Mutual Need

For the past few days, Li Zhuiyuan's primary occupation had been reading. He ignored the hints Grandma Liu repeatedly dropped, both subtle and overt. He did not disturb Ah Li, nor did he attempt to approach her again in search of contact or explanations. He knew all too well that persistent pestering was nothing more than a meaningless exercise in self-indulgence. Ah Li had retreated into her room, shutting herself away once more. Yet Li Zhuiyuan knew how to draw her out again. The last time the girl had emerged was because the Cat-Faced Old Woman had entered the house. All he needed to do, therefore, was recreate the scene. Li Zhuiyuan did not know whether the Cat-Faced Old Woman had dissipated, but even if the three members of the Niu family were still breathing, they were probably on their last legs under their children's filial care by now. The baleful qi on the black cat was likely seventy or eighty percent dispersed, which meant its potency might not suffice. Besides, even if he went looking for it, it probably would not dare come, terrified of encountering a jiangshi once inside the house. Still, dead-flippers were hardly cabbages by the roadside. While one seemed to stumble across them unexpectedly, actively tracking them down was far from easy. After thinking it through, the only option left was Little Oriole. First, she lived close by. Carrying the bell and holding the incense burner, he could guide her home in just a few steps. He could hardly capture one alive out in the wild and have Runsheng haul it back in a tricycle. Second, they had worked together before. Finally, and most importantly, Li Zhuiyuan remembered clearly that when Little Oriole dragged Big Beard and his son into the pond, black mist had not risen from her body the way it had from the Cat-Faced Old Woman or the Zhou-surnamed taisui dead-flipper. Though he did not understand why, it meant there was a very strong chance Little Oriole was still there, not yet dissipated. Now, the scene was successfully recreated. Little Oriole's arrival caught Ah Li's attention. Ah Li came out, entering the dream, and Li Zhuiyuan finally "saw" her once more. Yet after offering his apology, the boy had nothing more to say. He did not wish to explain the effect Li Lan's phone call had had on him, nor did he wish to elaborate on his own affliction. Still less would he claim that he too needed comfort and support, or suggest they could help each other. If such words held any power over Ah Li, her maternal grandmother, Liu Yumei, would surely have repeated them countless times already. The only purpose a cumbersome explanation served was to become a burden. He needed only to make his stance clear: his terrace was open once again, and he hoped she would step outside to look. I have what you need, and I need your eyes to hold me once more. Mutual need was the sturdiest bond in human relations. The boy and the girl stood there in silence. Behind them, Little Oriole maintained her posture with both arms half-raised. Brought here today, her primary function was that of a telephone wire. Beyond that, her presence stirred gusts of yin wind and low, mournful wails in the surroundings, keeping the atmosphere from feeling entirely monotonous. After a long time, Ah Li turned and walked back into her room. Li Zhuiyuan did not call after her, nor did he press for a definitive answer. He simply raised his head, casting a slightly repulsed glance at the night sky, awaiting the dawn. Before dawn arrived, however, he still had to return the guest he had invited. Stepping back in front of Little Oriole, Li Zhuiyuan bent down, picked up the incense burner and the bell, then turned and paced slowly backward until those cold, wet hands once more settled onto his shoulders. Closing his eyes, he focused on imagining himself at the bottom of the water, his body steadily floating upward—up, up, and up… The moment his head broke the surface of the water, Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes. Looking back, he saw Runsheng standing by the edge of the courtyard, on guard with the Seven Stars hook in his left hand and the Yellow River shovel in his right. Back in reality, the yin walk had ended. Li Sanjiang, who had drunk far too much liquor and was now fast asleep in his room, would never have imagined that his painstaking efforts to arrange repeated fortune-transferring rituals—all to sever the dark side of Little Yuan Hou so he could live a normal life—had instead allowed the boy to gradually grasp the patterns of walking the yin path through repeated practice. *Ding-ling-ling... ding-ling-ling...