Having lived through two encounters with dead-flippers and just finished reading Jianghu Zhiguai Lu, Li Zhuiyuan had originally hoped he could build on that momentum and delve deeper into dealing with water corpses.
It was like finishing the foundational theory in a textbook; logically, the next step should be learning the formulas, followed by finding opportunities to apply them to actual problems.
Yet pulling out these two sets of books felt as though he had barely scratched the surface of one course before being saddled with two brand-new subjects.
He glanced back at the wooden chest, hesitating over whether to put both sets back and draw again. But his great-grandfather's words from that night echoed in his mind:
"Little Yuanhou, don't aim too high too soon. You've got to build a solid foundation from the ground up."
Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. Forget it. Since he had already picked them, he might as well read them.
Who knew? Once he finished, maybe next time he could read the faces and divine the fortunes of dead-flippers.
Still, that bit of self-consolation hardly held up to scrutiny.
Read the faces of bloated corpses that had soaked into jellied pork rind?
Or tell Little Oriole and the Cat-Faced Old Woman, "Your horoscopes are terrible; you're fated to die violent deaths"?
With mixed and helpless feelings, Li Zhuiyuan cradled the two sets of books, left the cellar, and headed up to the second floor. From below came Liu Yumei's voice:
"Xiao Yuan, come down and help Grandma brew some tea."
Li Zhuiyuan looked down. A bare bulb hung over the entrance of the east room. Beneath it sat Liu Yumei, with a tea set and a Go board laid out beside her.
"Right away, Grandma Liu!"
Li Zhuiyuan called back. He carried the books to the desk in his bedroom, grabbed a towel to brush off the dust, and hurried downstairs.
Even if Liu Yumei hadn't called for him, he would have sought an opportunity to speak with her in private about Uncle Qin teaching him martial arts.
Especially after pulling out these two sets of books, his desire to train had grown even more urgent. Since his primary reading material had veered off course, he had no choice but to catch up through extracurricular tutoring.
"Grandma, have some tea."
"Mm."
After pouring the tea, Li Zhuiyuan sat down across from Liu Yumei. He didn't rush to bring up his own request, waiting instead for her to speak first so he could smoothly propose his condition in turn.
After all, who went out of their way to brew tea right before going to bed at night without a reason?
Just as Liu Yumei was about to speak, however, the door to the east room swung open from within. Qin Liang stood in the doorway, clad in white silk pajamas that gleamed under the lamplight.
"Ah Liang, go back inside and rest. Grandma and Xiao Yuan have things to discuss."
Qin Liang didn't budge.
Liu Yumei could only shoot Li Zhuiyuan a meaningful glance.
Li Zhuiyuan turned to Qin Liang. "Ah Liang, go to sleep first. I'll be up early tomorrow to read."
Qin Liang turned and shut the door.
Liu Yumei sighed. Right now they were just children, so it was fine. But if they reached adulthood and her granddaughter remained so attached to this boy, obeying his every word, it would give her quite a headache.
Still, there was an irritating problem at hand that needed prompt resolution.
"Xiao Yuan, come into the room tomorrow to pay respects to my family's ancestral tablets."
"Hmm?"
"Just treat it as calling on the neighbors."
"All right, Grandma Liu."
It was like visiting a friend's house and greeting their elders. If those elders were now memorial tablets, one should pay respects to them all the same.
"And while you're at it, talk to Ah Liang and clear away those dirty towels and that rotten duck egg."
"Towels?"
Li Zhuiyuan suddenly remembered. No wonder he had needed to find a clean towel to wash and hang out to dry every night over the past few days. He had wondered where his dirty towels were disappearing to—turns out Ah Liang had been taking them.
But what was this about a rotten duck egg?
Liu Yumei looked embarrassed, but forced herself to explain: "Ah Liang has a habit of taking anything you give her and bringing it home. Maybe I mentioned it to her once, or maybe she figured it out herself—she believes the ancestral hall is where the most precious things should be kept. So she set those dirty towels right there.
"And that duck egg—you must have peeled it for her during breakfast the other day. It's completely rotten now.
"I don't dare touch anything Ah Liang puts there, for fear of setting off her temper. You're the only one who can help me clear it away.
"Besides, teach her not to put other things on the ancestral altar from now on."
Having to ask an outsider for help in managing the granddaughter she had raised herself left Liu Yumei feeling utterly dejected.
Yet she had to bring it up. Otherwise, every time she spoke to the tablets, she would have to endure the stench of that rotten duck egg.
