Liu Zhong left home without even taking a servant. The original owner had led a very unsuccessful life in the past dozen or so years. When his father was alive, he favored his younger brother. After his father died, his mother used him as a tool for revenge. They were all brothers in the same family, but his younger brother, Liu Ji, received all of his mother's love.
In a large family, there is no shortage of snobs. Liu Zhong was not favored and was often scolded by his mother. As time passed, his servant didn't take him seriously either.
Normally, not to mention being taught a lesson, even when there was something delicious, it always went to the servant instead of him. The original owner wasn't without the thought of complaining, but that servant was the son of his mother's dowry maid.
He had a very high status in the family. When the original owner went to complain, all he got was a scolding. He got nothing in return and would even be resented by the servant, who would then tell tales behind his back. Most of the times when he was beaten while kneeling in the ancestral hall were because of these false accusations.
Liu Zhong didn't go back to the yard where the original owner lived to get things. The original owner had very little gold, silver, and money. The few valuable items he had were specially counted and registered every month.
Even if a cup went missing, the original owner would be called in front of his mother to explain clearly.
It had been over half a month since Liu Zhong had traveled through time. After he received the memories of the original owner, he began to think about how to preserve the Liu family under Long Aotian's halo and leave the Liu family at the same time.
The reason he wanted to preserve the Liu family was that he felt he owed the original owner for taking over his body, even though he had taken it after the original owner had completely passed away.
Now, let things take their course. If the Liu family wanted to ruin themselves, let them. In the future, he would just give some hints to those who had been kind to the original owner.
Just as he walked out of the Liu Mansion, he bumped into Long Aotian head - on. Long Aotian was a peasant boy. With skills like having a photographic memory, he had worked his way up from being a peasant boy. Now, like the original owner, he was studying at Yanshan Academy in Rongcheng.
As soon as he entered the academy, he was placed in Class A and always ranked first in every exam. Before his enrollment, the original owner had always been the first in Class A.
After that, whether it was in academy exams or imperial examinations, the original owner always came in second. Because he didn't get the first place, under his mother's beatings, scoldings, and disappointed looks, the original owner's personality gradually became paranoid.
In the end, he failed to avenge his father's death and was killed by Long Aotian.
Liu Zhong and Long Aotian glanced at each other and then calmly turned their heads away. Not to mention that the father of Long Aotian's love interest was the one who killed the original owner's father, just the fact that the original owner died because Long Aotian pushed him into the water meant they couldn't be friends.
Liu Zhong didn't plan to go to the academy anymore. He had studied for more than a decade in his previous life and was thoroughly fed up with it.
Taking the imperial examination in this era was much more difficult than studying in his previous life. Take the eight - part essay for example. Even with the original owner's memories, Liu Zhong found it very difficult to learn.
He opened the chat group and typed: [Sure enough, there is nothing difficult in the world as long as you are willing to give up. After deciding to give up taking the imperial examination, I feel that the sky is bluer and the water is clearer.]
There were always people chatting in the group, and everyone would always respond to the messages of the group members. Sure enough, the messages in the group started to pop up instantly.
Liu Zhong felt even better. He strode towards the dock. He had always dreamed of traveling all over the country after achieving financial freedom one day.
As a result, he had only worked for two years before something happened to him. Now it was just right. He could directly visit famous mountains. He had a space and a chat group. The dozen or so friends in the group were all his back - up, ensuring his safety. If not now, when?
Liu Zhong bought a ticket for the nearest ship leaving the city and set sail right away. As his ship set off, a group of servants appeared at the dock. Judging from their clothes, they were from the Liu Mansion.
Liu Zhong's servant, Liu Fu, looked at Liu Zhong, who was standing gracefully on the ship, on the verge of tears. He never thought that Liu Zhong would really just leave like that.
He had been assigned to serve Liu Zhong since childhood. According to the rules, he had to follow Liu Zhong all the time. Now that Liu Zhong had left and left him behind, no matter how well - connected he was, there was nothing he could do.
