Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 63

Wuhetan was a long way from Yujing, but Huo Fenghua and the others weren’t in a hurry. They didn’t set off until Xiongda’s injuries had mostly healed.

Over these days, Huo Fenghua threw all the silver he had on hand at the clinic, buying a bunch of tonics and supplements. Every day he had Xiong’er brew them for Xiongda to take. In the end, he’d “nourished” Xiongda until the man looked so healthy that his complexion was rosy, and every night he tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

By the time they finally left, Huo Fenghua hardly had any silver left on him. So as they traveled, he and Xiong’er drifted through all kinds of gambling houses and street tables. The two of them always stopped while they were ahead. Sometimes they lost, sometimes they won, but in general they’d quit after winning ten or so taels, then move on and switch to another place.

On this journey, aside from gambling to earn travel money, Huo Fenghua spent the rest of the time grinding hard at martial arts.

Xiongda’s skills were pretty decent. He wasn’t some great master, but dealing with run-of-the-mill riffraff was no problem. Huo Fenghua had Xiongda spar with him. The moves Huo Fenghua knew were mostly the basic forms he’d practiced back when he followed Wen Heyi to Zhuyue City for that marriage competition. As he kept pondering and refining them, he gradually fused them with the powerful inner energy in his body. At the same time, he learned to control that inner energy when striking, so he wouldn’t casually injure people severely.

After sparring, Xiongda signed something quickly with both hands. Huo Fenghua looked at Xiong’er in a daze. Xiong’er said, “My brother says if you fight with people more, your moves will naturally get smoother and more familiar.”

Huo Fenghua nodded, and another idea took shape.

The next time they went to a gambling house, he stopped holding back. After he won several hundred taels and couldn’t even carry it all, he had Xiongda and Xiong’er find a chest and a handcart, then the two of them hauled the chest out.

They hadn’t gone far before someone blocked their way. Huo Fenghua told Xiong’er to go exchange the silver for notes at a money shop, while he and Xiongda stayed behind to deal with the men, using it as a practice opportunity.

When they were lucky, it was just ordinary thugs, and Huo Fenghua handled them easily. But twice they were unlucky. Among the gambling house enforcers there were one or two who were truly formidable. Huo Fenghua couldn’t take them head-on and could only dodge and weave, nearly getting separated from Xiongda and Xiong’er. They didn’t reunite until the next day at the city gate.

Still, after traveling like this, Huo Fenghua’s martial arts really did leap forward. Leaving aside fancy techniques, he could now wield his inner energy smoothly, and in a straight contest of inner power, ordinary people simply couldn’t match him.

They traveled in fits and starts, dawdling on the road for almost two months. Once they crossed the last stretch of desert, they’d reach Wuhetan.

That day, they followed a merchant caravan across the desert. At the desert’s edge, green trees and plants had already appeared ahead. The caravan leader parted with them. The caravan would continue northeast, while they would head northwest, cross the Wu River, and reach Wuhetan.

After splitting from the caravan, the three of them walked a bit farther, then rested under a few low trees. There was greenery here now, but the trees were short and sparse-leaved, and the ground was mottled yellow and green. It still looked desolate.

All along the way, Huo Fenghua had kept a cloth over half his face to block the sand. Now he flopped down and pulled it up to cover his whole face as he said, “No wonder Donglin doesn’t want to reclaim Wuhetan. This dump is dead as dirt. Even if you took it, what’s the point?”

Xiong’er said, “On the Donglin side it’s like this. It’s better closer to Xichou, but there’s still the Wu River between, so getting in and out is inconvenient. You have to use a ferry.”

Huo Fenghua suddenly sat up. “Come on. One more push. We’ve got to get into the city before dark.”

Xiong’er sat on the ground watching him for a moment, then beckoned. “Come here.”

Huo Fenghua, puzzled, moved closer. “What?”

Xiong’er grabbed a handful of dirt and sand and smeared it on Huo Fenghua’s face.

The soil here was still dry. The grit scraped Huo Fenghua’s skin painfully. He jerked back and covered his face. “Are you jealous of my looks and trying to ruin my face?”

Xiong’er clapped his hands. “Pah. You’re too fine-skinned. I’m worried you’ll get targeted before you even make it into the city.”

Huo Fenghua didn’t wipe the dirt off. He only sighed. “This era really has one thing wrong. Why do men keep thinking about men? Aren’t women better? Soft and sweet.”

Xiong’er stood up and stretched. “Spend a few more years out here. After enough sun and wind, you’ll get rough.”

Huo Fenghua thought about it, then silently pulled the cloth back over his face.

