Chapter 8: Gold

“Mr. Shen, I’m sorry to disturb your rest so late,” Jiang Wenxin said as soon as she arrived, immediately apologizing to Shen Siyuan once again.

“It’s alright,” Shen Siyuan replied, reaching out to pat the small head of Dou Dou beside him. Instantly, a faint ethereal blue light blossomed from Dou Dou’s form.

Tao Guangxia, who had been silently observing Shen Siyuan from the side, suddenly widened his eyes in astonishment. He called out, “Dou Dou!” and bent forward to embrace her—but his arms grasped only empty air, as if Dou Dou had never been there.

Reacting quickly, Tao Guangxia looked up at Shen Siyuan, disbelief etched across his face as he asked, “Is… is my daughter’s spirit really here?”

It was clear that he hadn’t truly believed his wife Jiang Wenxin’s words before. Out of love and concern, he agreed to come along, though he suspected it might be a trick. He hadn’t even stopped his wife from taking some “compensation” from home, secretly pleased, thinking that if the other party dared to accept it, he would report it to the police—the sum was large enough to land them in serious trouble.

That was why he had remained silent until now, never speaking a word, but he never expected that he would actually see his daughter’s spirit.

He wished it were just a hallucination, yet somehow, he hoped it wasn’t.

“This is Dou Dou’s father…” Jiang Wenxin spoke tactfully, not introducing him as her husband but as Dou Dou’s father, because Shen Siyuan had expressed great fondness for Dou Dou before—this was meant to win Shen Siyuan’s favor at first impression.

“Mr. Shen, hello. I’m Tao Guangxia,” Tao Guangxia stood up and introduced himself, his expression slightly emotional. Even as he spoke, his eyes kept darting toward Shen Siyuan’s right leg—the very spot where Dou Dou was standing.

Dou Dou, thinking her father could finally see her, excitedly waved her small hands.

“Mr. Shen, we came in such a hurry and didn’t prepare anything, but please accept this as our token of thanks,” Jiang Wenxin said hurriedly, pulling a red square brocade box from her bag and handing it to Shen Siyuan.

“What’s this?” Shen Siyuan asked, surprised. Without much thought, he took the box.

“This is something I bought before. It’s a bit ordinary, but it’s all we have that’s presentable,” Tao Guangxia explained from the side.

Shen Siyuan opened the box and froze.

Inside were four gold bars—investment-grade gold, each marked with its weight: one hundred grams apiece. Calculating at five hundred yuan per gram, these four bars were worth two hundred thousand yuan.

“This is far too valuable. I can’t accept this,” Shen Siyuan said.

He was tempted, but he handed the box back. His help for Dou Dou was out of compassion, not for reward.

“Mr. Shen, Dou Dou will need your care going forward. If you don’t accept this, we’ll feel uneasy,” Tao Guangxia said persuasively, with Jiang Wenxin nodding repeatedly.

After a moment’s hesitation, Shen Siyuan took one bar and returned the other three.

“One bar is enough,” he said.

Everyone has desires, especially someone like Shen Siyuan, who was in need of money, but a gentleman loves wealth with integrity. One gold bar was sufficient; taking more would be greed.

The couple wanted to refuse again, but Shen Siyuan’s face darkened and his voice deepened: “Take it back.”

The two shivered, their hair standing on end, unable to utter a word. They silently took back the brocade box.

Relieved, Shen Siyuan exhaled deeply. He knew the couple likely weren’t short of money—just the watch on Tao Guangxia’s wrist was worth several times more than those four gold bars.

He simply wanted to help Dou Dou, purely from beginning to end.

If he wanted money, he had plenty of ways to get it.

“Then we’ll invite you to dinner tomorrow,” Jiang Wenxin said.

“You should spend more time with Dou Dou,” Shen Siyuan replied.

He moved his thoughts, and the Ten-Thousand Souls Banner appeared in his palm. Forming hand seals, a streak of faint blue light shot into Tao Guangxia’s forehead.

Tao Guangxia felt a slight chill in his brow. Instinctively, he raised his hand to touch it, but before he could, he noticed Dou Dou waving her tiny hands nearby.

“Dou Dou…”

Overjoyed, Tao Guangxia ignored everything else and crouched down again, pulling Dou Dou into his arms.

“Daddy, can you see me now?” Dou Dou pouted, both happy and a little hurt.

“My darling… Daddy… Daddy…” Overcome with emotion, Tao Guangxia choked up, speechless.

“Go home and talk slowly. You probably have one day,” Shen Siyuan said, unable to bear witnessing this any longer.

“Mr. Shen, do you mean… Dou Dou only has one day left?” Jiang Wenxin’s voice trembled with panic.

Tao Guangxia had no time to grieve; he hurriedly held Dou Dou, anxiously looking at Shen Siyuan.

“It’s not that Dou Dou has one day left. It’s that you have only one day to see her.”

The reason they could see Dou Dou was because Shen Siyuan had infused a sliver of the Ten-Thousand Souls Banner’s spectral energy into them.

But this spectral energy, once separated from the banner, was like a rootless duckweed—it would dissipate completely within a day, after which Dou Dou would vanish from their sight again.

“Then… is it possible to—”

Tao Guangxia started to speak but was cut off by Shen Siyuan.

“No. The paths of the living and the dead are different. Allowing you to see Dou Dou and briefly reunite is already the limit. To keep it longer would do you no good…”

Shen Siyuan’s ability to let them see and communicate with Dou Dou was dependent on the spectral energy of the banner, which was no good for ordinary people.

Seeing Shen Siyuan’s solemn expression, the couple dared not speak further.

“Take Dou Dou home,” Shen Siyuan said again.

The couple exchanged a glance and could only carry Dou Dou and leave reluctantly.

As Tao Guangxia turned with Dou Dou in his arms, he noticed Old Lu standing not far off.

He was startled, suddenly recalling that what his wife said on the way wasn’t false.

Indeed, there was a ghost trailing behind them all along.

But thinking of Shen Siyuan’s presence, his heart calmed. He only gave Old Lu a long look before continuing out of the neighborhood with Dou Dou.

“Goodbye, Guoguo,” Dou Dou, held in her father’s arms, happily waved at Shen Siyuan.

Shen Siyuan smiled and waved back.

Once they were out of sight, he immediately suppressed his smile and turned to the cautiously approaching Old Lu.

Looking at the large, thumb-sized growths all over Old Lu’s face, Shen Siyuan fought back unease and asked gravely, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll take you in?”