Meng Huai'an only found the words utterly baffling.
The whole neighborhood already knew her son had gone missing. How could she possibly be in the mood to go out and clear her mind?
But before she could speak, the group of female cultivators beside Zhou Yunrong began chirping in agreement.
"Oh, that's perfectly normal. Dongcheng has made something of himself, so Huai'an can finally relax."
"How did that saying go again? When one person ascends to immortality, the chickens and dogs... something?"
"Hey, what kind of talk is that? How can you compare people to dogs?"
Their chattering voices lent even the ruined courtyard a little more life.
Watching them enter the yard, Meng Huai'an felt the confusion in her heart deepen.
"Sisters, you all know what has happened to my family lately. I don't know why you have come today, but I truly have no heart for outside matters."
"If there is something, you might as well say it directly."
Under ordinary circumstances, Meng Huai'an would still maintain a measure of courtesy toward her neighbors. After all, they had only managed to settle here through sheer luck.
In truth, none of the neighbors had the ability to move any farther into the city.
Under such circumstances, these little courtyard homes might be where their generation, the next generation, and even several generations after that would put down roots.
Who would want an enemy living near their home?
For that reason, the neighbors had always been exceptionally polite in their everyday dealings.
But those were things only the old Meng Huai'an would have cared about.
To put it bluntly, An Dongcheng's disappearance was practically the same as the efforts of their little family over the past ten or twenty years being destroyed in a single stroke.
And without a cultivator