The next day was the Qingming Festival, so school was out for a day.

In truth, kids their age didn’t have the custom of tomb-sweeping; that was usually left to the family elders.

Even Xue Rui himself had never personally swept a tomb. With his family’s elders still alive and well, it wasn’t his place to do so.

But that was normal. Who would expect a child to have any feelings for a deceased person they’d never even met?

So when it came to Qingming tomb-sweeping, it didn’t matter to Xue Rui whether he went or not.

But Lin Ruoxi was different. She was the last of her family line, so the responsibility of tomb-sweeping naturally fell to her.

The group was riding in a white Jetta. Xue Rui sat in the passenger seat, while Grandma and Lin Ruoxi were in the back with fruit, Netherworld Currency, and other such items beside them.

Yu Minlan was driving.

"This car must’ve cost a pretty penny," Xue Rui commented casually. ’What’s a girl who hasn’t even graduated yet doing buying a car?’ he wondered.

And she was waiting downstairs from Lin Ruoxi’s apartment first thing in the morning, like a damn full-time chauffeur.

’If she had this kind of foresight, would she really be getting ostracized at the bank?’

Xue Rui guessed her father must have told her to do it.

Yu Minlan smiled. "It wasn’t that much. My dad told me to buy it."

After her father had met Xue Rui, he had repeatedly drilled into her that when she met a benefactor like him, she had to cherish the opportunity. Buying a car would make it easier to run errands for him.

Yu Minlan thought it was a good suggestion, too. The car only cost half of her last commission, so in a way, it was a gift from her benefactor.

And now it was already proving useful, as she could drive the two of them to the village for tomb-sweeping.

...

A drizzling rain falls on the Mourning Day; the mourners’ hearts are breaking on their way.

Xue Rui opened the car window, enjoying the rare moment of tranquility as his mind went blank.

The early spring suburbs were beautiful. After the rain, the village was lush and green, carrying with it the faint, earthy scent of the soil.

Xue Rui glanced in the rearview mirror and happened to meet Lin Ruoxi’s gaze. Their eyes locked in the reflection.

"Who are you going back to burn offerings for?" Xue Rui chuckled. ’It wasn’t a coincidence at all. This little girl loves to stare at me whenever she has nothing to do.’

It was starting to give him a mysterious sense of confidence. ’Could it be that I was handsome when I was young?’

Xue Rui flipped down the vanity mirror on the passenger-side sun visor to take a look. He shook his head repeatedly. His looks were just average. Factoring in his height, he was barely above average at best.

"To burn offerings for Grandpa, and Mom and Dad," Lin Ruoxi said softly.

With Grandma right there, Xue Rui didn’t feel it was right to ask Lin Ruoxi what she thought of that scumbag.

The car slowly drove into Hua Village, and the familiar scenery appeared before Xue Rui’s eyes once more.

Everything was just as it had been yesterday; the scenery in Hua Village hadn’t changed at all.

"Sister Yu, it’s a dirt road around the bend. We won’t be able to drive on it since it just rained," Lin Ruoxi said.

The long stretch of road ahead was all dirt. The surface would be slippery and wet after the rain, and the wheels would sink into the mud. She had even seen a tractor get stuck in it.

Xue Rui was about to say they could make it. He had noticed last year that Lin Ruoxi and Grandma had come back from burning offerings with their shoes caked in mud, and he’d figured there must be a stretch of dirt road.

After the New Year, he had made a special trip to circle around Hua Village and discovered a section of the road that hadn’t been paved.

He figured that since Lin Ruoxi had basically been raised by the whole village and had so much cash on hand with no good investment channels, he might as well donate money for a road in Hua Village in her name. It cost two hundred thousand yuan.

Of course, the main reason was to make it more convenient for Lin Ruoxi and Grandma to visit the graves in the future.

Two months had passed since then, and Village Chief Hua had called a while ago to say the construction was complete.

"Let’s just stop here," Xue Rui said.

He saw Village Chief Hua at the intersection, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he chatted with someone. Xue Rui decided to get out and say hello, and also to check on how the road was built and see if they had cut any corners.

"Well, well, if it isn’t Boss Xue! You’re finally here. Everyone in the village has been talking about how we need to thank you properly," Village Chief Hua said with a smile, offering him a cigarette.

Xue Rui accepted it with a smile. The filter was very firm; one touch told him it was a HETIANXIA cigarette. It was probably from the ones he had gifted...

