Lu Yunzhi nodded to Ma Yong, "Uncle Ma, don't worry, unless there's an emergency, I won't say anything carelessly."
Perhaps out of trust, or perhaps out of a desire to confide, Ma Yong sighed deeply and finally began to tell Ma Gang's story.
Nine months ago, Qi Ran invited me to help out at her shop. It just so happened that Xiao Gang had recently...
Having just gotten married, and with household expenses running high, I agreed to Qi Ran's offer. The first thing I did after receiving my salary was to find someone to renovate the house, and since Qi Ran had connections in this area, I asked her for help.
"Unexpectedly, only about a week after the house was repaired, Xiaogang was leaning on the second-floor railing to get some fresh air when the railing suddenly broke. He fell from the building headfirst, bleeding profusely. By the time we got back, Xiaogang was already dead."
As Ma Yong spoke, tears streamed down his face. "He's my only son!"
"However," he changed the subject, "Qi Ran did tell me a good method, a good way to bring Xiao Gang back to life."
"What method?" Lu Yunzhi frowned and asked Ma Yong. He never believed that Qi Ran would be so kind as to help others. Besides, what Uncle Ma wanted now was a method to bring the dead back to life, which even if Qi Ran was bound to a system, he might not be able to do.
Ma Yong looked around nervously, afraid that someone would discover what was going on. He lowered his voice even further, "The method is to recruit more people to work in Qi Qi's shop. As long as we absorb all their luck and use it to replenish Xiao Gang's own life force, Xiao Gang will naturally wake up."
"What?!" Lu Yunzhi was shocked. He looked at Uncle Ma in front of him and felt that he was a stranger. The old Uncle Ma would never have done such an absurd thing, let alone care about it. The current Uncle Ma was like a completely different person. His kind and honest character had been completely lost!
Ma Yong, seemingly oblivious to the shock on Lu Yunzhi's face, continued speaking to himself:
"I'm only telling you this, so remember to keep it a secret. I'll invite you over for a small gathering when Xiaogang is fully back."
After he finished speaking, he didn't try to stop Lu Yunzhi this time. Instead, he told Lu Yunzhi to leave quickly.
After leaving the Ma family, Lu Yunzhi felt, perhaps it was just his imagination, that a dark aura hung over their residence. This aura seemed extremely oppressive. He suspected that Uncle Ma's current listless state was largely due to Qi Ran's machinations.
"I need to discuss this matter with Wan Qing first," Lu Yunzhi thought to himself, and hurried towards the city.
Meanwhile, Shen Qianqian talked a lot with Gao Lin at the brigade leader's house, and the words Gao Lin had just said to her kept echoing in her mind.
"During this late Qing Dynasty, the villagers have been acting strangely lately. Everyone treats Qi Ran like a deity, as if they've been bewitched. And those who help out at her shop, while they've earned some money, their luck is just...unlucky."
Okay, something always seems to go wrong at home every few days.
As soon as Gao Lin finished speaking, the system's voice immediately rang in Shen Qianqian's mind:
[Host, I have a theory—Qi Ran might be using this as a pretext for work...]
[Let's take their luck, shall we?]
The system's tone grew even more sarcastic at this point: "[As expected of a low-end system. No matter what rewards it gives Qi Ran, it always comes from extracting things from others.]"
If the system could be materialized, Shen Qianqian would probably already be able to see it rolling its eyes to the sky.
However, these words served as a warning to Shen Qianqian.
She originally thought that Qi Ran was just using some clumsy methods to obtain the system's rewards, just like before. She didn't expect that he would now be absorbing other people's luck and converting it into an increase in his own luck value.
That's truly shameless; they've lost all conscience for the sake of making money.
Shen Qianqian's first thought was to discuss it with Lu Yunzhi and the others. So, half an hour later, the group met with Shen Qianqian.
At this moment, Lu Pandi had changed into a pretty floral dress. Perhaps because she had finally eaten her fill, her thin face finally had some color.
Shen Qianqian and Lu Yunzhi explained what they had found out, and upon hearing this, Lu Yunchuan and Shen Qian both showed anger on their faces. Lu Yunchuan even slammed his fist on the table, "I originally thought my sister-in-law was just cutting corners and making a little extra money, but I never expected her to have such malicious intentions!"
Lu Yunchuan had played well with Ma Gang when they were young, and now, hearing about the outrageous things Ma Yong had done, he felt a tightness in his chest. "We must do something to stop Uncle Ma, and more importantly, we must make Uncle Ma see Qi Ran's true colors. Otherwise, even after Xiao Gang dies, his body will still be tortured by them, and Uncle Ma, at his advanced age, will still be manipulated by Qi Ran!"
“Of course,” Lu Yunzhi said. “But how to make him see things clearly is what we need to consider now. After all, judging from Uncle Ma’s current state, he seems to be obsessed, and a few words certainly won’t sway his mind.”
“Perhaps we need to figure out what exactly bewitched Uncle Ma first,” Shen Qianqian suggested. “Since he only acted this way after he started working at Qi Ran’s shop, something must have happened while he was working there for Uncle Ma to believe what Qi Ran said so readily.”
"But...we have absolutely no idea where Qi Ran's shop is!" Shen Qian felt a little dejected when she thought of this. If she had learned more about the eldest son's family beforehand, she wouldn't be unable to provide any useful information now.
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