Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Having personally experienced two deadfall events and just finished reading "Jianghu Strange Records," Li Zhuiyuan originally expected that his next steps would be to continue striving to learn more about dealing with deadfalls.

It was like finishing the conceptual part of a course and then being given some formulas, and you would then see if you could find opportunities to use those formulas to solve problems.

But these two books he touched felt a bit like having just learned a tiny bit of one course, and then feeling like two new classes had been opened for him.

He turned his head to look at the box, hesitating whether to put these two sets of books back and touch again, but in his mind, his Great-grandfather's words from that evening reappeared:

"Little Yuan Marquis, you cannot aim too high, you must learn from the foundation up, solidly."

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head, forget it, since he already touched them, then he might as well read them.

After reading them, perhaps next time he could read physiognomy and tell fortunes for the deadfalls?

But this kind of self-comfort really couldn't withstand scrutiny.

Was he going to read faces for those deadfalls soaked into pig skin jelly?

Or tell fortunes for the little yellow warbler and the cat-faced old lady, saying, "Your fate is bad, you will die a horizontal death"?

With a complex and helpless mood, Li Zhuiyuan hugged the two sets of books and left the basement, heading upstairs to the second floor. Below, Liu Yumei's voice came:

"Little Yuan, come down and help Grandma make some tea."

Li Zhuiyuan looked down. There was a light bulb hanging at the entrance to the east room. Under the light bulb, Liu Yumei was sitting, with a tea set and a Go board placed beside her.

"Okay, Grandma Liu."

Li Zhuiyuan responded, and after putting the books on his desk in his bedroom, he took a towel to wipe the dust off his body and ran downstairs.

Even if Liu Yumei hadn't called him, he would have found a private time to talk to her about Uncle Qin teaching him martial arts.

Especially after touching these two sets of books, his idea of practicing martial arts became more urgent. Since the textbooks were off-topic, he could only choose extracurricular tutoring to catch up on progress.

"Grandma, have some tea."

"Mm."

After brewing the tea, Li Zhuiyuan sat down opposite Liu Yumei. He was not in a hurry to bring up his own matters, but waited for Liu Yumei to speak first, so that he could then seize the opportunity to make his request.

After all, who makes tea to drink before going to bed late at night for no reason?

However, just as Liu Yumei was about to speak, the door of the east room opened from the inside. Qin Li stood in the doorway, wearing a white silk pajama set that shone with luster under the light.

"A Li, go back to your room and rest first. Grandma and Little Yuan have some things to talk about."

Qin Li didn't move.

Liu Yumei could only signal to Li Zhuiyuan with her eyes.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Qin Li: "A Li, you go to sleep first. I will wake up early tomorrow to read."

Qin Li turned around and closed the door.

Liu Yumei sighed. The two of them were still children, so it didn't matter much, but if they waited until they were adults and her granddaughter was still so close to the boy in front of her, listening to his words, that might cause her a headache.

However, there was an urgent and painful problem before her that needed to be solved in a timely manner.

"Little Yuan, tomorrow, come into the room and pay respects to my family's memorial tablets."

"Mm?"

"Purely as a friendly visit."

"Okay, Grandma Liu."

It was like visiting a friend's house and seeing the elders in their home. If the elders had already become memorial tablets at home, it was still necessary to pay respects.

"Also, tell A Li to clean up those several dirty towels and that smelly duck egg."

"Towels?"

Li Zhuiyuan suddenly remembered. No wonder he had to find a new towel to wash and hang every evening these past few days. He was still wondering where the dirty towels went. It turned out they were all taken away by A Li.

But, what was a smelly duck egg?

Liu Yumei was somewhat ashamed to speak, but still had to grit her teeth and explain: "A Li has a habit of collecting things you send her at home. Perhaps I told her, or she thought so herself, that the spirit hall should be the place to put the most precious things. So, A Li put those several dirty towels there.

That duck egg should be the one you peeled for her during breakfast that day, and it's all smelly now.

Things that A Li puts up, I dare not touch, I'm afraid she'll get angry. Only you can help me clean them up.

In addition, also teach her not to put other things on the spirit hall in the future."

Having to ask outsiders for help to educate her own granddaughter, whom she had raised personally, Liu Yumei's heart was truly depressed.

But she had no choice but to say it, otherwise, every day when she spoke to the memorial tablets, she would have to endure the smell of the smelly duck egg.

It was fine for her, she only smelled it when she spoke, but the ancestors of the Qin and Liu families had to be fumigated all the time.

