Chapter 35 What is Destiny (Correction) A woman should marry when she is meant to...
At this point, she suddenly slammed her hand on the table and screamed, "Why didn't you lie to Miss?! Why...why...why?!"
"It's clearly all his fault, clearly all his fault! Yet he was there... there laughing at Miss for being a worthless piece of trash no one wanted after she left him... It's clearly his fault... not Miss's fault... not Miss's fault..."
"The young lady wanted a divorce from him, and she had clearly already made concessions... She said that after the divorce, she would never remarry and would become a nun in a temple, but he still wouldn't let her go. He even said... he even said... he even said that since the young lady had already entered his family, even if they wanted a divorce, they should have consummated their marriage first, and he could talk about it after he had had his fun. This is clearly his fault! His fault!!"
Li Chenjin nodded. "It was his fault. So, Young Master Wu stabbed Miss Guo because he tried to force her to consummate the marriage, and Miss Guo refused, so she stabbed him in self-defense?"
Xiaolian lay down on the table and suddenly started crying loudly.
After crying for a long time, she finally spoke, "Miss clearly agreed at the time... just pretend... just pretend I was bitten by a dog..."
"But he's a bastard, he... he not only wants Miss to serve him, but he also wants me to serve him, to have Miss and I serve him together..."
Li Chen frowned. "So, to protect herself and to protect you, Miss Guo stabbed him with scissors. And Young Master Wu, enraged, killed Miss Guo on their wedding night. And you survived until now by feigning madness, and perhaps something happened to the Wu family afterward, is that right?"
Xiao Lian's eyes were unfocused, her gaze unfocused, as if she were muttering, "Originally... originally I was going to die too... but the commotion was too great, attracting the attention of the Wu family patriarch... The patriarch said that if two people died in one night, it would definitely be noticed that something was amiss. If the patriarch came to demand an explanation, it would be difficult to deal with..."
"After that...then they threw Miss into the lake. At that time...I could only pretend to be crazy. I wanted to find Master later and tell him about Miss's injustice. But these people...these people spread rumors about Miss, even after her death, they still humiliated her like this. Master...Master was so angry that he died. No one will come...no one will save Miss..."
She murmured for a while before seemingly coming to her senses and continuing, "After Miss died, strange noises and strange things started happening in this mansion, and Young Master Wu had nightmares every day... Master Wu prayed to the gods, but found it was useless, so he sent someone to find a Taoist priest..."
"That sorcerer said... the young lady's resentment was too strong, and she had already transformed into a vengeful ghost, just waiting for the right moment to take her enemy's life... and then... and then..."
As she spoke, she suddenly burst into tears. Tears streamed down her cheeks like beads from a broken string, one after another falling onto the table. Her voice trembled as she spoke, "Then the sorcerer said that my feelings for you, Miss, were deep, and that as long as I was there, you would have something to hold back, so... so..."
"So...they took me to dig up the young lady's grave. They drove long nails into all her joints, and then left her body under the scorching sun for a full hour, all to make her suffer every day, as if she were in hell, to weaken her spirit so she wouldn't have the strength to take revenge..."
"After that...then they found a stone from Mount Tai and placed it on the young lady's grave, so that...so that the young lady would never be able to rise again and would find it difficult to take revenge..."
After Xiaolian finished speaking, she hugged her head and cried for a while.
Li Chen watched quietly from the side until she had cried enough before speaking, "I have already told Master Wu that I will take you to Miss Guo's grave."
Xiao Lian looked up at Li Chenjin in surprise, but then heard Li Chenjin say, "But don't worry, I won't really take you there. After we leave the Wu family, change your clothes, take some money, and leave this town."
"After you leave the town, don't come back, and don't even think about going to the Guo family to ask anyone to help Miss Guo. The Guo family is now in ruins, and even if you go back, you won't find anyone willing to help you. Instead, it will let Master Wu know that you're faking your madness."
