Chapter 38 The Wu Family
Gu Linyuan twitched his lips but didn't speak. The courtyard fell silent, save for the persistent sound of the wind eye throwing things into the branches.
There was a knock on the courtyard gate. It was He Tian, who was carrying a bottle of wine and said with a smile, "I think it's worth having a drink to make the Mo family suffer!"
Gu Linyuan and Shi Yuan exchanged a glance and both smiled, their eyes melting away the ice and snow. He shouldn't be trapped in the past.
The atmosphere in the courtyard was harmonious; people were clinking glasses and taking a sip when they got into the spirit of the conversation. Meanwhile, the Gu family was in complete chaos.
Gu Zhao's frantic shouts were heard by most of the family compound, and within an afternoon, rumors that he had allegedly murdered his ex-wife had already spread privately.
After finishing his meeting, Grandpa Gu rushed back from the military camp. When he arrived, the doctor had just come out of Gu Zhao's room.
"How about it?"
"His emotions are extremely unstable; he must have suffered a great shock."
"Is there anything else?" This is a question asking if the person has been drugged or something.
The doctor shook his head: "I've done a physical exam. Apart from some bruises on my back and the back of my neck, everything else is normal."
When will he regain consciousness?
"I gave him a sedative injection, and I'll observe him after he wakes up." If you ask a doctor about external injuries, he can give you a definite answer in no time, but psychological state is really not his strong suit.
Fortunately, Grandpa Gu didn't make things difficult for the doctor. After thanking him, he told him to go to the guest room to rest and that he would examine Gu Zhao again after he woke up.
After he asked the kind soldier for some details, Gu Lie, the second son of the Gu family, returned. He used to be able to keep his emotions in check, but today, he walked in with a dark face.
"Dad, you really can't keep indulging my brother like this!" Gu Lie said, almost in a fit of rage. "When I got out of the car just now, the old lady from the hometown of the chief of staff next door asked me if my brother killed my ex-sister-in-law!"
"She even asked me if she was buried in my backyard!" After saying this, he closed his eyes, held back for a long time, and finally couldn't hold it in anymore, "I said back then that my brother would get into trouble for treating my sister-in-law like that!" His tone was clearly complaining.
"Alright!" Old Master Gu scolded in a low voice, "Your eldest brother is still unconscious!"
"Ah Lie, I know you're unhappy with your older brother, but we're family!" Old Master Gu said firmly. "If you were the one who made the mistake back then, I would have protected you with all my might!" These words successfully appeased Gu Lie.
Once he calmed down, he began to think about what was wrong with the situation: "I'll have someone go and find my brother's car first."
"Also, my brother didn't come back all night, didn't my sister-in-law mention it? What about this morning? Didn't she say anything either?" These words were tinged with emotion.
I've said before that he's not quite there yet when it comes to maintaining the status quo, but he does have the ability. A quick calculation shows that if his family had reacted promptly, they could have at least stopped the farce in the family compound.
He frowned, wanting to say something, but held back because of Feng Qing's status.
Grandpa Gu glanced at Gu Lie, knowing what he was going to say. He lowered his eyelids, trying his best to avoid thinking about that person, but he couldn't help but compare that person with Feng Qing in his mind.
The result was that he simply couldn't understand why Gu Zhao would choose Feng Qing!
His eldest son was born in a turbulent era. At that time, he was focused on the Northern Expedition. His wife was also a soldier and wanted to go north with him, so she entrusted him to the care of a fellow villager.
After much searching, they finally found him.
Because of his sense of obligation, he gave Gu Zhao almost everything he had that he could offer.
The wife he married was the most idealistic and ambitious among her peers, even capable of going to the battlefield, yet she was gentle, beautiful, and an only child!
After becoming in-laws, even his wife's family's influence was his!
But what was the result?
How did things turn out like this?
To this day, he still doesn't dare to die, and doesn't dare to go to the underworld to see his in-laws and old friends!
After waking up, Gu Zhao was fully awake, and by then his car had been found.