She could manage well enough, smelling it only when she came in to speak. But the ancestors of both the Qin and Liu families were being bathed in that stench day and night.
Furthermore, she terrified herself thinking about what else might end up on the altar. Lately, breakfast always featured jellied fish head over porridge. She was genuinely afraid that if she didn't pay attention, Ah Liang would bring home a bowl of leftover fish head she and Xiao Yuan had eaten and place it right on the center of the altar.
"I understand, Grandma Liu. I'll come pay respects to the tablets tomorrow."
Li Zhuiyuan didn't ask why he shouldn't do it right away. He knew Grandma Liu didn't want Ah Liang to think she had been tattling.
"Mm, good." Liu Yumei nodded in relief, her gaze falling upon the Go board. "Take a look. Do you like this board?"
Li Zhuiyuan examined the board closely. It was a well-aged antique, and leaning in close, he could catch a faint scent of sandalwood.
The stones were particularly fine. Grabbing a few in his palm, he felt their smooth, cool weight. Though their luster and feel were uniform, close inspection revealed subtle variations, indicating they weren't stamped from modern assembly-line molds, but shaped using traditional drop-molding techniques.
"Grandma Liu, this is truly a treasure."
Li Zhuiyuan had grown somewhat numb to the fine heirlooms Liu Yumei brought out from time to time.
Nowadays, though the era of the 'ten-thousand-yuan household' was gradually fading into the past, laying out such lavish family heritage with such effortless extravagance was still breathtaking.
"Seeing that you and Ah Liang know how to play Go, I dug this out for you two to enjoy. You can take it up to your room later."
"All right, I'll keep it in my room for now."
Liu Yumei nodded with satisfaction, about to see him off, when Li Zhuiyuan added:
"Grandma Liu, I've been frail and sickly since childhood, so I'd like to train my body with Uncle Qin."
Liu Yumei glanced at the boy. Though he was fair-skinned and tender, hardly the picture of brawn, he didn't look frail or sickly in the slightest.
Yet she immediately understood what he was after. In the past, she would have brushed it off with a few excuses without a second thought. But she had just asked him for a favor...
Well, teaching a bit of martial arts wouldn't break any rules. It wasn't as if he was being taught anything else.
"Fine. I'll speak to your Uncle Qin."
"Thank you, Grandma."
"Come on, let's play a game."
"Sure."
Having been outmaneuvered by a child left Liu Yumei feeling a bit peeved. She hadn't intended to play, but couldn't resist challenging him to a round.
And then she regretted it. By the mid-game, she could feel her position falling apart.
At first, Li Zhuiyuan had figured that since he had gotten what he wanted, he would let Grandma Liu trounce him to blow off some steam. He had assumed Qin Liang's skill had been taught by Grandma Liu, so he wouldn't be a match for the elder.
Yet as the game progressed, he realized Grandma Liu played worse than he did.
Relying on mental calculation, he could barely pass for an amateur high-rank player, whereas Grandma Liu was, at best, a mid-tier amateur.
"Grandma, I'm getting sleepy. How about we stop here?"
"Mm, go on to bed, then."
"All right!"
Li Zhuiyuan stood, gathered the stones, and carried the board upstairs.
Liu Yumei walked into the house and entered the bedroom. Qin Liang's eyes were closed; she was dutifully asleep, just as the boy had told her.
A warm, tender smile appeared on Liu Yumei's face.
No matter what,
her Ah Liang was looking more and more like a normal young girl.
"Our Ah Liang's illness will be cured. It definitely will."
...
Reaching the second-floor terrace, Li Zhuiyuan happened to see his great-grandfather standing by the edge, finishing up a piss with a quick shake.
"What's that you're carrying?"
"A Go board Grandma Liu lent me."
"You should keep your mind on your studies, read more books, and study hard."
"I know, Great-Grandpa."
"Mm. Something came up at Ying Hou's house, so she won't be coming around for a while. You'll have to push yourself."
"What happened at Sister Yingzi's house?"
"They say her maternal grandparents both fell ill together. They're lying in the clinic, and Ying Hou and her mother are over there taking care of them."
Her "South Grandpa and South Grandma" had to be her mother's parents.
Only now did Li Zhuiyuan understand why Sister Yingzi hadn't come by for tutoring lately. Normally, no matter how slow she was, she should have finished reviewing the problems he gave her long ago.
"Do we need to go visit them?"
"Visit my foot! Her mother's family is all the way over in Jiuweigang. You'd have to transfer buses several times just to get there. Besides, if things really go south, it's your grandfather who ought to go. What business is it of mine?"
