Jiang Yuebai blocked Xie Jingshan in an empty alley. Xie Jingshan covered his face with one hand, raised his legs and shrank his body in a defensive posture, with the blush on his face spreading all the way to his ears.
"You you you... don't come over here... I I I I... I really didn't do anything bad to you..."
Xie Jingshan spoke incoherently, and Jiang Yuebai narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything. If I do something, God will punish me!"
Xie Jingshan raised his hand and swore that his reaction was too intense.
"Can you be a little more normal? We haven't seen each other for almost eight years. I really can't understand your reaction!"
Xie Jingshan put down his legs, stole a glance at Jiang Yuebai through his fingers, swallowed a few times, and his face was still flushed.
"You...you should move away first, don't get so close to me."
Jiang Yuebai frowned and put his hands on his hips, "I'm not a tigress, how can I eat you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xie Jingshan suddenly started bleeding from his nose. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands and squatted down with his back to Jiang Yuebai.
Jiang Yuebai sniffed and smelled a hint of medicine on Xie Jingshan.
"Ah! I see!"
When she shouted, Xie Jingshan trembled all over.
"I really didn't do anything!"
"Did you take too many pills?"
The two spoke in unison, Xie Jingshan stole a glance, Jiang Yuebai narrowed his eyes, and the atmosphere was awkward.
"Oh yes, I took too many pills!"
"What on earth did you do?"
They chorused again, and Xie Jingshan froze.
Jiang Yuebai scratched his head in annoyance, "You are so annoying! I'm going to find Anan, I don't care whether you live or die!"
Jiang Yuebai turned around and left. Xie Jingshan wiped the blood from his nose and stood up to catch up with him.
"Wait for me, I'll go too!"
After finding the small courtyard where Lu Nanzhi rented in Buquan Lane, Jiang Yuebai turned around and glared at Xie Jingshan who was following him from a distance.
Xie Jingshan scratched his head and laughed awkwardly, still looking as silly as he did when he was a child.
Knock knock knock!
"Anan, are you there? I'm here to see you~"
As soon as the knock on the door sounded, the courtyard door was opened from the inside. Lu Nanzhi had disheveled black hair, was dressed in plain clothes, and looked haggard. When she saw Jiang Yuebai clearly, her eyes began to mist.
"Anan, I'm sorry I'm late."
"It's not too late, come in first." Lu Nanzhi shook her head to suppress her tears, her voice hoarse.
Jiang Yuebai held her with heartache, regretting listening to what Lu Nanzhi said in the letter. He thought that she was really fine and that she could handle everything by herself.
When Jiang Yuebai saw her today, he realized that she was just being strong and trying to hold on because she didn't want to cause trouble for him.
"Why don't you come in?"
Jiang Yuebai called out to Xie Jingshan, who lowered his head and followed him into the courtyard dejectedly. He helped lock the door and activate the formation on the courtyard wall.
The yard was not big and the furnishings were simple. Jiang Yuebai sat in the main hall for a while, watched Lu Nanzhi take the letter spread out on the table, and temporarily went back to the room to tidy up his appearance.
Jiang Yuebai guessed that Lu Nanzhi's bad condition just now might be related to the letter.
Xie Jingshan was sitting far away. Jiang Yuebai glanced over at him and saw his hand shaking and he knocked over the teacup. He was in a hurry to clean it up.
Jiang Yuebai ignored his abnormality and only asked, "Anan, is the cancellation of the engagement not going smoothly?"
Xie Jingshan's eyes dodged, not daring to look directly at Jiang Yuebai, and he lowered his head and said, "How can it be smooth? She is just a pawn in the marriage between the Lu and Fang families, and this marriage cannot be cancelled at all."
"The Lu family wants to rely on her to get close to the Fang family, so that the Lu family's status among all the cultivation families can be raised to a higher level. The Fang family also wants to unite with the Lu family to suppress the arrogance of the Kong family. In addition, the direct descendants of the Fang family have produced nothing but misfits in the past hundred years, and few of them have dual spiritual roots."
"Thirty years ago, Fang Mingyi, a man with a single spiritual root, was finally born. As soon as he came of age, the Fang family found him a bunch of women to have children with, but the result is still the same. Now they are counting on Lu Nanzhi..."
Jiang Yuebai crushed the teacup in his hand, furious.
"How can they decide Anan's life so casually?"
Xie Jingshan's eyes dimmed and he sighed, "It's not that easy to maintain the prosperity of a big family."
"Xie Jingshan! Which side are you on?" Jiang Yuebai asked angrily.
Xie Jingshan shrank his neck, "Of course I stand on Lu Nanzhi's side."
"Xiaobai," Lu Nanzhi walked out from the back hall, "Don't make things difficult for him. He is now under the same pressure as Fang Mingyi to reproduce for the family."
Jiang Yuebai looked at Lu Nanzhi. She had done her makeup, with her hair half loose and half tied up. Her eyes and brows seemed as gentle and soft as water at first glance, but as hard and unyielding as metal and stone at second glance.
