Surrounded by a dozen fierce bandits of the greenwood, Xu Fengnian loosened his grip, allowing a woman with a graceful figure but a venomous heart to snatch the dagger from his hand. She, too, had the sense to stop clinging to this refined-looking scholar who concealed formidable skills, stepping back a few paces. With a girlish charm that defied her age, she smiled playfully and asked, “Young master, are you afraid?”
Xu Fengnian smiled bitterly and replied, “How could I not be afraid?”
She placed her hand on her chest and coquettishly said, “Good, I’m glad you’re afraid. Old lady here sees that you have some talent, so I’ll give you two choices. One is to fight to the death, single-handedly against all of us, and then you’ll be chopped up and made into meat buns. The other is to join our band and share food and wine with us.”
A thin man, whose chest was covered in thick hair despite his gaunt frame, muttered softly, “Qing Zhuniang, shouldn’t it be ‘drinking wine and eating meat’?”
The woman, whose shortcoming had been exposed, furrowed her brows like a willow leaf and walked toward him like a green bamboo snake, then stomped heavily on his foot. “Old lady will let you eat meat and drink wine! Without old lady running this black inn business, you can take off your pants, cut off your testicles, and cook them yourself!”
Without hesitation, Xu Fengnian said, “I’ll join your band.”
The young woman’s eyes flashed with disdain, while the skinny monkey spat out a thick phlegm and sneered, “What a coward. Taking him into our band is just a waste of food.”
Hoofbeats rang out, growing louder as dust rose into the air. The woman frowned, raised her arm, and used her sleeve to cover half her face, squinting into the distance. The dozen men’s faces lit up with joy. Xu Fengnian turned around and saw six fierce riders galloping toward them. The leading rider had a naturally dignified bearing, holding an iron staff wrapped with golden silk and silver thread. In a second-rate famous sect, this man would easily be fit to be the sect leader. Beside him, one rider had the build of a black bear, wielding a pair of broadaxes, with thick eyebrows like a red-yellow tiger and wild, unkempt hair that gave him a naturally menacing appearance. The other rider was dressed as a Taoist priest, wearing a wide hemp robe embroidered with yin-yang fish patterns, a tea-brown jade-inlaid belt around his waist, and white silk shoes and socks, his face pale with a long beard.
The remaining three riders were all sturdy men armed with weapons. Except for the staff-wielding leader and the middle-aged Taoist priest, the other four were covered in blood, especially the red-browed brute, who looked as if he had just emerged from a vat of blood.
The six riders dismounted in unison. The heroic man at the front said gloomily, “I failed to save Brother Song. I’m deeply sorry to all of you.”
The thin monkey immediately burst into tears, collapsing to the ground and wailing. The black bear-like man, who weighed as much as three of the thin ones, threw his two broadaxes together with a dull thud and muttered, “Damn it, I hacked my way from the east side of the execution ground to the west, cutting down row after row. I’m so tired I can’t lift my arms anymore.”
The Taoist priest looked at Xu Fengnian, the unexpected guest, then cast a sidelong glance at the woman. She explained with an annoyed tone, “Just caught a new fish in the net, haven’t had time to put it in the pot yet.”
She looked at the unfortunate but talented young man with a seductive smile and said, “This kid has some skills. Just in time for the brothers to arrive, we’ll capture him and send him to the kitchen. Later, we’ll make a few big steamer baskets of meat buns to send up the mountain to reward everyone.”
The dignified leader frowned slightly and said, “Qing Zhuniang, why are you doing this kind of business again?”
She replied defiantly, “If I don’t go back to my old trade, how can I survive? A single coin can starve a hero. You can do whatever noble deeds you want, but I won’t let myself go hungry!”
The man took out a gold ingot from his robe and smiled gently, “Consider this the food expenses for this month.”
He turned to Xu Fengnian and bowed with a smile, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you, young master. I’m Han Fang of Liuyi Mountain. If you trust me, please join us for a bowl of cheap wine. Consider it my way of calming your nerves on behalf of my brothers.”
The man sitting on the ground, panting heavily, shouted with a rough voice, “Brother Han, what are you wasting time talking to this pretty boy for? Offering him wine is already giving him a huge honor. If he dares not drink, I’ll chop off his head with my broadaxe and use it as a chamber pot!”