"Oh."
"Go back to your room and sleep early."
"Great-Grandpa, do you have a magnifying glass?"
"A magnifying glass?" Li Sanjiang thought for a moment. "Check the hollow in the stove. Might be one there. I used to think of using it to start fires, but then found it wasn't as good as matches. What do you need that contraption for?"
"Reading."
The characters in those two sets of books were simply too small.
"Is studying that hard for you youngsters, needing a magnifying glass and all? How about I take you to the eyeglasses shop in town and get you a pair of spectacles?
"No, the shop in town probably isn't up to snuff. Better I take you on the bus to the city people's hospital to get fitted."
"No need, Great-Grandpa. I just need it to look at the diagrams. My eyesight is fine."
Li Zhuiyuan went into his bedroom, set down the Go board, and hurried downstairs to the kitchen. Sure enough, he found a dust-covered magnifying glass in the hollow of the stove. After washing it clean, he returned to his room and switched on the desk lamp.
The first work he retrieved was *Yinyang Xiangxue Jingjie*, comprising eight volumes in total.
He turned the page. There was no preface or introduction—not even a heading for the first chapter. It launched directly into the text.
Holding the magnifying glass, Li Zhuiyuan read with close attention.
After getting through three densely packed pages front and back, Li Zhuiyuan noticed something odd.
Those three pages contained an enormous word count, yet all of it discussed a single feature: eyebrows.
From the direction and angle of the brow, its density, thickness, length, and color... it detailed nearly a thousand variations.
Starting on the fourth page, it moved on to eye bags.
Li Zhuiyuan didn't keep reading line by line; instead, he flipped forward two pages and confirmed it. Two full pages were dedicated entirely to eye bags.
Next came the eyelids.
A faint suspicion stirred in Li Zhuiyuan's mind... Though no first chapter was labeled, the earlier sections probably all fell under the broader category of the "eye," didn't they?
Yet after all that tedious detail, it was still only dealing with parts of the eye.
Li Zhuiyuan flipped to the very last page of the volume and found it was discussing crow's feet... Still the eye.
He then picked up the second volume, checked the beginning, and flipped through. Sure enough, the opening three pages were devoted entirely to earlobes.
Flipping to the last page, it was discussing the back of the ear.
He picked up the third volume and confirmed it using the same method. Yes, it was covering the philtrum—the groove between the upper lip and the nose.
So the first four volumes covered the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
By rights, the five facial features were the eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; here, the eyebrows and eyes were combined into one volume, without giving eyebrows their own book.
How considerate of the author.
Skipping past the foundational concepts, Li Zhuiyuan pulled out the fifth volume and carefully examined the first page... He couldn't make heads or tails of it.
He got the general gist, however. It seemed to be dealing with permutations and combinations, with each combination accompanied by a brief textual explanation, pared down to the absolute bare minimum.
The implied message was: space is limited, so much has been omitted; anyone reading this book should be able to figure it out for themselves.
Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his eyes. So this was physiognomy?
It wasn't like a fortune-teller walking up to you and declaring, "Your forehead is dark; a disaster looms in your near future."
Following the logic of this book, it was more like: *Do you have any idea how many permutations and combinations of forehead signs exist?*
Li Zhuiyuan couldn't fathom it. Why did a book on face-reading, steeped in feudal superstition, exude such an intense aura of scientific rigor?
Just how much energy did the author possess, and how many faces had they observed in detail?
No, it was impossible for a single person to accomplish this, or even an entire sect.
Unless this book was pure fabrication written with eyes shut, the author must have gathered and researched countless works and notes left by predecessors to synthesize and summarize it all.
Li Zhuiyuan opened the sixth volume and focused on the first page.
Fine beads of sweat broke out across his forehead, and his earlobes flushed red—his usual physical reaction whenever his brain worked in overdrive to solve difficult problems.
After reading the first page, he still didn't understand the content, but he grasped the rules.
If the fifth volume was a permutation and combination built upon the foundations of the first four volumes—eyes, ears, mouth, and nose—then the sixth volume was permutations and combinations of those combinations.
If one could still scrape by through rote memorization up to the fifth book, by the sixth, it had crossed into mathematical calculation. The computational load was simply immense.
Li Zhuiyuan took a deep breath and opened the seventh volume.
This time, he scanned the first page quickly, merely seeking to confirm his suspicion.
Sure enough, the seventh volume pushed the stakes even higher on the foundation of the sixth. The difficulty of comprehension and calculation hadn't merely doubled—it had compounded exponentially.
