You can leave now! If you encounter any trouble later, can you handle it?
Tell now, and perhaps, for Lu Sisi’s sake, I might lend you a hand."
Lu Xiuting was shocked!
Chen Yan pointed at the door, "The door is right there, Aunt Lu. If you want to leave, I won’t stop you; then, any trouble in the future will be yours to deal with."
Lu Xiuting’s expression changed several tis before she finally gritted her teeth and slowly sat back down.
The woman’s expression turned pale and then flushed, and she quickly opened her bag, rummaging for a pack of ladies’ cigarettes, and lit one for herself.
Lu Xiuting’s fingers trembled as she lit the cigarette.
After taking a puff, her emotions seed to calm down a bit.
"Chen Yan...now I know you’re not an ordinary person; even Elder Zi, such a profound cultivator, shows you respect. But...my situation, even for soone like you in the profound cultivation world, is probably too bizarre."
Chen Yan, on the contrary, felt at ease and calmly refilled the tea cup in front of Lu Xiuting, smiling, "Whether it’s bizarre or not, why don’t you start talking about it."
Lu Xiuting took a couple more puffs of her cigarette before slowly saying, "There is indeed sothing in that ancient tomb, but it’s not sothing I retrieved alone later—I don’t have the skills to enter the tomb.
When I was young, I followed my father and cousin in turning soil as a living, only helping them a bit from the outside, keeping watch, or preparing equipnt at ho. Later, I learned to clean so antiques and artifacts—but digging and entering tombs, those skills my father and cousin never taught .
My father often told he was doing wrong by involving in these dealings. I’m a girl, and in the future, I should marry and start a family. He didn’t want involved too much because he didn’t want to harm my morality."
Chen Yan nodded.
This ti, he believed Lu Xiuting was telling the truth—under the Truth Talisman, a normal person like Lu Xiuting had no resistance.
"That year, my father and cousin found an ancient tomb. When they entered, I was outside keeping watch. Later, I didn’t know what happened underground, just heard my cousin calling my na from below, then he and my father climbed up together.
When they ca up, my father was coughing blood, and it wasn’t just ordinary coughing; he was bleeding from all seven orifices.
His mouth, nose, ears, eyes, were all oozing blood. It was a terrifying sight.
I was still young then, scared out of my wits, many things I don’t rember.
I just rember my cousin taking my father and running out, then driving straight ho.
The car drove all night, and by the ti we got ho, my father’s breath was very weak, his clothes soaked red with the blood he spat out.
After getting ho, my cousin went out to find a doctor overnight, thinking father was struck by sothing heavy underground, injuring his internal organs.
After my cousin left, I stayed with my father at ho, suddenly he woke up..."
Lu Xiuting paused here, her voice faltering, then continued slowly, "He took sothing out of his pocket and handed it to , telling to keep it safe and...not to let my cousin know."
Chen Yan listened, curling his mouth.
This family, too, a band of tomb robbers, yet despite being uncle and nephew, they’re full of sches, always plotting against each other.
"That thing must have been sothing father found in the tomb. He had his own agenda and didn’t want my cousin to know."
Lu Xiuting spoke, her tone sowhat complex, "At that ti, father probably didn’t know he would die; he thought he could pull through, so he just wanted to hide the thing, wait for him to recover, then secretly deal or sell it without my cousin knowing.
But unexpectedly, before dawn, he passed away."
Mm, Chen Yan nodded.
This explanation seems more reasonable, otherwise if father knew he was dood, he wouldn’t logically entrust a treasure to his young orphan daughter—a thief’s treasure would only lead to unwanted trouble.
Leaving a valuable item to a helpless orphan isn’t doing her a favor, but inviting disaster.
"Afterwards, because father died and his death was strange, the police ca to investigate, visited the village, found so clues, and eventually arrested my cousin.
My cousin was imprisoned for selling stolen artifacts, and people in the village learned that my family had always been in that business; after that, I couldn’t stay in the village.
Originally, my family’s relations in the village were okay; even after father died, seeing as a pitiful orphan, most people would have helped.
But knowing my cousin was imprisoned for selling artifacts...villagers especially abhor such matters, tomb robbing, after all, equates to digging soone’s ancestral grave.
So I faced ostracism in the village, and simply took so of father’s hidden items and sold them off quietly.
That ti I was still young, father’s channels for selling over the years, I couldn’t possibly know, and he wouldn’t have told .
I could only take the things to the city’s antique black market to sell, surely getting ripped off, and conned.
But back then I had no choice, even selling cheaply was better than nothing, so eventually I managed to gather so money, around thirty to fifty thousand, then paid tuition, boarded school, left the village, and later, I got into college."
Chen Yan listened, didn’t interrupt the woman’s story, and while she paused to drink water, he topped off her tea.
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