Yu Qing stroked his small moustache and seemed rather dismissive. “Relax, I have neither good looks nor money, so there is no need to have much dealings with him.” His gaze fell on the silver notes in Tie Miao Qings hand. “Since the money has been given to you, it is yours now. No need to return it.”
The other party knew full well that bringing the fire cricket back to You Jiao Bu could sell for one hundred thousand taels. Since he had asked for it back initially, he would not make them return the money.
Tie Miao Qing wanted to speak but Sun Ping touched her arm and gave her a signal.
Tie Miao Qing understood. If there were conditions, she would return it to him. Saying more would be pointless.
She put the silver notes away again and glanced at the bundles on their backs. “Are you leaving You Jiao Bu, or did I say something wrong?”
Nan Zhu blurted out, “He said you are unhappy, so he wants to stay at an inn.”
Yu Qing slowly turned to look at him, wanting to punch that fat face in public. He found this damn fatty quite shameless. Even if he could not get the woman, staying by the beauty and looking at her a few more times was good enough. Yet he kept pushing the blame onto him.
The result was as expected. They could not stay at an inn. If they insisted, it would mean they refused to forgive her. So they were persuaded to stay by Tie Miao Qing and Sun Ping again, and the packing was done in vain.
Thus the fattest one continued chatting with the most beautiful one.
The biggest and most robust one kept standing in a prominent spot, looking cold and nostalgic as he gazed at the sky. No one ever knew what he was thinking.
Tie Miao Qing felt quite helpless. She found Nan Zhu could talk endlessly, knowing everything from heaven above to the earth below, as if he knew it all. But she, Tie Miao Qing, had no interest at all. She did not want to understand those things. Instead she wanted to know the other side of Yu Qing.
The side of the unrivalled great talent, the one who wrote “Once entering the emperors hall, one settles the fame of this life and the next.”
She wanted to ask him, you have already entered the emperors hall, have you settled the fame of this life and the next?
She wanted to ask what kind of fame he sought.
A single inscription of just three characters had made a restaurant famous.
She wanted to know if that restaurants flavour truly deserved such high praise as “人间好”.
She especially wanted to know how he came up with using “人间好” as the angle to praise a restaurant.
Since she had the chance to live under the same roof as an unrivalled great talent, she wanted to hear the great talent leisurely discuss the elegance and beauty of poetry, prose and essays. She wanted to see the great talent wield his brush with flowing strokes and wonderful ideas. Not listen to a greasy fat man telling Jianghu stories.
If it came to stories, the top scholars own experiences were legendary enough. He had a fiancee chosen by the Earth Mother as a personal disciple, yet he had abandoned her. It was said she was not ugly, and was a great beauty.
Why abandon her?
That person seemed a bit different from ordinary men. He seemed uninterested in beauty. Did he prefer talented women?
In her mind flashed scenes from when she met Yu Qing, and the scene of him drawing talismans. He was clearly pretending to be mystical to deceive people, yet why could he draw them so skillfully?
And in the burned ashes, why had those two words she had written in her palm appeared?
Why had he also known about her husbands trouble?
Even thinking about it now, it still felt magical.
She really had too many questions she wanted to ask Yu Qing. However with this fat man in front of her, she could hardly find a chance to chat with Yu Qing casually. As soon as she spoke to Yu Qing, this fatty would quickly interrupt. How could they chat then?
She had also never had the chance to see the unrivalled talent display his brilliance. Instead she had heard quite a lot of coarse swearing.
While chatting idly with Nan Zhu, her gaze occasionally glanced towards the courtyard in the corner. She could see Yu Qing with his ponytail, arms folded, pacing back and forth, stroking his tender little moustache as he wandered around the yard. No one knew what he was thinking.
If she had not known beforehand, she truly would not dare believe this was the rare great talent seen once in a century.
For some reason, Tie Miao Qing suddenly interrupted Nan Zhu and asked, “Mister Nan, I heard his handwriting is very beautiful?” She lifted her chin to indicate Yu Qing who was wandering over there.
“Uh…” Nan Zhu was stunned for a moment, not knowing why her topic had suddenly jumped here. He gave a hum and said, “He can indeed write very good characters. In this aspect even I am not as good as him. This should not be hard to understand. Since he placed first in the imperial exams, his handwriting would naturally not be bad.”
“Indeed.” Tie Miao Qing nodded slightly and said with some regret, “From knowing him until now, I have not properly seen his handwriting. It is truly hard to understand. Why not be an elegant and talented scholar with flowing literary grace, famous throughout the world? Why abandon literature for martial arts and jump into the muddy waters of the Jianghu?”
Nan Zhu smiled bitterly in his heart and thought, great beauty, there is no choice. He is not the real “A Shi Heng”.
Suddenly Mu Ao Tie started walking. Nan Zhu looked over and saw Yu Qing coming out from the small courtyard, clearly about to go out, though no one knew where.
He immediately stood up, excused himself to Tie Miao Qing, and quickly followed.
As soon as Yu Qing stepped out of Miao Qing Tangs door, he looked left and right and found his two senior brothers had mysteriously appeared beside him. He could not help asking, “Why are you following me?”
Nan Zhu asked, “Where are you going?”
Yu Qing said, “Can I not just stroll around casually?”
Nan Zhu said, “We will accompany you.”
“Accompany me? How rare. Not accompanying your beauty anymore?” Yu Qing scoffed and walked off.
