Chapter 67: The Mountain Man Disdains Worldly Reasoning

“Chief Consultant Chu, Consultant Sir, Brother Chu, Big Brother Chu!”

Fang Jun stood outside the car, gently tapping the window, slowly and softly, “Wake up.”

Chu Tianshu opened his eyes and turned to look out the window: “We’re here?”

“We’ve been here a while.”

Fang Jun said, “He said the house is a mess, so he went back first to clean up. I thought you hadn’t slept since landing, so I let you sleep longer in the car.”

Chu Tianshu opened the car door and found this side resembled a fishing village.

Not far from the cement road was a gravel patch, with several houses made from modified shipping containers along the roadside.

“Sorry about this.”

Yin Fengxin opened the door, “A few years ago, my family rented a government-subsidized house, but after I got a job, we had to move out.”

“Compared to others, these shipping container houses aren’t bad, so we stayed here.”

The container itself isn’t small.

But it has to hold a bed, a folding table, a wooden crate supporting a clothesline for hanging clothes.

In the corner there’s a gas stove and a propane tank.

Entering such a house requires caution—any sudden movement risks bumping into something.

Below the window, several nails held a portrait of a middle-aged woman, and three more nails fixed a small incense burner.

“This is my mother.”

Yin Fengxin pulled out a pack of incense sticks from beside the bed, lit three with a lighter, bowed three times, then stuck them into the incense burner.

Fang Jun said bluntly, “This place is definitely unsuitable for recovery. You should move somewhere else soon.”

But Chu Tianshu carefully observed the room for a while.

“You said one day you came home, slept extremely deeply, and when you woke up, you felt unusually energetic.”

Chu Tianshu pointed at the bed, “That day, you slept right here, didn’t you?”

Yin Fengxin nodded.

Fang Jun looked at Chu Tianshu, recalling how Chu Tianshu had told him that Yin Fengxin’s deep entanglement with a malevolent spirit yet remaining conscious was an extremely rare occurrence.

Could there be something special about this house?

But the feng shui here was ordinary; apart from Yin Fengxin’s own body, nothing else felt unusual.

“Are you superstitious about beds?”

Chu Tianshu smiled, “If you move somewhere else, don’t get unsettled.”

“This trip will last at least ten or more days. Looking at your place, it doesn’t seem particularly safe. If you have anything important, better carry it with you.”

Yin Fengxin looked at his mother’s portrait.

It meant a lot to him, but no one would steal such a thing, would they?

He thought for a moment, pulled out a small box from under the bed.

Inside the box was an old-fashioned cosmetic case, a longevity lock, a string of silver coins and copper cash worn by children as lucky charms, and a scroll.

“The most important things are these. They’re not worth much money, but they’re all my mother left me. Huh?”

Yin Fengxin rummaged through the box in surprise, “Strange, there was supposed to be a jade piece too—where did it go?”

He searched again and again but couldn’t find it, then angrily pulled out his phone and made a call.

“Dad, did you take the jade my mother left me?”

“Really not you?”

“Alright, don’t keep crashing at your coworkers’ places anymore. Come back home—I’ve got a company benefit program, and I’ll be staying out for a while.”

After hanging up, Yin Fengxin slumped.

Fang Jun said nothing, handed him two pieces of gum.

“Thanks.”

Yin Fengxin took the gum, “Sorry to let you see this. My parents used to run a shoe business—we were fairly well-off.”

“Then my dad somehow got into gambling, racked up massive debts, sold off everything valuable, and even nearly sold these few things.”

Yin Fengxin sat on the floor, pressing his stomach, as if a pressure had built up too long and now needed to be spoken aloud.

Chu Tianshu watched him, and an unbidden thought crossed his mind.

Yin Fengxin had indeed maintained clear consciousness—so wouldn’t a clear-minded person realize it was abnormal to drink that much pure milk every day?

And the sudden surge in sexual urges.

Perhaps he suspected something, but dared not go for a medical checkup, instead working himself to exhaustion.

Only when others, including his boss, insisted did he reluctantly agree.

So after leaving that building, he didn’t ask about his health report like a normal person would.

“Especially that jade.”

Yin Fengxin picked up the scroll, “My mother said that jade and this painting were bought together when she was pregnant.”

“The seller claimed they were ancestral heirlooms from the Ming Dynasty, but this painting’s paper clearly looked new—not at all like an antique.”

“My mother mainly wanted the jade; the painting was just a bonus.”

“She always said men wear jade, women wear silver. When pregnant and finding a good jade, it’s like it was made specially for the child.”

“When my father’s debts were exposed, the only thing my mother physically stopped him from taking was that jade—she beat him and hung it around my neck.”

