Wine Pool and Meat Forest

Returning to the city unnoticed, Xu Chunliang discovered that the Life Silver he had left on the bed before going out was gone.

Just as he was about to look for it, the little counterweight on his wrist swayed.

Realizing that the hook scale had taken back the Life Silver, Xu Chunliang reached out and gave the little counterweight an affectionate stroke, then set about cleaning up every trace of Liu Xin and his servant's visit.

He was meticulous, leaving nothing to chance.

Until he had killed everyone in the Liu family, Xu Chunliang thought it best not to let them see him for the time being.

Early the next morning, on his way to work, Xu Chunliang saw a filthy figure lying beneath an old elm tree at the street corner.

The figure seemed gravely ill, breathing more out than in, and gave off an indescribable, fishy stench.

A few mischievous children stood by the roadside, occasionally picking up clods of dirt and stones and throwing them at him for fun.

He merely glanced over before turning away.

This world was far too mad. He couldn't save people like that one by one on his own.

When he reached the Demon-Slaying Bureau, he heard, as expected, that Zhou Dafu's entire family had been wiped out. Xu Chunliang wore the same mournful expression as everyone else and gave nothing away.

With their squad leader dead and no replacement appointed yet, everyone spent the day in a state of aimless disarray.

Xu Chunliang and Shi Qin found a room in the Demon-Slaying Bureau offices and drank tea all day, then went their separate ways when work ended.

Planning to go home, change clothes and eat before waiting for nightfall, Xu Chunliang bought four steamed buns and a piece of braised beef at the market and wrapped them in a lotus leaf to carry home.

When he reached the entrance to the alley, he saw the children were still throwing clods of dirt at the dying person from a distance, so he walked over.

"Whose children are these? If nobody takes them in hand, I'm taking them to the bureau!"

At those words, several local women immediately scurried out from around the street and alley, ingratiating smiles on their faces. Saying "Please don't blame them" over and over, they each gave their child a halfhearted smack on the bottom and dragged the crying child home by the arm. Then every one of them peered through a crack in her door at Xu Chunliang and the dying figure beneath the elm.

Xu Chunliang sighed, crouched down in front of the elm and opened the lotus leaf, revealing the white steamed buns and braised beef inside.

"You must be hungry..."

Looking at the thin, sallow little face as the girl wolfed down the food, Xu Chunliang sighed, stood up and called out loudly, "Physician Wei..."

Half an hour later, at Xu Chunliang's home.

"Squad Leader Xu, this little girl... ah..."

"She's caught a foul disease. It's very difficult to treat..."

"To catch a disease like this at such a young age, tsk, tsk, tsk..."

"All right, enough nonsense. Go prescribe her some medicine. Take these twenty taels of silver, and bring the medicine over once you've brewed it."

After sending away the physician who lived at the street corner, Xu Chunliang pushed open the door. In the moonlight, he could clearly see the dirty, stinking body on the bed tremble involuntarily.

Cursing this fucking world under his breath, Xu Chunliang stood in the doorway and said, "Whether you can hear me or not, I'll talk and you listen."

"I saved you on a whim. I have no interest in a little girl like you who hasn't even grown up yet. Even if it were a kitten or a puppy, if I saw it by the roadside twice and it was still alive, I'd help it too. So you don't need to feel burdened.

"The physician said you're sick. How you got sick doesn't matter. Where you escaped from doesn't matter either. Once you've recovered here, you can leave. I won't ask anything of you.

"This room is the house's storage room. There might be mice, but I imagine you won't mind. I have things to do, so I won't help you bathe. There's a well in the courtyard. If you're better in a few days, draw some water and wash yourself. If you die, there won't be a coffin. I'll wrap you in the mat you're lying on now and bury you.

"So if you want to die, that's fine too. Just don't get blood everywhere. It's a nuisance to clean up..."

With that, Xu Chunliang turned and left the storage room at the side of the courtyard.

On the bed, a pair of weak yet clear eyes watched Xu Chunliang's departing figure, trying to commit his appearance to memory.

An hour later, Physician Wei handed Xu Chunliang a pot of medicine. Xu Chunliang returned to the storage room, helped the stinking little girl sit up without any sign of disgust, and fed her the bowl of exceedingly bitter medicine.

Looking at Xu Chunliang's handsome, clean face, the girl, who was only fifteen but had already suffered countless hardships, burst into tears.

She tried not to cry aloud and said to Xu Chunliang in an exceedingly weak voice, "Young master, my name is Yuhu. I'll repay you."

Xu Chunliang smiled faintly and fed her the last mouthful of medicine, which smelled fishy and bitter. "My name is Xu Chunliang," he said with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Yuhu. Xu Chunliang, who often visited Fireworks Lane, knew as soon as he heard it that it was a brothel girl's name.

In this man-eating age, in a place haunted by demons and strange entities, the fate of the girl before him was naturally easy to guess.

She had probably been sold to a brothel by her parents at a young age, then started receiving customers while still young. At some point she had caught a host of diseases, and when she was close to death, the brothel had thrown her out under cover of night.

These things were so absurd that Xu Chunliang believed all the more that they were true.

Seeing her hesitate as if she had more to say, Xu Chunliang smiled. "All right. If you want to repay me, then you have to keep living. You have to do your best to stay alive!"

With that, Xu Chunliang patted her dirty head and turned to leave.

He changed into a set of ragged clothes, took a piece of charcoal from the stove and drew a few quick strokes on his eyebrows, then grabbed a handful of dust and sprinkled it over his shoulders and face. In an instant, Xu Chunliang had transformed into a handsome but weary-looking man.

Hiding the small brass knife behind his waist, he slipped out of the courtyard and headed east through the city.

A restaurant had recently opened in the east of the city, and business was booming, drawing many people from Fan City.

Its owner was said to be a former imperial chef from the palace in the capital, who had served both the late emperor and the current one. His superb cooking had won lavish praise from both emperors.

The dish most beloved by the two emperors was a grand dish he personally prepared, called Wine Pool and Meat Forest.

It was said that the dish had been passed down for at least five thousand years and was a famous dish once favored by a foolish ruler.

Now that a restaurant called the Wine Pool and Meat Forest had opened in Fan City, it naturally attracted countless high officials, wealthy households and people of the jianghu.

Where there were people, there were strange entities.

Xu Chunliang decided to take a look, find a target or two and earn some attribute points to play with.

The moment he stepped out of the alley, he tapped the level on his panel. Two hundred attribute points vanished, and Xu Chunliang advanced to the Moon Glow Realm.

Feeling his body grow lighter, Xu Chunliang smiled calmly.

At the Moon Glow Realm, he could remain airborne. He could fly for short periods now.

Awesome!