Infinite Professions from a Pearl Collector

Eventually, Su Lan’s family ran out of options. They sent her to join an opera troupe to study performance, hoping that distance and time would weaken their relationship.

But they underestimated their daughter’s devotion. Even after joining the opera troupe, Su Lan never lost contact with Lu Shouyi.

"Back then, I worked on the docks every day. I’d be as tired as a beaten dog, and when I got back to that hovel, I didn’t even want to lift a finger."

Lu Shouyi’s gaze drifted, as if lost in a distant memory. "So whenever she had a free moment, she’d sneak away to see me. She would wash my clothes, cook my meals, clean my room..."

"You have no idea how many of the single guys envied me back then. They’d say that I, Lu Shouyi, must have done something good in a past life to find such a wonderful woman."

As he spoke, a complex, nostalgic expression surfaced on Lu Shouyi’s face. Everyone present listened in silence; even Guan Sihai’s anger had faded considerably.

It sounded like a beautiful love story.

But then, Lu Shouyi let out a long sigh, the nostalgia on his face replaced by bitterness.

"Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last. We eventually broke up."

"Do you know why?"

Before anyone could answer, Lu Shouyi continued on his own, "Because the daughter of the gang leader at the docks where I worked took a liking to me."

Just as they’d suspected.

Everyone understood. This was a classic story of a man abandoning the wife of his humble beginnings for wealth and power.

But to their surprise, Lu Shouyi’s next words left them stunned.

"To be honest, I’ve thought about it many times since then. Even if that hadn’t happened, I doubt Su Lan and I would have lasted."

"Why?" Chen Ye was the one who asked.

"Because she was too extreme." A flicker of fear crossed Lu Shouyi’s eyes, as if he was recalling some terrible memory from the past.

"When things were good, she was gentle and considerate—the image of a perfect wife. But if I did the slightest thing to displease her, even something as simple as coming home a little late, she would make a scene."

"At first, she would just cry. Later, she started threatening to kill herself, holding scissors to her throat or saying she’d jump in the river. One time, she even slit her own arm with a blade. There was blood all over the floor."

"To calm her down, I lost count of how many times I got on my knees and begged for her forgiveness. She would always regret it afterward, swearing up and down she’d never do it again, but the next time, she’d go right back to her old ways."

"Later, after I got involved with the gang leader’s daughter, I went to have a frank discussion with her. I offered her all of my life’s savings. I told her I’d give her everything, begging her to just let me go, and to let herself go too."

"But she wouldn’t listen. She just stared at me with pure hatred in her eyes, like she wanted to eat me alive. She said she didn’t want anything from me, but she swore she’d make me regret this for the rest of my life."

"I didn’t think much of it at the time. But then, not two days later, word came that she had hanged herself."

At this, Lu Shouyi’s voice trembled.

"I was devastated, I truly was!"

"But what was done was done. I had someone send a large sum of money to her family, hoping they would give Su Lan a proper burial. It was my way of offering some compensation. But they returned the money. I later heard that after they buried her, her parents left Sea Guardian Guard and were never heard from again."

"After that, I relied on my father-in-law’s influence to build my business, step by step. It grew larger and larger until I became the Mr. Lu I am today. I gradually forgot the name Su Lan, only remembering her in the dead of night, in a sudden dream or a fleeting thought."

"But this past year, I started dreaming of her frequently again. In my dreams, she’s always wearing a red wedding dress, asking why I betrayed her, telling me she’s coming to claim my life."

"At first, I dismissed it as nothing more than an active imagination—what you think of by day, you dream of by night. But gradually, strange things started happening around the house. I began having nightmares, night after night. Then it escalated to hallucinations in broad daylight. I’d see her standing in the corner, smiling at me. It all came to a head half a month ago, when the dozen or so guard dogs I kept all died violently in a single night. Their deaths were gruesome."

"That’s when I knew. She had really come back for me."

"I was terrified, so I went to my good friend, Qi Shihao from the Government Office, for help. He found a high-ranking practitioner for me from the Celestial Empress Palace. This Daoist Nun had real skill; she divined that Su Lan’s parents had buried her in the Chaotic Burial Mound outside the city."

"We found the grave, dug up her remains, and the Daoist Nun personally performed a ritual. She had the bones cremated and then sealed them away to suppress the spirit."

"The Daoist Nun said the ghost’s resentment was too powerful. Even though we had dealt with her remains, a foul energy still lingered in my mansion. She told me to hire an Opera Troupe to perform for three straight days. The idea was to use the Yang Qi and lively energy of the crowd to completely drive out the lingering presence. Today was supposed to be the final day. If we could just get through tonight, everything would have been fine..."

"But in the end, disaster struck anyway."

Having laid out the entire story in one long breath, Lu Shouyi slumped back in his chair, completely drained.

The others fell silent as well.

It was a far more complicated story than anyone had imagined. The lines between right and wrong, black and white, were hopelessly blurred and impossible to untangle.

Just then, Chen Ye, who had been listening in thoughtful silence, looked up. "Master Lu," he said, "have you ever considered one possibility?"

"That the body you went to all that trouble to find and dispose of... wasn’t Su Lan’s at all?"