Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 83
After night fell, Feng Tianzong left the room. Before he went, he gently kissed Huo Fenghua and Su Zeyang on the forehead, then pulled the blankets up for them.
Huo Fenghua rolled over, burrowed into Su Zeyang’s arms, hugged him, and fell into a deep sleep.
He slept straight through to the next morning. When Huo Fenghua woke, it was already light out. He opened his eyes and saw Su Zeyang’s face inches from his own. No matter how close he looked, he couldn’t find a single flaw on that face.
Su Zeyang’s eyes were still closed. Huo Fenghua fumbled under the blanket until he found Su Zeyang’s hand and lightly held it, but he didn’t expect Su Zeyang to tighten his grip instead, lift their joined hands up between them, open his eyes, and solemnly asked, “Was this the hand that was doing the touching?”
Huo Fenghua froze, then immediately understood what he meant. A cold sweat broke out on his back. “Wasn’t that all over already?”
Su Zeyang stared at his hand. “If there’s a next time, I’ll chop it off.”
Huo Fenghua heard how serious he sounded and couldn’t tell if he was joking. He hurriedly hugged him. “No, no, there won’t be any next time. Never again.”
When Huo Fenghua sat up, he realized Feng Tianzong was already back. He was sitting by the window with his head lowered, looking at a piece of parchment in his hands. On the table in the room sat a small, neat paper box.
Huo Fenghua grabbed some clothes at random, threw them over himself, got out of bed, and walked to the table. “What’s this?”
Feng Tianzong answered, “I saw a pastry shop on the road doing brisk business, so I bought a few and brought them back for you.”
Huo Fenghua opened the paper box and saw four white milk cakes neatly arranged inside, rich with a creamy fragrance. He immediately took one to the bedside and fed it to Su Zeyang, who had just sat up. Then he came back, took another one, held it between his teeth, and walked toward Feng Tianzong.
“What are you looking at?” Huo Fenghua leaned in curiously to look at the parchment in Feng Tianzong’s hands and realized it was a map of Xichou.
Feng Tianzong casually wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him onto his lap, then traced a line across the map with his finger. “Shao Feijie is looking for something. He’s been traveling east from here. Guess where he’s headed.”
Huo Fenghua bit into the milk cake and shook his head.
Su Zeyang had also thrown on his clothes and walked over to Feng Tianzong. He studied the map for a moment, frowned slightly, and said, “Is he going to Luofeng Ridge?”
Feng Tianzong tipped his head up to look at him, smiling as he clasped Su Zeyang’s hand. “You guessed right. He’s going to Luofeng Ridge.”
Huo Fenghua asked, “What’s he looking for?”
This time Feng Tianzong shook his head. “They didn’t manage to find out. But they followed Shao Feijie the whole way and realized he’s searching for something. They also asked travelers questions about Shao Feijie along the road. That person said the direction Shao Feijie asked about was exactly the direction of Luofeng Ridge.”
Huo Fenghua didn’t quite understand. “That place… Luofeng Ridge doesn’t seem as simple as it looks on the surface.” He remembered the long, narrow passage that had been carved out by human hands, and he also remembered the curse about the Feng brothers’ line ending. Thinking of that, he turned to ask Su Zeyang, “You still haven’t found the person who set up the curse formation to curse the General and the Left Prime Minister?”
Su Zeyang said, “His name is Bai Huan. He’s from Xichou. I don’t know his exact background, but the one who hired him to set up the formation was Wang Anzhi. I drugged Wang Anzhi before, and he fell unconscious. The Wang family thought he’d been cursed, so they invited Bai Huan to the Wang residence to break the curse. I don’t know whether he realized Wang Anzhi was poisoned. But after I spotted him, I tracked him all the way into Xichou. I didn’t expect Tianzong would suddenly have something happen to him, so I had to rush over to save him and lost Bai Huan’s trail.”
“All of it’s connected to Luofeng Ridge,” Huo Fenghua said, rubbing his chin.
Feng Tianzong said, “It’s fine. We’ll find Shao Feijie first, then kill Bai Huan. One at a time.”
Huo Fenghua nodded.
They left the inn early that morning. This time they continued on, heading straight for Luofeng Ridge.
After crossing Wuling Mountain, the terrain became much flatter, but Feng Tianzong didn’t dare show himself in crowded places. They could only avoid the main roads as much as possible, traveling most of the time along narrow forest paths. At night they couldn’t stay at inns and could only camp out in the wilderness.
They traveled for nearly ten days before they finally reached the area near the mountain range of Luofeng Ridge. The environment around here had always been harsh and sparsely populated. After the war some time ago, it was even more deserted.
On the north side of Luofeng Ridge, they found an abandoned village. There were seven or eight dilapidated houses, all of which were uninhabited.
It was almost dark. Feng Tianzong dismounted, led his horse into the village, and found a secret guard’s mark in the corner of an abandoned house. He turned back to Huo Fenghua and the others. “From here, it’ll take less than an hour to reach Luofeng Ridge. We’ll stay here for the night and enter after daybreak.”
Huo Fenghua nodded and swung down from his horse.
They tied the horses to a post by the door and went into the room with the secret guard’s mark. Inside was a wooden bed with bedding still on it. It was coated in a thick layer of dust, but they’d been traveling day and night. They were filthy from head to toe, so Huo Fenghua didn’t care. He lay down on the bed.
Seeing that, Wen Heyi immediately came over and lay down beside him.
After Su Zeyang went inside, he found a well in the back courtyard and drew a bucket of water. Feng Tianzong, meanwhile, found a clean bundle under the cabinet in the corner of the room. Inside was some food and medicine, along with tools like rope and fire strikers—things the secret guards had left for him.
