Edited—

Although Xu Ruwang had previously joked about liking him, Zhou Jiayu had never taken it seriously. Today, faced with such a serious confession, while rejecting him, Zhou Jiayu also felt that Xu Ruwang’s behavior was somewhat strange. He wondered if Xu Ruwang had been stimulated by something to say such words.

Thinking this, Zhou Jiayu pushed open the door to the private room. Before he even entered, he heard a voice that made his entire body freeze. This voice actually belonged to Xu Ruwang, who said, “Guan’er, why did you take so long? We were wondering if you fell into the toilet.”

Zhou Jiayu looked up and saw three people sitting in the private room—Lin Jue, Shen Yiqiong, and Xu Ruwang were all sitting in their chairs, showing no signs of having moved at all.

“You…” That extremely uncomfortable dizzy sensation appeared again. Zhou Jiayu supported himself against the doorframe and said, “You… you’ve been sitting here the whole time?”

“Yeah.” Shen Yiqiong looked completely baffled and said jokingly, “Why that expression? Did you encounter another dirty thing?”

This time Zhou Jiayu didn’t enter. He slowly reached into his pocket, wanting to take out that ancient mirror in the jade silk pouch that could distinguish truth from falsehood. But when his hand went in, he discovered his pocket was completely empty. The things that should have been inside were gone.

“Where’s my mirror?” Zhou Jiayu broke out in a cold sweat. He looked suspiciously at the three people in the private room who were staring at him strangely. He called out, “Jiba…”

Jiba said, “Hmm?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What’s my situation? Are the people before me human or ghost?”

Jiba said, “I can’t determine that either.”

Hearing this, Zhou Jiayu decided not to go in for now. He really couldn’t determine what these three people were. Just as he was thinking this, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs behind him. He turned around and saw three people standing at the stairway entrance. These three people were actually Lin Jue and the others.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Shen Yiqiong was the first to speak. “Why did you run just now? Did we really scare you that badly?”

“Zhou Jiayu?” The Shen Yiqiong inside the private room was also speaking. He said, “Who are you talking to? Why aren’t you coming in?”

Zhou Jiayu was completely stunned. And at this moment, that Xu Ruwang who had gone to the bathroom with him also walked toward him from the end of the corridor. He seemed not to see the person identical to himself across from him at all and said, “Zhou Jiayu, why does your complexion look so terrible?”

Zhou Jiayu was surrounded in the middle, watching as these few people drew closer and closer to him. Just as he was seriously considering whether he should simply flip over the railing from the second-floor corridor, a deafening clap of thunder suddenly rang out from outside the window. This thunder pierced Zhou Jiayu’s ears until they buzzed, and his vision went black.

Everything around him twisted again. Zhou Jiayu felt his body uncontrollably go soft. Someone was heavily patting his back.

“Cough cough cough—” Zhou Jiayu suddenly opened his eyes and discovered he was leaning against a chair. Lin Jue’s voice was right beside his ear: “Breathe, breathe, Zhou Jiayu, breathe!”

Zhou Jiayu gasped heavily and finally recovered from that painful suffocating sensation. Light entered his vision. Zhou Jiayu saw three people surrounding him—exactly Xu Ruwang, Shen Yiqiong, and Lin Jue.

Logically speaking, seeing the three of them, Zhou Jiayu should have felt relieved. But those previous experiences made him show a wary expression. He even reflexively shrank back.

“Guan’er?” Shen Yiqiong said worriedly, “Are you feeling better?”

Zhou Jiayu made an “mm” sound. “What happened to me?”

“At first we all thought you were just drunk.” Xu Ruwang explained from the side. “But later we discovered something wasn’t quite right. Upon checking, we found that you weren’t drunk—you’d been set up by someone.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Set up by someone?” He felt like his memories had gaps in them, completely unable to connect. “When did I collapse?”

Xu Ruwang said, “After Shen Yiqiong lied about not being a virgin.”

Shen Yiqiong: “…” His expression twisted slightly as he secretly ground his teeth.

Zhou Jiayu frowned. “After that I said I was going to the bathroom. Did I go?”

“You went.” Shen Yiqiong said, “You went and came back not long after. Then you started lying on the table sleeping. At the time, seeing your dazed appearance, we thought you had drunk too much. But then Lin Jue checked and discovered someone had stuck a talisman paper on your back.”

