Chapter 3 On the Third Day of the Seventh Lunar Month

The third day of the seventh lunar month, Jiawu year, the Year of the Horse, Xinwei month, Xinchou day.

- Suitable for demolishing houses - repairing walls - dispelling disasters - do nothing else -

July 29, 2014, Tuesday, 3:47 PM, the Shao family mansion.

"To lift a curse is undoubtedly 'dispelling a disaster.'"

Arriving at the Shao's residence once again under the pretense of studying together, Su Zhou, wearing contact lenses, stood in the center of Shao Qiming's room. He held a holy water cross bottle in one hand while comforting the nervous Shao Qiming next to him, "Don't worry. The almanac says today is suitable for everything. Watch me activate it a little, and hey!"

As he spoke, a purplish-blue flame surged from Su Zhou's hand, and spiritual power was directly poured into the crucifix inside the holy water bottle.

In an instant, a faint ray of holy light awakened from its slumber, like the morning sun rising from the edge of the horizon—the colorless brilliance shone for only a moment, surprising the two of them, before everything returned to silence.

With Su Zhou's current spiritual power, he was not yet able to fully activate this Great Miracle-level holy relic, only enough to awaken it for a moment.

But, a moment was more than enough.

Putting away the holy water bottle, Su Zhou, feeling somewhat tired, focused his mind and looked downstairs.

In his spiritual vision, he could clearly see that a deep darkness had been illuminated just now, and countless wailing spirits had vanished into thin air in an instant, turning into pure spiritual light spots, slowly dissipating into the world.

Even the evil spirits that had transformed into chains of darkness, comparable to 'Awakened-level' entities, didn't have time to express even a hint of malice or mockery, and dissolved into nothingness in a time frame faster than their consciousness could react, becoming a refreshing wave of spiritual energy.

They didn't even know the coming of death before completely collapsing and disintegrating.

"Huh? I suddenly feel much lighter..."

Meanwhile, Wen Yuefeng, who was watching the TV series *The Ghost Hand of a Forensic Doctor*, suddenly felt a strange lightness in her body. She subconsciously looked around, feeling much happier. The already bright world suddenly became even brighter.

After thinking for a moment, she patted her wheelchair and said loudly, "Sister He, I want steamed pork with rice flour and hot and sour shredded potatoes tonight!"

"Okay! No problem!" Aunt He, who was cleaning, rarely heard Wen Yuefeng ordering food. After a moment of愣, she was overjoyed, "I'll make whatever you want, Ma'am!"

"Haa..."

Upstairs, Shao Qiming, hearing his mother's relaxed tone, let out a breath. His tightly clenched hand loosened, but soon, he clenched it again, and then loosened it once more.

Because of the excessive consumption of spiritual power, Su Zhou closed his eyes and held his breath for a while. After a few seconds, he regained some spiritual power and opened his eyes again, nodding to signal Shao Qiming to go downstairs and present the gift they had prepared long ago.

A string of sandalwood beads.

As Wen Yuefeng held the TV remote control and hummed a little tune while watching TV, she noticed her son walking towards her with a brown wooden box. She was a little surprised, but still asked cheerfully, "Qiming, what's up?"

"A surprise for you, Mom."

Shao Qiming smiled and opened the box, revealing a string of sandalwood beads inside.

The sandalwood was pure black, with a rich, mellow, and lasting fragrance. Each bead was engraved with extremely delicate sacred patterns, making them appear grand and exquisite, understated and luxurious.

"These patterns were designed by me, and A Zhou carved them himself."

Without needing much introduction, Shao Qiming watched with a smile as his mother picked up the string of wooden beads with a surprised expression.

"This..."

Stroking the patterns and recognizing the different ancient emblems on each bead, Wen Yuefeng was about to say something in surprise, but after thinking about it, she deliberately put on a stern face and turned to look at the two people who were blinking and waiting for her comment: "Go, go, little kids, using my money to buy wooden beads and then giving them to me as a gift... borrowing flowers to offer to Buddha, huh?"

"Considering you strung them and carved them yourselves, with so much thought, I won't scold you this time for not studying properly and messing around with all sorts of things all day long—I appreciate the thought, but don't do it again next time, it's a waste of money!"

Although she said that, seeing Wen Yuefeng's delighted expression, holding the string of wooden beads and not wanting to put them down, everyone knew that she was just scolding them verbally, and was actually very happy in her heart.

"This one is for Uncle Shao."

Seizing the opportunity, Su Zhou spoke and stepped forward, handing over another box, and then said with a smile to Wen Yuefeng, "I prepared seven or eight sets, and Aunt Shuangyue He has one too."

"Oh... you shouldn't have, it's too much trouble, he and Sister He will definitely be very happy."