Feng Qing was pressing him for an explanation, demanding that he explain why he hadn't returned home all night.
Grandpa Gu didn't even glance at Feng Qing, and instead called Gu Zhao to his study.
He looked out the window at the patchwork of strangely shaped dodder in the yard, then quickly looked away and said in a deep voice, "Your car has been found. Second Brother checked it and found nothing wrong. Tell me what happened."
Gu Zhao recalled the scene from last night, and still felt a chill run down his spine. He clenched his trembling hands, took a deep breath, and exhaled before recounting everything that had happened the previous night.
Gu Lie's first reaction after hearing this was: "Could it be Gu Linyuan who did it?"
Grandpa Gu shook his head: "He won't!"
"Given his personality, he either doesn't do anything at all, or he does it on a big scale. He wouldn't waste his time on something that can be resolved with a mere scare tactic."
"But this is the North City, and all the strange demons are under the control of the Seventh Division. Besides him, who else could it be?"
Grandpa Gu then looked at Gu Zhao and asked, "Have you offended anyone recently?"
Gu Zhao shook his head: "No."
"The car wasn't found on your usual route home from get off work. Where were you before the accident?"
"I used my connections to buy some things for Fengqing. After get off work, I took a detour to pick them up, and that's how I passed by that road."
Old Master Gu's expression darkened for a moment, then he asked, "You've also seen strange demons, so tell me in detail what that flower demon looked like?"
"The branches are very slender, but very strong. They even drilled a hole under my car. The branches can bloom with bright red flowers, and the stamens can move." After thinking for a moment, he added, "They like to wear top hats."
Ignoring the last sentence, Old Master Gu subconsciously looked at the clumps of dodder in the yard.
Following their father's gaze, the two Gu brothers looked out. Gu Zhao said, "Dad, the vines do look very similar, but the colors of the flowers are completely different."
"Don't you know the supernatural powers of the strange demons?" Old Master Gu said in a calm tone. "They can only change the color of flowers. Aren't some strange demons also able to transform into humans?"
"Dad, please don't say that. Feng Qing is a human being."
“Besides, we have a deep friendship, how could she possibly scare me?” His words were reasonable and well-founded. “Moreover, she is my wife, and we have a daughter. If something happens to me, it will do her no good!”
“Dad, Gu Linyuan has a better motive than Feng Qing!” he said.
Old Master Gu sighed, "With Lin Feng around, Lin Yuan won't lay a hand on the Gu family."
"Lin Feng will not agree."
"Dad, Gu Linfeng is already a demon, how can you trust him so much?"
"Then tell me, has Lin Yuan ever done anything to you all these years?" Old Master Gu said angrily. "He must have had a motive for suddenly taking action, right?"
"Moreover, Gu Linfeng was not wronged at this year's birthday banquet." Therefore, he actually knew that Gu Linfeng had been wronged at the birthday banquets in previous years.
"Who could it be?" Gu Lie asked. "It can't be some new monster that appeared in the North City, can it? The people from the Seventh Division aren't pushovers either!"
"Second brother, is there anything else unusual in your brother's car?"
Gu Lie shook his head: "No, it's just that small hole under the car. You can't find it unless you look closely." He suddenly had a thought, "Could it be some kind of strange demon's prank?"
Otherwise, how can this inexplicable situation be explained?
No one could explain it, so we had to put it aside for now. Gu Lie said, "The most important thing now is to quell the rumors outside."
When Gu Zhao divorced and remarried, he also spread rumors that Ji Shuyang's identity was questionable. After that, Ji Shuyang and the Gu brothers disappeared, and some people actually believed that Ji Shuyang might be a demon.
With Gu Linyuan's sudden emergence, even more people believed the rumor.
Finally, many years later, Gu Zhao personally announced the news of Ji Shuyang's death, and the rumors from back then were dispelled. Gu Linyuan never visited the Gu family's door except for the old master's birthday. For a time, the Gu family's affairs became the focus of everyone's discussion.
