Xu Changshou Puts Out the Fire

Qin He bought a few coarse steamed buns and chewed on them listlessly as he wandered around without purpose.

He wanted to go to Mass Grave and make a killing, but felt it was better not to go just yet.

Others might not know what was going on, but Lord Liu Changan, the Left Vice Minister of War, knew the whole story inside out.

For all he knew, Di spies might already have their eyes on him.

He would wait until the heat died down. There was no need to invite trouble.

As he walked, Li Chen came before a three-story red building, its sign bearing three seductively graceful characters: Little Cui Tower.

Since ancient times, first- and second-rate brothels had generally been named courtyards, houses, or pavilions, while third- and fourth-rate ones went by chambers, troupes, towers, shops, or lodgings.

Before the red tower, a flock of warblers and swallows fluttered silk handkerchiefs as they solicited customers.

Unlike them, who made no attempt to hide it, the customers were far more interesting.

There were gang bosses openly linking arms with girls and walking inside; promising young men whose mouths said they would not enter while their legs carried them right in; and officials whom the girls could effortlessly "drag" inside with a pinch of their sleeves.

From gray-haired old men to yellow-haired youths, if one truly counted them, one could probably make out five generations under one roof.

The true masters, though, were the red tower's madams, with eyes sharp enough to flay skin.

With only a single exchanged glance, she could tell whether someone was a customer.

Qin He stood there for two minutes. She pulled in thirteen people, every last one of them entering without a single miss.

Qin He swore that he had been no more than three meters away from her.

He was completely invisible.

A man gnawing on a coarse-flour steamed bun was destined to have nothing to do with a place like this.

The autumn wind blew past, and Qin He suddenly felt a slight chill in the air.

Shaking his head, he was about to leave.

Then someone came out of Little Red House, yawning with his hair in a mess, several disheveled wastrels beside him.

Who was it?

Xu Changshou, who had vanished for days.

Xu Changshou spotted Qin He as well and walked over. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing to do. Just wandering around."

Qin He grinned and told the truth.

"This isn't somewhere you should be."

Clearly unconvinced, Xu Changshou said, "If you really want that sort of thing, go to Old Alley Entrance. It's cheap there. I'll take you next time. The women here all have three hands—without dozens of taels of silver on you, there's no way you can satisfy their picking."

"Old Alley Entrance?"

Qin He suddenly felt that even if Crippled Li really was blind, it did not matter much.

"Another time. I need to go back and rest. I'm on duty tonight, and I'm dead tired." Xu Changshou yawned one after another.

"You haven't been here this whole time, have you?" Qin He asked curiously.

Staying up late was one thing—when did a shift at the Corpse Burning Facility not mean staying up late? Yet he had never seen Xu Changshou this exhausted. He was a martial artist, after all.

"Don't even mention it. That day, you told me to see a doctor, and something came out of it." Xu Changshou wore the expression of someone badly constipated.

Only after hearing him out did Qin He understand why Xu Changshou had disappeared these past few days.

Xu Changshou had once been wealthy, after all, and his foundations remained. The doctor he sought was Doctor Qiao Jinqiao, renowned throughout the canal docks.

Three generations ago, one of Doctor Qiao's ancestors had been an imperial physician. Later, for reasons unknown, he became entangled in some case and was granted White Silk.

Though disaster had befallen his ancestors, their medical skills remained. Doctor Qiao Jinqiao was truly a capable man.

After observing his expression and taking his pulse, he declared that Xu Changshou's inner fire was raging. If he did not release that blaze, he would bleed from all seven orifices and die within half a month. He even named Xu Changshou's symptoms exactly.

Xu Changshou was terrified and hurriedly asked how to dispel the fire.

Doctor Qiao smiled faintly and wrote a prescription, telling Xu Changshou to fill it as prescribed and read it once he got home.

When Xu Changshou returned home and opened the prescription, there was only one ingredient written on it: Little Cui Tower. Fire extinguished, illness cured.

