The Qian Family

Youhe Street.

Fine rain fell to the ground, forming a thin film of water that flowed from higher ground toward the drainage channels.

The patter of rain blanketed the little street.

"Fourth Young Master, I offered to hold your umbrella. Why won't you let me?"

A rough voice rang out in the street, followed by a young man's detached voice scolding him.

"Spare me. If Xiaozi were here to hold it, that would be another matter. Someone like you, Lao Xu, should just stick to guarding me."

Two figures, one tall and one short, stepped through the rippling water and emerged at the street entrance.

Zhou Muzhi wore white robes patterned with black cranes. His build looked balanced and sturdy, and he was only a little over half a head shorter than Lao Xu behind him. He looked full of vigor.

He stood at the street entrance, holding an umbrella in one hand.

As he raised his chin, a cool breeze brushed his smooth cheeks. Beneath brows shaped like blades, his eyes swept his surroundings.

At last, his gaze settled on the covered shelter across the street.

Two large horses swished their tails, chewing hay from some unknown source as the driver soothed them.

The two walked over.

The driver immediately came forward to meet them.

"Shall we leave now, sir?"

Zhou Muzhi nodded and climbed into the carriage with Lao Xu.

The curtain of rain had thinned considerably by then. The driver climbed aboard, the wheels turned, and the carriage rolled away into the distance.

By the time they returned to the Zhou Residence, darkness had long since fallen.

In the rear courtyard.

Inside Zhou Muzhi's room.

Candlelight filled the room, and a delicate fragrance permeated it as well.

A bundle of pale purple incense stood in the three-legged censer at the center of the square table. It was the source of the fragrance.

This was the same purple incense that Uncle Chen, the old steward, had given him at the beginning.

Seated in a chair, Zhou Muzhi leaned back against it, wearing the silk sleeping robe he had just changed into, his damp long hair draped over his shoulders.

He was carefully reading the accounts Xiaozi had organized.

The little booklet in his hands recorded his spending on food, clothing, and daily necessities over the past year in detail.

His basic quarterly allowance for food, clothing, and daily necessities was sixty taels of silver. By the Song Kingdom's reckoning, a quarter was ninety days.

That level of material provision ranked above average among the young masters of Suming County.

Yet the booklet recorded thirteen gambling outings over the year, with a total of two hundred and sixty-one taels withdrawn from the family.

He had withdrawn a hundred taels of silver for a spring hunt, buying a bow and a dog. Later, the bow disappeared, and someone stewed the dog. The silver had gone straight down the drain.

Even more outrageous were the meals he had treated others to: over a hundred occasions, costing roughly three hundred taels of silver.

Seriously, did he enjoy being taken for a ride?!

After what had happened to the original owner of this body, those fair-weather friends had not merely failed to visit-they had vanished entirely. Otherwise, someone would have long since called him out to treat them after he woke up.

With a slight headache, Zhou Muzhi pinched the bridge of his nose. With these accounts sitting here, getting silver from the family would probably be difficult.

"Xiaozi, what's the most silver I can still draw in advance?"

At the Fourth Young Master's question, Xiaozi, his personal maid, immediately rattled off a string of figures.

"Fourth Young Master, you can draw next quarter's allowance early. Together with what you have now, that makes a hundred and ten taels. As for anything else, the family head has ordered that you aren't allowed to take any more."

It was perfectly reasonable to forbid anything beyond that. After all, he had been far too extravagant.

But while that allowance sounded substantial, it was nowhere near enough to buy the remaining incense-making ingredients.

Tapping his fingers on the table, Zhou Muzhi frowned, set the account book aside, and instructed Xiaozi.

"Withdraw the silver and hand all of it to me when I return tomorrow. I want banknotes, understood?"

Making incense and practicing martial arts had to proceed together. He would still have to handle this himself.

Xiaozi answered that she understood.

With nothing else to do, Zhou Muzhi dismissed her, then placed his palm on the white wax to his right and once again used Deduction Points to extend his time.

The panel's data changed.

[Name: Zhou Muzhi]

[Status: Curse (temporarily sealed)]

[Skills: Incense maker (beginner), nine heavens profound intent (time limit: thirty-three double-hours), Wisdom of the Ancients · Enlightenment (2/3)]

[Deduction Points: 3.1]

"The danger is still there!"