Half a day later, they reached the Wu River. They followed the upstream bank westward. Before long they saw the boundary marker between Donglin and Xichou. Less than half an hour later, they spotted a ferry at the riverside.

The ferryman was a burly man. He sized the three of them up and said, “Crossing? Three people, one tael.”

Huo Fenghua froze, about to suggest they just rob him, when Xiong’er had already produced a tael and handed it over. “Much obliged.”

The ferryman took it and let out a snort of laughter. “Get on.”

They were the only passengers. Huo Fenghua and Xiong’er didn’t look like much, but Xiongda inevitably drew attention. As the ferryman rowed them across, he asked Xiongda, “Where are you three from?”

Xiongda, of course, couldn’t answer.

Xiong’er said, “Donglin.”

“And what are you doing here?” the ferryman asked again.

This time Huo Fenghua spoke. “Visiting relatives.”

The ferryman nodded and said nothing more.

But when they’d crossed and the three of them stood to disembark, the ferryman suddenly pressed his oar down on the pack beside Xiong’er and said, “You can go. This stays.”

Xiong’er had just taken silver out of that pack, and he’d paid without hesitation. The ferryman decided they must have more.

Xiongda’s face darkened as he stared at him.

The ferryman squatted at the bow with a shameless grin, not afraid at all.

Huo Fenghua asked calmly, “Since when is that a rule?”

“It’s the rule here,” the ferryman replied.

Huo Fenghua shook his head. “Every place has its rules. If you rob people the moment you see them, your business won’t last. You’re just bullying a few outsiders like us.”

The ferryman laughed. “So what if I bully you?”

Huo Fenghua stepped closer. “I told you we’re here to visit relatives. Do you know who our relatives are?”

The ferryman’s eyes flickered and he hesitated. “Who?”

“Hu Dong. Ever heard the name?” Huo Fenghua said, and at the same time lifted one leg and kicked him square in the chest.

Hu Dong was a name Xiong’er’s friend had mentioned in his letter: Boss Hu, who monopolized the restaurant trade in Wuhetan, one of the city’s powerful figures. They didn’t actually know Hu Dong, and Hu Dong didn’t know them either. Huo Fenghua was just bluffing to make the ferryman wary.

The ferryman reacted quickly. Seeing the kick coming, he grabbed Huo Fenghua’s foot with both hands and tried to twist and throw him. But to his shock, he couldn’t budge Huo Fenghua at all. He stared up at Huo Fenghua’s slender frame in disbelief.

Huo Fenghua had poured inner energy into his legs. How could this man possibly shake him? Seeing the ferryman’s surprise, Huo Fenghua straightened his long leg and drove the kick into the man’s chest, sending him off the boat and into the Wu River.

The ferryman bobbed back up, his head breaking the surface.

Huo Fenghua flipped up his robe hem and half-crouched at the bow, smiling. “Wuhetan’s business isn’t yours alone. Don’t see a bit of silver and become blind. There are plenty of people you can’t afford to offend.” Then he stood and had Xiongda and Xiong’er grab their packs and follow him off the boat.

The ferryman didn’t swim ashore. He shouted from the water, “What are you to Hu Dong?”

A wind carrying the fishy stink of river water swept over the surface. Huo Fenghua’s robes fluttered as he strode forward with full swagger, not even turning his head. “I’m his uncle.” He didn’t know how old Hu Dong was, but he refused to take the loss no matter what.

Once they were a good distance from the riverbank, Xiong’er said quietly, “Stop talking nonsense. If that Boss Hu comes after you, it’ll be trouble.”

“He won’t,” Huo Fenghua said. “If you were him, and you’d offended Hu Dong’s uncle, you’d quietly cover it up. You wouldn’t go around telling people, would you?”

Xiong’er thought to himself that it really wasn’t that simple.

Wuhetan had no city walls. Though it was already dark when they entered, the whole place blazed with light. It was a city without night. As they walked the streets, the air was thick with all sorts of smells: women’s powder and rouge, the fragrance of wine from taverns, and even a faint metallic stink of blood drifting from some dark alley.

Following the instructions from the letters Xiong’er’s childhood friend, Ji Jing, had written, they found a fairly large tavern and asked the shopkeeper whether he knew Ji Jing and could pass along a message.

The shopkeeper was flicking an abacus. He looked up at them.

Xiong’er produced a palm-sized token-like object and showed it to him. After one glance, the shopkeeper beckoned over a runner and told him to take them to find Ji Jing.

There weren’t many pedestrians on the street. The runner led them around the dark alleys, through two brightly lit streets, and to the front of a restaurant. He went up and murmured a couple words to the attendant at the door, then left.

Huo Fenghua and the others waited a bit, then saw a tall, well-built young man come out of the restaurant and walk toward them.

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