Chapter 327

Looking at this line of text, it is as if one could see Yin Meng standing right before one, stomping her feet in anger and rolling her eyes.

By one's ear, it is as if one could hear the Sichuan dialect that would naturally and inevitably spill out whenever Yin Meng became emotionally agitated, with the tail end of her words drawn out and raised high.

Logically speaking, there should have been an affectionate greeting particle added to the front, such as "Gua Wa Zi" (little fool), "Ha Er" (idiot), or "Bao Pi Long" (braggart).

Runsheng felt that the reason it wasn't added was likely because, in that first moment, Yin Meng hadn't figured out how to put those dialect terms into writing, and the very act of maintaining this "interaction" was already exhausting all her strength, much like how she had once struggled to maintain her state of walking among the shadows.

However,

Runsheng very much liked this memory of one person turning into an interaction between two.

Even if it were just this one sentence, it was a completely different feeling.

Moreover, he only used his brain at this time of day.

One sentence was enough.

Any more, and his brain might not be able to hold it.

Hmm,

Over there, she might not be able to write any more either.

The wind blew past once more, erasing the traces on the ground.

It was as if nothing had ever appeared, and the barrier between yin and yang remained as distinct as ever.

Runsheng used a shovel to fill in the ashes.

What she meant was, do not burn clothes anymore; it is too much of a waste of money.

Runsheng intended to listen to her.

But the next time they made contact, he would still have to burn something.

Setting aside the prerequisites for such offerings, he at least had to express his intentions.

At this moment, Runsheng thought of a method.

He felt that,

Paper crafts,

really were a great invention.

Runsheng himself was quite skilled at this.

When he didn't have any big jobs on hand, he would often sit there watching television while making paper crafts.

Runsheng planned to make some more himself next, and burn them over to Yin Meng in the underworld.

Shaking the dirt off the shovel, Runsheng finally understood why so many boys and girls would come to the shop to buy colorful square paper when he was selling things at the university store.

Lu Yi told him that these were specifically bought to be folded into stars, collected in a jar, and given to the person one liked.

So,

these folded stars were also another form of paper craft.

"Runsheng!"

Tan Wenbin led Lin Shu You over.

Runsheng carried the Yellow River shovel on his shoulder and walked out of the woods by the river.

Lin Shu You: "Runsheng, what are you doing here all by yourself?"

Tan Wenbin didn't wait for A-You to get an answer before reaching out and pointing toward the direction of Hu Zi's house, saying:

"Let's go, time to chop some trees."

Li Sanjiang was asleep.

Everyone's nighttime project could now begin.

In fact, throughout the whole family, they only needed to keep it hidden from Li Sanjiang alone.

They didn't even need to avoid Xiao Hei.

On the first floor of Hu Zi's house, Xiao Yingying was holding Benben, and they were sleeping.

Benben could be said to have been taken by his parents to walk the rivers since he was born; having been to so many yin-evil places, not to mention being influenced by them, he was at least accustomed to it.

Therefore, the child liked the cold and yin, and loathed the dry heat.

This summer should have been extremely difficult and uncomfortable for him, but fortunately, there was a dead body lying beside him, and the gusts of coldness overflowing from it were, to Benben, the most refreshing and pleasant evening breeze of a summer night.

Benben also liked to sleep while clutching a strand of Xiao Yingying's hair.

The hair was damp, slippery, and greasy, and it felt very comfortable clutched in his hand.

This should have been a quiet and warm scene, only, upstairs...

"Creak... creak... creak... creak creak creak creak creak creak creak!"

In the past, the house-born servants of the Long Wang lineage were enough to make people in the jianghu feel they were high and unreachable.

Now, the couple's life was settled, their blessings were stable, and both Long Wang lineages were in a stage of sparse population.

If they didn't give birth now, when would they?

Their goal wasn't high, and they didn't hope for more; they just worked hard, seized the time to conceive, and would first fill the ecological niche of the Long Wang lineage's house-born servants.

But alas, although the two of them were clearly in good health, their seeds were plentiful and satisfying, and the land was fertile and deep, they had struggled for so long and simply hadn't been able to successfully sow another one.

After the medicinal garden initially took shape, Xiong Shan thickened his skin and came to find Old Tian to help prescribe some medicine.

Old Tian was a good person and really did prescribe it for him.

Although, Old Tian knew that the two of them had a high probability of not being able to have a second child.

This situation was the same as the predicament of the Third Master and the Third Lady when the Young Master was a child.

Old Tian still remembered how he had secretly stood outside the door back then, sensing the murderous aura the Third Master and Third Lady were exuding toward the Young Master.