In addition, she was also afraid that A Li might put some new things in the spirit hall in the future. Recently, breakfast had been fish jelly head with porridge. She was really afraid that if she wasn't careful, A Li would bring a bowl of fish jelly head that she and Little Yuan had eaten home and place it in the main position of the spirit hall.

"I know, Grandma Liu, I'll come and pay respects to the memorial tablets tomorrow."

Li Zhuiyuan didn't ask why not go now? He knew that Grandma Liu didn't want A Li to feel that she was reporting and tattling.

"Mm, very good." Liu Yumei nodded in satisfaction. Her gaze fell on the Go board, "Look, do you like this Go board?"

Li Zhuiyuan carefully looked at the Go board. It was an old object from yesteryear. Smelling it closely, there was still a faint scent of sandalwood.

Especially the Go pieces, he grabbed several in his hand, they were round, smooth, and cool. Although the quality and luster were consistent, upon closer examination, one could still see a slight difference, meaning these Go pieces were not molded on an assembly line, but dropped using ancient methods.

"Grandma Liu, this is a good thing."

Li Zhuiyuan had already become somewhat immune to Liu Yumei occasionally taking out good objects.

At present, although the label of the "ten-thousand-yuan household" era had gradually faded, being able to so generously display such a family background in front of his eyes truly made people click their tongues.

"Seeing that you and A Li can play Go, I just dug this out for you to play. You can take it back to your own room later."

"Okay, I'll keep it for now then."

Liu Yumei nodded in satisfaction and was about to see him off, but heard Li Zhuiyuan say again:

"Grandma Liu, I have been weak and often ill since I was young, so I want to follow Uncle Qin to exercise my body."

Liu Yumei glanced at the boy in front of her. Although he was fair-skinned and not sturdy, he didn't look weak or often ill at all.

However, she immediately understood what the boy meant. In the past, she would have dismissed it with a few words without hesitation, but now she had just asked him for a favor...

Anyway, teaching him some kung fu or something didn't count as breaking the rules, and he wasn't teaching others.

"Okay, I'll go and tell your Uncle Qin."

"Thank you, Grandma."

"Come, let's play a game."

"Okay."

Being challenged by a child, Liu Yumei still felt a little uncomfortable in her heart. She originally didn't plan to play chess, but in the end, she couldn't help but have a game.

Then, she regretted it. Halfway through the game, she felt that her general trend was already gone.

At the beginning, Li Zhuiyuan had the idea that since he had gotten something for free, he might as well let Grandma Liu bully him a bit to vent her anger. He took it for granted that Qin Li's chess skills were all taught by Liu Yumei, and that he was definitely not a match for the old lady.

But as they played, he suddenly discovered that Grandma Liu's chess skills were not as good as his.

He relied on mental calculations with his brain power, barely counting as an amateur expert, while Liu Yumei was at most an amateur mid-level player.

"Grandma, I'm sleepy, how about we don't play anymore?"

"Mm, then you go to sleep."

"Okay."

Li Zhuiyuan stood up, packed up the Go pieces, and then hugged the Go board and went back upstairs.

Liu Yumei then walked into the room and came to the bedroom. Qin Li was closing her eyes, listening very obediently to the boy's words and sleeping.

Her face revealed a loving smile.

No matter what,

Her A Li's body was looking more and more like a little girl.

"Our A Li's illness will definitely be cured, definitely."

...

He came to the second-floor balcony and just happened to see Great-grandfather standing at the edge area, having just finished urinating, in the slightly shaky final stage.

"What are you hugging?"

"Grandma Liu lent me the Go board."

"You still need to be more focused, read more books, and study hard."

"I know, Great-grandfather."

"Mm, Ying Hou's family had an accident. She won't be coming during this period, you need to study hard on your own."

"What happened to Sister Ying Zi's family?"

"They say her maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother are both ill and lying in the health center. Ying Hou and her mother are taking care of them there."

Sister Ying Zi's maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother should be her maternal grandfather and maternal grandmother.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan understand why Sister Ying Zi hadn't come to find him for tutoring these past few days. According to reason, no matter how poor her comprehension ability was, she should have finished looking at the last topic long ago.

"Do we need to go visit?"

"Visit my foot, her mother's maternal home is in Jiuwei Port. You have to transfer several times by car. Moreover, if people are really not well, it's your grandfather who should go, what am I going to see?"

"Oh."

"Go back to your room and sleep early."

"Great-grandfather, do you have a magnifying glass here?"

