Chapter 389

"I thought about saving someone, who knew I poisoned them to death.

I was afraid at that time too. It doesn't matter if a living person is at home, but if a dead person is left at home, it's easy to have a mouth that can't explain clearly, so I thought I had to deal with the person quickly.

I washed him, wiped him, and tidied him up.

I couldn't afford a coffin at that time, so I rolled him up in the tattered straw mat I slept on myself and tied a knot.

I buried him outside casually, afraid the commotion would be too big, and worried about being dug up one day, so I simply went all the way and buried him in our old Li family's ancestral grave.

Sigh, at that time, one was not understanding the ways of the grave, and the other was in a hurry, feeling panicked in my heart, thinking about burying him quickly. I chose this place in the middle that was easy to dig and buried him.

If it weren't for the depression today, I would have really forgotten about this matter.

Thinking about it now, I really feel a bit sorry for this brother."

"Great-grandfather, you also had good intentions, and it feels like he didn't want to live himself; it was more like he was determined to seek death."

Li Sanjiang put the cigarette butt on the ground, stepped on it with the sole of his cloth shoe to extinguish it, picked it up and threw it far away, and picked up the shovel again:

"Sigh, human life wasn't worth much in those days. Actually, I didn't take it too much to heart. I can only say his fate was bad. He should have drifted to the doctor's door; maybe he could have survived."

Li Sanjiang continued to work, but after several consecutive shovels, the position that had been padded up earlier sank again, which meant it had to be rebuilt.

"Sigh... this is really."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Great-grandfather, let Zhuangzhuang and A-You handle it. They also studied this in college; they're professionals."

Li Sanjiang nodded: "Okay."

After burning the paper, Li Sanjiang and Li Zhuiyuan carried the things and walked home.

Li Sanjiang: "Hey, is that Marquis Yi sitting on the concrete bridge?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Hmm."

Zhao Yi was sitting alone by the concrete bridge. The bridge had no railings. He was dangling his feet below, staring at the river surface below.

Sensing someone in the distance, Zhao Yi turned his head, took a look in this direction, and silently turned back. It could be seen that he was very melancholy.

Originally, he wanted to find the one surnamed Li to probe the bottom price, but after chatting with Tan Daban, he keenly sensed that this bottom price was a bit hot to handle.

At this moment, he needs to be alone and rebuild his psychological construction.

Li Zhuiyuan and his great-grandfather returned to the courtyard at home. Tan Wenbin took the initiative to greet them and said that he couldn't go on the trip.

After Li Sanjiang finished listening, he was silent for a while and said:

"That's good. This way, we can save a little more money to compensate those who were cheated and bullied."

It would be impossible to say there was no disappointment in his heart that the trip scheduled for tomorrow was canceled, but Li Sanjiang had always been open-minded. He added a few pieces of dried orange peel to the big tea mug and poured boiling water over it, then leisurely went to the rattan chair on the second-floor balcony to lie down and listen to the radio storytelling.

Li Zhuiyuan signaled Tan Wenbin, Runsheng, and Lin Shu You to take their tools and follow him out.

Chen Xiyuan came out of the room on the second floor, holding a can of Jianlibao, and asked:

"Little brother, where are you all going?"

"Repairing the ancestral grave."

"Do you need me to lend a hand?"

"No need."

"Oh, that's good, hehe, little sister is helping me repair the flute. My flute seems to be broken; the sound is not accurate."

"Go back to your house and find your grandfather to repair it."

"I want to play another song tonight. Sigh, if it really doesn't work, then we can only find my grandfather to fix it after we go back together tomorrow."

Li Sanjiang on the balcony spoke up:

"Girl, go back by yourself tomorrow. We can't go. Oh, right..."

Li Sanjiang seemed to have just remembered and asked:

"Girl, how are you going to handle your plane ticket home?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Great-grandfather, her plane ticket was bought by herself; it wasn't through that travel agency, so it won't affect her going back."

Li Sanjiang: "Oh, that's good, that's good."

Chen Xiyuan said uncomprehendingly: "Eh, why aren't you going back with me?"

Li Sanjiang: "Something happened on the side of the lottery, so we can't go."

Chen Xiyuan: "It's okay, I'll just buy you new plane tickets."

Li Sanjiang: "Forget it, forget it, just treat it as if we've already been there to play, hehe."

Li Zhuiyuan took the people and left.

Chen Xiyuan was very puzzled. How did it sound like not only Grandpa Li wasn't going, but even little brother and the others weren't going to Hainan with her?

