The furrow between Li Xichun’s brows had never been deeper.
In the past, Li Shasha’s eccentric remarks had been too numerous for her to pay much attention to. After some contemplation, she could only attribute them to the fact that Mr. Li had become somewhat deranged, imitating his grandson’s daily life.
On her side, Gao Xun looked at the rows of middle-aged and elderly people with kind faces and commented, “There may be something peculiar about this temple.”
Li Xichun’s initial reaction was that he had been influenced by a cult pretending to preach Buddhism.
After An Lao’s advice, Li’s grandfather now stared dead at Gao Xun. The veins on his hands occasionally rippled, but his face remained calm and peaceful. Without hesitation, Gao Xun directly suggested, “Report this to the police for investigation.”
“Wait,” Li Shasha calmly waved his hand to interrupt. “I have experience handling this.”
In such a situation, the first thing to do is to provoke the other party’s worldly desires.
After a brief thought, Li Shasha pointed to Li Xichun and said, “Auntie wants to break up. Things will take a turn. After years of love with no results, she has finally decided to become a ‘widow.'”
Gao Xun frowned, not having time to say anything before noticing that Mr. Li’s expression eased. “Very good,” he remarked.
Li Shasha was surprised, “Isn’t it grandfather’s wish for her to get married and have children?”
“That was once,” Grandpa Li shook his head, revealing a faint smile. “You’ll be fine. Isn’t IVF pregnancy popular now? In the future, our family will be part of the Li family IVF child-rearing program.”
Elder An nodded approvingly, “Hire the best teachers for him, mold him into an 18-item all-rounder, and he’ll have a great future ahead.”
“…”
Outside Tsingyun Temple, Li Shasha felt karma for the first time, realizing how he treated Li Xiangfu in the past and the consequences he faced today.
After Li Shasha’s defeat, a row of old heads still stood neatly aligned with love.
Despite Li Xichun’s ruthless demeanor, seeing persuasion was ineffective, she cast a sharp gaze over everyone and firmly stated, “Either you notify your families today to leave the mountain, or I will call the police right now…”
Taking a deep breath, she added, “and disturb the so-called Buddhist holy land in your hearts.”
This proved to be truly effective.
In less than an hour, more cars arrived on the hill, and some people cursed, saying, ‘I must report this place.’ However, the next second, the old man behind them swiftly hit them on the head, saying, “How dare you.”
The young man fell silent.
Upon seeing Li Xichun, the young man managed to keep his face polite and said, “Thank you.”
Li Xichun sighed helplessly, “It’s what I should do.”
She was the first to ascend the mountain, and in the end, all the other elders were picked up by their families. However, she remained in the same place. Inside the temple, Li Xiangfu was making tea with the abbot and discussing the way of world, claiming that he was still missing some final points of knowledge.
Considering the temple was crowded, engaging in a physical altercation wouldn’t be advantageous. Thinking that it would only take half an hour, Li Xichun didn’t want to cause any trouble.
Finally, as dusk faded away, under the dark sky, a person walked slowly on the surface, appearing holy with eyes full of great compassion.
“……”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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As the strange atmosphere of eliminating human desires before the survival of the heavenly reason thoroughly dispersed, Li Shasha borrowed Li Xichun’s cellphone to pull up the video of the “masters out of the people” competition. He played Li Xiangfu’s spinning video at double speed, and around the third time,Mr. Li’s chest rose and fell violently. He exclaimed, “I have long been wanting to ask you, what in the world is this jumping thing!”
In response to the question, Li Xiangfu calmly replied, “You don’t understand art.”
Li Xichun had a headache and contemplated whether to take the two to a psychiatrist.
“Buddha does not care about intensity.” Li Xiangfu suddenly looked at Li Shasha. “He himself has not been enlightened; he is just caught in a contradictory equilibrium, a pseudo-quiet, but examining it is good.”
Li Shasha humbly sought advice.
Li Xiangfu then looked at his old grandfather. “Dad and I encountered a gunfight abroad.”
Even Gao Xun glanced at the backseat from the rearview mirror as the words fell.
