Once he had made up his mind, Deng Qing strolled toward the Five Blessings Butcher Shop, ready for his extra meal.
Half a cup of tea later, he reached the small room beside Five Fortune Meat. He opened the door and found that Wu Yun had left him a far more generous meal than usual.
On the table sat a large bowl of meat, a bowl of pig's blood, and half a basin of bone broth.
Deng Qing wasted no time. He sat down and ate.
He had just finished when someone knocked twice, opened the door, and stepped in. It was Wu Yun.
Deng Qing counted the days, and his heart sank. When the roof leaked, the rain poured all night.
Before Wu Yun could speak, Deng Qing said, "Senior Brother Wu, our agreed period for supplying meat is up. Starting tomorrow, I won't come anymore.
"Thank you for looking after me all this time, Senior Brother Wu. I won't forget the favor."
Wu Yun waved a hand. "No need for empty words between us. We helped each other.
"I've heard about what happened at Celebration Hall. Times are hard. There's no work anywhere, and even putting food on the table is a problem.
"But I've been thinking about you. I happen to have a job here. I don't know if you'd be willing to take it."
Deng Qing smiled. "We're so broke we can barely eat. A beggar can't complain that the rice is coarse!"
Wu Yun chuckled. "You've got a sense of humor. Come watch over my pig farm. I'll pay you one tael of silver a month, and you can take all the Pig Offal you want.
"I've heard about your fearsome showing at Blackwind Ravine."
Deng Qing cared nothing for his reputation. He pressed straight to the point. "I can really take as much Pig Offal as I want?"
"Of course. I can't spare the livers or kidneys, mind you. It'll still be intestines and lungs."
Wu Yun added, "You won't have to stay at the farm every day. The workers handle things as usual. But if something happens there, you must step in."
The world was in turmoil, and competition was fierce in every trade. The pork business was fiercer still. Without Celebration Hall behind him, Wu Yun would have struggled to hold his ground.
Even so, he still needed to build up his strength.
Deng Qing's growing reputation had naturally made him someone Wu Yun wanted to win over.
"Of course."
Deng Qing asked, "But isn't Pig Offal expensive now too?"
Wu Yun smiled. "That was a while ago. Everyone heard that offal held the power of the organs and that eating it could help them break through. They rushed out to buy intestines and lungs. Plenty ate them, but not one managed a breakthrough.
"The price of intestines and lungs has been falling by the day. Soon they'll be back to the price of compost. If you take the job, they're yours from now on."
Delighted as he was, Deng Qing could not help marveling that, after all his twists and turns, he had ended up back with Pig Offal.
When Deng Qing left the Five Blessings Butcher Shop, he carried a freshly removed set of offal and walked with a spring in his step into the cold night.
Though he now had Pig Offal from Wu Yun, Deng Qing's finances did not suddenly improve.
For one thing, the offal that had piled up at the Five Blessings Butcher Shop earlier had long since been snapped up.
For another, the shop now slaughtered only two pigs a day, and sometimes managed to sell one of the two sets of offal.
That left Deng Qing with just one set.
One set of offal barely made up for the meat meal Wu Yun used to provide him.
It was nowhere near enough to close the remaining Qi-Blood gap of twenty or thirty taels of silver.
Deng Qing had considered selling the Blacksteel Soft Sword.
It was plainly no ordinary weapon. If he could sell it, the proceeds would likely cover the twenty or thirty taels he lacked.
But he suppressed the thought as soon as it arose.
Zhang Yan had warned him not to reveal the sword lightly.
The Blacksteel Soft Sword was too distinctive. Any shop in Everjoy County capable of buying such a weapon likely had someone powerful behind it.
Word might reach the Golden Saber Sect before the silver ever reached his hands.
Kept hidden, the sword was a trophy. Put up for sale, it would invite disaster.
Unable to sell the sword, Deng Qing also considered borrowing money from Li Cheng.
He knew Li Cheng's family was wealthy. If he asked to borrow twenty or thirty taels, Li Cheng might well agree.
But Deng Qing rejected that thought almost at once.
Li Cheng had already helped him inquire about Tianshun Apothecary. He could not keep calling in favors.
Besides, shortages would likely be a constant in his cultivation.
Today he was short twenty or thirty taels; tomorrow he would be short of medicine or meat.
A debt of silver had a fixed sum. A debt of favors was hard to repay.
With no way to get the money, Deng Qing began taking odd jobs around the county seat.
He hauled burlap sacks and rice bags, kept night watch at a coffin shop, and carried medicine jars for the Medicine Hall...
If a job paid that day, he took it.
At noon one day, Deng Qing was eating at Celebration Hall.
The food was much worse than before. Though there was still a sheen of oil in his bowl, there was hardly a speck of meat.
He was eating with his head down when someone approached.
Deng Qing looked up. It was Tu Wei, the senior brother who had taught him the Violet Palace Method.
"Senior Brother Tu."
Deng Qing hurried to greet him.
Tu Wei sat opposite him and asked quietly, "I heard you've been taking jobs all over. Short on money lately?"
Deng Qing made no attempt to hide it and nodded.
Tu Wei asked, "How is your Violet Palace Method coming along?"
Deng Qing nodded. "Not bad."
Tu Wei said, "Can you digest five jin of meat in one Heavenly Cycle?"
Even ten jin would be no problem, Deng Qing thought. But all he said was, "Yes."
Tu Wei's eyes lit up. "I didn't expect you to have a knack for Internal Cultivation Methods."
"You're joking, Senior Brother."
Deng Qing watched Tu Wei and waited for him to continue.
Tu Wei lowered his voice. "Tianshun Apothecary has a batch of medicine to finish before the New Year. They need people to tend the furnaces."
"Tend the furnaces?"
"That's right!"
Tu Wei said, "Making medicine always produces medicinal toxins. Ordinary workers can't withstand them, so the apothecary wants people who practice Internal Cultivation Methods to tend the furnaces.
"Payment is per batch: half a tael of silver each. If you can't endure it, you can leave partway through. But there's one condition. If the medicinal toxins harm you, the apothecary takes no responsibility."
Deng Qing's eyes lit up.
Half a tael per batch was far more than any ordinary odd job paid.
"I've already signed up," Tu Wei said. "If you're willing, you can come try it with me."
Deng Qing set down his bowl and chopsticks. "I'm in."
He was nearly desperate with poverty. How could he afford to be picky?
Half an hour later, the two arrived at Tianshun Apothecary. They entered through a side door into a long, narrow alley. High walls rose on either side, blocking out even the sun.
Tu Wei knew the way and led Deng Qing deeper in.
At the end of the alley was an entrance underground, with someone standing guard.
Deng Qing looked closely. It was Steward Liu, who had attended to him when he bought supplementary medicines last time.
Steward Liu nodded to Deng Qing, then explained the rules for tending the furnaces. They were exactly as Tu Wei had described.
Once he finished, Steward Liu led them through the underground entrance and down a winding flight of stone steps into a refining room.
The room was a separate stone chamber with no windows. Its only vent was a smoke hole in one corner, leading who knew where.
On the way there, Tu Wei had told Deng Qing that the design existed solely to preserve as much of the medicine's potency as possible.
The health of those tending the furnaces was not a consideration.
That was why tending furnaces had become a paid trade.
In the center of the chamber stood a great furnace half as tall as a man.
Its body was black and its belly broad. An opening at the bottom allowed firewood to be fed in. A dull red fire glowed inside, casting shifting light and shadow across its walls.
Split hardwood was stacked along the west side of the chamber. On the east side sat buckets, iron hooks, fire tongs, and other tools.
Deng Qing swept his gaze around the room and soon noticed something wrong.