Chapter 163: Troubles on All Sides

Strange.

Strange.

Indeed, it's extremely strange.

Never mind why this damned Celestial Master is so young, or on what basis he's won everyone's trust......

Just saying, why would someone with the title of Celestial Master set up a fortune‑telling stall on the street? That's truly baffling!

Does this Zhoufu actually have any ordinary people?

How is it that every single one of them behaves so..... foolishly?

Du Shanü couldn't fathom the key point; her fingers inside her sleeve unconsciously rubbed together.

In just a couple of breaths, the sedan chair slowly passed before her, the gold tassels on its canopy swaying gently, enough to make one's eyes swim.

Chinu was always looking at her, yet he missed the chance to get a clear look at the Celestial Master; he hooked his Wife Master's finger, felt that familiar little gesture, and his heart softened involuntarily:

"Wife Master?"

Du Shanü was brought back to her senses, though she didn't know why her beloved called her; she spoke from the heart, instinctively coaxing:

"...... It's fake, don't worry, it's definitely fake."

Since that young Daoist priest is precisely the so‑called Celestial Master.

This city has again been thrown into turmoil by this Celestial Master......

That really is as she said before; perhaps the other party's 'fortune‑telling' was doubtful from the start.

Such a person's fortune‑telling claimed her Chinu would have only one child in the future, then said she would have seven children......

How could anyone believe such nonsense?

There's absolutely no need to let her own slave worry so much!

Neither realized that their conversation was completely mismatched, yet both felt quite happy inside.

The crowd rushed about, noisy and bustling.

Many people came and went nearby, but only they were squeezed together, staying in place, almost body‑to‑body, their breathing audible.

Love, as always, is something rare to find in a lifetime.

Yet Du Shanü now felt certain that, even if love is rare, searching Chinu's brows and eyes revealed it to be something easily obtained.

They intertwined; Chinu's eyes roiled with an undercurrent, and only after a long while did he barely manage to calm them:

"After we enter the temple, I also want to go offer incense."

"We'll offer it, we'll offer it."

"Regardless of whether this temple's incense is truly efficacious or not."

"Regardless of how he previously disbelieved, or how he wished to escape that pitiable fate to the extreme......"

"But now that he has met his Wife Master, he still wants to believe."

"Being foolish is being foolish; after all, his name carries 'fool' for his whole life, so he's no longer afraid of others calling him foolish."

"Best, best to offer three sticks of incense."

"First, pray for the Wife Master to live a hundred years, stay healthy, and be able to dote on him every day."

"Next, pray for his mother to pass on soon, so that in heaven she may bless their love and harmony."

"Next pray......"

"Next pray, he could surpass Yu Baobao and first 'steal' a child."

"If he is destined to lose his looks, if the Wife Master truly will love many people, if he is destined...... destined not even to be able to openly indulge in jealousy."

"Before all that arrives, leaving himself a mark that is incomparable and indelible is always good."

"No matter how many children the Wife Master will have later, the first child will surely be somewhat different, right?"

"At least there's the word 'eldest'!"

Du Shanü had been looking around all this time; only now did she hear Chinu beside her seemingly let out a breath, about to joke, when a commotion came from not far behind——

"Make way! Make way!"

A hoarse shout exploded from behind the crowd, immediately followed by the sound of shoving.

Some cursed, some exclaimed, heads bobbing; Du Shanü initially couldn't see who it was, only feeling the commotion grow louder, then the crowd split to either side as a sturdy figure burst from the throng and charged onto Guard Avenue.

The blade flashed in the afternoon sunlight, making Du Shanü's eyelid twitch; only then did she realize the man was actually holding a kitchen knife.

"Dog official!"

Through the throng, the man's back shook with a hoarse roar, his voice cracking like a broken gong:

"Give me back my brother Liu's life!"

He lunged toward the sedan chair ahead, raising the kitchen knife high, but he hadn't taken a few steps before the bailiffs on either side pounced on him.

Three or four people moved at once: one grabbed his shoulder, another kicked his knee, another swung a fire‑water staff horizontally at his waist.