“Talisman paper??” Zhou Jiayu was startled. He saw that there was indeed a yellow object on the table before him. This thing was definitely drawn by someone. On it was a talisman array that Zhou Jiayu had never seen before.

“Someone really dared to make a move on you.” Lin Jue gritted her teeth. “They better not let me catch them!”

Zhou Jiayu said, “What’s the use of this talisman paper?”

Lin Jue explained that this talisman paper could create illusions to extract certain information. She just didn’t know why these people would target Zhou Jiayu. Zhou Jiayu had only come to the Lin family less than a year ago. Logically speaking, it was impossible for him to know any private information.

After hearing Lin Jue’s explanation, a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on Zhou Jiayu’s back. He immediately remembered the conversation he had with Xu Ruwang in the illusion, and his expression became somewhat stiff. If what Lin Jue said was true, then the matter of his feelings for Lin Zhushui had been exposed…

“Guan’er, what’s wrong? Are you still uncomfortable somewhere?” Lin Jue said worriedly. She somewhat regretted bringing Zhou Jiayu out for a midnight snack. Who could have thought this matter would really be so accurate and effective?

“It’s fine.” Zhou Jiayu shook his head. “I’m not uncomfortable anywhere.”

“Alright then.” Lin Jue put away that talisman paper and said that after going back, she would carefully investigate to see who had made a move on Zhou Jiayu.

They had eaten this midnight snack for a full three hours. Dawn was already breaking on the horizon.

The few of them took a taxi back to the hotel. Zhou Jiayu fell asleep the moment he hit the bed, only getting up in the afternoon.

The headache from the hangover and staying up late made everyone’s complexion look not very good. During dinner, Zhou Jiayu saw Lin Zhushui and Xu Jian, who was already able to get out of bed and walk around.

Their return flight was scheduled for tomorrow morning. During dinner, Xu Jian hosted a banquet and prepared a table full of good dishes.

Of course, Lin Zhushui didn’t change his attitude in the slightest just because this banquet was hosted by Xu Jian. He still didn’t touch his chopsticks. Xu Jian couldn’t do anything about it either and glared angrily.

Zhou Jiayu’s mind wasn’t here either. He didn’t eat more than a few bites.

“The weather this year is somewhat hot.” At the dinner table, Xu Jian chatted with them. “Have the jade stones been prepared?”

“I had Musi and the others go buy them.” Lin Zhushui said.

“Oh, that’s good. Better to prepare early.” Xu Jian said.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t understand. Later, after Shen Yiqiong explained, he learned that in certain special years, Lin Zhushui couldn’t go out during July and August. At that time, the temperature was highest and the yang energy most abundant. With Lin Zhushui’s extreme yang constitution, he needed to be suppressed by a formation to get through it safely.

“Judging by this year’s climate, you’ll probably have a hard time.” Xu Jian said, “If there’s anything you need help with, just say it.”

Lin Zhushui nodded.

This year was indeed getting hot quite early. It was only March, which should have been deep spring, but the temperature was soaring toward thirty degrees. And it hadn’t rained for half a month. Many places were experiencing drought.

The next day, the group returned home.

Both Xu Jian and Xu Ruwang came to the airport to see them off. Xu Ruwang also said that after Zhou Jiayu went back, he would send them local specialties. Zhou Jiayu didn’t take it seriously and waved his hand at him before leaving.

The plane took off. A few hours later, the group arrived home covered in dust.

The house was empty. The others all seemed to have gone out on matters. When Zhou Jiayu entered the house, he saw the little paper person lying on the yellow weasel’s body, seriously grooming its fur.

He didn’t know what had happened while they were out, but these two who originally had an extremely bad relationship were actually getting along so harmoniously. And Zhou Jiayu also noticed that the little paper person’s height seemed to have grown a bit again.

Seeing Zhou Jiayu and the others return, the yellow weasel carried the little paper person on its back and jumped over with a swoosh. Like a puppy, it circled around Zhou Jiayu, then climbed up his pant leg all the way, finally stopping on Zhou Jiayu’s shoulder and rubbing against him vigorously.

The little paper person climbed onto Zhou Jiayu’s head using his hair and made a small nest with Zhou Jiayu’s hair, its expression incredibly happy.

Shen Yiqiong watched from the side enviously and said, “I also want this kind of treatment.”

