Chapter 126: Marrying the God of Wealth
With the bystanders’ help, Ye Chenyan finally made it back to the Ye residence without further incident.
Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten why he had fled the place to begin with.
The gates slowly closed behind him. Master Ye sat squarely outside in a grand armchair, smiling with grandfatherly warmth.
“You’re back?”
Ye Chenyan’s gaze darted away. “...Mm.”
Master Ye’s smile deepened. He slapped his thigh, sprang to his feet, grabbed the rattan switch lying beside him, and took off after his son.
“You little brat! So you do know how to come home!”
Ye Chenyan turned and ran.
He might have lost access to his cultivation, but handling a few ordinary mortals was still no trouble. Yet for some reason, the instant he saw Master Ye rise with that switch in hand, his skin tightened on instinct...
Perhaps this, too, was a form of bloodline suppression.
Ye Chenyan nimbly pivoted around a pillar and dodged the strike. Master Ye nearly threw out his back trying to follow the fancy maneuver, and the household guards rushed over in alarm.
“Master! Master!”
“You unfilial wretch!” Master Ye shouted furiously. “Since when were you so nimble?”
Ye Chenyan’s steps faltered.
He suddenly remembered that he was currently supposed to be the frail and unathletic Young Master Ye. Clearing his throat, he said, “My life was at stake. I exceeded my usual limits.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Good thing he was currently a God of Wealth statue. Otherwise, he would never have managed to hold back his laughter.
Ye Chenyan did not linger after saying that. He slipped straight toward his bedroom.
The maid he had met that morning had left the door open for him. Only after letting him inside did she shut it again with a terrified expression.
Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “What are you panicking about?”
The maid looked ready to cry. “Young Master, why did you come back so soon? Madam only just let Master coax her into going out to buy rouge. She won’t be back in time to save you!”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
“Ahem. I don’t need her to save me. Just guard the door. He can’t do anything as long as he can’t get in.”
The maid opened her mouth, then suddenly sniffed.
“Young Master, do you smell—”
From outside, the steward called anxiously through the door.
“Young Master! Please come out! Master is furious. He says he’s going to burn the room down!”
Yu Qingtang: “Whoa.”
The maid turned around in confusion. “Who said that?”
Ye Chenyan covered the God of Wealth’s mouth, his expression perfectly composed.
“I did.”
The maid’s eyes filled with tears. “Huh? Th-Then what do we do now, Young Master?”
Ye Chenyan sat down and poured himself a cup of tea.
“We wait for reinforcements. Is he really going to burn down his own house?”
The steward reminded him from outside, “Young Master, please come out! They’ve already brought the oil over! Once it gets splashed on the windows, the smell will be awful, and it’ll be hard to clean off!”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
The maid ventured cautiously, “Young Master, perhaps we should... go outside and beg Master for mercy?”
Before Ye Chenyan could answer, she abruptly flung the door open and shouted, “Master, please show mercy! The Young Master is the only heir our family has!”
Master Ye had already had the grand armchair brought over again. He reclined in it lazily, peering through the open doorway with a cold sneer.
“Go on, then. Keep hiding. Let’s see who really calls the shots in this family.”
Ye Chenyan said, “...Your wife.”
Master Ye thrust out a finger, eyes bulging. “Nonsense! You think I’m afraid of her?”
Ye Chenyan suddenly glanced behind him. “Oh!”
Master Ye sprang to his feet with a start.
When he saw that there was no one behind him, he slowly turned back, pointing at Ye Chenyan with a trembling hand.
“Y-You! You’re going to be the death of me!”
“Today, I’m going to—”
Then he spotted the God of Wealth statue Ye Chenyan had placed on the table and froze.
“Wait! Where did you get that statue of the God of Wealth?”
Ye Chenyan glanced back at it. His eyes shifted slightly as he cleared his throat.
“Uh... I found it.”
“Ridiculous!” Master Ye huffed, bristling with anger. “You—”
Ye Chenyan expected another scolding.
Instead, Master Ye hurriedly rose from his chair and strode into the room. He carefully circled the statue once.
