"Really can't let people worry."
Since Xu Qing learned about this, he couldn't just ignore it. He immediately put on the pocket watch given to him by Feng Xiaosheng, tucked a matchbox into his pocket, and headed straight for the Feng Family.
Flower and Bird Street—Xu Qing hadn't yet reached the Feng Family when he spotted a foreigner with a pocket watch performing a smoking 'stunt' at the street corner.
They called it a stunt, but it was really just someone standing by the street, striking a match to light a pipe, and then intentionally extinguishing the match by shaking it.
The bearded foreigner didn't say a word, just puffed away under his top hat, while two local ruffians, posing as agents, pitched the greatness of foreign matches.
After they hyped up the matches as if they were the only treasures in the heavens and the earth, the foreigner conveniently opened his watch cover in front of everyone to take a look.
The ruffians then took up a sandalwood box to show off a brand-new pocket watch, claiming it could connect to the stars, understand geography and know the seasons. It was a technique crafted by an Immortal, and there were few in all of Dayan, even if you had money, you couldn't buy it!
But today, not a thousand or even five hundred taels—two hundred taels and you could have it. If it weren't for the 'foreign gentleman' lacking travel expenses, this treasure certainly wouldn't be sold!
Xu Qing glanced over; it wasn't a gold or silver watch, just an ordinary copper pocket watch.
Two hundred taels—for that price, they might as well openly rob someone, yet they still gave a watch. Despite everything, the robber was quite polite!
Flower and Bird Street was full of wealthy playboys. Despite the watch costing two hundred taels, seven or eight people bid against each other and pushed the price to four hundred taels!
Xu Qing frowned deeply.
In just a few years, Flower and Bird Street had turned into this.
Xu Qing didn't bother with these scammer tricks; it was a mutual transaction where both parties were willing. Even if he stood up and revealed the truth, it wouldn't make much difference.
When he arrived at the Feng residence, the door was opened by the great-grandson of Housekeeper Cai from back in the day, the new housekeeper. It seemed they had inherited and maintained a family tradition.
Xu Qing inquired about his god-nephew Feng Xiaosheng's business ventures. Housekeeper Cai sighed and said, "Master is elderly, and the young master is obsessed with martial arts, spending quite a bit on it each year. Even though they have enough to live comfortably in this life, if the young master marries and starts a family, there might not be enough. Master is worried about his son and wants to earn some last bits of security money for his descendants."
In these impending changing times, a son practicing martial arts and a father starting a business indeed paints a hopeful future.
As Xu Qing stepped into the second gate, he spotted the over-fifty Feng Zhennan practicing vigorously in the courtyard.
"A condensed Martial Master?"
Xu Qing was quite surprised since due to Feng Zhennan's unique status, he hadn't taught him martial arts cultivation.
For beings like these returning deities, once they regain their former stature, their previous mortal bodies become empty shells; regardless of how skilled Feng Zhennan becomes, he can't surpass the prison that confines him.
It's like an Immortal cultivating for a millennium, even if reborn and cultivated for a hundred years, how could they match the millennium of accumulation?
The divide between the mortal and the divine isn't easily crossed.
Over here, when Feng Zhennan saw Xu Qing, he greeted him excitedly, "Uncle Xu!"
Xu Qing couldn't do much about being called uncle.
After all, he was now Xu Xuan.
"Zhennan, you've been different since you were young. Remember to spend time with your father, talk to him more often. Don't be overly obsessed with martial arts. Some things, you don't need to worry too much. Heaven will provide when the time comes."
Feng Zhennan listened, confused, thinking that's just how elders talked, and didn't take it seriously.
"Don't take it lightly. Otherwise, I could find you a good matchmaker and introduce you to a marriage. At Zi Yun Mountain's Bao Sheng Temple, you can seek marriage connections. I hear it's very effective; it might even solve your lifelong matter..."
Upon hearing this, Feng Zhennan's hair stood on end!
Those divine beings who descend to earth often have faint kinship ties and find it hard to have a marriage. These individuals, even when ensnared in earthly affairs, subconsciously feel driven by past karma to resolve something unfinished.
Right now, Feng Zhennan's martial arts obsession is evidence of this.
Xu Qing had a way for Feng Zhennan to return to his original place like Zhao Zhonghe, but it would inevitably leave Feng Xiaosheng a solitary old man.
