"I'm so stupid!"
Crouching at the mouth of an alley with the ragged hemp cloth the farm woman had used to cover her vegetables draped over him, Wang Hao stared fixedly at the restaurant across the street. The smell of food and wine wafting out nearly made him drool, and he was filled with regret.
Yesterday, his brain had short-circuited and he had given the farm woman every coin he had, without keeping so much as a copper for himself. Now he was going hungry.
He didn't regret giving her the money. He only regretted not keeping enough to buy himself a meal, leaving him in his current miserable predicament.
Gently rubbing his thunderously rumbling stomach, Wang Hao could only tighten his belt another notch, hoping it would ease the hunger a little.
Smack!
Just as Wang Hao was miserably enduring his hunger, a roasted lamb leg came flying from who knew where and landed on the ground not far from him with a smack.
Starving until his stomach seemed plastered to his backbone, Wang Hao immediately fixed his eyes on the roasted leg. Though it was a foreleg, the smallest kind, there was still a fair amount of meat on it.
He glanced around, and seeing no one nearby, pounced on it like a starving dog fighting for scraps. Grabbing it, he hurried back to the mouth of the alley.
Eating food off the ground was a little embarrassing, but he was so hungry his eyes were nearly glowing green, and he couldn't afford to care.
"Whimper, whimper!"
Just as Wang Hao wiped off the dust and opened wide to take a ravenous bite, a whimpering sound came from behind him.
He turned to find a puppy so scrawny that every row of ribs was plainly visible. It was filthy all over, evidently a stray.
The stray was staring fixedly at Wang Hao-or, more precisely, at the roasted lamb leg in his hand-its little tail wagging back and forth.
"A husky? They had that breed in the Ming dynasty?"
Wang Hao was astonished. Though the puppy was filthy and very young, only thirty centimeters tall, he recognized it at a glance as a husky, and a purebred at that.
He had owned a husky before transmigrating, so he was fairly familiar with the breed.
But The Smiling, Proud Wanderer was set in the middle-to-late Ming dynasty, and huskies were a foreign breed of sled dog from Siberia. He hadn't expected them to have made their way to Huaxia in this era.
"All right, I'll share some with you!"
With a sigh, Wang Hao tore a small piece of meat off the roasted leg and held it out to the little fellow.
Seeing the puppy reminded him of the husky he'd kept on Earth before transmigrating, stirring up quite a few feelings.
He would count it as his good deed for the day!
"Whimper, whimper!"
Wang Hao turned his attention back to the roasted leg in his hand and opened wide to take a bite, only for the whimpering to sound beside him again.
He turned and saw that the piece of meat he had torn off had already vanished. The little husky was once again staring fixedly at the roasted leg in his hand, its tail wagging even more merrily.
"I just can't say no to you!"
Helpless, Wang Hao tore off another small piece and held it out. He was practically defenseless against puppies, especially when this little fellow looked so much like the husky he'd once owned.
Though his husky had caused him plenty of trouble before he transmigrated, it had also brought a lot of joy to his life, so he was very fond of little huskies like this one.
Going back and forth like this, Wang Hao forgot his own hunger and began teasing Little Erha with the roasted leg in his hand.
The little fellow seemed to be starving too, gobbling up every piece of roasted lamb offered. Before long, it had eaten its fill and rolled onto its back on the ground, whimpering with a big belly that was wildly out of place on its scrawny frame.
It had clearly eaten too much!
"Look at you. How much could a little thing your size possibly eat..."
The little fellow made Wang Hao laugh, and he was about to start eating himself. But when he saw the lamb leg bone in his hand, stripped clean and smooth, he was dumbfounded!
He had been so busy playing with the little fellow that he'd forgotten it was a roasted foreleg, which hadn't had much meat on it to begin with. Now it was all gone.
"Ah! My roasted lamb leg! You little brat, give me back my meat right now, or don't blame me for being ruthless and swallowing you whole!"
Coming to his senses, Wang Hao couldn't help letting out a miserable howl. Then he grabbed the little fellow by the scruff of its neck, lifted it up, and spoke viciously.
"Whimper, whimper!"
The little fellow stared at him with big, innocent eyes, not understanding what Wang Hao meant. It even stuck out its pink tongue and licked the tip of his nose.
"You..."
"Forget it. I'll just raise you as emergency rations. If Leader Zhao still hasn't come looking for me by tonight, I'll stew you, little fellow."
Looking at its innocent face, Wang Hao was too angry to speak. In the end, he could only accept his bad luck and pick up the clean-stripped bone to gnaw on it.
There was no meat left, but the bone could at least fill his stomach, not to mention the nutritious marrow inside.
Fortunately, the fellow whose body he'd possessed had a strong build and good teeth. With the added strength from practicing the external art Iron Cloth Shirt, biting through the lamb bone was like chewing sugarcane.
"Actually, aside from the poor texture and being a little hard to swallow, it's pretty good!"
Having gnawed through the bone in a few bites, Wang Hao sat on the ground, licking the grease from his lips as he held Little Erha in his arms and stroked its round belly to make the overstuffed little fellow more comfortable.
What Wang Hao didn't know was that, in a private room at the restaurant diagonally across from him, an old man was watching him and shaking his head with a helpless sigh.
"This brat is stupid beyond saving!"
The old man was none other than Dugu Qiubai. Earlier, after standing guard while his precious disciple finished refining the medicinal power of the Great Rejuvenation Pill, the two had parted ways. With nothing else to do, he had come looking for this strange brat to have a look at him.
He had witnessed the whole affair: Wang Hao risking exposure to help the farm woman at the city gate, then giving her all his money after entering the city and leaving himself hungry.
It was the first time he had met a fool who would sacrifice so much for another that he went hungry himself. He had been secretly watching the brat from this private room for a long time.