"Magnifying glass?" Li Sanjiang thought for a moment, "Look in the groove on the stove platform, it's there. Before, I wanted to use it to light a fire, but later I found that it's not as good as matches. What do you want that thing for?"

"To read books."

The words in those two sets of books were really too small.

"Is this kid studying so hard that he needs to use a magnifying glass? Or, Great-grandfather will take you to the glasses store in town to get you a pair of glasses?

Forget it, the glasses store in town is probably not up to par. Great-grandfather will still take you by car to the city district's people's hospital to get them."

"No need, Great-grandfather, I just want to use it to look at some pictures. My eyes aren't nearsighted."

Li Zhuiyuan first went into the bedroom to put down the Go board, then ran downstairs to the kitchen. Indeed, he found a dust-covered magnifying glass in the groove of the stove platform. After cleaning it a bit, he went back to the bedroom and turned on the desk lamp.

The first thing he took out was "Yin Yang Physiognomy Detailed Explanation," a total of eight volumes.

He turned the page. There was no preface or foreword, not even an annotation for the first article. It went straight to the content.

Li Zhuiyuan held the magnifying glass and looked intently.

After continuously reading three pages of dense text, Li Zhuiyuan discovered that something was wrong.

These three pages had a very large word count, all lecturing on the same thing—eyebrows.

From the direction and angle of the eyebrows, their density and thickness, their length and color... a total of nearly a thousand types were lectured.

Starting from the fourth page, it began to lecture on eye bags.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't continue to look, but flipped forward two pages, and confirmed that it used two large pages to lecture on eye bags.

Next, it began to lecture on eyelids.

Vaguely, a guess arose in Li Zhuiyuan's heart... Although there was no annotation for the first article, the early stage lecturing was probably all related to the 'eye'?

But he had already lingered for so long, and unexpectedly it still only belonged to a part of the 'eye'.

Li Zhuiyuan flipped the book to the very end page and discovered that it was lecturing on crow's feet... still the eye.

Then, he took out the second book, looked at the front and then flipped the pages backward. Hmm, the first three pages were all lecturing on earlobes.

He flipped to the very end page again, and it was lecturing on the back of the ear.

He picked up the third volume. Using the same method, he quickly confirmed that he was not wrong. It was lecturing on the philtrum, which was the area between the lips and the nose.

So, the first four volumes were lecturing on: eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, respectively.

According to reason, the five senses refer to eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Here, it put eyebrows and eyes together in one volume and did not give eyebrows a separate volume.

It was still strangely good.

Skipping the basic concepts, Li Zhuiyuan took out the fifth volume and carefully looked at the first page... He didn't understand.

But he probably got a feeling. This seemed to be arranging combinations, and each combination was corresponded to a small segment of text explanation, and it was extremely concise.

The probable meaning was that space was limited, and many things were omitted. The reader should understand it themselves.

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his eyes. So, this was physiognomy?

Not that kind of fortune teller walking up to you and saying: "Your complexion is dark, you fear disaster recently."

According to the narrative logic of this book, it should be: Do you know how many arrangement combination options there are for the expressions in your complexion?

Li Zhuiyuan was very puzzled. It was clearly a book involving feudal superstition physiognomy, yet how could it exude a dense sense of scientific rigor?

How much energy did the author of this book put in, and how many people's physiognomy did they carefully observe?

No, it was impossible for one person to do it, not even a single sect.

If this book was not written blindly with eyes closed, then the author must have collected and examined how many related works and notes from predecessors to be able to summarize it.

Li Zhuiyuan flipped open the sixth book and seriously looked at the first page.

Fine sweat seeped from his forehead, and his earlobes were red. This was generally his performance when his brain was thinking quickly while solving problems.

After finishing the first page, he still didn't understand the content, but he understood the rules.

If the fifth book was based on the foundation of the first four volumes of eyes, ears, mouth, and nose for arrangement and combination, then the sixth book was based on the latter, the arrangement and combination of arrangement and combination.

If one could still pass by dead memorization up to the fifth book, then this sixth book already involved the level of mathematical calculation. The calculation amount was too large.

Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath and flipped open the seventh book.

This time, he read the first page very quickly because he was only confirming his guess.

Indeed, the seventh book was a further addition of code based on the sixth book. The difficulty of understanding and calculation was no longer a simple multiplication.

"Hoo..."

Li Zhuiyuan really wanted to go wash his face now, but after hesitating for a bit, he still flipped open the eighth book.

After finishing the first page of the eighth book, Li Zhuiyuan closed the book.

