Jade Pendant

He slept soundly until late morning, then sat on the edge of the bed in a daze. He thought it was incredible that he had gone from Guo Jianjun to Yue Qianchou. He murmured, "Yue Qianchou, this name has a good meaning! It means no worries! I still don't know what I actually look like."

With that thought, he summoned the maidservant Qingcao to help him wash up and change. Afterward, he sat before the bronze mirror. The bronze mirror wasn't as clear as the mirrors from his previous life; it was hazy. Yue Qianchou felt a bit dejected. Even though it wasn't clear, he could roughly make out his appearance. Compared to the handsome and dashing Guo Laoda of his past life, his current appearance was simply too ordinary. The only advantage was that he was younger than in his past life, only sixteen years old this year.

He tried to comfort himself, thinking it must be the mirror's fault. He then ordered Qingcao to prepare a basin of ink. His unremarkable face was reflected in the basin. Yue Qianchou was completely disheartened. Last night, he had been dreaming of being intimate with an Immortal Sister, a perfect match, but now, it could only remain a dream.

Someone reported to the authorities that a man and a woman's bodies had been found outside the city. After the official investigation, it was confirmed that the deceased were Xue Gaibao of the Yue Mansion and his personal maidservant. It was estimated that they had encountered bandits and met with misfortune.

After receiving the news from the authorities, the Yue Mansion sent people to confirm the identities of the deceased. Upon learning of Xue Gaibao's death, Xue Erniang cried inconsolably. However, the authorities could not determine who the murderer was. When Yue Qianchou found out, he couldn't help but admire his father's ruthlessness. He hadn't expected that Yue Changgui, fearing that the matter would be leaked, would kill the maidservant as well.

Within a few days, the Yue Mansion held a grand funeral with white banners, and a large number of monks and Taoist priests caused a commotion for several days. The father and son also put on a show of sadness. They didn't need any prompting for this; they acted their parts convincingly.

Xue Erniang wept tears for several days, lamenting that the Xue Family would have no descendants. Later, after hearing some bad advice from someone, she pulled Yue Qianchou aside and begged him to have more sons so that one could be adopted into the Xue Family to continue the lineage. Hearing this, Yue Changgui's face turned pale, and he felt a throbbing headache. Yue Qianchou mumbled a vague response to appease her.

A few days later, after Xue Gaibao was buried, Xue Erniang's grief subsided. She ordered someone to call her son over. Yue Qianchou felt a prickle of fear when his mother called him. He had been terrified by his mother's crying these past few days. He even regretted killing Xue Gaibao in the first place. His father was smarter, finding an excuse to go out and avoid the situation.

Seeing that his mother had stopped crying, Yue Qianchou breathed a sigh of relief and obediently sat down in front of her. Xue Erniang held a piece of crystal-clear jade pendant in her hand, gazing at it blankly. Soon, her eyes reddened again, and tears welled up. Yue Qianchou panicked and said all sorts of comforting words, finally managing to calm his mother down. He himself broke out in a cold sweat.

"Mother, why did you call me here?" Yue Qianchou asked, trying to steer the conversation to the main point before she started crying again. Xue Erniang nodded and slowly explained the reason for calling her son.

It turned out that the Xue Family's prosperity began with Xue Erniang's great-grandfather's generation. It was said that an ancestor of the Xue Family had once saved an Immortal. In gratitude for saving his life, the Immortal helped the Xue Family establish their fortune and left behind a jade pendant. Before leaving, he told the Xue Family that he could help them once more in the future. If they had any requests, they could smash the jade pendant, and he would naturally come.

The ancestor of the Xue Family was young at the time and not yet married. He was also honest and loyal and never intended to ask the Immortal for help again. Naturally, he passed the jade pendant down through generations as an heirloom. By the time of Xue Erniang's father, seeing that his eldest son had a wicked nature, he dared not tell him about this matter. Before he died, he handed the jade pendant to his daughter and told her that if any of her brother's descendants had a good character, she could pass the jade pendant to him. If not, it would be better to let the jade pendant become an ordinary item than to disturb the Immortal.

Now that the Xue Family's only descendant had also died, the jade pendant could no longer be passed down. Xue Erniang's intention was to make a deal with her son using this jade pendant. As long as her son agreed to adopt one of his children to the Xue Family to inherit the lineage, she would give the jade pendant in her hand to her son and no longer pass it to the Xue Family.

After Yue Qianchou finished listening to his mother, his eyes immediately lit up with greed. He stared at the jade pendant in his mother's hand and swallowed hard with difficulty. Ever since he learned that there were Immortals in this world, he had been dreaming about it! This was something he had longed for but had no way to achieve, and now it was in his mother's hands.

However, when his mother had mentioned adoption earlier, she had been strongly opposed by his father. In this world, the responsibility of procreation was paramount. The Yue Family had always been short of male heirs, with only one son in each generation for three generations. When Yue Qianchou disappeared last time, Yue Changgui had been so anxious that his lips had broken out in a rash. If his son were truly successful and could have one or two more children, his father would have been overjoyed. How could he bear to give one away to someone else? He had refused outright at the time.