Feeling sorry for the brat just now, he had tossed him a roasted lamb leg. Who would have thought the fellow's kindness would overflow so wildly that, even while hungry himself, he would feed a puppy, ultimately giving it all the meat on the leg?
He had only ever heard of people eating meat while dogs gnawed on bones. Today, he had seen the bizarre sight of a dog eating meat while a person gnawed on a bone.
It was a miracle that such an oddball could turn up in an assassin organization.
"Good Samaritans like him are nearly extinct in this day and age, aren't they?"
Stroking his long beard, Dugu Qiubai spoke with a trace of gratification.
Good people were already few and far between these days, and someone this good was even rarer in the world!
In all his years, this was the first time he'd seen such an oddball!
Wang Hao had no idea that he had once again attracted the attention of a big shot like Dugu Qiubai. Otherwise, he would surely have jumped in fright.
This time, Dugu Qiubai also harbored no killing intent, which was why Xiao Mengmeng hadn't warned him from the System Space. Besides, this might even turn out to be a fortuitous opportunity!
Outside, Wang Hao remained crouched at the mouth of the alley until the sun was about to set. Only then did a woman dressed as a maid come down the street. She looked around, spotted him crouching there, and hesitated before approaching.
"Excuse me... young master, are you waiting for someone?"
The young maid looked Wang Hao over as he crouched there draped in ragged hemp cloth like a refugee. She wasn't sure whether he was the person she had been sent to find.
"Did Leader Zhao send you?"
At her voice, Wang Hao, who had nearly fallen asleep crouching on the ground, brightened and hurried to his feet.
Under cover of darkness the previous night, he had left some special marks on the city gate. Only people in the organization could recognize and read them.
He had made them for Leader Zhao, who was drinking and enjoying female company in Chaoyang City. Wang Hao had come to the city this time precisely to seek refuge with this immediate superior.
He hadn't expected Leader Zhao to take so long to send someone, leaving him to nearly starve to death here.
"Ah!"
When Wang Hao stood, he gave the young maid a terrible fright. Crouched on the ground under the ragged hemp cloth, he hadn't looked like much, but standing up revealed his extraordinarily tall, burly frame.
After recovering, however, the maid was certain he was the man she was looking for. Before she left, Master Zhao hadn't given her any specific information about her target, only telling her to find a fellow who didn't look human.
She had been puzzling over that strange description, but now she understood.
With a build like that, he really didn't look much like a human!
"Come with me. Master Zhao is waiting for you!"
The young maid said no more. She called to Wang Hao and headed back the way she had come.
"Little emergency ration, you're in luck. You don't have to be my dinner!"
Scratching Little Erha, which had curled up and fallen asleep in his arms, Wang Hao grinned and chuckled. He gently put the little fellow in a corner, then followed close behind the maid as she left.
He had plenty to do afterward, and it would be quite dangerous. He really wasn't suited to looking after the little fellow, so it was better to leave it here.
After traveling for a shichen, Wang Hao arrived at a brothel called the House of Red Delights, where Leader Zhao was enjoying himself.
"Hey! Have a few tables' worth of food and wine sent up!"
Following the young maid to a room, Wang Hao called out to her, then pushed the door open and went inside.
"Master Zhao, come have another drink!"
"Master Zhao, would you like me to feed you a drink?"
As soon as Wang Hao entered, he saw a handsome young man sitting at the dining table, embracing a beauty on either side as he sampled the fine wine they offered him. He looked perfectly carefree.
This young man was the chief leader of their organization's outpost, known as Leader Zhao!
He was also the person Wang Hao had come to find!
At first, Wang Hao had considered leaving the assassin organization and making his own way. But joining a force like that was easy; getting out was hard. The organization would surely hunt him down without rest until one side was dead.
Such ruthless severity served two purposes: to prevent the organization's secrets from leaking and to deter its members. Otherwise, if too many people quit, the assassin organization would collapse sooner or later.
After all, few people genuinely wanted to be assassins. Most would grow tired of it and want out.
The assassin organization relied on such brutal methods to keep its members in line. Besides, he had given Dongfang Bai the Great Rejuvenation Pill, that sacred medicine of the martial world. With the pill lost, the assassin organization would never let the matter rest.
Wang Hao had also learned from the memories of the person whose body he possessed that the Great Ming Imperial Court seemed to stand behind the assassin organization. Its influence extended throughout the land, making it a force not to be trifled with.
Though he had previously beaten the outpost's First-Rate deputy leader to death, that was mainly because Dongfang Bai had already grievously wounded the man and his sword had been cut in two, leaving him with less than a tenth of his strength.
Wang Hao had then seized the initiative and used explosive force to cripple one of his arms, further reducing his strength. Only after that, and with a desperate barrage of attacks, had Wang Hao managed to beat him to death.
In truth, he was only a Third-Rate martial artist now, equivalent to the lowest-ranking disciples of the Five Mountains Sword Sect in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. With that level of strength, betraying the assassin organization would be courting death.
Most importantly, his frame was far too tall and burly. He would draw attention wherever he went, making it difficult to hide even if he wanted to.
Worst of all, Dongfang Bai had now joined the Sun Moon Holy Cult and held a high position there. If he lost the assassin organization's protection, he would face pursuit from two major forces.
When that happened, even with the system as a cheat, his chances of survival would be one in ten. So for now, staying in the assassin organization was the best choice.
At the same time, he could use the martial arts manuals and resources collected by the organization to speed up his growth, get through his initial period of weakness, and gain enough strength to protect himself.
Thus, after thinking it over for a long time, Wang Hao decided to come to Chaoyang City and seek refuge with his immediate superior, who was drinking and enjoying female company here.