A Gentleman's Benevolence Blankets the Land

The men were walking rather slowly.

Uncle Ma took the opportunity to take out a match and light a candle.

The kerosene lamp had been too cumbersome, so they had left it behind.

But Uncle Ma had brought several white candles in his bundle, each the size of a fist, thick and short.

After lighting one, he let a little wax drip onto the tabletop, then pressed the base of the candle into it, fixing it firmly in place.

The people in the woods noticed the light and quickened their pace.

Chu Tianshu thought he saw a flash of intense joy on the faces of the two men leading the donkey.

"Uncle, the weather's cold and the road's slippery. We misjudged how long the journey would take. Could we spend the night here too?"

The man with the sickle called out while still twenty or thirty paces away.

Uncle Ma said, "When you're away from home, who doesn't run into trouble? This place was abandoned anyway. We fixed it up a little so we could rest our feet. Come on over."

They led the donkey close to the tea shelter and first helped the man down from its back.

The man was not short, but his back was hunched and his steps unsteady. Though he had help walking those few paces into the shelter, the wheezing from his throat and chest sounded like thin wires scraping against each other. It was painful to hear.

Chu Tianshu was removing the needles from Zhong Jinqiu's arms. He glanced over and met the eyes of the three men.

The man being supported was relatively calm, but the two helping him were staring fixedly over here.

"Brother."

The man with the sickle said, "Are you doing acupuncture? Are you a doctor? Could you take a look at our big brother too?"

Chu Tianshu smiled. "What would I know about acupuncture? An old doctor in town put these needles in my second uncle. He said they had to stay in his arms for a long time, but we were in a hurry to get back, so we had to travel with the needles in and take them out ourselves when the time came."

"Don't even get me started. The old doctor was afraid we'd lose his needles, so we had to leave a whole air-dried leg of lamb at his clinic as collateral."

Back home, Chu Tianshu was quite willing to see patients.

But in these wild mountains, where they could barely find the road themselves, they had actually encountered someone riding a donkey up the mountain. It was better to be cautious.

Uncle Ma and Uncle Zhong, two old hands at navigating the world, were also on guard against the newcomers.

Especially Uncle Zhong. That look in his eyes... huh?

Chu Tianshu furrowed his brow slightly. There was something a little off about the way Uncle Zhong was looking at them.

It wasn't his usual casual, easygoing, discreet scrutiny. Instead, he was staring openly at the wheezing man's face, his expression growing more serious the longer he looked.

It was as though he could make out a painting on the man's face.

The sickle man's face showed his anxiety. "Brother, don't hide your skills. The way you twisted the ends of those needles when you took them out just now didn't look like a novice's work..."

Zhong Jinqiu suddenly said, "Little Chu, saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Didn't you study for a few years? Help them take a look."

Chu Tianshu and Uncle Ma looked at Zhong Jinqiu at the same time, a glint flashing in each of their eyes.

The two exchanged a glance. They sensed no trace of evil arts, and Zhong Jinqiu was not someone who would easily be affected by them.

"Then I'll give it a try."

Chu Tianshu pondered for a moment, then rose and walked to the other side of the table. He first took the sickly man's pulse.

Zhong Jinqiu took the opportunity to walk over to the table as well, moving closer to continue studying him.

With five people gathered around one rickety table, it was a little crowded.

Chu Tianshu asked them to move back a little. By candlelight, he examined the sickly man's eyelids and tongue coating, then felt his pulse again and continued pondering.

"This illness..."

Chu Tianshu raised his eyes again and studied the men before him.

Both men in straw rain capes looked anxious, but the slight tension around their waists and abdomens showed that they were secretly on guard as well.

That was especially true of the man with the sickle. His right arm was hidden beneath his cape, perfectly still, for some unknown reason.

Zhong Jinqiu was acting a little strangely too. His face was serious, but his gaze seemed vacant. There was no telling what he was thinking.

By comparison, the most normal one was actually the patient.

His eyes were cloudy, his complexion sallow, and his lips dark, all symptoms one would expect from someone having trouble breathing.

He looked as though he was enduring his pain, but he wasn't particularly anxious. He seemed much like a patient who had seen so many doctors that he had come to terms with it.