After listening to her words, Xiaolian remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Why...why won't you let me see Miss?"
Li Chen smiled and said, "If you were to come with us to see Miss Guo, it would be tantamount to betrayal in her eyes. The fact that you've survived until now means that Miss Guo wants you to live, and the fact that she doesn't want you to see her as she is now is because she hopes you won't see her now."
"If that's the case, why don't you do as your young lady wishes, take her share, and go somewhere else to live a good life?"
Xiaolian opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Li Chenjin's words seemed to bring a glimmer of light to her eyes for a moment, but soon they plunged back into deeper darkness, like two bottomless abysses.
These were clearly words of comfort, but each word felt like a sharp sword piercing her heart, causing her excruciating pain, as if her skin had been peeled off and her bones were being torn apart. She wanted to scream in agony, but no sound came out; only her vision gradually blurred.
When Li Chen left the wooden house, he did not see anyone else in his line of sight.
This shows that although Han Shannan sometimes speaks carelessly, he is quite diligent in guarding the gate, comparable to the sweet fermented rice balls.
Her gaze swept around and finally landed on a tree not far away.
In the shade of the tree, Han Shannan was squatting on the ground, holding a small wooden stick, teasing ants with sweet fermented rice balls.
Han Shannan was engrossed in playing with a small wooden stick, watching the ants carrying things on the ground, completely unaware of Li Chenjin's arrival.
It wasn't until Li Chenjin suddenly patted his shoulder that he let out a strange cry, leaped up from the ground, and drew his sword, placing it against Li Chenjin's neck.
Li Chen glanced at the sword at his neck, paused, and smiled slightly, saying, "Cultivator Han, what skill and courage! Even the sweet rice balls have been scared away, yet you are still standing here. Truly, the younger generation is to be feared!"
Han Shannan: "..."
His chest heaved violently a few times, whether from anger or fear, it was hard to tell.
He glared fiercely at Li Chenjin, then snorted heavily, sheathed his sword, and pointed at her, saying, "Why are you still trying to scare people?!"
Li Chen laughed heartily, "Who did I scare? I just wanted to call you, but I didn't expect you to react so strongly when I patted your shoulder. You even scared away the sweet rice balls."
Han Shannan was stunned, not expecting that the counterattack could be so effective. He was speechless for a moment, not knowing what to say, until Li Chen finally spoke up: "Alright, it's time to prepare to go and visit Miss Guo's grave."
Han Shannan nodded and was about to follow her when he suddenly realized something and said, "Wait... I wanted to ask you this before, did you already know that Master Wu was lying?"
Li Chen nodded. "His eyes darted around as he spoke, and his words didn't make sense in terms of cause and effect, making it hard to believe him. Putting everything else aside, let's talk about the matter of Miss Guo's innocence. That Master Wu doesn't seem like someone who doesn't care about his reputation. Publicizing this kind of thing wouldn't do the Wu family any good, but he did the opposite. Doesn't that prove that he has something to hide?"
"Also, when we went to question them this morning, they immediately said they didn't hear anything last night. It wasn't until you spoke up that they had to admit it. If they didn't have something to hide, why would they lie about such a trivial matter?"
Han Shannan angrily said, "That's right! I discovered he was lying a long time ago. He said that Guo Hanyan wanted to commit suicide by drowning because her son wanted to divorce her. But judging from what happened before, Guo Hanyan clearly didn't want to marry his son and was even willing to become a nun and spend her life with the Buddha. How could she commit suicide over this?"
"Hmph! If her son had really wanted to divorce her back then, Guo Hanyan would probably have bought firecrackers to celebrate that very night, rather than committing suicide! As for innocence, we... we cultivators don't care about that. My parents said that if one has righteous thoughts, even a lotus can rise from the mud unsullied; if one has evil thoughts, even beautiful jade and pearls are dung. I don't know why mortals in this world always use such filthy things to judge whether others are innocent or not. It's really strange."
