Chapter 1: The Eye-Catching Wedding

  "Uh, I'm going home now." Ning Fan nodded.

  "Uncle, uncle, what are you talking about? What happened just now downstairs? The rain is so heavy, I can't see clearly." Ye Zi asked with great curiosity.

  "It's nothing." Ning Fan smiled slightly.

  The bus started moving, and at this moment, the driver couldn't help but ask another question: "Young man, is the one who drove the BMW still alive?"

  "Of course, I'm just as he wishes, letting others save him." Ning Fan smiled faintly.

  The bus driver seemed to have let out a sigh of relief and then drove on calmly.

  Ning Fan closed his eyes slightly, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself down. Today's events had almost driven him out of control, and for an instant, he really had the urge to kill someone. However, as a former policeman, he couldn't easily take another person's life.

  "It's really an unlucky year." Ning Fan sighed inwardly, as if all the troubles had started to emerge from the moment he passed his 25th birthday.

  Half an hour later, the bus finally arrived at the terminal station, which is Qingyun Mountain Scenic Area Station. At this moment, the rain had slightly subsided, but it still didn't stop.

  As soon as I got off the bus, I could see a range of peaks shrouded in mist and rain not far away. Closer still were many two- or three-story houses scattered around, mostly independent and not connected to each other. Some had signs hanging from them, such as "Qingyun Mountain Hotel", "Qingyun Mountain Farmhouse Inn", "Qingfeng Hotel" and so on, while others simply had large characters painted on the wall saying "Food and Lodging".

  This is a small village. When the Qingyun Mountain Scenic Area was first developed, it was developed on the premise of keeping its original appearance as much as possible. Therefore, this village has almost no large-scale construction.

  Of course, if it weren't raining now, the village would still be quite lively. However, at this moment, the rain hasn't stopped and the sky is almost dark. Everyone either returned to the city or hid in their houses. Except for the sound of the rain, the whole village seems rather quiet.

  "Uncle, your hometown is here? I've never been here before." Yezi asked curiously.

  Ning Fan brought Ye Zi to a three-story flat house with a sign that read "Ning An Inn", which looked like it had a few points of ancient charm.

  "Huh, little uncle, you're back?" Just as he walked into the inn, he ran into a 16 or 17-year-old girl. The girl looked at Ning Fan with some surprise and exclaimed.

  And in the next second, the girl saw Yezi and was even more surprised: "Ye Shuangshuang, how are you here too?"

  Ye Shuang is Ye Zi's full name, but Ye Zi doesn't like the name Shuang. She thinks it sounds too weak, and prefers the sound of her surname Ye, which she finds cooler.

  "I came here with Uncle to open a room!" Yezi puffed out her chest, looking proud and somewhat hostile as she stared at the girl, "Who are you? Why did you call Uncle little uncle? Uncle is my own uncle!"

  "Leaf, stop talking nonsense." Ning Fan glared at Leaf, "This is my niece Ning Ke, she's in the same school as you, Keke. You arrange a room for Leaf, she'll be staying here tonight. I'll go find your grandfather first."

  "Got it, Uncle." Ning glanced at Yezi with a strange look in her eyes and thought to herself, How did the school flower of Qingyun High School, Ye Fengfeng, get mixed up with this uncle?

  "Yèzi, you stay here tonight and I'll take you to school tomorrow morning. Tonight, I have to go up to Qingyun Mountain for a while. Don't leave this place, got it?" Ning Fan instructed Yèzi.

  The leaves suddenly pouted and cried with a sad face: "Uncle, are you going to leave me alone here?"

  "Leaves, it's raining heavily outside, and the mountain is even more dangerous. I have something important to do on the mountain, but I can't take you with me." Ning Fan explained.

  "Alright, uncle." Yezi looked very unwilling, but still nodded.

  "Cocoa, help me take care of Yezi." Ning Fan instructed Ning Ke for the last time before heading inside.

  Turning around the corner and entering the innermost room, it's not a bedroom but a living room. In the living room, an old man is watching TV.

  "Dad." Ning Fan walked over and sat down beside the old man.

  "It's good that you're back." The old man was a bit thinner, and most of his hair had turned white. He looked at Ning Fan with a benevolent expression, "I know you've been wronged, but it doesn't matter. Just stay home and take care of yourself, no matter how long it takes."

  "Dad, I know." Ning Fan nodded, "However, Dad, I'm going to make a trip to Qingyun Temple right away."

  "Qingyun Pavilion?" The old man was somewhat surprised, "Have you received news of Liu Daozhang?"

  "Yes, there's some news." Ning Fan nodded.

  "Alright, you go then, be careful." The old man didn't ask any more questions.

  "Uh, Dad, I'll go first." Ning Fan didn't say anything else and quickly got up and walked out. Soon, he plunged into the rain.

  Tears streamed down his face, and it was unclear whether they were Ning Fan's tears or not. The old man was Ning Fan's father, Ning Gen Sheng, who was already over 60 years old. However, Ning Gen Sheng was not Ning Fan's biological father. Twenty-four years ago, Ning Gen Sheng had picked up Ning Fan, who was just one year old at the time, on the road and brought him home.

