Chapter 547: Old Mansion

After leaving the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau, Lu Yibei walked briskly toward the Lu Family old mansion, passing through a small alley and along familiar streets.

He hadn’t expected Xing Yuan to be so efficient. He’d only told her yesterday that the Xiezhi Crown was in hand, and today Jiang Li had already received the notification email. She’d be leaving Hua City soon to go to The Midnight Watchers Society headquarters to complete her Spirit Pattern advancement.

He also hadn’t expected Jiang Li to ask to eat a meal cooked by him.

Given all that, Jingyi Apartment was definitely not suitable as a date location.

Caught off guard, Lu Yibei didn’t have time to settle Wang Yingying. Even if he could hide it for a while, the psychic energy fluctuation lingering in the apartment would let Jiang Li sense its presence.

Although Jiang Li definitely wouldn’t report Lu Yibei, harboring a catastrophe-class haunting and tampering with the Moonlight Project contract–these two crimes could be serious or minor. Lu Yibei thought, rather than letting Jiang Li find out and then cover for him, suffering inner torment, it was better not to let her know at all.

But, it’s not my first time breaking the law…

As long as I don’t get caught, it doesn’t count as a crime!

The Midnight Watchers Society needs evidence to handle cases too, right?

Thinking this, Lu Yibei steadied himself, quickened his pace a little, and headed for the old mansion.

——–

On Mudan Street in late spring, a muggy, humid air lingered. Summer had not yet arrived, but under the lush willow branches, a few cicadas were already impatiently chirping their immature songs.

Winding through the twisting streets of Mudan Street, Lu Yibei took less than three minutes to return to his own doorstep.

He paused in front of the white-walled, black-tiled building, looked up at the plaque inscribed with [Lu’s Sichuan Restaurant], and let out a silent sigh.

The scene of his father holding the hand-written shop name and finding someone to make the sign felt as if it were just yesterday.

“He even said he’d open a chain all over the world! It’s hard enough just to get out of Mudan Street…” Lu Yibei muttered, took out his key, inserted it into the lock, and slowly turned it.

“Click–!”

With a soft sound, the door opened and afternoon sunlight spilled in.

The house was very clean. The tables and chairs in the main hall were neatly arranged, the broken window on the east side had been repaired at some point, and the expired drinks in the counter had been cleared out. The air was filled with a faint scent unique to cleaning agents.

The whole house didn’t look at all like it had been uninhabited for a long time.

“That’s strange, how did this happen?” Lu Yibei said in surprise.

Although Shui-Ge would occasionally come by to clean after he moved out, he would never do it so thoroughly.

“Could it be a thief?”

Lu Yibei thought, narrowing his eyes as he looked around, finally fixing his gaze on the stairs leading to the second floor.

After pondering for two seconds, he silently took out the Pure Lotus Sword from the Divine Land prototype and held it in his hand. He stepped forward and walked up the stairs to the attic.

The attic’s layout was simple. Less than thirty square meters, the space was divided by walls into a narrow, cramped living room and two very small bedrooms.

In fact, until he started middle school, Lu Yibei had always slept with his father. Later, as he grew older and needed privacy, his father brought in boards to divide one bedroom into two.

A TV, a cheap double sofa, and a small refrigerator filled the living room to the brim. There wasn’t even room for a washing machine, which had to be moved to the small backyard behind the old mansion.

Whenever it rained, doing laundry was a big problem for the father and son.

But on rainy days, bathing became convenient–they didn’t need to go to the bathhouse and could do it at home.

Luckily, the backyard wall of the Lu Family old mansion was high enough. Otherwise, every time it rained, the neighbors would see a big naked man and a little naked boy, covered in bubbles, frolicking in the yard, deeply discussing the differences between a mammoth and a baby elephant.

And…

Looking at these familiar things, memories Lu Yibei didn’t want to forget but didn’t want to recall surfaced in his mind, until the noise from the street outside reached him.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon, school was out. A few boys of unknown age kicked a soccer ball, shouting as they ran past, their voices fading around the corner of the old street.

Lu Yibei drew back his attention, stepped forward, and ran his fingertips lightly over the cheap double sofa and the TV.

Not a speck of dust was left on his fingertips.

He opened the refrigerator and paused.