"Besides, according to worldly standards, Guo Hanyan is a lady from a respectable family and would never do anything to disgrace her family. This must all be fabricated by the Wu family! Just like you said, the Wu family is a prominent family in Xicheng Town. That Master Wu is also concerned about his reputation and must know that family scandals should not be aired in public!"
"But this kind of thing is being allowed to spread by outsiders. The Wu family are business people, so it's impossible that they wouldn't know about this. If this were true, Master Wu would have shut those people up long ago to avoid being ridiculed!"
"So in my opinion, the source of this kind of news can only be the Wu family, and it was even instructed by Master Wu and Young Master Wu. It's obviously meant to ruin Guo Hanyan's reputation. It's disgusting!"
Li Chenjin said leisurely, "Why are you standing up for Miss Guo now? Didn't you say before that she was harming people and that you wanted to get rid of her?"
Han Shannan's eyes widened, and he blurted out, "Of course she should be eliminated for harming people! But shouldn't we keep things separate? She should be eliminated for harming people, but we shouldn't ruin her reputation for no reason! Even if she is an evil spirit, we can't just smear her like that!"
Li Chen listened quietly to Han Shannan's words until he finished speaking, then smiled and said, "Your family has raised you very well, that's excellent."
"It's your mouth that's causing trouble. You need to watch it more in the future. Otherwise, you'll easily cause trouble and create problems for yourself."
Han Shannan was taken aback. He hadn't expected Li Chenjin to praise him one minute and then immediately start belittling him the next. He was speechless for a moment and said, "You...you...how can you be like this?!"
Li Chen ignored her and instead turned to wave at the sweet fermented rice balls.
After the sweet fermented rice balls ran over, she walked to the wooden house and knocked on the door.
Before long, a woman wearing Li Chenjin's clothes, but with slightly disheveled hair, slowly walked out from inside.
When Han Shannan approached, she turned to him and said, "This is Miss Guo's dowry maid, named Xiaolian. After we leave the Wu family, you will be responsible for escorting her out of Xicheng Town and settling her in another town."
As she spoke, she handed a money pouch to Xiaolian and said, "There are twenty taels of silver in here, enough for you to live on. Take this silver and you can either do some small business or find a place to stay. It's all up to you."
Xiao Lian held the money bag in both hands, staring blankly at Li Chenjin, as if she never expected that she would actually come out alive.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she sobbed as she tried to kneel before Li Chenjin, but Li Chenjin stopped her, saying, "There's no need to bow to me. Instead of bowing to me, you should bow to yourself. From now on, you'll have to rely on yourself. I can't help you much."
“My benefactors…” Xiaolian bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes. She looked at Li Chenjin, then at Han Shannan beside her, and said, “I will never forget the kindness of you two benefactors in my life…”
Li Chen smiled slightly at her, "Let's go, it's time for you to live your own life."
………………
Li Chen left Xicheng Town alone and headed south.
Before even seeing the cemetery, I suddenly felt the sun overhead disappear.
She looked up at the sky above her.
The once azure sky was gradually being obscured by the ever-spreading dark clouds.
The dark clouds were so thick that they almost completely blocked the sun, preventing any sunlight from getting through.
When the dark clouds completely cover the sky, there will surely be a heavy rain. I wonder if her fellow practitioners from the meditation community are on their way. I hope she won't be left alone to endure it all.
She walked for about fifteen minutes, and in the distance, she saw a dense forest ahead.
This place is usually rarely visited by people, and the branches and leaves of the trees overhead are so lush that they can block out the sun.
The moment you step into that dense forest, you can hardly feel the presence of sunlight, and the further you go in, the more eerie and terrifying it becomes.
Perhaps it was because this dense forest contained what was essentially a mass grave, that the slightly damp air was tinged with a faint smell of decay and death. Combined with the cover of the lush foliage overhead, an invisible pressure could be felt that made one's heart pound.