But when he made the donation, he had specifically asked to keep a low profile and to only write Lin Ruoxi’s name. So why were all these villagers only thanking him?

A man standing to the side said in surprise, "So this is Boss Xue? He’s so young."

Li Jiansheng also saw Xue Rui from a distance and came forward with a beaming smile to greet him.

Xue Rui thought to himself, ’This guy is really honest. He doesn’t even hold a grudge about the land contract thing.’

"Boss Xue, you’ve done our village a huge favor. It was hard to raise the funds for the road, but since you put up the lion’s share, it was much easier for the rest of the villagers to chip in," Village Chief Hua said.

"That’s right. Sometimes the buyers’ big trucks couldn’t get in, and the villagers had to carry their produce to the main road on their backs," Li Jiansheng said cheerfully. His family’s orchard had also benefited.

"Lin Ruoxi provided the money. She was the one who wanted to donate," Xue Rui said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Is that so?" Village Chief Hua’s eyes went wide. He had seen the name on the bank transfer—it was indeed Lin Ruoxi.

But he couldn’t possibly imagine that a village girl who had been in the city for just over a year could become wealthy enough to donate two hundred thousand yuan.

He had always assumed that Xue Rui had taken a fancy to Lin Ruoxi and had paid for the village road because of her.

’Could it be that Lin Ruoxi actually has some relatives on her mother’s side? That’s not what my inquiries turned up...’

But it didn’t matter who paid for it anymore. The important thing was that he had gotten the road built. The villagers respected him even more now, and they would definitely vote for him again next time.

Moreover, when the higher-ups came for an inspection a while back, they had specifically praised him, taken lots of photos, and said they wanted to make him a model for all the villages in the township to follow.

When had he ever *not* been chewed out at a meeting? But last time, they had actually praised him in front of all the township leaders...

"Boss Xue, don’t be in a rush to leave. Let us treat you to lunch," a man said.

"We’ll see. I’m going to accompany Grandma to sweep the tombs first," Xue Rui said with a wave, then caught up to Lin Ruoxi.

When they reached the bend in the road, he found Lin Ruoxi staring blankly at a stone stele.

"Is that me?" Lin Ruoxi asked, tilting her head.

Because Grandma was illiterate, she didn’t look at a single character on the merit stele. Instead, she stared blankly at the clusters of graves in the distance.

Xue Rui moved closer to look and was surprised to find his own name on the stele as well, right next to Lin Ruoxi’s...

He was a little surprised that Hua Village had actually erected a merit stele for the road.

Because they had donated the largest amount, his and Lin Ruoxi’s names were listed side-by-side on the top row, all by themselves.

Below them were the densely packed names of the villagers, followed by amounts of a few hundred yuan, or a thousand at most. But next to his and Lin Ruoxi’s names, it read "one hundred thousand yuan each."

"That’s right. That two hundred thousand I had you transfer a while back, this is where it went," Xue Rui said.

"Mm, thank you." The corners of Lin Ruoxi’s eyes crinkled. Behind her, white apricot blossoms bloomed by the roadside, making her look even more beautiful and captivating.

Xue Rui was momentarily stunned. Back in her home village, Lin Ruoxi was a bit more lively than usual. Especially when she smiled, it was as if she had become one with nature.

"So beautiful," Xue Rui praised.

"Fair of face, she needs no paint to charm all men..." Yu Minlan murmured, lost in a daze. Lin Ruoxi was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.

Xue Rui’s brow twitched. "Could you say a little less? You’re making me look uncultured."

"Yes, Boss Xue." Yu Minlan quickly shut her mouth.

"Xixi, are you here for tomb-sweeping today? Such a filial child," a passing woman said with a smile.

"Hello, Aunt Li. I’m here to burn offerings," Lin Ruoxi replied openly.

She hadn’t been back to the village in a long time and curiously sized up the newly paved concrete road.

Xue Rui also examined the road’s surface. ’Village Chief Hua is a capable man,’ he thought. ’This road is a full six or seven meters wide. It must have taken up a lot of the villagers’ land.’

He knew from experience that once land disputes were involved, it was perfectly normal for things to drag on for three to five years. But Village Chief Hua had actually managed to persuade the villagers in just a few days...

From the time he donated the money to when Village Chief Hua called to say it was finished, less than a month had passed. The speed was simply absurd.

Xue Rui mused, ’I guess there are advantages to having a tyrannical village chief. It certainly saves a lot of trouble.’

