleness and care , he knew nothing about her .
Shen Li also felt a bit awkward because unlike the previous Yu Dong he wasn’t as unbothered in front the current Yu Dong. Her kindness was something really precious to him , after being treated with nothing but scorn all his life – all of a sudden he was being treated so nicely . If Yu Dong acted unconcerned towards him , Shen Li wouldn’t have minded it but – she was actually being so nice to him , that he was feeling something for her despite knowing and understanding that she was someone he couldn’t afford to like .
He was Yu Dong ‘s widower, and his body wasn’t clean either – faced with such a situation , Shen Li thought he was indeed not worthy of the Yu Dong who was standing in front of him .
Why will a stranger accept him ? She had already told him that she had no designs regarding them and was only taking on their responsibilities because she took over Yu Dong ‘s soul. It was her kindness that she was not kicking them out – so how could he take advantage of her ?
Shen Li also knew that he wasn’t no where as beautiful as the other mers and he was also old now . His cinnabar mole wasn’t as bright as others and he couldn’t get pregnant easily either , with so many flaws- how can someone like him ?
But he knew that Yu Dong was asking him out of kindness and it would be rude of him ignore her goodwill. Therefore Shen Li nodded and said “I do want to offer some food after paying my respect to her. And meat was her favourite if possible please add a fat chunky piece of pork in the offering, she might be happy if I offer her something that she liked.”
It was really weird that he was actually paying respect to his wife’s soul when her body was moving perfectly fine in front of him.
Shen Li even thought that he was being insensitive by paying respect to the previous Yu Dong while the current Yu Dong the one he felt something for , was right in front of him.
But Shen Li had only thought about the matter a lot more seriously than Yu Dong. She didn’t find anything wrong with Shen Li paying his respect to the original host after all she was the one who married him not her. And because she was oblivious over the fact that her kindness had ignited some sort of feelings in his heart , Yu Dong didn’t feel weird at all .
“Alright I will do that. And you should also go ahead and wash your hands because its time to eat, Ye Liu and Chen Mi have been waiting for you to comeback home. Its already past nine and we all are getting hungry.”
Actually Yu Dong had explained the situation in a rather light manner but the truth was Ye Liu and Chen Mi were so hungry that they made several round in the kitchen( Ye Liu was either helping Chen Mi go to the bath house or he was taking him out for a walk because Chen Mi was bored after being confined to his room for so long , that was what they said but their eyes were firmly locked on the pot she was stirring ) .
Even Yu Mai who had taken pride over the fact that he was a very good child – he too was so hungry that he actually forgot about being a good child and has been tailing Yu Dong like a little puppy who was salivating over a juicy bone that he could only see but couldn’t eat.
Yu Mai actually wanted to go ahead and find Shen Li and bring him back home for half an hour ago. However the little boy didn’t know where Shen Li actually went, so even if Yu Mai knew about each and every villager he couldn’t just go ahead and check each house could he.
Therefore Yu Mai could only stay at home and walk in and out of the kitchen clutching his hungry tummy and trying his best to melt Yu Dong with his best puppy dog face.
But Yu Dong knew that if she gave Yu Mai something to eat the young boy’s tummy would soon fill up with this or that type of small snacks and he wouldn’t be able to eat his dinner properly thus she didn’t give him anything which was why Yu Mai was lying angrily on Chen Mi’s bed face down with a prominent pout.