Chapter 19: Meeting Wu Song

"Greetings to the County Magistrate."

Zhang Jie and Mr. Li both cupped their hands to greet County Magistrate Wen.

"Haha, Mr. Li and Nephew Zhang, no need for such formalities."

Shi Shi Wenbin replied with a smile.

Speaking of which, Zhang Jie and Mr. Li both had a small status in this Yanggu County.

Mr. Li doesn't need to be mentioned, and Zhang Jie's father, Zhang Dahu, although his wealth couldn't compare to Ximen Daguanren,

was also considered a wealthy family in Yanggu County.

Not to mention Zhang Jie, who was a rising genius in the imperial examination.

Shi Shi Wenbin, although he looked down on the wealth of Zhang Dahu's family,

after all, a local tycoon without power behind him was just a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered to him, the County Magistrate.

But he couldn't ignore Zhang Jie's talent in the imperial examination.

In our Great Song where the Emperor and the scholar-officials share the world,

wealth of ten thousand taels is not as good as half the talent of the imperial examination.

After all, only those who sing their names outside the Donghua Gate are true heroes!

According to Zhang Jie's performance, he would roughly be an official in the same court as him in the future.

Then, there was absolutely no need to offend this future colleague because of a little etiquette problem.

If there was anything, it was that he, Shi Shi Wenbin, didn't have a daughter,

otherwise he would be very happy to marry his daughter to Zhang Jie, to bind this potential stock.

"Is this the tiger-hunting hero?"

Mr. Li looked at Wu Song, who was standing beside Shi Shi Wenbin, his eyes shining.

Thinking of how many years he had lived, and even having traveled through several provinces in this world,

he had never seen such a sturdy man.

"Like a demon-subduing master descending from heaven, truly a god of the human world."

Mr. Li sighed repeatedly.

He had just looked from afar in the crowd and felt that Wu Song stood out from the crowd,

and now, looking closely, he felt that even the ancient E'lai, who could wrestle with rhinoceros and fight bears and tigers, was nothing more than this.

Zhang Jie smiled slightly upon hearing this; after all, the Wu Song, Wu Erlang, described by the old gentleman Shi Nai'an

in *The Water Margin* was indeed sturdy in body and dignified in appearance.

A pair of eyes shooting cold stars, two eyebrows like painted lacquer.

Chest broad, with the prestige of ten thousand men.

Speech high-spirited, spitting out the ambition of a thousand-foot cloud.

Heart heroic and bold, like a heaven-shaking lion descending from the clouds;

bones strong and tendons tough, like a ground-shaking mythical beast sitting on the seat.

It was worthy of being one of the four great classical novels,

the writing of the old gentleman Shi Nai'an was indeed not covered.

Zhang Jie remarked: "Alas, I am uncultured; one 'holy sh*t' is enough to travel the world."

And if Wu Song didn't have such an extraordinary body,

Zhang Jie would have thought that the tiger Wu Song beat was Gong Baiwan, the shame of the tiger world who was almost killed by boneless beef!

Other tigers were domineering and fierce; Gong Baiwan's appearance was silly and dull, and he was afraid of buckets.

Other tigers carried their own divine power; Gong Baiwan was self-carrying stupidity.

Tiger King: You have already obeyed humans, you traitor.

Gong Baiwan: You're still calling? Have you ever eaten Orleans roast chicken? Jungle bumpkin.

Zhang Jie sometimes even suspected that when Gong Baiwan was young,

was his head touched by Nangong Wenya, who "whoever she touches becomes stupid"...

"Greetings to Mr. Li."

Wu Song politely cupped his hands to respond to Mr. Li.

"Young Master."

Wu Song looked at Zhang Jie, who was standing beside Mr. Li, but his expression became excited.

"Oh? Is Warrior Wu an old acquaintance of Nephew Zhang?"

The curious Shi Shi Wenbin stroked his beard and asked with a smile.

"If it weren't for the Young Master, there would be no Wu Song today."

Wu Song said, and bowed deeply to Zhang Jie.

"It's good to be back, it's good to be back!"

Zhang Jie's expression was also quite excited.

To say that in *The Water Margin*, the people he admired most were the Flower Monk Lu Zhishen and the Walker Wu Erlang.

Leaving the Flower Monk aside for now, Wu Song was a near-perfect "person"!

He was firm and brave: beating a fierce tiger to death with bare hands on Jingyang Ridge,

eliminating harm for the people, showing extraordinary courage and strength.

He was fearless in revenge: avenging his brother Wu Dalang, killing Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing with his own hands.

Even in the face of the injustice of the government, he resolutely chose to use violence to control violence, firm and unyielding.

He was righteous and hated evil, helping the weak and poor, maintaining justice:

He hated injustice and evil, beat Jiang Men Shen in Mengzhou while drunk, and helped Shi En take back the Happy Forest that had been occupied.

He stuck to his principles: refusing the seduction of his sister-in-law Pan Jinlian, sticking to his moral bottom line.

He was witty and calm: after being framed at Feiyunpu, he responded wittily, killed the bailiffs in return, and successfully escaped.

He was decisive and had strategy: to avenge the hatred of Feiyunpu,

he broke into the Zhang Supervisor's mansion alone, killed all the enemies, and splashed blood on the Mandarin Duck Tower.

He didn't care about small details, had a bold personality, and didn't fear the powerful:

Gathering with Lu Zhishen and others on Mount Erlong, enjoying revenge.

He lived his life openly and honestly: in Liang Shan Marsh, he didn't fight for fame and fortune, focusing on chivalry.