Inside were all kinds of snacks, each half-eaten, as if left for someone, but they’d been there too long and most had started to spoil.

Closing the fridge, Lu Yibei frowned, turned around without a word, and pushed open the doors to the two bedrooms.

Dad’s bedroom was just as it had been the last time he came. The windowless room was empty, the bed dismantled, the frame leaning in a corner, and Dad’s belongings packed into several large cardboard boxes, piled together and covered in a thick layer of dust.

But when Lu Yibei pushed open the door to his former bedroom, the slightly weary sunlight spilled over him, and he froze in place.

Inside the room stood a single bed and a very small writing desk. The bed was covered with a simple white floral sheet, the thin quilt neatly folded atop the pillow, and the writing desk was tidied up. The textbooks Lu Yibei had once used were arranged in order by grade on the bookshelf.

The window by the bed was half open, and on the sill sat a small flowerpot with an unknown wildflower planted in it. The white blossom had already withered, swaying gently in the breeze.

A faint fragrance filled the air, not the scent of any industrial air freshener, but the fresh aroma of some natural flower or grass.

This scene was completely different from when Lu Yibei used to live here. Although he was a bit of a neat freak, the room had always been in a state of chaos for long periods.

After all, cleanliness and tidiness aren’t really the same thing.

“What the hell, what’s going on here?” Lu Yibei muttered, scratching the back of his head.

In fact, the moment he set foot in the attic, he had keenly sensed that someone had been here before.

It was a kind of intuition, like how most people inexplicably feel it when someone is staring at them from behind.

He just never expected to see a scene like this.

It was as if a little thief had snuck into his house, not only refrained from stealing anything, but even helped with a thorough cleaning, made the bed, and stayed for a while.

Truly absurd!

But what kind of person would do something like this?

Thinking about it, Lu Yibei quickly sprang into action, meticulously searching every inch of his room.

However, he found nothing.

That person had tidied up everything he’d left behind, putting it all together in neat order, but aside from the faint fragrance in the air, left no trace at all.

Lu Yibei vaguely felt that something was off, but couldn’t put his finger on it–after all, he didn’t even know that person’s name.

Just as he was utterly puzzled, a sudden breeze blew in from the half-open window, wandering through the room and disturbing something hidden in a corner, which let out a pleasant, tinkling sound.

Ding-a-ling… ding-a-ling…

The sound was very faint, very crisp, like a sprite running across the rooftop.

Lu Yibei paused, pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a few seconds, then realized the sound was coming from outside the bedroom window.

He stood up and looked toward the source.

He saw, on the tip of the old pomegranate tree outside the window, a string of bronze wind chimes hanging there, as if someone had climbed in through the window, accidentally caught them on a branch, and left them behind.

The pomegranate tree swayed gently in the late spring breeze, and the wind chime at the tip of the branch, together with the half-open crimson blossoms, poured out a sound like running water.

Lu Yibei stepped forward, pushed open the window, took down the string of wind chimes, and examined them closely in his hand for a moment. Suddenly, his body trembled as if struck by electricity.

A scene flashed through his mind.

A girl in white sat atop the old stone tower on Mudan Street, her legs dangling and swinging gently outside the railing, the bronze wind chime at her ankle jingling softly. She turned her head in surprise, then broke into a bright smile and said, “Hey! Haven’t had time to come by lately?”

“No worries, I found something tasty and saved half for you. Next time you come, I’ll share it with you!”

And then…

That smile gradually overlapped with the strained smile on the face in the Divine Land staff compound.

“The person who stayed in my house… was actually Ah-Hua? But… why did she come to stay at my place? And now… is she gone?”

Lu Yibei muttered in confusion, and just then, footsteps sounded from downstairs. His mind went into a panic, and he froze in place, at a loss for what to do.

Just like a thief caught in the act.

He listened quietly to the sounds downstairs, hearing someone open the living room window, pull out a chair and sit down, and then all was silent again.

After waiting a moment and seeing that the person had no intention of coming upstairs, Lu Yibei tiptoed to the stairway, poked his head out furtively, and looked downstairs. Then he saw a familiar figure sitting by the window, staring out in a daze.

Shui-Ge? Why is he here? Did he come to clean? Doesn’t seem like it! Who brings a sword to clean, anyway? And that sword… Lu Yibei grumbled inwardly.

