40: Chapter 40 A Generous Gift Arrives

In the evening, Taiping Old Street was shrouded in a layer of orange-red warm sunset glow.

This old street was usually desolate and gloomy, and even the scrap collectors' carts found the bluestone slab road here too bumpy for their feet.

This evening, however, the narrow alley entrance was tightly blocked by a full three pitch-black Mercedes-Maybachs bearing consecutive license plate numbers.

Neighborhood residents poked their heads out from behind their rusty security doors, pointing and gossiping at this luxury motorcade that they had only ever seen on television.

"Yo, isn't that old Lin's boy? Ever since his grandfather passed away, this shop has almost collapsed, how did it suddenly attract so many big Mercedes?"

Inside the second-floor window opposite, Auntie Chen, who had run a grocery store for thirty years, bit on half a cigarette and shouted to Old Liu, the shoemaker next door.

Old Liu pushed up the reading glasses that had slid to the tip of his nose, lowered his voice, and replied:

"Haven't you heard? Last night over at West Mountain, there was thunder and lightning again. My son-in-law works at the Song family's construction site and said he saw with his own eyes a ball of fire rush out from the ancestral grave! This Lin boy is probably truly inheriting a few tricks from Old Lin."

Auntie Chen took a fierce drag of her cigarette, narrowing her eyes skeptically.

Just as she was about to say something else, her gaze suddenly swept over to Leng Yue and Frost Star walking out of the Funeral Shop, and the cigarette butt in her hand instantly dropped onto the windowsill.

"Good heavens... those two girls, why do they look like they walked right out of a painting? Has the Lin family boy opened a ghost marriage matchmaking agency?"

"Shh! Keep it down! Didn't you see those bodyguards carrying walkie-talkies? We can't afford to mess with them."

...

Lin Ye pushed the rolling shutter door completely into the top slot with one hand, leading his two zombie wives out from the dim shop.

Leng Yue was still draped in that oversized black trench coat.

She wore a pair of huge sunglasses, hiding most of her earth-shaking beauty.

That chilling aura of no strangers allowed forcefully repelled the hot wind within a radius of several meters around her.

Frost Star had changed into a brand-new black Lolita dress, with an exquisite bat hairpin pinned to the top of her head.

The little girl held half an unfinished lollipop in her hand, her heterochromatic eyes curiously sizing up those reflective steel beasts outside the door.

Seeing Lin Ye appear, the door of the Maybach in the middle sprang open in response.

A lean, gray-haired old man wearing an exquisite swallow-tailed tuxedo walked up quickly.

The old man's posture was straight, and every gesture exuded the rigorous rules accumulated by a century-old noble family.

He stopped one meter in front of Lin Ye, folded his hands over his lower abdomen, and bowed deeply.

"Master Lin, this old man is Song Fu, serving as the steward of the Song family's inner courtyard. Ordered by the Patriarch, I have specially come to present a meager token of gratitude to Master, to express the life-saving grace of the entire Song family."

Old Steward Song Fu's voice was loud and full of vigor.

As his voice fell, the doors of the two cars behind opened in unison.

Six bodyguards in black suits got out of the car well-trained, two by two, carefully carrying out several mahogany boxes tied with red silk from the trunks.

Fatty Wang watched from the side, swallowing hard, and leaned into Lin Ye's ear to murmur:

"Yezi, this Song family does things generously! Judging by this posture, could those things inside be piles of gold bars?"

Lin Ye gave him a side-eye, his gaze falling on a gold-stamped gift list handed over by Song Fu.

Song Fu smiled and unfolded the gift list, reading aloud in clear and standard diction:

"Item one, a Siemens top-tier double-door smart constant-temperature preservation cabinet. Hearing that Master needs to store precious medicinal herbs, the Patriarch specially ordered people to airlift it from overseas."

Hearing the three words 'preservation cabinet', Frost Star, who originally had no interest in these mundane courtesies, instantly lit up with two clusters of faint blue light in her eyes.

She threw away the lollipop stick in her hand, cheered, and threw herself directly in front of the huge cardboard box that was fully two meters tall that the bodyguards had just carried down, reaching out her fair, tender little hands to stroke it everywhere, a drop of eager saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"Such a big ice coffin! This way Frost Star won't hit her head even if she rolls around inside!"

The little girl's exclamation made the surrounding bodyguards shiver in unison.

The muscles on Song Fu's face twitched twice, acting as if he hadn't heard this weird title, and continued reading:

"Item two, a pair of two-century-old wild purple ganoderma lucidum from Changbai Mountain, and ten jin of top-grade water-ground cinnabar. The Patriarch knows deeply that Master is proficient in Taoist arts, and these worldly objects are merely for Master's daily practice."