At that time, Old Tian had already secretly made up his mind: as long as the Third Master and Third Lady dared to lay a hand on the Young Master, he would risk his life to rush in and protect him, and at worst, he would carry the Young Master on his back and betray the Zhao family to live a life on the run.

Having children and blessings was already a stroke of heaven's luck, and since it was already overflowing, wanting to be greedy for more was unrealistic.

It was just that it was better to keep these words in one's own heart; it really wasn't convenient to say them to the parties involved, and besides, perhaps the parties involved had already realized some of it themselves, yet still refused to admit defeat.

"What is that sound?"

Lin Shu You walked outside Hu Zi's house and looked up with some confusion.

Tan Wenbin:

"Symphony of Fate."

Although Brother Xiaoyuan said they could chop as they pleased.

Tan Wenbin still chose the outer perimeter of the peach forest, and in order to avoid chopping too abruptly, he took care of every corner as much as possible to make it appear more uniform.

After chopping enough wood as required by the design plan, the three of them carried it home on their shoulders.

Runsheng carried the most, piled up very high, yet his gait remained steady.

Because of his arm length, Lin Shu You had a little less than Runsheng.

There wasn't much material left, so Tan Wenbin had it easy.

After the wood was transported, they went to the big truck to get the materials.

Li Zhuiyuan was in the rice field, setting up simple illusions and isolation formations; they definitely wouldn't be finished tonight, so in order to ensure the Great-Grandfather wouldn't see any clues when he got up to pee tomorrow morning, these covers had to be set up in advance.

From then on, unless one went deep into the rice field, one wouldn't be able to see the changes here from the outside at all.

Under normal circumstances, no one in the village would run deep into someone else's field; Qin Shu and Xiong Shan might come, but they would be able to sense the abnormality here and would know who had done it.

A-Li followed Li Zhuiyuan, busy working together; the girl really liked the feeling of working with the young man, as if this field were her new collectible.

The two of them cooperated very tacitly: Li Zhuiyuan was responsible for pointing out the locations, and A-Li held a small shovel to dig holes and place the formation flags. While backfilling, the small shovel would lightly touch the formation flags, checking them along the way.

As more and more materials were moved over, except for Runsheng who was still moving the remainder, Tan Wenbin and Lin Shu You had already joined in the construction of the Daoist arena.

One used the power of the Blood Ape, the other opened his vertical pupils; this posture was comparable to the urgency and seriousness when facing strong enemies in the past.

This made Li Zhuiyuan, who had already set up the formation, the most useless one at the moment; staying in the field not only couldn't provide much efficiency, but he also had to worry about being bumped into by the two of them.

Therefore, the young man simply held the girl's hand and walked out, sitting on the roof of the workshop, looking down from a high vantage point to check for any omissions.

When Runsheng moved everything over and joined in, the scene before them had a sense of watching a movie on fast-forward.

The basic work was soon more than half finished, and according to the blueprints, individual slots were left over.

What Li Zhuiyuan wanted was a high-spec Daoist arena, so that he could "get it done once and for all" as much as possible, saving the trouble of renovating it again later.

And the way to improve the specs could sometimes be very plain and unadorned.

Liu Yumei lay on the bed in the room, waving a cattail fan, listening to the movement in the field outside, and a smile couldn't help but appear at the corner of her mouth.

If that old thing knew that the group of mules under his command were so capable, he probably wouldn't be doing funeral business anymore; it would be better to just change professions and form a construction team—that would be the real way to make money.

After a while, the smile on Liu Yumei's face gradually faded, turning into a kind of helplessness.

If only Xiaoyuan's lamp hadn't ignited itself that day, giving her a little more time to prepare, to have everything prescribed that should be prescribed, cut what should be cut, and form the life-contract that should be formed...

Would her own Xiaoyuan still need her to personally build a practice room and Daoist arena?

Sigh, it was truly stifling; she was sitting on a vault of gold but couldn't spend it.

"Creak..."

The door was pushed open; it was A-Li who had come in.

Liu Yumei stopped waving the fan and pretended to be fast asleep.

A-Li walked to the offering table, hugged several spirit tablets, and walked out.

The door wasn't closed.

After a while, A-Li came in again; this time she was carrying a basket in her hand, put the spirit tablets from the offering table into the basket, and then carried the heavy, full basket out.

The door still wasn't closed.

After a while, a "rumbling" sound came from outside.

A-Li was holding a rope in her hand, the other end of the rope was tied to a board, and there were four wheels under the board—a simple flatbed cart.

The spirit tablets on the bottom two rows had just been taken, and the girl stood on a chair and began to take them from above.

After taking them down, she stacked them neatly on the flatbed cart, repeating the process.