After walking for about fifteen minutes, in the distance, one pile of earth after another came into view.
However, there were no tombstones in front of those graves, so it was impossible to tell who each grave belonged to, or which one belonged to Guo Hanyan.
It's truly heartbreaking to think that a young lady from a respectable family would be buried in this chaotic graveyard after her death.
"Hey! How come you got here so fast? I thought I'd have to wait for you here for a while!"
Li Chen turned around and saw Han Shannan walking towards her.
That kid has a loud voice; even from that distance, his voice already carried.
“Han Xiushi, your walking speed is not very good,” Li Chen said. “You are a cultivator from the cultivation world, and it takes you so much time to send a girl to the next town and back. If it were a sword god, it would only take a breath. You still have a lot of practice.”
Han Shannan's smile vanished instantly.
He instinctively wanted to argue, but then felt that Li Chenjin was right, so he could only snort and say, "Okay, okay! I'll practice it from now on, alright?!"
"Stop lecturing me. What are we going to do now? There aren't even any gravestones here. How are we going to find the evil spirit's grave? Are we going to dig them up one by one?"
Li Chen said, "It's not necessary to dig them up one by one. We're currently on Miss Guo's territory, so we don't need to go looking for it. When the time comes, it will naturally come to us."
Han Shannan frowned. "When are we going to get here? Are we going to have to wait until dark again? This place is full of abandoned graves and there are a lot of mosquitoes. If we wait here until dark, won't we get bitten to death?"
Li Chen looked around and smiled, "Waiting here won't work. These mosquitoes are unbearable not only for you, Han Xiushi, but also for me. Let's find a place to rest first, and then we can talk about other things."
"Where are we going to rest? This place is full of graves, we can't possibly rest in coffins, can we?" Han Shannan asked with a look of disgust.
Li Chen pointed to the grave mounds in front of him and said, "Look, although there are no offerings in front of these graves, there are no weeds either, which means that someone comes here to clean them regularly. Also, this cemetery is quite large, and it would definitely take more than a day to clean it all. So there must be a place here for people to rest temporarily. We can look for it slowly."
"oh……"
Han Shannan nodded, feeling that everything Li Chen said made perfect sense.
He had only followed her for a few steps when he suddenly remembered something and asked, "Where are the sweet fermented rice balls?"
“I’ve left it at the mayor’s house for now. It should be being pampered with good food and drink right now,” Li Chen said. “Don’t you think about it? What can you do with a dog like this in a place like this? It’s just a smart dog, not a dog demon. Bringing it here is just asking for trouble, isn’t it?”
Han Shannan paused, "That's true. It's a pity it didn't have that opportunity to become a spirit, otherwise it could have lived for at least three or four hundred years."
Li Chenjin slowly said, "What you're saying is just theory. Who can say for sure about matters of life and death? Even that mighty Sword God, who had cultivated a half-immortal body, died just before he was about to ascend, at the very last moment?"
"It's a pity, really. Even if that sword goddess wasn't particularly talented and could only attain a half-immortal body in her lifetime, she should have lived for at least four or five hundred years. But in the end, let alone four or five hundred years, she died quietly in her twenties, leaving behind neither a corpse nor a disciple..."
"No way! The Sword Goddess...she..." Han Shannan wanted to argue, but when Li Chen looked at him, he suddenly couldn't say anything. After a long pause, he finally said, "How can you say that about the Sword Goddess? Aren't you her good friend?"
Li Chen sighed, "Yes, that's why I feel sorry for her. Actually, I really like her as a friend. She's braver and more daring than me, and she dares to do many things that I wouldn't dare to do. It's really hard not to like her."
"It's a pity that she trusted the wrong person and was too confident and arrogant in her abilities. She always thought that as long as she wanted to, there was nothing she couldn't do or anyone she couldn't save. But look, in the end, she couldn't even save herself, let alone others. Isn't that tragic?"
