Chapter 333

The morning sun was gathering strength, about to reveal its scorching fangs.

Lin Shu took frozen ice cubes from the refrigerator, added them to the mung bean soup Liu Yi had cooked, downed a large bowl in one go, felt his body tremble with comfort, then served a second bowl, and slowly savored it in small sips while enjoying the sunlight on the dam outside the hall.

After finishing, he turned his head to look at Tan Tan Wenbin, who was lying on a coffin lid with paper and pen, looking at a book on formations. Lin Shu felt a slight regret in his heart.

Back then, because of the resentment-infant on his shoulders, Brother Bin radiated a bone-chilling cold. Sigh, thinking about it now, he really didn't catch a good time.

If Brother Bin had gotten sick during the summer vacation in July or August, how cool it would have been.

He could have wrapped himself in two layers of quilts and shivered in the sweltering summer heat; just thinking about it was pleasant.

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Give me a bowl."

Lin Shu: "Oh, okay."

Taking the mung bean soup with ice cubes, Tan Tan Wenbin took a sip and suggested: "I feel like changing the ice cubes to shaved ice would make the texture even better."

Lin Shu: "Our refrigerator seems to have some difficulty with that."

Tan Tan Wenbin: "You can take the ice cubes out and have the Master Tongzi grind them with his trident."

Lin Shu: "Good idea."

The book on formations Tan Tan Wenbin was reading was his own copy, with dense numbers written in other colored pens, along with various things that looked like mathematical formulas.

Beside it was a thick little booklet, like a small dictionary, written by Li Li Zhuiyuan.

When Tan Tan Wenbin studied and understood these low-level formations, he had to flip through the dictionary while making notes. Although the efficiency was slow, at least he had the ability to learn on his own.

With Brother Xiao Yuan around, he didn't need to aim to become a master of formations; he knew clearly that that realm wasn't about effort. What he needed to do was to become familiar with the various types of low-level formations.

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Send two bowls up to Brother Xiao Yuan too. No, there's a whole basin, are you planning to drink it all yourself?"

Lin Shu scratched his head: "I still feel like it's not enough."

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Even Lu Runsheng can't out-eat you now."

After the Lin family could summon the Master Tongzi, the Master Tongzi had become very busy. After Lin Shu passed the initial period of fatigue, he didn't feel sleepy anymore, but his already large appetite saw another sharp increase.

In Liu Yi's words, if it kept growing like this, she would have to use a Yellow River shovel to cook in the future.

Lin Shu: "It's just easy to get hungry quickly."

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Any other reactions?"

Lin Shu: "Yes, but not obvious. I feel like every day when I wake up, my energy is a bit more abundant than yesterday."

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Damn exploiter class."

The gains of the Master Tongzi could be shared 100% with Lin Shu. When the Lin family summoned the Master Tongzi, whether it was slaying demons or driving away evil and praying for blessings, half of the merit would fall on the Master Tongzi, which was A-You.

When others start a business and open a factory, they are afraid of having too many relatives stuffed in to eat them out of house and home.

Lin Shu is the opposite; he is one person eating the entire family's relatives.

Although the growth was weak, it was an improvement gained while sitting at home doing nothing, equivalent to picking it up for free; it really made people envious.

Lin Shu carried two bowls of mung bean soup upstairs.

Just as he reached the door, the screen door was opened. A-Li appeared at the door, reached out to take the mung bean soup, and turned to go inside.

Lin Shu glanced inside and found Brother Xiao Yuan sitting focused at his desk, with several stacks of towering books in front of him. These books looked quite familiar; he had read them too, called "Records of Strange Tales in the Jianghu" and "Records of Subduing Demons by the Righteous Path."

They were all basic reading materials. Lin Shu didn't understand why Brother Xiao Yuan had moved these books out again and was reading them so seriously.

However, A-You felt it was normal that he didn't understand.

After going downstairs, he happened to see Li Sanjiang returning.

Li Sanjiang glanced over and saw Brother Zhuangzhuang reading and studying, while Lin Shu was walking down the stairs looking very idle.

"You Hou."

"Hey!"

"The carpenter in the West Village is going to start a fish pond. Go help out. Just bring back a few fish tonight to make fish soup."

"All right."

People in the village help each other without expecting wages. For example, with the fish pond, you lend a hand for half a day, get a meal, and take a few fish.

"You Hou, eat your lunch at home, don't eat at their place."

"Oh, okay."

Lin Shu responded and ran out.

Li Sanjiang poured himself a bowl of mung bean soup, drank half of it, and let out a sigh of relief.

If A-You were to eat at someone else's house, it would be equivalent to releasing a bandit to eat at their place; that wouldn't be doing a favor, but making an enemy.

Li Sanjiang wondered: "Is this kid You Hou still growing?"

