A new pot of tea was quickly brewed, and using a new jar of tea Jianmen brought here himself - it was his enchanted tea infused with very small traces of Xuanli, enough to enhance any normal drinker’s health and make, but not enough to give them any powers or cause them to react badly to it.
Nan laid the pot on the small table beside her chair, and poured herself a cup of tea. Jianmen sat down by her side and started watching TV with her. The TV was very old, but still functional. Jianmen did buy Nan a bigger flatscreen TV a few years back, but Nan decided not to use it and still stuck to this old, bulky and low definition TV.
In fact, not just the TV, everything in this house remained mostly unchanged for all these years, it was as if Nan was trying to preserve the looks of this place. The wallpaper, the kitchenware, the tables in the dining room, even the old and worn out lamps in the dining room, were all still kept in their places just like before.
The TV was playing some very old Chinese New Year program from some very old DVD. The DVD machine was making a lot of noise due it having been used for many years - it was not the one that was originally here before Shawn’s death, but a replacement with the same brand and same model, and even one with the same kind of Chinese user manual and UI. This was partially because the old one was too old to use, and partially because Nan still couldn’t speak or read much English, she let Shawn handle most of the business and communication with people outside of Chinatown, and she couldn’t care less about learning it after Shawn’s death.
When the host on the TV started to introduce the audience to the next show, Jianmen turned and took a look at Nan, with a flare of orange and golden light in his eyes.
In Jianmen’s sight, there were thin threads and colorful chains connected to Nan’s body, but they were much fewer than the average person’s - from Jianmen’s experience, this was mostly because of Nan’s isolated life, as these chains and threads represented the main flows of karma that went through and around a person’s life and time. And among these chains and threads, there was one chain that was the thickest. It shined red and was connected to the back of Nan’s head.
Jianmen sighed in his heart - this was the chain of mortality, in theory everyone has one, and it was basically the way in which the Will stays connected to the soul of a person, and eventually claims their soul when they die. And from the looks of the chain, the Will was about to claim her. And there was not much anyone could do, without actually disrupting the karma flow.
Jianmen could help, at least now he was able to offer greater help now, unlike the case with Shawn, where his unknowing intervention led to much more violent snapback. And in Nan’s case, her fate was not tied to any karmic pollutants, which meant even if Jianmen interfered, the snapback at Nan or the cost to Jianmen wouldn’t be as harsh and violent. But after some consideration, Jianmen decided not to intervene. As a matter of fact, Jianmen already sort of intervened - by his taking care of Nan all these years and making sure she was in good health, her fate was already altered, bettered.
Jianmen was quite sure, that back in the day when he threw his phone and stopped Shawn from getting shot by the goon sent by the Zhangs, he actually interrupted the plan by which the Will attempted to keep the karmic pollutants sealed in the antique scrolls in hidden and their corruptive power slowly being chipped away by time. Then almost seeming like a form of punishment, Shawn died, and Jianmen lost his right hand. If he had his current strength back then, he would have seen it coming and handled the whole situation in a much more graceful way.
“I want steamed fish for dinner.” Nan said: “Go buy me some fresh live bass and steam it for me, Cantonese style.”
“The Chinese supermarkets are almost closed. There won’t be live fish.” Jianmen said.
“I don’t care, I just want steamed bass.”
“Okay, just wait here.” Jianmen stood up and walked out the house.
A live bass was not much of a trouble for Jianmen, he just needed to act like it was a difficult thing, so that Nan would take the chance to be hard on him.
Swiftly teleported back to the inn and grabbed a normal bass from the lakes in his farm, then Jianmen waited a short while before he went back to Nan’s place so that it wouldn’t raise any suspicions.
“They actually still have the fish, I’ll prepare them. Cantonese style, yes?”
“I also want frogs. Make me a spicy frog pot.”
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“Will do. I think the supermarket I went to still has some frogs.”
They ended up having too many dishes for dinner - a steamed bass, a spicy frog pot, a plate of stir fried vegetables, and a plate of barbeque short ribs. Nan didn’t have much appetite, so Jianmen cleaned up all of the leftovers by himself.
“Jianmen, you have a plan to marry yet?” when Jianmen was doing the dishes after dinner, Nan asked from the living room.
“No. Not in the near future.”
“Do you at least have a girlfriend?”
“... No.”
“What a pity and a shame.” Nan said after a short moment of silence: “I’ve always wanted a grandson, or a granddaughter. It’s just… well, you should have someone someday. ”
“Thank you, but I’m not in a rush right now. I still have a lot of time.”
“Yeah, right. You’re what? Thirty five? Forty? You should hurry before all the good girls who might be interested in you are gone. It’s not easy for men your age right now.”
“Don’t worry about me, I have my plans.”
The evening quickly flew by, and Jianmen helped Nan onto her bed and adjusted the temperature in her room to make sure she was warm.
“You can make me that beef porridge tomorrow morning.” before Jianmen left the room, Nan told him: “And some warm soy milk.”
“No problem.” Jianmen nodded and went to the living room, then he sat on the sofa and started meditating.
About three or four hours into the night, Jianmen felt something from Nan’s room.
When Jianmen went into Nan’s room with the same orange and golden flare in his eyes, he saw that the thick red chain once connected to the back of Nan’s head started pulling a small shining ball of light up towards the ceiling, and in turn, the sky above.
“Farewell, Nan.”