Lost

"Dad! Dad! Look, red-braised pork!! Red-braised pork!!" Lu Xiucai, his mouth stuffed with lion's head meatballs, stared straight at the dish being served.

The moment that plate of glistening red-braised pork hit the table, six or seven pairs of chopsticks darted toward it. By the time they withdrew, not even a scrap of the Preserved Dried Vegetables underneath remained.

"Look at you all, eating like starving ghosts! Slow down! Anyone who didn't know better would think us Lus had no upbringing!"

"Dad, forget upbringing. We don't even get food this good during New Year's. Look at that fatty meat on your chopsticks—you haven't eaten any less than us." The youngest son's teasing earned him a smack on the head from a chopstick.

Seeing his younger brother get hit, Lu Juren swallowed his food and stepped in to smooth things over. "Dad, just let everyone eat. We suffered plenty last night to earn this meal."

At those words, relief at having escaped death appeared in the eyes of everyone who had been wolfing down food.

Last night had truly been terrifying. That expert had fought the monster below, while they opera performers on the stage had nearly pissed themselves in fright.

Then, as if by unspoken agreement, they all looked toward the front of the house, at Li Huowang standing beneath the sky, lost in thought.

A trace of reverence inevitably entered everyone's eyes. If not for this expert last night, they probably would not have lived to eat this meal today.

Little Daoist Master might have been young, with not even a beard on his face, but he was certainly no ordinary person.

But when another servant brought in a dish, their attention immediately shifted again.

"Hey! There's chicken! Look! Roast chicken!" Those pairs of chopsticks stirred restlessly above the round table like snake tongues.

Just as the chopsticks were about to subject the chicken to Dismemberment by Five Horses, an old, polished tobacco pipe blocked the chicken's head. "Stop right there! No one touches this chicken! I'm going to invite Little Daoist Master to eat with us."

"Dad, don't call him. Daoists don't eat meat—you're making Daoist Master break his vows."

"Bullshit! The ones who don't eat meat are monks! Mark my words: if I come back and see even a sliver of skin missing from that chicken, just see how I deal with you!"

After Lu Zhuangyuan viciously glared at his most unruly youngest son, he wiped his grease-covered mouth with his hand, rubbed it hard against the underside of the tabletop, then turned and walked toward Li Huowang.

"Little Daoist Master, hehehe, Little Daoist Master?" With every wrinkle on his face squeezed together, Lu Zhuangyuan could not have looked more cordial.

"Little Daoist Master, you've been busy all night. Come eat something with us? Look, the Hu household has served nothing but rich, hearty dishes."

Li Huowang turned to look at him from his thoughts. After pondering for a while, he hesitantly asked, "Master Lu Ban, you saw those spirit tablets fall over on their own too, right? That scene wasn't my hallucination, was it?"

"Oh my, Little Daoist Master, how would I know? I don't have your abilities—how would I dare look around? This old man kept his eyes shut while singing on the stage afterward."

Li Huowang sighed softly. Once again, he recalled that sentence by his ear. Though it had been quiet, there was no mistaking it. It had been his master Danyangzi's voice. Of the two worlds, only he called Li Huowang "kid."

Logically, hearing his master's voice again should have made him extremely nervous. Yet Li Huowang instead fell into confusion, because he could not even trust himself.

"I'm mentally ill, and severely so. If it was because I hadn't eaten Black Tai Sui and my condition had relapsed, then hearing a few faint Auditory Hallucinations would be perfectly normal."

"But the spirit tablets suddenly falling over, and the God of Joy suddenly appearing and vanishing—none of that can be explained. Could it be..."

Li Huowang recalled the strange changes in Danyangzi's body before his death, and his expression darkened. "Could he really... have ascended to immortality?!"

"No! Danyangzi couldn't have ascended to immortality. That Immortal Ascension Technique he spoke of, along with the Inner Elixir he took, were clearly things I had made up on the spot. How could some random nonsense I invented help someone ascend to immortality? Unless what he became wasn't an immortal at all!"

But if he was not an immortal, what exactly had he become? Why was he still haunting me? A savage irritation appeared on Li Huowang's face.

"Little Daoist Master? What are you thinking about? We're all on the same side now. If you have any troubles, just say the word."

Lu Zhuangyuan's words brought Li Huowang back to himself. He took a deep breath and made up his mind. "Whether it's real or not, there aren't many countermeasures I can take right now. I'll first go to the so-called West Capital City and check out the Monk Temple Lu Zhuangyuan mentioned. If it is real, perhaps they know something. I still understand far too little about this world."

"Master Lu Ban, it's nothing. I merely remembered some trivial matters. Let's sit down and eat."

Hearing this, Lu Zhuangyuan nodded repeatedly in delight. The two turned and walked toward the dining table inside.

When they reached the table, the expression on Lu Zhuangyuan's face instantly froze. Aside from that roast chicken, every other dish had been licked spotlessly clean—so clean that the plates did not even need washing.

"Ah~ That was satisfying! Even the Emperor probably doesn't eat this well." Lu Xiucai, his mouth greasy, slouched against his chair and loosened his waistband.

Lu Zhuangyuan gave Li Huowang an embarrassed smile. Unable to lose his temper before an outsider, he could only hold the roast chicken in both hands and place it before Li Huowang. "Little Daoist Master, this chicken is quite plump. I'm truly sorry to have made a spectacle of ourselves."

Li Huowang smiled, picked up his chopsticks, tore off a strip of chicken, and stuffed it into his mouth. "It's fine. The chicken is good too."

Before he had eaten more than a few bites, a group of people came through the corridor and entered the room. Walking at the front was Lu Zhuangyuan's employer, Hu Jianghe.

"Not bad, not bad. The ancestors were immensely pleased. They burned every bit of incense and candles on the table clean. That's a good sign!"

Hearing himself praised, Lu Zhuangyuan hurriedly replied with a beaming, humble smile, "As I should, as I should. It is this old man's duty."

"Master Lu Ban, if you pass through here again in the future, be sure to come to our Hu household for a cup of tea," Hu Jianghe said courteously.

As he spoke, a burly man beside Hu Qinghe carried forward a tray covered with red cloth. When the cloth was lifted, ten gleaming little silver ingots lay neatly upon it.

"The agreed ten taels of silver. Keep it safe."

"Oh, many thanks for Lord Hu's reward! Rest assured, Lord Hu. If there's work in the future, just send someone with a message. No matter where the Lu Family Troupe is, we'll hurry over as fast as we can."

After Lord Hu left, the Lu family gathered around the tray, their eyes fixed greedily upon the silver ingots.

Just as Lu Xiucai reached out to touch the largest sum of money he had ever seen in his life, an old tobacco pipe knocked his hand away.

Lu Zhuangyuan first took four ingots from the tray and stuffed them into his pocket. Looking at the remaining six, intense reluctance showed in his eyes.

But in the end, he forced a smile back onto his face, carried the silver over to Li Huowang as he ate, and said, "Hehehe, come, come, Little Daoist Master. As we agreed, six for you and four for me. This is your share."