Chapter 177

When Aunt Liu eagerly ran to Liu Guozhong and Aunt Wang's homes to act as matchmaker, the two gave different reactions.

Liu Guozhong first froze, then gave a wry smile and shook his head. Aunt Wang first lowered her head shyly; when Aunt Liu mistakenly thought she agreed, she instead reached out and grabbed Aunt Liu's hand, and on that lovely face appeared the same bitterness as Liu Guozhong's.

No one expected that these two, who should have been a perfect match, each harbored their own grievances toward the other.

Liu Guozhong worried that Aunt Wang would look down on him as a wandering martial artist, having grown accustomed to a rootless drifter's life and possessing nothing presentable as a dowry. Aunt Wang's concern, however, came from QingSongShu.

Likewise, regardless of the era, disparity in family background is a problem. Although Aunt Wang's and Liu Guozhong's backgrounds aren't too disparate, having QingSongShu as a burden makes them clearly unwelcome. In times of famine, when even the family can't fill their stomachs, who would willingly marry a woman and also take on a burden?

However, Liu the Matchmaker, famed as the golden sign of the matchmaking world, would not give up so easily. Although the couple's marriage talks had hit a snag, Liu was no pushover. She devised a plan, feigning casual sighs, and went to each side to tell them the other's difficulties.

Aunt Wang's reply was: "The dowry is something a couple builds together; how could it all be dumped on one man? Besides, what's wrong with being a martial artist? At least they dare to act and take responsibility, valuing righteousness."

When Aunt Liu laid out the Wang family's predicament, Liu Guozhong immediately slapped his chest: "If I could win a virtuous wife like Miss Wang, I wouldn't mind supporting one more person—I'd gladly support an entire family, I, Liu Guozhong, would willingly do so."

Afterwards, Aunt Liu relayed the answers to each side, and naturally the matter was settled.

But an unexpected situation occurred three months later.

Three months later, on the wedding day. Aunt Wang waited at home in her bridal red robe, her gaze lifted, until evening, still no sign of Liu Guozhong. Only then did fellow villagers come to tell her: Liu Guozhong and his father had vanished without a trace, even packing up and taking everything from the house.

Unable to bear the blow, Aunt Wang burst into tears and fainted on the spot. Years later, the ill-fated Aunt Wang contracted leukemia, which contemporary medicine could not treat, and she passed away.

Speaking of this, someone might wonder: Did Liu Guozhong truly despise Aunt Wang's family background, prompting him to flee the wedding?

The mystery lingered for fifteen years before finally being resolved. Fifteen years later, on the day of Aunt Wang's memorial, a sturdy, gray‑haired lame man entered the Wang family manor.

Upon seeing the lame man, QingSongShu flew into a rage, rolled up his sleeves, charged forward, caught the lame man and gave him a fierce beating. It turned out that this lame man was the groom who abandoned his bride on the wedding day, causing Aunt Wang to vomit three liters of blood—Liu Guozhong.

Liu Guozhong also did not fight back, merely letting QingSongShu punch and kick him.

After QingSongShu had vented, he took up a stick and prepared to drive Liu Guozhong out the door.

Who would have thought, at this moment Liu Guozhong's eyes were bloodshot as he wailed loudly at QingSongShu: "QingSong, my days are numbered; I only hope to return in my lifetime to see Ti'er once, and I hope you can grant me this. Let me close my eyes in peace in the underworld."

Having said that, Liu Guozhong unexpectedly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood on the spot and collapsed backward.

QingSongShu, greatly startled, helped Liu Guozhong up; after a careful examination, he discovered that Liu Guozhong had been afflicted with gu poison.

At that time QingSongShu was undoubtedly a disciple of the Daoist Sect; his skills were not especially high, but as long as it wasn't a lethal gu, he could deal with it using acupuncture.

Not long after QingSongShu used acupuncture to revive Liu Guozhong, the latter, eyes red, then recounted in detail the bitterness of those years.

Eighteen years ago, on the day before Liu Guozhong and Wang Auntie's wedding, the Liu family suddenly came under pursuit by their enemies. Liu Guozhong was struck unconscious by a palm from the opposition, and immediately his father brought him fleeing the Liu village overnight.

When Liu Guozhong finally came to, he realized he had arrived at a small village he did not know at all. The still-dazed Liu Guozhong immediately wanted to return to the village to look for Wang Auntie, but his elderly father Liu Hou stopped him.

Liu Hou merely said a sentence to Liu Guozhong, and that cut off the thought of returning to the Liu village.

"It's useless; if you go back now you'll only needlessly implicate the lives of the Wang family's younger sister. Those people are not jianghu folk at all—they are sorcerers, something ordinary people like us cannot deal with. If you go back, you'll only bring disaster upon the Wang family, causing them to be buried together with our old Liu family."