He leaned back in his chair.

He discovered he was wrong. Before, he was still puzzled why a book on feudal superstition could actually exude a sense of scientific rigor.

After flipping to the eighth book,

He saw mysticism.

The classification of eyes, ears, mouth, and nose in the first four volumes was very much like raw data, or perhaps called raw numbers. The fifth to seventh books were then the application of the raw numbers.

Using a perceptual metaphor, it could be compared to painting. You learn from the most basic points, lines, and surfaces, to paint a complete object, to arrange the structure, to combine light and shadow for three-dimensional perception...

When you can perfectly copy master paintings and paint excellent works, you are almost at the level of the seventh book.

This eighth book... just requires you to sense your own style, create a school, and become a master.

So, even if this book was real, ordinary people could only look at it. They fundamentally couldn't learn it, not to mention reaching the eighth book. First, you have to memorize over a thousand types of eyebrows well.

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze swept towards the set of "Fate Character Deduction Theory" beside him. Forget it, what's broken is broken.

He sat up straight again and flipped open the first volume. Yi, unexpectedly there was a preface.

Indeed, these two sets of books were by the same author, because the first sentence of the first line was: "After reading the previous work 'Yin Yang Physiognomy Detailed Explanation'."

Was this a necessary precondition?

Continuing to read, Li Zhuiyuan discovered that it wasn't. Fate character deduction required several conditions. One was physiognomy, one was astrology, and one was luck studies.

"Could it be that there are still two sets by the same author in the box that I didn't find?"

Soon, Li Zhuiyuan discovered he was wrong, because in the content of the preface, the author expressed regret that he only mastered physiognomy, but was already powerless to further research astrology and luck.

Or rather, astrology and luck were originally mutually inclusive and not separate classifications. In physiognomy and fate character, there were also sayings about astrology and luck.

According to the author's view, he felt that the true fate character deduction method should include these four major disciplines simultaneously to truly achieve perfection.

"That is to say, even after learning these four, the accuracy rate is only increased, and it still cannot be one hundred percent."

And the previous work on physiognomy was an auxiliary part that helped improve the accuracy rate of fate character deduction.

At the end of the preface, Li Zhuiyuan formally flipped to the first page of the content.

The first thing that appeared was a corner of a graphic. To be precise, this entire page was just a corner of a graphic, and the text was written inside the graphic.

Li Zhuiyuan quickly flipped through the pages, remembering the graphic on each page in his mind. After finishing the whole book, he started to piece together the puzzle in his brain. It was pieced together, but still incomplete, yet he could see what it was.

It was the Eight Trigrams.

So, these eight books, when pieced together, were just a complete Eight Trigrams.

And this set of books was actually... just a complete new algorithm.

At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan had an illusion. He was not living in his Great-grandfather's house in the countryside, but was back in the classroom in Beijing.

The old professors and this group of child students of theirs, after tormenting each other, revealed that sinister smile.

"It really feels like attending class and studying."

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the time and found that it was already one o'clock in the morning. He stood up and left the room to scoop out some water from the washbasin and washed his face.

After becoming refreshed, he also rekindled his fighting spirit:

"Study, study hard!"

...

In the morning, the sky was just dimly lit. Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes and looked to the side. He saw the light that shone into his bedroom earlier than the sun.

Qin Li was sitting on a chair, facing him.

This was probably so she wouldn't face him directly like last time and scare him when he woke up.

Today, she was wearing a jacket skirt set, meaning a jacket with a lining on the upper body and a skirt on the lower body.

The jacket had a dark green base with white patterns, and the skirt had a light green base embroidered with landscapes and flowers.

This made Li Zhuiyuan, who had been looking at books with a magnifying glass for half the night, feel particularly comfortable looking up.

After washing up, before breakfast started, Li Zhuiyuan brought out the Go board that Grandma Liu had given him last night, wanting to play Go with Qin Li.

But Qin Li looked at the normal-sized, precious Go board and hesitated to pick up the Go pieces.

"Don't you like it?"

Qin Li didn't speak.

Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to pack up this Go board and take out the simple plastic Go board that Uncle Qin had bought for him in town.

After setting it up, Qin Li immediately picked up the Go pieces and placed them.

After losing three games in a row, Li Zhuiyuan somewhat missed the confrontation with Grandma Liu last night.

However, he could also feel the progress in his Go skills. After all, being constantly suppressed by the girl, it was easy to discover and improve his shortcomings.