Taking the second box of wooden beads, even Wen Yuefeng couldn't keep a straight face. Although she was really happy, she still sighed, "You two kids, I'm not worried about anything else, but Su Zhou, you have to study hard. Qiming really needs your help... Although he has good grades, his health is like mine. If he doesn't have any friends, I really don't know how he'll live alone at the academy..."

"If you can go to the same academy as Qiming, that would be the best. We'd all be relieved..."

After all, being a parent, Aunt Wen was also quite絮絮叨叨, speaking with all sincerity. Although Su Zhou and Shao Qiming were tired of hearing it, they still listened obediently until Aunt Wen happily put on the string of wooden beads.

"By the way, A Zhou." Maybe it was just psychological, but after putting on the bracelet, Wen Yuefeng really felt much better, feeling a warm current in her heart. Then, she asked with some curiosity, "What about your parents' share?"

Su Zhou smiled and replied, "I gave it to them long ago. I personally delivered my parents' share last night. My dad's reaction was similar to yours, Aunt Wen. My mom seemed to be undergoing some very important surgery, so she asked a familiar colleague to deliver it."

At the same time.

--Look! My son gave me this!

Although he didn't say anything, the constables of the Second Criminal Investigation Brigade, who were compiling data, could see the patrol captain's exquisite sandalwood bead bracelet 'unintentionally' revealed every time they looked up. It was said that it was carved by his son himself...

Hey, I have to say, it's really beautifully carved. Upon closer inspection, there seem to be different dragon patterns on each bead!

--Why doesn't my brat/girl have this much consideration!

Seeing this, the constables who had children were immediately jealous.

"Envious, aren't you? My son gave it to me!"

On the other side, there was no such restraint. A certain deputy director basically showed off to every acquaintance on the way back to his office—since they were so familiar, everyone praised him with a few "uh-huhs," which didn't give him any sense of accomplishment.

"Oh well, I don't care, it's rare for my son to finally know to give his parents gifts."

However, this matter didn't need any praise from others to make him happy.

The Shao residence.

"Knock knock knock."

"Open the door yourself!"

Shao Shuangyue, who was struggling against a giant banyan tree golem wielding a sword and being chased by it, suddenly heard a rhythmic knock on the door behind her. Knowing who it was as soon as she heard it, she shouted grumpily, "Don't interrupt me when I'm fighting a boss next time!"

Then, she continued to focus on the boss fight until a wooden box was placed next to the table.

"Huh? What's this?"

Realizing that she was about to be distracted, Shao Shuangyue immediately paused the game. She took off her headphones and looked up at the two behind her with a strange look in her eyes, "What are you two up to?"

"A souvenir for you." Shao Qiming smiled without saying a word, while Su Zhou shrugged, gesturing for the girl to open it with Cantonese, "And don't forget to thank Ah Zhou Ge!" (Big Brother Zhou)

"Eat bao la you! Let me see what it is..."

Rolling her eyes, Shao Shuangyue, a rebellious, chuuni, game-obsessed girl, replied in Cantonese with squinted eyes. She reached out and opened the wooden box in front of her, revealing a moment of surprise, followed by disgust.

"Wow, no way, a sandalwood bracelet? What an old-fashioned gift... Hey, you're not planning to make a move on me, are you?"

Shao Shuangyue turned her head and looked at Su Zhou and her brother with a disgusted expression, "Zhou Ge, give it a rest, okay? Our relationship is closer than siblings, but if you take me to play online, I might consider being your online girlfriend for a while..."

"Get lost, it's just a gift for you to play with. I really think you're probably the one who needs this the least out of everyone."

"Tch, chauvinist!"

"Says the game-obsessed girl."

The two went back and forth with insults for a while, and Su Zhou couldn't help but sigh—where did the Shuangyue sister go who was always well-behaved except for spraying people and reporting them in online games? He looked around the room with a exorcism power of 135, and deeply felt that the exorcism bracelet he had given away was most likely unnecessary.

"I'm about to leave, Qiming, take care of yourself and pay more attention to Aunt Wen's condition."

Having almost finished dealing with the curse-related matters, Su Zhou was now going home to formulate his next plan. Before leaving, he also patted Shao Shuangyue on the shoulder, "Shuangyue, you too, don't stare at the computer screen all day, aren't you afraid you won't find a boyfriend in the future?"

"I'll live with games, what do I need a smelly man for!"

And before leaving, Su Zhou glanced at Shao Shuangyue's computer screen, where she had already turned her head and started fighting. The huge banyan tree golem model was well-built, and it moved with great power, making it feel very Boss-like.

It seemed that the industry standard had improved again in the half a year that he hadn't played games... That's what he wanted to say.

But when he saw the black, long figures slowly crawling on the banyan tree golem's body, Su Zhou couldn's help but be stunned.

"Wood... wood centipedes?!"