Chapter 72: The Coward

The next day, Zhang Jie woke up to wash up.

“Good morning, Brother Chen.”

Zhang Jie greeted Chen Wen, who had come to wash up as well.

“Morning.”

Chen Wen, with dark circles under his eyes, replied weakly.

“Tsk tsk. At thirty, a man is like a wolf; at forty, like a tiger. Indeed, the old saying holds true.”

Seeing Chen Wen’s exhausted, drained appearance, Zhang Jie clucked in amazement.

He couldn’t even muster the energy to avoid Zhang Jie anymore, not even from yesterday’s incident.

One can only say: a woman in her prime is terrifying indeed~

“If Jin Lian turns out like this someday, won’t Chen’s today be my tomorrow?”

Zhang Jie shuddered at Chen Wen’s pitiful state.

Children say they want everything; adults know they can’t handle it.

At that moment, Zhang Jie remembered his cheat ability—he shrugged:

“So I’m a cheater! No problem then.”

Last night, he had once again killed Pan Jinlian.

Zhang Jie felt as if Zhao Zilong himself had taken over his body:

“Last night, in Chen’s side chamber, I regarded the lustful Pan Jinlian as mere grass and weeds!

What is there left to fear henceforth?”

“Come eat breakfast.”

After washing up, Wang Lady called out, having prepared the morning meal.

“Brother Chen, let’s go,” Zhang Jie called to Chen Wen.

“Renjie, let’s go.”

Chen Wen forced a faint smile and marched ahead toward the parlor.

Behind him, Zhang Jie wondered if it was his imagination,

but it seemed Chen Wen’s legs were trembling…

“Young master.”

“Master.”

As Zhang Jie and Chen Wen sat down, Pan Jinlian, radiant as if freshly watered,

and Wang Lady brought steaming porridge to them.

Zhang Jie and Chen Wen raised their bowls and exchanged glances—each understood the other’s thought:

“It’s hard to be a person! Harder still to be a man!”

…

“Brother Chen, Lady Wang, until we meet again.”

After breakfast, Zhang Jie took his leave of Chen Wen and Wang Lady.

Yuncheng County had been explored for days; the Song Yasi he was interested in had been met,

and a small gift given—there was no point in lingering further.

“Uncle, take care.”

“Goodbye, Uncle Zhang.”

Wang Lady and the two children also bid farewell to Zhang Jie.

“Renjie…”

Only Chen Wen’s gaze was complex.

Yes, after replenishing his strength with food, he had regained some vitality.

Now he remembered Zhang Jie’s blasphemous words again.

“Young master, the carriage is here.”

Wu Song arrived at the Chen household in his carriage.

“Brother Chen, Lady Wang, take care.”

Zhang Jie bid farewell once more.

“Next time, Uncle will buy you candy figures.”

Zhang Jie ruffled the heads of Chen Li and Chen Yun.

“Oh no, you’ve messed up my hair! I spent forever styling it!”

Chen Yun, now aware of beauty and beginning to care for her appearance, pouted so hard she could hang a soy sauce bottle from her lips.

Chen Li, still too young to care, only had eyes for snacks:

“Uncle Zhang, I want a candy figure of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong!”

“Alright.”

Zhang Jie agreed at once.

Over the past two days, he had shared part of “Journey to the West” with the two children.

In the Song dynasty, folk ballads already circulated about the historical journey of the Tang monk Xuanzang to the West for sutras.

Unsurprisingly, the two children were captivated by the monkey, who possessed boundless magic and could ascend to heaven or descend to earth.

“Me too! Me too!”

At the mention of Sun Wukong, Chen Yun instantly forgot her hair.

“Both, both.”

Zhang Jie, itching to play, ruffled their hair again.

“Younger brother, take care.”

As Zhang Jie departed, Chen Wen solemnly bade him farewell.

“Goodbye.”

After bidding farewell again, Zhang Jie boarded the carriage with Pan Jinlian and Yan Poqi.

Clip-clop.

With the clip-clop of hooves and the creak of wheels,

Zhang Jie, who had been away from Yanggu County for nearly two months, finally set out on his journey home.

Watching the carriage disappear into the distance, Chen Wen could not shake his unease.

“Master, Uncle Zhang left you a letter.”

Wang Lady pulled a letter from her bosom and handed it to Chen Wen.

“A letter? Renjie left me a letter?”

Chen Wen startled.

“Why are you pulling it out now?”

Chen Wen snatched the envelope and marched straight to his study without looking back.

“It’s just a letter. What’s the big deal?”

Wang Lady was baffled.

She felt Chen Wen had become strangely odd since yesterday.

“What exactly did Renjie talk to Master about?”

Wang Lady zeroed in on the key: Zhang Jie.

Still, she had no intention of digging deeper.

Even if Chen Wen and Zhang Jie planned something major, she could only follow her husband’s lead.

“Renjie, how could he be so careless?”

Holding the envelope, Chen Wen ran into his study and slammed the door shut.

