Chapter 218

On the second-floor terrace, a radio, wrapped and protected by thin wooden boards and mounted on the wall, was playing Shan Tianfang's "Seven Heroes and Five Gallants," chapter twelve:

"The Earth-Piercing Mouse Returns Home to Adopt a Son, and The Thunderous Ghost Leaves Home to Find His Foster Father."

Li Sanjiang was comfortably reclined in a rattan chair, a cigarette held between the fingers of his left hand, and a large teacup filled with dried orange peels in his right. It wasn't yet summer, so the weather wasn't hot, and there was no need to worry about not having a free hand for a palm-leaf fan.

"Great-Grandpa, time for your medicine."

"Oh, alright."

Li Sanjiang took the bowl of medicine, blew on it, and sipped it in small mouthfuls. There was no helping it; the medicine was incredibly bitter, but it was his great-grandson's kind gesture, so he had to drink it, no matter how awful it tasted.

Meanwhile, Li Sanjiang had only finished a third of his bowl when Li Zhuiyuan, sitting opposite him, had already finished his first bowl and was starting on his second. The first bowl was the same as his great-grandpa's, brewed from herbs he had prepared himself. The second bowl, prepared by Aunt Liu, had calming effects, but for a different purpose.

"Xiao Yuanhou, don't you find it bitter?"

Li Zhuiyuan finished his second bowl, set it down, and shook his head: "Not bitter, just a bit full."

Seeing this, Li Sanjiang, unwilling to be outdone by his great-grandson, simply tilted his head back and gulped down the rest. Then, he leaned back, mouth agape, feeling as if the bitterness had washed over every part of his body.

After a long while, Li Sanjiang finally lifted his head again, took two deep drags from his cigarette, and exhaled slowly. The medicine was horrible, but its effects were truly good. For the past few nights, he'd lie in bed, close his eyes, open them again, and poof, it was morning. He woke up feeling refreshed, eager to grab a hoe and head to the fields immediately.

"Xiao Yuanhou, do I have to keep drinking this medicine?"

"No, this was the last bowl."

"It's genuinely bitter, much more bitter than the coffee Youhou brought back."

"But Great-Grandpa, you said it was delicious and you liked it."

"It was a gift from someone, after all. How could I say I didn't like it or wasn't used to it?"

"Next time, Great-Grandpa, just be honest."

"What's wrong?"

"A You saw how much you liked coffee and is already thinking about opening a coffee shop in the village. He probably thinks villagers, being able to endure hardship, would enjoy coffee too."

Li Sanjiang paused, then turned his head to look below. Lin Shuyou and Runsheng were sitting on a bench, watching TV and making paper effigies.

"Youhou!"

Lin Shuyou looked up: "What is it, Elder Li?"

"I heard you're going to open a coffee shop in the village?"

"Ah..." Lin Shuyou scratched his head awkwardly. "No, no, I won't. I just had a crazy idea and didn't think it through, hehe."

At that moment, a Hong Kong gangster movie was playing on the TV, with the protagonist fighting an assassin in a gym.

Runsheng said, "Opening a gym in the village would be better than a coffee shop. That way, after people finish farming each day, they could go to your gym to exercise."

Lin Shuyou's face turned red with embarrassment. He reached out and grabbed Runsheng's neck, shaking him vigorously: "Argh! Say that again, just say that again!"

Li Sanjiang watched the scene below and smiled. He remembered how reserved and unfamiliar Youhou had been when he first came to their house. Now, he was playing around with the local 'mules' in the family.

Just then, Li Zhuiyuan's pager vibrated. He looked down and saw it was Tan Wenbin paging him.

"Great-Grandpa, Tan Wenbin is looking for me. I'll go call him back."

"Mm, go ahead."

Li Zhuiyuan walked to Aunt Zhang's small shop and dialed the number displayed on the pager.

"Hello, Xiao Yuan Ge?"

"Yes, it's me. How are things on your end, Binbin Ge?"