Han Shannan was taken aback, then blurted out, "What do you mean by 'trusting the wrong person'? Are all those rumors outside true? Was the Sword God really killed by the people of the Wanshan Sect? It's not that there's no body, it's just that the people of the Wanshan Sect are worried that others will discover the fact that the Sword God was murdered, so they say there's no body?!"
Li Chenjin said with an "oh," and "I don't know either. What I just said was just some random guesses based on rumors I heard. I was just talking for fun."
Han Shannan angrily retorted, "How can you talk about this like it's nothing?!"
"What's wrong with joking? The Sword God didn't say we couldn't say it." She rubbed her ear, which was a little sore from Han Shannan's shouting, and said, "Anyway, this isn't the most important thing right now. The most important thing is to find a place to take shelter from the rain as soon as possible. It's about to rain."
As soon as Li Chen finished speaking, a few drops of cold water fell onto their heads.
The two looked up and saw that although there were trees in the area, the branches and leaves overhead were not as lush as those on the way there, and they could still vaguely see the sky outside.
The sky above was overcast, and it wasn't just about to rain; it had already started raining.
It rained quite heavily.
Han Shannan wiped the rain off his face and was about to ask the person next to him if they had an umbrella when he saw her take out two umbrellas from the storage bag at her waist.
He took the umbrella and couldn't help but ask, "Where did you get this? It must be something from the cultivation world, right?"
“Oh… it’s like this,” Li Chen said. “Aren’t the Dharma Cultivation World and the Zen Cultivation World on good terms now? I happen to know someone in the Dharma Cultivation World. When that person was injured and in trouble, I helped him out. To repay my kindness, he gave me this storage bag and that building outside the town.”
Han Shannan exclaimed in surprise, "I never imagined that people in the Dharma Cultivation Realm would be so grateful! My mother only told me that people in the Dharma Cultivation Realm are all vindictive and told me to stay away from those Dharma Cultivation Realm disciples. I never imagined that they would not only seek revenge, but also be so generous in repaying kindness."
Li Chen laughed and said, "If you know how to take revenge, you will naturally also remember kindness. If you only know how to take revenge and not how to be grateful, what difference is there between you and an animal? You are even worse than an animal. If the people in the cultivation world heard you say this, do you think they would tear your mouth apart?"
"Your sword shouldn't be able to reach someone a hundred meters away, right? But people from the Dharma Cultivation Realm can take your life from a hundred meters away. You'd better be careful in the future. People from the Dharma Cultivation Realm only care whether someone is one of their own before killing them. They never care about the other person's background. They dare to offend anyone."
Han Shannan: "..."
He followed behind Li Chenjin, silently covering his mouth and remaining silent the rest of the way, which made Li Chenjin feel much quieter.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, just as they were about to leave the cemetery, a somewhat dilapidated wooden hut finally appeared before them, looking quite old.
Li Chen pushed open the door, and the first thing he saw was a shrine covered with a red cloth.
Apart from the shrine, there was nothing else in the room; it was practically empty.
Li Chen gave a wink to the person next to him, and Han Shannan, upon receiving the signal, immediately stepped forward and lifted the red cloth on the shrine.
As the red cloth fell to the ground, Li Chen looked at the statue standing on the lotus in the shrine and frowned silently.
This statue was the same one they had seen at the Wu family's residence, but instead of being made of gold, it was made of white porcelain. However, in this dark little house, it exuded an even more sinister aura than the one they had seen at the Wu family's residence.
Suddenly, a loud "bang" rang out, and the door behind them was slammed shut with tremendous force. Immediately afterwards, a gust of cold wind blew in, as if something was climbing up their backs.
The two turned around to look behind them, but the light from the tinderbox in their hands suddenly went out in that instant.
The instant the flame disappeared, Li Chen felt a cool breeze brush against the back of her hand, as if someone had come close to her and blew out the fire.