Although his mistress was powerful, she was a widow. She only showed off her power in the main branch of the family and had no say outside.
Liu Zhong also saw Liu Fu. He gave a faint smile, popped a piece of candy into his mouth, and then went back to his cabin. He opened the chat box with Lin Xi and started sending her messages.
In the modern world, Lin Xi had also found a clue at this moment. The pointed tower she saw upstairs was the abandoned chimney of a heating company. Because it was tall enough, a red flag would be hung on it every Monday.
After getting this information, Lin Xi immediately hailed a taxi and headed for the heating company.
The heating company wasn't far from Wuxin Industrial Park. A river separated Wuxin Industrial Park from a large expanse of farmland. By following the dirt road around Wuxin Industrial Park, it only took twenty minutes by car to reach the vicinity of the heating company.
There was a residential area here, which was divided into a high - rise area and a villa area. Judging from the color of the outer wall and the roof of the villas, it had a very high coincidence rate with the clues Liu Zhong had given.
Lin Xi got off the taxi, took an invisibility pill while hiding in a corner, and entered the community through the west gate.
There were two rows of villas in the community, and the occupancy rate was less than ten percent.
This helped Lin Xi with her investigation, but at the same time, it also brought her greater danger.
Putting herself in the shoes of that perverted couple, she knew that they would closely monitor every new face wandering around the villa area.
At the moment, Lin Xi looked like a man in his thirties, with a burly build and a bearded face.
She walked through the villa area without looking sideways and wandered around in the high - rise area. Soon, she found a very bustling supermarket.
There was a room inside the supermarket, and the sound of mahjong came from it.
Lin Xi walked into the supermarket, bought a bottle of water and a pack of high - end cigarettes, and started chatting with the boss.
"Boss, you can play mahjong here?" Lin Xi said as she took out a cigarette and offered it to the boss.
The boss smiled when he saw the Chinese - brand cigarette. Although he was the owner of the supermarket, his wife was strict with him, and he rarely got to smoke such high - end cigarettes in a year.
"Yes, yes. We've opened a mahjong parlor with a proper business license. You're a new face, right? Just moved to the community?"
The community was neither too big nor too small, and there were only two supermarkets in the whole community. So it wasn't an exaggeration for the boss to say that he had a general impression of everyone in the community.
Lin Xi also lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth. She didn't know how to smoke, but she could at least put on a show.
"Yes, yes. I just started working here. My wife gave me a task to find a good place to rent. It'd be best if it's close to my company and the school. I just walked around and saw there's a kindergarten in front of the community. My kid is about to start kindergarten."
These days, it's quite normal for a person in their thirties to have a child in kindergarten. The boss didn't think much about it and said, "Well, this neighborhood of ours is really nice. The kindergarten in front of us is a bilingual one, and many people from the city center even send their kids here."
"That's really great. I only came here to take a look after hearing from my co - workers that this school is good," Lin Xi followed the boss's words. Then, he leaned forward and whispered, "Boss, are there any spots left for mahjong? I don't have any other vices, but I just love playing a couple of rounds. However, my family is really strict with me..."
The boss was also a middle - aged man, and he knew all too well the troubles of middle - aged men. He also loved playing mahjong, but! His wife always stopped him from playing, claiming that he was a lousy player.
"We play with stakes of ten or twenty yuan per round, and the one who gives out the winning tile pays. Can you play like that? If so, I'll gather some people right away." Mahjong is called the national pastime because so many people love playing it.
In such a big neighborhood, there was only this one mahjong parlor, so it was quite easy to find players.
"Do you have any games with higher stakes? I'd like to play for more," Lin Xi thought that playing with higher stakes might attract some residents from the villa area behind.
