She was very happy to meet another friend today, especially after hearing Brother Xiao Yuan introduce that Qin Li had always been alone without friends in the past. She felt very sad for her, thinking that this beautiful sister had it much worse than herself.
Soon, Li Juxiang’s voice came from downstairs, calling them to go home.
"Goodbye, Brother Xiao Yuan, goodbye, Sister Alii. I’ll come back to play with you in a couple of days."
Li Zhiyuan waved at Cui Cui, then took Alii’s hand and waved it too.
He could sense a slight resistance from Alii.
After Cui Cui left, Li Zhiyuan looked down at Qin Li and said,
"I know you’ve adapted to that self-imposed isolation, but I still suggest that you try stepping out to experience the outside world. After experiencing it, you can decide whether to return or not."
Qin Li said nothing, merely looking earnestly at Li Zhiyuan.
After experiencing those inexplicable feelings recently, Li Zhiyuan increasingly felt that Alii’s present might very well be his future.
*No, seeing how his mother was now, his future would only be worse than Alii’s.*
*What followed was a tranquil time for reading.*
*With the previous reading accumulation and having seen two real corpses to gain practical knowledge, now, when Li Zhiyuan looked at the "Jianghu Chronicles," he skimmed through it at the speed of flipping through a comic book.*
*With every article, every page, sharply capturing special keywords to form memory cognition, and then quickly turning to the next page.*
*Once he had a suitable comparison and reference point, other corpse recoveries were just a matter of adding and subtracting based on them.*
*Li Zhiyuan found the feeling like when flipping through new textbooks in the past.*
*Flip through one volume quickly, then move on to the next.*
*Finally, before Aunt Liu called for dinner, Li Zhiyuan finished the forty-second volume of the "Jianghu Chronicles."*
*On the bottom right corner of the last page of the final volume, there were a few lines of small text:*
*[This book is the result of my spiritual travels throughout the universe, wandering across rivers, lakes, and marshlands. Ordinary people see it as merely amusing strange tales to enliven their tea breaks; those who truly savor it with relish, however, undoubtedly have many misfortunes in life.*
*I can only wish you good luck from afar, my friend.*
*Li Zhiyuan leaned back on the wicker chair, resting one hand behind his head, internally admiring:*
*The book’s author truly was an interesting person.*
*As for what the author said at the end, Li Zhiyuan understood, ordinary people who hadn’t seen corpses would only see it as ghost stories. But those who had... well, misfortune was inevitable.*
At this moment, Li Zhiyuan felt a small soft hand slip behind his head, intertwining with his fingertips. It was Qin Li.
Li Zhiyuan smiled at her and then closed his eyes, planning to nap for a bit. After dinner, he could go to the basement to find new books.
*Hmm, it seemed more comfortable resting on a hand that wasn’t his own.*
Qin Li earnestly watched the boy in front of her with his eyes closed, from his hair, to his forehead, to his eyes, to his nose, and to his mouth, then circled back to begin counting each of his eyelashes.
At dinner, Mr. Shan said he would have Run Sheng take him to the town health clinic the next day to get a set of false teeth made, then push him back home. In a couple of days, he’d have Run Sheng come to Li Sanjiang’s place.
When there was business, he’d have someone call Run Sheng back for corpse recovery.
Li Sanjiang was so angry he slammed his chopsticks down, cursing,
"So you’re raising your family’s mule at my house, only to take it when you need it and then leave it here to eat my feed when you’re done?"
If it really only ate regular feed, it wouldn’t be so bad, but this guy’s appetite was bigger than everyone else’s!
Before, when Ting Hou cooked, the rice pot would be just shallow, but when he was around, she’d have to cook a separate pot just for him.
Mr. Shan sucked on his water pipe, glancing at Li Zhiyuan eating at the small table with the pretty girl, and chuckled, "I say, Marquis Sanjiang, you’re at the age where you need to think about passing the baton, right? If you don’t count on Marquis Runsheng, are you counting on Little Yuanhou?"
"Ha, whether it’s bullshit or not, listen. I know you have Little Yuanhou’s grandpa set to care for your retirement, and I trust in your judgment, but for someone like you accustomed to a comfortable life, you don’t expect to suffer once you’re bedridden, do you? Start selling off assets maybe?
If the assets are all sold and you’re not dead yet, what then? Eating porridge and gruel every day?
Yes, Han Marquis might not lack for a meal, but have you seen the days he’s having now?
To live a good and comfortable old age, it’s not only about having someone sincerely care for you but also..."
Mr. Shan rubbed two fingers together at Li Sanjiang,
"There also needs to be income. Marquis Runsheng might just eat a bit, but he’s quite good at corpse recovery. This kid’s got more skills than I do.
Besides, you, Marquis Sanjiang, don’t lack that bit of grain. You can give him less meat and veggies, just make sure there’s enough rice!"
At this moment, Aunt Liu, who brought the soup over, cheerfully added, "I can make incense the traditional way. Not only will it be enough for him, but we could also have a small side business."
"Ugh..." Li Sanjiang rubbed his nose, suddenly thinking it was a pretty good idea, but he turned to Mr. Shan and asked, "If you give me Marquis Runsheng, what about your retirement? You’re not thinking of running over to mooch off my retirement, are you?"
"Don’t worry, I won’t die a good death."
"What kind of talk is that?"
"Honestly, I’ve seen it all. I don’t have the luck you do to peacefully pass away in bed."
"What nonsense, if you have Marquis Runsheng break your legs right now, can’t you lie in bed heading for a peaceful ending?"
After a round of cursing and deflecting, the matter seemed tacitly agreed upon.
Li Zhiyuan was quite happy, watching Run Sheng salivating and waiting for the incense to finish burning. How great, as long as Run Sheng was around, he’d have more practical opportunities for book learning.
After dinner, Li Zhiyuan saw Qin Li back to the east room, then went to the cabinet drawer to get a flashlight and put in fresh batteries.
The rural habit was to remove flashlight batteries after use to prevent draining.
Li Zhiyuan didn’t plan to ask Grandmaster to change the basement light bulb for now. He thought holding a flashlight gave the atmosphere a treasure-hunting feel.
With the flashlight beam showing the way to the first box he opened, there were still plenty of books inside. He planned to go through them box by box.
With the flashlight in his left hand, his right hand reached in like drawing lottery tickets, and finally, Li Zhiyuan came across two stacks of books.
These two stacks were quite thick and had hard covers, like book sets bundling all the volumes neatly together.
He took out the two piles and placed them on the ground.
Each set comprised eight books, none too thick, without any words on the book set cover. Li Zhiyuan randomly pulled out one book from each set and found there was no title on these books’ covers either.
He had to open them to see the content. Shining the flashlight, Li Zhiyuan was briefly stunned.
It was handwritten, the script was beautiful small regular script, but the problem was, the writing was so tiny, like ant legs, and densely covered both sides...
So even though the book wasn’t thick, its content was alarmingly rich.
*To read this book, it seemed he’d need a magnifying glass.*
Checking the other set, the font was the same size too.
*Were both sets done by the same author?*
Li Zhiyuan, holding the flashlight, searched carefully and finally found two white labels on the inner sides of the binders, showing the names of the two sets:
"Yin Yang Face Reading," "Life Chart Calculation Theory."
One was on face reading, the other on fortune telling.
Li Zhiyuan lightly tapped the flashlight, the beam occasionally crossing his small and contemplative face.
"Hmm... Seems kind of useless?"