"Keep an eye on her. Don't let anything interfere with your mother's treatment," Luo Qianshan told Zhuzi, reminding him to be careful.
Zhuzi would never dare get out of line with Luo Qianshan. He hurriedly said, "Thank you for your concern, sir. The doctor says that if my mother keeps recuperating carefully for another month or two, she'll be completely well."
"Let's hope so." Luo Qianshan nodded and said no more. Since Zhuzi trusted Zi Bofeng so much, he wouldn't play the bad guy.
Zi Bofeng and Little Stone exchanged a glance and grinned. Zi Bofeng now understood what that beam of light had been. Feijianzi might be a walking calamity, but he had also brought them good luck. If that sword hadn't blasted the boulder into pieces, the eagle egg would never have fallen from the sky.
All the coincidences today gave Zi Bofeng the sense that fate was truly mysterious.
The only thing worrying him now was Little Fox. He had no idea how she was doing.
Luo Qianshan called over one of his personal attendants and had him help Zhuzi carry Zhuzi's Mother inside. Then he personally brewed a pot of tea and chatted for a while with Zi Jian, Zi Bofeng, and the others before taking his leave and going to bed.
Late that night, with dew thick in the air, Zi Bofeng woke with a full bladder and got up to use the latrine. He saw Luo Qianshan standing in the courtyard, one hand on his saber, gazing up at the sky.
"Beneath these stars, this night is not the same as last. For whom do you stand here amid the dew and wind, deep into the night?" Zi Bofeng had barely recited the line before turning away and spitting twice. That was a love poem, and the first two lines were even more indecent—a classic little dirty poem. It would have suited the occasion if he'd recited it to a famous courtesan, but what if Luo Qianshan, a rough-and-tumble man, misunderstood him for saying it to a good buddy?
Luo Qianshan didn't seem to understand Zi Bofeng's flowery words, but he knew Zi Bofeng was asking why he was still standing in the courtyard so late. He sighed. "Bofeng, tomorrow may be our last farewell."
"What?" Zi Bofeng was startled. Where had this sudden farewell come from?
"Tomorrow, I'm going to assassinate the immortal." Luo Qianshan spoke gravely. He kept one hand on his saber and turned to look at Zi Bofeng. "The Prefect has treated me with a kindness as weighty as a mountain, yet I can't ease his burdens. This is the only thing I can do for him."
"Come on, surely it hasn't come to assassination. He's only here to collect the Jade Tax. Why not just stall for time?" Zi Bofeng asked in surprise.
"You weren't there today, so you don't know. That immortal actually threatened the Prefect's life! How could I let him live?" Luo Qianshan ground his teeth.
"Then how are you planning to assassinate him?" Zi Bofeng wiped the dew from his hand, sat down on a stone stool in the courtyard, and glanced at Luo Qianshan, who was still striking a pose.
"With my trusty steel saber, of course..." Luo Qianshan declared, brimming with heroic valor.
"All right, cut out the posing. You waited here for me in the middle of the night. Now I see why you were so attentive, even brewing tea for me before bed." Zi Bofeng had seen through Luo Qianshan's little trick from the start. One was a soldier, the other a Xiucai; they had little in common, and whenever they were together, they either undermined or mocked each other. Still, Zi Bofeng understood Luo Qianshan's nature. He looked like a brute, but he was actually rather sly.
Luo Qianshan didn't even blush at being found out. His skin was like the armor he wore, forged from solid steel; an ordinary poke couldn't pierce it.
"Give it up. That man could blast a boulder on the mountain to bits with a single sword strike. Your little skills might be enough to deal with a scholar like me, who can't even truss a chicken, but you're nowhere near his level." Zi Bofeng yawned and stretched as he stood. "If you really want to assassinate him, why not buy half a jin of arsenic and mix it into his food? Maybe you'll poison him to death."
"Go to bed. Don't waste your time on nonsense." Zi Bofeng pushed open the door, turned, and waved. "Good night!"
"Arsenic?" Luo Qianshan's eyes lit up. That was worth a try. An immortal was still a person, after all, so he must have a weakness. If the poison killed him, problem solved. If it didn't... he could just pretend he knew nothing.
Luo Qianshan was a bold man. Once he had an idea, he acted on it. He went to the woodshed, kicked his attendant awake, and ordered him to go find some poison in the middle of the night.
Zi Bofeng, of course, knew nothing about this. When he got up the next morning, he saw Luo Qianshan honing his saber. The attendant was squatting nearby, watching and yawning.
As soon as Zi Bofeng stepped outside, he saw Luo Qianshan hold the blade upright and examine it in the sunlight. The steel saber gleamed like snow, its edge even and flawless. It was clear that Luo Qianshan cherished it.
"You're not really planning to assassinate the immortal, are you?" Zi Bofeng was startled. "If you kill him now, you'll only cause trouble for the Prefect."
"Of course I'm not going to make a move right now." Luo Qianshan bared his teeth in a grin. "I have my own clever plan..."
Zi Bofeng obligingly leaned in, ready to hear what it was.
