Rebirth of the Genius Charlatan

Chapter 9 – Heading up the Mountain

The paved road was lined with pine trees, a lush scene even in the cold early spring in the north.
At the bottom of the mountain came an old man and a young child which were naturally Old Uncle Wang and Xia Shao respectively.

Old Uncle Wang walked ahead and stole a glance back at the little girl following behind him.

He had managed to convince Xia GuoXi to agree to let him bring Xia Shao up the mountain to meet Old Mr.
Tang, but this little child was just too strange! She didn’t even ask a single question along the way.

Generally speaking, children were always curious, especially when they were taken to meet strangers, so they would always ask questions along the way, right?

Old Uncle Wang was the chief of the village and had watched Xia Shao growing up.
This child was timid and not very talkative since she was a child, so when she was led to meet a stranger, she should have been very resistant.
At least she would look uncomfortable or cry a little.

However, look at her, she was walking along the mountain road in a leisurely manner, looking at the pine forest on both sides of the road from time to time.
She seem so relaxed with a light smile on her face.

The afternoon sunlight fell on her in a fragmented manner, which gave her an aura of elegance.

That aura instantly made Old Uncle Wang think that his eyes were mistaken, how was this a child, it was clearly an adult! Moreover, in Old Uncle Wang’s experiences, he had not seen many adults that had such aura.

Old Uncle Wang shook his head, Xiao Shao this child, after the New Year, it seems that her temperament had changed……

He shook his head as he led Xia Shao up the mountain, not knowing that the reason Xia Shao was so calm was that she had already used her Divine Eyes to foresee what was going to happen next.

Moreover, after experiencing a rebirth and having the Divine Eyes, this matter was not enough to alarm Xia Shao in her opinion.

It was true that one’s mind and perception grow after experiencing some major changes.
The calmness she had now was not even comparable to what she had in her previous life.

The two of them had walked up the mountain road for about half an hour when they finally saw the mansion.

The mansion was hidden in the forest halfway up the mountain, and Xia Shao, who studied architecture in her previous life, could tell with just a single glance that it was a traditional *courtyard-style mansion, and judging from the depth of the walls, there should be at least three sectors.

(T/N: 四合院 Si He Yuan means traditional courtyard mansion and usually has three sectors, the front entrance, the living room, and lastly the bedrooms.)

At this moment, the door was slightly ajar.
Old Uncle Wang called out respectfully through the door but there was no sound inside, and nobody came out to open the door.

Old Uncle Wang wondered: “What’s going on here? Why was the door ajar and no one answered? Did something go wrong?”

Old Mr.
Tang was elderly with disabled legs and he was the only one living in this mansion.
It was not impossible to say that he might suddenly fall ill or so.

What if something happened to him suddenly, Old Uncle Wand would not be able to handle the consequences.
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, so he pushed the door open and rushed in as soon as possible.

After taking two steps forward, he then remembered and turned around to Xia Shao who had followed him in and said: “Wait here, don’t run around.”

Xia Shao nodded her head while Old Uncle Wang rushed into the house to check.

When she saw his figure disappear, Xia Shao slowly smiled.
She could guarantee that Old Mr.
Tang was fine because, in the scene foreseen by the Divine Eyes, there was a scene of an old man in a wheelchair speaking with Old Uncle Wang, so it was clear that nothing serious happened to old Mr.
Tang!

Xia Shao couldn’t guess why the old man was making things look unnecessarily mysterious.
Thus, she just gave up since he had requested her to come up to the mountain and meet him, so why should she bother?

She was interested in this mansion instead! Ever since she had stepped in, she felt an indescribable sense of comfort.

In this era, industrial pollution was still rare, especially in the countryside, and the air was incredibly clean.
However, this mansion gave Xia Shao the feeling that the air was even fresher than those in the mountain!

Xia Shao couldn’t help but use her Divine Eyes, and was a little surprised to see that the whole mansion was extremely vibrant as if all the energy of heaven and earth had gathered in here! She couldn’t help but take a step and entered the first sector of the courtyard mansion.

When she stepped in, Xia Shao was fascinated by the view.

Although it was early spring, the bonsai was predominantly green, with pomegranate trees, golden and silver laurel, sparrow, gardenia, and other flowers and trees that are elegant and pleasant.

In addition, the lotus tank, goldfish pond, the courtyard was designed interestingly by layers including the ancient and elegant looking pavilion.

After a brief glance, Xia Shao concluded that Old Mr.
Tang who lived here must be a master of Feng Shui if he was the one who arranged all the things in this courtyard!

At least Xia Shao had taken an elective course in Feng Shui theory at University, so even without using her Divine Eyes, she could see that every arrangement in this courtyard was extremely well placed.

However, after using her Divine eyes, Xia Shao found that every piece of decoration in the area had a drawing and gathering effect on the spiritual energy in the courtyard, which made her even more convinced that the Feng Shui theory was indeed true!

After looking at the Feng Shui in the courtyard, Xia Shao was really interested in meeting with this old Mr.
Tang who wanted to see her today!

In her previous life, she had no contact with this old Mr.
Tang and she didn’t even know his surname was Tang! He had to recuperate in the village, therefore he built a mansion in the back of the mountain.

Although he gave the villagers a generous compensation, Xia GuoXi didn’t stop nagging behind old Mr.Tang’s back when he was at home, and whenever he drank some alcohol, he would scold the old man a few times.

He despised those powerful people the most, and poor old Mr.
Tang in Xia GuoXi’s eyes was a typical example of having the wealth and power to do whatever they wanted.
Xia GuoXi even sternly warned Xia Shao to stay away from this mansion when she went playing in the mountains during the usual days!

Xia Shao was very afraid of her grandfather at that time, so naturally, she didn’t dare to disobey him.
Later, she paid little attention to the back of the mountain and didn’t even know when the people living inside it had moved away.

Today, when Old Uncle Wang suggested that it was old Mr.
Tang who wanted to meet Xia Shao, Xia GuoXi being suspicious of old Mr.
Tang, naturally refused sternly.

Luckily, there was Professor Zhou present at that time, who persuaded him nicely: “Mr.
Xia, I’ve heard that this old man is already very elderly, and in terms of age, he is even older than you.
He has difficulty with his legs and is an elder, so if you refuse it, it would be unjustified in terms of etiquette, wouldn’t it?”

Professor Zhou was indeed a professor at the University of Beijing, and he was able to persuade people skilfully.
Xia GuoXi always care about his reputation and had high regard for respect and etiquette, so he reluctantly agreed.

In fact, even if Xia GuoXi didn’t agree today, Xia Shao would still find a way to come out and follow Old Uncle Wang up the mountain.

Perhaps because of activating the Divine Eyes, even though she couldn’t foresee her affairs, Xia Shao felt that her intuition was much sharper than before!

She had a feeling in her gut that it would be important for her to head up to the mountain today! Just how important, she couldn’t tell it but her gut feeling insisted her that she had to do it!

Xia Shao took a few deep breaths of the fresh air in the courtyard and when she saw that Old Uncle Wang had not yet come out, she planned to take another look around the courtyard.

Just then, she suddenly heard a clanging sound in front of the front yard.

“Clang!”

Followed by the sound of the old man wailing.

“Aiyoooooo…….
My poor old bones……”

Xia Shao was startled when she heard the voice coming from the second sector of the courtyard, so without hesitation, she ran over to it.