Chapter 40 I Love You I'm Not Asking for Your Permission
"Do you really think that fleeing abroad will solve the problem?"
Shi Chan sat in the heated private room, gently shaking the coffee cup in his hand and said,
"In fact, I think it's more dangerous abroad. The local climate and police resources are different here and abroad, making it easier for murderers to commit crimes and evade capture. Therefore, many murderers will try to lure their victims abroad before committing their crimes."
Lin Lang took this into consideration and said:
"I will hire the best bodyguards for her."
"Well, I believe that with your family's financial resources, you can definitely do this. I'm not just talking about it. But I still think you're overthinking things."
Shican took a sip of coffee, put down the cup, picked up the fork and knife, and cut the French toast that the waiter had just brought in.
"Also, I don't think Lin Zhuyue would object to becoming a spiritual master. When you lovingly made these arrangements for her, did you ask her about her wishes?"
"I'll ask."
Lin Lang stood up with her handbag and said,
"But I have to go to a meeting first. I'll pay the bill. Take your time eating, and then come to my house. You've come all the way to Yuancheng, and it's the holidays, so you should have a couple of days to yourself before leaving. You should know my address, right? If not, ask Zhuyue to send it to you."
Although Shican didn't plan to play for two days, he also didn't plan to go back to Tiancheng alone, so he had to stay for the time being.
But he did not live in Lin Zhuyue's house.
His family has a house in this community, which is also a detached house with a courtyard. It is in the same area as Lin Zhuyue's house. The two houses are not far apart, and it only takes a hundred meters to walk there.
Shi Yingshao often came to Yuancheng to manage the family business and often stayed in this house, so it was always maintained in a condition where people could move in at any time.
Shi Yingshao's personal assistant had received the news last night that the young master was coming to Yuancheng and had arranged everything in advance. The heating system in the house had already started running, and when Shi Chan entered, the house was already very warm.
Shican put his car keys on the cabinet in the entrance hall. He took off his dark blue long down jacket, took off his hat, and put on the new slippers that his personal assistant had just bought him.
His cell phone rang soon after.
Shi Chan answered the phone: "Hello, partner."
Lin Zhuyue's voice rang out:
"My mom said you've arrived in Yuancheng. Where are you now? I'll ask someone to pick you up. Are you dressed warmly enough? Do I need to bring you a down jacket?"
I don't know which stupid netizen started this, but there are always people saying that the cold in the south is a magical attack, and the cold in the north is not really cold at all. And there are actually people in the south who believe this and don't wear down jackets when they come to the north in winter.
Lin Zhuyue was worried that Shi Can would be the same stupid southerner.
"Wait a minute, I'll send you a location."
Shi Can switched to the chat interface and initiated location sharing.
"Come find me. It's not a long walk, but remember to wear your down jacket. Don't freeze silly, you smart northerner."
Lin Zhuyue typed three question marks after seeing location sharing.
Ten minutes later, she appeared outside Shi Chan's house, wearing a short avocado-colored down jacket, shark pants, and brown boots that reached almost to her knees. She looked up at the house, then down at the location sharing interface on her phone, wondering if she had seen it wrong.
Shi Can used the remote control to open the yard door, then opened the front door of the house himself. He shrunk his neck and stuck his head out, calling Lin Zhuyue, who was blowing in the cold wind, to come over quickly.
Lin Zhuyue quickly entered the room, closed the door, and asked:
"Are we neighbors?"
"When the real estate market was booming, wasn't this place called Yuancheng Beverly Hills? My dad took a look and thought the feng shui was pretty good, so he bought it."
Shi Chan found the slippers from the shoe cabinet and placed them on the floor.
“Even though it’s always been under my name, this is my first time here.”
"Isn't your family registered in Shanghai?"
Lin Zhuyue put on slippers and asked,
"I remember that buying a house here requires a Yuancheng household registration."
Shi Can took Lin Zhuyue to the living room and replied:
"The rules agreed upon by the real estate agency are not local laws. There will always be a way."