Furthermore, an old man who had once been on good terms with the Ji family subtly inquired about Ji Shuyang's whereabouts. The old man was greatly troubled by this, but he had no choice but to do his best to quell the rumors.
Gu Zhao went further, explaining to the public that he had been bewitched by a strange demon and had his mind clouded. He even left his precious car with the door open at the entrance of the yard for people to inspect the tiny hole, telling them that it was made by the strange demon.
Regardless of what people say in private, on the surface, this crisis is over.
All of this was observed by Huan Ni and heard by Shi Yuan and Gu Linyuan.
The two exchanged a smile, and Shi Yuan said, "Shall we go to the Maldives again in a couple of days?"
"good!"
After a period of great turmoil, the rumors finally subsided, at least on the surface.
The Wu family, however, were not so lucky.
Wu Guanhai's former powerful backer was in a bad mood recently and finally lost patience and interest in this cat-and-mouse game. He didn't even need to give a hint; the next day, Wu Guanhai's involvement in feudal superstition was brought to the forefront for handling.
He was subsequently removed from the military.
Then someone will come to search, and if they find anything related to feudal superstition, they will immediately destroy or confiscate it, and the charge of engaging in feudal superstition will be firmly established.
"Isn't this blatantly trying to destroy us?" Wu Guanchao said with a mournful face. "Who in Beicheng doesn't know what our family does?"
"Isn't every single thing in the house related to feudal superstition?"
"Even if we got the news in advance, what good would it do?"
"What can we clean up? There might be fortune-telling coins lying in the corner!" By the end, Wu Guanchao was showing signs of impotent rage.
"Xingzhou, have you seen Shiyuan?" Old Master Wu asked.
Wu Xingzhou shook his head with a wry smile: "I can't even get close to the first place." That's inevitable. Among the predecessors who selected the barren mountain back then, there were those who were proficient in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, and they set up formations near the barren mountain.
This is both self-defense and a demonstration!
It also tells the world that the Seventh Site has absolutely nothing to do with the Four Olds or superstitions about scenery; those people there are all extraordinary individuals with real skills!
In the turmoil of the past decade or so, it's not that no one has tried to take advantage of the Seventh Bureau. The Seventh Bureau has been able to survive these years unscathed because of its strength!
Within the Beicheng circle, perhaps only Gu Zhao would truly believe that the Seventh Place's reputation is undeserved.
Sometimes, even when faced with the facts, people's perceptions remain unchanged.
"Guanhai, what do you think we should do?" Old Master Wu asked in a trembling voice.
"We'll leave Beicheng tonight," Wu Guanhai said.
This time, no one got it right.
“But there’s so much stuff in the house…” Jiang Qiqiao stammered.
"Take the valuables with you, and don't worry about the rest."
"I'll go prepare the pass and letter of introduction," Wu Guanhai said, and strode away from the old house.
"Dad?" Wu Guanchao looked helplessly at Old Master Wu at the head of the table.
"Do as Guan Hai says, go pack your things!" Old Master Wu waved his hand weakly.
At this moment, he suddenly remembered the time he had worked with Mr. Shi.
They also went through hardships at that time. At the most difficult time, they were almost buried alive in the cemetery. In the end, the two of them survived by supporting each other.
He couldn't help but think that if Grandpa Shi were still alive, he could ask that old man for help, and that way there would be some room for maneuver with Shi Yuan.
Instead of the current situation, where we can't even see each other.
Wu Guanhai became Grandpa Wu, and Shi Yuan changed his surname. The second branch of the Wu family line has ended!
Thinking of this, his hair suddenly stood on end. Was Wu Guanhai still the same Wu Guanhai who put the rise and fall of the entire Wu family first?
The Wu family's previous glory was due to Wu Guanhai, but its current decline is also because of him.
Is Wu Guanhai the only person that person wants?
Looking at the dejected Wu Xingzhou and the others who were trembling with fear, Old Master Wu's hands began to tremble involuntarily, and his cloudy eyes involuntarily welled up with tears.
