My family tree hollow connects to the modern era : Chapter 7

The only chef in the courtyard was surnamed Gao, named Gao Man, a thin and short little old man who, like the gatekeeper Uncle Bi, smiled and was cheerful all day long.

Knowing that new people had arrived at the courtyard today, apart from the chicken that Little Jiang had specially called to arrange, Uncle Gao had also bought quite a few ingredients and made a full table of dishes, determined to let the new little friend feel the warmth of home.

Jiang Lin walked in front and entered the dining room first, with the three little ones popping out one by one behind him. When Bai Zhizhi, who was at the very back, walked in, the entire dining room seemed to brighten up a bit.

Uncle Gao said with a smile, “What a pretty little kid, come quickly, come quickly. Little Jiang said you like eating chicken, so I specially made you a scallion oil braised chicken. Try it and see if you like it. If there’s anything else you like to eat, just tell me. I won’t boast about other things, but in this kitchen, if I say I’m second best, no one in this courtyard would dare say they’re first!”

Lin Xiaoyang couldn’t hold back and let out a snort of laughter. In their little courtyard, apart from Uncle Gao, not a single person knew how to cook. At most they could boil some instant noodles.

Zhihuan slapped Lin Xiaoyang, telling him to give Uncle Gao some face and not make a fuss.

Jiang Lin had everyone sit down, then said to Bai Zhizhi, “Tell Uncle Gao what you like to eat. Uncle Gao’s cooking skills are pretty good.”

Saying that, he picked up a chicken drumstick and put it in his bowl. “Try it, see if you like it.”

Bai Zhizhi sniffed it and didn’t smell anything strange, so he picked it up with chopsticks and took a bite. Then his eyes lit up. Although this chicken had no spiritual energy and the meat quality couldn’t compare to the demon beast meat he normally ate, the taste was unexpectedly quite good.

So while biting into the chicken drumstick, he smiled with narrowed eyes and nodded toward Uncle Gao. “Delicious.”

The thing a cook likes most to see is someone eating what they made with great relish. Adding to that, this child looked too good, and when he smiled and looked over, it made people want to pile all good things in front of him.

Lin Xiaoyang exclaimed from the side, “Zhizhi, you can use chopsticks!”

When the fox demon who worked at the zoo was first caught by Brother Jiang, he didn’t know how to use chopsticks. He grabbed everything with his hands and even ate raw food. He had studied at the headquarters for a long time on how to be a human before being released to fend for himself.

Bai Zhizhi looked at the chopsticks in his hand, his face full of confusion. What was so strange about him being able to use chopsticks? Although he couldn’t read the characters here, he wasn’t some uncivilized beast eating raw meat and drinking blood.

Wu Yue stepped on Lin Xiaoyang’s foot. “Eat your food. After dinner, you take Zhizhi to buy a mobile phone and some clothes. Buy whatever he needs. Keep the receipts and come to me for reimbursement.”

Bai Zhizhi looked up in confusion. “Hand chicken?”

Although he was a fox, he really didn’t love eating chicken that much. Why did the people here keep feeding him chicken? He hadn’t even finished what was on the table, and they wanted to buy more?

Seeing Bai Zhizhi look at the chicken on the table and then look at him, Jiang Lin smiled and explained, “It’s not food. It’s a communication device. When the time comes, let Lin Xiaoyang teach you how to use it.”

Lin Xiaoyang said, “I have to go out with Brother Jiang later though.”

Yue Zhihuan raised her hand and gestured toward them: [I have time, I can help buy!]

Wu Yue said, “Huanhuan, buy it online and get a delivery service to bring it to the door.”

Yue Zhihuan nodded eagerly. She was very happy to be able to help.

Bai Zhizhi looked at Jiang Lin. “I want to go too.” He still hadn’t figured out where this place was, so he didn’t want to stay in this little courtyard.

Jiang Lin didn’t refuse. “You can, but you can’t run around randomly, and you can’t randomly use your hands. Can you promise me that?”

