Li Zhuiyuan said, “There’s something you all need to pay attention to. After we leave this time, publicly use the name ‘Nantong Lāo Shī Lǐ’.”

“Alright, now everyone go down for lunch.”

Chen Xiyuan, who was always enthusiastic about food and drink, was heading towards the staircase, but her previously furrowed brow had not relaxed.

Even if her younger brother’s request was a bit strange, and his last words were indeed somewhat incomprehensible, wasn’t this always his style?

Chen Xiyuan felt that she should have gotten used to it by now.

However, a strange shadow inexplicably rose in her heart. Even as she descended the stairs, her perspective shifted with the changing height, causing dizziness and nausea.

When she walked out of the ground floor hall onto the dam, bathed in the sunlight again, her entire body felt as if it was ignited by a fire of impatience.

Perhaps it was because the sunlight was too blinding.

She almost dared not look up.

After Aunt Liu placed the dishes on the table, she gestured to Chen Xiyuan:

“Come quickly and try this. I made drunk shrimp for you. See if it suits your taste.”

Chen Xiyuan sat down somewhat numbly, picked up her chopsticks in a daze, and put several drunk shrimp into her mouth with one chopstickful.

With a single press and melt, the tender freshness of the shrimp and the perfectly balanced seasoning flavors bloomed in her mouth.

In an instant, Chen Xiyuan’s eyes lit up.

All discomfort, numbness, agitation, and unease vanished, and she felt as if she had come back to life.

She excitedly looked at Aunt Liu and said:

“Ā Jie, it’s delicious!”

“If it’s delicious, eat more. And this lamb, it’s different from the Dōngshān lamb where you’re from.

It has a strong gamey flavor, and the cooking method enhances that flavor. Just think of it as a smoked-like taste.”

Chen Xiyuan took a chopstickful, put it in her mouth, and indeed, the “lamb flavor” was very strong. But combined with the pungency of the garlic sprouts, one bite immediately stimulated her appetite.

Chen Xiyuan chewed on the tip of her chopsticks, looking at Aunt Liu with embarrassment, and asked, “Ā Jie, is there enough food? I want to eat my fill.”

Aunt Liu bent down, brought her face close to Chen Xiyuan, and pointed to the kitchen:

“These are all in the kitchen, in basins. Eat as much as you can. If there’s any left, and your Uncle Li wakes up this afternoon and finds out, he’ll scold me again.”

“Heh heh, Ā Jie, you’re so kind.”

Chen Xiyuan relaxed, picked up her rice bowl, and began to devour the food.

Aunt Liu went to the kitchen and brought out the dishes in basins one by one. By the time all these basins were on the table, the dishes that were originally on plates had already been cleared and could be taken away.

Li Zhuiyuan did not rush downstairs, but had been observing Chen Xiyuan’s changes.

Only when he saw her return to normal did the young man take A Li’s hand and walk towards the staircase.

Zhao Yi followed closely beside him.

He knew that he had to do the work first to be eligible for payment, but he was truly impatient at the moment and just wanted a reassurance:

“Little Patriarch, after this matter is settled, when you teach my men, can you also give me private lessons?”

Li Zhuiyuan stopped and looked at Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi placed his hands on either side of his chest, smiling.

But then, the young man’s question made the smile on Zhao Yi’s face instantly disappear.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “Did you know all along?”

At Zhao Yi’s level, keeping emotions in check was basic training. Even a second before death, he could maintain a performer’s professionalism.

A change in expression signified an answer.

The premise of pretense and lying is that you are willing to bear the cost of being seen through by the other party.

Evidently, Zhao Yi made his choice immediately; he could not afford it.

Zhao Yi: “I thought you already knew.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Let’s eat.”

Zhao Yi: “Hmm, I am indeed hungry.”

Everyone took their seats and began to eat.

Zhao Yi’s subordinates stayed at the Big Beard’s house, where Old Tian would cook for them. He himself sat close to Lin Shuyou, squeezing onto a table with the three of them.

