Chapter 23: Abandoned Well Discards Secret Medicine; Claw Marks Left on the Wall

After taking leave of Song Fugui, Zhou You did not hurry home.

He deliberately detoured through several streets, bought two jin of braised beef, along with some side dishes and the like.

These few shops are all old established names in the city, using ancestral secret recipes, and the taste is beyond reproach.

Customers queue up at the door every day; if you're late, you can't buy any.

More importantly, the addresses of the several shops are distributed around Tianjing Fang, with locations to the east, south, west, and north.

While queuing, Zhou You inconspicuously surveyed the terrain of Tianjing Fang and chatted casually with the residents in line alongside him.

"This Tianjing Fang has been abandoned for over twenty years; I drank water from the well when I was little."

"Tsk tsk, back then the eldest young master of the Qi Family in the city had to have the fine water from Tianshui Jing for every meal of tea, and he was very particular—it had to be the moment the first ray of morning sunlight touched the inside of the well before they began drawing water."

"Once the people were gone, after the well water dried up, Tianjing Fang has been empty."

"It's so wild inside you could run horses and graze sheep—what would anyone go in there to do?"

Through casual chat, Zhou You gathered every piece of information he wanted to know.

The weeds in Tianjing Fang have grown as tall as a person, and on ordinary days hardly anyone sets foot there; there are even rumors of ghosts haunting the place.

Seeing that Fang Guiqi came to this spot, chances are eight or nine out of ten he had his eye on the hidden terrain, which carries a huge advantage.

Carrying the beef and braised dishes he had bought, he walked steadily all the way home.

When his father and mother saw him return, they were naturally overjoyed, yet also reproached him for spending money recklessly, saying he should have saved it to build up his own body.

"Let's all eat something good together."

It was a rare family gathering; although the meal was simple, they ate in a very warm, harmonious atmosphere.

After the meal, taking advantage of his mother washing the dishes, his father fished out a few pieces of silver from his bosom. "Keep it safe."

Zhou You spread his palm; the scattered silver added up to a little over ten taels.

"Don't shortchange yourself at the martial arts hall. Treat when you should treat, and make a few more friends."

"Your old man here just doesn't know how to get on with people; all my life I've been nothing but a laborer doing the heavy work."

Zhou You nodded silently, accepted the silver, and said, "I understand."

Treating others was out of the question; in the future, once he made something of himself, it would be others' turn to treat him.

Not a single copper of the money his father gave him would be spent in vain.

At night, Zhou You gazed at the Hungry Tiger painting on the wall and felt a wild, ravenous hunger surge through his limbs and bones.

That hunger was not from not eating his fill at dinner, but from dissatisfaction with his current state—a craving for any and all resources that could improve and strengthen himself.

Secret Medicine, Experience Points—he wanted them all, the more the better.

In the dead of night, moonlight shone in through the window into the room.

After confirming his family was sound asleep, Zhou You quietly pushed open the door and slipped out, glanced left and right, and the street was silent, not a soul about.

Under the cover of night, he darted swiftly through the streets, racing toward Tianjing Fang.

The cool breeze entered his lungs, and he felt an extra measure of quiet and seclusion.

Tianjing Fang had lain abandoned for several decades; the tallest weeds were well over a person's height, snakes and mice infested the place, and a chilling atmosphere hung everywhere.

Practicing martial arts builds courage; an ordinary person would absolutely not dare set foot in this place late at night.

Deep in the thicket, Zhou You found a barely visible little path, one that had been trodden out by human feet.

He pushed aside the tangled grass and wormed his way in along the path; all around was silent, with only the faint chirping of insects rising and falling, threading into his ears.

"There's not the slightest trace of human activity in this place."

Lush weeds stood tall and sturdy, and moss still clung to the uneven piles of rubble on the ground.

No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like a place people frequently came and went.

An abandoned lot, rumors of ghosts haunting it—could there really be a black market here?

Zhou You grew increasingly wary, sensitively aware that he had gotten himself drawn into a dangerous situation.

But having already come this far, even turning back wouldn't let him stay out of it; he might as well take a gamble.

A familiar, pungent smell came on the wind—the distinctive scent of Tiger Bone Plaster.

