Chapter 182.2

Lin Shuyou had originally gone over to Big Beard’s house to ask Xiong Shan to explain some other uses of the Chenzhou talisman.

But after what happened last time, when he ended up giving Lin Shuyou appendicitis, how could Xiong Shan possibly dare make more guesses on his behalf?

So no matter how Lin Shuyou wheedled and pleaded, Xiong Shan remained unmoved.

In the end, with no other choice, Lin Shuyou stayed at Big Beard’s house for a while helping Xiao Yingying and Lihua make paper effigies, then came back.

Lu Runsheng and Tan Wenbin were both out, and with nothing to do, Lin Shuyou casually sat down at the square table.

It was an old table that had already been patched up more than once. Like an elderly person, sometimes it could stubbornly hold on for a long time, but at other times the slightest disturbance could make the whole frame fall apart.

The moment Lin Shuyou sat down, there came a crack from beneath him.

Bang.

The table collapsed under him.

Li Zhuiyuan was holding a pager and had just come downstairs.

He had just received a page from Xue Liangliang and was about to head to Aunt Zhang’s little shop to return the call.

“Little Yuanhou…”

Lin Shuyou got to his feet awkwardly and said,

“I’ll fix it.”

“It’s fine if you can’t. Split it up and send it to the kitchen for firewood.”

Li Zhuiyuan did not care. It was just a broken old table.

The boy left home, went to Aunt Zhang’s little shop, and returned Xue Liangliang’s call.

The line connected quickly.

“Zhuiyuan, are you still in Nantong?”

When he said the words “Nantong,” Brother Liangliang’s tone was brimming with emotion.

“Yeah.”

“I thought you guys had already headed out.”

“I thought you were calling to tell me where I should head out to.”

Judging by the timing, it was about time for the next wave to arrive.

When he got the page, he had even wondered whether Brother Liangliang was about to provide another lead.

“How could I head out? The selection process just started. I’ve got a headache over it.”

College students were highly valued these days, and their overall quality was quite good. Even so, after spending so much time around people like Xue Liangliang and Li Zhuiyuan’s group, the candidates he was selecting now felt a little tasteless by comparison.

“Shouldn’t you be assigning them internships in advance?”

“Too early for that. Still a few months away.”

“Oh.”

Looks like this time Brother Liangliang was not calling to provide a lead.

He had simply called to chat.

For someone used to rushing all over the country and staying busy, returning to campus to oversee work felt like a monkey being locked back in a cage.

So Li Zhuiyuan chatted with him for a while, waiting for the real point of the call to appear.

After a long stretch of buildup, the true purpose finally came out.

“Zhuiyuan.”

“Mm.”

“Have Binbin help me buy some clothes for the change of season and bring them over for me.”

“Okay.”

“And thank Binbin for me too. Sorry to trouble him.”

“Okay.”

Xue Liangliang mentioned Tan Wenbin twice in a row, which meant he did not want Li Zhuiyuan to go.

Liangliang knew full well that his significant other was very afraid of Zhuiyuan.

After hanging up, Li Zhuiyuan started walking home.

He had just stepped onto the embankment when he saw Lin Shuyou walking toward him holding half a table leg.

“Little Yuanhou, there’s a hidden compartment inside this table leg.”

Lin Shuyou had originally wanted to try repairing the table, but it was broken too badly. Fixing it would have taken more time and effort than making two new tables from scratch.

So he simply followed Little Yuanhou’s instructions and split it up for firewood.

When he chopped into this particular leg, he discovered a hollowed-out space inside. Stuffed in it was a piece of yellow silk, and wrapped inside that was a fragment of broken jade.

Li Zhuiyuan took the silk, unfolded it, and saw five words written on it:

[The Treasure of the Mu Prince’s Estate]

Those five words were the only thing on the entire piece of silk. Li Zhuiyuan examined it carefully. There was no hidden layer, no special traces, no special pigment. No need to try water or fire.

