Chapter 176.2

“I say, have you two fallen headfirst into a money pit?”

Tan Wenbin looked at the bag Yin Meng handed him. It was full of gold and silver.

The color was poor, but once it was remelted, the weight would still amount to quite a lot.

At some point, the team had developed an unspoken understanding: loot like this would be handed to Tan Wenbin first.

Tan Wenbin would divide it up, donate most of it through suitable channels, and keep only a small portion for their own expenses.

In other words... money laundering.

Tan Wenbin said, “This is all wealth wrung from the common people here through the years, soaked in the blood and sweat of the locals. Let’s donate the bulk of it to county schools.”

Yin Meng asked, “You handle it. How much can we keep?”

Tan Wenbin replied, “Enough for you to go shopping quite a few times.”

Yin Meng nodded in satisfaction. “That works.”

Shopping required money, but you could not be too rich, or you would lose the fun of shopping itself.

At least, that was how Yin Meng saw it.

Tan Wenbin scratched his head with a wry smile. “Good thing it all gets donated under different names and methods. If I kept donating from my personal account under my own name, and someone dug it up later, I’d probably make the news. ‘Top Ten People Who Moved Nantong,’ right?”

Xue Liangliang said, “That’s all the ambition you’ve got?”

Tan Wenbin replied, “I don’t dare aim that high. How about this, Brother Liangliang, take me to buy stocks. I’ll trick my parents and my girlfriend’s parents out of their retirement money and invest it all.”

Xue Liangliang knew Tan Wenbin was joking. He patted him on the shoulder, then handed him some documents.

They were a whole set of paperwork, including internship certification, all stamped and approved, with some stipends and allowances included.

Everyone was leaving tomorrow, but the end date on the papers was listed as two months later.

Tan Wenbin teased him, “Brother Liangliang, that’s not your usual style.”

Back in Shan City, when Xue Liangliang borrowed a work vehicle to drive them around, he had filled the tank himself before returning it. He was not the type to take advantage of public property.

Xue Liangliang shook his head. “You could call it an unspoken rule. Being sent out on assignment is hard, and not many people want to do it. Other people aren’t like me. They don’t have side income.”

That night, the construction crew held a small internal farewell dinner for Xue Liangliang’s team.

There had not been a single accident on the site lately, and everyone had quietly decided it was thanks to that eminent monk from Guiyang. Of course, that monk had been invited by Xue Liangliang.

After dinner, everyone went to rest.

After going out, Tan Wenbin returned to the tulou and delivered return gifts to the two older sisters next door. One red envelope each. After calling out once, he slipped them through the crack in the door.

Early the next morning, they turned down the construction crew’s truck and chose instead to take Ran Dacheng’s tractor into the county seat.

On the way, they passed a small waterfall where a group of children from nearby villages, dressed only in briefs, were diving and playing in the water.

This was the kind of fun that children from the plains could not even dream up.

Something like a waterfall was just too extravagant.

Xue Liangliang looked at Li Zhuiyuan and asked, “Little Yuan, want to have some fun too?”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head.

Xue Liangliang said, “I kind of want to try it.”

Li Zhuiyuan replied, “Once the Nantong river-crossing bridge is built, you can dive all you want. The bridge will be much higher than this waterfall.”

Xue Liangliang choked on that, then changed the subject. “This trip’s been hard on everyone. I made a travel plan. How about I take you all around Guizhou and let you really enjoy yourselves?”

This trip really had been exhausting. First they killed an evil spirit, then recovered from their injuries, then went to work on the construction site.

Before, they always dealt with the evil spirit and went straight back. They had never been delayed this long on a trip before.

Xue Liangliang had originally expected Little Yuan to refuse, but to his surprise, the boy nodded at once.

“Agreed.”

Xue Liangliang said, “I was joking.”

They first went to the county seat, then the city, and then headed straight for the provincial capital’s airport.

At the time, flying was still something most Chinese people only saw on television.

That was also one big reason Xue Liangliang had been able to travel to Nantong so often in the past. Not only could he finish his work early and leave ahead of schedule, he also did not care about train reimbursement. He would buy his own plane ticket and use the time he saved on the road to go jump into the river.

That was another major perk of going out with Brother Liangliang.

Even after the plane landed in Shanghai, the chartered car waiting outside the airport had already been arranged by Xue Liangliang over the phone. He was so practiced at the whole routine it was almost ridiculous.

Even so, once he sat in the car, Xue Liangliang still was not satisfied.

“Transportation still isn’t developed enough. Once the infrastructure gets better, traveling between cities will be much easier, and it’ll save a lot of hassle too.”

Tan Wenbin said, “Then we’ll wait for that future.”

Xue Liangliang replied, “By the time that future gets here, we’ll already be old.”

