The phone vibrated.
I could turn this around and kill them.
She liked me.
He chided himself inwardly. Ha, Cui Jiuyang, what were you fantasizing about?
You saved her once beneath the Divine Tomb, so she had to say, "This humble girl has nothing to repay you with but herself"?
Even if you counted that time at Jidu Shrine, you would have died if you hadn't fought for your life. Everyone would have died. Even Jining City would have ended up underwater. What sort of favor was that?
Stop letting your imagination run wild!
Repaying a debt with marriage was just the wishful fantasy of martial heroes under the feudal dynasties!
Hmm... wait... wasn't this the tail end of the feudal era?
No! Wake up! The country had reformed! The feudal dynasties were long gone!
This was a new country!
Huh? Didn't the new country advocate freedom in love?
Then if Ninth Lady liked me...
Should I accept, accept, or accept?
Oh, to hell with it... count it out on your fingers. How many days did you even have left?
Even if she really liked you, what could you do about it?
Fuck, this was getting more ridiculous by the second. Would she actually like me?
Thinking of his lifespan, Cui Jiuyang asked, "So, how did you give Fifth Master Yang those twenty extra years? Could you give me a thousand or two, just to see how they tasted?"
Ninth Lady had been watching a few children buy sugar figurines with great interest. At his question, she turned around. "What do you want extra years for? The Water God gave him those years. I don't have that kind of ability."
Her eyes suddenly widened in puzzlement. "I remember that in the Divine Tomb, I took the Autumn Rainbow Sword, and you took that stone water that extended your life! Why are you so eager to get more years?"
Cui Jiuyang said helplessly, "What stone water? That was Golden Milk Stone Marrow!"
"Can't I just like extending my life? Who doesn't want to live to a hundred?" He didn't want to tell her he only had one year left.
Put that way, he seemed even more pathetic than Lu Zhongqian. At least the man had lived a full lifetime, eating, seeing, and enjoying all sorts of things. Cui Jiuyang was only in his twenties, yet he was already developing the grand resolve to live in the face of death.
Ninth Lady gave him a knowing look. "You don't want to tell me... then I don't want to tell you either."
"What don't you want to tell me?"
"How the Lord Chancellor and I saved you."
"What have you got to hide? This is my private business. And by that reasoning, what you're refusing to tell me is actually my private business too, yet you still won't tell me!"
"No. Saving you was my private business."
They bickered as they walked, until Cui Jiuyang accidentally bumped into a man carrying goods on a shoulder pole.
Cui Jiuyang hurriedly apologized. "Oh, sorry."
"Oh... ow... oh! Mr. Cui!" The man looked up, then actually set down his shoulder pole and bowed to Cui Jiuyang.
Cui Jiuyang took a closer look and remembered him. "Oh... Wang Dali! You argued with your wife and went out to sell your goods. She thought you'd jumped into the river, so she went home to hang herself!"
Wang Dali scratched his head, his face reddening with embarrassment. "Mr. Cui, you don't have to repeat something so shameful."
Only then did Wang Dali greet Ninth Lady beside him. "Ninth Lady, you know Mr. Cui?"
Cui Jiuyang looked between them in confusion. "You two know each other?"
Ninth Lady smiled with her lips pressed together. "Well, I knew you two knew each other!"
Chapter 55: Lake God
The courtyard where Ninth Lady's Nuo Opera Troupe had been staying was right across from Wang Dali's home.
He was a traveling peddler. Sometimes the Nuo Opera Troupe's members went straight to his home to buy things, and they knew the couple quite well.
Wang Dali was an earnest man. Since they had met in the street, he insisted on inviting Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady home. "Look, it's fate that we ran into each other. My home isn't far from here. Why don't you both come sit for a while and have some tea?"
Ninth Lady hadn't wanted to go, fearing an awkward encounter with her former companions in the Nuo Opera Troupe.
When she had said goodbye, she had given the troupe master some silver ingots and distributed her belongings among everyone. Meeting them again so soon would surely be... a little awkward.
But as Cui Jiuyang looked at Wang Dali, something stirred within him-a curious glimpse of fate. He said, "In that case, we'll impose on you."
Ninth Lady had no choice but to follow them.
Fortunately, it was time for morning practice, when the Nuo Opera Troupe's members generally stayed inside. They entered Wang Dali's home without running into any of Ninth Lady's acquaintances.
The first thing they noticed upon entering Wang Dali's home was how clean it was.
Keeping a home this clean was no easy feat in those days.
Cooking two meals a day meant burning wood or charcoal, filling the place with smoke and soot.
Only the path through the courtyard was paved with gray bricks. The rest was a vegetable patch of bare earth, so coming and going inevitably tracked dirt everywhere.
Cui Jiuyang praised him. "Brother Dali, you're a capable man, and I can tell your wife is hardworking too. You keep your home so clean."
Wang Dali actually got along well with his wife and was very pleased with both her character and the way she handled things. Hearing Cui Jiuyang's praise, he smiled bashfully.
Mrs. Wang was honest and unassuming. She greeted the two visitors, urged them to sit, and hurried off to boil water for tea.
Watching her bustle about, Cui Jiuyang asked Wang Dali, "How has business been lately?"
"Not bad," Wang Dali replied. "I couldn't go out during those days of heavy rain, so I've been making the rounds these past few days."
"And wouldn't you know it? After so many days without seeing a peddler, everyone's willing to spend a coin or two on something."
"My load's gotten a good deal lighter these past two days. Hahahaha!"
Cui Jiuyang laughed along with him. "That's good. You ought to earn more."