  At that time, Ning Gen had a pair of children who were about to come of age, but in the end, he still adopted Ning Fan. For 24 years, Ning Gen treated Ning Fan even better than his own biological son.

  Be a good person.

  Ning Gen often said this at that time, and this sentence also had a great impact on Ning Fan. In these years, he has been trying to be a good person.

  Sometimes, even Ning Fan himself is unclear about what it means to be a good person.

  In the torrential rain, Ning Fan ran towards Qingyun Mountain. After a few minutes, he arrived at the foot of Qingyun Mountain, or more precisely, the foot of the main peak of Qingyun Mountain, Qingyun Peak.

  The Qingyun Pavilion is located on the mountain waist of Qingyun Peak.

  Facing the torrential rain, Ning Fan continued to run up the mountain, but in his mind, a thin figure wearing a Taoist robe appeared involuntarily, that was what he called Lao Dao, also known as Liu Daozhang by his father.

  In fact, no one knows the true name of Liu Daochang. Ning Fan only knew that Old Dao's surname was Liu. Before he was five years old, he had been weak and sickly, often getting into accidents like hitting his head or scraping his knees. On his fifth birthday, however, Old Dao appeared, and upon learning that he could make Ning Fan's body healthy, Ning Fan's father reluctantly agreed to let him go to Qingyun Temple.

  So, for the next ten years, Ning Fan stayed in Qingyun Temple. Of course, he also went to school normally like other children, but after school, while others went home, he returned to Qingyun Temple. For these ten years, Qingyun Temple was his home. During this decade, not only did he learn powerful martial arts from the old Taoist priest, but with the old man's help, he also came to realize what made him different from others.

  It was just ten years ago that Lao Dao suddenly left and then disappeared without a trace, until now, Ning Fan still didn't understand what had happened to Lao Dao.

  "Perhaps it will be known soon." Ning Fan quickened his pace, holding onto a metal box.

  The sky had already darkened, but Ning Fan had practiced martial arts for many years, his eyesight was much stronger than ordinary people, plus he was very familiar with this road, even if he closed his eyes, he could still run up, so whether it was a storm or a dark night, neither had any impact on him.

  After about ten minutes of running, Ning Fan stopped in front of a pure wooden building. A flash of lightning flashed by, illuminating three ancient characters on the building: "Qingyun Pavilion!"

  The history of Qingyun Temple is very ancient, and no one can accurately say how long it has been. Anyway, one thing that everyone near Qingyun Mountain can confirm is that Qingyun Temple already existed when they were aware of things.

  The oldest person near Qingyun Mountain is over 100 years old, which means that the Qingyun Temple has existed for at least a hundred years. What's even more amazing is that although the temple was built entirely with wood, after a century, these wooden materials are still indestructible and seem to be able to support it for a long time.

  The gate of Qingyun Pavilion was always open and had never been closed. Ning Fang walked in directly, then found the oil lamp and matches with ease, lit the oil lamp, and suddenly the interior of Qingyun Pavilion became bright.

  Ning Fan hasn't been here for several months, but at this moment, the Qingyun Pavilion is also very clean. Of course, this is not his credit, he knows that almost every day someone will come to sweep voluntarily.

  Qingyun Temple was actually not very popular before, but the ten years that Lao Dao spent here were the most glorious ten years of Qingyun Temple. During those ten years, countless people came to make wishes at Qingyun Temple, and it is said that Qingyun Temple was very efficacious at that time. After Lao Dao left, although the popularity of Qingyun Temple declined over the next ten years, there were still people who came to visit from time to time.

  And these people often sweep this place when they make a wish, which is why Qingyun Temple has always been very clean.

  It is said that in recent years, the Qingyun Mountain Scenic Area has also gained a good reputation due to the Qingyun Temple, because the Qingyun Temple is surprisingly always free and open, without any tickets.

  Originally, Ning Fan also thought that the scenic area was used to attract tourists, but now he roughly understood that Qingyun Pavilion did not charge admission fees, mainly because the property rights of Qingyun Pavilion were actually in private hands.

  Carrying an oil lamp, Ning Fan arrived at the great hall of the Taoist temple. The so-called great hall was actually a very small place. In the middle of the great hall, there was a bronze statue, but this bronze statue was not any god or immortal, it was cast with Lao Dao as the prototype.

  In the past twenty years, the old Taoist's bronze statue had been placed in the main hall, and Ning Fan knew that at the bottom of this bronze statue, there was a place that could be opened with a key, and the key he had just received was exactly the one that could open the bronze statue.

  "Old Dao, what have you left for me inside?" Ning Fan took a deep breath, holding the oil lamp and shining it towards the bronze statue. The next second, he was stunned.

  Right!

  The oil lamp fell to the ground, and the grand hall returned to complete darkness. Ning Fang stood in the darkness, as still as a wooden chicken.