Chapter 68: I Offered You Wealth and Prosperity, But You Just Couldn't Handle It!

Teacher Ke had just fallen asleep when she was awakened by an attendant at the Brightness Hotel, who told her there was a telephone call for her at the front desk.

She hurriedly slipped into her slippers, broke into a trot down the stairs, and rushed toward the front desk on the ground floor.

Her heart was pounding with anxiety.

Today was New Year's Eve, and for a call to come at this hour, the implications were self-evident.

"Is it success? Or failure?"

Teacher Ke felt as though two tiny figures were inside her mind, hacking at each other with swords, locked in a life-or-death battle.

She made the three flights of stairs in less than half a minute. Tripping on the second floor, she lost one of her slippers and didn't even stop to pick it up.

She snatched up the receiver, having no time to catch her breath.

"Hello, hello... This is Ke Zhiyu."

"Xiaoyu! It's your Uncle Peng."

"I... I can tell..."

Teacher Ke's heart rose to her throat, awaiting the verdict of her fate.

"Come over to give me your New Year's greetings tomorrow!"

"Boom!"

Teacher Ke felt as if her head had been dealt a heavy blow. A wave of intense joy washed over her like warm sunlight, instantly permeating her entire body and chasing away the damp, chilling gloom.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, many people would go to pay their respects to Uncle Peng. Being invited to come over spoke volumes.

"I... understand. Thank you... Uncle Peng."

"Mmm, remember to come early!"

"Beep, beep, beep, beep..."

The line went dead. Teacher Ke, her nerves strung tight just moments before, slowly sank to the floor, her muffled sobs echoing softly for a long time.

......

"Woof, woof, woof! Woof, woof, woof!"

Amidst his slumber, Li Ye thought he heard a dog barking.

He groggily rolled over... Oh crap, it was Big Yellow barking.

He sprang off the small brick fire-bed in a single motion, slipped on his shoes, and bolted outside.

For the past few days, he had been sleeping fully clothed precisely out of fear of hearing a dog bark outside.

Since it was the New Year, Uncle Gu, who usually kept watch, had gone home to tend to his children. Disregarding any awkwardness, Li Ye scaled the courtyard wall and vaulted right out.

Covering a distance of eighty-nine meters, with a school wall blocking the middle, Li Ye sprinted all the way, executing another display of scaling eaves and vaulting walls in his haste.

Once over the wall, Li Ye spotted two beams of flashlight illumination coming from the location of Wen Leyu's dormitory.

"He's here, he's here. Li Ye actually came."

"Heh, he really is as predictable as Pavlov's dog!"

Running at top speed, Li Ye speechlessly slowed his pace.

He recognized the voice; it belonged to his elder sister, Li Yue. Just hearing her teasing tone was enough to picture the scene.

Sure enough, when Li Ye drew near, sister Li Yue was already doubled over with laughter. "Hahahaha! Pavlov's dog! Xiaoyu, you ran faster than a dog just now! Hahahaha~~~"

Gritting his teeth, Li Ye said, "Sister, have you never heard the story of lighting the beacons to fool the marquesses?"

Li Yue formed an "O" with her little mouth and exaggeratedly exclaimed, "Oh, right, right! Lighting the beacons to fool the marquesses! You're our family's little emperor, and Xiaoyu certainly has the beauty of Baosi!"

Wen Leyu's face flushed, and she quickly grabbed Li Yue's arm. "Sister, stop joking around, or else it won't work anymore."

"Well, that depends on what Xiaoyu thinks. As long as he's willing, it works every single time."

Wen Leyu's face turned completely crimson. Annoyed, Li Ye demanded, "You called me here in the middle of the night just to make a fool of me?"

"Who wants to make a fool of you?"

Ceasing her mischief and putting on the airs of an elder sister, Li Yue turned to Li Ye and said, "It's already three o'clock. Stop whining about being woken up and hurry off to pay your respects to the Old Scholar Tree!"

Li Ye wailed, "Wasn't it supposed to be four o'clock?"

Li Yue scolded, "Don't you have to go home and pick up our grandma? What's this? Unconvinced on the first day of the New Year? You wanna spar with me again?"

"Fine, fine, fine. I'm going, I'm going."

Bloodline suppression really was a terrible thing.

Before the age of fourteen, Li Ye had never won a single fight against Li Yue. Boys develop later, which puts them at a real disadvantage.

By the time he passed fourteen, the shadow of suppression was already deeply rooted in Li Ye's heart. Combined with growing older and wiser, this "lifelong grudge" would never be settled.

......