Wu Yue’s cultivation wasn’t low, but with a house full of old and young, he wasn’t too at ease leaving the little fox demon whose habits he didn’t yet know directly in the courtyard.

Bai Zhizhi nodded and responded with a sound of agreement. Not using his hands meant not using his hands. He wasn’t a fox who loved to use his hands anyway.

After lunch, Wu Yue quickly measured Bai Zhizhi’s body size, and Jiang Lin took him and Lin Xiaoyang out.

On the way, Lin Xiaoyang briefly explained the Zhou family matter.

The person involved in the incident was Zhou Yan, who suffered from severe insomnia and claimed a ghost was haunting him. His family had found Taoist priests, invited Buddhist monks, performed various exorcisms, and hung quite a few anti-evil items in the house, but none of it was useful. Zhou Yan’s condition didn’t improve at all and even got increasingly worse.

The Zhou family ran a freight company with business spread widely and many connections. They had long known of the existence of cultivators. When they discovered that despite using every method, Zhou Yan’s situation still couldn’t be resolved, they used their connections to find the Management Bureau’s channel and invited a cultivator, namely Lin Xiaoyan, to come to their door.

Unfortunately, even when Lin Xiaoyang went, he couldn’t see what the problem was.

After hearing them finish talking about the Zhou family matter, Bai Zhizhi’s point of greater curiosity was: “You also help ordinary people handle matters?”

In his world, there was a barrier between cultivators and ordinary people. For ordinary people, cultivators pursued longevity and had abilities reaching to the heavens, already comparable to immortals. Apart from the various major sects going out every so often to select good seedlings to take as disciples, ordinary people rarely saw cultivators.

Even if they did see one, they would be filled with fear and respect, how would they dare trouble a cultivator to solve their problems for them.

Jiang Lin said, “We are cultivators, but we are also ordinary people. We live here. Only when it is stable and peaceful here can we cultivate with peace of mind. Apart from responsibility and greater righteousness, even for daily necessities we cannot separate from ordinary people. Zhizhi, from the moment you came out of the cave dwelling, you will also live here in the future. You don’t need to take on those responsibilities, but don’t separate yourself either. Ordinary people, ability users, cultivators, demon cultivators, birds and beasts, every flower and tree, we are all part of this world.”

Bai Zhizhi didn’t make a sound and turned to look outside the car. The vehicle wasn’t moving fast, so he could clearly see the pedestrians outside, men and women, old and young, some walking hurriedly, some strolling leisurely. Whether they were prosperous or not, Bai Zhizhi couldn’t tell, but he could see they were stable, a kind of stability from a time of peace and prosperity. This was a world different from Qingqiu.

Since it wasn’t rush hour, the roads were relatively clear, and they arrived at the Zhou family in less than an hour.

The one who had the incident was the Zhou family’s son. The Zhou family had one son and one daughter. The eldest son was Zhou Yan, the younger daughter was Zhou Jing. The two were only two years apart in age, but they didn’t have the same mother.

Perhaps because it was taken for granted that the daughter had no company inheritance rights, the Zhou family’s family relations were quite harmonious. Although Zhou Yan’s stepmother would favor her own biological daughter, she had also done her utmost for this stepson and had never mistreated him.

Now that Zhou Yan had this kind of incident, the family was also trying all sorts of ways for him. Unfortunately, they had found many masters, but none could see what exactly was wrong with Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan’s father, Zhou Jiming, had been there in the morning. After hearing Lin Xiaoyang say he would come again in the evening, he went to the company and hadn’t returned yet. At home right now were only Zhou Yan’s stepmother, Lu Qinghe, as well as the medical team and bodyguards watching over Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan hadn’t been able to sleep properly for a very long time. His entire mental state was extremely poor. Long-term inability to sleep caused him to have mental breakdowns and aggressive tendencies, so bodyguards were necessary to watch over him. Otherwise, when he got agitated, he wouldn’t only harm others but also harm himself.

