Huang Fenfang had been born and raised in the countryside and could barely read. Her husband had never even attended school, so naturally, neither of them could understand what the scrolling comments were saying.
But they had lived to this age, after all, and understood the things they ought to understand.
With Qu Nanzhu having gone this far in reminding them, they naturally understood now.
No one spoke. Huang Fangfang covered her face and quietly sobbed for a while longer before finally figuring out what she wanted.
After clasping hands tightly for a moment, the couple stood up and bowed deeply toward the camera.
Huang Fenfang said, "Master, thank you for telling me all this, and thank you for reminding me just now. You're right. I only wanted to know whether my child was still alive. Nothing else matters anymore. Thank you for telling me! I'll pay your divination fee right away."
As she spoke, she reached out to tap the screen and send gifts, but Qu Nanzhu stopped her.
"Forget the divination fee. Since I haven't told you his exact location, there's no karmic debt here. I hope you can both let go of your obsession and cherish the happiness before you."
At that, the couple on the other end thought for a moment, then bowed again and disconnected, thanking him over and over.
Once the couple left, Qu Nanzhu tapped the tabletop, drawing the attention of those still discussing things in the comments.
[What's up, baby?]
Over the course of one evening, Qu Nanzhu had nearly grown used to the netizens' habit of calling him baby.
"That one didn't count, so we still have one reading left. Does anyone want to join the call?"
The moment he mentioned joining the call, the viewers who had just been chatting away with wild abandon began avoiding the subject.
Qu Nanzhu helplessly propped up his chin and sighed. "You still don't believe me..."
[That's not it, baby. You have to believe us...]
[I can't, baby's kind of cute like this.]
He really was cute. Huo Sili couldn't resist sending another ten Carnival gifts.
Before long, a young man joined the call.
His question was a common one: he wanted to know when he would find a partner.
Although the young man was cheerful and cute enough to make people want to squish him, Qu Nanzhu had to deliver some discouraging words, suggesting that he focus on his career for the next ten years.
[Everyone who understood that is crying.]
[Think hard about which of your bros traded ten years of your single life for three five-stars in a ten-pull without losing the 50/50.]
Amid the viewers' laughter and teasing, ten o'clock arrived. Having finished his three readings, Qu Nanzhu gave no warning whatsoever as he copied the lines Xiao Zhu used to say when ending his streams. "That's all for today's stream. See you tomorrow at eight in the evening. Bye-bye."
The viewers were still complaining about what kind of streamer ended this early when the screen went black.
The fans who thought he was joking: "?"
Paying no attention to his fans after ending the stream, Qu Nanzhu checked that evening's earnings and was startled to discover that the person with the numeric username alone had sent him over a million in gifts that night.
Including the rest, he would receive 768,000 after the platform took its cut.
He had thought livestreaming could make money, but he hadn't expected it to make this much, this quickly.
Of course, that suited him perfectly. The faster he earned, the better. This money was nowhere near enough to restore Xiao Zhu's soul body. Xiao Zhu was a living soul. If he had been the soul of someone who had died at the end of his natural lifespan, Qu Nanzhu could have simply tossed him into a Soul-Nourishing Array and left him there.
To nourish a living soul, high-quality soul-nourishing jade was the best choice for stabilizing it. Failing that, he would need top-grade jade, along with an unending supply of spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy gathered by a Spirit Gathering Array alone was nowhere near enough. Besides, once he stayed in one place long enough to exhaust its spiritual energy, the Spirit Gathering Array would be useless.
The only method Qu Nanzhu could think of was to buy large quantities of jade containing spiritual energy to set up an array, and that would be an unimaginably huge expense.
Qin Siyi's people wouldn't arrive to pick him up for another hour and a half. He planned to take a nap while he waited to restore his energy.
Before sleeping, he checked on Xiao Zhu again. His soul body was reasonably stable, so Qu Nanzhu went to sleep without worry.
Qin Siyi's people arrived right on time. The alarm Qu Nanzhu had set had only just rung when someone knocked on the door.
Qu Nanzhu sat up and covered his eyes, taking a moment to collect himself. Once again, he went through the three existential questions, then let out a long breath, threw on some clothes, and got up to answer the door.
Bodyguards in black work uniforms stood outside. One of them radiated righteousness.
Qin Siyi had come in person too.
As soon as she saw Qu Nanzhu, Qin Siyi quickly put on an impeccably poised smile and greeted him. "Good evening, Master! Thank you for your hard work at such a late hour!"