Upon hearing that, Liu Guozhong had no choice but to abandon the idea of returning to seek Wang Auntie. Just then, the enemies suddenly appeared in pursuit; to give Liu Guozhong time to escape, Liu Hou sacrificed his life to block the enemy. During the fight, Liu Guozhong also had his thigh injured by the opposition, but fortunately he thought quickly and jumped into the river, barely preserving his life.

The wounded Liu Guozhong hid in the river, eventually losing consciousness there, where a kind farmer revived him. Unexpectedly, from that kind farmer's mouth Liu Guozhong learned of an even more serious problem.

The farmer said to Liu Guozhong, "Little brother, I see a black thread in the whites of your eyes; you must have been planted with those heretical sorcerers' gu worms. Feel below your right rib and see if it hurts terribly."

Liu Guozhong was also a jianghu person; although he did not understand gu, he had some knowledge. Hearing the old man say that, he examined himself carefully. At this point Liu Guozhong could not help but admit a fact: not only was his leg lame, but his body was also infested with gu worms.

Those bandits had long planned ahead; as a precaution, they had already planted gu on the Liu father and son. Even if they could not kill them by force, they could control the gu worms to take their lives.

Later, that lifesaving benefactor gave Liu Guozhong a pointer: either drive out the gu worms, or head north. The colder the place, the better; one could only live in a cold region so that the gu worms inside would never flare up.

Thus, Liu Guozhong followed that old man's advice and went alone to the northeast; this flight meant hiding under an assumed name in a small village in the northeast for more than ten years.

Yet more than ten years of life did not let Liu Guozhong forget Wang Auntie; on the contrary, his heart constantly missed her. Eighteen years later, he could no longer bear the inner torment and finally returned to his hometown.

When Liu Guozhong finished speaking through tears, QingSongShu also sighed deeply. To be frank, QingSongShu did not harbor much hatred toward Liu Guozhong; on the contrary, since childhood QingSongShu had always felt grateful to Liu Guozhong. Because of Liu Guozhong's presence, his and his sister's lives had improved greatly.

What he resented was merely blaming Liu Guozhong for silently abandoning his sister back then, to the point that she never saw him even once before her death.

However, after learning the truth of the matter, QingSongShu's heart also softened.

QingSongShu clearly understood that the pain was not only Wang Auntie's; Liu Guozhong being forced to abandon the one he loved and leave was also a kind of unspeakable heartache. Over those more than ten years, Liu Guozhong's days were not easy either.

Therefore, QingSongShu's heart forgave Liu Guozhong.

Actually, if you claim Liu Guozhong has no connection with the Wang family, that is also wrong. Even after more than ten years, the surviving Liu Guozhong stubbornly insisted on giving Wang Auntie a status.

While alive they could not be together; even after death, Liu Guozhong stubbornly insisted on holding a spirit marriage with Wang Auntie. He wanted to give Wang Auntie a status, to finish what they had left undone back then, so that in the netherworld Wang Auntie would also have a status and would not be arbitrarily bullied by wandering ghosts.

QingSongShu would not allow it, so Liu Guozhong asked someone else to handle it; in short, Liu Guozhong really held a spirit marriage ceremony with Wang Auntie, and furthermore swore at her grave that he would never marry another woman in this life.

Afterwards, Liu Guozhong left the Wang household, returned to his old trade, and became a wandering jianghu acrobat. But as time passed, acrobatics fell out of fashion. By a fortunate coincidence, Liu Guozhong, relying on his extraordinary singing ability and martial arts foundation, established a theater troupe that often traveled south and north to perform for others.

My and Pangzi's trip to Hubei this time was at the behest of this Master Liu. Originally, QingSongShu intended to personally lead us two there. But at this juncture, the law-and-teaching exchange meeting between the mainland and the Gangao region was about to begin, and this time the invitation to QingSongShu came from an old friend. In order to give the mainland's folk law a boost and improve the age-old contention between the inland and the Gangao folk law, QingSongShu had no choice but to first head for Hong Kong, sending us two to Hubei.

Besides that, after we finish our business in Hubei we still need to go to Yichang to meet up with QingSongShu. For when we were about to leave Aomen, QingSongShu likewise received a third commission: to go to Yichang to perform a geomantic survey of a yin residence for an old friend.

Therefore, Pangzi's and my schedule is packed full. I reckon it's impossible to return to Guangdong for a quick rest in the short term. Only after all matters are settled will the two of us be able to roam the mountains and waters, relaxing at ease for a while.

The train crept forward, and with the attendant's announcement, "Esteemed passengers, we have arrived at Hubei Hong'an Station," Pangzi and I finally reached our destination.