Edited—

They were both young, vigorous adult men. With their bodies pressed so close together, natural reactions inevitably arose.

Zhou Jiayu’s mind was somewhat chaotic. He didn’t mind taking things further with Lin Zhushui at this moment. In fact, ever since the day he and Lin Zhushui had established their romantic relationship, Zhou Jiayu had been secretly looking forward to something.

Lin Zhushui also sensed Zhou Jiayu’s arousal. His own breathing grew somewhat scorching, yet he gently spoke, taking Zhou Jiayu’s ear into his mouth and murmuring softly beside it: “Not today.”

“Why?” Zhou Jiayu blurted out. He lowered his head, pressing his forehead against Lin Zhushui’s chest. “I want to be with Sir…”

Everyone knew what “being together” meant.

“With no preparations at all, you’ll get hurt.” Lin Zhushui bit Zhou Jiayu’s ear. “I don’t want to be so casual with you.”

A tingling, numbing sensation spread from Zhou Jiayu’s ear. He sensed Lin Zhushui’s sincere intentions, and even felt something pressing against his thigh…

“Alright.” Speaking those words earlier had already cost Zhou Jiayu his greatest courage. At this moment, he felt somewhat deflated. “Sir, what you said makes sense too.”

He was just about to roll away and take a cold shower to calm himself down when his arm was suddenly grabbed by Lin Zhushui.

“But we can use our hands.” Lin Zhushui whispered. “Let me help you…”

Zhou Jiayu looked at Lin Zhushui’s aroused expression, and his mind instantly exploded.

That day, both Lin Zhushui and Zhou Jiayu were absent from breakfast.

Lin Jue’s face was full of joy, looking like a mother-in-law whose son and daughter-in-law had finally achieved their happy ending. Shen Yiqiong’s face was full of pain as he once again began agonizing over when he could start dating. The others were somewhat dazed, always feeling that Lin Zhushui being in a relationship was simply too grounded in reality.

At noon, Zhou Jiayu and Lin Zhushui finally appeared before everyone. What these two had been doing—anyone with even a little experience could tell at a glance.

Zhou Jiayu’s lips were slightly swollen, and below his earlobe was a chain of red marks. His expression was dazed. Lin Jue pulled him to her side with one tug.

“Guan’er.” Lin Jue called him very gently.

“Shibo?” Zhou Jiayu was startled by her expression. “What’s wrong?”

Lin Jue said, “Can you sit on a stool?”

Zhou Jiayu was baffled. “Why wouldn’t I be able to sit?” He plopped down beside Lin Jue, his expression and movements completely natural.

Seeing this situation, Lin Jue’s face was full of disbelief. “Could it be that Zhushui…”

She had only spoken half her sentence when she saw Lin Zhushui also sit down across from her, coldly raising his chin at her: “Lin Jue, just what kind of filthy trash is filling your brain?”

Lin Jue: “…” She suddenly wanted to light a cigarette to calm down.

Judging from the posture of these two, they definitely hadn’t gone all the way to the final step. Otherwise, their postures wouldn’t have remained completely unchanged. After all, both of them were beginners; there were bound to be certain deficiencies in technique.

“Alas.” After figuring out this matter, Lin Jue sighed deeply toward the heavens, saying she wondered when she would ever be able to give out her red eggs.

Lin Zhushui raised an eyebrow. “You should worry more about yourself.”

Lin Jue silently lit a cigarette.

After resolving the bone house matter at its root, everyone prepared to head home. This time, they had obtained a lot of important information here, one piece of which concerned the mysterious cloaked man. With the photo of his family in hand, they should be able to investigate his family background and origins without much unexpected difficulty.

Both Lin Jue and Lin Zhushui took this matter quite seriously. After returning home, they began searching for relevant clues, wanting to find out the cloaked man’s background as soon as possible.

However, before the cloaked man’s problem was solved, Lin Jue encountered a new trouble.

One morning, the guard let in a tall man. The man was extremely handsome, his appearance that of the most standard classical beauty. Although he wore neat, short hair, his body exuded a simple and heavy historical aura.

The moment Zhou Jiayu saw him, he vaguely guessed his identity, because faint purple qi surrounded the man’s body. Zhou Jiayu had only seen this kind of purple qi on the little golden dragon at Qixinggang.

