Preparing to Walk

"Little Chen, how can you speak like that..."

Liu Shoucai was about to say more, but Chen Mo cut him off.

"Shopkeeper Liu, I'm heading home first. We can discuss matters later."

Too lazy to engage in idle chatter, Chen Mo picked up his luggage and turned toward the back door of his house across the street.

Deliverance Studio was tightly shuttered, with many gaunt and malnourished refugees huddled at the entrance, completely blocking the already narrow storefront.

He ignored their inquisitive gazes, bypassing the closed front door to turn into a narrower alleyway along the side of the shop.

The alley was only wide enough for one person to pass through, flanked by high walls covered in slick moss, emitting the faint, fishy stench typical of a sewer.

As he neared his back door, he caught a glimpse of the back door of the neighboring house, which was usually kept shut, now standing wide open.

The clutter that had once filled the courtyard seemed to have been cleared away, and a dozen sturdy men were sitting in the open space, gathered around a large pot, boiling some kind of meat.

Chen Mo's heart stirred. The house to his right had originally been a pottery figurine shop that went out of business; the owner had moved away before the new year, leaving it vacant. Had it been sold?

Or had it been temporarily occupied by others?

Judging by the appearance of these men, they didn't look like ordinary residents.

He hesitated for only a moment, not stopping to investigate, and pushed open his own back door.

With a creak, the door hinges turned.

Inside was his family's middle courtyard, which, compared to the disarray he had left behind, was now kept in perfect order.

In the corner of the courtyard, Chen Dachuan was hunched over, focused on planing a wooden board.

A little girl of about five or six, wearing two small braids, was squatting a few paces away from Chen Dachuan, her chin resting in her hands, staring blankly at the flying wood shavings.

The sound of the door hinges startled her.

She turned her head, revealing a thin, small face with large eyes. Seeing the stranger, Chen Mo, she shrank back but didn't make a sound.

The middle-aged woman cooking in the corner, still holding a spatula, subconsciously wiped her hands on her apron. Her lips moved, but no words came out; her gaze shifted urgently toward Chen Dachuan.

At this, Chen Dachuan stopped his work and turned around somewhat slowly.

Chen Mo's heart sank abruptly.

In just a few months of absence, his father's hair had turned more than half white, and his complexion had taken on an unhealthy, sallow pallor.

"So you know how to come back?" Chen Dachuan's opening line lacked any joy of reunion; instead, it sounded like he was suppressing a fit of anger.

Chen Mo placed his luggage at his feet and, following the original owner's habit, called out, "Father."

Chen Dachuan didn't respond to the greeting, his gaze sweeping over his face and body as if to confirm he wasn't missing any limbs, before he tilted his chin toward the mother and daughter. "This is Aunt Liu, and this is Yuanyuan. They are the descendants of an old acquaintance. Their family met with misfortune, so they are staying here for the time being."

The introduction was extremely brief, with no further explanation.

Chen Mo nodded slightly at the pair. "Aunt Liu." Only after acknowledging her did he let his gaze fall on the thin little girl, who was still watching him timidly.

He didn't say much, simply placing his luggage on a nearby stone stool, untying the straps, and pulling out a brown paper parcel.

The parcel was small, carefully tied, and stained with a few grease spots.

He had bought these jujube paste sesame cakes and a small bag of five-spice broad beans from a long-established shop on his way back, originally intended to stave off hunger during the journey.

He walked over to Yuanyuan with the parcel, squatted down, and smiled at her. "Here, for you."

The child shrank back, her small hands clutching the hem of her patched trousers.

Chen Mo held out the parcel. "Bought them in Jin City. They're sweet."

Yuanyuan didn't dare take them immediately, looking first at her mother.

Aunt Liu's eyes held both embarrassment and gratitude, and finally, she nodded gently. "Hurry and thank Brother Chen."

"Thank you, Brother."

With her mother's permission, Yuanyuan reached out with her thin, small hand and carefully took the parcel, which felt quite heavy to her.

The sweet fragrance wafting through the oil paper made her involuntarily sniff the air.

"Open it and eat."

Chen Mo stood up, no longer looking at the child, and turned to Chen Dachuan. "Father, your hair..."

"It's nothing. I won't be dying anytime soon."

Chen Dachuan cut him off bluntly. His gaze flickered toward Yuanyuan, who was taking small bites of the sesame cake, and his expression seemed to soften slightly, but it hardened again when he turned back to Chen Mo. "Come with me."

After saying this, Chen Dachuan turned and walked straight toward the shop, his back radiating a heavy, suppressed rage.

Chen Mo said nothing and followed silently.

As soon as they entered the shop, Chen Dachuan closed the door behind him, cutting off the faint sounds from the middle courtyard.

The room was dim, with only a few slivers of daylight filtering through the gaps in the door and windows.

Chen Dachuan spun around abruptly, his lips parting as if a scolding was about to burst forth.

Then he saw Chen Mo pull two stacks of items from his luggage and place them gently on the table in the main room.

Those were two stacks of Nether Talisman Paper.

The angry rebuke Chen Dachuan had on the tip of his tongue suddenly choked off, his expression turning somewhat awkward before he lowered his voice, "Where did those five hundred silver dollars in the cellar come from?"

"Earned from wiping out the Black Tiger Gang." Chen Mo confessed calmly; there was no need to hide it from him.

Even if he hadn't said it, Chen Dachuan could likely have guessed.

"It really was you!" Chen Dachuan squeezed the words through his teeth, his chest heaving, "Black-Faced Tiger is no pushover, he has dozens of desperate men under him... and you did it all by yourself?"

"Has our family's secret art reached the third level?" He looked his son up and down again, his brows locked in a frown.

He himself had only cultivated it to the second level after all these years, enough only to scare ordinary people.

"Did you leave any survivors?"

"No." Chen Mo recalled the events, a hint of concern appearing, "Everyone in the courtyard that night died, but my Paper Puppet was intercepted by people from the Inspection Bureau on the way back."

Chen Dachuan took a deep breath, remaining silent for a long time before speaking, "No wonder the people from the Inspection Bureau came knocking again three days ago."

He turned and pulled a black wooden token from a hidden compartment at the very bottom of the offering table, placing it gently beside the two stacks of Nether Talisman Paper.

The token was archaic, with the character "Suppress" carved on the front and intricate cloud patterns on the back.

"Your grandfather handed over the complete first volume of the Nether Paper-Crafting Art, along with our family's ancestral Eye-Dotting Brush, to the Anomaly Suppression Bureau back in the day."

Chen Mo's pupils constricted slightly.

"Why?"

"The condition was that after his death, the Anomaly Suppression Bureau would ensure our safety, keeping us out of underworld vendettas and leaving our ordinary livelihood undisturbed."

Chen Dachuan looked at the token, his eyes complex, "But that was the extent of their protection."

"All these years I've kept things hidden, teaching you only the basics, precisely because I didn't want you dragged into these matters of the Yin Gate."

"I never expected... sigh." He let out a long sigh, "With this token, the Inspection Bureau shouldn't keep hounding you over the Black Tiger Gang affair. It can allow you to participate in an examination for the Bureau of Strange Suppression as a reserve walker; that was also something your grandfather negotiated back then."

He handed the token to Chen Mo, "The original copy of the Nether Paper-Crafting Art isn't with me; your grandfather left it in Jin City, right under the locust tree in the backyard of the Dragon Dharma Temple."

"As for the Bureau of Strange Suppression examination, it's on the eighth of next month. Whether you go or not is up to you."