None of Them Were Any Good

In a corner of the Shocking Heron Martial Hall, a high wall blocked the sunlight, leaving a patch of shadow.

Qin Zhong's pupils contracted. His trademark guileless grin froze at the corners of his mouth, stiff enough to look comical.

Every muscle in his body tightened in an instant. It was a martial artist's instinct when faced with extreme danger, like a dozing tiger whose tail had been stamped on hard, ready to spring up and maul someone.

"Brother Li, you can't say things like that lightly." Qin Zhong's voice dropped. "If word gets out, people could die."

"That's why I'm only asking you."

Li Xiang's expression did not change. He looked Qin Zhong straight in the eye. "Was the man pretending to be Lu Jin the regular customer you pick up on the fifteenth of every month? Or was he working with that customer?"

"Don't rush to deny it. You can wash the smell of earth off your skin, but you can't wash it out of your bones."

"Lu Jin wore perfume from the West last night, but I still smelled that scent peculiar to old tombs."

Qin Zhong was silent for a long time. His tiger eyes stayed fixed on Li Xiang, as though he were weighing his options—or trying to judge how much Li Xiang knew.

Kill him to keep him quiet?

No. Quite apart from their belonging to the same martial hall, Qin Zhong had genuinely come to think of Li Xiang as a brother over the past few days.

At last, Qin Zhong deflated like a punctured ball. He gave a bitter laugh, let his taut body relax, and leaned back against the wall.

"Your nose is sharper than the Police Station's hounds."

Qin Zhong sighed and glanced warily around. Once he was sure no one was listening, he leaned toward Li Xiang and lowered his voice.

"You guessed right. The man posing as Lu Jin was the one I drive around on the fifteenth of every month."

"Well, well!"

The calm vanished from Li Xiang's face, replaced by an expression of deep anguish.

"One little bluff, and out you came."

"Senior Brother Qin, I treated you like a brother, and you used me as your stepping-stone."

"You knew all along that Lu Jin was a fake, yet you deliberately dragged me to Zither Strings House. I never thought you were that kind of person."

Li Xiang looked so grief-stricken that anyone who saw him would have mourned, and anyone who heard him would have wept.

Qin Zhong froze and blinked. "A bluff? What do you mean?"

"Did you really think I was a dog?" Li Xiang pointed to his nose. "With all that heavy powder and Western perfume mixed together, how could I have smelled any earth?"

"If I could do that, why would I be here learning martial arts? I'd be better off joining the force as a police dog."

Li Xiang rolled his eyes. "I just felt something was off. I started with the outcome and worked backward, and realized the timing of your taking me to Zither Strings House was far too convenient.

"And that Lu Jin acted the part well, but every now and then, a word or two came out with a strong local accent. Someone who left home as a child and spent years in the West wouldn't speak like that.

"Add a little reasonable suspicion, and all I had to do was bluff. You confessed on your own."

Those two clues alone were enough to link the whole chain of events.

While boxing last night, Li Xiang had kept replaying everything in his head. He simply had not thought any deeper at the time.

Then people from the Dragon Gate Escort Agency had stormed in to question him today. Their determination to prove that the man was "not Lu Jin himself" had made everything click.

Someone was setting a trap for the Lu Family.

And it was a trap with more than one layer.

Qin Zhong stared at him, dumbfounded. After a long while, he managed, "No, listen, let me explain..."

"Don't explain yet."

Li Xiang cut him off and asked a more crucial, more dangerous question.

"Senior Brother Qin, does Master Hong know about this?"

That question could mean life or death.

If Qin Zhong had taken the job privately out of greed, it was his own doing. If the truth came out, he would bear the blame himself.

But if Hong Tianbao had ordered it, the waters were too deep to see the bottom. It would mean that smiling, portly master had begun scheming against the Dragon Gate Escort Agency long ago.

Qin Zhong rolled his eyes so hard his expression all but said, I'm not stupid.

"I refused at first. But then Miss Haitang... Anyway, without Master's approval, I wouldn't dare help anyone set a trap for the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, not if you gave me ten times the courage."

Qin Zhong gestured at the sprawling martial hall.

"What kind of monster is the Dragon Gate Escort Agency? It's the tyrannosaurus rex of local powers. Without someone as big as Master standing over me to hold up the sky, no amount of money could make me provoke those people who kill without blinking."

The last weight on Li Xiang's mind fell away.

Well, would you look at that.

So this was what it meant to be white on the outside and black when cut open?

On the surface, they were preparing to compete with the Eight Gates Martial Hall. Behind the scenes, they had already dug a pit this deep for the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, the greatest power in Linjiang County.

Once he understood that, the gravity vanished from Li Xiang's face, replaced by an expression of deep anguish.

"When feelings fade, people drift apart." Li Xiang clutched his chest, looking utterly heartbroken.

