Chapter 243

Chapter 237

In the depths of the peach forest, a pair of eyes slowly opened. Its gaze penetrated the strong wind and flower petals, falling onto Li Zhuiyuan.

In its eyes, the youth’s figure slowly overlapped with another figure.

They were originally very similar.

That greeting just now, and the tone of voice, caused it to fall into a trance, as if instantly transported back to that year.

Years of self-suppression had blurred its own self-awareness. On the contrary, its memories of that person became increasingly clear.

Soon,

The wind died down, and the flowers settled.

The suddenness of before and the current quiet were all reactions of its inner emotions.

Li Zhuiyuan turned his head to look at Lin Shuyou standing under the dam, signaling that he could continue to move soil onto Tai Sui’s head.

Lin Shuyou didn’t hesitate, immediately turned back into the peach forest, picked up the Huang He shovel, and continued to dig.

This time, no wind came to blow, and no flowers struck.

After digging for a while, Lin Shuyou heard the sound of a qin from the depths of the forest, intermittent and vague.

Ayou suppressed his own perception, with no urge to enter the yin realm to appreciate it. He focused solely on digging the pit to bury Runsheng.

The youth walked over to him.

“Ayou, dig the pit a bit bigger.”

Lin Shuyou immediately nodded and said, “Don’t worry, Little Yuan Bro, I know Runsheng is big, I guarantee I’ll bury him comfortably.”

Li Zhuiyuan continued walking further in. Burying Runsheng here was just the first step. To make Runsheng’s healing more effective, that one needed to be willing to actively help.

In reality, interests held no meaning for a person wholeheartedly awaiting death.

Therefore, what one could offer was only emotional value.

Reaching the deepest part, Li Zhuiyuan stopped and activated Cai Yin.

The sound of the qin instantly became clear. An elegant young master sat under a peach tree, engrossed in playing the qin, gentle and graceful with boldness, unrestrained with flowing romance, perfectly matching that line:

“I am the Qingdu mountains and waters lad, Heaven teaches to entrust with dissipation.”

At that time, Wei Zhengdao didn’t regard it as a true friend, but being able to often accompany Wei Zhengdao back then was also an extraordinary affirmation.

One must know that even Sun Baishen, who later established the Zhenjun system, only interacted with Wei Zhengdao by looking at the thickness of the Buddha skin paper. Once the thickness was used up, he would immediately leave, unwilling to stay a moment longer.

Such a remarkably talented person ending up like this indeed makes people sigh.

Now, it was playing the qin because that greeting and calling out its courtesy name instantly brought back its past memories.

It was immersing itself in this destined-to-be-short savoring.

Li Zhuiyuan leaned against a peach tree to the side.

The youth, while listening to the qin, was thinking about what kind of reaction he should make next to let the other party gain the greatest emotional value.

Since it chose this segment of memory to review, then in its eyes, Wei Zhengdao must have been in the period when his illness hadn’t been cured… or even hadn’t planned to cure the illness, completely in the pure acting stage.

This was simple. Li Zhuiyuan could easily substitute and imitate. After all, he himself was an experienced actor, and having seen the interaction style between Wei Zhengdao and it in Sun Baishen’s memory scene, he could naturally simulate Wei Zhengdao’s acting style at that time.

Just like that, it sat there with its back to the youth, playing an entire piece.

During this time, it didn’t have any exchange with the youth. Li Zhuiyuan, according to the progress, silently adjusted the dialogue response strategy in his heart.

This couldn’t be considered deception, because no one could deceive it. This was its need, and the youth and it were each taking what they needed.

Finally, the piece finished.

In the lingering sound, it placed both hands on the qin strings and asked,

“How was this piece?”

“Heh, so-so.”

It chuckled, then raised its head, allowing the falling petals to cover its face.

Over there, Lin Shuyou, who had just carried the heavily injured and unconscious Runsheng over, discovered that the bottom and four walls of the pit he dug were all covered with peach blossoms.

When he placed Runsheng inside, the peach blossom cushion actually rippled.

“Hiss…”

Lin Shuyou pulled back his hand, lowering his head to look at his fingertips, which were red as if burned by fire.

This was Sha Qi, extremely dense Sha Qi, surpassing the resentment that ordinary dead people could condense.

Clearly, the several peach trees nearby had been stripped bare into dead branches, yet peach blossoms were still continuously flying over, falling into the pit.

