Chapter 368

"Yes, yes, mother, you mustn't scold people!"

Du Wenxuan's face changed drastically; he hurriedly stood up and spoke to advise:

"You have to consider for your son me; my son hasn't married yet; if you ruin my father's business, how will my son ever marry? Just consider it a little grievance for your son; the child will remember it in his heart!"

"In the future I will surely repay you well!"

"Get married?"

He actually doesn't care much; he's still young, hasn't played around, and doesn't want to marry so quickly, but a free one is better than a costly one.

At least.

He often finds himself penniless!

What he cares about most is still the hundred taels of silver his father promised him; with that much money, who knows how long he can live it up.

He doesn't want his mother to shout and curse, affecting how his uncle's family views her, which would ultimately affect his father and his uncle's family doing business together.

As for his mother suffering grievance?

The solution he just proposed is aimed at making his mother suffer grievance; if she doesn't suffer grievance, how could their families break the ice, how could his uncle's family agree to let his father do business with them?

Doing this is somewhat sorry to his mother, but the point is merely to let her suffer a bit of grievance—not really to send her up a mountain of knives and down a sea of fire, not even a speck of flesh needs to be cut.

Once things succeed, there will be endless benefits awaiting his father and him—cough, cough—awaiting the whole family; he believes his mother can understand and can do it.

What he needs to do now is to cheer up his mother.

Du Guan looked at Du Wenxuan speechlessly; truly his eldest son, able to utter such heartless words.

Although.

He also thinks that way in his heart.

Du Guan was about to comfort Zhang Guilian with a few words, but he couldn't let him shirk responsibility—since Zhang Guilian is the younger sister of Zhang Deben, if she refuses to act, hoping he steps in would be disgraceful; even if he were to lose his hands and feet, Zhang Deben wouldn't give him another glance, relying on him to break the ice with the Zhang family.

That's practically impossible!

"Thud!", "Thud!", "Thud!"

Just as the soothing words reached his lips, Du Guan was about to speak when he heard a series of dull sounds echoing from the hall; he instinctively looked up and was startled.

He saw Zhang Chengze and Zhang Chengyong, the two brothers, leading others, fussing over their father's coffin.

"What are you doing?"

Du Guan jumped in shock and wondered aloud: "Could it be that my brother-in-law, after becoming the Mountain God of Shizi Ling, could still come back to life?"

"Father, what nonsense are you spouting? My uncle is dead; even if he became the Mountain God of Shizi Ling, he couldn't possibly return to life—at least this stinking fleshly body of his is useless!"

Du Wenxuan snorted coldly, his face full of envy.

Although he isn't a cultivator, not even a proper scholar, having failed even the basic children's exam, let alone cultivating righteous qi in his body, yet after years of study at the academy he still knows many things ordinary people don't.

Regarding the matter of mountain and earth gods, the old master at the academy once chatted about it.

He roughly knows.

In life, if one has great merit, after death they may be enshrined as a god, with rank depending on the amount of merit.

Zhang Guilian's face showed resentment she could barely conceal as she said: "It was the Prefect who gave the Mountain God Token of Shizi Ling to Zhang Chengyong; Zhang Chengyong, following the Prefect's orders, placed the token in my elder brother's hand!"

Zhang Chengyong's earlier attitude left her displeased; if he were present, for her family's sake she would show enthusiasm.

But now only her family is present, no outsiders, she can't be bothered to hide her resentment toward Zhang Chengyong: "Mountain God Token?"

Du Guan stared, his words unfinished, when he heard Du Wenxuan shout excitedly:

"Mountain God Token? Mother, you mean Zhang Chengyong placed the Mountain God Token—cough, cough—into my uncle's hand?"

Zhang Guilian nodded.

Du Guan frowned and asked: "What's the matter, Wenxuan, do you have a problem?"

"I..."

Du Wenxuan opened his mouth, about to say something, but before the words could leave his lips he shook his head and sighed:

"Nothing wrong, just recalling that I once heard people mention the Mountain God Token; I'm somewhat curious about it!"

He naturally didn't tell his father that he had once read in a certain biography, whose source he didn't know, about someone picking up a Mountain God Token and, relying on it, becoming a Mountain God.

Previously that person was merely a street beggar, but after obtaining the Mountain God Token he rose to prominence, becoming one of the most important figures in the locality.

Gold, silver, jewels, beauties, delicacies…

They had everything imaginable!

This novel you to

At that time, when he first came into contact with that biography, he didn't know how envious he was of its protagonist.

"If, if, I could steal—no, I could get hold of this Mountain God Token, could I also become the Mountain God of Shizi Ling?"

Du Wenxuan's breathing suddenly became rapid as he recalled the detailed account of that Mountain God in the biography, which vividly surfaced in his mind.

"It's just a Mountain God Token—what's there to be jealous about? Your uncle is literally a living Mountain God, far superior to a mere token by who knows how many times!"

Du Guan snorted, looking at Du Wenxuan's worthless appearance, about to mock him a few times; this little brat lacks his steadiness entirely—if not for the brat's eyebrows and eyes resembling his own closely, he'd doubt whether this brat was even his seed, how he could have produced such a creature.

Du Wenxuan seemed not to have heard Du Guan's words, giving a foolish hehe laugh.

A flash of inspiration crossed Du Guan's mind and vanished; seeing the foolishly laughing Du Wenxuan, his expression shifted dramatically, wanting to slap him to snap him out of it, but fearing others would notice their odd behavior, he shouted lowly:

"Du—Wen—xuan!"

The sudden voice, like a thunderclap in his mind, made Du Wenxuan feel as if his theft had been discovered; he jumped in fright and stammered:

"Father, what's wrong?"

"You little brat, tell your father the truth—are you harboring improper thoughts about your uncle's Mountain God Token?"

Du Guan stared deeply at Du Wenxuan, his tone unfriendly.

"Father, what are you saying?"

Du Wenxuan, feeling unnatural under Du Guan's gaze, gave an embarrassed laugh: "That Mountain God Token belongs to my uncle; giving it to me would be useless, so how could I have any improper thoughts about it?"

Du Guan coldly stared at Du Wenxuan, as the saying goes: a father knows his son best. Moreover, Du Wenxuan's expression was unusually abnormal; after all, he was still too young, his acting was not up to par.

This damned thing is most likely interested in Zhang Deben's Mountain God Token!

He really wanted to ask what the Mountain God Token actually did, to make this damned thing take an interest, but seeing outsiders still around in his peripheral vision, he swallowed the words on his lips, his curiosity buried deep in his heart.

Du Guan changed the subject: "Gui Lian, you still need to keep getting closer to the elder sister-in-law and her group!"

(End of chapter)