18th

In her past life, Grandma told her that Uncle Five and Fifth Aunt treated her as their own daughter. She had always been afraid of Uncle Five, so how could she dare to be close to him? Just managing to not avoid him was already a sign of great courage. Once, she gave him a smile, which delighted him so much that he became dizzy and disoriented. Grandma said that Fifth Aunt had told her this in person, but Lan Tian didn't remember any of it; she couldn't recall ever smiling at Uncle Five, but she kept this matter in her heart.

This attempt proved to be very effective.

"Hmm, I'll just ask Grandpa. Grandma, can you learn it, too? Grandpa said Grandma couldn't, and that in our village, only I have an immortal destiny; no one else does. When I saw that Grandma couldn't learn, I said I wouldn't either. Then Grandpa scolded me, calling me insensitive, and also said that if I learned Immortal Law, after mastering it, I could heal Grandma's illnesses. Hearing this, I agreed to learn, and then Grandpa touched my head with his hand, and I woke up."

This was beyond belief and hard to accept at the moment. While rural people might hold some superstitious beliefs, after all, no one has ever seen ghosts or gods, they seemed to have some respect, but not necessarily sheer terror. Lan Tian described it so vividly, as if she had really seen it. They knew their own child's character more than anyone else—honest and well-behaved, she never lied, so they couldn't help but believe her.

Having been a person for two lifetimes, she told a lie for the first time, and it was to her own family; Lan Tian felt extremely uneasy, fearing they would see through her, so she pretended to be naive and ignorant. The more she acted clueless, the less Grandma would become suspicious. Grandma Sun originally had some doubts about her granddaughter lying, but seeing her behave in that way, it didn't seem right to doubt her anymore.

Of course, she also knew that she had crafted too good of an image of herself before, so in Grandma's eyes, she was a good and obedient child, earnest, modest, and never boasting. This was why they believed her words.

"Did your Grandpa say that once you learn it, you will be healthy and never fall ill again?" After thinking it over, Grandma Sun asked another question, "Could it be what I'm thinking?"

"Mhm, that's what Grandpa said." Having spent many years together, Grandpa and Lan Tian had a certain understanding. Lan Tian knew what Grandma was hinting at and nodded earnestly—it was exactly what Grandma was thinking.

"If it's true, you should study well. We should keep this matter to ourselves, and don't go around telling others."

"Grandma, I understand. Grandpa also said that he gave you a blessing to ensure you live a long life, and when you reach a hundred years old, Grandpa will come to fetch you." These words were a lie Lan Tian told her; in her past life, only a little more than a year after she got married, Grandma passed away due to a minor illness, mainly because she was afraid her own sickness would be a burden to Lan Tian, so she gave up the will to live.

In this life, Lan Tian planned to use Spiritual Energy to nourish Grandma's body after her Cultivation. Not to mention living to a hundred; living past a hundred was also possible.

"Your Grandpa said that? He'll come to fetch me?" Grandma Sun didn't care how long she lived; what mattered to her was if her old man would come to fetch her. She laughed with a face full of happiness and muttered, "That dead old man, he wouldn't let me be at peace even after he's gone. If he doesn't come to fetch me, see how I deal with him when the time comes."

Lan Tian just laughed and did not respond. She liked seeing Grandma full of life, "Grandpa also left a message for me to tell Uncle and Aunt."

Mo Yuanle and Zhao Li exchanged a glance, finding it odd, and turned their heads to look at her, "What did your Grandpa have to say to Uncle?"

"Grandpa said that in the next few days, there will be heavy rain, a very, very big downpour, and he said that Uncle and Aunt's house is too old; it might be washed away by the rain and collapse on someone. He suggested Uncle and Aunt to stay at our house." In her previous life, indeed, in August there was a severe storm, and several old houses in the village collapsed. Two households suffered casualties; the crossbeam in the room where Uncle Five and his wife slept fell down on Fifth Aunt, breaking her waist and both legs, and it took her two years in bed to recover. She was left with a limp, and her back could no longer straighten.

Lan Tian did not know the exact day, but while the three of them were focused on her story, she quickly calculated, and rain would start tomorrow. The three of them looked up at the bright sun shining overhead, which didn't seem like it would bring rain. They didn't know whether to believe her or not, but Lan Tian made it sound plausible.

Afraid that her words weren't convincing enough, Lan Tian dropped a gravity bomb, "Grandpa said, it's going to rain tomorrow." Whether they believed it or not, tomorrow would reveal the truth.

Outside the courtyard, Shitou, Tie Jun, and others came to call Lan Tian out to play. To appear as a normal child, Lan Tian reluctantly joined Shitou's team, amidst the eager gazes of Grandma and Aunt. Lan Tian hadn't even had a chance to refuse before Grandma waved her off to play.

Outside, Shitou was carrying a bucket, Tie Jun had a fishing net on his shoulder, Taohua, and a few others were carrying small baskets and little hoes. Lan Tian thought for a moment, asked them to wait for her, and ran to the west side of the storeroom to root around. She had seen a fishing net there when she had gone in with Grandma, and after finding the net, she picked up a small wooden bucket from the kitchen and joined the group as they headed off to the river outside the village.

In the courtyard, there was a large camphor tree, quite old, with a trunk so thick it required two people to encircle it. Its branches were dense and its leaves lush, like a huge opened umbrella, covering two-thirds of the courtyard. In the layers of branches and leaves, the green camphor fruits were partly hidden, emitting a faint camphor fragrance that drifted on the wind.