He casually summoned the Records of the Nine Provinces and asked if there was any solution.
As the saying goes, "the onlooker sees more of the game than the player"... This saying best describes Xu Zhengyang's current state of mind.
Volume Six, Chapter 332 of the State God's Palace: Stealing the Spotlight
Thank God...
Little Master Xu Xiaotian did not do anything unexpected or surprising at the full moon celebration banquet.
The family was almost certain that the reason the little guy behaved so well that day was simply because he was too lazy to pay attention to so many strangers, so he spent most of the time dozing off. Sometimes, when he couldn't stand being called and teased, he would open his eyes unhappily, bar his teeth, glare at them, and then impatiently turn his head away to snuggle into his grandmother's or mother's arms.
The guests were quite surprised by the child's behavior, but since they had heard that the child didn't cry at birth but laughed instead, they weren't too surprised by his performance.
The full moon celebration finally passed peacefully amidst the praise and congratulations of all the guests.
Who wouldn't envy Xu Zhengyang for having such a son? The little guy is incredibly intelligent from such a young age, with expressive features and big, dark eyes that seem to understand everything you're saying. He even displays the legendary behavior he did at birth—truly a remarkable child!
You can't know the suffering until you're in it...
Who knows the bitterness and anguish that Xu Zhengyang and his wife felt every day during that month, besides the joy and happiness?
If it weren't for the child's maternal and paternal grandmothers insisting on following custom and requiring the child to attend the full-moon celebration, Xu Zhengyang and Li Bingjie would have genuinely planned to keep the child out of the banquet. Because… they worried that if the little guy got into a bad mood, he might use his eyes and mental powers to control any guest who approached or teased him.
He has that ability.
A few days ago, Li Chengzong crawled out of the villa, looking very sad and inexplicably sad...
What frustrated Xu Zhengyang and his wife even more was that this little guy would never play pranks in front of his maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, or when Qingling and Ye Wan were around. But when only his parents were around, he would crawl around on the bed, swinging pillowcases, blankets, toys, and other things at his father, Xu Zhengyang, while glaring at him menacingly.
In front of others, especially women, he would show an extremely obedient side.
Xu Zhengyang repeatedly berated him in a fit of rage: "If you keep going like this, you'll be the protagonist of this book, damn it! Are you trying to steal my spotlight?"
The little guy scoffed at his father's temper.
Despite having such a strange little guy, Xu Zhengyang and his wife had to keep it a secret and couldn't tell anyone, not even their parents.
Privately, Li Bingjie once said with great concern, "Zhengyang, if Xiaotian keeps growing like this, who knows when he'll tear this villa down..."
"Don't worry, he'll be fine when he's older," Xu Zhengyang said helplessly.
The Records of the Nine Provinces gave him a good idea: to make a set of divine artifacts out of mutton fat jade, including a jade bracelet and a necklace. The God of the Province could then infuse them with powerful divine energy, and the bracelet and necklace could be worn around the child's neck and on the wrist, binding his consciousness to his body so that it could not leave his body.
The problem is that the child is still young, and this magic can only be performed after he is 100 days old.
Moreover, while this method can prevent the child from engaging in dangerous actions such as spiritual wandering, it cannot stop the powerful growth of his mental strength and even his physical body.
So before the little guy turned 100 days old, Xu Zhengyang had to use his divine power to lock onto the little guy's consciousness at all times every day. Once his consciousness wandered off to play, Xu Zhengyang had to quickly bring him back. For this reason, Xu Zhengyang secretly gave his son a good slap on the bottom several times when they were in a spiritual connection, without Li Bingjie's knowledge.
However, it was clearly not very effective. The little guy was tough in both body and mind, and he laughed heartily.
Xu Zhengyang wondered if he had hit the child too lightly. Several times he wanted to hit harder, but he couldn't bring himself to do it... After all, the child was still young.
With this little burden, Xu Zhengyang was temporarily unable to focus on handling the affairs of the prefectural lord's office.
After the ghosts of Wan Yun, Wan Xianzhuo, Gong Xinhao, and others were taken into the City God's Mansion, Xu Zhengyang didn't have time to personally reprimand and educate them. He could only instruct Li Haidong to severely punish them, then give them a lesson, and also to find suitable positions for them. Of course, the punishment was left to Su Peng and Wang Yonggan, as Li Haidong was truly incompetent for it; he was best suited for ideological work and assigning tasks to leaders.
As for Guliya, who survived being shot twice, her life is now worse than death… No, in this book, "worse than death" is no longer quite appropriate. After all, even after death, Xu Zhengyang has the power to make her experience what it truly means to be worse off. In short, Guliya is now a piece of stinking excrement. Killing her is out of the question; it would only fuel more speculation. Keeping her alive is also problematic; she's more of a hindrance than a help.
Japan and several Western political groups that had been effectively controlling Guliya proposed sending her back to her country so that her country could punish her.
When have these countries ever been so proactive in repatriating criminals who have fled overseas?
This is the only one of its kind!
