Prologue

The boy had not eaten or drank anything for nearly a day. He swallowed his saliva, and his throat
felt like a rusted piece of metal, with a stale taste. There were black spots in his vision. He
stepped on something, he didn't know what; his ankle wobbled and without a word, he fell
forward, head first.

The girl beside him grabbed a hold of his collar none too gently. She dragged him along like she
was dragging a dead dog, nearly strangling him. The boy struggled to prop himself up against the
ground, just barely managing to stay upright. At least, he wasn't falling flat onto the ground. The
noise beside his ears sounded suddenly far and then suddenly near, like there was a layer of
something obstructing it.

"What's with you?"

"I… I really...."

Really can't run anymore.

Halfway through speaking, the boy ran out of energy. The second half of his sentence suspended
precariously in his throat, scattered to pieces by his broken breathing.

"What did you say?" The girl didn't hear him clearly. She drew closer and raised his head by his
chin. She looked at his complexion and frowned as she asked. "Did they beat you?"

"No… No." The boy grabbed weakly at her hand that was checking him over carelessly. His breath
was as thin as a thread as he spoke. "...L-Low blood sugar… Jiejie…"

"Oh." The girl was briefly stunned when she heard him address her in that way but did not
oppose it. A young girl in her teens was not very sensitive to matters related to age. She patted
her clothes and finally fished out a piece of chocolate from somewhere. "Here. I think it's expired
but I don't have anything else. Make do with it first."

This piece of chocolate had gone through a hard life and who knew how many times it had
melted and resolidified. The shape had changed drastically. The boy took it, trembling, feeling like
he was unwrapping the shroud on a sticky corpse. But he had no choice but to forcibly stuff it into
his mouth. From inside, he tasted a strong flavour of laundry detergent powder.

It was already easy to feel dizzy and nauseous when one was hungry to the point of having low
blood sugar. Adding on to that, his throat was inflamed and it was difficult to swallow. This piece
of chocolate that had gone through who-knew-what stuck in his throat, neither going up nor
down, making the boy choke and retch a few times, tears covering his face.

"Didn't I give you something to eat already? Why are you crying?"

"I… ugh… I'm not crying, I just... can't… ugh… can't swallow it…"
"Princess." The girl's sigh was one of age and experience. She crouched down beside him and
waited patiently for him to wipe his tears, then asked, "Hey, I've got a question—do you know
why those people kidnapped you?"

"No… Mm, I don't know." The boy used all his strength to swallow the thing in his mouth. He took
a few deep breaths. "I don't know them but they have a car and even have a few dogs. I think
they'll catch up to us right away. We have to call the police—Jiejie, do you have a communication
device? They took my phone."

"I don't. All of us at the village just shout." The girl spread her hands. "Don't tell me you're a
young master from a rich family. Did they demand money after kidnapping you?"

"No, my parents are ordinary people." The boy thought a while, then added. "It shouldn't be
because of money. They didn't take photos of me and didn't make me call my family to demand a
ransom. It was a gang who kidnapped me, a total of seven of eight people. I think that most
gangs involved in kidnapping and extortion shouldn't be on such a large scale because more
people means more loose mouths and it will be very easy for there to be conflicts due to personal
profits. It will be very hard for the gang to be stable."

His words were very logical and he even threw in some formal terms. The girl was all fuzzy-
headed from listening to him. "Oh, is that so?"

The boy immediately became cautious for no reason. "...I read it in a book."

The two half-grown kids were in a very deserted area. Not far away was a flyover that led out of
the province. At this time, there wasn't even a single car on it. There was no sign of anyone
around them but there might be a landfill nearby because the late night wind at the changing of
seasons between autumn and winter carried with it waves of an overwhelming rancid stench.
The smell made the boy choke until his nose and mouth ached painfully, and he retched a few
times out of a physiological reaction. He quickly covered his mouth to stifle himself, and carefully
glanced at the girl beside him, as though he was afraid that she would take a dislike to him.

The girl was wearing a very old men's short-sleeved shirt. It was of the style that was popular
among village committee members back in the nineties. However, the shirt was totally not the
right size for her. It covered her body like a sack and inversely, looked less tacky because of that.
A denim school bag hung from one of her hands. The zip on the bag was broken and she had
sewn an uneven row of buttons on it. The soft bag straps dangled downwards. It looked as
though it had just been fished out from a rubbish bin.

Despite that, she didn't look sloppy; instead, there was a couldn't-care-less air about her.

"Jiejie, do you live nearby?" The boy asked softly. "Where can we go to find some adults?"

"How would I know? I followed them here by clinging to their car." The girl plucked a blade of
grass from the ground and dangled one end from her mouth. As she surveyed their surroundings,
she seemed to be plotting something. She said carelessly, "They grabbed you at Mudpool
Backlane, right? I happened to pass by while buying breakfast but this gang moved too fast. At
that time, I hadn't even seen clearly that they had grabbed a person. I just felt that something
wasn't right so I followed them to have a look. You can consider yourself lucky."

The boy was dumbstruck.

The girl continued to say, "I haven't asked you yet. Why did a child like you come to Mudpool
Backlane, that hoodlums' nest, early in the morning?"

The boy looked like he had been struck by lightning. "You… alone? Just on your own?"

"Mm, yeah. Sorry, I don't have the habit of bringing cheerleaders with me. Maybe my entrance
wasn't grand enough."

"You didn't tell any adults? You didn't call the police?" The boy came back to his senses and
bristled all over. "You even, what… clung on to the car? Y-You, where did you cling on to? If you
had fallen down, you could have been run over by the cars on the road and died. And also, if they
noticed you…"

The girl's train of thought was cut off by his non-stop ranting. She turned her head around and
looked at him with a resigned face. "Call the police? Where would I go to call them? If I had run
from Mudpool Backlane to the local police station, explained what happened to them, then run
back there—the key point is that I can't even explain it clearly—this back and forth would have
been enough time for you to be dragged to the crematorium and back to the reincarnation pot.
Be good, go to the side and recite your 'Rules for Primary School Children.' If you continue to be
so long-winded, this jiejie is going to smack you until you cry."

"I am speaking reasonably here. And also, I'm already in junior high!"

The girl huffed a laugh. "In that case, your academic qualifications are really excellent. I-"

Before she finished her words, her face suddenly changed. She seized the boy and pushed him
into the bushes at the roadside. The boy unconsciously held his breath. Immediately after that, a
hazy beam of light swept past.

It was the light from a car.

There were a few cars. In the emptiness of the night, the sound of the engines and exhausts were
especially mighty. The cars turned in circles around them like bomber jets, then stopped at a spot
not far from them. Following that, the wind passed on the sound of people spewing obscenities
and dogs barking.

They brought dogs to chase them!

The boy hurriedly turned his head to look at his companion beside him. With the help of the dim
light, he suddenly realised that she was probably not much older than him and they might even
be of the same age. Her cheeks and her jaw still carried a little bit of tender baby fat. It was just
that girls matured earlier and she was also very decisive, so it gave others the illusion that she
was matured.
Her side profile did not appear as delicately pretty as her front profile because there was a slight
hump on her nose bridge. Her brows were thick and long and slanted upwards. Time and age
hadn't yet engraved her face, her bones and flesh had yet to fully develop; yet, a touch of an
arrogant and stubborn disposition was already evident.

"They have a lot of people, they have cars and even dogs. Catching the two of us… No, catching
me is very easy." The boy kept his voice low and urgent. "We should split up. If I'm caught, you
must not come out. Listen to me, I think there should be a landfill nearby. There must be an IC
payphone near major landfills. Get someone to come rescue me."

"I don't have a phone card."

The vein on the boy's temple started pulsing. "Calling 110 is free! Don't you have any common
sense?"

"Oh, really?" The girl had a I-learned-something-new expression on her face. Then, she calmly
looked away and spat out the blade of grass in her mouth. "Okay, I'll give it a try when I have the
chance. It won't be necessary today. Take off your clothes."

"...What?"

"Take. Off. Your. Clothes." She turned her head around, her eyes flitting past the boy's thin chest.
"You're just a bean sprout with no chest and no butt, is it possible for me to take advantage of
you? Quick, don't dawdle!"

She moved to take direct action herself as she spoke. The boy curled into a ball, his face and ears
completely red. In the end, he was forced to obey. He wasn't wearing a lot; after taking off his
baseball cap, his T-shirt and his sweatpants, all he had left on his whole body was one piece of
underwear. He was like a shaved puppy, indignant and feeling wronged.

The girl glanced at him and laughed wickedly. "That doggy on your underwear looks a lot like
you."

"What are you looking at!"

"Follow me!" She beckoned him and then bent down at the waist. Under the cover of the bushes
that grew freely at the roadside, she led the boy to squeeze their way through all over the place,
nimble and agile.

At first, the boy still had a vague sense of where they were heading. Later on, he was turned
around until he was confused and all he knew to do was to keep his thoughts to himself and
follow her. The barking of the dogs was drawing closer and even the jumbled, messy sound of
footsteps could be heard on the empty road.

"Come here!" The girl in front of him beckoned him. The boy finally realised that the two of them
had reached the boundary of the landfill. Right ahead was a wire fence. Before the girl could
finish speaking, another beam of light swept past. The two half-grown kids hurriedly crouched
down. They were very close to each other. The girl saw the sneakers on the boy's feet—they
were very eye-catching, the colour of the shoelaces and the way they were tied were different on
both sides, and they were also of a fluorescent shade. "Take off your shoes too. After a while,
climb over to the other side from here. Move quick, if someone sees you, you're dead meat.
Understand?"

"What are you planning?"

The girl ignored him and continued speaking, "After you get in there, look for the smelliest spot
and hide there. When it's nearly daybreak there will be rubbish trucks coming here. Get them to
rescue you."

"Okay. Then, you should run away quickly. You need to run further away because the landfill
might not cover my scent." The boy huddled nakedly at the bottom of the wire fence, yet was still
expounding on pop science with reason and logic, his speech as rapid as a machine gun. "I read in
a report that a trained sniffer dog's sense of smell is almost at the level of being able to pick up
individual molecules. They have thirty to fifty times more olfactory receptors than an average
human. A dog's odor detection threshold- achoo!"

The girl had suddenly taken out a small spray about the size of a human palm, and looked away
and shielded her face while spraying him. The liquid sprayed on him seemed to be water,
colourless and odourless, yet the boy felt like sneezing for some reason. He was afraid that he
would attract their pursuers so he had no choice but to cover his mouth with all his might and
keep the noise in his throat.

"My god, how are you so capable of memorising books? Don't tell me you're the physical
manifestation of a reciting machine?" After spraying, the girl pushed her hand against the back of
his head. "Now's the time, climb!"

Rising together with her voice was the sound of vicious barking. The dog seemed to be very close
to them. The hairs on the boy's back stood up on their ends and his mind blanked out. He
unconsciously obeyed her words and used all his strength to climb up the wire fence. When he
jumped down, something cut his bare foot and he stumbled. He couldn't be bothered to check it;
he clambered to his feet in a panicked fluster and looked towards the girl on the other side of the
wire fence. "Quick-"

The girl used the clothes he had taken off to make a simple net bag. She threw the socks and
shoes into the bag, then popped the baseball cap over her own head.

The boy was momentarily stunned. Then, he seemed to understand something. "Wait a minute,
what are you doing?"

The girl turned her head and whistled at him. "In the future, if there isn't a need to, don't go to a
bad place like Mudpool Backlane so often. A good boy who's all alone will get bullied. Run away
on your own. Jiejie is leaving now."

"You-" The boy hurriedly threw himself onto the wire fence, reaching out to grab a hold of her.
Right at that moment, another beam of light swept past. The boy unconsciously shrank back
behind a waste container. On the other hand, the girl stood unmoving. This time, the light swept
directly across the girl's face. She turned her face away and squinted. A hint of a cold smile
emerged in the corners of her lips. There was a bit of a vicious air to it, yet at the same time, it
also carried the eagerness of a newborn calf that did not fear the tiger.

He saw her retreat a few steps, pull down the brim of the cap, and hold up her index finger
against her lips. "Shh-"

Under the glare of the torchlight that was shining this way, a sliver of that face could be seen. The
baseball cap hid her features and only the tip of her nose and the rather sharp corner of her
mouth was revealed. She was like the fiery clouds at the break or close of day, her image burning
into his retinas.

Then, this "fiery cloud" treaded on the wind and swept past his eyes, disappearing in a flash.
Book 1: Loss of Direction
Chapter 1
Mudpool Backlane was not a street; it was an area made up of a maze of tiny alleys and lanes
that were as uneven as a dog's teeth. Originally, it was called "Little Pool," the reason being the
ground in this area was low-lying so once it rained, water would collect there. The corners of the
walls at the side of the streets were all covered with slippery moss and sometimes, there would
even be a bit of the fishy and stale smell of condensation damp.

In the past, this was a place where hoodlums gathered. People from burglary rings, swindling
rings, child traffickers… There were all sorts and the variety was endless. Rumour had it that the
police had even once, in the middle of the night, extracted a group of cross-province murderers
from this place. All the locals knew to make a detour around this area. Hence, Little Pool gained
the nickname of "Mudpool."

Yet, fifteen years had gone by. Smartphones were already widespread and IC payphones had left
the stage of history. Mudpool, the well-known "hoodlums' nest," also became much "clearer"
after repeated crackdowns.

Of the arrogant and uncontrollable old hoodlums from those times, some had died, some had
made their fortune, some had fled far away, and some had gone to sing Prison Tears[1].

There were also some who survived to middle age and had looked around them in confusion,
their hands empty without a thing to their name, and hence, kept their heads down and lived a
normal life.

The current Mudpool Backlane was still disorderly. Illegal peddlers set up their stalls wherever
they wished and there were occasional cases of drunken brawling but on the whole, it was still
very peaceful. Once it was summer, after six in the evening every day, this place would turn into
an open-air skewers district. Chili peppers and cumin danced in the air where they were carried
by the wind, the jianghu united by the thirteen spices, the smoke and fire of everyday life that
tasted of "harmony brings prosperity" rising to the fore.

A glass door kept out the smell of mala[2] crayfish from next door. The fifteen-year old teenager,
Liu Zhongqi, sat crookedly on a plastic chair, his back to the glass door. He was holding up his
phone and posting a question on a forum: What should a person do if they have a dumb girlfriend
who uses 'Guide to Astrology' as their life principle?

Very quickly, someone bored online answered him: I don't know. I don't have a girlfriend, I only
have a pair of old parents who eat supplements like eating rice. Why don't we switch?

Liu Zhongqi put down his phone. Tiny wisps of irritation were emitting from his every orifice. His
girlfriend, Bai Yue, had already been chatting with the tiny accessories shop's "astrologer" for ten
minutes.

"Someone who doesn't understand might think that you don't pay attention to the tiny details
and that you don't think of anything but that's not the case. There's a part of you that's very
driven. Once you're serious, you will have a prideful sense of 'Either I don't do it at all or I do it
well.'" The so-called "astrologer" was actually just a female swindler who deceived others. Her
voice had a trace of a smoker's rasp and a not overly exaggerated Gang-Tai[2] accent. Her voice
seemed to hang in the air without falling to the ground, and sounded mysterious to the ear. "You
are a girl born under the protection of the first of the zodiacs. I see a bright flame burning in your
chest."

This line shocked Liu Zhongqi into trembling. He thought. Miss Charlatan, are you thinking of
eating grilled chicken hearts?

"This flame is your most fundamental source of energy." The astrologer pointed at Bai Yue's chest
and added, "But fire is not easy to control. If it burns too fiercely, a person could easily become
impatient and impetuous, and act carelessly without thought. When it comes to relationships
with others, there are times when you are overly straightforward and speak without thinking, and
you frequently regret saying the wrong things when you think about it later, am I right?"

"Yes, yes, yes, I'm a rather direct person!" Bai Yue said.

Liu Zhongqi rolled his eyes. Just you wait. The next step is she'll get you to buy something.

The astrologer started to bait the ignorant girl. "Then, have you ever thought of changing
yourself?"

Liu Zhongqi thought, Here it comes!

"I have!" Bai Yue, this female schoolmate of his whose brain had failed to evolve, not only took
the bait but even swallowed the lure. "Do you think I should buy a birthstone set, including the
bracelet and the necklace? Would it help?"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

The fools of the current era were unexpectedly gullible to this extent!

　　
Liu Zhongqi was a student of No. 3 High School in the city. It was currently the summer holidays.
When school started, he would enter Year 2 of senior high. No. 3 and Mudpool Backlane were in
the same administrative district and were barely three kilometers apart. It took less than twenty
minutes to cycle over.

To the good children of this key high school, Mudpool was a place that the school and their
parents repeatedly forbade them from going to. Hence, this became the sightseeing spot where
they sought excitement. Coming here once in a while, eating a kilogram of crayfish, gaming for a
bit at an underground internet cafe or buying a couple of pirated books—with that, they would
feel as though they had gotten a taste of the underworld. With the help of this little rebellion that
was unique to the adolescent phase, they released some of their academic pressure.

Liu Zhongqi had been dragged out by his girlfriend to "go on an adventure."

The two of them had first been thoroughly smoked by the smoky and hazy air at an internet cafe.
Then, the street of open-air skewer stalls made them choke until their nostrils were blackened.
When their hearts and lungs had suffered enough damage, they unexpectedly found this
accessories shop called Star Dreams.

Not only was this shop not smelly, it even had a bunch of aromatherapy candles burning. The
faint light made the accessories that had been obtained wholesale from who-knew-where looked
like they were worth something and there was even an "astrologer" dressed up like a bohemian
who chatted with them.

With just a few words, the "astrologer" had completely swayed Bai Yue. She wanted to buy this,
and wanted to buy that; and not only did she want to be a foolish big spender, she also did not
forget her boyfriend. "Liu Zhongqi, your birthday is at the end of August, right? How about I buy
something Virgo for you, and we'll have a matching couple set!"

"I'll pass," Liu Zhongqi answered carelessly. "If I'm feeling rash from too much internal heat, I'll
just drink some cooling herbal remedy."

Princess Bai Yue immediately became upset. "Why are you such a mood killer?"

Liu Zhongqi crossed his arms over his chest and said with a scoff. "I'm not killing the mood, I'm
killing ignorance. Bai Yue my friend, let me analyse the situation for you right here and show how
you were deceived. The moment you entered, she knew right away that you were born in April.
Why? Because you were leaping in front of that pile of birthstones, pointing at the nonsense for
those born in April, and saying 'This is mine' three times in a row."

"How did she know that you're an Aries and not a Taurus? Jiejie, it's because of that Aries hair
clip on the top of the head that you don't use."

"How did she describe your personality so accurately? Because there's something called the
Barnum Effect[note], and also because she knew that you believe in astrology. As long as she
rattled off the Aries personality traits from Baidu Baike, you would feel that she controls fate in
her hands."
"Also, how did she know that you're a straightforward person?" Liu Zhongqi wrapped up his
speech with a line that showed off how cool he was. "Because all idiots are like that. It's not hard
to guess."

This cool young man, having entered the "young love vanguard" for merely two months, returned
in full glory to the ranks of sad singles.

"If you don't go after her, you won't have a girlfriend tomorrow." The swindling astrologer's
mental state was very stable. She listened to the entire argument with a smile on her face and
wasn't angry even though the sale had gone bust. Slowly, she kept away all the little accessories
Bai Yue had taken out to see just now.

Liu Zhongqi glanced at her crossly. "You should worry about your own business."

"Doing business depends on fate. Today was not fated to be," the astrologer said calmly. She
passed him a name card. "If you have any difficulties in the future, you can contact me. Scan the
code and add me on WeChat."

"Scan the code and add me on WeChat" exposed her a little because it was too mundane. Her
Gang-Tai accent was gone.

The staunch materialist Liu Zhongqi was just about to reply with a scathing comment when he
heard her unhurriedly add another line. "Regardless of whether you want to seek consultation on
academics or relationships, the first three times are free of charge. You can also ask about family
relationships, for example… what to do if you have an older brother or sister that you don't get
along with."

Liu Zhongqi looked up abruptly. "Do you know me?" he asked warily.

"I don't." The astrologer's eyes curved in a smile. "Aren't you very familiar with my methods?
Make a guess, how did I know?"

She was very tall and very fair—but it wasn't the kind of dewy and delicate fairness that beautiful
girls had. Instead, it seemed to be the kind of paleness that resulted from not seeing the sun all
year round. It emitted a coldness and didn't have much luster. At her temples, a few purplish-
blue veins could be seen. She was wearing a long skirt that was completely black, and her long
hair covered half her face. She wore extravagant accessories and she looked very thin, as though
a gust of wind could blow her up to the sky.

Based solely on her appearance, this woman totally had the looks of someone in the arcane arts.
She could be said to be perfectly suited to con others.

She stuffed her name card into Liu Zhongqi's hand and gracefully gave him a slight bow. "I
welcome your next visit."

For unknown reasons, Liu Zhongqi accepted the name card. After walking a few meters away
from the shop, he felt that there must be something wrong with him but at the same time, he
couldn't help holding the name card up for a look.
"Gan… Qing."

Who knew if the name was real or fake.

Liu Zhongqi turned back. The light at the entrance of Star Dreams was already lit up. Dim and
tranquil, it had quite a bit of a mysterious air.

Right at that moment, the people in the small alley suddenly started to become agitated.
Everyone was pushing and shoving, all of them crowding to the sides of the lane. Liu Zhongqi was
pushed by someone into a corner. He looked up angrily and noticed that a wide empty space had
been cleared in the middle of the street. At the side, someone was whispering excitedly, "Here
they come, here they come."

Immediately after that, there was a loud sound. A few chairs were smashed onto the ground.
Four to five young punks burst out of a nearby skewers shop like a tornado, their mouths full of
curses and obscenities. With bared teeth and flexed claws, they tangled together in a close brawl.
In an instant, only their arms and legs could be seen flying around wildly and no one could tell
who was on whose side.

The crowd surrounding them was excited and spirited. One of them wasn't satisfied with just
watching the show on the sidelines and even hollered, "Wooo yeahhh— Awesome!"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

These scums of society!

It was a beautiful day of summer holiday. Yet, instead of staying at home to do a couple more
maths papers, he was wandering around this place. There really was something wrong with him!

Impatient and agitated, Liu Zhongqi tried to squeeze his way out. "Excuse me…"

Just when he was about to "escape," an old lady was shoved by someone and fell out of the
crowd. The old lady's hair was already completely white and her back was so stooped it was like a
cooked prawn and she held a cane in her hand. The people around her seemed to be blind, their
eyes all glued to the place where the unruly youths were brawling. No one came to help her up.

She didn't fall gently. The old lady struggled a long while on the ground and still could not stand
up. She cried out in anguish and at the same time, reached her hands out towards the nearby Liu
Zhongqi to plead for help.

Liu Zhongqi was momentarily stunned. He hurried over to help but right then, a hand grabbed his
bare arm.

The hand was so cold it made him shiver a little. The fingers were slender and long, but the
second and third fingers seem to have an unnatural curve. He couldn't tell if they had been
injured before or if it was just that they were thin. Basically, it made one think of the dried
branches extending over a lone tombstone in a desolate area.
Liu Zhongqi turned his head and was astonished to find that the person grabbing him was the
swindling astrologer.

The astrologer lowered her voice and dropped her Gang-Tai accent, saying quickly, "Young man, I
see a shadow on your Life Palace. Something bad will happen. It's better if you don't meddle in
other people's business and hurry home."

What was this—western astrology and traditional face-reading, these two types of nonsense
could even overlap?

Liu Zhongqi thought. What the hell?

This modern-day upstanding young man fought free of her hand. Completely ignoring this jianghu
swindler, he followed the footsteps of the paragon Senior Lei Feng[4] and headed towards the
old lady.

...Then, very quickly, the young man received a session of "real world re-education."

The topic was: Ignore your elders and misfortune will come free of charge.

The eager-to-help Liu Zhongqi helped up the old lady who had been pushed to the ground and
also helped her retrieve her cane. He heard the old lady rap her own waist and say that her house
wasn't far away, so Liu Zhongqi immediately supported her by the arm without any misgivings.
He escorted her all the way to squeeze out of the rowdy Mudpool Backlane.

By the time he realised something was wrong, the old lady had led him to a deserted blind alley.
Three large hoodlums who had been lying in wait surrounded him on all sides.

The old lady who was all pitiful just now plopped down onto the ground, crossed her legs with a
domineering attitude, and yelled vigorously, "It's this kid! He was the one who pushed me and
broke my leg!"

———

The author has something to say:

[note] The Barnum Effect states that people easily believe that a broad and sweeping personality
description is especially tailored to them. Despite the fact that such descriptions are very vague,
they still believe that it reflects their innate characteristics, even if they are actually not at all the
type of person described — Barnum-Forer.

T/N:
[1] Prison Tears (铁窗泪 "Tie Chuang Lei") - lit. "iron bars tears." This song was composed by Chi
Zhiqiang to describe his experience of being in prison. It is from the "prison rock" genre which
was popular in the 1980s.
[2] Mala (麻辣) is a hot and numbing flavour made from Sichuan peppercorns, chili peppers and
other spices.
[3] Gang-Tai accent (港台腔) - Gangtai refers to popular music artists and songs from Taiwan and
Hong Kong. "Gang-Tai accent" is used to describe the way they speak and is generally
characterised to be soft and sweet.
[4] Lei Feng (雷锋). From wikipedia: Lei Feng was a soldier in the People's Liberation Army who
was the object of several major propaganda campaigns in China. [...] Lei was portrayed as a
model citizen, and the masses were encouraged to emulate his selflessness, modesty, and
devotion to Mao.
Chapter 2
Development zone.

A row of multi-purpose vehicles were stopped by the roadside. A plump person got down from
the first car. With small, quick steps, he solicitously opened the door for the person sitting at the
back. "It's right here. You can see that there are newly built roads all around this place. The land
up ahead that has been fenced off is the very place that I would like to bring you to see today. It's
a very good project! Typically, my band of brothers would just let go of something we have to
when we're short of capital but we really couldn't bear to. Right now, as long as we can get the
starting capital and set up a project, we can immediately get a loan. In the future, we can just lie
down and-"

The person in charge from the investment company who had gotten down from the car was
supposedly a vice president. He was around forty years of age and he had a polite and reserved
smile. He cut off the plump man lightly. "Director Wang, we have seen your feasibility report and
building plans, you don't have to repeat them. Lanchuan, come here and see."

The plump man laughed along, his gaze falling on the young man who had just exited the car.

He saw that this person was tall and slender, and had a dignified manner. He wore a light grey
shirt and there was a pair of thin metal-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Who
knew what the degree on the glasses was; in any case, the lenses looked very thin. Not only were
the lenses thin, his lips were also thin, his nose narrow and straight, and his lower jaw seemed to
have been chiseled—even his eyelids seem to be thinner than other people's. Because he was
tall, he lowered his eyes a little when looking at others and his gaze that seeped out of the
corners of his eyes seemed to carry a hint of a half smile.

The plump man swallowed. It was like the aura of "This one is still the King of Cool[1]" emanating
from this person had given him a blow at the waist and he intuitively felt that this person did not
have good intentions.

"Yu Lanchuan. The 'lan' means 'orchid,' as in 'a gentleman is like an orchid.' The 'chuan' means
'river,' as in 'all rivers run into the sea.'[2] He is the person in charge of our risk management
department." The vice president of the investment company pointed at Yu Lanchuan and said
half-jokingly to the plump man. "He may look young but this person holds the imperial sword in
his hands. Our big boss is cautious. In the whole company, the one with the most power is the
risk management department. We can spend the whole day doing business outside but none of it
is as useful as a single report from this little master."

The plump man quickly mustered his spirits and dialled up his boot-licking skills. "Director Yu,
young and overflowing with talent!"
The King of Cool… Director Yu locked the tablet he was holding and nodded at the plump man. As
though he treasured his words like gold, he only said, "Hello."

"I'm not sure how much Director Yu knows about this piece of land of ours," the plump man said
as he rubbed his hands together. "In recent years, our city, Yanning, has been developing too
quickly. More than a decade ago, this place was entirely a wasteland but now such places in the
city are running out. I-"

"I don't know much, so I came to take a look." Right at the moment when the plump man took a
breath and prepared to launch into a long speech, Yu Lanchuan interrupted him, making him
choke. "In the past, this place wasn't a wasteland. It was a landfill."

The plump man's eyes wavered. Then, he very quickly picked up the conversation. "Hey, so you
do know! I was just about to say it but haven't gotten the chance to—the advantage of this
project is that it is on top of a landfill! It is a transformation of the landfill, this… landfill
reclamation thing now has a very mature technology. After crushing the trash into extremely tiny
pieces and pressing it down, it is very stable. It is also good for the surrounding environment.
Good for the country and good for the people, the government is very supportive of it! The
developers are preparing to use this as a highlight and it should be able to get some support in
the form of official policies-"

"Surely not, Director Wang," Yu Lanchuan said mildly. "I remember that this place was specially
for handling domestic waste and the smell was exceptionally strong. As far as I know, a lot of
liquids and toxic matter will leach into the soil. The decomposition period for some things is very
long and it will affect the quality of the soil. Based on your plan, won't there be problems with
the foundation?"

The plump man was obviously dumbstruck. He started to avoid the serious topics and focus on
the lighter issues. "There… There definitely won't be any problems. My friend has already set up
his project company and the plan has been reviewed by professionals. Regarding the technology,
I can guarantee it, you don't have to worry about that. Right now, our main problem is still the
capital-"

Yu Lanchuan lowered his head and smiled, and said politely, "Who doesn't have that problem?
There's a cash crunch this year and everyone has trouble with capital. That's why we need to be
even more careful, isn't that so?"

"That, that is…" The plump man followed behind him. Outwardly, he was nodding eagerly and
bending over to accommodate but when other people were not looking, he directed a piercing
cold gaze at Yu Lanchuan's back, sincerely praying that he would be struck by lightning.

Who would have thought that right at that moment, Yu Lanchuan suddenly twisted his head
around, as though he had eyes on his back, and met the plump man's gaze before the latter could
look away. "Director Wang, you seem to have something you want to say to me?"

The plump man quivered. Immediately, there was sweat on his head.
Fortunately, someone from the investment company cut in with a joke. "Our Lanchuan has a
special ability. When someone stares at him, he can sense it right away. Isn't it amazing? Director
Wang probably doesn't like us greasy middle-aged old men and was looking only at the fresh
young meat just now."

The plump man forced himself to laugh along. After that, he didn't dare speak carelessly for the
rest of the way.

The whole group efficiently completed the inspection of the land. Seven multi-purpose vehicles
left the development zone and headed towards the skyscraper forest of the central business
district.

"I won't write a report on this matter. It doesn't have the value we discussed previously." Back at
the office, Yu Lanchuan stuffed the tablet into the driver's hand and spoke to the vice president
who was leading the team as they walked. "That Wang guy is not reliable, he's a ruffian. My guess
is that he will first tell the developer, 'I have a good project, it's just that I can't get all the
necessary requirements at the moment. I will provide the start-up capital. You guys go with an
asset-light strategy—you just need to send a team, give it a name and help me set up operations.
There is no risk at all to you. Let's all earn money together.' Then, he'll tell the investor, 'The
developer is an established name and their projects have always been very steady. This time,
even if their source of capital cuts off, they won't let go of this piece of fatty meat. Luckily, they
are short of money, so we have a chance to get a bowl from this pot of soup. We can't miss this
opportunity.' After deceiving both sides, when the capital's in place and the project is set up, he
can turn on his heels and disappear. Without spending a single cent, he swindles everyone."

"That mouth of yours." The vice president leading the team smiled, then looked at him
meaningfully. "Ruffians have their uses. After all, it was Director Li's friend who introduced him.
Even if it's just to give face to Director Li, we still have to make this trip. When it comes to work—
for the sake of giving face to our colleagues and because that's how the world works—there are
times when we have to sacrifice a bit of our precious time and do some useless tasks. It's
normal."

Yu Lanchuan smiled. He did not answer.

Right now, there were rumours that the big boss wanted to retire. There were no ripples in the
corporation yet but the few vice presidents in the company were already battling like chickens in
a cockfight. Every day, they sabotaged each other and all of them wanted to wield the risk
management department like a large blade to slay demons. As this busy blade, Yu Lanchuan was
right at the center of the carnage and he had not had a weekend off for an entire month.

He angled his body to the side and helped his colleagues hold the elevator door open. "I still need
to discuss some things with other people in the meeting room. Everyone, please go up first."

"Thank you for your hard work, Director Yu."

"It's the capable ones who have the most work."

The elevator door closed. Yu Lanchuan dropped his smile and his face turned impassive as he
headed towards the meeting room. His assistant who had long since been waiting by the meeting
room door caught up with him and passed him a cup of coffee and a stack of papers. Yu
Lanchuan's eyes swept across the stack and he passed it back to her. "I don't have time to read it.
Just tell me what it says."

The young assistant was well-trained. In a low voice, she immediately explained the contents of
the papers in a systematic manner right beside his ear. Yu Lanchuan listened without speaking.
Every now and then, someone passed by and nodded at him in greeting. On the brightly gleaming
marble floor, these immaculately groomed men and women bustled to and fro in a hurry.

According to society stereotypes, those whose hair was like a bird's nest on their head, whose
face gleamed with oil, who depended on meal deliveries to survive every day, must be poor and
sorrowful. They were simply eating and waiting for death, and were doomed to be failures that
had been eliminated from the race. On the other hand, those who wore bespoke western-style
suits, who swaggered across the CBD every day with their phones in their hands, must be the
elites of the city. They had a promising future, with a battalion of flatterers hanging on to them.

However, the 'wretched hermit' could be the owner of a demolished building and held in their
hands a few houses. They might be living happy days of lying down and waiting to collect rent.

Meanwhile, the 'city elite' could be a slave to their house loan who had nothing left by the end of
the month. The perfume they used were all samples. At the end of every month, they faced the
danger of being unable to eat. They worked overtime every day, and then were stabbed in the
heart by the articles such as "Sudden death due to overwork" shared on large social media
accounts.

Nothing was constant in the world. Nothing was certain.

For example, Yu Lanchuan, who had an exceptionally aloof image and aura, was exactly one of
those splendid yet disheartened "city elites."

On a Friday evening in the peak of summer, Yu Lanchuan, who had already spent the whole day
working tirelessly, held on to his last breath and endured a four-hour video conference. It was so
noisy that his head was buzzing. Amidst the cold wind from the central air conditioning that could
make a person shiver, he returned to his own office, closed the door, and sprawled on the chair.
A pile of emails had again accumulated in his inbox, waiting to be read and reviewed. He didn't
want to open even a single one; he only wanted to go home and lie down like a corpse.

When going through his emails, he saw an email from the previous day that was marked unread.
His eyes skimmed past the subject and his heart sank even more—that was the reminder from
the bank to pay his credit card bill.

Yu Lanchuan downed the remaining half of a mug of hot tea. With the help of this little bit of
warmth, he finally opened his own personal "financial planner."

"Daily planner", "financial planner" and "fitness planner"—all together, these three belonged to
"the standards of the elite." Not a single one could be left out. These orderly planners were like a
safety net, as though if one could contain their life in them, they would then be able to control
the rhythm and avoid being trampled.

And, on Mr. Yu's financial planner, the item that stood out the most was "house loan."

A house was a modern-day young person's Demon-Revealing Mirror.

Before they bought a house, each young person felt like they were standing above the crowd and
that they could one day reach the sky and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the godly Marshal
Tian Peng.

After buying a house, these "deities" would one-by-one descend to the mortal world, fall into a
pigsty and become filthy and grimy Er-shixiong[3].

Due to certain reasons, Yu Lanchuan bought a house at the start of the year. When he was
viewing properties, he was first blinded by the dilapidated houses in the urban area that fulfilled
the trifecta of old, rundown and small. Then, he nearly lost his way in the faraway suburbs of
Yanning. At the start, he had been very confused. How was it that in a city full of apartment
buildings with thousands of houses, not a single one was for people to live in?

Later on, he found that the answer laid with him. He understood this problem could not be
blamed on market supply; he could only blame himself for being poor and picky.

In the end, after making a lot of compromises, he finally settled on a place he could make do with
in all aspects. He spent his entire fortune on the deposit and became a glorious slave to his house
loan.

The monthly loan payment was nearly 20,000. The term was thirty years.

The longest prison term was only twenty-five years.

Banks were more vicious than prisons.

On top of that, what was even more outrageous was that there was one more year to go before
this "luxury home" that had made him penniless would be handed to him. Within this year, he
still had to pay his house loan and also pay another 7,000 plus for the rental.

Other than that, his other big expenses for the week were the 8,500 parking fee for the second
half of the year, two portions of "wedding tax" worth 2,000, and his superior's mother who just
had to have her funeral at this time[4]…

Yu Lanchuan faced his screen and spaced out. He let out a long breath and touched his waist,
feeling that his kidney was trembling in fear from its precarious situation.

Right at that moment, his phone rang. The caller ID was "Salted Fish."

Salted Fish's real name was Yu Yan. He was Yu Lanchuan's primary school friend. Back then, the
class teacher's standard Mandarin wasn't very good and didn't differentiate between the two
Yu's, and had always joked that the two of them were biological brothers. As time went by, the
two boys with completely different personalities and temperaments somehow got along and
became childhood friends.

Yu Yan's dream since he was young was to become a true salted fish, ambitionless and idle.
Unexpectedly, things did not go as he wished—perhaps someone with a dream wasn't suited to
become a salted fish. In summary, due to various reasons and circumstances, he became a police
officer. Even if the matters under his jurisdiction were all minor and petty issues, he was
frequently so busy he had no time to breath. It had been quite a while since he last disturbed Yu
Lanchuan.

"Speak if you have something to say, get lost if you don't." With his childhood friend, Yu
Lanchuan had never had the image of an idol. He decisively peeled off his pretensions and
revealed his true evil nature. Half-dead, he snapped out a few words. "No drinks, no meet-ups,
no going anywhere."

Officer Yu quickly said, "Wait a minute, Master Lan, your younger brother is with me."

"Oh." Hearing that, Yu Lanchuan pinched the bridge of his nose, his face expressionless. "I have a
very good discount on younger brothers. 10,000 for one, no bargaining. Transfer the money to
my account and from now on, he's your younger brother."

"Stop joking. He's not at my house, he's at my workplace. The police station!"

Yu Lanchuan paused. He snorted. "What did he do?"

Yu Yan very justifiably chastised him, "You asshole, what kind of big brother are you? Can you not
be the littlest bit optimistic? He's a good kid, eager and ready to help others. He was supporting
an old lady but the old lady turned out to be a porcelain scammer[5]. If a passerby hadn't called
the police in time, he would nearly have been beaten up by a few hoodlums. Stop talking rubbish,
come over quickly!"

"That is good?" Yu Lanchuan raised a brow. "That's what you call dim-witted."

Yu Yan, "..."

"Also, didn't you say 'nearly'? So it means he wasn't beaten up. I still have some things to take
care of. Let him wait there for a while." Yu Lanchuan capped his pen. "Feed him some food. I'll
pay you back later."

"Hey, you scumbag, you-"

Scumbag Yu had already hung up.

T/N:
[1] King of Cool, 逼王 - An example of a "King of Cool" is Sakamoto from 'Sakamoto desu ga?'
Basically, someone who is perceived (by others and themself) to be cool but does a lot of
ridiculous things to maintain that image.
[2] 喻兰川，君子如兰的‘兰’，海纳百川的‘川’
I couldn't avoid doing so in the translation, but the vice president isn't actually explaining the
meaning of Yu Lanchuan's name here. What he's doing is specifying which characters are used to
write Yu Lanchuan's name and Yu Lanchuan could have been named that for different reasons.
[3] "Marshal Tian Peng" and "Er-shixiong" are both referring to Zhu Baijie from Journey to the
West. Originally a god, he was banished to earth and was reincarnated as a man-eating pig-
monster. In Journey to the West, he is Tang Sanzang's second disciple, hence "Er-shixiong" (which
literally means "second senior brother").
[4] It is customary to give a sum of money to the grieving family at funerals. It is also customary
to give a sum of money to relatives, friends or acquaintances who are getting married, the
"wedding tax" mentioned here.
[5] Porcelain scam 碰 瓷 - Also known as pengci. Lit. means "bumping porcelain." It's a scam
where the scammers purposely place fragile porcelain in a spot where it's easily knocked over,
and they would demand compensation when that happens. Also applies to scams where
scammers feign accidents or injuries to demand compensation.
Chapter 3
"Eat up." Police Officer Yu Yan pushed the Coke and burger over to the teenager.

Their police station had a rule that stated that unless there was a reason, the police on duty were
not allowed to call for meal deliveries. They were afraid it would give a bad image. This little bit of
food was something Yu Yan had run half a kilometer to buy back and he was sweating all over
from the exertion.

The teenager took the food without looking at Yu Yan, his eyes looking away in embarrassment.
He raised his hand and wiped his face with the back of his hand. There was a small scrape on his
cheekbone. Sweat had gotten into it and it was both hurt and itched.

Yu Yan got an antibacterial wet wipe from a female colleague and tossed it to him. While facing
the cold air blowing from the air-conditioner, he lectured. "When helping others, you need to
first assess your own abilities. Didn't your teacher teach you? Oh, you followed her just because
she asked you to. Young Liu Zhongqi, if you're so obedient, then why didn't you stay at home and
do your homework during this beautiful summer vacation? Your brother is working overtime
every day so there's no one to manage you, is that it?"

Those words somehow touched a nerve in the delicate heart of this teenager who was in the
springtime of his youth. Halfway through unwrapping the burger, the boy's face darkened.

Yu Lanchuan's surname was Yu while his younger brother's surname was Liu because the two
brothers had the same mother but different fathers.

When Yu Lanchuan was ten years old, due to incompatible views on life, his parents divorced on
amicable terms. Yu Lanchuan went with his mother. A year later, his mother married his
stepfather.

But this was not a tragic story of a child suffering in the hands of their stepparent. As far as Yu
Yan was aware of, Yu Lanchuan's parents still had a pretty good relationship after their divorce.
They even felt apologetic to their child and, the stepfather included, had given him even more
care and affection. Double the affection from one person means six times the affection in total
from the three people. The heavy weight of their affection nearly smothered Yu Lanchuan and he
had been so annoyed by the adults every day that he wanted to run away from home.

When his younger brother was born, Yu Lanchuan was already in high school. Hence, using "the
baby is disturbing his studies" as an excuse, he stayed at the school dorms to seek peace and
quiet. His grandfather who had died young had a biological older brother whom Yu Lanchuan
should address as Granduncle. This granduncle was an old bachelor who lived by himself. At that
time, the old man stayed not far from Yu Lanchuan's high school and during his holidays, he often
used the excuse of "accompanying grandpa" to avoid going home.

This Master Lan was born cold-hearted. On top of that, he stayed at home for barely a few days
in a year, so he really did not have much affection for this younger brother that he had gotten at
a bargain.

Then, not long ago, Yu Lanchuan's mother received an invitation from an overseas laboratory.
This old madam had a fiery fighting spirit; as long as she still breathed, the fight was not over. She
made the brazen decision to lead her family to battle the U.S. However, she first had to settle
down overseas and it was still unknown how many years she would stay there. Her younger son
had just entered senior high and was the perfect example of a student who heavily emphasized
the sciences. His English was not good enough so the family decided to let him remain in the
country to attend school and to reconsider the matter later after looking at his results.

To Yu Lanchuan, this was basically an unexpected disaster falling on his head. Since his stepfather
followed his mother everywhere, the two of them had flown off together and he became this
little annoyance's temporary keeper… no, temporary guardian.

"I'm not saying that you did wrong." Yu Yan saw that the teenager looked pitiful and he softened
his tone. "It's… No matter what, having the intention to help others is good and should be
praised, right? I've just called your brother, he's coming to pick you up soon. Eat some food first
to stave off the hunger. Do you want ice-cream?"

Liu Zhongqi crumpled the burger wrapper into a ball and pretended to be unbothered as he said,
"No need. I can take the subway home myself. Anyway, my brother doesn't want to come pick
me up at all."

"He has to come even if he doesn't want to," the righteous Officer Yu blurted out. After that, he
realised that he had misspoken and quickly tried to make things right. "No, what I meant is, how
could he not want to come? Your brother may look cold-hearted and his mouth may be terrible,
but that's the normal emotional state of those cubicle monkeys who work overtime like dogs. He
still cares for you…"

Liu Zhongqi glanced at him. Officer Yu, who was speaking blindly with his eyes wide open, felt his
conscience hurting and could not continue making things up.

"My brother is not cold-hearted and his mouth is not terrible." After staying silent for a while, the
teenager spoke with his head lowered. "He has never scolded me and has never argued with me.
He only gives me red packets[1]."
Yu Yan, "..."

"When I was top ten in my year for my final exam, he sent me a red packet; when I cleaned the
house so that he would think better of me, he sent me another red packet; when I fought with
my schoolmate from the basketball team and was made to write a self-reflection essay, the self-
reflection had to be signed by a guardian—he signed without even looking at it, and sent me a
red packet." Liu Zhongqi took a vicious bite of the burger. "If I commit murder or arson one day,
he will probably also send me a red packet and then ask me to take a cab to turn myself in."

Upon hearing that, Officer Yu clamped his mouth shut. Not only was he not sympathising with
the boy at all, he was even a little envious.

Liu Zhongqi said, "My brother is an automatic red packet dispenser."

"Child, you may not understand what I'm saying to you now." Yu Yan picked his words carefully.
"When you're older, you will understand. Love is an illusion, red packets are the only true
evidence that he is good to you."

Even though his words of consolation were vulgar, they came from the bottom of his heart.
However, the sulky chuuni[2] teenager was not listening. He tore into the burger, gnashing his
teeth and fuming with rage.

"All right, I won't say anymore if you don't want to listen." Yu Yan waited until he had eaten quite
a bit before beginning his questions. "Let us talk about serious matters. Describe for me those
people who demanded money from you. In total, how many of them were there?"

"Four. One old lady and three men. Among the three men, one was bald, another had a scar on
his face, and the other one was slightly disabled. He walked with a heavy limp."

"How old are they? Could you tell where their accents are from?"

"I don't know. In any case, they aren't locals. The few men should be in their thirties. The old
lady… I'm not sure. At first, she looked thin and small, her hair was all white and she was hunched
over. I thought she might be seventy or eighty years old." Liu Zhongqi recalled and his face had an
expression of confusion. "But when you guys came, she escaped by jumping over the wall. An old
lady around seventy or eighty years old… wouldn't be able to do that, right?"

　　

At Mudpool Backlane, there were a lot of narrow alleys that even a three-wheeled cart wouldn't
be able to enter. Hence, at that time, the police car could only be stopped at the intersection,
about two hundred meters away from where the porcelain scam was taking place.

Because of this two hundred meters, by the time the police had hurried over, the scammers had
jumped over the wall and escaped.

Yu Yan had examined the blind alley's wall. It was three meters tall and the surface was very
smooth. There were basically no spots that could act as hand grips to help with climbing. There
was only half a footprint on the wall, barely distinct. If Yu Yan hadn't seen a flash of the last
person disappearing over the wall, he might suspect that someone had made a fake police
report.

Yu Yan secretly wrote the words 'Ask Master Lan' in his notebook, then asked further, "When
they stopped you, what did they say?"

"They said that I bumped into the old lady and made her fall, and wanted me to pay
compensation."

"How much?"

"One thousand."

Liu Zhongqi's sneakers and school bag were not cheap. One could tell that this kid's family was
decently well-off and that his allowance and New Year's lucky money would not be little. But for a
boy who was still a minor, his family typically would not let him handle a large amount of cash, so
asking for 1,000 was just right. This group had quite a lot of experience with porcelain scams. One
look and they could estimate how much this kid could hand over freely.

A half-grown kid, foolish and stubborn, couldn't handle being frightened and yet didn't want to
lose face—when they were bullied outside, they would usually be too embarrassed to tell their
family. They were all fat lambs of excellent quality that made a person want to slaughter them
over and over again.

Yu Yan nodded.

Liu Zhongqi continued speaking. "I said, 'Why don't you guys go rob someone' and that bald guy
said, 'What, you think we're discussing a business transaction here?' I said that I didn't have that
much cash. They grabbed my bag and found out that my wallet really didn't have that much cash,
so they took my student ID and told me to go home and prepare the money. Two days later, they
will go to my school to get the money… I wanted to call the police but they noticed it and wanted
to grab my phone. But you guys came right at that moment so they didn't manage to snatch it."

The kid was very earnest. He kept trying to act like an adult but his act was not up to par and
there was a bit of foolishness in his words. Yu Yan felt that the kid and his scumbag-yet-elite
brother didn't seem to have been born by the same mother.

Yu Yan stifled his smile as he listened. As he kept his smile in, he heard something not quite right.
"Hold on, from the time these people surrounded you until they grabbed your phone, how much
time passed?"

Liu Zhongqi gave him a look of confusion. "Not long. We only exchanged a few words… Maybe
two or three minutes. Why?"

Police Officer Yu frowned and exchanged a look with his colleague beside him. The anonymous
caller who made the police report had said that they saw a few hoodlums surrounding a student
and getting physical. They didn't know what was happening and had asked the police to send
some people to have a look.

But the question was, the roads of Mudpool Backlane were very difficult to navigate. This was
especially true during summer when the narrow lanes were packed with people. The length of
time from being dispatched until they reached the place where the incident happened was
definitely longer than two or three minutes.

Which was to say, the person who called the police had known where the group of scammers
would take action even before Liu Zhongqi was surrounded.

How did they know?

Yu Yan continued asking, "When they asked you for money, was there anyone nearby?"

Liu Zhongqi shook his head. "...I didn't notice anyone."

"Then, do you know who would help you call the police?" Yu Yan asked. "Think carefully. When
you left with the old lady, did anyone notice?"

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly. Unconsciously, his fingers rubbed against the namecard that was
curling up at the edges in his pocket. "There was indeed… someone. At that time, she even pulled
me back, but I'm not sure…"

　　

One hour later, the serious-and-important Yu Lanchuan finally took his own sweet time to arrive.
When he entered, he seemed in a rush. His pretense was quite good, as though the one who had
acted so full of himself over the phone was a dog.

"You even dare help an old lady, do you think our family is made of money?" Yu Lanchuan drove
his 'picked up at a bargain' younger brother home. Throughout the whole journey, he didn't
rebuke Liu Zhongqi, nor did he comfort him. When they reached home, he made fun of him with
a careless remark, then shooed him off to get some rest. "You must have been scared today. Take
a shower and go to bed earlier. I'm going to talk to your Yu-ge."

Liu Zhongqi dawdled as he made a noise of assent. He furtively shot Yu Lanchuan a look, as
though he was waiting for something.

Yu Lanchuan saw his little look and sighed inwardly. He took his phone out of his pocket. "All
right, I'll send you a red packet to calm your nerves."

Liu Zhongqi's face immediately darkened. Without a word, he turned and left, and even slammed
his room door shut.

Yu Lanchuan was a little startled. "Kids these days with their chuuni syndrome don't even want
money anymore?"
By chance, Yu Yan was passing his shift over to his colleague. He lived not far from the place Yu
Lanchuan was renting, so he got a ride home with them and conveniently came to spend some
time at his childhood friend's place. Seeing what happened, he immediately thickened his face
and came close. "If he doesn't want the money, I want it. Ge, do you still need a younger
brother? Or, I can be your son."

Yu Lanchuan took out a soft drink from the fridge and tossed it to him. "I haven't even collected
the money from you for the ride."

Yu Yan slumped back against the sofa. "Confucius said that 'An orchid grows in the deep valley, a
gentleman's path is moral and righteous[3]'—Master Lan, what happened to not coveting
wealth?"

"If I don't covet wealth, what should I covet? You? Move over." Yu Lanchuan kicked Yu Yan's legs
and dragged out the robotic vacuum that was lying dead under the sofa to charge it. "If I could
squeeze the time out, I would have gone and be a DiDi driver. Don't you know that your daddy
has a house loan now? Not only are you being unfilial, you're even stretching your hand out to
ask for money."

"Then why don't you go back home to stay? Your mother is not here, there won't be anyone to
bother you," Yu Yan said. "Renting is so expensive."

"It's far." Yu Lanchuan sighed. "Out of the ten most congested roads during the morning peak
hour, I have to pass through three."

He remembered when he had first graduated, the morning peak hour started at seven in the
morning. Now, it had shifted earlier to half past six. In two years time, these people could give up
on sleeping.

Yu Lanchuan had gone back to stay for two days and felt that he wasn't going home to sleep. He
was totally just going home to sign his attendance and it was even a waste of petrol.

Yu Yan thought a while and shook his head. "We destitute people who take the subway can't
understand the sufferings of the rich."

Yu Lanchuan pointed at the front door. "Get lost if there's nothing else."

Yu Yan became serious. "Let me talk to you about what happened to your younger brother
today."

"Make it brief." Half-listening, Yu Lanchuan took off his glasses and put them under the faucet for
a wash. He said absent-mindedly, "After being taken advantage of a few times, he would learn to
be smart in the future. Suffering losses is also gaining real world experience."

"I suspect that this group of porcelain scammers are people from your side," Yu Yan said. "There
isn't anyone coming for you recently, is there?"

Yu Lanchuan paused. "Hm?"

Yu Yan said, "I saw it with my own eyes. A three-meter high wall—with just one strike, the person
disappeared."

"What's so strange about jumping over the wall? You're making a fuss over nothing." Yu
Lanchuan tsk-ed at him crossly and shook off the water from his glasses. He wiped them with the
corner of his shirt. "If an adult man trained for a while, it's very normal for him to be able to
reach three meters with one jump. Haven't you seen the armed forces do military drills for going
up walls? Even the senior high school kids in the parkour clubs can demonstrate a five-second
wall jump for you."

"So you're saying that there's a group of parkour fans running porcelain scams in our city-"

Yu Lanchuan cut him off impatiently. "I'm giving you an example by saying that those who do
parkour can climb walls, I'm not saying that everyone who climbs walls is doing parkour. Old Fish,
will you ever learn how to write the word 'logic' in your life?"

Yu Yan waved his hand patiently. "Ai, you become irritable the moment you meet someone
foolish. Being irritable only harms your own liver. Furthermore, in this world, the foolish have
strength in numbers and power. When you get angry with me all on your own, don't you feel
powerless? Be more zen, be calmer. Handsome, don't forget that you're an expert in maintaining
good health."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Unexpectedly, he could not refute.

Yu Yan said, "But your younger brother said that in this group, there was an old lady whose hair
was completely white. She's around 1.5 meters tall. An old lady jumping over a wall barehanded,
that's strange, isn't it? Of course, clever people like you will say that she might be in disguise-"

Before Officer Yu could finish talking, Yu Lanchuan had already picked up his car key and was
walking to the front door to change his shoes. "Let's go."

Yu Yan said, "Huh? You're really going with me? I haven't finish analysing, if it was a disguise-"

"If I want to disguise you as an old lady such that the disguise would hold up even in close
proximity, that would require a bone-shrinking technique." Yu Lanchuan recalled that "Be more
zen" comment and forcibly swallowed the word "idiot." "Hurry up, I still need to review reports
tonight."

Half an hour later, the two of them reached the blind alley.

"Right here." Yu Yan pointed it out to him. "When I came, that person was standing at this spot
by the wall. There's still half a footprint there. The blind alley has walls on three sides. If he had
jumped over the wall at the back, I can still understand. But he had jumped over from this side."
Yu Yan looked back and compared. Between the two walls facing each other on the narrow alley,
there was just enough space for a person to stretch out their arms. "There's just not enough
space for the approach to jump… What the hell!"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Yu Lanchuan suddenly dash forward from beside him. In
just two steps, he reached the opposite wall. He leaped and pulled himself up lightly with one
hand on top of the wall, his whole body suddenly curling up in the air. The tip of his foot touched
the wall and he used the force to push himself up.

At the same time, Yu Yan heard a tearing sound. A small item bounced off his face.

Yu Yan quickly switched on his flashlight and swept it around. He saw Director Yu crouching on
top of the wall with a complicated look on his face, his hand clutching the front of his shirt. His
movement had been too large. His shirt was torn.

On the ground, a seashell button rolled around.

"Wanton." Yu Yan covered his face and said. "Young hero, continue being wanton!"

Yu Lanchuan said, "...Shut up."

———

The author has something to say:

A monthly house loan payment of twenty thousand is not enough for a loan of seven million =口=

T/N:
[1] Red packets (红包 hóngbāo) are traditionally given during festive occasions like Chinese New
Year, weddings, etc. It's literally money put into a red packet, often printed with auspicious
sayings or images. Nowadays, red packets can be given out via apps and its usage has expanded a
lot—they are also given out for store promotions, for long comments on jj… for anything, really.
[2] Chuuni 中二 - basically means embarrassing teenager behaviour where one acts like they're
more ~deep~ and edgy than other people.
[3] An orchid grows in the deep valley, a gentleman's path is moral and righteous
The full version of the quote is 芝兰生於深林，不以无人而不芳；君子修道立德，不谓困厄而
改节 - basically it compares a gentleman's way of remaining righteous and moral even in face of
difficulties with an orchid blooming in the deep valley even if there's no one to appreciate it.
Chapter 4
Around nine p.m. at night, it was time for Star Dreams to close shop for the day.

Gan Qing washed off the makeup on her face and removed the light-coloured contact lenses,
blinking furiously a couple of times. She stuck five fingers into her hair and took off the waterfall-
like wig, revealing a mass of hair that was neither long nor short. It fell to her chin, messy and
sticking out at odd angles after being pressed down by the wig.
Then, she kicked off her stilettos and stuffed them under the counter. Her feet bare, she fished
out a pair of plastic slippers and slipped them on. She took off her long skirt; inside, she was
wearing a basketball jersey and a pair of long shorts. She stretched, feeling like her body had
been set free once again.

From a bohemian-style "astrologer," she had been set free to become a very down-to-earth
village girl.

The village girl picked up the teapot and poured the remaining tea into a flower pot. She refilled
it with cold water, drank two gulps directly from the spout, then poked her head out in the
direction of the next door Tianyi Crayfish and hollered, "Uncle Meng, is there anything to eat?"

The boss of Tianyi Crayfish, Meng Tianyi, answered, "What do you want to eat? Help yourself to
the rice and I'll cook a dish for you."

"I want to eat grilled chicken hearts!"

"Hey, can skewers be a proper meal?"

"But I want to eat grilled chicken hearts." Gan Qing switched off the lights and locked the door.
"I've been thinking of it for an entire afternoon. I even accidentally messed up my lines when a
customer came. Give me a kilogram of mala crayfish too."

Right now, even her voice and accent had changed completely. It was no longer floaty and it
didn't feel distant—it sounded lazy.

"Greedy thing. You don't eat proper meals and only eat snacks." Meng Tianyi sighed. "All right,
wait a bit."

At this hour, there weren't so many people on the streets. The hot and humid night wind bundled
up the oil and smoke from the large wok, blasting her right in the face. Gan Qing inhaled and felt
very content. The corners of her mouth automatically revealed a hint of a smile.

Other than when she was pretending to be mysterious to deceive others, she was always smiling.
When there was someone around, she would smile at them. When there was no one around, she
would be happy with herself for no reason.

There was a sudden gust of wind in the stifling hot night in the peak of summer. The oil sizzling
out from the hefty skewers, the stars gradually rising in the heavy canopy of the night, the
crooked and twisted dirty little alleys… In her eyes, these magnificent views of the living world
were all incomparably beautiful, and were worth pausing a while to savour.

The skewers and the crayfish were ready very quickly. Boss Meng was afraid that the food would
be too heaty and also mixed a cold dish for her. Gan Qing found a table to sit and sprinkled chili
powder on the food herself. She seemed a little clumsy; her hand trembled and too much powder
poured out. But she didn't care. A careless flick and she bit into the food while breathing through
her mouth from the heat. All her focus was on chewing, her eating posture making it seem like
she was eating at a Michelin 3-star.
Meng Tianyi took care of the last batch of customers, then wiped his hands clean on his apron
and brought two bottles of ice-cold beer over.

Gan Qing took a bottle and clinked it against his, then drank directly from the bottle. She downed
almost half the bottle in one gulp. The sweat from the spicy food nearly all dissipated and she
burped a mouthful of cold air in satisfaction. "Mm, there's a sweet aftertaste. It's good."

Meng Tianyi watched her eat and drink, and his own gluttony was nearly drawn out. He couldn't
help taking a large gulp but when the beer was in his mouth and he carefully savoured the taste,
it was still the horse piss taste of cheap beer. It hadn't turned into the nectar of the gods.
"Gan'er, don't sell those lousy necklaces tomorrow. Come and advertise for me. You just need to
sit here and drink, and I can sell three times more beer."

"You call the shots." Gan Qing's eyes curved into a smile which she directed at him. "Anyway,
they're both your own businesses."

The small shop Star Dreams was actually opened by Meng Tianyi's relative. The storefront also
belonged to the family. The boss opened an astrologer account online for the purpose of
marketing, posted some mysterious and long-winded posts, and sold things like protection
charms and fortune-changing beads on Taobao. Later on, they realised that it was better to do
business online, so they focused on becoming an Internet celebrity. They didn't have time to
manage the shop and were pretty indifferent to the shop's business, and had hired Gan Qing to
take care of it.

Every one or two months, Gan Qing would follow the boss's instructions and go to the wholesale
market for small merchandise to replenish the stock. She would fill a bag with small accessories
that cost just over ten yuan for half a kilogram. When she came back, she would select the
prettier ones to put in the display cases, use the spotlights to make them look dazzling, and wait
for foolish big spenders to come and buy.

Every day, she opened the shop and did business from ten in the morning. She put on the wig
and coloured lenses, changed into her "work uniform," and began her performance for the day.
At night, after the sky had turned dark, she closed the shop according to her mood. Meng Tianyi
took care of her meals. She was satisfied with this job because Uncle Meng's culinary skills were
good and he even let her pick the dishes.

"I took a look at your accounts yesterday. The business for this month is not bad. You should ask
your boss to give you a bonus," Meng Tianyi said.

"Summer is good for business. Winter will probably be bad." Gan Qing pinched the tiny claws on
one of the crayfish and used them to give Uncle Meng a bow with clasped hands. "If you say
there will be a bonus, I'll believe you. I'm short of money. Recently, I heard that my rent is going
to be increased and I've been on tenterhooks for half a month."

"How much is your rent?" Meng Tianyi asked.

"Six hundred a month." Gan Qing's crayfish peeling technique was very polished. She gave it a
couple of cracking squeezes, then with a pull and a tug, the whole piece of crayfish meat left its
shell perfectly. She pinched the swaying crayfish meat and dragged it through the sesame sauce
in the saucer. Fragrant with the mala flavour and the freshness of the meat, the one kilogram of
crayfish was downed with beer, and in just a short while, the bottom of the plate could be seen.
It was evident that she was a veteran glutton.

"One apartment?"

Gan Qing huffed a laugh. "Would it be so cheap? It's one bed."

"You really can get by with so little." Meng Tianyi's mouth stretched into a smile. Then, he said,
"Let Uncle tell you something—I have a second aunt who is seventy-three years old. She has
been widowed for over forty years. In the past, she stayed with my older brother. Now, my older
brother has passed away and his wife took their kid and remarried. The old lady is alone now."

Gan Qing paused. "My condolences."

"It was last year. He died of old-age illness, it's nothing much." Meng Tianyi continued talking,
"Everyone had discussed the matter and wanted her to move in with someone else but she was
not willing to. She said that she has her own home and won't go to someone else's. Even though
the old lady is still spirited and healthy, she's already at such an advanced age. Her home is a
small two-bedroom. She stays in one room, the other one is empty. I want to look for a reliable
person to accompany her. The old lady can take care of her own daily needs and you don't need
to worry about house chores either. During the day, you can do what you need to do. You just
need to accompany her when you go back at night. If there are tasks like changing light bulbs or
climbing ladders, you can give a hand. If there's any medical emergency at night, help her call 120
and inform her relatives and friends. The rental can just be a token amount—we'll go with your
current amount and it won't increase in the future."

Gan Qing listened and thought it was a brilliant thing. She said, "I definitely won't have a
problem. Where does the old lady stay?"

"Rongxian Street," Meng Tianyi said. "No. 110 Courtyard."

Gan Qing first let out an oh. A few seconds later, she recalled something. Her hand slipped and
broke off the crayfish tail. "It's… that Rongxian Street?"

"You don't know but that place it's not the same as the past anymore. Especially in the recent
two years. House prices increased sharply and a lot of people sold off their homes when the price
was high. Only a few of the old inhabitants are still there," Boss Meng quickly said in a low voice.
"Furthermore, even if it's the old inhabitants, they don't know that you're… Why, don't you trust
your Uncle Meng?"

"How could I not?" Gan Qing came back to herself and evaded Boss Meng's gaze. She lowered
her head and smiled. "It's just… not very convenient. I know that you mean well. Furthermore, I
heard that that area is now a school district. The rental for just a bedroom starts from three
thousand. I would be taking too much advantage of you."
"Ai, what are you saying?"

Gan Qing slipped the last crayfish into her mouth, gathered the eating utensils efficiently, and
even wiped the table. "If the old lady needs me for anything, just let me know. I'll come anytime
you ask me to. I don't have other matters anyway. But let's not talk about moving in. I just paid
the rent for half a year and they won't refund me. I'll lose too much if I move out now. If there's
nothing else, I'm wrapping up work for the day and leaving now!"

"Gan'er-"

"Excuse me." Right then, a man's voice cut in. "This lady here, may I ask if you work at this shop?"

Gan Qing and Meng Tianyi turned around and saw that a policeman had walked up to the
entrance of Dream of Stars. He had close-cropped hair and a pair of smiling eyes. He was quite
fair and had a cheerful appearance. Even with his uniform, he didn't have much of a fearsome
presence. He belonged to the type of police officer that people who were not locals would take
one look at and want to go to him to ask for directions.

But Boss Meng unconsciously stood up and, perhaps intentionally or perhaps not, used his round
and stout body to shield Gan Qing. Smiling widely, he asked, "This is my nephew's shop. He's not
here at the moment. May I know… if something's the matter? We have a license. If you would like
to have a look at it, I can bring it out for you."

The policeman's eyes skipped past him and landed on Gan Qing.

Boss Meng quickly said, "Oh, this is the cashier that our family hired. She's not a local girl. She
came to Yanning barely a few months ago and isn't familiar with anything. If there's anything, you
can just ask me."

Gan Qing didn't say a word. She stood quietly in the corner, like she was part of the decor. The
oil-stained lamp above the stall at the side of the street emitted a dim light that fell on her. Barely
half her face could be seen, and the light made her complexion look like that of old porcelain, and
her eyes were looking meekly down.

"Don't be nervous," the policeman smiled gently. With both hands, he handed over his
identification. "I've also just been transferred to this area recently. In the future, if you have any
difficulties, you can look for me anytime."

Meng Tianyi didn't dare take the identification. Smiling all the while, his eyes quickly swept across
the identification. Oh, this policeman's name was Yu Yan.

"It's like this. This evening, there was an unsuccessfully blackmail and extortion attempt nearby
here. The victim was tricked and led away right here," Yu Yan said amiably to Gan Qing. "The
victim said that the jiejie from this shop saw it happen and even pulled him back. Unfortunately,
he didn't listen to her advice. Was that what happened? I don't have other intentions, I just want
to understand the situation."
Gan Qing pressed her lips together and gave him a quick smile. Before she could say anything,
her eyes slid to the side. It was like she was a little scared of strangers.

But for some unknown reason, Yu Yan felt that something was incongruous; yet, he couldn't put
his finger on it.

"Luckily, a warm-hearted member of the public made a report in time and because of that, we
made it there in time," Yu Yan said. "If I may make a bold guess, was it you who called the
police?"

Boss Meng quickly said, "How is that possible-"

"Yeah." Gan Qing said.

The two of them spoke almost in unison. The fast-talking Boss Meng was so dumbstruck he was
like a human stick.

Gan Qing quickly glanced at him, then explained softly. "Not many people use payphones
nowadays. They'll find out immediately once they investigate."

"Oh." Boss Meng looked at her awkwardly, then looked at the policeman. "I… Well… There were
a lot of customers in the afternoon. I didn't notice what was happening outside."

"It's not the first time that group of people did something like that. Usually, they trick someone to
the little blind alley at the back and run away once they have extorted the money. I've bumped
into them doing that before and roughly know where they will make their move," Gan Qing said
softly. "Whenever I bump into them, I take a detour to avoid trouble and I don't tell anyone.
Today, the child had just left my shop. That's why I did a bit more. We don't dare interfere in
those people's business."

Yu Yan was briefly stunned. This lady seemed to know what he wanted to ask. In just a few
words, she had cleared herself completely. His intuition told him that even if he asked further, he
would probably not get any answers.

As he expected, Gan Qing started to answer "I don't know" to every question.

"Have they always been operating near this area?"

"I don't know."

"When they escape by jumping over the wall of the back lane, in which direction would they
usually run off to?"

"I'm not sure."

"What about the previous victim? Do you recall any special characteristics?"

"I don't really remember anymore."

Yu Yan, "..."

Gan Qing's eyes swept around the area. Even though it was already very late, the people having
supper at the nearby stalls hadn't completely left. A policeman in uniform standing here was
attracting eyes from all directions. She seemed to be rather vexed and said softly, "I really don't
know anything. If I had known that a phone call would summon you here, I wouldn't poke my
nose into other people's business."

Boss Meng followed up, "That's right. Comrade Officer, people like us who operate small
businesses can try to run away but can't escape in the end. These hoodlums ran away right after
committing the crime and can't be caught. If they found out about this and come to trouble us in
the future, who could bear it? Please spare us."

"Hoodlums that even Boss Meng is scared of can't be ordinary hoodlums, can they?" Right then, a
sound came from the door of the car that was stopped at the intersection not far away. Yu
Lanchuan got down from the car unhurriedly.

Because his shirt was torn, he decided that he might as well loosen all the buttons and pull it half
out of his pants, with one half hanging loosely. When he moved, a sliver of skin from his chest
down to the pit of his belly drifted in and out of sight. For the sake of fitting in with this wild
image, he had even taken off his glasses and messed up his hair. One hand in his pocket, he
walked over with a cold expression on his face.

The honest and upstanding police officer Yu Yan was extremely embarrassed because he felt that
his companion was like a posterboy for a nightclub.

...The type that sold pleasures of the flesh and not pleasures of the mind.
Chapter 5
As a young woman, when meeting a young man who had his chest on full display in the middle of
the street, Gan Qing couldn't help going with the norm and taking an extra peek. After peeking,
she felt that with that chest and that waist, there was nothing wrong at all with flaunting that
body.

It was just that… in this rundown place where illegally recycled oil and ash from the stoves filled
the air, was there a need to try so hard to look fashionable?

"When I was young, I met you once at Rongxian Street." Yu Lanchuan lowered his head, his eyes
sweeping across Boss Meng's hands. Boss Meng's hands were very thick and had some oil stains
from years of working behind the stove. However, the skin was very fine and smooth, gleaming
like jade, and really didn't look like a pair of hands that belonged to a middle-aged man. In the
face of Boss Meng's confused look, Yu Lanchuan introduced himself in a vague manner, "My
surname is Yu."

Meng Tianyi and Gan Qing's faces simultaneously blanked out for a second.

"Oh, it's you!" Meng Tianyi straightened his back that had been slightly bent all the while, then
lowered his voice. "You… Please come in and have a seat."
After saying that, he waved to the side. Purposely not looking at Gan Qing, he pretended to shoo
her off very casually. "Gan'er, this has nothing more to do with you. Go home, be careful on your
way back."

　　

The moment Yu Lanchuan spoke, Gan Qing had taken half a step back, retreating from the light.
Her presence that was already very weak disappeared almost completely.

Hearing Boss Meng's words, she nodded like a lost spirit, then turned to leave without a word.

Yu Lanchuan initially did not take note of her. Out of habit, he glanced at her out of the corner of
his eye and happened to see an unclear side silhouette. His heart suddenly skipped a beat and he
called out without thinking. "Hold on."

Gan Qing seemed to be startled by him. She stood there stiffly, then turned around cautiously
and asked, "Are you talking to me?"

The wide-opened eyes were full of panic and insecurity. Her shoulders were very tense and she
was shaking like a frightened wild rabbit.

Yu Lanchuan could see her face clearly now and disappointment suddenly flooded him. The
memory bubbling up in his heart dissipated swiftly.

"It's nothing." His expression became placid and he said with the politeness of a stranger. "The
one who was cornered by them today was my younger brother. I want to thank you."

Gan Qing stammered a reply. "Y-You're welcome."

Yu Lanchuan exhaled through his nose and thought. Where did this village bumpkin come from?
She can't even speak properly.

His little bit of patience still had to be reserved to entertain the bosses that pay his salary and he
had no patience for this kind of slow and awkward people. He nodded reservedly and then no
longer bothered himself with this passerby, striding into Tianyi Crayfish.

Gan Qing thought. He's so key-ed up and tense. Someone must have torn down the Yu clan's
ancestral tomb for a madman to appear in their family.

Her head lowered, she walked away with hurried steps, like an insignificant shadow.

The alleys of Mudpool Backlane were like a maze. At this hour, other than the street with the
open-air skewers shops, everywhere else had turned quiet and desolate. Even the night wind
blowing past seemed to slow down and thicken. The streetlights that had not been maintained
for years lit up according to their moods, and there were still some that emitted flashes of light.
When a person walked there, if their footsteps were just a little bit heavy, there would be an
echo.
It was quite terrifying.

Perhaps she was scared of walking alone at night; Gan Qing purposely dragged her slippers along
the ground and even hummed a song.

When she reached a spot where the light was well behind her, a shadowy figure emerged from
the lane she had just passed. If Liu Zhongqi was there, he would recognise him as one of the
three men who extorted him, the bald one.

The bald man glared viciously at Gan Qing's back for a while, then moved his legs to go after her.
He was a burly man, nearly 1.9 meters tall. Yet, when he walked, his footsteps were silent.

Gan Qing didn't notice anything and followed the turn in the alley. On the quiet lane, there was
only the sound of someone walking in plastic slippers and a rather raspy female voice singing.
"Even though my hair had turned white after crossing the hill[1]..."

The bald man tightened his jaw a little and his footsteps quickened. He curled his hands into fists,
his muscles and veins bulging out on his arms.

"Chattering on and on, time waits not for my sorrow…"

The bald man charged aggressively past the intersection. Then, his feet came to an abrupt halt. In
front of him was a blind alley covered in darkness. Other than an abandoned public bike, there
was nothing else.

Where was she?

Right then, the slapping sound of plastic slippers could be heard again. The sound was coming
from behind him!

"Before I could see the greatness that I desire…"

The bald man turned around abruptly and saw the meddlesome "cashier" stroll past from an
intersection behind him. Her hands were in her pockets and she was too lazy to even lift her legs.
She swayed unsteadily as she walked, and was not sparing him even a single glance.

Since there was no one nearby, the bald man decided that he might as well not bother hiding and
shouted, "Stand there!"

After shouting, he stretched out his long legs and chased Gan Qing. The bald man charged
towards the intersection, taking at most five or six steps, and reached in a flash. But in just a blink
of the eye, the woman had disappeared into thin air again.

"I first lost myself —"

The song skirted on the verge of being offkey, echoing in the small alley until it was coming from
all directions. A thin film of cold sweat appeared on the bald man's back. "Where are you from?
Stop fooling around!"

With this shout, the sound of the singing and the footsteps disappeared at the same time. For a
moment, only the low murmur of the night wind remained all around him, rustling and furtive.

　　

The bald man's heartbeat began to quicken. Unconsciously, he bent his knees and raised his
arms, both hands guarding his head. He held his breath and looked around warily.

Suddenly, an indescribable shiver ran through his body. Right on its heels came an unnatural gust
of wind, directly closing in on his temples. The bald man realised with a fright that he could
neither dodge nor block in time. There was a stab of pain on his temple and a buzzing sound went
off in his head. He thought, I'm dead.

But the expected scene of his skull being cracked open and his blood spurting out did not
happen. The bald man was stunned for a while before finally realising that even the skin on his
scalp was not broken. Confused, he reached up to touch all over—his head was still sitting
steadily on his neck.

It was as though a little pebble had been caught in the wind just now, and had coincidentally hit
his face.

The bald man searched blindly for a while in the little alley like a headless fly but didn't spot even
a single footprint. He was steadying his breathing when the phone in his pocket rang. He fumbled
it out for a look and his voice fell a full octave, sounding almost gentle. "Hello, Shiniang... Me? I'm
at the alley where we were this afternoon. I happen to see the police… What did you say?"

After taking the call, he couldn't be bothered with Gan Qing anymore and ran off in a hurry.

The bald man left Mudpool Backlane and passed two crossroads. He ran until his head was
covered in sweat and charged into a McDonald's.

The employee who was cleaning the tables was frightened by this fiendish-looking burly man and
retreated hurriedly, eyes wide. The bald man didn't bother with picking a fight; his eyes quickly
swept around the place and he headed towards a table in the corner. The old lady and the other
two men who had run a porcelain scam on a minor that evening were sitting in a corner. The
three of them had ordered a small packet of fries. No one was eating, it seemed to be just for
show. At their feet was a luggage bag that was bulging at the seams.

The bald man panted as he reached his companions. "Didn't we already pay the money? How can
they just say they're not letting us stay anymore? How can there be such a thing? I'm going to
look for them!"
"They have refunded us the money." The scarred-face man beside him greeted him with a
'Shixiong' and continued speaking, "They have no choice. There was a sudden inspection today.
The landlord also didn't know what happened but they don't dare rent out the place anymore."

The bald man was just about to speak when the old lady suddenly lifted her head and looked at
him. "Who did you meet?"

The bald man stared blankly. "Huh? Oh, it was some dumb waitress from a tiny shop. She was the
one who poked her nose into other people's business today and called the police. I wanted to
catch her and teach her a lesson."

The old lady asked, "Did you catch her?"

"Uhh… I didn't… It was already dark and I'm not as familiar with the place as she is. I lost her
halfway through. She got lucky-"

Before he could finish speaking, the old lady suddenly leaned her body and reached out to wipe
her fingers against the bald man's temple. There was a faint stain. Looking closely, it seemed to
be the ash from a skewers stall.

The bald man saw her fingers clearly and quivered, his body covered in cold sweat.

"Someone who can scratch a line on your head is someone who can crack it open. They just
didn't want to pick a fight with you today." The old lady sat back down slowly and sighed. "Do
you know which street and which shop that person is from?"

The bald man said in a low voice, "I know. It's the street where all the shops sell skewers."

The old lady nodded. "Since she didn't harm you today, it means that other than what happens
on her doorstep, she won't bother with things that don't concern her. You just need to avoid her
place next time."

The bald man grumbled discontentedly, "A village bumpkin-"

"Enough!" The old lady raised her voice a little and cut him off. "What did I tell you at home?
Yanning is a place with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Hide when you bump into people
like us, don't think that you're so mighty. Frog in the well!"

The bald man didn't dare say anymore. The other two men also followed suit and lowered their
heads as they listened to her scolding.

The small table quieted down for the moment. The eight eyes on these four people fell on the
fries on the table. The fries had gone completely cold, the oil that seeped out had turned the
paper packet translucent. No one touched them and they lied there all alone. By their side were a
few packets of ketchup that had been sucked dry, lying messily on the table like dead bodies.

After a while, the scarred-face man broke the silence. "Shiniang, we can't just stay here and wait.
If there's really nothing we can do, how about staying at a guesthouse today?"
The disabled man at the side who had stayed silent the whole time said in a stifled tone,
"Shiniang can stay in a guesthouse. We three can make do with staying outdoors for a night. It's
not cold in summer anyway."

The old lady seemed to be thinking of something. She reached out to grab the small bundle by
her side. Who knew what she was thinking; after a while, she sighed and shook her head.

Meanwhile, Gan Qing had also returned to her "home."

She was walking even slower, her steps dragging even more. This was because when she was
avoiding that bald man, she had run a bit too hastily and the plastic strap on her left slipper had
nearly broken off with barely half a centimeter still attached. She was afraid that once she lifted
her leg, she would have to hop back on one leg.

From far she saw the familiar street lights at the entrance of her home and only then did she let
out a relieved sigh. She decided to go back and borrow a pair of slippers from her roommate and
make do for a couple of days.

She was currently staying at an illegal group rental house. Partitions divided the house into eight
small rooms. Each room had a bunk bed and two inhabitants. Most of her housemates were
female. Everyone had agreed not to smoke in the communal spaces and no one didn't flush the
toilet, so it could still be considered clean. As for the girl staying in the bunk above hers who
stayed in during the day and went out at night, that was a small issue. Gan Qing was someone
who could sleep in the space under a bridge and didn't mind this little bit of disturbance.

In summary, she felt that her little nest was cheap, clean and near her workplace. Everything was
good, great quality at a bargain price.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, things that were great quality at a bargain price often came
with other problems—for example, being illegal.

Hence, on this day, Gan Qing hummed the song Hill all the way home and found that her "home"
was gone.

A group of people were gathered outside the building, carrying their pots and pans. Gan Qing
found her roommate among them. The roommate produced a pair of slippers and gave it to her,
and also told her that the City of Yanning had started a new round of crackdowns on group
rentals recently. The place they were renting had been sealed off and they were to move out
immediately. They were not allowed to stay the night.

Hence, this group of people—whether it was the 'owl' who stayed in during the day and went out
at night or the "lark" who was early to rise and early to bed—they were all turned out on the
streets.

Fifteen minutes later, Gan Qing had rescued her own meagre possessions and was squatting on
the road curb, holding a corn on the cob. The corn was also given to her by her night owl
roommate. It tasted quite sweet.
The milky white streetlights stood in a line behind her. The slender poles fanning out looked like a
swan taking flight, spreading along both sides of the wide road, rising and falling gently, linking
together the shimmering lights from the thousands of homes in the city.

On this night, it was truly a curious coincidence.

The ones who ran the porcelain scam and the one who meddled in the affair, the one who
overestimated his abilities and the one who hid herself deep without revealing anything, they all
reached the same destination via different routes. In a cloud of gloom and anxiety, they were all
pondering where they could go to stay the night.

T/N:
[1] 越过山丘，虽然已白了头 - Even though my hair had turned white after crossing the hill
This is from the song 山丘 "Hill" by Jonathan Lee. The lyrics are about looking back on a life of
fights and regrets.
Chapter 6
Yu Lanchuan dropped Yu Yan off on his way back. By the time he reached home, it was nearly ten
at night. The door to the little brat's room stayed closed; maybe he was asleep or maybe he was
still sulking.

Tsk, teenagers.

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to deal with him. He kept thinking that when he was at that
age, he was already much more matured.

He looked at his own shirt in the full-length mirror, his heart hurting like it was sliced with a knife.
If only a few buttons had popped off, he could still sew them back on. But on the area over his
chest, there was a finger length tear along the fabric grain. With his sewing skills, there was
definitely no way to salvage it.

Why did you have to show off? Yu Lanchuan, who regularly reflected on his actions, faced the
mirror and interrogated himself with a grave face. Even if you're so cool that you break the
universe, is it worth doing that in front of a salted fish? Can it pay for one round of dry cleaning?
You really have nothing better to do!

Perhaps to complement Master Lan's "royal self-recrimination," especially the last line, his
stomach let out a long and winding growl.

It was only then that Yu Lanchuan realised that he hadn't had the time to eat dinner. Listlessly, he
took off his torn shirt and handily stuffed it into a trash bag, then dug out his phone to call for
food delivery.

The mobile payments were linked to his bank card. Once he paid, he received an automatic
reminder of his bank account balance. Face-to-face with the balance amount that popped out, Yu
Lanchuan didn't dare take a closer look. He only glanced at it, and his heart and stomach
immediately turned ice-cold.
And so, he miserly picked up his torn shirt again, planning to cut it up to use as wiping cloths.

Of course, he wouldn't save much this way. But "being frugal" itself was like an anesthetic; it
could numb a person's psychology just a little to the pain of being poor.

Mudpool Backlane's Boss Meng knew his granduncle. In honour of that old man, Boss Meng had
told him some honest truths.

Apparently, that group of porcelain scammers were not locals. They knew some barehanded
martial arts and the old lady was the most powerful among them. They had come to Yanning and
used some unconventional jianghu techniques to cheat and swindle their way everywhere. They
purposely targeted young people who obviously looked like "soft persimmons" that yielded easily
once pressed.

In recent years, personal safety education was conducted in a way that was more practical.
Everyone understood that their own lives were more important than money. Up to now, all their
victims had been quite cooperative; once they saw that something was wrong, they would
meekly accept their bad luck. One party handed over their money while the other party released
their victim. It could be considered peaceful and harmonious, and they had not done anything
that resulted in physical fighting.

The old denizens of Mudpool Backlane preferred to avoid unnecessary trouble whenever
possible, so no one had spoken up.

Boss Meng had added Yu Yan on WeChat and agreed to report any clues he might find later on to
this police comrade at any time. For the moment, this was all that could be done for this matter.

He still had to wait another half an hour for the food delivery. Yu Lanchuan turned on his laptop
and prepared to work.

After this little excursion, more than ten unread items had popped up in his WeChat and his
email. This world seemed to be transparent, everything visible, and everyone bound to a data
terminal without a single thread on their body. Every kind of information bombarded them
twenty-four hours a day without a second's pause, making it such that even if there was no static
noise right beside their ears, they would still feel that life was very cacophonous.

His mind straying endlessly far, Yu Lanchuan thought that the ancient times were much better. All
the great heroes went into seclusion for any reason at all, hiding themselves in some random
nook in the mountains, and no one could find them.

...But that said — one couldn't bring their phones with them when going into seclusion so that
meant no calling for food delivery. That was also a problem.

Facing the reports that he would have to spend the night reviewing, he spaced out for a while.
His mind was like a theatre stage and his heart could not calm down, so he got up and changed
into loose-fitting workout clothes, then went to the balcony for a couple of rounds of bare-
handed martial arts practice.
This martial arts style had seven forms and was adapted from swordplay techniques — his
balcony was too small and he couldn't properly practise the sword. His swordsmanship had been
personally taught to him by his granduncle, step by meticulous step. It was called the Seven
Secret Arts of the Han Jiang and it stressed on "An abundance of honesty; with moderateness
and openness," requiring one to have the bearing of a gentleman.

In the past, Granduncle had always grumbled that "Chinese martial arts is wide-ranging and
profound. It's a shame that not much is passed down." Yu Lanchuan had never mulled over how
much knowledge had been lost; he had always treated the Seven Secret Sword Arts as a workout
technique to keep in shape. Whenever he felt agitated or weary, whenever he felt unwell
anywhere whether in heart or in body, he would go through the forms a couple of times. After
sweating it out, he would always feel better.

When Granduncle was around fifteen or sixteen years old, the Japanese invaded and he had
joined the anti-Japanese association formed by civilians. He had fought on the battlefield and was
wounded by shrapnel from exploding artillery shells. Since then, he lost the ability to have
children and thus, treated the single descendent his younger brother had as his own. The old
man's body was robust; every year, he told other people that he was still young, only sixty-nine
years old. Even after being in his "sixties" for more than a decade, there had actually been people
who still believed him.

He lived his later years in a very carefree manner. His retirement fund in hand, he drove his
rundown off-road vehicle on a self-drive tour everywhere. Whenever he felt that a place was
good, he would stay there for a period of time. In recent years, his whereabouts had been
increasingly unclear. None of his close friends could locate him. It was nearly two years since Yu
Lanchuan last saw him.

Granduncle had wide connections and dared to take on problems. In his whole life, he had been
public-spirited. Anyone who came from far to ask for help, regardless of whether he knew them
or not, he would not mind the trouble. If that old man was in Yanning right now, he would find
that group of porcelain scammers even if he had to dig a meter into the ground, and he would
see if they were bad by nature or if they had encountered some kind of difficulty.

Yu Lanchuan had spent his entire youth growing up by the old man's side. During the few years
when he was the most chuuni, he had hoped to grow up to become someone like that old man.
Head touching the sky, feet on the ground, half a bowl of erguotou raised in a toast to all corners
of the world, sleeves billowing in the wind, and nothing in the world that he could not handle.

But ideals and reality were hundreds and thousands of light years apart. Just look at all the
university students that were failing advanced mathematics until they no longer wanted to live —
when they were young, how many of them had said that they wanted to be scientists when they
grow up?

Yu Lanchuan's chuuni period came and went like the wind. After he recovered from this
"sickness," he lived a conventional life of sitting for the university entrance exams, going abroad
to study, then getting promoted at work and having his salary increased. By the time he came
back to himself, he had already spent a good number of years galloping at top speed on this path
that went counter to his ideals.
When this trifling thing called "ideals" was too far away, it would automatically collapse into a
fantastical daydream.

Furthermore, how could he be like the old man?

It was totally impractical.

After all, the old man had a pension and also did not have a house loan.

After two rounds of practice, his whole body seemed to have lightened by two pounds. Yu
Lanchuan pushed open the windows on the balcony and leaned against the window frame to let
the wind dry his sweat.

Maybe it was going to rain. An earthy smell was slowly rising in the air, damp and moist.

Back in that year when the old man taught him, on one hand it was to play with him and on the
other hand, it was because the old man was afraid that prolonged sitting would be bad for the
body so he teased Yu Lanchuan into getting up and exercising his limbs. The old man didn't count
on training him into anything noteworthy because Yu Lanchuan didn't seem like a person with
persistence. In addition, The Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang didn't seem to suit his aura. Which of
the eight words "An abundance of honesty; with moderateness and openness," punctuation
included, was in any way related to Director Yu? In any case, Granduncle couldn't tell.

Who would have thought that once he started training, he would train for fifteen years.

Right then, his phone rang. Yu Lanchuan thought his food was here and picked up without
thinking.

"Hello? May I know if this is Mr. Yu, Yu Lanchuan?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "Yeah, just come up. I'll open the door for you."

For some reason, the other person paused a while, then said an "I'm sorry" before continuing to
ask, "May I ask if Mr. Yu Huaide is your relative?"

Yu Lanchuan stared blankly. His chest tightened for no reason — Yu Huaide was his granduncle.

"He's my grandfather. What's the matter?"

"Um… Sir, please accept my condolences."

At the end of last year, the old Mr. Yu Huaide had gone to Sichuan. There was a saying about the
place, "Enter not when young, leave not when old[1]." When the old man got there, he fell in
love with the place and decided to stay there for a long time. For half a year, he enjoyed himself
thoroughly in Sichuan, roaming east and west, enjoying the flavours of the region. Then, he felt
that he had played enough and it was about time, so he looked for a valley with beautiful
scenery. He went there and snapped a few photos, then put his will and his belongings into his
camera bag. He sat down beside a creek, took off his shoes, dipped his feet into the clear waters
of the creek, rested a while, and just like that, he departed from this life. Three days later, a few
self-driving tourists finally found him.

He lived like a legend, and also died like one.

Yu Lanchuan put down his phone, his mind blank. For a moment, he could not regain his wits.

Right then, the muffled sound of thunder came from far away, rumbling as it rolled near. The
wind rose on its heels and in just a flash, the heavy rain that could not be contained poured down
without warning.

Gan Qing and her night owl roommate dashed into the subway station at the last second and
were lucky not to be drenched like drowned rats.

The night owl roommate had run until she was sweating all over. Tendrils of long hair stuck to her
face and she panted like she was recovering from a huge shock.

Gan Qing didn't usually take the subway — it was more expensive than the bus. Once they
entered, she quickly analysed the route map on the wall. The night owl roommate had contacted
a friend and was taking Gan Qing along to seek shelter. The friend's house was a bit far out, they
had to go across the city. They had to take the subway, and even change lines.

Gan Qing deciphered the route map and said, "We have to move fast or we might not make it to
the last train when we change lines. You-"

Before she could finish speaking, the night owl roommate let out a loud wail and started sobbing.
Gan Qing was startled by this sudden flurry of noise and turned to look at her in surprise.

The girl's sobs were as sudden as the thunderstorm outside. There was no buffer time; from the
get-go, she wailed until she forgot herself.

"Why am I so unlucky… Why the fuck won't they let me stay there… Why the fuck did they cut my
pay! Why the fuck is it raining! Why the fuck am I on my period—!"

There was an echo in the subway station that took the word "period" and strengthened it until it
was as mighty as the mountains and the rivers. The commuters going home late straggled past
them, some lifting their heads to glance at them, some hurrying past with earphones stuffed in
their ears, all of them not the least bit concerned.

Gan Qing asked, "Why don't I… help you… get some hot water?"

The night owl roommate held her stomach and squatted down. The large bag holding her
belongings was thrown down at her feet. She had too many things and the zipper was pushed
slightly open, revealing a dog plush toy from a claw machine. She glanced at it from the corner of
her eye and tugged it out. Like she was venting her feelings, she hurled it to the ground and
nearly tripped a passerby.
Gan Qing quickly apologised to the person and ran over in her slippers to pick up the little dog.
She had just put it back when the night owl roommate pulled it out again, and again sent it flying.
"Why aren't you letting me throw it! It's mine, I want to throw it!"

Gan Qing, "..."

She was out of patience.

For a while, she stood helplessly by the side, hands on her hips. Then, she walked over to a
vending machine, dug out a few coins and bought a bottled hot drink. She patted her night owl
roommate on the head and twisted open the cap on the bottle for her. "Here."

The night owl roommate choked on her sobs. She lifted her eyes from her knees and looked at
Gan Qing, hiccuped, then reached out a hand and took the bottle sluggishly.

Gan Qing helped her carry her luggage. "Don't curl up. Stand up and walk around or your
stomach will hurt."

The night owl roommate's ferocious sobbing died down. After a while, she sniffed and straggled
to her feet.

"All right, don't cry anymore," Gan Qing said, calm and even. "See, even if it's raining, the two of
us didn't get caught in it. Such a heavy rain won't last long. It should have stopped by the time we
get out of the subway, so how are we unlucky? You even have such a considerate friend who's
willing to take us in in the middle of the night. Is she your ex-schoolmate?"

The night owl roommate said, "No, she's my ex-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend."

Gan Qing, "..."

The night owl roommate continued to say, "My ex was a scumbag."

Gan Qing said, "...I can tell."

The night owl roommate took a sulky gulp of the hot drink, "You're much nicer than my ex."

Gan Qing vaguely sensed that those words were a compliment. Complimented in such a way that
she had no way to reply, she could only sigh. "Let's go."

　　

In the following week, Gan Qing slept on the floor of someone else's home while searching for a
room everywhere.

The months of July and August every year was the peak season for rentals. The large batch of
students newly graduated from universities needed a lodging place. On top of that, there was a
not insignificant number of people like Gan Qing who had been thrown out and they were all
looking for a cheap place to stay. For a moment, demand was high in the market and rental prices
soared. Sometimes, after searching online for a long while, she would finally find one with a price
that was still acceptable but once she called them, it would either have already been rented out
or the landlord would want to increase the rent at the last minute.

And then, after one week, her night owl roommate finally could not persevere anymore. She left
the coupons she had saved and the dog plushie with Gan Qing, and planned to return to her
parents' house.

Once the night owl roommate left, Gan Qing felt that it wasn't appropriate for her to continue
staying with the "ex-girlfriend" for free.

She closed the shop and got off work earlier, and went over to Tianyi Crayfish to help carry two
crates of beer. She paced around a couple of times with nothing to do before finally walking over
to the back kitchen in hesitation. "Uncle Meng… Previously, you said you were looking for
someone to take care of the old lady, have you found a suitable person?"

At the same time this was happening, Yu Lanchuan finished taking care of matters after his
granduncle's passing and returned to Yanning with the old man's ashes.

After getting off the airplane, he got a cab and told the driver, "Driver, go to Rongxian Street, No.
110 Courtyard."

He first needed to take the old man home.

———

The author has something to say:

About the skin on a person's hand being fine and gleaming like jade, it came from a rumour I've
heard before. Apparently, when a Xing Yi Quan master's skills reach a certain level, the skin and
flesh on their hands will become extremely fine and smooth. I don't know whether it's true or
not, I've never practised Xing Yi Quan. In any case, we MMA practitioners' hands are quite rough.

Besides that, the entire setting in this story is something I came up with blindly, don't take it as a
substitute for real life combat martial arts centers and martial arts schools.

T/N:
[1] Enter not when young, leave not when old - 少不入川，老不出蜀
This saying refers to the charms of Sichuan. One should not go there when young, lest they enjoy
themselves so much that they never want to leave and work hard to be successful. Whereas the
old would not want to leave the place because they naturally would want to spend their
remaining days in comfort.
Chapter 7
No. 110 Courtyard on Rongxian Street should actually be considered a small residential
neighbourhood. It was just that the small neighbourhood only had one building, hence the name.

In the past, it was a public housing built by a work unit. The construction of the building
preserved a special characteristic of old public housings from the past: shadow on the north, light
from the south[1]. Every floor had a narrow public corridor running along the northern side from
the east to the west, while on the southern side was a row of ten apartments sitting side-by-side.
Everyone shared one elevator. Later on, after the work unit was gone, the public housing also
went through a "housing reform." Via the residents' voluntary purchase of the apartments, it
became a housing property that could be bought and sold in the market.

The building was constructed in 1990. The babies born after '90 were already losing hair in large
amounts, so there was naturally a limit to how fresh and beautiful the buildings that were the
same age as them could be. The walls were mottled, and from the rusty railings to the narrow
stairs, there was nothing that didn't show the sign of old age.

But even though the building was rather old, the environment in that little neighbourhood was
pretty good. It was sparsely populated and tranquil, and after twenty years, the trees had also
grown verdant. Walking into the courtyard in summer, a person would feel that it was cooler
than the outside by five degrees. The location was also good, barely two stops away from the
CBD or less than twenty minutes' walk. The large gate on the neighbourhood's west side directly
faced a bilingual kindergarten. Fifty meters out of the large gate on the east side, there was a
decent public primary school that had moved there a few years ago. Hence, this place could be
considered a "school district residence." Most ordinary folk wouldn't be able to afford it.

Right now, among those staying in this courtyard were the nouveau riche who bought the
apartments with cash for the sake of the school district admission quota, the wealthy who paid
tens of thousands in rent every month just so that it was more convenient for their children to
attend kindergarten, and also the "natives" of the courtyard who only had two little rooms left
after they lost their jobs when the work unit was restructured. People from all walks of life made
up the whole place.

Parked at the courtyard were luxury cars that cost millions and also little Santanas that looked
like they were about to reach scrappage age. However, there were typically no parking spaces in
this kind of old and tiny neighbourhood, so regardless of whether they were luxury cars or
rundown cars, they all had to be stuffed into whichever nook and cranny that could be found. All
the wheels were united in having a small wooden board to shield them from dog urine.

When Yu Lanchuan reached the place, someone happened to be moving in. There was a small
electric car charging via a power cord connected to the reception office at the entrance blocking
the road and the moving van from the movers was stuck at the gate, unable to enter.

"Whose car is it at the entrance? Please move it!" The moving van's driver whistled and shouted.
After shouting for a long while, no one answered so he got down from the van and unleashed his
voice. "Red colour! Four wheels! There are words on the car, 'Traditional Acupuncture and
Moxibustion Therapy, Burial Clothes, Flower Wreaths Discount,' whose is it? Whose flower
wreaths are on discount? Move your car!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

It was truly a one-stop service provider.

He couldn't be bothered to squeeze past the baking hot moving van so he stopped at the
entrance to wait for them to move away.

This was a place he had spent a lot of time at when he was young. Right after the entrance of the
courtyard were two rows of scholar trees, with a lane for walking in the middle. At this time, the
flowers of the scholar trees had long since withered away and only the overlapping layers of
leaves remained. The fiery midsummer sunshine was blocked by those leaves, leaving just a few
stray fragments of light to fall to the ground. The branches of the old scholar trees contorted into
gnarly, twisted knots. A slightly damp air emanated from the rich greenery, carrying a touch of
the tranquil solitude of being free from the worries of the mortal world.

In a flash, ten years had passed. The building had grown old, the old residents were gone, and the
trees had also grown tall.

Granduncle had lived for nearly a century. He was also someone who didn't walk the
conventional path and was an old man who easily dropped out of contact. As his relative, Yu
Lanchuan was actually already mentally prepared and he couldn't say that he was grieving deeply
now. It was just that when he was standing here with the old man's ashes, he suddenly had a
feeling that the people had changed while the material things had not. It was like an era had
disappeared into the air while he was not paying attention.

The old man did not leave many possessions behind. Other than the rundown car that was
practically scrap metal, he only left some daily necessities and his camera. In his will, he asked Yu
Lanchuan to develop the few photos which were to be the old man's final masterpieces, and also
stated that everything in his bag was to be left to Yu Lanchuan.

Other than his will, the bag also contained two small booklets. One of them was the manual for
the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang swordplay; Yu Lanchuan was already thoroughly familiar with
it. The other one was something he had not seen before. The will stated that it was the heirloom
of the Han Jiang Sect. The old man himself was the 136th sect leader and he intended to pass it
on to Yu Lanchuan, making him the 137th leader.

However, the old man indicated that it was fine whether or not he wanted to take up the mantle.
Han Jiang Sword Sect did not have any disciples anyway.

The contents of the "sect heirloom" was mainly divided into three sections: Sect Rules, Way of
Cultivation and Sect-Exclusive Ancient Teachings. They had all been passed down since ancient
times.

In total, there were twenty sect rules, all written in classical language in the traditional writing. Yu
Lanchuan had attended a business school at university and had studied abroad after that. He had
downed a bellyful of western writings and his classical Chinese was just at high school level, and
he felt dizzy with just one look. He skimmed through the whole thing until the end and finally
found a handwritten line in simplified writing. It was the old man's handwriting.

The old man knew his level and had purposely written an annotation. The annotation was very
plain: Anyone who can fulfil the twenty sect rules is a saint. There's no need to study them
closely. We mere mortals only need to follow the country's laws and regulations and adhere to
society's customs.

The Way of Cultivation section summarised the understanding gained by the generations of sect
leaders from their practice and study of martial arts. Each one of them had differing skill levels
and the "legacy" they left behind also took on many different forms and shapes. Some were long
and complicated secret chants while some were stick figures stretching out their arms and kicking
their legs.

For this section, the old man wrote his annotation at the beginning and the annotation had a "the
heart as broad as the sky and earth are wide" feel to it: I guess you probably won't understand
this. If you don't understand, then take your time. If you still don't understand after taking your
time, then just let it be.

The last section was Sect-Exclusive Ancient Teachings. Yu Lanchuan had heard of this before.
According to legend, in ancient times, a number of sects had their own exclusive medicinal
prescriptions, treatments for injuries, ways to regulate inner breathing, detoxification methods—
all sorts of things, all of them mysterious. They were not passed down to outsiders and were
considered a part of the sect's teachings that were passed down from generation to generation.
These were things like the Life Giving Pill or Wound Healing Pill found in wuxia stories.

Yu Lanchuan flipped to the last section out of curiosity, wanting to see what kind of secrets that
could not be spread that his sect had. In the end, he found that the old man had covered those
pages with ink and even wrote in large red letters: These nonsense are unscientific. Go to the
hospital if you're sick.

It was followed by three exclamation marks.

The 137th sect leader held this quality heirloom in his hands, evaluated it, and felt that the
remaining days of his sect… would be nothing more than this.

The owner of the electric car took his own sweet time to finally arrive. The driver of the moving
van was starting to grumble discontentedly. The sound of people talking called back Yu
Lanchuan's attention and he looked up with a rather complicated expression at the small eleven
stories high building.

Among the things the old man left behind, the most important and the most troublesome to take
care of was none other than this apartment.

The old man's home was on the tenth floor. It was a small unit with two bedrooms, with
approximately seventy square meters of floor space. Just now, Yu Lanchuan had enquired at the
real estate agency at the intersection—the market price of a house like this was 8.5 million yuan,
excluding tax.

This amount was enough to make any member of the salaried class faint.

The old Yu Huaide had never gotten married and didn't have children of his own. From young, he
and his younger brother—Yu Lanchuan's biological grandfather—grew up depending on each
other for survival. Yu Lanchuan's grandparents had passed away one after another a few years
ago. His family members were few; both he and his father were only childs.

Yu Lanchuan's father, Yu Jianhua, had had enough of the shackles of marriage and family life.
After getting divorced with much difficulty, he was like a little bird flying free of its cage and was
now a staunch believer in singlehood. When Granduncle passed away, Yu Jianhua had hurried
over to see the body and helped to take care of some matters, then left with a flourish of his
sleeves. As for the assets left behind, his father had said, "You're the only one left in our family in
this generation anyway. Anything we have will be yours in the future. Deal with them as you see
fit."

Hence, this apartment, theoretically, should have fallen into his hands.

In the same world, millions of house loan slaves had dreamed the same dream.

...And it nearly came true for him.

Unfortunately, this was not the second half of the story of Jane Eyre because, in his will, the old
man also said that this apartment could not be left to the descendants of his family.

Back in the year of the housing reform, a resident had to pay 50,000 yuan to gain the rights to the
property. Even though that amount now might seem like they were getting the house practically
for free, 50,000 was a number that was not small to many people twenty years ago.

The old man was a bachelor and had always saved little while spending a lot. Don't talk about
50,000, he could not even produce 5,000. The money for buying the house was collectively
gathered by all his friends from his far-ranging connections who heard of his difficulty.

The old man's relationships with other people were too good, the number of people he had
helped too many, and who knew how many people had helped him gather the money. There
were some who were embarrassed by how little they had and could only contribute thirty or fifty
yuan. They didn't feel that it was appropriate to leave their name and didn't plan to ask him to
pay them back.

Later on, before the old man could straighten out who were the people he should pay back, the
economy and the housing prices in the country took off together. In the second year, the small
50,000 yuan apartment doubled in price. After that, before everyone's dumbstruck eyes, it flew
to the sky like it was on a rocket.

If someone were to come and dispute that 50,000 now, it would reflect badly on them.

Hence, the old Yu Huaide said that even though this apartment was under his name, it could not
be considered his personal property. He would definitely not sell it off and if any of his friends in
the martial arts world faced troubles and came to Yanning, they could all come to this place.

Which was to say, this school district residence that was so close to carrying the surname Yu was
the Martial Arts Alliance's Yanning Management Office.
Once Yu Lanchuan thought of this matter, his heart started bleeding. These whimsical jokers,
couldn't they look for some suburb in an outskirt district or county to set up their management
office!

Right when he was grieving internally with a cold expression on the outside, a gust of wind blew
suddenly from behind him, hitting the back of his head. Yu Lanchuan was still immersed in his
thoughts thousands of miles away and, without engaging his brain, his body automatically slid a
step away. At the same time, he stood at an angle and jabbed backwards with his elbow. A plastic
walking stick slid along his elbow like a swimming fish, following the shift in his center of gravity
to sweep below his ribs. Using his hand, arm and shoulder as a sword, in a blink of the eye, Yu
Lanchuan single-handedly exchanged over ten moves with that plastic walking stick that seemed
to want to stick itself to his body. It was only when the walking stick nearly touched the
cremation box containing Granduncle's ashes that it came to a stop just in time.

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up, looking rather miserable. He finally saw clearly that the
madman who had swung a walking stick at him for no reason was an old man.

The old man had a red band around his arm. His hand was holding a green-coloured plastic
walking stick and his shirt that had been washed very clean had a few patches on it. He wore a
pair of horn-rimmed presbyopic glasses.

The old man lowered his head. From over the top of his glasses, his gaze pierced out from his
eyes. He looked at the cremation box, then at Yu Lanchuan, and smiled. "Yu-dage, your precious
grandson has brought you home! Xiao-Chuan is already so big now. Grandpa Yang nearly couldn't
recognise you just now looking from far."

Yu Lanchuan was momentarily stunned, barely keeping his temper in check. Looking carefully
again, he remembered that this Grandpa Yang seemed to live on the sixth floor and was close to
his family's old man. In the past, they had often gone fishing together.

Old Yang clutched the walking stick under his arm. Then, without any clearly visible movement—
it seemed like he only reached a hand out, light as a feather—he took the cremation box.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Hey-"

"Child, now that he is almost home, let me bring my old brother home for this part of the
journey." Old Yang waved him off. Then, his face seemed rather desolate. "Fuliang Yue, Han Jiang
Xue, Tang Qian Yan, Chuan Lin Feng… The Five Supremes from back then; in these years, some
have left this place and some have left this world. I'm the only old fool left behind now."

Five Supremes? Wasn't there only four?

Yu Lanchuan stared fearfully at the old man's tottering back, afraid that he would drop his
granduncle. He had heard that not knowing how to count was a sign of dementia.

"There's no one to carry on the titles either. Only your family's Xiao-Chuan is somewhat useful
and can still take a few moves from me. The rest… Ai, all useless things!" Old Yang chattered
endlessly at the cremation box. "The once-every-three-years Martial Arts General Assembly—
now that you're gone, when everyone comes to Yanning this year, who will they come for?"

"That's right." Old Yang remembered something and turned his head to ask Yu Lanchuan, "Xiao-
Chuan, up to which level have you practised the Seven Secret Arts swordplay?"

Yu Lanchuan was completely lost. "...What is the benchmark for the rating?"

Standard and Poor's?

Upon hearing that, Old Yang let out a heavy sigh. As the saying went, "The weasel declines into a
rat." Each generation was worse than the last.

Sighing mournfully, Old Yang led the big rat Yu Lanchuan to the elevator lobby. There was already
someone there waiting for the elevator. Yu Lanchuan's gaze swept past that person and he
jolted. "It's you?"

Gan Qing really could not find a place to stay. With no other choice, she thickened her skin and
ate her words, and had come dejectedly to Boss Meng's relative's house to plead for shelter. For
the sake of giving the old lady a good impression, she had purposely cleaned herself up today and
dug out the only non-work dress she had. She had combed her hair neatly and tucked it behind
her ears, revealing a bright, clean forehead and five features. She looked like a proper human
now.

Her original intention was to "quietly enter the village without firing a gun" and to be as low-
profile as possible. She had never thought that before she even went up the building, she would
bump into these two. It was truly bad luck.

Gan Qing's eyes flitted to the plastic walking stick in Old Yang's hand and away again. She didn't
dare look too long. She gave Yu Lanchuan an uncomfortable and exceptionally demure smile.

When she smiled, the sharp corners of her mouth were revealed. For unknown reasons, Yu
Lanchuan again felt that strange sense of familiarity he had felt that day at Mudpool Backlane. He
involuntarily took another look at her and asked doubtfully, "You're staying here too?"

T/N:
[1] Shadow on the north, light from the south - 坐北朝南
In Chinese, the phrase literally means "back to the north, front to the south." Some interpret 朝
南 strictly as the door of the house facing north, but there are also interpretations that say that
朝南 just means that the light comes from the north, and so could refer to the windows. Based
on the description in the text, the latter interpretation is applicable here.
Chapter 8
Gan Qing really did not expect him to still remember her because the impression this man had
given her was very strong—he obviously belonged to the "Women only know how to make
themselves look pretty on the outside; I'll rather look in the mirror and be in a relationship with
myself" type.
That was why she stared blankly for a while before finally answering very succinctly, "I just moved
in."

"You're working at Boss Meng's place, aren't you?" Yu Lanchuan said. "I remember that he has a
relative who stays here. Did he help you find an apartment here?"

He had just finished speaking when Old Master Yang's gaze shifted over to land on Gan Qing.
"Meng? Is it that kid Tianyi?"

Gan Qing suspected that Yu Lanchuan had taken the wrong meds. Saying hello was fine but he
even condescended to start a conversation with her!

Old Master Yang's eyes taking stock of her made her feel as though she was sitting on pins and
needles. As an old man who had immersed himself in martial arts for his entire life, how every
muscle and every bone on a person's body should move and exert strength was something he
knew like the back of his hand. His glasses might magnify his eyes until they look like alien eyes,
but his gaze seemed to harbour the legendary blade of purple lightning and frost. When it swept
past, it made a person feel a faint, indistinct pain.

Gan Qing pretended not to notice. Quiet and unmoving, she inhaled, wanting to make herself
relax as much as possible. Who would have thought that right at that moment, her right hand
dropped the ball—her two slightly crooked fingers spasmed involuntarily.

This tiny movement immediately registered in Old Yang's eyes. He asked amiably, "Young lady,
what happened to your hand?"

Gan Qing pressed her lips together and smiled. She moved her luggage to her other hand and
said evasively, "My things are a little heavy."

"Go help her," Old Yang exhorted Yu Lanchuan, then continued to ask. "Was your hand injured
before?"

Yu Lanchuan made a noise of assent and bent down, taking her large bag from her. At the same
time, he noticed her hand. There were calluses on her palm and even in summer, her skin was
still very dry. Around her nails that weren't very well maintained, there were a few sparse
hangnails, and her nails bore signs of the wear and tear of daily life. She was clutching her right
wrist, like she was trying hard to make her stiff right hand relax, but her hand trembled even
harder when stretched taut in this way. The long sleeve of her dress quivered along with this
movement.

She looked rather pitiful.

"When I was young, I fell down by the roadside and my wrist was run over by a three-wheeled
cart," Gan Qing said. "The hospital near my old home wasn't very good and my wrist has never
healed properly."

"Ai, didn't it make things difficult for you?" Old Yang let out a slow sigh. "You're so young. Injuries
to your muscles and bones are minor things but it would be bad if your meridians are injured."
Gan Qing pretended not to understand him and just agreed nervously.

Old Yang suddenly took half a step towards her. Along with his movement, the walking stick
clutched under his arm swayed slightly. The two of them were about a meter apart. To an
outsider to the field, it merely looked like the old man was tired from carrying the cremation box
and was changing his standing posture.

However, to Gan Qing who was physically right there, more than half her focus was actually on
that walking stick. The shifting of the walking stick by that one inch seemed to seal off the space
she could move in, from all directions. A stifling sense of being trapped descended on her;
instinctively, she wanted to escape.

Yet, Old Yang's eyes were keenly waiting for her to move.

Right at that moment, the elevator door suddenly opened. The air that rushed out carried with it
a waft of perfume, directly hitting them in their faces and dispersing that stifling atmosphere.
Gan Qing's tense muscles swiftly relaxed and she heard someone say, "Grandpa, what are you
holding?"

The three of them looked up in unison. A woman came out of the elevator. Her long hair was
bound in a loose ponytail and her age couldn't be told from her artificially plumped up face. The
clothes she wore were branded, the bag she carried was branded, and the shoes under her feet
were branded ones printed with a large logo. From head to toe, she was like a walking display for
luxury goods, and a perfumed breeze assaulted their senses with her every move. Four words
seemed to shine brightly above her head: This bitch is rich.

"Don't bring any more trash into the house," the woman said. "I just threw away your pickle jar
away this morning."

The moment the cool-as-cucumber Old Master Yang saw her, his blood pressure shot right up
and his composure of a skilled master abruptly crumbled until nothing was left. "Who allowed
you to throw away my things again!"

"If I don't throw it, it'll just turn into compost." The woman chewed on gum and blew a large
bubble at the old man. "You like dressing up like a beggar for no reason, fine, I'll pretend you're
cosplaying. But if you're going to beg, then just concentrate on begging. Why are you crossing
into another field and collecting scraps too? 'Tch… Handsome, let this jie pass through."

Old Master Yang said, "On a fine weekend like this, where are you going to stir up trouble with
that face made up like a demoness?"

"To the gym. I haven't been in a week because of the injections, they really hold things up."

"I told you to learn staff techniques from me but you refuse. You just have to spend so much
money to go to that… that whatever place, and lift metal weights with those oafs, you-"
"Grandpa, people want to train their chest and their butt, who wants to learn the staff? I'm not
Sun Wukong." The woman flipped her hair. She didn't hold back even with outsiders around, her
mouth unstoppable. "Furthermore, please just look at yourself. Are you in any position to
persuade other people? What can someone gain by learning from you? Skinny ribs like a
washboard?"

For no reason, Gan Qing felt her knees hurting[1].

Old Master Yang was so angry his face was red and his neck puffed up. He might need a fast-
acting heart protection pill.

The woman laughed and sauntered off. When she left, she even gave Yu Lanchuan a flirty look,
making Director Yu feel incredibly discomfited. He regretted a little for hurrying too much when
he came over today; his outfit was too low-key.

With this interruption, Old Master Yang's attention finally moved away from Gan Qing. He
clutched his chest and held shakily to Yu Lanchuan's arm for support. "Our family is unfortunate,
so unfortunate!"

Yu Lanchuan entered the elevator, pressed "10," and glanced at Gan Qing. Seeing that she didn't
move, he asked, "Tenth floor?"

Gan Qing said, "Yeah."

Such a coincidence? He thought. I guess it's fate.

Old Master Yang hadn't yet calmed down from his fit and was grumbling at the side, "Just look at
this disgraceful grandchild, look at what she has become! In the future when I go to the afterlife, I
won't be able to face our sect master… Xiao-Chuan ah, it looks like you're the only one left in the
younger generation. Old Yu-dage is no longer around, so why don't you move in and stay here in
the future? You can get to know more friends too."

Yu Lanchuan brushed him off with a smile, thinking absent-mindedly. I don't want to know them
at all. I just want that 8.5 million.

The old-fashioned elevator was small and cramped. Gan Qing was right next to him, not far away.
When he lowered his eyes, Yu Lanchuan could see her side profile. Her brow bone was straight
and her nose bridge high, with a slight hump that did not detract from her looks. A thin layer of
skin covered the bones of her face, without much spare flesh. The lines of her face were very
clean.

Maybe it was due to her high nose bridge; this side profile again invoked his memories from long
ago. It made Yu Lanchuan feel rather confused because this person and the one in his memories
were as different as day and night, complete polar opposites.

He remembered that that person was like a burst of wildfire. Even in the darkest night, that
brightly burning spirit could be seen from kilometers away, fiery and incandescent.
Whereas the person before his eyes… 'tch, she was like a lighter that was out of fluid. After
flicking for a long time, a tiny, shriveled flame would finally appear, and it would probably fizzle
out again before it could even be seen clearly.

Perhaps Old Master Yang was used to being ignored by his granddaughter, he didn't notice that
Yu Lanchuan's mind was wandering and was continuing to grumble. "Old Yu's feelings for this
apartment are not at an ordinary level. Usually, when his friends from other places come here
and can't find a place to stay, they would all come here to look for him. Xiao-Chuan, Grandpa
Yang has some busybody things to say—you may not want to come back here to stay and you
may not want to bother yourself with this apartment, but can you not sell it to other people?"

Ai, Yu Lanchuan thought in resignation. Please don't test my conscience!

The elevator reached in a flash. The view from the tenth floor was vast. Looking down from the
building, the entire serene little courtyard was visible to the eye. Even though the communal
corridor was narrow, it was very clean. Someone was stewing meat in one of the apartments and
the delicious smell wafted throughout the corridor. It made him remember the time when he was
young, when he had come to Granduncle's home during the weekends. Granduncle had always
felt that he didn't eat properly at school and would purposely prepare an entire table of dishes
for him—sauteed, stir-fried, boiled and fried. If there were any "troublesome" dishes that people
typically didn't cook at home, the old man would cook extra portions at the same time. Once it
was done, he would get Yu Lanchuan to carry bowls of it to the neighbours.

The neighbours at No. 110 Courtyard seemed to be of a different type from the neighbours
elsewhere. Where Yu Lanchuan was staying now, he didn't even know whether his neighbour
was a man or a woman.

His heart suddenly jolted. If he really couldn't sell this apartment, it wasn't like he couldn't
consider moving in. At least he would save on rental and he also wouldn't need to drive to work.
He was just afraid that the old man's scoundrel friends would keep coming to disturb…

"It's here, thank you." Gan Qing tugged lightly on the bag in Yu Lanchuan's hand. "I'm sorry for
troubling you."

Yu Lanchuan came back to himself and returned the luggage to her. He looked up at the door
plate—1003. The old man lived at 1004, next door.

He remembered that the next door neighbour was...

　　

Before he could recall, the door to 1003 opened from inside. Boss Meng said that his second
aunt's surname was Zhang. Gan Qing hurriedly stood up straight. "Gran-"

The word "Grandma" stuck in her throat.

She saw that the supposedly seventy years old lady had a head of large permed curls with pink
highlights and makeup on her face, the perky false lashes exceptionally prominent. Her nails were
blinged out with enough rhinestones to blind a dog. Even her house slippers had pink butterfly
bows.

Beside them, Old Master Yang heaved a heavy sigh. His face looked as though he had no words to
describe his feelings.

That's right, Yu Lanchuan thought with an emotionless face. Next door was a Cave of the Silken
Web. An old demoness who liked to be overly friendly with little boys stayed there.

The moment Grandma Zhang opened the door and saw Yu Lanchuan, she immediately smiled like
a flower blooming. The lashes fluttered like a fan. "Are you the lodger my nephew found?
Handsome guy, you look quite familiar. Have we met before?"

"Hello, Grandma. My grandpa had once asked me to bring you some fried lotus roots stuffed with
pork." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up, his face wooden. "I'm from next door. I'll take my
leave now."

With that, he strode away on his long legs, blowing past the old demoness like a gust of wind.

Only then did Old Madam Zhang see Gan Qing clearly. After falling silent for a while, she gave
Boss Meng an exasperated call and bellowed. "Who asked you to find a female lodger for me!"

Boss Meng's even more exasperated reply could be heard leaking out from the phone. "For
heaven's sake, I'm already this old, I don't want to get an uncle who's not even as old as my son!"

...Just give up on it, Yu Lanchuan thought.

Your esteemed martial arts world should have closed shop long ago.

T/N:
[1] Different from English, in Chinese, to say someone has a washboard body is to say that they're
unattractively skinny and that their ribs can be seen.
Washboards are also used within a family as punishment; whoever's being punished will be made
to kneel on a washboard, hence Gan Qing's knees hurting.
[2] Cave of the Silken Web ( 盘 丝 洞 pán sī dòng) is from "Journey to the West" and is a cave
where spider demons live.
Chapter 9
"There, that room's yours." Even though Old Madam Zhang — full name Zhang Meizhen — was
very dissatisfied with Gan Qing's gender, her nephew had already sent this person over. It
probably wasn't right for her to directly throw Gan Qing out, so she let Gan Qing into the
apartment in the end.

Because the corridor was on the north side of the building, all the bedrooms faced south. Even
though it was the second bedroom, the space was not cramped. The window was bright and
clean, and the rows of old scholar trees in the southern courtyard were immediately visible when
looking down. The curtains should have been newly washed; they still had the gentle, cosy smell
of laundry detergent on them. There was even a lush and thriving pot of wax begonia in the
corner, its redness bold and unrestrained.
When Gan Qing walked into No. 110 Courtyard, she had already struck once on the drums of
retreat.

When she unfortunately bumped into Yu Lanchuan and Old Master Yang at the elevator lobby,
she struck again on the drums of retreat.

When she reached 1003 and realised that the Old Madam Zhang didn't like her much, she had
actually already made up her mind not to stay there and invite dislike from others. She would sit
for a while and then leave.

As for a place to stay, she had already thought it out. She could borrow a few plastic stools from
Boss Meng, line them up, and make do with sleeping at the shop for now. She didn't have the
legendary ability of "sleeping on a suspended rope," but she probably wouldn't fall to her death
from sleeping on plastic stools.

All her mental preparations suffered an utter and complete defeat in the face of this room.

Putting aside the fact that it faced the light, even a room with a window was something she had
not seen for a long time.

The small building was hidden deep in the courtyard. The dense cover of greenery in the
courtyard blocked off the noise from the road, the honking of the cars sounding so far away they
were like needles falling to the ground. Standing by the window, with Gan Qing's hearing ability
that could discern even the ticking of the little table clock in the living room, the quietness was
almost a luxury.

When she entered the room for a look, Gan Qing decided to throw caution and dignity to the
wind.

Zhang Meizhen leaned against the door, curling her long hair around her fingers. She asked, "You
don't have any bad habits, do you?"

The no-need-for-dignity Gan Qing immediately answered, "No. I definitely wake up early and go
to bed early, I keep regular hours for work and rest. When I come home from work in the
evening, I'll go to bed right after washing up and will turn off the lights by half past ten at night. In
the morning, I'll definitely wake up before six and I can prepare breakfast for you. I don't watch
TV, my phone is on silent, I won't bring guests home and any packages will be delivered to the
shop. Even though I am not very fussy with cleanliness, I can take out the trash at all times and
wipe the table at all times. I will clean the sink after I wash my face and I definitely won't let my
hair clog up the drain. If you have anything else you need me to do, you can let me know."

After hearing all that, Zhang Meizhen was dumbstruck for a while. "You… how long have you
been a nun?"

Gan Qing felt that this wasn't a compliment and didn't dare answer rashly. She only smiled.
"I don't eat breakfast, you don't have to bother with me. Don't look for me before ten o' clock."
Zhang Meizhen waved her hand. "Sometimes I go out to play at night and will come back late. I'll
bring my keys with me, you don't have to stay up and wait for me. But if I happen to drink too
much, I might make some noise. Your mental state is not delicate, is it?"

Gan Qing digested the old lady's words for a while, and quickly shook her head respectfully.

"That's good." Zhang Meizhen rolled her eyes at the ceiling. She had nothing else to say to Gan
Qing, so she recited a prayer at her. "Amitabha."

In this year and age, the elderly were partying wildly like youngsters while the young ones were
trembling fearfully as they looked for medical insurance.

　　

Thickening her skin, Gan Qing settled into her new nest.

This place was just too comfortable. When she showered, there were no housemates needing to
pee knocking on the door. On the double bed, not only could she stretch her legs out, she could
even roll around. There was no non-stop dripping coming from the toilet the whole night, and
also no non-stop slapping of slippers when people went in and out. It was so quiet that she was
unused to it and she actually found it a little hard to sleep on the first night. Hence, she got up,
draped her clothes over herself, and went over to the window to bask in the moonlight.

Madam Zhang Meizhen was not home yet. She didn't go out to party tonight, she had gone next
door.

The apartment next door was still brightly lit. There were a lot of people there — there were
those from No. 110 Courtyard and also those who had come from far. The apartment couldn't fit
everyone so they crowded the corridor, waiting for their turn to go in and light a joss stick for the
old Yu Huaide.

When Gan Qing was young, she had met that old man once. She remembered that he was a very
kindly man and had always smiled before speaking. He was respected and his sword skills were
excellent. Everyone looked for him to mediate whenever there was a problem. There was once
during a gathering when everyone had had too much to drink and started a ruckus, saying that
they wanted to kowtow to the old man and venerate him as the alliance leader. Of course, Elder
Yu refused to accept it but from then on, he was known as "Alliance Leader Yu."

With the window opened, Gan Qing could hear the people next door speaking in accents from all
over. Everyone was talking in hushed and solemn tones, and were not at all noisy. Then,
someone played the song Farewell[1] on the harmonica.

The thin yet far-reaching and melodious harmonica sound teased the midsummer night, veering
off-key without detracting from the overall beauty.

She turned her ear towards the sound and listened, a little lost in her thoughts.
Asking when you will return after leaving this time,

When you return, do not wander.

The dog plushie gifted by her night owl roommate sat on the windowsill, its tongue hanging out.
A small dog tag hung in front of its chest. Earlier on, when Gan Qing was frantically looking for a
place to rent, she didn't have the time to take a close look. Now, she finally realised that there
was a row of words on the tag, written in the night owl roommate's childish handwriting.

Gan Qing turned the dog tag over and saw that it was written with the words: On what do you
build your life?

She didn't know if this could be considered as parting advice or if it was something the night owl
roommate had written for herself as a joke. After reading it, Gan Qing smiled and burrowed into
her blankets again, closing her eyes to rest.

Boss Meng was right. Even if it was No. 110 Courtyard, it was no longer the same as it was in the
past.

Other than many people coming on that night to send Yu Huaide off, this place was no different
from any other ordinary residential neighbourhood. Every morning when she left, the people she
bumped into were mostly sleepy-faced office workers and primary school children going for
revision classes, as well as the bored-out-of-their-minds old uncles and old aunties walking their
dogs in the courtyard, exercising their bodies while wagging their tongues.

Even Madam Zhang Meizhen who had been dissatisfied with her on their first meeting got along
peacefully with her — the main reason was because the two of them did not bump into each
other.

When Gan Qing left for work in the morning, the old lady had yet to wake up. When Gan Qing
was already sound asleep at night, the old lady had yet to come home. Both lived in the GMT+08
time zone but it seemed as though their clocks were separated by the Pacific Ocean.

Gan Qing had stayed there for nearly a month. The words that Zhang Meizhen most frequently
said to her was "Help me take in my delivery packages."

Other than courier deliveries, Old Master Yang's granddaughter occasionally brought some things
over.

Old Master Yang's granddaughter was the person they had bumped into at the elevator lobby.
Her name was Yang Yifan. Apparently, she had her own company and was a spirited and
energetic female boss. Gan Qing still didn't know what her company did because the old uncles
and old aunties' gossip did not talk about business. What they usually said was, "That crazy girl in
Old Yang's family is already thirty plus but she still doesn't have a partner. She's always playing
around aimlessly outside and is as frivolous as you can expect. Just looking at her makes me
worry."
Every time Yang Yifan was sent there by her grandfather, she would have an expression of utmost
dislike on her face. If Old Madam Zhang happened to be at home, she would put down the thing
she brought and roll her eyes. If Old Madam Zhang was not at home, she would pull Gan Qing
over and start a long rant, mocking Madam Zhang Meizhen from head to toe.

Meanwhile, after Elder Yu was sent off, the door on the apartment next door was locked and the
refined young man from the Yu family did not come again.

In a blink of the eye, Yanning's brief summer slipped hurriedly past. Two rounds of rain fell and
the mornings and evenings turned chilly. Autumn was peeking around the corner.

The students were anxious and miserable, preparing for school to reopen. The cubicle monkeys
were also delivered a sudden blow by the upcoming third quarter, and were trembling under the
killing aura of their KPIs hanging above their heads.

Yu Lanchuan had taken one week off from work to take care of matters after his granduncle's
passing and when he got back, he was spun like a top. As the saying went, "When it rains, it
pours." The head of the company's risk management department — in other words, Yu
Lanchuan's direct supervisor — suddenly suffered a stroke while walking to the pantry to get
sugar. He was only forty plus. The ambulance took him away in a wail of sirens and his condition
was still critical even after a few days.

When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves as well; someone else's misfortune could very well be their
own tomorrow. The overtime dogs clutched their "three highs[2]" bellies and felt that they were
seeing their own downfall. For a moment, the atmosphere was full of anxiety and gloom. More
than half the work in the department landed on Yu Lanchuan's shoulders, weighing down on him
until his days were bleak and dark. Hence, he switched from practicing the Seven Secret Arts
swordplay once a day when he woke up in the morning to practising morning and night, twice a
day. He was putting in real effort — he had no choice; if he wanted to live until retirement, he
had to work hard to maintain his health.

Under these circumstances, for Yu Lanchuan to forget his younger brother's birthday was
something that he could not be criticised too harshly for.

30th August was Liu Zhongqi's sixteenth birthday. A week before the day, he was already waiting
in anticipation. Before his parents left, they had exhorted him that his older brother had a lot of
life stress and he was not allowed to demand too much from him. Liu Zhongqi didn't want
presents anyway, he just hoped that his brother would come home earlier and eat a bowl of
noodles with him… even instant noodles were fine.

He had circled the date on the calendar in the living room. Afraid that Yu Lanchuan hadn't seen it,
he purposely woke up extra early on that day and struck up a chat at the dining table. "Ge,
today's Sunday. Do you still have to work overtime?"

Yu Lanchuan didn't even look up and only let out a mm.

"Then, can you come back earlier? Will you eat dinner at home?"
Yu Lanchuan held his chopsticks in his right hand while his left hand was replying WeChat
messages. Both lines were occupied, lost in the "bliss" of overwork. He wasn't listening to what
Liu Zhongqi was saying at all and just replied with another "Mm" out of habit. Then, he put this
matter miles away from his mind.

Birthdays during the summer or winter vacations were always not as lively as birthdays during
school. Especially when it was near the start of school — at this time, everyone was frantically
completing their schoolwork and didn't have the mood to think about other things. In the entire
day, only the few schoolmates he was closer to texted him. His parents who were far away in
another country sent him an e-card. The present they sent would take a few days to reach.

Liu Zhongqi went out to buy a cake himself. He waited until eight p.m. but Yu Lanchuan didn't
seem like he would be back anytime soon. He tried calling but the line was busy. He texted but
the other party did not reply.

He called again at nine p.m. As before, the line was busy.

At ten p.m… this time, the call finally connected. The other end of the line was very noisy, Yu
Lanchuan was talking to someone. "...As far as I understand, this is not the case. Where did your
market value come from? I hope everyone can be more serious, okay?"

Then, he seemed to be cupping his hand over his phone and his voice was very soft. He said
quickly, "Get food delivery for yourself and go to bed early. Gege is too busy over here. If there's
anything, we'll talk when I'm home. Be good."

After he was done speaking, he ended the call. Five seconds later, Liu Zhongqi's phone buzzed. He
opened his WeChat in anticipation, looking forward to receiving even a simple "Happy Birthday."
In the end, he received a red packet.

The message was the automated response: Gong Xi Fa Cai, wishing you luck and prosperity.

Liu Zhongqi sat alone by the dining table for a long while. Quietly, he cut a piece of the cake and
ate it. Then, he shouldered his school bag, took two changes of clothes, and decided to run away
from home.

At this hour, Gan Qing was already about to go to bed. She was just about to switch off the light
when her phone buzzed. There was a friend request and the attaching note was "Star Dreams's
customer."

She felt that these customers who didn't sleep at night and didn't wake up in the morning were
rather annoying. However, customers were still the kings. She hesitated for a while, but accepted
the request in the end.

The "king's" profile picture was a British rock artist and the name was "Zhong but not Qi[3]." A
message came very quickly: You said that the first three consultations are free.

She knew it.

Gan Qing sighed and burrowed into her nest of blankets, deliberating how she could get rid of
this annoying customer.

The "king" spoke again. I'm at Star Dreams's entrance. Is the shop closed?

Gan Qing yawned and replied. Business hours are from ten a.m. to eight p.m., dear.

Oh. After a short while of "typing…" the "king" continued to pester and ask. Can you work
overtime?

Gan Qing, "..."

The "king" said. Aren't adults always working overtime?

My job is to observe the trajectory of the stars and the subtle aura of the universe. Gan Qing
started to spew nonsense. The universe is spinning at every second and time is a very important
parameter. Only when the time is right can one experience the secrets of destiny. I beg your
understanding, dear.

The "king" was dear-ed until he could not speak.

Gan Qing sighed in relief, then lay down and went to sleep.

The next morning, Gan Qing went to work at Star Dreams as usual. She took a long stretch and
was just about to unlock the door when she suddenly paused.

One of her name cards had been dropped at the entrance of Star Dreams, crumpled into a ball.
On the white stone steps next to it, there was a print from a person's five fingers...

T/N:
[1] "Farewell" (送别) written by Li Shutong, released in 1915.
[2] Three highs - high cholesterol, high blood sugar, high blood pressure.
[3] "Zhong but not Qi" - referring to an old way of numbering the sons in a family, 伯仲叔季 bó
zhòng shū jì. The second character is the same "zhong" as the one in Liu Zhongqi's name and
refers to the second son. The fourth character, "ji," is a close homonym to Liu Zhongqi's "qi," and
means youngest son.
Chapter 10
The street in front of Star Dreams had been unmaintained for many years. There was a patch of
ground where the tiles were missing, revealing the ground underneath. It had also been raining
often recently. If anyone wasn't paying attention and stepped there, the bottom of their shoes
would be covered in mud.

Gan Qing saw that other than the dried-up muddy handprint on the stone steps, there was also a
footprint in that mud puddle. It wasn't a whole footprint, it was formed by the heel of a foot and
the print was very deep.

Whether it was the strength exerted to make the footprint or the angle of the turned-up mud,
neither looked like it was due to a random passerby scraping off the mud on their heel. Instead, it
looked like a person had been pulled until they fell to the ground and was dragged away by
someone, and had dug their heels in while struggling. Gan Qing's gaze moved to the mud
handprint on the stone steps—the person who was dragged away might have realised that
struggling was futile and had unconsciously reached out to grab something. They had first
grabbed at the ground but couldn't get a grip, so they grabbed the steps and left a handprint.

Looking closer, the handprint on the stone steps seemed to have a trace of blood.

Gan Qing lowered her head and searched for a while. In a corner, she found a button. There was
still a wisp of thread wound through it, like it had been torn off by force.

"Boss Meng," Gan Qing turned her head and asked Meng Tianyi who was preparing his
ingredients next door. "What time did you close shop yesterday?"

"Yesterday? I closed early. It has been colder these two days and there are less customers," Meng
Tianyi said. "Should've been before ten p.m."

Gan Qing continued to ask, "Was there anyone fighting around here yesterday?"

"No, it was pretty peaceful the whole day. Why?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Gan Qing walked around the footprint and handprint on the ground,
suspecting that she was being overly suspicious. It could have been some drunkard who fell down
here and hadn't been able to stand up even after doing the doggy paddle for some time.

She opened the door and reached out to turn over the wooden sign that said Closed. But once
she touched it, the sign fell down, breaking into two halves.

Hearing the noise, Meng Tianyi came over. He picked up the broken wooden sign and looked at
it, and immediately frowned. "It was split into two by hand—what does this mean? A challenge
against the store? Or is someone picking a fight with you?"

Gan Qing was bewildered. "A challenge… against a small accessories shop? Do you think it could
be the sundry shop next door?"

"To hell with you, can you be serious?" Meng Tianyi didn't laugh. His face grave, he glared at her.
"Did you fight with anyone recently?"

"How is that possible? If I bumped into muggers on the street and didn't have cash with me, I'll
voluntarily use my phone to transfer money to them. Grandma Zhang starts praying everything
she sees me." Gan Qing spread her hands in resignation. She took both halves of the wooden sign
and worried over how to glue them back together. "Which great hero was flailing drunkenly
around here? Picking a fight with me—just look at the way I am, what can anyone get by picking a
fight with me?"

Meng Tianyi glanced at her and felt that the statement was true.
The two of them pondered over this matter for a while, unable to make heads or tails of it.
Without any clues, they could only get back to their own work. Right then, a few police came
over in a hurry. The one in front was holding up a photo and asking questions. Yu Lanchuan
followed behind them.

Meng Tianyi looked up. "Hey, Little Master Yu, Officer Yu?"

Yu Yan took off his police cap and wiped the sweat on his face. He ran over, panting. "Boss Meng,
it's good that you're here."

"Did something happen again?"

"You don't say but it's that unlucky kid from the last time." As Yu Yan spoke, he dug out a photo
of Liu Zhongqi. "This kid, he threw a tantrum with his family yesterday and ran away from home.
The tracking on his phone was traced to this place. Have you seen him?"

Meng Tianyi went closer and looked carefully. He shook his head. "No, he doesn't look familiar.
Wait, let me ask—Gan'er!"

Gan Qing was right in the middle of poking a contact lens into her eye. An eyelash accidentally
got into her eye and the feeling of having a foreign object there made her tear up. Hearing Boss
Meng call for her, she poked her head out, her gaze hazy from tears. "Yes?"

She hadn't yet had the time to put on that unconventional makeup. The colour of her lips was
very light and her face extremely pale. All the redness on her face was concentrated around her
eyes, standing out prominently against the plain white background. It made one think of a flower
blooming unexpectedly in the snow.

For some reason, Yu Lanchuan's eyes met hers. Subconsciously, he looked away.

"Can I trouble you to take a look at this kid?" Yu Yan quickly passed the photo over. "Do you have
any impression of him?"

Gan Qing took a long look. "Isn't this the-"

Yu Yan said, "Yes, yes. He's the one who was caught in the porcelain scam the other time. You
even helped to make a police report. His name is Liu Zhongqi! Have you seen him around?"

Gan Qing shook her head.

Yu Yan let out a heavy sigh.

Just as he was turning around to look for the next person to ask, Gan Qing suddenly called out to
him hesitantly. "What did you say his name was?"

"Liu Zhongqi, 'zhong' as in the second son in the family, 'qi' as in-"
Gan Qing fished out her phone and opened up the "Zhong but not Qi" account that she had just
added. "These two words?"

There were no CCTVs at Mudpool Backlane. They could only determine via the Wechat messages
that around ten p.m. yesterday night, Liu Zhongqi had come here. There were a few ominous
marks at the shop entrance and also a button. The good-for-who-knows-what brother Yu
Lanchuan spent five minutes looking at it and still could not be sure whether the button was his
younger brother's.

If it could be said that these were not enough to determine whether or not the child had left
willingly, then the phone they found in a rubbish bin one hour later gave the answer to this
question.

The phone had been smashed onto the ground forcefully. The screen was cracked into splinters
and the body of the phone itself was broken apart.

The police's alert level increased. The case of the teenager running away from home in a fit of
pique turned into a kidnapping case.

Due to that, they didn't have to bother opening the shop or making food today. The area in front
of Star Dreams was barricaded, with a large group of police going in and out.

Gan Qing turned the chat log over to the police and was also asked some questions. After the
questioning, this was no longer any of her business, so she took her leave of Boss Meng and
prepared to go home. When she reached the intersection, she saw Yu Lanchuan on the phone.

The first impression Yu Lanchuan had given her was from his conduct that day when his shirt was
unbuttoned and his chest on display. His eyelids had been lowered and he carried himself like he
was someone important, as though there was a row of cameras behind him waiting to capture
the image of him being flirtatious.

He was a radiant young master.

But when this "young master" was on the phone, he was polite and restrained, the polar opposite
of the pandemonium around him. Gan Qing heard him say, "...I'm really very sorry. I really have
something urgent to take care of at home and can't leave-"

Before he could finish speaking, he was cut off by the person on the other end. From a few steps
away, Gan Qing saw Yu Lanchuan tore off his glasses in a rage and tossed it onto the roof of the
police car. He pinched the bridge of his nose repeatedly, his face looking like he wanted to slay
someone, yet his tone was as courteous and mild as before. It was as though his mouth was
separated from his body and was operating on its own. "I know… Yes, I understand. How about
this, when I go back to the office, I guarantee that I will immediately-"

The other end of the call started making a yapping sound, going on and on without stopping.

Yu Lanchuan fell silent. He looked up with an expressionless face, squinting at the eye-burningly
clear sky.
When he was done listening to every word from the other side, he finally drew a deep breath.
"...Okay. I will contact the people in my department to handle this. Please wait a moment."

Following that, he started making calls. He oversaw his department from far, ordering his
subordinates to do work. He made someone revise the materials, then made another person
attend a meeting in his place. Gan Qing saw him lean against the police car with his eyes closed,
explaining in great detail to his colleagues the important points of the meeting, his fingers
constantly rubbing the arms of his glasses.

When he was done with his long speech, Yu Lanchuan's mouth was parched. He thought back for
a while, confirmed that he had not missed out anything, and finally told his colleague, "All right,
that's all. Thank you for your hard work, off you go."

Out of courtesy, his colleague asked, "Director Yu, did something happen to your family? Is
everything okay?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "My…"

My younger brother has disappeared and is suspected to have been kidnapped.

There was a snapping sound; Yu Lanchuan had lost control of his hand and snapped one of the
arms of his glasses.

"...It's not a big problem." He swallowed those words back in. "When it's settled, I will go back to
the office. Keep in touch at all times."

There was nothing to say. This was just losing a chuuni younger brother, even if his own mother
died, so what?

His colleagues would only perfunctorily say "My condolences." The sweet-talkers would, at most,
add a "Let me know if there's anything I can do." In their hearts, they would certainly be
grumbling—Why is it that the busier we are, the more problems his family has? Our superior's
mother died, so doesn't that mean we need to give a token of our feelings? Ai, funerals and
weddings always happen at the end of the month. Trouble only comes when you're poor.

The whole world was spinning at a high speed; everyone had to run themselves to the ground to
survive.

Another person's disasters and calamities, another person's birth and old age and sickness and
death—those were all uninvited guests that brought trouble.

Yu Lanchuan put down his phone. He noticed Gan Qing standing a few steps away from him and
nodded at her. "I'm sorry to have troubled you."

Gan Qing didn't know why but in a moment of impulse, she blurted out, "You can ask Old Master
Yang for help."
Yu Lanchuan looked at her in surprise.

With her reminder, Yu Lanchuan finally remembered. Rumour had it that before the country was
liberated[1], Old Master Yang, who always had a staff in his hand, had once been the leader of
Beggars' Sect. Later on, society changed and these sects and clans fell out of fashion. Those who
ought to work found work, those who ought to retire retired. Now, most of the Beggars' Sect
veterans only kept a few patches on their clothes as a nod to tradition. They typically lived
ordinary lives and only occasionally conducted publicity activities such as "Begging in a civilised
way; asking for alms while resisting the morning and evening rush hour" or get involved in and
mediate territory fights between beggars.

But with this network that reached all corners, they could get information very quickly and
effectively.

The question was, how did she know?

The moment the words left her mouth, Gan Qing regretted so much she nearly bit her own
tongue. She quickly smiled, then left as swiftly as though the soles of her feet were oiled.

Slipping into the small alleys of Mudpool Backlane, Gan Qing's steps suddenly paused. She
remembered the bald man who had tailed her at this spot the other day. She couldn't be blamed
for not remembering this earlier, nearly a month had passed since it happened. During this
period, she had been busy trying to survive, her mind occupied with finding a place to rent. Petty
matters like this had completely slipped her mind.

She dug out the two halves of the wooden sign from her bag and thought. Could it be they were
really targeting me?

The bald man she was muttering about was at that moment clutching his hungover head and
squatting in a corner, like a large mushroom that had been soaked until it expanded.

His comrade, the scarred-face man, paced in circles like a donkey pulling a millstone, heaving a
sigh every time he completed a circle. Right at that moment, the disabled man limped in
hurriedly. Before he could even catch his breath, he saw Liu Zhonqi trussed up in the corner and
nearly sprained his other foot.

The disabled man was seething with anger. With large strides, he staggered over to the bald man,
raised his hand and rained blows on his head. "Are you crazy? What the fuck were you thinking
yesterday! Did you piss your brains out when peeing?"

The bald man covered his head and scuttled away. "Er-shixiong, ai, shixiong, don't hit me. I was
wrong…"

"Shiniang is already so old and she has to stay at the hospital the whole day to take care of Da-
shixiong. She's so tired she can't even stand up straight and you, not only are you fucking useless,
you even got drunk and stirred up shit. You troublemaker, I'm gonna beat you to death!"

After this band of people was thrown out of their rental, they came to this urban village to stay.
This place had long since been decided to be demolished, but a few residents refused to budge
and demanded higher prices. All these while, they could not come to an agreement on the
amount of compensation and were still holding out in a half-dead state. The other residents who
had taken the compensation had mostly moved away. Seeing that this place wasn't going to be
demolished anytime soon, they secretly collected money and rented these rundown single-story
houses to non-locals.

　　

The bald man had a drinking problem. He had been drinking on that very day when he went to
corner Gan Qing. For a period of time before this, his shige and his shiniang were watching him so
he curbed himself to a certain extent. The night before, neither of them were there. He had a
craving for a moment and, unable to restrain himself, had gone out and gotten thoroughly
inebriated. Then, the more he had thought, the more he felt vexed about what happened at
Mudpool Backlane the last time.

Alcohol could bolster a coward's courage. The bald man threw the old madam's exhortations far
behind him and drunkenly went to challenge the shop. In the end, his efforts were futile—the
shop had long since closed for the day.

The bald man howled resentfully and split apart the wooden sign on the shop's door with his bare
hand. Just as he had decided to break the glass, he heard someone say from beside him, "What
are you doing? I'm going to call the police!"

Liu Zhongqi, his entire person brimming with righteousness, had not learned his lesson from the
previous encounter. He had not learned to "Meddle not in other people's business, be prudent
and cautious." Hence, this time, he ended up becoming an indignant rice dumpling — trussed up,
mouth gagged, tossed in a corner — and was trying to use his eyes to shoot these large pieces of
trash to death.

T/N:
[1] Liberation 解放 refers to the establishment of the PRC in 1949. This term is used a few times
in this story.
Chapter 11
The scarred-face man was the youngest, the others were all his shixiong. Hence, he could neither
hold one down nor hold back the other; he could only stand helplessly by and be the sole
recipient of the young hero Liu Zhongqi's fire-spewing gaze.

"Stop hitting him!" His spirit crumbling, the scarred-face man pointed at Liu Zhongqi and asked,
"What should we do with him?"

The disabled er-shixiong finally remembered that there was still this piece of disastrous debt. This
worry was enough to take his life and he didn't have the mood to beat up his shidi anymore.
"First, untie him!"

"No, if we untie him, he'll start yelling." The bald man didn't dare fight back, so he had taken his
shixiong's elbow right in the face and his words were rather slurred. He squatted on the ground, a
pair of small triangular-shaped eyes peeking out woefully. When he saw Er-shixiong lift an arm,
he quickly shrank back and covered his head, curling into a lump.

Er-shixiong did things his own way. With a grave face, he walked over and tugged out the socks
that were stuffed into Liu Zhongqi's mouth.

Before Liu Zhongqi's mouth closed, he was already drawing in a deep breath, preparing to shout.
The young hero's wide open mouth shocked Er-shixiong into trembling, and he instinctively
shoved the socks back in.

Liu Zhongqi's shout was stuffed back in and had no choice but to detour through his nasal cavity.
It came out in a loud "moo" like an old cow's bellow, reverberating until his temples were aching.

With a crestfallen face, the bald man said, "If someone finds out, we can't stay even in a place like
this, can we?"

Er-shixiong said, "This is all because of you!"

Even at death's door, these members of the law-breaking and criminal class were still worried
about renting! Hearing the key point of these brothers' worries, Liu Zhongqi was close to
exploding in rage. Consequently, his stomach steadily let out a sound like muffled thunder—it
was nearly twenty-four hours from yesterday noon until now, and he had only eaten a small
piece of cake.

Following that, perhaps it was to coordinate with Liu Zhongqi, the bald man's stomach also
rumbled like it was joining the excitement.

The scarred-face man looked at one, then looked at the other, and said in a soft, careful tone.
"Shixiong, it's almost noon. We haven't had breakfast yet."

Er-shixiong ran out of anger. He went out without a word and bought back a few pounds of
dumplings.

Then, these three big ruffians sat in a circle around Liu Zhongqi and the dumplings. Er-shixiong
negotiated with him, "We can let you eat, but you're not allowed to shout."

The young hero's mouth was gagged, so he used a huge eye roll to convey his words: Dream on!

The scarred-face man pinched a small dumpling and put it under his nose.

Steam was still rising from the snowy white surface of the little dumpling, making it look like
there was a soft focus filter on it. There was a patch on the surface that was translucent due to
the grease from the filling, making the inside faintly visible. A strong delicious scent wafted out—
the filling was pork and green onion.

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

Owing to the huge disparity in strength between his enemy and himself, the young hero could
endure no longer and suffered a complete defeat. Under the assault of the xiaolongbao, he laid
down his arms and surrendered.

Er-shixiong skillfully changed the way he was tied up. This way, even though both his hands were
still tied together, he could hold the dumplings himself and eat.

It was easy for a half-grown kid to become hungry in the first place. Once Liu Zhongqi took the
first bite, he couldn't stop at all. He buried his head and gulped down more than ten little
dumplings without pause, and choked until his neck was stretched out.

Er-shixiong asked, "Water?"

Angry and embarrassed, Liu Zhongqi let out a sound like a mosquito buzzing. "...Yes."

Er-shixiong studied him for a while, then asked in suspicion. "Have we met before?"

"My. Student. Card. Is still with you guys!" Liu Zhongqi blew up in anger. This shameless gang—
school hadn't even reopened after summer vacation but they had already clean forgotten about
their victim!

The three big ruffians exchanged looks for a while, and unexpectedly looked a little apologetic, as
though they were also aware that they shouldn't scrape fleece from just one sheep[1]!

The scarred-face man cleared his throat. "My shixiong… drank too much yesterday. He didn't do
it on purpose. Look, you can see that he has already been beaten up so badly."

The bald man was reluctant to let the kid see how terrible he looked. Hearing this, he turned his
head and covered his face with a hand as wide as a palm leaf fan.

"It's all a misunderstanding." The scarred-face man smiled as he said, "We even treated you to a
meal."

If the education levels of these three brothers were added up, it would probably just reach the
level of a junior high dropout. They were basically ignorant of the law but they still at least had
some common knowledge. For example, for typical petty theft and minor swindling, the police
wouldn't waste a lot of effort to pursue them all over the place as long as they took some care. If
they were arrested every now and then due to bad luck, at most they would just need to spend a
few days in the detention center.

But kidnapping was different. In the past, this was something only bandits would dare to do.
When bandits met with law officers, what usually happened to them?

"We can untie you right now and let you go," Er-shixiong said to Liu Zhongqi. "You were also
running away from home anyway, right?"
Liu Zhongqi nearly blurted out a 'How did you know?' but fortunately, the more than ten
dumplings he had just gulped down had increased his capabilities. His brain that had stopped
working for a night revived, and he stopped himself from speaking.

"It's obvious. Little kids like you have never suffered before in your lives. You don't have to worry
about food and water, and you're so bored that you're throwing tantrums for no reason." Er-
shixiong waved his hand. "We'll let you go, so hurry home. Study hard. You were born in a good
family but you don't even appreciate it, ai!"

Never in his wildest dreams did Liu Zhongqi thought he would one day be lectured by a band of
kidnappers. Even his own biological brother had never lectured him! Hence, the urge to rebel
rose. "What do you know?"

Er-shixiong smiled and didn't argue with him. Then, his face suddenly sank. "But if we let you go
back, you need to be careful with what you say. If you dare speak carelessly, hmph!"

This disabled er-shixiong had a square face with large eyes and thick lips. It was the appearance
of a simple and unsophisticated man but once he sneered, the violence in his features emerged
and he immediately looked vicious. "The police can't catch us so easily but it's not hard for us to
find you. One can be a thief for a thousand days but no one can guard against a thief for a
thousand days. Think carefully."

Liu Zhongqi had eaten his fill and all the blood in his body was rushing to his guts instead of
wandering around his brain. Hearing that, he was indeed a little frightened. Furthermore, he
couldn't anger the kidnappers when they intended to let him go, so he pressed his lips together
and didn't say anything.

The disabled er-shixiong signalled the scarred-face man with his eyes. "Untie him."

Liu Zhongqi had been tied up for a long time. His arms and legs were numb, and for a moment,
he couldn't stand up.

Er-shixiong came over and grabbed his leg. Frightened, Liu Zhongqi scooted back in a fluster but
that man's hand was like an iron pincer. Try as he might, he could not break free.

The disabled er-shixiong extended three fingers and swiftly pressed a few times on his leg. The
teenager immediately felt like there was a row of needles piercing the flesh of his numbed leg. He
leaped up like a live fish, nearly biting off his tongue.

Er-shixiong rolled his eyes at him. "Bear it."

His words were still hanging in the air when he performed the same "torture" on Liu Zhongqi's
other leg.

Liu Zhongqi was sweating, his mouth opened, unable to make a sound. He sprawled on the
ground, tears in his eyes and panting.
But strangely, the pain faded very quickly. His cramped muscles relaxed and unexpectedly, did
not hurt and was not numb.

Er-shixiong kicked his ankle lightly. "All right, get up and move around."

Liu Zhongqi wiped the tears that had leaked out due to the pain and tried to move his legs, and
found that his entire body had lightened. He climbed to his feet hesitantly and walked a couple of
circles where he was. He realised that both his legs were very nimble, like he could go out and
run a 1,500-meter race. He looked at the disabled man in shock.

The disabled er-shixiong said, "You baby schoolkids are too delicate and can't take a bit of
suffering. I'm not going to massage your arms. When you get home, do some stretches against
the wall so that you don't ache tomorrow."

Liu Zhongqi rubbed his own wrists. "Are you… one of those people who practise qigong[2]?"

Er-shixiong laughed. "No. Those are all lies."

"But you definitely know martial arts, right? That day, I saw you guys jump over the wall…" The
chuuni teenager's mind started to come up with some fantasies, the way most people would. Liu
Zhongqi asked cautiously, "It's like… something like qinggong[3]?"

"It's an easy trick. Train for a year or two and you can jump over the wall too."

Liu Zhongqi belonged to his school's broadcasting station and had written many scripts filled with
an upright and honest spirit. The moment he opened his mouth, it was all "Let's Be Civilised, Start
a New Trend[4]." "Actually… you can try opening a martial arts gym or go into the performing arts
or become a trainer or something like that… If those really won't work, you can still become a
masseur. If you're really good, you can also take part in professional competitions. Why must you
guys-"

Before he could finish speaking, the bald man seemed to be triggered the moment he heard the
words "professional competitions." He stood up with a roar, glaring with eyes so wide they
looked like copper bells.

Frightened by him, Liu Zhongqi retreated a few steps.

The disabled er-shixiong raised his hand and stopped the bald man. In a rather kindly tone, he
said to Liu Zhongqi, "You know nothing, hurry up and get lost!"

After setting free the victim of the mistaken kidnapping, the bald man was pushed into a chair by
Er-shixiong.

The meat dumplings had gone cold by now. The disabled man picked one up, cupped it in his
hand and ate slowly. "Lao-San, don't cause anymore trouble. It's time for us to leave."

The bald man and the scarred-face man were both stunned.
"Shiniang told me yesterday night." Er-shixiong didn't look up. "It's been tough for the two of
you. Shifu is no longer here, Da-shixiong is ill, I didn't teach you well and also didn't take good
care of you two… I'm ashamed."

The scarred-face man asked blankly, "What about Da-shixiong?"

"We'll go back home."

"What about his illness? Is he not going to see the doctor anymore?"

"The surgery will cost at least 500,000. We have to pay first and can only make a claim when we
go back. I've asked around—we won't be able to claim the full amount, there's a huge shortfall."
Er-shixiong sighed. "On top of that, the doctor said that the surgery is risky. If he doesn't do it, he
might be able to live a few more years. If he does it and it fails, then he's gone. Shiniang said that
if that's the case, then we might as well go home. Isn't there a doctor who practises traditional
medicine at the health center? We'll slowly treat his illness, leave it to fate."

The scarred-face man was discontent. "No… It wasn't easy for us to come here and we're going
back just like this? Shifu and Shiniang only have this one son…"

"Then what do you think we should do? Sell off all three of us, do you think we're even worth
500,000? Would anyone buy?" Er-shixiong paused and lowered his head to look at his lame leg.
"Yesterday, Shiniang told me that we shouldn't have come here. Yanning doesn't tolerate people
like us."

The bald man let out a roar like he was venting his emotions and ran out.

The scarred-face man chased a few steps but didn't catch up to him. He turned back to look at his
er-shixiong helplessly.

The disabled er-shixiong didn't say anything. One hand holding the dumpling, the other hand
rubbing his own lame leg, he spaced out.

The bald man ran all the way out. He wandered a few circles in the rundown urban village, not
knowing where he could go and not knowing what he could do. He felt like looking for a place
where he could get dead drunk. Digging into his pockets, he realised that he only had a couple of
coins left.

That was right, he used up his money yesterday.

Shiniang and the rest of them could only bear to order a packet of fries at the fast food
restaurant. Afraid that they would be shooed out once it was eaten, no one had dared touch it.
And now he couldn't even control himself and had gone out and spent all the money he had on
drink.

The bald man looked around him at a loss. The water puddled on the ground was dissipating in
fine wisps under the sunlight at high noon. The power lines that had been set up haphazardly and
illegally knotted like a spider web above his head. Small posters advertising "Painless Abortion"
and "Credentials for Loans" were stuck all over a slanted telephone pole. A few houses where the
residents refused to vacate were still occupied and the residents were gathered at the little
commercial area in the village, playing mahjong. The ground below them was covered in a layer
of melon seed shells. At the side was an old-fashioned small radio and the radio station was
currently playing a traditional crosstalk.

The people were filthy and yet, content.

The bald man stood at the side and listened for a while. The jokes were all old. He couldn't laugh,
so he lowered his head like a stray dog and turned back.

Right then, the radio that hadn't been repaired for years suddenly jumped frequencies. Amidst
the static, the calm and steady voice of the newscaster could be heard. "Following this, we
interrupt this program with a piece of urgent local news. According to reports, a young man was
kidnapped from the district of Little Pool. The victim is male, sixteen years old, 1.77 meters tall.
At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing blue sneakers and a denim shirt. His shirt is
missing a button…"

Upon hearing that, the bald man was stunned. Then, he twitched and turned on his heels and
ran.

"Shixiong, Shixiong!" He ran back to the small house they rented, nearly pissing his pants in fright.
Before he could speak to Er-shixiong, the disabled er-shixiong's phone rang.

Er-shixiong's eyelid twitched for no reason. He picked up the call. "Shiniang… Yes… What!"

The bald man panted harsh breaths. He stood at the front door, unsure of what to do. From the
noise leaking out of the phone, the old lady who had told them not to be ignorant frogs in a well
could be heard crying. Her sobbing echoed in the cramped and dim little single-storey house.

"I'll go over right now," Er-shixiong said quickly, then hung up. While rushing out the door, he
said to his two shidi, "Shixiong's condition suddenly worsened critically and he was sent to the
emergency treatment room. Hurry!"

The scarred-face man and the bald man had yet to regain their wits, and ran out after him in a
daze.

The bald man's beaten-up face was swollen and gleaming. When the wind blew, it hurt like it was
burning. All of a sudden, he realised that when Shiniang said they were bringing Shixiong home, it
wasn't to "leave it to fate."

It was to wait for death.

It was like there was thunder booming and lightning flashing in his chest, striking fit to split the
earth and collapse mountains, sparing not even a single blade of grass. Yet, he had nowhere to
vent his emotions.
Right at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, the bald man saw a sorry figure. The urban
village covered a wide area, its topography messy and complicated. Liu Zhongqi didn't have his
phone with him so he didn't have a navigation app and he also couldn't find anyone to ask for
directions. After losing his way in there for a long while, he still hadn't left the place.

The bald man stared at him and came to an abrupt stop. His eyes turned red.

500,000 can save a life. All these rich people, which one of them doesn't have 500,000? He
thought. The police are already coming after us anyway.

Gan Qing let two Rapid buses go by. Finally, an Ordinary bus came. She opened the navigation
app and searched for the urban village that was awaiting demolishment.

It wasn't far, just five stops away.

She didn't use Beggars' Sect but she had her own ways.

It was hard to find news of Liu Zhongqi but it wasn't hard to find news of the bald man. The bald
man was tall and burly, and had fierce, menacing features. When people like him entered the
shadowy Mudpool Backlane, people would definitely notice him. She asked a few of those who
frequently drank at Mudpool Backlane and found out that the bald man was also addicted to
drink. He was even a terrible drunk, and stirred up trouble whenever he had too much to drink.

There was a jianghu veteran who had quietly found out about his background. The bald man was
tight-lipped but he had once drank too much and revealed where they were staying in Yanning. It
seemed to be this nearby urban village.

Whether or not that was the place, she decided to go and try her luck.

T/N:
[1] Scrape fleece from sheep 薅羊毛 - Originally referring to people who watched the sheeps for
rich owners secretly scraping a bit of fleece from each sheep for their own use. Later on, this
phrase was used to refer to the practice of taking advantage of many different promotions and
discounts to earn monetary or non-monetary benefits.
[2] Qigong 气功 is a way of coordinating body posture, movement and breathing to regulate the
flow of qi (life energy) in the body. It has a long history and has many forms, and there are many
unsubstantiated claims of what qigong can do. It (or a simplified and standardised version I
guess) is commonly practiced to maintain health, especially among the older generation.
[3] Qinggong 轻功 is a martial arts technique that enables a person to move really quickly, jump
great heights, or even seem to fly, depending on how fantastical the wuxia setting is. Qigong and
qinggong are both terms that will appear repeatedly in the story and are listed in the Glossary
too.
[4] "Let's Be Civilised, Start a New Trend" 讲文明、树新风 is an official slogan to promote good,
"civilised" behaviour.
Chapter 12
In his heart, Liu Zhongqi knew that this group of people who could run a porcelain scam on a kid
in the middle of the street weren't good people but a person's line of thought tended to follow
the same path. It was just like when a stock market player saw the stock price going up today,
they would always feel that it would continue to go up tomorrow. When the young man who had
never been bullied before in his life saw a little bit of goodness in the villain, he would also always
feel that the other party could one day become a better person.

Hence, when he saw the bald man, his two legs were rooted to the ground. He had no thoughts
of running, nor did he have his guard up. After all, this band of people had just let him go and had
even treated him to breakfast.

The bald man moved too fast. He was like a fierce eagle swooping down from the sky and
plucking away a baby wild rabbit, catching everyone off-guard.

Before Liu Zhongqi realised what was happening, his throat was grabbed by a large hand. Then,
his legs dangled in the air; the bald man was holding him up in the air by this throat. He could not
breath and he could feel his heartbeat thumping madly in his ears. Black spots appeared in his
vision.

"Lao-San!"

"Shixiong, what are you doing?"

Even the disabled er-shixiong and the scarred-face man were shocked, much less Liu Zhongqi.
Their eyes bulged and their mouths fell open as they stared at the bald man.

The bald man's face gleamed from not being washed over the night. The red lines in his eyes
were as fine as spiderweb and veins were bulging on his forehead. He looked like he had walked
out from one of those stories about people accidentally stepping into the territory of evil spirits
and ended up possessed by demons.

"500,000," he said, low and unclear. "Tell this kid's family to give us 500,000."

Er-shixiong burst out, "You're going to choke him to death!"

The bald man shouted, "Or else I will choke him to death!"

Liu Zhongqi started to run out of air. His hands scrabbled futilely at the bald man's arms.

The newly sixteen years old teenager's bones had gone through their growth spurt but the other
parts of his body had yet to catch up. In the bald man's hands, he was like a limp noodle.

The scarred-face man blurted out, "B-But you can't choke him to death before you get the
money!"

Er-shixiong said, "Shut up! You're making it worse! Get lost!"

But it was this rather "to the point" comment from the scarred-face man that the bald man
actually listened to. He loosened his grip a little. A sudden, rushed breath of air swept into Liu
Zhongqi's lungs, and he choked until he wanted to vomit.
"Lao-San… Zhiyong." The disabled er-shixiong moved a step forward. The laugh lines on either
side of his mouth drooped low, and he looked old and weary. "Don't be muddled. At this point in
time… I beg you, don't make Shixiong worry so much!"

The bald man's hands were shaking, his lips were shaking, his entire body seemed to be shaking.

"Let go now!"

"I won't. Shixiong, you two don't interfere with this. This matter today has nothing to do with the
both of you. If anything happens, I'll go to prison myself." The bald man shook his head.
Suddenly, his mad yet calm words had a hint of tears. "Anyway, among us four brothers, I'm the
most useless one. I'm the most annoying and Shiniang likes me the least since young. Shifu also
disliked me for being stupid. There's no loss if I'm jailed! I'll exchange my life for Da-shixiong's!"

"What the hell are you saying!" The disabled er-shixiong was so angry his face and ears were red.
"Do you want me to die of anger before you're happy!"

The scarred-face man meekly offered, "A-About this matter… Even if you choke that kid to death,
his family might not necessarily give us the money. Even if they do… Da-shixiong might not
necessarily be cured… You said that it's a life for a life, b-but, this exchange might not necessarily
happen…"

The disabled man raised his arm and pushed him until he stumbled. The scarred-face man shrank
back and didn't dare say anymore.

Right then, a voice sounded from behind them. "I think his words make sense."

In unison, the three kidnappers and the one victim present at the scene were all stunned.

　　

At the same time this was happening, Beggars' Sect announced a secret order. A large net that
was buried deep in the very foundations of the city was dragged out to capture every breath of
wind and rustling of the grass from all directions.

Old Master Yang's water came to a boil. He asked Yu Lanchuan to sit for a while. Extending a pair
of hands that were covered in age spots, he slowly brewed a round of gongfu tea. Warming up
the cup, drying the teapot—his movements were like flowing water. "Here you go."

Yu Lanchuan accepted the teacup absent-mindedly. He was just about to speak when Old Yang
raised a hand to stop him. "Don't rush, wait."

Steam rose from the tea. In the midst of the vapour, Old Yang said lightly, "When I was young, I
drank alcohol and refused tea, and even looked down on those who drank tea. Then, I got old
and was forced by my descendants to give up alcohol. Slowly, I finally realised that I was wrong.
Drinking alcohol is cultivation, drinking tea is also cultivation. Walking, sitting, laying down are all
cultivation; joy and anger, sorrow and cheer, are also all cultivation. You must steady your heart.
Today, Grandpa Yang can help you; tomorrow, he may step into his grave. All matters in the
martial arts world, big or small, will have to be handed over to all of you, the younger generation.
Xiao-Chuan ah, all of you must learn to cultivate your minds."

Yu Lanchuan tasted the tea but did not accept this string of mystical and fanciful words from the
elder. "Grandpa Yang, it is my opinion that you are not attributing the issue to the right cause.
Hence, your suggestion does not appear to be feasible."

At once, Old Yang was dragged from an ancient temple on a cold, lonely mountain all the way to
a meeting room in an office building. For a moment, he was completely lost.

Yu Lanchuan said, "There is a high chance that the disappearance of my younger brother is due to
kidnapping. There is a high chance that he will be physically harmed and hence, it could result in
injuries, disabilities or death. I cannot accept any of these terrible outcomes and I would not be
able to explain it to my parents either. That is why I am very, very anxious right now. The reason
why you are calm when facing this matter is because you have power and control over your
esteemed sect, and control has always been a very effective tool for dealing with anxiety. Hence,
when you look back on the past and realise that you have become someone as placid as a fine
day with light wind and light clouds, it is very likely that it is actually not because of that so-called
'mind' that you have cultivated, but because you have achieved a wider scope of control along
with the increase in your age and abilities."

Old Yang, "..."

The lesson on arcane arts had turned into a lesson on social science theory.

Yu Lanchuan said, "I beg your pardon. The reason why I am talking so much nonsense right now is
because I am dealing with anxiety."

At that moment, Old Yang's old-people phone rang. Yu Lanchuan immediately sat up straight. Yu
Yan who had been smoking outside all the while also rushed in.

Old Yang gave them a look that told them to be patient and picked up the call. A short while later,
he hung up and stated a few locations. "My brothers from these locations reported that they saw
suspicious people but they're not certain if they are the people we are looking for. The police will
have to confirm."

Yu Yan leaped up. "Understood. We'll split up and check the nearby CCTV!"

"A place like Yanning has lots of CCTVs. It's true, I'm not lying. It's only small, out-of-the-way
corners like Mudpool Backlane that don't have them so you guys could luckily escape. Yesterday
night, this person here carried this large human here and swaggered all the way from Mudpool
Backlane to this place. Who knows how many cameras have captured his image? As long as the
police shrink their scope of investigation, they have the tech to find you." Gan Qing came to a
stop around two meters away from the group of three hoodlums. From her bag, she dug out the
wooden sign that was split apart by the bald man and asked him very politely. "That aside, if I
may ask, did you leave this for me?"
The disabled er-shixiong had just wanted to tear the bald man apart with his bare hands but once
he saw an outsider, he stepped forward and shielded the bald man behind him. "From where is
this master from?"

"From nowhere and also not a master." Gan Qing spread her hands helplessly, revealing a section
of her scrawny wrists. Her right hand was even trembling slightly. "That day, this bald dage kept
following me. I was a little scared, so I played some tricks. Actually it's not much, it's just that I'm
familiar with that area while you aren't. There are a few spots that look like dead ends but
actually have small openings that you can slip into as long as you're thin. It's just a matter of
running a bit faster. Oh, that's right, I also used a plastic toy gun to shoot at you. I didn't expect
that I would actually hit you, maybe you had a bit too much to drink that day."

The bald man, "..."

"That's roughly what happened. If you have nowhere to vent your anger and have no qualms
about hitting a woman, then you can beat me up. In any case, I'm already here and I can't fight
back either. As long as you don't beat me to death, no one will come after you in the future." Gan
Qing said in a low and calming tone. "Let go of that kid. If you wait until the police are here, this
will become a different matter."

After hearing that, Liu Zhongqi gathered a hero's courage from who knew where and started
struggling fiercely. "Run… ugh… quick, run!"

Gan Qing sighed. This kid never learned from his mistakes and that was probably because he had
not been hit until it really hurt. But that was good too, it seemed like he didn't suffer much in
their hands.

"Fuck your venting anger!" The bald man's voice sounded a little like he was crying and his voice
broke as he spoke. "Tell this kid's family to hand over 500,000 and cut the crap!"

"I don't know why you need 500,000." Gan Qing took a few steps towards them again and met
the bald man's eyes calmly. "But the police have already turned this into a case. If you've
watched TV, you know that the police will definitely not let you exchange a person for money.
When that happens, what will you do? You actually don't know, am I right?"

The scarred-face man subconsciously gave her a push. "Don't come near!"

Gan Qing was like a kite, light as a feather. The scarred-face man's push made her take a few
steps back. The ground in the urban village was uneven. She tripped and fell, and the worn out
cloth bag on her shoulder also fell to the ground, rolling in the dust.

Flustered, she straightened her elbow to break her fall and her palms were immediately cut
open.

Gan Qing hissed in pain. She cut a sorry figure as she smiled bitterly. "Dage, you are really getting
physical with me."
The disabled er-shixiong raised his shoulders a little, straightening up as he stood in thought.
When people who had gone through training fell backward, they would not straighten their
elbows to meet the ground. It was very easy to be injured this way. This was the first lesson shifu
had taught when he was young.

Perhaps she was afraid of falling again, Gan Qing directly sat on the ground and did not get up.
She dusted off her hands and smiled. "I keep feeling that someone who wants money would have
better plans. What you are doing is just venting anger. You are raging at those who want money,
raging at those spending money, raging at yourself for not being capable enough and for not
being able to earn money… You drown your worries in alcohol and once you sober up, you rage
at yourself again for not keeping your mouth shut-"

"Shut up!" The bald man started spewing obscenities.

Gan Qing's countenance remained unchanged, as though all that was going into her ears was a
round of dog barks. Right then, the disabled er-shixiong suddenly stretched out a hand, not to do
something to Gan Qing, but to give an oblique chop to the bald man's elbow. This blow landed
directly on his ulnar nerve. The hand that was holding Liu Zhongqi's neck abruptly lost strength
and Er-shixiong pulled Liu Zhongqi away in one movement.

Almost simultaneously, the bald man realised what was happening. He let out a roar and grabbed
Liu Zhongqi's shoulder in an unforgiving grip. The shixiong and the shidi pulled at the unlucky
hostage from both sides, like they were demonstrating how to tear a kidnap victim apart with
bare hands.

The disabled er-shixiong said, "Let! Go!"

The bald man stiffened his neck and panted harsh breaths.

The corners of Gan Qing's mouth quirked up. She was enjoying watching this internal conflict
unfold.

When she felt that the moment was right, she brought out the "mystic accent" she used to
hoodwink foolish big spenders at the shop and interjected faintly from the side. "Dage, when you
drown your worries in alcohol, you regret when you sober up. If you vent your anger on a person,
you will regret it even more when the matter is over. There is essentially no difference between
these two things. If you hate your alcohol addiction that much, why do you still continue doing
the same thing? How many times can the same pitfall trip you up?"

The bald man suddenly paused.

Gan Qing said, "Before the police get here, there is still time. If you let go of him now, it would
not be considered a kidnapping and extortion case. Sometimes, when you take one wrong step,
what awaits you for the rest of your life are small paths filled with thorns. You can see the wide
and open roads that other people have but you can't turn around anymore. Is it worth it?"

Who knew how much the bald man was actually listening to. On the other hand, the disabled er-
shixiong stared blankly for a while, like he was dazed.
The scarred-face man was so flustered he was almost crying. "San-shixiong, stop it already!"

Er-shixiong came back to himself. There was a glimmer in his eyes and he softened his voice.
"About the money and Da-shixiong's illness, we three brothers will think of a way together. Listen
to me."

The muscles on both sides of the bald man's face were taut. A few seconds later, the fingers that
were almost digging into Liu Zhongqi's flesh gradually weakened.

Everyone on the scene left out a relieved breath.

The disabled er-shixiong pulled the teenager who was frightened to near tears to his side.
"Zhiyong, you-"

And then, right at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The police who had locked on to the kidnappers' location chose this moment to arrive.

If they were a few minutes earlier, what they would have seen were evil and vicious kidnappers.
Whether they arrested or killed them, it would be an expected ending. If they were a few
minutes later, the disabled er-shixiong would have returned Liu Zhongqi to Gan Qing. This matter
could turn from a major issue to a minor one, and from a minor one to nothing.

But then…

Perhaps fate bullied the weak and feared the strong. The gods picked on the unlucky ones to play
with.

Gan Qing was momentarily stunned. Instead of being elated, she was shocked. Not good!

Shocked witless, the disabled er-shixiong and the bald man unconsciously did the same thing—
they both pulled Liu Zhongqi towards themselves with all the strength they had. The disabled er-
shixiong grabbed the teenager's neck. The bald man reached out and grabbed, and because he
was tall, his hand landed right over Liu Zhongqi's nose and mouth.

What the disabled man was thinking: Lao-San is still young. Let this cripple bear the crime for
him.

What the bald man was thinking: I cannot drag Shixiong into this.

They had spent many years wandering on the fringes of society. The moment they saw someone
in uniform, they unconsciously felt that they had done something wrong. At the moment, other
than "stubbornly resist with backs to the wall" or "plead guilty and surrender," it didn't seem like
there was a third option.

Only those who lived with confidence and ease would have lines of thought that were wide and
open; those who were at the end of their rope did not know how to be flexible.
But what these two people were fighting over in their hands was a large, living person. If they
pulled hard to the right and to the left, Liu Zhongqi's slender neck would definitely snap on the
spot!

Right at that moment, a ghostly figure flitted past. Out of nowhere, a thin, withered hand cut in...
Chapter 13
According to tradition, before a spar began, the fighters first had to "declare" their weapons.
Regardless of whether the weapon was an "open blade" or a "hidden arrow," once it was
declared, a meter-long blade and an embroidery needle could both be used.

But if everyone had come to a silent agreement to use bare fists and feet, and you suddenly
pulled out a hidden blade and stabbed the other person halfway through the fight, then you were
despicable and shameless. Rules no longer applied, and you were just one of those petty
hoodlums.

...Gan Qing, the path she walked was probably that of the petty hoodlums.

No one saw how she leaped up from the ground. A blurred second and she was already between
the bald man and the disabled man. Her elbow collided with the disabled er-shixiong's wrist; at
the same time, there was a flash of light between her fingers, like there was something like a
small blade between them. Together with a cutting wind, it sliced towards the bald man's pinky.

Her movements were exceedingly cunning and extremely swift.

A person's wrist had a meridian point and it was even more impossible for the bald man to catch
the edged weapon with his bare hands. Both men trembled in unison and both stepped back to
dodge. Gan Qing's elbow bumped lightly against the disabled man's fingertips; the "blade"
between her fingers also slashed empty air.

At that moment, two men finally realised that something was not right. It turned out that it was
only her movements that were frightening. Her elbow was limp and didn't have any strength at
all. A clinking sound came from between her fingers—her fingers didn't have a brass knuckle or a
blade, it was a key!

Right then, like she was doing magic, the key in Gan Qing's hand disappeared. She took out a
small spray from somewhere and before the kidnappers realised what was going on, she sprayed
them all over their faces.

The disabled man and the bald man were in a state of high alert. Their fists were already spaced
out and their eyes were opened wider than usual, and they ended up being completely soaked by
the pepper spray.

In that moment, the anguished screams from the two kidnappers seemed to want to bring down
the sky.
Gan Qing deftly pressed down on Liu Zhongqi's neck and bent down, slipping away from under
the bald man's randomly waving arms… Her posture was rather like the legendary "Eighteen Rolls
on the Ground"; it didn't have the dignity of a master at all.

Following that, the police who had rushed here took the chance to swarm up and took the band
of kidnappers under their control.

Liu Zhongqi hadn't yet regained his wits from that frightening life-or-death experience. He stood
there in a daze. Gan Qing waved a hand in front of him. "Hey, you okay?"

She hadn't yet kept the pepper spray in her hand. A little of its might still remained. Liu Zhongqi
sneezed. "A-Achoo!"

He sneezed five of six times in succession, tears and snot dripping to the ground, his eye nearly
popping out of their sockets from the force. His dignity was entirely gone. Hence—if the pot was
broken it might as well be smashed to bits—he hiccuped twice and, right before everyone's eyes,
opened his mouth and wailed.

No one celebrated his birthday with him, tomorrow was the start of school, he was kidnapped
twice in a day, and he was nearly strangled to death by a scary bald man… Of all these shitty
incidents, was any of them not worth a good cry?

There were too many reasons that were worthy of crying, and too little opportunities to cry.
There was never enough to go around.

Luckily, these incidents gathered together and all happened today.

Yu Lanchuan strode over to him. At first, he was vacillating between "give him a good smacking"
and "Gege was wrong, muah," and his face darkened and brightened in turns. In the end, Liu
Zhongqi's bawling shocked him into stumbling. Standing a meter away, he didn't dare go near. He
exchanged looks with Gan Qing who was beside him.

There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask Gan Qing. How did you know that Grandpa Yang
is from Beggars' Sect?

How did you find this group of people faster than Beggars' Sect and the police?

Did you know from the start that it was done by these people?

Why is it that a girl who looks like a bamboo pole dares to come face this band of kidnappers on
her own?

Who on earth are you?

But right next to them was a foolish younger brother whose mouth was wide open, wailing like a
toad. It was really not the time for questions. All Yu Lanchuan could do was nod at Gan Qing and,
together with her, look at Liu Zhongqi at a loss.
The police cars brought the entire group back, the crowd watching on the sidelines also went
back to their mahjong tables. This event started with a shocking bang but the ending that was a
bit of a comical farce settled into the dust just like that.

When Yu Yan came to Yu Lanchuan's home, the sky was already nearly dark.

"Where's your brother?"

"Asleep." Yu Lanchuan poured him a glass of Coke and pointed at the tightly closed bedroom
door. "He didn't sleep for an entire night yesterday."

"This unlucky kid. Forget it, let me tell you roughly what the situation is." Yu Yan sat down.
Starting from the bald man tailing Gan Qing and being dealt with by her, to the whole story of
him kidnapping Liu Zhongqi in a fit of anger, Yu Yan explained everything from head to tail.
"Actually, it was a mistake at the start. Later on, evil intentions developed at the hint of riches
and they wanted 500,000 from you… Ai, I think this year is just not their lucky year. The way they
picked their victim—do you look like you have 500,000?"

Yu Lanchuan could not even produce 50,000 and his heart felt very bleak.

Yu Yan said, "But this time, you have to thank that lady from the accessories shop. At that time, if
she wasn't quick-witted and hadn't brought along her homemade pepper spray, your younger
brother would be lying in the hospital right now."

If pepper sprays were really so effective, would there be so many crimes where the strong bullied
the weak?

Yu Lanchuan rolled his eyes at Yu Yan and thought, Why don't you try spraying some yourself?

To defeat two experts with half a bottle of pepper spray, one must have very good eyesight and
their movement extremely quick. It was definitely not something that could be achieved by "just
trying one's luck."

Gan Qing… That Gan Qing must be keeping a secret. But since she didn't want to reveal it herself
and had also just helped him, Yu Lanchuan didn't feel right to say too much in front of others.
Hence, he diverted the conversation and asked, "What do they want the money for?"

"They said it's to pay their shifu's son's medical fees." Yu Yan sighed. "These three brothers were
brought up by their shifu. Their shifu got into a car accident a few years ago and died, leaving
behind his child and his wife… The way they address each other really has a jianghu style, things
like 'Da-shixiong' and 'Shiniang.' They originally opened a boxing gym in their hometown but a
small town like theirs didn't have many students. In their spare time, these people would just
muddle along and collect some filial payments or protection fee, stuff like that. They were
originally doing pretty well. Later on, Da-shixiong fell seriously ill and couldn't be treated over
there. They had no choice but to gather about 200,000 to come to Yanning. It sounds like a big
amount but, you know how it is—at the hospital, money is just paper."
Yu Lanchuan's brows knitted together, his face cold. "They don't have money and yet they don't
look for proper jobs. Did they continue to collect protection fees in Yanning?"

"You can say that." Yu Yan ran a hand through his hair. "Zheng Lin, the disabled one, had fought
in those very hyped-up cage fighting matches when he was young to get money. Ai, basically,
they were underground matches. Other people deceived him, saying that it could increase his
reputation very quickly and bolster his status. In the future, he could enter a good club and fight
in professional matches. Zheng Lin isn't very educated. He listened to other people exaggerate
about how wonderful it is, and believed them."

Yu Lanchuan crossed his legs and tsk-ed impatiently.

"He can be considered to be rather skillful. At the start, he kept winning. Tiger this and dragon
that, he had plenty of nicknames flying around, hyping him up until he got carried away. In the
end, there was one time when he got sabotaged. That time, they had him fight with someone
twice his weight. They had agreed beforehand that to make the match more exciting, he must
first purposely take some hits and pretend to fall to the ground. Then, he was to strike back at
the moment of crisis. They had spoken to the opponent too and the opponent was to just
pretend to hit him, and wouldn't use serious force."

"When it was time for the actual match, the opponent gave him a signal and Zheng Lin prepared
to pretend to fall. Who would have guessed that the opponent didn't follow the agreement. He
gave him a direct high kick, kicking him senseless. Then, it was a round of violent hits, nearly
killing him in the ring. When he was brought down, he was covered in blood and from then on,
one of his legs couldn't really be used. Later on, the three brothers went to take revenge. The
other party called the police and all three of them were left with a criminal record."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"You've seen what the three of them look like. Their entire bodies give off an air of the
underworld. Especially that scarred-face one, just his looks is enough to scare people." Yu Yan
sighed. "When going through safety checks, other people can pass right through but these three
would be pulled aside and examined for five minutes. When going for job interviews, they would
always be asked to show proof that they have no criminal record… Most likely, they have already
kind of given up on things getting better."

The two of them didn't say anything for a long while.

In the glass cup, tiny bubbles emerged in the carbonated drink, floating up and down.

Yu Lanchuan felt that the main point of this story was "There are imbeciles every year, and
especially more of them this year." The story didn't invite sympathy at all but for some unknown
reason, listening to the end very easily evoked his own worries.

The packaging for Liu Zhongqi's new phone hadn't yet been thrown out. On this matter, the two
brothers had a tacit agreement not to breathe a single word to their parents. For Liu Zhongqi, it
was shameful; for Yu Lanchuan, he had no way to explain his deficiency as a guardian. Hence,
there was naturally no way for him to claim the expense of buying a new phone.
Getting a new pair of glasses was also not much cheaper than getting the phone. Fortunately, his
degree was not high and he could make do for a couple of days first. He would count the days
and wait for his salary and quarterly bonus…

That's right, rumour had it that the quarterly bonus this time didn't look good.

Yu Yan drank the iced drink. "Be honest, Master Lan. Have you ever had a time when you came
close to taking the wrong step?"

Yu Lanchuan lifted his eyes to glance at him. He was not wearing his glasses now and the
"clothing" part of his "wolf in sheep's clothing" manner was gone. In the eyes of the police
officer, he looked like someone currently taking the wrong step.

Just when Yu Yan thought that he was going to be the recipient of a "Get lost," Yu Lanchuan said,
"I have."

Yu Yan nearly slid off the sofa.

"I… A few days ago, I asked my dad for a statement of voluntary renunciation of inheritance." Yu
Lanchuan finally spoke after remaining silent for a while. "The will my granduncle left behind has
never been notarised and there are no other copies. The envelope the will is contained in has my
name written on it. My dad gave me full power to handle things and didn't even look at it."

As for what was written in the will, only Heaven, Earth and the dead knew. The remaining
matters depended entirely on Yu Lanchuan's conscience.

Yu Yan's mouth fell open.

"His renunciation statement just arrived." Yu Lanchuan looked down at his own fingers resting on
his knees. "My grandparents' death certificates have also been officially stamped."

Yu Yan said, "Which is to say…"

Yu Lanchuan smiled at him, his meaning unclear. "Which is to say, only a paper shredder lies
between me and 8.5 million."

Yu Yan swallowed. He realised that his police instinct was not wrong—this young man was taking
a wrong step right now!

But there was no way he could be an armchair critic because if they swapped places… Forget it,
they didn't have to swap places. A neighbourhood police officer who earned a few thousand yuan
a month could not imagine it.

To Yu Lanchuan, without this sum of money, he was a debtor with a thirty-year loan, a house loan
slave whose days were dark and hopeless, someone who wouldn't dare resign recklessly even if
the sky were to fall down.
With this sum of money, he could immediately repay his house loan in full. With his income, as
long as he didn't fall into vice, gambling or drugs, he could indulge himself all day in the future.
He could resign anytime he wanted to; he could change careers anytime he wanted to; he could
go on an impulse vacation any time he wanted to.

Everyone despised those who betrayed their conscience and lived a life of luxury. But this was
not "luxury"; this was freedom.

How many "thirty years old" would a person have in their entire life?

Yu Yan grew up with him and knew that Yu Lanchuan's motto during his chuuni period was
"Without freedom, I would rather have death."

"Master Lan…"

Before he could speak, Yu Lanchuan's phone rang. Old Master Yang was calling.
Chapter 14
Yu Lanchuan circled around Rongxian Street eight times and still failed to find a spot to park his
car. In the end, he had no choice but to stop at a shopping center 800 meters away and walk
over. He felt like he might as well not drive.

Right out of No. 110 Courtyard's east gate was a very narrow one-way lane. On the other side of
the lane was a row of small shops, their edges following the curve of the lane.

He had just confessed his errant intentions to Yu Yan and the next moment, he was called here.
Yu Lanchuan felt that he needed to calm down. He ordered a cup of cooling herbal tea at a
beverage shop and stood at the intersection while drinking slowly.

At that moment, he saw a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye. Gan Qing was at the fruit
shop next door, picking up and putting down the fruits one after another, picking and choosing.
Every now and then, she glanced towards the opposite No. 110.

Yu Lanchuan followed her line of sight and realised that there were two people dressed in
beggars garb at the gate to No. 110 Courtyard, squatting in a corner while they talked.

The two beggars chatted for a long while. The whole time, Gan Qing dawdled at the fruit shop,
touching every single orange in an entire box one-by-one. Finally, the two beggars left one after
another and only then did she straighten up and miserly took out three coins. Bearing the brunt
of the lady boss's eyes that looked fit to bite her to death, she bought two oranges.

Was she avoiding the Beggars' Sect people?

Yu Lanchuan's feet shifted lightly and he followed after her without a sound.

As for what he would say when he caught up to her, Yu Lanchuan hadn't thought it out.

He was the perfect example of a detached city person, a diehard member of the "None of My
Business, None of Your Business" society. He hated meddling in other people's business the most.
Regardless of whether Gan Qing was avoiding the Beggars' Sect people or avoiding the local law
enforcement, what did it have to do with him?

Once he thought that, Yu Lanchuan again felt like there was something wrong with him today.

Gan Qing slouched a lot when she walked. She seemed too lazy to lift her feet and her relaxed
shoulders swayed side to side. But on closer look, the area around her waist and stomach was
tense. That little bit of tightness made her entire body seem like a tied bundle of sticks—no
matter how much it swayed, it would not fall apart.

Yu Lanchuan stared at her back and spaced out. He remembered that when he was young,
Granduncle had taught him that it was possible for a person to not wield the blade or fire the
gun. In the current-day society, even if a person's hands did not have the strength to even truss
up a chicken, it didn't affect anything. But the way one walked, sat or lay down must be proper.
These were minor matters that didn't take much effort, but even dripping water could penetrate
stone. If one's posture was not correct, if the areas that should be relaxed were tense and the
areas that should be tense were relaxed, then it was one year, 365 days of that. If one
persistently destroyed their own bones and flesh, then they did not have to wait for old age,
illness would come first.

For example, walking. One's essence, qi and spirit resided in one's waist. If they ruined their
waist, their spine would lose its shape and their body would be unstable—either the top half
would tilt backward or their shoulders and neck would hunch forward.

The more one tilted backward, the bigger their stomach grew. Their legs would become
increasingly unable to bear the burden. The lower back, knees, ankles, heels—they could forget
about any one of these staying in good condition. The more one hunched forward, the more their
back curved. All the hidden excess flesh on their body would move to their back and their chest
would become increasingly thin, their breaths increasingly short. Meanwhile, their back would
become increasingly thick, and slowly, it would look like they were carrying a sandbag on their
shoulders and behind their neck.

Today, they wore away their spine a little and nothing happened. Tomorrow, they would wear
away their spine a little and nothing would happen. But eventually—a few years if on the shorter
end, perhaps thirty or fifty years if on the longer end—no matter how good a body one was born
with, their spine would eventually be worn down until it was damaged.

When one's spine was damaged, their body was also done for.

Granduncle had brought him for walks around the little garden in No. 110 and had talked about
many topics similar to that. When he was young, he didn't understand and put it out of his mind
after listening. When he was a little older, due to the burdens of studies and work, he finally
started practising the old man's way of maintaining health. By the time he joined society and had
gone through ups and downs for a few years, he sometimes recalled those words and felt that
the way of maintaining health that Granduncle had spoken of were also very meaningful.

In martial arts, a person first fortified their own body and connected with their bones and flesh.
From there, they observed themselves, became self-aware, and found answers to their
confusions. And with that, they observed the thousands of inhabitants and hundreds of changes
that made up the living world.

By the time he came back to himself, he had followed the other person all the way into No. 110
and they were nearly at the elevator lobby. Yu Lanchuan realised that it was awkward, and was
just planning to walk past her and pretend that they were just coincidentally going the same way
when Gan Qing suddenly turned her head around. From the plastic bag, she dug out an orange
and gave it to him.

Stunned, Yu Lanchuan looked at her in confusion.

"Seeing that your younger brother is totally unharmed from head to toe," Gan Qing lowered her
voice, "don't tell anyone what you saw today at the urban village."

Yu Lanchuan didn't plan to tell anyone anyway. "Don't wo-"

He hadn't yet finished saying the word "worry" when Gan Qing stuffed the orange into his hand.

"Giving you a small bribe." She winked and gave him a half smile. Her gaze shifted fluidly and for
a second, a simple and unsophisticated village girl transformed into a swindling and cheating
modern-day witch. "If a single word leaks out, I will have enemies coming after me for revenge. If
that happens, neither your conscience nor my spirit will forgive you. Shhh."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

What nonsense was this!

When they got into the elevator, Yu Lanchuan finally regained his wits. "Your bribe is just one
orange?"

Gan Qing no longer put on an act. She said lazily, "I'll only get paid tomorrow and only have three
yuan left. The oranges are 1.5 yuan each, what I gave you is half of my entire fortune. Is it still not
enough? Fine, I'll give you this one too. Let me be ruined and bankrupt."

Yu Lanchuan, "...No thanks. I am not that evil."

At that moment, they reached the sixth floor that Yu Lanchuan had pressed the button for. He
walked off the elevator and Gan Qing was just about to close the door when he suddenly turned
around. "Wait!"

Gan Qing tilted her head.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Where are you from?"

Gan Qing said, "Guess."

"Forget it." Yu Lanchuan asked directly, "Fifteen years ago, did you come to Yanning?"
Without even thinking, Gan Qing answered without any hesitation. "I don't remember. After all,
I'm only sixteen years old this year."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

After teasing him, Gan Qing pressed the button to close the door, smiled and took a step back,
disappearing behind the closing doors. This scene and the one that was etched in his mind fifteen
years ago at a city suburb matched extremely closely and Yu Lanchuan nearly chased after her.
Right then, someone suddenly said from behind him, "You're here. Go in, the old man is waiting
for you."

Yu Lanchuan turned around and saw Old Master Yang's granddaughter, Yang Yifan, walk out with
a cigarette dangling from her lips. "He's at that age already but the most busy one is him. From
day to night there are all sorts of weird people coming to look for him, who knows what for."

After saying that, she rolled her eyes at the ceiling, threw her bag over her shoulder, and strode
away on her lambskin heels.

Yu Lanchuan was very confused, unsure what he had done to offend her. He entered the
apartment to see and sensed that the one Miss Yang was targeting was not himself—an old lady
had come to Old Master Yang's home.

The old lady looked like she was around Old Master Yang's age. She had a headful of white hair,
and a shriveled and thin body. The flesh on either side of her face drooped down. Together with
her mouth, they formed a triangle, showing some signs of ferocity and cruelty, and also a trace of
the woe of old age.

Before Yu Lanchuan could carefully think of who she was, the old lady stood up, holding on to the
sofa for support, and then knelt before him with a thump.

Despite having a facade of "Kneel before us, peasants" to the outside world, this was the first
time someone actually gave Yu Lanchuan such a formal bow. Shocked, he held onto the door
frame and was stunned for a full two seconds before rushing over in a fluster to help her up.

"I-I-If there's anything, we can talk properly. What are you doing this for?"

The old lady looked like she weighed forty kilograms at most but when Yu Lanchuan reached out
to help her up, he realised that she seemed to be rooted to the ground. Even with both hands, he
couldn't pull her up.

"Madam Qian." Old Master Yang sighed and spoke, "He's from the younger generation. Aren't
you making it hard for him this way? If there's anything, why don't you get up and talk about it?"

Only then did Yu Lanchuan feel the weight in his hands lighten. He quickly and nervously helped
the old lady up and settled her down on the sofa.

At this moment, he had already guessed who this old lady was.
As expected, Old Master Yang said, "This is Madam Qian. In the past, she and her husband were
known as the Two Qians. They were renowned warriors of justice in the south. Her leg skills are
exceptional—the coal-powered trains in the past were not as fast as her. In the early years, there
was a band of local bandits in the southwest who plundered along the rail lines. They entered the
carriages directly through the windows, snatched the goods then jumped off the train. Back then,
the passengers all didn't dare open the windows. It was this pair of virtuous man and wife who
took the lead to guard the routes, and helped to catch not a small number of evildoers. But
sadly-"

"Don't say anymore, Sect Leader Yang. I am too ashamed to show my face," Old Madam Qian cut
him off. "My husband's reputation has been completely ruined by this old hag here and our few
unworthy disciples. In the future, when I die and go over, I will have to avoid him. Little Master
Yu, I'm sorry. I really didn't know that the child at Mudpool Backlane that day was your brother.
Those disciples of mine even… even…"

Yu Lanchuan thought in his heart, Is this something a person should be saying?

So, children from other families can be scammed and kidnapped as you wish?

But his upbringing took over; given that the old lady was an elderly, he didn't feel that it was right
for him to open his mouth and talk back, so he said placidly, "It's not a big deal. The police said
that you were indeed unaware of what happened after. If it was an ordinary civil dispute, we
would definitely just let it go. But once it has developed into a criminal case, it's no longer
something we can just say 'Let it go' and the police will stop investigating. There is nothing I can
do either, I hope you can understand."

Madam Qian's tears started falling at once. She said "I know" three times in a row, then added, "I
dare not thicken my skin and ask for your favour."

"The country has its laws. Xiao-Chuan, sit," Old Master Yang said. "The main reason why Madam
Qian is here today is because she feels very apologetic, and wanted to meet you and say a few
words to you. She doesn't have any other intentions."

Madam Qian wiped her tears and at the same time, continued to speak brokenly.

Her deceased husband and her had once been heroes in their early years. At that time, they were
in the prime of their lives, their spirits high and bold. Later on, her husband lost his life in a car
accident and left her with only a sickly son and three little disciples they had fostered. A single
woman supporting four mouths was already an extremely difficult thing to do but following
closely was the rapid change in eras. Storms and wild winds rose in unison, sending some people
up to the clear skies and some down to deep earth. Some people made their fortune overnight,
while some lost their livelihoods.

Madam Qian was unfortunately among the latter.

Even later on, just like how bad posture wore down a person's spine, this joke of a thing called
"spirit" was worn down day after day by all the petty troubles of daily life. It wore down and
down, and eventually she was no longer the person she once was and could not even live her
later years in peace.

It was only when her old friend brought up the Two Qians to someone from the younger
generation that she dimly recalled those years. The glory of her past shone softly on the
shameless deeds accumulated over the decades and unexpectedly, outshone them completely.

As Madam Qian continued to speak, her tears fell until she eventually could not speak anymore.

　　

For a moment, she was confused. She couldn't understand how she had ended up like this.

Perhaps heroes shouldn't live so long.

Yu Lanchuan pulled some tissues and passed them to her. He didn't say anything.

Old Master Yang waited until Madam Qian's sobbing gradually calmed down. Then, he extended
his hand, pointed upstairs, and said to Yu Lanchuan, "Xiao-Chuan may not know this but back in
that year when your granduncle bought his apartment, Madam Qian got word of it. From
thousands of miles away, she entrusted someone to bring 200 yuan here. How could she have
money to spare? It was all dug out from between the gaps of her teeth."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Fuck. He cursed in his heart. A creditor!

Chapter 15
It was only because her son was in the ICU at the moment that Madam Qian could find time to
leave the hospital and she had to rush back soon. The patient's condition was not stable,
something might happen during the night.

She was too old now. Taking care of an invalid on the verge of death, she didn't have any energy
to spare to think of ways to find out how her three disciples were doing. She could only take care
of things on this end first.

The ICU entrance was just like the train station during New Year's in the old days. The floor was
full of people lying on sleeping mats. The spot in the corner with a small quilt was Madam Qian's.
The quilt was patterned in alternating reds and pinks; she had made it herself the year she got
married.

A few family members of a patient were talking softly at the side. Perhaps they were discussing
the matter of hospital fees—halfway through, they became a little agitated. A passing nurse
warned them and they dispersed to seethe on their own. They broke into a few groups, as clearly
separated as the clear waters of the Jing River and the muddy waters of the Wei River were, and
went out to smoke.

There was also someone on the phone. They sat on the floor, their back to the wall, speaking in a
whisper. Listening to them, it seemed like it was also about a terminal patient.
A bigger number of people had decided to stay the night and were already lying down. They were
just lying down—other than wandering vagrants, few people could sleep soundly in a place like
this. There were some who tossed and turned, some who faced the wall unmoving, some who
curled under their coats and tapped on their phones non-stop. When they were tired of lying
down, they would sit up for a while.

In this place, there was no one crying, and there was also nothing about the sanctity or the
meaning of life.

Everyone looked very tired.

When she lay down, Madam Qian thought. Again, his life was saved.

As she listened, she felt that the voice in her heart was neither rejoicing nor thankful. She didn't
dare think too much so she turned over and hugged the cloth bag she carried everywhere with
her close to her chest. Inside was 20,000 in cash that Sect Leader Yang had just withdrawn for
her.

After sending off Madam Qian, Sect Leader Yang gripped his walking stick and slowly walked back
from the ATM at the intersection. Yu Lanchuan accompanied him at his side. His eyes lowered, he
spoke calmly. "Grandpa, I still need to work tomorrow. After sending you home, I will be leaving."

Old Master Yang looked at him.

Yu Lanchuan's elegant side profile seemed to have been put together by an assembly line. It was
stamped with the expression of a high level white collar worker—the left side of his face said "I'm
in a rush," the right side said "I'm not interested," and his forehead said "Oh."

"They need the victim's statement of forgiveness. I can give that, it's not a problem," Yu Lanchuan
said. "If they need my help, I can provide the contact details of a few friends who work for
fundraising platforms. They can help to start a fundraising project. When the project is live, I can
also help to spread the word and verify that the fundraiser is legitimate."

Old Master Yang had never heard of these new-fangled things. At New Year's this year, this old
man had just learned how to send red packets. His family taught him three times while he forgot
four times, nearly making his granddaughter want to hang herself in frustration. Hence, he asked
quickly, "Such a thing is possible? How much can it raise?"

Yu Lanchuan avoided the main question. "As long as they are people who donate, we can gather
the money."

As for whether or not there would be people donating, Yu Lanchuan was not optimistic. Everyone
had seen this a hundred times. Nowadays, if one went online and searched the names of welfare
organisations, the related questions below would always have something like "Is XX reliable? Are
they scammers?"
"Dream on, no one will donate." Someone suddenly interjected from the side. Both of them
looked up and saw Yang Yifan climb out of her car. She was waving to the substitute driver and it
was immediately obvious that she had been drinking at a social event. She tottered over and
slung an arm over Old Master Yang's shoulders with no regards for manners. "This story is as
boring as it can be. A middle-aged man has no money for medical treatment and his life is in
danger—where's the twist? Middle-aged men whose lives are in danger are everywhere in the
world, Grandpa! What does he have to attract attention?"

Old Master Yang was so assaulted by the smell of her perfume he was sneezing. He shrugged his
shoulders, shaking her off. "Stand properly. You're like a useless bum, is that any way to behave!"

"Grandpa, the present is not like the past." Yang Yifan didn't care for his words. Right before the
old man, she dangled a cigarette from her mouth. "Have you never heard of this line? 'If you're
poor, keep to yourself; if you're rich, buy bags and watches.' Let the government's public welfare
services handle other people's problems. Since I've paid my taxes, I've already fulfilled my
obligations to the public. It means that I have already indirectly helped them! If they still have
difficulties, there's nothing I can do. I can only say that there's not enough social welfare to go
around and there are people who need it even more ahead of them in the line. I ask you, isn't
that how it works?"

Old Master Yang said, "G-G-Get lost… Get lost! You don't care at all and you're even being
sarcastic. Go back and sober up!"

Yang Yifan laughed. She stuck her hands in her pockets, blew out a puff of smoke and walked
away.

Since Yu Lanchuan was not that close to Old Master Yang, he couldn't be as frank as his
granddaughter and could only use his facial expression and body language to express his
agreement with Miss Yang's words. He politely took his leave from Old Master Yang. "I will be
going to the tenth floor to see if there are any utility bills that I need to pay. I will be leaving
now."

For the young people of the current generation, "Take care of your own matters and don't cause
trouble for other people" was the highest benchmark for a person's self-discipline and morals. In
comparison, the older generation's "Uphold justice and honour, what is mine is yours" worldview
was simply the poisonous remnants of feudalism.

Old Yang held on to his walking stick and stood in the garden. He looked up and saw the waxing
moon, and knew that it was nearly the fifteenth of the month. This month, the fifteenth was the
day of the Ghost Festival. Half a month earlier, the neighbourhood committee had put up notices
with the reminder, "Make offerings in a civilised manner; burning paper money is prohibited."
Even the dead had to be "civilised" now!

He felt that he had grown old. The jianghu also had one foot in the grave, its spirit giving out.

Yu Lanchuan tidied up Granduncle's home. The last time he left the place, he had forgotten to
close the windows and there was a layer of dust in the house. He planned to wait until the next
weekend and get an hourly worker to come, and to have the place cleaned once a month in the
future. His mind elsewhere, he closed and locked the door. Yu Lanchuan still hadn't decided what
he wanted to do with this apartment.

As he passed the neighbouring apartment, his footsteps paused. He thought of the mysterious
Gan Qing.

He looked at the door plate for 1003 with a rather complicated expression and thought, Is she
that person?

Suddenly, the door to 1003 opened from the inside. Before Yu Lanchuan could regain his wits,
Gan Qing poked her head out. "What's the matter?"

Yu Lanchuan's eyes flickered. "...Just passing by."

With that, he raised his legs to walk away but Gan Qing suddenly called out to him. "Hey, wait a
minute."

Yu Lanchuan's heart skipped a beat for no reason. He turned his head around and saw Gan Qing
fumbling in her pocket for a long while before fishing out a roll of crumpled bills. She picked out
the ones worth 20 yuan and above, smoothed them out and passed them to him. "Please help
me pass it to those people's shiniang. It's not convenient for me to show my face. I don't have
much money either, just take it as buying a meal for the old madam."

Yu Lanchuan raised an eyebrow.

"If it wasn't because I wanted to save a few yuan and insisted on taking the Ordinary bus, I might
have reached earlier. Five minutes earlier and the matter might not have ended in this way."
With an open and calm miserly air, Gan Qing rubbed the remaining notes rather apologetically.
"The main point is… when I see a bus with the word 'Rapid' in front, I can't lift my legs. It's a
conditioned reflex. I didn't do it on purpose."

Yu Lanchuan accepted the small stack of spare change. "Didn't you say that three yuan was your
entire fortune?"

"Yeah," Gan Qing said frankly. "But didn't you already know that I was lying?"

How could he be so naive and cute, and actually believe her?

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

She definitely was not!

After he returned home, Yu Lanchuan did as he said he would. First, he discussed with Liu
Zhongqi and came up with a statement of forgiveness. Then, he contacted his acquaintance and
started a "Major Illness Fundraiser" online for the Madam Qian. Thus, he was done with the
matter.
After such a scary experience, the troublemaking younger brother finally became well-behaved.
Once school started, he was tied down. Every day, when Yu Lanchuan was done with overtime,
he still had not finished his homework, so he finally no longer had the time to go out and cause
trouble. As for Yu Lanchuan's work, the few items that were previously hanging undecided all had
a rough outcome and the source of his stress reduced by quite a bit, letting him relax a little.
Before he got off work on Friday, he announced to his department "You don't need to come to
the office during the weekend if there isn't anything" and the office rejoiced like it was New
Year's.

As for Madam Qian's fundraising project, as expected, no one paid it any heed.

The wealthy granddaughter only knew to "buy bags and watches," and didn't contribute a cent.
Old Master Yang had no choice but to look for a few of his old friends. All of them counted their
retirement money and gathered more than 10,000. What was surprising was that Liu Zhongqi
actually took his allowance and the daily rewards from his red packet dispenser brother, and
gathered more than 2,000 yuan, planning to give it to Madam Qian. Yu Lanchuan's quarterly
bonus had just been paid out and he had the money to buy glasses now. Hence, he added some
money to his younger brother's and gathered a round sum of 10,000 to send over as a token of
his sentiments.

Other than that, Gan Qing had given a stack of small notes. There were also a few subordinates in
Yu Lanchuan's department who saw the link he reposted in his WeChat Moments. Each person
who clicked on it donated three to five hundred, using money from their fund dedicated to
bootlicking.

After that, no one showed any interest.

This amount of money seemed like a lot, but it was nothing but a cup of water on a cartful of
burning firewood. Putting aside the medical fees and the surgery fees, it wasn't even enough for
the cost of the ICU room.

But everyone had really done their best already.

That weekend, Yu Lanchuan made an appointment with an hourly worker and went to clean up
Granduncle's home. While the hourly worker was working, he moved a chair to sit at the front
door, enjoying the wind from the corridor as he went through a bunch of data related to
investment. He was not working very efficiently; his eyes kept drifting to the next door
apartment. When a sound came from the neighbouring apartment's door, Yu Lanchuan
unconsciously sat up straighter. He put on a cold and aloof face, and stared at his laptop screen
without lifting his head.

The neighbour spoke, "Oh, what a rare visitor. Xiao-Chuan is here?"

"...Good morning, Grandma Zhang."

What a waste of his feelings.

Just as he was about to look away again, uninterested, the elevator sounded with a ding.
Someone had come up.

The person who came was a man in his thirties. He was covered in the dust of his travels and he
carried a large checkered plastic nylon bag on his back. He studied the narrow corridor at a loss
for a while. When he saw Yu Lanchuan, he asked in a heavy non-local accent, "Can I ask if Alliance
Leader Yu lives on this floor?"

Yu Lanchuan stood up, "My grandfather has passed away."

"Ai, I know. I even lit joss sticks for the old Alliance Leader back home. Then you must be Little
Master Yu? I'm looking for you!" As the man spoke, he strode over energetically and swung the
large nylon bag down into Yu Lanchuan's hands. That thing weighed at least a few hundred
pounds. Perplexed, Yu Lanchuan accepted it and his wrists abruptly sank under the weight. He
drew a sharp breath to steel himself and caught it before it could crash onto his feet.

The man wiped his sweat. "I've been on the train for two days. Ai, this journey is really long!"

Yu Lanchuan finally recalled that 1004 was the "management office." "Oh, please come in and
have a seat."

"There's no need." The man waved his hand. "I still need to take the afternoon train back. There's
only one train a day. Little Master Yu, I don't know anyone in Yanning and I don't know this place
well. You're the old Alliance Leader's descendant. After handing the things over to you, I don't
have to worry anymore!"

"What-"

The man did not give him the chance to talk at all. He took half a step back then fell to his knees
with a thump. He knocked his head a couple of times against the floor, with enough force that
the tiles rang with two loud thuds.

Yu Lanchuan, "...."

What the hell! I'm going to call the police!

The man said, "More than thirty years ago, when my mum was still pregnant with me, she took
the train to go back to her parents' home. During the journey, she felt nauseous and wanted to
puke. She opened the window and met with window-robbers. They reached in from outside,
grabbed her bag and wanted to run. My mum was young and hot-blooded, and took pride in the
little bit of skills she had. Unwilling to give up her things, she took action to fight them for it and
the window-robbers were forced to use their lethal weapons. If Master Qian and the others
didn't happen to be lying in wait there, my mum would be gone from this world and I would not
be here either! All these years, we didn't know that Master Qian was already gone and Madam
Qian was going through such a life. We have let down our benefactors and are too ashamed to
meet her. I kowtow twice to Little Master Yu and trouble him to convey my regards to her."
Yu Lanchuan had to admit defeat. "No, how am I to convey this? Wait, don't go! You haven't said
who you are!"

The man didn't reply. He leaped up, clasped his fist to salute Yu Lanchuan, then turned on his
heels and fled via the stairs like there were wolves chasing him.

The bulging checked nylon bag could not bear the weight. With a tearing sound, it split open and
the things inside spilled onto the ground.

Contained inside were dried mountain ginseng, local specialities, bedding, handmade snacks, as
well as twenty plus large apples that were now rolling all over the floor and a jar of homemade
pickles!

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

And, under this pile of unimaginable curiosities, there were a few neat stacks of renminbi, bound
together with a small paper slip. On the paper slip was written: Tying grass into rings, kindness
can't be repaid[1].

After nearly forty years, the sprout that was accidentally planted back then unexpectedly bore
fruit.

T/N:
[1] Tying grass into rings 结 草 衔 环 is a Chinese proverb that means "repaying a person's
kindness." There are two stories behind the proverb.
Chapter 16
At this hour, Gan Qing should be at Star Dreams. However, today happened to be the day for
replenishing the stock. Madam Zhang Meizhen was very interested in those little accessories and
had asked her to bring them home for her to pick. And hence, Gan Qing was just bringing a few
pounds of little accessories up to the apartment when a row of apples came from far to block her
path.

She looked ahead, following the trail of apples. She saw Mr. Yu dressed in a neatly ironed dress
shirt with mother-of-pearl cufflinks, a bluish-green light reflecting off his new glasses, looking like
he was ready to attend the Boao Forum for Asia… But his left hand was holding a wrapped
smoked chicken, his right hand was carrying a bag of snacks that were nearly smashed to pieces,
and at his feet was a flowery quilt wrapped around a tightly sealed jar of pickles.

"..." Gan Qing was dealt a heavy shock by this incredibly incongruous scene. "Lifestyle change?"

Yu Lanchuan wondered if he still had the time to pretend he was helping Grandma Zhang pick up
those things.

Grandma Zhang was obviously unwilling to bear this blame. While the two young people were
bending over and picking up the apples all over the corridor, the old lady faced the full-length
mirror at her front door and put on her shoes and applied her lipstick. "Earlier, I heard that an old
single lady came to look for Yang Qing. So it was her."
Yang Qing was Old Master Yang's name. Yu Lanchuan had seen it before on the poem couplet he
had given to Granduncle.

Yu Lanchuan keenly sensed something from the phrase "old single lady." He looked up,
incredulous.

Her back to Grandma Zhang, Gan Qing extended a hand and pointed downstairs, then glanced
sideways at the enchanting Madam Zhang Meizhen and mouthed, "Fallback guy."

Yu Lanchuan was just about to stand up while carrying the apples and now, his legs weakened
momentarily and he nearly knelt back down.

Gan Qing turned her head around and asked, "Meizhen-jie, who is she?"

Yu Lanchuan's incredulous look shifted to her. People nowadays could be so shameless for the
sake of sucking up to their landlord?

Zhang Meizhen cheerfully bound her hair up with an elastic band and said patiently, "She's called
Qian Xiaoying. When she was young, her temper was fierce and explosive and there were some
who called her 'Flying Kick Little Chili.' Later on, she grew up and got married. The nickname of
'Little Chili' didn't sound very respectful, so everyone changed it to 'Red Rhododendron.' She was
a beauty too. Back then, there were a few bored men who made a list of top beauties. I
remember she was fifth or sixth."

