Chapter 17: The Green Hat (Request for Votes)

“Sweet Potato Dumpling~”

Dou Dou rubbed her eyes and appeared before Shen Siyuan.

She spent most of her time asleep within the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which was also a way to nurture the soul.

The strength of a soul is tied to its life before death and does not change afterward. However, ghosts bound to the Ten Thousand Souls Banner break this rule—not only can their souls be strengthened, but with the right cultivation methods, they can even practice.

The Lord of the Nine Nether Demons, being the progenitor of ghost taming, naturally possesses ghost cultivation techniques.

Unfortunately, Dou Dou was too young, making it troublesome to teach her cultivation. Shen Siyuan decided to hold off for now and see if a suitable “candidate” would appear later.

After these days of sleep, Dou Dou no longer looked like a blue elf, radiating a blue ethereal glow all over her body, though her hair still burned like flames.

“How do you feel?”

Shen Siyuan reached out to touch her hair, which resembled blue flames.

Although the Nether Flame could burn a soul, these flames came from the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. As the banner’s master, Shen Siyuan was naturally unharmed by them. These flames, though seemingly burning, did not scorch but instead carried a faint coolness.

“Very comfortable,” Dou Dou stretched lazily. Since death, she had never felt so at ease.

It was like waking up from a deep, restful sleep, full of energy.

“That’s good. You can wander around nearby, but don’t go too far.”

“Okay~”

Dou Dou responded cheerfully and immediately harnessed a gust of dark wind to fly out the window. She had long wanted to play in the sky.

Shen Siyuan walked to the window and glanced down, seeing Old Lu still pacing below.

Having let him wait several days, it was time to make contact and test his suspicions.

He stepped out and headed downstairs.

Just as he entered the elevator, Dou Dou suddenly appeared from somewhere.

“Sweet Potato Dumpling~ Where are my dad and mom?”

She asked pitifully.

“They’re naturally at home.”

“Oh~”

Dou Dou looked a little disappointed.

It seemed he needed to find her a companion quickly; otherwise, the little one would keep thinking about her parents all day.

In the past few days, Jiang Wenxin and her husband had asked him dozens of times about Dou Dou’s condition, especially Jiang Wenxin, who was unusually enthusiastic, always bringing snacks or fruit.

This led several colleagues in the office to jokingly conclude that he had hooked up with a wealthy woman.

“Tomorrow, you’ll get to see your mom,” Shen Siyuan comforted after some thought.

“Okay, thank you, Sweet Potato Dumpling~”

The little one brightened immediately, then transformed into a gust of dark wind and vanished.

Shen Siyuan suspected that if she weren’t unfamiliar with the way, she might have flown straight home.

As he exited the stairwell, Old Lu nodded to him from afar but didn’t step forward. Yet when he saw Shen Siyuan approaching, his expression grew excited, and he hurried over.

“Mr. Shen…”

He knew his wait hadn’t been in vain; Mr. Shen was finally willing to communicate.

At that moment, a gust of dark wind swept by, and Dou Dou appeared between them.

“Grandpa Lu.”

Seeing a familiar face, Dou Dou waved excitedly.

Old Lu, however, was so frightened that he took several steps back. Dou Dou gave him an unsettling feeling; before she even approached, he felt a sharp sting in his soul.

Seeing Grandpa Lu’s reaction, Dou Dou was a bit confused and saddened.

“All right, you go play. I’ll talk with Grandpa Lu,” Shen Siyuan said, patting her little head.

“Oh~”

Dou Dou obediently transformed into a gust of dark wind and soared away, vanishing from sight.

Old Lu looked up at the sky, knowing Dou Dou’s transformation was surely related to Shen Siyuan. His reverence deepened.

“Tell me about your situation. Is there a lingering wish you cannot let go of?”

“All right, Mr. Shen.”

Then Old Lu began to recount his story.

His full name was Lu Guanchang, a native of Binhai. In his youth, he worked at the Binhai Handheld Tractor Factory—a secure job at the time. He married a woman named Yang Lianxiang, who was not highly educated but very beautiful.

That period was the most comfortable time of Lu Guanchang’s life. But good times never last forever. The tides of history rolled on; no job was truly secure. The tractor factory eventually closed, and workers were laid off, including Lu Guanchang.

Through a friend’s introduction, he joined a shipping company as a seaman. Binhai, as a port city, had enormous cargo throughput, with countless ships traveling worldwide.

As a seaman traveling globally, Lu Guanchang’s horizons broadened. Coupled with long separations from his wife and exposure to temptations abroad, he grew increasingly dissatisfied with his home life.

Soon, the couple divorced. By then, they had a daughter, but Lu Guanchang’s heart had strayed; he felt no attachment and left his wife to raise their child alone.

As he aged, he settled down, stopped traveling on ships, remarried, and had a son, living a stable life.

“So you feel guilty toward your ex-wife, which is why you linger in the mortal world?”

Lu Guanchang sighed deeply and then revealed something that left Shen Siyuan astonished.

“After I died, I realized the son I had raised for so many years wasn’t my biological child. I had devoted my heart and soul to them both all these years…”

Lu Guanchang grew angrier as he spoke, his flesh twitching grotesquely, his face more hideous.

“What happened?” Shen Siyuan asked curiously, secretly amused—perhaps this was karmic retribution.

“What else could it be? That wife of mine cheated on me. Not long after I died, she brought her damn cousin back. The son I raised all these years never even cared for me…”

It turned out that Lu Guanchang’s second wife had a cousin who was close to the family and frequently visited. Lu Guanchang thought he was just a relative, but the man was actually her lover from her youth.

Since they were from out of town and had few relatives in Binhai besides those two, Lu Guanchang never suspected their relationship.

“Didn’t you notice your son wasn’t really yours?”

“Ah~” Lu Guanchang sighed.

“The son resembles his uncle—well, a cousin uncle,” he explained.

Because of that familial connection, Lu Guanchang never doubted it. But it turned out his son was truly the “uncle’s” child.

“My old cousin… my wife’s lover… was married young but divorced due to incompatibility. Now I understand why. He had no children, and once I died, he moved into my house, taking over. Such wickedness…”

At this point, Lu Guanchang’s hatred was uncontrollable.

“I was foolish—raising someone else’s son all these years, working tirelessly, only to benefit an outsider. My true son suffered hardships elsewhere. How can I accept this?”

After hearing the whole story, Shen Siyuan felt no sympathy—only a bit of amusement. Truly deserved.

You reap what you sow.

Nevertheless, Shen Siyuan decided to help—for the sake of the poor mother and daughter, and to test his own intuition.