"Sweet Potato Bwother~"
Doudou appeared before Shen Siyuan, rubbing her eyes.
Inside the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, she spent most of her time asleep, which was also a Soul Nourishing Method.
The strength of a Soul was related to one's life and would not change after death. However, a Ghost that entered the Ten Thousand Souls Banner broke this rule.
Not only could their Soul be strengthened, but with a suitable technique, they could even cultivate.
And the Nine Nether Demon Lord was the ancestor of ghost manipulation; naturally, he had no shortage of Ghost Cultivation Techniques.
Unfortunately, Doudou was a bit too young. Teaching her Cultivation Practice would be a very troublesome matter.
Shen Siyuan decided to put it aside for now and see if a more suitable "candidate" appeared later.
After two days of sleep, Doudou no longer looked like a Blue Elf, emitting a blue eerie light from her whole body, but her hair still burned like flames.
"How do you feel?"
Shen Siyuan reached out and touched her hair, which was like a Blue Flame.
Although Netherfire could burn a person's Soul, this Netherfire came from the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.
As the Banner Master of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, he would naturally not be harmed. The Netherfire looked like a burning flame, but it had no scorching sensation, instead carrying a hint of coolness.
"It feels so comfy."
Doudou stretched.
She had never felt so comfortable since she died.
It was like she'd had a long, lazy sleep and woken up full of energy.
"That's good. Go wander around nearby, but don't go too far."
"Okay~"
Doudou answered and immediately rode a gust of Yin Wind out the window.
She had long wanted to fly around and play in the sky.
Shen Siyuan walked to the window and glanced down, only to see Old Man Lu still pacing downstairs.
He had left him hanging for a few days; it was time to make contact and also to verify his own guess.
So, he went out and headed downstairs.
Just as he entered the elevator, Doudou popped out from who knows where.
"Sweet Potato Bwother~, where are my mom and dad?"
She asked, looking rather pitiful.
"They're at home, of course."
"Oh~"
Doudou sounded a little disappointed.
'Looks like I need to find her a companion soon, otherwise the Little Brat will be thinking about her mom and dad all day.'
However, over the past few days, Jiang Wenxin and her husband had asked him about Doudou's situation more than a dozen times.
Jiang Wenxin, in particular, was exceptionally enthusiastic, always bringing him snacks or fruit.
This led the guys in the office to unanimously conclude that he was leeching off a Rich Woman.
"You'll be able to see your mom tomorrow," Shen Siyuan said comfortingly after a moment of thought.
"Okay, thank you, Sweet Potato Bwother~"
The Little One was instantly delighted.
Then, she turned back into a gust of Yin Wind and vanished.
Shen Siyuan suspected that if she knew the way, she probably would have run home on her own.
He had just stepped out of the building entrance when Old Man Lu nodded at him from a distance, not approaching. But when he saw Shen Siyuan walking toward him, he immediately hurried over, his expression slightly agitated.
"Mr. Shen…"
He knew these past few days of waiting hadn't been in vain.
Mr. Shen was finally willing to communicate with him.
Just then, a gust of Yin Wind blew past, and Doudou appeared out of thin air between them.
"Grandpa Lu."
Seeing a familiar face, Doudou waved her small hands excitedly.
But Old Man Lu was so frightened he stumbled back several steps. Doudou gave him a heart-pounding sensation; before she even got close, he felt a stinging pain in his Soul.
Seeing Grandpa Lu's reaction, Doudou was a little confused and also a little sad.
"Alright, you go play.
I'm going to talk with your Grandpa Lu for a bit," Shen Siyuan said, patting her little head.
"Oh~"
Doudou obediently listened, turning into a gust of Yin Wind that shot into the sky and disappeared from sight.
Old Man Lu looked up at the sky. He knew Doudou's transformation had to be related to Shen Siyuan, and his heart filled with even more reverence.
"Tell me about your situation. Do you have some lingering wish you can't let go of?"
"Yes, Mr. Shen."
And so, Old Man Lu began to tell his story.
Old Man Lu's full name was Lu Guanchang, a Binhai local. When he was young, he was an employee at the Binhai Hand Tractor Factory.
Back then, the tractor factory was an Iron Rice Bowl,
and because of it, he married a girl named Yang Lianxiang. The girl wasn't highly educated, but she was very beautiful.
That was the most comfortable period of Lu Guanchang's life. But the good times didn't last.
The tides of history rolled forward, and there was no such thing as a permanent Iron Rice Bowl. The Hand Tractor Factory eventually went bankrupt, and its employees were laid off one after another.
Lu Guanchang was no exception.
Through a friend's introduction, he went to a Shipping Company and became a Sailor.
As a Port City, Binhai had a huge cargo throughput, with countless ships traveling to and from all over the world.
As a Sailor traveling around the globe, Lu Guanchang's horizons gradually broadened.
Coupled with the long separation from his wife and having seen plenty of Wild Flowers abroad, he naturally grew to look down on his Humble Wife at home.
So the two quickly divorced.
By then, he and his wife already had a daughter, but for Lu Guanchang, whose heart had already strayed, there was no attachment. He simply let his wife take her away.
Later, as Lu Guanchang grew older, he gradually settled down and stopped going to sea. He remarried, and his new wife gave birth to a son, and he began to live a stable life.
"So you feel guilty about your ex-wife, and that's why you've lingered in the mortal world?"
Hearing this, Lu Guanchang sighed deeply, then said something that left Shen Siyuan utterly stunned.
"Only after I died did I discover that the son I'd raised for so many years wasn't my biological child.
And to think I'd poured my heart and soul into him and his mother all those years…"
As Lu Guanchang spoke of this, his anger intensified. The tumors on his face twitched, making him look even more hideous and disgusting.
"What happened?" Shen Siyuan asked curiously.
He couldn't help but laugh inwardly; perhaps this was Karmic Retribution.
"What else could have happened? My wife put a Green Hat on me!
I had just died, and she brought that damn cousin of hers back home. And my son, after I raised him for so long, didn't say a single word…"
It turned out that the wife Lu Guanchang later married had a cousin who was on good terms with their family and visited often.
Lu Guanchang had always thought he was just an ordinary relative, but he never expected that the man wasn't a cousin at all, but his wife's Lover from her younger days.
Since his wife was not from Binhai, they had no other relatives in the city besides these two, so Lu Guanchang had never suspected their relationship.
"You never once suspected that your son wasn't your biological child?"
"Sigh…" Lu Guanchang sighed."It's normal for a son to resemble his uncle, isn't it? Even if he's a maternal cousin."
It turned out that because of this connection, Lu Guanchang never had any doubts.
Who would have known that his son was really his "uncle's" seed?
"That cousin of mine… my wife's lover, he was married when he was young, but later divorced, claiming they weren't compatible. Now I know why they weren't compatible! He has no children of his own.
The moment I died, he moved into my house. The Cuckoo Occupies the Magpie's Nest! What a vicious heart…"
At this point, Lu Guanchang's resentment was uncontrollable.
"I was so stupid, raising another man's son for so many years! All the money I worked myself to the bone for has gone to an outsider, while my own flesh and blood suffers out there. How can I accept this?"
After hearing the full story, Shen Siyuan felt no sympathy.
In fact, he kind of wanted to laugh. Serves him right.
You reap what you sow.
Still, Shen Siyuan decided to help him—for the sake of that pitiful mother and daughter, and also to confirm his own theory.