Pulling Back

"Good, worthy of the Young Chief Escort, you have courage." The man in the black vest clapped his hands and had his subordinate present a newly written contract.

"Since there are no issues, please sign and leave your thumbprint, Young Chief Escort."

A sheet of yellow paper and a box of red ink paste were placed before Cheng Shaojiu.

Cheng Shaojiu looked at the items before him, falling silent as a surge of blood rushed chaotically through his body.

After a long while, his hand trembling, he slowly raised a finger and dipped it into the red ink paste.

His large red thumb lifted, hovering in the air above the contract, but he couldn't bring himself to press it down.

"Young Chief Escort, please proceed." The man in the black vest urged again.

He had seen many situations like Yonghe Escort Agency's before. In this world, fortune and misfortune were unpredictable; who could say for sure if they would remain stable?

Just today, he had three such family crises to deal with.

Yonghe Escort Agency was just one of them.

Cheng Shaojiu sat in his seat, breathing heavily, his entire body feeling ice-cold.

He stared fixedly at the contract, knowing that once he pressed down, there would be no turning back.

But he had no choice.

His opponent was the Zhao Family, the Zhao Family of the Seven Families Alliance, ranked second. In all of Feiye City, only the Ou Family was larger than the Zhao Family.

Closing his eyes, he gritted his teeth and pressed down hard.

Creak.

Suddenly, the wooden door to the living room was pushed open.

Wei He stood at the entrance, panting, staring fixedly at Cheng Shaojiu seated there, along with the other group of people.

Clatter.

He threw the things he was holding onto the ground.

"Brother Cheng, is this enough?"

With a clatter and a mess, things scattered across the floor. It was a yellow cloth bag, and spilling out were gold notes and various gold ingots.

Cheng Shaojiu's hand, still suspended in the air, slowly rose as he stood up, looking at the scattered gold notes on the ground.

One stack of large-denomination gold notes was exceptionally striking, clearly marked with the amount of one hundred.

At a glance, there was at least a thousand gold here!

"Is it enough?" Wei He asked in a deep voice. "If not, I'll go back and get more."

If nothing else, just that copy of the Five Ridges Palm was enough to exchange for a good amount of gold.

In this era, such cultivation techniques and secret arts were rare treasures, and no one was willing to part with them.

A copy of the Five Ridges Palm could fetch at least five hundred taels, and that was even with the Five Ridges Palm lacking the Fundamental Diagram and the medicinal formula.

Of course, if it was still not enough, he could spend more time on the mountains. A few hundred taels of gold, and with some luck, he might be able to acquire more.

After becoming proficient, Wei He was now quite familiar with the forests outside the city, as if it were his own home.

"You..." Cheng Shaojiu felt that the best decision he had ever made in his life was becoming friends with Wei He!

He gritted his teeth, desperately holding back tears from welling up.

But he didn't know how to speak.

He didn't know what to say, nor what expression to wear to face all of this.

But he knew that the only thing he should do now was...

Snap!

Cheng Shaojiu grabbed the contract and, with a rip, tore it in half.

"Brother! I owe you!" he said earnestly to Wei He.

The man in the black vest opposite them was also dumbfounded, looking at Wei He standing at the doorway.

So much money, so many gold notes, and there was even a bit of blood on them...

This guy...

He stared at Wei He, momentarily speechless, as Wei He had taken the initiative.

It wasn't just him; everyone in the living room, the Cheng family members, and the Zhao family members, were all stunned by this reversal of a critical situation.

Wei He's arrival was incredibly timely.

"My friend, have you thought this through? Interfering in this matter..." the man in the black vest narrowed his eyes and warned Wei He.

"The money's here? If there's nothing else, I'll be going." Wei He pointed to the ground, interrupting the other man.

He waved at Cheng Shaojiu.

"Brother Cheng, remember to pay me back later. I have to go back and practice, so I'll be leaving now."

He acted as if he had just paid for a meal, turning around as if nothing had happened and leaving grandly.

It was as if what he had dropped wasn't over a thousand taels of gold, but just a bit of loose change.

The man in the black vest wanted to say something more, but was once again stunned by his actions.

He wasn't unfamiliar with wealthy people. Over a thousand taels of gold was an astronomical sum for ordinary people in these times, but for the lords in the Inner City, it was as simple as snapping their fingers.

In this era of vast wealth disparity, there were indeed people who viewed such money as dirt.

However, such people would absolutely not include the young man in front of him, whose entire body was not worth ten taels of gold.

At this point, the money on the ground was more than enough for the escort agency to overcome their difficulties.

Cheng Shaojiu stood up and walked to a pile of scattered gold notes.

He stood there, motionless.

"Steward Zhao, please return."

He turned his head to look at the man in the black vest and smiled.

The man in the black vest opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but ultimately said nothing. He stood up and cupped his fists in greeting.

"Young Chief Escort, I am impressed!"

He had someone pick up the missing gold notes from the pile on the ground, then turned and left with his group.

Cheng Shaojiu stood at the entrance, watching them leave the plaza, leave the main gate, and disappear onto the gray and white long street outside.

The sounds of carriages and horses gradually faded until they could no longer be heard.

"Husband..." Madam Cheng walked up behind Cheng Shaojiu and called out softly, with some worry.

"I'm fine," Cheng Shaojiu raised his hand and said in a low voice.

"I'm fine."

His back was to everyone, and tears were already streaming down his face.

But he dared not cry out. He was the Young Chief Escort, the pillar of the Cheng family now.