"Let’s go. We both earned a hundred thousand merit points today," Xue Rui said with a mischievous grin. It was his first time being on a list like this.

"What are merit points?" Lin Ruoxi asked.

Xue Rui was stumped. ’What *are* merit points?’

"I think it’s sort of like money, but I don’t know where you can spend it."

"Hmm..." Lin Ruoxi also fell into deep thought.

...

The group walked along the smooth, clean road. Every now and then, Xue Rui would pluck a colorful morning glory from the roadside and stick it in Lin Ruoxi’s hair.

As for Lin Ruoxi, she didn’t react at all, simply letting Xue Rui play around beside her.

Xue Rui found it terribly boring. It made him feel like *he* was the child.

Lin Ruoxi had the innocent heart of a child, yet she also carried the mature composure of a mother hen...

Still, being with Lin Ruoxi allowed him to clear his mind. He didn’t have to think about anything, nor did he need to go out of his way to manage the little girl’s emotions.

The group arrived at the village’s public cemetery. A small stretch of the path inside had also been paved, so none of them got any mud on their shoes.

The burial customs in the rural parts of Hedong were different from other places. People liked to plant trees on the graves, mostly willows and pines.

As a result, the entire cemetery felt gloomy and was shrouded in the unique mist that follows a rain shower.

Yu Minlan shivered. She found the atmosphere here strange, with people in mourning clothes occasionally coming in to burn offerings.

Lin Ruoxi and Grandma, however, were used to it. Grandma took out a cloth and wiped down the tombstone, while Lin Ruoxi pulled weeds from beside the grave mound.

Xue Rui walked over and asked quietly, "Do you hate your father?"

Lin Ruoxi didn’t speak, just gave a faint shake of her head.

Xue Rui sighed helplessly. ’How could Lin Ruoxi ever hate someone? She’s like an angel sent from heaven to redeem the world.’

’But does a scumbag like that even deserve to have Lin Ruoxi sweep his tomb?’

Xue Rui smacked his lips. He felt this bastard was getting treated far too well.

He could just imagine it: a cute little eight or nine-year-old Lin Ruoxi having to cook for this bastard every single day.

The thought made him grind his teeth in anger...

As large handfuls of Netherworld Currency finished burning, Xue Rui asked, "Are you done?"

"Done." Lin Ruoxi dusted off her hands and started packing up the things they had brought.

"You take Grandma and go on ahead. I have something to say to them," Xue Rui said, motioning for Yu Minlan to lead the other two away.

Lin Ruoxi’s beautiful, almond-shaped eyes filled with confusion. ’Is Xue Rui going to talk to the graves? Like how Grandma sometimes murmurs to them?’

’But Xue Rui doesn’t know anyone here. What could he possibly say?’

Yu Minlan spoke up. "My guess is, he wants to have a chat with your departed elders, to show his sincerity."

She watched a lot of romantic TV dramas, and the male leads always did this. They would go to the graves of the female lead’s deceased relatives and make promises like, "I’ll take care of her for the rest of her life, so please rest assured."

Yu Minlan thought Xue Rui was just so romantic.

But she felt it wasn’t quite right that Xue Rui hadn’t brought anything, so she went to the small shop at the village entrance and bought him a bottle of baijiu. The ceremony had to be done right.

"You all wait here for me. I’ll be right back."

However, when Yu Minlan returned to the cemetery, she found Xue Rui urinating on Lin Ruoxi’s father’s tombstone while munching on the fruit offerings he’d taken from the grave mound.

"You old fossil, I earned a hundred thousand merit points today, so I’m here to spend some on you." As he spoke, Xue Rui spat apple pulp onto the tombstone, dirtying the very stone that Grandma had just wiped clean. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Boss Xue, this isn’t very appropriate," Yu Minlan said, her face flushing red.

She never could have imagined that Xue Rui was the complete opposite of what she’d thought! He was actually here to piss on someone’s grave!

"The hell, you scared me!" Xue Rui cursed as he pulled up his pants.

"Aren’t you afraid of provoking something unclean?" Yu Minlan asked, swallowing nervously as she looked at the gloomy surroundings of the cemetery.

"This is virgin pee. It’s the perfect cure for evil spirits," Xue Rui said with a grin.

"Er..."

"I’d love for him to come looking for me. Then I can find a Daoist to exorcise him for good," Xue Rui said with a wicked grin, revealing his white teeth.

Yu Minlan’s eyes went vacant. "TV dramas are all lies..."