To his surprise, however, the Shabby Old Man pointed at Xiang Lan'er. "This little wench—I saw her at Liyun Tower too. Looks like she's in cahoots with that madam. You're a fine young fellow, daring to stand against the Demonic Path at your age. Good, good, very good. I admire you. Can't bring yourself to do it because she's pretty? Here, let me."
He beckoned, signaling for him to bring Xiang Lan'er over.
He saw me at Liyun Tower? Amid her nervousness, Xiang Lan'er was puzzled. There was no way she would have forgotten someone with such a disreputable appearance showing up at Liyun Tower.
Shi Chun, however, was overjoyed. It seemed the old man hadn't heard their earlier conversation. He immediately forced a fawning smile onto his face. "You've misunderstood, senior. I'm an upright gentleman, fond of beauty but not debauchery. I'm keeping her alive to dig deep into this wretch's background, to uproot the whole lot-not for any other reason. She's still of great use. Killing her outright would be a waste."
The Shabby Old Man took another swig of wine and waved indifferently. "All right, go dig up your roots. I'll check on the one from before. Can't let her get away."
With that, he flashed into the mountain woods. A moment later, his surprised exclamations rang out. "Eh? Eh? Eh? Did she really get away? Trying to run? Not so easy."
His figure could just be seen flickering through the mist before vanishing without a trace.
Shi Chun immediately withdrew the great saber from Xiang Lan'er's neck and tapped its flat against Wu Jinliang's face as he lay behind him. "Jinliang, Jinliang."
The short blade in his other hand, however, never left Xiang Lan'er. He remained on guard.
Tapping Wu Jinliang's face only made things worse. After two slaps, Wu Jinliang actually began snoring, little lilting snores that made him sound quite comfortably asleep.
Shi Chun was so annoyed he almost laughed. Damn, with things this tense, I nearly had my wits scared out of me, and you actually fell asleep?
There was no time to dawdle. He promptly gave him two hard kicks.
"Huh?" Wu Jinliang's eyes snapped open. As though remembering something, he abruptly rolled over and sprang up, remembering to snatch up his great saber along the way. Looking around, he asked, "Chuntian, where's that madam?"
Shi Chun said, "Cut the crap. Pick up the drafts and let's get out of here."
At the mention of picking up money, Wu Jinliang swept his gaze around and immediately spotted the bank drafts scattered across the ground. He darted over and scooped them up at lightning speed.
Throughout this, Shi Chun kept Xiang Lan'er hostage and watched their surroundings, not daring to relax. He feared a trick. What if that whole scene had been a ploy by the Demonic Path to rescue her?
This time, Xiang Lan'er was quite cooperative. Though she could speak now, she stayed silent and let Shi Chun do as he pleased.
When Shi Chun saw Wu Jinliang finish gathering everything off the ground and then move to search the Masked Man's corpse pinned to the tree, he immediately snapped, "There's no time! Hurry, pick up Bian Weikang. We're leaving."
Though Wu Jinliang had no idea what was going on, he knew the Chief must have a reason for saying so. He immediately gave up, darted over to scoop Bian Weikang onto his shoulder, then followed Shi Chun at a mad sprint.
The two fled desperately through the mountain woods.
For Shi Chun, running was the only option. That old man clearly intended to eradicate demons, and he himself was one. What if Feng Chi was caught and gave him away? Fleeing was the safest course.
They ran and ran, fleeing for so long that they had no idea how far they had gone. In the end, they simply couldn't run anymore.
"Chuntian, I can't. Let's rest. Let's take a break first. I really can't run anymore."
Without waiting for Shi Chun's agreement, Wu Jinliang dropped his great saber and Bian Weikang, then flopped heedlessly onto the ground, panting like an ox. His clothes were soaked through with sweat.
It couldn't be helped. That saber alone weighed as much as two or three people. With Bian Weikang added to the load, he was utterly exhausted.
Along the way, Shi Chun had wanted to ease his burden and offered to take Bian Weikang. Wu Jinliang had said they only needed to swap for a lighter load: he wanted to give Bian Weikang to Shi Chun and carry Xiang Lan'er himself.
Well, Shi Chun immediately understood what he was after. Deciding he should never have been so kind, he made him keep carrying Bian Weikang.
It wasn't that Shi Chun didn't care about his brother. He simply couldn't let Wu Jinliang fool around with this woman. If he enraged her, everything that came afterward would go up in smoke too.
Panting heavily himself, Shi Chun set Xiang Lan'er down, walked over to Wu Jinliang, and plopped down beside him. He patted his belly. "The money. Let's count it."
At the mention of money, Wu Jinliang perked up despite his exhaustion and breathlessness. Eyes wide, he forced himself to take several deep breaths and pushed himself upright. Then, panting like a dog again, he pulled the bank drafts from inside his robe.
Shi Chun snatched them over and pushed him back onto the ground to rest. Undeterred by the effort, Wu Jinliang hauled himself up again and leaned his head close, insisting on counting the money with Shi Chun.
The problem was that neither of them had ever seen drafts like these. All they could see amid the elaborate patterns were the words stating that each could be redeemed for fifty thousand in sandalwood gold. There were four altogether, worth two hundred thousand in gold.
The two inexperienced men really hadn't expected Cen Futong to use these things for a cash-for-goods exchange. The five hundred thousand in gold they had seen outside Liyun Tower had all been tangible gold. If this unexpected incident hadn't happened and the deal had proceeded normally, neither of them could have told whether these bank drafts were genuine.
Fortunately, Feng Chi had found them during her search, and she certainly knew her goods. Since she hadn't raised any objections, they should be genuine.
That was fine too. It was certainly easier than hauling a pile of sandalwood gold around.
