After struggling and persevering, Teng Hongchang finally encountered a bottleneck. His already bent back was completely broken.
He was unwilling to accept this, unwilling to accept the injustice of fate, unwilling to give up hope. He began searching for a way to break through this bottleneck, and finally, twenty years later, he gave up.
With his lifespan nearing its end, he ca to the mortal realm, wanting to see his forr ho, the wealthy rchant family he had built from scratch.
But upon arriving, he was t with sothing even more despairing: his mortal ho was destroyed.
The vast family he had painstakingly built over forty years had been squandered by his descendants in just over a decade, and all his descendants were dead.
Despairing and helpless, he finally encountered Xu Ning's coffin shop and entered.
Xu Ning shook his head and sighed. "Those without ability simply cannot grasp things that far surpass their capabilities. You didn't raise a decent descendant. This outco was inevitable."
Teng Hongchang nodded. "I know."
Xu Ning said, "Guest, I feel that you've actually let go completely."
Teng Hongchang smiled slightly. "I have. Besides, I'm not that family's biological child. All these years of hard work and effort were simply to repay my adoptive parents' kindness in raising ."
"I died at sixty, actually out of necessity. Because I was ostracized at ho."
Xu Ning sighed after hearing this. "You're a pitiful person too, sir."
Teng Hongchang suddenly laughed. "Hahaha! Indeed a pitiful person. Abandoned by my own parents in childhood, abandoned by my family in old age, and no one to bury before I died! My life was truly tragic."
Xu Ning's gaze was complicated. "Don't worry, sir, I promised you I would bury you."
Teng Hongchang said, "Then thank you."
Xu Ning nodded. "I took the money and did the work. There's no need for thanks."
In the following ti, Teng Hongchang began to tell Xu Ning his stories in the cultivation world.
When he spoke of sad things, tears stread down his face. When he spoke of happy things, he couldn't help but smile.
Xu Ning listened attentively, nodding occasionally, without interrupting.
Teng Hongchang talked for two days and two nights.
Two days later, in the afternoon, the sun was setting.
The golden-red sunlight shone on Teng Hongchang, making him look radiant.
He smiled at Xu Ning. "Young friend, it's been such a long, long ti since I've spoken so freely!"
"Oh right, I forgot to choose a coffin. But it's alright. You can choose one for ."
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With that, Teng Hongchang took out a storage bag from his robes and slowly placed it on the table. "This is my paynt."
Xu Ning was taken aback. "The guest recognized as a cultivator?"
After all, only cultivators could open storage bags, so the fact that the other party had given him a storage bag ant he had recognized Xu Ning's identity as a cultivator.
Teng Hongchang smiled and nodded gently, then slowly closed his eyes.
Xu Ning quickly stepped forward and grasped Teng Hongchang's hand.
A flash of spiritual root light entered Xu Ning's body.
The setting sun still shone on Teng Hongchang, as if his body was glowing.
Xu Ning didn't open the storage bag to check. Instead, he went out to buy several sets of burial clothes. Upon returning, he shaved Teng Hongchang's hair and beard and gave him a bath.
Finally, he dressed him in the burial clothes and placed him in the coffin.
Xu Ning chose a flip-top coffin for Teng Hongchang so that if the deceased were to rise from the dead, it would be easy to open the lid.
Sotis, Xu Ning felt deeply gratified by his own thoughtfulness.
After closing the lid, Xu Ning lit incense and candles, then took out a wooden fish. "Since I have obtained your spiritual root, I will grant you a ritual for the deceased."
After saying this, Xu Ning struck the wooden fish and began to chant, "Swimming on the phone in the middle of the night is inhuman, but putting down the phone makes my heart race..."
Xu Ning had read many books, including many Buddhist scriptures, many of which contained sutras for the deceased's salvation. He was simply reciting one at random.
That night, the coffin shop remained open, the candlelight flickering within.
The next day, Xu Ning got up to prepare for the burial, only to find a middle-aged woman standing before the coffin.
Xu Ning asked in confusion, "Sir! What brings you here?"
The woman turned around and asked softly, "Are you a descendant of Teng Hongchang?"
Xu Ning shook his head. "No, I'm the owner of a coffin shop. This custor entrusted with burying him."
The woman didn't speak after hearing this but slowly turned her head to look at the coffin, tears unconsciously streaming down her face.
"That heartless man, he wouldn't accept even in death! What is it about that I'm so bad?" the middle-aged woman said, her voice trembling with sobs.
Xu Ning sighed after hearing this. "He had his concerns. It's probably not that you're not good enough for him, but that he felt unworthy of you."
The woman shook her head. "No, he was a good man. He was both scholarly and martial, efficient in his work, and tactful in his speech."
Xu Ning nodded gently, then took out a storage bag left by Teng Hongchang and handed it to her. "This is sothing the custor left behind. Perhaps there's sothing he left for you inside."
Xu Ning hadn't had a chance to open this storage bag yet, but he figured there wouldn't be much inside.
He could roughly guess the financial situation of an ordinary cultivator who had struggled for many years, so he wasn't too curious.
The woman quickly took Xu Ning's storage bag, opened it, and after searching for a while, a large stack of letters appeared in her hand.
"Xu Qionggui, are these letters for ?" The woman looked at the handwriting on the envelopes and couldn't help but read aloud.
"Xu Qionggui, I saw the letter you sent , I was so happy… This, this isn't for , it's a reply to my previous letter!" The woman read halfway through, then hurriedly flipped through the pile of letters.
She discovered that there were more than twenty letters from Xu Qionggui to Teng Hongchang, and on each one was a reply from Teng Hongchang, which he had simply never sent.
As she flipped through the letters, tears stread down Xu Qionggui's face.
Xu Ning said, "Guest, please sit down and read."
Xu Qionggui nodded sowhat absentmindedly, followed Xu Ning to the table, and sat down to read.
As Xu Qionggui murmured, he roughly understood the story.
After entering the world of cultivation, Teng Hongchang unintentionally saved Xu Qionggui, and thus their bond was ford.
Xu Ning had heard Teng Hongchang recount this process before, but he hadn't ntioned the details.
The later part was that Xu Qionggui had fallen for Teng Hongchang after that incident and frequently wrote to him.
However, in Teng Hongchang's eyes, Xu Qionggui was a privileged young woman, while he was an adopted son abandoned in childhood and old age. Although he also liked Xu Qionggui and replied to every letter, he always felt unworthy of her, and ultimately, he never sent any of his replies.
After reading the letter, Xu Qionggui sat there for a long ti before looking up at Xu Ning and asking, "Can I see him one last ti?"
Xu Ning nodded and replied, "Sure!"
With that, Xu Ning stood up, led Xu Qionggui to the coffin, and opened the lid.
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