Chapter 39: The Second Trial

Hearing Li Yaoyao’s promise, Yang Haiyan took a deep breath and said, "I was having a meal with the village chief and the others last time, and the chief mentioned that your family possesses a mystical art called the Three Suns Mysterious Needles?"

"Huh? What about it?" A sense of foreboding flickered in Li Yaoyao’s heart.

Yang Haiyan said, "I heard that your father used this technique years ago to bring a dead person back to life. Sister, I’m begging you—could you please save my husband and bring him back too?" As she spoke, she collapsed onto her knees!

"Oh, Sister Haiyan! How can a dead person be brought back to life?" Li Yaoyao stood up in a flurry, trying to help her up.

"I’m begging you! I truly don’t want Erdan to leave me!" Yang Haiyan’s hair was disheveled, her weeping miserable, and Li Yaoyao was thrown into a panic. Bringing the dead back to life—who could believe such a thing? It was only because Sister Haiyan was at her absolute wit’s end that she would treat such a rumor as a straw to grasp at.

"Please, my in-laws are coming back tomorrow. What am I supposed to do then?"

Seeing Yang Haiyan driven to a dead end, Li Yaoyao suddenly remembered she was planning to return to the provincial capital and quickly said, "Sister Haiyan, why don’t I take you all to the provincial capital with me?"

"What?" Yang Haiyan stopped crying and looked at Li Yaoyao. "You’re taking us to the provincial capital? To find your father? Have you agreed to resurrect my husband?"

Li Yaoyao felt both amused and exasperated. "I’m thinking of taking you there to hide for a while. Let me be clear: my father really cannot resurrect the dead! Forget my dad—no one in the entire country can!"

Listening to Li Yaoyao, Yang Haiyan was stunned for a moment before letting out a sigh, her eyes clearing slightly. "Thank you, educated youth Li!" She seemed to have come to her senses, standing up and brushing the dust off her clothes. "I... I will serve you like a beast of burden for the rest of my life to repay—"

Li Yaoyao quickly waved her hands to silence her. "Sister Haiyan! What are you saying? I’m just helping you because I know Erdan can’t leave his mother!" As she spoke, she began to pack her things. "Go home and pack up quickly! We leave tomorrow!"

"Oh! Okay!" Yang Haiyan wiped away her tears, smoothed her disheveled hair, and hurried away from Li Yaoyao’s house.

Li Yaoyao felt quite happy; she thought that having Yang Haiyan along would make for good company on the way to the provincial capital. After packing, she went to the village chief to say she was returning to the capital and would be back after a while. Though the village chief felt a tinge of reluctance, he didn’t try to keep her. Li Yaoyao had been in the village for a long time, and it was so poor that he had long felt in his heart that this place could not hold her forever—even though she promised she would return.

In the afternoon, as Li Yaoyao was staring blankly at her trunk, the lock began to shimmer. Ye Fan had sent a message! Li Yaoyao happily opened the trunk and immediately initiated a video call. "Yaoyao!"

Ye Fan’s familiar face appeared on the screen. "Are you busy today? I have a dinner engagement tonight, so I wanted to let you know in advance."

Li Yaoyao replied, "Go ahead! Actually, I have something I want to tell you!"

"What is it?"

"I’m planning to go back to my home in the provincial capital!" Li Yaoyao didn’t mention showing the trunk to her grandfather, using Yang Haiyan’s predicament as an excuse instead. "Sister Haiyan is so pitiful; I thought I would just take them away from Yang Family Village to hide for a while."

Ye Fan pondered this for a moment and said, "That’s fine. Besides, I have an idea: you could rent a storefront in the capital!"

"Rent a shop? What for?" Li Yaoyao asked curiously.

"The market in the capital is definitely not something Yang Family Village can compare to. I want to sell some clothes there and maybe exchange them for some valuable antiques!" Ye Fan had thought of this long ago; after all, the village was too isolated. If Li Yaoyao hadn’t insisted on staying there for poverty alleviation, he would have had her return long ago.

"But I still have to come back!" As expected, Li Yaoyao was unwilling to stay in the capital; her ambition was to help the villagers become wealthy.