Finally, she even climbed directly onto the offering table and cleaned out the top few rows as well.

There were too many spirit tablets, and they were too heavy; when the flatbed cart was pulled, it wasn't "rumbling" but "buzzing," somewhat overwhelmed.

Liu Yumei, lying on the bed, turned her head and looked toward the doorway.

The door still wasn't closed.

But the offering table had been sold out.

"Not bad, it's not like I didn't help at all; for our Xiaoyuan's Daoist arena, you can consider yourselves to have all contributed a share."

A-Li came in again.

This time she didn't stop in front of the offering table but went straight into the bedroom.

Liu Yumei was stunned for a moment: Is she not going to fill me in as the foundation?

The girl stood by the bed, looking at the Grandma-Sister who was lying in front of her, pretending to be asleep.

The Grandma-Sister was a bit panicked after all and couldn't keep pretending, so she opened her eyes.

The girl turned around and pointed to the empty offering table.

Liu Yumei: "The ancestors have all gone out for a stroll, it's fine; tomorrow morning, the ancestors will come back on their own."

The girl shook her head.

The construction schedule was tight.

Liu Yumei sat up and said: "You go wait outside first; Grandma will go call the ancestors back right now."

A-Li nodded and turned to leave the room.

Liu Yumei threw a garment over herself, got up, and walked out of the east room.

In the west room.

Qin Shu was soaking his feet; the water in the wooden bucket was half white and half black, with hot stones inside, constantly boiling.

Whether it was practicing martial arts in his early years, walking the rivers later, or being ordered by the Old Lady to participate in some special projects, all of it had left Qin Shu with many hidden injuries.

Liu Yi would often give him treatments.

For this reason, Liu Yi would often tease him:

"Look at Runsheng, then look at you."

Qin Shu could only respond: "When I was young, I was also without any scruples."

Of course, Qin Shu also knew in his heart that the path Runsheng was taking now had already exceeded his imagination.

Although the two could not be placed on the same scale in terms of absolute strength, Runsheng's future development, as it currently appeared, had already broken through Qin Shu's shackles.

This was time and fate.

Setting aside the special nature of Runsheng's own constitution, Runsheng had a Xiaoyuan standing in front of him; this was a treatment he hadn't had when he walked the rivers alone back then.

However, Qin Shu wouldn't dwell on this too much; firstly, the tradition of the Qin family was to walk the rivers alone, facing the surging waves on the river alone, in order to achieve mastery of the "Qin Family Guan Jiao Art."

Secondly, dwelling on this would be too unfair to the Old Lady who had personally raised him and treated him as her own.

In the final analysis, it was because he himself was incompetent and hadn't been able to hold up the sky when the Qin and Liu families were in their most critical moments.

Liu Yi caught a black centipede and placed it on Qin Shu's neck.

Qin Shu reached out to hold it.

The black centipede opened its mouthparts, bit Qin Shu's neck, and wisps of stagnant qi were sucked out by it.

Qin Shu: "It's so lively outside."

Liu Yi: "What, your hands are itching?"

Qin Shu: "This should have been my job."

Liu Yi: "Alright, they can do it themselves; it's not like it's inconvenient for us to interfere."

Qin Shu: "Sigh, it's just that when I can help but have no way to help, I always feel a bit uncomfortable."

Liu Yi: "Wait until Xiaoyuan finishes walking the rivers; when the Qin and Liu families produce another Long Wang, those old accounts should also be settled; the Old Lady has been keeping track of every single stroke over there."

"Knock knock knock..."

A knocking sound rang out.

The two of them immediately knew it was the Old Lady.

Because in this house, only the Old Lady's footsteps were something they couldn't perceive.

Liu Yi opened the door.

Liu Yumei: "Go, go restock."

Liu Yi: "Now?"

Liu Yumei: "They're waiting anxiously over there."

Liu Yi: "I'll go right now."

In the past, A-Li would take one or two spirit tablets to use from time to time.

And on the offering table, if spirit tablets were missing, it looked very bad.

So over time, Liu Yi always kept two sets of spare spirit tablets in the room here.

Liu Yi went out to set up the goods.

Liu Yumei walked into the room.

Qin Shu stood up, wanting to put on his shoes.

"Sit, keep soaking."

"Yes, Mistress."

Liu Yumei looked Qin Shu up and down and said: "Child, these years have been bitter for you; both inside and outside the house, you've been the one running around and holding things up."

"Mistress, it is because I am dull-witted..."

"A-Ting is right, I have kept track of those accounts. I originally thought that the best ending for this life would be to watch over my A-Li and quietly finish this life; there was no chance to avenge those grudges.

Now... hehe.