Li Ye first returned to the Second Grain Store to put on his heavy cotton-padded coat and hat. Then, enduring a throbbing headache from lack of sleep, he went home to pick up his grandmother and walked toward the old locust tree on the northern side of the county town.

Before walking far, he realized he wasn't the only miserable soul.

Many children around his age, as well as younger ones, were being dragged along by the elderly members of their families, converging toward the north with sleep-heavy eyes.

By the time they reached the vicinity of the old locust tree, the scene could only be described as a "vast sea of people."

Li Ye spotted several students from County No. 2 High School, as well as Zhou Chenggong.

Since this guy's home wasn't in the county town, his presence here meant he must have traveled from the countryside outside the city in the middle of the night.

Grandma Li led Li Ye, Hu Man, and the others, squeezing into a reasonably good spot some thirty or forty meters away from the century-old locust tree.

Then, Wu Guiying, much like the other elderly women around her, set out her offerings and began chanting in murmurs.

"Bless my grandson to be admitted to university... Bless our household with peace... Bless our family line with endless descendants..."

Countless humming prayers, akin to sonic magic drilling into the ears, merged into a wave-like array that echoed and reverberated across a radius of several hundred meters.

Feeling something unusual beside him, Li Ye turned his head and discovered that Hu Man, Han Han, Jiang Xiaoyan, and the others were also praying, and had even brought minor offerings of their own.

"You guys too..."

Hearing Li Ye's surprised query, Hu Man and Han Han smiled demurely, while Jiang Xiaoyan sheepishly lowered her head to explain, "When I left, my mother told me I had to come and pay my respects."

Well!

Li Ye finally understood why those "masters" of the 1980s could thrive and successfully dupe so many smart people.

"What are you doing? Show some sincerity!"

Grandma Li, discovering Li Ye's "lack of piety," gave his shin a kick. Li Ye had no choice but to go through the motions and perform a bowing gesture.

Yet the very next moment, the pitch-black night suddenly flashed with blinding light.

Li Ye looked up in surprise at the pitch-black sky devoid of a single star.

Rumbling thunder followed closely behind. It was the first day of the Lunar New Year, yet it was thundering.

A ripple of commotion spread through the crowd gathered around the old locust tree, and a group of superstitious old women began muttering anxiously.

Grandma Li reassured Li Ye, "Don't be scared, Xiaoyu. Spring thunder means the heavens are striking demons! It has nothing to do with us."

Li Ye couldn't help a wry smile. It has nothing to do with the gods, and it's striking demons—aren't I basically...

"Crack!"

A second bolt of lightning flashed directly above Li Ye's head, its serpentine, intensely bright trajectory clearly reflected in his eyes.

Li Ye was somewhat dazed.

[Could it be that I, this freak of nature... am undergoing heavenly tribulation?]

......

The second day of the Lunar New Year was the day brides returned to visit their parental homes.

Early in the morning, Li Kaijian took Han Chunmei, Li Juan, and Li Ying out. Since Li Ye and Li Yue were not born to Han Chunmei, the two of them didn't go, and Han Chunmei didn't find anything amiss with that.

At ten in the morning, Li Ye's two aunts arrived with their husbands, bringing wine for their aging father-in-law, Li Zhongfa.

The eldest aunt, Li Mingyue, was married to Cui Zhixian, a township cadre inhe Riverside Township on the west side of the county town.

The second aunt, Li Mingxiang, was married to Zhao Yuanchao, the director of the Beicheng Police Station. Both of their marriages appeared much smoother and more fulfilling than Li Kaijian's.

Furthermore, the children of both families had either graduated from high school and started working or were designated as top-tier students at school, annually hauled out to serve as "role models" for Li Ye.

In past years, the second day of the new year had been the hardest day of the year for Li Ye and his father.

Last year, when Li Kaijian married Han Chunmei, they finally escaped that ordeal. This year, Li Ye authored *Stalker*, which finally allowed them to hold their heads high.

Little cousin Zhao Meiyuan from the second aunt's family had loved clinging to Li Ye since childhood, and this visit was no exception.

"Brother Xiaoyu, I read *Stalker* that you wrote a few days ago. It was so wonderfully written! But why did you have to write Zuo Lan to her death? How could you be so cruel?"

A little fan club member naturally deserved careful treatment.

Li Ye patiently explained to her, "How a novel's characters are portrayed depends first on real-life prototypes, and second on the needs of the plot..."

"In times of war, there were many outstanding figures and righteous martyrs who sacrificed themselves just like Zuo Lan. A tragic ending makes it easier for people to remember and cherish those revolutionary heroes."

