Very few people came to Yu Ruohuan’s funeral.

First, the Yu family had fallen, and people were desperate to stay away; second, Yu Ruohuan had done so many evil things while alive that no one wanted to have anything to do with her after her death.

Wei Zhuhua was kind and charitable, the only normal person in the Yu family; most of those who came to offer condolences were from her network.

Dressed in somber black, Wei Zhuhua knelt before the mourning hall, mechanically tossing foil paper spirit money into the brazier, as if her soul had been hollowed out.

The relatives and friends who came to pay their respects saw this scene and let out a deep sigh.

Parents with white hair sending off children with black hair has always been one of the great tragedies of the human world.

Shen You’an and Yan Lu stepped into the mourning hall, and the first thing that came into view was the huge black-and-white portrait in the center.

Wei Zhuhua had not arranged a special portrait for Yu Ruohuan; this photo had been selected from her studio shots.

The girl’s makeup was exquisite, and there was an innate arrogance between her brows; the look in her eyes toward the camera was like that of someone in high position looking down at ants, inexplicably unsettling.

The black-and-white tones stripped the girl of her radiance, casting a shadow over her entire being, a shadow that also fell upon the hearts of all who looked at the photo.

No matter how many grievances there had been, at this moment, faced with this black-and-white portrait, they all dissolved into nothing.

The dead are gone like a lamp going out.

According to custom, Shen You’an and Yan Lu went forward to offer incense and observe a moment of silence to the family.

"Ms. Wei, my condolences."

Wei Zhuhua raised her head with difficulty. Seeing the girl in black standing before her, she struggled to stand. She had been kneeling too long; when she suddenly got up, her body trembled and she toppled to the side without warning.

Shen You’an reacted quickly and helped her up.

Once Wei Zhuhua was steady, she thanked her softly.

She had cried too much; her voice was already hoarse.

"Thank you, Miss Shen, for putting past grievances aside and coming to send Huanhuan on her last journey."

"I heard she passed away from a sudden heart attack?"

Wei Zhuhua sighed. Though only a few days had passed since they last met, she looked as if she had aged ten years, her temples covered in frost.

"Yes. I’d actually been mentally prepared for it, but I didn’t expect the day would still come so soon. Perhaps it’s for the best— the doctor said she didn’t suffer when she passed. No matter how much money I spent to keep her alive, it would only be to keep her in this world to suffer. I can only hope that the merits I’ve accumulated for her in this life will allow her to be reborn into a good family in the next, so she won’t have to endure more hardship and sin."

The sincere, wholehearted love of a mother was laid bare.

"I hope so too."

After Yu Ruohuan was buried and the first seven days had passed, Shen You’an heard that Wei Zhuhua had become a nun.

Her daughter was dead, her cold-hearted husband was in prison, and her own family was locked in vicious infighting over利益; she no longer had any attachments in this world. She had lived a life already brilliant enough; now that she had come to this point, there was nothing she could not put down.

As for which temple she went to, no one knew. From then on she stayed away from the mortal world, keeping company with ancient buddhas and ever-burning lamps.

This brief life, however you live it, amounts to the same; whether she was the proud eldest miss of the Wei family, the high-and-mighty mistress of the Yu family, or some ascetic practicing austerity in a remote mountain, she was still herself.

A soul is tempered again and again in the human world: either amid blazing prosperity and boiling oil, or in poverty and cold, battered by bitter wind and rain. People are divided into ranks and classes, but on the day one reaches the end of life, no matter what status one had while alive, in that moment, all are equal, without exception.

If one were to say that Wei Zhuhua had figured things out and let go, Shen You’an did not think so.

She went to practice, still in hopes of accumulating merit for the deceased Yu Ruohuan, to cleanse her karmic debts and pray for a better next life.

And is that not another kind of obsession?

But in a lifetime, who can be without obsessions?

Shen You’an herself was no exception. Since her rebirth, she had been striving tirelessly— was that not also for that sliver of obsession in her heart?

After Shen You’an and Rong Xianning turned down Weekend High, the special Travelogue collaboration fell through.

This made the Weekend High production team extremely dissatisfied, and they repeatedly put pressure on Lu Hao, the director of Travelogue.

Lu Hao was quite impatient, but the producer of Weekend High was a station leader with extensive connections and not someone to offend lightly. Still, Lu Hao himself was an experienced director with several hit variety shows under his belt, so others didn’t dare offend him easily either.

Since Shen You’an and Rong Xianning had refused, what could he do?

Those two were both top students in university, and they were preparing for their final exams. Could he really barge in at such a time and mess with their studies? How would that make him look as a person?

Chen Shucheng turned it down as well.

In the end, it was Zhou Qing and Liang Ruofan who went on Weekend High— partly to promote Travelogue, and partly to promote their own new films. After all, Weekend High was a highly popular variety show with great national reach, an excellent promotional platform. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Although after Travelogue aired, the CP of Shen You’an and Rong Xianning blew up in an unbelievable way, sharp-eyed viewers would notice that the show actually had another CP hidden within it.