Lou Hongchen made no sound, not even giving his stepmother a single direct glance.
His body stood facing Gou Daosheng directly. There seemed to be no visible change in him, yet his eyelids drooped even lower, and his slightly pale, thin lips were tightly pursed.
Stepmother? Gou Daosheng was shocked. He slammed the brakes on his urge to rush forward and acknowledge a relative, muttering secretly to himself, Me?!
Where on earth had he been thrown this time?!
After waiting half a day without receiving any polite greeting from his son, Lou Guangrui said displeasedly, Hongchen, we are about to see your mother. Don’t always wear such a sour face. Hurry up and call him Daosheng…
It’s fine! No need to call me that! I don’t want to be his stepmother! Gou Daosheng flatly refused. Seeing the stepson’s expression, it was clear he didn’t recognize him at all.
There was no need to acknowledge each other then.
Lou Guangrui said quite helplessly, This eldest son of mine is somewhat autistic by nature; he hasn’t liked talking since he was little. He’s never called any of his stepmothers by their title, so he isn’t targeting you; don’t mind it.
Having mentioned the bad, he had to mention something good, so he added, But he is usually very capable. If the servants are careless and neglect you, you can ask Hongchen for help first. Anyway, he has nothing else to do at home besides studying and learning.
Gou Daosheng nodded, saying he didn’t mind, though in his heart he felt it was a great pity.
Why did it have to be stepmother and stepson?
Master said men were fine to sleep with, but one had to sleep with them ethically.
Stepmother, stepson. Unethical and immoral.
He couldn’t sleep with him…
Gou Daosheng was born of nature and raised by the earth, accustomed to waking and sleeping alongside the natural world. His feelings were just like his routine: he loved letting things take their natural course, like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west every day.
The sun wouldn’t rise from the west, and a stepmother and stepson would sooner die than be together.
It was the sixth lunar month; the days were long, and the weather was hot.
Because they had risen early, the temperature was moderate, and a gentle, cool morning breeze blew straight against their faces. Towering trees were planted along both sides of the path, their dark green leaves so dense they blotted out the sky, with sunlight leaking through the gaps between the branches.
Under the inescapable light of day, Gou Daosheng finally saw Lou Guangrui’s real appearance clearly.
Having suffered an injury last night, Lou Guangrui walked slowly, not daring to take wide strides. Yet his face appeared calm and lighthearted.
No man wanted others to see his manhood’s dignity compromised just from the way he walked.
Without the dark hues rendered by the night, he actually looked quite human, easily worthy of being called handsome and distinguished. His facial features had clear depths and highlights, deep and three-dimensional, no longer looking like a face drawn on a piece of white paper.
It was just that the dark circles under his eyes were rather heavy, indicating excessive lust and kidney deficiency.
A faint, grayish-black aura flickered at his forehead, signaling spirit possession and an imbalance of Yin and Yang.
His entire face was floating with an unnatural greenish hue mixed with an unhealthy pale tint, showing that his final hour was drawing near.
Watch the steps, Lou Guangrui reminded Gou Daosheng, saying, Come in and pay your respects to the First Wife.
This journey had taken fifteen to twenty minutes and had been extremely quiet, making it easy for one’s thoughts to wander.
Gou Daosheng was young and lacked experience; he didn’t have a shred of maturity in his bones. Back on the mountain, if he could climb a tree, he would never walk, acting as wild as a monkey.
At this moment, he was only able to keep his composure and pretend to be a proper person because he was unfamiliar with the environment and had to be cautious, strictly forbidding himself from acting recklessly.
When Lou Guangrui suddenly spoke, his voice split the silent air in two, disturbing Gou Daosheng’s internal evaluation of him.
Alright. He hurriedly composed himself, kept his eyes on his feet, and stepped up the stairs.
His field of vision shrank from the bright daytime outdoors, transitioning into the gloom upon entering the house.