She subconsciously wanted to jump down from the balcony and chase after them to ask clearly, but seeing Grandpa Li sitting there, she held back her legs.

Just at this time, a melody came from the room, and Chen Xiyuan turned back to the room.

"Little sister, how is it? Can you fix it?"

A very subtle formation pattern inside was blurred. As long as the method was appropriate, it could be re-carved.

A-Li could fix it.

But the girl shook her head.

Chen Xiyuan: "Ah, even you can't fix it, little sister. Then we can only go back and find my grandfather to fix it."

Miss Chen wasn't too worried about the flute having problems. In her eyes, no matter how good a treasure was, it was meant to be used. In the past, her way of using the flute was very rough, and she was even willing to give it away as a meeting gift.

"Little sister, do you want to go to Hainan with me to play?"

A-Li shook her head again.

The girl stood up, walked out of the room, and sat down on the rattan chair that belonged to her at the door.

She could tell that he wanted Chen Xiyuan to leave.

He had something going on that he didn't tell her.

The girl's hands gripped the armrests of the rattan chair, her delicate fingers exerting force, turning slightly white.

She was very afraid that he would let her go too.

On the way out of the house, they ran into Zhao Yi, who was still sitting by the bridge alone, from afar.

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, I roughly described the nature of this matter to Zhao Yi."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Hmm."

Lin Shu You: "Then why hasn't that three-eyed guy left and is still staying here?"

Tan Wenbin: "Who knows."

Returned to the old Li family ancestral grave.

Li Zhuiyuan first pointed to the position of the groove, then took out the purple gold compass and began to calibrate the Feng Shui.

With the boy's current level, he actually doesn't need to do this, but it is his own family's ancestral grave after all, just like burning paper, just going through the motions.

After setting up a temporary formation to stabilize the geological structure below this area, the boy gestured a few times and determined the final repair plan.

In the past, everyone used blueprints to help Brother Xiaoyuan set up high-end formations, but now it's just repairing a drainage ditch for the ancestral grave, which is really simple. Everyone immediately picked up the Yellow River shovel and started working.

However, in this simple requirement, there is one point that is special, and that is that Brother Xiaoyuan requested to dig deep into the area of the groove, which Runsheng is responsible for.

Tan Wenbin and Lin Shu You finished their work quickly, so everyone held their shovels and looked at Runsheng.

Runsheng: "Xiaoyuan, I've dug it up."

Li Zhuiyuan walked up, stood on the side, and looked down.

The soil layer in that area in the pit is different from other parts around it; it is very black and fine, and even gives people a very clean feeling.

What is even more eerie is that what Runsheng dug out was a straw mat tied with a rope.

There are holes in the straw mat, and the edges are rough. According to the great-grandfather's description, this should be the one he slept on back then.

But several decades have passed. Even if a high-quality coffin were buried in this kind of earth grave that hadn't been specially constructed, it should have rotted into a mess, but this straw mat, after Runsheng wiped the mud off it with his hand, was "as old as new."

Tan Wenbin leaned over, sniffed with his nose blessed by the spirit beast, and said: "There is a human smell on this straw mat, as if a living person had just slept on it not long ago."

Li Zhuiyuan: "That should be the body odor of the young great-grandfather from several decades ago."

On the way here, Li Zhuiyuan had told his partners the story that his great-grandfather had told him.

No one would think that Grandpa Li would be so bored as to secretly roll up a dead person and bury him here last night, just to tell a ghost story to Brother Xiaoyuan today.

When digging earlier, it was obvious that no one had moved this area for many years.

Besides, Grandpa Li hadn't slept on a tattered straw mat for a long time.

Lin Shu You: "Then the corpse buried below, is it exactly the same as the original one?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "Brother Runsheng, carry it out and untie it."

Runsheng carried the tattered straw mat and came out of the pit.

During this process, it was obvious that a person was wrapped in the straw mat because it had weight, and when it was carried on Runsheng's shoulder, both sides were clearly bending downward.

Runsheng: "It's quite heavy."

After putting it on the flat ground outside, Runsheng squatted down, untied the knot, and spread out the tattered straw mat.

Who knew that as the straw mat rolled out, there was no corpse inside at all, except for clothes and shoes.

Everyone's eyes widened all at once.

They are now all people with wide knowledge and experience, and they consider themselves to have quite a few means, so even if they saw this straw mat wrapped corpse that hadn't rotted or been damaged for several decades, they had no fear at all.

The worst case was nothing more than a dead person or a zombie jumping out from inside, which to them, didn't count as anything at all.