After the group strolled for a while, they arrived outside the “Wang Lou” again.
The three stopped. Nan Zhu and Mu Ao Tie exchanged glances and signals, confirming they had guessed correctly. He had come out to spend money lavishly.
Yu Qing thought for a moment and asked, “For the Jian Yuan Shan situation, do you think the latest information is better, or the old one?”
Nan Zhu said, “Of course the latest is better, but it is expensive, six thousand taels, and you have to wait ten days to get it. The old one can be obtained the same day for only three thousand taels. The price difference is huge. But that one eyed monster also said the so called old information is from before this year. The time gap does not seem too far. You have the money, so decide as you see fit.”
Yu Qing remained silent for a while, then finally stepped into the corridor again.
Once the door closed, the three figures disappeared behind it.
A moment later the three came out again.
Spending six thousand taels felt not worth it. Yu Qing thought there was no need and that getting a general grasp of the situation was enough. So in the end he spent three thousand taels to buy the old information.
He paid a deposit. The items had not been obtained yet. They were told to come back after three hours to collect the goods. The Wang Lou side also needed time to compile and organise the relevant information about the Jian Yuan Shan area.
“The You Jiao Bu identity has not been resolved yet. Entering and exiting the demon realm is inconvenient. Buying this now, are you preparing to force your way in?”
“It is not like we have to hang ourselves on the Miao Qing Tang tree. The Jian Yuan Zhai identity is equally useful.”
“Ah, you have already settled it with Jian Yuan Zhai?”
“Yes. Rest well today, build up your energy. Tomorrow once the You Ju token is handled, we will set off immediately.”
“You are really not going to care about Miao Qing Tang anymore?”
“Good thing. It is better if Miao Qing Tang is gone. With the gift from her late husband gone, her thoughts will be completely cut off. Would that not give you an opportunity?”
“Despicable. You are thinking too much.”
“I think you are the one thinking too much. Just look at your poor and fat appearance. With her looks, do you need to worry about her not living well? Any other man would be better than you. We who mix at the bottom should dream less, earn more money, and be more realistic.”
The group took this chance to walk through all the big and small streets of You Jiao Bu.
Later, at the strong request of Nan Zhu and Mu Ao Tie, Yu Qing treated them to a meal with unprecedented generosity, spiritual rice until they were full.
After eating and drinking their fill, the three returned to Wang Lou, paid the remaining amount, collected the Jian Yuan Shan information and left.
After returning to Miao Qing Tang, Nan Zhu no longer had the mood to chat with Tie Miao Qing. All three huddled in the room, examining the pile of Jian Yuan Shan information.
They continued until the next day when the light pillars shone down from the dome again. Only then did they stop.
After that they left Miao Qing Tang and headed straight for Jian Yuan Zhai.
Cui You was already waiting for them at Jian Yuan Zhai. Qin Jue was not there, saying he had matters to attend to and had left.
They did not linger at Jian Yuan Zhai. The three martial brothers followed Cui You straight to the mysterious You Ya cliff.
Up close it was still a steep cliff, separated from You Jiao Bu by a deep abyss, connected by a bridge.
No one knew what was in the abyss. It was pitch black and bottomless. Bursts of cold yin wind would surge up from time to time, carrying heavy yin energy.
The cliff walls were dark, and so was the bridge. The bridge was very wide. Walking on it facing the towering cliff gave a sense of ones own smallness.
Many large cats the size of lions roamed on the bridge, white, black, yellow, spotted and so on. Some strolled leisurely, others lay curled up napping.
Looking at the cliff walls, there were also many large cats.
Yu Qing finally understood what those specks of starlight on You Ya were. They were the reflections from these large cats eyes.
There was lively foot traffic on the bridge. All passersby avoided the large cats on the ground.
There were many caves and stone steps on the cliff walls, but the people coming and going had no qualification to go up.
After crossing the bridge, Cui You used the You Ju token to lead the three into an underground cave. At the end there was blazing fire light.
In the middle of a circle of fire light stood a long table. A fat old man with wrinkled pigeon like skin that looked somewhat frightening sat dozing on a chair behind the table.
Cui You approached and stated their purpose to the man, saying that Jian Yuan Zhai wanted to hire three attendants for a one year period and had come to handle the You Ju tokens.
In other words, Yu Qing and the others Jian Yuan Zhai identities could only be used for one year. This was what Qin Jue had negotiated when signing the contract with Yu Qing.
Qin Jue was still somewhat afraid that Yu Qing would cause trouble and had shortened the time as much as possible.
Yu Qing felt one year was about enough, so he let it be and agreed.
The dozing old man woke up at the sound. His eyeballs were blue. With one hand he flipped open a register and pushed it towards the three, pointing with a sharp nailed index finger at the blank space for them to fill in the relevant details.
This was nothing much, just going through the motions. The key point was that Jian Yuan Zhai had to provide the guarantee.
After filling it in, the dozing old man stood up with his cane, his fat body walked to a cluster of fierce flames, poked around in the fire with his cane for a while, then lifted the cane out. On it rested three red dots that seemed to be red hot iron pieces.
Cui You immediately signalled Yu Qing and the others to go over. He had already taught them what to do.
The three quickly went over, each cut their fingertips, and dripped a drop of blood onto the red hot iron pieces.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, three sounds in succession.
A black dot appeared on each red hot iron piece, emitting faint blue illusory flames.