"And to think I worried you'd picked up some bad luck the night before last. I even told you to burn your clothes and change your shoes. All the while, you were using me as a weapon behind my back."

Qin Zhong was a loyal man. A reproach that pricked his conscience was the one thing he could not bear.

He looked at Li Xiang and scratched his head in distress, his face turning red.

"Brother, I was wrong. I shouldn't have kept you in the dark."

"It's hard to paint a tiger's bones beneath its skin. To know a man's face..." Li Xiang sighed at the heavens.

"Fifty silver dollars!"

Qin Zhong gritted his teeth and held out five fingers.

Li Xiang waved a hand. "It's not about the money. It really isn't..."

"Five hundred silver dollars!"

Qin Zhong gritted his teeth again, threw an arm around Li Xiang's shoulders, and whispered in his ear.

"Big brother. I'll call you big brother, all right? Can you let your little brother off this once? After Master's share, I'm giving you half of everything I made from this."

"Come on, Senior Brother. We're brothers for life."

At the mention of five hundred silver dollars, Li Xiang could barely remember what had happened earlier. All he remembered was that he had a good brother named Qin Zhong.

Qin Zhong watched Li Xiang change his tune in an instant, and the corners of his mouth twitched sharply.

This brat was just like Master, who had taken nine thousand silver dollars. Cut their hearts out, and they would be black too.

He suddenly realized that after all his running around, he might have been the one who got played.

Still, seeing Li Xiang back to his usual self, their brotherhood "renewed," lifted the weight from Qin Zhong's heart.

"Come on, let's box." Qin Zhong kept his arm around Li Xiang's shoulders.

"Remember, don't go to sleep on the fifteenth next month. Wait for me to come to your room."

"..."

Half an hour later, in the practice room.

Bang!

After one final fierce collision, the two separated.

Li Xiang panted, drenched in sweat, but his eyes shone brightly.

[Sparring match: Boxer experience +1]

"All right, I'm done." Li Xiang waved a hand. He had earned today's experience.

He was intensely disciplined—obsessive, even.

Once he had earned the day's experience, he would not waste another ounce of strength on pointless exertion.

"That's it?" Qin Zhong had barely had his fill. "I've only just warmed up."

"Save your strength for tomorrow. Too much is as bad as too little."

Li Xiang straightened his clothes, left the practice room, and began his tedious, disciplined daily routine of outworking everyone.

Qin Zhong watched him go and shook his head without saying more. Then he went to pay his respects to Hong Tianbao and see whether his master had any instructions.

If there was nothing to do, he would change into his work clothes and head out to pull his rickshaw.

Qin Zhong's outlook was entirely different now.

Before, he had bowed and scraped for a few copper coins just to make a living.

Now he treated pulling a rickshaw as a kind of cultivation, a way to temper his heart amid the dust of the mortal world.

The wheels rolled on, carrying him past every facet of life.

His passengers came in all sorts: haughty rich wives, down-and-out scholars sighing over their troubles, and drunks reeking of alcohol. Without the right frame of mind, a man could not last long as a rickshaw puller.

He watched those varied passengers, listened to their complaints and boasts about everyday life, and felt the rhythm of his leg muscles with every stride. His state of mind grew ever more complete.

Li Xiang's day, meanwhile, had only just begun.

After training, his first stop was the kitchen to help Hong Tianbao.

He sliced vegetables, chopped meat, and controlled the flame, using his [Cook] traits to manage every detail with precision.

Clack, clack, clack...

The knife fell like rain in a brisk rhythm.

The cleaver danced across the chopping board, making sounds with a rhythm all their own.

Hong Tianbao stood to one side with the Purple Clay Teapot in hand, smiling as he watched Li Xiang prepare the ingredients.

"Watch the heat," Hong Tianbao advised now and then. "A medicinal meal follows the Monarch-Minister-Assistant-Envoy principle. You can't mix up the order of the ingredients."

Li Xiang nodded without stopping his hands.

[Received guidance from a master: Cook experience +1]

[Cook level increased to Lv10]

[Unlocking professional ability...]

[Professional ability acquired: Abundant Harvest]

[Profession: Cook]

[Level: Lv10 (0/100)]

[Rank: 0]

[Professional trait: Hearthfire (Beginner)]

[Professional abilities: Hundred-Flavor Tongue; Abundant Harvest]

[Abundant Harvest: Food prepared by your hands not only tastes delicious but also retains the nutritional value of its ingredients. Eating it over a long period can gradually improve one's constitution.]

[Notice: Cook has reached Lv10. Professional paths unlocked.]

Li Xiang's hands paused. White light flashed through his mind, and three different career branches appeared on the page for Cook in the Book of a Hundred Trades.

P.S. You know how updates work while a book is new. Dear readers, please keep up with it every day. Once it goes on sale, I can promise at least ten thousand characters a day.

P.S. For every additional hundred monthly votes, I'll post one extra chapter on release day (3/∞). There's no upper limit.