* The bell rang out. Li Zhuiyuan turned, and the qipao-clad figure behind him turned as well, hands resting on his shoulders. Runsheng rubbed the back of his head with the flat of the Yellow River shovel. He did not quite understand why Little Yuan was bringing a dead-flipper out of the water in the dead of night only to bring her right back, but fortunately, he never troubled himself over things he could not grasp. Little Yuan would tell him what needed to be done anyway. Encountering no one in the late hours of the night, Li Zhuiyuan led Little Oriole back to the pond in front of Big Beard's house without a hitch. "Hmm?" When he had coaxed Little Oriole out earlier, Li Zhuiyuan had his back to the fish pond. Now that they had returned, Little Oriole was still behind him, having not yet entered the water. Consequently, Li Zhuiyuan was able to take a fresh look at the fish pond's original state, temporarily free of Little Oriole's influence. It was not that he had never been here before, but at the time, he had not yet read the *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula*. Back then, he had been like an illiterate child visiting an ancient monument, unable to make head or tail of the inscriptions. Now, he noticed something amiss. Even though Little Oriole was not inside, the pond's fengshui atmosphere was far gloomier than when they had set out. If it had dispersed and cleared, that would make sense. Doing the opposite meant there was something even more extraordinary buried deep in this pond, and Little Oriole's presence above had actually served to conceal it. Could this be why Little Oriole showed not the slightest sign of dissipating even after completing her revenge? *Ding-ling-ling... ding-ling-ling...* Rather than rushing to set down the candles and send Little Oriole back under, Li Zhuiyuan led her on a slow stroll along the pond's edge, hoping to see whether he could uncover the pond's true secret. Yet as he walked, Li Zhuiyuan gained no further insights. Behind him, however, Little Oriole began showing signs of restlessness. Li Zhuiyuan knew it was because he had kept her up out of the water for too long. The hands resting on his shoulders had shifted into a grip, their strength mounting, the damp chill soaking into every pore of his body. For a moment, Li Zhuiyuan was thrown into a state of flustered distraction. Even his qi-gazing state grew difficult to maintain, turning halting and clumsy, much like when he had picked up the *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula* again after an interruption, wrestling with those messy, ghost-talisman-like scribbles. Just then, a sudden spark of inspiration flashed through his mind. Raising a hand, he attempted to observe the pond's fengshui atmosphere anew, adopting the very mindset he used when reading that illegible, hurried scrawl. Under those distorted, folded, irregular fluctuations, several details that had previously escaped notice suddenly emerged. *Great Yin casts the line; a lone pool mirrors the moon. Suited for burying a noblewoman; harboring and drawing forth blessings.* This was a prime site for a water burial. If an honored woman of a noble house were interred here, it could shelter and nourish the fortune of later generations. The ancients disliked water burials because aquatic conditions shifted easily; over time, it became difficult for descendants to offer incense and pay respects, and the original fengshui layout was prone to damage. Yet water burials had existed since antiquity. First, exceptional burial sites were scarce; second, they were less vulnerable to grave robbers; and third, certain individuals of special status simply wished to be buried beyond all knowledge. Though heavily damaged, the basic fengshui layout of the pond before him had been preserved. The reason Li Zhuiyuan had failed to recognize it earlier was precisely because of that damage. It was like taking a textbook formula and trying to force it onto a flawed problem—it naturally resulted in a total mismatch. Yet in this world, unless newly built, where could one ever find an absolutely undamaged, flawless fengshui formation? Therefore, navigating the flawed lines with an unconventional approach was the true way to solve real problems. In that case, his prior conjecture had been mistaken: the transcriber had not written terribly due to haste or nervousness, but had deliberately woven practical insights into the very form of the