Living Under Another's Roof

After the technique advanced.

Sure enough, heaven and earth were vastly different.

When he had cultivated the Nourishing Life Technique before, aside from nourishing his qi and blood, tempering his body and character, and regulating his emotions, it had possessed almost no combat ability.

Suppose that, back when he was in university in his previous life, he had learned the simplified twenty-four forms of Tai Chi Fist.

In this world, its actual combat power would be zero.

Then the Tai Chi Nourishing Life Technique's combat power would be around one or two. Perhaps, relying on vigorous qi and blood, a set of wild flailing punches could knock down two or three grown men. But against an armed brawl, or even a martial artist, it would fall short.

The advanced Taiji Vajra Art, however, combined offense and defense. It had gained an ability akin to the Golden Bell Shield from the martial arts novels of his previous life.

It also possessed considerable offensive power, immediately shooting its combat strength up to around ten.

Of course.

That was all Jiang Jingnian's guess based on feeling.

As for its precise effects, he possessed only martial skill and no actual combat experience, so he could not make an accurate judgment.

Whether he could truly fight, and how well he could fight, would have to be proven beneath his hands.

"I'm about to advance my Archetype."

"In this chaotic age, I finally have a sliver of strength to protect myself."

"My loans and spending tomorrow's money today, all to speed up my advancement, were not in vain."

Jiang Jingnian let out a long breath, feeling somewhat relieved.

Since arriving in this world.

The scenes before the original body's death remained vivid in his mind.

To say he felt no sense of urgency.

Would have been a lie.

He did not want to vanish once again like some stray dog by the roadside, without even seeing his enemy's face.

Jiang Jingnian had been an extreme sports enthusiast in his previous life. He had not feared death then, and naturally did not fear it in this life either.

But he.

Did not want to die casually. Death had to have value and meaning; only then, in his eyes, would his trip through this world not have been for nothing.

And with urgency came motivation.

Over the past two months, he had borrowed money everywhere—borrowing to shop, borrowing to buy meat and meals, borrowing to work.

He had lived exceedingly well.

Far better than ordinary laborers, by more than tenfold. His daily meat intake alone was likely more than ten times that of an average person at the bottom.

Even his Fifth Uncle's family did not know about this, because he generally packed his meals and squatted in some alley to finish them.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

With interest piling atop interest.

In merely two months, he had already accumulated debts of several hundred silver dollars.

That was right.

Even after repaying a small portion, his actual debts still amounted to several hundred silver dollars.

If that had been back in his rural hometown.

It would have been an astronomical figure.

The wealthier local households could save for several years and still only amass that much.

In a metropolis where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold like Peace City, one silver dollar could buy thirty jin of rice and eight jin of pork. In remote regions, that purchasing power could double once or twice over.

In some backward villages, a household of several people needed only three to five silver dollars a month for their basic living expenses.

But when debts piled up, one stopped worrying.

When lice multiplied, one stopped itching.

There was no saying in this world that debtors were the masters. After all, if one truly could not repay the money, one would be dragged away and sold to settle the debt.

And Jiang Jingnian, who had studied finance in his previous life.

Had given some of the shops in the concession a proper lesson.

"If I owe several hundred silver dollars, I'm merchandise or a slave to be sold off for debt."

"If I owe a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand silver dollars, I'll be a Peace City tycoon respected by everyone. Of course, that's assuming I can borrow that much."

With his advancement imminent, Jiang Jingnian was in an excellent mood and hummed a few little tunes.

He glanced at the sky outside. He could still earn a little more money by pulling the rickshaw, but he was eager to return and make the final breakthrough in his Archetype. Making money was not urgent for the moment.

He gripped the rickshaw handles again.

Jiang Jingnian's originally straight body instantly hunched over considerably, and the indifferent, cunning look on his face vanished at once.

Like a Sichuan opera face change.

His brows drooped, revealing a trace of misery, while an honest, simple-minded smile piled onto the corners of his mouth.

By the time he returned to the uncle's home where he was staying.

Half an hour had passed.

129 West River Road.

It was a small enclosed courtyard facing north and south. Its main structure was a two-story Western-style building, surrounded by a ring of little flower beds, like a garden.

The scale of this residence.

Would have been considered very small for a wealthy household in a county town.

Yet in a place where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold like Peace City, even though this was not a bustling district, anyone who could afford a house with its own courtyard was certainly a person of means.

In the courtyard, a burly, dark-skinned servant woman was tending to the small garden.

When she saw Jiang Jingnian pull the rickshaw inside, she neither came forward to greet him nor tried to stop him. She merely cast him a glance, her eyes showing a touch of disgust, then lowered her head and continued with her work.

Jiang Jingnian did not mind. He parked the rickshaw in a corner by the gate.

Then he headed straight for the side room, intending to wash up and change clothes.

"Ugh, it stinks!"

Qu Lanlan, who had eaten her fill and was moving about downstairs, saw this shabby relative return. She could not help covering her nose with a handkerchief as she scolded delicately, "Second Dog, you're covered in mud and sweat stains. Which sewer did you roll around in? Can you not come into my house?"

