Chapter 9: Flower Protector Under the Night Sky

Chapter 9: Flower Protector Under the Night Sky

In his past life’s memories, Li Zhichao dropped out of school before graduating high school. Relying on sheer boldness and an extremely shrewd mind, he, along with his father and older brother, developed their small Feed Factory into a large enterprise ranked among the top ten in the city within just over a decade. Its business scope involved feed, large-scale breeding, and meat product processing and sales. In 2010, at just thirty years old, Li Zhichao, as the General Manager of Yu Wang Group Company, was named one of Yuzhou Province’s Top Ten Outstanding Youths and Pingyang City’s Excellent Young Entrepreneur, with a personal net worth exceeding one billion…

On the way to school, Su Chunfeng chatted with Li Zhichao while recalling the futures of his past life’s junior high classmates. Li Zhichao, Zhang Lifei, Wang Rui, Lin Bin, Ren Zhiping, Chen Yan, Tian Pingping… and others would all become top figures in their respective fields. The fifteen-year reunion of the Class 14, 1996 graduates of Dongwangzhuang Township Middle School, held in Pingyang City in 2011, was truly a gathering of elites.

Who would have thought that from such an ordinary rural middle school, over a dozen elites from various walks of life would emerge from the same graduating class?

Just as Iron Divination Immortal Cheng the Blind once said: “When the Feng Shui aligns for two or three years, the place becomes endowed with talented people and favorable conditions.”

Recalling past events, Su Chunfeng couldn’t help but feel a pang of melancholy. “Back at that gathering, all those young heroes gathered. But who knew about me, who had already gained a formidable reputation in the mysterious Jianghu of Esoteric Arts? Starting over in this life, what can I achieve? At the very least, it won’t be too bad, right?”

Back in the school dormitory courtyard, Li Zhichao asked while locking his bike, “Hey, what were you thinking about on the way? Your responses were all over the place.”

“Nothing… haha.” Su Chunfeng chuckled and shook his head.

“I heard your family is buying a Combine Harvester, and you got a loan for it, right?”

Su Chunfeng was taken aback. “How did you know?”

“Yesterday, Liu Pingdong, the director of the township Credit Cooperative, came to my house for drinks. He called your dad over too. I overheard them talking about it.”

“Oh.” Su Chunfeng nodded.

Buying the Combine Harvester for the family was already a done deal. The loan was settled, and his father was going to the provincial capital to pick up the vehicle next weekend.

In those days, buying a Combine Harvester was a surefire way to make steady money.

Su Chunfeng wasn’t worried about this at all and believed his family’s financial situation would greatly improve. As for the future… Su Chunfeng didn’t feel like thinking about how to help his family get rich just yet. Although his past life was short, it had already made him view wealth with much more indifference. Besides, if he spent his days now thinking about how to make money, his dad would probably take a stick to him, the unfilial son who wasn’t focusing on his studies.

So for now, he just wanted to wholeheartedly focus on studying hard, get into university to fulfill his parents’ hopes, then, following their wishes, find a good job, or maybe become a civil servant?

In short, as long as his parents were happy and he lived a happy life himself.

…

Suddenly transforming from a playful student into a model student who didn’t arrive late, leave early, skip class, cause trouble, studied diligently, and even stayed in the classroom every night, burning the midnight oil until the last minute before leaving… Su Chunfeng’s such remarkable change only aroused slight curiosity in Wang Haifei, Zhang Lifei, and Li Zhichao. It didn’t attract much attention from teachers or other classmates.

The reason was simple — such situations weren’t rare among students. Who didn’t have moments of sudden, short-lived determination to turn over a new leaf?

It was just that most couldn’t keep it up for long before their true colors showed again, and they slid back into their old ways.

Case in point: One Thursday night, a week later, right after evening self-study ended, Su Chunfeng left the classroom with the day students. A long time passed, and he didn’t come back.

Clearly, he wasn’t just going to the bathroom.

A small number of resident students still studying in the classroom snickered to themselves. The chemistry teacher on duty, Ren Zhao, was about to leave after explaining a problem to two students when he noticed Su Chunfeng wasn’t in the classroom. He felt a pang of regret immediately — he knew that once such a student relaxed from their perseverance, it would be very hard for them to continue.

The night was deep and dark.

At this moment, Su Chunfeng was strolling leisurely westward along the dim main street of Dongwangzhuang Village.

In those years, in the rural villages, street lights only lit up for a few nights during the New Year. Usually, there were no street lights at all. So under the night sky, Dongwangzhuang Village was mostly pitch black in its streets and alleys, except for some light shining from windows of houses, mostly blocked by courtyard walls.

Because evening self-study had just ended, and there were many students from Dongwangzhuang Village and Tunbingying Village, quite a few students walked home in small groups along the street. Their cheerful chatter and laughter made it seem quite lively.

After walking west for about a hundred meters, the figures on the street gradually grew sparse.

Ahead of Su Chunfeng, four girls walking together finally separated at a crossroads, leaving only one girl walking alone further west.

That girl was Wang Haifei.

This was precisely why Su Chunfeng had left the classroom — to be the flower protector. During evening self-study that day, his classmate Zhao Xinhong had asked for leave and wasn’t there. Zhao Xinhong’s house was just across a small alley from Wang Haifei’s, and the two always walked home together. So… Wang Haifei was destined to walk a stretch alone tonight.