At the time, Lin Jue was wearing pajamas, her bangs pushed up, happily playing mahjong with them. After the man entered, the yellow weasel, which had been dominating the mahjong table, suddenly jumped up from its chair and scurried away in a flash. Its eyes were full of terror, looking quite fearful of this man.

Lin Jue was baffled. She turned her head to look behind her and saw the man standing at the door.

“Who are you?” Although she didn’t recognize who this person was, Lin Jue very keenly sensed that something was amiss. She slowly stood up. “Is there something?”

“Lin Jue.” The man walked straight in and extended his hand toward her. “Hello.”

“Hello.” Lin Jue hesitated for a moment but still shook the man’s hand. The moment she shook it, she regretted it, because a very subtle smile appeared on the man’s face. “I’ve come to ask you for something.”

Lin Jue said, “What thing…”

The man bent down, his lips moving close to Lin Jue’s ear, and softly uttered a sentence: “My reverse scale.”

Lin Jue’s already strained smile completely froze. She instantly understood the man’s identity. With a yelp, she tried to step back, but her hand was grabbed by the man.

“Hm?” the man said. “Are you trying to renege on your debt?”

Lin Jue looked left and right, speaking of other things, finally showing a helpless expression. “Sorry, the reverse scale is gone. I don’t even know where it ran off to…”

The man said, “Then what should we do?”

Lin Jue’s expression was somewhat dejected. “What do you want to do…”

The man let out a light hum and raised his chin. “You compensate me.”

Lin Jue’s lips moved, and she smiled bitterly. “I do want to compensate, but something in this world that can compensate for a reverse scale—I can’t find one for the time being.”

“No matter.” The man said, “I’ve found one.”

While the two of them were entangled in this, Zhou Jiayu hurriedly went outside to call Lin Zhushui, saying that Shibo was in trouble and the creditor had come knocking.

Lin Zhushui’s reaction was calm to the point of coldness. He said, don’t bother with her; that was trouble she stirred up herself.

Zhou Jiayu said, “But that’s a dragon. What if Shibo pisses it off…”

Lin Zhushui said, “So what if it’s pissed off? At most, it’ll rain a few times.”

As soon as he finished saying this, lightning and thunder began in the sky. The originally bright, sunny weather was instantly covered by thick dark clouds. Zhou Jiayu stared at the sky in shock: “It really is raining.” So had the little golden dragon been pissed off again? He didn’t know what exactly was happening inside the house. After hanging up the phone and returning to the room, Zhou Jiayu saw Lin Jue sitting on the sofa smoking guiltily, while the golden dragon sat across from her, watching her with an expressionless face.

Watching this scene, Zhou Jiayu thought to himself that it was a good thing his Shibo wasn’t a man. Otherwise, he really would have felt like the one who came knocking on the door would turn into the little golden dragon holding a three-year-old child…

“Lin Zhushui agreed to let me live here.” The little golden dragon said, “You have no right to interfere with me.”

Lin Jue shot up with a whoosh: “I’m going to reason with him. Don’t even think about living here.” She shot up and rushed out, looking like she was going to find Lin Zhushui.

So only he and the little golden dragon remained in the room, staring at each other. Xiao Zhi poked his head out from behind the sofa. He also seemed to sense the dragon qi and was thus somewhat afraid.

However, in the end, Lin Jue’s struggle was declared a failure, because Lin Zhushui only said one sentence to her: “If you can find another dragon willing to live here, I can refuse him.”

Lin Jue was instantly speechless. These days, the number of demons and ghosts was decreasing. Dragons had practically become things only seen in mythology. Where would she find another dragon?

“So.” Lin Zhushui delivered the verdict on this matter. “Accept your fate.”

Lin Jue burst into tears, expressing that she truly hated her younger self. She shouldn’t have accepted that reverse scale back then. If she hadn’t accepted that reverse scale, she wouldn’t have the debt to repay today.

Lin Zhushui quietly listened, waiting for Lin Jue to finish her fake crying, then directly waved his hand to tell her not to bother him anymore.

Just like that, another member was added to their group. Several large vats were also added to the courtyard. The vats were filled with water—the golden dragon’s residence. At first, Zhou Jiayu was still thinking that wouldn’t he have to change the little dragon’s water every day? But after carefully studying it, he discovered that once the golden dragon moved in, the vat became living water. It was as if there was a spring in the water, with waves churning.

Zhou Jiayu watched in awe.