Just then, the boss's wife came out from the door beside the counter and said to the boss, "Didn't Sister He, who lives in the villa area, say this morning that she wants to play mahjong? She likes to play with stakes of fifty or sixty yuan. Why don't you give her a call and ask? I think Brother Zhang and Brother Liu are both at home. It'd be perfect to invite them. Can you play like that, young man?"
The boss's wife only asked Lin Xi after making the arrangements.
"Sure, no problem at all," Lin Xi replied with a beaming smile.
The boss and his wife got busy right away. As owners of a mahjong parlor, they loved customers who played high - stakes mahjong the most. They could rake in two hundred yuan in commission from a single game.
Before long, the boss and his wife put down their phones with smiles on their faces. Not long after, Brother Zhang and Brother Liu arrived. Lin Xi went up to them again to hand out cigarettes, and they got to know each other while chatting.
Lin Xi called them "brother" at every turn. People who didn't know better would think the three of them were very familiar with each other.
Sister He soon arrived. She was around thirty years old, dressed elegantly and with a beautiful face. There was a cigarette between her lips. The smiles on Brother Zhang and Brother Liu's faces instantly became more sincere.
After sizing Lin Xi up, Sister He motioned for Brother Zhang and Brother Liu to follow her into the inner room.
There was a private room inside. Everyone took their seats, and the boss's wife came in with mineral water and tea.
The mahjong table was powered on, and the game started. After just a couple of rounds, Sister He began to yawn.
Brother Liu, who was sitting on Sister He's left, immediately asked with concern, "Didn't you sleep well last night, Sister He?"
Sister He picked up a tile and discarded it, saying, "Yeah, I haven't been able to sleep well recently. I always feel like there are ghosts in the villa area."
As soon as she said this, it immediately caught the attention of Brother Zhang and Brother Liu. "That can't be true! I haven't heard of such a thing. Did you see something?"
Lin Xi had a thought and discarded the tile that would have given him a win.
Sister He called the boss's wife over and asked her to go outside the neighborhood to buy coffee. Then she said, "Of course I didn't see anything. It's just that in the past few months, I've often heard someone screaming in the middle of the night. But when I try to listen carefully, the screaming stops."
"The screaming was even louder last night. I got up to check, but there was nothing. And my next - door neighbors, I don't know what's wrong with them recently. They always go out at night. Sometimes, they even go out in the rain and come back early in the morning. The sound of their car is so annoying. Especially when I like to stay up late, just when I'm about to fall asleep in the early morning, I get woken up by them."
"Last night was the same. Once they made a noise, I couldn't fall asleep again, so I just stared at the ceiling until dawn. If the boss's wife hadn't called me, I would have gone to the gym for a run before going back to sleep."
Brother Zhang lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth as he reached for a tile. "You're talking about Li Fuming and his wife, right? They might be having some problems with their business recently. I saw them when I got off the night shift last time. I asked them when they'd come to play mahjong, and Li Fuming said they didn't have any time recently. Zhang Lihua is trying to conceive, and with the business problems, they're really swamped. It's a pity, though. They used to play for really high stakes. I remember they played for a hundred yuan per round last year."
"Don't mention them. The two of them always quarrel when they come out to play mahjong. They quarrel when they lose and also when they win. Sometimes, they even quarrel in the yard. It's so annoying. You'd think they've been married for years and there's nothing wrong with their health. Why can't they have a baby? Zhang Lihua poured out her troubles to me when we went to the orphanage to do volunteer work together last time," Sister He picked up a tile and placed it on her right. "I win! The dealer wins."
As Lin Xi took out the chips to pay, he asked, "Sister He, you also do volunteer work?"
Sister He glanced at Lin Xi and said, "My family runs a children's stationery business. We've always been involved in activities to support the kids in the orphanage. Those kids are so pitiful, so when I'm not too busy, I'll go and chat with them."
"As for Zhang Lihua, she's definitely trying to have a baby. I think Li Fuming is really a jerk. The other day, I saw the two of them quarreling in the yard about Zhang Lihua not being able to have a baby."