At this moment, Runsheng was like being soaked in water, with the water level gradually rising, completely submerging him.

Li Zhuiyuan, who had ended his Cai Yin state, walked out and looked towards Runsheng in the pit.

Lin Shuyou: “Little Yuan Bro, do I still need to fill it with soil?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “No need, soaking like this is fine.”

The peach forest formed its own boundary, so there was no need to worry about people mistakenly entering and discovering it.

The youth was very busy now. The first thing after returning home was not to see Grandpa and A Li, but to tend to his companions’ injuries and confirm their recovery direction.

Now, Runsheng’s situation was settled. The Sha Qi being so dense it could drip water was an exaggerated metaphor in the past, but now it was a realistic description.

That one did much better than expected, much, much better.

Li Zhuiyuan had just walked out of the peach forest with Lin Shuyou, when a sigh came from within the peach forest behind them:

“Alas, pity you, in the end you are not him.”

Originally, it should have been a transaction where money and goods were settled, but because the other party gave too much, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t mind giving the other party a little more.

The youth turned around, looked inside, and said:

“I am indeed not him, but you are still you.”

“Oh?”

“Still as stupid, easily deceived and coaxed, everything is easily taken as true. Your brain is beyond salvation.”

Beside him, Lin Shuyou’s eyes widened, ready at any moment to activate his Zhenjun state and push Little Yuan Bro away, staying behind to cover the rear.

However, from inside came not an angry roar, but loud laughter:

“Hahaha!”

Lin Shuyou frowned, only feeling that people who lived for a long time all had some problems with their brains.

The white crane child in Ayou’s body was greatly affected, but fortunately, the youth had given instructions beforehand, otherwise, he would definitely have been unable to resist flashing his vertical pupils at this moment.

If he had had this ability back then, he wouldn’t have had such a difficult time in the Shi Jiang Zongsi.

Lin Shuyou noticed the child’s excitement and asked in his heart:

“Child, what happened?”

“Indeed, when smart people start flattering, it will make people who only know how to flatter have no way to live.”

Back at the dam, Xiao Yingying was waiting there, holding Benben.

Benben stretched his neck and waved his little hands towards the peach forest, laughing very happily.

He could feel the joy there now.

Li Zhuiyuan said to Xiao Yingying, “Prepare a richer offering table for it, and prepare a few more jars of wine.”

Xiao Yingying nodded in response.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Do you have money?”

Xiao Yingying: “Yes, Grandpa Li gave me work money, and the child’s parents also gave child care fees.”

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze fell on Benben.

Benben had grown a lot. Infants’ perception was often keener than adults, especially the smarter the child. Therefore, they could perceive that this ‘big brother’ in front of them didn’t like them, no matter how cutely they acted.

Benben simply turned around and buried his head in Xiao Yingying’s embrace.

Li Zhuiyuan reminded, “The child is hungry.”

Xiao Yingying: “I’ll go make formula milk immediately.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Those two don’t care about this child anymore?”

Xiao Yingying: “I’m always the one taking care of him. They are busy giving birth to a second child every night.”

Xiao Yingying lived on the first floor, and the Xiong Shan couple lived on the second floor. That couple’s physical quality was originally far superior to ordinary people. The noise from their activities was very loud, disturbing the peace of the dead.

The day before yesterday, the old-fashioned wooden bed couldn’t bear the weight and collapsed. They simply didn’t change to a new bed. Anyway, the weather had turned hot, so they simply laid out a mat in advance, which was bigger and more convenient.

Before, family resources were not enough, so all the good things could only be given to the only child. Now, seeing that conditions had improved, they not only clung to the Long Wang family but also relied on the old Li family’s fortune.

With these conditions, they could raise more children, so they had to seize the time to give birth to several more.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Wasting effort.”

The youth knew they couldn’t have a second child.

They themselves had initially gathered the Cai He merit on this child, making this child different. In addition, this child’s name was given by Li Zhuiyuan and he was usually even placed in the cradle under the peach forest. His merit, fortune, and destiny were far too great. This completely squeezed out the possibility of ‘siblings’ being born and sharing.

The youth went upstairs and returned to the room where Tan Wenbin lay.

Yin Meng had already prepared the materials needed for the formation at this moment. Li Zhuiyuan didn’t delay and began to set up the formation in this room.

It was not a complex formation. Its purpose was only to draw out the excess Gui Qi from Tan Wenbin’s body to accelerate the recovery of his consciousness.

