She Only Cares About Cultivation
Chapter 129 - 90s Cook 129 (Fifth Update)

Chapter 129: 90s Cook 129 (Fifth Update)

The old man was now completely immobile, only able to ingest liquid food. Although this room was not an ICU of later generations, all the patients here were in similar critical condition, barely clinging to life with liquid nourishment. He couldn’t speak, but his eyes conveyed too much. He likely knew his days were numbered, so when he saw only her come over—Gong’s mother not by his side—he made questioning sounds.

Gong Mingxia fetched some hot water and used a towel to apply heat to his legs, speaking while she did so.

"Father, Mom’s tired. She fell asleep at the place I’m renting. Don’t worry, I’ll stay with you tonight. I won’t leave you both during this time. I’ll make you lots of delicious food to make up for all the years I’ve neglected you."

The deeply sunken eyes of Mr. Gong slowly shook his head, seemingly saying that it wasn’t she who owed them anything; it was they, as parents, who owed her.

Gong Mingxia believed the only thing her father couldn’t let go of was their mother. So, she shared her future plans with him, even telling him that she was now well-off, not lacking money. Even if Mom passed away, she wouldn’t suffer any hardships, and the responsibilities for their twilight years she’d take on herself. She talked of their eventual joint burial and the like...

Mr. Gong had reached this point and already knew his own end. The real pain was not being able to voice his thoughts. But after Gong Mingxia made arrangements for all the worries he couldn’t let go of, Mr. Gong’s lips indeed revealed an unprecedented smile of relief.

A week later, Mr. Gong ended his hardworking life in his sleep.

His body was transported from the hospital back to the village in a vehicle, stopping in the yard of the elderly couple’s home. Gong Mingxia wanted to hold a grand funeral, but Gong’s mother refused.

"Let’s not, child. I know you want to give your father a grand send-off, but he had to borrow quite a bit due to the lack of money for medical treatments before his death. Holding a big funeral now would seem ironic. He was frugal all his life; let’s let him go simply and peacefully."

At this time, burials in the rural areas were generally done in the earth, and Gong Mingxia complied with her mother’s final insistence.

After the burial, Gong Mingxia found the families who had lent money to her parents. She not only knelt down to repay the debts but also gave each family an interest of 10 to 100 yuan, depending on the amount lent, totaling over 23,000 yuan, all paid by her alone, including all the expenses for the burial, amounting to seven or eight thousand yuan.

Mother and daughter handled the funeral arrangements for their father on their own. Neither sought money from nor asked for help from their other siblings. Though they wanted to help, they were turned away by both mother and daughter. As such, all the condolence money was collected by Gong’s mother.

The condolence money wasn’t much, amounting to about one thousand yuan, representing the various gifts their parents had given over the years.

As for the costs, because it was summer, they had to rent an ice coffin. Despite saying they wanted a simple funeral, they didn’t skip any steps until the very end, and it didn’t save any expenses either.

From her return until now, with the repayment of debts, funeral, and hospital expenses, she had spent over 40,000 yuan. Gong’s mother would tell anyone who would listen that it was all paid by her daughter. Regarding her son and the orphan, not a word was mentioned again.

Only after the funeral was over did Gong’s mother gather her children around and pointed to everything in the elderly couple’s home.

"Your father is gone. There’s not much use for these things for me anymore. Whatever you have taken a liking to, just take it. The debts left by your father, you don’t need to carry. The house he left behind, none of you see any value in it either. The land that belonged to both your father and I, just divide it amongst yourselves; growing some vegetables will suffice. As for me, I’ll be leaving with Mingxia tomorrow and won’t trouble you anymore. I won’t ask for any more money for my old age, and you don’t need to come looking for us either. In this life, that’€™s it! Go now, all of you, go..."