After bidding farewell to the grieving parents, Li Chengfeng noticed a familiar luxury car parked across the street. Before he could ponder its owner, **Ye Mengyao** stepped out, slamming the door with a fury that made him blurt out a curse:
"Fuck! Why is *she* back?!"
He bolted into the Hall of Serendipity and barricaded the door. Ye Mengyao kicked it viciously, her voice sharp as shattered glass:
"Li Chengfeng! Open up! I'm not some plague-bearing demon!"
"You're *worse* than a plague!" he retorted, shoulder pressed against the trembling wood. "Take your 100,000 yuan back and leave me alone!"
"No!"
"Miss Ye, I'm just a feng shui grunt—not a hero. I want to *live*!"
Their argument raged through the door. Ye Mengyao pleaded for him to remove the cursed locust tree; Li Chengfeng refused, unwilling to dive into the Ye family's viper pit. Outside, unnoticed, **Ye Wuming** watched from his idling sedan, eyes narrowing.
Desperate, Ye Mengyao played her trump card: "Cure my father, and I'll be your girlfriend!"
Li Chengfeng snorted. "I'm a **straight arrow**—no interest in your poisoned charms. *Leave.*"
Defeated, Ye Mengyao stormed off. Li Chengfeng slumped against the wall, relieved—until the door exploded inward.
---
**The Reckoning**
Ye Wuming stood framed in the shattered doorway, two hulking bodyguards flanking him. Glass shards glittered at their feet like malevolent stars.
Li Chengfeng's right eyelid twitched—a folk omen of impending doom. Rage simmered beneath his placid smile. *Breathe. Survive.*
"Welcome, sir!" He bowed, sycophantic. "Tea? Water?"
Ye Wuming smirked. "Smash this rat hole."
The bodyguards shoved Li Chengfeng aside. A rosewood desk splintered under a steel-toed boot. The ancestral altar collapsed, incense ash swirling like ghostly snow. As the **portrait of Guo Pu** crashed down, Li Chengfeng swore the patriarch's serene gaze flickered to fury—then back.
*Hallucinations? Or wrath from beyond?*
A bodyguard rampaged into the bedroom, shredding bedding and stomping floorboards. Li Chengfeng stood motionless, smile intact. Men who smiled while their worlds burned were either fools… or snakes coiled to strike.
Ye Wuming chuckled. "Look at this idiot—grinning as his shop dies!"
He didn't notice the **cinnabar talisman** slipping from Li Chengfeng's sleeve.
---