Double Blessings Arrive Together (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote with Monthly Tickets)

Inside the talisman-making room, Jiang Fu'an was bent over the wooden table in intense concentration.

His right hand tightly gripped a dagger that flashed with cold light, while his left steadily held down a yellowish-brown sheet of talisman paper as large as the tabletop.

The blade slowly advanced along the paper, producing a faint rustling sound.

His movements were crisp and practiced. With a turn of his wrist and a light flick of the blade, the talisman paper separated neatly.

Before long, more than a dozen talisman papers of identical size and smooth edges had been stacked at the corner of the table.

"Not bad at all."

Miao Ruolan had somehow appeared, leaning against the doorframe.

"Master, you are becoming more and more skilled at making talisman paper. This batch is practically flawless—not a single defect can be found."

There was no joy on Jiang Fu'an's face; instead, a faint layer of worry clouded it.

By now, he had made nearly a hundred blank sheets of talisman paper.

With the Miao Family's help, the cinnabar needed to draw talismans had also been prepared.

Everything was ready but the east wind.

As long as his cultivation broke through to the Qi Refining First Layer, he could try drawing talismans.

Yet just a few days ago, no matter how carefully he and Stone had rationed them, they had still used up every last Qi-Nourishing Pill they had brought back.

Without pills to aid him, his cultivation speed was now as slow as a snail crawling.

The Qi Refining First Layer seemed within arm's reach, yet it was truly as distant as the ends of the earth.

Jiang Fu'an shook his head and looked up toward Miao Ruolan at the doorway, only to freeze abruptly.

Morning light slanted in from behind her, rendering the pale green gauze of her dress nearly transparent.

Through the gauze, her exquisite curves were vaguely visible—and she wore no undergarments beneath it.

Her springtime beauty appeared and vanished in turns, gently rising and falling with her breath, alluring beyond measure.

Jiang Fu'an only glanced once before forcing his gaze up to her face, reproach in his voice.

"Look at yourself. What kind of state are you in? Aren't you afraid someone else might see you?"

Several months had passed since he had refused her request to help her bear children.

Miao Ruolan had not given up then. Over these past days, she had tested him in every possible way, hoping to make him nod.

Who would have thought that this little girl would grow bolder and bolder, even resorting to a honey trap today?

Seeing Jiang Fu'an deliberately avert his eyes, Miao Ruolan bit her lower lip, a look of defeat surfacing on her face.

She spoke softly, her voice filled with grievance.

"Could it be that Master wishes to give me to another man?"

Jiang Fu'an was stunned.

"When did I ever say I was giving you away?"

He was no cuckolded fool. Why would he ever entertain such a notion?

Miao Ruolan's delicate brows drew together slightly as she sighed.

"I have turned eighteen this year. If I do not marry soon, I fear I truly will be unable to find a husband.

"These days, my mother and several aunts have been arranging a marriage for me."

Jiang Fu'an fell silent at once.

Only then did it dawn on him that Miao Ruolan would have to marry sooner or later.

To be honest, as a man, when faced with a beautiful woman who was always by his side—

Even if she was not his Dao companion, he still did not want to watch her marry someone else with his own eyes.

The feeling was like a cabbage he had carefully tended in his own courtyard suddenly being rooted up by a wild boar.

At that moment, Miao Ruolan walked lightly up to him and lifted her face.

Morning light danced across her lashes, while her eyes shimmered with watery radiance.

"Master, I can tend Spiritual Fields, look after medicinal gardens, work hard, and behave myself...

"Can you really bear to let me leave just like that?"

She stood very close, carrying the warm scent unique to a young girl.

Jiang Fu'an's Adam's apple bobbed.

For one brief instant, a fierce impulse surged up from the depths of his heart—

Take her now!

But the moment that thought emerged, he forced it back down.

What she wanted, in the end, was still to "have a child."

His cultivation was weak and his strength insufficient. He absolutely could not reveal any secret that set him apart from ordinary people.

He had long since made up his mind.

For at least ten years, he would have no more children.

Even Jiang Xiangqian's aptitude was something he intended to conceal rather than reveal to outsiders.

Faced with Miao Ruolan's pitifully beautiful gaze, Jiang Fu'an hardened his heart.

"Though I am reluctant, there is no helping it. On the day you marry, I will certainly prepare a generous gift."

With that, he hurriedly picked up the stack of cut talisman paper from the table, slipped around her, and strode quickly out the door.

He could not stay in this room any longer.

He feared that if he remained even one moment more, he would be unable to stop himself from giving in.

Night fell.

Only a small oil lamp was lit in the Bedroom, its dim yellow glow gently swaying across the walls.

Jiang Fu'an had just lain down when his hand habitually reached toward his wife, Su Wanqing.

At that moment, Su Wanqing spoke softly.

"Yan-shi came by during the day."

The large hand wandering over her waist abruptly stopped.

Jiang Fu'an's heart tightened.

Su Wanqing's relationship with the Miao Family's widows had always been delicate.

She had always suspected that he harbored improper thoughts toward those women and kept a close watch on him every day.

These past days, he had not even dared to glance toward the small courtyard where they lived, for fear of arousing suspicion.

He asked in a deliberately casual tone.

"What did she come to see you for? You two do not usually have much contact, do you?"

"It was nothing important."

Su Wanqing's tone was indifferent.

"She said her daughter Ruolan had reached marriageable age and came to ask whether we would be willing to let Ruolan marry you as a concubine."

"Become my concubine?"

Jiang Fu'an was dumbfounded.

Seeing how reluctant Miao Ruolan had been during the day, he had thought Yan-shi intended to marry her daughter off to another family.

Su Wanqing's tone remained calm.

"Yan-shi said your character is upright and that she trusts you. Even as a concubine, her daughter would not suffer if she followed you.

"I thought it over. Ruolan truly is capable and sensible, so I agreed."

Jiang Fu'an abruptly sat up in bed and stared at his wife.

"How could you agree just like that? Why did you not discuss it with me first?"

Su Wanqing had always discussed everything with him.

Besides, what wife took the initiative to find a concubine for her husband?

By all rights, should she not have been jealous and opposed it?

"What is there to discuss?"

Su Wanqing smiled without quite smiling.

"Ruolan is young and pretty. Would you refuse?"

In truth, she had her own little calculation.

She had always been anxious before, afraid that her husband would be lured away by those Miao Family widows.

If any gossip truly arose, she would surely become the laughingstock of the entire village.

Thus, she had guarded against it at every turn and remained vigilant at all times.

But if Miao Ruolan married into their household, those widows would become Jiang Fu'an's mothers-in-law.

With that relationship in place, both sides would instead need to avoid suspicion.

Then she could rest much easier.

Jiang Fu'an's feelings were complicated at that moment.

There was a faint sense of anticipation, yet he truly did not want to marry her.

He could almost foresee it.

Once Miao Ruolan entered the household, she would surely cling to him all day, trying every possible way to ask for a child.

But since his wife had already agreed, opposing it now would only hurt the Miao Family's feelings.

Jiang Fu'an could only sigh inwardly.

His days ahead would likely never be peaceful again.

The next morning.

Jiang Fu'an rose, dressed, and headed toward the Hall of Sacrifice as he did every day.

When he pushed open the wooden door, he had not held much hope.

For the past half year, the offering table had remained utterly empty.

But the instant his gaze swept across the tabletop, his eyes suddenly lit up.

A white ball of light was quietly floating above the center of the offering table.

Fu Yuan had finally appeared once more.