Inside the car, there was first a pin-drop silence, and then Li’s face began to distort. However, three seconds of calmness completely collapsed. He slapped the car door, and his lips twitched violently. “What did you say?”
“Everyone has bad luck,” Li Xiangfu said, staring out of the car window at the flashing trees. The tone of his statement remained unchanged. “Coincidentally, I met a crazy person.”
“Why didn’t you tell your family about such a big event?” Mr. Li’s face turned ugly. “Before you went abroad, weren’t I repeatedly reminding you?”
One sentence after another, like New Year’s firecrackers, shook the eardrums. Mr. Li counted down the words, avoiding repetition. The previous illusion of kindness was instantly shattered.
But the person in question remained very calm.
Li Xiangfu returned to a state of tranquility and distance. The car windows were half-open, letting the wind pass by his ears, creating a rhythmic sound.
Li Shasha interrupted his grandfather’s reprimand, saying, “Dad, your cell phone is ringing.”
Li Xiangfu finally stopped to check his phone and found ‘-‘.
[-: Next time you want to lure me to appear, you don’t have to purposely send a friend circle; it looks like you’re doing it on purpose.]
[-: Today’s news is interesting.]
In the past, Li Xiangfu might have explained that he went up to the mountain just to avoid the 9 to 5, but now he simply brushed it off and jumped to the second sentence.
There could be countless news stories in a day, and by saying this, the other party must be confirming that this news is of great significance to him.
Li Xiangfu first checked the hot search for a circle but found nothing.
Unaware that the car had arrived at the entrance to the district, Li Xichun said, “We need to register your car to go in. We can walk back; you can go directly home.”
Gao Xun nodded, aware that going outside of the house would not result in a warm tea invitation but rather the return of Mr. Li’s sneers and sarcasm.
The car made a U-turn and disappeared into the night.
Li Xichun retracted her gaze and sighed helplessly.
Upon arriving at his house, Auntie Zhang greeted him with a smile. “There is no one in the house right now.” She suggested skipping the doorbell-ringing process.
As Li Huaichen often worked overtime at the company, Li Xichun didn’t mention him much and asked, “Where’s Anqing?”
Auntie Zhang shook her head. “I haven’t seen much of him since this morning.”
Li Xichun called, but the other side only returned a ‘busy’ and hung up. Her brows jumped, and she couldn’t help but think of sending Li Anqing to Xingyun Temple to clear her mind.
“I’m afraid it’s because of Fang Yuanjian,” Li Xiangfu faintly said. “Second brother has used some method to make people who had done bad deeds with Fang Yuanjian voluntarily turn themselves in and report.”
Li Anqing had always been focused on doing things to the extreme and had recently been looking for solid evidence to prove that Fang Yuanjian’s work came from his father’s hand.
The mansion was dark. Li Xichun fumbled and pressed the switch, flooding the room with orange brightness.
For a moment, it seemed as if Mr. Li had seen the Buddha statue in the great hall shining with golden light. He quietly changed shoes and walked inside, wondering whether he was a ghost or a Buddha.
The recent poor sleep and mental state issues are attributed to the mood adjustment.
“I’ll go upstairs to rest first,” he said to avoid his son’s eyes. “Everyone should go to bed early; the family shouldn’t stay up late.”
Li Xiangfu did not go upstairs; his eyes fell on the sofa. He suddenly walked over and took out the newspaper placed on the side.
Not many people subscribe to newspapers nowadays, so the news implied by ‘-‘ might be seen in the newspaper.
Facing his sudden reading behavior, Li Xichun guessed that the previous mention of the gunfight triggered bad memories. This was a distraction, so she sat on the side to try to open the topic, wanting to offer a few words of persuasion.
But before she could say anything, she saw Li Xiangfu flipping through the newspaper at a very fast speed, not like reading but more like looking for something. Seeing that he was about to turn another page, Li Xichun suddenly grabbed his wrist. “Wait.”
The action was a little rough as he pulled out a sheet. Li Xichun unnaturally lowered his sight, his nails almost poking the newspaper.
Li Xiangfu tilted his head to follow and looked over. The headline was eye-catching: “Shocking! Man Kills Wife and Abandons Son for Property.”
