Chapter 331

Chapter 331

◎The Mansion on the Hill◎

"That kid lost a truth-or-dare game—it's not teen romance! He’s still clueless about that stuff. Really, it’s not. Ah, please rest assured, we’ll make sure he behaves."

In the school office, Fang Li smiled apologetically at Xia Junyan’s homeroom teacher, insisting that Xia Junyan had lost a game and it definitely wasn’t romantic. Though she wasn’t sure if the teachers believed her, as a parent, she sounded so certain they had to take her word for it.

The homeroom teacher sighed. "Xia Junyan is a smart kid, but he doesn’t put all that smarts into studying. Look at his grades—he’s solidly in the top twenty of his grade, but the gap between the top ten and the top twenty is huge. A single point can knock you down ranks. Now, with senior year winding down and only this last half-year left, whatever’s distracting him, he needs to focus on these next few months."

Fang Li nodded with a smile. "Right, right. That child just loves to play and can’t sit still, but we take his studies seriously at home. Don’t worry, Teacher, we’ll back the school all the way during this final push."

With things already at this point, no use harping on it. The homeroom teacher relented. "Alright then. For this incident, he’ll write a written apology and apologize properly during Monday’s morning assembly."

Fang Li hesitated. "Ah, about that... we might need to ask for leave. He might not be able to come on Monday."

The mention of leave gave the teacher a headache—missing even a single day meant falling behind on coursework. But since the parent was personally requesting it, he couldn’t outright refuse. "Is there something urgent at home?"

Fang Li explained, "Well, his brother found out about this incident. You know what his brother does—soldiers have that stubborn temper. He… well, he laid into him. Xia Junyan might need a couple days to recover."

The teacher grew alarmed. "You can’t just hit a child! Teenagers at this age are especially sensitive about their pride. He’d listen if you just talked to him—why resort to violence?"

Fang Li waved it off. "It’s not too serious, just… his face is a mess right now. You know how kids at this age care about appearances. Don’t worry, Teacher, he won’t fall behind on his studies!"

Leaving the office, Fang Li wiped her brow, drained. After saying goodbye to the teacher, she called Xia Junyan before even leaving the school. "Where are you?"

Xia Junyan: "Waiting at the airport. Did you settle things at school? How many days of leave did you get?"

Fang Li: "At most two. You *must* be back by Tuesday!"

Xia Junyan chimed in cheerfully. "Two days is fine. Whether I can come back depends on how smoothly things go. Oh, and Sister-in-law, don’t tell my brother about this. If he finds out, he’ll beat me up for sure."

Fang Li scoffed. "Now you’re worried about him? Why didn’t you think about him when you were reading that written apology over the broadcast?"

Xia Junyan thought to himself—who’d think about his brother at a time like that? All he could think about was Ji Naonao. But he couldn’t say that outright. "Alright, Sister-in-law, I’m boarding now. I’ll be careful and come back soon. Bye!"

Hanging up, Xia Junyan let out a relieved sigh and turned to Ji Nanxing with a grin. "Done!"

Ji Nanxing: "If we resolve things quickly, a weekend should be enough. No need to take leave."

Xia Junyan: "Nope, even if we finish over the weekend, I’m still taking leave. Otherwise, you’d see me on the morning assembly Monday. Knowing how the school operates, it’s obvious."

The school issue wasn’t a big deal—he had thick skin, and as long as it wasn’t expulsion, nothing was serious. Compared to that, the situation in Rongcheng was far more pressing.

Seeing Xia Junyan’s obvious aversion to school, Ji Nanxing chuckled. "I thought you liked reading written apologies. And having an audience for it. Is the morning assembly not grand enough for you?"

Xia Junyan clutched his chest in fake heartbreak. "I never thought you’d turn out like this, Ji Naonao! You’ve picked up sarcasm!"

Even Brother Mo, their bodyguard, cracked up. Xia Junyan turned to him in betrayal. "Can’t you throw me a bone here?"

Brother Mo: "Hey, I didn’t embarrass you. Why blame me alone?"

Just as Xia Junyan was about to argue, the boarding call rang out—their flight was ready for departure.

They had received Xia Junyan’s SOS text the night before, but there were no flights to Rongcheng then, and even train tickets were sold out. Driving would’ve taken four or five hours, and the earliest flight was at 8 a.m., so the timing difference wasn’t significant.