But just now, there was clearly no aura fluctuation, and right under everyone's noses, the corpse that should have been inside disappeared after it was unfolded.

Runsheng said firmly: "When I carried it out, there was a corpse inside; it was very heavy."

Tan Wenbin: "If it were just clothes, this tattered straw mat wouldn't be able to roll out that original thickness."

Li Zhuiyuan squatted down, reached out to touch the clothes, and then lifted them up.

"Brother Binbin, come and smell this again."

Tan Wenbin sniffed carefully, shook his head, and said: "There is no human smell on these clothes at all."

Lin Shu You: "So, that person wasn't actually poisoned to death by Grandpa Li by mistake, but came back to life after being buried and went out?"

Tan Wenbin: "Then what is the point of him rolling up the tattered straw mat and tying it up to bury it back after he went out? Afraid that Grandpa Li would chase him to continue poisoning him after discovering he hadn't poisoned him to death?"

Lin Shu You: "That's right."

If it were someone else, one could really think about it from the perspective of conspiracy theories, such as Li Sanjiang coveting the wealth on the person back then, intentionally killing him to seize the wealth, and at the same time, Grandpa Li being a local bully with countless minions, and this person not daring to speak out after luckily surviving, covering up the fake appearance of having died.

But obviously, Grandpa Li is not such a person, and this kind of conspiracy theory is completely untenable.

Tan Wenbin: "The key to the problem is that before we opened the straw mat, we all 'saw' that there was a corpse inside."

Runsheng rolled the straw mat back. Afraid that there would be an error in weight, he also put the rope on it and carried it again.

"It's light, completely different from just now. Just now, the corpse inside was heavier than me."

Lin Shu You: "Even if a dead person turns into pus, it wouldn't be this clean, right? Vaporization wouldn't be this fast either; at least there should be some white smoke?"

A person, no, to be precise, a corpse, could actually disappear so cleanly in an instant.

Tan Wenbin: "Mengmeng's corpse-dissolving water is far from being this efficient."

Everyone tacitly cast their eyes on the boy. At this time, they could only look forward to getting the answer from Brother Xiaoyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "I don't know either."

The boy was also a close-range witness, and because of his height, when Runsheng carried the straw mat out earlier, he even saw the shoes shaking in the circular hole, which were supported by the insteps, and at the other end of the circular hole, the boy also saw the hair being shaken.

Li Zhuiyuan: "If it cannot be explained in reality, then it can only be explained conceptually. That is, before we witnessed his death with our own eyes, he was in a state of still existing."

Runsheng's brain slipped past.

Lin Shu You: "Seems familiar..."

Tan Wenbin: "Seems to be the theory of karmic waves."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Pack up the clothes and shoes, roll them back up and tie them, and then bury them back."

After all, the person has been lying in the old Li family's ancestral grave for so many years. Even if there are no bones left now and only clothes remain, he should be allowed to continue lying back.

Runsheng: "Good."

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the purple gold compass he had placed on a small mound earlier. When he reached out to pick it up, he sensed the strange, eerie coldness on the compass.

"Brother Runsheng, open the straw mat again."

"Hmm."

The straw mat was opened again.

Li Zhuiyuan discovered that the temperature on the compass dropped by a large margin in an instant, and when he held the compass and walked to the re-spread straw mat, this low temperature was already a bit freezing to the hands.

It's just that the needle on the compass didn't change in the slightest, which means it has nothing to do with the purple gold compass itself.

The boy turned the compass upside down, endured the ice-cold with his fingertips, and quickly fiddled with the various buckles at the bottom. Accompanied by a burst of "click, click, click" twisting sounds, a groove appeared.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz!"

The copper coin that lost the restraint of the compass was trembling violently.

And then,

"Ding."

The copper coin popped out from the groove of the compass, as if pulled by an invisible force, and fell onto the pocket of the clothes on the straw mat.

This copper coin once created a Tai Sui dead person, and that Tai Sui dead person could even control ghosts.

But in reality, that was only the least efficient use of this copper coin. When Li Zhuiyuan used it on various compasses, he could instantly raise the compass by a large grade.

However, before this, Li Zhuiyuan didn't know the specific origin of this copper coin.

Now, it seems he can see the clues.

Tan Wenbin: "Is he the owner of the copper coin?"

Lin Shu You: "What kind of person did Grandpa Li poison to death back then?"

Li Zhuiyuan bent down, his fingertips surrounded by the spirit of the flood dragon, reached forward, and the copper coin was restrained again, falling back into the groove of the compass and getting stuck.