It was said that dragon qi was very beneficial to the human body. Over a long period, the body would become very healthy, and many ailments would heal themselves. No wonder Lin Zhushui had agreed so generously to the little golden dragon moving in. Who would refuse such a once-in-a-century good thing?

At first, the yellow weasel was still very afraid of Little Jin. Later, after discovering that Little Jin bore it no malice, it slowly controlled its instinctive fear and began coming out to play mahjong again.

Xiao Zhi was also very curious about Little Jin. Every day, he would secretly observe from the side. Zhou Jiayu had reason to believe that once Xiao Zhi got familiar with him, he would excitedly rush up to pull Little Jin’s hair.

The matter of Little Jin moving in made everyone in the house quite happy—of course, Lin Jue was definitely not included. The number of cigarettes Lin Jue smoked these past few days had sharply increased, and even her forehead wrinkles had inexplicably deepened.

Shen Yiqiong was still the one with the thickest nerves. In the first few days, he completely failed to recognize Little Jin’s true identity and even invited him to play mahjong. It wasn’t until Little Jin’s several vats were moved into the courtyard that he said in a daze, “What are these vats for? Pickling vegetables?”

Then he saw the man who had been playing mahjong with them transform into a dragon at night and move into the vat.

Shen Yiqiong was so stimulated that he became dazed. For several days, he muttered to himself that he had played mahjong with a dragon.

Zhou Jiayu watched with a laugh that was also a cry.

However, everyone’s ability to accept things was still quite strong. After a dozen or so days, they had completely gotten used to Little Jin’s presence. When Zhou Jiayu was cooking, he would even ask Little Jin if there was anything he didn’t eat.

As for the matter of the cloaked man that Lin Jue and Lin Zhushui had been investigating, they finally got a response.

“He’s from the Meng family.” After obtaining the information, Lin Zhushui directly told them. “The Southern City Meng family.”

“The Southern City Meng family?” Although Zhou Jiayu wasn’t very clear about these feng shui family matters, Shen Yiqiong and the others had heard of them. “Didn’t something happen to their entire clan? How could there still be people?”

“The Meng family is a rather special feng shui family.” Probably afraid Zhou Jiayu wouldn’t know, Lin Zhushui explained, “Their entire clan worships fire and lives by fire.”

“Lives by fire?” Zhou Jiayu didn’t quite understand. He thought that living by water was imaginable—living by a river. But living by fire—where would that be?

“Volcanoes.” Lin Jue tapped the table. “Their entire clan lives beside volcanoes. If I remember correctly, it’s in the northeast, right? A chain of fourteen active volcanoes connected together. They live there.”

Zhou Jiayu was shocked. He thought that these people really played more and more thrillingly. Living beside volcanoes without fear of something happening.

“This volcanic group erupted over forty years ago. It was at the hottest time, and the Meng family happened to be performing their fire worship. It’s said that not a single one escaped.” Shen Yiqiong also shared what he knew about the Meng family’s history. “This matter is quite famous in the feng shui world. After all, such a large clan was wiped out just like that. Human calamity can be avoided, but natural disaster truly leaves one completely helpless.”

It was said that the Meng family had been quite powerful at the time and held extremely high status in the secular world. The people of their clan were very full of yang energy. When encountering yin-attribute dirty things, they were practically invincible.

Yet this clan was inexplicably wiped out by a sudden volcanic eruption.

“Don’t volcanic eruptions have to have strong precursors?” Zhou Jiayu truly found it somewhat unbelievable. “How could it just erupt like that? The Meng family actually had no reaction at all?”

“Some things are hard to say.” Lin Jue sighed. “Just like the Xu clan… sometimes certain things exceed the scope of our understanding.”

The moment the Xu clan was mentioned, the air in the room became somewhat stagnant. Zhou Jiayu stroked Xiao Zhi, who was lying in his embrace without speaking, and sighed softly in his heart.

“The Meng family’s fire worship was extremely important. All direct descendants had to attend.” Lin Jue continued, “Because of this, at the time, the Meng family could practically be said to have been exterminated. Only some outer sect clan members who had no access to core techniques remained… After the incident, the entire clan vanished without a trace. These past two years, their name has completely disappeared.”

“Then the person in the photo is from the Meng family?” Zhou Jiayu looked at the photo Lin Zhushui had placed on the table.