Yin Meng gave Lin Shuyou a look. Lin Shuyou made an ‘okay’ gesture to Yin Meng, signaling that things were going smoothly with Runsheng.

Li Zhuiyuan arranged the formation. The formation’s eye was his bronze mirror, using readily available materials, placed on a hot water bottle.

When the formation began to operate, strands of Gui Qi were drawn out from Tan Wenbin’s body, condensing into water droplets on the bronze mirror, and falling into the water bottle.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Mengmeng, pay attention to changing the water bottle on time. Don’t pour the water inside randomly. It’s best to use an evil-breaking talisman to neutralize it.”

Yin Meng: “Can I collect it to make poison?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Yes. Also, you will live here during this period, which will be convenient for taking care of Runsheng and Binbin.”

Yin Meng: “Okay, understood.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Also, have you prepared the lightly toxic medicine you prepared for Ayou?”

Yin Meng: “It’s prepared. I had a lot of defective products left in my west room. I was too lazy to bring them when I went on the Cai He trip.”

Although Lin Shuyou’s physical injury was severe, it wasn’t a major problem.

However, on the way back home, when Li Zhuiyuan checked Lin Shuyou’s physical condition, he discovered that his body had extremely heavy Qi stagnation. This was a side effect of the child helping him transform his body.

Most of the time, the child was still very reliable. After all, he had rich experience. But for some things he hadn’t experienced, the child would also have omissions.

“Ayou, you come to Mengmeng’s place every morning, noon, and evening, and let her help you scrape using the poisonous medicine.”

“Okay.”

This job had to be done by Mengmeng personally. You couldn’t take the medicine back to scrape yourself, because Mengmeng said that there might be a big hidden one inside the lightly toxic medicine.

Therefore, each time you scrape, you must let the Gu insect test the medicine.

This method could faster discharge the ‘fertilizer’ accumulated in Lin Shuyou’s body, accelerating the child’s transformation process of Ayou’s body.

Lin Shuyou stayed to experience the first scraping. Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the big beard’s house alone.

Just outside the door, he noticed it was raining, the rain wasn’t heavy, but fine and sticky.

This wasn’t affected by that one in the peach forest, but Qing Ming had arrived.

Braving the light rain, Li Zhuiyuan walked back, but he didn’t go directly to Grandpa’s home. Instead, he walked into Aunt Zhang’s small store midway.

“Little Yuan Hou, you’re back? Your Grandpa bought cigarettes from me this morning and said you were out for an internship, and he didn’t know how long it would take.”

“Um, I just came back.”

Li Zhuiyuan picked up the phone and dialed a number.

Tan Wenbin had a contact book there, recording unusual contact methods. Li Zhuiyuan felt that recording in the book was troublesome, so he borrowed it once to flip through it and memorized it.

It was also raining on the other end of the phone, making the footsteps of pedestrians outside the store more hurried.

The rain wet the ground, stirring up some muddy smell, not unpleasant, but rather sentimental.

Deng Chen was holding a cup of tea in his hand, sipping it while humming a tune along with the rhythm of the phonograph.

Since worshipping under the Long Wang, he no longer needed to live that kind of hiding life, and his quality of life had also improved.

The phone rang, and Deng Chen answered it.

“Hello, this is…”

“It’s me.”

Deng Chen was startled and almost spilled the tea in his hand. He immediately stood up and said respectfully:

“Please instruct.”

If it was Tan Wenbin contacting him, he wouldn’t be so exaggerated, but the one speaking on the phone was that one!

“I’ll give you one week to pack and organize. One week later, bring those three and come to Nantong to see me.”

“I’ll arrive tomorrow, no, I can arrive tonight.”

“One week later.”

Tan Wenbin still needed a few days to wake up, so Deng Chen arriving early was pointless.

“Okay, I’ll follow your instruction.”

Li Zhuiyuan hung up the phone, just about to pay the phone fee and conveniently buy some snacks, when he heard someone calling him from behind.

“Yuanzi Bro!”

“Yuanzi Bro, you’re back!”

Shitou and Huzi ran over.

Li Zhuiyuan gave them the selected snacks, and also asked Aunt Zhang to get a can of malted milk and two bags of orange crystal, all for brewing.

“These are for you two, and these you two help me bring to Sister Yingzi.”

“Okay!”

“Guaranteed to complete the task!”