Murmuring this, Zhou Muzhi decided not to sleep yet. He needed to visit his second brother's quarters. Some things could only be accomplished with the help of this brother, who had taken charge of the household at an early age.

Zhou Buren lived not in the rear courtyard, but in a small, separate residence between the middle and front courtyards.

Walking along the covered corridor with a lantern, Zhou Muzhi stopped outside the entrance to his second brother's residence.

A red gate barred the entrance. His second brother's home lay beyond it.

Knock, knock!

He stepped forward and knocked.

In the quiet night, the sound could still carry inside.

His second brother, Zhou Buren, clearly had not gone to bed yet. Footsteps approached from behind the gate.

The gate opened.

The brothers exchanged a look. Curiosity showed in Zhou Buren's somewhat weary eyes; he had no idea why his fourth brother had come.

He had something to tell his fourth brother too, but because it was late and he did not want to disturb the rest of his brother, who had only just recovered his spirits, he had intended to wait until tomorrow to visit.

A smile appeared on Zhou Muzhi's face.

"Second Brother, I've come to trouble you for a moment."

"Fourth Brother, there's no need to say that. I'm delighted you came to see me."

Zhou Buren laughed heartily and led Zhou Muzhi inside.

The two found seats in a room in the small courtyard.

Zhou Buren's room was simply furnished as well: a few chairs, a four-legged table, a desk, and a bed, with no other unnecessary furniture.

After sitting down, Zhou Buren said, "Tell me, Fourth Brother. What is it?"

Naturally, Zhou Muzhi did not conceal the matter, immediately explaining the circumstances behind his need to make incense.

Of course, he still had to hide the parts he should not reveal. He simply said that Half-Immortal Xu had told him this was the only method they could try to cure him completely.

As Zhou Muzhi saw it, what he said pointed toward the same ultimate outcome, so it did not count as deception.

"Don't worry, Second Brother. I'll bring the deposit tomorrow. This is my problem. I can't keep burdening the family."

Zhou Muzhi added this at the end, and it was what he truly thought.

Zhou Buren's eyes filled with gratification.

Fourth Brother really has grown up!

Since that's the case, I can't slight him.

"All right, we'll do as you say. I'll make gathering these ingredients a priority."

As the current proprietor of the Zhou Family's businesses, he truly was the most suitable person in the entire Lineage to handle this sort of procurement.

After saying this, Zhou Buren's expression suddenly changed, and he spoke to Zhou Muzhi with a worried look.

"Fourth Brother, there's been some progress in the matter I asked Iron Divine Constable to investigate. But you could also say there hasn't."

Oh?

Zhou Muzhi was taken aback, unable to make sense of that for a moment.

Fortunately, Zhou Buren did not leave him guessing and continued, "He asked whether our Zhou Family had offended someone we shouldn't have. He told me to think it over carefully-really carefully."

Offended someone?

Zhou Muzhi sank into thought as well.

He was the one who had suffered this time. Didn't that mean he had offended someone?

And some important figure at that?

Zhou Muzhi frowned. He had been nothing but a wastrel in the past!

Bullying the weak and fearing the strong had been his specialty. No matter how he looked at it, he could not have offended anyone powerful.

Seeing his brother's reaction, Zhou Buren knew the waters ran deep here. But recalling the changes in his younger brother and his aptitude for martial arts, he felt that knowing certain things was not necessarily bad.

So he spoke again.

"The person offended can be summed up in one word: 'Qian.' Iron Divine Constable owes me a favor from years ago. That was as much as he could say."

In an instant, that word exploded in Zhou Muzhi's mind.

In all of Suming County, if there was one Qian with the most power, it was the Qian Family!

Hiss!

At the thought of that surname, some hazy memories seemed to surface in his mind.

He seemed to have ties to this Qian Family, and those ties were far from shallow.

Zhou Muzhi shook his head. Under the intense pain, he stopped trying to force the memories awake.

Investigating his relationship with the Qian Family would be simple enough. He could start by asking the fair-weather friends around him.

He had not expected a visit to his second brother to yield an unexpected gain.

Zhou Muzhi spoke with his second brother for a while. Zhou Buren told him not to worry and said he would find a way, along with other words to that effect.

A short while later, their conversation finished, Zhou Muzhi rose to take his leave and returned to his own room with his lantern.