Gan Qing said mildly, "Oh."

Zhang Meizhen asked curiously, "What would a little girl like you know?"

Gan Qing found a very thick needle, threaded it with yarn, then deftly sewed up the torn
checkered nylon bag. After a couple of stitches, she said without looking up, "I guess that must be
the list where you're number one."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Had she no shame?

Zhang Meizhen stared blankly, then began laughing uncontrollably. She didn't deny it and just
poked her head out to ask Yu Lanchuan, "What happened to her?"

Yu Lanchuan briefly explained the matter.

"'Tsk, how pitiful." Zhang Meizhen took a couple of steps back and studied her full reflection. She
said carelessly, "Doesn't that mean she's going to become a lonely old widow?"

Yu Lanchuan was not willing to use someone else's troubles to gossip behind their back, and did
not reply.
"It's not a big deal." Zhang Meizhen breathed out a light, delicate sigh. "Who isn't a lonely old
widow?"

Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan both stared blankly. Meanwhile, Zhang Meizhen had already picked
up a small handbag and walked away leisurely.

By the time the hourly worker was done, Yu Lanchuan had found a few people to move the sewn
up checkered nylon bag to the rented place Madam Qian and the rest were temporarily staying.
Then, he retrieved only the money from the bag and brought it to the hospital himself. He even
took a close look, but didn't find even a hint of the "Red Rhododendron" from all those years ago
in that face.

Yu Lanchuan didn't intend to say much and left right after putting down what he brought there.
The packet of money he left behind was too large and Madam Qian initially thought that it was
food. When she tore open the seal and looked inside, she went mad and chased after him, but Yu
Lanchuan's car was already out of sight.

The modern-day car was a lot more advanced than the rundown coal trains from decades ago.
Even Flying Kick Little Chili could not keep up.

Madam Qian stood for a while on the road, then realised that there was a row of words on the
paper package.

The words said: A round sum of 200,000. From your friend Kowtow Twice, via Yu Lanchuan.

After sending the money, Yu Lanchuan went home, tidied up the materials for the weekly
meeting on Monday, and then had nothing else to do. The sun was high in the bright afternoon
sky, and it was a rare day of good weather. Typically, on a rest day like this, he would ask a few
friends in his group for a round of golf. It was like clearing checkpoints in a game, a very utilitarian
way of conducting social interaction.

Today, Yu Lanchuan suddenly couldn't muster up the enthusiasm. Thinking about it, he had never
been interested in any ball sports and was too lazy to even watch matches. Whenever he got into
the court to play, it was purely to accompany other people playing. When he chatted with those
friends on topics such as Trends in Policies and Underlying Currents of the Era, at a glance it
seemed like something very high level but in actual fact, it was fundamentally no different from
high school girls chatting about celebrity gossip—they were all just blindly talking nonsense, like
chasing the wind and catching shadows. As for depending on golf and dinner parties to expand
one's "social network," who knew whether or not it could really be depended on when he
needed it. Even when he reposted a fundraiser for someone with a terminal illness in his WeChat
Moments, barely anyone clicked on it to check it out and drop some coffee money. It was
evidently also just as illusionary.

Yu Lanchuan went online for a while, browsing without an aim. His two hands suddenly moved
on their own and searched for "train-robbing gang." He didn't find any results so he searched
according to Master Yang's introduction of The Two Qians and looked up old news from that
locality. He found a few clues, saved them, then posted at the local comment boards and forums.
At first, no one paid any attention and Yu Lanchuan also put this matter aside. A few days later,
he suddenly remembered it and went back to check. He found that one of the posts had been
pushed up. Someone wrote a long comment of a few thousand characters, talking about the
experiences of their train attendant grandfather.

Following that, there were more and more such comments. Some were real, some were probably
made up from the stories by people who just wanted to join the hype.

The few of them sat separately in different carriages. When the train was about to reach the
destination, they stood up and walked around the train, signalling to each other with their eyes.
Red Rhododendron purposely sat in a corner with a shawl over her head. She put a small cloth
bag on the little table and opened the window slightly. Those robbers had very sharp eyes. Seeing
that she was a woman on her own who didn't know to be cautious, they immediately targeted
her. Once the train slowed down, one rushed up and opened the train window, slipped in and
grabbed her things. Red Rhododendron did not go easy on him; once she saw the robber take the
bait, she grabbed the robber's wrist that was reaching in and slammed the window down. The
robber saw that he had fallen into a trap and desperately tried to flee. He took a dagger from his
chest to stab her; she kicked out and the dagger went flying. Her comrades who were lying in
wait in the train jumped off and caught the robber's accomplices.

A sting operation to enforce the law. Unexpectedly, the method wasn't very different from her
porcelain scams later on.

My grandfather said that Red Rhododendron grabbed the robber that was dragged into the train
and pushed him down to the floor, pressed her knee on the robber's back, then smiled at the
train marshals that had hurried there. Her head covering had fallen off, revealing a thick and long
braid. Her lips were red and her teeth white…

She sat for a few stops. Then, seeing that everything was peaceful on the train, she got off. Her
husband would definitely already be waiting for her on the platform. Apparently, Mr. Qian always
let his other comrades take the train-robbers away while he took the shortcuts through the
mountains and, using his two legs, reached the station ahead of the train to welcome her. Who
knows if the rumour is true...

Yu Lanchuan thought a bit, then contacted the intern from his company's summer program. The
intern was his university junior and had already gone back to school for classes. Yu Lanchuan
asked his junior to look for a few students who wrote for the university newspaper. He collected
all these comments that sounded like local folklore and sent them over, and had them write a
biography of Red Rhododendron for a fee.

Then, he took this biography and contacted a few cultural media companies and small news
agencies that his company had invested in before. They gave it a bit of a makeover, then, at a
predetermined time, published it on the online forums at the localities where the train-robbing
gang had operated back in those years.

Apparently, later on, President "buy bag and watches" Yang saw and poked a finger in too, paying
for a round of publicity.
This was what Yu Lanchuan heard other people say. President Yang herself never admitted it to
him.

In the end, by the time the 200,000 from "Kowtow Twice" was nearly all used up, from a stale
article about crowdfunding the cost of medical treatment, the story of Red Rhododendron rose
to prominence. Even though the readership never broke 100,000, as long as those who still
remembered her knew about it, it was enough.

The feel of autumn in the air started to sharpen into harshness. The scarred-face man from the
three brothers—because he had not participated in the kidnapping from start to end, and had
even tried to stop his senior brother—was set free after the investigation cleared him. The story
of Red Rhododendron was overshadowed by yet another society hot topic, but the money
needed for Madam Qian's son's medical fees was nearly all collected.

And then…

Birth, old age, illness and death all depended on fate. It was beyond a person's ability to control
them.

The money had just reached her account. Before it could be paid to the hospital, Madam Qian's
son's condition suddenly worsened. She signed the umpteenth notice of critical illness and, as
usual, sat outside the emergency treatment room to wait.

There was a sudden gust of wind outside the windows. Along the corridor, the tightly shut
windows were all violently shaken by the brutal wind. The large parasol tree in the garden rustled
loudly. Madam Qian's heart thumped erratically; the light over the emergency treatment room
door turned off.

After struggling on death's door for a few months, Madam Qian became an old lonely widow.

When Yu Lanchuan received the phone call, it happened to be storming. The entire city was
gridlocked and the car wipers couldn't sweep the water away in time. The cars in front of him
were unmoving. In the car next to his, the driver wasn't afraid of getting wet and had wound the
window down and his sleeve up, and flicked cigarette ash out the window.

Madam Qian waited for him at No. 110 Courtyard until late at night. When the rain stopped, Yu
Lanchuan finally reached. Madam Qian had the scarred-face man kowtow to him. After they were
stopped by Yu Lanchuan who was, by now, afraid of this gesture of theirs, she held on to her cane
for support and gave him a tottering bow.

Due to the bad weather, Madam Zhang Meizhen could not go out to party. She leaned against
the door frame and suddenly spoke, "Little Chili."

Madam Qian, who was turning to leave, stared blankly for a long time before finally coming back
to herself. She looked at Zhang Meizhen with an expression that was hard to put into words.
Zhang Meizhen opened her mouth. She suddenly thought of something and smiled. "It's nothing.
Actually, I wanted to tell you that everything will be okay. But after thinking about it, I decided
not to. It's not true anyway. The weather is bad, be careful on your way back."

Would everything be okay?

No, it wouldn't. Whether or not things would be okay all depended on Heaven and fate.

But regardless of what happened, one still had to live, hadn't they?

Madam Qian led the scarred-face man down and disappeared into the shadows of the trees in
the eastern side of the courtyard.

Zhang Meizhen turned her head around and called out to Yu Lanchuan. "Little Master Yu, we old
fools all want you to move back here. Your Old Master Yang asked me to ask you. Would that be
all right with you?"
— END OF BOOK 1 —
Book 2: Loss of Voice
Chapter 17
"Didn't you complain that the place was old, rundown and small, and didn't even have a
carpark?" Yu Yan lowered his head and used his chopsticks to poke at a piece of sweet and sour
pork rib. He took a tentative bite; the bone was made from lotus root, the meat from soy
product, and it had been marinated in preserved plum juice. The texture was firm and crunchy,
the sweetness and sourness at just the right level… But when savoured carefully, he still felt that
something was missing.

In the first monthly test since school started, Liu Zhongqi made it to the top five in his year,
breaking his personal best record. Having learned from his past mistakes, Yu Lanchuan didn't
dare use red packets to take care of the gremlin child this time. Hence, he freed up a weekend
and brought him out to celebrate—even though Yu Lanchuan didn't know what there was to
celebrate. When he was at school, he had never dropped below second place.

He didn't have much to talk about with a chuuni teenager. He didn't want it to be awkward, so he
invited Yu Yan along to accompany them, and let the police officer strengthen the kid's personal
safety awareness.

Yu Lanchuan had his assistant select the restaurant and make a reservation. He had not been to
the place before and when he entered, he saw that the decor and the atmosphere at the place
were very high class. There was even a creek winding around the small tables. There was dry ice
hidden below the water and as the water circled around continuously, white mist rose from all
directions. A person sitting inside would feel that they were there to attend the Feast of Peaches
with the deities.

When he opened the menu, he finally realised that this was a vegetarian restaurant.

Yu Yan could not imagine what kind of pretense Director Yu usually put on in front of his
colleagues for his assistant to think that he survived on eating flowers and drinking dew, and that
even his poop had the flavour of Darjeeling. Only a restaurant with such a faintly deity-like air
was worthy of the faintly deity-like Director Yu.

"It's okay." Yu Lanchuan poked at the lushly green dishes absent-mindedly. "That place is near, I
can just walk to work. It's also convenient for Xiao-Qi to go to school. He doesn't even have to
take the subway."

"Then go! Don't talk about other things, just that 7,000 plus a month rental of yours, who's gonna
give that much to you? I don't even earn that much in a month!" Yu Yan was someone who
wouldn't look like a crown prince even if he wore the dragon robes. In the midst of the zenlike
clouds and mist, he spewed out crass and unsophisticated words. "If you don't have to drive,
wouldn't you save on parking and petrol? If you rent out your car together with the number
plate, it's extra income. Master Lan, becoming rich depends on being economical!"

Yu Lanchuan regretted bringing this person out to eat. He was a little embarrassing.

He picked up a piece of king oyster mushroom masquerading as abalone, his mouth not tasting
anything. "It's not a question of moving. That apartment is a symbol, you don't understand.
Moving in means-"

"I understand," Yu Yan cut him off. "The rules of your world. Doesn't it just say that whoever's
name is on the property deed, that person's the alliance leader? Since ancient times, the jianghu
has been a place of danger and evil. There are those who took that position by seizing power,
those who depended on their virtue and morals, those who depended on their martial arts skills,
those who depended on evil and sinister plots, those who depended on castrating
themselves[1]... Today, you, Master Lan, depend on an apartment to take that position. No one
has done that before. It feels so modern."

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention.

"The public security in that area is also under our jurisdiction. In the future, if there's anything, I
can hug the alliance leader's thigh." Yu Yan glanced at Liu Zhongqi who was studiously drinking
soup, then drew close to Yu Lanchuan and whispered in his ear. "There's even a beautiful lady
who has quite the fate with you staying next door."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Get lost!"

Yu Yan reached out and patted his shoulder. "Go, don't disappoint the great trust the older
generation has put on you, Master Lan."

"I'm already busy enough, where would I find the energy to interfere with their affairs." Yu
Lanchuan avoided his hands in distaste. As though he wanted to show that he was not at all
related to the next door apartment, he sat up straight and proper for a while and said coldly, "I
don't think I will after all. I'll save myself the trouble-"

Before he could finish speaking, his phone suddenly rang. Yu Lanchuan looked at the screen and
his face didn't look good—his landlord was calling.
His landlord wasn't a straightforward person. One phone call lasted a full five minutes, the words
going around in circles in a sticky voice. Yu Yan finished a bowl of fake red braised meat and only
then was the other side done talking.

"What's the matter?" Yu Yan watched his expression and his intuition struck. "Don't tell me your
rent is going up?"

The deity-like Yu Lanchuan put down his phone. Since there was a minor, he swallowed his curses
back down.

Yu Yan rubbed his fingers. He vaguely remembered that Yu Lanchuan's tenancy agreement was
for a year and the term seemed to be nearly up. "Pah, this cursed mouth of mine. A child's words
are harmless… Is your rent really going up?"

The two of them were speaking very softly. All around them was the continuous susurration of
the water and there was even someone playing the pipa in the hall. Hence, Liu Zhongqi didn't
hear clearly his geges' discussions about "national economy and the people's livelihoods." The
young hero had already endured an entire meal and finally could not bear it any more. He put
down a vegetable leaf and said to Yu Lanchuan, "Ge, I'm not full. I want to eat fried chicken
cutlet. Real chicken."

Yu Yan said, "I want to eat that too, ge. I also want to eat lamb skewers. Real lamb."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

A landlord's mood was ever-changing like a day in June.

The viciously spiking rental was like a tornado, its arrival more unexpected than romance. It
surged over majestically, pushing the trendy Director Yu to No. 110 Courtyard.

Granduncle's apartment was well-maintained and had just been cleaned. He also didn't need to
renovate it.

At the end of the month, Yu Lanchuan gave up the fight, packed his bags and moved in. His bags
included the baggage named Liu Zhongqi.

Gan Qing had heard from Zhang Meizhen about the two young masters moving in next door.
However, she was just an idle shop worker and only slowly started working at ten in the morning.
She did not cross paths with those white collar workers and high school students who seemed to
be tightly wound springs. The people next door had moved in for a few days and she had only
ever heard the sound of the door from next door when she was having breakfast; she had not
met the people themselves.

Before she got off work that night, she gnawed on the corn on the cob that Boss Meng had grilled
for her while looking at the calendar on her phone and worrying. There were still four days until
her wages for this month were paid. She hadn't planned her expenses well. She was out of
money.
Gan Qing tossed the corncob that she had gnawed clean into the trash bin. "Uncle Meng, lend me
twenty yuan. I'll pay you back when I get paid."

Meng Tianyi heard her and came out, grumbling. He wiped his hands on his apron and dug out
fifty yuan which he stuffed into her hands, and scolded, "Why are you out of money again? You
only need to feed yourself and out of three meals in a day, two are at my place here. Your rent is
only 600. You only have those two old and worn outfits and you don't even pretty yourself up.
Where did your money go? What did you spend it on?"

Gan Qing put away the fifty yuan. She stretched her body and answered jokingly. "I'm also
wondering the same thing. Help me take a look at my back and see if a God of Poverty is haunting
me."

Angered by her apathy, Boss Meng gave her a smack. Gan Qing was too lazy to even dodge and
took it directly. Using the edge of the table, she opened a bottle of soft drink and drank from it.

Other than eating and drinking, she was very stingy with her energy. Through all four seasons of
the year, she had the vigour of someone in winter hibernation. If she could make one less
movement, she would save the effort of that one movement. If she could move her eyes, she
wouldn't turn her neck. Even when nodding, she took less effort than other people. When other
people nodded, they tucked in their chin, then returned to the same position; when she nodded,
she lowered her head and only lifted it again when she needed to.

Meng Tianyi sighed. "You're still young, how can you continue to muddle along like this? You
should think about your future. A person has to integrate with society and live their days!"

Gan Qing let out a mhm. "I'm thinking about it right now."

"The hell you are! Why don't you go study something, I heard that there's this… university
entrance exams for mature students or self-taught students? Go register for one of them. At
least, it's an academic qualification. If you don't want to study, then be like your Uncle Meng and
learn a trade, you can get by with that too. I'll pay for your tuition fees, you can slowly pay me
back in the future."

Gan Qing said, "My skills are decent. I can cook and can help out in the kitchen."

Meng Tianyi said, "The hell you can! You only know how to eat!"

Hearing that, Gan Qing smiled. She drank a gulp of the chilled soft drink, like a dead pig that was
not afraid of boiling water. As the saying went, "Man must live life so as to feel no torturing
regrets for wasted years, and to never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past[note]."

Her eyes were slightly deep set and her brows a little heavy, pushing down on her eyes. But when
she smiled, her features swiftly smoothed out. The corners of her eyes curved into crescents and
there was a special kind of sweetness.
Meng Tianyi advised her patiently, "If you don't want to do anything, then you should clean
yourself up properly, marry someone and start a family, and live your days properly. That should
be okay, right?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." Gan Qing gave him a thumbs up. "Just take a look, does someone who
acts the way I do have a chance at snagging a rich husband? In the future, I can just lie down at
home, take two bottles whenever I want a soft drink, and drink them together."

Meng Tianyi was rather exasperated. "If your shifu was still alive-"

"Uncle Meng," The mischievous smile on Gan Qing's face disappeared all of a sudden. "What are
you saying? What shifu?"

After saying that, she threw the empty bottle behind her. The glass bottle dropped accurately
into the plastic crate more than a meter away, neatly entering an empty slot, as impressive as
any acrobatic stunt. After throwing the bottle, she turned and left.

"Gan'er, before your shifu closed his eyes forever, he was always worrying about you," Meng
Tianyi said behind her. "He was afraid because of your temper! He was afraid that when he was
gone, no one would take care of you, and no one would clean up after you if you cause trouble."

"I've long since stopped causing trouble." Gan Qing stuck her hands into her pockets and turned
around to glance at Meng Tianyi. The streetlight threw her shadow long behind her. She waved at
Meng Tianyi. "I've long since been unable to cause trouble."

With the fifty yuan that Boss Meng had lent her, she could afford jianbing for breakfast now.
Having gnawed on mantou and salted vegetables for three days in a row, that was what Gan Qing
was planning as she left Mudpool Backlane. She had just eaten but she was having cravings
already.

Right then, her phone vibrated. Gan Qing picked up and a feeble female voice came from the
other side. "Hello… I-It's me."

Gan Qing was someone who smiled at everyone but now, her face suddenly turned cold. She let
out an indifferent mhm.

"I've received the money I claimed for treating my appendicitis. I… Should I go to the bank and
transfer it to you or…"

"No need," Gan Qing said. "Keep it to pay your heating bills."

"Oh, then-"

Gan Qing cut her off. "Anything else?"

"No, that's all-"

"All right. Call me if there's anything." When she finished speaking, Gan Qing hung up ruthlessly,
not the least bit concerned for the other person's dignity… because she knew that the other
person had none.

She had spent the whole day at the shop today talking to the customers about Mercury
retrograde. Maybe it was coming back to bite her now; in one night, two people in a row had
made her unhappy. Near October, the night wind in Yanning no longer brought contentment and
was starting to reveal a hint of the coming freeze. Gan Qing wrapped her workout jacket tighter
around herself, trying her best to put all her thoughts on jianbing. This way, she could be full of
anticipation for tomorrow.

Holding on to this "jianbing" mental support, Gan Qing returned to No. 110 Courtyard. Once she
went up, she saw a few familiar figures blocking her front door.

Gan Qing rubbed her eyes, thinking that she must be seeing delusions from thinking too much
about jianbing. Those few people were in two groups, as clearly separated as the Jing and Wei
rivers were. One group belonged to the north side of the road's Shandong Jianbing while the
other group belonged to the south side of the road's Jianbing Guozi[2]. Both groups were arguing
noisily, cornering the alliance leader who had just come back from work at his front door.

"Little Master Yu, you be the judge. It was their Shandong group that beat up our people first!"

"Who was the one who provoked us first?"

"Who was the one who crossed the boundary first?"

"Fuck your boundary! My net profit in one month is more than 10,000, do I need to fight your
penniless group for territory? You and your shitty jianbiang, open shop if you can handle the
heat, fuck off if you can't!"

Yu Lanchuan clutched his laptop under his arm and, with a wooden expression, watched the two
large group leaders with income of over 10,000 a month tear into each other.

"You still dare to fight at this place? Fine, I'll join you!"

"No one's doing any business tomorrow. Not before we settle this once and for all!"

"Who's scared of you?"

"Who's scared of you!"

Gan Qing, "..."

No, nooooooooo!

———

The author has something to say:

[note] he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning
shame of a mean and petty past — How the Steel Was Tempered.

T/N:
[1] The person who took power by castrating themselves is likely a reference to Dongfang Bubai,
a fictional character from Jin Yong's wuxia novels. It was a prerequisite for mastering the skills in
a martial arts manual known as Sunflower Manual.
[2] Jianbing is a popular breakfast food in China, commonly sold by street vendors. It consists of a
crepe-like wrapping made of wheat and grain, wrapped around different kinds of fillings such as
egg, youtiao, preserved meat, and sauces, and there are many regional varieties. It originated in
Shandong; one of the two jianbing groups in this chapter is Shandong Jianbing. The other group,
Jianbing Guozi, is a regional variety popular in Tianjin.
Chapter 18
For the sake of her mental support, despite being the type to never draw attention to herself,
Gan Qing couldn't help cutting in. "Don't do that, you guys still have to open for business."

She frequently went to buy jianbing. The leader of the Shandong Jianbing group took one look
and recognised her as a regular. Immediately, his confidence increased and his voice rang out
crisp and clear. "A person has got to sell the good stuff, only then can they open their stall
without shame. Miss, am I right? What I make is food, what he makes is shit. People like you who
eat breakfast naturally know whose stall to go to."

The leader of the Jianbing Guozi group also recognised Gan Qing. He scoffed. "The person making
shit knows very well who they are. The customers, too, know who they are."

"Um…" Gan Qing felt very awkward. In actual fact, she went to the north side on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays, and to the south side on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On
Sundays, she sometimes ate dumplings for a change of flavour. She ate both the crispy and the
soft versions without rejecting either, and she really didn't know whose side she should stand on.
She could only nervously try to smooth things over. "Both are good. Two different flavours."

"Who's two different flavours with him?"

"Theirs are totally not even jianbing!"

The fence-sitter Gan Qing's inappropriate dissuasion had the opposite effect of escalating the
conflict. The leaders of the two jianbing groups went from a verbal spar to a physical one.

The state of the martial arts world deteriorated day by day. Especially ever since the usage of
social media became widespread, the younger generation followed the trends blindly and there
was now something about if a fight was not taken to No. 110, then the fight had no class.

Yu Lanchuan had moved in for barely a week. Despite his current circumstances where he left
early and came back late every day, this was already the second dispute that had been brought to
his doorstep. The last time was at five in the morning—the old master from the laundry shop at
the entrance and the old master who repaired leather goods came together to knock on his door.
They stated that the two of them wanted to have a deathmatch and even wanted to sign some
sort of "life and death declaration."

He finally understood why, in his twilight years, Granduncle had traveled all over without a fixed
home like the floating duckweed.

The two large jianbing groups gathered in a circle, heckling and jabbing. Maybe they had come
here in a haste, they hadn't taken off their sleeve covers. The two pairs of sleeve covers that were
fighting danced up and down, and the chopped green onion and smell of the sauces also wafted
through the air, ruthlessly inciting the alliance leader whose stomach only had coffee.

Because his blood sugar level was low, Yu Lanchuan's anger rose from inside him. He tore off his
glasses and pushed them into the hands of the person beside him along with his laptop.

At that moment, Shandong Jianbing-xiong's elbow collided fiercely against the other person while
Jiangbing Guozi-xiong's leg swept low across the floor. Yu Lanchuan directly barged in between
the two. He raised one hand and jabbed Shandong Jianbing's ulnar nerve while his other hand
pushed Jianbing Guozi's shoulder down, then he tripped the foot that was planted on the floor
for support. Shandong Jianbing howled and leaped away, holding his numbed elbow. Jianbing
Guozi fell backwards onto the floor, feet facing the sky, dazed and senseless.

Only then did Yu Lanchuan take half a step back and buttoned up his cuffs again. His eyes swept
coldly over the two large jianbing groups that had quieted down.

If the old man Yu Huaide was still here, they wouldn't dare bring this sort of bullshit and petty
annoyances up here.

It was just that they had recently heard that a Little Master Yu had come to stay at the tenth
floor. Since he was "little," then he was naturally a lot easier to bully. Rumour also had it that he
was someone who had studied abroad. The moment everyone heard that, they suspected that he
was a blockhead who had learned boxing from the foreigners for a few years and had come back
to put on a show. Hence, the evildoers from various groups popped up one after another to stir
up trouble and pick fights.

The conflict between the two jianbing groups being a matter with a long history was one thing;
the other thing was that they were also causing trouble to test whether this Little Master Yu was
soft or hard.

　　

They never thought that this Little Master Yu, descendant of Han Jiang Xue, really had some skills.
They had just come face-to-face and the two bosses were lying on the floor already.

The bosses had lost face, so their juniors who had been heckling each other just now also laid
down their war flags and stilled the drums one by one. Together, they looked at Yu Lanchuan
guiltily and nervously, waiting for him to unleash his moves.
"The corridor is. A. Public. Area." Yu Lanchuan paused between each word. "All of you rich sirs
who earn more than 10,000 a month, may I request that you be a little more civilised?"

Shandong Jianbing's boss hadn't revived. He rubbed his elbow and took a step forward, trying to
ameliorate the situation. "Little Master Yu-"

"There is a dispute, correct?" Yu Lanchuan didn't give him a chance to talk. He took out his
phone. "Wait a minute, I will settle it for all of you."

The two large jianbing groups stretched out their necks, curious about the new alliance leader's
methods.

What they saw was Yu Lanchuan tapping on his phone for a while, then saying into the phone.
"Hello, yes, this is a complaint from a member of the public. I would like to make a complaint
about the breakfast street vendors here. These people are extremely immoral; they throw
rubbish everywhere and even come to the residential area to fight over territory-"

The "extremely immoral" jianbing heroes nearly kneeled down before him. Pale with fright, they
rushed over to pull Yu Lanchuan's mouth away from his phone in a fluster, begging him to
restrain his prowess.

Shandong Jianbing's boss said, "L-L-Little Master Yu, l-l-let's talk nicely!"

Jianbing Guozi's boss said, "That's not necessary, not necessary!"

"Let's talk nicely?" Yu Lanchuan extended one finger and pointed at the Shandong Jianbing group,
then turned to ask the Jianbing Guozi group. "Not necessary?"

The jianbing heroes were scared of him. Their faces twisted into bitter frowns but at the same
time, they smiled along with him.

"Anyone injured from the fight? If injured, then go to the hospital and get it checked. After
checking, I will help you make a police report. Whoever should pay compensation will pay
compensation," Yu Lanchuan said.

"No, no, no one's injured. We're just learning from each other, it's just daily practice. It's not a big
deal."

Yu Lanchuan said, "In that case, that's good. As for the territory, weren't there rules in the past?
If there are rules, then follow the rules. Don't bring up other things to me. If it worked in the past,
it will work in the future. Even if it doesn't, it will have to."

The jianbing heroes looked at one another in dismay.

Yu Lanchuan said with a cold smile, "What was the number for the Ministry of Commerce again?"

　　
This was the first time the jianbing heroes had met this kind of mad complainant. They didn't
dare say that it wouldn't work. In the end, right in front of Yu Lanchuan, they held their noses and
hugged each other for a while, feeling like their purity was being sullied. Then, all together, they
walked away dejectedly.

Gan Qian bounced up on tiny steps like a little follower. She returned the laptop and the glasses
to Yu Lanchuan. "Little Master Yu is so mighty."

She had been holding one of the arms of the glasses. The frame was made of metal. One of the
arms was cold while the other side had a bit of warmth from her body. The large difference in
temperature flowed from one side of his temples to the other.

Yu Lanchuan glanced at her and was struck again by the sense of déjà vu her features gave him.
He tightened his face and nodded at her, and made some small talk. "Back so late from work?"

"It's not late." Faced with the benefactor who had saved her breakfast, Gan Qing was full of
friendly words. "I was just in time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have the chance to help you carry your
things."

Smooth talker.

Yu Lanchuan didn't know why but he recalled her face when she was flattering Zhang Meizhen
and became unhappy again for no reason. Cold as frost, he walked away.

He had just entered the house when his younger brother who did not know how to read other
people's moods ran over with a worshipful face, helping him take his slippers. With a few grunts,
he made some moves with his arms and legs. "Ge, I saw just now through the peephole. Have
you also trained before? When did you train? I've never heard you talk about it. Can you teach
me? A while back, I even went to Star Dreams to look for that jiejie but after spending a long time
wearing her down, she only gave me a personal alarm and taught me how to groin kick. I feel that
it's a bit vulgar…"

The veins at Yu Lanchuan's temples began to pulse. He stretched his hand out and pointed to Liu
Zhongqi's room. "Go do your homework!"

Liu Zhongqi seemed to have accidentally eaten catnip. He "flew" back to his room, leaping and
skipping, and even jumped up to touch the top of the door frame.

Right then, Yu Lanchuan's work colleagues called him in a panic, saying that there was a change in
the policy in some investment program that they were about to sign the agreement for. The big
boss was suddenly having regrets and had summoned the risk department for an online
discussion. Yu Lanchuan only had the time to heat up a sandwich in the microwave before he
started to be bombarded by calls from various departments.

Right when he was busy and frazzled, suddenly, there were a couple of knocks on the balcony
window. Startled, Yu Lanchuan accidentally pulled the entire piece of bacon out and it dangled
like a long tongue as he turned his head. He saw a "Spiderman" sprawled on the outside of his
tenth floor enclosed balcony, wearing a skintight outfit and holding metal claws and suction pads
in his hands.

"Spiderman" fumbled at his chest and fished out a crumpled piece of paper which he slapped
onto the window. On it was written, in crooked writing: I am the descendant of Tang Qian Yan. I
wish to challenge you. During the Martial Arts General Assembly, let us fight it out.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

At the very least, at this moment, he missed his cold rented apartment and the heartless landlord
terribly.

That was right, speaking of this pestilential Martial Arts General Assembly, Old Master Yang had
already come to rush him a few times, saying that the location and the notices were already
prepared and were ready for his review at any time.

The Martial Arts General Assembly was held once every three years. In the past, Granduncle was
the one in charge.

Old Master Yang had said, "We are all old now and can't keep up with the times. It's also time for
the younger generation to make their name. Everyone also wants to meet Little Master Yu. Xiao-
Chuan ah, why don't you take charge this time?"

Yu Lanchuan had said, "Grandpa Yang, I really have no more leave days for the year. Can we
change the timing of the assembly? How about during the long Spring Festival holiday?"

"That won't do," Old Master Yang had said. "They can't afford the train tickets during the Spring
Festival rush!"

Alliance Leader Yu could say nothing to that. Angry, he procrastinated on it in passive resentment
and even started searching online for a new place to stay. He would rather pay rent than be the
alliance leader.

Right at that moment, a faint crashing sound of glass shattering suddenly came from downstairs.
Right on its heels was the sound of a woman's anguished screaming. The "Spiderman" sprawled
outside his window disappeared in a flash.

Admittedly, an old building had poor soundproofing but it was currently late in the night. Every
apartment closed their windows at night but this sound could actually slip in between the cracks
of the windows to pierce their ears, making them shiver. It sounded like the blood-curdling
scream of someone near death.

Not only Yu Lanchuan, a few other nearby apartments also opened their windows at the same
time, the residents poking their heads out to look for the source of the noise.

Gan Qing had just finished washing her hair and was taking in the clothes drying at the balcony.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow heading towards next door. Who knew what kind
of cow demons and snake spirits it was again; she shook her head, and spared some thoughts of
sympathy for the next door's Little Master Yu. She was just preparing to blow dry her hair when
the blood curdling scream startled her too.

This blood curdling scream seemed to make her recall something. Gan Qing frowned. She went
near the window and pushed it open a sliver.

The sound from outside became clearer. Gan Qing heard the neighbours calling out to each other
noisily. "Was it the eighth or the ninth floor?"

"Eighth floor, I think it's 804. The window is broken."

"Luckily it's nighttime, so there's no one down below. What happened?"

"Did a burglar get in? I thought I saw a shadow flash pass just now."

"Surely that's not possible… it's the eighth floor."

Right then, someone from 804 finally said something. It was a very feeble female voice, slipping
out shakily from the broken window. "There… There was a thief."

"What? Even the eighth floor can be entered!"

"It's not even the end of the year yet. This is too terrible!"

"I stay at 805," a rather plump middle-aged man said. "I'll go have a look."　

The neighbours hastily called out to him. "Hold on, what if the thief hasn't run away? Call the
police first, wait for everyone and go together."

Most of the people staying at No. 110 Courtyard were ordinary people who had moved in later.
Everyone was starting to be nervous.

Yu Lanchuan took in the paper on his window. His eyes swept around the surroundings. He
instructed Liu Zhongqi to keep the windows shut, then put on a coat and went out.
Chapter 19
When Yu Lanchuan went downstairs, by coincidence, he bumped into Gan Qing. Gan Qing had
wrapped herself in a long hooded padded jacket that seemed to date from the Republican era.
The jacket covered her from her head to her calves and the hood was up over her head. A few
locks of hair that had fallen out were dripping wet and the ends of her pyjamas peeked out at her
feet. She had probably been getting ready for bed.

Yu Lanchuan felt that it was a little strange. She didn't seem like the type who, upon hearing the
neighbours shout "thief," would clamber up to join the excitement.

The entire building only had one elevator. Everyone wanted to use it, so it was very slow. Hence,
the two of them walked down using the stairs.
Walking in front, Gan Qing suddenly said in a low voice, "The person who knocked on your
window climbed upwards after that."

"You saw it clearly?" Yu Lanchuan was briefly stunned. Then, for reasons that he himself did not
know, a question slipped out of his mouth. "Have you heard of Tang Qian Yan?"

Gan Qing remained silent from the tenth floor all the way to the eighth floor. Just as Yu Lanchuan
thought that she didn't want to answer him, she unexpectedly uttered a "Yeah" in a soft voice.
"'The flying sparrow skims the water, it leaves no trace on the snow'… But they have become just
a lizard now."

By the time the two of them came down, there was already a group of neighbours crowding
around the door to 804. Speaking of which, it was strange; it was just past 10 p.m. and even the
"hair-intact nun" Gan Qing hadn't gone to bed yet. For the modern day city folk, it was still too
early. Why would a burglar pick this time to break in?

"What I think is, the thief was probably targeting 803." A neighbour was expounding on his
theory. "They saw that the old lady was home alone today. She sleeps early and is hard of
hearing, so they had the guts to act! They didn't expect to get the wrong balcony."

The old lady from the next door 803 had come out to join the crowd. She happened to hear this
line and turned pale with fright.

"Don't make wild guesses, don't scare the old lady." The man at 804's door waved his hand. "The
light in our house was spoiled today so the house was dark. Maybe the burglar thought there was
no one at home."

The man looked to be around the age of 37 or 38. He was tall, with a decent appearance. When
he spoke, it was with a slow and low voice. Yu Lanchuan thought he seemed familiar and was just
pondering if they had met before when the man accidentally glanced towards him. "Hey, you
are… Director Yu?"

His reflexes kicked in and Yu Lanchuan put on a professional smile.

"I'm Nicholas from IMI! Everyone calls me Nick. I've done a report with you for the project on
exhibition centers! Do you remember me?"

In Yu Lanchuan's brain that had been curdled into a pot of congee by the last-minute meeting
and the Martial Arts General Assembly, a string of letters popped up. His temples began
pounding and he had a sudden realisation. He recalled who this person was—after all, in their
"white collar demon" circle, this way of mixing languages when speaking had gone out of fashion
a few years ago. When he occasionally met someone who used this "traditional" style, the
impression they left would be rather deep.

Yu Lanchuan nodded reservedly. "Hello, Director Nie."

This man's name was Nie Ke. He was from another investment company. In the past, they wanted
to involve Yu Lanchuan's company when they invested in a project and hence, the two companies
had worked together before. Yu Lanchuan didn't remember Nie Ke's rank but when it came to
those who were out and about to do business, one could never go wrong by addressing them as
Director.

"Our house is in the suburbs. It's too far. Going through the morning rush hour adds more than
two hours to my commute. Sadly, I can't afford a house in the urban area. This year, it was only
for the sake of letting our child attend the kindergarten here that we finally made the resolve to
rent a place here. Luckily the kindergarten is on vacation today and we have sent the child to his
grandma's place." Nie Ke politely invited the neighbours into his house. The light in the living
room was indeed not working and his house was pitch-black inside. He lowered his voice by an
octave. "Xiaoman, are you okay?"

Only then did everyone realise that there was also a woman in the house. She appeared to have
blended in with the darkness.

Even though Nie Ke had already lowered his voice a lot, he seemed to have frightened her. The
woman jumped up stiffly from the sofa, like a dehydrated zombie.

"This is my wife." Nie Ke sighed. "At that time, I was boiling water in the kitchen. She was in the
bedroom alone and happened to run into the burglar. But she didn't run away immediately and
even wanted to catch them—What were you thinking? The way you are, could you catch
anyone? What if they had a knife? I just look away for a moment and something could have
happened to you. What am I to do, ai—Luckily, that burglar didn't think there would be someone
inside and was frightened off. They just jostled her for a bit and then ran off, and even broke one
of our windows."

Gan Qing switched on the lights in the corridor and the entrance hall. With the help of the
illumination, everyone saw that Mrs. Nie was holding a piece of muslin cloth and pressing it
against her forehead. There were some bloodstains on her forehead and the corner of her eye
that hadn't yet been wiped away. There was a very dark streak of dirt on her cheekbone. Maybe
because she was tired from holding up her arm, the hand that was holding the cloth trembled
non-stop.

"She knocked her head." Nie Ke wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said to the
neighbours. "Her forehead knocked against the corner of the table. I said I would bring her to the
hospital but she doesn't want to go."

Mrs. Nie didn't say anything. She curled into his shoulder, hiding herself.

The neighbours didn't notice anything amiss. No matter who it was, if a burglar suddenly broke in
while they were sitting at home, they would be frightened too and wouldn't be able to sleep
peacefully for the next few days. Hence, they all urged Nie Ke to make a police report.

Gan Qing remained at the door and didn't enter the apartment. She looked past the crowd
towards the balcony. One opened window on the balcony was shattered to pieces and the wind
was blowing in from there. A few stray glass pieces had fallen onto the balcony. If they had
broken out from inside the room, most of the glass pieces would have fallen outside.

At this hour, the roads were no longer congested. The police arrived very quickly. The warm-
hearted neighbours surrounded the police and without waiting for them to start their inquiries,
they began to noisily pour all their guesses and theories into the police's ears.

Drowning in the crowd, the police tried their best to swim out. "Make way, everyone, please
make way. We want to look for the victim of the break-in to ask questions!"

Nie Ke caressed Mrs. Nie's hair. "My wife is a housewife. She can't really speak well and has also
received a great fright today. Let her rest, I will talk to you."

The police asked the woman a few questions. All she did was nod or shake her head, and the man
next to her supplemented all her answers. She indeed had the bearing of someone who stayed
home most of the time and rarely met other people. Hence, after confirming that she didn't need
an ambulance, they didn't ask her any more questions.

　　

Mrs. Nie walked around the crowd, her head lowered, planning to go to another room.

Right then, a hand pulled her to a stop. Mrs. Nie quivered and turned around, startled. She saw
that the person stopping her was a thin young woman.

Gan Qing lightly pinched her chin and turned her face to the side. "You knocked your head on the
corner of the table but how did you get this on your face?"

Her eyes that rarely opened wide reflected the light in the entrance hall. Along with the
movement of her eyeballs, the reflected light seemed to flicker, like sparks leaping from a cold
flint stone.

The woman stepped back stiffly and evaded her hand.

Unconcerned, Gan Qing moved her hand back into the sleeve of her cotton pyjamas. Her eyelids
dropped, covering the light in her eyes. "Was it when you grabbed him, he pushed you hard
against the wall, and you lost your balance and hit against the corner of the table?"

The woman nodded in a fluster, evading her gaze.

"Next time something like this happens, you need to shout immediately," Gan Qing said. "I live
right upstairs, 1003. I'm usually very free anyway. If you have time, come hang out with me."

The woman's face was wooden and she didn't say anything. She quickly slipped into her
bedroom.
Gan Qing's gaze lingered on the opened balcony window in the Nie home for a few seconds.
Then, she glanced at Nie Ke who was answering the police's questions. Quietly, she avoided the
crowd and left the Nie home.

Yu Lanchuan looked at Yu Yan whose police cap had been knocked askew by the crowd. "Why is it
you again?"

"How the hell would I know? When other people are on shift, it's a quiet and peaceful night; the
moment I'm on shift, the police are dispatched to the crime scene. Don't you think it's weird?" Yu
Yan's brows knitted, his face in a frown. He said, "Master Lan, do you have any more martial arts
techniques for maintaining good health? Teach me a few moves, I feel like I'm not far from
sudden death due to overwork."

Coincidentally, Gan Qing was passing by. She heard those words and pushed her hood up. "It's
Mercury retrograde. Officer, I have a protection charm, do you want one? I'll give you an insider
discount, only fifty-two yuan. Anytime you need one, just come to Mudpool Backlane and look
for me."

The cost was two yuan. With fifty yuan profit, she could pay Boss Meng back.

Yu Yan said in shock, "You're spreading your feudalistic nonsense to the police?"

Gan Qing smiled mysteriously and turned to go. "It's more effective than reblogging pictures of
lucky carps on Weibo. But it's fine if you don't believe it."

Yu Yan had just used his side account to reblog a lucky carp and felt his knees itching to kneel
down to her. He decided that after his shift was over, he would take off his uniform and secretly
go over.

"Just now, someone said they saw the burglar who broke in." Yu Yan became serious and asked
Yu Lanchuan, "Someone also said that the burglar was dressed up like Spiderman and that he was
even holding a large metal claw? Did you see him? To be honest, recently, we've received quite a
few reports of burglaries at high-rise buildings."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was the amount stolen large?"

"Speaking of that, it's strange. Out of the few cases of break-ins, most of them were unsuccessful.
Only one case reported the loss of a card wallet. I ask you, what's the point of this little thief
stealing cards? Up to now, today's case is the most serious one, with physical injury," Yu Yan said.
"All the homes that were broken into were above the sixth floor, and all were broken into via the
windows. Is there such a qinggong in the world? Surely it's not really Spiderman?"

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while. "Come with me."

He led Yu Yan to squeeze out of the crowd and went down to the sixth floor. Old Master Yang
lived in 608. His granddaughter was there on the orders of her parents to take care of her
grandfather. She didn't like that the old man had lots of scoundrel friends and was unwilling to
stay with him, hence she rented the next door apartment. Even then, the grandfather and
granddaughter fought everyday.

Old Master Yang seemed to know in advance that they would come and had long since prepared
tea while waiting.

Yu Lanchuan flattened the piece of paper. "The Spiderman they are speaking of climbed to the
outside of my balcony window and stuck this paper there. Grandpa Yang, do you know who this
descendant of Tang Qian Yan is?"

Yu Yan jumped up in a fluster. "This is evidence! How can you just touch it like that!"

"How would I know it was evidence? When I tore it down, I didn't know there were high-rise
burglaries." Yu Lanchuan paused. "But the window on the eight floor was broken after he stuck
the paper on my window, and the window was also broken by someone escaping from the inside.
The person who ran away after injuring someone is probably not the same person who stuck this
paper."

"But that doesn't prove that the previous burglaries are not related to him," Yu Yan said. "This
building of yours, the side with the enclosed balconies is very flat. At that time, he was sprawled
on the outside of a tenth floor window. If someone entered from the eighth floor, he would
definitely have seen them, so they might be in the same gang. Those who break-in and steal
usually belong to gangs."

"Breaking and entering is one thing… but to even join a gang." At that moment, Old Master Yang
picked up that piece of paper. After a while, he heaved a long sigh and laughed bitterly. "This is
really, really… Ai!"

"Back then, our friends in the jianghu flattered us and crowned us old things with the title of Five
Supremes," Old Master Yang said slowly. "Xiao-Chuan, all those years, there was nothing anyone
could criticize about your granduncle's conduct. He had the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang, sword
shining like snow, and so he was called Han Jiang Xue. Fuliang Yue referred to a respected
brother back then. His surname was Han and he practised a Taoist style of martial arts. Their
ancestor was a disciple of Wudang Mountain. The later descendants amalgamated with the now
extinct Qi sect that studied the eight trigrams. They were very righteous and had saved your
granduncle's life during the war with the Japanese. But, the old brother was quite a bit older than
the rest of us. He passed away more than twenty years ago. One of his grandchildren stayed here
and works as a civil servant. I saw that his body shape is not far from the three highs, he must
have abandoned his ancestor's teachings long ago.

"Chuan Lin Feng refers to my family. I don't have much capabilities; in the first place, I'm not
worthy of being talked about in the same breath as the rest of them. It was just that I had
managed Beggars' Sect for a few years before liberation, so everyone was very courteous with
me. As for Tang Qian Yan… I remember his surname was Yan, full name Yan Ruofei. He was
originally from the south. He had lived in seclusion for a long time and was persuaded to leave
the mountain during the years of chaos. I've met him a few times. He was a very shy person and
blushed the moment he laughed. He was like a scholar but his skills were truly excellent, leaving
no trace in a thousand miles. On his own, he could burst undetected through layers of
bodyguards, killing three traitors with a blade in his hand. The wanted posters were hung
everywhere from the main roads to the little alleys. Countless evildoers could not sleep
peacefully at night because of him."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "And later on?"

"Later on, he sacrificed his life," Old Master Yang said. "The Japanese and the traitors were
looking everywhere for him. Someone sold out the place he and a few friends were staying. He
thought that he would be able to escape since he knew qinggong, so he covered their backs and
let them run first… but even though the sparrow could outfly the shadowless wind, he was still
not as fast as the fired gun."
Chapter 20
"This grandpa is old now. There are some things where my view may not be very correct," Old
Master Yang said very frankly to Yu Yan. "Back then, Ruofei-xiong came to Yanning alone. We
have never met his family but in my opinion, someone like him, no matter how unfilial his
descendants are they wouldn't go so far as to do something like that."

"Yeah." Hearing that the person seemed to be the descendant of a war martyr, Yu Yan didn't feel
it was right to make blind guesses and assign a crime without evidence. He asked, "Then, in your
opinion, is there a possibility that this 'Tang Qian Yan descendant' is a fake?"

Old Master Yang said, "This…"

Yu Lanchuan suddenly jabbed Yu Yan with his elbow. "At what times did the high-rise burglaries
happen?"

Yu Yan took out his phone and checked his work log. "Between one a.m. and four a.m."

"It's not even eleven p.m. now." Yu Lanchuan tapped his own watch. "The crime happened at
around ten p.m. There are more than a hundred residents in his building and everyone's
balconies face the same direction. At ten p.m., at least half the residents have yet to turn off their
lights and go to bed. If it was a burglary ring, don't you think they are being too conspicuous?"

Yu Yan frowned. Right then, his colleague called for him. A female police officer was looking for
him. "Yu-ge, where did you go?"

Yu Yan said, "Downstairs. I was asking a witness some questions. What's the matter?"

The police officer lowered her voice a little, like there was something that wasn't convenient to
be talked about. "There's a situation. Can you come up for a while?"

Yu Yan waved his phone at Yu Lanchuan. The two of them stood up one after another, and took
their leave from Old Master Yang.

Before they went out the door, Yu Lanchuan suddenly remembered something. He waved at Yu
Yan to indicate that he should go ahead, then turned around to ask Old Master Yang. "Grandpa
Yang, you've always been saying 'Five Supremes' but no matter how I count, there's only four.
What about that one more person?"
Old Master Yang was momentarily stunned, falling into a silence.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Did I say something wrong? Is it something that can't be talked about?"

"It's not that, it's just that it's a long story." Old Master Yang thought for a while. "The last one
among the Five Supremes… Haih, how should I say it? Back then, the circumstances were special
so all the brave fighters from different paths got along without caring about one another's
background or sect. If it was during peaceful times… he actually could not really be considered to
be one of us righteous path practitioners."

Yu Lanchuan listened to the terms used and felt his head aching. He never thought that in the
twenty-first century, as an "alliance leader," not only did he have to mediate neighbourhood
conflicts, he even had the additional duty of fighting "demonic path practitioners"!

"Of course, all these were before the country's liberation." Old Master Yang saw that his
expression was not right and quickly explained. "This friend never revealed his name back then.
Since the title people gave him was 'Wan Mu Chun,' all of us called him Wan-xiong. He was very
handsome. How delicate and graceful was he? Well, he had acted in operas and could play
female roles. Once he put on the costume of that trade, the whole theatre would applaud. He
was also a soft and gentle person. If you made him carry a 100 or 200-pound sack of grains, his
back would curve under the weight, and he would need to rest after walking for a bit. His face
would be pale, his breathing weak, his hands without the strength to even truss up a chicken. But
do you know what his work was?"

Yu Lanchuan thought. ...A lousy strategist?

Old Master Yang sighed. "Of the three words 'Wan Mu Chun,' the emphasis is on 'spring.' The
name was given in reference to 'scattering to the four winds' and 'the silent rain.' What it meant
was—he passes by you and politely nods at you with a smile; before you can react, your throat is
already slit open. Their sect has a unique skill which cuts a person up into eight pieces, just like
the legendary story of the butcher skillfully dismembering an ox—Paoding Jieniu[1]. Their hand
holding a small blade, after dismembering the target, they would not even be panting for breath,
and could still smile and make idle talk. Their blade could not be the least bit bent, which meant
that they must not exert strength. If they exerted strength, it meant that their skills and their
judgement were not good enough."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Are they hitmen?"

"Yes. Back then, if you bring up the three words 'Wan Mu Chun,' anyone hearing them would
shiver," Old Master Yang said. "Even though he was also a patriot, ultimately, he did not walk the
same path as us. Later on, Wan Mu Chun washed his hands of their dark ways and had better
relations with everyone. But even then, he would just come here for a chat during the Martial
Arts General Assembly. When he came, he would just have some tea and never fought with
anyone, and no one dared challenge him either. Later on, Wan Mu Chun grew old. He took in one
last disciple and had the disciple attend in his place. That child also had an evil air about him.
When he came, he greeted all the elders and then, just like his shifu, sat down to have tea.
Someone couldn't stand the sight of him and privately gathered a group of people to corner him.
In the end, he beat up this group one by one and broke their arms. That sect of theirs never had
training matches with others. What they practised were techniques for killing. Snapping their
arms instead of their throats could already be considered giving them a brief taste. Even though
that issue could be said to be the fault of the thoughtless younger generation who challenged
him, the seeds of discord were sowed and he stopped having contact with us. In view of the older
generation's past affections, twenty years ago, he came once to visit your granduncle and I. He
brought a small child with him, a disciple he had taken in. I don't know how things turned out
later on."

After hearing that, Yu Lanchuan had absolutely no opinions on the bizarre stories from the pre-
liberation days. He only felt his head aching even more. He had hoped that the Martial Arts
General Assembly would be a peaceful and harmonious assembly, and it would be best if
everyone just sat together and ate fruits and melon seeds, caught up with one another, talked
about the stock market, then exchanged local specialities from their homes, and happily returned
to their homes. As for this type of people who were like representatives of the troublemakers, he
fervently wished that they would not attend.

Rubbing his temples, he hurried upstairs.

Yu Yan was summoned by his colleague to the eighth floor. The female police officer who had
called him pulled him aside and whispered, "Yu-ge, I think something's not right. I suspect that
Nie Ke is an An Jiahe[2]."

Yu Yan frowned.

"Xiang Xiaoman—that's Mrs. Nie—basically stays at home twenty-four hours a day. Nie Ke
finishes work at quite a regular time. Once he comes home, he parks his car downstairs. If you
see his car there, you'll know that the man of the house is home. Logically, burglars who break
into high-rises should definitely be old hands, didn't he make any prior preparations before
committing the crime? Furthermore, that Xiang Xiaoman is very evasive and basically doesn't look
anyone in the eye. The moment someone asks her a question, she shrinks back. Apparently
they've moved in for a year already but she has never talked to their neighbours. A person like
that, when a burglar suddenly breaks in, would her first reaction be to catch them? I don't believe
that," the officer spoke quickly. "Her head was knocked so badly and the skin was broken on her
face, yet she doesn't want to go to the hospital… I suspect that she has other injuries on her
body."

Yu Yan said, "So you're saying that their house was not broken into at all. It was Nie Ke who hit
his wife and broke the window, startling the neighbours, so he covered up with an excuse?"

"Yes," the officer said, full of indignation. "All men are bad!"

Yu Yan, "..."

"I mean… Yu-ge, I don't mean you. You don't count."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Having been entered into the Sunflower Manual[3] clan by his
colleague, Yu Yan faked a smile, then asked, "Have you asked the neighbours?"
"I have, they all said that they don't know." The officer spread her hands. "Everyone closes their
doors and lives their own lives. Even if they heard some noise, they can't say for sure if it's a
quarrel between husband and wife or if it's domestic violence. They wouldn't just say anything to
the police. Furthermore, this Nie Ke knows how to act like a decent person most of the time.
When he goes on trips, he frequently buys back things for the neighbours. Everyone in this
building has pretty good relations with each other, we can't get any dirt on him. The only way is if
the woman makes a report herself and goes with us to the hospital to have her injuries checked,
but she isn't talking to us at all! Yu-ge, think of an idea, quick!"

Yu Yan glanced at her helplessly. What idea would I have?

Putting aside the fact that the victim didn't want other people to know, even for those who took
action to make reports, how many of them regretted halfway and didn't follow through? A
person's family was part of their soul. More often than not, domestic violence cases were
entangled with many complicated psychological issues. On top of that, due to reasons such as the
issue having dragged on for a long time, public opinion and material reasons, the issue was
already tied into a dead knot. It wasn't something that could be simply explained as "a man
beating a woman."

These young people who had just started working not long ago always felt that once they put on
their uniform, they could save the world. They looked upon their work as though it was
something supremely meaningful.

But what was the purpose of work? Wasn't it just to support one's family?

"Do what you can and don't shirk your duty" was already the highest standard one could uphold
in their working life.

Yu Yan had been young once too, and didn't want to throw the harsh hypocritical reality of the
world onto that passionate spirit, so he said, "We can't push their heads down and force people
to make police reports. But there is a possibility that today's case has eyewitnesses."

The officer's eyes gleamed. "That Spiderman?"

"Yeap," Yu Yan said, fooling her. "At that time, this Spiderman was sprawled outside a window
not far away. The noise at 804 was so loud, he must have seen something. If you're still worried,
you can try leaving a private contact number with Mrs. Nie. Sometimes, people might not be
willing to make a police report but if they have someone they can turn to for help, they might try
when they are at the end of the rope."

The young officer believed his words and went away enthusiastically. Yu Yan looked at her
retreating back and sighed. He walked to the end of the corridor and lit a cigarette, his heart
vaguely feeling that all their efforts that night was for nothing.

Nothing was missing from Nie Ke's house. Furthermore, other than the injury on Mrs. Nie—Xiang
Xiaoman's face, the "thief" didn't leave any traces. The police examined the whole place and
questioned everyone, but as expected, they found nothing. They could only record their
statements, and then leave the place.

And then wait to see if this "Spiderman" who left a letter of challenge with Yu Lanchuan would
appear.

The residents of No. 110 Courtyard were all abuzzed for a few days. After that, other than the
noticeboard downstairs gaining a notice reminding everyone to lock their windows, there were
no more ripples.

"Mrs. Nie, good morning."

"Xiao-Xiang, going out?"

"The weather is so pleasant, it's good that you came out for a walk. Don't just stay at home the
whole time."

Xiang Xiaoman kept her head down, her steps hurried as she passed through the east garden. She
didn't converse with anyone either, and only hastily and perfunctorily gave them a quick smile.

A light breeze carried the voices of the aunties in the east garden over, trickling them into her
ear.

"...Her life is good. Her family has a house and a car, her husband earns well, she can laze around
at home the whole day and doesn't have to go to work."

"That isn't what you call 'housewife,' that's what you call 'rich wife.' Don't housewives have to
look after the family? Their child attends the kindergarten right by the entrance but I've never
seen her send the child there even once. There's not a single day where she gets up before noon.
They get food delivery for their meals and hire an hourly worker once a week… And now she's
going to the laundry shop by the entrance to collect their clothes. Aiyo, spending money to wash
clothes, tsk!"

"Other people have good husbands. If you are capable of it, you can marry one too."

"I'll marry your father and become your mother, how about that…"

The jokes blew past Xiang Xiaoman's face like a slap. Yet, like she was already used to this
treatment, she was not bothered and her face was wooden as she arrived at the laundry shop at
the corner.

The laundry shop was opened by an old man. He hired a twenty-something years old young man
to do the miscellaneous tasks. At this hour, the old man would have gone out for lunch and it was
usually the shop employee who received her.

Speaking of this employee, everyone suspected that he was either mute or a stutterer. If
someone asked him a question, he either nodded or shook his head. If flustered, he would let out
a mm. He wore a face mask through all four seasons of the year and had earphones in his ears, as
though he felt insecure if his face was not covered. He wore an old T-shirt with a cartoon
character print, and never met anyone's eyes directly.

Xiang Xiaoman dug out the receipt and put it on the counter. The laundry shop employee took it
up and looked for the clothes she had sent for cleaning. Neither of them said a word, neither
looked at the other. It was like they were in a silent film. The only sound that could be heard in
the shop was the sound of the dryers tumbling.

Xiang Xiaoman checked the clothes. Without even lifting her head, she gave a slight nod, then
turned to go.

Right then, the shop employee suddenly called out to her.

"Hold on." He was 1.8 meters tall, a tall and broad young man, yet his voice when he spoke was
weak and faint like a cat's cry. "You… Please wait a minute."

Xiang Xiaoman turned her head around and saw the shop employee took a small paper bag from
under the counter. In the paper bag was a small blade.

His hand was trembling, his voice was also trembling. "This.. was taken from your pocket. Is it
yours?"

T/N:
[1] There are a few references in the paragraph about Wan Mu Chun.
i. The name Wan Mu Chun (万木春) itself is likely a reference to a Tang dynasty poem. The line
where the phrase appears generally means "the emergence of new, fresh forces, while the old
ones are dying." More info in the Glossary.
ii. Old Master Yang says that the "spring" in the names carries the meaning of "scattering to the
four winds" and "the silent rain."
"Scattering to the four winds" comes from the Tang dynasty poem A Poem for the Swallows ( 燕
诗 示 刘 叟 ) by Bai Juyi. The poem is about filial piety, and draws comparison between baby
swallows growing up and flying off to the four winds with children growing up and leaving their
parents.
"The silent rain" is from the Tang dynasty poem Spring Rain ( 春夜喜雨) by Du Fu. It is a simple
and elegant poem that vividly describes the soft and quiet spring rain, and alludes to people who
quietly make great contributions.
iii. "Paoding Jieniu" literally means "the cook / butcher dismembers an ox." It refers to the story
about a butcher who so skillfully dismembers an ox that he impressed a lord who asks him how
he was able to do it. The butcher's answer was basically something along the lines of 'my blade is
me, I am the blade, all I see is the ox and the Way' (please go to the link above to read the proper
translation). If you're familiar with Kurapika from HXH, yeah, this story reminds me of Kurapika
learning to use his chain.
[2] An Jiahe 安嘉和 is the antagonist of the 2001 TV series Don't Respond to Strangers and is a
surgeon who beats his wife. The character's name has become synonymous with domestic
violence.
[3] Sunflower Manual 葵 花 宝 典 - as mentioned in an earlier chapter, this is a reference to
Dongfang Bubai, a fictional character from the wuxia novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer by Jin
Yong, who castrated himself to obtain the skills in the Sunflower Manual.
Chapter 21
Note: This chapter marks the start of the paid chapters and is extra long for that reason. Please
support Priest by buying the paid chapters on JJWXC!

The moment Xiang Xiaoman turned around, the shop employee subconsciously leaned the upper
half of his body back, as though her gaze was a hot oil splatter that he needed to block with a pot
cover.

Following that, he seemed to gather all the courage he had in his body and stammered in that
cat-cry voice, "You… You must calm down. You have a child. If there's anything… anything that
you can't bear, you can get help from other people… I…"

His voice was soft and slow, and his words were rather unclear, like he was someone with
learning difficulties.

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Xiang Xiaoman walked over with an expressionless
face, grabbed the blade together with the paper bag, and left.

The shop employee closed his mouth, staring at her retreating back at a loss. Taking the initiative
to say a couple of words to a strange lady seemed to have taken all his strength. Even after she
had walked out of the laundry shop, his wildly thumping heart didn't seem like it wanted to calm
down and even his legs were shaking.

After a long while, he finally saw his reflection in the mirror at the front door. The features on his
face were proper, his body tall and large; but his "proper" looks were not particularly pleasing to
the eye. He did not have any outstanding features, his looks were forgettable. His "tall and large"
body wasn't of the "extraordinary bearing" or "immense strength" variety. For some reason that
he did not know, he wasn't fat but he looked slow and sluggish. His fringe covered his eyes; they
had just been washed but were already greasy enough to gather into locks. His entire person had
the bearing of someone tense and cowering, like he was ready to bow to anyone at a moment's
notice.

Ugly man, he thought.

As though he couldn't bear to see his own image anymore, he moved his gaze away.

In front of the laundry shop, people walked to and fro. Every day, he saw other people talked and
joked with one another, and would feel very bewildered. He suspected that all of those people
privately had a script and that everything they said had been written down and memorised
beforehand. Otherwise, how could they be so relaxed and not stumble even a little bit?

Every time he was forced to speak to other people, it seemed to be something extremely risky
and dangerous that he had to throw caution to the wind to do.

Tone and intonation, where to put his hands and where his eyes should look, what to say—he
had to rehearse all that in his heart a few times but it was still useless. Once he opened his mouth
and his mind multi-tasked to take care of all those many things, he would inevitably fall short
somewhere, and danger would pop up all around him.
The more he said things badly, the more he panicked; the more he panicked, the more he said
things badly. More often than not, people would not have the patience to listen to the end of his
grunting and mumbling lines. They would cut him off, ignore him, brush him off… or just bluntly
turn around and leave.

He was like a freak that did not fit in anywhere. Everytime he tried to extend his feelers to touch
the world around him, he would end up getting a round of electric shock. As time went by,
"extending his feelers" seemed to be something that could endanger his life.

The outer room of the laundry shop had a counter to receive customers. Behind the counter was
the washing area. Next to it was a very small storeroom—the cleaning tools, the things used in
the shop such as clothes racks and plastic bags were stuffed into that room. And squeezed into
the gap between these miscellaneous items was a small and narrow camp bed. That was his nest.

In his nest was a laptop of a very old model and an Ayanami Rei figurine. Just one, and it was not
even a limited edition one. Those great gods on the internet who could easily have a display
cabinet full of figurines were too extravagant. The figurines they had were extravagant, the
display cabinets they had were extravagant, the space they had for the cabinets even more
extravagant.

Even though she was not much of a treasure, she had always accompanied him. She was like a
close, intimate friend. Through the animation, he understood her story; meanwhile, by staying
beside him day after day, she understood his thoughts, and nothing more needed to be said.

"Yan Hao! Yan Hao!" The laundry shop owner was back and shouting for him. "Where did you run
off to again?"

The shop employee trembled. Carefully, he put Ayanami Rei away and turned to walk out of the
room.

"Ai, you gave me a fright. Kid, why isn't there any sound when you walk?" The shop owner patted
his own chest and tossed a small booklet over to him. "The clothes for No. 115 to No. 121 are
ready. Give them a call and tell them to come pick them up."

Yan Hao's scalp started prickling once he heard the words "give them a call." Rather than making
a phone call, he would pick chestnuts out of a fire with his bare hands. Hence, he accepted the
booklet and, while outwardly agreeing to the task, secretly cheated. He put the reminder in a text
message and sent a mass text to the phone numbers.

The boss saw him doing this and sighed as he said, "Aiyo, I only asked you to make a phone call,
it's just a couple of words. There are so many spam messages nowadays, a lot of people don't
even look at their messages. Xiao-Yan ah, you can't be so introverted. Look at you, when you
have nothing to do, you stay in and play on your computer or fiddle with your little plastic
figurine. How old are you and you're still watching cartoons! As time goes by, your mind will
become abnormal! Humans have to interact with other humans, and have to go out and make
friends. If you hide yourself indoors everyday, you won't even find a partner. Society will abandon
you!"
Yan Hao quietly listened beside him, cowardly and slow. The moment the boss saw him like that,
he worried until he was losing hair.

"At the Martial Arts General Assembly this time, you can't cower at the back anymore. Quite a
number of young people will be going, it'll do you no harm to get to know a few of them. You
hear me? Your family entrusted you to me so I have to take responsibility." As the boss
enumerated his shortcomings, he became angry looking at how Yan Hao was shrinking back.
Enraged, he bellowed, "Straighten your back! Your ancestors were heroes, not rodents burrowing
into the ground! What are you bowing for!"

Yan Hao quivered in fright. His back swiftly straightened up and he stood as rigid as a coffin
board. Then, sticking close to the wall, he slipped away woefully.

After leaving Yan Hao's laundry shop, Xiang Xiaoman didn't go straight home like she usually did.
Carrying a large plastic bag full of clothes, she walked along the shaded path strewn with yellow
leaves, then turned into a small alley. Right at the end of the alley was a desserts shop that was
popular on the internet, with a long queue outside all year round. Xiang Xiaoman hesitated a
while, then walked over. She joined the end of the queue but her gaze swept uneasily around her
surroundings, like she was looking for something.

Right then, a middle-aged woman walked towards her and lined up behind Xiang Xiaoman. The
woman tapped Xiang Xiaoman's elbow and asked, "This shop's desserts are a bit expensive. Are
they good?"

Xiang Xiaoman shrank back instinctively but she did not evade the woman.

The middle-aged woman gave her a very kindly smile. "But something that is really good is worth
it even though it is expensive, isn't that right?"

As she spoke, her hand appeared to move inadvertently and, without a fuss, she pushed a paper
bag into Xiang Xiaoman's hand.

Xiang Xiaoman seemed to have touched something terrifying. What little colour she had on her
face disappeared completely.

"11th of November." The middle-aged woman stopped smiling, her voice so soft it was almost a
whisper. She gave Xiang Xiaoman's hand a vicious squeeze, then turned and left.

Xiang Xiaoman was afraid that other people had overheard them and looked around in a panic.
Lined up behind her were a few high school students who had finished school early for some
reason. All of them had earphones in their ears, their heads lowered and their attention on their
phones. No one was noticing her. Only then did she relax. That was right, who would spare her
some of their barely sufficient attention?

No one would. In over thirty years, no one had.

Xiang Xiaoman hurriedly peeked at the thing the woman had given her. It was an envelope. Inside
was a paper packet containing some drug powder. The envelope was printed with a row of
words: Why you? Why not someone else?

When she saw that row of words, she pressed her pale lips together. She walked out of the
queue and slipped the envelope into the pocket of her coat. Right then, she touched something
in her pocket and took it out for a look—it was a paper note.

On the paper note, written in a graceful yet rather childish handwriting, was a private phone
number…

And a sentence: If you have any difficulties, call me any time. I will come as soon as you call.

This was something the female police officer who had come to her house the other day secretly
slipped to her before leaving. Xiang Xiaoman's steps paused. For a second, a touched expression
flashed across her face. Then, that little bit of hesitation passed fleetingly; her gaze swiftly turned
steady and numb. She crumpled the paper note into a ball and threw it into a nearby rubbish bin.

The crumpled paper wasn't thrown accurately. It hit the rim of the bin and bounced back out,
rolling to the middle of the street. Xiang Xiaoman didn't turn back to see.

She had just left when Gan Qing, sticking close to the wall, slipped out from behind a dirt wall in a
tiny fork in the road. For a few seconds, she watched Xiang Xiaoman walk away, her eyes
narrowed. Then, she walked over and picked up the paper note. The warm, friendly smile on her
face had disappeared and there was a gloom in her pensive gaze. A guy who had just finished
shopping was walking straight ahead with his head down, and accidentally bumped into her. He
was just about to apologise when he turned his head and met her eyes. He shivered for some
reason, and hastily walked off.

However, the man might have walked off but the smell of the meat floss cake in his hand
remained. Gan Qing came back to herself and scrunched up her nose. The gloom in her eyes was
wiped out by her gluttony.

She slipped the paper note into her pocket and turned to the little shop's window to look at the
price list. A rich buttery smell wafted out continuously from the window, tempting her into
staying there. While looking, Gan Qing pinched the spare change in her pocket. She could feel the
thin, flimsy renminbi tearfully accusing their owner of not treasuring them and felt a little guilty.
Hence, legs facing forward and head turned back, step by dragging step, she prepared to go back.
She plotted to defraud a few more foolish big spenders next month, take a cut of the profit, and
then she would definitely come here for a round of eating.

Right then, a few high school students came from the opposite direction. Gan Qing's eyes
suddenly gleamed. "Xiao-Qi-Qi!"

The foolish big spender was here!

Liu Zhongqi's school was holding a sports meet for the autumn season, which was why they
finished school earlier than usual. He had just represented his class in the 3,000-meter race and
he didn't know if it was because he was tired or because of something else, but his eyelid had
been twitching non-stop. Gan Qing's shout made him jump out of his skin.

"Come here, come here." Gan Qing smiled a very mysterious smile and crooked a finger to
beckon him. "Young man, treat me to tea and I will teach you an all-powerful self-defense
technique."

The moment Liu Zhongqi heard that, he ran over excitedly.

Fifteen minutes later, in the bright and gleaming desserts shop, the young man who had once
again fallen for a trick was exceptionally angry. "This is what you call an all-powerful self-defense
technique?"

"This is the most effective self-defense technique in the world." Gan Qing took a bite of the thin-
skinned and generous-filling xue mei niang[1]. The light cream enclosed the chocolate chips, the
different textures clear and distinct. The chocolate chips were slightly melted, soft as silk, and
they dissolved with just the slightest pressure. The innermost part of the cream still had some
fine ice shards, cutting through the richness of the dessert. The aftertaste lingered on her tongue.
Gan Qing felt that after this bite, even the sky falling down was not a problem. Hence, she
patiently explained to Liu Zhongqi, "Running away is a wide field of study. Not only must you be
able to run, and run fast, you also need to observe your surroundings and keep your ears open.
You have to use the terrain to shake off your pursuer and must absolutely not give them a chance
to detour and trap you. You can't just run in a straight line, or they can easily hit you if they throw
something-"

Liu Zhongqi cut her off angrily. "You liar!"

The last time, she had used a personal alarm to trick him into treating her to a round of
McDonald's. The last last time, she had used a despicable and obscene groin kick technique to
trick him into buying a fortune-changing bracelet.

And he still hadn't learned his lesson and had fallen for her tricks for a third time!

How embarrassing!

"I'm really not lying to you. There is always a higher mountain, and there is always a more
powerful person. No matter how good an expert is, there will be a day when they make a
mistake. There is no technique that is all-powerful." Gan Qing took a gulp of her black coffee,
clearing away the remaining taste of the chocolate xue mei niang in her mouth. Then, she
reached her little fork towards the piece of mango mousse. "If you want to be in a position where
you won't be defeated, the only way is to not fight. Have you ever seen your brother fight
someone else? No, right? He knows all the complaint hotlines in the world. If he can use his
mouth, he definitely won't use his hands. That is the way of the true expert."

Liu Zhongqi said in disgust, "Pah!"

Gan Qing didn't feel there was anything wrong at all with tricking a child into buying her a meal.
"You don't have a girlfriend anyway, so you don't have anything to spend your allowance on.
What if you have a lot of money and you go to Mudpool Backlane and end up getting kidnapped
again? I'm helping you reduce risk. No need to thank me, it's what I should do."

Liu Zhongqi said through gritted teeth, "And whose fault is it that I don't have a girlfriend
anymore?"

Gan Qing gave him a thumbs-up. "You did it all by yourself!"

Liu Zhongqi was so angry that he stood up and walked away immediately, even forgetting his
school bag. In one breath, he charged out and ran for more than 200 meters before realising that
something was missing from his shoulders. He ran back again, steam rising from his every orifice.

He charged into the little desserts shop like a small train and saw Gan Qing reclining against the
windowsill. A narrow beam of light shone through the glass, sweeping across her features.

Her head was lowered and she was looking at something. There was a peculiar sort of tranquility
and loneliness about her, like time had stopped still. Liu Zhongqi suddenly recalled the Gan Qing
who had saved him at the urban village—even when she was hit or cursed at, or when her head
was pushed, she didn't care. She didn't seem to care about the danger and didn't seem to know
pain. Thinking carefully, there was a touch of the kind of weariness where she looked at
everything as though she was a detached bystander.

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly for a few seconds. He followed the line of her gaze…

"Who allowed you to touch my homework! What are you looking at!" The fire that had just gone
out flared up again. Liu Zhongqi rushed over in a fluster, snatching back his half-done English
paper. "Give me back my school bag!"

"I was afraid that someone would take it, so I put it here to keep an eye on it out of the goodness
of my heart. That paper of yours fell out on its own." Gan Qing threw the bag over to Liu Zhongqi
and took a contented gulp of her milk tea. "You need to study hard ah, little friend. Don't spend
the whole day dreaming of jumping onto roofs and walking on walls. Out of a total of twenty fill-
in-the-blanks questions, you got fourteen wrong in one go. Isn't failing your exam scarier than
getting beaten up?"

Liu Zhongqi's homework paper had just been given out and had to be handed in to the teacher to
be marked. The students did not have the answer scripts. He scoffed and grabbed the paper, and
left right away, thinking, Did this illiterate ruffian even graduate from junior high? Putting on an
act to trick others, pretending she can understand it.

The illiterate ruffian Gan Qing had a satisfying tea and not even a single crumb was left. She stood
up and stretched her body, and made a note on the "double eleven[2]" date in her phone
calendar.

11th of November… Was there something special about this date?

"The date is… 'double eleven'?" Yu Yan had an incredulous look on his face. "Are you sure? Who
picked that stupid date?"
"Me." Yu Lanchuan crossed his arms over his chest, one eyebrow raised. "Do you have an opinion
on it?"

Yu Yan said, "Holding the Martial Arts General Assembly on Singles' Day. Alliance Leader, aren't
you afraid of being single for the rest of your life?"

"What's wrong with being single for the rest of my life? Being single for the rest of my life sounds
pretty good," Alliance Leader Yu answered, half-dead. "The eleventh is a Sunday. I can use the
excuse of getting a medical check-up to free up half a day in the morning. Furthermore, this way,
the ones coming from other parts of the country can come over on Saturday and everyone can go
back to their own homes on Sunday afternoon. It won't interfere with them going to school or to
work… and will also prevent the situation where only the members who are jobless vagrants or
bored retirees come to attend."

"Okay, sure. Look at that sour face of yours. Just take it as a side gig that pays 8,000 a month. A
side gig that pays 8,000 a month is not easy to find." Yu Yan advised him. "The location for this
General Assembly of yours is, uhh… the activity center for seniors?"

Firstly, Yu Lanchuan was busy. Secondly, he had never organised something like this, so for this
Martial Arts General Assembly, other than picking the date and time, the location, agenda and
other matters were still handled by Old Master Yang and the others. Even the publicity poster
was designed in the old and middle-aged people style of "Raising a Toast to Friendship."

As for the agenda, once he thought of it, Yu Lanchuan felt like he didn't want to live anymore.

"You guys better keep a low profile, Master Lan. Let me tell you, this thing of yours isn't
registered with the authorities. If there is a ruckus and someone reports all of you for holding an
illegal assembly, things will be troublesome," Yu Yan exhorted him strictly while flipping through
the agenda. "Martial arts combat is strictly prohibited throughout the General Assembly, the
main objective is to have peaceful relations… Oh, that's pretty good… The first event, entrance of
the major sects, Alliance Leader's speech, mm… it's the starter segment where everyone gets to
know each other. The second event is… free socialising. To make it more conducive for
socialising, every sect will disperse and sit separately. The seats are divided into three areas.
Those above fifty-five years old and sect leaders (limited to married sect leaders) will be in Area
A. Those who are unmarried will complete a personal information form and go to Area B. All
other guests will be in Area C… Why are the seats separated into married and unmarried?"

Yu Lanchuan reached up and covered his own eyes.

As Yu Yan read on, he faintly detected something amiss. "...After the free socialising, the younger
generation in Area B will go to Area A one-by-one according to their seats and receive guidance
from the older generation. Fourth event, talent show and lunch… This, Master Lan, wait a
minute!"

Yu Lanchuan reached out and took back the Martial Arts General Assembly agenda, cutting him
off with a serious look. "You're done reading it, right? Good, then let us talk about the matter of
'Tang Qian Yan's descendant.'"
"I'm not done reading," Yu Yan said. "Let me analyse the agenda for this assembly of yours-"

Yu Lanchuan said, "You don't have to analyse it!"

Yu Yan opened his mouth at the same time. "So, the sequence of events at your Martial Arts
General Assembly is: first, state your sect; next, those already married will go to the side while
the unmarried men and women speeddate; then, line up to meet the parents; finally, sit down
for a meal?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

That mouth of his!

Yu Yan said, "Amazing, Alliance Leader. You're a genius!"

Yu Lanchuan forced out his words through gritted teeth. "Like I said, I didn't arrange this."

Alliance Leader Yu skived off his role and didn't have common sense, and had actually dared to
leave this kind of matter to Old Master Yang and the rest. He had underestimated how venomous
the group of middle-aged and old people in the country was—they can turn any gathering for any
purpose into an arranged dating convention.

Police Officer Yu held on to the office desk and laughed his heart out.

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up and said with an expressionless face, "Like I said, prohibiting
combat is an old rule that has been in place for many years. Elder Yang and the others are also
here. If this who-knows-real-or-fake Tang Qian Yan descendant wants to blend in with the crowd,
he shouldn't make a move during the assembly. I think he will wait for me to be alone to come
for me. How about this—after the assembly, I will send all the guests off and find a chance to put
the activity center back to how it was on my own. Since he has left a letter of challenge, there is a
high chance that he will appear then. At that time, you guys wait outside for my signal. I will help
you keep him there."

Yu Yan asked, "Are you confident that you can defeat him?"

Baffled, Yu Lanchuan answered him, "How would I know? I don't know this person."

Yu Yan asked a little worriedly, "Then, what if you aren't his match?"

"Then I'll just admit defeat," Yu Lanchuan said without any reservations. "If I'm injured, I'll make
him compensate me for the cost of medical treatment and loss of working hours."

Yu Yan, "..."

In wuxia stories, when experts met for a match, more often than not they would bet their lives.
Their entire lifetime's dignity and success or failure all depended on one move. According to
incomplete statistics, those who suffered defeat in martial arts matches ended up taking their
own lives, going crazy, severing their own meridian points, destroying their own abilities… The
lightest symptom was to throw away their weapon, let their name fall into disrepute, and
disappear from the jianghu.

To be thinking of compensation for loss of working hours even before the match, this was
probably the first time in history!

Police Officer Yu was stunned by how broadminded the new Martial Arts Alliance Leader was and
could not say anything for a long while.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Then, it's decided. I still have something on, I'll leave now."

"Ai, Master Lan." Yu Yan shamelessly held him back, jogging to keep up as Yu Lanchuan walked
out. "No hurry, you still haven't told me yet—as a sad single, how do you feel to be soon hosting
the 23rd Martial Arts Arranged Dating General Assembly since the establishment of the new
China-"

Yu Lanchuan said, "Get lost!"

Yu Yan asked, "Can the host get a get-out-of-jail, no, get-out-of-marriage card? Are there any girls
who are pretty and can fight? Can an outsider—for example, me—participate? Hey… you're
taking advantage of your longer legs to walk faster, aren't you!"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to say more to him. He raised his hand to hail down a cab.

"Don't pretend to be proper, Master Lan," Yu Yan said behind him. "Don't tell me you're no
longer straight after too much overtime?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "Don't worry, even if I'm not, it's not like I'll fall for you."

Yu Yan smiled mischievously and said, "I remember when you were young, you were someone
cold outside but wild inside. Back in junior high, a girl from the next class gave you a love letter
but you threw it away without even reading it. From day to night, you put on a 'I will not be
muddied together with the profane world' act, then went home and secretly drew a girl's
portrait."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I drew your mum."

Yu Yan said, "I knew you wouldn't admit it! I have evidence! It was the same person in different
poses. One sketchbook was completely filled up and there were at least a few hundred pictures. I
took photos for memories…"

Yu Lanchuan slammed the cab door in his face. Leaving behind a trail of exhaust fumes, he
disappeared.

He had just reached the downstairs of his apartment building when his phone started vibrating
madly. That despicable Yu Yan had sent a string of photos over and had added a watermark that
said: Records of the Martial Arts Alliance Leader's Dark History.
Yu Lanchuan was just about to start cursing when he was suddenly stunned.

He had indeed once owned such a sketchbook. But it had been so many years; he had gone
abroad to study and then worked, and moving house became as ordinary as an everyday meal.
His childhood belongings had long since been thrown away. Now, he was caught off-guard as he
looked at the old traces from more than a decade ago. His blurry memories suddenly became
clear.

The resolution of the images was not very high, making it seem like the immature sketches were
overlaid with a filter. There were pencil sketches, and also sketches done with ballpoint pen or
gel pen. The girl in the pictures was drawn with an acute and severe silhouette. The artist's skill
was not very good but every frown and every smile was extremely vivid. She gazed out of the
paper, her eyes curved in an arc.

Yu Lanchuan came to an abrupt stop. When he looked up, he was right outside his own door.
With an incredulous look in his eyes, he turned his head towards the next door apartment. After
staring blankly for a while, he was suddenly gripped by an inexplicable desire to knock on that
door.

Right at that moment, the elevator sounded. A waft of sweet-ish perfume drifted over. The
newcomer yawned and asked lazily, "Xiao-Chuan, what's the matter?"

The person walking over was Zhang Meizhen who had just returned from outside. Yu Lanchuan
finally came back to himself. He cleared his throat. "I… I'm looking for Gan Qing. I have something
to ask her."

"Oh, is it urgent?" With a fingertip, Zhang Meizhen wiped the corner of her eye that had light
makeup on. "If it's not urgent, then leave it for tomorrow. That little nun goes to bed early, she
has long since gone off to recite sutras in her dreams. How about I help you pass her a message?"

Yu Lanchuan shook his head in a fluster and quietly gave way to the old lady. He stood for a while
in the corridor before carrying the thoughts in his heart home.

Then, for the next two to three days, he didn't see Gan Qing.

Every morning when he woke up, Gan Qing had already wandered off somewhere to get
breakfast. She seemed to never be done with the meal and showed no signs of coming back even
after a long while. He had to get to work on time and couldn't wait too long. In the evening, Yu
Lanchuan got off work and came back. If he was back early, she would not be home; if he was
back late, the lights next door would already be switched off.

Yu Lanchuan didn't know if he was imagining things but he felt that recently, Gan Qing's work and
rest hours were exceptionally irregular. She seemed to be out the whole day and catching her
just once was exceptionally hard.

While his hands were occupied and his mind restless, time flew swiftly by. In a blink of the eye, it
was the 11th of November.
This was the first Arranged—no, Martial Arts General Assembly since the old Yu Huaide passed
away.

To the ordinary residents of No. 110 Courtyard, this was a peaceful weekend. For once, everyone
could sleep all they wanted. Before nine in the morning, there were barely a handful of people in
the garden.

No one noticed that today, starting with Old Master Yang, the few elderly people with red
armbands who usually wandered around downstairs had disappeared. A few residents in the
building had also left their homes very early. The laundry shop did not open for business, the
leather goods repair shop also kept their doors closed and turned away customers. The jianbing
stalls on the northern and southern roads seemed to have come to an agreement beforehand
and were both skipping work. The beggars and vagrants within a radius of two kilometers also
had an unspoken agreement and did not turn up.

This unassuming old building usually seemed to be covered by a layer of protective film. Today,
this layer of protective film temporarily disappeared.

The bilingual kindergarten outside the western gate had a partnership with Yanning's television
station. For this year's New Year's Eve night event, there would be a program where the children
would perform in a group. The kindergarten's teachers and students' parents all placed great
importance on this matter and the children who were participating in the performance had to
rehearse on weekends. Nie Ke had sent his child to kindergarten early that morning.

Xiang Xiaoman had never bothered with sending or picking up the child, even though the
kindergarten was right at the courtyard's western gate, so near it was practically a neighbour.

The location of the living room in the old apartments was not ideal and the lighting was always
not very good. Even though it was daytime, the apartment had some dark and gloomy corners.
Xiang Xiaoman sat in the shadow of the sofa. She seemed to be carved from wood, staring in a
daze at her own hands.

Those people had told her, "Your fate and all the pain you have suffered are essentially of your
own doing. Otherwise, why you? Why not someone else?"

"You must have done something wrong. If you want to leave all these worldly sufferings, you
must cut yourself completely away from your cowering self."

Look at how you are now, don't you hate yourself?

You must kill that cowardly, despicable you.

Shaking with fear, Xiang Xiaoman turned her head to glanced at the mirror. The woman in the
mirror had drooping cheeks and the pallor of candle wax, without any sign of life. Messy hair
covered half her face. Through the gaps of the dry hair, her evasive gaze peeked out tentatively.

Is… that me?

Her throat let out a stifled howl. Trembling, she buried her head in her arms.

Why you, why not someone else?

Asking for help is useless, making a police report is even more useless. No one can whole-
heartedly understand you and no one will help you. Have you heard of the story of Xiang Lin's
wife[3]?

In this word, who isn't a lonely island?

Today is your only chance. Don't worry. For issues related to technique, we will help you deal
with the aftermath.

You only need to...

Right then, the sound of the key turning in the lock came from the front door. Nie Ke was back!

Xiang Xiaoman's mind blanked out. By the time she came back to herself, she had already poured
the drug powder in the envelope into Nie Ke's thermal mug!

The door knob turned twice and Nie Ke opened the door. Xiang Xiaoman subconsciously
crumpled the paper packet into a ball in her hand and stood up abruptly. Her whole body stiff,
she watched Nie Ke enter the door.

Nie Ke didn't notice anything. He seemed to be already used to her various peculiar actions and
didn't spare her even an extra glance. He smoothly changed out of his outerwear and changed his
shoes, then entered the house and picked up his thermal mug.

Xiang Xiaoman's heart was practically leaping out of her throat.

Then, Nie Ke brought the mug to his lips and suddenly paused. "Oh, that's right."

He noticed it! Was there too much of the drug powder?

Xiang Xiaoman's face was pale. A sheen of cold sweat covered her palms.

Nie Ke asked her curiously, "What's the matter with you this time?"

Xiang Xiaoman's limbs started to turn numb from anxiety.

Nie Ke didn't get a reply from her. He frowned and said, as though to himself, "The previous
doctor didn't seem much good. I think the results were so-so. Recently, I asked a friend to help
me contact a new doctor. I'll take you to see him this afternoon. The appointment is at two
o'clock. Get changed."

Xiang Xiaoman felt as though her lips had rusted shut. She couldn't say a single word.
Nie Ke finished his one-sided conversation, and his gentle and well-mannered face finally
revealed a hint of impatience and coldness. His brows knitted, he blew a few times, then took a
few gulps of the water in the thermal mug.

"Tastes like overnight water," he grumbled, planning to go to the kitchen to pour the water away.
"There's a strange taste."

From the kitchen first came the splashing sound of the mug being washed. Subsequently, the
thermal mug fell into the sink with a clunk and after that, there was the thump of something
heavy falling to the floor.

Nie Ke held on to the sink futilely, knocking the broom over. In the end, he still slid senselessly
down the kitchen cabinet.

Xiang Xiaoman's heart was beating so quickly it seemed on the verge of exploding. Quietly, she
tiptoed over to the kitchen door. She stared at Nie Ke lying on the floor, holding onto the door
frame with much effort to steady herself.

The first step: If there are latex paints or wallpapers around that are not easy to clean, it is
necessary to cover well with plastic. The kitchen and the bathroom are the most ideal locations.
Porcelain tiles are easier to clean.

The second step: Wear your raincoat.

Stumbling a little, Xiang Xiaoman dug out the raincoat she had prepared. Her hand gripped a
small blade tightly.

The third step: ...Open the door. The people who will help you have come.

Right then, someone knocked lightly a few times on her front door. Xiang Xiaoman took a few
harsh breaths and opened the door. Two people entered from outside, both wearing caps, face
masks and gloves. They were covered up tightly, their faces only revealing two pairs of dark and
heavy gazes.

The person who entered last closed the door silently. Through the peephole, they looked at the
empty corridor outside, then nodded at their accomplice. The other person walked into the
apartment and surveyed the place, then held Xiang Xiaoman up by her shoulder.

"Shh…" The person spoke beside Xiang Xiaoman's ear. "Don't be afraid. A person's body is sturdy
yet weak. Find the correct spot and even a child can easily end a life. Find the wrong spot and a
burly man weighing a few hundred pounds wielding an axe might not easily chop off a person's
head. Paoding Jieniu is the supreme technique of a martial arts sect, let me teach you."

The person walked over and leaned forward to study the unconscious Nie Ke for a few seconds.
Then, they let out a cold laugh, tied him up and stuffed something in his mouth. After that, there
was a clicking sound from their hand. Xiang Xiaoman jolted violently. She saw them take out a
red ballpoint pen from somewhere, clicked the tip out, lifted Nie Ke's chin, and drew a red line on
his neck.
"Cut open along the dotted line. Can you do that?" The other person held Xiang Xiaoman's
trembling hand. "Do it slowly. The knife is very sharp. Don't cut your own hand. Go."

Xiang Xiaoman slowly walked towards the unconscious man. The two tightly bundled up people
slowly retreated, giving her space. She held her right hand in a deathgrip. She didn't look at Nie
Ke's face, focusing her eyes on the red line.

It was very easy. It didn't need her to exert any strength.

The cold blade landed on the person's neck… no, on the red line.

"Press down, Xiaoman."

Xiang Xiaoman's fingers trembled increasingly. She opened her mouth wide, like she was letting
out a soundless shout. Her fingers suddenly slipped down and blood seeped out right away. The
pain awakened Nie Ke. He opened his eyes, his head fuzzy...

Right at that moment, someone knocked loudly on the outside of 804's door.

"Is anyone home?" The person said loudly, "Open the door, it's the police!"

Xiang Xiaoman fell to sit on the floor. Nie Ke seemed to realise something. The blade sticking out
of his neck, he started struggling violently. The two people in the house exchanged looks, and
rushed over to the balcony in unison!

"Police! Open the door!"

The two masked people broke out of the window and headed in different directions, and were
even climbing bare-handed.

Right then, a window on the tenth floor opened and something swooped down together with a
lethal wind...

T/N:
[1] Xue mei niang 雪媚娘 is a dessert consisting of a thin, chewy skin wrapped around whipped
cream and chunks of fruits or chocolate.
[2] "Double eleven" or 11th of November is known as Singles' Day in China (because 1 = single
person). Quoting wiki, it is an "unofficial holiday and shopping season that celebrates people who
are not in relationships." In practice, it's less about celebrating singlehood and more about really
great shopping deals.
[3] Xiang Lin's wife 祥林嫂 refers to the story The New Year Sacrifice by Lu Xun which tells the
sorrowful story of a woman subjected to repeated torments due to traditional views.
Chapter 22
If a person wanted to dangle out of an eighth floor window, in a situation where they had no
equipment, they had to rely solely on the strength of their arms and legs to cling to the cracks in
the wall. Among those, their wrists and their fingers bore the brunt of their weight. The two
streams of wind rushing down from upstairs were aiming right at these two people's wrists.
The person who had drawn the line on Nie Ke's neck bent his legs and forcefully leaped upwards
by nearly a meter to dodge the wind. In a moment of panic, his feet landed on empty air. He
twisted in the air, looking as sorry as a carp jumping out of the water, and just barely managed to
grab on to a clothes drying rack hanging out of someone's balcony window.

The other person's reaction was not as quick. When the sound of the wind cut close, he had no
way to dodge. His left hand was abruptly thrown away from the wall while his other hand
couldn't keep his balance. He shrieked at once and fell down from the eighth floor. Luckily, the
sixth floor had anti-theft windows that slowed down his fall midway. This unfortunate person first
crashed forcefully onto the anti-theft window, then bounced off and rolled all the way down. He
fell through the rain canopy on the second floor and finally rolled all the way to sprawl on his
back on the canopy over the bicycle racks, spasming as he lay there. In his left wrist, sticking out
of his flesh, was a caramelised sunflower seed.

The second batch of police arrived right at that moment. All together, they swarmed up.

The one hanging from the clothes drying rack initially wanted to charge up to the tenth floor to
see who was the interfering busybody but seeing so many police on the ground, he couldn't be
bothered to do that anymore. He climbed madly for his life towards the western side. The police
on the ground gathered around and gave chase.

Gan Qing closed the window, shutting out the jumbled voices from outside. She leaned against
the side of the window and finished snacking on the sunflower seeds in her hand. Then, she
unhurriedly put on a coat and went outside. The elevator brought the police who came later to
the eighth floor, then creaked its way up to the tenth floor to fetch her. Both parties passed by
each other.

The police at 804 broke down the door and entered. The first to charge in was the young female
police officer who had left a paper note with Xiang Xiaoman. Once she entered, she was shocked
by the scene in the apartment which was completely different from what she had expected. Only
when Nie Ke started struggling for his life, his head knocking against the kitchen cabinet, did she
realise that the person was still alive.

The police officer strode over and stood between Xiang Xiaoman and Nie Ke, preventing her from
taking any drastic action. Her other colleagues rushed to Nie Ke's side, nervously looking at the
wound on his neck. Fortunately, the small blade had only cut into the flesh at the side of his neck
and did not reach any major arteries. It had already fallen out when he was struggling.

"Don't move, I'll untie you."

The moment the police pulled out the strip of cloth in Nie Ke's mouth, the man's hysterical
screams were like the water from a burst dam. "H-Help me stop the bleeding, quick, quick! C-Call
the ambulance! This crazy woman wants to murder me! She wants to murder me! Officer, she
has two more accomplices! T-They escaped through the window just now! I… How much blood
have I lost? I… Can I still be saved…."
The door was opened and it was also a Sunday. With so much hustle and bustle going on, all the
neighbours on that floor poked their heads out one by one. An unsuccesful murder attempt was
not something they could be an onlooker to every day. The killer and the victim were even
husband and wife!

In no time at all, the other floors also got the news. At the stairwell on the eighth floor, there was
a large crowd made up of all sorts—men and women, old and young. Each one of them stretched
their necks out two meters long, their five senses all fighting each other to squeeze to the front,
wanting nothing more than to fly forward from their faces, go past the police stopping them, and
investigate every little detail.

Xiang Xiaoman didn't resist anymore. That one cut seemed to have used up all her courage and
strength. After the police broke down the door and entered, she only sat on the floor in a stupor,
blankly and obediently watching everything happening before her eyes, letting the police search
her body as they needed.

By then, Nie Ke had regained his senses. When he found out that his neck only had a small cut
that could be managed with a bandaid, he quickly straightened his clothes and recovered his
bearing.

"All these while, I didn't want other people to know about this. I was afraid that if the neighbours
know, they would look at us with biased eyes. My wife is indeed seeing a psychiatrist. Because of
this, there was no way she could go out and work. I have been taking care of the house and our
child all these while. Ai… erm… Officer, don't make things too hard for her. She couldn't control
herself. It's my fault for always neglecting her a few years ago because of my work…"

The man was courteous and respectable, with a face full of worries; the woman stared straight
ahead, slumped on the ground like a lump of rotting meat, surrounded by the police like she was
a dangerous item.

The old lady from next door looked on feelingly, saying "Aiyo" a few times in sympathy. "What is
going on here?"

"She doesn't like leaving the house. I was afraid she would be bored, so I encouraged her to go
online. I didn't know that there are so many terrible people online nowadays!" Nie Ke hissed in
pain and covered his neck. He poured out all his grievances as the victim to everyone in the
building.

No one wanted to be sick. What did the sick person do wrong? They were just unlucky and
indeed should not be subjected to any criticism.

But what did their family members do wrong? Why did they have to bear this kind of endless
torment and carry this burden? As the saying went, "By the bedside of a chronic illness, there is
no filial piety." An ordinary invalid who couldn't get up from bed could already make other
people feel annoyed, much less someone with mental illness.

In some people's eyes, everything in the world could be segregated by rank and status, including
illnesses. According to this discriminatory view, since ancient times, mental illness had always
been at the very bottom of the chain. It was just barely a step up from sexually transmitted
diseases, neither of them were anything good.

"This person should be sent to the hospital." Sounds of whispered discussions came from the
stairwell. "Otherwise, what will happen if her illness flares up again?"

"Her husband still has to go to work. How would he have the energy to follow her around for
twenty-four hours a day?"

"You can still hire a nanny or a nurse for ordinary illnesses. This… You can't hire anyone for this
type of sickness!"

"Today she wants to kill her husband, what if she wants to burn down the house tomorrow? This
isn't just about them."

"Clear the scene, don't let them crowd around. Why are there so many unrelated people here!"
The young female police officer who was the first to get the call was a little agitated. "Do any of
you know what actually happened? You are just making blind guesses! We came because we got
a call saying that this man was beating his wife. Mr. Nie, it was also your home that was broken
into previously, wasn't it? Did a burglar really break in or did you make a false report to cover up
what you did in your home?"

Nie Ke looked at the police officer in shock. "Me? Beat my wife? I… I… Food can be eaten in any
way, but words cannot be spoken irresponsibly! I'm the victim here, aren't I? Didn't you see her
try to kill me with your own eyes?"

"Why would she want to kill you for no reason?" The police officer scoffed. "Just you wait, let the
evidence speak for itself."

As she spoke, she pulled Xiang Xiaoman into the room next to them and closed the door. If Xiang
Xiaoman was a long-term victim of domestic violence, the previous occurrence where her face
was injured was surely not the only time Nie Ke had beaten her. She surely had other wounds on
her body.

Yu Yan and Yu Lanchuan had agreed beforehand to lay in wait for their prey at the activity center
for seniors and were waiting to catch that Spiderman. Who would have thought that before they
got there, more than half the people they had were diverted elsewhere.

His colleague called him to inform him of the situation at 804. Yu Yan listened and felt his head
blowing up. "What? There was an unsuccessful premeditated murder attempt, and there's even a
mysterious group capable of jumping on roofs and walking on walls behind it… Seriously… All
right, take them away for now. This matter has gotten big, we might have to hand it to the
higher-ups."

After hanging up, Yu Yan texted Alliance Leader Yu, instructing that if "Spiderman" were to
appear, he was to please try his best to keep him there, the neighbourhood police didn't have
enough hands to go around.
"I initially wanted to hug the alliance leader's thigh tightly so that I can work less overtime in the
future," Yu Yan said as he typed. "But I think this alliance leader is an unlucky disaster-bringer."

His colleague said, "Suspected domestic violence, drugging and murdering her own husband...
Yeap, this is a real life version of a Be Afraid of Marriage lesson, letting you guys take a good look
at what happens after marriage."

Yu Yan glanced at his colleague. "You talk like you can find a partner. Did your previous arranged
dating end in failure again? Was it because she didn't like you or because you didn't like her?"

"Hard to say. I didn't feel anything and there was nothing wrong with her either. We're all
ordinary people anyway, if we can get along then we'll get along. In the end, my family again
didn't agree. They just had to say that she was not a local and must be targeting our family's
household registration. Let me ask you, isn't it funny? She doesn't know me anyway, if it was not
for the household registration, what else can it be?" His colleague dangled a cigarette from his
mouth and let out a laugh as broadminded as the sea. "Since they don't agree, that's it. I'm fine
either way. My parents want to look for a daughter-in-law and they're the ones paying for a
house, so they can call the shots. I don't care."

An older police officer from the front looked back. "What are you saying!"

"I'm being logical here. In the first place, whoever pays is the one who calls the shots. I'm
spending my old mum and old dad's money, so I gotta listen to my old mum and old dad.
Whomever they ask me to marry, I'll marry. How many kids they want me to have, that's how
many I'll have. Ge, with this lousy job of ours, relying on our ego to struggle to buy a house and a
car is just a dream. Without money, is there freedom? I've long since accepted it. To steadily
continue depending on my parents and not cause trouble—that's what it means to be filial."

Yu Yan said, "Move aside, you with the wrong views[1]."

His colleague replied, "All right, your views are right. Then, have you saved up your deposit?"

Yu Yan, "..."

In the past, he had thought that Yu Lanchuan's chuuni sickness had reached the fourth stage,
which was why he was at loggerheads with his family and made things difficult for himself. Now,
he suddenly seemed to understand why Master Lan was willing to lose all his fortune and bear
the weight of a few millions worth of debt.

"Ai, enough chit chat. Yu-ge, check your phone!"

Yu Yan jolted. This was what he had agreed beforehand with Yu Lanchuan. This morning, they
would use WeChat to contact each other if there was anything. Once the "Spiderman" appeared,
Yu Lanchuan would immediately speed-dial his number. The phone call was the signal.

"Go, go go, quick!" Yu Yan pushed open the car door. As he led them towards the activity center
for seniors at a run, he muttered in puzzlement, "Isn't their assembly not yet over?"
Yu Lanchuan had actually come out for a breath of fresh air. Because the new alliance leader was
a young bachelor of good looks and talents, the seniors from all the major sects had gone crazy
and were practically pouncing on him and making moves on him. Since young, Yu Lanchuan had
been prideful and stubborn, and had never been on an arranged date even once. This was the
first time he was facing such a situation. The cool and aloof demeanour he had developed
through crawling and rolling and fighting in the working world was of no use. After holding on for
a few minutes, he fled in defeat.

He wandered over to the reception area and poured himself a cup of coffee, wanting to calm
down for a bit. He had just sat down when a small balled-up paper flew over from the back,
bouncing a few times on the table before landing beside his hand. Yu Lanchuan looked back
abruptly. A shadow suddenly flitted past behind him. The window was open, Yu Lanchuan poked
his head out for a look and saw that at the grove of trees in the park behind the activity center
for seniors, someone dressed up as Spiderman was standing there, far away.

This "Spiderman" was tall and broad. He wore a tight-fitting cosplay costume bought from
Taobao. The quality was worrying and the net over the eye holes seemed to have been pasted on
himself using the mesh lining from track pants. When he saw Yu Lanchuan, without saying a
word, he immediately struck a pose.

"Who on earth are you?" Yu Lanchuan walked over, carrying his coffee, and asked, "After all the
fuss with the challenge, you're not even going to show your face?"

"Spiderman" didn't say anything. From a few steps away, he made a sign with his hands. The
meaning was, "Stop talking nonsense, I'm going to attack."

Yu Lanchuan took no notice. "You said that you're the descendant of Tang Qian Yan? Where did
you come from? How are you related to Tang Qian Yan, Mr. Yan Ruofei? Is it a family relationship
or a master-and-disciple one? Do you have proof?"

The Yan Hao inside the "Spiderman" skinsuit was about to go crazy. Didn't the masters in the
television shows all begin their attacks without saying a word? Why was there an oral test
segment?

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Who made you challenge me? Do the recent spate of high-rise burglaries
have anything to do with you?"

Yan Hao didn't want to have a chat with him. He just wanted to take the chance when no one
was around to fight and then leave right away. Since he had already gone through the opening
steps, he felt that the formalities were already complete. Hence, he gritted his teeth and charged
towards Yu Lanchuan, one fist aiming straight for Yu Lanchuan's shoulder.

"Careful, this is hot." Yu Lanchuan frowned and stepped nimbly aside to dodge. He put the hot
coffee on a small stone table beside him and raised his hand. Yan Hao's eyes gleamed. He
thought Yu Lanchuan was going to fight back but what he saw was the other man raising his
hands and not moving. "I'm not going to fight anymore. I surrender."

Yan Hao, "..."

"You've won," Yu Lanchuan said. His words were still in the air when footsteps sounded.
"However, on the matter of breaking into a private residence, you need to explain that to the
police."

"I see that Spiderman!"

"That's him, Master Lan, don't let him escape!"

Yan Hao quivered, then twisted his head around and leaped towards the little grove. There
seemed to be a pair of springs under his feet; when he jumped, he really looked like a large
spider. He leaped over the stone table, clambered up a fork in a tree about three meters high,
and swung himself away.

Right at that moment, Yu Lanchuan moved. At some point, he had picked up a pebble from the
ground which he now threw ruthlessly. The tree branch that was as thick as a human thigh shook
violently, mercilessly shaking off the Spiderman on it. Yan Hao wanted to run the moment he
landed but a stick swept towards him, blocking his escape route. A flick of the wrist and the
"Spiderman" got a faceful of dew, and his eye holes were blurred. Yan Hao closed his eyes and
ducked. The stick caught on his skinsuit. With a tearing sound, the cheap quality skinsuit tore
open, revealing the cowering face of the laundry shop employee inside...

"We caught him!"

Meanwhile, at the same time, at Apartment 804 of No. 110 Courtyard, the "righteous and
brimming with indignation" female police officer who wanted to have Xiang Xiaoman's injuries
checked walked out with a strange expression.

Xiang Xiaoman's body was very clean. There were no injuries.

T/N:
[1] "Views" here is literally "three views," 三观. These three views refer to "view of life," "view of
the world" and "view of value." Altogether, this term can be understood to refer to a person's
values system and mindset.
Chapter 23
The matter of Yan Hao being taken away by the police while wearing a Spiderman costume
created huge waves. After all, whether it was "Spiderman" or "police," both were worth getting
worked up over. The intense and exciting Martial Arts Arranged Dating General Assembly was
interrupted just like that.

"I was the one who brought him here. It's all because you people insisted that everyone has to sit
in different groups. When I turned my head, I couldn't find where he had gone off too. This child
gets scared whenever he's at a place he's not familiar with and doesn't even dare to go to the
toilet!" The boss of the laundry shop had the surname Jiang, full name Jiang Xiangyang. He lived
at No. 110 Courtyard. Other than running the laundry shop, he was also the leader of the tai
chi[1] squad of the Senior Citizens Morning Exercise Army. "Sect Leader Yang, he is the
descendant of Old Senior Yan. There isn't anyone left in his family, that's why they came to
Yanning to seek my help. He's a well-behaved and guileless child, how can the police take him
away? What on earth is the misunderstanding here?"

Old Master Yang didn't know what "Spiderman" was and had only seen Yan Hao from far. Even
though he was confused why this young man would want to dress up like a sneaky dragon fruit,
he had been good neighbours with Boss Jiang for many decades, so he was still willing to believe
his brother's words. "Don't panic, Xiao-Chuan is going with them."

Yu Lanchuan went off with Yu Yan and the others because after Spiderman Yan Hao was
surrounded by the police, he became like a bird frightened by the twang of the bow string, ready
to take flight at any second. This guy climbed high-rise buildings like walking on flat ground; if he
escaped on the way, they would not be able to catch him, so they had to bring Yu Lanchuan along
just in case.

"This kid is adamantly refusing to admit that he has stolen things before," Yu Yan said. "But we
have checked, he came to Yanning at the beginning of this year. He eats and stays at the laundry
shop, and usually hardly ever goes out. He doesn't have much money with him either. All his
personal items are at the shop. My colleague just went over to see and didn't find anything
suspicious either. Just an old laptop and some daily necessities, a few cans of cat food… If that's
really the case, there is indeed no evidence to prove that he committed those high-rise
burglaries."

"Canned cat food?" Yu Lanchuan asked curiously. "His taste is pretty heavy."

"Behave yourself." Yu Yan jabbed him with his elbow. "Maybe they're to feed stray cats, we don't
know. It's not related to this case so we didn't ask in detail. If we ask any further, he's going to kill
himself. Look at how he is, it really doesn't seem like he would have accomplices. I think that
even for a territory fight, no one would be willing to be in a gang with him, much less for
something risky like high-rise burglaries."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Then, what about that night when 804 was broken into?"

Yu Yan said, "He said that he climbed the window that day just to give you the letter of challenge.
He didn't go to 804."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Why on earth must he give me a letter of challenge? My good looks are my
own business, I'm not stopping him from being ugly. Even if he defeats me, there is no stage-
clearing reward."

"I don't know. He said it was his mum that made him do it. His mum's dying wish was for him to
surpass his peers and become the new generation's… head of something supreme?"

"Five Supremes."

"Ai, fine, your esteemed community doesn't have any damned thing to do the whole day but you
guys sure have a lot of special terms. Five Supremes, so there are five of them. In the end, when
this mummy's boy got here, he found out that other than himself, one person couldn't be found
no matter what, one person would pant for breath just from running after the bus, and one
person was a woman so he really didn't dare talk to her. So, after considering all of them, you're
the only one left."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Yu Yan had a rather strange expression on his face. "That's right, he said that when he passed by
the eighth floor that day, he saw the woman sobbing and making a huge fuss. The man was next
to her, restraining her and trying to get her to calm down."

Yu Lanchuan frowned, "So who was the one who broke 804's window?"

"Our deduction is that the window should have been broken by Xiang Xiaoman," Yu Yan said. "My
colleague is still there. Xiang Xiaoman's murder attempt was unsuccessful and is currently being
restrained. Nie Ke is now admitting that he was indeed urged by the neighbours around him and
had no choice but to make a false police report. Based on what Nie Ke said, Xiang Xiaoman was
not in a good state during that period of time. That's why he sent their child away just a few days
ago. That night, her illness suddenly flared up and she sobbed and made a fuss at home, and
even threw things to vent her emotions. Nie Ke tried to hug her from the back to stop her from
moving. Xiang Xiaoman grabbed a wooden chair and swung it backwards to hit him. She didn't hit
Nie Ke, but broke the window. The injuries on her face and head also happened when she fought
and struggled when Nie Ke restrained her."

There didn't seem to be any major problems with this explanation. Nie Ke wasn't a very burly
man, it wouldn't be easy for him to restrain a grown woman who was acting wildly. For there to
be falls and bumps during the process could be considered normal.

Yu Lanchuan thought of something and asked, "Then, who called the police today?"

"Right, that's also a question," Yu Yan said. "I have a colleague who has always been suspecting
Nie Ke of domestic violence. She left her personal number with Xiang Xiaoman. The call today
was made to her personal number. The other person's voice was a female voice, very soft and
also came from very far away, so we initially thought it was Xiang Xiaoman herself. But Xiang
Xiaoman didn't admit it. It makes sense too, since she had already contacted her accomplices and
made the decision to kill Nie Ke, of course she wouldn't call the police herself. We've also
checked the number the call was from, it's a single-use burner number."

Which was to say, someone knew what was happening at 804.

"The most troublesome thing now is that out of the two people who appeared inexplicably at Nie
Ke's home, one escaped and couldn't be caught while the one we caught fell down from the
eighth floor and is still in the hospital now." Yu Yan passed the phone to Yu Lanchuan. The entire
sequence of events when the two people were hanging outside the window had been caught on
the police's body cameras. "Xiang Xiaoman's drug was given by them. We are now suspecting
that this is an organisation of substantial scale that instigates crimes. There's enough now to
hand the case over to the detectives. I say, Master Lan, previously when I consulted you on the
question of jumping over walls, you said that ordinary people can jump over walls with just a bit
of training. Then, what level is this freehand wall climbing? Don't tell me that this type of sports is
also included in the national 'Sports For All' program!"
Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything. The video was a little shaky. It started from the moment one of
the two people fell down and the other person sprang up to clamber up the clothes drying rack.
He rewatched this part of the video three times.

The one who fell down was nothing much. His skill was not good enough and he hadn't gotten a
firm hold. But the other person's movement was very inexplicable — he had one very risky move
where he swiftly leaped upwards, followed by a series of dodges and evasions like he was
surrounded by perils. When he was hanging beneath the clothes rack, he had also looked up at
something...

What was he looking at?

Yu Lanchuan suddenly stood up.

"What's the matter?" Yu Yan asked curiously. "Did your boss use a summoning talisman again?"

Yu Lanchuan ignored him. He rushed out of the police station and hailed a cab.

That person made those dodges and evasions because someone was throwing things down from
the upper floor. There was also a possibility that the accomplice didn't fall down on his own. On
this day when even Yang Yifan had reluctantly attended the "arranged dating general assembly"
and everyone in the building who could have done this was not at home, other than...

The man was in a sorry state, panting harshly. He tore off his coat and face mask. On the inside,
he wore a light sweater of a preppy style. He quickly ran his fingers through his hair, fumbled out
a pair of glasses which he perched on his nose, and also made a small change to the way he
walked. Immediately, his entire demeanour changed; he seemed like a feeble yet proud
intellectual.

Right after that, he walked out of a small alley as though nothing had happened. He saw a
bookstore at the corner of the street. Two primary school students were squatting by the small
rack at the bookstore's entrance, choosing comics. The man narrowed his eyes a little and strode
over. Without any warning, he grabbed the comic from the little girl's hands and asked sternly,
"Are you students from No. 1 Primary School? Who taught you to read this kind of unhealthy
extracurricular book? Which class are you from, who's your class teacher?"

His tone was stern and fierce. The two little children had probably just started school not long
ago and were immediately frightened. They thought that he was really one of their school
teachers that they did not recognise and stood frozen on the spot like two dead quails.

Right then, the police ran past in pursuit. Their eyes swept past the man standing with the
children at the roadside, and didn't stop.

The man glanced at the police running further away out of the corner of his eye and smiled a
barely discernible smile. Then, unexpectedly, he did not leave but instead, came up with a long
lecture off the top of his head and scolded and scared the two unlucky children into crying. Only
then did he brush off the dust on his pants, stood up, and swaggered away.
He was evidently a bad person who could not be saved anymore.

He avoided the police who were pursuing him. From far, he looked back and stared at the No.
110 Courtyard in the shaded lane. He spat on the ground. Just you wait.

Right then, a voice suddenly spoke from behind him. "The fine for spitting in public is fifty yuan.
Teacher, as a role model for others, how could you be so uncivilised?"

The man had not noticed at all that someone was approaching him. Startled, he turned around
abruptly but before he could see clearly who was behind him, the back of his knees took a heavy
blow. His balance suddenly lost, he instinctively covered his head and landed on his shoulder,
rolling on the ground. When he looked up, the space behind him was empty.

His eyes widened. Right at that moment, that voice again spoke from behind him. It sounded like
someone was keeping their voice very low, delivering each word into his ears one by one. "Do
you know what the real 'Paoding Jieniu' is? Are you even worthy of speaking those words?"

The man let out a roar. He jabbed his elbow to the back but met empty air. Right after that, a pair
of hands pressed down on his shoulders, using the force of his jab to twist lightly. With a snap,
half the man's body went numb. He even had a misperception that he had exerted too much
force and dislocated his shoulder. The most outrageous thing was that the person actually used a
plastic bag that had been used to carry deep-fried dough cakes to stifle his anguished scream in
his mouth. The grease was all over his face!

Immediately after that, a cold light flashed in that person's hand. There was a chill on the man's
neck.

I'm dead!

In that second, he seemed to hear the sound of his flesh being cut open.

Before he lost consciousness, he heard the person say with a hint of a laugh, "The dotted line was
not drawn clearly. Is this where I should cut?"

Yu Lanchuan leaped out of the cab. The elevator was too busy right now; he pressed the button a
couple of times, then directly turned to run up the stairs to the tenth floor and started
hammering on the 1003's door.

No one answered.

"Ge?" Liu Zhongqi was on vacation at home and heard the noise. He poked his head out, a shrimp
dumpling half-stuffed in his mouth. "You're back, have you eaten? I just ordered delivery…"

Yu Lanchuan pushed him into the apartment. "Give me your phone!"

Baffled, Liu Zhongqi fumbled out his phone and handed it over.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Do you have Gan Qing's number? Which one?"

Liu Zhongqi, who frequently went to Star Dreams to be deceived voluntarily, said, "...Big
Swindler."

Yu Lanchuan found Gan Qing's number and immediately dialled it. Before it rang even once, the
other side rejected the call.

If the one who called the police was Gan Qing, then there was a high chance that she had been
keeping tabs on what was going on with that organisation that instigated murders. Otherwise, if
she waited for Xiang Xiaoman to make a move before calling the police, by the time the police
arrived everything would be too late.

It looked like she had learned her lesson from being found by Yu Yan the last time she called the
police and knew to use a burner sim now.

How long had she been tracking this organisation?

Since she had called the police and had taken action to help them take down one person, why
didn't she clearly point out the location of their nest to the police?

Where was she now, what was she planning?

Yu Lanchuan had a bizarre hunch. Gan Qing appeared to be someone who acted strictly
according to convention and didn't bother with things that were none of her business but he kept
feeling that… in her bones, this person was not a good citizen who followed norms and obeyed
laws.

He opened up WeChat and sent three messages in a row to Gan Qing.

Where are you? What are you doing?

This is now a lawful society, don't cross the line!

I know you're seeing this, reply!

Liu Zhongqi swallowed the shrimp dumpling. "Ge, are you looking for her for something urgent?"

Yu Lanchuan ignored him. Gripping the phone, he pondered over how he could locate her.

"I feel that even though she's a big swindler, she seems quite… quite amazing." The first time
they met, she had said that he had a sibling that he couldn't get along with. Until now, Liu
Zhongqi still couldn't understand how she had known. "The last time, she looked at my English
paper and said that I made fourteen mistakes in the fill-in-the-blanks exercise. I didn't believe
her. Our teacher finished marking and returned the paper to us on Friday, I really got fourteen of
them wrong! Ge, is fortune-telling really accurate?"
Yu Lanchuan, who scored 119 in TOEFL, had his train of thought cut off. Speechless, he glanced at
Liu Zhongqi and suspected that his stepfather's genes had a virus.

Following that, he thought of something. "When was that?"

He hadn't seen Gan Qing for a while. Recently, this person seemed to be wandering outside every
day.

"Last Monday." Liu Zhongqi said, "After the sports event on that day, I bumped into her at the
entrance of Snow House. She even tricked me into treating her… Hey, ge…"

Yu Lanchuan turned and left immediately.

Liu Zhongqi said, "...My phone… Ai, forget it."

The desserts shop Snow House was located in a mess of winding and tangled little alleys. There
was a former residence of a famous personage nearby and it could be considered a tourist spot.
Quite a number of non-locals came to seek out this shop that was popular on the internet and
also dropped by the tourist spot on the way. The people were many and various, and there were
also a few guest houses and room rentals of dubious legality in the alleys. It was a place suitable
for concealing wicked deeds.

Someone who spent the whole day tricking meals from a child probably wouldn't have spare
money to visit an internet-popular shop. So why had she gone there?

What did she find out near that place?

As he hurried there, Yu Lanchuan notified Yu Yan.

Liu Zhongqi's phone was silent. Gan Qing hadn't replied.

At this hour, Snow House—the place where the drugs had changed hands between Xiang
Xiaoman and the middle-aged woman—had just opened for business. There was already a line of
customers. Behind it was an alley that was slanted at an angle, very well hidden. At a glance, it
seemed to be a blind alley. One had to walk in to see that at the very end, there was a narrow
lane wide enough for just one person to walk. Squeeze in, and it was another street. There was a
hole-in-the-wall dingy little restaurant there and also a few small courtyards with guest houses
scattered around, all totting unremarkable shop signboards.

The middle-aged woman hurried into a courtyard. She knocked on her companion's door. The
person inside had just poked their head out when she pushed them in again and entered, closing
the door behind her. "Are they back yet?"

This guestroom was a suite. There was a small hall and two bedrooms. One man and two women
were inside.

The man shook his head and asked, "Why?"

The middle-aged woman paced in anxious circles. "Shifu had stressed that No. 110 Courtyard
cannot be touched. It cannot be touched. You guys didn't listen and now we're in trouble!"

"That Xiang Xiaoman's circumstances were so suitable and she also has money. It's a pity to let it
go." After saying that, the man continued asking, "What happened? Did they fail?"

"I don't know," the middle-aged woman said. "That place is full of police cars, I didn't dare take a
second look. Quick, pack up, get ready to leave this place."

The other two women in the suite hastily separated to pack their things. Suddenly, one of them
exclaimed in surprise. "Shijie, the 'Chun' tablet is gone!"

"How could you be so careless with our founder's memorial tablet!"

"It was right on the altar… Hey, who opened the window?"

Outside the guest house's tiny window, there was a soft snap. Leaning upright against the wall,
Gan Qing snapped the wooden tablet into two pieces.

T/N:
[1] Tai chi 太极拳 - a form of martial arts that is still commonly practised nowadays for health
benefits.
Chapter 24
Gan Qing looked down to glance at her phone. In just a short while, there were over twenty
unread messages, all from Zhong But Not Qi. Even though the messages were all purely text only,
from the words and punctuation used she could tell that the person sending the messages was
hysterically trying to stop her from taking a misstep.

First he emphasised strongly on logic and rationality; then, he appealed gently to emotion and
sentiment. He started by talking about looking at the big picture from society’s perspective and
went all the way to talking about an individual’s choice, then from public policy doctrine to anti-
violence rhetoric. One look and she could tell that it was definitely not that child Liu Zhongqi on
the other side of the account.

He can really talk, Gan Qing thought.

In the harshness of late autumn, Yu Lanchuan ran until he was sweating all over. All the messages
he sent out got as much response as stones thrown into the ocean. Finally, the “typing…” line
popped out on the screen.

Yu Lanchuan’s breath hitched. He stared at the screen, every second seeming to stretch infinitely
long.

She was replying! What was she going to say?

“This is none of your business”?

“I’ve already gotten rid of those people”?

Or… was there any chance that she had been persuaded by his words?

A few seconds later, Gan Qing’s message was finally sent. She had sent a crass-looking WeChat
meme: I bow down to the power of your nagging.

Yu Lanchuan, “...”

Was there something wrong with her!

Gan Qing put away her phone, picked up a pebble, then raised her hand and flicked it towards
the glass window next to her.

In unison, the three women and one man in the suite all jumped out of their skin in fright. The
middle-aged woman dashed over to the window. “Who's there!”

The little courtyard of the guest house that was filled with junk was devoid of humans. A palm-
sized leaf from a parasol tree spun as it floated down with a soft rustle. Before the four of them
could investigate, someone fell straight down from where they had been leaning against the wall,
hitting the ground with a heavy thump.

“Shixiong!”

The man who had fled from No. 110 Courtyard was tied up like a rice dumpling, his glasses
shattered until only the frame was left, his left arm and right leg bent at unnatural angles. The
scariest thing was, there was a familiar red line on his neck.

His head was lowered and he was not moving. They couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead.

“Who! Who is it!”

“If I may ask,” Gan Qing spoke up and asked very politely, “what is the meaning of the ‘Wan Mu
Chun’ written on this wooden tablet?”

The middle-aged woman looked up abruptly and sucked in a harsh breath. There were a few of
them there but they had not realised that there was someone else in this courtyard until that
person spoke up on her own and walked out of the shadow of the little building. As though to
mock them, Gan Qing was also wearing a long hooded coat. The hood hung low, covering almost
half her face. She was even wearing a face mask exactly like them.

Just one person… and a woman at that?

There was an old adage for traveling through the jianghu: The weaker a person looked, the more
they should not be provoked. The world did not have so many lucky idiots; when the wrong
person appeared at the wrong place, there was definitely something going on.

Gan Qing strolled over and stood still at the window. She threw the item in her hand onto the
ground—it was the wooden memorial table, broken into two halves.
In unison, the three women and one man looked in the direction of the noise. “Our founder’s
memorial tablet! You’re looking for death!”

The middle-aged woman reached out to stop her companion. “Friend, you don’t look like a cop.
Which group are you from?”

Gan Qing took out a very long strip of cloth from her pocket which looked rather like the hand
wraps used in Muay Thai. She smiled and carefully wound the cloth strip around her right hand,
fixing those few fingers that were like withered sticks in place and protecting them. “Me? I’m just
a curious passerby.”

“Wan Mu Chun is our sect,” the middle-aged woman said coldly. “In the generations before us,
there had been one of the Five Supremes. The path we walk is a bright and open one, what we
do is help the weak and defeat the strong. Friend, since you don’t know anything, why did you
break our founder’s memorial tablet and even injure our shixiong?”

“Is that so?” Gan Qing’s voice had a hint of a smile but her eyes did not curve. “Just now, I saw
the police chasing him and thought he was a wanted criminal.”

The man in the room shouted, “Who cares about the police!”

The middle-aged woman waved her hand. “Young lady, there is so much injustice in the world.
There are some things that the police don’t want to handle and some things that they can’t
handle. The things that they don’t handle, we will execute justice on behalf of Heaven. Yet, they
say we are breaking the rules and laws. How is that logical?”

“I thought that anyone who still dares to say the words ‘Execute justice on behalf of Heaven’ in
this day and age have all gone to work on making artificial rain,” Gan Qing said. “Aiding and
abetting murder also counts?”

“We are killing a scumbag,” one of the other women in the room cut in agitatedly. “We are saving
her!”

Gan Qing arched a brow.

“Since you know what we do, then we won’t beat around the bush,” the middle-aged woman
said. “How many men out there beat their wife like they are sandbags, while outsiders think of it
as resolving a family conflict and even urge them to forgive rather than to divorce? In the news,
the men who beat their wives to death are sentenced to a few years in prison. But for the women
who couldn't bear the torment anymore and got rid of those brutes, what kind of sentence do
they get? Maybe you’re strong and have never suffered this kind of torment, but you’re also a
woman. When you see and hear this kind of thing, don’t you put yourself in the other person’s
shoes and feel even a bit of sympathy? Even without us, she will still go on this road one day. At
that time, she might not be able to defeat this human scum and get hurt in return. Even if she is
lucky and succeeds, if no one helps her take care of the aftermath, she would spend the rest of
her life sitting behind bars!”
“Oh, then how do you guys plan to ‘execute justice on behalf of Heaven'?” Gan Qing asked. “First
help her take care of the man’s corpse, then let her use her position as his wife to apply for leave
and resign from his job. Transfer the assets as soon as possible, transform them into cash—you're
a one-stop service provider. But a full-grown person disappearing is not something that can be
covered up for long. She is a murderer at the end of her rope and she doesn’t have the ability to
live independently at all. In the future, she can only join you guys and depend on your protection.
Her family has a house and a car, they can afford to send their child to a bilingual kindergarten,
they can afford to rent a school district residence in the middle of the city—their assets should be
quite significant, am I right?”

“Lies and slander!”

“The cost is one packet of drug powder and a few days’ of room rental while the profit can be up
to ten million. What a good deal.” Gan Qing smiled. She stretched out her leg and kicked the
wooden tablet. “The name ‘Wan Mu Chun’ has been disgraced by you geniuses. I know a little
about the origins of these three words, why don’t I share with you guys?”

“Wan Mu Chun—at the very beginning, it was known as Wan Chun Hall. They started during the
Southern Song dynasty. At the start, their business was in murdering people and they took on any
kind of dirty jobs. At a point of time, their name was notorious. Later on, after a few changes of
dynasties, this sect slowly declined and the disciples scattered to the four winds. Only the ancient
killing techniques were passed down. At the end of the Qing dynasty, there was this one person
who reformed Wan Chun Hall’s ancient killing techniques and arranged them into a systematic
and unique skill set called Paoding Jieniu and started a sect called Wan Mu Chun. To learn his
skills is to not indulge in ferocity, to not fight fiercely, to not compare skills with others, to not be
a chivalrous hero, and to take a life the moment the blade is out, efficient and ruthless.” The
woman's slightly raspy voice said each word clearly and unhurriedly, like a patient museum guide.
Then, for some unknown reason, the autumn wind sweeping across seemed to become
noticeably colder, carrying with it the damp smell rising from the ground. “Because they were too
vicious, in the later years, there was internal conflict among the disciples and they started killing
each other. After going through great sorrow and rage, this old senior took action to cleanse the
sect himself and set up a rule—in every generation, Wan Mu Chun can only take in one disciple.”

“What were you guys saying just now? This is your founder’s memorial tablet? But I see that your
sect is flourishing and it really doesn’t look like there has been a few generations of single
disciples.” After saying that, Gan Qing held her phone behind her back and pressed send. “Don’t
tell me… you’re calling the wrong person daddy?”

Yu Lanchuan had rushed to where Snow House was located when his phone buzzed. The WeChat
friend “Big Swindler” had sent her location!

In the little courtyard of the guest house, a chill ran down the middle-aged woman’s back. “Who
on earth are you?”

“A passerby,” Gan Qing replied. “Exposing fakes on the way.”

Her words were still hanging in the air when the middle-aged woman suddenly made a move. She
closed the window abruptly!
Practically at the same time, Gan Qing’s left hand moved forward. From her hand, something
metallic slipped through the crack of the closing window, striking accurately on the woman’s
wrist like a viper. The middle-aged woman shrieked and the window opened inward with a
violent snap.

Gan Qing leaped up. In the room, the man lifted a wooden chair and hurled it at her.

Gan Qing seemed to laugh softly. She already had one foot on the windowsill; now, her entire
body flipped forward with preternatural agility. She soared into the air, narrowly letting the chair
smash past her. Kicking against the leg of the chair, she leaped up and disappeared.

The sound of the window shattering startled the people in the guest house. The dozing janitors
who doubled as customer service personnel poked their heads out in a fluster. “What happened,
what happened? Ahhh! Why is there a dead person in the courtyard!”

The middle-aged woman made a snap decision. “Quick, go!”

“What about Shixiong?”

“We don’t have time to bother with him, we’ll wait for a chance. Quick!”

The other two women and the man in the room grabbed their bags in unison, pulling out various
lethal weapons—everything from electric truncheons to machetes—and charged towards the
front door.

The door suddenly opened. Fingers wrapped in a cloth strip rested on the door frame.

The middle-aged woman said, “Careful, she has a hidden weapon in her hand!”

The electric truncheon and the machete swung towards Gan Qing’s head in unison. She seemed
to blur into a shadow, slipping through the cracks of the pincer attack without even a single hair
coming to harm. The woman holding the electric truncheon felt a pricking on her scalp and the
truncheon in her hand snapped uncontrollably towards her companion standing beside her.
Before she could let go and cut off the electric flow, it hit squarely on her machete-wielding
companion’s wrist.

Gan Qing said, “If I want to get rid of you guys…”

The machete wielder took 100,000 volts without warning and fell down unconscious. The woman
holding the electric truncheon had accidentally injured her own companion and hadn’t yet
regained her wits when there was a sudden pain in her elbow. The electric truncheon
immediately fell out of her hand; Gan Qing’s hand swept past and grabbed it. Swinging an
expandable baton, the man in the room charged at her. Gan Qing didn’t seem to quite
understand how to use the electric truncheon. Pressed for time, she used it as an ordinary
weapon to block. With the electricity flow cut off, the outer shell very quickly cracked. She let out
a “tsk” and shoved the electric truncheon forcefully towards the man’s chest.
The man wielding the expandable baton subconsciously dodged backwards. She contracted her
stomach, her center of gravity shifting to the back. Then, with a kick, she flew to the man’s side. A
buzzing sound went off beside his ear; the earth spun around him and then he was lying on the
ground.

Gan Qing said, “...just my fingers are enough. Do I even need a hidden weapon?”

Right then, the wind whistled lethally by her ear. Gan Qing suddenly slid half a step to the back. A
small metal bolt brushed past her, slicing open her sleeve. She turned back and saw that the
middle-aged woman whose wrist she had injured had a small crossbow fitted to her arm, and was
aiming right at her from a few steps away.

Gan Qing gasped in amazement. “I say, how did you guys pass the security checks?”

All the people in the guest house had been startled. Someone shouted in the courtyard, “Murder!
Quick, call the police!”

“What kind of people do you have staying at this lousy place? Is this a pyramid scheme!”

The middle-aged woman’s forehead was covered in cold sweat. From a close distance, the
crossbow hummed as it fired at Gan Qing. The illegal guest house was cramped and there was
also furniture in the way on one side so Gan Qing could only dodge to the other side. At the same
time, the woman who had lost hold of her electric truncheon just now caught her breath and
picked up her companion’s machete. She swung at Gan Qing’s back, right at the spot where Gan
Qing was dodging to!

On top of that, the crossbow was even capable of firing multiple shots. The metal bolts closed in
on Gan Qing, strong and forceful. The woman was not even afraid of harming her own
companion!

Gan Qing stepped to the side, letting the machete swing past. She raised her hand and grabbed
the wielder’s wrist and neck, pulling her down viciously. The woman heard her bones break with
a snap and even had a misperception that her neck was broken. She fell forward uncontrollably.
Subconsciously and out of habit, Gan Qing made use of the woman’s fall to push her towards the
incoming crossbow bolt, a lethal move…

Right at that moment, a wooden pole burst in from outside the window, hitting squarely on the
middle-aged woman’s arm. The crossbow slipped loose. Gan Qing’s pupils contracted slightly; her
wrist that was bound with a cloth strip suddenly pressed down on the person in her hands. The
crossbow bolt brushed past the machete-wielding woman’s cheekbone, barely a few centimeters
away from her left eye, and pierced Gan Qing’s coat.

Yu Lanchuan jumped in through the shattered window. He sent the crossbow on the ground
flying with a kick and in a few efficient seconds, he restrained the middle-aged woman who tried
to retrieve it. He looked up at Gan Qing and was nearly shocked out of his mind by the bolt
hanging above her stomach. “Gan Qing!”
Gan Qing loosened her grip and dropped the woman who had fainted from shock onto the
ground. She pulled out the bolt hanging on her coat. Luckily, she was thin and her clothes loose.
The crossbow bolt had only pierced through her clothes, ripping open a hole on the thin imitation
leather belt.

“Ai, that was close,” she muttered. “They nearly took my pants off.”

Yu Lanchuan, “...”

Gan Qing was not the least bit surprised to see Yu Lanchuan. She smiled at him. “Little Master Yu
has quite a good sense of direction. I thought you would need to search for a while more.”

Yu Lanchuan came back to himself and took a deep breath. “Are you mad! If you know where
their den is, why didn’t you call the police? Who do you think you are? Spiderman?”

Spiderman had just been arrested!

Gan Qing shrank back. “I…”

She was just about to speak when police sirens sounded from outside the guest house. The police
were here quicker than expected.

“...I knew you would bring back-up.” Gan Qing sighed and winked at Yu Lanchuan. “Little Master
Yu, since you’re here already, why don’t you help out to the end?”

“What-”

“I don’t want to talk to the police. Just say that you took care of everything. Don’t worry, I knew
what I was doing and no one’s dead. That one in the courtyard is still breathing.” In the space of a
few words, Gan Qing had already leaped out the window. Clinging to the window frame, she
climbed up to the second floor of the guest house. In a flash, she disappeared from the roof.
“Tomorrow, I’ll get my pay and treat you to a meal!”

Shoved into the role of “the hero standing up for justice,” Yu Lanchuan looked at the mess the
suite was in, his face expressionless.

Bullshit! Yu Yan knew him since primary school. He would never fight if the other party had more
than two people!
Chapter 25
"The one tied up in the courtyard is still alive. Other than two dislocated joints, he has no other
major injuries. He was totally just frightened into fainting. Also, other than the line on his neck,
there are seven other red lines on his body, all of them very fine blood marks. We don't know
what was used to make the cuts, the wounds are very shallow, just barely breaking the skin and
letting a bit of blood seep out." As Yu Yan spoke, he shivered. "The line on his neck was exactly
the same as the red line the suspect drew on Nie Ke's neck. The few red lines on his body are
practically symmetrical. From far, it looked like this person was cut into a few pieces. Master Lan,
where did you get this cheat code from? It's too terrifying."
Yu Lanchuan hadn't yet thought of how he was going to shoulder the blame and Officer Yu was
already excluding him from the list of suspects. He glanced at Yu Yan rather gloomily. "Why
couldn't I have done it myself?"

"You?" Yu Yan's eyes widened in astonishment. "Four… Five people! Stop fooling around. My
good sir, you treasure your life like a cat that has once gotten a terminal illness. Since young, it
has always been other people fighting while you went and told the teacher. How you were at
seven years old determines how you are now. It's impossible."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Yu Yan became serious. "Do you not know, or can you not say?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is there a difference?"

"If you can't say, then it means that you know the person. I believe in your morals and how much
you treasure your life, you won't have anything to do with crazy murderers," Yu Yan said. "If even
you do not know, then this person who appeared in our area of jurisdiction today will make it
rather hard for us to sleep at night."

Yu Lanchuan paused, then waved at Yu Yan. "About what happened today, just treat it as I saw
something wrong going on and put it right. When my younger brother passed by this area last
Monday, he saw Xiang Xiaoman and one of those people talking. That's why I came here to try
my luck."

"All right, Alliance Leader. If you give me your word, I have no worries." Yu Yan understood his
meaning. Then, he sighed. "These few people are quite the dangerous fugitives. They've all gone
through professional training, they can climb up buildings freehanded and also carry around so
many regulated weapons. To think they were defeated by one person with just their bare hands,
and that person had even controlled their strength well enough not to cause any deaths… Master
Lan, are they really still such experts in the world?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "The less you've seen, the easier you're impressed."

"No, it's not that," Yu Yan said. "Let's take you for example. Regardless of which sect you're from,
your main occupation is study and work. Back then, if practising the sword and fist techniques
interrupted your graduation project, you would have stopped practising, right? This is not a skill
that can feed you unless you become a martial arts athlete. Otherwise, with how fierce the
competition in society is, who would spend so much energy to study things like this?"

It was said that in ancient times, the main occupation of heroes was to "be chivalrous and uphold
justice" but this career had long since lost all future prospects. This was because the business of
collecting protection fees was conducted by prohibited underground societies. If one did not
"uphold justice" properly, it was also easy to break the law. Studies were intense, work was time-
consuming; to lose oneself in martial arts was evidently not an economical choice. Inversely, it
was those burglary rings and members of the violent criminal class that had nothing proper to
occupy themselves with every day and specialised in destruction who would diligently increase
their level and have some real skills on them.
Then, what about Gan Qing?

Yu Lanchuan was lost in his thoughts.

Drawing lines on a person to break down their body into parts was definitely not something done
by martial arts athletes. Where did her skills come from? What did she do in the past? Why was
she hunkering down in a small accessories shop to pass her days?

Of course, this was just Yu Lanchuan's biased view as an "academic tyrant" and "elite". For people
like him, "plans" and "checklists" were the cornerstone of their souls. Each and every one of them
had a very clear career progression plan and very strictly disciplined management of themselves.
In their eyes, those who did not have a career, who went everywhere to run errands for others,
who had no decisions for the future, all belonged to the category of "deadbeats".

In actual fact, Gan Qing was not a deadbeat. As a witch, she worked very hard to sway her
customers into buying things.

Gan Qing broke that "Wan Mu Chun" wooden tablet without leaving a trace, let the alliance
leader shoulder the blame, then changed her clothes and went to work as though nothing had
happened. To Boss Meng, her explanation was that she had gone to replenish the shop's stock. At
night, she sewed up the torn belt herself, then cleverly cut up the coat that could not be saved
anymore and transformed it into a bag. The next day, her personal life and work life went back to
normal. She took none of it to heart, and waited in anticipation of warmer weather and her
salary.

Looking at how every day was colder than the last, accessories made of metal and gemstones
were not so easy to sell anymore. She had already prepared a batch of astrological sign scarves
and gloves, as well as fortune-changing lucky charms. The sales revenue did not fall and instead,
increased. The fortune-changing lucky charms were selling especially well. They were actually just
a small embroidered pouch that cost 2.50 yuan each. Inside, they were stuffed with a colourful
patterned talisman that she had randomly drawn herself with watercolours. She sold them at 20
yuan each. It was the same as reblogging the lucky carp on Weibo anyway, if one believed in it, it
would come true.

Her basic salary was 1,500 yuan a month. The rest was a percentage of her monthly sales. Her
commission in November was higher than her basic pay. After transferring her rent to her
landlord Madam Zhang Meizhen, she still had 3,000 left.

"I'm rich!" Gan Qing sent Boss Meng a red packet worth fifty yuan to pay him back. "Uncle Meng,
I won't be freeloading at your place today!"

"Where are you going to eat? Spending money frivolously again! When can you live your days
properly!" Meng Tianyi walked out with a sigh. "You spend frivolously the moment you get paid,
just a bit of money and you go crazy! At the end of the month, you'll be so poor again that you'll
come to me for food. Ai, I told you to get social insurance somewhere, have you done it?"
Gan Qing took a long winding stretch of the body and brushed him off. "I will next month. Let me
save a bit of money first or I'll be short of cash."

"Last month you said this month, this month you say next month! Greedy and lazy! Since when
are you not short of cash!"

The words went in one ear and out the other. Gan Qing prepared to slip off.

Boss Meng called her back, taking out a large bag of old books from inside the shop. "Wait a bit.
One of my old brothers' kids just finished taking the exams for self-taught students. I asked him
for the books. Take them home and study them. While you're young and your memory is still
good, go take the exams too."

Gan Qing took the books and both her hands immediately sank under the weight. She didn't feel
like she could disappoint Boss Meng's good intentions, so she could only hold her nose and take
them away.

Meng Tianyi said, "You need to be serious!"

Carrying the books, Gan Qing waved at him feebly.

She left Mudpool Backlane and got on a bus. She fished out a book from the bag and flipped
through it, then stuffed it back in without much interest. Boss Meng's friend might not pass the
exam—only the pages at the front showed signs of having been opened, the ones at the back
were spotless.

The "greedy and lazy" Gan Qing didn't find a place to have a good meal. She didn't even eat at all.
She took the bus all the way to the final stop, then got down and bought rice, flour, meat and a
large bottle of oil. She walked along a very long stretch of road and arrived at an old
neighbourhood at the outskirts.

Those items altogether weighed tens of pounds. On top of that, there was the large bag of books
added by Boss Meng. By the time she reached the entrance of the small neighbourhood, Gan
Qing was already panting a little, breaking out into a sweat in the cold wind. Her right hand was
shaking so hard she could not hold on to the things. She put down the heavy items, blew on her
palms where the blood was not circulating well, and ate a piece of chocolate.

During the morning rush hour every day, looking at the sardine-packed people above and below
the ground, one would feel that Yanning's population size was bursting at its seams. But there
were so many secluded places here where not even a stray cat could be seen when taking a night
walk. Desolate and silent, so much so that when another person occasionally passed by, both
parties would be equally startled.

From not far away, someone waved a flashlight for a bit. Gan Qing lifted her head. A few seconds
later, there was the sound of footsteps, a little draggy. A withered and thin old lady walked over.
When she saw Gan Qing, she said rather cautiously, "Y-You're here?"
Gan Qing let out a mm. She bent down and picked up the things. "Didn't you say the last time
that you were out of oil?"

Seeing that she was carrying so many things, the old lady tried to come forward to help. Gan Qing
raised an arm to keep her away and said coldly. "No need."

The old lady's leg was a little stiff. With much effort, she followed Gan Qing, smiled at her, and
clumsily tried to find something to talk about. But she didn't know how to make conversation and
everything she said sounded foolish and stammered. She talked on her own for a while, then
seeing that Gan Qing had no intentions of paying her any attention, she closed her mouth in
embarrassment.

The old lady's home was on the first floor, small and cramped. The inside of the house was pitch
black, probably to save electricity. Now that a visitor was here, she hastily switched on the light.
The poor quality incandescent bulb flickered without pause, colouring the furnishings in the
house with dismal hue. There were dripping sounds coming from the kitchen and the toilet.
Water dripped down from the faucets to be caught by plastic pails underneath. By collecting the
water in this way, the water meter would not tick and she could save on the water bill. It was just
that listening to the sound made a person feel agitated.

There was a rundown wooden dining table in the hall. One of the legs was a section shorter than
the others and was propped up by a wooden block. On the table was a thermos flask and a row
of small medicine bottles. There was also a bowl of half-eaten vegetable congee and a small plate
of pickled radish.

"I cooked a bit for myself," the old lady said cautiously. "Have… Have you eaten? Do you want a
bowl of congee?"

Gan Qing glanced at the kitchen. There were still a few wilted vegetable leaves on the chopping
board. "You collected the scraps from the vegetable market?"

The old lady let out a soft mm.

Gan Qing took out a small stack of bills from her pocket and passed it over. "Just say if you don't
have money. Do you need to go that far?"

The old lady took the money but there was no sign of happiness on her face. "I'm already being
shameless just by staying alive. I'm useless, I can't do anything and always need to take
medicine… Every day when I wake up in the morning, I wonder why I'm not dead yet. When I sit, I
end up sitting for the whole day and I don't even have someone to talk to, I…"

As she spoke, she lowered her head and wiped her tears. "How can I keep asking for money from
you? You're not my daughter… If my daughter was alive, I wouldn't be like this. My pitiful chi-"

Gan Qing cut her off with a scoff. "If your daughter didn't have a mother, she wouldn't die so
young."
When the old lady heard that, she wailed in anguish. "I was the one who did that to her, I was the
one who burdened her! But it was for her own good… Men earn money to support their families,
they suffer outside, so if their temper is bad when they come home and they vent their anger, it's
not a big deal. A pair of husband and wife arguing when they're young and occasionally hitting
each other is normal… Whose life isn't like that? Just bear with it for a bit and it'll be over. She
wanted to divorce but where would she find another partner? She doesn't have a job either,
what was she going to eat? How would the two of us survive? ...Who would have thought that
her temper… How could she go on that road of no return? She just couldn't be more accepting…"

On the back of Gan Qing's hand, a vein bulged out.

There were some people who lived under the same sky as everyone else, who grew to look like
members of the same human species as everyone else, yet who knew what their brains
contained. Normal people would never know what they were thinking and would never be able
to communicate with them.

She couldn't beat up a trembling old lady and also couldn't be bothered to waste words on her.
She looked up at a black-and-white photograph hanging on the wall. In the photo was a young
lady, her features gently melancholic, smiling at her.

If it wasn't to repay your kindness, Gan Qing thought with an expressionless face as she turned to
leave, I wouldn't come to see your rotten mother.

Passing through the quiet of the night, she headed back. She got down at the intersection and
saw Yan Hao at the intersection in front of the laundry shop, squatting down to feed the stray
cats.

Yan Hao was speaking softly to the cats. When he saw someone walking towards him, he
immediately closed his mouth, his back tense like he was doing something wrong. He waited until
she had walked far away before he let out a huge relieved breath.

The police had no concrete proof to link him to the burglaries. Even though sticking a paper
notice on the outside of Yu Lanchuan's window had caused a disturbance to the residents, in the
end, he couldn't be blamed for the entire matter. Hence, according to the Regulations on
Administrative Penalties for Public Security, he was released. It could be considered a brief brush
against the edges of the law.

But the matter of him being taken away by the police while wearing a strange costume had
already spread around the nearby area. Rumours had wings and were capable of crossing a
thousand miles in a day. At the start, there were some who said that he had stolen things. Very
quickly, there were people who added seasonings to the story of him stealing things and it turned
into him stealing underwear. As it spread, somehow, "stealing underwear" turned into
"molesting women."

Very quickly, everyone knew that the laundry shop employee that didn't look normal was a
pervert. Even the boss's business fell significantly. Yan Hao was already afraid of people; now he
shrank even further into his shell. In his world, the only things left were the lonely Ayanami Rei
and the stray cats.
The other related hot topic was the matter of Xiang Xiaoman's unsuccessful murder attempt on
her husband. The case of Xiang Xiaoman and the mysterious criminal ring was no longer handled
by the neighbourhood police station and had been handed over to the higher-ups.

However, apparently Nie Ke was magnanimous. In consideration of their child, he didn't want to
pick a fight with someone who had mental health issues. It was said that someone who suffered
from mental health issues did not have to bear punishments under the law. If it was proven, she
would likely spend the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital… As for why she wanted to kill her
husband, who knew?

She couldn't even speak clearly.

Did a mad person need a reason?

The traffic in Yanning gradually grew sparse. This entire city was full of people who had lost their
voices.

Gan Qing hadn't had dinner and her stomach felt very cold. She was very afraid of the cold and
every winter was very difficult for her to endure. At least she now had heating at home. Hence,
she briskly slipped into the corridor of No. 110 Courtyard, shivering as she breathed out a puff of
cold air.

"Back so late?" The sound-activated light in the elevator lobby lit up.

Gan Qing looked up and realised that, unexpectedly, it was Yu Lanchuan who was there waiting
for the elevator.

Yu Lanchuan gave her a solemn nod, looking every inch the elite businessman. "It has been a
week, have you received your salary?"

Gan Qing, "..."

She was frozen by the cold and couldn't follow the conversation.

Hence, Yu Lanchuan went for a direct hit. "You still owe me a meal."
Chapter 26
According to Gan Qing's general knowledge, "I'll treat you to a meal next time" was about the
same as "You're not fat at all"; both belonged to the category of "New Year greetings." They were
purely to express politeness and had no practical value. Most people did not take them to heart.

There was a possibility that the alliance leader was not "most people."

"This… Aren't you very busy?" Gan Qing was dumbstruck for a while and it took her a lot of effort
to squeeze out a few words. "I see that you work overtime every day and have so many things to
do, so I didn't dare ask you."
"It's okay." Yu Lanchuan looked at her intently. "This month is still all right. Next month will be
the end of the year and there will be even more miscellaneous things to take care of at the office.
So it's better to fix the time at a nearer date."

And also to avoid letting it drag until the end of the month when you'll run out of money again.

Yu Lanchuan paused, then added, "After all, that day, I helped you out of the kindness of my
heart."

In the end, not only did you abandon me in the villains' den, I even had to face the police and
shoulder the blame for you.

Yu Lanchuan's every word had half a word's worth of breathing space. His tone was calm and
mild, and didn't sound particularly impolite. But the unspoken accusations were all in his gaze,
letting her feel them for herself.

The wages Gan Qing had received that afternoon was like a box of tissue during flu season; she
couldn't avoid pulling from it a few times and more than half of it was gone by now. Her heart felt
colder than her stomach.

She looked at Director Yu's structured and stylish wool coat, then glanced at her own cotton-
padded jacket that she had bought at a huge discount, and felt that this was the scene of a brutal
and merciless exploitation.

But owing a debt to someone and even having that someone come up to collect it was indeed
something rather embarrassing. Gan Qing had no choice but to grit her teeth and acknowledge it.
Thinking that it was better to end the pain as soon as possible, she said, "Then, have you eaten
today? I happen to be hungry now. It's rare for us to bump into each other, why don't I treat you
to supper?"

She thought calculatively, Supper is cheaper than a proper meal.

As an expert in keeping a healthy lifestyle, unless he was so busy that he really had no other
choice, Yu Lanchuan was strongly against consuming food late at night. But now, he stared at Gan
Qing for a while for some reason, and then unexpectedly nodded his head. "Okay."

Even though Gan Qing had furtively changed her words from "meal" to "supper," she was still
treating someone after all. Hence, she still picked the most luxurious place within her level of
expenditure—she brought Director Yu to a McDonald's about 300 meters away.

After the age of twenty-four, Yu Lanchuan had never stepped foot into a fast food restaurant and
he was shocked to his core. After locking eyes with the red-headed uncle at the entrance for a
while, he turned his head around to give Gan Qing an incredulous look—This is what you're
treating me to?

"Not used to it?" Gan Qing beamed and extended a hand to point at the opposite side of the
road. "There's a malatang place over there. It's also pretty good. I know the boss well, we can go
there too."
Yu Lanchuan followed her gaze to see that there was indeed a hole-in-the-wall place on the
opposite side of the road. The shop's door was a thick hanging screen the colour of dirt yellow.
The cooking grease might have been used to smear the windows and he couldn't see what it was
like inside. The shop's environment was extremely dire. At the entrance, the name of the shop
was spelled out using a string of lightbulbs, three words in total, half of them spoiled, all of them
trembling in the cold wind.

Why hadn't it been shut down by the relevant agencies?

Gan Qing said, "It's just that his shop is a little small. At this hour, there might not be seats
anymore and we'll have to stand-"

Quick as lightning, Yu Lanchuan bolted into the McDonald's.

Once he entered, the heavy smell of the frying grease and butter greeted him. Yu Lanchuan had a
vague feeling that he had entered some arranged dating forum—Topic: My arranged dating
partner is a weirdo.

Based on incomplete statistics, stories complaining about these "weirdos" usually started with
"The place where we met up for the first time was, of all places, a McDonald's / KFC."

Gan Qing asked considerately, "Is there anything you don't eat? What do you like to eat?"

Yu Lanchuan thought discontentedly, There's nothing here that I eat and nothing that I want to
eat.

However, beyond his control, his mouth said, "...No, anything is fine."

Gan Qing said, "So easy to feed? Then, I'll order as I wish."

Yu Lanchuan put on a fake smile. "...Sure."

Fuck this.

After ordering and while waiting for the food, Gan Qing turned her head around and saw that
Director Yu had taken off his coat, folded it neatly and draped it over the back of his chair. Under
the cuff of his shirt, a section of a crocodile leather watch strap could be seen.

Speaking of which, Yu Lanchuan was actually a rather solemn person. He had quite the proper
and serious air about him.

This kind of bearing was very hard to maintain because it usually required a person to have a
sense of being aloof and remote, a cold indifference, a pureness and an immortal-like air. If the
person was not immortal-like enough, just a bit of carelessness and it would turn into a kind of
greasy and ill-bred kind of feeling. A sanctimonious kind of ill-bred manner was often even more
of an annoyance than the kind that looked ugly and sly.
But Little Master Yu was just that incredible. His "clear, cold and proper" manner was not pure
enough. One look was enough to tell that it was a pretence; yet, it did not feel crass. Instead, it
was a touch comical. The moment he came on stage, he blew away all the cold wind and flames
of anger in her belly today.

She saw him pick up a paper placemat menu. His posture as he studied the thing with knitted
brows was just like an emperor reading petitions—a very severe expression, like he was ready to
sentence a corrupt official to death by beheading.

Gan Qing amused herself with her own thoughts and accidentally let out a laugh. Yu Lanchuan,
who was sitting with perfect posture, had very alert ears and unexpectedly heard her even from
so far away. With an immortal-like yet severe manner, he lifted his head to glance at her.

Gan Qing let slip another puff of laughter.

It only made her want to laugh even more.

At this hour, there weren't many people eating in the restaurant. The few, straggling customers
were mostly not there to eat. Yu Lanchuan surveyed his surroundings and saw a clean scrap-
collector dozing in the corner. A seven or eight years old student was taking up an entire table,
sipping on Coke while doing homework. A food delivery worker was perhaps there to rest his feet
and was sprawled on a table, sleeping. There were a few more people who had ordered some
snacks and were hotly discussing a "Series A Financing" at a table where the average expenditure
was thirty yuan per person.

Gan Qing bought an extra bowl of corn and put it down before the primary school student as she
passed by, and patted him on the head. The little boy seemed to be very familiar with her. He
cheerfully accepted the corn and gave her a gap-toothed smile.

"The kid is from the malatang place on the other side of the road," Gan Qing said. "The family of
three all stays in the shop. The shop is doing business and there are customers who drink at
night. It's too rowdy so he comes here to do his homework."

Yu Lanchuan watched her tear open a sauce packet with ease and familiarity, and thought he
could hear the sound of a bomb exploding.

Gan Qing said, "The fries are newly fried."

High GI food.

Yu Lanchuan stared at her fingers, a string of words starting to pop up frantically in his heart:
Once ingested into the stomach, your blood sugar will take a helicopter straight up to the sky.
Then, you will open the sluice gates and release the insulin, rapidly converting the calories into
fat. When your blood sugar is in mid-flight, the helicopter under your butt will disappear and you
will start to freefall. You will realise that you are hungry again, and you just can't stop. These
freshly made fats will clog your arteries and organs. Once ingested, they cannot be vomited out.
In the future, what awaits you is high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

He glanced at the reed-thin Gan Qing and felt that her pancreas was at the moment frantically
shrieking.

As the person paying for the meal, when Gan Qing saw that he was not moving, she thoughtfully
took a cup of Coke, poked a straw through the cap and passed it to him. "Don't hold back."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

High sugar!

High sugar will trigger dopamine production, similar to how addiction to drugs is formed. As time
goes by, it will lower your cognitive ability and increase emotional disturbance—which is to say,
you will become gloomy and foolish.

The main speaker at the "Series A Financing" table next to theirs was as impassioned as ever.
"...Health will definitely be the issue that people will be most concerned with in the future,
especially healthy eating! But due to the lack of professional knowledge and also the negligence
of nutritional makeup, we always consume a lot of junk food without realising it. The main
purpose of our product is to take care of this problem. It provides our customers with a
comprehensive and all-rounded nutritional balance…"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't bear listening anymore. He took a gulp of the Coke, putting on a brave face
like he was testing poison with his body, and thought resentfully, Why am I here… Damn, this
tastes good.

The more Gan Qing looked at him, the more amused she was. With his expression accompanying
the meal, her appetite improved significantly.

To prevent himself from accidentally eating even more junk food, Yu Lanchuan drank two gulps
and then reached out to firmly pinch off the straw and tried to occupy his mouth by talking.
"Since when did you start following Xiang Xiaoman and that group of people?"

Gan Qing fobbed him off without even looking up. "I was bored and wandering around, and
accidentally bumped into them."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Since you had always known that they were there, why didn't you report
them to the police earlier?"

"How would I know what they were going to do?" Gan Qing spread her hands helplessly. "What if
they were non-locals who came here for a holiday and were just meeting up with their internet
friend on the way?"

"You do know." Yu Lanchuan was not willing to let her off. "On the day when Xiang Xiaoman
made her move, when you called the police, those two people had just reached the intersection.
Don't deny it, there's CCTV at the traffic lights at the intersection."
"Don't make blind guesses. How can I have the ability to tell the future?" Gan Qing dipped a fry in
her ice-cream and ate it, not revealing a thing. "What did the person who called the police say? 'I
saw two suspicious people walk over from the intersection'? 110 pays attention to calls like this
nowadays too?"

Yu Lanchuan was unmoved. "That gang had a wooden memorial tablet carved with the words
'Wan Mu Chun.' Someone broke it."

Gan Qing's hands paused. The fry she was holding dipped into a spot of chocolate. Then, as
though nothing had happened, she said, "Is that so? I didn't notice it. Maybe it was broken when
we were fighting."

"Wan Mu Chun is one of the Five Supremes. Have you heard of the name?" Yu Lanchuan asked
mildly, "Aren't you curious why the descendants of a hero would do such things?"

Gan Qing said, "Please excuse my ignorance, I'm rather uninformed of what's going on in the
world."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I think no. In that gang of criminals, there was one person whose body had a
few blood marks. The line on his neck is in the exact same position as the one he drew on Nie
Ke's neck. Such a coincidence—either you were there watching when Xiang Xiaoman was about
to commit murder, or you have an exceptional understanding of these people's methods. You
went to their den on your own and broke that wooden tablet, is it because you have a grudge
against the legendary Wan Mu Chun who disappeared without a trace or because you are related
to Wan Mu Chun in some way, and can't bear to see others laying false claims to the name?"

Gan Qing sighed and looked at him in resignation. "Little Master Yu, the reason why I live in your
esteemed neighbourhood is really only because I'm poor. I couldn't find a suitable place so I
thickened my skin and begged for shelter. I don't have any other intentions. We're neighbours
after all so this is also fate. If we can get along without any trouble, that's for the best. If I happen
to turn rich one day, I may move out immediately. I've never questioned you about the lineage of
your skills, have I?"

"You want to ask which lineage my skills belong to? The Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang was
taught to me by my grandfather. The schools where I did my undergraduate and masters are
listed on my resume, you can find it on my company's website," Yu Lanchuan said frankly. "Which
lottery did you buy that you're prepared to get rich from? Is it a number you divined yourself?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I'm not being a busybody. However, I helped you cover up for this matter. I
have a right to know who I helped and why I helped, don't I?"

Gan Qing fell silent for a few seconds. Just as Yu Lanchuan thought she was going to drown
herself in the ice-cream, she finally said slowly, "That day, Xiang Xiaoman's screams made me
think of a friend."
Yu Lanchuan raised a brow slightly.

"She had been abused by her own husband and had never been able to walk out of that shadow.
Sometimes, when she startled awake from her nightmares in the middle of the night, she would
scream in that way."

"Which way?"

"Screaming herself hoarse. Consciously and purposely screaming herself hoarse." Gan Qing
thought awhile. "Not because of pain and also not because she was frightened. What she was
letting out was the pain that had accumulated over a very long time but could not be expressed…
or perhaps she had expressed it before but no one understood her, no one listened to her."

Yu Lanchuan said, "But Xiang Xiaoman had no injuries. The neighbours can also testify that Nie Ke
had never abused her. The soundproofing in the old building isn't good. When the kid next door
gets a little louder when practicing music, sometimes the sound travels through the heating
vents. If Nie Ke had hit her before, there's no way the neighbours wouldn't know at all. They've
stayed there for a year already."

"Yeah." Gan Qing smiled placidly. "I heard. I guess I was mistaken."

Perhaps Xiang Xiaoman had really become mentally unstable to the point where she saw Nie Ke
as some kind of enemy. In any case, someone was taking care of it now. Evidence would speak,
the investigation would have a conclusion.

Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

Since that was the case, as this was somebody else's business, outsiders like them could not poke
their noses in and neither did they have the right to.

The two of them finished eating and went back home. It was already very late.

When Gan Qing was about to open her door, Alliance Leader Yu suddenly spoke up. "Let me add
you on WeChat."

Gan Qing looked up to glance at him.

Yu Lanchuan met her eyes and felt a little nervous for some reason. Hence, he lowered his head
and forced an explanation. "I've vouched for you to Yu Yan before. I hope that the next time you
get up to these antics, you can notify me beforehand."

Gan Qing had added all sorts of customers to her WeChat, adding one more person made no
difference. In her heart, she thought, This alliance leader doesn't get paid a single cent for his
efforts but he's acting quite the part.

Yu Lanchuan said, "You…"

Gan Qing poked her head out from the apartment, "Mm?"
Yu Lanchuan hesitated a while, wanting to speak but stopping himself again. He shook his head.

Gan Qing's usual bedtime had long since passed. The overpowering circadian rhythm was urging
her to lie down and she said goodbye to Yu Lanchuan without thinking too much. She washed up,
then walked through the heated air contentedly and burrowed into her blankets, ready to sleep.

Right then, her phone buzzed.

Gan Qing opened her eyes a slit and realised that the message came from next door.

Yu Lanchuan asked: From the way you speak, you sound like a local?

Gan Qing replied: Not really. When I was young, I attended school here for a few years as a
temporary student.

Yu Lanchuan replied almost immediately: Primary school? Secondary school?

Secondary.

Yu Lanchuan sent: You're so familiar with Mudpool Backlane, was it because you have stayed
there before?

Gan Qing was probably sleepy. It was a while before she sent a brief reply: Yeah.

Yu Lanchuan stared at that "Yeah." Then, he opened the photo Yu Yan had sent him. After a
while, he realised that he had been subconsciously holding his breath. He took off his glasses and
pressed hard at the center of his brows….

Fifteen years ago, the girl from Mudpool Backlane…

...might be right next door.

Chapter 27
Yu Lanchuan's grandparents had passed away before he was born so he didn't know them well.
Apart from them, the only person from that older generation of his family was the granduncle
who was a wild, unrestrained old man. One generation above Yu Lanchuan himself was his father,
an unrestrained middle-aged man. Based on this pattern, this family might be one where "the
wild waves at the back pushes forward the waves in front, each wave reaching ever greater
heights." As for Yu Lanchuan himself, based on the way he was right now, he still had quite the
appearance of a proper person but no one knew what would happen in the future. He might still
be in his incubation period.

Yu Lanchuan's mother was the complete opposite. She was a diehard perfectionist. In her whole
life, she was strict with herself and even stricter with others. She believed firmly that "If one
doesn't worry about the long-term, one would have to worry about the short-term." She spent
every minute and every second worrying, and also had very strong self-control.
These two people being together was like a wild horse falling in love with the cement ground.
There was nothing wrong with their personalities, they were purely just incompatible.

Yu Lanchun inherited the Yu clan's "unrestrained" genes and had been "obedient with a touch of
wildness" since young. Especially during his chuuni period—even though he had largely been able
to follow all the preset rules, he had to follow them out of his own volition. The moment
someone else interfered, he would definitely rebel in secret while outwardly obeying.

When Liu Zhongqi was born, his mother had a bit of postpartum depression. Her emotions swung
wildly and her need for control that she usually could restrain intensified, causing a huge havoc in
the family. At that time, school had just started and Yu Lanchuan's heart was still floating
restlessly in the summer holiday mood. He hadn't adjusted his state of mind and cut some
corners on his homework. When his mother who could not quite control her emotions saw it, she
tore it up and made him redo it, and even said that she would call his teacher.

Fifteen years ago, the chuuni Yu Lanchuan hadn't argued with her. Silently, he redid his
homework. Then, when everyone was asleep at night, he took the chance to pack his things and
ran away from home without even leaving a note.

However, even though they had both ran away from home, he was more self-aware than Liu
Zhongqi. Liu Zhongqi had acted completely on impulse and hadn't even thought of where he
would stay. On the other hand, back then, Yu Lanchuan had planned everything out clearly—he
planned to look for Granduncle and shelter there for a period of time, then find a reason to apply
to stay in the school dorms. He would not go back home anymore in the future. Out of sight, out
of mind.

Thinking of it, the reason why his mum used the "western-style" education on her younger child
after that was likely because she had learned from that incident.

That day, Yu Lanchuan had taken a cab to No. 110 Courtyard in the middle of the night. He
knocked on the door for a long while but no one answered. He had always stayed there during
festive occasions and had a key to Granduncle's house, so he opened the door to enter. The old
man's bedroom door was opened. Little Yu Lanchuan poked his head in to see and realised that
the blankets were unfolded. The old man seemed to have gotten into bed, then rushed out again
because of some matter.

Little Yu Lanchuan waited for a while. He was so sleepy that he could not keep his eyes open, so
he hung his school bag behind the door and went to sleep in the other room. Initially, he thought
that once he opened his eyes the next day, he would be able to eat the old man's fried rice but
when he woke up in the morning, he realised that the old man had not returned home the whole
night. He searched around the house and finally found a scrawled note beside the old landline
phone. Someone had written an address in pencil. Little Yu Lanchuan could make out the words
"Mudpool Backlane."

That day happened to be a Saturday. There was no one to handle the gremlin child. His curiosity
lit ablaze by that single spark, he followed the note to go to the legendary "Mudpool Backlane" to
investigate. He even bought a bag of small dumplings from a roadside stall. In the end, before he
finished the dumplings, he had gotten lost in the tangled maze of alleys. Just as he wanted to ask
for directions, he was knocked unconscious and stuffed into a car.

That girl had left him at a landfill and ran off on her own. Amidst the overwhelmingly smelly piles
of trash, he listened fearfully to the jumbled voices carrying over from not far away and then
heading off to somewhere else. The people were cursing and the tone of the barking dogs had
changed, so bleak that they sounded like the howling of wolves.

He tried his best to extend his ears, wanting to hear even just a word from the girl, but there was
none.

He wanted to climb out from somewhere and look for her, but those people came too quickly
and also ran off too quickly. Before he realised what was happening, he could no longer tell
where they had chased the girl to. Little Yu Lanchuan hid alone in the darkness, unable to see or
hear anything. His mind was flooded with all kinds of terrifying scenes—those people catching
her, or the dogs pouncing on her and tearing her to shreds...

It was only in the morning of the next day that there were rubbish trucks coming in and he was
rescued. Granduncle had spent an entire day and night looking for him, his hair nearly turning
white from panic.

Because of that one incident, Yu Lanchuan finally knew that Granduncle was not an ordinary
person. A corner of that mysterious world hidden beside him was revealed. Later on, that band of
evil kidnappers were caught and Yu Lanchuan finally knew that he had actually been dragged into
a jianghu dispute. Someone was keeping an eye on No. 110 and he had been followed the
moment he left the place. No. 110 was near the city center so the other party had not dared to
do anything at first. Who knew he would go to Mudpool Backlane on his own, walking right into
the trap.

But no one ever saw the girl who saved him again. After hearing what Little Yu Lanchuan said, Yu
Huaide tried to find out about her but his efforts were fruitless. Everyone suspected that she was
something he imagined when in a state of extreme fear.

Only Yu Lanchuan knew that was not the case. He was already past the age where he couldn't
differentiate between fiction and reality. Furthermore, even if it was really his imagination, he
could have picked Sun Wukong or the Transformers, why would he come up with a scrawny girl?

The young girl that couldn't be found tormented him for close to half a year, playing the lead role
in his every nightmare.

From then on, Yu Lanchuan never again dared to step out of line. He never again caused trouble
that he could not handle and even pestered Granduncle to teach him the Seven Secret Arts of
Han Jiang.

That's right. Yu Lanchuan suddenly remembered—when he first started practising the sword, he
was still young. He hadn't been thinking of preventing sudden death from overwork. The original
purpose that enabled him to persevere was so that he would be able to protect himself and
others if he encountered any danger in the future. He wouldn't lose his head out of fear and
wouldn't have any regrets when it was over…

It could be said that it was because of her.

That day, where did those people chase her to? What happened after that?

Has she been staying at Mudpool Backlane all these years? Or did she go elsewhere… And what
happened to her hand?

Yu Lanchuan had always slept well; now, he spent the entire night tossing and turning.

Based on a few rounds of interactions, Gan Qing seemed to be a very easy-going person but still
waters ran deep. She was definitely not the type to share matters close to her heart with people
she did not know well. All these things that he was dying to know, he would definitely not get an
answer if he asked her directly, especially when so many years had passed and she seemed to no
longer remember him.

It's okay, Yu Lanchuan thought. Just you wait.

Gan Qing had always been early to bed and early to rise. In the morning, she fumbled for her
phone and looked at the time, and realised that she had fallen asleep right after sending the
message and hadn't even closed the app. As she clambered out of bed to wash up, she scrolled
through Yu Lanchuan's WeChat Moments out of boredom.

Little Master Yu's WeChat name was just "Yu Lanchuan" and his profile pic was his own
handwritten signature, extremely simple and plain. The posts he made to his WeChat Moments
were never deleted. Gan Qing skimmed through them and saw that they were all long articles on
things like Trends in Monetary Policy, Interpretation of New Regulations on XX, Global XXX. It
made her head spin and she felt that she had clicked into the official account for some financial
news site.

Right at that moment, there was a notification saying that the WeChat Moments had been
updated. Gan Qing pulled down to refresh and realised that the alliance leader next door had
reblogged a long informative article early in the morning. This time, the topic was "If you do not
watch your diet, are you enjoying life or are you letting go of yourself?"

The image accompanying the article was cookies and "fat happy water[1]."

Gan Qing spluttered with laughter and coughed.

She nearly choked on the toothpaste. Thinking of Yu Lanchuan's expression yesterday when they
were in front of McDonald's, Gan Qing suspected that he had been suppressing these words for
the entire night, and might even not have slept well.

At half past six, Gan Qing left the house on time in search of breakfast. Yu Lanchuan had long
since been keeping an ear out for any noise and immediately followed suit, and even made a
note in his phone: Leaves the house at 6.30.
The two of them "bumped" into each other at the elevator lobby. Gan Qing asked in surprise,
"Little Master Yu goes to work so early?"

Yu Lanchuan answered reservedly, "Yeah, I'm going to work earlier to take care of some matters."

Gan Qing said, "Ai, that's how it is. It isn't easy to earn a bit of money."

Director "not easy" Yu reached his office before 6.45 a.m. The office building was pitch dark, even
the janitors hadn't yet arrived at their post. His sudden diligence made his colleagues suspect
that he was planning to usurp the head of department's position.

After a week's effort, Yu Lanchuan figured out Gan Qing's work and rest hours. Regardless of
whether it was a work day or a rest day, she left the house at around 6.30 in the morning every
day and came back around 8.15. She tidied up for a while, then went to work at around 9.30. At
night, if there weren't any special circumstances, she would be back by a little past 9. She would
not reply messages after 10.30.

Every Sunday afternoon, she posted the coming week's horoscope for the twelve astrological
signs along with tips on what to wear for good luck, subtly reminding those people who believed
in her nefarious teachings that it was time to give her money. Every now and then, she would go
to the wholesale market for small merchandise and close the shop for half a day. She would even
shamelessly post in her WeChat Moments a day earlier, stating that she needed to "go into
seclusion" to experience the trajectory of the stars.

As long as she was not sleeping, she replied messages very quickly. She had an amazingly large
amount of memes and she liked everything she saw in her WeChat Moments. It was obvious that
her daily work consisted of two things—hoodwinking people and playing with her phone.

On Gan Qing's side, she realised that recently, Little Master Yu turned into someone she bumped
into at all times of the day. In the past, even though they were neighbours, they had barely met
once a week. Now, they bumped into each other at least once a day. Every three or five days,
there would even be an incident—for example, the next door's delivery packages being sent by
mistake to her place, or something was spoiled next door so he came over to borrow a spanner…
Yu Lanchuan probably didn't like owing people a debt. When thanking others, he never used
words. If he troubled someone today, the very next day he would send something over. It was
usually little things like a few bags of nuts or two pounds of cherries.

When Gan Qing came to stay at No. 110 Courtyard, she wanted to quietly find a place to burrow
into. She hadn't planned on interacting with anyone. Unexpectedly, due to a bunch of petty and
minor incidents, she somehow became close to her cold and aloof neighbour.

More than ten days later, Gan Qing was lectured by Boss Meng while having dinner and because
of that, accidentally ate an extra half a pound of grilled chicken wings. Her stomach was a little
stuffed and she purposely took the long way home, planning to walk a bit more to help digest the
food. When she passed by the nearby shopping center, she happened to see Nie Ke carrying two
bags of daily necessities walking out of the supermarket.
This man was right in the middle of a morass of rumours and gossip. Whenever he got his hands
on someone, he would put on a show of how pitiful he was for them. He was completely like a
modern day Mr. Rochester. Xiang Xiaoman would likely have to be admitted to a psychiatric
hospital in the future if she was freed, and it was said that there were already kind-hearted
matchmakers introducing potential partners to Nie Ke now.

Gan Qing didn't have the mood to see his face of "deep emotions and strong honour, deserving
of pity and respect." She purposely dawdled for a while, waiting for Nie Ke to walk further away
until there was a distance of a few hundred meters between them so that they wouldn't be
walking together.

Right as Nie Ke turned at the last intersection, out of the corner of her eye, Gan Qing, who had
her head lowered looking at her phone, suddenly saw a shadow running in Nie Ke's direction. It
was so fast it was like the car lights sweeping past a large tree…

But there were no cars at the intersection right now.

Gan Qing frowned.

T/N:
[1] "Fat happy water" 肥仔快乐水 is another name for Coca-Cola in China.
Chapter 28
Yan Hao wasn't good at reading a person's words and face but he had a unique ability—if the
other person disliked him, he was able to immediately discern the person's ill will. He could also
always accidentally overhear other people discussing him.

He didn't know why he was like that. Maybe it was because no one paid him any attention, so his
world was quieter than other people's and hence, also more sensitive.

That evening, when Old Master Yang came to the laundry shop to look for Boss Jiang, Yan Hao
was actually right at the door.

It happened to be the time for his dinner. At this time, Boss Jiang would come to take his place to
watch the shop, giving him one hour of rest time. But Yan Hao had never dared to take too long.
He had always just bought something convenient, stuffed the entire thing into his mouth, and
then went back.

It was just that while he was waiting for the lights to change at the intersection, from far he saw
Old Master Yang enter the shop.

Even though Old Master Yang had joined the workforce after the country was liberated, he still
carried on the old traditions. If his clothes could be patched up, he would not throw them away.
He usually just wore cotton shirts and pants; he didn't have anything that needed to be dry-
cleaned or anything high-quality that needed special treatment. He was also very unused to the
habits of the younger people who were not willing to even wash a pair of socks on their own. If
he came to the shop, it was certainly not for the shop's business. He definitely had something to
say to Boss Jiang.
Those elderly and high-ranking people made Yan Hao nervous, no matter how kindly they were.
He really didn't want to meet Sect Leader Yang face-to-face, so he hesitated a while at the
laundry shop's entrance.

Old Yang and Boss Jiang very quickly finished talking and came out. Yan Hao heard their voices.

"...Since she came from thousands of miles away to seek shelter with me, what else could I do?"
This was Boss Jiang's voice.

Yan Hao's heart stuttered. He keenly sensed who the words were referring to and his heart
started thumping wildly. Following that, he flitted away like a swallow and hid behind a trash can
in the little lane at the side.

Boss Jiang supported Old Yang to cross over the laundry shop's doorstep. "Watch your step, Sect
Leader Yang."

Yan Hao heard Old Yang say, "It has affected your business, hasn't it?"

Boss Jiang smiled bitterly and let out a regretful sigh.

Old Yang patted him on the shoulder. Boss Jiang only said vaguely, "This is also a problem… Ai, be
careful on your way back."

It was the evening rush hour. The tree-lined road was full of rushing people and congested cars.
The mannerless drivers honked right into the people's ears, bi— bi—, and the people's voices
were cacophonous. The two old men didn't notice the "little sparrow" behind the trash can. Boss
Jiang conscientiously watched Old Master Yang walk all the way to the intersection before putting
his hand behind his back, lowering his head, and slowly turning around to walk towards his shop.
His face drooped down and looked rather anxious and bitter.

What else could I do… Affected your business… Problem...

These few phrases looped in Yan Hao's head. Alone, he curled into himself behind the trash can.
He thought, They are talking about me.

Boss Jiang was a friend of his parents. Before Yan Hao's mother passed away, she had entrusted
her inarticulate and mediocre little son to him.

From the day he summoned the courage to come to Yanning, Yan Hao had been worrying that he
wouldn't be able to do things well and make other people dislike him. He could sense that he was
the reason why the shop had been much quieter recently. Clothes were worn on a person's body.
Whether or not it was cleaned professionally was another matter, but it had to at least be clean.
Many customers heard the baseless rumour that the shop employee was a pervert and had
stopped coming—who knew what disgusting thing he would do to the clothes?

Yan Hao had been very scared all the while. It was like walking on thin ice, until just now, when
he heard with his own ears what Boss Jiang had said.
Inversely, he now had a feeling of relief. This day had come after all, Boss Jiang also disliked him
now.

This was only natural. He had always felt that in his entire life, other than his father who had
passed away early, it seemed like no one had ever liked him. He wasn't good at studies, the
teachers didn't like him and his schoolmates isolated him. Even his own mother had probably
held her nose and brought him up just because it was her duty. She rarely smiled at him and even
more rarely praised him. Even if all he was doing was to breathe quietly, she could find
something wrong.

Yan Hao knew that Boss Jiang didn't feel like he could directly ask him to leave so he decided to
be more self-aware. But after making the resolve a few times, he still didn't have the courage to
say goodbye to Boss Jiang in person, so he left a note under the accounts book and left without a
word.

He packed the remaining canned cat food into a cardboard box and put it outside the next door
pet store. Other than doing business, that pet shore also rescued strays. Sometimes, if they
couldn't find a suitable owner after a long time, the store would have to take out a lot of
additional capital. He wanted to help them a little.

There was a kitten that was not sleeping late at night. It sprawled against the window, peeking
out from between the blinds, looking curiously at him.

Yan Hao smiled at it. He bent his arm, letting Ayanami Rei sit in the crook of his elbow, and
walked into the cold night with his back curved and his neck shrank back.

"Where shall we go?" he asked the figurine softly. At that moment, his eyes were not as evasive
as they were in the daytime and his voice was also flowing easier. If one listened closely, they
would realise that the way he spoke was a little strange. He seemed to have a slight lisp and he
tried very hard to say each word clearly, the words seeming to hop out one by one.

"I won't be able to find a job."

"Luckily, you don't need to eat. Otherwise, you'll starve being with me."

"You have to bear mistreatment while being with me… I'm sorry."

"Are you the first Ayanami Rei to sleep on the streets?"

When he passed near No. 110 Courtyard, Yan Hao's steps suddenly paused. He looked towards
the little building hidden in the shadows and thought of the woman on the eighth floor… the
blade in the pocket of her clothes, and also her desperate, anguished howling in the middle of
the night.

"They say that her mental state is abnormal. I feel very bad." Yan Hao patted Ayanami Rei's hair.
"Because I seem to be abnormal too."

Ayanami Rei gazed at him with silent eyes.

Yan Hao stood where he was, mulling over something. Then, he put Ayanami Rei in his backpack
and flew away.

It was said that back in those years, Tang Qian Yan Yan Ruofei could step on the duckweed on the
water to cross a river. When he reached the other side, not even the tips of his shoes would be
wet. By the time it was his generation, this unique skill was lost. At most, Yan Hao could just
barely climb up buildings, jump over walls, and follow a white collar office worker who had been
turned half-deaf by noise pollution. He had been following Nie Ke for a few days.

Nie Ke dressed in western-style suits and leather shoes. His spirits were high and he didn't look at
all like there had been a great disturbance in his life. When he bumped into ladies, he was
especially talkative. He matched wits with everyone he met, and was very self-assured.

Yan Hao even once saw him have a meal with a young and shy lady. They had seemed to be on a
date.

When they parted at the restaurant's entrance, Yan Hao was hidden not far away. He heard Nie
Ke say to the girl, "...In your area of specialisation, it's very hard for you to get a footing in
Yanning in the future. You have to support your family and you also have a younger brother. The
help your family can give you is very limited. You said that they can't even take out one million,
that means it's practically impossible for you to buy a house here and settle down. I'm not the
kind of person who likes to make empty talk, these are all truths. It's for your own good, please
don't take offense. I'm a few years older than you. As your dage, I advise you to go back to your
parents' home."

The girl looked like she was in her early twenties and still had the air of a student about her. She
was obviously new to the ways of the world and believed his tricks. She replied softly, "But if I go
home, there aren't jobs that are suited to my specialisation…"

"You're overthinking things. How many people can work in their own area of specialisation?
Doesn't everyone just make do with any job to survive for the time being?" Nie Ke's words
sounded very sincere. "Yes, no one's happy with that. How much pain did we go through to enter
university and do a postgrad? It wasn't easy for you to get into such a good university and you
wasted a good part of your youth to finish your studies. Then, once you graduate, you see that it
was all a waste!"

The girl was at the age when she was easily lost. Thinking along the lines of Nie Ke's words,
wasn't that really the case? She was so saddened by his words that she could not speak.

"But fortunately, you're a girl." After steadily laying out the foundation, Nie Ke watched the girl's
young and fresh face, and his true intentions peeked out. "Girls are better off than guys, you still
have a chance for a 'rebirth.' You don't have to depend on yourself for everything. In my case, the
person who introduced me to you should probably have told you… To be honest, I really don't
have the mood to look for someone else. I really didn't want to come today but the person who
set this up is a friend of mine, so I can't reject… But chatting with you, I feel that we hit it off quite
well. You're still young, you don't have to hurry. If you're okay with it, you can just treat me as an
older brother. If you have any troubles, you can come to me any time."
"Genuine" and sincere, and also did not have anything up his sleeves—such a man gained other
people's trust easily. The girl voluntarily added him on WeChat and went away feeling very
touched.

Even Yan Hao, eavesdropping at the corner of the wall, was very moved by Nie Ke's heartfelt
words. He felt that he was overthinking things and was wrongly putting the blame on a good
person.

But when he was about to leave his spot, he saw that Nie Ke didn't move away after saying
goodbye to the girl. He smoked a cigarette at the restaurant's entrance, waited a while, and then
a middle-aged nasty-looking man came.

Nie Ke hailed him and wrapped an arm around the middle-aged man's shoulder like they were
very close. He opened the boot of his car and passed two cigarettes over. The two of them, arms
on each other's shoulders, talked about something for a while. Then, Nie Ke took out a stack of
bills from his coat's inner pocket and quietly passed it to the other person. The two of them
exchanged a look of mutual understanding. Nie Ke smiled, and finally drove away.

He didn't know why but Yan Hao intuitively felt that it was very strange. Before he realised what
he was doing, he was stealthily following the middle-aged man who had taken the money.

He saw the man furtively take out the money and counted them. Then, he seemed to be very
satisfied and walked away humming a song, passing through a few twisting, winding lanes. Yan
Hao saw him go up a rundown residential building. On the side of the building that was close to
the road, there were a few small illegal shops providing services such as "House Calls for Getting
Rid of Grey Nails" and "Moxibustion and Massages"... The innermost shop was called Peaceful
Mind Clinic.

Above the anti-theft windows was a digital signboard. The words "Forty years of experience;
many different types of treatment available; effective against psychological problems such as
insomnia, depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety" were looping on it.

The words looping on the billboard were bright red in colour. Yan Hao felt like there was a block
of ice in his chest. He shivered involuntarily.

He went back to No. 110 Courtyard and again followed Nie Ke.

Soon after that, Yan Hao realised that Nie Ke went out to meet quite a few young women. The
lines he used were all the same as what he used on the first day—first cold, then warm. Before a
week was up, he had spiritedly gathered a group of "younger sisters," enough to fill up a Grand
View Garden[1].

If a person dug ten pitfalls, they would surely trap at least one naive and guileless girl. On that
Friday night, Yan Hao kept watch at the intersection to look out for Nie Ke and saw the man walk
over carrying two supermarket plastic bags, walking breezily while sending voice messages.
"...You decide, it's my treat… Sure, dage usually doesn't have time to watch movies anyway.
Anything you say. See you tomorrow… What do you want to eat? Let me know ahead of time…
Why are you being so polite with me? It's fate that we got to know each other. I'm your family in
Yanning…"

Yan Hao's chest was full of stifled and vexed feelings, and a nameless fire suddenly erupted there.
Without even thinking, he charged over under the cover of the night.

Nie Ke whistled as he flirted with the other person. He felt a slight breeze at his back but before
he could turn around to see, there was a sharp pain at his neck. And then he knew nothing more.

Yan Hao had rushed up to him and knocked him out, and it was completely on a moment's
impulse. Suddenly, he didn't know what to do.

He stared at Nie Ke who was lying face-down on the ground for a few seconds and realised that
the screen on the phone the man had dropped was still lit up. Yan Hao thought a while, then
nervously picked up the phone, squatted by the side of the road and texted the girl on the other
end. He's lying to you! This man is scum, he drove his previous wife to madness! He's dating a
few girls at the same time, don't fall for his trap!

The girl on the other WeChat account sent a string of question marks.

Yan Hao drew a deep breath, trembled a little, then turned around and carried Nie Ke on his
shoulder.

"Hey." Right then, someone spoke behind him. Yan Hao quivered and nearly dropped the human
scum on his shoulder. He turned his head around abruptly and saw a thin figure of a woman walk
out of the other corner. She was tapping on her phone. The light from the screen shone on her
face, clean and cold and slightly familiar. Very quickly, Yan Hao realised that he often saw her at
the breakfast stalls but they had never spoken to each other.

Gan Qing locked the screen and slipped the phone into her pocket. She sighed and looked up at
Yan Hao, and said, "Why don't you put him down? I didn't see anything just now."

Yan Hao took a step back. His mind was actually already flustered. Defensively, he broadened his
shoulders, putting on a fierce appearance to hide his weakness, trying to scare away this woman
who was alone.

Gan Qing, "..."

Why is this dude so silly?

Gan Qing stuck her hands in her pockets. "Do you have a grudge against him? Why not we do it
this way, you cover him in a sack, drag him over there and beat him up to vent your anger. I
didn't see anything."

Yan Hao said, "You… Mind your own business!"

A momentary slip and his words had a bit of a lisp. His face immediately turned red.

Fortunately, Gan Qing didn't seem to notice it. She said sincerely and thoughtfully, "Where do
you plan to carry him off to? Listen to my advice, these fake elites say that they have personal
assets of a few million but in the end, all they have is a house and a car. They don't have much
cash in their bank account. You won't get much from kidnapping him. Old men don't have any
value on the market so you can't even sell him. When the time comes, how will you get rid of
him? You can only kill him off."

Yan Hao, "..."

"It's very troublesome to kill someone in Yanning, it's not worth the trouble." Gan Qing extended
her hand to him. "Come, put him down here. Hurry home and wash up and go to-"

The word "bed" hadn't even left her mouth when Yan Hao turned around and ran off carrying Nie
Ke.

Running right after a meal is a recipe for gastroptosis! Gan Qing cursed under her breath, then
moved her legs to chase after him.

Tang Qian Yan was indeed Tang Qian Yan. Even if his wings had deteriorated, when he ran for his
life he was still an ostrich whose feet barely touched the ground.

Not only was this Yan Hao fast, the scarier thing was he was extremely sharp. Even carrying a
man weighing more than a hundred pounds on his shoulder did not affect him leaping up and
down.

He turned a corner and jumped into an office building's little courtyard. To deter thieves, the little
courtyard's wall had curls of barbed wire on it.

Like the legendary Dapeng bird, Yan Hao leaped up, the tip of his foot stepping lightly on a small
indent on the wall, and "flew" upwards. He crossed above the barbed wire to the other side
without a single scratch, the curled barbed wire not moving the slightest bit, and landed on the
other side without a sound!

Gan Qing's pupils contracted and she came to an abrupt stop. She decided on her next move
immediately and detoured around the wall, turning towards the direction of the little courtyard's
main entrance.

The CCTV guarding the door flickered in the darkness of the night. A pebble flew over; with a pop,
the lens broke. Right after that, Gan Qing leaped over the tightly shut main door.

However, the little courtyard was quiet and tranquil. That foolish sparrow had disappeared.

T/N:
[1] Grand View Garden, also known as Daguanyan (大观园) is from the classic novel Dream of the
Red Chamber. It is where Jia Baoyu and many girls of the Jia family stayed.
Chapter 29
Gan Qing searched the area but found no trace of Yan Hao. After sucking in a bellyful of wind and
running and pausing repeatedly, her stomach was really starting to hurt. She shouldn't have
eaten those additional chicken wings for dinner.

This might be payback. The last time, she had no filter on her mouth and had, behind his back,
said that "Tang Qian Yan" was now a lizard crawling on the wall. Today, the lizard had dragged
her through three streets.

On the courtyard wall, a notice about central heating that had been stuck there for more than a
month was half-peeling away from the wall, flapping restlessly in the cold wind. The words on it
were very mottled.

Gan Qing stared at it for a while, then turned to go. I don't care anymore, he can die for all I care.
I'm going home to sleep.

Then, right at that moment, a short, fearful scream sounded and was quickly cut off. Like a fish,
Gan Qing slipped out and disappeared from where she was in a mere second.

This shout was from Nie Ke. By chance, Nie Ke regained consciousness at this moment.

A second ago, he was still happily seducing a sweet and naive young woman. The next second, he
opened his eyes and realised that he was being carried on someone's shoulder like a sack and
that someone was running madly. Anyone in his place would also shout. Nie Ke's stomach was
bouncing against Yan Hao's old bag and there was something inside that was very hard, jabbing
at him between two of his ribs, making him want to puke.

Nie Ke subconsciously tugged on the old canvas bag. He opened his mouth and set his voice free.
"Ahhhh help-!"

Shocked out of his skin, Yan Hao's hands slipped and he threw the man down from his shoulder.

After falling from the height of a person and smashing squarely onto the ground, Nie Ke felt his
insides shaking from the impact and his vision was blacking out. Right after that, before he could
see clearly who this black-hearted kidnapper was, a coat so dampened by sweat it was stinking a
little was thrown over his head.

Nie Ke was going to go mad. Tugging at Yan Hao's old cloth bag, he covered his waist and curled
on the ground, and tried to inch back on his butt with all his might. "Who the hell are you- Mm…
Mm!"

Yan Hao gave him a kick and the man curled up like a large dried shrimp. This Tang Qian Yan was
not proficient in the art of kidnapping and his head was covered in sweat. He pulled on his bag to
get it back, trying to push Nie Ke's head down at the same time. With a ripping sound, his cloth
bag that was worth sixteen yuan valiantly laid down its life in the tug-of-war between the two
men and the contents scattered all over the ground.

Ayanami Rei!
Flustered and panicked, Yan Hao struck Nie Ke with his elbow and the man finally stopped
moving.

Yan Hao panted harshly. He hastily stuffed the things that had fallen out back into his bag but
before he could check the contents, he keenly sensed a small movement. His face changed and
he bent down to lift Nie Ke onto his shoulder, then turned to run.

Right at that moment, a gust of wind swept towards him and blocked his way. Gan Qing had
caught up to him!

Yan Hao took a breath to steel himself. He raised an arm, striking a pose, and took the kick at
close quarters. The two of them clashed forcefully, then sprang apart at the same time. Gan Qing
was thrown further away; there was no way to overcome the difference in their weights.

Yan Hao's forearm hurt like it was broken. His entire body has drawn taut and he glared at the
person before him. "You… Who on earth are you?"

There were some outsiders to the field who thought that legs have more strength than arms.
Furthermore, the poses were impressive, they look beautiful during a fight and seemed more
powerful. But in actual fact, if it wasn't a match where one needed to "make arrangements" for
collecting points, when two people unfamiliar with each other fought, they would rarely attack
immediately with their legs. This was because when a person gathered and exerted strength,
they had to use their two legs. Once they raised a leg, their balance would be lost by half. It was
easy to kick out but difficult to judge where to land the kick. And what made it more difficult was
that in the process of raising and landing the kick, a person would have a lot of indefensible areas
and it was easy for their opponent to fight back.

This kick from his opponent that was blocking his path appeared ferocious on the surface but was
actually rather similar to the way a pet owner would use their foot to gently pry away their
troublesome little cat or dog. The strength behind it was already held back.

If Gan Qing wasn't a "blockhead" who didn't know anything, then it meant that she was giving
him a lot of leeway.

"Don't know me? When we buy jianbing, we always bump into each other. There was once when
there was only one piece of cracker left and you let me have it." Gan Qing shook out her leg that
was feeling numb. Then, she stopped joking and said softly, "I remember your kindness. Let me
say for the last time, put down that person and I won't call the police."

"No, I won't let him go." Yan Hao took half a step back warily. "He… He's a scumbag. He hurt
someone and pretended to be innocent. I saw it… He even wants to deceive other people!"

"Who did he hurt?" Gan Qing strained to make out his jumbled words. After staring blankly for a
while, she finally realised. "His wife? You know her, Xiang Xiaoman?"

Yan Hao shook his head honestly.

Gan Qing was bewildered. "You don't know her, then why are you making a fuss here? What does
it have to do with you?"

Yan Hao's vocabulary was severely lacking. He didn't even know how to scold people, and again
and again, he only had the same phrase. ""He's a scumbag!"

"So? You want to avenge her on behalf of Heaven?" Gan Qing asked, "Are you from the Women's
Association?"

So much concern for women's rights?

But when Yan Hao heard her say "avenge," he thought of the Avengers[1]—this person was
mocking him getting arrested while wearing a Spiderman costume!

A large dimensional gap descended from the sky and landed between the two of them, creating a
situation where it was like the chicken talking to the duck.

Yan Hao's face immediately turned red. He roared in anger and charged at Gan Qing without a
care.

Gan Qing, "..."

Did she say something wrong?

Yan Hao was tall and broad, and did indeed have an advantage. He used Nie Ke as a large and
not-very-handy club, putting on a fierce and mighty front as he brandished him around. The tip of
Gan Qing's foot lightly pushed against the ground and she instantly retreated three to four
meters. She didn't dare take the attack head-on because this "large club" was made of human
flesh. If it was accidentally snapped, the both of them would become murderers.

In a flash, she slipped to Yan Hao's side. Her fingers like a hook, Gan Qing struck at Yan Hao's
throat. Goosebumps rose on the skin around his throat and in no time at all, the two of them had
exchanged over ten blows. That pale hand was extremely dangerous, each and every joint a
lethal weapon. For a moment, Yan Hao was a little fearful and slowed down half a beat. Gan
Qing's hand hooked around Nie Ke's belt. She wanted to pull him down.

Yan Hao followed the momentum and swung Nie Ke down.

This move was comparable to "Liu Bei Throwing His Child[2]." If Nie Ke was hit somewhere critical
when he landed, even if he could keep his life, he would surely be paralysed. Gan Qing couldn't
just stand and watch a human scum become a human pancake, and had no choice but to stretch
her arms out to catch him. However, her methods depended on unexpected and unconventional
moves, and what she practised was not the kind of technique for pitting strength against others.
From their founder onwards, none of the disciples had undertaken any kind of physical labour for
work. This swing of Yan Hao's carried the weight of over a hundred pounds. Both of Gan Qing's
arms sank down, and she nearly pulled her waist.
Before she could get a steady grip, Yan Hao swung Nie Ke forwards, directly pushing her away,
then stretched his legs and ran. A few jumps and he disappeared again.

This person was like a punching bag but his abilities were not at all weak.

Gan Qing was just about to give chase when a wave of cramps from her left abdomen stopped
her from moving. She hissed in pain and bent over, her brows furrowed. She felt a little like
vomiting—even a martial arts expert couldn't do extreme workouts right after a meal.

Right then, someone ran over, the wind blowing along with them. "What's going on?"

When she saw Yan Hao knock Nie Ke out, Gan Qing notified their alliance leader at once. At that
time, Yu Lanchuan had been waiting in the elevator lobby for twenty minutes. While waiting, he
had already finished reviewing the monthly report but the person he wanted to bump into had
yet to come back. He was just thinking that it was rather strange when he received Gan Qing's
text, and had rushed over.

"What happened to you?" Right away, Yu Lanchuan could tell that her complexion was not right.
He reached out to support her by the elbow. Her elbow was tough and bony, and when she was
curled up, she seemed as light as a feather.

Like a piece of paper, Yu Lanchuan suddenly thought rather absent-mindedly.

After that, he threw away this baffling thought. "Where are you injured? Was it Yan Hao who did
it?"

Gan Qing, "..."

No, it was the chicken wings.

"It's okay." She waved a hand and took a breath. "It's a stitch… He's too good at running."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What on earth happened?"

Gan Qing briefly explained the events and at the end, asked weakly, "Is it the trend nowadays for
all you righteous sects to produce weirdos?"

Yu Lanchuan's ears twitched. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at her—what did she mean by
"all you righteous sects"?

"Let's go back first," Yu Lanchuan said calmly. "I'll borrow some scouts from Old Master Yang."

Gan Qing's stomach had finished kicking a fuss and rolling around. Seeing that its resistance was
effective, it stopped making trouble. She felt a bit better and was just about to leave when
suddenly, she saw something at the tree pit on the pavement. She walked over and picked it up.
"A doll? Made of plastic?"
Yan Hao carried a scumbag on his shoulder and leaped out of the small courtyard. In his panic, he
was not picky about his direction and slipped into a building under construction to hide. He
nervously waited for a long while but that highly-skilled person just now did not chase after him.
He finally relaxed. He freed his hands and tied up Nie Ke's arms and legs, and examined his torn
bag with his heart aching.

Suddenly, Yan Hao's entire person froze. His eyes widened and he spaced out for a few seconds,
then poured out everything in his bag onto the ground in a fluster. He went through the contents
item by item… Ayanami Rei was gone!

Yanning's night was very short. It seemed like the last train had just sent the weary working-
overtime passengers home and the elderly were already coming out to walk their dogs or to do
their morning exercises. Before the sky was bright, the breakfast vendors had already lit their
stoves, the heat rising to the sky as they prepared to welcome their first batch of customers.
Jianbing Guozi's boss parked his little cart, took up the metal spatula and stirred the pot that was
filled to the brim with sauce. He lit the stove and warmed his hands. From far, he saw a few
people who looked like beggars sticking something onto the walls. He took a piece of grease
paper, picked up a few youtiao and brought it over to the beggars for them to divide among
themselves. "Why are the brothers from Beggars' Sect so early today?"

"Orders from the old Sect Leader. We don't dare be slow." The beggars said their thanks,
accepted the youtiao and wolfed them down.

When Jianbing Guozi's boss heard their words, he knew it was something related to jianghu
disputes. His hands folded behind his back, he went over to take a closer look. What he saw was
a "Lost and Found" notice printed with a black and white photo of Ayanami Rei. The pick-up point
was No. 110 Courtyard's reception office. There was a vague statement on the notice: To be
exchanged for what you have taken. Before dawn, else the deal is over.

"Pick up a… doll? I don't understand." Jianbing Guozi's boss muttered for a while in puzzlement.
"Your esteemed sect is getting more and more trendy."

At No. 110 Courtyard, Old Master Yang also felt that it was very outrageous. Together with the
laundry shop's Boss Jiang whose age together with his own added up to over 150, the two of
them stared at the little figurine sitting on the weiqi board between them.

"Will it work?" Old Master Yang glanced at Yu Lanchuan. He still felt that Yu Lanchuan had come
up with a rotten idea.

Director Yu was holding a cup of red tea bought from a twenty-four hours convenience shop,
tapping loudly on his keyboard as he concentrated on his work for the day. This way, he could
make up for his lost sleep during lunch break. He answered without looking up, "Listen to me,
don't worry. We have invested in a related project before. The fans' enthusiasm and fervour will
exceed your imagination."

Old Master Yang couldn't understand his words. He glanced at what Yu Lanchuan was working on
with a rather reverential gaze.
The rumours and slander about Yan Hao was getting increasingly loud. Boss Jiang was afraid that
he would not be able to bear it and had wanted to ask Old Master Yang to help him look for a job
that wouldn't require him to show his face. Old Master Yang had gone home and fought with his
granddaughter for a few days. Finally, President Yang relented and agreed to give Yan Hao a job
as a security guard. Boss Jiang was very elated but before he could inform Yan Hao, that kid had
left without saying goodbye.

"How old is he now and still playing with dolls… Ai!"

"This child was held back by his mother." Boss Jiang sighed. "When his grandmother was young,
she had once been saved by Senior Tang Qian Yan. She talked about it for her entire life and
influenced her child. When Yan Hao's mother was young, she didn't work properly and fantasised
about heroes all day long. Because of that, she tried every possible way and means to marry our
brother Old Yan… Fortunately, Old Yan was an honest person. After their marriage, the two of
them lived quite well. It was just that he left too early. After he was gone, only the mother and
the child were left behind. All these years, they depended on help from the Yan family's old
friends to get by. That kid Yan Hao was born with a slight speech impediment. When he was
young, there were bad kids who bullied him and he slowly grew to dislike speaking. That sister-in-
law of mine always felt that he was not a proper man and forced him to learn martial arts. She
made him do standing meditation when he was only five or six years old. I went to their home
once, the child was crying as he practised."

Nowadays, there were very few people who practised the Shaolin Tongzi Gong[3]. The current
martial arts techniques emphasised on strength and speed, and the masters wouldn't teach a
child that was too young. Firstly, they were afraid that practising the techniques would harm the
child's muscles and bones; secondly, they were afraid that if the child was not made of the right
stuff, not only would the child not be able to master the skills, their conventional studies would
also be hindered. Even when it came to Yu Lanchuan whose family was the origin of the sect, it
was only when he was in his teens that he bothered Yu Huaide into teaching him.

Boss Jiang said, "Look at the way he is now. He did master some skills but other than causing
trouble, what use are they? What will he depend on to find his place in society in the future?
Perhaps it's better for Tang Qian Yan's skills to be cut off in this generation."

At that moment, a gust of wind blew in from the door. There was a creaking sound and the two
chattering old men closed their mouths in unison. Like two agile old monkeys, they scrambled
towards the door. Yu Lanchuan looked up.

Yan Hao finally showed his face, the morning dew on his body and Nie Ke on his shoulders.

His coat was being used to wrap Nie Ke up and he was only wearing a knitted ochre-coloured
sweater. There were a few days' worth of unshaved stubble on his face and his eyes were
bloodshot. Avoiding Boss Jiang's gaze, he looked down at his own toes and stretched his hand out
towards Yu Lanchuan. "Give her back."

It was nearly dawn. At No. 110 Courtyard, a soft whistle sounded. Nearby, a group of Beggars'
Sect members revealed themselves one by one. A few people came over and restrained Yan Hao,
the rest efficiently picked up Nie Ke.
One of the Beggars' Sect disciples carried two supermarket bags and said softly to Old Master
Yang. "Sect Leader Yang, we have checked the items against the receipt."

"Go quickly!" Old Master Yang waved his hand and the Beggars' Sect disciples lifted Nie Ke with
practised ease and went up to the eighth floor. They picked the lock and entered, stealthily
carrying him to his own bed. They undid the ropes binding Nie Ke, then took a bottle of alcohol
from his own supermarket bag. They trickled a few drops into Nie Ke's mouth and splashed some
onto his body and clothes. The bottle was then overturned, filling the apartment with alcohol
fumes. After that, they wiped their footprints clean and filed out.

In the reception office, Yu Lanchuan stood up, packed away his laptop and took Ayanami Rei
away.

Yan Hao hastily called out, "Give her back!"

Yu Lanchuan looked at the figurine in his hand. He tossed it up in the air and then caught it again,
and smiled coldly. "We'll talk again when you have calmed down."

Seeing his lifeblood being tossed around like that, Yan Hao's eyes widened in furious anger but he
was firmly restrained by the Beggars' Sect disciples. Boss Jiang smacked him a few times on his
back in anger and disappointment, his temper erupting.

"But he's a scumbag, Uncle Jiang!" Yan Hao was familiar with Boss Jiang and his words could just
barely flow a little easier. "He pressured his wife until she went crazy and I even saw him give
money to an evil doctor from an illegal clinic! There's a reason why she wants to kill him!"

"So what!" Boss Jiang was exasperated. "That's between the two of them. As the people say,
'Even the officials don't interfere in domestic matters'!"

Yan Hao said, "I-"

"Do you have proof? The law and the police want to see proof." Old Master Yang cut him off in a
calm tone. "Child, I know you mean well but this is not something for outsiders to explain."

But… what about her? What about Xiang Xiaoman?

How could this be?

Yan Hao looked at them, perplexed and helpless.

T/N:
[1] Women's Association is 妇联 fùlián while the Avengers is 復仇者聯盟 fùchóuzhě liánméng or
復聯 fùlián for short. When Gan Qing asked Yan Hao if he was from the Women's Association,
Yan Hao heard it as asking if he was from the Avengers. This pun doesn't work in English so I
tweaked it a little.
[2] "Liu Bei Throwing His Child" refers to an event during the Battle of Changban as described in
the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Zhao Yun risked his life to save Liu Bei's son, A'dou,
and when they reached Liu Bei, Liu Bei threw his son to the ground because he was angry that his
son had nearly cost him his best warrior.
[3] Tongzi Gong 童子功 is part of the Shaolin kungfu curriculum.
Chapter 30
The tumultuous night was over. The next day was a Saturday but the number of customers at the
roadside jianbing stalls was no less than other days. As usual, before seven o' clock, a long line
was forming. Yu Lanchuan still had to put in extra hours at work, the Beggars' Sect disciples had
to take advantage of the weekend to go to the hot spots packed with people to meet the
requirements of their profession, and even Gan Qing, who hid behind the scenes and didn't
reveal her face, had to open shop on time and prepare to welcome the next round of Mercury
retrograde. Thus, everyone dispersed.

Only the retired Sect Leader Yang had nothing to do. Together with Boss Jiang, they escorted the
dazed and lost Yan Hao back to the laundry shop, and closed the shop to give him a lecture.

Yu Lanchuan went home and took a nap. Then, he took a speed shower and tidied himself up at
the fastest possible speed until he was gleaming and presentable, and got ready to go to work. At
the door, he suddenly thought of something. He took the white musk cologne spray near the
door and sprayed a couple of times at his hair. His legs that were heading towards the elevator
made a turn. Bathed in a perfumed cloud, he knocked on the neighbouring apartment's door.

Gan Qing had eaten until she got an upset stomach yesterday night. She didn't go out in the
morning and had made herself a bowl of congee. When she heard someone knock on the door,
she thought it was the girl who delivered milk to Zhang Meizhen, and came out with a soup
spoon still stuck in her mouth.

Word had it that the weather was going to become colder in these two days and the heating in
the apartment was especially warm. At home, she wore the long shorts and basketball jersey she
wore in summer while squatting by the roadside and gnawing on a corn on the cob… and she
wasn't wearing underwear.

The two of them—one inside the door and one outside the door—stared at each other for a few
seconds, shocked to the core by this disastrous scene.

After all, the variety of living things on Earth was so wide, so abundant.

Gan Qing's nose was prickled by the smell of the cologne that had yet to dissipate and she
wanted to sneeze but she still had a soup spoon in her mouth. She tried to keep the sneeze in.
She gritted her teeth and bit down on the spoon, which made the handle swing up and hit her
directly on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes immediately reddened; she had hit herself until she
was tearing up.

Yu Lanchuan looked down to avoid seeing what he shouldn't see and stared at Zhang Meizhen's
doormat. "You… Aren't you cold?"

"Cough, I'm fine." Due to... certain reasons, Gan Qing reached a hand out to hold on to the door
frame and used this posture to hide half her body behind the door. She sucked in her chest rather
awkwardly. "What's the matter?"
"Oh," Yu Lanchuan said. "Yesterday-"

"What about yesterday?" Gan Qing cut him off. From behind the door, she revealed a pair of
crafty eyes. "I went home right after work. I don't know anything."

This was yet another round of "being uncooperative and shirking responsibilities." Yu Lanchuan
took out Yan Hao's figurine, his face expressionless.

"There is a type of person who would rather look at the map and spend an entire day and night
walking the wrong way than to stop and ask for directions. Unless they absolutely have to, they
would definitely not talk." Gan Qing was completely unmoved. "I'm guessing that the little
sparrow won't voluntarily give me up. Little Master Yu, what do you think?"

"So what you're saying is, the person who was bored and still wandering around outside late
yesterday night was me, the person who bumped into Yan Hao knocking Nie Ke out was also me,
and the person who chased him through a few streets and still couldn't catch up to him, and had
only picked up a doll and brought it back was also me." Yu Lanchuan was nearly angered to the
point of laughing. "Was I so busy?"

"You're being modest. If you're not always on standby, how could you be the alliance leader?
Thanks, yeah." Gan Qing spoke properly for barely three and a half sentences before her mouth
again slipped. "Next time I'll…"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He didn't dare believe that she was still shameless enough to say the words "treat you to a meal."

Gan Qing was stuck for words. She suddenly realised that this bizarre man cloaked in a bizarre
perfume in front of her was a weirdo who would claim his free meal on his own volition. Hence,
she stiffly changed her words. "...I'll definitely attend when you hold an assembly to give a
commendation to yourself. The capable ones work the hardest, heroes acting in the name of
justice."

This time, even supper was not on the table.

There was nothing Yu Lanchuan could say. He passed Yan Hao's figurine across the doorway. "I
won't be home. That Yan Hao has a habit of climbing up people's windows so keep this with you
for a couple of days. We'll discuss this again after Grandpa Yang has taken care of that
troublemaker. With this confiscated, he won't run. Of course, you can also use it to threaten Yan
Hao and make him not expose you."

Gan Qing said regretfully, "Little Master Yu, listen to what you just said. You sound like a bad
guy."

His appearance and his manner were even more like a bad guy, the type in domestic television
series that wouldn't survive past three episodes.
"Is that so? Thank you." Yu Lanchuan let out a fake laugh. "I see that you don't have to worry
about this. After all, the trademarks of a demonic villainess is a large chest and a thin waist."

Gan Qing, "..."

Director Yu brushed off the nonexistent dust from his clothes and let his thin eyelids fall
downwards, his manner insufferably arrogant. "Why are you hiding? My myopia is about a
hundred degrees. The way you are, there's nothing I can see even if I wear a microscope."

Oh my, a provocation?

Upon hearing that, Gan Qing lightly licked her teeth and then, unexpectedly, swaggered out from
behind the door. She leaned against the door frame, her long limbs unfolding. She was also no
longer sucking in her chest. With a smile that was not quite a smile, she said, "My sincere
apologies for bringing down the appearance of this city."

Yu Lanchuan was dumbstruck. The fake cocktalker had met a real hoodlum and he was so
shocked his gaze shifted 180 degrees. He couldn't force out even a single word and had to beat a
hasty, flustered retreat.

"Be careful on your way, Little Master Yu," Gan Qing said, waving the soup spoon at his back.
"Don't let me delay you from your beauty contest!"

Due to the fact that he had been stimulated until adrenaline coursed through his body early in
the morning, Director Yu's mood was very explosive when he charged into the office and he had a
thick murderous aura. His colleagues who were feeling rather lazy because they had to work
extra hours on a weekend were intimidated by this murderous aura and their effectiveness all
increased. Unexpectedly, they finished their work by noon and could all go home to take a nap.

Yu Lanchuan rested for a while in the office. Then, for reasons he couldn't explain himself, he
entered "domestic violence, psychological abuse" into the search engine. There were a lot of
related results. He skimmed through them; they were mostly in government-related official
language. Hence, he looked up "evidence of psychological abuse." The results were all either
unreliable things such as "video and audio recording" or telling him frankly that "evidence is
difficult to collect, the offence is difficult to define."

Yu Lanchuan closed his laptop and walked to the window. He took off his glasses and looked into
the distance, alleviating the strain on his eyes.

Furthermore, even if they could prove that Nie Ke was a scumbag, so what? It was fact that Xiang
Xiaoman tried to murder him and failed. She was indeed abetted by other people and she also
had mental health issues, so she didn't have to go to prison. But when someone was in that
mental state, they could be anywhere and it would still be a prison to them. What was the
difference?

Yu Lanchuan shook his head. This matter lingered in his heart for a few seconds and then was
wiped away like he was sweeping off dust. He put on his coat and went to report to his boss.
They ended up touching on the Hang Seng index, and thus spent half an hour chatting about the
regulations on stock market transactions.

In every trade and profession, at every level, the games between adults had numerous rules,
both on the surface and hidden beneath. Yan Hao was completely ignorant of the ways, perhaps
because no one had brought him to play games when he was young.

But this was not something for Yu Lanchuan to worry over. That sparrow was Tang Qian Yan's
only descendant anyway. No matter what, Old Master Yang and Boss Jiang wouldn't abandon
him. In the future, they just needed to keep him on a tight leash and not let him out to cause
trouble, and it would be fine.

He took advantage of the beautiful weather in the afternoon to walk home. The rare warm
winter sunshine made him sleepy. But in the end, he had just reached the bottom of No. 110
Courtyard when his contentment disappeared—two Beggars' Sect members were hiding sneakily
at the corner of the wall, poking their heads into the courtyard to look around. When they saw
him walk over, they signalled at him with their eyes. Yu Lanchuan followed the line of their gaze
and saw that there was a police car at the bottom of the building!

The one who had called the police, Nie Ke, sent two police officers off. One of them was Yu Yan.
Nie Ke looked very exhausted, his eyes drooping like a chain smoker's. Yu Lanchuan heard him
talking non-stop. "...The gang that was arrested previously, did some of them escape? I suspect
that they have other accomplices and that they are targeting me! Will they cut out my kidney?
Officers, as a taxpayer, my contribution is very large. You must protect me…"

Yu Lanchuan made out the words and his heart jolted. He had a bad premonition.

As he expected, after taking care of Nie Ke, Officer Yu Yan came to look for him.

"I saw you downstairs just now. Why are you back so early today?"

Working half the day on a Saturday was called "back early." Yu Lanchuan turned this phrase over
in his mind and felt rather disheartened. He didn't feel like chatting and asked directly, "Why are
you guys here? Did something happen on the eighth floor again?"

"I don't know. This dude might have been infected by his wife, he keeps muttering on and on," Yu
Yan said. "He made a police report just now, saying that he was kidnapped yesterday night after
leaving the supermarket, and that the kidnapper could even fly."

As he spoke, he watched Yu Lanchuan's face.

But Yu Lanchuan only raised an eyebrow with a touch of indifference and impatience. Nothing
was shown on his face.

