Chapter 14#
第14章#
After finishing the candied hawthorn, Yulin grew restless again.
His eyes darted left and right as he pointed ahead into the crowd. “Look! Juggling balls! I want to see!” Without waiting for a response, he rushed off.
Wenyin didn’t react in time, his pupils instinctively constricting before he took off after him.
It must have been some festival day—though still daylight, the streets were packed with people. The dense crowd moved like waves, and within moments, Yulin had vanished from sight.
Wenyin struggled through the throng, jostled about awkwardly, his apologies constant as his eyes never stopped searching for Yulin’s figure.
“Yulin, Yulin!” Wenyin called out urgently, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
“I’m over here!” Yulin waved at him from ahead.
Yulin was hiding in a bush and pulled Wenyin in, then held a finger to his lips. “Shh.”
Wenyin frowned, swallowing back his words to look in the direction of Yulin’s gaze.
“You filthy beggar, I’ll beat you to death!”
A boy of about nine or ten years old twisted his face menacingly, his foot grinding down hard on a beggar’s right hand.
The boy wore fine clothes—clearly from a wealthy family.
The beggar’s face was grimy, yet his skin was surprisingly fair. He looked about four or five years old, his teeth clenched tightly, his body trembling.
“Stole from our house? I’ll cripple this hand!” The boy said, pressing down harder with his foot.
The beggar seemed unable to bear it anymore and choked out: “I didn’t… I didn’t steal the pastry… he gave it to me…”
That’s when they noticed a younger child standing beside the boy, clutching his sleeve silently.
The older boy turned to face his younger brother darkly. “Did you give it to him?”
The younger boy was frightened by his gaze and immediately shook his head frantically.
The older boy let out a cold laugh, turning back to leer down at the beggar: “See? My brother says he didn’t. So there.”
The beggar’s hand had turned red from the trampling, marked with dark footprints. His hand had no strength left, trembling slightly, jerking with each breath.
Inside the bush, meanwhile—
“Wenyin…” Yulin whispered softly.
“Hmm?”
Yulin peered carefully through the foliage, his expression full of pity, his eyes drooping sadly: “Wenyin, I want to save him.”
Wenyin quickly grabbed his sleeve, afraid he’d rush out. “Don’t meddle in other people’s affairs.”
They were unfamiliar with Fuyang City, and there was no adult nearby. There was no good reason to interfere.
But Wenyin got no response.
He turned back and saw Yulin’s eyes had reddened slightly, his lips pressed tight to keep from making a sound, his nose even flushing pink with the effort.
“He’ll be beaten to death,” Yulin’s voice trembled as he looked at the small beggar on the ground.
Wenyin heard his words but didn’t know how to comfort him. He softened his stance, stepping back and coaxing gently: “Why don’t we wait for Senior Sister?”
Yulin bit his lip in thought, then stubbornly shook his head after a moment. “I’m afraid he won’t last that long.”
With that, he yanked his hand from Wenyin’s grasp, pushed through the bush, and ran toward the boy.
The older boy was focused on the beggar and didn’t notice Yulin charging at him.
“Stop!”
The boy turned at the shout, only to be tackled to the ground by Yulin’s unexpected assault.
“What child dares push me?! Want to get beaten together?!”
“Bullying people—that’s no skill at all!” Yulin’s voice still carried a childish lilt, making it almost comical. After pushing the boy, he kept pressing down on him.
Once the boy lay sprawled and unable to get up quickly, Yulin scrambled to his feet and rushed to help the beggar up.
“You’ve got nerve!”
The boy clenched his teeth and struggled up. Seeing Yulin had turned his back, he suddenly launched a powerful kick at him.
Yulin fell hard to the ground unprepared, his clothes covered in dust.
“Damn it, I’m punishing a thieving beggar and you have the audacity to interfere?!”
The boy grew angrier with each thought. He raised his foot to kick again, but Wenyin caught his wrist.
Wenyin gripped his wrist tightly, his nails digging into the boy’s skin. The boy screamed in pain.
Then Wenyin exerted force again, throwing the boy to the side.
Taking the opportunity, Wenyin turned to Yulin, breathing hard: “Yulin, go find Senior Sister!”
The boy staggered a few steps before catching his balance. He sneered coldly: “You dare oppose me? Don’t you want to ask around Fuyang City who Liu Yufeng is?!”
Wenyin replied: “I don’t care who you are. All I know is you’re just some brat.”
Hearing this, Yulin scrambled to his feet and ran back the way they’d come.
“Senior Sister! Senior Sister!”
After running past a dozen or so shop stalls, Yulin fortunately ran into Yuxuan, who had been searching for them.
Yuxuan had just opened her mouth to speak when Yulin grabbed her hand and urgently pulled her forward. “Wenyin’s up ahead—hurry!”
…
Wenyin had grown up wild, and compared to the delicate young master, his strength was naturally greater. In his struggle with Liu Yufeng, he held his own.
“Wenyin!”
By the time Yulin returned with Yuxuan, the two were already grappling. Yuxuan gasped in shock and quickly rushed over to separate them.