Picking up his chopsticks and seeing the normal amount of food, Zhao Yi said with some surprise:

“No, is this amount for feeding sparrows for you guys?”

Then, Zhao Yi seemed to understand something and laughed:

“Congratulations, it seems you’ve made progress in your recent lessons.”

The others had all finished eating early and put down their chopsticks.

Only Chen Xiyuan continued to eat with focus.

She was eating very fast, but the sheer quantity was immense.

Run Sheng broke the remaining half of a thick incense stick in his hand, put it aside for the next meal, then took out an iron box, pulled out a “cigar,” lit it, and silently smoked.

Tan Wenbin took out two cigarettes, lit them from Run Sheng’s cigar, and then flicked one to Zhao Yi.

At this moment, everyone was watching her eat alone.

During a break from drinking soup, Chen Xiyuan smiled apologetically: “Sorry, I’ll be quick, almost done, almost finished eating.”

Finally, Chen Xiyuan finished eating, raised her head contentedly, and sighed.

Others teach apprentices until the master starves, but here, Miss Chen taught until the master was full.

Aunt Liu: “Are you full? If not, I can add another pot of vegetables for you?”

“Full, full, Ā Jie, your cooking is excellent, thank you for your hard work.”

“The old lady said that when guests come to our house, there’s nothing special to treat them with, but at least we must ensure they have a bed to sleep in and a full meal.”

“Hmm, thank… Ugh, I think I forgot to thank the old lady.”

Last night, when she escorted A Li to Cui Cui’s room, she heard a group of old ladies chatting in the next room, and she almost couldn’t move her legs.

If she hadn’t known that the old lady would definitely sense her presence, and that her younger brother was still waiting for her downstairs, she would have entered the domain and sat among the old ladies, listening until the end.

Aunt Liu: “It’s alright, no rush for now.”

Chen Xiyuan: “Ā Jie, please tell the old lady for me that I will serve her tea properly when I return from my errand.”

Zhao Yi sat on the stool beside her, hands down, head lowered.

Listen, people come, they have a bed to sleep in, a full meal, but he didn’t even eat his fill today.

Lin Shuyou leaned his mouth towards Tan Wenbin and whispered, “Brother Bin, is Miss Chen calling Aunt Liu ‘Ā Jie’ on purpose to make Aunt Liu sound younger?”

A You remembered that Miss Chen’s identity here was that of Grandma Liu’s distant grandniece, which put her in a different generation from Aunt Liu, so calling her ‘Ā Jie’ was clearly inappropriate.

Tan Wenbin: “It’s like how ‘niángniáng’ is used in Chuānyú or ‘māmā’ in Nántōng dialect. It’s probably a habitual way of addressing an ‘āyí’ of that age in her region.”

Lin Shuyou breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

He could calmly view the progress of others, but if Miss Chen also started getting into social niceties, it would cause him great unease.

Chen Xiyuan picked up the dizi from the table, looked at Tan Wenbin, and waved:

“Full, time to work!”

Energetic, full of fighting spirit.

Tan Wenbin extinguished his cigarette butt, stood up and said, “Coming.”

Zhao Yi patted his stomach, stood up and stretched, saying:

“Ah, I’m off too.”

After they all left, Li Zhuiyuan looked at A Li beside him and asked:

“Want to come along?”

Among the three paintings, the young man had deliberately chosen the one closest to home for himself.

A Li shook her head, walked into the house, and went upstairs. She came to the second-floor balcony and looked down at the young man standing below, a smile on her face.

She really wanted to go.

The young man had also told her that this particular xié suì wasn’t that threatening and wouldn’t be difficult to deal with.

Theoretically, the young man could stay on the periphery with her, watching Lin Shuyou or Run Sheng retrieve and capture the xié suì.

But ultimately, there was a certain degree of danger; this wasn’t a picnic, after all.

She didn’t want to be a “burden” that the young man had to look after if he encountered danger.

