“Hehehe, if you hadn't married me, how would we have such promising children like Sister Zhi, Brother Yi, and Sister Ye?”
Nan Dazhuang sat on a stool, tapping away at the bottom of a pot, his honest face full of smiles.
“A couple of days ago, Sister Ye told me that Immortal Hua thinks highly of her and advised her to take the Demon Suppression Division exam next year. If she passes, our family will have two officials!
“Once Brother Yi's leg heals, whether he wants to study to obtain academic honors or take over the family trade and open another pork stall, it's entirely up to him.”
When it came to his children, this usually quiet man spoke a few more words.
“I've already made inquiries. Qiao Niangzi's cousin on her uncle's side plans to sell his shop. It's two connected storefronts. They originally sold burial shrouds and paper money, so other people didn't want them, which works out to our benefit.
“Once we knock down the wall in the middle and merge them into one, let alone the live pigs in Dingyuan, even people from the other two counties will come to our pork stall to buy meat.”
“Yes, yes, yes! Once Sister Zhi also becomes an immortal, that will be truly extraordinary.
“Maybe immortals will even come to buy the pigs you slaughter! Then your Nan family will bring honor to your ancestors, and green smoke will rise from your ancestral graves!”
Hearing the picture Nan Dazhuang painted, Chen Jingui could not help but glow with excitement, as if she could already see such a future waving at her.
“Then I'll be the mother of an immortal! I'll eat fat pork, fat duck, golden pears, and sweet melons every day. I'll also commission a heavy gold hairpin weighing seven taels—no, ten taels! I'll wear it while selling pork, and when others see it, they'll surely drool with envy.”
What would an immortal buy pork for?
To instantly refine it and make pork jerky?
And a ten-tael gold hairpin... Just how large of a hair bun would Chen Jingui have to style to support that weight?
Her father and mother were truly simple and adorable.
Nan Zhi burst out laughing.
Unexpectedly, her laughter startled the couple.
Seeing Nan Zhi descend from the clouds, Chen Jingui was stunned for a moment. She blinked hard twice as if to confirm what she was seeing, and then suddenly lunged forward, hugging her and wailing aloud:
“You heartless girl, you actually remembered to come back! If Immortal Shen and the others hadn't told us you were fine and made us wait here, your father and I would have gone to the capital to look for you!”
“Look at you, daring to leave a mere note and then vanishing without a trace! Your old mother prayed to the Bodhisattva and the City God every day, hoping you wouldn't lose your little life out there!”
Nan Zhi felt a wetness on her cheek. She gently pulled away from Chen Jingui's embrace to look at her.
Sure enough, though Chen Jingui had been smiling just now, her face looked quite haggard, and there were two ugly, red blisters near her mouth caused by anxiety.
Chen Jingui was someone who cared deeply about her reputation and was extremely strong-willed; even when selling pork, she would make sure she looked neat and tidy so that others wouldn't look down on her.
If she hadn't been worrying herself sick over Nan Zhi, how could she have neglected her appearance?
“Mom, didn't I come back in one piece? Besides, I'm already so old. I can't stay by your side every single day.”
Nan Zhi quickly took out a Blood Supplementing Pill, crushed it, and gently sprinkled the powder over Chen Jingui's lips, coaxing her like a child:
“I heard you laughing and joking with Dad just now, so why is your face so long the moment I return, looking just like a bitter melon!”
“No matter how old you get, you still crawled out of my belly and grew up on my milk! As the saying goes, 'Even if a child lives to a hundred, the mother worries for ninety-nine years.' You're running around out there, fighting demons and monsters. It could cost you your life!”
Chen Jingui began wiping her tears again. Suddenly remembering something, she hurriedly patted Nan Zhi down. Only when she saw that her daughter's arms and legs were perfectly fine did she let out a heavy sigh of relief.
Nan Dazhuang was also trembling. He wanted to reach out and hug his daughter, but remembering that Nan Zhi had descended directly from the sky, he awkwardly wiped his hands on his clothes and tentatively pulled them back:
“Ah, good, you're back. It's good that you're back...”
“Brother Yi, Brother Yi! Your eldest sister is home! Stop sleeping!”