script. This was… an unimaginably masterful stroke. The person had clearly stolen and copied someone else's work, yet had attained a deeper understanding than the original masters. Why could he still be certain it was a copy? Because if the Liu clan had mastered this method of enhancing practical insight, they would never have continued writing the text with neat precision, needlessly complicating comprehension for their descendants. Moreover, when Liu Yumei had glanced at the book whose cover he had deliberately torn off that day, she had seen only messy, illegible handwriting, failing entirely to recognize her own family's *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula*. Li Zhuiyuan grew curious: just what kind of person had copied this book? For now, at least one thing was certain: the primary lair those water monkeys were searching for was right here. Those water monkeys had simply been ill-trained. Fooled by the decoy lair at Sihai's fish pond, they had triggered the Earthly Yin Red Fiend and lost two men in the process. The police had already set up surveillance around the health clinic ward, waiting for their accomplices to visit so they could catch them all in one fell swoop. Wait, what was this? Li Zhuiyuan had initially thought the sticky liquid dripping down his body came from Little Oriole behind him. But how could anything dripping from Little Oriole be warm? Looking down, he touched his chest, then his chin, and finally his nose… No further touching was needed. He already felt the blood gushing heavily from his nostrils. What was happening? Was his body still drained from rushing through the *Liu Clan Qi-Gazing Formula* over the past few days, or was gazing at qi using this newly grasped method an enormous burden in itself? Either way, if he did not stop the bleeding immediately, he would be in serious trouble. Worst of all, the steady flow of fresh blood seemed to drive Little Oriole, who was already restless, into an even greater frenzy! No longer satisfied with merely gripping his shoulders, she brought her head close to the side of his face. Though she had no breath, she seemed like a wild beast pressing in to deeply sniff its prey. Li Zhuiyuan dared not delay any longer. Besides, his purpose was already achieved. He immediately turned his head toward Runsheng standing in the distance, pointing toward where the candles should be placed. Runsheng had merely been following behind, keeping his distance, so he had not noticed Li Zhuiyuan's condition. Now that Little Yuan turned toward him, bathed in moonlight, Runsheng saw the boy's face and clothes drenched in blood. Combined with Little Oriole's violently thrashing silhouette, he took it as the dead-flipper strangling Li Zhuiyuan and tearing into his neck! Instantly, Runsheng hefted the Yellow River shovel, preparing to charge in and save Little Yuan, only to hear the boy shout: "Those two spots—place the candles and light them!" Runsheng's brain clashed with his body's momentum. Holding the Yellow River shovel aloft, he spun around on one leg. Had he not planted the shovel into the ground to steady himself in the nick of time, he might have tumbled headlong into the fish pond. Scrambling back up, Runsheng swiftly set the candles in position and struck a match to light them. Shaking the bell, Li Zhuiyuan led Little Oriole to the exact spot. Facing away from the pond, he snapped the incense in the burner and snuffed it out. Yet Little Oriole did not release her hold; her hands remained clamped on his arms. She did not want to leave. The present situation was the very picture of *easy to invite a spirit, hard to see it off*. Runsheng had already picked up the soul-returning basket, prepared to throw it over the dead-flipper and tackle her into the water with him. Li Zhuiyuan rubbed the bell against his face, coating it in fresh blood, then hurled it backward. A crisp ring echoed through the air before the bell splashed into the pond. Little Oriole released her grip, turned, and walked toward the water. The surface gradually rose over her body. Her hand caught the bell floating atop the water. Li Zhuiyuan swiftly drew two sheets of yellow paper, ignited them with the candles, spread his arms wide, and brought his hands together in a forceful clap around the burning paper! *Clap!