But the things that made him envious clearly weren’t limited to this. After lying on Zhou Jiayu’s head for a while, the little paper person actually started speaking with hengheng sounds. At first Zhou Jiayu thought he had heard wrong. But when he held the little paper person in his palm, he discovered that it really was speaking. Although the content was very simple—just two words: baba, baba (Daddy, Daddy).

Zhou Jiayu said in pleasant surprise, “My son can talk!”

Shen Yiqiong was shocked by this sentence: “Son? Where did you get a son?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Look, Xiao Zhi (Little Paper) can talk. He’s calling me Daddy!”

Shen Yiqiong leaned in upon hearing this and discovered that Xiao Zhi really was hengheng-ingly calling “Daddy.” Although the voice was as small as a kitten’s mewling, it was indeed the two words “Daddy.”

“What about me? What about me?” Shen Yiqiong anxiously said, “Xiao Zhi, call Uncle, call Uncle.”

The little paper person glanced at Shen Yiqiong. That simply-drawn face actually revealed an expression that could only be called disdain. Shen Yiqiong said in shock, “Zhou Jiayu, how did you educate Xiao Zhi? Why can he make this kind of expression?”

Zhou Jiayu studied it for a moment and said in despair, “He learned this from the yellow weasel…”

Everyone looked together at the yellow weasel currently lying on the sofa licking its fur with a relaxed expression. The yellow weasel clearly heard Zhou Jiayu’s words and let out a disdainful hmph, as if wanting to say it had nothing to do with it. But it didn’t know that Xiao Zhi’s expression right now was at least eighty percent similar to its own.

Shen Yiqiong broke down: “I should have brought Xiao Zhi with me. At such an important time for early childhood education, the only one by his side was an uncultured yellow weasel.”

The yellow weasel stood straight up upon hearing this and chattered kaka directly at Shen Yiqiong. Its appearance was simply like a middle-aged woman cursing in the street.

Shen Yiqiong argued back with all his might. The two immediately started fighting into a ball.

And Zhou Jiayu stood to the side with a fatherly, benevolent smile, stroking the little paper person’s head and telling him to be polite and greet his aunts and uncles when he saw them…

After Lin Jue learned that the little paper person had started calling Zhou Jiayu “Daddy,” she said that in a few more months this paper person should be able to grow up. By then, when Zhou Jiayu went out, he could bring it along. This paper person’s combat strength was very high. Ordinary dirty things weren’t its match at all.

Zhou Jiayu was quite happy. He had the sense of accomplishment of watching his own child grow up.

The yellow weasel beside him heard this and stared at Zhou Jiayu with pitiful eyes, as if asking Zhou Jiayu why he wasn’t bringing it along.

Zhou Jiayu’s scalp went numb from its gaze. He could only dig out legal articles to popularize science with it, saying that yellow weasels were national second-class protected animals. Taking them everywhere would get you invited by police uncles for tea.

The yellow weasel was so angry its fur exploded. It babbled a whole bunch, but unfortunately Lin Zhushui wasn’t here, and no one could understand what it was saying. In the end, Zhou Jiayu still had to hold it in his arms and pet it for half an hour before it became less angry.

Life at home was relaxed and pleasant. He didn’t have to worry about accidents happening, and at night he could still enjoy the cool air outside the house.

However, after returning this time, Zhou Jiayu clearly felt that the atmosphere at home had changed somewhat. The Lin family head, Lin Po, came to the Lin residence every few days. Sometimes it was to find Lin Zhushui for matters; other times he came to their place to mooch a meal or something.

At first Lin Po was still a bit reserved, but after mooching a couple more times he got used to it. He even started shamelessly fighting with Shen Yiqiong over food.

“How’s the jade purchase going?” Shen Yiqiong gnawed on a chicken leg, his face covered in oil, asking vaguely.

“Already bought.” Lin Po said, “Currently on the way back.”

Zhou Jiayu still didn’t understand what jade it was and asked muddleheadedly, “Is this jade very special?”

“Of course.” Lin Po said, “This jade must be yin in nature, and the time from when it was mined from the ground cannot exceed one year.” Yin-natured jade was already rare; those satisfying this condition were even rarer. These jade stones had been ordered long ago. This time they just sent Shen Musi and the others to transport them back.

Yin things would at least attract some dirty things. It was said that the job Shen Musi and the others were doing wasn’t very easy either.