They didn’t light a lamp. In a deserted village out in the wild, lighting a lamp would only attract attention.
After lying down for a while, Huo Fenghua asked, “Is it possible we already missed Shao Feijie?”
Feng Tianzong shook his head. “The secret guards have been following him the whole way. Based on the pace, we might even reach Luofeng Ridge before he does.”
Huo Fenghua made a quiet sound of agreement. “Mm.”
Feng Tianzong watched Su Zeyang walk over and took his hand. “You rest with them. I’ll keep watch.”
Huo Fenghua flipped over and sat up. “Let’s take turns. We still have to travel tomorrow. You shouldn’t exhaust yourself.”
Feng Tianzong didn’t insist. Other than Wen Heyi, who was out of it, the three of them took turns keeping watch.
Huo Fenghua had Feng Tianzong and Su Zeyang sleep first. He sat by the window, opened a crack, and stared out at the empty village. The moonlight was especially bright tonight, a clean white full moon hanging in the sky and lighting the entire quiet village. Huo Fenghua stretched his hand out by the window, and by the moonlight slipping through the gap, he could almost clearly see the lines in his palm.
He turned back toward the bed. Su Zeyang and Wen Heyi were lying on it, while Feng Tianzong sat on the floor, his back against one of the bed legs. His head was lowered, and he’d fallen asleep.
Huo Fenghua felt something very strange.
For a long time, he’d never felt like he belonged in this world. But now, he truly did. There were people he wanted to protect, reasons he wanted to stay. Even though these days they’d been sleeping rough, and his body was worn to the limit, his heart still felt calm and satisfied.
Huo Fenghua turned back again. He drew a finger lightly through the dust on the window frame, planning that once the Bu Xian Xian at Wuhetan was finished, he’d send people to the coastal areas of Donglin to recruit shipwrights. They’d build a large ship at Wuhetan, with the interior made into a second Bu Xian Xian. Once it was complete, they’d sail down the Wu River to the sea and head for Donglin’s wealthy coast to drum up business.
Thinking of that, Huo Fenghua couldn’t help letting out a small laugh. He stood up, intending to pace around the room, but the moment he took one step, he saw Feng Tianzong’s foot twitch sharply. Afraid he’d wake him, Huo Fenghua quickly sat back down in silence.
That was when Huo Fenghua noticed a book tossed near the foot of the bed. He glanced out the window and didn’t see anyone, so he quietly got up, went to the bedside, groped around to pick it up, then returned to the window. By moonlight he opened it and discovered it was actually an erotic illustrated manual.
He glanced back at the others in the room. Everyone seemed to still be asleep, so he pushed the window open a bit wider and started flipping through the book from the beginning under the moonlight.
In the drawings were two tiny figures, a man and a woman. Every page showed a different position, and each one had a short passage of text beneath it. Huo Fenghua was stunned, thinking there were many strange and unusual positions.
In the dim, silent surroundings, he became completely absorbed. Only his heartbeat quickened slightly with the blush-inducing illustrations.
Without any warning, suddenly, a face appeared in the narrow gap between the two window panels.
Huo Fenghua’s heart nearly stopped.
The face was so close, as if someone had been crouching under the window and had suddenly stood up outside to stare in at him.
Huo Fenghua shrieked. He slapped the erotic manual straight onto that face, knocking the person backward. He himself jumped down from the chair, stumbled back two steps, and stared out the window on guard.
Feng Tianzong and Su Zeyang were both jolted awake. They sprang up at once, weapons in hand.
Wen Heyi also lifted his head on the bed and called out in confusion, “Dad?”
There was no movement outside the window. After Huo Fenghua knocked him down, the person didn’t climb back up for a long time. Feng Tianzong was about to go out and check when a hand suddenly shot up and gripped the window frame. Then they saw someone slowly haul himself upright outside, still holding the erotic manual with his head bowed as he examined it carefully.
When they saw his face clearly, Huo Fenghua and Su Zeyang both blurted out in shock, “Master?”
Gu Guangji’s brows and beard nearly scrunched into a single knot. He flipped through a few pages of the book, shook his head, and looked at Huo Fenghua with a face full of anger and disappointment. “In the middle of the night you won’t sleep, and you’re reading this kind of book. If you put this kind of effort into practicing martial arts, Master would be thanking heaven and earth.”
Feng Tianzong spoke. “Senior, what brings you here?” Then he glanced at the book in Gu Guangji’s hand.
Huo Fenghua’s face flushed scarlet. He leaned forward to snatch it back. “Give it back, you old geezer!”
Gu Guangji leaned his body back and lifted his hand to avoid Huo Fenghua’s grab. “No manners at all!” Then he pushed the window open, flipped into the room in a single motion, and with a flick of his hand, tossed the book to Su Zeyang.
Su Zeyang caught it and lowered his head to look, but Huo Fenghua snatched it back at once and stuffed it into his own chest. “Senior Brother, don’t look.”
Gu Guangji cursed again. “Brat!”
Su Zeyang asked, “Master, why are you here?”
Gu Guangji didn’t answer. He stood there blankly in the room, because he’d seen Wen Heyi, who was still on the bed.
Wen Heyi looked at Gu Guangji, completely baffled.
Gu Guangji stepped forward. “Junior Brother?”
Wen Heyi immediately hunched his neck, slipped off the bed on the sly, and ran barefoot behind Huo Fenghua. He called timidly, “Dad—”
Huo Fenghua immediately thought, ‘Oh no.’ He looked up at Gu Guangji and saw Gu Guangji’s eyes go wide, his mouth falling open in astonishment. Huo Fenghua hurriedly braced himself, stepped forward, grabbed Gu Guangji’s sleeve, and said, “Master, listen, I can explain…”
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