As she scolded, she stretched out a hand to stop Jiang Jingnian outside.

Jiang Jingnian was the name from his previous life.

Naturally, the original owner of this body had no proper name in this life. Poor rural parents generally gave children lowly names so they would be easier to raise and less likely to die young.

For example, his current name was Jiang Second Dog.

Ever since Jiang Jingnian's original body had come to rely on Fifth Uncle and live under another's roof, Qu Lanlan had never addressed him by his surname. She only called him "Second Dog" again and again.

Jiang Jingnian was not angered by this somewhat rude girl. He merely wore an honest smile and humored her. "Miss Qu, sorry for the trouble. I'm only going to rinse off in the side room. I won't enter the main hall."

Though they were cousins by blood.

One used a self-deprecating form of address, while the other used an honorific.

Jiang Jingnian neither fell out with Qu Lanlan outright nor argued excessively.

There were two reasons for this.

First, he was currently living under another's roof and had come from a rural village elsewhere. He would still need Fifth Uncle's support when changing careers and looking for work later. Without a work permit and registered residency, even if he became a low-ranking martial artist, moving about the concession would still be highly inconvenient.

In this world.

Let alone the fact that he was not yet a martial artist, even after becoming one, he would only be a newcomer just starting out. He could not simply roam the world unchecked.

The outside was ravaged by war, and there were even rumored Demon Wraiths lurking about. Conditions were worse than in Peace City.

Therefore, Jiang Jingnian still needed this foothold in the short term. He could only wait until he became a martial artist, earned some money, and completed some paperwork before moving out.

Second, Jiang Jingnian had received kindness from others. Fifth Uncle, who had married into the family, was not in a particularly good position himself, yet he was still willing to help him and the original body as much as he could. If not for the monk's face, then for the Buddha's face—Qu Lanlan was Fifth Uncle's only daughter, and he did not wish to make too much of her behavior.

Yet Jiang Jingnian's concession.

Was, in Qu Lanlan's eyes, simply a display of cowardice and incompetence. She looked down on this destitute country boy even more. Just as she was preparing to continue scolding him, a middle-aged man's voice came from behind her.

"Lanlan!"

Fifth Uncle emerged from the main house, dressed in a blue long gown and mandarin jacket, with a black felt hat on his head. He gave an unhappy reprimand.

Fifth Uncle had originally been named Jiang Yuzhi. He had been gifted at studying since boyhood, and with the joint support of his five brothers, he attended school. In the seventeenth year of Emperor Xuanli's reign under the former dynasty, he passed the provincial examination and earned the title of xiucai.

Later, as he prepared to take the township examination for the juren degree, the last emperor of Chen State happened to announce his abdication, ending the imperial system and bringing a violent change to the world's order.

Before the turmoil arrived, he came to Peace City and found work as a teacher. Later, he met the daughter of a prominent local family and married into the Qu Household.

He had now taken his wife's surname.

His name was Qu Yuzhi.

Qu Yuzhi walked over, glanced at his daughter, then at Jiang Jingnian beside her. "You've worked hard today as well. Hurry and wash up."

Although Qu Lanlan had received a Western-style education and was somewhat rebellious, inwardly she did not think much of her father, who had married into the family. Still, she did not dare openly defy her parents.

No matter what.

Qu Yuzhi was still her father.

In this era.

Even within the concession.

Being unfilial was an extremely ugly accusation.

If word reached the ears of her classmates and teachers, even if Qu Lanlan was not expelled, she would inevitably be viewed strangely by others.

"He's just a mud-legged peasant. I really don't know what there is to protect. And he's already so old—he can't possibly stay in our home forever, can he? What does that look like?"

Qu Lanlan flicked her braid and stormed away, heading into the main house.

"Sorry. Lanlan was spoiled too much as a child, and I can't quite control her either."

Qu Yuzhi watched his daughter's retreating figure, then looked at Jiang Jingnian with some helplessness.

He was a somewhat refined middle-aged man. In his youth, he had been a famously handsome young man throughout the villages around his hometown. Otherwise, after coming to Peace City to teach, he would not have caught the eye of a wealthy family's daughter and been taken in as a son-in-law.

"It's all right, Fifth Uncle. Sister Lanlan is just sharp-tongued but soft-hearted."

Jiang Jingnian still wore that honest smile, as though he had no temper at all. He even helped smooth things over for Qu Lanlan. "Besides, the weather was changeable today. I did get caught in some rain and stepped in quite a bit of mud, so my clothes and trousers got dirty."

"It really has been hard on you. Go take a bath quickly, and don't catch a chill!"

Qu Yuzhi ushered Jiang Jingnian toward the side room.

"All right, Fifth Uncle."

Jiang Jingnian nodded, respectfully cupped his hands in salute, then headed for the bathroom in the side room.

Naturally, he would not go to the main house to use Fifth Uncle and his wife's bathroom. He would simply rinse himself off in the toilet of the side building.