The three people in the photo all revealed brilliant smiles. Whether child or parents, they all seemed very happy. Only, Zhou Jiayu didn’t know if it was because the photo was too old and distorted, but he always felt that although these smiles were brilliant, they made people feel somewhat uncomfortable when looking at them. Especially the dark spots on the two adults’ faces… they made that inauspicious feeling even stronger.

“Alas, actually, there was another theory at the time.” Lin Jue said, “It was that the Meng family obtained a very powerful treasure. No one knew exactly what this treasure was, but some said it could spy on the Heavenly Dao. Because of this, the Meng family was destroyed by the Heavenly Dao.”

Listening to the news about the Meng family, Zhou Jiayu actually felt quite heavy in his heart. Sometimes, although people said man could conquer nature, if the Heavenly Dao wanted you dead, you probably couldn’t survive.

“I’ve also heard such rumors.” Shen Musi said, “And it seems there was evidence to prove it.”

“What evidence?” Lin Jue became interested.

Shen Musi said, “Although the Meng family performed fire worship every year, they didn’t actually forcibly require all direct disciples to attend. After all, there were definitely some people who had urgent matters and couldn’t return. But it’s said that for that worship over forty years ago, the Meng family sent messages to all direct descendants, saying that if they didn’t return, they would be directly removed from the Meng family.”

“Directly removed? Although worship was important, it shouldn’t have been so strict.” Lin Jue analyzed. “Or could it be that besides worship, they needed to do something else?”

For example, the entire clan jointly discussing some extremely important matter, and this matter was related to the treasure they had obtained.

“So at the time of that fire worship, all the Meng family members returned.” Shen Musi said, “Direct descendants—logically speaking, not a single one should have survived.”

“Then who in the Meng family is in the photo?” Zhou Jiayu was puzzled.

“He is from the Meng family.” Lin Zhushui said, “But he is a Meng family member who was removed from the clan.”

The moment these words came out, everyone was somewhat stunned.

“The man in the photo is the third son of the Meng family head. Only, his relationship with his family was not good, because the woman he liked was not liked by the Meng family. His father, the Meng family head, even threatened him that if he wanted to be with this woman, his name would be erased from the Meng family genealogy.” Lin Zhushui’s tone was indifferent as he narrated the events of that year. “This matter caused quite a stir back then, but it was later forcibly suppressed. Although not many people knew, some did.”

“So he still chose that woman?” The couple and child in the photo already explained everything. Zhou Jiayu suddenly understood: “After being removed from the Meng family, he didn’t attend that worship, and thus escaped the calamity?”

Lin Zhushui nodded.

“So that’s how it was…” Zhou Jiayu inexplicably thought of Xu Jinghuo. He too was one of the few remaining clan members after his family’s destruction. Presumably, in certain aspects, he was filled with commonalities with that Meng family survivor.

“There is news that the Meng family’s third son passed away over twenty years ago, and his remains were buried in their clan’s ancestral grave.” Lin Zhushui said, “But before the third son died, he and his wife had a son. This son’s whereabouts became a mystery. Now it seems he should be the cloaked man who has connections with Xu Jinghuo.”

“So that’s how it is.” Lin Jue sighed deeply upon hearing this. “Another tragic tale… But the problem is, what exactly does he want to do by inciting Xu Jinghuo to do those things? Could he want to resurrect the Meng family?”

Based on the current information, Zhou Jiayu felt that the possibility of this guess was quite high.

“I’m preparing to make a trip to the Meng family ancestral grave.” Lin Zhushui suddenly spoke. “I need to confirm some things.”

Hearing this, Lin Jue opened her mouth and said, “But when the Meng family had their incident back then, didn’t their ancestral grave also suffer? Can the old site still be found?”

“We can only know the approximate location. If the Meng family’s third son could be buried there, there should still be remnants of the ancestral grave.” Lin Zhushui’s fingers tapped on the table. “It’s time to bring this matter to a conclusion.”

Zhou Jiayu listened from the side. For some reason, he always felt a bit uneasy in his heart.

When he returned to his bedroom that night, he took out that piece of kraft paper Xu Jinghuo had sent him again and studied it for a long time without figuring out its mystery.

“What exactly is this…” Zhou Jiayu was somewhat confused. He thought and thought, then suddenly had a brainstorm. He took out his phone and dialed the phone number left on the courier slip at the time. The phone rang a dozen or so times but still no one answered. Just as Zhou Jiayu was feeling disappointed, he heard a click—the phone had been picked up.

