Chapter 54

Li Banfeng wanted money, one thousand yuan!

"Okay, okay..." Xiao Yeci hurriedly took out one thousand in cash from the wicker suitcase and gave it to Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng counted it twice and put it into his inner pocket.

"Reminding you one last time, if you don't want to die, don't go to the He family's old residence!"

The two parted ways. Xiao Yeci and her daughter didn't go to the He family's old residence and walked toward the train station.

Li Banfeng followed behind for a while, watching them enter the ticket office.

They went to buy tickets; he really hadn't expected them to have travel permits.

It was good that they had travel permits; hurry up and leave, the farther the better, for them and for him.

Li Banfeng returned to Ligou and went to the grocery store again, seeing the main door tightly closed, and turned to go to the cloth shop next door.

Yu Nan, the owner of the cloth shop, dressed in colorful clothes, greeted him: "Are you buying cloth? Come over here and take a look; this is imitation satin, library satin, and over here there's Ning silk, flower thread spring, here there's flower gauze, Hangzhou gauze, and here there's Hangzhou spinning, Lake crepe. Which one do you like?"

This shop mainly sold silk and satin, but Li Banfeng didn't want to buy cloth, and he didn't know how to cut it.

Yu Nan talked for a long time, seeing that Li Banfeng wasn't tempted, and turned to ask: "Are you buying ready-made clothes? We have a tailor here. If you don't like the ready-made clothes, we can also make one for you."

Li Banfeng shook his head: "I'm not buying clothes either."

Yu Nan bit her slender cigarette holder, pondered for a moment, and smiled: "Are you buying a silk handkerchief?"

"Not buying."

"Are you buying a quilt cover?"

"Not buying."

"Are you buying a bed curtain?"

"Not buying."

Yu Nan took a puff of her cigarette and frowned: "Then what are you buying?"

"Buying cigarettes."

Li Banfeng smelled the cigarette; he thought the taste was not bad.

Yu Nan blinked her large, bright eyes and confirmed again: "You came to our cloth shop to buy cigarettes?"

"Don't you have cigarettes here?" Yu Nan was smoking; Li Banfeng felt his idea was very reasonable.

Yu Nan slightly lowered her face: "Are you intentionally teasing me?"

Li Banfeng didn't quite understand the meaning of "teasing": "Are you selling or not?"

After a long silence, Yu Nan turned to the clerk: "Get two packs of Big Fairy for this guest."

Big Fairy, a very famous lady's cigarette in Puluo Continent.

The clerk brought two packs, and Li Banfeng put them into his pocket.

"How much?"

Yu Nan smiled sweetly: "No money needed, it's a gift for you."

This person was so straightforward, but Li Banfeng never took anything from others for free.

"Make me a suit, choose better material."

Yu Nan shook her head: "We don't sell Western-style clothes here."

This shop only sold traditional clothing.

Li Banfeng looked at the ready-made clothes hanging in the shop and pointed to one: "I want this... very long piece of clothing."

Yu Nan looked back and smiled: "You want a long gown?"

"Yes, that's a long gown."

"Old Eight!" Yu Nan called the clerk, "Bring the ruler; I'll measure this guest properly."

Yu Nan personally took action to measure Li Banfeng, and while measuring, asked: "May I ask how to address you?"

"My surname is Li, and I'm the seventh." Li Banfeng reported the name Li Qi according to his habit and turned to ask: "How should I address the shopkeeper?"

"Little girl's surname is Yu, with the given name Nan. Seventh Master, if you think highly of me, just call me Shopkeeper."

This Shopkeeper Yu didn't like being called "Boss Lady" by others because she was the owner of this cloth shop; this was her own shop.

"So it's Shopkeeper Yu, excuse my disrespect." Li Banfeng learned the local tone and exchanged pleasantries with Yu Nan.

Yu Nan was half-squatting to measure Li Banfeng's waist and looked up, her bright eyes flashing, smiling at Li Banfeng: "Seventh Master, where do you live? When the clothes are done, I'll have them sent to you."

"I just arrived in Ligou." Li Banfeng gave a perfunctory reply.

Shopkeeper Yu took the tape measure and measured Li Banfeng's legs: "A few days ago, I saw you come to Feng Ji Grocery Store to buy quite a few things."

