Drunken Ox

On the eighteenth day, heavy snow fell.

The roads were frozen solid, and few people traveled them. Now and then, a starving corpse could be seen lying in the snow.

One hundred and twenty li south of Pingyang City, there was a small tavern beside the road ahead. The two travelers tied their horses outside, shook the ice and snow from their clothes, lifted the door curtain, and went in.

A blast of cold air jolted the skinny proprietor awake as he dozed beside the brazier.

He hunched his neck and looked up. It was a man and a woman.

The man wore a black robe and carried a long sword. His features were refined and handsome—more so than Third Young Master Wan of Steward Wan's household in the county seat. Third Young Master Wan had passed the autumn provincial examination that year, and the proprietor had seen him ride through the streets on horseback when he returned home. He was quite the handsome gentleman as well.

The woman was tall and full-figured, standing half a head taller than the man beside her. That wouldn't do. A woman taller than a man would suppress his fortune, making it difficult for her to marry in the future. What a pity.

The skinny proprietor offered this assessment inwardly.

The woman said, "Boss, what are you staring at? Come greet your customers."

"Coming, honored guests."

Only then did the skinny proprietor remember that business had been slow lately. To save on food and wages, he had already given his two workers an extended leave.

"I was muddled with sleep. Please forgive me, please forgive me. What wine would the two of you like?"

The woman pulled out a long bench and brushed away the dust with her sleeve. Only then did the man sit down.

The young man asked, "What wine do you have?"

The skinny proprietor could tell that this young man had some status.

"Answering the honored guest, our little shop has three kinds of wine. They are called Silken Tongue, Fragrance Filling the Room, and Drunken Ox."

"Which kind is the strongest?"

"That would certainly be Drunken Ox."

The young man smiled. "Then we'll have... 'Drunken Ox.' What a name. Isn't it cursing the drinker by calling him an ox?"

The skinny proprietor hurriedly smiled apologetically. "Please forgive me, honored guest. Those are vulgar names given by the distillery. Country folk like them don't know their letters, but the wine itself is good. Please don't take offense."

"All right, all right. Prepare fifty jin of Drunken Ox for us."

The skinny proprietor gaped. "F-fifty jin?"

The young man smiled. "Ladle out two jin for us to drink with the food. Seal the rest in jars—we'll take it with us."

"So the honored guests are here to stock up?" The skinny proprietor understood.

The woman glared. "Why are you wasting words? You have business to do, and you're still unhappy?"

The young man took a small ingot of gold from his robe and set it on the table with a smile. "Fry us a few small dishes. Then prepare enough cooked food for fifty people. There must be meat, and pack it all for us to take away."

The skinny proprietor looked at the gold ingot. It seemed to weigh about five liang, and he immediately relaxed. Apparently, they weren't bandits' scouts come to extort him. Those damned bandits never paid for their food and drink. If anything displeased them, they responded with a beating.

"Honored guest, our shop also has ten smoked geese, eighty jin of cured beef, and more than three hundred white-flour flatbreads. I can also have my wife steam three pots of rice. Would that do?"

The young man tossed him the gold ingot. "Go prepare it."

"Thank you, honored guest. Thank you, honored guest."

The skinny proprietor tucked the gold ingot into his robe and did a quick calculation. The profit from this order was equal to two years of hard work.

Zhao Xia watched the proprietor's back and asked in a low voice, "My lord, what should we do next?"

"The southern part of Pingyang Prefecture is a patchwork of mountains and rivers, with all sorts of people mixed together. There are many martial factions, and bandits gather in the mountains, each ruling as its own king. Even the Dragon Scale Association, the largest gang in Pingyang Prefecture, has limited influence."

"We'll first find a place to establish ourselves and settle down. We'll get through this winter, recover our strength, and rebuild our forces in preparation for next year."

Strictly speaking, northern Pingyang Prefecture was closest to Pingding Prefecture, making it convenient to obtain support from the Sun Moon Divine Cult. But with Third Young Master Tong there, that idea had to be abandoned.

They had no choice but to temporarily avoid the area around Pingyang City, where the Dragon Scale Association's influence was strongest.