The girl was no longer deliberately letting him win. By the third game, although he still lost cleanly, when they played, there was already a formal Go game atmosphere.

But Li Zhuiyuan also knew that his limit was coming soon. Unless he threw away the two sets of books in his bedroom and researched Go manuals instead, he would never be able to win against the girl in Go skills.

But what was the point of doing this? Competing on unnecessary things would only seem very childish.

"A Li, you play really well."

The girl seemed to be smiling. Although her expression didn't show it, that slightly trembling corner of her lip seemed to be predicting the action she wanted to take.

Aunt Liu called out that breakfast was ready. After breakfast, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the girl had once again taken the salted duck egg that he had peeled for her, held it in her hand, and hid it in her sleeve.

Li Zhuiyuan grabbed her hand and took out the salted duck egg: "A Li, eat things when you eat them, don't hide them. If you want to collect things, I can specially send you some gifts in the future."

The girl's eyes lit up.

After breakfast, Li Zhuiyuan kept his promise and went to the east room. Liu Yumei was not in the room, nor was she drinking tea outside the room according to her old habit. She deliberately hid far away.

This was the first time Li Zhuiyuan had entered the east room. Looking at the memorial tablets with the names of the Qin and Liu families on the spirit hall, an inexplicable sense of deja vu surged in his heart.

It seemed that he had been to a similar place and had the same feeling before, but he couldn't remember where and who had taken him there for a moment.

Li Zhuiyuan bowed and paid respects to the memorial tablets, finished the ritual, and then packed up the several dirty towels and the smelly duck egg on the memorial tablets.

Qin Li reached out and grabbed Li Zhuiyuan's arm this time. Her eyelashes didn't flutter, and her body didn't tremble, but she also expressed her unwillingness.

That is, it was Li Zhuiyuan who was cleaning up. If it were someone else, even Liu Yumei herself, the girl would have become violent long ago.

"Listen, A Li, if you want to collect things, don't put them here. We can specially find a better place to put them. This place is used to place memorial tablets and offer sacrifices to ancestors, do you understand?"

A Li lowered her head, she was very lost.

Li Zhuiyuan was then thinking about what he should send her.

Sending food was definitely not an option, she would definitely secretly collect it and it would continue to mold.

"A Li, how about I give you that set of Go? Not a new one, it's the set we used to play Go this morning, packed in a small wooden box.

Just keep it with you. In the future, you can take it out and find me in the mornings, and we'll use that to play Go together."

Qin Li lifted her head. Although there was still no obvious expression, one could feel that her whole person became brighter.

Outside the room door, Liu Yumei, who had deliberately avoided this time and was now quietly approaching the corner of the wall to eavesdrop again, involuntarily rolled her eyes.

She could already imagine her granddaughter carefully cherishing that set of not-so-valuable toys when she hugged it.

He walked out of the room door and saw Liu Yumei.

"Grandma Liu."

"Ai."

Li Zhuiyuan was not in a hurry to leave, but continued: "Grandma Liu, the weather is very good today, you should go out for a walk and get some fresh air, it's good for your health."

"I told A Li that he will teach you after he finishes his work in the evening. You may not be afraid of hardship."

"How could I be? Thank you, Grandma Liu."

When Li Zhuiyuan led Qin Li's hand upstairs, he happened to see Li Sanjiang walking down. When he wasn't working, Great-grandfather usually got up late.

"How's your studying recently?"

Li Sanjiang forgot that he had already asked last night. He just enjoyed this feeling of an elder caring for a child's studies.

After all, if he really pursued it closely, he would probably discover what kind of books Li Zhuiyuan was always reading recently.

Well, also because Qin Li always accompanied Li Zhuiyuan to read books, he was somewhat afraid of the little girl and was still unwilling to get close.

"A little difficult, but I will work hard."

"Mm, working hard is good."

Returning to the northeast corner of the second-floor balcony, Li Zhuiyuan took out the books, set up the magnifying glass, and took out a blank homework book from beside him.

In "Yin Yang Physiognomy Detailed Explanation," there were many vocabulary and descriptions about "size" and "cut." In addition, there were many more abstract ancient texts, which should be commonly used in old medical books.

These, Li Zhuiyuan could understand the words, but had no specific cognitive concepts. He could only first record them with a pen.

Fortunately, he could ask Liu Yumei about the former. He could see that although Qin Li's clothes were custom-made, they were definitely cut and altered by Liu Yumei. He could ask Aunt Liu about the latter. Aunt Liu obviously understood medical skills.