Dongwangzhuang was a large village with a population over ten thousand, stretching long and narrow from east to west.

And Wang Haifei lived at the western end of the village.

Su Chunfeng knew she was timid. Besides, what girl wouldn’t be scared walking alone at night on a dark rural street, especially going all the way to the open edge of the village?

The two walked one in front of the other, about ten meters apart.

Both of them were fully aware of the situation.

They walked all the way to the entrance of a small, incomplete alley at the western edge of the village, where most houses were still under construction. Wang Haifei stopped, turned around, and said softly in the dim light, “I’m home. You should go back quickly…”

Su Chunfeng strode over and smiled. “I’ll watch. Once you’re safely inside, I’ll go.”

“Thank you,” Wang Haifei whispered, lowering her head.

“Go on in.”

“Mm.” Wang Haifei turned and hurried into the alley.

Su Chunfeng, now adjusted to the dim light, watched as Wang Haifei reached her doorstep, pushed open the courtyard gate, and disappeared inside. He heard her voice talking to her family, followed by the sound of the courtyard gate closing and being bolted. Only then did he feel at ease. Smiling, he turned and started walking back.

Walking along the quiet, dim street, Su Chunfeng felt indescribable joy and sweetness in his heart. “How wonderful would it be if I could walk Wang Haifei home every night?”

Just as he was happily lost in this thought, he suddenly stopped, frowning slightly.

Following a feeling, he looked and saw, about seven or eight meters ahead to the right, on the south side of the road at the mouth of an alley, a hunched, trembling figure crouched against the wall. The figure kept making unusual muttering sounds, like complaints or pained, suppressed groans… In this environment, it seemed especially eerie and frightening.

Just glancing at the person, Su Chunfeng stepped towards the left side of the street, intending to go around.

The saying goes: If something isn’t your business, hang it high.

Practitioners in the Jianghu of Esoteric Arts rarely played the role of righteous defenders who helped the weak and fought injustice or selflessly vanquished demons. Unless they or their close ones were harmed, or driven by personal gain, no one would willingly endure a Natural Backlash, consuming their energy and time to cast an Esoteric Technique and meddle in others’ affairs.

Although Su Chunfeng was kind-hearted by nature, different from most in the esoteric circles, the woman not far away clearly wasn’t in any life-threatening crisis.

Moreover, in this life, he didn’t want to be an Occultist anymore.

So, he couldn’t be bothered to get involved.

However, Su Chunfeng didn’t expect the woman crouching on the ground to suddenly leap up and lunge at him, letting out a low, eerie roar from her mouth: “You heartless scoundrel…”

How dare!

Su Chunfly was instantly enraged!

A phrase like “You heartless scoundrel!” naturally wouldn’t bother Su Chunfeng — someone possessed by an evil entity, commonly called “colliding with a spirit” or “ghost possession,” basically lost their rationality. Raving, cursing, and throwing fits were entirely normal phenomena, arising from their instinctive consciousness being violated and confused, then fighting back and venting.

Even if the victim committed a terrible act like murder, Su Chunfeng wouldn’t be surprised.

What angered him was that a mere petty evil entity dared to disrespect him…

It truly had a death wish!

Su Chunfeng turned around, not avoiding the charge. He frowned and glared sternly at the middle-aged woman lunging at him. His eyes shone with a brilliant light as he uttered a low, authoritative rebuke: “Wretched creature!”

The middle-aged woman froze, stopping less than a meter away from Su Chunfeng, still holding her arms out in a lunging posture. The whites of her eyes showed a fierce, cruel glare, but in an instant, it transformed into an expression of extreme terror. She hesitated, backed away meekly, then slumped to the ground. Her messy, bird’s-nest-like head hung low, swaying slightly. She made strange “heh heh heh…” sounds from her mouth, her legs straight and stiff, her hands frantically rubbing her knees and thighs.

Seeing this, Su Chunfeng genuinely wanted to help this woman completely free herself from the evil entity’s disturbance.

But he immediately felt a bit dizzy.

This was a symptom of his body suffering a Natural Backlash after casting an Art. Even though he had only performed a slight Art Casting just then, using a Hand Seal and relying on his powerful mental force to quickly subdue a very ordinary evil entity, this body’s physical quality was simply too poor. Overall, his current cultivation level could reach at most the “Talisman Offering” realm. Trying to completely expel the evil entity from this woman’s body would be very troublesome.

And based on current observation, this evil entity wasn’t likely to take the woman’s life…

So after a brief hesitation, Su Chunfeng turned and walked away.

However, he hadn’t taken more than a few steps when he heard someone call out, “Brother, please don’t go!”

“Hmm?” Su Chunfeng shuddered, startled. He stopped and turned to look, while inwardly regretting how his weak body had lowered his vigilance so much. Someone had been observing nearby, and he hadn’t detected them earlier — what he worried about most now was someone discovering he possessed supernatural abilities.

A young man walked out from the dark alley. He was about 1.75 meters tall, had a robust build, and wore ordinary clothes.

The young man took several quick strides to stand before Su Chunfeng. He paused for a moment, then suddenly knelt down. Thump, thump, thump… He kowtowed on the ground with solid, audible knocks!