The meaning of this was: you didn't just arrive in Ligou; I noticed you a long time ago.

Li Banfeng didn't deny it either: "Coming and going in a hurry, I don't have a fixed place to live."

"Then how can I give you the clothes?"

"In three days, I'll come to pick them up. You help me choose the fabric; calculate the price first."

Yu Nan chose a medium-to-high-grade silk for Li Banfeng, fiddled with the abacus for a moment, and asked: "Are you using Huan Kingdom notes or silver dollars? We also accept half-dollars."

Li Banfeng didn't know what a half-dollar was, but he had silver dollars, and he really wanted to know the exchange rules for silver dollars.

"How much for silver dollars?"

"Including labor and materials, one silver dollar."

"What about Huan Kingdom notes?"

Yu Nan was stunned: "One silver dollar exchanges for five hundred Huan Kingdom notes; I don't need to say this, right?"

Five hundred yuan to make a suit; not to mention in Yaowanggou, even in Yuezhou, for Li Banfeng, it was a bit extravagant.

Li Banfeng took out one silver dollar, plus two hundred Huan Kingdom notes, and handed them to Yu Nan.

Yu Nan was waiting for Li Banfeng to bargain, but found that he had given two hundred more: "What do you mean by this?"

She thought Li Banfeng wanted to buy two pieces for seven hundred.

This couldn't be sold; this price was too ruthless.

Li Banfeng said: "One silver dollar to buy the clothes, two hundred Huan Kingdom notes to ask Shopkeeper Yu to do a favor. If there's news of Shopkeeper Feng in the next few days, please let me know."

Yu Nan smiled: "This is a small matter, no money needed."

After saying this, Yu Nan returned the two hundred Huan Kingdom notes to Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng waved his hand: "Just keep it; I want to make a friend of you."

For Li Banfeng, if he didn't give people money, he didn't have the qualification to ask them to do things.

Yu Nan appreciated Li Banfeng's straightforwardness, took the money, lowered her voice, and said to Li Banfeng: "If the clothes aren't satisfactory, we accept returns and exchanges. Also, there's something I don't know if I should tell you."

"Please speak, Shopkeeper."

"A friend who came to Ligou with you earlier is begging for food in Tail Alley; I'm afraid he won't last a few days."

A friend who came with me?

"Which friend?"

"That honest and sturdy friend."

Qin Xiaopang?

Li Banfeng was stunned.

Qin Xiaopang's family wasn't wealthy, but he wasn't poor enough to beg for food.

Moreover, he had also obtained eleven Snake-Pattern Elixirs. In Puluo Continent, as long as it didn't involve items for special purposes, the prices weren't expensive. Selling one elixir for 10,000, 110,000 was enough for Xiaopang to live in luxury for a while.

How could he have gone to beg for food?

"Is there any reason for this?" Li Banfeng felt the situation might be a bit complicated.

Yu Nan looked around and lowered her voice: "Seventh Master, it seems your friend offended the Geng Family Medicine Shop because of selling elixirs.

The people from the medicine shop threw him onto the street and found people to guard him, letting him starve to death. The Geng Family Medicine Shop has dealings with the Jiang Xiang Gang, and this is something they often do."

Hearing this, Li Banfeng pondered for a moment and asked: "Are the people guarding him cultivators?"

Yu Nan nodded: "They are cultivators, and they once had a grudge with me."

"What sect, what cultivation?"

"The cultivation isn't high, but the sect is special." Yu Nan spat a mouthful of smoke onto the counter; the smoke changed and turned into the character "Oil," then dissipated.

This woman could freely control smoke; Li Banfeng asked in a low voice: "Are you an Oil Cultivator?"

Yu Nan smiled sweetly, not answering.

Li Banfeng asked again: "Taking the initiative to strike up a conversation with me today, is it to let me help you take revenge?"

Yu Nan smiled: "I didn't say anything, but if Seventh Master wants to save your friend, the shop is willing to lend a hand."

Li Banfeng frowned: "Is this considered cooperation? Why are you looking for me?"

Yu Nan said: "Because Boss Qin is Seventh Master's friend, and Seventh Master is a capable person."

Li Banfeng didn't deny the friendship: "How do you know I'm capable?"