Not knowing what Gou Daosheng actually wanted, and unable to speak with the weak residual soul, Gou Daosheng could only rely on himself to figure things out, aiming to resolve the matter early so he could leave early.
First, he had to get to know everyone in the Lou Family.
Gou Daosheng wanted to see just what kind of figure this First Wife was.
When there were too many wives, fights were bound to break out.
And it was easy to be given a cold shoulder or a warning display of power.
He couldn’t lose his morale; he straightened his spine, looked up calmly without fear or arrogance, and then, completely off guard, came face-to-face with a sandalwood memorial tablet placed right in the center of the table.
Desolate and quiet, cold and eerie, he was startled by the sight.
Inscribed on the tablet was the name: Lou Junlian.
This was actually a massive ancestral hall.
The First Wife was dead!
From the ceiling of the ancestral hall hung many soul-summoning banners with black writing on a white background. They brushed against the floor, swaying without wind like a row of eerie ghosts, turning the daylight gloomy and dim, coating the color tone in a layer of cold, hard shade.
They clustered around Lou Junlian’s memorial tablet, ensuring that after her death, she remained as noble as she was during her lifetime.
Junlian, I got married yesterday. I mentioned this to you last month, and today I brought him to meet you and bid you good morning, Lou Guangrui said tenderly. We are husband and wife tied by hair; no matter who I am with, I must have your consent.
Carrying a bit of cold sweat on his spine, Gou Daosheng threw him a glance of deep incomprehension.
Worshipping a tablet early in the morning was incomprehensible, and saying such words to a tablet was even more baffling. His pair of handsome, long eyebrows knitted together tightly until they locked. His eyes, which resembled a calm river enveloped in morning mist, were likely already hurling a string of curses internally.
Three incense sticks were suddenly thrust before his eyes.
They were not too close, but Gou Daosheng instinctively leaned backward. Only when he focused did he realize it was the expressionless Lou Hongchen handing him the incense.
This person moved without a sound, as if he didn’t even breathe.
One couldn’t tell when he had gone to get the incense, nor when he had returned.
He and Lou Guangrui already held three sticks of incense in their own hands, waiting for the worship ceremony to begin.
Gou Daosheng took them: Thank you.
The boundary between stepmother and stepson was distinct. Despite his immense regret, and in the presence of the deceased, Gou Daosheng harbored no improper thoughts, and fearing he might have any, he curled his fingers almost exaggeratedly when taking the incense. His posture was theatrical; he used only his thumb and index finger to pinch the incense stem, not touching even a sliver of Lou Hongchen’s skin.
Perhaps due to the eeriness of the ancestral hall, where only a tiny window hung on the wall through which the ghastly white sunlight could not penetrate, Gou Daosheng felt a bone-chilling coldness from his fingertips. It was as if his stepson were an icicle, his cold aura carrying a sharp aggressiveness that attached itself to the burning incense and transferred straight onto his fingers.
Instinctively, he glanced at Lou Hongchen, and his heart skipped a beat in an instant.
Noticing the glare Gou Daosheng threw his way, Lou Hongchen immediately lowered his eyelids.
If Gou Daosheng weren’t a Taoist master possessing a pair of spiritual eyes, he really wouldn’t have discovered that the youth had just been staring intently at his hand.
What was there to look at on a hand…
The incense ash had burned two inches long, standing upright in the air without falling.
Just as Gou Daosheng was about to look closer, Lou Guangrui started acting and spoke up.
Just like before, I am only bringing him to see you and will not take him to the others’ places. Your position will never be shaken, Lou Guangrui said with a dignified posture as he lit the three incense sticks, bowed deeply and affectionately toward the tablet, and then inserted them into the incense burner, saying, You see Daosheng now, don’t you? Junlian, Daosheng is a good child. I will treat him well, and he will certainly treat Hongchen very well, striving to be a good stepmother.