This house is decorated in French light luxury style. Both soft and hard furnishings are mainly beige, supplemented by light brown. The interior lines are simple and elegant without losing the sense of art. It looks a bit luxurious. The ventilation and lighting are excellent, and it is spacious and bright.
Lin Zhuyue sat down on the sofa and asked:
"What did you talk about with my mother?"
Although Shi Can came to Yuancheng overnight without saying hello, which was a surprise attack, he had no intention of hiding the content of his conversation with Lin Lang from Lin Zhuyue.
Shi Can told Lin Zhuyue everything from the moment he forcibly stopped the car. After he finished, he couldn't help but say:
"Your mother is quite stubborn."
"Well, she is."
Lin Zhuyue seemed to be used to it. She stood by the fish tank and looked at the chubby Lanshou in the tank and said,
"From childhood to adulthood, whatever she set her mind to, she would accomplish, and no one could stop her. I always thought she was very stubborn and strong."
Lin Zhuyue was so strong that she didn't know how to get along with Lin Lang. She should probably just be a submissive person, but she felt very unwilling to do so.
Lin Zhuyue raised his hand to tease the fish, and the Ranchu in the fish tank swam after Lin Zhuyue's fingers which were pressed against the glass tank.
"Playing games?"
Shi Chan connected the game controller to the TV,
"Contra or Tank Battle?"
Lin Zhuyue took the game controller, touched the warm floor, sat down next to Shican, and said:
"Let's play Tank Battle. I've never been good at Contra."
Lin Zhuyue ate a piece of carrot cake at Shican's house. While marveling at the strange taste of the pastry, she invited Shican to her house for lunch.
Shi Can refused because his father's personal assistant would soon send the chef and ingredients over. If he suddenly chose to go to Lin Zhuyue's house for dinner after others had been busy for half a day, it would seem very impolite.
Lin Zhuyue had no choice but to go back by himself.
Lunch was ready when she got home, but Bowie's father, Uncle Bao Jiayou, was about to come back. He even brought a gift for Lin Zhuyue. Lin Zhuyue thought it would be better to wait a little longer and have dinner with him.
Lin Zhuyue planned to walk around in the yard to kill time.
As she turned around, she came to the edge of the fish pond.
The northern climate can be a bit harsh on ornamental fish. The pond in the yard freezes over every winter, and the fish inside are naturally not spared. Lin Zhuyue's family rotates the fish every year, sometimes even twice a year due to a sudden cold snap in late spring.
Lin Zhuyue was surprised to find that the fish pond was still frozen this year, with only a thin layer of ice covering the surface. She reached out and broke the ice, startling the goldfish inside and causing them to flee, tails lashing.
Bowie's voice came from behind:
"Sister! Stay away from the fish pond!"
Before Lin Zhuyue could react, she saw the shadow of a man with a dark, almost unremarkable face on the surface of the water. The next second, a translucent hand, its skin and face equally unsightly, reached out and grabbed Lin Zhuyue's wrist. With a powerful force, it dragged her completely into the pond.
"Sister! Sister?!"
Bowie's voice became hazy and indistinct.
Lin Zhuyue felt that he was sinking and getting farther and farther away from the water surface.
What the hell, is her pool so deep?
She didn't know what the owner of this hand did to her, but her body became dizzy and weak. She just wanted to close her eyes and fall asleep. She had no strength at all.
Lin Zhuyue's will to survive overcame her body's instincts, and tiny golden petals appeared around her.
Amber fire is an extremely yang fire, capable of burning even in water, though not as vigorously. Following Lin Zhuyue's thoughts, the tiny flames curled around the hand holding her.
Lin Zhuyue broke free from her restraints and swam upstream. She surfaced, hugged a rock by the pond, and breathed deeply.
The water in the pond became shallow again.
Lin Zhuyue could easily stand up by stepping on the bottom of the pool.
"Come on, come up quickly."
Bowie took Lin Zhuyue's hand and said,
"Mom had someone install a heating pump and an oxygen pump in the pool. Even though it's still frozen in winter, I shouldn't catch a cold if I change clothes quickly... I'll just take some medicine to prevent it."