"He even said that the moment he opened his eyes today, he realised that he was lying down in
his own home and that he hadn't even taken off his clothes. We checked, the items he bought
are all there. One bottle of alcohol was empty. We guessed that he must have drank until he
forgot what happened and wasn't even aware of it himself," Yu Yan said. "But Nie Ke very firmly
rejected that idea. He said that he is very fussy about cleanliness and definitely wouldn't go to
bed without taking a shower. He also said that he definitely did not hallucinate being kidnapped
because after the kidnapper knocked him out, the kidnapper used his phone to send a WeChat
message."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Why did this Yan fellow have such meddlesome hands!

"But his WeChat log is indeed very strange. One second earlier, he was still flirting with a girl and
asking her out on a date. They were all voice messages and he didn't sound like he was drunk.
The next second, he sent a bunch of crazy messages, things like 'This man is a liar,'" Yu Yan said.
"Master Lan, this matter sounds a little peculiar."

Yu Lanchuan's expression remained unchanged. In his heart, he tossed Yan Hao around in a pan,
stirring and frying him thoroughly. "What are you trying to say?"

"If it was really members of that gang taking revenge, they would have long since chopped this
guy up into pieces. Why would they let him go back and lie down in his own bed, completely
untouched? And even helped him bring back the things he bought from the supermarket? I think
that if it wasn't something wrong with his mental state, then it has to be…" Yu Yan extended a leg
and kicked lightly against Yu Lanchuan's shin. "Fess up, Master Lan. Did you not sleep well
yesterday night? Whose mess were you cleaning up?"

Yu Lanchuan kicked him right back, then crossed his legs and pretended to be an upstanding
member of society. "Comrade Officer, you have to back up your words with proof. Be careful or
I'll report you for slander. You may leave now, if there's anything, you can chat with my lawyer."

"Ai, you're the only one who can pull off this weird combination of trying to be cool." Yu Yan
sighed. "No more joking, Master Lan, we can't ignore requests from 'taxpayers' like Nie Ke. If we
don't manage it well, he might even put us up on Weibo. When we go back, we need to check all
the nearby CCTVs based on the location he gave and the time the messages were sent. I came to
give you a heads-up, be careful."

Yu Lanchuan rubbed the spot between his brows, well aware that his afternoon nap was gone
now.

Yu Yan stood up and straightened his uniform. "The capable ones work the hardest, Alliance
Leader!"

When Yu Lanchuan heard the phrase "the capable ones work the hardest" now, he would feel his
head getting heavier. He forced his words out from behind clenched teeth, "Say that again and
our friendship is over. Get lost."

The Beggars' Sect people hung around the area all year round. They were jianghu veterans and
should know how to avoid the CCTVs. There was no need to ask Gan Qing; that person was
slippery as an eel and wouldn't expose herself like that.
The problem was that Gan Qing had lost Yan Hao for a while when chasing him. During that time,
no one knew where Yan Hao was.

Yu Lanchuan hastily went to the laundry shop downstairs and caught Yan Hao by his collar.

The moment Yan Hao saw him, his eyes reddened again. "Give her back!"

"The hell I will." Yu Lanchuan asked, "When you carried Nie Ke away yesterday, where did you
go? Which road did you take? Did you avoid the CCTVs?"

Yan Hao looked utterly confused. It was obvious that he had no idea about the CCTVs.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

In ancient times, the alliance leader of the martial arts world could call the wind and summon
rain. In their daily lives, tens of thousands of people knelt before them. If they saw anyone they
didn't like, they could declare that person demonic and order their disciples to teach them a
lesson when they had nothing better to do.

Such a wonderful profession!

Why was it that the current day alliance leader was like a poop scooper, rushing everywhere to
help these mentally deficient people wipe their asses?

No wonder it was so easy to take up the position. There wasn't even anyone putting up a token
fight out of courtesy.

Old Master Yang's brain worked fast and he very quickly realised something. "Nie Ke made a
police report?"

Yu Lanchuan glared at Yan Hao, then shared the news that Yu Yan had furtively given him. After
listening to him, the two old men faced Yan Hao and sighed repeatedly, one after another.

Boss Jiang asked, "What should we do now?"

Yan Hao shrank back and hunched his shoulders, curling up beside a large washing machine. His
entire person was gloomy and depressed, so sorrowful that he was near tears.

Yu Lanchuan glanced at him and thought, Why do I have to take care of this annoying matter?

Old Master Yang said, "Xiao-Chuan!"

Yu Lanchuan said, "...No one was harmed and there was no monetary loss in this matter.
Furthermore, it does indeed sound incredulous. It will take some time for the police to get access
to the CCTVs. Within this time, as long as Nie Ke himself admits that he was hallucinating after
drinking too much, those people at the police station probably wouldn't continue investigating…
Hey, Spiderman, tell me in detail about Nie Ke giving money to that doctor from the clinic."
Chapter 31
"If you're worried about small problems in your daily studies or work, this kind of 'anti-Mercury
retrograde' card is a very good choice. You can keep it with your student card or transport pass.
It's very convenient to carry around with you and it can help to calm your emotions, reducing the
negative effects of the Mercury retrograde. Other than that, during the period of Mercury
retrograde, you must make sure to get the electrical appliances and devices at home checked
regularly. Once you see signs of damage, you must remember to take care of it promptly. Keep
your spirits up. Even though Mercury retrograde brings some trouble to our lives, it is also a
chance for us to reflect on ourselves…"

Outside the display window, Yu Lanchuan watched a certain someone who was under a faint
light, her hair—and it was even a wig—down and a Mona Lisa half-smile on her face. In only ten
minutes, she had hoodwinked three batches of customers. She was proficient in her job and
didn't even reuse the same sales pitch. She sold colourful cards costing twenty cents each for
fifteen yuan, and had even sold a stack of them.

Evidently, "Mercury retrograde" was now the number one killer among the current day young
people. The related expenses should be included in the list of items covered by medical
insurance.

When Yu Lanchuan heard the bunch of children call her "Teacher Meng-Meng[1]," he already had
goosebumps all over. So when he heard "Teacher Meng-Meng" spout her floaty and mystical
charlatan nonsense, he really could not bear to watch anymore. He regretted not snapping a
photo of her that morning with the soup spoon dangling out of her mouth; he could parade it
through the streets.

He knocked a few times on the shop door, cutting off Gan Qing. His face stiff as a board, he
walked in, changing the atmosphere in the shop from that of the song Starlight to that of the
news program Focus Report.

The teenagers all turned their heads to look at him. One young girl even clutched the "anti-
Mercury retrograde" card she had just bought tightly. Perhaps she wanted to stick it on Director
Yu's forehead.

"Something has come up." Yu Lanchuan coldly knocked on the counter. "What time do you
close?"

Gan Qing's smile did not change an iota. "My apologies, sir. During the period of Mercury
retrograde, I have more customers to take care of. Everyone here has made an appointment. If
there is a need, may I ask that you inform me two days in advance?"

"You may not," Yu Lanchuan rejected her ruthlessly. He glanced at those "anti-Mercury
retrograde" cards, then drew close to Gan Qing's ear and whispered, "I'm going to call the Price
Control Bureau."

Gan Qing, "..."

Bastard!
Ten minutes later, Gan Qing put her silver tongue to full use and deceived all her customers into
leaving. She sprawled crookedly on the counter and regained her usual tone. "Little Master Yu,
I'm just running a small business here. Don't be like this."

Yu Lanchuan's eyes swept past the price tags on the nonsense on her counter. "I think what
you're running is a sham business."

Gan Qing sighed, feeling that she was getting a taste of this alliance leader's prowess. By using
just one phone, he could survive through the ages and unite the jianghu. "For what matter do I
have the honour of being blessed by your presence?"

"Yesterday night, did you see Yan Hao use Nie Ke's phone to send messages?"

Gan Qing thought a while, then said uncertainly, "I might have. At that time, he was holding a
phone and tapping on it for a bit. I don't know whose phone it was."

The veins at Yu Lanchuan's temples started pounding. "Then, why didn't you say anything
yesterday?"

Gan Qing was bewildered. "...You didn't ask."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Come with me."

"Huh?"

"Yesterday, you were clearly the one who acted first but halfway through, you walked away as
though it had nothing to do with you. You can think again if you want to throw this mess to me
and let me shoulder the blame." Yu Lanchuan gritted his teeth and wanted to pull her out from
behind the counter.

But before his hand could touch her, he felt a sudden chill on his wrist. He didn't know what it
was—it was a kind of feeling that made one's hair stand on end. Yu Lanchuan subconsciously
moved his wrist up. His reaction was already extremely quick but he still did not manage to
dodge. Two fingers tapped on his meridian point; at the same time, Gan Qing blew on his neck. A
faint ache radiated from his wrist... and along with it, sticking close to that feeling, was something
even scarier.

If she had used more strength or if she had a knife between her fingers…

Yu Lanchuan's reason for practising the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang back then was very chuuni
but throughout the years, he had not had many opportunities to put the skills to use. He had
never once experienced pitting himself against a single hand, a single finger, in a single,
mysterious second.

In actual fact, the so-called "four ounces moves a thousand pounds" martial arts might have
existed in ancient times but no one had seen it in modern times. Based on Yu Lanchuan's shallow
understanding from practising the sword for fifteen years, it was probably not very realistic. Even
Granduncle might not be capable of that. On top of that, Gan Qing was not a large and burly
person. The stature was there for all to see, the limit of her strength and her ability to fight back
obvious to the eye. There was no way she could be super strong.

But in that one second, Yu Lanchuan felt that the person before his eyes seemed to have
shattered into numerous tiny specks of dust, circling around him without sparing any spots—his
throat, wrists, chest, temples—and, at the same time, sending him a warning. It was like there
were countless tiny deadly blades on them.

She did not confront other people and her strength could not be detected at all. It was just like a
fatal gust of wind that could slip through the tiniest crack and lightly take away her opponent's
life. When the opponent's life was gone, naturally they would have no more strength.

It was different from all the schools of martial arts Yu Lanchuan had seen up to now. Rather than
to call it martial arts, perhaps it should be called the art of killing.

This… What kind of skill was this?

After the founding of the nation, why was there still this kind of disharmonious skill?

Gan Qing hid behind her wig. She smiled at him and used her high-pitched "charlatan" voice to
speak. "Oh my, sir, please speak nicely. Why are you using your hands and legs? You gave me
such a fright."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He fell silent for a while and quietly took out his phone.

Gan Qing became proper again in just one second. "Okay, okay, okay, all right. Go on, what do
you want me to do?"

Just like that, Gan Qing left work half a day early and was dragged onboard the pirate ship by the
alliance leader.

"Peaceful Mind Clinic…" Gan Qing looked down at the address Yu Lanchuan had sent her, then
looked up again at the rundown shop front in front of her. She sighed, feeling that Yu Lanchuan
was treating her like a follower he could order around.

Just as she was pacing around, two middle-aged people came out of Peaceful Mind Clinic. One of
them, a woman, told the man beside her, "...It works. Listen to me, our child's results in the
midterms improved quite a lot compared to the previous term."

The man asked rather hesitantly, "This… If our child takes this, will it have any side effects?"

"No," the woman said. "I heard other people say that in the U.S., the students in the top schools
and the Silicon Valley elites all take this. It basically works the same way as coffee. It's not easy to
buy it in our country. This Doctor Zhao is helping us buy it."

The man asked, "What did you say the name of this medicine was again?"
"Intelligence Pill!"

Intelligence Pill? Gan Qing walked out of the shadows. Doctor Zhao?

She opened a group shopping app on her phone. This Peaceful Mind Clinic that might or might
not have an official business license had quite a number of listings for group purchases of in-
person programs. In the listing, the doctor explaining the effectiveness of the treatments was
called Zhao Hongxiang. Gan Qing thought for a while, then joined the group purchase for one of
the programs. At the same time, she took a screenshot of the page and sent it to Yu Lanchuan,
getting him to cover the expense.

She made a call and asked. The appointment list for Saturday afternoon was not yet full, she
could still make an appointment.

The group purchase was for a program called Hypnosis Experience. The introduction hyped it up
extravagantly, saying that it was a type of "group psychological consultation" and that it could
guide the clients into a state of hypnosis where they could relax their bodies and minds, release
the pressure from daily life, detox their body and maintain their youthful looks.

Gan Qing had always been heartless so naturally, she had no need to seek consultation for
"issues of the heart." It was her first time and she was like a village bumpkin who had just
entered the city. She messaged Yu Lanchuan a question, a little worried. This thing isn't like the
Soul Absorption Technique in the past, is it?

Yu Lanchuan might have been shocked by her ignorance. It was a long while before he replied to
her with six dots.

The clinic had a reception counter for receiving and registering patients. Other than Gan Qing,
there were three others who had bought the same program.

"The hypnosis room is still being prepared. Everyone, please wait here for a while." The
receptionist was a young and beautiful lady with a sweet smile, and looked completely out of
place in the rundown clinic. "Before we begin, Doctor Zhao asked me to tell everyone that not all
of you will be able to smoothly enter a state of hypnosis. There will be some of you who are
unable to relax and can't easily follow the prompts. Later, if you find that you have this type of
characteristic, please don't be disappointed. Our program can still help you relax your mind to a
certain degree. If you are satisfied, you can buy our long-term package. It is more tailored to
individual needs compared to our group package."

Listening to her, Gan Qing was delighted. So it turned out that Peaceful Mind Clinic was in the
same trade as her. Even the way they hoodwinked their clients were just different words used to
the same effect—as long you believed in it, it was effective.

The hypnosis room was modified from a bedroom. Inside, the curtains were closed and the only
illumination was the dim light from aromatherapy candles. Small speakers were placed in the
corners of the room, transmitting from all directions a soft music that made a person feel sleepy.
This trick was also quite similar to Star Dreams. Right in the middle of the hypnosis room were a
few soft recliners. On a weary afternoon, surrounded by white noise and a scent that helped with
sleep, there was likely no need for any prompting for someone to sleep like the dead.

The wily-looking Doctor Zhao sat before a bookshelf. The receptionist was smiling brightly and
passing out blankets to everyone, explaining the points they should take note of. Gan Qing took
the chance to ask, "Excuse me, where is the washroom?"

She wandered out of the room and took the chance while the only two employees in the clinic
were busy to quickly slip behind the reception counter. Under the counter was a stack of
medicine for unknown purposes, still in their packaging. Gan Qing glanced at them but did not
recognise them. She quickly snapped a few photos and sent them to Yu Lanchuan. Then, she took
the registration book on the counter. The book was for the entire current year. Gan Qing's fingers
flipped non-stop from the front to the back, like she was counting the pages. Her eyesight was
extremely good; the second the name "Xiang Xiaoman" flashed past, she quickly caught it and
stopped at that page.

She saw the note there: Xiang Xiaoman; female; 36 years-old; ten consultations (medicine cost
paid).

Medicine cost?

Gan Qing frowned. Even though she did not know how proper psychology consultations were
conducted, she was familiar with the "integrity of the profession of charlatans." Selling charms
and encouraging clients to take naps belonged to the category of harmless immoral acts, but to
prescribe medicine carelessly… This was crossing the line.

"Nie Ke found this kind of 'doctor' for Xiang Xiaoman?" Yu Lanchuan looked at the photos Gan
Qing sent him. "This person is simply a jianghu swindler who sells energy pills, and even smuggles
controlled medicine."

Yu Yan furtively said to him over the phone, "You can report the clinic for conducting illegal
business but Xiang Xiaoman getting medical treatment there does not prove that Nie Ke was
consciously abusing her. Nie Ke could also say that he was tricked. Phone scams can still deceive
highly-educated people every other day. Accidentally buying something fake when buying
something for one's wife isn't against the law."

Right then, there was a call on Yu Lanchuan's phone.

"Wait a minute, I'll call you back later." Yu Lanchuan hung up on Yu Yan and picked up the other
call. It was a colleague from his company's business partner who frequently played sports with Yu
Lanchuan and worked closely with the company where Nie Ke was working. Everyone was in the
same circle; if one wanted to find out something, there was nothing that couldn't be unearthed.

"There was a period of time when I went to his company to conduct a round of due diligence,"
the "sports" friend said. "This man gave me a very deep impression. They have a Finance
manager who likes to gossip. When we were eating together, eight out of ten gossip topics were
related to him… This man doesn't have a very good image. He's always hanging around the young
ladies and is serial-dating who knows how many women. Someone had even once made a fuss at
his workplace and told him to be more careful next time not to call the wrong name."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Do you know that he's already married?"

"I know. Word has it that the reason why he could get a Yanning household registration back
then was entirely because of his old father-in-law. His house and car were also mainly paid for by
that side of the family. Otherwise, he would be a house loan slave like you. Where would he find
the money to indulge?"

A few holes were poked open in Yu Lanchuan's heart.

"You know how it is, old people can't be relied on for one's entire life. I heard that after his
father-in-law retired, his health was constantly not very good and he would be hospitalised every
other day. From then on, Nie Ke started to be a bit unrestrained. Later on, the old man passed
away. His wife probably did not have any relatives who could be counted on so he had nothing to
fear anymore… Ai, I heard that something happened to his wife. What's the situation now?"

Yu Lanchuan brushed off his gossip-loving "sports" friend with just a few words. He got his hands
on Nie Ke's resume through a roundabout way and by the time he finished compiling his
materials, it was already evening. He went to the sixth floor to look for Old Master Yang's
granddaughter, Yang Yifan.

President Yang owned various types of new media companies and had a rich supply of Internet
experts. Very quickly, a few online accounts linked to the email address that Nie Ke had used
during his university and work days were dug out.

"He's really sloppy," Yang Yifan said. "Look at this, isn't this one of the email addresses that he
frequently uses?"

Yang Yifan was showing him a screenshot. Nie Ke had used his own email address to leave a
comment that said: Send email, exchange, my wife.

Yu Lanchuan, "Yes, if he isn't using his official company email, this is the account he uses. What
do these words mean?"

"It's a porn forum that has a bit of a PUA flavour."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "P… what flavour?"

"PUA, pick-up artist. At the start, they taught those loser men who never leave their homes how
to make conversation with women. Later on, they expanded to train them to become scum men
who deceive women for money and sex. They study things like how to destroy a woman's mental
state and dignity, and how to find chances to take nudes of the other person. In private, those
scum men would even take out the nudes to show off and exchange with each other," Yang Yifan
said. "For example this one, it means that he wants to use his own wife's nudes to exchange for
the other party's 'resources.'"
Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Yang Yifan said, "Ai, did I just corrupt a handsome man's clean and pure spirit? Director Yu, you
can forget what I said."

Yu Lanchuan ignored her, "Other than this, is there anything else?"

"Give me a night's time. I'll get someone to infiltrate the scum men's inner circle. If we're lucky,
we can get the chat logs from the conversations back then between this kid and other people,"
President Yang said, unbothered. "It's just a matter of money."

"How much?" Yu Lanchuan, who had just compensated Gan Qing for the cost of the group
package, asked. "I-"

"I'll waive it," the tyrannical President Yang Yifan said. "I don't lack money. I'll sponsor this bit for
you, purely for my own amusement."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

If it were not because he still had a house loan, would she get the chance to put on this act of
being generous and flaunt her wealth here?

Right at that moment, Yu Lanchuan's phone buzzed. Gan Qing had sent him her location.

Gan Qing sent: I found the miraculous Doctor Zhao's address. After doing such immoral deeds, do
you think he'll be afraid of ghosts knocking on his door tonight?

T/N:
[1] Teacher Meng-Meng 梦 梦老 师 mèng mèng lǎoshī - 'Meng' here means 'dream,' the same
'dream' as the shop name, so this nickname is literally 'Teacher Dream-Dream."
Chapter 32
Yu Lanchuan couldn't help but feel that this line of hers was rather sinister, so he quickly asked.
What are you planning to do?

Gan Qing replied. Nothing. Just wanna have a chat with him.

Alliance Leader Yu's heart was extremely weary. Don't be reckless!

Gan Qing didn't reply with words; she replied with a Panda Mr. Kim meme—Women who are
beautiful are all unreliable.

Who wants to get into a meme war with you!

Yu Lanchuan wanted to kneel in surrender to this walking meme. After explaining things to Yang
Yifan, he rushed to Gan Qing's location.

In the past, "Doctor" Zhao had opened a beauty salon. Later on, he realised that the competition
in that industry was getting more and more intense, so he switched industries. He found a source
and brought a diploma from them, then went through one month of training and image
transformation. After that, he wiped all traces of his old self from his face, changed his hair and
appearance, and just like that, he became a "psychology consultation expert" and opened this
Peaceful Mind Clinic.

He had used one weekend to earn a large amount of "peaceful mind" money—in the afternoon,
he received three batches of clients who paid money to listen to music and take a nap, sold two
long-term treatment packages, and added more than ten clients who asked him to help buy the
Intelligence Pill. The growth in the numbers in his accounts was very pleasing and he happily
hummed a song as he went home.

The place where Doctor Zhao stayed was not far from the restaurant where Nie Ke had passed
money to him the other day. On his way home, he had to walk through a small lane. Even though
it was a little unsettling, it wasn't very long and he was already very familiar with the way. This
mister was immoral to the core, so he was naturally a materialistic person who worshipped
money and firmly believed in the power of the renminbi to repel evil spirits, and did not fear the
dark. As usual, he switched on the light on his phone, swung his legs, and hummed an opera tune
as he strolled home.

However, today, there seemed to be something different about the little alley. As he walked, the
northwest wind stopped and his surroundings suddenly quieted down. An indescribable feeling
crawled up his spine.

Doctor Zhao warily shone his phone around but didn't see anything. He suspected that he was
being overly sensitive, so he took a deep breath to calm down and sang out, "I used to lie hidden
and live a carefree-"

He hadn't sung out the word "life" yet when someone seemed to chuckle softly in the darkness.

Doctor Zhao immediately shut his mouth. At the same time, he suddenly realised that his
footsteps sounded a little unnatural—they had a rustling sound.

Did he step on something?

No, something was wrong!

Abruptly, he stopped moving. The rustling sound didn't immediately stop, there were a few
additional rustles! It was like there was someone purposely imitating his steps but their steps
were not very accurate.

"Is anybody there?" Doctor Zhao turned back and shouted. Behind him was a deserted lane. He
started to feel nervous for no reason because he was suddenly realising that this familiar lane
was darker than he expected. It made him feel unsafe, so he quickened his steps.

The rustling sound tailed him like a shadow. Doctor Zhao turned his head around a few times, his
heart thumping faster and faster, his palms starting to turn damp.
Just as he was about to reach the end of the lane, there was suddenly the sound of someone
running quickly behind him. It was fast and heavy, like the ear-splitting sound of the drums,
crashing against his eardrums with no warning.

It might be a type of animal instinct—when walking alone in a very quiet place, the sound of
hurried footsteps very easily made a person shudder and feel like they were being chased,
especially when that person was already starting to feel scared.

The sudden and towering sound of the footsteps frightened Doctor Zhao until his knees
weakened. He lifted his phone hastily, shining in the direction where the footsteps were coming
from.

With the light, he saw clearly the lane behind him and his hair stood on end. It was still as
deserted as ever—when the light swept across the lane, the steady and heavy footsteps
unexpectedly disappeared into thin air!

Doctor Zhao was stupefied for a while. Then, very quickly, he turned on his heels and fled. He
didn't know if he was imagining things but when he turned his body, he seemed to hear a woman
laughing!

In one breath, he ran 800 meters. Doctor Zhao nearly puked his lungs out, running madly towards
the main road. His palms were already wet with cold sweat and he almost couldn't hold on to his
phone.

He hastily wiped his sweat with his sleeve and took a long exhale. Nervously, he gripped his
wallet in the pocket of his pants, and recited a couple of sutra phrases.

"I'm just scaring myself." He patted himself on the chest and let out a laugh, as though to comfort
himself. "Jumping at shadows, how silly."

Doctor Zhao lived alone and had sent his wife and child to live overseas. This way, he could brag
when he brought this up to outsiders and he also had freedom to do whatever he wanted to. On
this night, he didn't want to be alone for some reason, so he scrolled through his phone while
opening the door. Just as he was wavering between the beautiful receptionist and a female
patient he had just hooked up with, he felt something amiss. There was an ominous feel in the
warm air in the house, a chill brushing past him…

Who opened the window?

Right at that moment, the door closed with a loud, heavy thump behind him. The key he had
used to open the door just now hadn't been taken out. Doctor Zhao abruptly twisted his head
around, only to hear a clear clink. Someone had locked the door from the outside! He rushed to
the peephole to look outside and at the same time, turned the door knob futilely. The noise
activated the sound-activated light in the corridor but as before, he saw no one.

Doctor Zhao's heart was suspended in his throat. Right then, all the lights in the house suddenly
turned off—someone had tripped the circuit breaker!
"Who is it! I'm calling the police!"

He had just finished speaking when from very far, a woman let out a high-pitched laugh and said
softly, "Sure."

Doctor Zhao grabbed the umbrella that was at the door and turned his head in the direction of
the voice. He realised in shock that one of the windows at the balcony was open. There was a…
shadow of a long-haired woman floating outside the window. When the night wind blew past,
the shadow even swayed slightly!

Doctor Zhao abruptly retreated a few steps, his back colliding with the shoe cabinet. His house
was on the tenth floor!

The "shadow" reached out a hand, pressing against the glass window. Immediately after, the
sound of fingernails scraping against the glass could be heard from that direction. The shadow
sighed faintly. "If only I still had hands, I would also call the police. Doctor Zhao, I want to report
you for conducting illegal medical treatments, for harming lives for the sake of money…"

In the pitch-black house, the man who was already so scared he could not think straight did not
notice the threads as fine as hair slipping in through the edges of the opened window like a
spiderweb. One of the threads moved slightly and a paper box on top of the fridge was dragged
down. A pile of Ritalin scattered all over the floor.

Doctor Zhao fell on his butt. "I-I-I-I'm selling proper medicine! I-Imported from Pakistan!"

The "shadow" chuckled. "Imported?"

Ritalin, the so-called Intelligence Pill that Doctor Zhao was peddling, was also known as "Viagra
for the brain" and was usually used to treat ADHD. There were people in other countries who
liked to take a few pills for no reason other than to stimulate their brains. This kind of thing that
could obviously result in addiction and had side effects were categorised under psychiatric drugs
in the country and were officially controlled. Without a medical prescription, the "imported" pills
that could be bought were either fake drugs or smuggled in by the black market.

"I-I buy on behalf-"

A box of pills suddenly flew up on its own and brushed past the man's ear, smashing forcefully
against the shoe cabinet. Doctor Zhao howled and nearly lost control of his bladder. "I smuggled
them! I smuggled them! The hospitals prescribe this medicine too, they won't result in death! If…
If there are any problems, it's all because the patients themselves are- ahhh!"

His vision darkened. Another box of pills flew up, spinning like a top and hitting his face at a high
speed. Doctor Zhao felt like he had been slapped across the face. He shrank his body back and
cowered in a corner, his arms wrapped around his head.

"If there are any problems, it's all because the patients themselves are not in good health and it
has nothing to do with you, am I right?" The "shadow" outside the window let out a low, scornful
laugh. "Then what about me, what did you prescribe me?"
Doctor Zhao looked up in confusion. "What..."

"Don't remember? Let me give you a reminder. At the beginning of March this year, I bought ten
consultation sessions from you. You even prescribed me medicine but they don't seem effective,
Doctor," the "shadow" said in a soft, breathy voice. "It even seemed to worsen my condition.
Every day… Every day, it was like I was trapped in a swamp. Countless hands stretched out of the
mud, pulling me down relentlessly. Slowly, I became unable to talk and I had no strength left at
all. What did you prescribe me? Doctor?"

"Doctor" Zhao initially did not understand but listening to her words, he suddenly recalled
something and his face changed. "You… Who are you?"

"Who do you think I am? Me, I used to think I was crazy, I thought I was worthless. But after I left
my physical body, I suddenly felt much better. I'm so unsatisfied, I had to come back and have a
nice and proper 'consultation' with you." The sound of fingernails scraping against glass was
increasingly ear-piercing. Right after that, the window creaked as it was pushed open even wider.
A pale, withered hand stretched in. "Doctor Zhao, what does this mean?"

The man was scared senseless by now. He grabbed a decorative Buddha statue at the entrance
hall, jumbled chants for dispelling evil that he learned from somewhere tumbling out of his
mouth, and threw it towards the window. The porcelain statue and the window shattered
together, and the shadow outside the window disappeared into thin air. But before he could
relax, he heard the voice speak again. "Oh my."

The voice was right beside his ear. She was in the house!

The door to the innermost bedroom opened softly. From inside, that hand reached out. A blurry
shadow of a woman swayed into the living room.

She laughed, piercing yet soft. "Looks like Buddha doesn't protect bad people. That was close."

"Are you Ding Xiang? Wang Xiaoqing? Hao… H-Hao Chunmei…" Doctor Zhao had pissed his pants
in terror and was calling out a few female names in succession. Even the "female ghost" in the
house was dumbstruck for a moment, as though she didn't expect this to happen. The crotch
area of the man's pants were already soaked and he was talking incoherently. "I don't know
anything, I didn't do anything to any of you. I-I-I was just helping people buy medicine. Whatever
they wanted to buy, I helped them buy..."

The "female ghost's" terrifying high-pitched voice lowered. Sadly, Doctor Zhao was already
incapable of rational thought and did not notice it. "You said… 'any of you'?"

Yu Lanchuan ran madly the moment he got down from the cab. He was not familiar with the area
and took a few wrong turns before he finally found the small neighbourhood where Doctor Zhao
stayed. He looked at his watch—more than an hour had gone by—and he immediately broke out
in a nervous sweat. If there was a pressure cooker, it was enough time to braise Doctor Zhao until
his meat was falling off his bones!
He called Gan Qing's phone while trying to determine which building it was. The other party
rejected his call.

Yu Lanchuan cursed, "Fucker!"

He was just about to call again when a twig suddenly flew towards him from the side. Yu
Lanchuan subconsciously caught it. He looked up to see Gan Qing sitting on the edge of the
flower bed in the neighbourhood, holding a wig and waving at him. Smiling widely, she asked,
"Who's a fucker?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"I told you I was coming to have a chat with Doctor Zhao, why are you panicking?" Gan Qing said.
"So worried about me? I'm overwhelmed and shocked by your favour."

His face stiff, Yu Lanchuan said, "I'm worried about the person targeted by you."

"Don't worry. No deaths, no injuries, and no evidence left behind. I avoided the CCTVs and wiped
my prints, aren't I reliable? Come, settle up the expenses first. Debts should be cleared between
good friends." Gan Qing opened the calculator app on her phone and tapped rapidly on it.
"Compensation for missing work, fee for running errands, information exchange fee, transport
cost…"

The veins at Yu Lanchuan's temples started pounding.

"...I won't charge you for all that. After all, we see each other everyday, am I right?" Gan Qing
said. "It's just that this made me miss an afternoon's worth of business and I've lost at least
twenty sales of 'anti-Mercury retrograde charms.' Little Master Yu, how am I to explain this to the
boss? I won't survive the coming days."

Yu Lanchuan had just encountered a President Yang who flaunted her wealth with style, and now
he was meeting someone who moaned her poverty with equal flair. Both his spirit and his wallet
suffered a double blow. In the end, the two of them went through a round of bargaining. Yu
Lanchuan held his nose and bought twenty anti-Mercury retrograde charms from her at a bulk-
purchase price, each one discounted by fifty cents.

Gan Qing finally spoke unhurriedly, "This person's clinic is basically a scam. He's actually a drug
smuggler. He usually peddles some prescribed drugs illegally. He has many connections and his
supply is reliable. His mouth is also tightly zipped so later on, someone introduced him to another
business."

"What business?"

"GHB."

GHB was a type of narcotic. It was also known as a "date rape drug" and it was obvious how it
was used.
"The price was very high so he agreed. He felt that if a murderer used a knife to kill someone, it
was the murderer's fault and not the knife's fault, and that it was even more unrelated to the
person who sold the knife," Gan Qing continued to say. "Slowly, other than GHB, there were
people who asked him to help them buy other types of hallucinogens and narcotics. He realised
that these customers all knew each other and the drugs were a tool for them to snare women.
Usually, if they bumped into each other when they came to his place to pick up the drugs, they
would even share their experiences—stuff like how to pick a target, how to make the target too
scared to make a police report or to resist, and how to completely control her. These customers
didn't mind their words around him. Later on, they even added him into their 'stamp-collecting
community.' That Zhao fellow said it was like a gaming community. Everyday, they would show
off their 'battle spoils.'"

Yu Lanchuan frowned. "Is Nie Ke in it?"

"He is. Nie Ke is one of his main customers. Apparently, a lot of people admire this Nie Ke a lot
because he snared one Xiang Xiaoman and with that, wiped out twenty years of struggling, and
became successful and well-known. He even made her completely submissive to him. Nie Ke's
past deeds is a classic case study that's passed on in their community, along with a complete
tutorial. First, beat down her self-esteem. Put sleeping pills and tranquilizers in her food and
drink to make her drowsy for entire days so that she has no way to go out and work. Throw away
the food she made in front of her. Bring her out to meet 'friends' and purposely let those 'friends'
ridicule her to her face. Slowly destroy her mental state. Now that everything is in his hands, Nie
Ke wants to completely get rid of her, so he's pretending to take her to see a 'psychiatrist'—this
role is also a cameo played by that Zhao fellow. His job is to keep hinting and forcing her to
'reflect on herself' during the treatment period to make her symptoms worse. Nie Ke's plan was
for her to kill herself or to find a suitable chance to send her to a psychiatric hospital."

"How about that?" Gan Qing tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it a foolproof plan?"
Chapter 33
When Gan Qing was done talking, she looked down and accepted Yu Lanchuan's WeChat money
transfer. This alliance leader was one sweet-smelling oddball—just for the sake of ten yuan, he
had bargained with her for a good long time.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Can you get evidence?"

"Their transactions are done with cash and of course there are no accounts. But if you search that
evil doctor's house right now, you can probably find some smuggled drugs." Gan Qing thought a
while, "As for Nie Ke and the rest, you can probably get their past chat logs. Is that enough? If
necessary, that one upstairs who pissed his pants can turn himself in."

"Turn himself in?" Yu Lanchuan asked in bewilderment. "He found his conscience? What did you
do to him?"

"Nothing, just educated him a bit. You can say that I persuaded him with the power of ethics,"
Gan Qing said. "And then I nicely made another appointment with him. 'See you tomorrow, see
you everyday.'"

Yu Lanchuan said, "Tricking him once is enough. This kind of thing is very easily exposed."
"It's all right." Gan Qing laughed and opened her hand to him. In her hand was a small tuft of hair,
the strands very short and cut with a sharp edge. When the night wind swept past, they
immediately flew away. She said, "Today, it's his hair. Tomorrow, he should worry about his ears.
Day after tomorrow… whether I'm a human or a ghost will no longer be of importance to him."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He could roughly imagine how the Doctor Zhao upstairs pissed his pants.

Yu Lanchuan called for a ride on a ride-hailing app and the two of them waited by the roadside.
The driver seemed a bit unable to find their location and called to ask. After he had finally made
his location clear, Yu Lanchuan put down his phone and heard Gan Qing suddenly say from beside
him. "This is enough, right?"

"Mm, what?"

"Stuff like evidence and whatnot, there's no need to be too particular. I have an audio recording
of what that Zhao fellow said just now." Gan Qing stepped about on the curb. "Add a section of
the chat logs to it and send them to Nie Ke. That should be enough to shut his mouth. Go back
and keep that foolish sparrow on a tight leash, stay low for a few days, and this matter can be
considered over."

Yu Lanchuan heard those words and understood what she was not saying.

The reason why they were out here to handle this shitty problem was all because of the trouble
caused by Yan Hao. Now that they had information to use against Nie Ke, they could retreat in
victory.

However...

"Actually, even if the evil doctor turns himself in and reports them, there's no use." Gan Qing
spread her hands at him. "Nie Ke drugging Xiang Xiaoman was something that happened a long
time ago and there's nothing that can be found now. He just needs to insist that he didn't do it.
Whether or not the chat logs can be used as evidence is also a question. They can say that the
logs were edited, or that they were false advertising to swindle those losers into paying lesson
fees or something like that. At most, they will just be fined."

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything.

As for sharing someone else's private photos, it was just "dissemination of obscene material." At
most, it would be assigned a "humiliation and degradation offence." The latter crime usually
needed the victim to make a report before it could be investigated, unless there was conclusive
evidence to prove that Xiang Xiaoman's unstable mental state was due to Nie Ke spreading her
nudes. But this was impossible. Xiang Xiaoman herself might be completely unaware of what Nie
Ke had done behind her back.
Not to mention that the matter of the sleeping pills had happened too long ago and was difficult
to prove. Even if it could be done, taking sleeping pills typically wouldn't make a person mentally
unstable.

That Xiang Xiaoman could walk step by step until she reached where she was today was very
likely because she had been someone with low self-esteem in the first place. She might have
been more sensitive and easily reliant on others, or maybe she was naturally more susceptible to
having mental health issues. If they investigated her relatives and happened to find some who
suffered from insomnia or depression, they could say that her condition was hereditary.

As for the long-term psychological abuse, who had seen it?

What was more, the punishment for abuse was not severe. The prison term was at most three
years. It wasn't even enough to finish an undergraduate course.

"Little Master Yu." Gan Qing lifted her head and beamed at him as she said, "How does fifteen
yuan for one sound?"

Yu Lanchuan was puzzled. "Didn't you just say that the bulk purchase price was fourteen…"

Halfway through, he suddenly realised what Gan Qing meant by "fifteen yuan for one" and his
words stuck in his throat.

"This is already the bargain basement price. Otherwise, I would add at least four zeros to it." Gan
Qing stretched her body and said, "I am detailed and meticulous, and guaranteed to leave no
trace nor evidence. If you're willing to cover the additional transport costs, I can also add a
'disposal and clean-up' service, and make this person disappear without a trace from here on.
Even the police would think that he fled because he feared being arrested. How does that sound?
I only take cash."

The weather was really cold. As Gan Qing spoke, she stamped her feet lightly and blew on her
hands. She looked like she was joking with him.

But Yu Lanchuan had an inexplicable feeling that if he brushed it off with a laugh, then those
words were just a joke; but if he really took out fifteen yuan now, Nie Ke would turn into a
missing person tomorrow!

In a little less than half a year, Alliance Leader Yu had met not an insignificant number of
troublesome people. For example, Madam Qian and her three unlucky disciples belonged to the
category of brutal and ruthless people. They had criminal records, were capable of fighting and
running, and there was nothing they could not do in a moment of impulse. For another example,
Yan Hao, who did things without consulting his brain, did not consider anything, and was
someone ignorant of the law and ever-ready to take a wrong step.

Compared to these people, Gan Qing was totally a model citizen. She was usually civilised and
courteous. She never cut the queue when buying breakfast, always smiled before speaking, and
looked like she was rather easy to bully. But under that facade of "I know what I'm doing," her
bones were completely black and when she occasionally revealed a hint of that, it was enough to
shock a person to the core.

Fifteen… "add four zeros" yuan. In that case, given that she currently made a living by muttering
nonsense to hoodwink people and could not even dig out 1.50 yuan, should he feel relieved?

Behind his glasses, Yu Lanchuan's eyes flickered. "You seem quite experienced."

At that moment, the ride he had called was arriving with its hazard lights on. Gan Qing didn't
reply. The eyes that she was never willing to open fully flickered in the dark of the night,
revealing a faint cold light like the tip of a blade. "Guess?"

Thus, on this day, the chatty cab driver realised that he totally did not have a chance to join the
conversation. The young man in the front passenger seat spent the entire time giving a long
lecture on law awareness, frightening the driver into driving fearfully. He didn't dare exceed the
speed limit throughout the journey.

Gan Qing, who had dared to put on an act in front of the King of Cool, was now reaping what she
sowed. She curled into a ball under the force of his tirade, shrinking into the back seat and not
daring to poke her head out. Taking the chance when Yu Lanchuan was drawing a breath, she
hastily and weakly cut him off. "I was just joking."

Yu Lanchuan said, "A lot of people who crossed the line began by not taking this matter seriously.
Can everything be treated as a joke?"

Gan Qing said remorsefully, "...I was wrong."

The driver met her eyes in the rearview mirror, his eyes full of sympathy. He turned the volume
on the radio a little louder to do what he could to help her. And so, the "law segment" gained
background music in the form of a traditional narration of Journey to the West.

"Just look at these Jade Hare Spirit, Scorpion Spirit, Sun Wukong and whatnot. Proper demons, all
of them, and proper monkeys." When the cab stopped at the entrance of No. 110 Courtyard, the
driver said meaningfully, "They couldn't see past the beauty or ugliness of youth and old age, and
don't understand that form is emptiness. They just had to insist on marrying the monk Tang Seng.
Wasn't he forced to wear the magical circlet? Everyday, he had to listen to the monk chant
sutras. Learned his lesson, didn't he? The total is 28.30 yuan, just round it down to 28. Thank
you!"

After taking the money, the cab sped off like a supercar, leaving only a trail of exhaust and dust.

Yu Lanchuan was actually not done talking yet but the conclusion of "Sun Wukong marrying Tang
Seng" was like a fish bone wedged in his throat, his words stuck so hard that it hurt. He could only
drop the subject and turn to go with a flourish of his sleeve.

President Yang found someone to take care of the audio recording Gan Qing made. Together
with a few chat log screenshots, it was sent to Nie Ke. That very night, Yu Lanchuan received a
call from Yu Yan saying that Nie Ke suddenly changed his mind and admitted that he had made a
false report after drinking too much the other night. He even paid the fine on his own volition.

Yan Hao was brought out by Old Master Yang and Boss Jiang to face Yu Lanchuan. He obediently
apologised for all the trouble he had caused but still did not get his figurine back. This was at the
request of Boss Jiang. He was to remain under observation for a period of time. When they were
sure that he was living steadily and responsibly, and would definitely not cause any more trouble,
they would return it to him.

In the eyes of the older generation, it was nothing more than a plastic doll anyway. A grown man
spending entire days enamoured with toys was not proper behaviour at all. It was better to take
it away from him.

When Yan Hao left, he was nearly in tears. For every step he took, he turned his head back three
times, wondering if Yu Lanchuan would treat his Ayanami Rei well.

In the past, he also had a Spiderman. Ayanami Rei was the one who understood him for who he
was while Spiderman was the one entrusted with his ambition. There were times when he
imagined himself to be like a small spider. If he transformed into Spiderman, he would obtain
superpowers and everything good, and could go to battle and save people. But after his mother
found that little Spiderman figurine, she broke it with her bare hands. And when he put on that
Spiderman costume, he didn't transform into a superhero. He was only treated as a suspicious
pervert and taken away by the police while onlookers pointed their fingers at him.

He also couldn't save anyone. He could only cause trouble for others.

Fantasies were nothing but fleeting illusions.

Now, his last consolation was gone. Yan Hao knew in his heart that Boss Jiang and Old Master
Yang meant well. He couldn't say no. He just felt very lonely.

From the moment he was born, there was nothing he was useful for. That was the loneliness he
felt.

At the intersection below No. 110 Courtyard, Yan Hao suddenly had a thought. Is it time for me to
leave?

Right at that moment, the door to the pet store beside him opened. The shop employee was
sending off two customers.

The employee was a mute girl with freckles on her face. A young couple came out of the store,
taking with them a cat. Looking at the colouring, it should be an adoption.

The cat curled up quietly in the carrier, gazing at the mute girl. The girl seemed to be very
worried. Subconsciously, she walked after them for a few steps until the customers thought that
she had something to bring up and stopped to ask.
The mute girl watched them walk off and noticed Yan Hao standing not far away. Her eyes lit up.
She let out an ah and turned to slip into the store. She brought out the canned cat food he had
left, pointed at him, then at the cans, and bowed to him.

Yan Hao was afraid of girls in the first place and was so dumbstruck he was like a wooden stump.
He let down his guard for a minute and the mute girl was tugging at his sleeve, forcefully pulling
him into the store.

In the corner, a few large cats were eating from the cans. They were entirely focused on eating.
When they heard someone come in, they only twitched their ears a bit and they didn't even lift
their heads.

Right then, a rather hoarse meowing could be heard. The two of them looked up and saw that a
smaller cat had somehow climbed up on a tall perch and couldn't get down. It was turning in
circles in agitation. The mute girl quickly let go of Yan Hao and went to rescue the cat.

When she let go, Yan Hao also felt more relieved.

Then, he saw the mute girl leap up, light and agile. Her toes touched lightly on the cat tree and
she reached the top of the perch as though she weighed nothing. One foot on the cat tree and
the other foot on an opened cabinet door, she picked up the cat and carried it down.

Both the cat tree and the cabinet door did not move the slightest.

Yan Hao was surprised and felt that she was a little overly nimble.

Even though she looked very slender… no matter how thin a girl was, they would still weigh at
least seventy or eighty pounds. Was it possible to move so lightly?

Without waiting for him to understand what was going on, the girl had already leaped down and
put the cat on the ground. When she touched the ground, there was no sound at all.

She gave him a huge smile, then took out a small book and wrote some words for him to read:
Thank you. There are too many strays which makes the boss unhappy. There's a quota for how
much food I can feed them in the future and I can't go over the limit. If it weren't for you, I
wouldn't be able to let Xiao-Bai come here.

Yan Hao came back to himself. He also felt that writing was better than speaking, so he
voluntarily joined the ranks of the deaf and mute, and wrote in the book: You're welcome. What
about next month?

The mute girl wrote: Yarn Ball just got adopted. If it doesn't get sent back and if no new cats
come to the store, we have enough to go around.

After a pause, she wrote in the book: But they frequently get sent back.

Yan Hao wrote: The two people just now look like nice people.
Hopefully. The girl wrote: Even if the cats are treated badly in someone's home, they can't speak
up.

The two of them crouched down together, both worrying. Yan Hao's heart stirred and he turned
his head to look at No. 110 Courtyard. From this angle, he couldn't see the eighth floor.

After the chaos he caused, Nie Ke definitely would not dare stay there anymore. He had sent his
child away and had currently gone off to who knew where. Before long, he would move away and
804 would be rented to someone else. The shattered window would be repaired and no one
would know that a woman had once been imprisoned there.

Yan Hao sighed. He bid farewell to the mute girl and stood up to go. He decided that he would
follow the arrangements Boss Jiang and the others had made for him after all and work and earn
some money. At the very least, he could support the girl at the pet store by providing canned pet
food.

A week later, the occupant of 804 indeed moved away. Two moving vans arrived at the
courtyard. When Gan Qing left for work in the morning, she happened to see Nie Ke talking to
the movers downstairs. She stood at the building entrance, one hand fingering something in her
pocket, and stared at Nie Ke's back for a few seconds.

Nie Ke felt a chill on his back. His nerves overly sensitive, he stretched his neck and looked
around.

After a few days of not seeing him, the man had grown noticeably more wan. Word had it that
when the evil doctor turned himself in, he had reported the rest of them at the same time. Nie Ke
was taken away by the police and interrogated, causing gossip to fly around in his office. He
might not be able to continue working there in the future.

However, just as they had expected, Nie Ke engaged a lawyer and very cleverly washed his hands
clean of his past deeds. When all was said and done, all he admitted to was that "there were
issues with his morals."

This time, even though he encountered some bumps and went through some turmoil, he was not
deeply wounded. As for his job, he could lay low for a while and then find a new one later. With
Nie Ke's qualifications and academic background, it wasn't difficult for him to change jobs. People
were forgetful anyway.
Chapter 34
Gan Qing tilted her head, her eyes staring from a corner of the corridor. She saw Nie Ke frowning
and shouting out his instructions. He occupied a large section of the empty space in the courtyard
and was ordering the movers around until their heads were spinning.

Even though this man was nearly middle-aged, his looks were still good. He could even be called
delicately handsome and his body was also very much in shape. He knew how to dress and also
carried his clothes well. The coal-black long coat made his face appear very clean. A female driver
passing by had her way blocked by him but when she wound her window down to look, she
didn't even frown and instead, waited patiently for him to move.
Nie Ke saw clearly the Maserati logo on the car and his expression changed immediately. With
poise and elegance, he walked over to exchange a few words with the female driver, perhaps to
apologise and to explain. In just a few words, they even struck up a conversation.

The two people chatted happily, and probably even thought that the movers moved their van too
quickly.

After the woman drove away, the melancholic smile on Nie Ke's face disappeared. He watched
the car leave, then lit a cigarette and drew on it harshly. He seemed unwilling to accept how
things had turned out and also seemed to be harbouring ill intentions. The corners of his eyes
and mouth were drawn at a sharp angle. This expression didn't quite look human; it looked more
like a wolf hiding beneath human skin.

Gan Qing's eyes swept across his exposed neck and wrists. Her eyes focused like a high school
student in an examination hall staring at the last geometry question, coldly calculating where she
should make the first move.

Nie Ke threw the cigarette butt onto the manhole cover, then lifted his head to look at the eighth
floor. He thought of Xiang Xiaoman and a cold, scornful smile appeared on his face. He regretted
being too kind and soft-hearted, and not removing the woman cleanly. Keeping her by his side
had resulted in so much trouble.

But what can you do to me? Just you watch, crazy bitch. As Nie Ke thought, he spat and then
climbed up into the front passenger seat of the moving van.

He liked women but in his eyes, women were just like the equipment in a game. They were not
people and there was no need for feelings. They should come and go at his bidding, and it would
be best if they harmed or killed themselves for him to add to his mysterious charm. But if they
dared to resist or dared to cause him trouble, then they were nothing good.

Since ancient times, people who tamed wild horses were heroes and fighters. But if the wild
horse was unwilling to be tamed and even pretended to be docile only to bite their handler when
they had the chance, then they were sinful and deserved to die.

Right at that moment, Gan Qing moved. The building entrance where she was at was only a few
meters away from the bumper of the moving van. Between them was a bicycle rack which could
perfectly hide her body. With just a few steps, she could slip under the van, and then…

...go to the young, handsome and capable Mr. Nie's new home, check out the place, and give him
a little "surprise" at night.

However, right at the moment when she was about to slip out, an arm reached across from out
of nowhere and held her back by her waist. "Come back!"

Gan Qing recognised the voice. She ignored it and stubbornly charged forward. Her elbow jabbed
to the side but the other person refused to retreat. Elbow collided against elbow with a muffled
thunk.
Both of them had collided directly and whoever was thinner suffered more. Gan Qing was forced
to step aside to reduce the impact. At the same time, the other person lifted an arm and seized
the door frame, blocking her way.

Gan Qing's gaze didn't leave Nie Ke. Her hands were trying to force a way out, yet her voice was
politely making small talk. "Little Master Yu, why aren't you at work today?"

"There's a parent-teacher conference, I took a half-day leave." Yu Lanchuan dodged Gan Qing's
shoulder that was crashing towards him. He forced half a step forward and his other hand
grabbed the elbow of the hand that had been in her pocket the entire time. "Take it out!"

"Life sure is hard for you, Little Master Yu," Gan Qing said with a false smile. Her knee blocked his
thigh. "Every day, you have to leave early and come back late…"

Yu Lanchuan retracted his leg but otherwise, did not move. As before, he blocked her path and
the two of them exchanged a few moves in that tiny space. Fortunately, the building entrance
was hidden by the moving van; otherwise, outsiders would see legs and arms flying around.

"...you have to take care of a younger brother..." Gan Qing's hand cleaved down like a knife,
aiming right at his stomach. Yu Lanchuan slammed his elbow down on her hand and realised that
her hand was quick but without strength. In the second that his elbow pushed down on it, her
fingers moved swiftly, transforming into a blade to accurately brush past his ulnar nerve.

Yu Lanchuan hissed in pain.

Gan Qing said, "...and you can still find time to poke your nose into other people's business."

"It's still okay." Half of Yu Lanchuan's arm had lost all feeling but he endured and did not retract
it. After all, a person's fingers were not a real blade. It hurt but there was no serious injury. He
stood at an angle, using his shoulder to open the way, and spread his long legs to block Gan Qing,
forcing her back into the corridor. "My time management can just about handle all that."

One used her hand as a blade, the other used his body as a sword.

The blade was a three-inch fingertip blade, slitting throats with barely a warning.

The sword was a heavy sword, with a thick spine and a wide blade, an honest and upright spirit
contained within.

Gan Qing finally shifted her gaze and looked directly at Yu Lanchuan.

Outside, the sound of people talking was noisy and clamorous. In this tiny space hidden by the
bicycle racks, there had already been one round of a silent and fierce fight, blade glinting and the
sword flashing.

The afternoon sun did not shine through the north-facing windows. Gan Qing retreated into the
shadows and fell silent for a while. She let out a soft laugh. "Little Master Yu's skills are much
stronger than I had expected. As expected of the direct descendant of Han Jiang Yu."
Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything. He was wary, on guard for any more trouble she might cause.

He didn't have much experience with fighting other people. Plus, he was used to being civilised
and worried about a lot of things. When he used his strength and attacked, he would always have
an intention to hold back, as though he was afraid he would cause serious harm.

If Gan Qing wanted to take his life, she probably wouldn't need even a minute.

But if she didn't want to injure others, then she was tying her own limbs. On top of that, the
space at the building entrance was limited and she lacked strength. If they were to arm wrestle,
Yu Lanchuan would probably have to first give her an advantage of an additional arm.
Unexpectedly, she had been stopped by him.

At that moment, the van could be heard accelerating. Slowly, it was driven away. It was too late
to go after it now.

Gan Qing sighed. She shook the arm that was restraining her. "I didn't apply for leave, Little
Master Yu. If you don't let go, you'll have to compensate me for the hours I miss again."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What were you planning to do just now?"

Gan Qing said, "Nothing much. Leave the house and go to work."

"What's in your pocket?"

"Keys."

Yu Lanchuan didn't believe her words, not even the punctuation. He pulled her hand out of her
pocket. Gan Qing loosened her grip. There was a clinking sound—she was really holding a bunch
of keys.

"In the bright daytime"—Gan Qing looped her index finger through the key ring and spun it a
couple of times, saying in resignation—"what did you think I was going to do?"

Yu Lanchuan was at first relieved. Then, in the next second, his gaze was suddenly pinned on the
keys…

Dangling from her key ring was a decoration made from tying strings into knots, and the strings
were two differently-coloured, fluorescent shoelaces!

The shoelaces were very familiar!

Gan Qing caught the keys in her hand and stuffed them back into her pocket. "Have I passed the
security check?"

Yu Lanchuan involuntarily stretched out his hand. Halfway, he drew it back. "Your… keychain is
pretty unusual."
"You like this type? When I'm back I'll give you one," Gan Qing spoke without thinking as she
walked out. "Colourful knots repel evil to protect your home and can increase positive energy.
The 'neighbour price' is twenty yuan. I'll pass one to you tonight, thank you for the business."

Yu Lanchuan moved his legs to keep up with her. "Those are shoelaces, aren't they?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Surely not?

She quickly dug it out and looked carefully—they really were shoelaces.

Such flashy shoelaces, they're definitely not mine. Where did I pick them up? She thought in
bewilderment. She couldn't remember where those things came from anymore.

When she was young, there was a period of time when she was obsessed with tying knots and
she had known how to tie quite a number of Chinese knots… Of course, she had forgotten them
all now.

These small, scattered bits of her old possessions had all been given to her by Boss Meng. In fact,
she couldn't remember where most of them came from. They weren't anything of importance to
her and she had never thought that each and every one of them would be kept by her shifu.

When the older generation did something awkward, it was always like this. They didn't
understand what the kids were thinking and also didn't dare ask too closely. He had been afraid
of being too naggy, so he hadn't dared to carelessly touch any of her things, afraid that he would
accidentally lose something important. But a youth that was filled with bouts of wind and rain
wouldn't have so many important items. Looking back at them after a few years had passed,
more than half of them were unknown to her.

And the person who had so carefully kept all her "unknowns" was no longer here.

Softly, Gan Qing's heart sank. She took a deep breath to hold it still, not letting it sink any lower.
She was very experienced with maintaining a "heartless" state.

Her steps paused and she turned her head to say, "Is there anything else? That twenty yuan can't
be lowered any further, Little Master Yu. Don't follow me anymore."

Yu Lanchuan came to a stop. He finally realised that he had followed her from the building
entrance all the way to the courtyard gate.

"You…"

You don't remember where the two shoelaces came from?

...And you don't remember me?

The night that was filled with the ruckus of human voices and dog barks in my memories that
shook me to my core was just a trifling matter that you forgot the moment it was over?

Where did you come from?

All these years, where had you gone to?

All these questions fought to be the first, swirling around in his throat. In the end, they melded
into an image of a young girl looking at him with a mischievous expression and saying mockingly,
"That doggy on your underwear looks a lot like you."

Gan Qing prepared herself to listen to yet another round of "Alliance Leader's Lecture on Law
Awareness'' but what she saw was Yu Lanchuan's ears suddenly turning red. Who knew what
grand move he was brewing up.

Gan Qing said, "Little Master Yu, if you have anything to say, just say it. Don't keep it in, your face
is already red from holding everything in. It won't be good if others see you like this, they'll think
that I'm doing something improper to you."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

She had been a female ruffian since young!

Gan Qing wanted to escape as quickly as possible, so she lowered her voice slightly and said
sincerely, "I'm really going to go to work. Little Master Yu, stop following me. If I really want to
take off that scumbag's head, you won't be able to stop me even if you follow me all the way to
the women's washroom."

Flustered and exasperated, Yu Lanchuan said, "Who's following you to-"

Gan Qing cut him off, "Shh… Not so loud. Such coarse words will ruin your image."

Steam rose from Yu Lanchuan's every orifice in his indignation. With tremendous effort, he
maintained his image and forced out a few words through gritted teeth. "When Yan Hao
kidnapped him, you tried to stop him. I thought you were very rational and not someone who
liked to find trouble for herself."

Gan Qing smiled, "Ai, this is nothing, it's no trouble at all."

She was even being polite!

"Wait a minute," Yu Lanchuan said quickly. "You're not the only one keeping an eye on Nie Ke
now."

Gan Qing paused.

"In the past, no one knew what they did. Since this matter has been brought to light now, you're
not the only one who's unwilling to let them get away with it," Yu Lanchuan said. "Wait a few
more days, half a month at most."

"Half a month." Gan Qing looked at him deeply and nodded. "Okay."

A shameless person could always very quickly recalibrate their mental state. Nie Ke threw his
child over to his parents and moved to a new house. No. 110 was old, rundown and small; were it
not because it was in a school district, it would not be worth its price at all. A high-class
apartment of the same price was much more comfortable.

He checked out the garden at the bottom of the apartment building and was quite satisfied. He
even casually made plans with a female internet friend who was coming to visit Yanning, planning
to relax fully.

But after relaxing for a few days, things started going wrong. At the start, it was the nearby
jianbing seller giving him strange looks. Nie Ke didn't care, he didn't eat that kind of thing
anyway. Then, very quickly, all the breakfast vendors nearby started to whisper to each other and
it even spread to the convenience shops and cafes!

"Sir, I'm sorry but our coffee machine is not working."

"But it was just-"

"It became spoiled just now," the round-faced server's smile was very professional. "I'm really
very sorry."

Nie Ke said, "Then, I don't want coffee. Give me a sandwich."

The server said, "We're out of sandwiches."

"There's one right in the display-"

"You are mistaken. That's a display item."

"What do you mean by this? The customer has the right to choose. You are breaking the law-"

"I'm really very sorry. If you're not satisfied, you may lodge a complaint."

After that, the line "You may lodge a complaint" seemed to linger in Nie Ke's ears. Full of anger,
he ran back to his new home and bumped into a beggar right in front of the elevator. Nie Ke
didn't like filth so he stepped back with a frown. However, the beggar gave him a wide,
meaningful smile, a smile that gave him goosebumps all over. He had a bad feeling in his heart.

As he thought, once he went upstairs, he realised that his house had been marked by someone. A
smiley face had been drawn next to his door plate!
Nie Ke pushed the door open and entered. A piece of paper that had been slipped into the crack
of the door fell onto his shoe. The paper was printed with the words: I know what you did. I know
where you live.

Nie Ke's scalp tingled. Scared witless, he called the police. The two police officers who came took
a look around and saw one full-grown adult man completely unharmed and nothing missing from
the house, so they just recorded his statement and left.

Nie Ke was so frightened his soul was leaving his body. He could only leave to stay at a guest
house. The beggars at the roadside watched him enter. With a twirl of their moustache, very
quickly, a paper slip appeared in the guest house room.

At the restaurants that he went to, the bars, and even on the electrical poles on the roads he
passed through, the smiley face followed him like a shadow.

Nie Ke was on the verge of breaking down. But the police not only thought that he was being
overly sensitive, they even visited him to ask some questions every other day.

Ten days later, Yang Yifan sent off some visitors in her office and gave Yu Lanchuan a call. "Little
Master Yu, is your team of lawyers ready?"

Yu Lanchuan picked up his phone and turned to go to the pantry.

"We have contacted the victims who are willing to testify. There are four of them now and there
may be more in the future. The most recent one had her drink spiked at a bar and was taken
away by them. She kept the evidence but they threatened her with her nudes so she didn't dare
make a report all this while." Yang Yifan blew on her nails. "The bar might still have the
surveillance video of them spiking her drink, it would be good if we can get it. Can you handle the
boss?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "I'll try."

"President Yang said, "Good. Then, we'll start to spread it online. There'll be many eyeballs
reading this."

Detained in a special ward, Xiang Xiaoman lifted her head timidly and looked at the young female
police officer who had once given her a personal contact number.

The last time, the paper on which the number was written had been so flimsy. Xiang Xiaoman
also had not appreciated the gesture.

This time, the young female police officer was finally not only bringing with her the naive courage
of a single person, she was also bringing people from the Women's Association and an
organisation that helped victims of domestic violence. There was also a proper psychiatrist and a
professional psychology consultant.

It might be the case that the lawsuit would cause a great uproar but the final judgement, as
before, would still leave them discontent.
It might be the case that the punishment for evil people would never ever be commensurate with
the harm they had caused others.

But she still had to climb to her feet and continue to live.

Even if she had nothing more to live for, she still had to show those unbearable and despicable
things that she wouldn't take things lying down.

Gan Qing stood at the intersection, waiting for the lights to turn. She scrolled through the news
that was spreading everywhere on her phone and glanced at the date—it was half a month on
the dot. Little Master Yu was quite punctual.

She looked up and saw that Yan Hao was helping the pet store next door carry cat litter, so busy
that his feet were barely touching the ground.

Yan Hao still had a fear of her. When he accidentally met her gaze, he was so frightened that he
dropped his head and fled right away.

"Hey," Gan Qing called out to him from the road side. "Your wife is with me. Come and pick her
up when you're free."

The little mute girl from the pet store looked at him in shock. Yan Hao felt so awkward that his
face and ears turned red, turning into a large tomato on the spot.

However… the large tomato probably didn't know what great contributions he had made.

Gan Qing meow-ed at the kitten in the display window, then turned to go.

— END OF BOOK 2 —
Book 3: Loss of Hope
Chapter 35
The sweeping northwest wind brought with it a round of heavy snowfall. The residents of
Yanning all raised their cameras and online, the "scum men gang" topic that had everyone abuzz
for a while was finally taken over by something else.

Amidst the shutter sounds rising and falling everywhere, the Earth completed one orbital
revolution.

"'The Neighbourhood Committee of Rongxian Street wishes everyone a Happy New Year. We
would like to remind our comrades to be careful during the holiday period and that setting off
fireworks and firecrackers are prohibited within the city area'... tsk, what the hell. Who lights
firecrackers during New Year? That's tacky." Yang Yifan skimmed the notice on the wall, then
turned to pound on her grandfather's door. "Old man! Old man!"

Sect Leader Yang was burning incense, making tea and studying a weiqi game record. Her
pounding shook him, causing him to accidentally knock against the weiqi board and send the
stones flying.
Old Master Yang sighed heavily. "What are you doing! A person of noble character should be
calm and composed, and there are rules to follow when sitting, laying down and walking. Just
look at you… Hey! I'm talking to you, you're a grown woman now! Can't you pay more attention
to your behaviour?"

Yang Yifan had directly put her skirt on over her clothes and was taking off her pants as she
walked. She had just taken off one pants leg and was hopping on one foot. "I'm going to be late...
The neighbourhood committee is giving out flu shots during the holidays. I've registered for you,
it's tomorrow morning. I can't get up so early, you go on your own."

Old Master Yang slowly picked up the stones and snorted. "I'm not going. Looking for illness
where there is none, why would I want to get injected?"

Yang Yifan struggled out of her pants and put on her makeup while standing. "If you wait until
you're sick to get vaccinated, it'll be too late!"

Old Master Yang argued forcefully, "Getting a small illness or two is just like opening the sluice to
release the floodwaters. If you train your body and strengthen your immune system, getting a
cold is nothing bad."

Yang Yifan nearly poked her eye with the eyeliner. Blinking furiously, she spoke angrily, unable to
restrain her rage. "Your group of scoundrel friends is just a distribution center for rumours! And a
cold is not the flu!"

Old Master Yang retorted, "If you feel cold, then it's a cold, what else can it be?"

Yang Yifan didn't want to waste time arguing with him. "Anyway, just go. I've already paid for it."

Old Master Yang curled his lips. "Everyone in our courtyard who is above sixty years old gets free
jabs. Don't try to trick me."

Yang Yifan, "..."

These old people, the general knowledge they should know was utterly lost on them but when it
came to things that they shouldn't know, they were more quick-witted than monkeys!

Because of that, President Yang seized the green walking stick that Sect Leader Yang usually
carried around, supposedly the Beggars' Sect Dog Beating Staff—the real thing was a genuine
antique but it was unknown if this one was real or fake—and said, "If I find out tomorrow that
you didn't go, I will set this shitty stick on fire."

The calm and composed Sect Leader Yang leaped up. "Put that down! You… You're being
insolent!"

Yang Yifan felt that "insolent" was a praise. She wedged the stick under her arm, picked up the
heels she was planning to change into for her evening party, and turned to leave.
"Come back here, where are you going!"

Yang Yifan stepped into the elevator. "New Year's countdown party!"

Old Master Yang ran out after her. "It's a festive occasion and you… you're not coming home to
eat?"

"Go eat with your Goddess Zhang upstairs. I won't disturb the two of you…" Yang Yifan's voice
was cut off by the closing elevator door, and she left a corridor of perfumed air behind her.

Old Master Yang stood there alone for a while. Then, he leaned against the corridor window and
watched his granddaughter drive away downstairs. Only then did he return to his home,
dejected.

The nearer it was to the end of the year, the busier the young people were. And this was just the
Gregorian calendar's New Year. When it was Spring Festival, his precious granddaughter might be
physically at home but she would always have her laptop on her lap and two phones in her
hands, alternating between sending voice messages and typing, so busy that eight hands
wouldn't be enough for her to use. She would have even less time to listen to his old man
prattling then.

Usually, he could still thicken his old skin and go upstairs to look for Zhang Meizhen. However,
Meizhen wasn't home these past two days. He heard that she had joined a holiday tour for senior
citizens and had gone to Sanya.

The old fools were finding it harder and harder to keep up with the times. Their friends were
getting fewer and fewer, and their days duller and duller.

Old Master Yang sighed. Slowly, he returned home. On the very last night of the year, his
companion was a weiqi game record.

In the central business district, Yu Lanchuan nodded and said "Happy New Year" to his colleagues
walking by. He was also preparing to go home. In the entire year, it was rare for them to have
even a few days where they could go home on time and didn't need to order food delivery at the
office. Everyone was a little restless, busily discussing where to party that night.

"Director Yu!" His assistant rushed over on her heels and stuffed a paper bag into Yu Lanchuan's
hands. "This is the steamed rice cake my mum brought here. It's a speciality from our hometown.
Take it home, add a dish to your meal."

Yu Lanchuan had no misgivings over accepting things from other people, and accepted gifts like
he was receiving an offering. He nodded solemnly, "Mm, help me wish your parents a Happy New
Year."

The assistant gave him an embarrassed smile, then said shyly, "I… still have a presumptuous
request…"
Director Yu looked at her loftily and thought, I'm afraid I will have to turn this down. I am strongly
against office romance.

Then, he heard his assistant ask, "Do you have any more of the 'anti-Mercury retrograde' charm
that you gave us the last time?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"Yeah!" Immediately, someone next to them spoke up. "It's very effective! During the last
Mercury retrograde, nothing went wrong with my computer!"

"Saturn is going to go into retrograde soon!"

"Oh my god, can't they just orbit properly? I was just wondering why I've been getting a crick in
the neck upon waking up these past couple of days!"

"Director Yu, can you help me ask your friend and get a fortune-changing talisman for the new
year for me?"

Director Yu was wide-eyed and dumbstruck. Have all of you gone mad?

Just like that, bearing a heavy proxy-shopping mission on his shoulders, Director Yu came to Star
Dreams after work.

On the very last day before the holiday on New Year's Day, the schools were on holiday and
offices finished work early. The tiny Star Dreams had more customers than it could handle and
Gan Qing had no time to pay him any attention. Yu Lanchuan had no choice but to hang around
and check out her items of feudalistic superstitions.

The planners patterned with six-point stars were selling briskly. They were differentiated by
astrological signs, with a total of twelve versions. Every week was printed with a newly-compiled
horoscope, bright and colourful. Yu Lanchuan flipped through a couple of pages and let out a
snort of laughter. He thought, What utter nonsense.

Next to them were a lot of small items for praying for fortune or for romance. Yu Lanchuan didn't
even want to touch them. Quantity over quality.

In a corner, the cards for various planets in retrograde and fortune-changing cards were
displayed. The moment Yu Lanchuan recalled that he had to buy a stack of those, he felt so
nauseous that his face paled. He felt a little like not going to work anymore.

Right then, the door chime sounded—yet another customer had entered the shop. Yu Lanchuan
turned his head to see and to his surprise, he saw Yu Yan with a colleague. Filled with the joy of
schadenfreude, he thought, The neighbourhood police is here to crack down on feudalistic
practices.

But what he saw was Officer Yu Yan taking advantage of his height to stretch his neck out, lifting
his head above the hordes of young people, and ask Gan Qing, "Teacher Meng-Meng, do you still
have anymore of that pink crystal bracelet from last time? I'm introducing a customer to you, he
wants to give one to his girlfriend!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The current day youth had already collapsed! Collapsed all the way to twenty thousand miles
below the sea!

After working hard to send off a large batch of customers, Gan Qing could finally squeeze out
some time. She counted out fifteen fortune-changing charms, her fingers looking like they were
counting money, and passed them to Yu Lanchuan. "Twenty yuan each, dear. Thank you for your
business. Happy New Year, may you be blessed with great fortune."

Yu Lanchuan said angrily, "Why has the price increased by five yuan!"

"Because it's popular, dear," Gan Qing answered matter-of-factly, then her expression changed.
"Wait… Little Master Yu, put your phone down first. Let's talk nicely if there's anything. How
about I give you a wholesale price? 19.50 yuan… nineteen, I'll round it down!"

Yu Yan watched from the sidelines in amusement, laughing heartily.

Yu Lanchuan gave him a kick, then swiped his card while criticising him. "What's the difference
between people like you and those who line up to burn joss sticks at midnight?"

Gan Qing and Yu Yan spoke in unison, "This is trendy."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"A-Lan, don't be so strict," Yu Yan said to Director Yu, the staunch believer in materialism. "Young
people seek to change their fortunes and study the arcane arts; middle-aged people pray to
Buddha and count their prayer beads; old people join healthy lifestyle cults and group buys for
health supplements—everyone has a safe harbour for their mental state. It's a good thing. Oh,
since you're already here, why don't you treat us to drinks next door? Let us drink to world
peace."

Ever since Yu Lanchuan moved to No. 110 Courtyard, even though he was bothered day and night
by his oddball neighbours until he was going mad, he had become a lot more generous. He didn't
have to pay rent or drive anymore, and the money he saved was about twice Officer Yu's salary.
This gave Yu Lanchuan ample breathing space and even working overtime didn't seem so
detestable to him anymore. Even though he was still doing the same thing, the mental impact
from "forced by life to work hard and scrape a meagre existence" was not quite the same as the
mental impact from "work hard and fight for one's career."

"What peace?" Yu Lanchuan threw his wallet at Yu Yan in distaste. "Have you guys investigated
the high-rise burglaries?"
Yu Yan was at the entrance, calling out to Boss Meng next door to put in his order verbally. It was
obvious that Mudpool Backlane was an important job location for the local police. Yu Yan had
been transferred here for barely a year but was already a familiar face.

After Officer Yu was done hollering, he turned back to say, "Nope. The Spiderman from your
courtyard is still the most suspicious one. After all, there aren't many who can climb up walls
freehand."

Gan Qing dragged her words out, "Oh, surely not…"

Yu Lanchuan cut her off. "Speak properly."

"'mkay." Gan Qing tried to find a "proper" tone and regained her usual speech style. "That
Spiderman buddy, even getting him to speak a few words to another person is like asking him for
his life. 'Someone else's home' is like a dragon's pool or a tiger's den to this friend of ours. He
wouldn't dare go even if you invited him, much less break in himself."

Yu Yan thought a while. "Makes sense. Sigh, let's not bother with that anymore. Nothing went
missing anyway."

Yu Lanchuan asked curiously, "Didn't you say previously that someone lost some money?"

"Not money, it was a card wallet," Yu Yan said. "Later on, the victim came by to say that he found
his card wallet. The thief didn't take it, it was his pet cat that dragged it under the sofa."

"He has a cat at home?" Gan Qing looked thoughtful. "Those homes that were broken into can't
all have cats, right?"

"You don't say, but I think they do." Yu Yan was briefly jolted. "People nowadays keep cats if they
can afford to or feed their addiction online if they can't. Cats are everywhere, Planet Earth is
going to become Planet Cat."

As he spoke, he went next door to pick up the drinks.

Yu Lanchuan glanced at Gan Qing and asked in a whisper, "Did you think of something?"

Gan Qing turned her face over and Yu Lanchuan's breath hitched. Her grey contact lenses seemed
to contain whirlpools and it made a person dizzy, especially when she was smiling.

The Gan Qing who had made the alliance leader dizzy said mysteriously, "I was just thinking that
maybe there aren't any high-rise burglars at all, and that it was just a cat demon visiting its
friends."

Yu Lanchuan wanted to give himself a slap. Why had he still not learned his lesson and still
believed that he could hear normal words come out of her mouth?

The little mute girl at the pet store near the gate of No. 110 Courtyard—the name tag on her
chest was written with the name "Qiao-Qiao," a name that suited her well[1]—quietly looked up.
She saw that there was a little kitten on the roof that had somehow climbed up but couldn't get
down. Its tail was trembling and it was shivering, crying out.

She carefully looked around her. At this hour, the street was very quiet. Everyone was either still
at home or had gone to the popular business districts to join the countdown parties. Taking the
chance when no one was passing by, Qiao-Qiao took three running steps and, with a flash, lightly
"flew" up to the roof. She looked just like a cat that manifested a human form.

The kitten was uninjured. It even sniffed around restlessly in her palm, treading all over. Qiao-
Qiao grinned and was just about to climb down when she suddenly heard something. She raised
her hand to lift up the kitten and hid warily behind a large tree next to the store.

A few seconds later, from far came the sound of a motor. A man wearing a helmet passed by on
an electrical three-wheeled cart that had a pile of cardboard boxes on it. In the middle was a
human-sized sack. In the deserted street, the rider held the handlebars with one hand while
cursing into his phone. "I told you guys to keep an eye out and to be careful. Yanning is a place
with lots of people and prying eyes, don't you know? If you give me any trouble… Fuck!"

The surface of the little street was uneven. The rider was focusing on his call and not on the road,
and accidentally rode into a large pothole. The three-wheeled cart bounced violently and the
unfastened cardboard boxes fell all over the ground. The sack was nearly bounced off the cart
too. The man hung up and angrily got down to pick them up. Right at that moment, something
seemed to move slightly in the sack but the man didn't notice it. He shoved the sack deeper into
the cart. There was a muffled sound of something colliding.

After the three-wheeled cart was gone, Qiao-Qiao slipped down from the tree, carrying the
kitten. Her palm covered the shivering kitten and she mouthed soundlessly, "People are really
bad."

The pothole on the street had been there for a long time. No one repaired it and it gaped open in
a spot where the streetlights did not shine. The people living nearby were used to it and could
detour around it with their eyes closed.

The neon lights of the business district pierced through the clouds, the clamour audible even
from far away. Near midnight, everyone came to a stop and listened to the seconds ticking by
with their breaths held. Some suddenly felt desolate, while some were filled with anticipation, as
though with the passing of a year, their lives would be different in some way.

On the first day of the new year, the new inhabitants of 804 that had been vacant for barely a
month moved in. Old Master Yang was worried for the safety of his Dog Beating Staff and yielded
in the end. Early in the morning, he went to the community center and waited for his turn to
receive the vaccination, and saw the moving van enter the courtyard.

A cab followed behind the moving van. Before the cab came to a complete stop, a woman
pushed the door open and got out, a foul expression on her face.

Old Master Yang sat up straighter. The woman looked rather familiar.
At that moment, a man got down from the cab. In the cold of the last month of the lunar
calendar, he was sweating all over. He hurriedly paid the cab driver, then panted for breath as he
rushed after the woman, saying something in a low voice.

These two people seemed to be husband and wife. The woman looked around thirty-seven or
thirty-eight years of age, while the man's age couldn't be determined. Once a man grew a large
belly and started losing hair, regardless of whether he was twenty-five, thirty-five or forty-five, he
would look just like any generic uncle.

"Oh." An auntie next to Old Master Yang poked him. "Look at that, isn't that Xiao-Han and his
wife?"

Old Master Yang muttered, "...It's really them."

"Ai, back then when the house price went up just a little, he was all agitated and wanted to sell
off his apartment. I advised him not to but he just had to argue with me and say that the house
price wouldn't go up anymore." The auntie slapped her knee and said regretfully, "He only sold it
for about two million yuan back then. Try buying it with that price now and see where it gets you!
How did the saying go again? This is why you should listen to old people!"

For once, Yu Lanchuan was on leave. He had turned down all invitations to party and was at
home being an idler for half a day. Early in the morning, using various excuses as pretexts, he had
gone to disturb Gan Qing three times. It was only when the next door apartment's door slammed
shut and Gan Qing left to go to work that he finally had nothing to do.

Yu Lanchuan was used to being busy. The moment he was free, he felt uncomfortable all over. He
paced around like a caged animal and then recalled that there was still a living thing in the house
that could relieve his boredom, so he went to knock on Liu Zhongqi's door. "I usually don't have
time to teach you. Come here."

Little Brother Liu thought that his older brother was going to teach him martial arts and was so
happy that he nearly leaped up to the ceiling. He ran joyfully out of the room. In the end, he saw
Yu Lanchuan take out a DVD and started playing the original version of the animated film The
Lion King at home.

Actually, watching a movie was fine too. Even though the unloved teenager Liu Zhongqi was
rather disappointed, as long as his older brother was willing to accompany him, he was very
satisfied.

However, this bad luck bringer of an older brother was not willing to let him watch peacefully.
After every two lines spoken in the film, he would pause it and make Liu Zhongqi repeat what
was said. If Liu Zhongqi could not repeat them, he would replay those two lines. After listening
eight or ten times, he would write out every single word in every single line, make the teenager
chew on them word by word, and then repeat them.

Liu Zhongqi, whose English score typically hung around the passing mark, was tormented until his
eyes were staring at some fixed point before him. By the end, he just wanted to directly jump
down from the tenth floor. Just as he was woefully mulling over his next run-away-from-home
plan, he was saved by the doorbell.

Quick as lightning, Liu Zhongqi leaped up, happily rushing to open the door. "Hey, Grandpa
Yang?"

Old Master Yang had brought an unknown middle-aged man with him. When Yu Lanchuan came
out, he saw the man smiling widely and putting down a carton of milk at the front door. "Is Little
Master Yu home? In the past, I didn't have a chance to pay a visit. Due to troubles at home, I also
did not attend the general assembly. Ai, it's my bad. My surname is Han, full name Han
Dongsheng. I just moved into the eighth floor."

T/N:
[1] Qiao-Qiao 悄悄 qiāoqiāo means "quietly" or "stealthily."
Also, I just want to note that the Dog Beating Staff, like Beggars' Sect, is part of popular wuxia
lore.
Chapter 36
"This is Han-dage's grandson." After sitting down, Old Master Yang saw the look of confusion on
Yu Lanchuan's face and introduced the man. "Han-dage—Han Zhen—was the Fuliang Yue back in
those years. He was proficient in the Qi sect's art of the eight trigrams, and his fist techniques
were supreme. Unfortunately, you were born too late, Xiao-Chuan, and didn't have a chance to
see it."

Han Dongsheng said, "I'm ashamed of my failings."

The first time Yu Lanchuan heard someone mention Fuliang Yue, he felt that the name had a kind
of immortal-like aura and thought that this person must be a slender man who wore long robes
with wide, floaty sleeves, standing on a mountain top shrouded in mist, ready to depart with the
wind at any time. Yet, this Mr. Han in front of him seemed to be the very antonym of "immortal
aura."

His face was round with flat features, like a dried persimmon, and his smile was stretched so wide
that it seemed like he couldn't be at ease. After every word, he nodded his head. Even when a
child like Liu Zhongqi brought him a drink, he hastily stood up to take it. From his demeanour to
his physical body, he seemed to have been fastened with many springs and was ready to rush
forward at any time to offer up his overeager politeness.

Yu Lanchuan let out a polite oh. "I heard from Grandpa Yang that you are staying here too?"

"I stayed here in the past." As Han Dongsheng spoke, his smile had a touch of a grimace. "A few
years ago, the house price increased so much it was scary. I asked an agent and the answer was
enough to make me dizzy. We had never seen so much money. The government kept saying that
they wanted to regulate the market and we all felt that the price of this place had reached its
peak. At that time, the share market was heating up, the index rushing all the way up to over
6,000 points. Everyone was flipping stocks in increasing multiples and it made me envious to see
them, so I… sold my apartment. Who would have guessed… Ai, I was unlucky and didn't act at the
right time. I had just poured the money from selling the house into the stock market when the
stocks fell. As for the apartment, the price went up even higher! Little Master Yu must think that
I'm an embarrassment. Perhaps I'm not fated to make money."

Old Master Yang asked, "After you sold the apartment, where did you go?"

"Oh, after my mother-in-law passed away a few years ago, we moved back to stay with my
father-in-law so that it's easier to take care of the old man. It's just that there isn't a decent
school there. After our son attended school there for a couple of years, we found that the school
was really inferior and it seemed like it was going to hinder our son's progress. So we asked
someone for help, thought of ways and spent a lot of effort to get a temporary student spot at a
school here. It's okay if we adults suffer a little, isn't it all for the sake of our children?" Han
Dongsheng said. "Luckily, I grew up in this courtyard and have some relations with the old
residents here. Our rental is cheaper than market price."

Understood, Yu Lanchuan thought. This is the story of someone who fantasises about becoming
rich overnight but was harvested by others like a plump chive.

Yu Lanchuan wasn't fond of this kind of small talk, especially when it was an awkward chat with
someone he didn't know. To him, rather than communicating ineffectively, everyone might as
well busy themselves with their phones.

"Little Master Yu works in finance, so you probably look at a lot of candlestick charts at work,
don't you?" Han Dongsheng smiled widely and said, "When you have the time, do recommend us
some stocks. Right now, which ones do you have in hand?"

Yu Lanchuan answered patiently, "I'm not a trader. I don't have much spare cash recently and I'm
also busy with work and don't have time to look at the market. I pulled out long ago."

"Ai, that's a shame." Han Dongsheng drew closer. "You're an insider so you get the information
quickly. You should know which ones to buy to earn a steady income without losing money!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

A load of nonsense.

Han Dongsheng said that he was there just to "say hi," but his "hi" lasted for over an hour. This
person's butt was as heavy as Mount Tai. Yu Lanchuan's lower back was already starting to ache
but Mr. Han was talking non-stop and didn't seem like he wanted to leave.

The only happy person was likely to be their little friend Liu Zhongqi. He used this time to
furtively turn on the Chinese subtitles and finished watching The Lion King.

Fortunately, someone knocked on their door right at that moment. Yu Lanchuan finally had a
chance to breathe and rushed out to see who it was.

The person who knocked pointed at the next door Madam Zhang Meizhen's apartment and
asked, "I'm sorry for disturbing but may I know if there's anyone staying next door?"
Yu Lanchuan glanced at it. "She has gone to work. What's the matter?"

The person who knocked said, "Do you have any way to contact her? I live downstairs. I think the
pipes might have burst in that unit, the water is dripping down."

At the moment, Madam Zhang Meizhen was still sunbathing in Sanya. When Gan Qing got the
call, she didn't even bother to remove her costume. In the cold of the twelfth month, she
gathered her long skirt and ran headlong into the wind, like she was putting on a performance
art.

She had just ran into the elevator lobby when she bumped into an unfamiliar little boy. He looked
like he was in Year 2 or 3 of primary school and was carrying a school bag. When he looked at
other people, he lifted his eyes but not his chin, and looked like he was rolling his eyes. His mouth
was chewing on gum. Gan Qing didn't pay him any attention. This building was in a school district;
unfamiliar kids frequently moved in, then left after finishing primary school.

Seeing as the child was staring at her, she lowered her eyelids, trying her best to conceal her
coloured lenses, and reached up to straighten out the messy long hair so that her shocking witchy
appearance would not scare this bloom of the motherland.

Unexpectedly, the primary school student struck up a conversation with her out of his own
volition. "Hello, Jiejie."

Gan Qing was still panting for breath so she only smiled at him.

"I'm Han Zhou, I just moved into 804. I'm eight years old this year and I'm in Year 3. Jiejie, do you
like the Evil Goddess Gunala[1]?"

Gan Qing was completely lost. Hearing the name, she intuitively felt that this idol was probably
nothing good. "Sure?"

The elevator arrived. Little Friend Han Zhou stuck one hand in his pocket, his other hand holding
the elevator door open. Standing at a forty-five degree angle, he raised one eyebrow and
stretched out his neck to strike a pose. "Jiejie, I think you're beautiful. Will you be in a
relationship with me, with marriage as the endgame?"

It had been a while since Gan Qing last met such a peculiar gremlin child and she nearly couldn't
answer back. "...No thanks. After all, the prison term starts from three years."

"Understood." Han Zhao snapped his fingers—the first try was soundless, so he hastily tried
again.

Gan Qing, "..."

What did you understand?

The little boy said, "Girls have to be wooed!"

The elevator dropped Little Friend Han Zhou off at the eighth floor. The apartment that was being
moved into was in a state of pandemonium. Han Zhou had just walked out of the elevator when
Gan Qing heard a woman shriek, "Who let you come here? We haven't finished packing yet!
Where's your grandpa?"

"My grandpa has gone to listen to the master's lecture," Little Friend Han Zhou replied calmly.
"It's that same master who previously sold nine boiled eggs for 250 yuan."

Gan Qing heard the woman in the corridor roar like a tank and rumble towards the elevator, and
quickly pressed the button to open the closing elevator doors and let her in.

When they reached the tenth floor, the "tank's" might was unleashed. Hands on her waist, she
faced the corridor and fired her cannon. "Han Dongsheng! You can just die outside for all I care!
The stupid old man has gone to deliver his brains to someone else, your son has nowhere to go
and has come all the way here to get food! You're just like a lord and master, you don't take care
about anything at all and only spend the whole day talking! You're a shameful thing! Why do I
even have you for?"

Gan Qing felt that the whole building was shaking under the force of her roar. A spherical man
was shook out, rolling out from Little Master Yu's apartment.

"Don't be so loud!" The man wiped his sweat as he spoke to Yu Lanchuan who was inside the
door. "You don't have to see me off. I learned a lot from chatting with Little Master Yu, I'll visit
again in the future."

Yu Lanchuan felt that this Mr. Han was no better than the bumbling and reclusive sparrow. He
forced a smile. Please don't come again, he thought in his heart.

The "tank" charged over murderously and seized Han Dongsheng by the back of his collar. Hitting
and kicking, she dragged him to the elevator. When she punched the man's sturdy back, she used
too much force and broke her own nail, and lost her temper. "How dare you fight back!"

Han Dongsheng tried to explain weakly, "...I didn't. I wasn't moving at all."

"You fought back! You took advantage of your family's weird and demonic skills, you did it on
purpose! How am I supposed to live anymore!"

"I really didn't…"

Gan Qing stuck close to the wall and avoided the couple fearfully. She locked eyes with Yu
Lanchuan who was standing at the front door for a few seconds, and only then saw the
downstairs neighbour who had been waiting for her for a long time. She quickly said "I'm sorry"
and ran over to open the door.

The pipes had really burst and the next door apartment was in chaos. Yu Lanchuan paced awhile
at Gan Qing's door, and saw that she had bundled up her long skirt at her waist and rolled up the
legs of her pants. She cut off the water and electricity, then used a towel to block off the
ruptured pipe. Her movements were very proficient; if given a toolbox, she could probably
squeeze into the space and fix it herself. This was the result of having been trained by who knew
how many rundown rented rooms. Seeing that, Yu Lanchuan didn't go in to add to the chaos.

He turned his head to say to Old Master Yang, "Could I trouble you to give Grandma Zhang a call
and inform her?"

"I called just now." Old Master Yang spoke in the direction of 1003 whose door was open, "Young
lady, Meizhen gave you the authority to handle it. She'll pay you back for the amount spent when
she's back."

Old Master Yang stood at the corridor with his hands behind his back, shaking his head. "Xiao-
Han is someone who values how people perceive him and likes doing things like this. He insisted
that I bring him here to get to know you. Since you've met, that's done."

Yu Lanchuan suddenly understood a little why Old Sect Leader Yang was so weary.

The moon in Fuliang Yue had become a mooncake.

Tang Qian Yan's dream was to become deaf and mute, and to marry a figurine in the future.

Chuan Lin Feng had threatened to burn the Dog Beating Staff.

"Grandpa Yang," Yu Lanchuan asked, "do you have any contact with Wan Mu Chun's
descendant?"

Based on the current situation, that person was highly likely… to be a weirdo.

Gan Qing, who was busy trying to save the soaked floor, suddenly paused.

"Wan Mu Chun's lineage consisted of people inclined towards evil. They live in isolation away
from the crowd and don't enter society… There's no other way, that's the type of skills they
practice. But the current era does not allow them to work their old trade anymore so I don't
know if they can even pass on their skills." Old Master Yang shook his head. "If their teachings
were cut off and no longer passed on, that would still be fine. What I'm afraid of is that there
might be those who walk the wrong path. Jianghu now is no longer the jianghu of the past!"

Her back to Old Master Yang, Gan Qing's eyes shifted slightly. Without a sound, she smiled.

She picked up a soaked wooden chair, shook off the water droplets on it, and heard Old Master
Yang continue to say, "Speaking of that, the last time I heard news of them had a little to do with
you."

Gan Qing in the water and Yu Lanchuan in the corridor both stared blankly.

Old Master Yang said, "Ai, you don't remember? You were young at that time. That year,
Travellers' Sect had internal conflict and their sect leader looked for your granduncle to get his
help to suppress the rebels. Those people were driven to desperation and kidnapped you… Ai,
those unworthy disciples have no morals. Debts and grudges shouldn't involve family members,
especially not young children."

Her ears perked up to eavesdrop, Gan Qing frowned. Mudpool Backlane, Travellers' Sect?

She had a vague recollection. Back when she didn't know how high the sky nor how thick the
earth was, she seemed to indeed have clashed with Travellers' Sect once but it was with a few
small fries.

Yu Lanchuan's eyes contracted a little.

Old Master Yang continued speaking, "The next morning, we finally found you at a landfill in the
outskirts. Later on, those people who kidnapped you were arrested. They had done quite a
number of unlawful things and were involved in human trafficking. But their martial arts skills
were sloppy. When they were caught, they were all confused. They said that they were clearly
chasing after you but someone mounted a sneak attack on them midway. Before they could see
clearly what that person looked like, they were already subdued. They had brought dogs with
them when chasing you. The police found the body of a dog with its throat slit, the cut was barely
the length of a finger and was very clean. Other than that, there were no other wounds. Such
neat knife work had to be Paoding Jieniu. Both Old Yu-dage and I felt that someone from that
side had taken action but they didn't seem to have any intentions of demanding repayment. In
the end, they never revealed themselves."

Wan Mu Chun…

Was that why, back then with the gang who professed to know Paoding Jieniu, she had followed
them herself, confronted them herself, and broke the memorial tablet they worshipped that had
the word "Chun" on it?

Suddenly, Yu Lanchuan realised something…

He saw Gan Qing put down the wooden chair, angled her body slightly and glanced at him out of
the corner of her eye. Her veiled gaze swept across Yu Lanchuan's refined and high quality
exterior and fell below his waist.

Not realising what was going on, Old Master Yang said, "Back then, we were so worried. When
we found you, all your clothes were gone. Luckily it wasn't winter, otherwise spending a night out
in the cold isn't something to joke about…"

A booming sound went off in Yu Lanchuan's head. No, that's enough, please stop talking!

Oh, now I remember. So, that kid is from the Yu family. Gan Qing's ill-intentioned gaze seemed to
want to pierce through Yu Lanchuan's fitted western style pants. The doggy on the underwear
was really childish.

Old Master Yang had awakened his own memories with his own words. After dropping the bomb,
he took the elevator and slowly made his way down.
Yu Lanchuan twisted his head around and saw that Gan Qing was holding a mop and looking at
him. Immediately, his embarrassment turned to anger. "Mop your floor, what are you looking
at!"

Gan Qing said meaningfully. "Nothing. I just suddenly had a thought… that the outstanding
people like Little Master Yu, who are experienced and wise, might have a very lively side to them
hidden deep in their hearts. I just think that's very cute."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

And so, the "lively" Little Master Yu "cutely" took out his phone and snapped a photo of what
1003 really looked like after a burst pipe and posted it in his WeChat Moments. He was exposing
the swindler's tricks: Take a good look, this is the person who sold the anti-Mercury retrograde
cards to all of you. She can't even stop the backflow in her own home. What else do you have to
say to that!

After a while, someone left a comment. Yu Lanchuan saw his assistant write emotionally: I heard
that when astrologers make divinations and pray for luck, the price they pay is their own destiny.
So it's really true!

No matter how great a trick was, there was always a method to it.

But it could not stop people from deceiving themselves and others.

Little Master Yu returned home without saying a word. He wanted to change his assistant,
change his neighbours to normal people, change to a quieter place and live a quiet life of a
handsome man.

Han Dongsheng moving in with his family of four—he brought his father-in-law along—gave the
retired and idle people of No. 110 much new excitement and gossip, especially concerning his
father-in-law.

804 had two bedrooms. Having four people in the house was a little cramped. There were not
enough bedrooms to go around so they had no choice but to separate out a small space in the
main bedroom and extend it to the balcony, and made it a child's room for Little Friend Han
Zhou.

Han Dongsheng's old father-in-law was around seventy years old. His body was still very robust
and he could ride a bicycle to buy groceries. He was capable of living independently and had his
own home. Logically, there was no need for him to squeeze in and stay with his daughter and
son-in-law.

But that was not possible. The reason was because this old sir needed to have someone watching
him at all times. He was obsessed with various types of health supplements. A moment of
carelessness and the old man would slip out and buy a 100,000 yuan magnetic therapy bed. His
ability to wreck destruction was immense.

T/N:
[1] Evil Goddess Gunala is the antagonist of the Chinese magical girl animation series Balala the
Fairies.
Chapter 37
Han Dongsheng's old father-in-law had the surname Zhou. He was tall and thin, his hair was
cropped short and close to his scalp, and he didn't speak much.

This old Mr. Zhou was literate and had the habit of reading in his free time. He carried his reading
glasses with him everywhere. Wherever there was a place to sit, he would dig something out and
read a few pages.

But his reading materials did not help to increase his knowledge. Other than baseless things like
Introduction to Qigong, what he read were tabloids filled with stories of strange happenings in
the city.

In recent years, traditional print media were not so popular. Magazine publishers were closing
down one after another. The writers and readers of such stories had moved their base to the
internet. Old Mr. Zhou, like many of his peers, did not know how to go online and was left
behind, and could only look for old magazines from the past to read.

When he was done reading, he would put them aside. A few days later, he would take them out
again to read. He couldn't remember what he had read anyway.

Fresh off the boat, Old Mr. Zhou did not know anyone. He was probably also not used to living
there. There were quite a few times when Yu Lanchuan saw him taking a walk downstairs on his
own, far away from the other groups of elderly, like an old dog that had accidentally barged into
someone else's territory. Only Old Master Yang, who probably pitied him, would sometimes
stand there and exchange a few words with him.

Old people were usually unwilling to change their living environment. But could he stop his
grandson from attending a good school just because he was uncomfortable with strangers? Or
could he chop off his hands that wanted to hand over money the moment he saw the word
"healthy"?

Neither was possible, so his opinion was not important.

No one could have imagined that, barely a week after moving in, the police would come to look
for this unremarkable and solitary old man.

On the night before the New Year, Officer Yu wished for "world peace" at Star Dreams but
perhaps because he was only focusing on introducing the wares to his colleague and didn't spend
money himself, the wish he made did not come true. A careless mistake.

Yu Yan came out of 804, went upstairs, and planted his butt on the sofa in Yu Lanchuan's home.
"Why do I feel that I'm always coming here recently? There might be a problem with this place.
Maybe there's a 'police magnet' or something in the ceiling, even changing residents doesn't
make things better. I'm going to look for Teacher Meng-Meng later to get a fortune-changing
charm."
Yu Lanchuan had just come home from work and hadn't even taken his scarf off yet. No matter
how many times he heard the name "Teacher Meng-Meng," it still gave him goosebumps.
"Straighten out your tongue before speaking."

Yu Yan didn't bother with courtesy and took out the plate of nuts from under the coffee table and
helped himself to them. "Ai, it's really good that you moved here. At least I have a place to rest
my feet."

"Comrade, what happened to not taking a single coin from the people?"

"You're not the people, you're obviously a running dog working for the capitalists, a member of
the wealthy class who has to be overthrown." Yu Yan waved his hand and asked, "By the way,
what time will Teacher Meng-Meng be back?"

"How would I know?" Yu Lanchuan rolled his eyes in annoyance. It had been a week since he
went to "bump into" Gan Qing. To take revenge on him for exposing the tricks of "Teacher Meng-
Meng" in his WeChat moments, that unbelievably outrageous woman had changed her WeChat
profile picture to a dog's head. The moment she was brought up, Yu Lanchuan's anger rose. "Am I
her manager?"

Yu Yan felt that it was extremely unfair that he was bearing the brunt of Yu Lanchuan's anger.
"It's okay if you don't know. Why are you so angry?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What happened at 804 this time?"

Yu Yan sighed in despair. "Someone got lost."

Yu Lanchuan scoffed. "You? That's nothing new."

"I'm not joking. Someone's really lost." As Yu Yan spoke, he dug out a photo from his bag. "Lin
Xiuhe, seventy-one years old, lives at No. 99 Rongxian Street, the neighbourhood right behind
your place."

Yu Lanchuan took the photo for a look. It was an old lady who was dressed very simply. Her hair
was tied in a bun and she was wearing a cotton padded jacket the colour of the earth, a pair of
black cotton shoes on her feet. Her face looked like a collectible walnut that wasn't in a very good
condition. In the photo, she appeared very strict and not very easy-going.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "How is it related to 804?"

"This Old Madam Lin isn't an amnesiac old lady. According to her family, she is still physically
quite healthy and can take care of herself. Logically, she wouldn't lose her way when going out of
the house. She doesn't have any hobbies, she just likes to listen to lectures about health
supplements. She's the type that goes whenever she's invited and buys whenever she's
hoodwinked. So, we're currently suspecting that her disappearance has something to do with the
various MLM groups that go around selling health supplements. These groups are also quite
unrestrained. We're planning to take advantage of the end of the year to crack down on them.
The old man who just moved in downstairs is also a health supplement fanatic. We came here
today to understand the situation from him. 'Tch, the old man was so wary and didn't say
anything, as though we are reactionaries who are persecuting the good and loyal citizens."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "When did it happen?"

Yu Yan said, "It has been a week."

Yu Lanchuan frowned and said, "She's gone missing for a week and you guys are only
investigating now? What were you doing earlier? You try freezing in the cold for two nights in this
Yanning winter. I think you can stop searching, the body has probably gone cold."

"You can't blame us for this," Yu Yan said. "The family has only just made a police report. Old
Madam Lin stays with her son's family. That family of three went on a trip, combining their
annual leave with the New Year's holiday to take a long vacation. They just came back to the
country early this morning. They were tired and sleepy, and didn't realise anything wrong. When
they woke up, the daughter-in-law finally realised that there was a layer of dust in the kitchen
and that the leftovers in the fridge had gone bad. They knocked on the old lady's door but there
was no one there. Only then did they rush to make a police report."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "In that case, how did they know when the old lady disappeared?"

"They ordered milk. No one was home, so the milk delivery was left at the electrical box at the
front door. There were already six bottles." Yu Yan sighed. "The son was so panicked that his eyes
were red. We couldn't really say anything either, but…"

His "but" was left hanging for a while and then he swallowed his words back in. "Family vacation"
sounded cozy and relaxing but if they brought along an elderly mother, that wouldn't be the case.

To ask an old lady who had probably never left the province in her entire life to cross the seas and
fly to an foreign country to lie on the beach—she herself would probably not be able to sleep.
Her children and grandchildren had to take care of her and probably wouldn't have fun. It was
like going out for a western meal; the black pepper sauce on the steak just had to be changed to
fermented beancurd.

"This thing isn't looking too good at the moment. We're still checking the nearby CCTVs and
haven't found anything yet. Those health supplement MLMs are also really crafty and have lots of
escape routes. They're experienced in guerilla warfare and aren't easy to catch," Yu Yan said.
"Master Lan, can we use your informants?"

He had just finished speaking when there was a noise from outside the door. It seemed that
someone had returned home to the apartment next door.

"Ah!" Yu Yan leaped up. "It must be your neighbour. I'm gonna go ask for protection."

"It's not her." Yu Lanchuan took a photo of Old Madam Lin's picture and mass sent it to the
nearby Beggars' Sect people, the jianbing groups and other large groups. As he typed, he said
absently, "Maybe Old Madam Zhang is back from her trip... She doesn't lift her legs when she
walks, her footsteps don't sound like this."
Yu Yan, "..."

After sending the message, Yu Lanchuan looked up and saw that Yu Yan's large face was so close
to him that his gums could be seen, a "night shift pimple" on his forehead so red that it hurt his
eyes. He felt that his glasses had increased by fifty degrees and he leaned back with a frown.
"What are you doing!"

"Something's going on," Yu Yan said slyly. "Recognising people by their footsteps… Ai, Alliance
Leader, what level of skill is this? Why don't you give me a crash course?"

"Anyone can do it," Yu Lanchuan said, cold and emotionless. "Get lost."

"That's not right." Yu Yan drew closer, not letting him off. "Don't think I don't know. You're not
the type to focus on things not related to you and you block off all unnecessary information. In
the past, you wouldn't even know if your neighbour changed their front door, much less identify
them by their footsteps. On New Year's Eve, when you went to Star Dreams just for the sake of a
few little cards, this pair of dead-fish eyes of mine already saw that something fishy was going
on!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Yu Yan said, "Who would have thought that you like this type, the contrast is too great. Could it
be that in every man's heart, there is a wild stallion?"

"What nonsense are you saying?" Yu Lanchuan kicked Yu Yan back to his original position. "I was
kidnapped when I was young. She was at Mudpool Backlane and happened to see it, and helped
me once. That's all."

Yu Yan stared blankly, then said in shock. "So she's the…"

"Yeah."

"...unattainable girl of your dreams!"

Outside of work, Officer Yu probably read a lot of romance fiction. The words he used were too
shocking. Before he finished eating a handful of cashew nuts, he was rudely thrown out the door
by Yu Lanchuan. As he left, he coincidentally bumped into Gan Qing who had just come back from
work and had a little tail following her. Due to the visit from the police, a new round of family
battle had erupted in the Han family and Little Friend Han Zhou took the chance to slip out.

Little Friend Han Zhou was carrying a cardboard box. In the box was a little house and garden
made of papier-mâché. There was even a butterfly bow tied around the box. He ran after Gan
Qing, insisting on gifting it to her. "I got a prize for this in arts and crafts class. I just brought it
back from school. I purposely asked my teacher for it so that I can give it to you!"
Gan Qing didn't really want it because she felt that this thing resembled the "house for the dead"
made by funeral parlours. But she also couldn't hurt a little child's dignity, so she forced herself to
accept it.

Little Friend Han Zhou twirled his naturally curly hair and said confidently, "You hold on to this.
When I'm older, I'll buy a real one for you."

"Sure, thank you." Gan Qing stroked the little boy's sleek hair. "You don't have to go through all
that trouble. When that time comes, you just need to burn this one for me[1]."

Yu Yan greeted her with a chuckle. "Teacher Meng-Meng is truly charming, the young and the old
all fall for you!"

Through the crack of the door, Yu Lanchuan looked out with a gloomy face.

Gan Qing smiled the moment she saw him and voluntarily greeted him. "Little Master Yu, it's the
dog-"

Yu Lanchuan slammed the door shut.

"...year, so Happy Year of the Dog." Gan Qing turned an innocent face to Yu Yan. "Did I do
something wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing. The springtime of one's youth is when a person gets easily embarrassed and
also has a lot of mood swings," Yu Yan said, chuckling. "Our Master Lan is the type whose youth is
extra long, perhaps lasting two hundred years. It'll be fine once it's over. Teacher Meng-Meng, do
you have any items that can increase luck? The kind that can help me find a person…"

Once the Gregorian calendar year was over, it was the "end of the year" according to the
traditional lunar calendar. This period of time was always exceptionally chaotic.

The people who were longing for the holidays were restless at heart, yet there were
exceptionally more petty matters to handle. There were endless meetings and social events, yet
the year-end bonus was always slow to come.

The petty thieves in the subway and the scammers on the phone lines were embracing the once-
a-year peak season and were exceptionally lively. The MLM corporations were also starting to
work towards their yearly sales target, grinding away on their journey to become the next Charlie
Munger. The unfortunate little police officers were so busy their heads were spinning.

Old Mr. Zhou finally caught a chance to slip away from home. He furtively avoided the old people
playing weiqi in the garden, left through a side gate and got on a bus. The leather repair master
was preparing to open shop and the moment he opened the door, that was what he saw. He dug
out his phone and snapped a picture of the back of the bus, then sent the picture out.

At the same time, many eyes stared at the bus as it travelled along its route. The beggars and the
scrap collectors who had gone to the bus stops to collect rubbish exchanged looks; the boss of
the fried chicken cutlet stall glanced towards the road every now and then. Three stops later, Old
Mr. Zhou got down and staggered into a maze of small alleys. He entered an old building and
went down to the basement.

The basement was gloomy and damp. Old Mr. Zhou knocked on the door. A cautious voice spoke
from the inside, "We didn't order food delivery."

Old Mr. Zhou answered, "I'm delivering newspapers."

"Which paper?"

"Tomorrow's evening paper."

The password was correct. The door opened with a creak. Inside, the chain was still fastened.
After they identified Old Mr. Zhou, an old lady finally opened the door and quickly took a look
around. "Old Zhou is here. Come in, quick."

There were five or six people in the little room in the basement. The youngest was nearly sixty
years old. All of them were talking in lowered voices, like they were conspiring undercover
agents.

"The police came to my house yesterday, what about you?"

Old Mr. Zhou said, "They came to my house too. They were asking about Old Lin. Two young 'uns
came, I fooled them. I was very careful on my way here, just in case someone was following me."

"Actually, it doesn't matter if they follow us. We're not breaking the law."

"Ai, Professor Xu's goods are for export purposes and are five times more expensive if bought in
the market. He secretly moved some out directly from the warehouse as a bonus for us. He didn't
go through the proper channels so we have to be quiet too and don't cause trouble for him…
How's the infrared knee brace that you've been using, good?"

Old Mr. Zhou pulled up his pants leg, revealing a knee brace, and said in satisfaction, "It's good.
My joints are warm and my knee cap isn't cold anymore. I hide this thing under my pillow and
secretly put it on under the blanket every day. I can't let my daughter see it. These young people
don't know anything. If you want to talk to her, she'll be busy with this and that, and don't have
the time to listen to you. Silly girl, I've eaten more salt than she has rice, hmph."

"If it works, that's good," the old lady who opened the door said and pointed towards the paper
box at the door. "Professor Xu brought us some free-range chicken eggs, the chickens aren't
given any manufactured feed. Later, everyone can divide them up. Ah, that's right, Professor Xu
said that recently he has taken too much goods from the factory and was found out. Someone at
the factory was jealous and made a report. We have to be careful. The location for the next
'healthy living' talk will be changed and we'll be informed when the time comes. Professor said
that when the time comes, he will fight for it and there might be a free health check so we
shouldn't eat breakfast then."
One by one, they all went to select the "free-range eggs," their faces joyful as though they had
gotten a good bargain.

However, Old Mr. Zhou did not move. He stood where he was for a while, then asked hesitantly,
"Old Lin… has really gone?"

"The day before New Year's, according to the police."

"Just look at how resolved she is!" The old lady who opened the door gave a thumbs-up. "She
didn't talk about it every day, she just mentioned it once and then, without saying a word, she
made up her mind and just went! Right now, there's no one I admire other than Old Lin!"

Old Mr. Zhou looked up. There was suddenly a bit of light in his murky eyes. "Then, what do all of
you think? Can the plans we made previously still go ahead?"

T/N:
[1] It's customary to burn offerings during Chinese funerals, in the belief that the items burned
will go to the dead. The offerings are usually made of paper and can be things such as houses,
cars, phones, televisions, clothes, shoes, etc.
Chapter 38
"Han-ge! Can you help make arrangements for the car usage tomorrow?"

"There's a 'heavy air pollution warning' for tomorrow. There will be number plate restrictions,
our workplace doesn't have enough cars to go around…"

"Ah, then what should we do? Please think of something, quick!"

"This… Ai."

"Han-ge, help me, the paper is stuck in the printer again!"

"Please wait a moment…"

"It's urgent!"

"...I'll be right there."

"Dongsheng, people like us who sit in the office may have no other skills but we have to at least
be able to write. Look at this, I asked you to write a letter but… this typo… and this phrase, this
phrase isn't suitable. The chief doesn't like to use this phrase, I've told you this before…"

"Hey, Xiao-Han… Wow, why are the words on your screen so large! You're not even forty yet and
your eyes are blurring, isn't it a bit too early? Buy some of that fish oil and eat it, it protects your
liver and also your eyes at the same time."

When Han Dongsheng rushed out of his workplace, it was already past six o' clock. Originally, he
stayed at his father-in-law's house and could take the bus to work. Other than not being punctual
and frequently getting caught in traffic, the bus was good. Now that he had moved, he switched
to taking the subway. It was a lot more punctual but it made him understand what was meant by
the "dark underground world."

Six o' clock was smack in the middle of the evening rush hour. On top of that, due to the number
plate restriction on private vehicles, there were exceptionally more people in the subway today.

The more people there were, the more there was a need to slow down the flow of people for
security checks, hence there were long stretches of "noodle strands." Han Dongsheng craned his
neck but couldn't see the end of the line, and he immediately started sweating.

Right then, his phone buzzed. "Zhou-Zhou's Class Teacher" was again sending a message to ask:
Hello, Zhou-Zhou's father. I have already been waiting for you for one hour. May I know how long
will it be before you reach?

That was right, Little Friend Han Zhou was held back after school today and his parents had been
asked to see the teacher.

Han Dongsheng gritted his teeth. He wanted to go back to the surface to get a cab but when he
turned back, in just that short time, more than twenty people had lined up behind him like a long,
heavy tail and he was squeezed in the middle.

On the surface, the roads were also congested and it was even harder to be sure of the commute
time. Furthermore… when it was congested, cabs were expensive. Han Dongsheng would spend a
long while even while debating whether or not to take public transport, and now, after hesitating
for a long while he dropped the idea. He tried patting the person in front of him and explained in
a low voice, "Excuse me, I have something urgent and am rushing for time. Can you let me go
first, I'm really sorry…"

"Are other people not in a hurry? Everyone's in a hurry."

"If you're in a rush then why don't you take a cab? Why are you taking the subway…"

"Aiyo, stop pushing!"

"Like I said, the population in the city is already so large, why don't these people understand that
they should lose weight! Don't they have any morals!"

Fortunately, most of the office workers in the morning and evening rush hours were more bark
than bite. As long as the other person didn't argue back or if they just said sorry a few more
times, at most they would only curse a bit. No one would hold on to their spot for dear life and
insist on not letting other people jump the queue.

The heated air blew on the people with a whoosh, mingling with the dense crowd and making it
rather hard to breathe.

Fighting his way out of the security check, Han Dongsheng felt that he was close to melting. He
didn't have time to gasp for breath; the train was arriving at the platform and he rushed forward
with the crowd.
The roughly two meters wide train door was like a black hole. It seemed as though no matter how
matter people rushed in, it could open its mouth and swallow them all. Inside, a solid wall of
human flesh was building up. The beeping sound signalling that the doors were closing soon was
like a ticking time bomb, making everyone feel agitated. At the very last second, Han Dongsheng
forcefully stuck himself onto the human wall, wishing nothing more than to fold himself down
one dimension.

However, he was not a paper man after all. The beeping train doors pressed in on his broad back,
then stopped and bounced open again.

The station employee at the platform shouted, "Wait for the next train, stop crowding! Please
wait for the next train!"

Han Dongsheng again tried his best to curve his body inwards. He took a deep breath and let out
a long, winding fart, freeing some space in his stomach and forcefully contracted his belly.

Amidst the hissing of displeasure from the people around him, the train doors finally closed. With
a thunk, the train started moving. All the numb and weary bodies were shaken a few times,
colliding against each other without rule or order. In here, even a young lady's body turned into
something detestable.

The smell of perfume, sweat, body odour, unwashed hair, garlic… they all mingled together,
inseparable. Fortified by the warm air from the air-conditioning, they were stirred into a pot of
congee.

The old man speaking in the television series that was being played out loud and the little girl that
was crying seemed to be competing to see who was louder. First the old overpowered the young,
then the young overpowered the old. It was an extremely spirited fight.

During Yanning's morning and evening rush hour, on the busy subway routes, if a person had the
audacity to bear their dignity on their chest and get on a train, their dignity would unfortunately
very likely be squeezed until it burst.

What was even more unfortunate was that the subway would occasionally encounter incidents—
for example, halfway through, all the lights in the train would go off, the train would also come to
a stop and there would be an announcement about a breakdown… Situations like this always
happened only when the passengers were in a rush.

By the time Han Dongsheng arrived at his destination, it was forty minutes later.

He dragged his feeble legs and rushed out of the subway station, took a large gulp of the
northwest wind, and only then felt his flattened body puff up again. He took a look at the time
and quickly apologised to the teacher but even after sending a few messages in a row to Zhou-
Zhou's class teacher, the other person did not reply. When he rushed to the school, he saw that
the lights in the school building had already been switched off.

The teacher didn't wait for him. His child should have already gone home too.
Han Dongsheng stared blankly for a while. His tense mental state relaxed and he finally moved
his legs and slowly walked home.

As though he had gotten a taste for the northwest wind, he wished that this walk could be a little
longer.

The old and small neighbourhoods nearby all had the problem of not enough parking spaces. A
lot of private vehicle owners were not picky and just parked at the roadside. His reflection
appeared on the car windows; Han Dongsheng took one look and twisted his head away. He felt
that his reflection was the very definition of "a sack for drink and food"—in other words, useless.

As he crossed the threshold of No. 110 Courtyard, even before he entered the building, he saw
an old lady who was playing cards with other people at the reception office poke her head out
and say to him, "Xiao-Han has just come back from work? Your old father-in-law was brought
back by the police today!"

Han Dongsheng stopped walking. After a while, he finally forced out a thank you. There was a
light sheen of sweat on the palms of his hands, as though his blood sugar levels were low.

As he expected, the moment he entered his home, a cushion flew out aggressively.

Han Dongsheng caught it. Already very experienced with this situation, he quickly closed the door
behind him, afraid that the noise in the house would leak out.

A second later, his wife Zhou Beibei roared, "So you still know to come home!"

"The teacher called you in the afternoon and texted you, then waited for you after school until it
was time for the evening news. Even the stray cats in the school had left and only your son was
still there doing his homework! Did you die somewhere out there?!"

"I really couldn't leave my workplace today…"

"Fine, you're busy! You have so many things to do! So when are you going to be promoted,
Leader Han? Your wife and child are waiting to bask in your limelight! Pah!" When Zhou Beibei
heard him dare to talk back, she lost her temper. "How old are you now and you're still a junior
who serves tea. You can't even become an deputy leader, what important business can you have
that you can't step away from? Your son isn't your own flesh and blood, but was a free gift from
topping up your phone credit, is that it?"

The woman's shouting was like thunder. Han Dongsheng was yelled at until his fingers went
numb. He didn't dare say a word.

The door to the small bedroom opened a sliver. From the crack of the door, Old Mr. Zhou cut in.
"Ai, isn't it just a small thing? It's not worth all this fuss. Don't argue anymore. Beibei, what are
we having for dinner?"
"Eat your immortality eggs! Saute it, boil it, fry it, eat it and you can ascend to Heaven straight
away and can even save the effort of training!" When Zhou Beibei heard him, her anger
immediately locked onto her old father. "3,000 for a medical apparatus and it was just a fucking
LED tube, 1,600 for a plastic foot-washing tub that even scrap collectors would reject! Give you
two eggs and you're delighted, did a rooster lay the eggs?"

Old Mr. Zhou had a good temper. "Don't be angry, anger cuts short your life. Losing your temper
once is equivalent to smoking a few cigarettes."

"Let it be cut short, there's no meaning to living anyway! My husband is good for nothing, it's not
enough that we barely earn anything, all our money is even spent on rubbish! I don't even dare
dream of branded bags and makeup but you can't let me still have to rent a place to stay when
I'm already over forty!"

This was all reality. Han Dongsheng couldn't lift his head.

"In the daytime, just for the sake of a few orders, I have to smile at everyone everywhere, bow
down to everyone I meet, and listen to all the shit they give me. I make ten calls and nine of them
hang up on me. When I come home, before I can even take a breath, the teacher calls me to the
school to pick up the little demon that I must have owed a debt to in my past life. Han Zhou! The
whole family is doing all we can just to let you attend a good school, so that you won't lose out
right at the starting line. But you, you don't pay attention in class and fold paper cranes instead!
Why are you going to school for? Don't go tomorrow, go open a stall at the subway entrance!"

Han Zhou shrank back in a corner and pretended that he was a mushroom.

"I had just entered the courtyard when some busybody hurried to inform me like she was afraid I
wouldn't know—Hey, Xiao-Zhou, the police brought your father back, what happened?—How
was I supposed to answer? Hm? Dad, you tell me, what should I have said? For the sake of
earning money, I have no choice but to be shameless. But when I'm home, can you not embarrass
me so much?" As Zhou Beibei spoke, she ran out of anger and sorrow started to well up in her
heart. Standing in the middle of the living room, she suddenly covered her face and started
crying.

The three male family members surrounded her, silent and yielding. If hit, they would not fight
back; if scolded, they would not argue back. This made her feel as though she was being very
unreasonable, a fishwife.

"Fishwife" wasn't a nice word, everyone knew that. Unless they were bullied by life to a certain
extent, who wouldn't want to be more dignified?

Old Mr. Zhou came out of his bedroom. He wanted to pat his daughter on the head, like when
she was young, but Zhou Beibei suddenly looked up with reddened eyes. "I feel that the luckiest
part of Mum's life was that she died early."

Old Mr. Zhou stared blankly. The hand he had raised up froze in midair. The age spots on the back
of his hand were like fragmentary spots of mold.
Zhou Beibei drew in a sharp breath, then turned to go into her own room.

Han Dongsheng felt apologetic and said, "Dad, it's my fault. Her words were aimed at me, not at
you."

Old Mr. Zhou blinked a couple of times, then waved his hand. He asked slowly, "What are we
having for dinner?"

That night, the two men and one boy ate fried rice together in the kitchen. Zhou Beibei shut her
door and ignored them, so Old Mr. Zhou kept a portion for her that had more eggs, and covered
the bowl with cling film.

When he got up the next morning, the fried rice was still untouched. The rice grains under the
cling film were already dried out and a layer of overnight condensation clung to the plastic film.
Han Dongsheng's large body was curled up on the sofa, his tired snores loud enough to shake the
ceiling.

Old Mr. Zhou got up at half past five. He didn't dare wake up his children and grandchild. Quietly,
he closed the kitchen door and made breakfast.

The old man felt that everyone had to have a good breakfast; only then could they go out and
brave the chill of the coldest days of the year, and have energy for the day.

But the younger people obviously did not feel the same way. At seven o' clock, all the alarms in
the house finally started ringing one after another. A battle had just happened in the house
yesterday evening, the atmosphere was tense and heavy, and everyone carried with them a
heavy sleepiness.

There was only one bathroom in the house. Han Dongsheng and Han Zhou didn't dare fight Zhou
Beibei for it. One adult and one child sat on the sofa, yawning one after another, their heads
nodding like they were kowtow-ing.

Wherever Zhou Beibei went, there would be banging and clanging sounds. Perhaps she was in a
hurry, or perhaps she was venting her anger.

"Beibei, your father made steamed bean buns and meat buns today. Which one do you want… Ai,
you don't want any? Then, have a bowl of congee before you go. Congee will make your stomach
feel comfortable…"

Zhou Beibei didn't wait for him to finish speaking before picking up her bag and slamming the
door behind her as she left.

"Dongsheng, have breakfast before you go."

Han Dongsheng was the last to use the bathroom. When he came out, he looked at the time and
saw that he was running late, and said quickly, "I don't think I will, Dad. Please have breakfast
yourself first, Zhou-Zhou is going to be late for school… Zhou-Zhou, hurry up, stop dawdling!"
Han Zhou stuffed the last mouthful of meat bun into his mouth and ate a mouthful of congee, but
scalded himself until he was sticking his tongue out. Because of that, he didn't want to eat the
rest of it. He grumbled to Old Mr. Zhou, "Grandpa, your cooking is too salty."

An old man of over seventy years of age no longer had a sensitive palate. Old Mr. Zhou asked in
surprise, "Really? Did Grandpa make the filling too salty again?"

But his grandson didn't have the time to answer him. The father and son who were both running
late ran out like a gust of wind. The sumptuous breakfast covering the entire table seemed to
turn cold in an instant. Old Mr. Zhou sat alone for a while, then poured the remaining half of the
congee in Han Zhou's bowl into his own bowl and started to eat slowly.

He didn't taste any saltiness. In his mouth, the taste was very bland.

Taking out the household trash was a chore handled by Zhou Beibei every day. Today, she had
left in a rush and didn't have the time to do it. After they had all left, Old Mr. Zhou slowly tidied
up. Suddenly, he paused. In the trash bin was a box of water-soluble motherwort granules that
had been thrown away unopened. Beibei always said that she had stomach pains and everyone
said that this was an effective remedy. Old Mr. Zhou knew that his daughter was unwilling to
believe the experts and blindly believed in the so-called "official and regulated," which was why
he had purposely bought this box of water-soluble medicine granules at a "high price" from a
pharmacy.

Zhou Beibei probably hadn't taken a close look, or perhaps… she had taken a close look but didn't
dare believe that her father could buy anything normal.

Shackled to this family that disappointed her again and again, after a long time, she was used to
not believing in anything.

Old Mr. Zhou fished out the box of motherwort granules and tore off the dirtied outer packaging.
He put it beside the drinking water dispenser, then went back to his room and changed his
clothes. From under his bed, he took out a cloth backpack, put on a cap and sunglasses and
packed a few steamed buns into a bag. He mingled with the crowd of office workers and left
through the front gate.

Yanning was submerged in a hustle and bustle for the whole morning. Hence, this time, no one
noticed him.

Old Mr. Zhou walked all the way to the transport hub. A medium-sized bus had been waiting
since early that morning. A young man in his twenties got down from the bus. His appearance
was lively and spirited, and he had thick, black eyebrows that had quite a touch of feminine
beauty to them. He smiled before speaking, "Uncle Zhou, we were waiting for you!"

The young man's name was Xu Shaowen. He was Professor Xu's student and assistant.
Apparently, he had a PhD. He was usually the one conducting the lectures on healthy living that
they attended.

Doctor Xu asked, "You have informed your family, right? The cost of this trip is a little high."
Old Mr. Zhou brushed him off with a yeah, then took out the envelope he had prepared and
passed it to him. "Cash, you can check it."

Doctor Xu did not open it. He took it casually and as before, exhorted repeatedly, "You must
make sure to inform your family. Otherwise, your children will panic. I am responsible for you so I
have to confirm this with you."

Old Mr. Zhou was rather touched. He felt that Doctor Xu was genuinely concerned about him, so
he gave him the bag containing the steamed buns and said, "Don't worry about that. I steamed
this at home. Have a taste if you don't mind."

"How did you know that I haven't eaten yet?" The young and handsome Doctor Xu was not the
least bit hesitant. He opened the bag for a look and started eating while still standing at the door
of the bus. His face happy and relaxed, he said, "Delicious! There's no salt in the filling and a
homemade sauce is used instead, am I right?"

"You can tell?"

"The water used to mix the filling had been used to soak the dried mushrooms!"

"Yes! Yes! Is it salty?"

"It's not. I like strong flavours… Your family members are really lucky. I want to be your son!"

As he watched Doctor Xu wolf down the food, a smile blossomed on Old Mr. Zhou's face like a
flower and he got on the bus happily.

The driver was having a smoke break. When he saw that the old man had gone in, he came over
and asked Doctor Xu in a whisper, "Protector, there won't be any problems, right? What are we
gonna do if these old fools' family members come and make a fuss?"

"Don't worry." "Doctor" Xu's voice was kept low in the gaps of his teeth. "No one in this bus has
said anything to their family. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to come… Urgh, this is so salty.
Did the old man kill the salt seller and take all the salt? Pass me a bottle of water."

The medium-sized bus was fully occupied by elderly people. Doctor Xu gave each one a thermal
mug filled with wolfberries and jujubes steeped in hot water. He also knew who had car sickness
and who had heart conditions, and had prepared medicine for each of them.

All of them had the feeling that they were being taken care of very attentively and was in a happy
mood as the bus left Yanning.

Liu Zhongqi left in a hurry this morning. When he got home after the evening self-study session,
he realised that he had forgotten his keys. He called his brother but the line was constantly busy;
Yu Lanchuan was probably busy to no end again. Liu Zhongqi paced in front of the door for a
while. Coincidentally, their neighbour, Grandma Zhang Meizhen, was leaving the house. When
she saw him, she let him into her home and asked him to do his homework at her place for the
time being.

Not long after Zhang Meizhen left, Gan Qing came back. She had gotten two portions of supper
from Boss Meng; she had probably received a call from Zhang Meizhen.

Liu Zhongqi was fidgeting restlessly as he did his English homework which he had put off until the
very end. Once he saw Gan Qing, for some reason he recalled the "complete the blanks" incident
from the last time and subconsciously reached out to cover the questions he was doing.

"Why are you covering them?" Gan Qing chuckled and went to the kitchen to heat up some milk.
"The first question is already wrong."

Liu Zhongqi said, "...How do you know that it's wrong?"

"Have you not learned the subjunctive mood?" Gan Qing asked from the kitchen. "There's
someone outside, go open the door."

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly. "No one's there, I didn't hear..."

He muttered to himself as he opened the door. To his surprise, there was indeed someone
outside the door.

Little Friend Han Zhou with a bowl cut had been standing there with his head bowed and the
door suddenly opening gave him a shock. He rubbed his eyes, his face looking a little petulant.
Chapter 39
"How could she not even spare a small child like you? It's too dastardly of her, she is truly the
dregs among the dregs of society." Taking the chance while Gan Qing was in the kitchen, Liu
Zhongqi furtively pulled Han Zhou to the side. "Hey, did she trick you into giving her your
allowance? How much did she take?"

This kid thought that his voice was very soft but on the other side of the wall, Gan Qing was
hearing every single word.

She flipped the bacon roll in the pan and amidst the sizzling sounds, she was also counting how
many times Liu Zhongqi badmouthed her.

After hearing what Liu Zhongqi said, Han Zhou immediately took out his cartoon-print wallet from
his school bag and prepared to hand it over. "My allowance is here, is it enough?"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

Han Zhou said, "My dad said that money is merely material possession. If it can make people
happy, then that's good enough. If you have money, spend it; if not, let it go. My dad hands over
his salary anyway, and gets one hundred yuan as allowance from my mum every month."

After hearing that, Liu Zhongqi felt that it was unbelievable. He really couldn't imagine how an
adult could survive on one hundred yuan a month. But in the past half a year, he had, in
succession, gone through a break up, ran away from home, got kidnapped and entered Year 2, so
he was a bit more mature than he was before and didn't give his opinion carelessly. He asked Han
Zhou, "It's so late, why are you here? Just to deliver your allowance to the big swindler?"

Little Friend Han Zhou seemed to be a bit embarrassed. He stretched out his neck to make sure
that Gan Qing was still in the kitchen, then whispered into Liu Zhongqi's ear, "Gege, I'm scared of
being alone at home."

"Alone?" Liu Zhongqi asked curiously, "Where are your parents?"

Han Zhou said softly, "They went to look for my grandpa."

"Where did your grandpa go?"

"Dunno," Han Zhou shook his head. "We lost him."

Liu Zhongqi had heard of losing money, losing phones and losing keys. This was the first time he
heard of someone losing a grandpa.

"Every evening when I come home from school, my grandpa is already back from buying
groceries and is preparing to make dinner. Today, I don't know where he has gone. The
neighbours downstairs also said that they didn't see him and also told my mum to call the police.
When my mum heard the word 'police,' she nearly started fighting with them. My dad dragged
her home to wait. We waited until it was dinner time but Grandpa still didn't come back. We
called him but the call didn't go through so they went out together to look for him."

Right then, someone suddenly spoke from behind them. "Give your mum a call and tell her that
you're with me. Or she might find the old man later only to think that you're missing."

Gan Qing didn't make any sound when she walked and who knew when she had come over. Liu
Zhongqi had just been speaking ill of her and he shook with fear, nearly leaping up from the sofa.

Gan Qing glanced at Liu Zhongqi with a smile that was not quite a smile. "Wash your hands and
eat."

Liu Zhongqi waved her off reservedly. "Thank you but there's no need."

The word "need" had just come out when his stomach rumbled embarrassingly.

Just the sight of him was enough to amuse Gan Qing. She felt that the two brothers might not
look similar but the way they conducted themselves came from the same mould, and the
younger one was even more fun to tease.

A teenage boy seemed to never be full no matter how much he ate. Every day at his hour, he
would be supplementing himself with supper. Liu Zhongqi's face turned pale and red in turns. He
surrendered to the mighty internal body clock and endured the shame as he joined the supper
table.
Because there was a child there, Gan Qing was afraid that eating too much at night would be bad
for his digestion so she didn't make very oily snacks. She poured the two bowls of pumpkin
congee she had brought back together, mixed it with warm milk and boiled it again in the pot.
She added some corn kernels to make corn and pumpkin soup. Then, she let the oil drip out of
the bacon rolls and grilled meat, dry-fried them in a pan to reheat them, and mixed them with
lettuce, croutons and shredded cheese to make an east-meets-west salad. Finally, she cut some
oranges and apples.

In less than ten minutes, everything was done. Bright and colourful, complemented with very
fashionable wooden cutlery. Add a filter and it was ready to be shared online.

The cutlery and spices were bought by Zhang Meizhen. This old lady typically didn't have much to
do, and all her time and energy was spent on her "lifestyle." She spent her days in an
exceptionally refined way.

Even though Gan Qing was a peasant who could squat by the roadside and gnaw on crawfish, she
didn't refuse good things. Whomever went near the cinnabar would be stained red—after living a
while with this landlord, she had learned how to plate food nicely.

Little Friend Han Zhou didn't say anything and also didn't take the phone that Gan Qing passed
him.

Liu Zhongqi thought that he couldn't remember his parents' number, so he said, "It's okay if you
don't call. It's just downstairs anyway. I can go down later and stick a note on your door-"

"I don't want to go home. They're always quarreling," Han Zhou said gloomily.

The boy lifted his head and looked around. His first impression was that this house was very
beautiful.

Gan Qing was very diligent with the housework and there wasn't even a single dried leaf in the
vases. Meanwhile, Zhang Meizhen was a lady with the heart of a young girl. She liked to fill the
whole place with a sweet fragrance and brought back whatever was fashionable at the moment.
One person did the buying while the other person did the upkeeping; even though the two of
them kept completely different hours, unexpectedly, they could work together seamlessly
without disturbing each other.

This apartment was only some tens of square meters wide but there was not even a speck of
dust. The furnishings were picked out carefully and arranged with care, as though a professional
interior designer and a cleaning squad had diligently put things in order. The living environment
could even be called "luxurious."

It was unlike Han Zhou's home. Smelly socks and wrinkled clothes were in a mess everywhere,
there was always hair in the drainage, and the fridge was filled with leftovers. Four people used
the bathroom and it could not be cleaned in time. There were always urine stains in the toilet
bowl and once it was damp, there would be a piss stink. The bathroom door had to be closed
most of the time but this made the ventilation even worse and in turn, the stink grew stronger in
a never ending loop. When Han Zhou's mother couldn't bear it anymore, she would splash the
whole bathroom with acid cleaners while grumbling… That was also a type of "biological
weapon."

Han Zhou reached out to examine the beautiful plate and said enviously, "Jiejie, can I stay here
today?"

Without even blinking, Gan Qing refused him. "No."

"I folded a whole bottle of paper cranes. I'll give it to you."

"It's still a no. This is the girls' dorm."

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

The ages of these two "girls" added together would be close to a century, if not more.

Han Zhou sighed a sigh beyond his years and lifted the bowl of pumpkin soup, taking small sips.
"If only I was a girl. I can stay at the girls' dorm and my mum also wouldn't always be scolding me.
She said that men are all pigs."

Gan Qing asked, "Is that why you're not paying attention at school and going around looking for a
girlfriend instead?"

"I really, sincerely like girls, not like those people in my previous school." Han Zhou shrugged his
shoulders and gave them the names of a few boys. "They pick up girls just to be cool. Ai, they're
not sincere at all."

Gan Qing, "..."

The primary school kids nowadays are ready to fly to the sky! What kind of lousy school was that?
No wonder his parents wanted him to change schools even if they had to tighten their belts and
scrape a living.

At the side, the high school student Liu Zhongqi listened to the little brat speak like an adult, and
stifled his laughter until his face was red. Gan Qing felt that he was just laughing at someone at a
hundred steps when he was halfway there himself—as though the person who played house with
his girlfriend and had an early romance was not him.

"My grandpa caused a huge trouble today. My mum was nearly going crazy when she went out to
look for him. I know she's gonna throw a fuss when she comes home at night. I got four marks in
my maths test today, I'll definitely be dragged in too." Han Zhou pleaded, "Jiejie, please take me
in."

"How can you talk about your mum like that?" Gan Qing patted him on his head, then continued
to say, "Four in your maths test? Out of five? Ten?"

Five was still okay. If it was ten, four was too little.
Han Zhou gave her an "Oh my, pretty girls are all foolish things" look. "Of course it's out of a
hundred."

Liu Zhongqi spluttered and nearly spat out a bit of grilled meat. He quickly took two gulps of the
pumpkin soup; it was so hot it made him tear up.

Gan Qing had always been someone who made other people weary at heart. Unexpectedly,
today she was defeated by a gremlin child and was getting a taste of the "weary at heart" feeling
herself.

"Both of you sirs please eat first, I'm going to go leave a note." There was nothing she could say in
response to Han Zhou. She stood up. "When you have finished eating, put the dishes in the sink
and do your homework."

The two boys, one big and one small, wiped out the food like the wind blowing away scattered
clouds, leaving not even a single crumb. Zhang Meizhen's home was too clean, so much so that it
made the gremlin children feel embarrassed. Hence, the two of them even tore some paper
towels and carefully wiped the table clean.

Han Zhou saw the older boy obediently pick up his books and was very startled. In his previous
school, the older boys—those in Year 5 or 6—had never studied properly since young. When they
reached their teens, they already had a bit of a gangster air about them. Even when the teachers
were watching them at school, they would still be finding ways to stir up trouble, and one didn't
have to even think of them voluntarily studying.

Han Zhou glanced at Liu Zhongqi's English homework reverentially. "Gege, are you good at
studies?"

Liu Zhongqi said reservedly, "So-so."

Han Zhou said, "In my old school, the big guys looked down the most on those who are good at
studies. They cut off ties with me because I transferred here. They said that this school is for
those who are 'good at studies,' so I'm a traitor because I transferred schools… I didn't become a
traitor on purpose. My mum insisted that I transfer."

"Your mum did it for your own good." Liu Zhongqi said without looking up. Hanging out with a
primary school kid, he felt that he was mature already. "People who are good at studies have
more choices. You'll understand when you're older."

Han Zhou felt that this sounded exactly like what the teachers at school said, and he made a face.

Out of the corner of his eye, Liu Zhongqi saw the look in the little brat's eyes. He put down his
pen and put on a pretentious act. "We are like fish in a river. When the water from upstream
flows down, it can be very gentle or it can be very rapid. Sometimes, it can be very violent…
Nothing is certain, it all depends on the water's mood. In the warm gently flowing water, you can
swim very comfortably, but if it starts to become violent, all the fish will be flushed down
regardless of whether they're big or small fish. They will be embroiled in the sand. Some fish will
never again climb out while some fish will struggle and continue to swim. Right now, you don't
have to swim yourself. Your parents are guiding you. This is the protection period for newbies.
Once you're older, you will be set free. If you don't prepare yourself well during the protection
period, you will be weaker than other fish in the future. When you encounter violent storms, you
will be flushed very far away and it will be harder for you to climb up than it will be for other
fish."

This was something a teacher had said when Liu Zhongqi was in junior high. It was beyond the
level of a primary school student. Han Zhou listened to him and felt a little suffocated. "I still have
a long way to go before I grow up. I don't want to grow up. Anyway, my mum said that when I
grow up, I'll definitely be just like my dad."

When Gan Qing went to the eighth floor, she happened to bump into Han Dongsheng. Han
Dongsheng had come home to see if Old Mr. Zhou had gone home on his own. In the end, not
only was his old father-in-law not there, even his child had disappeared and he was panicking so
hard that even the colour of his face had changed.

"Mr. Han," Gan Qing called out to him. "Han Zhou is on the tenth floor. I came down to let you
know. Don't worry, come up to pick him up whenever you're free."

"That's good. I'm really very sorry… and thank you!" Han Dongsheng took a deep breath and
hurriedly said a whole bunch of grateful and appreciative words.

The sweat on his head seemed to never be wiped clean. Because he was overweight, even his
breathing seemed very hurried. His entire person had changed shape. The back of his hands were
thick and there was a row of edema scars.

Gan Qing quietly let him pass, her eyes studying Han Dongsheng's back. She had seen this person
before in the past, twenty years ago. Back then, she was still a young girl who chewed on her
fingers while Fuliang Yue's descendant was already a grown up young man.

She had come with her shifu to visit the old Yu Huaide. Shifu didn't want to cause trouble so he
didn't show his face at the Martial Arts General Assembly and only sat for a while at the Yu home.
Meanwhile, she had taken the chance when the adults were making small talk to slip out and
look for excitement.

Someone started calling out for Fuliang Yue to demonstrate his skills. That shy young man first
blushed and refused. When he really could not turn them down, he showed a few techniques
that were of a more performative nature. At that age, Gan Qing could not see what profound and
mysterious theories there were behind this set of techniques. She only remembered the young
man's body flowing as fast as a flying dragon, and an agility and ease that could not be put into
words.

She had been so envious and had felt that it was so much better than her own dull and boring
martial arts skills.

Twenty years. Was that all it took for a person's bones to be grinded into dust and for them to
change beyond recognition?
Gan Qing felt a little exhausted. Her body clock was reminding her that it was time for bed. She
shook her head and went back upstairs, but she still had to keep watch on the two gremlin
children doing their homework, and she yawned non-stop as she waited for their parents and
guardian to pick them up.

Liu Zhongqi, who had just put on an act for their little friend, had again gotten half the questions
wrong in his "correct the mistakes" exercise. Gan Qing sat by the side, propping her head up with
her hand, and couldn't help interjecting when she really couldn't bear looking at it anymore. "The
subject and the verb in your sentence are not in agreement, dear."

Liu Zhongqi took a careful look. "Oh… You're right."

"This 'suggested' shouldn't be followed by 'to do,' it should probably be changed to 'ing.'"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

"In the third line, the subject is lacking an article in front of it."

Han Zhou looked up at Liu Zhongqi with a sympathetic expression and thought, Your studies are
really so-so.

Liu Zhongqi made a sour face. He was losing face in front of a little friend and he threw down his
pen. "If you're so great, why are you still being a swindler? Why don't you go be an interpreter
for the United Nations?"

"No way, no way." Gan Qing waved her hand modestly. "I'm just at the level of an exam
candidate. I depend on subtitles when watching American TV series."

Liu Zhongqi said in provocation, "Then, which university did you get into?"

Without changing her expression, Gan Qing said, "California's University of Lille-Durnst,
graduated with honours."

"...You even studied abroad?" Liu Zhongqi was momentarily stunned. "Then why are you like this
now?"

Gan Qing beamed at him and added, "Also known as the 'Rot at Home.'"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

California's University of Lille-Durnst… Cal-Lil-Durnst… "Jia-li-dun"... He was going to claw her to

death!

Gan Qing handily helped him tidy up the books that were all over the place. "All English books. If
you studied hard like this earlier on, you wouldn't be the way you are now."

Liu Zhongqi squeezed out his words from the gaps of his clenched teeth. "None of your
business!"
"Is it because your brother refuses to teach you martial arts?" Gan Qing winked at him. "Let me
guess, did he say that he'll teach you some fighting forms if you pass your English test?"

"No!" Liu Zhongqi bristled and said, "In the first place, I… sometimes pass my English tests! He
said I need to get above 120."

Gan Qing laughed. Liu Zhongqi would die to defend the honour of that "120" and his
embarrassment turned to anger.

"You'll have plenty of chances to learn these fighting and killing skills in the future," Gan Qing
suddenly said. "Even if you don't, it's okay. There's no use learning them anyway. Compared to
that, your brother probably thinks that the university entrance exams are more important."

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly. When Gan Qing was saying those words, the improper smile on her
face suddenly disappeared, revealing a restrained calmness that was difficult to describe.

"When I was your age, my mind was also full of wild thoughts." Gan Qing stood up and stretched
her body. "When I grew up, I realised that I was wrong. I worked my ass off for a few years,
wanting to make up for the time I had lost."

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly at her. "And then?"

"There is no 'and then,'" Gan Qing patted him on his head. "You can't make up for lost time…
Your brother is back."

T/N:
In case it's not obvious enough, "California's University of Lille-Durnst" (加州里尔顿斯科大学) is
not a real university and the name is just a pun on 家里蹲 (lit. "squat at home"). Apparently it
was once a somewhat popular joke for people who didn't have any big plans for after high school.
Full disclaimer, the line in the chapter that connects from "California's University of Lille-Durnst"
to "Jia-li-dun" was added by me and is not in the original text (Chinese readers wouldn't need it
anyway) because I try to make it so that the text can be understood without referring to
footnotes. It's a bit of a stretch but I didn't feel like I could turn it into an English pun when that
entire section is about studying English, which kind of emphasises that they are not actually
speaking English.
Chapter 40
When Gan Qing was saying those words, Yu Lanchuan had just stepped out of the elevator lobby.
He looked up and saw his foolish younger brother poke his head out of the next door apartment
and looked left and right like he was searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Yu Lanchuan spoke up. He glanced at his watch to check the time; at
this hour, Gan Qing usually didn't even reply to her customers' messages anymore. "What time is
it already, you're still disturbing other people at their homes?"

Liu Zhongqi looked in the direction of his voice. When he saw Yu Lanchuan, he was extremely
shocked. "Wow, so far!"
Yu Lanchuan raised a brow in impatience. "Hmm?"

"I forgot my keys." Liu Zhongqi explained quickly but it was obvious that the teenager's mind was
currently not on his brother.

Liu Zhongqi turned his head back and asked Gan Qing a string of questions in surprise. "You can
hear him from such a great distance away? For real? I read in wuxia stories, when someone
eavesdrops on someone else's conversation, the moment they breathed the other person would
notice them. I always thought it was an exaggeration, is it really possible? Were you born with it
or did you train? How did you train… Aiyo, ge!"

Yu Lanchuan raised a hand and pushed the back of Liu Zhongqi's head, forcibly turning his head
back around. He nodded at Gan Qing, his face expressionless as he took his younger brother
away.

Liu Zhongqi said, "Ge, she can hear the noise from the elevator lobby when she's inside the
apartment, just like a bat!"

"Even if you train until you become a radar, you'll still need to depend on guessing when it comes
to your English aural test!" Yu Lanchuan said coldly.

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

"Hey," Gan Qing called out to the both of them.

That sound seemed to stroke a finger along the line of Yu Lanchuan's spine. He quivered and
came to a stop, feeling that even this witch's voice was infused with impropriety.

Gan Qing handed over Liu Zhongqi's school bag. "Don't forget your things."

There were a few badges on Liu Zhongqi's school bag— ootball, Carribean pirates, stuff like
superheroes—Yu Lanchuan ignored them all but his eyes zeroed in on one in the middle that had
a cartoon dog. Little Master Yu's sensitive nerves were immediately triggered and he turned to
rant at Liu Zhongqi, "What kind of nonsense are you putting on your bag! Why are you so
childish!"

Liu Zhongqi was pressed and kneaded into a lump and rolled back home all dizzy. He didn't
understand why his brother was suddenly so strongly against badges. "I've always pinned them
there and you didn't say anything before…"

When he got home, Liu Zhongqi still didn't understand what Gan Qing's last sentence meant.

What did she mean by "You can't make up for lost time"?

If it was really as she said, that she knew she was wrong and had after that worked her ass off for
a few years, and it was even very effective—Liu Zhongqi had to painfully acknowledge that at
least, if they were to sit for an English test right now, she would do better than him—then it was
not too late.
There was no restriction on the university entrance exams. Even based on his limited real life
experience as a high school student, Liu Zhongqi could come up with plenty of ideas for her. She
could apply for student loans; all education institutions had "green lanes" for this purpose. If her
results were good, after a year, the various school awards and student loans would be enough. If
her results were not good enough, that was also okay, she could work part time. She just had to
not be so engrossed in tricking and swindling others that she couldn't break away from doing it.
Her current job didn't need too much energy, she could continue doing it.

Liu Zhongqi wasn't just all talk, his words weren't without reason. He had an example right by his
side—back then, Yu Lanchuan had depended on various competition awards and scholarships to
support himself. That was why he had been very fearless and secure during his teenage rebellious
period. Wherever he wanted to stay, he would move there to stay. He had been very unbridled
and no one could even dream of restricting him using finances as an excuse.

In a teenager's eyes, Gan Qing was an "old lady" but a twenty or thirty something year old
woman continuing her studies was very common in the real world. Since she didn't have to
support a family and didn't have any baggage in her life holding her down, why couldn't she give
it a try?

Regardless of whether studying four years at university would result in anything noteworthy or
not, it would still be better than being a witch at a shop that scammed people, wouldn't it? Even
if she didn't take the university entrance exams, in the current day environment, there were
many ways if one wanted to learn a trade. Online or offline, paid or free… seeing how she had
nothing to do the whole day, how could she still be shameless enough to say "You can't make up
for lost time"?

She's obviously just lazy. Wet mud can't hold up a wall! The more he thought, the more Liu
Zhongqi felt that he had been tricked.

The teenager was full after eating supper. He went back to his room and memorised vocab for a
while. After a very exciting day, he fell asleep in three seconds, all his worries disconnecting from
his mind.

However, this kind of contentment was all too rare.

Yu Lanchuan poured himself a mug of hot tea and listened as the sound of Liu Zhongqi reciting
vocab in the next room faded away. Sitting on the sofa, he fell into a stupor.

Back when he was at school and had come here to Granduncle's place, he had stayed in the room
that was Liu Zhongqi's now. When he came home late in the evening after the lessons for the
competition class, he had been just like that kid, scribbling furiously at the study desk.
Meanwhile, Granduncle would take up his smoking pipe and, just like Yu Lanchuan now, quietly
sit here on his own, doing nothing.

At that time, Yu Lanchuan had really envied people like them. They didn't need to sit for exams,
had nothing to do and could go on a mental vacation for as long as they wanted to—such luxury!
Now, he finally had the "right" to that luxury but he was instead envious of the busy high school
student in the next room.

Yu Lanchuan was very weary at heart today. He hadn't answered Liu Zhongqi's calls because he
had locked himself in the meeting room to take care of a matter—and it wasn't any kind of
proper matter. One of the subordinates in his department hooked up with the Head of Finance
next door. One was a wife with a husband, the other was a husband with a wife. Not only had
they fooled around without a thought, they had even been found out by someone. There was a
huge fuss and the entire CBD was rubbernecking. It was as exciting as celebrating the Lunar New
Year in advance.

The entire company had been shamed along with the two of them.

Every day, everyone worked until their days were dark and hopeless, the pressure on them as
heavy as mountains. Those who were braver would step on the high tension power lines
themselves and fooled around or gambled to get some stimulation and dopamine at a low cost.
The cowardly ones would hope for the actions of the former to be exposed so that they could
stand around and watch and gossip in whispers, and obtain a subtle and ambiguous kind of
happiness.

Everytime he encountered something like that, Yu Lanchuan would have a feeling of defeat that
he could not put into words.

It wasn't because Director Yu had very high and lofty morals and couldn't stand to see any filth.
Instead, he felt that the matter was suffused with a sense of sorrow and helplessness. It was the
feeling of a person once thinking that they were capable of reaching the sky, but along with
passage of time, their spirits became drained and increasingly, they had a feeling of "I'm nothing,
this is all I'll amount to for the rest of my life." This acquired sense of helplessness could only be
diverted by seeking what was most base and most easily obtained—food and lust.

Openly pursuing the pleasures of life, to be accomplished yet free from the restraints of
convention—this was something everyone acknowledged to have its own special charm.

But to numb your own emotions and seek stimulation due to your own helplessness and
powerlessness—this was something pitiful and laughable, a midlife crisis, and everyone would
gather around to laugh.

Next door, Han Zhou was taken away by Han Dongsheng who had rushed back late at night. Gan
Qing didn't ask too much but looking at how anxious he was, the old man was probably not found
yet.

This old man, where could he have gone? This thought appeared in her mind but she felt lazy and
didn't want to think further. She emptied her mind and prepared to go to bed.

It was strange. Gan Qing had long since been so sleepy that she was yawning non-stop but now,
she couldn't fall asleep for some reason. She sat quietly at the head of the bed for a while but
didn't find anything worth losing sleep over. She could only blame it on being overtired so she
turned on the bedside lamp and started playing with her phone. She could scroll through the
news from all over the world on her phone, both major events and bizarre occurrences, and
could scroll as long as she wanted to. They were never-ending anyway. However, those words
and their accompanying pictures flowed past her retinas like water, leaving nothing behind. In
just a short while, Gan Qing was seeing without reading.

The moonlight streamed in through the window, casting a glow on the begonia on the balcony.

Gan Qing suddenly recalled that when she was still young, someone had once told her, "Adults
are not necessarily clever, not necessarily brave and strong, and not necessarily very old. They
may not know as much as you and may not be able to defeat you in a fight. The difference
between adults and children is that everyone has joy and anger, happiness and sorrow, but if a
child is unhappy, there is a reason—there may be a specific cause or it may be because they
aren't feeling well and have fallen sick, and their brains aren't producing enough of certain types
of hormones.

"Adults are not the same. These so-called 'adults'... Sometimes, there is clearly nothing wrong
with their bodies and they can't think of anything in their minds and hearts, but in the deep of
the night when they are unable to sleep, they will want to cry for no reason."

"That's not an adult. That's a sick person, isn't it?" The teenage Gan Qing lay on her front, her legs
raised up impudently as she disagreed with the speaker.

The person smiled softly. "When the day comes that you too are unable to sleep and also don't
know why you can't sleep, you'll understand."

So it was true.

In Han Dongsheng's home on the eighth floor, the lights were still bright. His child was asleep in
the room, while the husband and wife were sitting on either side of the coffee table.

Zhou Beibei's eyes were bloodshot. "Where could he have gone? We've asked around at all the
places he usually goes to, where else could he have gone?"

Han Dongsheng said, "Don't worry-"

"How can I not worry?" Zhou Beibei raised her voice. "The weather is so cold! There are news
everyday about missing old people freezing to death by the roadside, I-"

"Shh." Han Dongsheng pressed down on her shoulder and glanced towards Han Zhou's room.
"Don't be loud… Those were all old people with impaired mental faculties who couldn't find their
way home. Our dad won't be like that. I'll apply for leave tomorrow and wait for news from the
police at home. Don't worry, he'll definitely be all right. Maybe he's not used to staying here and
has gone to his friend's home, or perhaps some master had deceived him into joining some kind
of weird activity… If we need to spend money, we'll spend the money. Just treat it as making the
old man happy. When he comes back, don't lose your temper with him."

Zhou Beibei didn't say anything for a while. Then, she suddenly looked up. "Do you think… that I
spoke too harshly yesterday, so my dad…"
Han Dongsheng sighed.

Zhou Beibei covered her face and began to cry. "I didn't do it on purpose."

But spoken words were like spilled water, neither could be taken back.

The old man disappearing for a day could be because of a family argument. But when there was
still no sight nor sound of him after three days, the matter became serious.

"The old man has his own house, have we checked it?"

"We've checked it, Yu-ge. We asked for the keys from his family. There was a layer of dust in the
house, no one has been there recently!"

"Could he have gone back to his hometown?"

"He was born and bred here, he has no other hometown! We even asked the relatives that he's
not close to, he hasn't contacted any of them."

"This is really strange!" Yu Yan muttered as he walked. "Even human traffickers wouldn't kidnap
an old man. I've heard of buying a child but who would buy a dad?"

He had just barely finished speaking when his phone rang. "Hello, this is Xiao-Yu from the
Dongping District police station… Yes, we have a case involving a missing elderly, we're busy
looking for him now… What?"

Yu Yan's came to a stop. After finishing the call, his face changed and he broke into a run. "Master
Lan! Master Lan!"

Yu Lanchuan was just getting ready to leave the house to go to work. Yu Yan stopped him, pulling
at him as he spoke while still panting for breath. "Do you know anyone from the underworld? The
type that catches people and beats them up, and organises beggars to swindle people?"

Yu Lanchuan was bewildered. "Is there something wrong with you?"

"Ai! A colleague from another district called me just now. They also have missing elderly people
over there and it all happened recently. The circumstances are pretty similar to Old Zhou from
downstairs! Let me tell you, this can't be a coincidence!" Yu Yan said. "And also the Old Madam
Lin who was the first to disappear, until now there's still no sight nor sound of her. Quick, help
me ask around—at the train stations, bus stations… all those busy places with lots of people, are
there any old beggars with broken arms or legs that are unfamiliar faces!"

Yu Lanchuan was stunned by Yu Yan's fertile imagination.

Meanwhile, Officer Yu had no time to explain to him in detail and had turned around and ran off
to check the CCTVs.
Beggars' Sect would never admit that what Yu Yan described could happen under their noses.
Within a few days, all the beggars in the city became "volunteer police," jittery and on edge as
they inspected their territories.

After a week, including the Old Madam Lin who had been the first to go missing, there were
already twelve cases of missing elderly people reported to the police stations at several locations.
All of them were believers in all kinds of common people "experts" and MLMs for health
supplements.

The police dug deep into the ground, pulling out the radishes and turning over the soil, and
uncovered quite a few similar syndicates.

There were those who organised "healthy living lectures" and sold medical apparatus, those who
had online shops on WeChat and hid themselves on the internet… What was even more
outrageous was that even "qigong masters" had crowds of fans—groups of old men and old
ladies who meditated along with the "master" come rain or shine and fought to buy the chicken
eggs that the master had "infused with energy"!

"It's not worth the price even if the master laid the eggs himself!" Yu Yan came over to grumble
angrily to Yu Lanchuan. "He even ran away, right in front of us! He was just like the Spiderman at
your place. He leaped up the tree with just a somersault, just like parkour, and disappeared in no
time at all! Right now, his group of foolish believers are all starry-eyed and insisting that this
master has real skills and is our country's intangible cultural heritage, and that we police officers
don't know anything and are slandering traditional cultures! Which sect of yours is he from?
Alliance Leader, let me tell you, right now this person is a prime suspect! The missing Old Mr.
Zhou and Old Madam Lin have both bought eggs from him!"

"Qigong master?" Upon hearing that, Old Master Yang fell silent for a while. "This… I do indeed
know some people…"

Right then, a voice cut in from the door. "It's Travellers' Sect."
Chapter 41
Content warning: This chapter contains a reference to human trafficking and a brief description
of animal mutilation.

"You people didn't close the door." Zhang Meizhen extended a finger and tapped the door frame.
Her face was made up with fiery red lips, her hair white and her face even whiter. The contrast
between the red and the white was too great and made a person temporarily overlook her
wrinkles, leaving only an impression of imposing gaudiness. She winked at Yu Yan and asked, "A
police officer?"

Yu Yan stared at her, dumbstruck, and subconsciously stood up straighter. "Ah… yes! Auntie…
Jie… Erm… Madam…"

"Call me Grandma." Zhang Meizhen patted his head like she was petting a dog and entered
without hesitation, conveniently passing the box of strawberries she was carrying to Old Master
Yang. "Wash them and share them with everyone."
Old Master Yang was someone who spent his entire day at home burning incense and studying
weiqi game records but now, without a word, he rolled his sleeves up and prepared to do as she
bid. Next to them, Han Dongsheng hurriedly took the box from him. "Let me do it!"

Old Master Yang looked at his thick and broad back, and sighed soundlessly. He turned his head
around. "But that is also just a guess."

"Other than those punks, who else could it be? You don't have to avoid the topic around me, I've
washed my hands clean of them thirty years ago. Ever since that Wang Jiusheng became the
leader, I couldn't even be bothered to find out what they've been up to." Zhang Meizhen leaned
back against the sofa and took off her heels, tossing them aside. She smiled at the bewildered Yu
Yan, "I was originally from Travellers' Sect."

As she spoke, the very black triad-like Grandma Zhang swung a key ring in her hand. There was an
accessory in the shape of a bat hung on it, its colour an exceptionally bright red. It looked as
though it was made of plastic but when removed from the ring and held in one's hand, the
weight could be truly felt. It was real, genuine agate.

Yu Yan asked, "What's that?"

"Travellers' Sect's Five Bats Token," Zhang Meizhen said. "If we were in ancient times, it could be
considered a sacred item, just like your Grandpa Yang's firewood staff. Now, it's still considered
an antique anyway but there isn't much meaning to this nonsense, it's not worth much money."

Yu Yan spent a long time making the gr— sound but still could not say the word "Grandma." In
the end, he gave up. "...Your Travellers' Sect, what do they do?"

"The Travellers' Sect in ancient times consisted of five types of people comprising 'carriage, boat,
shop, foot and broker'—drivers, boatmen, shop attendants, porters and intermediaries. These
people wander all over, up north and down south. There were good people and there were also
those who swindled and tricked others. Back during the days of the old society, they all belonged
to the lowest class and hence, couldn't be considered a reputable and righteous sect. The Five
Bats represent these five main trades. At the start, the five main trades were as close as though
they were born from the same womb but as time went by, they each had their own territory and
livelihoods. Inevitably, they started fighting for power and there were frequently internal
conflicts. After a brief period of glory in history, they very quickly fell into decline," Sect Leader
Yang explained slowly at the side. "After liberation, the old trades were no more and the people's
hearts were even more scattered. For the sake of integrating with society and also to preserve
old traditions, their north branch master at Yanning, Wang Jiusheng, even started a delivery
company. It's called… what was it again… Fu something Da."

Yu Yan and Yu Lanchuan said in unison, "Futongda!"

Old Master Yang said, "That's it!"

Yu Yan said, "Second to none when it comes to losing parcels."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Throws packages like they're throwing grenades."

Yu Yan said, "Eight days for deliveries within the same city."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Their complaint number is busier than the hotline, I've never been able to get
through."

Yu Yan said, "We just arrested one of their delivery workers last week. He was behaving
improperly to a girl!"

Old Master Yang, "..."

The people were already so deeply angered?

"Wang Jiusheng, the north branch master, is nothing good. After falling into his hands, there was
no way Travellers' Sect would become anything good either. The current generation is not only
unreasonable, even the old rules are no more. In my opinion, this Travellers' Sect is just a mud
hole where local bullies and ruffians gather." Zhang Meizhen scoffed. "This lousy delivery
company is at least a proper business and can be considered a loincloth to hide their shame.
There are plenty of other disciples who go around swindling people. Not only do they not care
about that; once a victim hunts them down, they even cover up for one another. Wang Jiusheng
always puts on an act of 'I'm an entrepreneur, why would I be related to those low class people.'
He has plenty of lackeys below him that he can order around as he likes anyway, you won't be
able to get anything you can use against him."

"Which is to say, that qigong master who ran away is very likely to be hidden by his fellow sect
members now." Yu Yan asked, "This matters involves a human life after all. That old boss of
Futongda… erm, that branch master, is there any chance he would cooperate with the police?
Give me a way to contact him."

Han Dongsheng put the washed strawberries on the table. The few seniors of the martials arts
community reached out to take the strawberries to stuff their mouths, and looked at Yu Yan who
had said something foolish like they were watching a show.

Yu Lanchuan said, "I think it would be more effective if you complained about him at the post
office."

"All right, fine." Yu Yan spread his hands. "What ideas do you guys have? Can we infiltrate their
inner circle?"

"Travellers' Sect has many people and is also messy. I heard that it's common for their people
who caused an incident in one part of the country to run away to another place and look for
protection from fellow sect members there. They would create a false identity and continue to
mess around." Zhang Meizhen thought awhile, then said, "The Five Bats Token opens doors but
whether or not it works depends on the person's face."

Yu Yan's eyes brightened. "Housing in Yanning is expensive, temporary accommodation is also

expensive. They shouldn't have many dens. If we can infiltrate them, we might be able to find
where that qigong master is hiding."
"Erm… about that." Old Master Yang carefully glanced at Zhang Meizhen and interjected. "Even
though this 'qigong master' of yours is likely to be from Travellers' Sect, the missing old people
cases might really have nothing to do with them."

Yu Yan asked, "Why?"

Old Yang was about to speak but stopped himself.

"What's there that can't be said," Zhang Meizhen cut him off placidly. "The enmity between
Traveller's Sect and Beggars' Sect goes a long way back, they wouldn't gather a pack of old men
and old ladies to beg for them. It's not possible for the situation you're worried about to happen.
Furthermore, that master depends on eggs to swindle and get money. He had finally nurtured a
group of believers, each and everyone of them a money tree that drops cash whenever he shakes
them. He hasn't collected enough money yet, he still needs to keep this group around to get their
retirement funds. How could he bear to harm them?"

Yu Yan hesitated for a while. "But right now, other than this 'qigong master,' we don't have any
other clue… Furthermore, this person should indeed be detained. It's bad enough that he's
deceiving people into buying his energised eggs at a high price, he even insists that they wait until
the hour of the zi—which is around midnight—and eat the entire carton in one go! One carton
can have six large eggs! Those old men and old ladies said that after eating the eggs, they felt
their qi rushing forth from the pit of their stomach and their power increasing. I really have to
admit defeat. The farts caused by the egg whites that can't be digested easily can also be called
'power.' Isn't the skill they're learning a little too smelly!"

Yu Lanchuan's ears could detect the stink. Silently, he put the strawberries back. He had no
appetite now.

Yu Yan said gravely, "Right now, there aren't any problems from this yet, so he's lucky. But I think
it's only a matter of time before there's a problem. Those 'fart kungfu' practitioners are all
exceptionally devoted. If we let it be, by the time their 'master' has hid from the storm, make his
return and come up with some new problem, it would be too late."

"Officer, this is not a matter of catching one person. Even though those Travellers' Sect people
turned over a new leaf a long time ago, to put it in a less pleasant way, they were all from the
black triads in the past. When Elder Yu was still around, they had already dared to come all the
way to No. 110 Courtyard to kidnap people," Zhang Meizhen said. "Don't think they won't dare
attack the police. They can beat you up until you're incapacitated and you won't even have seen
clearly the person who did it. The main perpetrator will then pick a place to hide while the others
work together to create a false alibi. They'll push the matter from person to person, and you can
continue to dream of catching them one day. I think you better think further before you speak."

Yu Yan frowned. In truth, it was pretty difficult to handle things when these local bullies started
to act like rogues. They were like cockroaches in the house—no matter how strong the repellant
was, victory was short-lived. Unless the entire neighbourhood was destroyed, after a mere few
days, they would start popping up again.
These people were indeed bad but ultimately, they had not commited murder or arson. Any
punishments wouldn't be severe; at most they would be detained for a few days and then the
police would have to let them go.

When these dregs of society were released from the detention center, most of the time, they
would become even more fearless. Some of them would even take revenge on the police officers
who handled their case. Police officers were also humans, everyone had parents or children at
home. At most, they only knew a few amateur techniques for fighting or taking down opponents.
They wouldn't turn into martial arts experts just by putting on their uniforms. There were times
when the police really couldn't afford to offend those ruffians.

At that moment, Han Dongsheng suddenly said, "Why don't I give it a try…"

Once he spoke, everyone's eyes fell on him.

"Ai, in the first place, this is my family's problem." Out of habit, Han Dongsheng smiled but
immediately after, he didn't know why he was smiling so he stopped. He rubbed his thick palms.
"Even though I've put my martial arts skills aside long ago, I should still be able to think of a way
to escape if anything happens. Plus, my flesh is thick, I can handle being hit."

"Huh?" Yu Yan was stunned. He firmly rejected the idea. "This definitely won't do!"

The police handling the case fearing danger and letting civilians go in their place, what was this?

"Comrade Officer, whether or not you can make use of me, I'll definitely go and investigate. If I
didn't know all these, that would be it. But since I found this clue today, regardless of whether
they are legit or illegal, I need to check them out first. There's no way I can stay at home and wait
for the news." As before, Han Dongsheng still had the appearance of a yes-man but his mouth
was saying softly, "My surname is Han after all. I cannot bring shame to my ancestors."

What was so great about his surname being Han?

As an outsider, Yu Yan could not understand. Whatever that "Fuliang Yue" was, he had only
heard Old Master Yang bring it up as an aside. The legends were all from the start of the century.
No matter how bright their glory was back then, it had all been extinguished along with the
passing of a century.

What was more, Mr. Han was a middle-aged man with the body of a pregnant woman and if his
face was covered, he might even be offered a priority seat on public transport. What kind of
fighting ability could he have?

Yu Yan said wearily, "Ai, please don't be impulsive-"

But Old Master Yang said suddenly, "It's good if Xiao-Han checks it out."

Zhang Meizhen chuckled. She unhooked the Five Bats Token key chain and tossed it to him.
Han Dongsheng reached up and caught it. "Everyone, let's discuss properly first and act together.
That would be better than acting on our own. Comrade Officer, what do you think?"

Yu Yan didn't think much of it. He could only look at Yu Lanchuan, hoping for their ever-
dependable alliance leader to say something.

In the end, the alliance leader said, "Sounds good. Coincidentally, I would also like to meet
Travellers' Sect."

Yu Yan, "..."

Something had possessed Yu Lanchuan!

Yu Lanchuan had recalled something and a hint of a cold smile was revealed on his face. He
seemed to be biting on a series of grudges, old and new, between his teeth. "How about this
weekend? I can free up a day."

When Zhang Meizhen returned home, Gan Qing was scrubbing the floors as though nothing had
happened. She had earphones in her ears and looked as though she was completely immersed in
the music, not even looking up when someone came in.

Zhang Meizhen directly walked up to her and pulled out one of her earphones.

"Ai." Gan Qing seemed to have been startled. She looked up and smiled at her. "Meizhen-jie,
you're back."

Zhang Meizhen looked at her steadily.

Gan Qing asked, "Your lipstick today looks good. Which shade is it?"

But this topic that could usually draw a lengthy comment from Zhang Meizhen did not work
today.

Zhang Meizhen didn't answer her. "More than ten years ago, the Yanning police caught a gang of
human traffickers. Among the people implicated were the Black Bats of Travellers' Sect. The Black
Bats are 'intermediaries.'"

Intermediaries were the middlemen in business transactions. They were about the same as
intermediaries who conducted purchases and sales of real estate, and could be considered a
proper profession.

However, in ancient times, other than real estate, physical objects and livestock, the trade of
these intermediaries included one more type of transaction—humans. But even in the feudalistic
society back then, by the time of the Song and Ming dynasties, the selling and buying of humans
were no longer allowed by law. Those professional human traffickers were known as "slave
traders" and were basically all followers of evil and terrible ways.
Within Travellers' Sect, the fish and the dragons alike muddled together. They took in anyone,
the sweet-smelling good and the stinky evil. For them to decline into their current feeble state
was only natural.

"The Black Bats would of course protect their own but that matter was already in the news and
had a huge impact at that time. Travellers' Sect's north branch master, Wang Jiusheng, spent a
great effort to whitewash himself into a private entrepreneur. There was no way he could contain
the matter so he handed over those few who were involved in it and even injured a group of the
Black Bats," Zhang Meizhen continued to say. "Because of that, the Black Bats did not submit to
Wang Jiusheng and wanted to pull him down. Wang Jiusheng thickened his face and ran to No.
110 to look for Elder Yu to back him up. He wanted to drive the Black Bats out of the sect. Among
the Black Bats were some from the younger generation who didn't know how high the sky nor
how thick the earth was, and there was no limit to their madness. In order to warn Elder Yu to
keep out of matters that were none of his business, they even kidnapped Elder Yu's grandson
who was still in junior high."

Gan Qing blinked and put on a confused look. "What kind of underworld society are you talking
about? It has long since been outlawed, hasn't it?"

Zhang Meizhen ignored her. "When we found the child the next day, we found that he was
completely unharmed. Instead, there were a few Black Bats who were in a miserable state, both
humans and dogs. One of the vicious dogs had even been disemboweled, its intestines pulled out
far and wrapped around the neck of an unconscious Black Bat. Someone had even written a few
words on the Black Bat's chest with the dog's blood—'Travellers' Sect, Cowardly Turtles' Sect, the
big turtle can't manage the small turtles[1].'"

Gan Qing, "..."

She had a vague recollection of this unfortunate incident… Had she been that much of a terror
when she was young?

Zhang Meizhen smiled. "Elder Yu was the one who found the words. At that time, he felt that
even though this friend who had lent a helping hand behind the scenes was righteous, they were
probably a troublemaker. He was afraid there would be further troubles so before handing them
over to the police, he wiped away those words. But Wang Jiusheng had already seen them. Wang
Jiusheng came from a background of hardship and had worked his way through the ranks in
Travellers' Sect since young. When he was young, other people would bully him and call him a
cowardly turtle. When he grew up, he was like a salted fish turning over a new leaf, and he
changed his name to Jiusheng. Throughout his entire life, he abhorred the two words 'cowardly
turtle.' Just seeing a turtle dish on the table could make him turn hostile, what more having
someone use dog blood to insult him indirectly. But he was a subtle and crafty person. He didn't
let anything show at that time but he kept a grudge in his heart."

Gan Qing suddenly sensed something and her eyes swiftly widened.

Zhang Meizhen glanced at her, then stood up and walked to the bathroom to remove her
makeup.
"Meizhen-jie!" Gan Qing stood up abruptly, one earphone dangling at her chest. "He kept a
grudge in his heart, and then?"

"I don't know any more than that," Zhang Meizhen said. "That friend who wrote in dog's blood
was vicious in their methods. It was obvious which sect their skills were from but those people
lived in hiding and were not easy to find. However, Wang Jiusheng knew people from all walks of
life in Yanning, his might was far-reaching and he had so many followers. Even if he couldn't find
them in one or two years, give him three or five years… huh, who knows?"

T/N:
[1] The word used here is 王八 wángbā. It is an informal term for "turtle" or "tortoise," but is also
an offensive insult that means "coward" or "bastard." The "wang" here is the same "wang" as
Wang Jiusheng.
A note on Travellers' Sect: Unlike Beggars' Sect which is a fairly well-known fictional wuxia sect
that appears in many wuxia stories, Travellers' Sect seems to be something the author came up
with herself. I couldn't find any references to it other than this story and Youfei, which is also by
the same author.
Chapter 42
The tiny hair salon was in a semi-basement. The poster stuck on the window showed a bob cut
and had one corner blown loose by the wind.

The locals were particular about following the tradition of not cutting one's hair in the first month
of the lunar calendar. Hence, the end of the year was the peak season for hairdressing. The tiny
salon that was usually completely empty also turned lively, with people coming and going every
now and then. The heating in the shop was inadequate in the first place; the little bit of heat that
took so much effort to accumulate was completely dissipated by the customers going in and out,
and the breeze blew the cut-off hair ends all over the floor. "Kevin" and the other hairdressers
held their scissors with shivering hands. A moment's carelessness, and the customer's fringe
would be cut to resemble The Devil's Trill.

At that moment, a rundown car stopped at the entrance. It even blocked the entire lane in a very
mannerless way.

The driver had a cigarette in his mouth. He jutted his chin at the two people sitting in the
backseat. "You two get down here."

This was an unlicensed cab. The passengers were a pair of mother and daughter. They spoke with
non-local accents; perhaps they were there to visit relatives or perhaps for sightseeing.

The mother looked to be around the age of forty. She looked at the dirty and rundown narrow
alley in confusion. "Where is this place? It doesn't seem to be the place we want to go to. Driver,
did you go to the wrong place?"

"It's the right place." The driver was not the least bit concerned with the feelings of his female
passengers and expelled a cloud of smoke inside the enclosed space of the little car, his mood
extremely good. "Get down and walk straight ahead. You'll reach after the distance of one stop.
I've got something to do so I'm not driving any further."
The two passengers had newly arrived at the city and it was the first time they met such an
outrageous cab driver. They suspected that something was wrong with their ears.

The mother asked, startled, "Walk straight ahead… for how long?"

"One stop." The driver extended his hand lazily and smacked the steering wheel. The car let out a
long blare of the horn. "If I might trouble you to get a move on, I still have something to do."

"You took our money right after we got in and now you want us to carry so many things and walk
in the wind?" The girl beside her mother was around fifteen or sixteen years old. She erupted in
rage. "Are you hoodlum?"

The driver narrowed his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of smoke. He replied, "Exactly."

This male driver had a scar at the corner of his eye. It looked like a centipede, extending all the
way to the root of his ear. He looked at them out of the corner of his eye, obviously harbouring ill
intentions. The girl's mother was a little nervous now and pulled on her daughter's hand. "Speak
nicely-"

The girl said, "Why the hell would I speak nicely with an asshole? Give us our money back!"

From the front seat, the male driver turned his body around—he wasn't wearing his safety belt—
and extended his fingers that were holding the cigarette until it seemed to almost burn the girl's
nose. Pointing at her, he said, "Say that again."

The ash fell on the girl's hand and she shrieked. She angrily shook her hand and looked down, and
saw that this hoodlum's clothes were bulging at the waist, revealing something… that looked like
a knife!

The mother quickly restrained her mouthy daughter, took their luggage and bolted out of the
cab. After walking about two to three meters, the girl finally dared to turn around and quickly
snapped a photo of the unlicensed cab's number plate.

This unlucky mother and daughter would probably never want to come to Yanning again.

The hoodlum driver slowly got down from the cab and took a long stretch of the body. A man
with his hair dyed blond ran out of the hair salon and solicitously opened the door for him.
"Liang-ge, you're here!"

The hoodlum driver—Liang-ge—said an indifferent yeah and moved his legs to go in. He threw
the half-smoked cigarette directly onto the floor and grounded a trail of ash with his foot. "It's so
fucking cold."

The blond guy didn't even blink. "I saw that chick just now took a photo of your car with her
phone…"

"Let her take all the photos she wants," Liang-ge said. "The number plate's fake anyway… So it's
this kid?"
The blond guy followed the line of his gaze. In the corner of the hair salon sat a middle-aged man,
rather fat, with hair that hadn't been trimmed in who knew how long and was sticking greasily to
his scalp. He was visibly balding, his eyebrows were also sparse, and he wore a pair of glasses
with scratched lenses. At his feet was a rather large checkered nylon bag.

"Yes," the blond guy said. "A little brother of mine brought him here. His surname is Zhang and he
has our Five Bats Token. But he's a 'blockhead.' The Five Bats Token was given to him by a
relative who told him to come to Yanning to find a place to shelter. His Five Bats Token is the real
deal, agate. To be honest, it's the first time I'm seeing one. Liang-ge, how about you take a look?"

Liang-ge took the small Five Bats Token and turned it over a few times. He asked, "What crime
did he commit in his own hometown?"

The blond guy answered, "This dumbass hit someone while driving and ran off after that. It was
even at an intersection, isn't he just asking for trouble? It was captured clearly on CCTV. If the
police catch him, he'll have to go in for a few years."

Liang-ge let out a "Mm" and walked towards the man.

The man was sitting on the edge of his seat. When he saw someone coming over, he immediately
sprung up. He looked at Liang-ge with fear and nervousness.

"It's all right. I'll ask you a few questions as per the rules. As for how to answer," Liang-ge waved
the Five Bats Token in his hand, "the person who gave you this thing should have taught you."

The middle-aged plump man nodded eagerly, his eyes never leaving the Five Bats Token in his
hand. He looked like he wanted it back but didn't dare open his mouth.

"Who gave you this thing?"

"My third uncle."

"You know what it's called, don't you? Which group of bats is your third uncle from? What is his
trade?"

"I-I know," the middle-aged plump man said, trembling in fear. "It's called the Five Bats Token.
My third uncle said that he's from the Blue Bats and that he's not in the 'old trade.'"

The Blue Bats were "shop." "Not in the old trade" meant that this Travellers' Sect member was no
longer a "shop attendant" and had changed fields. This man seemed to have just memorised the
codewords but they could find nothing wrong with the words themselves.

Liang-ge glanced at him and his face suddenly turned grave. "That's not right. If he's a Blue Bat,
why is the Five Bats Token that he gave you red?"

The middle-aged plump man got a fright and stammered, "My third uncle has two Five Bats
Token, the other one is yellow. He said that the other token is his own and can't be given to me.
This token was from his younger days, when he worked in the south. He had saved a fellow sect
member and that person gave it to him… I asked him why the Blue Bats' Five Bats Token isn't
blue. He said that this is the old rule passed down since before liberation."

At the very start, the colour of the token held by the Travellers' Sect members were the same
colour as the group they belonged to. Later on, it was only after a few rounds of internal conflict
that this rule came to be—holding a different colour Five Bats Token signified that the Five Bats
within Travellers' Sect were tight-knit and united, and that they didn't distinguish between one
another. Of course, it was completely useless. If the people themselves did not want to be united,
they could hold a handful of Skittles and it would still be useless.

Liang-ge could find no problems with what he said. He interrogated him further, asking in detail
about his third uncle's lineage and surname. Finally, his face became milder. He clapped the
middle-aged plump man on the shoulder. "Don't take offense. Even though you're one of us,
there are too many of us. We're scattered to all corners of the land and don't know each other.
We don't have a way to investigate each person one by one either, so we can only ask a few
more questions."

The middle-aged plump man had been so nervous he could barely breathe. Seeing the change in
Liang-ge's attitude, he quickly gave them a smile that was even uglier than a crying face.

The blond guy from the hair salon said from the side, "Liang-ge knows a lot of people and is loyal.
He can even speak up in front of Branch Master Wang. If any of our brothers here have any
problems, we'll look for him. I'll hand you over to him."

The middle-aged plump man said, "Yes… Yes…"

Liang-ge studied this person and felt that this fatty was really capable of doing a hit-and-run. He
was soft and lumpy, and it was obvious that he didn't have much accomplishments. He looked
contemptuously on this type of person. With an irreverent attitude, he lit a cigarette and asked
directly, "Everything's expensive in Yanning. Did you bring enough money?"

The middle-aged plump man immediately understood his unspoken meaning and quickly bent
over to search in his checkered nylon bag, his butt sticking up in the air. After rustling around for
a long while, he fumbled out a thick envelope and handed it over, bowing and scraping the whole
time. "Please help me make the arrangements. I'm afraid I will have to trouble you."

Liang-ge dangled the cigarette from his mouth. His gaze slanted, he slid the cash in the envelope
out and turned the stack over. The thickness was satisfactory, so he directly pulled it out and put
it into his pocket, and threw the envelope away carelessly. "All right, follow me."

The plump man hurried to carry his checkered nylon bag and got into Liang-ge's incredibly smelly
cab.

Just as the cab was driven out of the little alley, a low-profile white car peeked out from the
corner of the street and followed it from far.
"In this area, all problems go to him." In the front passenger seat, Yu Yan was listening to the
sounds coming through his earphones. "Looks like we found the right person."

The other young police officer rubbed his fists eagerly. "Yu-ge, I feel like I'm playing the role of
Agent 007. Since I started work, other than catching petty thieves, all I do is mediate
neighbourhood conflicts. I've never done anything as exciting as this!"

"Let's hope it won't be," Yu Yan said with an anxious face. "I'm still hoping for less excitement and
to live a few years longer… Master Lan, I'm still a little worried. Can the identity you guys
arranged hold up? What if they investigate closely? For example… will they call the 'third uncle'
you guys came up with to confirm? Within the sect, if they really want to find someone, they
should be able to get some way to contact them, right?"

"We didn't make up the third uncle," Yu Lanchuan answered while staring at the car ahead of
them. "There really is such a person. Grandma Zhang did him a favour in the past. We've
informed him, we won't be exposed. At that place, in the recent couple of days, there was indeed
a case where a driver who caused an accident ran away. They won't find any problems."

Yu Yan asked, "Will someone recognise that Han-dage?"

The man pretending to be the hit-and-run driver was indeed Han Dongsheng. He had put on a
wig, plucked his brows, put on a pair of glasses, stuck on a wispy moustache, and his entire
appearance changed greatly. In the past, he was a typical slightly greasy-looking office worker.
With this image change, he instantly looked a lot more coarse and vulgar.

"Probably not." Yu Lanchuan thought a while and said, "Beggars' Sect's skills are pretty good. As
long as he doesn't meet a close acquaintance, he won't be recognised."

At No. 110 Courtyard, Meng Tianyi directly took the elevator up and knocked on 1003's door.
After a while, a large white face peeked out from the crack of the door. Zhang Meizhen looked at
her nephew outside the door, not the least bit surprised. Her face was covered in a facial mask
and she couldn't open her mouth. She mumbled indistinctly, "Oh my, a rare visitor."

Meng Tianyi strode into the house and looked around with a solemn face. "Where's Gan Qing?"

"How would I know?" Zhang Meizhen faced the mirror and pulled the facial mask tight. "I hadn't
woken up yet when she left. Didn't she go to work?"

Meng Tianyi said, "She texted me early in the morning to take the day off. When I called her, she
declined the call."

"Oh." Zhang Meizhen shrugged. "So what if she takes the day off? Who can guarantee that they
can work 365 days a year? Every month, there'll surely be a few inconvenient days-"

"Second Aunt!" Meng Tianyi cut her off. He dropped his butt on the sofa. "Two days ago, you
asked me to help you contact a person, arrange a false identity for someone, and get in touch
with Yanning's Travellers' Sect. Today, she took the day off and disappeared. What on earth is
going on? You people are working together to take care of Travellers' Sect but why must you drag
her into it?"

Zhang Meizhen held up a small mirror and admired her reflection from all angles, humming a
song and pretending she hadn't heard him.

Meng Tianyi leaned over and snatched away her mirror. The large, plump face that looked like
Garfield became serious. "She has a history and has martial arts skills. I know it can't be hidden
from you for long but do you know who she is? She-"

Zhang Meizhen said, "Of course I know."

Meng Tianyi, "..."

Zhang Meizhen sighed as though she was bemoaning the modern day children who were
becoming more and more foolish with every generation. She said, "Go open the fridge and look
at the pile of meat she cut."

Zhang Meizhen was an expert at online shopping who received delivery packages from day to
night. The old lady handled the buying but not the storing, and it had always been Gan Qing who
helped her open the boxes. Sometimes, there would be a box from some remote village
containing a pig's head, pork cutlets and pork ribs all squeezed together. Gan Qing would have no
choice but to help her cut them into small pieces and pack them into small bags according to
type, so that it would be easier to defrost them as needed.

"She uses a fruit knife that hasn't been sharpened in 800 years to cut ham into slices that are
even thinner than what a meat slicer can do. One cut, one slice. Put it on a paper and you can
read through it. When she's done slicing, put them in a row and the width would be all the same,
with not even a milimeter's difference. Do you really think that once the ham slices are mixed
into the noodles, I wouldn't be able to tell where those knife skills are from?" Zhang Meizhen
rolled her eyes. "Your second aunt hasn't reached the age where she can't see clearly."

Her nephew had already started bringing his presbyopic glasses around with him and had nothing
to say to that.

After falling silent for a while, Meng Tianyi said, "Wei-xiong entrusted that child to me. I have to
take care of her and lead her to the right path. You have nothing on your hands and it's fine if you
don't want to help, but please don't make things worse!"

Zhang Meizhen said, "The 'right path' you speak of is bringing her a pile of books for the exams
for self-taught students and making her study to become an accountant?"

Meng Tianyi's eyes gleamed. "Did she study the books?"

"Nope," Zhang Meizhen said coolly. "She sold them for ten yuan. The scrap collector wanted to
pay five yuan at the start but she refused. Subsequently, for the sake of that bit of spare change,
those two bargained at the door for ten minutes. It gave me a headache listening to them."
Meng Tianyi, "..."

Zhang Meizhen said, "If a person has a path forward in their heart, even if she only knows how to
press on a calculator, she can start by being a cashier and continue to walk step by step, and live
her life according to her own right track. You wouldn't have to worry at all. But if her heart
doesn't have this path, even if you make her study for 800 PhDs, she can still live as though there
is no tomorrow, and just eat and wait for death. Do you believe me?"

Meng Tianyi sighed. "I know, but-"

"Do you think living is like a game of hide-and-seek—as long as you hide yourself well, the past
will not find you?" Zhang Meizhen tore off her facial mask and scoffed. "The meridian channels in
her right hand have been severed until she only has the strength left to lift chopsticks but her left
hand can still take up the knife to kill. Can a couple of exam books restrain Wan Mu Chun's
blade?"

Meng Tianyi looked at her at a loss.

Zhang Meizhen had a suffocating feeling in her heart. She looked at these younger generations
who were on the right path; because they were too "right," each and every one of them were
working hard to live, vigorously climbing upwards, their minds fully occupied with how to get
promoted and increase their salaries. When they encounter hoodlum gangs who were not part of
mainstream society, they really could not handle it and she would have to find a "witch" that was
not so "right" to back them up, or trouble might really happen.

"But…"

"No more buts. Nephew, are you going through menopause? You're so annoying, go away!"

Before Meng Tianyi could say all he had to say, his second aunt was already asking him to leave.

"Second Aunt, Wan Mu Chun's blade draws blood the moment it is unsheathed. I'm worried that
she'll again-"

"That is her own business. She's no longer a child," Zhang Meizhen cut him off. "Everyone has
their own pitfall, everyone has their own calamity to overcome. If she can't make it through and
destroys herself, she deserves it! Is it something you can manage? Right now, other than
swinging the ladle, how much of your skills do you still remember? Hurry up and get lost!"

At the same time, the few "right path" people and the two police officers on the case had
followed Liang-ge through twists and turns, and stealthily arrived at a small guest house.

Yu Yan poked his head out for a look. "Hey! This group of bastards really know how to hide."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why?"

"The hotels on this row are all love hotels. Their rooms are mainly by the hour and they do
business with couples who come here to get a room. They can even provide confidential service
to regular customers—which means they won't register the customer's identification. If someone
happens to come to check, the hotel would even give you a false identity. It's a service specially
for those having affairs or other kinds of improper relations," Yu Yan said. "Once you hide inside,
as long as you don't come out yourself, no one would know that you're inside."

Yu Lanchuan turned his head around. "Spiderman, we're counting on you."

Yan Hao, who had been shrinking back in the backseat the whole time, had his name called
without warning. He quivered and his face turned so red it was nearly purple.

"This is the man we want to find." Yu Yan took out a photo of the "qigong master" and showed it
to him. "We even 'shopped a moustache, hair and sunglasses on him… the few disguises that are
commonly used, and sent them to your phone, just in case he had a 'makeover' and you can't
recognise him. Master Lan, why are your disguises so down-to-earth? What about the legendary
human-skin mask?"

"We can't even afford leather, much less human skin." Yu Lanchuan stopped the car in a hidden
corner. He watched Yan Hao get down from the car and nimbly stick himself to the wall like a
large lizard, disappearing in a flash.

Meanwhile, Han Dongsheng had been brought into the small guest house by Liang-ge.

Liang-ge said, "He's a brother from somewhere far who's seeking shelter with us. Give him a
room, long-term stay."

The receptionist was in the same gang as him and knew what was up the moment he heard those
words. While looking for the register and the keys, he said, "Liang-ge, why are there so many
'long-term stays' recently?"

"Who knows, maybe the stars are not aligned."

Han Dongsheng's ears twitched and he thought, The qigong master is indeed hiding here.

Right at that moment, there was a clattering sound. The few of them looked up and saw a female
guest who had come to check out staring at Han Dongsheng like she had seen a ghost. She had
dropped her keys.

Han Dongsheng, "..."

This woman was his colleague. She was already married.

Little Master Yu's words were as unshakeable as an imperial edict. "As long as he doesn't meet
anyone he's familiar with, he won't be recognised."

Little Master Yu's mouth had been blessed. Every word he spoke came true.
Chapter 43
In a split second, Han Dongsheng and his female colleague made and broke eye contact.
Han Dongsheng was shocked to the core. Just yesterday, the woman had posted in her WeChat
Moments to help gather votes for her mother-in-law's square dancing group!

The female colleague was no less shocked than him. She looked at Han Dongsheng's getup, then
at Liang-ge's appearance; for a moment, she could not tell whose taste was more hardcore!

A thousand words turned into a single phrase in that eye contact: I never would have imagined...

Sure enough, colleagues were the strangers a person was most familiar with.

Liang-ge was a professional hoodlum, and professional hoodlums were typically experts at
reading between the lines and understanding body language, otherwise it would be easy for
them to fail at playing their roles and end up being cut down. Even though Han Dongsheng and
the woman had only made eye contact for a very brief while, he had still caught that unique
atmosphere that disappeared as soon as it appeared.

"Why?" Liang-ge immediately asked in suspicion. "Someone you know?"

Han Dongsheng regained his wits. His back was covered in cold sweat and he quickly pretended
that he had been caught furtively staring at someone of the opposite sex and was embarassed.
He shook his head, his face and ears red from the awkwardness.

The female colleague played along. She put on a frosty and serious face, and went directly to the
reception counter without even looking at Han Dongsheng.

Liang-ge frowned. He stared at the woman's retreating back all the way until she walked out of
the guest house's entrance.

Right now, Han Dongsheng was already a little apprehensive and he suspected that he might
have exposed himself somehow. He took the room key and called out to Liang-ge. "Thank you,
brother. How about I… treat you to a meal?"

Liang-ge jutted his chin at the woman's back, a smile that was not quite a smile on his face. "Why,
you like that type?"

Han Dongsheng waved his hand in a fluster. "No, no… She looked at me first, that's why I looked
at her. I didn't dare look too long… I have a wife and a child, I…"

He was nervous and flustered, and looked totally like a village bumpkin with a guilty conscience.

Liang-ge turned his head back around and looked at Han Dongsheng thoughtfully. Then, he
smiled. "That's enough, I didn't say anything anyway. I won't delay you from resting today. You
just got to Yanning. Take a rest. When you've rested enough, you can familiarise yourself with the
surroundings first. Look for your Liang-ge if there's any problem. I'll bring you out for drinks in
another couple of days, and introduce you to a few people."

Han Dongsheng eagerly agreed.

Liang-ge patted him on the shoulder and swaggered off without a care. Han Dongsheng finally
relaxed and felt that he could consider himself to have cleared this round. In his heart, he was
rather glad—if they weren't coincidentally in this kind of awkward place, he might have been
exposed.

Meanwhile, once he was out the door, Liang-ge's face immediately dropped the pretense and he
twisted his head around to look back. He made a phone call. "A woman just came out of No. 113
Courtyard. Not tall, permed wavy hair down to the shoulders, wearing a long down jacket, white
colour. Who picked her up?"

Murderers killed in their own territory but those having affairs would want nothing more than to
run to a faraway corner of the world to have them.

A place like this where love hotels gathered was a place that, other than the nearby poor
students, was usually only visited by guests from afar. Hence, there were usually a lot of
unlicensed cabs waiting in the back lane to pick up passengers. They weren't ordinary unlicensed
cabs, they all belonged to Travellers' Sect. And once the unlicensed cabs staked their claim on a
spot and gathered there, the proper legal cabs wouldn't go there much. Bad money drives out
good, so the customers also had no choice.

The woman wearing a white down jacket got into an unlicensed cab at random and gave the
driver an address. Her soul was still scattered in all directions and she fidgeted restlessly in her
seat for five minutes, keeping everything in until she really could not keep it in anymore, and took
out her phone to call her lover, "I need to tell you something. Ai… I'm not thinking of you, behave
yourself! I don't know what I should do now… You left first just now, didn't you? I went to check
out and you wouldn't believe who I bumped into…"

Once she started to pour her thoughts out, she could not stop. She was agitated and scared, and
at the same time, also had a little excitement of having peeked at someone's secret. She did not
realise at all that the driver was looking at her through the rearview mirror and was quietly
recording her with his phone.

After listening to the audio recording his subordinate had sent him, Liang-ge curled his lips
viciously and spat out the cigarette butt in his mouth. It landed over two meters away. He could
not hold back his rage. "Motherfucker—I was just saying that I felt something wrong with that
asshole when we were in the car! The way he looked out the window was not right!"

When someone came to a place from another part of the country, they would always be unable
to resist looking out the car window. What they would look at were the buildings and the streets,
hence when they looked out, their gaze would linger very long.

This "non-local with the surname Zhang" who held the Five Bats Token put on a very good act.
During the entire journey, he had been restless in his seat and he didn't forget to look "curiously"
out the window. But his gaze was very short; he always looked back after just a glance. At first,
Liang-ge had even thought that he was being cautious.
Now, it seemed like he wasn't a non-local at all. That was why the sights of Yanning were
something familiar to him that he ignored. When he looked out the window, he was looking at
the road signs and road names!

"Hunt geese every year and one day you'll nearly have your eyes pecked out by a goose!" Liang-
ge's anger turned his face ferocious. "So they're pulling tricks on me!"

Yan Hao usually didn't look people directly in the eye and as time went by, he became a little
face-blind. Bearing a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, his only choice was to carefully cling to
the outside of the guest house windows and peek through them room by room. It was currently
near noon and there weren't many guests in the guest house. When there were occasionally
people in the room, they were mostly getting ready to check out.

When he had checked up to the fifth floor, he saw Han Dongsheng. Han Dongsheng had lit a
cigarette and opened the window under the pretense of letting the smoke out. He nodded
furtively at Yan Hao.

The person they wanted should be in this building.

Yan Hao's eyes gleamed. Like a light and graceful large bird, he continued to circle upwards.

Han Dongsheng looked at his retreating figure and felt rather emotional. He thought enviously,
How nice it is to be young.

Even if a young person didn't have major accomplishments in their life, at the very least their
footsteps were light and graceful. Any baggage they carried could be put down at any time and
they could then fly to a higher place. Middle-aged people could not do the same; what they
carried on their backs had sunk into their flesh and binded to their bones. No matter how heavy it
was, they could not put it down.

Han Dongsheng was at the moment in the bandits' den. Yet, for no reason, there was joy in his
heart. At the very least, he could quietly finish smoking a cigarette here, he didn't have a whole
pile of trifling office matters behind him and there was also no wife shrieking at him in rage.

He inhaled a mouthful of the northwest wind together with the cigarette smoke and choked until
his throat hurt. Then, he felt that by thinking this way, he was doing wrong by his workplace and
his wife.

He had picked his workplace himself. Back then, he had slaughtered his way out from the
humongous thousands-strong civil exam army and finally got the posting. It had been no easier
than chasing the girl of his dreams. He could still remember the day he received the notification
that his application had been accepted, how he could not wait to inform all his close friends
beside him, how Zhou Beibei—still his girlfriend at that time—was so happy that she leaped for
joy.

His wife was the wife he had pursued and married himself. The first time he received a reply from
her during university, the ticket stubs from the first movie they watched together, their light-as-
air footsteps as they left the Bureau of Civil Affairs, the birth of their son Han Zhou… Every joy in
his life seemed to have been brought by her.

At that time, he had just grown up, and was greedy and arrogant. He felt that his strength was
endless and that he could carry a hundred people on his back. He couldn't wait to fly, to rush
forward madly, to bear his new family on his shoulders and fly forward with his feet barely
touching the ground.

But a year in Yanning had four seasons rolling through. After the spring where tens of thousands
of living things bloomed, there was the cruel and stiflingly hot peak of summer.

He thought, self-deprecating, Maybe I've gone past my "best before" date.

Right then, Han Dongsheng heard a light sound coming from upstairs. Yan Hao seemed to have
slid down a bit. Han Dongsheng's nerves tensed up again. Following the direction where the
sound was coming from, he abruptly pushed his window open, just in time to catch Yan Hao who
was sliding down.

The tip of Yan Hao's foot tapped lightly against the opened window. With that push, he grabbed
desperately onto the pipe on the wall, his face and ears completely red. In the middle of the day,
there was a couple on the sixth floor who were already embracing and devouring each other
without waiting for lunch. They had even thought that they were high up enough and had not
closed the curtains!

Tang Qian Yan was so startled that he nearly became a little bird with a broken wing.

Han Dongsheng gave him a confused look: What's the matter?

Yan Hao felt that what he was doing was rather immoral. He looked at Han Dongsheng
hesitatingly, then looked at the window upstairs: Should I really do it?

Han Dongsheng was not very familiar with him and could not decipher Yan Hao's complex and
indescribable gaze. He thought Yan Hao had seen someone suspicious.

This was very possible. Downstairs was for renting by the hour, upstairs for hiding people.
Separate the two and they could avoid having too many people and too many prying eyes.

Hence, Han Dongsheng solemnly gave Yan Hao a thumbs-up and pointed upwards: Good job, go
confirm again!

Yan Hao, "..."

All right then.

He squeezed his eyes shut, preparing to sacrifice himself for an honourable cause, his mind
reciting the unique physical characteristics of the Qigong Master—a robustly square face, slightly
drooping left eyelid, a mole on the side of his nose!
Then, he gritted his teeth and climbed upwards again.

Who would have guessed that halfway through their unrestrained activity, the two "wild and
passionate" people on the sixth floor had perhaps felt that the room was a little bright. While
taking off his thermal underwear, the man walked over to close the curtains. He had just taken
off one sleeve when he made direct eye contact with Yan Hao who had popped up once again!

Both of them were simultaneously shocked.

"Fuck, there's a pervert!" the man in the room shouted.

"Ahhh!" Yan Hao screamed.

Bright yellow thermals… No, square face, drooping eyelid and the mole!

Yan Hao shouted, "It's him!"

Han Dongsheng reacted immediately and notified Yu Lanchuan, Yu Yan and the rest. "Room 609!"

The qigong master clad in yellow thermals regained his senses. He felt that his pure jade-like
body had been dirtied and erupted in rage. He swept his hand back to grab the ashtray, opened
the window and threw it out.

Yan Hao twisted himself into a pretzel in midair. He dodged the ashtray but not the ashes
scattering in the air, and choked until tears covered his face.

Han Dongsheng threw the window open with both hands and leaped out to help. Who knew that
the moment he looked down, he felt dizzy, his heart started thumping wildly, and he felt like his
blood pressure was nearing 180.

Yan Hao shouted, "He's escaping!"

Han Dongsheng resolutely gave up on the flight route. He turned and charged towards the
staircase nearest to him, ran upstairs and collided directly with the qigong master who had a
mole on his nose—in his panic, the master was not picky with his escape route. One sleeve of his
thermal shirt was still dangling free, revealing one side of his waist.

Han Dongsheng glanced at the master's prosperous waist—good, unexpectedly, this man also
had a surplus of fatty belly meat overflowing above the waist band. For a moment, Han
Dongsheng was confident. He reached back and grabbed the railing. With a whoosh, his entire
body swept out, his leg drawing a perfect circle.

The master leaped up nimbly but didn't take into account that he was wearing slippers on his
feet. One plastic slipper slipped loose. Flustered, he hopped up a couple of steps on one leg, then
lifted his leg and stomped down.

Han Dongsheng acted first and pushed his leg with a palm. His plump hand looked soft but when
he pushed it out, it seemed to carry the strength of wind and lightning. Forced to take this blow,
the master's leg turned suddenly numb from the force. He staggered and fell backwards, his
hands flailing to grab hold of the railing.

The master's expression turned to one of shock. "Where are you from!"

Han Dongsheng didn't reply his question and only said mildly, "Didn't you claim that you are
capable of striking a bull from the other side of the mountain? Where are your godly powers?"

"Fuck, the cops again!" The master was angered to the core. He struck a fierce fighting pose and
prepared to release his energy, his mouth bellowing. "Hoooaaa—ha!"

Right after that, something smashed towards Han Dongsheng's face. Han Dongsheng couldn't
immediately see what it was and he raised his elbow to block, only to realise that it was a plastic
slipper. Both of the master's plastic slippers had flown out with his "magic powers" and there was
no longer anything on his feet to bind him. He took the chance to slide down the staircase railing.

Han Dongsheng acted quickly and grabbed the back of his collar. Who would have guessed that in
the next second, the weight in his hand lightened. The "master" was indeed a "master" and had
some skills—he had taken off his clothes at lightning speed, left his yellow thermals in his
opponent's hand, and, naked as a cicada that had shed its shell, slid to the bottom of this flight of
stairs where he scissored his two bare feet and charged downstairs!

This person's "miraculous egg-laying skills" was total bullshit but when he ran, he was actually a
match for Yan Hao. The master was extremely experienced in running for his life. His feet seemed
to not touch the ground; a light tap in the middle of every flight of stairs and he could abruptly
leap to the bottom, like an elastic ball exerting all its strength. In a blink of the eye, he had shaken
off Han Dongsheng.

It looked like not being able to run was not something that could be entirely blamed on fatty
meat.

Ultimately, a person's pair of legs was the culmination of generations of use.

Right then, Yu Yan and his colleague arrived. The moment the two police officers entered, they
headed straight for the stairs, planning to block the master that was "bouncing" down. However,
the master's tonnage was clear to be seen and the inertia from his fast movement was not a
small matter. When he saw that there were people ahead of him, he did not slow down at all and
instead, collided directly with the two officers.

Before Yu Yan could take out his police baton, his vision blacked out and his entire body was sent
flying by the collision. His lungs were nearly flattened. With an oof, he expelled both breath and
saliva, and sprayed the master's face.

The master continued to sprint forward as though he had met no resistance at all, and was even
spitting all the while.

In pain, Yu Yan clutched his ribs that had been crushed together. "...'ck your grandpa!"
Right at that moment, he heard a fwop. A mop suddenly swung out, striking at the master's
stomach like a viper. The master could not slow down in time. He grabbed the railing and leaped
up, but the heavy mop handle followed him like a shadow, sweeping up to hit directly and heavily
at his kneecap.

The master didn't even yell, his features scrunched into a ball and with a crash, he rolled down
the stairs. Before he could lift his head, the mop swung down and stopped right at his throat.

It was a sword technique!

"Ai, be good." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up and looked up to glance at Yu Yan. "Grandpa's
here."

Yu Yan, "..."

Even though they were allies, right now and right here, he really wanted an internal strife.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Hurry up and put the cuffs on this guy here, he's really an eyesore!"

Yu Yan climbed up laboriously and hobbled over while digging out a pair of handcuffs. He cuffed
the "master." "Run, go on and continue running!"

The master's kneecap might have been shattered by Yu Lanchuan. He hugged his knee and rolled
on the ground, crying from the pain. There was no way he could stand.

Yu Yan panted harsh breaths, his eyes flicking towards Yu Lanchuan. "Hey, Master Lan, help
me…"

But what he saw was Yu Lanchuan throwing the mop aside with a face of distaste, then taking out
a scented wet wipe from his pocket to wipe his hands. He was already standing two meters away,
cold and aloof, and had no intentions at all of helping.

Fortunately, the other young police officer and Han Dongsheng arrived at this time. Working
together, the three of them exerted all their strength and lifted the wailing master.

"Thank you, thank you," Yu Yan shook Han Dongsheng's hand gratefully. "You are a good son-in-
law of the nation, we-"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Yan Hao rush down from upstairs with a face of alarm. "L-
Lots of people"

Yu Yan asked, "Lots of people what?"

The more he panicked, the more Yan Hao was unable to speak clearly. His face red from the
effort, he pointed downstairs. "Travellers' Sect! Lots of people! Tens of them! They brought
people and are ch-charging in!"

Before he could finish speaking, the clamour of voices could be heard from downstairs.
"Block the door!"

"This way!"

The cement floor started to tremble along with the voices. Very quickly, the jumbled sound of
footsteps could be heard.

Yu Yan said in disbelief, "In broad daylight, they are openly attacking the police?"

Yu Lanchuan was very calm. "How much backup do you have?"

"Not a lot. I didn't know if I would be able to find this guy," Yu Yan said. "I only called a few
colleagues from the station. They probably won't be of much use… Alliance Leader, what should
we do?"

Yu Lanchuan sighed. He took off his glasses and slipped it into the inner pocket of his casual
jacket, then rolled up his sleeves.

For a moment, Yu Yan was rather touched. He had known Yu Lanchuan for so many years but this
was the first time he was getting a taste of the bearing and composure of Yu Lanchuan as the
descendant of the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang.

Yu Yan said, "The mop handle isn't easy to wield, use my police baton!"

"Didn't you bring your brain along with you when you left the house?" What Yu Yan saw was the
"supremely elegant" Alliance Leader Yu leaping forward as though there were wild dogs on his
heels, passing ahead of Yu Yan. "Run, what are you waiting for!"

Yu Yan, "..."

The cuffed "master" wailed, "Help!"

Yu Yan said, "Yu Lanchuan! Can you show off your coolness from start to end for once in your
life!"

Right then, outside the small guest house that was surrounded by hoodlums, the police officers'
colleagues were staring, dumbstruck.

A young lady who looked like a passerby walked past and took a glance. "What's going on?
Should we call the police?"

"We are… the police…"

"Then, shouldn't you hurry up and call more people?"

"Right, right, right! Hurry up! Get reinforcements! Where is the law? Young lady, please stay
away… Hey! What are you doing!"
They saw the lady who had just suggested that they call the police take out a cloth strip from
somewhere. One end held in her mouth, she wrapped the other end around her right hand as
she walked. She turned her head to smile at the police, then sprinted over to the guest house!
Chapter 44
The "master" had a physical stature that was equivalent to one and a half Yu Yan. His leg was
broken and he was also uncooperative.

The three of them—Yu Yan, his colleague and Han Dongsheng—pulled and pushed until they
were sweating from the effort. "What on earth is going on?"

Even if they had caused a ruckus when they charged in to catch this person, it had been less than
five minutes from start to end. How could these hoodlums and tramps gather so quickly?

If they were so capable, why were they still local ruffians? Wouldn't it be better to go protect the
country instead?

Han Dongsheng was really not good at running. His wig was already so soaked with sweat that it
could not stay on. He pulled it off and tucked it under his arm, and panted as he replied,
"Maybe… Maybe I was exposed. When I came in just now, I bumped into a colleague…"

Yu Yan had to admit defeat. "Why would your colleague be here?"

The other police officer said softly, "Probably to make a pilgrimage… Yu-ge, this place is called
Sweethearts Street, it's quite popular. Plus, if you bump into someone you know here, both of
you would definitely not say hi, since… you know."

Yu Yan was exceptionally grieved and angered at heart. What would a sad single like me know?

Right then, the Travellers' Sect people who were the fastest were already charging towards them,
waving all sorts of clubs and sticks. Han Dongsheng could not shirk his responsibility and took on
the duty of cutting off the pursuers. He let out a low roar and suddenly pushed the qigong master
in his hands forward.

The three of them had been carrying the qigong master. Who knew where Han Dongsheng got
the strength from but the energy in his palms could unexpectedly be transmitted through the
qigong master's body to the two police officers. The three of them added together were about
500 pounds in weight but with just this push from him, all three of them were propelled up quite
a few steps.

Then, his hands empty, Han Dongsheng met the other party's clubs and sticks.

Han Dongsheng held his arms up on either side of his forehead and took a direct hit. Following
that, his shoulder moved in an arc and with a push and a bump, he snatched the other person's
club.

The staircase of the guesthouse was very narrow. Han Dongsheng alone with the club could
nearly block the whole staircase.
He was so robust and sturdy, his back that never seemed to be straight on a typical day was like a
mountain.

Yu Yan came to a stop with much difficulty, and turned his head back in surprise.

He had interacted with Han Dongsheng a few times because of Old Mr. Zhou. His impression of
this man was "an honest man with a mild temper." In a T.V. series, the "honest man" was either a
toad dreaming of eating goose or the faithful backup guy. This character usually lacked a spirit,
was short on intelligence, and because he had no charming points at all, was only suited to being
a tool for creating conflict in the story.

Nowadays, the two words "honest man" was basically an insult.

Even when there were outsiders, there were times when his hot-tempered wife could not keep
her temper and threw a fit. In private, she must have called him a "spineless good-for-nothing" a
few times.

If she could see this back profile now, she would definitely no longer say those words.

Yu Yan clutched his police baton tightly, his voice changing in pitch. "Master Lan, take care of this
man!"

"Nope."

"Yu Lanchuan!"

Yu Yan's shout was still in the air when a shadow suddenly brushed past him, so quick that he
couldn't see it clearly.

The stairwell was so narrow that Han Dongsheng could block it on his own but when Yu Lanchuan
was there, for some unknown reason, it seemed to be very wide. Like a gust of wind, he flew past
Yu Yan and the others, not even touching the edges of their shirts, like a person without any
width to him.

At the same time, Yu Yan's hand became empty. Someone had grabbed his police baton.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Move aside."

Han Dongsheng heard the sound of the wind coming from behind him and he twisted his body to
dodge. A stainless steel trash can about a meter tall brushed past him with a whoosh, crashing
against those few people who were charging ahead of the pack and bringing down the group
behind them. A few Travellers' Sect members inched around their companions on the ground and
ran up. Yu Lanchuan reached out to clap his hand on Han Dongsheng; at the same time, a baton
struck out, jabbing right at the person's chest. The other person naturally blocked but the police
baton suddenly swung upwards, hitting him viciously on the chin.

Han Dongsheng said, "Nice swordwork."

"Practising the sword puts one at a disadvantage." Yu Lanchuan shook out his wrist—the police
baton was too heavy to be used as a sword and was extremely unwieldy. "For example, your
words just now made me feel as though you were cursing me[1]… and swords can't pass security
checks."

"You don't take the subway anyway!" Yu Yan cut in.

"They have metal clubs…" Yu Lanchuan sent someone flying with a kick.

At this time, the Travellers' Sect members had wisened up. From the back, a large group carrying
wooden stools as shields charged forward with the stool legs facing out, colliding with them
head-on. The stool legs were naturally longer than human arms or the police baton. Yu Lanchuan
was forced to run up a few steps. Then, he turned his body abruptly and leaped down. "...but I
have a metal sword with a sharp edge —"

The police baton in Yu Lanchuan's hand swung down on his opponent's head like a bolt of
lightning. The one bearing the brunt of his attack couldn't lift his stool in time and thought that
his head was going to be split open. Involuntarily, he closed his eyes.

But unexpectedly, the police baton didn't smash open his head. When it swung down, it slanted
to the side, tearing past his ear to fall near his collarbone, and abruptly changed from a smash to
a horizontal sweep. Two bloody molars immediately flew out.

Yu Lanchuan asked coolly, "When the time comes, are you able to differentiate clearly between
legitimate self-defense and excessive self-defense, Comrade Officer?"

Yu Yan was first torn between laughing and crying. Then, for some reason, he suddenly couldn't
laugh anymore.

The so-called "a person on the right path" was a title that encompasses the glory a person could
achieve and all the results they could get if they worked hard, and they were all according to the
values that underpins a society—one's TOEFL score was achieved mark by mark, one's thesis
written word by word, one's salary toiled for by working countless extra hours.

Yet, the results of a person's hard work for half their life could fall apart completely due to the
words "excessive self-defense." When fighting against these hoodlums with no bottom line in
anything they do, they had no choice but to sheathe their claws.

"Leap up high and smash the police baton down" and "sweep across with one's arm strength"—
these two methods differed in force by several levels. The former could smash a person's head
open like a burst watermelon; the latter could at most daze him for a while, and he could even
still move.

Furthermore, this civilised Mr. Yu Lanchuan was already holding back a lot in his attacks, yet he
still had to spare part of his mind to be careful not to be "excessive" in his self-defense. Both his
body and his mind were fully occupied while the other side had strength in numbers. Very
quickly, he could not hold them back anymore.
Yu Yan said, "Let's get out of here first! This street isn't good for us, everyone here is their people.
They know they have backup. I don't believe this pack of hoodlums would dare chase us all the
way to the main road and have a gang fight!"

"Head for the roof," Yan Hao said. "There's an iron door at the roof! Follow me!"

"Comrade Spiderman, good job!" Yu Yan said.

Yan Hao's face turned red.

All this while, he had been very afraid of interacting with other people. He had always felt that
the way other people looked at him and talked to him was like a file whittling him down non-
stop. Even when other people gave him polite compliments, he would panic because he could
feel that the other person's words were not sincere.

This was the first time he had gotten encouragement from someone else's words. He earnestly
felt that he was doing something useful, that he was helping everyone.

This was like a shot of a new and strange kind of bravado that went right to his heart. Yan Hao
rushed to the very front, a little like he was playing up to the crowd, and volunteered himself for
the mission. "I'll go pick the lock!"

While Yan Hao rushed to the front to pick the lock, the two police officers restrained the qigong
master who was like a live fish while Yu Lanchuan and Han Dongsheng covered their backs. The
whole procession fought as they retreated. On the scene, stool legs, long clubs and trash cans
were flying all around. It was incredibly chaotic.

Yan Hao's lock-picking skills weren't very good. His face red from the exertion, he poked
randomly at the lock and also twisted and pulled with brute strength. He was just a step away
from biting it with his teeth. Finally, when they had no more space to retreat, the lock and the
chain fell down together with a clang!

Yan Hao was greatly relieved, even his hands felt rather weak. "This way!"

Then, after he had taken barely two steps past the small door, he came back.

Yu Yan pressed on his back, panting harshly as he asked, "W-What-"

Yan Hao didn't answer but Yu Yan had already seen them—seven or eight Travellers' Sect people,
machetes in their hands, were already waiting for them on the roof. The tip of the machetes
were pointing at Yan Hao's nose.

They were trapped in that tiny stairwell.

The qigong master they had cuffed was secure in the knowledge that he had backup. "If you let
me go now, I'll only break one of your legs later and leave you with one good leg to hop back on.
Otherwise…"
Right then, the few people on the roof who were wielding machetes started attacking, slashing at
Yan Hao's head.

Amidst the glinting and flashing of the blades, Yan Hao dodged right and left, trying to block the
little door to the top of the stairs to stop them from coming down. But he only had the metal
hooks for climbing walls on his hands. They were extremely unwieldy, and he came to numerous
close shaves as he dodged. There were a few times where his clothes were nearly slashed.

"Stop! Stop!"

Yan Hao's metal hook and a machete collided with a clang. Both his and his opponent's hands
went numb simultaneously and they both retreated. The voice reverberated around them and
the chaotic scene quieted down. Both sides looked towards where the voice came from.

The person who had shouted "Stop!" turned out to be Liang-ge.