“Hello.” The voice that came from the phone was actually Xu Jinghuo’s, his voice carrying faint weariness.

“Xu Jinghuo?” Zhou Jiayu was startled. He hadn’t expected the call to actually go through.

“Zhou Jiayu, is that you?” Xu Jinghuo also recognized Zhou Jiayu’s voice from the phone. “Where did you get my phone number?”

Zhou Jiayu answered honestly: “You wrote it on the courier slip.”

Xu Jinghuo: “…” He was silent for three seconds, then angrily cursed, saying that idiot had actually really written his phone number on it.

Zhou Jiayu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Wasn’t the courier sent by you?”

Xu Jinghuo: “How could I send a courier from where I live—” After saying this, he changed the subject. “What did you call me for?”

“I want to ask what use that kraft paper has?” Zhou Jiayu was still holding that piece of paper in his hand. No matter how he looked at it, this paper seemed like ordinary kraft paper. Besides being sent by Xu Jinghuo, he simply couldn’t find any special aspect to it.

“Drop your blood onto it.” Xu Jinghuo’s voice was low. “Then you’ll be able to see the future you care about most on it.”

Zhou Jiayu’s heart was shocked: “Could it be that you…”

“Yes, I saw it too.” Xu Jinghuo said, “I saw what I cared about most…” When he said this, it was as if he had lost the strength to speak, his voice extremely low. “The future belonging to the Xu clan.”

Zhou Jiayu’s mood was complicated: “Why did you give this to me?”

But Xu Jinghuo didn’t answer Zhou Jiayu’s question. Instead, he directly hung up the phone.

Listening to the busy beep beep tone, a layer of cold sweat formed in Zhou Jiayu’s palm. The originally thin piece of kraft paper became heavy in his hands.

Was there really something in this world that could see the future? Zhou Jiayu was somewhat doubtful, but he understood in his heart that Xu Jinghuo had no reason to lie to him.

Since that was the case, should he give it a try? Zhou Jiayu thought this, got up, went to the drawer, took out a needle, pricked his finger, and smeared his blood onto the kraft paper.

The moment the blood touched the kraft paper, Zhou Jiayu saw a series of totems actually float up on the kraft paper. These totems were like murals ancient people carved on walls, full of abstract concepts. But even so, Zhou Jiayu still noticed the appearance of one of the totems—it was the image of a bird standing on a turtle shell.

The bird had black wings and three tender yellow bird feet. It stood on the back of a turtle, as if crying toward the sun in the sky. Zhou Jiayu’s entire person seemed to be pulled into a strange place. Here, he floated in midair. The images were distorted, and he could only see blurry scenes.

“Zhou Jiayu.” A voice sounded beside his ear. This voice Zhou Jiayu couldn’t fail to recognize, because it belonged to Lin Zhushui.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Lin Zhushui called his name. He gently said, “I like you.”

Zhou Jiayu saw the images around him suddenly turn red. The source of this red was flames. In the blurry images, Lin Zhushui stood before him. Flames burned around him, then spread to his body.

“No—” Zhou Jiayu felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. The blood throughout his body froze. The images began to grow clear. He saw Lin Zhushui standing in the flames before his eyes.

“Zhou Jiayu.” Lin Zhushui’s voice was still gentle. “Forget me.” He said this and slowly turned around.

“Sir—Sir—” Zhou Jiayu shouted like a madman. He staggered forward, running, yet was never able to catch up to Lin Zhushui’s figure. “Sir—”

Zhou Jiayu screamed miserably, watching with his own eyes as Lin Zhushui’s back disappeared before him.

The images paused. Zhou Jiayu returned to reality the next moment. He came back to his senses and discovered that he was sitting blankly by the bedside, still holding that piece of kraft paper in his hand.

And at this moment, a small pattern that had suddenly appeared in the upper right corner of the kraft paper was telling Zhou Jiayu that everything just now had not been a dream.

The appearance of that pattern was almost exactly the same as Jiba in Zhou Jiayu’s mind.

“Jiba.” Zhou Jiayu said hoarsely, “What… exactly are you?”

__

Author’s Note:

Starting to move into the main plotline now, mm… although the process is tortuous, the ending will definitely be a happy one.