CHAPTER 433: CHAPTER 195 COURTYARD OF GOOD LUCK SLOPE_3

"Since the owner isn’t here, we should probably not disturb." Li Xiu said, turning around, ready to leave.

Though he really wanted to go in and look for the Suihou Bead, there was no such thing in this world where guests would receive other guests on behalf of the absent host.

This was already something strange, perhaps there was something fishy inside.

Just as Li Xiu and Chu Jun were about to leave, they heard someone inside continue speaking, "The owner here might not even come back once in ten or eight years. I’ve lived here for decades, so you could say I’m half the owner. Since you rang the doorbell three times, you must be here for something. Why not tell me, perhaps I might be able to help you."

Li Xiu and Chu Jun exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes.

"Today is really strange, the owner comes back once every ten or eight years, and a guest has stayed for decades. Who is the owner, and who is the guest?" Li Xiu said with a laugh.

The person inside the wooden house also laughed and said, "It’s nothing strange. Some people spent hundreds of thousands to marry a wife they don’t use, and others step in. Some raise a son for decades, who might turn out to be someone else’s. So what if it’s a house?"

"What you said makes sense. How shall I address you?" Li Xiu asked.

"When I was younger, people called me Ba Ye. Now I’m old and instead look younger, some even call me Xiao Ba. The world is just so wondrous, call me whatever you like." The person continued, "Talking like this is quite troublesome; after all, I count as half the owner, so I have the right to invite you in for tea."

"Ba Ye, then we’ll respectfully comply." Li Xiu initially wanted to enter, and having reached this point, there was naturally no reason to leave.

Li Xiu and Chu Jun entered the courtyard, walked around bamboo resembling a screen, and saw three wooden houses behind.

These three wooden houses were quite interesting: the left one was painted red, the right one blue, and the middle one had no paint, showing the original wood color.

The doors of the red and blue houses were closed, but the door of the middle house was open, with a low wooden table inside. Next to it sat a middle-aged man cross-legged, eating a bowl of noodles.

"The teapot on the table has tea, and the cups are in the cabinet beside it, help yourselves." Ba Ye said while eating noodles.

Li Xiu and Chu Jun found this Ba Ye very interesting. Earlier, he described himself as quite old, but seeing him in person, he looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties, not as old as imagined.

Li Xiu did not hesitate, went to the cabinet, took out two bamboo cups, handed one to Chu Jun, and sat cross-legged by the low table, pouring tea for both Chu Jun and himself.

However, Li Xiu didn’t drink, just held it in his hand as if it were a hand warmer.

"Ba Ye, how have you been a guest here for so long?" Li Xiu asked, observing Ba Ye.

This Ba Ye, though a bit advanced in age, still had excellent looks and presence. He must have been a heartthrob in his youth.

Even now, probably many young girls would like such a gentlemanly uncle.

Yet such an uncle, slurping noodles there, seemed to lower his elegance and image quite a bit.

"I want to leave, but the host is so hospitable and insisted on having me as a guest here. Hard to refuse such hospitality, so I stayed longer." Ba Ye said with a smile after swallowing his noodles.

"Is there really someone so hospitable, allowing a guest to stay in their house for decades? What kind of family is this?" Chu Jun couldn’t help but ask.

"You might not believe it, but the owner is a beauty, and not just any beauty—one of the great beauties. I’ve seen many beauties before, but those women, even the so-called peerless ones, pale in comparison to this lady of the house. Had I not seen her with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe someone so beautiful could exist. Before meeting her, I always thought those poetic phrases about a glance captivating a city or a nation were just the romantic fantasies of literati. But after meeting her, I learned that such beauty truly exists in the world."

"What are a city and a nation compared to this? If you could win the favor of such a woman, even gifting her the whole Earth wouldn’t be too much. One might even worry she wouldn’t accept." Ba Ye said.

Li Xiu thought to himself: "Giving Earth? Only you could think of that. Isn’t this the ultimate simp behavior? Unexpectedly, this dignified Ba Ye is actually a simp."

"So Ba Ye, it’s the lady of the house who keeps you here as a guest, making it hard for you to leave. What kind of woman is she to captivate you so entirely?" Chu Jun was intrigued.

Ba Ye rolled his eyes at Chu Jun’s words and said, "A fool wouldn’t want to leave. No matter how beautiful, how does it compare to the wide world outside? If I could leave, I would have left long ago."

"But as you said, the owner isn’t home, and the door isn’t locked. If you wanted to leave, who could stop you?" Chu Jun said, unconvinced.

"Forget it, let’s not talk about it." Ba Ye slurped his noodles twice more, swallowed, and then said, "What brings you two here? By your looks, you must be here for a reason?"

"We came here to find something." Li Xiu said.

"Looking for something here, that’s quite unusual. What are you looking for?" Ba Ye asked with interest, setting his bowl on the table and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"A bead, a bead that can glow at night." Li Xiu said with a smile.

"The bead you’re talking about, could it be that one?" Ba Ye raised his hand and pointed upwards.