Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

"What?"

Chen Mo's mouth was slightly open, his face showing surprise.

When did I suddenly have a wife?

Looking at his son's astonished expression, Chen Dachuan twitched his lips and gave a self-deprecating bitter smile: "It was decided when Li Dazui was still alive, and I never really took it seriously."

"If the girl doesn't want to, we won't force her."

He said it simply, then turned and went into his room.

After a commotion of rummaging through drawers, Chen Dachuan came out with a faded red envelope. "I've been keeping her birth chart book all along. Go and exchange it for yours."

"Let's just forget about it."

Chen Mo took the thin red envelope, feeling a strange sensation in his heart.

Looking back now, it seems there was such a thing in the original owner's memories, and he seemed to have quite a crush on her.

No wonder that woman looked at me with such disdain; she'd found someone better.

The father and son went out one after the other.

The gate to the Li family's courtyard next door was ajar, and low sobs could be heard coming from inside.

Chen Dachuan knocked on the door, and the sounds inside stopped abruptly.

A moment later, Widow Li opened the door with red and swollen eyes. She saw the red envelope in Chen Dachuan's hand and then glanced at Chen Mo behind him. A look of shame flashed across her face.

"Master Chen, Xiao Mo, come in quickly..."

"I'm not going in." Chen Dachuan waved his hand, trying to keep his tone calm. "The child is growing up and has his own ideas, which is a good thing. As elders, we can't block the child's path. This is Si Qing's birth chart. I'm here to get Xiao Mo's back. Let's consider this matter closed."

Widow Li's tears welled up again. She looked at Chen Dachuan, then at the expressionless Chen Mo, "Master Chen... our family is so sorry... that girl Siqing, she's so foolish..."

"Xiao Mo's post... wait a minute, I'll go get it right away."

She frantically wiped her hands on her apron, turned and went into the house. She rummaged around for a while, then came out empty-handed. "No, it's gone... I remember putting it in that little box at the very bottom of the wardrobe... How could it be gone?"

Chen Dachuan frowned: "Gone?"

"Mom! Did you take it from somewhere else?"

Li Siqing's voice came from the inner room, carrying a hint of barely perceptible guilt.

She came out, now dressed in her old, casual clothes, her eyes a little red, but she stubbornly refused to look at Chen Mo and his son.

"I haven't moved it! It's always been there!" Widow Li said urgently.

Li Siqing pursed her lips, her gaze quickly sweeping over Chen Mo before lowering her eyelashes: "Maybe...maybe I accidentally took some with me to school when I was packing last time. I left in a hurry and forgot to bring it back."

This excuse is full of holes.

Who would accidentally bring their engagement letter to school?

Chen Dachuan's face darkened. "Si Qing, this fortune-telling scroll is no ordinary item. If you feel it's inappropriate, just take it out openly, and we'll settle things face to face. No one will blame you. This kind of evasion is meaningless."

Li Siqing's cheeks flushed red, her fingers clutching the hem of her clothes, but her voice hardened even more: "Uncle Chen, I didn't make excuses! I really forgot it at school! If you don't believe me, I'll definitely find it and return it to you next time I go back to school!"

Chen Mo looked at her shifty eyes and sensed something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Chen Dachuan's chest heaved slightly. After a moment of silence, he gently placed the red envelope in his hand on the stone bench in the courtyard.

"Since you've forgotten, then let it go." His voice was calm, yet it carried a chill; even an honest man can have anger.

"From now on, this marriage shall be considered as if it never happened, and our two families shall remain neighbors."

After saying that, he stopped looking at the pale-faced widow Li and the biting-lip Li Siqing, and turned to Chen Mo, saying, "Let's go."

Chen Mo took one last look at the red envelope placed on the stone bench, then at Li Siqing whose eyes held a complex and unreadable expression. He said nothing and left with his father.

"This girl is too cunning and ruthless. In the future, try to stay away from her," Chen Dachuan said.

Chen Mo nodded.

He didn't care about the fortune-telling booklet, but Li Siqing's actions seemed to indicate that she was guilty of something.

. . . . . .

As night deepened and the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, the moonlight, which should have been bright, instead enveloped the entire Linshui County in a thick, dark red glow.