* Sparks scattered as the yellow paper was instantly extinguished. On the ground, the flames of the two candles turned green. Li Zhuiyuan stomped his foot down, completely putting out both candles. Having done all this, he looked toward Little Oriole in the pond. She had turned around, the water level reaching her chest, leaving her neck and head exposed as she stared fixedly at him. "The gate of life is closed, the threefold sacrifice offered. Guest, please return!" At last, Little Oriole slowly sank beneath the surface. Once her splayed black hair vanished completely into the depths, not a trace of her remained. With a heavy thud, Li Zhuiyuan slumped onto the ground, tilting his head back. Yet the nosebleed continued to flow. "Brother Runsheng, roll me two paper plugs." "Right away!" Runsheng immediately grabbed some yellow paper and rolled two balls, but his first attempt produced balls that were too large to fit into nostrils, forcing him to roll another set. Even after they were stuffed in, the blood did not stop. It soaked through the paper balls and kept dripping. Only after replacing them with two fresh ones did the bleeding finally subside. Li Zhuiyuan drew ragged breaths, feeling a distinct tightness in his chest and a profound weakness—symptoms of excessive blood loss. Runsheng tended to him carefully from the side. Giving no thought to the dead-flipper in the pond, he ran over to scoop up clean water to cool Little Yuan's forehead and wash the bloodstains from his cheeks. *Huff... huff... huff...* Only after resting for quite a while did Li Zhuiyuan finally regain his composure. Runsheng let out a breath of relief, patting his own chest with lingering dread. "Little Yuan, she's terrifying." Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "She did well. It was my fault." Little Oriole had shown tremendous restraint. The fault truly lay with him this time; who could have anticipated that gazing at fengshui could exhaust a person to the point of collapse? If you tease even the gentlest lion while covered in your own blood, you have only yourself to blame if it eats you alive. Still, this was the unavoidable price of trial and error when linking theory to practice. One could only say he was fortunate it was Little Oriole; had it been any other dead-flipper, even if Runsheng managed to save him, a vicious brawl with the corpse would have been inevitable. "Little Yuan, what were you really doing tonight?" Li Zhuiyuan pointed toward the pond ahead. "Brother Runsheng, there's a tomb underneath." Hearing this, Runsheng's face lit up with excitement, and he immediately tightened his grip on the Yellow River shovel. "Little Yuan, let me go dig it up!" "Brother Runsheng, what movies have you been watching lately?" "*Raiders of the Lost Ark*. There are three of them, all broadcast on the county channel." "Brother Runsheng, grave robbery is against the law." "Uh..." "Also, I suggest you start watching *Xinwen Lianbo* after dinner from now on." "Alright, I will. But what about this place?" "Since the water monkeys didn't find it, leave it be. It's buried beneath the depths anyway." Owing to Li Lan's line of work, Li Zhuiyuan possessed a fair understanding of archaeology. Nowadays, unless major construction was underway, or a tomb had been raided or suffered natural damage requiring protective excavation, graves were not actively dug up. Due to its unique nature, a water burial's chamber was buried far deeper than an earthen grave, making excavation vastly more difficult. Since Little Oriole remained here without dissipating, it proved the primary lair was well preserved. If so, let it remain that way. "Brother Runsheng, keep what happened tonight secret." "Understood." Li Zhuiyuan slowly rose to his feet and cast one last deep look at the fish pond. This was truly an exceptional site for nurturing a corpse. If that band of water monkeys had not been entirely rounded up and still harbored designs on the primary lair, he would actually look forward to them finding this place. For what awaited them here would hardly be as simple as an Earthly Yin Red Fiend. Returning home, Li Zhuiyuan took another bath, only to realize the clothes he had worn could not be cleaned. It was a bloodstained garment after all, and tossing it carelessly might frighten someone. He could only fold it away for now and burn it in the hearth tomorrow. Once he had tidied himself up, Li Zhuiyuan climbed into bed to squeeze in some sleep before daybreak. Yet his body was thoroughly drained, compounded by the heavy blood loss, and that brief nap stretched straight into noon. When he woke, before even opening his eyes, he sensed the glaring midday sunlight. Opening his eyes, Li Zhuiyuan looked up at the carvings above the bed, even taking