As for the broken jade, judging by the proportions, it should be one-third of the original piece.

It also had special carved markings on it. It did not look like it had been broken by accident. It looked more like it had been deliberately made for use as a divinatory guide.

Lin Shuyou asked, “The Mu Prince’s Estate?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Mm. Go on.”

Sometimes his companions really did come up with novel ideas.

Lin Shuyou said, “The Mu Prince’s Estate in Yunnan?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “Mm.”

Lin Shuyou said, “A Restore-the-Ming, oppose-the-Qing treasure stash? The Heaven and Earth Society?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “The Deer and the Cauldron?”

Lin Shuyou immediately brightened. “Right, that one!”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “That Mu Prince’s Estate uses the character with the water radical. This one doesn’t.”

Lin Shuyou blinked. “Huh?”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “But it’s probably also in Yunnan. Most likely that hereditary tusi in Lijiang.”

The boy began to think. Did this count as a kind of lead?

But if it was a lead, it was really far away. Yunnan.

And the way the clue had been given was absurdly direct, hidden inside a table leg of all places.

Li Zhuiyuan vaguely wondered whether this was Heaven giving him a helping hand after he and Wei Zhengdao had made their “righteous split.”

“If that’s the case, then one clue isn’t enough. At the very least, there should be three.”

As soon as Lin Shuyou heard that, he hurriedly said, “Little Yuanhou, I’ll go split open the other three table legs right now and have a look!”

“Mm, okay.”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded, took the silk and the broken jade, and went upstairs.

Ah Li was not sitting in the rattan chair on the terrace, which meant she was probably in her room painting.

He pushed open the door and entered. Sure enough, Ah Li was standing at the painting desk with a brush in hand.

When she saw him come in, the girl smiled at him.

Li Zhuiyuan walked over, looked at the painting, then noticed that the mood in her latest few brushstrokes was somewhat jarring.

Ink painting placed great emphasis on unity of atmosphere. That did not mean the painting had to be completed in one uninterrupted flow, but it did mean that every time the artist lifted the brush during the creative process, they had to preserve the same state of mind.

This kind of problem should not have appeared in Ah Li’s work unless her emotions had been affected by something.

Li Zhuiyuan said nothing. He simply placed both hands on the painting desk and continued admiring the painting.

He had once told the girl that if anything happened, she had to tell him, whether it was dangerous or not.

Between them, the more dangerous something was, the more interesting it became.

He disliked the kind of hesitation that said, “I know it’s dangerous, so I can’t tell you.”

Worry when worry was needed. Protect when protection was needed. And the things that had to be done still had to be done.

The girl extended one finger, rested it on the back of his hand, and gently stroked it.

The boy turned his head and looked at her.

The girl opened her palm toward him, her eyes shining.

“Something came?”

She nodded.

Ever since the Dream Ghost incident, the things that appeared in Ah Li’s dreams had become as obedient as could be. They had retreated so thoroughly that Li Zhuiyuan could not even catch them.

Li Zhuiyuan also understood that those low-level things were bound to become a thing of the past sooner or later.

And yet now, something had actually made a comeback.

That meant it was no longer the same kind of thing as before. If it had been one of those old creatures, Ah Li would already have gotten used to it. It would not have disturbed her state of mind while painting.

So this time, something big had come.

It disdained joining those little underlings in making noise over a young girl, but because it had an old grudge against the Qin and Liu clans, when the timing was right, it would still choose revenge.

Compared to the others, that could almost be called open and aboveboard.

But at the same time... it was also more dangerous.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, interlocked his fingers with the girl’s, and closed his eyes.

The familiar one-story house, the familiar offering table, the familiar cracked memorial tablets.

But this time, the colors inside the cracks in those tablets had changed. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet, every color was there.

Because in reality the memorial tablets in the east room had been remade, and the girl had already become familiar with their materials, she had conveniently “restored the proper materials” for the ancestors inside her own consciousness.

