The sound of a crowing rooster rings out.

In the garden of Mingquan, the candle flame has already died, and white wax like tears covers the candle stand.

In the room, the charcoal basin emits residual warmth. Xiao Man, with her hair styled in double buns, shrinks on a small stool, her head nodding all night, saliva dripping onto her knees.

Hearing the rooster crow, she suddenly wakes up. She first looks towards the canopy bed and sees that Chen Ji and Wu Yun are not there. She panics and stands up: “Young master? Young master, where are you?”

Xiao Man lies on the ground looking under the bed. In her memory, the young master would hide under the bed after a nightmare, but this time under the bed is empty. At this moment, Chen Ji’s voice comes: “I’m in the courtyard.”

Xiao Man anxiously pushes open the room door, only to see Wu Yun lying on the gray tile eaves of the courtyard wall, tucking his two claws and closing his eyes to rest. Chen Ji is holding a bamboo broom, sweeping the dust on the ground into a pile.

She looks at the broom in Chen Ji’s hand, greatly shocked: “Young master, when did you get up? Why are you sweeping the ground yourself? Give me the broom!” Chen Ji casually says: “I’m idle anyway, I’ll sweep.”

Xiao Man is angry that he’s not living up to expectations: “Which noble young master sweeps the ground himself? Everyone else treats themselves as precious. I’ve told you many times, you must put on your young master’s airs, only then will they not look down on you!”

Chen Ji laughs: “Just a bastard son, can’t be considered a noble young master.”

Xiao Man says angrily: “Who says not counted? I say you are counted, you are counted. With the Chen family’s generations of high officials, a background of wealth and status, any bastard son brought out can suppress others’ legitimate eldest sons. Later, when you marry a wife, you must not lower your status to marry a bastard daughter. You must find a legitimate daughter from a scholarly family.” The concept of family background is deeply ingrained in everyone’s bones. Chen Ji doesn’t agree, but there’s no need to argue with her.

Xiao Man sees him not speaking, forcibly snatches the broom away, and leans against the corner of the wall: “I’ll go boil water for you to wash first. After you wash, you still need to go pay respects.”

Chen Ji shakes his head: “No need. From now on, I won’t go to pay respects.”

Xiao Man becomes suspicious: “How are you suddenly so firm? Has the sun risen from the west?” Chen Ji explains: “I just went to pay respects to Madam, and she herself proactively instructed that I no longer need to go pay respects to her.”

Xiao Man is even more suspicious: “Could she have such a good heart?”

Chen Ji laughs: “Perhaps chanting Buddha has chanted out a few points of compassion.”

Xiao Man mutters in a low voice: “She’s chanted Buddha for so many years, and we haven’t seen her chant out any compassionate heart. How could she have chanted it out today?” Chen Ji corrects: “It’s not that she herself chanted out a compassionate heart, it’s that I chanted out her compassionate heart. Sincerity brings results.”

Xiao Man vaguely understands: “Ah?”

Chen Ji waves his hand: “Go boil water.” Xiao Man draws out her voice: “Oh…”

She goes to the side room, lifts the stove lid, uses iron tongs to clamp coal blocks and throws them in: “Right, young master, you didn’t have a nightmare last night?”

Chen Ji’s eyes shift: “I had a dream, but it was different from before.”

Xiao Man pokes her head out from the side room: “You didn’t dream of that strange battlefield anymore?” Chen Ji’s pupils slightly shrink.

This world’s ‘Chen Ji’, unexpectedly had the same dream as himself?

Chen Ji is silent for a long time, then further probes Xiao Man’s words: “Actually, thinking about it now, that dream isn’t anything frightening.”

Xiao Man purses her mouth and retracts her head into the side room: “You yourself said that dream was always frightening, full of demons and ghosts, flying birds and walking beasts, and many soldiers killing back and forth, blood flowing and oars drifting.”

Chen Ji confirms, it is the same dream.

What is the connection between himself and this world’s ‘Chen Ji’? Why do they have the same dream? Could it be… this is the key for Master and Li Qingniao to smuggle him down from the forty-nine heavens?

Chen Ji can’t help but carefully recall Li Qingniao’s words: “The people of North Kuru continent are responsible for smuggling you,” “The forty-nine heavens cannot keep you, go to the place you should go.”

He suddenly realizes that there are two key pieces of information in these words:

The first key information is that the ones responsible for smuggling him are people from one of the forty-nine heavens, the North Kuru continent… Could it be that Master Yao Qimen is also from the forty-nine heavens?

Chen Ji remembers asking Master once if he wanted to ascend to the forty-nine heavens to become an immortal. Master’s answer was… if there isn’t one hundred thousand years, why become a heaven immortal!

The second key information is that the four words “cannot keep you” are worth carefully pondering. Who wants to keep him? Why do they want to keep him in the forty-nine heavens?

Thinking to this point, Chen Ji always feels an even bigger crisis hovering above the sky, covering him. At this moment, Xiao Man walks out from the side room, wiping her hands on the back of her clothes. She sees Chen Ji lost in thought and waves her hand in front of his face: “Young master, what dream did you have last night?”

Chen Ji tells a lie: “Last night was a beautiful dream. I dreamed of earning lots and lots of silver, buying several ten thousand mu of paddy fields, and also taking over a silk shop, an inn, and a restaurant…” Xiao Man mutters: “Still earning money? It’s fortunate your money wasn’t swindled away. You previously really had a restaurant, and several hundred mu of good fields. Weren’t they all coaxed away by Madam?

Aunt’s ‘Drum Belly Building’ is in the Lamp Market outside the East Hua Gate, an inch of land is an inch of gold in the capital, and it’s very famous.”

Chen Ji is startled, this is still a thing? He can’t directly ask what other industries there are besides this Drum Belly Building, so he only pretends to say indifferently: “Wealth is an external thing, you can’t bring it with you when you’re born or take it when you die. I’ve already forgotten what Aunt left. You don’t need to always remember either. If it’s given to Madam, then it’s given to Madam.”