Chen Jingui shouted toward the house, then gave Nan Dazhuang a push:
“Sister Zhi is back! Why are you acting so awkward? Hurry up and boil some water to slaughter a chicken. Cook a pot of rich chicken soup—
“Oh, and quickly call Sister Ye back. If anyone asks, just say... say that our family has a joyous occasion today.”
Nan Dazhuang gave a simple nod and quickly walked toward the gate. Suddenly, he poked half his head back in, staring at Nan Zhi for a long while as if looking at a rare wonder.
Once he was sure it wasn't a dream, the pork butcher who was naturally ugly enough to make toddlers cry at night happily cupped his face in his hands and went to fetch his younger daughter home.
...
Nan Yi was currently lying in bed. Although autumn had arrived less than half a month ago, he was covered with a thick quilt from the waist down. Despite this, the youth's once healthy face had thinned by more than half.
“Eldest Sister, you're back?”
Nan Yi smiled. His haggardness was even more apparent now, his chin noticeably sharper.
His gaze toward Nan Zhi was somewhat strange, but he merely leaned quietly against the wall, listening to Chen Jingui's endless chatter.
When asked about the reason for Nan Yi's condition, Chen Jingui's face filled with resentment:
“Who else but those plague-ridden scumbags! That entire family is rotten to the core! They didn't show filial piety to their dead father and got haunted by his ghost. In turn, they actually burned the horoscopes of our Brother Yi and Sister Ye! Bah!
“That Ji Wencai's heart is as poisonous as if it were soaked in nux vomica and heart-severing grass! Back then, for a bit of money, my aunt was actually willing to marry her daughter off to the Ji family!
“If the immortals of the Demon Suppression Division hadn't stepped in to handle it, just watch if I wouldn't have ripped that wretched Chen Hehua's mouth apart!”
Nan Zhi rummaged through her memories and finally dug up these two minor NPCs.
Aren't they the couple who were unfilial to their father and ended up haunted by ghosts every day?
To think they actually targeted Nan Yi and Nan Ye!
As it turned out, the two had been tortured so severely by the ghost that they somehow caught wind of a wicked idea: burning a pair of young children to the Underworld would send their dead father away.
Being naturally black-hearted, they had someone pose as a matchmaker to obtain the horoscopes of Nan Yi and Nan Ye. Once they had them, they returned to make paper figures to curse them, causing both siblings to fall gravely ill.
If Shen Luohe hadn't arrived in time and brought the Nan family back to the Demon Suppression Monastery, there was no telling what would have happened.
“What happened to them afterward? There are so many physicians in the monastery, did no one come to take a look? Didn't you take the pills I left behind? And how is Sister Ye?”
Nan Zhi reached out to take Nan Yi's pulse. He didn't avoid her, calmly offering his hand for her to check:
“Cough, cough... Sister Ye recovered faster. The pills Eldest Sister left at home didn't seem to do much when we took them.
“Immortal Shen had someone examine me, and they only said that my constitution is weak and not as robust as Sister Ye's, so I just need to rest for a few days to fully recover.”
Only then did Nan Zhi realize that Shen Luohe had not informed the Nan family about her being wanted by the Demon Suppression Division.
She channeled a trace of spiritual energy into Nan Yi's body, only to find his meridians severely congested. The spiritual energy flowed sluggishly, making him seem like someone with a congenital deficiency or an incomplete soul!
Before she went to the capital, Nan Yi had been the healthiest one in the family!
The pulse before her was one that would appear in an elderly person whose lamp was running out of oil, or in a patient suffering from a deep-seated illness or a recurring old ailment.
But it should never appear in a youth under eighteen, in the prime of his life!
How could a single illness leave him this weak?!
Though deeply puzzled, Nan Zhi did not let it show on her face.
“Cough, cough, cough... Mom, my throat hurts a bit.”
Nan Yi coughed a few times. Taking advantage of the moment Chen Jingui turned around to pour some tea, he grabbed Nan Zhi's hand and quickly wrote on her palm with his fingertip:
【There is a ghost in the monastery. Escape quickly.】
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