Chapter 193
Chapter 193
At Zhao Zixun’s furious question, the tension in our hearts instantly eased instead.
He had been watching from the moment the Souls belonging to Fu Wan first took shape.
After keeping watch for so many days, the Hexagonal Palace Lantern had suddenly changed today, and Fu Wan’s Souls had disappeared. Of course he was frantic!
I stared at the spot between Zhao Zixun’s brows. The bloodstained Coffin Nail was still lodged there, but much of the black aura surrounding it had dissipated.
It was probably because Chen Ping and the Black Coffin had been placed under a Seal by Liu Junyan, weakening their control over Zhao Zixun considerably.
Zhao Zixun had regained his sense of self. He remembered Fu Wan and came looking for her at the Pawnshop.
Right now, Fu Wan was all he could think about.
When she suddenly disappeared, it must have felt as though his entire world had collapsed.
“Fu Wan’s been recruited,” Hui Moqiong cut in, speaking in his usual flippant manner. “She’s young and beautiful, and now she’s even got an official post. She’ll be one of our Pawnshop’s Spirit Attendants from now on. General Zhao, if you want to rekindle your old romance, you’ll have to work harder!”
Those few words left Zhao Zixun completely dumbfounded.
He stood outside the doorway in a daze for quite some time. The urgency and ferocity in his eyes gradually gave way to confusion, then desolation.
He slowly took two steps back before turning and striding toward the warhorse across the street.
I hurriedly called after him, “Zhao Zixun, do you want to join the Pawnshop?”
Zhao Zixun faltered for a moment, but soon resumed walking. He vaulted onto his warhorse and rode away without looking back.
Hui Moqiong scratched his head. “Did what I just said hit him a little too hard?”
Li Qingying shot him a glare. “At least you have some self-awareness.”
“He’s still young. Too thin-skinned,” Hui Moqiong declared with the air of a seasoned expert. “How can he expect to court a girl with skin that thin? Someone else will beat him to it, and then he won’t even have a place to cry.”
I glanced instinctively at Li Qingying. Sure enough, her cheeks had turned faintly pink, like peach blossoms blooming in March.
To be honest, even now, I still couldn’t quite figure out what was going on between Hui Moqiong and Li Qingying.
Just as Hui Moqiong himself had said, he was the one who made the first move, and he certainly had thick enough skin for it.
The moment he arrived at the Pawnshop, he started clinging to Li Qingying.
At first, she had resisted him, unused to his complete lack of boundaries.
But at some point, the two of them had turned into a bickering couple.
By now, I felt as if they both understood exactly how the other felt without needing to say it aloud. But then again, Hui Moqiong didn’t seem to have confessed yet.
Why had he suddenly stopped making moves?
Matters of the heart truly were impossible to understand.
Still, I was happy to see them together.
I devoted myself to preparing for our trip to the Netherworld Realm in a week’s time. Every day, I called to ask about Tang Xun’s condition.
Her physical condition was stable for the moment, but she remained somewhat dazed. In Tang Tang’s words, it was as if she had lost a piece of her soul.
I even made a point of discussing the matter with Yu Nian.
Yu Nian said Tang Xun’s previous coma and the intervention of the Ghost King Butterfly might have caused memories from her entanglement with the other party across several lifetimes to overlap, leaving her unable to sort them out for the time being.
That was why Tang Xun seemed so quiet, conflicted, and absentminded.
Yu Nian told me not to worry. She would remain with the Tang Family until we took Tang Xun into the Netherworld Realm.
For the next few days, I didn’t want to deal with anything else.
Even when I kept watch over the Southern Study each night, I closed up at ten.
Entering the Netherworld Realm was no small matter. I didn’t want any unexpected complications before then.
But the more you wanted to avoid trouble, the more determined trouble seemed to find you.
Early in the morning on our third day back at the Pawnshop, three luxury cars pulled up outside. A short, portly, middle-aged man in a suit and tie, with a balding crown, entered the Pawnshop surrounded by seven or eight bodyguards.
Judging by his aggressive entrance, he looked less like a customer coming to pawn something and more like an enemy out for revenge.
But the moment he walked in, I knew he was in trouble.
A dense aura of death hung between his brows.
His Life Palace, Wealth Palace, Marriage Palace, and Palace of Children were all shrouded in darkness.
His Facial Features were extremely ominous. Not only did they foretell that he might soon meet with disaster, but his wife, daughters, and other family members were in equal danger. Nothing he attempted would go smoothly, either.
Still, a customer was a customer. Even if I didn’t want his business, I had to greet him with a smile.
He was quite polite and introduced himself first. “Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, I came because I’ve heard of your reputation. My surname is Qiu. My name is Qiu Fengnian, and I’m from Chang City.”
He paused there.
I was momentarily puzzled, but then it dawned on me.
He had to be someone famous in Chang City — the sort of person everyone would recognize as soon as they heard his name.
Unfortunately, I knew very little about Chang City and hadn’t heard of him.
Li Qingying reacted quickly. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Qiu Fengnian, Chang City’s Richest Man.”
My heart skipped a beat. He was that important?
Someone like him shouldn’t lack connections, no matter how difficult his problem was.
And even if connections weren’t enough, he certainly had the money to throw at it.
If he’d come all the way to me, either the problem was so serious that he had exhausted every other option, or it was something that couldn’t be made public.
Either way, if I wanted to turn down Qiu Fengnian’s Yang Pawn deal today, I would have to tread carefully.
I politely reached out and shook Qiu Fengnian’s hand. “What would you like to pawn, Boss Qiu? Did you bring it with you? May I take a look?”
“I’m sorry, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, but I couldn’t bring it here. I’ll have to ask you to make a trip to Chang City,” Qiu Fengnian said. “Of course, whether or not we reach a deal, I’ll cover all your travel expenses, labor costs, and compensation. You won’t be shortchanged.”
I hesitated. “Chang City is quite a distance from Wufu Town, and I need to leave town in the next few days. I promised someone else long ago, so I’m afraid-”
“Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu,” Qiu Fengnian interrupted my refusal, his voice earnest. “You’re an expert. The moment you saw my Facial Features, you must have realized that my family and I… are all going to die soon.
“I already have one foot in the grave, so my death would be no great loss. But I have four children and more than a dozen grandchildren. They’re innocent.
“Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, saving one life is a greater virtue than building a seven-story pagoda. Please, save us.”
As he spoke, he slid sideways off the sofa and tried to kneel before me.
I couldn’t possibly let someone of his stature kneel to me in my own shop.
Reacting quickly, I grabbed him and helped him up. But he kept trying to lower himself, looking as though he intended to remain on his knees in the Pawnshop until I agreed to save his family.
Helpless, I said, “Boss Qiu, pawnbroking is still a business, and those of us in business must know our limits. Your family’s situation is far too serious, and I don’t even know the details yet. I truly can’t agree without knowing what I’m getting into.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right. I was too impatient.” Qiu Fengnian finally sat back down on the sofa. “I should explain everything that happened to my family first, then let you make the final decision.”
I quickly nodded.
After a brief pause, he began. “This started ten years ago, when my father passed away and was buried.
“By then, I had already achieved a modest degree of success in my career. After my father died, I paid a master a fortune to perform Feng Shui Site Selection and locate an exceptionally auspicious burial ground for him. While the grave was being dug, the workers unearthed a hard lump.
“It was covered in dirt at the time. I picked it up and casually wiped it off, only to reveal a glint of gold. I immediately realized it was valuable, so I slipped it into my pocket and took it home…”}