Qu Nanzhu yawned and waved a hand at her. "Wait a moment. I'll get changed."
Then he turned toward the bodyguard radiating righteousness and asked, "I have some valuables at home. Since I'm going out of province with you, could he stay behind and watch the place for me?"
Qin Siyi said, "Of course!" Hesitating for even a second would have been disrespectful to the master.
After changing, Qu Nanzhu came out and pointed at a corner of his room as he told the bodyguard, "This branch is very important to me. Please just guard it. You don't need to do anything. Just stay near it."
All one could say was that the master's actions were baffling but worthy of respect. The bodyguard didn't dare take his eyes off that branch for even a second.
Qu Nanzhu was speechless. "..." There's really no need for that.
Having dealt with the matters at home, Qu Nanzhu left S City with the others and headed for G City.
That bodyguard was probably a retired special forces soldier. He was covered in the golden light of merit. With him guarding Xiao Zhu, not only would evil entities dare not approach, but Xiao Zhu would also feel very comfortable basking in that golden light of merit.
If possible, I'd really like to ask whether the Qin family would be willing to part with him.
Qu Nanzhu fell asleep again on the plane, while Qin Siyi sat beside him, unable to resist stealing glances at him.
On her phone, she was browsing her Weibo account.
After she left the livestream, someone had dug up their identities. She had followed a celebrity for a while and spent quite a lot of money boosting rankings and supporting them. Many fans had looked up to her as a leading fan.
Later, she had left the fandom without deleting her account and still occasionally posted snippets of her daily life.
After two hours of the incident spreading, quite a few people had already come to her account to ask what happened next.
Qin Siyi thought for a moment, then took a photo on the plane that showed only the top of Qu Nanzhu's head and captioned it: [On the way back with the master.]
Replies came quickly, all from night owls who spent their time online.
[What? What's this? That soft, sweet-smelling head must belong to Qu Baobao!]
[If it weren't, wouldn't the person above have exploded?]
[Master Qu still has to work at this hour?]
[Peach Blossom Sha? That's really hard to break, isn't it? Qu Nanzhu might be fine at fortune-telling, but can he really dispel a sha?]
[Is it hard? When I watched Qu Nanzhu's stream, he said, "It's only a Peach Blossom Sha." I thought it would be easy to deal with...]
[You don't get it, do you? This Peach Blossom Sha is an evil art used to harm people. Different casters use different methods, and the ways to resolve them differ too. There are also requirements for the curse-breaker's cultivation. If their cultivation can't beat the caster's, not only will they fail to break the curse, but the victim's soul will also be damaged. This so-called Master Qu looks so young. I'm afraid he's in for a fall.]
[...]
After posting, Qin Siyi stopped looking at her phone. Normally, they would never have allowed something like this to spread online.
But too many people had watched the livestream that evening, and word had spread too widely. Handling it poorly would only damage Su Youqin's reputation.
Her day had been full of ups and downs too. Now that she had relaxed, it wasn't long before her head began to nod and she fell asleep.
It was already one-thirty in the morning when they arrived at the Su Family residence.
The nighttime temperature in G City was relatively low. Qu Nanzhu still had the blanket from the plane draped over him. At only 172 centimeters tall due to malnutrition, he looked tiny wrapped in it.
Seeing such a young master, Su Family's parents couldn't help casting questioning looks at Qin Siyi.
Meeting their eyes, Qin Siyi gave a small shake of her head, signaling them not to be rude in a moment.
The two families were close, and Su Youqin's parents trusted Qin Siyi deeply. Seeing her response, they immediately suppressed their doubts and politely stepped forward to welcome him.
Before either of them could address him as Master, Qu Nanzhu sneezed, sounding just like a child.
Qu Nanzhu sniffled and said in a muffled voice, "Sorry, it's a little cold. Let's go inside first."
The Su couple didn't dare delay and hurriedly agreed.
Behind them, Qin Siyi apologized. "I'm sorry. That was an oversight on my part. I forgot the temperature difference between the two places was quite large."
Qu Nanzhu waved a hand, unbothered. "It's fine. Where are the things I asked you to prepare?"
"Everything is ready, Master," Mr. Su answered from up ahead.
Mrs. Su added, "Master, my daughter regained consciousness three hours ago, but her symptoms wouldn't subside. She was suffering so much that we gave her sleeping pills to help her sleep. Will that be all right?"
Qu Nanzhu inspected the blank talisman paper and cinnabar a servant brought over, then nodded. "It's fine. It'll be easier to deal with while she's asleep. Take me straight to her."
"All right."