But even though the colors had changed, they still had no spirit.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head.

At his feet was a long shadow.

It was not his shadow. He was not that tall.

At this moment, something was standing outside the doorway.

Aside from Granny Yu the very first time, no malevolent spirit had dared stand this close or act this brazenly.

Li Zhuiyuan turned around and faced the door.

Outside the threshold was a chair, and on the chair sat a person.

He was very tall. Even seated, he was still much taller than an ordinary man.

He wore a black robe embroidered with all kinds of birds and beasts. It was neither a python robe nor official attire. It carried strict formality and regulation, yet Li Zhuiyuan could not match it to the proper dress of any dynasty in his memory.

Usually, that meant the clothing system was one circulated only within a small region or within a family.

The Qin and Liu clans, for example, also had their own graded formal attire for ceremonial occasions.

He still had two sets himself, gifts from Granny Liu.

The figure had his head lowered, as though looking down at him.

The area where his face should have been was pitch-black. One could only sense his gaze flowing out, but not see his features clearly.

Li Zhuiyuan lifted his head. Once he caught the other man’s gaze, he met it calmly.

After a long while, the man in the black robe let out a sinister laugh.

Unlike the threats and curses from those evil things that lurked in the white mist before, this laughter also carried a trace of melancholy.

As though he had seen the household of an old enemy reduced to the point where it needed a child to hold up the front, and felt a kind of helplessness.

Even though Li Zhuiyuan was still able to “meet his gaze” without losing ground, in the black-robed man’s eyes, it was nothing more than a young boy stubbornly propping up the family façade.

The black-robed man’s gaze shifted away from the boy and swept toward the memorial tablets on the offering table behind him.

It lingered on one of the tablets for a long time.

As though recalling the years when he had once fought that Dragon King.

Li Zhuiyuan knew that if he followed the direction of that gaze, he should be able to find the position of that Dragon King.

But he could not do that.

The man had passed over him to look at the elders behind him, which in itself was a sign that he did not take him seriously. If he really turned and followed along to seek the elder out, that would be lowering his own standing.

Everyone knew the Qin and Liu clans had declined, but what Liu Yumei had been upholding all these years was the last breath of pride left in those two clans.

Now that responsibility had fallen onto Li Zhuiyuan.

The boy said, “If you truly wish to pay respects, then find your way here properly and kneel before the tablets.”

The black-robed man’s gaze settled once more on the boy.

This time there was no contempt in it, only gravity.

He extended a hand from his sleeve.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that his hand was very large and long. Given that he was so absurdly tall, that was not surprising.

But the five fingernails on that hand were all pitch-black, radiating pure corpse aura.

This was not the aura of a Dead Sinker. There was always a peculiar dampness to the aura of a Dead Sinker.

But this corpse aura, Li Zhuiyuan had seen before. Long ago, when the Cat-faced Granny came to borrow tables, chairs, pots, bowls, and dishes for a birthday feast, a Zombie had emerged from a dream and fought her.

This black-robed man before him... was a Zombie?

In the man’s palm was a piece of jade.

And Li Zhuiyuan had just gotten a broken jade fragment himself, one that was clearly part of it.

Then he saw the man toss his palm upward. The jade split apart and fell to the ground, becoming three pieces.

He had guessed correctly. The jade really was used for divination.

Though there were only three pieces, depending on the angles at which they landed, all kinds of deductions could be made from them, giving rise to endless variations.

The underlying principles of this sort of thing all connected in the end. Only the rules and forms differed; the calculations themselves were the same.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his gaze for a glance and immediately saw that the divination result was of the highest auspiciousness.

A hoarse voice came from the black-robed man’s throat:

“My clan is on the verge of ascension. I invite you to witness the ceremony.”

As soon as the words fell, the black-robed man’s figure began slowly fading away.

At that moment, the white clouds high in the sky seemed to sense that something big was about to step forward. They seemed to think they had a chance again. The clouds began descending one after another, and the clamorous racket inside them seemed on the verge of starting up again.