At this time, Uncle Qin had already brought back the raw materials for making incense, and Aunt Liu was already preparing to make incense using the ancient method.

Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, what kind of existence was A Li's family...

He shook his head, cast aside distracting thoughts, and Li Zhuiyuan formally began to memorize the books.

He had two classmates in class who truly had photographic memory abilities.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that he couldn't compare with them in this aspect, the gap was very big, because he needed to look over the books two or even three times.

Midway, he maintained the posture of bending his waist to hold the magnifying glass for a long time, and his neck was a little sore.

Li Zhuiyuan continued to hold the magnifying glass with his left hand and read and memorize, while he used his right hand to press and pinch his own neck.

After a while, another warm, soft little hand also pressed and pinched the other side of his neck.

A smile appeared at the corner of Li Zhuiyuan's mouth, truly a cute obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Throughout the morning, except for taking Qin Li to the washroom to drink water once, Li Zhuiyuan was memorizing books.

He felt that his brain was already filled with all sorts of "eyes."

When he had memorized all the "ears, mouths, and noses" behind, his brain would be filled with dense, countless kinds of faces.

Even the models of hairstyles provided by the biggest hair salon in Beijing for customers to choose from, in his eyes, were too barren and shabby.

After lunch, Li Weihan and Cui Guiying arrived.

Li Zhuiyuan was immersed in memorizing books and didn't notice the situation on the dam. Qin Li beside him naturally wouldn't remind him.

Only when he felt Qin Li's body start to tremble did Li Zhuiyuan surprisingly lift his head and see Cui Guiying, who was deliberately treading lightly, walking closer.

He hurriedly grabbed Qin Li's hand, afraid that the girl would become violent towards his grandmother.

Cui Guiying saw her grandson seriously reading books. Her original intention was not to disturb him. At this moment, she just smiled and said: "Little Yuan Marquis, are you reading books?"

"Mm, Grandma, where's Grandpa?"

"Your Grandpa is talking to your Great-grandfather."

"Is there something wrong?"

"It's nothing, it has nothing to do with you."

"Is it about Third Aunt's maternal family?"

"Um... yes. They say that side wants to invite your Great-grandfather to take a look."

"Oh."

Generally, when encountering illnesses that are very difficult to handle in regular hospitals, many family members will try to find a side door and give it a try. Moreover, this kind of thing where an old couple gets sick together is also not very common and is indeed strange.

"This child is really good-looking."

Cui Guiying made a gesture and was about to reach out and touch Qin Li's head, but Li Zhuiyuan quickly blocked her in front of Qin Li.

"Um..."

Cui Guiying was stunned for a moment and could only touch her grandson's head.

"Grandma, she's shy."

"Oh, is she? But you two play quite well together."

After chatting with Cui Guiying for a while, Li Weihan also came up to see his grandson.

However, Li Weihan only greeted him with a couple of sentences, asking if he had eaten well and slept well, and then didn't speak, just looked.

When the time was almost up, he was about to leave.

Before leaving, Li Weihan said: "Oh, right, Little Yuan Marquis, your Great-grandfather wants to go on a long trip the day after tomorrow and won't be back in the evening. That day, the villagers want to go pick up the river, I'll take you along."

Cui Guiying immediately complained: "What are you doing, taking the child to pick up the river, what are you thinking?"

Li Weihan said nonchalantly: "It's just two days. Sleeping outside for one night is no big deal. This is not like before. The period of picking up the river is short, and it's not that hard. Our family has four sons, and aren't Lei Hou and Pan Hou also going with me?"

Cui Guiying: "Even if Uncle Sanjiang wants to go to Jiuwei Port and is not at home, can't Little Yuan Marquis also sleep at our house?"

"Uncle said it's not convenient to sleep at home. After all, Little Yuan Marquis is a monastic and hasn't returned to the secular world yet."

Actually, Li Weihan's original intention was also because he missed his grandson. Plus, this time, the whole family's strong labor force was going to pick up the river, so he just wanted to take Li Zhuiyuan along to have some fun.

"Little Yuan Marquis, are you willing to go with Grandpa?"

"Okay, Grandpa."

"See, the child has agreed."

Li Weihan took Cui Guiying away. He came today mainly to convey a message to his in-laws in Jiuwei Port and invite Uncle Sanjiang.

They said that a relative of a patient in the same ward came to visit, and that relative was from Shigan Town. They talked about the corpse fisher of the Li family in Siyuan Village, Shennan Town, very mysteriously.