Li Zhuiyuan waved at A Li with a smile.

Recognizing emotions and then consciously controlling them was in itself a huge step forward.

The young man could sense that in the future, A Li would surely reach a new stage. At that time, he wouldn’t be able to trouble her to pack his hiking bag anymore, because she would have a bag of her own to organize.

“Brother Run Sheng, A You, let’s go.”

A Li stood on the balcony, watching the three young men get into the yellow pickup truck, and watched the pickup drive onto the village road, disappearing at the end of her sight.

She turned, walked into the room, stood before her workbench, picked up a carving knife, and resumed carving the patterns on the fú jiǎ.

In the kitchen, Aunt Liu, who was washing dishes, withdrew her gaze and sighed.

Uncle Qin, who was using a file to scrape ash from the bottom of the wok, asked curiously:

“Why the sigh?”

Aunt Liu: “One day, A Li will go out with Xiao Yuan.”

Uncle Qin: “Isn’t that a good thing?”

Aunt Liu: “You wouldn’t understand.”

Uncle Qin: “How would I understand if you don’t tell me?”

Aunt Liu: “If they go out together later, where will I go to crack melon seeds?”

Uncle Qin: “Heh heh, it’s not like they won’t come back.”

Aunt Liu: “Is that the same? Now, when Xiao Yuan comes back, it’s called ‘coming home’; later, when they go out together and return, it’ll be called ‘visiting relatives’.”

Uncle Qin placed the cleaned wok back and clapped his hands: “So complicated, I don’t understand.”

Aunt Liu: “You blockhead, I don’t expect you to understand. Open the salt bag and refill the condiment jar.”

Uncle Qin washed his hands, took out the salt bag, and while tearing it open, said:

“There’s one more thing I don’t understand. Xiao Yuan just came back, so there definitely isn’t enough time. Plus, I just saw that the three groups of people are clearly going in different directions, which means it definitely isn’t about something on the river.”

Aunt Liu: “So what?”

Uncle Qin: “Since it’s something on land, why didn’t they call me? I’m idle, anyway.”

Aunt Liu: “Xiao Yuan has better enforcers. Not to mention Zhao Yi, that Miss Chen is also very obedient to Xiao Yuan. Ultimately, it’s because our Xiao Yuan is growing up too fast.”

Uncle Qin nodded, poured the salt into the salt jar, and seeing the nearby soy sauce bottle had toppled over, he casually set it upright.

After setting it upright, he froze.

Aunt Liu finished washing the dishes and, wiping her hands, turned to see Uncle Qin staring blankly at the condiment stand, and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

Uncle Qin:

“I should have set that soy sauce bottle upright back then.”

Chóngmíng Dǎo is very close to Nántōng, but getting to the island is not easy.

First, you have to go to the pier to wait for the car ferry. There are not many daily services, and in bad weather, it’s common to be unable to get to or from the island for two days.

As the small pickup approached the riverbank, Li Zhuiyuan looked at the scenery outside the window.

He remembered Xue Liangliang once pointing here and saying that a large bridge would be built across the river in the future, and the so-called natural chasm of the Yangtze would become a smooth path.

Xue Liangliang even joked that this bridge would someday be their Shānhǎi Guān for the Nántōng people; crossing it would be like coming home.

Today, Brother Liangliang’s vision still only existed on design blueprints.

However, the three of them going to the island didn’t need to go to the pier to buy tickets and wait for the ferry.

Lin Shuyou parked the small pickup. He got out first and walked to the riverbank.

In the past, Brother Bin used to do this kind of thing. Since Brother Bin wasn’t here today, it was his time to shine.

Without using yellow paper to ignite anything, Lin Shuyou’s gaze sharpened, and his vertical pupils opened.

The majestic aura of Bái Hè Zhēnjūn poured out towards the river beneath.

Soon, a water column rose, and a Bái Jiā Niángniang, with thick rouge on her face and who appeared very old before her death, emerged. She respectfully bowed to Lin Shuyou.