Could he make this decision himself? Thinking of this, Yue Qianchou said sheepishly, "Mother, why don't you ask Father? I'm afraid I can't make this decision."

"You child, if I could get your father to agree, why would I be talking to you? I'm telling you this because I want you to ask your father. Your father has always doted on you, so it's better for you to ask than for me to." Xue Erniang said angrily.

Heh! Even using a roundabout strategy. Yue Qianchou chuckled inwardly and said, "Mother, why don't you let Father know about the jade pendant? Perhaps Father will agree."

Xue Erniang gritted her teeth. "Why didn't I tell him? The day he disagreed, I told him about the jade pendant that night. That stubborn man simply wouldn't agree."

"Heh heh!" Yue Qianchou scratched his scalp and chuckled awkwardly. "If Father disagrees, then I can't do anything about it." As soon as he finished speaking, tears immediately streamed down Xue Erniang's face.

Damn it! Here we go again. Yue Qianchou felt his scalp tingle and quickly begged for mercy. "Mother, don't cry. I'll go ask Father, alright?"

"Really?" Xue Erniang asked, wiping her tears. Yue Qianchou didn't dare to say anything else and nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Two days later, the father and son sat at a stone table in the back garden.

"Father, Immortals! How can you not agree to such a good thing? It's just adopting a son. When the time comes, I'll have seven or eight children and you can pick one," Yue Qianchou said anxiously.

"You scoundrel! How can the descendants of the Yue Family be casually adopted by others? If word gets out, where will I put my old face? After I die, how can I face my ancestors!" Yue Changgui said angrily.

The old man was being stubborn, and he was wearing out his own mouth! Yue Qianchou cursed inwardly and got straight to the point, "I want to get the jade pendant from Mother."

"Foolish!" Yue Changgui cursed, then stood up and pointed at his son, scolding him, "If you don't agree now, are you afraid the jade pendant will run away? After my wife and I are gone, everything in the Yue Family will be yours. Do you still need to trade your own son for it? Idiot!"

"Uh..." Yue Qianchou was stunned. He finally understood what his father was planning and thought, "Ruthless! This old guy wants to have it all! He even wants to not spend a single cent, too greedy!" He stood up and said solemnly, "Father, I want to cultivate immortality!"

Yue Changgui was taken aback, then shook his head. "No! Cultivating immortality is good, but I've never heard of Immortals being able to continue the family line. You are the only son of my Yue Family. If you leave, who will continue the lineage for my Yue Family?"

So that was what the old man was worried about. It seemed that in the web novels he had read in his past life, Immortals could have children. Yue Qianchou's mind turned, and he came up with an idea. He then fabricated a story about a chance encounter with Immortals, learning from them that Immortals could not only continue the family line but also had cultivation families that had been passed down for thousands of years. In short, he told Yue Changgui a story that left him dumbfounded. Finally, Yue Qianchou asked, "Father! Don't you want our Yue Family to become an immortal cultivation family that lasts forever?"

Yue Changgui never thought his son would lie to him. To be able to describe the matters of cultivators so vividly, it seemed unlikely to be false. How could ordinary people know these things? He couldn't help but ask excitedly, "My son, is what you said true? Are you really not lying to me?"

Yue Qianchou knew he had moved him and added fuel to the fire, making further exaggerated promises. Yue Changgui immediately agreed. The two of them then went together to find Xue Erniang.

I've struck it rich! I've struck it rich! Holding the crystal-clear jade pendant with both hands, Yue Qianchou was extremely excited. He had finally tricked her into giving it to him. He wanted to smash the jade pendant on the spot, eager to leave with the Immortal immediately. Damn it, that was an Immortal! It didn't matter if he lost hundreds of millions from his Swiss Bank account, even tens of billions, or even hundreds of billions, he wouldn't even glance at it. If Yue Changgui hadn't stopped him and told him to bathe and burn incense to show respect to the Immortal, he really would have done it.

When Xue Erniang first heard that her son wanted to leave with the Immortal and no longer cared about continuing her Xue Family lineage, she absolutely refused to hand over the jade pendant. But how could she resist the united front of father and son? The old and the young coaxed and deceived her, and after much effort, they finally got their hands on the jade pendant.

In the back garden, an incense table was set up. Yue Qianchou, who had bathed, knelt there, both excited and nervous, his hands trembling as he held the jade pendant. As the moment approached, he became anxious again. At one moment, he wondered if the jade pendant was really useful! At another, he wondered if the Immortal would take him away when he arrived. All sorts of strange thoughts came to his mind.

As his son was about to leave, Xue Erniang leaned into her husband's arms and wiped away tears. Yue Qianchou, kneeling there, turned to look at the couple and said, "Son is going to smash it!" In fact, he had said the same thing three times already, each time just saying it and not doing it. It was clear that this fellow was indeed a bit nervous.

When he said the same thing for the seventh time, Yue Changgui got angry. He walked over, snatched the jade pendant from his hand, and with a "crack!" smashed it on the ground. Instantly, the entire back garden became eerily quiet. Xue Erniang stopped crying and stared around.

.