the time to carefully identify each pattern. In the end, there was no avoiding it; he had to face reality. Turning his head, he looked toward the doorway. The girl was seated in a chair. Today, she wore a light-green ruqun dress, exuding an air of dignified grace paired with new life. Waking every day to see her was truly a fine feeling. There was no need for superfluous words or exaggerated gestures; this single glance alone was enough to lift one's spirits. Li Zhuiyuan got out of bed, walked over to the snack cabinet, and retrieved three bottles of Jianlibao. As was their custom, he handed two to the girl, opening one for her. In truth, the boy had no fondness for drinking sweet soda in the morning, but the girl enjoyed clinking cans with him. After taking a sip, the girl set down the Jianlibao, reached out to take Li Zhuiyuan's right hand, and pried it open once more. The wound had scabbed over. Too weary to bandage it after his bath the previous night, the burn mark in the center of his palm had faded to a dull tone, whereas the five crescent punctures from her fingernails remained distinct. Ignoring the wounds she had caused, the girl ran her index finger lightly over the burn mark in his palm. "Don't worry. I won't do it again." Ever since that phone call, he had ceased calling her "Mother" in his heart. He no longer cared to ponder whether that night had been Li Lan's final bout of hysteria or the twisted last embers of warmth in a manic episode. He was tired. She said he was not the son she wanted, but was she the mother he had desired? Indeed, when two mentally ill people sought genuine affection and reliance from one another, was it any wonder it ended in mutual torment? The boy had resolved to discard the mask he wore before Li Lan. When you truly have nothing, you reflexively cling to whatever you can grasp. Now, he was willing to let it go. The girl looked at the boy and opened her own right hand. On her palm were five distinct puncture marks where fingernails had pierced the flesh, the wounds likewise scabbed over. It meant that after digging her nails into him that night, she had done the exact same to herself. Li Zhuiyuan lowered his gaze, took her hand, and said softly, "You won't do it again either." The girl nodded. Caressing the wounds on her palm, Li Zhuiyuan knew that terms like "childhood sweethearts," "playmates," "companions," or the adult notions of romantic affection were ill-suited to describe the two of them. For both he and she were gamblers. Only those who had tasted winning refused to accept defeat, choosing to sit back at the gambling table. At their core, neither could afford to lose. Both wished to be normal people, neither was willing to surrender, and so he had sought her out, and so she had returned. Li Zhuiyuan imagined Li Lan would detest this way of thinking, but it mattered not, for Ah Li did not mind either. Habitually viewing matters in too simple and direct a light could appear cold and unfeeling, yet many couples who suffered together did so precisely because they overthought everything. Holding hands, the two walked down the stairs. Ah Li was in high spirits. Li Zhuiyuan could feel her small hand swinging in his palm. When they rounded the stair landing, she seemed on the verge of spinning on tiptoe; though she did not make the movement, Li Zhuiyuan could already picture it. Out in the courtyard, Liu Yumei dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. Last night, she had peeked from behind the window. She had grown anxious when the boy spoke only that single line, and even more distressed when her granddaughter retreated into her room without any response… only to wake with her eyes open. Yet her granddaughter had quickly closed her eyes and gone back to sleep. Liu Yumei felt more and more that she was growing old, unable to fathom the thoughts of the younger generation. Back when Ah Li's grandfather had courted Liu Yumei in her youth, it had been a tempestuous affair that nearly led to a brawl between the Qin and Liu families. Who could have thought the youth of this generation would be so reserved? Regardless, her granddaughter was recovering once more. This time, she would not allow any mishaps; she prayed the illness would not relapse, lasting until her granddaughter was fully cured. *Right, didn't he want to do those talisman woodcarvings? This afternoon, I'll take an axe and chop up the ancestral tablets myself to provide wood shavings for them.