Chapter 11: Finding Gold and Not Keeping It

Niu Congcong did not leave; instead, he said to Sha Er Zhu, "Let's wait here a while. We must wait for the owner to come back looking for it. Losing money like this, they must be worried to death."

"This blue cloth purse is used by poor families; how could wealthy families use such a thing? It might just be the money they have to live on for a month or two."

Sha Er Zhu was stunned. He had never seen the young master show such kindness before, as if he had become a different person. But he was accustomed to silence, so he did not refute anything and busied himself spreading out a cloth bag for Niu Congcong to sit on.

Niu Congcong sat down, but his mouth did not stop, spouting logic: "Sha Er Zhu, I think that when people die, there must be a way to be resurrected. Your knowledge is too shallow. You have only seen people, but have you ever seen a God Immortal?"

"In those storybooks, a single Immortal Pill from Taishang Laojun—not to mention saving a dead person—can even make one become an Immortal on the spot!"

Er Zhu remained silent; he did not understand anything about gods or Immortals.

In the village, people worshipped and respected gods on the first and fifteenth of every month, but no one had ever actually seen a god.

He had heard of people encountering ghosts, where spirit mediums and witches would force Talisman Water down their throats. If they died, it was because the Evil Sha was too powerful; if they lived, it was because the witch's Talisman Water was powerful. But regardless of whether it worked or not, it cost two taels of silver per sheet.

The two waited for less than three quarters of an hour when, sure enough, two people appeared, heads lowered, looking east and west, crawling on their knees like dogs as they searched carefully for something.

When they got closer, it was clear it was an old woman with a child. Both had looks of terror and unease.

The old woman looked as if the sky had collapsed.

The child was also covered in dirt and dust.

Niu Congcong whistled to get the child's attention.

"Hey! That kid!"

He held up the blue cloth-printed purse.

The child's expression changed instantly, ecstatic: "Grandma, look!"

The old woman followed the child's pointing finger and saw Niu Congcong holding up the purse.

She hurried over and immediately knelt down, weeping bitterly: "Kind sir, this purse is what this old woman lost. Inside is the money the child's father earned doing hard labor; it is for us mother and child to live on. Please have mercy and return it to this old woman. This old woman will kowtow to you!"

Niu Congcong had never seen such a thing; he dodged the kowtowing, feeling somewhat awkward: "I was just waiting for the owner to come back and get it. Why are you kowtowing to me, old woman? If you want to kowtow, do it to that kid!"

Having recovered what was lost, the old woman did not know how to express her feelings. She took the purse Niu Congcong tossed over and, too anxious to stand up, hurriedly pulled her grandson over to kowtow.

"A Ban! Quickly, kowtow to the two masters! If this money had really been lost today, I would have only been able to find a rope and hang myself. If I die, you have no one to take care of you; staying in this world is pitiful, so you might as well hang yourself with this old woman. When we reach the underworld, this old woman can still take care of you... These two masters have saved our lives!"

A Ban was obedient and kowtowed to Niu Congcong repeatedly.

Niu Congcong accepted a few; he was afraid of losing his lifespan if the old woman kowtowed to him, but he dared to accept them from someone younger than himself.

"It's a coincidence that you met me this time." Niu Congcong squinted, his eyebrows curved, and he said with a smile: "I'm someone who isn't short on money. If you had met someone else, you wouldn't have had such good luck. Keep your things safe from now on. Money is a good thing; it can buy a person's life!"

He then said to Er Zhu: "Sha Er Zhu, get the money!"

Er Zhu took a bag embroidered with patterns from his bosom.

Niu Congcong took a string of Copper Coins and placed them in A Ban's hand: "I won't accept your kowtows for nothing. Take this money and buy some candy!"

The old woman chanted "Amitabha" upon seeing the money. She wanted to say she couldn't accept it, but she couldn't bear to part with it, so she could only say repeatedly: "The two masters are truly Bodhisattvas reincarnated, with great mercy and kind hearts. May the Bodhisattva bless the two masters with long lives!" She then called for A Ban to kowtow again.

Niu Congcong, however, told Sha Er Zhu to squat down and carry him away on his back.

He shouted: "Giddyap!"

Leaving the old woman and the child behind, staring at his retreating back for a long time.

They had never seen such good people. It was completely different from the wealthy families they had known and experienced before.