"I've found Wuxin Island, but it only emerges from the sea for two months each year—one month in the first half of the year, and one month in the second. It will surface in ten days."

Ten days... Li Zhuiyuan mused about the timing.

"Xiao Yuan Ge, when I went to book a fishing boat, I found that several people had already made reservations. I also got in touch with two of them. They don't know each other, but they seem to know what the other is planning to do, and they've implicitly included me in their shared purpose. I plan to stay here longer and continue interacting with them, hoping to gather more information about Wuxin Island and Qiu Manor."

"Be careful."

"No real danger. These two... they seem quite righteous."

Li Zhuiyuan thought of Xin Jiyue. Although she was clearly pragmatic and her methods somewhat extreme, it was undeniable that she held a simple belief in punishing evil and promoting good, which was why Li Zhuiyuan had let her go. The two people Tan Wenbin had now met were probably very similar to Xin Jiyue, but they likely had already collected karma and were ready to "deliver" it to Qiu Manor on Wuxin Island.

"Do you need me to send someone to support you?"

"No, Xiao Yuan Ge, more people would be inconvenient. Besides, it's at least ten days until we set sail for the island. If you came, you'd just be fishing with me."

"Then that time is freed up. I need to go to the capital."

"To the capital, for...?"

"Personal matters. It just so happens that Xue Liangliang is organizing an event in the capital, and my great-grandpa won a lottery ticket for a luxurious solo trip there."

"Oh... then it's not 'waves' (trouble) then. Someone as lucky as Elder Li wouldn't be caught up in 'waves'."

"Mm, so for now, I still believe that where you are is the starting point for our next 'wave'."

"Don't worry, I'll secure this forward position well."

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Heh, isn't this exactly what the Dragon King at the bow should be doing? Scoping out the scene in advance."

"Keep in touch if anything comes up."

"Understood."

After hanging up, Li Zhuiyuan dialed again, calling Xue Liangliang to inform him that he agreed to attend the exchange meeting in the capital and asked him to make arrangements in advance according to his schedule. After hanging up again, Li Zhuiyuan hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided not to dial that number. He would wait until he reached the capital; perhaps the person would still be in the usual spot.

Actually, Li Sanjiang had originally intended to give up the travel opportunity, just as he had with his previous lottery win. However, after Li Zhuiyuan told him that Xue Liangliang would arrange for him to attend an exchange meeting in the capital and that they could go together, Li Sanjiang finally nodded in agreement.

On the way home, Li Zhuiyuan met Aunt Xianghou, who was riding a tricycle with Liu Jinxia sitting in the back.

Aunt Xianghou: "Xiao Yuanhou, has your great-grandpa packed his things? When are you leaving?"

Liu Jinxia, sitting in the back, grumbled: "Sanjianghou is acting so important, he can't wait to tell everyone. You could talk to him about a bird's nest in a tree, and he'd twist it into a story about a sparrow in the capital."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Grandma Liu, you could go too. The travel agency can arrange it."

Liu Jinxia: "No, I won't. With my eyes, even if I went, I wouldn't see anything. It would be a waste of money."

Li Zhuiyuan: "When Cui Cui gets into a university in the capital, you can take her there then."

Hearing this, Liu Jinxia's wrinkled old face immediately bloomed into a chrysanthemum-like smile.

Aunt Xianghou said, "Cui Cui said you and Sister A Li helped her with her tutoring. You've worked hard, Xiao Yuanhou."

Li Zhuiyuan: "Cui Cui will be fine."

Children with strong fates are often more precocious than their peers; understanding things two or three years earlier than other children their age is already a huge advantage.

After parting ways with Liu Jinxia and her daughter, Li Zhuiyuan returned home. Aunt Liu brought out a table and turned on a light bulb extended from a pole. Liu Yumei picked up a brush and began designing new clothes for A Li. Seeing the young man return, Liu Yumei waved him over.

"Grandma Liu."

"Are you going to the capital?"

"Mm."

