The Lost Tomb : The Southern Archives Mysteries

Chapter 45: Reunion

Zhang Haixia's corpse sat silently in the Dong's living room. He was no longer alive. His life had broken away from the world and was heading towards reincarnation.

Zhang Haiqi wiped the paint from her hands and came to stand in front of Zhang Haixia. She squatted down and touched his cheek. He looked as if he was merely sleeping.

Time. She couldn't count the number of times she had sent her children off.

"Let's go home, Shrimp," she whispered to Zhang Haixia.

This child had been quiet and obedient since he was little. Other than spoiling Zhang Haiyan, he had never caused any troubles. He always looked at Zhang Haiqi's eyes during class or when he was about to fall asleep. He never fought to be her favorite child. He only observed and recognized what his mother needed.

The flowers by the bed had never withered and the children she brought with her had never been lost. The neighbors had never complained and they had never burnt food.

When Zhang Haixia was around, everything worked precisely like clockwork.

Zhang Haixia was afraid of losing that kind of peace and happiness, so he guarded everything firmly.

Zhang Haiqi placed her forehead against his. Her child's forehead was as cold as a northern winter and not at all warm like a Xiamen summer.

She picked Zhang Haixia up and walked towards the backyard. She buried him in the cemetery amidst the numerous tombstones. Each one was another farewell. There were countless times when she thought she had gotten used to it.

Truth was, she never liked this kind of moment, no matter how long she had lived.

Zhang Haiqi stood in the cemetery for a long time that night, listening as the wind blew past the tombstones. It almost sounded like people were crying all around her.

When Zhang Haiyan woke up, he was lying naked and face down on a bed.

He tried to think about what happened earlier. Most people's imaginations would run wild if they were in his position, but he immediately thought of Zhang Haiqi.

"Mother." He muttered to himself in a daze. He saw Zhang Haiqi reading the newspaper on the sofa opposite the bed, ignoring him.

Zhang Haiyan felt pain on his back and arms, but when he looked back, he found that there was nothing there.

"Mother, what happened to me? What did you do to me?" With that said, he pulled the nearby blanket over to cover himself.

"I helped re-treat the wounds on your back," Zhang Haiqi said.

Zhang Haiyan had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the door was open and a servant was bringing breakfast in. Since Zhang Haiqi wasn't wearing a human skin mask, Zhang Haiyan reflexively wanted to spit out a blade, but he found that there weren't any blades in his mouth.

The servant left quickly, and Zhang Haiqi said, "Stop it. I can use both mine and Miss Dong's faces here. I'm Miss Dong's friend now."

Zhang Haiyan wrapped himself in a bedsheet and got out of the bed to look for his clothes. There was a set of pajamas by the bed, so he hid in the corner to put them on and then said, "Mother, what's going on? How can you be Miss Dong? Why didn't you reunite with me on the ship? Are all the things you've told me yesterday true?"

Zhang Haiqi flipped through the newspaper. "If I'm not Miss Dong, do you think it's possible for me to be Mrs. Dong? How could I be sure you didn't become a traitor like Zhang Ruipu while you were in Malacca? You were mixed up with his people, so I highly suspected that you had become disloyal. Of course I had to observe you for a while."