Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 60
Feng Tianzong went to Su Zeyang’s door and knocked softly.
Su Zeyang was inside, but he didn’t respond.
Feng Tianzong sighed inwardly. He didn’t keep knocking. He only said through the door, “Cong Wenhao sent me a secret letter. Something’s changed on the Xichou side. I need to rush back immediately.”
Su Zeyang still didn’t answer. In all the years they’d known each other, this was the first time Su Zeyang had ever treated him with such coldness.
Feng Tianzong continued, “I’ve instructed someone to keep watch over Wang Chu. I’ll also send people to handle the curse at Luofeng Ridge. Don’t get involved anymore. Wait for me a while. Once the war in Xichou is over, I’ll resign my post. Then we—”
He didn’t finish. His fingers rested against the door. In the end, it became only a sigh as he turned and left.
……
Huo Fenghua had been gone from Yujing for ten days now. At first he planned to head east, toward the sea. But as he traveled, stopping and starting, he grew uncertain, no longer sure whether that kind of stable, prosperous, wealthy place was truly where he wanted to go.
Feng Tianzong had prepared plenty of broken silver for him, enough to cover travel expenses for a long time. And along the way, every time he saw a gambling house, he had to duck in and play a few rounds. When he won, he quit while he was ahead. Ten days later, not only had his silver not decreased, it had only grown.
That night, Huo Fenghua stayed at an inn in a small town. The next morning, he was still asleep in his room when he heard a ruckus outside the window. He rolled out of bed and went to look, and saw that in the corner by the inn’s back wall, more than a dozen people were crowded together, apparently gambling.
Huo Fenghua leaned on the window and watched for a while. His hands started itching with the urge. He packed up quickly and hurried downstairs.
The group was gathered in a narrow alley, playing fantan.
As Huo Fenghua approached, the banker lifted his head and glanced at him. The banker was a skinny young man with slightly yellowish hair and sharp, lively eyes.
A dozen or so gamblers were placing bets. Huo Fenghua stood to one side, intending to watch a couple rounds first, but the young man said to him, “If you’re not betting, move along.”
The gamblers all turned to look at him warily.
Huo Fenghua smiled. He pulled out a bit of broken silver from his waist and casually tossed it onto the white paper marked “Four.” On this kind of street table, people were almost all throwing down copper coins. His piece of silver stood out immediately, and the young man looked at him again.
The young man squatting on the ground had his left hand pressed on an upside-down porcelain bowl and a bamboo counting strip pinched in his right hand. He called, “No more bets,” then lifted the bowl to reveal a pile of copper coins. With the bamboo strip, he started shifting the coins from left to right in groups of four.
The coins by his left hand were stacked together, too messy to count at a glance. He kept dividing them until the final group, when there were still four coins left. The surrounding gamblers were already shouting, either celebrating or cursing, when the bamboo strip suddenly flicked. It turned out that the leftmost “coin” was actually two coins stacked together.
The gamblers who’d just been cheering instantly groaned.
The young man used the bamboo strip to rake all the losers’ copper coins toward himself and dumped them into a bag. When he reached the “Four” position, he looked up at Huo Fenghua and smiled. “Sorry about that.”
Huo Fenghua smiled back.
After taking the losers’ money, the young man settled with the winners who’d bet “One.”
Standing aside, Huo Fenghua pulled out another piece of broken silver and tossed it lightly in his hand.
After paying out the winners in copper, the young man spun the bowl in his hand, then casually covered about half the copper coins in one motion. He raised his head. “Place your bets, place your bets.”
Without even looking, Huo Fenghua threw his silver onto “Four” again.
An old man with a white beard beside him couldn’t help saying, “Young man, that’s bold of you.”
Huo Fenghua cupped his hands politely. “You flatter me.”
The young man glanced at the silver, rolled his neck, and shouted, “No more bets!”
The crowd erupted. Huo Fenghua heard someone next to him screaming hoarsely, “Two! Two! Two…”
Unhurried, Huo Fenghua shifted positions and walked to the young man’s left. He watched him start counting the coins, pushing them aside group by group. When only three coins remained, Huo Fenghua grabbed the young man’s hand. “Hold on.”