The boy retreated a long distance backward before the temperature on the compass returned to normal.

"Brother Runsheng, bury it back."

"Good."

The tattered straw mat was buried back in the pit. The three of them worked together to fill the pit first and then lay the "waterway" well.

Li Zhuiyuan: "You go back first; I'm going to the bearded man's house."

After separating from his partners, Li Zhuiyuan came to that peach forest.

On the courtyard, Benben, who was happily drinking from a milk bottle, immediately fell to the side, pretending to be drunk on milk.

Seeing that the big brother didn't come up, he exerted force with his buttocks, sat up again, and continued to hold the milk bottle and suck hard.

Inside the peach forest, Qing'an was lying on his side by the water pool, his left hand clenched into a fist supporting his head, his right hand grabbing a peach blossom from time to time and throwing it into the water pool.

When the boy entered, a slight smile curled up at the corner of his mouth.

He knew the boy would come.

The boy would come to beg him, in all kinds of ways to please him.

He was already waiting.

Compared to this, the regret of not being able to successfully play together today was nothing.

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the water pool, squatted down, and washed his hands with the water in the pool.

While shaking his hands dry, the boy asked:

"I remember when I first met you, you said that you were self-sealed here, isolated from the outside world?"

"Hmm."

"So, until that group of water monkeys dug out the inverted tower where you were self-sealed, you were completely unaware of the movements outside?"

"What is knowing, and what is not knowing?"

"So, you can sense it, but you can ignore it."

"Kid, your foreshadowing today is a bit long, and a bit boring."

"You misunderstood."

"Oh?"

"Not to mention the whole of Nantong—that was after you completely turned over and released your aura pressure—but at least, this town... this village, all the things that have happened over so many years, you should be able to sense them, right? Even if you didn't take them to heart."

"Do you count how many flies and mosquitoes are in the house when you sleep?"

"What if flies and mosquitoes fly in front of you, land on your nose, flap their wings and 'buzz', or simply suck your blood?"

"I am asleep, not dead."

"So, the first day that group of water monkeys came here, before they dug up the place where you were sleeping, they were just performing on a stage above. Actually, you had long sensed what they were going to do, right?

And Little Huang Ying, after she finished her revenge, she walked into the fish pond above the place where you were sealed. At that time, she had already undergone changes with your help.

Your self-sealing is essentially the same as the current situation; both are a means of self-anesthesia. For you, how can there be such a good thing in this world as absolute sealing that eliminates all pain perception?"

"Kid, what exactly are you rambling about?"

"When my grandmother moved here, you sensed it, right?"

"Peaceful and quiet."

"That means you sensed it. Then what about the people who sent books to my great-grandfather to be stored back then? Did you sense them?"

"I felt nothing."

"Were those who sent the books a group of ordinary people?"

Great-grandfather said that the books in the basement were stored by others. He once wanted to throw them away, but since he had already promised, he was afraid that others would come to ask for them later, so they had been left in the basement to gather dust.

Qing'an cannot sense ordinary people, or rather, he wouldn't take the behavior of ordinary people here to heart and would directly ignore it.

So, those who sent so many secret treasures to great-grandfather's place back then, including Wei Zhengdao's works and the original techniques of the Qin and Liu families... were they a group of ordinary people?

Li Zhuiyuan: "If there was someone standing in the fish pond back then, or on the ground back then, he knew you were buried here, he stood there and looked at you who were self-sealed below, could you... detect his existence?"

Qing'an: "He is looking for death."

Li Zhuiyuan was silent, looking at the water pool in front of him.

After a long time, Li Zhuiyuan spoke again:

"What if he is much stronger than you, so strong that you cannot perceive his gaze directed at you at all?"

Qing'an: "Are you looking for death?"

"Okay, I know." Li Zhuiyuan stood up.

Qing'an: "Can we start?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I've finished asking."

Qing'an moved his head slightly, raised his eyes, and looked at the boy:

"Hmm?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "I'm leaving."

Qing'an: "Is this some new trick?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "No."

The boy turned around and walked out.

Qing'an: "Be honest, I don't like being played with clever tricks."

The boy stopped his steps: "Hmm, I know."

Qing'an: "Kid, you won't live long."

The boy: "My goal has always been to try to live to adulthood."

Qing'an: "Still pretending?"

Li Zhuiyuan: "You go to sleep."

The boy left and walked out of the peach forest.

Su Luo walked over with a wine pot and poured a cup of wine for Qing'an.

Qing'an picked up the wine glass and shook it in front of him: