Chapter 28

At a wedding, it was common for the busy newlyweds, starving after entertaining all their friends and relatives, to sit down at the last table and make do with something to eat.

But he had never heard of the person at the center of a funeral personally joining in to clear the tables.

Only then did Li Zhuiyuan notice that when he and Run Sheng had been walking over earlier, Run Sheng had shouted from far away, "Grandpa, they're clearing the tables already. Let's go home too!"

At the time, he had only felt that something was off, without thinking too deeply about it. Now, he finally understood.

Normally, if one saw an elder from one's own family drinking with others at a table, one would at least walk over, greet the other people at the table, and only then take one's elder home. Shouting from far away carried a hint of disregarding the others at the table.

Brother Run Sheng might have been a little simple and straightforward, but he understood manners and rules. So the reason he had done that was because, in his eyes, Li Sanjiang had been drinking alone at the table?

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Run Sheng beside him and saw that Run Sheng had already turned his back to Li Sanjiang and crouched down, prepared to carry Li Sanjiang home.

Yes. It was confirmed. Run Sheng could not see those two.

Following his usual habits, Li Zhuiyuan instinctively wanted to pretend he could not see them either, but he quickly rejected that ingrained impulse.

Although he had not spoken directly to them, the way he had approached the table earlier, and the way he had stood beside Great Grandfather while turned toward the other two people at the table... all of it had silently revealed that he could "see" them.

Pretending to be clueless now would only make him look like a real fool.

Li Sanjiang took Li Zhuiyuan's hand again and said to the two people at the table with a smile:

"Look at how fair and clean my great-grandson is. You can tell at a glance he's the kind who can study and will make something of himself in the future."

Run Sheng had grown somewhat used to it. His Grandpa Li praised Little Yuan several times every day, and now that he had been drinking, he was praising him without pause.

Brother Leopard nodded and said meaningfully, "This kid does look very smart."

Today's host, the deceased Zhao Xing, also chimed in, "Anyway, he looks more clever than I did as a child. I was never good at studying."

Li Sanjiang was delighted to hear the praise and laughed. "Ha, did you hear that, Little Yuanhou? They're praising you!"

Li Zhuiyuan felt helpless. He had just been wondering how to get himself out of this situation, but Great Grandfather had dragged him straight into the drinking party.

All he could do was lower his head bashfully and put on a shy expression.

"Come on, Little Yuanhou. Sit down and eat some more."

Although Li Sanjiang was old, he was still incredibly strong. Otherwise, he would not have been able to haul up corpses or carry them ashore. And now that he was drunk, Li Zhuiyuan could not resist his grip and was forcibly pulled down into a seat.

"Come on, Little Yuanhou. Great Grandfather will get you some ribs. These are your favorite."

Li Sanjiang placed several pieces of sweet-and-sour ribs onto the plate in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

Run Sheng, who had been waiting nearby, turned around in confusion and scratched his head. Hadn't Little Yuan said they were taking Grandpa home? Why was Little Yuan sitting at the table and eating instead?

If they wanted a late-night meal, they should have said so earlier. He could have brought some incense from home and joined the table for a few bites himself.

"Little Yuan..."

"Brother Run Sheng, wait beside us for a while."

"Sure, Little Yuan."

Grandpa Shan had told him that Little Yuan was smart and that he should listen to him more. Run Sheng thought so too, so he simply turned his back to Li Sanjiang and Li Zhuiyuan, crouched on the ground, rubbed his eyes, and yawned.

Li Zhuiyuan also breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there was room for a smooth transition, he did not want to risk tearing things apart directly.

If they were genuine Death Collapses, that would be one thing. With Brother Run Sheng's brute strength and experience, they might not be unable to fight them.

But the current problem was far more complicated. The two in front of them were not Death Collapses. At the very least, they had no bodies here, and Run Sheng could not see them at all.

How were they supposed to fight? Fight ghosts?

He picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of sweet-and-sour rib, and put it into his mouth.

After all, this was a real banquet, unlike the Paper Person feast held by the Cat-faced Old Woman. Li Zhuiyuan dared to eat it and chewed slowly.

Still, in this environment, no matter how delicious the food was, it tasted like wax.

He was worried that Brother Leopard might still remember him.

"You're Little Yuan, right? Have we met somewhere before?"

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Brother Leopard with some confusion. "Have we?"

Li Sanjiang said, "Probably not. This kid is back in his hometown for the first time and hasn't been here long. He doesn't know many people."

Brother Leopard continued, "Really? It's just that the more I look at you, the more familiar you seem. You went to the Town Market yesterday, right?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. "Yeah, I went to the convenience store to buy snacks and stationery."

"Oh? Which convenience store?"

"The one next to the firecracker shop. I sat there drinking soda and watching people play pool for a long time."

To the west of that convenience store was the firecracker shop, while Sister Mei's Video Hall stood to its east.

Li Zhuiyuan deliberately avoided mentioning the video hall. First, he was afraid of provoking Li Sanjiang. Li Sanjiang knew what had happened at the video hall yesterday, and now that he was drunk, he might easily start talking.

Second, Li Zhuiyuan was gambling that when Brother Leopard had possessed that woman yesterday, he could only control her movements and could not access her memories. He was also gambling that when the convenience store owner ran into the video hall to warn them, he had not managed to explain things clearly before he got high.

Li Zhuiyuan thought the odds of winning that gamble were high. If Brother Leopard knew he had called the police yesterday, his attitude toward him would not be this calm.

After a pause, Li Zhuiyuan continued, "Hehe, there was even an auntie yesterday who wanted to invite me next door to sit for a while. But I like watching pool more. And Brother Run Sheng took the owner lady next door to the Health Center, so he told me to wait where I was for him to come back and take me home. I had to listen to my brother.

Right, Brother Run Sheng?"

"Huh?" Run Sheng was cleaning beneath the nails of his left hand with the fingernails of his right. "Yeah, that's right."

He vaguely felt that something about those words sounded strange. Whenever he and Little Yuan were together, even though he was older, Little Yuan always made the decisions. Why did Little Yuan make it sound as though he were the reliable older brother whose words carried weight?

Wait, no. Who exactly was Little Yuan talking to?

"Little Yuan, you..."

"Brother Run Sheng, be quiet for a while. We'll go home after sitting here a little longer. Don't make noise or talk."

"Oh, okay."

Run Sheng obediently continued picking at his nails and said nothing more.

Brother Leopard said, "Then that's it. I bought a pack of cigarettes at that convenience store yesterday. I probably saw you then, but you likely don't remember me."

"Mm..." Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head slightly and said apologetically, "I was probably too absorbed in watching the pool game."

It seemed Brother Leopard really did not know that he had called the police, and from the looks of it, he did not remember Run Sheng taking him to the Health Center either.

Was it because he had still been unconscious at the time and had not died yet?

But Brother Leopard should have died at the Health Center, then his spirit should have left it and walked to the video hall. Had he not seen Run Sheng at the Health Center either?

Li Zhuiyuan recalled Run Sheng saying that he had wanted to leave at the time, but the Health Center staff stopped him and demanded he pay the medical bills. With no other choice, he had waited outside Sister Mei's room for her to wake up. That was how they had missed each other.

Brother Leopard asked again, "I just heard you say someone was taken to the Health Center. How is she?"

"The doctor said she was fine. She just needed some rest."

"Oh."

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that Brother Leopard's gaze toward him had softened a little.

That was also why he had deliberately mentioned that Run Sheng had taken Sister Mei to the hospital.

Actually, there was still another problem. The fact that he could see them was a massive flaw.

Yet because Li Sanjiang was here, that flaw seemed capable of being covered up. After all, Li Sanjiang had been the first to see them and drink with them.

Li Sanjiang's identity was also rather special. As a corpse retriever who ferried between yin and yang, he naturally possessed certain peculiarities. It was not only the living who sought help from corpse retrievers; the dead did too.

Records of Strange Tales from the Jianghu contained similar accounts.

At least for now, neither Brother Leopard nor Zhao Xing had expressed surprise that he could see them.

Even Run Sheng, under Li Zhuiyuan's cover, was in a state of "appearing to see."

"Tsk... tch!"

Li Sanjiang downed another cup of liquor, wiped his mouth, then picked up a bite of food with his chopsticks to settle his stomach.

Li Zhuiyuan silently sighed. He was carefully racking his brains to patch together this situation, while his Great Grandfather was eating and drinking with gusto.

Zhao Xing asked, "How's the food today? Are you satisfied?"

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his head and continued eating ribs. "It's good."

Li Sanjiang nodded. "You Zhao family are honest people. The food at this banquet is truly not bad."

Li Zhuiyuan guessed that Great Grandfather had mistaken Zhao Xing for one of the Zhao family's nephews.

"That's good, then. As long as everyone eats and drinks well. I was afraid we hadn't done a good enough job and neglected everyone."

A smile appeared on Zhao Xing's face, but his complexion was already pale. Paired with that smile, it became even more chilling.

Li Zhuiyuan picked up another slice of salted pork, dipped it on his plate, and put it into his mouth.

At this point, only the cold dishes were still edible. Everything else had gone cold.

Still, this host really cared about reviews of the banquet.

In truth, at a funeral feast, if the host who should have been lying in the coffin personally climbed up to ask, nobody would dare say the food was bad.

Brother Leopard said, "If I didn't know your feast was good, would I have rushed over here to eat?"

Zhao Xing smiled. "All right. Won't I be going to your place for a feast in a couple of days?"

Brother Leopard responded, "Yeah, though my feast definitely won't be as good as yours. Your Zhao family runs a big business. Mine is just a small business, and after daily expenses, there isn't much left. But if you come, I'll definitely keep you company properly, just like you did today."

Zhao Xing waved his hand. "Food and drink are secondary. The important thing is the atmosphere. With the relationship between us, there's no need for all that formal politeness."

Li Zhuiyuan picked up a bite of cold dressed spinach. This exchange of mutually inviting each other to eat at their own funeral feasts after death was truly quite novel.

But how could he end this drinking party in a natural way?

Also, had the two of them appeared to drink with Great Grandfather because they were lonely, or because they had something they needed?

Li Sanjiang looked at Brother Leopard. "What, is your family holding an event too?"

"Yeah, soon. Once my wife gets a little better, we'll start arranging it."

"Then you're doing it wrong. Your wife is sick, and you're still staying here drinking this late? Shouldn't you be going home to take care of her? That's far too irresponsible.

Besides, holding a feast is a troublesome matter. Since your wife is sick, you'll definitely have to take charge. You can't avoid it."

Li Zhuiyuan immediately nodded in agreement. "When I'm sick, I hope someone will stay with me too."

Brother Leopard shook his head helplessly. "I did something that wronged my wife, and her illness was caused by me making her angry. So it wouldn't be appropriate for me to go home now. Including today, I'll hide outside for six more days and go back on the seventh day. By then, she should have calmed down."

"Heh." Li Sanjiang pointed his chopsticks at Brother Leopard. "You young people really are something. Either don't get married, or if you do, stop going out and fooling around."

"You're right, Uncle." Brother Leopard picked up his chopsticks and spun them between his fingers.

Li Zhuiyuan noticed that Brother Leopard was angry.

As a local thug, how could he tolerate someone lecturing him to his face like that? In the past, regardless of whether the other person was old or young, he would have already taught them a lesson.

But now, he was enduring it.

Zhao Xing took over the conversation. "I say, Uncle..."

"Pah! How old are you, kid? You look twenty at most, and you're calling me Uncle?" Li Sanjiang pointed toward the mourning hall. "That old Zhao is only barely qualified to call me Uncle, and that's only because I don't hold it against him. You're about the same age as the main person who passed today, aren't you?"

When Li Sanjiang turned to look at the memorial portrait in the mourning hall, Li Zhuiyuan feared that his muddled Great Grandfather might see it and realize who this person sitting in plain sight beneath the lamp was.

He hurriedly picked up the liquor bottle and poured Great Grandfather a drink, deliberately filling the cup until it overflowed.

"Hey, hey, enough, enough. What a waste, wasting liquor." Li Sanjiang's attention was immediately pulled back. As he steadied the bottle, he lowered his head and slurped up the spilled liquor from the plastic table covering.

"My hand slipped, Great Grandfather."

After Zhao Xing and Brother Leopard exchanged a glance, they changed their form of address. "Grandpa, the two of us would like to ask you for a favor."

"Tell me first."

"Old Jiang from Shigang Town owes the two of us a debt, but he has kept dragging things out and refusing to repay it."

"Old Jiang?" Li Sanjiang lightly slapped his forehead, trying to think through his drunken haze. "That sounds familiar. Ah, is he Old Jiang from Shigang Town, the one who runs karaoke rooms and bathhouses? That guy is famous around there. I heard he started out in the earthworks business years ago?"

"Yes, that's him."

"Then that's difficult. If he owes you money, why don't you go collect it yourselves? Do you have an IOU?"

"Didn't he get hold of something on us? It really isn't convenient for us to see him."

"Ah, I can't handle something like that." Li Sanjiang hurriedly shook his head. "I'm no important person, just someone who fishes floaters out of a river. How could I help with something like this? If I had that kind of ability, would I still be taking jobs at my age? I'd be lying at home enjoying life already."

"In the middle of the pond at his house, there's a vat. Inside that vat is a large Tai Sui that he fished out of the river many years ago. Because he tricked us into eating that thing, the two of us are suffering badly now.

Not only do we not dare to confront him, we also have to keep working under him."

"What kind of Tai Sui?" Li Sanjiang was completely confused. "Is it poison? Did he drug you two?"

"We only ask that you help us destroy the Tai Sui in that vat. Burn it, take it away, bury it, throw it out—anything is fine, as long as that vat of stuff doesn't remain in his home."

"What exactly are you talking about? Aren't you asking me to steal something? I'm already an old man. How could I do that? You came to the wrong—"

Zhao Xing kept pulling out stacks of Da Tuanjie from beneath the table, nine stacks in total.

Every stack was brand-new and bundled with white paper.

Li Sanjiang swallowed, and his breathing grew rapid.

"Grandpa Li, as long as you agree to help, all this money will be yours."

The hand holding Li Sanjiang's wine cup was already trembling. After all, he had gone to the Niu Family while injured, knowing full well there was something unclean there, all for money.

But this time, even drunk, Li Sanjiang forcibly lowered his head, then slammed his wine cup heavily onto the table and declared firmly:

"I won't do it!"

Then Li Sanjiang repeatedly slapped the tabletop and cursed:

"You two blind little bastards, do you think your grandpa is the kind of person who'd steal and sneak around for money? Pah!"

Brother Leopard and Zhao Xing were both stunned. Then bluish hues began appearing on their faces, a sign that they were enraged.

The air around them turned cold as well.

Even Run Sheng, who was crouching nearby and nearly asleep, could not help but shiver.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, "Did that Old Jiang commit any crimes?"

Seeing the two turn their eyes toward him, Li Zhuiyuan explained, "I want to help my Great Grandfather, so I'm asking for clarity."

Zhao Xing shook his head. He did not know.

Brother Leopard said, "I saw it. In the pond mud beneath that vat, someone is buried. He was Old Jiang's enemy, surnamed Zhou."

"What? He killed someone?" Hearing that, some of Li Sanjiang's drunkenness immediately faded. But his first reaction was, "You want me to steal from a murderer's house?"

Zhao Xing looked at Brother Leopard and asked, "When did you see that?"

Brother Leopard answered, "Because I was the one who helped him bury the body. Old Jiang said that burying the corpse there would nourish the Tai Sui."

Zhao Xing said in surprise, "So you'd been helping him long ago. Why didn't you tell me sooner? Otherwise, I wouldn't have ended up so miserable."

Brother Leopard gave a cold laugh. "Did you forget? We died one after the other."

"That's true. I really forgot about that. What a pity, all my family property."

Zhao Xing looked around in great regret. His family had been well-off, and his father had been skilled at making money. He could have continued enjoying life, then one day, once he had grown tired of playing around and wanted to seriously marry a wife, there would not have been a marriage proposal across ten villages that his father could not secure with money.

What he did not know was that it was precisely because his father had been so good at making money that someone with such meager fortune as himself could not enjoy it for long.

Li Sanjiang was about to say something else when his stomach suddenly churned, and he turned aside and began vomiting.

Li Zhuiyuan patted his back while continuing to watch Brother Leopard and Zhao Xing from the corner of his eye.

Brother Leopard urged, "Are you agreeing or not? Give me a straight answer, now. For my wife's sake, I don't want to make this too ugly for you."

Li Sanjiang had just finished vomiting and was catching his breath. Hearing this, he asked in confusion, "What does your wife have to do with me?"

After asking, Li Sanjiang started vomiting again, even more violently than before. His whole body hunched over as he lay on his side on the bench.

Li Zhuiyuan continued patting Li Sanjiang's back. "Help us if you can. Keep the money. If it can't be done, don't blame us, all right?"

At that moment, the two men, who had barely still looked human, suddenly sat bolt upright in their seats.

Their faces were livid, patches of livor mortis showing through their skin. Their eyes had been completely filled with white.

Their lips opened and closed rapidly, as though they were speaking, yet their voices could not be heard clearly.

Li Zhuiyuan tried hard to catch some useful information, even if it was only a threat. But contrary to his hopes, he could not understand a single word. All he heard was the buzzing of countless flies by his ears.

What was going on?

Hadn't they been communicating just fine a moment ago?

Was something wrong with them, or was something wrong on his end?

Smack! Smack!

Two pairs of chopsticks were neatly thrust into the rice bowls before them.

The two men's mouths kept trembling rapidly, but still nothing could be heard clearly.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the two men stood up.

In another blink, they had left their seats.

By the third blink, they had left the shed.

When Li Zhuiyuan focused his eyes again, he found the two men already standing in the distant fields, their figures extremely blurry.

Then they vanished completely.

Yet in the end, Li Zhuiyuan still could not figure out whether those two had accepted his proposal.

Most likely, they had not. Otherwise, they would not have said so much before leaving. Though he had not understood a single word, there had been quite a lot of them.

At the very least, it could not have been a simple "Okay, goodbye."

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Li Sanjiang, only to discover that Li Sanjiang had somehow already fallen asleep on the bench.

When had he fallen asleep?

It seemed to have been when the two men began speaking incomprehensibly.

"Brother Run Sheng." Li Zhuiyuan went over and nudged Run Sheng.

"Huh? Finished eating?"

Run Sheng stretched. He had genuinely fallen asleep just now, and in his dream, he had suddenly felt a little cold.

"Mm. Great Grandfather is drunk. Brother Run Sheng, carry him on your back."

"Sure."

Run Sheng got up, grabbed Li Sanjiang by the arm, and gave him a smooth swing. Li Sanjiang was hoisted onto his back in a perfectly standard position.

It truly was standard—the standard posture for carrying a corpse.

Li Zhuiyuan then looked toward the nine stacks of money in the middle of the table. He picked them up and shone his flashlight over them.

The Da Tuanjie bills had somehow turned into hell money.

"Leaving, Little Yuan?" Run Sheng asked.

"Wait a little longer."

Li Zhuiyuan took matches from Li Sanjiang's pocket, picked up the hell money from the table, and went to the mourning hall, where a long-extinguished brazier sat.

After placing the hell money inside, Li Zhuiyuan lit it. He picked up a half-charred stick beside it and turned the burning bills over to ensure they burned thoroughly. Then he said to the memorial portrait:

"The money you left behind has all been returned to you."

No matter how things ended, it could not be wrong to cut ties with this kind of filthy thing as thoroughly as possible first.

After finishing, Li Zhuiyuan headed back. As he passed the drinking table, his flashlight swept across the seats where Brother Leopard and Zhao Xing had been sitting, and an unusual reflection immediately caught his eye.

He stepped closer and inspected it carefully. It was water.

Ignoring his disgust, he touched it with a finger. It felt greasy.

He shone the flashlight beneath the chairs and found that a puddle had gathered there, as though a light rain had just fallen.

Because the ground here was uneven, the water had not flowed toward where he and Great Grandfather had been sitting.

"Wet. So much water..."

Li Zhuiyuan immediately followed his memory and checked the spots where the two men had paused during those previous blinks.

A puddle of water.

Another puddle of water.

Two patches of water with visible footprints.

The fourth location was in the fields, so Li Zhuiyuan did not go down to look.

Thinking of how the two men had said the vat used to raise the Taishui was placed in a pond, with a corpse buried beneath that pond—

And of their fear of the Taishui inside that Water Vat, as though they were clearly under its control—

Li Zhuiyuan's gaze darkened.

"You two wouldn't happen to be connected to Death Collapse, would you?"

Run Sheng turned his head, intending to urge him again. But when he saw Li Zhuiyuan standing there with the flashlight, for some reason, the words caught in his throat. He did not dare say them aloud.

Because he suddenly felt that this Little Yuan before him was so unfamiliar—and frightening.

The more pure and simple-hearted a person was, the sharper their perception of the outside world often became. Everyone around them thought Li Zhuiyuan was a well-behaved, sensible child, and they all praised and liked him. Yet ever since Run Sheng had first come to Li Sanjiang's Home and voluntarily gone up to the second floor once, he had never gone upstairs again.

The rest of the family assumed it was because the girl was up there, and she disliked interacting with outsiders.

But only Run Sheng knew that compared to the girl, Little Yuan frightened him more. He did not dare disturb him unless Li Zhuiyuan came looking for him first.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his head, and Run Sheng immediately turned away, not daring to meet his eyes.

"Let's go, Brother Run Sheng. We're going home."

"Mm."

On the country path late at night, Run Sheng walked ahead with Li Sanjiang on his back, while a boy followed behind.

The boy's eyes were half-lidded, his head lowered. As he walked, his hands clenched lightly.

Li Zhuiyuan was very angry right now.

Because once again, he felt that helplessness.

Before, he had wondered whether he encountered this sort of thing a little too often.

But then he looked at Great Grandfather, who could sit down for a drink and end up sharing a table with two filthy things.

That made his own frequency seem fairly normal.

Besides, although quite a few people had died in these incidents, in ordinary people's eyes, those deaths had all been accidents or illnesses.

Indeed, it was hard for an ordinary person to ever encounter or hear of such a thing. But if one called them all kinds of accidents instead, they immediately became very common.

He had merely undergone certain unusual changes that allowed him to see through what ordinary people regarded as accidents, letting him know what he had encountered.

It was like bacteria in real life. They were obviously everywhere, but because the human eye could not see them, everyone considered that normal. Put them under a microscope, though, and they were everywhere.

Li Zhuiyuan actually rather enjoyed this change. He liked exploring and learning this path as well. But he hated these sudden occurrences time and again, and he hated even more his own repeated powerlessness.

He could admit that he was a poor student, but that did not mean he could accept being reminded of and shown his grades every few days.

Even poor students had their dignity.

After returning home and settling Li Sanjiang onto the bed in the bedroom, Li Zhuiyuan went into his own room and switched on the desk lamp.

The exhaustion from leaving earlier had been completely driven away by the stimulation. Holding a pen, he rapidly drew across the blueprints.

Under the desk lamp, the boy's eyes were filled with determination.

Like a student who normally never worked hard, making one final desperate effort before an exam.

In all of Li Zhuiyuan's life, he had never entered such a diligent and focused state of study.

Finally, when the clock reached five in the morning, Li Zhuiyuan finished the blueprint in his hands.

He stood up to sort things out, only to find that both his shoulders and legs had gone numb. His body tipped to one side, and if his hand had not braced against the desk in time, he might have already collapsed.

Only after a long while did the numbness gradually fade.

Without bothering to rest further, Li Zhuiyuan gathered and organized the blueprints. This was, of course, not all of The Righteous Path to Subdue Demons. In fact, these drawings were only the tip of the iceberg.

But this was the set of tools Li Zhuiyuan had selected for himself, the easiest to make at present and relatively practical as well.

He also reorganized and sorted the raw materials he had prepared yesterday.

Next, he only needed to assemble and make them.

At that moment, the door was gently pushed open, and A Li walked in.

Usually, when she came in at this time, Li Zhuiyuan should have been asleep in bed.

The girl walked over to the boy, squatted before him, looked at him, and reached out to touch his forehead.

Her grandmother had done this to her more than once. In her understanding, it meant concern.

"A Li, you're here. I'm fine, but I'll have to trouble you again today. Let me explain the process for these blueprints."