The young man’s eyes sharpened on him. “What are you doing?”
Huo Fenghua smiled. “You’re cheating.”
The young man jerked his arm up, trying to shove Huo Fenghua away, only to find Huo Fenghua’s grip locked on his forearm so tightly he couldn’t shake him. He flared up. “You bet, you lost. Now you want to renege because you lost silver?”
Huo Fenghua seized his wrist and gave it a downward shake. A copper coin shook out from inside the man’s sleeve.
“This round was clearly going to land on four. You stole one coin so it would land on three. You think nobody would notice?” Huo Fenghua said.
The young man’s face changed instantly.
Huo Fenghua reached down, scooped up his own piece of silver from the table, and shoved the young man forward, knocking him flat across the gambling mat. Seeing the others still staring dumbly, Huo Fenghua said, “He’s cheated you out of so much copper. What are you waiting for? Take it back!”
With that prompt, the gamblers surged forward, grabbing at the young man and fighting to rip away the money bag.
Huo Fenghua tossed his silver in his hand once more and walked out of the narrow alley.
The weather was nice. Huo Fenghua returned to the inn, ate breakfast, and planned to continue on his way. He came out with his pack on his back and saw a tall young man sitting at the inn’s entrance, wearing a shabby straw hat.
Huo Fenghua didn’t pay him much attention. He stepped out the door to keep going when the man suddenly grabbed him by the ankle.
The man was incredibly strong. With one yank, he almost dragged Huo Fenghua off his feet.
Fortunately, Huo Fenghua had internal energy. He forced himself steady, his qi surging outward and jolting the man’s hand away.
The man looked down at his palm, startled, then lifted his head to stare at Huo Fenghua.
Huo Fenghua gave a snort. “Who are you?” He couldn’t place the man’s identity and worried this might be someone sent by Shao Feijie or Pan Yuanjun to capture him.
The man didn’t answer. He rose from the ground, towering over Huo Fenghua by two full heads, even a bit taller than Feng Tianzong.
Huo Fenghua had to tilt his face up. The man had a knife scar on his face, steady eyes, and hard-set features. Huo Fenghua asked, “What do you want with me?”
Still silent, the man reached for the pack on Huo Fenghua’s shoulder.
Huo Fenghua dipped his shoulder, slipped under the man’s arm with nimble movement, then reached back to clamp the man’s wrist, but unexpectedly the man evaded him.
Ever since Huo Fenghua had absorbed a whole reserve of inner energy from Zixi, he’d stayed by Feng Tianzong’s side. This was the first time he’d truly traded blows with someone. He felt a lightness and agility he’d never had before, completely different from that marriage competition back in Zhuyue City.
Very quickly, he started to enjoy it.
The man he was fighting was huge, yet astonishingly quick, clearly skilled. Huo Fenghua found he could read the man’s movements and defuse his attacks. Since he couldn’t catch the man’s wrist, he simply clenched both fists and drove them into the man’s abdomen.
The man tried to rely on sheer toughness and take the punch head-on while reaching to grab Huo Fenghua’s shoulder. He didn’t expect that Huo Fenghua couldn’t fully control his own inner energy yet. Those two punches landed, and the man spat blood and flew backward.
Huo Fenghua couldn’t help exclaiming, “Shit!”
The man crashed onto the street. Huo Fenghua saw a small figure dart out from the side, rushing to the fallen giant and crying out in panic, “Big brother!”
Huo Fenghua recognized him at once: the gambling-table banker from the alley, the one he’d caught cheating.
The big man lay motionless. Huo Fenghua’s heart jumped. He ran over and crouched, pressing a hand to the man’s chest.
The skinny young man tried to shove him away, shouting, “What are you doing?”
Huo Fenghua ignored him. He scooped the unconscious man up in his arms and said to the young man, “What am I doing? Saving his life. Where’s the nearest clinic?”