However, this darkness was only momentary. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared, replaced by a blindingly bright sun.
They found themselves in a courtyard, where, besides themselves, there were many other people they had never seen before.
Not far from them stood two richly dressed men and women, and beside them stood a young girl in a blue dress, who was clearly still unmarried.
Besides the three people, there were groups of servants standing on both sides of the courtyard. Dozens of boxes were neatly arranged in front of the servants. Judging from the red silk tied to the boxes, they were obviously betrothal gifts.
"Father, I don't want to marry him! You should know best what kind of person that young master of the Wu family is. Do you really want to push your daughter into that fire pit?"
Li Chen and Han Shannan looked over at the sound and saw the woman in green wiping away tears, while the middle-aged man she called "father" was looking at her with great difficulty, his eyes revealing a hint of reluctance.
Just as the two were locked in a stalemate, the woman beside the middle-aged man suddenly spoke up: "Hanyan, you're so old now, you'll have to get married sooner or later. Besides, this whole thing was your doing. If you hadn't insisted on taking the imperial examinations, saying you wanted to become a female official, how would you have met the eldest son of the Wu family?"
"Alas... Master, you see, I told you long ago not to cause trouble, because you were bound to make a mess of things sooner or later. You didn't believe me back then, but now look what I said! I've said it before, this isn't some unruly cultivation world. Women should marry when they're supposed to, and being a good wife and mother is the best destiny for a woman."
Guo Hanyan: "Mother, but what about you before..."
The woman interjected, "Hanyan, don't make things difficult for the master. He's been worrying himself sick over you. Hanyan, I beg you, think about him. He's raised you all these years, it's time you grew up! Just let him have some peace of mind!"
Guo Hanyan: "I'm not..."
The woman interjected again, "Hanyan, don't blame your parents. It doesn't matter who you marry, right? Besides, in my opinion, that young master Wu is definitely sincere towards you! Those things from before might just be rumors. Young master Wu is quite handsome and speaks politely. He's definitely not as bad as the rumors say."
Every time the girl tried to speak, the woman would shut her down.
In the end, her lips moved, but she couldn't utter a word. She could only look helplessly at the middle-aged man, "Father..."
Before she could speak, the woman sobbed, wiped her eyes with her handkerchief, and then, without waiting for anyone to react, knelt down directly in the direction of the young girl. "Hanyan, please, please don't make things difficult for the master anymore. I'm begging you..."
The middle-aged man frowned, immediately reached out to help her up, then looked at the girl, hesitated for a moment, and finally sighed, saying slowly, "Hanyan, your mother is doing this for your own good. Don't be so willful anymore."
After saying that, without waiting for her reply, he helped the woman turn around and leave, leaving the girl standing there in a daze, as if she had not yet recovered from what had just happened, with only a line of clear tears slowly flowing down her cheeks.
Li Chen walked to the girl's side and looked in the direction the two had left.
Just as the two figures were about to disappear around the corner, the woman turned back and looked in her direction. There was no sadness in her eyes, but rather a hint of smugness. A smile slowly appeared on her lips, which looked extremely irritating.
Han Shannan walked over at that moment, looking extremely excited, and said, "Did you see that? That person was smiling when she turned around! So she did it on purpose!"
Li Chen looked at him and asked, "Can't you tell? She really dislikes her stepdaughter and is eager to push her into a fire pit. If I'm not mistaken, this is the Guo family, and those two over there are Guo Hanyan's biological father and her stepmother."
Han Shannan said, "So we're in an illusion now?"
Li Chen nodded. "Presumably, we were already gradually entering the illusion when we stepped into this graveyard. And what truly led us into this illusion was the statue we just saw."
Han Shannan suddenly realized, "I understand now. No wonder that Master Wu suddenly said the statue was no longer effective. It's not that the deity was no longer effective, but that the statue is now trying to fulfill Guo Hanyan's wish and has abandoned the Wu family."