"I never said I'd tell you." Luo Qianshan waved him away. "Keep your distance. I might slip and leave you with a scar as big as a bowl."
As he spoke, he turned and swung. The gleaming saber traced an arc through the air and, with a crack, split a wooden post standing nearby in two.
The blade came down right beside the nose of the dozing attendant. He jolted in fright and fell hard onto his backside, begging repeatedly, "Spare me, General! Spare me! I won't do it again! I won't!"
Luo Qianshan had meant to keep going and split the other round posts lined up nearby, showing off his swordsmanship. But now his momentum was gone, and he couldn't muster the strength.
"Go on, get out of here!" Luo Qianshan kicked him in exasperation. "If you're going to sleep, go sleep in your room!"
"Ah, sir, let me do that!" Zhuzi was just coming out with a basin of water. He happened to see Luo Qianshan chopping wood and hurried over, producing an ax from somewhere. "Leave a job like chopping wood to me. I may not have much else, but I've got strength to spare..."
Then Luo Qianshan could only stare as Zhuzi chopped the round posts he used for saber practice into firewood.
"B-brother, those are for practicing with the saber, not for the fire..." Luo Qianshan's attendant said quietly. Zhuzi let out an "Ah," gave an embarrassed smile, rubbed his head, and walked off.
"Hahahaha..." Zi Bofeng laughed so hard he doubled over. Luo Qianshan's face turned pale, then red. He turned and kicked his attendant in the backside. "You talk too much! Keep it up and I'll send you back to the main camp!"
The attendant stared at Luo Qianshan in confusion, still not knowing what he'd done wrong.
Zi Bofeng knew Luo Qianshan's attendant, too. He was about Zi Bofeng's age, maybe a little younger by the looks of him. Though sturdy, he had a baby face that never seemed to grow up and didn't look intimidating at all. He was Luo Qianshan's childhood neighbor, and Luo Qianshan had brought him along because he was afraid the other soldiers would bully him in camp. The fellow always looked half-asleep, as if he were lost in his own thoughts, and often annoyed Luo Qianshan so much that Luo Qianshan would take the field himself and bully him.
Little Stone liked him, though, because he was willing to get down on all fours and let Little Stone ride him like a horse.
After Luo Qianshan kicked him, the attendant rubbed the spot and grinned. He squatted down, gathered up the chopped firewood, and said, "I'll go make breakfast!" Then he turned and left.
"What's for breakfast?" Zi Bofeng's attention was immediately drawn away. He started after him. The attendant was a pretty good cook, fit to be a camp cook. Zi Bofeng had eaten his cooking for seven or eight days two months earlier, and still sometimes missed it.
Luo Qianshan grabbed him by the arm. "Didn't you ask how I'm going to assassinate him?"
"Oh, I almost forgot." Zi Bofeng turned back to look at Luo Qianshan, wondering what trick he was about to pull. "Take a guess!"
"Isn't it just a matter of luring him out?" Zi Bofeng waved him off. "Don't mess around. Breakfast comes first."
"Even a fool could figure out that I need to lure him out. Tell me, how am I going to do it?"
"There's not much to guess. You need a desire, an obstacle, and an action. He came down the mountain looking for jade. Tell him you've found a place with a lot of it, and he'll go there obediently... Unless you've got some brilliant plan? In that case, I'm all ears!"
Zi Bofeng figured he'd read countless novels, and every possibility and idea had already been brought up somewhere. Of course, there were still things no one had thought of, but the odds of that were low.
Luo Qianshan raised a finger as if to say something, but no words came out. He gave up and said, "Fine. You guessed right."
He didn't notice Luo Qianshan quietly clenching a fist behind his back, grinning to himself. I knew everything Zi Bofeng came up with would be rotten to the core! He'd already thought of several plans, but none of them were as seamless as this one.
The rest was for Luo Qianshan to work out on his own. He was an expert when it came to killing people; he didn't need Zi Bofeng's rotten ideas. In the blink of an eye, a whole pile of ambush plans had taken shape.
"Go play by yourself!" Zi Bofeng waved dismissively at Luo Qianshan and headed straight for the kitchen. When he reached the door, he turned around and looked at Luo Qianshan seriously. "Qianshan, I urge you to think twice. Assassinating the immortal is absolutely not the best solution."
As they ate, Luo Qianshan thought in silence, and the others stayed quiet too. Only Zi Bofeng and Little Stone chattered and laughed away, completely ignoring the old saying, "Don't speak while you eat or sleep."
When they were nearly finished, Zi Bofeng said to Luo Qianshan, "We'll head back after breakfast. I won't go say goodbye to the Prefect, so please give him my farewells."
"Why are you going back so early?" Luo Qianshan asked, startled.
"With something this serious, I have to go back and make arrangements. I need to discuss a response with the villagers." As he said this, Zi Bofeng's tone turned solemn. He was every inch a capable village head, nothing like his usual carefree self. Luo Qianshan nodded. Zi Bofeng had his own responsibilities, and with something this serious, he really did need to go back and discuss a response.
"Dad, before we go back, let's buy a horse," Zi Bofeng said, turning to his father.
Record of Raising Monsters
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