Chapter 89: Running Faster Than a Donkey |
Liang Wuyan failed to catch up to the person and could only return helplessly.
After putting the silver into his pocket, he hesitated for a moment. Seeing that no one was coming to buy steamed buns for the time being, he pulled out a piece of paper from underneath and began to write on it using a piece of charcoal sharpened to a point.
His family had been poor since he was a child, so where would he have the money to buy inksticks and inkstones. He just sharpened charcoal and made do with it.
The paper was also cheap bamboo paper he received as wages for helping others with work at night.
Some people and events were already recorded on it, and Liang Wuyan earnestly wrote in the blank space.
"Summer, the tenth year of Chongming."
"Met a kind-hearted youth who gave extra silver."
"Though young, he acted like an old man; I always feel he is extraordinary."
The boss of the rice and flour shop, covered in flour, stood at the door of his shop wailing.
Liang Wuyan turned his head to look, and added one more sentence.
"Shopkeeper Zheng inexplicably suffered bad luck."
On the street, Chu Xun took out a meat bun and took a bite.
Hmm, not bad.
The dough was soft yet had a bit of chewiness, almost exactly the same as in his memory.
It seemed Liang Wuyan had learned how to knead dough from his parents. It was just that he carried it forward, adding filling to the steamed bread to turn them into steamed buns.
He walked slowly, eating, watching, and listening.
It took nearly an hour, and after eating the four steamed buns completely clean, Chu Xun finally saw the remote small courtyard he had visited before.
At the entrance of the courtyard, a little girl of four or five years old was squatting on the ground teasing an earthworm.
Beside her, a six or seven-year-old boy was so nervous that his breathing almost stopped.
The little girl looked up at him and wrinkled her nose, "Coward."
The boy trembled all over, but said unconvincingly, "I-I'm not a coward!"
"Then touch it."
"I won't!!"
"Coward."
The boy's eye sockets turned red, and tears fell patter-patter.
"Crying and sniveling like a little girl!" The little girl scoffed.
Then, as if sensing something, she turned her head and saw someone standing in front of the small courtyard whose door hadn't been opened for a long time.
She sized him up curiously, and perhaps feeling that the other party couldn't get in, she shouted, "The door lock has been broken for a long time, you can't get in."
Chu Xun turned to look at her, smiled, and said, "Got it."
He didn't say anything more, turned around, and walked towards the alley separated by a wall next to it.
The little girl stood up, thought for a moment, and walked a few steps to the side to take a look.
As a result, she found that there was no one in the alley anymore.
"Wow! He walks so fast!" she exclaimed in amazement, thinking that such speed must be even faster than her grandpa's donkey.
A crying sound came from the side. The little girl turned her head to look, put her hands on her hips fiercely, and shouted, "I'll count to three. If you cry again, I'll stuff the earthworm into your pants!"
Frightened, the boy burst into loud tears and turned around to run away without a second thought.
"Coward!"
At this time, inside the small courtyard, Chu Xun, who had passed through the wall, was looking around.
Compared to his memory, the small courtyard was clearly deserted.
Weeds grew everywhere, and the walls were mottled.
A few birds flew over and landed on the old locust tree in the courtyard, disturbing the leaves and making them rustle.
Chu Xun turned his head and looked at the still tall and sturdy old locust tree.
He remembered the scene that year when Huan'er climbed up like a monkey to pick locust flowers, and after cooking them, he and Tang Shijun drank wine and chatted right here.
"It's a pity, there really are no locust flowers."
Chu Xun sighed softly.
Just as Huan'er had said, it was clearly the season when the tree should be full of locust flowers, yet not a single flower could be seen.
There were only pieces of green leaves, shiny like jade.
After a slight thought, Chu Xun willed it.
The soil in the courtyard churned, swallowing the weeds and becoming smooth and clean again.
Then he pushed the door and entered. The wooden bed he had once slept on was already rotten; if he really slept on it, he would probably fall miserably.
The ground bulged, forming a platform that firmly supported the wooden boards.
Having walked so far, Chu Xun planned to rest here for a while.
He roughly tidied up the bedroom, clapped his hands, and muttered to himself, "Still missing a mattress."
This thing, he couldn't conjure out of thin air.
So he went out the door and bought a mattress nearby.
When he returned, the little girl had already mashed the earthworm into several segments with a branch, staring at the continuously wriggling incomplete body parts.
Turning her head, she saw Chu Xun carrying a mattress and walking into the alley again.
The little girl hurriedly got up to look, but there was no one in the alley.
"Wow! He really runs faster than grandpa's donkey!"
A creaking sound came from the courtyard. The little girl let out a sound of surprise, ran over, and peeked through the door crack.
Seeing Chu Xun carrying the mattress into the house, she couldn't help but be stunned.
She ran to the alley again and stared at the intact wall, walking back and forth several times.
A huge question popped up in her little head.
How did he get in?
Climbing the wall?
The little girl's eyes lit up, suddenly seeming to have thought of something.
Without hesitation, she turned and ran home, shouting as soon as she entered the door, "Dad! Dad! There's a great hero with very formidable martial arts! He can climb walls!"
The man in the house wearing a short jacket was covered in muscular flesh.
The purlicue of his right hand was thick, and his joints were full of calluses.
One look and you could tell he was a martial artist who wielded weapons year-round.
To be precise, he was an armed escort.
Since childhood, the daughter had listened to her dad tell jianghu rumors from his escort runs, and she yearned for the outside world very much.
She had only heard the title of great hero, but had never truly seen one.
The little girl ran up to the man and shook his leg vigorously, "Dad, I'm talking to you, did you hear me!"
The man was still counting the silver taels earned from this escort run. Hearing his daughter speak, he casually said, "Being able to climb walls doesn't make one a great hero."
"But he walks so fast, even faster than grandpa's donkey!"
The man laughed upon hearing this and had to turn his head to say, "Even if he's much faster than a donkey, he still can't be considered a great hero."
"Then what counts as one?"
"A great hero isn't about walking fast, nor is it about being able to climb walls, but looking at what he has done and whether he has a chivalrous heart."
The little girl listened in ignorance. Everyone said great heroes were very formidable, why didn't walking fast count?
The woman who came in carrying a bamboo basket heard this and said, "Can't you just agree with her for a few words, otherwise she'll pester you until you can't sleep."
The man gave a dry laugh and said, "Alright, alright, walking fast and being able to climb walls makes a great hero. Then where is this great hero you're talking about?"
"Right in that small courtyard at the entrance of the alley," the little girl said.
The man slightly raised his eyebrows. Having lived here for many years, he knew that courtyard belonged to the government.
It was said that the current Minister of Revenue, Lord Zhang, had once prepared for his exams here.
It was just that it had been abandoned in recent years and no one took care of it.
"Could it be a thief?" the woman next to him asked, then laughed again, "But there's nothing valuable inside. Even if there really is a thief, they'll return empty-handed."
"It might also just be a pitiful homeless person looking for a temporary place to stay," the man said.
"The unrest in the west has been very fierce these past two years. Many people are neither willing to join the refugee army nor have anywhere to go, so they can only flee everywhere."
"It's made our escort runs much more difficult too. I don't know when there will truly be peace."
"As long as the fighting hasn't reached us, why care so much," the woman said.
The man snorted, "Long hair, short insight, a woman's view! You don't even understand that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold."
The little girl leaned on the man's knee, watching her parents talk, not quite understanding.
She only thought about how formidable it would be if the person living in that courtyard really was a great hero.
"He should be a bit more formidable than Dad, right?"
Thinking about it, she shook her head again, humming.
"But he wouldn't be that much more formidable than my dad!"
[End of Chapter]