To Raise a Soul 57.2

Half an hour later, they used Reduction to an Inch and appeared halfway up the mountain behind the temple. 

The spot where the peach tree had previously stood was empty. The mountain god was nowhere to be seen.

“Don’t hide from me. I’m not looking to get something from you this time, really.” Yu Zhen squatted down and touched his fingers to the soil, then he transferred some merits. 

One, two, three… fwooosh. A peach tree suddenly appeared while giving off a sense of unwillingness. 

Seeing his old friend, Yu Zhen’s mood picked up. He stood up and touched the tree trunk. Yu Zhen fed it merits and asked, “You’ve been protecting me, right?”

A branch fell and smacked his head, as if the tree were displaying a feeling of indignation, or scolding him for being a scourge and causing trouble. 

“I’m sorry.” Yu Zhen rubbed his head and smiled at the peach tree. Then he continued to give the tree merits and said, “It must be tiring to cover things up for such a long time, right? You’ve worked hard, thank you.”

The mountain behind the temple was not big, so the connected mountain god wasn’t very powerful either. It consumed a lot of power for it to stop Zou Chengjing’s investigation at Anyang Town’s middle school. If the investigation stretched further afield and into the city, it would’ve been beyond the mountain god’s influence.  

The mountain god didn’t smack Yu Zhen’s head with a branch for that comment. It shook its leaves and absorbed some of the offered merits before it promptly stopped absorbing them.

So this means it’s accepted the “assistance fees” and now we’re even?

Yu Zhen touched the trunk again and smiled. “Thank you… But if they come again to investigate, pretend you don’t know about it. You haven’t cultivated enough and you’re too young. You have to work hard and grow up.”

The mountain god began dropping branches on him, expressing its exasperation.

“Okay, okay, okay. You’re not young. You’re very powerful.” Yu Zhen covered his head with his hands and ducked away from the branches. Once it stopped dropping branches, he hugged the tree and added, “But look, I’ve already become super awesome. I can protect myself. And when I can’t, I still have him.”

He pointed to Yin Yan, who was standing to one side. 

The peach tree stayed still, quietly allowing him to hug it. 

“So you can have a nice rest. Next time I come to visit you, I don’t want to see a tree that’s dead from exhaustion.”

The peach tree shook again in discontentment but didn’t lose its temper. Its leaves swayed in the night wind. Large blossoms suddenly grew on its branches and petals fell all over him. 

Yu Zhen couldn’t help but give the tree a kiss. With a swoosh, it disappeared. It didn’t even cover up the hole it left in the ground, but its petals remained. 

Mood completely improved, Yu Zhen laughed and shouted into the mountains, “I’ll be back to see you!” 

Yin Yan stepped closer and pinched Yu Zhen’s lips, hugged him, then used Reduction to an Inch to bring them to the village cemetery. 

Grandpa Yu’s grave was in its original place, and it remained free from marks showing a disturbance. 

Yu Zhen let loose a breath, relieved. He swept the grave and paid his respects. Then he took out a bodhi lotus seed and stored it inside a small pagoda that he’d made before burying it under the gravestone. Next, Yin Yan set up an array around the cemetery to protect and conceal it. 

Once things were taken care of in the village, they quickly moved on to matters in the town and city. Xu Wu and San’er hid their presence and snuck into all the places that Yu Zhen had stayed at for a long time. Together, they wiped off all traces of his activities.

“Paper records can be erased, but human memories can’t.”

After dealing with everything, Yu Zhen stood in the sports field of his former high school. He looked around reminiscently and sighed. 

If Zou Chengjing had changed his method and started investigating the high school in the city, then without the mountain god’s ability to conceal memories, it would only have been a matter of time before Yu Zhen’s true identity was revealed by his previous teachers and classmates.

Even if Zou Chengjing didn’t investigate that, Yu Zhen’s identity could easily be found out from his identity as the “cultivator”^[1] Yu Zhen who was the partner of the Yin family’s eldest young master. That was because, in Han Ya’s efforts to “snatch back” Yin Yan, she had secretly spread information about Yu Zhen’s background. However, because the Qiu family was in the middle of bigger drama at that time, the rumor wasn’t widespread. 

Yu Zhen, from H Province, only had a deceased grandfather in his family. He was a cultivator himself. From those clues, it was more than enough to confirm his identity. 

Previously, Zou Chengjing had likely inquired about him at Jin Jiang, hence he’d heard and believed the company rumor that Yu Zhen was “a young master from overseas”. That was why he hadn’t made the connection about his identity.

Yin Yan stood beside him, accompanying him in silence.

Yu Zhen was lost in thought for a short while before he turned to Yin Yan and asked, “Why do you think Zou Chengjing suddenly wants to find me?”

