Chapter 68: Settling In (Part 3)

Chapter 68: Settling In (Part 3)

Early the next morning, Chen Shouyi accompanied his parents to look for a rental house.

Finding a place wasn’t difficult. With the ongoing power outages and lack of orders, most factories had already shut down, and many migrant workers had returned home. As a result, there were plenty of vacant houses available for rent.

"Ah, elder sister, I really can’t go any lower. Before, people would’ve fought to rent this place for 1,500, and now it’s only 1,200—already a huge discount," said the landlady, a well-dressed middle-aged woman in her forties who carried herself with refinement, appearing quite cultured.

But bargaining had nothing to do with refinement—it was an innate skill of every middle-aged woman.

"You said it yourself—that was before. Who’s renting now? If we don’t take it, this place will just sit empty. 1,000, not a cent more," Chen Mu countered, her bargaining skills no less sharp.

"Ah, but this is just temporary! The power won’t stay off forever. Once it’s back, prices will shoot right up."

"Business deals go by market price, not potential appreciation. Who knows when the power will even return?"

...

The two women went back and forth, haggling relentlessly.

Chen Shouyi, his sister, and Chen Dawei stood dumbly to the side, completely unable to get a word in.

After more than ten minutes, Chen Mu emerged victorious, securing the place for 1,000 per month.

The house was a five-story self-built property. The fourth and fifth floors were occupied by the landlord’s family, while the first floor was already rented to another household. The second and third floors remained vacant, and Chen Shouyi’s family chose the third floor.

To accommodate renters, the landlord had built an outdoor staircase on the side of the house, so they didn’t have to pass through the first floor.

With few belongings, moving didn’t take long.

But the shopping trip that followed lasted the entire day. Everything—from pots, pans, and utensils to oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, daily necessities, pillows, and bedding—had to be repurchased. Even autumn clothes needed to be restocked.

During dinner that evening, Chen Shouyi noticed the frown on Chen Mu’s face and couldn’t help but ask, "Mom, are we running out of money?"

"These are adult matters. You don’t need to worry about them," Chen Mu replied instinctively, but immediately regretted her words.

Last night, she had tossed and turned, unable to sleep—not just out of fear, but mostly because she couldn’t stop thinking about her son’s indifferent, almost detached attitude toward taking a life.

Though he had helped slaughter chickens and fish since childhood, killing a person was entirely different. Even she and her husband, who had only watched from a distance, had been left shaken and uneasy.

Yet afterward, her son had acted as if nothing had happened—calmly cleaning up the scene and even retrieving arrows from the corpses one by one.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that this wasn’t his first time killing. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have remained so composed.

If he could kill, robbing would be even easier.

If he thought the family was short on money, would he resort to theft?

The more she dwelled on it, the more uneasy she became. Hurriedly, she added, "We have enough cash for now. I’m just worried about whether withdrawing our savings might cause trouble."

Chen Shouyi spoke without a hint of awareness. "It's better not to withdraw it for now to avoid leaking information. If you're short on money, I still have some on hand."

"How much do you have?" Chen Mu quickly asked.

"Nearly ten thousand!" This ten thousand was what he had withdrawn from the bank last time, and he had only spent a few hundred in the past few days.

Chen Mu had just sighed in relief when Chen Shouyi continued, "Also, I have a few pieces of gold. If sold, they could fetch another twenty or thirty thousand."

He didn’t dare say more, afraid of startling his parents.

In truth, the gold grains he had accumulated during this time already weighed over two kilograms. Even if the purity was only around 80%, they could easily sell for about three hundred thousand on the black market. Combined with his savings, he now had a modest fortune of five hundred thousand.

"Where did you get the gold?" Chen Mu's expression immediately turned serious. "And while we're at it, I haven’t even asked how you ended up with a bow and a sword?"

Chen Xingyue couldn’t help but glance at her brother, curious to see what excuse he would come up with.

"Uh, the gold is actually natural gold—I found it by a stream. After selling some, I bought the bow and sword," Chen Shouyi paused briefly before hastily explaining the excuse he had prepared.

"How much did you spend?" Chen Mu asked skeptically.

At this point, she didn’t believe a single word her son said.

Finding gold by a stream? If there was gold there, someone would have picked it clean long ago—how could it be his turn?

Her son used to be obedient, always listening to her, never daring to defy her.

But at some point, he had changed so much she barely recognized him.

If not for this incident, who would have guessed her son had such a side? Those two men watching their house last night probably weren’t just knocked out—they were likely killed by him.

"Over a hundred thousand, all second-hand," Chen Shouyi said. To prove his point, he returned to his room, rummaged through a small pocket in his backpack, and retrieved a few larger gold nuggets before placing them on the table with a clatter.

"I found quite a bit back then. This is all that’s left now."

"But why did you buy a sword and a bow?"

Chen Mu glanced at the gold pieces and was about to press further when Chen Dawei interrupted, "Enough questions. Shouyi, take the gold back. Your father and I aren’t so old that we can’t support this family."

"You’ve grown up now, and you have your own secrets. We won’t pry too much. Besides, your father and I are just ordinary people—we can’t control you anymore. But remember, you must always uphold your principles. Never do anything illegal."

Chen Shouyi was deeply moved and quickly nodded. "Understood, Dad!"

...

That night, in his bedroom, Chen Shouyi sat on a chair, holding his breath as he stared intently at the candle.

The flame trembled almost imperceptibly.

"There’s still a faint trace of power left, though it’s practically nonexistent now," Chen Shouyi thought to himself.

Ever since returning to Earth, the "Control the Atmosphere" ability on his Attribute Panel had disappeared. But he realized the ability hadn’t vanished completely—he could still weakly manipulate the movement of air.

However, because the power was so feeble, it didn’t register on the Attribute Panel.

After a while, he drew his sword.

He recalled the sensation from the last time he had activated Qi energy, focusing intently as he slowly approached the candle flame with the sword tip. When the sword tip neared the flame, it immediately trembled violently, as if a faint breeze was being emitted from the tip. He paused, then thrust the sword forward again at the same speed, but this time, he kept his mind relaxed. This time, the flame barely wavered from start to finish.

"Is this the power of Atmospheric Control, or some other unknown force?" he wondered. "But judging by how much the flame deviated just now, it seems far beyond the strength of my usual manipulation of air."

At this thought, he had an idea and left the bedroom, fetching a box of tofu from the kitchen. After tearing open the packaging, draining the water, and cutting a small piece, he placed it vertically on the desk. Then, concentrating his mind, he aligned the sword tip with the tofu and slowly thrust forward once more.

He keenly noticed that when the sword tip was less than 3 cm away from the tofu, its surface began to tremble slightly. As it closed in to within 1 cm, fine strands of tofu, as thin as hair, continuously fell away from the surface. Chen Shouyi immediately withdrew the sword and examined the tofu carefully, his expression turning to surprise.

The surface of the tofu appeared to have been repeatedly sliced by some unseen force, leaving a narrow fissure about 3 to 4 cm long and less than half a millimeter thick. When he sliced the tofu vertically into sections, he discovered that the deepest cut reached a full centimeter.

"Could this be Sword Energy?"