Chapter 27

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

The ding-dong sound nearly made Chen Hao burst out in tears.

Ah, it’s not easy. After doing so much and waiting for so long, the second mission finally arrived.

Damn. His speculation was indeed correct. The first mission came easily as welfare to newbies, and after the newbie period, he could only rely on himself.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Chen Hao gazed at Li Meng with a scorching gaze and said, “Seems like you straightened out your thinking. Go ahead and tell me. What’s your obsession?”

Li Meng looked rather sad as he said in a small voice, “I miss my mom.”

Mm?

Chen Hao paused in surprise. His mom? Could it be that this young fellow’s mother wasn’t by his side?

Chen Hao quickly asked, “Be more detailed.”

Li Meng recounted his story, and by the end of it, Chen Hao’s mouth was hanging open.

Li Meng’s family was pretty complicated, and it had to be recounted starting from his grandpa.

His grandfather was in his younger days, a loafer who did all sorts of illegal things and got into fights all the time. Later, when calamity struck, Li Meng’s grandfather smartly chose to seek refuge with a local big boss and managed to join the Chinese Red Army. Using this identity, he did plenty of wicked deeds and even caused the deaths of a few people.

Later, after the calamity was over, Li Meng’s grandfather cleverly changed tracks and turned back into a good citizen.

However, Li Meng’s father inherited his old man’s terrible personality traits but not his shrewdness. Incorrigible and rash, he finally got into trouble and caused someone to be paralyzed, so he ended up fleeing to another country.

After that, Li Meng was born.

Li Meng knew that he was loved and cared for by a woman when he was young, but somehow, after he returned to his hometown, as he slowly grew up, he only had his father and no mother. When he was seven his father remarried, but that was only his stepmother. His stepmother only showed him concern on the surface, but when no one was around she would beat him up. Li Meng suffered a lot at the hands of that woman.

Because of this, Li Meng fell for his next-door neighbor Li Xueqi who was eight years older than him, as Li Xueqi treated him very well since he was young. She was the only source of warmth in his bitter childhood, and it was only because of her that Li Meng didn’t inherit his grandfather and father’s bad personality traits.

The reason Li Meng went into the water was that he found out that Li Xueqi was sick, so he wanted to go to Willow River to catch a tortoise for Li Xueqi to fortify her body. Alas, this intention of his was affected by the resentment enveloping his house, and with the help of the water ghost in the Willow River, he was drowned to death, causing the Li family to be without descendants.

At this point, it had to be said that because of Li Meng’s grandfather’s mistake, Li Meng’s father only managed to obtain this son outside. When he remarried, his new wife conceived three daughters consecutively, but she miscarried two of them, and the only one who survived was plagued with disease and had to take medicine all the time. Hence, even though his stepmother disliked Li Meng, so long as Li Meng’s old man was still alive, she dared not go overboard.

At the moment of his death, the person who came into Li Meng’s mind wasn’t his family or his crush Li Xueqi, but his biological mother, whose looks had already faded in his memory.

To sum it up, this was a youth who lacked motherly love. Although he found consolation in his big sister neighbor, his love for his biological mother couldn’t be replaced by anything else.

Chen Hao couldn’t help feeling a sour sensation in his heart, and his eyes turned moist.

He thought of his parents at home.

They had been worrying about him for many years. After he started working, he had been busy trying to make money. Come to think of it now, he felt ashamed, because he had never missed his parents at home. Regardless of the reason, he couldn’t conceal his heart, his lack of filial piety. After settling this Stone City matter, I need to find time to go back and accompany my family more. Else, no matter how much money I make, it will all be in vain.

“I get it. Your obsession is wanting to see your biological mother again, right?” Chen Hao asked.

Li Meng nodded hopefully. “Can it be done? I’ve already forgotten what she looks like. Dad never told me her name and address either.”

Chen Hao said with a smile, “Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”

The elated Li Meng’s eyes brimmed with tears. He had been hoping for this for more than ten years. Although he was dead now, he never forgot about his mother. Merely thinking about it made his heart palpitate. The bond between two blood-related people indeed couldn’t be easily broken.