So, half believing and half doubting, he came to Little Cui Tower. It took him a full three days to extinguish the blaze in his belly.

"My silver..."

Xu Changshou walked away with an agonized expression.

Qin He was left somewhat disordered in the autumn wind, unable to understand where such raging inner fire had come from in an otherwise fine man.

This illness was far too strange.

Walking back along the canal, Qin He watched sunlight shimmer across the broad river. From time to time, fish leaped from the water.

Qin He suddenly wanted to eat fish.

Sour-and-spicy fish, spicy fish, fish in clear broth, fish head tofu... Hiss, his mouth was practically watering.

Unfortunately, when he felt around in his pocket, only two copper coins remained. He could not afford pickled vegetables, much less fish.

As he was mulling it over, a commotion suddenly erupted ahead.

The crowd ran in one direction.

"The Three Rivers Gang and the Caohe Gang are fighting! Everyone, hurry and watch!"

No one knew who shouted it.

The crowd immediately ran even faster, scrambling to get there first.

Qin He stuffed the last half of his steamed bun into his mouth and ran along with the crowd.

When he arrived, the Three Rivers Gang and the Caohe Gang were in a chaotic brawl. Fists, wooden clubs, bricks, teeth, blades—whatever they had, they used. There were probably nearly thirty people on both sides combined.

Fists sent nosebleeds spraying everywhere; blades chopped into bodies and turned flesh inside out; some struck below the belt, some kicked crotches, some pounced and bit with open mouths. Both sides were tangled together, their attacks vicious beyond measure.

The common folk quickly packed the small battleground of thirty-odd fighters until not even water could pass through.

"Ooh, that kick was fierce!"

"Put some strength into it! You need force to flip him over!"

"Grab his hair and smash his head into the ground! What good is it just sitting on him?"

"Sit on him with your ass until he dies! Yes, yes, sit him to death!"

"..."

The people loved a spectacle and instantly became martial arts masters. As they "guided" the fight, spittle flew everywhere.

Qin He could not see clearly on tiptoe, nor could he squeeze his way inside, so he found a tree and climbed it.

At last, he had a decent view. The Three Rivers Gang had fewer people, but several were tough bastards. The Caohe Gang had more men, and the two sides were evenly matched, neither gaining any advantage.

"Caohe Gang reinforcements are here! People on the west side, move aside!" someone suddenly roared.

Qin He hurriedly looked west. Sure enough, Caohe Gang reinforcements had arrived. Two gang bosses led a vast, dark mass of people charging this way.

The people on the west side hastily opened a path.

Seeing that things had gone badly and that the other side's reinforcements had arrived first, the Three Rivers Gang members turned and ran, shouting at the tops of their lungs.

But how could the spectators allow that?

With walls of people three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside, the Three Rivers Gang members were immediately shoved back whenever they rushed over. Some even received a kick for their trouble.

When it came to watching excitement, no one feared things getting out of hand. If nobody died, this spectacle would be wasted.

"There are bad eggs among the masses." Qin He clicked his tongue in wonder.

There was no need to say what happened next. The Three Rivers Gang was beaten by the crowd and had no power to fight back.

But that was only the beginning. Soon, Three Rivers Gang reinforcements arrived as well. Seeing their members sprawled all over the ground, they flew into a towering rage. The scale of the brawl instantly expanded more than tenfold. Blood and chunks of flesh flew together, severed fingers danced with teeth—the scene was thrilling beyond words.

"Sunflower seeds for sale! Cheap sunflower seeds!"

"Salted beans! Fragrant salted beans!"

"Candied hawthorn skewers for sale! Candied hawthorn skewers!"

"..."

The docks never lacked sharp-nosed peddlers. Wherever there were crowds, that was where they burrowed.

In just this short while, a small bustling market had already formed around the edge of the crowd, as lively as a festival.

"Morals are declining, and the world is going to ruin."

Qin He sighed, slid down from the tree, and ran toward a nearby vendor. "Two ounces of sunflower seeds."