One of the pictures published showed the wife’s mother crying and fainting on the ground, surrounded by people who supported her, without mosaic.
Observing that Li Xichun was not in the right mood, Li Xiangfu inquired, “Do you know her?”
Li Xichun looked surprised, raised her head, and then helplessly lowered her eyes. “Almost forgot…” She somewhat stiffly released the newspaper. “There are many things you can’t remember, especially everything related to Qin Jiayu.”
Without waiting for the other party to inquire, Li Xichun took a deep breath and began, “This is the mother of a good friend I once had.”
The story was rather tragic. Li Xichun had dated a boy in college, and the man had initiated a breakup, only to quickly marry her best friend.
The eyesight of some men can be remarkably poor, Li Xichun mused to herself.
Li Xichun smiled inwardly.
Li Xiangfu questioned, “But what does this have to do with Qin Jiayu?”
“He used the pretext of a party to invite my boyfriend to come home. After the party ended, my boyfriend immediately broke up with me without explaining why,” Li Xichun explained. “I asked people who attended the party, and someone mentioned that in the afternoon, he seemed particularly panicked in the backyard. Later, you and Qin Jiayu came out and told him to leave slowly without seeing me off.”
Li Xiangfu inquired, “Did you not confront me about it?”
“I couldn’t get a chance,” Li Xiechun retorted coldly. “You were beaten by Dad for skipping class at the last meal, and the next meal, big brother caught you for discipline. Your schedule was so packed that I couldn’t find an opportunity.”
Li Xiangfu remained silent.
Quickly changing her tone, Li Xichun tilted her head in confusion. “Later, I was quite grateful to you. My friend got pregnant and married him. Not long after, their family fell apart. I heard people say that he got together with her cousin.”
This person was a despicable scoundrel, exhibiting a beastly face.
Originally intended to comfort Li Xiangfu, the conversation about the past turned into a sigh from Li Xichun. She ascended the stairs with a heavy heart, contemplating whether to visit her grieving, mother.
Left alone, Li Xiangfu initiated a conversation with Li Shasha about the philosophical relationship between memory and the body that carries it.
Li Shasha preferred philosophical discussions over speaking in Buddhist language, and the conversation continued.
The exchange lasted about a quarter of an hour.
Feeling a bit parched, Li Xiangfu took a sip of water and glanced at the ‘-‘ avatar on the phone. He promptly sent a series of three questions: Are you still smoking? Are you still drinking? Did you go to the hospital to wash off the tattoos?
The ‘-‘ did not respond.
Growing more serious, Li Xiangfu began to flood the screen with the repeated three questions. After ten minutes, the profile was abruptly blocked.
A smile played on his lips, and Li Xiangfu spoke softly, “The enemy is in the dark, and I am in the light, but the final victory must belong to me… Do you know why?”
Gazing at the red question mark representing the blackout, Li Shasha replied slowly, “Because the enemy’s heart is not calm.”
Li Xiangfu nodded in satisfaction. “That is the reason.”
……
At 1:00 a.m., Li Huichen opened the door and returned. On the carpet, there were two figures, one large and one small, sitting in what seemed like a cross-legged meditation.
Upon hearing Li Xiangfu’s voice, the smaller figure opened its eyes. The corners of its mouth curved slightly upward, and despite its youth, it already carried a kind expression.
Li Huichen gazed at him intently for a while. The soft light in the other party’s eyes seemed to flow with the moonlight, making it almost impossible to look away.
After a moment of silence, Li Huaichen couldn’t resist saying, “Little brother, let’s go to a disco.”
To experience the vitality of life.
Author’s note:
Li Xiangfu: Choosing midnight moon to maditate over late-night bar hopping.
Li Huichen: … One hundred thousand dollars, I’ll give it to you, so go for a night of clubbing.
Thanks for the chapter! Happy new year! By the time he’s through with them, his poor family will be fit for Lalaland (not the movie, didn’t watch the thing just for spite because they stole one of my favorite expressions).
Hahahha is this where the sypnosis happen? The big brother is disturbed at how much he changed that he wants to see a bit of his old self again lol.
Thanks for the chapter ~~~