Yingzi was in the critical period of preparing for the college entrance examination, as for Panszi and Leizi… those two had long given up on the college entrance examination and were just waiting to get their high school graduation certificates to find work.

Shitou and Huzi had good character, they wouldn’t embezzle things. The older generation’s haggling and various conflicts hadn’t affected the harmony of the next generation.

Aunt Zhang laughed: “Little Yuan Hou is already earning money at such a young age, truly remarkable. When you go to the grave, you must kowtow a few more times to your ancestors.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Um, I will.”

Aunt Zhang was a good chatter, and added: “Remember to kowtow a few times for your mom too.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Okay.”

Walking home, across the wheat field, he remotely saw a motorcycle stopped on Grandpa’s dam.

Li Zhuiyuan had ridden this motorcycle before. There was still a police siren light hanging on it. It was Tan Yunlong’s previous ride when he worked at the township police station.

After he was transferred to Jinling, this motorcycle was left at home, so this should be Tan Yunlong coming home for a visit.

Li Zhuiyuan continued walking home. Just as he turned from the village road onto the road leading to Grandpa’s home, he saw two figures by the riverbank.

A girl in a green dress was squatting on the ground, gently stroking an injured little bird. It was Cui Cui.

Beside her stood a girl in a white shirt on top and a horse skirt below, holding an exquisite oil-paper umbrella. It was A Li.

A Li perceived him, turned around, looked towards Li Zhuiyuan, and smiled.

Li Zhuiyuan also smiled and took the initiative to walk over.

It should have been Cui Cui’s request that A Li followed her here to treat the little bird.

Although, Li Zhuiyuan could see that A Li didn’t have much love for injured small animals…

But when he wasn’t here, A Li could leave the house and come here. From a distance, she looked like a normal girl playing, which was already very difficult.

Cui Cui, who was checking the little bird’s injury, only felt rainwater falling on her head. She looked up somewhat strangely, turned around, and saw Li Zhuiyuan walking over.

“Yuan Hou Gege!” After shouting, Cui Cui looked at A Li again, and deliberately drew out the sound from her mouth: “Yo~”

School was unlike the village. Gossip wasn’t as prevalent, and Cui Cui had skipped a grade. Older children weren’t interested in pondering those things.

Therefore, Cui Cui gradually became cheerful, and influenced by those older classmates, she saw and heard many precocious things, which also led her a little astray.

A Li handed the oil-paper umbrella to Cui Cui. Cui Cui took it and then watched Sister A Li proactively walk towards Yuan Hou Gege. The two stood together in the rain.

Cui Cui used the oil-paper umbrella to shelter the little bird from the rain and suddenly felt that this injured little bird didn’t seem as pitiful as before.

“Let me check it.”

Li Zhuiyuan felt that he had been playing doctor all day today.

He bent down, picked up the little bird in his palm to check, and said, “The problem isn’t big. It will be fine if you put it back in the nest to raise.”

Cui Cui pointed to the bird’s nest above: “But it’s so high.”

“It’s okay.”

Li Zhuiyuan held the bird lightly in his left hand and used one hand to climb up the tree. He quickly and steadily reached the bird’s nest and put the little bird that had fallen out back in.

Going down was simpler. He relaxed his body and used the friction of his shoes to slow down, landing steadily.

“Wow, Yuan Hou Gege is so awesome!”

It was hard to imagine that the youth who had been gazing at Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva on the seabed not long ago was now being praised for his good tree climbing skills in the village.

Actually, sometimes Li Zhuiyuan himself felt that the Cai He him and the home him were like experiencing two completely different lives at the same time.

He was like a kite, every time he was flown out, no matter how high or how far, he would look forward to the moment when that pair of hands would pull him back.

“Let’s go, let’s go back.”

…

Compared to the peaceful years on the other end of the phone, in the photo studio on the other end of the phone, it was a completely different scene.

In the dim developing room, Deng Chen reached back and patted the back of his head. Two eyeballs immediately detached from their sockets and fell, then were thrown into the chemical pool by him, transforming into the phantom of a two-headed python.

The other three small spirit beasts actively swam over, eagerly anticipating what important news required the python to transform so solemnly to tell them.

After the python notified the content of the phone call just now, the phantoms of the four spirit beasts all went wild, as if opening a swimming pool party in this chemical pool.

Four thoughts excitedly intersected and cheered:

“Our opportunity has come, opportunity has come!”

———

Don’t panic, I’ll make up for today’s word count tomorrow.

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