“Prepare the boat.”

“Yes.”

The Bái Jiā Niángniang submerged, and a short while later, a wooden boat emerged on the river ahead.

“Brother Xiao Yuan, you can board the boat now.”

The three boarded the boat.

Initially, Run Sheng was paddling the boat with a Huáng Hé Chǎn.

After a while, Run Sheng put away his shovel.

The boat beneath them continued to move quickly and steadily.

If one were to lean out of the boat at that moment and look down, they would see two rows of figures moving beneath the boat.

They were the Bái Jiā Niángniang acting as boatmen.

This speed was much faster than the car ferry, by an immeasurable amount.

If convenient conditions could be utilized, there was no need to seek trouble.

Moreover, the appearance of this xié suì on Chóngmíng Dǎo also posed a threat to Bái Jiā Zhèn, which was very close to the island.

She should have always been there. Bái Jiā Zhèn hadn’t discovered her before, and it was even possible that the xié suì had existed even earlier than the establishment of Bái Jiā Zhèn.

However, due to Li Zhuiyuan’s self-made jiāng shuǐ, she was forced to reveal her presence, which immediately triggered Bái Jiā Zhèn’s vigilance.

As they approached the island, a graceful figure slowly emerged from the side. She was the spokesperson for Bái Jiā Zhèn, and also the one from Xue Liangliang’s family.

In the past, she always came out to receive announcements. The reason someone else took her place this time was because she had been on Chóngmíng Dǎo, monitoring the xié suì. After learning that Li Zhuiyuan and others had arrived, she quickly returned.

One could see she was pregnant, but the duration of this pregnancy could no longer be calculated by normal gestation periods.

When Brother Liangliang was recruited into the Bai family as a son-in-law, he hadn’t even graduated from college.

Given this situation,

Brother Liangliang was both a representative of early marriage and childbearing, and also a typical example of late marriage and childbearing.

Li Zhuiyuan: “Tell the people of Bái Jiā Zhèn to withdraw.”

Bái Jiā Niángniang: “Yes.”

Li Zhuiyuan waved his hand.

The woman’s figure merged back into the water, and along with her, the numerous Bái Jiā Niángniang beneath the boat also vanished.

And this wooden boat, using its last bit of momentum, reached the shore.

Li Zhuiyuan took out the Zǐjīn Luópán to confirm the exact location of the xié suì.

“So close.”

Not long after the three came ashore, they stopped in front of a rural house.

It was a two-story building with cement exterior walls, flanked by two single-story outbuildings: one a toilet, the other housing pigs.

Three pigs poked their noses through the gaps in the pigpen, rooting around constantly.

But the pigs’ eyes revealed a scrutinizing emotion.

Lin Shuyou raised his golden jiǎn and pointed it at the three pigs.

“Brother Xiao Yuan, they’re problematic.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “They’re not the only ones with problems.”

This rural house was surrounded by farmland and vegetable plots. Along the path they walked, Li Zhuiyuan heard the faint rustling of some crops slowly turning.

The xié suì was in this house, but not exclusively within it.

She hadn’t made a move yet, which indicated she had other intentions.

“Zhiya…”

The door to the living room on the first floor opened at this moment.

The aroma of alcohol and food wafted out.

With Run Sheng and Lin Shuyou guarding him from front and back, the young man walked to the living room doorway.

The living room door had peeling paint, and the long glass panels embedded in it had numerous cracks, along with several bloody handprints.

Inside, there was a table laden with dishes.

The dishes were mostly cold platters: fish paste without soup, uncut egg skin, a large piece of pig liver… This style was typically for sacrificial offerings.

After the offering and burning of paper money, they were convenient for secondary processing to be eaten.

On the table sat a large bowl of huáng jiǔ, which was boiling, making the entire table very warm. The previous aroma of wine and food was also stimulated by this heat.

“Huālā!”