"Personal matters?"

"Mm."

Liu Yumei nodded. She guessed this trip to the capital wasn't for "river-walking" because he wouldn't bring Li Sanjiang on such an adventure.

"Stay at our place. We happen to have a residence in the capital."

"Thank you, Grandma, but I don't know exactly where the exchange meeting will be held yet."

"It's fine. Our family doesn't have just one courtyard house."

"No, it's alright. I won't be staying long, and it's troublesome to pack up temporarily."

Liu Yumei didn't press further. Pointing to the design she had already drawn, she asked, "What do you think?"

"It will definitely look good on A Li."

"Hehe, go on and do what you need to do."

Li Zhuiyuan went upstairs. Liu Yumei glanced at Aunt Liu standing nearby.

Aunt Liu: "Everything's recovered."

Liu Yumei: "It seems your herbal soup works well."

Aunt Liu: "I think he's consciously working on his own self-recovery."

Liu Yumei: "That's what's most reassuring about this child; he not only knows what he needs to do but also how to do it. Unlike our A..."

At this point, Liu Yumei looked up and saw Qin Li, barefoot and holding a hoe, just walking onto the drying ground. Qin Li paused only briefly before naturally walking over, drawing well water, and starting to wash his feet. He had grown accustomed to being compared to "their own child."

Liu Yumei sighed and said, "It's good now; he's got thick skin. If he had been so thick-skinned back then, he wouldn't have ended up in such a state."

Qin Li: "..."

When Li Zhuiyuan returned to the terrace, his great-grandpa was no longer in the old rattan chair. He walked to his great-grandpa's room, pushed open the door, and found him trying on clothes in front of the wardrobe. Several outfits were laid out on the bed, and beneath them were several pairs of new shoes.

Elderly people who lived through times of scarcity often had the habit of hoarding things; new clothes were kept at the bottom of trunks, too precious to wear casually. Li Sanjiang didn't have this habit; he had lived a carefree life. However, he also didn't have the habit of wearing new clothes, as he often had to retrieve corpses. Contact with bodies and then carrying them back would leave a stench that would stain clothes, often impossible to wash out no matter how hard one tried. Seeing his great-grandson witness him trying on clothes, Li Sanjiang felt a little embarrassed. No matter how much he outwardly said things like "too much trouble," "what kind of travel," or "it's good to be home," his heart had long since flown to the capital.

"Great-Grandpa, let me help you choose."

Li Zhuiyuan walked in and naturally helped his great-grandpa pick out an outfit. Most of his great-grandpa's new clothes had been bought by Li Zhuiyuan, making it easier for him to put together an ensemble. Ultimately, he chose a more formal outfit that had both the feel of a Zhongshan suit and the style of a factory uniform, and then clipped a fountain pen into the breast pocket.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "He looks like an official going to the capital."

Li Sanjiang: "Hahaha!"

His great-grandpa wasn't used to leather shoes, so they ultimately chose two pairs of new cloth shoes with thick soles, also considering that sightseeing in the capital generally involved a lot of walking.

Back in his room, Li Zhuiyuan joined A Li in admiring her newly completed painting. The painting, a combination of auspicious clouds and immortal realms alongside a scene of doomsday, was filled with contradiction and impact, instantly bringing back Li Zhuiyuan's feeling of witnessing it firsthand. Excellent paintings inherently contained excellent stories. A Li put the painting into her sketchpad frame, and Li Zhuiyuan reminded her to "hide it well." Mainly, he was afraid the curious old lady would sneak a peek and then vomit blood again.

Then, Li Zhuiyuan opened the wordless book. It was time to fulfill his promise. Li Zhuiyuan didn't hold back, directly extracting three times the usual amount of deduction. After the deduction was complete, the red thread in the bloody mist in the young man's palm had solidified, though it was quite short. The white bones in the painting had turned into a pile of ashes, as if they had just been burned in a crematorium furnace.

