Chapter Twenty-One: Past Life and Present Life

  In a daze, Li Jiancheng felt himself in an unknown place. The surrounding air was filled with white mist, as if he had entered a fairyland. In front of him stood a pavilion, where a woman in white was dancing gracefully. As he looked closer, she seemed somewhat familiar. Upon approaching her, he realized it was none other than his girlfriend from his past life. At this moment, Li Jiancheng felt neither joy nor worry as the pavilion gradually became blurry and the figure also became indistinct, eventually disappearing before him, leaving only a vast expanse of white.

  "Ah!" Li Jiancheng suddenly woke up from his dream and realized that everything had just been a dream.

  "Cheng Er, how are you? You really scared your mother to death just now." Dou Xian heard Li Jiancheng's cry and hurriedly came in from outside. At this time, the others were still in the wine tower, and as soon as they heard that Li Jiancheng had woken up, they all came over to see him.

  "Brother Jiancheng, you're fine now." Du Yinxin's future daughter-in-law, Dugu Feng, was tearfully looking at Li Jiancheng. Seeing Dugu Feng's expression, Li Jiancheng also felt moved. They hadn't met many times, yet Dugu Feng cared about him so much. Compared to his girlfriend in his past life, it was truly a world of difference. His past girlfriend's shadow in his heart had gradually faded away, although he didn't dare say that her influence had completely disappeared, but now she didn't have much impact on him either. "Perhaps Dugu Feng will make a good wife," Li Jiancheng thought to himself quietly.

  "Thank you for the concern from all the seniors, I was drunk and made a mistake, please forgive me. Just now I drank too much and don't know what I did, first apologize and then talk about it later."

  "Jian Cheng was humble, and one poem 'What is the world's emotions, teaching life and death to each other' brought tears to his eyes; another poem 'Ten years of life and death are vast. Not thinking, but hard to forget.' moved heaven and earth, didn't expect Jian Cheng to have such great talent." Just then, a woman's voice came from beside him, it was Dugu Feng's wife, Dugu Xue's mother, who was also his future mother-in-law. At this time, she carefully sized him up, nodding her head as she looked, indeed the way a mother-in-law looks at her son-in-law, the more she looked, the more satisfied she became.

  "Is there?" Li Jiancheng scratched his head and asked in puzzlement.

  "Yes, Brother Jiancheng, you just..." Dugu Feng continued to say. Then she told him what had happened after he got up from the chair earlier, speaking with great enthusiasm and excitement, as if it were her own experience. In fact, although it wasn't something she did herself, Li Jiancheng was her future husband, so for her, it was also like her own affair, making her even more excited to talk about it.

  Li Jiancheng was very embarrassed after hearing her words, earlier he had drunk wine and done such a thing, and didn't know how they would look at him. At the same time, he thought of the future, Su Shi and Yuan Yu were good, the two stood in the original place where they wrote these two poems for a long time, finally speechless, could only sigh: The predecessor Li Jiancheng has already expressed my emotions... but didn't know what kind of entanglement this situation was?

  However, at this time he was thinking about how to deal with his parents and others asking him how he could make such a poem. But until the end, neither Li Yuan nor Dou Yi asked, which made him feel strange. In the end, he parted ways with the Dugu family, and the marriage between Li Jiancheng and Dugu Feng was also settled. After returning home, Li Yuan and Dou Yi called me to the study room, letting Li Shimin and Li Yuanji go rest, Li Jiancheng knew that the play was coming. After entering the study room, Dou Yi and Li Yuan stared at each other for a long time.

  Li Yuan sighed and said, "Cheng Er, your father knew you were different from ordinary children since childhood, so I didn't discipline you. But I didn't know you had such pain in your heart, this is my negligence." However, Li Yuan called him into the study not to ask for reasons, but to blame himself, which made him feel moved and a little guilty: his own problems had caused worry to both his father and mother.

  "Cheng Er, what's troubling you? Tell your father and mother, with the current status and abilities of our Li family, there are few things that can't be done."

  "The child has no major worries, perhaps it's just that he's been having nightmares lately. Today, he drank too much wine, so his behavior was a bit out of line. Now, however, there's nothing to worry about." Li Jiancheng could only use this kind of answer to brush them off, after all, he couldn't say that he was someone who had traveled from the future, or they would think he was crazy. "It's getting late, I'll go rest first," Li Jiancheng said, excusing himself in order to avoid further questioning.

  "Since that's the case, Cheng Er, get some rest early and don't tire yourself out." Du Xian was about to say something in response to Li Jiancheng's words when Li Yuan cut her off.

  After Li Jiancheng left, Dong Xian asked: "Master, Cheng'er has a heart problem, why didn't you let me ask clearly?"

  "Since Cheng Er doesn't want to talk, let's not force him. He is mature in his actions and will figure things out himself. Besides, he will naturally tell us if he wants to say something. Moreover, the doctor also said that Cheng Er originally had a blocked pulse, but now it's fine." Li Yuan comforted, thinking that Li Jiancheng was different from other children because he was more mature at an earlier age, and they wouldn't think of anything else.

  Back in his room, he thought about his past girlfriend and smiled wryly to himself. Her image was becoming increasingly blurred in his mind. He knew that after tonight's outburst, the influence of his past girlfriend on him would continue to dwindle. It could be said that with just one more catalyst, he would no longer be affected by her. His life would truly start anew. The past girlfriend was now like a heart demon, small but appearing at critical moments, capable of making him suffer greatly.

  Shaking his head, he shook off the thoughts in his mind and began to practice the "Longevity Secret Sun Scripture". In this world of martial arts, strength was everything. Now that Li Jiancheng had completed the first step of internal energy cultivation, he was gradually nearing completion of the second step. When he completes all five steps, it will be the real start of practicing the "Longevity Secret Sun Scripture". Currently, his practice is equivalent to the foundation-building stage of a cultivator, which can only strengthen his physique, making future practices more difficult, so his current goal is to complete these five steps.

  After calming down and practicing for two hours, from the moment he completed the first step, Li Jiancheng's mind was even more calm when practicing the second step. Originally, he would regain his senses after one hour of practice, but now he can practice for two hours, which is more advantageous for his practice.

  ……

  The next day, I woke up very early, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. The discomfort from yesterday had all disappeared. In the backyard, I practiced a set of Tai Chi, and then went back to practice "Changsheng jue ri zhi pian" for two hours. When I came out of my bedroom, Li Shimin and Li Yuanji also emerged. Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year, but I don't know what we're going to do.

  "Big brother, there won't be as many people coming to our house today like yesterday, right?" asked Li Shimin, the second younger brother, who was also intimidated by the enthusiastic crowd from yesterday.

  "They won't come, they don't have so much free time to come to our house every day!" Li Jiancheng said with a smile.

  "That's good, that's good." Li Shimin patted his chest and let out a sigh of relief.

  "Hehe..." Li Jiancheng smiled silently.

  Li Yuan and Dou Yi were already having breakfast in the hall when they arrived.

  "Jiancheng, Shimin, and Yuange, after you finish eating breakfast, follow me to pay respects to our ancestors' spirits." Li Yuan said as he saw the three enter. In ancient times, it was a conservative tradition that women were not allowed to participate in ancestor worship. They believed that women would eventually leave the family, so they were not qualified to be included in the family tree. Li Jiancheng felt helpless about this, but he couldn't change the rules that had been in place for thousands of years. After hearing Li Yuan's words, the three of them quietly began eating their meal.