When Wu Guanhai returned home, he packed up his bankbook, cash, and other valuables in front of Xie Minyin and hid them on his person.
Xie Minyin's heart skipped a beat. Was Wu Guanhai about to run away?
What will he do to her?
"Go and tidy up."
"Wh-what?"
"Get ready, and come with me to the neighborhood office to get a letter of introduction and a pass."
"I told you, Zhang..."
Wu Guanhai took a gun out of his desk drawer, and Xie Minyin quietly went to the bathroom to tidy up.
Her hands were shaking while she was changing clothes; she was terrified that Wu Guanhai would shoot her!
She wanted to find an opportunity to call Kang Mingfeng, thinking that with his skills, he should be able to save her from Wu Guanhai.
Unfortunately, Wu Guanhai didn't give her that chance. Seeing that she was ready, he gestured for her to come out with him.
He didn't drive; instead, he walked with Xie Minyin to the neighborhood office.
"Sister Min and her husband are here."
Xie Minyin forced a smile, greeted her colleagues, and led Wu Guanhai into the office.
"Guanhai, wait for me here, I'm going to get the stamp."
"Xie Minyin, don't test my patience." After saying that, he followed Xie Minyin out of the office.
"Sister Min and her husband are so loving!" A passing colleague teased with a smile. Xie Minyin almost cried, but Wu Guanhai had a gun! She held back her tears!
Getting the stamp done wasn't supposed to go so smoothly, but because Wu Guanhai was there, and his colleagues knew his identity and were giving Xie Minyin face, they stamped it without saying a word.
Xie Minyin was on the verge of tears. This wasn't a pass or a letter of introduction; it was her life-or-death record!
The turning point came when they were leaving the neighborhood office; they ran into Kang Mingfeng and his daughter, who were returning from shopping, at the corner!
Xie Minyin had never found the father and daughter so agreeable before!
She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Wu Guanhai wasn't paying attention, so she tried to signal to them to think of a way to save her.
"Dad?" Kang Nian'en called out softly.
"Let's go!" Kang Mingfeng said without hesitation.
Running away together in secret is fine, but letting him openly confront a regimental commander is unacceptable!
Xie Minyin gritted her teeth in hatred, but was powerless to do anything about it, and could only follow Wu Guanhai to the old house.
After a fierce internal struggle, Old Master Wu finally decided that if the Wu family could be preserved by sacrificing just one person, then…
"I'm going out for a bit." Old Master Wu stood up shakily.
"Dad, where are you going?" Wu Guanchao immediately put down what he was holding and went to help him.
Looking at his eldest son, Old Master Wu felt much better; his choice was right.
"I'd also like to know where you're planning to go, Dad?" Wu Guanhai looked at the father and son with a half-smile. "How about I go with you?"
"No need." Old Master Wu hadn't expected Wu Guanhai to return so quickly. He regretted not hesitating for so long earlier. "I'm getting old and can't sit still. I need to relieve myself."
"Then, brother, help Dad up."
Wu Guanchao: "...Okay."
Xie Minyin didn't dare to breathe loudly, following behind Wu Guanhai like a quail. She no longer asked Wu Guanhai to send her family away; she only wanted him to spare her life.
"Go help your sister-in-law pack her things."
"Ah? Okay!"
News of Wu Guanhai's actions quickly reached Gu Linyuan's ears, and he immediately informed Shi Yuan.
"He just left like that?" Shi Yuan asked in disbelief. "I thought he would struggle until the very last moment!"
"At least his current behavior indicates that he intends to leave Beicheng."
Shi Yuan recalled her few brief encounters with Wu Guanhai and felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
But it doesn't matter, since she won't allow the Wu family to leave Beicheng anyway.
"Director Gu, what do you think? Should I go and block their door now, or wait until they arrive at the train station and are about to board the train, then suddenly appear and give them a surprise?"
"The train station," Gu Linyuan suggested sincerely. "It'll be crowded and lively."