At this point, he smiled, adopting the exact expression and tone one should have when gently sharing an amusing story with one’s wife: Speaking of which, Hongchen is actually a few days older than Daosheng; we’ll have to let Hongchen take care of him more.
Everything is fine with us; don’t worry too much about me and Hongchen. He looked at Gou Daosheng and said to his late wedded wife, I hope you protect the family and don’t let him end up like those few…
Gou Daosheng waited for him to continue, his ears perked up straight, eager to gather more information.
However, Lou Guangrui shut his mouth and said no more. Taking Gou Daosheng’s hand with a genial smile and a joyful tone, he began introducing the twelfth wife he had married yesterday in greater detail to Lou Junlian.
Why touch his hand all of a sudden? Gou Daosheng felt so disgusted he wanted to bare his teeth.
The moment their fingers touched, he inexplicably felt a chilling gaze shoot violently from behind, clinging with danger, seemingly wanting to slice through and separate their hands.
The gloomy air of the ancestral hall was filled with thick, oppressive gloom.
It was likely the First Wife’s ghost.
As long as he wasn’t taken by surprise, Gou Daosheng was not afraid of ghosts, so his instinct to pull his hand away wasn’t because of her.
To tell the truth, Lou Guangrui wasn’t bad-looking; otherwise, he couldn’t have fathered a son like Lou Hongchen, whose stunning appearance made a lasting impression at first glance.
Although he was a middle-aged man, there weren’t many obvious wrinkles on his face… but after all, he was in his forties or fifties, far too old, and Gou Daosheng didn’t like that.
Mr. Lou, Gou Daosheng said with a face full of righteousness, raising his hand slightly in polite refusal and speaking with high-sounding grandeur, Don’t mess around in front of the First Wife.
Lou Guangrui was startled for a moment.
When the previous few who married into the Lou family saw the memorial tablet, they either trembled uncontrollably out of fear or showed zero respect toward the deceased. None were like Gou Daosheng, who possessed both courage and decorum at such a young age.
It was my impropriety, Lou Guangrui said, greatly admiring Gou Daosheng’s ability to understand the bigger picture.
The incense was offered, and the person, or rather, the ghost, had been worshipped.
The three of them went out together. Lou Hongchen, as usual, didn’t say a word, following silently behind. Meanwhile, his lowered black eyes continuously tracked the hand hanging at Gou Daosheng’s side.
In the courtyard of the ancestral hall stood a nanmu tree that clearly had some age to it. Its thick trunk stretched toward the sky in a domineering manner, looking as though the courtyard wall should have had a roof, but the tree had poked a hole right through it.
A figure wearing a small black suit with white hair was clinging tightly to the tree trunk. Compared to the towering tree, that figure looked pitifully small, and even possessed a hint of cuteness.
His ghost-like eyes blinked without stopping.
Upon seeing Gou Daosheng come out, he swiftly darted away and fled.
A gust of wind carrying white fur blew past.
Little ghost! Stop right there! Gou Daosheng had sharp eyes and had already spotted him out of the corner of his eye. Because he was in an unfamiliar environment, he hadn’t dared to confirm it, believing it was real only when the white shadow moved.
With new grievances and old hatreds combined, how could he keep pretending to be proper? With a Whoosh, !, he launched himself forward, sprinting after him in a rage.
It was precisely because of this ghost child that he had ended up in this place.
Now that the ghost infant had appeared here again, this matter definitely had everything to do with him.
It was one thing to drag him into this, but to actually involve an ordinary person like Lou Hongchen as well?
An evil ghost harming people was an unforgivable crime.
Once he caught him, if the ghost didn’t confess what Gou Daosheng’s wish was and caused him to be stuck here, he would beat his milk out from last night!
Even though the person had been out of sight for a while, Lou Guangrui was still standing there, staring blankly in the direction Gou Daosheng had disappeared.
The last swaying, moon-white remnant shadow was etched into his eyes, seemingly carrying a trace of fragrance.
