Chapter 19: New Year's Eve

Burst through the door, snatch the boxes and bolt!

After ducking through several alleys in a row, Li Yuan still felt a tremor running through him—not fear, but thrill.

Combining both his past and present lives, he had barely been in a handful of fights; even though he had planned everything out beforehand, he had broken out in a cold sweat.

"First time doing this… bah, it's that gang of ruffians bullying people too far…"

Leaning against the wall, Li Yuan found it hard to put his feelings into words—nervousness, excitement, lingering fear, all churning inside him, but the thrill clearly outweighed the rest.

In his past life, he had never done anything this thrilling.

"Forms are forms, fighting is fighting—when it really comes down to it, adapting on the fly matters more. Besides, my heart wasn't ruthless enough, and my hand was a bit too light…"

Li Yuan reflected on himself, replaying this operation in his mind.

"I didn't say a single word, and my face was covered—surely I didn't leave any traces, right? … I, does this even count as self-defense?"

He told himself he had already been quite decisive: no face shown, no voice heard, and even the long-handled practice hammer he'd prepared went unused; the whole affair was clean from start to finish.

After muttering a few more lines to himself, Li Yuan finally crouched down and flung open the two small boxes.

One held a thick stack of IOUs; right on top was the one his second brother owed at the rate of nine-out-thirteen-return, and beneath it, a fistful of six-out-eighteen-return and seven-out-eighteen-return notes.

He flipped through them at random—nearly all carried higher interest than his second brother's note.

"That black-hearted maggot really was setting a trap for my second brother…"

Li Yuan half regretted not hitting them harder.

But even if given another chance, he still wouldn't dare kill anyone.

For one, the laws of the Great Fortune Dynasty were extremely harsh; he had no desire to live as a fugitive on the run, wanted for life, forever looking over his shoulder.

For another, he had been law-abiding for over twenty years; even after a few months of learning Wu Gong, he didn't have the guts to kill a dozen people in one go…

Riiip~

After tearing every IOU into shreds, making sure no one could ever piece them back together, Li Yuan finally opened the second box and began tallying its contents.

Twelve taels of broken silver, one hundred-tael banknote, and on top of that, over a dozen pearls each about the size of a little-fingertip, their luster seemingly quite fine.

"That all together must be at least two hundred taels of silver!"

Even though he had already glimpsed it inside the room, Li Yuan couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

Two hundred taels of silver!

His second brother worked for the Firewood Gang, leaving the city before dawn every day, and after a whole grueling month only earned seven qian of silver—two hundred taels would take twenty-three years of saving, even without eating or drinking!

And that was only an estimate, after all—he had no idea what the pearls were worth…

"So much money!"

Li Yuan's heart pounding, he snatched up the banknote and stuffed it into his tunic.

But on second thought, he felt it wasn't proper, so he took the Liuboots out from the space within the Soldier-Bearing Register, stuffed both the broken silver and the banknote inside, then set them back on the stone platform.

Now that was secure!

"Money really is easy to come by when you're a black-hearted loan shark…"

Tossing the wooden box into a snow hollow, Li Yuan was still somewhat tongue-tied.

A loan shark wouldn't keep too much silver on hand; most of Qian Bao's actual fortune was that thick stack of IOUs.

But he had no interest in extorting poor households, so he flung the wooden box into a ditch covered in accumulated snow.

"Lost everything he owned, and took a beating from me on top of it—at least for the next half year he won't be able to cause trouble; half a year from now…"

After stomping on the snow a couple more times, Li Yuan finally turned and left.

At that moment, the north wind howled, and the light snow gradually grew heavier.

"Everything's different…"

Walking briskly through the snow, listening to the crunch, crunch beneath his feet, Li Yuan's restless heart gradually calmed.

The world was different, and so was he.

……

……

"Hoo!"

"Hah!"

In Fatty Sun's little courtyard, Li Yuan stood in the Bai Yuan stance, feet rooted like trees, arms swaying like willows, moving with the wind, drifting and shifting across the yard.

"Medicinal supplements are the key!"

Raising his arms, swinging the hammer, most of Li Yuan's attention was on that wisp of blood energy within his body; with the boost from medicinal meals, the speed at which he circulated his blood energy had more than doubled compared to before.

Ren He Wu Gong is easy to learn but hard to master—not just the Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer, the Three-Element Saber-Sickle Art is the same.

This difficulty in mastery lies not just in the forms, but in blood energy.