It seems as mature as before, yet more complicated than before.
In just seven or eight years, Lu Nanzhi seemed to have experienced a hundred years of vicissitudes. The indifference that seemed to see through everything was even worse than before, which made Jiang Yuebai feel distressed.
Lu Nanzhi sat down next to Jiang Yuebai and poured her another cup of tea. Instead of talking about himself, he started talking about Xie Jingshan.
"The Kong and Fang families have a deep heritage and have been passed down for thousands of generations. Xie Jingshan's family only has his grandfather, his father, and him. Even though Shanhailou is famous all over the world and has strong financial resources, in the eyes of the Kong and Fang families, it is still a small family that is not worthy of being on the stage."
Xie Jingshan covered his face and nodded. That was true. In the eyes of wealthy people like Fang Mingyi, he was just a lucky local tycoon who had nothing but money.
Lu Nanzhi continued, "Xie Jingshan's grandfather and father were both famous loyal men in the world. His grandmother only had his father as her son. After she passed away unexpectedly, his grandfather was alone and built the foundation of Shanhai Tower, which was passed on to his father."
Xie Jingshan took over the conversation, "Then my father fell in love with my mother. They originally didn't plan to have children, but my grandfather was throwing tantrums and trying to commit suicide every day, so they gave birth to me and left me to my grandfather. My mother ran away and has been traveling all over the world ever since."
"Now that I'm an adult, my grandfather saw that my father had no chance, so he started to torture me, asking me to give him at least 9981 great-grandchildren. Since I was 17, my grandfather has been drugging me every day to seduce me to find women, causing me to have dreams every day..."
Xie Jingshan suddenly covered his mouth and glanced at Jiang Yuebai with guilt and fear.
Jiang Yuebai's mind suddenly lit up with lightning, and an embarrassing dream-related memory from Ye Shiming's youth came to his mind. His eyes widened instantly!
"Xie Jingshan! You!"
Xie Jingshan jumped up in fright and explained very quickly.
"Listen to my explanation first. I really didn't do anything! It wasn't you that I dreamed about before. But ever since I started building my foundation and had visions from the sky, I've always dreamed of a familiar woman with her back to me."
"And every time I dreamed about it, the red mole on my palm started to get hot, my heartbeat accelerated, and I had an indescribable feeling. I thought it must be my past life's love. I, Xie Jingshan, am not a promiscuous person. I didn't plan to find a Taoist partner."
"But if it is unavoidable, I will definitely be like my father and only stay with one person for my whole life. So I tried my best to get closer to that woman in my dream, wanting to see who she is. I dreamed for three whole years before I finally walked behind that woman in my dream."
"When she turned around, oh my god! It turned out to be you. I was so scared that my soul left my body and my seven spirits flew away! I might as well have seen a female ghost with a rotten face, it's not that scary!"
Jiang Yuebai jumped up and said, "You are worse than the rotten-faced ghost girl. Anan, don't pull me. I must tear this bastard apart today!"
Hearing this, Lu Nanzhi loosened his hand that was pulling at the corner of Jiang Yuebai's clothes. Jiang Yuebai, who was making a fuss, was stunned and sat down angrily.
"Since I scared you half to death, why did you blush when you saw me?" Jiang Yuebai asked.
Xie Jingshan looked embarrassed and scratched his face uncomfortably.
"That wasn't the case during those three years when I didn't see clearly... uh... Anyway, I swear, I really don't have any improper thoughts about you. I know this very well. After all, you were so dark and ugly when you were a child..."
"Who are you calling dark and ugly? Anan, don't pull me, I'm going to kill him today!"
Jiang Yuebai rolled up his sleeves in frustration. Lu Nanzhi held the cup in one hand to drink tea, and raised the other hand, raising his eyebrows to indicate that you can do whatever you want.
Jiang Yuebai: … …
"Tell me! Why on earth do you have such a weird dream? You keep saying that you were a sword immortal in your previous life. What kind of bullshit sword immortal is this?"
Xie Jingshan said weakly, "I don't know either. It's all from what the Grand Elder said. But I suddenly feel that there is a huge conspiracy here."
Jiang Yuebai and Lu Nanzhi looked up together.
Xie Jingshan said seriously, "In my previous life, I must have been more powerful than the Sword Immortal. So if someone wants to use this kind of low-level and boring dream to ruin my Taoism and my immortal path, I will never give in!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Yuebai and Lu Nanzhi rolled their eyes in exactly the same way.
However, Xie Jingshan's words suddenly made the little Ganoderma lucidum on Jiang Yuebai's head tremble.
She felt like a pair of eyes were looking at her through Xie Jingshan.
"Xie Jingshan, since you want to prove that you won't give in, why don't you become a monk? I happen to have a copy of the Prajna Sutra. If you shave your head, I'll pass it on to you, and I'll also give you a set of Buddhist body-building magic skills for free..."
(End of this chapter)