As soon as they entered Nantong territory, Xue Liangliang got off first. He had reached his destination.

Tan Wenbin asked whether he would be going to Li Daye’s house. Xue Liangliang said that unless something special came up, he would not, and asked Tan Wenbin to pass along his regards to Li Daye.

The rest continued on in the same car toward Shigang.

Sitting in the front passenger seat, Li Zhuiyuan looked out the window and calculated when they would get home based on the car’s speed.

He did not know why he wanted to do that, but he simply did.

At the bottom of the lake, when facing that “eight-year-old version of himself,” he had been able to shake off the relapse so quickly precisely because his present self was already very different from his past self.

Compared with ordinary people, he was still emotionally deficient. But compared with who he used to be, he was already emotionally rich.

When they got home and walked down the village road, then turned onto the new broad road leading to Taigong’s house, Li Zhuiyuan saw that slender figure sitting on the second-floor terrace and felt as though he were dreaming.

Tan Wenbin pulled out the notes he had written. During the return trip, he had been scribbling and polishing the story he had prepared for Liu Yumei.

To do that, he had even specifically asked Little Yuan for advice. This time, with quotations and allusions added in, it ought to sound smoother than before.

Li Sanjiang was not home. He had gone to preside over a funeral meal, taking Uncle Qin and Xiong Shan with him.

Actually, bringing just Xiong Shan along to sit vigil was already exaggerated enough. He had even taken Uncle Qin too.

With that lineup, forget handling an ordinary funeral. It would have been more than enough even for the collective burial rites of some martial underworld sect.

The next day there was an even bigger job. An old overseas Chinese from Shigang Town was being buried after returning to his roots, and the family intended to make a grand affair of it.

This was a real Nanyang overseas Chinese who had returned to China to invest, not someone like Ding Dalin, all show and no substance.

The man’s son was willing to spend heavily to make the occasion impressive, so Li Sanjiang not only continued bringing Xiong Shan and Uncle Qin, he also called on Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Lin Shuyou. In other words, he took Li Zhuiyuan’s Dragon King team with him.

Uncle Qin was long used to it. Back when he had lived here, this was what he had always done.

Tan Wenbin and the others were also happy to cooperate with Li Daye. They liked going out with him.

Because of that, the house was much quieter.

Li Zhuiyuan and Ah Li first painted inside the room. Once they got tired, the two of them would go out to the rattan chairs on the terrace and sit there playing chess while looking at the scenery.

Liu Yumei sat downstairs drinking tea, occasionally looking up at the two of them with a smile on her face.

The joy of doting on one’s grandchildren could not be more beautiful than this.

Before starting dinner, Aunt Liu tucked a packet of sunflower seeds into her pocket and leaned against the kitchen doorway, cracking seeds as she watched the two children upstairs.

No matter how violent the river’s waves were, once they had crashed past, the surface would always settle back into a stretch of calm.

Li Zhuiyuan felt deep gratitude toward Liu Yumei.

True, because his lamp-lighting had happened so suddenly, the resources he carried when he walked the river were far inferior to Zhao Yi’s.

But the old lady had redrawn the feeling of “home” for him.

She had already done everything she could to give him all that she was able to give.

After dinner, Li Zhuiyuan went into the east room.

The original altar table and memorial tablets had long since been arranged back in their proper place there.

The familiar table, the familiar stool, the familiar candles, the familiar layout, and those familiar names on brand-new tablets.

Li Zhuiyuan sat down in the chair and looked straight at the memorial tablets on the altar.

Liu Yumei usually loved sitting here, chatting with the memorial tablets.

Li Zhuiyuan had nothing to say.

Ah Li stood quietly nearby the whole time. She was waiting for the boy to finish his silent staring contest so she could go up and choose a memorial tablet as raw material.

At last, Li Zhuiyuan finished looking and stood up.

Ah Li stepped forward and selected an ancestor.

Then Li Zhuiyuan accompanied Ah Li as she turned the very object he had just been staring at into curls of wood shavings.

In the countryside, dinner was eaten early. Families who did not need to wait for children to come home from school ate even earlier.

After Cuicui got out of school and ate dinner at home, she would bring her homework to Li Sanjiang’s house to do it there.

She wanted to play with Ah Li.

Most of the time, though, Ah Li would just paint by herself, do handicrafts, or sit on the terrace looking at the scenery without paying Cuicui any attention.

Cuicui did not need her to. Just having Sister Ah Li there beside her was enough to make her happy.

Sometimes, after finishing her homework, she would help grind the ink and wash the brushes. After Ah Li finished her handicrafts, she would help tidy up.

When the two of them sat together on the terrace spacing out, Cuicui would even find herself secretly giggling for no reason.

