73 Going Up the Mountain

Seeing that Lai Jinniang had knelt down, Zhou Xiaoli nodded, but she was not satisfied. Instead, her gaze fell on Zhou Guihua.

“What about her? If she doesn’t apologize, how can I help you?”

Zhou Guihua was lawless at home since she had Lai Jinniang’s love and often bullied their family.

When Zhou Guihua heard this, she immediately exploded. “Don’t even think about it!”

Zhou Xiaoli ignored her and looked at Lai Jinniang, waiting for her to deal with it.

Sure enough, for the sake of the entire family, Lai Jinniang took a deep breath and shouted at Zhou Guihua, “Come here, kneel down and apologize.”

“No, I don’t want to kneel! Mother, are you stupid? It’s obvious that they’re making things difficult for us deliberately!” Zhou Guihua widened her eyes in disbelief and stomped her feet in anger.

Lai Jinniang didn’t have the heart to make Zhou Guihua kneel, but for the sake of her family, she screamed ruthlessly. “Be good. Now that your eldest brother, second brother, and nephew have gotten into trouble one after another, do you really want to see our family destroyed?”

Finally, under Lai Jinniang’s persuasion, Zhou Guihua was dragged back and reluctantly knelt in front of Zhou Xiaoli.

She said perfunctorily, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

Zhou Xiaoli raised his eyebrows and said coldly, “I can’t hear you.”

Zhou Guihua gritted her teeth and glared at Zhou Xiaoli. She shouted, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

Zhou Xiaoli pursed her lips. “Insincere.”

Then, she sighed. “Forget it. As long as you pay me back the 50 copper coins you owe me, along with the interest, I’ll forgive you.”

“Let me calculate. With interest, I’ll count you as 70 copper coins.”

Hearing her request, Zhou Guihua immediately leaped up and stomped her feet in anger. “What 50 copper coins? 100 copper coins? Zhou Xiaoli, don’t go too far!”

Zhou Xiaoli sighed, “It seems that some people have forgotten. Let me help you recall.”

“That day, when you chased our entire family out of the house, you didn’t give us anything. You only gave us a few dried taros and left us to fend for ourselves.”

“Fortunately, my father saved up 50 copper coins from doing manual labor. However, didn’t you snatch the 50 copper coins away when we left the Old Zhou family?”

Zhou Xiaoli explained the sequence of events word by word.

The surrounding people could not help but sigh.

“Madam Lai is really something. I always thought that Zhou Yu had split up from the family, but it turns out that he was chased out!”

“Not giving him anything? Isn’t it obvious that she wants to starve Zhou Yu’s family to death? All these years, to say that the Old Zhou family is benevolent and treats their adopted son as their own, it’s just a lie.”

“Pfft! They are pure evil. To think of snatching away even the last bit of money that the family could rely on. They are forcing him to death. They’re too vicious. How can there be such a family in our Boyu Village!”

“That’s right, that’s right. We should chase them out of Boyu Village!”

…

The surrounding villagers were filled with righteous indignation, as if they wanted to expel Lai Jinniang and her family from the village.

Seeing this, Lai Jinniang glared at Zhou Guihua and quickly apologized to Zhou Xiaoli. “I didn’t know that the child did this. When I get back, I’ll definitely discipline her. I’ll return the money to you immediately.”

As she spoke, she searched around and finally found 36 copper coins.

Seeing that it was not enough, Lai Jinniang asked Zhou Guihua to take out her money too.

Zhou Guihua was naturally unwilling to do so, but she couldn’t dissuade Lai Jinniang. In the end, with Zhou Guihua’s cries, Lai Jinniang gathered enough money.

“Here, I’ll return the money to you. Help us resolve our bad luck.”

Zhou Xiaoli took the money, but she was not in a hurry. Instead, she slowly counted the copper coins.

She spoke under the other party’s anxious gaze after counting the money.

“Actually, it’s very simple to resolve the misfortune. We need to worship the pearl in my house for 49 days. At the same time, you have to do the ritual of kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times all the way from my doorstep to your doorstep. You also have to do this ritual three times. Only if you are sincere in apologizing to the Dragon King can your misfortune be resolved.”

Hearing this method, Lai Jinniang frowned in disbelief. “Really? Can it be resolved like this?”

Zhou Xiaoli shrugged. “Believe it or not, it’s not my family that’s going to suffer.”

“Alright! We’ll kneel!”

Lai Jinniang gritted her teeth. For the safety of the entire family, she pulled the crying Zhou Guihua along and kowtowed three times.

Zhou Xiaoli stroked the round pearl in her hand and smiled.

At this moment, Little Wolf suddenly rushed out of the courtyard with Zhou Xiaoyu chasing after him. “Little Wolf, don’t run. Wait for me.”

The wolf pup had already grown up quite a bit. As it often ran up the mountain to look for prey, it was very agile. Now that it suddenly rushed out of the house, Zhou Xiaoyu could not catch up with its speed.

After the wolf cub rushed out, it didn’t run far. Instead, it rushed straight to Lai Jinniang and Zhou Guihua, stood in front of them, and bared its teeth at them.

Lai Jinniang and Lai Jinniang stood still. They had heard that being bitten by a wild wolf could cause rabid dog disease.

Just as everyone thought that the wolf cub was going to bite them, it suddenly leaned closer to them. After circling around, it raised its leg and peed on their legs.

It swaggered home after peeing.

Everyone was speechless.

Zhou Xiaoyu blinked and grabbed Zhou Xiaoli’s hand. “Sister, I was feeding the wolf cub meat when it suddenly ran out.”

Zhou Xiaoli covered her mouth and laughed. Then, she made up a story and said, “This should be the Dragon King testing their sincerity in making amends. He specially sent the little wolf to test the two of them.”

Although the fabrication was ridiculous, many people believed in it.

Therefore, Lai Jinniang and her daughter began to do the ritual of kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times all the way home with urine on them.

Along the way, many villagers were attracted to watch them in action.

Zhou Xiaoli could not be bothered to look at them anymore. She held Zhang Lan’s arm and returned home.

After lunch, Zhou Xiaoli informed Zhang Lan and Zhou Yu before heading up the mountain.

Qingyuan Mountain was a mountain range that stretched endlessly. The mountain was lush and had excellent scenery.

When she reached the foot of the mountain, Zhou Xiaoli took out the compass and calculated all the way up the mountain.

There were many places with good Feng Shui on Qingyuan Mountain.

After excluding those that were unsuitable for living and considering Yuan Zhengchun’s legs, Zhou Xiaoli finally pinpointed a location.

It was located halfway up the slope of Mount Qingyuan and had beautiful scenery.

When she arrived, she could see a simple courtyard from afar.

If an ordinary person saw this, they would think that this was an ordinary small courtyard of a farmer. There might be a woodcutter or hunter living here.

However, what Zhou Xiaoli saw was a completely different scene.

Although the small courtyard was simple and crude, the spiritual energy floating above was very abundant and did not dissipate for a long time.

Living here would definitely purify one’s body and mind. It could be said to be a place with good Feng Shui.

Putting away her compass, Zhou Xiaoli strode over.

The gate of the courtyard was wide open. When Zhou Xiaoli walked to the gate, she could clearly see what’s happening in the courtyard.

The courtyard was very clean. There was an osmanthus tree planted in the courtyard. At this moment, there were light yellow flowers blooming on it. Whenever the wind below, the fragrance of the flowers wafted over.

The main door of the courtyard was wide open, and Yuan Zhengchun was properly dressed and waiting for Zhou Xiaoli at the front hall seats.