Yulin had explained what happened on the way there. Yuxuan positioned Wenyin behind her protectively, and Wenyin took the chance to pull the small beggar to his side as well.
Liu Yufeng, seeing they now had reinforcements, his eyes turned cold. “Who are all of you? You dare oppose the Liu family?”
Wenyin said: “We mean no harm. But beating a four or five-year-old child so severely—isn’t that excessive?”
Liu Yufeng scoffed dismissively: “So you’re just a busybody. There’s no one in Fuyang City I don’t dare hit, much less a beggar.”
Yuxuan frowned at his words. “Young master, mind your tongue.”
All three were focused on Liu Yufeng, not noticing that the younger brother beside him had already disappeared.
“Big Brother!”
An urgent cry rang out, followed quickly by the sound of footsteps.
It turned out the boy’s younger brother had returned with several servants.
The younger brother walked at the rear of the group, timidly hiding behind his older brother when he thought no one was looking. Yet when he peeked out, there wasn’t a trace of fear in his eyes.
Liu Yufeng straightened his posture and waved his hand grandly. “Attack!”
The servants all carried clubs and rods. Hearing their master’s command, they responded readily.
Yuxuan drew her sword—the one she always carried—and lowered her gaze, surveying them all, meeting their eyes.
But she had to abide by her sect’s rule against harming mortals, so she didn’t unsheathe the blade.
In a low voice, she said: “Go!”
Wenyin nodded to her, taking Yulin’s hand with his left and the small beggar’s hand with his right, backing away.
Yuxuan stood before them with her drawn sword, protecting them as she retreated step by step, deflecting their attacks.
With the intertwining streets and alleys of Fuyang City, Yuxuan led them through deserted passageways, and it wasn’t until much later that they finally lost the servants.
Once she confirmed no one was following, Yuxuan sighed in relief. She turned to face them:
“You two slipped away when I wasn’t looking, and you ran so fast I almost couldn’t catch up. With so many people around, what if you’d gotten lost?”
Yulin pursed his lips, looking ashamed, unable to meet her eyes or say anything.
He then noticed that Wenyin had been injured while restraining Liu Yufeng—his wrist was red.
Yulin lowered his gaze, gently cupping Wenyin’s hand, his tone sorrowful: “I’m sorry…”
Seeing him like this, how could Wenyin stay angry? He sighed softly, resignedly producing medicine from his pouch, and told Yuxuan to excuse Yulin: “Xiaolin was just eager to help…”
Yuxuan, seeing how bedraggled they both looked, softened her voice: “Don’t I know you meant well? It’s just, next time, you could wait for me. What you did today truly frightened me…”
Wenyin acknowledged her words, lowering his head to work with the medicine.
Rather than treating his own wound first, he turned to the small beggar and said: “Come, show me your hand.”
The beggar was a bit shy, peeking up at Wenyin before looking away, then hesitantly extending his hand.
For some reason, the beggar’s hand was very fair—not like someone who worked begging, but rather like a pampered young master from a wealthy household. The area he’d been kicked had quickly turned red, marked with bruises that looked quite severe.
Wenyin first took out a cloth and gently wiped it, brushing away the dust to reveal pink scars beneath.
Wenyin applied the medicine gently, blowing softly on his hand and sprinkling the powder bit by bit. Almost offhandedly, he asked: “Which family are you from? You don’t look like a beggar.”
It was just a casual question, but the beggar child startled at his words and began stammering, unable to answer. He suddenly pulled his hand back.
Wenyin’s medicine scattered across the ground unexpectedly, and he made a small sound of frustration, his brow furrowing.
“It’s fine. If you don’t want to answer, that’s alright. Just give me your hand again so I can apply the medicine.”
The beggar pursed his lips, extended his hand again, his face flushing awkwardly. After a long moment, he whispered softly: “I’m called Amen.”
When Wenyin saw it took him so long to manage even a name, he understood the boy didn’t want to say more. Wenyin had no interest in pressing further, merely humming an indifferent acknowledgment.
Yulin’s mood had improved somewhat by then. He looked at Wenyin’s wound and asked: “Are you alright?”
Amen smiled slightly, answering as if he were grown up: “Thank you, kind benefactor. After Big Brother applied the medicine, it feels much better.”
Wenyin glanced at him—so Yulin was the benefactor, but he was just “Big Brother”?
They didn’t know that Amen had sharp hearing and had already caught every word of their quiet conversation in the bush.
Yulin was carefree and had already forgotten the incident entirely.
He grinned proudly, seeming quite proud of his rescue effort. He reached over to take Amen’s uninjured hand and held it gently, speaking to him:
“We’re from Floating Life Sect. I’m Yulin, the brother who applied your medicine is called Wenyin, and this is my senior sister Yuxuan.”
The warmth of their hands made Amen’s body tense instinctively. He slowly lowered his head to look at the hand that held his, remaining silent for a long time before softly repeating their names one by one.
He looked up, his eyes carefully studying each of the three figures before him.