Picking up the mirror again, Zhuang Rui began to observe. Just like last time, although the aura in his eyes followed his gaze onto the mirror, the mirror did not change, and his gaze did not penetrate the mirror. Zhuang Rui only felt that the aura seemed to have circled around the outer edge of the mirror before shrinking back into his eyes.
Unwilling to give up, Zhuang Rui found another book, "Emperor Kangxi" by Er Yuehe. Zhuang Rui liked to read history books when he had nothing to do. He had just bought this set of books not long ago. He had asked his eldest son to pick it up from his place at the hospital. His mother would often read it to him at the hospital to pass the time. This time, he did not return to his residence in Zhonghai after being discharged from the hospital, so he took it with him.
Zhuang Rui placed the 500book "Emperor Kangxi" in front of him without opening it. He then focused his gaze on it, and as before, a flash of green light appeared first, extremely briefly, just like the previous times. After the green light faded, the aura in his eyes touched the cover of the book.
Zhuang Rui felt a little nervous. If he could only see through clothes, then it wouldn't be very useful. Could it be that he was only using his special eyesight for peeping? Zhuang Rui asked himself if he was really that despicable.
When his eyes fell on the page, Zhuang Rui breathed a sigh of relief, because the four characters "Kangxi Emperor" blurred instantly, like ice melting in water, only much faster. Almost instantly, the figure in the dragon robe sitting on the dragon throne in front of Zhuang Rui disappeared, and what reappeared was a series of dense black characters, perfectly clear.
It was page 397. When he withdrew the cool air from his eyes, he paid special attention to the page number. After the cool air returned to his eyes, Zhuang Rui did not feel any discomfort. He quickly turned to page 397, and the familiar words on it confirmed his judgment.
Picking up the book again and placing it about a meter away from him, Zhuang Rui looked at it again. To his surprise, the aura did not touch the book. When it was still more than ten centimeters away, it actually returned to his eyes on its own. All he could see was the cover of the book. The aura was gone, and he could no longer see through it.
Zhuang Rui got busy, and all the items in the train compartment became his experimental subjects, not even sparing the tin kettle. He examined the items from near to far, but fortunately, examining inanimate objects didn't strain his eyes. Zhuang Rui worked on these things for more than an hour before finally stopping.
After several experiments, Zhuang Rui categorized his findings. Firstly, the coolness in his eyes diminished considerably when it acted on the body. Although experiments on his arm showed the coolness was beneficial, it was harmful to his eyes. The coolness that had initially filled his eyes had been reduced to a thin layer after the morning and the previous exposure.
After more than ten days, Zhuang Rui had gotten used to the coolness in his eyes. It kept his eyes in a comfortable but indescribable state. The benefits of this coolness to the eyes were self-evident. Zhuang Rui did not want to exhaust it and make it disappear, so he did not dare to experiment on his body again. However, the idea that the coolness in the eyes was beneficial to the body was confirmed in the experiment just now.
Secondly, he could use the aura in his eyes to penetrate objects with simple molecular structures, such as clothes and books. In the experiment just now, apart from blankets, clothes, and books, other objects in the private room, such as sheet metal, glass, and plywood car walls, which have higher density, could not be penetrated by the cool aura in his eyes. However, looking at these things did not consume the aura, which reassured Zhuang Rui a lot.
Furthermore, the cool air that escapes from the eyes with the gaze has a limited range. If it does not come into contact with any other object within a distance of about 80 centimeters, the cool air will automatically return to the eyes, and the amount will neither increase nor decrease.
After working for more than an hour, Zhuang Rui felt that the aura in his eyes seemed to have a spirit, so he simply gave it a name: spiritual energy.
Having figured out these patterns, Zhuang Rui was somewhat troubled, because the spiritual energy in his eyes was rather elusive. Whenever he focused his gaze on an object, it would appear with his gaze, and it was beyond his control, or rather, he had no way to control it at the moment. It was fine when looking at objects, and it did not harm either the objects or himself, but if he looked at people, it would be bad for him. His most urgent task was to find a way to control this spiritual energy.
"It seems I was able to retract my spiritual energy once..."
Thinking of this, Zhuang Rui picked up the book again, holding it about fifty centimeters in front of his eyes. He focused intently on the book in his hands, muttering to himself, "Don't come out, don't come out..."