But when Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze swept toward the sky, the clouds immediately slowed their descent, and the voices within them quieted again.

Seeing this, the black-robed man let out that sinister laugh once more.

Then his figure vanished completely.

However, the three jade fragments he had used for divination remained outside the threshold.

Was this jade an invitation?

But there were three pieces.

Did he need to gather all three to form a complete piece?

Or had there always been three fragments, to be given separately to three different parties?

Or was it that there were many invitees, but only three seats to witness the ceremony, and they would have to be fought over?

Li Zhuiyuan immediately ruled out the first possibility. Since the other party had personally come here to invite him, he would not then make him go collecting the pieces himself.

If the second possibility was true, then it meant that, like the Guizhou trip last time, this was another cooperative challenge, except this time three teams would be working together.

But if the third possibility was true, if many parties were fighting over admission, then getting one jade fragment first might not be an entirely good thing, because it could make him the target of other teams trying to seize it.

In River Walk, the final victor of each generation became the Dragon King.

And if this was truly a contest of a hundred boats racing the current, then how could the river possibly fail to create opportunities for them to crash into one another, test one another, and fight?

It was not only Miao Territory that raised Gu. Every Dragon King throughout the generations had fought and clawed their way out of the river.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes and returned to reality.

Ah Li looked at him. She knew this time was different from before.

It was not that beings like that had never briefly appeared in her dreams before, but none had ever stayed so long.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head until his forehead rested against the girl’s.

“This is more interesting. Better for painting, isn’t it?”

The girl pulled her forehead back, then gently and tenderly leaned it forward again to touch his. She smiled.

“Little Yuanhou, Little Yuanhou, your great-grandpa hit the jackpot! Hahahaha, hit the jackpot!”

Taigong’s excited voice rose up from downstairs.

Before winning, Taigong had been sneaky about it.

After winning, Taigong was unbelievably arrogant.

On the ride back in Lu Runsheng’s tricycle, whenever they passed anyone he knew, Taigong would put on a troubled face and say:

“Sigh, I just scratched one ticket. How did I end up winning? As if he has any time to go traveling.”

Then when others looked envious and started helping him analyze the matter, Taigong would add one more line:

“I guess I can only let my Little Yuanhou and the others go have some fun. The kids will definitely be thrilled.”

Li Zhuiyuan walked downstairs.

Li Sanjiang happened to be climbing down from the tricycle with the prize ticket raised in his hand.

“Little Yuanhou, here, take it. You can go back to Beijing and visit your Northern Grandpa and Northern Grandma.”

Love was possessive, but love was also accommodating.

Of course Li Sanjiang hoped Little Yuanhou would belong only to him forever, but he also understood that if the child was to develop better in the future, the support from the grandparents up north would be absolutely indispensable.

There was always something odd about that girl Li Lan, he had thought so ever since she was little.

But Li Sanjiang did not believe those grandparents in the north would not cherish such a gifted grandson.

Li Zhuiyuan took the ticket. The prize had already been scratched open on it: Seven-Day Luxury Family Trip for Five.

But there was still a small section at the front left unscratched. Li Zhuiyuan scratched it off and then said,

“Taigong…”

“Taigong’s not going. You kids go enjoy yourselves. I’ll help you prepare some local specialties to bring to your grandparents up north.”

“It’s not Beijing…”

“Oh, Taigong’s got too much going on here. Can’t leave. Need to make money. Besides, if you’re going to see your grandparents up north, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Taigong to tag along. They wouldn’t like it.”

Li Zhuiyuan could only spread out the ticket and hold it in front of Li Sanjiang, saying,

“Taigong, this ticket isn’t for Beijing.”

“Huh? How’s it not? I even had Marquis of Runsheng help me read it.”

“There are still two characters at the front.”

Li Sanjiang leaned in and looked carefully. Then, in great surprise, he read aloud:

“Yunnan seven-day luxury family trip for five?”