Lin Xiaoyang had already explained Zhou Yan’s situation once on the way there.

At first, Zhou Yan kept feeling someone was following him, not just during the day, but sometimes at night at home too he had a feeling of being watched, and then he started having insomnia.

At the start it was just insomnia, but every day he could still sleep a little, one or two hours. He couldn’t sleep a full sleep, because he would always wake up startled from dreams.

The long-term insomnia slowly developed into being unable to sleep for even a moment. He had been to the hospital, been prescribed all sorts of medications. Sleeping pills were completely ineffective on him. Even because of long-term inability to sleep causing his body’s various functions to decline, the hospital had also tried anesthesia-induced sleep.

But Zhou Yan said the anesthesia only made his body unable to move. He didn’t truly get rest. He was still conscious. He clearly knew he was in a dream, and then surrounded by nightmares, yet because of the medication he couldn’t wake up. That feeling of frantically struggling but being unable to wake up no matter what made him never dare to use anesthesia-induced sleep again.

A person who used to be one hundred sixty jin was now tortured down to just one hundred jin or so. If they couldn’t find the root of the problem and he kept going on like this, Zhou Yan probably wouldn’t survive much longer.

Knowing that the one who came was Lin Xiaoyang’s team captain, Lu Qinghe held hope yet also had pained anxiety as she said, “Mr. Jiang, what is causing A Yan to become like this isn’t the most important thing right now. What we want to know is, do you have any way to let A Yan sleep properly, to sleep without having nightmares.”

His biggest problem right now was being unable to sleep. If he didn’t sleep, let alone a few months, he probably wouldn’t even last a few days.

Jiang Lin said, “Let’s go up and take a look first.”

Bai Zhizhi, who was following behind, paused in his steps, twitched his nose, and frowned in disgust.

While going upstairs, Lin Xiaoyang said in a low voice, “Their house is pretty clean. I didn’t sense any yin energy abnormality. Brother Jiang, did you discover anything?”

Jiang Lin shook his head. He also hadn’t sensed any yin energy here. Whether it was a departed soul or an evil creature, they all relied on yin energy to exist. The Zhou family didn’t seem to have any dirty things.

Lin Xiaoyang asked Bai Zhizhi beside him, “Zhizhi, did you discover any abnormality?”

Bai Zhizhi was a fox demon. Demons were always more sensitive than humans, right?

Bai Zhizhi said, “What counts as an abnormality?”

Lin Xiaoyang: “…Forget I asked.”

The three of them arrived on the second floor. This side had entirely become a place serving Zhou Yan. There was a medical team, bodyguards, and even Zhou Jing, who originally lived on the second floor, had moved to the third floor to avoid disturbing Zhou Yan.

Lin Xiaoyang had seen Zhou Yan in the morning and was fairly familiar with his situation. Jiang Lin and Bai Zhizhi were seeing Zhou Yan for the first time. If Zhou Yan hadn’t still been able to sit up, able to open his eyes and speak, they would have thought this was a dried corpse or skeleton.

They hadn’t seen what Zhou Yan used to look like, but the current Zhou Yan didn’t look like someone who had just turned thirty at all. His entire body was shriveled, skin and bones, with sunken cheeks. The circles under his eyes and his lip color were dark black, and from inside to out he exuded an aura of death.

Bai Zhizhi had never seen a living person like this. When Zhou Yan looked over, he couldn’t help but hide behind Jiang Lin. This neither human nor ghost appearance wasn’t even as cute as the skeletons he had seen in books.

Jiang Lin noticed his movement and stepped in front of him to block him, comforting him, “Don’t be afraid.”

Bai Zhizhi muttered in a small voice, “I wasn’t afraid.”

It was just that this person was too ugly and a bit scary.

Jiang Lin smiled and didn’t refute him. He turned to survey the entire room. After looking around once, his gaze landed back on Zhou Yan’s body. “What examinations has he had?”