"Alright, could you please check Wu Guanhai's whereabouts these past few days?"
"No problem, leave it to me."
Wu family
"Have you packed everything?" Wu Guanhai asked.
"Everything's packed," Wu Guanchao replied, then asked, "Guanhai, where's your luggage?"
"I don't have much stuff, it's all in the car."
"Sister-in-law, go and make more pancakes, and prepare any food that keeps well at home." She seemed to be thinking very carefully about the trip.
"Okay, sure."
"I'll help my sister-in-law." For Xie Minyin, as long as she's not with Wu Guanhai, she doesn't care where she is.
Everything was ready, and it was getting dark. Wu Guanhai glanced at his watch and said, "Let's go."
The Wu family members carried their belongings and left home under the cover of night.
Two cars drove out of the Wu family's old house one after the other. Tears welled up in Old Master Wu's cloudy eyes again. He had lived in this house his whole life, and he didn't know if he would ever have the chance to come back.
But if he didn't leave, he was terrified at the thought of what would happen to those who practiced feudal superstition!
After parking the car, the group silently walked into the train station, waiting to have their tickets checked and embark on their unknown fate.
"I left my bankbook on the train, go get it." After saying that, Wu Guanhai casually put his luggage bag next to Wu Guanchao's feet and walked out of the station.
After waiting for a while, the train station had already started checking tickets, but Wu Guanhai still hadn't returned. Wu Guanchao whispered to Old Master Wu, "Could it be that my second brother... was arrested?"
Grandpa Wu's heart sank, and he said, "Let's get on the train first."
"Where are you going?" Several young men wearing red armbands stopped them. "Are you from the Wu family? Someone reported you for practicing feudal superstition, and we're waiting for the proper procedures to be followed. Are you trying to run away?"
"No, no, we didn't run away, we came to deliver people."
"Giving away?" The young man looked at the luggage scattered on the ground and sneered. "Giving away so much luggage?"
“These aren’t ours,” said Old Master Wu. “Someone asked us to look after them.”
"Then come with us."
"Alright, alright." After saying this, Old Master Wu made a gesture with his fingers behind his back, but was interrupted as soon as he started chanting.
"Is the old man about to cast a spell?" Shi Yuan's voice came from behind the young men, tinged with curiosity.
The young man in the lead frowned: "You dare to promote feudal superstition in front of us?"
"No, no!" Old Master Wu immediately said, "I'm old, my hands shake!"
"So even the famous Master Wu from Beicheng used to have trembling hands. I never would have guessed."
"Shi Yuan, you brought these people here, didn't you? We're blood relatives, why are you so ruthless?" Wu Xingzhou said in grief and indignation.
Shi Yuan shrugged: "No, it's just that the people who are practicing feudal superstition this time are a bit strange, so I was invited to come and suppress them."
"You, you are Shi Yuan, I am your grandfather!"
"Grandpa, where's your second son?" Shi Yuan whispered, covering her mouth. "Has he abandoned you?"
The scene was completely silent.
Finally, the young man in the lead said, "Come with us."
"Hey guys, take all the luggage and search it."
"This, this isn't ours," Jiang Qiqiao said weakly.
The old man's treasures are still inside!
Every investigation is accurate!
"Stop talking nonsense!" The young man in the lead straightened his face, and Jiang Qiqiao shut up.
Finally, the Wu family members were taken to the North City Revolutionary Committee for interrogation, and the young man who was in charge led a group of people to search the Wu family's home.
Shi Yuan went along, but she didn't go into the Wu family's old house. Instead, she sat in the car and waited.
Plans can't keep up with changes; before Shi Ling received the letter she sent, the Wu family collapsed.
That guy from the Mo family is really heartless. After all, Wu Guanhai served him as his dog for over ten years, and he just threw him away like that.
Before long, the young man in the lead brought over several boxes with his men. He bowed slightly and said to Shi Yuan, "Comrade Shi, these are all the books that the Wu family kept from the Shi family back then. Now they are being returned to their rightful owner." He made no mention of the Four Olds.