Right then, Liang-ge's face that always carried a look of "fearing neither Heaven nor Earth" had an
expression of utmost fear. A hand bound in a black cloth strip was hooked around his neck and
between the fingers of that hand was a small blade.

The person seizing him was around his height and was wrapped securely in a long coat. They did
not speak and the other people could not tell whether the person was a man or a woman.

This person had the hood of the coat up and was wearing a face mask. Their hair fell forward,
covering half their forehead. Only one eye was revealed and that eye, for some unknown reason,
was reminiscent of a king cobra. When the eye looked past the crowd to land its gaze on Yu
Lanchuan, the corner of the eye curved a little, like the person was smiling.

Yu Lanchuan was instantly stunned. He recognised that eye.

Right then, the hostage-taker gave Liang-ge a light kick.

"Move aside, move aside. All of you, move aside," Liang-ge immediately said. A bead of sweat
rolled down the side of his forehead and fell into his eye. The Traveller's Sect people around him
looked at each other and, out of suspicion, did not immediately move.

Liang-ge's eye swiftly rotated to look out of the corner, as though he wanted to see clearly the
face of the person behind him. He wanted to say something and had just opened his mouth when
suddenly, he let out an inhuman, blood curdling shriek. The person holding him hostage had,
without giving him any prior warning, bent his right arm with force and a terrifying cracking
sound had come from it.

Yu Lanchuan's face immediately changed. "Ga… What are you doing!"

Meanwhile, Han Dongsheng retreated half a step, his face turning grave. He muttered in
disbelief, "Wei Xiao?"
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Huh? Who?"

Before Han Dongsheng could reply, Liang-ge's blood curdling shriek had ended and he was
shouting in a sobbing voice, "All of you move aside! Are you deaf? Let them go! Go!"

Not everyone could immediately recognise a "passing acquaintance" by looking at just one eye.
Other than Yu Lanchuan, the others only felt that the person holding Liang-ge hostage looked a
bit familiar.

Yu Yan wasn't sure what was going on and asked in a whisper, "Master Lan…"

Yu Lanchuan flexed his hand. It had been a long time since he had done any physical labour and it
was quite tiring to wield a baton. His hand was trembling a little. "Take your suspect and go."

Nervously and warily, with Yu Lanchuan leading and Yan Hao bringing up the back, their group
slowly headed downstairs.

When they passed by Liang-ge, Yu Lanchuan suddenly stopped. Out of nowhere, he said, "Tens of
hoodlums attacking the police with lethal weapons—if this matter blows up, it's enough to put all
of you behind bars for a few years."

Even though Yu Yan didn't understand why Yu Lanchuan was inciting Liang-ge at this time, he
knew that despite the fact that his childhood friend was unreliable at times, he definitely did not
like causing trouble for no reason. He definitely had a reason, so Yu Yan backed him up. "Our
target today was this swindler. But you won't be able to get away with organising an attack on
the police!"

But Liang-ge had no reaction at all to this threat from the police, and was even looking forward to
it.

His entire person was muddled like he had just been fished out the water, his whole body
hanging from the arm that was wedged before his throat, and he could not speak. Yu Yan saw his
expression clearly and felt that it was strange—the fear on this Liang-ge's face wasn't the fear of
being hit or the fear of being cut by a blade; he looked like he had seen a ghost!

Hence, he took a closer look at the person wearing a face mask. A few seconds later, his ability to
recognise faces that was honed by years working as a police officer came online and Yu Yan was
shocked. "You… You are…"

The person holding the hostage blinked at him. Then, they tilted their head slightly and lifted
their chin, indicating that they should hurry up and leave.

But right at that moment, Yu Lanchuan suddenly reached out past Liang-ge and grabbed the
person's wrist.

The person had a knife between their fingers. With this touch, the tip of the blade immediately
drew a thin line of blood on Liang-ge's neck. Liang-ge screamed, his mouth wide open and
panting, and he even pissed his pants right on the spot.
The Travellers' Sect people around them were once again greatly shocked.

Han Dongsheng cried out, "Little Master Yu!"

"Thank you for helping us break out," Yu Lanchuan said to the person, enunciating each word
slowly and clearly, "but let me say once more—send this person to the police station."

At this time, he was like the monk Tang Seng[1] who did not grasp the severity of the situation
and, instead of running away, was even picking a fight with an "ally"!

For some reason, Han Dongsheng was even more nervous than when they were surrounded just
now. Softly but urgently, he said, "Little Master Yu, quickly let go of this… this friend. Let's leave
first!"

Yu Lanchuan turned a deaf ear to him. "You go ahead."

The hostage-taker seemed quite resigned. Yu Lanchuan's fingers gripped their wrist with force
and the heat from his palm very quickly permeated the thin cloth wrapping, warm yet
demanding.

The two of them stood in a deadlock in the middle of the club-wielding crowd.

The colour drained from Han Dongsheng's face.

Right then, the person chuckled and then sighed. As though they could not put up with Yu
Lanchuan, they yielded.

"I don't trust you. Come with us." Yu Lanchuan signalled his companions to retreat outside and,
at the same time, held the person in a tight grip and pulled them along.

The corner of the person's eye had been curved in a smile; now, the curve disappeared: Brat, I
give you an inch and you want a mile.

Yu Lanchuan slowly raised the police baton that was held in his other hand. He seemed to really
not differentiate between enemy and ally, and would fight an "ally" at a time like this.

Fortunately, the hostage-taker's face was very cold but ultimately, they did not attack. Under Han
Dongsheng's fearful gaze, they seized on to Liang-ge while being pulled by Yu Lanchuan. The
three of them maintained this strange position and inched their way out.

If an outsider who didn't know what was going on were to see this scene, they probably wouldn't
be able to tell who was on whose side.

In this manner, they exited the savage love hotel. The person holding Liang-ge hostage suddenly
sensed something. They loosened their grip on Liang-ge's throat and, at the same time, crooked
their finger and jabbed Yu Lanchuan's meridian point. They threw the half-dead Liang-ge into Yu
Lanchuan's arms, then turned and left immediately. The next second, an ear-piercing police siren
sounded. The reinforcements the police officers guarding the entrance had called were finally
there.

The hoodlums small and big saw that things were not looking good. Like cockroaches, they
scattered in all four directions, hiding and dodging.

Yu Lanchuan was fussy about cleanliness. When the hostage-taker suddenly threw the piss-stink
Liang-ge at him, he didn't want to catch him but also couldn't not catch him. For a moment, he
was flustered, caught in a difficult situation. When he looked up, the person had disappeared.

Liang-ge lay unmoving on the ground, his right arm hanging limply. Blood soaked through his
sleeve.

Han Dongsheng quickly crouched down and tore his sleeve open.

Yan Hao took a look and let out an ah. "The tendons on his arm… are ruptured."

Han Dongsheng and Yu Yan turned towards Yu Lanchuan in unison.

Han Dongsheng said, "Little Master Yu! Do you know who that was, how could you dare to-"

Yu Yan said, "Oh my god, Master Lan, I didn't get the wrong person, did I? That was my Teacher
Meng-Meng-"

Both of them opened their mouths at the same time and also closed them at the same time. They
looked at one another and even the air seemed to come to a standstill.

T/N:
[1] "Nice swordwork" is 好剑 hǎo jiàn in Chinese. It sounds exactly like 好贱, so it sounds like Han
Dongsheng is calling Yu Lanchuan cheap or despicable.
[2] Tang Seng is a reference to the monk who is a central character in the classic Journey to the
West. My memory of all the events in the story is rather hazy, but this is likely referring to how
he's constantly hunted by demons who want to eat him but rather than running away at the first
sign of danger, he tends to believe their words and tries to talk reasonably with them.
Chapter 45
Han Dongsheng asked, "...Teacher Meng-Meng?"

Yu Lanchuan was a half-assed alliance leader in the first place. Many of the fabled "Rules of the
Martial Arts World" were things he had to pick up at the last minute from other people. Yu Yan
followed in the footsteps of this half-assed alliance leader and was therefore even more ignorant.
He very easily and naturally deemed Han Dongsheng and other similar people as coming from the
"same nation" as Yu Lanchuan.

It was only when Han Dongsheng spoke that Yu Yan realised—Han Dongsheng seemed to not
know that the mysterious hostage-taker was Gan Qing!

And he had even accidentally let it slip!

Under the glare of the red and blue police lights shining randomly in all directions, the three
"chivalrous heroes" and one police officer collectively surrounded and looked down on the
weakly breathing Liang-ge on the ground.

"This… Let's not bother with other things first." Han Dongsheng regained his wits and was the
first to tactfully break the silence. He pointed at Liang-ge and said, "I think this person can't hold
on anymore. Shouldn't we quickly send him to the hospital?"

"Right, right, right." Yu Yan felt so awkward he didn't know where to put his hands. Like he was
waking up from a dream, he leaped up and called out to his colleagues. "Call an ambulance!
There's a suspect here who's knocked out!"

Yu Lanchuan also came back to himself. "What about his injuries?"

"It's fine." Yu Yan quickly reconnected his neurons that had short circuited just now. "He brought
his followers along to attack the police and we unintentionally injured him when resisting. We
have five people and we also have a troublemaking suspect on our hands while the other side has
nearly a hundred people. There was no way we could control the scene. It's considered
reasonable for there to be some unintentional injuries. You don't have time, so just leave it to me
to take care of it."

Yu Lanchuan lifted his head to look at the guest house CCTV.

"No need to bother with that." Yu Yan waved his hand. "This gang of hoodlums are veteran
offenders. When they locked the door, they would definitely have turned off the CCTV."

Han Dongsheng said, "In that case, I will still have to trouble you for the matter regarding my
father-in-law."

"Don't worry," Yu Yan said. "We'll head back first and go through the process. I'll treat everyone
to a meal later."

When he came here, Yu Lanchuan had driven but when he left, he hitched a ride with the police.
He looked up subconsciously and accidentally locked gazes with Han Dongsheng who was sitting
in the front passenger seat. Suddenly, Yu Lanchuan noticed a problem—from the start, whenever
Old Master Yang brought up the Five Supremes, he had always purposely avoided Wan Mu Chun,
even if it made it seem as though he didn't know how to count.

When someone insisted on asking further, he would only explain briefly without going into any
detail. It was only on New Year's Day that, as the conversation went on, Old Master Yang had
revealed a little about Wan Mu Chun to them.

Even though what he said had been positive, when Yu Lanchuan thought about it closely, it didn't
really make sense. This was because Old Master Yang was someone who might not necessarily
take revenge where there was a grudge but would definitely repay kindness where there was a
debt of gratitude. If they were really sure that the person who had helped Yu Lanchuan escape
back then was someone from Wan Mu Chun's side, Granduncle and Old Master Yang would
definitely harp about it every day to him just in case he forgot it.
How was it possible that in all these years, it was only when Yu Lanchuan asked repeatedly that
he mentioned it briefly?

Just how much was Old Master Yang hiding about Wan Mu Chun?

And what did Han Dongsheng know?

Who was the "Wei Xiao" whose name he blurted out?

Gan Qing left Travellers' Sect territory without a sound. She didn't know Liang-ge. Catching him
was because she could tell that he was the leader of this pack of Travellers' Sect followers. Her
intention had been to help those neighbours of hers break out of the siege. She didn't think that
Liang-ge would say the name "Wei Xiao" and even piss his pants in terror.

Wei Xiao was none other than her shifu.

Outsiders treated him as a taboo that could only be spoken of in hushed whispers, essentially
painting him as a demon in their stories.

In actual fact, Gan Qing's impression of him was that of a taciturn and uncommunicative old man.
He wore a modified Mao suit that had been washed until the colour faded and rode a second-
hand bicycle to work. Both his hands were coarse yet clean, and he never let his fingernails grow
long. He didn't eat dead children nor did he drink wine mixed with human blood; he was a very
picky eater because he was a cook.

Since young, he didn't have a place to practice knife skills so he cut vegetables and carved fruits.
When he was done cutting and carving, he naturally couldn't let the ingredients go to waste so he
collected recipes from all over and cooked according to the instructions when he had nothing to
do. When he grew up, he decided that he might as well make it his job. Such a pity for her grand
master whose magnificence had been unparalleled all his life; in his old age, he lived with his
disciple and ate so well that he nearly had a belly. Every three or five days, he would make a fuss
about going on a diet, and nearly couldn't live the way he always had in his final years.

On the other hand, the disciple kept a very tight rein on himself… Of course, this could just be
because he was picky. When he was nearly sixty years of age, from the back, he still looked like a
youthful man.

Everyone said that he practised healthy living and that living to a hundred would not be a
problem for him.

But he didn't even get his pension in the end.

Gan Qing returned to Mudpool Backlane and followed the little lanes in her memory to walk deep
into its heart… but there was nothing left there now.

The "mud pool" was shrinking. In recent years, the buildings along this stretch of road had been
demolished, supposedly to widen the road. She stood at the empty and wide street, watching the
cars belch warm exhaust as they came and went, and looked around in confusion. She couldn't
remember which patch of land was it that her home had once stood on.

"Gan'er."

Gan Qing had already heard the footsteps. She didn't turn around.

"That flower bed over there, that was the entrance to your home." Meng Tianyi walked over and
sat on the road curb. His eyes swept across Gan Qing's hand that was bound in a cloth strip.
"Uncle Meng remembers it for you."

Gan Qing finally moved. She looked in the direction where he was pointing. There was a little
flower bed that was commonly seen on road sides. At this time, the might of the northwest wind
was dominant and there were only dried branches in the flower bed covered by a trembling
plastic tarp. It looked rather miserable.

"Uncle Meng." Her voice seemed to disappear amidst the sound of the passing cars. "Tell me
again, how did Wei Xiao die?"

"He was still your shifu after all," Meng Tianyi said.

Gan Qing did not seem to hear him. She made no reply. Her entire body was on the bony side,
with a thin layer of flesh. When she stood in the night wind, her back profile was like an icy stone
statue, unable to bend.

"During that period of time, his complexion was very bad. Sometimes, he would even be in a
daze. He was absent-minded and distracted, and when other people asked, he only said that it
was a festive period so there were more customers at the restaurant and he always had to work
overtime. Working as a cook is physical labour. We all advised him that he should stop working so
hard at his age and should leave things to the younger people… In the end, one day, something
really happened. It was very late when he left work to go home and he was hit by a car while
riding his bicycle," Meng Tianyi said. "At that time, he was in a rather bad state but other than
that, it didn't seem to be anything major so he let the offender go. However… maybe it was due
to his age but after a few days, he suddenly couldn't use his leg. He was bedridden at home for a
period of time and was even using crutches."

Gan Qing didn't interrupt him. She listened quietly.

"Later on, there was one day—I remember it was the ninth day of the ninth month, Double Ninth
Festival—Wei-xiong suddenly came to look for me on his crutches. It was like he was making
arrangements for matters after his death. He told me a lot of things and even gave me a box of
letters. He told me to follow the dates on the envelopes and send them to you on those dates. He
said that you won't reply anyway, so it won't be exposed."

Gan Qing's fingers tightened in a fierce grip.

"At that time, I already felt that things were bad. A few days later, he really… Ai. At that time, his
neighbour saw that there were a few days' worth of newspapers accumulated on his front door
and recalled that he hadn't been seen for a few days. They were a little worried so they knocked
on his door to check… They said it was sudden death and that it was pretty common among
middle-aged and old people. Heart failure, and there was no one with him, so he departed just
like that." Meng Tianyi sighed. "Gan'er, don't think too much. Life and death depends on fate,
happiness and wealth depends on Heaven. Even if you had been in Yanning at that time, there
was no way you could have accompanied the old man day and night without leaving the house.
You might not have made it for those few crucial minutes. Even if you did, he might not be
saved… It has been so many years, don't keep thinking about it."

Gan Qing said slowly and clearly, "Wei Xiao didn't have heart problems."

"Many of those who died suddenly due to heart failure also typically-"

"Paoding Jieniu." Gan Qing suddenly turned around, cutting him off. "Would he not know
whether or not his own nerves and bones were injured after the accident?"

Meng Tianyi stopped talking.

"What exactly happened?"

"Don't you already understand? Of course he knew but since he was unwilling to say, naturally
there must be a reason why. After Wei-xiong grew old, whenever he was chatting casually, he
always said he regretted showing off his skills when he was young. He had been too excessive in
some matters. If these matters could all be concluded in his old age, he would have no complaints
and no regrets. He didn't want you to know about it and hold a grudge in your heart."

Gan Qing ignored his persuasion and only said coldly, "So, Wei Xiao really did not die of illness
back then, did he? Everyone around him knew that he was in an accident and his leg was
wounded, so no one would think too much even if they saw injuries on his body. He died at home
and everything looked calm and tranquil, like he died naturally of old age while sleeping. There
were no family members demanding investigations so of course no one would conduct an
autopsy. So they just deemed it a sudden death and dealt with it cleanly!"

"Don't think too much, don't listen to my second aunt talk rubbish-"

Gan Qing said, "Why would that random nobody from Travellers' Sect recognise me and
immediately blurt out the name 'Wei Xiao'?"

"Gan Qing!" Meng Tianyi's face turned serious. "Even if Wei-xiong hadn't died peacefully of old
age, even if there was injustice done to him that he still bore in his heart, with his skills, he would
have left clues if he wanted to! Don't you understand? Before he passed away, he entrusted me
with the things he left behind. Other than matters relating to you, he said not a single word about
anything else, because the only person he worried about for his entire life was you! If you are
sensible, you should live your life properly and don't let him be worried in the Nine Springs of the
afterworld."

"What has that got to do with me? I severed ties with him long ago. What can that Wei fellow do
to me?" Gan Qing let out a sharp laugh. "Furthermore, my life..."
As she spoke, she moved her legs and walked across the zebra crossing. Her steps were very light
and from far, she looked like she was floating, like a gust of wind could blow her away. Other
than eating and drinking and going to the toilet, she spent entire days spouting bullshit in a small
rundown shop, tricking a bunch of kids into listening to her stories and then buying some
ridiculous nonsense. Was this kind of meaningless life worth living?

But saying these words would make Boss Meng sad, so she only turned them over in her mouth
and then swallowed them back in. She smiled and crossed the road in large strides.

When Yu Lanchuan was knocking on his neighbour's door for the third time after coming home
that night, Gan Qing was still not back yet. He thought a while, then turned to go downstairs.

"Little Master Yu." Han Dongsheng opened the door for him. "I knew you would come. Come on
in."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is your wife in?"

"She went back to my father-in-law's place to stay for a few days, just in case the old man
thought of going back to his home." Han Dongsheng sighed. "I'm taking care of our child here.
He's asleep, you don't have to mind him."

Han Dongsheng's home was in a miserable state. Without the mistress of the house, it was even
worse, like frost on top of snow. After searching for a while, Han Dongsheng still couldn't find
glasses suited for serving guests. In the end, he could only dig out a disposable cup and poured
some water for Yu Lanchuan. "Please excuse the mess. We just moved in and hadn't had the time
to buy a lot of things. Things keep happening to our family so we haven't had the time to take
care of it."

Yu Lanchuan said without thinking, "It would be good if you hadn't sold your apartment back
then. Staying in a rented place isn't as comfortable as staying in your own house."

Unexpectedly, Han Dongsheng didn't deprecate himself for being unlucky in his investments the
way he had in the past. He was silent for a while. "Back then… I really had no choice. Selling the
house to invest in stocks was a lie. Investing in stocks and whatnot, I don't understand those at
all, how would I dare to do it?"

Yu Lanchuan was stunned.

Han Dongsheng smiled warmly. "My parents passed away early. Beibei's parents were very good
to me and I have always treated them as my own parents. Back then, my mother-in-law was very
ill and our family's savings were depleted. Dad was a normal office worker. Other than the house,
they didn't have much assets. Beibei and I did not have siblings who could help with financial
matters and we couldn't let the old people use the money they saved for their coffins, could we?
So I asked a friend, used this apartment as a collateral and found a not really proper private
agency and borrowed a sum of emergency money to use. But the source of the money wasn't
easy to explain. I wanted to say that my parents left them to me but we both knew each other's
family matters very well before our marriage. I couldn't keep it a secret. At that time, I saw
everyone around me investing in stocks and earning money, so I lied to Beibei and said that my
parents left me with a bit of money that I had used to buy stocks. I said that it was many years
ago and that I had forgotten about it; I only remembered it because we needed money and I
didn't think it would have earned that much."

Yu Lanchuan asked softly, "Why didn't you tell her the truth?"

"During that period of time, the pressure on her was too great. I thought that I would keep it
from her first and wait for the matter to be over. I would slowly repay the loan and quietly
release my collateral without anyone realising and that would be it." Han Dongsheng lowered his
head in embarrassment. "Alas, I was young then and wasn't sensible. How would I know that
'Money is hard to earn, shit is difficult to eat.' I needed to use money urgently and didn't think
carefully about the interest. The old madam couldn't be saved and the money couldn't be repaid.
I didn't dare tell Beibei. I could only continue to lie to her. At first, I wanted to delay it for a period
of time and wait until she was no longer grieving so deeply for her mother. In the end, the longer
I put it off, the more I didn't dare tell her. But it was good too. All this while, she thought that our
money was in the stock market and that it was just a loss on paper. Who knows, the price might
go back up one day. Her heart always carried this hope… Let's not talk about my family's
unpleasant issues anymore. Little Master Yu, you're here about the person who helped us, aren't
you?"

Yu Lanchuan looked up.

"I heard Xiao-Yu say 'Teacher Meng-Meng,'" Han Dongsheng said. "My son added that lady
neighbour from upstairs on WeChat, I've seen his note for her. It's her, isn't it? So it was a
woman. No wonder she didn't speak at that time. Do Sect Leader Yang and the rest know about
this?"

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while. The last time Old Yang told him about Wan Mu Chun, Gan Qing
was cleaning the floor with the door opened. Sect Leader Yang hadn't shown any peculiarities so
he probably wasn't aware.

"No wonder," Han Dongsheng muttered. "Even though the older generation's affairs weren't
much related to her, she's quite brave to stay right here at No. 110."

Yu Lanchuan asked directly, "Who is Wei Xiao?"

"Wan Mu Chun's disciple, the disciple that Wan Mu Chun taught himself. When the old master
was still alive, he had once acknowledged with his own words that this disciple of his had
surpassed the master. I met him once when I was young. He was dressed exactly the same way as
she was today and had a small knife spinning in his fingers. He didn't talk much and seemed very
mysterious and wily. When his eyes looked at you, you would feel that all two hundred plus
bones in your body were within his grasp and that he could pick out any bone he liked… At that
time, he also had a little girl just a few years old with him—ah, was it her?" Han Dongsheng said.
"Girls go through so many changes when they grow up, I couldn't recognise her."

Yu Lanchuan continued to ask, "Why did he stop coming here later on? Why do you say that Gan
Qing must be very brave to stay here?"
Han Dongsheng hesitated for a few seconds. "This young lady is usually quite nice to my son. She
bumps into the neighbours regularly and is very polite. She even helped us today. To be fair... It's
not really right for me to speak of those baseless rumours behind her back."

"Please share. I'm the one who asked," Yu Lanchuan said.

"More than ten years ago, Wei Xiao was named in the 'Alliance Leader's Command,'" Han
Dongsheng said.

The alliance leader himself was completely lost—no one had ever told him what the hell this
"Alliance Leader's Command" was!

This alliance leader position was really like being a puppet controlled by the neighbourhood
committee!

Then, without waiting for him to ask, he heard Han Dongsheng continue to speak. "I heard that it
was because he was responsible for taking eighteen lives."
Chapter 46
Yu Lanchuan asked, "What did you say?"

"Maybe more than that," Han Dongsheng continued to say. "Little Master Yu was still young at
that time. I don't know if you remember, over ten years ago, there was an explosion at a flour
factory at Xiaogang Village in the neighbouring province. In total, eighteen people lost their lives.
In the beginning, this incident was handled as an accident."

Yu Lanchuan didn't have much of an impression of the incident. During the time before social
media was widespread, it was difficult for regional news to leave a strong impression in people's
minds. He asked, "It wasn't an accident?"

"No. Later on, they found two bodies… two incomplete bodies. The other parts of the bodies
were either burnt or exploded. There were only these two pieces, with heads still connected to
the necks. Someone had slit both necks with a blade. The weapon was extremely sharp. The
wound was like a curve drawn by an artist with a single brushstroke, exactly three cun and two
fen[1] in length, not a fen longer, not a fen shorter."

The heating was warm enough to make a person feel parched. Yet, Yu Lanchuan felt a sinister
chill from Han Dongsheng's words.

"Little Master Yu, you should know that even drawing a curve that is three cun and two fen long
in a single brushstroke on a piece of paper isn't that easy, what more using a knife to carve it on a
person's neck." Han Dongsheng paused, then continued to say, "I remember back then, everyone
from the older generation who was still alive gathered at No. 110 Courtyard. Everyone said that it
was Wan Mu Chun's mark."

Before he realised what he was doing, Yu Lanchuan refuted, "That's not necessarily the case, is
it?"
Han Dongsheng looked at him in surprise.

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while. "Before you moved in, a few people who claimed to be from
Wan Mu Chun's sect had come here to this apartment, 804. They looked quite the part too. It
seems like there are quite a lot of people impersonating them."

"I've heard other people talk about what happened to the previous residents of this apartment.
But that's not the same." Upon saying that, Han Dongsheng shivered slightly. "I saw it with my
own eyes. They traced the wounds on the neck of those bodies in the flour factory separately on
paper. Both lines matched up perfectly."

Yu Lanchuan had practised the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang all the way until where he was now
but he still did not know what level he was at. The "benchmarks" he had around him were all
sloppy and unreliable jokers.

He had never seen this kind of godly "workmanship."

The two of them stared at each other for a while.

Yu Lanchuan thought, This is too incredulous.

"Old Mr. Chun had already passed away then. Counting the years, the young lady from upstairs
had to be less than ten years old. It couldn't have been the old one or the young one," Han
Dongsheng said. "Wan Mu Chun only has a single branch and everything is passed on to a single
disciple. The only person who could have that ability was Wei Xiao."

Yu Lanchuan felt that if he were to cut in with "Is there DNA evidence?" the scene would turn a
bit strange. But he still felt that if the basis for the conclusion could not be used as evidence in a
court of law, then this basis was likely to be not rigorous enough in some way.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was this Wei Xiao caught after that?"

Han Dongsheng said, "An elusive professional killer like him basically can't be caught. Wei Xiao
almost never showed his face to others and you also wouldn't know if it was his real face or a
fake one."

"I thought human-skin masks were just stories."

"The 'human-skin mask' that Officer Yu and the others speak of are of course just stories but
clever disguises do exist. To the naked eye, real and fake can't be distinguished. It's just that
neither you nor I know how to do it," Han Dongsheng said. "When people like that commit crime,
they wouldn't leave even a single fingerprint or footprint. The CCTVs wouldn't be able to capture
them at all. They wouldn't take the routes the police can investigate. After killing their target,
they would blend in with the crowd and leave only the mark of their unique supreme skill at the
crime scene as proof to be used to collect payment from their patron. The vagrant who brushed
past you on the streets might just be a killer who had just washed their hands clean."
Which was to say, firstly, this person could not be found and secondly, it would be difficult to find
evidence to indict them.

Han Dongsheng said, "When Old Mr. Chun was still alive, he had already announced that his sect
had washed their hands clean of their old ways and had stopped working their old trade. Of
course, we weren't the police and whether or not Wei Xiao obeyed his master's words was not
something we could manage. But most of the eighteen people who died by his hand that day
were local villagers who had come out to work during the off season for farming. The furthest
place they had been to in their entire lives was the main city in the province. There was even the
factory boss's little son among them, he was barely twelve years old. It was too much, too
demented. But despite that, Elder Yu, Sect Leader Yang and the others were still unwilling to
make a judgement. Elder Yu said that he could be considered to have seen Wei Xiao grow up and
he didn't believe that someone of Old Mr. Chun's conduct could result in this kind of disciple. But
there were people who came to make a ruckus every day. That year's Martial Arts General
Assembly was a pandemonium. Everyone wanted to expel Wan Mu Chun from the Five
Supremes."

Yu Lanchuan recalled what Elder Yang had told him and asked, "Was it because when Wei Xiao
had attended the Martial Arts General Assembly previously, he had offended a lot of people?"

"Did Sect Leader Yang tell you about it?" Han Dongsheng nodded. "When Wei Xiao was young, he
attended the Martial Arts General Assembly on his shifu's behalf. There were people who took a
dislike to him and challenged him to a spar after the event… Actually, it was very common for
young people to challenge each other. It was just to learn from each other, superficial and not in
depth. But Wei Xiao readily turned hostile and fought viciously on the spot. Back then, the
medical treatment available wasn't what you could get today. If your limbs are crippled, that's it.
From then on, there was a grudge between Wei Xiao and a group of friends. After that, even if he
came, it was only in private to visit Elder Yu and the others. He never again showed his face in
public. Wan Mu Chun's reputation also started to fall into disrepute from then on."

Having been "challenged" before, Yu Lanchuan didn't make any comments and only thought in
his heart, He who provokes first is in the wrong.

All those who were so idle that they had nothing better to do than to look for trouble after the
tea party had something wrong with them and deserved the beating they got.

"Unable to withstand the crowd's anger, Elder Yu announced an Alliance Leader's Command. But
I heard the older generation say that in the end, the old alliance leader didn't pass judgement on
Wei Xiao or say that the eighteen people at the flour factory were killed by him. His Alliance
Leader's Command was an 'interrogation.' He was calling out to Wei Xiao across the distance and
saying that if he didn't commit the crime, then he should hurry up and say something so that he
doesn't destroy his sect's reputation," Han Dongsheng said. "But even though Elder Yu went
through this trouble, the other party did not respond at all.

"A few more years later, there was internal conflict within Travellers' Sect. Someone from Wan
Mu Chun meddled in the affair and only then did Elder Yu know that Wei Xiao was hiding right
here in Yanning. In that case, there was no way he wouldn't have heard the Alliance Leader's
Command. If there was really something going on behind the scenes, he should have come to
find Elder Yu long ago. Silence was the same as admittance."

Yu Lanchuan stared blankly. He suddenly realised that back in that year when he ran away from
home, when he went to Mudpool Backlane on his own and was kidnapped, he had caused
trouble for Granduncle. And, Gan Qing saving him had actually also made a mess of things for her
own family.

"What happened after that?"

"I heard the older generation say that even though the person who took action was from Wan
Mu Chun, it could be seen that their skill was still superficial," Han Dongsheng said.
"Furthermore, the way they acted was a little… erm, overly spirited. They didn't dare cause
serious injuries to other people so it was probably not Wei Xiao himself. It could have been his
little disciple being mischievous. Even though Elder Yu was disappointed at that time, he still
wanted to protect Wei Xiao, so he privately erased all marks. But he didn't think that the police
would find a dog's body and that we would also have some loose-lipped people on our side. The
matter couldn't be covered up and spread out in the end. As far as I knew back then, many
people seemed to go berserk and wanted to dig a meter into the ground to unearth Wei Xiao. But
with the old alliance leader putting pressure from the top, all these were done in private. They
didn't dare do it openly and with great fanfare."

Yu Lanchuan's heart suddenly tightened. "Did they find him?"

"About that, I don't know anymore." Han Dongsheng shook his head. "During that period of time,
my father's health was failing. I was frazzled taking care of things at home and didn't have time to
find out. But after a few years, those people who had a grudge against Wei Xiao all stopped. The
atmosphere at the Martial Arts General Assembly slowly became less hostile and ready-to-fight. I
heard rumours saying that Wei Xiao had died."

For so many years, Yu Lanchuan had always worried over whether or not the girl back then would
suffer any injury because of him. It had practically become a sickness of the heart for him. It was
only when he finally found her some time ago that he realised that it was all a waste of his
feelings. As he laid his worries to rest, he was at the same time a little embarrassed and angry
because his dark history was in her hands.

He had never thought that behind this little incident, there would be so many implications.

If Wei Xiao was really dead, if Wei Xiao's death was related to jianghu grudges…

Then… was Gan Qing aware of it? Was she aware that because she had meddled in other
people's business back then, she had incurred those incidents? Had the enmity between her shifu
and other people involved her? How did her hand become that way?

Why had she appeared in Travellers' Sect territory today? Was it purely to help them break out of
the siege?
Why had Liang-ge, whose boldness was greater than the sky and was a big hoodlum who dared
to gather other hoodlums to attack the police, been so terrified to see her?

All of a sudden, Yu Lanchuan had a very restless and impulsive urge to get up at once and look for
Gan Qing.

As for what he would say when he saw her, he hadn't thought about it yet. But he had to see her
now.

Hence, he rose immediately and hurriedly took his leave of Han Dongsheng.

But Han Dongsheng suddenly called out to him. "Little Master Yu, I'm not someone who talks
indiscreetly, don't worry. The less people who know about the background of the young lady
from upstairs, the better it is. The martial arts world is not as peaceful as it seems. You should tell
Yan Hao and Officer Yu that it's best if they don't talk about it to anyone."

Yu Lanchuan nodded his thanks to him. Then, he moved his legs and left.

Gan Qing's phone was switched off. The last update in her WeChat Moments was three days ago.

Yu Lanchuan first went up to knock on 1003's door. This time, Madam Zhang Meizhen was
annoyed by his knocking and shouted at him through the door. "She isn't back! I don't know! Go
look for my nephew! Next time, I'll write it in the tenancy agreement—'Having a romantic
relationship with the neighbour is not allowed.'"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to argue with this mouthy old lady. He got a cab and headed
directly towards Mudpool Backlane's Tianyi Crayfish.

The next door Star Dreams was closed and locked. Yu Lanchuan glanced at it, then charged into
the hot and smoky back kitchen.

"What are you doing!" A server carrying a pot of soup nearly crashed into his chest. "Who are you
looking for- Hey!"

"Little Master Yu?" Meng Tianyi was not in the back kitchen. He had just come in from outside,
his heart heavy with worries. He looked up in surprise at Yu Lanchuan. "Why are you-"

"I'm looking for Gan Qing." Yu Lanchuan pulled him to a stop. "It's urgent."

Meng Tianyi said rather evasively, "Ah… her? It's so late, she isn't home yet? I see that she has
locked the shop…"

"What do you mean 'locked the shop,' she didn't even open the shop today!" Yu Lanchuan cut
him off. He lowered his voice into a whisper, speaking quickly and softly beside Meng Tianyi's ear.
"She dressed up like Wei Xiao today and, in front of the police, snapped a Travellers' Sect leader's
arm!"
When Meng Tianyi heard the two words "Wei Xiao," his face changed. When he heard the rest of
the sentence, he was sweating.

Yu Lanchuan's voice was lowered until it stayed only in the gaps of his teeth. "I guessed that she
wanted to snap other parts of his body too so I stopped her at that time. But the scene was too
much of a mess. I looked away for just a second after that and she disappeared. Do you want me
to find her or do you want the criminal police to find her in the future? Boss Meng, let me ask you
again. Where. Is. She."

The corner of Meng Tianyi's eye twitched uncontrollably for a while. "Route 707… She went to
the other side of the road to take the Route 707 bus. The last stop is the cemetery in the eastern
suburb… When she goes there on her own, she doesn't like people following her… Little Master
Yu!"

But Yu Lanchuan had already disappeared.

A few days ago, there was snowfall in Yanning. Apparently, in total, there were tens of millions of
snowflakes, about the same as the population of Yanning, but no one saw them. It turned out
that they had all landed in the eastern suburb. A delicate layer of hoar frost had formed on the
lawn in the cemetery while the vapour breathed out by the evergreen pine trees gave rise to a
thin mist, ice-cold and damp, closing in densely to penetrate the gaps between a person's bones.

The lighting in the deepest part of the cemetery was spoiled. No one had repaired it for a long
time. Crow-dark and ink-black, only the dim light of the moon fell there, sketching out a long
shadow…

At this place, at this time, this shadow of a human looked more like a ghost.

On the tombstone, the name engraved was "Wei Changsheng[2]."

Wei Xiao was a name that made people tremble in fear. Wei Changsheng, on the other hand, was
a cook who was easy to talk to.

The second-hand bicycle that he rode was even a women's bike. He could never extend his legs
fully and was slightly hunched when he was cycling. He cycled very slowly. The little girl waiting
for him would leap up onto the pillion seat… It was still possible when she was young; when she
was a little older, she could no longer sit there. The bicycle's pillion seat was very narrow and was
just for show. It wasn't meant to carry passengers. When Gan Qing was twelve years old, she
broke this joke of a pillion seat and her butt landed right on the back wheel, dealing a severe
blow to her dignity.

Her bad luck-bringer shifu laughed until he had to hold the wall for support, making her so angry
that she had a good cry. From then on, she swore to diligently practise her qinggong.

...Not that it came to anything.

Shifu was an old-fashioned believer in "high scores in exams." She remembered that when she
was young, he was still willing to teach her some martial arts. When she was a bit older, he didn't
like to teach her anymore. From day to night, he only took up the calculator and compared her
marks against the kid from next door. Prying a move or two from him was extremely difficult; he
seemed to not expect her to become good at it at all.

When Gan Qing was young, she had even secretly suspected that he might be afraid of "when the
disciple masters the skills, the master starves to death." Even those evil sects in wuxia stories that
didn't treat their disciples as humans weren't as miserly as her shifu.

"Until now, I'm still just a half-assed dabbler whose shifu had not properly admitted me into the
sect." Gan Qing brushed away the pine needles that had fallen onto the tombstone. She had
stood there for an unknown period of time. A layer of dew had fallen on her body. She pulled up
the hood of her coat and started walking to the exit. "By chance, if my skills happen to be not
good enough and I die by someone else's hands, you can't blame me…"

Right at that moment, a shadow suddenly charged out from the pine trees. Shrouded in the sharp
and piercing sound of the wind, it arrived before her eyes in just a flash and grabbed hold of her.

Late in the night, in a cemetery, in pitch darkness. A lonely pebble path, the two rows of
tombstones on either side gazing at her with a smile that was not quite a smile… and she had just
spoken ill of the dead.

Even if Gan Qing's boldness was greater than the sky, she was nearly scared to the point of heart
failure. She screamed and shouted, "Shifu, I was wrong!"

T/N:
[1] The length of the cuts found on the throats of the bodies is 三 寸 二 分 (3 cun and 2 fen).
Initially, I translated it to 3.2 inches because I personally prefer to use measurement units that
are immediately recognisable to English readers, especially for a story set in modern times, and
because cun is sometimes called the "Chinese inch." However, since this phrase is used many
times in the story and the precision of the measurement is emphasised repeatedly, I decided to
use the Chinese measurements. (It is also my preference not to italicise terms kept in Chinese.)
One cun is a little longer than an imperial unit inch, 1.26 of an imperial unit inch to be exact,
while fen is 1/10 of a cun. Converted to imperial units, three cun and two fen comes up to about
four inches.
[2] Wei Xiao 卫骁 - "Xiao" means "brave and powerful." Wei Changsheng 卫长生 - "Changsheng"
means "long life."
Chapter 47
After much effort, Yu Lanchuan finally got a cab that was willing to take him to the eastern
suburb late at night. Along the way, they passed by quite a number of buses on Route 707 and
every time, he wanted nothing more than to take a flashlight and shine around the inside of the
bus. When he finally made his way to the cemetery in the eastern suburb, he jumped over the
wall to enter. In the end, realised that this damned place was much larger than he had expected.
From A to N, the place was divided into fourteen areas!

The moment winter came to Yanning, all the cute and lively little birds disappeared and only
packs of old crows remained. They especially loved gathering at places that terrified humans,
letting out a "Caw, caw" every now and then that didn't sound at all like they had any good
intentions. There was also the northwest wind slipping through the densely-packed tree-lined
paths; the trees on either side were squeezed so tightly that they wailed like ghosts and howled
like wolves. And thus, when these two "celestial music" came together, the effect was multiplied
and it was like the opening of a horror movie.

The cemetery was laid out in a very regular manner. The rows of tombstones and trees looked
about the same in every direction. Yu Lanchuan walked among them, all on his own, and felt that
the black-and-white photographs on the tombstones all showed the same face. The more he
walked, the more he felt that something was wrong—he couldn't find Gan Qing and was also a
little lost!

At the beginning, he still put on a pretense and kept a gracefully calm and unhurried pace,
carrying himself properly even though there was no one around. But outrageously, halfway
through, his phone that he was using to light his way ran out of battery!

The graceful and calm Little Master Yu walked faster and faster. Suddenly, a breeze disturbed the
water droplets frozen on the pine needles and a string of ice-cold water droplets dripped down,
falling unerringly onto the exposed back of his neck. At the same time, something let out a
peculiar laugh behind him!

Yu Lanchuan nearly jumped out of his skin, both his feet leaving the ground in his fright. He cut
an exceptionally wild figure as he dashed out from among the trees and collided directly with the
Gan Qing he hadn't been able to find anywhere, and was even so startled by her screaming that
his courage completely failed. He yelled almost in unison with her, "You scared me to death!"

Gan Qing, "..."

Yu Lanchuan shouted, "What are you screaming for! The adrenaline rush is going to fry my
brain!"

Gan Qing finally regained her wits. Trembling, she fumbled out her phone from her pocket and
used the light from the screen to see Yu Lanchuan clearly. The phone screen with a background
of the starry night sky emitted a faint, bluish light that made the both of them look exceptionally
monstrous.

She fell into silence. After a long while, she asked faintly, "...Little Master Yu, have you ever been
smacked?"

"Wha-"

Before he could finish speaking, Gan Qing's fist swung towards him. Yu Lanchuan quickly
retreated half a step but before he could steady himself, Gan Qing hooked her leg around his
heel and pulled. Yu Lanchuan's knees were still weak from being scared just now and he kneeled
down with a thump, landing in a kowtow right before a tombstone.

The old man on the tombstone had a kindly look and a smile on his face, like he was saying,
"Beloved official, you may rise."
Gan Qing didn't think that he would be taken down so easily. She was afraid he would run a
porcelain scam on her, so she withdrew her leg with a complicated expression on her face.

Yu Lanchuan was just about to erupt in anger when he suddenly saw clearly the name on the
tombstone—Wei… Changsheng.

The surname was "Wei"?

He stared blankly, then couldn't resist turning his head to look at Gan Qing.

"Very polite of you, Little Master Yu." Gan Qing extended a hand to him. "Our family etiquette
doesn't require formal bows. Hurry up and stand."

Yu Lanchuan didn't take her hand. He pushed against the ground and clambered up on his own.
"Your family? This is… your shifu?"

Gan Qing didn't say anything. Her gaze swept past the edge of her hood that fell nearly below her
brows. Her eyes were cold.

Han Dongsheng had speculated that Wei Xiao was already dead.

So it turned out that even in death, he could not put his real name on his tombstone.

Yu Lanchuan said, "So he's really already-"

"Did someone tell you something?" Gan Qing cut him off. She drew her coat closer around her
body and began walking away without saying anything.

"Mr. Han saw you today and muttered the name 'Wei Xiao.' I found out some information from
him." Yu Lanchuan caught up to her. He chose his words carefully. "How did your shifu die?"

Gan Qing lowered her eyes and said perfunctorily, "Don't call him that, he wasn't my shifu. It was
sudden heart failure."

"Gan Qing!" Yu Lanchuan went around to stand in front of her, reaching out a hand to stop her.

"Sudden. Heart. Failure." The eyes that looked up at him had no hint of a smile in the corners but
there was a peculiar smile in the curve of her lips. She asked, a little mockingly, "Why, does the
law forbid this way of dying? Or does the big demon not have the right to die peacefully of old
age?"

Yu Lanchuan's face was serious. "Speak properly."

Gan Qing's heartbeat that had been scared into bouncing like a spring just now had calmed down
quite a bit. She also felt that she had been rather rude, so she relaxed her expression a little.
"Little Master Yu, don't you have to work extra hours tomorrow? Instead of sleeping at night, you
came here to frighten people. What is it that you're looking for me for?"
Yu Lanchuan spoke frankly. "Are you going to look for the people from Travellers' Sect?"

Gan Qing chuckled, crafty yet a little resigned. "Why would I look for them? Our boss takes care
of our online shop himself and I don't send packages via express delivery."

"Traveller's Sect has five trades, who said that looking for Travellers' Sect means wanting to send
packages?" Yu Lanchuan glared at her. "So, not only do you want to look for Travellers' Sect's
people, you even want to look for their North Branch Master, Wang Jiusheng?"

Gan Qing withdrew her smile. She glanced at Yu Lanchuan, then walked around him without a
word.

Yu Lanchuan dodged and blocked her way again. "After you find him, what do you plan to do?"

Gan Qing said lightly, in a reasonable and cooperative tone, "Little Master Yu, I'm the type who
doesn't like having my way blocked by others, and also the type who isn't happy when someone
tells me what to do. Previously, you stopped me at the apartment corridor—the reason why I
didn't pick a fight with you over that is because I wanted to maintain harmonious neighbourly
relations, not because you're awesome. If you continue to be like this, I'll stop playing nice."

"Wait!" Yu Lanchuan's tone was very urgent. "I know you are capable and that even if you
commit murder or arson, you might not be caught. But after that? Are you going to hide your
identity too? In the future, is your tombstone also going to have a false name engraved on it so
that even in death-"

Gan Qing's face turned cold. She raised her knee to hit his belly. The position was a little vulgar
and Yu Lanchuan quickly angled his body to dodge. "Hey!"

Gan Qing forced him to give way and immediately slipped out like a featherlight cloud. Yu
Lanchuan stretched out his arm and grabbed her coat. Her hood fell back. Then, right at that
moment, out of nowhere, he felt a chill run down his back. Yu Lanchuan instinctively blocked with
his out-of-battery phone. There was a scraping sound—a small blade slashed at his phone case,
leaving behind a perfect curve.

Her murderous aura rushed forth like countless gossamer-thin threads. The blade slashed his
phone case but its force did not reduce the slightest, as though it wanted to go on and slice open
his wrist. Yu Lanchuan's pupils contracted. Everything happened in an instant, yet he stubbornly
controlled himself and did not withdraw his hand.

The blade touched his skin, left a small red dot, and stopped.

If he were to measure it with a string, the curved line on his phone case would probably be
exactly three cun and two fen long.

Yu Lanchuan fell silent for a while. Then, he suddenly said, "I've not thanked you yet, have I?"
"That's right." Gan Qing slowly lifted her gaze. "If I had known earlier that Little Master Yu likes to
repay kindness with enmity and likes to meddle in other people's business, I would have sat on
the sidelines today and have fun watching all of you fight a battle that neither side can win."

Yu Lanchuan, "I'm not talking about today."

Gan Qing's face had a trace of impatience. "What?"

"The knots on your keyring were tied using my shoelaces. You probably didn't realise," Yu
Lanchuan said. "I recognised it immediately. Fifteen years ago, you saved a boy from Mudpool
Backlane to the landfill in the outskirts. You took away his clothes and shoes, and helped him lead
the human traffickers away... the traffickers from Travellers' Sect. Am I right?"

The damp night wind blew Gan Qing's hair into disarray. She heard Yu Lanchuan say, "I am that
boy."

Gan Qing was stunned for a few seconds. The blade between her fingers glinted and just like that,
she had kept it somewhere. She laughed. "Such a coincidence? It's truly a small world… I say,
Little Master Yu, you're such an excellent young man so why do you keep running after me to
create accidental encounters? You're nearly making me assume too much."

Gan Qing was someone who was very well aware of her boundaries. It wasn't that she hadn't
noticed Yu Lanchuan purposely catching the times when she went about to pass by her, she had
just pretended not to notice all this while. Now, she was suddenly exposing him so sharply, her
words completely meant to inflict harm. Yu Lanchuan's face immediately flushed.

"Oh, that's right, I remember now… Indeed."Gan Qing let out a rather malicious snort of laughter.
"Running around wearing nothing but a doggy head is a rare experience after all."

Then, unexpectedly, Yu Lanchuan did not turn angry from embarrassment. His gaze was very
calm and steady, his eyes clear and cold behind the thin lenses. He said, "I have always
remembered it, not because I was in a very miserable state that day, but because until the end, I
didn't get any news of where you were."

"Now you know." Gan Qing shrugged. "You're welcome, it was nothing."

"I have always feared that my actions on a moment's impulse resulted in someone being injured.
From then on, I never again dared to cause trouble that I could not handle," Yu Lanchuan said.
"But today, Old Han told me that it was because of what happened that time that news of your
shifu hiding in Yanning was leaked. If-"

"If what?" Gan Qing cut him off. She moved her legs to leave. "Maybe he was getting what he
deserved for things that he had done. What was it that you righteous sects say again? Heaven's
law is clear, retribution-"

Her steps were too hurried. She happened to be passing by a tree and somehow, a branch
extending from the tree hooked unerringly on her hair. Even though her hair wasn't long, it was
thick and fine, and frizzled very easily in a damp environment. They were also knots in her hair
ends.

Gan Qing hissed in pain.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Even your shifu can't bear listening anymore."

Gan Qing stared blankly, then cut off the tuft of knotted hair. She turned her head around and
realised that the tree that had entangled with her was coincidentally the one leaning very close
to Wei Xiao's tombstone.

When she was very young, she had her hair tied into pigtails. Her hair in braided pigtails, she ran
to play everywhere and after a day, her hair looked like wild bramble. Her shifu had forced her to
keep still while he combed her hair again but no matter how he combed, the knots couldn't be
untangled, and the little wooden comb tugged on her hair until she was yelling noisily. Her shifu
had no choice but to wet the comb and slowly tease out the knots bit by bit. He had even scared
her by saying that if she always combed her hair with a wet comb, in the future, her head would
turn silly.

Gan Qing didn't want to turn into a "silly girl." After that, she didn't dare ask for the comb to be
wetted. She bore the pain with tears in her eyes. It seemed to have left a shadow in her heart;
even after she grew up, she never let her hair grow long.

Were there gods and ghosts in the underworld?

Were the people who had passed away watching you from the Nine Springs in the underworld?

Most people did not believe in this. Only people who were frightened, people with a guilty
conscience, and… people who were close family would, for a time, be unable to break free of
these self-deceiving imaginations.

Yu Lanchuan said softly, "My granduncle had once used the Alliance Leader's Command. Your
side didn't respond but despite that, Granduncle had never believed that the eighteen people at
the flour factory were killed by him."

Gan Qing didn't say anything.

Yu Lanchuan said earnestly, "I also heard that due to a spar when he was young, he had offended
a few people. If you suspect that his death was not natural and had something to do with those
people… or with Travellers' Sect, I can help to investigate with you. After all, the matter with
Travellers' Sect was started by me. This time, the Travellers' Sect people concealed a crime
suspect and even attacked the police, Old Yu's people won't let it go just like that. They will
definitely investigate to the last detail. Just wait a while for now, is that okay?"

After listening to that, it was a long while before Gan Qing finally opened her mouth. She relaxed
her tone a little. "Actually, it was not very related to you."
It was the little girl back then who did not know how high the sky nor how thick the earth was.
She could have easily shaken off the pursuers and escaped, but she just had to show off her skills.

Shifu had always said that Wan Mu Chun's martial arts skills were no longer suited to the modern
days. Killing techniques were ominous, a demonic path that strayed from the orthodox. One
should not be obsessed with them, and must absolutely not use those skills to commit violence.

But the "demonic path that strayed from the orthodox" that he had spoken of was exactly what a
rebellious chuuni teenage girl thought was the coolest thing ever. Even if all she knew was the
most superficial bit of skills, she couldn't resist showing off like a little bird shaking out its
feathers. How could she hide herself and live incognito like an ordinary person?

Gan Qing lowered her head. "Very polite of you, Little Master Yu."

"Who's being polite with you?" Yu Lanchuan heard her jianghu-like and distant tone, and a
nameless fire blazed in his heart. "We have been neighbours for half a year, you've taught my
little brother before, we collected evidence against Nie Ke and that group of human scum
together, and I even helped you get a bunch of foolish customers during the festive season and
watched you trick them for their money without saying anything! I thought we were considered
friends!"

Gan Qing lifted her head and looked at him in surprise.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Actually, he felt regret the moment he was done talking. All this while, he had conducted himself
in the "noble and aloof" manner. In his work life, he turned away drinks, developed shallow
relations and kept his words superficial. His friends in his private life were all people like Yu Yan
who had stuck themselves to him voluntarily. This was the first time in his life he was saying
something like "I thought we were considered friends," something that made it seem as though
he thought the other person had feelings for him. For a moment, he felt like he was suspended
above a fire, grilled until he was uncomfortable inside and out.

It was like when he had used his phone to block the blade just now—if Gan Qing had pressed
down lightly just a centimeter more at that time, she would have sliced open his artery.

And now, Gan Qing didn't need to say anything. If she smiled just a little teasingly, she would
shatter his fragile dignity that was merely putting on a brave front.

Yu Lanchuan felt that his entire night had been full of perils. Both his feet seemed to be standing
on a tightrope. It was like he had laid his cards on the table, smashed the table, threw caution to
the wind and was sitting on the ground, waiting for judgement.

And then… unexpectedly, Gan Qing did not smile.

She stood under the branch, staring blankly for a long while.
Wei Changsheng… Wei Xiao's death portrait gazed at her, as though it was meticulously laying
out all the affection and loyalty she had disappointed in her entire life, putting them all on display
on the tombstone.

"Why are you still standing here!" Yu Lanchuan was a little afraid of hearing what she had to say,
and quickly cut her off in fear. "Are you going to wait for the Lunar New Year here?"

"I… want to sit here with him for a while more." Gan Qing avoided his gaze, drawing back the
dangerous and arrogant air she had around her. She seemed a little embarrassed. In a soft voice,
she said, "Well… why don't you head back first? I'll take the last bus back… I really will go back,
don't worry."

Yu Lanchuan didn't move.

Gan Qing thought that he was still worried so she pointed at Wei Xiao's grave and said, "He has
passed away for ten years already, he won't mind waiting a bit longer. I swear on my shifu that I
will not look for Wang Jiusheng in private and cause trouble today. Do you need me to sign my
name and put an official stamp on it, Little Master Yu?"

"Okay." Yu Lanchuan walked a couple of steps, dawdling. Then, he couldn't help turning his head
around. "It's too cold, you…"

Gan Qing said in resignation, "What else do you want?"

"..." Yu Lanchuan was strangely silent for a few seconds. "Which way should I take to go back?"
Chapter 48
Smartphones and satellite navigation. These were the main culprits behind the lack of a sense of
direction among the young people today.

"What are you looking at? It's all because you didn't pick up. I spent the whole way here calling
you, that's why my phone ran out of battery." Yu Lanchuan forcefully threw the blame to her. "If I
have GPS, would I need you?"

However, Gan Qing was not so easily fooled. She hadn't rejected his calls; she had switched off
her phone. Repeatedly calling a switched-off phone for an entire journey didn't necessarily mean
that the person was so anxious their heart was on fire, it just meant that they were a fool with
itchy hands.

Gan Qing said, "Using the flashlight on the phone eats a lot of battery. It's all right, Little Master
Yu, being afraid of walking in the dark at night is nothing to be ashamed of."

"Who's afraid of walking at night?" Yu Lanchuan retorted.

Gan Qing looked at his grave and serious face, and smiled magnanimously. "Me."

Yu Lanchuan suddenly realised that this person's methods were very deep. She excelled in
"hiding oneself in the open" and "advancing by retreating." She revealed not a hint of herself and
also always made herself seem very extraordinary and beyond the unrefined mortal realm. It was
infuriating.

Before he could think of a counterattack, suddenly, the strange laughter that had scared his soul
out of his body appeared again!

The sound was extremely piercing. It sounded like a strange old person but also didn't seem
human. The sound carried far and wide.

The two of them shivered in unison. Gan Qing had just been all "calm and magnanimous"; now,
there was a glint between her fingers and a blade appeared there. But she didn't hold her phone
tight and it fell to the ground with the screen facing downwards. The flashlight on the back shone
towards the sky, lighting up the gaps between the tree branches into bared fangs and claws.

And sitting among the branches was… a very round owl.

The owl made some tentative noises. When the flashlight shone on it, it stretched its neck and
cried out, "Hoo—"

Then, it flapped its wings in anger and flew away.

"Being afraid of walking in the dark at night is nothing to be ashamed of." Yu Lanchuan picked up
Gan Qing's phone and blew off the dirt on the reinforced glass screen, then passed it to her with
unruffled composure. "Come, put your blade away, be nicer to the country's Grade 2 endangered
species. Next time, remember that honest people have nothing to hide."

Gan Qing, "..."

A chaotic and tumultuous weekend was still a weekend, time still passed twice as quickly as it did
on work days. In the blink of an eye, Old Mr. Zhou had disappeared for four days and there was
still no sight or sound of him. On the other hand, the Travellers' Sect's unlicensed cab gang that
had attacked the police were dug out like radishes pulled out of the mud, unearthing many who
had criminal records or were using fake identities.

"We got some info by interrogating them." Yu Yan had come to No. 110 Courtyard and was
talking to the residents. "It's like this, cough, following the suspect, Jiang Bin's— he qigong
master that we caught—confession, we found the missing Old Madam Lin."

The dispirited Zhou Beibei immediately sat up straight. "I know this old madam, my dad is close
to her! When she had just gone missing, you even came to our house to ask questions! What, is it
the same gang of people who tricked these old people into leaving? What is their intention? Has
she gone home now? What did she say, did she see my dad?"

Han Dongsheng tugged her hand, shaking it lightly. "Let him finish speaking."

"Please calm down." Yu Yan softened his tone. "We found Old Madam Lin, but she had already…"
Zhou Beibei was momentarily stunned. A few seconds later, her expression changed abruptly and
she began to tremble all over.

"Don't panic," Yu Yan said hastily. "Jiang Bin said that Old Madam Lin had gone to look for him to
ask for a refund. She fought with their people and when angered, her heart illness suddenly
flared up and she died. It's not related to Old Mr. Zhou's disappearance. We've also asked a lot of
the students in the qigong class, they said that Old Mr. Zhou hadn't been attending their activities
much lately. He didn't pick up their calls either and his attitude towards those so-called "fellow
disciples" had also become more indifferent. We think that he must have figured it out and
realised that he was being swindled."

Han Dongsheng quickly asked, "Then, where could he have gone?"

"An old man from the qigong class said that some time ago, Old Mr. Zhou had argued with him.
Old Mr. Zhou said that the eggs the master was selling were all bought from the supermarket and
eating them had no effect, and also that there are no books anywhere that said that qigong can
be passed on through food. The two of them couldn't deal with each other and parted on bad
terms. Before Old Mr. Zhou left, he said that the money they used to buy the eggs was enough to
travel the world." Yu Yan carefully consoled Zhou Beibei. "Let us think optimistically. He shouldn't
have been saying those words for no reason. Maybe the old man was really planning to go on a
trip and after a disagreement with the family, he left the house on impulse to clear his mind?"

"Right! I remember now, Dad bought a few maps recently to relieve boredom!" Han Dongsheng
quickly stood up. He rummaged through the reading materials at Old Mr. Zhou's bedside table
and said excitedly, "Those maps aren't here. The old man took them with him. Comrade Officer's
deduction might be right!"

Zhou Beibei felt a tiny bit of hope amidst her helplessness and looked at him earnestly.

"Old people have to be coaxed too, they're old children." Yu Yan smiled at her. "When he runs
out of money, who knows, he might come back. Lodgings and public transports all require I.D.
cards. It'll be easy to find him. We will contact the relevant departments and get them to
continue investigating. Please don't worry."

Yu Yan was a sweet talker. With just a few words, he comforted the lost and distracted Zhou
Beibei. He signalled Yu Lanchuan and Han Dongsheng with his eyes, then went upstairs.

"What is it?" Yu Lanchuan asked.

"Things don't look as good as what I said," Yu Yan said softly. He glanced at Han Dongsheng. "I
didn't dare say this in front of your wife just now. That Travellers' Sect's Jiang Bin is very
experienced in swindling and has completely grasped the hearts of those old people. He insists
that someone must be stealing his business. Otherwise, his 'disciples' would never 'betray' him…
Hey, Teacher Meng-Meng, how are you?"

Gan Qing heard them come up and opened the door. The moment Yu Yan saw her, he recalled
what happened the other day when they were besieged by the Travellers' Sect people. Compared
to the "grey market product" alliance leader, Gan Qing was the perfect example of an out-of-the-
world expert. Yu Yan now felt that even her shadow hid a mysterious story, and wanted to bow
to this big boss and serve her tea.

Gan Qing smiled at him. "Continue talking, you don't have to mind me. What about Travellers'
Sect?"

"These hoodlums really know how to bend the rules. Jiang Bin never sold any 'three no's[1]'
drugs. Usually, what they mainly do is organise the 'Qigong Master's Lectures,' livestream qigong
demos and stuff like that so that their 'disciples' can send them gifts. A lot of old people give
thousands or tens of thousands on impulse. The stuff they sell are also daily necessities that they
bought from the market and then bring back and change the packaging. They're indeed deceiving
people but eating those things brings no harm anyway. One side is willing to hit and one side is
willing to be hit. Even if someone reports them and they're arrested, we can't do anything to
them," Yu Yan said. "That dude also thinks pretty highly of himself. He thinks that he has given
this bunch of old people with empty lives a safe harbour for their mental state, and that he's
contributing to society! You tell me, isn't it infuriating?"

Yu Lanchuan's brows furrowed—there were indeed times when science could not defeat
superstitions. The only thing that could defeat superstitions were superstitions that were even
more fanciful and outrageous.

"This Old Madam Lin was originally an enthusiastic student in the qigong class. She bought
whatever she was told to and during every qigong livestream demo, she was the one who sent
the most gifts. But not long ago, she, Old Mr. Zhou and a few other people suddenly wanted to
withdraw together. These people are all on the missing person list this time round," Yu Yan said.
"Old Mr. Zhou and the others aren't very good at using their phones, they usually just buy eggs
during the qigong classes. But Old Madam Lin was not the same. She frequently sent gifts during
livestreams and had spent tens of thousands altogether. Before the end of the year, she went to
look for Jiang Bin, wanting to get the money refunded. Jiang Bin said that the money couldn't be
refunded. Furthermore, at that time, he felt that there was something wrong with Old Madam
Lin's mental state. She was extremely stirred up and her speech was a little incoherent, like she
was on some kind of drugs, so he only brushed her off. In the end, the old lady got overly worked
up and died just like that. Jiang Bin and the others were afraid of bearing the responsibility for
that, so they secretly took care of the old lady's body and covered the incident up…"

Gan Qing scoffed. "How innocent of him."

"Of course, the body is still being autopsied so we are waiting for the results too," Yu Yan said.
"But there's one thing I agree with Jiang Bin. The probability of these old people figuring things
out on their own is not high. If it was not Jiang Bin who was so extremely bold and wanted to do
away with all the students who withdrew from his classes, then we can only consider the
possibility of there being another organisation involved. Hence, we asked Old Madam Lin's son to
search his house thoroughly and gather all the printed material that the old lady didn't throw
away, even including the flyers advertising the opening of a supermarket. In total, there are more
than 300 of them. Han-ge, we need to cross-check."

"I'll go look for them now." Han Dongsheng turned to go. "I'll search both houses."
Yu Lanchuan finally looked at Gan Qing. He cut in with a question. "What about Travellers' Sect?"

"That Liang-ge's full name is Niu Liang." Yu Yan sighed. "His number plate is fake, his driving
license is also fake. He's very slippery. He goes to the police station like it's his own house, he
looks perfectly at home to me. He also doesn't admit anything about Travellers' Sect. He just said
that he has many brothers and wide connections, and that people frequently ask him for help.
Lots of people look for him and he's sometimes fuzzy on things, and doesn't know that the other
person has committed crimes. About the current matter, he says that he didn't even know that
the police were investigating a case. He saw us charging in and thought that there were people
wanting to cause a ruckus at his buddy's guest house. That's why he acted on impulse and
gathered a bunch of people there. He didn't intend to attack the police."

Yu Lanchuan said, "What about the Five Bats Token? How did they explain that? To be able to
gather so many people at once to join a fight with him, I don't believe that it's purely due to
jianghu loyalty, there must be monetary profit involved."

Gan Qing crossed her arms over her chest and said with a half-smile, "Looks like it's something
that will keep them detained for just a few days. When they're released, I just need to pay them
another visit."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Gan Qing!"

"Teacher Meng-Meng," Yu Yan also said very seriously, "I want to talk to you about this too. If, in
the end, it is proven that they are indeed a criminal organisation, you need to be careful. You are
only one person while there is no place where they cannot get into. What if, by chance, they find
out that you're staying here and take revenge on you? Let this matter be handled when the city
cracks down on them. You... You guys shouldn't get involved in this anymore."

Gan Qing let out an unconcerned chuckle.

"I know you have nothing to worry about and can leave anytime." Yu Yan understood the
meaning hidden in her laugh. "But Yu Lanchuan can't leave. He has a thirty-year house loan and
he can't resign from his job. Han-ge from downstairs has to take care of the elderly and the
young, he can't leave either. There's also Old Master Yang, Grandma Zhang and the other old
men and old ladies who have stayed here for their entire lives. They can't disappear at will like
you, can they?"

Yu Lanchuan initially wanted to explain that "The heart of the martial arts alliance is still at No.
110 Courtyard, those hoodlums wouldn't dare challenge the whole martial arts world."
Unexpectedly, he realised that Gan Qing actually took Yu Yan's words to heart and didn't utter a
peep anymore.

His heart stirred. Say a thousand words or a thousand lines and she would ignore them all,
treating them as nothing more than the wind blowing past her ears. Nothing was close to being
as useful as the single line "You will cause trouble for other people."

Even if Yu Yan, as an outsider, did not understand that she was totally not even one of them
"righteous sects."
She's too solitary, Yu Lanchuan thought. In his heart, he suddenly had a rough idea how to handle
her.

The next day, Gan Qing picked up a pair of gremlin kids on her doorstep.

Gan Qing asked, "Forgot your keys again?"

With a mournful face and exaggerated acting, Liu Zhongqi bowed deeply to her. "Teacher Meng-
Meng."

Gan Qing extended a finger with a swoosh and stopped his head. "What are you doing?"

Liu Zhongqi muttered discontentedly for a long while, until his face was red from keeping it all in.
He felt that this matter was really too embarrassing but his brother had promised that if he got
this done, then regardless of whether or not he could achieve 120 marks in his English test in the
end-of-term exams, he would teach him one set of fighting moves.

For the sake of his dreams of wuxia and heroes, the teenager gritted his teeth and ripped off his
shame, stepping on it with his feet. "Please teach me English!"

Gan Qing was very startled to hear that. "I teach you… Did I forget to introduce myself? My
highest academic qualification is dropping out of senior high."

"My brother said that as long as you have at least graduated primary school, it's enough to teach
me." Liu Zhongqi said those words like he was enduring a great humiliation for the sake of his
mission. "If I still can't pass my English exam in the end-of-term exams, he's going to send me to
the U.S. to be 'deaf and mute' over there. Teacher Meng-Meng, my allowance is going to run out
soon. I can't afford home tutors and there also isn't enough time now. You said that you only
know how to take exams, right? Help me pass, I don't want to be deaf and mute."

Next to him, Little Friend Han Zhou looked at him sympathetically. "Gege, I will graduate from
primary school in three years. How about you wait for me?"

Liu Zhongqi was an honest-to-god academic tyrant. At school, he was an important person the
teachers paid extra attention to. For the sake of his dreams of wuxia and heroes, not only was he
forced to pretend to be an academic failure, even a little brat who scored four marks in his maths
test was joining the fun!

There was a grinding sound, he had nearly gritted his teeth until his back molars broke. His face
was becoming increasingly fierce, like he was going berserk from being tormented by English.

Gan Qing turned towards Han Zhou. "And what about you?"

"My parents are busy looking for my grandpa. My dad said that if I have nowhere else to go, I can
come ask Jiejie if I can do my homework at your house. I will go back home myself when it's time
to sleep, I won't disturb Jiejie." As Little Friend Han Zhou spoke, he took down the money pouch
hanging from his neck. "This is the money for food and expenses."
Gan Qing didn't take it. Her expression turned complicated. "Your dad asked you to come here?"

Didn't Han Dongsheng already know who she was? How could he feel safe sending his child into
her hands? Wasn't he afraid that she, disciple of a monster, would cook and devour his kid?"

Little Friend Han Zhou didn't understand at all these skirmishes between adults. Brimming with
anticipation, he nodded his head. "Jiejie, what are we eating today?"

"..." For a few seconds, Gan Qing had nothing to say. "Come in."

At Han Dongsheng's home, the police were examining all the printed materials belonging to Old
Mr. Zhou one by one. The old man was very orderly. He couldn't even bear to throw away
discount coupons and had stacked them together neatly, even if they had expired. Health
supplements and medical equipment were categorised by type. And, what surprised them was
that among the things he gathered, there weren't many that were targeted at the elderly. Most
of them were health supplements for women as well as some products for reducing cholesterol
and losing weight. He had even made detailed notes for many of them.

Altogether, there were over a hundred pieces of material. He had gone to listen to the lectures
for each of them and studied them carefully. Based on the dates, the old man's daily schedule
could be said to be very busy and tightly-packed.

But no one in his family knew.

The over a hundred fliers and pamphlets was like a majestic solitary island, towering far away
where the city lights could not shine, encircling a world that no one was interested in.

Zhou Beibei sat by the side, her tears falling silently.

Right at that moment, a police officer suddenly stood up. "Yu-ge, look, is it this one? These few
houses all had it!"

Zhou Beibei hurriedly wiped her tears and looked over. She saw what looked like a flier for a gym
that was advertising things like yoga classes. There were many yoga classes around—take a walk
on the main road and one could get a stack of fliers. No one would pay any attention to them.

On the flier was written: Paradise[2].

T/N:
[1] "Three no's" drugs 三 无 药 refer to drugs that have no licensed manufacturer, no precise
manufacturing date, and no mass quality checking.
[2] Paradise 极乐世界 jílè shìjiè refers to the Western Paradise in Buddhism.
Chapter 49
"Old Zhou!"
Old Mr. Zhou quickly closed the book he was holding. This was the only reading material he had
brought from home and the edges were already curling from how many times he had turned the
pages.

An old lady walked over and held her hand out to him, her countenance pleasant. "What
interesting thing are you reading?"

Wrinkles made a person look aged but there was actually a type of wrinkles that could also make
a person look gentle and kindly. Just like how some people were plump "in all the right places,"
this old lady had wrinkles in all the right spots. Time must have deliberated a long while before
carefully carving a line on her face, hence every line was placed with meticulous care and she
looked very heartwarming and pleasing to the eye.

Old Mr. Zhou hesitated for a while, then handed the book over, a little embarrassed.

The old lady looked at him with an expression that was a cross between displeasure and
fondness. She took the book and opened it; it automatically fell open on a page that had a few
close-up photos wedged there like a thick bookmark.

The photo was of a young boy around seven or eight years of age. He had stuffed his head into
various weird-looking frames, and was baring his teeth and making faces at the camera.

"Is this your grandson?" The old lady sat down opposite him, her posture showing that she
wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with him.

This was where Old Mr. Zhou was staying. In the little room, everything was white in colour—the
ceiling, bedsheets, floor tiles… even the clothes the people were wearing.

There was a drawing of a god on the wall, looking out of place. The pose might have been copied
from some Buddha statue while the robes worn on the body looked like the white robes worn by
westerners in ancient times and the head was topped with fashionable mermaid curls. The
appearance was a harmonious mix of eastern and western styles. Who knew what exactly it was
that this god was in charge of.

There were three single beds in one room. The extremely minimal amount of personal belongings
were covered with a white cloth, revealing no signs of human life. At a glance, it looked like a
mortuary.

"It's all right, everyone who has just arrived is like this too," the old lady said softly and slowly.
She took Old Mr. Zhou's hand, her movement very natural. "I understand. These are all things
that people think are very beautiful and hence, they are also things that we have to break free of.
Just like drugs, you know that taking them into your body only causes you harm but it feels good,
that's why those people lose themselves in them. But that's not real happiness. Think carefully, if
you force yourself to live with them, can you really integrate into their family? Can you really be
happy?"
Old Mr. Zhou was a little uncomfortable with her holding his hand but he also thought that they
were already at this age where to be "uncomfortable" was to be unnecessarily fussy so he only
smiled in embarrassment. "After all… after all…"

"After all, they're your family. But family can also bring you harm," the old lady said very
reasonably. "Otherwise, you wouldn't come to our place here for help, would you?"

Old Mr. Zhou lowered his head.

The old lady's tone was meaningful and her words heartfelt. "You have already felt how
illusionary familial relationships in the secular world are. You live with them under the same roof,
yet you feel as though you have been excluded and that there is a glass wall between you and
them. You can see them but not touch them. Why? It is because at our age, our time is nearly up,
and we are starting to truly comprehend the matters of the secular world. But our children are
still struggling in the dust of the mortal realm. Your mental state is starting to gradually break
away from them. If you still can't bear to part with them and want to seek comfort from them,
you' re deceiving yourself and others, and chasing an illusion!"

Old Mr. Zhou said in a small voice, "...I brought up these children since they were young."

"I know." The old lady patted the back of his hand like an angel. "I know how hard it is to break
free of these things. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to come all the way to us from so far away,
am I right? Come, let's go. It's activity time."

After saying that, she pulled Old Mr. Zhou into standing up. In a corner of the room, there was a
bell that rang at fixed times, like the bells that signalled the start of classes at schools. At two o'
clock sharp in the afternoon, it rang out with a pleasant piano tune. Elderly people like Old Mr.
Zhou came out of their rooms, all of them wearing floaty white robes. From far, it looked like the
scene of a mass corpse resurrection.

All these people had smiles on their faces. They greeted each other and even held hands. Linked
together, they went downstairs in a sea of shining white.

From outside, the little building where they stayed looked like a place for agricultural tourism in
some remote and desolate corner of the world. At the back was an area with abandoned fish
ponds and in the front was wild land. Without a car, one would need to walk for around more
than ten kilometers before reaching a small bus stop.

Second floor and upwards were rooms for staying. First floor was a large hall. All three meals in a
day were taken there. It was like a large mass dining hall.

Right now, the large round tables were stood on their edges and leaned against a corner of the
wall and the chairs arranged in a large circle. They had stir-fried green peppers for lunch and the
smell of food was still thick in the air in the large hall, a rather nauseating assault on their
olfactory senses.
The elderly people very quickly found a place to sit, like they were used to it. Old Mr. Zhou
suddenly felt a need to use the washroom—old people's bladders were just that unreasonable;
there was no sign at all just now but in just a moment, the urge to urinate was overwhelming.

But right then, an old man with white in his hair and beard who was wearing a black robe
entered. Among these people of the same age who looked like human manifestations of toilet
paper spirits, the black robe stood out like a crane among chickens.

The "toilet paper spirits" all greeted the black-robed man. "Advisor."

Old Mr. Zhou felt too embarrassed to move. He tried his best to pull up his belly, planning to hold
it in for a while.

After the spiritual advisor entered, he first showed concern for each elderly person there, talking
to each of them in turn. He was very expressive, as though each of these old people were the
treasures of his heart and every little thing that happened to them was worth making a fuss over.

After fussing around the circle of people, the spiritual advisor sat down and began the ritual.

"My brothers and sisters," the spiritual advisor began his speech, his words pouring out like a
torrent. "Among us, there are those who are wealthy and those who are destitute, those whose
homes are filled with children and grandchildren and those who are widows or widowers without
kin to rely on, those who are beleaguered by illnesses and those who are still considered healthy.
We are all so different. But all of us, with all our differences, are gathered here today because we
share a common point—we are people who are nearly at the end of the time we have.

"This is a lonely, solitary journey. In our early years, we had companions around us, our parents
and siblings were there, but the further we walked, the lonelier we became and the number of
people with us grew fewer and fewer. The smoke and dust of the mortal world have been thrown
behind us. I know that there are those among you who are extremely lost, who can't find your
own worth. When you were young, you were such a heroic person but in your old age, you don't
even know where to start to get your grandchildren to like you.

"It's all right. Now, please… hold the hand of the person beside you tightly and look deeply into
that person's eyes."

And so, everyone gathered in groups of two and followed the instructions to stare into each
other's eyes in the large hall filled with the smell of green peppers.

They had to look at each other for at least a minute—at the side, someone was keeping time.
Their eyes had to be sincere and they had to focus.

This action was actually awkward and funny, and a little mad. Most people could not hold it for
even ten seconds before they broke down laughing, much less one minute.

But if the partner beside you was doing it very seriously, people like Old Mr. Zhou who was very
good at reading people's faces and doubting themselves would feel too embarrassed to laugh.
Not only that, they would also suspect that their own attitudes were improper and that they
should try their best to imitate others.

Next to Old Mr. Zhou was none other than that old lady.

The old lady had very deep-set eyes. Even though her eyelids were drooping, she had taken good
care of her eyes somehow and they weren't the least bit murky. At the start, Old Mr. Zhou was
visibly discomfited but the old lady kept looking at him earnestly. Before he realised it, he was
remembering his old spouse who had passed away.

All of a sudden, the old lady seemed to be recalling some sorrowful matter that she was grieved
about. The corners of her mouth turned down a little and there was a glimmer of tears in her
eyes.

When a person grew old, they would usually become melancholy and emotional. Other people's
tears were like a magnet that could easily draw out the sorrowful matters suppressed deep in
their own hearts.

When Old Mr. Xhou saw her tears, he recalled the time when his wife was gravely ill. She had
tried hard to look at him from her sickbed. She could no longer speak and only her eyes were
making an appeal. He understood her meaning. She was saying, I don't want any more medical
treatment. It's too hard to endure. I can't be cured. If we continue the treatment, even the
money for your coffin will be used up. Then, what will happen to you in the future?

In her life, she had said more than once that in the future, she didn't want to be stripped naked,
have tubes going into her body all over and die at the hospital. But in the end, they had still made
her endure so much pain and take her last breath at the hospital.

Family was like that. As long as the patient was still breathing, they would not be willing to give
up trying to save them no matter what. It was as though if they didn't make themselves and the
patient go through a round of torture, they were skipping an important ritual and could not be at
ease.

But he had always felt that his wife blamed him.

Once she was gone, he had no home anymore. Even if he was in his own house, he had
frequently felt like an old dog living under someone else's roof and relying on them.

Every day, it was only during mealtimes that his family members would sit down with him. Due to
that, his every other word was about eating and his entire person seemed to have devolved into
a tedious foodsack.

At the table, Beibei would always be talking on the phone, Dongsheng would be half paying
attention to the news, and Han Zhou would be obsessed with his phone. Occasionally, when his
parents saw that, they would take turns to rebuke him and tell him to "Put down your phone and
eat properly" but they themselves treated eating a meal like it was a battle to be fought. Old Mr.
Zhou could never find the right timing to bring up a conversation topic. Sometimes, he would
carefully start a conversation but it seemed like no one understood what he said. Rarely would
there be anyone responding to him. Sometimes, he would say something foolish and Beibei
would heave a long sigh and say, "Dad, you're wrong," then launch into a long tirade to correct
him, making him feel ashamed of himself. He would then not dare to speak anymore during the
meal for fear of appearing foolish and only then would the subject be dropped.

They didn't want to hear him talk, so he could only pick up food and put in their bowls so that he
would have a sense of existence. But doing so also made them angry.

Han Zhou would yell, "Grandpa, I don't eat this, why did you forget again?"

Beibei would directly cover her bowl. "Don't bother, just take care of yourself!"

These petty matters couldn't be mentioned to outsiders. If mentioned, others would laugh—
Why, what year is it now, are you expecting to be treated like a retired emperor because of your
age? The moment you open your mouth to admonish them, your whole family has to put down
their chopsticks and sit with perfect posture?

Isn't that just asking for unnecessary trouble?

Hence, he could only turn all these into tears.

The one minute that had seemed so long unexpectedly went by in just a blink of the eye. Old Mr.
Zhou roused and realised that he was not the only one there with reddened eyes.

Someone put their arm around his shoulders, someone patted his hand. It was as though they
were all in the same boat and were comforting each other. Ever since his old spouse had passed
away, it was the first time Old Mr. Zhou had found a sense of belonging in a crowd of people. For
a moment, he was a little confused.

Right then, a few people entered the hall. They handed out water in disposable cups to the
elderly people for them to drink.

People who had just cried would always feel awkward so naturally, they would use the excuse of
lowering their heads to drink to ameliorate the situation. Hence, no one refused.

Because their hearts were discomfited, their mouths were also discomfited. Due to that, the faint
odd taste in the water was overlooked by these elderly people whose tastebuds were no longer
as sensitive as before.

But the moment Old Mr. Zhou saw the water, he wanted to go to the washroom even more. Even
though he took the paper cup like everyone else, he only lowered his head and pursed his mouth,
making the same action but not drinking.

The spiritual advisor saw that everyone was drinking and nodded in satisfaction. He asked them
all to close their eyes and started to use a low, steady voice to talk about the "afterworld." The
ideas were basically taken from the teachings of various major religions—a hammer from the
east, a steel bar from the west, all grafted together without a care. It sounded mysterious and
fantastical but when thought carefully, also seemed rather true. When wrapped in this line of
thought, the contents seemed to become trustworthy.

The rough outline of what the spiritual advisor was saying was: After death, humans will enter a
different world and will again have family. Their family in the mortal world were fake and
temporary, and could be considered an obstruction. Only their family in the other world was real.
A lot of elderly people may have plenty of grandchildren running around them but they still feel
as alone and empty as ever; this was the reason why. Under the guidance of the advisor, they
could sense for themselves their family in the other world. The reason why they are all gathered
there is none other than to search for the place their soul could come home to rest.

The spiritual advisor's training and guidance was for ten days and the cost was 40,000 per person.
Of course, even though the food was poor and scanty every day, the dining tables so bare that
they didn't even have eggs, this was mainly for the sake of "cleansing one's body and heart, and
returning to nature." Apparently, those unprepossessing vegetables on the dining tables were
carefully cultivated "organic vegetables" and 40,000 was far from enough. The shortfall was
covered by the spiritual advisor digging into his own pockets to subsidize them in the name of
public welfare.

To prevent them from being disturbed by the outside world, mobile signals were blocked. After
ten days, the spiritual advisor would send them home. Everyone would be given a red cap, a little
flag and other travel memorabilia. They would be taught what to say to pretend they had been
on a trip so that they could hoodwink their "fake family" and prevent society unrest.

The "family" they found in the training class would always be in contact with them and
accompany them until the end of their lives, when they would then reunite in the other world.

As the spiritual advisor spoke on, all the elderly people felt like they were starting to float. The
advisor's voice seemed to be echoing beside their ears, burning into their ear drums. For no
reason, they felt relaxed and light-hearted, as though their souls were starting to leave their
fleshly bodies.

But today, Old Mr. Zhou just couldn't get into that state. Maybe it was because of his full bladder;
the mysterious happiness from the past two days didn't appear. He fidgeted in his seat, the
advisor's words sounding long and boring to him. This guy had a very heavy accent, and his voice
was also hoarse and croaky like a male duck.

Old Mr. Zhou endured for five minutes. When he could endure no longer, he opened his eyes a
sliver and saw something terrifying…

Around him, all his companions had dazed smiles on their faces. Some of them had lost control of
their facial muscles and their expressions were very odd, and there were some who were
drooling from the corner of their mouths and even seemed to be completely unaware of it!

Old Mr. Zhou was so frightened he was covered in cold sweat. Even his need to urinate reduced a
little.
The spiritual advisor's words were not going into his ears at all. With much effort, he endured
until the end of the daily activity. Under the guidance of the employees, the white-clad elderly
people stood up one by one, and just like the paper figures with linked hands that children cut
out of paper in arts and crafts classes, they stood up in a daze and followed the employees.

The employee who had brought them water just now seemed to be shepherding zombies,
sending this group of people to their rooms so that they could "take a nap" and restore their
vitality.

Old Mr. Zhou blended in with the crowd, trembling with fear. He dredged up all his abilities to act
and despite his posture being a little stiff, at least he didn't expose himself. He thought of how he
had been just like them for the past two days—laying down to sleep for some unknown reason
and waking up to find that one hour had passed. And even though he had slept, he hadn't felt
very energised. The advisor had even said that it was normal, that their "souls" were "tired from
their travels."

"Old Wu! Old Wu!" After pretending to lie down for a while, Old Mr. Zhou confirmed that there
was no one around and carefully called out to his roommate in the bed next to his own.

Old Wu was a light sleeper. Old Mr. Zhou knew that he frequently could not sleep at night, even a
person making too much noise when turning over in their sleep could wake him up. But today,
even when he reached out to shake him, Old Wu still did not wake up. He slept like the dead.

A thought flashed past his mind. Old Mr. Zhou shivered—That cup of water!

There was something wrong with that cup of water!

"The third session." Yu Yan looked at the flier collected from the missing old people's homes.
"Which is to say, there were similar cases before this. Why do we not know about it?"

A colleague spoke up, "The cases might have been more spread out or there might not have been
enough of them, unlike this time when they're all concentrated together?"

Yu Yan's brows furrowed. Suddenly, he lifted his head abruptly. "Can we request to check the
status of cases of missing old people in the entire city?"

Most reported cases of missing old people involved the elderly with declining mental faculties
getting lost. The few out-of-the-norm cases were exceptionally eye-catching.

In the past, these cases had indeed been very few and were scattered throughout all the districts
in the entire Yanning. The scale was not as large as the current cases. Furthermore, these elderly
people who still had robust mental faculties typically lived alone. Some had disappeared for a
long while before their family noticed but the cases were usually closed very quickly after they
were reported because they turned out to be false alarms—the missing old people came back
wearing red caps from a tour group. It turned out that they had just gone out to have fun without
informing their family.
A police officer said doubtfully, "My grandma wanted to go on a trip but all the tour groups did
not accept her. They either say that there are no suitable itineraries or they request for family
members to accompany her… At the very least, they require the family to sign a form. Are there
that many programs that accept old people above seventy years old?"
Chapter 50
"Paradise?" Zhang Meizhen looked at the flier before her, her face that always had a touch of a
mysterious smile turned serious. Her gaze locked on to a corner of the flier where there was a
black symbol that looked like the sun. "They've changed their name to Paradise now? That old
demon Xu Zhao is still alive?"

"Xu Zhao doesn't bother himself with these matters." Old Master Yang rested both hands down
on the Dog Beating Staff, his expression equally grave. "It may be a subdivision his disciples set up
solely for the purpose of swindling money for him."

"Why, this evil cult even has a history?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "Who's Xu Zhao?"

Old Yang and Zhang Meizhen both fell into a silence. They exchanged a look, as though neither of
them knew where to begin talking.

"I've heard the seniors talk about him a little," Han Dongsheng interjected from the side. Two
dark circles hung under his eyes and his complexion was very poor. His appearance was
becoming more and more unpresentable. His voice was also hoarse but when he opened his
mouth, his tone was as gentle and polite as ever. "Xu Zhao is a wanted criminal. He has
committed many major crimes but he couldn't be caught because he has many demonic skills.
This black sun is his mark."

"Xu Zhao is a madman," Old Master Yang said slowly. "He thinks that it is getting harder now for
martial arts skills to be passed down and that a lot of supreme skills that were unique to their
individual sects are now extinct. For the sake of preventing the lifeblood of the martial arts from
being cut off, someone has to gather all these techniques and skills. Hence, he has been
searching for and collecting the skills from various sects everywhere."

Yu Lanchuan was completely lost. "Wait a minute, is this person a wanted criminal or a guardian
of intangible cultural heritage?"

In the era of information explosion and knowledge-sharing, the "differentiation by sect" in the
past no longer existed. After all, it was already pretty good if they could find people willing to
practise the skills.

Old Master Yang grumbled every day about how he had no descendants to pass his skills to.
Wasn't it a good thing if someone asked to inherit them?

"You think the martial arts skills he's collecting are those from respected and righteous sects like
yours?" Zhang Meizhen blew on her nails. "Forget it, Little Master Yu. Even if you copied out the
sword techniques from the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang and put them online, it won't be as
popular as gossip about the love affairs of the previous leaders of the Martial Arts Alliance."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."
"What Xu Zhao is collecting is mostly martial arts skills from demonic and evil sects. For the sake
of obtaining them, he murdered and plundered, protected criminals, and acted selfishly and
rashly. Thirty years ago, he had once been the public enemy of the martial arts community."
Having said so far, Old Master Yang lifted his head to glance at Yu Lanchuan who didn't
understand all these. "Yes, you can treat him as one of those fictional demonic sect leaders
obsessed with evil techniques."

Yu Lanchuan had a bad premonition. "...So?"

"If this thing is really related to Xu Zhao," Zhang Meizhen said, "Little Master Yu, prepare yourself
to sign an Alliance Leader's Command."

Old Master Yang stood up, his hands gripping the Dog Beating Staff. "Let the few of us old things
go and have a look at this Paradise."

But how was he to sign the Alliance Leader's Command? Was it a document to be mass-mailed to
everyone? Was there an official letterhead? How should he write the introductory part? Was
there a fixed format? Was it a legal document?

Unfamiliar with the requirements of the job, the alliance leader was at a complete loss. When
sending off Old Master Yang at the front door, he had just opened his mouth to ask when he
suddenly thought of something. "Wait a minute, Grandpa Yang, is Wan Mu Chun's 'Paoding
Jieniu' considered one of the 'demonic and evil' skills you mentioned? Is it one of the skills
collected by that Xu Zhao?"

Old Master Yang stared blankly. A complicated expression flashed past his face. They were both
among the Five Supremes and had a few of generations' of good relations. He was not willing to
speak ill of Wan Mu Chun behind their back. But the skills the descendants of that gang of killers
practised could indeed not be considered as proper martial arts skills. He avoided answering.
"Why do you ask?"

Yu Lanchuan asked in a low voice, "Do you remember those people who instigated Xiang
Xiaoman to kill Nie Ke some time ago?"

That group of people had kept low and hidden while conducting their business, and were very
mysterious. They seemed to be working towards the same purpose as this Paradise but with
different methods. Meanwhile, Wan Mu Chun's lineage had always only had a single descendant
in every generation. Those people had a tendency to shun the outside world and didn't seem to
be so numerous that there would be counterfeits everywhere.

One closed door away, Gan Qing was rebuking Liu Zhongqi in the living room. "Don't think too
much when you're doing your reading comprehension. It wasn't easy for you to understand two
sections, it's a shame if you make a lot of mistakes. The reading comprehension at your senior
high level won't have that many 'hidden meanings'-"

Liu Zhongqi refused to yield. "What's that about our senior high level? What level are you, joint
masters and PhD?"
After speaking, he didn't hear Gan Qing's retort so he looked up and saw her staring towards the
front door, her brows slowly furrowing.

On the police's side, Yu Yan and the rest spent an entire day contacting the family members of
the elderly people who had returned after they were thought missing but these people could
only answer "I don't know" to questions concerning those elderly people.

"Nope, my dad's fine."

"My mum exercises every day and joins the power-walking for the elderly. Her lifestyle is pretty
healthy. What evil cult, are you guys mistaken?"

"I think you guys are the ones who are swindlers. My grandma just got her flu jab last month,
why would she join evil cults?"

The police officer who was treated as a telephone scammer lost his temper. "What does getting a
flu jab have to do with joining evil cults? I really-"

Yu Yan shushed him and turned on the bluetooth. He heard a man's voice coming from the other
side of the phone, hesitant and confused. "Ai? I think… maybe? May I know what is the
problem?"

Yu Yan quickly glanced at the corresponding name in the list. "Mr. Li, can I confirm with you again
that according to you, after your father returned home, he frequently meditated, prayed and did
other religious acts? He also spread the teachings to the people around him and participating in
those activities has taken up most of his time, correct?"

"I think he joined some religion, hmm… there are quite a lot of activities. Things like gathering a
few old men and old ladies together for group study, gathering together to chitchat." Having said
so far, the man suddenly became wary. "They didn't do anything illegal, Comrade Officer. The size
of their study group isn't even as large as those public square dancing groups, and they aren't
creating any ruckus about stuff like setting themselves on fire."

"Did you notice anything odd?" Yu Yan asked.

"Sigh, the old kids and the young kids, I can't manage all of them," the man said broadmindedly.
"Which family doesn't have some old parents who dabble in a bit of feudalistic and superstitious
activities? Just take it as letting them have something to do, it's better than having them sit at
home the whole day and calling the numbers in the T.V. ads. To be honest, we ourselves like to
find some kind of spiritual support when we have nothing better to do, much less the old
people."

"But this organisation that your father joined isn't a normal spiritual support. We are currently
suspecting that it is an evil cult," Yu Yan said.
The man was dumbstruck. "Comrade Officer, what happened to this cult of theirs? Is there a
crackdown? In that case, I… I'll go back and talk to my dad, and ask him to convert to another
one. We really didn't know…"

Don't let him convert to another one!

Yu Yan couldn't help cutting him off. "Mr. Li, these evil cults are called evil cults because other
than swindling people to accumulate wealth, there is also a possibility that they might urge
people to harm or kill themselves, do you know that?"

"They're already so old. They barely have enough time to cherish life, they wouldn't do that." The
man didn't take it to heart and continued to say laughingly, "Okay, I'll tell him not to believe in
those things. I will definitely give him a stern lecture, please don't worry."

Yu Yan, "..."

Right then, the young female police officer next to him who had just passed her probation period
suddenly opened her mouth to say, "Yu-ge, if that man goes back and tells his dad about this evil
cult called Paradise, wouldn't we have alerted the enemy?"

Yu Yan stared blankly. Then, his eyes lit up. "That's right, get someone to keep watch on this old
man and wait to see who he contacts!"

After Old Mr. Zhou went through such an afternoon, even his bladder had a terrifying memory
now and he really could not stay there any longer. He first found a Paradise employee and asked
tentatively, "I lied to Doctor Xu. Before I left the house, I argued with my family and I hadn't told
them at all that I was coming here. I've been regretting it more and more these couple of days…
They must be terribly worried. There's no mobile signal here, where can I find a public payphone?
I want to call them and tell them that I'm safe."

With a slight smile, the employee told him, "We are in a sealed-off camp. There are no phones."

"Then, can you send me back a few days earlier? My grandson is going to sit for his end-of-term
exams. The child is already a temporary student, if he doesn't do well because of me, what will
we do?" As Old Mr. Zhou spoke, he clenched his teeth and steeled himself. "Look, I've stayed
here for such a long time already so I won't ask for a refund. You just need to send me to the
nearest bus stop, I-"

"Old Zhou, what are you saying?" A very gentle voice came from behind him. Old Mr. Zhou
quivered—it was that old lady!

The old lady was supposedly an old member of Paradise who stayed there voluntarily to take care
of them and guide them. Every new member would be matched with such a "guide." Old Mr.
Zhou had always thought himself lucky that his guide was so gentle and patient, and also
beautiful. But right now, when he heard that voice, all of a sudden he faintly felt his blood
running cold.

She was monitoring him!

"What's all this about money?" The old lady came over, feigning anger. She was with another
employee and they took hold of Old Mr. Zhou's stiff arms on either side of him, trapping him in
the middle. "The advisor worked so hard to gather everyone here, was it for the sake of money?
He's doing it for the sake of the public welfare. The little bit of money that all of you contribute is
only just barely enough to keep this operations base going. The remaining amount is not even
enough for food and board."

Old Mr. Zhou said, "I-"

"Are you thinking of shrinking back again?" The old lady interrupted and sighed. "It wasn't easy
for you to take this step forward, do you want to waste all your previous efforts? I know that it's
very hard to break free of all these sickly spiritual connections and it's normal for there to be
relapses. How about this, from tomorrow onwards, I will talk to the advisor and let you have an
additional individual meditation training session in the morning."

Old Mr. Zhou was frightened by this "preferential" treatment. He decided to escape. He would
escape that very night!

On the evening of the same day, in Yanning City, an old man walked into a residential building.

"Yu-ge, Yu-ge, we saw him go into the building." Yu Yan's colleague's voice transmitted through
the earphones in his ears. "He went up to the fifth floor, it looks like 501. Someone opened the
door for him. The curtains are closed, we can't see what's going on in the apartment."

Yu Yan and the others were following the Old Mr. Li whom they suspected had once joined the
evil cult Paradise. After getting the call from the police, Old Li's son did indeed quarrel with his
dad and took away the pile of publicity material that his dad was hiding and even confiscated Old
Li's pension bank card.

Mr. Li had to look after his own family. He "took care" of the matter of his father believing in an
evil cult in this simple and rough manner, then rushed off without even eating. Hence, he was
unaware that after he left, Old Mr. Li quickly packed his things and left home.

Yu Yan said softly, "Get someone to pretend to be delivering food, and go up there for a look."

A young police officer responded and changed his outfit. In a short time, he went up the building
carrying take-out food. From the other side of the door, he heard music that had a very strong
religious feel and the sound of people's voices. The people were singing in chorus; it sounded like
there were quite a number of them.

The officer knocked on the door. The singing inside came to a stop. After a while, someone asked
warily, "Who is it?"

The officer disguised as a food delivery worker said, "I'm here to deliver food."

"We didn't call for food."

"Huh?" With his eyes, the young officer signalled to his colleagues who had hurried up while
reading out the apartment number. "This is the right place. A Mr. Li made the order, his number
is-"

Before he could finish speaking, his colleague who was surveilling the place from far with
binoculars suddenly said, "Charge in, there's someone escaping through the window!"

"They're too vigilant." Yu Yan pushed the car door open. "Catch him, this man is definitely not an
ordinary cult member!"

The few police officers at the door broke down the door and entered. A strange fragrance
permeated the room. There were a few printers in a corner and in an out of the way nook, there
were piles of printed material—unexpectedly, this was a den for illegal activities. At least six or
seven elderly people were gathered inside.

The moment the door opened, these six or seven elderly people seemed ready to sacrifice
themselves and charged fiercely towards the officers.

These "ruffians" were on average seventy years of age and belonged to the age group where, if
they fell down on the street, other people would not dare to carelessly help them up. They
tottered and trembled as they held their walking sticks, crashing against the officers like enamel
mugs and bowls. Immediately after that, an old lady sprawled right on the floor and hung on to a
young officer's leg for dear life, then bit down on it!

The officer was afraid of knocking the old lady's dentals loose and didn't dare move an inch. He
was so frightened that the pitch of his voice changed. "Yu-ge, we need back-up!"

At the same time, a white shadow flashed through the opened window. Someone was jumping
down directly from the fifth floor!
Chapter 51
"Shit!" Yu Yan cursed into the receiver. "He can still escape in this situation, what the hell are you
guys doing!"

The few officers who were "fucking things up" upstairs felt that it was terribly unjust. When they
heard this criticism, they only wanted to shout back downstairs, "Do it yourself if you can!" They
didn't dare fight back, while the elderly army was brimming with fighting spirit and was not
holding back at all. An elderly man lifted a large broom and smashed it down on them.

"Do you officers do anything proper at all the whole day? If you're so great, go arrest Osama bin
Laden! You officers only know how to persecute the people!"

"Sir, please put down your weapon, let us talk properly… Stop hitting! You guys are the one
persecuting the police!"

The suspect who escaped through the window was scraggly and unkempt. His face was wrinkled
and he looked around the age of sixty, yet his movements were abnormally nimble.
He didn't free-fall to the ground; instead, he grabbed the window frame and swung like a
monkey, swinging himself to the top of a tree in the residential area. His limbs curled in and he
protected his face with his hands. The dried branches buffered his landing. Before he reached the
ground, his body was already unfolding swiftly in midair. Both his hands caught on to a tree
branch and with a swing, he leaped directly over the heads of the landbound police officers!

"After him!" Yu Yan picked up his police baton. "Detour to the front and arrest him!"

This scene wasn't like the time when they went after the qigong master. There weren't many
little alleys here. Once they were out of the residential area, it was a wide and flat road.

He silently thanked modern technology. No matter how good that person's qinggong was, as long
as there were no cracks for him to slip into, he definitely could not outrun cars.

A few police cars responded and drove ahead, their sirens piercing through the air. Ahead was a
blockade; behind were pursuers.

A sinister expression flashed past the fleeing suspect's face. Suddenly, he turned his body in the
air and swiftly threw something at the relentlessly pursuing Yu Yan.

Yu Yan only saw him move and didn't see clearly what he had thrown. But in that instant, he was
attacked by a sense of danger that he had never felt before. The hairs on the back of his neck
stood up and there was only a single thought left in his mind: Shit, I'm dead.

Right at that moment, a hand pressed on his back, forcefully pushing him down. Yu Yan had been
rushing forwards and he lost his balance and nearly sprawled on the ground. At the same time,
something brushed past the back of his head and a clink rang out!

Yu Yan stumbled a few steps. His knees weakened and he fell kneeling on the ground. Barely over
the shock, he turned his head back to look.

What he saw was that the person who had pushed him down with a hand was Yan Hao and in
Yan Hao's hand was a dull black metal rod. A few small throwing knives were stuck to the metal
rod, their blades reflecting a cold light. They had all been thrown at him just now by the suspect!

Yan Hao didn't have time to speak to him. With a few leaps, he chased after the suspect. The
other person repeated his old tricks; his hands opened and there was a sharp, whistling sound
carried by the wind. It was another batch of throwing knives!

Yan Hao brandished the strange metal rod in his hands like a windshield wiper, swinging it
around so fiercely that even the wind could not pass through and only a blur could be seen.
Those small throwing knives were again drawn towards that strange metal rod. Yan Hao went
forward a couple of steps, catching up with the suspect, and turned his body, his leg sweeping
out. The suspect's face changed and he leaped abruptly to dodge. But he didn't realise that there
was a thick and sturdy tree branch right above his head.

With this leap, his head collided directly against the branch and he gave himself a concussion on
the spot. Without making a single sound, he fell unconscious to the ground.
The police officers who had caught up, "..."

The large tree shook slightly.

Traditional qinggong was said to be unscientific precisely because of this—before studying, there
were no systematic rules and training, and no one taught the students the fundamental safety
rule of "Open your eyes and ears." If a person ran so fast and even climbed up high for no reason,
how could there not be an "accident"?

Who among those experts who flew here and there with their qinggong hadn't banged their
heads a few times? Everyone was just united in keeping it a secret from outsiders for the sake of
preserving their immortal-like image.

The police officers swarmed up and put handcuffs on the suspect.

"There's something in his pocket… Wait a minute, this is… Oh my god!" A few officers searched
the suspect's body and found the blades of a dozen surgical knives, all fixed to a projectile
launcher that looked like a children's toy. When the switch was pressed, the sharp blades would
be fired out. At a short distance, it was extremely lethal. "Old Yu, you're lucky to be alive."

"Why, thank you." Yu Yan's legs were still a little weak. He limped over and forced a laugh as he
patted Yan Hao on the shoulder. "Why are you here?"

Yan Hao spoke like the buzz of a mosquito. "Sect Leader Yang asked me to come here. He said
that these people might be related to demonic sects and was worried that you guys would be in
danger."

Yu Yan exhaled. After a close brush with death, he was still feeling the fear now and was a little
out of breath. He rested his hands on his knees, bending at the waist, and tilted his head to study
the metal rod in Yan Hao's hand. "What kind of martial arts skills is it that you have, is it internal
energy? You can even attract those small knives?"

The expert walks among the common people, the wise man does not reveal his face!

Yu Yan couldn't help feeling deeply respectful.

Yan Hao answered shyly, "Magnet."

Yu Yan, "..."

"It's specially for defending against hidden weapons," Yan Hao said awkwardly. "I have a bit of
myopia and also astigmatism… It's from looking at the computer screen too much. I can't see
clearly if other people use hidden weapons."

Officer Yu's head which was looking up from between his arms dropped back down. He thought,
It's game over for you righteous sects.
A colleague ran over. "Yu-ge! Are you all right? Ai, how should we handle this suspect? He gave
himself a concussion, do we put him in custody or take him to the hospital?"

Oh well, Yu Yan straightened up painfully and thought, it's good enough anyway. The evil sects
are about the same level as them.

"First…" Yu Yan shot a glance downwards and was suddenly stunned. "Wait."

He drew near the unconscious suspect and realised that there was a very small bump on the
person's temples. It was like the wrinkles on a person's finger pads when they had soaked in the
water for too long.

Yu Yan drew closer and examined it for a few seconds. He put on gloves and carefully pulled that
piece of skin, and unexpectedly pulled off a layer of skin from the suspect's face!

It was a very thin layer of film. It seemed to be made of something like plastic or silicon. On top, it
was moulded with very realistic age spots and wrinkles. But unlike the "human-skin masks" in
television series which could be peeled off in one piece, this was like spring pancakes. It was put
together piece by tiny piece, the shape of each piece tailored and trimmed with meticulous
detail. The places where they were affixed to were all the areas on a person's face that easily
wrinkled and where the flesh was not smooth, so that there was a natural contour and even by
touch, nothing strange could be detected!

Beneath the mask was the face of a man in the prime of his life. His skin was a little red from
being tugged on by the mask and his features looked fierce.

With this face, even if he were to ask for directions on the streets it was likely that no one would
dare give him a detailed answer. But once the mask was on, in a flash he transformed into a
kindly and friendly old man who could very easily gain the trust of his "peers."

"Go back and check whether this man has a criminal record." Yu Yan breathed out lightly. "These
demonic sect people sure have lots of tricks."

At the same time, in another residential area in Yanning City, a small bus stopped under the
shade of the trees. A young man came down from the bus—it was the man who had taken Old
Mr. Zhou away, Xu Shaowen.

This time, he was clearly being more careful. The medium-sized bus had been switched to a low-
key small bus, he didn't dare stop at a busy spot, and the body of the bus was even marked with
the logo of a fake tour group to fool any onlookers.

The bus driver pulled down the brim of his cap and said behind Xu Shaowen, "I've already said
before, slender streams flow the longest. Don't be too greedy, be more careful when you pick
your targets and pick less people. Wait until these people have been groomed, then let them run
errands and cast the net on our behalf. Don't bring so many people to the operations base, the
base is where we train our core members. But you guys just had to scheme to make some quick
money and took away so many people in one go! Now, great, you've alerted the police, haven't
you?"
"You think I want to entertain so many old men and old ladies at the same time? It's all because
we haven't met the quota for this year! It's already the end of the year, what else can we do?" Xu
Shaowen's face turned cold. "Those who conduct their operations in the rural areas can easily
increase their followers by converting a whole village at a time, what would they know about the
competition we face in the big city? Just one district alone already has two groups selling health
supplements, one for practicing qigong, and even the ones for acupuncture, moxibustion and
weight loss are starting to shout slogans and form cliques. And the rent is also so damned
expensive! I heard that that useless group of trash, the Chun division, were completely
eliminated not long after they got to Yanning... Ai, it makes me want to switch branches. This is
the last batch for the year. I've calculated it, if we fill up the bus this round, our mission is done…
Someone's here!"

The elderly were usually the type to fight to be the first rather than to be the last. Before the
appointed time, most of them were already there.

Beaming from ear to ear, Xu Shaowen greeted them one by one. This time, he even gave each of
them a small flag and a small red cap, and they looked completely like a proper tour group.

"Please go up slowly, there is water on the bus… I believe that our ten-day trip will be an
extremely happy one. Not only can we enjoy the beautiful scenery, we can also nourish our
souls… Ai, Sir, you are…"

Xu Shaowen helped the last old man up the bus and looked at the unfamiliar face with some
misgivings. "Have you participated in our activities before?"

The old man was leaning on his walking stick, his body curled like a small lump. He looked at Xu
Shaowen with a rather lost expression.

An old man who had gotten on the bus earlier quickly poked his head out. "I was the one who
brought Old Yang along. In the past, we played weiqi together. He really can't stay at his home
anymore, he's almost sleeping on the streets. I feel sorry for him so I brought him along."

Xu Shaowen's brows furrowed lightly.

"Xiao-Xu, just bring one more along. It's not like Old Yang doesn't have the money. He just
doesn't have any other choice. He's over ninety already. He's too old, tour agencies all take a look
at his identification and immediately ask where his family is. Once they hear that his family is not
there, they'll either not dare to take him on or want to make a police report."

The moment Xu Shaowen heard the old man's age, he cursed in his heart. Tour agencies didn't
want to take the old man in, their own demonic organisations also didn't want to take him in! If
he just breathed the wrong way, he might cross to the other world just like that. What on earth
were these old fools living so long for, were they cultivating to attain spiritual enlightenment?

He was just trying to find an excuse to refuse when Old Yang took out a paper packet with
faltering hands and pushed it to his chest, saying anxiously, "I just went to the bank this morning
to line up and withdraw it. Old Feng said I'm an extra person, I was afraid that you wouldn't want
me so I withdrew a bit more. There's 100,000 in total. Young man, please take me along."

Xu Shaowen's ears twitched. He turned back to exchange a look with the driver.

The driver nodded slightly at him. There was an extra 60,000. The two of them could split it and
treat it as overtime fees.

Xu Shaowen pretended to hesitate. After a long while, he reluctantly nodded. "This is not quite
following the rules… Ai, I really feel sorry for you. All right, I'll bear the responsibility for this!'

Old Yang tottered up the bus, holding onto him for support.

"Ninety already." Xu Shaowen's hand was warm and strong. Like he was carrying something that
wasn't very heavy, he easily helped Old Yang into the bus. Out of professional habit, he said
without thinking, "If my grandfather was still alive, he would probably be the same age as you. In
the past, I liked to listen to him talk. He lived for almost a century. He knew everything that had
happened and I was never bored no matter how long I listened. Your family members really don't
know how to appreciate you."

Old Yang was briefly stunned. For a moment, the faintly pleading expression on his face
disappeared. His eyelids dropped down and his gaze was rather resigned.

The small bus full of red-capped elderly and bearing the logo saying "Red Sunset Tours" stealthily
blended in with the traffic and left Yanning City. A rather rundown car quietly stuck close behind.

In his office, Yu Lanchuan was in a meeting to discuss a business contract and was expounding on
the last risk management point. He saw his phone lit up with a message from Han Dongsheng:
We're following them.

Got it. Yu Lanchuan raised his cup of coffee and with that as a cover, replied quickly: The location
tracker is already in place. Beggars' Sect also has people keeping watch.

Han Dongsheng was a little worried. Little Master Yu, what if they happened to have an expert
holding down the fort? Sect Leader Yang's age is so advanced and I really don't have the
confidence to fight against other people right now. Can you really not release an Alliance Leader's
Command?

Other than looking at his WeChat, Yu Lanchuan was multitasking and debating with his work
colleagues. "Solving the problems is a job for the relevant departments. Risk Management
Department only points out the risks. Concealing information from shareholders is a legal risk.
Did I say anything wrong?"

His fingers were not idle. Under the conference table, he sent a message: I won't. This involves
the law on disorderly conduct. You guys can release the command yourselves if you want to.

Han Dongsheng, "..."

Suddenly, Yu Lanchuan's phone vibrated again. He thought it was Han Dongsheng but when he
glanced down, it turned out to be Gan Qing.

Gan Qing had sent him a photo of a beaded bracelet with the comment: Fortune beads for the
new year, delivery on the way. Little Master Yu, remember to pay the bill.

Yu Lanchuan was puzzled. What did she mean, was she forcing him to buy her goods?

Daylight hours during the winter were always exceptionally short. Night fell very quickly,
concealing the ulterior motives some people had in their hearts.

At ten p.m., Paradise turned off the lights on time, not wasting any bit of electricity. Old Mr. Zhou
lay down for half an hour. His surroundings were pin drop silent. He pulled his bag out from
under the bed, stealthily clambered up, and tiptoed his way out.

"Old Zhou?" Old Wu in the next bed woke up at the slightest noise and suddenly called out.
"What are you doing?"

Old Mr. Zhou trembled. "I… I'm going to the toilet."

Old Wu looked at him in the darkness. "Bringing your bag with you to the toilet?"

Old Mr. Zhou stood at the door for a while, at a loss for what to do. He was used to being honest
and could not do something like deceiving his companion and running away on his own. In his
entire life, he had not been good at lying and he really did not know how to come up with lies.
Hence, he gritted his teeth, walked to Old Wu's bed and, in a soft voice, told him everything he
had noticed.

Old Wu fell silent for a while. "I also felt that I slept very deeply after the afternoon activity but
when it's night time, I can't sleep."

Old Mr. Zhou said, "That's why there's something wrong! Let's leave together."

"But we've already paid…"

"Who cares about the money now," Old Mr. Zhou said urgently. "Let's leave first. We'll make a
police report and get the money back."

Old Wu hesitated for a while. Finally, he was persuaded. Without even taking his things, he
followed Old Mr. Zhou to slip out of the small building. The people there might have thought that
these old people were all very foolish and didn't need to be monitored strictly; one guard at the
door was asleep while the other one had left for a smoke break. Without much effort, the two old
men reached the back door of the agricultural tourism chalet.

Old Mr. Zhou said, "I must escape today. Otherwise, they want to give me an individual
'additional class' tomorrow. If I'm alone, I'll have no choice but to drink that water, I won't be
able to fool them…"
Right at that moment, there was a flash of vehicle lights before them. Following that, there was
the sound of honking. Old Mr. Zhou nearly had a heart attack. He pulled Old Wu to crouch down
in a corner.

They saw that it was a small bus with the logo of a tour group. The napping door guard heard the
noise and came to the backyard to open the door for them, yawning all the while. "Doctor Xu"
who had conned them into coming there was the first to get off. Close on his heels, a few swaying
figures came down from the bus. From their appearance, they looked like elderly people whose
movements were rather sluggish.

Old Mr. Zhou sighed. "Another batch. How much money do they want to make?"

Right then, Old Wu suddenly said beside him. "There's no bus stop nearby, how are we going to
leave? Is there someone coming to pick you up?"

"No." Old Mr. Zhou's attention was still on the small bus and he spoke without thinking. "I know
that the gate at the backyard faces north. If we walk out that way and walk for over ten miles,
there's a long-distance transport hub. I saw it when we were on the way here. The two of us walk
slow. At our pace, by the time we get there it should be daylight. We can get on a bus and leave."

"Oh." Old Wu nodded slowly. "No one's coming to pick you up."

"Wha-" All of a sudden, the person next to him gave him a hard push and Old Mr. Zhou fell sitting
on the ground.

Right after that, he heard his "comrade-in-arms" who was escaping with him swiftly stand up, run
out a few meters and shout, "There's someone here who wants to run away! He even wants to
betray the advisor!"

The bus's headlights swept towards them abruptly. Old Mr. Zhou stood rooted to the spot,
dumbstruck. With that one shout, Old Wu had awakened the sleeping little courtyard and the
surrounding area was instantly lit up.

A few seconds later, a group of employees ran out of the building. Xu Shaowen's face was rather
cold. He made a chopping motion with his hand at the driver next to him, then turned to face the
batch of newly-arrived elderly. He quickly put on a pleasant expression. "This old sir's mental
state isn't very good. It's all right, we will isolate him. When he has stabilised, we will send him
home… It's late, come, everyone, please mind your step. Let us go in and rest."

"Wait a minute."

Old Yang, the last to get down from the bus, tapped on the ground lightly with his walking stick.
Under Xu Shaowen's gaze, he slowly straightened his back that was curved like a question mark.
Chapter 52
The original plan made by Old Yang and the others should begin with Sect Leader Yang himself
investigating the matter to see if this was purely a nest of swindlers or if there was a big demon
holding the fort. After he had figured out the situation, they would decide on how to carry out
the next step.
After all, this place was filled inside and out with old people who couldn't be handled roughly.

Director Yu had helped to look over the plan himself and had considered practically all the
possible risks and their mitigation steps. But among those, there wasn't one that was "Old Yang is
exposed before he achieves his goal."

Sect Leader Yang was a jianghu veteran, the very antonym of "hairless upper lip, can't work
without a slip." If even he was unreliable, was there anyone that could be counted on in the
whole wide martial arts world?

If Old Mr. Zhou was younger by twenty years, Old Yang would definitely hold back from saying
anything. There was time aplenty for him to first infiltrate in and wait for a chance to pull Old Mr.
Zhou over to their side.

But Old Zhou was already over seventy. Both his physical body and his spirit had deteriorated into
a reed-like skeletal frame with barely any vitality. People in their seventies all had this type of
reed-like skeletal frame. Even without anyone colliding into him, he would sway on his feet when
there was no wind. There was no time to wait.

The cold in Xu Shaowen's eyes did not go away. "Grandpa Yang, is anything the matter?"

While he spoke, three or four people clad in white robes charged forward, seizing Old Zhou half
by force. Old Zhou didn't know if it was because he fell on his butt just now or because he was
scared witless but his legs weren't listening to him. Both his legs dangled down to the ground as
he was dragged away.

Old Yang seemed to be exerting a lot of effort to stretch out his neck. He gripped his walking stick
and tottered forward a few steps, pretending to be startled. "Is that… Is that Old Zhou? He's my
downstairs neighbour, what happened to him? What is going on?"

Xu Shaowen narrowed his eyes. "You can see so clearly even in the dark. Grandpa, your eyesight
is pretty good."

"What?" Old Yang seemed to be rather hard of hearing. He angled his head towards Xu Shaowen
but didn't answer him. He looked towards his fellow elderly companions who had gotten down
from the bus with a perplexed expression and said, "Old Zhou is a good person. A few days ago,
he disappeared suddenly. His family is nearly going mad from worry and even made a police
report. Who knew he would be here! Why didn't he call his family? Ai, Xiao-Xu, quick, tell those
people to let him go. I think he's going to need to go to the hospital!"

Xu Shaowen's eye twitched. These old people were very easily obsessed. It was easy to deceive
them into taking out money, handing the money over and getting aboard the pirate ship but a
moment's impulse could not last long. The first night they arrived at the operations base was
when they most easily felt regret and their hearts most easily swayed. A very practised set of
flowery words was needed to keep them happy in the first place.
Who would have known that before he could put those flowery words to use, he met with this
incident. The elderly people who had just got down from the bus looked at each other with
doubt. All around, the sound of whispers rose.

"What is going on?"

"Why do I feel that this is rather frightening?"

"Actually, I didn't inform my family either… Ai, maybe I should give them a call. Hmm… why is
there no signal?"

"My phone has no signal too…"

Xu Shaowen said patiently, "Maybe the nearby cell tower is under maintenance, the signal isn't
very good these couple of days. Everyone, please don't worry."

Before he could finish speaking, he heard Old Yang shout from beside him. "Old Zhou!"

Old Mr. Zhou who was being kidnapped heard his voice and turned his head with much effort.
When he saw a familiar face, his soul that had scattered in all directions returned to its rightful
place and he started struggling. "Help! Don't drink their water, they've added something-"

Xu Shaowen, "..."

This old fool!

The man beside Old Zhou quickly grabbed his collar and pressed a few times in the area between
his chest and his neck. Just like that, Old Zhou was like an old turtle whose neck was being pulled
by someone. He extended his neck stiffly and didn't speak anymore.

He was dragged into the small building.

Sect Leader Yang's pupils contracted. He gripped his walking stick.

Xu Shaowen said, "This sir had been tormented by his children all this while, his mental state is
really not very good. He said a few words during the afternoon sharing session but perhaps our
effort to help him see things clearly wasn't done very well, so his mind is a little confused at
night-"

"Surely not!" Old Yang raised his voice, cutting him off again. "I know Old Zhou's children, they
are all good children. They didn't torment him."

Xu Shaowen's eyes were like a viper's, looking over dangerously. "It was Grandpa Zhou himself
who said so."

Old Yang knew that there was no way things could end well today so he decided that he might as
well stop pretending to be foolish. He said slowly, pausing between each word, "Tormenting the
elderly is against the law. Did you make a police report?"
"Xiao-Xu." Right then, an old lady who had just gotten down from the bus was the first to speak.
"I'm afraid my daughter will panic when she can't find me. How about I don't participate this
time? You can call me the next time you organise an activity."

"Xiao-Xu, me too…"

"You can deduct the transport cost."

"I want to withdraw too. Who here wants to continue?"

The red-capped elderly swiftly fell into silence. No one spoke.

Xu Shaowen thought that the driver was right. In the past, this operations base of theirs was for
training their loyal core members. The "hurdle" to get in had been very high. Those who were
brought back were all loyal believers who had performed well outside. Only then did they have
the right to be brought here to receive a more thorough and focused brainwashing, so that they
could go back afterwards and continue to help them expand their downlines.

Now, for the sake of their mission and to make quick money, they brought everyone here
including the foolish and the witless. The risk was very large because the moment someone made
a fuss about refunds, it was very easy for the situation to go out of control. It was not possible to
send them all back. Old people were all miserly; if they thought that their money had been
swindled, they would definitely not let it go. Once they leave the operations base, the police
might be immediately summoned here.

He said, "Before we came here, everyone signed the agreement. It stated clearly that if you
withdraw halfway, there will be no refunds. Did everyone read it properly?"

When the red-capped elderly heard this, they immediately blew up. Some of the old comrades
were very good at making a scene and when they heard these unreasonable words, they rolled
up their sleeves and got ready to unleash all the skills they had.

"So, I would like to ask everyone not to worry and just enjoy yourselves." Xu Shaowen smiled
coldly, the tip of his true intentions revealed. He had just finished speaking when a large group of
people clad in white robes appeared out of nowhere around them, surrounding them and the
bus. "Don't worry. Ten days later, we will send all of you safely home."

Han Dongsheng put down the binoculars. "I don't know why but Sect Leader Yang and the rest
had a conflict with the people from the evil cult the moment they got down from the bus. They're
surrounded now. Little Master Yu, what should we do?"

Yu Lanchuan's reply was brief. "Wait."

But Han Dongsheng did not plan to wait anymore. He sometimes felt that he was so used to
being bossed around that he had become a spineless and cowardly man who was not in
command of his own spirit, and only knew how to wait anxiously.
Waiting for his salary to increase, longing for his bonus to be paid, hoping that he would make it
to team leader before his retirement… even if it was just an assistant leader role.

Sometimes when he dreamed, he would dream of his workplace giving their employees
subsidised staff housing, like how things were in the past.

These so-called "dreams" were in poor taste and were nothing to be proud of. If the young
people were to hear them, they would definitely snort disdainfully.

But in truth, they were also very far away. The faded and fatigued middle-aged people could
break their brains trying and yet still could not find a way to realise those dreams.

Han Dongsheng pulled up the zipper of his coat. From the car trunk, he took a truncheon and left
the car.

Old Yang held his walking stick across his chest. "Xiao-Xu, if you're not being reasonable, we
won't be polite either."

Xu Shaowen angled his head towards him, a mocking expression on his face. He wanted to see
how these old fools who were fit to be displayed in a museum would be impolite but before he
could see clearly, the stick blurred in front of him. It smashed down on his head in the Strike form
of the Dog Beating Staff, a lethal whistling sound accompanying the walking stick made of
hardwood. Xu Shaowen was startled and hurried to cover his head and dodge. The walking stick
did not stay its course; midair, it turned to the Poke form and lanced towards him. In an instant, it
pierced through the gap between Xu Shaowen's arms, hitting right at his guts.

Xu Shaowen retched. He retreated several steps and a few people caught and held him up. His
eyes widened in anger. "Dog Beating Staff! You… Who are you?"

Old Yang tightened his face. The passing years had drained his lips until only a thin line remained
and they were pressed tightly shut. His ramrod straight back even had an aura faintly reminiscent
of depthless pools and highest peaks. He said unhurriedly, "Young man, those of you with the
surname Xu are a little out of control."

The big demon Xu Zhao was reported to have numerous disciples. Below him, for the sake of
showing that they were his filial and worthy descendants, all his disciples took his surname.

Xu Shaowen spat angrily, "Meddlesome old fool!"

A few white-robed people charged forward. Old Yang swung his upper arm and the walking stick
weighing five or six pounds moved as flexibly as tree vines. In the first place, Beggars' Sect was a
sect that was proficient in fighting in groups and also fighting against groups. Old as he was, his
Tangle form could keep ten vicious dogs barking but unable to get near him.

It was the first time the red-capped elderly behind Old Yang saw a nonagenarian fighting in real
life. All of them stretched out their necks and felt that they too could fight for another 500 years.
Right at that moment, the red and blue police lights suddenly flashed from the front yard,
followed immediately by the sound of police sirens!

The entire courtyard was like an exploded hive. The white-robed evil cult employees all rushed to
the backyard.

Old Yang sent a white robe flying, then planted his walking stick on the ground and panted
heavily. He didn't dare go forward to stop the flow of humans—after all, he was old now. Playing
some tricks to exchange a few moves with young people who knew to respect the old and cherish
the young was still possible, but brandishing his old arms and legs in a real fight took too much
strength.

A red-capped old lady stood on tiptoe and pulled at him. "You're too amazing! Will you start a
qigong class? I'll be the first to register!"

Old Yang, "..."

The fleeing evil cult members rushed into the backyard. The few at the front all squeezed into the
buses there. For a moment, no one could be bothered to take care of anyone else and the buses
charged their way out to escape even before the doors could be closed.

The engines let out an explosive roar. The fleeing evil cult members did not care at all if they hit
anyone.

Suddenly, from among the shadowy figures of the trees by the wall, a few dark shadows fell
down and leaped into the middle of the little courtyard. Their movements agile, they charged
towards the few elderly people who were standing there foolishly instead of dodging the buses
and pushed them towards the trees at the wall and other safe spots.

"Sect Leader Yang!"

The Beggars' Sect disciples had arrived.

Old Yang finally felt relieved. He felt like he had nearly sprained his old back. "Don't let them
escape!"

"They won't!" A Beggars' Sect disciple turned around and smiled at him. "We threw the alarm
into the front yard, the police are all at the back!"

Old Yang was momentarily stunned. From behind him, the ear-piercing sound of the buses
braking could be heard again.

The evil cult members who were rushing out of the backyard just now were panicked and
directionless. They practically stomped on the brakes until it touched the floor but who would
have guessed that some outrageous people had scattered the road with long nails that punctured
the tires on the buses. The big bus and the small bus lost air like they were letting out farts and
collided together.
Right after that, lights shone towards them. The confused evil cult members finally realised that
there was a row of police cars behind the long nails, quietly lying in wait in the darkness, waiting
for their opportunity to attack.

"Little Master Yu said that this group of old men and old ladies have been infused with a load of
Paradise and that their brains have been washed until there's barely anything left. They will
definitely not listen to us. At the crucial moment, they will definitely insist on standing on the side
of the criminals and might even act as shields for them. It is not feasible to 'rescue' them, we can
only make these evil cult members abandon them," the Beggars' Sect disciple said in delight.
"Hahaha, Old Sect Leader, Little Master Yu is really crafty!"

Old Yang was supporting his back with a hand, a hint of a smile on his face. But before his smile
could unfurl, he heard a startled cry from beside him. "What's that!"

Old Yang turned his head and his face immediately changed. "Get out of the way!"

His voice was drowned out by a loud sound. He saw a glaring, bright light shine out of the first
floor of the small building behind him. The windows shattered into pieces, falling all over the
ground, and the boom of the explosion shook them until their brains were trembling along with
the earth. Close on its heels, thick smoke and fire rose.

This rundown agricultural tourism chalet did not have gas piping. The kitchen used old-fashioned
gas tanks and someone had exploded the tanks!

The winter in the north was dry, so it was already a season where fires happened frequently. The
chilly and dry night wind swept through the building and the tongues of the flames instantly grew
a few meters higher.

As the wind sliced past, all those near the building could smell kerosene.

The person who set the fire not only exploded the gas tanks, they even poured fuel on the first
floor. The floors above were filled with old men and old women who hadn't escaped in time!

The Beggars' Sect disciple who had been laughing like a fool just now had his smile frozen on his
face.

Suddenly, a shadow flashed past him, charging directly towards the fire.

"Dongsheng!" Old Yang shouted the person's name but Han Dongsheng seemed to not hear him.
Old Yang clapped the dumbstruck Beggars' Sect disciple next to him. "Put out the fire and save
them!"

The elderly people in the upper floors who were startled awake were like in a steamer basket.
They all crowded at the windows, their jumbled wails and cries for help so raucous it made those
hearing them feel agitated and distraught. The thick smoke roiled and curled towards the sky.
This place was really too out of the way, who knew what century it would be before the fire
brigade arrived. The police who had been leisurely lying in wait couldn't be bothered with the evil
cult suspects anymore, they all rushed forward to put out the fire.
The air was scorching hot, yet sinisterly cold. The intense convection sent the ash and dust flying.
Old Yang instructed the red-capped elderly in the courtyard to run outside. For a moment, he
couldn't breathe. He gripped his walking stick and patted his chest.

Right at that moment, someone chuckled lightly from not far away. "I was wondering who it was,
so it's Sect Leader Yang. Just look at you. At this age, you should admit that you're old. Why are
you still indulging in these wild antics like the young?"

Old Yang slowly straightened up. The fire illuminated half his face.

He saw a tall and broad man clad in a black robe walking towards him calmly. His hand was even
carrying Xu Shaowen who Old Yang had just now poked until he curled up like a large shrimp. This
was the "advisor" who had been giving classes to Old Mr. Zhou and the others.

While the evil cult members were fleeing in panic after hearing the police sirens, he had
unexpectedly stayed behind in the small building, methodically and unhurriedly pouring kerosene
and setting fire.

Old Master Yang gripped his walking stick tightly. "You are…"

"You might not know me. I'm the head disciple under my shifu." The black-robed man smiled and
let go of Xu Shaowen. "This unworthy kid is my disciple. It's almost New Year's, so he came to
help the juniors prop up the situation and gain some accomplishments. Who knew he would be
so lucky to meet the Dog Beating Staff techniques. It's truly the greatest joy of his life."

Old Master Yang said, "You're Xu Zhao's disciple!"

"I've brought shame to the old man again," the black-robed man said. He spread his hands, both
of them were holding a three-edged dagger each. "Sect Leader Yang, why don't you give me a
chance to make up for it?"

Xu Shaowen clutched his belly and retreated to the side, a sinister smile on his face.

Before the black-robed man finished speaking, there was a blur and he was already right in front
of Old Master Yang. Old Yang could only swing his walking stick up but that man wasn't like those
inferior goods who only knew to run when they heard police sirens. Old Yang had already felt
that his back wasn't feeling too good just now. The hardwood walking stick also wasn't the Dog
Beating Staff and was extremely heavy. He could just barely hold up against a few moves. For a
second, his strength could not keep up and the three-edged dagger scraped past the glossy
walking stick like a lightning bolt, aiming right for his throat.

Old Yang detected a metallic smell.

His heart thumped heavily. I've grown old, he thought.

Then, in the instant the ice-cold three-edged dagger reached his throat, the black-robed man
abruptly leaped up and scrambled a few steps to dodge.
At the same time, a hand stopped Old Yang's upper back from falling backwards.

Old Master Yang turned his head, startled, but all he saw was a hood that was securely
concealing a face…

T/N:
=
The Dog Beating Staff Techniques have eight principles, of which some were used by Old Yang in
this chapter. They appeared in the wuxia stories by Jin Yong. The eight principles are
=
绊 (trip), 劈 (strike; I've seen this translated as 'block'), 缠 (tangle; also translated as 'trap'), 戳
(poke), 挑 (pick), 引 (lure). 封 (seal; I've seen this translated as 'steal' but based on the character I
think it should be seal), and 转 (turn).
Chapter 53
Other than his own disciple, this black-robed so-called "advisor" did not care the least bit for the
good-for-nothings who were making a huge fuss, much less for the group of "cash cow students"
in the building who were stretching out their necks and shouting for help. The money was already
in his hands, this place was rented and the rental hadn't been paid yet. A fire would burn
everything up nice and clean; he could take the money and leave, go back home for the Lunar
New Year and build a new lair next year.

The whole world was full of young people who could not find employment anyway. He could
easily conceal himself with a shell company, put out an ad on recruitment websites and instantly
hire a new batch.

As for murder and arson, he wasn't at all bothered about that. To him, the only thing to fear
about murder was being punished by the law and sent to prison. The prerequisite for that was
the police had to catch him, and that was impossible.

If he could take the life of this old Beggars' Sect leader, it would be easier for him to explain
himself to the higher-ups.

But right now, the black-robed man's expression that had been relaxed and delighted the whole
time suddenly changed.

He saw a row of blades sticking out of the ground, pierced into the soft mud at an angle. The
blade sections that were exposed above the ground were all about the same length, the distance
between each one also nearly equal. They lined up in a row all the way to his feet. He hadn't
dodged in time just now, there was a small cut at the bottom of his front lapel!

In the many years the black-robed man had dominated his way through the land, he had never
been at such a disadvantage.

Old Master Yang was equally shocked. His mouth dropped open and he called out an indistinct
"Wei." Then, he recalled something and swallowed his words back in.
Right, Wei Xiao was already dead.

Furthermore, the hand that was supporting his back seemed a little thinner. Even though the
footsteps were light, they had a touch of a careless, sluggish feel to them, and were not as
subdued as that man's were all those years ago.

Right at that moment, Xu Shaowen opened his mouth and asked the question the other two
wanted to know the answer to. "What is your business here?"

The hooded person replied, "I came to make some inquiries about a certain matter and just
happened to bump into you guys being busy. My apologies for disturbing."

Even though she kept her voice very low and steady, she was after all the neighbour he bumped
into nearly every day. Old Yang immediately recognised the voice and lifted his head to stare at
her back in disbelief—this was the young lady staying at Zhang Meizhen's home!

Gan Qing didn't look at him. Her attitude lazy and relaxed, she strolled forward a couple of steps.
Xu Shaowen retreated involuntarily, nervously watching her pair of hands that were tightly
wrapped with black cloth strips.

"If I may ask… a while ago, there was a group of people who worshipped a wooden memorial
tablet carved with 'Wan Mu Chun' and used dotted red lines to teach other people how to slit
throats on the spot." Gan Qing asked politely, "Are they related to you?"

"Wan Mu Chun." The black-robed man was first momentarily stunned. Then, he looked at the
blades on the ground and understood something. "How are you related to Wan Mu Chun? A
disciple?"

Gan Qing chuckled. "How could that be? Wan Mu Chun didn't have disciples. I'm just an old
acquaintance who likes to talk too much."

"The 'Chun' division is indeed our people." The black-robed man studied this hooded and masked
person before him. Perhaps he felt that she was nothing good either, so he said frankly, "In the
past, due to a fateful coincidence, our sect got to know a descendant of Wan Mu Chun and was
passed on a small and inconsequential part of their martial arts skills. Unfortunately, our disciples
were all unworthy."

"Oh, he said that he's Wan Mu Chun's… descendant." Gan Qing emphasised the word
"descendant" heavily. She asked in a very peculiar tone, "Was he called Wei Huan?"

"That's right, it was him." The black-robed man nodded. "Was he your friend too?"

"No." Gan Qing suddenly laughed. Right after that, without saying a word, she immediately broke
the peace. A blade spun between her fingers. Under the light from the fire, it looked like a
miniature lightning bolt striking towards the black-robed man's throat. "I don't…

"...pick up friends from the trash can."

In an instant, the black-robed man had goosebumps all over. But his reaction was extremely
quick; in a flash, he had retreated to a safe distance. He raised his three-edged blade and slashed
out.

"Careful!" Old Yang shouted.

In this kind of close combat, the range of the opponent's weapon was the "safe distance." Gan
Qing only had a small blade in her hand, her range was only the length of her arm and was
equivalent to fighting barehanded. Furthermore, when the black-robed man was on guard, the
killing power of thrown knives was very limited. Even if it was the legendary Little Li Flying
Dagger, the blade that flew out was just over three inches long. It couldn't become the blade Li
Xunhuan had rid the land of bandits with like a razor blade getting rid of stubble.

With the two three-edged daggers, the black-robed man guarded all his vital spots so securely
that not even the wind could get through. There was a chaotic round of clangs and the blades
that were knocked away flew everywhere. As a bystander, Xu Shaowen was also in the line of
fire, and he covered his head and scurried off to hide behind a large tree.

"Catch!" Old Yang was afraid that Gan Qing would be at a disadvantage and threw his walking
stick to her. Gan Qing reached out and caught it; the hardwood walking stick spun a half circle in
her hand and swept horizontally to parry the black-robed man's three-edged dagger. The man let
out a roar and suddenly exerted his strength. The three-edged blade that was stabbing forward
was like a lance, pushing Gan Qing away together with the walking stick. At the same time, the
other three-edged dagger swept towards her.

Who knew if it was because Old Master Yang wanted to flaunt his wealth or if it was some other
reason, the wooden walking stick was long and heavy. It was extremely inconvenient for her to
use. This time, she didn't dodge in time and the three-edged dagger hit its target on her forearm
with a scraping sound.

She should be wearing some sort of protective gear on her forearm; the sound was like metal
clashing. Her arm wasn't cut but the impact on her bones had to be quite heavy. For a moment,
Gan Qing's right arm lost strength and the walking stick in her hands tilted. Her hood fell back. On
either side of her face, wisps of hair fell to curl beneath her jaw. The face hidden by the mask
looked like it was only the size of a human palm.

So it's a foolish little girl, the black-robed man thought. Pretending to be a wolf.

The three-edged blade curved around the walking stick and pierced straight at her stomach. Right
now, Gan Qing's weight was on her left leg. The black-robed man could tell that she didn't have
enough strength in one hand to knock the three-edged dagger away and could only dodge by
using her left leg as a pivot. Hence, without waiting for her to move, his other three-edged dagger
swept across, sealing off the space where she could dodge to!

But Gan Qing didn't dodge. She suddenly let go of the walking stick and ducked down. Like a
spring, she curled up in a ball and the three-edged dagger just barely missed the top of her head.
Then, before the others could see clearly, she suddenly sprang up again. In just one step, she was
perched right before the black-robed man. The man let out an anguished shriek and one three-
edged dagger fell to the ground—Gan Qing had stabbed a blade into his wrist that was holding
that lethal weapon!

It was a double-ended blade. When one end was stabbed into the black-robed man's wrist, at the
same time, the other end was pushing into Gan Qing's finger.

Her fingers were obviously also flesh and blood. How deep the blade was embedded in her
opponent's wrist was also how deep it stabbed into her finger. Blood flowed out, trickling along
the curve of her finger tips and soaking the cloth strips wrapping her hand but she seemed not to
feel it at all. She carelessly wiped the blood on her palms and picked up the fallen three-edged
dagger.

The fire illuminated her eyes. Both her eyes were cold and looked rather like the eyes of
someone who did not care for their life.

For some unknown reason, the black-robed man shuddered. He charged forward with a roar, his
three-edged dagger dancing up and down and confusing the eye. Gan Qing darted and weaved
between the strikes, feet barely touching the ground, evading all the while.

The black-robed man shouted, "Kill her!"

This seemed to be a signal. His voice was still hanging in the air when Xu Shaowen suddenly
poked his head out from where he was hiding behind a tree. He took out a illegally made gun
from somewhere and fired at Gan Qing's back!

The firing of the gun was lost in the sound of explosions.

The car fire extinguishers in the police cars were as effective as throwing a cup of water on a
cartful of burning firewood. The fire could not be stopped at all, the tongues of flames grew ever
greedier.

Old Mr. Zhou had been locked into a solitary isolation room on the second floor. Along with the
explosions, pieces of plaster fell non-stop from the ceiling. Outside, there was the jumbled sound
of voices. He pounded on the door. "Is there anyone out there? Let me out!"

But, right now, it was too chaotic inside the building. No one noticed at all the noise he made
pounding on the door. Very quickly, smoke started to seep into the room through the gaps of the
door.

Han Dongsheng picked up a few bed sheets that were being dried in the garden and wetted them
with water from the tap for watering plants. He carried them, together with a car fire
extinguisher wedged under his arm, and detoured around the building to the side that was
further from the kitchen. He jumped up and just managed to hang on to the window frame on
the second floor.

His body was too heavy. The heart was willing but the body was incapable. Han Dongsheng
sighed inwardly.
Right after that, the veins on his neck bulged out fiercely. He exerted all the strength he had in his
arms and pulled himself up with nothing more than that. He smashed the glass on the window,
tied the wet bed sheets into a rope and shouted at the panicked and directionless elderly. "This
way!"

The police had also rushed over. Han Dongsheng grabbed an old man that was nearly scared into
crying and pushed him directly to the window, tossing him out. Below, the police hurried to catch
him.

Waves of heat billowed at him. Han Dongsheng took off his coat and sweater, and shouted at the
elderly in a voice that was running out of strength. "Look for wet towels or wet clothes and cover
your nose and mouth… cough…"

The confused old men and old ladies were like headless flies. They squeezed together in the
narrow corridor and it seemed like there was going to be a stampede. Han Dongsheng held his
breath and charged over. He grabbed these old people who had been knocked about until they
seemed to have changed shape, one in each hand, and raced against time to send them outside.

The uncontrollable fire was growing bigger and bigger. A few Beggars' Sect disciples also charged
over and helped to carry the people out. All the fat in Han Dongsheng's body was nearly cooked
out of him and his face was smudged with black marks from the smoke and ash, yet his heart was
even more agitated than his body—he still hadn't found Old Mr. Zhou!

"Dad!" Han Dongsheng passed the old lady in his hands to someone from the Beggars' Sect. He
waded against the flow of the people and headed inside. "Are there any more people inside?
Dad!"

Locked in the isolation room, Old Mr. Zhou lifted a wooden chair and smashed it against the door
with all his might but the large door did not budge even an inch!

He thought of the qigong books he had read before. In this desperate situation, he tried to use
the "internal energy" in his core but when he sucked in a huge breath, half of it was smoke and
his entire body, core included, was thoroughly smoked. Old Mr. Zhou choked and coughed, his
eyes tearing. His fingers scrabbled desperately at the gaps of the door. "Help, help… cough…"

It was strange. People like him, when they registered to join Paradise, they all felt that their lives
were dull and bland, that there was nothing worth living for anymore. They just wanted to find a
place where they could console themselves so that they wouldn't be so lonely as they walked
towards death.

But when a disaster suddenly fell on them, these elderly people realised with a shock that they
actually still had such a strong desire to live.

Old Mr. Zhou had inhaled smoke until his mind was befuddled. His fingernails were broken from
his scrabbling and blood was coming out. Yet, he was still subconsciously scratching at the door
with both hands.

A hazy thought emerged in his head. My Zhou-Zhou hasn't finished primary school yet.
Away from the fire, Gan Qing seemed to be quite familiar with these shameless methods. At the
very second the black-robed man shouted, she had leaped away and the illegally made gun
missed its target. Xu Shaowen cursed and was preparing to aim again when there was a pain on
the back of his head—Old Master Yang had knocked him unconscious.

Old Yang panted heavily. He raised his head to look around, tense.

The black-robed man took the chance when Gan Qing was dodging the gun to seize the upper
hand and was essentially pushing her back. The two three-edged daggers clashed in the air. The
black-robed man swept his leg across. Gan Qing just barely managed to retreat out of the way.
She stepped on the black-robed man's shin and at the same time, raised the three-edged dagger
above her head and smashed it down on the man's head.

She was wearing a pair of old and worn shoes on her feet. They were very large, with very blocky
and unfashionable square tips. The style even seemed to be men's style—the kind worn by
middle-aged or old men.

The black-robed man raised his leg to shake her off. Right at that moment, from beneath Gan
Qing's slovenly-looking shoes, a metal awl suddenly shot out. The black-robed man was basically
stabbing his own leg on the awl!

That blood curdling shriek made even the experienced Sect Leader Yang shudder.

These two people—one fired a sniper's shot behind the other's back, the other hid mysteries
beneath her feet. As the saying went, "The little demon is one foot tall, the big demon ten
feet[1]"; when competing, neither had a lower limit!

Gan Qing seized the black-robed man's uninjured arm. The little blade between her fingers made
a slit like it was sewing. Without holding back, she snapped his tendons and bones, everything
done smoothly in one breath.

Old Yang finally regained his voice. He shouted in a rush, "Don't kill him!"

His shout was just in time. Gan Qing's hand that was brushing against the man's throat paused.
Her fingers curled back nimbly, breaking the skin on the man's throat, then curving around to the
back of his neck and pounded down…

The black-robed man fell to the ground silently, one of his legs crippled.

Old Master Yang was still looking at her in shock. "You… You…"

Gan Qing avoided his eyes. She stretched her hand out to fiddle at her heel. The awl under her
shoe fell out. She rubbed her feet against the ground to get rid of the blood, then glanced
towards the chaotic scene of the fire. "I'll go take a look."

"Wait!" Old Yang called out.

Gan Qing turned a deaf ear to him. In an instant, she had slipped meters away.

"Dage! There's no one else inside! Hurry up and get out!" In the small building, two police officers
carrying one elderly person each pulled Han Dongsheng. "The fire is spreading up! This building is
all wood, it'll burn until it collapses!"

In a fluster, Han Dongsheng turned the faces of the two elderly people around—neither were Old
Mr. Zhou. Without a word, he shook off the officers' hands and ran towards the smoke and fire.

The wet towels could temporarily cover his nose and mouth but could not cover his eyes. Both of
Han Dongsheng's eyes were bloodshot. He searched everywhere around him, almost losing all
hope.

Right then, he heard a weak scratching sound.

Han Dongsheng widened his eyes. He very quickly identified where the sound was coming from
and hurried over. He crashed forcefully against the door a couple of times. "You inside, move
away!"

However, Old Mr. Zhou had no more strength to move away. He couldn't even recognise his
family member's voice. He slid down the door, delirious.

Han Dongsheng retreated a few steps, then ran up to the door. He curled his shoulders in and
crashed his entire body against the door, throwing it open violently. The unconscious Old Mr.
Zhou was also pushed away.

Han Dongsheng scrambled to him and reached out to check his breathing. In the chaotic scene,
he could not sense anything conclusive. He lifted the old man onto his shoulders and ran outside.

Another round of explosions came from downstairs. The white fluorescent lights hanging from
the corridor ceiling trembled and crashed down, but Han Dongsheng could no longer see clearly
what was happening.

In an instant, a coat flew towards him and wrapped around the fluorescent tube in midair,
crashing it against the wall with a bang. Han Dongsheng stumbled; someone held him up.

Through eyes that were filled with tears from the smoke, he saw clearly the person who had
come. "You…"

On the ground below, the police were shouting and yelling. Gan Qing took the unconscious Old
Mr. Zhou from him and pushed the old man out the window.

With a thunderous boom, half the building collapsed.

T/N:
[1] "小魔头高一尺，大魔头高一丈" (the little demon is one foot tall, the big demon ten feet) is
a twist on the idiom "道高一尺，魔高一丈" which translates to "virtue is one foot tall, the devil
ten feet." It refers to the need to always be vigilant to stave off evil, for every gain in one's
cultivation, there will be even more interference from evil influences. Here, neither Gan Qing nor
Black Robe are "virtuous," hence they are the "little demon" and the "big demon."
Chapter 54
When Han Dongsheng texted Yu Lanchuan to tell him that there was a change in the situation, Yu
Lanchuan had just walked out of the meeting room. He nearly collided head-on with his assistant
who was carrying coffee.

"Director Yu, do you still want coffee?"

Yu Lanchuan's mouth was full of the taste of burnt coffee and even the smell was enough to
make him gag. He tilted his head back and waved her off. He quickly replied Han Dongsheng's
message, then contacted the Beggars' Sect people and Yu Yan before going to the washroom to
wash his face. When he returned to his office, before he could even take a breath, he saw that
the project director he had supported in the meeting just now had already been waiting for some
time.

On the outside, project directors were like "envoys from the borders." Each of them carried a
corner of their business on their backs but their lives were actually not that grandiose. Unless
their performance was exceptional or they were the boss's relatives, they spent most of the year
at their stations. They had none of their own people in the "imperial court" and their line of
communication to the higher-ups was not a smooth and unimpeded one. Every time they came
back to the headquarters to fight for resources, they had to cross great distances and suffer great
injuries.

This project director was handling a project related to the operation of nursing homes for the
elderly. However, in the recent couple of years, the entire corporation was moving towards an
asset light model. Matters related to real estate were all counted on the support of the
"stepmother." He was aware that his personal friendship with Yu Lanchuan was only on a
lukewarm level—Yu Lanchuan abided scrupulously by the rules and regulations of the workforce
elite and was in a league of his own in the entire Risk Management Department; like the imperial
secret police of the Ming dynasty, his personal friendships with everyone was on a lukewarm
level. He never thought that Yu Lanchuan would lead the entire department to work overtime for
two nights and, in his role as someone from the middle management, support him at the meeting
with the board of directors.

"Director Yu, thank you for your hard work," the project director greeted him enthusiastically.
"Please let me treat you to a meal, whenever it is convenient for you."

Yu Lanchuan gave him a professional work smile. "You're welcome, Director Bian."

The project director settled down in Yu Lanchuan's office and noticed that there were a few fliers
on Yu Lanchuan's desk, advertising things like health supplements and magnetic therapy. There
was also one for something called "Paradise" and on it was written: Are you already retired and
staying at home? Are you at a loss for what to do with your life? Do you feel lonely even though
your children and grandchildren are all around you? Do you feel as though you are becoming
someone unneeded, and it is only in front of those swindlers full of flowery words that you can
find just a little bit of a sense of existence?
The print quality of the Paradise flier was exceptionally good. The project director picked it up for
a closer look and smiled. "The line of thought is very similar to the ads for our project. What is it
selling? It seems quite high-end… I have a relative who has a whole bunch of these nonsense at
home and even their coffin money has been swindled away. To be honest, we steal a lot of
marketing ideas from them."

"It's nothing like that," Yu Lanchuan said. "It's not high-end, it's just a normal evil cult."

The project director, "..."

"I have a friend who's a police officer. He only recently tracked them down. Since Director Bian
happened to be here today, I brought them over for you to have a look. Isn't this the topic that
you guys are popularising recently?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "I heard that you are also planning to
make a public service announcement. Tell me about it in detail. Have you prepared a plan? Do
you have a script?"

The project director beamed happily and tried to curry favour with him. "We have prepared the
plan but we've barely started on the rest yet. Previously, we spent a long time digging into our
budget but could only gather enough funds to make the plan. Director Yu, we are kids picked up
by the stepmother. Our days in the corporation aren't easy. In the future, we need to butter you
up more."

Yu Lanchuan gave him an inscrutable smile. "You can skip this kind of words, Director Bian. We
are all working for the boss, what power do I have? If I listen to too many words like that it'll get
to my head."

The project director saw that this method wasn't working and immediately retreated as though
nothing had happened. "Of course, of course."

"This year isn't easy for us, next year isn't looking good either. In the meeting, everyone was
talking big, wanting to get a piece of the resources. Who knows, they might accidentally hit on
the next big thing. I'm someone who doesn't like to take risks. I don't want to be involved in
things that I don't understand, that's why I picked our side." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up.
"But the more the corporation's resources are biased to one side, the heavier your responsibility
is. Today, I've helped you talk big. In the end, if the return on capital doesn't look good, neither of
us can explain ourselves. Director Bian, close the door. Let us be frank with each other."

The project director sighed. "Director Yu, the corporation's evaluation criteria isn't fair.
Everything depends on the return on capital. For different businesses… it is not comparable!"

"The businesses may be different but the shareholders' money is still the same. Water flows to
the deeper end," Yu Lanchuan said. "There has always been some noise within the corporation
about selling off some of the more traditional sectors-"

The project director panicked at once. "We're not a traditional sector. We have new ideas!"
"Don't get agitated, Bian-xiong." Imperceptibly, Yu Lanchuan changed the way he called the other
man. He stood up and poured a cup of tea for him. "We all know what 'ideas' mean. Don't use
this word to humour me."

Director Bian wiped his face.

Yu Lanchuan turned on his tablet in front of him. He opened the PPT slides they had talked so big
about in the meeting and placed the tablet on the pile of health supplements and evil cult fliers.
"Unless you can really make this reality."

The project director's eye twitched. His gaze landed on the PPT slide.

When recommending their own projects to the corporation, everyone would madly rely on the
idea of being "high-end, elegant and classy." Whatever term was popular in society at the
moment, they would freeload on that popularity. If their projects were really not at all related to
any of those terms, they would come up with a similar term and forcefully slap it on. They could
not appear to be less trendy than anyone else.

The PPT slide that Yu Lanchuan had opened was especially shameless. The heading was
Horizontal Alliance, Vertical Alliance—Combining Cultural Industries, Creating Real Estate IPs.

The project director no longer remembered clearly who was the one who added this phrase. He
stared at the tablet sitting on the pile of fliers and blanked out for a while. He had seen this kind
of cobbled-together grandiose rhetoric with vague meanings until he was numb to them. His
subordinate added it in and he didn't look closely when reviewing the slide. He never thought
that the bosses would take it seriously and pounce on him during the meeting to ask him about
it. If it weren't for Yu Lanchuan smoothing things over, he nearly wouldn't have been able to
leave the meeting in one piece.

The project director said, "In the current market, the service for looking after the elderly focuses
on the elderly who require assisted living—which is to say, those people who are unable to
perform daily living activities. Their children are busy with work and can't take care of them,
that's why they think of nursing homes. But back when we did the feasibility report, we think that
there are not many things that specialise in providing services to the elderly who are still healthy
and capable of performing daily living activities. It is a gap in the market."

Yu Lanchuan rested both elbows on the desk, his face calm and composed. "The investors think
that the target market is not ideal because these people are conservative, miserly and have
limited spending power. The rate of return will not look good."

"That's a stereotype. Just look at those fanatical health supplement fans and you'll know. It's not
that the market has no potential, it's you who haven't found the critical point for these people. At
that time, what I thought was, doesn't our corporation also have cultural companies under our
name? Our marketing budget will have to go somewhere anyway, we might as well keep the
money within our corporation. So we are discussing with them to get them to help make a short
movie at a low cost. If, by chance, we can have a public screening, we can earn some money from
ticket sales and we might even break even…" The project director laughed bitterly. "Great, now it
has become one of the key tasks for the year. Isn't that strange?"
Yu Lanchuan had a "none of my business" look on his face. In his heart, he thought that it was not
the least bit strange. He raised an eyebrow, pretending not to understand. "I've helped you guys
obtain funds from the corporation and the project charter is signed. What other difficulties are
there? Bian-xiong, I thought that money opened all doors."

The project director clenched his teeth and rolled up his sleeves. "All right, we'll throw caution to
the wind this year. We'll fight those selling health supplements for their business."

Yu Lanchuan chuckled, his meaning unclear. "These words really don't sound like they have much
spirit."

"That's true too, why would we want to fight for business with a pack of swindlers? Last week, I
had a meal with the boss of a commodity trader. Their business is full of rotten people and rotten
matters. Every three or five days, there would be a few people jumping off the building or
drinking pesticide. They're on good terms with the Ministry of Public Security."

Yu Lanchuan nodded. "Old Chang from the cultural sector is on a business trip today. I've made
an appointment for a video call with him."

"That's right. If they want to film this thing, they need to inform the Ministry of Public Security
too," the project director said. "If we can really persuade them to do a strict crackdown on the
organisations in the market, we can publicise it at the same time. Then… shall we move fast? I'll
make a call now."

"The military order is hanging above both our heads after all," Yu Lanchuan said.

After sending off the Director Bian who talked like they were old friends right from the start and
ending the video call, the lights of the CBD were already switched on, lighting up the area. Food
delivery workers from all sorts of places were at the bottom of the buildings, making calls to get
people to collect their food.

Yu Lanchuan's back was stiff. He stood up and took a couple of hard stretches. He picked up his
coat and found time to glance at his phone; there was nothing from Han Dongsheng. The last
message from the Beggars' Sect people was "Going well."

In Yu Lanchuan's opinion, it was only natural that everything would go well. The hardest part of
this matter was leading the police to this evil cult's nest.

Looking at the time, Old Yang and the others should be coordinating from the inside and the
outside, and should have scooped up the entire nest.

However, after purging one nest, there were still thousands, tens of thousands of nests hidden in
the back alleys. Yu Yan was right, without a large scale crackdown, they were like wild grass that
grew after the spring wind.

If things could go even a little bit better…

Yu Lanchuan sent Yu Yan a message: Are you done? The "crackdown" you want might have a
chance of happening.

In this era, work and personal lives were two sides of the same coin. One needed to have capital
speaking up for them, otherwise no one would help them shout their demands, no one would
pay them any attention. If a person spoke purely of ideals and public welfare, more often than
not, people would either think that they were a naive student or someone planning to pick a fight
and cause trouble.

Yu Lanchuan poured the dregs of his tea into the flower pot. He thought, What fucking use is the
Alliance Leader's Command?

A call from Yu Yan came right then. He had probably seen the message.

"Hello…"

The other end of the call was very noisy. Yu Yan was shouting into the receiver, "Master Lan, was
it you who got Teacher Meng-Meng to come here?"

"...Huh?"

"Fuck, that's not the point… the building is gonna collapse soon from the fire." Yu Yan's voice
shifted further away and he shouted at someone on his side. "How long more before the fire
brigade reaches? There's no way we can put out such a large fire! Everyone inside, hurry up and
get out!"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Fire? What's on fire, why-"

Before he could finish his words, a foreboding sound came from the other end.

Someone shouted, "It's collapsing!"

Yu Yan cursed. He threw out a "Talk to you later" and hurriedly hung up.

Yu Lanchuan stared blankly on the spot for two seconds. Then, he broke into a run.

In the precarious small building, Han Dongsheng's body running out of energy was a small matter.
The more serious matter was his body running out of water.

In the first place, he sweated more than others. In the scene of the fire, he had been constantly
running around and his entire body had been grilled until it was crispy on the outside and tender
on the inside. Now, the weight on his shoulder was lifted—someone had taken Old Mr. Zhou
away—and his brain seemed to have forcibly shut down. He immediately lost control of his body.

Han Dongsheng stumbled a couple of steps and fell to the ground. All the noise beside his ears
congealed into a single thread and went away, leaving him behind.
The fire had spread to this side. The bed sheets left outside had dried and caught on fire.
Everyone was shouting.

But each floor on this building was much taller than the standard height. The fire on the first floor
was spreading over and the people below could not come up at all.

A large piece of the low quality mass-produced ceiling boards had fallen. Gan Qing used the
three-edged dagger she had taken from the black-robed man and pried the board away. A
shower of dust fell on her. She accidentally inhaled some of it and choked until she nearly
coughed her lungs out.

The floor beneath her feet was trembling. The small building was starting to collapse from the
other side. The sound of splintering wood was pressing in without pause, the ferocious tongues
of flames devouring everything in their way. Sparks were flying everywhere. The three-edged
dagger was so hot it was nearly burning her hand. She thought she smelled something scorched.

"Hey!"

In a moment of desperation, Gan Qing grabbed the back of Han Dongsheng's collar. However,
Han-dage was probably twice the weight of his father-in-law. When Gan Qing grabbed him, Han
Dongsheng himself did not budge an inch while his collar that already had some loose threads
was torn away completely.

Han Dongsheng's heart was pounding wildly. His arms and legs were as limp as noodles. He tried
a few times to stand up but his body refused to listen to him. Hallucinations flashed past his eyes.

He suddenly had an illusion this was not the first time something had struck him to the ground,
and not the first time he was sprawled like a dog in desperate straits and could not get up.

He seemed to be used to his position.

"Go… You go…." Han Dongsheng mumbled.

She could not hold on to the three-edged dagger anymore. Gan Qing tossed it aside and coughed
a couple of times. "What did you say?"

Even his elbows that were propped against the floor was shaking, almost collapsing. His right arm
was the first to fall weakly. "I…"

There was a shattering sound. Gan Qing turned her head swiftly. The window frame near them
was distorting in the heat, the alloy bars nearly splintering under the pressure. The yellowing
ceiling boards above their heads split open, a black seam opening up and reaching towards them.

"I want to ask you to…" Han Dongsheng's voice was almost inaudible. He didn't know if Gan Qing
could hear him. For a moment, he also could not straighten out his muddled feelings. He only felt
that he seemed to have something that he could not leave behind but when the words were at
his lips, he didn't know where to start talking. Out of nowhere, he said, "Tell Beibei… the money
is not… is not in the stock market…"
What the hell is he talking about?

Gan Qing was completely lost. She could not make out his words so she directly took action—she
sent a few small blades flying, throwing them all accurately and mercilessly at the gaps between
Han Dongsheng's fingers.

If it was said that the ten fingers were connected to one's heart, then the tender flesh between
them could be said to be connected to one's soul.

Han Dongsheng was completely caught off guard. All his mumbling to himself that was stifled in
his throat turned into a blood curdling shriek. Under that intense stimulation, all the vitality in his
entire body blazed up again.

Colour returned to his ashen face at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. His head
jerked up.

That vicious and merciless demoness said indifferently, "Oh, no need to thank me."

Han Dongsheng let out a roar. He curled his fingers in, leaving a bloody handprint on the floor,
and propped himself up with a strong push against the floor.

Right at that moment, the alloy window bars broke completely. The glass panes in the middle
shattered into pieces, and the wooden frame and a large piece of stone smashed to the floor.

Han Dongsheng shouted, "Move aside!"

Gan Qing responded by angling her body and letting him pass. Han Dongsheng covered his head
and rumbled past her like a large artillery shell, knocking out a human-shaped hole in the
loosened wood and stone wall, and then falling directly to the ground. Gan Qing didn't hesitate
anymore and squeezed out close on his heels.

There was a loud boom. The small building collapsed completely into a pile of rubble.

The rescuers and the people being rescued all scattered and ran away from the scene. Some of
them turned their heads back in a fluster and looked towards the scene of the fire. What they
saw was the pure white walls of Paradise tearing apart, revealing a vicious demonic face.

That place was an illusion gone up in flames, a dream of Nanke[1].

For the first time, Yu Lanchuan regretted that he had rented his car out for the sake of saving
money. Rushing for time, he borrowed a car from his colleague and sped towards Paradise's nest.

"The number you are calling is not in service."

This woman's phone seemed to be only for the purpose of conducting scams in her WeChat
Moments. Once there was something urgent, her phone could never be contacted!
Yu Lanchuan thought of Gan Qing's message that came out of nowhere and nearly threw his
phone out the window.

Right at that moment, his phone rang. Yu Lanchuan just barely caught his phone that was nearly
slipping out of his hands. "Hello?"

"It's me," Yu Yan said quickly. "There's been an accident."

"What's the situation?"

"This pack of evil cult members are more insane than I thought. At first, I thought that they just
wanted to swindle some money. In the end, just now, someone saw that they had no escape and
set the place on fire. They wanted to take the chance when we were putting out the fire to run
away. Teacher Meng-Meng and Old Han were both in the fire, the building collapsed just now..."

Yu Lanchuan's pupils contracted. Right at this moment, the car reached an intersection and the
lights changed to red. The car in front of him had already stopped. He stomped on the brakes and
the friction between the wheels and the road resulted in a screech that made his teeth ache.

"Hello, hello, hello? Master Lan? Are you okay?" On the other end, Yu Yan heard the sound of the
car braking. "Be mindful of traffic safety!"

For a moment, Yu Lanchuan's ears seemed to be blocked by something. Yu Yan's long-winded

chattering on the phone turned hazy and unclear. It was like someone had hit him on the head
with a truncheon and his hands nearly lost grip of the steering wheel.

Right then, the lights changed. The car behind him honked impatiently. Yu Lanchuan was startled
by the piercing sound and his hearing came back for the moment.

All he heard was the last part of Yu Yan's sentence in the call. "...sent to the nearby hospital for
emergency treatment."

T/N:
[1] A Dream of Nanke 南柯一梦 is an opera about a man who had a fantastical dream only to
wake up and realise it was all an illusion
Chapter 55
Sect Leader Yang was a respected leader. His feud with those from the demonic and unorthodox
sects was a long-standing one.

Han Dongsheng had a family member involved in the matter. He could not shirk his duty.

But why had she gone over to join the excitement?

She usually behaved in an exasperating "I'm very godly, I'm just pretending to be a coward,
everything is within grasp of my hand" manner and had endless tricks up her sleeve. In actual
fact, she was afraid of the dark and also afraid of ghosts; she couldn't earn enough for even a pot
of vinegar even swindling and conning people for a month; she easily offered to treat someone to
a meal but turned right around and skived off; before fighting, she would have to wrap her hands
up or they would tremble like someone with Parkinson's...

Wan Mu Chun stayed hidden from the world for such a long time, just to produce someone so
unreliable?

All sorts of scrambled and jumbled thoughts were rising and falling in Yu Lanchuan's mind. His
spiking blood pressure was close to making his heart explode. Before he could understand why
exactly he was panicking, he had already screwed up his role which should have been "sit in a
tent and devise strategies," turning it instead into "seize the road in a mad scrabble."

The roaring of the engine and the sound of his own heartbeat filled the small space. A hazy
thought suddenly came to the surface, gradually turning clear amidst the static noise.

I…

The fifteen-year old teenager he had suppressed in his heart for so many years forcefully threw
off fifteen years' worth of dust. From all those long years, he revealed a face that was nearly
unrecognisable.

He thought, I've only just finally managed to find you…

Yu Yan said "Hello?" into the phone a few times. On the other end, Yu Lanchuan had hung up. Yu
Yan was just about to call again when he was cut off by a call from a higher-up and he hurried to
explain how a "looking for elderly people who ran away from home" case ended up with them
risking their lives to fight criminal suspects.

The police were so busy they were going insane. Some of them stayed at the scene to wait for
the fire brigade and to catch the criminal suspects.

Those who went along to the hospital not only had to take care of this group of elderly who had
received a great shock, they also had to explain the situation to the hospital and contact the
family members one by one. They didn't have enough hands to go around, each one of them so
busy they could barely stay still.

Han Dongsheng sent off the police officer who came to check on him, then slowly sat down on
the wooden chair in the waiting area outside the emergency treatment room.

Old Mr. Zhou had inhaled not an insignificant amount of smoke and ash, and had been sent in for
emergency treatment. At the moment, his condition was still unknown. Even though the officer
consoled him and said that he would definitely be okay, what if…?

In that case, that breakfast where everyone let him down would likely become the final memory
his family gave him.

But thinking further, even without that "what if," Old Mr. Zhou was already past seventy years of
age. According to Beibei, her family didn't have any sort of longevity gene. Old Mr. Zhou had
already lived past the age where his parents and siblings passed away. He was nearly the longest
living person in his extended family. His life had entered a wasteland without milestones or
markers. Every work day where he was given the cold shoulder by his family could be the day he
finally came to his end.

But to "treasure" was too hard. It was just like being "hardworking," "steadfast" and
"disciplined." Everyone knew the reason why they should be like that but only the exceptional
ones could do it.

Han Dongsheng's injuries were not serious. Other than the scrapes and scratches from crashing
around in the building when it was on fire, the rest could be taken care of with rehydration and
inorganic salt. His most serious injuries were caused by his ally—the skin between his fingers on
one hand was full of blade cuts. Not a single finger could be moved and the doctor had bandaged
his hand until it resembled a large pig trotter.

Waiting alone outside the emergency treatment room, Han Dongsheng initially wanted to sit
upright properly. But as he sat, the fat on his back and his stomach started to make him hunch
down. The successive days of shock and alarm, the restless nights—they all attacked him at once.
He was too exhausted, so tired that he could not even open his eyes.

He was like a lump of heated butter. From a cubic form, he collapsed into an irregular shape and
continued to melt into liquid, dripping down below the chair.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming. Han Dongsheng twitched and opened his eyes, and saw
Gan Qing walking towards him.

Gan Qing took a longer time than him. In her opinion, the cut on her finger could be handled just
by sticking the finger into her own mouth and giving it a lick. There was no need to go to the
hospital. However, what happened was, she had just jumped down from the building when she
was stuffed into an ambulance for some unknown reason. Those doctors making a huge fuss for
nothing not only gave her an injection, they also insisted that coming into contact with blood was
a risk and made her go for a lab test.

"I'm just here to ask… cough, about that…" Gan Qing pointed at his pig trotter. "...do I need to
compensate you for the medical fees?"

"Ai, what are you saying? I still don't know how to repay you for saving my life. Were it not for
these cuts from you, I might have to leave my last words." Han Dongsheng smiled very politely at
her, revealing gleaming white teeth which gleamed all the more in contrast with his soot-
blackened face.

Gan Qing handed him a wet tissue. The two of them had survived a crisis. They made some small
talk but they weren't very familiar with each other and didn't really have much to talk about, so
they both fell into silence.

Han Dongsheng's face was covered in black ash. After wiping, the wet tissue in his hand became a
black rag. If he held it in his hand and gave it a squeeze, he could squeeze out mud.
He slowly wiped his uninjured hand. After a while, he suddenly said, "When I came out of that
building, I thought, if I was really trapped inside, Beibei would have to bring up our child on her
own… how would she survive?"

Gan Qing glanced at him. However, she was a single woman with no dependants and had never
had to support a family. No matter what she said, she would sound like an armchair critic, so she
did not say anything.

Han Dongsheng's words to her gradually became words to himself. Talking to yourself in front of
other people was always very awkward because even if the other person was not responding,
their attitude was contained in their silence—I don't want to respond to you, you're stupid. But a
tree hollow[1] wouldn't be like that because a tree didn't have the ability to view humans with
biased eyes. It was strange. When Gan Qing leaned silently against a corner of the wall, she was
just like a wooden stump and Han Dongsheng couldn't help wanting to pour out everything in his
heart to her.

"After that, I thought, maybe I was just thinking too much." He laughed self-deprecatingly. "A
man like me isn't useful for much. Whether or not I'm there, it'll be fine. She might even have a
better life without me."

"I might… just not be the kind of person who can be successful."

"She has always been quite disappointed in me."

Gan Qing shifted her weight to her other leg. Her arms were crossed before her chest and she
was only half-listening. Her eyes were looking straight at the stairs.

The woman was disappointed in her husband who did not strive to advance, the old father was
disappointed in the love he gave out that did not get any response, the man with no
achievements looked back in a fluster and was disappointed in himself.

Han Dongsheng propped up his jaw with one hand. His eyelids were a little swollen from staying
awake. "Sometimes, when it's all quiet at night, I can't help thinking how nice would it be if
humans could relive their lives once more."

There were finally some slight ripples in Gan Qing's calm gaze. She seemed to be drawing in a
deep breath, the muscles on her neck tensing visibly beneath her skin.

"Yeah," she said almost inaudibly. "How nice would it be if we could relive our lives once more."

Right at that moment, there was the sound of hurried, jumbled footsteps. Someone ran
stumbling over and fell sprawling on the ground at the last flight of steps. It was Zhou Beibei, her
hair dishevelled.

Her fall was too forceful and the two people there lost in their thoughts were startled back to
reality. Han Dongsheng saw that it was her and quickly helped her up. "Ai, don't you know how to
lift your legs when walking!"
Zhou Beibei didn't wait until she was standing up. Still kneeling, she wrapped her arms around his
legs.

"Dad is okay. It's just that he's old and has inhaled some smoke." Han Dongsheng raised his own
large pig trotter. With one hand, he supported Zhou Beibei's elbow and pulled her up. "Didn't I
tell you to stay at home and wait with Zhou-Zhou? I can take care of things here… What's
wrong?"

Zhou Beibei refused to stand up. She buried her face in his waist, not budging an inch.

Han Dongsheng held her by her shoulders and gently pried her off his body. "I'm dirty…"

He paused abruptly because he saw that Zhou Beibei's eyes were reddened. The two of them
looked at each other in silence for a few seconds; then, all of a sudden, her tears fell.

She was a woman who only spoke in complaints and had not a single pleasant word to say. Her
resentment had blocked her windpipe and her throat, and she could not speak clearly. She could
not give voice to any of the thousands, tens of thousands words in her belly. All she could do was
sob and wail her heart out.

At first, her crying made Han Dongsheng panic but after a while, he seemed to understand
something from her crying. His hand slowly fell to the top of Zhou Beibei's head and he let out a
sigh.

Gan Qing watched them with the eyes of a bystander. She smiled, then quietly got into the
elevator at the side and went downstairs to leave.

It was pandemonium in the hospital. All the families who had an elderly member missing had
rushed there. Some were crying from overjoy, some were hopping mad with anger. There was
also a man wandering around lost in the hospital corridor. He happened to bump into Gan Qing
when she exited the elevator, and came over to pull her to a stop and ask, "May I ask if there is
an old lady with the surname Lin here?"

Before Gan Qing could reply, a police officer rushed up and after reasoning with the man in every
possible way, persuaded him to leave.

"That's Old Madam Lin's son," someone said from behind her. "The old lady who was the first to
go missing."

Gan Qing turned around and saw Sect Leader Yang slowly walking towards her, leaning on his
walking stick.

Old Yang said, "Old Madam Lin had participated once in an activity of this Paradise group—in
actual fact, these people just fed them a bit of diluted low-quality hallucinatory drugs which
made them dizzy and fall asleep—and the participants even thought that they experienced their
souls leaving their bodies. After being duped by that group of people a few times, she had
complete and unwavering belief in them and felt that the qigong master she was following
previously was a swindler. She even helped to expand the downline. She was the one who urged
Old Mr. Zhou and the others to join. Joining the training this time required 40,000 yuan in cash.
The old madam didn't have that much money on hand, so she went to look for that qigong
master and wanted to get back some of the money she had spent on rewarding him before. Who
would have known she had a bit of cardiovascular illness in the first place and had also taken this
evil cult's drugs, and on top of that, she couldn't get her money back. Her emotions were agitated
and just like that, she was gone… Her body has been found but it was her daughter-in-law who
went to identify it. Her son still refuses to accept it."

Gan Qing said rather indifferently, as though the matter was not related to her, "If everyone had
a countdown to the end of their lives hanging above their heads, it's likely that no one would ever
want to leave their homes and go on long trips."

"Gan Qing, right?" Old Yang turned his head to look at her. "Wan Mu Chun's knife techniques.
Your shifu was Wei Xiao."

"In the past, yes." Gan Qing was usually polite and docile at No. 110. Every time he bumped into
her at Zhang Meizhen's home, she would either be cleaning the floor or cooking. Yang Yifan
always thought that she was like a little nanny who was being oppressed by the old demoness.

At this moment, her hands were folded behind her and she stood a few steps away from Sect
Leader Yang. She had finally shed her mask, revealing her true face. She was even slightly taller
than the old Sect Leader Yang. Her eyelids were drooping down a little, revealing a touch of
obstinate pride that was difficult to describe. "Later on, I revolted and broke ties with him."

Old Yang was stunned.

"It's a family matter, it doesn't bring trouble to anyone else so I won't say more." Gan Qing smiled
an inscrutable smile and waved at him. "It should be easier to look for a place at the end of the
year. Sect Leader Yang, you don't have to worry. I'll move out once I go back."

"Wait a minute-"

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a Beggars' Sect disciple from the "clean clothing section"
running over hurriedly. "Sect Leader!"

He saw Yang Yifan following behind the disciple, charging over in a bold and forthright manner.
The Dog Beating Staff was wedged under her arm.

Old Yang's face changed. He hadn't told his granddaughter about going on this wild adventure.
He was afraid that she would be suspicious and that the people from the evil cult would
recognise the Dog Beating Staff, so he had even left it behind on purpose!

At this moment, Yang Yifan looked like she wanted to snap the Beggars' Sect sacred item right
there and then.

Old Yang said hurriedly, "Fan-Fan, if there's anything, let's talk properly. Don't-"
But Yang Yifan slaughtered her way to stand before him, only to sigh and stuff the Dog Beating
Staff into Old Yang's hands, then grabbed the hardwood walking stick from him.

Old Yang blinked. He stared at her in a daze.

Yang Yifan held the wooden walking stick in her hand, trying its weight. "This is heavy. It's
probably not convenient to use. Why didn't you say something earlier?"

The over ninety years old Sect Leader who was still capable of fighting barehanded was like a
primary school student who had made a mistake. He mumbled, "You purposely asked someone
to help buy it. It's pretty expensive…"

"So what?" Yang Yifan cut him off. "At festive occasions, I buy Hermès and diamonds, and give
them all out to the young pretty boys everywhere as though they cost nothing. I do that to stop
their mouths, so that they'll work for me after taking my gifts, so that in the future, they will only
obediently follow me around and other than money, they won't demand time and energy from
their patron. Are you also a young pretty boy that I'm keeping? Why are you acting according to
their standard? If you don't like it, just say so!"

Old Yang, "..."

The Beggars' Sect disciple beside them heard President Yang's outrageously perverse words and
shrank his neck back and hunched his shoulders, not daring to utter a sound. He saw Old Yang's
smoke-blackened "old pretty boy" face turned from black to red, then from red to greenish-
white. Finally, Old Yang could bear it no longer. He raised the Dog Beating Staff and waved it at
Yang Yifan. "Whatever next! Is that something a person should say? You disgraceful, unfilial
thing!"

Gan Qing quickly walked away to give him space so that she wouldn't affect this old man putting
his Thirty-Six Dog Beating Techniques to use. Her hands in her pockets, she headed outside.

She really liked No. 110 Courtyard. It was busy and chaotic, beautiful and cheerful… and most
importantly, it was cheap.

Unfortunately…

She probably couldn't continue at Boss Meng's place too. She probably had to change jobs.

What could she do?

Fortunately, it was near the end of the year. Everywhere in Yanning was short of hands. It
shouldn't be hard to find a job as a waitress. She could make do for the time being.

When Gan Qing walked out of the hospital building, the northwest wind attacked her head-on,
wrapping all around her. She breathed out a puff of white air. She felt that she had lived too
comfortably for the past nearly half a year and had become fussy. She was unexpectedly even a
little melancholy.
She had originally been the kind of person who lived her life without a fixed home. She was just
cleaner and more presentable than the vagrants at the roadsides.

I've forgotten my roots, Gan Qing thought rather self-mockingly.

Right then, she saw a car charge into the parking lot. Before it came to a proper stop, a familiar
face rushed down and immediately charged towards the police car that was parked there.

Yu Yan was on the phone with his colleague who was at the scene of the fire. Yu Lanchuan
charged up to him, breathing in broken pants, and tugged at him. "Where is she?"

"What?"

"Gan Qing!"

"...Here." From not far away, someone responded hesitantly. "Little Master Yu, I think I heard you
calling for me?"

Yu Lanchuan snapped his head around. His knees weakened and he stumbled.

Yu Yan held him up. "Did you work overtime until you have low blood sugar? In that case, you
should go back and rest, why did you come here?"

Yu Lanchuan pushed him away.

Gan Qing was standing a few meters away from him, her posture casual and relaxed. Her hands
were in her pocket, her coat gone somewhere, and on the inside, she was wearing a cotton vest
that was covered in ash. It was extremely tacky. Even though her face had been wiped clean, a
few locks of hair were a little singed and she was still covered in grime all over. And it was with
this appearance that she crashed into his line of sight.

Yu Lanchuan didn't know why but his heart rate that had been like a hurricane the entire way
here did not slow down. Instead, it went up a level.

His long, unwavering gaze made Gan Qing uncomfortable. She thought there was something on
her face so she raised her hand to wipe her face with her sleeve without fuss. Only then did Yu
Lanchuan's gaze slowly fall on her bandaged right hand.

After wiping a while, Gan Qing didn't see any dirt. Baffled, she looked at Yu Lanchuan with a
raised eyebrow. Staring into each other's eyes like this was a little awkward, so she found
something to say. "All right, since we happened to bump into each other here, I can say goodbye
to you guys. In these couple of days, I plan to-"

The two words "say goodbye" seemed to trigger something in Yu Lanchuan. He suddenly went up
to her and grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards his car.

Yu Yan called out, "What's going on? Teacher Meng-Meng, why are you saying goodbye? Ai,
Master Lan, why aren't you saying anything? Hey!"
T/N:
[1] "Talking into a tree hollow" is somewhat similar to "yelling into the void"—basically it means a
place you can just pour your thoughts into. The difference between the two is that the former is
generally about secrets; telling them to a tree hollow is safe because it can't talk and hence can't
tell the secret to others. It is a reference to the folk tale The King with Donkey's Ears. You can find
the story easily online (it's not a Chinese folk tale, I think), but the relevant part here is the barber
digging a hole in the ground to whisper his secret. In the Chinese version (according to Baidu
anyway), instead of a hole in the ground, it is a tree hollow.
Chapter 56
Gan Qing's mask had just fallen off—not the one she had been wearing on her face.

When she was dragged away by Yu Lanchuan, her thoughts were on something unrelated: Even
though I said that I had broken ties with my shifu, shouldn't I act like someone who had gone
through Wan Mu Chun's specialised training… For example, something like "Do not come within
ten centimeters of me; otherwise, my lethal self-defense mechanism will be activated, my hand
may easily slip and take your life."

Sadly, she did not have such a defense mechanism in place. If she did, there was no way she
could get on public transport where humans were compressed until they resembled funeral
portraits.

By the time she came back to herself, Yu Lanchuan had already pushed her into the car without
saying a word.

And she had not resisted.

Why?

Gan Qing herself couldn't quite understand it. Maybe it was because she had just taken a walk in
the hospital building behind them and had been affected by the joys and sorrows of the reunions
and separations in life.

She was infected.

...Or maybe she just wanted to hitch a ride.

Gan Qing rubbed her own wrists. She looked at Yu Lanchuan's tense side profile and said
thoughtlessly, "If there's anything, let's talk nicely. What you did just now, if it was someone else
they would be yelling for someone to catch the pervert."

Yu Lanchuan's ears turned red in an instant. He didn't look at her and only said coldly, "Yelling for
someone to come catch you? Put on your safety belt."

Gan Qing didn't want to listen to yet another lesson on traffic safety so she had no choice but to
obediently put on the safety belt. "Why the hot temper? I notified you beforehand. Why, did I
spoil the strategy the alliance leader had deployed in the Asian Pacific region?"
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why did you come here?"

"That useless bunch of people who worshipped the 'Chun' memorial table mentioned that they
have a 'shifu.' We never found out who this 'shifu' is." Gan Qing saw that the car had a fortune
cat decoration whose arm was waving back and forth, and couldn't resist taking it to play with.
"Wan Mu Chun's martial arts skills aren't passed on to outsiders. You guys know that too. That
day when you and Sect Leader Yang were talking outside the door, I heard the conversation. I
came to have a look."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You looked until you ended up in the hospital?"

"Ai, Little Master Yu," Gan Qing said with a bright smile. "I just saw quite a few scenes of heart-
wrenching crying. If you continue on like this, I'm going to think that you're worried about me…
ah!

Yu Lanchuan's leg spasmed and stepped extra fiercely on the accelerator. Instantly, the car was
like a whipped horse. The infrastructure around the remote hospital was not optimal and the
road surface was like a pockmarked face. This "shadowless step" technique of Yu Lanchuan's first
drove the car into a large pothole, then drove it back out bouncing and leaping. If it weren't for
the safety belt restraining her, Gan Qing would have come close to taking flight. "I'm just teasing
you a bit and you want me to die with you? Shouldn't the most powerful move be left for fighting
the final boss?"

Yu Lanchuan squeezed out two words from the gaps of his clenched teeth. "Speak. Properly."

"Even though public morals are degenerating day by day, who would have thought that an expert
in murdering people and setting fires would lower themselves to swindle the elderly in a rural
tourism chalet," Gan Qing said. "If I hadn't come, were you counting on an old man over ninety
years of age to engage in combat with him? Using my skills in front of Sect Leader Yang is the
same as self-reporting which sect I'm from. When I go back, I'll need to move out. Do you think I
wanted this?"

Yu Lanchuan asked stiffly, "Who's making you move out?"

"I'm taking the initiative to do it of my own will. It doesn't look nice to be ousted directly," Gan
Qing said mildly. She rubbed the fortune cat's little waving paw. As though she was afraid that
this alliance leader next to her who got his post by depending on his apartment was not familiar
with his job, she kindly explained further. "Since you know that that old man Wei Xiao had once
been named in the Alliance Leader's Command, you should know that in the eyes of you
righteous sects, 'Wan Mu Chun' is about the same as that pack of people that just got arrested. If
I continue to stay there, Old Sect Leader Yang and the others will suspect that I have other
intentions."

"Where will you go?"

"I haven't thought of that, I'll have a look around first," Gan Qing said frankly, not thinking much
of it. "I might need to stay in Yanning for a while longer. After all, there are still some matters that
aren't wrapped up yet."
Matters that aren't wrapped up yet… Is it Travellers' Sect?

"I thought that since you've stayed at No. 110 for so long…" Yu Lanchuan said, "...you would…"

...think of us as...

"...at least be a little unwilling to leave."

Gan Qing turned on the car's stereo system and flipped through the music catalogue. The car
owner's taste was very old-fashioned. Once the music was turned on, the sound of "The New
Dream of Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies" flowed out.

"The beauty of the rivers and mountains are sublime," Gan Qing had not picked up on the subtle
implied meaning between his lines at all and was carelessly speaking nonsense, "Yet, in the end,
this is not my home[1]."

Yu Lanchuan finished the poem, "I ask; when will be the day I return… Where are you planning to
return to?"

That single question had Gan Qing stumped. Her movements paused.

The music continued to sing. "Draw a knife to cut off the water, the water flows ever more. Raise
a cup to drown the sorrows, the sorrows grow ever more. Tomorrow morning, the cool wind
flows in all directions…"

Right as they reached a crossroad, the lights turned red. Yu Lanchuan stopped the car behind the
white line, his eyes staring at the countdown timer above the lights.

The two of them fell into silence for the moment.

The light from the occasional passing car shone through the windows. Her face brightened and
darkened in turns, her cheeks a little dry from being rubbed too hard with wet tissues. She
carried nothing with her on her body, even her coat had been tossed aside in the burning
building. She played with the decorations in the car absent-mindedly, like someone hitching a
ride, like a passerby about to go on a long journey to somewhere far.

The countdown timer on the lights decreased steadily from forty seconds like it was closing in on
something. When the digit on the left turned to "1," Yu Lanchuan's hand that was gripping the
steering wheel was suddenly covered in a sheen of sweat. The timer again changed swiftly from
"10" to "9." The corner of Yu Lanchuan's eye twitched slightly. Like he was being rushed by the
number of seconds on the timer, he blurted out, "I am."

Gan Qing asked, "Mm? You're what?"

05, 04, …

"Just now, you said that I scolded you because… I'm worried about you. That's what I meant."
Gan Qing turned her head in surprise.

His face expressionless, Yu Lanchuan spoke rather incoherently, "I'm not continuing what we
were saying just now… I just… jumped back a bit…"

"Ah." Gan Qing made a sound in response, a little at a loss. "I understand."

The countdown timer ended and the lights changed to green. But Yu Lanchuan didn't move.
Fortunately, this road wasn't a single lane and the traffic flow was sparse.

He reached out and turned off the stereo system. After that, he immediately regretted it because
once the space inside the car turned quiet, even the slightest change in the sound of his
heartbeat was clear.

Gan Qing made a sound, "Ermm…"

The light's green.

"I…" Yu Lanchuan opened his mouth almost at the same time as her.

Both of them closed their mouths at the same time.

"You first," Gan Qing demurred.

"I don't judge a person by their background and I care even less about the so-called 'lineage' of
their skills," Yu Lanchuan said. "What year is it now, are we still as backwards as that terrible vest
you're wearing?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"Yu Yan called me and said that the building was on fire and that you were inside. Right after
that, someone on that side of the call shouted that the building was collapsing…" Yu Lanchuan
couldn't continue speaking anymore. He turned the music on again.

Gan Qing's lashes quivered as though they couldn't bear the weight and fell downwards again.
"You rushed here in the middle of the night because of that?"

Yu Lanchuan stomped on the accelerator. "What other reason is there!"

The car had just leaped past the white line when the lights changed to red again. The law-abiding
Little Master Yu quickly braked again; there was a heavy thump and the two of them were jolted
nearly out of their seats. Yu Lanchuan cursed in a low voice. "I didn't even find out what
happened and just borrowed this car from someone and rushed here. In the end, you act like
there's nothing wrong and say that you're leaving the moment I see you. Are you even human?"

Gan Qing really wanted to say that this was an unrelated matter but for some unknown reason,
when the words were right at her lips, she couldn't say them.
When she walked along the hospital corridors, it was like watching numerous emotional scenes
from drama shows. She saw them with her eyes, yet they did not touch her heart. Unexpectedly,
she was also being dragged into a "plotline" and for a moment, she was at a loss for what to do.

There was someone who, upon hearing just some fragmentary words, had driven at top speed
for a few hours to rush from Yanning's city center all the way here to look for her.

This person had also rushed to the cemetery in the eastern suburbs in the middle of the night
and climbed the walls to get in, just to stop her from looking for Wang Jiusheng on her own...

The current little alliance leader was such a warmhearted person?

She suddenly fell silent. The sweat on Yu Lanchuan's hands was making his hands slippery. The
engine of his heart seemed to have a few collapsed cylinders and was thumping more and more
wildly, jumbling together with the old song from the last century playing from the car's stereo
system to become static noise.

Since he was young, Yu Lanchuan had been a "flower on a high mountain ridge" that waited for
the other sex to confess their feelings to him. His self-esteem hung high on the precipice of a
snowy mountain and was only responsible for sparing the occasional glance to the people
confessing to him to indicate his lack of interest. This was practically the first time he was giving
in and saying such words… and she dared to remain silent?

Pah, Yu Lanchuan thought. What did I say? I certainly did not confess my feelings… Stop singing,
so annoying!

His embarrassment had turned to anger. The second the lights changed, he got the car moving
and turned off the music again. With the music off, he felt awkward but with it on, he felt that it
was noisy. After he turned it on and off repeatedly a few times, Gan Qing finally couldn't bear it
anymore and said, "Little Master Yu, please spare its life."

"Don't assume too much," Yu Lanchuan said coldly. "It's just because you saved my life once
when I was young and I'm returning the favour."

"Thank you," Gan Qing said. "Erm… I don't have to strip to make things equal, right?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing said, "After all, I don't have a doggy-"

"Shut. Up!"

Gan Qing felt that Little Master Yu was close to making a police report, so she willingly and
obediently made a zipping motion across her lips.

Yu Lanchuan became the second heat source after the air-conditioning, steam rising from his
head the entire way back to Yanning. Maybe it was the warm air roasting her that made her
sleepy or maybe she didn't want him to feel awkward; whatever the reason was, Gan Qing just
closed her eyes and rested next to him.

Yu Lanchuan quietly turned the temperature up on the air-conditioning. He felt that Gan Qing
had a face that naturally had a touch of coldness. No matter how high the temperature of the air
roasting it was, the capillaries beneath her skin refused to show even a hint of a flush, like they
were being frugal with her vitality.

Her right hand was resting on the car door, the cloth-wrapped fingers dangling in midair,
trembling slightly beyond her control. They didn't look at all dangerous; instead, it gave one the
urge to take them and hold them in their own hand.

I might have gone mad, Yu Lanchuan thought.

Older-than-average young man so busy with working overtime that he has no energy to look for a
partner, starts having his imagination run wild the moment he sees someone of the other sex
who looks acceptable.

Wait a minute… who's older-than-average? Definitely not me, I'm in the prime of my life! Yu
Lanchuan's mind theater was full of scrolling comments. Isn't she just an uncultured village
bumpkin, how is she acceptable? She's just the level of an ordinary passerby!

There was another red light. Yu Lanchuan couldn't stop himself from turning his head to glance at
her. He took off his coat and threw it over her body.

Gan Qing was definitely awake. She was just acting dumb and keeping her eyes closed. Her lashes
moved slightly.

Yu Lanchuan quickly withdrew his gaze. ...Her lashes are longer than an ordinary passerby's.

For some reason, there were many red lights on this journey. The drive was bumpy and fitful, and
when they returned to the city district, it was already past midnight. Yu Lanchuan stopped the car
at No. 110's entrance. Gan Qing "woke up" right on time. "You need to find a place to park, right?
I'll get off first."

As she spoke, she removed the coat on her body as though nothing had happened, smoothed it
out and folded it, and pushed the car door open.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What happened to your hand?"

Gan Qing looked at the bandages on her finger. "Didn't I say just now? I met a tough thorn that
wasn't easy to handle. I cut myself in the process."

"No." Yu Lanchuan lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on her right hand that had a slight
deformation. "What I'm asking is, what happened to the muscles and tendons of your arm?"

Gan Qing paused.

Yu Lanchuan cleared his throat, covering up rather conspicuously. "I'm not being a busybody. My
stepfather was a doctor before he resigned. I can help you ask if there is any possibility of
treating it. Actually, if it had been treated in time when you were injured…"

"I don't know, I've never had it treated," Gan Qing said.

Yu Lanchuan was stunned.

Gan Qing shrugged. "It was my own choice. Why would I get it treated?"

"Your own… what?"

"Ai, what kind of look is that?" Gan Qing flashed him a smile. "Don't worry, I'm not crazy, I'm not
sociopathic, and I definitely don't have a tendency to self-harm. Little Master Yu comes from a
learned family, so you should know the rules, right? Ne Zha cut his flesh to return them to his
mother and carved his bones to return them to his father. I revolted and broke ties with my sect,
and made a clean break with my former shifu. So of course I would need to leave something
behind—I returned the over ten years' of martial arts skills in my right arm."

Yu Lanchuan stared at her, dumbstruck.

"That's right, the jianghu is a vicious place." As Gan Qing spoke, she pushed open the car door
and got down. "The demonic sects are black-hearted and ruthless, and are capable of anything…
I'll head up first. Thank you for the ride. Get an early rest."

In the biting cold of an early morning at the end of the year in Yanning, she stretched her body
and then walked into the small building. Even Zhang Meizhen who went out to party everyday
had already returned home and was fast asleep. Keeping her movements quiet, Gan Qing washed
up and returned to her room and tidied her belongings.

Her belongings were not many —just a few everyday clothes and some daily necessities. After
she got up tomorrow, she would take a day off from Boss Meng to give the room she had lived in
a thorough cleaning. She would take down the curtains and the bed sheet to wash, and then she
could take her leave of Madam Meizhen. There would be no trouble at all.

Gan Qing put the little dog plush that her ex-roommate, Miss Night Owl, had given her on the
windowsill. She tore off the note the night owl roommate had left her and planned to leave the
dog to Zhang Meizhen as a souvenir. She was not going to bring it with her.

"On what do you build your life?" Miss Night Owl asked her from across time and space.

A good question. Gan Qing crumpled the note into a ball and threw it into the trash can.
However… humans aren't flowers or grass or trees, why do they need to have a fixed thing
beneath their feet to "build their life" on?

Living like the floating duckweed was also living. There was nothing wrong with that.
Yu Lanchuan's sudden and rather sorry way of getting close to her did not mess up her plans. Gan
Qing rested her head on her hands and lay face-up on the bed. She thought back on this special
part of her life, savouring it, then swallowed it as though it was a sweet snack she had obtained
unexpectedly.

Good thing it's me, Gan Qing thought. A man and a woman all on their own, if it were someone
else, they would be letting their imagination run wild.

T/N:
[1] "The beauty of the rivers and mountains are sublime; yet, in the end, this is not my home; I
ask, when will be the day I return" (" 江山信美，终非吾土") is from the poem 平湖乐 by the
Yuan dynasty poet Wang Yun.
Chapter 57
As a delicate and refined old lady, as usual, Zhang Meizhen slept in a cloud of perfume until the
sun was high in the sky.

The moment she opened her eyes, she felt that there was something different about the house.
Hence, she followed the noise to the kitchen and saw that Gan Qing was making egg rolls stuffed
with meat floss.

Zhang Meizhen stared at her absent-mindedly for a while, thinking that she must have not slept
enough. She turned her head back to check the time, then poked her head into the kitchen to ask
Gan Qing doubtfully, "Little Nun, shouldn't you have left the house to go recite the western
sutras?"

"I have something on so I took the day off. I'll talk to you about it in a while." Gan Qing didn't turn
her head. "Shall I make rolls with chicken floss or beef floss for you?"

"I don't eat that kind of junk food, who knows what has been added to them…" Zhang Meizhen
muttered.

Gan Qing said, "This isn't junk food, I made the meat floss myself."

Zhang Meizhen turned to look at Gan Qing's room. There was a large luggage bag at the door.
The curtains had been taken down and were piled neatly on the washing machine. Gan Qing had
probably been afraid of waking her up with the noise so she hadn't turned on the washing
machine. Zhang Meizhen frowned. She suddenly realised something and slowly stood straight.

"Beef is more fatty so it's more fragrant," Gan Qing said.

"Oh, sure." Zhang Meizhen had just woken up and her mind was not very alert. Her focus was led
astray and it was a while before she realised what was going on. "That's not the main point.
Where did you go yesterday? Why did you pack your things?"

Gan Qing grabbed a handful of meat floss and scattered them over the egg crepe, then laid a
piece of cheese on top. The food sizzled in the non-stick pan. She said, "I hitched a ride and went
with Sect Leader Yang and the rest to have a look, and accidentally got into a fight… I'll put one
less spoon of sauce. You have high blood pressure, it's not good to eat too much salt."
"My blood pressure right now is indeed not low." Zhang Meizhen flipped the hair on her shoulder
to her back. "What do you mean? You're staying at my place, do you need permission from that
Yang fellow?"

Coincidentally, Meizhen-jie had just finished speaking when someone pressed the doorbell. Old
Master Yang seemed to have picked the time when she got out of bed to come here, just for the
sake of letting her vent her morning grouchiness on him.

Who knew what grudges and enmity the older generation had; to outsiders, Sect Leader Yang
had the bearing of a man long used to being revered but when he was at Zhang Meizhen's place,
if Meizhen-jiejie pointed to the east he wouldn't dare strike west. He was the respected sect
leader of Beggars' Sect, yet not only was he shouted at every day, he also did not get many
pleasant looks.

The moment Zhang Meizhen opened the door and saw him, without waiting for Old Yang to say
anything, she slammed the door shut and yelled outside. "This is the Cave of the Silken Web, the
demons' nest. It's not convenient for us to receive you people from the reputable and righteous
sects, please kindly fuck off!"

Old Master Yang's voice came from the other side of the door. "Let me explain…"

"A dog carried away my hearing aids, I can't hear you!"

"Open the door first. There are people coming and going in the corridor… Ai, it doesn't look good
for me to be standing here."

"Go back home and look in the mirror. You can stand anywhere and you still won't look good."

Gan Qing held a spatula in her hand. A forty-episode drama series full of melodrama was already
playing in her head and she couldn't help feeling amused. She turned off the stove and went over
to open the door for Old Sect Leader Yang herself.

Zhang Meizhen snorted coldly. "Don't let your walking stick touch the floor of my home. It will
sully the purity of your Dog Beating Staff."

With that, she slammed the bathroom door shut and went to wash up.

Sect Leader Yang entered the apartment, all downcast and dejected. His legs were still rather
stiff. His age was advanced after all. Last night, he had brandished a hardwood walking stick
around in a fight; today, he couldn't raise his upper arms. His face was rather ashen, he probably
hadn't slept well and who knew what time it was when he got back from the hospital.

"I'm making breakfast right now. Would you like to have some?" Gan Qing asked politely. "Do
you want-"

"He doesn't dare." Zhang Meizhen's sinister voice came from the bathroom. "He's afraid you'll
poison him and that holes will rot through his guts and stomach after eating!"
"Don't trouble yourself." Old Master Yang waved his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
Gan Qing's packed belongings. He recognised the bag—when she carried her luggage here, it was
him who asked Yu Lanchuan to help her carry it up.

Leaning on his walking stick, Old Master Yang studied Gan Qing and asked, "So you are… the child
that Wei Xiao brought here back in that year?"

Gan Qing smiled.

"Ai, I couldn't recognise you." Old Master Yang extended his hand and gestured. "Back then, you
were only this tall. Your shifu-"

"Former shifu, he died many years ago." Gan Qing unhurriedly cut him off. She poured him a
glass of water. "Please have a seat. I haven't finished making breakfast. I've made an
appointment with an agent to check out rooms in the afternoon. I will need to leave soon."

Old Master Yang said, "I came to look for you for this very reason. Yesterday, it was too chaotic at
the hospital and I didn't have time to thank you."

Gan Qing smiled. "There's no-"

"It's not just about yesterday night. After midnight, Xiao-Chuan called me and we talked for half
the night. It was only then that I knew that the reason why so many things could go smoothly in
the past was because you lent a hand." Old Master Yang had heavy dark circles under his eyes,
proving that the "half the night" was a realistic estimate and not rhetorical. "Otherwise—just
take that kidnapping incident for example—that kid Yan Hao would have had to face the
consequences. When they were surrounded by the Travellers' Sect people a few days ago, if you
hadn't helped them break out, it would probably be difficult for them to come back in one piece.
In the past half a year, the blundering younger generation have caused quite a lot of trouble for
you. You deserve this thank you."

Yu Lanchuan had left for work early in the morning. The kitchen window in 1003 opened into the
corridor. When Gan Qing was making breakfast, she sensed him standing outside the window for
a while.

Yesterday, he had rushed all the way to somewhere so far away and then busied himself making
calls here and there when he got back.

Did he… not sleep at all for the whole night?

For a moment, Gan Qing wasn't sure what the feeling in her heart was. She was someone who
liked being a wallflower. Even though it was not to the extent of the "sparrow" downstairs who
was afraid of other people looking at him, she was also not used to being in the center of
attention. If someone did something specially for her, even if it took barely any effort on their
part, she would feel a little like there was something crawling under her skin.
"On the Yangtze River, the new waves overpower the old waves," Old Master Yang said. "Based
on your age, you have probably only met your grand-master a handful of times. I don't know
what happened within your sect but… if, in the afterworld, Chun-xiong knew what had happened,
he would probably be rather gratified. Yan Hao came all the way here from thousand of miles
away in the south to seek shelter with us; Xiao-Chuan's house is still being renovated so he's
staying here temporarily; for the sake of sending his child to school, Dongsheng brought his
family, old and young, back to No. 110 after leaving for ten years; and you are also staying here at
Meizhen's place by a fated coincidence. Isn't this what is meant by the coincidences and forces of
life that we cannot predict, and everything following the law of nature? For me to be able to see
the Five Supremes gather again in my lifetime is the greatest joy I can have. Young lady, if you
leave, it would be a regrettable loss for the Five Supremes."

Gan Qing lowered her head and smiled. "It's been nearly a hundred years, there's no meaning to
having this title now. Sect Leader Yang, you should have heard yesterday, right? I'm someone
who revolted and broke ties with my sect. Aren't you going to ask what I've done?"

"What I should know, I will know one day. If I force my way to find out before the right time, I
might miss the big picture." Old Master Yang didn't mind her distant and thorny attitude. He only
said, "Xiao-Chuan has that kind of temperament, yet he was on the phone the whole night for
you. Meizhen also took the initiative to keep you here. My old eyes are blurred, am I going to
compare the ability to see things clearly with them?"

After saying that, he slowly stood up. "I won't disturb the two of you having breakfast. If I stay
here any longer, Meizhen is going to give me dirty looks."

Gan Qing, "..."

"By the way…" At the entrance, Old Master Yang suddenly thought of something and turned
around to say to Gan Qing, "You probably don't remember but that time when Wei Xiao brought
you here to No. 110, it was actually the last time he showed his face in the martial arts
community. He said that when he was young, he had caused not an insignificant amount of
trouble and offended a lot of people, and that he reaped what he sowed. He didn't mind what
happened to him but because he had the little you by his side, he had a lot more to worry about.
It wouldn't be convenient for him to continue stirring up the jianghu, so he planned to conceal his
identity and live in seclusion."

From then on, Wei Xiao became the cook Wei Changsheng.

Gan Qing stared at him blankly.

Sect Leader Yang leaned on his walking stick and walked out. "Your shifu, he definitely loved you
a lot."

Gan Qing sent the old man off. Her soul had flown off to who-knew-where and she messed up
and burned a piece of egg crepe.

Zhang Meizhen turned the suction on the exhaust hood up a notch and fanned the smoke in the
kitchen. "What are you doing? Not planning to live anymore?"
Gan Qing quickly scraped the burnt bits off the pan and cleaned the ash on the spatula. Right at
that moment, the doorbell rang again.

1003 was usually so tranquil it was like a country of its own but it was exceptionally lively today.
Zhang Meizhen opened the door and saw Little Friend Han Zhou who was on summer holiday
standing there holding a paper box.

The boy with the brightest future prospects in the entire building looked at Madam Meizhen and
broke into a huge smile. He promoted himself a few generations ahead and the first thing he said
when he opened his mouth was, "Hello, Meizhen-jie. Can I get a free meal here?"

"..." Zhang Meizhen's expression changed a few times and her tone softened quite a bit
involuntarily. "No respect for age, who are you calling that? Even your dad calls me 'Grandma.'
These gremlin kids, who are they learning from? Each and every one of them is a smooth talker.
Ai, come on in."

"This is a cake my mum bought. She asked me to bring it up for the jiejies here to try. My grandpa
is still in the hospital, my parents are there to accompany him." Little Friend Han Zhou held the
paper box higher. "Gan Qing-jiejie, my dad asked me to pass you a message. He said that when
my grandpa is discharged from the hospital, he will definitely bring him here to thank you. It was
lucky for them that you stay at No. 110, you must not move out… Are you going to move out?"

Gan Qing hesitated. "Erm…"

Han Zhou hopped up on a chair. His legs could not reach the floor and dangled down. This future
patron of love propped his chin up on both hands and said gloomily, "Then, take me along too. I
want to wander the world with you. Why confine ourselves to the mortal realm and suffer…
suffer… ai, suffer what again? Anyway, what I mean is I don't want to go to school."

The adults in his family didn't have time to look after him recently. During his holidays, this brat
had the run of the house and was probably living in the T.V. already.

Gan Qing took the last egg roll out of the pan. Yet another unexpected visitor had arrived. Luckily,
she had made extra or there wouldn't be enough to go around.

This time, it was Liu Zhongqi who had come. He had just come back from school and was like a
large rabbit being hunted by a wolf. Without even putting his bag down, he entered in a fluster
and said in alarm, "Our last exam in the morning was English. I compared answers with the
others, I think my life is going to end. Teacher Meng-Meng, quick, help me estimate my score!"

Gan Qing, "..."

After much effort, she finally got rid of Team Elderly, Team Children and Team "Heart Entirely Set
on Studies" who had come together to wear her down one after another. It was even more tiring
than fighting three hundred rounds with the evil cult members in the outskirts. Before she had
the time to soak the curtains, it was already the time for her appointment with the real estate
agent and she left in a rush.
She took the bus around the city and looked at a few rooms—all of them weren't anything
remarkable. With her budget, of course there wouldn't be any good rooms. The only place where
the conditions were acceptable was a haunted house near a cemetery.

Gan Qing got down from the bus. Her finger swiped across her phone and she hesitated over
whether or not to tell the agent to book the haunted house. Near the bus stop, a beggar who was
picking out bottles from the trash can saw her from far away and grinned at her, and even gave
her a deep bow. Gan Qing nodded in reply. All of a sudden, she couldn't bring herself to tap on
the "Send" button on the message.

She wrapped her coat tighter around herself and walked into the darkness of the night, feeling a
little lost.

For the first time in her life, there were people urging her to stay. She was a little unsure of what
to do.

She had just reached the vicinity of No. 110 Courtyard and hadn't passed the intersection yet
when a shadow suddenly flashed over to her. Gan Qing's leg reflexively stepped back—toes
lightly touching the ground, posture adjusted so that she could kick out at any time—and only
then did she see that the person stopping her was Yan Hao.

"It's you." Gan Qing lowered her ankle. "Why, did Little Master Yu give you a call too?"

He was really not picky with the people he chose.

Yan Hao stared blankly. "Wh-What?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Oh, she accidentally assumed too much.

"What's the matter?"

"That… That man." Yan Hao stammered and pointed at a man who was pacing around the
intersection and said, "He's walking around this place. He said the police told him that his mother
'departed' by this road…"

Gan Qing followed his gaze and recognised the man at the intersection—she had seen him
yesterday at the hospital. He was the son of Old Madam Lin who had unfortunately passed away.

After Old Madam Lin failed to get back the money she had spent on rewards and passed away
from heart failure, the Travellers' Sect people were afraid of bearing the responsibility and had
furtively taken her body away to be buried.

"Her body was indeed taken away through this road." Gan Qing asked Yan Hao, "What's the
matter?"
"I want to tell him something… b-but I don't know how to say it." Yan Hao fidgeted restlessly. He
had been beaten up by Gan Qing before, had been rescued by her before, and had taken back his
figurine from her hands. Hence, he could just barely consider her an acquaintance and could
speak a few words with her. But for him to strike up a conversation with a stranger was asking
too much of him. "I don't have proof… and might not say it correctly, can you help me tell him…"

Gan Qing was completely confused by his scrambled words. "What proof? Help you what? Wait,
wait, wait… take a deep breath, there's no hurry, first arrange your sentence order."

"His mother… that is, Old Madam Lin…" Yan Hao followed the guidance of the grammar teacher,
Teacher Meng-Meng, and forced out the subject of his sentence, "...went missing… from this
road… Qiao-Qiao might have seen her. Qiao-Qiao is…"

"The girl at the pet store, I know," Gan Qing said, "And then?"

Yan Hao felt that he couldn't say it clearly so he fished out a notebook from his pocket. In it were
the written chats between him and Qiao-Qiao:

That night, I saw someone riding an electrical three-wheeled cart pass by here. The words were
written in the girl's delicate handwriting. There was a human-sized sack on the cart. The rider also
made a phone call and said stuff like "Yanning is a busy place with prying eyes, it's troublesome."
Then, he accidentally rode into a pothole and the things on the cart fell off.

The sack was moving.

Chapter 58
"I, a neighbourhood police officer from the local police station, have not been transferred to the
Serious Crime Division due to my outstanding achievements in my work, have I?" Yu Yan sat on a
plastic chair in the pet store, his face dumbstruck. "My main job right now should be to prevent
the residents of this neighbourhood from setting off fireworks or firecrackers illegally, pour my
heart and soul into the end-of-the-year thief-catching season, and also work hard to find the
culprit of the high-rise burglaries from a while ba- ah! What's this!"

Before he could finish speaking, a hairless cat leaped out of Qiao-Qiao's hands and onto the
tabletop like a bolt of lightning. A pair of large eyes peeked out, studying Yu Yan.

Yu Yan leaped three feet into the air. "What's this? It looks so scary! An alien?"

The hairless cat angrily meow-ed at him.

Yu Yan said in shock, "Fuck, this buddy here sounds like a motor!"

The National Railway Administration had already announced the start of the year-end Lunar New
Year migration. The usage of the pet-boarding service at the pet store also increased in tandem.
Yu Yan's shout started off a chorus of cats and the dogs, the barks and meows coming from
upstairs and downstairs, all of them raising their voices together with him. It was basically a
disaster.
Qiao-Qiao ran over angrily and carried the hairless cat to the cat bed. She turned her eyes to look
at Yu Yan and swiftly made a string of gestures in sign language.

Gan Qing translated at the side. "She said that this is a beautiful lady and that you should
apologise to her."

"What, a female cat? Why does a female cat sound like that? Are you sure it's not a lady
pretending to be the big bro?" Yu Yan said, then turned towards Gan Qing. "Wait a minute, how
do you know what she's gesturing? You can even understand sign language?"

Gan Qing said modestly, "A little. I threw in some guesses."

Yu Yan gave her an incredulous look. Just like how he did not understand why he, as a
neighbourhood police officer, had to risk his life fighting criminal rings, he did not understand
why she, as someone who "knew a little" of everything, had to lower herself to "babysit" a little
scam shop.

"But just 'You saw it' is not enough to draw any conclusion. It was pitch dark, what if you saw
wrongly? Even if you did not see wrongly, it might not have been a person inside," Yu Yan said to
the mute girl, Qiao-Qiao. "It could be a cat or a dog—those cheap meats sold by the roadside
stalls that come from illegal small manufacturers, a lot of them use stray cats and dogs as the
source ingredient. There are people who specialise in gathering them… Of course, this is also
illegal. That's why the person riding the three-wheeled cart had a guilty conscience and said
those words on the phone that you overheard. There's nothing suspicious about that."

Qiao-Qiao could not refute him. She pursed her lips and did not make a sound.

Seeing that she was young, Yu Yan patiently explained to her. "Furthermore, for missing cases
that end in death like Old Madam Lin's, we wouldn't be able to determine at the start whether it
was accidental death or intentional murder, the forensic doctors would definitely need to
perform an autopsy. There's no way we would just believe what they said. The result of the
autopsy proved that Old Madam Lin died from heart failure. Otherwise, do you think I don't want
that bullshit qigong master to wear his seat out in prison? Because of him, I was nearly beaten up
by a gang of hoodlums!"

At this point, Gan Qing lifted her head to look at him.

"There's nothing I can do," Yu Yan spread his hands at her. "The ones who organised the assault
on the police were those few unlicensed cab drivers. Old Madam Lin's death was because of her
own anger and is considered accidental… Speaking of which, there's a stronger connection
between that and the hallucinatory drugs that Paradise group made her take blindly. The qigong
master and his gang could at most be slapped with a 'privately concealing a body' offence."

Yan Hao was not used to cutting into a conversation in front of so many people. He turned his
head to look out the window at the street outside. Old Madam Lin's son had walked far away
following the street, and was no longer within sight.
"It was right that you stopped the two of them from telling the old lady's family this," Yu Yan
sighed and said to Gan Qing. "A family member dying in unclear circumstances, no one can
accept it willingly. At this time, you can tell him any baseless rumours and he will believe it. If, for
a moment, he can't think clearly, who knows what he'll do."

Qiao-Qiao hurriedly stretched out a hand and made some gestures. Gan Qing lightly held her
wrist.

"Death from heart failure can happen in many ways, " Gan Qing said. "The autopsy can only
prove the cause of death but it's difficult to determine what triggered it, isn't it?"

"Hmm?" Yu Yan questioned.

Gan Qing said, "For example, I see someone who is so worked up that something seems wrong
with them but not to the extent that they're dying. Not only do I not call the ambulance, I also
stop them from leaving and even do something to trigger them further. In the end, I literally
scare her to death. How would you judge that? For example, like this-"

As she spoke, she suddenly reached out and swiftly jabbed Yu Yan a few times. Yu Yan's heart
thumped; half his body was numb.

He couldn't move!

Yu Yan was stupefied. This was the legendary "hitting the acupoints"!

"It's not that amazing." Gan Qing seemed to know what he was thinking. "It just numbs you for a
bit. Use your strength and try to move, and it'll be fine."

"Ah?"

He exerted his strength to move the spots Gan Qing had hit just now. Indeed, he could move
again and he realised that the feeling of being nailed down was just a psychological effect.

"Most people don't have the strength to hit the acupoints," Gan Qing said. "Furthermore, during
a fight, no one will obediently stand still and let you jab all you want. In reality, this so-called
'hitting the acupoints' can't cause any harm so it also won't leave any marks on the body. But it
should be enough to frighten an old lady who's seventy or eighty years old."

Want money? Dream on.

You can't move, can you? We are even going to bury you alive. Let's see where you can go and
ask for money.

Yu Yan was momentarily stunned. "Wouldn't that really be murder?"

"Not everyone will be condemned by their own conscience after killing a person. There are those
who only care about which method of disposing the body is the least risky." A cat came near Gan
Qing and she petted its head. "The amount of money Old Madam Lin wanted was too large,
enough to go on the news. Elderly people like them can risk their lives to create a ruckus for the
sake of their coffin money. If they really let her spread the fuss until it became big, it would be
too troublesome. Inversely, it would be easier to handle if she was dead. They can wait for the
storm to be over, then drag the body somewhere far and throw it on some rubbish pile
somewhere. When someone finds it, it'll just be handled as a homeless elderly dying from sudden
death.

Yan Hao couldn't stop himself from asking, "Th-Then what should we do?"

"There's nothing we can do. If that is really the case, then Traveller's Sect must have people who
specialise in disposing bodies," Gan Qing said coldly. She turned to ask Qiao-Qiao. "Did you see
clearly what the person riding the three-wheeled cart looked like?"

Qiao-Qiao shook her head. No, he was wearing a helmet.

"That's the specialised 'street cleaner.' Even if he's captured on CCTV, you won't find out who he
is. The three-wheeled cart must be well hidden now and there won't be extraneous marks on the
body. Travellers' Sect are jianghu veterans. It's not so easy to get anything on them." Gan Qing
stood up. "Also, don't carelessly talk about what we discussed today. Did you hear what Officer
Yu said? The situation is unclear, it might bring greater harm to the bereaved family."

Both Yan Hao and Qiao-Qiao stared at her.

"That's enough, this is just my impartial view. Don't look at me like that, you're making me feel
like I'm sullying someone's pure, unstained soul." Gan Qing waved a hand, then thrust her hands
into her pockets and walked out of the pet store. The hairless cat opened its eyes wide and
stared at her retreating back, and let out a wheeze.

