Chapter 29: 28. Who Is Xian'er?

28. Who Is Xian'er?

The sky had not yet brightened. The coldness in all directions seeped into one's very marrow, yet it was not enough to wake a person—only to freeze their brains stiff.

Zhou Sanji carried four bowls of vegetable porridge to the table. He pulled out a bench and sat down, muttering, "How come it feels like there've been more people rising before dawn these past two days?

Before, I only saw a few scattered folks standing on either side of the street. These past two days, it feels like the streets are just packed wall-to-wall with heads of people…

Could it be that folks from the other streets have come over to ours to chant sutras too?

The world's getting stranger by the day. One of these mornings, everyone's just going to lie down on a board and go…

Hurry up and eat. Let's finish breakfast before we rise before dawn today. In a bit, Grandpa Yang and I have things to be busy with. You go to the distillery to treat the illness—that matter cannot be delayed!"

Zhou Chang set a dish of pickled vegetables on the table. He looked at the four bowls of vegetable porridge, paused, glanced toward the room where Grandpa Yang and Stone Egg lived, then turned back. "Stone Egg got chased off by Grandpa Yang?"

"Where'd you get that!" Zhou Sanji glared at Zhou Chang, warning him not to poke where it hurt, then called out toward Yang and Stone Egg's room, "Senior brother, Stone Egg, come eat!"

"Why are there only four bowls of porridge on the table?

Where's Miss Bai's share?" Zhou Chang frowned at Zhou Sanji and asked again.

Meeting his gaze, Zhou Sanji instantly flared up. "Her bowl—I ate it. I ate two bowls by myself, and I won't save any for her!

And 'Where's Miss Bai's share'—she's already left!"

"Left?" Zhou Chang narrowed his eyes.

Hadn't she refused to go home no matter what before? Where could she have gone now?

If she left, how was he supposed to complete the Nianyi (mind-reading)?

"Mm…"

Zhou Sanji nodded, his expression somewhat heavy.

The old man sighed softly, fished a silver dollar from his robe, and set it on the table. "Here—this is the silver dollar she left at our door.

I reckon she meant to use this silver dollar to thank me for taking her in these past few days… Sigh, she only stayed a few days, no need for so much money.

She's just a little girl—judging by her build, she doesn't look like she's from a wealthy family.

Besides, the girls in her village, none of them have good fates… This one silver dollar is probably every last bit of money she had."

"Her village?" Zhou Chang caught the key point in his grandfather's words, immediately pricked up his ears, a faint light in his eyes. "Grandpa, you've known all along which village she lives in?"

Zhou Sanji was even more guarded than he was. The old man nodded. "I do! But don't think I'll tell you!"

"Anyway, since it's a place you know, it can't be far from Qingyi Town. I'll ask around a bit more, I'll surely find out too." Zhou Chang's eyelids drooped, thoughts racing in his mind.

At present, he actually held many clues related to Miss Bai.

The most critical among them was that she had once had a marriage arrangement with the young master of the Wen family—following this clue and investigating carefully, there was still a good chance of finding out Bai Xiue's origins, where her home was, and the like.

Yet upon hearing this, Zhou Sanji gave a snort of laughter. "You make it sound easy!

Their village—most outsiders can't even find the place. I only learned these past two years, by sheer chance, that there was such a village around here.

An old coot like me who's lived over seventy years, and not many people know where Miss Bai's hometown is—and you, a young whippersnapper, think a few casual questions will get someone to tell you where she lives?

Hah!"

"Why?" Zhou Chang looked at Zhou Sanji. "Why is it that the women in her village all have such bad fates?"

Zhou Chang deliberately changed the subject.

But even so, Zhou Sanji could tell he was beating around the bush, trying to pry the words out of him.

Zhou Sanji pursed his lips, no longer engaging Zhou Chang, and instead called out to the sullen-faced Grandpa Yang and the head-lowered Stone Egg to hurry and sit down and eat.

Yang Rui said nothing. Zhou Sanji saw the atmosphere between master and disciple was off, and tactfully asked no more.

In silence, the four of them finished breakfast.

Stone Egg rose timidly and cleared the bowls and chopsticks from the table.

Just as he was carefully about to stack his master's bowl on top, Yang Rui suddenly slammed the bowl bottom down onto the table, smacked his chopsticks, and stared at Stone Egg. "How dare you deceive me for so long!

Guan Shitou, I don't want you as a disciple anymore. Pack your things and get out!"

Stone Egg's face immediately fell into a mournful grimace at those words.

He didn't dare speak, only blinked his eyes, casting pleading looks at the other two at the table.

"Why's that?" Zhou Sanji spoke up, addressing Yang Rui. "Stone Egg's such an obedient child—how could that count as betraying his master and ancestors!

You're getting on in years now. Who do you expect to see you off at the end of your days if not Guan Shitou?

You still want to chase him away? I say you've eaten too much!"

"I don't need anyone to see me off at the end of my days!" Yang Rui said with iron resolve. "Back then, I was willing to take him as a disciple only because he said he'd been possessed by a yellow-skinned wraith and didn't have long to live—"

At this point, Yang Rui turned his gaze sharply onto Stone Egg. "Now, since that business with the yellow-skinned wraith was fake, and your life's been saved, you can go!"

"Sigh…" Zhou Sanji looked at the master and disciple, his face full of worry for the moment, unsure how to counsel them.

"Master, I was wrong!"

Stone Egg wept bitterly, set down his bowl and chopsticks, and dropped to his knees before Yang Rui at once, kowtowing without stop.

Zhou Chang noticed that the knees of the boy's clothes had long since been coated with a thick layer of dust, and his forehead was bruised dark—he had been in the room earlier, and had surely kowtowed to Yang Rui to admit his fault more than once already.

It could now be confirmed that Yang Rui was indeed displeased because his disciple had not been tainted by anything of the uncanny sort.

It had now reached the point where, because his disciple had not been possessed by a yellow-skinned wraith, he meant to expel his disciple from the sect.

Did he specifically pick those who had connections to the uncanny sort to be his disciples?

What purpose did he have in doing so?

"You know you were wrong? Hah!" Yang Rui stared at the kneeling Stone Egg, his voice full of hatred. "You scheming little thing—to fool me, you could pretend to be a ghost so convincingly. I really was taken in by you!

I don't even know where you learned this kind of trickery!"

"I learned it from you, Master!

You were the one who pretended to be a yellow-skinned wraith and scared off those bandits who were robbing us. I copied what you looked like back then!" Stone Egg wailed without cease.

"Learned from me?!" Yang Rui's gaze sharpened. Just as he was about to rebuke Stone Egg, he suddenly seemed to recall something, and his eyes grew suspicious.

He murmured the words from the stone egg again: "Learn from me..."

Yang Rui slowly turned around, his back to the three people at the dining table.

Suddenly, he whipped his head back, pinching a stray whisker at the corner of his mouth with an orchid-finger gesture, and let out a needle-thin voice: "Then tell me, do I look like a human, or like an immortal?"