Blood energy doesn't appear from thin air; every wisp of it comes from the body itself. Without medicinal meals to replenish it, given his aptitude, his blood energy was still growing, but he estimated that to get it to cover both arms would take at least five years of bitter effort.

And that was only because he practiced the combat method of the Soldier's Way Battle-Killing Hammer; otherwise it would take even longer.

But if he had medicinal meals every day…

"At most a year, and I can reach minor mastery!"

Slowly gathering his stance, exhaling the stale air, the moment Li Yuan opened his eyes he saw Fatty Sun's face twisted with pain, as if it were his silver Li Yuan had just breathed out.

"That's all my silver!"

Fatty Sun's face was aching so badly the fat on his cheeks was trembling.

"Don't worry, Chef—I'll definitely pay back every tael!"

Li Yuan hurriedly gave his word, while also reporting his progress: his Cloak Hammer technique was growing ever more practiced.

"Bah! From proficient to minor mastery, even with top-grade bone structure and medicinal meals backing you, it still takes over a year—you…"

Fatty Sun was half regretting ever lending so much silver in the first place.

He only earned a little over twenty taels a year, and this kid owed him nearly eighteen taels already — even at nine-out-thirteen-back terms, it still pained him.

"I'll definitely be faster."

Li Yuan didn't even blink.

"You're full of it!"

Fatty Sun didn't believe him, snorted twice, then said:

"The shop gives two days off for New Year, but you'd best stay in the shop. I hear Chai Yu Ward is a mess — a gang of local thugs got beaten half to death…"

"That Year Nine just got arrested, the whole city's so tight, who'd be that bold?"

Li Yuan clicked his tongue, and felt a bit of lingering fear in his heart.

He'd underestimated the county government office's reaction to the Year Nine murder case. That night he'd beaten Qian Bao, and the very next day there were government office Runners patrolling the streets — he'd even spotted the city's garrison commander, Qiu Long.

That man was a big shot from Divine Weapon Valley, his authority even outranking the county magistrate's. The three hundred men under his command were every one elites, more than a match for ten.

"Who knows?"

Fatty Sun was rather gleeful:

"I heard Qian Bao's whole fortune was looted, even his IOUs got lost — even if he doesn't die, he's half-ruined…"

"The IOUs are gone too? That's great! My second brother still owes him money!"

Li Yuan pretended to be overjoyed.

"Why didn't I think to go borrow a few hundred taels from him?"

Fatty Sun was rather regretful:

"Right, if you go back, remember you have to come back the morning of the second. If you miss the inner court examination…"

Automatically ignoring Fatty Sun's threat, Li Yuan nodded and left the courtyard.

Tomorrow was New Year's Eve, so naturally he had to prepare to go home. A few days earlier, his second brother had already come to the shop looking for him.

"Brother Li, here's the New Year goods you wanted!"

At the middle court gate, Liu Qing had long been waiting there, carrying bundles large and small: "So much stuff, it's hard for one person to carry — shall I deliver them for you?"

"No need."

Glancing at the few apprentices in the middle court, Li Yuan picked up the New Year goods and went out the door.

The day before New Year, the city was unusually quiet, hardly any pedestrians in the streets and alleys, which made Li Yuan, who'd been browsing the great market for days, rather regretful.

……

Bang!

Bang!

Fireworks exploded across the night sky, quite densely.

Li Lin, who was always frugal, had also bought some firecrackers and dragged Li Yuan outside to set them off. Inside the house, his sister-in-law Wang Juan was busy in the kitchen, and the smell of meat was already wafting out.

Li Yuan bought two jin of wine and poured a cup for his sister-in-law too.

The wild Daoist Priest had no precepts to speak of; he clinked cups with his second brother, and before long, all of them were a bit tipsy.

"Oh right."

Li Yuan set down his cup, recalling something:

"Qian Bao's parents used to be our family's long-term hired hands?"

"Burp~"

Li Lin's face was flushed, shaking his head:

"That Qian Bao is a born scoundrel, we have nothing to do with him… Speaking of long-term hired hands…"

He paused, then said:

"Our family's previous long-term hired hands had the surname Qin, and they were on good terms with us. The news that the Weapon Forging Shop was recruiting apprentices — it was him who told me…"

"Huh?!"

Li Yuan's heart gave a jolt, his drunkenness gone entirely:

"Qin Xiong?!"

(End of chapter)