However, since the painting had not disappeared from the wordless book, it proved that "The Evil Book" still existed, not perished, but merely drained dry as if "sucked to the marrow." After some thought, Li Zhuiyuan still put the wordless book into his backpack. This way, his deduction progress wouldn't be delayed when he went to the capital, and besides, it was quite reliable as a brick.

Just before leaving for the capital, an accident occurred: Yin Meng inadvertently fumigated herself unconscious while debugging a new toxin. Because Li Zhuiyuan had set up an isolation array in the west room where she lived, she wasn't discovered until the next morning when she failed to come out for breakfast. Upon entering the room to check, they found Yin Meng lying on the ground, conscious but with numb limbs, unable to exert any strength. On the table where she was debugging the toxin, many cosmetics Lin Shuyou had given her were laid out, all with their lids open. Clearly, she had whimsically tried mixing cosmetics into her toxins and it had backfired.

Runsheng, carrying her back to bed, said, "You really need to take care of your body. Next time, just poison your brain."

Yin Meng said, feeling wronged, "I never expected cosmetics to have such high toxin levels."

Aunt Liu had come to examine her and said it wasn't a big problem; she'd recover in a few days. And so, Yin Meng had to stay home, unable to accompany them to the capital.

On the day of departure, Uncle Qin and Xiong Shan each drove a tricycle, carrying Li Zhuiyuan, Runsheng, Lin Shuyou, and Li Sanjiang to Xingdong Airport for their flight. Li Sanjiang, flying for the first time, appeared very composed, but as the plane accelerated for takeoff, Li Zhuiyuan noticed his great-grandpa's body trembling. Still, his great-grandpa gripped his hand and comforted him: "It's alright, Xiao Yuanhou, don't be afraid." Once the plane was flying steadily, Li Sanjiang looked out the window at the white clouds below and laughed like an old child: "Ha, look at all that big cotton candy down there."

But before long, Li Zhuiyuan noticed his great-grandpa was uncomfortable because smoking wasn't allowed on the plane. After the plane landed, as soon as they exited the airport, Li Sanjiang eagerly pulled out matches and lit a cigarette for himself. Runsheng pulled out a "cigar" and joined him.

The travel agency, from which his great-grandpa had won the prize, only covered the round-trip airfare, as Li Zhuiyuan had pre-arranged. Ultimately, the four of them took the car arranged by Xue Liangliang and checked into a hotel. That evening, Xue Liangliang also came over and took everyone out for Peking duck. After dinner, Xue Liangliang asked if they needed him to arrange a tour guide. Then, looking at Li Zhuiyuan, he slapped his forehead and chuckled, "I forgot. With you here, who needs a tour guide?"

That night, after returning to the hotel, Li Zhuiyuan took Runsheng and Lin Shuyou out again. However, the place he remembered had been decommissioned, and he couldn't smell the familiar sesame oil scent inside. Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to return to the hotel.

For the next three days, Li Zhuiyuan took his great-grandpa sightseeing in the capital. For Li Sanjiang, the most boring attraction was the Forbidden City. Because Li Zhuiyuan had an excellent memory from a young age, the palace in his dreams was highly realistic, and Li Sanjiang had already taken his zombies all over it. Moreover, in reality, all the main halls had ropes placed just inside the doorways, allowing visitors to step only slightly over the threshold. One couldn't freely wander around inside, which made Li Sanjiang even more dissatisfied, thinking it was not as good as his dreams, where he had even climbed onto the dragon throne.

His great-grandpa enjoyed stir-fried liver and braised dishes. Li Zhuiyuan also ordered three bowls of *douzhi* (fermented mung bean milk), purely to enrich their travel memories. After sipping a mouthful of *douzhi*, Li Sanjiang exclaimed, "How fresh!" Hearing this, Runsheng and Lin Shuyou immediately picked up their bowls and took a large gulp, as if it were soy milk.

Lin Shuyou: "Ugh!"

Runsheng: "Delicious."

