Chapter 15: 14

14, "Innate Wisdom"

Yang Rui, Zhou Sanji's senior brother, took off the melon-skin cap from his head, and wisps of steam drifted out from between his hair, which had not yet turned much white.

Facing Zhou Sanji's harsh tone, he merely blinked, chuckled, and said, "Yes, yes, junior brother is right to scold me—I told that mule-cart driver when I came that he should charge me one copper coin less, and my junior brother will surely make up the difference for me.

One copper coin can buy a jin of rough rice; three copper coins can buy a big chunk of tender tofu. We can't waste them..."

Hearing this, Zhou Sanji was stunned for a moment.

Yang Rui pulled the eleven or twelve-year-old boy along and walked straight into the courtyard, saying casually, "You had someone send me a message, but you didn't explain clearly what Ah Chang's current situation is. Is he dead or alive?

If he's dead..."

Yang Rui suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at Zhou Sanji who was following him, his expression becoming serious: "Then I can only advise you to accept your grief with resignation. The dead cannot be brought back to life."

"What do you mean dead!

He's still lying there in the room, perfectly fine!" Zhou Sanji's eye twitched, and his voice rose by three tones.

Hearing this, Yang Rui relaxed: "As long as he's alive, there will be a way..."

Zhou Sanji hesitated: "He is alive, but no matter how you look at him, he doesn't seem like my original youngest grandson... He has his own name, also Zhou Chang, but it's the 'Chang' with two suns. His birth date and time are exactly the same as Ah Chang's.

I'm really a bit worried that an outsider ghost has moved into Ah Chang's body..."

Yang Rui studied Zhou Sanji's expression.

Seeing Zhou Sanji's hesitant and doubtful look, he already had an idea in his mind.

After the other finished speaking, Yang Rui said with a smile, "Ghosts are divided into two types: one is the soul of someone who just died or was frightened, leaving their body; the other is a 'Gui' formed by gathering the thoughts and desires of all things.

You know this.

The first type of ghost, besides causing trouble on its own corpse, cannot get close to any other living person or dead body.

Living people have fire, dead people have evil qi; whether it's fire or evil qi, both can instantly burn up these wandering souls.

The second type of Gui—those are things about to become 'Thought Demons'. Even if such a Gui disguises itself to look exactly like a human, it will inevitably show its inhuman side.

Do you think the Zhou Chang in your house is the second type of Gui I mentioned?"

"That's not the case!" Zhou Sanji was quite certain about this. "Although he is rather indifferent to me and not very close, he is occasionally willing to call me Grandpa. He is not the second type of Gui you mentioned—but the key problem is, he is not a Thought Demon either, yet he is not Ah Chang either...

Could he really not be an outsider soul?

You also said an outsider soul cannot get close to a living or dead person..."

"His birth date and time are exactly the same as your Ah Chang's, and even his name is so similar. If he is neither an outsider soul nor a spontaneously formed Gui... then there is only one possibility now—" Yang Rui narrowed his eyes.

Zhou Sanji held his breath: "What possibility?"

"Innate Wisdom!" Yang Rui declared firmly. "Ah Chang is a person with Innate Wisdom!

He simply awakened the Innate Wisdom of his past life. The experiences of his previous life were too complex, diluting the memories of this life, which is why he is emotionally indifferent to you!"

Hearing his senior brother's words, Zhou Sanji instinctively felt as if the sky had brightened!

All the hurdles in his heart that he previously couldn't overcome were directly smoothed out by his senior brother's explanation!

Yes, besides 'Innate Wisdom', what other situation fits the current Ah Chang better?

People who awaken Innate Wisdom often initially appear strange and indifferent to those around them—this is a common occurrence in legends—but so what? As long as he is still Ah Chang, as long as he is still my grandson, that's all that matters!

In that instant, Zhou Sanji accepted Yang Rui's explanation.

But he still had some doubts: "Innate Wisdom... that's something only old people tell in ancient stories. How could it happen to us so easily?

I have never seen anyone with Innate Wisdom in my life..."

"Now you have seen one, haven't you?" Yang Rui glanced at Zhou Sanji and added, "If you don't believe it, that's fine. If you'd rather hear 'accept your grief with resignation, the dead cannot be brought back to life,' I can tell you that again a few more times right now..."

"Forget it, forget it..." Zhou Sanji hurriedly waved his hand to stop him.

At this moment, a slight smile finally appeared on his stern face. He turned his gaze toward the silent young boy who had been held by Yang Rui, intending to ask Yang Rui about the boy's identity, when he heard Yang Rui ask him again, "There is another way to judge whether the soul currently dwelling in Ah Chang's body is a 'Gui'—

Thought Demons and gods both consume 'Incense Qi'.

Incense Qi is the Qi of thoughts.

Human thoughts attach to the blue smoke rising from burning incense, so Thought Demons, Guis, and gods all have the ability to consciously inhale incense smoke.

Have you ever tried—light a stick of incense and see if the smoke, once the incense burns, goes straight into his nostrils?"

Zhou Sanji was stunned: "I haven't tried yet..."

"Then go try it now—"

"Eh—no, forget it. I believe he is Ah Chang's Innate Wisdom!"

"If he is a Gui, what should we do?"

Creak~

The door hinge groaned under the strain, and a beam of light leaked into the dim room.

Zhou Chang looked at the open door, seeing Zhou Sanji lead a tall old man in, accompanied by a young boy.

"Ah Chang, this is my senior brother. Just call him Master Yang." Zhou Sanji, smiling, pointed to the tall old man beside him and said to Zhou Chang, who was leaning against the head of the bed.

"Master Yang." Zhou Chang nodded slightly to Yang Rui from the bed. "I am unable to move around easily right now..."

"No problem, no problem." Yang Rui stared fixedly at Zhou Chang while patting the young boy following him, introducing him to Zhou Chang: "This is my newly accepted disciple. His surname is Guan. He doesn't have a formal name yet, so we gave him a humble name, Little Stone. Just call him Junior Uncle Guan.

Little Stone, come meet your nephew."

Little Stone, with a calm expression, clasped his fists and bowed to Zhou Chang.

His movements were practiced, showing a maturity beyond his actual age.

"Hello." Zhou Chang nodded in response.

Yang Rui glanced around and immediately spotted the row of incense sticks on the offering table. He called out to Zhou Sanji: "I will offer a stick of incense to the ancestral spirits and deities."

Zhou Sanji hesitantly responded, but didn't look at him; instead, he secretly observed Zhou Chang.

As soon as his gaze met Zhou Chang's, he shifted it away as if guilty of theft.

Yang Rui broke off three sticks from a bundle of incense, lit them from the candle flame, snuffed out the fire tip with his fingertip, then held the incense in both hands and walked a few circles around the room, muttering things like asking the various patriarchs and the Lord of Wanchuan to bless them.

The red-glowing incense tips swayed through the room as wisps of pale smoke curled upward.

Zhou Chang watched those wisps of smoke, unmoved.

But his body, at that very moment, quietly flared its nostrils, the wings of the nose twitching as it tried to inhale the smoke drifting in the air — Zhou Chang sensed the anomaly at once, and strands of transparent silk slipped out from between his brows, coiling several layers thick around his mouth and nose!

His body went still, and the drifting smoke shifted elsewhere, gradually fading into nothing.

Yang Rui stuck that incense into the censer before the shrine, then raised his hand and knocked over the temporary spirit tablet for "Zhou Chang" on the offering table: "The boy's alive and well — what's the point of setting up his tablet?

What bad luck, take it down!"