Plum Blossom Seal

Si Mucheng stood frozen on the sofa with a pastry in his mouth. Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door. He hurriedly put the pastry in his mouth, chewed it twice, and swallowed it, almost choking to death.

He had barely finished swallowing when Shangguan Zheng appeared at the door, his serious face expressionless: "Wen family girl, Xiao Qin said you've arrived, she just happened to be looking for you."

Wen Ya stood up and watched Shangguan Zheng walk in. However, Shangguan Zheng suddenly looked at Si Mucheng and said in an inscrutable tone, "I wanted to ask last time, who is this young man...?"

Wen Ya replied, "He is my apprentice."

Shangguan Zheng smiled and said, "Very good. You have real skills and have taken on a disciple at such a young age."

Wen Ya had a feeling that something was off about Shangguan Zheng's tone, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. After a moment's hesitation, she said, "You flatter me."

Si Mucheng finally calmed down. He stood up and said politely with a smile, "Master, you and Senior Shangguan have something to talk about, but I can't understand it, so I won't disturb you any longer." Then he went out.

Wen Ya couldn't understand, but Si Mucheng knew that Shangguan Zheng had specifically called him out, probably because he didn't want him to hear their conversation. Besides, Shangguan Qin wasn't there this time either. Si Mucheng was perceptive enough to realize that what they said last time probably had a follow-up. He didn't care, though, since Wen Ya would tell him about it afterward anyway.

Si Mucheng had just eaten a pastry, but now he was even hungrier. As he walked towards the living room, he thought to himself, "It's almost lunchtime. I'll definitely invite them to stay for lunch later..."

Walking into the living room, I found Shangguan Qin sitting on the sofa with an ice pack on his eyes. Seeing him come out, I greeted him: "Oh, I finally got kicked out by my grandpa this time."

She spoke with certainty, as if it were perfectly normal for Si Mucheng to be kicked out.

Si Mucheng was about to ask if there were any snacks to tide him over when he suddenly remembered something. He walked over, sat down next to Shangguan Qin, and asked, "Have you and my master known each other since childhood?"

Shangguan Qin snorted, then changed his attitude after thinking for a moment and said, "Yes, we studied together at Yuhuang Temple."

"Then you should know a lot about her, right?"

Shangguan Qin replied lazily, "There are only so many people in this industry. I know most of them and understand the basic situation."

Si Mucheng looked at her: "Do you know why Wen Ya gets carsick? I've never seen her get carsick before, it just happened that day, which I find a bit strange."

Upon hearing him mention this, Shangguan Qin glanced at him, his eyes darting around: "Uh, perhaps it's my fault..."

Si Mucheng asked curiously, "How so?"

“Maybe I was driving too fast.” Shangguan Qin exclaimed, sat up, and said to Si Mucheng, “I heard that she was in a car accident with her parents when she was a child. They said it was because she was speeding and the road was slippery in the rain, so the car overturned. I guess I was driving too fast that day… She couldn’t handle it, I guess she had a stress reaction.”

"A car accident?" Si Mucheng frowned slightly.

“Yes,” Shangguan Qin switched to applying the dressing to the other eye, “out of the three family members, only she survived.”

Si Mucheng was stunned by those words: "Her...her parents died like this?"

"Oh, you didn't know?"

Si Mucheng remained silent.

He didn't know that Wen Ya's parents died in this way, and that she was in the car at the time? No wonder he was worried about the car speeding.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to know nothing about her.

Inside the reception room.

After Si Mucheng left, Shangguan Zheng sat down, his hands gripping his cane, and said in a calm tone, "The matter we discussed yesterday is showing some progress."

Wen Ya raised an eyebrow. So fast?

Shangguan Zheng continued, "After I mentioned it yesterday, I went to the study to look through ancient books, and I actually found it."

"how?"

"There is a formation called the 'Spirit Restoration Formation,' which is used to temporarily disable magical artifacts."

Wen Ya exclaimed in surprise, "There really is such a magic array?"

Shangguan Zheng smiled and said, "Such a magic array is indeed not very impressive. This ancient book is the diary of an ancestor, which records some of his experiences and daily life in catching ghosts. One of the entries records this magic array, which was devised by the ancestor's disciple. This magic array takes up a lot of space, and the diary says that it is actually used to play tricks on people. Such a magic array, which is not very useful and is not a proper magic array, was not recorded in the book."

Wen Ya thought to herself, "There are people like this who would go to such lengths to create a magic array just to play a trick on someone. But it's really impressive that Shangguan Zheng could even find this."

As if guessing her thoughts, Shangguan looked into her eyes and said, "I remember this diary because many years ago when Tianyan came to Yucheng, we talked late into the night by candlelight, and the book we randomly picked up was this diary. When we saw this magic array, we joked that it was no wonder the ancestor wrote in the diary that this disciple had come to collect a debt. The name of this magic array is quite interesting, but it's not for doing anything worthwhile."

Wen Ya was stunned.

The Tianyan that Shangguan Zheng mentioned is Wen Tianyan, her maternal grandfather.

"My maternal grandfather... also knows about this magic array?" Wen Ya asked.

When Shangguan Zheng heard her mention her maternal grandfather, he assumed she was being sentimental and nodded, sighing, "So many years have passed. Later, your maternal grandfather lived a secluded life and rarely visited people."

Wen Ya had also heard that her grandfather had traveled around when he was young. In the early years, there were many natural disasters and wars in the surrounding areas, and there were many wandering ghosts. Her grandfather would go alone to exorcise the ghosts and see if he could find good disciples to take on as apprentices.

