Family of Origin

"Mm... I'm..."

The victim of this incident gradually woke up.

"Miss, you're awake? If you hadn't woken up soon, I was going to arrange for my subordinates to see you off."

Seeing the girl open her eyes, Hu Tao exchanged a look with Zhongli and teased her.

"What happened..." The girl was extremely weak. The old ghost's rampage had caused her to faint. Now that Lin Yiyi had driven it away, and with the effects of the water, Chen Yue's strength was slowly returning.

"Friend Lin, I saw you give her a cup of water just now. I presume it was no ordinary hot water?"

Zhongli was exceptionally perceptive; he only needed a quick look to spot the clue.

"Yes. It was rootless water—water formed from rain, frost, snow, or mist."

Lin Yiyi explained that such water was believed in Daoism to cure illness and ward off evil.

Zhongli nodded. "This matter is settled for now. It is getting late, so we should return quickly."

"By the way, Consultant Zhongli, you're unfamiliar with this place. How did you find us?"

At that, Rex Lapis took out the yellow piece of paper from his hand.

"When Friend Lin asked me to buy fruit and cigarettes earlier, he not only gave me the money, but also bestowed this yellow talisman upon me."

"The list Friend Lin handed me stated that this talisman could be used to find someone through their aura."

Lin Yiyi nodded. "Since I wrote all these talismans, they naturally carry my Daoist aura."

"You're all gods..." He looked at Chen Yue and Zhou Cai beside him, then paused. "Ah, no. You're all gifted individuals, so naturally you can sense my exact location."

"Of course, I can also track all of you through this talisman."

Director Hu suddenly understood, while Chen Yue beside her was completely bewildered. Zhou Cai said nothing, as though deep in thought.

Lin Yiyi then said to Chen Yue, "Your problem has been resolved. You fainted the moment you came in, so I took care of that old ghost for you." Seeing the disbelief on the girl's face, and even her suspicion that he had ulterior motives toward her, he said, "Don't look at me like that. If you don't believe me, just ask him."

The young man pointed at Zhou Cai beside him. Zhou Cai nodded in understanding and explained the whole sequence of events.

Chen Yue's expression was complicated. No one knew what she was thinking.

Lin Yiyi stretched and checked his phone. "It's already ten thirty. You should hurry home."

"After you get back, burn some paper money for that old ghost as an offering. Don't go stepping on other people's paper money for no reason in the future."

Lin Yiyi picked up the backpack from the ground. "Let's go."

The moment the group came out, they ran into a woman who looked quite refined.

"Oh my, Xiaoyue, where did you run off to so late at night?"

"Who are these people? Why are you walking around with them?"

The woman immediately became wary. Her daughter was with two people dressed strangely, while another man wore a black trench coat that nearly dragged on the ground. One look told her he was no good either.

The only one who looked halfway decent was the bespectacled boy in a school uniform like her daughter's.

"Mom, why did you come out..." The girl looked embarrassed, unsure how to explain.

"If I hadn't come out, who knows what kind of shady people you would've run off with again!"

"I didn't..."

"You still dare talk back? I caught you red-handed! I want to see exactly who you've been hanging around with all day!"

Zhang Xiaoyan stormed toward them. But as she walked, she found the person before her increasingly familiar, and the imposing air of someone who looked as though the whole world owed her money gradually faded.

"Daoist... Daoist Lin?"

Hearing the woman's voice, Lin Yiyi was also stunned. He looked at her and asked, "You know me?"

"Oh my, it really is you, Daoist Lin! Half a year ago, one of my relatives had a funeral, and you were the one who came to conduct the rites!"

"Back then, we all said that someone as young as you had come out to swindle people!"

"But who would've thought? You handled everything perfectly all by yourself. You were incredible."

For an exceedingly rare moment, a strange emotion flashed through Hu Tao's eyes.

The first funeral she had handled after becoming director had been for her own grandfather. Back then, she had shouldered everything alone as well.

Lin Yiyi looked at the girl, then thought about what Zhang Xiaoyan had said. In a daze, he recalled that, just like this morning, no one had believed him. Yet through his own formidable ability, he had won everyone over.

"That did happen..." Lin Yiyi thought for a moment, but before he could say anything, he was interrupted again.

"Daoist Lin, did my daughter get mixed up with something unclean?" she asked with a hint of terror.

Lin Yiyi nodded. "Yes, but it has already been dealt with. That's why it took so long."

He then gave Zhang Xiaoyan a brief explanation.

"Oh, I knew Daoist Lin was extraordinary!" Then she turned to her daughter and said, "It's one thing for you to do nothing all day, but you even went and stepped on someone's paper money? Are you so full you have nothing better to do?"

Seeing that she was about to scold her own child, Lin Yiyi intervened.

"Forget it. No one is perfect. Blaming her like this is useless."

"A harmonious family is the best feng shui. Care more about your own child."

"She is not bad by nature. Think carefully about it—she would not have committed such a taboo for no reason."

"Think about where the problem lies. From what I can see, you mother and daughter are not very close. Perhaps it has something to do with you."

"Maybe she had suffered some grievances and took her anger out elsewhere."

Though Zhang Xiaoyan was somewhat displeased, she could only stubbornly explain herself because he had helped her.

"I'm doing this for her own good. I obviously care about her so much..."

"Do you know what she likes? What she cares about? What she hates? What happens to her at school? Whether she has been wronged?"

"When she gets home, is the first thing she hears not about how her grades were today? When you get home, you take out the frustrations from work on your daughter. She already has plenty of grievances, yet you still add to them."

"Was I wrong about any of that?"

Lin Yiyi's abilities were so formidable that he could tell at a glance from their faces that the mother and daughter must not get along. He did not hesitate to cut her off.

Even if he had misjudged them, based on his years of experience, he knew all too well how immense the psychological scars brought by one's family of origin could be for young people today.

Home should have been a harbor from the storm, but for some reason, such beautiful families seemed increasingly rare now.

Because parents had failed to make something of themselves, they placed all their hopes upon their children.

Outside, there was the pressure of schoolwork; at home, there were their parents' reproaches. Their parents' pressures were indeed great as well.

So they wanted even more to escape reality, and more and more people stepped into the world of anime and manga.

After all, in that world, they could be free and happy.

Under the dim lights, the young man could not make out the faces of the two students present.

Lin Yiyi did not know what Zhou Cai was thinking, but the girl's quiet sobs told him that she had truly suffered far, far too many grievances.