And when she ran into questions she could not solve, all she had to do was put on a pained expression and scratch her head, and Ah Li would pick up a pen and write out the process and the answer for her.

Back when Li Zhuiyuan had been tutoring Tan Wenbin for the college entrance exam, Ah Li had watched from the side too.

Night fell, and Li Sanjiang came back with his “large contingent.”

With Li Sanjiang leading the way, they started talking about the host family’s food that day. It was obvious Taigong had drunk well and eaten well.

Before going to sleep each night, Li Zhuiyuan would, as usual, sit face-to-face with Taigong for a while, except when Taigong was drunk.

After tucking the blanket over Taigong properly, Li Zhuiyuan returned to his bedroom and picked up his pen to continue writing The Zhuiyuan Secret Scroll.

The previous wave had not been one he had drawn out from Ah Li’s dream, and later it had also turned out to involve Zhao Yi’s team.

He had no choice but to incorporate this new type of rule pattern into it as well.

Though doing everything personally and finishing in advance would let him claim all the merit for himself, he also had to consider hedging against risk.

This time it had been Zhao Yi, and Li Zhuiyuan understood him too well, so nothing had gone wrong. But what if it had been some reckless hothead instead?

The ones who could be schemed against were clever people. Those stubborn blockheads who charged ahead blindly were often immune to every trick.

As the waves became more difficult in the future, this kind of cooperative model was bound to appear more and more often. He needed to prepare a plan for it in advance.

After checking the time, he put down the pen and switched off the desk lamp.

Before getting into bed, Li Zhuiyuan walked past the painting table and saw the unfinished painting Ah Li had left there.

This time, after listening to his account, Ah Li had improved the composition of the scroll.

She had divided one painting into five scenes, corresponding respectively to Lin Shuyou, Yin Meng, Tan Wenbin, Runsheng, and himself.

This was their first time entering a painting.

But the boy understood Ah Li’s real intention.

By painting it this way, she could compress Li Zhuiyuan’s section. She only needed to paint the scene of Li Zhuiyuan confronting Old Hag Bian and would not have to go into detail and paint that “eight-year-old boy” as well.

In Ah Li’s imagination, this frame of paintings was something they would flip through together and enjoy in the future. She did not want the boy to frown uncomfortably every time he turned to that page.

He had gone to bed too early yesterday, so he woke far too early as well. When Li Zhuiyuan took his washbasin outside to clean up, he happened to see Ah Li coming upstairs.

Today she was wearing a white dress. The dress eclipsed the early morning sunlight, and then the girl herself eclipsed the dress right back.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “We’re going fishing today.”

Ah Li blinked, turned around, and walked back downstairs.

Very soon, the old lady’s voice came from below. “So what if it gets dirty?”

Most of the clothes Liu Yumei had custom-made for her granddaughter would only be worn once and then put away, except for the outfits the boy especially liked, which Ah Li would wear a few extra times, such as the horse-face skirt from before.

It was not that Ah Li refused to wear old clothes. It was that Liu Yumei loved designing clothes, and if one outfit had to be worn for too long, then there would be no room for her designs to shine.

In this respect, Liu Yumei had a bit of a perfectionist streak. Every outfit her granddaughter wore had to have matching accessories and hairstyle.

Change the outfit, and she had to redo everything from scratch.

After washing up, Li Zhuiyuan went into the east room looking a little embarrassed.

Liu Yumei shot the boy an annoyed glare, her meaning obvious: You little brat really are a lot of trouble.

Li Zhuiyuan took the comb from Liu Yumei’s hand and, under her instructions, began combing Ah Li’s hair.

Liu Yumei, meanwhile, went to find new accessories.

The white dress was changed into a black outfit, dignified and elegant.

After breakfast, Li Zhuiyuan and Ah Li went fishing.

Holding the girl’s hand, the boy used The Qin Family’s Guide to Viewing Flood Dragons to observe the density of fish schools on the river surface, then chose the most suitable fishing spot.

And if he still felt the fish were not biting fast enough, Li Zhuiyuan could even use The Liu Clan's Art of Observing Qi, waving a hand in front of him to alter the feng shui pattern in that area and draw the fish beneath the water over.

If a feng shui master or a fishing enthusiast had seen this, they probably would have coughed up blood in anger.

They caught too many fish.

Li Zhuiyuan released many of them back into the water, then carried home only enough for one family meal of fish soup with Ah Li.

As soon as they returned, they saw Li Weihan standing there.

“Little Yuanhou, this is a letter from your mother.”

“A letter for me?”

“That’s right. Your mother still keeps you in her thoughts.”

Ever since the matter of changing the household registration booklet, Li Sanjiang had placed Li Lan in the same category as his “brothers.”