At the same time, he tried his best to keep the spiritual energy in his eyes. Just as his gaze fell on the book, Zhuang Rui clearly felt the spiritual energy stir slightly. However, as he wished, the spiritual energy remained in his eyes and did not shoot towards the book. In other words, he could control the spiritual energy with his mental power, or rather, his thoughts.
Unable to contain his joy, Zhuang Rui laughed happily. You see, although being able to see through other people's clothes is a very lewd but also very exciting thing, and the change in his eyes seems to bring him something. He wondered if he could see the winning numbers in the instant lottery.
"Xiao Rui, what are you grinning about over there like an idiot..."
Zhuang Rui's laughter woke his sleeping mother.
Chapter 007 Demolition of Old House
The train, with its long whistle and deafening roar, slowly pulled into Pengcheng Station. As soon as Zhuang Rui stepped off the train, a cold snowflake landed on his neck. The biting north wind made Zhuang Rui wrap his clothes tighter. He then carried his luggage and walked out of the station with his mother.
Pengcheng Railway Station is a major transit hub in China. People traveling south to Shanghai, north to Beijing, and west to Xi'an almost all need to transfer here. Even though it was already past 11 p.m., there were still many people waiting for their trains in the temporary waiting hall set up in the spacious station square. With the Chinese New Year just over ten days away, the biting cold wind made people's faces beam with happy smiles as they looked forward to returning home to see their loved ones.
Zhuang Rui's family owns two properties in this ancient city. One is the family's old house, located at the foot of the scenic Yunlong Mountain. It was the family's ancestral home and was requisitioned during the Cultural Revolution. It was later returned, but Zhuang Rui only spent his childhood there. When he was about ten years old, he moved to another place.
The other place was allocated by the mother's former school. A few years ago, the country implemented housing reform, and the previously allocated houses had to be converted into cash based on years of service. This house was next to the mother's former school. It was not large, only 72 square meters with two bedrooms and a living room. However, the location and floor were very good. The house was also equipped with heating, and shopping and travel were very convenient. Zhuang Rui lived here until he graduated from high school. Last year, he spent more than 30,000 yuan to buy it outright. A few days ago, when Zhuang Rui heard his mother talking about it, he learned that he had received the property certificate last month.
Zhuang Rui hailed a taxi and arrived home in just the starting fare. When he got to the second floor, he saw that the lights were on and knew that his older sister, Zhuang Min, was staying there today. He pushed open the door and was greeted by a wave of heat from the room. A little girl, about two or three years old, was hiding behind her sister, secretly watching Zhuang Rui, who was covered in snowflakes.
"This little girl has been asking to see her uncle all day, and she's still not asleep this late. Now that her uncle is here, she's being shy. Nannan, quickly greet your uncle..."
Zhuang Min said with a smile.
Looking at the two steaming bowls of noodles on the table, each topped with a poached egg, Zhuang Rui felt a surge of warmth in his heart. This was his home. He had lived and worked in Zhonghai for over a year, where he had been sick and huddled in his rented room with no one to care for him, and in the heat he could only take cold showers repeatedly to cool down. Thinking of all this, tears welled up in Zhuang Rui's eyes. At that moment, he had an urge to quit his job in Zhonghai and return here.
"Mommy, Uncle cried, but I've stopped crying now. Uncle is so shameless..."
The child's innocent voice rang out, making everyone in the room laugh.
Zhuang Rui lifted Nannan high, which frightened the little girl so much that she cried out. As soon as he put her down, she hid in her grandmother's arms and dared not approach her uncle again. It wasn't until after dinner that Zhuang Rui took out White Rabbit milk candy, a specialty of Zhonghai, that the little girl became affectionate with her uncle.
After dinner, it was already past midnight. Zhuang Rui washed up and went back to his room. Just like a year ago, nothing had changed. He lay on the bed, looking at the familiar room, and after a long time, Zhuang Rui finally fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, Zhuang Rui took his niece to the park for a day. They rode everything, from seaplanes to carousels, instantly making himself the closest person to his little niece, without a doubt.
Today is Friday. In the evening, my brother-in-law came to my house after get off work, bringing a lot of New Year's goods. Zhuang Rui then remembered that he needed to buy New Year's goods. However, nowadays, people usually go to the supermarket to shop for New Year's goods, which is quite convenient.