Xu Fengnian smiled and nodded, “I’ll drink.”
The refined bandit who had taken to banditry rebuked, “Don’t be rude!”
He took the initiative to sit at the wine table outside the tavern, placing his ancestral iron staff, which was worth a considerable sum of silver, beside him, and gestured to Xu Fengnian. Xu Fengnian was not shy, taking off his book chest and sitting face-to-face with this self-proclaimed Han Fang of Liuyi Mountain. After clinking their bowls together, they both drank in one gulp. This straightforward action won the favor of many watching bandits. The Taoist priest with a pine-patterned ancient sword sat down quietly.
Han Fang introduced, “This is Zhang Xiu Cheng, from a scholarly family. He is well-versed in the classics, philosophy, astronomy, and geography, and writes excellent calligraphy. Originally, he was a trusted advisor to a governor of Ju Zi Zhou, but was framed by villains and forced to become a Taoist priest. Unlike us coarse men, he is different.”
The red-browed brute, sitting carelessly, grumbled, “Brother Han, you’re still the descendant of three generations of generals. If it weren’t for your Han family being the pillar of stability in Ji Zhou, it would have been pierced by the northern barbarians’ swords long ago. If it weren’t for the foolish emperor Zhao of Li Yang not recognizing talent, you would have been a fourth-grade governor by now.”
A shadow passed through Han Fang’s eyes, but he quickly concealed his emotions and smiled self-deprecatingly, “I’m sorry to have disturbed you, young master. Let’s not talk about these things. Let’s drink.”
Qing Zhuniang, the woman with a graceful figure, brought another jar of wine and slammed it on the table, “Drugged with sleeping powder. Later, they’ll all be fish and meat on old lady’s chopping board.”
Han Fang hurriedly smiled, “There’s one more thing I must mention. This is Liu Qing Zhu, just call her Qing Zhuniang. She has a sharp tongue but a soft heart.”
Xu Fengnian, not knowing how to be tactful, said, “I’ve just seen Qing Zhuniang’s dagger. It should be the other way around, a soft tongue and a sharp heart.”
Han Fang was taken aback, somewhat embarrassed.
The woman smiled sweetly, leaning closer to Xu Fengnian, “This little scholar, old lady likes you more and more.”
Plop!
Without elasticity, there wouldn’t be such a crisp sound. The woman widened her eyes, looking at this refined-looking scholar she thought had little talent, wondering if she had just been publicly molested. She had been hunting old geese for years, but now she was pecked by a young one.
Xu Fengnian withdrew his hand, smiling, “Qing Zhuniang, if you’re really willing, let’s go to the bridal chamber.”
The woman burst into laughter, wiping away tears from the corner of her eyes with her finger, casting a flirtatious glance, and twisting her waist into the house.
The middle-aged Taoist priest drew his ancient sword, slashed it in one stroke, stopping the blade at Xu Fengnian’s neck from behind, then quickly withdrew it back into the sheath. All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
The watching bandits who weren’t qualified to sit and drink dared not even breathe loudly.
Seemingly still in the dark, Xu Fengnian looked at Han Fang and asked, “Is Qing Zhuniang going to sharpen her knife?”
Han Fang laughed heartily, “Young master, you have a great temperament. Han will go up the mountain with the brothers first. If you don’t mind, you can come along. If you want to drink more, Qing Zhuniang can show you the way later.”
Xu Fengnian smiled, “I’ll have a few more bowls. Master Han, you go ahead first.”
They stood up and exchanged bows, and Han Fang led about twenty people up the mountain. Xu Fengnian sat alone at the table, sipping his wine.
Qing Zhuniang stood nearby, coldly saying, “None of them are good people.”
Xu Fengnian expressed confusion with an “Oh,” and asked, “Why do you say that?”
