Mutated Tao

Whoosh!

Li Huowang was so frightened that he abruptly stood up, and then took a few steps back.

The sound of the stool being overturned immediately caught the attention of the stall owner, causing him to approach cautiously. “Dear customer, what’s the matter? Were the noodles not tasty or was the soup not to your liking? Shall I get you another bowl?”

However, Li Huowang just glanced at him with an ugly expression, and then at his pregnant wife. Then, without a single word, he threw down a piece of silver and boarded his carriage before hastily leaving.

“Sir, you’ve paid too much. A bowl of noodles doesn’t cost this much!” called out the stall owner.

However, the stall owner’s voice only seemed to make the carriage leave even faster.

On the speeding carriage, Li Huowang had a strange look on his face as he clutched his stomach.

What's going on? Did Black Taisui just repeat that phrase by copying what that man was saying, or does it really think that I'm its father?

Previously, he had always believed that the Black Taisui, like Dan Yangzi from before, existed solely to take over other people's bodies.

“Daddy?”

The voice rang out again, only to be met with Li Huowang’s immediate rebuttal. “Don’t call me Daddy!”

“Why?”

Black Taisui's words momentarily left Li Huowang speechless. However, after some thought, he regained his composure.

Why couldn't it call him that? This matter might not necessarily be bad for him.

——————————————

The crowing of a rooster woke up Yang Xiaohai. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He still found living alone in a room to be a bit challenging to adapt to.

In the first few days, he couldn't sleep well without the smell of his Senior Cao Cao’s stinky feet.

Yang Xiaohai got up and started to stretch lazily before putting on his clothes.

At his age, as he grew day by day, and so the Daoist robes he wore before had obviously become too short for him to fit.

Faced with the cold morning wind, Yang Xiaohai, shrunk his neck downward and walked toward the kitchen.

Living in Cowheart Village was much better than staying outside. There was a well in the courtyard across from the kitchen, making it quite convenient for all of them to wash their clothes and dishes without having to fetch water early in the morning.

After heating up some water and putting the soaked rice on the stove, Yang Xiaohai started to cook porridge in a practiced fashion.

Although porridge was a simple dish, the way it was made mattered. If cooked slowly and carefully, then the rice oil would emerge from within and give the whole dish a unique flavor.

Yang Xiaohai opened the jar of pickled vegetables, and then picked some of them out with his chopsticks and began to cut them into strips on the cutting board.

The focused Yang Xiaohai was interrupted by a set of footsteps. He looked up and saw that it was the plump lady.

“Little fellow, you’re up so early again today,” said the plump woman as she held a new set of men’s clothes in her arms.

“Bring out the leftover tofu from last night, and have it with the porridge,” Yang Xiaohai told her. As said this, he couldn’t help but feel emotional; their days were now so good that they even had leftovers.

“Okay,” replied the woman as she obediently followed the instructions.

After the porridge and vegetables were prepared, the rest of them also came to the hall for their meal.

At this point, Li Huowang had been gone for a long time, and everyone here had already grown accustomed to it. Even so, all of them felt a little empty in their hearts; since they had nobody ordering them around, it was as though they had lost their backbone.

None of them bore a grudge against him for the hurtful words from before. After all, they had gone through life and death together, and their wills had grown stronger. Even if Li Huowang were to scold them for an entire night, they would just laugh and brush it off.

But they were not blind, and they all could tell that Li Huowang had left.

At the same time, Bai Lingmiao hadn’t revealed a single smile ever since his departure, and her approachable aura had also waned considerably. It seemed like she had become a block of ice that repelled people.

Chun Xiaoman sighed, then picked up a piece of vegetable with her chopsticks and placed it into Bai Lingmiao’s bowl. She had been accompanying her to sleep all this while, just in case she had any thoughts about trying to harm herself.

Bai Lingmiao picked up the piece of vegetable and gnawed on it.

“That, Miss Bai.”

Lu Zhuangyuan’s words caused Bai Lingmiao to look over as she blinked and asked, “Troupe Leader Lu, what’s the matter?”

“You see, we’ve already rested here for such a long time. I feel that the Lu Family Troupe can begin to work now. Since the farmers finished harvesting during autumn, they will now be preparing for winter, and would thus be free to watch our show.”

“Alright, but since it's the Mid-Autumn Festival now, how about we leave after that?” suggested Bai Lingmiao.

Hearing this, Troupe Leader Lu nodded awkwardly, “That’s alright.”

Originally, he had wanted to use this opportunity to bring his family out so that they could be exempted from having to awkwardly continue living in this village. However, since the other party had already stated so, they could only follow.

It had already been so long, and he had already made his inquiries. He knew that this girl’s entire family had died, and that it wouldn’t be a pleasant Mid-Autumn festival for her.

“I’ll make the mooncakes!” Yang Xiaohai volunteered bravely. “Back then, that Baldy used to have us make mooncakes for every Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, among the assistants, I was the one who made them the fastest and the best!”

Seeing Chun Xiaoman glance at him, Yang Xiaohai paused, and then quickly sat back down as he continued with his breakfast.

After the meal, Yang Xiaohai took out the mooncake mold. They could only get this thanks to the Bai Village having whatever they needed, otherwise it was not something that could be acquired so easily.

Meanwhile, Puppy pretended to peer out from the kitchen. “Xiaohai, do you need my help?”

“No, I can manage on my own.”

“Alright, then I’ll wait to eat it at night. In the meantime, I’ll bring Gao Zhijian to tile up the kiln,” said Puppy.

All of them hustled and bustled for the entire day. As night fell, the bright moon hung high in the sky. Pastries and snacks were bought from the traveling merchant, while mooncakes were stacked on the table.

Wine was definitely needed while appreciating the moon. Thus, a bottle of cellar wine was also brought out.

Bai Lingmiao was seated at the main seat as she raised her glass to toast the others. “A full moon, and a table full of people. May all things go well for us. I wish each and every one of you peace and prosperity!”

Everyone looked around and raised their glasses as they mumbled back unclearly.

After downing her wine, Bai Lingmiao’s eyes were a little red as she said, “Come, don’t just drink. Let’s have some mooncakes too. Junior Yang’s mooncakes look quite great. They must be very delicious!”

As she spoke, she picked up a piece of mooncake and started gnawing on it.

As she looked at their cautious expressions, Bai Lingmiao suddenly burst out laughing and said, “Look at how forgetful I am becoming. I didn’t even change the offerings in the ancestral hall for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone, please enjoy the food. I’ll return shortly after changing them.”

Then, she picked up a stack of mooncakes before heading toward the Bai Family’s ancestral hall.

After she left, the rest were finally able to relax. Puppy even tugged at his sleeves and commented, “Ah, this is rather unbearable.”

“You guys eat first. I’ll go check on her,” said Chun Xiaoman as she followed after her.

However, Gao Zhijian held her hand and shook his head slightly, “Let… let her… be alone… for a while!”

Meanwhile, Bai Lingmiao placed the mooncakes before the ancestral tablets and said, “Everyone, please have the mooncakes. These mooncakes that were made by Junior Yang are pretty good.”

All these ancestral tablets were new and placed neatly quite neatly. All of them belonged to the various members of the Bai Village, be it male, female, young, or old. The white characters that marked the black tablets formed a massive black wall that bore down on the last descendant of the Bai family with a sense of oppression.

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