[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world":3,"chapter-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-79":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Survival Guide in a Mysterious World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2299048,4497,"Chapter 79: Ten Thousand Years of Longevity","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-79",79,"\u003Cp>At 11:11 a.m. on June 9, Zhang Yangxu’s flight landed at Yun Capital International Airport.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After disembarking, Ning Zhe arrived in Yun Capital, the capital city of Zhongyuan Yunzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yun Capital is a typical plain city, its foundation built on golden earth; outside the city, fertile alluvial plains accumulated millennia of Yellow River silt. West of Yun Capital lies the only prominent mountain range in this plain, called Chuyun Mountain—crossing it means leaving Yunzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath Chuyun Mountain lies a vast freshwater lake, the Yunmeng Marsh, frequently mentioned in ancient poetry and tales.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Chuyun Mountain Villa, once inhabited by Ji Baichang, was built amid these mountains and waters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A famous mountain and great marsh—the old man knew how to pick a place,” Ning Zhe said, rolling down the car window as he rode to the hotel, taking in the vast expanse: “If he died in a place like this, in a Lin Zhengying movie, he’d definitely turn into a corpse demon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yunmeng Marsh is one of the largest lakes in the country; even with binoculars, it’s hard to see Chuyun Mountain Villa on the other side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Ning Zhe didn’t head straight to Ji Baichang’s home to investigate—he was here as Zhang Yangxu, and Zhang’s daily life was far from quiet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The New World Group plans to continue investing manpower and funds into the development of Gu Bei Town over the next few years; as the primary person responsible for securing this contract, Zhang Yangxu couldn’t escape his duties—even if he’d fled from Qinzhou to Yunzhou, the work still had to be done.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond work, he had to manage his personal life too.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu wasn’t born into any historically prominent family—he was a true commoner who rose from nothing… well, not exactly nothing, because Zhang Yangxu was actually a matriarchal son-in-law, relying on his wife’s family connections and capital to earn his first fortune, and his later business growth depended entirely on his father-in-law’s guidance and influence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His father-in-law highly approved of Zhang Yangxu’s personal abilities and was very satisfied with him as a son-in-law—but his wife wasn’t.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Zhang Yangxu’s wife, Xia Chan, had once had a first love in college; they were deeply in love—but her father despised her boyfriend for being dull and introverted, calling him useless wood unfit for carving, and forcibly broke them up, marrying his daughter off to the prospect he favored more: Zhang Yangxu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It turned out Zhang Yangxu really was a promising prospect, but the unhappy marriage bred in his wife deep resentment and pathological control; this woman called him punctually every morning and night to check up on him, claiming she was confirming he wasn’t cheating, with an attitude of “If my marriage is miserable, neither will you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But due to certain unspoken reasons, Zhang Yangxu might not be able to answer Xia Chan’s calls these past two days; having repeatedly failed to reach him, she was now furious—even Ning Zhe was hesitant to touch Zhang Yangxu’s phone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainly because it hurt his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Zhang’s not having an easy time…” Ning Zhe sighed, checking into the hotel pre-booked by his assistant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to Zhang Yangxu, Bai Fugui had it much better—his wife, Feng Yu, was the type to endure everything silently, never fighting back, easy to manipulate. But admiring someone else’s wife was useless; before handling his work, he still had to soothe Zhang Yangxu’s wife first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Time to dig up his middle-school skills of writing love letters to girls—wonder if those sweet, slightly bitter teenage words would work on a married older woman…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The result was unexpectedly effective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time Ning Zhe finally calmed down Zhang Yangxu’s wife and finished the work, it was already eight p.m.