Li Chenjin continued, "The fact that the statue could abandon the Wu family means that, in the statue's eyes, the reward that Miss Guo can give it is far greater than the reward that Master Wu can give it."
"I've seen many of these evil gods. After granting a wish, they receive a corresponding or even double reward. But the strange thing is that Miss Guo is already dead. What could she possibly bring to this statue that would be a greater reward than what Master Wu could offer?"
As the two were pondering, the scene before them went dark for a moment, and then they were in a new place.
They were standing in a bustling market street, where most of the people were dressed in very bright colors.
Besides the pedestrians, all sorts of lanterns were hanging along the roadside and overhead. Listening to the bustling laughter and chatter all around, it was easy to guess that the current illusion was in the midst of the Lantern Festival.
The two men looked around the street and finally their eyes fell on a woman dressed in gorgeous clothes.
The woman was accompanied by a maid, and the two were walking out of a mansion together.
After walking a distance, the maid handed the cloth bag in her hand to Guo Hanyan. The two looked at each other, then parted ways and went in opposite directions.
They followed behind Guo Hanyan and soon discovered that there were two other people following behind her besides themselves.
One of them was Young Master Wu, whom they already knew, while the other, whom Han Shannan had never met before, was Young Master Jiang, who was lying in the mortuary.
If I'm not mistaken, the cloth bag should contain Guo Hanyan's change of clothes.
After all, Guo Hanyan is dressed in gorgeous clothes, made of fine silk. If she were to try to sneak out of the city in such clothes, it would be quite inconvenient.
As Guo Hanyan cautiously walked into a deserted, dark alley, the two people who were quietly following behind her exchanged a glance, and then Young Master Jiang silently followed.
Young Master Wu, who hadn't gone along, took out a silver ingot, casually stopped a passerby, and said, "Go to the Guo family and say you saw the eldest daughter of the Guo family in danger in that alley over there. If you do it well, this other silver ingot is yours too. Do you understand what to say?"
The person he stopped was a man who looked to be around twenty-five years old.
The man was dressed plainly in short clothes, clearly someone who did manual labor to barely support his family. It was rare for him to see such a large sum of money, so he immediately accepted it and repeatedly replied, "Sir! Don't worry, sir, I know what to say. Don't worry, sir!"
Looking at what was happening before him, Han Shannan muttered to himself, "So they knew Guo Hanyan was going out all along? Otherwise, it wouldn't be such a coincidence that they were able to follow Guo Hanyan as soon as she left..."
As she spoke, as if suddenly remembering something, she exclaimed, "Was it Guo Hanyan's stepmother who spoke to the Wu family this morning? Guo Hanyan must have gotten the consent of her elders before she went out! Her stepmother is so eager to marry her off, she would definitely take this opportunity to inform the Wu family, hoping that something will happen during this time so that Guo Hanyan will willingly marry into the family!"
Li Chen smiled and said leisurely, "What a pity. All this scheming is just a waste of time and effort. No matter how much wealth the Guo family has, it will not fall into her hands now, nor into the hands of the son whose path she paved. It's truly pathetic and lamentable."
Han Shannan hesitated for a moment, "Isn't that what she brought on herself? Why are you feeling sorry for her?"
Li Chen chuckled and continued leisurely, "Of course, he brought it on himself, but he's just a pitiful person who wants to settle down."
"The mortal world is different from the cultivation world. In the cultivation world, there is no distinction between the bride's family and the groom's family. But in the mortal world, once a woman gets married, she is like water spilled from a cup. From then on, she can no longer return to her parents' home. Even if she does return, she is just an outsider."
"Women in the cultivation world do not need to take their husband's surname, nor do they need to follow the Three Obediences and Four Virtues. But women in the mortal world obey their fathers at home, their husbands after marriage, and their sons after their husbands die. Many women are confined to the inner quarters of the house their whole lives, never seeing the beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers, and unaware of the vastness of the world."
