Yang Zengyue was the most formidable big shot in all of Nanyuan, even before the apocalypse, she was someone Chen Jia’er had to look up to.
“Silly girl. Since you’ve come back, it means you’ve got a fresh chance, you should go off and roam far and wide, that’s what you should do.” Joy welled up in Yang Zengyue’s heart, though she also felt a little exasperated with Chen Jia’er.
This silly girl.
Was a genuine clingy little thing.
“If I weren’t silly I wouldn’t be Sister Zengyue’s Jia’er.” This life of hers, and every opportunity she’d later gained, had all been granted by the person before her.
In the past life and in this one, Yang Zengyue was the person dearest to her.
And her benefactor.
What’s more, Chen Jia’er was convinced that her being able to return to before the apocalypse was also because of Yang Zengyue.
So, after settling the Chen family’s affairs, she’d come straight to Sikun Mountain.
Yang Zengyue had only ever said her home was here, without naming any village.
So Chen Jia’er had searched Sikun Mountain for three days, only finding it this morning.
Wandering the mountains like a headless fly, she’d happened to run into Master Jiuxiao coming back from gathering herbs.
Recalling something Zengyue had once said—”My master has the bearing of an immortal, a man who looks dashing even in old age, fond of wearing black Daoist robes, you won’t find a second old man like that in all of Sikun Mountain”—Chen Jia’er had latched onto Jiuxiao and followed him home.
Stepping into the courtyard and seeing it full of flowers and medicinal herbs, she knew she’d found the place. She’d found Zengyue.
“Come, sit and talk.” Yang Zengyue took Chen Jia’er by the hand and they sat down beside Jiuxiao.
The two of them had been whispering all this while.
When Chen Jia’er had thrown herself at her, Yang Zengyue had stepped back a few paces, so neither Jiuxiao nor Fan Jinggang had heard what they said.
Overjoyed, Chen Jia’er kept holding Yang Zengyue’s hand. These dozen-odd days since her return had felt like a dream.
Only now, with the warmth of Yang Zengyue’s palm reaching into her heart, did that hanging, anxious heart finally settle.
Jiuxiao’s heart could no longer contain his questions, all he could do was wait.
Wait for his granddaughter to speak.
After chatting a few words with Chen Jia’er, Yang Zengyue turned her gaze back to her master.
Talking with him about everyday things.
Fan Jinggang listened at the side, adding a couple of remarks now and then.
While Yang Zengyue was away at school, it had been Fan Jinggang who came to help Jiuxiao, so he knew her household situation best.
In the gaps of their conversation, the setting sun had already sunk fully, casting a grayish-blue tint over the courtyard.
Seeing this, Yang Zengyue plated up the vegetables she’d bought on the way back. Chen Jia’er had already cooked the rice, so they skipped stir-frying and the four of them settled dinner in the dusk.
After the meal, Chen Jia’er tactfully pulled Fan Jinggang off for a walk on the back mountain, leaving the space to Zengyue and her master.
Yang Zengyue was silent for a while, then slowly spoke. “Master, tomorrow morning let’s go up the mountain, to Xingyun Temple. There are some things I want to tell you in detail there.”
Jiuxiao glanced at her and saw in her eyes a gravity he had never seen before, so he nodded in agreement.
From the moment she’d returned until now, Jiuxiao had already sensed the change in her.
Just now, he’d even noticed the three black beads on her wrist.
If he remembered right, he had never given those three beads to Zengyue.
His memory couldn’t be wrong, those beads should be lying safely in Xingyun Temple.
The key to open the box was hanging on his chest at this very moment.
Something must have happened to her, or she’d had some strange encounter.
Jiuxiao saw the weariness in her eyes and said kindly, “Go rest. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is a new day, save those words for then.”
Yang Zengyue nodded obediently. “Master, you should rest early too. I’ll go prepare some things for going up the mountain.”
Jiuxiao returned to his room on the first floor, mulling it over without arriving at any answer, and finally just closed his eyes.
Tomorrow Zengyue would tell him the reason.
And that girl called Chen Jia’er, when had Zengyue met her? From her accent, the girl should be from somewhere farther south.
Jiuxiao found himself rather looking forward to daybreak.
He faintly felt Zengyue had brought back for him a story of towering waves and roaring seas…
After seeing Chen Jia’er home, Fan Jinggang returned to his own place at the foot of the mountain.
When Yang Zengyue finished washing up and came upstairs, Chen Jia’er was already waiting at the door of the second-floor guest room.
Once inside, Yang Zengyue stared at Chen Jia’er’s big backpack and asked slowly, “Tell me, how long have you been here?”
Chen Jia’er hopped over to Yang Zengyue’s side, hugged her arm, and said coquettishly, “I only got here at noon too, well, I, I just searched the mountain for three days and two nights, hehe.”
As for how those three days and two nights had gone, Chen Jia’er didn’t need to say for Yang Zengyue to guess.
Wilderness survival was already a required skill for them, and Yang Zengyue wasn’t worried about a Chen Jia’er who’d come back tempered by the apocalypse.
Sikun Mountain saw few people, if it had been the Chen Jia’er of before, she’d have worried, but now, there was no match for her on this mountain.
“It’s so beautiful here. No wonder you kept talking about going home, Zengyue.” Chen Jia’er loved it here.
Stroking the beads on her wrist, Yang Zengyue looked at the youthful, adorable Chen Jia’er, and her heart suddenly went soft. “Mm. Your family’s affairs, did you handle them all?”
Chen Jia’er nodded hard and gave a vivid, animated account of how she’d swindled that scummy couple, Chen Jinming and Su Baoxia.
There was no trace left of the gloom from her past life.
Yang Zengyue still remembered when she’d first met Chen Jia’er in the previous life, her body covered in scars.
If not for a lucky break that gave her the speed power, she might well have been sold by Chen Jinming and Su Baoxia to a fat man who’d also gained the speed power, to be his pri~vate plaything.
The reason? Just to trade her for a single meal.
Yang Zengyue had passed by and rescued Chen Jia’er, the fat man had been no match for her in a fight and was gravely wounded.
As for that couple, Yang Zengyue had never asked how Chen Jia’er dealt with them.
No doubt she’d squared her accounts with them.
Years of oppression, the family fortune stripped away, nearly reduced to another’s chattel in the apocalypse, her very self almost lost, and even learning the truth that her own mother’s death had come from those two scumbags’ coercion—Chen Jia’er would surely repay these grudges many times over.
All this was what Chen Jia’er had told her later, once she’d recovered. That kind of pain must have been agonizing to endure.
“Alright, it’s all in the past now.” Yang Zengyue’s tone was gentle and easy.
Chen Jia’er understood her meaning, so she beamed at Yang Zengyue, a sweet smile on her apple-cheeked face, adorable to the extreme.
Only then did Yang Zengyue come back to herself. She narrowed her eyes, a little exasperated. “You’re saying you liquidated every asset in your name? You really are something!”
This kid, how was she supposed to react?
Chen Jia’er said sheepishly, “Anyway, after the winter month those things could only be looked at, not used. I dealt with them beforehand and brought it all over to you. I knew you’d definitely put it to good use.”
Don’t think she didn’t know.
The moment she saw all that construction material at the foot of Sikun Mountain, Chen Jia’er knew she had something big planned!
Yang Zengyue was quite helpless. “And what if the apocalypse doesn’t come? What will you do then?”