By then, Mrs. Wang had boiled the water. She came in with a teapot in one hand and several small tea bowls in the other. "Please don't mind these. A carpenter's own chairs have three legs. We sell household goods, but we can't bear to keep even a set of porcelain teacups for ourselves. I've scrubbed these bowls clean. Let's have some tea."
Cui Jiuyang hurried over to take the bowls. "Oh, you're being too kind, Mrs. Wang. And you shouldn't be carrying so many things. You're pregnant-you'll have to be more careful from now on."
"What?!"
Wang Dali and his wife spoke in unison.
Only then did Cui Jiuyang smile and clasp his hands in congratulations. "Congratulations! Hahahaha! When I met Brother Wang in the street, I saw joy written all over his face. A quick divination told me there must be happy news at home. Then I followed him here and took one look at you, Mrs. Wang. You're carrying a child. You're already pregnant!"
Wang Dali had worried for years about not having a child. Hearing Cui Jiuyang say this, he was so happy he didn't know what to do.
He stood up, sat down again, looked at his wife, then hurriedly took the teapot from her.
The teapot was too hot, so he hastily put it down. Only then did he stammer, "Mr. Cui, you... you're not joking, are you?"
Watching Wang Dali's flustered antics, Ninth Lady giggled. "Jiuyang may like to fool around, but he wouldn't make things up about something this important. Besides, don't you already know whether his divinations are accurate?"
Although Mrs. Wang was delighted too, she had thought one step further than Wang Dali. "Mr. Cui... may I ask whether it's a boy or a girl?"
Cui Jiuyang answered without thinking. "Disclosing a fetus's sex during an ultrasound violates medical ethics and national law..."
All three stared at him in confusion.
Ninth Lady reacted first, giving his arm a smack. "There you go saying strange things again!"
Cui Jiuyang smiled sheepishly. "A boy. Guaranteed."
Wang Dali was so happy he nearly jumped!
He hurriedly made his wife sit down and asked, "Should I buy you some dried hawthorn? Don't they say craving sour means a boy, and spicy means a girl?"
Mrs. Wang looked a little shy. "I haven't felt anything yet. Besides, you've lost your head. We sell dried hawthorn ourselves. Who would you buy it from?"
Wang Dali scratched his head and chuckled.
Mrs. Wang was overjoyed too. She rose to go buy vegetables and meat in the street, insisting that Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady stay for a meal.
Cui Jiuyang repeatedly declined, and only after much persuasion did Ninth Lady convince Mrs. Wang not to go shopping.
They chatted for a while, drained their bowls of tea, and then Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady rose to take their leave.
Standing at Wang Dali's doorway, Cui Jiuyang took a paper talisman from inside his robe and pressed it into Wang Dali's hand. "Brother Wang, the two of us share a bond of fate. This child shares one with me too.
"But... this child also shares an extraordinary bond of fate with someone else.
"This afternoon, take this talisman to the Shengdelong Chamber of Commerce. Ask for either Meng Da or Meng Er, and tell them Cui Jiuyang sent you. Have them take you to see Fifth Master Yang, then ask Fifth Master Yang to find you a position in the chamber of commerce.
"From now on, stop peddling through the streets and alleys. Work as the manager of one of the chamber's shops, and raise this son of yours well."
This whole string of instructions left Wang Dali rather dazed. Before he could react, Mrs. Wang slapped him on the back. "Hurry and kowtow to Mr. Cui! He's helping you get ahead!"
Cui Jiuyang quickly caught the earnest man, who really was about to kowtow. "Don't thank me. Everything comes down to fate. No need to see us off any farther. If fate wills it, we'll meet again."
Watching Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady walk away, Wang Dali held the paper talisman and found it all unbelievable.
"What sort of bond of fate does Mrs. Wang's child have? Don't make me guess..." After leaving Wang Dali's home, Ninth Lady tugged at Cui Jiuyang's sleeve and asked curiously.
Cui Jiuyang smiled mysteriously. Copying Ninth Lady's earlier silence, he deliberately teased her.
In a rare display, Ninth Lady stamped her foot and wheedled, "Tell me, tell me! Why are you still keeping me in suspense?"
Cui Jiuyang was quite susceptible to that tactic.
He cleared his throat and said solemnly, "Twenty years from now, the Japanese will invade Shandong. East of Jining City, a band of heroes will emerge and become famous. They'll wage guerrilla warfare against the Japanese along the Yanzhou Railway, and they'll be known as the 'Railway Guerrilla Force.'"
Ninth Lady said, "What? The Japanese will invade?"
Cui Jiuyang said, "I haven't finished yet. West of Jining City, there will also be a band of heroes fighting a guerrilla war against the Japanese. But they'll be called the 'Huxi Guerrilla Force.'"
"Old Fifth Yang, Shengdelong's old chairman, will still be alive then." Cui Jiuyang pointed at Ninth Lady's nose without touching it. "Guess who gave Old Fifth Yang twenty extra years of life?"
Ninth Lady raised her hand. "Me!"
"Twenty years from now, Old Fifth Yang will be arrested by the Japanese. By the time he's released, the chamber of commerce will have gone bankrupt. He'll donate all his remaining family wealth to the Huxi Guerrilla Force."
"In the Huxi Guerrilla Force, there'll be a young man of just twenty who's an exceptional swimmer. They say he can swim five hundred meters underwater without taking a breath. His nickname will be 'Lake God.'"
"That young man's surname will be Wang."
"He'll be Wang Dali's son."
Before you continue