"Furthermore, in the cultivation world, it doesn't matter whether a woman's child takes the father's or mother's surname. But it's different in the mortal world. Not only can the child only take the father's surname, but there are also many families that favor sons over daughters. When I went to the mortal world before, I happened to see a family give birth to a baby girl, but as soon as I turned around, they drowned the baby in the chamber pot. When I went to argue with them, I was chased away. Later, I found out that this kind of thing is common in the mortal world, and the people there are used to it."
"So you can see that women in this world are born with many hardships. When they live in their parents' home, they are outsiders; when they live in their husband's home, they are still outsiders. From beginning to end, they are like willow catkins in the wind or duckweed on the water, without a definite place to settle down."
"Therefore, naturally, there are many women who hope to be able to establish themselves in a certain place on their own; who hope that their words can be heard by others; and who hope that they can make decisions for themselves and others, instead of being forced to obey."
As he spoke, Li Chen sighed again and said, "Look at that Miss Guo's stepmother. She was not even twenty years old when she became Master Guo's second wife. She is not much older than Miss Guo, yet she wanted to find a man old enough to be her father as her husband. It is clear that her family only sent her to the Guo family as a gift."
“She was worried that she would be given away or driven away like an object again, so she would naturally try her best to do something she felt could protect herself. It’s just a pity that Miss Guo’s stepmother is too young and too short-sighted, and can only see what’s in front of her.”
"She may have many schemes, but she doesn't see the long term. After years of hard work, it's all for naught. Think about it, even if she didn't die, when Master Guo passed away and Miss Guo married into the Wu family, she would only have a two-year-old son by her side. How could she protect the huge family fortune that Master Guo left her?"
"How did you come up with so many ideas?" Han Shannan exclaimed, finding it increasingly reasonable.
Li Chen said slowly, "It must be because I thought too much with the Sword God before. The Sword God and I were born in the cultivation world when we were young, which is much luckier than those who were born into the mortal world. Now you only look at the cultivation world, so you will naturally feel that there are many people in the cultivation world, but if you look at the living beings in this world, you will find that all the people in the cultivation world are only the people of a few cities."
"The number of people who can step into the cultivation world from the mortal realm is very small. Most people, even if they yearn for the cultivation world, cannot even get started. Even if they do get started, they cannot take root in the cultivation world. More than 80% of those who can truly take root in the cultivation world are descendants of people in the cultivation world."
Han Shannan was taken aback. "Huh?"
"What do you mean, 'ah'?" Li Chen chuckled. "Don't think too highly of the cultivation world. Where there are people, there is a martial world, and where there is a martial world, connections are important. The Sword God knew that not everyone in the world could enter the cultivation world, so she wanted to change the human world into the cultivation world. She thought that as long as everyone followed the same rules, not so many women would suffer."
Han Shannan asked, "So what happened in the end? Was it successful?"
Li Chen curled his lip and said, "Just look at what the mortal realm is like now, and you'll know that the Sword God has definitely failed. The rules of the cultivation world have continued for tens of millions of years, and the rules of the mortal world are the same. If anyone wants to shake them, it's like a mayfly trying to shake a tree."
"Let alone the Sword God, even if the revered Zen Master Mingcun, known as the Living Buddha, were to personally intervene, he would only end up getting a slap in the face. The Sword God didn't understand this point back then, which almost caused a war between the cultivation world and the imperial court. He was severely criticized by the people of the cultivation world and almost got ousted from his position as sect leader."
Han Shannan: "..."
This was the first time Han Shannan had heard such words, and naturally, it was also the first time he had left his familiar place and stepped into the world.
Hearing these words, he felt heavy, as if there were stones in his heart, making him feel both a sharp pain in his chest and a nagging unease, and he couldn't utter a single word for a moment.
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