Lin Zhuyue entered the house dripping wet, took the elevator upstairs, and took off her clothes after entering the room. She took a shower in the bathroom, then sat in front of the mirror, drinking cold medicine while Bowie helped her blow-dry her hair.
Lin Zhuyue asked, "What's going on with our fish pond?"
"I don't know either..."
Bowie was still immersed in the fear of Lin Zhuyue drowning.
"When I feed the fish, I see all sorts of weird reflections. Sometimes I even see headless fish. But I've seen it so many times and I've never been dragged into the water. How come..."
"Various reflections?"
Lin Zhuyue asked doubtfully,
"Isn't it just the man who dragged me into this?"
Bowie nodded and said:
“Sometimes you can see women and children, too. In short, there are many different faces.”
Lin Zhuyue asked: "Why didn't you tell your family?"
Bowie handed the hair dryer to Lin Zhuyue, picked up the comb and combed Lin Zhuyue's hair, saying aggrievedly as he combed:
"You know how Mom's face changes when she talks about things like this. But since it's happened, I still have to talk to Mom about it..."
Lin Zhuyue patted Bowie's hand and comforted him:
"Don't be afraid, things will work out."
After styling her hair, Lin Zhuyue put on some thick clothes, opened her suitcase, and took out the compass. She walked to the pool with the compass, and this time she was careful enough to summon the Golden Amber Fire to accompany her.
Bowie held Lin Zhuyue tightly, fearing that she would fall again.
The needle on the compass slowly turned.
Lin Zhuyue called Shi Can and told him roughly what happened, then said:
"With a ghost like this that drags people into the water, the compass needle should be moving very fast, right? And my sister is probably not seeing things. With so many things, the supernatural reaction should be very intense."
Shi Can warned from the other end of the phone:
"Don't go near the pool yet. I'll be there soon."
The phone was still on. The sound of the fabric of the down jacket rubbing against each other came from the receiver. When the door closed, Lin Zhuyue could hear the sound of the wind. Lin Zhuyue walked with Bowie to the gate of the yard and opened the door for Shican manually.
Bowie whispered, "Sister, who is this?"
Shi Can had very good hearing and answered first:
"Your sister's partner, but your mother is about to break them up."
“Why can’t I understand a word?”
Bowie held Lin Zhuyue's hand tightly.
"Sister, you must not be fooled by the yellow-haired guy. You won't be able to stay with someone who only has good looks but lacks wealth and talent for a long time. Although our family is rich, we can't help the poor like this."
Shi Can was so angry that he laughed. He pinched his hair:
"Is this yellow hair? Where is my hair yellow?"
Lin Zhuyue couldn't help but ask, "Is this the point?"
The three of them went towards the fish pond, arguing.
Shi Chan asked, "Did your brilliant inspiration sense anything?"
"No, I haven't felt anything since I got home. I didn't even notice anything was wrong with the pond until I was dragged down."
Lin Zhuyue spread out his hands and asked,
"Strange, isn't it?"
Shi Chan nodded: "Yeah, I didn't feel anything either."
Shi Can squatted down beside the pond. He took the compass from Lin Zhuyue and looked at the needle spinning at a steady speed. After a moment's observation, he began to survey the pond. The water now looked strange: dark and deep, with no trace of fish.
Shi Can took out a piece of talisman paper, crumpled it into a ball, chanted a spell softly, and threw the talisman paper ball into the water.
"This technique is called 'Throwing a Stone to Test the Water'."
Shi Can watched the paper ball gradually sink and said,
“If there is a bottom, there will be an echo.”
Lin Zhuyue asked, "What if there's no echo?"
Shi Chan replied, "It proves that the 'stone' is not touching anything and is falling continuously."
The three of them squatted by the pool for a while, but there was no echo in the pool.
Lin Zhuyue asked in confusion: "What's going on?"
Shi Can said with a serious expression:
"There might be a door down here that allows you to travel between the Yang World and the Yin World."
The world has two sides: the Yang side, where the living reside, and the Yin side, where the underworld resides. Originally, the Yin side consisted of only the underworld, but after it was sealed off, many ghosts began to live and travel outside, turning the once orderly Yin side into an extremely chaotic existence.