"Wait!" Yu Yan, who had just said that he only handled catching petty thieves, caught up to her.
"Gan Qing, if there really is a possibility that what you said happened, we will investigate to the
end!"

Gan Qing looked up at the gloomy sky and smiled at him. "Sure, good luck."

Yu Yan said, "You have past conflicts with Travellers' Sect. I, too, have past conflicts with them. In
the future, why don't we all discuss together how to handle them? Lanchuan told me that you're
leaving…"

Gan Qing finally felt her head aching slightly. "Does Little Master Yu want to be my manager? I
haven't made my debut and he's already publicising my itinerary far and wide."

Yu Yan said, "The kidnapping incident when he was young left a huge impact on him. All these
years, he could not forget the matter. He even filled a sketchbook with drawings of you as the
model."

"Drawings… drawings of what?"

"Ai, this is too awkward. I feel like I'm being a matchmaker." Yu Yan took off his police cap and
ran his hand through his short hair. "Teacher Meng-Meng, even though your anti-Mercury
retrograde charm isn't very effective, I'm already used to getting new ones from you on a regular
basis-"

Gan Qing interrupted him softly. "Officer Yu, you have investigated me, haven't you?"

Yu Yan was instantly speechless.

Gan Qing unhurriedly turned her head around. Under the stark white light of the streetlights, her
face didn't have much colour. There was a small crack on her dry lips and one of her eyebrows
was slightly raised. All of a sudden, she was no longer the friendly and cute "Teacher Meng-
Meng." She kept her voice very low. "You've seen my file, you know what I did in the past. You
still plan to keep me in your neighbourhood?"

For a moment, Yu Yan could not say anything.

Gan Qing drew in a breath of the bitingly cold northwest wind. Suddenly, she recalled what
happened many years ago.

It was also a freezing cold winter's day. She walked on the road in a miserable state, the cold
wind blowing on the wounds on her body until she could not feel them anymore. Blood dripped
with every step she took. The scariest of all was the knife wound on her right arm—it seemed to
pierce right through the girl's arm and her entire sleeve looked like it had been dredged out of a
pool of blood. Near Mudpool Backlane, she collapsed onto the ground.

When she regained consciousness, her wound had already been cleaned. She realised that she
was lying on her own little bed. There was a glass of hot milk on the bedside table.

Gan Qing stared blankly at the milk that had steam rising from it for a long while. Then, all of a
sudden, she threw off her blanket and leaped up and limped out of the room in a rush. "Shi-"

"Gan'er!"

Gan Qing twisted her head around and her gaze swiftly turned dull. "...Uncle Meng."

"Quick, go back to your room." Meng Tianyi kept his voice low and pushed her into the room. "I
didn't dare send you to the hospital. I got your aunt to help you bandage your wounds. What on
earth happened? Where did you go? What did you do? How did you get so badly injured?"

Gan Qing acted like she had not heard his questions. After falling silent for a while, she asked,
"Where's my shifu?"

Meng Tianyi looked like he was in a dilemma."Your shifu is now… Mm, he asked me to look after
you."
"Oh, I get it. He doesn't want to see me," Gan Qing said detachedly. "He didn't throw me out on
the streets because he's afraid I'll cause trouble for him, isn't it? He purposely brought me back
while he hid himself away?"

"What are you saying? Who on earth did you fight, my ancestor! Can you speak the truth for once
so that your Uncle Meng knows what's going on? It's against the law to injure people. It wasn't
easy for your shifu to let you study in Yanning. You're in Year 3 of senior high already. Take the
exam, enter university and become an educated person, nice and steady, isn't that good? You
skip school every day, get into fights and face disciplinary actions. You also don't study properly,
the school even wants to expel you now! In that case, your life will be ruined. Why can't you be
sensible… Hey, where are you going? Come back here!"

Meng Tianyi grabbed the girl's shoulders in a fluster but the injured Gan Qing slipped out of his
hands like a fish. In just a few steps, she had reached the door. The bandages around her right
arm fell to the floor.

"Gan Qing!" Veins bulged out on the corner of Meng Tianyi's forehead. He took a letter from his
pocket and held it high. "Your shifu wrote this himself. If you still refuse to be sensible, then you
can bear the consequences yourself!"

On the red seal of the envelope was written: My humble respects to all my ancestors of the sect
of Wan Mu Chun.

A shifu would only write such a letter themselves when a disciple broke a sect rule and was
ousted from the sect. The letter would be offered up to the masters of the sect to formalise the
breaking of the master-and-student relationship. If Wei Xiao wasn't living in seclusion, he should
even spread the news of the relationship severance far and wide so that all his allies and enemies
would know that this disciple Gan Qing had nothing more to do with Wan Mu Chun from then on.

The young Gan Qing seemed to want to burn through that red paper with her eyes. She stared at
the letter in Meng Tianyi's hand for a long time. "For who's sake… For what did I do this? I… He
wants to break ties with me?"

"Your shifu let his anger get the better of him." Meng Tianyi thought he had scared her into
submission. He coaxed her, "You too… Hey, Gan'er! What are you doing?"

Meng Tianyi turned pale with fright. He saw Gan Qing bring down the tip of her knife and slice
open her already-injured arm like she was cutting open a delivery package. Blood splattered onto
the door frame. Her arm fell limply by her side.

The pain was so great that veins bulged out on the corner of her forehead. She sucked in a breath
and said slowly, pausing between each word. "Then, I will return this to him… let this be a clean
break."

Meng Tianyi ran after her but the girl had already disappeared from sight. All she left was a trail
of blood.
"I did." Yu Yan spoke suddenly, drawing back Gan Qing's attention. "When you appeared in
Travellers' Sect territory the other day, your actions were really not like an ordinary person. I
investigated once I got back… and I've also told Master Lan."

Gan Qing was stunned.

"Yu Lanchuan took the day off today, did you know?" Yu Yan asked. "I've known him for so long.
He has only taken a day off once when his younger brother was kidnapped. He's… afraid that
you'll leave."

Gan Qing seemed to realise something. She followed his gaze to look over and saw a very low-
profile small black car stopped at the intersection not far away. It looked vaguely familiar… She
seemed to have seen this car at other places today!

Gan Qing looked down and fished out her phone, and saw that there was an unread message.
The real estate agent she had an appointment with earlier sent a message to apologise, saying
that the haunted house that she had been wavering over whether or not to rent had been rented
by someone else at a high price.

Gan Qing lowered her phone. She strode over to the car and knocked on the window.

The window wound down, revealing Little Master Yu's face.

"You're fighting me for a haunted house? And even offered a high price? You're really…" Gan
Qing couldn't help swearing, then turned to leave. Yu Lanchuan quickly got the car moving and
tailed her silently from a few meters away.

Gan Qing came to an abrupt stop. Yu Lanchuan immediately followed suit and braked. He was
like a stray cat winding around her heels and refusing to leave.

The two of them locked gazes for a while. Yu Lanchuan's throat twitched. He watched her
nervously.

Gan Qing said, "A haunted house that no one has wanted for 800 years was taken care of just like
that. If I had known earlier, I would ask the agent for a commission!"

Yu Lanchuan was caught off guard by her tirade. After a while, he realised something and
smacked the steering wheel hard, his lips turning up uncontrollably into a smile.

Half a month later, it was the New Year according to the old calendar. A pair of Spring Festival
couplets were hung up at No. 110, large and red. Old Mr. Zhou was also finally discharged and
returned home safe and sound. Zhou Beibei finally knew the truth of what happened to her
family's apartment. She cried her heart out, perhaps because her hopes had turned to nothing or
perhaps because her heart ached for another reason.

However, at the very least, she had now broken free. She no longer watched the stock market
every day and no longer became anxious at just the slightest whiff of trouble in the market.
Yu Yan brought news that the crackdown targeting MLMs and scams in the city was about to
start… However, after that experience, these elderly people who had been rescued all became
staunch fighters for materialism. They wouldn't fall for new tricks anytime soon.

Even though Han Dongsheng's promotion prospects were as dismal as ever, even though Han
Zhou's exam results still failed to meet the passing line, even though Liu Zhongqi was still waging
a desperate battle against English, even though Yu Lanchuan's year-end bonus was less than
expected…

However…

They were still here. They still had to welcome the new year.

Carrying New Year's goods with her, Gan Qing arrived at that old apartment block and as usual,
delivered them to the old lady living alone that she had been taking care of secretly.

Before she left, she looked deeply at the funeral portrait of a woman that hung in the living room.

That woman's surname was Chen and her name was Juan[1]. Because she could not bear being
abused by her husband, on a lonely and hopeless night, she had stabbed her drunk and
unconscious husband eleven times with a knife. She had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

After six years behind bars, she died of illness in prison.

Her greatest wish had been for there to be someone to look after her old mother… the person
who did not have the ability to live independently, the person who single-handedly pushed her
past the point of no return.

Gan Qing remembered that she had been a very gentle woman.

T/N:
[1] "Juan" 娟 juān is a female name and also a name commonly given to female victims of violent
crimes in China.

— END OF BOOK 3 —
Book 4: Loss of Focus
Chapter 59
Every time it was Spring Festival, cities like Yanning would become empty. Every road was wide
open all the way to the horizon and every train at the subway was like a special carriage for
reserved passengers only. The steaming hot urban heat island had its heat temporarily turned off.
And so, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the snow drifted down silently.

In the garden of No. 110 Courtyard, the evergreen pine trees were garlanded with snow-white
frost. More than half the private cars occupying the courtyard had been driven away and the little
courtyard was emptied out. Only the little electrical car that advertised the "Acupuncture,
Moxibustion, Flower Garlands" one-stop service was parked all on its own at a spot near the gate.
Someone had used their hand to draw on the snow covering the rear window and written the
"auspicious" greeting: To Pro-mort-ion and Wealth.
Star Dreams's business wasn't very good recently. There was barely a single sale in a day.

A lot of people broadly categorised both New Year's Day and Spring Festival as "celebrating New
Year's" but in actual fact, the latter was not the former and they were even as different as ice and
fire. The Gregorian calendar's New Year's Day was the peak season for business at Star Dreams.
The young people who came to buy lucky charms for the new year came wave after wave and
Gan Qing had been so busy that she hadn't even had the time to drink a gulp of water. The Spring
Festival a month later was an entirely different scene. Those noisily trendy young people seemed
to have melted away in just one night, mingling with their own families, big and small. If it
weren't because they could still make a sound online, it would seem as though they had
disappeared from the world.

Since there weren't many customers, Gan Qing also did not stay in the shop and waste electricity.
She closed the shop early and went home.

Boss Meng gave her a red packet and vacation days until the third day of the new year. It didn't
matter to Gan Qing whether or not she was on leave, this job of hers didn't require her to rack
her brains or exhaust her energy anyway. It was about the same as being idle. She turned the red
packet over; it was quite thick so she was extravagant for once and went to a department store
that was still open. She bought a box of éclairs and brought them home to eat. She didn't prepare
any New Year's goods—New Year's goods came in bulk; she was celebrating alone and at most,
she could only throw in an occasional half portion for Zhang Meizhen. If she hoarded too much,
she would have to eat until she couldn't move.

Supermarkets don't even close shop during Lunar New Year's nowadays anyway. She could shop
whenever she wanted to eat.

But with this, it felt like there was something missing from the celebration, like it was a shoddy
job and there was something lacking about the feeling.

In the end, she had not resigned from her job and moved out. She just continued to stay at No.
110 in this uncertain state.

Perhaps people could really change. Gan Qing vaguely felt that if it was her past self, she would
turn and leave the moment she decided to go, and wouldn't wait for others to finish saying even
a single word.

At seventeen, the way she conducted herself and interacted with the outside world was like a hot
knife slicing through lard. One cut and everything would be sliced cleanly regardless of what it
was, without any loose ends at all. Now, she was like the lard that had been cut, sticky and soft
and lumpy. She desired nothing more than what was enough to get by with, and she remained
sticking to wherever she was placed… In any case, it was the same whether she was the knife or
the lard, neither could escape the chopping board.

She was just about to enter the apartment when she bumped right into Zhang Meizhen. Zhang
Meizhen had just got her lashes done and when she blinked, there was a breeze that made Gan
Qing lean back. Without waiting for Gan Qing to speak, Zhang Meizhen caught her by her waist
and reached back to pull the door shut. She pushed Gan Qing ahead, leaving no room for
argument. "Go, go, go. Go downstairs and celebrate the Lunar New Year. We'll have New Year's
Eve dinner with them."

Gan Qing, "I'll pass…"

Zhang Meizhen lifted her hand and turned off the apartment's main electrical switch. "Nonsense.
If you don't come, who's going to make the food? Isn't this exactly what your sect practices?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Wan Mu Chun was really not one of the New Oriental Education culinary school branches.

Just like that, before she knew what was going on, Zhang Meizhen had brought her downstairs.

Old Yang's house was bigger. Yang Yifan had bought the next door apartment and opened the
wall between the two units so it looked exceptionally bright and spacious.

Han Dongsheng and his family, Yu Lanchuan and his younger brother, Yan Hao… everyone was
there and it was so lively that it was even a little noisy.

Old Master Yang was at the front door, holding the jade-green Dog Beating Staff. Once he saw
Gan Qing, he beamed at her and said in greeting, "It's a new year."

Gan Qing answered on reflex, subconsciously replying with a New Year's greeting. "Sect Leader
Yang, Happy New Year."

After saying that, she herself was stunned. This was something Wei Xiao had taught her when she
was very young. Wei Xiao had said that when the older generation brought up the topic of the
new year, she should be sensible and give them a New Year's greeting. She must not wait for
them to take out the red packet and only make up for it then.

The things she had been taught since young were rooted deep inside her and would always slip
out when she was unaware.

In the next moment, Old Master Yang had stuffed a red packet into the hands of the still-stunned
Gan Qing.

"Ai," Gan Qing hurriedly withdrew her hands. "This isn't appropriate, I'm already-"

"It's mainly for good luck," Old Master Yang said. "The money inside is for you to help buy the
ingredients… That pile of rubbish New Year's goods that Fan-Fan ordered came in a large box but
when we opened it, it was all small pieces of meat about fifty or a hundred grams each. They
can't be used at all. I made a list, the supermarket downstairs should still be open. Go, quick!"

"...'kay."
"Yang Yifan!" Old Master Yang shouted into the house. "It's all your fault! Go along to carry the
things!"

Yang Yifan was holding her phone up to take a selfie. She had stretched her neck out a kilometer
long to show off her earrings and probably did not hear him because of that.

Yu Lanchuan draped his coat over his shoulder and stood up. "I'll go."

When putting on an outer garment, most people would first stretch out one arm and put it
through the sleeve, then hunch their back to tug the garment on, and after that there would be a
round of fumbling to locate the other sleeve. During this process, the coat would usually bunch
up at the back of their necks and the outline of every curve and bulge on their backs could be
seen through the tightened cloth. It was not a sight that was pleasing to the eyes. But Yu
Lanchuan was different. He was like a male model ready for the catwalk. He draped his coat over
his shoulder, showing off his shoulders and back that were straight like a clothes rack. As he
walked, he put on a show with a cool, detached expression. When he was done being cool, he
pulled the coat up a little by the collar, then extended both arms and slipped them through the
sleeves. The bottom edge of the coat flared out with a bit of wind. It was full of elegance and
confidence.

Gan Qing nearly had her head smacked by his elegant and confident elbow. She hurriedly took a
few reverential steps back so as to not affect his performance.

In the supermarket, there were very few people. The promoters who usually put all their effort
into marketing their products all had their hearts set on going home and didn't even make the
effort to greet them.

Gan Qing pushed the cart, her feet stepping in time to the beat of the song "Gong Xi Fa Cai"
playing in the supermarket. She followed idly behind Yu Lanchuan and realised that she didn't
have to take care of anything.

Not only did Little Master Yu have a style when putting on his coat, he also had a style when
browsing the supermarket. Every time Gan Qing came on her own to browse the supermarket,
she really "browsed." She would push the cart between the shelves of goods, walking back and
forth aimlessly. When she thought of something, she would get it. She would spend at least an
hour. But not Yu Lanchuan. He seemed to be used to rushing for time and was efficient in
everything he did. When he entered, he glanced at Old Master Yang's list, then rapidly planned
his route. Like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves, he picked the items as he walked.
From the entrance to the exit, he did not reverse a single step. By the time he had gathered
everything on the list and even including the time it took to pay, less than fifteen minutes had
passed.

Gan Qing gasped in amazement. "I'll do it, I'll do it. You are the main purchaser, I am here to carry
the bags."

Yu Lanchuan raised his arm, dodging her, and took the heavier bag. "Your arm can't carry it."
After saying that, he paused a while. As though he wasn't used to being nice, he had to add
another line. "Your arm only has the ability to stir up trouble, it can't do proper work."

Gan Qing, "..."

This guy really knew how to make people like him.

At the supermarket exit, there were a few small stalls that were unexpectedly still opened. A girl
was on duty at a "So-and-So English" booth all on her own. Whenever she saw someone, she
quickly approached them and gave them a flier, her mouth rattling off a string of sentences like a
machine gun. "Do you want to increase your monthly salary from 3,000 to 30,000? Do you want
to achieve a breakthrough in your work and experience a huge leap in your social class? The
largest gap between any two people is pulled wide during the time outside of the eight hours of
work! When you come home from work, don't just lie on the sofa and watch variety shows! Your
peers are already leaving you behind! Please take a moment to look at our TOEFL and IELTS
training, and our Business English improvement classes. Our Spring Festival class starts on the
fourth day of the new year. We have limited spots left. Let us accompany you on a rich and
fulfilling holiday."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The girl was in her early twenties. Perhaps she had just entered society not long ago and had yet
to develop an eye for judging people and treating them accordingly to their perceived wealth, so
she spouted the same set of lines to everyone. Yu Lanchuan almost felt offended.

"If it's so effective, then why don't you join and get promoted?" A little crossed, he carelessly
threw out this trump card. "What's the difference between 3,000 and 30,000? Either way, both
are still equivalent to being dirt poor."

The girl was stupefied by the King of Cool's aura. For a moment, she didn't know how to respond.

Gan Qing felt that she looked rather pitiful, so she took the flier from her. "It's Lunar New Year's,
why are you still manning the booth here?"

"The competition in the market this year is too great. Everyone goes for online classes nowadays
and aren't willing to register for offline classes. We've not met the enrollment target for a few
months now." The girl handing out fliers shrank back into her down jacket pitifully. "There's no
bonus and I only get the basic pay every month. I don't have the money to go home to celebrate
Lunar New Year's. Sister, can you do me a favour and register? You don't have to attend and you
don't need to pay. Just leave a contact number. In the future, they might give you a call to try and
sell their classes to you. If you find them annoying, just block them. For us who man the booths,
our performance is measured based on the number of registrations."

Gan Qing didn't mind being bothered on the phone. Everytime she got a marketing call, she could
even chat a bit with the other person. Hence, she easily helped the girl out and registered.

To show her gratitude, the girl gave her a packet of tissue that she had dug into her own pockets
to pay the cost for. She also said cautiously, "Even if it can't increase your salary, it's a good thing
to learn a foreign language. In the future, you won't need subtitles to watch American TV series…
Ai, all right. Then, take care on your way back."

Yu Lanchuan still wanted to turn around and say something but Gan Qing pulled him away.
"That's enough, Little Master Yu. The girl spends every day standing outside the supermarket
entrance to give out fliers, she probably hasn't seen many successful people. This is what you call
'has eyes to see but fails to recognise Mount Tai,' it's understandable that she did not recognise
someone venerable like you going incognito among us ordinary people. Life's not easy for any of
us, don't say so much."

"They can market their stuff all they want," Yu Lanchuan said with a frown. "I just can't stand
seeing them sell anxiety everywhere."

"The people's anxiety is not due to them selling it." Gan Qing huffed a laugh. "A fanned spark
becomes a fire, but you need to have a spark to fan in the first place."

Yu Lanchuan suddenly thought of something. He paused, then pretended to bring it up casually.

"That dim-witted younger brother of mine did better in his end-of-term English exam compared
to the previous one. He said it's because you taught him. Your results in school must have been
pretty good?"

"Nope," Gan Qing said. "That was my rebellious period. I thought that going to school was boring
and frequently cut class and got into fights outside."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The snow was lighter now, falling like feathers onto the people outside, almost indiscernible.
Only the slightest shadow could be seen when the street lights or car lights shone on them.

When the two of them walked together, it was very awkward if they didn't talk. Perhaps Gan
Qing was afraid of killing the conversation or perhaps there was magic in the air on the eve of the
Lunar New Year that could invite a person to say a few more words.

She paused a while, then added. "Later on, I met an… older sister with a very good temper. She
was fussy and long-winded and every day, she would go on and on regaling everyone with
motivational stories. She had quite a number of Chicken Soup for the Soul books, stuff like 'In the
world, there are only people who cannot think things through, there are no roads that cannot be
walked through.' She could memorise those books from the first word to the last… At that time, I
was completely fed-up with her."

Yu Lanchuan was rather surprised. Like someone getting the first glimpse of an aurora on a quiet
night, without realising it, he was holding his breath in rapt attention. "A friend, or a teacher?"

"Neither, I think. I think I told you before that I have a friend who was abused by her husband.
That was her," Gan Qing's voice drifted lazily in the north wind, carried along by the dancing snow
in pauses and starts, without falling to the ground. "I found out about what happened to her
from other people's idle conversations. At that time, I was young and spirited, and I disliked her a
lot. Even though I never did anything, in my heart I thought that there are some people who
deserve to be smacked… and she was one of them. She always looked like she wanted everyone
to like her and made others feel that no matter how they treated her, she wouldn't fight back.
The things she said were also very foolish and she didn't know that she made other people dislike
her. But she was also thin and small, and also sick. She would tremble just from carrying a cup of
water that was a little heavy. I didn't feel like I could bully her so I could only give her a cold face
every time. She didn't know how to read other people's faces. She thought herself that I was
pretty nice to her."

Yu Lanchuan glanced at the snowflakes on her lashes. His heart suddenly jolted. He couldn't help
but feel that those words describing such a resentment for the world hid a girl with a very soft
heart.

"She got a set of gaokao study materials from someone. Everyday, she read them aloud beside
me but in actual fact, she hadn't even finished junior high. She couldn't understand the materials
at all, especially not English. In an entire passage, there was barely a handful of words she
recognised." Gan Qing let out a laugh. "I was a kid after all. Even if I flunked my studies, I couldn't
control my competitive spirit. One day, I couldn't resist correcting her one time and since then,
she clung on to me and asked me questions every day."

Yu Lanchuan asked softly, "And then?"

Chapter 60
Content warning: Mentions of bullying, domestic abuse, suicide, murder and parental death.

"Of course…" Gan Qing stopped at the intersection, waiting for the lights to change. "I grew to
dislike her even more."

"Young people usually look up to people who are strong," Yu Lanchuan said calmly. "If a person is
neither beautiful nor cool, people in their teens usually won't like them. It's normal."

"Is this your own experience from raising a teenage younger brother?" Gan Qing asked.

Yu Lanchuan shrugged, affecting nonchalance. "Yeap. As long as you make him feel that you're
stronger and cooler than he is, he will imitate you on his own volition and work hard to meet
your expectations. It's a lot more effective than reasoning with him. These little brats all have no
conscience, there's no use being nice to them."

As this Little Master Yu was so cool he was practically ice, for a moment Gan Qing couldn't tell if
he was very secretly an expert in problematic youth or if he was the problematic youth himself.
She could only say drily, "Yeah, in the future, you can apply the same method on me."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing said, "Especially when it's time to 'carry out the law.'"

"I thought that…" Yu Lanchuan glanced at her from above. He wanted to unleash his usually
rather domineering gaze but coincidentally, a gust of northwest wind suddenly lifted Gan Qing's
mid length hair. The numerous intersecting strands disrupted Director Yu's line of sight and also
seemed to slip into his throat. He was forced to cough to clear his throat before finishing his
mocking remark that had gone off-track. "...you are already a gremlin child over the age limit."

"Even someone over the age limit doesn't have a conscience." The lights changed. Gan Qing
moved her legs to cross the zebra crossing. "Look, everyone says that you should study hard so
that you can get into a good university; work hard so that you can get promoted and increase
your salary. Some foolish people might think that as long as they put in some effort, they will
definitely be rewarded. In reality, perhaps there are other areas where there will definitely be a
reward if you work hard but there's no certainty if you 'work hard to be nice to others.'
Sometimes, the more you work hard, the more other people will take advantage of you and the
more they will feel that you are below them… No matter where she went, she was the type to be
bullied. In comparison, even though I didn't like to pay her any attention, I was still considered
one of the few who were nicer to her. That's why I was her roommate for a period of time.

"That was when I found out that she was two completely different people in the day and at night.
In the day, she couldn't tell who liked her and who disliked her. If someone said a few mean
words to her, she seemed unable to understand their meaning. She was so foolish she seemed
heartless. But at night, she didn't even dare to fall into a deep sleep because every dream she
had was a nightmare. The first time I saw her having a nightmare and the way she shouted and
struggled, I even thought she had gone crazy. It was like there was a demon sawing away at her
neck with a blunt knife. When she startled awake, she would hug her blanket and tremble, her
mind unclear. She would curl up in her bed for an entire night, counting every passing second and
waiting for daylight. Then, she would wipe her tears and continue being a foolish and sweet girl.

"I had never met someone like that. From purely finding her annoying, I started suspecting that
her mental state was abnormal and was a little curious about her.

"She studied every day without fail. Even if she didn't understand it, she would force herself to
study, force herself to continue reading. But it's not easy to learn something you only half
understand. She had to read out loud to focus her attention. Her voice was like a large mosquito
buzzing, it was quite irritating. She had even been beaten up before because of this but she still
did not change her ways."

"Usually when other people bullied her… things like shoving her a bit or slapping her, it was none
of my business. Even if I saw it, I pretended that I had not. But there was one time when things
got out of hand. A few people grabbed her by her hair and smashed her against the wall. I saw
that they weren't controlling their strength and was afraid that there would be trouble, so I
meddled a little.

"She should have a bit of a concussion that time. It was a long while before she could stand up.
She wiped the blood from her nose and at the same time, smiled foolishly at me and asked me
how to pronounce a word. I didn't know whether she really loved studying or whether she had a
thing for getting beaten up, so I just said 'You must be mad.' She said… that she actually also
didn't know what was the use of studying but she had heard other people say that her life was
unlucky. The reason why she had been abused by her husband was because she was uneducated.
That was why she believed in studying. It was rather like praying to the gods."
Prostrating on the ground, crawling, climbing. Her heart had been so sincere, her appearance so
unsightly, her hard work so fruitless.

"I told her that it had nothing to do with being educated or uneducated. If a person gets beaten
up, it is either because they are someone despicable or because the person beating them up is
despicable. Or maybe both sides are despicable. There is no other reason. But she didn't believe
me."

Yu Lanchuan said, "A person who has completely lost control of their life sometimes needs to
have a simple and crude logic to hold on to, and will do something that other people might see as
arcane."

Because she was uneducated, she didn't have the ability to go out and earn lots of money and
support herself and her mother. She could only depend on a man's every breath, endure a man's
every fist. And, when all the complicated factors that the person involved wasn't willing to
examine were discarded, this matter could be simplified as "she was beaten up because she was
uneducated." In that case, as long as she was educated, things would be better, wouldn't they? If
she forcibly swallowed down everything in these books that she did not understand, surely she
would be able to break free from this nightmare, wouldn't she?

"She said that people cannot resent fate. The more they resented, the worse their fate would be.
So, if they do not want to die yet, they have to risk everything and work hard to survive. Other
than this, there is no other way."

Chicken soup stories were an anaesthetic. When she could endure no longer, she would take the
book out and read out a few passages, just like the slaves back in the days of the old society
praying for salvation from hardship. Through the "teachings" that she had come up with herself,
she prayed for her future and in it, she found a tiny bit of comfort.

"Unfortunately, she didn't have the time to finish reading even one textbook. I had stayed with
her for just a few months when she was admitted to hospital for a serious illness. Before she left,
she probably sensed something herself and left all her books and notes to me, and asked me to
help her keep an eye on her mother if I had the chance to," Gan Qing said. "Not long after that, I
heard that she died. On the other hand, that mother of hers has a very long life. She may look like
a sickly lonely widow, but so many years have passed and it still doesn't look like she'll be dying
anytime soon.

"When she was alive, she was very diligent in taking care of me. I also received an 'inheritance'
from her, so I had no choice but to hold my nose and occasionally go to visit that old lady. Those
few years, I had nothing better to do so I took the things she left behind and made up a little for
the classes I had not paid attention to in school… Perhaps madness is infectious."

Without thinking, Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why did she…"

At that point, he suddenly realised that he had misspoke and abruptly cut himself off. He froze.

Gan Qing turned her head around. From a few steps away, she looked at him. "Hmm?"
She was wearing a down jacket with feathers coming loose that could be bought in the
supermarket for less than a hundred yuan each. It had the smell of chicken feathers and had
been stuffed until it was bulging. It was like carrying a tortoise shell. But for some reason, it didn't
look oversized on her. When she looked back, Yu Lanchuan even had the feeling that the edges of
her clothes were floating in the wind.

He saw her smile like she was completely unbothered and picked up the conversation for him.
"Why did you stop? Did you want to ask why she 'went in'?"

Yu Lanchuan's throat strained to move and then got stuck. His mind was completely blank. He
was like a murderer who had been exposed on the spot by Detective Conan and had no idea how
to smooth things over.

"Murder," Gan Qing said briefly. "She took the chance when the man who beat her was drunk
and stabbed him to death. She was sentenced to life imprisonment."

Yu Lanchuan could not say anything.

Gan Qing lowered her head and laughed. She continued walking ahead, and waved at him with
her back to him. "It's not a taboo that can't be talked about. Didn't Yu Yan tell you? I also killed
someone. The person I killed is called Wei Huan. But when I killed him, I was just a little short of
eighteen years old. At that time, my shifu did not acknowledge me. I ruined my own arm and
broke ties with my sect. I felt that the world was wide but there was nowhere I could go. For a
moment, my chuuni tendencies took over and in a fit of anger, I went to turn myself in. That's
why my sentence was light."

It was a while before Yu Lanchuan found his voice again. His words stilted, he asked, "Who was
Wei Huan?"

Gan Qing didn't say a word. After a while, she finally said, "It's a family scandal… Based on family
hierarchy, he was my shixiong, and also the target of my revenge."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What? I thought your Wan Mu Chun-"

"Only has a single descendant in every generation," Gan Qing said. "That's right, but Wei Huan
had been expelled early on, before I was even born. I heard that in his later years, my grand
master was already regretting passing on Wan Mu Chun's martial art techniques. He said that
Wan Mu Chun's skills are demonic skills that ruin a person's nature and make it easy for them to
go astray in their cultivation… He was a great expert of his generation and was very perceptive,
perhaps what he said was true."

"Wei Huan… Someone told me that he was my former shifu's son. I don't know if I should believe
them. In any case, ever since I could remember, that old man was a bachelor and I've never heard
him bring up Shiniang… Maybe he was extraordinarily gifted and had given birth himself?" Gan
Qing let out a rather bitter laugh. "Otherwise, why was he willing to bear the blame for Wei
Huan, no matter how filthy Wei Huan's reputation was? Wei Huan felt that after all the efforts he
put in and all the suffering he endured to polish his knife techniques to perfection, it was too
ridiculous to use them to cut tofu strips. He had always been wildly ambitious and wanted to
return to the days before my grand master washed his hands clean of his past. That's why he was
expelled later on."

"Return?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "To being a killer?"

"With Wan Mu Chun's martial arts skills, what is impossible?" Gan Qing smiled. "What other
people can't handle, the dirty things they can't do, they can all be settled with a cut measuring
three cun and two fen. If he wanted any amount of money, could he not get it? Why must he
spend every day covered in the smell of grease and smoke, making food for other people, and
earning just enough for a pot of vinegar a month? By right, someone who has been expelled
should have their skills destroyed by their own shifu but he took his eyes of for a second and Wei
Huan escaped… Thinking about it now, someone must have helped him. It may be someone from
that group Xu Shaowen belong to that Sect Leader Yang mentioned."

"Wei Xiao had always regretted not listening to his own shifu's words and that the disciple he
taught ended up so unworthy, so he had always tried to find out where Wei Huan was. Whenever
he heard of some fishy murder case somewhere, he would rush there." At that point, Gan Qing
paused a while. "That was when he took me in. My dad was killed by Wei Huan. At that time, Wei
Xiao reached in time and called the police. Wei Huan was injured and ran away, and didn't have
the time to do anything else. Due to the fright, my mum's mental state was unstable from then
on. Wei Xiao felt very apologetic. He moved next door and took care of us for two years… One
day, he was out of the house and when he got back, he found that my mum had killed herself. I
was three years old, she locked me in a small room…"

Yu Lanchuan didn't expect that their casual conversation would go from subject to subject in such
a way, each more shocking than the last. He was almost afraid to say anything now.

"Ai, why are you looking at me like that? I don't even remember this matter clearly," Gan Qing
said. "I was too young. What would I know at three years old? My hometown was a very small
town and there wasn't even a welfare centre. Back then, things like adoptions weren't very strict.
I didn't have anyone to look after me at that time and didn't have any other relatives. Wei Xiao
stepped in and took me away just like that. When I was older, by chance, I found out about these
matters and I had always hated him. Wei Xiao had never told me… I even felt that the reason why
he didn't teach me martial arts properly was because he was protecting that person and was
afraid that I would take revenge on him."

After a while, Yu Lanchuan finally said carefully, "Actually, you don't have to…"

"Since you guys want me to stay here, I feel that I should be more frank." Gan Qing thrusted her
hands into the pockets of her down jacket. "It is something I have done, the path I have taken.
There's no need to keep it so secret."

Yu Lanchuan couldn't help furrowing his brows. When being honest about the past, shouldn't a
person be sincere and honest, digging deep into themselves to reveal everything? This was the
first time he was seeing someone confessing in such a cold and impartial manner. "You don't like
owing a debt of kindness to others."
"I don't," Gan Qing said. Before Yu Lanchuan could comment, she smiled craftily. "I once read an
article that said that if you want to make someone like you, you should ask them for help. They
will help you because they want to keep up appearances but can't think of any reason why they
are doing that, so they will have a misperception that they like you. After that, they will really
have feelings for you. I'm a young and unmarried woman, I'm just afraid of starting a whole
bunch of romantic problems."

Yu Lanchuan's breathing hitched. For some reason, his face was swiftly turning red. Gan Qing was
actually shooting her mouth off but after saying that, she keenly sensed that the person next to
her had his breathing and steps thrown into disarray, and was rather surprised. Her lashes
quivered. Then, she continued to speak as though nothing had happened, "Just joking. Little
Master Yu, don't call the police, okay? It's the Lunar New Year, it'll be too embarrassing if I have
to pay a second visit to the cell for the crime of immoral behaviour."

Yu Lanchuan forced a change in the topic. "According to Yu Yan, Wei Huan's fingerprints and DNA
shows that he was the suspect in many unsolved cases. He was an extremely vicious and
dangerous person while you were still an underage girl at that time. You also turned yourself in. If
your defence lawyer was reliable, it could be presented as legitimate self-defense and you
wouldn't need to-"

"It was not legitimate self-defence. I went after him and killed him. But my martial arts were not
up to par so I was also in a very bad state at that time. If I put on a pitiful act, no one would
suspect anything… Like I said, I was chuuni." Gan Qing smiled very good-naturedly. "I didn't like
the sound of the phrase 'legitimate self-defense' because I felt that what it implied was that that
piece of shit found me and wanted to do something to me, while I was just a pitiful little thing
who screamed in terror and accidentally killed him. So I told the police that if I didn't want to kill
him, I could cut his throat twenty to thirty times and he would still be breathing. 'Accidentally' my
ass."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"Ai, talking about these unfortunate matters is enough to make me blush. Don't mind me," Gan
Qing said carelessly. "Take responsibility for what you have done yourself, there's no need to
hold on to great anger and deep grudges. However, I am truly indebted to everyone for not
looking at me with biased eyes, I am deeply grateful for that. In the future, I can only be more
diligent in cooking. Little Master Yu, stop being so careful and gentle and protective, it gives me
goosebumps."

Yu Lanchuan had a vague feeling that he had accidentally stumbled into a forbidden area and was
full of fear and trepidation, not daring even to breathe too deeply. In the end, not only had the
owner of the area herself strode in openly and turned on all the lights, she even acted as though
nothing had happened and greeted him in a "Hey bro, we're one person short, come join us for a
round of mahjong" manner.

What a waste of his feelings!

"You're just thinking too much!" Yu Lanchuan said stiffly. "Who's being careful? Who's being
gentle… and whatever! People like you are the very reason why society is not peaceful. After
being reformed once, you still did not turn over a new leaf and spend every day either conning
people or wandering around the edges of the law!"

Gan Qing sighed. "A very good day to our audience, this is Little Master Yu's Hour. Once again, we
have come to the Today's Teachings segment…"
Chapter 61
"Did the two of you go to buy vegetable seeds and plant the vegetables yourselves? We've been
waiting for a year already!" Zhang Meizhen went on a tirade the moment she opened the door.
She reached a hand out and knocked on the Spring Festival couplet on the door frame. "See this
Spring Festival couplet? Do you know why the red colour has faded? Because this is from last
year!"

"Calm down, calm down, Meizhen-jie. If you don't let us go in, 'last year' will turn to 'two years
ago,'" Gan Qing said.

"You can go on a date any time you want, must you have your date while buying groceries when
there's a whole bunch of starving people crying for food? Where's your conscience? Shameless
couple!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

His movements involuntarily turned awkward.

"Line your stomach with some snacks first." As though nothing had happened, Gan Qing took out
a chocolate bar from the shopping bags to pacify Zhang Meizhen. Her breathing steady and her
face not blushing, she said, "Why do you always pull me in when you're teasing Little Master Yu?
As an innocent bystander, I feel very stressed."

"I'm the innocent bystander here. Who was the one dawdling and taking her own sweet time?"
Yu Lanchuan's eyes sank a little and he had nothing nice to say. He turned towards Zhang
Meizhen. "Meizhen...jie, eating high-sugar snacks before meals may easily disrupt your insulin
production. She does not have good intentions, she wants to turn you into a beautiful round
ball."

Zhang Meizhen was holding a chocolate bar with a bite taken out of it. "..."

These little brats!

This year, for the sake of maintaining the air quality, there was once again a prohibition on
setting off fireworks and firecrackers within the city district of Yanning. Yang Yifan had gotten
balloons and a bicycle pump from somewhere and hung balloons of all sizes in the enclosed
balcony. She taught Han Zhou and Liu Zhongqi to throw a special type of small darts at them.
Some of the balloons were filled with confetti and some with candy. The sound of balloons
popping and the gremlin kids exclaiming noisily filled the balcony. The destructive power was
even greater than fireworks and firecrackers.

Han Dongsheng rubbed his ears and said to Old Master Yang, "Those old uncles and old aunties
are asking when you will be starting your classes. They want to learn staff techniques from you."
"I'm lacking in talent and knowledge, I can't teach them." Old Master Yang sighed. "These old
brothers and sisters of mine are already so old. Their bodies have problems everywhere and they
wouldn't even know what they are if they didn't get a proper check-up at the hospital. How could
I dare to casually start a class and teach them as I like… Furthermore, just you look. I can't even
teach my own descendant properly."

"The real experts use the strength in their fingers but most people don't have that much strength
in their smaller muscles so they still need to use the strength in their wrist." On the balcony,
President Yang was like the head honcho giving the underage kids a serious demonstration.
"People usually use their most nimble fingers to hold the dart so that the dart can be held steady
and can also be thrown out. Your wrist must curve as little as possible, just like this…"

Before the worshipful and nervous gaze of the teenager and the child, President Yang sent the
dart flying with a swoosh. Her hand movement looked extremely cool but the gap between the
dart's landing point and the target was a little large—she hit the window. The window steadfastly
endured this disaster from nowhere, then angrily bounced the dart back. Yan Hao heard the wind
whistling behind his head and quickly shrank his neck back. The little dart brushed past his bird's
nest hair and fell into Han Dongsheng's tea cup, splashing Han Dongsheng with a faceful of Dong
Ding oolong tea.

Yang Yifan dropped her pose as though nothing had happened. "...this is what happens when
your wrist curves too much."

Han Zhou, the boy prepared to be a winner in life, saw that the expressions on the faces of the
adults did not look good and immediately shouldered the blame for this beautiful sister. "I'm
sorry, Daddy. I won't be naughty anymore."

Yang Yifan patted Han Zhou's head, then shot a chilly look at Liu Zhongqi who was delighting in
someone else's mess. "There is a reason why some young friends of ours are what we call 'solo
since the mother's womb' ."

Old Master Yang said in great agitation, "Each generation is worse than the last."

Zhang Meizhen jutted her chin towards the kitchen. "There are also some who live up to the
might of their names."

In the kitchen, Gan Qing held a block of lactone tofu in her right hand and a cleaver in her left
hand, her eyes watching Yu Lanchuan add seasonings to the wok. "Put less salt, I've tasted the
sauce just now, the saltiness… Enough, enough!"

In Old Master Yang's kitchen, the stove and the kitchen counter were in different places. As Qan
Qing spoke, her eyes were on the wok on the stove and she had to twist the entire upper half of
her body over. Yet, the cleaver in her hand never stopped moving. The sight was enough to make
anyone nervous.
"Nonsense, I know how much salt to add!" Yu Lanchuan retorted impatiently. "Watch your own
chicken claws, stop showing off. We don't want to eat red braised fingertips… What the hell are
you cutting, your technique failed, didn't it?"

Lactone tofu was soft in the first place. Gan Qing had chopped at it randomly without a care,
cutting the tofu until it resembled a lump of mud.

"Are we making jiaozi with tofu filling today?" Yu Lanchuan said mockingly.

Gan Qing didn't trade barbs with him. The thudding of the cleaver hitting the chopping board
stopped. She gathered the "tofu filling" on the chopping board and dropped it into the soup pot
that was filled with liquid. Then, she gave it a light stir with a chopstick. The "tofu filling" swiftly
expanded, strands as fine as hair unfolding to float about in the water.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"Nope," Gan Qing said, calm and composed. "I'm making a soup that's easy on the digestion."

With that, she washed the cleaver under running water, then tore off a paper towel to wipe it
dry. She drew her hand back and threw, and the cleaver flew back to the knife rack three steps
away.

"Her knife skills are the real thing," Zhang Meizhen praised.

Gan Qing went up to the wok and took a peek. She turned off the fire. Quick as lightning, without
waiting for Yu Lanchuan to complain about her meddling, she grabbed a pinch of either dried
basil or thyme and threw it in.

"Hey!" Yu Lanchuan couldn't stop her in time. "This is red braised meat, not curry chicken! Did
you ask for permission before randomly making fusion food?"

"I know, I know," Gan Qing swaggered to the side and washed her hands. "This is the latest
revised version, I haven't applied to get it copyrighted yet. I'm letting you benefit from it for
free."

Zhang Meizhen muttered, "...It's just that she doesn't follow the rules when seasoning the food."

No wonder Tianyi Crayfish's kitchen didn't want her!

Usually, Gan Qing only made a couple of everyday dishes and there weren't enough ingredients
for her to unleash her abilities so she could still be considered to follow the rules. For the New
Year's Eve dinner, there were many dishes and many ingredients, giving her the chance to let
loose. For the sake of everyone's safety, Yu Lanchuan had no choice but to hover by the wok and
keep a strict watch for enemy forces, his hands wielding the soup ladle, spatula and other
implements as weapons, ready at every second to smack away her sneaky claws.

Old Master Zhou himself could not get used to sitting still and watching other people do the
work. Initially, he poked his head into the kitchen and wanted to help. In the end, he watched the
heated combat full of the glint and flash of cold steel with wide eyes and an opened mouth, and
slipped away again, sticking close to the wall.

This chaotic New Year's Eve feast was finally put on the table. The alliance leader and the little
demoness had exchanged over 800 moves with both sides winning some and losing some.
Hence , both the normal dishes and the "improved" dishes shared equal limelight.

Old Master Yang had the sofa in the living room moved to the side and put up the biggest dining
table in his home. There was even a rotating tray on top. He filled the cups with wine and let out
a long, deep sigh.

All those years back, when the fame of the Five Supremes reached every corner of the land, he
was the youngest among them. When he was with those brothers of his who had achieved fame
much earlier and were legendary figures, he was like a follower who was just there to make up
the numbers. They didn't even allow him to drink too much wine.

In a flash, a few decades of spring and autumn passed in flickers of light and shadow. When he
looked around him, he realised that the ones left by his side now were the younger generation
and he had become the first one at the table to raise his cup and lift his chopsticks.

"This year…" Old Yang paused, a little uncertain from where to start talking. In the end, he
gathered everything into three simple words. "...was not easy."

Maybe his tone was too complicated. Once he spoke those words, all the older people at the
table fell into silence.

After a while, Old Mr. Zhou finally said, "Every year is not an easy year. Otherwise, why would we
call it the 'passing' of a year?"

Charging through road after road, passing through trial after trial. No save points, no redo.

When they reached the point where time was past and scenery changed, when it was too late for
their many regrets, only then would they have the chance to look back and review their journey,
and then suddenly come to the realisation...

It turned out that many of the times when they had thought themselves as the lowest point of
their lives, they had actually only started to step into a deep pitfall.

It turned out that many of the times when they had thought themselves on the brink of flying on
the wings of success, they had actually just jumped lightly when they arrived at the peak of their
lives, and would very quickly fall back to the ground and continue rolling down the slope.

Old Yang knocked his wine cup against the rotating tray on the round table a few times, and said
his good wishes. "May everyone stay safe and sound next year."

His heart weary, Alliance Leader Yu added a line. "Obey the law and don't cause trouble."

Zhang Meizhen thought for a while. "Enjoy each day as it comes?"

Han Dongsheng said, "Be thankful for what you have."

Yang Yifan said, "One must have dreams. For example, turn rich overnight and take over Lane
Crawford."

Yan Hao practised saying "Happy New Year" in his heart a few times but when it was his turn, he
was still unable to manage more than one thing at a time and failed to perform. He clinked his
wine cup in a fluster, and forgot to say the words he had spent a long time rehearsing.

Fortunately, he was not the only one who did not speak. Gan Qing was also silent. She knocked
her wine cup lightly against the rotating tray and drained it in one gulp. Holding the cup between
two fingers, she showed them the bottom—she had drunk first as a sign of respect.

"Cheers!"

From outside the window, the sudden, dominating sound of firecrackers could be heard. There
were still people with no self-awareness breaking the law. A police car appeared out of nowhere
and rushed over to the source of the sound. As a bachelor, Comrade Yu Yan for whom nothing
had gone right for more than half a year frequently had to "put on a show" during festivals and
holidays. He might be right inside that busy and exasperated-sounding police car, on night shift.

The over forty hours long "background noise" Spring Festival Gala was airing. The young people's
phones were starting to set off mini earthquakes here and there. Yang Yifan's fingers were flying
busily but at the same time, she still fought ferociously against the tide again and again, dragging
the conversation topic at the dining table back from where it was sliding towards "Quickly get
married, quickly get a child, quickly get a second child."

The little darts were too dangerous and had been kept away by Zhou Beibei. In a rare occasion,
Gan Qing displayed her capabilities and demonstrated to the gremlin kids the correct way to pop
the balloons. She tied a knitting needle to the clothes drying rack and raised it to poke the
balloons one by one. The milk candies wrapped in gold foil rained down all over the floor.

Amidst the popping sounds, Liu Zhongqi was fuming. "You guys are just refusing to teach me
martial arts! I was only ten marks short of 120 in my end-of-term exams!"

Yu Lanchuan in the house and Gan Qing on the balcony said in unison, "Do you know how many
people are separated by a single mark in the gaokao?"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

And so, the conversation in the living room shifted from children's education to graduating and
job-hunting, and then continued on to the abyss that was the national economy and the welfare
of the people. First, the two little friends were put on public trial and their end-of-term exam
results taken out for everyone to analyse. After that, the armchair critic adults were also not
spared. The exam results for adults were a lot simpler. There were only two subjects—one was
"Marriage and Family," the other "Career Success and House Ownership." Regrettably, among
these young sprouts of the martial arts community, not a single one passed.
As an "underperforming student" who did not pass a single subject, Yan Hao suffered through the
older generation's lecturing, each of them cutting in with their own comments. Gan Qing was
glad that she had hid herself in the balcony earlier on. She picked up a piece of candy from the
floor and tossed it into her mouth and pretended that she was not there.

Yang Yifan walked over lazily to the balcony, holding her phone. She also picked up a candy and
peeled off the wrapper while sending voice messages to someone at the same time.

"...It's Lunar New Year, don't make a fuss."

"Wasn't it because you weren't in the other day?"

"I even prepared a present for you…"

"Ai… hey, what's this about parting without hard feelings?"

At the side, Gan Qing listened to each line with great interest. She saw President Yang let out a
tsk, her patience exhausted, then stopped replying and put her phone away.

"Boyfriend?" Gan Qing asked.

"There are plenty of 'boys' but 'friends' are harder to find." Yang Yifan fished out a slim cigarette
for women. "He's a little puppy. He does my hair and I've given him presents a few times. A
couple of days ago, he wasn't there when I went to get my hair styled. I didn't want to bother
changing the appointment so I got someone else to do it and now he's harping on it… I can't take
the ones that are too baby next time. They're sticky, it's annoying."

As she spoke, she reached into the cabinet on the balcony and rummaged around and took out a
bag. "Since he doesn't want it, I'll give it to you. It's a wallet, the style is very feminine. It's
unisex."

"No, thank you," Gan Qing hastily refused. "I don't have money to put in it."

"If you don't like it, that's fine. Tell me what you like, I'll look for it another day." Yang Yifan
smiled and blew out a puff of smoke. She easily accepted Gan Qing's refusal and put the bag
away, then opened a WeChat group on her phone. The group members were very active, their
chats flooding the screen and the photos flashing past quicker than the eye can see. There were
famous brands, jewelry, luxury cars, candlelight dinners… it was a group that flaunted wealth like
they were demented. Yang Yifan randomly tapped on a photo and showed it to her, and asked.
"Do you like bags? Does this bag look good? It's a new model… I think that other than the time
when you moved in, I've never seen you carry a bag."

Gan Qing looked rather like she was facing a dilemma. "I… Even though I'm just muddling along
and waiting for death, I don't have any aspirations to be a kept woman for the time being."

"Your gender doesn't match my criteria either. Actually, I've long since wanted to have a chat
with you," Yang Yifan said. "That old man of my family told me that you're Wei Xiao's disciple."
Gan Qing was momentarily stunned. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel that there was
something not quite right about hearing the name "Wei Xiao" come out of President Yang's
mouth… It was like a fourth wall had been broken.

"That Wei Xiao…" President Yang flicked off the cigarette ash. After a pause, her tone gained a
rare respectful tone. "...Senior Wei Xiao. Even though I don't know him, I've always been very
thankful to him. Unfortunately, I've never met him."

Gan Qing didn't understand her meaning. She couldn't think of any way Wei Xiao who had lived
in hiding for over twenty years would have had any interactions with Yang Yifan.

"You don't know?" President Yang said. "When Senior Wei Xiao was young, didn't he once fight a
match with some people which then started a feud? Among those people was my dad."

Gan Qing, "..."

In the middle of her shock, she turned her head and glanced swiftly at Old Master Yang in the
living room. Hold up, wasn't Yang Yifan's father Old Sect Leader Yang's only child? Old Sect Leader
Yang's only child's martial arts abilities were destroyed by Wei Xiao? The person with such a deep
grudge against her wanted her to continue staying here, and even celebrated the Lunar New Year
with her?

Yang Yifan stood in the middle of a pile of gold confetti and turned her head back. "Yeah, that's
right. I'll be honest with you, my dad's martial arts skills were ruined by his hands."

Gan Qing said nervously, "I'll be honest with you, I feel rather awkward right now standing here."

Yang Yifan smiled. "There's no need for that. Back then, my dad thought of himself as the one
who would inherit Beggars' Sect. What he hated the most was people saying that he didn't have
the talent for martial arts. He couldn't obtain the true teachings of the Dog Beating Staff and was
on the verge of losing himself in madness. He also didn't have a proper job and our family was so
poor that Grandpa had to chip in to support us. Every day, he forced me to wear patched-up
clothes and eat scraps, all in the name of preserving 'tradition.' I thought that it was pretty good
that his martial arts abilities were ruined. We could finally live like normal people."
Chapter 62
Gan Qing asked, "What happened to your father after that?"

"After that, he was finally willing to work. Someone found a job for him, operating the elevator
right in this building," Yang Yifan replied.

"Operating… what?"

"Oh, you don't know," Yang Yifan said. "In the earlier years, not many residential buildings had
elevators. This building might look rundown and small now but back then, it was considered one
of the more modern ones. A lot of people weren't used to elevators so the management
committee paid to have someone in the elevator responsible for opening and closing the doors,
and pressing the buttons for the required floors. No one does this job nowadays.
"Every day, from six in the morning until twelve at night, he would move a small table and stool
into the elevator and sit there with a pot of steeping tea. He would chat a bit with anyone who
went in. Anyone could do this job as long as they knew their numbers and it didn't require any
skills or physical strength. A master of the house with an entire family, yet his salary was based
on the minimum wage, not even enough for his traditional remedies. But no matter what, it was
a proper job. It was much better than having him spending the whole day idling and getting up to
no good with his scoundrel friends."

Yang Yifan spun her phone in her hand. That hand was a hand without even a single hangnail and
was very well cared for. The flesh and bones were well-proportioned and it looked like the owner
lived a pampered life. "When I was young, I even wrote words of gratitude to your shifu in my
diary. But unfortunately, my dad found that diary."

Gan Qing was startled.

However, Yang Yifan didn't go on. Right then, someone in that chat group of hers that was
refreshing madly sent her a private voice message. With Gan Qing's hearing ability, even if it was
a normal phone that didn't leak noise, if someone in the same room made a phone call she could
hear what the person on the other end was saying. Hence, she grabbed a handful of candies and
prepared to go back into the house to avoid hearing the conversation.

"It's fine," Yang Yifan waved. "A proxy shopper in Europe, it's nothing serious."

After saying that, she tapped on the voice message to listen to it.

"Happy New Year, my dear!" A very sweet female voice came from the phone. From the tone,
Gan Qing immediately knew that it was someone from the same line of work as her. Other than
the people selling things, no one spoke like that. "I finally found for you that bag that was out of
stock everywhere. There's even a discount, aren't you happy! It can be a New Year present for
yourself!"

Yang Yifan looked rather lost. Perhaps she couldn't recall which model it was that she had
wanted.

There were numerous dings as the other person sent a string of photos over. Then, she said, "I'll
quote a price for you. The proxy fee is as per the rules and I'll give you privilege treatment since
you're a regular. Hurry up and send me your preferred colour and model, darling. I'll make sure
you can carry it when you leave the house on the very first day after the Spring Festival holiday."

Listening at the side, Gan Qing had goosebumps all over. She planned to try advancing her
customers' status to "darlings" when she returned to her shop.

Yang Yifan skimmed through the photos indifferently. She showed her phone screen to Gan Qing
and asked, "Not bad, right?"

"Not…" Gan Qing hadn't even made out whether the bag was round or flat when she saw the
price the proxy shopper stated and nearly bit her own tongue. Before she could finish counting
the number of zeros at the end, the message was pushed up. All at once, she didn't dare
comment thoughtlessly anymore for fear of committing the offence of treating the renminbi with
disrespect.

Then, she heard Yang Yifan reply easily beside her, "I don't want the black and the yellow. For the
rest, I want one of each. I'll transfer the deposit to you?"

Gan Qing, "..."

She felt that she could brag to other people in the future. After all, she was someone who was
neighbours with a member of the nouveau riche.

"I'm sorry, my dear," the proxy seller said in a low and gentle voice. "Right now, for the more
expensive orders, I take full payment. We've known each other for so long, you trust me, don't
you? Nowadays, other than orders from friends like you, I don't accept orders from anyone else."

"All right." Yang Yifan was rich and not petty with money matters. She didn't mind it. "Why have
you started collecting the full payment in one go?"

"Ai, actually it's Coco," the proxy shopper hesitated a while but couldn't resist saying in the end.
"Before this, I helped her get a pair of shoes from Italy. I've sent the item to her a few months
already but she still hasn't transferred the other half of the payment to me. Maybe there was a
problem with the shipping? But she doesn't reply to my messages and my calls to her can't get
through. I can't contact her in any way now… Ai, I'm not complaining to you. We've all known
each other for so long and it's just a pair of shoes. I don't mind giving them to her as a present.
I'm just a bit worried about her. You seem to be on good terms with her. If you see her after
Lunar New Year's, just help me remind her."

Yang Yifan raised her brows, puzzled. "Which Coco?"

The proxy shopper's laughter could be heard all the way across the ocean. "How big is your
harem, oh my god! I really like how you're so cold and fickle. It was just on New Year's… New
Year's Eve that you were eating steak with her."

Yang Yifan was even more puzzled. "New Year's Eve was my company's annual dinner. My skirt
was too tight so I wasn't full from eating. After the dinner, I had supper to make up for it and I ate
alone."

The proxy shopper fell silent for a while. Then, she sent over a screenshot of her WeChat
Moments.

The few photos in it looked familiar to Yang Yifan. She took a closer look—they were all photos
she had taken herself!

On New Year's Eve, she had been bored while waiting for her food and had snapped a few
photos. Someone had removed the watermark, adjusted the angle of the photos, then added the
caption: Meeting up.
The proxy shopper said, "Erm… There's only about ten minutes between your post and hers. I
saw that the both of you seemed to be in the same place so I left her a comment asking if she
saw you. She said she was meeting up with her 'gal pals.'"

Yang Yifan, "..."

The proxy shopper said, "And on Christmas, she also posted your car. Erm… this is awkward. I
have always thought that the two of you were on good terms… So, you don't know about all
this?"

Yang Yifan asked, "Who is this?"

Yang Yifan's WeChat contact list was so long that she couldn't go through the whole thing and
there were a whole bunch of random names inside. After all, this was a time when even buying a
tub of face cream would result in the shop employees chasing you for your WeChat. Everything
posted in her WeChat Moments was basically about food or play. There was nothing serious, so
everything was public and there were no groupings. After searching for a long while, she found
the account for "Coco." She couldn't recall when she added this person. The other person had
obviously put her under a filter, all she could see was a few perky selfies.

"How can there be such a drama queen!" The proxy shopper was so shocked that she forgot to
make her voice higher-pitched, speaking in a very rough and frank mid-pitched female voice.
"She's even in the Goddess group. Fuck, this won't do, I'm going to expose her in the group!"

Due to this interlude, Yang Yifan's chat group was once again flooded with messages, as savage as
a scene of a carnage.

"Sorry you have to see that. These are people I met on an app for product recommendations and
sharing," Yang Yifan said. "There are all kinds of weirdos."

Gan Qing let out an ah. Her expression was one of confusion.

"It's simple—after you buy something, you share a few photos to show off, and everyone will say
how jealous they are and compliment you. Everyone in the group knows how it works so it's
more effective to be vain there," Yang Yifan said. "No one will shout in your ear, 'You spend tens
of thousands to buy a baggie, have you gone mad.'"

She had just finished speaking when they heard Old Master Yang's voice carry over from the
living room. "Isn't it enough to have just a baggie to carry your things? She even changes them
every day! How much does one pound of pork cost? If I stew pork ribs every day, it's enough for
me to stew for a few years! One baggie! Ai! Is it to carry a national treasure?"

Yu Lanchuan quietly withdrew his chopsticks that were heading towards the pork ribs.

Yang Yifan said, "Grandpa, I beg you, all right? Can you please not use the word 'baggie'?"

"But it is just a baggie!"

Yang Yifan, "..."

Old Master Yang said with a heavy heart, "Regardless of whether you have or don't have money,
you should live life as it is. You can save money today but what if you can't save money
tomorrow? You're only how old? You still have a long way ahead of you! You have to plan for the
long term, save some money! When I was your age…"

The over ninety years old grandfather started on his one century's worth of recollections of how
difficult the past had been and how easy the present was in comparison. The younger generation
all had a headache from his recollections and fought for the task of clearing the table and doing
the dishes. All they wanted was to escape from the scene.

Gan Qing was the only who steadfastly returned to sit on the sofa. While practising using her
right hand to peel an apple, she occasionally interjected with a word or two as appropriate
depending on Old Master Yang's tone, her attention not entirely on the conversation, but at the
very least, the old man was not monologuing to himself.

Her right hand could write and there appeared to be nothing wrong with it most of the time. It
just couldn't bear much weight; if she carried the weight for too long, her hand would start to
shake. When she focused her strength on her hand, it would also start to shake. The cuts she
made into the apple were sometimes deep and sometimes shallow. Yu Lanchuan watched her
from the side with his heart in his throat.

"...isn't that right, Xiao-Chuan?" Old Master Yang asked.

"Hmm?" Yu Lanchuan was looking at the knife in Gan Qing's hand and had not been listening at
all. He answered without thinking, "Yes, you're right."

He saw Gan Qing's hand tremble and the blade slid forward half an inch, heading straight for the
spot between her thumb and her index finger on her other hand.

Yu Lanchuan was even more tense than the person holding the knife. He grabbed Gan Qing's
wrist, pulling it over to have a look. Fortunately, the knife in Old Master Yang's house was blunt
and did not cut open her skin. It had only knocked against her hand until the area turned pale.

"That knife is okay," Old Master Yang said. "The last time, Fan-Fan held it the other way round
but it didn't cut her hand."

Zhang Meizhen crossed her legs and let out a "Mmhmm" at the side.

Gan Qing raised her eyes and gave Yu Lanchuan an inscrutable look. As though he had touched a
live wire, Yu Lanchuan immediately threw her hand back at her. "There's even such a cutting tool
specially for disabled people now?"

"What are you saying?" Old Master Yang smacked Yu Lanchuan and looked at Gan Qing's right
hand. "Girl, your hand has been like this for a long time now. Did you get someone to look at it? I
know a few doctors who specialise in treating this kind of injury."
"It's fine." Gan Qing shifted the knife to her left hand. Instantly, the apple peel seemed to come
loose on its own, falling down smoothly. "It doesn't affect me."

"In the future, if you need to do anything that requires fine and detailed work, it won't be
convenient with just one hand," Old Master Yang said. "Are you still working as a shop attendant
at Tianyi's family's shop? You can't be a shop attendant for your whole life. What plans do you
have for the coming year?"

Gan Qing smiled. "I'll think about it later. In any case, I'm just one person and I also don't have a
need to buy… those 'baggies.' If I can earn enough for food, that's enough."

Old Yang finally caught a young friend who was willing to listen to him talk so, of course, he
wouldn't let her go easily. He was very unsatisfied with her cursory answer. "You must make
plans. While you're young, you should save up more capital for yourself… I see that you are good
at cooking. Back then, your shifu too…"

Gan Qing's brows twitched slightly. She didn't want to talk about this with the old man, so she
picked a topic that the other person probably also didn't want to talk about, planning to end the
conversation.

"He's not my shifu. I've been thrown out of the sect." Then, she asked, "Back then, Wei Xiao
injured your son's muscles and bones, and ruined his martial arts abilities. Did you not bear him a
grudge all these years?"

Yu Lanchuan was stunned. He looked at Old Master Yang in shock, recalling that when the old
man had brought up Wan Mu Chun in the past, his words had always been brief and unclear. He
never thought that there would be such a story behind it.

But right then, Zhang Meizhen scoffed at the side. "Raising a son but not educating him, that's
the fault of the father. That brat had it coming for a long time!"

Gan Qing didn't think that this matter had a lot more behind it than she had imagined. She looked
at one, then at the other. "Erm, Meizhen-"

Zhang Meizhen interrupted her, giving her no chance to go on. She stood up and picked up her
coat. "I'm sleepy, I'm going back up to sleep."

Old Yang opened his mouth as though he wanted to ask her to stay. But before he could stretch
his hand out, Zhang Meizhen had already strode off without a second thought.

Gan Qing asked, puzzled, "Did I say something I should not have said?"

Old Master Yang had chattered non-stop for the entire night. Now, he just shook his head and sat
on the sofa with his back hunched, and fell into silence.

Gan Qing felt rather apologetic. She handed the peeled apple to Yu Lanchuan without thinking.
"Then, I… I'll go up to check on Meizhen-jie."
When she walked to the door, Old Master Yang suddenly spoke behind her, almost inaudibly.
"When I scold Fan-Fan, it's not because I don't like her spending money frivolously on material
possessions. Furthermore, she's spending the money that she earned herself, so what can I say…
I'm just afraid that she's obsessed with it, just like her dad, and is blinded by these worldly
desires."

Perhaps it was because the old man sitting on the sofa was a very lonely sight, but for some
reason, Gan Qing felt that his last sentence sounded rather ominous.

Teacher Meng-Meng spent her days submerged in the arcane arts. She might have really gained a
sixth sense through close proximity.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, a phrase popped up in the trending topics without
warning—"Feast of Yanning."

The people in the whole country were lying around idly during this long Spring Festival holiday.
Once they got wind of this drama, every single one of them reached out their hands, planning to
feast on it. Gan Qing also followed the crowd and tapped indifferently on a post and skimmed
through it. The gist of it was that there were rich people in Yanning who gathered together to do
bad things under the pretext of having a private dinner party. Among those implicated were high-
falutin public figures such as a certain company president, a certain official's son and so on. A
large number of indecent photos and videos were leaked—they had all been censored but the
readers were free to let their imagination loose.

The photos and the videos were leaked by a girl who had been paid to attend. Right now, this girl
had gone missing and her family had made a police report.

The last post had a photo of the missing girl. It was pixelated, but so lightly that it seemed
malicious.

Halfway through enjoying this drama, Gan Qing choked. The girl looked like the one she had seen
on Yang Yifan's phone on Lunar New Year's Eve, the one called "Coco."
Chapter 63
"'Coco' is an online handle. This girl's real name is Wang Jiake, twenty-five years old, just finished
her postgraduate studies a year ago and is working as a music teacher at No. 33 High School. The
photos and videos online came from a 'cloud storage' that her phone is connected to. At first,
they were sent directly to an app called 'Little Prairie.' As far as we know, this is an app that has a
networking function, and photos and videos can all be posted. Little Prairie automatically adds a
watermark to the users' photos. Then, someone took screenshots and reposted them on social
media."

Yu Yan brought two unfamiliar police officers to the Yang family home. They wanted to ask Yang
Yifan some questions.

The male police officer who was speaking was around thirty years of age. His face was grave, his
features looked like they had been frozen in a refrigerator, and the parts of his face other than
his mouth did not move an inch. His gaze was dark and heavy, and his expression when he looked
at others was a mixture of assessing and wariness. He looked just like the main character of the
animation series Black Cat Detective interrogating a rat.

Yang Yifan, the one being interrogated like a rat, blew on her newly done nails, her manner cold
and indifferent. "What has it got to do with me? I don't know her."

The police officers that the residents there usually came in contact with were the neighbourhood
police like Yu Yan and his colleagues. The neighbourhood police sometimes came by to mediate a
conflict or look for a missing person, and were already familiar faces to the old uncles and old
aunties in the courtyard. They would even be held back by the overzealous crowd sometimes and
forcibly introduced to dating partners. Yang Yifan was extremely unused to this kind of attitude
where she was treated as a suspect right off the bat.

Yu Yan hastily smoothed things over. "These two are our higher-ups. For the matter at hand,
there is heavy pressure from public opinion and the pressure on us is also great. It's the Lunar
New Year after all and a grown woman disappeared just like that, and there's no news of her at
all… right? We may be hasty in our words or our tone may not be very pleasant, I hope you can
understand."

Detective Black Cat said coldly, "The two of you have added each other on WeChat and also
belong to an active chat group. And you say you don't know her?"

"Handsome, that chat group has over 400 people. An internet community is also a community—
do you know everyone in your residential community? If a passerby had once asked you how
much were the cucumbers you had just bought, are you able to recite that person's family tree?"
Yang Yifan shrugged. "Okay, then you're pretty awesome."

Her words nearly put Detective Black Cat's ears into airplane mode. "Don't give me that attitude!"

Yang Yifan raised her elbows and rested them on the back of the sofa behind her and crossed her
legs. She replied, "What attitude you give me, that's the attitude I give you."

"Stop, stop, stop." Yu Yan separated the two, then said to Yang Yifan, "President Yang, we went
through this girl's various social media accounts and found that she secretly saved many of the
photos you took. She started following your personal blog when she first entered university and
even quoted many things you have said before. She should be someone who looks up to you. Can
we ask you to try and recall…"

Old Master Yang cut in. "Fan-Fan, speak to them properly. A grown woman going missing, her
family must be very worried."

Yang Yifan rolled her eyes but cooperated in the end. "I have a friend who does proxy shopping
who helped her buy a pair of shoes. The agreement was for her to pay the remaining amount
upon receiving the goods but she still hasn't paid up and can't be contacted. On New Year's Eve,
she even stole one of my photos and posted it in her WeChat Moments to show off and replied
to comments, but once the outstanding payment was mentioned, she pretended to be dead. I
only found out about this a couple of days ago. Maybe you can investigate her financial
circumstances."
Detective Black Cat asked, "Does this person frequently display a high-spending habit that is not
in accordance with the level of her income?"

"I don't know how much her income is," Yang Yifan said lazily. "Neither do I know what counts as
high-spending. However, the people who only spend a few hundred yuan at roadside stalls are
typically too embarrassed to mingle with us."

That one line was like the firing of a thousand arrows, shooting everyone around her until they all
became hedgehogs.

Yu Yang patted his own chest and chuckled as he tried to moderate the atmosphere. "It's a good
thing the country gives us our uniforms to wear. Otherwise, I might be a man who wears cleaning
rags to work every day."

Detective Black Cat remained unmoved. He looked at Yang Yifan intently and said, "I have one
more question. On the night of the fifth of January, where were you?"

The "Feast of Yanning," the subject of posts that were being busily being deleted online, was on
the fifth of January.

Yang Yifan's eyes turned cold.

Yu Yan hastily said to Detective Black Cat in a whisper, "Captain Miao, there's an elderly person
here. Let's talk about this later…"

Who would have thought that the "elderly person," Old Master Yang, was not the least bit deaf.
"Xiao-Yu, what's the matter?"

"We found a large amount of photos in Wang Jiake's cloud storage," Detective Black Cat said. He
took out a phone from his shirt pocket and opened a few photos. "One of the photos captured a
certain person. I think Ms. Yang should know her?"

Those few photos had been taken at a buffet's desserts station in a large hall. The lights were
glimmering and the people standing or walking around the table were all dressed to the nines,
creating an atmosphere of elegant beauty and luxury.

Next to the table, there was someone getting fruit juice. Perhaps the person had sensed
something and had turned around to glance at the camera. More than half her face was revealed
—it was Yang Yifan herself.

Detective Black Cat asked, "Does she look familiar?"

Yang Yifan leaned back, her arms crossed over her chest. "This was a charity dinner party
organised by a friend's company to celebrate the company's tenth anniversary. Of course, the
charity part is just a cover story but there's nothing wrong with that, is there? That night, I left at
ten p.m. As for what time it was when the party ended and what activities they did after it
ended… they didn't invite me and I don't know. Why, is it against the law to be wearing clothes
and standing in a dining hall drinking fruit juice? Am I in any other photos?"

"In that case, we will need to ask you to take a urine drug test," Detective Black Cat said coldly.

"Ah…" Yang Yifan was first stunned, then she rubbed the center of her brows and smiled without
the least bit of seriousness. "'Tch, some people really do not know how to behave."

"This matter is still under investigation. In the future, we might look for you again and we ask for
your understanding when the time comes." A vein was pounding at the corner of Detective Black
Cat's forehead. He stood up swiftly. "Other than that, Ms. Yang, during its early years, your
company came up with many sensationalised stories for the sake of making its mark. You hyped
up real incidents and by aggressively promoting the high-spending lifestyle, you attracted
attention and earned large amounts of advertising fees. Later on, there were many people who
followed the trend and did the same thing. You were the trendsetter. I admire your keen sense
for the market and your ability to promote things, but I also hope that you can reflect on the
negative impact on society that you have caused."

"Take care on your way back, Captain Miao." Yang Yifan did not care the least bit for those words.
Beaming, she stood up to see the visitor off. "Your surname is really good, it fits you perfectly."

She closed the door with a bang, shutting the police officers out. The smile on her face that
looked like it was painted on had yet to disappear when she turned around and saw Old Yang
looking at her disapprovingly.

Old Master Yang slammed one end of the Dog Beating Staff on the floor forcefully. "Yang Yifan,
what on earth is this about?"

"I'm being dragged in even though I didn't do anything, okay?" Yang Yifan waved him off
impatiently. "She's an online friend that I'm barely acquainted with but just because we went to
the same dinner party, I have to be interrogated by the police. I'm going to the office to work
overtime."

"What overtime!" Sect Leader Yang's face was cold and frosty. "Why did that person say those
words about you just now? What are you busy with every day? Come back here, Yang Yifan!
Explain yourself!"

"Huh." Yang Yifan put on her coat and chuckled. "A minor, lousy civil servant who is paid a
pittance every month. He doesn't have the ability to make money but thinks of himself as
someone important. He probably feels that it's unfair and hates the rich, and can't stand the sight
of the lifestyle that he can't afford and is also not worthy of. How would I know what he meant?"

"What are you saying!" Old Master Yang's short white hair was standing straight out from his
head in his anger. "I've always told you that everything has its limit and you should know when to
stop! Your no-good friends spend the whole day comparing-"

"What's wrong with depending on my own hard work to live the kind of life I like?" Yang Yifan cut
him off impatiently. "I never told those young girls 'You need to make yourself look beautiful so
that you can find a rich man to support you in the future.' I'm not afraid of saying this—I have
never in my life said anything like that! I teach them to face their own desires directly! If you like
branded goods, then scrimp on food and expenses to save money; if you like lipsticks, then get a
second job or a temporary job to earn money and buy them. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't
young people work hard? Shouldn't they fight? If they are like you and don't care about fame or
fortune, and just take a tiny bit of pension money and nibble on steamed buns at home, would
society become better just from that?"

"A gentleman bears poverty with a steadfast-"

"Sure, a gentleman bears poverty with a steadfast heart, only the wicked are driven to madness."
Yang Yifan took down her crocodile leather bag from the clothes rack without the least bit of
miserly air. "So, if you're a worthless good-for-nothing, go look for a corner of the wall to stand in
and reflect on yourself. Stop poking your head out and envying other people for their riches. It's
embarrassing!"

"Our family has been in Beggars' Sect for generations and has never asked for wealth. You need
to have a clear conscience in everything you do."

"Grandpa," One foot out the door, Yang Yifan suddenly turned her head and said, "According to
your words, my dad is exactly someone who doesn't ask for wealth and is a gentleman who
'bears poverty with a steadfast heart,' isn't he? Then, why did you feel that his intentions were
dishonourable and even broke off all ties with him?"

Old Yang could not say anything to that.

When she finished speaking, Yang Yifan let out a scoff and turned to go.

Old Yang wanted to run out after her but he was so angered by her that for a while, his chest and
his back felt numb. It took a long time before he recovered. He sighed and slowly walked into the
corridor, just in time to see Yang Yifan drive her sportscar out, leaving a trail of dust as it rumbled
away.

The world was changing too fast. From all directions, the clamour of worries and anxieties rose
from the dust of the mortal world, the people's voices rising to the sky. The old ideas and
principles that were passed down, that had been so deeply rooted in everyone's psyche since
they were young, were now being eroded day by day by all sorts of new ideas. Even Sect Leader
Yang, who held the Dog Beating Staff in his hands, was feeling fearful at the moment. There were
times when he had a lot of things he wanted to say to the younger people but he was old now. It
was not only his punches and kicks that had slowed down. More often than not, before he had
finished saying a line, these well-educated young people had already answered ten lines with the
rapidity of a machine gun. Every line could turn him speechless and make him wonder if he was
indeed wrong.

He stood in the corridor for a while, then slowly returned to the house. He called the Beggar's
Sect's core members in Yanning one by one and asked them to keep an eye out for the missing
girl called Wang Jiake.
Gan Qing reopened the shop on the third day of the Lunar New Year. She had nothing to do at
home anyway. Other than cutting things up with a blade, this person basically had no other
hobbies. She got bored very quickly when she went online and had nothing better to do than to
keep herself busy aimlessly. She had fried up a wok of doughcakes and a wok of crispy meat
tenders, nearly working the exhaust hood to death. She gave them out to nearly all the
neighbours, and there were still leftovers.

She scrubbed the floors twice a day. Meizhen-jiejie said that if she didn't look for something else
to do, she was going to rub a hole into the floor.

"Welcome." Gan Qing was busy with customers. When she heard the noise from the door, she
called out a greeting without even looking up.

The person at the door let out a hiss. "What's this nonsense?"

The ceiling near the entrance of Star Dreams was hung full of small resin door signs. The person
who entered was too tall and accidentally crashed into them.

Gan Qing looked up. "Little Master Yu, you're here as a proxy shopper again?"

Yu Lanchuan ignored her. His brows furrowed, he looked at the resin signs hung up at the door.
They were all written with "Overnight Millionaire."

"Crashing into a millionaire the moment you open the door, Little Master Yu, you will soar on the
wings of success this year! I'll give you a 50% discount. Ten yuan and you can take one home, a
good omen for the New Year," Gan Qing said with a wide smile. "Who knows, a rich lady might go
after you and you won't have to pay your house loan anymore."

"With you as a… neighbour, I'm not going to soar anywhere," Yu Lanchuan muttered. "So tac-"

The word "tacky" hadn't left his mouth when the other two customers in the shop cut in.

"Teacher Meng-Meng, I want one!"

"Me too!"

"Who wouldn't want to get a taste of being filthy rich?"

"Even in my dreams I want to try running my hands over shoes and bags that are inlaid with
diamonds…"

"Ai, that's all we're good for. We're so poor that our imagination is limited."

"After you become rich, you won't come to my small shop anymore." Gan Qing wrapped up the
resin signs for the two young ladies and passed them over. "I'm going to lose you soon, my
darlings."
Hearing these auspicious and gratifying words of fantasy, the "darlings" were overjoyed. "If it
really becomes true, there will be a long line at your shop here, Teacher Meng-Meng. You'll be
the living God of Fortune among the mortals… Teacher Meng-Meng, why do I have the feeling
that you've become sweeter after Lunar New Year?"

Having stolen some tricks from the proxy shopper, Gan Qing smiled without saying anything. She
darling-ed the customers for a while more, so sweet that the two darlings ended up buying quite
a number of other items before leaving in a daze.

Gan Qing saw them off and looked at the time—it was nearly time for lunch. The stove at the
next door Tianyi Crayfish had already started to sizzle busily, the smell seeping in through the
cracks of the door. Without thinking, she casually asked Yu Lanchuan, "And what do you want,
darling?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"Cough…" Gan Qing saw him looking like he had been struck by lightning and returned to her
senses. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "Damn, I got too used to saying it."
Chapter 64
People who sold things had numerous fantastical ways of calling their customers. Things like
"Beautiful" and "Handsome" were the normal type, "Dear" and "Darling" were the corny type,
"Your Majesty" and "Little Master" were the weird type, "Bankroller" and "Daddy" were the…
shameless type.

The speaker usually put no meaning in these terms and the listener also typically did not take any
meaning from them. When the deal was sealed and money and goods exchanged, everyone
would conscientiously cut off all father-and-child ties of their own volition.

However, not only did Yu Lanchuan look like he did not want to buy anything, he also did not
seem to want to follow the unspoken rules between buyer and seller. His expression was
extremely complicated, making Gan Qing feel as though she had taken liberties with her words.
She had no choice but to explain, "It's just a normal-"

Yu Lanchuan did not wait for her to finish speaking and interrupted her quickly. "Of course I
know. You're overthinking it."

Gan Qing finished, "...second person pronoun."

The second half of her sentence overlapped with his words. For some reason, it became even
more awkward. Gan Qing spread her hands. "I'm not thinking anything."

It is obviously you who are thinking too much.

"Isn't it just a slip of the tongue? Stop going on about it!" Yu Lanchuan wanted to quickly get this
topic over with and in his haste, made it even more conspicuous. "It's not the first day you're
being frivolous anyway."
"Oh, okay." Gan Qing gave him a solemn look and said mournfully like she was reciting an eulogy,
"In that case, Mr. Yu Lanchuan, may I ask what you require of me?"

Yu Lanchuan's gaze drifted around the shop. "Yesterday, you posted the crystal bracelet for
relationship luck in the new year, and also that scissors…"

"Scissors?" Gan Qing had a puzzled look on her face. "I don't sell scissors here. Why don't you try
asking at the sundry shop next door?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "It's the kind of scissors specially for looking for lost items. Didn't you post an
article about it in your WeChat Moments?"

"That's called the 'Upside-Down Scissors Ritual.' Yesterday, I couldn't think of what to update the
official account with so I looked up some of the more commonly known feudalistic superstitions
online," Gan Qing said. "Which one of your colleagues asked for it, didn't they read the article
properly? You can use normal scissors for that, you don't need one that has been blessed… That's
strange, I thought that the people who liked to follow these little superstitions have all heard of
this. Why, does even the arcane arts have older-than-average newbies who are also willing to
spend money?"

The "older-than-average newbie" Yu Lanchuan, "..."

In actual fact, none of his colleagues had asked him to help them buy anything. It was the Lunar
New Year, everyone was at home dealing with their extended relatives. It was just that he had
wandered into Mudpool Backlane without realising it and had somehow come to the shop. He
himself didn't know why he was there and when she cornered him with her questions, he came
up with an excuse in a hurry.

In an entire year, it was only during the Spring Festival holiday that Yu Lanchuan could properly
rest.

He had few relatives. This year, his parents were abroad, his granduncle had departed from the
mortal realm, and the whereabouts of his own father was unclear, so he had even fewer relatives
to visit. At first, he had already planned it out—he would spare half a day to take the gremlin
child Liu Zhongqi out to play and the rest of the time would be for quality time at home.

He needed to review the previous year and list out his personal plans for the coming year. He
needed to catch up on the classic films and books. He needed to pick one or two online classes to
break into a new field and give himself a few more qualifications to add to his resume. This was
how he had spent his holiday every year, busy and fulfilling.

But this year, for some reason, his heart felt restless and irritable sitting at home. He kept
wanting to find a reason to come out and wander around.

"As for the pink crystals for relationship luck, you can pick it yourself." Gan Qing took out a few
large cardboard boxes. Perhaps she had just gotten more stock and hadn't yet had the time to
wrap them up. She spread them out on the counter and they looked just like the beaded curtains
sold at roadside stalls in the previous century—extremely unpleasant to the eye.
Yu Lanchuan reached out and picked through them in distaste. "When the things you're selling
are such rubbish, how on earth do you convince people that they're effective?"

"If you believe in it, it will work," Gan Qing said nonchalantly. "Those who are willing to spend
money to buy these things have a pressing desire to find a partner. The streets are full of people
anyway. Something like a partner, if you look for one sincerely you'll definitely bump into a few.
Doesn't that make it effective? As for those who do not take action themselves and expect their
dream partner to fall from the sky, wearing this can bring them some self-consolation."

"What self-consolation?"

Gan Qing lifted her eyes, revealing irises that appeared grey due to her contact lenses. "Someone
likes me in secret."

Yu Lanchuan's steady heartbeat missed a beat.

"But that person is too shy and I'm too slow, so I don't know about it." Gan Qing picked up a pink
crystal bracelet. She wiped off the dust on it and started to put it in a gift box. "The season where
the weather turns warm and the flowers blossom is right around the corner, it's nice to have this
kind of delusion then. After all, this shop's main business is in selling dreams and all things
beautiful."

Yu Lanchuan was struck speechless. It was only after a long while—after Gan Qing had wrapped
up all the pink crystals nicely, humming a tune the whole time—that he suddenly said out of the
blue, "It might not be a delusion."

Gan Qing stared blankly. "What?"

"Nothing. I was being literal." Yu Lanchuan leaned over and pretended to be unconcerned, his
gaze sweeping aimlessly across her counter. "Sometimes, you feel that someone likes you in
secret. Who knows, it might be true."

"Firstly, there is no blood feud between any parties; secondly, there are no complicated rules
governing everyone's behaviour. No matter how shrewd a person is, what they hide is their bad
intentions. Who would be so free to hide their good intentions so deeply?" Gan Qing snorted a
laugh. "In that case, how bad must the person be at reading other people to be so slow that they
have no clue at all? This kind of idiot is pretty rare."

Yu Lanchuan paused, then twisted his head around. He sensed the meaning hidden in Gan Qing's
words.

Gan Qing didn't look up. "Nothing. I was being literal."

The world of adults was like being in a combat match on an elevated stage. Just a shallow
demonstration was enough, not every single thing—major or minor—had to be explained in great
detail.
I am aware of your affections but I do not wish to reciprocate.

Yu Lanchuan's gaze fell on the pink glass beads. "...I see."

His heart that had missed a beat fell onto the hard cement floor with a thunk, nearly shattering
into pieces.

Gan Qing beamed at him and said, "There's a New Year's promotion on the pink crystals, buy five
and I'll give you the 'Overnight Millionaire' sign for free. Your rich lady is waiting for you not far
away."

Yu Lanchuan went through the selection and picked out four bracelets. He tossed them at her.
"I'll get these."

In winter, the next door Tianyi Crayfish mainly sold hotpot and soup noodles. Boss Meng was
guiding his student on stir-frying a wok of ingredients and saw Yu Lanchuan through the smoke
and grease-stained window. "Little Master Yu, drop by here if you have the time. I have-"

Yu Lanchuan gave him a quick nod and left without a word.

"...freshly-cooked spicy sauce." Meng Tianyi looked at this retreating back and muttered
something. "Why did he leave so quickly? I wanted to give him a jar to try."

"What spicy sauce?" Gan Qing came in. "Uncle Meng, I want it."

"You only know how to eat." Meng Tianyi glanced at her crossly. "Hotpot?"

"I'm hungry already, don't make something so troublesome. Just cook a few slices of beef and
add them to a bowl of noodles." Gan Qing took a peek and used chopsticks to gouge a bit of the
spicy sauce. She tasted it. "Oh! This is good, use this to mix the noodles!"

Meng Tianyi teased her. "You've barely opened shop for two days after Lunar New Year and Little
Master Yu has come by quite a few times, hasn't he?"

Gan Qing washed her hands and took over the cleaver from the little student. She sliced the beef
at a very fast speed. "Good friends are friends who take care of your business."

Meng Tianyi shot her a glance. "Don't give me that. Can there be purely platonic friendship
between a man and a woman? You think I've never been young?"

Gan Qing smiled. "Yes, yes. You are the famous idol of Mudpool Backlane, Pan An[1] Crayfish!
Who doesn't know your name?"

The cleaver in her hand rose and fell. In just a short time, she had finished the little student's task
for most of the day. The inexperienced little student who had not seen much of the world
watched her with wide eyes and an opened mouth.
"It's true that it isn't easy for there to be a purely platonic friendship between a man and a
woman." Gan Qing stabbed the cleaver on the chopping board and said nonchalantly. "However,
a ram and a doe having a civilised friendship while grazing isn't something rare."

Meng Tianyi understood what she had left unspoken and was stunned.

Gan Qing lifted her chin at him. "Uncle Meng, make sure the noodles don't become soft. Don't
overcook it for me."

During the Spring Festival holiday, Star Dreams closed early. Before dinnertime, Gan Qing had
already closed the shop and bought her groceries, ready to return home. When she was nearing
No. 110 Courtyard, her footsteps suddenly paused. She twisted her head around and stared at a
small alley at the intersection—an indistinct shadow had flashed past that spot!

Without hesitation, Gan Qing gave chase.

This was the maze of alleys where she had followed Xiang Xiaoman back then and also where she
had tricked Liu Zhongqi into buying her tea. The area was tangled and complicated. At this time,
there were few tourists and the streets were empty. Gan Qing stood at the intersection for a few
seconds, paying rapt attention to her surroundings. A small blade swiftly flew out from between
her fingers, slicing through the northwest wind and heading towards the bicycle rack in the dark.

The blade flew in an arc and there was a sound of ripping cloth, almost inaudibly soft. It had cut
open someone's clothes! Right after that, a small and thin figure leaped out from the bicycle rack.

Gan Qing called out, "Wait a minute, this friend over there."

That person did not pay her any heed. Like a monkey, they leaped out from among the rusty bars
and scampered away. They seemed to be very familiar with the area, leaping and darting right
and left in the narrow alley. Gan Qing chased them through two streets and unexpectedly lost
them!

Night fell early in winter. Twilight was already creeping up all four sides at this hour. The wind
squeezed through the alleys of differing width and howled at different pitches; the sound faintly
revealing the situation in every alley to a person who knew how to listen. Within it was the sound
of very quick, very light footsteps.

Gan Qing turned in the direction of the sound. But before she could give chase, there was a
sudden, vicious gust of air coming from behind her—a metal rod was swinging right at the back of
her head. She seemed to have seen it coming; with one hand holding her shopping bag, she spun
half a circle on one leg, raised her left arm and steadily caught the oncoming metal rod.

The person who sneak-attacked her was well-equipped. A face mask covered their face securely,
revealing only a pair of small and dangerous-looking eyes.

She narrowed her eyes. In her left hand, a few small blades glinted under the dim streetlights.
"Coming for me? This is new."
The sneak attacker suddenly lowered their wrist, breaking free from her grasp. The metal rod
swept towards her waist. Gan Qing retreated swiftly. A cold light flickered between her fingers
and slipped under the metal rod, piercing unerringly into the wrist of the sneak attacker who was
holding the metal rod. At the same time, she happened to have her back to the entrance of
another small alley when dodging backwards and before she could stand firm, a man suddenly
rushed out from that alley. He was holding a watermelon knife in his hand, lunging right at her
back!

Gan Qing's heel did not land on the ground. She bent her knee slightly and flipped up from the
ground with unimaginable grace, her body arching as she bent backwards into a bridge, just
barely missing the knife. The knife-wielder made a sound and turned his wrist. The knife switched
from a stabbing to a horizontal slicing motion but before he could put his full force into it, there
was a sudden pain in his wrist. A large potato had smashed right into it!

The blade of the knife tilted downwards. The next second, someone grabbed his wrist. Gan Qing
used the momentum from her backflip to twist his wrist almost 180 degrees. There was a
terrifying crack from his wrist bones and he let out a blood curdling scream.

Right at that moment, a brick flew over from somewhere. At the same time, the blinding
headlights from a vehicle swept over to shine directly into Gan Qing's eyes.

Her vision blurred and she couldn't see anything clearly. The person whose wrist she had broken
took the chance to give her a shove. Gan Qing could only use her intuition and her hearing ability
to twist her head away as much as possible. The brick scraped past her shoulder and fell to the
ground.

There was the rumbling sound of a motorbike being started up. By the time she regained her
ability to see, the few people who had sneak attacked her just now had already taken advantage
of the chaos to run away, leaving only a watermelon knife and a few drops of blood on the
ground.

These people seemed to be only testing the waters, leaving as soon as they made contact.

Gan Qing stretched her shoulder that the brick had scraped against just now. She picked up the
fallen potato. Slowly, her brows furrowed. If her eyes had not been mistaken, the person who
had lured her into the alley was dressed in rags, just like… a beggar.

Not long after she left, the light in a house at the end of the alley turned on. A man dressed as a
beggar peeked out fearfully, still unsettled from his shock. He kept his voice low as he spoke to
the other person in the room, "She's gone. Now, do you believe me? When she fought with those
people from the Xu clan, I was right there. I knew right away!"

T/N:
[1] Pan An is one of the famous male beauties of ancient China.
Chapter 65
In the room, someone let out a soft hmph and walked out of the shadows.
This man was around fifty or sixty years of age. His clothes and accessories were of a considerable
quality. He wore a well-tailored dark coloured shirt, low-key yet luxurious, making him appear tall
and upright and a few inches slimmer. Unfortunately, a middle-aged man's face was not suited to
wearing excessive accessories, hence there was nothing to hide his face that looked like a dried
persimmon. The sagging cheeks on either side of his face pushed the corners of his mouth down
until they had nowhere to rest and his mouth resembled a small cherry. It looked almost cartoon-
ish.

The little cherry mouth opened and a sinister voice spat out, "Your Beggars' Sect is really
something. It's one thing to go around begging but you even collect scraps. Nowadays, any kind
of person can move into No. 110. Why, are you guys tired of being righteous and reputable?"

Back in the years when the printed publication "Yanning Weekly" hadn't yet gone out of business,
this face had once appeared on the cover of one of the issues. The issue introduced Wang
Jiusheng, the old president of Futongda Courier Services, an outstanding local enterprise. A
person didn't have to be particularly outstanding to appear in this magazine. They just needed to
take their photos themselves, write the article themselves, and then send them to the
publication company together with the advertising fee. All year round, they featured this type of
people and blinded the eyes of their readers—there was clearly a reason why Yanning Weekly
went out of business.

This North Branch Master of Travellers' Sect, who was rumoured to have never gotten along with
Beggars' Sect, was unexpectedly mingling with a Beggars' Sect disciple right at this moment.

The corner of the man dressed in a beggar's garb's eye twitched. He lowered his head to look at
his own arm where his sleeve had been cut open by a razor blade. The blade had just barely
scratched his skin, slicing loose a very fine layer of epidermis. It was not bleeding. "Sect Leader
Yang is old and muddled! When I told you guys to come and see for yourself, you just needed to
see with your eyes! Why did you take action? What if you alerted her?"

"If we did, then so be it." Wang Jiusheng lit up a cigarette, unbothered. "She's just a foolish little
girl."

"I've already said that she has the true skills handed down by Wei Xiao!"

"What's so great about Wei Xiao?" Wang Jiusheng laughed coldly. "He's just an old tortoise hiding
in his shell. People on that path of theirs are talked about as though they are gods, but isn't it just
because they like to hide in the dark and use dirty tricks? Right now, she's in the light while we
are in the dark. She's a ghost under the glare of a lamp, how powerful can she be?"

"Branch Master Wang should first wipe his own ass clean." The Beggars' Sect member laughed
coldly. "Your esteemed sect takes in all kinds regardless of whether they're fragrant or smelly.
You're all registered at the police station."

"So what." Wang Jiusheng smiled, revealing teeth that had been artificially whitened until they
looked like something out of science fiction and not something that should be growing out of a
human mouth. "I didn't attack the police nor did I order them to. If you want to accuse me of
being from a criminal organisation, do you have proof? It's a lawful society now. Even I don't bully
people in this manner."

"That's not for sure," the Beggars' Sect member said. "President Wang, a large tree attracts the
wind. Do you think that it's only the police who are watching your people? In the future, if you
want to do anything, you better do it carefully. Make sure there aren't any beggars around."

"It's an evil thing to be old and impudent." Cigarette dangling from his lips, Wang Jiusheng's
words were unclear. He turned his head towards the Beggars' Sect member and smiled again. His
eyes crinkled in a harmonious smile, yet his teeth were still clenched and his features twisted. He
was like an animal grinding its teeth and sucking on blood. "Didn't I find you? If you ask me, your
esteemed sect's Sect Leader Yang Qing is already at that age and should be enjoying his golden
years. Give him something to do so that he won't spend all day watching me."

"Don't rush, it'll be soon. We are thankful to President Wang for sending us coal in the midst of
snow by giving us this great piece of information we can make use of," the Beggars' Sect member
said. "Just one thing, that girl… nothing will happen to her, right?"

"What could happen to her?" Wang Jiusheng smiled. "With a load of high-interest loans on her
ass and so desperate that she's on the verge of selling her body, when someone gives her a way
out, how would she dare do anything?"

"Then that's good."

"Ai." Wang Jiusheng waved a hand. "You know that I'm the one who hates stirring up trouble the
most. We people who do business are most particular about 'harmony brings wealth.' In the
recent couple of years, the competitive pressure in the market is so great and I have so many
brothers under me that I have to feed. It's not easy. I just want everyone to keep to their lanes
and do what they should do, live their days peacefully and don't cause trouble for each other… If
you let a murderer stay next door, how is it any different from keeping a tiger at your bedside?
Can you really sleep well at night?"

In any case, he wouldn't be able to do it.

Ever since Wang Jiusheng heard that "Wei Xiao" appeared at the little guest house and had nearly
strangled the unlicensed cab driver Niu Liang, there hadn't been a single night where he had slept
soundly. Even in his dreams, he dreamed that there was a cut measuring three cun and two fen
on his neck.

Wang Jiusheng threw the half-smoked cigarette on the ground and carelessly grinded it with his
foot. He did not even check to see if the flame had gone out before clapping the Beggar's Sect
member on the arm and leaving.

The man from Beggars' Sect turned his head and watched him get into a car waiting at the
intersection before cursing in a low voice. He picked up the half-smoked cigarette from the
ground, wiped it carelessly with his hand and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, he blended into the
cold wind without a sound.
His head aching like it was splitting apart, Yu Lanchuan walked into No. 110 Courtyard. Ever since
he left Mudpool Backlane, there was a smothering feeling in his chest that not even the
northwest wind could blow away.

Ever since he was young, he had thought highly of himself, almost to the point of narcissism.
During Lunar New Year, his mother had tried to pressure him into getting married but she had
barely started when this young master immediately displayed his position of "I will not wallow in
the same mire as the profane world" and poured all his fortune into the down payment for his
house.

In the past, Yu Lanchuan had thought that if he did not meet a girl who met the requirements,
then he'll forget about it. In any case, he was not willing to force himself to settle for less.

If he could be just like his granduncle—mighty and vigorous when young, free as a lark to travel
the world when old—wasn't that pretty good too?

The so-called "a girl who meet the requirements'' should at least have the beauty to make a
person's eyes light up, have an educational background that was on par with his, have both IQ
and EQ, have good self-control, have a warm and friendly personality but should not be too
clingy, and must be matured and and controlled in handling matters… He didn't think he was
being overly demanding because that was what Yu Lanchuan demanded of himself, so of course
he was not willing to lower the requirements for other people.

But Gan Qing was the complete opposite of those requirements.

That person was unconcerned with her appearance, did not finish senior high school and even
had a criminal record. She amused herself every day by swindling and conning people. When she
should step up to handle matters, she hid in fear; when it was time to stay calm, her knife would
always be faster than the wind. No one knew when she would lose control and she wandered
around the edges of the law all year round.

But he had never imagined that, after just one year, he would want to hand over the freedom he
had gotten in exchange for being a house loan slave for thirty years.

...And the other person had not even appreciated it!

Little Master Yu knew how to read between the lines. His dignity and his heart were both
shattered into a mess; yet, amidst the fragments, a thought that had been tightly and securely
wrapped up was leaking out.

He thought, Why is the first person I seriously have feelings for someone like this?

Yu Lanchuan wandered around aimlessly for a while but his pent-up emotions still could not be
vented. His thoughts muddled, he followed the crowd into a cinema and randomly bought a
ticket for a movie that still had available seats. Perhaps it was due to the prohibition on fireworks
and firecrackers this year, the cinema management and filmmakers seemed to take pity on the
moviegoers' ears for the lack of excitement and had come up with a New Year's movie that had
as much action as an air raid on Yanning City. For more than two hours, the actors put all their
strength into shouting and howling on screen, and the noise from the surround sound system
was deafening.

Yu Lanchuan had wanted to find a place that was pitch dark to think about life. He didn't expect
his ears to be filled with donkey brays and his brain was shaken until it became a pot of congee.
However, there were no empty seats in the cinema hall and he was in the innermost corner. If he
wanted to leave halfway, he would have to hold the popcorn for a whole row of people and step
on their toes as he made his way out. He had no choice but to endure for the whole show.

This perfect example of good health did not drown his heartbroken sorrows in alcohol but due to
this unexpected turn of events, he still reached the state of intoxication.

When Yu Yan bumped into him at the entrance of No. 110 Courtyard, his very first line was, "Hey,
Master Lan, were you drinking?"

"...Fake alcohol," Yu Lanchuan said. "Who are you looking for?"

"Old Master Yang," Yu Yan said. "You know we've been putting all our efforts into looking for
Wang Jiake these few days, right? I've checked the CCTVs until I'm becoming short-sighted. Old
Master Yang said that their Beggars' Sect has some clues. I came to ask him."

Yu Lanchuan was shrouded in his personal worries and was not in the mood to pay any attention
to meaningless gossip. Hearing Yu Yan's words, he didn't even look up and only grunted and
continued walking.

"I ask you—this girl is still young, her family earns a normal income and she works at a school—by
right, she isn't in a competitive environment. So how did she live her life until it's such a mess?
Now, she has disappeared to who knows where and the credit card creditors are hounding her
for their money. That's still okay, at most it will only affect her credit score. But we made a rough
assessment and we think that she might have taken out a high-interest loan. Right now, we don't
know whether she's safe or not." Yu Yan sighed. "People online all say that she's someone brave
who dares to expose the dark inner workings of the rich and might have been silenced by some
parties. The rumours are so many that they can't be deleted in time. If we censor the keywords,
we'll be accused of covering up. The pressure is heavy… Do you think that the 'Upside-Down
Scissors Ritual' that Teacher Meng-Meng posted yesterday will be effective here? How about I
secretly ask her to conduct a ritual?"

Yu Lanchuan only felt as though there was a fly near his ear, buzzing non-stop. He basically heard
not even a single word and only the words "Teacher Meng-Meng" hit against his eardrums. He
answered coldly, "When I get home, the first thing I'm going to do is call your boss and make a
report about the personnel from his police station spreading feudalistic superstitions during work
hours."

Yu Yan took a careful sniff but didn't detect the smell of alcohol. "...Were you bitten by a dog
outside just now?"

"Go away."
While they were talking, the two of them reached the elevator lobby. Yu Lanchuan saw clearly
the person waiting for the elevator and his legs came to a sudden stop.

Yu Yan said, "Hey, what a coincidence!"

Before Yu Lanchuan could turn and walk out, Yu Yan was clapping Gan Qing heartily on her
shoulder. "Teacher Meng-Meng, we were just talking about you!"

This clap landed right on her shoulder that the brick had scraped past earlier. His strike made Gan
Qing stagger a few steps forward before she caught her balance and her entire posture was
askew.

Yu Yan looked at his own hand in bewilderment. "Did I… master the 'Buddha's Palm' technique on
my own in just one night?"
Chapter 66
Gan Qing felt that one side of her shoulders was like a cooked crab shell that Officer Yu Yan had
knocked off with a smack and she could almost hear the tearing of the flesh parting from the
bones inside. She strained to put on a smile. "You're truly worthy of being a police officer. Your
skills… cough… gain a thousand miles in a day."

"Don't touch her randomly, you're so handsy." Yu Lanchuan pulled Yu Yan away. "Are you
injured? What happened?"

"It's… nothing. Long story." Gan Qing sucked in a breath of cold air. She couldn't really stand
straight. "Ow… the groceries… help me carry them for a bit."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

She was in this state yet the bag of groceries she was carrying was completely untouched. Even
the block of tofu didn't have a single broken corner.

Perhaps it was the "power of religious belief" that was protecting them.

"What happened to you? Did you bump into muggers on the way back?" Yu Yan quickly took the
things she was carrying from her. Then, he recalled her brilliant performance when she single-
handedly turned the tables on the reinforced team at the Travellers' Sect territory and peered
into her shopping bag in bewilderment. "Would someone more powerful than you need to resort
to mugging? Even if they do, they wouldn't mug you. What do you have that's worth robbing,
groceries"

Gan Qing said, "Ai, be careful! That bag has a hole in it, don't let the potatoes roll out... ah!"

Yu Lanchuan swiftly pressed a few times on the shoulder that she was unable to lift up, checking
that her bones were still where they should be. "Stop that nonsense!"

When the brick smashed into her, Gan Qing hadn't really felt the pain because she had been in a
state of heightened tension. It was only when she was back now that she felt that it was rather
serious. Her right arm could not be raised.
Zhang Meizhen was not at home. Gan Qing grumbled with a bitter smile. "You two sirs are really
not treating me as an unmarried young lady. If we were in ancient times…"

Yu Yan was actually feeling pretty awkward. Seeing that he was partly to blame for Gan Qing not
being able to move half her body freely, he couldn't just leave her there. Thus, he coughed and
said tentatively, "How about I… go up to the eighth floor and see if Zhou-jie is at home? Or-"

Yu Lanchuan interrupted him. "You're just a bean sprout without a chest or a butt, no one will
want to look at you even back in the Jurassic period!"

"..." Gan Qing blinked. "Why do I feel that these words seem a little familiar?"

As she spoke, she licked the back of her teeth with an expression that was not very dignified, and
smiled. Then, unexpectedly, she really did not have much reservations and took off her jacket and
the wool sweater she was wearing inside. The two young men, regardless of whether they were
soft-spoken or hard talking, cowered in unison and shifted their gazes to the corners of the
building.

However, the sensual scene in their imaginations did not happen. Gan Qing was wearing a
workout jersey inside that could be worn outside in summer. There was only a thin and delicate
layer of flesh on her shoulder, wrapped securely around her bones. It had the strength to control
the tip of a knife down to the millimeter but bearing the force of a brick was a little beyond its
abilities. A bruise extended from her deltoid muscle to the area near her shoulder blade, the
burst capillaries under her skin weaving together to form a spider's web that was horrifying to
see.

Yu Lanchuan moved his own shoulder involuntarily, feeling that his shoulder was hurting in
sympathy.

Yu Yan said uneasily, "I even smacked so hard just now, this hand of mine is really… You can't
leave it like this. You need to go to the hospital and get an X-ray."

"That's not necessary." Gan Qing turned her head back to look and didn't think much of it. "The
brick scraped it a bit. I think the bones are still fine."

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Yu Lanchuan ignored her and took his phone out to call a cab.

"That's really not necessary." Gan Qing pulled her down jacket back up and stood up unsteadily.
She paused, then said, "Ai, fine. Actually, Uncle Meng told me to apply for social health insurance
but I let it drag until now and still haven't applied… Going to the hospital is too expensive. It's my
right arm anyway, it won't affect anything. I'll apply medicine myself and it'll be fine in a couple of
days."

Yu Lanchuan could not stand it anymore and was practically spitting fire. "Since it's not of much
use, why don't you cut it off and make soup with it?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"Anything that's useless, you'll insist on doing it; anything that's serious, you'll insist on putting it
off. You even put off getting social health insurance!" Yu Lanchuan said angrily. "What medicine
are you going to apply yourself? Go to the kitchen and knead white peppercorns and flour into a
dough to make your own homemade ointment[1]? It's the twenty-first century now but you're
still trying to overthrow the Qing and return to the Ming dynasty!"

Yu Yan said hastily, "It's my fault, it was my hand that slipped. I'll pay the medical fees."

"You'll pay? Are you very rich?"

"...Master Lan, why are you like a cat whose territory was breached by someone?"

Gan Qing, the "territory," said, "Erm, I…"

"Don't speak." Yu Lanchuan turned to pick up the call from the driver he booked online.

The ride he booked very quickly arrived at the building. Gan Qing had originally planned to go
home and cook, but somehow ended up being pushed into the car and dragged to the nearest
hospital that specialised in orthopedics.

The roads were not congested and even the hospital was quieter than usual. Gan Qing rarely had
the chance to receive medical treatment. She lifted her head to look at the building for
outpatient service, a little at a loss. Yu Lanchuan threw out a "Wait here" and left her on a chair
while he went to get a number himself for registration. The bitter smell of medicine drifted along
the floor. The medical personnel walking by occasionally were fully focused on their jobs.

Yu Yan looked at Yu Lanchuan's back and suddenly said with a sigh, "Actually, Master Lan hates
meddling in other people's business the most."

The right side of her body stiff, Gan Qing lifted her head to glance at him. "...The 'Lan' I know
might not be the same one you know."

"Yeah, so what I'm saying is, he's really nice to you." Yu Yan sat down beside her and took out a
small notebook. "Just now, I tried a few times to ask you what happened but he stopped me
every time. Teacher Meng-Meng, why don't you make a statement?"

There was nothing that needed to be hidden so Gan Qing told him everything, briefly and
succinctly.

"I finally understand what they mean by 'those who drown can swim,'" Yu Yan said with a
deadpan face. "Pitch dark, obviously a trap—how could you dare to chase after them on your
own?"

Gan Qing smiled, not at all upset. Her face was the perfect example of "Listening with an open
mind, zero intentions of changing."

Yu Yan asked, "What about the knife and the bloodstains? Did you gather them?"
"Nope," Gan Qing said. "Let me put it this way. When Wei Xiao—that's my former shifu—went to
No. 110 in the past, he had always avoided being seen by others. There are so many people in
Beggars' Sect, even Sect Leader Yang's son has a feud with Wei Xiao. It's only normal that they
don't like the sight of me. The last time at that Paradise place, I fought with the people from the
Xu clan so I already guessed that something like this would happen. It's normal."

"Just because you have a rough idea of what's going on, there's no need to save the evidence?
This is called 'intentionally causing injury'! How is it normal?" Yu Yan became serious. "Little
Master Yu is right. It's the twenty-first century already, why are you guys still engaged in jianghu
feuds?"

"Normal people have their fights and brawls, jianghu people have jianghu debts and enmity. If
you want to handle all of that, do you police have enough hands?" Gan Qing let out a laugh.
"Furthermore, do you think these people are good citizens who will piss their pants in terror just
because they're in a detention center? These minions depend on the people keeping them. Even
if they're caught, they won't give up their masters' names. The first time might be new to them;
by the second time, they're used to it already. They'll be locked up for a while and when they're
freed, they can still make a living. Comrade Officer, your uniform can scare people who are good
but those who are really bad aren't at all scared of you guys."

Yu Yan had nothing to say to that.

"They can harass a person living a proper life until that person goes crazy." Gan Qing tucked the
stray strands of her hair that had fallen forward back behind her ear with her uninjured hand.
"Luckily, it's me."

It was fine if it was her. She was all alone in the world. If her mood was good, she could just walk
away from it all; if her mood was bad, she could accompany them and go down fighting. She
didn't have anything to her name, they could all sit down together and compare whose feet were
more bare.

As long as a person was willing to abandon all hope and smash the jar that was already cracked,
they could live without fear.

Gan Qing said, "But there might be people causing trouble for Sect Leader Yang these few days."

Yu Yan fell silent for a while. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Yu Lanchuan was done
registering and was walking towards them. He couldn't stop himself from asking, "Gan Qing, you
might not like bags or jewelry, so what do you like? A person must have something they're aiming
for in life, right? Aren't you afraid that you'll have nothing at all in your hands when you're old?"

Gan Qing thought for a while, then replied. "Some people are playing the 'accumulate items and
run a business' kind of game while others have turned on the 'wandering adventurer' mode.
They're just different lifestyles, how is one better than the other?"

Yu Yan said hesitatingly, "That's true…"

Then, he heard Gan Qing slowly twist the knife. "In any case, regardless of which mode it is, most
people live in a state of confusion. They are either pointlessly busy or they don't know where
they'll be staying tomorrow. Both states are equally miserable."

Yu Yan, "..."

Gan Qing was completely and thoroughly put through the wringer at the hospital. She took an X-
ray and then had a consultation with a doctor, and after all the huge fuss, the conclusion given
was the same as her own—her bones were fine, she just needed to go back and rest for a few
days and not get into any more trouble.

The doctor prescribed her medicine for the bruise. Upon hearing that a brick had smashed into
her, the doctor thought that the young lady had been standing near a construction site for no
good reason and gave her a long lecture, telling her that "A person of noble character does not
seek danger."

By the time they left the hospital, it was already very late. Gan Qing was fretting a little over what
to make for dinner when she heard Yu Yan ask, "Where's Yu Lanchuan… Hey, Master Lan, where
have you gone to now?"

Yu Lanchuan had done the registration and also collected the medicine. On average, he
disappeared once every five minutes and then popped up again after a while. He was so busy
that he did not speak even a single word, and could not spare even a second.

"The car is over there." As Yu Lanchuan spoke, he pushed a paper bag at Gan Qing. The delicious
smell of baked bread wafted out of the bag. It was a sandwich set meal, still warm.

"'Tsk," Yu Yan made a face. "I thought you were going to treat us to a lavish meal, Rich Guy. Even
senior high school students don't buy fast food when treating girls to a meal."

"What lavish meal, is she going to eat with her feet?" Yu Lanchuan shot Gan Qing a glance then
turned to rant at Yu Yan. "Isn't it enough that I'm feeding you, why do you have so many
complaints!"

Gan Qing's heart skipped a beat, softly. Her left hand was her dominant hand but this was
because she forced herself to change after getting injured. She still used her right hand when
using chopsticks and holding drinks. Her right hand was not as dispensable as she had said.

While she was spacing out, Yu Lanchuan quickly reached a hand out and took away the drink in
her paper bag. He twisted the cap open it and stuffed it back into her hands like he was throwing
a grenade, then walked away as though nothing had happened.

Gan Qing, "..."

She stood by the roadside and took a careful bite of the sandwich in the paper bag. Then, lightly,
she drew in a breath of cold air. It was strange. Her injuries had been treated and she also had
food to eat. But somehow, her injured shoulder was starting to hurt unbearably.
Yu Yan turned around from the front and said, "Eat when you're in the car! Don't swallow the
wind along with the food. Ai, Teacher Meng-Meng, why are you like a child?"

Gan Qing made a vague noise in reply and dragged her half-paralysed body along.

A rundown Santana stopped at the zebra crossing to let her pass. Gan Qing nodded absent-
mindedly at the car. She didn't look up. One human and one car brushed past each other in that
brief encounter.

In the front passenger seat of the Santana, a young woman dug her fingernails into her seatbelt,
anxious and restless. She took the chance while the car was not moving to ask the driver next to
her in a cautious voice, "Why do I need to switch places?"

The driver said, "Isn't it your own fault? We told you not to go outside and don't let anyone see
you but you didn't listen."

The girl stammered, "I saw that… the street was empty…"

"Vagrants are not people? Beggars are not people? I'll be honest with you, those beggars and
vagrants can be bribed, all it takes is one meal and they can act as spies for those scumbags who
give out high-interest loans."

The girl shivered. "Then have they… found me? You people promised to help me repay the
money, have you done so? I… When can I go home?"

The driver wound the window down a crack and blew out a puff of smoke. Slowly, he started the
car moving. He said in a cursory manner. "Soon."

The girl was anxious. "But the interest is charged every day. The longer it's put off, the more it'll
be!"

"I know there's interest, you don't have to tell me. Do you think that you'll be fine once the
money's repaid? The police and the people in the photos are all looking for you." The driver shot
her a glance. "How can it be so easy? Bear with it a while longer."

T/N:
[1] The "white peppercorns and flour" homemade medicine that Yu Lanchuan rants about is 金疮
药 jīn chuāng yào. According to Baidu, it's used mainly to treat cuts, effectiveness still under
research, and is made from many ingredients including lard, pine resin, flour, musk, beeswax, and
camphor.
Also, just want to note that Wang Jiake and Wang Jiusheng share the same surname but they're
not related. Wang 王 is a common surname.
Chapter 67
The girl in the Santana was none other than the one Yu Yan and the others were frantically
searching for, Wang Jiake.
Based purely on her facial features, Wang Jiake was very beautiful. However, every fiber of her
being was emitting a deep sense of unease, a state that was like being the female lead in a horror
film—losing her head in panic, every intersection and every corner seeming to have a monster
that could pop out suddenly at any time. She was trembling all over, shifting restlessly in her seat.

The driver glanced at her in the rearview mirror and turned up the heat. "Why, feeling cold?"

Wang Jiake nervously folded her arms across her chest and shook her head.

There were many red lights along the way. The driver was very bored and naturally, used the
beautiful lady beside him to while away the time. He asked, "What kind of money was it that you
borrowed and can't repay? Such a beautiful lady, were you taking drugs?"

"No, I wasn't."

"Then, gambling? Doesn't look like it." The driver sized her up, looking at her out of the corner of
his eye. Then, with no good intentions, he asked, "Surely you're not redeeming yourself from a
pimp?"

Wang Jiake was thin-skinned but when this man who was like a hoodlum insulted her, she only
dared to be angry but dared not say anything. Her face reddened from holding it in.

"I just want to chat," the driver said easily. "It's Lunar New Year but I have to come all the way
here to pick you up. I'm just joking and you got angry? You sure have a hot temper for a lady,
how are you going to survive in the world?"

Wang Jiake had graduated not long ago and had a natural reverence for the phrase "survive in
the world." When offended, some young people—especially those who had been taught to be
"kind, good, respectful, restrained and magnanimous" since young—would always first reflect on
themselves and consider if they were the ones being troublesome, rather than firmly deciding
that the other party was an idiot.

When the driver said those words, she stared blankly and then really felt a little embarrassed. So,
she made her tone milder and told him honestly, "I… At the start, I just borrowed a little bit of
money to buy makeup."

The driver was actually not interested in her sob story. Striking up a conversation was purely to
tease her. Only half-listening, he let out a grunt to indicate that she should continue speaking. His
eyes were almost turning in two different directions—one was just barely watching the road
while the other had rotated towards the corner of his forehead for the sole purpose of staring
indecently at the girl.

Wang Jiake did not notice it, entirely focused on digging her fingers into the seatbelt. "That day,
someone in our group posted a secondhand set, a seasonal limited edition version. It was sold
out all over the world and was no longer being produced. Her set was new and unwrapped, it was
really a rare deal… I really wanted it, it was like I was obsessed…"

But it happened to be near the end of the month and she didn't have the money.
Working as a music teacher at a high school was an easy job that made other people envious
because as everyone knew, music and arts class in high school was like the flower garden behind
the old monsters in the mathematics group. The No. 33 High School where Wang Jiake worked
was not a large school and did not recruit students that were talented in music. On average, she
had one class a day. When there were any cultural activities, she sometimes helped to organise
them. She usually did not have to be on duty.

However, in accordance with her easy job, her income was also not high.

Since she had few classes, Wang Jiake's monthly pay was only a little higher than the basic pay.
Yanning was a city full of hidden talents. The children who had the money to study music would
all look for well-known teachers at music schools. She was young and a nobody, even if she
wanted to hold private classes, she could barely recruit any students.

By the end of the month, that small amount of money was not enough for anything.

The internet was all abuzz with rumours and slanders about her. The more they were passed on,
the more twisted they became. There were people who said that she wore branded goods from
head to toe and drove a Maserati the moment she stepped outside her door; there were those
who said that she frequented high-class places and that she wouldn't stay at a place that didn't
have at least five stars. In actual fact, they were all nonsense.

She didn't even have a sachima, much less a Maserati. Every day, she took the bus to work. Out
of the three meals in a day, two were at her workplace's cafeteria. Most of her clothes and shoes
were bought on Taobao. When she occasionally went to the physical shops in the shopping malls,
she would only try on the clothes to scratch the itch. On her whole body, the only item that had a
tenuous relation to "luxury" was an entry-level branded bag that she had gritted her teeth and
bought for herself when she just started work, the type with a very perfunctory design and the
brand's logo plastered all over it. It was not at all beautiful but because it cost a considerable
amount, even with those "good looks," it could enjoy its owner's care and protection.

She was over twenty years old now. She had a job and she was a member of society. For her to
have one or two fancier items to dress herself up with, was that crossing the line?

Even if these fancier items had resulted in her toiling desperately for half a year to pay her credit
card bill.

After carving out the portion for rent, utilities and other necessities, the amount left in her
monthly salary was barely enough to survive on.

Online, those people said that girls had to start using eye cream at twenty years old to fight
wrinkles. At twenty-five, they would start to age, and their youth and beauty would flow away
like sand between one's fingers.

Those girls around her age whose looks were originally just average were all very encouraging
and shared tips and experiences in their WeChat Moments on how to put on makeup, dress up
and accessorise to achieve certain styles. Day by day, their looks grew more dazzling. She was so
beautiful, a little crane in a flock of chickens since she was young. Her beauty had basically
become the foundation of her self-confidence but now, at this stage of her life where she was
supposed to be a flower, she had to live a difficult life and couldn't even be compared with those
ugly little ducklings!

Was she supposed to just pour a few pounds of glycerin on her face as skincare and call it a day?

In just a few years' time, she would become an old woman and even if she put on makeup, it
would cake and crack!

Just one or two small items: a few tubes of lipsticks, a bottle of essence. At the start, those
people online had said, "Your husband or boyfriend can't even grant your wish for these little
items, how cheap are you." Later on, they said, "You need to depend on a man even for these
little items, how cheap are you..." Whether or not it was feminism, she was not too bothered. In
any case, regardless of what opinions either side had, the gist of it was: the items themselves are
"insignificant," but you can not be "cheap."

And it was none other than these "insignificant" things that resulted in an eternal shortfall in her
credit score and credit card account. Every month, when her salary reached her bank account,
the first thing she did was repay loans.

But there would always be accidents in life. That month, she had just bought a pair of shoes. She
was still saving up for the remaining payment when her phone was stolen on the bus. This
unforeseen disaster was like the straw that broke the camel's back. Buying a new phone
exhausted her credit limit.

Less than a week before she was paid, Wang Jiake only had 80.05 yuan on her.

Sometimes, a person would become as though possessed and have a ravenous desire to own an
item. Furthermore, the more the item is beyond their reach, the more they would want it. The
online friend selling the makeup item was quite generous. Since it was secondhand, she was
selling it at 80% of the original price. But Wang Jiake just could not afford it. That day, all her
feelings of grievances and injustice ever since she graduated were dug out by that little incident.
Sorrow welled up from within her and she cried for half the night.

"On that day, I happened to receive a text from a money lender offering small personal loans,"
she said softly. "My colleague bought a house with a loan. I've seen him going around the school
to get various documents. He had to put up a collateral and sign stuff in person, it was really
troublesome. The bank was worried he would run away. I saw that the text message said
'Collateral not necessary, quick and convenient, money in your account within three hours'—so I
couldn't resist trying. I guess it must be fate."

"What fate?" the driver asked. "Don't you get this kind of annoying text message every day?"

"Really? In the past, I had never read marketing texts closely, I didn't notice." Wang Jiake looked
up in confusion.

"How much did you borrow?"

"2,000. Actually, they loaned me 1,950, the service charge was fifty yuan. I just needed to repay
everything in one week," Wang Jiake said. "Nothing else was needed. I just needed to sign a loan
agreement and I could get the money immediately."

The driver snorted a laugh. He felt that the current day female university graduates were really
easy to deceive. The interest on a high-interest loan was named "service charge" and just like
that, they couldn't tell what it was.

"I saw that the amount written on the loan agreement was 6,000 so I didn't dare sign it at first.
But they said that most loans have collateral. Their business is in small and short-term loans, so
they do not require a physical collateral. The extra 4,000 was like a 'collateral,' I just need to
repay the 2,000 on time… They were afraid that I wouldn't feel reassured so they made a
supplementary agreement for me that clearly stated that if I repay the 2,000 according to
schedule, I would be cleared of all debts." Wang Jiake said softly. "My school doesn't pay us late.
No matter what, I would be able to repay the amount."

Upon saying that, her face looked like she had suffered an injustice. "But coincidentally, I had a
credit card payment due. Earlier on, for convenience's sake, I set up an auto-transfer to pay the
balance. I forgot to set it to pay by installments so they directly transferred my salary out."

"The other party sent me ten messages in a day, telling me to take note not to be overdue on the
payment. If I didn't repay the money, I would be penalised and my credit score would be affected
or something like that… I didn't really understand. Basically, the way they said it, it sounded like I
wouldn't be able to take out loans or take the high speed rail in the future. I didn't dare tell my
family. I asked a few colleagues but they all said that they were still paying their credit card bills
and didn't have money to spare… so I didn't feel like I could ask them anymore. At that time, the
person who guided me through taking out the loan called me and said that his boss wasn't good
to him and that he didn't want to continue working there. He wanted to change jobs and take his
customers away too, and asked me if I would follow him. If I follow him, he would first give me
money to repay the loan with this company, then sign a new loan agreement with him. I was
going to be penalised soon and was at the end of the rope, so I agreed."

"After he knew my circumstances, he voluntarily did me a favour. He said he could make the term
of the agreement last until next month. I was very grateful so when he asked me to help him with
something, I agreed without thinking."

The driver had an idea of where her words were leading and he glanced at her with interest,
feeling that he had gained a new idea for becoming rich. "What did he ask you to do?"

"He said that when he joined his new company, he would need to perform well so he brought me
to the bank and transferred 100,000 to my account. Then, he had me help him print out an
account statement, return the additional 98,000 to him and sign a 'yin-yang contract'—basically,
on the surface, I took out a 100,000 loan but in actual fact, I borrowed 2,000. I didn't take the
100,000. It just went one circle and he paid it back himself. It was all for his work performance."

"The loan repayment term was one month. You couldn't have run out of money again, right?"
"At first, I wanted to repay the money," Wang Jiake said. "But that loan manager called me again
and said that the competition at his new company was too great. He wanted me to help him push
up his work performance again and asked me if I wanted to extend the loan term by another
month. I just needed to pay 50 yuan as the service charge… I was short of cash in the first place
and hadn't finished paying my other installments, so I agreed to extend it. Hence, he took me
through another round of paperwork.

"...Later on, that terrible proxy shopper kept chasing me for the remaining payment and said that
if I didn't pay up, she would blacklist me and post my identification details online. That was why I
asked the loan manager to lend me another sum of money, just 3,000 was enough. But he said
that I already have over 40,000 of debt under my name and that they couldn't give me any more
loans.

"I was stunned. How was that possible? I've never seen that much money in my life. They clearly
said that I would just be pretending to take out the loan…" Wang Jiake said. "But when I couldn't
repay the money, those people started to send people to follow me and corner me at my school.
They called me every day and stuck notes on my door… I couldn't bear it and moved back to my
parents' home. But those people followed me like a shadow. They said that making a police
report would be useless. They even wanted to sue me… I had printed the account statement
myself so it was effective from a legal standpoint… Isn't that just something printed on any old A4
paper? It's so long but no one has ever told me that it is useful… the bank also did not remind me
that it is something important, I thought…

"Later on, the first loan company contacted me. They said that a former employee of their
company was doing bad things outside and they were warning their customers not to fall for his
tricks. I nearly cried. I said, why didn't you say so earlier? They quickly sent a lawyer to meet with
me. After listening to me, the lawyer said that there was nothing he could do either. The other
party has evidence in their hands and there was no way I could explain myself. I had to find some
way to repay the money first. He spoke with his company and they helped me pay the loan for
the time being but the amount was too large, I needed to pay interest…"

The driver chuckled. "You can't still not know that both parties are from the same group, right?"

Wang Jiake lowered her eyes and stared at the road ahead. "So what if they are? I have no way
out now anyway."

The girls in the same proxy shopping group as her knew about her problem and said that they
could teach her a way to earn money. They took her along for a few meals and told her that it
was not considered being a "hostess." They were just simply having a meal. Weren't there also
women at the table?

Didn't those big bosses who did business have to attend social events too? It was just that their
socialising was for the sake of business transactions, whereas their purpose was a little more
simple. They specialised in socialising and depended on livening up the atmosphere at the dinner
party and pouring drinks for other people to earn some extra income. It was a little like being a
waitress at the table. The pay for each party varied, ranging from a few hundred to more than a
thousand.
It could just barely cover the interest on her loan… but it was still not enough.

That was why, when the girls from the proxy shopping group told her that there was a dinner
party that paid a very high price and asked her if she wanted to go, she agreed without
hesitation.

"I saw her there," Wang Jiake said softly.

"Who?"

"Teacher Yang," Wang Jiake said in a soft voice. "I've read her articles since I was in school. I
believed everything she said… I even joined her group and tried to find a way to be WeChat
friends with her but she had always ignored me. She only hung out with those rich people."

"She had never told me that things would be like this."

Chapter 68
"President Yang, the topics selected for this week have been emailed to you… President Yang?

"Hmm?" Yang Yifan finally shifted her gaze away from the mirror and absent-mindedly made a
noise in response to what her assistant was saying. "Ah, sure, I'll reply when I've read them."

Yang Yifan treated her subordinates pretty well and her assistant had a good relationship with
her. Smiling widely, her assistant made an impudent joke. "What are you looking at, President
Yang? Counting how many sparkles there are due to your dazzling looks?"

"Sweet-talker." Yang Yifan smiled and sat back down on her office chair. She opened her email.
"Just now, I recalled the article I wrote that got popular."

The assistant blinked.

"I think it was called… Buried at Thirty-Five."

The main subject was to yell at the young people in their teens: At such a young age, you are
already seeking stability, heading towards a nine-to-five, marriage and kids, and living that kind of
dull and depressed life where everything follows a prescribed order. Are you preparing to rest in
peace at the age of thirty-five?

In any case, it was a bowl of motivating chicken soup with a stimulating shot of chicken blood
and, for some unknown reason, there had been an entire pot of it.

In those couple of years, the real economy was coincidentally in a downturn and there were hints
that employment prospects would not be good. The whole world was full of teenagers with their
ears perked up, waiting in anticipation for a short and succinct Directions on How to be a Grown-
Up. They swallowed the chicken blood soup in large gulps and wanted to grow and thrive from it.
She had hit the spot with the majority.
Yang Yifan suddenly let out a laugh. "I'm almost past the age of thirty-five. So it turns out that
thirty-five is just something like this. You aren't very old and you won't turn into a demon or a
monster."

"But of course. A successful thirty-five year old is called 'young and accomplished.' They are
experienced in the ways of the world and their worldviews have stabilised. They have such
charm. I remember that article, that was when I started liking you." The truly youthful assistant
finished her flattery and her tone changed. "But let's forget about those balding and big-bellied
uncles and aunties. The moment they open their mouths, it's always about 'the necessities and
practicalities of daily life.' From day to night, all they do is hover over the stove or around their
kids. That type is called 'greasy middle-aged.'"

When she was done speaking, she realised that Yang Yifan had not said anything and was instead
staring blankly at the computer screen, thinking of something. Hence, she tactfully closed the
office door for Yang Yifan and left.

Alone, Yang Yifan faced the file in her computer and spaced out for five minutes. Not a single
word went into her mind, so she stood up, opened the window, and lit a cigarette. In the full
length window, her indistinct reflection could be seen. She looked as though she had been
polished, every inch gleaming from tip to toe.

A person's outer husk was truly something miraculous. They all had the same skin and flesh, the
same bones, but one only had to put on some adornments and everything could be turned on its
head.

That "Thirty-Five" article was a piece that had not gone through any marketing nor any special
planning. It was purely something written casually, in passing, and was filled with the fear the
younger her had for "middle age."

When she was in her teens, she felt that people in their thirties could already prepare to retire.
When she was twenty years old, she felt that there was no doubt that thirty-five was "middle-
age." And to Yang Yifan, she had once felt that anyone married with kids was "middle-aged"—
specifically, her parents were the very image of "middle-aged people. "

Her father's name was Yang Ping, the "ping" from "ping an"—meaning "safe and sound." When
he was young, he had some issues with his endocrine system due to malnutrition. There was no
major harm to his life, it was just that later on, he couldn't really grow much. When Yang Yifan
entered junior high, her stature was already greater than her father's.

Mr. Yang was short and small and his bones weak. Naturally, his martial arts skills were lacking.
Since young, he was the center of other people's gossip and whisperings—The Beggars' Sect's
Sect Leader's son was a "half-crippled midget." Hence, he could only take an alternative route.
Taking the chihuahua among dogs as a role model, he went out every day with a fierce and
vicious look on his face. As time went by, his face indeed grew to become round with protruding
eyes and his voice was abnormally loud, barking the moment his mouth opened.
After his arm was rendered useless by Wei Xiao, he spent every day crouched in the stinky
elevator and could no longer go around freely. But as before, he considered himself the
descendant of Beggars' Sect.

Yang Yifan remembered that he always had the stink of sweat on him and that he had very bad
breath. His back was hunched from early on and his face looked aged and tense, scarily so.
Meanwhile, her mother was a silent and uncommunicative weak woman. Her hair had turned
grey early and her teeth on one side of her mouth were all spoiled. When she ate, she could only
use the other side. As time went by, her face sagged on one side. Her facial features could not
stay peacefully where they had originally been and drooped lifelessly on her face instead.

When a person reached middle-age, was that what they would become? This was something that
had once made the teenage Yang Yifan very scared.

When she was in Year 3 of junior high, her class teacher had once asked her parents to come to
the school. It was because her teacher found out that she was doing business with her
schoolmates outside of school hours. At that time, the little shops on the school grounds were
very cramped and the things they sold were expensive. Yang Yifan used her weekends to go to
the wholesale market for small merchandise to "get stock," brought them back, and sold them to
her schoolmates at a slightly lower price. She also helped her schoolmates who didn't have time
to eat in the morning buy breakfast, collecting a few cents as a fee for every breakfast. Whenever
her schoolmates grumbled about something being inconvenient, she listened and then thought
of ways to solve the problem and earn money from it.

The teacher's intention was to get her parents to advise her. It was nearly time for the senior high
school entrance examinations so it was best if she focused on her studies. Other "hobbies" could
be left to be explored later. But before the teacher finished speaking, Yang Ping had—right at
school, in front of her teacher and schoolmates—slapped her across the face.

"Go to school? What the fuck are you going to school for!" The man threw her school bag onto
the ground and the contents scattered everywhere. Other than the books she herself used with
meticulous care, there were also stationeries that she had bought from the wholesale market.

They were indeed small, meaningless items. But for the sake of economising her capital, she had
to walk over ten miles there and back and her feet were nearly wearing holes into her shoes that
did not fit. Every step was like walking on a scorching hot branding iron.

The man who dressed like a beggar all year round and was proud of it was not at all pacified. He
stomped and stepped on the things. "Selling things… You're a foul Travellers' Sect's bastard! How
dare you sell things! You've embarrassed me even at your school! You don't need to sit for the
senior high exams, your compulsory education is done anyway!"

Could a girl around fourteen or fifteen years of age bear that shame?

From that day on, Yang Yifan refused to go to school no matter what she was told. Later on, she
only bore it and went to sit for the senior high school entrance examinations. Naturally, her
results were appalling and she entered an ordinary senior high school that was nicknamed
"rubbish dump."
At that time, institutes of higher education hadn't yet begun to recruit students on a large scale.
Unless it was a key high school, the students could basically say goodbye in advance to
universities. She mixed with a group of teenagers who were already prepared to join the working
masses and learned how to smoke, drink and fight in group brawls. Back then, her father had
labeled her "foul" when she did a legitimate little business. Hence, she changed professions to
collecting "protection fees" and completely became a little gangster.

After three confused and muddled years, Yang Yifan was prepared to be poured into the furnace
of society to be melted down into scum and pollute the environment.

But when she was in Year 3 of senior high, the dirty deeds Yang Ping had done when he was
young came to light. Old Sect Leader Yang was so furious that at the Martial Arts General
Assembly that year, he announced that he would sever the father-and-son relationship between
them.

Yang Ping left the family and vanished without a trace. When her mother went out to look for
him, she met with a car accident due to her distracted mental state and passed away. Yang Yifan
was taken away by her grandfather. Old Yang could not get used to her behaviour and ruthlessly
beat her a few times. Every day, the grandfather and granddaughter fought furiously. But
contained within her grandfather's Dog Beating Staff was a sincere and earnest heart whose
strength exceeded a thousand pounds. Yang Yifan finally yielded under the power of this jade-
green staff. Half a year later, she focused her mind and sat for the university entrance
examinations.

After she flunked the exams, Yang Yifan was again forced by the old man to attend the class for
repeat students. She worked hard for a year and entered an average-ranking school. Just like
that, her journey full of perils, she finally slipped around the furnace and barely managed to
return to the normal path and grew up to become an adult.

She might have grown up but her terror remained. She liked cats and dogs but it was only
towards chihuahuas that she had a heavy, lingering fear. Every time she saw one of them on the
street, she would have to make a detour.

The awkwardness from having to pay her school fees with small notes and coins, her desperate
efforts to cover up the holes in her uniform with her school bag, her schoolmates' pointed
fingers… they occupied the skin on her back like scars, striking at her so that she was constantly
crying out a sharp and ear-piercing sound…

How You Live Your Life Defines You.

Don't Apply Face Cream for Twenty-Year Olds on a Forty-Year Old Face.

Those People Aged XX Who Still Wear XXX.

If You Don't Run Madly, Even the Last Bus Will Not Wait For You.

Let Me Tell You a Ghost Story: The Moment You See Your Parent's Face in the Mirror.
How To Become Someone Cheap.

Your Dull and Mediocre Appearance is Truly a Disgrace.

Right then, her phone rang. Yang Yifan picked up without thinking. "Hello?"

"I am Miao Feng. I went to your house a few days ago. My police I.D. number is-"

"Oh, I remember you." Yang Yifan exhaled a puff of smoke, interrupting him. "Captain Meow,
what's the matter now?"

Captain Miao felt that her pronunciation was a little strange but he didn't know if he was being
overly sensitive or if the phone's sound was off. He paused, then put this matter aside for the
time being, and said to Yang Yifan. "There are some things online. It was not the police who
leaked them. I'm giving you a heads-up."

Yang Yifan raised an eyebrow. "What things? My nudes?"

Captain Miao, "..."

Yang Yifan said, "If the photos are from a long time ago, please help me delete them discreetly. If
they are recent photos, then just let them be. I've been taking care of my figure recently."

Captain Miao's blood pressure rose just from hearing her speak. He called on all the self-restraint
he possessed in his body to hold back his anger and said in a strictly professional manner, "We
are communicating with the relevant departments to take care of this matter diligently. However,
Ms. Yang, previously you said that you left that gathering early and that you are not aware of a
lot of things. We now have reason to suspect that you did not speak the truth. We will be visiting
you again later and would like to ask that you cooperate with us."

After saying that, Captain Miao hung up on his end and Yang Yifan realised that in just that short
time, her WeChat had a bunch of unread messages. She stared blankly, then opened one of
them. A friend had sent: Fuck, is this you? You're in trouble!

Under that was a photo and a video. The photo was the one Captain Miao had shown her, the
one that showed her taking desserts that day at the banquet.

The video should have been taken secretly. The hands of the person taking the video were
trembling very hard and plant leaves occasionally entered the frame. That person should be
hiding behind a potted plant. The main subject in the video was none other than Yang Yifan. She
was wearing the outfit she had worn to that banquet and was sitting on the corner of a sofa,
chatting with someone.

She seemed to have drank a lot. One of her hands was holding a glass of champagne while her
other hand was on a young man's shoulder. She was laughing with the others.
The person who recorded the video seemed to be afraid that the viewers wouldn't be able to
hear clearly and had even added captions for her words.

"...need to give them some pressure, there must be pressure."

"There are so many beautiful things, so many wonderful things. What are you waiting for? If you
wait until you're seventy or eighty, will you still be able to enjoy them then?"

The young man in her hands smiled impishly and interjected, "Sell at a good price when young."

In the video, Yang Yifan burst out laughing and playfully pushed the young man's head to the
side.

A phone call came from her friend. "This video has been deleted. I downloaded and saved a
copy… Lao-Yang, at that time, what nonsense did you say, and to whom?"

For a moment, Yang Yifan's brain was a little disconnected from reality. "I didn't… we were just
socialising and casually joking around, I don't really remember… But at that time, I should be
talking about things related to managing a company, stuff like employee encouragement…"

"President Yang!" Right at that moment, her assistant who had just gone out barged right in
without even knocking on the door.

Her friend yelled through the phone, "That's completely unrelated… Right now, they're all tearing
you down, saying that you went there just to sell girls!"
Chapter 69
When Gan Qing left for work in the morning, she already sensed that something wasn't quite
right in the air.

The hour at which she went to work was coincidentally the time when all the retired and idle
residents came together to hold their "circle the tree" activity. This so-called "circle-the-tree
exercise" was basically these people forming a circle around the thickest old cypress tree in the
garden and posing like the legendary dapeng bird spreading its wings, each of them with their
own unique take on the pose, and going around the tree with their feet doing the moonwalk and
their eyes on the tree like a tiger glaring at its prey.

Due to the fact that Old Sect Leader Yang also participated in this mysterious ceremony, Gan Qing
had always felt that there must be some profound meaning hidden in it. Every time she passed
by, she would sneak a few looks but until now, she had yet to understand it.

However, this morning, Old Master Yang seemed to have been delayed by something and didn't
appear at the "ceremony." The circle of humans was short of one and was more sparse than it
usually was. Those who were going around the tree also evidently had their minds elsewhere, the
"dapeng spreading its wings" occasionally turned into "rooster pecking rice grains." Every now
and then, someone would hurry a few steps and stretch their neck out to whisper a few words to
the person in front or behind them, then go back to their place as though nothing had happened.
Gan Qing's hearing ability was too good. When she passed by, she heard a few snippets of their
conversations.

"...Like I said, what kind of job can make that much money?"

"She doesn't even have a partner!"

"Right? It's so suspicious. How old is she now and she still doesn't have a partner, there must be
something wrong…"

Gan Qing felt like she had taken an arrow to the knee. She left hurriedly, like there was wind
under her feet.

When it was almost time to get off work, she was preparing to put away her work uniform and go
over to Boss Meng's to get a free meal when she suddenly received a voice message from Zhang
Meizhen.

"Don't come back so early tonight," Zhang Meizhen said.

Gan Qing's finger swept across the screen. She realised that from the day she moved into No. 110
until now, this was the first time something other than "Take in my delivery for me" appeared in
her chat log with Zhang Meizhen. So, she asked, "What happened?"

Zhang Meizhen replied, "Things are messy at the courtyard. Don't interfere. Find someone and go
on a date outside for now."

Gan Qing, "..."

Some veteran beauties would always feel that "finding someone to date" was as easy as "finding
a place to eat"—was this something she could find just like that?

It would be quicker if she went out and kidnapped one!

Right then, the windchime at the entrance jangled. Gan Qing had already taken off her contacts
and she quickly said, "My apologies, our shop has closed for the day."

"I know," the person who had come said impatiently. "I can see that large wooden sign, I'm not
blind."

"...Little Master Yu?"

Yu Lanchuan's physical appearance at that moment was like those domineering bosses in
television dramas. His shirt was severely neat and there was still a murderous intent between his
brows. His coat was draped over the crook of his arm and he kept the door to Star Dreams open
with one foot. He carelessly draped his coat over his shoulders. "It's windy here. Hurry up, I'm
going to freeze to death."
His tone while hurrying her was too matter-of-fact. Gan Qing involuntarily moved faster and
followed him out of Star Dreams with her head completely lost.

Meng Tianyi happened to poke his head out and look over. "Hey, Little Master Yu is here. Little
Master Yu is a reliable person. With you here, I don't have to worry."

Yu Lanchuan nodded at him.

Gan Qing asked, "What happened?"

"Internal conflict in Beggars' Sect," Yu Lanchuan said briefly. "There are too many people with
nothing better to do at No. 110 right now. You shouldn't go back yet, in case things get even
messier once you show up."

Gan Qing, "..."

For some unknown reason, those obviously positive words would always be full of disdain when
they were in Yu Lanchuan's mouth.

"I got a car. It's at the intersection, I can't drive it in. Let's go, we'll look for a place to eat." Yu
Lanchuan used a purposefully "natural" tone. "I was busy the whole day, I'm still hungry."

Gan Qing said without thinking, "Sure, Boss Meng will take care of the food. What do you want to
eat?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He couldn't say "No" right in front of Boss Meng's face but he hadn't even drank a gulp of water
after work before rushing here. And had he done that for the sake of eating at a roadside stall in
a pitch-dark little alley?

For a second, he wanted to pry open Gan Qing's skull and see what kind of nonsense she had in
there.

Luckily, Boss Meng quickly dissuaded her. "It's too busy tonight, there are no more seats in the
shop. Don't join the excitement here, or do you want Little Master Yu to stand and eat in the back
kitchen with you?"

Yu Lanchuan's eyelids lowered. His manner was saying: I am fine with anything but you should act
accordingly.

Meng Tianyi said with a chuckle, "Little Master Yu is paying. If it wasn't because I have to take
care of my shop, I would want to go along! There's a good free meal waiting for you, why aren't
you hurrying? This isn't like you."

Yu Lanchuan had one foot on the steps at the entrance to Star Dreams. He scraped off the mud
under his shoes, looking rather like he was forced to be there. He raised an eyebrow and looked
at Gan Qing as though in puzzlement: Why is it that when I ask you out for a meal, you aren't like
yourself?

For the sake of being like herself and not purposely acting differently, Gan Qing could only sigh
and say, "Sure."

It was all because of that message from Zhang Meizhen causing trouble!

Meng Tianyi chuckled as he waved goodbye to the two of them. He turned around to go back
into the shop and collided into his little disciple who was poking his head out.

"Why are you sneaking around?" Meng Tianyi smacked the little disciple's head. "Didn't I tell you
to watch the stove?"

Those who came to be "disciples" at small shops like these were all kids from other parts of the
country who came to Yanning to look for a living. They made their way in the world while working
odd jobs, still in their teens, and had dropped out of school a long time ago. The journey they had
gone on was longer than anyone else's, the jobs they had worked also more than anyone else's.
The air of immaturity had yet to leave their faces, yet they were already starting to have a certain
worldly shrewdness.

"Boss, who's that?" the little disciple asked.

"A friend," Boss Meng said. "What has it got to do with you?"

The little disciple said, "He looks like a rich guy."

"Yeah." Seeing a chance, Boss Meng lectured him. "Look at you, you didn't study hard when you
were young so now that you've grown up, all you can do is cut things in the kitchen. When you
look at other people who have studied hard, don't you regret it? In my opinion, you should take
the chance while you're young to go to school…"

"Ai, Boss, why are you going on about this again? Of course, going to school is good. Everything is
brought to you without you needing to lift a finger. If I'm made of the right stuff, would I need
you to tell me this?" The little disciple waved him off, a trace of worries beyond his age appearing
on his face that still had its baby fat. "Why did you let Gan'er-jiejie leave with him? Nothing good
comes from being a gold-digger."

"Gold… what the hell, do you know how to speak properly? What gold-digger!"

The little disciple was rather worried. He felt that Meng Tianyi was like those money-minded old
mothers of impoverished female leads in idol dramas who, despite their age, did not know how
to conduct themselves and spent every day salivating in anticipation of their daughter baiting a
rich son-in-law for them. Hence, he advised him earnestly, "When being in a relationship, both
parties should have similar backgrounds. If the other person has money but you don't, will they
treat you seriously? They will just play with you. Even if it works out, the other person wants to
eat big lobsters but you only know how to cook mala crayfish, can the two of you get along?
When more time has passed, when the relationship is no longer new and fresh, the other person
will look down on you. My Gan'er-jiejie is so good, why should she go through that?"

"Hey! You're just a little brat, how dare you look down on mala cray-"

"Even little brats know that a person cannot always think of taking shortcuts." The little disciple
put on a serious face and lectured the "old yet had no self-respect" Boss Meng with a serious
tone. "The one who will suffer due to being at a disadvantage in a romantic relationship is not
you!"

Meng Tianyi teased him. "Then, is it you? What kind of thoughts do you have about your Gan'er-
jiejie? Even if you do, there's no use. You haven't reached the legal age for marriage yet."

The little disciple who had spoken so confidently just now turned red. He stammered for a while,
then ran off.

Boss Meng looked at the little kid's flustered retreating figure and laughed for a while. Then, he
could not laugh anymore. He turned his head back around and cast his eyes over at Star Dreams's
quiet and lonely locked door. Then, his gaze leaped past those low buildings to land on the open
and wide road as he tried to recall how the place had looked before the buildings that were
previously there were demolished.

He no longer remembered it.

"Your Gan'er-jiejie..." Boss Meng seemed to be speaking to himself. "...has skin made of copper
and bones of metal, and is ruthless and merciless; who could make her suffer? If she could be
willing to fall to the ground and get a taste of the mortal realm, that would be wonderful,
regardless of whether it is a sweet or a bitter taste. Even if she suffers one time, there's nothing
bad about that. At least, it's better than living aimlessly and thoughtlessly."

As he spoke, he sighed. His hands folded behind his back, he slowly returned to the back kitchen.

It wasn't convenient to drive around in Mudpool Backlane, the car had to be controlled down to
the centimeter. Gan Qing didn't know how to drive. She sat in the front passenger seat and kept
glancing at the side mirror in fear and trepidation, afraid that it would scrape against the wall.
When Yu Lanchuan drove out of the area, she finally heaved a sigh of relief and dared to speak to
the driver. "What do you mean by the 'internal conflict in Beggars' Sect' you said just now? It
can't be related to me, can it? If it is, I will-"

"Move out? What has an internal conflict got to do with outsiders? Even if there is, it's only an
excuse." Yu Lanchuan steadily cut her off. "These few years, other than those hoodlum gangs,
everyone kept to their paths and didn't have the energy to be particular about sects and
whatnots. Only Beggars' Sect can still be considered to have a large standing. In the past,
whenever we needed to find someone or follow someone, we always troubled Old Master Yang.
They have many people, their might is strong, and their informants are deeply hidden. If you have
people, you have power; if you have power, you have authority and you can change things. For so
many years, Old Master Yang had suppressed them and didn't follow some of these people's
views to expand and strengthen. There are probably some who have been dissatisfied for a while
already."

"You can't say that. If someone has an excuse, that means the person has got something on you,"
Gan Qing said. "It's better to avoid unnecessary trouble."

"Since this is something you said yourself, I hope you can keep it in mind." Yu Lanchuan sighed.
"You don't have a moustache, why do you carry so many razor blades with you? Don't you think
it's inconvenient to take the subway?"

"It's… fine?" Gan Qing said. "I don't take the subway anyway. It's a bit expensive."

Yu Lanchuan rolled his eyes, then asked her. "Is it better now?"

"Huh, what?"

"The injury on your shoulder."

"Oh, it wasn't anything serious anyway…"

"Next time, don't leave at night." Yu Lanchuan stared at the road ahead, his gaze unwavering as
he said, "I will drop by after work and pick you up."

Gan Qing turned her head to look at him in surprise.

"I'm not worried about you, don't think too much," Yu Lanchuan said, his face expressionless.
"You stay at No. 110. I just don't want to come home one day and hear that someone has again
stabbed you…"

"Erm…" Gan Qing thought for a while, then asked cautiously, "So, for the sake of… supervising
me, you purposely rented a car?"

"Who's doing that on purpose?" Yu Lanchuan scoffed. "The weather's been cold recently. I just
don't want to walk home after wo-"

Before he could finish speaking, his phone suddenly rang. When he was driving, Yu Lanchuan's
phone was connected to the car. He pressed "Accept" without thinking and heard a gentle female
voice come out of the speakers. "Good evening, Mr. Yu. This is XXX Restaurant. This morning, you
made a dinner reservation for two people. We have made the preparations. May I ask what time
the two guests will be arriving?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

This restaurant might not be aware that it was giving itself a poor review in advance.

Yu Lanchuan said emotionlessly, "Initially, I had an appointment with a business partner to

discuss some things this evening but the other person happened to be delayed by some other
matter. This is just-"
Gan Qing didn't wait for him to finish speaking before nodding hastily. "Okay, I understand."

"-a work dinner."

Gan Qing went along politely, "It truly is my lucky day."

Halfway there, Yu Lanchuan started to have a faint feeling of regret. He suspected that he must
have taken the wrong meds this morning and that was why he chose this type of restaurant.
When they reached the place, he endured Gan Qing's increasingly strange gaze and wanted
nothing more than to cancel his reservation immediately and drag her home to make instant
noodles. Considering that Gan Qing's right arm was injured and that it wouldn't be convenient for
her to use chopsticks, he had picked a place that used knives and forks.

This was a restaurant that specialised in western-style dishes. Inside, the sound of bagpipes was
playing faintly and tiny booths filled the place as far as the eye can see.

The servers they hired might all have bat blood running through their veins. The surroundings
were dark like a cinema hall and there was only a bit of light over each table. Under each light,
there was even a narrow-mouthed vase with a rose inside.

Due to the fact that the environment was too quiet and tranquil, the diners naturally were more
well-behaved, speaking in low voices. Looking in from the outside, every light illuminated a pair—
a man and a woman; listening carefully, whispered conversations were everywhere.

Gan Qing, "..."

A work dinner…

Could it possibly be that Director Yu depended on his sex appeal to move up in the business
world?

He was the alliance leader after all… this was quite an offence on public morals!

This considerate restaurant might be serving the food very slowly for the sake of dragging out
everyone's date. Between every two courses, they left enough time for an episode of a television
drama, lest there be one or two gluttons who were only concerned about eating and didn't spend
any effort on paying attention to their lover.

Every course came on a plate scattered with rose petals, every drop of sauce could cause
indigestion.

Gan Qing ate this meal feeling like she was sitting on pins and needles. When she finally endured
to the end and stood up, she realised that her legs had gone numb. She had walked in on two
legs but now, she limped her way out.

"I don't know if it's just me but I can't help feeling rather awkward," Gan Qing said.
Yu Lanchuan glanced at her gloomily. His eyes seemed to be saying that he wanted to silence her
forever and exterminate this piece of dark history.

Gan Qing hastily pretended to zip her mouth shut.

She propped her head on her hand and fell silent for a while. All of a sudden, she was finally
sensing a certain feeling… Someone had actually purposely rented a car to pick her up after work
and also made a reservation at a restaurant in advance.

He was following the standard route and yet, when he was found out, he still pretended that
nothing was happening.

...It was really a little too adorable.

While maintaining his posture of paying full attention to the road while driving, Yu Lanchuan
bristled. "Why are you smiling?"

"I'm not," Gan Qing refuted immediately. "It's the reflection. You're mistaken."

She cleared her throat, then dug out her phone to check the time and said with feigned
seriousness, "At this hour, those troublemakers should have left, right?"

Yu Lanchuan let out an indifferent yeah. After a while, he said, "He has been the sect leader for so
many years, this small matter shouldn't be a problem…"

Before he could finish speaking, from behind them came the sound of a vehicle honking. Right on
its heels was the blaring of an ambulance siren.

The drivers on both lanes naturally parted to make way. Yu Lanchuan's words were cut off.

The moment the ambulance passed by them, his heart suddenly fell with a thump.
Chapter 70
The road in front of No. 110 was a single lane. Despite the hour, it was unexpectedly so
congested that it could not be entered.

The car lights flashing unceasingly swept past the old scholar trees again and again. The dried
branches shivered, as though in fright. The jumbled sound of voices could already be heard from
the intersection.

Yu Lanchuan had just poked his head out when he was choked by a sudden devastating gust of
northwest wind. He threw down a "I'll go have a look," wrapped his coat tightly around himself
and got down from the car.

"Little Master Yu!" Before he could enter, someone called out to him. Yu Lanchuan turned his
head back and saw that the laundry shop at the intersection had its door opened a crack. The
shop owner, Boss Jiang, poked his head out and waved at Yu Lanchuan. Over here!"
Yu Lanchuan hesitated a while, then slipped into the laundry shop. The blast of warm air made
him quiver. "Uncle Jiang, what's going on?"

He thought that there was just some disagreement within Beggars' Sect and that a few people
had come to Sect Leader Yang's place to make a fuss. Looking at the state of things now, that
didn't seem to be the case!

Boss Jiang looked behind Yu Lanchuan, then pulled the door shut firmly. "Little Master Yu,
haven't you heard? It's that matter that's all abuzz lately… The police have been here quite a few
times to look for Old Yang's granddaughter."

Yu Lanchuan didn't have so much free time to pay attention to society gossip. He only skimmed
through the news notifications that popped up on his phone and knew that this was a "banquet"
that was more offensive to public morals than usual. The girl who exposed it had even gone
missing and Yu Yan's side had been busy looking for her during this period of time. "Ah, what
about it?"

"Late afternoon yesterday, the police took her away again." Boss Jiang jutted his chin in the
direction of No. 110 Courtyard. "She was only allowed to return early this morning… They're
saying she's in trouble now, that she seems to be getting money from it."

Yu Lanchuan didn't understand. "Get what money? From where?"

"Ai, how can you not get it? From introducing girls to those rich men!" Boss Jiang was quite old
and it was hard for him to speak of these matters. "Let me ask you, if we were in the old days,
isn't this that thing? They are saying that there's even a recording online. I asked my grandson to
look for it for me but he couldn't find it even after a day and said that it might have been deleted.
But it was still there yesterday night and from what's being said, it sounds like there was indeed
such a thing."

Yu Lanchuan frowned. "Didn't you say that she was allowed to return early this morning?"

"Perhaps the evidence is not sufficient. I don't know either, she might have to go back there in a
couple of days," Boss Jiang said. Yan Hao happened to come over then with a glass of water. It
made Boss Jiang recall the time he was brought to the police station in a Spiderman costume and
there was a bad feeling in his heart again. "We old people won't beg and plead with all of you to
be wildly successful. We just hope that you young people can live your lives honestly and
steadily. Study well at school, work hard at your jobs… as for passing on martial art skills and all
that, we have long since accepted how things are. If you like practicing it, then you can practise as
you wish. If you don't like it, then forget it. But all of you have to conduct yourselves properly!
What is this? Spending this kind of money, can you really feel happy in your heart?"

Yan Hao had once endured the pain of being in the center of gossip and slander. When all those
flecks of flying spittle were done trampling over him, when they were bored of him, they turned
around to look for their next target. It pained his heart to see others suffer as he had. On top of
that, Yang Yifan had even found a job for him. Hence, he asked cautiously, "They're all rumours,
they might not be true…"
"Then, why are the rumours not about other people? Why don't they talk about me? How can
there be so many baseless claims!" Boss Jiang tsk-ed and said, "I've always said that that girl in
Old Yang's family is too impudent! Now, she's in trouble, isn't she?"

Yan Hao didn't dare interject. Crestfallen, he stuck his hands into the ends of his sleeves. He went
out to observe the situation at No. 110 Courtyard.

Yu Lanchuan didn't want to bother listening to these baseless rights or wrongs and asked directly,
"But what does this have to do with Beggars' Sect? What about the ambulance that passed by
just now?"

"Sigh, wasn't there a young lady who exposed them and then went missing? A while ago, Old
Yang was quite concerned about this matter and asked his people to keep an eye out. He
probably doesn't know how his granddaughter is involved in this matter," Boss Jiang said. "That
missing girl has a family member that somehow knows a Nine Pouch Elder from Beggars' Sect—a
distant relative or something like that. When that sect elder heard about this matter, he brought
people over to demand an explanation from Old Yang… Ambulance? I don't know, hopefully it's
not the person who came to look for the girl getting worked up and fainting."

"Distant relative?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "How distant?"

Boss Jiang said, "That's not the key point, who cares-"

"That is the key point." Yu Lanchuan raised a hand and cut him off. "You and I might be distant
relatives, the kind that came from the same village 500 years ago. How can there be such a
coincidence? The four Nine Pouch Elders of Beggars' Sect are second in power only to Old Sect
Leader Yang. If someone in their family went missing, there should have been a huge uproar a
long time ago. But instead of searching all over the place for the missing person, they come to
look for the old sect leader and make a fuss? Furthermore, I live right upstairs but I didn't even
know about the police taking someone away yesterday. The neighbours might gossip about it but
would this be passed on so quickly to that whatever sect elder? Is this sect leader exceptionally
well-informed or does he have 24-hour CCTV in the old sect leader's house?"

Boss Jiang sighed. He felt that Yu Lanchuan was still young. The things everyone had a tacit and
silent understanding on, he just had to lay them all out plainly in the open.

Old Yang had withdrawn himself from worldly affairs. He was over ninety years old now and had
gone through years of stormy hardship. It had been long since he had the heart to worry and fret
over everything. But other people may not be willing to lay low with him. What kind of joke was
Travellers' Sect? Wang Jiusheng's gang could rely on sheer power to make their mark and cause
waves; so why the hell did the number one sect in the land have to stay inside the cracks of the
city?

It was the twenty-first century now. Doing good deeds anonymously, wasn't that just something
fools did?

But Sect Leader Yang just had to be so robust and in such good health. When he swung the Dog
Beating Staff, there was not the least bit of hesitation. It didn't seem like he would be departing
the mortal coil anytime soon. Below him, the Nine Pouch Elders waited in anticipation of their
boss's death so that they could take his position but the boss just refused to die. Perhaps they
could see that they might not outlast this old man and could no longer sit still, so they took this
chance to display their prowess.

The banquet Wang Jiake had exposed included wealthy people, celebrities, transactions of the
flesh and even prohibited drugs. Each and every one of those dazzling peacocks had fanned out
their brilliant tails and exposed their asses, something everyone loved to revel in. Wang Jiake's
disappearance also added a touch of drama and suspense to the whole matter. Everyone had
their own opinions, and the debate raged on. Under these circumstances, anyone who had
anything at all to do with that banquet were tarred with the same brush, much less Yang Yifan
whose words sounded quite outrageous at first glance.

To those internet users who could spin ten thousand hidden truths from a single line, this was
already conclusive evidence and the only thing lacking was the judgement from a court of law.

The sudden onset of the night wind shook the signboard of the laundry shop until it was creaking.
It was the wailing of ghosts, the howling of wolves.

A great wind had risen. The flying sand and the tumbling stones could borrow its force; all they
had to do was keep still and lay quietly in wait.

After hearing his words, Yu Lanchuan nodded at Boss Jiang and stood up to go.

"Wait a while, Little Master Yu. Don't go over. You're usually not back from work yet at this time
anyway."

It was just past nine p.m. now. In most circumstances, Yu Lanchuan would indeed not be back
from work yet but during this period of time when the Spring Festival holiday was just over, the
work for the next year had yet to start rolling. It wasn't very busy at the office.

Yu Lanchuan paused. "But today, I'm already back from work."

Boss Jiang seemed to fear that the walls had ears and kept his voice low as he spoke to Yu
Lanchuan. "Don't go over. Listen to me. Right now, the four Nine Pouch Elders of Beggars' Sect
are all here. They're all talking over each other, all of them obsessed with arguing. If you don't
appear, they can't get anything on you. But once you go over, you will have to greet them. What
are you going to say?"

Yu Lanchuan was not dense and obtuse like that foolish child Yan Hao, of course he understood
what Boss Jiang was saying. Everyone addressed him deferentially as "Little Master Yu" or "Little
Alliance Leader" out of respect for his granduncle, Yu Huaide. It was not because Yu Lanchuan
himself had anything worth their esteem.

How much esteem could they have for someone who worked extra hours like a dog, who relied
on his apartment to be elected to the position?
When there was nothing wrong, everyone was polite and courteous. They let him organise the
Martial Arts General Assembly, brought the younger generation along for arranged dating, and
found some minor issues for him to handle so that he could show off a little what it meant to be
the alliance leader. By the time he had gone on in this muddled and confused state for another
ten, twenty years, when he was a familiar face to people from all walks of life and could find
someone to speak to no matter where he went, this "alliance leader" would finally be considered
to have the real skills and experience to back up the title.

When something serious happened, which one of these old troublemakers would listen to an
upstart like him?

Beggars' Sect's matters were none of his business, he was busy with studies or work, he didn't
understand the inner workings, he wasn't present at the scene—all these were excusable.
However, if he did not understand how little weight he carried and interfered rashly, then he
would be announcing to the world just how valuable this "alliance leader" was.

"Uncle Jiang won't say empty nice words to you. Since ancient times, which among those acts of
chivalry wasn't something that took no effort to do?"

Yu Lanchuan's expression wavered for a bit. Slowly, he sat back down.

Right at that moment, the laundry shop's main door was slammed open. Yan Hao had slipped out
earlier and now, he was barging right in. "The ambulance took Sect Leader Yang away!"

"What?" Boss Jiang said in shock.

"It's Old Sect Leader Yang! Maybe he was angry, they said that he was speaking halfway when he
suddenly clutched his chest and fell over… Ai, Little Master Yu?" Yan Hao's words were rather
scrambled.

Yu Lanchuan stood up and left right away.

Gan Qing had been playing with her phone in the car when the door on the other side opened
with a swoosh. Yu Lanchuan said, "Help me find a place and park the car. I'm going over to have a
look."

"Wait, I-"

Don't know how to drive!

However, Yu Lanchuan did not wait for her to speak. He had rushed off and was already no longer
in sight.

Gan Qing sat in this "metal box" for a while, then used her phone to look up which of the two
pedals was the brake and which one the accelerator. In the end, she was still as confused as ever.
So she pulled up the hood on her down jacket and got down from the car, shivering as she
walked one circle around the car. She tried pushing the car from the back—this outrageous Yu
Lanchuan had even pulled the handbrake before he left. The car did not move.
A middle-aged man happened to walk out of a small lane. He stood in the wind, smoking and
watching her struggle in amusement. "Young lady, what did you buy to get your driving license as
a free gift? Stop pushing, where do you want to park the car? I'll get a few people to help you
push it over."

Gan Qing spread her hands helplessly. "I haven't had the chance to put in the order for my driving
license yet. That friend of mine didn't finish listening to what I said."

The middle-aged man stubbed out his cigarette and walked over. "If you trust me, I can help you
park the car."

Gan Qing quickly thanked him.

"Fought with your boyfriend? Did he abandon a girl together with the car at the roadside just
because of a quarrel?" The middle-aged man got the car moving with ease of practise. "Ai,
someone as bad-tempered as this can get a girlfriend, he must look like a celebrity."

Gan Qing said, "...No, we're just ordinary friends."

The middle-aged man laughed out loud, not believing her. Humming a tune, he found a public
parking spot and drove the car into it.

Gan Qing's eyes swept silently across his shoulder. This man was dressed respectably but on his
shoulder, his shirt had an out-of-place patch sewn on that even seemed quite fashionable at a
glance. Since ancient times, Beggars' Sect differentiated the members by "dirty clothing section"
and "clean clothing section." It was said that according to history, both sides had even battled a
few times. Later on, after a few rounds of chaos, they became one family. By now, they no longer
differentiated the members in this way because even though most of the vagrants and beggars
on the streets were still under Beggars' Sect, most of the Beggars' Sect members were no longer
beggars. They consisted of people from all trades and professions. It was only when there were
sect-related matters going on that they would come wearing clothes with patches to indicate
their identity.

Gan Qing looked up from under the hood of her down jacket and asked, "Dage, you look like
you're in a good mood. Did something good happen?"

"You can tell?" the middle-aged man said smilingly. "Actually, it's nothing. It's just that there's a
great change at the place where I 'work.' In the past, I was just in a half-dead state but in the
future, I might be like a salted fish getting a new lease of life. All right, I'll stop the car here. Keep
the key well… Do you know how to take out the key?"

Gan Qing waited obediently for him to pull out the key and teach her where to press to lock the
car. She said very sweetly, "Then, let me wish you a year of fortune and wealth as a belated New
Year greeting."

Her words were very pleasing to the ear. The middle-aged man waved at her and went into a
small eatery nearby.
A few people similarly well-dressed with patches on their clothes were waiting for him. "What
were you doing? Why were you so slow? How are things?"

"I met a clumsy girl on the way and helped her park her car." The middle-aged man gave out
cigarettes to his companions. Subconsciously, he cast his gaze far and realised that the young lady
wearing a grey down jacket was nowhere to be seen now.

She has probably gone home, he thought. He wasn't bothered, he just felt that it was a bit of a
shame. That girl looked like she was afraid of the cold, she had shrank back into her hood the
whole time and even her hands had not been exposed. He had not seen her face clearly but from
what he could see of her profile, he felt that she must be a pretty lady.

"I saw a stretcher there, it must be either a heart attack or a stroke. Ai, at his age, this is a sin,"
the middle-aged man said.

A Beggars' Sect member beside him said, "Old Sect Leader's health is failing at his old age. It's
time for him to take a rest… What about the Dog Beating Staff? If Old Sect Leader retires, it's not
appropriate for the Dog Beating Staff to be kept in the Yang family home. Don't let that unfilial
granddaughter of his take it out and sell it off."

"It's a little too early to speak of this. It's not the right time." The middle-aged man waved him
off. "If you ask me, we should at least wait for his emergency treatment to be over, shouldn't we?
Elder Tian is still hanging around there, unwilling to let things go. His manners are deplorable.
Just now, Elder Zhao secretly sent word. Since there is someone breaking through the enemy
lines for us, we will let our brothers disperse for now. As for us… we'll wait and see."

Those few people took their leave of one another and filed out of the little eatery.

The middle-aged man was the last one. He paid the bill, then came out and looked around him.
Seeing that there was no one around, he slowly slipped into a small alley and walked towards a
concealed little house.

He didn't notice that not far behind him, someone was quietly tailing him like a shadow.
Chapter 71
"Move aside! Everyone, move aside! Where's the family! One family member, go with the
ambulance! Does the patient have any drug allergies? Any slow-onset illness?"

"I… No, he doesn't." Yang Yifan crouched on the ground. Her ears were full of noise and clamour
that were pressing in on her until it felt like her brains were congealing into a lump. Just now, she
had relied completely on intuition to perform CPR and she didn't know if she did it correctly. Her
hands and legs were shaking hard now and she couldn't stand.

A pale hand stretched out towards her and grasped her by her elbow. The skin on that hand was
already hanging loose, yet there was polish on the fingernails. Those nails seem to want to pierce
through her thick winter clothing and into her flesh.

Zhang Meizhen picked her up from the ground. "Get up."

"Wait a minute." An old man dressed as a clean clothing section member of Beggars' Sect came
forward to block them. This man's voice was abnormally loud; when he opened his mouth, the
sound was like beating a gong. The tiny No. 110 Courtyard didn't seem able to contain his volume
and his voice echoed around them. "Miss, shouldn't you first hand over the Dog Beating Staff?"

Zhang Meizhen snorted. "Tian Zhanpeng, don't you think you're being embarrassing?"

"I'm not the one who's embarrassing. We all know who that person is!"

The paramedic in the ambulance turned around and shouted, "What is it that's so important that
you people must talk about it at this moment?"

"Let her go over first!"

"The Dog Beating Staff…"

"Unfilial…"

"The Dog Beating Staff!"

"Sacred item… Dog Beating Staff…"

The clamour was so noisy that Yang Yifan's head ached like it was splitting apart. Right at that
moment, Zhang Meizhen hung a small plastic bag around Yang Yifan's neck, like she was hanging
a key on a primary school student. Before she could see clearly what was in the bag, Zhang
Meizhen put one hand on her back and pushed her forward. "Hurry up and go."

Tian Zhanpeng was one of the four Nine Pouch Elders of Beggars' Sect. He was wearing a sleek
and shiny leather jacket and there was a patch made from sackcloth over his chest, looking like a
badge of honour. When looked at closely, it could be seen that he actually could not bear to sew
it on directly and had attached it with a safety pin!

In the darkness, this old man was like a lump of donkey dung with leaves stuck on it. When he
saw Yang Yifan ignoring him, he stretched out a hand to stop her.

Right then, there was a whistling sound as a vicious wind suddenly slashed over. Tian Zhanpeng
withdrew his hand back reflexively. The thing brushed against his hand and fell to the ground,
striking against the bricks with a clear and crisp ringing sound. A chain whip had appeared in
Zhang Meizhen's hand at some point!

The chain whip was very long. Like a viper, it broke apart the large group of Beggars' Sect
members who were gathered together.

No one had thought that this old lady would make a move without saying a word. Those who
were nearly licked by the whip were each and every one of them startled and confused. The
noisy crowd quieted down in an instant.
Yang Yifan finally broke free. Once she leaped into the ambulance, it drove off with a low rumble.

The whistling wind, the shouted curses, the debates, the sound of the medical equipment… as
well as the "Dog Beating Staff" that was brought up again and again, they all coiled around her
ear, looping repeatedly without rest.

Yang Yifan propped her elbows on her knees, her hands covering her ears. Her hair on either side
of her head had fallen forward. She pushed it back harshly.

A paramedic said to her, "When someone around forty or fifty years old has symptoms like
numbness in their chest or their back, pain in their elbows or stomach discomfort, they would
already need to be very careful, much less someone who's so old! When the old man said he's
not feeling well, did the family not pay attention?"

Yang Yifan looked up at a loss.

She hadn't had the time to listen.

She had so many matters to worry about—a public relations crisis, handling the police, an entire
company's worth of staff to support, defending against competitors taking the chance to step on
her while she was down, the brand partners waiting for her explanation… Grandpa didn't know
anything and the one line he had said the most to her had always been, "That's enough from
you," as though anything she did was something bad that he had to rein in at the last second.

What was considered "enough"?

Every year, the various big name brands would release all sorts of fanciful and fabulous new
products, white foam on the crests of the waves of fashion that build up and crash in looping
cycles. The beautiful items that they created were like transient flowers, born amidst joyous
clamour, then falling out of fashion at the speed of a galloping horse.

The voices the people let out were like the wind blowing across the grain fields; before one wave
had settled, the next one had risen. Every road, when walked to the end, was a narrow one.
Countless people squeezed in, countless people fell off. Tearful recollections and accusatory
laments frequently sounded from all directions, making someone who was right in the middle
feel a sense of danger, of being ambushed from all sides, as though there were dead ends
everywhere.

Meanwhile, the era was like a volcano beginning to rumble, ready at any time to burn off the
road ahead and leave only a hanging precipice. No one had a guide on how to pass through
safely. They could only warn the people around them repeatedly, "You have to become a better
version of yourself; only then can you take on any change without having to change yourself."
This was equivalent to bullshit. The definition of "good" was so wide, who the hell knew what "a
better version of yourself" meant.

Thus, they could only create mirage after mirage—a bright and radiant outer appearance was
"good"; exquisite and luxurious items were, of course, also "good"; not reading more than a
hundred books a year was not worthy of being called "good"; the poetry in your heart and the
distant dream[1] was the high-class "good"... And then, all these "good" things, big and small,
were tossed in all directions, leading to everyone chasing madly after them while raising a hue
and cry everywhere.

Everyone was running, no one dared to stop. Who dared to be "enough"?

Yang Yifan suddenly realised that it was abnormally quiet. She thought for a while, her mind
sluggish, then realised that her phone was not with her. It might have been dropped just now
when she clashed with those people or perhaps, in this day of pandemonium, she had put it
down somewhere carelessly.

Unused to it, she checked her whole body but could not find her phone. However, she noticed
the little plastic bag Zhang Meizhen had hung around her neck.

She opened it for a look. Inside was a wad of cash.

That was right. She had left in a hurry and didn't even take her purse with her.

The noise that could give a person tinnitus was far away now. She was holding this stack of paper
bills and depended on an old man whose fate was still uncertain for mutual survival.

The darkness of the night in Yanning finally became vast and empty.

Despite the fact that the leading character had left the scene, things did not quiet down at No.
110 Courtyard.

Tian Zhanpeng pointed at Zhang Meizhen and said in great fury, "This matter concerns our
Beggars' Sect. Why is a demoness like you from Travellers' Sect interfering?"

Zhang Meizhen raised her chain whip. "I do what I like."

"Elder Tian, don't waste words with her anymore. The Dog Beating Staff!"

Tian Zhanpeng hmph-ed and turned to say to his own followers, "Ever since Old Alliance Leader
Yu passed away, our old Sect Leader was deceived by these people and this courtyard fell into
darkness. All sorts of demons and monsters come here. Our sect's sacred item must not stay in
this place. Since Old Sect Leader does not have the ability even if his heart is willing, then we
should take care of the Dog Beating Staff in his place!"

When he finished speaking, numerous bootlickers fawned on him.

Tian Zhanpeng led a rousing call. "Up to the sixth floor! We will go welcome the Dog Beating
Staff!"

Before his followers could shout their agreement, Zhang Meizhen pulled her chain whip taut with
both hands. "You dare?"
Tian Zhanpeng scoffed. "In consideration of your advanced age, I initially did not want to
embarrass you but you refuse! When you were young, you had hundreds of tricks up your sleeve.
Your advances were rejected so you went around seducing people, sleeping with all those dirty
and smelly people. In the end, you became a widow but you still wrap yourself around our old
Sect Leader and refuse to let him go."

Zhang Meizhen laughed, not at all bothered. "'Dirty and smelly'? Oh my, how could you be so
unfilial and say that about your father? Quick, say some positive things and then burn some
paper money during Qingming and your mum here won't tell on you."

"You're asking for death!"

He took out a metal club from somewhere and swung it at Zhang Meizhen. In an instant,
numerous clinks and clanks sounded. The wooden weiqi board under the tree was swept away by
the chain whip and split apart. Both these people were in their seventies; yet when they fought,
it was unexpectedly ferocious. The bystanders that had nothing to do with the matter watched
with wide eyes and opened mouths, and for a moment, didn't know whether or not they should
call the police.

The other three sect elders of Beggars' Sect stood by and watched with their hands unmoving.
They had no intentions at all of helping, afraid that others would say that they were bullying her
with their strength in numbers. The old and crafty Elder Zhao said to Elder Tian, "Old Brother, we
will leave this matter to you and go to welcome the Dog Beating Staff."

The chain whip wrapped around the metal club in Tian Zhanpeng's hand, nearly taking it out of
his hands. When he heard this, he was immediately enraged until he was like a gourd. He roared,
his veins bulging, and gripped the metal club with desperate strength. He aimed a kick at Zhang
Meizhen's stomach.

Zhang Meizhen straightened the chain whip and blocked his kick but also staggered a couple of
steps back herself. "You people dare to enter a private residence?"

Elder Zhao said peacefully, "Of course not. We will leave right after we welcome the Dog Beating
Staff. We definitely do not dare to touch anything inside the Sect Leader's house. The few of you,
go look for plastic bags to cover our shoes so that we don't dirty the Sect Leader's floor."

"Stop there!" Zhang Meizhen shouted.

"You stop there!" Tian Zhanpeng retorted.

When Zhang Meizhen turned around, he seized the chance and swung the club at her back.

Right at that moment, something long pierced in horizontally, pushing the metal club away with a
clang. Tian Zhanpeng felt a numbness between this thumb and forefinger, and even had dust
thrown on his face. He spat a couple of times and stared—it turned out to be a broom with a long
handle.
Yu Lanchuan stabbed the broom he had taken from the reception office into the ground and
swept a couple of times in a very civilised manner. He undid the button at his collar. "Intentional
injury. Have you thought it through? At your age, imprisonment at any term is equivalent to life
imprisonment."

Tian Zhanpeng said, "Who are-"

Elder Zhao was stunned. "You are… Little Master Yu?"

"Yeah." Little Master Yu nodded. "I met you once during the assembly in autumn and we also
exchanged a few words then. Old Master Zhao, I trust you are in good health?"

"Thank you for your well wishes." Elder Zhao smiled. He did not think highly of this young man. "I
will surely look for Little Master Yu another day to have tea. Today, our Beggars' Sect has some
internal matters to take care of so I will not disturb you. We are also very sorry to the neighbours
here for creating such a huge disturbance. We will leave immediately after going up to welcome
the Dog Beating Staff."

Yu Lanchuan raised an eyebrow and gave him a strange look. "Sect Leader Yang wants to give the
Dog Beating Staff to you people and is even troubling everyone here to go upstairs and take it
yourselves?"

"The Dog Beating Staff belongs to our Beggars' Sect in the first place. Sect Leader Yang is
currently in hospital and is not able to take charge of matters for the time being. Naturally, the
few of us will look after the Dog Beating Staff on his behalf," Elder Zhao said.

"Oh, it belongs to Beggars' Sect." Yu Lanchuan nodded and spoke like he was making idle
conversation. "When was Beggars' Sect officially registered and became a legal entity?"

Elder Zhao's eye twitched.

"Or… did you people even sign an agreement regarding the ownership of the Dog Beating Staff?"
Yu Lanchuan asked.

"Very funny, Little Master Yu"

"Not at all. I don't like to joke while taking in the northwest wind late at night." Yu Lanchuan
passed through the crowd of Beggars' Sect people and walked towards the building entrance
without any regard for anyone. He stood there. "Unless you take out a document detailing the
lawful shared possession of the Dog Beating Staff, barging into a private residence and taking an
item from it is breaking and entering. The police are on their way."

"Little Master Yu," Elder Zhao said with a false smile. "This is a family matter within the martial
arts community. It isn't good to involve public officials, is it?"

"Such a major scene with so many people is a 'family matter'?" Yu Lanchuan asked.
"Little Master Yu, don't try to frighten us with that trick." Elder Zhao lowered his voice. "For
generations, the Dog Beating Staff has been in the hands of the sect leader. When the sect leader
retires, the staff should be returned. If you don't believe me, you can ask the Old Sect Leader.
Would he dare say that it is his private property? So what if the police come? Will they arrest us
all just because of one walking stick? If we insist on having the Dog Beating Staff today, Little
Master Yu, none of you can stop us. We are all in Yanning, we are all people of the same path and
we bump into each other frequently. I know you are a civilised man, don't make this unpleasant
for everyone."

Yu Lanchuan smiled. His tone softened a little as he discussed with the other person. "Sect Leader
Yang is still in hospital. The Dog Beating Staff doesn't have legs. Is it necessary for everyone to do
this? Old Master Zhao, can't you wait a couple of days? Wait for him to wake up and say who he
wants to give it to. I'll take leave from work to escort this sacred item of yours over, all right?"

Elder Zhao sighed. "Little Master Yu, it's not that I, Old Zhao, don't want to give you face. It really
is because in this building of yours, there are the evil remnants of Wan Mu Chun, former
members of Travellers' Sect… Even if I agree, the disciples under me won't agree. You need to be
more understanding."

"I remember that the Alliance Leader's Command did not convict Wei Xiao of the crime. Why is it
that when it comes to you, the moment you open your mouth, Wan Mu Chun becomes 'evil
remnants'?" Yu Lanchuan's face turned cold. "I see that you are insisting on entering this
residence tonight."

Elder Zhao did not say a word. Behind him, a few Beggars' Sect disciples charged forward
together, squeezing past Yu Lanchuan to enter the building.

Yu Lanchuan suddenly brought the broom down forcefully. The long plastic handle smashed right
at the kneecaps of the person in front. The person stumbled half a step, and then was knocked
back by the broom swinging across and dragged down one of his companions as he fell. Of the
remaining two people, one was struck on the leg while the other was hit by the broom handle
until he was bleeding from the nose and falling from the stairs. The long and light handle spun in
Yu Lanchuan's hand, then stopped in a horizontal position, blocking the doorway.

From his elevated position, he looked down on the Beggars' Sect mob. He felt that his vow not to
fight against opponents of more than two was going to bite the dust right there and then.

Since ancient times, there was the saying, "Heroes disrupt order with their martial skills[2]." In
the past, Yu Lanchuan had felt that this saying had nothing to do with him but it turned out that
there were some matters where actions spoke louder than words.

This was probably the first time the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang that had been passed down to
the current generation was seriously put to full use for a purpose other than to prevent sudden
death from overwork—in other words, to make these fools listen to him speak.

This barbaric behaviour is truly a disgrace to civilisation, he thought.

Yu Lanchuan nodded politely at Elder Zhao across the mob. "Please, do try."
T/N:
[1] 诗和远方 translates literally to "poetry and distant" and means "an ideal life." It is from the
line "这个世界不只有眼前的苟且，还有诗与远方"—"This world does not only consists of the
tedious necessities before your eyes, there is also poetry and the far distance." This line was
written by Gao Xiaosong.
苟 且 , which I translated as "tedious necessities," refers to doing something perfunctorily, just
because it has to be done. In this context, it refers to the day-to-day matter that's annoying and
stressful but has to be done to survive, practical things that put food on the table. In contrast, 诗
与远方—"poetry and distant"—is imaginary, something that exists only in our hearts, whose only
worth is in making life beautiful.
This phrase was apparently popular among a certain generation (those born in the '70s and '80s)
as a motivational phrase.
[2] "Heroes break order with their martial skills" is from the saying " 儒以文乱法，侠以武乱纪"
which means "Scholars break laws with their words, heroes disrupt order with their martial
skills." Basically referring to how scholars or heroes (heroes is not exactly the right term but is the
closest I can get) use what they're good at if they want to bring change to the rules.
Chapter 72
Tomorrow was not a public holiday. On this ordinary work night, those who had come along to
start a ruckus at No. 110 were all core followers of the sect elders there.

These people really did make an attempt. They thought nothing of Yu Lanchuan who was dressed
in a work shirt and leather shoes, and did not hesitate at all in taking action. While he was
speaking, another four or five people charged forward.

The first floor of the small building of No. 110 Courtyard was not level with the ground, it was
about a meter higher. Due to that, there was a flight of stone steps in front of the entrance,
about ten steps in total, stretching from east to west for about two meters. There were railings
on both sides and on the west side was the wheelchair access, separated by a railing.

Three people—left, center and right—charged towards Yu Lanchuan. They planned to keep him
occupied while the remaining people used the wheelchair access to run up and detour around
him to enter the building.

Yu Lanchuan held the broom with the head pointing upwards and retreated one step to the top
of the steps. The people charging towards him stuck to him closely but he suddenly leaped
forward and pulled the broom handle towards himself. The one in the middle was running up the
steps and naturally raised both hands to block, exposing a gap below his chest. The plastic handle
jabbed accurately at that spot; the man sputtered as his breath was literally knocked out of him.

At the same time, Yu Lanchuan used the force of the jab to leap nimbly backwards and swept the
broom across towards the person on the left, shaking the dirt on the brush onto the man's face.
When the other person covered his head and shielded his eyes in a fluster, Yu Lanchuan took the
chance to shift his weight to his left side, then swung his right leg upwards and across to hit the
person on the right directly on the waist.
Elder Zhao said furiously, "Little Master Yu, do you insist on interfering in Beggars' Sect matters
today?"

Yu Lanchuan struck one down and sent another flying. In his hands, the broom handle flew and
swung around, and in just a short while, the unlucky one on the left who was flattened against
the railing had all four limbs numbed, his entire body folded down until he was a human-shaped
cushion. Yu Lanchuan's leg that had swung out did not land on the ground; using the "human-
shaped cushion" as a fulcrum, he leaped right across the railing. As the wailing of the "cushion"
played in the background, his broom very quickly and efficiently took care of the few people who
were charging up via the wheelchair access.

Finally, he landed lightly on the ground.

"Not necessarily." Yu Lanchuan gripped the railing with one hand and turned his body half a
circle. He flashed Elder Zhao a false smile. "I usually don't provide service free of charge,
especially considering that your esteemed sect is an unregistered and illegal organisation. Please
do not worry, I am even more unwilling than you to interfere in this. When Old Sect Leader Yang
is discharged, you people can divide your assets any way you like and seize power however you
want to. If, one day, Beggars' Sect has an IPO, I will definitely persuade my boss to invest."

Elder Tian, who had hurried over, used all his strength and just barely managed to suppress his
question of "What if he can't be discharged?" However, his words might have been stifled but his
expression was not. These words were clearly etched under his skin and a trace of them could be
seen.

The lights from the residential units on the first floor shone out of the northern windows,
illuminating Elder Tian's face and the words hidden under it.

Yu Lanchuan looked down and easily twisted off the broom handle, tossing the grimy brush to
the side. He rolled up his sleeves and said, "Indeed. He's over ninety after all."

If a young person had a premature death, other people would still be willing to adhere to the
principles of being a bystander as a mark of respect to the dead and keep their mouths shut.

However, old fools were not so lucky. Once a person reached seventy or eighty years of age, they
automatically entered the ranks of "Should have died earlier" and "Still not dead yet." Only at the
moment the coffin was closed would other people recall moments of the deceased's life with
miserly reluctance and, for a brief second, spare a negligible bit of loss and sorrow.

Then, at the speed of light, they would recover their usual mood for fear that they would waste
even a second in the great battle for their inheritance.

Elder Zhao's expression was cold. He gave Yu Lanchuan a thumbs-up. "Little Master Yu, your skills
are good. You are indeed from a major clan. However, I fear that even your esteemed sect's
Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang will be unable to stop the Nine Swords of Dugu. Don't think that
just because you know a couple of techniques, you can stop a hundred people on your own!"
For some unknown reason, Yu Lanchuan suddenly wanted to laugh. He recalled that when he
watched The Smiling, Proud Wanderer when he was young, the special effects for the "Arrow
Breaking Form" in the television series looked very cool. It was the classic scene of one person
defeating an entire gang. He had been very captivated after watching it, especially since he could
be considered to be someone practising the sword. So, he went to ask Granduncle.

Granduncle took a couple of gulps from the spout of the small teapot and glanced at him. "How
to defeat a group of people with one sword strike when they have surrounded you? Hmm… only
one move allowed?"

The teenage Yu Lanchuan said longingly, "Yes, only one move!"

Granduncle muttered to himself for a few seconds, then replied, "There is one such move. We
don't call it 'Arrow Breaking Form,' we call it 'Break the Cauldrons and Sink the Boats[1].'"

Yu Lanchuan had never heard of the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang having this move and urged
him to explain.

The old man muttered mysteriously and kept him in suspense for a long while before finally
letting him bring his ear near so that he could verbally pass on their sect's supreme skill.

The great hero Yu Huaide said, "You just need to put your sword against your own throat and
pretend that you're going to slit it open, then face them and shout, 'Whoever dares step near will
be drenched in my blood!'—don't worry, unless you encounter those truly desperate and ready
to die, most people wouldn't dare. Then, while they're scared witless, break free of the siege as
fast as possible and run away, and that's it!"

"Break the Cauldrons and Sink the Boats" was an unparalleled great technique of their sect but
unfortunately, a certain condition must be met to put it to use—the sword in his hand must be a
real sword. With a broom handle… it was a bit of a joke.

Since he couldn't unleash the great technique, he could only hold on until the end.

Hopefully, those comrade officers would arrive quickly and turn up the volume on their sirens
when they were coming.

One kilometer away from No. 110 Courtyard, the middle-aged man who had helped Gan Qing
park the car walked into the depths of a little alley without telling anyone. In the alley was an
unassuming house. The middle-aged man knocked on the door four times. From inside, someone
asked warily, "Who's there?"

The middle-aged man answered, "I'm Xiao-Zhai, I'm under Elder Zhao."

The door cracked open a sliver in response. A head that resembled a big horse monkey[2] peeked
out. Big Horse Monkey was dressed in shabby and torn clothes—Beggars' Sect garb. He was none
other than the person who had lured Gan Qing into the alley the other day.
Big Horse Monkey looked out warily, like he was afraid that opening the door any wider would be
a waste of electricity. He spoke in a low voice. "Come in."

The middle-aged man who called himself Xiao-Zhai didn't want to slow-dance with Big Horse
Monkey and was not willing to squeeze through the crack of the door. He moved backwards a
little, then used force to push the door open. "Why are you being so sneaky?"

Big Horse Monkey was caught off guard and retreated a couple of steps under the force of his
push. "You…"

Xiao-Zhai was already striding in, leaving no room for argument.

"You should be more careful near No. 110," Big Horse Monkey said, keeping his anger in check.
"Be careful not to get noticed by anyone."

"I didn't see any amazing people there." Xiao-Zhai dangled a cigarette from his mouth and shot a
look at the surroundings. "This place is rented? A school district in the middle of the city, it can't
be cheap. Keep an eye out for me and see if there are any other places nearby for rent."

Big Horse Monkey asked, "What for?"

"My second child was born last year," Xiao-Zhai found a chair and sat down. He gave Big Horse
Monkey a cigarette and sighed. "Little brats grow too fast. When they start talking, we already
need to start thinking about which school to send them to. We definitely can't afford homes in
school districts, our only choice is to find a cheaper place to rent in advance. Ai, our brothers
have to take care of the elderly and the young, it's really not easy. What are we working so hard
every day for? Isn't it just to support our families? If you ask me, there are times when Old Sect
Leader Yang really does not understand the pains of a normal, ordinary life!"

Big Horse Monkey accepted the cigarette. His expression relaxed slightly and he sat down
opposite the other man.

At the gate of the house was a large cypress tree. The Three Friends of Winter[3] remain
evergreen even in the coldest days of the year and not only was the cypress blocking the
northwest wind, it was also hiding a person's figure. Gan Qing lightly pushed apart the cypress
leaves and pinched her nose hard. She stifled a sneeze, tears welling up in her eyes. A down
jacket could easily rustle so for the sake of making it more convenient to follow the man, she had
left her jacket in the trunk of Yu Lanchuan's car. The two Beggars' Sect members in the house had
got together and chatted about school district residences and second childs for more than ten
minutes already. Even though there was a large tree blocking the wind, her tight-fitting wool
sweater was already frozen stiff by the cold air and chilled her to the bone.

In one ear was the howling of the northwest wind while in the other ear was the ceaseless
chatter about "preschool to primary" and "primary to junior high." It made her head ache until it
felt like it was splitting apart. She had just decided to give up and leave when, right then, the
sound of dragging footsteps came from the other end of the little alley. Gan Qing quivered. She
faintly sensed something and carefully held her breath, hiding herself behind the leaves of the
tree.
The person who was coming had grey hair and was around sixty years of age. Slowly, he came
under the glow of the street lights. Gan Qing saw that he had sallow skin and was sickly thin, the
skin on his face resembling sandpaper from the marks of the passing years. Despite that, his
delicately handsome looks could still be vaguely seen. It was just that this touch of beauty was
unable to make him appear handsome and confident; instead, it made him seem gloomy and
resentful, like a thick and dense demonic aura.

This man was very thin and small. His cotton clothes, patched and faded from repeated washing,
were very loose. His legs were of unequal length and he walked with a very bumpy gait. Right as
he was about to raise his hand to knock on the door, he suddenly keenly sensed something and
his gaze swept around him, piercing as a falcon's.

Gan Qing's entire body was almost melded with the cypress tree. She hung near the top of the
tree and swayed with the wind.

The man listened attentively for a few seconds but did not detect anything amiss. Finally, he
knocked on the door. "It's me."

Gan Qing frowned. She realised that this man not only had legs of different lengths, his curled up
fingers also looked very strange, like chicken claws that could not be extended.

Who on earth was he?

His four limbs were twisted like pretzels but he still had the terrifying aura of a highly-skilled
master.

Big Horse Monkey and Xiao-Zhai's discussion came to an abrupt end. Both men came forward to
welcome the newcomer. This time, Big Horse Monkey did not open the door a mere crack, he
threw it wide open. "Elder Yang!"

Yang?

Only the Nine Pouch members of Beggars' Sect could have the title "Elder." They were equivalent
to the CEO, CFO and similar ranks under the chairman. Gan Qing had roughly heard that Beggars'
Sect had four "Nine Pouch Elders"... but was there someone with the surname Yang among
them?

Elder Yang only gave them a brief nod as though he treasured his words like gold. Swinging his
uneven legs, he entered the house. The lights in the room grew a little brighter. A few seconds
later, the sounds of whispered conversation could be heard. Xiao-Zhai reported to him about
Yang Yifan being taken away by the police, as well as Elder Zhao and Elder Tian from the four
main sect elders leading the charge to force the king to abdicate and angering Old Sect Leader
Yang until he was hospitalised.

Elder Yang opened his mouth. His voice was soft yet sharp, a little like a boy's voice that had yet
to fully mature. "Is that old man dead?"
"He was sent to hospital for emergency treatment," Xiao-Zhai said. "Please don't worry. Old Sect
Leader has a strong martial arts foundation. If he's treated in time, he should be-"

"Why would I be worried?" Elder Yang cut him off. "He ruined my legs with his own hands and
severed ties with me. Even if he dies, I don't have to wear mourning clothes for him. What does it
have to do with me?"

Gan Qing was a little surprised—this thin and small man was actually Old Sect Leader Yang's son.
In the darkness of the night, she kept her eyes on them. She was getting a whiff of a sinister plot
from the way Beggars' Sect was using a pretext to start a ruckus tonight.

Yang Yifan wasn't someone who liked talking about her family matters. To outsiders, she had
always only briefly explained it as "Both my parents are not here, they told me to take care of
Grandpa." Later on, after hearing half the story from her during Lunar New Year, Gan Qing
thought that "not here" meant that they had already passed away. She never thought that Yang
Ping was still alive and that he and Old Sect Leader Yang had severed their father-and-son
relationship.

What ulterior motives were hidden beneath all this?

"Have they gone to take the Dog Beating Staff?" Yang Ping asked.

Xiao-Zhai replied, "Yeah. I saw Elder Tian refusing to give up. Elder Zhao seems to have the same
intention."

Big Horse Monkey scoffed, "What's the point of taking the Dog Beating Staff? Do they really think
that everything the old man has done throughout these years was for nothing? They may have
acted quick today and most people haven't had the chance to react. Just wait until tomorrow,
we'll see if the matter of these people 'angering the old sect leader to death and seizing the Dog
Beating Staff' can be kept a secret."

Xiao-Zhai said with a chuckle, "Exactly. When things turn into a mess later, we'll rely on Elder
Yang to step forward and take control of the situation. After all, you are the true heir."

Yang Ping said mildly, "You can save those bootlicking words. Does it cost nothing to throw all
those empty words around?"

Big Horse Monkey said, "We don't have to bother with the ones leading the ruckus. As for that
girl, she surrounds herself with luxurious goods day and night. Even if nothing happens to her this
time, the people in the sect don't like the way she acts. She won't be able to hold on to the Dog
Beating Staff. And for the remaining matters, we will have to rely on Zhai-xiong to help out."

Yang Ping nodded. "Also, remember to take care of things on Wang Jiusheng's side."

In the darkness of the night, Gan Qing's eyes looked up swiftly.

Big Horse Monkey said, "Someone with ties to Wan Mu Chun moved into No. 110 Courtyard. I
can see that Wang Jiusheng is truly scared this time."
"Don't look down on him," Yang Ping said. "Do you think that Wei Xiao was easy to handle back
then? Even when the few of us were in top condition, we were ruined in his hands, let alone later
on… Were it not because Wang Jiusheng enacted a plan to beat him down until he could not fight
back, it's hard to say who would be the one dead right now. Furthermore, Wei Xiao lived in hiding
right here in Yanning for so many years. People from both sides were looking for him but no one
could find him. It was only Wang Jiusheng who could dig him out. This North Branch Master of
Travellers' Sect has hidden depths."

Gan Qing's fingers that were holding onto the cypress tree dug into the tree trunk. Her heart was
pounding hard enough to explode.

Big Horse Monkey said, "Wang Jiusheng had always thought that Old Zhai and I belong to Zhao.
These two days, we have already sussed out where he hid that girl. We will quietly bring her out
today. Didn't Zhao seize the Dog Beating Staff by force? When Travellers' Sect realise that the
person they're hiding has disappeared, they will surely suspect that Elder Zhao could not keep
the members quiet and is pushing them out to take the fall. When that time comes, we'll let
them fight among themselves like dogs."

Yang Ping said, "I'll leave it to you."

A tendril of blood crept into Gan Qing's eyes. A blade seemed to grow out of her flesh, the tip
slowly extending from between her fingers. Her fingers reflected in the body of the blade
appeared eerily cold and pale, like the claws of a water demon in a horror movie.

Right at that moment, Xiao-Zhai suddenly hmm-ed. "There's a small accident."

"What?" Big Horse Monkey asked.

Xiao-Zhai made a noise of amusement and said, "Zhao and Tian were intercepted by someone,
guess who? None other than that little alliance leader at No. 110 who's playing around."

The blade between Gan Qing's fingers that was "growing" outwards the whole time paused
slightly.

"That's sick!" Xiao-Zhai said. "I think we don't even need to wait until tomorrow for Elder Zhao
and the others to fall on their faces."

The broom handle in Yu Lanchuan's hands broke with a snap. He saw the cold glint of something
metal in the hands of the Beggars' Sect member opposite him.

"Controlled weapons." He raised an eyebrow. "Do the respected and righteous sects also recruit
this type of professional hoodlum?"

The person opposite him decided to give up on sneaking around. Under his hands were two
concealed long daggers with blood grooves, a metal chain linking them together. They could be
used to stab, pierce and slash at a close range, and the blades could also be thrown out.
The sharp edge of the blade split Yu Lanchuan's broom handle in the middle. Other than his
glasses, the last metallic item on his body was his belt. He was now fighting bare-handed and was
forced to retreat to the corridor entrance.

Right then, a whistling sound drew near. The chain whip struck down from the air, striking right
on the metal chain in between the long daggers. With a cunning use of angles, it pulled
downwards; the person holding the daggers nearly stabbed his own chin and immediately
snapped his body back.

"Your mum here is not dead yet," Zhang Meizhen said.

She had just finished speaking when Yu Lanchuan heard someone call out. "Little Master Yu,
catch."

Right on its heels, something flew over from behind him. Yu Lanchuan reached out and grabbed it
and was shocked—that thing was an actual sword!

...Albeit—he saw when he drew it out for a look—a sword carved from peach wood.

Han Dongsheng walked towards him from the stairs, a copper clothes drying rack in his hands. He
smiled at Yu Lanchuan, a little embarrassed. "When my dad was obsessed with qigong, he bought
that from the 'master.' Supposedly, it will repel evil when hung on the wall. Just make do with it
for now."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Great, he was now doing a Daoist ritual dance.

Han Dongsheng turned towards the Beggars' Sect members blocking the building entrance and
withdrew his smile. In a soft and light tone, he said, "Tomorrow, the adults have to go to work
and the children have to wake up early for revision classes. It is time to rest now. What is
everyone doing here?"

After Han Dongsheng finished speaking, a black shadow fell swiftly on the covered bicycle racks.
The new arrival resembled a large, graceful bird. The covered bicycle racks shook lightly a couple
of times but there was not a single sound. It was none other than Yan Hao.

Yan Hao panted for breath. "G-Grandma Zhang told me to bring people here."

Zhang Meizhen grinded her teeth lightly. "...Good boy, you're sensible. You're the first to properly
call me 'Grandma.'"

Yan Hao looked utterly confused.

They saw that at the entrance to No. 110, the two major jianbing groups and the beggars and
vagrants who usually run errands for Old Yang were all there. And there were even more people
rushing over...
T/N:
[1] The name of the Han Jiang "supreme skill" as described by Yu Huaide is 破釜沉舟 "breaking
cauldrons and sinking boats." It is an idiom that means risking everything for the sake of victory.
[2] "Big horse monkey" 大马猴 seems to be a legit type of monkey that lives in South Africa but I
can't track down the exact English name. However, this monkey is also used as a sort of
bogeyman to scare children in northern parts of China and in that context, is more like a monster
than an actual animal.
[3] Not really relevant to the story, but I just want to note that the Three Friends of Winter
generally refer to pine, bamboo and plum. Cypress is traditionally not one of them.
Chapter 73
At No. 110 Courtyard, there were large trees almost thirty years of age and the mottled corners
of the walls covered in spots of moss. At this moment, a street light hung above the empty flower
bed, casting a pale glow on the two sets of troops in the courtyard and giving the scene a touch
of fantasy.

In the balconies and on the corridors, the residents couldn't resist poking their heads out,
watching this great evening show that they didn't have to buy a ticket for.

A few thousand years ago, due to natural disasters or man-made calamities, impoverished
peasants were uprooted from the life-giving soil of their homes and after a period of seeking
refuge, destitute and homeless, they were reduced to being beggars. The bitter cold of ice or
frost or snow or rain, the vicious dogs and the poisonous snakes, were all their enemies. Blown
about by the wind, they drifted until they reached somewhere to wait for death. Later on, the
waning warrior class and the experts hidden among the common people organised these
suffering people and taught them how to protect themselves, and to take care and console each
other. Even if there was no place in the world for them to settle down, they would still have a
home to return to. That was the beginning of Beggars' Sect.

Who would have thought that a few thousand years later, these "beggarly" sect elders draped in
mink-fur coats would drive their cars and bring their followers who were seeking school district
residences to "force the king to abdicate and seize the throne"?

Human affairs were like freshly-cooked food. Leave them there and as time passed, the flavour
would change. No one could escape it.

Yu Lanchuan lightly swung the peach wood sword in a horizontal slash; unexpectedly, it really
brought out some of the upright and honest spirit of the Seven Secret Arts swordplay. "Elder
Zhao, why don't you ask around—if you really obtain the Dog Beating Staff, would your brothers
outside obey you?"

At this moment, Elder Zhao had already faintly sensed that he had crossed the line.

He had initially wanted to quietly take the Dog Beating Staff and leave. Who would have thought
that Yu Lanchuan actually dared to take the initiative to physically stop them? It had also never
crossed their minds that so many people would still look up to Old Sect Leader Yang when he
couldn't even take care of the minor matters in his family. Now that the ruckus had gotten this
big, even if he obtained the Dog Beating Staff, the voices opposing him within Beggars' Sect
would definitely be even louder.
What was more, he was not the only one wanting to take the Dog Beating Staff. Elder Tian and
the other two sect elders were similarly eyeing it like tigers eyeing their prey. When the time
comes, there would be no lack of shit-stirrers fanning the flames.

But right now, it was already not possible for him to give up halfway. If he shrank back at this
moment, by tomorrow everyone would know that he, Elder Zhao, was already old and that not
only had he failed to steal the chicken, he had also lost the rice he used as bait, and that this Yu
Lanchuan from the younger generation had "stepped on him." How could he lift his head again in
the future?

Elder Zhao clenched his teeth and took a step forward. He took the metal club one of his
followers was passing to him. "I've heard that Han Jiang Xue is the leader of the Five Supremes.
Little Master Yu, I hope you can give me some guidance."

Yu Lanchuan quickly said, "Nope, dream on."

Elder Zhao, "..."

Yu Lanchuan said, "If I see an old person of your age fall down on the streets, I might not
necessarily dare to help them up. How would I dare to fight with you? I still have twenty-nine
years to go on my house loan."

Zhang Meizhen scoffed. "Who knows, there might be some elderly people who have yet to learn
how to behave and want to run a porcelain scam."

Elder Zhao had no choice but to choose between "porcelain scam" and "get stepped on" today.
Trapped in an impossible situation, his fury was beyond control. He swung the club to point at
Zhang Meizhen. "In that case, if I ask you for guidance, it won't count as a porcelain scam!"

Yan Hao hastily leaped down from the covered bicycle racks. The large metal claw he used for
climbing walls was crossed at his chest. Elder Tian and his people followed suit, all of them taking
out their various metal clubs and small knives.

The situation at the entrance of the little building was so tense it seemed on the verge of
exploding.

Meanwhile, at the same time this was happening, the scene at the entrance to the courtyard was
a different one. Most of the reinforcements Yan Hao had brought also belonged to Beggars' Sect.
Strictly speaking, they were all from the same group. Even if the Beggars' Sect members who had
come to the courtyard to cause a ruckus were not their friends, they were at least familiar faces.
The remaining ones were petty traders from the nearby areas, also people they were used to
greeting with smiles.

After this large troop of "reinforcements" arrived, they saw that the courtyard was filled with
familiar faces and didn't know whether they should hoist the battle flags and shout war cries, or if
they should launch an attack right away, so they decided to just look for acquaintances and begin
chatting. Most of the disciples who came with the sect elders to make trouble were also not
involved in the evil schemes and were just there as lackeys to play up the leaders' might. Since
the people in front hadn't made them charge forward yet, they gathered comfortably in groups
of three to five and started grumbling about the prices of goods and houses.

This was what was meant by the saying, "Too many chickens result in no eggs, too many humans
result in foolish trouble."

At the front, weapons were drawn at opposing sides, the flames of anger hot enough to start a
wildfire. At the back, it was "Guess how much I paid for a pound of chives the other day" and "My
kid is attending two revision classes during the holidays"—"revision classes" and "chives" were
like sparks that grew into a fire at the slightest wind, devouring everything in their path from the
main entrance onwards.

Very quickly, the boundary between the two sides blurred and the ranks scattered. Finally, it
spread to the "frontlines." The few people who were standing in confrontation had quite good
hearing and they heard in unison a few lines carrying over clearly in the wind. "It went up again
after Lunar New Year's? Aiya, it has already increased from 3.50 yuan to 6 yuan. We should talk
to our friends running the jianbing stalls and tell them that they need to stop that."

Han Dongsheng sighed. He planted the copper clothes drying rail on the ground. "If you round it
up, it's ten yuan already. It's better to make it myself at home from now on."

Yan Hao counted on his fingers how many days of breakfast his wages for a month could buy. Ten
fingers was not enough, so he had no choice but to include the fingers of his metal claws in his
calculations.

Yu Lanchuan glanced at his watch. It was already past ten at night. He still had to make a report
on the progress of the projects to the board of directors tomorrow and hadn't finished going
through the materials. His mood became very sour. "Everything's going through an upheaval,
only our salaries remain unchanged."

The Beggars' Sect disciples who were fighting against him just now were also cubicle monkeys
and his words made them sorrowful. They looked around them—even jianbing was soon going to
be unaffordable for these people who were no longer young but they were still here fighting like
crows and chickens, "stepping" on each other.

Was the mortal realm worth it?

Elder Zhao, "..."

Then, right when this crisis was about to dissipate into thin air, a row of screaming police cars
arrived. Just as Yu Lanchuan had wished, the sirens were exceptionally loud. The police who came
were shocked by the amount of people in No. 110 Courtyard, wondering in their hearts on what
scale was this group brawl.

If this was Harry Potter, it would be the final battle of the magical world!
Hence, the police at the scene urgently requested for instructions from their work superiors and
also received them: Take away the leaders.

In the little alley, Xiao-Zhai and Big Horse Monkey took their leave of Yang Ping and went their
separate ways.

Gan Qing stared at the hazy silhouettes on the window of the house for a while, her face
expressionless. Finally, without alerting anyone, she quietly fell to the ground from the large
cypress tree and picked Big Horse Monkey.

Wang Jiake had been staying in the little guest house for a few days now. She was starting to feel
increasingly uneasy.

The little guest house called itself a "no-frills hotel." In actual fact, it might not even meet the
criteria for a "dangerous structure." It might also be operating without a license.

The door seemed to be made of paper paste and was not soundproof at all. Late in the night
every night, she could hear drunken laughter and ruckus from outside. Sometimes, the noise
wandered back and forth before her door without leaving, as though they were about to break in
and enter at any time. She trembled in fear as she listened and could never resist getting up to
check the anti-theft chain lock.

They had taken away her phone. They had only said that the high-interest loan people were
calling her non-stop and were afraid that she would receive a shock if she saw it. All three meals
in a day were brought up to her by attendants, the quality of the food too unbearable for words.
She couldn't even go out for a breath of fresh air. There was one time when she had just stepped
out of her room and hadn't even reached the staircase when a male attendant asked her where
she was going and escorted her back to her room, leaving no room for argument. He left her with
a line that made her hair stand on end: "Don't run around for no reason, we have CCTV."

At that moment, Wang Jiake finally realised that she might have walked out of the wolves' den
only to enter the tiger's lair.

On the night of the third day, something even more freakish happened.

Ever since she came to this place, Wang Jiake had only washed her face simply and slept wearing
her clothes. She could hardly bear it anymore. She recalled the various methods she had seen
online and nervously inspected the bathroom a few times. She didn't find any cameras in the
shower area so she rushed in and took a speed shower.

Who would have thought that she had just finished her shower when she heard someone using a
room card to open the door from outside.

Wang Jiake only had the time to grab her long down jacket. She wrapped herself like a silkworm
pupa and had just put on the chain lock when the other person entered without being invited.
The anti-theft chain lock was pulled to its limit and fell off on its own just like that. That joke of a
thing turned out to be purely decorative!
The person who opened the door was the driver who had sent her here. Right now, it was
already nearly ten at night. The alcohol fumes on the driver's body assaulted her nose. His hand
was half-heartedly holding up a bag with a half-eaten bread and he claimed to be "bringing food"
to her.

Wang Jiake shrieked, "Who let you come in, get out!"

The driver tsk-ed and looked at her with narrowed eyes. Instead of leaving, he took two steps
into the room and even closed the door behind him. "I brought you some food out of the
kindness of my heart. Girl, you better not be ungrateful."

Wang Jiake felt a chill seeping out of her limbs and her entire body was shaking. She pulled a
wooden chair towards her and blocked herself with it, the four legs pointing outwards.

"Are you serious? You even accompany people to drink, what's wrong with accompanying your
bro here for a chat?" The driver smiled. He dug out paper bills of ten yuan and twenty yuan and
tossed them onto Wang Jiake's bed. "How much for half an hour? Is this enough?"

For someone who didn't have the habit of shouting expletives and behaving like hoodlums,
hoping to perform above expectations at a moment of crisis was usually an impossible wish.
Wang Jiake's mind was blank. She could only retreat while repeating again and again, "What do
you want to do? Are you mad? You're insane! Get out! Ahh!"

The driver grabbed one of the chair legs. Wang Jiake struggled desperately. The broken wooden
chair twisted left and right in between the two people and knocked against Wang Jiake's wrist.
Her slender wrist immediately reddened. She shrieked and the chair fell out of her hands.

Wang Jiake pressed her back to the window. She grabbed the railing there without realising it
and the window swung open by accident while she was struggling. The wind blew in.

Wang Jiake shouted, "Help! He-"

The driver covered her mouth and pulled the zipper on her down jacket. Wang Jiake bit down on
his hand. At the same time, panicking until she was losing her head, she jumped down from the
second floor.

The driver quivered, immediately sobering up. He threw himself at the window.

The second floor was not considered high. Below was a fake lawn that was quite soft and her
thick down jacket protected her like a cocoon. Wang Jiake rolled on the ground and only had a
few superficial scrapes on her body. She finally couldn't be bothered with being fussy anymore.
She stumbled to her feet and ran for her life.

The driver shouted, "Where are you trying to run to!"

Wang Jiake didn't even dare look back. Her bare feet trod on the ice-cold ground, and she
couldn't even be bothered to care about what she was stepping on. The people in the small guest
house very quickly came out running after her. In one breath, Wang Jiake ran a few hundred
meters and finally saw the lights from a car at one end of the twisted and crooked little alley. An
unlicensed cab driver who was on shift at night was leaning against the wall and smoking.

Almost giving up all hope, Wang Jiake dragged her bloody feet and ran to the car. Gasping for
breath, she said, "Help… Help me… Someone wants to kidnap me, I beg you…"

The startled unlicensed cab driver studied her for a few seconds, then glanced behind her.
"What's going on? Where did you run out from?"

Wang Jiake said, "That '8 Hours of Warmth' hotel is an illegal hotel. They're chasing me and even
want to…"

Regrettably, she was unaware that "carriage, boat, shop, foot and broker" all belonged to the
same family.

Before Wang Jiake could finish speaking, she saw a strange smile appear on the unlicensed cab
driver's face. "Oh, so you ran out from Warmth."

In a flash, realisation dawned but it was too late to run now. The unlicensed cab driver grabbed a
fistful of her meticulously maintained long hair. "Don't you want me to help you? Get in the car."

Wang Jiake felt like her scalp was being torn off and tears sprang up in her eyes immediately.
Right at that moment, a rubber shoe flew over and crashed right into the unlicensed cab driver's
elbow, exactly on his ulnar nerve. His arm lost strength and Wang Jiake was thrown to the
ground. Tears and snot dripping, she crawled forward desperately on all four limbs.

"Who is it?!"

Big Horse Monkey from Beggars' Sect slowly walked out from under the street light. Right after
that, a few beggars emerged from the little alley and surrounded them.

"Beggars' Sect!"

"I really can't stand seeing people bully young girls." Big Horse Monkey had a smug smile on his
face. "Young lady, don't be afraid. Come with us."

Wang Jiake had once believed that Travellers' Sect could save her from the hands of the high-
interest loan lenders. In the end, she was put under house arrest and her "saviour" had been
even more of a hoodlum than the high-interest loan lenders!

Now that she had finally made her escape after much difficulty, she appealed to a passerby for
help but the passerby turned out to be from the same gang!

After so many times, her trust in people had already turned into disillusionment. In the pitch
darkness, Big Horse Monkey revealed two rows of gleaming white teeth. From every angle, he
looked like a monster preparing to sharpen his teeth and devour humans.

Wang Jiake crawled even faster.

In just the space of a few words, the sound of jumbled footsteps had come nearer. The people
from the guest house were catching up soon. Big Horse Monkey stopped talking nonsense and
whistled a couple of times, his leg flying up towards the unlicensed cab driver. The unlicensed cab
driver had his own base right behind his back so naturally, he was not willing to suffer a loss. His
hand swiped out from his waist, pulling out a small knife, and he stabbed Big Horse Monkey's leg
without hesitation.

Two beggars pulled Wang Jiake up, one on either side of her. The rancid and smelly "immortal
aura" from the bodies of the vagrants enveloped Wang Jiake from all directions, nearly sending
the scared-witless girl into shock. This time, she didn't even have the strength to shout and
struggle, and was transferred from hand to hand like a non-living item.

