Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space-Chapter 640 - 517: Funeral

Early the next morning, at the old Zhou family’s ancestral home in Zhou Family Village, many women and elderly came to pay their respects.

The wind had been howling since midnight. Now, the sky was clear, the wind stopped, and the snow ceased. Several superstitious women muttered that good people receive their due rewards, even the heavens smile upon them.

Mrs. Zhou, born Huang, was kind-hearted and returned to Zhou Family Village after recovering many villagers in her early years. Many women came to bid her farewell, having once received her kindness.

Despite the bad reputation of the old Zhou family, the villagers who received her kindness still remembered Mrs. Zhou’s goodwill silently, standing outside the old house, planning to see her off.

Even if the ordinary people were illiterate, they had their own principles. They despised the old Zhou family and were disdainful of coexisting with them, yet they still stood outside.

Zhou Xiaocun, draped in mourning clothes, led with his eldest son, followed by the remaining sons, grandsons, and granddaughters-in-law of the old Zhou family, then Aunt Zhou and her husband, followed by their children and grandchildren.

The mourners followed the hearse, the procession heading toward the mountains.

On this day, Mrs. Zhou, who had experienced a lifetime of ups and downs, departed from this world.

And the absence of Zhou Xiaozheng and his daughter made everyone understand once again that the only good person in the old Zhou family had left, and the two families had reached an irreconcilable point.

Less than a month later, not far from Mrs. Zhou’s new grave, another solitary grave appeared. It’s unknown what the old Zhou family was thinking, knowing the discord between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, yet still placing them so close.

Compared to Mrs. Zhou’s long-held mourning hall, Huang Zhaodi’s funeral was conducted silently.

The day after the notification, Huang Zhaodi’s body was secretly transported back to the old house by Zhou Xiaocun, accompanied by his eldest son.

The once plump body of Huang Zhaodi, now reduced to just skin and bones—her cause of death unknown, yet it wasn’t hard for Zhou Xiaocun to see that his wife was starved to death.

The four sons glared angrily at their father. They couldn’t understand why their monthly saved portion of food made their sacrificial mother so thin.

Thinking of Zhou Xiaocun’s widow mistress, of that woman’s fair and rosy face, how could they not know where their food went?

Their mother, no matter her faults, her greed was for them. To Zhou Lidong and his three brothers, their mother brought shame, but wasn’t it also maternal love?

The four brothers, tears brimming, pushed aside their father Zhou Xiaocun, stood opposite him, while their three sisters-in-law disdainfully cleaned Huang Zhaodi’s remains.

Faced with his sons’ anger, Zhou Xiaocun, momentarily speechless, could only remain silent.

He had indeed supported the pretty widow, even almost considered marrying her. But he hadn’t given up on Huang Zhaodi, she was his wife, the mother of his four sons—dared he?

He wasn’t a foolish man. Compared to the pretty widow, Huang Zhaodi was wholeheartedly devoted to him. Once, they had loved each other, even if his wife aged and lost her beauty, he never thought of abandoning her while alive.

But now, explaining that he truly gave food coupons to his wife, would they believe it? They wouldn’t! It was Mrs. Zhou secretly supplementing them, and now there’s no evidence after her death.

And where did Mrs. Zhou get the food coupons?

It was given by that bastard and that fool from the Old Zhang’s family.

Zhou Xiaocun suspected again, was this a trap set by the son-in-law and father-in-law? Perhaps even the pretty widow’s seduction was part of their scheme from the start?

"You’re not worthy to be our father!"

Zhou Xiaocun listened to his eldest son’s angry shout. He gave a bitter smile, and said hollowly, "If I said I never intended to abandon your mother, would you believe me?"

"If I said I never wronged your mother, would you believe me?"

The eldest, Zhou Lidong, with a cold face, "If you have the guts, say it to my mother... That you didn’t fool around, that you worried about her day and night, that you never sneaked into someone else’s house in the dead of night."

Zhou Xiaocun glanced at all four sons, seeing four pairs of resentful eyes, his heart wracked with pain. These were his good sons, who had no understanding of a man’s natural needs and had utterly disgraced him before their wives.

At that moment, he thought of his mother. She would stuff money and food coupons into his pockets, even when he treated her coldly.

Mother, is this karma?

Zhou Xiaocun sat powerlessly on a chair, bowing his head in silence.

Seeing this, Zhou Lidong and his brothers ignored him and began discussing funeral arrangements.

The four brothers tacitly avoided mentioning how they retrieved their criminal mother’s body. Their only thought was to bury her peacefully before the clan could object.

"Second brother and the fourth stay with mother, I’ll go with the third to dig the grave. We’ll send mother off tomorrow at a good hour."

The second brother, Zhou Lixi, shook his head in objection, "The kids didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to their grandma. You’re the eldest; you should stay with her spirit. We’ll go, the three of us."

After hearing this, Zhou Lidong no longer objected, nodded, and watched them leave. He waved off his wife and sisters-in-law, quietly leaning against the cabinet, gazing at Huang Zhaodi’s remains.

He still remembered when he was young... his mother wasn’t as unreasonable as later. She would softly hold him, humming songs, finding every way to ensure he lived as well as others.

After his siblings were born, his mother would tell him she still favored him the most because he was the eldest son of the Zhou family, and everything would be his in the future.

And then? He remembered—it was when that pretty and generous young aunt appeared, and his father gradually became dissatisfied with his mother. Especially, their hurtful words, saying he could never match his uncle, was because of his mother’s dragging.

Then, everything changed...

The love for money turned his mother into greed, and she became insecure while rapidly gaining weight. His father, meanwhile, started staying out at night, ignoring them.

The once gentle mother finally became fierce, knocking his father down repeatedly. After that, it seemed physical force conquered all, and the home began to return to normal.

With his uncle’s death, a pretty and obedient little baby came to the family. Once again, everything changed, his mother finally became a tool for his grandfather and father.

This tool directed her wrath from the young aunt to the baby. They succeeded, but his mother became unrecognizable, unable to return to her former self.

His mother told them the baby’s mother was a slut, causing their father to stop loving them. How did he think back then? Oh, he remembered...

All the mistakes started from that day.

His mother was ruined by the old Zhou family, ruined by the old Huang family. Her family and in-laws joined forces, forcing her into a vicious creature.

Recollecting this, Zhou Lidong moved to Huang Zhaodi’s body, holding her hand, attempting to warm the cold hand with his own.

His mother, foolishly used her whole life, left with a bad name, without even a spare coffin, let alone a grand funeral.

In the early morning, the four brothers wrapped Huang Zhaodi’s body in a new mat, with their wives in tow, braved freezing rain, avoiding passersby, and buried their mother’s body.

If not for a few firecrackers, the newly added solitary grave would have gone unnoticed.

And upon learning of the "criminal" Huang Zhaodi joining the ancestral grave, the Zhou family clan was furious, yet helpless—they could not truly abandon the coffin and the body.