“For years, my mother supported my schooling while forcing my father to quit gambling.”

“When she was dying, she held my hand and said I must work honestly, earn money properly, never think of shortcuts, marry, build a family, and have someone to rely on in old age.”

Yin Fengxin gave a self-deprecating smile.

“But once I joined the company, I had to wear my work badge along with the jade—it was quite large, and my boss said it was too flashy, so I had no choice but to leave it at home.”

Fang Jun comforted him, “That jade may have actually saved your life.”

Chu Tianshu looked at the box and said, “May I see this painting?”

Yin Fengxin handed over the scroll, then shoved the gum into his mouth, chewing absentmindedly, his whole body seeming to drift into blankness.

Chu Tianshu untied the ribbon and carefully unrolled it.

The paper was indeed sturdy, unlike the brittle, aged paper one typically imagines for ancient paintings.

The painting showed a cluster of plants, and an old man leaning on a wooden staff, bending over to examine them.

The old man’s expression was vivid—his gaze at the plants seemed to see not mere herbs, but an inexhaustible, boundless treasure trove benefiting his descendants.

One single herb was a peerless wonder.

“Of course!”

Chu Tianshu thought inwardly, “This attire matches the man I saw in my dream.”

The entire scene was extremely simple—only the old man and the cluster of plants, plus a red seal in the lower right corner.

“Bīn, Hú, Shān, Rén.”

Chu Tianshu recognized the four characters, and a flash of insight struck him.

“Binhushanren… Li Shizhen?!”

Fang Jun, hearing this, looked over curiously.

“You mean the man in this painting is Li Shizhen?”

Fang Jun asked, “The Li Shizhen who wrote the Compendium of Materia Medica?”

Chu Tianshu nodded, “Very likely. Binhushanren was Li Shizhen’s sobriquet.”

His mind filled with many thoughts.

Li Shizhen didn’t just write the Compendium of Materia Medica—he also wrote The Examination of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, The Study of the Mingmen, The Difficulties of the Sanjiao, The Treatise on Tiankui, and others.

There was also The Treatise on the Five Zang Organs, though most of it has been lost.

The Dragon Hua Sect’s leader was active during the Wanli era, and Li Shizhen lived in that same time.

If the seller’s claim is true, and this painting and the Dragon Hua Kidney Jade were both ancestral heirlooms,

could Li Shizhen have had some connection to the Dragon Hua Sect?

Considering what the Li Shizhen in the dream had said, the two sides likely weren’t on good terms.

Fang Jun also realized this, pulled out his phone, and typed furiously, showing it to Chu Tianshu.

‘If this painting truly has an extraordinary origin, could it conceal a method to suppress the Dragon Hua Sect’s malevolent spirits?’

‘Then he might be saved.’

Chu Tianshu nodded slightly and activated his mental force, testing whether the painting would react.

But the moment his mental force touched the painting, it vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

Chu Tianshu deliberately poured more mental force into it—after more than ten seconds, the painting’s absorption rate showed no change whatsoever.

The thin sheet of paper was like an endless abyss.

Chu Tianshu frowned and mouthed “help” to Fang Jun.

Fang Jun released his own mental force toward the painting.

In Chu Tianshu’s vision, Fang Jun’s mental force extended from his fingertips like a faint crimson mist—of excellent quality.

But the moment it touched the painting’s surface, it simply slid off, unable to penetrate at all.

Fang Jun lifted his finger, redirected the mental force, and it slid away again—he typed again.

‘Perhaps you’re a healer, and this painting only recognizes your kind of mental force—or perhaps because you applied yours first, it rejects others, or maybe both.’

‘You said he could suppress the spirit—could it be because of this painting?’

Chu Tianshu now shook his head.

This painting had been sealed away for a long time and showed no reaction to the outside world.

That is to say, Yin Fengxin truly resisted the influence of the malevolent spirit through his own will alone, even twisting the spirit’s desires.

He was a man who had once died suddenly.

His will was like a candle flickering in the wind, like a single hair.

A thousand jin hung by a single thread.

But he held on.

“How can there be such an honest person?”

Chu Tianshu whispered, “Is it because of his mother’s last words? Even like this, he still forces himself to go to work and earn money.”

Fang Jun sighed, “It’s precisely because he’s honest that he can’t earn much money.”

“Hmph!”

Chu Tianshu strongly disliked this kind of “common sense.”

“Back then, I thought that if I had extra money, I’d open a pharmacy—having a real business would give me peace of mind.”

“Just watch—I won’t just separate him from the malevolent spirit; someday, I’ll bring him into business and achieve something great with men like him!!”

(End of Chapter)