With a crisp sound, four figures dropped, each taking a seat at one side of the offering table.

An elderly couple, a little girl who was presumably their granddaughter, and a Dàoist priest dressed in a yellow Dàoist robe.

They had previously been clinging to the ceiling above, and when lowered, each had a tree branch connected to their back.

After taking their seats, they began to eat. The three adults used their hands, not chopsticks, while only the little girl ate very gracefully with chopsticks.

They were certainly dead.

Combined with the broken peach wood sword, cracked Eight Trigrams mirror, shredded talismans, and long-melted candles in the corner of the living room, one could infer what had happened here.

It was likely the elderly couple, staying in their hometown to care for their granddaughter, noticed strange occurrences recently and sought out this Dàoist priest.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, this Dàoist priest was not a fraud; he possessed true Dàoist cultivation.

If he had been a fraud, a mere performance wouldn’t have alarmed the xié suì.

But because of this, he brought death upon this family and upon himself.

Admittedly, this particular wave was created by Li Zhuiyuan, but this family’s tragedy had no connection to him; he was not responsible for their deaths.

It’s not that if the young man hadn’t created this wave, this family wouldn’t have died. Rather, precisely because the young man did create the wave, this family, including the Dàoist priest, did not die in silence.

Because when the wave acts on ordinary people, it does not treat them as expendable materials, but rather follows the ordinary person’s own destiny.

For example, a good person, even if they cannot find a glimmer of hope, at least their great revenge can be repaid; while a fugitive might end up in prison or simply die within the clues of this wave.

Destiny is set by heaven; it’s not that it cannot be changed, but “heaven” will not help you change it. Instead, it will use the jiāng shuǐ to push it forward according to the direction of your own destiny.

In fact, this xié suì had already taken over the little girl’s body.

It was likely during her killing of the Dàoist priest that some aura, which should not have escaped, was released.

Because Li Zhuiyuan, through observing the materials and craftsmanship of the Bagua mirror and peach wood sword in the corner, concluded that the Dàoist priest had some Dàoist power, but only a little. It was truly easy for this xié suì to kill him.

The little girl put down her chopsticks, picked up the bowl of huáng jiǔ in front of her, and took a sip.

She looked at the young man standing at the door, a smile playing on her lips, a smile that even carried a hint of mockery.

Especially, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that she deliberately glanced at the Huáng Hé Chǎn in Run Sheng’s hand, seemingly to confirm their identity as “lāo shī rén.”

Moreover, she seemed to have seen the three of them hesitate to enter for a long time, thinking they were scared.

Li Zhuiyuan wasn’t scared; he deliberately slowed his pace.

Although the theory had been successfully proven, this was his first time combining theory with practice. The young man needed to observe and analyze step by step to see what differences existed between the jiāng shuǐ-driven events and his self-made ones.

Now, two points had been discovered.

One was that the wave he created was more direct, without too many detours. A very smooth causal link directly brought him before the xié suì.

The other point was that this xié suì surprisingly didn’t recognize him; she genuinely mistook him for a lāo shī rén, just like the Dàoist priest, with only a little Dàoist power.

Previously, when he fished for xié suì in A Li’s dream, this perception was mutual. Although the other side wasn’t as clear as his, they could vaguely sense that he would come looking for them, at least feeling a hazy sense of crisis. There were even instances where the other side proactively provoked and attracted his attention to achieve their own goals.

But this time, the usual two-way perception had become a one-way transparency on his part.

This xié suì, in A Li’s dream, clearly showed obvious fear when facing him, but her true self didn’t know?

Li Zhuiyuan realized that his understanding of the past existence of xié suì in A Li’s dream was still superficial. After returning, he needed to conduct further investigation and analysis with A Li.

But the young man likely knew the fundamental reason for this, no, for these two phenomena.

When he fished for xié suì in A Li’s dream, it was to draw in jiāng shuǐ to help him find it. But once the jiāng shuǐ intervened, things immediately took on a different flavor.

