Joining a Hall, Joining a Hall (Bonus Chapter-Please Vote!)

After leaving Scorched-Tail Hall.

His second uncle, Yu Le, led Fang Shu around the market district for quite a while, passing the gates of many Daoist halls.

Some were imposing, some lavish, some cramped, but he did not lead Fang Shu inside any of them. They merely looked from afar, then shook their heads without a word.

At last, Yu Le slapped his palm and finally made up his mind.

Yet instead of heading deeper into the market district or toward some Daoist hall, he first painfully picked out and weighed three jin of dried fruit from the street stalls, then happily led Fang Shu back toward the Paper Workshop.

Next door to the paper house, their neighbor Dou Sufu had long since gone out to sell milk and would not be returning at noon; her door was tightly shut.

But their other neighbor had happened to come home to rest and was frying tofu, its rich scent of oil filling the air.

The moment the man saw uncle and nephew approaching, he hurriedly grabbed the wok lid to cover the tofu inside, as though terrified the two would come cadging a meal.

Only when Yu Le cheerfully produced those three jin of dried fruit and offered them up with a fawning smile—

Did the neighbor finally tug at his beard, visibly breathe a sigh of relief, and tease them, "Well, well! Yu the Second, your nephew comes to town and even your temperament changes. You actually have the leisure to come butter us up.

"So this is your nephew?"

"Greetings, Uncle Li Yuan." Fang Shu hurriedly bowed.

This neighbor was named Li Yuan. As Yu Le had explained, the man was a talisman master.

He could make Clean-Clothes Talismans. Though he lived in the Paper Workshop and dressed shabbily, that was merely because he was miserly by nature and reluctant to spend on food or lodging. In truth, he and his son ought to count among the second-tier households of market-district life.

After Yu Le exchanged pleasantries with his neighbor Li Yuan, his eyes lingered rather enviously on the fried tofu.

But Li Yuan was quite the character. He would rather let the tofu fry until it was tough beneath the lid than share even a bite with uncle and nephew.

That behavior made Fang Shu's heart beat like a drum.

He suspected that when they asked the man for help later, he would simply play deaf and dumb, knowing nothing when asked three times.

Yet when Yu Le took out the note and respectfully handed it to the old talisman master, Li Yuan was briefly stunned. Then he slapped his thigh.

"Ah! I wondered what the matter was—you made it sound so bloody eerie. Turns out you just want me to put in a good word and ask Hall Master Du to take in your nephew."

He muttered, "For fuck's sake! I thought you were here to borrow money."

He said it so easily that not only was Fang Shu taken aback, but surprise also appeared on Yu Le's face.

The two looked at each other. Even Yu Le worried a little that the old fellow might seem to agree while actually refusing them.

But the old talisman master immediately turned around and went back inside. He brought out a stack of yellow paper, then took a bowl and, with a pained expression, scraped all the burnt tofu chunks from the wok into it.

"Take this stack of Clean-Clothes Talismans to Hall Master Du for me. I wrote what needs saying on the first sheet of yellow paper.

"Take this bowl of tofu to that brat Li Hou'er too. Tell him to remember to come home for dinner when he has time. Next time, there'll definitely be meat."

After giving his instructions, Li Yuan waved them away, signaling for uncle and nephew not to block the path and to leave quickly.

Holding that stack of Clean-Clothes Talismans and the bowl of charred tofu, Fang Shu could not quite come back to his senses.

He glanced at the top sheet and found only a single sentence written on it:

"My brother's nephew, my son Li Hou'er's sworn brother. I hope Hall Master Du will assess and accept him!

"Li Yuan kowtows."

The recommendation was simple, yet it carried more weight than many florid essays. For instance, it far surpassed that heap of relationship-pulling pleasantries Yu Le had written through the night.

Seeing Fang Shu staring fixedly at it, the old talisman master suddenly snapped out his chopsticks and smacked the back of Fang Shu's hand.

"Boy, don't steal my son's tofu," he warned warily.

Fang Shu did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Thank you, Uncle Li." He immediately clasped his hands and bowed sincerely to the old talisman master before him.

Standing beside him, Yu Le also came back to himself. With equal gratitude and emotion, he bowed alongside Fang Shu.

Both of them sighed inwardly. A distant friend was no match for a close neighbor.

When uncle and nephew raised their heads, Li Yuan was already humming a little tune as he carried the frying pan away and slipped into the paper house to eat his tofu.

His face full of contentment, he swayed his head and said, "With pickled greens and fried tofu to eat, even the old emperor is beneath me."

Next.

