“Pah!”
“You motherfucking bastard! You filthy piece of trash! You little catamite who sells his backside! You dare hit me?!”
Zhou Dalang spat out a mouthful of blood and raised his fist to strike, his mouth still spewing filth.
“Everyone in Dingyuan knows your family has a simpleton daughter who can't even speak properly. Yet you insist on taking her out to buy fruit on the street.”
“Pah! What's wrong with me having a little laugh?! Low-class trash like you aren't even fit to carry my shoes!”
“I don't just dare say this to your face; I'll say it again right in front of Zhang Long!”
Nan Yi’s deer-like eyes remained crinkled in a smile, but his words were sharp.
“You have a foul mouth, and my hand just happened to be itchy. I figured I’d give it a scratch for you, lest any more filth comes spewing out.”
“Hey, hey, hey!”
“Break it up, quick!”
“Stop fighting, stop fighting.”
The group of constables, already exhausted, forced themselves to pull the two men apart when they saw the internal strife.
One side tried to soothe Nan Yi with kind words.
“Brother Yi, Zhou Dalang just has a big mouth. Don't lower yourself to his level.”
“You’ve given this bastard the lesson he deserved today, but his maternal uncle, Wang Zifu, has some influence with the County Magistrate. If you beat him too badly, I'm afraid it'll bring trouble.”
“Exactly. He’s just frustrated and taking it out on you. We’re all brothers here; we have to live and work together for a long time. Don't let this ruin the harmony.”
The other side scolded Zhou Dalang harshly.
“You damn fool! What kind of filth are you babbling? You learn a few crooked phrases and start spewing shit everywhere? Do you think everyone else is an idiot?”
“Just shut up already. A perfectly good daughter from a decent family, and you turn her into fodder for your gossip. No wonder Brother Yi got angry enough to hit you.”
“Exactly. Everyone in Lingbai Alley knows the Nan family dotes on their two daughters like they're the apples of their eyes. They’ve been pampered since they were little; how could they ever bear to let them be someone's concubine?”
“Never mind Sister Ye, even Sister Zhi has been simple for eighteen years.”
“And the Nan family never just sent her away in a small sedan chair. It’s clear they truly care for their daughters.”
“We’re all brothers facing life and death together. Why act like this? You’d be better off saving your strength so we can find our way out of these mountains tomorrow.”
Nan Yi didn't say a word. He sat back in the corner and went back to eating his pancakes, his face devoid of expression.
The firelight flickered across his face. When someone who was usually calm and never lost his temper suddenly resorted to violence, it was quite intimidating.
But Zhou Dalang had been beaten and lost two front teeth; he wasn't about to let it go.
He immediately began shouting and cursing again.
“Do you even know who my uncle is? He’s none other than the Great Master Wang Zifu of the Wang Family Distillery!”
“The Immortal Brew he crafts makes even the gods nod in approval! Every year, this wine is chosen as the tribute from Shouzhou to be sent up as Imperial wine!”
“Not just the County Magistrate, but even the Transport Commissioners of the Northwest and Huainan Circuits have heard his name!”
“As for your little butcher shop, I won't even need to say anything to my uncle. Someone will naturally tear it down just to appease my anger!”
Zhou Dalang grinned cruelly as he wiped the blood from his mouth, his expression as hideous as a demon’s.
He had always looked down on Nan Yi.
Nan Yi was just the son of a butcher, yet everyone seemed to hold him in high regard. It had to be because Nan Yi was a master of flattery.
He couldn't stand Nan Yi’s low-class habit of greeting everyone with a smile.
It was nothing but sycophancy and fawning over the powerful while trampling the weak.
And then there was that brute Zhang Hu. Just because he caught Zhou Dalang drinking at a brothel during his shift, he had reported it directly to the Registrar.
Although Registrar Hu had only given him a symbolic fine of two months' salary out of respect for the Wang family, it was enough to leave Zhou Dalang fuming.
It wasn't that he lacked the money; he just felt he had lost face.
“Nan Yi, you'd better think this through.”
Zhou Dalang covered his gapped teeth and mumbled.
“If you don't get down on your knees today, kowtow, and say ‘Grandpa, I, Nan Yi, was wrong’ three times, then crawl through my legs.”
“Then tomorrow, once we're out of Wenshan, I'll bring men to smash your butcher shop and send you back to whatever hole you crawled out of!”