The man grunted, his massive body collapsed, the knife flew from his hand, clanging on the ground twice before a bailiff kicked it away.

The man was pinned to the ground, his face pressed against the stone slabs, his limbs held down firmly.

He struggled desperately twice, couldn't move, so he stopped struggling and just screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice rising and falling like a trapped beast.

"He killed Brother Liu! That dog official killed Brother Liu!"

The man's voice was squeezed from his throat, trembling with sobs and blood, each word shaking:

"When Brother Liu left, he was fine; coming back, he turned into two tubs of meat mush……two tubs of meat mush……"

His words came in fragments, sometimes loud, sometimes muffled, always the same few lines, with no cause or reason, even making them hard to understand.

The crowd stood silent around him, nobody speaking, nobody moving.

Just moments ago the street had been crowded and noisy; now it fell silent, leaving only the man's cries.

Thousands of eyes fixed on the sturdy figure pinned to the ground, not a single person spoke.

Someone turned their head slightly away, not looking, yet also did not walk away.

Someone stood there expressionless, as if the crying shouts were merely the wind's moan over the eaves, not worth a second glance.

A middle-aged man in a silk robe even pulled out a snuff bottle from his sleeve, took a leisurely pinch, sneezed, and slipped it back......

Everyone's complexion was quite ordinary.

No one cared what he was shouting.

No one asked who Liu Brother was.

No one gave a second look to the kitchen knife kicked into the corner.

That man's madness seemed to be nothing more than his own madness.

He hoarsely roared, yet no one understood his pain in the slightest; instead, they gave him many bewildered glances.

Only Du Shanü felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen.

She heard every word clearly, and precisely because she heard each word clearly, those needles slid smoothly into her temples——

Liu Brother, dog official, two buckets of meat paste......

This person, this person is clearly Zhao Daniu, who came to Zhoufu together with Liu Er earlier!

The two of them had previously come to Zhoufu for her sake.

How long has it been since this happened?

Has Liu Er already died?

Du Shanü did not know when she had stepped forward.

She heard her own heartbeat, heard blood surging against her eardrums, heard Chinu warn her to be careful—"If you make a move here, there's no escape"—and heard Chen Er's panicked cry of "Miss!"

But she did not reply with a word; she simply pushed through the crowd, walking toward the figure pressed to the ground, shoving aside those in front with both hands—one, two, three.

The crowd swayed from her push; someone turned to look at her, showing displeasure, which she could not see.

Du Shanü only wanted to walk over, to stand beside that sturdy man, to ask clearly where Liu Er was, and to ask clearly what "two buckets of meat paste" meant.

However, however.

Without waiting for her to speak, Zhao Daniu, who was pinned to the ground, suddenly summoned strength from somewhere, heaved hard, and flung the two constables holding him back half a foot.

He half-lifted his head, face streaked with tears and snot, eyes red enough to drip blood, and roared again toward the direction the sedan chair had vanished:

"Dog official—may you die a horrible death—"

A constable, annoyed, snatched the water-and-fire staff from his companion's hand and brought it down on Zhao Daniu's occiput.

That blow was heavy and solid, accompanied by a whooshing sound.

Du Shanü had already pushed aside the last two spectators in front of her, about to rush toward Zhao Daniu, but after that heavy blow she could only feel a warm droplet of liquid splatter from that direction onto her left cheekbone, warm at first then quickly cooling.

She froze all movement, instinctively reached out to touch, and her fingertips encountered a slick patch.

It was blood.

Zhao Daniu's blood.

The crowd still clamored, but in Du Shanü's ears, heaven and earth were silent.

After a long while, she finally recalled something——

Although today seemed like a good day, the heavens were continually shrouded in heavy clouds, the sunlight withdrawn.

The wind could not move that layer of space......

Heaven and earth were nothing but feigned compassion.

?? Four-sided misfortune and bondage: from the Tang poet Wei Zhuang's "Qin Fu Yin", original line "Four-sided from now on misfortune and bondage, one dou of gold, one dou of grain". The first half means that from now on, all directions are filled with hardship and bondage. Used here, the phrase "from now on" is omitted.