Fifty Sound Transmission Talismans

Rong Xianxian had no idea that Ning Qingyun had run into serious trouble.

Despite being married for many years, Rong Xianxian knew virtually nothing about his family background.

At the time, they had a whirlwind marriage, merely registering their union without holding a proper wedding ceremony, essentially opting for a traveling wedding. Being young, Rong Xianxian had not cared about such details. Besides, she was naturally reclusive and more than happy to avoid the hassle of socializing with his relatives and friends. Her household registration and identity documents remained at her workplace, and even her parents only found out she was married after she had given birth.

When she first brought Ning Qingyun home, it was already after their wedding. Her parents were instantly struck by their son-in-law's striking good looks. Her father briefly asked about Ning Qingyun's family, and Ning Qingyun replied that he came from a single-parent household. Sensing immediately that he disliked dwelling on the subject, Rong Xianxian had signaled her parents with her eyes to drop the matter.

Rong Xianxian had only seen her elusive mother-in-law once, right after the confinement period following Xuanxuan's birth.

When the mother-in-law showed up unannounced, her expression was extremely grim, and Ning Qingyun's expression was even worse.

Their dynamic seemed rather bizarre, with Ning Qingyun acting as though his mother's arrival was an impending catastrophe.

Ning Qingyun had hurriedly taken her outside, and after a conversation whose content remained unknown, the mother-in-law ended up staying at their home for nearly half a month.

Perhaps mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law were natural enemies, but at least in Ning Qingyun's presence, Ying Cai'e managed to maintain some restraint.

The moment Ning Qingyun was out of sight, however, Ying Cai'e subjected Rong Xianxian to endless nitpicking, criticizing everything from her appearance and family background to her personal habits and moral character. After just half a month of this, Rong Xianxian, who was already struggling with mild postpartum depression, was driven to the verge of a breakdown.

It was only when Ning Qingyun finally noticed something was amiss that he forcibly sent her away.

It was through her mother-in-law's haughty remarks during that visit—her tone and attitude dripping with disdain and mockery toward Rong Xianxian's family background—that Rong Xianxian belatedly realized Ning Qingyun's origins might not be as simple as they seemed.

Yet, what did that matter?

As long as they closed their doors and lived their own lives in peace, life was wonderfully carefree; there was no need to go looking for trouble.

Emerging from the Meadow Rong Supermarket, Rong Xianxian looked at the two cars packed to the brim. By her estimation, the supplies should easily last ten days to half a month. After conferring with Wang Lin and the others, she decided to head toward the Bauhinia Garden villa complex to find a suitable place to settle down.

Along the way, they fended off a few sneak attacks from mutated monsters, shook off several scouts sent by Shang Yuege that had been trailing them, and killed a canine-shaped creature covered in scaly armor. Regrettably, it dropped no treasures. The group simply shoved the monster's carcass into a sack, tied it to the roof of a car, and brought it back to the villa area with them.

"Sister Rong, I found some exceptionally good dried sea cucumbers at the supermarket today. Those used to cost thousands of bucks per pound! Let's make sea cucumber hot pot tonight!" Wang Qirui said, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"You can make hot pot out of sea cucumbers? I've only ever had scallion-braised sea cucumbers, braised sea cucumbers in brown sauce, sea cucumbers in abalone sauce, sea cucumber soup, and sea cucumber porridge. I've never heard of sea cucumber hot pot. Are you sure that's edible?" Rong Xianxian asked, looking puzzled as she tried to mentally picture a pot of sea cucumbers swimming in a spicy hot pot broth, paired with a sesame oil dipping sauce. *Well, I suppose I've never tried it.*

Wang Qirui felt his mouth watering at the thought. "They say sea cucumbers are tricky to cook, right? Sister Rong, do you know how to make sea cucumber porridge? I've only ever had it at restaurants and have never made it myself." Looking at the identical expressions of eager anticipation on the faces of the others, even Cui烈—Cui Lie—seemed somewhat tempted.

They hadn't eaten together for just a few days, so what on earth had happened?

How did they all turn into such enthusiastic foodies?

Noticing Rong Xianxian's skeptical look, Wang Qirui blushed slightly. "My gums are practically worn raw from eating dry crackers and biscuits for the past few days," he said pitifully.

Rong Xianxian pressed a hand to her forehead. *Good heavens, what is this nonsense? Aside from Wang Qirui, didn't Jiang Jie, Wang Lin, Cui Lie, and Xia Kai all have decent cooking skills?*

They weren't the type of people incapable of boiling water or cooking a basic meal!

"We forgot to bring a pot," Wang Lin raised his hand and answered.

"We forgot to bring water," Jiang Jie raised his hand and answered.

"We forgot to bring a stove," Xia Kai raised his hand and said.

"You guys were living right next door; you could have just come over and grabbed them," Rong Xianxian asked, thoroughly perplexed.

"Sister Rong, you were the one who told us not to come back!" Wang Qirui piped up foolishly.

*Fine, clever boys.* Rong Xianxian didn't even know what to say. They all just knew how to play innocent; it was pure laziness.

As they chatted, the cars drove into the villa complex.

They couldn't pick a spot that was too conspicuous, nor could they stay too close to the perimeter; getting in and out had to be convenient.

Rong Xianxian took the lead, driving around the neighborhood twice. She did notice several houses teeming with human silhouettes. It was easy to tell inhabited houses apart from vacant ones because most had their heavy curtains tightly drawn. As Rong Xianxian drove past, she could always catch wary, darting glances peeking through the slit of a pulled-back curtain.

Eventually, Rong Xianxian selected a villa situated in the northern central part of the community. The villas here were townhouses, with three units connected in a row, each three stories high, complete with a basement garage and a second-level underground storage room. All three units of the building Rong Xianxian chose were currently unoccupied. When the owners left, they had taken most of their belongings with them, though perhaps figuring curtains served no further purpose, heavy drapes still hung neatly over the windows. Comfortable, thick memory foam mattresses remained properly made on the beds, and European-style, luxurious solid-wood sofas—though rendered useless by the power outage—were arranged in pristine order.

Only a thick layer of dust coating the chairbacks, tabletops, and floors hinted at how long the owners had been gone.

With a little light cleaning and tidying up, it would be ready for moving in.

Rong Xianxian first settled the two little ones, then joined Cui Lie and the others in unloading everything from the vehicles and carrying it inside. Each of the three villas came with a small courtyard, though unfortunately, the gates were too narrow for cars to drive in. To avoid drawing attention, it was best not to park the vehicles right at the front door either.

Yet, they couldn't park too far away, or it would be inconvenient when they needed to use them later.

Fortunately, car theft wasn't a major concern anymore; people lacked fuel far more than they lacked vehicles, and the villa's underground parking lot was full of idle, dust-covered cars.

Just as the group finished settling in and prepared to cook, a series of glowing lights suddenly emanated from Rong Xianxian's person. She pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing for silence.

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a glowing piece of paper talisman—a sound-transmission talisman.

When she left in the morning, she had pasted a sound-transmission talisman behind the "Fu" character sticker on the front door, and its matching counterpart was the one she now held in her hand.

She pressed her fingertips against the center of the talisman, and a voice emerged from within.

"I told you we should have made our move that night, but you insisted the timing wasn't right. Look, didn't she run off?" a gloomy voice grumbled with dissatisfaction, clearly lowering its volume on purpose.

"Cut it out, you've said that a dozen times already. Who could have known she'd bolt within a day or two? Why on earth is a woman running around everywhere with two little kids anyway? Wouldn't it be better to just stay put in the safety zone? She's just bringing us trouble," another voice replied.