Lu Qinghe, who was following behind, hurriedly took out a medical record book from the side. “All the hospital examination records are here. His entire body, from head to toe, everything that could be checked was checked once.”

They weren’t superstitious people to begin with. When Zhou Yan first said someone was staring at him, they didn’t think about any departed souls. They only thought whether Zhou Yan was under too much work pressure. Later when he had insomnia, they increasingly felt it should be anxiety caused by work pressure.

So they checked internal medicine, surgery, neurology, and even specifically did a toxicology test to see if he had been set up by someone outside, but they didn’t find any problems. Watching his condition continuously worsen, they only then tried the metaphysics approach.

Even when trying metaphysics, they didn’t give up on scientific treatment. Otherwise they wouldn’t have invited a professional medical team to stay here.

Jiang Lin said, “Your house is very clean, including on his body. There is no yin energy attached, nor any residue of departed soul aura. Looking at your family’s energy field and feng shui along the way, there are no problems.”

Lu Qinghe couldn’t help but say, “The masters invited before also said this, but if the person is fine, how could he suddenly become like this.”

Jiang Lin looked at Zhou Yan. “You said as long as you fall asleep you have nightmares. What kind of nightmares, do you still remember?”

Zhou Yan was too weak right now. He spoke with no energy, but still tried hard to speak. “All sorts of strange dreams. There were monsters chasing me from behind, someone stabbing me with a knife, and me being tied up, being sliced piece by piece by someone. Some I can’t remember clearly. What I can remember is that every time I couldn’t escape, every time I was caught.”

Jiang Lin said, “In the dreams, did you die every time?”

Zhou Yan thought about it and shook his head. “I don’t know. It seems every time I struggled awake. I don’t know if I died in the dreams or not.”

But every time he was hunted down, those monsters, those killers with faces he couldn’t see clearly, that despair of frantically fleeing but finding no exit, even after waking up it made him shake with fear.

Jiang Lin said, “Does your family have ancestral graves?”

Lu Qinghe shook her head. “No. Only a cemetery. Everything is cremated into ashes and buried. The cemetery was also looked at by the masters we invited before, and they didn’t discover any problems.”

Their family didn’t have a private cemetery either. It was a national public cemetery. At most they just selected a better, more impressive place for burial. It probably shouldn’t be a feng shui problem with the grave.

Jiang Lin said, “Since we can’t see the reason, we can only wait until you fall asleep to take a look.”

Zhou Yan had gotten dizzy from fatigue just from sitting and talking for a while. Hearing this, he smiled bitterly. “But I simply can’t sleep at all.”

He really wanted to sleep. He was exhausted to the point where it seemed like closing his eyes would let him sleep completely, but he just couldn’t sleep. No matter how tired his body was, it couldn’t resist his mental excitement. Before he could still force himself to stay awake, but now almost every moment he wished he could just bash his head and die.

Jiang Lin said, “It’s fine. I have a way to make you sleep. Eat something and rest first. We’ll talk again after nightfall.”

They didn’t stay long in the room. Jiang Lin took Lin Xiaoyang and Bai Zhizhi downstairs. Lu Qinghe hurriedly had the servants prepare some food and drinks to entertain them.

Lin Xiaoyang asked curiously, “Brother Jiang, what is his situation?”

Jiang Lin shook his head. “I don’t know. Can’t tell for now. We’ll try again later.”

The servants brought up several plates of freshly baked little pastries, soft little cakes, crispy cookies, steam rising, filling the entire space with a sweet fragrance.

Bai Zhizhi slightly twitched his nose and sniffed. The sweet fragrance smelled comfortable, much better than the fishy smell in the room upstairs.

Author’s Note:

A brief introduction to this novel’s situation. The main storyline is more or less about the path to making the country strong, and there will be episodic supernatural small events happening. It’s a long novel. Exactly how long is currently unknown. Everything depends on inspiration.