Chapter 292: Grasping the Sparrow and Recovering Spilled Water

Surrounded by a dozen fierce-looking bandits, Xu Fengnian loosened his grip, allowing the graceful woman, who unfortunately possessed a malicious heart, to withdraw her dagger. She was astute enough not to cling to the handsome, inscrutable scholar, and took a few steps back. Defying her age, she feigned the innocent charm of a sixteen-year-old girl and asked with a smile, "Young master, are you afraid?"

Xu Fengnian replied with a bitter smile, "Do you think I wouldn't be afraid?"

She clutched her chest and chuckled coquettishly, "It's good that you're afraid. I see you have some skill, so I'll give you two choices. One is to fight to the death, challenge all of us; if you die, we'll chop you up for meat buns. The other is to join our stronghold as a brother, and we'll eat and drink together."

A man as thin as a bamboo pole, yet sporting abundant chest hair, muttered, "Mother Qingzhu, shouldn't it be 'eat meat and drink wine'?"

The woman, whose slip-up had been exposed, furrowed her willow-shaped brows, swaying her hips like a green bamboo viper as she walked. She stomped hard on the man's foot. "I let you eat meat and drink wine! If I didn't run this shady business, you'd have to take off your pants, cut off your own balls, and cook them to eat!"

Xu Fengnian said without hesitation, "I'll join you as a brother, I'll join you as a brother."

A flicker of disdain crossed the young woman's eyes. The thin fellow spat a glob of phlegm and cursed, "With that kind of character, taking him in would just be a waste of provisions for our stronghold."

Hoofbeats rang out, growing closer amidst a flurry of dust. The woman frowned, raised her arm, and squinted into the distance, her sleeve obscuring half her face. The dozen or so men's faces lit up with joy as Xu Fengnian turned to look. Six powerful riders galloped into view. The leader, a man of naturally imposing and upright bearing, carried an iron staff wrapped with gold and silver thread. In a respectable second-rate martial sect, such a person would undoubtedly be fit to be the sect master. By his side, one of the two riders had the build of a black bear, wielding a pair of battle axes, with thick, bushy, reddish-yellow eyebrows and disheveled hair, and a naturally fierce face. Another rider was dressed as a Taoist priest, wearing a wide linen robe adorned with a Yin-Yang symbol, a tea-brown jade-inlaid belt around his waist, silk shoes, and clean socks, with a pale face and long beard. The remaining three riders were burly men, each carrying a weapon. Aside from the staff-wielding leader and the middle-aged Taoist, the other four were covered in blood, especially the rough man with the reddish-yellow eyebrows, who looked as if he had been dipped in a vat of blood.

The six riders dismounted simultaneously. The heroic-looking leader said somberly, "Not being able to save Brother Song, I've let you all down."

The thin fellow wailed and collapsed onto the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. The black bear-like man, who must have weighed three times as much as the thin fellow, threw his two battle axes together and grumbled, "Damn it! I cut my way from the east side of the execution ground to the west, hacking down rows of them until my arms went numb."

The Taoist looked at Xu Fengnian, the uninvited guest, then glanced askance at the woman. She explained testily, "He's a fresh catch in our net, haven't had time to put him in the pot yet."

She looked at the handsome, unlucky young man and said with a seductive smile, "This kid has some tricks. Just in time for the arrival of the big brothers, we can capture him and send him to the kitchen. Later, we'll make several large steamers of meat buns to send up the mountain to reward everyone."

The striking-looking leader frowned and said, "Qingzhu-niang, why are you doing this kind of business again?"

She said defiantly, "If I don't go back to this old trade, we won't have food to eat. A single coin can starve a hero to death. I don't care how chivalrous you want to be; I certainly can't let myself suffer!"

The man took a gold ingot from his pouch and said with a gentle smile, "Consider this money for this month's provisions."

He turned to Xu Fengnian, cupped his hands, and smiled, "My apologies for disturbing you, young master. I am Han Fang from Mount Liuyi. If you trust me, let's share a bowl of cheap wine; consider it my way of easing your alarm on behalf of my brothers."

The man, sitting on the ground and panting heavily, said in a rough voice, "Brother Han, why waste words on this pretty boy? It's a huge honor for him to drink with us. If he dares to refuse, I, Lu Dayi, will chop off his head with an axe and use it as a urinal!"

