It was already New Year’s Eve, and the roads were filled with travelers heading home. Fortunately, Ye Can and Lin Zixi had set out early, avoiding any traffic jams.
Lin Zixi followed the navigation for about half an hour on the highway before finally arriving at the small town where her hometown lay.
Perhaps because she hadn’t been back in so long, the once-humble little town had undergone earth-shaking changes. Tall buildings now stood everywhere in sight. Her gaze pierced through the crowds, landing on bustling commercial streets all around.
This prosperous little urban district was a far cry from the rundown town of her childhood. One thing hadn’t changed, though: on the eve of New Year’s Eve, the people living here still made a point of paying respects to their ancestors.
Seeing the locals everywhere carrying firecrackers and candles, Lin Zixi felt a long-lost sense of warmth. She drove with Ye Can to a shop selling firecrackers and incense, bought the items needed to worship the immortals, then took a side road deeper into the countryside.
Ye Can was a bit puzzled. “Do people around here still have customs like this?”
Lin Zixi was clearly in high spirits and nodded with a smile. “Yeah. Back in the day, during New Year’s, Mom would always take me to pay respects to my grandparents. She said on New Year’s Eve, we had to call them back for dinner.”
People are dead—how could they possibly come back to eat with their descendants? Turn into ghosts? Or hop out of their coffins? That’s just too ridiculous, Ye Can grumbled inwardly.
Of course, for all her inner griping, Ye Can would never say any of that to Lin Zixi.
She turned her head, looking at Lin Zixi’s beaming face, and asked curiously, “When you were little? But your mom passed away when you were really young, right? How do you remember it so clearly?”
Lin Zixi kept her eyes on the road ahead as she replied to Ye Can. “I was already five or six by then. Some memories stick.”
At that, Lin Zixi glanced over at Ye Can with a smile. “Of course, lately I’ve been dreaming a lot, and it’s brought back a bunch of things I’d forgotten.”
Ye Can let out an “oh,” but her peripheral vision caught a minivan barreling toward them. She shouted a warning. “Lin Zixi, focus on driving!”
Lin Zixi couldn’t help but chuckle at how tense Ye Can looked. Ye Can glared at the minivan that had whooshed past them, a bit annoyed. “And you’re laughing? Aren’t you scared of crashing?”
Lin Zixi’s eyes crinkled with mirth as she said softly to Ye Can, “You’ve really changed, Ye Can. You never used to care about stuff like this.”
Ye Can pouted, grumpy. “Changed how? What didn’t I care about?”
Lin Zixi said gently, “Things like safety. You used to act like you didn’t give a damn.” Back then, Ye Can had seemed ready to throw her life away at any moment—nothing like this fierce survival instinct.
Ye Can shot her a surprised look and raised her voice. “Lin Zixi, are you still half-asleep? That’s because you’re in the car! You have to think about yourself at least.”
Lin Zixi instantly regretted talking to her. So infuriating—what kind of brain does she have? Even concern comes out sounding so aggravating.
I’m such an idiot. Total love-struck fool, she thought.
Lin Zixi shot Ye Can a soft glare. “You talk too much. Shut it.”
The adorably clueless Ye Can had no idea why Lin Zixi had suddenly gotten mad, but she obediently clamped her mouth shut, not uttering another useless word.
The two drove to the base of a small hillside, where the road ended. With no choice, Lin Zixi parked on the roadside, grabbed the offerings, incense, paper money, and other items, and they hiked up together.
Lin Zixi hailed from a small city, and when her mother passed, there was no such thing as a proper cemetery yet. Her aunt had arranged for the burial on this rural hillside.
A few years back, when Lin Zixi had come to pay respects, she’d considered moving the grave. But seeing her grandparents buried right beside her mother changed her mind instantly. Rather than some unfamiliar new place, she figured her mom would prefer staying close to family.
The hill wasn’t tall, but for someone like Lin Zixi who hadn’t hiked in years, it was tough going. The path was overgrown and neglected, making it even harder.
Ye Can, who had been trailing behind, took the lead instead, trampling down the weeds and hacking through the underbrush to guide her all the way to the summit.
After much effort, Lin Zixi and Ye Can finally reached the grave at the top of the hill. Early spring sunlight broke through the thick mist, casting a beam of light onto the hilltop.
Lin Zixi set down the offerings and grinned at Ye Can, opening her hands toward the tomb. “Ta-da! Ye Can, this is my mom.”
Ye Can approached the tombstone with her hands behind her back and peered at it. The newly renovated stone had a photo embedded, and she said sincerely, “Your mom was a Beauty!”
She rubbed her chin, appraising the woman in the photo with her cascade of dark hair. “You two look a lot alike. Very objective opinion here.”
“The eyebrows, nose, lips—they’re all so similar.”
Ye Can turned to Lin Zixi. “You could be cast from the same mold.”