Lin Ye's heart stirred slightly.

A two-century-old purple ganoderma lucidum—such aged medicine that seizes the creation of heaven and earth was simply priceless on the market, impossible to buy even with money.

Patriarch Song Zhenguo, that old fox, truly lived up to being Jiangzhou's richest man, figuring out his needs completely.

After all, when it came to giving gifts, giving something well-timed was better than giving something expensive.

"Item three..."

Song Fu paused for a moment, took out a small carved red sandalwood box from his embrace, and presented it with both hands.

"This is a piece of pitch-black, uncarved millennium-old lightning-struck sunken wood pith. Its nature is extremely Yin and cold, and ordinary people will be harmed just by touching it. Presumably, only a high person like Master can subdue it."

As soon as this item came out, Leng Yue, who had been silent all along, slightly turned her head.

Beneath her sunglasses, those dark red eyes locked tightly onto the red sandalwood box.

Her slender jade fingers gently curled inside her trench coat pocket.

As a Red Hou, she had a nearly paranoid craving for this kind of extreme Yin-attributed spiritual object of heaven and earth.

If this piece of sunken wood pith could be carved into a wooden hairpin to wear in her hair, it could not only nourish her soul and spirit, but also constantly suppress the restless Red Lotus Karmic Fire inside her body.

Lin Ye keenly captured the fluctuation of Leng Yue's emotions.

He knew that what the Song family was sending was not a token of gratitude at all, but clearly a favor debt that one simply couldn't refuse.

A faint light flickered across his retinas, and the system's prompt tone crisp rang in his mind.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System prompt: Facing the sugar-coated bullets carefully prepared by Jiangzhou's richest man, please host rectify your attitude within three minutes and make a decision with the demeanor of a high person!"

[Option A: Panic and decline — Wave hands repeatedly and shout "No way, no way, this is too precious", returning the items along the original path.]

[Reward: Obtain the Untainted Cleanliness title. Consequence: Leng Yue will stare at you with the gaze of looking at an idiot for three days, and Frost Star will chew up your pillow in the middle of the night because she lost the big refrigerator.]

[Option B: Accept everything and demand more — Snatch the wooden box with a greedy face, and question the steward "Are you trying to dismiss beggars with just these few things?"]

[Reward: Face thickness + 100. Consequence: Completely lose the awe of the Song family, and The Ninth Bureau secret agents will mark you as a greedy and dangerous element.]

[Option C: Reciprocal courtesy, cause and effect cleared — Calmly accept the generous gift, and publicly return self-drawn talismans as a gift, demonstrating the demeanor and foundation of a Xuanmen high person.]

[Reward: Husband points + 200, Song family loyalty permanently solidified, obtain Xuan-tier talisman-making material pack.]

This was yet another a no-brainer giveaway question.

"I choose C."

Lin Ye's thought settled, and his casually standing posture suddenly straightened quite a bit.

He didn't reach out to take the gift list, but instead calmly took the red sandalwood box.

"Old Mr. Song is thoughtful. These objects happen to solve my urgent need, so I will brazenly accept them."

Lin Ye's voice was plain, carrying not a trace of flustered subservience.

He reached his hand back into his tactical backpack and pulled out three yellow paper talismans folded into triangles with red strings.

These were the "peaceful protective talismans" he drew last night using pure Yang blood mixed with cinnabar.

Lin Ye handed the three talismans to the old steward Song Fu.

"People of the Xuanmen pay the most attention to clearing cause and effect. The Song family sent me spiritual herbs and precious materials, so I will return three protective talismans. Wearing this talisman close to the body can block three fatal evil miasmas."

Lin Ye's tone exuded a confidence that looked down upon all peers.

"Pass the word to Old Song, if the Song family encounters evil spirits again in the future, you can use this talisman to look for me at Taiping Old Street."

Song Fu was well-traveled and knowledgeable, deeply knowing how heavy as a thousand jun these three seemingly inconspicuous yellow papers were.

This was equivalent to adding three extra lives to the Song family's core members!

The old steward's hands trembled with excitement, and he solemnly took the talismans, bowing deeply all the way down:

"Master's high righteousness! This old man will definitely convey Master's words word for word to the Patriarch!"

As the handover was completed, the bodyguards nimbly moved the several mahogany boxes and the huge smart refrigerator into the first-floor hall of the Funeral Shop.

Fatty Wang was beaming from ear to ear on the side, taking the initiative to step forward and direct the bodyguards on how to place the items...