However, here... Guliya has already been stripped of her citizenship and expelled from the country by our nation, and we will not accept her.
Who cares...
Under strict surveillance and imprisonment, Guliya became a unique and unparalleled figure in the world, enjoying special treatment that was unprecedented and unmatched.
Imagine, throughout history, has any person ever had the privilege of being personally beaten by a head of state and the highest leaders of special departments? Moreover, these are high-ranking officials from various countries who personally flew to Japan, held meetings to discuss follow-up matters, and then still angrily went to visit Guriria to deliver a beating, still unable to quell their hatred. What the hell, who would betray people like this?
Guliya's state of mind is now beyond description; her pain and misery are beyond words.
When she was first brought back to consciousness after being rescued, she wondered if some secret agent had been sent to assassinate her but failed. She was even smug about it and had another excuse to throw a tantrum.
But when she saw those "one of our own"—their faces filled with malice, as if they wanted to tear her apart and expose her filth—her heart sank. After hearing their angry rebukes, Guliya was even more bewildered. What was going on?
When she finally learned the whole story, she felt like the sky was falling. How could this have happened?
The sky didn't collapse, of course; instead, her eyes were opened, and deities descended from the heavens, appearing out of thin air before her to answer all her questions. Ghost messengers frequently came to check on her: "Are you mad? Have you committed suicide?" Those were unacceptable. "Are your injuries better? No one beat you up today? Okay, let's give you another beating..."
The current Guliya can't go crazy if she wants to, and she can't die if she wants to commit suicide.
In addition to enduring mental torment and fear, they also had to suffer constant physical beatings.
...
This was naturally a trivial matter, and Xu Zhengyang was too lazy to even think about it, let alone inquire about it.
Jade mining operations are also underway in the Lunkun Mountains near Yutian City, Xinjiang Province. These days, jade is incredibly rare; even ghosts and spirits would struggle to find high-quality mutton-fat jade. Some jade found simply cannot be mined. The reason is simple: legal mining is permissible, but destroying a mountain is absolutely unacceptable.
Not to mention government departments, even Xu Zhengyang himself couldn't bear to do such a pretentious thing and damage the ecological environment.
Fortunately, the ghost messengers and ghosts are indeed extraordinary, far more efficient than any high-tech equipment in this regard. Therefore, through continuous searching and mining, over 140 kilograms of top-quality mutton-fat jade have now been unearthed.
The person directly in charge there was Chen Chaojiang, and during the days when Chen Chaojiang was away before and after his marriage, the people in charge were Zheng Dahai and Chen Hanzhe, who was later transferred there.
Zheng Dahai was unaware of Xu Zhengyang's background, but Chen Hanzhe knew that Xu Zhengyang was no ordinary person.
Therefore, whenever Chen Chaojiang contacted Chen Hanzhe by phone to inform him of the specific location of the jade mine, Chen Hanzhe never doubted him and completely believed him. Because Chen Chaojiang was speaking on behalf of Xu Zhengyang, and Xu Zhengyang's words… were axioms, requiring no proof.
Even a small portion of such a large quantity of top-quality mutton fat jade would be priceless to anyone.
Therefore, whenever a piece of high-quality mutton fat jade was mined, Xu Zhengyang would immediately use his connections to have the mining team contact the local military. Then, military personnel and vehicles would escort the jade to a military airport, and it would be transported to Beijing by military aircraft. Li Ruiyu would then store the jade in a heavily guarded and absolutely safe place.
Li Ruiyu also attended the celebration banquet on the day the little one turned one month old. Xu Zhengyang had given him instructions beforehand, so he brought three pieces of top-quality mutton fat jade with a total weight of over three kilograms, all of which had been polished clean and impurities removed.
These three pieces of mutton fat jade are naturally intended to be used to make bracelets and necklaces.
Xu Zhengyang thought to himself, "This little brat is much more wasteful than his father. He's so young, yet he can already use a divine artifact... The value, the status, the extravagance, the uniqueness... What rich kids or official kids? They're all just fleeting clouds in front of Xu Xiaotian."
Xu Xiaotian is a true, one-of-a-kind second-generation god!
This second-generation deity received favor not only from his relatives in the human world, but also from the ghost messengers and officials of the state god's mansion.
Initially, Xu Zhengyang was in a good mood. Since the child was, like himself, a demigod, he didn't hesitate to let his subordinates from the State God's Palace visit the child when no one else was around, and even play with him occasionally. Of course, Wang Yonggan, Su Peng, and Guo Li were tragically subjected to frequent mental attacks and torment from this second-generation deity. It wasn't out of malice, but purely out of amusement, which they thoroughly enjoyed.
Xu Zhengyang had reprimanded them sternly for this, and then said to his subordinates, half-laughing and half-crying, "Aren't you just asking for trouble? Why do you always like to tease me?"
To Xu Zhengyang's surprise, these ghost messengers were actually quite happy while being tortured.
