Chapter Eleven: Three Decades on the Eastern Bank, Turned to Swine

When he woke, he still felt a little weary. Wu Yue looked around. It was a plain carriage, neither luxurious nor spacious; if one lay down, one could only just stretch out one’s legs.

He could not tell how the vehicle had been built. Though it was moving, it rode with remarkable smoothness. Wu Yue lifted the curtain and saw Yu Fu and Zhao Qingzhu seated side by side at the front, doing their best to look as though they were driving a wagon.

“How long was I asleep?” Wu Yue asked.

Zhao Qingzhu jolted hard and said in irritation, “You nearly scared me to death.”

Wu Yue looked off into the distance. The woods on either side had already grown noticeably thinner, and the roar of a river could now be heard faintly. He could also hear many of the laborers laughing and cursing loudly. For people like them, life and death were ordinary things.

They were all eagerly talking about yesterday’s mysterious master, and now they had a new tale to boast about. As for the dead? Once a person was dead, they were dead. For those who wandered the world outside, was dying not perfectly normal? Besides, the Second Miss had been especially generous with the compensation. As for brooding over sorrow and autumn winds, that was the sort of thing rich people or scholars did.

“I’m telling you, that first strike—just that one kick, heavens above, when it landed beside me, it scared me half to death. Little Five was right next to me and, before he could even react, he was blown into meat paste. I got such a shock I rolled away like a beaten mule. If I hadn’t, my own life would have ended there too, Blacky would have.”

“I was right beside you. You were so scared you nearly wet yourself. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Get lost. Was I born to be scared? It’s not like I’ve never seen other cultivators.”

“You’ve seen a cultivator who has transcended the mortal realm? Our Second Miss said that man’s cultivation was at least at that level.”

“What? You don’t know what transcending the mortal realm means? You can tell just by the words. What, you can’t read? Damn it, you can’t read and you still dare handle the accounts? What? You’re the neighbor of the chief steward’s distant cousin?”

A burst of thudding blows followed. Clearly that title was not of much use.

“Hey, hey, don’t you think our Second Miss knows that mysterious expert?”

“Nonsense. If she knew him, would so many of us have died? Even Headman Zhou is still hanging between life and death.”

“What the hell do you know? Can you guess the minds of those immortal cultivators? If you could, you’d have gone into the mountains to cultivate yourself. Listen, let me explain it to you. It’s actually like this. At first that mysterious expert had no intention of making a move. You don’t get it, do you? That’s what it means to keep one’s dignity. So he sent out his disciple first, just to show up and go through the motions. Who would have thought those people wouldn’t know their place? That red-haired kid, for instance—”

“Shh. Keep your voice down. Do you want to die? Still, if you ask me, that boy might just end up as our second son-in-law. Didn’t you notice? From last night until now, he’s been in the Second Miss’s carriage. Just the two of them, a man and a woman, alone together...”

A wave of laughter rose from the crowd, though by then they had strayed so far from the original subject that it was no longer even the same matter.

“Yesterday you fainted. The doctor said you were too weak, too exhausted. After a good sleep, you’d be fine.”

“What’s wrong with Yu Fu?” Wu Yue asked, noticing that Yu Fu had kept his head lowered and seemed clearly out of spirits, nothing like his usual lively self. “And what happened with Kyle?”

Though he could use the shared-vision mode, Wu Yue had no interest in peeking into other people’s private matters.

At those words, Zhao Qingzhu immediately grew indignant. “That bastard. He said he didn’t know us, and that a noble would never make friends with filthy commoners. He said that especially when there were beautiful ladies around.”

Wu Yue looked at Zhao Qingzhu’s flushed, angry expression and found it rather amusing.

“Then last night, the Second Miss said she wanted to rest for the night. We went to look for Kyle and the others, and they bullied little Yu Fu.”

“Oh?” Wu Yue’s gaze turned cold. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

In Wu Yue’s mind, whether in status or value, Yu Fu was clearly far more important than Kyle.

“We knew the expert they were talking about was you, and when you fainted, we were worried those people would come back. We didn’t have any way to deal with them, so we went to tell them. Instead of listening, they laughed at us and bullied Yu Fu.”

“What a fine combination: pretending to be a tiger behind a fox’s back, with the added trick of an empty-city bluff,” Wu Yue thought, unable to help sighing inwardly.

As though their minds were linked, Qing Yuzi’s voice suddenly rang out as well. “That girl is bold and meticulous enough to be a real character.”

Wu Yue shivered violently. Truly, the world’s retribution came quickly; he had just frightened someone, and now he had been frightened in return.

“What’s wrong?” Since Qing Yuzi’s voice could only be heard by Wu Yue, only he had been startled; Zhao Qingzhu merely saw him suddenly twitch.

“Nothing, nothing.” Wu Yue shook his head. “Go on.”

Once Zhao Qingzhu mentioned it, his anger surged all over again. “So we went to look for Kyle. We wanted to tell him the truth in secret. But those people wouldn’t even let us in, saying we would disturb their Second Miss’s good fortune. They bullied little Yu Fu too, making him play a game with them. They said whoever won could make one request of the loser. We didn’t want to agree at first, but then they said anyone who was afraid wasn’t a man.”

“What game did you play?”

“Palm-slapping.”

“And then?”

“Little Yu Fu lost. His hand was slapped until it swelled up.”

“And what was their condition?”

“They made little Yu Fu go a whole day without speaking.”

Wu Yue was silent for a moment, then was about to speak. A spark flared in Zhao Qingzhu’s eyes as he said, “Are you going to avenge little Yu Fu?”

Children never hid their love and hate. Just as Zhao Qingzhu had once disliked Wu Yue with perfect frankness, so too had that dislike turned into understanding in the end. Especially after yesterday’s mountain road journey and everything that had happened there, Zhao Qingzhu had unconsciously begun to rely on Wu Yue. It was not weakness, but a perfectly natural habit. In the end, Zhao Qingzhu was still only a child.

“No,” Wu Yue said. “I was going to ask why you keep calling him little Yu Fu.”

“Because he can’t beat me, and he’s not as tall as I am either. He’s also a bit stupid,” Zhao Qingzhu replied matter-of-factly. “So are you or are you not going to avenge little Yu Fu?”

At that, Yu Fu turned his head as well. Though he still did not speak, his eyes were full of pleading and anger, and his hands kept gesturing nonstop.

“Boy, you mustn’t speak, all right? Hahaha!”

A burly rider on horseback had come over. Seeing the scene, he laughed loudly. He was not afraid of offending the three of them, since the Second Miss had already made it clear: these three were nothing but ordinary people.

That was indeed true. Zhao Qingzhu was unsuited to cultivation and naturally showed no spiritual energy. As for Yu Fu, he claimed to be cultivating the path of immortality, which sounded rather mysterious, but it was of no use here. And as for himself, leaving aside his considerable age, even at his present youthful age, a mere sixth level of qi condensation was hardly anything worth mentioning.

Wu Yue smiled, unconcerned. “Brother, would you mind going to fetch Kyle for me?”

Wu Yue rarely asked favors of others, and even more rarely dealt with people at length. This way of addressing someone was something he had picked up in the Garden of Eternal Life. Wu Yue was very good at learning, whether from what was good or from what was bad.

The burly rider seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. With open mockery on his face, he laughed loudly. He even called out to the others, “Do you know what that man just said? He said for Lord Kyle to come and see him!”

Wild laughter spread through the air.

Wu Yue’s smile froze on his face.