*Phew...*
Li Zhuiyuan felt an urge to splash cold water on his face, but after a moment's hesitation, he opened the eighth volume.
After reading the first page of the eighth volume, Li Zhuiyuan closed the book.
He leaned back against his chair.
He realized he had been mistaken. Earlier, he had wondered why a book of feudal superstition felt so scientifically rigorous.
Only upon reaching the eighth volume did he encounter the metaphysics.
The categorization of the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose across the first four volumes was much like raw data or base numbers. The fifth through seventh volumes were the application of those base numbers.
To use a more intuitive analogy, it was like learning to paint. You started with the basic dots, lines, and planes, worked up to drawing a complete object, then progressed to composition and structure, and finally integrated light and shadow for three-dimensional perception...
By the time you could flawlessly copy a master's painting and produce fine works of your own, you were roughly at the level of the seventh volume.
This eighth volume, however... required you to intuit your own style, establish a school of thought, and become a master.
So even if this book was authentic, ordinary people could only flip through it; there was no way they could learn it. Never mind reaching the eighth volume—just memorizing over a thousand types of eyebrows would stop anyone in their tracks.
Li Zhuiyuan shifted his gaze to the adjacent set, *Mingge Tuiyan Lun*. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.
Straightening up, he opened the first volume. To his surprise, there was actually a preface.
Sure enough, both sets were written by the same author, for the very first line read: *Having finished reading the preceding work, Detailed Exposition of Yin-Yang Physiognomy.*
Was that a necessary prerequisite?
Reading further, Li Zhuiyuan found it wasn't strictly so. Deducing a person's fate required several prerequisites: one was physiognomy, one was astrology, and another was the study of qi and fortune.
*Could there be two more sets by the same author in that chest that I missed?*
Li Zhuiyuan quickly realized that wasn't the case. In the preface, the author expressed his regret: he had only mastered physiognomy, lacking the energy to delve further into astrology and fortune.
Or rather, astrology and fortune were inherently intertwined rather than separate categories; physiognomy and fate calculation already incorporated principles of both.
In the author's view, a true method of fate deduction had to integrate all four disciplines to achieve absolute precision.
"Which means even after mastering all four, it only improves the accuracy rate—it still can't guarantee a hundred percent."
And the preceding work on physiognomy was merely one of the auxiliary tools used to raise the accuracy of fate deduction.
With the preface concluded, Li Zhuiyuan formally turned to the first page of text.
The first thing that appeared was a corner of a diagram. More precisely, the entire page consisted of only a single corner of a larger figure, with the text written inside it.
Li Zhuiyuan turned the pages rapidly, committing each page's diagram to memory. After finishing the entire book, he began piecing the puzzle together in his head. Though it was incomplete, he could already tell what it was.
The Eight Trigrams.
So once all eight volumes were pieced together, they would form a complete Bagua.
And this set of books was, in essence... an entirely new algorithm.
For a moment, Li Zhuiyuan had the illusion that he wasn't living in his great-grandfather's rural home, but back in a Beijing classroom.
He recalled the grim, haggard smiles exchanged between the old professors and their gifted young pupils after mutually torturing one another.
"It really does feel like being in class."
Li Zhuiyuan checked the time and saw it was already one in the morning. He stood, left the room, ladled water from the wash basin, and washed his face.
Once refreshed, his fighting spirit rekindled:
"I'll study it. I'll master it!"
...
At dawn, just as the sky began to gray, Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes. Turning his head, he saw a bright presence that had entered his room before the sun.
Qin Liang was sitting on a chair, turned sideways to him.
Evidently, she was afraid of startling him when he woke up, as she had done before by facing him directly.
Today, she wore an *aoqun*—a lined jacket over a skirt.
The jacket was dark green with white patterns, while the skirt was light green, embroidered with landscapes and flowers.
To Li Zhuiyuan, who had spent half the night reading under a magnifying glass, the sight was exceptionally soothing to the eyes.
After washing up and before breakfast began, Li Zhuiyuan brought out the Go board Grandma Liu had given him the night before, intending to play with Qin Liang.
Yet as Qin Liang looked at the full-sized, precious board, she hesitated, making no move to pick up the stones.
"Do you not like it?"
Qin Liang said nothing.
Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to put the board away and take out the crude plastic Go sheet Uncle Qin had bought him in town.
As soon as it was laid flat, Qin Liang picked up a stone and played.
After losing three games in a row, Li Zhuiyuan found himself missing his match with Grandma Liu the night before.
