Jiang Nan’s eyes went wide, and his legs wobbled so badly he nearly fell off the earthen wall.
He struggled to steady himself, glaring down at Jiang Xu in the courtyard.
“You… you… you’re actually tattling?”
“You’re a grown adult—how can you have the nerve to tattle?”
Jiang Xu tilted her head, looking at Jiang Nan with some confusion. “Tattling?”
“This isn’t tattling.”
She was merely seeking the opinion of a junior, showing respect for the children of the family.
Jiang Nan…
What nonsense about juniors?
Did she seriously believe she was the Jiang family’s Great-Grand-Aunt?
From inside the house came Old Man Jiang’s voice, not quite as forceful as usual.
Before he even stepped into the courtyard, his voice had already carried out.
“You rotten brat, who told you to talk to your Great-Grand-Aunt like that?”
“Get down here right now and apologize to your Great-Grand-Aunt!”
Supported by Old Lady Xu, Old Man Jiang walked out of the house.
Even if every shout cost him two gasping breaths, nothing could stop his determination to scold and discipline his grandson.
Old Lady Xu also urged Jiang Nan from the side.
“Nan, come down quickly and apologize to Great-Grand-Aunt.”
Jiang Nan??
“Great-Grand-Aunt?”
Trembling, he pointed at his grandfather and grandmother. “Gran, has Grandpa’s illness addled him, and you’ve gone addled too?”
“This woman’s a con artist—she’s the same age as me, and you’re telling me to call her Great-Grand-Aunt?”
“Stop joking around.”
Jiang Nan still refused to believe it.
Old Man Jiang was furious, wheezing and rattling in his throat.
“You rotten brat, are you defying me now?”
His voice was loud, and he even moved forward as if to smack Jiang Nan.
Jiang Nan flinched in fright.
Jiang Xu glanced at the agitated Old Man Jiang. “Gou Wazi, regulate your breathing. Calm down.”
“You’re not a seven- or eight-year-old child anymore. You’re a man in his seventies.”
Hearing this, Old Man Jiang immediately took a deep breath.
He turned to Jiang Xu with an ingratiating smile. “Great-Grand-Aunt, please don’t be upset. Gou Wazi will behave.”
Old Lady Xu nodded along too. “Great-Grand-Aunt, Yadan will behave too.”
On the earthen wall, Jiang Nan’s foot slipped, and his body pitched forward.
“Nan, careful!”
“You rotten brat!”
The old couple were beside themselves with worry.
Jiang Xu glanced at Jiang Nan as he toppled forward. Before he could face-plant into the dirt, she quickly stepped forward two paces, extended a leg, and blocked his falling body.
Jiang Nan??
Wait—she didn’t even need to use her hands?
Or was it that the safety of him, a descendant of the Jiang family, wasn’t even worth lifting a hand for in her eyes?
Jiang Nan felt utterly humiliated.
So, the moment he steadied himself, he immediately went to confront Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu raised her hand, and with a flick, a talisman slapped right onto his mouth.
Jiang Nan’s mouth stretched wide open—ah, ah, ah—as he tried with all his might to speak, but not a single sound came out.
Panicking, he clawed at his face, but felt nothing.
The talisman Jiang Xu had just stuck on him had vanished into thin air.
His arms and legs could move, his mouth could move, but not the slightest sound would come out.
Jiang Xu turned away. “You’re too noisy. Be a mute for a few days.”
Jiang Nan!!
He looked at his grandparents, hoping they would take his side and speak up for him.
To drive this bizarre woman out together.
Jiang Xu walked up to Old Man Jiang and Old Lady Xu.
The two of them beamed at her, fussing over her warmly.
“Great-Grand-Aunt, that rotten brat has given you trouble.”
“He didn’t land on your foot just now, did he? I’ll give him a good beating later.”
Old Man Jiang’s face was full of flattery.
Old Lady Xu also spoke up from the side.
“Great-Grand-Aunt, are you hungry? I’ll go tidy up a room for you to rest right away, and I’ll make you something to eat.”