“This is the God of Wealth! How can you simply ‘find’ him? You have to respectfully invite him into your home!”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Master Ye was already beckoning to the servants.
“Where is everyone? Go check the kitchen and see whether tonight’s dishes are suitable as offerings. Bring them over for the God of Wealth! And fetch some seasonal fruit too.”
He could not help turning toward Ye Chenyan. His expression had actually softened somewhat.
“You brat. You used to dabble in both scholarship and martial arts even though you had no talent for either. You stubbornly refused to learn business from me. What changed today? What made you invite a God of Wealth statue home? Have you finally turned over a new leaf?”
Ye Chenyan’s expression turned strange.
“Perhaps... I’ve reached that age? I’ve started liking money?”
Master Ye gave a cold laugh. “Well, that’s wonderful.”
“Otherwise, you’d keep spending my money every day while pretending to be above it all, as though money simply blew in on the wind or fell from the sky.”
The Ye household’s servants were remarkably efficient. Before long, they had brought in enough offerings to cover the entire table.
Yu Qingtang could see everything but eat nothing. All he could do was weep silently inside.
Ye Chenyan picked up a mandarin orange and peeled it at an unhurried pace. Then he tried placing it on the jade scepter held in the God of Wealth statue’s hands.
Master Ye smacked his hand away and glared at him.
“What are you doing? Show the God of Wealth some respect!”
Ye Chenyan said, “...Letting the God of Wealth smell the orange.”
The maid suddenly announced in delight, “Young Master! Madam is back!”
Master Ye slapped his thigh. “Damn it! I haven’t beaten you yet!”
Ye Chenyan smiled faintly. “I thought you weren’t afraid of her.”
Master Ye’s mustache bristled with fury. “Why, you—I really am going to—”
He raised his hand high and looked Ye Chenyan up and down, searching for somewhere to strike.
In the end, he merely brought his palm down with a smack on Ye Chenyan’s shoulder.
“That’ll teach you!”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
He had known it. The fact that their Young Master Ye had failed at both scholarship and martial arts had quite a lot to do with the way this family had raised him.
“Master!” Madam Ye entered with elegant, dignified bearing, but her smile was especially radiant. “Guess what wonderful thing happened to me today!”
Without waiting for Master Ye to ask, she launched straight into the story.
“I went to the eastern part of the city today and saw the proprietor of Welcoming Guests Restaurant fighting with his head chef. Oh, what a spectacle that was!”
She clapped her hands gleefully.
“I asked around and learned that the proprietor truly was a rotten piece of work. So I joined the crowd and told the chef I’d acquire a restaurant for him if he came to work for our family. And he actually agreed!”
Master Ye’s eyes lit up. “You mean Chef Zhou, the one with the excellent skills?”
“That’s right!” Madam Ye nodded quickly, her eyes shining. “With his reputation, there’s no way we’ll lose money! We still haven’t decided what business to put in that building we recently acquired in the western part of the city, have we?”
“We’ll open a restaurant!” she declared proudly. “Everyone saw me step forward to help him today. If we strike while the iron is hot and open as soon as possible, there’s bound to be profit in it!”
“Excellent!” Master Ye beamed. “That really is wonderful news!”
He could not help turning toward the God of Wealth statue on the table, his smile growing even more sincere.
“What extraordinary good fortune!”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
I didn’t do anything. How am I getting praised for this?
Master Ye was still smiling broadly when he said, “By the way, I heard a commotion outside. Was that because...”
“Uh...” Madam Ye stiffened for a moment, then gave two dry laughs. “The—the neighbors were simply being enthusiastic.”
She shot Ye Chenyan a look.
He immediately picked up the thread. “Speaking of which, I heard some people outside talking about soul-loss sickness today.”
As expected, the new subject drew Master Ye’s attention. His brows knitted together.
“You ran into one of those cases? Hurry and bow to the God of Wealth to rid yourself of the bad luck.”
Yu Qingtang was even more speechless.
Does that fall under my jurisdiction too?
Ye Chenyan cooperated fully, making a show of bowing before asking, “Is soul-loss sickness really that common? Everyone seemed completely accustomed to it.”
