Part 3
Finally, he sent a few videos of local funeral customs and a photo of a green mountain, saying the grandaunt who gave him candy when he was little was now sleeping in the mountain.
That was one of Tang Yue’s understandings of death in this world.
When people on Planet 9787 died, there was no funeral. After incineration, there wasn’t even ash.
If their belongings weren’t still there, one would doubt if the person had ever existed.
But regrettably, Tang Yue’s parents didn’t have much representative property either.
Only the bouquet of copper flowers never withered, placed at Tang Yue’s bedside.
He lived every day like it was yesterday, and had even looked forward to being harmlessly processed one day.
Living was boring, dying was boring too.
This Earth he accidentally transmigrated to was different. People were not forgotten after they died.
The cemetery backed onto a green mountain. It looked clean and tidy, with speakers on the lawn playing soft music.
If you ignored the tombstones in the distance, it looked a bit like a park.
Holding a bouquet of white camellias, Tang Yue felt he had been wrong from the start.
Jiang Shulu’s past wasn’t something that could be summarized in black and white text. Behind those words, everyone had their own universe.
And hidden storylines.
This was Jiang Shulu’s hidden storyline.
The woman in the photo on the tombstone looked incredibly young. Tang Yue glanced at the dates of birth and death, and his heart sank.
She was the same age as he was now when she died.
The photo might have been a student ID photo—a collared shirt on a baby face, bangs, shoulder-length hair. She looked pretty and youthful.
Only the black and white of the photo took away the infinite expectations her lively features should have promised.
Zhou Maiyin.
The tombstone didn’t say “Tomb of XXX” like the grandmother’s tombstone next door.
Under the name was a carving of a camellia flower.
It was enough to make one’s gaze linger, feeling that this flower complemented the girl in the photo perfectly.
Tang Yue looked at Jiang Shulu standing beside him. The other party wasn’t filled with the sorrow he had imagined; his eyes were even smiling as he looked gently at the person on the ceramic portrait.
Although it was already afternoon, the wind was gentle, and white doves flew over the distant square.
The wind messed up Jiang Shulu’s bangs. Tang Yue couldn’t help but reach out and grab Jiang Shulu’s hand.
He received a tighter grip in return.
“Your mother was so young,” Tang Yue said.
Tang Yue had been present yesterday, so naturally, he heard Jiang Shulu’s speech about being a substitute.
The iron-clad heir to a wealthy family was an illegitimate child, and even a replacement. It sounded incredibly absurd.
He thought of the past Jiang Shulu had told him on the night of the variety show.
And the story he had told calmly while sitting on the edge of Tang Yue’s bed many years ago.
Some sorrows were too quiet, making Tang Yue call out “Xiao Chou” many, many times in his heart.
Tang Yue hadn’t had time to look at the collection of the Jiang family’s feudal practices posted by many people in the middle of the night.
He only managed to catch a few glimpses today while Jiang Shulu was cooking.
You can tell if a person is doing well by their state.
But Jiang Shulu’s exterior was too deceptive. Whether in childhood or adolescence, he gave off a feeling of flawlessness.
Even when he entered the entertainment industry to form a boy band during a prime period that shocked his peers, he brought Away to new heights.
It was fine that he was self-disciplined, but the other three members of the group didn’t seem normal either.
Paparazzi camped out for months to dig up dirt.
They didn’t find a single romantic scandal on the key target, Yao Lixin. Essentially, he was no different from Tang Yue; it was all goofy stuff.
Like pole dancing at a bar, then going to play frisbee and fracturing his hand, etc.
Liu Xichao was even less of a concern. He spoke softly, and the only time his persona cracked was when he mentioned buying a fake bag in a livestream.
His face was slightly ferocious, but that hardly counted as a big scandal.
The remaining youngest, Tang Yue, could stay home until the end of time if he didn’t have work.
When they finally followed him out, he was either teasing cats or walking dogs. Too childish.
With someone like Jiang Shulu as captain, the group was solid as an iron bucket, consistently ranking top for three years, their popularity overseas not lagging either.
It was the same after Away disbanded.
He sprinted ahead on his own track. Everyone in the circle had to lament that not only did Jiang Shulu not date, but he also caused them to be scolded by their families daily, forced to start grinding in their careers.
A perfect persona is, in a way, very imperfect.
Just as Tang Yue had long ago discovered Jiang Shulu’s loneliness late at night. That was a crack in the exquisite porcelain.
Even with careful concealment, he couldn’t maintain his principles.
Their hands were tightly clasped. Tang Yue moved his foot slightly, and was pulled into Jiang Shulu’s arms.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Tang Yue asked.
It was a weekday, so there weren’t many people in the cemetery, and they looked very scattered.
But one could see that those visiting the deceased would say something in front of the graves.
“What would you say?” Jiang Shulu asked.
Tang Yue thought of his parents’ photo by his bed and was silent for a while. “Say I want to eat something good.”
Jiang Shulu smiled. Leaning in his arms, Tang Yue could even feel the vibration of Jiang Shulu’s chest.
This reliance made him feel satisfied. He couldn’t help asking, “Were you forcibly taken back by the Jiang family?”
Jiang Shulu hummed an assent.
“When I lived with my mom, the bed was the same size as your dorm bed.”
“Wouldn’t that be too small? You’re huge.”
Jiang Shulu laughed. “I was small then, too.”
“Your mother looks very gentle.”
“Like many fans, she liked chasing stars.”
“Is that why you insisted on forming Away back then?”
“Not entirely.”
He pursed his lips. “I was a bit annoyed too. I didn’t want to study, I guess.”
Tang Yue looked up abruptly. “You had times like that? But you kept rushing me to study back then.”
“The other two were in art colleges. You and I, one needed a degree, one hadn’t finished high school. Of course…”
Tang Yue didn’t want to recall that painful learning process and quickly changed the subject. “Have you ever thought about meeting your mother’s family?”
Jiang Shulu shook his head. “She didn’t want to.”
Tang Yue didn’t quite understand. “Why?”
“I’ll tell you slowly later.”
Then he nudged Tang Yue. “Can you wait for me over there for a bit?”
He pointed to the rest area at the end of the row.
There was a bench.
“Why?” Tang Yue asked.
He looked up at Jiang Shulu. These eyes looked particularly charming in the darkening, dim twilight.
Jiang Shulu touched his face. “I have some secrets I want to tell my mom too.”
Tang Yue let out an “Oh.”
He walked away, looking back every three steps, extremely curious, walking very slowly.
Jiang Shulu couldn’t help laughing. “Then stay and listen?”
Tang Yue shook his head again.
He stood seven or eight meters away from Jiang Shulu, watching him.
The cemetery was very empty at this time. No one noticed that the man shaking up the business world would choose to drive to a suburban cemetery at this hour, bringing the person he liked to see his biological mother who had passed away many years ago.
Jiang Shulu wore a long black trench coat, his figure superior even from a distance.
Just slightly bowing his head, combined with the setting sun, it looked as if he was draped in decades of unknown loneliness.
Tang Yue couldn’t help but open his phone to search.
— What to say when meeting boyfriend’s mom for the first time?
The results were all over the place.
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