At this moment, the old couple’s eyes held only Jiang Xu, their Great-Grand-Aunt, with no room at all for their eldest grandson Jiang Nan.
But then again, how could a grandson compare to an ancestor?
Unable to make a single sound, Jiang Nan could only rage helplessly in the courtyard, silently cursing Jiang Xu.
Jiang Nan swore to the heavens that the moment he could speak again, the first thing he would do was curse Jiang Xu, that charlatan woman, to death!
Fraud!
She was using her resemblance to the Jiang family’s Great-Grand-Aunt to deceive his grandparents.
Sooner or later, he would expose this con woman’s true face!
Jiang Nan pointed at the sky, swearing silently.
The originally clear sky, for some reason, gradually gathered a mass of clouds.
Dark and heavy.
As Jiang Nan pointed at the sky, mouthing his oath, lightning surged within the clouds. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck down.
It hit the tree at the entrance of their courtyard.
Jiang Nan let out a silent scream of fright and dashed into the house with his head in his hands.
Jiang Xu, who had already entered the house, turned around at the sound.
She watched the lightning strike the tree at the gate, sending up smoke.
Her brow furrowed slightly.
She had merely divined a hexagram using the tree’s leaves—was the Heavenly Dao really going to strike the tree dead for that?
Such a petty Heavenly Dao was truly displeasing.
Jiang Xu walked out into the courtyard.
Dark clouds pressed down overhead.
Lightning surged through the clouds like swimming dragons, churning endlessly.
Jiang Xu glanced at the still-smoking tree and the oppressive dark clouds. Between her thumb and index finger, a talisman appeared.
With her other hand, she drew a talisman in the air, then threw the one in her hand outward.
With a cry of “Open!” from her lips, pouring rain fell from the dark clouds overhead, accompanied by lightning.
Before the lightning could strike the tree, the heavy rain beat down on its crown first.
The smoke that had just begun to rise was instantly doused by the rain.
Jiang Xu threw out another talisman, which stuck to the tree trunk.
The talisman dissolved in the rainwater.
Lightning still surged overhead, and thunder boomed.
But not a single bolt struck down again, nor did any hit the tree at the gate.
Behind her, the three Jiang family members—calling them dumbstruck would have been an understatement.
Their mouths hung open, eyes wide, facial muscles frozen.
After a long while, Old Man Jiang came back to his senses and was the first to give Jiang Xu a thumbs-up.
“Great-Grand-Aunt, you’re amazing!”
Old Lady Xu chimed in, “Simply divine.”
“It’s windy and raining hard out there—let’s go inside, Great-Grand-Aunt.”
Old Man Jiang and Old Lady Xu ushered Jiang Xu into the house.
Jiang Nan, still frozen at the doorway, looked at the tree swaying in the rain and the water already flowing like a stream. He raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his face.
He couldn’t tell if it was from fright or from the heat.
But he firmly believed it was the heat.
Yes, the heat.
He had sweated from the heat.
There was absolutely no way a con woman could scare him.
Right!
Jiang Nan worked on convincing himself.
Inside the house, Old Man Jiang flattered Jiang Xu eagerly while also explaining the current state of society to her.
“Great-Grand-Aunt, with abilities that can reach the heavens like yours, don’t display them casually from now on.”
Old Man Jiang said, “Our family is fine—we won’t spread it around. But if someone else sees and reports you to the Committee, you’d be in danger.”
Old Lady Xu chimed in, “That’s right, miss. Things are different now than during the Republican era.”
“In recent years, many Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries have been destroyed, and the Taoist priests were forced down the mountains to return to secular life.”
“If anyone finds out about your abilities, and they report you, then you’ll be… in danger…”
Old Lady Xu was very worried.
Jiang Xu looked at the elderly couple’s anxious faces, but she wasn’t particularly afraid.
Instead, she asked in a calm tone, “So that’s how the Jiang family’s fortune was lost?”