Tan Tan Wenbin responded while flipping through the dictionary:

"Being able to eat is a blessing."

"That's true. As long as he's hardworking and not lazy, he won't eat us into poverty."

Li Sanjiang's house was one of the few in the village that didn't raise pigs, mainly because it was troublesome. The labor at home was all busy making paper offerings and performing rituals, with no time to tend to livestock.

Later, seeing the population at home increase, Li Sanjiang hadn't lacked the thought of building a pigsty to raise a few pigs. It stood to reason that feeding pigs with leftovers was quite appropriate.

But after so long, the appetite of the mules at home not only didn't decrease but kept surging, making Li Sanjiang feel that after he raised pigs, it wasn't that the pigs had no leftovers to eat, but that when he woke up the next day, the pigs had been eaten.

"Brother Li!"

Old Man Tian had arrived.

"Brother Li, the medicinal wine I brewed is ready to drink. I'll prepare two Jiangxi dishes at noon. Why don't you come over and have a drink?"

"Sure, but go easy on the chili."

"Don't worry, I understand."

Li Sanjiang walked to the dam, wanting to go to the kitchen to tell Ting Hou not to make his portion of lunch... hesitated for a moment, forget it, just make a bit more.

Liu Jinxia, Grandma Hua, and Wang Lian came to play cards.

Old Man Tian's body visibly tightened when he saw Liu Jinxia.

Liu Jinxia smiled at Old Man Tian: "You're here too."

Old Man Tian: "Yes, I'm here."

Liu Jinxia: "Are you really not going back to Jiujiang?"

Old Man Tian: "Not going back for now."

After greeting, Liu Jinxia prepared to go to the card table.

Old Man Tian: "I made some snacks. I'll send them to Xiang Hou later."

Liu Jinxia: "Okay, my Cui Cui loves the snacks you make. Ask Xiang Hou to give you some of my pickled garlic."

Old Man Tian: "Good, I love garlic."

Wang Lian and Grandma Hua sat at the table giggling.

Grandma Hua even teased: "Do you like vinegar? My sister Xia Hou can brew vinegar too."

Old Man Tian: "I love it, love it."

Li Sanjiang urged Old Man Tian to leave and go drink. If they didn't leave, he was afraid Old Man Tian would bring out a whole table of seasonings for him to drink with.

Grandma Hua sighed: "If it were back when we were young, how good that would be."

Wang Lian: "Yeah."

Liu Jinxia: "Deal the cards, deal the cards. You all are having fun at my expense every day, and you won't even lose more money to me."

As they played, Liu Jinxia discovered that she was really going to win a lot of money today.

Mainly because Liu Liu Yumei was losing a lot, letting others win big every hand.

Liu Jinxia leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Did sister Liu family encounter some happy event?"

As old sisters at the card table, how could they not see through some things? Even the most honest Wang Lian knew she was always being taken care of.

With grandchildren starting school and sons needing medicine, whenever money was tight, she could always win a sum from Liu Liu Yumei to solve her urgent needs.

Sister Liu family had a habit: she usually lost little, but when she was in a good mood, she would lose more.

Liu Liu Yumei: "I'm in a good mood today. The burden at home is lighter, there's hope in my old age, so I can afford to lose more."

Liu Yi walked over with tea and snacks and refilled their tea.

Ever since the old lady took Xiao Yuan to that meeting, her whole spirit was different.

She scolded A-Li for being stupid, for tending the flower garden poorly, and scolded her for her cooking not improving over the years, asking what kind of things she had been feeding her every day.

Last night, A-Li even told her that the mistress's health might have problems and asked her to check more often and help with conditioning.

She glared at A-Li; the old lady clearly had new confidence, restored her true nature, and was acting up again.

In the room upstairs, Li Li Zhuiyuan sat at the desk, flipping through the book in his hand quickly, his gaze constantly scanning, consolidating the content he had already memorized.

After flipping through both sets of books on the desk again, the boy leaned his back lightly against the chair.

His mind was filled with "destroyed by the righteous path."

When Wei Zhengdao suppressed evil spirits, it was always once and for all, leaving no future trouble.

But the problem was... Li Li Zhuiyuan reorganized the content of the book. According to the methods Wei Zhengdao wrote to suppress evil spirits, when encountering those that were difficult or special, he still had no way to completely suppress and kill them.

So, either Wei Zhengdao was bragging, or Wei Zhengdao was hiding something.

Li Li Zhuiyuan didn't feel that Wei Zhengdao was bragging.

Because the boy himself was the first victim of Wei Zhengdao's style of doing things back then.

But the boy also didn't feel that Wei Zhengdao was deliberately hiding his skills when writing the book.

For one, Wei Zhengdao used precious Buddha-skin paper to write this book, and for another, this didn't fit Wei Zhengdao's character.