Wang Laizi, the rogue whose leg was broken by Chen Mo during the day, was being helped by his two henchmen as he limped toward the back wall of Du'e Zhai.

His legs were haphazardly wrapped with strips of cloth, his face contorted with pain, and he clutched a dark earthenware jar tightly in his arms, filled with pungent-smelling kerosene.

"Du'e Zhai? This is the place, isn't it?"

"It shouldn't be wrong. Sanzhuzi said he saw that person go in with his own eyes."

"Damn it... you little bastard... I'll burn down his wrecked place and see if he still dares to be so arrogant!"

Wang Laizi spat, his eyes filled with malice.

"Brother Laizi, are we really going to burn it? If we get caught, we won't be able to stay in Linhe County anymore," one of the henchmen said hesitantly.

Murder and arson are serious crimes in any era.

"What's there to be afraid of! It's a dark and windy night. We can burn it and run. Who would know it was us? I can't let this broken leg go to waste!"

Wang Laizi cursed under his breath, directing his accomplices to bring over several bundles of dry firewood and pile them against the wall, while he himself, with trembling hands, went to lift the seal on the pottery jar.

Just as the contents of the jar were about to spill.

A sudden gust of cold wind swept through the alley without warning, making the dry firewood rustle.

All three of them shivered simultaneously.

"Why is it suddenly so cold..."

Before the words were finished, the shadow in the corner suddenly came to life, coalescing into three blurry human figures.

It had no facial features, only an empty face facing Wang Laizi and the other two, radiating intense resentment.

These three vengeful spirits are the three people Chen Mo killed in Jinshi.

Unaware of their surroundings, they followed the source of Chen Mo's aura all the way to Linhe County.

At this moment, however, they were drawn to the intense malice emanating from Wang Laizi and his two companions, and misjudged their target.

"A ghost...a ghost!" The two henchmen were so frightened that they dropped Wang Laizi and ran away.

Wang Laizi was terrified. His hand trembled, and the pottery jar fell to the ground. Oil gushed out, and a strong odor filled the air.

As if stimulated by the sound, the three vengeful spirits, their bodies swirling with black mist, rushed forward!

As the yin energy entered his body, Wang Laizi immediately felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and the pain at the broken leg was excruciating.

"You two bastards, don't leave me behind!"

He screamed in agony as his strength rapidly dissipated and his vision began to blur and darken.

Just as his consciousness was about to completely fade away...

"laugh!"

A very faint whooshing sound rang out, like a sharp blade slicing through thick cloth.

At the edge of Wang Laizi's blurred vision, he seemed to glimpse a yellowish, swift shadow, as thin as a piece of paper, flashing past at an incredible speed.

Immediately afterwards, the three vengeful spirits, whose figures had solidified slightly, suddenly froze.

A thin crack appeared on the illusory body.

The crack expanded rapidly.

Like a bubble bursting, or something being blown away by the wind.

It turned into a few wisps of thin black smoke, which were swept away by the eerie wind in the alley and disappeared without a trace.

The intense atmosphere of resentment in the air also faded away.

The icy, detached feeling on Wang Laizi's body vanished instantly, but the weakness from the deficiency of both qi and blood, along with the excruciating pain from his broken leg, struck him, causing him to collapse to the ground, leaving him only with the strength to gasp for breath.

"Who was it? Thank you for saving me, senior!"

He stared in shock at the empty alleyway before him, his face still bearing the joy of surviving a close call.

"You're thanking me too soon!"

On the low wall to the left of the alley, Chen Mo had quietly appeared there, still carrying a trace of lingering, chilling aura.

He frowned slightly, glanced at Wang Laizi who was slumped on the ground like mud, and then looked at the two figures fleeing in panic deep in the alley.

His gaze swept over the oil can lying on the ground, the flammable oil spilled everywhere, and the firewood burning near his back door...

"You're asking for death." His eyes turned cold as he lightly leaped down from the wall and walked up to Wang Laizi.

Wang Laizi barely managed to lift his head, and when he saw Chen Mo's expressionless face under the red moonlight, his pupils contracted sharply, and fear instantly overwhelmed his exhausted body: "Spare...spare me...I'll never dare to do it again..."

"Click."