After attending Zhuang Rouhui’s family gathering over the weekend, Zhuang Yuebin and his wife were full of surprise.
They hadn’t even reached home after saying goodbye in the evening when Li Xiaoqin couldn’t help but discuss it with her husband.
"Did your sister and her husband reconcile?"
Zhuang Yuebin hesitated, "I suppose so..."
They had grown accustomed to Li Fuhong and Zhuang Rouhui bickering constantly, and the pair hardly ever had a peaceful day together.
If someone were to capture their interactions on film and play it on loop at the civil affairs bureau,
it would definitely cool the ardor of overzealous lovers, contributing to the country’s late marriage and family planning policy.
But today, the situation was bizarrely calm, making one wonder if they had walked into the wrong house.
Li Fuhong’s treatment of Zhuang Rouhui was more than gentle and considerate.
It reached a level of meticulousness and obedience.
"Did you notice that your sister seems to be prettier than before?"
Li Xiaoqin remembered Zhuang Rouhui’s skin, fairer than snow, and the subtly seductive aura that seemed to radiate from her.
It was as if something had changed, yet it might’ve just been her own imagination.
Unfortunately, like most brothers around the world, Zhuang Yuebin was oblivious to the looks of his own sister.
"Really? I didn’t notice."
Li Xiaoqin couldn’t be bothered to discuss it further with him and instead asked Zhuang Lan.
"Xiaolan, did you feel that way?"
Zhuang Lan replied slowly, "I was thinking about a math problem the whole time and didn’t pay much attention."
Li Xiaoqin: "..." Never mind, men are blind to such things, and her own son was no exception.
In the evening, at the Yue Family’s home,
Yue Qingqing was sitting next to the phone, talking to an unexpected caller.
The usually lively voice now couldn’t hide the weariness.
Still, she tried to joke with Yue Qingqing, "Little genius, how many love letters did you get recently?"
Yue Qingqing, however, sensitively detected something was off.
"Sister Si Xi, have you been tired recently? Are there a lot of cases?"
Si Xi was silent for a moment, "A bit, right, if your family hears us discussing these things..."
She knew Yue Qingqing was not from an authentic Xuanmen family, as her household were all ordinary people, with no cultivators.
"It’s alright, I cast a barrier, now only we can hear each other."
Si Xi said enviously, "That’s great, talent really is a luxury... If I had your talent, I wouldn’t be so exhausted now."
She too could cast a barrier, but it would only last for a very brief period.
It could be perfectly described by the phrase "handsome for no more than three seconds."
Unlike Yue Qingqing who could casually throw up a barrier even while making a phone call.
Perhaps it was also because Yue Qingqing was young and naturally endearing that Si Xi didn’t intend to keep secrets from her.
"Lately, I don’t know what’s with the world, with strange phenomena cropping up everywhere, and evil cultivators proliferating like locusts that just cannot be exterminated, sigh, I’m stretched too thin."
Yue Qingqing asked, "Are both Uncle Cui’s also very busy?"
"You mean our director and deputy director? Don’t even mention it, they barely squeeze in time to sleep, I was bragging to Senior Yan before, saying we’re on vacation 360 days a year, well, now if we can get five days of rest in a year, that’s not bad."
"To deal with all these messy issues, we had to call in some seedlings from Xuanmen, who in terms of cultivation base are basically child soldiers, but there’s no helping it."
Hearing Si Xi’s continuous sighs, Yue Qingqing found it very strange.
"I heard from my master that evil cultivators thrive in chaotic times, the more the world is filled with corpses and morality is degraded, the more rampant evil cultivators become, but now it’s supposed to be a time of peace..."
Si Xi immediately replied, "Exactly, nowadays many seniors in the sect who are adept at I Ching divination are deducing the national Qi Fortune, worried that something might happen, and some even went to find the sixty-seven Tui Bei Tu prophecies, hoping to glimpse the mysteries of heaven."
Yue Qingqing fell silent. Her cultivation base allowed her to see people’s Qi Fortune, but not that of an entire nation.
The responsibility is indeed heavy and the road long, the frequent emergence of evil cultivators might be a sign.