Just as her consciousness was starting to turn blurry, a muffled thump suddenly sounded in her
ear.

A black shadow emerged like a demon, quickly and efficiently knocking out the two vagrants
holding Wang Jiake. Wang Jiake fell into a pair of ice-cold hands and was immediately pulled up
before her legs could touch the ground. The person said softly into her ears. "Go."

It was a woman's voice!

In this chaos, the sense of security brought by a woman was like a lifeline. Without thinking,
Wang Jiake instinctively got her legs moving and entrusted herself to this person.

Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect were entangled together, biting viciously at each other like
fighting dogs. When they looked up, their mouths full of fur, they realised that the key person
had been snatched away!

"Who is it!"

"Bastard, chase them!"

The Beggars' Sect disciple who reacted the fastest turned on his heels to give chase but he
realised that his companion who had caught Wang Jiake just now was standing where he was,
unmoving like a wax statue. The Beggars' Sect disciple sensed something amiss. "What happened
to you?"

His companion slowly turned his head around, face pale like he had seen a ghost. On his neck was
a wound measuring three cun and two fen in length, a very shallow cut. It was originally a white
mark and only now did a very thin line of blood seep out like a bright red string.

In the dim glow of the light, a heavy murderous aura seemed to thicken suddenly.

From Wan Mu Chun who brought respect and honour to the name, to Wei Xiao who maimed
several people in succession when his hand rose and his blade fell, the two generations of Wan
Mu Chun had left a thick and heavy shadow lingering in the hearts of the people in the martial
arts world who were in the know.
In that second, regardless of whether they were from Beggars' Sect or Travellers' Sect, no one
dared to move.
Chapter 74
Wang Jiake didn't know how long she had been running with the other person. Her adrenaline
was fading and she was starting to feel a burning pain in her feet, like she was treading on Ne
Zha's fire wheels. Her hair that she had washed in the unlicensed hotel but didn't have the time
to dry was now frozen stiff. From head to toe, ice and fire overlapped.

It was only now that she saw clearly that the person pulling her to run together was a thin and
tall young woman dressed in a black wool turtleneck and black long pants. The collar of the
turtleneck was unfolded, hiding the lower half of her face. She was like the female heroines in
movies dressed for covert activities at night. This person had an extremely good sense of
direction, there was no hesitation at all in her steps. Pulling and dragging Wang Jiake along,
before long, she had led her to the main road.

When she saw the sparse traffic flow and the pedestrians returning home late, Wang Jiake's
heart that was scared witless finally dropped from her throat back down to her chest.

The pedestrians all cast strange looks at this barefoot and sorry-looking young woman. On a
normal day, even something like people seeing her tripping and falling on the street was enough
to make Wang Jiake embarrassed but now that people were looking at her when her appearance
was so wretched, she wanted to cry from joy. She felt like she had finally returned to the human
world.

The shocks and scares from the past few days exploded together. Wang Jiake's legs weakened
and she fell to the ground.

Gan Qing was pulled to a stumble.

"My… My feet hurt." Before Wang Jiake had finished speaking, her tears were falling. She vaguely
felt that it wasn't nice to complain to a stranger and reached up to roughly wipe the corners of
her eyes, desperately trying to hold the tears in.

But tears were like floodwaters, easily breaking through her rational mind that had yet to mature
fully. Wang Jiake's mouth curved down and then was forced into a straight line, curved down and
forced back again. Finally, like a little child, she started sobbing, her words incoherent. "It hurts…
I'm scared… It's so scary, Mum…"

Gan Qing was just bending down to talk to her and did not expect the other person to single-
sidedly move her up one generation. The word "Mum" was thrown into her face but she didn't
dare lay false claims to it so she could only swallow her words back in. A second of carelessness,
and she inhaled the fuzz on her wool turtleneck along with the words.

At the start, she followed Big Horse Monkey and needed to stay quiet. After that, she had to
maintain her image before the two major sects. She had been holding this sneeze in for half the
night now and really could not hold it in anymore. She turned and sneezed hard enough to shake
the heavens. Were it not for the turtleneck collar blocking the way, her nose would have flown
off.

This loud sneeze frightened Wang Jiake into trembling and she cried even harder.

Her head dizzy and feeling swollen, Gan Qing sucked in a breath through her nose and glanced at
her. She felt that there weren't any major problems. The girl's feet were not seriously injured; she
had just stepped on some pebbles and the arches of her feet were too tender, resulting in
numerous small cuts that looked terrible.

"Hey, listen…" Gan Qing said.

With much effort, Wang Jiake responded with a string of tearful hiccups, choking until her eyes
were rolling up.

Gan Qing said hastily, "Forget it. Go on and cry, take your time. I won't disturb you."

In response, Wang Jiake set her voice free and wailed.

Gan Qing pulled her collar down and breathed out on her palms. She rubbed her ice-cold hands
and stared at the traffic lights, her mind wandering from boredom.

"If you sneeze, it means that someone is thinking of you."

Back when she was young and living at Mudpool Backlane, Meng Tianyi had teased her with that.

At that time, Gan Qing was attending primary school. When she heard that, she thought it was
very mysterious because the phrase "someone is thinking of you" made her feel that this world
that she only understood bits and pieces of seemed to be linked to her in some indescribable
way. In the crowd of living things in the world, she appeared on the stage of someone's mind.
There were as many copies of her as there were people thinking of her, all of them overlapping,
countless and innumerable.

By the time she had grown older, she finally understood that this saying was a rather sorrowful
joke.

It was said that decades after a person's death, as the people who once remembered this person
gradually passed away, this person would be completely forgotten by the human realm, thus
coming to a second, more complete, death. At a glance, this idea seemed to be extremely
sorrowful but in actual fact, if one thought about it carefully, there was a rather romantic aspect
to it. After all, there were some people who were already forgotten by the human realm while
they were still alive. If they lost their phone for a day, they wouldn't miss any important
messages. Even if they leave a message for their internet friend online, it would very quickly sink
under the ocean-like waves of information.

If just a sneeze could evoke a thought, then it was really a bargain.

Gan Qing let out a bitter laugh but without thinking about it, she fumbled out her switched-off
phone.

In those seconds when she stared at the starting up screen on her phone, a fearful, apprehensive
hope rose in her heart. She hoped that a question like "Why aren't you back yet?" would pop up
on her screen… even if it wasn't very polite.

Right at that moment, a small gust of wind blew past. Gan Qing's nose itched and she sneezed
again.

Shit, it won't work now. Sneezing twice meant that someone was scolding you.

As expected, her phone started shaking like it was spasming.

— Where are you? Reply!

— Did you fail to find a parking space and drive all the way to Siberia!

— You piece of trash, you switched off your phone again!!!

Gan Qing, "..."

There was indeed someone scolding her.

But when she called Yu Lanchuan back, the other person did not pick up.

"Ai," Gan Qing exhaled a puff of white breath. She heard Wang Jiake's sobbing coming to a pause
so she patted the girl. "Don't cry anymore. I'll take you to buy a pair of shoes."

As she thought, the phrase "buy a pair of shoes" summoned Wang Jiake's rational mind back. Her
scattered gaze focused a little and she said between her sobs, "But the shoe shops should be
closed by now, where can we go to buy shoes?"

"Even if they weren't closed, I wouldn't even know which way their doors open. Forget about the
shoe shops." Gan Qing extended a hand to Wang Jiake and let her stagger up holding on to her
for support. "Don't worry, it's not far."

It was indeed not far. Five minutes later, she brought Wang Jiake to a nearby twenty-four hours
convenience store.

Wang Jiake stood on tiptoes. At a loss, she avoided the cartons of beers and soft drinks piled
outside the store and looked at the eight yuan cotton slipper in Gan Qing's hands, dumbfounded.

The cool and awesome "heroine dressed for covert night activities" said, "My purse is in my coat
and I only have ten yuan left in my mobile wallet. Just make do with this first. Are you gonna
wear them or not?"

"...I'll wear them."

Gan Qing continued to ask, "What do you plan to do? Go to the hospital first? Or the police
station? Or go home?"

Wang Jiake's frozen hair was plastered to her face and she looked at Gan Qing, lost and confused.
The two of them locked gazes for a while, then Gan Qing sighed again and took out her phone.
"Regardless of anything, call your family and let them know that you're safe first."

"Their numbers are in my phone, I don't remember them." Wang Jiake didn't take her phone. She
lowered her head and stammered out those words, then dropped her shoulders. "I… owe a lot of
money… The people from the high-interest loan lenders are waiting for me at my family's place.
I'm too ashamed to face my parents."

As she spoke, she seemed to want to cry again. Gan Qing was out of patience. Right then, her
phone rang.

"Officer Xiao-Yu? What… Erm, okay." Gan Qing listened for a while, her expression becoming
increasingly odd. She fell silent for a few seconds, then turned towards the lost and witless Wang
Jiake and said, "I think I'll send you to the police station."

The police station was as bustling as market day. There wasn't even enough space to go around.

"Wait a minute, Sir, can you repeat your age… Who brought someone so old back here?!"

"Is there anyone injured? Should we call 120 first, just in case?"

"They said that they didn't fight, they were just chatting."

"Bullshit, do they need such a large crowd to chat? What were they chatting about? A conspiracy
to take over the world?"

"Ai, have I seen you somewhere before? Did you come here once in the past, the one who wore
the Spiderman costume…"

"This is a controlled weapon, isn't it? Whose is it? And this one too… made of peach wood, this
nonsense that has 'As Swift as Luling' on it, whose is it? This item is considered an item of
feudalistic superstitions, isn't it? We had just done a strict crackdown but you guys are still doing
it! Still doing it!"

"It's not feudalistic superstitions, it's a misunderstanding." Yu Yan's face was covered in sweat
and he hurried over to bring away the peach wood sword with both hands. When he turned his
head around, his veins were pounding at a corner of his forehead. "It wasn't easy for me to not
have to be on shift today. I thought it was going to be a peaceful night! Yu Lanchuan, I really have
to concede defeat. Ever since I knew you, the gap between reality and my dreams is getting wider
and wider!"

Yu Lanchuan sat with his legs crossed, his face looking like he was going to sue someone. "How
many times do I have to repeat myself, I was defending myself lawfully. When will you people be
done? Your people are doing redundant tasks and your effectiveness is low. I still have work to do
at night. Do I need to give my lawyer a call?"

Yu Yan almost wanted to kneel to him. "F— you! Now that it has come to this, can you please
take a break and not create more trouble?"

Next to them, Elder Zhao was also someone whose every inch of his face screamed his refusal to
comply or to accept things. His mouth with those thick catfish lips twisted and he refused to say a
thing, letting his follower speak for him.

The frazzled police officers on duty were nearly going mad. "Are the people now all so fucking
awesome? The one just now was a high-level executive and kept saying he wanted his lawyer!
This retired worker is another one with a face full of disdain for mortal affairs! Venerable old
man, I think you're not a retired worker, you're a retired emperor, aren't you? Should I kneel
down and shout 'Long live the king!'"

"Excuse me…." Gan Qing poked her head into the police station. "Did I come at the wrong time?"

She couldn't simply cling onto a vehicle to hitch a ride when she had Wang Jiake with her and she
didn't have enough money for the bus. She had no choice but to take a cab to the area near No.
110 and leave Wang Jiake in the car as collateral while she went on her own to Yu Lanchuan's car
to get her coat and purse. Fresh from a traumatic experience, Wang Jiake was forced to be alone
with a strange cab driver for five minutes and had trembled the whole way there. When they
reached the entrance of the police station, she had yet to recover and the "heroine" was already
selling her out.

Gan Qing pushed her towards the police officers. "I found this person and brought her back. May
I know how many people I can exchange for her?"

The officer who had come out to receive them amidst the bustle was shocked speechless by this
bandit-like way of exchanging hostages.

Yu Yan, "..."

His heart was so drained that only dregs were left.

After a round of pandemonium, other than the few people who carried controlled weapons with
them, the other people were all released. In the cold wind, they stood in two rows as clearly
defined as the waters of the Jing River and the Wei River, each waiting for someone to pick them
up. Almost everyone was holding up their phones.

Yu Lanchuan called a cab and briefly explained the situation to the anxious senior high school
student waiting at home. Han Dongsheng slowly and softly apologised to Zhou Beibei… because
his father-in-law's treasure sword had been confiscated by the police. Yan Hao texted Boss Jiang
to tell him that he would be back soon. Zhang Meizhen took her phone out and stared at the
screen for a while, then turned her head and locked it.
Next to them, surrounded by his own disciples, Elder Zhao had probably received a call from his
children. His unbridled aura when he was fighting for the Dog Beating Staff was swept away and
he was saying to his family in a low and yielding voice, "It's too cold… My phone switched off by
itself, I didn't see… Ai, I'm going back now. I can take baby girl to preschool tomorrow, this won't
affect it, don't worry…"

Elder Tian stood next to him with his hands in his pockets, unmoving. Who knew what he was
thinking.

"People of our age have all gone through difficult martial arts training when we were young,"
Zhang Meizhen suddenly said softly. "Back then, we really trained in all seasons—through the
depths of winter and the peak of summer."

Gan Qing's percolating sneeze was cut off by her. Tears in her eyes, she turned around to look at
Zhang Meizhen.

The cab they had called arrived and Zhang Meizhen pushed her into the car. Enveloped by the
heated air, Gan Qing couldn't really keep her eyes open. She heard Zhang Meizhen say, as though
speaking to herself, "We had once stood in glory, we had once had hundreds respond to our
every call, our voices had once shook the heavens… In his whole life, Old Yang had craved too
much for a good reputation, had chased too hard after a 'simple life'—I guess it could be called
overcompensating. He didn't know what the people under him were thinking. That Tian fellow
travelled all around when he was young and regarded the four corners of the land as his home.
Now that he's old, he has no home and no job, no sons and no daughters. Other than his welfare
allowance, he depends on the occasional presents from his disciples to survive. His clothes are
probably also given to him by his disciples as a mark of filial piety, he can't even bear to sew the
patches on directly. The Zhao fellow is better off. In the past, he worked at a public transport
company. He has some pension money, not much. I heard that his children don't respect him and
he still has to help them bring up his granddaughter. He's saving for his descendants while he
himself lives frugally. Let me ask you, when they see Wang Jiusheng prospering, how could they
not turn green with envy?"

"Our generation is old now and a lot of us don't like to pass our martial arts skills down to the
next generation. Old Yu had always left it to fate, Old Yang may always say 'Each generation is
worse than the last' but he has never forced his granddaughter to learn staff techniques. Even
your shifu, with that unconventional temperament of his, understood and accepted it in his later
years."

Gan Qing's expression flickered.

Zhang Meizhen let out a laugh. "Gan'er, it was not that he wasn't willing to teach you properly. It
was because learning martial arts is too difficult and after going through all that pain, it's also
useless. Instead, it would make a person brag about their capabilities and be unwilling to live a
steady and honest life."

In Beggars' Sect, he was clearly a Nine Pouch Elder whose every call was answered by hundreds.
But when he changed out of his patched clothes, he could only be a dull and cowering nobody.
Which identity would a person like that acknowledge?

Old Sect Leader Yang had always said that empty fame was a phantom made of smoke and dust.
When in the center of it, a person must not allow these things to confuse their eyes.

If that venerable old man was really so clear-headed, then why would he, at the age of over
ninety, still be unwilling to let go of that jade-green Dog Beating Staff?

Gan Qing sniffed. "How's Sect Leader Yang?"

Zhang Meizhen shot her a look. "So you know already."

"I bumped into a few Beggars' Sect people." Gan Qing thought for a while. Then, concealing the
part about Yang Ping mentioning Wei Xiao, she briefly explained what she had been doing for
most of the night. "That Yang…"

"Yang Ping." Zhang Meizhen sighed. "That brat had both his arms rendered useless by your shifu
and one leg broken by his own father but he's still surprisingly so robust?"

"The first time I met him, he was not even ten years old." Zhang Meizhen seemed to be spacing
out. It was only after a long while that she said, "His arms and legs were thin, only his head was
large. At that time, you couldn't see anything wrong yet… He was a boy after all, who knew
whether his growth spurt would come early or late. There are those who only start to grow when
they're seventeen or eighteen. He's the sect leader's son and was very pampered within the sect.
Those people fawned over and flattered him, calling him 'Little Sect Leader.' Others might not
take them seriously but the child did. At that time, I was still a young lady, younger than you. I
had nothing better to do with my time and liked older men. I took a fancy to Yang Qing…"

"The patient is out of danger for the moment. However, his age is too advanced and he needs to
be observed in the ICU for a period of time. Where is the patient's family? Come over here and
sign the papers!"

Old Sect Leader Yang heard his granddaughter respond and say something to the doctor. The
noise seemed to be separated from him by a layer of film, blurred and indistinct, not going into
his ears. After a while, the hospital bed under him jolted a little. Someone was pushing him away.
He strained to open his eyes a crack.

"Grandpa! Grandpa? Can you hear me… Grandpa… Is he awake? Is he conscious…"

The woman's voice was clear and sweet, sometimes near and sometimes far. Gradually, it turned
into someone else's voice.

"Yang Qing." He heard that person call him from the distant past. The voice was obviously very
nervous, yet pretending to be totally unbothered. "Let me tell you something. I have a crush on
you."
Chapter 75
There was a kind of flower that was like an inferno. When it burst into bloom, it could burn
through everything in a person's view, searing their nerves until there was pain.
The forty years old Yang Qing was dumbstruck. He seemed to have lost his ability to speak and
was stupefied for quite a while before finally finding his tongue. Then, his words scrambled and
his hands gesturing wildly, he said, "I… No… My child is already so tall… I'm already married! My
wife… your sister-in-law is back in my old home, she's not with me… Her cooking is very good,
when she comes here, I'll get her to treat you to flatbread…"

"Back then, he had his child with him and stayed in the dorms for single people. There wasn't
even a female housefly by his side, so I had always thought that he didn't have a wife, that he
was either divorced or widowed." Zhang Meizhen gazed out at the city nightscape. She brushed
back the permed hair at her temples, a little worn out. "No. 110 was built later on. In the early
days, the workplace would provide public housing for their workers. Other than the worker's
capability and rank, sometimes it also depended on the size of their family. The married ones
definitely took precedence over the single people. His peers, as long as they had a family, nearly
all of them were given public housing. But he was not.

"That's why I didn't believe him at all at that time. People back then aren't like people now, they
didn't care about school districts and all that. There wasn't much difference whether their
children attended school in Yanning or back in their old homes in the rural villages. I thought, if
the child really has a biological mother, why would the child live so miserably with the father in
the dorms? Furthermore, Yang Qing was brought up by a beggar and didn't have parents or
relatives. After liberation, he settled in Yanning and worked here. What hometown would he
have? So I firmly believed that he was brushing me off and I clung on to him.

"I tried every trick I could think of and also joined his workplace. I hovered around him every day,
pressuring him until he ran away the moment he saw me. When he brought up that wife of his
that was like a baseless rumour, I would grin at him and say, 'You say you have a wife—fine, you
should have a family photo, right? Show me a photo and I'll believe you.' But he couldn't produce
a photo and was in a very sorry state every time." Zhang Meizhen paused, then smiled and let out
a soft sigh. "I was so shameless… Thinking of it now, back then, I was young and not sensible, and
had such thick skin for a young lady. That Old Yang had already said things so clearly but I still
refused to give up and clung to him. If a man did that, he would be the perfect example of a dirty
hoodlum and might have already been beaten up."

"If it's a man, it also depends on his face," Gan Qing assessed her statement seriously. "Someone
like you refusing to give up and clinging to him is an idol drama, and can't be considered dirty
hoodlum behaviour."

Zhang Meizhen snorted a laugh. "Such hypocritical words. You're a sweet-talking and cold-
hearted little thing."

Gan Qing good-naturedly accepted her rebuke with a smile.

"Actually, it's no big deal if the man gets beaten up. Even with a bloody nose and a swollen face,
if he gets to his feet he's still a man. If he regrets one day, it'll become the story of 'the return of
the prodigal son,'" Zhang Meizhen suddenly said in a low voice. "But for women, it's not the
same. On the surface, it's not an acceptable thing to hit women. Anyone who valued their
reputation even a little wouldn't dare hit a woman in public. That's why the beatings women
suffer are done in secret, where no one can see… Later on, someone wrote a letter to report my
actions."

"Who wrote it?" Gan Qing asked.

Zhang Meizhen shrugged. "Who knows? I've offended too many people."

Gan Qing looked at her in the rearview mirror. She couldn't help but feel that this old madam had
the temperament of someone who had trained herself to be extremely keen and quick-witted.
She didn't seem like a sweet, naive girl who wouldn't know if she had offended someone.

"It's true. If everyone made do with what they had and got on with their lives in the pitch
darkness, while you're the only one who acted independently and insisted on switching on the
lights and blinding other people, aren't you offending them?" Zhang Meizhen said. "It's the same
as those who keep the full beam headlights on their cars switched on the whole time when
driving at night, isn't that right, Driver?"

"Sigh, big sis, you can't put it that way. They're not the same. Turning on the full beam headlights
for no good reason can easily cause an accident. That's a lack of basic decency." The cab driver
was a middle-aged man with white in his hair at his temples. His first reaction was to instinctively
refute her words. Then, after falling silent for a while, he added a vague line in a low voice. "In
any case… What other people are doing, we'll just follow suit and do the same. Can't go wrong
that way, right?"

"Can't argue with that," Zhang Meizhen answered with a bright smile. She said, "The letter
reported me for destroying someone else's marriage, seducing a key personnel of the workplace
and acting like a loose woman, bringing down society… It was basically something like that
anyway. During those years, it's always this trick. And then, it would be followed by a disciplinary
action, a session, getting 'trampled until there was no getting up again,' all that stuff."

"I came from Travellers' Sect and was confident in my martial arts skills. I feared nothing in
Heaven nor Earth. With the Five Bats Token in hand, was there anywhere I could not go? Those
people could not catch me at all. As for that lousy workplace, so what if they fired me? At that
time, even though the major sects were no longer active, the connections were still there, people
were still in contact with one another. My sect uncles would not let me starve to death. I didn't
suffer and was even quite smug… It was only later on that I found out that during that period of
time, behind my back, Old Yang had kept reaching out to the people he knew for my sake and
made the facts clear again and again. He even explained to the leader at the workplace. He kept
thinking that it must have been himself who did not pay attention to the details and had
accidentally teased a young woman. Hence, everyone believed him and thought that there was a
problem with him too. Since they couldn't catch me and they needed someone for the people to
vent their anger on, they picked him."

"Due to that, he was removed from his post, his title of 'model worker' was withdrawn and he
also faced disciplinary action. In just a short while, from a key personnel, he became someone of
the lowest rank. Anyone could trample on him. He couldn't even stay in the dorms for singles
anymore, they turned him out and sent him to a storeroom that was modified from a bicycle
shed. Every three to five days, they held a struggle session and dragged him out to be scolded. At
that time, other than Elder Yu, not many people dared to talk to him. He was also afraid of
dragging others down with him. In those few years, even the veteran members of Beggars' Sect
took the initiative to draw the dividing line… I hid in another part of the country for a few years
and only found out about these matters later on. I went to his bicycle shed and cried outside for a
whole night. I felt that I was really a terrible person.

"Those people even found his wife. It was only then that I knew that he really wasn't just
brushing me off. He did indeed have a wife. It was an engagement his shifu had made when he
was young—a few brothers-at-arms got together and after drinking too much, started matching
up their sons and daughters like they were cats and dogs. They hadn't even met more than a few
times before getting married… I guess it's a poisonous remnant of feudalistic times. That wife of
his was the daughter of a long-time family friend. When she was twelve or thirteen, she
encountered the Japanese's bombing attacks. For the sake of rescuing someone, she suffered
some injuries. Half her face was disfigured and ever since then, it was like she changed into a
different person. Her behaviour was strange and she never left her own room, refusing to meet
with anyone."

"Old Yang is a very upstanding person. Sometimes, he's even… too upstanding." Zhang Meizhen
sighed. "Even though the older generation were no longer around, he still complied with the
agreement made by them and married her."

"At the start, I was so envious of her that I could go mad. I thought, how nice would it be if I was
that woman? Even if my face was disfigured, I would be willing. Many years later, I finally
understood that what I envied was not necessarily something good for her. At the start, perhaps
she was touched and overjoyed for a while. But as time went by, what everyone remembered
was that Yang Qing was a man of his word, that he didn't disdain such an ugly woman, and that a
good man had to suffer this grievance. How unfortunate for him. As for her, she was a 'duty' and
a 'baggage' that had good luck and was climbing up the social ladder. If she was sensible, she
would die early so that there would be a few years less of her dragging him down… She had
always refused to leave her home and meet other people because of the injuries on her face. I
think that she must not have been a heartless woman. Who knows how she endured for so many
years. Later on, her mental state was a little unstable.

"I secretly went to see her once. The people there told me that she can't see the light. Once she
saw the light, she would become hysterical and act wildly, so she rested in the day and came out
at night. Even when she left the house at night, she would cover herself up securely. If anyone
saw her on the streets, they had to pretend that they didn't see her. If anyone dared take a
second glance at her, there would surely be some trouble. She didn't even let anyone mention
her name, so it was even more impossible for her to follow Old Yang to Yanning. She didn't even
want to take care of the son she gave birth to.

"Every time Old Yang went back, on the first day, she would happily cook for him and welcome
him. On the second day, her feelings would change from strong to mild. After three or four days,
if he still didn't want to leave, she would be restless and pick a quarrel and make a fuss. Due to
that, Old Yang only rushed home and stayed for a day during festive occasions. He would leave
money and ration coupons with her and then leave.
"As for me, when I was young, I only had eyes for a man's good looks and confidence, his courage
and loyalty. I had no eyes for a woman's pain. When I knew the whole story, I thought that I
would never forget him for the rest of my life. But how could I put him through such difficulty? So
I went back and said that he was just a fool who was deceived by me. Nothing had happened and
he was bearing the blame for me for no reason. I even destroyed my own reputation… I was a
lowlife from Travellers' Sect anyway, so I… was not bothered by all that.

"Old Yang has many brothers in Beggars' Sect. There were people who had long been unable to
stand how things were going and before long, they made things right for him. As for me, I knew
that I would not be fated to be with him anymore in this life. During that time, I even got married
once—it was almost like a joke. At that time, I lived like a street rat. There was a man who had
been fond of me for many years who braved the danger to shelter me in secret. Later on, this
man had a serious illness. Since I was free and had nothing to do, I said, 'How about I become
your wife before you die, so that there will at least be someone to send you off on your final
journey?'

"For many years, life was peaceful. Those days of turmoil were finally over. Those who were
locked in detention centers were freed, those who were sent to reformation camps had their
grievances addressed. Other people were wrongly accused and had their names cleared. I was
not wrongly accused but my luck was not bad and I also had veteran members of Travellers' Sect
taking care of me. I followed suit and took advantage during the chaos to regain my job and
salary, and didn't have to live in hiding anymore."

At this point, Zhang Meizhen fell into a long silence, all the way until the cab brought the two of
them to the entrance of No. 110 Courtyard.

It was already past midnight now. The onlookers had long since dispersed and the little courtyard
was quiet and tranquil. Old Sect Leader Yang had been taken away by ambulance to receive
emergency treatment. The walking stick he had been holding at that time was at the moment
leaning against the door of the reception office, adorned with an air of aged elegance yet painting
a lonesome sight. Zhang Meizhen walked over and picked it up. She brushed off the dust, and
then said, seemingly to herself, "Why did they leave it here? Aren't they afraid someone would
just take it?"

The small lamp in front of the reception office door illuminated the wrinkles on Zhang Meizhen's
face. The sight of her holding the walking stick and muttering non-stop made Gan Qing pause her
steps. For the first time, she felt that she was really an old lady.

"Meizhen-jie…"

Zhang Meizhen didn't turn around. She lifted her head, her gaze piercing through the crown of
foliage in the garden towards a certain unit on the sixth floor. The lights in Old Sect Leader Yang's
home were on. The grandfather and granddaughter duo had come down in a rush and then went
to the hospital directly, and hadn't switched off their lights. At this moment, the brightness of his
home stood out prominently amidst the calm, like a pair of murky yet gentle eyes.

"I acted according to our agreement and sent my husband off on his final journey. His wife also
finished her prison sentence in the mortal realm and departed. In those few years, he and I did
not remarry. Even though we have grown old, as the saying goes, things remain the same while
the people have changed…" Zhang Meizhen seemed to be speaking to herself. She raised her
hand like she was trying to catch the light falling from the sixth floor, but the dim yellow light
slipped through her fingers mercilessly, a phantom that could not be caught. She exhaled another
puff of white breath. "But those were the good days."

"We got to know each other again. We became familiar with each other again."

She was no longer a thorny flower that pricked fingers; he had also been through enough ups and
downs.

"At the start, society wasn't so open-minded yet. We still lived our lives rather secretively.
Sometimes, we would exchange a look, sometimes a few words. We wrote notes, gave each
other things... It was all like conducting spywork.

And, emotions were like moss—the darker, the damper, and the more it had its back to the light,
the more it would grow without the slightest restraint.

"I thought that I had gone through the hard times and that the good days were here, that I had
finally made it through in this life." Zhang Meizhen lowered her head and let out an indistinct
laugh.

She never thought that the bright light she caught was just a fleeting spark from a flintstone.

Gan Qing asked, "Was it because… Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect have a longstanding
enmity?"

Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect longstanding enmity had existed since ancient times. This was
because both sects cast their nets throughout the land and were made up of the crowds of the
common people. There was no place where their reach did not extend to and there was some
overlap in their trades. Even though both sects had their moments of glory and their victories and
failures, when compared against each other, Beggars' Sect was a little more reputable and
righteous while Travellers' Sect had less of a bottom line when it came to swindling and tricking.

Travellers' Sect could not stand Beggars' Sect's sanctimonious attitude, while Beggars' Sect could
not stand Travellers' Sect demonic ways. The positions of "righteous" and "demonic" added to
their competition and conflict was inevitable.

"Officially, yes," Zhang Meizhen said. "My shifu had a high rank within Travellers' Sect. If Wang
Jiusheng and his people saw me, they had to hold their noses and call me 'martial grandaunt'. I
also had the Red Bat Token in my hands. Even though I didn't like interfering in those matters
myself, when the various major sects gradually started to resume their activities, my friends
hoisted me up and nominally gave me the rank of North Branch Master."

Gan Qing was a little startled.

"But I really wasn't made of the right stuff for that." Zhang Meizhen spread her hands. "In this
area, I was more or less like Old Yang. If you want me to be like Wang Jiusheng and do something
like making use of the sect to curry favour and find ways to survive, I can't do it even if you beat
me to death. I don't have that foresight and I also find it troublesome… What's more, I'm the type
who typically doesn't think with my head and I don't have the prestige Old Yang has in Beggars'
Sect. That's why today's event is something I have already experienced once thirty years ago.

"I wanted to ease the tension between Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect. In the first place, we
didn't speak of ranks and social status anymore after liberation—the beggars of Beggars' Sect all
found jobs while Travellers' Sect no longer dared to use the underhanded jianghu tricks from the
past, so why was there a need to differentiate us so clearly? In the future, everyone would travel
the four seas and we would all be brothers from the same family, wouldn't that be good?

"My heart was determined to work together with Old Yang to do this but I never thought that I
had a Wang Jiusheng in my own backyard who had always been eyeing the position of North
Branch Master like a tiger. He was even afraid that once I had Beggars' Sect as backup, he would
not be able to overthrow me."

"Coincidentally, on Old Yang's side, he had Yang Ping. After he turned ten, Yang Ping didn't grow
physically, even his voice was rather like a young boy's… I caused the father and son duo to live in
a bicycle shed so for all those years, he had always felt that his 'illness' was my fault… And also
that his mother had died early because she was angered by me."

"I indeed… couldn't be considered completely innocent." Zhang Meizhen paused. "Hence, those
two people got on like a house on fire."
Chapter 76
Before Yang Qing could be admitted to the ICU, they had to get a copy of his medical report. Yang
Yifan's assistant helped to run errands for her.

"I'm sorry." Yang Yifan felt rather apologetic towards the young woman. "I have to trouble you so
late at night."

"It's okay, it's what I should do, President Yang." The assistant panted for breath. "We are all
people planning to join the Lonely Old People Helping to Collect Each Others' Bodies Group.
There'll be many more such matters in the future, so I can warm up first… Ai, Grandpa's mouth is
moving."

Yang Yifan rushed forward and pressed her ear close. "What do you want to say?"

Up ahead, the doctor had already made the arrangements for the ward and was calling out for
the patient Yang Qing.

Old Yang was in a daze, an expression of terror and panic on his face. Perhaps it was due to the
anaesthetic, he was muttering unclearly, "Yang… Ping… You… didn't register… didn't...."

"President Yang, the doctor is calling."

"Ah, okay." Yang Yifan straightened up, puzzled. Didn't register? Didn't register for what?

"Yang Ping, why didn't you register!"

It was a hot and humid summer's day. After coming home from work, the men would either bare
their upper bodies or change into a tank top and roll it up above their chest, baring their bellies.
The whole courtyard was full of shiny white bellies and belly buttons of various shapes as far as
the eye could see.

Only Yang Qing was wearing a short-sleeved shirt neatly, buttoned up to the collar without a
thread out of place. Like he was embodying the saying, "If your heart is calm, your body will
naturally be cool," he was perfectly clean and fresh despite being dressed so properly.

The "calm" Sect Leader Yang was, for once, in a furious rage. "I'm asking you a question!"

If judged solely by his face, Yang Ping was a handsome man whose gentleness shone through his
upright conduct. He was fair with pretty and delicate looks, his features sharp and clearcut. Take
down this face and stick it onto any head on the streets and there would be no shame in that
person becoming a movie star. Unfortunately, when stuck on his body, it looked very strange. A
lad in his twenties but his head was not even up to his father's shoulders. His frame was as
slender as an underage girl. When a head of normal dimensions was fixed on that body, it looked
ill out of place. It wasn't to the extent that he had dwarfism but to say that he was a normal
person seemed a little forced.

Yang Ping dropped his gaze and didn't say anything.

"The last time, there was no news at all after the exams and I thought you had failed. I was afraid
you would take it to heart so I even kept comforting you, saying that it's okay, we can try again
this year. Were it not because other people told me, I wouldn't know that you didn't even take
the exams last year! Tell me the truth, did you also not register this year?"

"Who was it? Such a big mouth." Yang Ping spat out a breath like a bum and spread his hands. "I
was just going along with it to humour you in the first place. You can just pretend you don't
know."

Yang Qing said furiously, "What do you take the gaokao for!"

"Then what do you take me for?" Yang Ping scoffed. "Why, your son is useless so you can't lift
your head up? You want me to take an alternative route and enter a university to bring honour to
your ancestors? Let me tell you, even if I get into eighty universities, I'll just change from a
'cripple' to a 'crippled bookworm.' It won't bring you much respect! My advice to you, if you can't
accept it, then take the chance while you can still do it and quickly get another kid with that
Travellers' Sect bitch-"

Old Yang cut off his impertinent words with a slap across his face.

All the teeth in Yang Ping's mouth shook from the force of this slap. He finally shut his mouth and
looked at his father with a strange expression, teeth clenched and lips in a smile that was not
quite a smile, then looked at the Dog Beating Staff in the glass cabinet.

Yang Qing said, "Go out and kneel!"

"They have called me 'Little Sect Leader' since I was young, saying that Beggars' Sect has an heir,"
Yang Ping suddenly said in a low voice. "I could do any little thing and there would be bootlickers
behind me saying that I resemble you, hoisting me up to the sky. Then, I don't know when it
started but those people who had once hoisted me up, when they see me now, all of them smile
awkwardly. Those people who praised me when I was young and said that I have a natural talent
for martial arts have all changed to asking me if my academic results are good. All of you aren't
putting any hopes on me anymore now that I've grown to be like this, is that it? Fine."

"Yang Ping! Stand there!"

Yang Ping turned a deaf ear to him, turning to leave immediately. Yang Qing rushed out after him
and bumped into a neighbour who had just returned home after work. The neighbour pushed his
bicycle into the courtyard, blocking the narrow entrance, and even made small talk with him
laughingly. By the time he had gotten around his neighbour and went out to look, that unfilial son
of his had disappeared from sight.

Sect Leader Yang held onto the old and rundown gate, and let out a sigh.

He never thought that his son would actually treat the university entrance exams as a
humiliation. Yang Ping's physical body was indeed not suitable for practising martial arts but even
if he was, what could he do? Defeat everyone and become unsurpassable in the land, take
control of Beggars' Sect, and then? What would he depend on to survive? Surely he could not
settle down and build a life by being a beggar and collecting protection fees, could he?

What year was it now, things were not like that anymore!

If Yang Ping was physically healthy and robust, he might be able to understand these arguments.

But he just had to be like that.

He was in his twenties already, no longer a child. Even his biological father could not drag him
over as he wished to give him a beating and a scolding.

Yang Qing was naturally an introvert. It was very hard for him to play the role of a father who was
attentive and considerate, who was able to talk about anything with his children. Meanwhile,
after his teenage years, Yang Ping's behaviour became increasingly odd. Yang Qing could never
tell what his son was thinking. Sometimes, the father and son would be sharing a meal at the
same table but no one would be speaking and it was like they were acting in a silent film. Without
someone at home playing the role of the mother to make things smoother, they only grew
further and further apart.

When Yang Ping left the house this time, there was still no sign of him coming back even after a
few days later. At that time, there were no mobile phones to make it possible to find a person
easily. Yang Qing asked the few young people that his son usually had dealings with but no one
knew where he had gone… or perhaps they did, and were just not telling him.
In his heart, Yang Qing didn't think much of these young people. These few people who mixed
around with Yang Ping, each and every one of them had fickle and impatient temperaments, their
eyes set on sights higher than their hands had the ability to reach.

If he went out to clear his mind, that's fine. At that time, that was what Sect Leader Yang had
thought. He still has to attend the Martial Arts General Assembly anyway. When the time comes,
I'll bring him back and have a proper talk with him. If he's really not willing to take the gaokao, it's
okay for him to learn a trade too… but how nice would it be if he went to university.

Old Yu was handling the Martial Arts General Assembly. It was going to be held in half a month's
time. He had discussed with Meizhen—at that time, Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect would
come together, sit together, and then the two of them would make their relationship public. The
people from both sides would surely have some dissatisfaction and criticisms at the start. In that
case, they could do it slowly. Ultimately, Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect did not have any deep
grudges or blood feud between them. If the relationship between the two sides could be
repaired from now on, wouldn't that be a priceless achievement?

The moment he thought of Zhang Meizhen, an anticipation that came from nowhere rose in his
heart. It was as though everything was filled with hope, all problems easily solved.

Yang Qing's thinking was actually a little old-fashioned. He kept feeling that to have a romance at
this age had a shade of the offence of "not behaving properly despite one's age."

However, he had no choice. All these years, he had always worked hard to emulate everything his
shifu had taught him through his words and his conduct—upstanding, loyal, maintaining proper
behaviour even in his private life, keeping his word… If any of these clashed with his innate
nature, then naturally, he would have to repress his nature and choose to be righteous. Shifu
called this "cultivating one's character."

He had cultivated for over half his life and also repressed himself for the same amount of time. In
his entire life, this was the first time he was indulging himself and he was completely defeated by
this indulgence. He could only feel ashamed and, at the same time, sink into depravity helplessly.

If only he knew what Yang Ping was doing at that time.

If only…

"On the day of the Martial Arts General Assembly, I sat right next to Old Yang. There are no walls
that the wind can't pass through—even though we kept our relationship a secret, there had been
rumours since some time ago. At that time, that was the same as it being true," Zhang Meizhen
said. "Within Beggars' Sect, there were people who didn't approve of it. There was a sect elder
with the surname Zhu who refused to be involved anymore and left in a huff. Right on his heels, a
few other people stood up and followed him out… It's understandable. I guess it's about the
same as the current day young people finding out that their idols are taking drugs. I was used to
being a demoness anyway so I wasn't really bothered but Old Yang was very apologetic. After all,
the Travellers' Sect people were all rather calm. They didn't disgrace me, their North Branch
Master, in front of outsiders."
"People from reputable and righteous sects have a lot more opinions. It's normal for them to be
rather stubborn and proud," Gan Qing said.

Meanwhile, Travellers' Sect was better at producing bootlickers.

"At that time, that was what I thought too. I was even a little smug." Zhang Meizhen let out a
laugh. "It was only later on that I found out that the reason why they were suddenly so quiet was
because they were preparing for a big scene. Wang Jiusheng had long since gathered those barbs
that most strongly opposed Beggars' Sect. Working behind my back, he had fanned the flames a
few rounds. On one hand, he complained about me being too close to Beggars' Sect; on the
other, he claimed 'injustice' for me, saying that Old Yang was a scumbag who was using me,
tricking me for wealth and lust. In the daytime, this group of people got pissed off during the
Martial Arts General Assembly. At night, they gathered together to drink. Then, high on alcohol,
they kidnapped the families of Elder Zhu and his followers."

"Your esteemed sect… erm… really isn't particular with their methods." Gan Qing paused, then
continued to say, "But for them to be able to do this so easily, it must have had something to do
with Yang Ping, right?"

"When it came to their dislike for me, Yang Ping and Elder Zhu's side were united in having the
same adversary. After Elder's Zhu side left the general assembly, he was called away by Yang Ping
to hold a small meeting. This group of people cursed and vented their emotions, and also drank
until they were dead drunk," Zhang Meizhen said. "Yang Ping sent a few people to inform the
families of those drunkards. Since they were all familiar faces, no one had their guards up and the
families even invited the messengers into the house for some water. The Travellers' Sect people
following behind took the chance to launch a sneak attack. Exploiting weaknesses, kidnapping,
confidence tricks—these are all tricks Travellers' Sect is an expert in. They also had a mole helping
them so they could do it very cleanly and efficiently, without making any noise."

Gan Qing asked curiously, "Since it was Yang Ping who took them away and it was also Yang Ping
who sent the messengers, didn't anyone suspect Yang Ping of betraying his sect and helping
outsiders when there was a confrontation later?"

Zhang Meizhen slowly stroked the Dog Beating Staff. "No, because there was no confrontation."

"Why not?"

"They threw the people they kidnapped—the elderly and the young, the women and the children
—into a factory that had machinery oil in storage and sent someone to keep watch. After that,
they went back to their own homes to sleep. In the end, early in the morning, the guard fell
asleep. A few drunk hoodlums were fooling around and threw cigarette butts, and set the factory
on fire. Coincidentally, an oil barrel was leaking. The fire could not be put out in time and the
people inside were also tied up. Not a single one escaped… Anyway, it was all 'a coincidence.'"

Gan Qing, "..."

"Didn't I say just now? Between Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect, the only thing missing was a
deep grudge and blood feud," Zhang Meizhen said placidly. "By the time I found out about this, it
was too late. Causing such a huge mess in Yanning, even without Old Yang, there was no way I
could appease anyone. At that moment, a few people who were involved voluntarily stepped
forward to confess their crime. They were all bachelors without families or jobs. The police took
them away. Beggars' Sect did not accept this conclusion and insisted that these people were
obviously doing so out of 'loyalty' and were bearing the blame for their comrades."

"Elder Zhu's group were not content and put this debt on the entire Travellers' Sect. They wanted
to have Travellers' Sect repay the blood debt with blood. Old Yang and I went around putting out
fires… but can the fire in which your family died a horrible death be put out by logic and
sentiment? At that time, the government launched a strict crackdown on organisations that had a
criminal nature. This thing, once started, could not be stopped. Elder Zhu's group made more and
more noise, everyone was pulled into it, and Old Yang was put on the stake."

She remembered that it was the start of the eighth month. There was heavy rain and the entire
Yanning seemed on the verge of being lifted by the violent winds and broken apart. The earth
that had been baked warm by the peak of summer was cooled completely. In just one night, the
plants were thinned out by half, the flowers and leaves scattering into the water and leaving a
sorry sight behind.

Yu Huaide signed an urgent Alliance Leader's Command. He gathered everyone and stepped forth
to mediate the situation. Under the weight of both duty and sentiment, Yang Qing could not lift
his head and did not even dare to look at her. Amidst the mournful howls of the wind, he
announced that Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect were irreconcilable and in the future, could not
co-exist in the martial arts world.

That was the most difficult period of Zhang Meizhen's life. When she had caused trouble in her
youth and had to go into hiding, there were at least still Travellers' Sect people protecting her.
That time, because of her determination to uncover every single person involved in this matter,
the Travellers' Sect people who had always defended their comrades regardless of whether they
were right or wrong started to be dissatisfied with her. On top of that, Wang Jiusheng's side
employed some small tricks in secret and the voices calling accusing her of "being overly
generous to outsiders" and "paying up when we're the losing side" grew louder.

In less than half a year, Zhang Meizhen was forced to leave Travellers' Sect. From then on, she
retired from the jianghu.

She applied to her workplace and was transferred to a post in another part of the country. For
over ten years, she did not return.

Later on, the old public housing was demolished. No. 110 was built. Free of all those jianghu
matters, she had nothing to occupy her other than her job and managed to fumble her way into
becoming a veteran worker and key personnel. Perhaps it was because of this, or perhaps
someone had used their connections internally… in any case, somehow or other, they left her an
apartment.

"Maybe it was Xiao-Chuan's granduncle who asked someone to leave it for me." Zhang Meizhen
smiled with feigned ease. "But I was not thankful to that old man. A few years after distributing
the units, they wanted us to pay money to buy them. It nearly used up my tiny bit of coffin
money."

She came back after she retired and became neighbours with Yang Qing again.

But the beauty in the past was now aged and worn, and the love and hatred had also turned into
ash.

"It's not possible for the two of us anymore in this life," Zhang Meizhen said.

As for the next life… it was better to forget it.

The over fifty years they had known each other had been entirely a torment, wringing them dry.
In the end, there were only those few memories that seemed almost like a figment of her
imagination.

If there was really a next life, it would be better for them not to meet.

In the ICU ward, the old Yang Qing's condition suddenly worsened late at night. The doctors and
nurses on duty brought him into the emergency treatment room again like they were fighting a
battle. Yang Yifan was leaning against the corridor wall and taking a nap; she woke up with a start
and was dragged up to sign the notice of critical illness.

"Doctor, can you give me an estimate, how likely is it that my grandpa will…"

"It's hard to say. Most people would be fine by now but his age is so advanced, anything can
happen. His family members should be prepared." The doctor paused. "I guess it depends on the
patient's vitality and his desire to live… It seems quite strong."

It was as though he understood in his heart that if he closed his eyes in this realm, there was
someone who was going to sever ties with him and refuse to even be passing acquaintances with
him anymore.

Zhang Meizhen held the walking stick and walked to the stairs. She muttered, almost inaudibly,
"In old age…"

In old age one grows forgetful, only my thoughts of you remain[1].

A few steps behind her, Gan Qing stood still, her thoughts somewhere else. Right then, car lights
swept across the entrance of the little courtyard. The cab Yu Lanchuan and the others were
taking had reached. Gan Qing turned her head towards the sound, just in time to see Yu
Lanchuan get down from the car, his body mired in an air of gloom.

Without warning, their eyes met. The irritability on Yu Lanchuan's face instantly dissipated. For a
moment, he seemed to suddenly shrink back, hesitating unexpectedly and not walking forward.

T/N:
[1] "In old age one grows forgetful, only my thoughts of you remain" 老来多健忘，唯不忘相思
— This is the last line of the poem " 偶作寄朗之 " by Bai Juyi. I am not able to find an English
translation of this poem and it's also rather beyond my level of Chinese comprehension but this
final line is an oft quoted line and my interpretation here is both a rather literal translation and
also based on comments about it that I found online.
Chapter 77
Han Dongsheng also got out of the cab. When he saw the "blue-screened" Yu Lanchuan, he called
out to him curiously, "Little Master Yu?"

Yu Lanchuan himself wasn't sure what happened. He only felt that Gan Qing's gaze just now had
been very special, like there was a myriad of feelings intertwined within, looking over to him from
across a very distant time and space, and even carrying with it the dust from the weary journey,
making him feel—for a moment—a fear of the emotions it drew from him.

Fortunately, Gan Qing regained her usual composure quicker than he did. With a smile that was
not quite a smile, she extended a finger, Yu Lanchuan's car key hanging from it, and said
teasingly, "I heard that Little Master Yu was so amazing today… achoo!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Before Gan Qing could finish a single teasing line, she had already sneezed three times in quick
succession. When that was over, a breath of air was stuck at the back of her nasal cavity, refusing
to go down no matter what. As the ringing in her ears gradually drowned out the sound of the
wind, she had a bad feeling—she was catching a cold!

Both Han Dongsheng and Yan Hao gave her looks of astonishment.

Between these two, one already had the "three highs" while the other only knew how to leap up
walls, but people who practised martial arts since young were still physically more robust than
ordinary people. Han Dongsheng felt that the last time he had a cold or a fever, he was probably
around the age of his son now.

To think that even Wan Mu Chun could have a blocked nose, and could cough and sneeze!

Yu Lanchuan regained his senses and asked in disbelief, "You've already wrapped yourself until
you're like a ball and you're still shameless enough to catch a cold?"

Gan Qing said in a very nasal voice, "Heaven sends me to my doom, what fault of mine-"

"Still saying nonsense!" Yu Lanchuan pulled the hood of her down jacket up and down over her
head, pushing her whole head inside until only her lower jaw could be seen. "If you have a cold,
why aren't you home and resting? Who asked you to interfere in something that's none of your
business? Don't I know better than you how to act within limits?"

"I can't see anything." Gan Qing pushed the hood up and said slowly. "You sure do, don't you?
Challenging the four sect elders of Beggars' Sect on your own, armed with a peach wood sword
for Daoist rituals, you sure do know your limits."
Yu Lanchuan took the car key from her. He accidentally touched her ice-cold fingertips and
immediately asked suspiciously, "Weren't you still perfectly fine during dinner? What were you
doing just now? Your phone was switched off and Wang Jiake even ended up in your hands?"

"It's a…" Gan Qing sniffled hard. "...ai, long story."

Even though she was afraid of the cold, in the past she had stayed in basements and group
rentals where the heating was almost nonexistent. Despite that, she had never been chilled until
she fell sick. On the other hand, now that she was enjoying warm air every day in winter, curled
up next to the heater, her immune system had weakened quite a bit. She had been spoiled by
comfort.

"Forget it." Yu Lanchuan pushed her towards the corridor, out of the wind. He did some quick
mental calculations; Zhang Meizhen was an old lady who lived for the moment and would
definitely not keep any medicine on hand at home. He himself had moved in not long ago and
had also forgotten to keep any at his place. At this hour, the pharmacies were all closed. Where
could he go to get some cold medicine for her?

While fretting, his mouth did not remain idle. "Other people can strengthen their bodies by
practising martial arts. You? Today your stomach hurts, tomorrow your head hurts. Other than
causing trouble, your skills aren't good for anything. What kind of demonic skills are you
practising?"

Yu Lanchuan's mind was entirely occupied with the question of where to get medicine while Gan
Qing's hearing was severely impacted by the ringing in her ears. As for Han Dongsheng and Yan
Hao, one of them wasn't good at qinggong and did not have good hearing while the other was
not perceptive and frequently dwelled in a world of his own without paying much attention to his
surroundings.

Hence, today, no one noticed that there was someone at the courtyard entrance.

That someone waited until they had all returned to their own homes before walking out of the
shadow of the wall. It was none other than the little mute girl from the pet store, Qiao-Qiao.

When Yan Hao returned to the laundry shop, he accidentally tripped over a cardboard box at the
entrance. Only then did he remember that this morning, before the pet store opened for the day,
he had taken in a delivery on behalf of Qiao-Qiao. In the turmoil and pandemonium of the day,
he had forgotten about this matter.

Qiao-Qiao would sometimes dig into her own pocket to order some imported canned pet food
and give the little animals in the pet store better meals. Yan Hao took a look. On the entire street,
the lights in the buildings were all dark.

It's too late now. I'll let her know tomorrow, he thought, not very bothered about it. He locked
the laundry shop door behind him.

When buying something from across the national border, the package would have to go through
customs when it entered the country. The buyer's real identification information would have to
be uploaded and the recipient's name would typically have to be written in full. A name like
"Qiao-Qiao" that was either a childhood name or a nickname would definitely not do.

On the box of canned food, Qiao-Qiao's real name was written in the section for the recipient's
name: Zhu Qiao.

On this night, after sorting out the dispute among these Beggars' Sect members that they had to
bend over backwards to please, the thoroughly wiped-out neighbourhood police officers at least
reaped a small reward—after going missing for a few days, Wang Jiake dropped into their laps
out of nowhere!

The entire online world was suspecting that she had been killed to prevent her from exposing
secrets and all sorts of conspiracy theories were bubbling up. Even though the girl seemed to be
in a rather miserable state, in any case, it was a good thing that she had returned unscathed and
in one piece. The officers quickly reported it to their higher-ups and, at the same time, asked her
where she had been during the time she was missing.

Who would have thought, if they hadn't asked, they would remain ignorant but once they asked,
they were shocked out of their skins. The twists and turns she had experienced for several days
running was no less fantastical than what people were cooking up online. There was a loan scam,
a suspected kidnapping and illegal house arrest, and even an unsuccessful sexual assault attempt!

While this was happening, the news about Wang Jiake being taken away by "Wan Mu Chun" was
delivered to Wang Jiusheng. After Wang Jiusheng heard the whole story, he stood on the
luxurious open deck at the top of the building and smoked half a pack's worth of cigarettes in
quick succession. Slowly, he took up his phone and sighed. "I'm not afraid of you guys messing
things up. You're young after all. After a few more rounds of training, you'll naturally be more
thorough when taking care of matters. I'm just afraid of this kind of person who acts without
reason and gets carried away the moment he sees a girl who looks halfway decent. Such a
disgrace!"

His subordinate hurried to admit their mistake. "It is my fault for not choosing the right person,
North Branch Master-"

"That goes without saying. You have compiled the list of people involved in this matter, haven't
you?" Wang Jiusheng cut him off. Then, in a meaningful tone, he added, "Have you taken care of
their families?"

From the other side of the call, his subordinate said, "Please do not worry about this."

"Then that's good." Wang Jiusheng nodded. "In the first place, this matter was because I couldn't
say no so I helped our friends from Beggars' Sect stand up in a crisis. Regardless of whether the
result is good or bad, it should not be borne by our Travellers' Sect, am I right?"

"Yes."

"Go get it done," Wang Jiusheng said lightly. "When you're the one doing the work, I have never
had to worry."
The moment he hung up, the smile of confidence and ease on Wang Jiusheng's face disappeared,

He rubbed his fingers together and carefully surveyed the open deck in his own home like he was
checking for landmines. Wang Jiusheng lived in one of the rare low-density neighbourhoods in
the city district. The entire neighbourhood only had four buildings. The security was tight and
each building had a security room. There were people on patrol twenty-four hours a day in the
neighbourhood.

He had bought the penthouse, the most luxurious unit in the entire building. It was on the thirty-
second floor and was known as "The Courtyard in the Air." There was a large open deck from
which a panoramic view of more than half of Yanning could be seen. The price was sky-high.

But right now, even the thirty-second floor could not give him a sense of security. Wang Jiusheng
switched on the infrared intruder detector installed on the open deck but still did not feel
reassured so he went back in and locked the door to the deck. Other than a decorative glass
door, his open deck also had a very extravagant anti-intruder door. Once it was lowered, it was
like locking himself into a safe made of steel.

Inside the "safe," Wang Jiusheng opened his laptop and obsessively and carefully checked all the
nearby CCTVs three times. Done, he finally grabbed a few sleeping pills and lay down to rest.

However, even the "safe" and the sleeping pills could not make him sleep peacefully. Not long
after he closed his eyes, he startled awake from a nightmare of bloodied, disfigured corpses. He
shouted out, cold sweat dripping as he sat up. Scared out of his wits, he switched on all the lights
in the room. Right at that moment, from the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow on the wall!

His hair stood on end all over his body. He reached back and took out a combat knife from under
his pillow. In a hysterical voice, he shouted, "Who is it!"

There was no reply. It turned out to be only his own clothes rack.

Wang Jiusheng let out a shaky breath and his shoulders collapsed. He poured out half a bottle of
mineral water from the minibar.

Wang Jiusheng was born in a period of turmoil. At thirteen years old, the first person he had
killed with his own hands was someone from the same sect, a boy about his age who was more
good-looking and more well-connected than he was but had actually been a hypocrite since
young. The nickname of "coward" started from this boy's mouth. After he secretly killed this
person, he stuffed him down a well, making it seem as though the boy had disappeared into thin
air. For a period of time, people searched for the boy and they thought he had run off on his own.
No one ever suspected the honest and obedient Wang Jiusheng back then.

Other than that, the old dog that had bitten him before, the cook who had beaten him with the
stick for lighting fires, the girl who had embarrassed him to his face by calling him "a frog
dreaming of eating goose meat"—they all quietly disappeared into thin air.

Heaven knew, Earth knew. He knew, the dead knew.

Later on, the times changed and his methods also followed suit and evolved continuously. From
the simple "murder and dispose the body," it evolved into creating accidents. The flames from
the "accidental" large fire at the warehouse thirty years ago cleared the way to the throne of the
North Branch Master and also gave him the glory and wealth he was enjoying in the second half
of his life.

Even later on, his method of "creating accidents" evolved and became the higher level "kill with a
borrowed knife." Even a big demon like Wei Xiao could not escape from his hands.

Every single one of these incidents had been memorable works with a lingering taste that made
him proud. But from some unknown point onwards, they started to quietly seep into his dreams.
Every night when midnight struck, they transformed into monsters that clung incessantly to him.

This could not be because he had grown old, and had grown afraid.

Wang Jiusheng thought that it was all because he had overlooked some things when he took care
of matters of those years ago. He did not clear the roots when cutting the grass, and had left Wan
Mu Chun with a remnant.

He tightened his grip on the combat knife and opened the drawer on the bedside table. A small
safe was hidden there. Upon entering the twenty six-digit passcode, the safe softly sprung open.
Inside was a bloody item of clothing and a few old photographs.

If Gan Qing or Meng Tianyi were to see them, they would be able to tell that the photographs
were taken at Mudpool Backlane before it was rebuilt, at the place where Wei Xiao had lived in
hiding.

Every photo was taken from a different angle. Among them, a photo of Yang Ping was very eye-
catching. In it, Yang Ping already looked middle-aged. He was standing at the foot of the wall at
the backyard of a small courtyard, looking like he had just climbed over the wall from the inside,
and was wiping his hands. The palms of his twisted hands had an odd purple hue to them and
were stained with blood. There was a smile on his face.

That night, the cold wind howled. Wang Jiusheng was entangled by monsters, Yang Yifan was
nervously waiting on the edge of her seat for updates on the emergency treatment, and Zhang
Meizhen sat in a stupor in front of her dead-silent phone the whole night.

Those whose hearts contained guilt or worry or regret, those whose past laid behind them, they
all tossed and turned through the night, unable to sleep.

The only exception was Gan Qing. Yu Lanchuan got some cold medicine from Han Dongsheng's
home, mixed it with water, and forced a large bowl down her throat, after which she seemed to
be knocked unconscious and slept until the afternoon of the following day.

When a person who was not frequently ill fell sick, their sickness would be exceptionally severe
and their reaction to medicine equally strong. When Gan Qing was woken up by the doorbell
ringing, she felt as though her head had been stuffed full of sticky paste. Zhang Meizhen had
gone off to who knew where so she had no choice but to crawl out of bed on all four limbs and
then drag her two noodly legs over to open the door.

Yu Lanchuan came in carrying a bag containing lunch and a bag containing medicine. "Why didn't
you ask who it was before opening the door? Don't you know that this courtyard is a little unsafe
recently? Hello?"

Gan Qing was holding onto the door frame for support, her head leaning against the frame to
draw some of its coolness into herself. Her eyes were still unfocused.

Yu Lanchuan felt that her expression did not look right. He reached out a hand to touch and was
scalded by her forehead. "You're burning up! Yesterday, I told you to take the medicine in the
morning, did you do it?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"How did you survive until now?" Exasperated, Yu Lanchuan put down the things he brought and
removed the down jacket from the coat rack, and grabbed a hold of Gan Qing with one hand. "To
the hospital!"

Gan Qing wasn't very clear-headed. She subconsciously drew back her shoulder and swung her
elbow across, hitting accurately on Yu Lanchuan's meridian point. Her limbs were feeble and the
force was not very strong. Yu Lanchuan hissed in pain and grabbed her elbow but Gan Qing
seemed unable to stand steady. She fell forward along with the momentum, her entire body,
heated to an abnormal temperature, landing on his.

Yu Lanchuan's heart stuttered, his heart stopping for half a beat.

Then, the next second, there was a chill on his neck. Something cold and metallic was touching
his skin.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

It was only then that Gan Qing finally slowly realised what was happening. She asked fuzzily,
"...Little Master Yu? Why haven't you gone to work yet?"

"I took time from my lunch break to rush back from the office and bring you food," Yu Lanchuan
said slowly through gritted teeth. "May I trouble you to remove your claws from my neck?"
Chapter 78
Gan Qing was strangely silent for a few seconds. Then, she finally realised what she had done and
stiffly took a step back.

"I… erm, I wasn't very awake…"

"You're even using my keys!"

The two of them had spoken almost in unison and also shut their mouths in unison. Two voices
overlapped.
Gan Qing's gaze drifted down. Yu Lanchuan had taken something out just now and his wallet was
opened, revealing his keys. His key chain was hung with a small decorative Swiss army knife…
which she had availed herself of by taking it and holding it against his neck.

Without a word, Gan Qing pulled a tissue from the side and gave Yu Lanchuan's keys a thorough
wipedown. Then, looking like she was making a tribute, she offered it up on both hands,
respectfully escorting it back to Yu Lanchuan's bag, and pretended that nothing had happened.

She usually couldn't be bothered to open her eyes wide and her eyelids were always hiding half
her pupils, making other people unable to tell what she was focusing on and putting a distance
between her and them. Now, because of her cold, her double eyelids were burned by her fever
until the folds had multiplied and were weighing down heavily, and there was a hint of tears. For
no reason at all, she now seemed innocent and docile.

Unlike her usual self.

Yu Lanchuan's mind stirred. It was as though he was looking at an ice-covered rock on a mountain
and spotted a bunch of flowers growing in the cracks. He was a little shaken by this unexpected
turn and his voice involuntarily softened a few notches, "Go eat something and check your
temperature. I'll take you to the hospital."

Without realising it, Gan Qing followed after him for a few steps. There seemed to be something
separating the sound in her ears from her; the sound seemed to come from far and then from
near in tandem with the intermittent ringing in her ears. Her reaction was also slower.

Yu Lanchuan had already spread the medicine and food he had brought all over the table by the
time she spoke in a rather unclear voice. "I don't need to go to the hospital. It's like this every
time I get a cold. I'll have a fever for a day and it'll go down after sleeping for two days. It's fine
whether or not I take medicine… Mm…"

Her brain seemed a little incapable of reacting. She kept feeling that she had forgotten to say
something and it was a long while before she remembered and quickly made up for it awkwardly,
"Why did you purposely come back from the office? I feel bad for inconveniencing you."

It never hurts to be extra well-mannered; Gan Qing's original intention was to say something
polite but because these polite words came out a little too slow, like she was forcibly making up
for her slip-up, they didn't sound well-mannered and considerate. Instead, it sounded like she
was purposely being more distant and was a little unfriendly.

That was just how mysterious the human language was. Sometimes, a subtle difference in tone or
timing would result in a completely different meaning.

Gan Qing sensed it. To prevent misunderstandings, she quickly turned her head full of sticky
paste and added a line that sounded completely like she was kissing up to him. "But I happen to
have no energy to get up and cook. This lunch came at the perfectly right time. Little Master Yu
has saved my humble little life, my eternal gratitude for his great kindness, in the future…"
Yu Lanchuan gave her a chilly look.

Gan Qing could only laugh foolishly.

But Yu Lanchuan didn't seem angry at all. He ignored her, looking down as he sent messages to
his colleague to say that he had something to do in the afternoon and was taking a half day off.

After sending the message, he put his phone away and took his time to ask, "In the future, what?
What can you do to repay me?"

Gan Qing, "..."

She counted on her fingers; she had neither money nor power, neither a house nor a career. She
had nothing but the barest of necessities. Only her culinary skills were still decent but her palate
seemed different from others and could not be accepted by the secular world. Little Master Yu
respected order and obeyed laws, and was a model citizen. He probably did not have the need to
hire an assassin.

No wonder in the legends passed on among the people, the little demons were always repaying
debts of kindness with their bodies—they really had no other skills.

But Gan Qing had always thought that the "demons repaying debts of kindness with their bodies"
type of stores were all fantasies cooked up by young men from the lowest rungs of the old
society in the past. The male protagonists all had empty pockets and empty heads, and only
hearts full of integrity.

If Master Xu was a child of the nobility, then The Legend of the White Snake would not be a story
of repaying kindness and instead be a "porcelain scam." That was because Madam White Snake
was an aimless migrant who even faked her household registration, whose special abilities were
in using her demonic skills to swindle and trick. Even her beautiful looks were created with her
skills and she exposed herself the moment she had too much to drink.

Why would a gentleman of the nobility class want her? He would be scared until he pissed his
pants.

The rest of the story would probably describe Master Xu spending a large amount of money to
hire Daoist masters to perform a ritual, followed by a few hundred rounds of great battles
between the Daoist masters and the demons. In the end, evil would not be able suppress good
and the demons would be exterminated.

Yu Lanchuan saw her at a loss for words and rolled his eyes. From the bag of medicine, he took
out a digital thermometer and tossed it to her. "Read the manual yourself if you don't know how
to use it."

As he spoke, he took the soupy and liquidy foods that had gone a little cold to the kitchen and
heated them up one by one.
Gan Qing's head felt heavy. She tilted her head, resting it on the back of the chair, relieving the
burden on her neck. Through her angled viewpoint, she looked at Yu Lanchuan in the kitchen. Yu
Lanchuan's back was to her and he was familiarising himself with the microwave in her place. His
eternally well-ironed shirt was overlaid with a simple wool vest, bringing out the lines of his
broad shoulders and narrow waist.

Little Master Yu was not a "child of the nobility" but if put in the past, he definitely had the right
to be a "gentleman." He was overflowing with talent, could handle matters by considering all
aspects, and it was only a matter of time before he reached the top of the ranks. He was also
good-looking and one day, a princess might take a fancy to him and bring him home to be her
prince consort. Then, he would no longer have to pay his house loan.

Gan Qing thought for a while and said, "I know a few people who have sword-making skills
passed down for generations… Even though they're all making crafts now, they must still have
some private treasures hidden in their homes. The Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang keeps being
forcibly transformed into truncheon techniques and broom skills, it's such a shame. Why don't I…
get a sword for you?"

Yu Lanchuan said coldly, "A protection item to ward my house from evil? To hell with that. My
house is not decorated in the Chinese style anyway. Why would I hang a sword there? That's
insanity."

Gan Qing said, "...Sect Leader Yu, even if your esteemed sect only has a sect leader left, it is still a
sword sect after all."

The microwave sounded with a ding. The savoury smell of the food wafted out, drifting into the
living room, warm and rich.

"We are a sect that uses the sword, not a sect that worships the sword," Yu Lanchuan said
indifferently. "Swords or spears, clubs or staffs, what's the difference? Of course, the best would
be if we can settle things with words rather than with hands."

Here he goes again. The thermometer wedged in one armpit, Gan Qing hid her face in the crook
of her other arm and smiled.

But Yu Lanchuan did not smile. He carried the warmed-up food to the table. "Fist and leg
techniques are easy to pass down. Swordplay is bound to expand in the direction of stage
performances and might become totally extinct one day. So what? Furthermore, I don't like to
use real swords."

Gan Qing asked curiously, "Why not? Have you reached the stage where you're even able to use
flower petals and leaves as swords?"

"Lethal weapons such as knives and swords belong to the category of high-risk methods. I should
be considered a 'risk-averse person,' I don't like to deal with these things." Yu Lanchuan paused.
"Oh, a 'risk-averse person' means-"
Gan Qing continued the sentence for him. "A person that, even in times of calm winds and calm
waters, acts as though he is walking on thin ice."

"Something like that." Yu Lanchuan shrugged. Seeing that it wasn't convenient for her to move
about with the thermometer wedged under her arm, he ladled out a bowl of soup for her and
pushed a soup spoon into her left hand. "It doesn't sound as cool as being a gambler, does it?
Safe and boring, like wolfberry and red date tea."

However, if he was someone who "acted as though he was walking on thin ice," why was he
willing to stand up and block the menacing wave of Beggars' Sect rebels all on his own?

Gan Qing thought that if she asked this, Yu Lanchuan would definitely reply impatiently with a "I
was forced to, there was no other choice, what else could I do?"

There were people who viewed money like it was dirt and were willing to exchange precious
horses and sable fur coats for good wine, all for the sake of one round of utmost bliss. All things
in the world were transient, only emotions ran deep and loyalty weighed heavy.

But Yu Lanchuan did not have that kind of ease in his conduct. He was like that type of old and
rich man who was usually stingy and petty, and would split one coin into eight pieces to be used,
miserly enough to make others torn between laughing and crying. But you just knew that, at the
moment of crisis, he would be willing to discard everything that he had placed importance on and
give up all his fortune for your sake.

"What are you looking at?" Her staring made Yu Lanchuan uncomfortable. He put on a poker
face. "Why do I feel that you're a bit foolish today? The digital thermometer only needs one
minute. Hurry up and check how well-cooked you are."

The thermometer was showing 38.5 degrees. High fever.

Yu Lanchuan frowned and put down his chopsticks. "I'll go down and buy some fever medicine."

Gan Qing's eyes fell on the indicator on the thermometer. Perhaps her temperature was really so
high that her brain had short-circuited, she blurted out, "You don't want a knife and you don't
want a sword. But if I treat someone to a meal, the most luxurious meal I can afford is
McDonald's. If you continue to treat me so well, I'm not going to be able to repay this debt."

She dragged out her words and her voice was a little hoarse and nasal, sounding a little sticky.
She was like the spider demon from the legends, lying in the middle of her web, dangerous and
enthralling, keeping the moth Yu Lanchuan stuck where he was.

The two of them were separated by a tiny table, so close they could count the eyelashes on each
other's eyes.

Yu Lanchuan's throat rolled slightly. Then, he slowly stood up, rested both palms on the small
table, and leaned his body towards Gan Qing, his height lending him an oppressive feel.
When he was not pulling a face, the corners of his eyes and his lips were drawn in a straight line,
neither curling up nor drooping down. The look on his face without any artifice was filled with a
sense of rationality and indifference, making one think of the tranquil scene of a floating iceberg
where hidden undercurrents and whirlpools flowed unseen beneath it.

Yu Lanchuan said next to her ear, "You can apply to extend the term of the loan and just repay
the interest for now."

Gan Qing seemed to be frozen in that small piece of shadow, not moving an inch.

Yu Lanchuan lowered his eyes slightly, counting down from five in his heart. This was supposedly
the time required for an adult to calm down from an impulsive urge. He was politely and
courteously giving the other person this amount of time.

However, Gan Qing's reaction today was exceptionally slow. She seemed to have not caught this
chance.

Yu Lanchuan sighed and gave her earlobe a light pinch. His breath brushed barely discernibly
across her cheek, like the wind leaving light touches and blowing away, making it hard for a
person to tell in that moment whether there was any physical contact. Then, he stood up, put on
his coat and went down to buy medicine.

It was only when she heard the door close that Gan Qing blinked, seeming to wake up from a
dream.

She was feverish to the point that she was completely confused. She could not at all consider
complicated questions like "the future," "equivalent social status," "a good match or a bad
match" and "which path to take from now on." Only a mere pinch of her brain cells were not on
strike, sticking loyally to their posts as they connected her brain to her nose that was suddenly
unblocked and noting down the smell of the cologne lingering beside her.

It smelled like mint.

Chapter 79
"Mr. Tian Zhanpeng, you have a delivery. Please sign for it."

In the cold of the twelfth month of the traditional calendar, the Nine Pouch Elder of Beggars' Sect
had all the doors of his house wide open. He was packing his things.

The old building where his rented home was located was suddenly about to be demolished. The
owners were on the verge of experiencing a quantum leap in social class to become the "nobility
of demolished residences" and were all celebrating. However, while there were families rejoicing,
there were also families worrying. The residents who rented homes were as though struck by
lightning during a clear, cloudless day, and were all shrouded in a cloud of despair.

"Leave it at the door." Elder Tian was on the phone. He answered without thinking and then
turned back to the phone to say to the landlord, "...There's also the gas that I just refuelled last
week. I haven't used it much. How are you going to account for that?"
The landlord had already become a winner in life and his generosity was sky-high. "Take it with
you! I'll give you the gas tank, take it as a farewell gift! May both our futures be bright and
beautiful!"

Elder Tian, "..."

The galvanised steel body of the gas tank was indeed printed with the words "Bright and
Beautiful Future" in red, barely visible beneath the grease smears. It sat conspicuously in a corner
with this "adorable" appearance, its future as murky as its owner.

Elder Tian had stayed there for six years. A house, no matter how rundown, was worth a fortune
to someone destitute. He spent an entire afternoon before he was done packing up everything
he wanted to bring away with him. Large bags and small bags were strewn all over the floor, a
completely chaotic and miserable sight. He looked around for a few seconds and realised that
there was really no place for him to rest. Thus, this old man whose age was nearly seventy raised
his arms and wiped the sweat on his forehead with his sleeves, then slowly walked to the door
and sat down on the doorstep with a sigh. He rolled a cigarette for himself.

What was he to do?

His only choice was to go to one of his disciples' homes and make do for the time being while he
slowly looked for another place.

Thinking of it, his days were like that of a dog's and yet, he was still shameless enough to fight for
the Dog Beating Staff. Was he going to grab it and demonstrate cutting himself with a bamboo
staff? Elder Tian grimaced and blew out a puff of smoke. While ridiculing himself this way, he
carelessly tore open the delivery package at the door.

Who sent something to him? This nonsense could only be an invoice or an ad…

Elder Tian's careless movements suddenly paused. An old photograph fell out of the express
delivery envelope. He was first stunned, then he abruptly realised something. In that instant, all
the sweat on Elder Tian's body chilled and he shivered involuntarily. The old photograph at his
feet showed the back window of a very hidden small courtyard in Mudpool Backlane. A younger
him was climbing out of the window together with a group of people. Some were already on the
ground while some were still climbing out in a fluster.

The photo captured his face from the front. He was glaring viciously in a direction. Tian Zhanpeng
remembered that at that time, his state of mind was too disordered and he had been looking in
Yang Ping's direction. But Yang Ping was not in this photo!

About ten years had passed but that incident was still vivid in his memories.

For some years, Elder Tian had been in other parts of the country taking care of matters in the
branches. He had just returned to Yanning and found a place to settle down when an unexpected
visitor came. It was Yang Ping.
At that time, Yang Ping had already been ousted from Beggars' Sect and had even disappeared
for nearly ten years. When he suddenly reappeared, Tian Zhanpeng nearly couldn't recognise him
at first glance.

When Old Sect Leader Yang severed ties with Yang Ping, he had listed out Yang Ping's sins. There
were stuff like "Had once used the sect's internal network to disseminate malicious rumours and
slanders about so-and-so," "Relied on strength to bully the weak, and gathered hired thugs to
attack so-and-so" and "Raised his hand against his own wife and child, uncompassionate and
unfilial." After reading it, a person would think that this dude was immoral and had done all sorts
of bad things but they would not be able to find the main point.

Hence, everyone in Beggars' Sect knew very well in their hearts and guts that the real reason why
Yang Ping was ousted from Beggars' Sect was because he tried to murder the former North
Branch Master of Travellers' Sect, Zhang Meizhen.

Tian Zhanpeng heard people say that when the apartments in No. 110 were distributed, Yang
Ping didn't know yet that Zhang Meizhen also had one. It was only when she retired and came
back to Yanning, and bumped into Yang Ping who was operating the elevator when she moved in
that he knew. One was a female cadre official who retired in honour, the other had both arms
disabled and was a pitiful worm depending on operating the elevator to make a living. Yang Ping
went mad on the spot.

Zhang Meizhen also wasn't a warm-hearted person. She had a sarcastic mouth and there were
old grudges between her and Yang Ping, so she took the chance to ridicule him. After he went
back, Yang Ping might have become more revolted the more he thought about it. Some said that
he set fire on Zhang Meizhen's home and there were also some who said that he gathered a
group of people to corner her at the little guest house where she was staying.

The sect leader punished his own son for the sake of his old flame. It was not something they
could all talk about much but behind his back, they discussed the matter and many of them
actually sided with Yang Ping. After all, Yang Ping was one of Beggars' Sect own while Zhang
Meizhen was a former member of Travellers' Sect with which they had grievances and grudges
that could not be settled. Even though those involved in the tragedy back in that year were
already punished by law and the matter was considered over, the two large sects were enemies
from then on. The words "Travellers' Sect" was the synonym for "dog shit" in Beggars' Sect's
vocabulary.

Time had worn away not an insignificant amount from Yang Ping who had disappeared for nearly
ten years. His eyes were dark and sinister, like they were suppressing a volcano that was about to
erupt. After he came in, he went right to the main point and told him that he had found Wei
Xiao's hiding place.

Wei Xiao was a shadow hanging above the heads of the people of their generation. He stood out
among the crowd and had made his name in just one fight back in that year. The most important
thing was, there were many rumours swirling around him, making this person seem to be not
really someone from the righteous path.
This life of Yang Ping's was half ruined by his own hands and half by Wei Xiao. Due to the
limitations of his body, he practised martial arts more ruthlessly than anyone else, and wanted to
stand out among his peers more than anyone else. Having suppressed his zeal for long enough,
he wanted to astound everyone in a single roar but who would have thought that the moment he
opened his mouth, he was turned into a squib by Wei Xiao and the tendons of his arms broken.

Back then, Tian Zhanpeng had actually been among the group of people who gave Wei Xiao a
letter of challenge. However, his shifu was still alive then and before he could keep his
appointment, he was found out by his shifu. The old man struck him across the palms on his
hands and locked him up. After the incident, Tian Zhanpeng found out the result of that fight and
was both indignant and regretful… and also a little bit grateful. He had always deceived himself
into thinking that if he had gone along back then, things wouldn't have turned out that way.

Yang Ping came to find him and said, "Tian-laoge, Wei Xiao is evil to the core. Right now, those
few people from the righteous paths in the martial arts world whose words carry any weight are
ignoring this matter. They are unable to shame their old friend and are letting this rogue go free.
Last time, our skills were inadequate and we were also careless. That's why we lost to his
despicable tricks. This time, we must not let him escape! For so many years, even in my dreams, I
wanted to wash away my past disgrace but I had not been able to find him. Now, I have finally
caught him! Tian-laoge, I know that you were unable to make it the last time and it must have
troubled you all this while. If you were also there, would we brothers fall to our current state?"

With this instigation, Tian Zhanpeng became eager to give it a try. At the same time, he was also
feeling guilty and impatient. In this state of confusion, he followed Yang Ping.

He went to take a look when the day arrived. With Yang Ping in the lead, the few people whom
Wei Xiao had injured were all gathered there. These people all lived half in seclusion after being
injured by Wei Xiao and no one knew whether their injuries were healed or how much their skills
had deteriorated. When Tian Zhanpeng saw the state of their troops, he thought pessimistically
that he would be the main attacker in this fight against Wei Xiao.

When they found Wei Xiao's home, the door was opened. A thin old man was waiting for them,
his appearance neat and clean. He had steeped tea and there was a letter laying beside his hands.

It was only then that Tian Zhanpeng knew that Yang Ping had already given Wei Xiao a letter of
challenge.

Tian Zhanpeng felt that it was a little unexpected. In his mind, he had cast Wei Xiao in the role of
a villain who hid behind half-truths. He never thought that Yang Ping would have given him a
letter of challenge ahead of time.

Didn't he say he was afraid that person would run away? And he still dared to alert the enemy?

And, strangely, Wei Xiao had not run away.

Not only had he not run, that man was sitting upright in the front hall, looking as though he was
calmly waiting for his visitors. He even had quite the air of a respected senior who embodied the
saying "When your moral character is as deep as an abyss and aloof as the highest mountain
ridge, you need not fear the oncoming wind."

Or perhaps he is too conceited and looks down on all of us, Tian Zhanpeng thought in his heart.

Since the letter of challenge came from Yang Ping, naturally he was the first one to go up. Tian
Zhanpeng looked at the people around him and felt very regretful. He had heard that the last
time they challenged Wei Xiao, they had all fought together by the end of the fight. He never
thought that the shadow Wei Xiao left in their hearts would still remain after so many years. This
time, they didn't even dare attack together. They were actually all there just to be cheerleaders!

Tian Zhanpeng sighed and prepared himself for the eventual one-on-one fight with Wei Xiao.

Who would have thought that he would not have the chance to do anything.

Yang Ping—this man whose arms and legs had been broken, whose four limbs wouldn't be on the
same level plane if he sprawled on the ground—had taken who-knew-what super advanced
energy pills beforehand. The moment he made his move, everyone was dumbstruck.

What he used was definitely not the martial arts passed down by Old Sect Leader Yang. When his
chicken claw of a hand smashed down, the granite table top cracked!

Putting aside the fact that the tendons in his arms had been broken later on, even when Yang
Ping was young and strong and at the peak of his power, he definitely did not have that kind of
skill.

On the other hand, it was the legendary "nightmare of the martial arts world" Wei Xiao who
seemed disabled. He was dragging one useless leg around and his breathing was weak and
unsteady. After just two or three rounds, he was covered in cold sweat and his face was pale.

Before Tian Zhanpeng and the rest could understand what was going on, Yang Ping clapped a
palm on Wei Xiao's chest, sending the other person flying. Wei Xiao slid down the wall and after a
long while, still failed to climb to his feet. A mouthful of blood speckled the front of his shirt, a
sight that shocked them.

Tian Zhanpeng finally regained his senses and hurried forward to hold Yang Ping back. He
shouted, "Enough! He's going to die!"

Even though Yang Ping had sent a "letter of challenge to a deathmatch" and it had not mattered
if someone was beaten to death in the past, things were not the same after liberation. How could
they really kill someone?

His heart in his throat, Tian Zhanpeng came forward a couple of steps and peered at Wei Xiao's
face. "Hey, you… are you okay? Shall we call 120 and get you to the hospital?"

Wei Xiao gave him a barely perceptible nod and only said that there was no need. He tried to
push himself up a few times but failed to, then clutched his chest and curled up at the foot of the
wall. He said a few words to Yang Ping that, up to this day, Tian Zhanpeng still did not
understand.

"You've won," he said almost inaudibly. "Everyone has seen it. They're all witnesses. Will this
do?"

Yang Ping's mouth was curved in a pleased yet sinister smile.

Wei Xiao drew another shaky breath and said softly, "Then, the grudge between us two, ends
here, right? Don't involve others."

Yang Ping replied with a sneer. "I have no interest in that, neither do I have the time to bother
with it."

Upon hearing that, Wei Xiao laughed. He let out a long exhale. His lungs seemed to have been
injured, his breaths were unsteady as he said, "Yang-xiong is someone with pride and obstinacy. I
believe you… Then, forgive me for not being able to send you off… At this hour… there should be
a night market up ahead. There are many people, many eyes. You all should leave by the
backyard."

Utterly confused, Tian Zhanpeng followed Yang Ping and the rest to leave via the back window.
After jumping out the window, he still did not understand what was so bad about there being
"many people, many eyes." They made an appointment with someone for a martial arts match. It
was an open and honest matter, why would they be afraid of anyone knowing?

Could it be that Wei Xiao thought it was embarrassing that he had lost?

But wasn't it Yang Ping's long-cherished wish to embarrass Wan Mu Chun? Why was he suddenly
so "kind-hearted" and considerate of the dignity of the person he had defeated, and followed his
instructions to leave by the back window?

When they came out of the back window, Tian Zhanpeng gave Yang Ping a look full of suspicion.
Coincidentally, he saw Yang Ping wiping the blood stains on his hands and he realised with shock
that Yang Ping's palms were suffused with a terrifying purple colour!

What kind of… demonic skill was he practising?

Yang Ping parted ways with everyone, the very picture of calm. Before leaving, he even told
them, "The grudge is over, don't look for Wei Xiao in private and give him any more trouble."
Listening to that made Tian Zhanpeng think that he had been possessed. Hence, ultimately, he
could not resist and secretly returned to Wei Xiao's home late at night. He was a little curious and
also a little afraid that something had really happened to Wei Xiao.

In the end, he saw that someone had tidied up the scene of the fight that had been in shambles.
The blood stains had been wiped clean and even the table top that Yang Ping had cracked with
his palm had glue applied on it. Wei Xiao himself had changed out of his bloodstained clothes and
was lying quietly on the bed… and not breathing.
He looked as though he had passed away in his sleep from old age.

Tian Zhanpeng was terrified. His thoughts were in a mess like a pot of congee. He turned and
fled.

Wei Xiao told Yang Ping to leave through the backyard and Yang Ping indeed left through the
backyard… Could it be, the two of them had known then that the match would result in death
and were purposely hiding the matter from prying ears and eyes?

Then… didn't that mean that Yang Ping had killed someone with a strike of his palm? He was
aware of what he was doing, this was intentional murder!

And, the more bizarre question was, why was Wei Xiao protecting him? Wei Xiao let Yang Ping go
and even cleaned up the scene? Could it be that his taste was not like ordinary people and he
was secretly in love with this chihuahua?!

The old man who lived alone passed away while lying peacefully on his bed. There were also no
family members pursuing the matter so it typically would be handled as a case of sudden death
due to heart failure. There was no one to make a police report and, naturally, no one to collect
the body.

The nightmare haunting a generation of the martial arts world disappeared into thin air just like
that. This murder shrouded in thick and heavy fog had always been like a stone in Tian
Zhanpeng's heart. He did not understand and dared not bring it up.

And today, he finally knew the answer…

Because other than that photograph, a printed letter also fell out of the envelope.
Chapter 80
The photograph that I am sending to you is something Mr. Yang Ping entrusted to me for
safekeeping eight years ago. I was the photographer.

You do not need to know who I am. After all, I am only an insignificant nobody. Among my
ancestors, there has never been a celebrated hero like the Five Supremes and they have only
passed down a tiny bit of skills suited only for skulking around. Right now, I make a living by
taking photographs in secret to expose extramarital affairs.

That year, Mr. Yang Ping told me that all of you would jump out of the back window. Hence, I
picked a spot early on and set up my camera. That way, I could take photos of the few of you in
time. After that, my job was to keep track of where all of you were at all times. This was not
difficult, the few of you were not planning to conceal your identities or live in secret. I only
needed to take note whenever any of you moved houses and update your addresses. To be
honest with you, most of your friends did not move house even once in eight years. You were the
one who moved the most. In eight years, you had moved houses a total of three times. I know
you will be soon moving for the fourth time. I hope the delivery can reach you before you finish
packing.
When Tian Zhanpeng read this section, cold sweat poured out. There seemed to be a pair of eyes
that was everywhere, an eerie and cold gaze piercing out from them, staring right at his back.

His nerves on edge, he got up and inspected all the doors and windows.

Downstairs in the noisy little neighbourhood building, there seemed to be only the house owners
having a lively chat, their emotions running high. They were concerned about the timing of the
signing of the agreement and the compensation. Nothing was different from usual.

Tian Zhanpeng swallowed. He continued reading.

The person who wrote the letter seemed to know his reaction.

You don't have to panic. People like us are like rats in the gutter who dare not show our faces
before you. The person who hired me also only asked me to record your trail and did not ask me
to do anything else.

But today, which should be one day before the day you receive this letter, Mr. Yang Ping told me
to distribute and send the photographs I have been keeping to all of your newest addresses, and
also to attach this letter.

Right at that moment, Tian Zhanpeng's phone sounded loudly. Elder Tian's taut nerves nearly
snapped.

"Hello, Shifu, have you heard?"

Tian Zhanpeng asked in a tense voice, "...What?"

"Xiao-Zhai and the others, the entire group, were taken away by the police today! Big Horse
Monkey escaped, the police are looking for him. They are saying that they have something to do
with that girl who went missing, that… Wang something!"

Xiao-Zhai and Big Horse Monkey were none other than the two people Yang Ping had met in
secret in the little rental house that night when there was internal conflict in Beggars' Sect. On
the surface, they were working for Elder Zhao and were urging Elder Zhao to take the initiative
but in private, they were secretly colluding with Travellers' Sect to make trouble.

But Elder Tian was not aware of this. Hence, he did not realise immediately what was going on.

"Aiyo, Shifu, how can you still not get it! All the leaks online about that Feast of Yanning came
from that girl's phone. They kidnapped her and made use of her disappearance to sensationalise
the matter. They also dragged the Old Sect Leader's granddaughter into it. They planned it all and
we didn't even know! The moment we heard, we went to demand an explanation from the Old
Sect Leader and angered him until he was hospitalised. If anything happens to him… what would
become of this matter then? Wouldn't we have angered the Old Sect Leader to death? The culprit
behind the scene could then come out and be the good person, and follow the course of events
to take custody of the Dog Beating Staff. This old man Zhao, I never thought he was so crafty…"
"It's not Zhao Laoqi." Elder Tian's eyes were staring straight through the window. Having heard so
much, in an instant, many things were connected in a line in his head.

That day, just like him, Elder Zhao wanted to take the Dog Beating Staff away by force. In the end,
they were stopped by their junior Yu Lanchuan and were thoroughly humiliated. If all these were
the results of Elder Zhao's meticulous planning, there was really no need for him to go on stage
himself and play the role of a clown.

"Huh? What?" On the other side of the call, his disciple didn't hear clearly those words that had
been kept low in his throat. "By the way, Shifu, do you know who was the one who sent that
missing girl to the police station?"

Tian Zhanpeng's gaze wavered slightly.

"I heard that it was Wan Mu Chun. They snatched the girl right before their eyes, isn't that
arrogant of them?" The person on the other side of the call purposely lowered his voice. "Does
Wan Mu Chun really have a descendant? I have always thought that those people were just
speaking blindly. Shifu, the thing about each cut measuring three cun and two fen, is it really
true…"

Tian Zhanpeng didn't hear clearly the rest of his disciple's words. He felt that he understood now.

Wei Xiao had lived in hiding for many years in Yanning. Yang Ping was just one person, how could
he have found Wei Xiao so easily? He must have had a patron supporting him from the back.

This would also explain where Yang Ping's mysterious and surprising demonic skills came from
when Yang Ping was a disabled man. When they had fought, Wei Xiao's legs were extremely stiff.
He was obviously injured. There was a possibility that it was caused by this behind-the-scenes
patron.

Wan Mu Chun's Wei Xiao had a descendant, a child he had picked up somewhere. There was also
a possibility that the child was his own. Eight years ago, the child should still be young and wasn't
at his side. After being injured, Wei Xiao still did not run away after receiving the challenge letter.
It wasn't because this killer who lived in hiding was calm and had nothing to fear, neither was it
because he was arrogant. It was because he knew that he had nowhere to run.

He was defeated by Yang Ping and that line he said in appeal to Yang Ping—this ends here—was
to ask Yang Ping not to trouble the next generation. Yang Ping's reply—no interest, no time—was
hinting that "If she doesn't come to look for me, I won't go to look for her either, so tidy up this
matter yourself."

Wei Xiao understood his hint. That was why, before his death, he hung on to his last breath and
cleaned up the scene and made it look as though he had died peacefully of old age. It was all for
the sake of letting the person watching him in secret understand his attitude. He would bear all
debts and enmity, and they should all end there. His descendant did not know anything and
would not seek revenge for him. After his death, no one would look for trouble.
Wei Xiao's scheming paid off. For eight years, Wan Mu Chun's demonic knife stayed sheathed in
the darkness, biding its time. Now, it was finally emerging and had even secretly made direct
contact with Sect Leader Yang via the old demoness from Travellers' Sect. They were going to
settle the old scores!

That shitbag Yang Ping even left himself a way out that year. Tian Zhanpeng had always
wondered why Yang Ping had called the whole bunch of them along when it took him barely any
effort to kill the half-disabled Wei Xiao. To bolster his courage? Or because he wouldn't be
satisfied if he couldn't announce it to the world when he washed off his disgrace?

Now, the truth had finally come to light. Not only had Yang Ping hoodwinked them and dragged
them all into this matter, he also kept evidence. All of them had suffered injuries in Wei Xiao's
hands before, either physically or to their reputation. They all had a motive and no one could
defend themselves in the matter of Wei Xiao's death. When Wan Mu Chun reemerged in the
martial arts world, they, the idiots who had walked into the trap eight years ago, would become
targets, baits and shields!

Yang Ping could now use these things to threaten them into stepping forward and helping him
seize power in Beggars' Sect. After a few days, he could reveal their trails to Wan Mu Chun any
time he liked and use them to deflect Wan Mu Chun's knives. When the time was right, he could
step out from behind them and attack, like the oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada.

He was playing with them as though they were foolish monkeys.

At the same time, inside and outside of Yanning, those who had participated in both attacks on
Wei Xiao all received similar letters. These people might not be considered heroes, but their
views were nearly the same.

Yang Ping was threatening them. Wan Mu Chun was polishing their knives. No matter which of
those two were ahead in the game, they were all innocent sacrifices.

Wanderers like Tian Zhanpeng who regarded all four seas as their home were the minority after
all. Most people his age would already have a family, would have a wife and children, and would
be living peacefully. This was obviously an unforeseen calamity.

Why them?

After his momentary panic was over, Tian Zhanpeng's eyes turned grave. He opened his contacts
list and started contacting them one by one.

Was there anyone who wasn't struggling and suffering? Was there anyone who didn't want to
live a good life?

If that was the case… they could only pray that these two people would meet an early, sudden
death.

Gan Qing received this "good thought" from afar and let out a shivering sneeze. The fever
medicine that was pretty much like the knockout pills in fiction was starting to take effect and this
sneeze didn't wake her up completely. She was only fuzzily and hazily aware of a movement
beside her. Someone was gently taking up her right hand.

Her palm was damp, covered in cold sweat. Yu Lanchuan pulled a tissue and wiped her hand.
After looking over them carefully for a while, he suddenly noticed that her fingers were very
slender.

He was very surprised. It was the first time he was looking at a girl's hand so closely. Yu Lanchuan
had always thought that his own hands were already considered very long and slender but
compared to hers, his were thicker. The bones of her fingers seemed to have not grown out
properly and if he just tightened his grip a little, they would break. Her fingertips could actually
really curl up into acute angles.

So, it turns out that "ten fingers as fair and slender as sliced whites of scallions" was not an
exaggeration. Where does she usually hide her blades?

While his thoughts wandered far away, he snapped a photo with his phone.

The shutter sound startled Gan Qing. Her fingers twitched, the slender and soft hand suddenly
turning tense, revealing the hard calluses between her fingers. Those calluses were unexpectedly
even harder than her bones, exuding an indescribable sharpness.

Gan Qing opened her eyes slightly.

Yu Lanchuan thought she was awake and immediately put her hand down, pretending that
nothing had happened. In a very "open" manner, he coughed and said, "... I took a picture to
show to that doctor friend of mine to see if your chicken claws have any hope of getting
straightened out."

Gan Qing didn't say anything. Half her face was buried in her pillow and her unfocused eyes were
looking in his direction.

Yu Lanchuan was like a high school student who knew that the class monitor was watching him
from the back. With his back to her gaze, he sat up perfectly straight and opened his laptop,
putting it on his lap and starting to act the role of a "completely focused on work" member of
society for Gan Qing to see. He opened his inbox and clicked around, opening not a single email
and instead, just went back and forth between the pages. Then, he pretended to grumble, "So
slow, you should throw away your house internet."

Then, he opened a random text document. He deleted the final full stop and then put it back in,
selected everything and then changed the font a few times. He tapped rapidly and noisily on his
keyboard, as lively as it could be.

After being so "busy and bustling" for a while, Yu Lanchuan finally couldn't resist slanting his gaze
and furtively looking at Gan Qing who had not said a single word.

It was only then that he realised that at some point, she had closed her eyes again and fallen
asleep.
Gan Qing was dreaming. In her dream, she had returned to the time when she was young and
was walking into the gaokao examination hall. This dream wasn't very realistic. She had never
entered the real examination hall.

The test paper that the invigilator gave other people were all a single piece of paper. But when it
came to her, it was a stack as thick as the Xinhua Dictionary.

Gan Qing couldn't help asking, "Teacher, why is mine different from others?"

"Paper A and Paper B," the invigilator answered coldly. "Other people get Paper A, you get Paper
B. The time allotted is the same. Stop talking nonsense, start writing."

How could she finish writing? She wouldn't even be able to finish turning the pages!

The test paper was covered in tiny letters the size of sesame seeds. She filled in the answers
desperately but her right hand refused to obey her commands and would not write fast no
matter how she tried. The invigilator was like a slave owner from the old society, patrolling
around with a whip in hand and shouting out loud, "Write faster!"

Around her, people were standing up and handing in their papers. Everyone had left but she
hadn't even completed half of hers.

In the dream, Gan Qing panicked until her head was covered in sweat. Her heart was thinking
anxiously, I won't pass the exam, I can't make it in time.

"Why haven't you handed in your paper!" the invigilator opened their ferocious mouth and the
whip lashed towards her. Gan Qing planted a hand on the desk and leaped up. She used the
desks and chairs around her to turn and dodge, and at the same time, took whatever chances she
had to write on her paper.

"Why are you still bothering to take the exam!" The invigilator's appearance had changed. He was
a little like Wei Huan, and a little like Wei Xiao… he was wearing a wrist watch that looked like Yu
Lanchuan's. His whip transformed into a bloody guillotine knife that fell instantly right before her.
Gan Qing dodged narrowly and right before her eyes, the knife cut into the test paper that had
taken her so much effort to complete.

The blood on the blade of the knife stained the test paper. All the words were blotted out.

Gan Qing drew in a cold breath and startled awake. The sun was already setting in the west.

"Awake?" The one who spoke was Zhang Meizhen who had returned at some point.

Gan Qing's vision was still spotted with blood. Her face blank, she turned her head towards Zhang
Meizhen.

"That Little Master Yu of yours left when he saw me come back. Here, your medicine. Check for
yourself how many you should take. The instructions are too small, I can't read them." Zhang
Meizhen put down a glass of warm water at her bedside table. Her face weary, she walked a few
steps out the room then suddenly recalled something. "That's right, there's a delivery for you. I
put it there."

Gan Qing made a vague noise in response. Her head heavy and her feet unstable, she clambered
up and stared at the delivery package in a daze for two minutes before finally tearing it open
slowly.

What could it be? She thought. Boss Meng can't have stolen my I.D. and registered for the
gaokao for self-taught students, right?

Gan Qing paused. For just a second, an idea flashed past her mind like a meteor.

If...

Changing the way she lived wasn't something impossible.

Should she give it a try?

With a tearing sound, she ripped open the seal.

Chapter 81
"Girl, I made some corn and pumpkin congee, do you want some?" Zhang Meizhen bustled
around the kitchen, then poked her head out to ask Gan Qing. She saw that Gan Qing was sitting
by the side of her bed, her face expressionless, an opened envelope on her knees. She looked like
she wanted to pour a glass of water but when her hand was extended halfway, she suddenly
seemed to not want it anymore and drew her hand back into her sleeve. Zhang Meizhen asked
curiously, "What is it? Who sent it to you?"

"Boss Meng." Gan Qing's eyes shifted around, like a statue that had just come to life. She casually
put the letter away and stood up and stretched her body. After lying down for a day, her joints
creaked and popped. "Meizhen-jie, you were saying?"

"I was asking you if you want some corn and pumpkin congee…"

"Sure," Gan Qing readily agreed. "Add some milk and I can eat the entire pot."

Zhang Meizhen was still a little doubtful. "Tianyi? He's just a couple of streets away. If he shouts,
we can hear him. Why did he post whatever that is to you for no good reason?"

"It wasn't sent from his place." Gan Qing rummaged through the pile of medicine Yu Lanchuan
had bought for her and found a medical face mask. She put it on and said in a muffled voice, "Old
Meng secretly took my I.D. and registered me for the gaokao for self-taught students. These are
things sent over from the exam center. Ai, Meizhen-jie, just look at how mischievous this
precious nephew of yours is. If you have the time, can't you do something about him?"

Zhang Meizhen couldn't help but feel that this little lady was secretly taking advantage of Meng
Tianyi. "What did he register you for this time?"
"Still accounting and finance." Gan Qing had her back to her. She pulled on an outer garment. "I
don't know if he has a wrong understanding of accounting and finance, or a wrong understanding
of me—let me teach you how to make it tasty, don't add water to pumpkin—when I was in senior
high, in the maths paper for liberal arts students, my best record was answering up to the second
question from the back, and I only managed that once."

"Oh, that's much better than Tianyi." Zhang Meizhen followed her guidance to deal with the
pumpkin. "In his first year of primary school, Tianyi scored thirty-two marks in his maths test.
From then on, he had always worshipped people who dealt with numbers. Even the counting
dogs in circuses were among the list of candidates for the position of his idol."

Gan Qing was clearing her throat and choked on a breath, coughing until she felt like dying.
"Such… cough… extraordinary talent."

Even the wonderkid from downstairs, Han Zhou, had supposedly reached Year 3 before he
started failing.

"He did start a little young." Zhang Meizhen sighed, her face full of regret. "That kid Tianyi had
always been precocious."

The two of them fell silent for a couple of seconds, then laughed in unison.

Zhang Meizhen asked suddenly, "What… did you originally wanted to study?"

If what you had gotten was not "Paper B," if you were the daughter of an ordinary family, if your
growing up years had been ordinary, if you had sat for the university entrance exams, if you had
graduated and started working…

Gan Qing leaned against the kitchen door. More than half her face was hidden by the mask,
revealing no clues.

"I've never thought about it properly." After a while, Gan Qing finally opened her mouth to speak.
"I probably belong to the type who comes out of the exams and sees a dark future, then draws
lots to choose which universities to try when it's time to apply. I remember that my English was
still okay, my maths was pulling me down and the other subjects were just average. I probably
would apply for a language-related field of study."

People who studied language-related fields, what did they do after graduating?

She had never had the time to learn about that.

Becoming a translator or an editor, or working for some multinational company or international

liaison division to deal with international partners… or perhaps doing something completely
unrelated. Becoming like those weary-faced little white collar workers working from nine to five,
not really daring to think of buying a house and a car, her only hobbies outside of work being
going home and cooking. Hastily changing channels the moment she noticed the television
broadcasting a foreign-language program to save the trouble of Wei Xiao asking her again, "Can
you understand that? Come, translate for me without looking at the subtitles."
After graduating and starting work, if there was someone who wasn't her colleague pursuing her,
she would definitely be very happy. It could satisfy her vanity and was also the best recipe for an
ordinary life that followed the normal convention. Even if her boyfriend was busy with work and
couldn't go on dates with her, it would be fine. She was a homebody anyway. But that old man
Wei Xiao probably wouldn't be happy. Ever since that man got old, even though he wasn't
competitive, there was a bit of a rigid obstinacy in his bones. He might not be happy with her
finding a young man whose income was a lot higher than hers because he knew that she was lazy
and capable of doing nothing but eating and waiting for death, and would probably not make
anything of herself in her entire life. He would be afraid that as time went by, the other person
would dislike her.

As Gan Qing thought on, she suddenly smiled.

Zhang Meizhen glanced at her.

"Nothing." Gan Qing waved. "I just suddenly had a thought that even if I get accepted to a
university, I probably won't be earning much more than I do now… By the way, Meizhen-jie,
how's Old Sect Leader Yang?"

Zhang Meizhen paused. "I don't know. He's still in the ICU. Family visiting hours are limited. We
have to wait for his doctor to give us concrete information on his condition."

"Those whose emergency treatment takes a long time mostly turn out alright in the end," Gan
Qing comforted her with this very unscientific statement. "If..."

"We've been neighbours for so many years now. Of course, I'm hoping for the best for him,"
Zhang Meizhen cut her off. "If what? Back then, if the two of us had gotten together regardless of
everything, we might be sick of each other by now and might not get along as well as we do now
as neighbours. When I think about it calmly, I realise that Yang Qing and I were not people of the
same path in the first place."

Sect Leader Yang was old-fashioned and introverted. His reputation and his principles were more
important to him than anything else and he could not let others find fault with anything he did.

Zhang Meizhen was the exact opposite. Her actions departed from convention, she was wilful
and headstrong, and she did everything as her heart pleased.

Even if Old Yang gave up Beggars' Sect for Zhang Meizhen back then or if Zhang Meizhen gave up
her dignity entirely and completely betrayed Travellers' Sect, and the two of them had gotten
together, they would have not a small amount of fights and disputes in the later decades, and
might not necessarily have been happy.

That was indeed true. Love between a man and a woman could not solve all problems, no matter
how earnest they were.

"When a person lines up, they would always feel that the other line is faster. When a person
remembers the past, they would always feel that if they had picked a different path at certain
points, their fortunes would be reversed. That's how people are. In actual fact, we're just
consoling ourselves. No matter what you chose, you are still you. How much better could you be
than the way you are now?" Zhang Meizhen said in a very carefree tone. "Look, you said so
yourself. Even if you followed the flow and went to university, you might not be better off than
you are now."

Gan Qing's gaze fell on the pot where the corn and pumpkin congee was bubbling slowly over the
low heat. Weighed down by the extra eyelid folds that her cold gave her, her gaze was a little
dim.

A warm and sweet smell rose in the air, spreading through the tiny kitchen. The sound of people's
voices came from the corridor on the other side of the window on the north side. Those who had
gone to work or to school were coming home.

It was a long time before Gan Qing came back to herself. She said, her voice a little hoarse, "The
corn is going to be overcooked, Meizhen-jie, you can turn off-"

"But I still regret it."

Gan Qing raised her head in astonishment and looked at Zhang Meizhen's side profile that
appeared aged and calm. This carefree old madam faced the wall and murmured, "No matter
what my rational mind says, no matter what my experience says, I still regret it."

Every single thing that slipped out of one's hands by mistake because they had not been
treasured, because they had not been desperately held on to with all one's might, they would all
become distant dreams that remained out of reach for one's entire life. They were like a
blackhole, devouring everything yet would never be full.

Even if things changed with the passage of time and one had obtained what they could only
dream of having back in the past.

"But you're not the same." Zhang Meizhen indicated that Gan Qing should help herself to the
congee, then walked to the balcony to smoke. As she brushed past Gan Qing, she crooked a
finger and flicked it against Gan Qing's jaw. "Back then, I was totally alienated by everyone, no
one wanted anything good for me. You have much better relations with people than I do, both
the living and dead all want you to have a good life. All of them have their necks stretched out
eagerly and would love to live the good life on your behalf. Go and make the best of it."

Yang Yifan went from the hospital straight to the police station. Captain Miao, who had a cold
face all year round, was already waiting for her.

After the police got Wang Jiake back by sheer luck, they followed her description to launch a
surprise attack that very night itself on the little guest house where she had been locked up.

Travellers' Sect could escape today but not forever. There was not enough time to tear down the
building and escape at the last minute. That illegal business could not hold up to inspection at all.
Once the police checked, they found that the original certification had been revoked long ago and
not only was it operating without a license now, it was even sheltering quite a number of vice
offenders. The business owner, the employees and the driver who assaulted Wang Jiake were all
arrested. Wang Jiusheng intentionally did not let them escape—the more difficult the matter was
to unravel, the deeper the police would investigate and the greater the scope of involvement
would grow. It would be better to let a few hoodlums shoulder the blame. They would only be
jailed for a few years anyway and their families would be "taken care of" by Travellers' Sect.

After those few people were taken away, they spilled the beans on Beggars' Sect Big Horse
Monkey, Xiao-Zhai and the rest of that group. They had no other choice—Wang Jiake would
definitely have told the police about there being a group who looked like vagrants trying to
kidnap her at that time.

Both the righteous and the demonic groups gathered at the police station, both in silent
agreement not to drag in their sects. And thus, they all cooked up a load of bullshit.

"Sit." Captain Miao studied Yang Yifan. She had been staying in the hospital for the past few days
and did not have the energy to spare for her makeup and her outfit. Her face was colourless, no
longer looking as refined but also no longer as forceful as before. She looked rather more
pleasing to the eye now and so, for once, Captain Miao said something courteous, "I heard that
the old man was hospitalised. How is he now?"

"I don't know," Yang Yifan said, her face full of weariness. "If you have any questions to ask,
please hurry up. The hospital might call me back at any time to sign notices of critical illness."

"Wang Jiake testified that after the banquet on that day, you were not among the people
suspected of breaking the law." Captain Miao became serious. "As for the other opinions online,
regardless of whether they were taken out of context or whether they are true, it is not under
the jurisdiction of the police. The suspicion on you should be cleared now."

Yang Yifan raised an eyebrow, as though she was asking, "Then why did you ask me to come
here?"

Captain Miao said, "There are a few things that we require your cooperation to investigate. It is
regarding Wang Jiake's kidnapping. Firstly, Wu Guosheng, male, forty-six years old. He claimed
that he has a boss backing him up who can help Wang Jiake repay her high-interest loan, and
used this to lure and kidnap her. In actual fact, he is an unlicensed cab driver. He is the main
suspect in this case. Do you know this person?"

Yang Yifan said, "Never heard of him."

Captain Miao nodded. Wu Guosheng—the unlicensed cab driver who kidnapped Wang Jiake—
had said the same thing.

He said that he knew some local hoodlums who helped people provide loans and harass debtors
for repayments, and had his eye on Wang Jiake since she was naive and sweet. At the start, he
only wanted to scam her to satisfy his lust but unexpectedly, he made a surprising discovery in
her phone. He picked some of the more sensational ones to show a friend, intending to just make
it something to chat about. He didn't think that someone would put it online and that it even
started a huge round of heated discourse. Hence, this baddie had some evil thoughts. Using tricks
and deceptions, he hid Wang Jiake, planning to use her phone to blackmail those rich people.

Yang Yifan was one of the unfortunate scapegoats he picked.

"Then, this person called Zhai Da'an, do you know him?"

Yang Yifan spread her hands. "Where did he sprout from?"

"Then, what about Yang Ping? You should be familiar with this name, right?"

Yang Yifan's mouth swiftly tensed. "What did you say?"

Captain Miao watched her. "I've investigated your details. After senior high, the emergency
contact and family member listed in your records was only Mr. Yang Qing, your grandfather. Your
mother has already passed away and your parents did not divorce. All these years, your father,
Yang Ping, was essentially missing the whole time but your family has never made a police report.
Can you tell us the reason? How is your relationship with him?"

The police had located Zhai Da'an, also known as Beggars' Sect's Xiao-Zhai. Male, thirty-nine
years old, the lobby manager of a hotel. He declared himself to be fond of making friends and
usually hung out with people who were of the more sketchy type. After she was kidnapped,
Wang Jiake tried to escape. Zhai Da'an instructed a few people to grab her in the process but was
unsuccessful and even clashed with the original kidnappers.

The Travellers' Sect people wanted to drag Beggars' Sect into the water and insisted that Xiao-
Zhai and the others were in the same group as them, and that they had only splitted due to
uneven profit distribution.

Beggars' Sect of course refused to acknowledge that. Their explanation was also very
comprehensive. Xiao-Zhai said that he was a friend of Yang Ping's. Yang Ping had left his family
after falling out with them. Even though he had not gone back for many years, in his heart, he still
thought of his family. Yang Yifan was his only daughter. When he heard that his daughter was
implicated in this terrible matter, the old father went everywhere in a panic to look for help. Out
of loyalty to their friend, they used all sorts of connections to find Wang Jiake. They wanted her
to come forward to explain things and clear the negative effects of public opinion. In the end,
they accidentally found out that the girl had been kidnapped by that gang of unlicensed cab
drivers and illegal guest house operators. And so, they made a plan to rescue her. Those baddies
were ashamed and angered, and were throwing all the blame to others. Everything they
"confessed" was a deliberate revenge and could not be trusted.

Each side was spinning their own story. It was basically a scene out of Rashomon.

Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the critical person in the matter, Yang Ping, was currently
unknown. They had no choice but to summon Yang Yifan there to ask her.

"What did they say? Yang Ping was concerned about me?" The corners of Yang Yifan's mouth
turned up in a strange smile. "I thought I was experienced in the ways of the world. I never would
have thought that when it comes to being shameless, my imagination is still limited. What a
joke."

Her peculiar tone was very striking. Captain Miao's brows furrowed lightly.

"Do you know how much money I spent and how many rounds of aesthetic treatment I did to
make this scar fade until the way it is now? Here, there's still a mark now. Captain Meow, do you
know how I got this scar?" Yang Yifan reached out and pushed back the long hair on her left
temple, revealing a very faint scar on her left cheekbone. "Yang Ping went out and got into a fight
with others. He lost and was taught a lesson by the other side. When I was young, I wrote about
this matter in my diary. He saw it… he gave me this cut using an iron rod meant for shifting coals
in the brazier."

For a moment, Captain Miao could not say anything.

"A young girl, ten years old." Yang Yifan curled her hair around her finger, then swiftly let it go.
"When I was sent to the hospital for treatment, the three cuts on my face had to be stitched up,
eighteen stitches in total. Half my face was covered in scars, such an thrilling scene."
Chapter 82
"If it happened now, it would probably be considered child abuse." Yang Yifan shrugged. "But no
one would make a police report for me anyway. Even if someone did, you guys wouldn't bother."

Captain Miao said seriously, "If the suspect had indeed engaged in acts of child abuse, we will
definitely handle it."

"Whatever." Yang Yifan let out a half-mocking scoff. "You sure know how to talk big. Once a child
is born, they are a beast of burden the parents are raising. All their rights lie in the hands of those
two people. Since it's something that belongs to them, of course either one of them can do
whatever they want, unless the other person who also has the rights has something to say about
it. The other person who has rights over me—my mum—only cries or thinks that the family's
dirty linens should not be displayed in public, and takes the initiative to conceal the matter. How
would outsiders like you handle it, what would you use to handle it, Captain Meow?"

"My surname is not Meow." Captain Miao finally heard clearly what she was calling him and his
eye twitched. "Ms. Yang, surely you do not have a lisp?"

Yang Yifan narrowed her long, slender eyes and gave him a fake smile.

Captain Miao put on a poker face and gravely turned the conversation back to the topic on hand,
"So, what you're saying is that Zhai Da'an and the rest are lying. They have also participated in
the kidnapping of Wang Jiake, and that even includes your father, Yang Ping… Why? Your father
even wants to blackmail you?"

"I didn't say that… Who knows? Back then, when my grandpa severed his paternal ties with Yang
Ping, I don't know if that matter was ever officially notarised. If it wasn't, who knows, he might be
back to seize his inheritance." Having said so far, Yang Yifan lowered her head and let out a laugh,
as though to herself. "But, speaking of that, did this bunch of people readily admit to blackmailing
and extortion? They really are cooperating with our police comrades."
Captain Miao felt that she was insinuating something. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I just feel that it's an injustice," Yang Yifan said. "I'm so poor that all I have is money.
The thing I fear the least is being blackmailed and extorted. You want money? No problem! The
problem is, no one has ever demanded money from me. They didn't even notify me and just
directly put the video online to create a fuss. Ai, I'm going bald from this. Captain Meow, why
don't you ask those other people who were just as unlucky as me and see if any of them had
received any blackmail or extortion calls?"

Captain Miao's brows slowly drew together.

Regardless of whether it was Travellers' Sect or Beggars' Sect, no matter how much of a dogfight
their quarrels were in private, they had a silent mutual understanding not to bring up the name
of their sects in front of government officials. This was because in the late eighties in the last
century, there had once been a strict crackdown on "black triads." Ever since then, regardless of
whether they were righteous sects or demonic sects, they all learned to conceal themselves and
live like normal people. If they went a little overboard, they wouldn't be able to explain the
nature of their activities and might be slapped with a lawsuit. Hence, both sides worked very hard
together to turn the matter from something major to something minor, wanting to turn the fight
between two sects into an issue of "personal conduct." On the question of "blackmail and
extortion," they were united.

"I feel that you are hinting something to me." Captain Miao involuntarily sat up straighter. "Hold
on, I heard that on the day that your grandfather was hospitalised and received emergency
treatment, there was a group brawl in your neighbourhood. Due to the fact that it did not result
in any serious repercussions and both sides laid down arms, our colleagues at the police station
only gave them an educational lecture. There's more to this matter, isn't there?"

"I said just now, my grandpa will leave behind an inheritance in the future," Yang Yifan replied.
"Captain Meow, what I am referring to is not that lousy apartment that's pushing thirty."

Captain Miao couldn't be bothered to correct the way she called him. He immediately asked,
"Then what is it?"

"That day, I accompanied Grandpa to the hospital and wasn't at home. These people wanted to
barge directly into my house to look for something. They were stopped by my busybody
neighbours." Yang Yifan lifted her eyelids that had fallen down due to exhaustion. There was a
light in her eyes, bright enough to burn. She spoke slowly, pausing between each word. "They
were looking for a jade-green bamboo stick."

She finally said those words.

Yang Yifan was born in Yanning in the early eighties. She had basically grown up in the "civil
society."

When she was old enough to remember things, the various sects had, after a momentary period
of reunification and glory, started to go underground once more. Yang Yifan had never had a
sense of belonging to Beggars' Sect. She only remembered that when she was very young, some
peculiar uncles frequently visited her home to look for her dad for drinks.

Once they drank, they were very noisy. They would not be done before three to five hours were
up. They stank up the whole place and when they were drunk, they passed out everywhere. The
floor would be covered with limbs sticking out at every angle, making their home look like a mass
grave.

Yang Yifan hated them, not only because they were very annoying but also because every time
that happened, her mother would secretly hug her and cry and natter endlessly that they were
running out of money for food, that even the two yuan for Fan-Fan's kindergarten had to be paid
by Grandpa, when on earth would the man of the house make something of himself? The two of
them, mother and daughter, had such a painful, suffering life.

Before the child could understand what money was, the fear of poverty was already branded into
her bones.

At that time, to Yang Yifan who had yet to reach schooling age, "Beggars' Sect" was a group of
locusts that ate their family to poverty.

Later on, both of Yang Ping's arms were destroyed by Wei Xiao and those people stopped
coming. Yang Ping, who had never been home before that, started to stay home from dawn to
dusk. From an indifferent and irresponsible father, he became a gloomy and peculiar father.
Sometimes, he drank on his own to drown his sorrows and talked nonsense when he was drunk,
cursing the Beggars' Sect people for sucking up to those with power.

At that time, to Yang Yifan, "Beggars' Sect" was like a gambling game that her profligate gremlin
dad was obsessed with.

Even later on, she was taken away by her grandpa and started living at No. 110. She finally gained
a complete understanding of Beggars' Sect.

When she saw it clearly, she hated it even more. This was because there was not a small number
of members in it that were evidently sound of mind and body but were just doing nothing. They
proudly proclaimed themselves to be preserving the traditions of Beggars' Sect's "dirty clothing
section" and did not feel the least bit ashamed to go around begging. If they lacked anything,
they would boldly and confidently ask other people to give them material assistance. From day to
night, the phrase "we're all brothers from the same family" was never far from their lips. They
idled about and had no proper work to do. Every few days, they would get into some ridiculous
conflict or cause some bullshit trouble and come to look for the Old Sect Leader to intervene.

Furthermore, these hoodlums and ruffians who did not do any honest work did not feel the least
bit ashamed. They had always considered themselves to be from a "reputable and righteous" sect
and were bursting at the seams with their sense of superiority.

The demonic sects were always more flexible than the righteous ones. Travellers' Sect produced a
Wang Jiusheng and very boldly and decisively washed themselves clean of their dirty past. In a
flash, they transformed themselves into "proper and serious" businessmen. The disciples in the
sect showed their various remarkable abilities and used dishonest means to help the company
make profit, and all of them led comfortable lives.

On the other hand, the "reputable and righteous sects" always seemed to be separated from the
"winners in life" by a lofty wall. Not to mention that Yang Qing had spent an entire life working
but was not good in business. Even if he was, there was no way he could set up a large company
and earn money the way Wang Jiusheng did. As a reputable and righteous sect, it was a basic
requirement to be "indifferent to fame and fortune." The reason everyone gathered together had
to be the righteousness in their hearts. If they relied on business volume, how would that be
proper?

Since time immemorial, heroes only pursued "vocation and love" and must remain a respectful
distance from "wealth and beauty." Heroes only followed Heaven's law and did not have mortal
lust.

In Yang Yifan's eyes, these two groups of people could be summed up as: one group was the
genuinely shameless ones whose methods had been passed down through the generations; the
other group was hiding their shame with a loincloth, hypocrites whose methods had no
boundaries in their messed-up system of values.

But Grandpa Yang Qing was brought up by Beggars' Sect since he was a child and it was also
thanks to Beggars' Sect that he made his name when he was young. It had been his spiritual
home for his entire life. No matter how much Yang Yifan disliked it, she had no choice but to hold
her nose and endure.

Since she could not hold on to this jade-green bamboo staff now, then it was time…

...for someone to flip this weiqi board.

"Let me show you something good." Yang Yifan took out her buzzing phone and waved it before
Captain Miao's eyes. Someone was calling her, the caller ID showed "Elder Zhao."

She smiled. She put the call on speaker and turned on the recording function, then accepted the
call. "Hello?"

"Xiao-Yang, it's me, Grandpa Zhao," Elder Zhao spoke without the least inkling of what she was
doing. He first briefly asked about Sect Leader Yang's condition but very quickly, he could not
restrain himself. His tone changed and he said, "Even though you are Sect Leader Yang's
biological granddaughter, thinking about it, you did not formally enter Beggars' Sect, did you?
You have never handled the sect's internal affairs and had never practised using the Dog Beating
Staff. I see that the way you conduct yourself and your affairs also does not conform with our
sect's traditions… It isn't appropriate for the Dog Beating Staff to be kept with you, is it?"

Yang Yifan looked at Captain Miao who was scribbling furiously and said to Elder Zhao, "What do
you mean by this? My grandpa isn't dead yet."
"Let us talk nicely, don't lose your temper. Old Sect Leader is already advanced in age. His health
will definitely be weaker than before after this round of hospitalisation," Elder Zhao said.
"Actually, all these years, Old Sect Leader-"

"Has blocked off your road to fortune more than a few times," Yang Yifan interrupted.

"Hey, you…"

"Grandpa Zhao, Elder Zhao, I would like to ask, what are the traditions of your Beggars' Sect? You
allow the disciples under you to engage frequently in shady businesses like stalking and getting
evidence of love affairs, and even help the paparazzi take pictures and sell them for money. Are
those the traditions of Beggars' Sect? How much of the money your disciples earned is to
demonstrate their filial piety to you?"

"Who started those rumours? Utter nonsense!"

"At the start of the year, a hotel opened for business in the outskirts of the city. A group of your
disciples were hired by their competitor and went over to create a disturbance. They ruined the
hotel's opening ceremony and even got the police involved. That happened, didn't it?" Yang Yifan
said. "Even if you have forgotten it, there is still a record of it in the police station over there."

Captain Miao felt that his own two ears were no longer sufficient and wanted nothing more than
to grow another pair on top of his head.

Yang Yifan said, "But I heard that when these disciples were freed after the incident, surprisingly,
not a single one of them were punished. It was all as per your special instructions."

"Those weren't my disciples!" Elder Zhao immediately refuted. Then, his tone gentled. "I just feel
that everyone has their own difficulties and I was just helping to speak out for them. Xiao-Yang,
not everyone has a chance to attend university like you and become a boss. Among our brothers
in the sect, the majority are still people whose lives are difficult. If we can help, then we should
help. If you can't help… you should at least be considerate!"

Yang Yifan scoffed. "Isn't that so? Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat."

"What are you saying?" Elder Zhao continued to say, "Compared to Travellers' Sect, are we
Beggars' Sect not as united as them or is our name not as popular as theirs? Is there any reason
why Travellers' Sect can not care at all about the swindling and tricking they've done all these
years and prosper while we squander away the time we have and have no accomplishments at
all? Our ancestors once had assets. It's just that at the start of the country's liberation, we
handed them all to the country! Yifan, the Old Sect Leader is old now and his thinking is still old-
fashioned. In consideration of his health, we shouldn't be bothering him so much with these
trifling matters. Help your Grandpa Zhao pass the message—he can rest assured if the Dog
Beating Staff is handed over to me. I'm not impulsive like Old Tian and I also won't ignore
important matters like the other two. I guarantee-"

Yang Yifan cut him off, "I can't pass the message. Please pass it to him yourself via telepathy."
"You-"

Without waiting for Elder Zhao to finish speaking, Yang Yifan hung up right then. Her phone spun
between her fingers. She raised her head to look at Captain Miao. "Heard that? Captain Meow,
the waters are deep. They would rather admit to kidnapping and blackmail than to tell the truth
to the police. Shouldn't you people investigate properly?"

"I'll say it once more. My. Surname. Is. Miao." Captain Miao stood up and turned to instruct his
colleague. "Call a meeting and prepare to interrogate the suspects separately! Yanning is not a
place for this!"

The surging wave was finally crashing on the shore. Everything hidden in the sand grains would
soon have nowhere to hide and would be exposed to the light of day.

Yu Lanchuan's charging phone buzzed, vibrating until it fell off the desk itself. His eyes not leaving
his computer screen, he reached out to catch it as deftly as though there were eyes on his ears.
On the other side of the desk, Liu Zhongqi looked on so enviously that light was shining from his
eyes. "Ge, can you-"

"No," Yu Lanchuan cut him off. "Someone's knocking on the door, go open it… Hello? Old Fish,
what's the matter now?"

"The wind is blowing in the wrong direction, Master Lan!" Yu Yan lowered his voice in the call.
"The higher-ups suddenly want to investigate the illegal societies in Yanning!"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is there yet another qigong master selling eggs in bulk and causing
mischief?"

"It's not a qigong master! The news I heard mentioned Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect! Their
names are specifically stated. My rank is not high enough, I'm still not sure what the exact
situation is. When we arrested the qigong master the last time, that pack of Travellers' Sect
ruffians attacked the police. We interrogated them three times and they would rather plead
guilty than admit that they had an organisation backing them up. I know the truth in my heart but
I was afraid of causing trouble for Old Master Yang and Meizhen-jie, so I didn't dare say
anything… Listen to me. Don't poke your head into this and definitely don't meddle…"

Yu Lanchuan brows drew together swiftly.

Right then, he heard his younger brother who was opening the door say, "Are you looking for my
brother?"

A familiar voice said, "Yes, please excuse me."

Yu Lanchuan nearly lost his grip on his phone. His attention that had been on Yu Yan was drawn
away by this voice. He brushed Yu Yan off absent-mindedly and just barely managed to maintain
his seated upright and frowning posture, his expression so severe he looked like he was handling
matters for the United Nations.
When Gan Qing came in wearing a face mask, he gave her a proper and serious nod and said
something completely unrelated to the matter at hand. "Okay, got it. If there's anything you need
me to help with, just let me know…"

Yu Yan wailed, "What help, dage! Was everything I said just now a waste of my saliva? Please
may I trouble you to withdraw your claws, stay low and stay alive, Alliance Leader! You fought
with Beggars' Sect that night. Captain Miao's people will definitely ask you some questions.
Remember, you don't know anything… Ai, you really don't know anything in the first place
anyway."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing heard every single word and quickly hid her laugh behind a cough.

Yu Lanchuan hung up on Yu Yan, his face impassive.

"What are you laughing at? You… What is this?"

Gan Qing put a paper packet on the desk. "English mock exam for self-taught students. I'm here
to ask you for pointers on some questions."

Liu Zhongqi was peeking in from the door and once he heard the word "English," his brain started
to curdle. He turned and slipped into his own room, not daring to eavesdrop anymore.

He thought he was being quiet but the two people in the room had already heard him. When the
gremlin kid had gone away, Yu Lanchuan finally opened the packet. "Isn't the self-taught English
exam free marks for you?"

"Not free," Gan Qing said almost inaudibly. "It's asking for my life."

A stack of photographs fell out of the package, together with a printed list. It was a list of names
and addresses.

"This is…"

"Eight years ago," Gan Qing said. "Mudpool Backlane…"

Yu Lanchuan was at first baffled. Then, he abruptly realised something and looked up in disbelief.

"...Wei Changsheng's house."

Gan Qing sat under the desk lamp. The lamplight shone on her eyes above her mask, putting a
soft halo on them.

"Little Master Yu," she asked. "That day at the cemetery, you said that you can help me
investigate the cause of Wei Xiao's death. Do you still mean it?"
Yang Yifan stayed at the police station until very late before Captain Miao sent her out himself.
She suddenly thought of something. "Coco… The girl called Wang Jiake, she shouldn't be an
offender, right? Is she still here? Can you arrange for me to meet her? I have a couple of things to
say to her."

Wang Jiake happened to be there. Originally, she had been taken home by her parents but
another special investigation team asked her to come back to assist them with investigating scam
loans.

Yang Yifan met her in a small waiting room. The last time, the two of them had met amidst
dazzling luxury; one person soaring on the wings of success and speaking without fear, the other
swept along by the glamour and at a complete loss.

This time, they were united in being shrouded in misery.

When Wang Jiake saw her, her gaze flickered away awkwardly. But after she avoided looking at
Yang Yifan, she couldn't help stealing glances at her. She prepared herself to receive a dressing
down the very next minute.

"Coco, right?" Yang Yifan came to a stop two steps away from her. "I'm not here to get even with
you."

Wang Jiake said cautiously, "Please have a seat…"

"No thanks. I only have a couple of things to say, I'll leave right after."

Wang Jiake rubbed the corner of her clothes between her fingers nervously.

Yang Yifan looked at the girl and remembered herself from ten years ago. Young, nothing to her
name, a pair of curious and greedy eyes on her face. The way she had desired everything was
truly the pinnacle of naivete.

"You will slowly realise that no matter how hard you work, you still can't live the life you want.
Nothing goes your way and you still have a pile of troubles by your side that you can't resolve.
You won't succeed in your entire life and you'll never become the person you want to be in your
entire life."

Wang Jiake was stunned. Yang Yifan was mocking her to her face!

But thinking about it carefully, did she need other people to mock her? This was reality. She could
not refute those words.

All of a sudden, sorrow welled up from within her and tears started forming in her eyes.

"...Those who are weak will pretend that they are not at all sorrowful and switch to pursue ever
cheaper happiness, losing themselves in gluttony, in materialistic desires… all those things from
which they can obtain a momentary satisfaction," Yang Yifan said softly. "Because they feel guilty,
they even have to shout out loud and put themselves on parade, encouraging others to follow
suit, desperately putting on a show of being bold and confident that their way is the right one."

Through her tears, Wang Jiake looked at her, a little unable to react.

"I am that weak person," Yang Yifan said. "I'm sorry. I lied to all of you."
Chapter 83
For a moment, Yu Lanchuan basically stopped breathing.

The corners of Gan Qing's curved eyes dropped low, her gaze falling onto the elegant grains of
the wooden desk. In her heart, she understood that the person who sent this thing to her did not
have good intentions. When she exposed herself in front of Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect and
revealed Wan Mu Chun's knife, she was already prepared for other people's bad intentions. She
could even guess who was the one who sent her this thing.

But yet… in the end, her emotions were still stirred.

When she was young, she didn't understand why her sect had the "single disciple" rule. She also
didn't understand why her shifu had never been gratified no matter how hard she worked and
only taught her half-heartedly. At that time, Wei Xiao told her that killing techniques would
pollute a person's heart. A person obsessed with this path would become a puppet controlled by
the knife. The chuuni Gan Qing had snorted disdainfully and thought that this old man must have
memorised that line from some shitty comic book.

It was only later on, after she had experienced a great deal, that she understood that the old man
was right.

"Three cun and two fen" was a shortcut that could eliminate all grudges and enmity at the fastest
speed. There was no need to hang around and wait for the right time, no need to helplessly wait
for the other person to receive the retribution they deserved… It was such a temptation.

The whole night, she had wrapped the cloth strip around her hand, then removed it; removed it,
then wrapped it. Just like someone exhausting every bit of their rationality to resist a drug
addiction.

"Fifteen years ago," Gan Qing said, "I left you in a landfill, played some tricks and had lots of fun. I
led the group of Travellers' Sect people on a wild goose chase for ten kilometers and realised that
there wasn't a single person in the group who could fight. So I thought that I was very powerful
and was so smug that I forgot myself. I knocked out one Black Bat and wrote some words on his
body calling Wang Jiusheng a cowardly tortoise and saying that even this group of losers dared
rebel against him."

Yu Lanchuan had heard Han Dongsheng say that the person who saved him back then had martial
arts skills that were still superficial and that their actions were a little "over-spirited." It was only
now that he found out how "over-spirited" she was.

Gan Qing seemed to be chuckling. "Wang Jiusheng isn't useless."

Of course Wang Jiusheng was not useless. He had never practised the martial arts for children
and had probably gone starving as a kid. When he grew up, he was busy going here and there to
curry favour. His martial arts skills were probably very sloppy. Furthermore, he was already over
sixty years of age and was no longer young or strong. Gan Qing probably wouldn't need more
than one strike to kill him.

He had climbed up rung by rung from the very lowest level of society. Like a hunting dog on thin
ice, he could keenly detect all sorts of smells in the air and was resolute when it came to the kill.
He could always catch the waves of the era, riding ever higher.

Yu Lanchuan said, "If he was useless, we won't need to talk about him now."

Gan Qing rested both elbows on the armrest, leaning back lazily against the back of the wooden
chair. She shrugged lightly. "Those people in the photos—other than Yang Ping and that Nine
Pouch Elder from Beggars' Sect that I've seen once—I don't know any of them. Little Master Yu,
some help please?"

Yu Lanchuan went through them and shook his head. "They didn't come to the Martial Arts
General Assembly."

"Then, that means they have retired. A group of people retired from the sect and a person ousted
from the sect." Gan Qing's left index finger tapped lightly on the back of her other hand. Her gaze
swept across the photo showing Elder Tian's alarmed and vicious face. "A sect elder who doesn't
know what's going on and looks like he can't tell his ass from his elbow, yet these few people
could actually find their way to Mudpool Backlane. I believe Meizhen-jie's judgement. Wang
Jiusheng is definitely behind them."

"So, it is very likely that he sent the photos to you. Other than the culprit behind the scenes, who
would keep these things?" Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. This person was only at his most
polite when being businesslike. Once his spirits were high, they would soar until he was no longer
speaking properly anymore. "It's a good thing that you're not completely dumb and not so
impulsive that you immediately started following the addresses to hunt them down."

"Why would I be so impulsive? It's not like I've never been taught a lesson." It was not the first
day Gan Qing knew him and she couldn't be bothered to quibble with him. She left out a soft
laugh. Having said that, she suddenly paused. "But…"

But what if she hadn't been taught a lesson back then?

If she hadn't lost her temper with Wei Xiao, if she hadn't destroyed the sinews of her right arm in
a moment of anger and insisted on turning herself in, the probability of the police catching her
was practically nil. Wan Mu Chun were experts and other than the unique wound they left behind
as proof to collect payment, there would be no other trace. Then, after getting a sweet taste of
success, there would likely be no stopping her from then on.

Only a saint could transcend mortal desires. She was not a saint; she was only a drifter who
dropped out of senior high school.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "Hmm?"

"Nothing." Gan Qing shook her head. Her tone changed and she said, "But this is not hard to
guess. Won't Wang Jiusheng have considered, what if I don't have that kind of explosive temper
and don't do as he wanted? What if, after receiving this, I go directly to him, the main culprit?
After all, there's a former North Branch Master who's familiar with Travellers' Sect beside me and
one of his running dogs has also shot his mouth off in front of me."

Yu Lanchuan fell silent for a few seconds. "If it was me, other than sending you a copy of the
photos, I would also reveal your tracks to the people in the photos. That's the key point—the
hunter has the right to make independent decisions but the hunted can only desperately grasp
for survival. You may be calm but there's no way these people can be calm after finding out that
Wan Mu Chun has a descendant and that the descendant will at any time seek revenge from
them. They must be so anxious now that they can barely survive the day. Even if you don't look
for them, they will not let you go."

Elder Tian and the rest knew that she lived at No. 110 Courtyard. Gan Qing had also received
their addresses. Wang Jiusheng had shone a searchlight over here and exposed both sides to the
light.

It was as though both sides had taken out their guns and were aiming them right at the other
side's vital points. Everyone had agreed—One, two, three, put down the gun—but after counting
to three, no one would really lower their weapon.

"Wang Jiusheng has a large household and a large business. No one can say for sure how much
wealth he has. Apparently, he has so many houses that he can sleep in a different spot each night
in Yanning. If you want to look for him directly, I'm afraid it would take you some time," Yu
Lanchuan said calmly. "You are only one person while Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect have
numerous informants. It is definitely easier for them to lock on to you than it is for you to lock on
to Wang Jiusheng. If you don't get rid of all these people in the photos, it would be as though you
are skipping the checkpoints and going straight for the boss fight. Not only can you not get to
him, you might even have enemies at both your front and your back."

"So, if I'm an impulsive person, I would jump into his trap right off the bat." Gan Qing let out a
bitter laugh. "If I'm not, when I have thought it through, I would realise that I have no choice but
to jump into his trap."

No wonder certain other people could thrive and prosper, and have money and power.
Meanwhile, she could only hoodwink high school students in a little shady shop.

The old man had been right to keep telling her to study hard. But she had not listened. Hence,
after she grew up, she became someone who had achieved nothing other than being able to play
tricks with small blades.

Yu Lanchuan looked through all the photos. Then, he carefully studied the addresses sandwiched
between the photos. Finally, he locked on to Yang Ping.
He picked out Yang Ping's photo. "Out of all these people, only Yang Ping's address is unclear.
Furthermore, out of all these photos, only this one shows bloodstains. I remember you had once
said that at that time, Senior Wei Xiao's death was handled as a case of sudden heart failure. In
that case, his body must have been very clean. If it was a one-against-many fight, there would
definitely be a lot of unintentional marks and it would be much harder to disguise it. Keeping this
in mind while studying the other photos, you will notice that everyone else has very strange
expressions. They're either confused or shocked, and some are even a little terrified. So, Yang
Ping must be the main offender."

"These people have retired. Right now, they are probably either joining public square dances or
bringing up their grandkids." Gan Qing reached out and spread out the other photos. Then, she
pointed out Tian Zhanpeng. "This person was pushed to the front to be used as a tool by
someone, he's completely dumbstruck. Yang Ping's the only one left who's not easy to handle.
That day when Beggars' Sect were fighting internally, I followed one of their disciples and
overheard some things. Yang Ping is colluding with Travellers' Sect and is the one who started this
round of internal conflict in Beggars' Sect. Wang Jiusheng knows that Yang Ping will definitely
make a grand appearance before long."

"So, Yang Ping will surely be your first target," Yu Lanchuan said. "Even if you leave No. 110
immediately after getting the news and hide yourself, Wang Jiusheng can foresee your
movements. If that is the case, then my guess is that Yang Ping definitely also has these photos
while the other people all have one each."

Gan Qing didn't immediately understand. "Hm, why is that?"

"This way, he can continue being an ignorant pawn unaware of the situation and continue being
the one standing out from the group. Meanwhile, the other people who have received a photo
will naturally come to the conclusion the photo they get is Yang Ping blackmailing them so that
they will stand on his side and help him return to Beggars' Sect. If they don't, he will borrow Wan
Mu Chun's knife and disturb them until they have no peace in their lives," Yu Lanchuan said. "A
weak person will surrender when they are threatened but a group of people… even if they're not
particularly strong-willed, they will naturally form a team."

"Makes sense." Gan Qing inclined her head. "And after they form a team?"

"Elder Tian is a Beggars' Sect Nine Pouch Elder. He has disciples under him and he has resources.
This person will become the main leader," Yu Lanchuan said. "If it's him, he will first make use of
Beggars' Sect that has informants everywhere and hide his companions and their families. He will
pretend to break away from the other sect elders and support Yang Ping. The best case would be
if he could make Yang Ping stand out and attract attention. Then, he will find a chance to reveal
the 'truth' to you—a tooth for a tooth—and let you look for Yang Ping to settle the score. The
best would be if neither of you win and both suffer losses instead. They can then be the oriole
swooping in from behind. I have interacted with Tian Zhanpeng for a bit. I don't know him well
but judging from what he has gone through all these years, I think that this person is not very
intelligent and there is also a limit to what he can observe. This is a reasonable guess on his line
of thought."
The only thing these people did not foresee was likely the sudden crackdown targeting Beggars'
Sect and Traveller's Sect.

Gan Qing, "..."

In the future, she must never ever play mahjong or cards with Yu Lanchuan. Otherwise, before
the game was half over, he could use his understanding of the other people's intelligence to
guess most of her cards.

Yu Lanchuan pretended not to notice her look of amazement but in his heart, he was so pleased
that his metaphorical tail was pointing straight at the ceiling. Yet, he still purposely acted aloof
and raised an eyebrow as though he did not understand. "Why, is there a problem?"

Gan Qing looked at him and let out a sudden sigh. "No, I just suddenly feel that life is so difficult."

All at once, Yu Lanchuan's ego bloomed and he felt that he could hold up the sky and support the
earth. His desire to protect and his sense of power exploded, and the shamelessly boastful line
"This is nothing, if there's anything you can't understand, you can come look for me anytime" was
on the verge of coming out of his mouth.

Then, he heard Gan Qing continue to say, "A man of talent like Little Master Yu also has to walk
to work every day for the sake of his house loan, and has to wake up early in the morning and
crawl back late at night, what more other people… Ai, it's really too difficult."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

This woman was really too annoying. This would not do, he should switch to someone else.
Chapter 84
The moment Gan Qing saw his face turn cross, she quickly coaxed him. "Of course, it's already
very great that you can go to the bank and get a loan. If I went, they would definitely not give me
one. Buying a house is something that I don't even dare dream of, the difficulty level is about the
same as flying to the sky. Even though things are quite difficult for you now, you can think of it as
overcoming the calamity before you can become an immortal and ascend to Heaven. In the
mortal realm, it is only almighty lightning rods like you people who have the ability to attract
lightning. You're so amazing."

Suddenly put in the same category as lightning rods, Yu Lanchuan gritted out a few words, "...If
you're not going to speak properly, get lost and bury yourself in the earth."

"Don't be like that, aren't I asking you for help now?" Because of her cold, Gan Qing's voice when
she spoke sounded like the mysterious voice she used as Teacher Meng-Meng, the voice she used
every day to call other people "darling." Her words dragged out, lingering, slipping into Yu
Lanchuan's ears like countless sand grains rubbing against his ear drums. It made the back of his
head tingle.

Without him realising it, Yu Lanchuan's fingers curled in.

Gan Qing continued to ask absent-mindedly, "Then, based on your deductions, should I apply for
police protection now?"

There seemed to be a door in Yu Lanchuan's heart that was not closed properly. Following the
sound of her voice, a very tiny voice leaked out from behind it: You can apply to me for
protection. It even nearly slipped out of his mouth.

Luckily, his reaction speed was fast and he snapped off this line in time. "How much tax do you
pay every month? Can you take up so much public resources?"

From behind her face mask, Gan Qing studied him with an inscrutable gaze.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at Little Master Yu…" Gan Qing paused subtly, "...Such refined features and elegant
lines, such a handsome face and a perfect body."

And surprisingly, he could still maintain his bachelor status. It was all due to his incredible skills.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He felt that Gan Qing's expression and tone was rather strange. It was a little like she was teasing
him and a little like she was cursing him. Basically, the words were rich in implications and didn't
sound good.

Gan Qing quickly poured him a glass of water. "Please go on."

"The good news is, the people from Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect might not have the time to
bother with you now, " Yu Lanchuan said. "You found Wang Jiake and dragged Travellers' Sect
and Beggars' Sect into the game. Right now, I don't know who from which side divulged the truth
but the police seem to be investigating Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect. Both these groups have
lots of people and lots of issues. If they don't wipe their asses clean this time, it is very likely that
they will be treated as illegal organisations and banned. I think they should have received the
news by now."

The phones of the four sect elders of Beggars' Sect were ringing fit to explode. Tian Zhanpeng
silenced his overheating phone and rushed into the reserved room they had booked earlier. The
warm air inside enveloped him and he broke into a sweat.

Immediately, someone asked, "Old Tian, why are you only here now?"

"I was moving house the past couple of days, lots to take care of… Where's Old Zhao?" Tian
Zhanpeng said distractedly, his eyes sweeping around the room. He didn't see Elder Zhao. "Why,
he's not here too?"

"Old Zhao was taken away. A lot of our brothers in the 'dirty clothing section' in our branch were
also taken away. At the start, we thought that it was the city management cracking down on
begging and busking. It was only later on that we found out that it wasn't the city management, it
was the police!"

"What happened to Old Zhao? What's the situation now?"

"That's why I said that when you guys went to start a fuss at No. 110 the other day, you shouldn't
have alerted the police!"

"We were only at the police station for a short while. Didn't everything turn out fine at that
time?"

"It's the same for Xiao-Zhai and the rest. It's been a few days since we last heard from them."

The many jumbled voices in the room made Tian Zhanpeng feel dizzy and his head swollen. He
also still had a large pile of rotten troubles behind him and for a moment, his blood pressure
spiked.

Right then, someone suddenly said in a small voice, "Today, my shifu gave that you-know-who a
call…"

Tian Zhanpeng asked, "What you-know-who?"

"You know… Old Sect Leader's granddaughter."

"Just call her Yang Yifan, what's with that 'you-kn0w-who'... Are you a primary school student
who goes to the toilet in a group to secretly badmouth other people?" Tian Zhanpeng said
irritably. "And what does Old Zhao mean by doing that? He urged everyone to act together, then
privately contact Yang Yifan on his own. Is he trying to get the prize before everyone else?"

"Calm down, don't be impatient, Elder Tian," someone else said. "My follower who's watching
the situation at the hospital reported back and said that Yang Yifan went to the public security
bureau today… What time did Elder Zhao call her?"

Both sides matched up the times. The room turned silent.

After who knew how long, someone finally said in a small voice, "Her? No matter what, she's still
the Old Sect Leader's biological granddaughter… Isn't she afraid of dragging the Old Sect Leader
into the matter? Surely she wouldn't go this far?"

Tian Zhanpeng looked up, his eyes dark and sinister. "Looks like the chances of the Old Sect
Leader leaving the hospital alive is not high, that's why she's taking such drastic measures. This…"

He cursed unpleasantly in a low voice. At his temples where the hair was already white, veins
bulged out.

"Bring her here and we'll ask her," another sect elder said. "Does she plan to destroy the very
foundations of our ancestors!"
"Family members should be mindful of the time," the ICU nurse reminded in a soft voice. Yang
Yifan made a noise in response to indicate that she had heard the reminder.

The old sect leader was lying among a pile of medical equipment. It made him look thin and
small. Probably no one could have imagined that Chuan Lin Feng of the Five Supremes back then
would end up as this shriveled bag of bones.

Yang Yifan remembered that he had always been envious of Grandpa Yu Huaide from upstairs.
After the old Yu Huaide passed away, Old Sect Leader Yang had said a few times, "How nice
would it be to be like my brother. When he wanted to die, he found a place to sit, closed his eyes
and died just like that. He came and left with no worries holding him back."

But he had too many worries. Compared to other people, his entire journey from life to death
seemed to be like wading through water and mud, with many things towing him back.

When you wake up from your sleep, you will realise that I have destroyed everything you've
worked for in your entire life until only shattered pieces are left. From now on, Beggars' Sect
might really only exist in wuxia fiction, she thought. Will you blame me?

Family members could not stay in the ICU ward for long. Yang Yifan looked at him deeply, and
then was led away by the nurse.

Patients in the ICU ward did not need someone to accompany them. There was nothing Yang
Yifan could do at the hospital anyway. She changed out of the protective clothing. She planned to
stay for a few days at her office; at No. 110, there were always people from Beggars' Sect poking
their heads in.

I have nothing on at night so I'll go over it a bit more, then use the company's public account to
post a public statement, Yang Yifan thought as she walked. Near the hospital, the traffic was bad
and it was inconvenient for parking. She had parked her car rather far away. To save time, she
took a shortcut there.

Suddenly, her back tensed. Before she could think further, she was already dodging to the side.
The step she took was a little large, the thin heel of her shoe got stuck in the drain cover, pinning
her leg there and making her stumble.

Yang Yifan twisted her head around. She saw an unfamiliar man wearing patched clothes
standing behind her.

"Miss Yang," the other person said in a rather impolite tone. "I'm a Four Pouch disciple under
Elder Tian. Today, the sect elders have convened and we hope that you will do us the honour of
joining us. I am here specially to pick you up."

Yang Yifan tugged at her shoe for a while but the heel of the shoe seemed to have been specially
made to fit into the drain cover. It was stuck firmly and snugly, and she could not pull it free. "My
apologies. I don't have the time and I'm also not part of Beggars' Sect."
The man wearing the patched clothes had a look like he was facing a dilemma. "The instructions
came from higher-ups. If I don't manage to invite you, the sect elders will blame me for not being
able to do my work properly."

"Are you people inviting or kidnapping?"

"Of course we are inviting," the man wearing the patched clothes said. "It's just that we can't
take no as an answer."

Yang Yifan scoffed. She furtively slipped her hand into her pocket to take her phone. "What if I
don't want to go?"

The man said, "Please excuse me."

As he spoke, he reached a hand out to grab Yang Yifan's elbow. Yang Yifan ducked to avoid his
hand and at the same time, pulled down the zip on her shoe and leaped out with her foot bare.
She smashed her knee against the man's lower body and took the chance when he retreated a
step to turn and run. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at her phone screen and
frantically dialled the emergency number.

This was the disadvantage of modern smartphones. The screens were flat and one couldn't rely
on touch. During an emergency, it was very inconvenient to call the police.

When she was very young, Yang Ping had forced her to practice martial arts. She had suffered not
a small number of beatings due to that and it was to the extent that whenever she recalled this
matter, her memories were all painful ones. Later on, she refused to dip her toes in this area
anymore no matter what. Now that she was over thirty years old, the martial arts for children she
had learned was purely for show now and could not be brought out at all for fights and brawls.

The man immediately gave chase. Yang Yifan's legs were not as long as his in the first place and
she even had one foot bare and one foot clad in a shoe with an eight-centimeter heel. She ran
like she was performing an act and she was breaking out in a cold sweat. Right then, footsteps
sounded from ahead. Yang Yifan's eyes brightened. She was just about to shout when she saw
that the intersection was blocked by a few vagrants!

Her call connected. Before Yang Yifan could make out the voice coming from the other side,
someone twisted her elbow from the back and her phone immediately fell out of her hands. She
kicked out and the man wearing patched clothes took the chance to stomp ruthlessly on her
knee. It had been a little over twenty years since Yang Yifan last suffered such physical pain and
she fell to her knees on the spot.

The man sneered. "Now will you come with us?"

Yan Hao left work early today and came back to help Boss Jiang man the shop. He was bending
over and sweeping the ground in front of the shop when his ears suddenly twitched. Like a big-
eared bat, he keenly sensed a noise coming from behind him. Yan Hao turned his head around
and saw that Qiao-Qiao was standing on the other side of the crossroads.
Qiao-Qiao hadn't been at work for a few days now. He heard that she had applied for leave. The
poor and stingy pet store next door couldn't afford a second employee so the boss had no choice
but to put in an appearance himself to welcome the customers. The boss was a bald man in his
thirties, nearly 1.9 meters tall, his upper arms bulging with fierce-looking muscles and his lower
arms tattooed with a spirited azure dragon. He had scared the wits out of the little animals in the
pet store and also the little Yan Hao next door.

The moment Yan Hao saw him, from two meters away his calves would start to cramp. Until now,
he did not dare bring the canned pet food to the next door.

Now that Qiao-Qiao was finally back, Yan Hao was both surprised and pleased. He waved madly
at her and communicated with her using sign language that he was still not fluent in: I have
something of yours!

Right then, a bus drove past the intersection and stopped between the two of them. Yan Hao had
no choice but to withdraw his hand. He clutched at his hair awkwardly.

Half a minute later, the bus rumbled away. But when Yan Hao looked again, Qiao-Qiao had
disappeared without a trace from the opposite side of the road. Startled, he rushed over to look
for her. The air seemed to still carry a trace of the fruity perfume she wore. Yan Hao looked to
the right and to the left—he saw a shadow slip around a corner.

Yan Hao's skills were from the lineage of Tang Qian Yan. His qinggong could put Gan Qing at a
disadvantage. Qiao-Qiao's footsteps were so light and nimble they didn't seem to be those of an
ordinary person and he naturally had noticed that a long time ago. It was just that he had never
asked. The two of them were like online friends who happened to be neighbours. Everyday, they
communicated with each other using the written word and "human-flesh emoticons." When it
came to "real life" matters, if one person didn't volunteer information, it was not convenient for
the other person to inquire.

What on earth had she encountered?

Yan Hao hesitated a while, then gave chase.

Qiao-Qiao seemed to be following someone. The girl was really like a reincarnation of a cat
demon and was naturally as lithe as a swallow. Yan Hao brought out all his skills but nearly lost
her a few times. Finally, Qiao-Qiao came to a stop.

Yan Hao couldn't be very sure where he was now. Keeping one eye on Qiao-Qiao, he dug out his
phone to check his location. Right at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, he spied a
Beggars' Sect disciple acting sneaky.

The location tracking on his phone succeeded. Yan Hao looked closely—Isn't this near the
hospital where Sect Leader Yang is currently staying?

Suspicion rose in his heart. Not far away, he saw Qiao-Qiao slip into a tiny alley like a fish.
Without thinking, Yan Hao followed after her and at the same time, he took a precaution—he
sent his location to Yu Lanchuan.
Chapter 85
Yu Lanchuan was puzzled. His brows rising to his hairline, he replied to Yan Hao with a question
mark.

Gan Qing asked, "Why, are you busy with something else?"

Yu Lanchuan suddenly looked up and asked her, "Do you people think that I look like a human
GPS?"

Gan Qing blinked in confusion. This Little Master Yu's confidence in himself was usually off the
charts but when it came to his greatest advantage, he instead lacked confidence?

Yu Lanchuan clenched his teeth hard. "Then, why do each and every one of you send me your
locations for no reason? What the hell do you guys mean by this?"

On Yan Hao's side, he stopped replying after sending his location. He didn't even have the time to
look at Yu Lanchuan's reply.

Qiao-Qiao's shadow slipped around the corner, disappearing in a flash and scaring Yan Hao until
he was cold-sweating. He nearly thought he had lost her but fortunately, this lane had not been
maintained for many years and the bricks on either side had loosened, revealing the soft earth
beneath and keeping traces of the girl's nimble steps. Yan Hao followed the footprints to look for
her and realised that there was a small door at the corner of the wall. For some reason, there was
a gap in the brick walls between the two courtyards. It was very narrow, perhaps too narrow for
even one person to pass through. The little door had probably been added there because they
were afraid the space would be difficult to clean.

She must have slipped through the space to get to another street.

As he thought this, Yan Hao leaped up and over the small door, landing lightly on… empty air.

This little gap was unbelievably outrageous. On one side, the wall was slanted, making the gap
wide at the top but narrow at the bottom!

In the first place, Yan Hao's frame was quite a bit larger compared to the girl's slender one. On
top of that, after years of shrinking his neck and hunching his back in front of the computer, he
had ended up with an exceptionally thick upper back. With this leap, he was stuck inside!

Yan Hao's legs dangled in midair. He kicked out a few times but still couldn't reach the ground
and was just stuck there, unable to get up or get down. He strained to turn his head around and
saw that Qiao-Qiao was at the other end of the little alley, looking at him in astonishment.

Yan Hao kicked his legs like he was swimming freestyle. His face turned red from exertion.

Qiao-Qiao came back to herself. In the cramped space, she signed at him with much difficulty:
Are you following me?
Yan Hao wanted to sign in return but he really had no space to use his hands. Left without a
choice, he could only endure the suffering and open his mouth, preparing to use spoken
language.

Before he could make a sound, Qiao-Qiao immediately made a shushing motion.

The wooden door was not very effective at blocking noise. Yan Hao followed her hand gesture
and inclined his head. He heard jumbled voices coming from the other side.

"Watch the entrance of the alley. Don't let anyone come in."

"Yang Yifan, if you hadn't been so merciless in your actions, we wouldn't want to use force
either!"

"If Elder Zhao is not let out, this matter won't be over!"

Yang Yifan?

Yan Hao's eyes widened.

Qiao-Qiao crouched down and plastered herself against one side of the wooden door in the small
space, peeking out through the cracks.

To save time, Yang Yifan had taken the small lane behind the hospital. The lane was dim in the
first place and now, both ends of the lane were blocked by vagrants and beggars. In the
northwest wind, a few shabbily-dressed vagrants gathered together, looking like they wanted to
pick a quarrel. Even if anyone passed by, they would take a detour when they saw this group.

Qiao-Qiao saw two people wearing patched clothes seizing Yang Yifan, pulling and dragging her
with them. She didn't know where they wanted to take her to.

Yang Yifan usually never spared anyone from her sharp words. Now, she knew she was at a
disadvantage and adapted very quickly to the situation. She knew that no one would come even
if she screamed so she did not waste any strength on that. She only lowered her center of gravity
on purpose, making it harder for the other side to pull her and to buy more time. At the same
time, she opened her patent leather handbag and let all the small items like her keys and I.D.
scatter all over the ground. This way, as long as these beggar scums were just a little careless,
they would easily overlook something in this crime scene. If someone came to find her, it would
be a clue.

Qiao-Qiao arched her back like a wary cat. Right at that moment, she heard a rustling sound
coming from behind her. She spared some attention to look back and saw that Yan Hao had
nearly broken his collarbone in his efforts to turn his body just a little. He took a deep breath,
sucking in his stomach, and finally landed on the ground. With much effort, he scuttled over to
her like a crab and reached a hand towards her in despair—Help, pull me out!

Qiao-Qiao, "..."
She glanced towards the small wooden door, then at the rapidly suffocating Yan Hao. After
hesitating a short while, in the end, she chose the side whose life was more "in immediate
danger." She squeezed over and grabbed Yan Hao's hand and pulled him towards the outside.

But Yan Hao's radish-shaped body was just too large and the surrounding walls were just too
sturdy and rigid. Qiao-Qiao strained hard enough to move mountains but only managed to pull
Yan Hao for about five centimeters. She was sweating and had to stop. She shook her head at Yan
Hao, then turned her head back around worriedly.

Yan Hao understood her body language. The situation on that side is more urgent. Why don't you
stay stuck here for a while?

Yan Hao didn't say anything. His eyes sank and he grabbed her wrist.

He realised just now that even though Qiao-Qiao was light-footed and agile, she didn't have
much strength in her arms. Just from the way she pulled at him, Yan Hao felt that even if she
knew some martial arts, her training had probably not been very solid. He must not let her go out
alone.

Qiao-Qiao stamped her feet and struggled to break free of his hold. Yan Hao tightened his fingers,
gripping her harder, and kept shaking his head at her. Yan Hao's ability to come and go without
leaving a trace wasn't purely due to his good qinggong skills. Swallows have wings but Tang Qian
Yan did not have the advantage of that species and could only rely on the strength in their limbs.
Yan Hao could use just the five fingers of one hand to hang outside a tall building. The strength in
his hands was no small matter.

Qiao-Qiao felt that his fingers were like a metal pincer. No matter how she pried, she could not
pry them open and she was so angered that she made as though to bite him.

Yan Hao twisted his head away and did not look at her, throwing caution to the wind and letting
her bite as she wished. His skin was coarse and his flesh thick anyway. His other hand strained to
take out his phone and he messaged Yu Lanchuan: Kidnapping, hurry up!

Before he could finish typing, Qiao-Qiao unleashed a powerful move on him—she tickled him.

Yan Hao's hand trembled. The "!" ended up as a "~" and the message was sent out when he was
caught off guard. He was fixed in place by the walls on both sides and had nowhere to escape and
he also didn't dare make a noise. He was bullied by Qiao-Qiao until his tears were nearly falling.

Yu Lanchuan again replied with a string of question marks. Who's kidnapping whom? How many
people? What's the situation? Type properly, why are you acting cute!

Yan Hao, "..."

This was going to end up taking his life!

Cornered in the alley by Beggars' Sect, Yang Yifan saw a grimy car arrive at the intersection out of
the corner of her eye. She said in a low voice, "What use is it if you people take me away? Are
you going to make me hand over the Dog Beating Staff or make me publish an official apology in
the newspapers? Will the police stop investigating just because I say something?"

"That's not for us to handle."

Yang Yifan scoffed. "Beggars' Sect is 'suspected' to be an illegal organisation and right now, you
people are insisting on making the suspicion reality. I can also risk my life to accompany you…
Let! Go! I will walk on my own!"

With a fierce twist, she broke free of the people holding her. Her face as placid as deep waters,
she tugged out the shoe that was stuck in the manhole cover and put it on. Her domineering aura
suddenly expanded to a radius of 2.8 meters[1]. Yang Yifan smoothened her disheveled hair. "Let'
s go."

Right then, Yan Hao finally could not hold out against the ticklish feeling all over his body
anymore. He loosened his grip and Qiao-Qiao slipped away like a fish, dashing over to the other
side of the small door.

Yan Hao did not manage to grab her in time. During his fierce struggle, both his outer garment
and the sweater he was wearing inside were pushed up by the walls on both sides. In a moment
of panic, Yan Hao twisted around wildly and slipped out under his clothes and was left wearing
only a tank top. Finally, he could just barely move around but it was too late to catch Qiao-Qiao.

Qiao-Qiao leaped away.

Yan Hao's face was about to crumble. Wait, don't go there!

Right at that moment, a police siren suddenly cut through everyone's tense nerves. Qiao-Qiao
already had both legs in the air but her reaction was quick; she propped her legs against both
sides, fixing herself into place. The beggars and vagrants watching the intersection were all
panicking. The car that they were going to use for the kidnapping drove away.

The police siren pressed nearer and nearer. Right on its heels was the sound of someone
shouting. "What's going on!"

The Beggars' Sect disciples could not be bothered with Yang Yifan anymore and scattered in all
directions. In the small space, Qiao-Qiao and Yan Hao held their breaths and paid rapt attention.
Qiao-Qiao carefully peeked out through the cracks of the wooden door.

She saw a man with thick brows, big eyes and an angry face leading a group of uniformed police
officers into the area. Yang Yifan gave him an unruffled smile. "And here I was thinking that the
call to the police just now didn't get through. What's this, Detective Meow, do issues of public
security also require the criminal police to be dispatched now?"

"My surname is Miao—that's not the point." Captain Miao picked up her phone and passed it
over. "You said that these organisations are everywhere so I thought that you might be in danger
and got some of our brothers to keep an eye on your surroundings. I didn't think that they would
really dare to! They're really a criminal organisation!"
Yang Yifan didn't take the phone.

Captain Miao looked up, "What is it?"

"The granddaughter of the criminal organisation's former boss has a hot potato in her hands,"
Yang Yifan lowered her head to look at him. "Captain Meow, would you like to take custody of
it?"

At No. 110 Courtyard, Yu Lanchuan's cab request had finally been accepted by a driver when he
received a message from Yan Hao.

After sending a few puzzling messages asking for help, this ineffectual Spiderman sent another
one that said: It's okay now. The police are here.

Yu Lanchuan hadn't even had the time to button up his coat.

After sending the message, Yan Hao felt his nose itching and suspected that the alliance leader
was scolding him. "Qiao-"

Her back to him, Qiao-Qiao extended one hand to cut him off. Yan Hao's nerves that had just
relaxed tensed up again. A few seconds later, the two of them heard the sound of very light
footsteps.

Yang Yifan followed Captain Miao away. The remaining police officers went to search the
surroundings for the group of Beggars' Sect disciples. A man dressed immaculately in a western
style suit walked over—the sleeve on the hand that was holding a phone had a decorative patch.

"She left with the police… Oh, the Dog Beating Staff is likely going to fall into their hands I'm
afraid… I know, Elder Yang. The sacred item is not an issue. Beggars' Sect is in huge trouble this
time and it's actually a chance for us… Our brothers have hid themselves well, please don't worry.
I'll go over right now."

Yan Hao, who had squeezed his way over with much effort, did not understand a single word. He
lowered his head to look at Qiao-Qiao and saw that there was a heavy and dark shadow cast over
the girl's face.

Yan Hao patted her on the shoulder. Is there something wrong?

Qiao-Qiao ignored him. The man was walking further away while talking on the phone. Qiao-Qiao
pressed lightly against the wooden door. With a clap and a jump, she squeezed out of the small
space.

Yan Hao could only follow after her.

The man wearing the western style suit was very cautious. Every time he passed an intersection
with a traffic safety mirror, he would stop and look around to guard against people following him.
Unfortunately, his hearing and his martial arts skills were probably not very good. Two qinggong
experts tailed him and he did not notice them the whole way.

In less than five minutes, Qiao-Qiao and Yan Hao saw the person he was meeting.

That person had salt and pepper hair and walked with a slight limp. He was short and thin. He
was squatting by the road side and smoking, his eyes squinting. It was none other than Yang Ping.

Yan Hao didn't know Yang Ping but he could sense Qiao-Qiao's body turning tense. Blood veins
appear in her large almond-shaped eyes.

Yan Hao thought a bit, then zoomed his camera in and secretly snapped a photo of Yang Ping.
Once again, he sent his location to Yu Lanchuan.

Yu Lanchuan had just come to an agreement with the cab driver to cancel his ride request. The
driver was very unhappy that the customer was cancelling the request for no reason and coldly
rebuked him, "Please think carefully before you make a request. I'm already halfway there, and
it's just a fool's errand!"

Yu Lanchuan knew that he was in the wrong and could only endure even when he was scolded.
Who would have thought that after hanging up and before his phone could even cool down, he
would receive another location tracking. He was going to go insane.

"Steady, calm down," Gan Qing quickly coaxed him. "Let me call the cab this time."

Yu Lanchuan's face remained cold and he stood there, wallowing in displeasure.

Gan Qing wiped the tears in her eyes and kept her eyes on the phone, swiping around for a long
while. Yu Lanchuan said impatiently, "No one's accepting? What kind of luck do you have with
people?"

"It's not that." Gan Qing sniffled and asked in a muffled voice. "What's the full name of that ride-
hailing app?"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

It seemed like these people wanted to anger him to death and seize the position of alliance
leader!

On Yan Hao's side, he had just sent the text when he saw Qiao-Qiao gradually becoming unable
to keep her breathing calm. That pair of hands that usually took gentle care of the little cats and
dogs curled into fists, the veins bulging from the back of her hands all the way to her arms.

Yang Ping was looking up and talking to his subordinate; suddenly, he changed his expression.
"What filthy thing did you bring back?"

His subordinate was puzzled, "What-"

Before he could finish speaking, the lighter in Yang Ping's hand that he used to light his cigarette
swiftly flew out. Shrouded in a vicious wind, it headed directly at Qiao-Qiao hiding behind a tree
far away.

Yan Hao grabbed Qiao-Qiao by the back of her collar and swiftly pulled her back. The lighter
brushed past her and collided against a branch, exploding on the spot with a loud boom.

They had been found out!

Yang Ping chewed on the cigarette butt and slowly stood up. "Where did these two rats come
from?"

Yan Hao couldn't let Qiao-Qiao be a target. He clenched his teeth and stamped his feet, and
leaped out from behind the tree like a fool to stand in front of Qiao-Qiao, locking eyes with Yang
Ping.

Yang Ping took the cigarette butt out of his mouth and looked at him in askance. "Oh, it's the Yan
family's brat."

Yan Hao was momentarily stunned. "You… You know me? Who are you?"

Yang Ping revealed a row of yellowed teeth. "Why are you being a busybody if you don't know
anything? I've seen that half-baked martial arts of yours. While I'm still in a good mood and can't
be bothered to quibble with you, take the chance and get lost."

Right then, a robotic voice suddenly came from behind Yan Hao. "You're Yang Ping."

He turned his head to look. Qiao-Qiao was holding a phone and using some kind of app that read
out the words she typed.

Yang Ping's brows twitched. His gaze fell on that unremarkable-looking girl.

She looked only twenty years old. Her face still had a girlish awkwardness and her lips were
pressed together in a thin line.

"I am Zhu Qiao. Thirty years ago, my grandfather was one of Beggars' Sect's Nine Pouch Elders.
Do you still remember?"

Yang Ping slowly straightened up.

"You sold out my grandmother and my little aunt to Traveller's Sect and they died in the fire at
the warehouse. My grandfather went to look for the people from Travellers' Sect to get revenge
and because of that, he was imprisoned and died in jail. My father was only thirteen years old at
that time. He was playful and had been sleeping at a school friend's house and because of that,
he escaped. He could never forget the day his family was destroyed in a single night. Even until
his death, he investigated what happened that day."
After typing the last sentence, Qiao-Qiao handed her phone to Yan Hao. From her pants pocket,
she drew out a dagger that was slightly over half a foot long.

The phone loyally and steadfastly read out the last line for her. "He is no longer here to see the
truth. I will find it out for him."

T/N:
[1] "Aura expanding to 2.8 meters" ( 气 场 两 米 八 ) was originally used to describe the "cold-
blooded domineering CEO aura" of the male lead in the Korean T.V. series Beating Again. It
achieved meme status when netizens used it to describe a child in one episode of the variety
show Where Are We Going, Dad?
Chapter 86
"You?" Yang Ping sneered. Then, he took out another cigarette and heaved a sigh. He said
nonchalantly, "I think there was such a person. Oh, You're also an old member of Beggars' Sect.
This is fate."

Yan Hao held Qiao-Qiao's phone and looked from one to the other in bewilderment.

Yan Hao had heard the older people speak of the tragedy thirty years ago that started the feud
between Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect but that matter was too far away from him. He had
only listened and then forgot about it.

But what had Qiao-Qiao—no, Zhu Qiao—said just now?

What did she mean by "Those people who died in the fire had been 'sold out' by Yang Ping"?

Such a major crime, yet Yang Ping did not deny it!

The elders at No. 110 still preserved some old traditions that spoke of jianghu loyalty. When they
meet someone from the younger generation, they would take good care of them. Since Qiao-
Qiao was considered an "old member of Beggars' Sect" and was even an old member who lost
her home and family because of Beggars' Sect, if Elder Yang knew about it, he would definitely
care for her like she was his own biological granddaughter. She had always been at the pet store
at the entrance of No. 110, so why had she never revealed her identity to Elder Yang?

Was it a coincidence that she worked there or was she secretly keeping an eye on… Old Yang?

Yan Hao was only slow when it came to interacting with the outside world. His mind was not
slow; on the contrary, due to his social anxiety, he was even more sensitive than most people.

He stared at Qiao-Qiao's back, fear intermingled with shock. He suddenly realised that Qiao-Qiao
suspected Elder Yang of protecting his own biological son and that was why she had been
keeping an eye on him at No. 110!

"Qiao…" Yan Hao wanted to say something but his voice suddenly changed in pitch. "Wait!"
As a mute person, Qiao-Qiao was someone who truly fit the saying, "If I can use my hands, then I
won't waste words." Before Yan Hao could open his mouth, she was already thrusting the dagger
at Yang Ping, scaring the wits out of Yan Hao.

Taking advantage of his long legs, he leaped a few steps to land before Qiao-Qiao, standing
between the two people. He pushed away the dagger in her hand. "Calm down!"

Qiao-Qiao clapped her hands on Yan Hao's shoulders. Treating him as a large wooden stump, she
used him as a pivot to "fly" over him as lightly as a butterfly flitting around the flowers and trees.
Yan Hao reached back to grab her but the girl was like a scrap of paper, slipping out of his fingers
light as a feather. Qiao-Qiao crossed over his shoulders, raised her dagger and struck right at
Yang Ping's head.

Yan Hao shouted. He thought he was going to see blood splattering as far as a meter away. But
who would have thought that Yang Ping would just raise his arm nonchalantly and grab hold of
Qiao-Qiao's wrist that was holding the dagger.

Qiao-Qiao's dagger fell to the floor. Cigarette hanging from his mouth and one hand folded on his
back, Yang Ping slammed her onto the ground. A snapping sound reached Yan Hao's ears and a
chill ran down his spine. Before he could think further, he was charging forward to catch Qiao-
Qiao. The girl had been as light as a scrap of paper just now but Yang Ping was now smashing her
like a large hammer and Yan Hao's arms sank under the weight, nearly popping out of their
sockets. She crashed into him, sending him back two to three meters until his butt landed on the
ground and he became a human cushion for her.

Qiao-Qiao's wrist was broken. It dangled limpy and she was in so much pain that her whole body
was shaking, curled into a ball.

Yan Hao looked towards Yang Ping in shock and horror. He had practised martial arts since young
and had always thought that he lived alongside experts. He had challenged Yu Lanchuan before
and had also been chased by Gan Qing before. He felt that these neighbours of his were all more
powerful than him but it was just an ordinary kind of "powerful." No one had ever made him feel
this sense of terror.

The body of this thin and small man before his eyes seemed to be hiding an inhuman monster
and what he was using was some kind of unknown energy.

Yang Ping looked down on the two of them from his vantage point. His victory was too easy and
he was evidently rather pleased because of that.

He bent down and asked Qiao-Qiao, "Little girl, let me ask you. Who told you that your family's
deaths have something to do with me?"

Qiao-Qiao's long hair fell from her temples. In just this short while, it was already soaked in cold
sweat. She lifted her head and looked out through the gaps of her hair, revealing a pair of
terrifying eyes. Yan Hao could feel her body suddenly tensing. A cold glint shot out from her
mouth, heading right for Yang Ping's face.
At first, Yan Hao didn't immediately realise what it was. He followed Qiao-Qiao's gaze to look
over, staring stupidly, and saw Yang Ping scramble to lean backwards. There were wounds on his
neck and his face that looked like scratch marks.

Yang Hao was stupefied. The legendary Hidden Sand Shooting Shadows[1] that was supposedly
hidden in the attacker's mouth and shoots out concealed weapons truly existed!

When he was young, he had read about it in stories and had doubted it so many times. If you hid
something like this in your mouth, what would happen if you accidentally set it off when talking?

Now he finally had his answer. It was possible if the person never opened their mouth to speak!

While thoughts were running through his head like a train, Qiao-Qiao had already leaped up from
his arms. Fine needles shot out repeatedly from her mouth and while Yang Ping was dodging, she
rolled and picked up her fallen dagger and swiped it at Yang Ping's knees. Yang Ping was
unbalanced and couldn't evade…

No, he was purposely not evading!

Yang Ping only raised his leg slightly. The sharp dagger hit against his calf with a clang but his leg
did not bend even the slightest bit—there was something under his pants leg! The dagger sliced
open the fabric, exposing a corner of the metal brace inside. That was exactly what had shaped
his pants to make him look different from other people on top of his slight disability.

Yan Hao stared, eyes wide and mouth falling open. If that was the case, how thin must his leg be?
How crooked must it be?

"Die!" Yang Ping smashed a palm at Qiao-Qiao.

Qiao-Qiao raised the dagger with one hand to block but before she could lift her hand, the other
person caught the blade between his fingers. She heard a whistling sound; by the time she
wanted to let go and dodge, it was too late. Yang Ping had stomped on her stomach.

Half of Qiao-Qiao's body lost all sensation from the pain. This stomp flattened her from half-
kneeling to lying flat on the ground. Before she could recover, a hand choked her throat.

Yang Ping lowered his voice and let out a sinister laugh. "Let me see you try shooting again."

Yan Hao couldn't be bothered to continue examining just exactly how peculiar Yang Ping was. He
leaped up and crashed into Yang Ping from behind.

Without even looking back, Yang Ping shifted his body to the side and accurately avoided a direct
collision. This action was as though he could control the situation down to the millimeter and Yan
Hao immediately felt that there was no direction from which he could strike effectively. He
wasn't someone who liked to cause trouble and his experience in fighting with others was
lacking. He paused just a tiny bit and Yang Ping held Qiao-Qiao in his hands like a weapon,
swinging her towards Yan Hao.
Yan Hao was prevented from attacking. He was afraid of hurting Qiao-Qiao and quickly loosened
his muscles, falling back three steps from the collision. Qiao-Qiao's face was unnaturally flushed
and her limbs were starting to spasm.

Yan Hao drew in a deep breath. He opened his throat and prepared to shout. "He-"

Before he could finish shouting for help, a rod hit squarely against his back. The man dressed in a
western style suit whom the two of them had followed just now took the chance when Yan Hao's
attention was entirely on the fearsome Yang Ping to find a rod from somewhere. The sneak attack
was steady, accurate and ruthless.

Yan Hao's vision blackened. He fell to his knees with a thump and nearly fainted on the spot.

"Tang Qian Yan?" The corners of Yang Ping's mouth curled up in a superficial smile. "Hah, what an
oaf. Each generation is worse than the last."

As he spoke, he looked at Qiao-Qiao in his hands whose consciousness was already fading. Who
knew what he was thinking; veins suddenly bulged out on the back of his hands. Typically, the
veins on the back of a person's hands appeared greenish blue, bluer if the person's skin was very
pale. However, the veins on Yang Ping's hands were a dark, murky purple.

Yan Hao held on desperately to his darkening vision. He wanted to climb up but his limbs seemed
to be disconnected from his torso and refused to listen to his commands.

Qiao-Qiao…

Right then, a police siren suddenly sounded. The man who had sneak-attacked Yan Hao jumped
in fright, the rod slipping out of his hands. This man had a guilty conscience. His entire body
shrank back and he instinctively wanted to run away. Even Yang Ping's hands loosened their grip
subconsciously. Air flowed through Qiao-Qiao's throat and she started coughing uncontrollably.

Unexpectedly, Yang Ping did not panic. Police sirens were typically fixed to police cars but he did
not hear any vehicle sounds. "Who's playing tricks?!"

His answer was a stone flying towards him from a very crafty angle and hitting him on the hand
that was holding Qiao-Qiao. Yang Ping turned his body to dodge but at the same time, something
flew over towards where he was dodging and caught him nicely on his head—it was a man's coat.
When draped over Yang Ping, it was as though a large blanket had fallen on him, catching him off
guard. Someone took the chance when his vision was obstructed to strike his arms with a rod,
forcing him to loosen his hands, and snatched Qiao-Qao away.

Yang Ping ripped the coat off his body in a fluster. He saw Yu Lanchuan standing three steps
away.

He had been coveting No. 110 for a long time so naturally, he could recognise this "Little Master
Yu."

Yang Ping asked, "You?"

"I'm not playing tricks." Yu Lanchuan carefully lowered Qiao-Qiao to the ground and kept away
the personal alarm that sounded like a police siren. "This is just a rehearsal, the police will be
arriving soon."

Yang Ping rubbed his arm that had been hit by the rod. He let out a sudden sneer. "I've long
heard that Old Yu's family produced a weirdo… Hah! Yang Qing, oh, Yang Qing. Back then, he
criticised every little thing about me. But that venerable old man has high standards so it's normal
that he didn't approve of me. I have always been waiting to see what kind of person he would
pick as his successor…"

Yu Lanchuan was holding the golf club he had grabbed on his way out. His face was unruffled, he
didn't feel any shame at all in calling the police. "You're being polite. I don't dare accept the
praise. I'm just a little more presentable than you are."

The smile on Yang Ping's face gradually turned sinister.

"Little Master Yu," he said, grinding his teeth slightly. "You're such an important and valuable
person, you must have eighty insurance policies covering your entire body, don't you? A word of
advice for you, hide further. Otherwise, later on, the mud and blood will splatter on you and it
won't be easy to wash off."

Yu Lanchuan removed his glasses and placed them beside Qiao-Qiao. His gaze fell on the girl's
swollen wrist. "Sure, thank you. I'm not willing to fight either so why don't we find a place to sit
down and have a chat? We'll wait for the police to come and mediate the dispute between the
two of you. Coincidentally, they have been looking for-"

Before he could finish speaking, Yang Ping suddenly moved. He feinted, swinging an open palm
towards Yu Lanchuan's ear; at the same time, he burst past like a gust of wind, planning to
escape.

Yu Lanchuan swung the golf club with the grace and ease of the legendary Xiaoxiang sword. It
swept horizontally before him and blocked Yang Ping's path. Yang Ping let out a soft groan. His
purplish-black hands reached across from under the golf club, like a poisonous branding iron
targeting Yu Lanchuan's chest. The golf club in Yu Lanchuan's hand spun nimbly. A strike and a
lift, and it wound around Yang Ping's wrist.

Yang Ping couldn't even be bothered to dodge. His thin wrists seem to be cast from metal,
colliding with the metal golf club with a loud clang. In that very cramped space, the two of them
began exchanging moves. Yang Ping's hands moved faster and faster until they blurred. Yu
Lanchuan had always considered himself to be the type who favoured technique when fighting
against others and this was the first time he was forced to such desperate straits. What was even
scarier was that when the golf club hit against human arms, the other person seemed to not
know pain. Yu Lanchuan's wrists and the area between his thumb and index finger were already
starting to hurt. Without thinking, he retreated.

Yu Lanchuan's heel bumped against something hard. He had retreated to the wall.
"You and the police?" Yang Ping smashed his fist forward. Yu Lanchuan turned his head to dodge.
The attack had clearly missed its target, yet one side of his face and his ear burned in pain, like he
had been slapped with a sharp gust of wind. The brick wall held together by cement even
loosened and bits of dust flew up. Yu Lanchuan thrusted the golf club forward, using it like a
sword to stab at Yang Ping's stomach. Yang Ping contracted his body and seized the other end of
the club. He said with a sneer, "Can you keep me here?"

As Yang Ping spoke, he swiftly pushed the golf club down. Yu Lanchuan's wrists were forced to
twist; he didn't dare pit his strength against Yang Ping and let go immediately. When the club
bounced up, his leg swept across and the club went flying away to be caught single-handedly by
someone.

That person picked up the conversation. "Who knows? Nothing's for sure."

Gan Qing held Yu Lanchuan's golf club and slowly walked over from the other side of the little
alley. She wore a face mask and had a hood over her head, and looked like a dark cloud drifting
over.

The look on Yang Ping's face finally changed. "Wei…"

"You've got the wrong person." Gan Qing walked over slowly. She gave Yan Hao who had just
climbed to his feet a light kick and passed the golf club together with a cab receipt to Yu
Lanchuan. "Alliance Leader, why did you run so fast? When you go back later, don't forget to
reimburse me… It's not strange if other people got the wrong person but how could you also get
it wrong, Elder Yang? Wei Xiao… Didn't you kill him yourself?"

Yang Ping's western-suited subordinate saw that things weren't looking good and had already run
off. While they were talking, Yu Lanchuan took the golf club, Yan Hao picked up the rod that had
been used to knock him out just now, and Gan Qing hid both her hands in the sleeves of her
coat… Three people were just enough to surround Yang Ping.

Yang Ping said, "You're that…"

"Yeap, that's right."

Gan Qing took off the face mask that was rather stifling. The tip of her nose was a little red. Her
face had been covered by the mask the whole time and there were fine water droplets from the
humidity. There seemed to be a touch of colour on her lips yet she did not have the kind of
adorable look that asked for love and pity. She obviously did not look like Wei Xiao but, for no
reason at all, the way she carried herself made Yang Ping suddenly recall that nightmarish match.

The young Wei Xiao had a quiet and reticent look. He alone went up against five of them, yet
there was no weakness for them to attack. His eyes were cold and always lowered. It made him
seem like he was being modest but in actual fact, he didn't really look people directly in the eye.

Their martial arts that they had spent long painful years developing to the point that they
outstripped others seemed to be nothing more than petty annoyances to him. Under that gaze,
Yang Ping's false and boastful self-confidence also crumbled and collapsed until nothing
remained.

For half of his life, he could not walk out of the shadow of this gaze. Even after he killed Wei Xiao
with his own hands and wiped away his past humiliation, in his nightmares in the late hours of
the night, this pair of eyes still gazed at him like a shadow tailing him.

"I learned some little tricks under Wan Mu Chun's sect. Before I could master anything, I was
thrown out of the sect." Gan Qing raised her left sleeve lightly, revealing the snow-white blades
at her fingertips. "Coincidentally, I am slightly disabled and so are you. Between the two of us,
neither one can be said to be bullying the other."

T/N:
[1] "Hidden Sand Shooting Shadows" is a literal translation of 含沙射影. It is an idiom that means
making hidden innuendos to disparage someone, and also refers to a mythical creature called 蜮
yù that hides in the water and conceals sand in its mouth that it shoots at people's shadows,
making them fall sick.
Chapter 87
In Yang Ping's entire life, what he hated the most was other people calling him "disabled." Gan
Qing's jab at him made him swell up in anger like a pufferfish and he got over his psychological
fear of Wan Mu Chun on the spot.

He charged at Gan Qing like a demon, wanting to flatten her.

At the same time, Gan Qing skidded backwards. Her steps were not as light as Qiao-Qiao's, her
feet didn't really lift up from the ground and were instead dragging along, but each step gave her
just enough space to avoid Yang Ping's oncoming fist and the wind from his strikes. It seemed like
she was unwilling to use even an ounce more energy than was strictly necessary.

Stirred up by her feet, the feather-light dust and fallen leaves danced along with the wind.

Yang Ping suddenly took out a retractable baton from his sleeve and swung it horizontally at Gan
Qing's chest. Gan Qing bent backwards, the corners of her old and pilling coat flying up like a
flower suddenly bursting into bloom. At the same time, Yu Lanchuan's golf club lunged in from
the side and smashed on the retractable baton.

Gan Qing let out a carefree laugh. "Did I step on your tail, Senior Yang? Right off the bat, you
want to smash a crater in this flat ground… Ow!"

Yang Ping pushed the long baton up with both hands, forcing Yu Lanchuan to retreat a few steps.
Yu Lanchuan had gotten an earful of Gan Qing's nonsensical blabber and lost his focus for a
second and in his fluster, he stepped on her foot.

The tip of Gan Qing's shoe was flattened by him and she hopped about on one foot. Her bearing
of an expert vanished without a trace. "Little Master Yu, whose side are you on!"

Yu Lanchuan didn't have the time to pay her any attention. He was quickly switching techniques.
The Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang were originally sword techniques for the heavy sword and had
a touch of being unconcerned with fine and meticulous details[1]. It did not suit Little Master Yu's
fancy temperament—this handsome guy had to face the mirror even when practising on the
balcony; his swordplay could be imperfect but his pose could not.

Thus, his Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang had always been full of confident ease and agility, and
lacked some of the original intention of the sword techniques.

But now, the heavy golf club was impeding his performance, forcing him to simplify his actions.
Yang Ping was also an expert that he rarely encountered in his life. As he parried move with
move, he faintly sensed something he had never sensed before. He was getting a peek of his
distinguished forefathers fishing in a cold river accompanied by snow, the space vast and lonely
and tranquil. From the place where all life was cut off, he gazed from far at the days and nights
flowing by and his heart suddenly calmed.

In actual fact, all schools of martial arts were not about learning how to move one's limbs by rote.
Their teachings had been handed down through thousands of years until this day and each had
their own way of thinking, most of which could be summarised as "Heaven and Earth, mountains
and rivers; mortal affairs come and go." This was the very first lesson taught when the shifus
passed down their skills. It was just that the first lesson was like the introduction to a subject; it
seemed to highlight all the important points but was actually not important at all. As the students
learned more and more, eventually, it was forgotten.

To compete and see who was more powerful and who was better at fighting could already be
considered to "not forget one's original aspirations." There were even more people who not only
pursued a "reputation," but also desired to gather the authority and profit behind that reputation
into their arms.

Holding those things in their arms as they descended into madness and obsession, not stopping
before they reached death.

With a flick of her fingers, Gan Qing sent a small blade flying towards Yang Ping's neck. The throat
was a person's vital spot. Yang Ping dodged instinctively and the small blade brushed past his
front lapel to bounce off Yu Lanchuan's golf club. Yu Lanchuan lightly batted away the blade; it
changed directions and was again caught in Gan Qing's hand.

Yang Ping seized the golf club with both hands. Before he could get his balance, the small blade
coming for his life sealed off the space he had to move around in. Yang Ping let out a roar. He had
just shook her off when Yan Hao swung the rod at his legs.

The way these three people fought was to fight while distracting him at the same time. They all
knew that there was a gap between their skills and Yang Ping's. No one tangled with him; they
just came forward to poke at him and then ran while someone else took their place. They were
not letting him get away but were also not directly crossing swords with him.

Yang Ping clenched his teeth. He could tell that these brats were really trying in vain to keep him
there and wait for the police to arrive.
The short baton in his hands transformed into a shadowy blur, spinning and knocking aside Yu
Lanchuan's golf club. He brushed past Yu Lanchuan; then, his short baton suddenly extended a
few inches and knocked accurately on Yan Hao's wrist. Yan Hao's wrist turned numb and his
weapon slipped out of his hand.

However, Gan Qing was much more quick-witted than the other two. She did not exchange
moves with him at all. From beginning to end, her little blades flew unceasingly to block Yang
Ping's path, looking like shadows taking physical form, giving the other two time to catch up to
Yang Ping.

Yang Ping stabbed the short baton into the ground and stood firm a meter away from her. He
suddenly let out a cold laugh. "Wan Mu Chun who exists everywhere, for whom no gap is
impenetrable, doesn't even dare to fight openly and directly with others now!"

Gan Qing answered, unperturbed, "I don't have a choice, I'm disabled now."

The corner of one Yang Ping's eyes twitched. He spied Yan Hao and Yu Lanchuan surrounding him
warily and said slowly, "Back then, Wei Xiao signed the life-and-death pledge before the match
and it stated that it was to be a one versus many match. Even though he wasn't anything good, at
the very least, he knew to value his reputation. If he knew that his descendant had turned from a
hawk to a dog, who knows how he would feel."

Gan Qing had muddled her way through life to her current state and it had been a long time since
she had a delicate and transparent heart of glass. She could even thrive as a "witch" and was very
obstinate. Neither soft nor hard tactics worked on her. She did not fear being provoked and was
also shameless, and did not care the least bit about his words. "How else could he feel? Probably
just 'each generation is worse than the last,' your father's favourite phrase."

Yang Ping, "..."

On a daily basis, Yu Lanchuan was rendered so speechless by Gan Qing's words that he practically
hopped in indignation. Now, he finally had the chance to watch her aim her barbs at someone
else and there was an indescribable delight in his heart.

Gan Qing extended a sincere invitation. "What other personal attacks do you have? Please don't
hesitate to share."

Both sides of Yang Ping's face tightened. Who knew what he was thinking, he suddenly laughed
again. "You people want to delay time until the police get here. But when they do, so what?"

Yu Lanchuan said, "Nothing much. But if you want to attack the police the same way you attack
us, the next wave will probably have guns with them."

"Let me be honest with you. Even if you catch me, it's not impossible for me to break out of jail if
I want to," Yang Ping said with a sneer. "Even if I go with them obediently, what can they do to
me? What offense did I commit? Injuring that little girl? She was the one who attacked me with a
knife first. I only twisted her wrist that was holding the knife. I didn't even take her life. Did I cross
the line?"
Gan Qing sensed something and her eyes turned cold.

"Join a criminal organisation? I've already been ousted from Beggars' Sect for eighteen years.
Everyone, can I be dragged into Beggars' Sect matters?" Yang Ping retracted his baton and
wedged it in the crook of his arm. "You people say that I burned so-and-so to death thirty years
ago and that I killed so-and-so eighteen years ago. You sure know how to slander others, do you
have proof?"

Qiao-Qiao struggled to her feet. The little mute girl opened her mouth and put all her strength
into letting out an ahh.

Yang Ping couldn't be bothered to look at her. His murky gaze was locked on Gan Qing. "The
bones of the dead have rotted into pieces. Wei Xiao's tiny and shitty house has also turned into a
flat lawn long ago. If I don't admit anything, what can you do to me, huh? What can you do to
Wang Jiusheng?"

Gan Qing's voice was suppressed in her hoarse throat. "So it was really Wang Jiusheng after all?"

"Who else could it be?" Yang Ping said. "That year, I was completely isolated. The cowards in
Beggars' Sect were all busy licking the Old Sect Leader's feet, praising him for being fair and
impartial. No one listened to my orders. Other than Travellers' Sect, who else could dig a meter
into the ground and unearth Wei Xiao, that earthworm hiding in the soil?"

Gan Qing's fingers rubbed against the blade in her hand.

"How about that? Doesn't it make you want to kill Wang Jiusheng? Go ahead and kill him. After
that, you'll be a wanted criminal and have to conceal your identity and live in hiding," Yang Ping
said.

Yu Lanchuan said, "That is none of your business, you-"

Yang Ping raised his baton at Gan Qing, pointing at her as he said, "Why don't we make a bet?"

Gan Qing raised her eyes.

"Let all the irrelevant people leave. Then, you don't have to hide yourself anymore. Compare
your skills against mine, let me experience for myself whether or not the legendary Paoding
Jieniu still exists. If you lose, get lost and go back to being a cowardly turtle. If you ever find
trouble with me again in your life, your shifu will descend to the eighteen levels of hell to be
flayed and torn apart. He will never be reincarnated."

"And if I win?" Gan Qing asked.

Yang Ping seemed to be hearing a child's innocent and naive words and couldn't help smiling. "In
that case, I will turn myself in to the police. I will even guarantee not to be the only unfortunate
one, I will definitely drag Wang Jiusheng to be— my— buffer—."
Yu Lanchuan frowned. "Gan Qing…"

Gan Qing stopped him with a raised hand.

Yu Lanchuan said, "He only wants to get a chance to escape. Only an idiot will fall for his tricks!"

Gan Qing's eyes were locked on Yang Ping. She took out a cloth strip from her pocket and began
winding it around her right hand.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What are you doing?"

Gan Qing removed her coat and passed it to the trembling Qiao-Qiao. "I'm an idiot."

Yu Lanchuan had just been inwardly relieved; now, he was eating his words. He moved his legs to
go forward but suddenly, something sliced through the air towards him. Yu Lanchuan's legs
immediately paused. He slowly looked down… A small blade was nailed right on the front welt of
his leather shoe!

"Be good, don't fuss," Gan Qing said lightly. "Otherwise, I'll need to spare some attention to deal
with you."

Yang Ping bared his teeth into a smile. The three-versus-one situation would not happen again.
Since Gan Qing had said that, she would really fight her own allies. When an expert of Yang Ping's
caliber was surrounded by them, he could easily find a loophole and slip away if they did not
coordinate well, much less if they fought among themselves. As long as Yu Lanchuan's side could
still think rationally, the best option for them was to watch from the sidelines.

"You have guts. You really dare do this," Yang Ping said. "Back then, Wei Xiao was defeated by my
hand."

"Wei Xiao was not defeated by your hand," Gan Qing said, pausing between each word. "He was
defeated by Wang Jiusheng's hand. You were merely carrying out Wang Jiusheng's orders to
collect a body. Also, the last person to use the same tone as you to say that I have guts was Wei
Huan. His bones have long since been licked clean by maggots."

Yang Ping curled both hands into fists. Both his arms were flushed with blood. Under his coarse
skin, his bulging veins appear increasingly vicious and that pair of hands looked a little purplish
from far. Without warning, he struck first. This time, Gan Qing did not dodge to the right and left.
There was a whistling sound; her blades and his retractable baton scraped against each other
with a noise that made their teeth ache.

Yan Hao took a step back without realising. For a second, he felt as though the glint of the blade
had flashed right before his eyes.

These bystanders watching the fight were born in a peaceful era and were for the first time in
their lives truly feeling what was meant by a forbidding murderous aura. Yu Lanchuan and Yan
Hao had both fought Gan Qing before. They knew she was powerful but speaking generally, it
was the same kind of powerful as a schoolmate who always achieved Distinction in exams.
Yu Lanchuan had even once thought she was nothing more than a young woman who had taken
the wrong step in life, who just had more petty tricks than others.

Now, he was finally realising that the "wrong step" the young woman had taken back then was
killing Wei Huan with her own hands when she was seventeen years old.

Not a weak cat or dog that didn't even have the strength to truss up a chicken, but a man who
had a heavy blood debt on his head, who was the epitome of evil, who was… her shixiong from
the same sect.

Gan Qing had never been serious with them.

He was distracted for just a second and Yang Ping and Gan Qing had already brushed past each
other. Yang Ping's short baton knocked against Gan Qing's ribs; at the same time, he turned his
head away unnaturally. A small blade had sliced a small cut on his eyelid. If he hadn't closed his
eyes in time, this cut would have landed on his eyeball.

Gan Qing bore the full force of that blow and her upper body swayed slightly. Her eyes that were
slightly bloodshot from her cold seemed to reddened even further. She didn't let out a sound.

Her reaction had turned slow.

All these years, she had lived a muddled life, drifting wherever the waves brought her. Her mind
was entirely filled with thoughts of getting skewers after work. Her knives had turned blunt, her
hands weakened. Yu Lanchuan had assumed that he was dragging her back from the edge of law-
breaking and crime, and had repeatedly had his heart in his throat due to her actions but in
actual fact, there was no need… because when push came to shove, she might not be able to
really make the lethal cut.

With the cloth strip wrapped around it, her right hand no longer shook. But as before, it didn't
have the strength to lift up and it hung from her body like a prosthetic limb. Her right ribs that
had bore a blow were burning with pain and her internal organs had also suffered a shock along
with them.

Yang Ping slowly wiped away the blood on his eyelid with his thumb and licked it. "Have you
returned your skills to your shifu already?"

He had just finished speaking when the edge of the knife was already at the side of his neck. Yang
Ping snapped the retractable baton up, blocking her blade, but that deathly pale left hand was
unexpectedly nimble. The blade swiftly "swam" from her index finger to her little finger, the life-
taking tip coalescing into a single line that crossed over the baton and turned towards Yang Ping's
throat. Then, in the instant that it was about to cut open his skin, she suddenly sensed something
wrong.

Yang Ping's palm snuck under the baton, his wrist bent at an angle that was impossible for
humans. His palm struck her chest, the skin so purple it was almost black.
Wei Xiao had died by a similar strike.

In a moment of urgency, Gan Qing only had time to use her right arm to block. The sound of
bones snapping rang out. Her entire body was pushed back nearly ten meters, her back colliding
heavily against an unused telephone pole. Her right arm dangled down and Yu Lanchuan
suspected that her bones had broken through her flesh and skin!

People whose bodies were on the thin side could not bear taking such direct collisions. Gan
Qing's vision blackened and for two seconds, she even suspected that she had fainted. There was
a buzzing in her ears, followed right after by a sharp pain that dragged her consciousness back.

Yu Lanchuan rushed over. Yan Hao gripped his rod tightly with both hands, staring nervously at
Yang Ping.

Yang Ping wasn't even looking at him. From his vantage point, he glanced down at Gan Qing, then
smiled an unruffled smile.

"Wan Mu Chun, a brief moment of glory," he said, "But what use is it? Time passes and things
change. When we look back, regardless of whether it's Wei Xiao or the younger generation, they
do not deserve their reputation… A waste of my time to be concerned with them for so many
years. Since that is the case, I'll be leaving now. Wan Mu Chun's lineage has already fallen to this
state but surely you won't go back on your words?"

Yu Lanchuan grabbed hold of Gan Qing. "Wait a minute. She may have lost but I didn't say I was
letting you go!"

"Little Master Yu, oh, Little Master Yu." Yang Ping slowly kept his baton away in his sleeve and
shook his head with a sigh. "Have you ever drawn blood?"

Yu Lanchuan could not say anything to that.

"A house cat." Yang Ping let out a laugh. "Don't bare your fangs and flex your claws in the wild.
Good boy."

T/N:
[1] "Unconcerned with fine and meticulous details" - The description of the Seven Secret Arts of
Han Jiang swordplay is " 大巧不工 " which comes from " 重剑 无锋，大巧不工 ." This is from
Return of the Condor Heroes, a wuxia novel by Jin Yong, and refers to the Heavy Iron Sword used
by the main character, Yang Guo, describing how simple and precise strikes are more suitable for
the sword than fancy techniques. (This is a more literal interpretation, Baidu Baike explains it as
the wielder's cultivation being more important than the sword's sharp edge.)
Chapter 88
From the time he was young and all the way until now, Yu Lanchuan had always been very
relaxed when it came to practicing martial arts and did not have much competitive desire. After
all, his life was one that was "conventional" and successful. Since young, he had always been "the
perfect other kid" and he was very familiar with all the various rules of society, be it the explicit
or the implicit ones.
Whether it was Yan Hao who challenged him under the pressure of his elders or those who
started a dispute for the sake of their "reputation," to his eyes, they were all laughably childish.
Their lives were like dog shit but they still got so worked up fighting over these useless things.
What was the difference between them and kids obsessed with online games?

Even that one time when Elder Yang, Han Dongsheng and the others had gone up themselves to
rescue people from the health supplements MLM den, he had felt that the way their emotions
influenced their decisions and the way they treated the symptoms but not the root cause was not
masterful enough.

In his entire life, what Yu Lanchuan lacked the least was self-confidence. As a hobby, the Seven
Secret Arts of Han Jiang was nothing more than a superfluous addition to something that was
already perfect. As for whether or not he could become good at it, was it important?

This was only the second time in his entire life that his heart was smothered in a heavy
helplessness. He wanted nothing more than to abandon his current mortal body and reincarnate,
to suddenly sprout superhuman powers and become the hero that he had fantasised as a child
and disdained as an adult.

The last time he had choked on this feeling of helplessness, unable to breathe, was at the landfill
fifteen years ago.

And both times turned out to be due to the same person.

But there was no one who was almighty, who could reach both the heights of Heaven and the
depths of Earth.

Even if Yu Lanchuan could make use of his numerous connections in society and sweep Yanning
clean of all illegal health supplement MLMs, when facing someone like Yang Ping who was
fearless like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, his hands were tied.

Just like all those years ago—Wei Xiao had inherited Wan Mu Chun's supreme skills, had
concealed his identity and lived in hiding, and still could not give his little girl a good ending.

The police were still on their way. The clues for the old cases were already obliterated.

He could not defeat Yang Ping. He just couldn't.

"Wan Mu Chun shouldn't be like this." Yang Ping started to leave, unruffled despite the chaos. As
he walked away, he said, "I've heard that your grand-master, Mr. Chun—that should be his
position in the hierarchy—when he moved to kill, even if his opponent's sword was pressed
against his throat, his blade would not stop. It would be a bet to see whose throat was ripped
open first. If you hadn't withdrawn just now, you might have cut my throat first, or I might have
killed you first. No one knows for sure. But you withdrew."

Gan Qing tried to push herself up on one hand. Her left hand tightened unconsciously around the
razor blade until it was cut open and dripping bright red blood. Yu Lanchuan forced her hand
open and gripped her wrist.
"Let's not talk about your skills; you don't even have the courage to bet at all." As he spoke, Yang
Ping reached Gan Qing's front. He looked down at her in contempt. "Was it really you who killed
Wei Huan? I really can't tell. Could it be that it was that old fool Wei Xiao who did it but didn't
dare admit it and made you take the blame? In that case, you're really filial."

Gan Qing slowly looked up.

"You don't have bloodlust." Yang Ping leaned forward slightly and said to her in a low voice. "This
is normal. Women don't have bloodlust, they are naturally nothing more than a joke. Their
mouths may be more vicious than anyone else most of the time but at a moment of crisis, they're
completely exposed. I'll be leaving now. Remember what you said… But even if you eat your
words, it's okay. You're only someone I have defeated, hah! If you dare, come look for me. I'll be
waiting respectfully."

Right at that moment, a golf club barred his way. Yu Lanchuan said coldly, "Wait."

"Little Master Yu." Yang Ping let out a fake laugh. "What other advice do you have for me?"

Yu Lanchuan carefully lowered Gan Qing. "The one who made a bet with you was her. I never
agreed to let you go."

Yan Hao wasn't a decisive person but he had ample loyalty. He had been standing at the side just
now, unsure of what to do, but hearing Yu Lanchuan state his position, he immediately raised his
rod. "Little Master Yu, you… Watch out!"

Yan Hao's voice suddenly changed in pitch because Yang Ping had moved without prior warning,
his palm striking at Yu Lanchuan. The might of his strike this time was even more terrifying than
when he hit Gan Qing just now. Before the wind from his palm reached, Yu Lanchuan already felt
suffocated. How could a civilised person like him have seen this kind of all-or-nothing fighting
technique?

Yu Lanchuan immediately retreated eighteen steps in succession, his golf club in hand. He nearly
forgot all the moves he had practised since young.

Yan Hao's heart leaped to his throat. This sight made him lose all hope. Why were they still
fighting? If they could send this big demon away without coming to any harm, that was already
good enough.

Yang Ping raised an eyebrow. "Still want to try?"

Yu Lanchuan's tightly drawn mouth suddenly quirked up. "Of course."

Even if he couldn't defeat him, so what?

There were always times when one had to put aside rationality, put aside everything, forget all
those lofty "strategies," forget about profits and losses, and face the direction their instinct and
courage was pointing to, and walk forward with their heads broken and bleeding.
"You're looking for death!'

"I heard people say that your body did not develop well ever since you were young and because
of that, you put in twice the effort to practise martial arts but only attained half the results," Yu
Lanchuan said quickly. "You practised for nearly half your life, yet you did not achieve anything of
worth. When you had a match with someone, you even had to fight in a gang and you were all
still beaten up until you were pissing your pants. Later on, after some years, your legs were
broken and you were ousted from Beggars' Sect. When you were physically well, your martial arts
skills were not good but after your limbs were broken, you could instead launch a counterattack?
I don't believe this. Given your character, for you to really fight a fair match as you said you
would, break the arm that she couldn't really use as she liked in the first place, then just shoot
your mouth off and leave... Are you someone who lets people off whenever possible? I don't
believe this either."

One of Yang Ping's eyes twitched.

"You say that there's not enough evidence, that's why you're not afraid of the police. I agree. In
that case, since you're not afraid of the police, why are you in a hurry to leave?" Yu Lanchuan
narrowed his eyes a little. "I cannot think of any other explanation other than that you must have
used some way to cheat to make yourself suddenly so powerful. I don't know much about the
principles of demonic skills but the possibility of drugs is higher. There is a time limit to their
effectiveness, am I right? That's why you want to scare us, to stop us from blocking your way.
What is the time limit? Five minutes? Ten minutes? Or does it depend on how many times you
use those demonic skills…"

Before Yu Lanchuan could finish speaking, Yang Ping seemed to want to prove that he was wrong
and suddenly charged over. The golf club and those strange-looking palms clashed at close
quarters and the force that transmitted was even more terrifying than it had been just now. Yu
Lanchuan's hands nearly lost their grip, the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang going off-key. Yang
Ping wrenched sharply and there was a sharp pain in Yu Lanchuan's right wrist. His joints
loosened for an instant and the club fell out of his hands!

Yu Lanchuan had grown to his current age safe and healthy, and had never met with a car
accident or a sports accident even once. This was the first time he was feeling the true pain of a
serious injury, the kind that made a person want to roll around on the ground. For an instant, he
couldn't help thinking, How does it feel to break the tendons in your own arm?

Is it also this kind of pain?

No… it should be even more painful, shouldn't it? How did she do it, how could she do something
so ruthless?

Yan Hao shouted and swung the large rod at Yang Ping's upper back. Yang Ping flung his arm out
and sent the wooden rod flying. His eyes that were shot through with fine blood lines looked over
viciously, a ferocious animal-like glint in them. The purplish veins had already crept up to his face,
covering both sides of his forehead like spiderwebs. It made him look rather inhuman.
Shocked out of his wits, Yan Hao subconsciously stepped back.

Yang Ping pressed in on him.

Yu Lanchuan breathed out white puffs of air, shaking uncontrollably. He endured desperately not
to scream and forced himself to laugh coldly. "So… what is this? A new kind of drug? Have you
shared it with anyone else? Do those followers of yours use it too? Senior Yang, you said that the
police cannot get anything on you for the old cases but… what about drug trafficking?"

Yang Ping roared and reached out to grab his shoulders. Suddenly, a cold glint flashed past,
aiming right at the joints of his elbow. Yang Ping did not dodge in time and a hole was cut open in
his sleeve following the line of his arm tendons—three cun and two fen!

"Stop playing with them." Gan Qing picked up the dagger Qiao-Qiao had dropped just now with
one hand, her other arm dangling from her body. She loosened her fingertips slightly and a few
bloodstained razor blades fell out. Her fingertip brushed along the blade of the dagger and the
blood groove, slow but steady. Her left arm didn't seem like it was only in adulthood that she had
to make do and use it; instead it seemed to have been trained since she was young and had
never trembled. "That was just a warm-up. When did I… cough… admit defeat?"

Yang Ping was nearly driven mad by the few of them. If his actions prior to this could still be
considered to be particular about maintaining the proper appearance of a "fair match," this time,
he had gone into "SEED mode" and did not care about anything at all. He had completely turned
into a mad dog.

Yang Ping's retractable baton shattered the bricks on the wall and smashed towards Gan Qing like
a tempest. Gan Qing was far from being as sturdy as stone and her right arm was also broken.
She essentially could not control half her body. When she dodged to the right and to the left, her
movements were noticeably draggy and there were quite a few times when she narrowly dodged
only when the baton was about to hit her.

Yang Ping naturally noticed this and targeted Gan Qing's right side, aiming for any spot on her
that looked sluggish… Just like how the few of them had surrounded Wei Xiao back then. Wei
Xiao might have appeared arrogant by taking on so many of them on his own, but in actual fact,
they had divided the tasks earlier on. That time, he also had fellow fighters using the Tangle form
to keep Wei Xiao's knife-wielding right hand occupied and give him the chance to attack.

They didn't feel that it was unfair to do that. All of them from the same generation only had that
level of skill, so what right do you, Wei Xiao, have to stand above the rest? What right do you
have to be so maniacal? You must have cheated. Either that, or Wan Mu Chun's lineage itself is
demonic and does not deserve to stand alongside their reputable and righteous sects as the Five
Supremes. It does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the other proper martial
arts.

Since it was a demonic skill, then they did not have to apply conventional reasoning to it. Hence,
even if it was many fighting against one, it was naturally a reasonable thing.

Only winning mattered.

The current speed of the two people fighting was no longer something Yan Hao could see clearly
from where he was watching at the sidelines. Right then, police sirens finally sounded from far
away. At the same time, Yang Ping's palm struck towards Gan Qing's temples. The bones in her
right shoulder were broken and she had no way to block. If she ducked her head to dodge, Yang
Ping's retractable baton could take the chance to smash on top of her head.

But this time, Gan Qing did not dodge.

The sharp dagger sliced Yang Ping's arm, unerringly following the line of the scar all the way up. It
was abnormally similar to the way Wei Xiao had destroyed the nerves in his hand all those years
ago. Yang Ping let out a terrified shriek; at the same time, an arm lunged in from nowhere,
blocking right between Yang Ping's fist and Gan Qing. The back of the hand touched her face.

Her left leg as a pivot, Gan Qing changed directions. The dagger sliced to the end, and with a twist
and a snap, she threw him down to the ground.

Yang Ping seemed to be suffering from unbearable pain. He curled into a ball on the ground, his
whole body spasming uncontrollably. The police who had rushed there swarmed up. Gan Qing
lifted her left hand and threw the dagger onto the ground. She faced Yang Ping and let out a
barely audible laugh. "Is bloodlust something that should come out of your mouth?"

The police who didn't know what was going on charged over and swiftly separated everyone at
the scene. "There's someone injured! Call the ambulance!"

Yang Ping let out a blood curdling shriek, "My arm! My arm!"

"My god! Arm? It's a knife wound, a dagger…" Two police officers restrained Yang Ping with much
difficulty. They flipped him over and saw clearly the arm he was hugging close to his body. There
was a line of blood on it that followed the same path as an old scar on his arm, overlapping the
scar. It looked extremely vicious and terrifying...

Then, when they took a closer look, they saw that the knife wound had only broken skin, barely
reaching below the epidermis. It did not harm his tendons nor did it reach his bones. This
person's blood clotting ability was pretty decent. In just a short while, the wound already looked
like the bleeding was about to stop.

The police looked curiously at Yang Ping rolling on the ground, then at Gan Qing who was in a
battered state. With just this comparison, the person lying on the ground seemed to be pulling a
dumb porcelain scam.

"Ai." A police officer felt his head aching and took off his police cap, clutching at his sparse hair.
He said in resignation, "Sir, did you draw this on your arm? Wake up, stop pretending."

Yang Ping turned a deaf ear to him.

He had once thought that he had ended the nightmare haunting his whole life with his own
hands in that cramped and dark Mudpool Backlane. For the sake of wiping away his past
humiliation, he did not mind all the difficulties he had to go through to gather those worthless
people and have them watch from the sidelines, letting them be his witnesses to prove that he
had defeated Wei Xiao until Wei Xiao was pleading for mercy on his knees.

But it turned out that he had not.

A nightmare did not obey his self-deception. His false persona that he had put on for many years
was as flimsy as a cicada's wings. Just a tiny cut from a small knife, and the ugly truth was
exposed…

Wei Xiao had first been injured in an accident arranged by Wang Jiusheng as part of his evil plot.
His internal organs were bleeding and he could not move freely.

Were it not for that, Yang Ping would not have had the courage to fight him at all.

"What's wrong with this person?" The police saw that he was mentally delirious and asked in
suspicion, "His mental state is abnormal… Damn, what's this on his face and arms? Tattoos?"

"I don't know." Gan Qing was not wearing her coat and felt cold. She sucked in a breath through
her reddened nose. The cold wind assaulted her and her tears welled up again. She said in a
stuffed-up voice, "He suddenly became like that. It was like an illness flaring up. He was terribly
fierce, it was so scary."

The expression on the police officers' faces turned grave. They were clearly making a mental
connection to drug addicts. "Call the ambulance, then contact our comrades in forensics… Take
them all back… Ai, why is there a little girl injured so badly here? Is she with you guys? Is she of
legal age?"

A female officer quickly ran over to check on Qiao-Qiao. The police officers' footsteps were
hurried and busy, while Yang Ping's ten years' worth of blood curdling shrieks seemed to be
ripping apart his heart and lungs.

Gan Qing looked at her own arm, a little distracted. Her right arm was the infamous murderous
blade of Wan Mu Chun, extraordinarily gifted, with unparalleled sharpness.

However… back in that year, she had destroyed it herself.

All she had left was a left arm that was by nature not her dominant arm. At the very start, in
those few years when she had been the most directionless and powerless, she had only casually
trained it so that it would be more convenient for daily life.

In the past, this arm had not been stained with blood before.

She raised her left arm and lightly wiped the side of her face that had been knocked by the back
of Yu Lanchuan's hand just now. She looked across the crowd, towards him.
Chapter 89
She saw Yu Lanchuan supporting his dislocated wrist and saying something to the police officer
next to him in a low voice. Ah, that was right, the few of them had fought here with clubs and
controlled weapons until the place was a mess. They definitely had to explain this to the police.

But how could they explain it? Gan Qing was thinking absent-mindedly.

This question only flashed through her mind for an instant, disappearing as soon as it was asked.
Her mind didn't plan to answer its own question.

She seemed to be in a state where her soul had left her body and she didn't want to bother
thinking of anything. Her broken right shoulder and her chest that hurt even when she breathed
was also pushed aside for the moment. The voices around her, the wailing, the wind, all quieted
down.

For some mysterious reason, her thoughts were wandering.

"Wan Mu Chun's blade has a soul. You must learn to walk along the edge of the blade, and not be
conflicted with yourself."

When she was very young, Wei Xiao had casually told her that.

"What does it mean to walk along the edge of the blade?"

"It means that things should be how they should be. One day, when you no longer cut your hands
when you play with knives, you will probably understand. You will sense when your knife is ready.
And at any time you cower and shrink back, it will know before you."

Wei Xiao was right. When she made the first strike at Yang Ping, there were doubts in her heart.
Because her left hand was not her dominant hand, she already lost confidence and also couldn't
be sure what kind of knife skills could come out of her hand. She had not fought another person
seriously for nearly ten years now. She was like a used paper placemat, huddling and hoarding
her own life force, hoping for time to wipe away those complicated debts and enmity.

Ten years. It was enough to render a person useless.

She hadn't even thought properly about what she should do—if, by chance, she really killed Yang
Ping with one strike, even if she had no fear like a dead pig that did not fear boiling water, would
she be dragging Yu Lanchuan and Yan Hao into the mess too?