Believing the letter contained something horrifying, he paced frantically.

“Huff. Huff.”

Chen Wen pulled out a fire starter, lit a candle, and prepared to burn the letter after reading.

“All is ready…”

With trembling hands, Chen Wen opened the letter.

“Like a tiger lying dormant on a barren hill, biding its time, concealing its claws and fangs!”

On the first page, two lines of bold, swirling characters leapt into Chen Wen’s eyes.

“Renjie—he truly harbors great ambitions!”

Chen Wen’s hands trembled even more.

He suddenly felt his throat dry.

Could a mere juren like him possibly plan such a thing?

He hurriedly turned to the second page—but it was a prescription!

“Epimedium one qian, Eucommia one qian five fen, gecko and goji berry each three qian, others…”

Chen Wen read aloud each herb’s name.

“This… this is a kidney-tonifying prescription?”

Chen Wen’s face flushed red, understanding Zhang Jie’s meaning.

Epimedium, Eucommia, Gejie, Goji berries—all are herbs that tonify the kidneys and boost Qi.

Zhang Jie has found out how difficult his bedroom affairs are!

“How can I ever hold my head up in front of Renjie?”

Chen Wen felt deeply embarrassed.

“But according to Brother Wu, Renjie is vigorous and robust—could this prescription be the cause?”

Recalling Zhang Jie’s frail and sickly childhood, Chen Wen pondered.

“This thing disgraces scholarly decorum; it must not be allowed to spread and harm others—I shall seal it away!”

With righteous indignation, Chen Wen folded the prescription.

Then he carefully placed it inside the inner pocket of his undershirt.

“Hmm, this thing must not be kept.”

Cautious as ever, Chen Wen lit the first sheet of letter paper with a candle.

…

“I wonder if Brother Chen has read my letter yet?”

In the carriage already beyond Yuncheng County, Zhang Jie mused softly.

Just imagining Chen Wen’s expression upon receiving the prescription made him want to laugh.

But he knew that after the embarrassment, Chen Wen would surely keep it.

Never underestimate a man’s obsession with kidney tonics!

A food, no matter how revolting, if claimed to tonify the kidneys, will be eagerly tried by men.

Take snake wine, which is nearly corpse-water,

its key marketing pitch being: nourishes yin, replenishes yang…

This was proven by research in a certain 21st-century peninsula nation:

Data showed the concentration of sildenafil (the main ingredient in Viagra) in the Han River’s Seoul stretch

was three to four times that of Brussels in Europe, two to five times that of Copenhagen.

The media joked that the fish swimming in the Han River weren’t fish—they were hormones.

“I hope the yang-boosting herbs in this martial world aren’t too potent.”

Zhang Jie felt an inexplicable unease.

This prescription he gave Chen Wen came from the “Medical Canon” written by Hu Qingniu, the Butterfly Valley’s Divine Physician, in the Yitian world.

On one hand, Zhang Jie could only marvel that Hu Qingniu’s knowledge was truly vast—even this kind of thing was included.

On the other hand, Zhang Jie could only lament that, in any world,

among any group of people, cowards were always everywhere.

In the Yitian world, some cowards couldn’t even be saved by internal energy, that extraordinary power!

They desperately needed a coward’s bane—like some Indian oil or something…

Zhang Jie himself had tested the prescription he gave Chen Wen,

found no side effects, and no great enhancement.

That night, Pan Jinlian, as always, could only beg for mercy.

“Who cares—as long as there are no side effects.

As long as it doesn’t kill my future strategist, one of them.”

Zhang Jie immediately put the matter out of his mind.

He didn’t care about the content of the first sheet of letter paper.

Even if it spread, what harm could a single poem do?

It didn’t involve anyone like Huang Chao, the Great General Who Reaches the Heavens.

What’s wrong with Zhang Jie, a top-ranked scholar, writing a few poems?

“Young Master, have a grape.”

Yan Poqi, now fully in the role of a maid, brought a washed grape to Zhang Jie’s lips.

Yes, the Great Song had already had grapes.

The grape’s introduction can be traced to around the 2nd century BCE, during the Western Han.

Historical records state that Zhang Qian, after his mission to the Western Regions, brought back grape seeds from Dayuan (modern Central Asia).

And this was merely the clear historical record of grapes.

In the 21st century, archaeological evidence suggests that before Zhang Qian’s mission,

grapes may have already entered China’s Xinjiang region via the Western Regions,

such as grape vines and seeds found in the Yanghai tombs of Turpan from the Warring States period.

“Ah.”

Zhang Jie opened his mouth and happily swallowed the grape.

“How decadent.”

Zhang Jie silently scolded himself for being so pampered—clothes handed to him, food brought to his mouth.

But the next second, he felt perfectly justified:

“I waited for years to get my golden finger—why shouldn’t I enjoy it?

Before the golden finger, I lived in hardship;

now that I have it, if I still live in hardship, wasn’t the golden finger wasted?”

With his mental preparation complete, Zhang Jie immediately resumed the music and kept dancing…