Jade Pendant

He slept like the dead until the sun was three poles high. After getting up, he sat by the bed in a daze, thinking how unbelievable it was that Guo Jianjun had become Yue Qianchou. He muttered, "Yue Qianchou—the meaning of this name is quite good. It means having no worries! I still don't know what the real me looks like."

Thinking of this, he summoned the maidservant Qingcao to help him wash up and change. When he was done, he sat before a bronze mirror. It was nowhere near as clear as mirrors from his previous life, everything hazy and indistinct. Yue Qianchou wilted a little. Yet no matter how unclear it was, he could roughly make out his appearance. Compared to the handsome and dashing Guo Laoda of his previous life, his current face was simply too ordinary. Its only advantage was that he was younger than before—only sixteen this year.

He comforted himself by thinking that the mirror must be the problem. He then ordered Qingcao to prepare a basin of ink. That utterly ordinary face was reflected in the basin. Yue Qianchou gave up completely. Just last night, he had been dreaming of whispering sweet nothings with Immortal sister, a talented man matched with a beautiful woman. Now, it truly could only remain a dream.

Someone reported to the authorities that the corpses of a man and a woman had been found outside the city. After the officials examined them, they confirmed that the dead were Xue Gaibao of Yue Mansion and his personal maidservant. They had likely encountered bandits and suffered misfortune.

After Yue Mansion received word from the authorities, they sent people to confirm the victims' identities. Upon learning that Xue Gaibao was dead, Xue Erniang cried herself half to death, yet the authorities could not uncover who the murderer was. When Yue Qianchou heard of it, he had no choice but to admire how ruthless and vicious his father was. He had not expected Yue Changgui to kill even the maidservant as well, fearing word might leak out.

A few days later, Yue Mansion hung white drapes and held a grand funeral. There were heaps of monks and Taoist priests, and the commotion went on for several days. Father and son both put on looks of grief. No one needed to teach them that—they acted the part flawlessly.

For several days, Xue Erniang washed her face with tears, muttering that the Xue Family had been left without descendants. Later, after hearing some rotten advice from who knew where, she grabbed Yue Qianchou and pleaded with him to have several more sons in the future, then adopt one into the Xue Family to carry on their incense and bloodline. Yue Changgui's face turned green at the very mention of it, and his teeth ached with rage. Yue Qianchou stammered his way through it.

A few more days passed. After Xue Gaibao was buried, Xue Erniang's wave of grief subsided, and she had someone call her son over. When Yue Qianchou heard that his mother had summoned him, his scalp went numb. These past few days, his mother's crying had truly frightened him. He even regretted killing Xue Gaibao in the first place. His father was still smarter, finding an excuse for social engagements and hiding outside.

Seeing that his mother was no longer crying, Yue Qianchou let out a breath and obediently sat before her. Xue Erniang held a crystal-clear jade pendant in her hand, staring at it blankly. Before long, her eyes reddened again, tears swirling in them. Yue Qianchou panicked. After exhausting every soothing word he knew, he finally consoled his mother, though he himself broke out in a cold sweat.

"Mother, why did you call your son here?" Afraid she would cry again, Yue Qianchou hurriedly turned the conversation to the point. Xue Erniang nodded and slowly explained why she had called him.

It turned out that the Xue Family had risen to prominence in the generation of Xue Erniang's great-grandfather. It was said that their ancestor had once saved an immortal. In gratitude for the life-saving favor, that immortal helped the Xue Family establish a fortune and left behind a jade pendant. Before departing, he told the Xue Family that he could help them once more in the future. If they had any request, they only needed to smash the jade pendant, and he would naturally come.

At the time, the Xue Family ancestor was still young and unmarried. He was also honest and kindhearted, and had never intended to ask the immortal for anything again. Naturally, he treated the jade pendant as a family heirloom and passed it down through the generations. By the time of Xue Erniang's father, he saw that his eldest son had a vile temperament and dared not tell him about it. Before dying, he gave the jade pendant to his daughter and told her that if any of her brother's descendants possessed excellent character, she could pass the pendant on to him. If not, she would rather let the jade pendant become an ordinary object than disturb the immortal.

Now, even the Xue Family's sole remaining sprout had died, and there was no way to pass down the jade pendant. Xue Erniang meant to make a deal with her son: as long as he promised that, after having children in the future, he would adopt one into the Xue Family to continue its incense and bloodline, she was willing to leave the jade pendant in her hand to him instead of passing it back to the Xue Family.

After hearing his mother out, Yue Qianchou's eyes immediately glowed green. Staring at the jade pendant in her hand, he swallowed with difficulty. Ever since learning that immortals existed in this world, they had haunted his dreams day and night! The path he had desperately been unable to find was unexpectedly clutched right in his mother's hand.

But when his mother had brought up adoption before, his father had fiercely opposed it. In this world, the duty of producing descendants was greater than heaven itself. The Yue Family was already thin in numbers, with three generations in a row each having only one heir. When Yue Qianchou had gone missing last time, Yue Changgui had been so anxious that blisters ringed his mouth. If his own son truly amounted to something and could have one or two more children, he would be delighted beyond measure. How could he bear to adopt one out to someone else? He had rejected it outright on the spot.

Could he decide such a matter himself? Thinking of this, Yue Qianchou said awkwardly, "Mother, why not ask Father? I'm afraid your son cannot make this decision."