—he hadn’t even eaten dinner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Finally, I can go…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Exhausted, Ning Zhe turned off the hotel room light, locked the door, and before him appeared a crimson silhouette—He Niujun’s pale, slender hand held a faded yellow almanac, displaying today’s auspicious and inauspicious signs:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Lunar April 26】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Auspicious: Bathing, Cleaning, Construction, Seeking Children】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Inauspicious: Lighting Fire, Releasing Water, Joining Funeral Wood, Opening New Grave】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After reconfirming today’s auspiciousness, Ning Zhe pulled open the floor-to-ceiling window and leapt from the 32nd floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy’s upright form dissolved into the night as a gray-white peregrine falcon, wings beating as it flew over the mist-shrouded Yunmeng Marsh—one of Earth’s fastest flying birds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After days of practice, Ning Zhe had grown increasingly adept at mastering the Taiyi Principles; the gray-white falcon skimmed the water’s surface, mist rising from its feathers, seamlessly transforming mid-flight into a barn owl, flying into Chuyun Mountain draped in night curtains. Leveraging the owl’s superior night vision, Ning Zhe perched on a branch of a mulberry tree in the forest, gazing down at the tranquil villa nestled amid the boundless sea of trees beneath Chuyun Mountain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the Chuyun Mountain Villa, where Ji Baichang’s funeral would soon be held.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On either side of the villa’s gate stood stone statues—not the usual stone lions, but two sheep standing upright on two legs, radiating an eerie sense of wrongness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yun Capital always revered the refined tastes of literati; Ji Baichang built his hermitage in the forest beneath Chuyun Mountain, emulating Tao Yuanming—but unlike Tao, he didn’t grow beans, and his wife and children hadn’t starved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, there were quite a few such hermits here.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flying over Yunmeng Marsh, Ning Zhe had spotted at least a hundred similar mountain villas and vacation homes like Ji Baichang’s; one person living in seclusion was seclusion—but a whole crowd clustering together? That wasn’t seclusion—it was a capital relocation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe, unimpressed, flew past the branches and landed on a nearby tree closer to the villa, using the elevation to survey the estate’s architectural layout.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coincidence? The tree he landed on happened to be another mulberry tree—tall and strangely familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This tree looks familiar… I think I’ve seen it before.” Ning Zhe tilted his head, recalling childhood trips with his grandfather to herd cattle—he remembered these trees bore red, mulberry-like fruit that made your throat scratchy. These trees, however, showed no signs of fruit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shaking off his scattered thoughts, Ning Zhe focused on observing the Chuyun Mountain Villa.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The villa faced south, backed by Chuyun Mountain and overlooking Yunmeng Marsh, surrounded by lush, clearly artificially landscaped woods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>=9+ Shu _ Ba\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The villa itself followed a classic square layout: high walls, large courtyards, glazed tiles; its main structure combined stone bricks with bamboo and wood, raised high above ground by several load-bearing pillars, resembling southern traditional dwellings—the stilt house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Above the stilt house’s entrance hung a pair of couplets; the handwriting appeared to be Ji Baichang’s own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upper line: 【Gate Welcomes Blessings of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lower line: 【Door Draws Wealth from East, South, West, North】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Horizontal banner: 【Ten Thousand Years of Longevity】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Strange statues. Strange couplets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe spread his wings, leaving the branch, landing atop the eaves of the stilt house, looking down—and his brow furrowed in confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s going on?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tomorrow was the day of Ji Baichang’s funeral, yet the villa showed almost no signs of mourning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No flower wreaths, no white silk, not even a funeral hall set up in the main building’s first-floor hall—only a single black lacquered coffin, solitary and exposed on the open ground directly beneath the stilt house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet lights still burned inside the stilt house—someone was clearly still living there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Living and eating above a dead man’s head? That’s a major taboo.” Ning Zhe frowned—what were these people thinking?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe glided silently from the eaves to the open ground below the stilt house, where a black lacquered coffin lay dirtily on the bare earth, with no cypress, pine, or chrysanthemums to mark mourning—just a naked coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Closer inspection revealed a golden character 【 Lu 】 painted on each end of the coffin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…Shouldn’t a coffin for a deceased elder bear the character 【 Shou 】? Or at least 【 Fu 】?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1326,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","7eb885d44e54806f9ea24bf0e9be1c520f80d17ab1b820b353f1545ca62a7fde","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-80","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-78",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]