Therefore, from the beginning, Xu Qing had arranged matters for the Feng Family's life and death, allowing Feng Xiaosheng to comfortably live out his life, enjoying those decades where children are by the knee and the elderly are cared for.
Seeing Feng Zhennan couldn't be teased, Xu Qing turned to meet Feng Xiaosheng.
This little old man, now resembling the late Second Master Feng, had grown quite thin and frail. As Xu Qing approached, he could smell the unique scent of matches.
Currently, Feng Xiaosheng wore a gold watch around his neck and couldn't stop smiling when he saw Xu Qing. That spirit seemed fine.
"Xiaosheng, I came to you not for anything else. I heard you mortgaged the ancestral property and splurged on foreign goods?"
Xu Qing straightforwardly laid out the pros and cons for Feng Xiaosheng, finally saying, "If you sell those foreign goods now, you can still recover your principal. But in another month or half a month, you might have to part with this house!"
Feng Xiaosheng might not listen to others, but he never doubted a word spoken by someone named Xu from Underground Street.
"I truly am a muddlehead. How could I believe others? How come the rich playboys from the Capital City aren't making money and instead handing me the opportunity? Turns out it was a trap for old bones like us..."
Feng Xiaosheng grumbled on, suggesting many from Jin Sect had all fallen for the foreigner's trick.
It wasn't even the foreigner's trick but a scheme run by those native traders from the Capital City, planning the whole trap with foreign suggestions.
In about two days, Feng Xiaosheng had Housekeeper Cai sell off all foreign goods. Although he didn't earn any money, at least they preserved the savings left by Second Master Feng.
As long as Feng Xiaosheng and his son didn't squander it, these reserves would see them through comfortably for their lifetime.
Within ten days, a large group of foreign merchants suddenly arrived at the Jin Sect's port. The ferries they arrived on were crammed full of various foreign goods.
Xu Qing thought the Feng Family's incident with their scam was over, but unexpectedly, his bad luck turned business flourished due to the foreign goods frenzy for over half a month.
During this time, there seemed to be people jumping into the river as frequently as dropping dumplings. Rumors of those who hoarded foreign goods drowning in debt, hanging, and poison drinking were rampant.
"The Five Filthy Evil Worlds, indeed a dance of demons."
Xu Qing could eradicate the Yin River Sect's chief, but the demons in the human heart couldn't be removed with Divine Power.
After dealing with the Feng Family's affairs, Xu Qing specially visited the Capital City's Imperial Mausoleum to conduct a private exorcism ceremony for the short-lived Emperor Zhu Yi.
Upon reclaiming the Emperor's Purple Qi, Xu Qing was about to enter the Imperial Palace to seek the current Zhu Family's Emperor, but what a coincidence, he bumped into him on the street.
"Oh, brother, you train that bird well, it can even do math!"
At the Bird and Insect Market, a young playboy whose looks closely resembled the Zhu Family was chatting leisurely with someone.
The playboy carried a birdcage in one hand, twirling walnuts in the other, with a pale, beardless elderly man following behind.
Looking at his demeanor, he was undoubtedly a hedonistic son of a rich family, a squanderer!
Xu Qing recognized this person—who else but Zhu Qian?
He didn't recognize the old eunuch accompanying them, for those who had served Zhu Huai'an and Zhu Chengsi had nearly all been replaced. The only person he might recognize on the Dayan court was the nearing hundred-year-old Wang Liang.
Having served three generations of Emperors, Duke Zhen could be termed a unique existence!
Xu Qing watched Zhu Qian from a distance. This new Emperor had little talent but really knew how to have fun, and was uncaring at that.
Looking at his lifespan, he found it considerably longer than that of his father, Zhu Yi.
This truly exemplified 'a wise emperor lacks longevity, while a mediocre ruler flourishes.'
An Emperor living past a hundred is unheard of.
However, Zhu Qian's fate was unusual. According to fortune-telling, this long-lived Emperor will become a monk plagued by 'Hua Gai', retreating from secular life by the age of fifty—whether as a monk or Daoist.
By then, he'd have to abdicate for his descendants. As for their future, it's anyone's guess.
Xu Qing shook his head.
The Emperor before him had no heart to govern, needing no Emperor's Purple Qi. And now, this Qi seemed to have returned to him after circling around.
Fortunately, he had a magic gourd bestowed by a Goddess, containing limitless space. No matter how much Emperor's Purple Qi is stored inside, it occupies little space.