"You child, if I could reason with your father, why would I be telling you all this? I'm telling you because I want you to plead with your father. Your father has always indulged your every wish. It would be better for you to ask than for me to ask." Xue Erniang said angrily.

Heh! She was even using a roundabout route to save the nation. Yue Qianchou chuckled inwardly and said, "Mother, why not let Father know about the jade pendant? Perhaps then Father will agree."

Xue Erniang gritted her teeth and said, "How could I not have told him? When he refused that day, I told him about the jade pendant that very night. That dead man is single-minded as a bull—he still refused."

"Hehe!" Yue Qianchou scratched his scalp and smiled awkwardly. "If Father won't agree, then there's nothing I can do either." Yet the moment he finished speaking, Xue Erniang's tears began streaming down without stop.

Damn it! Here we go again. Yue Qianchou's scalp went numb as he hurriedly begged, "Mother, don't cry. I'll go plead with Father, all right?"

"Really?" Xue Erniang asked, wiping her tears. Yue Qianchou did not dare say anything else and nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Two days later, father and son sat before a stone table in the rear garden.

"Father, an immortal! Such a wonderful opportunity, and you still won't agree? It's only adopting one son out. When the time comes, I'll have seven or eight sons—just pick one," Yue Qianchou said anxiously.

"You bastard! How can descendants of the Yue Family be casually adopted out to others? If word gets out, where am I supposed to put this old face? After I die, how will I have the face to meet our ancestors?" Yue Changgui flew into a rage.

The old fellow would not take oil or salt; his mouth was nearly worn through! Yue Qianchou cursed inwardly, then laid his cards on the table. "I want the jade pendant in Mother's hand."

"Foolish!" Yue Changgui cursed. Rising to his feet, he pointed at his son and scolded, "If you don't agree now, are you afraid the jade pendant will run away? After my wife and I pass on in a hundred years, what in the Yue Family won't be yours? Do you need to trade your own son for it? Idiot!"

"Uh..." Yue Qianchou froze. At last, he understood what his father was plotting. He thought to himself, Ruthless! This old fellow wants to swallow everything whole! He even wants to avoid paying a single coin out. Too damn black-hearted! Rising to his feet, he said solemnly, "Father, I want to cultivate immortality!"

Yue Changgui was taken aback, then shook his head. "No! Cultivating immortality may be good, but I've never heard of immortals being able to carry on the family line. The Yue Family has only you as a son. If you leave, who will continue the Yue Family bloodline for me?"

So that was what the old fellow was worried about. It seemed that in the webnovels he had read in his previous life, immortals could all have children. Yue Qianchou's mind turned, and he came up with an idea. So he fabricated a chance encounter with immortals, claiming that he had learned from them that immortals could not only carry on their bloodlines, but that there were even cultivation Lineages that had endured for thousands of years. In any case, Yue Changgui was left utterly dumbfounded by the tale. Finally, Yue Qianchou asked, "Father! Don't you wish for our Yue Family to become an immortal-cultivating Lineage that endures forever as well?"

Yue Changgui had never imagined that his son would deceive him. Since Yue Qianchou could speak of cultivators with such lifelike detail, it surely could not be false. How could an ordinary person possibly know such things? He could not help asking in delight, "Is what my son says true? You really aren't deceiving me?"

Knowing that he had moved him, Yue Qianchou added fuel to the fire and made another embellished round of assurances. Yue Changgui agreed at once. The two immediately went together to find Xue Erniang.

I'm rich! I'm rich! Holding the crystal-clear jade pendant in both hands, Yue Qianchou was beside himself with excitement. He had finally tricked it into his hands. On the spot, he wanted to smash the jade pendant. He could not wait to leave with the immortal immediately. Damn it, that was an immortal! What did it matter that several hundred million in Swiss Bank funds were gone? Even if it were tens of billions, even hundreds of billions, he would not spare them a single glance. If Yue Changgui had not held him back and told him to bathe and burn incense to show respect for the immortal, he truly would have done it.

When Xue Erniang first heard that her son wanted to leave with the immortal and no longer intended to give the Xue Family an heir to carry on its incense, she refused to hand over the jade pendant no matter what. But how could she withstand the united front of father and son? One old and one young, they coaxed and deceived her, expending the strength of nine oxen and two tigers before finally getting the jade pendant.

In the rear garden, an incense altar had been set up. Yue Qianchou, freshly bathed, knelt there, both excited and nervous, holding the jade pendant as he trembled without stop. At the crucial moment, he began worrying about gains and losses again. One moment he wondered whether the jade pendant really worked; the next, whether the immortal would take him away if he came. All manner of strange thoughts emerged.

Her son was about to leave. Xue Erniang leaned against her husband's chest and wiped away tears. Yue Qianchou, kneeling there, turned to look at them and said, "Your son is going to smash it!" In truth, he had already said the same thing three times. Each time, he only spoke and did nothing. It was obvious that he was indeed somewhat nervous.

When he said the same thing for the seventh time, Yue Changgui lost his temper. He strode over, snatched the jade pendant from his hand, and smack! smashed it onto the ground. Instantly, the entire rear garden fell eerily silent. Xue Erniang stopped crying as well, her eyes wide as she looked around.