"Listen, those words you’re saying now are quite gentle.
Back then you looked down on them, afraid that marrying in a successful son-in-law would change the family nas and legacies of both the Qin and Liu families.
And now, even if he doesn’t beco your son-in-law, isn’t all of Qin and Liu’s property still his?"
"Alright, stop teasing. When Ali cos back tomorrow, give him this book. Although he’s already learned its lessons, delving deeper will still improve all aspects."
"Our Ali sees things clearly. A year ago, when he was at Uncle Li’s house, he already probed Xiao Yuan about whether he minds if the child takes his surna."
Liu Yui listened with perked ears.
Aunt Liu purposely stopped talking mid-sentence and started to tidy up the tea table, speaking to herself:
"Okay, I dare not tease anymore; I’m truly afraid of angering you, old madam, and getting a family punishnt."
"Deserves a spanking!"
Li Zhiyuan and Alii arrived at the rooftop terrace and sat down in the wicker chairs.
The teenager began recounting the events of the previous night, but as he was covered by the early morning sunlight, and each ti he felt the special tranquility that ca with being beside the girl, he fell asleep.
Mainly because things had been happening for several nights in a row; a lack of sleep combined with expended energy had tired him out.
Alii lay down nearby, propping her chin with her hand, intently watching the slumbering teenager.
The girl knew that even though the boy did not actually harbor those emotions, he always exhibited them richly in front of her.
Because she was too timid to go out, he brought the world into her room.
Midway, Aunt Liu brought an iced drink onto the terrace.
Seemingly noticing that the teenager had fallen asleep, her footsteps beca nearly inaudible, and she approached the wicker chair as if gliding.
Aunt Liu gestured towards the sleeping boy and then towards the ground.
Alii nodded.
Aunt Liu bent over and picked him up.
Li Zhiyuan felt it, opened his eyes, saw Aunt Liu, and then closed them again. He was too tired and nicely asleep and did not want to be disturbed.
Aunt Liu carried the teenager to the second floor, intending to let him continue his sleep in the guest room.
But Alii opened her own bedroom door, looking at her.
Aunt Liu hesitated, but ultimately couldn’t resist, and laid the teenager on Alii’s bed.
Before leaving, she also lit an incense stick to aid sleep.
Alii took her own thin blanket, and following the boy’s habit from back ho, neatly folded it, then laid it over the boy’s stomach.
Then, the girl sat down at the desk, placing a stack of Yellow talisman papers in front of her, and dipped her brush in cinnabar ink.
As the brush touched the paper, the talisman was completed in one go.
After finishing each talisman, the girl waved her hand, and the talisman paper flew onto the wall on its own.
The girl drew a whole wall’s worth of talisman papers in one breath.
After putting down the brush and resting it at the edge of the inkstone, the worn-out brush, no longer restrained, split and splayed apart.
The girl remained unconcerned, looking up at the three types of talisman papers on the wall.
She beckoned once, and a row of papers fell, landing in her palm.
She beckoned again, and a second row fell, followed by a third.
With each stack, the girl tied them with string, then put the three stacks of talisman papers into the boy’s backpack.
Having drawn so many talismans in one go, the girl also felt tired.
She turned the desk chair to face the bed, sat on it with her feet on the bed’s edge, and her hands on her knees.
Everything seed as if it had returned to the past.
It was like back in the eastern room of Li Sanjiang’s house, where she sat inside on a stool, her feet on the threshold, but now with the addition of a sleeping boy beside her basking in the sun.
In the past, what she hated most was sleeping because every ti she closed her eyes, those things would imdiately swarm before her, mocking, intimidating, and cursing her.
Each one was expressing the resentnt of being suppressed by an ancestor, vowing to make her descendants pay for all the sufferings.
But behind her, those ancestral tablets that had once suppressed the evil spirits were cracked and silent, indifferently watching her face the outside hordes alone.
As a child, she saw her grandma liked to talk to the tablets.
She tried it too, pleading with the tablets in her dreams, but the only response she got was silent loneliness.
Later, she understood that her grandma knew all along that the tablets couldn’t really hear what she said.
She liked to collect the boy’s used items because they carried his scent and traces; those filled boxes were her confidence, her life-preserver during sleep.
Now, she was tired, exhausted, and wanted to sleep; so naturally, she fell asleep.
She returned to that old house; outside, rain was falling, and terrifying shadows were erging through the rain.
They knew she was there.
The girl stood up; this ti, she did not sit inside on the stool but on the threshold with half her body exposed outside, her back against the door fra, looking to the other end.
In her heart, she imagined him leaning on the other side.
Liu Yui had reminded Li Zhiyuan more than once that frequent Underworld visits could lead to loss of control and trouble distinguishing between dream and reality.
Each person has their own qualities, but the experiences of the elders also have their reasons.
Li Zhiyuan, who was asleep on the bed, seed to sense sothing, his eyelids quivered.
Then, in Alii’s dream view, the boy truly appeared, leaning against the threshold, continuing to sleep.
Outside, there was a cacophony of ghostly wails and howls.
The girl too closed her eyes.
For the first ti, the girl sitting in the chair, while drifting to sleep, had two dimples appear on her smiling lips.
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