But this man was actually the most abnormal of them all.

Chu Tianshu held up one finger. "How many is this?"

The patient said, "One."

Chu Tianshu held up two fingers.

"Two."

He held up four fingers.

The patient seemed to want to smile, but the movement affected his throat. He coughed twice and said, "That's four, of course."

Chu Tianshu sighed, stood up with a frown, and paced back and forth. Without noticing it, he walked away to the opposite corner of the tea shelter.

"Second Uncle."

He beckoned to the man over there. "Come here a moment."

Zhong Jinqiu walked over and used his advanced skill to control his throat, making his voice as faint as a mosquito's. "What is it?"

Chu Tianshu replied at the same volume.

"That man isn't sick at all. He's been poisoned. The poison has penetrated deep into his internal organs and even spread to his brain and bone marrow."

"If the poison had reached that depth in an ordinary person, the only difference between him and a corpse would probably be that his pupils hadn't dilated yet."

"But this man can breathe and walk, and he can even think clearly. Judging by his build, he isn't a martial artist, so he must be a powerful sorcerer. If he's a relatively upright person, that's one thing, but if he's an evildoer..."

Chu Tianshu asked seriously, "Uncle Zhong, do you know him?"

Zhong Jinqiu fell silent for a moment.

Uncle Ma came over. "What on earth is going on?"

Zhong Jinqiu said in a low voice, "Sigh, it's a long story..."

Shopkeeper Ma had been unwilling to marry when he was young, so he had no family of his own.

Zhong Jinqiu, on the other hand, had once had a happy family. Because of that family, he had held on to the lofty ambitions of his youth and still wanted to strive for fame and success.

His wife and son had both supported and depended on him.

His son, Zhong Jiye, had particularly admired the way he acted like a big brother as he traveled far and wide with a group of brothers at his side.

Among his peers, Zhong Jiye had also become a leader, charging about with his band of little brothers while keeping them in line.

Once, Zhong Jiye discovered that one of his brothers had taken up opium and was stealing money to smoke it. Repeated persuasion failed, beatings made no difference, and even tying him up was no use. He had led other brothers astray as well.

Furious, Zhong Jiye gathered all his little brothers and smoked opium heavily several times in front of them, intending to prove that it was entirely possible to quit.

"But that stinking brat had only just gotten his foot in the door of martial arts. He couldn't even withstand the effects of the Spirit Yang Gallbladder yet, so how could he have resisted such a deadly poison?"

Zhong Jinqiu lowered his eyes. "My ambition for fame and success hadn't died then, and I neglected my family too much. In the end, my son died, my wife died of illness, and I had nothing left beside me but hatred."

Uncle Ma remembered. "That year, I went to see you and heard that you'd beaten the man who ran the town's opium den to death, then followed the trail of the medicine shop that supplied him, killing your way along it."

"But when I found you later, you hadn't killed many more people, had you?"

Zhong Jinqiu smiled wearily.

Because when he followed the trail, he hadn't found opium dealers with brutish faces.

All he saw were opium poppies blooming across the mountains and fields, a sight so beautiful it was frightening.

The terraced fields, once a uniform green, had all become poppy fields. The people growing the opium were merely farmers.

You didn't know the pain until it fell on you.

Before that year, Zhong Jinqiu had also cursed opium for ruining the country, but he had never thought carefully or looked closely at just how many people in all of Yi Province were already growing it.

Had they already surrounded him?

"...Could I have taken revenge for that? I ran away before I even set foot in that field."

"I was afraid," Zhong Jinqiu said woodenly.

Uncle Ma said, "But one day later on, you said someone had more or less taken revenge for you?"

Zhong Jinqiu's eyes burned as he said solemnly, "Yes. That man had probably seen fields of flowers like that too, far more than I had, but he wasn't afraid."

"He became the Dadu governor of all Yi Province and gave the order. Though opium wasn't completely eradicated, at least no opium den now dares hang out a sign and solicit customers in broad daylight!"

"He's a strong man, a righteous man, a man worthy of my respect for the rest of my life!"