Why? It cannot be ruled out that there was an element of flattering and ingratiating themselves with Xu Zhengyang, as well as a desire to win the young master's favor. But the bigger reason is that as ghost messengers, they do all sorts of dark things every day. In reality, they can be in the sunlight, but their hearts are always shrouded in darkness. Where would they find the leisure to play and have fun?
So there is this unique child who can see them and even play happily with them, bringing joy to the ghost messengers that is something that ordinary people like us cannot understand or experience.
Xu Xiaotian's temperament is really strange. He can play happily with a group of ghost messengers, but there seems to be a barrier between him and Li Haidong, and he doesn't pay much attention to him.
This made Li Haidong very depressed.
However, the ghost messengers' joy didn't last long, as their positions were soon taken by another unique ghost messenger.
Two months after Xu Xiaotian turned two months old, he was able to sit up and crawl around nimbly.
Ouyang Ying, who had only seen the boy once on the day of his birth and was startled by the piercing light in his eyes, had always wanted to see the little guy, but she felt a sense of fear and embarrassment. After all, Li Bingjie knew about her feelings when she was alive.
That day, while the others in the villa went to Fuhe City, Su Peng, Wang Yonggan, and two other ghost messengers persuaded Judge Li Haidong to come to the villa again to visit the little guy.
Of course, this was done with Xu Zhengyang's permission.
Among those who came was Ouyang Ying.
She couldn't resist her curiosity, and also felt a little regretful about her life as a woman, so she came to the villa to visit the little guy.
Li Bingjie already knew about these ghost messengers.
Therefore, the ghost messengers did not need to hide their forms in front of Li Bingjie; they could reveal themselves without any hesitation.
The nanny and Li Chengzong, Zhu Jun and others in the villa were all kicked out, as it would be inappropriate for them to stay there.
"Yingying's here too?" Li Bingjie smiled with relief. Now a mother, Li Bingjie exuded a mature feminine charm that was even more evident—beautiful, gentle, kind, and loving—almost perfect. Seeing Ouyang Ying's appearance, Li Bingjie felt a pang of sympathy for the poor young woman. As a woman herself, she could certainly understand that Ouyang Ying had experienced many regrets and imperfections in her twenty-odd years of life.
"Yes, hello sister-in-law," Ouyang Ying replied timidly.
Li Bingjie hugged her son and coaxed him, "That's Aunt Ouyang, remember that!"
The little guy had been staring at Ouyang Ying with his big, dark eyes ever since the ghost messengers came in. He would sometimes frown slightly and his little nose would twitch as if he was thinking that this person looked familiar.
"Xiao, Xiaotian..." Ouyang Ying called out with a forced smile, somewhat timidly. She was genuinely a little afraid of this little guy.
Unexpectedly, the little guy suddenly started struggling in Li Bingjie's arms, babbling and lunging towards Ouyang Ying, his arms outstretched as if he wanted Ouyang Ying to hold him.
Unfortunately, Ouyang Ying didn't have a physical body and couldn't hug him.
Just then, a scene that surprised everyone appeared: the little guy's consciousness suddenly left his body and flew into Ouyang Ying's arms.
Startled, Ouyang Ying gasped softly and quickly hugged Xu Xiaotian as if afraid he would fall.
The little guy giggled happily in Ouyang Ying's arms, tugging at her hair and earrings. He then carefully examined Ouyang Ying's beautiful yet slightly sad face before waving his little fists at Xu Zhengyang and Ouyang Ying in a show of defiance.
"Go back! You brat!" Xu Zhengyang was most annoyed by this kid's tendency to project his consciousness out of his body, and immediately scolded him upon seeing this.
The little guy reluctantly drooped his eyelids, then broke free from Ouyang Ying's arms and returned to his physical body.
Seeing the child's head bowed in dissatisfaction after his consciousness returned to his body, his little face rubbing against her chest, looking very aggrieved, Li Bingjie said softly with a smile, "This child seems to really like Yingying."
"I was quite startled when he was born," Ouyang Ying said shyly, recovering from her earlier surprise. Her eyes were filled with tenderness and affection as she looked at Xu Xiaotian.
Xu Zhengyang stood next to Li Haidong and sighed helplessly, "This child, sigh..."
Li Haidong smiled bitterly and remained silent.
Su Peng and Wang Yonggan finally had a chance, and hurriedly waved to Xiao Xiaotian, addressing the little guy as "Young Master" in the way that Wang Yonggan had suggested earlier and that everyone had agreed to.
Unfortunately, this time the young master completely ignored them. After hearing their greeting, he turned around, glanced at them disdainfully, and then fixed his gaze on Ouyang Ying's face. He waved his little arms, flashed a bright and adorable smile, and opened his little mouth to call out, "Ah, Auntie..."
The entire room was filled with astonishment!
He's only been alive for a little over two months!
It can actually talk?
It must have been a coincidence in pronunciation... that's what everyone thought.
As if determined to make a shocking statement, the little guy still smiled brightly, waving his little arms and calling out to Ouyang Ying, "Auntie, Auntie..."
It's smoother and clearer!