The young man froze, then reacted and led the way. Huo Fenghua, carrying a man much larger than himself, hurried after him down a side alley.
He didn’t want to leave the General’s Manor only to end up with a manslaughter case on his back. Even less did he want this big guy to die and leave a little brother who’d hunt him down across thousands of miles for revenge.
They finally reached a clinic. Huo Fenghua laid the man on the bed and told the doctor, “Save him. I’ll pay.”
The young man stood to the side, panting, face tight with worry.
The doctor was elderly and moved slowly toward the bed. Huo Fenghua grabbed his arm and pushed him along, then slapped a handful of broken silver onto the counter. “Use whatever medicine you need. Fix him fast. If he lives, it’s on me. If he dies, it’s on you.”
The old doctor went a bit dazed, took the man’s pulse, lifted his eyelids, then hurriedly called apprentices over to help treat him.
The young man glared at Huo Fenghua. “If my brother dies, I won’t let you off.”
Huo Fenghua frowned. “Kid, your brother ambushed me. I didn’t provoke him. You’re being unreasonable. And besides, you were running a cheating gambling stall and got caught. Instead of reflecting and improving your ‘skills,’ you had your brother come rob me. If your brother dies, you could bury yourself with him ten times over and it still wouldn’t be enough.”
After Huo Fenghua finished, the young man’s eyes reddened, and before long tears spilled down.
Huo Fenghua blinked. “Why are you crying? Go ask the doctor what he needs. Bring every last coin your family has to treat your brother.”
At that moment, the old doctor turned back and said, “No need. His injuries aren’t fatal. Don’t worry.”
Only then did Huo Fenghua finally let out a long breath. He braced a hand on the wall and sat down on a chair near it.
The young man stood inside the clinic wanting to help care for his brother, but unable to do anything, looking awkward and helpless.
“Hey, you,” Huo Fenghua pointed at him. “I’ve got a question.”
The young man looked over. “What?”
Huo Fenghua propped his cheek on one hand. “When you were cheating just now, you lifted the bowl and immediately pocketed a coin. How did you know how many coins it would count down to in the end?”
The young man was silent for a moment. “I can tell at a glance.”
Huo Fenghua stared. “At a glance?”
The young man said, “Born with it.”
Huo Fenghua thought for a moment, then stood and walked behind the counter. He beckoned at the young man. “Come here, come here.” He pulled open a drawer and grabbed a handful of cardamom pods.
One apprentice shouted, “What are you doing?”
Huo Fenghua waved him off. “Borrowing them.” He scattered the pods on the counter and asked the young man, “How many?”
The young man looked once. “Twenty-three.”
Huo Fenghua didn’t quite believe it. He counted them one by one and found there really were twenty-three. When he looked up again, his gaze had changed. “Brother, what’s your surname?”
The young man said, “Xiong, I’m the second oldest.”
“Xiong’er1?” Huo Fenghua couldn’t help laughing. “Then is your older brother called Xiongda1?”
1[Er] (二) Refers to second (as in he’s the second oldest brother). [Da] (大) Refers to the eldest (first oldest).
To his shock, Xiong’er actually nodded.
Huo Fenghua instantly couldn’t laugh anymore. He lifted a hand and rubbed the top of his head. “Well then, what a coincidence. I’m Gaungtou Qiang2!”
Xiong Er stared at his head. “You’re bald2?”
2Clarity: Huo Fenghua is referring to the character in the show Boonie Bears. The two brothers have the same names as the two bears [Xiong] (熊) in the show (Xiongda (Big Bear) and Xiong’er (Second Bear)). Guangtou Qiang is considered the antagonist in the earlier season, often getting into it with the two bears (similar to what happened here). [Guangtou] (光头) also refers to being bald, which is why Xiong’er thought he was saying he is bald. Basically, Huo Fenghua was cracking a joke referencing a modern show that has characters of the same name as these two brothers.
Huo Fenghua didn’t answer. He grabbed Xiong Er’s arm and asked earnestly, “Brother, want to get rich together?”
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