Still, he could sense his own play improving; after all, constantly being suppressed by the girl made it easy to spot and correct his shortcomings.
She no longer went easy on him intentionally. By the third game, though he still suffered a swift defeat, the match felt like a proper contest between players.
Even so, Li Zhuiyuan knew he was approaching his limit. Unless he threw out both sets of books in his bedroom to study Go manuals instead, he would never surpass her.
But what would be the point of that? Being overly competitive about things that didn't matter was merely childish.
"Ah Liang, you play really well."
The girl seemed to smile. Though her expression barely shifted, the faint twitch at the corner of her lips hinted at what she wanted to do.
Auntie Liu called for breakfast.
After finishing the meal, Li Zhuiyuan noticed that the girl had once again palmed the salted duck egg he had peeled for her, tucking it into her sleeve.
Li Zhuiyuan caught her hand and took the egg out.
"Ah Liang, food is meant to be eaten, not hidden away. If you want to collect things, I can give you special gifts in the future."
The girl's eyes lit up.
With breakfast over, Li Zhuiyuan kept his promise and went to the east room. Liu Yumei wasn't inside, nor was she sitting outside drinking tea as was her routine; she had deliberately stayed far away.
This was the first time Li Zhuiyuan had stepped inside the east room. Looking at the altar crowded with tablets bearing the Qin and Liu surnames, an inexplicable sense of déjà vu washed over him.
It felt as though he had visited a similar place and experienced this exact sensation before, though he couldn't recall where it had been or who had taken him.
Li Zhuiyuan bowed deeply before the tablets. Once he finished his respects, he reached out to gather the dirty towels and the rotten duck egg from the altar.
Qin Liang reached out and caught his arm. Her eyelashes didn't flutter, nor did her body tremble, yet she made her reluctance plain.
Only because it was Li Zhuiyuan clearing them away did she hold back; had anyone else touched them, even Liu Yumei, she would have lashed out violently.
"Be good, Ah Liang. If you want to keep keepsakes, don't leave them here. We can find a better place for them. This is for the memorial tablets to honor the ancestors, understand?"
Ah Liang lowered her head, looking utterly crestfallen.
Li Zhuiyuan thought about what kind of gift he could give her.
Food was definitely out of the question; she would only hide it away until it went moldy.
"Ah Liang, how about I give you that Go set? Not the new one, but the one we played with this morning, the one in the little wooden box.
"You can keep it. Every morning, you can bring it to me, and we'll play Go together."
Qin Liang raised her head. Though her face remained largely expressionless, one could feel her whole demeanor brighten.
Outside the door, Liu Yumei—who had deliberately stayed away earlier but had crept back to eavesdrop—couldn't help rolling her eyes.
She could already picture her granddaughter cherishing and fussing over that worthless toy.
Stepping out of the house, Li Zhuiyuan saw Liu Yumei.
"Grandma Liu."
"Mm."
Li Zhuiyuan didn't rush off, but said, "Grandma Liu, the weather is lovely today. You should go out for a walk and breathe some fresh air. It's good for your health."
"I spoke to Ah Li. He'll teach you tonight after he finishes his chores. Don't go crying that it's too hard."
"Of course not. Thank you, Grandma Liu."
As Li Zhuiyuan led Qin Liang by the hand up the stairs, he happened to run into Li Sanjiang coming down. When he had no work, Great-Grandpa usually slept in late.
"How are your studies coming along lately?"
Li Sanjiang had forgotten he had already asked the night before; he simply enjoyed playing the concerned elder inquiring about the boy's studies.
After all, had he actually looked closely, he probably would have discovered what kind of books Li Zhuiyuan had been reading.
Of course, it was also because Qin Liang was always by Li Zhuiyuan's side when he read. Great-Grandpa was still a bit frightened of the girl, and remained reluctant to get too close.
"It's a bit tough, but I'll work hard at it."
"Mm, working hard is what counts."
Returning to the northeast corner of the second-floor terrace, Li Zhuiyuan brought out the books, set up his magnifying glass, and placed a blank notebook beside him.
*Yinyang Xiangxue Jingjie* contained numerous terms and descriptions related to "dimensions" and "tailoring." In addition, there were many abstract classical expressions that seemed drawn from ancient medical texts.
Li Zhuiyuan recognized the characters, but lacked practical understanding of the concepts, so he had to jot them down with a pen.
Fortunately, he could ask Liu Yumei about the former. He could tell that although Qin Liang's clothes were custom-made, Liu Yumei had definitely altered and tailored them. As for the latter, he could ask Auntie Liu, who clearly understood medicine.