He had to be steady, he had to be steady, he had to hold on...

His wife and children, and the caravan guards and escorts who trusted him, were all behind him. He couldn't cry.

He was just a little tired, a little tired...

The people behind him silently cleaned up the mess and quietly left, leaving Cheng Shaojiu alone standing at the entrance.

On Shaoyang Mountain.

Wei He sighed and looked at the dense, withered trees in front of him.

After several months, he had finally come here again to find money.

Not for any other reason than that most of the mountain bandits on other peaks would flee at the sight of his attire, not even showing their faces.

He didn't even get a chance to get close, let alone make money.

Actually, he could understand. After all, considering it now, the mountain bandits who had died by his hand were no less than several dozen.

And all of them were strong elites.

Given his build and physique, ordinary mountain bandits without some backing wouldn't dare to try and rob him.

Therefore, the ones he dealt with were the ones with backing.

"I just lent money to Brother Cheng, and I don't even have money for groceries left. It was an impulse, a pure impulse."

Wei He felt a bit of regret in his heart. If he had known, he would have kept over ten taels of gold to help him get by.

Now he didn't even have enough money for food for the next half month.

On impulse, he had even thrown out gold nuggets.

He carefully made his way through the dense dry grass on the mountain towards the cave that Ding Hai had left for him earlier.

That place wasn't Natural Dwelling, but a temporary resting spot Ding Hai used for hunting.

Wei He planned to go there first and see if he could encounter other hunters.

He wasn't the only one who knew about that cave; quite a few hunters knew about it.

Everyone would tacitly leave some commonly used tools in the cave as backups, for everyone's convenience.

Following the cleared mountain path, Wei He listened in all directions, moving nimbly and quietly.

He tried to keep the noise to an absolute minimum.

The reason he was back on Shaoyang Mountain was due to information he received from the wine workshop. It was said that strange beasts had appeared on Shaoyang Mountain, and people from Shaoyang Gate were often seen hunting them.

Strange beasts.

As soon as Wei He heard the name, it was etched in his mind.

He changed his attire, no longer wearing the masked, full-body outfit from before. Then, he prepared all his equipment and props and headed up the mountain again.

Even though he had killed a member of Shaoyang Gate, after so many days, who knew it was him?

Who?

At the time, besides the weeds and trees, no one saw him.

Even the only people who had encountered him, that group of mountain bandits, were all dead.

So, theoretically, he was still just an ordinary hunter.

After advancing quietly on the mountain for half an hour.

Before long, a human head suddenly appeared ahead.

A mountain bandit wearing a gray-white headscarf, with a saber, was squatting beside a corpse on the ground, seemingly searching it.

Wei He paused, recognizing the mark of the white headscarf.

He had killed quite a few mountain bandits recently and was clear about their classifications.

All those who wore white headscarves were subordinates controlled by the Shaoyang Gate.

So, the person in front of him should be the same.

He thought about it and decided not to act rashly, so he slowly and quietly retreated.

If there were any lookouts around, it would be troublesome.

However, after retreating only two steps, Wei He's gaze suddenly swept over the bulging money pouch behind the bandit.

The shape of the money pouch was prominent, and it looked like gold ingots no matter how you looked at it.

"Hmph!"

A flying stone fiercely hit the head of the white-scarfed bandit.

Wei He threw out a handful of lime, taking advantage of the lime scattering to obscure the scene.

He rolled and sprang out, skillfully swiping at the bandit.

Instantly, the money pouch and several miscellaneous items were in his possession.

Taking advantage of the white lime not yet having landed, he darted again, disappearing into the grass on the other side.

The entire process took less than two seconds.

When the white lime landed.

A mountain bandit who had been on lookout jumped out in a rage. Seeing his companion lying on the ground with a bleeding head.

He raised the saber in his hand and was about to shout.

Bang!

Another muffled sound, and the bandit was hit on the forehead with a stone again, falling to the ground on the spot.

Another handful of lime was thrown up, and two seconds later, everything on this person, from the money pouch to the saber, was cleared out.

Wei He knew when to stop and decisively went down the mountain.

On the way, besides lamenting how rich the mountain bandits on Shaoyang Mountain were, he had also gained two extra bags of lime.

It seemed that not long ago, the bandits had gradually started carrying many bags of lime.

He didn't even need to buy them himself recently; he just took them from the bandits.

Sometimes, his consumption was less than his replenishment.

In the two money pouches, one contained five taels of gold, and the other only had some gold leaves and gold nuggets. He was a poor devil.

However, another item brought Wei He a surprise. It was a small, intricately woven copper wire bag.

Inside it were a pile of dark, unidentifiable stone-like objects.

Wei He recognized it as one of the very difficult-to-obtain hidden weapons, called Black Caltrop.

Once thrown, it would automatically explode, releasing a large amount of poisonous smoke. It was very powerful.

The poisonous smoke could damage a person's eyes and ears, causing temporary blindness. It could also conceal one's own figure at the same time.

If prepared properly and with advance protective measures, a bag of these things could save a life at a critical moment.

At that, he carefully put the items away. This thing was found on a bandit affiliated with the Shaoyang Gate. Thinking back to the Shaoyang Gate person he encountered last time, he was also full of dirty tricks.

Even more so than him.

From this perspective, the Shaoyang Gate was not only insidious and vicious but also wealthy and powerful.

Wei He immediately raised his alert level to the highest.

In this day and age, it wasn't enough to just have high martial arts skills to win everything. One also needed methods.