What "Four Olds"? They don't exist! These are just some books!
"Thank you for your hard work." Shi Yuan took out two ten-yuan bills and handed them over, "Please take these and have some tea."
"No, no, this is unacceptable! Helping you find your lost item is a service to the people. What would it be like to accept your money? We can't accept it, we can't accept it!"
The young man was Kong Fan's cousin, and he knew Shi Yuan's background, so he dared not accept her money.
"Take it," Shi Yuan said with a smile. "Could you please help me load the box onto the car?"
"Alright!" Seeing that Shi Yuan was serious about giving it to him, the young man thought for a moment and decided it was better to go along with Shi Yuan's wishes, so he accepted it.
He thought, "I have to take this money home and enshrine it!"
If you ever need money, just sell it to his brother, and you'll make a fortune!
Shi Yuan drove to the foot of the mountain on the outskirts of Beijing. The Wu family had completely collapsed, but she remained relatively calm. This was originally the script she had written for the Wu family.
She just didn't expect Wu Guanhai to be so ruthless. In the past, he could refuse to let Shi Yuan wear the Soul Jade for the sake of the entire Wu family, thus depriving her of the chance to recover. But today, he can use the other members of the Wu family as targets to attract attention and then make his own escape.
Fortunately, her friends were helpful, and she retrieved the Shi family's collection of books, while Wu Guanhai was not going to escape either.
Shi Yuan stood at the foot of the mountain and looked up, wondering where Huan Ni and Shi Meili had taken Wu Guanhai.
Shi Yuan felt a little itchy in her ankle. She looked down and saw a wildflower brushing against her. Shi Yuan raised an eyebrow. This wildflower was missing a few petals and didn't look like the kind of flower Shi Meili would grow.
When the wildflowers saw it, they swayed a few times, struggled to turn their petals, and turned their hearts toward the mountain.
Shi Yuan couldn't help but laugh. What was this all about?
No matter what she does, she'll spoil her own little friend.
Just like the male protagonist in a romance novel who coaxes a girl to find a surprise, Shi Yuan followed the directions of wildflowers, weeds, saplings, and even birds and butterflies, and finally found Wu Guanhai, who was tied up in a small cave.
Shi Yuan: ...Well, my feelings are quite complicated.
Thank you for your hard work, but Wu Guanhai doesn't deserve it!
"How was it? Did you feel surprised?" Huan Ni flew over excitedly and asked.
Shi Yuan truthfully expressed her feelings: "The process was wonderful, but the result was..."
Huan Ni and Shi Meili burst into laughter. Huan Ni said, "That's right. Shi Yuan, let me tell you, in the future, when a man gives you some so-called surprise, you must remember the feeling of eating shit!"
Shi Yuan was shocked and stammered, "So, you're afraid I'll be deceived by men in the future?"
Both nodded simultaneously and said in unison, "That's right!"
Huan Ni: "Think about Shi Ling. If she hadn't been deceived by that scumbag, she might be a member of the Seventh Division now."
Shi Meili: "Yeah, yeah, and Ji Shuyang too. His marksmanship is better than a man's, and he's fiercer than a man on the battlefield. But what happened? He met a scumbag and ended up with nothing but scum!"
The two said in an almost earnest tone, "Shiyuan, let's just say that girls don't necessarily have to find a guy."
Huan Ni could tell that Gu Linyuan was interested in Shi Yuan, and that he seemed to be a good person. However, she felt that Shi Yuan was still young and shouldn't rush into important life decisions. She should meet more people, compare different options, and then make a choice.
Of course, deep down, she felt that no man in the world was good enough for her Shi Yuan. The few great men of her generation were good enough, but unfortunately, they were all left with nothing but scum.
Shi Yuan was touched but also a little amused and exasperated: "Do I look like someone who would be deceived by a man?"