Lin Shuyou thought his bowl was spoiled, so he picked up the bowl in front of Li Sanjiang, took another sip, and then: "Ugh!"

There was one attraction, very small, but with a very long queue. While waiting in line, people wished those in front would move faster. Once inside, they wished they could slow their steps as much as possible, and upon exiting, many began to cry.

His great-grandpa said he was tired that day and wanted to go back to the hotel to rest alone, telling Li Zhuiyuan to take Runsheng and Lin Shuyou on the afternoon's other itinerary. Li Zhuiyuan agreed but still decided to take his great-grandpa back to the hotel first. After getting into the taxi, Li Sanjiang leaned his head against the window, his mood very low. Li Zhuiyuan sniffed. He smelled a familiar scent of sesame oil in the car. He had just relived this scent in a dream recently; it was fresh in his memory, unmistakable.

"Driver, did you pick up a monk today?"

"Yes, a young monk."

"Where did you take him?"

"To a small temple in Tongzhou."

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. It seemed he wouldn't need to make that call after all. The young man cast his gaze upon his great-grandpa, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Upon reaching the hotel entrance, Li Zhuiyuan motioned for Lin Shuyou to stay in the car. He got out to see his great-grandpa back to his room. Once inside the room, Li Sanjiang waved his hand, urging Li Zhuiyuan to continue taking Runsheng and the others out to play, telling him not to worry about him. After brewing a pot of tea for his great-grandpa, Li Zhuiyuan left the hotel, got back into the taxi, and told the driver: "Driver, take me to that temple."

After sitting in his hotel room for a while, Li Sanjiang felt a tightness in his chest. He left the room, walked out of the hotel, and began to wander aimlessly. Although he was old, his legs were strong, and he knew his way around. It was just that his Xiao Yuanhou cared for him too much; how could he possibly get lost?

The hotel wasn't far from Shichahai. Li Sanjiang walked until he reached it, though he didn't know what the place was called. Rickshaw drivers came to solicit him, offering to take him around and provide commentary, but Li Sanjiang declined them all. He was just taking a stroll by himself and was reluctant to spend the money. Besides, through the past few days of sightseeing, he had realized that when it came to tour guiding, his own Xiao Yuanhou was incomparable. No matter which attraction, he could explain its past and present thoroughly. Since he had a free guide at home, why would he spend money to listen to one outside?

As he wandered, he started to feel a bit tired. He patted his pocket—ah, he'd left his matchbox at the hotel. Li Sanjiang saw a long bench ahead where a distinguished-looking white-haired old man sat, leaning on a cane. He walked up and asked: "Brother, could I borrow a light?"

The old man turned his head to look at Li Sanjiang and nodded. Just then, a young man in a formal suit emerged from somewhere, holding a lighter. The old man reached out first, took the lighter from the young man's hand, and then handed it to Li Sanjiang: "Here, brother."

"Hey, want one too?" Li Sanjiang pulled out two cigarettes and offered one to the other man.

Seeing this, the young man was about to speak but was stopped by a glance from the old man. The old man took a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Li Sanjiang lit his own first, then helped the old man light his. The old man bent his head, shielding the flame with his hand. Soon, smoke encircled the chests of the two very elderly men, making their pursuit of a long life even more challenging.

Li Sanjiang: "Are you used to this brand of cigarette?"

The old man looked at the cigarette in his hand and said, "I used to roll up even blades of grass to smoke, so how could I not be used to this?"

"That's terrible. I've never gone without a cigarette my whole life."

"Then you're a fortunate man, brother."

"Can't say I'm particularly fortunate, but things have been quite smooth." Li Sanjiang remembered the toughest times, on the battlefield, he could even find cigarettes in the pockets of corpses. However, when he smoked, he would also place a lit cigarette in the mouth of a corpse.

"Listening to your accent, brother, you're not from around here, are you?"

"No, I'm from Jiangsu. My great-grandson brought me to the capital for a trip." Actually, he had won the ticket himself in a lottery, but his great-grandson indeed served as his guide. Li Sanjiang deliberately spoke vaguely like this because he wanted to show off his filial descendant.