Qing Zhuniang sat down, poured a bowl of weak and tasteless cheap wine, and said, “That Han Fang used to be the top leader of several bandit camps on Liuyi Mountain, looking down on everyone. But then he was ganged up on by those camps, and now he’s in a bad situation. Even his sworn brother Song went to the city to visit a brothel, and the news was leaked, leading to a large group of soldiers capturing him and taking him to the execution ground. Han Fang brought people to save him, but there were only six of them. Of course, they couldn’t save him, so they could only kill some innocent civilians who were unarmed. That man with the double axes, don’t be fooled by his appearance like a bull. Listen to how he speaks, so refined, and you’ll know he’s not a good bird. He’s full of bad intentions. In the past, when the bandit camp was prosperous and had many people, they went to the small city to drink and enjoy themselves. In these years, how many dozens or even hundreds of lives have been lost because of his drunken rampages? How many innocent young girls have been ruined by him? That Taoist priest surnamed Zhang has many tricks and is the strategist of the bandit camp. His sword skills are naturally excellent. He said that when he was young, he studied under a great immortal of the Daoist sect and learned a set of weather-controlling techniques, something called the Five Thunder Celestial Righteousness Method or something like that. But old lady hasn’t seen him flying through the clouds, but I have seen him kill with all his might once, and there was a sound of thunder when he drew his sword. As for the others, who doesn’t have a few lives on their hands? The bandit camp has a yellow flag saying they are replacing the heavens in their justice, but the rule of the camp is that whoever comes to the mountain must kill someone at the foot of the mountain as a token of loyalty. What kind of justice is that?”
Xu Fengnian smiled and said, “What about you?”
The woman’s expression was calm, “Old lady is the same kind of people as them. Can I be a good person? I just don’t have the ability to kill you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here drinking comfortably. By the way, what’s your name?”
Xu Fengnian replied, “Xu Lang, carrying books to travel and study, I came to Liuyi Mountain, not knowing it was this chaotic and chaotic here. I should have taken a detour.”
She smiled, “You should have taken a detour. This mountain is just a bandit’s den. However, let me tell you a secret. Compared to that sect in Ju Zi Zhou, which is the number one and two in the land, Han Fang’s bandit camps are just children’s games. Even if they just let out a fart, hundreds of so-called martial heroes in these camps would be suffocated. Fortunately, these demons don’t eat the grass around their own nests and don’t bother with Han Fang’s small fry.”
Xu Fengnian asked in confusion, “Why are you telling me all this?”
She rested her cheek on her hand, unintentionally placing her chest on the table, presenting two swaying mounds of fullness, and smiled seductively, “You, a fledgling in the martial world, there’s no sleeping powder in your wine, but can’t old lady put some at the bottom of your bowl?”
Xu Fengnian widened his eyes and said, “You!”
She smiled, “Dared to touch old lady’s body, how many lives do you have? Later, I’ll strip you naked and throw you on the chopping board, first cut off your little earthworm, and make it a snack with your wine. What do you think the taste will be like?”
Xu Fengnian swayed unsteadily, and she became more and more happy.
But after swaying for a long time, she didn’t see the refined-looking scholar fall down.
Until she noticed the young nobleman’s seductive phoenix eyes narrowing, she bit her lip in anger and said, “Are you playing with me?”
Xu Fengnian sat up straight and laughed, “Fun.”
As a result, the woman couldn’t help but laugh and said, “You silly handsome guy, old lady actually didn’t put any medicine at the bottom of your bowl. Who is playing with whom?”
Xu Fengnian was surprised.
She said softly, “You’d better leave. Don’t act on impulse and go up the mountain to that bandit camp. Once you fall into that big fire pit, even if you’re lucky enough to have strong skills to climb out, you’ll definitely lose a layer of skin.”
Xu Fengnian said softly, “Thank you. I know you pretended to be the villain just now to help me escape. Being stabbed once to save my life, losing my belongings is a small price to pay. It’s a good deal.”
She smiled but didn’t say anything.
Xu Fengnian lowered his head and took a sip of wine.
They sat in silence.
Suddenly, she said, “I wasn’t always this kind-hearted. It’s just that you look a bit like my man.”
Xu Fengnian nodded seriously and said, “From this, we can see how charming and graceful your man must be.”
The woman laughed and playfully splashed a bowl of wine at him.
Xu Fengnian gently extended his hand, using the “Nest Capturing Style,” incredibly mysteriously condensing the wine into a block, then placing it back into her bowl in front of her.
Who says spilled water can’t be retrieved?
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