She said very seriously, "If that's the case, I'll crush his head!" Just like when you're in a bad mood but still have to go out and fight zombies!
Huan Ni and Shi Meili were overjoyed: "That's good." The two birds perched on her shoulders, one on each side. "If that day ever comes, we'll help you crush his head, so you don't get your hands dirty!"
“Let’s do it together!” Shi Yuan said with a smile.
Wu Guanhai chuckled softly, "As expected of my daughter, Shiyuan, you're doing very well. Even if I were to pass away now, I could rest in peace."
Shi Meili lashed out with a vine, leaving a bloody welt on Wu Guanhai's face: "Don't be disgusting! If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute!"
“Wu Guanhai, do you know why I didn’t hand you over to the Revolutionary Committee along with the Wu family?” Shi Yuan took a few steps closer, letting Wu Guanhai see the golden talisman in her hand. “Because I have something to ask you.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the talisman in her hand flew to Wu Guanhai's chest and exploded with a "bang".
Wu Guanhai's screams echoed in the small cave.
"Tell me, was your relationship with the Wu family related to the accident that happened to my maternal grandparents back then?"
Shi Yuan thought she would need to use some tricks to get Wu Guanhai to speak, but to her surprise, Wu Guanhai spoke up directly.
“It was the Wu family who did it,” he said, “for the treasure mentioned by the Shi family patriarch.”
"Oh, and Soul Jade too."
He smiled enigmatically: "Such good things, the Wu family wouldn't have been willing to use them on you back then."
"The Soul Jade is only useful to the Shi family to summon your soul back then, but it is much more useful to the Wu family."
Shi Yuan quickly realized that the Wu family had made their fortune through fortune telling. Although they considered themselves very important, they would occasionally accept commissions from people of high status to perform rituals to ward off evil spirits and protect the lives of the elderly and children in their families.
Having a Soul Jade would indeed be a great help.
"Unfortunately, even though the Shi family had left and the house was empty, the Wu family got nothing but their collection of books."
"Do you know why, despite my best efforts to cultivate Wu Xingzhou, he still can't stand on his own?"
He began to chuckle again, the laughter aggravating the wound in his chest. He gasped for breath a few times and continued, "Because he spent a lot of time on the Shi family's collection of books."
"He wanted to find any clues related to the treasure."
That was the child Wu Guanhai truly loved, and he even gave up giving Shi Yuan the chance to recover because of him.
"I truly put the overall interests of the Wu family first." Even his decision to half-give up his passion and expertise to join the military was all for the sake of the Wu family.
"I couldn't bear to see Wu Xingzhou spending so much time searching for treasures, so I gave him a few pointers out of pity."
You should know that he was the first person to discover the information about the family's treasure!
Although he coveted the treasure, he also knew that some things were destined and could not be forced.
But Wu Xingzhou obviously didn't think so. He found the book that Wu Guanhai had told him about, and Wu Guanhai's annotations, and discovered that the place the Shi family ancestor mentioned was likely in the Qing City area.
Later, Jiang Qiqiao discovered that Xie Minyin had been helping Sun Guangyao, and followed the clues to find Shi Ling and her daughter.
Yes, Wu Xingzhou actually knew about Sun Guangyao earlier than Shi Yuan.
Shi Ling is a member of the Shi family and has been living in Qinglin Bay for more than ten years. Qinglin Bay happens to be under the jurisdiction of Qing City. It is easy to guess that the treasure is likely in Qinglin Bay.
Having deduced the location of the treasure, Wu Guanhai was naturally tempted.
This led to Wu Xingzhou bringing Wu Guanhai's letter to Shi Yuan, who then sought to acknowledge his ancestry.
“Shi Yuan, whether you believe it or not, at that time, I really wanted to bring you back to the Wu family.”
He was middle-aged and had no children. Even though he treated Wu Xingzhou as his own child, there was still a distance between them.
Shi Yuan sneered: "Bring Shi Yuan back to Beicheng, then arrange for a man to give birth to a child with Wu family blood."