A Li had displayed an extraordinary talent for handiwork yesterday. Li Zhuiyuan only needed to explain a blueprint to her once, and she could make it from the available materials.

Today, A Li wore a black, form-fitting training outfit. Li Zhuiyuan suspected Liu Yumei had learned from yesterday's lesson and decided black was more resistant to stains.

After explaining everything to A Li, Li Zhuiyuan worked with her. Before long, daylight fully broke.

"A Li, keep working for now. I need to go out."

With that, Li Zhuiyuan gathered a stack of blueprints and a prescription, then went downstairs.

"Little Yuan, breakfast will be ready soon." Aunt Liu had just come out of the kitchen.

"Aunt Liu, could you help me decoct this medicine?"

Aunt Liu took the prescription, glanced at it, then looked at Li Zhuiyuan.

"Please, Aunt Liu. Great Grandfather needs to drink this. He's been weak lately and said he needed to nourish himself. This is... your job."

"All right, I understand. I'll decoct it for you."

Decocting medicine was troublesome work, and it required skill. If Li Zhuiyuan did it himself, it would take too much time and effort, and he could not guarantee the medicine's efficacy. He could only ask Aunt Liu for help.

Although it was somewhat inappropriate to force her hand this way, Li Zhuiyuan was desperately short on time. Those two men would give them three days at most. If they saw that he had not finished by then, they would likely come looking again.

"Thank you, Aunt Liu."

"Hey, breakfast is almost ready. Where are you going?"

"I'm heading out."

Li Zhuiyuan ran to the old carpenter's house in the village. The carpenter's home was a two-story building and looked rather imposing.

The man had originally been a permanent worker at Xingren Machinery Factory. Though retired now, he still took on jobs from time to time. Moreover, both his sons worked at the machinery factory, so his family was considered one of the better-off households in the village.

When Li Zhuiyuan entered, the old carpenter was eating breakfast.

"You're Li Weihan's grandson?"

"That's me, Grandpa. My name is Li Zhuiyuan. Great Grandfather Li Sanjiang sent me. He said there's a batch of tools he needs you to make as quickly as possible. The sooner, the better."

The old carpenter took the blueprints and examined several in succession. He asked in surprise, "Who drew these?"

These hand-drawn blueprints were meticulous and professional, and they were also thoughtfully laid out for the maker.

Li Zhuiyuan had not only just learned how to draw blueprints. Back in his mother's study, blueprints used to cover the desk and floor. He had crawled over them since he was very young.

"I don't know. Great Grandfather gave them to me. He says they're urgently needed and that he owes you a big favor."

Li Sanjiang's favors still carried considerable weight in the village, especially among the elderly.

After all, no one could escape that final destination in life. When the time came, they would all have to ask Li Sanjiang to perform Ritual Presiding at their funerals.

Li Zhuiyuan did not feel he was abusing Great Grandfather's favor either. Those two men had come for Great Grandfather this time, and getting these things made quickly was also helping him.

"Fine, leave it to me. No problem. I'll start rushing them right away. I've still got plenty of materials at home, all ready to use. It's just that some of the components on these blueprints need to be turned on a lathe...

I'll have my son take them to the factory and use the factory lathe to make them for you."

"Thank you so much. About how long will it take?"

"It's that urgent?"

"Yes!"

"Come pick them up tomorrow morning. I'll call my two apprentices over to help. We'll make them quickly."

"Sorry to trouble you. I'll come get them tomorrow morning."

After thanking him, Li Zhuiyuan ran home. Just as he was about to go upstairs, Liu Yumei called out, "Little Yuan, call A Li down for breakfast. We can't get her to come."

"It's fine if we don't eat. We have snacks."

They could eat snacks while working without delaying their progress.

Seeing Li Zhuiyuan run upstairs, Aunt Liu asked in surprise, "Little Yuan has been in such a hurry since early this morning. What's going on?"

Liu Yumei, who was sitting nearby drinking porridge, gave a light snort.

"Who knows? Maybe he ran into a ghost."

"Should we call A Li down, then?"

"If that brat doesn't say the word, who can get A Li to come downstairs for a meal?"

"That's true." Aunt Liu had just tried calling her, but A Li had not responded at all. "I wonder what A Li is doing in there."