The two sides of the world are separated, and to enter or exit, one must pass through a "door." A door is a passage connecting the two sides, and it takes quite a bit of effort to open it, but sometimes, a door appears by chance.
Shi Chan used his hands to mess up the reflection on the water:
"The Yang World and the Yin World are like opposing shadows. Therefore, mirrors and water, which possesses mirror properties, are most likely to become 'doors.' 'Doors' are secretive, so even where a 'door' exists, even if many ghosts pass through, the Yin energy and paranormal activity remain minimal."
“…Is that so?”
Lin Zhuyue looked towards the pond and said,
“Is this a coincidence?”
Shi Chan asked, “What do you think?”
When Bao Jiayou returned home, everyone in the family gathered by the fish pond. They drained the water from the pond, temporarily put the fish into the tank, and then used tools to dig up the pond.
When installing the heating pump and oxygen pump in the fish pond, part of the device was fixed with cement, and no consideration was given to the fact that it might have to be removed in the future. This has also led to many difficulties in the current work.
However, with strength in numbers, the cement was finally broken through.
Lin Zhuyue pulled out a triangular object covered with green moss from the pipe between the cement bricks. Lin Zhuyue felt plastic when he touched it. After wiping off the green moss, he opened the thick plastic wrap and found that it was a talisman paper folded into a triangle. There were as many as eight pieces of talisman paper.
Lin Zhuyue handed the talisman paper to Shi Can and asked:
"Is it a charm for opening doors?"
Shi Chan nodded: "Yes, and some evil curses."
After Bao Jiayou learned the situation from Bowie, he called the engineer who had installed the hot water pump.
The call didn't go through.
Bao Jiayou had no choice but to contact the company behind the master. The company staff said they would help check and called Bao Jiayou back ten minutes later, saying that the master had left the company two months ago.
Shi Chan was not surprised at this result at all.
"The Spiritual Master's Mansion will retrieve his information."
Shi Can put away the talisman and said,
"The Spiritual Master's Mansion will also have someone conduct an appraisal of the handwriting to determine who actually drew the talisman."
Lin Zhuyue was in a bad mood and didn't eat lunch. She climbed out of the second-floor window and sat on the roof, basking in the sun while thinking about what had happened today.
Bao Jiayou stuck his head out of the window and asked:
"Zhuyue, can I come over?"
Lin Zhuyue nodded.
Bao Jiayou climbed over the window, sat down next to Lin Zhuyue, and said:
“What happened today is incredible.”
Lin Zhuyue felt very sorry and said:
"I'm sorry. Although I'm still unclear about what happened, it's likely related to me. I've caused trouble for my family. If I hadn't checked the fish pond today, I don't know if other people would have been dragged into the water later."
As for the underworld, just from the name you can tell that once you accidentally enter it, your life will be over.
"I'm not here to blame you."
Bao Jiayou said to Lin Zhuyue,
"I'm just a little worried about you. The metaphysical world and the spiritual master's house seem so powerful and dangerous... Do you really want to step into that kind of world? Your mother will be very worried. To be honest, I'm worried too..."
Bao Jiayou has always been very good to Lin Zhuyue. Although he has his own daughter, he likes Lin Zhuyue very much. When Lin Zhuyue was younger, he always tried to teach her to call him dad.
But he failed.
"If you don't want to go..."
Bao Jiayou said in a sincere tone,
"Your family will do everything in their power to protect you."
Lin Zhuyue smiled and said, "Thank you."
"What are you thanking me for? Let's have lunch."
Bao Jiayou climbed back through the window and said,
"Food won't taste good if you keep reheating it. Xiao Yi! Go eat too!"
Shi Can had lunch with them. His family’s chef cooked the meal, but he brought all the food over and ate with Lin Zhuyue’s family.
"Your father is Shi Yingshao?"
Bao Jiayou was surprised.
"I was wondering why he's always so elusive. After all this time, entrepreneur is just his superficial identity? Your family must be quite impressive, with both spiritualists and businessmen."