"Brother-in-law, how's your factory doing these days?"
After dinner, the family sat on the sofa watching TV and chatting. The little girl climbed all over everyone, but after being glared at by Zhuang Min, she hid in Zhuang Rui's arms.
"Same old story. The restructuring hasn't improved anything. A monthly salary of a thousand or so yuan is enough to keep you from starving, but it's a shame your sister has to suffer with me..."
Zhuang Rui's brother-in-law, Zhao Guodong, was an honest man who worked in a subsidiary of the railway system. Although he had excellent train repair skills, he didn't know how to flatter in a state-owned enterprise, so he could only earn a fixed salary. In those days, those with ability, capital, or connections all went into business. The pain of enterprise restructuring was particularly evident in the early 21st century.
"You're talking nonsense again. Aren't you afraid your younger brother will laugh at you?"
Zhuang Min interrupted her husband, Zhao Guodong, who chuckled and fell silent. Judging from this, Zhuang Min was skilled at managing her husband.
"By the way, Mom, I heard you mention Aunt Xie's house next door last time. Is she going to sell it? Let's buy it. It's good for my sister to live in, or we can rent it out..."
Zhuang Rui suddenly remembered a topic he had discussed with his mother a few days ago. He knew from his time in Zhonghai that housing prices had skyrocketed in the past two years. Last year, the price was just over 3,000 yuan per square meter, but this year it was approaching 6,000 yuan. He heard that prices would rise further after the New Year. Although Pengcheng is located in northern Jiangsu, from a general perspective, buying a few houses now would definitely preserve value.
Zhuang Rui wanted to buy the house for his sister. His brother-in-law's family had many brothers, and their living space was very cramped. His sister had always been very good to him since they were young, and he wanted to buy the house so that his sister's family could move in. In addition, Zhuang's mother was getting old, and it would be much more convenient for his sister to take care of her if she moved in.
"It cost me over 30,000 yuan to buy this house outright, which wiped out all my savings. I don't have any money left to buy another house. Let's wait until you get married. We can sell this house then, add some money, and buy a bigger one."
Although Mrs. Zhuang is old, she is not conservative. After retiring, she and a group of old ladies often dance in the square next to her house. She is quite well-informed. When the topic came up last time, Zhuang Rui suggested buying that house. She was also tempted. The house next door was also allocated by her work unit. Since her colleague has other properties elsewhere, he wanted to sell this one. The layout is the same as her own house. The price is only 10,000 yuan more than the purchase price, so it is a good deal.
"I have 100,000 yuan, Mom. Go ask about it tomorrow. If it's a good deal, we'll buy it. Anyway, this money came out of nowhere. The house will go to my older sister as a dowry for my daughter, haha..."
Zhuang Rui encouraged from the side.
"Uncle, what's the dowry?"
The little guy, biting his finger, lay in Zhuang Rui's arms and asked in confusion.
"You're such a grown man, yet you still can't speak properly. You can't touch that money; you risked your life for it. It's for you to use when you get married..."
Zhuang Min took her daughter in her arms and immediately refused.
“Even if you don’t want the house, you should still buy it. Consider it an investment. Sis, you don’t need to worry about it. I’ll discuss it with Mom…”
When Zhuang Rui was in Zhonghai, he had already decided to leave the 100,000 yuan to his family. He had saved more than 20,000 yuan from his salary last year, which would be enough to rent a better house even if he returned to Zhonghai after the New Year. After all, his salary and benefits would be much higher than before after he was promoted to manager of the pawnshop.
“I think we should buy it. Guodong treats me almost the same as his own son, so giving you a house is no big deal. Besides, Xiaomin, you didn’t get much dowry when you got married, so consider this as making up for it.”
After thinking for a while, Mrs. Zhuang made a decision. Over the years, Zhuang Rui had been studying and working in other places, and her son-in-law had taken care of all the big and small things at home. Seeing that her son was willing, she naturally would not object.
"Alright, that's enough. By the way, Guodong, you and Xiaorui go to the old house tomorrow. It's going to be demolished soon, and then we'll have another house. There are some things we need to bring back. I've packed them all up, so you can just rent a car and bring them back..."
