章 79: The willow tree

She was buried beneath a willow tree.

Yuan Xuelan remembered it to be a calm and scenic spot; a little glade in the midst of dense shrubbery. The morning light fell past the canopy, dotting the ground with leaf-shaped shadows. It was Cao Hong's secret place, where she would go to escape the mean rumors that compared her to her husband's late wife. In that peaceful spot, they laid her to rest in the midst of winter. Yuan Xuelan never imagined that such a sacred place could be disrupted of its divine tranquility.

And yet.

As they approached the resentful energy only grew thicker and thicker. Dread was awry in his soul and Yuan Xuelan said nothing, only watching Liu Sumeng's white-clad shoulders walk on ahead of him.

But a part of him already understood the thing that he didn't wish to understand. Liu Sumeng peeled away the last of the foliage that shrouded their view of the glade.