The Wen family began to decline from the generation of Wen Ya's great-grandfather, and the family became sparsely populated. Before her great-grandfather passed away, he wanted to save the family's reputation by arranging a marriage between him and the Jiang family. However, they only had one daughter, who was Wen Ya's mother.

However, her maternal grandmother died early, and later, for the sake of the Wen family, Wen Ya's father married into the family. However, she was her only child, and both of her parents died unexpectedly. Only Wen Tianyan and Wen Ya were left in the Wen family. Later, when Wen Ya left home, a distant nephew of the Wen family, Wen Yongjie, accompanied Wen Tianyan.

But now, even his grandfather is gone. Wen Yongjie said goodbye and left the Wen family home.

Wen Ya's eyes dimmed for a moment.

Perhaps because they had mentioned someone from the past, Shangguan Zheng and Wen Ya both fell silent for a while.

After a while, Wen Ya spoke first: "So, someone set up a spirit-suppressing array? That's why the soul-searching device malfunctioned?"

Shangguan Zheng hesitated: "I'm not sure, because this formation is too rare, and why would anyone create such a formation? What use is a malfunctioning soul-searching device? Is the purpose to throw the major families into chaos? Or is it that the old ancestor's disciple has been reincarnated and is just playing a trick on everyone?"

Upon hearing his words, Wen Ya also began to ponder, thinking of the Soul-Returning Lamp. The Spirit-Suppressing Array could disable magical artifacts, so why was the Soul-Returning Lamp still effective? Was it unaffected by the Spirit-Suppressing Array? Why was that?

“I still lean towards the Soul Searching Device having a problem. The diary only says that the Spirit Breathing Array can affect magical artifacts, but so far, it seems that only the Soul Searching Device is having issues, while the other magical artifacts are still functioning normally,” Shangguan Zheng concluded.

Wen Ya was startled: "Only the soul-searching device is malfunctioning?"

“Yes.” Shangguan Zheng nodded. “So we need to think about the soul-searching device again.”

The more they talked, the more confused they became. Wen Ya felt like she was in a fog, unable to see anything ahead.

It wasn't until someone came to remind him that dinner was ready that Shangguan Zheng stood up and said to Wen Ya, "Stay and have dinner."

Wen Ya was still thinking about something and nodded unconsciously. Then she was taken to the restaurant.

Si Mucheng was still thinking that this conversation would last longer than the last one when someone from the restaurant came over to tell Shangguan Qin that it was time to eat.

Shangguan Qin applied the compress to her eyes for a while, and the swelling finally went down. Hearing the maid's words, she clapped her hands and stood up: "Okay, I'll go call Grandpa." She glanced at Si Mucheng, "Let's go together, and bring your master with us too."

As a result, after Wen Ya and Shangguan Zheng came out of the reception room, she was completely absent-minded. Si Mucheng was very familiar with her in this state; when she was like this, she would basically go wherever he led her, and be incredibly obedient.

Sure enough, it wasn't until after the meal that Wen Ya slowly came back to her senses.

Si Mucheng tilted his head: "Awake? Didn't you eat too much this time?"

Wen Ya shook her head. While she was deep in thought, Si Mucheng had already finished the polite greetings with the Shangguan family. Now, he was waiting for Shangguan Qin to drive them home.

"It's strange, Shangguan Qin offered to give us a ride today." Si Mucheng was curious about what Shangguan Zheng and she had talked about. "What did the senior say? Was it because of the magic array?"

Wen Ya sighed softly: "There are indeed similar magic arrays, but it doesn't seem to be because of a magic array, but..."

At this moment, Shangguan Qin drove up to the door, rolled down the window, and raised her chin: "I'm in a good mood, so I'll take you home. Get in." She looked at Wen Ya and suddenly felt a little embarrassed, "Um, thank you for today."

Wen Ya had another idea: "If you want to thank me, then do it in a different way."

Shangguan Qin hadn't expected her to make a request, and for a moment she was a little annoyed: "You're not trying to extort me, are you? Fine, fine, I keep my word. Tell me what you want."

Wen Ya paused for a moment, then said, "I'd like to visit your family's library."

Shangguan Qin was taken aback: "Looking at ancient books? About magic arrays? Didn't my grandfather say it had nothing to do with magic arrays? You still won't give up?"

Wen Ya remained silent for a moment, while Shangguan Qin waved her hand, "Alright, alright, let them watch." She got out of the car, slammed the door shut, and gestured to the two of them, "Come with me."

Wen Ya stepped forward, and Si Mucheng quickly followed.

Shangguan Qin led them inside, and Si Mucheng then noticed that there was an elevator in the villa. The elevator doors opened, and Shangguan Qin went in first, followed closely by Wen Ya and Si Mucheng. Shangguan Qin pressed the floor button and explained, "My family's library is on the fourth floor."

The elevator was quiet except for the faint sound of its running. Suddenly, Shangguan Qin spoke up: "I used to think you were pretentious. Exorcising spirits is something everyone does, but you went and fulfilled the ghosts' obsessions. You think having the ability to see ghosts is so great? But today, I realize that if having the ability to see ghosts can bring them peace, then that is a kind of mission."

Wen Ya looked at her, and Shangguan Qin turned back to look into her eyes, saying earnestly, "I am truly grateful for your ability to see ghosts." It allowed her to receive the last news about the puppy.

Wen Ya smiled and said, "You're welcome."