Chapter 5: Punishment

  Li Huan's home on Shuangqing Road was still quite far from Wang Qiniang's villa area. After chatting about the two people's private affairs, Li Huan asked again what was going on with that Gui Gu Xiyin Yu version.

  Wei Xiangtu thought for a moment and said, "The 'ghost valley son' mentioned above - the ten words: death, worry, poverty, humiliation, loss, destruction, disappointment, harm, punishment, and penalty, are considered as 'yin', that is, 'end'. It's roughly the ten kinds of human lowlands or hardships that Guiguzi thinks. These ten jade plates are engraved with these ten words to suppress some evil spirits, but once they are scattered, the positive energy becomes a wandering and homeless spirit, and it is easily used by evil objects with similar qualities to harm one side."

  "Oh." Li Huan said with a bitter smile, "But what do these words specifically mean, or what kind of hardship do they represent? My classical Chinese isn't very good."

  Wei Xiangtu shrugged and said, "These so-called ancient philosophical works' annotations have always been debated endlessly, with no fixed conclusion. Even professors and doctors who study ancient Chinese cannot explain them clearly, how can I understand them thoroughly?"

  "No way, I think a hermit is much more formidable than any professor." Li Huan said with a smile.

  "Because a superior person will tell you that it can only be understood, not explained." Wei Xiangtu also half-jokingly laughed and said, "No matter whether he himself has really understood or not, you've already been intimidated."

  "Hmm." Li Huan felt his mood getting better. "But, Ghost Valley Master, I seem to recall that you're either surnamed Wang or Sun, how did I become a descendant of the Ghost Valley bloodline when I'm a true member of the Li family?"

  "Guiguzi's surname is Wang. However, it's possible that some descendant of Guiguzi became an orphan during a war and was adopted, or had their surname changed by an emperor."

  "That's also true, no need to mind such details. Ha."

  It wasn't until late at night that the two returned to Li Huan's Li's Psychological Clinic. Although she had been looking forward to this new place, Wei Xiangru was too tired and it was too late, so she didn't feel any excitement at all. After hastily washing up and changing into her clothes, she fell asleep in the room prepared by Li Huan and slept until dawn.

  The next day, she woke up to find that this was indeed a nice place. The balcony, windowsill, and the walls and gates of the small courtyard were all covered with green vines and red flowers, just like the watercolor paintings of flower houses she had seen online. The east-facing wall was particularly pleasing with its lush ivy. In the yard, there were clusters of flowers, but it was clear that Li Huan hadn't deliberately pruned them, at most watering and fertilizing them, so the flowers intertwined with each other, looking very natural.

  Li Huan got up earlier than her, and had already sent away a customer. Standing at the door without turning around, several decoration workers came in. The leader, a fat man, saw Wei Xiangtu in the yard and suddenly showed a very strange smile to Wei Xiangtu. He heavily patted Li Huan's shoulder, almost knocking him to the ground.

  "Is this the new nurse? Hello, Nurse."

  "Ah? Cough cough," Li Huan hastily turned his head, only to find that Wei Xiangtu was already standing not far behind him: "Miss Wei, good morning."

  "Good morning." Wei Xiangtu smiled politely, "I'm just an assistant, I don't even have a nurse's certificate."

  "It's okay! Anyway, Dr. Li won't mind this kind of thing." The fatty chuckled and said, "Come on, let's go in and take a look, set up some sort of assistant office."

  The fat man's name is Luo Ke Di, he is the boss of a small decoration company nearby and also an old resident here. He and Li Huan are childhood friends. Two years ago when Li Huan returned to China, he found him to renovate the first floor into a clinic. Luo Ke Di would often come to chat with Li Huan. His words made Li Huan speechless - chatting with someone who charges for conversation is like making a fortune every day.

  The clinic originally had a large hall, but a dispensary was built in the center, separating the reception area outside from the treatment area inside. Li Huan's idea was that he didn't have as many spare medicines as other clinics, after all, the treatment of mental illnesses is auxiliary to medication, so he could divide the dispensary into two parts with glass walls, using the inner room as a dispensary and the outer part as Wei Xiangtu's office. However, Wei Xiangtu felt that she wouldn't be going in and out frequently, but if the dispensary had to go through her office, it would be very inconvenient, so it was better to have it inside.

  Li Huan agreed to Wei Xiangtu's suggestion. While Fatso and the workers were taking measurements, they returned to the company to move materials and tools, and they also cleaned up those medicinal ingredients together. Fatso and his team worked quickly, returning before Li Huan and Wei Xiangtu had finished moving all the medicines, even helping them with some of it. Then they started working.

  According to Pangzi, this is just a small project and can be done in half a day. However, if you want to use the inner room, you have to wait for the cement of the fixed glass wall to solidify completely, so for these two days, Wei Xiangtu will still have to stay outside.

  Li Huan only had an appointment with that customer this morning, and there's nothing else to do afterwards. The house is being renovated, it's definitely not a good place to stay.

  Considering Wei Xiangtu hadn't had breakfast yet, Li Huan suggested treating him to a meal and filling his stomach at a nearby snack shop. However, before the two of them could even leave, Wang Qiniang called with an unexpected phone call. But it wasn't because things were resolved so quickly; rather, he was coming over to pick up his own car.

  It was clear that Wang Qinyan didn't want to stay at home for a moment. When he called Li Huan, he was already sitting in a taxi and had arrived at the intersection of Shuangqing Road. Li Huan told him to hurry up, as neither Wei Xiangtu nor himself had eaten breakfast yet. Upon hearing this, Wang Qinyan gained momentum and said that he hadn't eaten either, suggesting that after arriving, he would drive them both to a Western restaurant for breakfast, on his treat. After hanging up the phone, Wang Qinyan had already arrived at Li Huan's doorstep.

  Although it was already March, the chill of early spring had not yet dissipated, but Wang Qinyan was still drenched in sweat - however, it was a cold sweat caused by shock and an empty stomach. As soon as he entered the door, his face turned pale and he sat down on the steps with a thud, completely abandoning his "successful person" image.

  "I'm going dizzy from sitting here..."

  From then on, Li Huan and Wei Xiangtu did not dare to ask him to drive them to some Western restaurant, but instead persuaded him to go with them to a nearby snack bar to fill their stomachs first. Wang Qinyan also felt that he really couldn't hold out, so he agreed. As they walked, Li Huan and Wei Xiangtu still followed closely behind him, worried that this guy would suddenly faint from hunger and fall onto the road. However, they couldn't help but secretly mock him - they hadn't eaten breakfast either, how come Wang Qinyan was so unaffected by hunger?