At that moment, Uncle Qin had already brought back raw ingredients for incense, and Auntie Liu was preparing to make incense using traditional methods.
Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help marveling in his heart: what kind of family was Ah Liang's, really?
Shaking his head to dispel extraneous thoughts, Li Zhuiyuan formally began memorizing the text.
Two of his classmates back in Beijing truly possessed photographic memories.
Li Zhuiyuan knew he was far inferior to them in that regard, with a massive gap between them—he needed two or even three readings to commit something to memory.
Halfway through, having stayed hunched over with the magnifying glass for too long, his neck began to ache.
Keeping the magnifying glass in his left hand to continue reading and reciting, Li Zhuiyuan used his right hand to knead the nape of his neck.
Before long, another warm, soft little hand reached over and began massaging the other side of his neck.
A smile tugged at Li Zhuiyuan's lips. What endearing obsessiveness.
Throughout the entire morning, aside from taking Qin Liang to the toilet once and getting a drink of water, Li Zhuiyuan spent every moment memorizing the text.
He felt as though his head was being packed to the brim with all kinds of "eyes."
Once he finished memorizing the ears, mouth, and nose later on, his mind would probably be filled with countless densely packed faces.
Even the model hairstyle catalogs offered to customers in the largest barbershops in Beijing would look miserably sparse and meager compared to his mental gallery.
After lunch, Li Weihan and Cui Guiying came over.
Immersed in his memorization, Li Zhuiyuan hadn't noticed the activity in the courtyard, and Qin Liang beside him naturally wouldn't alert him.
Only when he felt Qin Liang's body begin to tremble did Li Zhuiyuan look up in surprise, spotting Cui Guiying as she stepped quietly toward them.
He hurriedly grabbed Qin Liang's hand, terrified the girl might lash out at his grandmother.
Seeing her grandson absorbed in his books, Cui Guiying hadn't wanted to disturb him, and simply smiled. "Little Yuanhou, doing your reading?"
"Yes, Grandma. Where's Grandpa?"
"He's talking with your great-grandpa."
"Is something the matter?"
"Nothing much. Nothing to do with you."
"Is it about Third Aunt's family?"
"Uh... yes. They say they want your great-grandpa to go over and take a look."
"Oh."
When standard hospitals struggled to treat an illness, many families sought unorthodox solutions to try their luck. Besides, two elderly people falling ill at the exact same time wasn't common; it was genuinely bizarre.
"What a pretty little girl."
Cui Guiying moved to pat Qin Liang's head, but Li Zhuiyuan quickly stepped between them.
"Uh..."
Cui Guiying froze for a second, then settled for patting her grandson's head instead.
"Grandma, she's shy around strangers."
"Oh, is that so? She seems to get along great with you."
After chatting with Cui Guiying for a while, Li Weihan came up to see his grandson as well.
However, Li Weihan only asked a couple of questions about whether he was eating and sleeping well, then fell silent, simply watching him.
When it was about time to leave, he prepared to head out.
Before going, Li Weihan said, "Oh, right, Little Yuanhou. Three days from now, your great-grandpa has to make a trip far away and won't be back for the night. That's the day the villagers are heading out for canal dredging. I'll take you along with me."
Cui Guiying grumbled the moment she heard that. "What are you doing, taking the boy to dredge canals? What are you thinking?"
Li Weihan dismissed her concern. "It's just for two days, sleeping outside for one night. Nothing to make a fuss about. It's not like the old days—the dredging stretches are shorter now, nowhere near as grueling. Our four sons, including Lei Hou and Pan Hou, are coming with me anyway."
Cui Guiying countered, "Even if Uncle Sanjiang has to go to Jiuweigang and won't be home, can't Little Yuanhou just sleep at our place?"
"Uncle said it's not proper for him to sleep at home. After all, Little Yuanhou entered the monastic order and hasn't returned to secular life yet."
In truth, Li Weihan simply missed his grandson. With all the family's able-bodied men heading out to dredge the canal, he wanted to bring Li Zhuiyuan along for the fun and excitement.
"Little Yuanhou, do you want to come with Grandpa?"
"Sure, Grandpa!"
"See? The boy agreed."
Li Weihan left with Cui Guiying. He had come today mainly to pass along a message asking Uncle Sanjiang to help his in-laws in Jiuweigang.
Supposedly, a fellow patient in their hospital ward had received a visitor from Shigang Town who spoke of the Li family corpse retrievers of Siyuan Village in Shinan Town as if they were miraculous.
