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"That young master of the Shen Household died with his heart full of resentment today. I reckon it frightened you. If you're scared, you can sleep in Grandpa's room."

Outside her door, Old Lu gazed at Lu Mingyue's room in the moonlight, his expression somewhat unfathomable as he spoke.

"Grandpa, I'm a big girl now. I'd be embarrassed!"

Lu Mingyue's slightly girlish, innocent voice came from inside. Perhaps because she had already told her first lie, her tone had returned to normal.

No unusual expression appeared on Old Lu's face.

"You little lass, Grandpa already has half his body in the grave. What have you got to be embarrassed about with me?"

With his hands behind his back, he laughingly scolded Lu Mingyue through the door, then turned away.

"If you're embarrassed, sleep by yourself. Call Grandpa if you have a nightmare. That young master of the Shen Household was no ordinary person. I have to keep watch tonight, so I won't be sleeping deeply."

"I know, Grandpa! I won't have nightmares. I'm a grown-up!"

Hearing Lu Mingyue sound like a little adult, Old Lu smiled and shook his head. He walked over to the room holding Shen Yulang's remains, sat in the reclining chair outside, and took out his tobacco pipe to smoke.

In the darkness, the glow of the pipe flickered bright and dim, illuminating Old Lu's deep-set eyes.

Inside her room, meanwhile, Lu Mingyue lay obediently on her bed, clutching her belly with guilt on her face.

Am I being too selfish? Grandpa treats me so well, yet I don't even want to tell him the truth...

Thinking of the lie she had just told, Lu Mingyue felt guilty, and any desire to cultivate had long since vanished.

But the dantian in her abdomen still hurt a little.

It was a needle-pricking sort of pain.

Yet perhaps because she had just lied to Old Lu, Lu Mingyue dared not make the slightest sound.

It was early spring, and a lingering spring chill still hung in the late-night air, yet the pain left her drenched in cold sweat.

That night, Lu Mingyue tossed and turned.

Only around midnight, when the stabbing pain in her abdomen eased a little, did she finally reach the end of her endurance and drift groggily to sleep.

"My son! My Yulang! You died such a terrible death!"

"Yulang, go in peace. Your elder brother will surely-boohoo..."

"Ah, it was all fate. It's all my fault! I got Yulang killed! I was the death of him!"

The next day, Lu Mingyue was awakened by waves of wailing.

Yesterday, when Shen Yulang was executed at the vegetable market entrance, the county constables had kept Master Shen and his family confined to their residence. Only today had those constables withdrawn.

So the Shen Household arrived first thing in the morning.

"Master Shen, Madam Shen, please restrain your grief and accept your loss."

When Lu Mingyue opened her door, she saw a large crowd standing in the courtyard. All wore white, yet they exuded wealth and an air of having no shortage of money.

"Old Lu, thank you for making my son presentable. This is a small token from our family."

The portly Master Shen stood inside the room and handed Old Lu a white pouch, then called to the clansmen who had come with him to carry his youngest son's remains away.

The members of the Shen Household were all quietly weeping. Though they treated Old Lu very courteously, none wished to say much to him.

Lu Mingyue understood. In an ancient setting like this, people such as Master Shen and his family were bound to look down on a trade like theirs, which dealt with the dead.

Had the authorities not assigned Shen Yulang's corpse to Old Lu's care, they might have feared picking up some ill fortune and never even passed outside Willow Tree Alley in their entire lives.

Still, whatever the Shen family thought, Lu Mingyue had seen clearly: the pouch Master Shen had produced today probably contained no fewer than twenty taels of silver.

"Take care, Master Shen."

Sure enough, after grandfather and granddaughter escorted them to the courtyard gate, Old Lu opened the pouch. A smile appeared on his face as he held it out to Lu Mingyue and said:

"We can enjoy a few more good days now. Master Shen is generous. There are a full thirty taels of silver here!"

"Wow!"

Excitement filled Lu Mingyue's little face.

She suddenly remembered that funeral gifts generally came in odd amounts, while gifts for happy occasions came in even amounts.

Although Master Shen had given them this money, the Shen Household did indeed have a funeral to arrange.

Master Shen was not stingy, either. Aside from ten taels being beneath his status, he was even less willing to appear indifferent toward his youngest son.

Thus, he had given them a full thirty taels.

"Grandpa! I want meat! Lots and lots of meat!"

Lu Mingyue raised her little hands as she spoke. Silver was wonderful. The Qi-Feeding Body-Tempering Art relied on continually drawing essence from food and using it to batter the dantian in her abdomen again and again, opening a spirit mansion within a dantian that had none.

And the essence in vegetables clearly could not compare with that in meat.

So silver was wonderful. With silver, she could eat plenty of meat.

"Heh heh, eat your fill. Grandpa will have a few extra bites too!"

Old Lu did not connect eating meat with immortal cultivation. Whenever they received a tip in the past, they would buy meat to eat.

When Lu Mingyue brought it up now, Old Lu suspected nothing. He immediately went back inside, fetched yesterday's three-tael piece of silver, and handed it to her.

"Go buy a chicken and a fish. Tomorrow, buy beef, and the day after, buy mutton. We'll have a different kind of meat each day!"

"Wow! Grandpa, you're the best! I'll go buy them right now!"

Lu Mingyue had been waiting for those very words. Had Old Lu not already spoken, she would have wanted to buy several catties of beef today.

Beef provided far more energy than chicken, fish, and the like!

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Still, it did not matter. Old Lu always kept his word to her. Since he had said they would have beef and mutton tomorrow and the day after, Lu Mingyue was sure to get to eat them.

"Slow down! Don't fall!"

Old Lu stood in the courtyard with his hands behind his back. Watching Lu Mingyue skip out the door with her carrying basket held in both hands, he could not help smiling too.

Over the next half month, grandfather and granddaughter spent their days eating all sorts of meat.

Though Lu Mingyue was somewhat afraid of that needle-pricking pain in her lower belly, she thought of how she would be able to fly around once she cultivated, and perhaps go wherever she pleased without travel permits in the future. So she still persisted in cultivating for roughly a quarter of an hour every day.

A quarter of an hour was only fifteen minutes. Though it was brief, Lu Mingyue felt that, for her seven-year-old self, this was already her limit.

She feared that even one more minute of cultivation would leave her unable to endure the pain, making her howl like ghosts and wolves in the dead of night.

The authorities in Yangguan City did not often have prisoners to be beheaded, but after half a month, grandfather and granddaughter received another job.

Only this time, Lu Mingyue felt that Grandpa had suddenly become a little strange.

"Mingyue, tend to his wounds again. Grandpa will go wash this cloth."

Old Lu, who had been watching Lu Mingyue clean up executed prisoners' remains since two years ago, did not stay beside her to supervise this time. Instead, he picked up the bloodstained shroud of his own accord and left the room.

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