Invincible Dad-Chapter 584: Got Wine?_1

Kids these days are wise beyond their years.

Ruan Lan had gotten used to it. She hummed and hawed, no longer bickering with her niece, and instead held the chessboard Formation, constantly thinking about how to revitalize the Star Origin Sect.

It wasn't that she had any special attachment to the sect. She just thought the name was cool, since it was founded by that old man in honor of the Great Emperor of Star Origin.

It sounded so domineering! And reeked of sappy romance...

After dinner, Ruan Tang gave Yiyi a bath and told her a story, finally coaxing the little girl to sleep.

Ruan Tang tiptoed out of the room and saw the living room light was still on. Xu Lai was still studying the second "character" of the Cloud Water Rust. She draped a robe over him, noticing his eyes were bloodshot.

Xu Lai let out a weary breath. "Are you heading to bed?"

Ruan Tang shook her head. "Don't mind me. You focus on your work."

"Hmm."

Xu Lai's mind was completely immersed in the Cloud Water Rust. He was desperate to know what information the remaining thirty-five characters concealed. As for the Immortal Scripture, he had long given up any hope for it, so he threw himself back into his research wholeheartedly.

Ruan Tang sat quietly across the table from him, resting her chin in her hands as she watched him tenderly.

One minute.

Five minutes.

Half an hour.

When Xu Lai finally stretched wearily, he realized Ruan Tang had fallen asleep, her head resting on the table.

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "You silly woman, you should have gone to sleep in the bedroom."

But a warmth spread through his heart. He knew Ruan Tang had only stayed with him because she was afraid he would get overly fixated again.

With a wave of his hand, Xu Lai placed the paper inscribed with the Cloud Water Rust Characters into his Storage Space. He moved very gently as he picked Ruan Tang up and carried her back to their room.

「Several days passed in a flash.」 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

After deciphering the first rune, Xu Lai spent three full days and nights on the second one with no progress whatsoever.

「April 3rd.」

A light drizzle fell from the sky as Xu Lai drove his wife, daughter, and Ruan Lan to the countryside. His usually drowsy sister-in-law wasn't yawning. Instead, her eyes were rimmed with red, because the next day was the Qingming Festival. They were going to visit their grandmother's grave.

They arrived at Baishan Village, in the countryside of East Sea City. With the younger generation having moved away, only about a hundred households remained, mostly consisting of elderly residents.

The courtyard of their grandmother's old house wasn't as tidy as their last visit; it had clearly been a while since anyone had tended to it.

As she pushed the wooden door open with a crisp click of the lock, Ruan Tang seemed to enter a daze. It was as if she could see her childhood self playing in the courtyard while her grandmother watched with a beaming smile, waving a cattail fan. But now, a fine rain was falling, and the grounds of her old home were overgrown.

Xu Lai wrapped an arm around Ruan Tang's shoulder and whispered, "You guys go on in. I'll take care of the weeds."

"Okay."

Ruan Tang and Ruan Lan went inside to clean.

"Dad, can Beibei and I go look around the village?" Yiyi asked sweetly, her big eyes blinking.

"I'll protect Yiyi!" Beibei declared confidently.

"Go ahead," Xu Lai instructed. "Just don't cause any trouble."

Yiyi was in the Golden Core Realm now. If she were to stir up any real trouble, the small village beneath their feet could be instantly reduced to ashes.

"Hurry, Yiyi! I'll take you to catch shrimp!" Beibei flew ahead excitedly. She had spotted a river in the distance when they first arrived.

Xu Lai sighed helplessly. Beibei might have lived for a long time, but she was still a mischievous child at heart.

There weren't too many weeds in the courtyard. Xu Lai finished tidying up quickly, but when he suddenly heard Ruan Tang crying from inside the house, his heart clenched and he rushed in.

He found Ruan Tang sitting on the edge of the kang bed, tears streaming down her face. She was holding a handwritten letter and a piece of red cloth. Inside the cloth were two bank books.

Xu Lai pulled Ruan Tang into his arms and said softly, "I'm here. It's okay."

"I miss Grandma." Ruan Tang buried her head in Xu Lai's chest. Her shoulders trembled as she cried silently.

"WAAAH!" Ruan Lan's sobs were the loudest. She choked out, "There's a secret compartment in the cabinet. Inside was a letter from Grandma, and the dowry she secretly left for us."

"No wonder! Before Grandma passed, her mind was already fuzzy, but she kept talking about the old house. I thought she was just being nostalgic, but I never expected... Boo-hoo..." Ruan Lan kept wiping her tears away.

Xu Lai glanced over. The amounts in the bank books weren't huge—250,000 and 200,000, respectively—all saved up little by little over the years. The first deposit was made on the day they were born, and the last was from three months before she passed away.

The letter was only a few lines long. In it, the old woman wrote about how much she cherished her two granddaughters, Ruan Tang and Ruan Lan, and that she hoped they would one day marry into good families. She wrote that even if their husbands mistreated them, Grandma would always be there to protect them.

Man lives for one lifetime, just as plants see but one autumn. Parting through life and death has always been a solemn subject.

Xu Lai didn't offer any words of comfort; he simply held Ruan Tang.

Then Ruan Lan clung to Xu Lai's arm. Xu Lai thought perhaps his sister-in-law just needed a shoulder to cry on, but as she proceeded to rub her tear-streaked face all over his shirt, his expression slowly stiffened.

I treat you like my sister-in-law, and you treat me like a tissue?

Fortunately, she calmed down after crying for a little while. She blushed when she saw the snot she'd wiped on his shirt. She cautiously looked up to meet her brother-in-law's murderous gaze.

Ruan Lan bolted. "I... My stomach hurts! I'm going to the bathroom! And don't you dare follow me, brother-in-law!"

What in the world?

Xu Lai suspected Ruan Lan was trying to frame him. Thankfully, the emotionally devastated Ruan Tang didn't press the matter.

"Xu Lai, did you know? Grandma was never happy after marrying Grandpa. The Ruan Family was well-off compared to most, but..." Ruan Tang began to speak. She rambled on and on, a stark contrast to her usually calm self.

But Xu Lai wasn't the least bit impatient. He just listened attentively.

When Ruan Tang finally tired of speaking, Xu Lai handed her a glass of water. She looked up, two tear streaks stark against her cheeks, and asked softly, "Do you have any wine?"

Xu Lai paused for a moment, then nodded. "Yes."

He took out two jars of wine and sat beside Ruan Tang. They each held a jar, drinking their sorrows away in silence.

Before long, Ruan Tang was drunk. Xu Lai, who hadn't used his Boundary to negate the effects of the alcohol, was also slightly tipsy. "Honey," he asked, "do you want to see Grandma again?"

"What... do you mean?" Ruan Tang's body went stiff.

Xu Lai didn't explain. He simply gestured with his hand. Spiritual Energy drained rapidly from his body as the scenery before their eyes shifted and time rewound.

Normally, the Retrocognition Technique consumed a tenth of one's Spiritual Energy to trace past events in a specific location and had significant limitations. But what Xu Lai was doing now was an alteration of that very technique. With it, he created a simple Barrier.

At some point, the drunken Ruan Tang suddenly realized Xu Lai was gone. She grew anxious and was about to look for him when a familiar, yet strangely distant, voice whispered in her ear:

"Tangtang, your grandma misses you so much."