"Hmph~~"

As Li Ye, bathed in the starry gaze of Zhao Meiyuan, was speaking with great enthusiasm, he was interrupted by a sneer.

Frowning, Li Ye glanced over and saw it was his eldest aunt's son, Cui Jiaguo.

This kid attended high school in Riverside Township and supposedly ranked in the top three of his grade. Because he was a homebody who chose not to study in the county town, he had always looked down on Li Ye, the habitual underachiever.

Now, seeing the look in Cui Jiaguo's eyes, Li Ye knew the kid was unconvinced, unwilling to let a former slacker steal the limelight from a top student.

Glaring coldly at Cui Jiaguo, Li Ye asked, "What are you scoffing at?"

Cui Jiaguo tilted his head and said disdainfully, "Look at you bragging away, acting as if you actually wrote that book."

Li Ye narrowed his eyes. "I didn't write it, did you?"

"Hmph," Cui Jiaguo curled his lip. "I don't have that ability, but I'd never do something so shameless either. Our Chinese teacher said that a child with no life experience cannot possibly write a novel."

[Such immense fortune placed right before you, yet you're simply too incompetent to grasp it!]

With a gloomy expression, Li Ye pointed outside.

"For the sake of our relatives, I won't beat you today. Get outside and stay there, and stop being an eyesore."

"You... you'll regret this."

Cui Jiaguo hadn't expected Li Ye to be so bold as to refuse to give him any face in front of his parents.

After he stomped out in a huff, cousin Zhao Meiyuan whispered conspiratorially to Li Ye, "Brother Xiaoyu, today Eldest Aunt is planning to set you up on a blind date. I reckon it's going to fall through."

"A blind date? What blind date?"

"It's the daughter of Section Chief Sun from the Finance Bureau. She's twenty-four this year, and her face is as dark as Judge Bao's... Section Chief Sun used to work in Riverside Township and was a colleague of Eldest Aunt's husband..."

Acting like a little secret agent, Zhao Meiyuan provided Li Ye with free intelligence, thoroughly disgusting him.

People often said that if you didn't know your standing in someone else's heart, you only needed to look at the blind date match they arranged for you.

He, Li Ye, was handsome and dashing, yet they paired him with a female version of Judge Bao—who were they insulting?

Besides, in the year 1981, a twenty-four-year-old young woman still unmarried—what did that signify?

Just think of the older leftover women of later generations, and you'd understand what was going on.

Don't flatter yourselves as prime maidens or fairy maidens; you're all aging spinsters.

"Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu, come over here quickly."

Two minutes later, Eldest Aunt called Li Ye over, asking him with a smile, "Eldest Aunt has found a match for you, a very well-matched family. Go meet her tomorrow!"

Without even lifting his eyelids, Li Ye asked, "Eldest Aunt, is she pretty?"

Li Mingyue's smile stiffened slightly as she forced out, "You child, why won't you learn your lesson? Being pretty isn't a good thing. Her father is only forty-five this year and is about to be promoted..."

"Looks are very important," Li Ye interrupted directly. "My grandfather and grandmother were good-looking, which is why my father and my two aunts are good-looking."

"My father and my mother are good-looking, which is why my sister and I are good-looking. If I marry someone ugly, my children and grandchildren... will all suffer for it."

".........."

Li Zhongfa, Wu Guiying, Zhao Yuanchao, and Li Mingxiang were all stunned. Then, they collectively turned their heads to look at Cui Zhixian and Cui Jiaguo.

Cui Zhixian possessed the weathered, bitter face of an old peasant, and Cui Jiaguo had inherited eighty-eight percent of his genes—that face of his was truly a sight...

"Xiaoyu, what kind of talk is that? The meaning of life lies in making contributions to the motherland; personal appearance is trivial before XX..."

With a blushing face, Cui Zhixian launched into a senior's lecture directed at Li Ye.

Li Ye turned around and walked away. The thunder in the sky hadn't struck me dead, but you lot are trying to disgust me to death?

However, by the time dinner was served, Li Ye's mood had improved slightly.

Presumably because Second Aunt had spoken with Grandma, Grandma's face was as dark as ink.

She hadn't served a single one of the prepared meat dishes or delicacies. Instead, it was a gathering of potatoes and radishes, a meeting of cabbage and tofu—strictly vegetarian fare—and the fine wine originally promised was nowhere to be seen.

When Eldest Aunt Li Mingyue muttered a couple of complaints, expressing minor dissatisfaction, Wu Guiying slammed her hand down on the table.

"Eat if you want, get lost if you don't!"

"Using your nephew as a human favor, you should consider yourself lucky I'm not serving you open-handed slaps!"