Xu Fengnian smiled, nodded, and said, "I'll drink."

The scholarly-looking bandit leader lightly reprimanded, "Don't be rude!"

He was the first to sit at the table outside the tavern, placing his ancestral iron staff, which was worth a considerable amount of silver, beside him. He then gestured to Xu Fengnian. Xu Fengnian did not stand on ceremony either; he took off his scholar's case and sat face-to-face with this bandit leader, Han Fang of Mount Liuyi. After clinking bowls, he drained his in one gulp. This straightforward action earned him the goodwill of many of the onlookers. The Taoist, who carried an ancient sword with a pine-bark pattern, quietly took a seat. Han Fang introduced, "This is Zhang Xiucheng. He comes from a scholarly family, proficient in all the classics, various philosophical schools, astronomy, and geography. He has excellent calligraphy. He was originally a trusted aide to a Prefect in Orange Prefecture but was framed by a treacherous official, which led him to become a Taoist. He is unlike us coarse folk."

The reddish-yellow-browed man, who had sprawled himself down, said resentfully, "Brother Han, you are still a descendant of three generations of military commanders! If not for your Han family acting as the 'stabilizing pillar' in Jizhou back then, it would have been stabbed into a sieve by the northern barbarians long ago. If it weren't for that incompetent Zhao emperor of the Liyang Dynasty, you would now be a fourth-rank regional official!"

A shadow crossed Han Fang's eyes, but he quickly concealed his emotions. He chuckled self-deprecatingly, "You've made the young master laugh. Let's not talk about these things. Drink, drink!"

The buxom woman, nicknamed Qingzhu-niang, brought another jar of wine and thumped it onto the table. "It's drugged with knockout powder! Later, you'll all be fish on my chopping board."

Han Fang hastily smiled and said, "And this one, I must say a word: Liu Qingzhu. You can just call her Qingzhu-niang. She has a sharp tongue but a kind heart."

Xu Fengnian, oblivious to the hint, said, "I've just seen Qingzhu-niang's dagger. 'Soft mouth, sharp heart' sounds more like it."

Han Fang froze for a moment, looking a little embarrassed.

The woman smiled sweetly and leaned closer to Xu Fengnian. "Little scholar, I'm growing fonder and fonder of you."

*Smack*.

Without some elasticity, such a crisp sound would certainly not be made. The woman's eyes widened as she looked at the handsome scholar, whom she had initially thought lacked much backbone. She had just been fondled in public! She had spent years hunting old geese, only to be pecked by a young gosling this time.

Xu Fengnian retracted his hand and said with a smile, "Qingzhu-niang, if you're truly willing, let's go to the bridal chamber."

The woman burst into laughter, wiped tears from the corners of her eyes with a finger, gave a flirtatious glance, and swayed her hips as she entered the house.

The middle-aged Taoist's ancient sword flashed out of its scabbard, made a swift swipe, stopped just behind Xu Fengnian's neck, and was then quickly withdrawn back into its sheath. Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

The onlookers, who were not privileged enough to sit and drink, saw this scene and dared not even breathe.

Xu Fengnian, seemingly still unaware of what was happening, looked at Han Fang and asked, "Is Qingzhu-niang going to sharpen her knife?"

Han Fang laughed heartily, "Young master, you have a good temperament. I'll go to the mountain stronghold with my brothers first. If you don't mind, you can come along. If you want to drink more, Qingzhu-niang can lead the way later."

Xu Fengnian smiled, "I'll have a few more bowls. Chief Han, please go ahead."

They rose and cupped their fists to each other. Han Fang then led a small group of about twenty people up the mountain. Xu Fengnian sat alone at the table and took a sip of wine.

Qingzhu-niang stood nearby and said indifferently, "None of them are good people."

Xu Fengnian gave a questioning "Oh?" and asked, "How so?"