The edge of her blade was suppressed by the weight of so many layers of hesitations, it could not
bear the burden. That was why, in the second that Yang Ping struck, she instinctively retreated
and nearly died from the one blow from her opponent.

The real reason why she could find it in herself to make that second strike was actually not
because of Yang Ping's mockery, nor was it because of Yu Lanchuan and Yan Hao's staunch
refusal to give way. Gan Qing had long since stopped being someone easily provoked or easily
moved. When Yu Lanchuan barred Yang Ping's way, if it wasn't because she was really unable to
speak, she would definitely stop him. They were not acting in a movie, there was no need to take
risks for the sake of loyalty. Too many had died by Yang Ping's hands to be counted, this man was
unspeakably vicious and evil. A dozen Yu Lanchuans wouldn't be his match. No, the second time
she picked up the knife was because of what Yu Lanchuan said at that moment.

For an instant, Gan Qing had sensed that Yang Ping might be filled with uncertainty and fear
about everything around him. His demonic skills and his martial accomplishments were all
smokescreens to scare others. He lusted after power because he was internally weak… just like
her.

Upon reaching adulthood, it was very hard to change the dominant hand even for minor tasks
like eating and writing, much less for Wan Mu Chun's knife skills. For the sake of the skills in her
left hand, how many times had she cut herself until she was covered in blood? Every inch of skin
on her palm and the back of her hand had regrown after being damaged. She tempered herself
while lost in despair and at the same time, also acted mysterious and played tricks, putting on a
pretense of being "beyond the three realms" and not being concerned about worldly matters.
She had always avoided face-to-face confrontations, afraid that others would know the cards in
her hands and realised that she was no mysterious otherworldly expert but merely a fool whose
life was absolutely screwed up.

When her knife struck for the second time, she knew where the blade should land and how deep
it should cut. Hence, her heart had no distractions. She was not bothered by Yang Ping's fist that
could smash a person's head and she also didn't have the time to think about whether her
opponent's fist would be faster than her knife… This wasn't the "bloodlust" or "gambling desire"
that Yang Ping had talked about. It was just the intuition passed down from her forefathers, the
result of grueling hard work.

But she never thought that that idiot would stretch out his hand to block the blow for her.

Did he not have common sense? Did he not know that when two experts were fighting, outsiders
were not allowed to interfere? If Yang Ping had not been scared witless by her strike and his fist
had not gone off-track halfway, would he still have that hand?

"When I was young, your grand-master told me that regardless of what the past was, what the
present is or what the future will be, you don't need to have so many hesitations. Just walk along
the edge of the blade and you'll be fine. Who isn't walking on thin ice? People like us, what we
fight for is just a thread of hope for survival and resolve."

"Gan Qing, the past cannot be undone but the future can still change."

Yu Lanchuan seemed to sense something. He lifted his head and looked over with a frown.

When he saw Gan Qing, his tense brows unconsciously relaxed for a moment but soon after that,
he seemed to think of something and a dark cloud covered his face again. He walked over to her
with large strides, planning to settle the score with her for all the decisions she made without
consulting any of them prior to the fight earlier.

"You…" Before he could start his tirade, he saw Gan Qing suddenly smile.
When she smiled, her eyes moved a little more than the corners of her mouth did. The sides of
her face that were slightly hollow were suddenly filled with her smile and she looked a few years
younger. It was as though a clear stream had flowed past, frost and dust falling away completely,
and there was a sense of innocence that was pure and mischievous. It cast a string of pebbles
into Yu Lanchuan's heart, stirring up an unending series of ripples.

Yu Lanchuan's right brain only had this tinkling series of ripples left while the fury in his left brain
was still putting up a final struggle and shouting: She's shameless enough to be smiling!

The corpus callosum between the two halves of his brain shirked its duty in disgust and went on
strike. Yu Lanchuan fought a fierce fight with himself until he lost his rationality and also his
ability to speak. After repeating the single word "you" for a long while, he still did not finish the
rest of his sentence.

Right then, Gan Qing lifted her unbroken hand and placed it on his shoulder.

"Little Master Yu…" she said with a sigh. Yu Lanchuan frowned as he waited for the rest of her
sentence but Gan Qing only smiled and lowered her head, her forehead pressing against the
hand on his shoulder, just like she was lying on his shoulder.

So sudden!

Yu Lanchuan's brain exploded. The brain cells on both sides of his brain engaged in battle were all
crushed in one fell swoop. His throat twitched and he stopped breathing.

The next moment, Gan Qing's entire body fell on him.

Yu Lanchuan hastily caught her. "Hey!"

But she had already lost consciousness.

She was very light, he could support her weight with just one hand. Her long slender limbs were
like an empty, incorporeal frame, like she only had to fall limp and she could be easily kneaded
and rolled up into a very small ball.

Out of nowhere, a thought rose in Yu Lanchuan's heart. If her blood was drained out of her, she
would be left with barely any weight at all in the mortal realm.

This made his heart pound wildly. Without realising it, his arm tightened its grip around Gan Qing
but was then forcibly pulled away by the paramedics who had rushed over. They swarmed up to
him and took away the person in his arms.

"Wait… ow!" Yu Lanchuan subconsciously wanted to protect her but he forgot about his own
dislocated wrist. When he tried to use force, half his body went numb from pain.

"Sir, your hand needs to be treated!"

"Slowly, careful!"
Yu Lanchuan wanted to get into the ambulance where Gan Qing was but was forcibly held back.
After a round of pandemonium, he was pushed into another ambulance and sent to the hospital,
had an X-ray done, had his joint pushed back into place… and he had just applied a cold compress
to it when he was summoned by the police to be interrogated repeatedly and have his statement
recorded. It was a long round of torment.

The way heroes left with a flourish of their sleeves once a matter is over, concealing their name
and themselves in stories saved so much trouble. Behind these heroes, there had to be a team
and an assistant!

He considered the few "teammates" he had beside him. There was one who could not speak, one
who could but was inarticulate, and one who lay down and played dead right away without
shouldering any of the responsibility. Yu Lanchuan's mouth was the only one left, a single fighter
in the battle. He was completely exhausted in both body and mind.

It was only when the sky was completely dark that Yu Lanchuan could slow down. He hurried to
the hospital to check on Gan Qing.

The cold compress from the hospital was pressed against his wrist. He looked at the person on
the hospital bed out of the corner of his eye and listened absent-mindedly as the doctor said,
"...The most serious injury on her body is the broken bones in her right shoulder. Her right arm
also has past injuries that have not completely healed. In the future, she needs to be careful and
protect it, otherwise it will affect her daily life. The others are not major issues. The main thing is
that she has a serious cold and suffered collisions on top of that and might have a slight
concussion. When she wakes up, she might feel dizzy and nauseous… Are you her family?"

Yu Lanchuan nodded absent-mindedly. When his chin moved down, he finally realised it wasn't
right and quickly shook his head. "Just… a friend."

"Oh," the doctor said. "Then, can I trouble you to call her family? It's nothing major, it's just that
she might feel unwell."

The doctor gave him some casual reminders, then hurried off without waiting for Yu Lanchuan to
reply.

Yu Lanchuan pressed on the cold compress and stood there in vain for a while before sitting by
the hospital bed. The sky was dark and dreary. The thin intravenous drip pierced into Gan Qing's
vein. Her hand seemed transparent.

Who can I call? Yu Lanchuan thought in resignation.

Even though the fighting had been mutual on both sides and Yang Ping was also nothing good,
Zhu Qiao was indeed the one who made the first move. She even brought along a dagger that
had a blood groove. This wasn't something that could be concealed.

Hence, while everything was being investigated thoroughly, the little mute girl was temporarily
detained. Yu Lanchuan called in a lawyer friend of his to follow up with her case and only then
found out that Qiao-Qiao was not yet eighteen years old. This was a good thing. No matter what,
her circumstances would be taken into account and her punishment would be lighter.

The other three of them were considered to have tried to stop the violence. They also had Yu Yan
who came after hearing the news to help turn things around so they were still fine for now. They
just had to be ready at all times to be summoned and to cooperate with the investigation.

Yan Hao's main injury was to his mental trauma. The hospital did not take care of treating that so
he returned home first. Gan Qing's circumstances were a little more complicated.

After all, she had a criminal record.

No matter how clearly and repeatedly Yu Lanchuan explained that Gan Qing had followed him to
the place after he received a location sharing from a friend and there was even the cab's driving
log and the receipt in her phone as proof, the police were still very suspicious of her involvement
in the matter. If she had not fainted at the right time, she would likely be facing interrogation at
the police station even now.

They had asked Yu Lanchuan in a tone that wasn't considered ill-intentioned but was very odd,
"You seem quite close to her? Hmm… You're a proper… Why are you hanging around with
someone like that? Oh… neighbours. That explains it. Your building has quite a mix of people,
you've got all kinds there."

Yu Lanchuan understood what they were saying...Her life had a "stain"; hence, people were
exceptionally suspicious of her.

Even if everyone was in actual fact rising and falling together with the muddy waves in the sludge
and no one was truly innocent and guiltless in their life, everyone feared bearing a "stain."
Serious ones like "criminal record" and "wrong step," less serious ones like "divorce" and
"communicable disease"—they were all of a similar nature. Once a person was branded with
them, they would not be able to break free for the rest of their life.

A white wall with a slight blemish was still a wall but once a person's life had a blemish, it seemed
that from then on, the only road open to them was the road to become the dregs of society.

Yu Lanchuan felt as though there was a stone blocking his throat. It refused to come up or go
down, choking him unbearably.

Right then, a diligent nurse at the next bed brought a spittoon to him, cutting off Yu Lanchuan's
train of thought.

"Oh, thank-"

"No need for thanks. I heard what the doctor said just now," the nurse said. "A concussion is very
hard to bear, she will vomit until she's like a sea cucumber!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."
The nurse had just stepped one foot out the door when he heard the person on the bed let out a
soft chuckle. Yu Lanchuan quickly turned around and saw Gan Qing open her eyes.

The moment she opened her eyes, her limbs that had curled into a ball seemed to regrow their
bones and tendons. Her eyes lit a spark of life that suffused through her body and she
immediately no longer looked weak or lonely.

"You're awake?"

"How can I not wake up? Such a loud voice cursing me to be a sea cucumber." Gan Qing shifted a
little and lowered her head to glance at both her arms. Her left hand was connected to the drip
while her right arm was in a splint. She had no free arms.

Yu Lanchuan could tell that she wanted to sit up and had just reached out to support her when
he saw her drop both arms and use her core strength to easily fold her body up. Halfway up, she
suddenly stopped moving, her eyes staring at a corner of the hospital bed.

Yu Lanchuan half-crouched down and asked urgently, "Do you need to vomit?"

Gan Qing shook her head slightly. Then, she clenched her teeth tightly, forcing a sneeze back. She
was indeed still dizzy and she didn't dare let that sneeze run rampant.

Her nose was discontent and her eyes also kept tearing up, yet her heart was contented.

After ten years under the dust and curled up in a ball, she was stretching herself out, once again
revealing the edge of her blade.

Yu Lanchuan tested the temperature of her forehead and checked the speed of the drip, then
poured water for her. After busying himself for a while, he finally realised that he had forgotten
to ask the doctor if there was anything she couldn't eat now and wanted to rush out of the ward
to find someone to ask.

Behind him, Gan Qing let out a wolf whistle. It even had a twisty tune.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"No need to trouble yourself, Little Master Yu." Gan Qing beckoned at him. "I don't have much
appetite. Come over here and talk to me. The police will probably interrogate me on my own.
Let's check our stories so that I don't expose you."

"Just speak the truth. What do you mean by exposing me… What are you doing!"

Gan Qing had directly pulled out the drip.

"Annoying." She casually took a cotton swab and pressed it against the puncture wound, lightly
flexing her numb fingers. "I barely take half a pill of cold medicine in a year. I'm not used to drips,
just seeing it makes me want to go to the bathroom and it's not like you can help me get there."
Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing shot a glance at him without looking up, then smiled. "I know you don't mind but the
other patients might not agree. It wouldn't be good if other people think you're a perv and beat
you up. You wouldn't even be able to fight back."

Yu Lanchuan forced his words out through the clenched teeth. "Thank you for your wise words. In
the past, there had already quite a few-"

Before he could finish speaking, Gan Qing suddenly took hold of his wrist that had been
dislocated. Her hand seemed even colder than the cold compress. Yu Lanchuan shivered lightly.
He stayed motionless, not daring to move, letting her callused fingertips wander over every inch
of his injury.

"Good," Gan Qing said. "It's not a serious injury. The swelling is not very bad and there aren't any
unnecessary muscle strains."

Yu Lanchuan finally regained his wits and grabbed his hand back. His face turned stiff. "Don't just
touch as you like!"

"Should I pay? If yes, then I'll pay the cost of the cab ride. You don't have to reimburse me for
that." Gan Qing waved her hand. The improper smile on her face had yet to disappear but her
voice suddenly changed. "After getting a taste of Yang Ping's might, how could you still dare to
take the blow for me? Didn't you learn your lesson?"

It would be fine if she didn't mention it but once she brought it up, it was the final straw that set
Yu Lanchuan off. "If I hadn't blocked it, your brain right now wouldn't be concussed, it would
have been smashed to bits!"

Gan Qing listened to him go on a long tirade that attacked the structural composition of her
brain, complete with logic and proof. She tried interjecting a few times to no avail and had no
choice but to listen while sitting there and drinking water. She had just drained the glass and was
putting it down when Yu Lanchuan sprung up like a spring-coiled robot, automatically standing up
to pour her another glass.

The water was warm, the temperature just right.

Yu Lanchuan said, "...We agreed beforehand that we would just keep him under control and wait
for the police to arrive and hand him over. But you just had to use that 'jianghu matters should be
settled the jianghu way' excuse, didn't you? Do you know the difference between 'standing up for
a right cause' and 'beating each other up'? Do you know that you still have a..."

"A criminal record," Gan Qing continued for him.

Yu Lanchuan swiftly turned mute.

"What?" Gan Qing lifted her head, unbothered. "When the police interrogated you, they should
have focused on that, shouldn't they? A respectable and elite member of society like you, why
would you have anything to do with an ex-murderer?"

Yu Lanchuan's mouth tightened.

"I want to ask too." Gan Qing spread her hands at him. "Little Master Yu, instead of busying
yourself to become a CEO and marry a perfect woman, you spend whole days hanging around
with me, don't you feel that it's below you? You strive so hard for your career, your academics
are better than anyone else's, you stand above your peers in your work—your life should be a
smooth-sailing one. I'm a bomb that could go off at any time; with me around, aren't you afraid
that something that crosses the line will happen one day and drag you down..."

"I will bear the responsibility." After falling silent for a long while, Yu Lanchuan suddenly spoke.

"N-No, no, there's no need for that." Gan Qing's tongue was in knots. "There's nothing of that
sort between us."

"What I mean is that I will be responsible for my choices," Yu Lanchuan gritted his teeth and said,
pausing between each word. "Even if that day comes, I am willing to bear the consequences of
failing to see clearly with my own eyes. I don't need you to tell me what to do, mind your own
business!"

Gan Qing made a miffed noise, then said softly, "A friendly reminder…"

"What I want is not a friendly reminder!"

Gan Qing paused. The fingers of her left hand resting on her knee rubbed against each other for a
while. She could see her reflection in his eyes—a miserable and sorry sight, an arm that didn't
listen to her commands hanging from her body, looking just like a mutt who had spent half her
life wandering from place to place.

Gan Qing let out a short laugh. "Little Master Yu, do you want to put on your glasses before
saying that?"
Chapter 90
"Sure," Yu Lanchuan said. Then, he indeed took his glasses out of his pocket and put them on.
"Now can I continue talking?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"What do you mean by all those things you said just now?" Yu Lanchuan looked down at her from
his vantage point, his brows rising above the frame of his glasses. "I thought that people like you
didn't come with the ability to disdain yourself."

"Little Master Yu, would it hurt you to speak nicely?" Gan Qing sighed. "I just feel that we... don't
match, ermm… You understand, right? You and me, in more than one way."
Yu Lanchuan let out a snort of laughter. "A few years ago, all the fashion writers in the world
were united in thinking that sneakers and fashion were two words that did not go hand-in-hand.
Whoever dared wear a pair of white sneakers with western-style pants was basically committing
a crime as grievous as exposing their red thermal underwear under a white shirt. In the recent
two years, the athletic style has become the spokespeople for fashion. If you don't match your
formalwear with a pair of informal shoes, you would seem like an insurance agent. Whether or
not a match is good, who has the last word on that?"

"I don't know." Gan Qing thought for a while, then spread her hands and answered. "I buy shoes
from the supermarket or the market, from whichever shop has the most discounts. My selection
criteria is how dirt-proof they are."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing smiled, "I haven't even had the time to give an example and you've already given one
for me. See, this is a bad match."

It was as though one of them existed in the otherworldly paradise of Peach Blossom Spring while
the other lived in the decidedly real paradise of Wulingyuan.

And in the old dreams of jianghu, they met by coincidence.

Upon waking up from the dream, they each had to cross the bridge they came from and walk the
road that was theirs.

Yu Lanchuan looked into her eyes and felt that there was a very special kind of tranquility there,
like a mirror unaffected by any waves, reflecting everything in the surroundings exactly as they
were.

"Just look at how I have no money but I spend like there's no tomorrow. Every month, the most
detailed planning I do is to put aside the amount for my rent in advance. Not a single cent is left
of the remaining amount. If I have nothing to do, I like to just lie down. When I'm not working,
my only pastime is eating skewers. The sensory organs above my neck are in hibernation most of
the time. If a manual has more than three lines, I'll find it too long to read. I don't even know how
long I can stay in Yanning." Gan Qing paused. "...Maybe I won't stay for more than a few years."

Because Yanning was a bustling and lively big city. In a big city, all the people harboured grand
ambitions in their chests, each fighting against the flow to advance upwards. She mingled in the
center of the crowd yet wasn't quite part of it. To her, this was just a place of old friends and old
memories. When the day came that she could truly let it go, it would be time for her to leave.

After hearing that, Yu Lanchuan said firmly, "A ruffian like you won't have a good life in your final
years."

The fingers of Gan Qing's left hand rubbed against each other for a bit. In her heart, she recited
the principle of being a hoodlum: One must not beat up a beautiful member of the other sex.
"My parents divorced because their personalities were incompatible." Yu Lanchuan stood up
straight and leaned slightly back against the wall. He folded his arms across his chest and said
quietly, "My dad doesn't like to be tied down. He's independent and doesn't follow the crowd. He
does things on the spur of the moment and is dirt poor. But he doesn't care about that. He drifts
everywhere and even his meals are uncertain, but he even feels that it's pretty good. It's been so
many years since their divorce but my mum is still secretly paying for his old-age insurance and
he can get the benefits after sixty. She's afraid he'll have to be a beggar in the future."

"They have a good relationship."

"Their relationship has always been good. Unfortunately…" Yu Lanchuan said. "To use a tacky
internet slang, it would be 'Fell in love with a wild horse, yet I have no grass plain in my home.'
With the two of them as an example to learn from, I have always felt that letting hormones affect
your personal preferences is a very foolish thing. Life should be well-arranged. Based on my
circumstances, it would be best if I get together with a girl who's not too rich, whose job is steady
and undemanding, and who likes to stay at home. If she stays at home, she can take care of the
household and improve my standard of living. If her job is stable, she can earn money to spend
on herself and in the short term, she won't be an additional financial burden to me. If she's not
very rich and can't pass the hurdle of a downpayment on a house by herself, by being with me,
she can enjoy the benefits of having fixed assets. A relationship is only meaningful if everyone
benefits. Other than that, for the sake of making it easier to get along with each other for the
long term, I hope that she has the same level of spiritual awareness and desire for self-
improvement as me. Later on, I realised that most girls like this aren't the type to stay at home.
Hence, to me, staying single is the most economical. There is no risk and I can also maintain my
standard of living."

As a salted fish with nothing in her brain, after listening to someone else's thorough and
methodical life plan, Gan Qing was speechless with amazement. All she could do was say in
praise, "You are truly an amazing person who's adept at summarising the lessons learned from
experience-"

"But even though my heart is so clear on that," Yu Lanchuan cut her off, "I am still walking that
same mistaken path."

Gan Qing fell into silence, her eyes quietly fixed on him.

"I want to try," Yu Lanchuan said. "I want to see if I have the ability to shoulder that kind of life…
and you."

"If you say that, I feel like I'm one of President Yang's 'baggies' that cost an arm and a leg even
though I can't see what's so great about them," Gan Qing said.

"No," Yu Lanchuan said in a low voice. "You are a risky venture."

Through his lenses, his gaze was thick and dense, revealing a little of his tender emotions. They
were like the morning dew that appeared for just a short while before the sun was up; when the
sun was high and the dust of travels kicked up, they would quietly disappear without a trace.
Because they were so rarely seen, when one occasionally happened to catch the sight, it was
enough to shake one's soul.

Back when Gan Qing listened to Zhang Meizhen's story, then turned her head and crashed right
into his gaze, she had already been shocked once. Previously, when she and Yang Ping made the
bet over the knife's edge and he had taken the blow for her without any hesitation, she was
shocked one more time.

And now, this was the third time.

The same thing should not be done more than three times.

Gan Qing sighed and said as though to herself, "Then, what are you?"

In a treacherous and difficult journey… an oasis of pleasure?

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while, then answered seriously, "Probably old-age insurance?"

Gan Qing's shoulders suddenly slumped. Her left hand propped on her knee covered half her
face. "Little Master Yu, that's enough."

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "After all, there is a high chance that your life won't be good
in your final years."

Gan Qing felt that she was on the verge of doing something she would regret with her arm. Her
head was in pain, and she sniffed and said listlessly, "...Go away, I beg you."

The corners of Yu Lanchuan's mouth revealed a hint of a mischievous smile that he didn't hide
well. He reached out and tousled her hair, then walked out.

Yu Lanchuan had passed the letter and photos that Gan Qing had received to Yu Yan and told him
to find a way to hand it to his higher-ups while keeping the source anonymous. A mere few days
later, his lawyer friend that he had called got back to him.

"It can be considered to be going smoothly. Fortunately, it's not convenient for the girl to talk so
there's no chance of her saying the wrong things. Knowing that I'm there to help her, she's also
cooperating," the lawyer said. "Right now, I'm doing my best to label the incident as a conflict
and mutual fight rather than a premeditated murder. After all, the retractable baton Yang Ping
had is also quite lethal. When the time comes, I'll see if the issue of controlled weapons can be
turned from major to minor. Her young age is also an advantage."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What about Yang Ping?"

"Still hospitalised," the lawyer said. "However, his issue doesn't have much to do with you guys.
Your hypothesis was not far off the mark. This man should have been taking some kind of
unknown drug for a long time. The police right now are very tense because if this is proven to be
a new type of drug, it will be a serious matter. My side is also unable to get any inside news on
the situation. I feel that the police also can't be bothered with handling this minor matter of a
physical fight now."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What about the external injuries on his body?"

"Ai, speaking of that, it's really amazing," the lawyer said. "It's just five millimeters short of
meeting the criteria for light injury, can you believe that? I say, who was it who did that? Can I
meet them one day? This person is really both godly and crafty!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

No wonder a certain person had only asked a couple of simple questions after waking up in
hospital, and had not been worried at all about the police making trouble for her!

"It's just a coincidence, what are you thinking?" Yu Lanchuan brushed off his friend with no
sincerity at all. "You're a profiteering litigator, how do you still have the time to read wuxia
stories? Trying to make your liver go bust from overwork?"

"In that case, I want to meet them even more! If their luck is so good, aren't they the same as a
human-shaped lucky carp? Which member of society doesn't want to inhale a breath of that
prosperous air…"

Yu Lanchuan hung up.

He pushed open the door of his house, ready to go to work, and happened to see Gan Qing
coming back after buying breakfast.

Before Gan Qing could finish her "Good morning," Yu Lanchuan took a sudden step forward and
drew near her hair, breathing in the smell of off-the-shelf shampoo.

"Such a cheap prosperous air." Yu Lanchuan left this review, then casually took a packet of soy
milk from her hands.

"...You're welcome," Gan Qing said.

The speed at which the modern day young men took advantage and became arrogant from being
spoiled was so fast!

The phone call from Captain Miao interrupted Yang Yifan's meeting. She raised her hand to cut
short the discussion, then went to the next door pantry to pick up the call.

"We've caught Yang Ping," Captain Miao told her. "This man is suspected of using illegal drugs
and might be involved in multiple murder cases. We are in the midst of investigating… But I'm
afraid it won't be easy. Too much time has passed and the evidence has turned to dust."

After the call, Yang Yifan turned to return to the meeting room. "We'll go with the version we
decided on just now. Publish it."
Two minutes later, Yang Yifan's public account and her company's official account published the
same public statement. She apologised for the negative impact of her inappropriate words and
conduct and also announced that other than the ongoing partnerships, her company was
temporarily stopping all other work and preparing to undergo a transformation.

After walking through almost half of her life's journey, she was returning from the long dream.
She needed to truly wake up from this sleep, hence she gave herself and her employees a long
holiday.

Elder Tian and the other people who appeared in the photographs were also taken away by the
police. Right after that, the unlicensed shops and cabs run by Travellers' Sect were investigated
en masse. The economic crime division set up a case to investigate Futongda Corporation and
that very night, Wang Jiusheng fled overseas to hide from the storm.

Those who had anything to do with Beggars' Sect were also swept away by the tempest. For a
while, the beggars and buskers that had been in every street and alley of Yanning seemed to
vanish without a trace.

These two great sects that had once summoned wind and rain in the annals of history, that
straddled both the good and the evil paths, were like two huge yet ancient and rundown ships.
Amidst the wind and the rain, they floated and swayed and collided, then slowly sank together.

The moon of Fuliang was covered by clouds, the snow on the cold river flowed east with the
water, the sparrow in front of the fall hid in its nest of mud, the wind piercing through the forest
scattered and dissipated.

This lively and exciting midwinter where the beating of the war drums reached the sky came to
an end. Spring had barely started when the weather seemed unable to wait any longer to turn
warm.

Everyone in his WeChat Moments were grumbling about how Yanning no longer had spring and
autumn, and was only left with summer and winter. Teacher Meng-Meng removed her splint and
prepared to welcome the next peak sales season.

Zhang Meizhen faced the mirror and applied lipstick. She applied, then wiped it off, then applied
again. After changing three or four tubes, she turned to ask Gan Qing. "Which one is better? Is lip
gloss better at hiding lip wrinkles than lipstick and makes me look younger?"

Gan Qing rubbed her eyes and suspected that she might be slightly colour blind. She really could
not see the difference and could only fawn on her landlord without much emotion. "My Meizhen-
jie suits both heavy and light makeup and looks good no matter what she uses."

"Do I need your nonsense? It's no help at all." Zhang Meizhen did not fall for this trick and rolled
her eyes. "In the future, your boyfriend really can save so much trouble. He won't have to
embarrass himself at the makeup counter during special occasions. He just needs to open a
bottle of beer for you and consider it done."
Gan Qing didn't reply and just looked at her with a wide smile. She saw Zhang Meizhen study
herself severely in the mirror, making sure that there was no fault to be found, before picking up
her bag and preparing to leave the house.

The moment she stepped out of the front door, Zhang Meizhen suddenly paused, then returned
inside without a word. She removed her makeup and washed her face and combed out her hair
that was styled with gel. In a flash, she transformed from "Meizhen-jie" to "Grandma Zhang."
With this simple and unadorned appearance, she left the house.

"Excuse me… Yang Qing has just been transferred to the ordinary ward, hasn't he? Where do I go
to visit him?"

"Oh, Grandpa Yang." The young nurse on duty stood up. "The family has informed me. Grandma,
you're visiting your friend, aren't you? I'll take you there."

At the door to the ward room, Yang Yifan looked up and nodded at Zhang Meizhen from far to
signal to her. "I'll be leaving awhile to buy food."

They walked past each other. Zhang Meizhen slowly raised her eyes and through the white walls
and white door of the ward room, she saw a pair of old and murky eyes looking at her from half a
century ago.

It seemed like yearning and also like a question—

The dust from the upheavals in our past, have they all settled down?

— END OF BOOK 4 —

Book 5: Fleeting as the Morning Dew

Chapter 91
The music suddenly stopped playing, the clocks also stopped ticking. It was as if they had reached
the end of time. The dim little room was completely silent.

The relaxed, happy smile on the woman's face gradually faded and an uneasy expression started
to appear. She was like a dying animal getting a whiff of an ominous smell and then, step by
step… she walked towards the closed door. She pushed open the door, then gently reached out
and pulled away the white cloth covering the mannequin.

"D-D-D-Don't take it off!" Liu Zhongqi was going insane. He gripped his pen in desperation, all the
muscles in his body so tense they were like iron and his heart was pounding hard enough to
rupture. "Why is this woman's hand so mischievous! Will it kill her not to touch everything!"

The next moment, there was pandemonium on the screen. The woman was like a little bug
trapped in a spiderweb, struggling in despair and terror. All the blood in Liu Zhongqi's body
congealed. His neck was stretched out, yet his eyeballs had long since turned to the ceiling out of
fear of watching the screen.
Right after that, an ear-piercing shriek rose. There was a snap; Liu Zhongqi had gripped the plastic
pen cap so hard that it broke.

After some unknown amount of time, the long horror scene finally ended.

When the background music changed, Liu Zhongqi seemed to collapse. He took a long deep
breath and shakily returned his eyeballs that had flown away back into their sockets and looked
at the screen again. He saw a man push the door open and enter the room, then say something
amidst the scary music.

Before Liu Zhongqi's terrified soul could return to its proper place, a pale hand stretched out from
beside him, nearly scaring him into leaping up from the sofa.

"All right." That hand pressed on the pause button. "This line should be easy."

Liu Zhongqi turned his stupefied head around and stared at Gan Qing next to him. Gan Qing was
lying across the sofa, her slippers kicked off and her feet resting on a small stool. She was holding
a box of Pocky to her chest, a stick dangling out of her mouth the way a cigarette would out of a
big boss's mouth. She scraped the cream off with her teeth and bit off the wafer stick. "Why are
you looking at me? This line only has three words, it's primary-school level. And you didn't even
hear it clearly?"

Liu Zhongqi, "..."

This weekend was a tormenting one, like being tortured with deep water and blazing fire. That
imperial brother of his who did not have a good eye for making friends was working extra hours
as usual and had entrusted him to the wily courtier Gan Qing. This wily courtier was putting him,
this pure and innocent teenager, through such cruel and inhumane persecution, making him
transcribe the lines from an English movie, and a horror one at that!

She had even made it sound so nice by saying that horror films had very little dialogue and that
the difficulty level was low!

Gan Qing let out a snort of laughter and shook her head. "You're going to be in Year 3 of senior
high soon, is it okay for your foundation to be so weak? Let's listen to it once more."

Before Liu Zhongqi could stop her, the "wily courtier" pressed the rewind button. She accidentally
rewound too much and went back to the part that Liu Zhongqi hadn't dared watch. The woman's
pale hand suddenly reached out from under the white sheet and she trembled as she fought her
way out, puking a mouthful of blood. Then, she twisted her head around and let out a terrifying
shriek. Something dragged her away swiftly, leaving nothing but a dark trail of blood.

A bloody tongue hung out of her gaping mouth. There was even a close-up.

Liu Zhongqi didn't want to live anymore.

When Yu Lanchuan came back in the evening and picked him up, he realised that after not seeing
him for a day, his useless baggage of a little brother had turned as green as a cucumber plant
clamped to a trellis. The moment he saw Yu Lanchuan, he was like someone in a disaster zone
seeing the relief army. He dashed back home, his eyes full of tears, and seized his blanket and
buried himself in it.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What are you doing?"

Liu Zhongqi complained tearfully, "That woman made me transcribe 'Dead Silence'!"

Who knew if Yu Lanchuan hadn't seen this movie before or if he was really bewitched by the wily
courtier. He curiously raised an eyebrow and said, "Do you have to go this far just because of
transcribing a movie? When I was preparing for exams, I transcribed the BBC on 1.5 speed. You're
going to take the gaokao next year. Time to shape up."

"You shape up!" A howl of despair came from the teenager's room.

"Darling, you forgot this." Gan Qing walked out of the apartment unhurriedly, a small paper bag
in her hand. Yu Lanchuan took it from her and without any wariness at all, he opened it to look
inside. His hand trembled and he nearly sent it flying—all he saw inside was a bloody brain, and
through the paper bag, he could even feel that it was still warm!

Yu Lanchuan used all his prehistoric strength[1] and just barely managed to maintain the cold
expression of a domineering boss on his face. He forced himself to take another look and only
then realised that it was a fondant cake made to resemble a brain. The colour had been tweaked
so that it could pass for the real thing, and there were even gradients in the colouring!

"What you eat makes up for what you lack," Gan Qing said.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Little Master Yu had a pair of emotionless eyes, their curvature beautiful yet cold. When he
looked at someone, he wouldn't open his eyes completely and his eyelids would always be
slightly down. But his pupils were very clear and bright, like they were preserving completely the
traces of his innocence. Hence, when that gaze pierced through those thin lenses to look out
steadily, there was a kind of indescribable conflict. It was a bit of a shock.

Gan Qing had always been someone who could find ways to make herself comfortable. But for
some reason, she became nervous under the scrutiny of this gaze.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Why have I never gotten something like this?"

"At Lunar New Year, who cooked the food that you ate?" Gan Qing took a step back and leaned
against the side of the door, crossing her arms over her chest. "Ask your conscience before you
speak, Little Master Yu."

Yu Lanchuan raised his hand and pressed it against the left side of his chest. "I ask my conscience
and say, you have never ever given me a gift of food. Don't you girls like to bake sweets and make
chocolates to give to others? I received a lot in the past."
With a smile that was not quite a smile, Gan Qing asked, "You received a lot, but did you
appreciate them?"

Yu Lanchuan had wanted to subtly show off the fact that he had many pursuers in the past but he
was unexpectedly put in checkmate all of a sudden. He felt like it wouldn't be right for him to say
that he had appreciated them, but to say that he had not would be even more wrong.

"You basically just threw them away without even eating any, didn't you? You can quit
pretending." Gan Qing waved him off. "This is just to make children happy. Who likes handmade
presents? Only poor and petty young girls poisoned by idol dramas would think that their
thoughts and efforts are so precious-"

The poor and petty "young girl poisoned by idol dramas," Yu Lanchuan, was embarrassed to the
point of anger and interrupted her. "Why do you talk so much nonsense? Are you going to do it
or not?"

"Okay, okay, okay." Gan Qing tsk-ed. "Is this something that can be forced… What you eat makes
up for what you lack, Alliance Leader. I'll offer up one made to look like a stack of renminbi to
you, all right? The face value is one hundred million."

Yu Lanchuan felt that this offering was more like the kind meant for the dead. He was just about
to bristle all over when his phone suddenly chimed. He picked it up and glanced at the message.
"Zhu Qiao is getting released today."

Gan Qing, her sleeves rolled up in preparation to make fake renminbi, paused.

Yan Hao asked Boss Jiang to borrow the old-fashioned electric car that was parked at the bottom
of No. 110 and drove it to bring Qiao-Qiao back. The old scooter had been through wind and sun,
and the words "Traditional Acupuncture and Moxibustion Treatment" were half faded away,
leaving only "Traditional… puncture… Treatment." Together with the burial clothes and flower
garlands advertisement that came after it, it turned into an eerie and sinister horror story.

Qiao-Qiao said goodbye to the lawyer that had been helping her the whole time and nudged the
flower garland that occupied half the back seat aside, making enough space for one person to sit.
She climbed into the car and got on the road, accompanied by the bright and colourful decor. It
gave her a feeling like she had died peacefully at a ripe old age.

Swamped by the curious gazes of the onlookers throughout the journey, the two of them
returned to the pet store at the bottom of No. 110 Courtyard.

In the past, Qiao-Qiao lived in a small room on the second floor of the pet store. She didn't have
to pay rent and it was also convenient for her to take care of the animals at night. At this
moment, the large and burly boss of the pet store was giving a dog a shave. A toothpick dangled
from his mouth and his brows were furrowed, his face full of murderous aura like he was ready to
go hack someone down. The dog under his hands was shivering, not daring to move an inch.

"I-It's okay, don't be scared." Yan Hao stopped the car and turned around to look at her. He saw
the girl sitting among the paper flowers looking helplessly weak. The one with rage-reddened
eyes who had held a knife to stab someone the other day seemed to be a female ghost that had
possessed her. "Go back and bathe with mugwort water to dispel the bad luck. I… I've already
explained things to your boss. He only said that as long as you're still willing to, you can continue
working at his shop."

Qiao-Qiao lowered her head and followed him down from the car. She picked at her own fingers,
her heart extremely flustered. Were it not for her, Yan Hao wouldn't have dared talk to her boss
whose arms were decorated with an azure dragon on the left and a white tiger on the right, not
even if he went to the bank and took a loan of two hundred guts.

She had caused trouble and couldn't settle it herself. She dragged in a group of friends who got
injured because of it. How was she to repay this debt?

And she hadn't even been able to kill the target of her revenge with her own hands.

"You're finally back, a-achoo!" The pet store boss turned and let out a huge sneeze. "This damned
dog fur! I'm not doing this anymore, the rest of the work is yours."

Qiao-Qiao stood nervously in front of him.

The pet store boss lifted his eyes and looked at her. "What?"

Qiao-Qiao was at a loss. She signed: I'm sorry.

The pet store boss extended a hand as large as a palm-leaf fan and cupped it on the girl's head,
turning her head up. "Who doesn't have a bit of a story behind them?"

Qiao-Qiao looked at him in a daze.

The boss continued to say, "But if you ask me, you shouldn't have one. You're just a tiny thing of
a child, your heart and mind have not developed fully. Why is your heart so heavy? You guys talk,
I'm leaving now."

The few dogs in the dog pen at the door that were being boarded at the store heard those words
and their ears perked up. The boss's fierce eyes swept across them and they quickly flattened
themselves to the ground, their ears drooping, playing the coward for one last time.

When Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan came to the pet store, they found that the animals were all
celebrating wildly. The pack of dogs were singing in chorus and the cats were parkouring
heroically on the cat tree—two of them collided and tumbled down the wooden board, rolling
together into a ball of fur.

Yu Lanchuan asked in shock, "What's this? A sign of an earthquake coming?"

Qiao-Qiao washed and tidied herself up and came down from upstairs. Her hair was not dry yet
and she was like a drenched kitten. With a shamed expression and crestfallen eyes, she pointed
the splint on Gan Qing's right arm and bowed at the two of them.
"It's fine." Gan Qing waved at her. "Even without your part in it, we would look for Yang Ping. It's
only a matter of time."

"We would look for him using a reasonable method, find a way to get something to use against
him and send him to the court of law." Yu Lanchuan shot Gan Qing a glare and turned to Qiao-
Qiao. "And not charge up to him, hack him to death, then wait to be sentenced! Did you not
finish your nine years of compulsory education? Don't you know that murder is against the law?"

Qiao-Qiao lowered her head even more. Her hands signed a few words.

Yan Hao translated for her, "She really didn't finish the nine years. She dropped out in Year 3 of
junior high."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The education level of the young heroes of the martial arts community nowadays was enough to
make a person bald from worry.

"Was your grandfather a Beggars' Sect sect elder?" Gan Qing stretched out a hand and caught a
kitten that had somehow slipped out. The kitten had its tail up high in celebration just now but
once it was in her hand, it seemed rather scared and started trembling visibly. Gan Qing had no
choice but to put it down. She rubbed her own nose. Since young, she had not been liked by
small animals. These little things might look foolish but they were actually very sensitive and
knew which people were bad news.

Qiao-Qiao took out her notebook and wrote: Zhu Jianjun.

"A former Beggars' Sect Nine Pouch Elder." Yu Lanchuan took a glance. "When he was Old Yang's
right and left hand man, those Tian and Zhao fellows were still having pissing contests in some
mountain full of monkeys. Because his family died in a tragedy, he looked for Travellers' Sect to
get personal revenge. He was sentenced to prison and later died behind bars."

Qiao-Qiao's eyes darkened. She drew an arrow under the name and wrote: Zhu Cong.

Gan Qing asked, "Your father?"

Qiao-Qiao nodded.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Where did he go after that?"

A relative's place, Qiao-Qiao wrote. Very far, not around here.

A thirteen-year old teenager stayed overnight at a school friend's home. Afraid of being scolded
the next day, he prepared a bellyful of excuses such as "doing homework" and "revising school
work" and nervously headed home… but who would have thought that he no longer had a home.

The moment his father, whose eyes were reddened, saw him, he locked the teenager at home,
forbidding him from meeting anyone.
A Nine Pouch Elder of Beggars' Sect had friends all over Yanning. The spirit of the jianghu
emphasised caring for the old and young like they were your own parents and children, and
entrusting your child to another person was a common thing. He could entrust his son to anyone
and his son could grow up well with his own people. However, Elder Zhu secretly sent him to his
dead wife's distant relatives who lived far away in a farming village.

"Then…"

"Then…"

Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan opened their mouths at the same time. They exchanged a look and
Gan Qing gave way. "Looks like we have telepathy. Alliance Leader, please go ahead."

Yu Lanchuan took the right to speak without any modesty and asked a question he felt was very
important. "Then, do you have a Yanning household registration now?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Qiao-Qiao shook her head and looked at him in bewilderment. At her age, she still did not
understand what was the use of a household registration.

Yu Lanchuan frowned, his expression severe. "Then, it's troublesome. If you want to continue
studying and working..."

Gan Qing smacked a hand on his upper back. Who knew what kind of technique she had used; Yu
Lanchuan suddenly choked on his breath and the second half of his sentence was cut off in his
throat.

Yu Lanchuan coughed, shooting her an angry glare at the same time. Unruffled, Gan Qing
withdrew her claws and turned to ask Qiao-Qiao, "Which is to say, at that time, your grandfather
was already guarded against his fellow Beggars' Sect members?"

A slight bloodthirsty light shone from Qiao-Qiao's large eyes. She pressed her lips together and
nodded.

Gan Qing asked gently, "Was it your father who told you about the old matters from over thirty
years ago?"

Qiao-Qiao shook her head. He died a long time ago.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "How did he die?"

Qiao-Qiao again shook her head and wrote: I don't know, I can only confirm that he's dead. My
dad had always been investigating what happened that year. Whenever he got a whiff of any
news, he would drop everything and leave to follow the clue, leaving for months at a time.
Hence, he could not keep proper jobs for long and could only do odd jobs for other people. He
seemed to have a friend outside helping him who frequently sent him news but he had never
brought this friend home and I don't know who it was. Whenever he left on long journeys, he
promised my mum that he would send a letter home every month. But ten months after I was
born, our family never again received a letter from him.

Yu Lanchuan said, "Could it be…"

The speed of Qiao-Qiao's pen increased, her words flying across the page: My mum said that my
dad is someone who cared for his family. After going through that tragedy as a child, he didn't
dare not care for his family. Even if he was on his last breath, he would write a letter to his family
and come up with a way for us to survive.

Gan Qing seemed to recall something. Her gaze fell on Qiao-Qiao's work badge where her name
and zodiac sign was written. Perhaps Teacher Meng-Meng was possessed by the spirit of a
charlatan; she looked at the zodiac sign deep in thought, her expression rather grave for some
reason.

Qiao-Qiao continued to write: My mum passed away when I was in Year 3 of junior high.
Someone from my relatives came and told me that my dad was adopted and since I was also a
girl, I shouldn't occupy the family's house and land. I can't speak and couldn't out-argue them so I
was thrown out and I came to Yanning to look for work. My mum said that the enemy of our
family lives here. I found out that the Martial Arts General Assembly is held here and had snuck in
once to observe. I saw that man, Yang Qing. They say that he places justice before family and that
he even ousted his own son when his son did something wrong. I don't believe that.

Qiao-Qiao wrote faster and faster: When my dad was still alive, he had said repeatedly that my
grandpa had been called away by Yang Qing's son so the Yang family must be related to the
matter! Yang Qing is a hypocrite who pretends to be honourbel...

Qiao-Qiao's writing sped up and there were even mistakes. Yan Hao grabbed her wrist. "The Old
Sect Leader isn't someone like that."

"Young lady," Gan Qing asked, "When your father stopped communicating, you were only one
year old. Who told you all these things?"

Qiao-Qiao fought free of Yan Hao's grip.

My mum.

She wrote: Since I was young, my mum told me that her life, my dad's life, our whole family…
were all destroyed by these evil people. I must take revenge. Even if I do nothing else, I must take
revenge.

T/N:
[1] "Prehistoric strength" here is 洪荒之力. This phrase became a meme after the swimmer Fu
Yuanhui used it in an interview after winning the bronze medal in the 100m backstroke
competition in the Olympics in 2016.
Chapter 92
The few people there surrounded the table, three pairs of eyes fixed on Qiao-Qiao's notebook.
For half a minute, none of the three said a thing, their hearts all sharing the same thought as
though by telepathy: What kind of tumour had been growing in your esteemed mother's brain?

After a while, Gan Qing finally asked gently, "It was… your mother who told you that you have to
take revenge?"

Qiao-Qiao first nodded a little hesitantly, then shook her head.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "So did she or did she not?"

Gan Qing raised a hand and gave him a warning nudge, then asked Qiao-Qiao again. "Your
qinggong is pretty good. Who taught you?"

Qiao-Qiao wrote: My mum.

She seemed unsure where to start explaining. After pausing for quite a while, she signed at Yan
Hao. Yan Hao's sign language had yet to pass the TEM-8 level. The two of them gestured for a
while, then stared into each other's eyes for yet another while, communicating soundlessly for a
long time with both sign language and brain waves. Outsiders looking at them were completely
lost.

Yan Hao finally clutched at his hair and summoned the courage to open his mouth and said in a
voice as soft as a cat's mewing, "Uhh… Maybe I'll speak for her… She said that thirty years ago
when that thing happened, a few Beggars' Sect seniors were held up by Yang Ping and made to
drink. Yang Ping sent people to each of their homes to notify the families. The Travellers' Sect
people who were lying in wait took the chance then to kidnap them… Her eldest maternal uncle
was one of those messengers."

Qiao-Qiao made two hand signs.

Yan Hao said, "Oh, she said that her mum came from a difficult background and had been raised
by her eldest brother since young. The two of them had always depended on each other."

Gan Qing said, "Meizhen-jie told me before that Yang Ping colluded with Travellers' Sect and the
messengers were actually leading the way for the kidnappers…"

Qiao-Qiao waved her hand repeatedly.

Gan Qing asked, "What is it?"

Yan Hao explained in a stammering voice, "I-It wasn't like that. Qiao-Qiao said that her eldest
maternal uncle was on very good terms with the few sect elders and also had a shixiong-shidi
relationship with her paternal grandfather. He only found out what had happened the night
before on the next day. At that time, he had left right after delivering the message. Because it
was too late, he didn't even go into their homes and had just talked to them at their doorstep."
Thirty years ago, the kidnappers from Travellers' Sect had used some kind of method to enter the
homes of the core members of Beggars' Sect and kidnap their families.

Those core members did not operate businesses at their homes and their doors were not left
open all the time. Late at night, they should have been reasonably wary. That was why, from
Zhang Meizhen to Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan, they all agreed that the reason why Travellers'
Sect's kidnapping was successful was none other than Yang Ping colluding with them secretly.
They used the victim's trust in the messengers to trick them into opening their doors and that
was why they could launch a sneak attack.

"Based on your words, the messengers are innocent?" Yu Lanchuan said. "In that case, Yang Ping
is also innocent. Why did you attack him?"

Qiao-Qiao's bright and clear little face again showed a trace of the furious resentment that was
like a vengeful female ghost. This girl was born with a lovely and pitiable little girl's face so the
degree and speed of the change in her expressions was an unusually shocking sight, like there
was a scary doll hiding under her skin.

Yang Ping is not inno... She wrote in her book like she was using a knife to carve on stone. Even
after a long while, she couldn't finish the word "innocent." Her writing was getting messier and
messier and she seemed unable to control her own hand, scrawling a large black circle on the
page. One look and anyone could tell that her heart was hoping that Yang Ping would ascend to
paradise as soon as possible.

"Don't rush, take your time." Gan Qing thought for a while. "At that time, something so big
happened to Beggars' Sect and it definitely would have been investigated thoroughly. Taking it
from the top—your grandpa and the rest of them were called away by Yang Ping and the
messengers were sent by Yang Ping. I don't know what the others thought but if I were there
back then, I would feel that it was too much of a coincidence. Yang Ping is very suspicious but the
Beggars' Sect people did not suspect him."

Yan Hao spoke for Qiao-Qiao, "That was because Yang Ping stood forward to howl and wail at the
very first moment, blaming himself for insisting on gathering them that day and causing so many
deaths. He thought of those messengers as his uncles and they were publicly acknowledged to
have good characters. They were also close to the victims so there was no way they could all
betray them at the same time."

When outsiders came up with conspiracy theories, they always sounded so convincing and
logical. For example, Zhang Meizhen had a complete theory of her own but if there was one or
two key points that fell through, this sinister plot would become a paper tiger and appear flimsy.

Just as Yu Lanchuan had said, if the messengers were not suspicious, then Yang Ping also
indirectly put himself in the clear. He had only organised a gathering, a few of his loyal and
faithful good friends had met up with him, what was wrong with that?

Everything that happened after that was definitely an unfortunate coincidence.

Qiao-Qiao calmed down for a while and wrote: My eldest maternal uncle said, "He used me." He
said it a few times. He left a letter to my mum and told her to send it to my grandpa. After
reading it, my grandpa hurried home with her and found out that my eldest maternal uncle had
already killed himself. After that, my mum and my dad were sent to the countryside by my
grandpa.

Two young people whose families were killed, staying in the same unfamiliar environment—
naturally, they got together.

While the first blossoming of love in other young people resulted in the couple mutually sharing
the sudden rush of their inexperienced desires, the two of them depended on each other for
survival and shared the deep and bloody feud that neither could shake off.

Qiao-Qiao wrote: Later on, they had me. I was born unable to talk so my parents discussed how
to live their lives peacefully. They could not go on the same way anymore. Between the two of
them, one was left behind to take care of me while the other continued to investigate. I've seen
the letters my dad wrote to my mum. He said that he had nothing left other than his family now.
Me being the way I am must be retribution. They agreed on three years. Three years later, he
would return and live peacefully. No matter what had happened to the older generation, they
would let it go. However...

However, he did not return.

Gan Qing leaned back against the chair. "I have a guess, I don't know if it's correct."

Yu Lanchuan immediately turned his head to look at her. "Hmm?"

Gan Qing fell silent for a few seconds. She started to speak but stopped herself, and she waved
her hand. "It's nothing."

She was thinking, those luckless fellows whose lives were exceptionally bumpy should spend
more time reflecting on themselves instead of just blindly regretting the present and hoping for
the future. Didn't these people realise? Every time people like them said something like "I have
nothing left, I only have…" they would very quickly lose whatever it was they had left.

Below the deep abyss, there was only still the same deep abyss. What kind of bottom limit could
there be to the fate of an ant?

Gan Qing's eyes curved and she smiled at Qiao-Qiao. "Go on."

Qiao-Qiao wrote: For every day that there was no news from my dad, my mum became worse
and worse. Every time she talked to me, she would take a deep breath and force a smile, then
purposely keep her voice very low. She depended on doing all that to remind herself to control
her emotions. She had never raised her voice to me. But when I was young, I always had
nightmares. In the nightmares, my gentle mum would always suddenly have a ferocious and
monstrous face and chase after me, wanting to choke me to death.
A child's eyes were like a kitten or a puppy's sense of smell. They could discern the joy or sorrow
that the adults thought were very well hidden under their skin.

When she lost everything yet was tied down by a disabled child and could not even die, no
matter how much she acted as though there was major going on, the poison in her heart would
flow out along with her every breath. Unless she stopped breathing, there was no way she could
hide it.

Qiao-Qiao wrote: There was once when I had a nightmare and I was very scared. I went to my
mum's room but I saw her with her hair messy and sitting there in a daze, then suddenly
smashing her fist against the wall until the white wall was bloody. Before that, I had seen blood
on the wall too but she had always said that they were marks left behind from hitting
mosquitoes. I was so scared at that time. I sat at the door and cried. She heard the noise and
carried me up, bouncing me and coaxing me to sleep and at the same time, saying that even
revenge was a must even if it meant giving up on being human.

But she could not fall asleep. The woman's trembling hands were nearly choking her to death.

The girl's character seemed to have a very sharp split. One moment, she was like a clear,
unblemished crystal; the next, she was like a ghost child grinding her teeth and sucking blood.

She was probably a natural mirror, faithfully reflecting the two faces of her mother in the
daytime and at night.

Yu Lanchuan knocked the tabletop, putting a stop to everyone's myriad and complicated feelings
like a wet blanket. "Wait, I still have a question. If the messengers were innocent, then how did
Yang Ping collude with Travellers' Sect and kidnap the sect elders' families? Surely it was not pure
luck?"

Qiao-Qiao looked at him and blinked guilelessly.

"You don't know either?" Yu Lanchuan asked, feeling his head swell. "You don't know but you just
took a knife to attack him directly?"

Qiao-Qiao lowered her head. After a while, she wrote in her notebook: I heard the Travellers'
Sect's Branch Master Zhang say so.

When Zhang Meizhen was reminiscing about her youth with Gan Qing, they unexpectedly didn't
notice that there was a little demon cat near them. Qiao-Qiao was truly gifted.

Qiao-Qiao's face perked up and she continued to write: Otherwise, why would that old man Yang
throw out his own biological son?

Yan Hao had deep respect for Old Sect Leader Yang. Hearing her speak rudely of him, he spoke up
to stop her. "Qiao-Qiao…"

Qiao-Qiao's hands seemed quick enough to take flight as she made a series of hand signs at him.
Gan Qing asked, "What is she saying?"

It probably wasn't anything pleasant. Yan Hao's face reddened and he shook his head hard,
refusing to translate.

Yu Lanchuan waved a hand. "You can think what you like but you were lucky this time. Yang Ping
brought trouble on himself and didn't give you the chance to screw things up. If you do this again,
no one can help you. You'll be eighteen in two months. When the time comes, you won't even
have any excuse to get a lenient sentence. Can I trouble all of you to put a stop to these things for
now and live peacefully?"

Qiao-Qiao didn't dare raise her head under the force of his scolding.

Yu Lanchuan said, "And also, it's good that you like small animals but there must be a limit to
good things too. In the future, if you're worried about the moral quality of the people who adopt
the animals, you can refuse them or just implement a system of getting recommendations from
people you know. I don't want to hear anything about the 'breaking into high-rises without
stealing' cases anymore. Entering private residences without permission is against the law. Just
one home with CCTV is enough to send you to the police station."

Qiao-Qiao looked at him in shock. For a second, there was some panic in her eyes and she
swallowed. The girl harboured no deep schemes in her chest and her face could be easily read in
a glance, her thoughts obvious enough to be presented in a court of law: Even though it was
indeed me who did that, how did you know? I'm shocked.

"Who else could it be other than you?" Yu Lanchuan's heart was weary. He extended a hand and
snapped his fingers in front of Gan Qing's face. "I have nothing else to ask, let's go."

"I have one more question." Gan Qing grabbed his wrist and asked Qiao-Qiao. "Before your
father lost contact, approximately where was his last letter from?"

Qiao-Qiao answered on paper: The neighbouring province. I don't know the exact address. I went
to investigate before but I'm not familiar with the place and didn't find any clues.

Gan Qing's eyes narrowed slightly.

Qiao-Qiao wrote: Jiejie, what's wrong?

Gan Qing stood up and looked at her from above. She reached out and pinched the girl's sharp
chin. "When I was seventeen, I was just like you, full of hatred and revenge."

Qiao-Qiao's eyes widened and glimmered as she looked at her.

"If I can go back to that year now, I would study hard and take the exam to enter university," Gan
Qing said in a low voice. "But I don't have a second seventeen years old."

After saying that, she left the pet store with all the cats and dogs there seeing her off.
Yu Lanchuan caught up to her in just a few steps. All of a sudden, he felt an urge to do something
and so, before Gan Qing crossed the road, he took hold of her left hand that was hanging by her
side. There were blades hidden on Gan Qing's left wrist and this hand of hers was the same as a
lethal weapon. Caught off guard, she instinctively wanted to fight free but Yu Lanchuan spread
his fingers and enclosed her "lethal weapon" entirely in the palm of his hand, their hands fitting
snugly against each other.

Gan Qing looked at him in shock.

"Don't cross the road when the light's red." Yu Lanchuan was instead looking in the direction of
the zebra crossing at the crossroads, his gaze fixed steadily on the pedestrian light on the
opposite side of the road, refusing to meet her gaze. "Can you break traffic laws as you wish just
because you're a pedestrian?"
Chapter 93
He had just uttered the last word when the pedestrian light at the empty crossroads turned
green.

Afraid that Gan Qing would show some kind of reaction, the moment it turned green, Yu
Lanchuan dragged her to charge across the road like he was rushing for time. He was tall and his
legs long, and he walked fast enough that there was a breeze. Gan Qing didn't know whether to
laugh or to cry, dragged behind him like a kite.

Yu Lanchuan had a good figure and carried his clothes well like a clothes rack. From the back, his
profile was neither wide nor narrow, his shoulders were very level, and a faint warmth from his
body passed through his immaculate and creaseless light jacket. A section of his shirt was
revealed at the ends of the jacket sleeves, spotlessly white.

It was immediately obvious that he was born a meticulous person, and also grew up a meticulous
person.

For some reason, Gan Qing recalled that summer's night that she had tossed to the back of her
mind for many years.

Fifteen years ago was too far away. Furthermore, the incident that day couldn't be considered
anything shocking to Gan Qing. Her memory of it had long since turned hazy. Now, she suddenly
caught a thread of it and she quickly dragged it to the front for a close look. The memories that
were so hazy that they only consisted of a teenager wearing doggy-patterned underwear
gradually became clear, overlapping with the person before her.

At that time, his eyes had been larger than they were now. His eyelids weren't yet so thin that
they were like a sheet of paper and the sharp edges of his bones were buried under baby fat. The
black of his eyes had been a little larger than most people's so when he looked at others, his gaze
was exceptionally grave. On that hot and humid night, he was kidnapped by the Travellers' Sect
mob for a day and a night, yet seemed to have been as particular about cleanliness then as he
was now.
Even the stink of the landfill whose lethalness could rival biological weapons did not engulf his
body. He had clearly been the one in a panic and directionless and following her to run away, yet
he still had the mood to give her a lesson on the olfactory senses of dogs.

It made one feel that he wasn't being fussy just for the sake of being fussy, but instead had his
reason and logic.

That was right, back then, he had even kept calling her "Jiejie" but now that he was grown up, he
learned how to put on an act!

The wind blew a lock of hair from the side of Gan Qing's head to her face and it happened to get
caught on her nose. She shook her head a couple of times but that lock of hair just insisted on
tangling with her nose and didn't want to shift away at all. The ends of her hair tickled her and
made her want to laugh, and she let out a snort of laughter. "Little Master Yu, I want to make a
report."

"What?"

He had just uttered the word when he felt Gan Qing's hand move. Yu Lanchuan's fingers first
tightened involuntarily, then, realising that it was inappropriate, he hurried to let go but he
realised that Gan Qing's hand was moving upwards. Using the protrusion of the bones on the
back of his hand, she brushed the lock of hair away. The stray lock flew loose, revealing her eyes
that had a rather improper look. When the light shone on them, her irises seemed to multiply
into a thousand layers, the end unable to be seen at a glance. That pair of eyes glanced up at him
from below. "I want to make a report to inform you that I want to use my hand for a while."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Improper and flirtatious!

His mind wandered and before he realised it, they had crossed the road and Gan Qing had taken
her hand back. Yu Lanchuan curled his thumb into his palm, kneading it in turn with each of his
fingers. He started searching madly in his mind for a topic of conversation to fill in this blank
space between the two of them.

"Your last question just now." He kept his voice very low and very steady, asking seriously and
gravely, "What did you mean by it?"

Gan Qing looked at him with a smile that was not quite a smile. Little Master Yu was a white
collar worker who was rarely exposed to the harsh elements. His face was as fair as his collar was
white and could not hide his flushed colour. From the curve of his ears to the tip of his chin, he
was completely red. It was really quite adorable.

After smiling, the corners of her mouth paused slightly and there was a faint sense of
helplessness. She was like a demon of ice and snow that had wandered from the coldest depths
into the mortal realm by accident. She was used to emptiness and loneliness and cold, but by
chance, she encountered kindness in the mortal realm and the warm wind blew on her until her
head felt dizzy and swollen. The pressure was as great as mountains and she did not know what
to do.

"Qiao-Qiao mentioned that when her father lost contact, it was when she was around ten
months old. I saw that her work badge says she's a Gemini, so her birthday should be somewhere
between the end of May and the beginning of June. She will be eighteen years old when it's her
birthday. Calculating based on that, her dad should have lost contact during spring seventeen
years ago," Gan Qing said. "I'm quite sensitive to that time period, so I asked a bit more."

Yu Lanchuan pressed further, "What happened in spring seventeen years ago?"

"Nothing much," Gan Qing said briefly. "A flour factory in the neighbouring province exploded
and more than ten people died. Among them, the necks on two bodies had cuts measuring three
cun and two fen long, so everyone said that Wan Mu Chun had drunk back the water they used
to wash their hands clean of their old deeds and was appearing in jianghu again."

Yu Lanchuan came to an abrupt stop. "Just now, she said the address of the letter was…"

"Yeah, it's possible. Or it could also be a coincidence."

Yu Lanchuan's mind was busily spinning. "I heard Old Han say before that the flour factory
explosion back then involved eighteen lives. Most of them were innocent ordinary people and
there was also a child. There were Wan Mu Chun's marks on the bodies. Wei Xiao had always
refused to give an explanation. So what on earth happened?"

"A cut measuring three cun and two fen can be considered to be a safeguard against fakes," Gan
Qing said closely. "For example, if you hire me to kill someone…"

"Why the hell would I do that?"

"Hypothetically." Gan Qing waved her hands. "The commissioner would usually first pay a
deposit. In the past, I would bring them the head in exchange for the rest of the payment. In
modern times, no one wants heads anymore so another kind of token is necessary to collect the
remaining payment to prove that the person did not die by accident and that I'm also not stealing
someone else's kill. To hide their motives, some commissioners would hire more than one killer.
An unusual wound is a mark to safeguard against fakes. It's a unique skill that is very hard for
outsiders to imitate. All those with this mark are jobs done by me. But if there is no one paying,
then the murderer has no need and will also not reveal their unique mark. You get it, right? After
all, the jianghu is full of people and prying eyes. It's better to avoid unnecessary trouble. Things
like murder and arson are best kept as hidden as possible."

"So, what you're saying is that the flour factory incident was a case of a hired killing?"

"At that time, Wei Xiao had already changed his name to Wei Changsheng and was living in
hiding. Even if someone wanted to invite him out of seclusion, no one could locate him," Gan
Qing said in a very calm and impartial tone. "This thing was indeed done by Wei Huan. Don't ask
me why Wei Xiao shouldered this blame for him, I told you before that I don't know. Maybe that
traitorous 'dashixiong' of mine was the true descendant of Wan Mu Chun. I don't know if he was
Wei Xiao's biological son. In any case, that old man spent much more effort teaching him than he
did me."

Yu Lanchuan's brows furrowed. "But why would you connect these two incidents together? Only
because of the coincidental timing?"

"I'm not sure, just intuition." Gan Qing paused. She lifted her head. The trees on both sides of the
road had put out leaves, leaving only a narrow strip of sky in between. A bit of mist floated in the
distance. "Maybe because of Wang Jiusheng and Travellers' Sect. Meizhen-jie said that because
my mouth and my hands misbehaved, because I called Wang Jiusheng a turtle and angered him, I
created trouble. However… I'm not trying to get out of it, but I can't help but feel that he
wouldn't go that far just over that."

It was true that Wang Jiusheng was nothing good. But if a person could wash himself clean of his
past until he was spotless and unblemished, and could steadily maintain his position as the North
Branch Master of Travellers' Sect for decades, powerful enough to call the wind and summon
rain, he would not be so petty. There was an entry hurdle even to become a supervillain. Those—
like Yang Ping—whose heart and thoughts were more fragile, who were more sensitive and self-
abased, were usually more suited to being a small-time homeless baddie.

When she wrote those words back then, it was purely out of childishness, nothing more than a
practical joke. Even if she had ruffled Wang Jiusheng's feathers, did he need to clash directly with
Wan Mu Chun?

Even though Wei Xiao had become Wei Changsheng, he was still definitely not easy to handle. He
had to be extremely careful and must kill him in one strike. Otherwise, Wang Jiusheng had a large
family and a big business while there was no gap Wan Mu Chun could not slip into. One was in
the light while the other was in the darkness. Wang Jiusheng was evidently in more danger. He
set up his plot for so many years and waited until everything was in place before taking Wei
Xiao's life. If it was purely because of a little girl's name-calling, then this man really had too much
time on his hands.

"I can't help but feel that there must be something between Wang Jiusheng and Wan Mu Chun
since early on. When I saved you that time, at most, I only exposed where Wei Xiao was hiding."
As she walked slowly towards No. 110, Gan Qing spoke, lost in thought. "Qiao-Qiao's words may
not be true. Could you tell?"

"Especially the part about her uncle being the messenger. Her words are very vague and after
thinking carefully, they don't seem quite right." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "But I don't
know if this is because she's young and can't convey her elders' words clearly or if she's tricking
us on purpose."

Qiao-Qiao could not speak. Gan Qing could still understand a little sign language but Yu Lanchuan
was completely ignorant, so Qiao-Qiao had no choice but to write on paper to communicate with
them. Writing took more time. Sometimes she forgot what she wanted to say when she took up
the pen and sometimes she got stuck, and that already gave her more time to edit her words. It
was easier to lie compared to when communicating directly with spoken words.
But why would she need to lie? Yu Lanchuan felt that right now, everything before them was like
trying to make out the flowers through the mist.

The people in the Five Supremes' generation were born during the years of chaos. Surrounded by
smoke and gunfire, they were just in time for the era when heroes were born. They were the
jianghu's final burst of glory. Later on, it was the decades when the times changed radically.
Everything underwent great transformations, changing beyond recognition. Their youth were
tumultuous, clamorous and full of events beyond belief. Amidst the rise and fall of the times,
countless sects disappeared without a trace. The dreams of heroes became a fleeting illusion.
Some bore this blow to their heart in silence but there were also those who continued to hold
the old dream, unwilling to wake up even now.

And when it came to the generation with Gan Qing and her peers, everything had changed. The
rules of society did not wait for the elderly to acclimatise and instead, went on to complete its
reconstruction on its own. The old people were left far behind. They could not be like Wang
Jiusheng and adapt to the changing circumstances without any shame, and could only place their
hopes on the younger generation. Awkward and clumsy, they tried to pass down the spirit of the
martial arts way, things such as "chivalry," "duty," "tenacity" and "we are all brothers."
Meanwhile, the disagreements and useless dregs from that era were discarded and they thought
it best if they were never brought up again.

But there were two sides to every coin. Was there anything that was wholly positive?

It was unavoidably nothing more than wishful thinking.

The older people's hiding and concealment resulted in them leaving a pile of legacy issues to their
confused and lost descendants.

Yu Lanchuan suddenly said, "Let's talk about your shifu."

Gan Qing stared blankly.

And also, you. That was what Yu Lanchuan thought in his heart, but he turned his head to the
side again and made an excuse. "Information about other people can still be found by asking
around but you people from Wan Mu Chun are too antisocial and isolated. We can only rely on
your memory."

"All right. Wei Xiao…" Gan Qing nodded but for a moment, she was stuck for words and didn't
know where to start. "Wei Xiao… Wait, what do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Just talk about something you remember." Yu Lanchuan suddenly softened his
tone. "There's no hurry, take your time."

And so, Gan Qing fell into silence for a long while, all the way until the two of them returned to
the entrance of No. 110. Then, she suddenly broke the silence and said, "He had always wanted
me to study medicine."

Yu Lanchuan quickly came to a stop and looked at her from three steps away.
Gan Qing herself didn't know why she was talking about this matter. But her mind was truly
empty so she could only speak randomly, saying whatever came to mind. "...As long as there
were kids taking the gaokao where we lived, he would always urge them to apply to study
medicine. Every day, he would nag in my ear that I should study something useful to society. I
don't know what he was thinking." Gan Qing smiled. "But in all those years, I've never seen him
successfully convince a single person."

"Why was that?"

"Even if the kids of Mudpool Backlane attend senior high, at most it would be No. 13 High
School," Gan Qing said lazily. "No. 3 and No. 13 are less than two stops apart and their names
differ only by one character. But you guys nurture the pillars of society while we nurture the mud
beneath the pillars. After the exam, all the notices of admission that we get come from the
construction site at our doorstep. Study medicine?"

Yu Lanchuan suddenly paused. "You're from No. 13?"

Gan Qing shrugged at him. She was not ashamed of her alma mater—she and her alma mater
were of the same stock anyway.

Yu Lanchuan's eyes suddenly brightened. "We once went to No. 13 for a basketball match, do you
remember? It was the intercity basketball tournament for youths, it was held for only one year—
the next year, a few major senior high key schools joined hands to write a petition saying that it
disrupted the students' studies and could easily cause injuries. For the finals, we were the away
team. It was held at No. 13. That day, your school bleachers were full of people. I was the point
guard."

In fact, he was not only the point guard, he was also the captain. Leading a team of academic
tyrants against No. 13's lousy and rule-breaking tactics, he had unrelentingly snatched the
champion trophy from the hands of those little hoodlums.

That match had been an exhilarating and hotblooded one. Even when recalling it ten years later,
Yu Lanchuan still had to force the corners of his mouth down to maintain his aloofness and
pretend to be bringing it up casually. He furtively put out a "Wasn't I very cool?" bait and waited
for Gan Qing to take it herself.

He even cleared his throat and purposely put on a nonchalant face and said, "We just played
casually. I think we won… Ai, I don't remember it clearly anymore. I only remember that the small
restaurant near your school was pretty good. Did you watch the match?"

"Probably not." Who would have thought that one line from Gan Qing would extinguish the spark
in his eyes. "After all, at No. 13, I was considered to be a refined academic tyrant. I didn't like
joining that kind of excitement."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."
That subtle shift in his face when his features froze was exactly what Gan Qing liked to see. She
couldn't resist teasing him. "However, you guys didn't leave quickly after the match. Instead, you
guys bragged about it behind the school and were nearly cornered and beaten up. I still
remember that. In the end, you guys escaped by climbing over the wall. I also heard that one of
you heroes even tore your pants."

"What are you laughing at! What's so funny!" Yu Lanchuan realised that his pretense had been
seen through and veins bulged at the corner of his forehead. "You don't like joining the
excitement of a basketball match but you went to watch a fight? Were your interests so weird
since you were young… Wait, we fought at a rather out-of-the-way small restaurant outside the
school. How did you know about that?"

Gan Qing, "..."

The small restaurant was where Wei Xiao worked. At that time, she had been eating in the back
kitchen of the small restaurant. A group of smelly and sweaty boys had suddenly barged in,
bragging noisily on the other side of the wall. Their ruckus irritated her so she played a trick. She
recorded their boasting on her MP3 player and called some people.

Yu Lanchuan raised an eyebrow.

Chapter 94
Gan Qing coughed to clear her throat. "I… cough, I heard people talk about it afterwards."

Yu Lanchuan raised his brow even higher.

"How about this." Gan Qing tried to brush the matter off. From a few steps away, she turned her
head and smiled at him. "Today's the weekend. If you're free in the evening, I'll take you to that
little restaurant for a meal, for the same yang chun noodle soup. My treat, don't complain about
it being cheap."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You even know what I ordered?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"I would never have guessed that you had divination skills from a young age."

"So are you going or not?" Gan Qing asked.

Yu Lanchuan studied her for a while, the corners of his lips twitching upwards like he was trying
not to smile. He smoothed out his sleeves, affecting nonchalance. "Sure, let's go."

No. 13 High School was located on a very quiet and secluded street. From the outside, it looked
like a decent, proper school. The building was already showing its age and looked like something
from the past. The outside of the administrative building facing the street was covered with large
swathes of creeping vines that rippled everywhere in the breeze. Due to the fact that the school's
reputation was in decline in recent years, there were fewer and fewer students. The entrance
was also not packed with private vehicles the way other schools were. At a glance, its tranquility
had quite a touch of a scholarly air.
Yu Lanchuan lifted his head to look at the large clock hanging on the building and his vision was
filled with the verdant greenery. He said with a sigh, "The character of your school really…"

Before he could finish his compliment, he saw a shadow suddenly leap out from the quiet and
secluded entrance gate. A young male of the human species burst out like a tornado, chased by a
pack of his peers who were hurling obscenities. These people were holding wooden rods that had
originally been mop handles or chair legs. They swept past Yu Lanchuan, running and chasing, full
of energy and vigour. In less than the time it took for one breath, they had run to the
intersection.

From the intersection came the sound of a bicycle bell. A few young ruffians straddling public
bikes showed their faces, their heads all topped with garishly coloured fur, and whistled at the
students. The one being chased planted himself among the "bike gang" and his back immediately
straightened up by quite a significant degree. He turned and cursed, "Motherfuckers, come here
if you fucking dare!"

After that, a round of complicated "meeting the in-laws" session took place at the intersection,
both parties engaging in improper relationships with the uncles and aunties from the other side,
their shouting loud enough to reverberate throughout the area.

Yu Lanchuan muttered, "...hasn't changed a bit in ten years!"

No. 13 High was basically opened for the sake of Mudpool Backlane and produced many types of
wild creatures. When a person reached the age of attending senior high, they would have lost
quite a bit of their innocence and purity, and those with evil tendencies would have started to
grow. It was said that if a person wanted to study seriously in this place, they must have a bit of
the capability of an "academic tyrant" so that they could suppress those naughty kids who tried
to pull everyone down to sink into depravity with them.

Unlike Yu Lanchuan, Gan Qing was not at all surprised. But unfortunately, they had to pass
through the intersection that was the scene of the fight to get to their destination. Those people
were currently frantically busy so they couldn't go over and interfere. They could only stand
under the streetlight and wait for this round of dispute to end.

"Hold on," Yu Lanchuan said. "Why must they open the restaurant in this kind of place? Every
day, there would be people causing a ruckus at the front door and passerbys have to take a
detour. Can they even do business?"

"It's still all right, I think," Gan Qing said. "They don't fight every day anyway. It's a small shop,
just four tables inside. If there are too many customers, they can't serve everyone. Apparently,
the shop is their own so they don't have to pay rent. They can make enough to survive."

After standing for a while, Gan Qing was tired. She squatted down, leaning against the lamp pole,
her right arm that was in a splint resting on her knee.

Beside her, Yu Lanchuan found a tree to rest against. He suddenly thought of something. "I
remember back then, something newsworthy happened at our school. It was when I was in Year
2. A girl from the next class was in a relationship with someone from No. 13. A teacher caught her
when she skipped class and they even found a love letter in her bag."

The teachers and her parents were mad with anger. That day, Yu Lanchuan had come back to the
classroom after taking part in the olympiad training. From far, he heard the next class's teacher's
near-crumbling voice say, "Why do you like him! He's nothing but a little gangster! You are
someone who will enter university in the future, who will further your studies and go abroad.
Him? Who knows when he'll go behind bars! Are the two of you even of the same species, getting
into a relationship just like that! What relationship! He's just a lump of useless mud, he has
nothing to lose. But you? Aren't you destroying your future?"

The girl was crying her heart out, on the verge of being forced to her death by these teachers and
parents who were deeply mired in the ugliness of the secular world. She felt that she was in a
tragic love story—like Zhu Yingtai, like Liu Lanzhi—and had to prove her faith with her death.

Gan Qing asked, "And then?"

"Halfway through the teacher's scolding, she got tired of listening and turned and jumped out of
the window. I was the one who called the ambulance."

Gan Qing was shocked by the way this academic tyrant of a key school described the events.
"...She jumped off the building?"

Yu Lanchuan took a deep breath before adding, "Oh, she didn't die. It was just the second floor.
She fell on her butt after landing, then stood up, patted off the dust and was fine."

"Then why did you call the ambulance?"

"To take her teacher away," Yu Lanchuan said. "Her jumping off frightened the class teacher into
getting a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital and had two stents put in."

As the class monitor from the next class, the sixteen-year old Yu Lanchuan coolly and aloftly
helped to take charge of things, and thought that there was something wrong with that girl's
head. A young person in their teens tended to go between two extremes. They either pursued
the unorthodox path and thought that adults were all fools brainwashed by society, lacking a soul
and were short on intelligence; or, they thought themselves well-versed in the ways of human
relations with a deep understanding of the rules, both spoken and unspoken, and felt that their
peers were all fools. Regardless of which way they took, their hearts would always have a pack of
fools taking up long-term residence.

And, after a certain amount of years, they would always walk in the direction of being a fool. For
example, Yu Lanchuan. When he was young, he was mature for his age; now, he was falling in the
hands of a female ruffian from No. 13.

"How unsensible of her. Little girls only think about love and romance, when they're grown up, it
will be too late for regrets." The leader of the female hoodlums said, her voice full of the regrets
of age and experience, sounding exactly like the class teacher back then. "Year 2 already and she
still wasn't working hard for her academics but instead, got tangled up with a little hoodlum.
Wasn't she just destroying her future prospects?"

Yu Lanchuan looked at her curiously. "I feel that hearing those words coming out of your mouth
is something out of magical realism."

Gan Qing laughed. All of a sudden, she thought that it was not only the kids in senior high but
also the adults who were like that. The young and talented Yu Lanchuan looked like somebody
with full control of his future prospects and didn't need others to tell him what to do. But people
would still talk behind his back, saying that young people only thought about love and romance.
When you have to take care of old parents and young children in the future, you'll understand.
Being together with someone who is not a good match for you, we'll see if you don't end up
being hammered down by the vicissitudes of life until your head is spinning hopelessly and you
have a midlife crisis.

Yu Lanchuan keenly sensed something. He reached out and grabbed the back of her neck. "What
are you thinking?"

"Little Master Yu, the throat is a vital spot. If it was in the past, your hand would be cut off." Gan
Qing let out a resigned sigh. After that, she looked to the right and to the left and pointed. "Hey,
look, they're calling more people."

Yu Lanchuan looked in the direction she was pointing and saw that halfway through the fight,
there were people on both sides withdrawing from the fighting ring and calling people on their
phones. They were intending to scale up the fight into a large battle. Frustration welled up at
once and he dug out a personal alarm from his pocket. He asked Gan Qing, "Will it help if I throw
this thing over?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Little Master Yu was the mighty Alliance Leader of this generation, the descendant of the
reputable Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang; even though he had the face of a beauty, was there a
need for him to carry around an anti-pervert device with him every day?

"There's no use. Little brats these days are all very smart-witted. There are protections for human
scum that haven't reached the age of majority and they're also not causing serious harm. They
aren't afraid of the police at all. Don't be in such a hurry." Full of experience, Gan Qing gestured
and said, "The fact that they've started calling for more people means that the fight is ending
soon. Typically, a fight won't happen when there are lots of people."

She had just finished speaking when she saw an old man whose hair had gone all white riding a
three-wheeled cart passing before them and heading towards the intersection. As he rode, he
rang the cart bell and let out a vigorous shout. "Hey!"

The little hoodlums naturally did not give a damn about this kind of senile old man. No one paid
him any heed and no one gave way to him. The old man angrily rang the bell loudly. Perhaps his
voice disturbed the mobile signal; one of the little hoodlums who was holding his phone called
out Hello? a couple of times, then picked up a stone and threw it at the old man's three-wheeled
cart. "Stop your damned bell, old fool!"

The stone bounced up, lifting the white cloth covering the back of the three-wheeled cart. It
turned out that under the cloth was a cartful of fresh produce and the cloth cover was to prevent
them from being dirtied by the dust. The stone smashed right into a pile of eggs and with a
cracking sound, the egg whites and yolks oozed everywhere. The old man reached out to seize
the little hoodlum in anger and exasperation. "What are you doing? Pay me back for those eggs!
Your parents work hard to earn money to send all of you to school but do you behave yourself at
all the whole day?"

Gan Qing frowned and stood up.

The little hoodlum raised his arm and shook the old man off, causing him to stumble. Without
waiting for the old man to find his balance, the hoodlum caught the old man by his collar. "Is this
your family's land? Your family's road? Is this any of your fucking business?"

As he spoke, he pushed with force. The old man lost his balance and fell backwards with his head
facing up, the back of his head heading right for the three-wheeled cart's metal handlebar.

Right at that moment, a hand reached over and supported the old man's back. The hand gave a
light upwards push and the old man followed the hand to spring back upright. Someone held his
shoulders to help him stand steadily.

Barely recovered from his shock, the old man stood there, then turned to see clearly the young
man holding him up.

Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up. "It's bad enough that you people are blocking the road and
now you've even destroyed someone else's things. Are you going to compensate him?"

The raging brawl was interrupted by this little interlude but when the little hoodlums saw that
the newcomers were a "bespectacled nerd" and a woman—and she even had an arm in a splint—
they did not take them seriously at all.

The little hoodlums from the other side even happily joined in the jeering. "Exactly! Compensate!
Compensate! If they have no money, make them take off their pants in return."

Both sides fanned the flames. The little hoodlum who pushed the old man was flustered and
picked up a brick and smashed it at Yu Lanchuan's head. The brick flew forward with a whoosh
but before they could see clearly, Yu Lanchuan had already seized the hoodlum's wrist and
knocked his head hard against the three-wheeled cart. The hoodlum let out a wail, the brick
slipping out of his hand. Yu Lanchuan twisted him into a pretzel and pushed him against the cart,
making him kneel.

His companions saw that things were not looking good and came forward to join the fight
together. His feet barely moving from the spot, Yu Lanchuan deftly used his fists in place of a
sword and took care of the pack of little brats.
From behind him came a playful whistle. Gan Qing cheered, "Oppa is so cool!"

The little hoodlums on the other side were overjoyed at the sight of their opponents being
beaten up. There was even an exceptionally scheming one who picked up a club and planned to
take the opportunity to get a few strikes in.

Hence, the scene turned even more chaotic. The bad youths on both sides joined in the fight. The
little hoodlum who had smashed the eggs at the start gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet
while holding his wrist, the pain bringing out tears in his eyes. He had probably never been so
aggrieved before. He pulled his jacket open and took out a small machete that hung inside. Under
the cover of the chaos, he swung it at Yu Lanchuan's shoulder.

His companions were old hands at fighting and usually wouldn't fight to the point where there
was serious trouble. The knives they brought along were just to pretend to be fierce to scare
others. When they spied that he was being serious, they were all stunned. Someone blurted out,
"Don't…"

Right then a shadow suddenly slipped in between and seized the misbehaving youth's knife-
wielding hand and somehow turned the hand so that the blade was aiming at the owner. Right
after that, there was the teeth-aching sound of fabric ripping. The machete turned into a flash of
light, stabbing a few times at the misbehaving youth's body.

For a moment, not a single sound could be heard. Even Yu Lanchuan was shocked until he forgot
to breathe.

The one who struck with the knife just now felt his legs weaken and fell directly to kneel on the
ground. The crotch of his pants was damp. Someone pressed a knee on his neck, pushing him to
the wall. His shirt was pierced through with three holes, like the "Three Stabs Six Holes[1]"
punishment in underground societies. The machete was in Gan Qing's hand and there were faint
blood marks on the blade. The little hoodlum stared at the blood on the blade in terror. He had
an illusionary feeling that his chest and belly had been sliced open.

Gan Qing patted his face with the back of the blade. "Has your head cooled down?"

That person was not only cooled down—he was already frozen.

Gan Qing turned back and shot a look at the smashed eggs on the three-wheeled cart. She said
very reasonably, "I think you should pay him twenty yuan."

No one moved.

Gan Qing let out a snort of laughter. The tip of the blade scraped across the surface of the wall.
"Looks like you guys don't agree?"

A teenager dressed in No. 13's uniform took out his wallet with trembling hands. Without even
looking, he grabbed a handful of cash and threw them onto the three-wheeled cart. Gan Qing
shot him a look; the teenager seemed to realise something and took a couple of steps forward,
smoothened out the crumpled notes and placed them on the edge of the cart like he was
respectfully paying protection fees.

Gan Qing finally moved her leg away from where it was wedged against the person's neck. A few
teenagers gathered their courage and ran over to help their companion up. They hastily tore
open his shirt to check. There were three light scratches on his stomach.

Gan Qing held the machete with the blade facing upwards and tapped the back against her other
hand a few times. "This is a controlled weapon. Your senior sister is confiscating it. I'm sure you
don't mind."

The little hoodlums didn't dare mind and also didn't dare ask which batch this senior sister was
from. They scattered in all directions, scared out of their wits.

Gan Qing turned towards Yu Lanchuan. "Let's go. We're going to eat, right?"

After going through the obstacles of demons and monsters, the two of them finally saw the small
restaurant Yu Lanchuan and his basketball team had eaten at back then.

The little restaurant was in a blind alley and was extremely inconspicuous. A small mottled
blackboard hung on the door, the menu on it exactly the same as ten years ago—but the prices
had gone up. From an average of ten yuan per person, it had inflated to twenty yuan.

The old man riding the three-wheeled cart looked up, his hands on the handlebar to stabilise the
cart. "The two of you want to eat at my shop?"

T/N:
[1] 三刀六洞 "Three Stabs Six Holes" - this is a literal translation. It refers to an underground
society rule where any member who does something unforgivably wrong and wants to plead for
forgiveness must stab themselves three times, each stab piercing through their body; hence,
three stabs and six holes. This phrase will pop up again later.
Chapter 95
Yu Lanchuan took a look at the fresh produce on the old man's three-wheeled cart, then at the
direction he was heading. "If I may ask, are you the boss?"

The group who were fighting had blocked the intersection which meant that they had blocked
the entrance of the shop. The knife-wielding hoodlum was right—this was indeed the old man's
road and his front entrance.

"I'm also the main cook and sometimes double as the waiter." The boss slowly pushed his cart
forward. Yu Lanchuan was just reaching out to give him a hand and hadn't even rolled his sleeves
up yet when a young man around seventeen or eighteen years of age ran out from the small
restaurant, flashing an incandescent smile at the whole world, and industriously helped the boss
move the items.

Yu Lanchuan's gaze lingered on the teenager for a while. He realised that the teenager's features
were not very symmetrical, both his eyes were set very far apart and when he started smiling, he
couldn't stop. His long and slender limbs seemed rather uncoordinated, his movements
exaggerated and clumsy.

"I picked up this child. He was unwanted." The boss straightened his back and caught his breath.
He pointed at his own head. "He's not very quick-witted and he can't do very meticulous tasks…
Do the two of you have reservations?"

"No." Yu Lanchuan was shocked. "This place of yours require reservations?"

"Oh, it doesn't. I was just asking. Sounds more trendy that way." The boss ushered the two of
them inside. He faced the empty restaurant and sighed. "Students nowadays aren't like students
back in those years. No one comes to unfashionable places… We haven't opened for business yet
today. I'll let you two eat for free."

Yu Lanchuan looked at the sad little restaurant and felt rather unable to accept the offer. He was
just about to turn it down when he remembered that this meal was Gan Qing's treat and it wasn't
appropriate for him to make the decision for her. He turned to look for Gan Qing and only then
realised that she hadn't followed them but was instead looking at the little shop front and
spacing out.

Gan Qing hadn't been there in ten years. She thought that she had a bad memory and that she
would need to spend some time wandering around before even finding the right place. But now
that she was really there, she suddenly regretted her careless suggestion.

How could she forget this place?

At that time, Wei Xiao worked at a hotel. He was one of the head chefs and divided shifts with a
colleague. When he was not on shift, he wasn't idle either. At the start, he tried opening a small
stall of his own, planning to sell some snacks. But he really wasn't made of the right stuff for
business and the small stall shut down not long after. Later on, he came to this restaurant
opened by a friend to help out in the kitchen. He mainly dealt in flour-based foods.

He kept himself busy all day long and also had his reasons for that. According to Wei Xiao, the
food preparation in the hotel was all standardised, that it was an assembly line with a process
that never changed and he was always hurried and rushed. It was not as meaningful as working in
this hole-in-the-wall restaurant where even something as simple as making a bowl of yang chun
noodles and serving it to the customer was something he did with his heart.

His words really sounded like those of a chef obsessed with making food. Ten years ago, Gan Qing
had just listened without taking it to heart.

Recalling it now, she could discern a different taste to those words—if the old man really felt that
working at a small restaurant was good, why didn't he resign from his job at the hotel and focus
his heart and mind into "making food from the heart"?

"Hey," Yu Lanchuan's voice summoned her mind back. "Why are you spacing out?"
Gan Qing suddenly looked up, coincidentally meeting the old shop owner's eyes. However, the
boss's gaze did not linger on her; instead, he only glanced briefly at her before walking into the
shop, age and experience in every movement.

That was to be expected. In a flash, ten years had passed. The teenage girl had grown into a
miserable adult, the quick and dexterous boss had turned into a doddering old man under the
pressure of the hardships of life; which of them would remember the other?

When she meddled in the affair just now, hadn't she also not recognised the old shop owner?

"Sit anywhere you like," the boss said. "I'm a bit slow, you two are not in a hurry, are you?"

Yu Lanchuan shook his head. "Why don't you hire a few people?"

"Can't afford it," the boss said. "The food here is old-fashioned, people don't like it anymore. If
this shop wasn't my own and I didn't have to pay rent, I wouldn't be able to continue the business
long ago. It's just to pass the time now."

Yu Lanchuan didn't understand. Such a small rundown restaurant that took so much painstaking
effort to operate, what was the point of persevering? Couldn't he do something else to pass
time? Rent out the shop or put it on the market, at least that would be enough to support his
retirement. This area was so disorderly and he would even get caught in the crossfire when the
little hoodlums got into a brawl. Why did he need to do this?

At that moment, Gan Qing gave him a light kick. Yu Lanchuan shot her a look and swallowed
down his misgivings for the time being.

When there were sizzling sounds coming from the kitchen, Gan Qing finally said softly, "The
boss's son used to attend No. 13. He didn't really study properly and spent his time getting into
fights. One day, people cornered him and when he was running away in a panic, a car crashed
into him and he died… It was many years ago."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is that why he opened this restaurant here?"

"Yeah." Gan Qing nodded. "At the start, he wanted an explanation from the school. After all, the
incident happened during school hours. Buying houses was not a popular thing yet back then and
coincidentally, the former owner of this place was in urgent need of money so they sold it to him
cheaply, letting him settle here. Later on, all the wrangling and arguing came to nothing. The
school only compensated him a token amount of money and the matter ended just like that. On
the other hand, it was this small restaurant of his that became successful. It may look cold and
desolate now but there was a period of time in the past when it was popular. It had many types
of noodle broths and baked pastries that were famous."

In the past, the boss sold baked pastries from a cart. After getting a small shop, he fitted a large
oven in the back kitchen specially for making baked pastries and made three types—sugar, salt
and pepper, and meat. When customers came to order the pastries, he took them directly out of
the oven and served them. Wrapped in grease paper, the sesame seeds falling at a touch, the
delicious scent emitted even from the paper. But one had to be careful when eating. One small
bite and the flakey outer shell would crack open and piping hot steam emitted from the inside. If
the person eating didn't dodge in time, they would be scalded until they had to open their
mouths wide and breathe in to cool down.

After Wei Xiao came and tasted his baked pastries, he said that he didn't want to make overly
complicated dishes. It was fine to maintain their speciality. Baked pastries went best with soup
noodles, so he helped to come up with a few signature noodle dishes. The cheapest, the one that
tested the fundamentals of the chef's skills the most, was none other than the yang chun
noodles.

Gan Qing said, "That's why, when he sees the kids fighting, he would always want to go over and
do something."

Yu Lanchuan's brows furrowed. "He's already at that age. These little hoodlums don't know how
to control themselves, what if they hit him?"

"When I was here, they didn't dare to," Gan Qing explained briefly. "Furthermore, back then, lots
of people came here to eat and they were also aware of what happened to the boss's family.
They didn't quibble with him and when they occasionally had fights to settle problems, when
they saw him coming, they would disperse on their own. But it seems like no one cares about
that anymore."

In the outside world, it was a large jianghu. Meanwhile, No. 13 High School was a small jianghu. A
small jianghu was like a piece of farmland, the seedlings inside sprouting batch by batch, and
then also cut off batch by batch. The speed at which the generations changed was like the wheat
that matured twice a year.

The teenager from the shop finished moving the items and diligently came over to pour water for
both of them. But his hands were unsteady and half the water landed outside the cup. If Yu
Lanchuan hadn't dodged in time, his pants would be wet.

For the sake of maintaining his refined demeanour, Yu Lanchuan quickly took the water container
from him. "Thank you, we'll help ourselves."

Like a large dog who loved an audience, the teenager eagerly and happily moved all the
condiments and utensils on the table to their front, his eyes sparkling in silent request for praise.

Yu Lanchuan forced out a kindly smile. "...The service at your shop is really attentive."

It was only when the boss called for him in the back kitchen that the teenger reluctantly left
them. The two customers he left behind exchanged looks, then moved the condiments and
utensils back to their original positions.

"But I guess that even if he gets hit a couple of times, he won't take it to heart," Gan Qing said.
"He probably just treats it as getting hit by his son."

Yu Lanchuan was doing the work of the server and when he heard this line that came right out of
The True Story of Ah Q, he couldn't help laughing. But after laughing, he felt a little unsettled so
he changed the topic and asked, "Hey, why is it that something as terrifying as escaping from
under the noses of the Travellers' Sect people couldn't make you remember me but you could
remember clearly a minor matter like fighting outside a small restaurant? Do you have selective
memory?"

Gan Qing went along and spouted nonsense. "It was terrifying for you but not for me. Even when
stripped bare, you barely had an ounce of meat on your bones, what was there to be shocked
over? Compared to when you're an adult…"

Yu Lanchuan gave her a kick under the table. Gan Qing was already prepared for it and evaded
him. "I'm complimenting you on how well you grew up!"

Yu Lanchuan gave her a fake smile. "Thank you but I do not accept your comment."

Gan Qing's fingers took hold of the tip of a chopstick and spun it around. She recalled for a while,
then said, "Maybe it was because I happened to be unhappy that day… My academic results at
No. 13 were still decent. After every exam, I could still enter the list of the top fifty achievers. But
I didn't get into the list after midterms that one time because I skipped the exams for two
subjects. After Wei Xiao—oh, he worked here at that time—found out, he lost his temper with
me right in the back kitchen, in front of the boss."

On the other side of the wall, those annoying boys were so noisy that the shop seemed like a zoo.
As they happily rehashed their strategies and tactics, they naturally also spoke contemptuously of
their opponent's basketball skills and moral character.

On this side of the wall, Wei Xiao was scolding his little disciple in the kitchen. "This is not about
whether or not the midterms are important, this is about whether or not your attitude is right.
Do you understand what it means to have a sense of priority? You just muddle along every day,
how many years can you muddle along at school? What about your future?"

The arrogant brats on the other side of the wall seemed to hear him and seamlessly continued
this topic. The teenagers' smug voices slipped through the cracks of the wall. "All right, all right,
let's not say so much. There's no need to lower ourselves to their level. It's just a basketball
match. We won't bump into them in the future anyway."

"Who said that? If the pipes in your house happen to be clogged in the future, don't you have to
get someone to fix it?"

"Then you should worry about the future prospects of the pipes in your house. I don't need to. I'll
be taking the IELTS again at the end of the month and see how it goes. We've already contacted
the overseas school."

There was silence in the kitchen. The corner of one of Wei Xiao's eyes was twitching visibly.

The children were still carried away by the excitement of the match but the adults were already
seeing the gulf between them in the future.
When Gan Qing sat for the senior high entrance exams, she had been over-confident and only
applied to one school: No. 3. In the end, given the way she slacked off every day, she slipped up
in the exams and was three marks short of the requirement.

At that time, Yanning had yet to go through an education reform. Some key senior high schools
publicly accepted "paying students" and enrolled those whose marks were within ten marks of
the minimum acceptance score. For every mark they missed, the students had to pay 15,000
yuan in "school selection fees."

Three marks short in addition to school fees came up to a total of 50,000 yuan. If Wei Xiao had
that much money saved up back then, would he need to stay in Mudpool Backlane?

There was no other way. For the sake of this matter, Wei Xiao borrowed money from everywhere
but sadly, the friends of a penniless person were also equally penniless. He scrimped and saved
but did not manage to gather much money. It was only on the evening of the third day that Wei
Xiao received a packet from an anonymous sender. When he opened it, he saw that there were
five neat stacks of cash inside.

Then, before he could go to the school and hand over this money, Gan Qing nonchalantly told
him that she had already forged his signature and signed the declaration of giving up the school
selection. Ordinary senior high schools that were not as good could not fill up their enrollments
and would accept students in the nearby districts who failed to get into other schools. Just like
that, she went to the rubbish dump that was No. 13 High School.

This became a thorn in Wei Xiao's heart.

The voices coming from the other side of the wall jabbed ruthlessly at Wei Xiao.

"If I catch you playing with blades again when you're doing your homework, I'll maim your arm
make you return your Paoding Jieniu." Wei Xiao gritted his teeth and forced out his words one by
one. But after saying something so harsh, his heart ached. In the end, a child's starting line
depended on their parents or guardian. If he could produce 50,000 yuan as easily as buying a
candied nut, would this child have to be so stubborn? Hence, he sighed. "If you have gotten into
No. 3 back then…"

These words instantly set Gan Qing off. She cut him off coldly, "It's a good thing I didn't!"

Wei Xiao looked at her in shock.

"Back then, I was afraid of making things difficult for you and it took a lot for me to make the
resolve to sign it. When I came back and found out that we already had the money, I even
secretly regretted it for a long time… Hah!" She let out a caustic laugh. "Later on, I found out
where the money came from. If I had really used that money to go to school, I would feel so sick
now that I would jump off from a tall building!"

"What are you…"

"The man who killed my father sent you the dirty money he earned from being a murderer for
hire, wanting to score some points with me. Isn't that funny, Shifu?" Gan Qing said. "Is that why
you're protecting him? You even bear the accusations of murder and arson for him. Were it not
for… I wouldn't even know that you were named in the Alliance Leader's Command because of
this person! Were you also so half-hearted when you taught him, afraid that your disciple would
make a name for himself?"

Wei Xiao's entire body was frozen. "Who… Who told you this?"

Gan Qing's hand that was holding the wooden chopsticks suddenly paused. "That's right. I
remember now. That day was the day I laid my cards out to Wei Xiao."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "About your biological parents?"

Gan Qing knew that she was adopted by her shifu but Wei Xiao had never revealed her past to
her. He had only said that she was his neighbour's child when he stayed in another part of the
country in the past. He said that her parents and relatives were no longer around and she
seemed pitiful and since he didn't have children himself, he adopted her. She was also vaguely
aware that she had a shixiong. When they prayed to the ancestors during festive occasions, she
had seen the name "Wei Huan" in the list of disciples. He was in the same generation as her and
his name had been scratched out. When asked, her shifu had only told her briefly, "Your shixiong
does not walk the same path as us."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I've always felt that it was very strange. Logically, your elders would definitely
want to bring the secret of your dramatic past to their graves. How on earth did you find out?"

"I was a busybody." Gan Qing waved her hands. "There was once when I came home after school
and saw someone chasing a pickpocket on the streets. I stretched out my leg and tripped the
pickpocket up. The victim whose wallet was stolen might have been a minor millionaire. In a
moment of joy, he took out 1,000 in cash and gave it to the few people helping him chase the
thief. Those people didn't manage to turn him down and also felt that the success was because I
tripped the thief up so they insisted on sharing the money with me. I saw that they had quite a
heavy jianghu air to them and that they also knew martial arts. Otherwise, they wouldn't dare
apprehend a thief in the streets. I listened to them chat—they were people who roamed all over
the land—and felt that we hit it off pretty well. And so, I had a meal with them… While eating, I
happened to hear them talk about Wei Xiao."

"That was when I found out that Wei Xiao, who rode a women's bike every day to work as a cook,
was actually named in the Alliance Leader's Command. Before I realised what was going on, they
had already started to list out the people who had died under Wan Mu Chun's blade—there was
the huge, sensational case of the flour factory in the neighbouring province, some unexplained
minor cases… and also my dad's name. For every nine lies that he told, Wei Xiao said something
true. He had never hidden my parents' names, birthplaces and where they had lived from me."
Chapter 96
"Such a coincidence?" Yu Lanchuan gave her a doubtful look and asked, "Don't tell me you
believed them."

If her intelligence was really at that level, it was no surprise that she didn't get into No. 3.
"Of course not, what are you thinking?" Gan Qing waved her hands. "It's human nature not to
believe it, isn't it… A pack of strange people suddenly coming over and telling you that the shifu
who raised you had killed your parents… What kind of nonsense is that? Even T.V. series in the
nineties don't use this plotline anymore. A normal person's immediate reaction would probably
be to find out where these people came from."

Yu Lanchuan immediately asked, "Where did they come from, did you find out?"

Gan Qing spread her hands. "Nope. They were not locals and disappeared right away."

To investigate a matter until the truth came to light, the most fundamental requirements were
time and money. Neither can be lacking, and it would be best if the investigator had some ways
to get information. If someone was intentionally hiding something, how could a half-grown high
school girl investigate?

Yu Lanchuan's gaze turned grave. He said, "But Yanning has people from all walks of life. It
wouldn't be hard to find out what was written in the Alliance Leader's Command."

The Alliance Leader's Command was decreed by Old Alliance Leader Yu and it was the
indisputable truth. Since the court case of the eighteen lives lost in the flour factory had no
conclusion and Wei Xiao had clearly been right here in Yanning, insisting on bearing the blame by
keeping his silence, people inevitably talked about him, saying things like "Wan Mu Chun went
back on his words and is again conducting his shady business in jianghu."

Gan Qing let out a bitter laugh. "It wasn't only 'easy' to find out."

In actual fact, Wei Xiao wasn't the type who liked offending other people. When he interacted
with others in private, he was very easy to talk to and was gentle and quiet, a rare breed. If one
were to really calculate it, other than when Yang Ping and the others forced him too far, Wei Xiao
had never had a grudge with anyone else.

However, rumours and slanders had never shown a preference for the real troublemakers. They
had always gone for the quiet and gentle ones.

Gan Qing said, "In his later years, Old Alliance Leader Yu increasingly disliked stepping forward to
interfere in other people's matters. He announced very few Alliance Leader's Commands and the
one with Wei Xiao was exceptionally eye-catching. I heard all sorts of rumours that I didn't know
were true or false. But I could not suspect my shifu. From an emotional standpoint, I just didn't
want to believe it. So of course I had to find a loophole in those rumours to convince myself to
remain firm in my belief."

Yu Lanchuan said, "That's human nature."

"I gathered some old newspapers and pinned down the exact date of the flour factory explosion.
This wasn't hard, it was a major incident after all. The local news covered it. After that, I only
needed to confirm that the old man wasn't at the scene at all when it happened and that would
be the end of it." Having said so far, Gan Qing suddenly smiled. "At that time, I thought that if I
could find proof, I would send it to the Old Alliance Leader in a way that didn't reveal our location
so that he could 'erase' the Alliance Leader's Command."

She planned it out clearly and methodically in her mind and felt that she was so very clever and
wise in the ways of the world, that she could protect this useless adult who only knew how to
cook. In her imagination, she nonchalantly pushed open the door and entered the house, then
casually said to Wei Xiao, "By the way, I've already taken care of the Alliance Leader's Command
for you. Don't worry. Why didn't you tell me earlier that other people were bullying you?"

Then, under Wei Xiao's astonished gaze, she would return to her room to do her homework, as
though the difficult matter had been a piece of cake for her.

Meanwhile, based on historical data, it was best if people who still fantasised in such ways
focused their attention on their fantasies because once they took actual action, there was a large
probability of them stirring up trouble.

"The old man didn't like job-hopping and moving house. He worked for many years in that lousy
hotel. They have attendance records for their workers. I just needed to get my hands on it. So, I
took the chance when the old man was at his second job to sneak into the hotel's management
office and take their attendance records."

"That day, Senior Wei Xiao…"

Gan Qing's eyes raised gently, "He swapped shifts and took the day off."

This was quite a shock. Yanning's transportation system was well-developed. To go to the
neighbouring province, one day was enough for a round trip. If he quietly made this trip, his
family would think he had gone to work and might not realise at all.

"But I still calmed down very quickly. The stuff about being a murderer for hire wasn't something
completely out of the blue. Even though I've not done it before, I've heard Wei Xiao talk about
the ancestors. Wan Mu Chun had always been a lone wolf without disciples, so they had to be
extra cautious before making a move. A moment's carelessness could result in their reputation
being destroyed. Understanding the target's identity, personality and habits took at least a
month," Gan Qing said. "I checked his attendance records before and after that day and they
were all very normal. There was no way he would stop halfway through his job as a chef and drop
out of the sky into an unfamiliar place and kill someone, and even leave Wan Mu Chun's mark.
Here's the question—since it wasn't him who did it, then why did he bear the blame? What was
he doing the day he was on leave? Other than him, who else was capable of leaving such a
meticulous knife wound?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You thought of Wei Huan?"

"Other than him, there's no other explanation," Gan Qing said. "Uncle Meng liked having a few
small bottles of beer when he was young. His alcohol tolerance was so-so and when he was
drunk, there was no filter on his mouth. I accompanied him for skewers a few times and got a few
words out of him after getting him drunk, and roughly pieced together the story behind Wei Huan
being thrown out of the sect. Wei Huan didn't want to waste all his training and decided to
'restore the old' and expand the sect's tradition. Uncle Meng said that he took the wrong path.

"While Wei Xiao was at work, I skipped school and went home. I went through his things and
found a scrapbook. When I opened it, I saw that it was pasted full of colourful recipes and
pictures. I skimmed through it and initially wanted to put it aside, then I suddenly felt that
something wasn't right. The old man was an extreme miser and cherished all his things. When he
occasionally bought a book to read, he would wrap it with a book cover and had never done
something like cutting pictures from a book to stick in a scrapbook. So, I took it again and studied
it carefully. I noticed that there were words beneath the pictures that had nothing at all to do
with the recipes."

"What did he write?"

"A journal. It was all related to Wei Huan. The old man had been tracing him the whole time—
when and where Wei Huan had killed a certain person, deductions on how he had done it, why
he couldn't be caught… Oh, right, he also wrote about that anonymous 50,000 yuan remittance."
At this point, Gan Qing seemed to feign nonchalance. She took a deep breath and changed topics
with a rather forced smile, turning to look at the back kitchen and calling out, "Boss, are you
making the noodles from scratch? We aren't so bougie, the ready-made ones are fine! Please
make it quick."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Which is to say, Wei Huan killing your father and remitting your school fees…"

Were both written in that book.

"Yeap, can you imagine it?" Gan Qing's raised brows drew together in slight exaggeration and she
spread her hands at him. "This old man Wei Xiao is really frugal. He used rubber bands to get the
very last bit of toothpaste out of the tube and mixed water into empty shampoo bottles to
continue using them for half a month. One scrapbook lasted him more than twenty years. Before
he reached the last page, it was not considered used up."

Yu Lanchuan had always felt that Gan Qing carried with her a very heavy sense of drifting through
life. She had drifted her way to her current age and had been grinded into her current gremlin
state but surprisingly, he could still faintly see a tendency to stir up trouble. It was evident what
kind of unstable timebomb she had been during her rebellious years. Destroying her own
meridians, breaking ties with her sect, pursuing and killing a vicious disciple, turning herself in to
the police… none of these were something a cool-headed ordinary person could do. He liked her
but it didn't mean that he agreed with this worldview of going to the extreme in everything.

But now, Yu Lanchuan realised that there was nothing he could say.

Was she unable to tell that those few people at the start had acted on purpose? Was she unable
to tell that there was someone instigating trouble in the shadows?

She was able to tell.

But even if she could, when she reached that stage, what could she do?
"I usually don't have much to do at work, as you know." Gan Qing smiled at him. "When there are
no customers, I would take a book from the pile of self-help books from Uncle Meng and flip
through them. A couple of days ago, I read a passage that talked about Festinger's Theory[1]. It
said that 10% of life is made up of what happens to you and the other 90% of life is decided by
how you react. It's pretty reasonable. I belong to the type who did not handle that 90% of my life
well. Nearly half my life is gone and everything I've done has brought hurt to the ones close to me
and joy to the targets of my revenge."

Yu Lanchuan said, "Nonsense. From where did they get those tacky lines that they're quoting?
And even 90%... Did some social scientist calculate that with their toes when they were drunk?"

Gan Qing sprawled on the table and laughed. "Little Master Yu, you're really good at making
conversation. Arcane arts and tacky pseudoscientific self-help are the two cornerstones of the
mental state of us ordinary people. Please stop coming over with your immortal aura and
attacking our foundation, restrain yourself!"

Right then, noise came from the back kitchen. The boss chided the teenager who was more of a
hindrance than a help in an agitated voice. "You don't need to do this, it's hot, don't drop the
bowl! Quick, quick, move aside."

A savoury scent wafted out of the back kitchen. Their noodles and baked pastries were finally
ready.

"Have a taste. The baked pastries are our specialty and so are the noodles. We are very particular
about the broth." The boss enthusiastically urged them to start eating. The teenager in the shop
also followed suit and poked his head out of the back kitchen, giggling and brimming with
anticipation for the customers' praise at the same time.

The two freeloading customers had no choice but to pause their conversation and pick up the
utensils to first complete the shop owner's "good review mission." At the first mouthful, they
froze in unison.

The noodles were very springy, there was nothing wrong with the soup and the vegetables that
accompanied it were very fresh. If it wasn't so incredibly salty, it would indeed be a good bowl of
noodles.

Gan Qing strained to move her tongue. She felt that the cells on her tongue were becoming
dehydrated from the salt and the tongue hanging in her mouth was like a dried out persimmon.

No wonder no one came here anymore.

The two of them exchanged a look over the steam, then looked at the old shop owner earnestly
wiping his hands on his apron.

Gan Qing said, "It's… uhh… very good!"

The boss looked at Yu Lanchuan.

Gan Qing kicked him under the table. Yu Lanchuan had no choice but to put down his chopsticks,
reached out to take the glass of water and downed half of it in one go to dilute that mouthful of
salt before finally savouring the taste. "It tastes just like it did in the past."

The boss was overjoyed and sat down beside them, his spirits high. "Our shop hired a great chef
in the past. This is the recipe he left behind. The chef usually had to work at a hotel and didn't
come here every day, he only came once every three to five days. When he was not here, he
would leave us with the soup base so that we could cook for the customers ourselves. I bought
the rights to the recipe. You can't get this anywhere else."

Gan Qing listened to this old acquaintance that she had met by chance yet did not remember tell
his story and got something different from it. She couldn't help smiling. "So you already knew
about buying rights back then, that's quite forward-thinking of you. How much did you pay?"

"20,000." The boss extended two fingers at her. "It was nearly ten years ago. Not cheap, is it?"

Gan Qing agreed with him and at the same time, thought in her heart, I never would have
guessed that the old man had this bit of extra income.

The boss continued to prattle on, "He said he had a young daughter in senior high. Earlier on, he
didn't prepare the school selection fees and had only scrambled for it at the last minute so the
girl ended up attending a lousy high school. He couldn't let that happen for university so he had
to save up for the fees and living expenses in advance. It never hurts to be prepared. What if her
results are bad? She would still have to attend a third tier private academy. But the fees would be
higher. 20,000 was not enough."

Gan Qing suddenly tightened her grip on the chopsticks.

"Later on, one day, he suddenly resigned and stopped coming," the boss said. "I guess it was
because his child was going to sit for the gaokao and he had saved up enough. I wonder how he is
now… Just look at that old man, his child hadn't yet sat for the exam and he was already dooming
her to third tier private academies."

That disobedient little girl of his had never been willing to sit down and study steadily. His worries
ate away at him but he also didn't know what he could do to help. He could only work two jobs,
work hard to save up for her school fees and prepare for the worst case scenario.

But he was not prepared for what was even worse than the worst case scenario.

She smeared the glorious days of her youth with blood until it was a complete mess, living in a
hopelessly muddled state. And it was only when her mad and deranged prison cellmate used her
soul to offer up a few textbooks to her that she woke up from this nightmare.

They said that she still had many years of life ahead of her and that there was still time to turn
back. She had also believed them, and had wanted to try turning her life back to the right track,
bumpy as the road might be.
She knew regret.

That was when she seriously buckled down to study. She dreamed of walking out of that place
one day and entering the exam hall again, of bringing the notice of admission from the university
home with her to see the old man and telling him, "Shifu, I detoured for a few years but I'm back
now. Do you still want me? All that stuff about breaking ties and revolting from the sect, we'll
consider them invalid, okay?"

"Gan Qing!" Yu Lanchuan watched in alarm as she stuffed the noodles into her mouth like she
could neither taste nor feel it. In just a few mouthfuls, she drained the bowl of salt-steeped soup.

But were there so many roads that could bring her back home?

This dewdrop world —

Is a dewdrop world,
And yet, and yet…[note][2]

———

The author has something to say:

[note] This dewdrop world —
Is a dewdrop world,
And yet, and yet…

— Kobayashi Issa

T/N:

[1] The 90/10 principle was coined by Stephen Covey (author of "The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People" and other similar books). There are some similarities to Leon Festinger's
cognitive dissonance theory, however there is no such "Festinger Theory" that uses this 90/10
split. From a quick search online, using the phrase "Festinger Theory" to refer to the 90/10
principle seems popular in Chinese media, however it is unknown who started it and why.
[2] The translation of the haiku that appears at the end of the chapter is by Lewis Mackenzie. I
took it from the Wikipedia page on Kobayashi Issa.
Chapter 97
Yu Lanchuan seized Gan Qing's hand, pushing down her chopsticks. "What are you doing… Drink
some water first!"

He picked up a baked pastry with a flaky shell, broke it into two and passed one half to Gan Qing.
"Here, it has sugar filling."

After that, he fell silent for a while. Then, he said vaguely, "Do you know how shows and movies
kill off characters?"

Yu Lanchuan liked to be frank with his speech and rarely beat around the bush. For a moment,
Gan Qing didn't understand what he was getting at. She held the pastry and looked at him in
confusion.
"Before the character gets killed off, they would have a plan that they can never complete," Yu
Lanchuan said. "Before we reach the age of dementia, all those clothes that we couldn't buy, the
things we didn't complete, the chances we missed, they would all stay persistently in our minds
like a holdout, like those homes the owners refuse to allow to be demolished. Back then, you
were a holdout in my mind."

Gan Qing laughed. "Little Master Yu, you…"

"That's why, if there's someone you didn't manage to say farewell to whom you can't let go of,
there's nothing shameful about admitting it." Yu Lanchuan enunciated each word clearly. "It's
human nature."

Gan Qing froze all of a sudden. Yu Lanchuan seemed to have suddenly gone blind and did not
notice at all that her expression of forced calm was breaking apart. He focused all his attention on
analysing the baked pastry. "It's been many years since I last had a baked sugar pastry. The ones
sold in shops outside aren't good. When you break them open, the sugar inside is always in
dregs."

Beside them, the boss slowly wiped the tables as he said, "That's because they've gone cold. It
has to be freshly taken out of the oven so it's piping hot. Only then will the sugar be melted and
runny. Both of you, be careful not to burn your mouth."

Gan Qing used that as an excuse to cover her mouth and let out a hiss of pain, pretending that
the sugar filling had scalded her, and took the chance to wipe away the wetness in her eyes.

"Are you a reincarnation of a hungry ghost?" Yu Lanchuan put away that once-in-a-blue moon
gentleness of his and rolled his eyes at her. "Do you scarf your food down this way too when
eating with other people?"

Gan Qing reached up and wiped away the bit of sugar residue on the corner of her mouth. "Isn't
this all because I'm afraid that Little Master Yu looks so delectable that if I take one more look, I
will eat him up."

Yu Lanchuan nearly forgot the proper way to bring the baked pastry to his mouth and in his
distraction, he scalded his mouth with the melted sugar. Other people used the sugar to hide
their eyes and pretend to be scalded but he was the opposite and had nearly burned off a layer of
skin. Even his glasses had slid down.

Gan Qing started laughing. But after laughing, she felt a little discomfited. She was someone who
had once let down the infinite kindness and warmth she had received and was too ashamed to
expect fondness from others now. She had never thought that the people around her—Little
Master Yu, Uncle Meng, Meizhen-jie… even Old Sect Leader Yang and the other people of No.
110 Courtyard—would still dare to put their kindness in her hands and was not afraid that her
hands would slip up once more and shatter them.

She was struck by fear and trepidation. She didn't know what to do, and because of that, her
words sounded even more like they were not from her heart, insincere and glib.
The boss quickly poured a glass of cool water for Yu Lanchuan. Gan Qing said, "You don't skimp at
all when making your baked pastries, it's really very good of you. If the soup noodles could be a
little more like the original taste, that would be great. The seasonings were a little heavy. People
nowadays are tired of eating heavy and greasy food outside. Everyone thinks that the simpler the
taste, the more high class it is."

After hearing that, the boss eyed her with his two murky old eyes and asked quietly, "Miss, is it
too salty?"

"Erm…"

"Ai, I'm old now, my tongue doesn't work well anymore. Only my ears can still detect the flavours
hidden in words. I can still understand human speech." The boss heaved a gloomy sigh. "I'm
afraid it's time to close shop."

Gan Qing knew that ever since he lost his son in his middle age, the only thing left that his heart
could not put down was this little shop. She hastily said, "Please don't. The students who have
graduated all miss your baked pastries and noodles. We purposely came here today to eat them.
If you close your shop, what if your regulars come here in the future?"

"What regulars? They've all left, they don't come anymore." The boss waved his hand. Like an old
monkey who could not move easily, he slowly walked behind the counter and took out a large
plastic file from the drawer. He took out a few pieces of paper. "Coincidentally, you young people
have good eyesight and can help me read this."

Yu Lanchuan wiped his hands and took the papers. It was a contract related to the demolition
compensation.

"In the past two years, there have been fewer kids here. No. 13 High is getting worse and worse,
so naturally, they can't attract students. It seems like they're going to merge with another school
soon. After the merger, they will expand their grounds and all of us have to move away." The
boss sat down. Through the windows, he looked in the direction of the school, then continued to
say, "I guess it's a good thing. After the merger, it won't be called No. 13 High anymore. They just
need to change the atmosphere at the school and it would be good."

Yu Lanchuan was used to reading contracts. With just a quick skim, he could pick out many points
and he explained each one to the boss. Gan Qing listened for a bit but only half understood what
he was saying, so she informed the boss and flipped through the thick file.

There were all sorts of things inside. Postcards from old customers, photos from No. 13 High's
yearly Sports Day and School Founding Day…

Yu Lanchuan took a pen to mark the important points for the boss. While waiting for him, the
boss explained to Gan Qing, "Those are from a photographer. He wanders around the streets and
alleys and takes photos. He took a photo of the shopfront and that photo even won some kind of
award. It's quite an honour. I purposely kept a copy of the magazine."
Gan Qing took a closer look and saw that there was indeed a small photo of the restaurant in the
magazine. It had obtained the glory of the "consolation prize." There was a tiny caption under the
photo: Even though this work has some weaknesses, the photographer has focused their lens on
the lowest rung of society, reproducing faithfully the dirty and narrow alley, and capturing a
corner of the life of the people who live on the fringes of life in the city. The scene within the lens
is full of emotion, the photographer bemoans the world and pities the people.

"That was from one year when No. 13 High was like a salted fish turning over a new leaf during
the gaokao. Fifteen students met the first tier acceptance score, that's more than if you add up
the few years before and after that. It was such glory! The school put up the honours list at the
entrance. It made me happy just looking at it, so I took a picture. My son won't get into the list so
I can only freeload off other people's joy and feel proud along with them."

There were fifteen names on that honours list. Among them, thirteen people were noted to be
from a certain class in Year 4. Gan Qing remembered this matter. The year she first entered the
school, No. 13 started a remedial class and waived the school fees to entice students. They
tricked a group of poor students with good results into enrolling. These remedial students helped
No. 13 High set a new record and, at the same time, were held back one year by this rubbish
school. On average, their scores fell by twenty marks compared to their first gaokao attempt.
Hence, this glorious remedial class was closed the very next year. Even if they paid students to
come, no one would.

Gan Qing continued flipping through the file. Then, her hand paused.

It was a newspaper cutting. The report was on a murder case. The victim's name was naturally
concealed and the photo was also censored with pixelation. But Gan Qing could immediately tell
—it was Wei Huan.

"Oh, this." The boss peered at it and carefully recalled for a moment. "This is not a happy thing.
Just one day before, this man came here to eat. The very next day, he was killed. Apparently,
when he died, he had a pile of fake I.D.s on him, who knows what it was that he did. Ai, he was
still a customer after all."

Gan Qing stared blankly. "He came here before?"

"He sure did!" The boss pointed at the crooked and childish writing beside the cutting. "See, I
even made a note here. When this person came, he ordered three large bowls of noodles. I said,
'Eating so much soupy food will definitely make your stomach feel uncomfortable later. If you're
afraid that eating something light won't keep you full for long, how about I bring you two baked
pastries?' He said there was no need to. He just wanted to enjoy the soup noodles."

Gan Qing's brows twitched slightly.

"Isn't it strange? This man didn't eat the noodles and just drank the soup. After he finished the
soup, he finally took a few forced bites. I said, 'You really have good taste and know that the main
chef is not in today. The noodles were made by the assistant and only the soup base was made
by the main chef.' He didn't seem to have heard me and also didn't say anything. I saw that his
face was gloomy and there was a rather evil air between his brows. I knew immediately that he
wasn't someone I should offend and I didn't dare chat much with him… See, something really did
happen to him."

Wei Huan coming on his own to the little restaurant where his… former shifu worked and took
the chance when his shifu was not there to order the soup noodles that his shifu made?

Yu Lanchuan looked up from the contract, astonished at what he was hearing. He had always
thought that a murderer-for-hire like Wei Huan would be of the same type as Yang Ping—
something wrong with his brain, and his heart and mind entirely set on being inhumane. Curious,
he took the plastic file away from Gan Qing's hand. "Let me see…"

When he moved the file, a small envelope slid out from behind the newspaper cutting that was
not stuck firmly, nearly falling into the soup. Gan Qing's hand was quick as lightning, reaching
under the file to catch the envelope in time. "Boss, why do you even have a secret weapon
hidden here?"

"Ah." The boss made a noise of utter confusion. He was also rather dumbstruck for the moment.

The envelope was sealed. There was no header and no inscription, and only had a "10" written on
it. The white paper was turning yellow and because so many years had passed, the glue at the
seal had dried out until a corner was lifted up, revealing the edge of the type of old-fashioned
writing paper that had a red frame. The boss turned it over a few times, looking at it, before
finally recalling his memories with much effort. "That's right, I remember now. It was that
customer who left this letter here."

Yu Lanchuan and Gan Qing both sat up straight simultaneously. The two of them exchanged a
quick look. A cold light flickered in Gan Qing's eyes.

She lowered her voice a little. "Did he leave it for you?"

"No, I don't know him anyway." The boss waved his hands a few times. "But yeah, who was it
that he left this for… Why is it here with me?"

He was muddled and confused, and might have the beginnings of old age dementia. Before he
could become old and senile, he had already lived his life until it was like a tangle of threads with
loose ends in all directions. It would be a while before he could straighten things out in his head.

Right at that moment, the teenager in the back kitchen shouted and dashed out like a gust of
wind. He pushed his scalded-red hand into the boss's face, opened his mouth and immediately
started to wail.

The boss tsk-ed. "I told you not to go to the back kitchen and make a mess. There's boiling water
there. This burn should teach you a lesson!"

The two old man and child who depended on each other for survival were both not very quick-
witted. One was wailing loud enough to bring the roof down while the other chased after him to
coax him. Yu Lanchuan and Gan Qing were left at the table, four eyes staring at the unopened
envelope, looking as though they were watching a detonator about to go off.
Just as Yu Lanchuan was hesitating over whether opening someone else's letter would be
impolite, Gan Qing had already ripped it open without a word.

"Hey, you…"

Shifu—the opening of the letter stated the addressee clearly. Was this a letter for Wei Xiao?

Wei Huan's handwriting was very tidy, the martial arts skills he had in his hand seemed to have
been used in his writing too. His strokes were firm and steady like they were printed. Gan Qing
skimmed through it.

I've left my instructions with the boss. This letter will be kept here for ten days. I told him to pay
attention to the local news. If he hears news that I have died within these ten days, then there is
no need for him to give this letter to you and it will save you the trouble of being broken-hearted.
If he does not hear any news, ten days is enough for me to go somewhere far. When he gives this
letter to you, it will save you the trouble of looking for me.

Shifu, when I was young, I always felt that our family has too many rules—this is not allowed,
that is also not allowed. Each generation can only take in one disciple. If other people don't
attack, we are not allowed to make a move. When we are outside, we are not allowed to bring up
the lineage of our skills to others. Especially that last one; our Wan Mu Chun is also a proper and
mighty sect, so why can't we bring it up? I always thought that even though Grand-Master had
washed his hands clean of the past, he was also one of the outstanding Five Supremes. You are
his disciple that he had brought up all on his own and your abilities are comparable with Grand-
Master. Everyone says that you are a disciple who has exceeded his master but before you made
a name for yourself, you were already living in hiding. In this drifting state, with neither family
nor career, you lived your whole life. Are you really happy with this? I remember, when I was
young, I was practising my knife skills when Grand-Master saw me. At the end of it, he shook his
head at once. He found me stupid and said that when comparing me to you, our innate talents
were as different as the sky and the earth. Perhaps that is indeed the case. When talentless
people like us who can only learn via the slow and foolish way finally achieve a little bit of skill
after much effort, we will think of it as something great. And hence, we will be exceptionally
unwilling to be content with this.

I thought, our sect existed since the Song Dynasty and has been passed on until now, hasn't it?
Why is it that the later it is, the more we're hiding and cowering?

Now, I finally understand a little. This is a dangerous road, the razor's edge. Once you walk this
road, you can never look back again and can only go forward, forced all the way until you reach
the point of no escape, the cliff's edge. And you jump to end things. During the era of chaos in
ancient times, human lives were worth nothing and all roads ended in a cliff, so there was no
difference. But it is not the same now. On the level ground, the many ways to live can be clearly
seen going in all directions. Insisting on walking the tightrope high above the ground is something
only an idiot would do.

I am that idiot.
Shifu, every time I startle awake in the middle of the night, I always remember the coin Zhu Cong
gave me. That was the first transaction I did as a murderer-for-hire. I only collected one yuan
from him. The two of us met at the train station in Yanning. I had not seen him for a few years
ever since tragedy struck his family and I nearly could not recognise him. Zhu Cong is my brother,
we grew up with each other. When I was young, I obeyed your instructions. I didn't dare bring up
the lineage of my skills to others and had also never dared to fight with others. When I was
bullied outside, I could only endure and he was always the one looking out for me. You have also
personally said that he was a warm-hearted child.

A warm-hearted person ended up like this. Shifu, if it was you, what would you do? Could you
keep your Wan Mu Chun blade hidden until the end and watch everything like a detached
bystander, pretending that you don't know anything?

I can't.

Based on a few clues, the two of us followed the trail for over a month and found the person who
set fire to the factory that year. He hid himself in another part of the country and even started a
family, living like a model citizen. All those who died such unjust deaths—the young and old, the
womenfolk and the children—didn't they tear his conscience apart in the middle of the night?

If they didn't, then it clearly shows that there are no such things as ghosts and gods in this world.
In that case, what is there to fear for people like us who hold the butcher's knife? After that, I
took that one yuan and bought two popsicles to share with Zhu Cong. When we finished the
popsicles, I understood that I can really no longer go back home. Do you blame me?

But with regards to this matter, I have no regrets.

Chapter 98
Gan Qing felt that there must be a piece of her brain that was malfunctioning. She had read half
the letter and she understood every word, yet when they were joined together, she didn't
understand their meaning.

Her gaze was frozen at a few certain lines in the middle. She read and reread it countless times
until her mind was blank and all that was left was the pounding of the veins on her temples, on
the verge of breaking through her skull at any moment.

Yu Lanchuan saw that her expression did not look right. "What is it?"

Half a beat slow, Gan Qing lifted her head and stared fixedly at him.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was the letter really written by that murderer Wei Huan? Who is it for?
What does it say?"

Gan Qing's brows drew slightly closer. Then, she narrowed her eyes. She was looking at Yu
Lanchuan but her gaze seemed to pierce through him to land somewhere even further.

"Little Master Yu," she suddenly said out of nowhere, "let me ask you a question."

"Hmm?"
"What do you like about me?"

"..." Her sudden change of frequency caught Yu Lanchuan off guard and like a typical straight
male, he couldn't follow the rhythm. He leaned back. "What the hell, did your brain short-
circuit?"

Gan Qing smiled at him. It was just like her usual manner of staying serious for barely three lines
before teasing him. After teasing, she returned her gaze to the letter but Yu Lanchuan suddenly
had a very bad premonition and blurted out, "At the very start, I wanted to get to know you
because you saved me when we were young. You left me at the landfill, then turned around and
led those people away. I… cough, for many years, I remember the way you looked from the back
as you left."

Gan Qing's eyes curved into a smile, not the least bit bothered. "This story sounds familiar. I think
'The Legend of White Snake' I watched when I was young had a part like this."

Yu Lanchuan gave her a kick out of habit. But unexpectedly, his kick that always missed its target
landed squarely on her tibia this time. Her leg snapped back and she nearly fell from her chair.

Yu Lanchuan sensed something and reached out to snatch the letter from her hand. "What on
earth was written in the letter?"

Gan Qing gathered the letter into her hand and retreated thirty centimeters, taking her chair with
her. "Nothing important. Go on, I haven't listened enough. The last time a handsome guy
confessed to me, I was still attending the school next door. But he started crying before he
finished speaking, tsk, and made it look like the scene of an evil tyrant forcing an honest girl into
selling her body."

Yu Lanchuan's fingers on the table curled in. He didn't know what Gan Qing had read but he
could faintly sense that the question he had to answer now was possibly a question of life and
death.

The air thickened.

What did he like about a person?

If he wanted to score marks for this question, there were actually just three paths for his line of
thought to take: appearance, innate qualities and prominence. "Appearance" was about youth
and beauty; "innate qualities" referred to being sincere and interesting, with sound integrity.
"Prominence" was a little more complicated. Of course, it was not about materialistic
requirements or background or academic qualifications; he could only describe it as "the manner
and behaviour as a result of having money, rights and status" or "the brilliant, all-encompassing
light set off by self-cultivation and deep erudition."

"Your appearance fits my sense of aesthetics." Yu Lanchuan picked each word carefully. "This is
the prerequisite. Otherwise, the two of us would be sworn siblings now. Your personality is also
very easy to get along with… To me, it's rare to find girls whose personalities fit mine."
Gan Qing said sincerely, "I think that the problem lies with you."

"The problem indeed lies with me." Yu Lanchuan nodded frankly. "But at this age, rather than to
change myself to suit other people, I would rather wait for a suitable person to come, even if she
is hard to find. Also, due to inherited traits, I am more easily captivated by things that are
formidable and mysterious, even if it means trouble. Your Wan Mu Chun happens to meet this
criteria."

Gan Qing said, "You've persuaded me. We're so compatible, I guess this is fate!"

But Yu Lanchuan didn't laugh along with her. He said seriously, "But looks will fade. Looking at
how you're a glutton who doesn't control her diet, I think that not only will you grow old in the
future, you might even put on weight."

Gan Qing, "..."

"Personality can also change. A person's nature is actually not even as stable as the waters of the
river in spring. If we could time-travel as we wish, a lot of people would get into fights with
themselves from ten years ago. As for the other things, there's even less need to fantasise.
They're not all that different from the shells of hermit crabs," Yu Lanchuan said unhurriedly. "As
for me, I am merely entranced by these things. By chance of fate, I spent this period of my life
chasing after you and happened to end up having some feelings for you. Right now, I still don't
know what I like about you. Maybe it's just like no matter how great someone else's prize
winning cat is, you still like the common stray at your front door."

"You…" Gan Qing was stunned for a long while. She covered her face and laughed helplessly. "I
think there's something wrong with you."

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything. He sat quietly opposite her in the rundown little restaurant, his
eyes almost blazing in his sincerity. He stretched his arm and pressed his hand down on top of
Gan Qing's head. "Hey, little stray, your laughing face looks even uglier than your crying face.
Who bullied you?"

Gan Qing said softly, "I don't know."

She thought her life was a drama plot where tragedy and turmoil existed side-by-side and that
she was a lone rebel going against the flow. But now, she realised that her life was just one of
those black comedies churned out by the dozen and she was a panicking little clown who didn't
know where to direct all her efforts.

Yu Lanchuan's hand slid down along the line of her head, brushing across the dried-out corners of
her eyes and her dry skin. Finally, he gripped her hand and slowly, bit by bit, tugged Wei Huan's
letter out.

After only a couple of glances, he looked up in shock. "Wait! Qiao-Qiao said before that when her
dad was investigating the massacre, he had a mysterious friend helping him outside. Could it
have been Wei Huan?"
"Meizhen-jie said that on that night, the Travellers' Sect people kidnapped the families of a few
Beggars' Sect sect elders. The guard fell asleep. A few drunk little hoodlums were playfully
throwing cigarette butts and 'accidentally' set the factory on fire. Both the kidnappers and those
who started the fire were later sentenced to jail for their negligence. The longest prison term was
seven years, that was for those from Travellers' Sect who had a hand in the kidnapping. As for
those few who threw the cigarette butts that started the fire, in the first place, they were only
drunkards who happened to pass by. It basically had nothing to do with them. They only went in
for a short while before coming back out again. Many years later, those who were sentenced to
jail were freed one after another. Zhu Cong also grew up. He could not make peace with what
happened and returned to Yanning to investigate what happened that year and found out that
those hoodlums that seemed to have been there 'by accident' had all hidden themselves and ran
away. He had no one else he could trust in Yanning, so he found Wei Huan to help him." Gan
Qing stared at the letter's yellowing edge. "As for the motivation of those few who started the
fire, the letter does not mention it… It should be none other than the usual types. Either they did
it for some kind of reward from someone or they themselves had some sort of dirt that had fallen
in someone's hands. When the victims' families hunt them down, they would definitely try to
justify themselves…"

Yu Lanchuan continued her sentence, "They only asked me to throw a cigarette butt. I didn't
know that the factory would catch fire and I didn't know that there were people inside."

The two of them said those words almost in unison.

Gan Qing's voice was suppressed in her throat. "With one yuan as a start, Wei Huan broke the
prohibition on killing and from then started to unearth the culprits one by one. The two of them
kept searching and taking revenge. Among them… was someone with the surname Gan. When
they killed him, they alarmed his wife and she suffered a great shock. From then on, her mental
state was unstable. They had a little girl who was taken away and brought up by Wei Xiao who
had come in pursuit of his unfilial disciple… because he felt that the crimes Wei Huan committed
were all his own debts to pay."

"Gan Qing…"

"Do you know what Wei Huan's last words to me were? He said, 'I lost. I'll turn myself in. Little
shimei, don't kill me.'"

Wei Huan did not have remarkable looks. His appearance was not as handsome as his shifu, his
skin was very dark and he was very thin. When he walked, he kept his head down. He could easily
pick any random construction site and blend in as one of the labourers. Back then, he was not yet
forty years old but he already seemed to be very old. When he spoke, he appeared rather
pitiable.

"I thought he was begging for mercy because he was afraid of death. I thought, how can this
person be so disgusting?" Gan Qing's shoulders suddenly fell. "I…"

She went through unimaginable efforts to lure Wei Huan out. For the sake of doing this, she
skipped school and infiltrated all sorts of illicit places until she ended up with an evil aura on her.
She had determined that he was a coward afraid of death and wanted to take the chance to
escape. How could she let him go?"

Wei Huan realised this. In the end, he fought an all-or-nothing battle until she was covered in
wounds and nearly had to crawl her way home.

But those scary wounds did not leave any lasting effects. Instead, it was the cut she made herself
that resulted in her only having one arm that could lift heavy things now.

At that time, had Wei Huan really been weaker than he wanted to be and could not injure her
vital spots?

Or had he only exhausted his last bit of strength to make it look like an unfair fight or even like an
underage girl's legitimate self-defence… desperately pushing her away from being a mad and
demented murderer?

What are the requirements for a life of peace and happiness?

Firstly, one must have the capability to settle down and build their life. They need to have a lot of
money, otherwise one major illness is enough to force them into desperate straits. Secondly,
they need to be mindful to maintain their connections to society. At the key moments, they can
speak out and there will be people who listen to what they have to say. Otherwise, they will have
nowhere to go to demand justice when bullied.

They must also manage their hopes and desires well, and even go so far as to manage the
expectations others have for them. Otherwise, if they are just careless for a moment, resentment
and anger will breed everywhere.

And also… a strong heart is required. Regardless of the many worries in the world outside, I
remain steadfast and unmoving[1]. I choose my own path and will never turn back even in a
mountain of knives or a sea of flames.

A person who could do all that has already done everything within the realm of possibility for a
human. The rest depends on Heaven.

If Heaven says, All right, pass.

Then amidst the many dangers and perils, they can keep their humble and insignificant life.

If Heaven says, Wait a minute.

Then, this nearly half a lifetime, the hardships endured, the injustice suffered, the blood lost, the
soul thought to have been tempered in blazing fire… all of them become nothing but a fleeting
illusion.

Gan Qing thought that next time, if there was again a girl who didn't know the ways of the world
staring at her with eyes as wide as an owl's and asking in bewilderment, "On what do you build
your life?" —
— she would definitely not dare to brush it off with a laugh.

In a corner of the little restaurant, the foolish child who had scalded himself was sobbing in a
small voice. The boss dug out some coins to coax him. "All right, just blow on it and it'll be fine.
Don't cry anymore, we still have customers here. Grandpa will give you money. Go out on your
own and buy ice-cream for yourself."

The teenager pouted and shouted unclearly, "I don't want!"

"Why not? Don't you like ice-cream?" the boss asked. "That chocolate one…"

"I don't… don't want!" The teenager raised his voice and pushed the boss's hands away.

How would he know to control his strength? The elderly boss lost his footing and was pushed
until he stumbled. The coins scattered all over the floor.

"Aiyo." The boss's arms spun in the air like a windmill for a while before he narrowly caught the
edge of a table and landed his butt on a small stool. "You're going to push me to my death!"

The teenager was frightened out of his wits.

The boss pressed on his chest where his heart was thudding wildly and scared him. "If you push
me to death, no one will keep you anymore! You'll have to sleep on the streets and beg for
food!"

Upon hearing that, the teenager was truly scared. His mouth opened and he let his voice loose,
his cries so heartrending it seemed that at this point in time, he was representing all the sorrows
in the entire world.

But Yu Lanchuan was looking at Gan Qing with apprehension, because Gan Qing had been
startled by the crying noise and turned her head to listen for a while and then, unexpectedly,
smiled.

Then, she stood up and walked over to the teenager. She helped the boss pick up the coins
scattered all over the floor. "Don't scold him anymore. I'm sure he must have been bullied by the
little hoodlums from No. 13 High… Hey, darling, look here."

Gan Qing rubbed her fingers and snapped her fingers a couple of times in front of the teenager. A
coin rolled from the slit of her little finger all the way to the tip of her thumb, then spun a couple
of rounds there like it was dancing, before falling into her palm.

The teenager was distracted by this little trick. He hiccuped as he stretched out his neck, curiously
pushing Gan Qing's hand open.

Gan Qing went along with his movement and dropped the coin into his hand. "Why don't I bring
you to buy ice-cream? No one will dare bully you."
The teenager looked up at her. With just a little bit of sunlight, he burst into full bloom—his face
changed from stormy to clear in an instant, his smiling face covered with snot, a hiccup making
him jolt on the spot.

Gan Qing lifted him by his shoulder. "Let's go!"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be sure what state Gan Qing was in right now. Afraid that something would
happen to her, he hurried after her. "Boss, keep the table for us!"

With two bodyguards, the teenager was so happy that his two legs seemed to be galloping. He
bounced and hopped in joy in front of them.

The sun that hadn't had the time to illuminate the mortal world thoroughly was setting in the
west, about to step down from the stage. On the wall of the cold drinks shop in the corner, there
was already the character for demolition painted on it in a very large size.

When they were still far away, the teenager already started to shout. "I want… want cho-choco!"

He had barely finished speaking when hoots of laughter came from the side. As the days grew
longer, the roadside skewer stalls were popping up. The young people who did not study hard
now had one more place to waste their time. This pack of brats were hopelessly idle and bored,
and their bar for jokes was so low it was at their feet. They probably wouldn't have any sort of
classy interest in their lives. When they heard the intellectually-disabled teenager's voice, they
were like flies smelling an odour, the entire swarm getting excited over it.

"Ai, the large donkey is here again!"

"Do donkeys also eat 'chochoco'?"

One of them imitated the teenager. "I want… want cho-choco!"

The carefree smile on the teenager's face faded away. The cold drinks shop only had one young
woman working there and she didn't dare speak out. She only dared to complain softly, "The fuck
is wrong with them."

As they jeered, the little hoodlums stood up and surrounded the cold drinks shop's entrance.
"Little donkey, go ahead and buy. After you buy it, we'll feed you."

Right then, a voice came from around the corner. "Did you hear that?"

The little hoodlums turned towards the direction of the sound. They saw Gan Qing and Yu
Lanchuan walk over unhurriedly.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Hear what?"

"Dogs learning how to bray like a donkey." Gan Qing tugged at her own ears. "How strange."
The one learning how to bray felt like he was being attacked personally for no reason and came
out in anger, ready to spew obscenities. "You-"

But one of his companions behind him pulled him back. Coincidentally, this person's hair was
dyed the colour of copper green. He was none other than one of the "cavalry" riding the public
bikes and fighting in the brawl that afternoon.

When the green-haired cavalry saw Gan Qing, he looked like he had seen a ghost. He cried out in
fear, "Three Stabs Six Holes!"

"Hmm?" Gan Qing tilted her head. She reached into her coat. "Since when did I have such a long
nickname?"

The green-haired cavalry thought she was taking out a knife and quickly leaped back. "Jiejie, we
were wrong!"

His fear was contagious. The few hoodlums around him all tucked their tails in, putting a show of
being unwilling to surrender even as they stuck close to the wall and slipped away.

"Tsk, they sure ran away fast." Gan Qing finally took the item out of her coat—a coin pouch—and
tossed it to Yu Lanchuan. "The boss treated us to dinner so I guess I'll treat you to ice-cream."

The intellectually-disabled teenager did not keep worries in his heart. He happily let the
chocolate ice-cream smear all over his face and drip down as he went home.

When Yu Lanchuan came out of the cold drinks shop holding two ice-creams, he saw Gan Qing
leaning against an electrical pole on the opposite side of the road, staring at No. 13 High in a
daze. Her shirt was too thick and she hadn't tucked it into her pants. The back hung free like it
was draped on an empty clothes rack, a stray and lonely spirit contained within.

Yu Lanchuan looked at her shadow stretching out long and suddenly couldn't breathe. He walked
over to her with large strides.

Startled by the sound of his footsteps, Gan Qing turned her head and again gave him an unruffled
smile. "After getting a treat from this jiejie, shouldn't you say 'Thank you, Jiejie'? Little Master Yu,
your manners can't even be compared to that daydreaming young man."

"...Whose jiejie are you?"

Gan Qing reached out and took one of the ice-creams. "When you were young, you ran after me
and called me 'jiejie' for a whole night. Why, now that you've grown up, you're deny-"

Yu Lanchuan's freed hand pushed her shoulder suddenly. Gan Qing, who could only move her left
shoulder freely, was pressed back against the electrical pole. Afraid that the ice-cream would drip
on Little Master Yu's very obviously expensive coat and with barely any time to react, her only
option was to hold the ice-cream away from her body and she looked just like she was opening
her arms for a hug.
The faint lingering smell of mint swiftly slipped into her neckline. Then, a cold yet burning kiss fell
on her textbook perfect smile.

T/N:
[1] 我自岿然不动 "I remain steadfast and unmoving" is from the poem 《西江月· 井冈山》
(Moon over the West River - Jinggang Mountains) by Mao Zedong. The preceding line before it
describes being surrounded by tens of thousands of enemy troops.
Chapter 99
It was a very clean smell, clear and cold. For a man to still have an aura that resembled the
morning breeze so many years after becoming an adult, he must be someone who neither
smoked nor drank, whose life was extremely disciplined, who had even been fortunate enough to
maintain his integrity and principles on his own even in the roiling landslide that was the mortal
world.

For a moment, it made one feel shame in their heart.

Gan Qing's mind blanked out. When the melted ice-cream dripped on her fingers, she finally
twitched like she was waking up from a dream.

In the quiet little alley, the teenager holding the chocolate ice-cream had already run off far into
the distance, the off-beat and off-key song coming from his mouth faintly audible. The little
hoodlums at the skewer stall had been scared off by the "Three Stabs Six Holes" jiejie. There was
only twilight, only the overlapping shadows.

Even the wind had stopped.

Yu Lanchuan was like a traveller finally reaching the destination he dreamed of, a climber
planting a flag on the mountaintop. Full of the satisfaction and exhaustion of accomplishment, he
took half a step back and watched Gan Qing's eyes.

Gan Qing's central nervous system had shut down temporarily. Her limbs had no instructions to
follow and could only rely on "inertia" to finish doing what she hadn't had the time to just now—
which was to stuff the dripping ice-cream into her mouth.

The heavy taste of cream immediately flooded the tip of her tongue, blending in with the dual
extreme fire-and-ice taste of mint just now. One side richly sweet, the other clear and austere.

The night wind suddenly rose. The smoke from the skewer stall in the dirty alley blew past.
Somewhere nearby, a gremlin kid was playing on a bike, the discordant jingling of the bell
sounding non-stop. The bottom of Yu Lanchuan's shoe rubbed a couple of times against the road
curb. A lock of hair fell against the center of his handsome forehead, blown by the wind. The
overwhelming amount of information flooded Gan Qing's senses. By the time she had put her
senses in order and deciphered the information, she had already finished half the ice-cream.

Yu Lanchuan grinded his back molars slightly. "If I may trouble you to give me some guidance,
how am I supposed to understand your reaction?"

Gan Qing bit down on the cone as though nothing was happening. It was quite crispy.
One of Yu Lanchuan's eyes started to twitch. "Aren't you being a little bit too-"

"I'm comparing," Gan Qing pressed together her lips that were stained with ice-cream at the
corners, "between the two of you to see which one's sweeter."

The soul of her five senses was in her eyes while the lower half of her face had a very low-key
appearance. The line of her lips were thin and sharp, and frequently appeared bloodless. It was
only when her lips touched something very cold or very hot or very spicy that there would be a
bit of a red flush spreading from the middle. It was this little bit of red flush that made Yu
Lanchuan's eyes have nowhere to land. His throat twitched and he asked in a rather hoarse voice,
"And is there a result to your comparison?"

Gan Qing seemed to want to say something but halfway through her thought, she swallowed it
back down. She kept it all in and remained quiet, nibbling on the rest of the ice-cream and smiling
the whole while. Just like that, she turned and walked back towards the little restaurant. But her
eyes turned after her body; they hooked ruthlessly around Yu Lanchuan's neck, pulling him along.

I was just speaking randomly, how could you really believe me? A little silly, aren't you? Gan Qing
thought. How can I compare you to it? This thing is only five yuan.

She went back and asked the boss to wrap up the remaining baked pastries. The boss not only
did that but also insisted on giving her another dozen.

Gan Qing said, "Don't add more. How can we not finish eating and then even leave with more?"

"Take it. You two coming here is fate," the boss said. "Eat your fill and save yourself the trouble of
missing the taste and not having anywhere to go to get it."

Gan Qing didn't manage to refuse. She could only hook the takeaway bag on Yu Lanchuan's hand
and stealthily hid the money to pay for the meal under a glass of water. When the two of them
exited the shop, they bumped into two workers working overtime. They were carrying a bucket
of oil paint and painting the character for "demolition" on the next street. They would reach this
street very soon.

Gan Qing stopped walking and watched them for a while. From the takeaway bag, she took out a
baked pastry and stretched out a hand to Yu Lanchuan. "Give me that letter."

Yu Lanchuan hesitated a while. "You still want to read it?"

"I haven't finished reading." Gan Qing held the baked pastry in one hand, her palm catching the
falling sesame seeds. She walked backwards. "If I don't understand this matter clearly, how can I
put a total end to it?"

She wanted to uncover all the debts and enmity in the past, even if she had already tied them
into a dead knot and tossed them into a pot of hot oil herself.
The oil was already bubbling but she still had to reach in herself and dredge them up because
those people in her past—the one who treated her well and the one who had done wrong by her
—were all no longer here. She was the only one from Wan Mu Chun left, so how could she dare
to live such a miserable and scattered life?

And there was also Yu Lanchuan, this fool who turned down all the perfect women of the world
and insisted on wasting the best years of his life with her. He had done so many years of risk
management but he must have just been doing his work blindly without learning anything. How
could she let him lose everything he had worked so hard for?

In an instant, Yu Lanchuan suddenly saw the Gan Qing walking backwards against the light now
overlapping with the Gan Qing from many years ago.

Treading on wind, like the intense, fiery clouds at the break or close of day.

Yan Hao swept the floor clean of fur, then lifted his head to look at Qiao-Qiao. She was wearing a
face mask and her face seemed to only have a pair of eyes. The little dog that had just been
groomed lay obediently in front of her, whining for attention. It was the perfect picture of time
passing by peacefully.

Yan Hao thought, All the bad guys are dead. Yang Ping is also in prison. The future will be better.

Qiao-Qiao sensed his gaze and lifted her head to look at him. Yan Hao gave her a foolish laugh. He
ran over eagerly to a corner, brought a bag of newly-bought canned pet food over and put it
down. He wrote in Qiao-Qiao's book: Why don't you continue your studies? Wouldn't it be good
to become a vet?

Qiao-Qiao tilted her head and looked at him.

I have money. Yan Hao wrote every word carefully. I can give it to you for school fees.

There was a flicker in Qiao-Qiao's eyes. She seemed to be smiling. She took the pen and wrote:
Little gege, don't be such a nice person. Nice guys finish last and are easily bullied.

Yan Hao didn't take it to heart. He patted the little dog's glossy back and laughed gently as he said
goodbye to Qiao-Qiao and left.

Qiao-Qiao watched him leave. The smile in her eyes, like sunlight reflected in clear waves,
gradually faded. Through the windows of the shop, she cast a dark look at No. 110 Courtyard,
both her hands curling into fists.

The little dog that had been wagging its tail just now let out a howl and leaped down from the
counter to hide in a corner.

Zhang Meizhen was accompanying Old Sect Leader Yang at the hospital. In Gan Qing's home,
there was no one else.
Yu Lanchuan found a piece of blank paper. "The ones who kidnapped the families of the Beggars'
Sect sect elders were from Travellers' Sect. However, Wei Huan and Zhu Cong didn't go after
them first because Elder Zhu had taken his revenge back then. Those who were arrested and
sentenced were all disciples who had only followed instructions and were not the main culprits.
Furthermore, they have served their time in prison, so the debts were cleared. At the very start,
the people the two of them traced were the ones who set fire on the building and the ones
deemed innocent and released. However, during this process, they realised that something was
wrong."

Gan Qing spread Wei Huan's letter out page by page. "Mm. At the start, they naturally assumed
that the kidnappers and the one who instructed my… the people who started the fire were from
the same group. But when one of them was pleading desperately, he said something suspicious.
He said, 'Your side wanted to harm your own people, why must you drag me into it? I only owed
a bit of money.'"

When Yu Lanchuan heard this, he put down the pen. "Actually, I have always found two things
very strange."

Gan Qing glanced at him.

"Firstly, even if those sect elders weren't at home themselves at that time and there were only
the elderly, the womenfolk and the children at home; even if, coincidentally, none of these
people could fight, they should still have the time to shout for help, shouldn't they? Some of the
victims' families have four or five people. What did they do to control so many people in an
instant without making any noise?"

Such things did indeed happen in foreign movies but firstly, the villains there at the very least had
guns in their hands and secondly, the place where the victims lived had to be remote enough
with a great distance separating them from their neighbours. The victims wouldn't have the time
to shout for help.

But Yanning in the eighties was not like that. At that time, many people stayed in small single-
story houses and numerous households crammed into each small alley. There was no privacy to
speak of between the residents. If a quarrelling couple raised their voices just a little, they might
just have busybody neighbours advising them from the other side of the wall. If there were
villains barging in, as long as a frightened child shouted, the neighbours in all directions would
definitely turn on the lights.

"Secondly, Qiao-Qiao said that her uncle who committed suicide was innocent. Yang Ping had
tricked him into being the messenger and used him to clear himself of suspicion when the plot
was exposed. Don't you think that this reasoning is very strange? Does the fact that the
messenger was on good terms with the victims and that he was a good person proved that he
was innocent? Furthermore, even if the messengers were innocent, it doesn't mean that Yang
Ping is innocent, does it? Beggars' Sect can't refuse logic just because their ancestors had made
begging their main business."

Gan Qing said, "But her uncle, the messenger, is already dead. Since her mum was also sent to his
hometown in the village, it shows that Elder Zhu had never suspected the messengers."
"I think that the relationship between those two families didn't only extend as far as 'did not
suspect,'" Yu Lanchuan said. "Think about it, if you have a friend who was manipulated by
someone and caused the deaths of your entire family, even if this person didn't know at all what
would happen and had also committed suicide to redeem himself, would you really not hold a
grudge in your heart? Even if Elder Zhu was an exceptionally kind and generous person, and
couldn't bear to see a pitiful girl all on her own without anyone to look after her, he could have
just found someone in Yanning to take her in. Why must he place her together with his only child
who was all he had left? Isn't this too strange?"

Gan Qing was first briefly stunned. Then, she looked up abruptly.

"To support each other in this way," Yu Lanchuan said each word clearly, "they must either have
gone through a life-or-death situation together or they must be in cahoots."

Both Old Sect Leader Yang and Zhang Meizhen had been overwhelmed by feelings of love and felt
that all the weapons of war could be turned into beautiful jade and silk. But what happened was
that not only was Travellers' Sect and Yang Ping dissatisfied, Elder Zhu and his peers were also
strongly against Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect having a marriage union.

But Yang Qing, the old sect leader, was one of the Five Supremes since before the country's
liberation. Having been the sect leader for so many years, he was the one whose word was the
absolute truth within the sect. If he had made the resolve to be an "incapable ruler," no matter
how much the sect elders opposed him, there was no room for them to say anything… In that
case, how could they put a stop to this matter?

Gan Qing's fingers tapped on the edge of the table. "Old Sect Leader Yang is still wielding the Dog
Beating Staff at the age of over ninety. If he doesn't fall, the people below him dare not take
action. More than thirty years ago, he was in his fifties. He was at the peak of his life, like the sun
at midday. Elder Zhu publicly causing a ruckus at an occasion like the Martial Arts General
Assembly and embarrassing the sect leader doesn't seem like something a sect elder could do in
the first place."

"They first started a conflict on purpose. In the evening, they found an excuse to gather everyone
to drink and drown their sorrows together. They discussed with a few friends and took their
families to stay the night in another place. They directed and acted out the 'kidnapping'
themselves to force Elder Yang to abdicate," Yu Lanchuan said. "Elder Zhu and the others, the
messengers, the kidnappers, the victims, Yang Ping—they were all accomplices who knew what
was going on from the start. This is the only explanation I can think of."

Right at that moment, the landline in the house rang, interrupting their hair-rising deductions.

Gan Qing picked up the receiver without much thought. "Hello?"

"It's me. You aren't sleeping yet, are you?" Zhang Meizhen asked. "I don't know what happened
but there was suddenly a large batch of critically ill patients brought to the hospital. There aren't
enough beds to go around and even the corridors are full of patients lying down. It's a mess. Old
Yang has recovered quite a bit. We discussed with the doctor, he'll first return home today and
we'll complete the discharge paperwork tomorrow. We'll be back soon. I didn't bring my keys.
Keep the door unlocked for me."
Chapter 100
"Oh…" Gan Qing's attention had yet to switch over and she was half a beat late in realising what
Zhang Meizhen was talking about. "It… It's late at night. Is it okay for Sect Leader Yang to go
through all this trouble?"

In actual fact, her implicit question was: right now, there's no distinction between good and bad
for Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect, they've both become rats hunted down in the streets; the
beggars that roamed around No. 110 in the past have practically all vanished; Yang Ping, who was
missing for many years, is being isolated and interrogated, and it's still unknown what will
happen to him; the old master has yet to fully recover from his illness—if he comes back to No.
110 now and faces this situation, can he recuperate well?

"He was the one who wanted to go back." Zhang Meizhen was a sharp person and could decipher
her hidden meaning even through the phone signals. She said, "Let him do as he likes. At that
age, how many more days can he have where things are the way he wants? What else can he not
accept?"

"Then I'll keep the door unlocked." Gan Qing paused. Right then, the bedroom window that was
not shut properly was blown open by the wind. A glass wind chime hanging on the clothes drying
rack jangled noisily. Gan Qing seemed to be suddenly possessed by the spirit of the witch
"Teacher Meng-Meng"; an indescribable feeling bloomed in her chest. "Meizhen-jie, wait!"

"Hmm?"

"Be careful on your way back."

Zheng Meizhen let out a disdainful sigh, finding Gan Qing's worries baseless, and hung up.

Before Gan Qing could tidy up the loose threads in her mind, her intuition had already leaped far
ahead and was desperately signalling something to her. She frowned and looked at Yu Lanchuan.
"You're saying that Elder Zhu and the others colluded with their own families to put on an act
together with Yang Ping?"

"The reason why the kidnapping could happen silently and succeed was because the victims
walked out themselves and the messengers were there to lead the way. The families of those
who organised the thing would go to the outskirts to have fun while those remaining here would
force the old sect leader to give them an explanation and provoke a conflict between both sides,"
Yu Lanchuan said. "But there's a problem here."

"Which is?"

"Firstly, there were too many people participating in this plot. Hence, when the plot was
underway, there was a high chance that there would have been people having second thoughts.
In the hearts of the Beggars' Sect disciples, there is affection and respect for the old sect leader.
Using an underhanded method to threaten the old sect leader's authority—even if they meant
well for Beggars' Sect, it would have been hard for them to overcome this internal hurdle. The
moment someone hesitates and leaks the secret, the entire matter would become a complete
joke," Yu Lanchuan said. "Secondly, since they were pretending to go missing, they would
definitely have to come back after the fuss was over. At that time, these people would be
completely unharmed with not a single one missing. With Zhang Meizhen's methods, it would be
very easy for the entire matter to be revealed. Even the deep feud between the two sects that
had gone on for generations was on the verge of being transformed from weapons of war to
beautiful jade and silk in her hands, wasn't it? This is just a small ripple in the water in
comparison. In that case, all their efforts would have been for nothing."

What was lacking between Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect was not small conflicts. It was a
final, no-way-out, deep animosity borne from a sea of blood.

While some people were foolishly following the crowd and causing trouble, there were other
people sharpening their knives and laying out the plot.

"If Yang Ping had colluded with Wang Jiusheng, with Wang Jiusheng's craftiness, they didn't even
have to do anything themselves. The two of them only needed to find the right time to leak the
news about this matter, fan the flames a little, and the extremists in Travellers' Sect would
explode in rage," Gan Qing said lightly. "We held our nose and coexisted peacefully with you guys
but you guys not only humiliated our North Branch Master in public, you're even playing this kind
of unorthodox trick behind our backs and making us shoulder the blame."

In that case, they might as well make the accusation a reality.

"Those prepared to 'leave their homes to go on a trip' didn't expect that they were walking from
the flock of sheep into the wolves' mouths themselves. Travellers' Sect made a sudden move that
caught them unawares by helping them turn the pretense into reality," Yu Lanchuan said. "This is
why Qiao-Qiao's uncle contained his hatred and committed suicide and why, after Elder Zhu
destroyed himself in pursuit of revenge, he sent the children far away to the rural village."

This desperate all-or-nothing struggle was actually the result of hatred mixed with the
inescapable guilt and shame for his part in the deaths.

Gan Qing tapped on the letter in her hands. "Many years later, Elder Zhu's orphan son, Zhu Cong,
came back to Yanning for revenge. Did Zhu Cong know all this inside information?"

Yu Lanchuan calmly replied with another question, "If you were Elder Zhu, would you tell your
thirteen-year old son the truth? If you were Zhu Cong, even if you were as brilliantly clever as
your name implied, would your thoughts go in this direction? Putting aside whether or not you
would think this way, even if someone directly told you this, would you believe them?"

Gan Qing had nothing to say to that.

If good and evil were as clearly separated as oil and water, if they were completely incompatible,
how wonderful would that be. This way, all the victims in the world would be perfect and
faultless and everything bad would have a villain they could pin all the blame on. Life would be as
simple as the subjective questions in Year 3 of primary school. The people involved in the matter
and the bystanders could all breathe a sigh of relief.
Yu Lanchuan asked, "And then? Where did those two revenge-seekers who were as directionless
as headless houseflies went off to?"

"According to this letter, the ones who intercepted the kidnapping were extremists from
Travellers' Sect but the ones who instigated the fire should be Beggars' Sect own people," Gan
Qing said. "The two of them wasted a few years and after much difficulty, uncovered the ones
who started the fire and carried out justice. Initially, they thought that this great revenge had
been taken, they didn't think that there would be such twists and turns behind it. But the two of
them had neither power nor might. Even finding a few old-timers who were living in hiding
already took all the strength they had. How could it be easy to find the traitors after so many
years had passed? At this point, someone found Wei Huan. In his letter, he said-"

Shifu, before this, I still dared to say that I picked up the blade for the sake of friendship and was
righting wrongs on behalf of Heaven. But after this, I am too ashamed to face you again.

The entire time the two of us looked for those people, we also hid and dodged. We didn't have
any other source of income and were also afraid of people investigating us. We had no choice but
to use low-quality fake I.D.s and do illegal jobs. The little bit of money we earned was only
enough to cover our travel expenses. The longest time we went without eating meat was half a
year… But this is nothing. The two of us are not growing anymore anyway, we don't have to
worry about our bodies not developing well. What makes us despair the most is that the path
ahead of us is so vast. We have no direction. Just relying on ourselves to investigate, on our own
without any help, what century would it be before we are done? Will we still have the chance to
see the light of day in our lifetime? That's why, when the Xu clan came to me, I really had no way
to refuse.

Back then, for the sake of gathering demonic skills, Xu Zhao set up an evil cult and harboured
criminals. He is a wanted criminal. I still have a vague recollection of the time you and a group of
the seniors from the older generation helped the police lay siege on Xu Zhao. That old demon Xu
Zhao escaped and only a pack of evil cult followers were caught. I never thought that the
centipede would survive even when cut apart and I also never thought that "Paoding Jieniu"
would also one day become one of their targets. Shifu, I sold out Wan Mu Chun to this kind of
person. I'm not fit to be human.

But after one wrong step, every step after that will also be wrong. There is blood on my hands
and a mark on my fate that can never be washed away.

I started to "take jobs" from the Xu clan. They introduced me to people who wanted to hire
assassins and I took the jobs. If any accidents happened, they would send people to help me
clean up. The fee was split equally between us. They were equivalent to an underground
intermediary. I thought of myself not as a murderer who could not differentiate between right or
wrong—I sold my body but I still wanted to be memorialised—and only accepted revenge jobs. I
only killed those who were extremely evil, who had done major crimes, as though I could assuage
my conscience this way. The Xu clan agreed to help us investigate what happened back then.
I had Zhu Cong return home and wait for news. I told him that when this matter is over, he
should go home and live peacefully with his wife and child. He could stay in the village and farm
or he could come out to work. Either way, he should have some days of peace.

I didn't completely depend on the Xu clan either. After all, this was a business transaction. They
wouldn't exhaust all means for me. Hence, I also kept an ear out for the slightest hint of trouble
in Beggars' Sect. You should remember, eight years ago, something major happened in Beggars'
Sect. The sect leader of Beggars' Sect's only child, Yang Ping, was ousted out of the sect. Yang
Qing announced that he had severed his father-and-son tie with Yang Ping, and Yang Ping
disappeared from then on. This matter was discussed heavily for a period of time but I could see
that the list of his crimes had no strong standing at all. Yang Ping's martial arts had long since
been destroyed by you. It's been so many years and he has basically vanished without a trace.
What kind of wrong had he done to push the kind and generous Yang Qing into making such an
extreme decision? There were also people spreading rumours of a love scandal, saying that Zhang
Meizhen had returned to Yanning and that he didn't want his biological father to marry a second
wife so he did something to Zhang Meizhen. I think that's even more nonsensical and laughable.
What age are they now to still be able to do something like this?

A possibility suddenly appeared in my mind. Could the traitor in Beggars' Sect back then be him?
This way, when things came to light many years later, Yang Qing finally severed father-and-son
ties with him. Zhu Cong had the same thought and came to find me from thousands of miles
away. The two of us returned to Yanning together but we didn't find Yang Ping. Hence, we used a
blunt-force method and started by investigating the people around Yang Ping at that time. With
this, we indeed found some questions.

Two Beggars' Sect disciples who had once had proper jobs in Yanning disappeared without
reason back then. They had gone to work at an unremarkable and low-key flour factory in the
neighbouring province. This matter was not at all logical. Why would someone living a good life in
the city suddenly go to a remote village to work? Didn't they have anything better to do? But
because the two of them had nothing at all to do with what happened to Elder Zhu's family and
also because there are many in Beggars' Sect for whom the entire land is their home, no one had
noticed this before.

And right at that moment, someone from the Xu clan brought me a job. The targets were none
other than the two suspicious former Beggars' Sect disciples at the flour factory.

Shifu, can you imagine it? Our immediate reaction was that they were being silenced—by whom?
If it was Yang Ping himself, he could have killed them much earlier if he wanted to. Then, the only
possibility was… someone who had only recently discovered the truth behind what happened
back then. The modest and gentlemanly Yang Qing.

This hypocrite, Yang Qing, is not at all incorruptible and impartial. If he truly is incorruptible, he
should announce what his son has done to the whole world and not come up with a whole bunch
of shoddy excuses to cover up.

Zhu Cong and I accepted this job and went to the flour factory at Xiaogang Village together. We
found those two people, and interrogated and threatened them. As we expected, those two
were the lackeys Yang Ping had sent to find someone to start the fire. This flour factory was
Travellers' Sect's property.

Everything was clear.

Shifu, if it was a normal person, their immediate reaction at this point would surely be to capture
the two of them, make a police report and get them to identify the culprit. What a perfect
conclusion that would be. But ever since I collected the first coin from Zhu Cong, we have gone
further and further away from this ending. I am an "underground" person and it is impossible for
me to have any business with the authorities for the rest of my life. Zhu Cong was also enraged
and insisted that blood debt must be repaid with blood. Hence, I took action to end the lives of
these two people.

When it was over, Zhu Cong knelt on the ground and howled in anguish. I couldn't bear to watch
him so I gave him some time to himself and went back on my own to the guest house we were
stopping at. I was also very tired but I felt that I had at last not let down my brother. Only Yang
Ping was left before we could bring all our efforts to a satisfactory conclusion. Hence, I slept. In
the middle of the night, I was startled awake by a nightmare and only then did I realise that Zhu
Cong was not back yet. I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. I went back to look for him and only
then did I find out that soon after I had left, the flour factory exploded. Eighteen people inside
were all killed indiscriminately.

This can not be a coincidence!

Chapter 101
Gan Qing hastily skimmed through the letter and when she reached that point, her gaze suddenly
froze and she shot up. "I finally know what it was that I had felt was wrong the whole time."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "You're just reading a letter, why do you keep going into shock?"

Gan Qing ignored him. She picked up her phone and called Zhang Meizhen. The other person's
phone might have run out of battery and switched off automatically—the call did not go through.
Her heart tightened, "Do you have President Yang's number?"

Yu Lanchuan opened his contact list and found Yang Yifan's number. He passed his phone to her,
"Why?"

"Qiao-Qiao." While waiting for Yang Yifan to pick up the call, Gan Qing quickly explained to Yu
Lanchuan, "Ever since she came to Yanning, she had been working at the pet store at the building
entrance. She had never moved places and had been keeping watch on Old Sect Leader Yang the
whole time."

Yang Ping's location was unknown. Back then, even Wei Huan and the others couldn't find him.
She was a young orphan girl, she would know that depending on herself alone would be even
more impossible. Meanwhile, Wei Huan and Zhu Cong had both obviously determined that Elder
Yang had taken some underhanded actions before to protect his son. In that case, following this
line of thought, Elder Yang and Yang Ping—this pair of father and son—would definitely have
contact with each other. As long as she kept watch on Elder Yang, she would definitely find Yang
Ping one day.
Gan Qing asked, "Was she really only keeping watch?"

Yu Lanchuan frowned. "Old Yang being implicated in this matter is only the deduction of two
dead people, right?"

"I know but Qiao-Qiao doesn't know. If by any chance…" Gan Qing said, "What's going on, why is
President Yang not picking up?"

"Thank you. Then, I will come again tomorrow to complete the discharge paperwork." Yang Yifan
chatted with the nurse while checking the ward for personal valuables and stuffing them into a
large bag. She couldn't carry it with one hand and had no choice but to use both hands. Her
phone was stuffed into a little pouch hanging from her wrist. "Just a couple of days in the hospital
and the old man has so many things here."

Yang Yifan had been on long leave for the past few days. There wasn't any urgent business at the
company either, and she responded to calls and messages all together in one go. She had set her
phone on silent mode to avoid disturbing the other patients in the hospital.

Gan Qing called her three times in succession but did not get through. "Do you have Yan Hao's
contact?"

"Uhh yes, it's… Search for 'Backyard Ostrich.'"

Gan Qing, "..."

"I just…" Yu Lanchuan explained drily, "think that this kid does things by charging blindly ahead,
his body is tall and imposing while his brain is miniscule, he can run pretty quick but can't really
fly, so…"

"Did you make a remark for me?" Gan Qing asked as she searched. She had just asked when she
immediately regretted it and raised a hand to cut him off. "Never mind. You don't have to
answer. It's definitely nothing good, I don't want to know…"

Yu Lanchuan mumbled, "Fiery Cloud."

He didn't open his mouth when he spoke, and his voice was low and unclear. Even with Gan
Qing's hearing ability that could hear a person's phone conversation through a wall, she only
heard some vague sounds that almost sounded like "make out."

Distracted, Gan Qing said, "You're so secretly passionate under that icy exterior that you have to
be so unrestrained?"

Yu Lanchuan completely did not know where this female hoodlum's mind had leaped off to. He
stared at her in utter puzzlement. His two naturally sharp and keen eyes looked very lost, very
like he was childishly asking for attention. Gan Qing tsk-ed. She tilted her head to hold the phone
in place, kissed her own fingers and then pressed them to Yu Lanchuan's face, pushing him lightly
to the side. "All right, enough. Why isn't this one picking up his phone either… He even declined!
Little Master Yu, what kind of luck do you have with people?"

Yu Lanchuan held his face. He didn't know what to say.

Yan Hao could have his head chopped off and his body bleeding but he would never dare pick up
a call. Fortunately, he still had enough sense to send a question mark in a WeChat message after
rejecting the call.

Gan Qing didn't have the time to quibble and quickly sent him a voice message. "Do me a favour.
Go next door and look for Qiao-Qiao. Tell her I have something urgent."

The lights on the second floor of the pet store were switched off. Qiao-Qiao seemed to already
be sleeping. Yan Hao pressed the doorbell twice—no response. He thought that it wouldn't really
be proper of him to directly jump up to the second floor and knock on a young lady's bedroom
window but he also didn't dare call Gan Qing to ask her what was the matter. Hence, he wrung
his hands and paced anxiously and irresolutely around the pet store three times.

Right then, his ears twitched. He heard a strange noise coming from inside the shop.

Yan Hao leaned against the display window, peeking in through the gaps of the blinds. There
were cat kennels in the pet store, each space separated from one another by plexiglass. Every
night, Qiao-Qiao would put the cats inside and carefully count the number. After making sure
they have ample food and water, she would lock the door. But today, for some unknown reason,
the always meticulous Qiao-Qiao had surprisingly overlooked one cat.

The little cat was locked out of the kennels and didn't have food or water. It was scratching the
door in a panic and wailing mournfully, startling all the other animals in the pet store. The cats
and dogs all howled along with it and the noise was even spreading beyond the walls, yet Qiao-
Qiao, who looked after the shop, was not responding.

Something was wrong!

Yan Hao leaped back abruptly. He jumped and pulled himself up to the window ledge on the
second floor. "Qiao-Qiao? Qiao-Qiao!"

The window was opened a crack but there was no response even after he called out a few times.
Yan Hao gritted his teeth, broke off a twig and reached the twig in to push the curtains aside. The
room was empty, the bed neatly made. The owner didn't seem to have even come up at all.

"Qiao-Qiao's missing." Yu Lanchuan received Yan Hao's message and couldn't be bothered
anymore about his half-numb face. "Wait, don't panic yet. She's stayed at the pet store for so
long and has seen Old Yang coming in and out every day but nothing happened, right? Aren't you
being a little too sensitive?"

Gan Qing grabbed a box of blades from the drawer. "The peace and harmony was because Yang
Ping hadn't shown his face yet. She didn't dare alert the enemy."
"How do you know that she'll definitely do something to Old Yang?"

"When she mentioned Old Yang at the end, there was something not right with the look in her
eyes." Gan Qing paused, then continued in a low voice. "...I'm very familiar with that look."

Yu Lanchuan grabbed her shoulder.

"She is not the past you, understand?" Yu Lanchuan said each word slowly. "The matter right now
has nothing to do with you in the first place. Back then, both you and Wei Huan were innocents
dragged into it. The enmity the two of you should resolve has already been resolved, and the
debt you should pay has already been paid. Right now, no matter what happens, it has nothing to
do with you. You are helping out due to friendship; if you watch without doing anything, it is your
rightful role. It is no longer the feudalistic society now. The stuff about children bearing the debts
of the parents no longer applies."

Gan Qing looked at him in surprise.

Yu Lanchuan said solemnly, "If you trust me, then leave everything to me. I will think of
something."

Let me protect you.

Gan Qing paused. She rubbed her nose with her finger, then lowered her head and smiled.

"I am being serious here, I'm not joking with you," Yu Lanchuan said.

"I know." Gan Qing patted his hand that was on her shoulder. "Little Master Yu, I appreciate the
offer."

Yu Lanchuan's brows swiftly drew together but he saw her take a couple of steps toward the
door, then stand there and turn back to look at him. "No wonder you were single until your
current age. You hold nothing back at all from the very start. You'll spoil a person rotten this way,
and it won't last long."

Yu Lanchuan's eyes widened. Gan Qing wrapped her coat around herself and hurried downstairs.

While waiting for the cab at the hospital entrance, Yang Yifan finally saw the string of missed calls
from Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan.

"Little Master Yu," she called back and asked, "what's the matter?"

"Where are you?" Yu Lanchuan skipped right past the formalities. "If you haven't left the hospital
yet, stay where you are for now. Wait for us to go over and pick you up."

Yang Yifan was puzzled. She didn't understand what kind of jianghu extravagance this was now.
"There… there's no need for such a grand ceremony, is there? The Qing dynasty was already
toppled 200 years ago."
Yu Lanchuan said, "I'll explain later. Basically, don't leave yet! Find somewhere with lots of people
and wait for us."

"But my grandpa has already left first," Yang Yifan said in confusion. "I was packing up just now,
that's why I'm leaving after them."

Yu Yan received the news and hurried over in a police car. When he got down, from far he saw Yu
Lanchuan walking out of No. 110 Courtyard. He dashed over, "Master Lan, should I get someone
to track her phone location?"

Yu Lanchuan, "Yes, hurry-"

Before he could finish speaking, Yan Hao ran up to him, panting in broken gasps. "Her… Her
phone's here."

In the middle of the night, they got the boss of the pet store to come over and open the door.
They found that Qiao-Qiao had not taken her personal belongings. Her phone was placed right
behind the counter. The lock screen was a white background with red words that said: I'm sorry.

She even used a photo editing app to add a pair of drooping teddy bear ears on top.

Yu Yan said, "...This gremlin kid!"

"It's okay, don't panic yet. The cab Old Yang is in was booked by Director Yang on a ride-hailing
app and the location can be tracked. I'll ask her to send it over," Yu Lanchuan said. "Old Yu, you
drive. I'll go over with you and wait for them. Everyone else, look for Zhu Qiao! Yan Hao, call Boss
Jiang and the rest here to keep watch nearby. On the off chance that she really wants to do
something to Elder Yang and doesn't have the opportunity while he's in the cab, she's very likely
to be lying in wait somewhere nearby."

Yan Hao made a noise of assent and ran off.

Along with the warmth of spring and the blooming of the flowers, the Old People Exercise Group
that hung out at the downstairs of No. 110 started to become lively. The moment they saw that
something was happening, they poured out like a swarm of bees. After a while, they left the place
and scattered in all directions to ask around, each of them holding a photo of Qiao-Qiao.

Han Dongsheng had been recently entrusted with the task of taking care of Elder Yang's home
while the old man was hospitalised. When he heard the news, he rushed to the sixth floor,
entering with the spare key and switching on the lights. "I'll keep an eye here. If she comes, I'll
find a way to keep her here."

All the lights in the sides and the corners of No. 110 that were usually not switched on were now
all turned up to the brightest setting. From far, Gan Qing turned back for a look and the courtyard
was so bright it was disturbing the neighbourhood a little. She was so dazzled she had to shield
her eyes with her hand. For a moment, she had an illusion that the whole world was looking for a
lost little girl.
And dragging her back up from the depths of a swamp.

"Drive forward," Yu Lanchuan said, staring at his phone.

"Why are we still moving forward?" Yu Yan asked. "Is the cab they're taking an ox-cart? It's been
five minutes and they haven't moved. Ai, is there a lag on the tracking? Don't just stare at your
phone, look at the cars on the road too. If we pass by them…"

Yu Lanchuan interrupted him. "Stop!"

They saw a cab stopped on the opposite side of the road. The driver was leaning against the door
and smoking, looking completely unruffled. Yu Yan swept the car lights over and realised that the
car plate number corresponded with the one Old Yang was taking.

"It broke down, I'm waiting for someone to come and tow it." The driver flicked the ashes
resignedly. "A buddy of mine picked up my customers on his way… I don't know which road they
took. There was also another customer in my buddy's car so he would definitely prioritise them.
You guys wait a minute, let me ask…"

"Hey! Didn't you just pick up two customers from me just now… Yes, yes, that old couple. Where
are you guys? Huh, what? They got down halfway?"

Yu Yan, "..."

He touched the Anti Mercury Retrograde charm hanging from his keyring and faintly felt that
Teacher Meng-Meng was not very effective tonight.

"Where did they get down… oh." The driver turned around and said to the two of them, "The
intersection of Yongchun Road."

Yu Yan and Yu Lanchuan exchanged looks, their gazes rather heavy. They got into the police car.
The accelerator was pressed to the floor and the car leaped out like it was whipped.

"Over thirty years ago, the intersection of Yongchun road was an industrial zone. The old factory
that caught fire back then was located right there." Yu Yan caught Yu Lanchuan's eyes in the
rearview mirror. "Why are you surprised? The higher-ups have given their orders to strictly
investigate this so-called Travellers' Sect and to gather all kinds of information related to them.
Furthermore, the real cause of Old Madam Lin's death still doesn't have a conclusion yet, I still
remember this matter! Alliance Leader, do you have any internal gossip from the martial arts
world to share?"

Yu Lanchuan didn't make any sound. The street lights shone into the car, casting a heavy shadow
on his features.

All the information they had now came from Wei Huan's monologue in that letter of his that was
like a will.
Yu Lanchuan didn't believe it. If Wei Huan was reincarnated, he would be a primary school
student now. Yu Lanchuan didn't know what his character was like and a one-sided story did not
prove anything. Even if Wei Huan held true to the saying "A person on their deathbed speaks
from the heart," this killer who went on a wild goose chase around the world might not have
accurately guessed the truth.

Old Sect Leader Yang was greatly respected and had high morals, and his conduct was there to be
seen by anyone with eyes. Compared to other people's judgement, Yu Lanchuan trusted his own
eyes more. Old Yang wielded the mighty power of the Beggars' Sect in his hands. If he really was
so selfish, he would have made his fortune long ago like Wang Jiusheng. An old man who
collected scraps and brought them home when he was free, would he be involved in a case of
murdering people to silence them?

But… if he was really innocent, why would he go to the address of that old terrible case in the
middle of the night?

Furthermore, as Wei Huan said, if Old Yang didn't know anything, why would he oust Yang Ping
from the sect without even giving a proper reason?

Along with the expansion of the city, the old industrial zone was demolished and subsequently
rebuilt a long time ago. The intersection of Yongchun Road had long since been transformed from
how it was over thirty years ago. The small factory had turned into a tall building, taking the
shape of a newly built residential area. On the west side far away from the main road, there was
even a park. At this hour, the people taking after-dinner walks had all gone home and the
bustling park had quieted down, the sound of stray cats meowing starting to emerge from the
bushes.

Yu Yan stopped the car at the entrance to the park and used his phone to check the location.
"The old factory that caught on fire back then was located right in the park. Is it here? I… Should I
take a police baton or something with me? Hey, Master Lan! Wait!"

While he was speaking, Yu Lanchuan was already taking the lead to charge in.

Right in the middle of the park was a manmade lake. A stone bridge spanned across it and large
willow trees were already growing lushly on the banks. The reflection of the moon floated on the
surface of the water, scattering into many layers with the ripples, resembling fragments of gold.

Zhang Meizhen helped Old Sect Leader Yang to sit on a bench beside the lake. "I heard that back
when they remodeled this place, they found someone to study the fengshui. With this lake, the
ghosts of those who died unjust deaths can be subdued."

Old Yang had grown old. After this round of hospitalisation, his life force seemed to have been
sucked away by something and only a thin layer of his former vitality was left. He followed Zhang
Meizhen's gaze and squinted at the lake surface.

"Actually, there was already news that this area was going to be demolished back then. At that
time, there were people who said that they would rebuild a new factory while others said that
the government had expropriated the land to build a tall building… Back then, who would have
thought that this place would turn into a public park?" Zhang Meizhen rubbed the side of her
head. "And who would have thought that the two of us would go our separate ways because of
what would happen here? Ai, I've heard about Yang Ping. You've cut off ties with him for nearly
twenty years now and… things are already what they are now, you should be more open-
minded."

Old Yang twisted his head around and patted the back of her hand, giving her a smile.

Zhang Meizhen suddenly sensed something wrong. She stood up. "It's late at night but instead of
going home, you insist on getting down from the cab. I don't know what's going on in your mind…
Fine, you've seen this place and you've sat here, there's nothing else, is there? Let's go. Don't
catch a cold and make yourself fall sick. Do you really take yourself as a twenty-year old lad?"

"The person I'm waiting for isn't here yet," Old Yang said softly. "You should leave first. I'll sit here
for a while more."

"Who are you waiting for?"

She had just barely finished speaking when she heard footsteps. Very light but not concealed.

Zhang Meizhen turned her head abruptly and saw a ghost-like girl.
Chapter 102
"You're that…" Zhang Meizhen hesitated a while. Everyday, she stayed indoors during the day
and came out at night, and wouldn't go to the pet store without a reason. For a moment, she
only felt that the girl in front of her looked familiar and didn't connect her to the attacker who
challenged Yang Ping alone.

A chorus of frog croaks suddenly came from the manmade lake. A fishy odour rose from the mud
beside the water. Qiao-Qiao—Zhu Qiao stood still a few steps away, her small face unconcealed,
so pale that it seemed to have absorbed all the surrounding light. Her dark and heavy gaze
passed over Zhang Meizhen to land on Elder Yang.

Elder Yang slowly stood up.

He had changed his walking stick and it was no longer the green bamboo staff that was already
handed in to the police, nor was it the hardwood stick his granddaughter had bought. It was a
plastic walking stick with four feet that left four little holes when it was planted on the ground. If
the finely crafted cane could be said to have the style of an olden gentleman, then this type of
"walking clothes rack" completely exuded an aged and decrepit feel.

The sound of Old Sect Leader Yang's breathing grew heavier, the pair of lungs in his chest
becoming like old bellows. With a voice that had more spirit than strength, he said, "I didn't think
that Zhu Cong's child would be so big now."

Zhang Meizhen's face changed. Subconsciously, she reached out a hand to block before Old Sect
Leader Yang. She was rather nervous. She had been taking care of him in the hospital so
naturally, she couldn't carry any lethal weapons on her. The only thing remotely metal that she
had was her house key.
Qiao-Qiao took a step forward. Zhang Meizhen grabbed Old Yang's arm and took a step back,
using the bench as a barrier.

Decades ago, one of these two had been among the Five Supremes, deeply respected and highly
moral, while the other was the North Branch Master of Travellers' Sect with inexhaustible tricks
and methods. A lift of their hands could strike panic in the hearts of others.

Who would have thought that when they were old, a seventeen or eighteen-year old girl could
make them quake in their shoes with her slightest move.

It proved that when you turned your head back and looked back on the years past, it was not
only rights and wrongs or fame and profit that had turned meaningless[1].

The ways of mortals are ever renewed;

The days come and go, forming past and present.[2]

Elder Yang tugged his arm out and waved Zhang Meizhen off. His heart calm and his temper even,
he looked at Qiao-Qiao and said, "When my granddaughter was on the phone with someone in
the afternoon, I happened to overhear a little. I heard that you're fine now and have just been
released from the police station. At that time, I thought that it was time this child came to find
me."

Qiao-Qiao took out a phone and typed a few words, then had the text reader speak for her. "You
waited for me here on purpose?"

Elder Yang replied in a gentle voice, "There are lots of people and many prying eyes at No. 110
and it's not convenient to speak there. Just now, we shared a cab with someone and passed by
this place and I suddenly thought that I should get down and have a look. If you were following
me, this would be a good place to talk… Don't worry, I didn't tell anyone. Meizhen's phone had
also ran out of battery earlier on, right?"

Zhang Meizhen, "..."

She had wanted to play a trick and scare the other person into running away but before she could
brew her plan, her old muddle-headed team member had already spoiled it.

Elder Yang sighed. "Girl, what is your name?"

"Zhu Qiao."

"I see, Zhu Qiao… why don't you come over and have a seat while we talk?" Elder Yang beckoned
her while he himself let out a shaky exhale. "I can't stand on my feet anymore."

Qiao-Qiao didn't go over. A complicated expression flashed across her face. She liked small
animals and her nature was one that cared for the weak. When she met a large baddie like Yang
Ping, she could still bare her fangs and claws to pit herself against him but when faced with these
two old people in front of her that the passing years have forced to the edge of a precipice, she
was rather at a loss. She could only clench her teeth and force herself to maintain a fierce look on
her small face, and used the cold robotic voice to say, "What do you have to say?"

Elder Yang fell silent for a while. "In my life, I valued my reputation more than anything while
internally, I was a complete mess. My mouth was full of grand words of virtues and morals, I had
always believed myself to be a saint and didn't want to be a human. So in these ninety years, the
moment I encountered something that tested my character, there has never been a single time
that I passed the test. I made mistakes again and again. During the time my wife was with me,
she never had a comfortable day in her life, while my son is a total disaster. My loved one and I
wasted half a century, missing our chance in this lifetime. Beggars' Sect declined day by day in my
hands, its remaining years uncertain."

Startled, Zhang Meizhen lowered her head to look at him.

Elder Yang squinted his eyes, looking towards the surface of the lake. "I've always lectured other
people like a teacher, taking every chance I get to educate the younger generation. I told them
that their hearts must be calm and their tempers even, and that they shouldn't be blinded by
superficial worldly matters. In actual fact, the later generations are more aware than I am. I am
the one whose eyes are blinded by worldly matters."

Qiao-Qiao gritted her teeth. Her phone coldly played a question. "Sect Leader Yang, I'll only ask
you one thing. Eighteen years ago, why did you drive Yang Ping out of Beggars' Sect?"

The stone path in the park curved and twisted. At every step, the view was about the same. In
the pitch darkness, Yu Lanchuan and Yu Yan shone their flashlights and wandered around like
headless flies. As they wandered, Yu Lanchuan briefly explained Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect
old and new enmities to Yu Yan.

After listening, Yu Yan was silent for a long while before finally saying regretfully, "Even though
Beggars' Sect had helped us quite a bit not long ago… it is still better to suppress it."

Yu Lanchuan pulled down the screen on his phone to update their location, ignoring him.

Yu Yan continued to share his opinion. "I realised that for many things, when they have
developed to the final stage, what remains is definitely not an intangible cultural heritage but the
dregs of feudalism… Look, your group of people can't protect and defend the country, nor can
you jump onto roofs and walk on walls. Even if you become a martial arts instructor, the sense of
aesthetics is lacking. A good and fine traditional culture, yet it adds no value at all to society. All
the teachings are lost and no longer passed down, and all that remains are the two major classic
themes of traditional wuxia fiction: one is fighting for power and might to become the big boss;
the other is fighting to obtain secret skills using any means, fair or foul. As the saying goes, when
you've chewed the sweet sugarcane to the end, all that's left is dross."

"..." Yu Lanchuan didn't continue the topic. He suddenly said, "Old Sect Leader Yang is indeed
rather old-fashioned. It is exactly because he has too many bottom lines and principles that he
has had few days of peace in his life. Wei Huan said that he killed people to silence them.
Objectively, I don't think it's possible. However… what Yang Ping has done, was he aware of
them?"

Did he know that his only son, Yang Ping, had once set up his fellow sect members and had many
lives on his hands, all for the sake of his personal interests?

Yu Yan let out a bitter laugh and said, "Master Lan, the two of us went to school together since
young and I was always the one copying your answers. You're so smart, why are you asking me?"

When he clearly knew that Yang Ping's sins could not be forgiven, would the deeply respected
and highly virtuous Old Sect Leader Yang still cover up everything for the sake of preserving his
son's life?

Next to the lake, Zhang Meizhen spoke before Elder Yang. "It was because Yang Ping happened to
be operating the elevator at No. 110 at that time and when I moved there, I set him off. That brat
is a little mad in the head. At home, he caused such a ruckus that his wife and child didn't dare
come home. Even when he was outside, he said a few times behind my back that he would not
let me live past the year. He even wanted to break into my home with a lethal weapon…"

"Meizhen," Old Yang interrupted her softly. "All those things did indeed happen but they are not
the root cause."

One of Zhang Meizhen's eyes twitched.

"No one understands a son more than his father. Over thirty years ago, there was a huge fire
here that destroyed quite a few of my brothers' families and also burned me badly," Old Yang
said. "After the incident, Yang Ping came to me in private a few times. Every time, he pretended
to be full of grief and anger, forcing me to give my brothers an explanation. I knew that he must
have had a hand in the matter. But I didn't dare investigate further."

On the back of Qiao-Qiao's hand that was holding the phone, blue veins protruded.

"Your grandfather also didn't dare to," Old Sect Leader Yang said. "Back then, all of them
unanimously made Travellers' Sect their target. The crowd was agitated and ignored all the
suspicious points in this matter… For example, there were so many people, how were they all
kidnapped without anyone knowing? Your grandfather had always been respectful and
introverted, and he also didn't drink that day. If he was so greatly resentful, he should come and
talk to me privately. Why did he not tell me anything and directly made things so difficult at the
Martial Arts General Assembly?"

Zhang Meizhen understood his hidden meaning. She lowered her head to look at Old Yang in
disbelief.

"It was because from the very start, this matter was a play they directed and acted out
themselves for the purpose of forcing me to draw a clear boundary between us and Travellers'
Sect. They didn't expect things to go wrong halfway. The play turned to reality and became a
tragedy…"
Qiao-Qiao spoke through her phone. "You're lying!"

Old Sect Leader Yang said calmly, "How would I dare to stand here and lie? This is a huge joke
that the Beggars' Sect themselves cooked up!"

Zhang Meizhen said, "You… Over thirty years ago, you already…"

"This matter involved two of Beggars' Sect's Nine Pouch Elders, more than ten core members and
half of everything Beggars' Sect had. It was already such a tragedy, how could I dare tear down
that layer of paper screen? I knew that there were demons and monsters inside but I only dared
to deceive everyone and myself, brushing another layer of paste over the paper screen and
pretending that everything was fine. Meizhen, back then, I told you that I was a coward… I was
speaking the truth."

Zhang Meizhen could not say anything.

"That night when Yang Ping broke into your home carrying a lethal weapon, you happened to be
out. Yu-dage took action to catch him and sent him to me. He said that something had gone
amiss in Yang Ping's own martial arts training and that there were signs of him going out of
control. He told me to keep a tight watch. That was when I finally knew that he had learned
demonic skills from somewhere. I was flustered and panicked at that time and locked him up, and
accidentally intercepted a letter someone sent to him." Elder Yang rubbed the head of his walking
stick repeatedly. "It was a letter asking for help. The first page said, 'Zhu Cong will soon find out
about us and he even has a killer from Wan Mu Chun with him. What should we do?'"

"When I saw the letter, it was like my world exploded. What I hadn't dared thought too closely
about back then, the things I saw in my nightmares, all became reality. Yang Ping… was mad and
demented! I went to find him and interrogated him about what happened."

At that time, Yang Ping had said to him with a scoff, "What are you saying, Dad? Didn't you
already guess all this years ago? And now you're pretending to be simple-minded."

Yang Qing's face was pale. He had no way to refute.

"All right, fine. Since you've always been free of guilt and kept in the dark, and you're only now
'shocked' by the truth, you can just beat me to death now," Yang Ping said nonchalantly. Then, he
gave him a strange smile. "Wait a minute, surely you won't send me to the police station to turn
myself in, will you? Sect Leader, if we were to talk about this matter from the very beginning,
then things won't be so easily explained. Back then, only one old man Zhu died, a large group of
them are still alive! Right now, these people are taking their pension and each and every one of
them are deeply respected in the sect. Their disciples and grand-disciples all think that they lost
their families because of Beggars' Sect and that they have sacrificed too much. They want nothing
more than to volunteer themselves to be their filial children and grandchildren, to worship them
as ancestors. If you expose the truth, they will be too ashamed to live."

The almost a hundred years old Sect Leader Yang lifted his head to look into the distant hazy
darkness. "But I… only have this one son after all."
Zhang Meizhen turned her head to the side, tears covering her face.

Ever since he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, Yang Ping had been by his father's side. Yang
Qing had raised him all on his own.

Yang Qing had always felt that he owed his son too much. From the very start, he had not been
able to give him a normal family. During the years when he was growing both in body and mind,
he, the father, was "taken down." He had dragged down Yang Ping along with him and made him
suffer. His body did not grow and his mind also became twisted.

Yu Lanchuan and Yu Yan finally made their way there following the GPS. From far, they saw those
three people either sitting or standing. Things seemed peaceful and they breathed out in relief.

Yu Yan walked over. "Elder Yang, you guys…"

Before he could finish calling out to them, he heard Yang Qing mutter, "I couldn't bear to do it. I
am really… sorry to all of you."

Even though they were already mentally prepared, Yu Lanchuan and Yu Yan still came to a
sudden pause on the spot.

Qiao-Qiao suddenly let out a roar. There was a cold light in her mouth aiming right at the back of
Yang Qing's head. Zhang Meizhen caught sight of it out of the corner of her eye but it was too
late.

Right at that moment, there was a clanging sound in midair. A razor blade collided with the thin
needle that had shot out of Qiao-Qiao's mouth. Knocked off its course, the thin needle brushed
past the wooden bench and fell to the ground. Almost at the same time, Yu Lanchuan caught
Qiao-Qiao by her arm.

Qiao-Qiao wasn't done shooting the thin needles from her mouth. She turned and shot at him. Yu
Lanchuan swiftly dodged to the side and the needle brushed past his nose bridge, nearly breaking
skin. Then, Qiao-Qiao took out a dagger from somewhere and slashed ruthlessly at his hand that
was holding her. After forcing him back, she shot two thin needles in quick succession.

Yu Yan threw his police baton to him. "Catch!"

Yu Lanchuan avoided being pierced until he was a hedgehog and smashed the baton towards the
knife in Qiao-Qiao's hand. Qiao-Qiao knew that she could not defeat him. Her eyes red enough to
bleed, she loaded her last needle. Right at that moment, a small gust of wind attacked her from
the back. Before she could turn around, someone grabbed her throat from behind and forced her
head up.

Yu Lanchuan's baton smashed onto her knife. The hand around her throat slipped into her
mouth. Qiao-Qiao bit down viciously but that hand seemed to not feel pain at all and removed
the hidden weapon in her mouth without allowing any resistance.

T/N:
[1] "When you turned your head back and looked back on the years past, it was not only the
rights and wrongs or the fame and profit that had turned to meaningless." From the poem 《临
江 仙 · 滚 滚 长 江 逝 水 》 (translated and shortened as "Immortals by the River") by the Ming
dynasty poet Yang Shen and is about how the triumphs and failures of the heroes only last for a
short while.
[2] "The ways of mortals are ever renewed; The days come and go, forming past and present."
From the poem 《与 诸子登 岘首》 ("Climbing Mount Xian with Friends" by the Tang dynasty
poet Meng Haoran.
Chapter 103
The mechanism in her mouth was forcefully pried out. Qiao-Qiao's tooth broke and she
involuntarily loosened her jaw. The dagger also fell out of her hand. Yu Lanchuan's police baton
swiftly tapped her ulnar nerves on both arms. At the same time, the person cupping her mouth
from behind pushed her knees and used their height to press her down to the ground.

Qiao-Qiao having good qinggong was just because her body was small and her bones light, giving
her a natural advantage. At seventeen or eighteen years of age, her body had yet to fully grow
and she couldn't be considered a proper adult. The little bit of martial arts she had learned from
her mother when she was young could only scare an ordinary and defenseless person.

She did not have fifteen years of fundamental training in the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang, nor
did she have the three-cun-and-two-fen Paoding Jieniu that had risen from the ashes.

She didn't even have brute force.

And yet, even when pushed until she was kneeling on one knee, she fought as ferociously as
before, shaking howls that didn't sound human coming from her throat, like a deer on the grass
plains that had its throat torn away by a fierce beast.

Was "I only have this one son" a reason?

He was a murderer. So many lives of the old and the young, the womenfolk and the children,
were lost in his hands. So many people had their families destroyed because of him. The resentful
ghosts were still suppressed beneath the lake!

"Have you gone mad? Calm down!"

"Qiao-Qiao, shh, listen to me. What did I tell you before, you're only seventeen years old…"

"Hey, I've a pair of handcuffs here."

Qiao-Qiao was surrounded by noise and clamour. There was someone rebuking her and there
was also someone trying to awaken her rational mind in a gentle voice. Multiple limbs pressed
her to the ground like they were catching a dangerous wild animal, all the while thinking that
they were protecting her.

But I'm not crazy, the girl thought. Her long hair fell forward, seeming to float all around, turning
her vision hazy.
If this deeply respected and highly virtuous Old Sect Leader Yang hadn't turned a blind eye to the
truth thirty-six years ago for the sake of his so-called "prestige," her uncle and her grandfather
wouldn't have died. Her parents would grow up in Yanning under the care of their family. Her
childhood wouldn't have those narrow and cramped village streets, or that grudge engraved onto
her bones and carved into her heart in that dark little room with no hope of justice.

If he hadn't protected Yang Ping eighteen years ago when he obtained conclusive evidence, the
resentment from this old unresolved case would have been resolved long ago. Her father
wouldn't have wasted half his life on revenge and wouldn't have died without a complete body in
the flour factory.

He said he would return home and live out his life in peace.

They always had the phrase "You're only seventeen years old" hanging on their lips, as though
she lived this seventeen years old of hers in good fortune that she did not know how to
appreciate, as though her future prospects were bright and boundless.

But she was not a university entrance exam candidate nervously picking her field of study. She
did not have wide open roads before her. In the village where she grew up, she no longer had
family or friends. In her drifting existence in Yanning, she only had a corner in the upper floor of
the pet store to call home. A house cat could live for over ten years; when they were one or two
years old, they were still kittens full of spirit and vigour. But for the stray cats that slept in
cardboard boxes, one or two years might be the upper limit of their lifespan.

Could the single line "I couldn't bear to do it, I'm sorry" drive her away?

What right did he have!

Yang Qing took a step forward and said softly, "Girl, the soil has nearly buried me to the top of
my head. Any day now, I might cross over even if the King of Hell doesn't summon me. But you're
still young!"

All Qiao-Qiao's ten fingers dug deep into the grass-covered earth.

Yes, the soil was already reaching the top of his head. But what right did he have to die peacefully
of old age in his sleep?

Right then, someone struck the back of her neck. Qiao-Qiao's vision blacked out and she finally
stopped moving, her head hanging slack.

Gan Qing finally let out a relieved breath. She took out her bloody fingers and carelessly wiped
them on her body, then stumbled half a step to sit on the damp ground in the park. Holding the
small mechanism between her fingers, she took a look, then tossed it over to Yu Yan who had run
over. "Careful, there are still needles inside."

Yu Yan let out a noise of assent. "Teacher Meng-Meng, your-"

Before he could say the word "hand," he watched in shock as Yu Lanchuan knelt on the ground
and took her injured hand. He inspected it all over nervously, saw that the injuries were
superficial, and only then took out a tissue from his pocket and carefully cleaned it. At the same
time, with a very crossed face, he said sarcastically, "Why is your esteemed sect's skill called
Paoding Jieniu? You should change the name to 'The Amazing Take Out 10,000 of Your Enemy by
Sacrificing 8,000 of Your Own and Stand Right in the Line of Fire' skill."

Gan Qing let out a soft hiss of pain. The mercilessly nagging Yu Lanchuan immediately gentled his
movements, his brows furrowed, his hands so careful he seemed to be doing restoration work on
an ancient palace.

Yu Yan rubbed his nose and didn't go forward. He turned to look at the two elderly people by the
lake. Yang Qing and Zhang Meizhen were about a meter apart. Both of Yang Qing's hands were
gripping his walking stick, his head lowered in silence. Even if one were to be severe and say that
he had been protecting a criminal, eighteen years had passed. The statute of limitations had
passed long ago.

But human speech was just so limited. Other than "I'm sorry", there was nothing he could say.

"Let's go, I'll call another car." Yu Yan clutched at his own short hair in exasperation. "Everyone, if
there's anything, we can talk after going back. Let's not sit here."

The tumultuous weekend was finally over. In the blink of an eye, the even more tumultuous
workweek was here.

Yu Lanchuan had an observation that he didn't know whether was correct or not: the rush hour
on every Monday morning was when the roads were the most congested, which made him
sometimes suspect that there were some workplaces that only had one day of work in a week.

The debts and enmity, sentiment and grudges faintly enshrouding No. 110 Courtyard was scared
off at once by the agitated blaring of the vehicle horns. Those who took the bus hurried to catch
the bus, those who took the subway hurried to catch the trains. The school gates of the primary
school and kindergarten outside the east and west gates of the courtyard were like the pond
after a rain, the chorus of frog croaks carrying far. In front of the jianbing stalls that opened
regardless of wind and storm were again lines about a kilometer long.

"Give me your phone." Early in the morning, Yu Lanchuan knocked on Gan Qing's door and
shared the locations for both their phones.

Gan Qing swallowed a mouthful of soy milk and mumbled a question, "Wha—?"

"I'll see where you are. Just wait for food delivery in the afternoon," Yu Lanchuan said quickly.
"Don't touch water. Since you're injured, don't eat at Old Meng's roadside stall that uses illegally
recycled oil. I'm leaving!"

Yu Lanchuan's words were still in the air but his feet had already moved ten meters away. His
former direct supervisor had retired due to illness. At the moment, his department was being
supervised by another department's vice-director while Yu Lanchuan was managing the main
tasks. Not only did this not affect the company's day-to-day operations, it also saved on
management costs. At the start, Yu Lanchuan hadn't said anything. If there was work, he took it
and he also did not reject additional tasks. He was prepared to "seize the throne" at the critical
juncture. At the same time, he had contacted a few headhunters and was prepared to change
jobs if he failed to take the throne. He planned to pay off his house loan in five or six years, as
much as possible gaining financial independence before he had elderly and young ones to take
care of. And that was because he had secretly included that unreliable and capricious person next
door in his plans.

That woman Gan Qing was evidently not the type to settle down peacefully. If he didn't plan for
the long term, they would end up like his parents and encounter short-term mundane problems
sooner or later. He didn't want to tie the wild horse up in his house so he could only think of a
way to strive for a piece of the grassy plain.

Otherwise, how could he so confidently say those boastful words, "Leave it to me"?

Before Gan Qing could say anything, he had already disappeared from sight.

"...If Boss Meng hears you, he will scratch your eyes out."

She leaned against the doorframe, seeming to be deep in thought as she slowly stuffed the
remaining few dumplings into her mouth. Speaking of which, it was strange. In the past, she had
"coincidentally" bumped into Yu Lanchuan every morning but had never thought much of it. This
was the first time she was getting a sense of how busy an elite city worker was from the view of
his back. Yu Lanchuan had just left his house but he was already making phone calls at the
elevator lobby. He seemed to be instructing his subordinates to prepare some kind of data, his
speech was fast and the words he used concise, saving on punctuation wherever possible. And
just like that, with time and work chasing his heels, he was brought downstairs by the elevator,
leaving only the lingering sound of the heels of his leather shoes knocking against the ground.

No matter what kind of nonsense and bullshit problems there were, they seemed to only take up
a small bit of his internal storage. He always had his own fixed principles. Even if he would also
sometimes be exhausted, his head would sometimes ache and his face would sometimes turn
cold from how emotionally drained he was, he seemed to always have a type of calm lifeforce. He
knew what he should do, what he could do.

No matter what he faced, his eyes never wavered. And that included the future.

Liu Zhongqi came out yawning from next door and gave her a curious look. "Why are you looking
into the distance from here?"

"Looking at the mortal world."

Liu Zhongqi had to admit defeat. A big swindler who did not forget to practise being mysterious
even outside of work hours would definitely become the most famous witch of her generation in
the future.

Gan Qing smiled at him, then turned to go back in.

Zhang Meizhen had spent an entire night smoking in her own room. The moment she opened the
door, the smoke rolled out like the special effects for the Southern Heavenly Gates. She stared at
the breakfast Gan Qing had left for her on the dining table and spaced out for a while, then saw
that her tenant was dressed up neatly as usual, prepared to leave the house to go to work.

What was different was that she had an English-Chinese dictionary wedged under her banged-up
arm.

It was as thick as a brick—fit to be a stepping stone to success.

Zhang Meizhen's eyes fell on that dictionary. The moment before Gan Qing stepped out of the
door, she suddenly opened her mouth to say, "What happened over thirty years ago should have
come to a conclusion long ago."

Gan Qing was stunned for a moment. She turned back to look at Zhang Meizhen.

"Old Yang pretended to be muddle-headed when he was well aware of the truth. As for me, I
thought I was above all those material things. Back then, I thought that I had suffered greatly
both emotionally and mentally, that the injustice I suffered was greater than anyone else. I didn't
want to bear any responsibility at all and decided that I might as well leave everything behind to
bring it all to an end. I let the position of North Branch Master fall into the hands of someone like
Wang Jiusheng for nothing," Zhang Meizhen said in a low voice. "It's time for us old fools to give
the younger generation an explanation. Give us some time. Jianghu people have jianghu ways."
Chapter 104
Jianghu people would always have jianghu ways, because jianghu itself was made up of debts and
enmity, sentiment and grudges.

The nursing home in the west of Yanning City had a decent environment. There was a long
flower-lined path in the garden and from far, the clear and bright spring light seemed to overflow
from it. Walking near, one would realise that beneath the vibrant canopy were eyes blurry from
age, the gazes turning around half a beat late, heavy with the dust of the mortal world and
nothing left in the world to live for, aimlessly watching the coming and going of all living things.

Zhang Meizhen was not willing to stay among the pack of elderly. She strode quickly along the
path and came to an activity room beside a large hall in a building.

In the activity room, there was the stuttering sound of piano accompaniment. The university
student doing volunteer work might have been assigned to the post at the last minute, his fingers
were stuck together without any gaps in between and bustling about busily on the keys. This
young man was aware that his skills were lacking. His face and ears were red, and he didn't dare
lift his head to look at other people. The singing and the accompaniment were at odds with each
other.

More than ten elderly people were seated on plastic chairs scattered sparsely around the room,
each of them holding a music score in their hands, singing together but each in their own key.
The singing and the accompaniment were heading in different directions, neither interfering with
the other, both sides running in parallel in great liveliness.
Among them, the loudest one was an old man who was near the door. His black shirt was tightly
buttoned up to his neck and there was a patch on the elbow. He was sitting perfectly straight up
and when he opened his mouth, he sang as though there was no one around him, setting his own
pitch.

Suddenly, like there were eyes on the back of his head, this black-shirted old man twisted his
head around and looked at Zhang Meizhen who was waiting by the back door.

Zhang Meizhen nodded at him.

The black-shirted old man gritted his teeth, then stood up and walked out.

The moment the "pitch-setter" left, the singing voices in the activity room instantly became like a
dandelion blown by a gust of wind, scattering to all directions. The university student playing the
accompaniment felt his ears getting confused and suspected himself to have gone deaf amidst
the braying of the pack of donkeys.

The black-shirted old man closed the door behind him, shutting out the noise. He curled his
hands into fists, gripping them behind his back, and asked Zhang Meizhen coldly, "You? What are
you here for?"

Zhang Meizhen knew that she didn't have any small talk to make with the other person, so she
went straight to the point. "Old Song, I am here on behalf of Yang Qing."

The black-shirted old man snorted a laugh. "Here on behalf of the Old Sect Leader? Who do you
think you are? You sure have no shame."

Zheng Meizhen said, "Yang Qing asked me to come here and chat with you about what happened
over thirty years ago-"

Zhang Meizhen continued to say, "Your old mother and wife were both in that fire…"

When the black-shirted old man heard this, he suddenly flushed with anger. "Go! Get out!"

Interrupted once again, Zhang Meizhen pursed her lips and fell into silence. The piano in the
activity room let out a plonk. The singing and the accompaniment that were tormenting each
other both came to a stop in unison, and the surroundings turned quiet at once.

The black-shirted man turned and left.

"Yang Qing said," Zhang Meizhen opened her mouth and said in a mild voice behind him, "that
it's been thirty-six years now. We are all people who will soon be buried. Before we leave, we
should stop lying to ourselves and to others, and clear all these matters up."

The black-shirted man paused.

"Keeping everything in your heart, bringing up neither the bad nor the good, doesn't it make you
feel terrible?" Zhang Meizhen said. "When we go down to the Yellow Springs, we should do so
freely and happily. If you have a belly full of stifled thoughts, you'll sink to the bottom."

The black-shirted old man slowly lifted a hand and clutched at the patch on his elbow.

"The last day of this month." Zhang Meizhen picked up her handbag. "No. 110 Courtyard. Please
come. Yang Qing has something to say."

Done speaking, she started walking to leave, her pumps knocking crisply against the floor.

"Hey… you," the black-shirted old man suddenly called out to her. He seemed to have called her
something but his words were too indistinct and other than himself, no one had heard what he
said clearly. "Is everyone going?"

Zhang Meizhen said, "I don't know. In any case, I'm just notifying everyone in turn."

"...Is everyone well?"

"Some are still vigorous, some can't hold on much longer," Zhang Meizhen answered. "Everyone
is mostly living on their own. After that incident, hardly anyone started a family again."

The black-shirted man's throat twitched faintly.

"But that's nothing." Zhang Meizhen gave him a barely discernible smile. "At the end of the
journey, who isn't left on their own? I'm leaving now, take care of yourself."

Light shone through the entrance of the corridor. When Zhang Meizhen finished speaking, she
walked in that direction. The edges of her figure turned hazy in the light, leaving only a silhouette
that faintly resembled her graceful and charming appearance when she was young.

At the same time, traffic in the main thoroughfare in the suburbs in the northwest of Yanning had
just cleared.

The northern side of the road was a dense residential area. Looking out far, all that could be seen
were bald and bare high-rises. In the day, the residents congregated in the various types of
transportations on the roads, surging into the city like the high tide. At night, they again flowed
back like the low tide and climbed into the rooms in the ants' nest high-rises to sleep. Because
there were many people but few roads, compounded by the fact that most people headed in the
same direction, the main thoroughfare was frequently congested until it became a carpark.

The scenery on the southern side was different. It was said that there were plans for that area
but it hadn't been demolished yet. The environment was somewhere in between a village and a
small town. Even though it was not to the point that they had dirt roads, due to many years of
disrepair, the surface of the roads were as bumpy as mountain ridges. The curbs on both sides
were uneven and the small space squeezed out by the small shops by the road was only enough
for a small car to just barely scrape through.
At the end of the street was a small three-storey building. The first floor was a supermarket and
above it was a mottled signboard that said "Cardroom." One must enter the supermarket and go
through a small door that seemed to lead to the storeroom before they could go upstairs. Non-
locals wouldn't be able to find the door at all. From the supermarket to the cardroom, everything
looked lonely and desolate, like it was on the verge of shutting down.

The third floor was a completely different story.

The third floor did not have a signboard and even the curtains were closed. To outsiders, this was
the workers' dormitory. Between the second and the third floors, there was a metal gate with a
passcode lock and the raucous voices upstairs could be heard from the corridor. If one entered,
they would see the lights switched on in the dark room, day and night indistinguishable, the air
heavy with smoke. Inside were three mahjong tables, one card table, and another one for playing
dice. The mahjong tables and the card tables were full; latecomers could only either come
forward to watch the battle while staking a leg at the dice table, or gather in small groups to drink
and chat.

This was an illegal gambling den.

The metal gate creaked open, followed by light footsteps. Someone had come up. The frenzied
gamblers at the tables did not notice and no one turned their heads to look. After coming in, the
person did not say anything and quietly found a plastic stool in a corner to sit and watch them
play mahjong.

When the attendant in charge of pouring drinks came over, he looked curiously at this customer
who had a hood over their head. He could not see the face but he was sure it would be an
unfamiliar one because this person was holding a book in their hands. Not one of those
pornographic or vulgar publications; it seemed to be a serious and proper book. There was even a
paper with notes written on it wedged between the pages. Amidst the crisp sounds of the
mahjong tiles being shuffled, the person had their legs crossed and was scribbling with a pen as
though there was no one around them.

The attendant who poured drinks here could on average meet a few deranged or mentally
unstable people here every day but this was the first time he was seeing such an unusual
deranged person. He walked over and asked, "This table just started a new round, you'll have to
wait a long while. Why don't you have a look around at other games, or perhaps you would like
to have something to drink?"

The strange customer holding a book looked up. "A bottle of mineral water."

The attendant, "..."

The customer looked past the attendant at the gambler who had his back to them and said, "Or
something else would be fine too. I won't touch the drinks here. If it isn't appropriate for me to
just sit here, I'll buy a bottle of any drink and leave it here. Anything's fine as long as it meets the
minimum charge. Don't disturb me."
Her voice wasn't high but her pronunciation was unusually clear. Her words seemed like a
"blockhead," yet her tone was slippery like a jianghu veteran.

The attendant sensed that these words were not said to him and followed her gaze to look over.
He saw a scruffy middle-aged man at the mahjong table suddenly stiffen his back and slowly turn
around, looking at this mysterious customer like he had seen a ghost.

The attendant let out a laugh. "Ma-ge, she's here for you?"

"Ma-ge" was a regular. He lived right nearby and would bring people along to play every three or
five days. The pack of people under him were all his hidden backups, going around and cheating,
purposely targeting those who had made their fortune from demolition compensations.

This table seemed to be a game of random match-ups but in actual fact, other than the target fat
sheep, the other players were all Ma-ge's men. Their method was to first feed tiles to the fat
sheep and let him have some losses and some wins. His wins would be big while the losses would
be small. They would feed him until he had an addiction; then, other than playing mahjong, they
would also treat him to meals and have fun together, laying the groundwork for two months.
When the groundwork was nearly done and they were practically sworn brothers, and the
demolition compensation was about to be paid, they would gather the net and set a trap to
swindle him until his entire fortune was lost and also make him take out a high interest loan on
top of that.