Uncle Ma glanced at the patient at the table in some disbelief, a guess forming in his mind.

He lowered his voice still further, until it was almost just a breath wrapped in telekinetic force.

"Do you mean that man over there is Cai Yin, Cai Shanjun?!"

"The former Dadu governor of our Yi Province's Great Han Military Government?"

"But how is that possible? He went to the capital, where he was given a high office and a generous salary. Even the president wouldn't dare treat him poorly..."

Zhong Jinqiu said firmly, "I went to hear him speak many times and etched his appearance into my mind. That face has been disguised, but it can't fool me."

Uncle Ma said in a daze, "No wonder you asked Little Chu to help..."

"I only asked Little Chu to lend a little help. For someone of Cai Shanjun's status to have fallen into such a state, it goes without saying how much trouble he's in."

Zhong Jinqiu held his hands, which he could barely use, behind his back. Without realizing it, he curled them into fists, the movement somewhat difficult.

"If Little Chu can help, he can do a little, and then we'll immediately go our separate ways. We mustn't get involved in their affairs!"

"When all's said and done..."

Zhong Jinqiu raised his eyebrows, his voice growing softer.

"When all's said and done, he never actually met me or did me any great personal favor. If we lend him a hand like this, that'll settle what ties we have."

Uncle Ma fell silent.

By working together from inside and out to kill an old eunuch, they could still claim to have better than a sixty percent chance of success. But if they got mixed up in Cai Shanjun's affairs, there was no telling how much hope they had of surviving.

If the two of them had encountered this alone, they could have charged in with a flourish. Even if they died, they would at least have found themselves an extraordinary way to go.

But Chu Tianshu was still young. He still had time to grow, and he shouldn't be facing something like this now.

From what Old Zhong had said, he obviously understood that too.

But Little Chu was perceptive. If he saw how Old Zhong truly felt and volunteered to help, things would become very difficult...

"Dadu governor?!"

Chu Tianshu's voice suddenly rose.

The two old fellows, who had been avoiding the young man's gaze a little, looked up at him in astonishment.

Even the patient's wheezing paused for a moment.

The two men in straw rain capes went on guard at once. One put a hand on his sickle, while the other reached inside his clothes.

Chu Tianshu returned to the other side of the table, beaming with excitement. "So you're the former Dadu governor of our Yi Province! I heard you did quite a few good things for Yi Province while you were in office. Have you come back to take power again?"

The two men still didn't know how to react.

The patient blinked and answered, "There are some important matters I need to attend to."

"But since you made it into these mountains, that means you've already entered Yuannan City's sphere of influence."

Chu Tianshu's smile didn't waver. "Why not find a way to contact that Commander Xu in Yuannan City? With his troops' support, wouldn't everything be easier?"

The man with the sickle said hesitantly, "Who exactly are you three? This sort of thing..."

"Because that man Xu can't be trusted."

The patient answered directly. He paused and coughed violently several times before continuing, "Yi Province isn't an ironclad domain, after all. I gathered information in secret while I was in the capital and found that this man was becoming less and less trustworthy. If I went to his regiment headquarters like this, I'd be dead for certain."

Chu Tianshu's smile grew even wider. He clapped his hands. "Excellent. Then once you're in power, you'll certainly get rid of him?"

The sickle man asked suspiciously, "Do you have a grudge against them?"

"I was going to slaughter him and his adjutant, but over the past month, I've killed more than one person a day on average. I'm honestly getting a little tired of killing."

Chu Tianshu looked at his fingers and said unhurriedly, "I am a doctor, after all."

"If I can get rid of evil and vent my anger just by saving someone, then of course that would be the more satisfying way to do it."

Besides, the position of the man before him was remarkably similar to that of General Cai in his homeland's history, who had defended the republic and opposed Yuan.

He was practically a living, breathing bundle of fate and experience points.

And... well, he couldn't let the two old men, at their age, be forced to say things against their hearts and remain gloomy and unhappy.

Twenty years as a spirit medium exposed to sinister influences hadn't turned him into a cold-blooded creature. Now that he had trained in boxing arts that made his hot blood surge, was he supposed to restrain himself even more?