On the carriage, Lin Chong, holding the reins, frowned slightly.
Someone was trailing them from behind. At first, he had assumed they were traveling merchants headed the same way, or merely passersby. But this group followed at an unhurried pace, always keeping a fixed distance. Clearly, they meant no good.
Were they after the valuables in Song Jiang's carriage?
Though Song Jiang had never said what was inside, the ruts in the road and the old horse huffing for breath had made it plain enough. Lin Chong came from the Imperial Guards; one glance told him that Song Jiang was far too eager to climb the ladder.
Thinking this, Lin Chong slowed the carriage slightly and shot Lu Zhishen a look.
"Senior Brother, go drive those people behind us away. Don't let them disturb my lord's peace."
"Commander Lin, how loyal and devoted you are. Back then, who was it that didn't want to be a lackey, and even blamed me for forcing the matter?"
"..."
Master Lu's words struck straight at the sore spot. Lin Chong's face flushed red, the veins on his forehead bulging as he tried to argue about duty and obligation, then went on about repaying kindness and such. Master Lu burst into laughter, and the carriage, too, filled with cheerful air.
There was an honest man here—everyone, come bully him!
Compared to the easygoing Lu Zhishen, the hotheaded Wu Song, the single-mindedly ambitious Song Jiang, and the petty townsman Wu Dalang, Lin Chong, with his spirit of a beast of burden, was undoubtedly the most cost-effective source of entertainment.
At first, Lu Zhishen had felt that Xiang Yuan, a deity—and a great deity such as the Great Yi Savior from Suffering, no less—was being rather unfair by always making sport of Lin Chong.
He no