He was loyal and righteous, loyal to his brothers: after swearing brotherhood with Song Jiang,

he never left him, and even in Liang Shan Marsh, he always supported Song Jiang.

He was righteous and loyal: helping friends, such as helping Shi En take back the Happy Forest.

Wu Song was truly a firm, brave, righteous,

witty, calm, bold, free, loyal, and righteous hero.

Ever since Zhang Jie knew that the world he was in was *The Water Margin*, he had intended to make friends with Wu Song.

Even if he was aiming for the imperial examination at the time and Wu Song couldn't help him much,

Zhang Jie still deliberately went to Qinghe County,

to see the young Wu Song and Wu Dalang.

For no other reason, just like the time-travelers who traveled to *Journey to the West* and had to check in at the Five Fingers Mountain,

to see Brother Monkey, he also went to see his childhood idol.

At that time, Wu Dalang, whose parents died early, raised Wu Song alone, which was quite difficult, and Zhang Jie helped many times.

And Wu Dalang didn't want to eat food given in charity, otherwise he wouldn't have had to sell steamed buns.

Unfortunately, a few years ago, the young and impulsive Wu Song was still like the original work,

in Qinghe County, due to drunkenness, had a dispute with the local confidential clerk (a small official in charge of confidential matters),

and in a fit of anger, beat him, mistakenly thinking the other party was dead,

and to avoid government arrest, fled to Chai Jin's manor to take refuge, and Zhang Jie lost contact with Wu Song.

This year, Wu Song thought that several years had passed since the incident,

plus he missed his brother Wu Dalang, so he set off to return to Qinghe County.

Then, on the way passing through Jingyang Ridge, he first drank eighteen bowls of wine,

then traveled through the night, met a big worm, beat the big worm to death with bare hands, and was paraded through the streets as a tiger-hunting hero.

Speaking of which, although Zhang Jie had never seen Wu Song hunt a tiger with his own eyes,

he knew the details of Wu Song like the back of his hand:

Wu Song first relied on his flexible body to cleverly avoid the tiger's "pounce,

lift, and shear," the three fatal moves, and extinguished the tiger's prestige first.

While the tiger was roaring and digging a dirt pit under its body,

he pressed the tiger's mouth into the pit, stole his right hand out, and used his hammer-like fists,

using all his strength to beat it, finally beating the tiger to death.

Who told Zhang Jie that he had not only read the book *The Water Margin* but also watched the *Water Margin* TV series produced by CCTV?

In this Water Margin world, Zhang Jie could also, like Huang Sanjia Huang Longshi in

*Sword Snow Stride*, call himself a book-flipper.

Zhang Jie: Thanks to the greatly increased mental strength after time-traveling.

Otherwise, the ordinary him in his previous life shouldn't have been able to recall these memories.

"Brother Wu Er, look, who is that?"

Zhang Jie smiled and pointed in a direction for Wu Song to see.

"Brother!"

Wu Song looked in the direction Zhang Jie pointed and found that the person coming was his brother, Wu Dalang, whom he regarded as a father and missed day and night.

The excited Wu Song could no longer suppress the longing in his heart and hurriedly walked to meet him.

"Er-lang!"

Wu Dalang also saw Wu Song, turned his short legs, and ran toward Wu Song.

"Brother!"

"Er-lang!"

The brothers, reunited after a long separation, hugged and cried.

"Young Master, I have not failed the mission."

The somewhat panting Butler Zhang came to Zhang Jie's side and said.

"Uncle Zhong, you have worked hard."

Zhang Jie comforted the old butler.

Since he knew that a tiger-hunting hero had come to Yanggu County, he knew it was Wu Song who had returned.

So he sent Butler Zhang Zhong to invite Wu Dalang, who was still walking the streets selling steamed buns.

However, Mr. Li, looking at the brothers hugging and crying in front of him,

had a strange expression; he stepped to Zhang Jie's side and asked softly:

"Renjie, are these two really brothers?"

Speaking of which, he even knew Wu Dalang!

Wu Dalang cooked a good steamed bun; with the same materials,

Wu Dalang was just able to make the steamed buns more fragrant and softer than others.

Ever since he ate a steamed bun made by Wu Dalang once, he had to buy some every few days to comfort his stomach.

Even County Magistrate Wen and others pricked up their ears; they were really too curious.

The tall, mighty, sturdy, and heroic Wu Song and the short, ugly Wu Dalang,

who could be called a "three-inch nail," had absolutely nothing in common except for being of the same species,

let alone being brothers?

Was there some gossip to hear here, like something about the neighbor Old Wang?

"Brother Wu and Brother Wu Er are indeed born of the same mother."

Zhang Jie said seriously.

"That's strange."

Mr. Li's face was full of doubt.

Since Wu Song and Wu Dalang were born of the same mother, then according to the height of the second brother,

the eldest brother shouldn't be so short and so unattractive under normal circumstances.

"Brother Wu and Brother Wu Er's parents died early, and it was Brother Wu who raised Brother Wu Er alone."

Seeing Mr. Li's doubt, Zhang Jie explained.

"So that's how it is."

Mr. Li, County Magistrate Wen, and others understood.

It is said that an elder brother is like a father; presumably, this Wu Dalang had some good things to give to his younger brother first,

and had any good things to give to Wu Song; a child of ten or so had to support himself and his younger brother,

suffering such bitterness, no one would grow very tall.

Those who originally had a bad first impression of Wu Dalang also changed their views on him:

A dwarf who raised his younger brother to be so tall,

one could imagine that Wu Dalang was indeed a person of love and righteousness. ===== CHAPTER 20 =====