As soon as the in-laws heard this, wasn't this the village their daughter married into? They immediately contacted them and wanted to invite someone to come out of the mountains to see.

After the evening meal, Li Zhuiyuan just went to the dam to wait. Liu Yumei also kept her promise. Uncle Qin took Li Zhuiyuan to the back of the house and began to teach Li Zhuiyuan kung fu:

Squatting horse stance.

According to Uncle Qin's requirements, Li Zhuiyuan began to squat. Then Uncle Qin adjusted his posture at each force point, while telling him various details to pay attention to.

After an hour of adjustment, Uncle Qin finally didn't say anything more.

And Li Zhuiyuan was already sweating profusely and both his feet were trembling.

But Uncle Qin just let him rest for a while, and then squatted for another hour.

When he went back upstairs to his room, Li Zhuiyuan was supporting himself against the wall.

In the evening, Liu Yumei was sitting at the door of the room enjoying the cool air. Uncle Qin walked to her side and stood.

"How is he?"

"His brain is really good."

"His limbs aren't good?"

"No, no, I mean, his brain is good, he learns everything fast. Compared to when I practiced martial arts in my childhood, his comprehension is much faster. He can already feel the rhythm of the roots under his feet.

But practicing kung fu ultimately requires enduring hardship. Let's see if he can persevere."

"What, do you want to accept a disciple?"

"No, I don't have that idea."

"Just teach him well. Remember, only teach him kung fu."

"Okay, I understand."

Liu Yumei returned to her room, sat in front of the memorial tablets, picked up a piece of pastry from the offering table, took a small bite, and chewed slowly.

At this time, there was no longer a smelly smell in the spirit hall, and she also felt much more relaxed and comfortable.

"That Li family boy that A Li likes to play with has started to learn kung fu from A Li. I want to see if he can persevere. If his brain is also good and he can endure hardship...

Goodness, I'm really curious how his mother gave birth to such a child."

Liu Yumei was preparing to sleep. She wanted to first let down her hair. When she reached out to take the bronze mirror on the dressing table, she touched nothing. Looking carefully, where was the bronze mirror on this table?

But in this room, it was impossible to have a thief, and no one would touch her things, unless...

Liu Yumei walked towards the bedroom, looking at her granddaughter who was in deep sleep, hugging a small wooden box in her arms.

"Could this girl A Li have taken my bronze mirror as a return gift?"

...

The next two days, Li Zhuiyuan lived a very regular life, reading books and squatting horse stance.

The first day of squatting horse stance was very painful. When he woke up in the morning, both his legs were still sore. The second day felt much more normal. By the third day, he didn't even feel pain or fatigue anymore.

He only felt that when he squatted the horse stance, he imagined himself as a tree, growing on the ground. According to Uncle Qin's teaching, he followed the rhythm of his own breathing and heart rate, his body swaying slightly and dynamically with small amplitudes. Even his brain, which felt groggy after looking at books all day, became much clearer.

However, these three evenings, Uncle Qin only taught him to squat horse stance and nothing else.

Li Zhuiyuan was not anxious either, because he was making faster breakthroughs in reading books.

Just dead memorization and stacking math were not difficult for him. After three full days plus squatting horse stance and reading under the desk lamp at night in his bedroom, he had already read "Yin Yang Physiognomy Detailed Explanation" up to the seventh book.

In addition, he also conveniently read three books of "Fate Character Deduction Theory" and barely mastered the basic algorithm for deducting fate character.

However, he also knew that this was relying on the advantage of his strong learning ability in the early stage of covering ground quickly.

Going forward, to continue further, he had to spend time and energy to tackle it point by point.

Especially the eighth book of "Yin Yang Physiognomy Detailed Explanation," he hadn't started reading it yet, but in his heart, he already knew its difficulty. Perhaps, this eighth book was the most important!

However, even if he hadn't achieved it, after learning these things, his heart always felt a little itchy, eager to try, wanting to see the practical effect.

On the second-floor balcony, Li Sanjiang was lying on a rattan chair, smoking and drinking tea on one side, and leisurely listening to "Cutting the Beauty Case" being sung on the radio on the other.

Li Zhuiyuan walked over and asked: "Great-grandfather, when is your birthday?"

"Why?"

"I want to remember it early so I can celebrate Great-grandfather's birthday well."

"Hey, it's a bit of a coincidence. You just celebrated before you came back to your hometown. The next time we celebrate, we'll have to wait until next year."

"Then you tell me first, so I can remember it."

"Okay, okay, okay."