Their conversation made the long-sleeved water ghost suddenly think of something. It seemed to understand something now. Then, it smiled, and there was a bright glow in his eyes.

[Ding-Dong: Water ghost Zhao Yuan, vengeful ghost of 106 years. Fulfill his dying wish and be awarded 10 years’ worth of Dao Attainment]

Shua!

Chen Hao suddenly got up, a drastic change in his countenance.

Dao Attainment! He finally saw Dao Attainment!

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! I’ll take this! Whatever it takes!

Chen Hao couldn’t contain his excitement as he looked at the long-sleeved water ghost with a scorching gaze.

Were the heavens finally opening their eyes? There was no action for a long time, and suddenly, a double voice cracker! What’s more, there was also the Dao Attainment that he had been longing for. Awesome!

The long-sleeved water ghost Zhao Yuan was startled, unable to understand why this master was so excited.

“You understand your obsession now, right. Tell me about it.” Chen Hao tried his best to calm down. He sat down, then guided him with a teacher-like voice.

Zhao Yuan didn’t dare hesitate and quickly recounted his story.

Different from Li Meng, this Zhao Yuan had a tragic story. But similarly, his obsession was his mother.

One hundred over years ago, during the feudal period when great changes were taking place, Zhao Yuan was born in a large family, the Zhao family. That was a large family that occupied a large plot of land.

Zhao Yuan’s father was a collateral relative of the Zhao family and originally was under the protection of his collateral family. Zhao Yuan’s father made a living with his farmlands and was also a pretty good hunter, so his family led a passable life.

But during that era, the chaos caused by the war was commonplace. In order to ensure its family’s prosperity, the Zhao family organized a convoy. Because Zhao Yuan’s father had pretty good marksmanship skills, and also in order to obtain some meager wages, his father joined the convoy. But too bad. During one joint attack of ruffians, Zhao Yuan’s father died during the chaos. Although the ruffians were ultimately defeated, the Zhao family suddenly lost their pillar of support and lived in hardship thereafter.

Thankfully, Zhao Yuan loved learning since young and displayed great talent in studying. His mother had pinned all her hopes on him and worked hard to raise him.

If it weren’t for the fact that it was a turbulent era, perhaps Zhao Yuan might have had the chance to bring glory to his ancestors and become an important pillar of strength for the large Zhao family.

But after Zhao Yuan grew up, the feudal dynasty dissolved. With that, he lost his chance to seek scholarly honor or official rank. Plus, a weak and defenseless scholar like him could only drift with the tide during that era. Never mind reviving his family, he even had difficulty feeding himself.

Zhao Yuan had no choice but to accept the invitation of a scholar friend to go to a rich man’s house in the city to work as a private tutor, in order to earn some money and support his family.

That was the last he saw of his loved ones, and they were since separated by life and death. The two scholars ran into bandits on their way and were murdered and robbed of their money, and their corpses were discarded into the river.

Nonetheless, the two scholars were indeed influenced by the teachings of Confucius, so even though they died an unnatural death, they didn’t turn into ferocious ghosts. They had been hiding their yin bodies under the Willow River and receiving protection from the spiritual aura of the river all these years.

But time changes everything. Just a year ago, Zhao Yuan’s good friend finally could no longer tolerate this endless waiting. Seeing no end in view, he thought of a vicious method.

And that was to find a scapegoat so that he could be reincarnated as a human and get to enjoy a wonderful life in this prosperous age.

Zhao Yuan tried talking him out of it, but his efforts were in vain. In the end, Li Meng was killed.

Too bad that good friend of his wasn’t reincarnated as he had hoped. After his good friend caused the death of the boy, no reincarnation opportunity appeared. Thus, it became more hot-tempered and vicious and even started brewing even more sinister and evil plans.

Later, Chen Hao appeared. One magical artifact and he made that good friend go back to square one. Never mind what vicious plans, he was now hiding in Willow River and didn’t even have the guts to come out anymore.

Zhao Yuan’s obsession was to see the mother who painstakingly brought him up one last time.

“Are you pulling my leg?” Chen Hao was speechless.