The entire household seemed to be preparing for something, but Zhou Jiayu couldn’t help. Shen Yiqiong consoled him saying there was no need to worry. This happened every few years. Lin Zhushui had definitely made arrangements. Zhou Jiayu just needed to stay home obediently. If there was anything he could do, Lin Zhushui would definitely say so.

So Zhou Jiayu spent his days reading books, drawing talismans, and learning some methods for dealing with dirty things.

Shen Yiqiong went out once in the middle. It was said he went to read feng shui for someone’s cemetery. Only then did Zhou Jiayu learn that the price to invite him out wasn’t cheap either. If he were still that little civil servant, he would probably have to work for ten years to barely afford to invite Shen Yiqiong once.

But Shen Yiqiong completely didn’t put these earnings in his eyes. His family background seemed to be very good. After earning money, he would casually donate it to nearby temples, only keeping a little for daily expenses.

Zhou Jiayu was somewhat curious and asked Shen Yiqiong what he was in the feng shui business for then?

Shen Yiqiong puffed out his chest very proudly and said that the heavens had decreed he was born to eat this bowl of rice. He also liked this line of work and hoped to become a feng shui master like Lin Zhushui in the future. When he said this, he deliberately emphasized the words “feng shui” and glanced sidelong at Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu inexplicably felt a bit wronged: “I don’t want to encounter those strange things either.”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Hmph, your mouth says no, but your body is very honest.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” This was the first time he knew this phrase could be used this way.

By mid-May, the temperature had already risen quite high. Fortunately, the courtyard was shaded by green trees, and the place where they lived also had formations placed, so it wasn’t particularly hot.

Shen Musi and the others who went to buy the jade finally returned. Together with them came a vehicle of beautiful jade stones.

When they were unloading the goods, Zhou Jiayu also went to the scene to take a look. Most of these jade stones had already had their outer skin removed, revealing beautiful interiors. Judging from the quality, each piece was worth a fortune.

“So beautiful.” Zhou Jiayu was also helping from the side. The jade stone he was holding was icy cold to the touch. The moment it entered his hand, he could feel the cold qi penetrating.

“It is beautiful.” Shen Musi said, “The places where these jade stones were excavated are quite special. They’ve accumulated a lot of yin energy…” Speaking to this point, he seemed to remember something and told Zhou Jiayu to stop moving them. His constitution leaned yin; he might be affected by the jade stones.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t force it upon hearing this. After all, his body was indeed quite special. If something really happened, it would still trouble Lin Zhushui.

But although he couldn’t help, the little paper person’s strength was very great. Although only palm-sized, it could lift stones that only an adult male could lift. Zhou Jiayu stood to the side watching it use its tiny body to carry huge jade stones one after another. He inexplicably had the illusion of a filial son working hard moving bricks just to support his weak father…

These jade stones were finally all moved into Lin Zhushui’s courtyard, preparing to be used to set up the formation.

Because of his constitution problem, Zhou Jiayu couldn’t go in and only stood at the doorway looking at Lin Zhushui from afar. Lin Zhushui was lowered his head speaking to Shen Yiqiong and a few other disciples. The expressions on their faces were all quite serious. Shen Musi was even holding a notebook, recording what Lin Zhushui was saying.

Zhou Jiayu just stood at the doorway watching eagerly. Lin Jue saw his appearance and patted his shoulder from behind, saying, “Guan’er?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Ah?”

Lin Jue said, “Don’t be anxious. It’s just two months. If you really miss Zhushui, you can still come to the doorway to look.”

Zhou Jiayu felt quite embarrassed being called out by Lin Jue. He also felt he was thinking too much. He stroked the little paper person climbing up and down in his pocket and said, “Then I’ll go make dinner first.” After saying this, he turned and left.

Lin Jue watched his back with a somewhat complicated expression, not knowing what she was thinking.

Early summer arrived just like this. After a thunderstorm, the temperature began gradually rising. Zhou Jiayu changed from spring clothes to summer clothes. The yellow weasel also began its daily shedding.

And Lin Zhushui vanished without a trace. Ever since returning, he seemed to have never left his courtyard. Every day Zhou Jiayu would drag Shen Yiqiong to deliver food to Lin Zhushui. But by now, Lin Zhushui’s residence had already begun setting up an extremely yin formation. He couldn’t go in, so he could only peek from the side and have the little paper person carry the basket containing the food inside to deliver the meal.