Zhou You gave a start; the thicket before him had already come to an end, and moonlight poured down onto an open space ahead.

A well three meters tall stood on the ground, surrounded on all four sides by a well curb made of sturdy logs about a meter long.

Tianshui Jing—the landmark structure of Tianjing Fang.

The well had long since run dry; at the bottom there was nothing but parched earth, withered grass, and fallen leaves.

The smell of Tiger Bone Plaster was rising from the bottom of Tianshui Jing, drifting faintly under the night sky.

Zhou You climbed onto the crossbeam of the well curb, raised a torch, and shone it downward; although he couldn't see clearly, the scent of Tiger Bone Plaster grew even stronger.

The square well plunged straight down, going several dozen meters into the earth, its walls everywhere covered in stubborn weeds and dense moss.

He gripped the well rope and climbed down; the firelight, like a faint firefly, illuminated stretch after stretch of earthen wall.

Zhou You landed at the bottom of the well; once his feet touched solid earth, he finally let out a breath of relief.

He raised the torch and saw a sight that left him dumbstruck.

It turned out that the deep well bottom was littered everywhere with stone piles and fallen leaves, and the smell of Tiger Bone Plaster was rising from a corner.

Intact sheets of Tiger Bone Plaster lay scattered about at the bottom of the well, stacked into a small pile.

Fang Guiqi came to Tianjing Fang not to sell Tiger Bone Plaster privately, but to find an out-of-the-way corner to discard them.

But, why?

Zhou You gathered the Tiger Bone Plaster scattered around, totaling thirteen sets in all.

Fang Guiqi had been at the Outer Courtyard for over three months; these Tiger Bone Plaster were the total he had drawn from then until now—in other words, he hadn't used a single one.

"There's definitely something fishy going on here."

Tiger Bone Plaster is a martial arts Secret Medicine, containing many precious medicinal ingredients; it is harmful, not beneficial, to physical training.

On the outside market, a single Tiger Bone Plaster could sell for five taels of silver.

Fang Guiqi would rather throw the Tiger Bone Plaster away than use it himself, and he hadn't even pawned it for money.

Such behavior doesn't fit the profile of a refugee boy in Su Cheng.

Zhou You looked again at the Tiger Bone Plaster in his hands — this was a small fortune, a rare opportunity not to be missed.

Damn it!

Zhou You gritted his teeth, tucked all the Tiger Bone Plaster into his clothes, grabbed the well rope, and climbed up to the well's mouth.

As he passed the well wall by the exit, the corner of his eye caught a claw mark gouged deep as if chiseled.

The claw mark was as big as a watermelon — utterly terrifying!

Hmm?

Tianjing Fang has no black market.

Fang Guiqi came here not to fence stolen goods, but to abandon the Tiger Bone Plaster.

Once such abnormal behavior came to light, it would surely trigger a full-scale investigation by the martial hall.

Zhou You thought he absolutely must not get dragged into it, or all his efforts would come to nothing — but he wanted every last bit of that Tiger Bone Plaster too.

"Pulling chestnuts from the fire — there's nothing for it but pulling chestnuts from the fire."

Zhou You looked back at the pitch-black bottom of the well, recalling the claw marks on the wall, as though seeing a mysterious, unpredictable future.

In the end, he made his decision: the greater the risk, the greater the reward — he would take the risk this time.

There were still seven days until the next Tiger Bone Plaster distribution; as long as he trained up his strength during that time, he wouldn't fear Fang Guiqi noticing anything amiss.

By then, he would already be a Zhengshi Xuitu of the martial hall and could meet the hall master face-to-face to explain the situation.

"I must inspect them first, make sure these Tiger Bone Plasters haven't been tampered with, before I can use them."

After Zhou You got home, he sealed the Tiger Bone Plaster in a lacquered box that blocked out odors, wiped the mud from his shoe soles, and went back to bed to sleep.

Before falling asleep, he gazed at the Hungry Tiger painting on the wall. "I've already taken the first bite of fresh meat."

The Hungry Tiger remains forever Dormant, never sated.

After Zhou You fell asleep, he saw that tiger again — the tiger licked its crimson tongue and let out a soundless roar, the dream unbearably close to real.