Chapter 19 The Technique of Everlasting Youth (1/2)

Zhou Donghuang did not continue practicing for the whole of the next day.

He helped Lin Lan and Granny Lian move all the valuable goods from the treasure vault of the Magnolia Guild to the mansion in the compound behind Yunxuan Restaurant. A group of guards and servant girls would be responsible for moving the rest of the goods.

As night fell, the Magnolia Guild was empty, and Zhou Donghuang kept Lin Lan company at the main entrance of the Magnolia Guild. They stood there for a long time.

“Mother, if the old does not go, the new cannot come,” Zhou Donghuang advised.

“Even so… the Magnolia Guild has existed for over ten years,” Lin Lan sighed.

Was ten years’ toil of blood and sweat really going to be irrevocably lost?

“The old Magnolia Guild has fallen… why can’t a new Magnolia Guild be started?” Zhou Donghuang countered.

“A new Magnolia Guild?” Lin Lan turned, looking at Zhou Donghuang with sparkling eyes. “Donghuang, you mean… establishing a new Magnolia Guild?”

“Only if you are willing… Yunxuan Restaurant will forever be behind you,” Zhou Donghuang said with a slight smile.

He had thought things through over the past two days, such as letting his mother establish a new Magnolia Guild with the financial support of Yunxuan Restaurant if she could not let go of the Magnolia Guild and it would be able to match the old Magnolia Guild as well.

“Donghuang,” Lin Lan smiled bitterly, “Establishing a guild is not so easy… the preeminent families of the prefecture capital will not allow an ordinary person to establish a guild that will compete with the guilds under their control. If I establish a new Magnolia Guild, neither the Hong family nor Lin family of the prefecture capital will allow it, because Qingshan Town is the territory of the guilds under their control. Even more so for your Yunxuan Restaurant, if not for Elder Zhao San’s reputation, there would be many people who would attempt a takeover.”

At this, Lin Lan’s expression became solemn again.

The Wang family coming the previous day to seek revenge had allowed her to guess some truths. Zhao San would not be concerned with what happened to her son, Zhou Donghuang. Zhao San might very well have given her son Zhou Donghuang Yunxuan Restaurant purely to discharge a moral obligation.

In the days that followed, the change of ownership of Yunxuan Restaurant would reach the prefecture capital, and surely many people would go to the Governor’s Household seeking Zhao San’s comments.

If Zhao San showed that he was not concerned about the ownership of Yunxuan Restaurant, it would result in many people coming to Qingshan Town to fight for the ownership of Yunxuan Restaurant.

“Donghuang, tell meyour mother honestly… what is your connection to Zhao San? If someone comes to seize Yunxuan Restaurant, will he help you?” Lin Lan asked Zhou Donghuang solemnly.

“Mother, I am able to protect what is mine,” Zhou Donghuang smiled nonchalantly.

To Lin Lan, his words carried a different meaning: Zhao San would not help.

Immediately, Lin Lan began worrying. Her only thoughts were of how to help Zhou Donghuang protect Yunxuan Restaurant, and she no longer thought about establishing a new Magnolia Guild.

“Donghuang, I”m tired… let’s go back.”

At Lin Lan’s wish, Zhou Donghuang and Lin Lan left the Magnolia Guild and returned to Yunxuan Restaurant.

Yunxuan Restaurant occupied a large piece of land, but only the area in front was open to the public; the area in the back was a compound and mansion that was not open to the public.

This was where Zhao San used to stay.

Compared with the Magnolia Guild, the environment here was even better, and the smiles on the faces of the guards and servant girls who had come here were even brighter than before.

When they got back, Granny Lian had already finished supervising the guards and servant girls in arranging everything.

The spacious room that Zhao San had stayed in was now Zhou Donghuang’s room.

That Zhao San really knew how to enjoy life.

A partition divided that spacious room into two areas: in one area was the bed, and in the other was a table with paper and a brush; it was evidently where Zhao San usually did his writing.

Besides that, the walls of the room were decorated with several scrolls of calligraphy and paintings, the brush strokes forceful and sure, with the signature “Zhao San” on all of them.

The writing is not bad… pity that it lacks character.

Zhou Donghuang stood before the table, and with sudden inspiration, picked up the brush, dabbed it in ink, and wrote out twelve words on the white paper spread out on the table: If anyone dares to provoke me, I will teach him a lesson!

These twelve words were more forceful than the words Zhao San had written, and more importantly, they carried a sense of majesty.

Finally, with a casual sweep of his hand, Zhou Donghuang left his signature on the paper with a flourish.

A work of calligraphy far superior to what Zhao San had written was born.

However, Zhou Donghuang did not hang it up but left it lying carelessly on the table instead. He walked around the partition and went to his bed to continue practicing.

Zhou Donghuang practiced continuously until the second day and only awoke when the guild master of the Sunset Guild Hong Yue came calling. He had sent over all the herbs that Zhou Donghuang wanted.

With the herbs he required, Zhou Donghuang formulated a qi-gathering elixir that would increase his sensitivity to qi by 30%.

When Lin Lan tried the qi-gathering elixir after it was ready, she could not help being shocked beyond words.

“Mother, expend all the qi in your body now and start practicing all over again,” Zhou Donghuang said to Lin Lan with a sincere expression. “I have a style of practicing that is even more suitable for you, and if you practice this technique, your future will be limitless.”

“I”m agingmy years, how can my future be limitless?”

Lin Lan shook her head, thinking that Zhou Donghuang was merely comforting her. “However, if you feel it is beneficial, I have no objection to expending all my qi and starting all over again.”

Finally, Lin Lan expended all her qi right then in front of Zhou Donghuang, intending to start practicing from scratch with the technique that Zhou Donghuang gave her.