I have seen dragons

Chapter 57 Professor Guan

"Ok?"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xing'er's eyes narrowed, revealing a dangerous glint.

"Brother Geng, why do you say that?" Yue Wen asked on her behalf.

"Because the storage artifact in her hand was specially crafted and presented by my master to the Zhao family head of Tianfu a few years ago for his fiftieth birthday. You can see its obvious features by looking closely at the array patterns on it," Geng Bihu said.

Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er both looked down at the emerald green color that was no different from the other jade bracelets, and were stunned for a moment.

How exactly did you figure that out?

"The Zhao family patriarch was very fond of it and said he would give it to his daughter. But this bracelet ended up on your wrist, young lady. So there's only one truth!" A glint of wisdom flashed in Geng Bihu's cloudy, bulging eyes. "Young lady, you are the Zhao family patriarch's illegitimate daughter, far away in Jiangcheng, aren't you?"

"..." Yue Wen looked at him silently, and after a while asked, "Brother Geng, you don't usually watch the news, do you?"

"Where would I find the time?" Geng Bihu's face fell at the mention of this. "You have no idea how tiring our line of work is. We're constantly forging magical artifacts and building arrays. We're working from the moment we open our eyes! Just when we finally finish the work at hand, my master urges me to circulate my cultivation techniques, saying that my cultivation level can't fall behind... And my parents are urging me to find a girlfriend. Tell me, where would I find the time..."

Seeing him pouring out his grievances, Yue Wen nodded knowingly. No wonder he didn't even know about the headline news of the eldest daughter of the Zhao family running away from home.

So he reminded him, "Brother Geng, you are truly wise, but the relationship between my assistant and the Zhao family is something that cannot be made public. I would appreciate it if you could help me keep it a secret."

"Don't worry." Geng Bihu revealed a knowing smile, then waved his hand and left with his senior brother's two tools.

Zhao Xing'er watched his retreating figure and asked in a deep voice, "Tell me... is it necessary for me to kill him to silence him?"

“There’s absolutely no need for that,” Yue Wen quickly advised.

"Are you sure he won't spread rumors?" Zhao Xing'er asked.

“He doesn’t have time,” Yue Wen said confidently. “Didn’t you hear him say that they’re very busy in this line of work? You see, he doesn’t even have time to change into clean clothes before going out, let alone have time to spread gossip.”

"That's true." Zhao Xing'er was relieved.

With this, Yue Wen was naturally in a good mood. Now that the Dragon Breath Fire Seed had arrived, his materials for refining Qi were almost complete. Apart from the Taiyi Profound Blazing Elixir he had asked Linjiang Sect to inquire about, he had received news about the other three items.

Although the Purple Jade Branch still needs to be won through auctions, the Blazing Flame Powder has too high a purity, and the Dragon Breath Fire Seed still needs to be processed with Dragon Breath... at least things have been settled.

It shouldn't be long before I'm able to prepare for the Great Fire Refining.

Before he could be happy for long, Zhao Xing'er asked again, "What are we having for lunch?"

Yue Wen's joy turned to worry immediately. "Sigh, I never expected this."

"I've been looking for ages too. I decided yesterday, so you decide today." Zhao Xing'er adopted a nonchalant attitude. "I don't care."

Yue Wen scratched his head, "Then we'll have stir-fried dishes?"

"We ate stir-fried dishes three times yesterday, let's forget about it," Zhao Xing'er said, rejecting the idea.

"Then let's have mala tang?" Yue Wen suggested.

“Save that for a midnight snack; it doesn’t taste as good during the day as it does at night,” Zhao Xing’er rejected again.

"How about we go next door for some barbecue?" Yue Wen suggested again.

"Forget it, that century-old veteran's barbecue is delicious, but the old man is too old and his hearing echoes! Last time I said I wanted ten skewers of fatty and lean meat, and he gave me twenty; I said I wanted five skewers of mutton, and he gave me ten; I said I wanted twelve skewers of chicken gizzards, and he gave me twenty-four." Zhao Xing'er rejected it again, "I can't afford it."

“They’re either making money,” Yue Wen said, then looked at Zhao Xing’er with a puzzled expression. “So what are we going to eat?”

"I knew I couldn't count on you, you useless man. I'll decide." Zhao Xing'er scrolled through her phone. "You're the one, snail rice noodles!"

Yue Wen: "..."

I inexplicably felt like I'd been taken for a ride.

She secretly made up her mind that next time Zhao Xing'er said something like that, she would punch her.

……

As winter approaches, the nights fall quickly in Jiangcheng. The evening glow, like a worker rushing home from get off work, flashes by and then darkens again.

Wearing her school uniform, Wang Miaomiao rushed over, "Brother and sister, let's go!"

Yue Wen and Zhao Xing'er had already planned their time and were waiting there. They immediately followed the girl out of the agency. Yue Wen took out three helmets from his storage artifact. "Let's ride in my car together."

"Huh?" Wang Miaomiao looked at the white electric scooter with some suspicion. "Can I sit down?"

"Don't worry, even big guys a head bigger than you have done it before," Yue Wen said. He leaned forward to ride the bike, Zhao Xing'er sat behind him, and Wang Miaomiao sat behind Zhao Xing'er, holding her waist. The three of them rode the powerful electric scooter to the scene of the incident.