Li Sanjiang just told him his birthday. The child was quite detailed, even asking for the hour. He didn't take it seriously and told him everything.

Next, Li Sanjiang discovered that his great-grandson was carefully looking at him for a while, and then writing and drawing in a book for a while.

"Little Yuan Marquis, what are you writing?"

"Calculating."

"Math problems?"

"Mm, almost."

"Let Great-grandfather see." Li Sanjiang reached out and took the book, and found that what was written in the book were not numbers, but dense or sparse horizontal bars and vertical bars.

"What is this?"

"Calculation steps."

"Are teachers teaching this kind of thing now?"

"Mm, this way of calculating is fast."

"Oh, then calculate well, study hard."

"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan continued to observe Great-grandfather's physiognomy while continuing to calculate.

"Little Yuan Marquis, Great-grandfather, I'm going to Jiuwei Port tomorrow and won't be back in the evening. Did Han Hou say he wants to take you to pick up the river?"

"Mm, I told Grandpa okay."

"That's fine, just go out and get some fresh air. Your Grandpa also misses you. Let me tell you, back then, your Grandpa was most fond of your mother. Now, ah, he is most fond of you. Your Grandpa is quite biased."

Finally, Li Zhuiyuan finished calculating. His eyebrows furrowed, and his whole person revealed a dejected air.

"Hey, Little Yuan Marquis, what's wrong?"

"Great-grandfather, I calculated wrong."

"If you calculate wrong, then you calculate wrong. It's fine as long as you know you're wrong. Recalculate, what's the big deal."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded.

In his deduction based on Great-grandfather's physiognomy and fate character, the summary of Great-grandfather's fate character was:

[Innately destined for early death, entangled with many illnesses, short lifespan, wealth drying up, fate taboo water, forbidden to go through the back door.]

He looked at his deduction result, and then looked at Great-grandfather lying there listening to the opera.

If only one or two were wrong, or one or two were vague, then it was fine. He hadn't finished learning after all, it was normal to have some leaks and errors.

But, how could it be that everything was wrong?

No, it wasn't just simply calculated wrong, it was completely opposite!

A thick sense of frustration arose in his heart. This was an experience he had almost never encountered in his past study life.

Before, he was still a little complacent in his heart about learning quickly. Now, it was all gone.

"Great-grandfather, I'm going back to my room to sleep."

"Okay, go, go, sleep early. Your Grandpa will come to pick you up in the morning."

"Great-grandfather, you also sleep early."

Looking at Li Zhuiyuan's dejected back as he left, Li Sanjiang was somewhat surprised and scratched his chin, thinking in his heart:

This kid just got a problem wrong, is it that serious?

...

He returned to the bedroom and sat down in front of the desk.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the two sets of books in front of him. Suddenly, he had an urge to throw his pen and push all the books to the ground.

He didn't want to learn anymore, he felt厌学.

He supported his face with his left hand and picked up the bronze mirror on the desk to play with it with his right hand.

That evening, he just discovered that the small Go box was gone, and a very ancient bronze mirror appeared in its original place.

He knew that A Li must have taken his gift and sent him a gift in return.

In the bronze mirror, he saw himself, his face full of dejection.

Looking at it, he suddenly felt that this was the normal expression he should have at his age.

This time, when he faced this inexplicable emotion, his heart did not panic and fear, and he did not need to repeatedly hypnotize and persuade himself of his identity.

Unexpectedly, getting a problem wrong could still have this effect.

The frustration in Li Zhuiyuan's heart slowly subsided. He took the mirror with his left hand and continued to look at his face in the mirror, then picked up the pen with his right hand and started calculating.

Let me calculate myself again.

There is a saying that a doctor does not cure himself.

But compared to this saying, what is infinitely more taboo is... a fortune teller does not calculate his own fate.

However, Li Zhuiyuan was learning physiognomy and fortune-telling based on the two sets of books moved out from the basement. There was no teacher to guide him, and the author of the book obviously didn't consider that there would be people who could learn and understand this book and wouldn't even know these basic things. Just like the first page of a higher math textbook doesn't give you a multiplication table.

Calculating and calculating,

Li Zhuiyuan felt that his head was a little昏昏沉沉.

He must be tired. Well, he would sleep after finishing the calculation.

He continued to calculate,

He felt like he was having a runny nose, catching a cold?

He reached out to touch it and lowered his head to look,

Good, not catching a cold.

Not snot,

It was blood.

"Pa!"

Li Zhuiyuan's small face directly hit the desk, and he fainted.

()