Ji Nanxing had immediately done a reading for Xia Junyan—the reading showed he’d suffer a bit but wouldn’t die. So they went back to rest and recharge, planning to fly over today.

Last time, Xia Junyan had snuck off to Rongcheng solo. This time, they were going openly. After settling into his seat, Xia Junyan mused, "Rongcheng and us, huh? Some history there. But Nao Nao, if Xia Junyan ran into trouble there, why didn’t he contact the Bureau? Why you?"

Ji Nanxing: "Get used to it."

Xia Junyan came to the mainland when he was twenty; that year, Ji Nanxing was ten years old. He bought several talismans drawn by Xia Junyan through Renjian Network, found them quite effective, and thus added Xia's private contact information.

At that time, there were not many Taoist priests capable of drawing Heaven Thunder Talismans. Although the Management Bureau had designated talisman makers, the demand was too high for immediate availability. Therefore, Ji Nanxing offered a higher price than the Bureau and established a long-term transaction relationship with Xia Junyan.

Through repeated transactions, although they had never met in person and their conversations were limited, their personalities matched well, and gradually they became friends.

Xia Junyan's ability to draw talismans far surpassed his ghost-catching skills, yet he was unwilling to be just a talisman master. In his heart, the Zhengyi Sect represented the origin of the Celestial Master tradition. After all, his revered ancestral master, Zhang Daoling, was respectfully titled “Zu Tianshi” (Ancestral Celestial Master). As a successor of the Zhengyi Sect, how could he be content merely drawing talismans?

Most paranormal cases weren't difficult to handle. Simply activating one’s celestial eye allowed communication with spirits, making negotiation possible once their needs were understood. For those that couldn’t be reasoned with, a few talismans usually sufficed to subdue them. Truly dangerous situations capable of trapping a Celestial Master rarely occurred.

Rare didn’t mean impossible. Once, Xia Junyan actually got trapped. He contacted the Management Bureau and reached out to several nearby Celestial Masters he could get in touch with, hoping someone would come to rescue him.

At that time, Ji Nanxing happened to be among them. Though still young, he had accompanied his master on numerous occasions dealing with vengeful ghosts. His master and senior apprentice hoped to find an opportunity to train him, so when this rare tricky situation arose, they let him give it a try. By the time he rescued Xia Junyan, the Celestial Master dispatched by the Management Bureau arrived late.

From then on, Ji Nanxing became Xia Junyan’s top emergency contact. Worried about emergencies occurring in areas without mobile signal coverage, Xia even periodically sent him message talismans.

So after all these years, even though Ji Nanxing no longer needed to buy talismans from Xia Junyan, whenever life-threatening situations arose, Xia still contacted him first. After all, contacting the Management Bureau might involve countless procedures before a Celestial Master could be assigned, whereas contacting Ji Nanxing meant that as long as he received the message, he would rush over immediately.

After hearing about Ji Nanxing’s past with Xia Junyan, Xiao Ye wasn’t particularly jealous; instead, he felt extremely lucky. They had met at a young age, and the very first person he ever fell for turned out to be such an outstanding Nan-Nan—this alone was already a uniquely fortunate blessing.

The temperature in Rongcheng was higher than in Yulan City. As soon as they disembarked from the plane, they took off their windproof down jackets and changed into lighter but warmer coats.

The driver arranged by Xiao Ye before arrival was a local, talkative and friendly. Meeting a social butterfly like Xiao Ye, they spent the entire drive chatting about local culture. The driver also knew a bit about where they were headed: “Fushan Mountain wasn’t originally called Fushan. It was first named Shouling Mountain, which sounds similar to ‘shou ling’ meaning guarding tombs—the kind related to tomb guardians. It is said that a royal relative, possibly a prince or princess, was once buried here, and people were specifically assigned to guard the grave.”

Xiao Ye: “If there really was such a large ancient tomb, wouldn’t it have been protected? How did it end up becoming today’s Fushan?”

Driver: “People were poor during wartime. There were rumors about treasures being buried here, so people dug around but found nothing. Later, a rich businessman returned and developed real estate here, claiming he saw good feng shui and believed it was a place of fortune. Thus, he built a villa community and renamed it Fushan Mountain.”

Nowadays, only the older generation remembers the name “Shouling.” Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when most people lived in single-story houses and skyscrapers were rare, constructing wealthy mansions in this area was practically unique locally, affordable by only a few families.