Seeing that her son-in-law seemed about to decline, Zhuang's mother changed the subject.
"Is the old house going to be demolished?"
This was the first time Zhuang Rui had heard his mother mention this matter, and for a moment, his heart was filled with mixed emotions, a mixture of sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy feelings.
Chapter 008 The Old House
Zhuang Rui's feelings toward the old house are complicated. In his hazy memory, his father's image is linked to the old house. His memories before the age of five are beautiful. He nestled in his father's arms, eating dates picked from the date tree in the old house's yard, and listening to his father tell Andersen's fairy tales. Undoubtedly, Zhuang Rui was happiest during those times.
But after his father passed away, everything changed. The huge old house became lifeless. When he was ten years old, his mother was allocated a house, and they moved away from there to their current residence. Over the years, Zhuang Rui has rarely gone to the old house, mainly because he doesn't want to face his father who has been dead for many years. Losing one's father in childhood is an unbearable pain for many people.
The old house is located at the foot of Yunlong Mountain, a famous scenic spot in Pengcheng. A few hundred meters in front of it is the Pengcheng Museum, which displays a jade burial suit and attracts many domestic and foreign tourists every day.
Not far behind the old house, on Hubu Hill, lies the Xima Terrace, a famous scenic spot where the peerless hero Xiang Yu, after destroying the Qin Dynasty, established himself as the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, made Pengcheng his capital, and built the Congtai Terrace for watching horse shows, military drills, and military reviews. Historically, it was listed as one of the three treasures of Jiangsu, along with the Suzhou gardens and the Six Dynasties stone carvings of Nanjing. However, it was destroyed in the war and did not survive as well as the other two scenic spots mentioned above.
Throughout history, various dynasties constructed numerous buildings on the Ximatai site, including the platform itself, the Sanyi Temple, the Minghuan Temple, the Jukui Academy, the Songcui Mountain Villa, and a stele pavilion. With the passage of time and changing circumstances, these former buildings were almost entirely lost. After restoration, Ximatai has reappeared in its magnificent and resplendent form. As a child, Zhuang Rui and his friends often secretly sneaked inside to play and frolic. ...
The next morning, Zhuang Rui and his brother-in-law headed to the old house, but the rented car could only be parked at the entrance of the alley. Zhuang Rui and his brother-in-law got out of the car and walked towards the old house through the thick snow.
Zhuang Rui's old house has three single-story houses and a spacious courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard is a tall jujube tree, under which there is a stone table and several stone benches. I remember when I was a child, every summer, the whole family would sit on the stone benches in the courtyard to eat and cool off. Now the stone benches have been unused for a long time and are covered with moss.
Originally, Mrs. Zhuang would come here to clean once a month, but now that the area is about to be demolished, she has stopped coming after packing up her belongings. The spacious courtyard is overgrown with weeds, and a large "Demolish" sign is written on the outer wall. Since construction will begin here after the New Year, the neighboring residents have already moved away. While other places are filled with the festive atmosphere of the New Year, this place seems somewhat desolate and lonely.
The middle room was where Zhuang Rui's grandfather used to live. After his grandfather passed away, the room was left empty and was used to store miscellaneous items. When Zhuang Rui was a child, he always felt that the room was gloomy and never dared to go in. As he grew up, he visited the old house less often and lost interest in going in.
Zhuang Rui only knew from his mother that his grandfather, whom he had never met, was a geologist who had worked in the Yunnan-Burma region after the liberation. It was for this reason that he was falsely accused of colluding with the enemy during the turbulent ten years and was persecuted. This also implicated Zhuang Rui's grandmother, causing the two elderly people to pass away at an early age.
"Xiao Rui, it's very dusty inside, don't come in. I'll move the things out, you can help me out from outside..."
When his brother-in-law opened the door to the middle room, a cloud of dust rushed out, choking Zhuang Rui so much that he had to back away, coughing incessantly.
The sunlight reflecting off the snow shone into the house, where two rectangular wooden boxes, each about a meter in size, were faintly visible in the corner. The two had come to take these two boxes home; the rest of the smaller items had already been taken back by the mother.
“It’s alright, I rarely go into Grandpa’s room. This house will be gone soon anyway, let’s go in and take a look. This box is big, hey, it’s really heavy, let’s carry it out together…”
Zhuang Rui went back into the room, picked up a corner of the box and tried it out, feeling its weight.
