Chapter 33: The City God Passes Through

For lunch today, Li Si stir-fried braised pork ribs, garlic green vegetables, and made an egg drop soup.

After the two finished eating, they both felt somewhat unsatisfied. Li Si also found it strange that his appetite seemed to have increased compared to before. He quickly realized this was due to his recent martial arts practice and exercise.

But what surprised him was Cao Meng’s appetite, which was no less than his own. He couldn’t help but feel both amused and exasperated – indeed, a growing boy could eat his father out of house and home.

However, this was a good thing, indicating that Cao Meng’s body was very healthy.

As for worrying about money, he didn’t really care. After all, for someone like him with only a little over a year left to live and not knowing if he’d see tomorrow, money was truly just an external possession.

The short lifespan and constant feeling of impending death also made Li Si understand many things, making him much more carefree.

Afterwards, Cao Meng went to clean up the dishes, while Li Si went to the study to read books. Although the books here weren’t as diverse as in his previous world, there were still valuable lessons and principles to be found in the classics.

So Li Si still quite enjoyed reading books, which was one of his few pastimes in this world.

After Cao Meng finished washing the dishes and saw Li Si reading, he took a small bowl and practiced writing with water on the table in the main hall by himself.

At the same time, he was pondering what Li Si had told him today, but he found the teacher’s words somewhat profound and had never heard such principles before.

Especially the phrase “When one carries a sharp blade, the intent to kill arises naturally” – he couldn’t fathom its meaning. After all, he was still just a seven or eight-year-old child.

The two maintained this quiet learning environment until the Hour of Monkey (3-5 pm) in the afternoon. The sun was scorching, and by this time, some children were already waiting outside.

Seeing children waiting outside, Cao Meng went to the study to notify Li Si.

Interrupted from his reading by Cao Meng, Li Si looked at the sky and knew it was time for teaching. He then instructed Cao Meng to bring in the clothes and went to the front door to let the children in.

Afterwards, Li Si first poured some tea for the children. After Cao Meng had put away the clothes, Li Si, like yesterday, placed Xiao Yu in the corner and began teaching them the Hundred Family Surnames. During the lesson, he often used anecdotes he had just read from some history books to illustrate which surnames produced which famous people and what great deeds or interesting stories they had.

The group of children became engrossed in Li Si’s teaching, unknowingly learning several dozen characters. Moreover, due to Xiao Yu’s Spirit Light ability, these dozens of characters were immediately imprinted in their minds.

However, what Li Si didn’t know was that not only were these children captivated, but a man wearing a red leather jacket on his rooftop was also listening intently.

When Li Si announced the end of the lesson, the red-jacketed man on the roof revealed an annoyed expression on his deathly green face, but then seemed to think of something, grinned, and slowly faded into nothingness, disappearing.

After Li Si announced the end of the lesson, he let the children go home, while also reminding them to be careful about their safety recently.

After they left, Li Si took Cao Meng to a nearby restaurant to eat.

There was no choice; it was almost 7 pm now, and buying groceries was impossible, so they could only eat at a nearby restaurant.

They ordered a chestnut roast chicken and stir-fried vegetables, and the two sat down to eat in the restaurant.

“Teacher, the food at this restaurant isn’t as good as what you cook,” Cao Meng said in a low voice after finishing a chicken leg, secretly glancing around.

“Just eat your food, why say so much?” Li Si glared at Cao Meng, putting another chicken leg in his bowl.

Seeing Li Si glare at him, Cao Meng felt a bit sheepish and stopped talking, continuing to eat with his head down.

After finishing the meal, Li Si paid the bill and was about to return home when he heard the night watchman’s call again.

“Dong—Dong!”

“Dong—Dong!”

“Dong—Dong!”

“The weather is dry, be careful with fire and candles.” The night watchman’s voice came from afar.

“It’s the Hour of Dog(7pm-9pm)” Li Si’s eyes revealed a trace of worry, and without hesitation, he led Cao Meng back home.

Upon returning home, Li Si instructed Cao Meng to take a bath while he took the Eight Trigrams mirror and searched around the room, but found nothing. It seemed the original owner had truly abandoned this place.

He breathed a sigh of relief, but also felt somewhat powerless. If the original owner were here, he wouldn’t have much confidence in dealing with him and could only rely on using the protective charm for a counterattack.

But the protective charm had too many limitations. Not to mention its delayed reaction, if ghost creatures didn’t use their bizarre techniques but instead hit him with a stick, they might still be able to beat him to death.

Of course, Li Si hadn’t tried this, but when that servant hit him with a stick that day, the protective charm had no reaction at all. He didn’t know if this was because the servant was half-human half-corpse, or if it truly couldn’t prevent harm from tools.

Moreover, even if it could guard against ghost creatures, it would only work if they actively attacked. Otherwise, it was useless.

This was why he had deliberately provoked Madam Zhang Guo in the Zhang mansion before.

In fact, when he spoke about the original owner’s pain points in the courtyard at noon today, he had the same intention. However, he didn’t expect the original owner to be so cunning, immediately fleeing as soon as Li Si discovered him.

This also proved that the original owner was likely a ghost creature no less formidable than the Dismembering Ghost.

Thinking about a ghost creature that looked exactly like him roaming outside, Li Si felt conflicted, but also determined. He must kill it, even if it meant shortening the protective charm’s duration further.

He couldn’t let this ghost creature continue to do evil. He didn’t want the original owner to become a bizarre entity that survived by eating people.

Suddenly, a gust of yin wind blew past, and the air seemed to drop several degrees instantly.

Li Si’s expression changed as he turned to look out the window, but found the street empty, seeing nothing.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, a terrifying pressure coming from afar that made him tremble. It was like a mouse encountering a group of cats, feeling as if he could be eaten at any moment.

Li Si immediately crouched below the window, not daring to look anymore. He felt his heart was about to jump out of his chest, his hair standing on end.

At the same time, the cloth bag on his chest couldn’t help but shake, seemingly extremely frightened as well.

On the main street, from an angle invisible to mortals, a huge figure three to four meters tall was walking silently down the street.


This figure was extremely fat, with belly flesh covering its legs, looking like a giant walking toad.