"Then your great-grandson is very filial."

"He certainly is, very filial. He's such a good kid, smart, a university student too."

"Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, she lives with us. As soon as he comes home, the two of them are inseparable, always together. They get along very well."

"A child bride?"

"Oh no, her family is there too. Especially her grandmother; she's a bit of a philistine. It might be a bit tricky when they get married later."

"Indeed."

"But it's no big deal. I'll save up slowly; there's plenty of time. Don't let my age fool you; someone like you, no, like that young man there, I could carry him on my back and run a kilometer or so, easily!"

"Mm, I can see that, brother. You are indeed in good health."

"Brother, you look quite healthy too." Li Sanjiang patted the other man's chest.

The old man's expression tightened.

"Oh, what's wrong?"

"Just had surgery."

"Oh." Li Sanjiang quickly pulled his hand back, wiping it on his trousers. "My apologies, my apologies."

"It's nothing. Back in the day, such a small cut wouldn't even be called an injury."

"Then you've certainly suffered a lot of hardship."

"No, I was lucky. Lucky to be alive until now, to see what I see now."

"Yes, it's changed so much, truly changed."

"Brother, have you been to the capital before?"

"Not to the capital itself, but I passed through this area many years ago. Came in from beyond the Great Wall, through this region."

"Brother, you even went beyond the Great Wall?"

"Oh yes, back then there was fighting, fierce fighting. Later, we entered the Pass, then headed south, tsk." Li Sanjiang took a drag from his cigarette, exhaling slowly, as if recalling the past.

The old man asked, somewhat excited, "Brother, were you also from the Fourth Field Army?"

Li Sanjiang: "Cough, cough, cough..."

Li Sanjiang choked on his smoke and coughed violently. The old man reached out to pat his back. But the more the other man patted him, the redder Li Sanjiang's face became. He felt like he was in over his head.

Seeing Li Sanjiang finally stop coughing, the old man smiled and asked, "Brother, which part of the Fourth Field Army were you in?"

Realizing he couldn't avoid it, Li Sanjiang mumbled a few times, then whispered: "Um, I was on the opposite side of the Fourth Field Army."

The old man's eyes showed thought. "Opposite the Fourth Field Army... which unit was that?"

Seeing that the other man was actually thinking about it, Li Sanjiang gave up, slapped his thigh, and said: "Oh, dear, I just had bad luck. I kept getting conscripted, escaped once, got caught again, escaped again... I escaped from the Northeast all the way here, and then down to Xuzhou."

The old man finally understood. After a route map formed in his mind, he slightly opened his mouth and, after a long pause, said, "Brother, you call that bad luck?"

Li Sanjiang explained: "I never fired a shot at the other side. Every time, I'd fire a few shots into the air and then slip away. Not only did I slip away myself, but I also took the people around me, and each time I brought more people with me."

The old man first chuckled, then his expression turned serious. He reached out and covered Li Sanjiang's hand, gravely saying, "Then you, brother, also made a great contribution."

Li Sanjiang's old face flushed. He quickly waved his hand, saying, "Oh, I'm too embarrassed to say that. Can't say that." Thinking to quickly change the subject, Li Sanjiang pointed at the young man again and asked, "Is this your grandson?"

The old man shook his head: "No."

Li Sanjiang: "Then he's your nephew."

The old man responded, "Something like that."

"So, your family has a daughter?"

"Well, I have several sons, but they are all busy with work, so I don't usually see them; also, they don't like to see me because I have many rules and a big temper, always lecturing them. It's also because I was so busy with work back then that I didn't have much time to spend with them when they were little. But later, there was my youngest son..."

"A youngest child is good."

"Yes, the youngest is good, the most obedient and sensible. It's just a pity that after he married and had a child, he divorced, and now he doesn't stay home either."

"He doesn't stay home, so what about the child?"

"The child went to the mother and even changed their surname."

