Chapter 349: Ritual Money is a Good Thing
The next day, the rain continued intermittently, the wet and cold weather adding a desolate chill to the small town.
Purple Summers and Aria Jackson bought umbrellas at the supermarket, then went to nearby shops to purchase some ritual ingots and money before heading up the mountain.
The mountain road was rugged, usually quite flat, but once it rained, it became muddy and slippery, making it extremely difficult to walk.
In remote rural cemeteries, unlike formal ones with registered names and maps, they could only follow the mountain road, searching in concentric circles.
They searched for a while without any success.
However, since Gavin Graves told Purple that this was the place, it must be correct.
Purple thought about this, but decided not to worry, and since she was already there, she took the opportunity to visit her grandmother’s grave.
As they arrived at her grandmother’s grave, the two unexpectedly discovered a new tombstone beside it; Suzanne Saunders’s name was engraved on it!
“Suzanne, you’re here!” Aria exclaimed.
As soon as she spoke, she realized that she was wrong; she should have said: Your tomb is here!
Purple was also stunned.
Even with psychological preparation, seeing her tombstone suddenly still affected her deeply.
She never expected that the person responsible would have been so meticulous to bury her next to her own grandmother.
“He must know about your deep bond with your grandmother, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for him to do this!” Aria said in amazement, “From Clearwater to Cascadia, thousands of miles apart, what is this person trying to achieve? He went through all the trouble of retrieving your body from the river bottom and secretly burying you in Cascadia without informing your relatives!”
Suzanne’s only relative was her husband, Nathaniel Summers.
“He holds a prejudice against Nathaniel?!” Aria was still extremely astonished, “He loves you? …Then why didn’t he come to find you? Is he dead?!”
Purple looked up at Aria.
Aria realized she spoke thoughtlessly and fell silent; her words just now sounded as if she was deliberately cursing someone else to die.
Purple turned back, looking at her tombstone again. The inscription was very simple; only her name and the dates of her birth and death.
“If he’s not dead…he must be hiding.” Purple muttered to herself, staring at her tombstone, “…why hide?” Was there something hidden that she shouldn’t know about?
The drizzling rain fell on the gray tombstones, wet and gleaming.
Purple burned ritual money and ingots for her grandmother.
Pale smoke thinned out in the fine rain, and Purple threw ritual money into the rising flames one by one, whispering: “Grandmother, do you recognize me? I am Purple… Do you find it strange? Why wouldn’t your granddaughter look the same?”
She smiled softly, slightly self-mocking: “I accidentally took a wrong turn in the Palace of Hell, so now I’m alive again and look different than before. I’m no longer Suzanne; I’m called Purple Summers now.”
The ritual money burned to ashes in the fire, and a gust of wind sent the ashes spinning in the breeze.
Purple’s eyes were dark and quiet, her voice lower: “Grandmother, the person who killed me…was most likely Jade Carlson. I won’t let her off. I’ll make her suffer unattainable pains and taste the agony of having nowhere to escape, then leave her to regret in prison for the rest of her life…”
Jade robbed Purple of the opportunity to live as Suzanne in this world, and that was unforgivable.
The money finished burning, and the flames died down gradually, disappearing.
Purple raised her head, took a deep breath, smiled, and said to Aria at her side: “Ritual money is indeed a good thing, after burning it, the dead may not be able to use it, but the living can feel relieved.”
Aria let out a soft sigh, didn’t say anything, and patted Purple’s shoulder.