"Roar!"
Inside the training room.
As Fu Shaoping drove his right fist forward, the air cracked explosively, with the faint sound of a tiger's roar.
Fu Shaoping happily brought his fist routine to a close.
After announcing that he was entering seclusion.
Over the past ten days, he had first practiced Ethereal Steps, but made very little progress, so he changed tactics and decided to study the first-grade martial art, Tiger Roar Fist, instead.
Although they were only one grade apart.
When it came to practicing them.
His progress with Tiger Roar Fist was clearly several times faster, though his breakthrough to the second level of the Body Tempering Realm had naturally played a part.
Fu Shaoping turned his attention to the treasured mirror in his sea of consciousness.
A line of text appeared:
Tiger Roar Fist: beginner (1/100)
In ten days.
He had gone straight from grasping the basics to the beginner level, a month faster than Old Zhan had back in the day:
"Looks like my talent for martial arts is pretty decent."
Fu Shaoping shook out his clothes.
He stretched lazily and pushed the door open.
With fewer than five days left before his probation ended and he was assigned missions, he planned to go home and spend some time with his mother.
After leaving the Hundred Households Office, Fu Shaoping passed through East Street and spotted a small courtyard with a storefront available for rent. Remembering how Zhou Pan'er had cared for him and his mother over the past few years, he made a trip to the brokerage.
When the rental broker saw that his visitor was a member of the Martial Suppression Guards.
He happily fetched the key, opened the courtyard gate, and launched into an enthusiastic introduction:
"My lord, what a coincidence! This courtyard was vacated less than two days ago, and you've already come across it today. Clearly, you and this courtyard were destined to meet!"
"The owner's son made a fortune doing business in Kaiyang County, so he brought his parents over to live with him. That shows this courtyard brings wealth! My lord, to tell you the truth, more than a dozen people have already approached me about it in the past two days. This is a prime property!"
This courtyard.
Had a storefront at the front.
A pavilion for drinking tea stood in the middle.
The actual courtyard lay behind it.
There were three main rooms and two side rooms on either side. Counting the storeroom and kitchen, there was enough space for him and his mother as well as Zhou Pan'er and her brother.
Zhou Pan'er had generously opened her purse to him before.
She had given him all seven taels of silver she had painstakingly saved. With all the care she had shown him and his mother over the years as well, it was time he repaid her kindness.
Fu Shaoping thought the courtyard was quite good.
With a storefront.
Sister Pan'er would no longer have to toil over setting up and packing away her stall every day. Besides, West Street was close to the Hundred Households Office, making it convenient for him to report for duty.
He was pleased with it.
But Fu Shaoping let none of that show on his face:
"What are the rental terms for this courtyard?"
"My lord, there's a ten-tael deposit, and the lease runs by the year. You only need to pay the rent on time each month, at one tael of silver a month."
Fu Shaoping had done odd jobs at a brokerage.
The prices quoted were all standard market rates, so he did not drag things out and simply said:
"All right. Go draw up the contract."
"Certainly! Please wait a moment, my lord!"
The broker had not expected the young man before him to agree without another word. He was refreshingly straightforward; the broker had thought he might use his status as a Martial Suppression Guard to push the price down.
Once he had the contract in hand.
Fu Shaoping immediately fitted the courtyard gate with a large new lock.
Although the courtyard was rented.
It was still a new home, and when he met his colleagues in the future, it would hardly do to say he lived in the poor district.
He could hardly wait to share the good news with Sister Pan'er. Having a storefront of her own was her wish.
When Sister Pan'er saw the courtyard in a little while, she would surely be overjoyed.
In high spirits, Fu Shaoping rounded the corner. After leaving East Street, he took a few turns and arrived on West Street, where he could see from a distance that Zhou Pan'er's usual stall spot was completely empty:
"Sister Pan'er didn't set up her stall today?"
Because of Fu Shaoping's status as a Martial Suppression Guard.
For the past month.
Zhou Pan'er had prepared four times her previous quantity every day, selling from morning until evening. It was only noon now, so she should not have packed up so soon.
"Could something have happened at home?"
Fu Shaoping's heart lurched, and he immediately quickened his pace.
Without realizing it, he began using Ethereal Steps.
His body darted through the crowd like a gust of wind, and he returned to Wutong Alley in two-thirds of his usual time.
He pushed open the courtyard gate.
A scorched smell assaulted his nose.
Thick smoke billowed from the kitchen opposite.
His mother's coughs drifted intermittently from the side room:
"Mother's all right!"
Fu Shaoping breathed a sigh of relief, but Sister Pan'er was an excellent cook. Why would the kitchen be smoking?
He hurried over.
Inside the kitchen, he found a half-grown boy holding a bamboo tube for blowing air into the stove, his face covered in ash. The moment he saw Fu Shaoping return, his eyes reddened:
"Brother Shaoping!!"
"Xinxiang, why are you cooking? Where's your sister?"
Fu Shaoping had seen no sign of Zhou Pan'er in the courtyard.
Zhou Xinxiang sniffled, looking somewhat aggrieved, but mostly worried:
"A few days ago, someone suddenly came to our door. I don't know what she said to my sister, but then my sister left with her."
"Did you see clearly? Did your sister go willingly, or was she being threatened?"
"My sister said the old woman was a distant relative. She'd only be away for three days and would come back once she'd finished what she needed to do. She told me to stay home and wait, and specifically told me to tell you not to report it to the Hundred Households Office. She said she'd return safely."
A distant relative?
Fu Shaoping's brows drew tightly together.
He remembered Sister Pan'er saying that all her relatives had died and only she and her brother remained. How had a distant relative suddenly appeared?
And she had been gone for three days.
Fu Shaoping was worried, but he could not show it in front of Zhou Xinxiang and needlessly frighten him. He took a small piece of silver from his sleeve and handed it over:
"Go buy a beggar's chicken and a roast duck from Hundred Fragrances Restaurant."
Having gone hungry for days.
Zhou Xinxiang almost drooled at the mention of beggar's chicken.
As he watched the boy rush out the door.
Fu Shaoping frowned slightly. It seemed Sister Pan'er had left in such a hurry that she had not even left Zhou Xinxiang a single copper coin. Just then, his mother called to him from the side room.
Fu Shaoping hurried over.
He pushed the door open and entered.
A bowl of medicine, already completely cold, still sat by the bed.
Although Madam Jiang could not leave the courtyard, she knew that Zhou Pan'er had been missing for three days. Seeing the worry written all over her son's face, she said:
"Most likely, someone from Pan'er's birth parents' family has come looking for her."
At those words.
Fu Shaoping froze for a moment.
Only through Madam Jiang's account did he learn the truth.
Zhou Pan'er had actually been found on the mountain and brought home by Zhou Xinxiang's mother. At the time, Zhou Xinxiang's mother had just suffered a difficult childbirth, and Zhou Pan'er had lived under that baby girl's identity ever since. No one else knew, and even Zhou Pan'er herself was unaware of her origins.
Madam Jiang had been the one who attended Zhou Xinxiang's mother during the birth.
Thus, she was the only person in the world who knew the truth.
"Mother, do you think... Sister Pan'er might leave Green Ox Town for good?"
The two families had depended on each other to survive for years. Faced with such a sudden parting, Fu Shaoping could not help feeling reluctant to let her go.
Before you continue