The purpose of “diǎn dēng zǒu jiāng” was tempering, improvement, competition, and selection. The jiāng shuǐ itself had its own flow, meaning it had its own purpose.

Just like every wave experience A Li painted for him, the scrolls, while respecting “historical facts,” would undergo a certain degree of artistic processing.

A Li’s purpose in doing this was to highlight the young man’s visual presence. The jiāng shuǐ’s purpose was to use the beings within the wave as a foundation to build a stage for a play.

Therefore, without the “artistic processing” of the jiāng shuǐ, the waves, regardless of their difficulty, would at least have a much more straightforward process.

At the same time, this also made Li Zhuiyuan perceive the true treatment associated with the identity of “Lóng Wáng.”

A Lóng Wáng’s life would go through two stages: one stage of “zǒu jiāng” competition and becoming Lóng Wáng, and another stage of upholding the will of the Heavenly Dao, using the rest of his life to suppress the jiānghú.

When the Lóng Wáng suppressed the jiānghú, the Heavenly Dao would naturally not set obstacles or burdens for him. Instead, it would actively assist him. Therefore, the Lóng Wáng enjoyed not just the current wave treatment he received, but preferential treatment that was countless times better.

Li Zhuiyuan exhaled. He felt that the new understanding he gained from this experience had actually surpassed the xié suì itself that he intended to uncover.

“Hehehe… shāshāshāshā…”

The little girl first let out a bell-like laugh, then it turned into a hoarse rustling like branches swaying.

She got down from the table and actively walked towards the door.

When she spoke again, her voice, originally a female voice, now had a male voice mixed in, two timbres blended together:

“If you’re scared now, regretting it, it’s still not too late. I only need the three of you to do one thing for me, and I can spare your lives.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “What is it?”

The little girl: “Help me investigate and confirm outside if those annoying white mice have truly retreated to the bottom of the river. Going into the water shouldn’t be difficult for you lāo shī rén.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Don’t worry, they’ve all retreated, not one left.”

The little girl: “Are you sure?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “I’m sure. If they hadn’t retreated, how could we have gotten in here?”

The little girl: “That’s true.

It seems these white mice also know what’s at stake. Even though姥姥 (grandmother/old woman) I have only been out of captivity for a few years, they still know how difficult 姥姥 I was to deal with back then.

Earlier, I sensed their approach and released a bit of my aura to them. It certainly had an effect and scared them away.

So, since that’s the case…”

The little girl’s eyes turned cold:

“Then, there’s no need for you to live. Stay with 姥姥 forever and be my slave-workers for fertilizing and tending.

Oh, by the way, you’re not tall enough, still growing up, unlike the two of them who are quite robust. You can’t do much work, so you’ll be my new fertilizer first.”

The little girl extended a finger.

“Wēng!”

From her fingertip, a snake-like creature opened its mouth wide and shot out.

Run Sheng casually raised his Huáng Hé Chǎn and blocked it.

“Kāchā!”

The snake-like creature broke and fell to the ground, turning into withered branches.

The little girl’s face registered surprise, she looked incredulously at Run Sheng, then waved her hand. The three people sitting at the offering table, eating, all looked over. Their eyes glowed with black light, and mental waves of oppression, deterrence, and temptation surged out.

Lin Shuyou’s vertical pupils opened, and without any extra movement, he stared back directly.

“Ah!” “Ah!” “Ah!”

Blood gushed from the three people’s eyes, and with a “pūtōng,” their heads hit the table, motionless.

The little girl instantly raised her voice, stating in horror:

“You… who exactly are you!”

Li Zhuiyuan:

“Nántōng Lāo Shī Lǐ.”

There are still 45,000 characters left to reach this month’s goal, and three days remaining. I will achieve this goal.

Additionally, regarding the idea of giving away blood glucose meters that I mentioned last time, with the help of my administrators, the plan has been organized and put into action. Readers who feel they need one can now leave a message in the pinned post in the book review section to participate.