That ancestor of my Liu family, Liu Qingcheng, was both praised and criticized.

But at least she had the spirit of the jianghu.

Considering the big picture, considering the big picture... my Qin and Liu families have sacrificed enough for the big picture.

The wheel of fortune turns,

It's coming soon,

Soon it will be time for us to settle grudges with pleasure.

A-Li,

You just focus on your recovery."

"As you command!"

Liu Yumei walked out of the west room, came to the dam, and looked up; tonight the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

Over at Liu Yi's side, she had just finished setting up the new set of spirit tablets.

Over there, the sound of the small flatbed cart came from below the dam; her own granddaughter had come to restock again.

Watching A-Li in her red dress pulling the small flatbed cart, Liu Yumei couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth upward.

If she weren't really old and her body really couldn't compare to when she was young, otherwise, even if she risked suffering that backlash, she would have run over to experience the feeling of pulling the flatbed cart with her granddaughter.

Again "rumbling" as she came, and "buzzing" as she went.

After one flatbed cart was dragged away, the offering table in the east room became empty and desolate once more.

Liu Yi was quick-handed and nimble, and she filled in the third set.

After finishing this, Liu Yi said to Liu Yumei with some worry:

"There are only three sets; if she takes any more, there won't be any left."

"It should be exactly three sets that are needed."

"But Xiaoyuan doesn't usually go into the east room, and he's never been to the storeroom, how does he know..."

"A-Li knows, so Xiaoyuan knows."

Liu Yi: "Look at that, your granddaughter really is turning her elbows outward."

Liu Yumei: "Xiaoyuan is the only descendant of the Qin and Liu families of this generation; legally, everything in the house is his; our A-Li is merely moving things from her own house to another place to be displayed, how is that turning her elbows outward?"

Liu Yi: "Yes, yes, yes, you are right, you are always right."

Liu Yumei reached out and pinched Liu Yi's face, pulling it outward.

Liu Yi was just about to cry out in pain, but seeing the earnestness revealed in the Old Lady's eyes, she quieted down.

"A-Li has many hidden injuries, A-Ting, your age is also catching up; this pinch really isn't as supple as when you were young."

"I am trying to please you in a roundabout way, but you, on the other hand, specifically stab people in the heart."

"Hehe, that mouth of yours, if it were in the past, I'm afraid you would have been locked in the Liu family's punishment hall and wouldn't have been able to come out."

"I don't believe it, the eldest young lady of the Liu family would definitely protect me."

Liu Yumei let go of her hand and instead used the back of her hand to lightly rub Liu Yi's face.

"I can't sleep today, brew me a pot of tea."

"Brew the tea leaves that your little sister brought back? I saw you drinking it with great relish during the day."

"Asking for a beating!"

"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."

Tan Wenbin sat on the ground panting, and after swallowing a mouthful of saliva with difficulty, he took out a cigarette, lit it, took a puff, and then started coughing.

Fighting was far less tiring than working.

Because the result of a fight came very quickly—either you beat the other person down or you were beaten down yourself—but working required one to keep one's head down and work, and the opportunities to catch one's breath were even fewer than in a fight.

Lin Shu You, who sat down leaning against Tan Wenbin, pursed his dry, cracked lips and reached out, wanting to take the cigarette from Tan Wenbin's mouth to have a puff himself.

As a result, his hand was slapped away by Tan Wenbin, and he even received a flick on the head.

Runsheng was drenched in sweat, standing there; he had the best endurance and didn't feel tired, but rather felt a bit of excitement as his interest was piqued.

Lin Shu You: "Is the Qin Family Guan Jiao Art so magical? Why do I feel Runsheng is so excited tonight?"

Tan Wenbin: "Normal."

Lin Shu You: "Normal?"

Tan Wenbin: "After you and Chen Lin came back from your date, weren't you also very excited?"

Lin Shu You: "No way."

Tan Wenbin: "My and Brother Xiaoyuan's dormitory is at the very top, directly facing the washbasin in the bathroom; who was it that specifically ran over to take two cold showers in the second half of the night that night?"

Lin Shu You: "It was just too hot in the dormitory to sleep..."

Tan Wenbin: "I believe you."

The three labor masters finished their work tonight and stood to the side watching.

Li Zhuiyuan and A-Li walked on the foundation; the young man placed spirit tablets into the grooves, and after placing one, A-Li would hand him another; the two of them cooperated as smoothly as flowing clouds and water.

After placing half of them, Li Zhuiyuan stopped and opened two cans of Jianlibao, one for himself and one for the girl.

The two of them prepared to take a break.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Runsheng, Brother Binbin, it's finished for tonight, you guys go rest too."