"It doesn't matter if one of them is an idiot, we can keep having more children. There will always be one who isn't an idiot, right?"
Wu Guanhai remained silent, skipping over the topic, and continued on his own: "Do you know when I started to feel disappointed?" He answered himself, "I found that Wu Xingzhou was too eager for quick success and instant benefits, so I gave him a few pointers."
“The result,” he sneered, “was that I actually saw anger and disdain in his eyes!”
"I understand the young man's anger, but what about his disdain? Is he disdainful of me?"
"He looks down on me, his second uncle who put so much effort into raising him!" That's one thing, though.
He later discovered that Wu Xingzhou already knew about Xie Minyin's surveillance of Shi Ling and her daughter before going to Beicheng, but he had kept it from him. It wasn't until Jiang Qiqiao told him that Xie Minyin was taking medicine to regulate her body and actively preparing to have a child that Wu Xingzhou revealed Xie Minyin's actions to him.
It was only after arriving here that Wu Guanhai began to examine himself and the Wu family.
After that, when the Blue Army was exploring the treasure, they stopped giving Wu Xingzhou much preferential treatment.
"Indeed, you can't rely on a child who isn't your own." Wu Guanhai recalled the scene on the train back to Beicheng when he was injured and unable to go out, and how Wu Xingzhou took care of him with a stern face several times. He sighed with emotion.
Shi Yuan retorted, "Is it possible that it has nothing to do with whether or not it's your child, but is purely due to your poor character?"
Wu Guanhai actually smiled kindly at Shi Yuan: "I know you hate me, but it doesn't matter, you will always be my daughter."
"Even if you change your surname, and you achieve success in the future, people will still say, 'This is the child of Wu Guanhai, the most famous fortune teller in Beicheng in the past. He comes from a family with a long and distinguished lineage!'"
This infuriated Shi Yuan and the two of them!
Shi Yuan sneered: "I'll just add a line like, 'Who told him to cheat on his wife and abandon his daughter? He got what he deserved!'"
"You!" Wu Guanhai's nonchalant expression finally vanished. "I've told you everything you wanted to know. Let me go, and I swear I'll never appear before you again in this lifetime!"
Huan Ni said coldly, "If you want to show up, you should ask us first!"
“Exactly!” Shi Meili agreed.
"Who from the Wu family laid a hand on my maternal grandparents?"
“Wu Guanchao,” Wu Guanhai readily confessed, “that fool acted rashly, and the Wu family had to put in a lot of effort to clean up the mess.”
"What about you? Have you finished up too?"
"...Yes!" At that time, the Wu family as a whole was the most important thing in his mind.
Who's left to finish things up?
"Grandpa, there's also a distant cousin."
Where is he?
"Haicheng".
"Be specific."
“Jing’an District,” he said, specifying a place name.
Are you going to kill me?
"How could that be?" "The people from the Seventh Division wouldn't lay a hand on ordinary people."
“Oh, I almost forgot, you’re not exactly an ordinary person either.” After Shi Yuan finished speaking, Huan Ni added, “You’re not even a person!”
Yes, how do you define a person?
He could clean up the mess left by a murderer, even though his mother-in-law treated him like her own daughter and his father-in-law was his mentor and teacher; he could abandon his childhood sweetheart and his soulless, incapable daughter without the ability to take care of herself.
It's truly unfair that someone like that has lived such a peaceful and respectable life for so many years.
However, Shi Yuan would not kill him; it was not worth taking a life for someone like that.
"You have something on that Mo family member, don't you?" "Leave it to me."
What are you going to do?
Of course, it was a case of using someone else to do the dirty work, but Shi Yuan didn't say it.
“You have a choice,” Shi Yuan said. “Die here now, or hand over those things and I’ll send you to reunite with the Wu family.”
None of them were good choices, and Wu Guanhai didn't want to choose any of them, but clearly the situation was beyond his control, and he had no choice but to make a decision.
"It's not a specific thing, but an event, something I personally handled," he said.
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