The in-laws heard this and realized that was the village their daughter had married into, and immediately reached out to ask if he could come help.
After dinner, Li Zhuiyuan went to wait in the courtyard. Liu Yumei kept her word: Uncle Qin led Li Zhuiyuan behind the house and began teaching him martial arts:
The horse stance.
Following Uncle Qin's instructions, Li Zhuiyuan sank into the stance, while Uncle Qin adjusted each pressure point with his hands, explaining every detail to watch out for.
After an hour of meticulous adjustments, Uncle Qin finally fell silent.
Li Zhuiyuan was drenched in sweat, his legs shaking violently.
Yet Uncle Qin only let him rest briefly before making him hold the stance for another hour.
When Li Zhuiyuan climbed the stairs to his room, he had to support himself against the wall.
That night, Liu Yumei sat by the doorway enjoying the cool breeze. Uncle Qin walked over and stopped beside her.
"How is he?"
"His brain is truly exceptional."
"His limbs no good?"
"No, that's not it. I mean, with a brain like that, he learns everything fast—much faster than when I practiced martial arts as a boy. He can already sense the rhythm of taking root with his feet.
"Still, martial arts demands enduring hardship. It depends on whether he can stick with it."
"What, are you thinking of taking an apprentice?"
"No, I have no such intention."
"Just teach him well. Remember, only teach him martial arts."
"Understood."
Liu Yumei returned to the house, sat before the ancestral tablets, picked up a piece of pastry from the offering table, took a small bite, and chewed slowly.
Now that the foul odor in the ancestral hall was gone, she felt far more at ease.
"That Li boy Ah Liang likes playing with has started learning martial arts from Ah Li. We'll see if he can stick it out. If he has both the brains and the grit...
"Goodness, I'm truly curious what kind of mother gave birth to a child like that."
Liu Yumei prepared for bed. She went to let down her hair, but when she reached for the bronze mirror on the dressing table, her hand found only empty air. Looking closely, where was the bronze mirror?
A thief could never have entered this house, and no one would dare touch her things, unless...
Liu Yumei walked to the bedroom and looked at her sleeping granddaughter, who was hugging a small wooden box to her chest.
"That girl Ah Liang... she didn't take my bronze mirror as a return gift, did she?"
...
Over the next two days, Li Zhuiyuan settled into a steady routine: reading and holding the horse stance.
The first day of horse stance had been excruciating, with his legs still aching when he woke the next morning. By the second day, it felt far more bearable, and by the third, he hardly felt the pain or fatigue at all.
As soon as he sank into the horse stance, he imagined himself as a tree taking root in the earth. Following Uncle Qin's instruction, he swayed in minute, dynamic rhythms along with his breathing and heart rate. Even his head, which had grown groggy after an entire day of reading, cleared up considerably.
During those three evenings, Uncle Qin taught him nothing beyond the horse stance.
Li Zhuiyuan wasn't in any rush, because his progress in reading was far more rapid.
Rote memorization and stacking calculations were hardly difficult for him. Across three full days, supplemented by late-night reading under the lamp after his horse stance training, he had already reached the seventh volume of *Yinyang Xiangxue Jingjie*.
In addition, he had finished three volumes of *Mingge Tuiyan Lun*, barely grasping the basic algorithm for deducing fate.
He knew, however, that he was merely exploiting the early advantage of his strong learning ability to stake out initial territory.
Moving forward, further progress would require substantial time and effort to conquer step by step.
In particular, he had yet to start the eighth volume of *Yinyang Xiangxue Jingjie*, but he already sensed how difficult it would be—and that eighth volume happened to be the most crucial of all!
Still, even without mastering the art, having learned this much left an itch in his heart, making him eager to test the results in practice.
On the second-floor terrace, Li Sanjiang reclined in a cane chair, sipping tea and smoking a cigarette while leisurely listening to *The Trial of Chen Shimei* playing on the radio.
Li Zhuiyuan walked over and asked, "Great-Grandpa, when is your birthday?"
"What of it?"
"I want to note it down early so I can celebrate it for you."
"Heh, what bad timing! It passed right before you came back to the village. If you want to celebrate, you'll have to wait until next year."
"Tell me anyway, so I can write it down."
"Fine, fine, fine."
Li Sanjiang gave him his birth date. The boy even asked for detailed specifics, down to the exact birth hour. Li Sanjiang thought nothing of it and told him everything.