* Perhaps because the joy was so overwhelming, Liu Yumei did not stop to wonder how the boy had managed to summon a dead-flipper. Or perhaps she had suspected it long ago and simply had no desire to question it. To put it bluntly, were it not for fear of the backlash on their fortune, she would gladly help cover up the evidence in secret even if the boy went out committing murder and arson. She had already discerned the truth: the key to her granddaughter's recovery lay in this boy. That was not to say Li Sanjiang's fortune was useless; rather, it was precisely because they lived under Li Sanjiang's roof that they had crossed paths with this boy. Li Sanjiang came down for breakfast. Seeing the two children seated together again, he sighed with emotion. "As expected, the feelings between children are pure." Looking up at Liu Yumei dabbing her tears in the distance, he gave a soft snort. "Keep trying to stop them, you mercenary old crone." Li Sanjiang had never held a favorable view of Liu Yumei, disliking the haughty airs she carried as the young mistress of a fallen landlord family. After all, he, Li Sanjiang, had contributed to the liberation! After breakfast, Li Zhuiyuan inspected the workshop he had set up. Various tools and materials were already neatly arranged inside; Auntie Liu truly left nothing to be desired as a housekeeper. Li Zhuiyuan left Runsheng in the workshop to begin work. It was all preliminary processing and preparation of raw materials, not difficult, merely demanding time and labor. Runsheng worked with great enthusiasm, knowing he was crafting a new set of implements for himself. Given Runsheng's formidable strength, Li Zhuiyuan intended to modify the dimensions and materials of the tools, which meant Runsheng had an even larger volume of raw materials to process. In short, throughout the entire day, apart from coming out for lunch, Runsheng did not step foot outside the workshop, not even to watch television. Having adjusted the new set of blueprints early on, Li Zhuiyuan sat on the terrace reading. There was no need to force the pace this time; he had grown wary of that feeling of exhaustion. A few more episodes like that, and before he could even face another dead-flipper, he would look like one himself. Thus, rather than studying, it was more like relaxing. Qin Li sat beside him, cradling the *Qin Clan Flood Dragon Contemplation Method*, while Grandma Liu sipped tea downstairs, gazing up with a smile on her face. Li Zhuiyuan had considered whether to share his new insights regarding the two families' "ghost talismans" with Grandma Liu. After some thought, he decided the time was not yet right; he should at least browse through all the worthwhile books in the basement first, in case other legacies of the Qin and Liu families were hidden among them. In the afternoon, Li Zhuiyuan set down his book and played several games of chess with Qin Li. Later, they headed down to the ground floor, cracking open paired snacks and drinks while watching television. With the television hog absent, they could watch as long as they pleased. Yet watching television alone grew dull. Li Zhuiyuan wondered if he should take Qin Li to the cinema for a movie. These days, cinemas were virtually empty outside of holidays, so there was no need to worry about Qin Li encountering strangers. Li Sanjiang went out after lunch. Returning to find Li Zhuiyuan not studying, he was far from angry; instead, he was delighted, feeling that Little Yuan Hou was gradually recovering from the blow of losing his urban registration. Around five-thirty in the afternoon, a motorcycle rumbled up the slope. The rider pulled off his helmet—it was Tan Yunlong. After greeting Li Sanjiang, he easily scooped Li Zhuiyuan onto the bike, revved the engine, and smoothly veered down the courtyard slope. Tan Yunlong rode even more wildly than Uncle Qin, but fortunately, Li Zhuiyuan had a helmet this time. Arriving at the police dormitory building, Tan Yunlong led the boy up to the third floor and opened the door. A middle-aged woman wearing an apron emerged from the kitchen, dressed simply and neatly, carrying an approachable warmth. "This must be Little Yuan?" "Hello, Auntie." "Good, what a well-behaved boy. You can call me Auntie Zheng." Tan Yunlong asked, "Where's Binbin?" "Binbin's doing his homework in his room." Tan Yunlong pushed open his son's bedroom door. At the desk, a tall high school student in uniform was hunched over his homework. Tan Yunlong walked over and rested a hand on the desk. Tan Wenbin's posture stiffened slightly. Immediately after, Tan Yunlong popped open