"That won’t interfere!" Ye Fan said with a smile. "I can transport more goods over, let Sister Haiyan sell them there, and you can come back once they’re sold!"

Li Yaoyao thought it over and decided it was feasible, so she didn’t argue. She saw Ye Fan glancing toward the window for a moment and asked curiously, "What are you looking at?"

"I’m checking to see if my boss is back!" Chen Shuting had to go to the Lin family's place that afternoon to handle the handover, so he had simply taken the time off to video chat with Li Yaoyao. "That Huang Dalei came to the antique shop this morning to apologize to Sister Chen, and he said he wanted to make amends by hosting a dinner tonight."

"Oh, so that’s it!" Li Yaoyao knew about the situation with Huang Dalei and couldn’t help but worry. "He’s not going to pull any tricks, is he?"

"I don’t think so!" Ye Fan pondered for a moment. "Ever since I started practicing the Three Suns Mysterious Needles, my body has become much stronger. The results are instantaneous; I feel terrifyingly strong now—I could take on ten people!" He laughed as he spoke. Although the technique Li Yaoyao gave him was for medicine, its effects on strengthening the body were truly extraordinary.

"That’s because you had a good foundation; the Three Suns Mysterious Needles just cleared your meridians, allowing your potential to be realized!" Li Yaoyao’s eyes crinkled into crescents, and the more she looked at Ye Fan, the more she loved him. She continued, "But those effects are only at the beginning of the cultivation; from now on, it will be a gradual process of growth!"

"That’s good enough!" Ye Fan looked at Li Yaoyao, his love nearly overflowing. "Thank you!"

"Oh, don’t be so polite!" Li Yaoyao said with a giggle. "You just keep building your foundation; today I’ll teach you the first needle technique!"

"Wait a second!" Ye Fan waved his hand. "I bought a few more pigeons; let’s experiment again!" As he spoke, he put down his phone and walked out. Chen Shuting had bought him over twenty pigeons, but the problem was they were all packed into one cage. Helpless, Ye Fan grabbed three to bring back.

"Are you ready? I’m going to release them!" He pressed the first pigeon into the trunk. The bird was terrified and fluttered wildly, but Ye Fan quickly closed the lid. A few seconds later, the screen on Li Yaoyao’s end shook violently, and Ye Fan saw a pigeon fly out, full of life!

"Oh! There’s no cage!" The young girl scrambled to steady her phone and said with a pout, "Look, it flew up to the rafters!"

Ye Fan scratched his head sheepishly and asked with a grin, "How is it? Still healthy?"

"Healthy as can be!" Li Yaoyao wasn’t angry at all; she was actually delighted. "Try again!"

"Get ready!" Ye Fan stuffed the second pigeon into the trunk.

"Flap, flap, flap!" The screen was obscured by wings, and Li Yaoyao’s startled cries came from the other side.

"How is it?" Ye Fan asked nervously. The second pigeon had died last time.

"It’s alive!" Li Yaoyao said, pleasantly surprised. "Ye Fan! The pigeon is fine!"

"Let me see!" Ye Fan was also exceptionally excited. He saw Li Yaoyao’s fair, delicate hands clutching the pigeon’s head, the little white bird struggling feebly under her "demonic grip."

"Could it be because of the pigeon cage?" Ye Fan immediately guessed. "There was no cage this time!"

"I think it might be because of other objects," Li Yaoyao said, tossing the pigeon aside. "Maybe if there’s something other than the pigeon, it interferes with the transmission. Look at that pigeon last time—it fused right into the iron cage!"

"That’s a possibility!" Ye Fan looked around the room excitedly and grabbed a pillowcase from the bed. "Let’s try this!" He wrapped the pillowcase tightly around a pigeon, trussing it up firmly. "Are you ready? I’m launching it!"

"Do it!"

The tightly wrapped pigeon was placed into the trunk. From the other side came Li Yaoyao’s surprised voice: "Ye Fan, look!" She pointed the camera at the pigeon, and they saw that this time, the pigeon had truly fused with the pillowcase! It was dead.

"Haha, found the pattern!" Ye Fan danced with joy, and Li Yaoyao’s face was flushed with excitement on the other side.