“It isn’t particularly rare anymore,” Madam Ye said with a sigh. “Do you remember the second son of the Zhang family, who grew up with you?”
“Ever since he came down with soul-loss sickness, he’s insisted that he’s a girl whenever he wakes up. He even claims to be a fairy from the heavens who suffered a calamity and became a mortal...”
Madam Ye shook her head repeatedly.
“His poor mother has cried her eyes out.”
She turned toward Ye Chenyan, tears actually gathering in her eyes.
“If my son ever came down with soul-loss sickness, I truly wouldn’t know what to do.”
“Oh, why are you crying all of a sudden?” Master Ye hurriedly comforted her. “If that rotten brat of ours lost his soul, he might actually become more dependable than he was before!”
Ye Chenyan chuckled softly.
He knew these people were most likely illusions inside the Reincarnation Pill. He also knew that the rules had dulled their perceptions so thoroughly that they could not even tell their son had long since been replaced by someone else.
Even so, the parental affection he had never possessed stirred an inexplicable warmth in his heart.
He said quietly, “You may say that, but in truth, he’s still the rotten brat you cherish most.”
Master Ye scoffed. “Shameless.”
Ye Chenyan laughed under his breath, but he had not forgotten the matter at hand.
“Is there no way to cure soul-loss sickness? I heard someone say Physician Sun might be able to treat it.”
“That only works for mild cases,” Madam Ye said with another sigh. “If even Physician Sun can’t cure them, they have to be sent to the Daoist temple to see Celestial Master Jiang.”
“I don’t know how he treats them, but they usually recover after staying there for ten days or half a month. They do lose a portion of their memories, though.”
Physician Sun. Celestial Master Jiang.
Ye Chenyan committed both names to memory. He suspected they were connected to the old Pill King and decided he would have to investigate them later.
Another clamor arose outside.
Master Ye frowned. “Why are they still making noise?”
The steward had already gone to the entrance to investigate. When he returned, he gave Ye Chenyan a strained smile, then leaned close and whispered into Master Ye’s ear.
Ye Chenyan’s brow twitched.
He had a bad feeling about this.
Sure enough, once Master Ye finished listening, he flew into a rage. Pointing at Ye Chenyan, he roared in disbelief, “You stole this God of Wealth statue from the Yu family?”
Ye Chenyan: “...”
Even Madam Ye’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“What? Why—why would you steal that?”
Master Ye paced a circle around the room in agitation.
“You! I—!”
He clapped his hands at Ye Chenyan in fury.
“I told you to go to the Yu family and bring back a wife! Why did you go there and bring back their God of Wealth statue instead?”
Ye Chenyan guiltily looked away.
“...I felt a destined connection with him.”
“You!” Master Ye pointed at him with a trembling finger. “Do you think I don’t know you?”
“You simply haven’t had enough fun yet and don’t want to marry!”
“Just look at yourself!” Master Ye was furious at his failure to live up to expectations. “You’ve accomplished nothing in scholarship or martial arts. All you do is posture as a refined gentleman! Right now, you’re the one who doesn’t want a bride. But if you keep fooling around like this, by the time you do want one, what decent young lady will still be willing to marry you?”
Ye Chenyan picked at his ear and muttered, “I don’t want a young lady anyway.”
“Then what do you want?” Master Ye demanded furiously. “The Yu family has such a fine young lady, yet even she isn’t good enough for you! Tell me, then—who exactly do you plan to marry?”
Ye Chenyan’s gaze swept across the God of Wealth statue on the table.
Yu Qingtang had been sitting perfectly still and enjoying the spectacle, but a sudden sense of foreboding came over him.
Ye Chenyan abruptly laughed. Pointing at him, he said, “I’ll marry the God of Wealth.”
Yu Qingtang: “...”
Impressive, Ye Chenyan. You truly have no fear of angering Master Ye to death.
Master Ye stared at him in stunned silence, unable to recover from that earth-shattering declaration.
When he finally processed it, he looked at the God of Wealth statue, then back at Ye Chenyan.
His hand trembled as he pointed, and after struggling for a long while, he finally forced out one sentence.
“As if you’re worthy!”