Qingzhu-niang sat down and poured herself a bowl of bland, cheap wine. "That Han Fang originally held the top position among several strongholds on Mount Liuyi. Everyone looked down on him, but then those strongholds ganged up against him. Now he's in a miserable state. Even his sworn brother, surnamed Song, had his visit to a brothel in the city leaked, leading to him being cornered by a large group of government soldiers, bound hand and foot, and taken to the execution ground. Han Fang brought people to rescue him, but with only six men, they couldn't save him, only kill some unarmed innocent commoners. That man with the two axes, don't let his ox-like appearance fool you. Listen to how he speaks, so refined, and you'll know he's no good. He's full of evil schemes. When the stronghold was prosperous and had many men, he'd go to small towns to visit brothels. Over the years, who knows how many dozens or hundreds of lives he's chopped down in a drunken rage, or how few innocent young women he's ruined? That Taoist, surnamed Zhang, has many crooked ideas and serves as the strategist for the stronghold. His sword skills are naturally excellent. It's said that when he was young, he studied under a Grand True Person of the Moral Sect and learned immortal arts that could summon wind and rain, like something called the 'Five Thunder Heavenly Guardian True Method' or whatever. But I've never seen him ride clouds and mists. However, I once witnessed him kill with full force; when he drew his sword, there was a faint sound of thunder. As for the others, who among them doesn't have a few lives on their hands? They've put up an apricot-yellow banner in the stronghold, claiming to 'act on Heaven's behalf,' yet the rule for anyone joining the stronghold is to kill someone down the mountain as a 'pledge of allegiance.' What kind of 'acting on Heaven's behalf' is that?"

Xu Fengnian smiled, "And you?"

The woman's expression was calm. "I'm cut from the same cloth as them. The only reason I'm a 'good person' is that I don't have the ability to kill you. Otherwise, how could you be sitting here drinking comfortably right now? Oh, by the way, what's your name?"

Xu Fengnian replied, "My name is Xu Lang. I came to Mount Liuyi as a wandering scholar, carrying my books, but I had no idea it would be even more chaotic and murky here than in a time of war. If I had known, I would have taken a detour."

She laughed, "You should have taken a detour. This mountain is a den of thieves. But, I'll let you in on a secret: no matter how fierce Han Fang's prosperous stronghold is, compared to the top demonic sect in Orange Prefecture, they're just playing house. If those people so much as pass wind, the hundreds of so-called heroes from these strongholds would be suffocated. Luckily, those devils don't 'eat the grass by their burrows' – they don't bother with small fry like Han Fang."

Xu Fengnian asked, puzzled, "Why are you telling me all this?"

She rested her chin on her hand, inadvertently letting her chest rest on the tabletop, displaying two dazzling mounds of fullness. She winked and chuckled, "You're just a novice in the jianghu. Even if there's no knockout powder in the wine, don't you think I might have smeared some on the bottom of the bowl?"

Xu Fengnian's eyes widened. "You..."

She laughed, "You dare to 'eat my tofu'? How many lives do you have? Later, I'll strip you naked, throw you on the chopping block, and first chop off your little 'earthworm' to make a bar snack. What do you think that would taste like?"

Xu Fengnian swayed precariously, which made her even happier.

Yet, after swaying for a long time, she still didn't see the handsome scholar fall.

Only when she noticed the young master's captivating phoenix eyes narrowing did she bite her lip and say resentfully, "Is it fun to tease me?"

Xu Fengnian sat up straight and laughed, "Yes, it is."

Then, the woman chuckled, "Silly handsome boy, I didn't actually smear any medicine on the bottom of your bowl. Who's playing whom now?"

Xu Fengnian was stunned.

She said softly, "Leave. Don't act on impulse. If you go up to that stronghold, it'll be like falling into a fiery pit. Even if you're lucky and have excellent skills to get yourself out, you'd still lose a layer of skin."

Xu Fengnian said softly, "Thank you. I knew you were acting as the villain just now to help me escape. Being stabbed once to save my life, and merely losing my possessions, that's a bargain by any measure."

She smiled, but said nothing.

Xu Fengnian lowered his head and took a sip of wine.

Silence fell between them.

She suddenly said, "I wasn't always this compassionate. It's just that you resemble my man a little."

Xu Fengnian nodded solemnly, "From that, one can tell how dashing and charismatic your man must be."

The woman giggled and splashed a bowl of wine his way.

Xu Fengnian gently extended his hand, performing the 'Sparrow Coiling' technique, and with incredible subtlety, congealed the wine into a single mass before placing it back into her bowl before her eyes.

Who says spilled water cannot be retrieved?