A-Li brought the mung bean soup over. The ice cubes inside had already melted, but the soup was still ice-cold.

After Li Li Zhuiyuan finished drinking, he helped A-Li tidy up the drawing table.

A-Li was wearing a black and gold horse-face skirt today, with a white blouse, her hair coiled up with a wooden hairpin.

A-Li had worn similar styles before, but as the girl grew older, the feeling of wearing them was different.

Compared to the pleated skirts she often wore, she looked colder and more unapproachable in this outfit. Of course, when facing him, A-Li would immediately become very gentle.

Before lunch, Pan Zi and Lei Zi came on their bicycles.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, Brother Xiao Yuan!"

"Coming."

After Li Li Zhuiyuan went downstairs, he saw Pan Zi and Lei Zi standing beside Tan Tan Wenbin. Pan Zi proactively handed a cigarette to Tan Tan Wenbin, and Lei Zi helped light it.

The two were wearing that kind of dark blue work uniform, with oil stains, but they were very new.

For them, the college entrance exam was just a formality; they only needed to get their high school diploma, and they had long been looking for a unit to prepare for work.

Previously, various rumors had circulated about which unit they would go to. Now, the two had officially joined a state-owned enterprise in Xingren Town called Longxing Tool Factory.

The factory wasn't big, but the efficiency was very good. Trucks were lined up outside the factory gate every day waiting to load goods. It was really quite difficult to get a job in this factory now.

The two had just received their first month's salary. Compared to when they went to the kiln to move bricks during holidays, it was simply heaven and earth.

Pan Zi had an injury on his face; it was from his father beating him.

His father's intention was to save his salary to use for his future marriage.

Pan Zi refused, and his father scolded him, saying he had raised him with such hardship... but Pan Zi replied: My diapers were changed by my grandparents.

His father heard this, got angry, and slapped Pan Zi. Pan Zi didn't fight back, just pushed his father. His father continued to hit, and Pan Zi continued to push.

Finally, Pan Zi's face was bruised, and his father lost his footing and hit his forehead on the table leg. It wasn't serious, just bleeding, and then he kept scolding: "You little bastard, your wings have hardened, I can't control you anymore!"

Indeed, the wings had hardened. In a person's life, the biggest change often occurs when they can support themselves.

The first thing Pan Zi and Lei Zi did with their salary was to buy things for Li Weihan and Cui Guiying.

The cousins bought cigarettes and wine, sat alone with Li Weihan in front of the small square stools on the dam for dinner, drinking and smoking, deliberately distinguishing themselves from the other children.

They bought a new outfit for Cui Guiying. Cui Guiying couldn't bear to wear the new clothes, but she had already "worn" them old in her mouth these past few days.

Each of them pooled half and gave Yingzi a sum of money, telling her to buy more things she would need for college.

Yingzi didn't want it, saying she had enough money long ago, but she ended up being scolded by the brothers, saying that girls in the city dressed so brightly and fashionably, while Yingzi looked like a rustic village girl, and if she was hooked away by some man who gave her a little something after she went to college, that would be it.

These sour words made Yingzi cry, and in the end, she had to accept the money while crying and laughing.

Actually, when the brothers grew up at their grandparents' house, they were quite ignorant. Li Weihan and Cui Guiying didn't favor boys over girls; otherwise, they wouldn't have supported Li Lan's education. But girls in the countryside were sensible early, so Yingzi often helped with housework, while the brothers, despite being older, would eat when tired from playing and go out to frolic when they woke up.

Now coming to Li Sanjiang's house, it was to find Xiao Yuan. They brought a large bag of snacks and even dragged two large boxes of soda on the back seat of their bicycles.

The soda wasn't Jianlibao; it was bottled, and you had to take the empty bottles back to get the deposit back. It was cheap. If they really bought Jianlibao, the brothers' salary wouldn't be enough for this kind of spending.

But no matter what, this was a gesture of their hearts.

Li Li Zhuiyuan remembered when he first came to Nantong, it was them who took him frolicking all over the village, and later they even took him to the town's video hall to watch adult movies.

The two were even taken to the police station because of this.

Looking at the two now, with cigarettes in their mouths, deliberately not shaving their beards, and wearing work uniforms, although they were still young in age, they already had the air of adults.

People often sigh that time passes quickly, but people's changes often catch time off guard.

Only two years had passed. Maybe in another two years, they would be married, and in another two years, their children would be born, and Li Li Zhuiyuan would have nephews.

Having grown up together at their grandparents' house, after they had their own families, their relationship would definitely become much more distant than it was now. But no matter how distant it became, it wouldn't fall into the terrible relationship between the four uncles' families today.

Tan Tan Wenbin invited them to stay for lunch, but the two waved their hands and said they had already eaten, although it was obvious they hadn't.

After smoking, the two left their things and left on their bicycles.