his son's pencil case and extracted a handheld Tetris console, the screen still paused mid-game. Tan Wenbin lowered his head, not daring to meet his father's eyes. Perhaps because a guest was present, Tan Yunlong did not flare up. Instead, he pulled a handful of jellies from his pocket, placed them on his son's desk, picked out two, and handed them to Li Zhuiyuan. Li Zhuiyuan quietly tore open a jelly and slipped it into his mouth. He could tell the relationship between father and son was strained at best. Tan Wenbin might have loved jellies as a young child, but what father still offered them to a senior in high school? Though Tan Wenbin played along and ate one, it felt more like an act of staged familial warmth. Seeing this, Li Zhuiyuan sighed internally. Even if they were putting on a performance, there was genuine affection beneath it. Unlike him and Li Lan, whose interactions were devoid of feeling—pure acting from start to finish. "This is Little Yuan, Li Zhuiyuan. Little Yuan, this is my son I told you about, Tan Wenbin. You can call him Binbin." "Hello, Little Yuan." "Hello, Brother Binbin." "Go on, find a blank exam paper for Little Yuan to work on." "What? Give it to him?" "Yes." "Oh, then take this one." Tan Wenbin pulled a math paper from a stack of blank exams. High school curricula were generally completed by the second year; the entirety of the third year was spent reviewing, refreshing, and grinding through rounds of mock tests. "Right. Now, come outside with me." "Dad..." "Come out." Walking toward the door, Tan Yunlong began unbuckling his belt. Looking thoroughly miserable, Tan Wenbin trailed after him. The door to the adjoining room clicked shut, followed by several sharp yelps from the boy, mingled with Tan Yunlong's reprimands: "I won't hold the fighting against you, but how dare you steal your mother's money to buy a game console! How have I raised you? Poor grades are one thing, but you cannot stray from the right path! Do you want me to throw you in jail with my own hands someday?!" After a few lashes, however, Tan Yunlong transitioned entirely to a verbal lecture. Auntie Zheng knocked several times during the ordeal, to no avail. Two hours later, father and son emerged. Auntie Zheng complained, "We have a guest in the house! Are you going to skip dinner and let Little Yuan starve?" "I forgot." Tan Yunlong shot his son a glare. "It's all because of this useless brat." Li Zhuiyuan had long since left the desk, sitting on the edge of the bed reading a comic book he had pulled from a stack of volumes. Before the pair entered, he slipped it under the sheets, keeping it hidden from Tan Yunlong. Though Tan Wenbin was no longer crying, his shoulders still heaved intermittently, cutting a pitiful figure. Tan Yunlong patted the back of his son's head. "Go see how Little Yuan did on the exam." Tan Wenbin walked over to the desk, flipped through the math paper, and found it completely filled out. "How is it? Did he get them right?" Tan Yunlong pressed. "I'm asking you." "I don't have the answer key... I don't know." Tan Yunlong: "..." Flipping through the papers beneath, Tan Wenbin cried out in shock, "He finished all of them!" This stack of test papers had been distributed in advance by the teachers for students to complete at home according to schedule, covering not only math but several other subjects. Tan Wenbin discovered that aside from the Chinese essay, every single question across the papers had been answered. He picked out a few simpler problems he knew how to solve, worked through them, and found his answers matched the boy's completely. Leaving the harder problems aside for now, it at least ruled out the possibility that the boy had scrawled nonsense at random. "Well, how is it? Don't leave me hanging here looking like a fool." "Dad, these, these, they're all correct." "What about the rest?" "I'll have to work through them slowly to know, but judging by his methods and working steps, he clearly knows what he's doing. If you want to check against the answers, I can ask the teachers tomorrow." "Let's do this: dig up some of your past exams, pick the hardest problems from a few subjects, copy down the prompts, and let Little Yuan solve them." "Oh, alright." Tan Yunlong needed to verify whether the boy truly operated at a high school level; otherwise, if he approached the school about skipping grades and things fell apart, he would be unable to clean up the mess. Tan Wenbin transcribed a problem into a notebook, set it aside, and said to the boy, "Little