Niu Congcong kept savoring the satisfaction of being thanked, laughing: "Sha Er Zhu, tell me, am I a good person?" Er Zhu said: "The young master is naturally a good person."

Niu Congcong laughed out loud: "You're right! I, his mother, am a good person."

But in his heart, he thought: Xu Jia really met a God Immortal; otherwise, how could he have calculated it so accurately? If he had only calculated the finding of the money, that would be one thing, but calculating who lost the money was very mysterious.

With this kind of ability, even if he wasn't an Immortal, he was at least a "remarkable person."

Upon returning home, Niu Congcong immediately went to the kitchen to find Zhao Mama: "Zhao Mama, buy ten chickens, kill them all, and roast them!"

Zhao Mama was shocked, wiping her apron: "Ten chickens? Are we hosting a banquet or what? Killing so many, can we finish them?"

"Don't ask, put the cost on my tab! Go quickly, it must be done before dark."

Niu Dafu was not at home, and Lady Niu could not control this World-Confusing Demon King.

Fortunately, Niu Congcong was neither a gambler nor a lecher; he only liked to tinker with strange things.

It could only be said that dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and a mouse's son knows how to dig holes; Niu Congcong had inherited the genes of Niu Dafu, a businessman who traveled north and south.

Hearing that it was urgent, Zhao Mama hurried off. Because she was the cook for this family, she had an agreement with the masters to raise many chickens and ducks herself, so she could eat them with peace of mind.

After a flurry of chaos, she caught ten hens that only ate grain and didn't lay eggs.

She briskly directed the others to get busy: those who needed to boil water boiled water, those who needed to pluck feathers plucked feathers, and those who needed to gut them gutted them.

Niu Congcong only said he wanted roast chicken, but they didn't waste the innards either; they cleaned them all, and making a stir-fried chicken giblet dish was no problem at all.

On the other side, Xu Jia had already notified the fox demons to attend the banquet tonight through the "Sparrow Spirit," the intermediary demon for the fox demon Huaban.

This Sparrow Spirit had previously been driven by Huaban for a liter of rice to collect information. Xu Jia valued this Sparrow Spirit as being no less capable than the foxes, only that its Daoist Practice was shallow and it could not yet communicate freely.

After all, foxes were merely beasts, only able to see the benefits right in front of them, while human wisdom and foresight were much longer-lasting than a fox's.

The Sparrow Spirit had many eyes and ears and could monitor and surveil, so although Xu Jia was recuperating in bed, he would sometimes sit in a chair, grab a handful of grain to feed these sparrows, and bribe the Sparrow Spirit.

This Sparrow Spirit also treated Xu Jia as a long-term meal ticket, so it performed its messaging duties diligently.

The more diligent it was, the more Xu Jia appreciated it; there would be no lack of fortune for it in the future.

After the Miscellaneous Fur Fox Huaban helped Xu Jia with his Return to Soul, he continued to complete his "teaching mission."

He successfully taught the three foxes—Yidan, Erque, and Santou—the magic of transforming into human form.

At the same time, he was thinking about the future of the Old Crooked Neck Tree Fox Den.

He realized that forming a connection with Xu Jia was a major event that would change the fate of his entire clan.

"Uncle! That soul-returning scholar didn't forget about us, did he?" the Single-Testicle Fox muttered about the ten roast chickens.

He had found the skull of a child who died prematurely to transform into human form, becoming a "ghost child."

He was jaundiced all over, with ghostly green eyes, wearing the split-crotch pants of a three or four-year-old, with thin limbs but a protruding belly, and a tail swaying back and forth. If an ordinary person saw him, they would likely be scared into a serious illness.

"Yeah, yeah, that scholar still owes us ten chickens!" The Lame Fox had found the skull of a sickly, lecherous patient who died of a venereal disease to transform into the appearance of a lame, mangy, bald lecher. He felt somewhat displeased; if the scholar hadn't suddenly returned to his soul, he would have become a handsome young gentleman.

Bald-Tail Fox was even more blunt, saying, "Is he really an Immortal who cultivated in a past life? He wouldn't be lying to us, would he? We haven't read much, so we wouldn't even know if we were being swindled..."

He transformed into a hunchbacked old man, his back stooped, his head nearly buried between his legs. The walking stick in his hand was exactly what Touweiba had transformed into.

(End of this chapter)