Liu Yumei sighed.

"What else? She's working for that brat."

Back in the bedroom, Li Zhuiyuan opened the snacks and placed them before himself and A Li. The two ate as they continued working.

A Li did not speak to begin with, and Li Zhuiyuan had no time to talk today either. The room was filled only with the unceasing sounds of pounding and knocking.

Under the boy and girl's hands, all kinds of materials were processed in an orderly fashion, and small components were made one after another.

They did not go downstairs for lunch either. Whenever they were hungry, they simply ate snacks.

By evening, almost all the work in their hands had been completed.

Li Zhuiyuan slumped onto the floor. A Li looked at the results of their two days of work. She did not seem tired at all and even appeared to want more.

At that moment, Aunt Liu called from downstairs, "Little Yuan, it's done."

Aunt Liu had not called Great Grandfather down to drink the medicine.

Li Zhuiyuan left the room. Having gone a whole night without sleep, he felt lightheaded and unsteady, and he had to hold the wall as he went downstairs.

Tomorrow morning, once he brought back the finished tools and completed the final assembly with all the materials he had prepared, everything would be fully finished.

Today, there was only one last step left. Once it was done, he could finally get a good night's sleep.

Downstairs, Li Sanjiang was sitting with Runsheng Hou, watching TV. When he saw Li Zhuiyuan come down, Li Sanjiang asked:

"Little Yuanhou, what were you doing in your room today? You didn't even come down for dinner?"

"Great Grandfather, about last night at the drinking table..."

"I drank too much last night and even had a dream. In the dream, someone gave me lots and lots of money and told me to do something illegal. I turned them down.

"Oh, it still hurts my heart just thinking about it. That dream was way too real. I almost thought it wasn't a dream. Good thing I asked Runsheng Hou. He said that when he came to pick me up last night, I was the only one drinking."

Li Zhuiyuan: "..."

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly understood how Grandpa Shan felt.

Li Zhuiyuan went to fetch the medicine.

Li Sanjiang sniffed and asked, "Is that Chinese medicine? What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Li Zhuiyuan took a sip from the bowl and said, "No. Aunt Liu was worried studying was too exhausting for me, so she made me a soup to nourish my brain."

"Oh, then you should drink more of it."

Li Zhuiyuan carried the medicine back to his room. The moment he set the bowl down, Little Black Dog actually ran over on its own and started lapping it up.

The medicine did not taste terrible, but it was hardly good either. Li Zhuiyuan had originally planned to force-feed it to him.

Little Black Dog drank every last drop, then walked back into his cage by himself. He swayed as he walked, seeming a little bloated.

Li Zhuiyuan took out a small syringe, walked to the cage, and beckoned to him.

Little Black Dog sat belly-up against the cage, one paw gripping the bars while the other reached out through the gap and offered itself to Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan had seen that posture before. When his parents had taken him to the zoo as a child, he had seen a giant panda undergoing a physical examination in the same pose.

Li Zhuiyuan held his dog paw, inserted the needle, and drew out a little blood.

Then he wiped the spot with a cotton ball.

Little Black Dog neither yelped nor fussed. He simply waited quietly for Li Zhuiyuan to finish. Once he was sure there was nothing else for him to do, he flopped backward and went to sleep.

"Why are you so well-behaved..."

Li Zhuiyuan felt that if Wei Zhengdao came back to life and saw such an obedient black dog, he would probably drool with envy.

After dripping the black dog's blood, proportionally and one drop at a time, into the various prepared components, the final stage of the crafting process was soon complete.

All that remained was the final assembly tomorrow morning. That part would be easy.

"A Li, thank you."

A Li walked over to Li Zhuiyuan, reached out to pat his head, then pointed toward the wooden bed in the room.

In the past, Li Zhuiyuan had always coaxed her back to her room to sleep like this.

"Okay, I'm going to sleep."

Li Zhuiyuan truly could not hold on any longer. He would wash up after waking. The moment he lay down on the bed, although the sleeping mat beneath him was hard, his whole body felt as though it had sunk into cotton.

Before closing his eyes, Li Zhuiyuan looked at the bed canopy above him and silently recited:

"Counterattack, starting now..."