Those who bought large villas in Fushan back then are now mostly listed on the wealth rankings, making Fushan a landmark in the region.

However, this is an upscale district, and ordinary people can hardly enter. Their smooth access this time was entirely thanks to Xiao Ye. Neither Ji's nor Xiao's family owned property here—if Xiao's family truly possessed real estate in such a prime location, it would likely have triggered investigations from higher authorities.

Nonetheless, despite having no family property here, Xiao Ye had wide connections. A few years ago, a local business owner went bankrupt and committed suicide, and his real estate was auctioned off. A friend of Xiao Ye’s purchased one of the properties. However, the house had never been lived in—it was only used for hosting private gatherings. Naturally, when Xiao Ye asked to borrow it, the friend readily agreed.

Because prior arrangements had been made, the security guards checked the information and allowed them through. The car drove further up the mountain along winding roads. Villas were spaced apart, each separated by several minutes' drive, offering excellent privacy.

As they arrived at the house belonging to Xiao Ye’s friend, Ji Nanxing said to the driver: “Keep driving upwards.”

The coordinates provided by Xia Junyan were somewhere in this area, but the exact location still needed to be located. Fushan Mountain was vast, fortunately allowing vehicle access, otherwise walking alone would have been exhausting.

Ji Nanxing held a compass for positioning. He rarely used a compass normally; this one had been given to him by Xia Junyan, still faintly carrying traces of Xia’s aura—this was Xia’s final safeguard.

When Xia Junyan handed the compass to Ji Nanxing initially, Ji teased him: “You’re giving away your life-saving trump card instead of keeping it yourself?”

Xia Junyan smiled and replied: “In my hands, this is just a compass; but in yours, it becomes my true lifeline.”

Since receiving the compass, Ji Nanxing had never used it—until today, when it finally proved useful.

As the car neared the mountaintop, the previously spinning needle gradually slowed and finally pointed steadily in one direction.

Ji Nanxing opened the door and stepped out. Xiao Ye picked up a map borrowed from his friend: “There’s only one household left ahead. Is Xia Junyan trapped inside someone’s home? Let me check who lives here.”

Besides the map, Xiao Ye had specially requested resident records from his friend living in Fushan before coming. Xia Junyan’s last distress signal showed he was in a residential area, and phone calls couldn’t get through, so they needed to gather some intelligence beforehand. Fortunately, this wasn’t a remote wilderness—at least there were clues to follow.

Xiao Ye turned on his phone and cross-referenced the map to locate the target residence. As he flipped through the documents, his expression suddenly froze: “Lu Shikai… surname Lu… could he be related to Lu Yanqi?”

Ji Nanxing looked up Lu Shikai, chairman of the Shenghui Group—seventy-one years old this year, while Lu Yanqi was under thirty: "They're unlikely to be father and son. Maybe grandfather and grandson."

Xiao Ye glanced toward the house hidden within thick woods, its outline barely visible: "So this might be the Lu family's ancestral home? If Xia Junyan is trapped here, did he get caught in the Lu family's trap like I did?"

Ji Nanxing replied, "That's not necessarily the case."

A twinge of jealousy soured Xiao Ye’s voice: "You know him *that* well? Think he’s smarter than me?"

Ji Nanxing finally turned to look at him: "When I said 'not necessarily,' I meant this place isn't necessarily the Lu family's ancestral home. What are you thinking?"

He gave a less sulky "Oh," then asked, "What do we do now?"

Ji Nanxing looked toward Brother Mo: "Get the Bureau on the line and have them dig into what the Lu family is really up to. I'm going in to find Xia Junyan."

Xiao Ye: "I'm coming with you."

He had firsthand experience with how domineering the Lu family could be. If Ji Nanxing were dealing with a supernatural incident, he wouldn’t tag along and become dead weight. But if it came down to a confrontation with the Lus—especially one that might turn physical—he definitely wouldn’t let Ji Nanxing walk in alone.

Ji Nanxing also thought that if they ran into trouble with the Lu family, having Xiao Ye around would mean an extra pair of hands. Leaving him outside would only make him worry more if things got delayed inside: "Then stay close to me."

Xiao Ye immediately stepped forward, wanting to take Ji Nanxing’s hand but worrying it might hinder him in an emergency. Instead, he reached out and gripped the hem of his jacket.

And so, Ji Nanxing made his way toward the wooded estate, a tall figure glued to his back.