Shi Can smiled politely at Bao Jiayou while taking out his phone and typing for Lin Zhuyue to see:
"Turn the table around. I want to eat some spareribs, but I can't get any."
Lin Zhuyue ruthlessly rejected him: "You turn it yourself."
When she ate with the adults, she always ate the food in front of her. She had never turned the table for herself, let alone for Shi Chan.
Seeing the two of them exchanging glances, Bao Jiayou asked:
"What's wrong? Is there something you want to say that I can't hear? If so, I'll avoid it..."
Shi Can interrupted Bao Jiayou directly:
"Lin Zhuyue wanted to eat spare ribs, but she was too embarrassed to turn the table."
He turned the ribs in front of him, picked up a piece of ribs and threw it into Lin Zhuyue's bowl under Lin Zhuyue's shocked and angry gaze, and then "picked up" a piece for himself.
Lin Zhuyue stepped on his shoes under the table.
After lunch, Bao Jiayou went to the company.
Lin Zhuyue and Bao Yi opened the gifts brought back by Bao Jiayou at home.
"My dad is such a bore."
Bowie put the beef jerky on the coffee table unhappily.
"Whenever he went to Inner Mongolia, he would only bring back beef jerky and salty milk tea."
Lin Zhuyue added: "And there's also grassland white mushroom sauce."
Lin Lang arrived home at this time, having rushed back from the company. She heard about what had happened at home over the phone, and she could hardly believe that her family had been plotted against.
Bowie looked at Lin Lang who came in and asked:
"Mom, didn't I tell you not to rush back?"
Lin Lang asked back, "How can I not be anxious?"
Bowie wanted to say, "Don't be anxious, things have already come to this," but seeing Lin Lang's furrowed brows, she couldn't say it out loud.
Sometimes mothers are very worrying. As long as something happens to their daughter, they will try to intervene, even if they have no ability to handle the matter at all.
Lin Zhuyue tried to speak: "Mom, I..."
Lin Lang interrupted his daughter: "No!"
"I'm so sorry."
Lin Zhuyue finished her interrupted words slowly. She stood up, adjusted her mood, and expressed her thoughts to Lin Lang as calmly as possible.
"I know you love me, but I've grown up, I'm an adult, I have things I must do and responsibilities I must bear. So, this is not a negotiation, I'm not asking for your consent, I'm informing you—"
Lin Lang closed his eyes in pain.
"I want to be a spiritual master."
Lin Zhuyue took a deep breath and said,
"I really want your understanding and support, but it doesn't matter if you don't have it. As for freezing my sub-card and cutting off my living expenses, that's up to you."
After saying that, Lin Zhuyue walked past Lin Lang and took the elevator upstairs. She was going to pack her luggage. She would not stay at home and would return to Tiancheng tonight.
When Lin Zhuyue dragged her suitcase downstairs, Lin Lang might have gone to the study or returned to her room. She was no longer in the living room.
"Is this really a good way to say goodbye?"
Shi Can took the suitcase from Lin Zhuyue.
"Don't you have any regrets?"
Lin Zhuyue replied: "It doesn't matter."
Lin Zhuyue hugged Bowie and left the villa under her sister's reluctant eyes. She got into Shican's car and opened her phone to book the nearest flight she could catch.
Lin Lang stood behind the blinds, watching the Ferrari gradually disappear from her sight through the one-way curtains. She turned around, sat down at her desk, opened a computer document, and threw herself into her work with extremely low efficiency.
I don’t know how long it was, but Lin Lang suddenly received a call.
"Ms. Lin, this is the property management."
The person on the other end of the phone said,
"Ms. Lin ordered a bouquet of roses for you. It has been delivered to your door. Please ask your family to sign for it."
Lin Lang turned around and peeled back the blinds, only to find the property management patrol car. She went downstairs and accepted the roses delivered by the patrol car. A card was tucked into the roses, and the words on the card were written by the florist's wife.
However, the feelings hidden beneath the words are sincere, warm and irreplaceable.
"I love you mom."
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