"Did your youngest son mess around outside?"

"No, he loved her dearly. My daughter-in-law was truly excellent, genuinely. It's just that my son had bad luck; it wasn't meant to be."

"You're something else, saying she's good even after the child changed surnames."

"One thing at a time; personal feelings shouldn't be mixed with work matters. Sigh, it's been over a year, almost two years, since I last saw my grandson."

"His mother won't let you see him?"

"Mm."

"Brother, are you foolish? If she won't let you, just see him secretly. Give the child some pocket money to buy toys. What do kids understand? They'll be fond of whoever gives them fun things and good food."

"My grandson... he doesn't like those things."

"Heh, what are you saying? What child doesn't like those things?"

"Mainly, I promised my former daughter-in-law that I wouldn't see him, and I also don't allow anyone in the family to see him. His grandmother has thrown several tantrums with me over the past two years, saying she wants to see her grandson, but I haven't relented. I'm a man of my word."

"So your grandson hasn't looked for you two in the past two years?"

"No."

"Did they move out of town?"

"He remembers the phone number and address."

"If the child is young, it's normal to forget."

"My grandson has a good memory; he wouldn't forget."

Li Sanjiang consoled him, "Then he's just an ungrateful little fellow. If he's gone, he's gone."

The old man laughed: "Haha, but my grandson is smart, truly smart." As Li Sanjiang turned his head to blow smoke rings, his mouth silently opened and closed several times: *Heh, smart? That's because you haven't seen truly smart, like my Xiao Yuanhou.* Ever since bringing Xiao Yuanhou home, whenever Li Sanjiang heard someone praise their own child's intelligence like an old woman boasting about her melons, he couldn't help but roll his eyes inwardly: *Smart, you say? Then bring back a top scholar.*

"Brother, are your family relationships good?"

"My family, our relationships are very good."

"My wife regrets it deeply. She says we should have maintained a good relationship with our daughter-in-law back then. Now, she can't see her son, nor her grandson."

"Heh, my family has no mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts." After all, he had no mother-in-law, no daughter-in-law. His household registration only listed his and his great-grandson's names, making it perfectly simple and clean.

"That's truly good." The old man sighed. In truth, whenever his wife expressed regret while lying in bed at night, he couldn't help but want to comfort her, telling her it wasn't her fault. However, he wouldn't allow himself to speak ill of his former daughter-in-law. After all, she was a comrade who had dared to voluntarily undertake highly perilous scientific research missions multiple times.

The two old men sat on the bench and chatted for quite some time. It wasn't until the young man approached for the third time, signaling with gestures, that the old man regretfully said, "Brother, I need to go to the hospital for a follow-up check."

"Oh dear, why aren't you hurrying? Seeing a doctor is important; no delays allowed."

"Where are you staying? I'll have someone take you back to your hotel."

"No need. I live nearby; it's just a short walk. You see, I've been sitting for so long, I actually want to walk around a bit more. It's no trouble."

"Alright." The old man took a business card from the young man and formally handed it to Li Sanjiang, saying, "If you have free time, you can call and come to my home for tea."

"You're too kind." Li Sanjiang took the business card.

Just then, a car pulled up. The young man went forward, opened the door, and the old man got in. Watching the car drive away, Li Sanjiang casually tucked the business card into his pocket. A chance encounter was just that, and he had no intention of bothering them further. On this bench, people could chat freely, but once he went to their home, there wouldn't be this bench to sit on.

Li Sanjiang hummed a little tune, continuing his stroll and enjoying the scenery: "This capital really is just like the plays say—you could throw a signboard down anywhere and hit a big shot, hehe."

The taxi dropped the three off in front of a small temple. It wasn't desolate, but it felt out of place and could be described as serene. The temple gate was small, and the courtyard wall was low. A thick plume of incense smoke rose from within, spiraling upward. Li Zhuiyuan glanced at the plaque above the temple gate and whispered: "Old Monk, I've come to pay you a visit."