Uncle and nephew left the Paper Workshop and rushed without stopping toward the place where Hall Master Du was said to be.

The Daoist hall she ran also stood deep within the market district. It was called Solitary Gu Hall.

The hall's location was about the same as Scorched-Tail Hall's, quite close by and not secluded. Though it could not be called grand, it possessed the bearing of a place with many years behind it. It should have been an old-established business.

Their trip to seek apprenticeship went as smoothly as wind and water.

Not only did they not have to stand under the sun waiting for long, they did not even need an intermediary. They merely found Li Hou'er first, and under his guidance, met Hall Master Du face-to-face.

Hall Master Du was an old crone, with skin like chicken hide and hair like crane feathers, a bald forehead, and fierce eyes. She did not look like a kind person.

At first glance, Fang Shu's heart trembled somewhat. But such an appearance also made it clear that she had real methods in her hands and was no ordinary person.

Moreover, Old Crone Solitary Gu merely glanced at the note atop the Clean-Clothes Talismans, nodded, accepted the spirit stones, and accepted Fang Shu as well.

Squinting, she instructed him, "Child, your qi and blood are depleted. For the time being, cultivate fewer magical implements and take more Essence-Nourishing Pills. First nurse your body back to health in the hall.

"Once you are well, then we'll start counting your days of cultivation here."

One had to know that three taels of spirit stones were only enough for Fang Shu to study the Dao in the hall for three months.

The old crone's words were no different from granting them additional time. The already hard-pressed uncle and nephew immediately felt a greater sense of approval toward Solitary Gu Hall.

Elsewhere, that same day.

Yin Xiaojian joyfully entered Scorched-Tail Hall as a disciple.

Yet that very day, the elders of the hall first stripped him naked to assess him, then ordered him to clean the latrines bare-bodied.

By the time he had finally finished cleaning the latrines, night had fallen, and Scorched-Tail Hall had long passed its mealtime.

Yin Xiaojian had no talisman money on him, so he could only leave the hall alone on an empty stomach and run to his aunt's home.

When he finally managed to knock open the door, what greeted him was not a kind, concerned gaze.

His aunt's face was sprouting white fur, blood stained the corners of her mouth, and it was unknown what spell she was cultivating in the room.

When she saw Yin Xiaojian, perhaps because she had not yet completed the spell, she immediately stared at him with greed-filled eyes, fixed and unblinking, as if she wanted to swallow him whole on the spot.

The sight made Yin Xiaojian's legs shake. He wanted to leave, but he had no idea where he could go.

"Good nephew." Fortunately, his aunt forced out words in a shrill voice. "Why have you come back at night?

"Your aunt went to great trouble to send you off to study the Dao. You mustn't waste it..."

At those words, Yin Xiaojian's grievance surged up.

He was no longer afraid of his aunt. He immediately stepped forward, hugged her, and began sobbing out his complaints through snot and tears.

"Aunt! I want to leave the hall..."

The woman surnamed Yin was interrupted mid-sentence. Coming back to herself, she narrowed her eyes and reached out to stroke her eldest nephew in her arms, soothing him.

But where Yin Xiaojian could not see, her expression was twisted with both disgust and mockery.

At the same time.

After selling blood for money, Lü Daoist ran to the place where Fortune Lots were drawn. One hundred draws at a time, then one thousand draws at a time—his eyes reddened and his ears burned from drawing.

He won quite a few fortunes, but they were all minor ones like "Draw Again" and "Blood Vouchers." Not a single one was the great fortune he yearned for day and night.

By the time Lü Daoist came back to himself, he was already penniless, without even a coin left in his crotch pouch.

But he no longer dared sell blood again, afraid he would drain himself to death and be unable to draw Fortune Lots anymore.

So he starved miserably on the streets for several days. Worried that he would be driven outside the town at night, he clenched his teeth and finally walked into the largest duck hall in the market district, intending to make a living off his capital and become a proper craftsman!

But someone had entered the duck hall before him and had long been waiting for him.

That person was his shipmate—Tian Tianquan.

The moment the two met, they looked at each other in speechless silence.

Besides.

In the Paper Workshop, Su Qingao, who had made up her mind to marry in, had only just crossed the threshold. Before the wedding could even be held, her fiancé breathed his last at dusk.

After that, only she and her soon-to-be father-in-law, a widower, remained in one room, staring wide-eyed at each other.

Thus, the five who had come ashore from the same ship—Fang Shu, Yin Xiaojian, Lü Daoist, Tian Tianquan, and Su Qingao—had all entered halls (or become widowed), each with their own future ahead.