The longsword in Bai Kai’s hand was not the one he usually carried.

This sword had a silver scabbard, and its hilt was oddly shaped, as if plant roots were entwined together, with a faint blue hue.

Lu Yibei had seen this sword once when he was a child at Bai Kai’s house, kept alone in a very small room.

He found the sword’s design unique and wanted to take it down for a look, but his old man gave him a good beating. Since then, he had never seen the sword again.

Why did Shui-Ge suddenly think of taking out this sword today?

Lu Yibei wondered, puzzled, then withdrew his thoughts, quickly walked downstairs, and cleared his throat at the absent-minded Bai Kai, “Ahem!”

Hearing a sound behind him, Bai Kai instinctively gripped the longsword tighter and spun around. When he saw it was Lu Yibei, the sharpness in his eyes gradually faded, replaced by a smile.

“You gave me a scare, so it’s you, Yibei? What brings you here? Didn’t you say you didn’t want to come, so you wouldn’t be reminded of people by seeing things?”

“Well…” Lu Yibei thought for a moment and said seriously, “Because I’ve grown up, I feel I can handle it now, so I came back to take a look.”

He was telling the truth. After that brief encounter and final farewell with Ms. Wang Meili, he could now face his old man’s passing better than before.

It was like an infected wound, violently torn open to drain the pus, which actually helped it heal faster.

If it were before, with Jingyi Apartment being inconvenient for hosting Jiang Li, Lu Yibei wouldn’t have brought her to the old mansion.

“But what about you? Why are you here alone, wallowing in melancholy?” Lu Yibei asked in confusion. “Don’t tell me things aren’t harmonious between you and Godmother?”

“Who told you that? Was it her?” Bai Kai retorted. “If you ask me, that’s slander, pure rumor. Anyone would be exhausted after rushing overnight from Hua City to Jinguan City, right?”

Lu Yibei, “…” I was just making a casual remark, but you two really aren’t harmonious?

“I came here because…”

“Don’t say you’re here to remember my old man!” Lu Yibei interrupted, pointing at the bottle of liquor in Bai Kai’s hand. “He didn’t drink baijiu.”

“He…” Bai Kai opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly noticed the ancient bronze wind chime in Lu Yibei’s hand and frowned slightly.

After a few seconds of silence, he continued, “Fine, it’s just not very harmonious…”

He had recognized that what Lu Yibei was holding was the wind chime Nanling Rao Hua always carried, but he didn’t want to bring it up with Lu Yibei.

Lu Yibei was Lu Ming’s child and was supposed to bear the same fate as his old man, guarding Yumen.

His old man had gone through countless hardships to finally escape that fate. If Lu Yibei went to Yumen, he might end up stuck there too.

As an elder, Bai Kai certainly wanted both Nanling Rao Hua and Lu Yibei to be happy.

So, Lu Yibei couldn’t go, and Nanling Rao Hua had to leave too. As for how to do it…

Let the adults figure it out!

For that, even if his reputation suffered, it didn’t matter.

Who told me to have two troublesome senior brothers? Bai Kai thought.

After hearing Bai Kai’s words, Lu Yibei nodded, “Yeah, you’re getting older. After all your wild days and the happy rich lady series, it’s understandable you’d end up like this.”

As he spoke, he slipped the wind chime into his pocket.

Noticing this, Bai Kai frowned, but his expression soon returned to normal. He waved at Lu Yibei impatiently, “Get lost, get lost. What do kids know? Come talk to me again when you become a real man!”

“Shui-Ge.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you not love me anymore?” Lu Yibei said with a straight face. “So, after you have a wife, love just disappears, right?”

Bai Kai’s mouth twitched. He raised the bottle in his hand and said fiercely, “Then why don’t you stay and have a couple of drinks with me? Feel some godfatherly love?”

“Forget it!” Lu Yibei rolled his eyes. “Drinking is bad for your health. I don’t want to end up like you, not harmonious.”

With that, he jogged out of the old mansion, but a few seconds later, he sneaked back and asked Bai Kai slyly, “By the way, Shui-Ge, do you remember Liu Seer? I saw him before. Didn’t he used to sell those, what was it, Ten-Whip Vitality Pills? Want me to ask him for you?”

Bai Kai, “…”