In front of Li Sanjiang, Li Weihan and Cui Guiying did not really dare mention Li Lan either.

But old people always liked smoothing things over, hoping the family could stay harmonious, even if it was only harmony on the surface.

Li Zhuiyuan took the envelope. He did not know why Li Lan had written to him.

Li Weihan handed over some money as well. “This is from your mother too.”

Li Zhuiyuan pushed the money back.

“Grandpa, Taigong would be unhappy if he found out.”

“You could...”

“I’m not going to lie to Taigong over something like this.”

“Ah... all right, then.”

Li Weihan knew the child still hated his mother.

The one thing Li Lan had over those uncles of his was that she did not sponge off the elderly. Every month, and on holidays too, she sent support money and gifts on time.

After Li Zhuiyuan started school in Nantong, that even included tuition and living expenses.

Yes, even now, Li Lan still transferred money to him regularly.

But Li Sanjiang would not allow Li Zhuiyuan to take it, and Li Zhuiyuan himself did not want it either.

In Li Sanjiang’s eyes, those white-eyed wolf uncles of his might mooch off the old, but at least they still put on a show of warmth. At the very least, they knew how to say pleasant things. As for Li Lan, she gave quite a bit of money, but she truly had not a trace of human warmth.

If the child had really lacked clothes, food, or money for school, then they would have had to grit their teeth and acknowledge the mother’s kindness. But since he had the means to raise the child himself, then not spending her money meant that when the child glared at his mother later, he could do it with confidence. Wasn’t that the whole point of working so hard to make money after covering the basics of food and drink—to live in a way that felt right to your own heart?

After Li Weihan left, Li Zhuiyuan opened Li Lan’s letter.

There were no words inside, only a folded printed picture.

He unfolded it and saw a corner of a landscape image, as though it had been cut from some New Year print.

But the marking in the lower right corner was still there... Beautiful Ji'an.

Li Zhuiyuan’s mind began racing.

He believed he would definitely be able to figure it out.

That confidence came from the mutual trust mother and son had in each other’s intelligence.

Li Zhuiyuan had never been to Ji'an. As far as this beautiful little border city was concerned, only two keywords connected it to him right now.

One was that it was one of the nine secret realm coordinates recorded on the bamboo slip.

The other was Luo Gong.

When Luo Gong was young, he had once taken part in a highly classified civil defense project there, and it was in that place that he came into contact with a Goguryeo ghost.

Li Lan knew about his relationship with Luo Gong.

So was she giving him advance notice?

Li Zhuiyuan did not dwell any further on the letter, because he knew news would probably arrive very soon.

And it did, the very next day. In fact, the person himself brought it.

Several government cars drove into Siyuan Village and up onto the open yard in front of Li Sanjiang’s house.

The sight of it left even Li Sanjiang at a bit of a loss.

Luo Gong had come in person. Since leaving the school, his status had risen quickly, and when he came here now, local leaders accompanied him.

Xue Liangliang was in one of the cars as well. After getting out, he smiled at Li Zhuiyuan, like a lazy little fish that had been caught sneaking off.

“Little Yuan, get in.”

Li Zhuiyuan was called into the car by Luo Gong.

Luo Gong then looked at Tan Wenbin, who was standing nearby.

“Tan... Tan classmate, you get in too.”

“Sure.”

Li Zhuiyuan reminded him, “Teacher, that classmate Lin Shuyou is also from our school. We’re in the same class, and he also took part in the internship with us.”

“Mm. Let him get in too.”

That was how Lin Shuyou got to ride with them as well.

Luo Gong had come here for a meeting, but during the meeting he had received a notice.

That notice had shaken his emotions so badly that he had even neglected some of the social niceties of the occasion.

First, they drove into the city and had a work meal together. After Luo Gong finished his afternoon meeting, he ordered tea downstairs at the hotel, and everyone sat around the sofas together.

Luo Gong lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

Everyone could see that something was on his mind.

But only Li Zhuiyuan guessed what it was.

The boy could understand Luo Gong’s feelings right now. Back then, Luo Gong had only been an ordinary investigator. Limited by his authority, he had not known much about that incident that had stayed in his memory for half a lifetime. But now, if someone in his current position could participate in the matter again, then the mystery that had lingered in the depths of his heart would finally have a chance to be solved.

That place was Luo Gong’s white moonlight.

The power of a white moonlight lay in the fact that it did not dim with time. On the contrary, it only grew brighter, layered with more and more filters of beauty.

Luo Gong crushed the cigarette butt out, cleared his throat, and a look of remembrance surfaced deep in his eyes. Then it turned into resolve as he said in a tone that was both nervous and excited:

“The higher-ups have decided to restart the Ji'an 572 Civil Defense Project.”