If the one accompanying Zhou Jiayu had been any of the other four, they would probably have long since discovered Zhou Jiayu’s feelings. But it just had to be Shen Yiqiong with his thick nerves. He even foolishly laughed and joked that Zhou Jiayu was simply like a wife-watching stone.

Hearing this, Zhou Jiayu had no choice but to rein in his emotions a bit.

The two could only look at each other across the fence of the courtyard from afar. No, to be precise, only Zhou Jiayu was the one looking. As the weather grew hot, Lin Zhushui seemed to have lost a little weight. His chin was sharper, and his expression was much more indifferent. Zhou Jiayu could clearly see fiery red flame qi circling between his brows. This flame qi grew denser as the weather grew hotter, finally spreading to his entire body.

It must be very uncomfortable, right? Zhou Jiayu remembered the feeling of cold qi overflowing from his bones when he went to low-temperature places. His heart truly ached for Lin Zhushui. But there wasn’t much he could do either. He just thought of every possible way to make all kinds of dishes to send to Lin Zhushui every day.

After the Summer Solstice, the third geng marks the beginning of the dog days. After the Summer Solstice, the weather grew hotter day by day.

After July, Zhou Jiayu no longer saw Lin Zhushui. And the formation in Lin Zhushui’s courtyard was also almost finished being set up. Once this formation was completed, one could feel the bone-chilling cold emanating from the courtyard just by standing outside. This cold seemed to penetrate directly through the flesh into the soul. No matter how thickly you dressed, as long as you approached, it would make you shiver.

After the formation was completed, even Shen Yiqiong and the others couldn’t go in. So the task of delivering food fell entirely on the little paper person.

Zhou Jiayu was a bit curious about how Lin Zhushui had solved the eating problem during these special days in previous years. Shen Yiqiong thought about it and said, “I don’t know either. But Sir has never really liked eating much. He probably just prepared dried rations in his room and got through it like that.”

After hearing this, Zhou Jiayu felt especially heartbroken. So the next day, the food he made was even more sumptuous.

Everyone thought this summer would pass as peacefully and uneventfully as before. However, by late July, on the day approaching the solar term Chushu (End of Heat), something suddenly went wrong.

The first to discover something was wrong was Zhou Jiayu. Every day he would go to deliver food to Lin Zhushui’s residence. That day was still a blazing sun with not a single cloud in the sky. A fiery red scorching sun hung in the sky, roasting the earth.

Under normal circumstances, the closer Zhou Jiayu got to Lin Zhushui’s courtyard, the colder he would feel. But this time, he was surprised to feel that when approaching Lin Zhushui’s courtyard, he actually sensed a wave of heat. Zhou Jiayu felt somewhat uneasy in his heart and quickened his steps toward the courtyard. However, when he arrived outside the courtyard and saw the scene inside, his entire person was dumbstruck.

Fiery red flame qi circled above the courtyard, layer upon layer like clouds dyed red. The plants in the courtyard already showed signs of withering, as if roasted by extremely high temperatures.

Seeing this, Zhou Jiayu’s face changed greatly in alarm. He hurriedly called Lin Jue.

A few minutes later, Lin Jue and a few others rushed over. Seeing the scene in the courtyard, their expressions changed drastically.

“How could this happen?” Lin Jue clearly was also encountering this kind of situation for the first time. She said, “I’ll go in and take a look!”

“Shibo, you can’t go in.” Shen Musi hadn’t lost his reason. “If you go in like this, you might collapse before you even open the door.”

“Then what do we do!” Lin Jue said irritably, “Something definitely went wrong…”

Zhou Jiayu gently raised his hand from the side: “Um… my constitution is extremely yin. Can I go?”

Everyone cast their gazes toward him. Zhou Jiayu quickly explained: “I don’t find this heat uncomfortable. Actually… it feels quite nice.”

“Okay.” Lin Jue exhaled. “You go.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart relaxed slightly. He raised his foot and walked toward the courtyard. Actually, he had been somewhat worried about what he would do if Lin Jue refused to let him in. Although his expression was still calm right now, his heart was actually churning with anxiety. What happened to Lin Zhushui? Was the problem serious? Could he help if he went in? With all kinds of messy thoughts in his mind, Zhou Jiayu forced himself to calm down, walked into the courtyard, and slowly pushed open the wooden door before him.