“To replenish his life,” Yin Yan answered immediately. After listening to the conversation between Zou Chengjing and his adoptive father, it wasn’t difficult to draw that conclusion. 

Yu Zhen sighed. “That’s a bad motive.” He reached an arm around Yin Yan and buried his face in Yin Yan’s shoulder. With a muffled voice, he said, “Let’s go home. I’m tired.”

Yin Yan returned the hug and whisked them away from the empty school grounds.

Over the next few days, things remained the same as usual in the Yin family. Yu Zhen reported to the construction site every day and checked how the merit-filled plants were doing. As the busiest time had passed, Yu Zhen grew bored of being idle and began trying to create new varieties of flowers. 

Although it was a new variety, it was created from cross-breeding a common plant with an unknown medicinal herb from Xu Wu’s space. It had kept most of the distinctive characteristics of the common plant. 

When Yu Zhen had really wanted to make money, Yin Yan had suggested that he breed high-end flowers and plants. However, now that he had the plant nursery and a new variety of plants, he was no longer in need of money. He also didn’t particularly want to sell flowers. 

He retrieved a rosebush of his new variety of white roses and sorted through them. Then he carefully cut the stems of the roses and placed them in a long, exquisite box. He completed those actions with serious concentration.  

That was the gift he prepared for Qiu Feiqian for Mother’s Day. In the previous month, Qiu Feiqian had been away on official business, so she couldn’t celebrate the special day. As it was Father’s Day, Yu Zhen took the chance to prepare an extra gift to make it up to Qiu Feiqian.

He carefully arranged the bouquet, then he added handmade gifts of perfume, essential oil, and tea into the box. Finally, he placed the lid back onto the box and tied it up with a bow, using a glossy, white ribbon.

“It’s done?” Yin Yan had been standing quietly behind him for some time before finally speaking. 

Yu Zhen snapped back to reality. He smiled at Yin Yan, made a sound in reply, and then picked up the box. “Let’s go to Mom’s company.”

Yin Yan glanced at the rose bush which had had one-third of its roses removed. He nodded and took hold of Yu Zhen’s hand.  

Yu Zhen held onto the box all the way until they arrived at Qiu Feiqian’s company. Yu Zhen had protected it with spiritual energy so that the flowers in the box wouldn’t knock against each other while they were in the car.   

They had called Qiu Feiqian before heading over and used the excuse of picking her up so they could go together to celebrate Father’s Day with Yin Hexiang. As a result, Qiu Feiqian had assigned someone to wait for them at the company’s lobby. As soon as they entered the building, someone immediately led them towards Qiu Feiqian’s office on the top floor.

Qiu Feiqian had just finished a meeting when they arrived. One by one, people were leaving her office. Yu Zhen held the box and stood to one side with Yin Yan. After everyone had left, they moved towards the office, but they unexpectedly heard someone call out, “Senior Yu Zhen?”

Yu Zhen paused in his steps. Turning around, he saw that the last person that had left the office was a young woman with a big pile of documents in her arms. She was likely there with her superior for a report.

“Is it really you, Senior Yu Zhen? Wha-What are you doing here?” The young woman stepped forward with pleasant surprise in her eyes. 

At a loss, Yu Zhen replied, “I’m sorry, you are…?”

“I-I’m Liu Xianxian from Second High’s Class Three. We had the same English teacher and would always help the teacher organize the homework. Have you forgotten?”

The fashionable woman in front of him overlapped with the memory of an introverted girl who wore glasses and a ponytail. Yu Zhen’s face suddenly brightened with a smile. “I didn’t forget. You’ve changed a lot, so I didn’t recognize you at first. I remember that you left the country before finishing high school. How have you been these past few years?”

Faced with Yu Zhen’s smile, Liu Xianxian grew shy. Red-faced, she replied, “I-I’ve been doing quite well. You’ve changed a lot too. You’re a lot more… How about you? Have you been doing well these past few years? Do you work here too?”

“No, I’m here today because…”

“Yu Zhen.” Yin Yan placed a hand on Yu Zhen’s shoulder. He straightened out Yu Zhen’s collar, then gestured to the open door. “Mom’s at the door.”

Yu Zhen turned to take a look and saw that Qiu Feiqian was indeed at the door. Yu Zhen quickly shot a smile at Liu Xianxian, fished out a business card and said, “Mom’s looking for me. Let’s talk again some other time. This is my business card. I’m happy to have met you again.”

Then he nodded at her and was led by Yin Yan towards Qiu Feiqian.

When the office door shut, Liu Xianxian’s view of Yu Zhen was cut off.

She held the business card, mouth slightly open in disbelief.

What did Yu Zhen call the chairman? “Mom”?