Making this trip specifically was also because they had sponged off many snacks sent by Xiao Yuan's mother in the past, and they would even ignorantly take Xiao Yuan to Auntie Zhang's shop and make Xiao Yuan take out his pocket money to buy things.

Thinking of this now, the brothers felt ashamed.

Of course, they didn't know that the little brother they were fooling back then was actually treating them like children and playing with them.

Grandma Hua: "Don't say, these two children are really different from their parents' generation."

Wang Lian: "The children have grown up and become sensible."

Grandma Hua: "Xingren Town is quite far from here. Riding a bike to work early every day and riding back after work, it takes nearly three hours back and forth."

Wang Lian: "I'm afraid it's more than that."

Grandma Hua: "They earn hard-earned money."

Wang Lian: "But they are willing to."

Liu Jinxia: "Han Hou and sister Guiying can finally enjoy some happiness. The rice has been harvested crop after crop; it's time to hit a good year."

Liu Liu Yumei played a card.

Grandma Hua exclaimed in surprise: "Hu!"

Liu Liu Yumei picked up her teacup, sipped her tea, ignored the card she had discarded, and followed up on Liu Jinxia's words:

"That's the logic."

In the afternoon, Li Li Zhuiyuan went through those two sets of books again.

After finishing, he sat in the chair, as if a group of people were surrounding him, chattering and shouting:

"Destroyed by the righteous path."

Li Li Zhuiyuan rarely faced problems in an irrational way. Now, this showed that he could no longer face the problems before him from a rational perspective.

The most absurd thing was that Li Li Zhuiyuan had a vague feeling that the answer might be right in front of him, only he hadn't discovered it yet.

A pair of hands appeared on both sides of his head and began to press gently.

At first, he wasn't used to it, and the strength wasn't quite right, but he soon entered the state.

The "buzzing" in the boy's ears also decreased accordingly, until it disappeared.

A-Li had seen Liu Yi massage Grandma's head like this before.

Just now, noticing the boy's intense mental fluctuations, she naturally walked over, wanting to help him relax.

Li Li Zhuiyuan grabbed A-Li's hand and said: "Alright, I'm fine now."

People often don't dare to enjoy things that are too beautiful excessively; they will instinctively cherish them, hoping they will last long.

A-Li looked at the boy very seriously.

After her grandmother took the boy out that time, her grandmother changed, and there were changes in the boy too.

Li Li Zhuiyuan moved his head forward, letting his forehead touch the girl's forehead.

"Alright, I'm fine."

On the list of enemies, so many were added all at once.

Li Li Zhuiyuan wasn't anxious about whether he could successfully take revenge in the future; he was anxious about... how to prevent a resurgence after revenge.

What else is hard to suppress and kill besides evil spirits?

Those righteous people are sometimes even harder to kill completely.

If they want to survive, as long as they are willing, their methods and means are much more numerous than traditional evil spirits.

In other words, when they are willing to pay any price to survive... they become evil spirits.

On the dam downstairs, shouts for Li Sanjiang came.

Someone had come to invite Li Sanjiang to perform a ritual.

Great-Grandpa had gone to the bearded man's house in the morning and hadn't returned yet. If nothing went wrong, the two old men should be drunk.

Tan Tan Wenbin went to visit his grandparents in Shigang Town after lunch, Lu Runsheng was in the fields, and A-You was fishing.

Li Li Zhuiyuan went to the bearded man's house to find Great-Grandpa himself; he also wanted to go out for some fresh air.

Arriving at the bearded man's house, Benben in the crib on the dam was holding an empty plastic cup, first offering it to the peach forest, then looking up and downing it, pretending to be drinking heavily.

Xiao Yingying stood on the side, hands on her hips, watching the child's action, and the resentment of the dead couldn't be suppressed.

Smart children learn things too early and too fast. The one in the peach forest was drinking all day and shouting for snacks, and now the two old things were drinking here too.

Influenced by what he saw and heard, the child was afraid that by the time he could get out of the crib and run on his own, he would go looking for the wine vat first.

Li Li Zhuiyuan's arrival made Benben fall backward, lying in the crib, "drunk" and unconscious.

Led by Xiao Yingying, Li Li Zhuiyuan saw the two old men lying on the straw mat, sleeping soundly from drunkenness.

At this time, they definitely couldn't be woken up.

Xiao Yingying said she could cook hangover soup, but was refused by Li Li Zhuiyuan.

At this age, excluding the headache afterwards, getting drunk once is actually a kind of enjoyment.

Walking back to the dam, Benben, who had just crawled up, fell "drunk" again with a "thump."

Since he was already here, Li Li Zhuiyuan simply walked into the peach forest ahead.

Unlike the past of playing the zither, singing, drinking, and painting, today the peach forest was exceptionally quiet.

Su Luo leaned against a peach tree, dozing off.