Chapter 17: Green Hat (Requesting Monthly Votes)

"Sweet potato pot-pot~"

Dou Dou rubbed her eyes and appeared before Shen Siyuan.

She spent most of her time sleeping inside the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which was also a way to nourish the soul.

The strength of a soul is tied to one’s life before death and does not change after death, but ghosts on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner break this rule—they can not only strengthen their souls, but with the right cultivation method, even cultivate further.

The Nine You Demon Lord, being the ancestor of spirit masters, naturally had no shortage of ghost cultivation techniques.

Unfortunately, Dou Dou was too young; teaching her to cultivate was a hassle, so Shen Siyuan decided to put it off for now and see if a more suitable “person” appeared later.

After these two days of sleep, Dou Dou no longer glowed with blue light like a Smurf, but her hair still burned like flames.

"How do you feel?"

Shen Siyuan reached out and touched her hair, which blazed like blue flame.

Though Ming fire could burn souls, these flames originated from the Ten Thousand Souls Banner; as its master, he was naturally unharmed—the Ming fire looked like burning fire but carried no heat, only a faint chill.

"It’s so comfortable."

Dou Dou stretched lazily; since her death, she had never felt this comfortable.

It was like waking up after a long, deep sleep, her spirit brimming with energy.

"Good. Wander nearby, but don’t go far."

"Okay~"

Dou Dou replied and immediately rode a gust of yin wind out the window—she had long wanted to fly in the air.

Shen Siyuan walked to the window and looked down to see Old Lu still pacing below.

He had ignored him for several days; it was time to make contact and verify his suspicions.

So he stepped out and went downstairs.

He had just entered the elevator when Dou Dou appeared out of nowhere.

"Sweet potato pot-pot~, where are my dad and mom?"

She asked pitifully.

"They’re naturally at home."

"Oh~"

Hearing this, Dou Dou grew disappointed.

He needed to find her a companion soon—otherwise, this little brat would keep thinking about her parents.

But over these past few days, Jiang Wenxin and her husband had asked him about Dou Dou more than a dozen times, especially Jiang Wenxin, who was unusually enthusiastic, bringing snacks and fruit.

This led several colleagues in the office to conclude he was dating a wealthy woman.

"Tomorrow, you’ll see your mother," Shen Siyuan thought and comforted her.

"Okay, thank you, sweet potato pot-pot~"

The little girl brightened instantly, then dissolved into a gust of yin wind and vanished.

Shen Siyuan suspected that if she knew the way, she’d have run home herself.

As soon as he stepped out of the building entrance, Old Lu nodded from afar but didn’t approach; yet when he saw Shen Siyuan walking toward him, he immediately stepped forward, visibly excited.

"Mr. Shen..."

He knew these days of waiting hadn’t been in vain—Mr. Shen had finally agreed to speak with him.

At that moment, a gust of yin wind swept through, and Dou Dou appeared out of thin air between them.

"Grandpa Lu."

Seeing a familiar face, Dou Dou excitedly waved her small hand.

But Old Lu stumbled backward several steps in terror—he felt a chilling dread, and even before she neared him, his soul prickled with pain.

Seeing Grandpa Lu’s reaction, Dou Dou was confused and saddened.

"Enough, go play. I’ll talk with Grandpa Lu," Shen Siyuan patted her head.

"Oh~"

Dou Dou obediently turned into a gust of yin wind and shot upward, vanishing from sight.

Old Lu looked up at the sky—he knew Dou Dou’s transformation was tied to Shen Siyuan, and his reverence deepened.

"Tell me your situation—what unresolved wish keeps you bound to this world?"

"Yes, Mr. Shen."

Old Lu began recounting his story.

His full name was Lu Guanchang, a native of Binhai; in his youth, he worked at the Binhai hand tractor factory, a coveted iron rice bowl, which allowed him to marry a girl named Yang Lianxiang—she had little education but was very beautiful.

That period was the happiest of Lu Guanchang’s life, but good times didn’t last—the tide of history rolled forward, and no iron rice bowl was permanent; the hand tractor factory eventually shut down, and workers were laid off, Lu Guanchang included.

Through a friend’s introduction, he joined a shipping company as a sailor; as a port city, Binhai handled massive cargo volumes, with countless ships traveling worldwide.

As a sailor who traveled globally, Lu Guanchang’s horizons broadened, and with prolonged separation from his wife and exposure to many outside women, he grew increasingly disdainful of his homebound wife.

They soon divorced; at the time, they already had a daughter, but Lu Guanchang, his heart already wandering, felt no attachment and simply let his wife take the child.

Later, as he aged, he settled down, stopped sailing, remarried, and had a son, living a stable life.

"So you linger because you feel guilty toward your ex-wife?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Guanchang sighed deeply, then said something that left Shen Siyuan stunned.

"Only after death did I discover that the son I raised for so many years isn’t mine—I’ve poured my heart and soul into him and his mother all these years..."

As he spoke of this, his anger grew, his facial muscles twitching grotesquely, making him look even more hideous.

"What happened?" Shen Siyuan asked curiously.

He secretly chuckled—this was likely karmic retribution.

"What else? My wife cheated on me—right after I died, she brought back her damn cousin; I raised that boy for years, and he didn’t even say a word..."

The woman Lu Guanchang later married had a cousin who was close to their family and visited often; Lu Guanchang assumed he was just a relative, never suspecting the man was actually her lover from her youth.

Since they were outsiders in Binhai with no other relatives, Lu Guanchang never doubted their relationship.

"You never noticed your son wasn’t yours?"

"Ah~" Lu Guanchang sighed.

"A son looks like his uncle—isn’t that normal? Even if he’s a maternal uncle."

Precisely because of this, Lu Guanchang never suspected—yet the boy was truly the “uncle’s” child.

"My old cousin... my wife’s lover—he was married before, but claimed they divorced due to incompatibility. Now I know why—they had no children. As soon as I died, he moved into my house, took over my home—what a cruel heart..."

At this point, Lu Guanchang’s fury was uncontrollable.

"I’m such a fool—I spent years raising another man’s son, worked myself to the bone, and all my earnings went to a stranger, while my real child suffers outside. How can I accept this?"

After hearing the full story, Shen Siyuan felt no sympathy—he almost laughed. It was entirely deserved.

You plant what you reap.

Still, Shen Siyuan decided to help him—for the sake of the poor mother and daughter, and to test his own theory.