Ma-ge lifted a hand like half his body was paralysed. "You…"

"I was released." The customer—Gan Qing—stuffed her book back into her bag. She walked
around Ma-ge, a smile that was not quite a smile on her face, and came to stand behind the
bearded "fat sheep." She bent down and looked at his tiles, then turned over the stack of won
money in his corner of the table.

The "fat sheep" was puzzled. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Gan Qing rolled up the money and pushed them into the fat sheep's chest pocket. She patted his
shoulder and jutted her chin at the other two players, indicating that he should take a look. These
two had been pretending not to know anyone there but now, they exposed themselves and were
standing behind Ma-ge.

Gan Qing said, "Mr. Millionaire, they're setting a trap for you, can you still not see it? Quit when
you're ahead; otherwise, you'll take the wrong step."

The "fat sheep" stared blankly. Then, his face changed and he quickly gathered his things and ran
off without looking back.

The attendant felt that the atmosphere was not right. However, this person had come on her
own and was also a woman. If she was here specially to create trouble, then she was being a little
too gutsy. He couldn't be sure if she had called the police and was afraid that if he called more
people here, they would end up all being caught in the net. Hence, he quickly gave an eye signal
to the people watching the scene.
"No need to fuss," Gan Qing said. "Ma-ge and I were neighbours in the past. I'm just here to talk
about the old times with him. It's private business."

Ma-ge kept his voice low and said, "Don't… Let's not talk here in someone else's space. We'll go
outside."

Gan Qing seemed to let out a low laugh. She raised a hand and pulled her hood and a small blade
glinted between her fingers. Cold sweat appeared on the corners of Ma-ge's forehead. Ten years
ago, the person in front of him still had the air of a student. When she found him at a nightclub,
she had not been willing to drink what was served there and had frankly told the attendant to
give her a bottle of any drink that was enough to meet the minimum charge.

Later on, he heard that she killed someone.

Ma-ge had always remembered that young girl that appeared painfully immature, yet could make
a person's blood run cold. When he heard those familiar words just now, his hair stood on end.

Ma-ge brought her to an open-air breakfast stall. He looked furtively left and right; seeing that
there were people coming and going on the main road, he seemed to gain a sense of security. He
lit a cigarette and took a long inhale. "How did you find me?"

"The residents of Mudpool Backlane were relocated here after the demolition," Gan Qing said.
"Anyone who wants to find you only needs to ask around. You're doing pretty well, Ma-ge. Back
then, you gambled and had a pile of debts on your head but in a flash, you've turned into the
person running the game. What do they call this? An industrial upgrade?"

Ma-ge nervously dug his fingers into the corner of the table and stammered, "But I… I've done
nothing wrong to you, I even helped you…"

Ma-ge was a ruffian who had stayed in Mudpool Backlane before there was a crackdown on the
place. He had done every possible thing that fell under the purview of being a ruffian and was
also an irredeemable gambler. Not only did he not get beaten to death by the debt-collectors, he
even joined the other camp, and it was all due to his ruffian skills of slipping into any crack like a
loach. He was especially good at networking and getting information.

Back then, when Gan Qing was looking for Wei Huan for revenge, it was through none other than
this person that she had entered the dark underground world.

"I know." Gan Qing cut him off without much care. "I'm here today to ask you something."

Ma-ge looked at her nervously.

The smile on Gan Qing's face disappeared. "How did you find Wei Huan back then?"

Wei Huan's tracks were as indistinct as mist. Wei Xiao had pursued his unfilial disciple for many
years but still failed to find his whereabouts. Why had he been able to locate him immediately?
And at that time, why had Wei Huan coincidentally appear in Yanning?

Ma-ge said, "He came from out of town and didn't have a place to stay. He only had fake I.D.s on
him so of course he wouldn't dare stay in proper guest houses. He could only stay in those illegal
places that turn a blind eye to these things. A buddy of mine was working as an attendant there
and coincidentally-"

Gan Qing interrupted, "Your buddy was working as an attendant in an illegal hotel. Was he part of
Travellers' Sect?"

Ma-ge was stuck for words. He forgot to put his cigarette in his mouth and was just neurotically
flicking the ashes without a pause. "W-What sect? This is not the underworld…"

Gan Qing's fingers brushed lightly against the tabletop. A sliver of wood shaving was carved up by
something sharp, curling into a circle beside her fingers.

Ma-ge recalled the rumours about "three cun and two fen" and started cold-sweating even more.

"I'm going to ask you another question. Think carefully before you answer, Ma-ge." Gan Qing
rubbed the surface of the table until there was a tooth-aching sound. She lowered her eyes and
blew off the wood shavings on her fingertips, a sinister half-smile once again on her face like she
was there to demand his life. "Back then, was it me who first went to look for you to buy
information, or was it those shop-keeping good friends of yours who first informed you and
purposely let you hold that piece of information and wait for me?"

Ma-ge, "..."

"On the opposite side of the road, Taiping District, Building No. 4, Unit 303. That's where your
family settled down. After your wife divorced you, she took your child with her and divided up
this unit with you. Mother and son are still staying here," Gan Qing said softly. "You're usually
swindling and cheating others. Afraid that other people would look for you to cause trouble, like
a wily rabbit with three burrows, you sometimes stay at the street-facing shop at Building No. 13
and sometimes switch between the few gambling dens hidden at the rural tourism places in the
outskirts… None of them are hard to find."

Ma-ge blanched.

Gan Qing reached out a finger and brushed lightly against the side of his head. Her fingertips
seemed to have touched him, and also seemed to have not. Like a viper flicking its tongue as it
slithered past.

Gan Qing kept her voice low. "If you feel that it's not convenient to talk here, why don't you take
me to your house and we'll talk there?"

"Someone told me to say those things," Ma-ge blurted out involuntarily. Trembling, he dug out
his phone from his pocket and opened up the contact list. "This person, a-and also this one…"
Before he could finish speaking, police sirens suddenly sounded. Ma-ge trembled in shock and
looked around in a fluster. He saw a pack of police emerge from somewhere and charged into the
gambling den masquerading as a cardroom, swift and without warning, raiding the place in just a
few efficient minutes.

Ma-ge twisted his head around in alarm and realised that the female ghost seated opposite him
just now had vanished. Only a few identical carved notches were left on the tabletop, each one
measuring three cun and two fen long. He stared at these blade marks for a few seconds, then
leaped up with a jolt and charged towards the police cars. "I surrender! Captain, arrest me. I
surrender! Someone wants to kill me!"
Chapter 105
Ma-ge clung to the police for protection, tears and snot running down his face, crying and
pleading to be allowed into the group of people implicated in the crackdown. Even though the
neighbourhood police were in a dilemma, they felt unable to turn down the request from a
member of the public who wanted to improve himself, hence they readily invited him into the
police car along with the rest and took him away.

Ma-ge let out a huge breath of relief, feeling that he was temporarily in a safe zone. As for his
wife and kid outside, he couldn't take care of them for the time being and could only pray for
their wellbeing.

He didn't see that the "female ghost" that had scared him into pissing his pants just now was in
the last police car.

...and someone had caught her and was wiping her hands.

"What are you spraying on my hands? Hey… wait a minute, you're just wiping it directly on my
hands? Isn't it sticky?"

His face grumpy, Yu Lanchuan squirted the hand sanitiser on Gan Qing's hands, then threw the
entire box into her bag. "It's alcohol-based. Disinfectant. Is it sticky?"

Gan Qing wriggled her fingers. The hand sanitiser very quickly took effect and her hands felt very
cool and refreshed.

Without waiting for her reply, Yu Lanchuan shot her a verbal jab. "Not as sticky as your hand.
When you villains say your lines, you just have to do something with your hands, don't you? Will
you forget your lines if you don't have any actions accompanying it? You touch everything! You…
What are you doing!"

Before he could finish speaking, Gan Qing's hand that appeared and disappeared like an elusive
ghost suddenly reached out. There was no space to dodge in the narrow space of the car; her
hand landed right on Yu Lanchuan and withdrew after just a light touch, leaving only the lingering
scent of the hand sanitiser on his ear.

The hairs on the back of Yu Lanchuan's neck stood up and he nearly hunched his shoulders up.
"Isn't that so?" Gan Qing said, full of self-assurance. "We witches from the demonic and
unorthodox sects are lecherous and love touching people's faces. Is it against the law, Officer
Yu?"

Yu Yan was driving and looking at the road ahead with an impassive face, pretending that he was
an A.I. He replied in a flat and serious tone. "According to the relevant laws and policies, the
search results cannot be displayed."

"Which word is a sensitive word?" Gan Qing asked.

"All of them." Yu Yan's gaze shot out of the rearview mirror. "In front of a bachelor, even the way
the two of you breathe causes disharmony. May I trouble you to be more mindful of your
manners?"

Gan Qing asked, "Why don't I give you a charm for good luck in romance?"

"Your charms stopped working long ago," Yu Yan said in a melancholic tone. "Teacher Meng-
Meng, ever since you descended to the mortal realm, your magical powers are becoming less and
less effective."

While speaking, he took another look at Gan Qing. After knowing her for so long, Yu Yan felt that
her temperament was actually very easy-going and could be said to be a match for his own ability
to put up with being humiliated for the sake of the important things—to endure Yu Lanchuan,
some flexibility in handling things was necessary. She was good at talking and had a sense of
humour, and didn't like to stand out too much in a crowd. Like most young people, she never had
enough money to spend but was also very open-minded about how broke she was and didn't
give off a sense of being stingy and miserly. She was an ordinary woman whose personality was
easier to get along with than the average person. When she smiled, her eyes were clear with
quite a touch of the tranquility that came from years gone by. She didn't seem to have anything
at all to do with all those "jianghu enmity" and whatnot.

But there were a few seconds every now and then—the times when she revealed the blade
between her fingers—when she would reveal a nature that didn't seem to belong to the current
times. It gave others a whiff of that old and wild and ever-changing jianghu air, and only then
would they sense, all of a sudden, that she came from another world, that she was just passing
through, that she walked a path that was different from theirs.

There actually wasn't anything nice to touch on that "Ma-ge's" forlorn donkey face. Yu Lanchuan
was neither fussy about cleanliness nor was he a vinegar jar of jealousy, so naturally, he wouldn't
be angry just because her hand was itchy and she had touched an irredeemable gambler's face. It
was just that when Gan Qing led them to the underground gambling den just now so easily and
familiarly, that feeling she gave out—of a drifting existence, interspersed with the stench of blood
—felt too distant. It gave others an illusion: she happened to be passing by, happened to have a
bit of interaction with them and was sitting down for a cup of tea, but they will have to go their
separate ways in the end.

Yu Yan sighed internally and thought, Yu Lanchuan has fallen head over heels.
And this pit he had fallen into was even quite a bumpy one.

"Teacher Meng-Meng," Yu Yan said. "That person we caught just now, how much would he
know?"

"Quite a lot. This person has wide connections." Gan Qing thought for a while, then said, "He may
look unassuming but just look at how he has swindled so many people until they lost their entire
fortune, yet the victims all did not dare make a police report."

"Yeah, why is that?" Yu Yan asked.

Gan Qing said, "If they make a police report, they could keep their money. If the police act fast,
they might even catch this Ma fellow. But he's not alone, there are still the high-interest loan
lenders behind him, as well as many professional ruffians that you can not even begin to
imagine."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "For example, Travellers' Sect?"

"Yeah. There might even be people from the Xu clan. They can just send a few people to cause a
disturbance every three or five days and the average person wouldn't be able to bear it. Which is
more important, the safety of your whole family including the elderly and the children, or
money?" Gan Qing paused. "We take the chance now while he's scared to cut off his
communications with the outside world and who knows, we might be able to dig quite a bit of
info out of him. If we do it well, we can even go fishing with this lure."

Yu Yan frowned, "Will he cooperate?"

The corners of Gan Qing's mouth again stretched out in that smile that made a person tremble in
fear. "He will. He's only a middleman. If he explains everything clearly to the police, he might
even get lenient treatment. He gets nothing by keeping secrets. No one believes that he can keep
his mouth shut anyway. When the time comes that the police aren't protecting him and no one in
his pack of friends gives a damn about him, I will still pay him a visit."

"He… He's that afraid of you?"

Gan Qing's eyes curved. She didn't say anything.

"I don't know what it's like, all right, so I'm going to say something as an outsider. Don't get angry
after you hear it," Yu Yan said. "Teacher Meng-Meng, to be honest, there are times when I don't
feel that you're extraordinarily powerful. Of course, when it comes to weak scholars like me, you
definitely can knock down eight of me in one go without breaking a sweat but compared to those
we know who are trained in martial arts… and also those people that we have arrested, I don't
think you are capable of taking them out in a one hit K.O."

She played her tricks in the middle of the night and slipped away from the bald man; in the end,
she also slipped away from her shoe and had to hop back home.

Even chasing after Yan Hao gave her a stitch and a stomach upset, and she didn't even catch him.
Of course, these people were considered friends and she hadn't used her "true strength."

But every time she used her "true strength," she ended in a very wrecked state. Whether it was
against Paradise's Xu clan people or against Yang Ping, her victory had come at a very high cost.
Until now, the cast on her arm had yet to be removed.

Yu Yan said, "I feel that when they hear the name Wan Mu Chun, their reaction is about the same
as hearing the name Little Li Flying Dagger. It's like their necks would get snapped the moment
they saw you. Isn't it a little exaggerated?"

"It has always been so." Gan Qing let out a laugh, not at all bothered. She said very good-
naturedly, "When my shifu taught me all those years ago, he wasn't very serious. My foundation
is not good. Furthermore, I'm naturally right-handed and I changed to using my left hand by
force, it's already good enough that I can open gaps between my fingers. It's entirely by relying
on my ancestors' influence to scare people that I can still make my way around out there."

Yu Lanchuan lifted his eyes and shot a barb at Yu Yan across the space. "Don't talk so much when
you don't know anything, you're showing your ignorance."

Yu Yan quickly corrected his attitude. "Ai, all right, Alliance Leader. You're the boss."

Yu Lanchuan didn't look at Gan Qing but he kept her within sight of his peripheral view. He said
mildly, "But Wan Mu Chun isn't the type to fight competitive matches with others."

The spring blossoms were so tender they could not even withstand a single blow, the spring grass
short and small. Every year, the ice on the river was tossed between sudden cold and warmth in
the nights between seasons. A mere suggestion of green overlaid the willows on the banks, yet
this delicate strength was everywhere, making the biting cold finally yield a total defeat and
disappear without a trace.

For generations, the sect of Wan Mu Chun only had a single heir. Their numbers were few, their
strength limited. Yet, every generation would always do something unexpected. Every time the
edge of their blade touched a spot, it would never come away empty. From Mr. Chun to Wei
Huan and further on to Gan Qing, this reputation had never fallen, and a mere three words were
the nightmare lurking in the dark and sinister ravine.

However...

Yu Yan heard him trail off halfway and say no more, so he asked, "I know, so?"

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything anymore—however, that was Wan Mu Chun, not Gan Qing.

Wan Mu Chun was everywhere but Gan Qing was only one person. Even Wei Xiao, all those years
ago, had only dared to change his name to Wei Changsheng and avoid the eyes and ears of
others, and only then could he have a peaceful life for a few years.
If Gan Qing followed the conventional route and lived her life like an ordinary person, to those
people who were desperately terrified of Wan Mu Chun, she was a live target. The Xu clan people
who marketed health supplements everywhere had withdrawn from Yanning for the moment
and Wang Jiusheng had also fled the country but these were all temporary. Once the storm was
over and they could free their hands, they would definitely get rid of her for peace of mind.

If Gan Qing carried on Wan Mu Chun's legendary "blade of nightmare" and continued to hang
above the heads of others, she could not stay for long at No. 110.

Only that which can not be fathomed has no gaps for others to exploit. It was only a matter of
time before she carried on her ancestors' fate of living a wandering existence.

When Yu Lanchuan's thoughts reached this point, his chest felt as though it was filled with icy
water, his heart sinking uncontrollably to the bottom.

Speaking of this matter, it could entirely be blamed on Wei Xiao.

Mr. Chun borrowed the force rallying the country in the post-liberation years and took the
opportunity to wash his hands of the past. His descendants were completely able to live low-key
lives; the one who should cook could cook, the one who should study could study. Wan Mu Chun
would slowly fade out of the people's awareness, fading into obscurity like the countless sects
lost to history.

But when Wei Xiao was young and making his way into the world for the first time, he insisted on
wanting Wan Mu Chun to surpass its past during his time and just could not bear to bury this
three-cun-and-two-fen blade. To harbour talent is to attract misfortune; in the end, he was
embroiled in resentment and enmity, and could not withdraw himself.

"By the way," Seeing that he was being ignored, Yu Yan just had to touch on a sore spot, "Gan
Qing, we've caught so many of Travellers' Sect people and right now, because of that rotten
business of Yang Ping being suspected of taking drugs and committing murder, as well as Zhu
Qiao's unsuccesful murder attempt, the old cases are also being dragged out. If we continue this
line of investigation, I'm not sure how many people we will need to investigate. If, by chance, we
can't scoop up the whole lot in one go, with how high-profile you've been recently, will they take
revenge on you?"

Gan Qing shrugged, not at all bothered. "My front door is always open. I welcome them."

Yu Yan and Yu Lanchuan spoke almost in unison, "This is not a joke!"

Gan Qing laughed. Without waiting for Yu Lanchuan's expression to change, she suddenly looked
up and said softly, "Do you guys know what 'beating the grass to alert the snake' means?"

A small blade was wedged between the fingers of her left hand. Just like the other day when she
had demonstrated the coin trick to the intellectually-disabled teenager at the noodle shop, the
blade flipped nimbly between the gaps of her fingers. The way she did it made the extremely
sharp edge stick close to her flesh, the cold light gathering into a single thread, a sight that was
rather hair-rising...
Sometime in the evening, at the breakfast stall where Gan Qing and "Ma-ge" had sat down for a
chat, a few men sat at the table where the two of them had sat.

"Here you go." The boss brought over the greasy menu. His eyes swept around his surroundings,
then he bent down and said in a low voice, "A woman exposed Ma Laoliu at the place this
morning. He was brought out in front of everyone. That woman was quite tall and her hood
covered more than half her face. The marks on the table were left by her."

After hearing that, the men took out a string and a ruler, and carefully measured the marks left
on the table. "The same length, three cun and two fen."

"The cross-section is level, each cut reaching the bottom… What kind of knife was it?"

"I didn't see," the stall owner said softly. "I only saw her reach her hand out and scrape randomly
on the table. Ma Laoliu nearly pissed his pants when he saw it."

"Then it should be a blade between her fingers," one of the men said. "Wei Xiao's supreme skill."

"Ma Laoliu ain't any kind of tough guy but I'm not afraid if he confesses to the police," another
man said. He reached out and tapped on the marks on the table. "I'm afraid of this one."

"This is someone who could kill Wei Huan at seventeen years old."

"Fortunately, she's right here in Yanning now and has a fixed address."

The few of them exchanged looks. The stall owner kept his voice low. "Our President Wang's
opinion is that we shouldn't let the night be long and fraught with dreams[1]."

T/N:
[1] "The night is long and fraught with dreams" 夜长梦多 is a pretty common phrase that means
that when something is dragged out, things may change for the worse.
Chapter 106
"Star Dreams is really not open. I think I saw their official account say yesterday that Teacher
Meng-Meng has resigned and that the boss is currently looking for a new consultant. I even
thought that it was an April Fool's joke."

"What? Teacher Meng-Meng has resigned? I saw that she updated her WeChat Moments
yesterday, she translated that astrological chart analysis or something. Does this mean that she
won't be updating anymore in the future? No… why did even the guide I'm following do this to
me?"

"Tianyi Crayfish is also under renovation. What's wrong with this Boss Meng? It's almost peak
season and he wants to renovate. I think he wants to close the business this year. Sigh… shit, fuck
your grandpa! Does this road belong to your family? Can't you look where you're going?"

Two female delinquents from No. 13 High cycled through the narrow alleys of Mudpool Backlane,
chatting as they biked. The girl in front was just turning her head back to speak to her companion
when a cowering middle-aged man suddenly charged into the street. Her bike's handlebar
swayed, nearly hitting him as they passed each other, and she broke out into a loud cursing.

The man silently retreated to the side of the road. He didn't retort and let the girl pass by, her
curses ringing out in the street. His face grave, he glanced at the tightly shut Star Dreams and
Tianyi Crayfish, then took out a phone from his pocket.

"She might be running away… Not sure, that Meng Tianyi has also gone off somewhere. Only a
little student from out of town is left at the shop, he doesn't know a damn thing… What now?"

The person on the other end said something.

The man looked warily around him as he spoke softly, "But she's staying at Zhang… Branch
Master Zhang's place… I know that Zhang has already cut off all ties with us but she's still…"

The other person interrupted him.

The man lowered his head. "Them? Are you sure… All right then."

That night, at one in the morning, a low-profile unlicensed cab stopped at the entrance of the
alley at the south side of No. 110 Courtyard. The cab driver was none other than the middle-aged
man who had gone to scout out Star Dreams.

The car had just come to a stop when two men dressed in black who seemed to be the
passengers got down from the cab. One was middle-aged, the one a little younger.

The center of the middle-aged man's face was curved in like he had been punched in the face. His
cheeks were squarish and his chin sharp, and he seemed to be gnashing his teeth. He looked
extremely fierce.

He waved at the driver. "Thanks. If you're scared later, you don't need to wait for us. You can just
avoid the CCTVs and leave."

The driver wound down the window and smiled nervously. "We Travellers' Sect have always done
small businesses like being drivers and boatmen since ancient times. We really…"

"I know you guys from Travellers' Sect are cowards. Don't worry, when we Chun division do our
work, we won't drag you guys in." The middle-aged man dressed in black spat with no regard for
manners. The tip of his foot rubbed into the phlegm he spat out and he nodded at his
companion. The two of them wandered around the area for a while. Then, sticking close to the
wall, one ahead of the other, they climbed over at the corner where the covered bicycle racks
were in No. 110 Courtyard.

A person dressed as a janitor was waiting for them there.

The "janitor's" attitude was even more subservient than the cab driver, bowing and scraping as
he welcomed them. "I've been waiting for both of you here for a long time."
"Xu Lin." The middle-aged black-clad man pointed at himself, then at the young man next to him.
"My disciple. I wasn't here last year. The few juniors of our Chun division were all taken down by
this courtyard. I was wondering what kind of dragon was hidden here, so it turns out to be the
renegade from Wan Mu Chun. I have purposely come here today to get an explanation. I thank
my Travellers' Sect brothers for sending word."

The "janitor" tapped on his phone to light up the screen and showed the two of them the photos
inside—they had all been taken secretly, and were all photos of Gan Qing.

"She went out once today and came back around one in the afternoon. I've been keeping watch
here the whole time. She hasn't been down. The lights in Unit 1003 came on at seven in the
evening. A food delivery worker went up to deliver food to her."

Xu Lin asked, "Is there anyone else inside the house? I heard that she's renting and that the
owner is related to your Travellers' Sect?"

The "janitor" answered, "Yes. I'll be honest with you guys, the owner is the former North Branch
Master of our Travellers' Sect, Zhang Meizhen. Later on, because of some personal matters, she
cut off ties with us. We have already helped to lure this person away. I saw her leave, she called a
cab at the entrance."

Xu Lin nodded. "What time did she turn off the lights?"

"10.30. She turns them off at 10.30 every day. She should be sleeping like the dead now."

After hearing that, the man who called himself Xu Lin walked towards the building stairs. At the
same time, he beckoned and the young man behind him took out a face mask from his pocket
and pulled on a hood, covering his face. He climbed up a pipe at a corner of the building of No.
110. These two people took different routes, their movements well coordinated.

The "janitor" waited for the two of them to leave before stealthily slipping out of No. 110
Courtyard.

The cab driver who brought them there just now poked his head out furtively from the mouth of
a small lane. The "janitor" peeled off his outer garment and stuffed it carelessly into a trash can,
then squeezed into the car.

The driver asked, "Have the two Xu clan idiots gone in?"

"Yeah." The fake janitor nodded. "Back then, for the sake of getting the Xu clan's resources, Wei
Huan sold out his sect's skills to Xu Zhao and that's how the Chun division came about. Now, this
bunch of jokers with their sloppy and slapdash martial arts are running back to say that Wan Mu
Chun's true descendant is a renegade. Isn't this fun?"

"It would be even more fun if they start fighting. These Xu fellows are having a grand time
expanding their cult in the remote spots in the mountains. They treat Yanning as their own
backyard." The driver stepped lightly on the accelerator, driving the car away. "That Wan Mu
Chun didn't go to Mudpool today, she must have sensed something. We don't have enough
people now. Thanks to this crackdown, our brothers have either been taken away or are in hiding
and don't dare to come out. President Wang should want to resolve this matter as quickly as
possible. If we let her escape and hide for eight to ten years, where would we go to find her?
She's a time bomb."

The fake janitor asked, "Can those two do it?"

"That Wan Mu Chun upstairs only has one arm." The driver wound down the window and lit a
cigarette. "One arm versus four arms, what do you think?"

"After, she's the true descendant…"

"This thing called martial arts, when you've learned it, it's the real thing. All this rubbish about
true descendants and fake descendants." The driver blew out a puff of smoke. "If they hadn't
extracted everything about Paoding Jieniu from him, would the Xu clan people be so ready to
betray Wei Huan back then? Just wait and see, there'll be a good fight."

The corridor at one in the morning was quiet and tranquil. The middle-aged black-clad man, Xu
Lin, slowly approached 1003 and stood there, as silent and unmoving as a statue. A while later,
his phone vibrated and he knew that his disciple was already in position outside the window. He
took out his equipment from his pocket and started to pick the lock.

Next door, Yu Lanchuan was not yet asleep and was in the study reviewing a contract. Suddenly,
he looked up, his eyes staring right at the front door.

The new type of locks weren't as easy to pick as the ones in the past. Xu Lin curled his body in,
making his movements as light as possible. One door away, Yu Lanchuan took out a golf club from
behind the door, his other hand already on the door knob.

Right at that moment, his hand that was ready to pull the door open was seized by someone
behind him!

Outside the window of 1003, Xu Lin's disciple was suspended outside the tenth floor window like
a spider. He extended a small rod, carefully avoided the window frame and quietly lifted a corner
of the not-very-thick curtains, then peered inside.

In the small bedroom, the bed faced the window. The person on the bed was fast asleep and
motionless, her mid-length hair spread out on the pillow. She was completely unaware that her
own front door had already been pried open by someone. The black-clad man outside the
window used a tool to fix his position and dug out a crossbow from his backpack—it was exactly
the same as the one used by the person Gan Qing had encountered in the unlicensed guest house
back when she was following Xiang Xiaoman. The tip of the bolt was aimed right at the person on
the bed.

At the front door, Xu Lin made a final light twist and the door slid open without a sound. A waft
of home fragrance blasted him right in the face, heavy enough to make him gag. Xu Lin
subconsciously held his breath. A crossbow in his left hand and a dagger in his right, he verified
that there was no one in the room before heading towards the second bedroom where the door
was opened a crack.

The door was opened about two inches. Xu Lin probably didn't have Vitamin A deficiency, his
night vision was very good. His gaze shot out like two beams of searchlights and he took in the
sight of his target and his accomplice on guard outside the window. Then, he gave the door a
violent push. The instant the door burst open, his left hand unleashed an arrow that directly
pierced the target on the bed with a muffled thump. He was close on its heels, his hand gripping
his dagger tightly, ready to deliver a fatal blow to his opponent.

Right then, Xu Lin's ears caught a soft whistling sound—something was shooting towards him. He
instinctively bent down to dodge. The blanket on the bed was pulled off abruptly from the
bottom and a black figure charged towards him.

Xu Lin was not surprised. If Wan Mu Chun could be killed so easily, he, the master, wouldn't have
to take action himself. He immediately struck a pose and prepared to pit his Paoding Jieniu
against the opponent's. At the same time, the crossbow lying in wait outside the window saw its
opportunity and let fly a bolt.

The master and student were working in perfect coordination and could be said to be like the
slogan One Red Heart Preparing Two Outcomes. Both the overt and the covert attacks proceeded
in parallel.

Wan Mu Chun had defended against one side but not against the bolt sneaking up behind her.
Before she reached Xu Lin, the bolt shot her down and she fell near the corner of the bed.

Xu Lin smiled.

Approached suddenly from the back, Yu Lanchuan's hair stood on end. On the back of his hand
that was gripping the golf club, his veins pulsed. He steadied his elbow and lowered his shoulder,
the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang's Calm Lake form already in his hands. He was ready to stretch
his body and slash the sneak attacker behind him into two halves.

Then, in the instant that he was about to swing the golf club, someone meow-ed into his ear.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

The golf club hit his own leg.

He turned around in shock and anger. Gan Qing, who had infiltrated his house at some unknown
time, took a couple of nimble steps back and said softly, "Little Master Yu, please have mercy.
One swing from you can send me right into the hole."

After speaking, her eyes slid downwards to land on Yu Lanchuan's chest. The collar of his pajamas
was wide in the first place and in his own home, Yu Lanchuan had only carelessly fastened two
buttons, one of which had even popped open just now. His chest and waist could be seen, the
lines sharp and clear, and the faint light in the room even shrouded him in just the right amount
of shadow.
"After more than ten years, it's now a sight to sit up and take notice of," Gan Qing said.

Yu Lanchuan clutched the front of his clothes and pointed the golf club at her. "When did you
come in? How did you come in? What kind of immoral thing are you doing in the middle of the
night… What's going on at your place?"

Next door, Xu Lin's smile froze before it could unfurl. First, his hair stood on end, then he noticed
a problem—the falling sound was wrong!

A grown human falling to the floor wouldn't land so lightly!

Xu Lin took a sudden step forward and tore the bed sheet off the black figure. His eyes were
greeted by the sight of a plush toy, a wig stuck on its head and a bolster tied to its body.

The plush toy locked eyes with him, a wide smile on its face. Its hands were also holding a
wooden sign that was inquiring very artistically: On what do you build your life?
Chapter 107
It turned out that this plush toy that came with a lousy motivational inscription had fishing lines
tied to its limbs. At a glance, the way the lines were tied seemed a little similar to marionettes
and was a very confusing sight but upon closer inspection, that was not the case. According to
legend, there was a kind of mechanism in the past that was usually hidden underwater or buried
in shallow ground. Once touched, thousands of thin and pliable metal threads would fly out.
Because there was enough force and the metal was thin enough, the immense pressure could cut
gold and jade like threads cutting the soft yams. Here, one end of the fishing lines were tied to
the door. When Xu Lin wanted to catch the target off guard and threw open the door violently,
the lines pulled the plush toy on the bed up and made it act out a section from A Chinese Ghost
Story.

Outside the window, the little disciple could hear that the noise from inside didn't sound right. He
pried open the curtains with the crossbow. Moonlight flooded the room, gathering on the slack
fishing lines scattered around the room like a net ready to be drawn.

A chill suddenly crept up Xu Lin's spine. Right at that moment, he finally noticed with the help of
the moonlight that other than the toy on the bed, this small bedroom was basically a vacant
room. The bed sheet and the curtains seemed to have just been washed. The wardrobe was half
opened, the inside empty. Personal belongings like mugs and chargers were nowhere to be
found, and even the bedside lamp was not plugged in.

This was obviously an unoccupied room.

Then, what was up with Travellers' Sect? That stuff about "She went out at this time, came back
at this time, and even called for food delivery" had sounded like the truth.
For a moment, the lost and confused master-and-student pair—one inside the room, the other
outside—were silent and immobile, their eyes landing in unison on the plush toy holding the sign,
staring as though they were observing a moment of silence and self-reflection.

After a while, Xu Lin finally moved forward cautiously. From far, he nudged the plush toy with the
crossbow. The toy flipped over and a sticky note that was not attached firmly fell from its back.
One large word was written on it: Idiot.

Xu Lin's pupils contracted. "Run!"

But it was already too late.

He had barely finished speaking when there was a sudden explosion of police sirens downstairs.

Right now, Xu Lin no longer had the time to think carefully about what was happening. He and his
lizard disciple outside the window both turned and fled.

One of them climbed outside the window, the other dashed towards the corridor.

The disciple didn't have time to remove the crossbow he had fixed on the window. Seeing that
quite a number of police cars had arrived downstairs, all he could do was to set his limbs
scrabbling desperately to climb to the side. He planned to find a shadowy spot where he could
climb to the ground and jump over the wall to escape.

His soul that had been startled by that plush toy just now had yet to calm down and his palms
were covered with sweat. As he climbed, he looked to the ground, afraid that the car lights would
shine on him. Suddenly, a soft, warm glow fell on his body and a peculiar feeling crawled up his
back. Half a beat late, he looked up and locked eyes with the person in the enclosed balcony next
door.

Just like him, that person was wearing a face mask. Half their face was hidden and only a pair of
curved smiling eyes were exposed. One hand held a golf club, the other hand was propping their
head up. Who knew how long they had been watching him.

The big lizard disciple was shocked until he nearly got a heart attack. His hands and legs were
numb as wood. The golf club swiftly extended out the window, slamming mercilessly on his
fingers. The ten fingers were connected to one's heart; this move was completely lacking in
morals. The big lizard nearly cried from the pain. He stretched his neck up and opened his mouth,
swallowing his anguished shriek together with his snot and tears, and climbed upwards while
crying.

Meanwhile, the golf club was not giving him any chances. Without waiting for him to climb up,
the second swing spun towards him, steadily and accurately and ruthlessly smashing on the back
of his knees. The big lizard climbing upwards fell directly to the ground without a sound.

Right then, a large metal hook was thrown out of the eighth floor, hooking right into the big
lizard's belt. On the eighth floor, Han Dongsheng's veins bulged through the thick layer of fat on
his arms. The rope was let out quickly, pulling the big lizard to a stop the second before he landed
on the ground.

The big lizard's belt broke with a snap. He crashed head first onto the roof of a police car and
under the dumbstruck stares of a few police officers, his black underpants and half a snowy-white
butt was exposed.

His shifu, Xu Lin, fled in an even more hair-rising way. No. 110 was a small building and the layout
was also very simple. Other than the elevator, there were only two stairwells. Once the people at
the bottom blocked those exits, he was completely cornered.

Xu Lin's eyes and ears were sharp. He had just reached the sixth floor when he heard the sound
of footsteps running up. Right after that, the police officers' voices echoed in the narrow
stairwell.

"Watch the corridor and stairwells at both ends!"

"The person who made the report said that this duo are from the same gang as the two groups of
evil cult members we caught previously. They are very dangerous and there is a high chance that
they have weapons on them. Everyone, be careful!"

"Keep an eye on the roof and the windows. Last time, they escaped by climbing the building!"

"His accomplice has already been caught!"

"There's one more. Male, around forty years old, has parted hair!"

The police officers did not suffer from calcium deficiency and running to the sixth floor was just a
matter of a couple of minutes. In his panic, Xu Lin ran to the public corridor on the sixth floor and
immediately saw the rubbish chute at the end of the corridor. Only the old buildings from the
past had this kind of rubbish chute—every floor had a rectangular opening that when opened,
trash could be thrown directly into it; the chute connected to the dumpster downstairs and was
cleared by the property management on a regular basis.

There was a small lock on the opening of the rubbish chute. Without thinking too much, Xu Lin
wrenched it off with brute force.

Logically, this chute could not fit a fully-grown adult human but after some snapping sounds
emitted from Xu Lin's body, he unexpectedly became smaller in size just like that—this man had
the legendary Bone Shrinking Skill! Like an invalid with half his body paralysed, he twisted and
stuffed himself inside, then gritted his teeth as he pushed his bones back into place. Holding a
small flashlight in his mouth, he climbed down the rubbish chute.

The opening to the rubbish chute closed with a bang. The unit near the rubbish chute was
occupied by an old man who had to go to the bathroom frequently. He had woken up at night
and heard the noise and pushed open the window that opened onto the corridor to take a look.
He rubbed his eyes, only half awake. "Who's that playing with the rubbish chute in the middle of
the night? It was sealed off that year where there was SARS."
Xu Lin climbed all the way to the bottom in the dark and sat on the ground. He stared in dismay
at the large locked metal gate at the chute opening, his nose catching a whiff of the "lingering
perfume" from '03.

"The one that fell down has been safely caught. The older one is very experienced and should be
able to escape." Gan Qing cupped her hands in a martial arts salute at Han Dongsheng on the
eighth floor who had assisted them. She took out a paper napkin from her pocket and carefully
wiped Yu Lanchuan's golf club, then tossed it to him. "When you have time, you should change
your window. This old-fashioned window of yours opens immediately with just a nudge from the
outside."

Yu Lanchuan had never done anything to his granduncle's apartment because when he moved in,
his only intention was to save one year of rent. He had never thought of staying at this "old,
rundown and small" place for long and even less did he think he would pick up a Gan Qing here.

He didn't reply and just studied her with his brows furrowed.

Gan Qing typically dressed very simply. The clothes she bought were bought together with her
groceries at the supermarket. They usually didn't fit very well, so they were all of the loose and
wide style. Her mid-length hair was always unbound and unstyled, covering more than half her
face. Her face did not have makeup on it and because she was tall, she lowered her head slightly
when she walked among the crowd. She did not stand out at all.

Right now, she had a face mask on and was wearing a tight-fitting black outfit, as well as a pair of
sneakers that made no sound when it landed on the floor. Her hair was all tied up, only a few
stray bangs fell onto her face from the corners of her forehead, accentuating her eyes and a small
section of her high nose bridge. Her eyes gleamed as brightly as a pair of blades. One of her
hands was in her pocket. She leaned against the window, the very picture of neatness and
efficiency, a sword ready to be unsheathed at any moment.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "What's with that getup?"

Gan Qing stared blankly, then laughed. "My old clothes. I basically stopped growing after I hit
seventeen. My clothes from then fit better than the ones I bought just yesterday."

The shoes were good shoes, light and well-fitted. If she wore these clothes to go out now, they
also wouldn't appear too out-of-fashion.

After all, Wei Xiao had never treated her lightly the way she did to herself. When she was young,
the food she ate and the clothes she wore, even if they weren't any sort of branded or luxurious
goods, were all the best he could get within the limits of his abilities. He had taken care of this girl
he had picked up like he was raising a pampered little flower, in silence yet with utmost care,
unwilling to let her know the cruel story of her past.

"Little Master Yu, I might have to leave right away for quite some time."

"You're leaving now?"

The two of them spoke almost in unison. Their voices overlapped and they both closed their
mouths, again almost in unison.

"Didn't we talk about this already?" Gan Qing was the first to speak. "To draw out Wang Jiusheng,
we need to take the chance now when he doesn't have enough people to go around and make
him so scared that he can't even sleep. Old Sect Leader Yang wants to give his brothers in the
past an explanation; I, too, want to give my sect an explanation."

Yu Lanchuan said in a low voice, "I didn't think it would be so soon."

"Wang Jiusheng is overseas and the situation here is beyond his control. He hasn't planned
anything and is afraid that he won't be able to find me if I escape, which will make him feel
unsafe for the rest of his life. Hence, he's making his move in a haste and is practically shouting at
the Xu clan people that he's 'borrowing a knife to commit murder.' It's not on the same level as
when he plotted the downfall of Beggars' Sect and my shifu. It proves that Wang Jiusheng is really
driven to desperate straits this time," Gan Qing said. "It's a good thing. After this, I'll still need to
count on you guys to work with me."

Yu Lanchuan nodded absent-mindedly. "Then…"

"Hmm?"

What about… after you have given your explanation?

He was thinking, if these deep grudges and old matters could really be brought to a conclusion,
could Gan Qing, who became Wan Mu Chun again, still come back? Could she still appear openly
before everyone, without having to hide?

Even though it was not the right time to talk about it now, Yu Lanchuan had always looked three
steps ahead for every one step he took. On this, his heart was as clear as a mirror.

"Nothing." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses up and said with a calm face, "What did you decide on
with Sect Leader Yang and the rest? Tell me about it. Do you guys have a chat group? Invite me
in."

"Sect Leader Yang and Meizhen-jie are contacting the old members of Beggars' Sect and
Travellers' Sect. I see that Meizhen-jie is contacting the scapegoats and victims' families one by
one, maybe they want to gather everyone together to hash it out. Wang Jiusheng has people
working for him inside Travellers' Sect; when he finds out about this, he'll definitely think that
Meizhen-jie is taking the chance to usurp his position and will surely come back to the country
then. They are in the light while I'm in the dark; I'll take the chance to fish him out," Gan Qing
said briefly. Before Yu Lanchuan could furrow his brows at this crude and rough plan, she added,
"What chat group? Sect Leader Yang is so old now and doesn't know how to use smartphones at
all. Furthermore, I also won't contact them. Good and evil are two different paths, and the
grudge of many years between Yang Ping and Wei Xiao is also wedged in the middle. Isn't it
awkward enough as it is?"
Yu Lanchuan was shocked. "Operation guidelines, backup plans, gathering the crew… you guys
have none of these?"

Gan Qing thought for a while and could only answer with, "We have a tacit agreement."

"What you guys have is madness!" Yu Lanchuan was going out of his mind. He caught hold of her.
"I know you guys are unreliable but I never thought it was this bad!"

"Shh—" Gan Qing quickly reached out to lower his volume, then sighed. "Little Master Yu, you've
held the position of alliance leader for quite some time now, why do you still sound like a
blockhead the moment you open your mouth? When you make your way in jianghu, can you put
everything clearly in words? Everyone acts according to the tacit agreement."

"And that's how, thirty years ago, Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect's 'tacit agreement' turned a
power struggle into a criminal case with multiple lives lost!"

That was indeed true. For a moment, Gan Qing was at a loss for words.

"Let me do the overall planning this time, you guys don't have to face each other and feel
awkward." Seeing that Gan Qing was about to say something, Yu Lanchuan waved to cut her off.
"I really don't understand people like you guys. You guys think that those things of yours are out-
dated now, yet you're always letting those out-dated things dictate your actions. Don't you think
you're being in conflict with yourselves?"

Gan Qing smiled in resignation. "Little Master Yu, not everyone has high academic qualifications
like you. Not everyone has studied abroad and can adapt to modern times."

"But I also do not think that some olden things are out-dated." Yu Lanchuan pushed his glasses
and shifted his gaze away. "Even though you guys sometimes use methods that are
inappropriate, the kind of eternal freedom you guys have and that fearlessness that would never
settle for something less can make others envious."

Gan Qing was stunned.

Yu Lanchuan continued to add a very annoying line. "I'm just saying it as it is. Don't think I'm
praising you."

Gan Qing's eyes met his and she said suddenly, "I wanted to quietly come in and rest awhile just
now. I didn't think you would still be awake… Is your work that tiring?"

There seemed to be a rock weighing on Yu Lanchuan's heart. He said listlessly, "Sometimes."

Gan Qing sighed. "How much money do you need to earn for it to be enough? Must you live your
life squeezing ten yuan out of five yuan? You're… really not easy to support."

It sounded like advice, and also like a farewell. Yu Lanchuan faintly detected something ominous
in those words and looked up in a panic. Before he could see her face clearly, Gan Qing suddenly
reached her hand past him and took out an old textbook on interpretation from the bookshelf on
his enclosed balcony.

"Lend me this for a few days," Gan Qing said. "I need to learn some skills that can earn money."

For a moment, Yu Lanchuan couldn't react. He stared blankly as Gan Qing took his book and shot
him a smile, then left through the front door of his home.

After a full minute, he finally regained his senses and realised what she meant. His heart jolted
and he turned to chase after her.

But Gan Qing had already vanished.

Chapter 108
There was a small seam at the side of the metal door of the rubbish chute through which sounds
from outside could slip in. Trapped in the "historical remains," Xu Lin stuck close to that seam,
holding his breath and focusing his attention as he got a handle on what was happening outside.

His disciple had really been caught. He heard a man shout, "Take this one away first... You guys
should give him something to cover up. Everyone else, continue to search. Xiao-Yu, if you don't
have anything else, you should follow them back for now. If we can't catch our target, you're
responsible for preparing the materials to declare him a wanted criminal."

Xu Lin gripped his fists so tightly there was a sound.

All these years, life was getting harder and harder in the big city. Just a moment of carelessness
and they would be reported and arrested. Didn't Paradise get overturned completely just last
year? They could only keep changing their area of operations to various small places. Xu Lin felt
that he would soon be going to the old and poor marginal regions to join the elections and
become the village secretary!

Because of this trend, the quality of disciples and followers they recruited were naturally also
getting more and more worrying.

Xu Lin boasted that he had obtained the true teachings of Wan Mu Chun. Wan Mu Chun's martial
arts weren't the same type as those where a person shattered rocks with their chests, it was
entirely about technique. Without some ingenuity, one would not be able to master it. For
example, in his group of disciples that Gan Qing had defeated singlehandedly, each of them was a
dumb as a donkey and even had to first draw lines as a draft before putting their knives to work.
At a glance, one would think that they wanted to tattoo a large azure dragon on the person's
neck.

There were only a handful of disciples that Xu Lin would not be ashamed to bring out. The ones
that could work with him in tacit understanding, who could assist him with sneak attacks, were as
rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, only one among the tens of thousands.

Now, great. His feather and horn were broken just like that!
No matter how he thought about it, it was making him lose his head. Right at that moment, a
woman's voice carried over from far away. "...Yes, that's my home."

One of his eyes twitched. Zhang Meizhen!

"...I don't know. I have a tenant living there… maybe she offended someone."

"Today? Today, a few old friends whom I have not been in contact with for a long time suddenly
came over to look for me and said that there would be people coming tonight… Fortunately,
those people were all non-locals, they're not familiar with Yanning so they used their cabs... The
person who passed the message? I can say who it is… it's just that… the cab they drive isn't a
proper licensed one. Will I cause trouble for them if I say it?"

"My tenant said that she can resolve it herself and asked me to go out for a while to avoid the
trouble. She guaranteed that there will be no issues and even settled the rent in advance and
prepared to move out. I was afraid that something would happen to her since she's just a young
woman so I called the police… You guys didn't see her either? Oh, then it looks like she escaped
in time. It's good for her to stay low. There are all sorts of people nowadays."

On Xu Lin's neck, a thick vein was pounding fiercely.

That explained everything.

He thought, the reason why Travellers' Sect could solemnly swear that Zhang Meizhen wasn't
there was entirely because she knew what was going on and had left on purpose. All that
intelligence about Wan Mu Chun getting food delivery at such-and-such time had entirely been
made up by those few Travellers' Sect ruffians!

In total, Gan Qing had made her move twice. Once was when she followed Xiang Xiaoman and
overthrew the Xu clan's Chun division that had been operating in Yanning. The other time, she
pursued them to the rural tourism chalet where Paradise conducted their illegal cult preaching.
Both times, she couldn't really be considered to have exposed herself because after the incidents,
those people who could tell where she came from were all arrested by the police. Furthermore,
the news about Wan Mu Chun being in Yanning had clearly come from Travellers' Sect!

Travellers' Sect, that bunch of shit-stirrers, stuck their heads into this business and worked for
both sides. Wang Jiusheng truly embodied the saying "having a single unique skill is better than
having thousands of common ones." He could depend on "dragging others into the mud to cover
his own ass and borrowing a knife to commit murder" to survive his entire life.

Borrowing Beggars' Sect to tear down Zhang Meizhen, borrowing Yang Ping to be his own shield,
borrowing Wan Mu Chun's blade to make Wei Huan and his own sect destroy each other, and
even plot to have Yang Ping kill Wei Xiao with his own hands.

And now, Wei Xiao's disciple had crawled out of hell to take revenge. Coincidentally, Travellers'
Sect's might was weak, so without even thinking, Wang Jiusheng was directly pushing their Xu
clan forward.
Wang. Jiu. Sheng!

The police searched the area fruitlessly for over two hours before finally dispersing. Xu Lin
squatted until both his legs were numb but at last he had what he wanted. He climbed back up
the rubbish chute and under the cover of the predawn darkness, he slipped out again through
the sixth floor and melted silently into the night.

The incense smell on his body from 1003 seemed to have latched on to his very bones, lingering
around him, refusing to let him go. Even after half a night in the rubbish chute, it had not
dissipated the least bit. Unfortunately, Xu Lin's nose was already numb now and he did not notice
it.

Just like that, emitting a fragrant scent and cursing Wang Jiusheng, he ran back to look for his
accomplices.

The criminal police Miao Feng entered the interrogation room. Inside, Yang Ping heard someone
coming in but showed no reaction and just sat there without even looking up. A thin layer of skin
wrapped over his bones, the bluish veins appearing to be floating on the skin. His eyes were
sunken, looking like a pair of wrinkled jujubes that even appeared rather chewy.

Other criminals had a pair of handcuffs on them. Yang Ping was more special. After he was
discharged from the hospital, he had forced open one pair of steel handcuffs. He was truly a
dangerous person and hence, he obtained preferential treatment and was under multiple layers
of locks.

Captain Miao had met Yang Qing and Yang Yifan before. Of the two of them, one had an elegance
and poise beyond ordinary mortals, the other had an extraordinary aura. No matter how he tried,
he could not imagine how a person like this could be wedged between the two generations of
grandfather and granddaughter.

"I heard that you refuse to cooperate with the investigation, do not admit to taking drugs, and
also do not admit to committing murder?"

Yang Ping rotated his eyeballs towards him for a while, then let out a cold smile that showed his
yellowed teeth. "What drug did I take, did the lab test say? Who did I kill, do you guys have
proof?"

Captain Miao replied without changing his expression, "Indeed we do."

Yang Ping was stunned.

"Your old friend, Tian Zhanpeng, and more than ten other people have collectively identified you
as being involved in the death of a person called Wei Changsheng, also formerly known as Wei
Xiao. Their confessions have already been through repeated verifications." As Captain Miao
spoke, he took out a file from under his arm. "We also gathered these things."

As he spoke, he slid out the items in the file. They were none other than the stack of mysterious
photos Gan Qing had once received.
Yang Ping sat up abruptly. "What's this?"

Who took these photos?

Yang Ping widened a pair of eyes that resembled ping-pong balls. Those people whom he had
dragged into the matter to be his witnesses were all in the photos. They were living their lives
peacefully and wouldn't betray themselves for no reason. In that case… who else knew about
what happened at Mudpool Backlane?

"This was given to us by a public-spirited member of the public. I, too, would like to know,"
Captain Miao leaned his body forward slightly. "What are these? Oh, speaking of these
mysterious photos, there's another very interesting thing. Those friends of yours who identified
you all think that these photos were taken by you."

"Bullsh-"

"Because they also received a letter. We got our hands on it too." Captain Miao smiled. "Would
you like to know what was written in it? How about I read it out to you?"

Yang Ping sat in a daze for a while. Suddenly, his eye twitched like it was spasming. "Wang. Jiu.
Sheng!"

On a small holiday island in the Pacific Ocean, Wang Jiusheng startled awake. Black spots
appeared in his vision and he hurriedly fumbled his way to the bedside table, grabbing some pills
and throwing them into his mouth along with the half glass of water that remained from before
he went to sleep. Done, he pushed his pillow aside and fell back with his neck stretched out. He
lay down like a corpse gone cold, staring stiffly at the ceiling, groaning as he waited for his heart
palpitations to pass.

He was taking more and more sleeping pills, and they were becoming more and more ineffective.
When it was time to dream, he still dreamed. It was just that his mind was fuzzy in his dreams
and he forgot them the moment he opened his eyes. The only thing that remained was that kind
of feeling like his chest was being flattened by someone sitting on it.

One side of the hotel room had large floor-to-ceiling glass windows. A swimming pool was
connected outside. When the night wind blew, the shadowy trees swayed and from where he
was lying in the room, he could hear the sound of the distant waves. But these fine and dense
static noises did not bring him any peace. The moment Wang Jiusheng closed his eyes, he felt
that his surroundings were filled with whispers, like the empty room was crowded with humans.

Those who died deserved deaths, those who died unjust deaths, those whose spirits still lingered.

Suddenly, his phone rang. Wang Jiusheng startled and grabbed it. "Hello?"

The number he had been using had already been discontinued and was left behind in China. Only
a few of his trusted people knew his new number and it was used to control the situation in
Yanning.
Wang Jiusheng had lived through a crackdown once. In the 80s, during the time when they
clashed with Beggars' Sect and people died in a fire, there was a round of severe unrest in
Travellers' Sect. But when the storm was over, wasn't he still able to summon wind and rain as he
wished? Not only had he usurped Zhang Meizhen's position, he had even taken the chance to
wash his sect clean of their dirty past and had his own business. He had climbed to his current
position step by step.

Fortune and disaster were two sides of the same coin, no one could dictate them. Wang Jiusheng
had been through so many great storms in his life and every incident had seemed to be an
opportunity for him.

He believed that this time would be no different.

He initially wanted to leave temporarily to stay out of the storm and hadn't gone far, planning to
return to China once things calmed down a little. But who would have thought that not only was
the storm showing no signs of abating, it was even getting bigger. His people dropped out of
contact one by one and now, the number of people who knew this phone number was getting
fewer. It made Wang Jiusheng feel a kind of terror like he had been abandoned on the island and
he was almost hoping for someone to call him.

"President Wang," the voice on the phone said urgently, "she's starting to take action with her
Red Bat Token."

"...Who?"

"Zhang Meizhen. Recently, our people were taken away by the police every other day to be
investigated. The areas where our cabs work all have police squatting there, the shops
everywhere are having their licenses checked and the ones without licenses are sealed off
immediately. There are quite a lot of rumours going around the sect. People are saying that your
wife and children moved out of the country long ago and that you're definitely not planning to
come back or planning to care about whether we live or die. Zhang Meizhen took the chance to
contact a bunch of the sect's old fools in other parts of the country. They are discussing throwing
you out of Travellers' Sect."

In the past thirty years, Wang Jiusheng had always thought of Travellers' Sect as his private
property. For a moment, he could not comprehend that line "throwing you out of Travellers'
Sect."

He asked like he was dreaming, "What?"

"It's true. Right now, everyone's alarmed and worried. Quite a few people are swaying. The old
hag even contacted Beggars' Sect Yang Qing. That little brat from the Yu family sent out an
Alliance Leader's Command to gather everyone at the end of the month. He said it's to straighten
out the over thirty years of feuding between the two sects. That's right… they even found a
bunch of lawyers from somewhere, saying that they want to check our accounts and to check…
check your accounts. They also said that you have hidden the truth about Futongda for so many
years. It's clearly our Travellers' Sect property but now it bears the surname Wang…"
Wang Jiusheng shot up like a revived corpse.

"When are you coming back? If you don't show yourself, our brothers really won't know whose
surname to follow, North Branch Master!"

Wang Jiusheng's heart rate that was slowing down under the effects of drugs started to pound
wildly again. He sucked in a breath of cold air in shock and thought that he understood
everything now. That old hag who was fated to bring disaster to everyone around her had lived
alone for so many years. Why had she suddenly wanted to get a tenant? How could it be such a
coincidence, the tenant she got was none other than the Wan Mu Chun disciple who had been
freed from prison?

After all this fuss, it turned out that they were waiting for him.

It was all a sinister plot.

Wang Jiusheng was thinking that she had purposely used Wan Mu Chun as bait to lure him into
the trap, colluded with Beggars' Sect's Yang Qing and forced him to leave the country to dodge
the disaster, all for the sake of seizing the fruits of his more than thirty years of sweat and blood.

"What about that Wan Mu Chun?" Wang Jiusheng asked. "The thing I told you guys to do, is it
done?"

The other side of the call was silent for a while. "Yes, this is the second thing I was just about to
tell you. It should… be done."

Wang Jiusheng said angrily, "What do you mean 'should'!"

"I didn't see it with my own eyes. That day, two people from the Xu clan went. One escaped while
the other fell into the police's hands. Our brother who got in touch with them can't be contacted
now. Just think about it, if they did not succeed, why would the police go there for no reason?"

"What's going on with the police? Any news from the Xu clan?"

"President Wang, the news from them is that just barely after you used them as a knife to
eliminate Wan Mu Chun, you called the police on them. In the future, they will never again exist
in harmony with you."

"Bullshit. What the fuck does the police have to do with me…"

When he said that, his voice suddenly paused. Wang Jiusheng lifted his head. "What did you say
just now? Is that exactly what the Xu clan said? Saying that I used them… to eliminate Wan Mu
Chun."

"Yes."
After hearing that, Wang Jiusheng fell into a long silence. He stood up and walked to the full-
length window, pushing the curtains open and looking out into the beach in the distance.

To be safe, he knew that he should be more prudent and not return to China at this point when
the storm was the fiercest. He had made a point of being prudent throughout his life, of making
his kill in a single strike.

However…

Zhang Meizhen was the former North Branch Master. Thirty years after all that matter of right
and wrong, there were still old fools in Travellers' Sect who acknowledged her. The people Wang
Jiusheng could contact now were getting fewer. This time, for the sake of eliminating Wan Mu
Chun completely, he had acted in haste and incurred dissatisfaction from that group of shit-
stirrers from the Xu clan… Was he going to have to stay on this little rundown island, alone and
helpless, and watch someone seize the fruits of his life's blood and sweat while he was unable to
do anything?

His subordinate on the other end of the call fell into silence with him, then stammered,
"President Wang, to be honest with you… there are economic crime investigators coming to
Futongda everyday. I don't even dare go to the office recently. What should we do? Everyone's
waiting for your instructions…"

Wang Jiusheng closed his eyes.

Even if he never returned to China again for the rest of his life and handed over all those things
submissively to Zhang Meizhen, his overseas assets were enough for him to live out his old age
without worries.

Then, why should he?

The ruckus this time was so large. Travellers' Sect was a joke of a thing, here today and gone
tomorrow. Who knew what would happen to it in the future? If he was magnanimous this one
time, he might be able to escape from trouble just in time.

He thought, When a person has had their moment of glory and has once been powerful enough
to summon wind and rain, what else do they lack in their life?

Wang Jiusheng's eyes snapped open. "Book a flight for me. I'm going back."

However, greed was a terminal illness without hope or cure.

In a small two-storey house in the outskirts of Yanning, Xu Lin's back was soaked through with
cold sweat. Downstairs, his accomplices were asleep and dead to the world but he didn't dare
make a single noise.

Moonlight shone through the window. The barely visible fishing lines twisted and wound around
him, trapping him in a small spot. The most lethal one was stretched right across his throat. It felt
as though this joke of a thing would slit his throat even if all he did was swallow his saliva.
Other than that, there was also a razor blade at the side of his neck.

"Did you think that Paoding Jieniu is merely about drawing a curve with a little knife? Who taught
you that? The barrier to entry to the profession of killers is not that low, you know, dage." The
person holding his life in their hands sniffed his body and fished his phone out of his hands. "Can
you really not smell it yourself?"

Xu Lin moved his eyes in terror, not daring to make a sound.

"However, I do need to thank you for 'eliminating' me." Gan Qing thought for a while, then slowly
lifted the razor blade. "In the first place, it was Travellers' Sect's Wang Jiusheng that made use of
you guys. We'll trick him into coming back and I'll help you guys vent your anger on him, how
about that?"

Xu Lin was just about to feel relieved. "You…"

Before he could finish speaking, there was a pain on the back of his neck. His vision darkened and
he fell towards the fishing lines.

Shit. A final thought flashed past Xu Lin's mind. I'm going to be cut up into eight pieces!

And then, those fishing lines turned out to be only hanging loosely. The instant Xu Lin fell on
them, they bent limply around him, wrapping him like a spindle.

From downstairs came the sound of the door being slammed open. "Police! Someone reported
that you guys are hiding wanted criminals!"

"Boo." Gan Qing slipped nimbly out the window.

She passed through the streets of the suburb that were bustling yet strangely giving off a touch of
desolation, and got on the last bus of the day that had stopped right at that moment. She pushed
up the cap that was hiding her face, fished out her phone, and sent a WeChat sticker that said:
Ok.

The other party replied in seconds: Explain.

Gan Qing, "..."

She again pushed up the brim of the cap that had fallen down. Seeing that there was no one
around her, she connected her earphones and replied softly with a voice message. "Xu Lin was
taken away. I was the one who called the police. I didn't injure anyone and I'm also uninjured. I
didn't show my face. The tactic I used was to give him a scare… Right now, the Xu clan knows that
they were used by Wang Jiusheng. He no longer has this ally."

Yu Lanchuan's voice sounded in the earphones. "Got it. What did you eat this afternoon?"
Gan Qing was dumbstruck. She thought that there must be something wrong with her
earphones. "What?"

"What did you eat this afternoon?" Yu Lanchuan repeated. "Where did you sleep yesterday
night?"

Gan Qing said in resignation, "Do I even have to ask for instructions and make reports on what I
ate and drank and where I slept, Alliance Leader?"

"Nonsense. If you end up giving yourself stomach problems, doesn't that count as an injury? You
might as well get stabbed, the recovery is faster!" Yu Lanchuan pressed for an answer. "Hurry up
and answer!"

"Don't rush me, let me think…"

"Inability to remember what you ate in the afternoon is one of the signs of early stage dementia.
You're already at this point and you still haven't prepared old-age insurance for yourself! Still
being so wild!"

Gan Qing rested her head against the window. The swaying beams of the street lights wandered
back and forth in the bus, and amidst the rocking, they seemed to vaguely condense into the
feeling of serenity and tranquility of the long years of a wandering existence.
Chapter 109
While the various parties were stirring restlessly, the end of the month was almost here.

No. 3 High organised a spring trip for Year 1 and Year 2 students. Those who didn't want to join
only had to get a parent's or a guardian's signature and they didn't have to go. In this kind of
situation, Yu Lanchuan would always sign the form in advance and leave it to Liu Zhongqi to
decide whether or not to hand it in.

"Ge," Carrying a glass of milk, Liu Zhongqi chased after Yu Lanchuan and asked, "today's the
deadline for registration. Aren't you going to sign for me?"

Yu Lanchuan paused in the middle of putting on his tie and said nonchalantly, "I advise you to go.
Year 2's spring trip is basically the last group activity in your high school life. If you want to go
next year, you won't have the chance anymore."

"It's not that. I just feel that it's a bit strange. Ge, are you purposely making me go elsewhere to
stay for a couple of days?"

Yu Lanchuan's gaze shifted from the dressing mirror to glance at Liu Zhongqi.

"Oh, am I thinking too much… I keep feeling that the atmosphere in this courtyard here has been
a little strange recently." The high school student who didn't bother himself with outside matters
ran a hand through his hair and said rather as though to himself, "Maybe it's because Grandpa
Yang is ill. No one is organising the morning exercise team and they just straggle around every
day. I feel like the courtyard is no longer lively. There's no one next door too… By the way, is that
big swindler on a trip? The last time I forgot my keys, I knocked on the door but no one
answered."

Yu Lanchuan's eyelids dropped. "I'll change it to a fingerprint lock these couple of days."

Liu Zhongqi was startled. When they moved in, Yu Lanchuan had acted like he did not plan to stay
there for long. All the furnishings in the house were the ones originally there. The few added
items were basically those household items that the internet said could magically transform a
rented place into a home.

"If there is anything else that needs to be changed, write them all down in a list and give it to me.
When you're on summer vacation, I'll tidy up this place." Yu Lanchuan picked up his bag and
prepared to leave for work as usual. When he reached the front door, he suddenly paused and
asked Liu Zhongqi, "Do you still want to learn swordplay?"

Liu Zhongqi's eyes gleamed. "Yes!"

Yu Lanchuan studied him carefully with an odd gaze and asked, "What's good about learning
swordplay? There won't be swords for you to use in the future."

Back then, the old Yu Huaide had asked him the same thing.

The teenage Yu Lanchuan had answered seriously, "Without a sword, I can use a stick in its place.
Without a stick, I can still use my fists. After I learn swordplay, no matter what I encounter
outside in the future, I won't feel completely powerless anymore."

The old Yu Huaide let out a laugh upon hearing that and told him, "How could there be
something so wonderful, boy."

Liu Zhongqi stared blankly, then mumbled very honestly, "I just… want to learn. Why does it have
to be useful? Then, what use is trigonometry and fill-in-the-blanks exercises? But we still have to
sit exams for those so many times. If I learn swordplay, when I listen to wuxia stories in the future
it'll feel even more real… Can that be considered a reason?"

Even if one studied a mountain of books, it did not guarantee a good life.

Learning a powerful skill that was unmatched in the world could not do that, earning a fortune
could not do that, even having power and a high status could not do that.

"Sure. This use is not insignificant." Yu Lanchuan waved at him. "We'll wait until after your
gaokao next year. I'm going to work."

Last winter, the Martial Arts General Assembly was organised like a mass arranged dating. Those
who participated had all come in high spirits for the sole purpose of joining the excitement. They
had brought their own snacks and drinks, and had come to see Old Alliance Leader Yu's grandson.
A few days before, there were already people who had purposely hurried here from out of town.
For the week before and after the event, there was an endless stream of visitors coming to Old
Sect Leader Yang's home.
Who would have known that in less than a year's time, when Yanning had just started to recover
from the harsh seasons and the spring blossoms were just starting to blossom, the affairs of the
human realm had already turned completely upside down, a few cycles of the new replacing the
old already passed.

This time, the small courtyard of No. 110 was silent and still. But when the last day of the month
arrived, the people seemed to emerge from the ground, filling the space before anyone realised
it. To Yu Lanchuan, those who came were mostly unfamiliar faces and there were barely any
young people.

Old Sect Leader Yang entered on time. His hands were no longer holding the Dog Beating Staff.
He sat in a wheelchair, Zhang Meizhen was pushing him.

Yu Lanchuan went over to greet him. Old Yang strained to lift his heavy eyelids, the age spots
there a lot more prominent now, and smiled tiredly at him.

Yan Hao sent him a message: We're in the last row.

When Yu Lanchuan turned around, Yan Hao waved at him. Qiao-Qiao was sitting beside him, a
baseball cap on her head. She had probably just come out of detention for a second time. She
had gotten considerably thinner and her face was no longer bright and lively, and she looked like
she had grown a few years older. Worried about the girl's mental state, Yu Lanchuan rolled his
sleeves up and sat down on her other side.

"The few people behind Meizhen-jie can all be considered Travellers' Sect's people." Han
Dongsheng came over and explained in a soft voice. "Meizhen-jie and Wang Jiusheng are actually
not called 'Sect Leader,' they're called 'North Branch Master.' This is because Travellers' Sect is
divided into a few sections. Other than the section here, there are also the ones in the south and
in the west. They are basically made up of different groups. It's something like the 'wufu,' the
division of near and far family relatives into five degrees of genealogical distance. Everyone minds
their own business and they don't interfere with one another. This time, it's probably because
there's a major announcement that they came to bear witness. Out of the four main sect elders
of Beggars' Sect, three are held at the police station now. The ones here today are people I don't
know… I heard that they retired a long time ago."

Han Dongsheng glanced at Qiao-Qiao. "...They all lost family members to that fire. I don't know
where Old Yang found them."

Qiao-Qiao gripped her fists tightly.

Right then, Zhang Meizhen bent down and said something to Old Yang, then walked by herself to
the barebones stage. She picked up the microphone and aimed it at the stereo system. A loud
drone reverberated throughout the place, interrupting everyone's whispered conversations.

"It's me, the former North Branch Master of Travellers' Sect, Zhang Meizhen." Zhang Meizhen's
gaze swept around the area, smile creases appearing on her bright red lips. "There are a lot of old
friends here that I've not met for many years. I never thought that we would have the chance to
gather everyone again."

Before she could finish her opening remarks, from below, someone called out in a sinister tone,
"We, too, never thought that you would still have the nerve to stand here and talk. Zhang
Meizhen, back then, for the sake of an outsider man, you put the sect on a fire to burn. How
many of Travellers' Sect brothers have you harmed? Meanwhile, you dusted off your ass and just
left like that. You didn't even care about whether we lived or died. What kind of shitty North
Branch Master are you? Isn't Travellers' Sect just a tool for you to flaunt your status? Why, are
your looks failing now so you can't hang on to that man taking advantage of you, or is it because
Yang Qing isn't enough anymore that you finally remember us now, slut?"

After he spoke, burbling laughter rose from all around. There was an indescribable sense of
vulgarity and obscenity in the air.

This kind of laughter was like a "background track" that would never fall out of fashion. As long as
there was a woman standing in front of a crowd, as long as she was not a pure and saintly woman
or a simple and down-to-earth mother, this track could be used.

"Who signed the Alliance Leader's Command? Little Master Yu? You gathered so many people
here, just to make us listen to a hen clucking?"

"Zhang Meizhen, no matter how much lipstick you put on, your teeth are already falling out. If
you have any shame left, you should cover up that old face of yours."

"Where's Little Master Yu? Come out and say something."

"Little Master Yu, you're still young. You shouldn't get the habit of worshipping every fart from an
old lady, haha…"

Their words grew increasingly unpleasant. Yan Hao and Han Dongsheng both turned towards Yu
Lanchuan."

Han Dongsheng said, "Little Master Yu, I still have a few friends. I'll get them to-"

"Can you tell?" Yu Lanchuan fished out his phone and texted Yu Yan. "Wang Jiusheng's back in
the country."

Yan Hao looked at Zhang Meizhen on the stage. At the age of over seventy, her lipstick could no
longer hide the sagging corners of her lips and the face powder trapped in her wrinkles stood out
starkly under the bright lights. She was like the withered flower on a dried-out stick. "But… th-
they are really too much."

After sending the text, Yu Lanchuan's eyes wandered around the perimeter of the area. Someone
exchanged looks with him. Yu Lanchuan gave the person a slight nod and thought distractedly, Is
Gan Qing here? Where is she hiding?
He said casually to Yan Hao, "What kind of storm has Zhang Meizhen not seen before? Would she
care about a small scene like this?"

"Hah." Zhang Meizhen laughed. "I heard that just a few days ago, you people wanted nothing
more than to bury your heads in the sand. Why, now that the one backing you people up has
returned, you are confident again? Wang Jiusheng, if you can show your face openly just once in
your life and come out to say a few things, then I'll say you're at least worth a little something."

"Are you worthy of speaking to our North Branch Master?"

Zhang Meizhen said, "Your North Branch Master keeps dogs but doesn't spay them. They shit all
over the place, drool and hump table legs everyday, and all they can see with their eyes is a slut.
Any passerby can call the police to check his dog license, isn't that right, Comrade Police?" Zhang
Meizhen said.

Han Dongsheng snapped his head around to look at Yu Lanchuan.

"Why are you looking at me? This event has approval from the authorities." Yu Lanchuan put his
phone away. "Otherwise, I wouldn't sign the Alliance Leader's Command for you guys."

Han Dongsheng, "..."

All at once, the place turned pin drop silent.

"I gathered everyone here today because of a few matters. Since someone is accusing me of not
caring about whether my 'brothers' in Travellers' Sect lived or died back then, I have something
to say too. Back then, those who were imprisoned had solid evidence proving their crime. They
were involved in kidnapping and indirectly caused the deaths of those people. By the laws of any
country, they would be jailed. Everyone, what do you think I should have done to show my care
for them? Organise a jailbreak or bribe the public security officials for them?"

Her words were too sensitive. When she uttered the phrase "Comrade Officer" just now, many of
them already became nervous. They suspect that Zhang Meizhen did not have any good
intentions and wanted to use the mockery to set up a trap for them. For a moment, no one
answered her.

"The people I didn't do anything for, did Wang Jiusheng do something? It's been thirty-six years.
They've long since been freed. Those who took part in what happened back then, are any of them
still alive now? Stand up and share with us."

A voice came from a corner. "He didn't."

Everyone turned their heads in unison to see a thin and small man stand up. His hair was greasy
and streaked with gray at his temples, and he wore an ill-hitting outer garment that was stained
all over with engine oil. Standing in the middle of the crowd, he swallowed, discomfited and
flinching as he slowly rose.
"I… I'm Ruan Xiaoshan. Thirty-six years ago, because of this matter… I was imprisoned for seven
years."

Right after that, another three to four people stood up silently. There were both men and
women, all of them bearing the ashamed look characteristic of those who had been in prison.
They stood in a row, their hands together like there were still handcuffs on them. Zhang Meizhen
and Yang Qing had unexpectedly gathered the victims' families and the perpetrators together!

Qiao-Qiao shook and wanted to stand up. Yu Lanchuan and Yan Hao forced her back in her seat
with a hand each.

At the same time, someone in a corner quietly took out their phone and swiftly typed out a
message and sent it. A few seconds later, the phone showed that the message had failed to be
sent.

The person finally realised that at some point, there was no longer any mobile signal in the event
hall.
Chapter 110
This person was one of those who had jeered at Zhang Meizhen. He wore a grey-coloured short-
sleeved shirt. When he realised that there was no signal there, for some reason, he had an
ominous feeling. He quietly went closer to the window, trying to find some signal. At the same
time, he kept an ear out for what Zhang Meizhen and the others were saying.

He heard Zhang Meizhen ask, "You're saying that Wang Jiusheng has never done anything for you
guys?"

"After I came out of prison, I once thought of looking for my old brothers but they have all
become rich and are all 'directors.' I couldn't contact them… The ones running errands below
them are all from the younger generation and I don't know them." The person who called himself
Ruan Xiaoshan kept fiddling with his clothes, keeping his hands and eyes occupied, not daring to
look towards Beggars' Sect. His mouth moved. "Because of a moment's impulse, because of my
poor understanding of the law, and because I only knew to care about the so-called 'jianghu
loyalty,' I was not able to fully consider the consequences of my actions and even caused such a
disaster, harming others and myself…"

This long spiel came out in a single breath, smoothly without a hitch. It could be seen that during
his reform period in prison, he had done not a small amount of reporting on his thoughts.
Throughout his seven years prison term, his tongue had gone through hundreds and thousands
of rounds of training, and had gained muscle memory from all that.

While Zhang Meizhen was still stunned, he had already he had finished reciting the two main
points of "regretting past deeds" and "deep grief of repentance," his words coming out at a
steady and uniform beat, and was just about to enter a higher theme—the part about looking
forward to the future.

Zhang Meizhen quickly interrupted his report on his thoughts. "What are you doing for a living
now?"
Ruan Xiaoshan gave her a lost look. He stood where he was and thought for a while. He seemed
unable to come up with any kind of valid conclusion to sum up his life and could only say vaguely,
"I help out… here and there, I guess. And people give me some pocket money."

"In that kidnapping case back then, were you the leader?" Zhang Meizhen asked him.

Ruan Xiaoshan lowered his head and stared at the tips of his shoes. He nodded, there was
nothing left in his life to live for, this was a question he had answered too many times.

Zhang Meizhen raised a pointed eyebrow and asked a loaded question, "Think carefully, was it
you yourself who wanted to go? Did anyone instruct you? Did anyone urge you to?"

In the corner, the grey-shirted man failed to send his message for the third time. Sweat beaded
on his forehead and he was starting to be anxious. He happened to hear Zhang Meizhen's words
and couldn't help opening his mouth. "Zhang Meizhen, what do you mean by that? Who are you
trying to implicate with what happened thirty-six years ago?"

"I only want to bring this feud to a complete conclusion," Zhang Meizhen replied mildly. "Back
then, our two sides were so busy making a racket over this matter that we didn't have the time to
sit down and discuss the hows and whys together. Everyone should have calmed down by now,
right? It's time to lay this matter out clearly so that we don't carry it to our graves."

Upon hearing that, Ruan Xiaoshan fell to his knees with a thud. The few people behind him
followed suit and knelt too, like they were doing so reflexively. Ruan Xiaoshan shuffled forward a
few steps on his knees and faced Yang Qing, tears in his voice as he said, "I'm sorry to you all… I
only wanted to give you all a scare, I never thought people would die… I never thought…"

Behind Yang Qing, a row of elderly were seated sparsely. A single glance was all it took to see the
thick and heavy lethargy. After being tormented by hatred and guilt for over thirty years, these
family members of the victims did not even have the strength to smack the table and rise in
anger. Right now, they were only listening to the perpetrator's howling, numb and silent. A few
pairs of eyes were fixed on Ruan Xiaoshan. No one said a word.

"Sect Leader Yang," Zhang Meizhen turned to Yang Qing and said, "back then, I watched these
kids grow up. For what they did wrong back then, those who should be jailed have served their
jail term, those whose lives should be ruined have had their lives ruined. Until now, they still
don't know how that fire started. They were wrong but their crimes were not so severe that they
should die, am I right?"

Sect Leader Yang's hand rested on the plastic walking stick. His eyes fell slightly shut.

"But in this matter, there should be someone paying with their life." As Zhang Meizhen spoke,
she glanced at the door like her words were meant for someone some distance away. She asked
Ruan Xiaoshan, "Stand up and talk. Back then, why did you guys want to kidnap those people?
What were you thinking?"

Pulling his two rather stiff legs up, Ruan Xiaoshan climbed to his feet with some difficulty. "At that
time, I… was barely twenty-one. I was a delivery boy at a restaurant in a guest house. At the
restaurant… there was a server, a young boy, small and thin and also not a local. There were
always people bullying him. I helped him a couple of times before, so that boy really looked up to
me. He felt that I knew a lot of people, that I was amazing, that I knew the ways of the world. He
kept pestering me, wanting to join Travellers' Sect."

At that point, Ruan Xiaoshan's expression was rather distracted, as though he didn't feel that it
was real, as though his memories did not belong to him. Back then, had he been someone
important? Had there been someone who looked up to him? Had there been a time when he was
so spirited?

Zhang Meizhen asked softly, "And then?"

"That day, I went to that shop and when the boss was taking inventory, the boy came over and
said secretly to me…" Ruan Xiaoshan looked towards the victims' families behind Old Yang, his
eyes shifty and evasive, moving back and forth a few times before he finally saw some familiar
traces in those aged faces. Finally, his eyes fell on the leftmost person—the "Old Song" that
Zhang Meizhen had found by going to the retirement home herself. Ruan Xiaoshan stared at him
and mumbled, "I already said it back then… They kept asking me and I kept saying the same thing,
but no one believed me…"

Old Song slowly stood up. "Which guest house was it?"

"It's called… Ping'an Road Guesthouse."

"Ping'an Road." The corner of Old Song's eyes twitched slightly. There was a rather strange smile
on his face. "Sect Leader Yang, back then, Yang Ping had a falling out with you. He left his wife
and newborn at home and walked away without a word. Didn't you find out where he was
staying? It was none other than Ping'an Road Guesthouse. All of us knew, we just didn't tell you.
The two of you had deep feelings for each other and insisted on bringing the two sects together.
No matter what other people thought, Elder Zhu and I were panicking internally. We went to
Ping'an Guesthouse to look for Yang Ping for drinks, and also discussed how to put this thing to a
stop… We never thought that the walls had ears and that a little mole from Travellers' Sect
overheard us."

Ruan Xiaoshan said, "That younger brother of mine said that he heard you guys plotting to
fabricate a kidnapping to drive a wedge between both sides and force Old Sect Leader Yang and
Travellers' Sect to have a falling out… After hearing that, I found out which room Yang Ping was
staying in and climbed to his window to monitor him. I heard him contacting other people and in
a short time, I understood how they were planning to carry it out and where they were going to
keep those people."

Before he could finish speaking, a buzz went through the entire place. Those who were hearing
about what happened behind the scenes for the first time were completely in chaos.

Ruan Xiaoshan's eyes reddened. Ignoring everyone, he curled up where he was and said as
though to himself, "I was so good to that young boy. What did this thing have to do with him?
Why did he have to eavesdrop? If he heard them, fine, but why did he have to tell me? Wasn't he
just causing trouble for me…"
The grey-shirted man stuck to the side of the wall and slipped out through the back door under
the cover of the chaos. Once outside, his phone had a signal again, but it kept breaking off and
reconnecting. He cursed in a low voice, and ran to the other side of the road.

Once he crossed the road, the signal bars were full.

The grey-shirted man found a secluded corner and hid himself there. He made a call. "Hello,
President Wang. They called the police and even blocked off the mobile signal in the place. I
couldn't even send messages just now… That old demoness dug out the scapegoats from over
thirty years ago from who knows where—Ruan Xiaoshan, do you remember him? That guy who
led the kidnapping. He's gone silly from prison. The old demoness keeps digging traps for him,
leading him to say that there was someone behind him giving him instructions. I think she wants
him to drag you into the matter."

"Are they using the police to bolster their courage and make me too scared to show my face?" On
the other end of the call, Wang Jiusheng laughed. "This Zhang Meizhen, all her life she's acted like
she's the boss. She seems a hero among women, full of aggression, but in actual fact, she's
foolish and naive, like she has never grown up. Even if she bribes those few fools and accuses me
right there and then of pulling the strings behind the scenes, can the police arrest me? It's been
thirty-six years. Those little officers that she called to fill up the space weren't even born yet at
that time."

"Exactly!" Grey Shirt saw his chance and immediately sucked up to him. "She must know that
once you come back and show your face, her turn on the stage is over."

Wang Jiusheng was used to listening to bootlickers. He turned a deaf ear to him and lit a cigarette
for himself.

He knew what Zhang Meizhen was thinking. Back then, due to a moment's carelessness, she
plunged into confusion and submissively handed over the position of North Branch Master to
him. At that time, both Travellers' Sect and Beggars' Sect were affected by the crackdown on
illegal societies and were severely shaken. The people involved on both sides either lost their
loved ones or went into prison. He, Wang Jiusheng, was the sole winner. After so many years,
even a donkey would have realised what that meant. It appeared that Zhang Meizhen wanted to
take advantage when Travellers' Sect was going through yet another internal strife and Wang
Jiusheng was forced to leave the country to bring the old case to light and set things straight.

Her preparations were quite complete too. She had even somehow managed to invite Beggars'
Sect to put on a performance with her.

But did this foolish old woman really know what her gentlemanly Yang-dage had done?

Grey Shirt asked, "President Wang, what should we do now? Will you be coming over?"

"No. Let them act on stage as much as they want, I won't be going up to act like a monkey,"
Wang Jiusheng said. "Wait ten minutes. I'll get someone to send something to you."
Grey Shirt received instructions from Wang Jiusheng and gained a boost to his confidence. He put
his phone away and went to a nearby supermarket to buy cigarettes, then stood by the roadside
and leisurely blew out clouds of smoke.

Right now, spring was waning, the season changing to early summer, and there were hints of
summer heat in the air. The scholar trees everywhere in Yanning filled the view with flowers,
their dense leaves blocking the sunshine—and also blocking prying eyes. On the large scholar tree
behind Grey Shirt, Gan Qing quietly laid low at the treetop, hiding herself under the cover of the
leaves rustling in the wind. She took out a Malteser from her pocket and threw it into her mouth.
The chocolate was a little melted, leaving sticky stains on her fingers which she casually wiped on
the tree.

At the event hall, the perpetrator Ruan Xiaoshan had at first been suppressing his choked-up
emotions but after a while, he could not hold back anymore and started to bawl like a child. The
atmosphere in the hall was exceptionally strange. The perpetrators and the victims' families
looked at each other but no one seemed to want to take revenge on the other side. Instead, they
seemed a little like they wanted to cry their hearts out.

Thirty-six years. Even the strongest spirit of loyalty had been scattered by the wind. When
recalling those bitter years spanning half their lives, what had been in those years? What had
they strived for? What kind of life had they lived?

How absurd everything was!

Even three dogs gathered together would snap at each other to sort out their ranks; power
struggles existed everywhere and the ones that were more tragic and more absurd than this
were too many to be counted. It was just because the old jianghu was already buried by
mountains and carried away by the rivers, the jianghu customs and loyalty already becoming the
dregs of feudalism, that the things they care to fight over were—in the eyes of their descendants
—merely them having nothing better to do with their time. Hence, other than the absurdity of
the situation, it was also especially comical.

Yan Hao sneaked a glance at Qiao-Qiao. The little mute girl seemed to have turned into a statue
standing far from what was happening, watching all those people wipe out the debts and enmity
between them.

He shivered. His neck shrank back and his shoulders hunched up. He felt that his social anxiety
was getting worse.

When they were done crying, Zhang Meizhen, who had been watching like a bystander the whole
time, again signalled to everyone to quiet down and asked Ruan Xiaoshan, "Are you still in
contact with that brother of yours who worked at the guest house? What is he doing?"

Ruan Xiaoshan's reaction was a couple of beats slower than it had been just now. After a while,
he finally shook his head and stammered, "Later on, I didn't see him again. I heard that he
entered Travellers' Sect. I guess someone else must have introduced him… He should be at
Futongda now. He changed his name and went to be a vice president at a branch somewhere in
another part of the country. I thought of looking for him before but I couldn't contact him. When
I finally got his number, his calls were taken by his secretary."

"I see." Zhang Meizhen narrowed her eyes slightly. "Among you, there are those whose wives and
children left you, and those whose families were destroyed and lives lost. After everything was
over, no one obtained any benefits. It looks like only two people achieved anything—one of them
is Wang Jiusheng who 'stepped up at a moment of crisis' and took over as the North Branch
Master; the other one is the eavesdropping little server who, at the start, was a rural migrant
who was bullied every day but transformed in a flash and is now a person of power."

"What do you mean by that?" Old Song asked, his eyes red.

"Nothing," Zhang Meizhen said. "I just want to know, the three of you back then—you, Elder Zhu
and Yang Ping—might not have been skilled experts but you were not deaf, right? A little server
who can neither fly in the air nor drill into the ground eavesdropping outside for so long, and
none of you three knew about it?"

Old Song was stunned.

Zhang Meizhen turned towards Ruan Xiaoshan. "What happened after you eavesdropped?"

"They planned to first find a guest house to stay the night, then rent cars to go out of town for a
trip. I found a few brothers and we hid ourselves in advance at the place I overheard them saying.
Halfway through, we launched a sneak attack, knocking them unconscious and taking them away.
At that time, we had a bit to drink and we hadn't thought of what to do with them. So we just
found a place to lock them up and waited to see… to see how Beggars' Sect would react the next
day."

"Only the few of you knew about that old factory?" Zhang Meizhen asked.

Ruan Xiaoshan shook his head. "No, North Branch… Wang Jiusheng also knew."

"How did Wang Jiusheng know?"

"One of the brothers working for him told him," Ruan Xiaoshan mumbled. "He has wide
connections."

Zhang Meizhen laughed. "Indeed. I'm impatient and bad-tempered, and spend every waking
second only thinking about being in love. I didn't have any plans for the sect's future either.
That's why, whenever you guys had any problems, you all went to Elder Wang for help, am I
right?"

Ruan Xiaoshan looked warily at her and said, "He hurried there to advise us to let them go. He
brought alcohol with him and patiently persuaded us and drank with us for half the night. In the
end, he convinced us. We definitely had to let them go, otherwise, what could we do? They were
all either old people or children. No matter how angry we were, it's not like we could hit them or
kill them. But Beggars' Sect did something so disgusting, we weren't content with letting them off
just like that. We wanted to wait and see when they would realise they had lost their people, and
when they were panicked and desperate, we would come out again and force them to admit
what they had done before returning the hostages to them. I.. at that time, I really hadn't
thought too much and I didn't take the hostages seriously either. Everyone had too much to drink
so we left one person to keep watch while the rest of us went back to sleep."

"I think this explains it." Zhang Meizhen straightened up. Her eyes swept across the Travellers'
Sect crowd behind her. "Everyone, on a usual day, no one would go to that old factory. It didn't
burn earlier, it didn't burn later, it just had to catch fire on the day there was a roomful of people
trapped inside. Other than these few people who fell into the trap themselves, Wang Jiusheng
alone knew about this… Ah, that's right, he also plied the people keeping watch there with
alcohol. After the incident, he was not implicated at all and even soared to success… Aren't you
wondering what kind of act he's putting on? He alone holds such a large corporation like
Futongda in his hands and who knows how many villas he has in Yanning. Is it unreasonable of
me to want to check his accounts?"

"Of course it's unreasonable." Someone pushed open the back door. Grey Shirt, who had slipped
out to look for a mobile signal just now, swaggered in and held up an envelope smugly.
"Everyone, back then, this Zhang woman already wanted to kneel down and fawn over Beggars'
Sect but she didn't succeed. Now she wants to take the chance while our North Branch Master is
away to hug Yang Qing's thigh, and is back to stir up trouble, slandering our North Branch Master
by accusing him of murder and arson. Zhang Meizhen, Yang Qing, take a good look, who on earth
was the one who committed murder and arson!"

Outside the hall, the Travellers' Sect disciple who delivered the letter to Grey Shirt angled his
head and listened for a few seconds. He looked around him and seeing that no one was paying
him any attention, he slipped back into a minivan, humming a tune and preparing to retreat in
victory. He didn't notice that someone had slipped silently into the back of the van.

Gan Qing stayed close to the back of the backseat to conceal herself. She unlocked her phone
and shared her real-time location.
Chapter 111
"It was me." Yang Ping was given a cigarette. Both his hands were shackled to the table and only
his fingers could move. His fingers held the cigarette and he moved his face closer to draw on it. A
large breath of nicotine entered his lungs, flowing around his chest like mist around a mountain
before being exhaled out. He also breathed out a groan. "It was me who found someone to start
the fire. But it wasn't on purpose, I didn't want to kill so many people."

Captain Miao's brows rose past his hairline. He thought, "Not on purpose" again. Does this pack
of bastards have any other excuse?

"Why would I lie to you? There's no need for me to do that." Yang Ping stared at the smoke
curling up from his fingertips and said nonchalantly, "Actually, as long as there were some
casualties, I would have achieved my goal. Having so many people die and the matter getting so
big, getting on the newspapers and T.V., and having a pack of police officers refusing to let it go
does not benefit anyone, right? At that time, I really did not think that the rundown factory
would have flammable and explosive items, and that it would explode right after it was set on
fire. That pack of useless idiots from Travellers' Sect really know how to pick a place, they can
forget to add salt even when eating shit."
"Was it your idea to have a false kidnapping?" Captain Miao asked coldly.

"How could it be," Yang Ping turned up the corners of his lip in a false smile. "Could I think of such
a rotten idea? It's obviously from those Beggars' Sect elders who want to start trouble yet don't
dare to. They have holes in their brains. I ask you, if you fake a kidnapping, can you fake it for the
rest of your life? Don't those people have to come back anyway after a couple of days? There are
old people and children in the group, and their brains don't work very well. Once someone lets
the truth slip, it will become a joke. Back then, when they came to me to discuss this thing, Wang
Jiusheng happened to be with me. Wang Jiusheng and I are not friends but the two of us shared
the same goal, which is to get Zhang Meizhen to fuck off to somewhere far. Because it wasn't
convenient to let the Beggars' Sect people see Wang Jiusheng, I told him to stay out of the way
for a while. After I got rid of those two idiots, Wang Jiusheng came out and told me that we could
turn this thing from fake to real."

Yang Ping's tone when talking about this sounded like he was saying "I ate noodles yesterday."
The deaths of so many people seemed to only be a moment's carelessness that resulted in
burning the gravy. The purplish tracks of his veins floated on his skin, covering the back of his
hands and his temples. The forensic investigator said that it should be the result of something
similar to stimulants, together with a method of usage that had yet to be studied. This was their
so-called "demonic skill" which could awaken a body's hidden potential and allow him to employ
a strength that was beyond his body's capabilities for a short period of time.

Any kind of drug that affected the body's nervous system would change the physiology of the
brain to a certain degree. Captain Miao didn't know if Yang Ping was born cold-blooded or if he
had practised his demonic skill until he had lost himself. Either way, he really did not seem
human.

"After that, the two of us split up and acted separately. He went to arrange for a few of the
hotblooded idiots under him to kidnap those people while I went to look for two of my brothers
and got them to search everywhere for a few little hoodlums who couldn't last long anymore,
and had them start the fire… they're the kind of people who had offended their enemies or have
high-interest debts."

"Did those people know the consequences of their actions? Did they know that there were
people inside the factory they set fire on?" Captain Miao pressed in.

Yang Ping smiled. "Your questions are truly naive and innocent. Didn't I say just now? These
people wouldn't last long, they were at the end of the rope and had no other way to survive. Put
yourself in their shoes and think; at that time, if someone came and gave you money and agreed
to arrange for you to leave town and become a new person, would you care what they were
asking you to do? Of course they wouldn't dare kill someone directly but just throwing a cigarette
butt took no effort. As for what happened after they threw it, who cares! Comrade Officer, when
you're my age, you'll understand. Every hero is living their nightmare, every coward dares to
cover their eyes and take a gamble out of desperation."
At first, Captain Miao thought that those words were rather reasonable. Half a beat late, he
realised what was going on. The key point in Yang Ping's last sentence was in the first half, "Every
hero is living their nightmare"—at this point, he could still stay calm and feel sorry for himself!

Yang Ping was shriveled and thin and small. His appearance was fierce and from head to toe,
there wasn't anything that could make a person like him. When he was young, his mother had
refused to take care of him. When he grew up, his father cut off ties with him. His scoundrel
friends chased after fame and profit, and had come to him and then left him. His wife and child
regarded him as the source of all misfortunes in their lives. Hence, all he could do was to become
ever more narcissistic, to the point of driving himself to the brink of death and back, his feelings
as deep as the ocean.

"Who knew what kind of terrible fengshui that old factory had. Not a single person managed to
escape, they all died in the fire. We really didn't expect that," Yang Ping said. "This trouble we
caused was a little too big. We panicked. The follow-up on this matter was all planned by Wang
Jiusheng alone. The idiots from Travellers' Sect bore the crime and entered the police station
while the rest were sent away, including the brothers under me."

"To the flour factory in the neighbouring province?" Captain Miao asked.

"Mm, I think so." Yang Ping nodded. "They should have gone to the flour factory later on. I'm not
sure either. They should have been transferred to quite a few places. Wang Jiusheng has so much
money, how hard could it be for him to make arrangements for two people? I was busy practicing
martial arts and didn't have the time to care about these things."

Captain Miao's gaze fell on the vicious-looking veins on his hands. "What kind of martial arts were
you practising?"

Yang Ping glanced at him, his gaze as light as a feather. "You're an outsider, you won't
understand even if I tell you."

"Where did you learn it from?"

"All the demonic and unorthodox paths in the world are under the Xu clan," Yang Ping answered
calmly. "This skill of mine is called 'Rebirth[1].' Only someone who's naturally born with a
deficiency and whose meridians have been completely destroyed can practise it. How much
suffering it entails, hah, it's not something you young people who only watch T.V. and play with
your phones after work can even begin to imagine. Only the most hard-headed person can learn
it. It's like it's specially made for me. Maybe Heaven knew that if I couldn't take my revenge on
Wei Xiao, I would never rest in peace."

"Why would they impart it to you?"

"If they didn't, it would die out. No one can practise it." Yang Ping spread his hands. "The Xu clan
were at their peak more than thirty years ago, during Xu Zhao's time. Count for yourself, how old
would Xu Zhao be if he's still alive now? Somewhere between 110 and 120. He would be a
fucking centenarian, wouldn't he? Once Xu Zhao, their backbone, is gone, those 'Xu clan people'
become worse day by day. Internally, they have no one who can control things and they only
know how to fight among themselves. Every day, they either brainwash the old people left
behind in the rural mountains or come up with some nonsense like Paradise to go around and
swindle people. I'm the Young Master of Beggars' Sect. Me hanging out with them is giving them
face."

"Who introduced you to them?"

Yang Ping laughed, a deeper meaning hidden inside. "Your reaction is quite quick. It was also
Wang Jiusheng."

"After that fire, I didn't have much contact with Wang Jiusheng. One day, he suddenly came to
look for me. He said, that brat Zhu Cong had somehow wrapped himself around Wan Mu Chun's
Wei Huan's thigh and was investigating the old case. I said, who gives a shit about Wan Mu Chun,
Wei Xiao was just a little bastard who only knows how to hide himself. What new thing can his
useless disciple do? So Wang Jiusheng told me that Wei Huan had already revolted from his sect
and had officially gone back to the old ways of his sect's ancestors. For the sake of tracking down
people, he sold himself to the Xu clan and accepted jobs from them to kill people. Wei Huan is
nothing but the Xu clan could not be looked down on… But everyone is just trying to survive. If
you have money and power, then you have the basis for a partnership. There's nothing that can't
be discussed."

"We ate together a few times and both sides were quite sincere. The Xu clan lacked capable
people who could help them do things. For me, as long as I could take revenge on Wei Xiao,
anything was fine. As for them, they had obtained the Paoding Jieniu skill anyway so Wei Huan
did not have much use anymore. Furthermore, that kid was just like Wei Xiao, always thinking
that he was on some high moral ground and really did not listen to anyone. Meanwhile, Zhu Cong
was a time bomb."

"Hence, you people lured Wei Huan and Zhu Cong to the flour factory and planned that
explosion. Weren't those people in the flour factory your brothers? You people killed your own
men too?"

"They were the ones who were heartless first, they can't blame me for being faithless," Yang Ping
said coldly.

"What do you mean?"

"They're both nothing good. After Wang Jiusheng arranged for them to be sent out of town, all
they did was eat and laze every day. They said that they have evidence of what happened back
then and made their living through blackmail and extortion. There were many times when they
knew that I definitely would not have money so the target of their blackmail was Wang Jiusheng.
This was something Wang Jiusheng told me later on. Wei Huan and Zhu Cong were investigating
the old case and fought their way there, and the two of them were pissing their pants from
terror. This time, those two heartless trash looked for me. They wrote a letter to me, asking me
to find a way, and even threatened me by saying that if Zhu Cong found them, it would be over
for all of us. That letter fell into Yang Qing's hands. That old bastard nearly beat me to death!"
Yang Ping scoffed. "Since that was the case, it was just nice that I could cook them all in the same
pot and silence them."
Captain Miao fell silent for a while. He studied Yang Ping, then suddenly laughed.

The one thing Yang Ping hated the most in his entire life was to be laughed at. His face
immediately turned tense. "What are you laughing at?"

"You," Captain Miao said. "Uncle, you're quite amusing, do you know? You think you're working
with him but actually, you're a pawn that Wang Jiusheng used to exchange for Wei Huan. The
flour factory is Wang Jiusheng's business, his territory. Those two foolish brothers of yours sent
you a threatening letter from someone's territory, you still believe that Wang Jiusheng and you
are both their victims? How did you come up with that?"

When Yang Ping saw the photos Wang Jiusheng had sent to Gan Qing, he knew at once that he
had been betrayed. Otherwise, he wouldn't be sharing everything so easily. However, he was still
unable to tolerate other people pointing out how he had been fooled. His nostrils immediately
flared in anger, resembling two blackholes.

"The reason why Wei Huan and Zhu Cong could find out about the flour factory was because they
heard that your own father had, for some unknown reason, beaten you until he broke your legs.
They thought it was strange, that was why they investigated the people who had been by your
side back then. You are the lure that Wang Jiusheng put out, the scapegoat he had prepared,"
Captain Miao said each word slowly and clearly. "Didn't you realise that Wang Jiusheng had been
plotting the whole thing from start to end, yet he had never once stepped forward to do anything
himself?"

The grey-shirted man from Travellers' Sect strode into the hall where the Martial Arts General
Assembly was being held. The moment he opened his mouth, he drew everyone's eyes to him.
"Yang Qing, do you dare answer the question of why you broke your only child's legs back then
and ousted him from Beggars' Sect?"

Holding on to his walking stick for support, Old Sect Leader Yang slowly stood up.

Grey Shirt strode to the front. One of his accomplices squeezed out from somewhere, a very old-
fashioned tape recorder in his hands. Grey Shirt swiftly and smoothly ripped open the envelope
and took out a photo from inside. In the photo were three young people. Yang Ping was in the
middle and the three of them had their arms around each other's shoulders. "Are there any old
members of Beggars' Sect who remember that Young Master Yang had been very showy when he
was young? If he didn't have two followers beside him, he would not step out of the house. But
now, where are these two people who had followed him like a shadow? Without anyone
knowing, they have disappeared. Don't you all think it's strange?"

After saying that, he took out a roll of magnetic tape from the envelope. It was the kind used in
old-fashioned phone recorders for landlines and it looked very worn.

Grey Shirt held the magnetic tape up high above his head, showing it to everyone. Then, he let
out a scoff and gave Zhang Meizhen a look of challenge. He took the mic from her and put the
magnetic tape into the tape recorder.
After a round of static from decades ago, there was the sound of a man's tearful voice. "Yang-ge,
this is not the same as what we agreed on. When you told us to do that, you didn't say that so
many people would die! What should we do now?"

"Didn't I say that I'll first send you two out of town to hide for a while?"

Once this voice came out, the elderly were in an uproar. It was Yang Ping.

"Then, can we still come back? Yang-ge, I beg you, tell us something certain. Every day, Xiao-Qi
and I have nightmares the moment we close our eyes."

In the recording, Yang Ping said, "Why are the two of you so useless? Even Travellers' Sect aren't
pissing their pants and they have the bigger share in this matter. They won't find out about us.
Those few people who set the fire, unless they don't want to live anymore, they won't let it slip.
You guys won't be implicated. Furthermore, can the victims' families explain themselves in this
matter—who were the ones who planned this fake kidnapping in the first place? Why am I
sending the two of you away to hide? It's exactly because I'm afraid you two weaklings would fall
into the trap! Don't worry, after a few months, at most one or two years, no one would
remember this thing anymore. You two can come back and do whatever you should."

Beggars' Sect's Old Song stared blankly for a long while, then looked up at Yang Qing in disbelief.
"Old Sect Leader…"

Beggars' Sect immediately responded, "This kind of recording can be falsified."

"Exactly." Grey Shirt smiled, unruffled. "Back then, before these two brothers fled Yanning, they
had indeed been shrewd and remembered to record the call. But they probably never thought
that this thing would only be dug out after so many years, and that technology would advance so
quickly."

"Good question. It's because we Travellers' Sect are also the victims." Grey Shirt clapped his
hands and pointed at Ruan Xiaoshan and tsk-ed. "Look, just look at what this person has become.
Senior, you were jailed for seven years for nothing, did you know? From start to end, someone
had been leading you around by the nose!"

Ruan Xiaoshan seemed to be dumbstruck. He stood by the side, numb and stiff, and let out a soft
ahh like his soul had left his body.

Grey Shirt sighed and shook his head. "The two people in the photo are also really pitiful. Yang
Ping threw them aside once he was done using them and didn't care at all what happened to
them. These two people went on the run to hide. When the Elder Zhu's descendant pursued
them for their lives, they really had no other way to survive and wrote a letter to Young Master
Yang for help but in the end, it was like throwing a stone into the ocean. Later on, these two were
killed so that they would not talk and died in a small, unknown flour factory. Perhaps they had
some sort of premonition before their deaths; they entrusted these things to our North Branch
Master. Sect Leader Yang, what those two souls who died unjust deaths had written in the letter
before their deaths, you have seen it. Do you still remember?"
Yang Qing finally opened his eyes and looked at the other man in serene quietness. For some
reason, when he saw the old man's gaze, Grey Shirt suddenly could not continue speaking.

Yang Qing—the last sect leader of Beggars' Sect, Chuan Lin Feng of the Five Supremes—finally
opened his mouth. "The letter said, 'We did things for you. You had agreed to protect us. You had
also agreed that when the storm was over, you would let us return to Yanning. But we've been on
the run for more than ten years and they are also all dead now.'"

The clamour in the hall instantly turned into pin-drop silence.

"Everyone, Meizhen did not finish her words just now. Getting Little Master Yu to invite everyone
here today was my wish." Yang Qing slowly took a step forward. "I am here to confess my guilt."

Meanwhile, in a room in a five-star hotel in Yanning, Wang Jiusheng slowly took out a pair of
binoculars from his pocket and looked out at the cityscape from the window.

Beside him, a middle-aged man with a tacky appearance was pacing about anxiously. If Ruan
Xiaoshan was there, he might not even be able to recognise this middle-aged man dressed
completely in branded goods as the little brother of his who had worked in the guest house back
then, the one who claimed to have overheard Beggars' Sect secret plan and set them on the path
that destroyed their lives.

"President Wang, will that nonsense work?" the middle-aged man asked. "It… Even if it's taken to
the police station, can it be evidence?"

"No," Wang Jiusheng said unhurriedly. "It's been more than thirty years. Even the most ironclad
evidence has rusted through completely."

"But…"

"But when forced so far, Yang Qing would admit his guilt himself," Wang Jiusheng said.
"Otherwise, how would he explain why he had thrown Yang Ping out of Beggars' Sect for unclear
reasons? The authorities require rigorous evidence but Yang Qing doesn't, Yang Qing wants his
reputation. Back then, he concealed that letter out of selfish interests and he might not have had
even a good night's sleep in all these years. At this point, would he still argue his way out? Don't
worry, he doesn't have the tongue for it… Oh my, here it comes."

The middle-aged man looked up curiously at him. Wang Jiusheng passed the binoculars to him
and pointed out, "There, see that? Police cars… They came here following our people."

The Travellers' Sect disciple who delivered the envelope to Grey Shirt had just driven the car into
a small courtyard when he was surrounded by police cars that appeared out of nowhere. Without
waiting for him to react, the police swarmed up and very efficiently cuffed him and took him
away.

The small courtyard was barely 500 meters away from the hotel where Wang Jiusheng was
hiding. Through the binoculars, he saw everything clearly.
"The cut-off mobile signal at the event hall, the police lying in wait—they want to lure me out."
Wang Jiusheng let out a soft laugh. "This is the work of that Little Master Yu… Are the little brats
nowadays all so good at playing clever little tricks?"

The middle-aged man wiped the cold sweat on his face and muttered, "This is so suspenseful."

"What suspenseful, I already knew this would happen," Wang Jiusheng said. "Furthermore, even
if I go with the police, what can they do to me? I'm only avoiding them because they're
troublesome. Let's go, this place is too near, we'll move somewhere a bit further."

T/N:
[1] I translated the name of Yang Ping's "skill" as "Rebirth" but the original name is " 脱胎换骨"
which literally means "to be reborn and to change bones." The phrase comes from a Taoist
concept about achieving the Way and shedding one's mortal body, but is now more commonly
used to describe someone turning over a new leaf.
Chapter 112
"Your car is pretty good." Wang Jiusheng crossed his legs and caressed the genuine leather
interior of the car. "It looks low-profile on the outside but it's really comfortable to sit in. Hey,
Xiao-Chen, am I doing wrong by you by making you, the regional vice president, be my driver?"

The middle-aged man who was driving laughed along. "In the past, I only carried trays for other
people and couldn't even make my way into the back kitchen. Were it not for you, would I be
where I am today? It's only right that I do this."

Halfway through his words, he suddenly stopped meeting Wang Jiusheng's eyes in the rearview
mirror. Pretending to be concentrating on the road, he reached out and turned on the air-
conditioner. His hands slipped from the steering wheel, leaving a sweaty patch.

But the seat was blocking the view and Wang Jiusheng did not see that. He relaxed and stretched
out his body, looking through the window at the streets of Yanning rather interestedly. "By
following the right boss, you're already much better off than most people in the world. Slowly,
you will understand. People whose minds are unclear are the majority. Look at that group—Yang
Qing, Yang Ping, Zhang Meizhen—they hold smartphones in their hands, order food delivery and
take the high speed rail, but their brains are still stuck in the last century. The times change so
fast, do they think that the saying 'old gingers are the spiciest' applies to them?"

The driver agreed with him without really paying attention. Maybe it was because he had
become a "president" now; his ability to bootlick had deteriorated and he couldn't come up with
any flattery.

Fortunately, Wang Jiusheng didn't care. "The Xu clan are all idiots. As for the loathsome beggars
in Beggars' Sect, they don't even qualify as idiots, they only have chamber pots on top of their
necks. In my opinion, in the entire Yanning City, if you go through them one by one, only that Yu
Lanchuan can just barely be considered a normal person. After all, his academic qualifications are
high, it's just that he's a bit immature… Hey, do you feel that the words I'm saying are rather
conflicting? First I say that having experience is no longer useful, now I'm saying that the young
are immature."
The driver, "..."

Wang Jiusheng might have felt stifled being on the little island where he did not understand the
local language, his urge to express his views was intense and after asking the question, he
answered it himself like one of those inferior teachers teaching a class. "Actually, it's not. Human
affairs come and go, yet after thousands of changes, they remain the same at the core. You need
to know how to refine your experience and grasp that 'core,' and not just blindly do work for
show. All that stuff about reputation and jianghu chivalry are just like a cup of wine in the spring
wind during peach season, they would all 'change,' they are dregs. In the past, when your
brothers got into a fight and you threw punches to help, that was brotherhood. Try and do the
same now, and you'll be sentenced to a few years behind bars! I just don't understand, what year
is it now? That group of fools in the Xu clan are still playing at collecting demonic skills? If you
train until you become Dongfang Bubai, can you dodge bullets and missiles? What is it that
doesn't change? It is power, authority. Sects can go out of existence but with power, your
prestige remains. Even without a title, you are still an uncrowned king. I remember back in that
year, how our Futongda began… Xiao-Chen, are you going the wrong way?"

"Aiyo… I am! I forgot to turn, your words were too interesting. I… I've always been out of town
these few years and I'm not familiar with the roads in Yanning in the first place…"

"It's fine, we're not in a hurry anyway. Make a few more rounds." Wang Jiusheng waved,
unbothered. His spirits high, he continued his lecture, "That is how you refine your experience.
When you look at something, you can't only look at the surface. You have to see what kind of
lesson this story is teaching us. This time, you pick up a piece of meat jerky under the table; the
next time, you still only know to search under the table—that's what dogs do!"

He had barely finished speaking when the driver made a sudden turn, turning left at an
intersection that clearly indicated "No left turns," then pulled the emergency brakes.

In the backseat, Wang Jiusheng was not wearing a seatbelt and his entire body was flung left and
right. "You…"

"President Wang, I-I'm sorry." The driver was frozen in his seat, the words coming from his mouth
trembling at the same frequency as his body.

Wang Jiusheng suddenly understood what was going on. His eyes flew open. "Chen Dazhu, what
are you doing?"

"I-I-I don't have a choice, President Wang, I really… am just a hoodlum, I'm not capable of
anything else… I still have a wife and children, my wife just gave birth to our second kid… Sh-She
will kill them! She threatened me with my whole family, I really don't dare…"

A person who betrayed their friend when they were in their teens, when they have grown to the
age of forty-five years, the price for their betrayal is a little higher.

Back then, Chen Dazhu betrayed Ruan Xiaoshan and the others; of course he could also betray
Wang Jiusheng now. A dog, other than knowing how to pick up meat to eat from under the table,
can't change their habit of eating shit. President Wang had imparted his teachings on how to
overcome difficulties for free, his arguments and conclusions systematic and logical, but it
appeared that he had forgotten to link theory to reality.

Wang Jiusheng froze for two seconds. His reaction could not be considered slow; while the driver
was too busy mumbling his regrets to lock the doors, Wang Jiusheng seized the chance and
sprang up, tearing the car door open and fleeing.

The sound of police sirens suddenly came from nearby.

Regardless of whether or not the police being there was just a coincidence, the police would
definitely not cooperate with someone who threatened a member of the public with "I'll kill your
entire family." In his fright, Wang Jiusheng naturally thought, It must be the Xu clan.

Wang Jiusheng had returned to China for the sole purpose of fighting Zhang Meizhen for power.
Due to the unique aspects of this activity, added with his own suspicious nature, he was afraid
that there would be people within Travellers' Sect whose convictions were not firm and might
spoil his plans, so he had only kept one person he trusted the most by his side. In that incident
thirty-six years ago, this person had been in the same boat as him, sinking or swimming with him,
and furthermore, had relied entirely on him to make his fortune. This person would definitely not
go to Zhang Meizhen's side.

But he never would have guessed that instead of going to Zhang Meizhen's side, this man went to
the Xu clan's side.

And, because of his suspicious nature, he hadn't kept enough people by his side.

Wang Jiusheng knew that the Xu clan was very displeased with him borrowing them to dispose of
his enemies and also causing their people to be sacrificed, but both sides had known each other
for so long and had always prioritised peace between them. Harmony brings fortune, and taking
advantage of the other was a mutual thing. Even if there was a misunderstanding, they should let
him clean up his problems first and then slowly explain himself. He could also compensate them!

This state of things did not benefit either side! Were they mad?

In the full light of the day, Wang Jiusheng ran for his life. He felt as though there were two
shadows chasing him—one was the police, the other was the Xu clan.

The many years where he had been powerful enough to summon wind and rain had entirely
been due to his plots and schemes. The little bit of martial arts he had practised when young had
been returned to his damned shifu long ago. Like most middle-aged men, after running just a few
steps, his rotten heart and lungs joined together to riot.

Wang Jiusheng's veins were pounding on his temples, black spots were appearing in his vision
and his brain was blanking out. He didn't have the time to think carefully why the police would be
here and could only pray desperately for the Xu clan people to bump into the police. But when he
thought about it again, this was wrong! That Chen Dazhu knew too much about him. If he fell into
the police's hands, then what?
While these jumbled thoughts were going through his head, he ran in a panic without caring
where he was going. The vehicle sounds behind him were coming nearer and nearer; ahead, he
could already see the front of the police car that was preparing to make a turn. They wanted to
trap him in the middle!

Wang Jiusheng pressed harshly on his chest. Aiming for the wall by the road, he exerted an earth-
splitting force and leaped up. A person is indeed capable of exceeding their usual performance in
a moment of crisis, this leap seemed to let him retrieve the qinggong foundation he had when he
was young. He ignored the scrapes the bricks left on him and with a flip, he reached the top.
From above, he shot a look down and saw that the police were already blocking both ends.
Meanwhile, the Xu clan people were probably afraid of the police and were not showing their
faces.

This was still good. Being cornered by the police was better than being hunted down by the Xu
clan. He could escape.

Wang Jiusheng panted for breath. His back was aching, his chest felt suffocated. He had medicine
in his pocket but he didn't have time to take them. He turned around to jump down but right at
that moment, a small gust of wind whistled sinisterly past his ears. Wang Jiusheng reflexively
moved his head to dodge. Something brushed past his earlobes to land on the ground with a soft
sound.

Then, someone laughed. "Oh my, President Wang. What a state you're in."

Wang Jiusheng lifted his head in disbelief. He saw that on a large tree not far away, someone
seemed to be standing in midair near the treetop. In the late spring weather that was already
heating up, she still wore a long coat, the hood and a mask hiding her face until only a thin sliver
was exposed. Her knife-life gaze pierced out from that sliver.

She reached out her left arm. A silver blade spun between her long, slender fingers. Her voice
was very low and heavy. "We finally meet."

Wang Jiusheng stood where he was, dumbstruck. For a moment, he even forgot about the police
who were still in mad pursuit behind him.

Wei Huan, Wei Xiao… They died by his hands one by one. But like its name, Wan Mu Chun could
"steal into the night along with the wind." For countless nights he had dreamed of them,
frightened into waking by that three-cun-and-two-fen blade; or, a suspicious shadow would scare
him until his heart beat irrhythmically and he would neorotically check every door and window.

And right when he thought that Wan Mu Chun had been completely eliminated, the nightmare
that had haunted him for years suddenly became reality.

But wasn't she already dead?

Weren't they all already dead?

Weren't all these killers like vampires, hiding in the places that were pitch dark?
Wang Jiusheng's lips started to turn purple. The veins on his neck bulged out along with his harsh
breathing.

The person on the tree leaped up, light as a feather, not even shaking the tree branches. Like a
specter, she pressed in on him, step by step. Her getup was similar to Wei Xiao but her manner
was more like Wei Huan, refusing to let go of him. Every step she took closer seemed to
compress his breathing space a little more. Wang Jiusheng thought he could smell the metal
blade. He strained to raise a hand and clutched his chest. His feet seemed to be trapped in a
mire, unable to move an inch.

The next second, that terrifying murderer suddenly disappeared into thin air. Wang Jiusheng's
vision blurred and he thought, I'm dead!

The only thing the police who were charging over saw was their target Wang Jiusheng originally
wanting to flee, then suddenly having an epilepsy. His hands waved wildly before his eyes; then,
with his arms and legs shaking, he fell from the wall just like that. Amidst the chaos, he seemed
to have pulled the metal zipper on his clothes up to his neck and when the chill touched his neck,
he let out an anguished, blood-curdling scream.

That scream was too terrifying. It made the police at the very front think that he had accidentally
injured himself and they quickly ran over to look. They saw that Wang Jiusheng was completely
unharmed and that his entire body was convulsing, one hand covering his throat and the other
hand clutching his chest, straining desperately to breathe.

"Call the ambulance!"

"Does this guy have heart problems?"

"How many evil deeds must he have done to be so scared at just the sight of police cars… Hurry
up, hurry up, someone come and give him CPR!"

Yu Yan ran over with his colleagues. He looked up and glanced at the large scholar tree beside the
wall. The fragrance of the flowers wafted to his nose, no sight nor sound of the person remained.

A debt owed must be paid, a life owed must be returned.

A coward carrying a thousand catties on his back would one day have no more strength to go on
and collapse under the weight of mountains.

The person who schemes would find himself deserted and alone in the end.

The blinding rays of the sun shone into the pin drop silent Martial Arts General Assembly. Yang
Qing squinted his old, blurry eyes, so dazzled by the light that a little bit of tears were leaking out.

The police officer keeping watch at the back door made a hand signal at Yu Lanchuan. They came
in stealthily and took away the few remaining Travellers' Sect members in the hall. The last two
police officers came to stand before Old Yang and the old members of Beggars' Sect. "The few of
you should come with us and record a statement."

Yang Qing nodded. He passed his walking stick to Zhang Meizhen, then smoothed out his clothes
and sank to his knees, trembling all the while. Facing the crowd, he pressed his head to the
ground.

Zhang Meizhen stood at the side and looked at his back. Speaking of which, it was strange; she
had once felt that he was so tall and broad, and that he could always stand perfectly straight
upright no matter what was happening. That noble spine of his on his back was like a mountain
ridge. But when he knelt now, he became small, so small he could shrink into a small ball. His
shirt and long pants draped loosely on him, the soul and fleshly body inside dried out like the
dregs of medicine left overnight.

This time, she no longer had tears because her eyeliner was not very waterproof. She would turn
into a ghost once her tears surged out.

"Zhang… Branch Master Zhang, what do you…" At the side, the old Travellers' Sect members that
she had invited exchanged looks and called out to her hesitantly.

Zhang Meizhen fished out the red-coloured bat made of agate from her pocket. She cupped it in
both hands and studied it for a while. "Let's disband."

"Huh?"

"Beggars' Sect should disband, Travellers' Sect should also disband." She waved her hands,
tossing the red Five Bat Token away without a care. "Everything's over."

The Five Supremes' very last remaining breath scattered to the wind.

Ruan Xiaoshan let out a mournful wail. More than the voice of a human, it sounded like an old
crow announcing a death.
Chapter 113
The moment the police entered, they started clearing the place.

Zhang Meizhen threw away the Five Bats Token and left on her own. The guests let out a sigh,
and the people who had been involved in the past affair also left in twos and threes. Ruan
Xiaoshan and a few others sobbed until their strength was exhausted, finally realising that time
had flowed by like water and nothing could go back to the way it was in the past. And so, holding
on to one another for support, they staggered out.

In the large hall, all that remained were a few living creatures scattered here and there… as well
as the light shining through the windows.

Han Dongsheng stood up and helped to tidy up the aftermath of the event. From nowhere, an
indescribable feeling rose in his heart. When he stood up, he heard his knees creak and so, for
the sake of dispelling the melancholic feeling, he struck up an idle conversation with Yu
Lanchuan. "After sitting for so long, my back and legs can't bear it anymore. I've really gotten
old."

"When you have time, you should train a bit," Yu Lanchuan answered easily.

"Where would I find the time?" Han Dongsheng smiled. "I have the old and the young to take
care of at home. That gremlin kid is also not sensible. Every other day, his teacher would call me
over to receive an admonishment. My lousy job doesn't pay much either. I always have to work
overtime but I also can't not work… I want to be promoted to deputy team leader this year.
Speaking of that, it doesn't mean much but I can earn 2,000 more each month. Ai, you must think
I'm ridiculous, speaking of these petty matters in front of Little Master Yu…"

"Why would I? Who doesn't want to be promoted and get a higher salary? I'm also waiting for a
pay rise so that I can pay off my loan quicker," Yu Lanchuan said.

Yan Hao gave Qiao-Qiao a light tug. Qiao-Qiao looked up in confusion. She was just in a daze, like
a hole had opened up on top of her head and her soul could no longer be kept inside. And with
nothing holding it down, her soul would fly away just like that, up to the sky. Yan Hao didn't know
how he should advise her, so he also went to help put away the chairs and tables. He half-
listened to Han Dongsheng and Yu Lanchuan talking, and couldn't help following their
conversation and thinking of the future.

He was in his twenties already. He couldn't keep depending on Boss Jiang. Yan Hao considered
that he wasn't very good at studies and didn't like interacting with people, and he also probably
couldn't do service-oriented jobs, so he should probably learn a skill… the kind that quietly
worked behind the scenes. In the future, as long as he was hardworking, he could make a living
no matter where he went.

Everyone had hopes for the future, yet no one dared hope for too much. They were all going
through the ups and downs of life, but were also all working hard to maintain their usual way of
life.

Qiao-Qiao suddenly shivered like a dreamer falling unexpectedly into the mortal realm. She
stared at the bustle before her, at a loss for what to do. After spacing out for a long while, she
bent down and collected her own walking corpse of a body, then left on her own without a
sound.

Yu Lanchuan signalled the confused Yan Hao with his eyes. Yan Hao stared blankly for a while,
then hurried after her.

Han Dongsheng sighed. "Fortunately… she's still young."

Fortunately, she was not yet eighteen. Her life had just begun, there was time for her to start
over, and there was also enough time for her to defeat expectations and make a comeback. She
didn't have to squander the rest of her life when it could be much better.

Han Dongsheng suddenly asked, "Little Master Yu, will the Martial Arts General Assembly still go
on at the end of this year?"
"No. There's no one to help me organise it and I don't have that much time anyway," Yu
Lanchuan said. "When I get back, I'll create a group chat and our friends from all over can
communicate with each other online. On festive occasions, everyone can exchange red packets
and greetings, and that's good enough."

Han Dongsheng followed his gaze and looked at the empty event hall.

Yu Lanchuan was someone very aware, very capable, with solid martial arts skills and an upright
character. When he first moved into No. 110, the old people all had high hopes for this young
descendant of the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang, hoping that decades later, he could be like Old
Alliance Leader Yu and use different means to once again realise the dream left by the old jianghu
even as it deteriorated day by day.

Who would have thought that he would be too aware, Han Dongsheng thought, and would
decisively and efficiently wake them up from this "dream" in Yanning City.

In his final years, Old Alliance Leader Yu Huaide had not bothered himself with the affairs of the
world. He lived like an immortal, free as the clouds and the wild cranes. Thinking of it, he had
probably come to understand that this was an era where great waves would wash away the sand.
But as the head of the Five Supremes, he probably could not be at peace with that.

When Han Dongsheng came back to himself and turned around, Yu Lanchuan had already left at
some point.

The police dispersed. The mobile signal at the event hall finally returned. Yu Lanchuan's phone
that had been silent for a long while vibrated. He looked down; there were two messages, one
from Yu Yan telling him that Wang Jiusheng and his accomplice had been arrested, but Wang
Jiusheng had over-exerted himself while running away and his heart illness suddenly flared up so
they had to send him to the hospital.

The other one was from a certain meme queen. It was a WeChat meme of a grimy face and the
caption: I've come crawling back for food.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Director Yu emphasised efficiency in everything and never replied to this kind of meaningless and
pointless message. So he put his phone away and walked towards his home, his face impassive.
After a few steps, his solemn expression slowly cracked, revealing a smile.

Just like that, another month passed. The mantis emerged, the shrike began to sing, the
mockingbird fell silent; the first sign of the coming summer heat.

"Is Meng-Meng back? She started updating her translations again in her WeChat Moments a
couple of days ago."

"Star Dreams is not open, will she still work there in the future?"
"I don't know about the shop but I don't think she's leaving. She seems to be running the Weibo
for Star Dreams now. In the past couple of days, the official Weibo has been updating diligently.
There is a lot of interesting stuff, it's not like in the past when all it did was try to sell things."

Old Sect Leader Yang paid a visit to the police station and very quickly came back. Even though he
had concealed information, the incident had happened too long ago and had passed the statute
of limitations. On top of that, he was already so old. After coming back, he informed Yang Yifan
and then left Yanning to return to his old home. Zhang Meizhen accompanied him. She entrusted
Gan Qing with the task of looking after her house.

Before she left, Gan Qing helped her pack. The luggage was stuffed until it was bulging. In the
end, there was still a large pile of lipstick and lip gloss left, at least thirty to forty tubes, and there
was really no space for them. Gan Qing searched for nooks and crannies to stuff them in, and
ended up with a face covered in sweat. "Meizhen-jie, isn't it enough to just bring any two
lipsticks?"

Was her entire body covered in lips?

Zhang Meizhen rolled her eyes. "The colours aren't the same, the textures are different and the
shades are also not alike. They can't replace each other. What do you know, you're colourblind
and you don't care."

"...Oh, okay," Gan Qing said.

Previously, Zhang Meizhen had once left all these superficial desires behind when she decided to
visit Yang Qing at the hospital but it seemed like it was only for a short while. After coming back,
her true self was exposed at the speed of light and she dressed herself up more gorgeously than
ever, displaying to the fullest extent the true essence of a demoness.

Gan Qing strained to pull the zip shut on the last bag, then turned to look at Zhang Meizhen who
was carefully applying mascara on her lashes. She asked suddenly, "Meizhen-jie, do you still…"

...love that man?

"Hmm?"

"Nothing." Gan Qing felt that since she was from a younger generation, it wasn't appropriate for
her to ask this kind of question so she swallowed it back down. I guess she should have deep
feelings for him, she thought. Otherwise, why would she accompany him back to his old home?

"You want to ask about Old Yang, don't you?" Zhang Meizhen removed the excess mascara with a
cotton swab and said nonchalantly. "Old Yang probably doesn't intend to come back anymore.
Cemetery plots in Yanning are too expensive. Even though his kid is quite generous, that old fool
doesn't have much wealth to leave to her so he wants to save money for her wherever possible.
His old home has everything he needs. When the time comes, he can be buried together with
Yang Ping's mother. The space is already there."

"Huh?"
"As for me, I'm just accompanying him for this part of the journey," Zhang Meizhen said. "We've
known each other for so long after all."

Gan Qing stared blankly. She could sense a hidden meaning in those words.

Zhang Meizhen turned around and patted her head. "What's important is loving yourself. Once
you truly love yourself, if you have any energy left over, you can try loving someone else; if you
don't, then forget it. There's also no need to love so seriously, be more relaxed and carefree.
That's better for everyone, isn't it?"

Gan Qing looked up at her. Zhang Meizhen tsk-ed. "Forget it, I don't think you need me to tell you
this. You're a heartless little thing, you… Ai, speak of the devil."

Before she could finish speaking, someone pressed the doorbell. Zhang Meizhen raised her voice
and called out, then pulled the door open and said to Yu Lanchuan, "Hi, handsome. Here
already?"

Yu Lanchuan bent down and picked up her luggage. "The car's waiting downstairs."

"All right, all right, I'm leaving now. I won't stay here and stop you two from dating, will that be
fine?" Zhang Meizhen sighed and instructed Gan Qing, "Don't forget to take in my deliveries for
me!"

Gan Qing walked her to the car and sighed, "I know. If any old, middle-aged, or fresh young meat
comes looking for you, I'll get them to take a number and get in line."

With her back to Gan Qing, Zhang Meizhen waved and got into Yang Yifan's car.

Probably because village roads weren't easy to drive through, Yang Yifan had gotten an off-road
vehicle from her company. The lines of that car were clean and sleek, announcing its grand arrival
as it came to a stop in the courtyard. It emitted an aura of wildness that could not be contained.
Compared to it, the little passenger cars and commercial vehicles in the courtyard looked like
demure daughters from humble families. Yu Lanchuan also couldn't help going with the norm and
taking a few extra looks.

Gan Qing nudged him with her elbow. "Stop staring. When I have money, I'll buy one for you."

Upon hearing that, not only did Yu Lanchuan not feel touched, he even looked at her in shock.
"Aren't you afraid you'll sprain your tongue from telling such lies? I'm not going to wait for you,
what if I wait until I die and still haven't received it? Am I going to have to borrow 500 years from
Heaven?"

Gan Qing, "..."

Yu Lanchuan gave her a look full of pity. "Have you gone so mad from being poor that you're
hallucinating?"
Gan Qing checked her bank account balance and could not say anything. She shut her mouth
dejectedly and returned home to work. Firstly for practise and secondly to earn some quick cash,
she was helping a bunch of quack public accounts that talk a lot of mysterious nonsense to get
some astrology information from the outside web, then translate word by word and edit them.
There was even an illegal publisher who had gotten wind of her and contacted her recently,
asking her to help compile a bestseller that combined the arcane arts and chicken soup
motivational stories. She was still considering whether or not to accept it because she was also
self-studying how to do interpretation.

The jobs she had were all small jobs. They were time-consuming and paid pennies.

At the start of every month, Gan Qing had lofty aspirations, desiring to support one dearly
expensive Yu Lanchuan; at the end of every month, she would look at her account balance and
fall to her knees.

There was a saying that went like this: Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat. Settling down for
the long-term was much harder than entering university and learning knife skills with her left
hand.

Truly, a heroic spirit never lasted long.

The news about Futongda being a large-scale money launderer and related to gang activities
broke out. No one in that bunch of people could escape. The people below them could not hold
out anymore and started to sell out Wang Jiusheng. This was the news brought by Officer Xiao-Yu
when Little Friend Liu Zhongqi was just starting his summer holidays.

Yu Yan didn't come empty-handed; he brought with him a pile of drinks and fruits to celebrate Yu
Lanchuan successfully usurping—no, smoothly getting promoted.

"Master Lan, you're steadily on your way to the peak of your life." Yu Yan crouched on the floor,
helping him open his delivery package as he spoke. He tsk-ed, seeing that Yu Lanchuan had
bought a bunch of household products which meant that he planned to give the old apartment a
thorough cleaning. "You're really Director Yu now. When will your new name card be printed?
Give me one, let me get a bit of that Director Yu immortal aura and enjoy the fun."

From the kitchen came Director Yu's aloof voice. "What's so fun about that? In the past, I have
also doubled as a board member for quite a few companies that were under us, don't make a
fuss just because you're ignorant… Go away! You're not allowed to touch the wok, get back to
your prepwork!"

Yu Lanchuan swiftly removed Gan Qing from beside the wok to prevent this punk-style cook from
creating an overly avant-garde flavour. "You're just the kitchen help in charge of prepwork, don't
keep trying to usurp the position of head chef. Get your role right!"

Yu Yan said in shock, "You make someone help out in your own home, and only let them be a
kitchen help? Why is it that someone like you can break out from the ranks of bachelors?"

Gan Qing poked her head out and said softly, "The result of being spoiled."
Amidst the sizzling sounds of cooking, Yu Lanchuan did not hear her words clearly but he
intuitively felt that the two of them were not saying anything good about him. Hence, one hand
holding the spatula, his other hand reached out and grabbed the back of Gan Qing's collar and
pulled her back.

"Why are you getting all handsy again…"

Before she could finish speaking, she saw Yu Lanchuan take from the side a meatball that had
been fried and carefully blew on it, then brought it to her mouth with a serious expression on his
face.

Gan Qing looked at him. Yu Lanchuan lowered his gaze, hiding the apprehension in his eyes.
"Don't just stand around and do nothing, help me check the taste."

Gan Qing took a bite from his hand. Yu Lanchuan looked at the top of her head and pressed his
lips together, nervously observing her response. He had studied abroad for many years and knew
how to cook, but he didn't like cooking so his skills were mediocre. Gan Qing had grown up by the
side of a great chef. Even if she had now become someone who could survive on eating trash, he
didn't want her to bear any more ill-treatment.

Gan Qing was very encouraging; she had always said nice words like they didn't cost anything.
"Mm, it's just right, delicious! Little Master Yu is good at everything he does."

After hearing that, Yu Lanchuan was half reassured. He studied her expression carefully and
seeing that she wasn't forcing herself at all, he was completely reassured. Then, while being all
elated, this man also put on an act. He lifted his chin. "As if I need your nonsense."

Yu Yan could not bear to watch anymore. He quietly retreated from the kitchen, then faced Liu
Zhongqi who was crouched on the sofa memorising study notes and pointed behind him. "The
result of being spoiled."

This time, Yu Lanchuan heard him. "Old Fish, if you have nothing to do, go downstairs and buy a
packet of sugar. Don't disturb the exam candidate!"

With a self-important air, Yu Yan said, "I am a guest! How can you order a guest around, so
shameless!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

"I'll go, I'll go," Gan Qing said hastily.

After saying that, she seemed to realise that something was wrong and was stunned for a
moment.

"Oh, you are not a guest," Yu Yan said.

Yu Lanchuan turned around like nothing had happened, pretending to devote all his focus to
opening a bottle of soy sauce and sniffing it like it was a precious bottle from the '82 vintage.
There was a hint of a smile on his face.

Gan Qing bent a finger and flicked the jeering Yu Yan, then turned to go downstairs to the
nearest grocer. She got the sugar; then, after thinking for a while, she picked a few cartons of ice-
cream from the freezer and paid for them together. Yu Lanchuan liked ice-cream but was too
embarrassed to admit it. Every time she bought some, he would share his outlook on her future
prosperous measurements when she hit middle age until she did not feel like eating anymore.
The next time she went to look for the remaining half of the carton, it would have disappeared.

In the peak of summer, the cicadas' droning was clamorous. However, there was a tree-lined
corridor shaded from the sun in front of No. 110 Courtyard and when walking there, a person
would have a feeling of contentment, of their exhaustion settling into tranquility.

Gan Qing came out of the small shop, holding the bag of ice-cream. Without realising it, her feet
were walking in time to the music playing in the shop, her steps sometimes light and sometimes
heavy, full of delight and humour.

Just as she was about to walk past the intersection, the rhythm of her feet was suddenly
disrupted. On the opposite of the road, an old lady who was enjoying the cool breeze stared at
her with a face full of horror. At the same time, the wind whistled past her...
Chapter 114
Without any warning, a van charged towards Gan Qing at a very tricky angle. The front of the van
was very flat—practically a level surface—unlike normal sedan cars that had a protruding "nose."
This way, even if Gan Qing could react in time, there was no way she could push on the car hood
to propel herself up. Her only choice was to run but a human could not outrun a motor vehicle
being driven at an insane speed. Even Yan Hao could not do it, much less her, and she had also
just walked to the middle of the road. There was nothing before and behind her, and it was
impossible for her to reach the side of the road in two steps and look for cover.

Gan Qing felt as though she was the fisherman in the poem[1], drowsing in blissful intoxication in
the east wind, and suddenly, someone was splashing a bowl of cold water onto her face. Her
mind hadn't yet realised what was happening but her body was already a step ahead and moving.
In a split second, Gan Qing had taken a small, quick step forward. She had no time to think
carefully, her hand reached out and—acting completely on instinct—she grabbed the van's side
mirror. Both the mirror and her swung towards the van door; Gan Qing curled her body as small
as it could possibly go and she just barely scraped past the madly charging van. One of her flip-
flops fell off, the supermarket bag she was holding also flew somewhere, the ice-cream scattering
all over the ground to be crushed under the wheels of the can, dying an untimely death on the
road.

The side mirror could not support the weight of a human. It broke off with a snap and in that
instant, Gan Qing grabbed onto the roof of the van with five fingers. She got a good look at the
person in the van.

It was a stranger, male, in his forties. The bones on his face were protruding, the skin stretched
thin and barely covering them. In his eyes, there was a red gleam that didn't seem human. On the
other side of the window, he unexpectedly met Gan Qing's eyes. Then, his lips split in a smile and
he gave the steering wheel a fierce twist. The van swung abruptly and was about to crash into the
side of the road!

Gan Qing's entire body was like the hem of a skirt being lifted by the wind. Blood rushed into her
fingers that were holding onto the roof until they flushed purple and her nails broke at once. It
was impossible for the strength in the fingers of one hand to bear such a huge pressure. Gan Qing
was thrown off. With unimaginable strength, her waist twisted in midair and in that rushed,
chaotic instant, she at least managed to land on both feet.

Half-crouched on the ground, before she could stand, the van again crashed into the corner of
the roadside shop like it was committing suicide, trying to pin her in the middle. There was
nowhere she could dodge. Right then, an off-road vehicle suddenly charged over and collided
with the back of the van. Hit on the back, the van bounced up, two wheels lifting off the ground,
and crashed onto two large trees. The driver's head came into intimate contact with the left-side
window and he was knocked unconscious.

Skid marks full of murderous aura marred the ground. It was only now that the customers in the
shop whose windows and door had nearly been crashed into realised what had happened. The
row seated near the window all stood up and ran deeper into the shop where they stood with
their necks stretched out, resembling a row of inclined bars that were shocked senseless.

All at once, Gan Qing was entirely covered in cold sweat that soaked through her thin T-shirt. She
lifted her head and looked towards the off-road vehicle that had saved her life. She saw a robust
man with tattoos on his body and a cigarette dangling from his mouth push open the door and
got down. He looked at the dented front bumper with a solemn face. It was none other than the
boss of the pet store where Qiao-Qiao worked.

Qiao-Qiao had resigned and left. Other than Yan Hao, she didn't leave her contact information
with anyone. The cats and dogs in the store had been listless for a few days now. The boss also
couldn't hire anyone at short notice so he had no choice but to watch the shop himself every day,
resulting in both humans and animals being "watched" until a gloomy cloud hung over them. The
nearby pet owners who needed to be away for a short while and wanted to board their pets with
the store, when they saw this man, they no longer dared to send their cats or dogs there.

The pet store boss made a phone call. He came forward and pulled the van door open and poked
his head in for a look, then said to Gan Qing, "Hey, this kid is still breathing —"

Before he could finish speaking, the van driver suddenly snapped open his eyes. A cold glint
struck at the pet store boss, followed by a soft sound. Gan Qing knocked away the dagger the van
driver was holding with the back of her hand and elbowed the pet store boss out of the way. In
the narrow space, the two of them fought at a speed that blurred the eyes. The driver suddenly
let out a hoarse scream. The dagger fell with a clang. There were blood marks on the spot
between his thumb and his second finger.

The pet store boss reacted pretty quickly, taking a step forward and kicking the dagger away.
Without waiting for Gan Qing to react, his fist that was the size of a large bowl swung towards
the van driver's face. The van driver's face already had protruding bones on both sides and a
concave middle and the punch nearly gave him a meteorite crater. Two lines of blood trickled
from his nose and he fell backwards, once again unmoving.

Gan Qing, "..."

The pet store boss shot Gan Qing a look. Without saying a word, he took out a bundle of rope
from the trunk of his own car. He dragged the van driver out, tossed him on the ground and tied
him up. When he was done, he kicked him with the tip of his foot and said to Gan Qing, "I called
the police already. Do you know this man?"

Gan Qing didn't know the man but she recognised the technique in that one dagger strike. The
glint of the blade was cold as frost and quick as lightning, lasting just an instant, striking up from
the bottom—it was the fundamental skill of her own sect.

This man was from the Xu clan.

She was silent for a while and the pet store boss also didn't press for an answer. He squatted on
the roadside and smoked his cigarette, going through his contact list to look for the auto repair
and the insurance company. His voice was a little unclear when he spoke. "I don't know what you
guys are doing but since you're not ordinary people, you shouldn't force yourself to live ordinary
lives, should you? Otherwise, the bystanders around you will suffer misfortunes along with you."

Gan Qing followed the direction of his gaze and saw that from the shop whose only crime had
been to be in the wrong place, the bystanders were coming out in a single file. But no one dared
come near, they circled her far in the distance, taking photos with their phones.

She muttered softly, as though to herself, "But I… am just an ordinary person."

"Ordinary person?" The pet store boss looked at her hand. Her fingernail that was split into two
left a trail of blood that was already congealing. The dried dark red clotted between her fingers,
right where there was a bloodstained razor blade. "If you're an ordinary person, why do you carry
blades with you?"

Gan Qing had nothing to say to that.

"Curve to the left… 'Xiao.'" The young girl held the pencil in an awkward grip, scribbling on the
gridded writing practice book. "Shifu, this word is very hard. Why are there so many strokes…
Aiyo."

"Even I am not complaining about the amount of strokes." Wei Xiao gave the back of her head a
light smack. "That's your shifu's formal name."

The girl cocked her head and mulled over it for a while. "Aren't you called Wei Changsheng? Is
Wei Changsheng your childhood name?"

Wei Xiao evaded her question, reaching a hand out to tap on her homework. "Have you finished
writing and memorising? Don't get distracted."
The girl pouted. No longer racking her brains over her shifu's changing name, she sighed as she
continued to do her homework. There seemed to be nails on her butt and it shook twice after
every single stroke she wrote. Her eyes kept drifting towards the window.

"There are only a handful of characters in total. Finish writing before you go out to play. All you
know is play!" Wei Xiao rebuked.

"Who wants to go out to play? Not me." The girl wrinkled her nose, pretending to be mature. "I
want to go out and practise my knife skills. You said that when I'm eight, you will teach me
Paoding Jieniu!"

Wei Xiao brushed her off and said, "You can't even reach the kitchen counter yet. There's no
hurry."

"I didn't say I want to learn to cut ingredients!" the girl said. "I want to learn Paoding Jieniu, the
one in the history of our sect. I even finished reading our sect's history by checking the
dictionary! I want to carry on Wan Mu Chun's legacy in the future."

When Gan Qing was young, she had been thin and small-sized, and also mischievous. When
outdoors, she wanted to touch everything and because of that, she was frequently sick. The
reason why Wei Xiao taught her martial arts was so that she could strengthen her body and have
a very strong foundation. He was a high-skilled expert, capable of grasping the entirety from just
an example, and taught her everything except for Paoding Jieniu. Little Gan Qing's persistent
nagging didn't work, so she hung around in the kitchen every day to watch him cut ingredients—
supposedly, all of Wan Mu Chun's skills lay in the fingertips and would emerge when the knife
was picked up, regardless of what was being cut—and then, fumble around and practise blindly
on her own. She nearly sliced the veins on her own hands. Wei Xiao was afraid that she would
destroy the results of her training by messing around like that so he had no other choice and
could only give her a rough explanation, and instructed her not to use it and also not to bring up
Wan Mu Chun when she was outside.

"Why can't I bring up Wan Mu Chun?"

"Because starting from your grand-master's generation, we have washed our hands clean of the
past."

"So we can't bring up our name after that?"

"It will bring you trouble…"

"I'm not scared! When I'm older, I can beat them up until they have to crawl on the ground!"

Wei Xiao sighed as he looked at his little disciple who couldn't understand his serious words. "It's
unlucky, my little disciple. The 'Chun' character refers to 'the silent rain,' existing everywhere and
nowhere. You're a lively little girl, do you want to live in the shadow of a reputation? You
shouldn't have anything to do with Wan Mu Chun."
The little disciple couldn't even understand his serious words, much less his serious and packed-
with-hidden-meanings words. After listening, she only felt even more that her sect was so
mysterious, so amazing. A small flame lit up in her chuuni soul and she began fanning it,
obsessed.

Twenty years later, Gan Qing finally understood what her shifu had meant all those years ago.

She turned her head around to look towards the shaded street in front of No. 110 Courtyard. Just
now, she had thought it refreshing and delightful, and it was only now that she was hearing the
unceasing clamour of the cicadas in the undergrowth. In the gaps of the dense foliage, there
seemed to be countless eyes staring at her; staring until she was again feeling as though there
was the tip of a blade on her back before her cold sweat could dry off.

The police cars very quickly arrived and right on their heels was a call from Yu Lanchuan. "The
grocer downstairs has ready-made sugar, you don't need to extract the cane juice yourself. Did
you run off to the south to cut the canes? Hurry up and come back. I have an appointment in the
afternoon with the person coming to change the windows."

"You guys eat first, I —"

A police officer ran over. "You still need to come with us and record a statement!"

On the other end of the call, Yu Lanchuan heard it. "What? What statement? Hello? Gan Qing,
what did you do now? Gan Qing!"

The person who drove the van and crashed into her was a wanted criminal. His DNA and
fingerprints were in the public security database. Apparently, he was a suspect in a past burglary
and murder case and had been on the run the whole time. No one expected that this was where
he would get caught. There were a lot of witnesses at the scene and on top of that, ever since she
got to No. 110, she had been involved in so many matters that she was already a familiar face to
the neighbourhood police. Hence, in just a few words, she finished explaining what happened
and the police let her go back.

When she came out, she saw Yu Lanchuan and Yu Yan waiting on the other side of the street.

Yu Yan said, "My colleague told me already. These people have accomplices but don't worry, we
will follow up on this. Be careful when you leave the house these few days. If there's any news, I
will immediately inform you guys… If there's no other way, you can also request for protection."

Could they protect her for a lifetime?

Gan Qing smiled politely at him. She didn't reply.

Officer Xiao-Yu exhorted her a bit more before hurrying off to find out about the situation. Yu
Lanchuan was left standing in silence on his own by the roadside.

"Didn't you say that you were getting your windows changed in the afternoon?" Gan Qing smiled
at him as though nothing had happened. "Did you change the time?"
Yu Lanchuan didn't answer. He continued to stare at her without blinking.

Gan Qing walked over. She grabbed a hold of his hand and started to walk back.

From here to No. 110, there was a distance of two stops. During the peak of summer in Yanning,
the high temperature and blazing sunshine lasted until around seven in the evening. Normally, Yu
Lanchuan would definitely refuse to walk home, but today, he had a feeling that every step he
took was one less step he had left to take, and he let her lead him as she wished.

Very quickly, their palms were covered in a layer of sweat, both sticking together. Yu Lanchuan
walked slower and slower, finally coming to a stop. Gan Qing tugged forward and their hands slid
apart amidst the sweat.

"My grand-master had the advantage of being in glory during his time, that's why he could take
the opportunity to wash his hands of the old ways. My shifu changed his name and even the
name on his grave is not his true name… But Wei Huan and I, we two unfilial disciples, when we
were young, we had both thought ourselves very amazing and neither of us had listened to the
advice of the old." After saying that, Gan Qing turned her head around. "After showing off our
might, naturally there would be a price to pay."

Yu Lanchuan's teeth were clenched very tightly, his eyes slightly reddened. Wang Jiusheng had
been arrested, Travellers' Sect had collapsed, Gan Qing had fulfilled her promise to return safe
and sound. He thought that the crisis was over and that the thing he had been worrying about
was just a baseless fear. Everything was returning to the right track.

But it turned out that there was no such thing as a lucky chance.

All he could do was to say, devoid of emotion, "Don't think too much now. I'll think of
something…"

"The Xu clan's main camp is not even in Yanning. This bunch of people hide themselves in remote
and desolate places. What can you come up with?" Gan Qing said.

"I don't care that they are in hiding. As long as they come to Yanning-"

Gan Qing let out a laugh and interrupted him. "One can be a thief for a thousand days, but not
hide from a thief for a thousand days."

Yu Lanchuan could say nothing to that.

Since sixteen years ago, he had worked hard to break free of that sense of helplessness. He was
disciplined, unyielding, calm and orderly. There was nothing he wanted that he could not get.
Gradually, he had an illusion that there was nothing he could not do.

But it turned out that a person's life was like the dust floating in the air. A sense of helplessness
was the exact thing that ran through their life from beginning to end. Growing up did not help,
training to become an unparalleled swordsman did not help, getting promoted to the rank of
domineering director also did not help.

"Then again, it makes sense that the Xu clan are afraid of me." Right then, Gan Qing suddenly
turned around to look at him. "The rats hiding themselves here and there are all afraid of the
spring wind that exists everywhere."

"What bullshit-"

"I won't hide like my shifu. There's no end to it if I do that," Gan Qing continued to say. "Since
they have come to find me, of course I should also pay them a visit… Mm, of course, it will be via
legal means. I won't put you in a bind… Will you wait for me?"

"How long should I wait?" Yu Lanchuan asked. "One year, two years? Five years, or will it be ten
years?"

Two steps away, Gan Qing fixed her eyes on him. She didn't say anything, because a promise
carried the weight of a thousand pounds. She could not break her word. The things she could not
be sure of, she didn't dare promise.

If a woman wanted to leave because of some reason or other, a carefree person might wave and
wish her luck for the future. Both parties would change partners and from then on, never cross
paths again.

A person with deep feelings might be willing to lower their dignity, retreat 3,000 miles and beg
the other person not to leave.

But Yu Lanchuan could do neither.

The last descendant of Wan Mu Chun could frighten Wang Jiusheng into heart failure just by
shooting him a glance from far away. She was not someone who could remain within view of the
crowd; by nature, she had to live out her life with a hood and a mask as company. She could not
allow people to see her; if they did, she would become a live target in the shape of a human
body.

Regardless of whether it was for the public good or for his own personal interest, Yu Lanchuan
could not force her to stay and allow today's incident to happen again.

Then, was his only choice to wait?

If he waited… would he get what he wanted?

Gan Qing said that there would be no end to days spent in hiding, that was why she would rather
fight it out with the Xu clan until the end. Yu Lanchuan believed that she knew her limits—she
was no longer that hot-blooded girl who lacerated her own arm in a moment's impulse back
then. Even when leaving a cut on Yang Ping's body, she could control the length of the cut
accurately so that it would not count as a light injury. She might become a qualified "bounty
hunter," living a wandering existence and getting rewards from public security bureaus
everywhere… That was also a way to live.

But would there be an end to such days?

The Xu clan was everywhere. Just based on what they knew, there were those in the rural villages
spreading their cult teachings, those instigating victims of domestic abuse to commit murder,
those who swindle the elderly for their coffin money through any means… They came in all
shapes and sizes, and were not limited to an isolated case. Even if she was skilled and
courageous, and could take them down one by one without coming to any harm, they were like
cockroaches that would not die. Destroy one nest and there would be a bunch who escaped the
net. Throughout the process, she would also be forming new grudges without rest, falling deeper
and deeper into the mess.

The sweat on Gan Qing's palm evaporated. She patted Yu Lanchuan. "Let's go back first and-"

Yu Lanchuan slapped her hand away.

Oh, he's angry, Gan Qing thought. She stared blankly, her fingers curling in a little. As though
nothing had happened, she withdrew her hand and continued walking.

But all of a sudden, Yu Lanchuan caught up to her and wrapped her in a hug, his arms winding
tightly around her waist. The smell of either her body wash or laundry detergent still remained on
her, an indolent rose fragrance that melted into this tormenting summer's day. Her bones could
be faintly felt on her back and her waist. When that thin body was in his arms, there was still so
much extraneous space. He could not fill his arms, his heart; there was so much emptiness.

A drifting cloud suddenly stopped in its tracks, temporarily blocking out the sun. The corners of
every building in Yanning City began to extend their shadows. The dancing reflections on the road
resembling sparks of fire were extinguished at once. Yu Lanchuan suddenly felt as though he was
holding a piece of paper, a painting, a beautiful illusion like flowers reflected in a mirror and
moon in a lake; while his limbs were bound by an invisible string, his cumbersome body pressed
to the ground by gravity. The moment he let go, she would drift far away.

Hence, all he could do was to tighten his arms desperately, binding her so tightly that her veins
could be seen under her skin.

The things a person can not bear to part with is what keeps them imprisoned.

Gan Qing did not fight free. Her eyes followed the edge of the shadows, looking far into the
distance. From the time she received the notification of Wei Xiao's death when she was in prison,
her existence had been light as a feather, with nothing behind or ahead of her. It was Yu
Lanchuan who had pulled her down into the dust of the mortal world, filling her ears and her
mouth until she was on the verge of drowning in it.

Just a couple of days ago, she had even calculated her savings and acknowledged the fact that
her ability to earn money was rather lacking. As the saying went, "One can't eat hot tofu with a
hasty heart." Her only choice was to temper herself bit by bit and slowly save up. Director Yu
supporting his family and paying off his mortgage was likely something she could not afford to
interfere with. If she was lucky, when he finished paying off his mortgage, she might have saved
up enough to buy a car and could throw it all away on a lavish purchase in exchange for a smile
from him.

She didn't have much interest in studying. In the past, she had once studied assiduously for the
sake of her family but her efforts had come to nothing. She also didn't place much importance in
material possessions. She wanted to help Yu Lanchuan with life's little mundanities and
necessities, but it would likely also come to nothing.

She was born with a fate where everything in her life would be unfinished.

Gan Qing thought, Can you don't change your windows?

Once this thought appeared, quick as lightning, it travelled to the tip of her tongue and then was
swallowed down by her.

Because these words sounded like making a fuss for no reason, and were also rather selfish.

That night, Gan Qing packed her bags. In this one year, she hadn't added much to her belongings.
They filled a bag—there were even less things than when she moved in. She sent a very long
message to Zhang Meizhen, explaining that she wouldn't be able to help her receive her delivery
packages in the future. Then, she opened the window and looked out.

With the price that No. 110 commanded now, it probably wouldn't share the same fate as the
original Mudpool Backlane which had been demolished until it was unrecognisable. But she still
didn't feel reassured, she still felt that she had to engrave everything into her mind. Even if the
sights remained unchanged, the saying "Things remain the same but the people have changed"
held true.

When Elder Yang was no longer around in the future, Yang Yifan probably wouldn't continue
staying in this courtyard. She was too ahead of her time and did not fit in at all with chattering old
residents of the neighbourhood. When Little Friend Han Zhou graduated from primary school,
Han Dongsheng and his family would no longer need to spend so much on rent and would
definitely move back to their own house. Qiao-Qiao had left. Yan Hao, too, would probably only
stay for a few more days. He was still young, he shouldn't spend the rest of his life minding a
laundry shop. Yu Lanchuan's house would apparently be handed over to him at the end of the
month…

At that time, he probably would leave too.

Director Yu's future prospects were boundless. He could look for any random forum for arranged
dating, upload his resume, and there would be plenty of young, beautiful and highly-qualified
women willing to be interviewed for the position of his wife.

The distance between every two balconies on the old building was barely two meters. Gan Qing
heard a noise coming from the window next door. She didn't turn to see and only said, "When
the time comes, I'll send my new contact details to you."
Next door, Yu Lanchuan didn't make a sound.

"I won't use the number to contact anyone else. 200 a year should be sufficient," Gan Qing
continued. "When you're free, top up for me. If the day comes that you don't want to keep in
contact anymore, then just stop topping up."

The moment the phone runs out of credit, I'll understand.

After she finished speaking, the person at the side still did not respond. Gan Qing finally couldn't
resist turning her head to look. "Little Master Yu, say something…"

The window on the next balcony was open but there was no one inside.

Gan Qing stared blankly. Right then, someone pounded on the front door from outside. Half a
beat late, she responded and the moment she opened the door, Yu Lanchuan grabbed her
shoulder, pushed her back abruptly, and pulled 1003's door shut behind him.

"I won't wait for you." He pushed her shoulders, pressing her against the narrow wall of the
entrance hall.

Yu Lanchuan was like a moving basin of cold water. He could wear the tightest fitting shirt and
appear cool and relaxed, and he came with his own low-temperature atmosphere. But right now,
his entire body seemed to be burning up, even his breaths were more heated than usual, nearly
scalding as they brushed across her skin.

He blinked bloodshot eyes and stared at Gan Qing, saying through gritted teeth, "Like hell I'll wait
for you."

Then, a kiss as heated as his breaths fell, rushed and pained, giving her an illusion that it was
searing into her skin when it landed.

Gan Qing heard his words clearly. She stiffened for a few seconds; then, she slowly lifted a hand
and put it on his back.

I guess this is fine too, she thought. Let's… leave a memory.

Treat it as downing the final cup of wine before taking to our separate ways.

The droning of the cicadas suddenly changed pitch. From beneath the earth, the heavy water
vapour rose straight up to pool high in the clouds. From far came the low rumble of distant
thunder, stretching out long and unbroken like the sound of waves. The rain poured down,
smashing the drab and tranquil summer night into a kaleidoscope, a thousand vibrant worlds
contained in a thousand mirrors. Light and shadow swayed, a thousand shades of red in chaos,
dizzying and dazzling.

A night was like an entire lifetime, and a mortal's lifetime was nothing more than a dream in the
first place.
The next day, Unit 1003 of No. 110 Courtyard on Rongxian Street turned vacant, like it had never
been lively before.

Three days later, Yu Lanchuan received a text message from an unknown number and a WeChat
friend request. The message said, "Annual fee 200."

Yu Lanchuan topped up 200 yuan of credit for the number, not a cent more, like a silent
agreement.

Like hell I'll wait for you, he thought. Just you wait and see.

T/N:

[1] 沉醉东风 (Drunk in the East Wind) is a verse by Bai Pu, a Yuan dynasty playwright.
In the web version, the epilogue consists of two chapters. In the print version, the first epilogue
chapter is combined into the last chapter of Book 5. I have followed the split in the print version
due to personal preference. So basically, there will be only one epilogue chapter in this
translation before the main story closes.

— END OF BOOK 5 —

Epilogue
"Ge, if I don't learn it properly, will I have a psychotic breakdown?" Liu Zhongqi asked nervously
while putting a book cover on the swordplay manual left behind by Old Mr. Yu Huaide.

With a complicated expression on his face, Yu Lanchuan watched the Seven Secret Arts of Han
Jiang receive the same treatment as school textbooks and answered, "That won't happen."

"But I heard Yu-dage say that that man they caught last year, Yang Ping, had a psychotic
breakdown. It was super scary. Before he could be sentenced, he bled from all orifices and died."

Yu Lanchuan's glasses slid down a little. He gave Liu Zhongqi a look over the rims, unsure of how
he should explain this to the teenager. Even though Yang Ping was a terrible person, he had
practised martial arts diligently since young and when he had grown up, he was still ambitious
and had learned demonic skills on his own. When it came to practising martial arts, he could be
said to have truly achieved "lifelong learning" and "constant breaking out of the comfort zone."
Other than him, the vast majority of people lacked innate talent and hard work, and there was no
basis for their training to go astray.

"Don't worry," he spouted some nonsense to hoodwink Liu Zhongqi. "There is a difference
between the orthodox and the unorthodox. The martial arts of the righteous and reputable sects
are very safe."

Liu Zhongqi asked excitedly, "Ge, then when can I become a highly-skilled expert?"

Yu Lanchuan told him sincerely, "If you practise with this kind of profit-oriented thinking, you
probably won't be able to learn it well. Your mental state must be calm and you should
remember that your main target is your physical health. Just treat it like those broadcasted group
exercises when you have nothing to do. Every time you gain a bit of experience, it is an additional
benefit. This way, it would be easier for you to experience for yourself the cold river, the twilight
snow, the state of Heaven and Man as one."

Liu Zhongqi wasn't sure if he was imagining things, he couldn't help but feel that his brother was
hoodwinking him.

"Don't understand? When you have graduated and need to bust your liver working overtime
every day, when you see your comrade-in-arms fall one by one into the hands of baldness and
the three highs, you will understand." The experienced Yu Lanchuan patted him on the shoulder.
"In your field of study, there is a high chance of those things happening. Tell Mum and Dad that I
have something on and I'll be leaving first. I won't be eating at home today."

Liu Zhongqi had just received his letter of admission from the university. His results were decent
and the university was his first choice. His field of study was software engineering. His parents
had purposely rushed back from abroad to accompany him for his summer vacation. Yu Lanchuan
handed the gremlin kid over to them, successfully extricating himself.

"Oh, right." When Yu Lanchuan reached the door, he remembered and took out an actual
physical red packet from his pocket. "Your birthday present, buy yourself something you like. I
won't be back for your birthday."

Liu Zhongqi was nearly a full eighteen years old, almost an adult. He had been sullied by the
world of the adults and its overwhelming material desires, and was no longer pure and innocent.
Rather than his older brother's accompaniment, his new interests were new computers, new
handphones, and in-app purchases in mobile games. He happily tested the thickness of the red
packet and said with no reluctance at all, "Ge, goodbye… Will you still come back?"

"Yes." Yu Lanchuan put on his shoes, his back to Liu Zhongqi. "In a couple of years. If I can, I'll go
to your university and visit you."

"Ge, I think you're pretty cool!"

"Don't be jealous, there's no point," Yu Lanchuan said. "Your family doesn't have this gene."

After saying that, he called a cab and left, avoiding meeting with his mum so that the old madam
wouldn't catch him and again look at him with that lamenting gaze like she was looking at a
young man taking the wrong step in life, and say, "You're truly from the Yu family."

He had always been a member of the Yu family.

Yu Lanchuan went straight back to No. 110 Courtyard, Rongxian Street. Han Dongsheng was
already waiting for him there. "Little Master Yu, will the Martial Arts General Assembly still go on
as usual this year?"
"Yes," Yu Lanchuan said. "I've signed the Alliance Leader's Command. The time and location will
be as usual and I've entrusted Yu Yan with the applications. I'll come back in November. When it's
near the date, you'll have to hurry him… Ai, speak of the devil."

Yu Yan ran in from outside, panting. He quickly greeted Han Dongsheng, then dragged Yu
Lanchuan away. "We'll go to your place. I have something to say to you."

1004 had been cleaned until the windows were gleaming. Yu Lanchuan had not done a large-
scale renovation in the end. He only changed and rearranged the furniture, and the old
apartment immediately exuded a refined air that matched its owner. Only the windows remained
unchanged and were still the old-fashioned bolted windows. The paint on the window frames
had already flaked off and was covered in mottled spots. They looked out of place in the
apartment.

Yu Yan strode into his house and before his leg had completely crossed the threshold, he was
already saying urgently, "Master Lan, I heard people talking about something. It gave me a fright.
I don't know where the rumour came from, they're saying that you-"

"Resigned," Yu Lanchuan said.

Yu Yan sucked in a breath. From the depths of his belly, he let out a shout. "Are you mad, Yu
Lanchuan? If you don't want to do it then recommend me for the post!"

Yu Lanchuan picked out a pair of slippers and tossed them to him.

"Is it because your boss is dumb, because your subordinates are idiotic or because your clients
are weirdos? Let me tell you, Yu Lanchuan, the high salaries you guys receive includes
compensation for the damage caused by dumbasses, idiots and weirdos. Why are you making a
fuss out of nothing? You haven't become the CEO yet and you've let it get to your head! Have you
saved up enough for a wife? Have you paid off your credit card bill from buying all the branded
stuff you're wearing? You still have over twenty years of house loan to pay!"

Yu Lanchuan turned around and spread his hands at him. "I sold it."

Yu Yan looked like he had swallowed a chicken bone. He choked, staring dumbstruck at Yu
Lanchuan. "S-Sold it… You sold what? Speak clearly!"

"I sold the other house. After keeping it in hand for over two years, from first-hand to second-
hand, after taking off the various fees and charges, my net profit is a little over a million. The
yearly return on investment is around 16%, plus the effect of leverage… Mm, but the investment
market isn't great this couple of years. I guess it can be considered satisfactory. It's good enough
that I didn't make a loss." As Yu Lanchuan spoke, he washed a porcelain mug, boiled water and
steeped tea, his movements as calm and unrushed as the drifting clouds and flowing water. It
somehow made Yu Yan recall the first time they asked for help from Elder Yang.

Yu Yan, "..."
There were people who said that the current day young people buying houses was like what was
written in the book "Fortress Besieged" by Mr. Qian Zhongshu: those outside wanted to come in,
those inside wanted to go out. But in actual fact, it was not a very suitable analogy because those
outside the fortress might laugh and joke when they saw the house loan slaves counting their
pennies and running around working their asses off under the command of their house loans; but
when they went back, they would still keep their heads down and strive to save up enough for a
deposit, preparing to send themselves into the fortress as soon as possible so that they could also
live this kind of exhausting yet secure life. Meanwhile, those inside the fortress rarely wanted to
leave and would even, within a certain timeframe, get infected with the habit of checking
property prices when they had nothing better to do. The moment they found out that the price
of their house bathroom had increased 1,000 yuan per square meter, they would immediately
feel very satisfied and gain the illusion of having "earned money." They would be more energetic
even when they leave the house the next day to do their dreary jobs.

Yu Lanchuan was the first living house-seller that Yu Yan knew.

For a long while, Yu Yan couldn't return to his senses. His words tumbled over each other, his
mouth repeating the same thing. "You're mad, you're mad, Yu Lanchuan, you've gone mad, you
don't plan to live anymore? Last November… No, from the moment Teacher Meng-Meng left, I
felt that you weren't your usual self…"

When Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect announced their disbandment, Han Dongsheng had
asked Yu Lanchuan if he would still be holding the Martial Arts General Assembly in November. At
that time, Yu Lanchuan had firmly rejected the idea. Then, when it was nearly November, he
unexpectedly asked Yu Yan to help him with the procedures and again signed the Alliance
Leader's Command.

One by one, he registered all the sects from all areas. Then, using more than half a year's time,
with the old-timers in Yanning that he was more familiar with as the intermediaries, he contacted
them personally, sorted out a clear and comprehensive social network, and pooled their
resources. He made the first move and put up the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang that had been
annotated by generations of sect leaders of the Han Jiang Sword Sect. The current generation
weren't so conscious about family status or about maintaining the secrecy of their sects, and
there was a fair amount of people influenced by him, especially those led by the younger people.
Following that, job introductions, rooms for rent, assistance for major illnesses, emergency
jianghu rescues, helping to look after the children of non-local friends who had come to the city
to attend university, etc… all these things smoothly unfolded.

Yu Lanchuan finished laying the foundation and pointed directly at the evil cult hiding
everywhere—the Xu clan.

Just last month, three major sects in the southwest worked together and got rid of one of the Xu
clan's brainwashing nests. They shook out a large group of escaped criminals from that place,
each one of them with a bounty on their heads. Added together, it was a considerable sum.

After news of this got out, quite a number of "experts" who had always felt that their talents
were going to waste were eager to give it a try. Yu Lanchuan had laughed and thought,
Someone's going to have their business all snatched away.
"I just changed my lifestyle and it means I've gone mad?" Yu Lanchuan calmly answered with a
question. "Is putting on a suit and going to work to pay off a mortgage the only way to live in the
world? My granduncle only had his pension but he would go out and party every month; my dad
doesn't even have a pension, he carries his camera and roams to the four corners of the world.
I'm much better than these two, at the very least, I don't lack a place to stay and I also don't lack
money. In the future, even if I don't have a proper job, I can start a foreign language class and
make enough to survive."

"Director Yu! Was it easy for you to make it to where you are now?"

"To be honest, no, it was not easy." Yu Lanchuan sighed. "Being cautious in everything I do,
thinking twice before acting, not being able to act freely even when fighting with other people. It
really wasn't easy to qualify as an 'excellent young man.'"

"Then why…"

"But, Old Fish, all your accomplishments are also your shackles, don't you agree?"

Yu Yan paused.

Yu Lanchuan spread his hands. "When you understand this, you can let go of them whenever you
want to."

Yu Yan fell into silence for a while. "Are you going to look for her?"

"I have an agreement with her. I told her to wait for me for a year." Yu Lanchuan pulled out a
luggage bag from under the cabinet in the entrance hall. "I sent my younger brother to university,
disposed of the assets I needed to dispose of, and also cast the net I had to cast. It's almost time."

"When is it?"

"Tomorrow."

The wide brim of the cap fell down, hiding half of Gan Qing's face. She slowly walked into the
little guest house in the tourist area and accepted the bottle of water her colleague was handing
to her. From behind, the sound of police sirens could be heard sweeping past.

"I heard that they're catching an evil cult, something called Paradise." Her colleague had kindly
asked around and was sharing with Gan Qing, full of excitement. "I think I read about them in the
anti-cult pamphlet a few days ago. Their nest is super hidden, they've hid here for more than ten
years. Someone reported them to the police and that someone had even tied them all up. Isn't it
amazing?"

Gan Qing said indifferently, "For every action, the retribution would eventually come."

Her colleague mulled over this bizarre gossip for a while, then thought of something and asked
her, "By the way, Xiao-Wei, I heard that you're resigning?"
The tag hanging over Gan Qing's chest was written with: Tour Guide Wei Meng-Meng.

"I'm bored of this route," Gan Qing smiled at her. "I want a change of scenery."

"Ai… you, all right. You're really carefree. There's still one more tour for today, are you still going
to do it?"

Gan Qing gulped down half the bottle of water in one go and stood up. "Let's go, I'll do one last
shift with you."

Half an hour later, Gan Qing sat in the empty little bus, going with the driver they were partnered
with to pick up a group of tourists. On the way, the colleague tried repeatedly to chat with her
about the evil cult hidden in the sightseeing area but Gan Qing's replies were half-hearted so she
gradually quieted down. She glanced at Gan Qing out of the corner of her eye and saw that she
was playing with a phone. The phone wasn't the one she normally used.

"Did you change your phone?"

"Hmm?" Gan Qing answered distractedly. "No, this is my private number. It's for contacting my
family."

Since three days ago, she had been receiving notifications warning her that the service was about
to be stopped due to lack of credit.

She stared at the "Unable to send" notification and spaced out. She realised with a start that it
really had been a year.

Perhaps it meant… that was it?

She looked out the window at a loss. The waters were emerald-blue, the mountains lushly green.
Each traveller walked their own, separate road.

After handling this last batch of tourists, it was time for a change of scenery.

Then… should she return to Yanning for a look?

But if she went back and found out that he had changed his windows and she could not enter,
then what?

When the driver stopped the bus at the tourist pickup point, the scale in Gan Qing's heart was
still wavering between "return to Yanning" and "let it be." She could not decide.

She forced herself to put these emotions aside and hung the customer service smile on her face.
She turned to face the tourists, all with backpacks on their backs and umbrellas in their hands,
and gave each of them the same spiel. She didn't have the heart to scrutinise each one of them,
her soul had already flown back to Yanning and only her body was left there to robotically direct
the tourists to store their luggage and go up the bus in an orderly manner.
Even her words were the ones she was so familiar with by now that they didn't have to go
through her brain, the tongue automatically shot them out.

"...In a while, we will be travelling through a rather long mountain road. If anyone feels
uncomfortable, please immediately inform me. We have prepared common medicines for
everyone…"

Someone suddenly interjected, "Do you have all kinds of medicines?"

"For the more common ailments like colds, diarrhea and car sickness…" Halfway through her
words, Gan Qing suddenly realised something. She twisted her head around to look at the person
who had asked the question, but the overly wide brim of her soft cap fell down, blocking her
vision.

She reached up to pull it off in near-panic. Right at that moment, a hand reached over, cupping
the back of her hand and lightly lifting the brim of her cap. There was a clear mint fragrance on
the sleeve. Their eyes met.

"Do you also have the medicine for treating lovesickness?"

— END OF MAIN STORY —

Extra 1: Danger in the Mountains

"Go to the side of the road…" Yu Lanchuan gritted out a single line. "Stop."

The rundown jeep didn't even slow down; it screeched to an immediate halt. Yu Lanchuan
pushed open the front passenger door and got down from the car, shaking and trembling, and
took deep breaths of the fresh air in the mountains.

The driver, Gan Qing, looked out curiously. "Why did you get down?"

This was a section of a mountain trail. On both sides were steep cliffs. Yu Lanchuan was standing
right at the edge, his back profile solemn and sorrowful, like he was ready to leap down.

Hearing her question, Yu Lanchuan turned around gloomily and gave her a look. "I want to
calibrate my psychological state."

"Hey, I'm a probationary driver. If my driving isn't good, you just need to give me some pointers,"
Gan Qing consoled him. "Be more open-minded, darling leader. It's not worth it to end your life
early for something like this."

The darling leader exploded on the spot. "Given that you're a new driver who just got her license
two weeks ago, I can understand if you make mistakes—mistaking the accelerator for the brake,
taking up two spaces when reverse parking, mistaking the wiper switch for the turn signal… all
these are fine. But I cannot understand why, when you're still in your probation period, you're
already speeding! And drifting! Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself!"
Gan Qing, "..."

"Get the hell down, give me the wheel!"

"Wait a minute."

"What else are you…"

Gan Qing suddenly pointed ahead. "Look there."

Yu Lanchuan looked in the direction of her gaze. Two teenagers were running towards their car.
The boy in front was around fourteen or fifteen years old, with hair long enough to piss off a head
teacher flying behind him. The girl at the back looked a little younger and was stumbling behind
the boy. There were even scrapes on her face.

The two teenagers waved desperately at them, scrabbling their way to the front of the car. The
girl looked obviously to be the soft and delicate type. She was panting so hard that her face was
devoid of colour and she held onto the front hood of the car, unable to speak. The boy's eyes
looked from Yu Lanchuan to Gan Qing, then he spoke for the two of them. "Gege, Jiejie, do you
have space in your car? Can you give us a ride?"

"Wait a minute, what is this about giving you guys a ride all of a sudden?" Yu Lanchuan frowned.
"Luckily the sun's up now. If it was earlier when it was still dark and two people suddenly ran out
up here in the mountains, you could shock the hell out of someone. Where did you two come
from? What are you doing?"

The girl shot the boy a quick look, like she was ascertaining his expression. "We are-"

"We ran away from home together." The boy quickly interrupted her. While speaking, he
purposely combed his mid-length hair back, exuding the aura of a minor gangster in movies
about black triads from the last century. "We don't want to go to school anymore. We hired a car
and came to the mountains for fun—it's that scenic area with cliff caves right up ahead, you guys
are going there too, right? In the end, halfway there, that asshole driver wanted to increase the
fee. We didn't want to let him do as he wished, so we got down."

"Oh my," Gan Qing leaned against the car door and smiled widely. "Eloping at such a tender
age?"

The parts of the boy's limbs that were exposed were very tanned and his skin was rough. It was
immediately obvious that he was used to physical labour. The girl next to him was panting so
hard it seemed like she couldn't breathe and both her legs couldn't stop shaking—this was a
reaction someone who wasn't used to mountain trails would have after climbing up and down
the mountains many times. The boy only had a thin layer of sweat over his hair at the front. His
face was not flushed and he was not panting for breath.

"Which school are you two from?" Gan Qing asked.

The boy's gaze flickered. The girl next to him picked up the conversation. "No. 1."

"The city's No. 1 High School?" Gan Qing raised her eyebrows and turned to ask Yu Lanchuan,
"We drove here from the city area, it's been about six hours, hasn't it? What kind of hired car can
be hired for six hours? I'll get one next time and save ourselves the trouble of driving."

"No, it's the county's No. 1 High School," the boy immediately corrected. "Our county town has a
No. 1 too."

He subconsciously avoided Gan Qing's beaming gaze. From their appearances, he rapidly
discerned who among these two people was the one who was easy to talk to. He approached Yu
Lanchuan and pleaded, "Dage, please give us a ride."

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything. He patted Gan Qing and the two of them swapped seats. "We
do indeed want to go to the scenic area…"

"We want to go there too," the boy said hastily. "We won't take up much space, the trunk will do
too. You can just drop us off at the county town on the way back."

The girl looked tense. She waited apprehensively for the car owner to answer and at the same
time, involuntarily turned her head back to look. Without her realising it, her hand that was
resting by her side rubbed against the seam of her pants.

"Sure." Gan Qing spread her hands. "It's fine with us, as long as you guys aren't afraid that we're
bad guys."

Only then did Yu Lanchuan nod, keeping his silence as though his words were as precious as gold.

The outside of the jeep looked dirty and old, but care had been taken with the interior. On the
inside, it was clean and spacious, not the least bit cramped, and there was a barely discernible
fresh mint smell in the air. The rearview mirror was hung with a garland of dried flowers and a
wool blanket was draped over the back seat, covering a collection of poetry by Khalil Gibran. The
girl carefully put the blanket and the book aside, then looked over the backseat at the trunk. The
trunk was much more exciting; there was a tent, fishing rods, beer, equipment for campfire
cooking, photography equipment… and even a guitar standing upright in a corner.

It gave out a feeling of a journey accompanied by poetry and wine and song.

To start a conversation, the boy asked, "Gege, Jiejie, where are you guys from? You don't sound
like locals."

Gan Qing said the name of a small tourist town. "Have you heard of it?"

The boy stared blankly but the girl quickly nodded. "Yeah, it was very popular a few years ago. A
lot of places have direct routes to it. I went there frequently when I was young."

"We opened a guest house there," Gan Qing said.

The girl relaxed slightly. "What's it called? Next time, I'll bring my family there."

"We've already closed the place and leased it out." Gan Qing turned around and smiled at her.
"We've stayed here for nearly four years now, we're a little tired of it. We're planning to go
somewhere else soon. We're going on a vacation before leaving, checking out all the scenery in
this county that we haven't seen yet, then heading south."

The girl's eyes brightened. "You can live like that?"

"A guest house is not a money-maker, it's only enough to cover daily expenses." Gan Qing
laughed and stretched out an arm to drape over Yu Lanchuan's shoulder. "I mainly rely on having
a rich man who makes a profit in everything he invests."

"Go away," Yu Lanchuan said.

Before the girl's smile could unfurl, Gan Qing suddenly asked, "What's your name?"

The girl blurted out, "Jiang Ling."

"Jiang Ling." Gan Qing paused. A hint of a smile flashed across her eyes and she asked with
feigned suspicion, "Ai, why do I feel like I've heard this name somewhere before…"

"No… It's not that 'ling,' it's… the 'ling' that means 'bell.'" In a fluster, the girl started to speak
incoherently. "There are a lot of people in this area with the surname Jiang, perhaps the names
sound similar…"

The boy gave her a forceful tug. The girl realised that the more she explained, the more
suspicious she sounded and her face immediately paled.

Gan Qing reclined against the front passenger seat, poking her head out to look at her with a
smile that was not quite a smile. "Oh? How did you know which 'ling' I meant?"

She had barely finished speaking when Yu Lanchuan suddenly stomped on the brakes.

Gan Qing slowly turned her body around, her fingers drumming against her knees every now and
then. The smile was still on her face but her gaze was darkening.

The mountain trail was very narrow, only about the width of two cars. Vehicles going up and
coming down the mountain would all have to pass through it. If they encountered another
vehicle, there was just barely enough space for them to pass by each other. But all of a sudden,
opposite them, two pick-up trucks were coming down side-by-side. They were coming right at
them and just like that, the road ahead was blocked until not even the wind could pass through.

Right after that, the puttering sound of exhaust pipes sounded behind them. A few rundown
motorcycles had emerged from somewhere, blocking their escape route.

Yu Lanchuan's eyes swept around him. He said slowly, pausing between each word, "Ran away
from home?
The boy pressed his lips into a line. The girl crumbled into sobs. "Help us, please, I beg you, help
us…"

The story began two days ago. The girl's father was in charge of the criminal investigation division
of the prefecture-level public security bureau.

Three days ago.

The police cars kept a stern watch around the small town in the mountains, ready to surround
the fish escaping from the net at a moment's notice. From not far away, there was the sudden
sound of shouts, followed immediately by a pack of mad people who had wrapped themselves up
like Death Eaters running out of a small courtyard and fleeing in all directions. Looking at the
state of things, the police who were lying in wait nearby immediately swarmed up, anti-explosive
shields, police batons and tasers all drawn. There were even a few holding actual guns for
backup.

This time, the command had come from the province-level public security bureau. Throughout
the entire province, the strict crackdown targeting the Paradise cult was being carried out in
unison.

This Paradise cult especially loved building nests in remote and desolate places, duping those
elderly left behind to watch over things in the villages to become their loyal believers. Then, with
this as their foundation, they took the "villages surrounding a city" route to expand. The moment
there was even a whiff of trouble, they would turn around and slip into those places where even
public roads did not readily access, waiting for the spring wind next year to revive. Waging war
against them was like trying to rid the city of cockroaches. Arming each household with
insecticide was of no use; all the pests within the entire district, the entire city, must be
completely eliminated once before there could be a few years' of peace. This time, the police had
spent a long time brewing their plan. Their preparations were ample; they had obtained cross-
province cooperation, mobilised their informers, put out numerous bounties on the heads of the
wanted criminals, and even contacted a lot of local young people who had gone away to work as
labourers to return to be "spies" before launching a concentrated attack to thoroughly dig up this
immensely tangled and deeply-rooted evil cult, roots and all.

The nest in this small town was a critical mission. Captain Jiang from the city bureau had gone in
person to oversee the operation to capture the cult, making every effort to take them all down in
one go. After a round of intense scuffling, the cult members were all brought to justice. There
were a total of eleven of them. They had been hiding in a house in the small town previously. The
house owner was a believer and had taken care of their daily needs like an act of worship.

Captain Jiang took a look. The number of people was consistent with the reports from the
informers. He waved his hand. "Take them away!"

He had barely finished speaking when a shriveled tiny old lady charged over with her two twig-
like arms raised. "You're not allowed to go! That's the Advisor! He's here to save us, what are you
people doing!"
A police officer said, "What advisor? Auntie, that's a swindler…"

The old lady spat in contempt, her spit speckling the young officer's face. "You will all face
retribution!" she said viciously.

The officer was caught off guard and didn't dodge in time. He stood where he was and wiped his
face, flabbergasted.

Out of the corner of his eye, Captain Jiang saw his own young subordinate being bullied and
erupted in rage. "What's going on over there?"

"It's an old couple. The house belongs to them. Their children are in other parts of the country.
It's been three years and their children only send them money, they haven't shown up the whole
time. Their family can be considered well off. See, they built this three-storey house themselves.
This old couple only has a grandson staying with them. They don't have anything as a spiritual
support. Most of the time, they don't have anything to do and spend the whole day messing
around with this pack. They believe in that Paradise thing and don't even care about their
grandson. The kid has been skipping school for half a month already, the school's going to expel
him."

Hearing that, Captain Jiang was even angrier. "In that case, aren't they guilty of harbouring
criminals? Take them away!"

"Please take a look at these two, they're already seventy, nearly eighty. You'll even need to avoid
them if you encounter them on the street. If anything happens, whose fault is it? Are we
arresting two people guilty of harbouring criminals or are we inviting a pair of living ancestors
back? Captain Jiang, if you ask me, we should just focus on reeducating them."

Captain Jiang thought a while and felt that his words made sense. Hence, he went up himself to
carry out the task of reeducation.

"I'm really puzzled. The two of you don't care about your grandson and instead, spend money
and effort to support this pack of bastards. For what? Can they support you in your old age and
send you off on your final journey?" Captain Jiang asked.

The old lady said, "You have all been deceived by the secular world! Your eyes are blurred!
Unclean things have attached themselves to your body for the sole purpose of not letting you
return to Paradise. If you're a disbeliever, you will all rot in the earth!"

"That won't do. We will be cremated after we die. Even if we want to rot in the earth, national
policies won't allow it."

"Stubborn and ignorant!" the old lady said furiously.

"You are the one who's stubborn and ignorant, Old Auntie. These people are spreading their cult
illegally and using it to gain dishonest profit. They are a serious threat to public safety. By
concealing them, you are also breaking the law, you understand? Just take that leader of theirs
for example—that whatever-the-fuck advisor—he's a junior high dropout, nothing more than a
gangster. His education level is not even as high as your grandson." As he spoke, Captain Jiang
took out his phone from his wallet. "I even have his old photo. Let me show you, he dyed his hair
blonde…"

The old lady felt that her faith was being besmirched. She threw herself on him, planning to tear
into him with her teeth, and knocked Captain Jiang's wallet and phone away. A few officers
rushed up to help him pick them up. Captain Jiang folded both his hands behind his back and did
not touch her. He said calmly, "There is a warrant out for his arrest. Theft, robbery… just look at
the terrible stuff he has done. Among the list of criminals, he's considered one of the lower
grades."

The old lady was pulled away by others. She opened a pair of small triangular eyes clouded with
cataracts and glowered at Captain Jiang. Her mouth mumbled something, putting a curse on him
right there and then.

"Trying to curse me to death?" Captain Jiang was completely unconcerned about taboos and
waved like a bachelor without family to worry over. "Same to you."

When that was done, he felt as though he had completely destroyed the idiocy of the ignorant
masses, so he commanded everyone to detain the suspects and swaggered off. He did not see
the overdue receipt from the dry cleaner that had fallen out of his wallet just now, on which was
written his own phone number and the address of the dry cleaner at the entrance of the
neighbourhood where his house was. It happened to be wedged in the cracks of the stones by
the roadside.

The soil of ignorance scoured the earth for thousands of miles; grass could barely grow half an
inch, while the cracks on the ground were a meter deep. This "reeducation" swept past like a
round of pleasant breeze and fine drizzle, leaving not a single mark.

Three days later, Captain Jiang's thirteen-year old daughter, Jiang Ling, disappeared from the
entrance of their home.

Jiang Ling only remembered that she had gone home in a group with her schoolmates as usual.
She had just parted ways with them when she heard someone calling her name. At that time, it
was only evening and the sky wasn't dark yet. There were people walking on the main road. She
didn't have her guard up and thought that she was bumping into an acquaintance. She followed
the voice and turned into an alley at the side, and before she could see anything clearly, someone
seized her neck. And then, she had no idea what happened afterwards.

When she regained consciousness, she had already been kidnapped to a mountain ravine. Those
kidnappers had tied her up and covered her with a white bag as tall as a human. On it were
written the word "Paradise" in rust colour. They pointed a thirty-centimeter long sickle at her and
took photos of her.

Quite a number of people had been kidnapped along with her. Outside, the kidnappers from
Paradise were in conflict on how to handle their hostages—there were some who thought that
they ought to imitate the terrorists in the Middle East and drag them out one by one to be
executed, and intimidate the government's running dogs through bloody vengeance. On the
other hand, the others thought that committing murder would make it hard to bring things to a
conclusion. Furthermore, killing them was also useless. If they took a video and put it online, it
would even easily expose their location. It was better to quietly contact the victims' families and
threaten them in secret, and fight to infiltrate the inner workings of the public security bureau as
quickly as possible.

This group of kidnappers were among the members of Paradise that had slipped the net. Right
now, they were surrounded by enemies and had no plans. Even though the two sides with their
different views were evenly matched when it came to letting their imaginations run free,
regrettably, they could not understand each other's points. After debating for a day, they could
not reach a conclusion, so Jiang Ling and the rest could still keep their heads on their necks for
the time being.

The kidnappers used a cement factory as their operations base. They had believers in the villages
located halfway up the mountain and there were people regularly delivering food up the
mountain. Jiang Ling was set free by the food delivery boy who had taken advantage of the
darkness to do so.

The food delivery boy—the one sitting right beside her now—had parents working in another
part of the country. Since young, he had lived with his grandparents who had mysterious beliefs
and he had long since wanted to run away. He stole 600 yuan from his grandfather and
conveniently also scooped Jiang Ling out before leaving—not because he liked the girl but
because it was his grandmother who had revealed the girl's address to the kidnappers.

The two teenagers fled through the night, slipping through the forest and crossing the ravines.
After running for a night and climbing over a few mountaintops, they finally dared to hitch a ride
on the road. They didn't even dare tell the truth when hitchhiking, for fear that the other party
would not dare take them along in case of trouble.

Unexpectedly, they still did not manage to escape.

T/N:
[1] Gan Qing calls Yu Lanchuan 萌主 méng zhǔ. 主 here means "chief" or "leader" while 萌 is
from the Japanese word "moe" which roughly means "to have strong feelings of affection for
something cute." It's a pun on 盟 主 (alliance leader) which is pronounced the same way. I
couldn't come up with any way to keep the pun so "darling leader" it is.

******

Typically, the way kidnappers treated their hostages was comparable to the cruel and harsh
winter, and the way they treated hostages that had escaped from under their noses was even
more like freezing current from Siberia. Were it not for the food delivery boy stopping them, the
kidnappers that had caught up with them would nearly have beaten Jiang Ling to death right
there by the road.

As for the two passerbys, Gan Qing and Yu Lanchuan, even though it was none of their business,
they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Hence, the car was confiscated while the humans were tied up and taken away.

His face impassive, Yu Lanchuan said, "I want to change the interior. All the seat cushions need to
be changed."

"Then you might as well buy a new car." Gan Qing leaned lazily against the rail of the pick-up
truck. Perhaps because she was thin or perhaps because the kidnappers had gone easy on her,
even though both her hands were twisted behind her back, she looked very relaxed and
comfortable. "When we get back, I'll look for a car wash for you. We just need to disinfect it and
it'll be fine. Be good, we have to live according to our means."

Yu Lanchuan shot her a look.

"Fine." Gan Qing sighed and said resolutely. "Change them."

Yu Lanchuan was finally satisfied. His eyes skipped past the terrified Jiang Ling and landed on the
boy. One side of the boy's face was so swollen that the skin was almost transparent. There were a
few shocking handprints on it and his eyes were squeezed until they were mere slits. He had
taken the beating for Jiang Ling just now.

"Hey, are you all right?" Yu Lanchuan asked.

The boy looked at him and slowly nodded.

Jiang Ling said tearfully, "It's all because of me…"

"The one who beat me was my third maternal uncle." The boy's voice was rather unclear. "He
won't beat me to death. Stop crying."

Jiang Ling was stunned. Yu Lanchuan and Gan Qing exchanged a veiled look. In actual fact, when
the kidnappers made their move, Yu Lanchuan nearly couldn't hold himself back and had been
stopped by Gan Qing. Any jianghu veteran could tell what kind of beating could really take a life
and what kind only looked vicious.

Gan Qing asked, "Why, your family works as bandits?"

"No. They believe in that Paradise thing, you see. My grandpa, my grandma, my third uncle…
Everyone who stays in the mountains are relatives. One person spreads it to ten, ten people
spread it to a hundred—lots of people follow suit and believe in it." The boy explained briefly and
glanced at Jiang Ling. "The one watching you guys last night was my father's cousin's husband."

Jiang Ling opened her eyes wide. "You… When you took me to escape yesterday night, you told
me that you couldn't call the police, that your phone had no signal…"

"Mm, I lied," the boy said calmly. "I don't want to call the police. I just want to run away by
myself. I've long gotten sick of staying here. Since I'm not going to school anymore, I plan to go
out into the world and try my luck. I'll first go to the county town and take the train to look for
my parents. Scooping you out was just because it was convenient. I don't plan to do anything
about the others at all."

"But they're all evil cultists!" Jiang Ling said.

The boy gave her an indifferent look. "Yeah, so?"

Jiang Ling, "..."

"If they didn't believe in this, they would believe in something else. Humans are like that. They
have to worship a god in their homes, regardless of whether it's a true god or a false god. If they
don't believe in something, what do you expect them to do?" The boy turned his head away and
looked out at the distant sky. "You cityfolk have exciting lives but we're not the same. We only
have this here. There's no choice."

A boy fifteen or sixteen years of age was like a camelthorn shrub growing in the desert. He was
used to the wind blowing sand into his eyes and his head being covered in grime, and had
practically cultivated a state of divinity where there was nothing about him that would shock
others.

Gan Qing put on an expression of astonishment and asked him, "Could it be that these
kidnappers are all your relatives?"

"No." Despite his state of divinity, the teenager was after all still inexperienced in the ways of the
world and was very easily baited into revealing more. "Quite a lot of people I don't know arrived
in the last two days. There are a lot of 'Advisors' from other places."

Gan Qing turned towards Yu Lanchuan and blinked—it seemed like Paradise was so besieged that
they had nowhere to go and those who escaped the net had all ran here and joined forces.

Just like that, the pick-up truck carried a hostage that failed to escape, a traitor who betrayed his
own people for others, and a pair of unlucky "passerbys," and wound its way through increasingly
narrow and twisted mountain trails to arrive at an abandoned cement factory.

The cement factory had been the main industry in this area in the past. Later on, due to
environmental issues, it was closed down. The people scattered, the young and vigorous ones all
fleeing to other provinces to seek their living while those who did not manage to run off could
only stay back and watch over what was left behind, with nothing to do but to count the passing
days, waiting for a saviour to explode into their world and bring a spark of hope into their dreary
lives.

A few soot-covered smokestacks stood in a row. The perimeter wall was nearly all dismantled
and carried away by the villagers. The mountain trail used by the trucks in the early years were
overgrown with weeds that depended on the faeces from cows and goats to grow lushly.

This was a location with extremely good fengshui—the terrain was very elevated, the slope
behind it was covered in dense forest and there was only one public road in front of it winding
around the mountain. Even if the police knew that they were there, the police cars could only
arrive via that single public road. Before they were halfway up the mountain, they would be
noticed and there was ample time for the bandits to kill all their hostages before slipping into the
forest to retreat.

Yu Lanchuan and the others were pushed into a room in the factory where the hostages were
kept together under lock and key. The guards that had originally been rather relaxed were now
tense. Seven or eight men surrounded them and if the men thought any of the hostages didn't
look right, they would hit them. They were locked up for a day. When the sky darkened, the food
delivery boy's third maternal uncle came in once and grumbled something to the boy, then
slapped him out of disappointment. He took away the key that the boy had stolen.

Nestled in a corner, Gan Qing remained quiet and docile, watching them without a single sound.

"What are you looking at?" The swelling on one side of the boy's face had just gone down and the
other side was now looking like he had mumps. "Only the younger ones are like that. Those like
my grandpa and my grandma don't give a shit about me at all. They'll soon reach that 'Paradise'
anyway. Their relatives over here are just like stones at the roadside."

Gan Qing asked in a voice that was almost inaudibly soft, "Around how many of them are there?"

The boy looked up and glanced at her. "Why, you still want to escape?"

Gan Qing pressed her lips into a smile, neither admitting nor denying.

"Stop dreaming." The boy's eyes swept past the dispirited hostages. He lowered his voice, "It's
impossible. Putting aside the believers, the main thing is that there are five or six Advisors here.
Those people are all very powerful, seven or eight ordinary people together aren't a match for
them. If they didn't have some kind of capability, how would they make so many people believe
them?"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Where are the advisors?"

"Over there. It was originally the activity center in the cement factory. The newest building, you
can see it immediately." The boy pouted very slightly. "You can't be serious about looking for-"

Before he could finish speaking, he stared in shock as Gan Qing put a finger to her lips that were
beaming widely. "Shh—"

How did this woman get a hand free?

The guards had been glaring at them for a day and were now tired too. Four of them played cards
at the door while out of the remaining three, one sat napping in a corner, one flipped through a
Paradise brochure in boredom and one more walked around the hostages every now and then.

Right when the man who was patrolling walked over, he heard someone cough. He
subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound and met Yu Lanchuan's gaze directly. Yu
Lanchuan gave him a textbook example of an eye-roll. The patrolling kidnapper was initially
stunned, not expecting there to be a hostage who was so bold. Rage started welling inside him
and he wanted to immediately go over and show him who was the boss there. His leg lashed out
at Yu Lanchuan but unexpectedly, before he could hit his target, something caught his ankle. His
face was full of shock; before he could cry out, a shadow flashed behind him like a monster and a
palm struck down.

The kidnapper collapsed in response.

Yu Lanchuan loosened his grip. Gan Qing skillfully held the kidnapper's body up from behind,
hiding herself from view. The kidnapper looking at the brochure faintly heard some noise and
lifted his head to glance in their direction. With the aid of the dim light from the lamp, he only
saw his accomplice standing there and swaying. He did not take much notice of it and once again
immersed himself in Paradise's rallying call.

Gan Qing signalled to Yu Lanchuan with her eyes: The four at the door are mine, you handle the
two inside the factory.

Yu Lanchuan frowned and shook his head. No. Four for me, two for you.

Gan Qing flicked her gaze to where the two kidnappers in the factory were. The distance is too
far. Your legs are longer.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

He had no way to refute.

The looks the two of them exchanged all happened in an instant. Right after that, they acted in
unison and shattered the two lightbulbs hanging in the factory. The already dim place instantly
plunged into darkness.

At the card table, the kidnapper who was facing the factory said, "Hey, did the electricity get
cut?"

"Maybe it's a short circuit. After this round, I'll go take a look…" The one with his back to the
room didn't even turn around. "I'm throwing out a flush, three to queen."

"Asshole! Why don't you get two more and throw them all out together."

"Fuck!"

The other three people's attention was immediately drawn. One of them poked his head forward
to check the pile of cards he had thrown out while the other two flipped their own cards over.
The one who had thrown out his cards just now had a relaxed and delighted expression, like his
entire body was lightened after detoxification. He took a long stretch of the body but before his
waist could fully stretch out, he froze—there was a noose around his neck.

Before he could let out a warning, a cloud of cement dust fell from above. The night wind sent
the dust flying and all three men at the card table closed their eyes in unison amidst the
whirlwind of dust. There were a few dull thumps. The one furthest from the factory finally
rubbed his eyes enough to open them and realised in shock that his accomplices were all lying
down. A razor blade pressed on the pulsing artery on his neck.

Someone said in his ear, "Shhh—"

At the same time, Yu Lanchuan had already silently taken care of the two men in the factory
building. He stood in the moonlight shining through the window and signaled Gan Qing with his
hand.

Before Gan Qing could respond, someone suddenly shouted from afar, "What are you doing!"

"Ai, this is bad. I've been a witch for too long, my luck isn't good," Gan Qing said.

The cement factory was instantly in an uproar. In the darkness of the night, the activity room that
the boy had pointed out was indeed exceptionally eye-catching. The few Xu clan people hidden
there heard the noise and immediately came out to check. "What's-"

A razor blade flew towards them from far, brushing past one of their faces and stabbing into the
wall.

"Wan Mu Chun!"

The moment they heard those three words, the few people who were rolling their sleeves up and
preparing to get into action immediately turned pale with fright. The one in the lead shouted
"Fuck!" and turned around to flee. The believers under them didn't understand why but hastily
followed suit and ran. The group that had reacted the fastest had already gotten into the cars but
before they could drive out of the courtyard, two terrified believers came running in from the
opposite direction. "There are lots of police cars at the bottom of the mountain! They're driving
up!"

When the remaining people heard them, they turned and fled for the forest through the back
gate.

Who would have known that the moment they entered the forest, they seemed to startle a chain
of sound-activated lights and the forest lit up here and there with flashlights. The ones who had
laid in waiting there at some point scooped up Paradise and brought them back.

Both escape routes and the "easy to defend, hard to attack" cement factory were wrapped up
like a dumpling. In less than half an hour, not a single one managed to escape. From the advisors
to the believers, they squatted in a row.

Gan Qing found their jeep and dug out a radio transmitter from under the driver seat. "It wasn't
enough that they took the humans away, they even wanted the car. Nothing good awaits those
who are greedy for the little spoils."

Yu Lanchuan came over and said faintly, "We'll change the interior when we get down from the
mountain."
There was nothing Gan Qing could say to that. She took out a packet of antibacterial wet wipes
from the trunk and gave the inside a complete wipedown. Only then did the big boss Master Yu
get into the car unwillingly, and slowly drove away.

He opened the car windows. The fragrance from the antibacterial wet wipes evaporated along
with the relaxing breeze. Every now and then, someone would come over to greet them.

"Little Master Yu."

"Alliance Leader Yu."

The ones who had laid in wait on the mountain were their jianghu friends who lived in that
province most of the time. Yu Lanchuan had spent four years entertaining visitors from up north
all the way down to the south, and had made quite a lot of connections.

Yu Lanchuan nodded and thanked each one of them for their hard work. Someone joked, "Little
Master Yu, why are you in such a hurry to leave? There's a reward for assisting with the case,
aren't you going to claim it?"

"No, I won't. Just take it as after-sales service." Yu Lanchuan smiled then left, as lightly and freely
as the passing breeze.

Before going down the mountain and changing the car interior, the two of them still had to go to
the scenic area to take photos.

"If we rush there from here, the timing is just right. We can take photos of the sunrise." Gan Qing
fiddled with the photography equipment in the backseat with familiar ease. She still owed a
tourism magazine the draft for an article.

Yu Lanchuan said coolly, "Are they going to pay you extra if you can photograph the sunrise?"

Before he could finish speaking, he heard the shutter go off. Gan Qing had taken a picture of his
side profile.

Yu Lanchuan, "...If I'm in the photo, the fee will have to be increased."

Gan Qing lowered her head to look at the photo she had just taken. The weak lights on the
mountain trail drew a hazy outline around Yu Lanchuan. The person drifted along with the flow of
time but the snapshot of his silhouette remained frozen in the picture.

Gan Qing suddenly blinked. "Hey, let me ask you, would there be a day when you no longer want
to live this kind of drifting and uncertain life?"

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while, then answered very candidly, "Right now, no. In the future,
maybe."

Gan Qing didn't say anything. She raised her eyes to look at him.
"When the day comes, I'll just stop drifting." Yu Lanchuan said, indifferent. "The Xu clan had their
victories and will have their losses. Aren't they almost all cleared out now? When the time
comes, I can go back and find a job or start my own business. I didn't cut off all ties with my
former social circle anyway. If these evil cults really can't be eliminated, the two of us can still go
abroad and settle down somewhere. Isn't that a way to live too? Would we be unable to find
something to do? If you want to settle down now, I'll come up with a three-year household
expenses plan for you."

"I'm not asking you to plan…" Gan Qing tucked her hair back, laughing then sighing. "Director Yu,
what we are discussing right now is the high-level strategy on tackling life, don't drag your
pretentious ways down to operative level."

Yu Lanchuan turned his head to give her a look of astonishment. "I find this very surprising. To
think that the word 'strategy' would one day have something to do with you… All right, what
strategic issue would you like to discuss?"

Gan Qing asked, "On what do you build your life?"

When Yu Lanchuan heard this question, he stared blankly for a few seconds, then laughed.

The moment Gan Qing saw this familiar smile, she knew that a round of taunting was coming and
quickly stopped it in advance. "Speak properly."

"At your level where you snap photos for a third-rate magazine, this is indeed the quality of the
questions you can come up with." As she expected, Yu Lanchuan not only taunted her but also
gave her employer the same treatment. "Why would I want to build my life on something? I'm
not a rice plant that can't move once I'm put into the ground."

"Then how will you live? Go wherever the waves take you?"

"Who isn't being carried away by the waves? Who can go against the times? Could Wang
Jiusheng do it? Could Old Sect Leader Yang? Pursuing a sense of surety in life is a pointless thing
in the first place, like notching a boat to mark where you dropped your sword into the water. It's
a false premise." Yu Lanchuan shrugged and added his comment. "So, I'm the operative level,
you're the hired thug level. At our levels, let's not force ourselves to explore this kind of high-
level question."

Gan Qing, "..."

"If you're sleepy, go sleep for a while at the back. Why all the worries and sorrows?" Yu Lanchuan
said. "When you're tired of drifting, I'll be your harbour. How many square meters do you want?"

"I want one as big as a castle."

"Sure," Yu Lanchuan agreed without even blinking. "Order one from the Lego shop. When it
comes, I'll build it for you."
"Who build what for whom? I built the last one all by myself. You were only shooting your mouth
off and making trouble!"

"The last one was for six to twelve year olds, it's suitable for you. You can't handle the ones for
ages sixteen years and above."

"...Yu Lanchuan, aren't you being a little over-confident lately?"

Extra 2: Spring Leaving with the Misty Rain

Holding a palm-leaf fan, Mr. Chun sat on the rocking chair under the grape trellis, the chair
creaking as it rocked. A light, cool breeze slipped into the courtyard and he realised that he
wanted to roll up his tank top to cool down his belly. Instantly, there was a sense of crisis and he
quickly corrected his bearing. He straightened his back and tried to flatten that extra bit of flesh
sticking out of his belly, pretending that it did not exist.

Right then, his disciple called out to him. "Shifu, time to eat."

"Leave it there." Mr. Chun waved his palm-leaf fan indifferently. His brows slightly furrowed, he
hummed an opera tune full of sorrow and anxiety. "The storm rages beyond the Spring and
Autumn Pavilion, whence comes the lament that breaks the silence…."

His disciple didn't say anything. He brought out all the plates and dishes and laid them out on the
little stone table in the courtyard, a riot of colours and delicious smells.

Great. There was no need to "break the silence" now. Mr. Chun—he whose magnificence was
unparalleled in his generation—smacked his lips, his gluttony making him put on an affected
tone. "It's too hot, I really don't have much of an appetite. Just looking at the food is enough… Is
there still any of that boiled hawthorn tea from yesterday? Get me a bowl, it aids digestion."

Just like that, he first very reservedly digested his food before the meal. Then, he ate two large
bowls of rice and drank a bowl of soup to fill in the gaps. Mr. Chun secretly let out a belch, then
regretted eating too much. He took another look at his little disciple—lean and wiry and
handsome, sleeves rolled up above his elbows, arms wrapped in a thin layer of skin with the
curve of his muscles and bones clear and distinct.

'Tch, Mr. Chun thought indignantly. We eat the same things and live in the same place. Why the
hell does this kid not put on weight? He's just younger, that's all.

This is really…

The little disciple worked up a great sweat preparing the food, waited on his shifu until his shifu
was done eating, then cleared the table without making a sound. After washing everything, he
swept the little courtyard and also splashed some cool water to alleviate the summer heat. After
cleaning up the interior and the exterior, his dinner was more or less digested. Hence, he washed
his hands, steeped a pot of jasmine tea for his shifu, then went to practise martial arts.
Throughout the entire time, Mr. Chun's butt never left the chair. Before dinner, this venerable old
man had sat there to wait for food and after eating, he continued to sit there. Every now and
then, he fanned himself with the palm-leaf fan and thought of exposing his belly to cool down.
Evidently, there was a reason for the flesh.

Mr. Chun watched his little disciple practise his knife skills. The knife in his hand seemed to be
alive, like sunlight reflected by the waves at sea, layer after layer folding into one another in an
unbreaking chain. When he stood in the courtyard, even the moonlight and the droning of the
cicadas did not command any of his attention, that pair of eyes as calm as the eye of a hurricane.
Mr. Chun watched from the side for a while, his palm-leaf fan no longer moving. He sighed. This
brat truly has a quiet heart.

When it came to learning and practising martial arts, the disciples' natural aptitudes could be
sorted by ranks. There were those whose ability to comprehend was very high and could grasp
their shifu's teaching after just one time. Those who were slower might practise for ten to twenty
years and still fail to grasp the main points. The skills passed down by Wan Mu Chun's line were
killing techniques. Killing techniques did not require great physical strength and did not demand
the disciples to spend the whole day smashing rocks with their chests; nor did it require
unparalleled finesse, the kind that made the audience gasp in amazement the moment the skill
appeared. To study killing techniques, the most important natural ability was to have a quiet
heart, the ability to breathe in rhythm with the grass and trees, to adhere one's five sensory
organs and six senses to the target's, waiting for a chance and killing in a single strike.

No need to be showy but it had to be precise—the precision trained from pouring one's heart
and blood into training.

His little disciple was a fine sapling, Mr. Chun thought regretfully. Were it not because Wan Mu
Chun had washed their hands of their old ways after liberation, his little disciple's Paoding Jieniu
that surpassed the master's might become the legend of his generation.

"Xiao-Xiao'er," Mr. Chun said leisurely, "It's almost time to take a rest. If you were born ten years
later, I wouldn't even teach you these skills."

Mr. Chun had picked up the little disciple Wei Xiao from the streets. In the years of political
upheaval, the streets were filled with unwanted children. Mr. Chun had been hanging out with a
bunch of his friends from the opera scene one day and had drank too much, and picked up a
disciple just like that. When he sobered up the next day and took a look, he realised that the child
did not have a coarse appearance and he felt as though they had quite an affinity. He could also
afford to feed one more mouth so, in that careless and muddled way, he kept the child.

At that time, Mr. Chun had yet to "wash his hands" so he had passed his martial art skills together
with his legacy to his little disciple Wei Xiao… and nurtured his disciple into becoming a famous
chef of his generation.

Mr. Chun said, "When I'm dead in the future, you will be the sect leader. However, our sect has
been passed down the generations since the Southern Song dynasty, we've already made our
money's worth. Our founder also does not desire you to expand our sect and gain glory, so just
relax."
Wei Xiao had been reticent since young. After hearing that, he only smiled. The knife in his hand
did not stop gleaming.

In ancient times, the sect of Wan Mu Chun had not been any sort of righteous or reputable sect.
For the sake of producing a "lethal blade" in their disciples, the masters had been willing to use
any method. Getting beaten and scolded were minor matters; not paying attention when
practising and having their life taken by their shifu in a moment's carelessness was also not a rare
occurrence. Mr. Chun reminisced about the past and said, "We were forced out into the world
since we were young and after growing up, we had to depend on this nonsense to earn a living
and survive, seeking both fame and profit. But why do you practise these skills?"

As usual, Wei Xiao only smiled and replied in a very soft voice, "I just like it. It feels like the knife
can keep me company and chat with me."

After hearing that, there was a thunk in Mr. Chun's heart. He thought, In that case, you're better
off seeking both fame and profit.

Because seeking fame and profit was human nature. Those who seeked neither fame nor profit
were more often than not closer to demons.

When Mr. Chun was young, he heard a legend that said that there were some famous and
treasured swords passed down since ancient times that were different from ordinary metal from
the moment they came out of the forge. After many years had gone by, the swords gained a spirit
and could be reborn as a human. There might be one such person every ten thousand years, and
they were capable of communicating with swords. Others looked at swords as lethal weapons
that harmed people but in the eyes of those people, the swords were old friends that they were
meeting again. Hence, regardless of whether they practised knife skills or swordplay, one light
touch and they could grasp the entirety, one example and they had thorough comprehension.
They were all knife and sword wielders of frightening talent.

However… more often than not, such people did not have good endings.

From ancient times until now, how many of the big or small demons in the stories passed on
among the people had good endings?

Before Mr. Chun departed the world, he held his little disciple's hand and instructed him two
things.

The first was: don't make a name for yourself, don't take things too seriously, be satisfied with
the minimum. Let your talent fade away and become an ordinary person.

The second was: Wan Mu Chun's knife skills should end at your generation. Don't pass it down
further. Killing techniques are a bad portent.

Wei Xiao cried bitterly as he sent off his revered teacher. He remembered their eternal parting,
yet did not remember his shifu's words.
People came and issued challenges; Wei Xiao never turned down an invitation. He had never
suffered a defeat, how could he bring shame to his ancestors' name?

Old Mr. Yu gathered the heroes to lay siege to the Xu clan, issuing an Alliance Leader's Command;
Wei Xiao answered the call. As the descendant of one of the Five Supremes, how could he shrink
back?

At the Martial Arts General Assembly, he showed his face and had some tea, leaving as soon as
the barest formalities were done—that was Wei Xiao's personality. Even if he was forced to stay
longer, he had nothing to say to the others. He did not have the golden touch, not everything he
did was a success.

Surrounded by the Beggars' Sect juniors, he neither retreated nor cowered. One against many, he
fought until his eyes were reddened yet no one lost their lives. They only each had one arm
broken. Wei Xiao had already done his utmost to go easy on them.

Famous blades could not hide their sharp edges. Mr. Chun's worries all became reality.

Wei Xiao made a name for himself, took things too seriously, and was unwilling to get by on just
the bare minimum. But he was also not the kind of hero that would have hundreds answering to
his call at the moment of crisis, so he could only be burdened by his fame and live in hiding.

When he was at the age when he was enamoured with the other sex, Wei Xiao had also once had
someone he liked. It was just that society wasn't so open back then. He had a shy personality and
didn't dare express his feelings, hiding them in his heart. Later on, the girl married an old friend
of his and no matter how strong his feelings were, they could only be buried in his heart. A few
more years passed. Due to circumstances of that era, the couple passed away, leaving behind a
young son that they entrusted to Wei Xiao. The child was none other than Wei Huan.

Before the age of five, the child was called Yan Huan. Later on, when he played outside with
other children, he was laughed at for not having parents and was called a bastard. Wei Xiao
overheard them and changed his surname because of that. From then on, he raised him like his
own child. Hence, the gossip and rumours swerved to a new target, saying that the child was his
illegitimate child that he sired without getting married.

But all that wasn't important. His reputation wasn't anything good to begin with.

His ancestors had practised Paoding Jieniu for the sake of finding their footing in life. When they
could no longer do so, naturally they would no longer practise it or pass it down. Wei Xiao was
not the same. He passed his knife skills to his disciples because he wanted to introduce an old
friend to the younger generation. He couldn't stop himself.

In his entire life, Wei Xiao made two mistakes. The first was when he saw Wei Huan take out the
manual for Paoding Jieniu and move according to the instructions, he couldn't resist correcting
him. The second was when little Gan Qing took his razor blade and awkwardly tried to learn from
him, when she kept pestering him, he failed to stand firm.
By nature, Wei Huan was not a lively and extroverted child. Wei Xiao couldn't help but feel that
the child was similar to himself and became even more shut-in after staying with him. At that
time, they were poor and couldn't afford toys. Teaching him martial arts was to sharpen his mind
and also to relieve boredom.

But he was wrong. Wei Huan was not at all like him. After growing up, he took one wrong step
and every step thereafter was also wrong. The vagaries of life pushed him into a place where Wei
Xiao could not reach.

Later on, by chance he took in Gan Qing. At that time, Wei Xiao was already old and his
personality became even milder. Like he was taking care of a little flower, he took great care of
this little girl whose background was complicated. At the start, he had thought of it in a simple
way: the little girl was still so young, her family was dead, she had no one to look after her, and
the reason she was in this plight was entirely because he hadn't taught his disciple well; hence, it
was his responsibility to bring this child up.

But humans were not flowers and grass. As time went by and he brought the little girl up, he
forgot why he had taken her in at the beginning.

Wei Xiao was old now. Knives and swords would rust and their blades curve, humans also would
become lonely. When he was young, he had been burdened by Wei Huan and had never gotten
married. In his old age, he had no descendants around him. He couldn't help following the norm
and started desiring the mundane life that other elderly people had. That one active and lively
little burden became the center of his life.

Gan Qing's personality was the total opposite of her shixiong. She was bright and clever, and
terribly mischievous. Before the age of five, she climbed trees and roofs, stopping at nothing, and
her knees were forever scraped. When she started school, the teacher would summon her
guardian every other day. But her academic performance was surprisingly quite good and her
teachers had been saying since she was young that she would enter university in the future.

For her sake, he started to keep a low profile, to conceal his identity and live in hiding. He stuck
to her from day to night every day, forever worrying over an unending stream of petty matters.
Sometimes, he would vaguely feel that she was his little daughter who had come to comfort him
in his final years.

However, once an untouchable truth was submerged in the lake, the moonlight and the
fragrance of the flowers on the surface would all become a transient reflection on the water. A
stolen comfort would have to be returned one day.

The ancestors had passed down the rule that every generation of Wan Mu Chun could only be
passed down to a single disciple. Wei Xiao broke the rule.

It was too cold that day. Gan Qing had run away from home for a week already and Wei Xiao was
nearly going mad. Right when he ran out of ideas and was even willing to expose his hiding place
by going to No. 110 for help, Meng Tianyi brought home a bloodsoaked Gan Qing.

Wei Xiao's heart fell with a thunk. In his heart, he knew something bad had happened.
"Was it really Wei Huan?" Meng Tianyi's forehead was covered in sweat. "T-That's impossible,
right? Wei Huan's really back? And he could act so viciously? Didn't you say that he even sent
money back then for this girl to go to school… Wei-xiong, what are you doing?"

"I'll go take a look. He dared raise his hand against her but dared not come to see me… You keep
an eye on Gan Qing, don't let her go out again!"

"Me?" Meng Tianyi pointed at himself, then looked at Gan Qing, feeling his head already starting
to ache. "Ai, Wei-xiong, this kid of yours is a living ancestor. How can I control her?"

Wei Xiao's steps paused. He walked quickly to the desk and took out an envelope. His head
lowered, he wrote the words "My humble respects to all my ancestors of the sect of Wan Mu
Chun."

"Hey!" Meng Tianyi turned pale with fright. "What are you doing? Can you really bear to throw
her out of the sect?"

"If I don't do this, I won't be able to scare her into staying still." Wei Xiao rolled a few banknotes
together with a sheaf of western fast food coupons together and stuffed them into the envelope
so that it wouldn't look empty. At that time, to a household like theirs, western fast food was still
a very luxurious thing that they could only eat once in a while. They couldn't bear to directly
place their orders and would always carefully save up a lot of coupons like these, collecting until
they had what they wanted to eat.

But Wei Xiao then glanced at Gan Qing and sighed. He took out the coupons, switching them for
a twenty yuan note. "I must have owed you in my past life."

He couldn't bear to make the child be miserly and stingy like himself.

And that turned out to be the last time he saw his little creditor.

There were some people whose lives were probably just for the sake of settling debts. When the
debts were settled, it was time for them to leave.

All that remained after were a few stories passed on among the people. Together with the old
incidents of the jianghu, they scattered into the wind.