The question was how to divide it. Shi Chun glanced at Wu Jinliang, who watched eagerly beside him. Going by their earlier agreement, giving Wu Jinliang twenty thousand in gold would already have been plenty, but every draft in his hands had a face value of fifty thousand.
He took one out and told Wu Jinliang, "This one repays the debt."
Wu Jinliang understood. Fifty thousand in gold would go back to Miss Miao. He nodded repeatedly. "As it should."
Shi Chun took out a second one. "Half of this goes to them."
Wu Jinliang knew who "them" meant: Old Dong and the others. They had paid for all their food, drink, and entertainment, and each had been promised ten thousand in gold for helping. Giving them twenty-five thousand was entirely fair, so he nodded in agreement.
Shi Chun divided the last two between them, one each.
Holding his share, Wu Jinliang could hardly believe it. He even stopped panting. "All fifty thousand is mine?"
He had only put in six thousand. Even repaying him double as agreed would only have required twelve thousand. Receiving fifty thousand all at once felt unreal.
Shi Chun asked, "Doing right by you, aren't I?"
If he hadn't discovered that he belonged to the Demonic Path, he really wouldn't have given Wu Jinliang so much money at once. It wasn't stinginess. As the Chief, he had to be methodical about handing out rewards. For instance, outside Liyun Tower, Wu Jinliang hadn't trusted him and had initially clutched his bag, refusing to invest. How was he supposed to teach him a lesson about that?
The only reason he was giving him so much now was to compensate him out of guilt for following the wrong man.
Wu Jinliang's grin nearly split his face all the way to the back of his head. "Absolutely, absolutely! You're beyond reproach, Chief. Your brother will follow you to the death."
He hugged the draft and kissed it several times, then blissfully tucked it into his newly purchased money pouch. Patting his chest, he wore a look of satisfied accomplishment. He could run another thirty thousand miles.
Shi Chun was also tucking his money into his pouch.
Leaning against a tree, Xiang Lan'er watched coldly as the two fellows hugged their money like treasure, looking as though they'd never seen the world. A trace of disdain appeared at the corner of her mouth, and she spoke again. "Remove the Restriction on me, and I promise to let bygones be bygones."
This wasn't the first time she had said something like that. After being carried along through their flight, she had repeated it several times.
The process had been quite humiliating for her. Shi Chun grew tired of carrying her in the same position while running for his life. When his left shoulder tired, he switched to his right; when his right tired, he shifted her to the front. He tried running with her cradled across his arms, and he tried carrying her on his back. He had held her thighs and her backside. In short, he had repeatedly tried every sort of position, bringing their bodies into all kinds of intimate contact.
What left an especially deep impression was the feeling of their necks and cheeks rubbing together for so long when their heads were close, an impression filled with body heat and breath.
In short, Shi Chun had unintentionally touched every part of her body, both where outsiders were permitted to touch and where they were not.
Yet Xiang Lan'er couldn't say anything about it, because she knew he was merely switching his grip when he grew tired, and because she knew that taking her along in his escape was also keeping her alive.
He really had saved her life. When that old man wanted to kill her, this hateful fellow had actually found a way to protect her. It had been completely unexpected.
He could easily have taken the opportunity to slit her throat and silence her. That would have satisfied the old man and let him escape, without interfering with his entry into Mount Wukang. Afterward, he could even have shifted the blame onto the old man.
But he hadn't done that. He had truly saved her life.
From the outset, she had ruled out the possibility that the old man and Shi Chun were accomplices putting on an act. The way she had ruled it out was also hard to speak of: their bodies had been pressed so tightly together that she could keenly sense subtle changes in Shi Chun's body.
She had clearly felt his body's reaction when the old man suddenly appeared and struck. That wasn't something he could fake at will like an expression on his face.
Without the sensations from their bodies being pressed together at the time, she couldn't have reached that judgment and would certainly have retained some suspicion.
So, since he had saved her life and carried her along as they fled, what could she say about the accidental friction that occurred along the way?
All she could do throughout their flight was repeatedly ask him to release her, but Shi Chun ignored her completely.
It wasn't hard to understand. Wouldn't releasing her be courting death? Naturally, she understood that too. And so, after the embarrassment and mortification, she actually grew accustomed to it.
Before it happened, she could have said with certainty that if any man dared grope her, she would beat him to death.
After it happened, she hadn't expected to become accustomed to a man's touch so quickly.
Repeating useless words a hundred times changed nothing. Even now, Shi Chun merely glanced back at her, then couldn't be bothered to respond. Releasing her like this was out of the question.
Stroking his money pouch, Wu Jinliang also merely glanced back. After their long flight, he finally found an opportunity to ask, "Say, Chuntian, what exactly happened? We ran off in such a hurry I nearly ran myself to death, and I still haven't caught my breath."
Shi Chun thought for a moment, then explained, "We stepped right into a pile of shit. Those two women from Liyun Tower belong to the Demonic Path."
"Huh? The Demonic Path?" Wu Jinliang whipped his head around and inspected Xiang Lan'er again, disbelief written all over his face.
"The demonic aura drew a passing Shabby Old Man. He set out to eradicate demons and defend the righteous path, and drove Feng Chi off. While he was chasing her down, I woke you and ran."
Shi Chun's explanation was very simple.
Turning back, Wu Jinliang smacked his hands together regretfully. "What a shame. I missed seeing masters exchange blows. Wait, that's not right. If the old man was eradicating demons and defending the righteous path, why did we run?"
Xiang Lan'er had figured it out: this big oaf still didn't know his companion belonged to the Demonic Path. Looking at Shi Chun as he pondered in silence, she spoke again. "Release me, and I'll take you into Mount Wukang!"