"All right. I'll follow your arrangements in everything."

Zhao Xia smiled as she looked at Zhang Yu. The envoy was accomplished in both civil and military affairs. Ever since he had taken command of the Wild Wolf Gang, her burden had instantly lightened by more than half. With him here, the Wild Wolf Gang's revival was just around the corner.

Before long, the skinny proprietor carried over a wooden tray and set bowls and chopsticks before them, along with a pot of warmed Drunken Ox and a dish of fennel beans.

Zhao Xia poured wine for Zhang Yu, then filled her own cup. After setting down the pot, she suddenly remembered that Zhang Yu had taken a heavy punch from Peng Canghu in the Black Pine Forest that night.

"My lord, are your injuries still troubling you? Can you drink?"

Zhang Yu picked up his cup, drained it in one gulp, and smiled. "Since my injuries haven't healed, I need to drink strong liquor. It will drive out the cold and disperse the stagnant blood."

Not long afterward, the proprietor came over again with a wooden tray and set down a plate of cured beef, a bowl of spicy stir-fried chicken, a bowl of fried dried fish, a bowl of steamed winter amaranth, and a small dish of pickled cucumbers.

"This village shop is crude, and our hospitality is lacking. I'm truly sorry." The proprietor smiled apologetically.

Zhang Yu said, "It's fine. Is everything prepared?"

"The other things are ready. Three pots of rice are steaming at the same time, so they should be about done by the time you finish eating and drinking. I've also given your horses fodder and warm water."

"Good."

"Please enjoy yourselves, honored guests."

Just then, the sounds of people and horses suddenly came from outside.

"Brothers, we've got an unexpected haul."

"These two horses are fine. Lead them back to the mountain and offer them to Chieftain Cao. He'll surely reward Brother Song Chang handsomely."

"I don't want anything else. The little wife of the Zhang family we brought up the mountain at the beginning of the month—her buns are plump and she's full of charm. I'm dying to have her."

"That might be difficult. Chieftain Cao likes that sort of thing. He probably took her into his room long ago."

"If you ask me, it won't be difficult. Even candy gets tiresome after a while. It's been more than a month, so maybe the chieftain is already tired of her. If not, Brother can join the chieftain beneath the mandarin-duck quilt. Hahaha..."

"Third Brother, you're always coming up with rotten ideas! In the dark, amid the chaos of war, what if the chieftain drew his long sword but put it into the wrong sheath? Wouldn't that end up stabbing Brother Song Chang to death?"

The skinny proprietor heard the conversation outside, and his face turned deathly pale. His hands trembled nonstop, as if he had encountered a soul-snatching Judge of Impermanence or a plague-bringing star of calamity. Terror rooted him to the spot. He wanted to flee, but he didn't dare.

Zhang Yu smiled at him. "Boss, is this a black shop?"

Zhao Xia abruptly rose and picked up a bench. Her Xuanhua Great Axe was too conspicuous, so she hadn't brought it with her.

The skinny proprietor wore a mournful expression and said in a low voice, "I'm innocent! Those are bandits from Black Wind Stockade. They often come to eat and drink at my shop without paying. If anything displeases them, they beat me half to death, and they even... force my wife to drink with them."

"They usually don't come down the mountain on snowy days. I don't know, I don't know what happened today. I must not have offered enough sacrifices to the God of Wealth. It seems I'm simply destined for bad luck."

Zhao Xia said to Zhang Yu, "My lord, it looks like these vermin are going to take our horses."

Zhang Yu glanced at the proprietor. His expression didn't seem feigned. Besides, if he truly were the bandits' spy, he should have drugged all the food and wine with knockout powder. Zhang Yu smiled. "A wise man doesn't fight when the odds are against him. Just give the horses to them."

Zhao Xia was puzzled. "My lord, dealing with vermin like these wouldn't take much effort. Why suffer the needless loss of two fine horses?"

Zhang Yu picked up his cup, tipped back his head, and drained it. Smiling, he said, "There's no rush. We've just arrived, so peace is the priority. Let's play along with them first!"