He lifted the hem of his robe, sized Nan Yi up, and gave a lewd smile.
“Of course, in this wilderness, your grandpa has a fire in his belly and nowhere to vent it. Looking at you, you're even fairer than the boys in the brothels.”
“If you're willing to become my sworn brother, I'll make sure to take good care of you in the future!”
Once things reached this point, the people nearby didn't dare to intervene anymore.
After all, no one wanted to offend the Wang family.
“Heh.”
Nan Yi slowly swallowed the bite of pancake, straightened his clothes, and said with a smile:
“Fortune and misfortune are intertwined; no one can predict luck or calamity.”
“Brother Zhou, your brow is chaotic and your face bears a murderous air—the look of a truly wicked man.”
“No doubt you often harbor cruel thoughts and commit vile acts in secret. I don't need to deal with you; Heaven will do it for me.”
“Instead of worrying about my tomorrow, Brother Zhou, you should worry about whether you can survive the night.”
“You!”
Exasperated, Zhou Dalang shoved Nan Yi’s chest, but it felt like touching a cold, hard stone.
Without Nan Yi even appearing to move, Zhou Dalang ended up falling flat on his backside, wailing on the ground.
The other runners had strange looks in their eyes, but they all pretended not to see, lowering their heads to eat their pancakes.
Despite Zhou Dalang’s large stature, his body had long been hollowed out by his constant visits to the red-light districts; there was no way he could beat Nan Yi.
But no one spoke up—partly to give Zhou Dalang some face, and partly out of fear of his grudge.
“Fine! Fine! You just wait! Just you wait! We’ll see how things stand tomorrow!”
Zhou Dalang had lost both face and dignity now, feeling as though his pride had been trampled into the dirt.
“Your grandpa won't settle scores with you just yet, but once we're out of the mountains tomorrow, I'll play with you until you're dead!”
“Move! Are you blind?! Your grandpa needs to relieve himself! A good dog doesn't block the path! What are you looking at? Keep looking and I'll deal with you too!”
Zhou Dalang shoved past the runners blocking his way and stomped into the forest, grumbling as the farce finally came to an end.
Someone patted Nan Yi on the shoulder in consolation.
Nan Yi said nothing, only shaking his head with a smile.
He stared at the spot where Zhou Dalang had disappeared, thoughtfully raising an eyebrow.
...
Nan Zhi was still on her way, traveling in the donkey cart.
...
...
“A bunch of pathetic wretches who deserve to be poor forever! My uncle was right—these peasants only care about eating and sleeping, their eyes fixed on nothing but petty gains.”
“They're only sucking up to Nan Yi because they see the Nan family is about to get a reward from the Demon Suppression Division. Pah, what is there to be proud of?”
Having clashed with Nan Yi and seeing that no one was on his side, Zhou Dalang’s anger was hard to quell.
He cursed all the way as he found a secluded thicket to urinate:
“And that brute Zhang Hu. My uncle tried to recruit him for so long, but the idiot never agreed. He’s a fool who doesn't know what's good for him.”
“Registrar Hu too. He took so many gifts, yet he still made me come along to hunt this tiger. If anything happens to me, the Wang family will be the first to hold him accountable.”
“Once we're out of the mountains tomorrow, I'll definitely complain to my aunt and make sure these people suffer.”
Without him noticing, a mist began to rise in the mountains, gradually obscuring the path he had taken.
Splatter, splatter...
The sound of water faded. Zhou Dalang pulled up his pants and grumbled as he walked out of the thicket.
But the moonlight was cold and desolate, its faint light filtering through the branches to cast jagged shadows on the ground. Amidst the hazy mist, he found himself unable to distinguish the way back.
“Ma Liulang!”
“Old Qin!”
Zhou Dalang called out tentatively, but no one answered.
He couldn't help but mutter to himself.
He had heard people say that old forests were incredibly eerie, often plagued by ghost walls or fox glamour. He couldn't be so unlucky as to actually run into one, could he?
Rustle—
A sound of something moving through the bushes came from behind him. Zhou Dalang placed his hand on the long saber at his waist and shouted warily:
“Who’s there?!”
“Who's there?!”
Suddenly, a faint, weak sound of sobbing arose.
“Eeee... eeee...”
It was a mournful, lingering cry.
Rate on N.U.