Afterward, Li Sanjiang noticed his great-grandson scrutinizing his face one moment and jotting notes in a pad the next.
"Little Yuanhou, what are you writing?"
"Calculations."
"Math problems?"
"Mm, something like that."
"Let your great-grandpa have a look." Li Sanjiang reached over and took the notebook, only to find that instead of numbers, the page was filled with clusters of dense or scattered horizontal and vertical strokes.
"What's this?"
"Calculation steps."
"Is that how teachers teach it nowadays?"
"Yes, it makes calculating faster."
"Oh, then calculate properly and study hard."
"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan continued observing his great-grandpa's face while working through the calculations.
"Little Yuanhou, your great-grandpa has to head to Jiuweigang tomorrow and won't be back for the night. Han Hou said he's taking you along for the canal dredging?"
"Yes, I agreed with Grandpa."
"Good. Go out and get some fresh air. Your grandpa misses you. Let me tell you, back in his day, your grandpa favored your mother most of all. Now, the one he favors most is you. Your grandpa is biased to a fault!"
Finally, Li Zhuiyuan finished his calculations. His brow furrowed, and a look of deep dejection settled over him.
"Hey, Little Yuanhou, what's wrong with you?"
"Great-Grandpa, I calculated wrong."
"If you got it wrong, you got it wrong! As long as you know you made a mistake, just do it over. What's the big deal?"
Li Zhuiyuan nodded.
Based on his great-grandfather's physiognomy and the fate deduction formulas, the summary of his great-grandpa's fate came out as:
[Inborn early demise; plagued by chronic illnesses; short lifespan; exhausted wealth; water in conflict with destiny; strictly forbidden from unorthodox trades.]
He looked at his calculations, then looked at the old man lying before him, listening to opera.
If he had only missed one or two points, or if one or two details were vague, that would be one thing—after all, he hadn't finished studying the complete system, so a few errors or discrepancies were only natural.
But how had he managed to get every single point wrong?
No, it wasn't just a simple miscalculation; every single conclusion was the exact opposite of reality!
A heavy sense of defeat welled up from the depths of his heart, an experience virtually unknown in all his past studies.
The smug satisfaction he had felt earlier over learning so quickly vanished without a trace.
"Great-Grandpa, I'm going back to my room to sleep."
"All right, go on, go on. Sleep early. Your grandpa will be here to pick you up in the morning."
"Sleep early too, Great-Grandpa."
Watching Li Zhuiyuan's dejected silhouette retreat, Li Sanjiang scratched his chin in bewilderment, thinking to himself:
*The boy only got one math problem wrong. Does he really have to take it so hard?*
...
Back in his bedroom, Li Zhuiyuan sat down before the desk.
Looking at the two sets of books before him, he suddenly felt an urge to throw his pen aside and sweep them all onto the floor.
He didn't want to study anymore; a wave of academic aversion washed over him.
Propping his chin with his left hand, he picked up the bronze mirror on the desk with his right, fiddling with it.
He had noticed it that very night: the little wooden Go box was gone, replaced by this rustic bronze mirror.
He knew Ah Liang must have taken his gift and left one of her own in return.
The reflection in the bronze mirror showed a face full of gloom.
As he stared, he suddenly felt that this was how a child his age was supposed to react.
This time, confronted with these inexplicable emotions, he felt no panic or fear, nor did he need to repeatedly hypnotize himself to reinforce his identity.
Who would have thought that calculating a problem wrong could bring about such an effect?
The sense of defeat in Li Zhuiyuan's heart slowly receded. Shifting the mirror to his left hand, he continued examining his reflection, while picking up his pen with his right to begin calculating again.
*Let me calculate my own fate.*
There was a saying: a physician does not treat himself.
Yet infinitely more taboo than that was the rule that a diviner does not calculate their own fate.
Li Zhuiyuan, however, had learned face-reading and fortune-telling entirely from the two sets of books he had retrieved from the cellar, without a master to instruct him. Moreover, the author clearly had never imagined that someone capable of understanding and mastering these works could be ignorant of such foundational common sense. It was like an advanced calculus textbook neglecting to print the multiplication table on its opening page.
As he calculated,
Li Zhuiyuan felt his head grow dizzy and heavy.
He must be tired. Right, he would sleep as soon as he finished.
Continuing his calculations,
he felt his nose running. Had he caught a cold?
He reached up to touch it, then looked down at his hand.
Good, not a cold.
It wasn't snot.
It was blood.
*Thud!*
Li Zhuiyuan's little face crashed straight against the desk as he passed out cold.
Chapter 17