Yue Wen was somewhat familiar with the place he was going to; it was a relatively upscale neighborhood in the city center, where many faculty and staff from Jiangcheng University lived. His family originally lived in this area as well, but he sold their house to open his firm and moved into the apartment above the firm.

After arriving at the destination, I parked my electric scooter downstairs and followed Wang Miaomiao's directions upstairs, where I rang the doorbell.

clap clap.

Soon someone opened the door, and Yue Wen looked at the person who opened the door and suddenly paused.

This was a man of medium build, in his fifties, and thin. Although he was old, he still paid great attention to his appearance, wearing an impeccable shirt and suit pants. His thin face had a serious expression, and his hair was neatly combed.

"Teacher Guan, I've brought them with me." Wang Miaomiao greeted them cheerfully. "These are the two very powerful cultivators I was talking about. They can definitely solve your problem."

Teacher Guan looked at Yue Wen, somewhat surprised. "Is it Yue Wen?"

"It's me." Yue Wen smiled warmly.

"Is it really Yue Wen?" Teacher Guan's expression gradually turned to surprise and delight. "Is that Yue Wen from the Yue family, who got full marks in every subject since he was little and was always the top student in the whole school for more than ten years?"

"It's me," Yue Wen replied, "Professor Guan."

Teacher Guan continued, "Is it Yue Wen, who was liked by many little girls in kindergarten, and who was once surrounded by many female classmates on the way home in elementary school, stripped down to only his underwear, and ran home crying?"

Yue Wen covered his face. "Professor, you might have the wrong person."

"Is that Yue Wen, the one who takes money to do his classmates' homework and then gives all the money he saved to his mother to ask if she can buy him something that will prevent her from washing his feet in the future?" Professor Guan said excitedly, talking non-stop.

Yue Wen quickly pulled him inside, saying, "Alright, alright, let's get down to business."

The group immediately went into the house and sat down.

The man's name was Guan Qin. He was a professor in the Art Department of Jiangcheng University. He used to be a colleague of Yue Wen's parents and was considered an elder who had watched Yue Wen grow up.

He lived in a two-story duplex apartment with a spacious layout and bright white walls. The room was filled with paintings; at a glance, there were many paintings propped up on the walls, cabinets, and in the middle of the living room. However, it did not look cluttered at all. The content of the paintings and the arrangement of the furniture in the room were quite sophisticated, making one feel as if they were in an art gallery.

"I never imagined that her art teacher was you," Yue Wen said.

"I retired from school two years ago, but I can't stay idle at home," Guan Qin smiled. "I don't have any children, so I just occasionally tutor students to relieve my boredom."

"Your retirement is a real loss to the art department," Yue Wen said with a smile.

"I can't deny I'm getting old, I have to make way for the younger generation." Guan Qin said, "But you, you actually embarked on the path of cultivation, that's really something."

"We're lucky." After exchanging pleasantries, Yue Wen asked, "What problem have we encountered here? I promise to solve it for you."

"Hey, it's nothing serious," Guan Qin waved his hand and said, "My eyesight is failing, I might have misread it."

"Impossible!" Wang Miaomiao said, "What's there to be embarrassed about? It's normal for evil spirits to appear these days. Didn't you clearly say before that the things in these paintings would come to life at night?"

"Anyway, I have an emotional attachment to the paintings I collect, and they won't harm me." Guan Qin shook his head. "If you guys come here and mess around, and accidentally break any of the paintings, I'll be the one who feels bad."

“We will definitely be careful,” Yue Wen said. “If it really is a nightmare creature, we can’t just ignore it.”

Zhao Xing'er said confidently, "Professor Guan, you can rest assured that you've left it to us."

Yue Wen glanced at the paintings in the room. Most of them were from his collection, covering a variety of subjects and styles. A small number were Guan Qin's own paintings, which tended to focus more on figures.

He secretly used a spirit-detecting needle to check, and found no trace of spiritual energy in the room.

It seems that even if there really is a nightmare creature, its strength is not that great, and it can only reveal its presence in the dead of night.

So he turned to Professor Guan and said, “Professor Guan, since we’re already here, why don’t you let us stay here for the night? It would be best if nothing happens, but if there’s anything bad, I’ll take care of it. We haven’t seen each other for so many years, so consider it a chance to catch up.”

“Of course, that’s no problem,” Guan Qin said. “Anyway, it’s not completely dark yet, so I’ll show you my paintings. You probably saw most of these in my collection when you were a kid, but I’ve also acquired quite a few new ones in recent years.”

"Haha." Wang Miaomiao laughed, "You have this habit of talking about painting to everyone you meet. Well then, I'll go home first. I've heard this too many times."

The little girl ran away, her pigtails swaying.

Yue Wen also gave a helpless, bitter smile.

The old man was always like this; whenever guests came to his house, he would tell them the story of these collections. When he was a child, every time someone visited, he would be held back and told the story for a long time. Otherwise, with so many of his parents' colleagues, why would he have such a deep impression of Guan Qin?

Zhao Xing'er, on the contrary, was eager to try, "Teacher Guan, please tell me! I love art the most!"

(End of this chapter)