Yuan, try this one first." "Okay." Li Zhuiyuan stood by the desk and picked up a pen. Tan Wenbin fetched another notebook and began transcribing a second problem. By the time he finished, he looked up to find the boy had already set down the pen and was waiting for him. "That fast?" Tan Wenbin pulled the notebook over and checked; the answer was correct. Then, he watched as Li Zhuiyuan swiftly wrote out the solution to the problem he had just finished copying down. Checking the answer, it was correct again. This was an advanced question that went beyond the standard syllabus; during the exam, only two students in the entire class had solved it. Li Zhuiyuan suggested, "Brother Binbin, why don't you just read the questions aloud? It'll be faster." Tan Yunlong nodded. "Read them!" Tan Wenbin picked up a math paper, starting with the multiple-choice questions. The moment he finished reading each prompt, Li Zhuiyuan called out the answer. Before long, aside from the geometry questions that required diagrams, Tan Wenbin had read through the entire exam, and the boy had rattled off every single answer without hesitation. Setting down the paper, Tan Wenbin was utterly dumbfounded. He usually admired the top students in his class; discussing schoolwork in front of them always brought a sense of pressure and inadequacy. Yet before this boy, he felt no pressure at all—because he had simply been crushed to dust. "All correct?" Tan Yunlong asked. "Yeah. Big Brother Yuan got them all right." As if he had struck gold, Tan Yunlong caught Li Zhuiyuan by the arms and spun him around in circles: "Hahaha! A prodigy, an absolute prodigy!" Parents always viewed clever, high-achieving children through rose-tinted glasses, all the more so when they had a college-bound examinee at home. In Tan Yunlong's eyes, it felt as though the Star of Literature itself had descended upon his household. At last, once his excitement abated, he set Li Zhuiyuan down. Li Zhuiyuan pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling slightly dizzy from the spinning. "Little Yuan, I've checked into it. Formal enrollment procedures can only be handled when the school year begins, and we'll need someone from the Education Bureau to come along to the school. But Binbin's high school holds summer classes anyway. We can take the school's assessment first and sort out the paperwork later, so you can join the classroom right away. What do you think?" Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "Uncle Tan, I'd like to enjoy my summer break." "Alright, it's only late July now, so there's still a month left of vacation. When it's time to process your enrollment, I'll come pick you up." "Thank you, Uncle Tan." "No need for thanks." With that, Tan Yunlong slapped the back of his son's head again. "Look at him, and look at you!" Still reeling from the shock, Tan Wenbin asked reflexively: "Why don't you ask what degrees his parents have and what they do for a living?" *Smack!* This slap landed even harder than the last. "Let me tell you, you and Little Yuan will be classmates from now on. Learn from him! Besides, he's younger, so you're responsible for taking care of him in daily life." "Okay." Tan Yunlong nodded; his son was not hopelessly stupid after all. If you take care of him in life, won't he help you with your studies? Though parents always paid lip service to grades not being everything, what parent in their right mind didn't wish for their child to excel academically? The boy's feat of calling out correct answers straight from hearing the prompts had genuinely stunned even an old police officer like him. With a child like this, as long as his son stuck close to him every day, even a pig would absorb a bit of divine grace, wouldn't it? "Zheng Fang, Zheng Fang!" Tan Yunlong bustled out of the room, eager to share what he had just witnessed with his wife in the kitchen. He was certain she would be even more thrilled than he was, and he needed to remind her to cook a few extra dishes—whether they could finish them or not, what mattered was making it an occasion. Inside the room, Li Zhuiyuan sat on the bed while Tan Wenbin sat on the chair, the older and younger boys facing each other. "Big Brother Yuan?" "Brother Binbin, please don't. Just call me Little Yuan or Yuanzi." "Big Brother Yuan, what do you usually do at home?" "Read books." "Just read all the time?" This answer deflated Tan Wenbin slightly, but refusing to give up, he pressed on, "Aside from reading, what else do you like to do?" "Fish for dead-flippers."