Nowadays, few people use heavy wooden boxes to store things. These two boxes must be old items left over from the past. The lacquer on the outside of the boxes has peeled off a bit. There are also some floral patterns carved on the surface of the boxes. Two iron locks are hung on the exquisitely crafted lock lugs.
Zhuang Rui had originally planned to visit Xima Terrace today, but seeing these two large boxes completely dashed his hopes.
The box was incredibly heavy, and the two of them were drenched in sweat after carrying it to their car and driving it home. However, they received some good news as soon as they got home: the house next door was basically settled. Their mother's colleague had agreed to handle the transfer of ownership after the New Year, and the price was set at 38,000 yuan, which was several thousand yuan lower than the initial price. This made Zhuang Rui and Zhao Guodong very happy.
After helping to move the boxes, Zhao Guodong said goodbye and left. After all, the New Year was approaching, and he had a lot of things to do at his parents' house. After his brother-in-law left, his mother was going to visit some old colleagues, leaving Zhuang Rui alone at home.
Looking at the two large boxes placed in his room, Zhuang Rui had an urge to open them and take a look. After all, all the memories of the past would be lost with the demolition of that house, and these things left behind by the elders would become extremely precious in the eyes of the younger generation.
Zhuang Rui found a few keys in his mother's room drawer and tried them. Sure enough, they opened the two boxes. Zhuang Rui was overjoyed and quickly opened one of the boxes. He found that it was full of books. The covers of the books were yellowed, indicating that the books were quite old.
Zhuang Rui carefully picked up a book from the box, checked the publication date, and discovered that it was actually Li Siguang's original work, the 1953 edition of "Geology of China". After opening it, he saw a large number of pictures of biological fossils and maps. After a quick look, Zhuang Rui carefully put the book back. He believed that this 1953 edition could only be found in some larger libraries now.
He flipped through the boxes and found they were full of geology books, which made Zhuang Rui lose interest. He opened another box, which contained bundles of letters and stacks of notebooks. In one corner of the box, there were four or five dark, fist-sized stones.
"No wonder the box is so heavy. Why did Mother put a few stones inside?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback and couldn't help but complain.
Zhuang Rui picked up a letter at random, opened it, and was immediately stunned. The entire letter was written with a brush, and the signature at the end was "Li Siguang." Zhuang Rui quickly read it carefully. The letter was not long; it was probably a reply from this respected scientist to his grandfather. In the letter, he described in detail the geology and landforms of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Myanmar, using very professional terminology. Zhuang Rui couldn't understand many of the words, but he was certain that it was a handwritten letter from Li Siguang.
Zhuang Rui was surprised to find that his grandfather knew the great scientist he had admired since childhood. This piqued Zhuang Rui's interest, so he began to sort through his grandfather's letters. He took out the few dark stones that were in the way and threw them under the bed. If he hadn't been afraid of the trouble, Zhuang Rui would have thrown them into the garbage dump downstairs.
After quickly flipping through the letters, which were mostly correspondence between his grandfather and some classmates and teachers to exchange professional information, Zhuang Rui became a little impatient after reading only a small part of them. There was still a thick layer of letters left in the box, because he found some of the terminology quite difficult to read.
Putting down the letter he was reading, Zhuang Rui had a sudden thought. If he used his spiritual energy, it seemed he could read it without opening the envelope. With that thought, Zhuang Rui focused his gaze on the bottom of the box. A flash of blue light appeared, and spiritual energy also escaped from his eyes.
"Huh!"
Zhuang Rui suddenly exclaimed in surprise, because just as his eyes peered through a stack of letters and down to the bottom of the box, two scrolls came into view. To his astonishment, after the spiritual energy penetrated the scrolls, it seemed that an aura within the scrolls merged into the spiritual energy in his eyes. Then, the spiritual energy returned to his eyes on its own, and Zhuang Rui could clearly feel that the spiritual energy, which had been thin and only a layer deep, had become much thicker.
Zhuang Rui felt as if he had just used eye drops; his eyes were cool but slightly sore. He closed his eyes slightly, and when he opened them again, the whole room seemed to have become much brighter.
Chapter 009 Alliance of Saints