Yu Nan exhaled a mouthful of smoke: "Those who can return alive from Bitter Fog Mountain all have true ability."

This woman seemed to have been eyeing him for a long time.

Li Banfeng pondered for a long time.

Xiaopang was in trouble.

Should he help him?

Li Banfeng didn't owe Xiaopang anything; even if he had owed him before, he had paid it back afterward.

But he was about to starve to death.

When Li Banfeng was starving, Xiaopang had treated him to two bowls of plain noodles.

Tail Alley, a relatively closed-off alley in Ligou, with old houses on both sides, and the people living there were all poor families.

During the day, people were busy with their work, and there weren't many pedestrians passing through the alley. By dusk, the pedestrians gradually increased, and Qin Xiaopang, who was kneeling on the ground and dying, opened his eyes.

Dusk was his last hope for survival.

A passerby saw his ragged clothes and his body full of injuries and really felt sorry for him, so he threw him half a pancake.

Xiaopang reached out to pick it up.

Beside him, a man wearing a long gown and a felt hat stepped on the pancake.

"Did I let you eat it?" The man in the long gown looked down at Qin Xiaopang and spat on his face.

Xiaopang didn't make a sound and withdrew his hand.

A passerby couldn't stand it and stepped forward to ask: "Good man, why are you making things difficult for a beggar?"

The man in the long gown raised his head, his left eyebrow drooping, his right eyebrow raised, his mouth crooked, revealing a standard rascal smile: "What the hell does it have to do with you?"

The passerby still wanted to reason, but a woman beside him pulled him aside: "Don't meddle in other people's business; this is the Geng Family Medicine Shop showing off its power. Hurry up and go."

Hearing it was the Geng Family Medicine Shop, the passerby didn't say anything more and hurried away.

The man in the long gown trampled the pancake on the ground into a mess and kicked it far away.

Xiaopang lowered his head and closed his eyes.

He was a Food Cultivator; if he didn't eat for a day, his stomach and intestines would catch fire, and the flames would keep burning to his throat, burning his heart, liver, spleen, and stomach inch by inch. This feeling, just thinking about it, felt uncomfortable.

The man in the long gown took a sip of the piping hot noodle soup: "I'm sincerely pitying you; just kowtow to me sincerely, and I'll immediately give you a mouthful of soup to drink, guaranteed to let you live one more day.

Kowtow, hurry up and kowtow.

Don't think that if you want to die, I'll let you die today. If you don't drink this mouthful of soup, I'll have to make you eat something else.

See that latrine over there? I'll scoop up a bowl for you in a while. If you don't eat it, I'll have to force it down your throat. The young master said, I have to let you live for at least three days."

Xiaopang closed his eyes; the man in the long gown was right; his intestines were on fire, burning his internal organs.

The man in the long gown really would scoop up things from the latrine for him to eat; this bastard was capable of anything.

But Xiaopang wouldn't kowtow to him.

A man passed through the alley; he was wearing a red suit, a red top hat on his head, and a bag of fried dough twists in his hand, looking toward Xiaopang's direction.

He took out a fried dough twist and handed it to Xiaopang: "Eat this."

The fragrance of the fried dough twist made Xiaopang open his eyes; he raised his head and looked at the man in front of him.

Because he was backlit, he couldn't see the man's face, but he felt the man's figure was somewhat familiar.

Xiaopang reached out to take the fried dough twist; the man in the long gown suddenly raised his hand and knocked the fried dough twist away.

Such a result was within Xiaopang's expectations; he closed his eyes again.

But the man in the red suit was very surprised: "What are you doing? I'm giving a beggar something to eat..."

"Who let you give him something to eat?" The man in the long gown looked at the man in the red suit with a smile, his face carrying his signature rascal smile.

The man in the red suit blinked, very puzzled and also very scared: "What's wrong? He's a beggar; I'm giving him something to eat, what's wrong with that?"

"I don't want you to give it, is that not okay?" The man in the long gown's smile disappeared.

"I, I'm just giving him something to eat, this, this giving a beggar something to eat, I, I did something wrong, we have to reason..." The man in the red suit was so scared he couldn't speak clearly; clearly very scared, he still wanted to reason a bit more.

The man in the long gown hated this kind of person the most.