A moment later, a look of realization appeared on his face, and he shook his head, bursting into a soft laugh: I thought this child was truly bold; turns out he’s scared too. Cute enough.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have run so fast. Saying he was chasing a child, he acted it out quite convincingly.
Let him be. Let him take a couple of days to adapt. Lou Guangrui was in a good mood, the smile on his face lingering for a long time. He didn’t feel his dignity was damaged by being left behind by his new bride; a teenager was allowed to be innocent.
He said to the male servant who had followed them: Deliver breakfast over to him. He’s still growing, so don’t let him go hungry. Watch him finish eating.
Tell him that I won’t be able to go over to his place for the next few days, and ask him not to blame me. After some time passes, I will go find him.
As his words ended, Lou Guangrui’s originally straight spine gradually collapsed, his backbone arching slightly forward. He waved his hand at Lou Hongchen: Hongchen, if you still want to talk to your mother, go back inside and talk a bit more. If not, go back to your studies.
Having said that, he slithered like a snail beneath his feet, shuffling forward step by step. The injury from last night hurt so much that he broke out in a cold sweat.
On the other side, Gou Daosheng was sweating profusely from the heat.
And he had freakin’ lost the chase!
The ghost infant was clearly familiar with the terrain, darting left and right, leaping up and down, making Gou Daosheng dizzy within moments.
The little ghost even had time to mock him: Running so fast, watch out you don’t sprain your ankle.
Just as he finished speaking, Gou Daosheng was tripped by the unfamiliar flat ground, stumbling bump-bump-bump forward, tiptoeing and flailing his arms in a circle on the spot before finally coming to a halt.
Fortunately, he grabbed a tree branch in front of him just in time, nimbly twisting his waist and stabilizing his legs, standing straight up without taking a flat-faced spill.
You brat, in your past life, you must have cursed yourself to death with your own big mouth, right? In just this moment, looking up, the ghost infant was nowhere to be found. You deserved to have your grave dug up! Whoever dug up your grave should be thanked! It was simply removing a harm for the people!
Gou Daosheng had been lively back on the mountain, like a handsome giant monkey.
Wherever there was a path, it was entirely stomped out by him. In spring, when the wild grass just sprouted, he even loved running around barefoot to have fun.
He was a path-maker who never lost his way and had a great sense of direction. Any place he walked through just once would be fully stamped into his mind, turning into a map for him to recall at will.
However, for a place he visited for the first time, the map hadn’t formed yet, so he was unfamiliar with it.
Chasing the ghost infant had nearly made him lose his way.
Fearing he might fall into a trap if he kept chasing, since who knew if this ghost child was intentionally trying to harm him, Gou Daosheng didn’t act recklessly.
Even though he felt so suffocated that he had already strangled the little ghost countless times in his imagination, he still immediately recognized how to return to his own courtyard before actually getting lost. As he walked, he muttered to himself: Just wait until you fall into my hands. See if I don’t have Master stew you, hmph!
Just as he returned to his place, the blazing sun overhead ducked into the cloud layer for a moment.
Behind him, a faint sound of footsteps rang out.
Rustling.
Such an imperceptible sound would likely be unheard by an ordinary person’s ears, but Gou Daosheng had been crossing paths with lonely souls and wild ghosts in the mountains since childhood, even though he hadn’t caught a single ghost.
His fate element was entirely Yin, naturally attracting Yin energy; even a sliver of Yin wind blowing a single strand of his hair could be felt by him.
The little ghost actually dared to come back and scare him.
Gou Daosheng raised his eyebrows in a playful smile, then abruptly turned around!
The person behind probably hadn’t expected him to turn around so swiftly, unable to brake in time, and continued forward out of momentum.
Lou Hongchen’s incomparably handsome yet completely expressionless face thus suddenly enlarged before Gou Daosheng’s eyes.
A pair of eyes so black they seemed capable of dripping ink locked directly onto him.