Lin Zixi laughed, arranging the fruit offerings while glancing back at Ye Can. “You think so? I always felt I wasn’t as pretty as Mom.”
Ye Can hurried over to help set out the offerings and light the candles.
Once everything was done, Ye Can sat beside the grave, staring off into space as Lin Zixi worked. Seeing her meticulously pulling the thick grass from the mound, Ye Can asked, “If you knew grass would grow, why didn’t they cover the top with cement when they built it?”
Lin Zixi crouched over the grave, carefully yanking out the weeds. She looked up at Ye Can with a gentle smile. “Because that’s Mom’s hair. If you cover it, she won’t have any.”
Ye Can’s face twisted in clear confusion, and Lin Zixi burst out laughing at her you’re-not-fooling-me-with-this expression.
Ye Can said, “What kind of custom is that? Once someone’s gone, they’re gone. How can they still have ‘hair’?”
She kept muttering. “Graves don’t even seem necessary. Think about it—people die, and even if descendants visit, a century later they’re gone too, and the grave’s just abandoned.”
“Once the last person who remembers you is gone, the grave means nothing.”
Lin Zixi paused and looked at Ye Can. “No, that’s not right.”
Ye Can propped her cheek on her hand. “Isn’t it? Like your mom—after you’re gone, who else will remember her?”
Lin Zixi smiled faintly. “You’re right. Mom will always live in my heart. Even after she’s gone, her face and voice stay preserved there. Maybe after my own time passes, no one will remember her.”
Lin Zixi gazed at Ye Can, speaking deliberately. “But it doesn’t matter. The earth remembers.”
She set aside the weeds and met Ye Can’s eyes earnestly. “Her flesh and blood, her bones, her soul—they all return to the earth and find peace. After a long journey through the human world, she slumbers here. The earth knows. And I know.”
“That’s the meaning of a grave.”
A resting place for the soul, a site of remembrance for the loved ones left behind.
Ye Can propped her cheek silently.
She thought that if, after she was gone, Lin Zixi forgot her too, no one in the world would remember her anymore. She couldn’t rest in Lin Zixi’s heart, nor find peace anywhere.
Things that once seemed trivial now pierced her like thorns.
After a moment’s reflection, Ye Can looked at Lin Zixi. “That made me think seriously about something.”
Lin Zixi smiled, curious. “What? Tell me.”
Ye Can tilted her head, dead serious. “I’m wondering if I should have a grave when I die. With just six characters on it—”
“‘Ye Can was here.'”
Lin Zixi snorted with laughter. “What goes on in that little head of yours? ‘Ye Can was here’…?”
“When you’d even need a grave is ages away. No point thinking about it now.”
Ye Can sighed dramatically. “You don’t get it. This is me planning ahead.”
Lin Zixi ignored her, finished clearing the grass from the grave mound and edges, then the two sat lazily beside it, basking in the sun.
Ye Can pulled Lin Zixi close, letting her lean on her shoulder by her mother’s grave. Watching the candles nearly burned out, she asked curiously, “Do you think she can eat all this stuff you set out?”
Her question was so absurdly funny that Lin Zixi pinched her. “What do you think?”
Ye Can couldn’t help recalling her days wandering in darkness and muttered softly, “How should I know? No one’s ever burned anything for me.” A person like her—dead without a grave or visitors—had no clue what normal people got after death.
Lin Zixi tuned her out, but soon Ye Can was asking again if the offerings were edible, if they should set off firecrackers, if it was time to burn paper money.
Lin Zixi thought she was like a noisy little pest chattering in her ear. With a sigh, she told Ye Can, “Mom was scared of loud noises—firecrackers would frighten her. After we burn the paper money, let’s head down for lunch.”
Ye Can replied dryly, “Oh. Okay.”
The two bid farewell to Lin Zixi’s mother, taking two apples with them as they descended.
Back at the car, as Ye Can and Lin Zixi buckled up to leave, a small car pulled up nearby.
A weathered middle-aged man stepped out. Lin Zixi spotted him in the rearview mirror and felt a jolt—talk about bad luck, running into him here.
She had no intention of getting out to say hello and started the engine to drive off. But Ye Can, unusually, leaned out the window, frowning at the man’s receding figure.
Lin Zixi found her expression amusing and teased, “Ye Can, what are you looking at?”
Ye Can turned back. “The guy behind us.”
Lin Zixi played innocent. “The guy behind us? Why bother looking at him?”
Ye Can furrowed her brow, looking conflicted. “Something about him just screams ‘punchable.’ I feel like I should’ve gotten out and decked him.”
Ye Can’s reaction surprised Lin Zixi but delighted her all the same.
Lin Zixi burst out laughing. “You’re right, Ye Can! He totally had it coming. Should’ve let you go for it!”
With Lin Zixi’s cheerful laughter ringing out, they drove their little car into the sun, leaving the lively town behind for the bustling city.
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