Chapter 70#

The Cross-dressing Wife#

“You… you two…”

Because he was so shocked, the cloth shop owner actually began to stutter. He pointed at Gu Xingzhai and Lin Xiaodong, his finger trembling uncontrollably. “As expected, as expected! If Old Master Gu has eyes in the underworld, he would be worried to death by an unfilial son like you!”

“My father lived his life honorably and uprightly, unlike certain people with filthy minds and petty, thieving ways,” Gu Xingzhai said coldly. “If his old self knew, he would only approve of my decision today.”

The man’s left hand was interlocked with Lin Xiaodong’s fingers. His gaze swept over the pitchforks, wooden sticks, shovels, and so on held in the hands of the crowd. He made an inviting gesture toward them with his right hand: “It seems you all came prepared. Then come and try.”

“Let’s see if you can truly have your way tonight!”

As his voice fell, the scene instead fell into a strange silence.

The townspeople all knew that Gu Xingzhai was a martial artist, and a very powerful one at that. The legendary story of how he had effortlessly embedded a teacup into a wooden table at the teahouse was still being talked about by the people of Qingxie Town even today.

Therefore, although everyone present was greedy for the Gu family’s estate, no one wanted to be the first bird to stick its head out. This ultimately resulted in a stalemate where their slogans were loud, but no one dared to act rashly.

The cloth shop owner saw that this wouldn’t do; as the leader of the group, he had to bite the bullet and go first.

As the saying goes, alcohol bolsters a coward’s courage. He thought that with so many people on their side, Gu Xingzhai would probably be somewhat restrained even if he fought back. So, he shouted and raised his shovel, intending to swing it at Gu Xingzhai. But this man had too many schemes; thinking to pick the softest target, he diverted his path halfway to smash it toward Lin Xiaodong’s head—this time, it was a coincidence, as he had precisely poked Gu Xingzhai’s reverse scale.

The man no longer held back his strength. He grabbed the end of the shovel and kicked the cloth shop owner squarely in the chest. The kick made the man spit out a mouthful of blood on the spot, and he fell to the ground with his eyes rolling back, clearly having more breath going out than coming in.

Everyone stared dumbfoundedly at the unconscious cloth shop owner lying on the ground, every one of them as silent as a cicada in winter.

“Don’t, don’t be afraid of him, there are so many of us!” After a long while, a dark, muscular man said with a trembling voice. “Everyone, charge together! I don’t believe we can’t beat him!”

“Th-that’s right!”

A few of the braver ones took a step forward, picked up their tools, and were about to rush up. Gu Xingzhai took a deep breath and pulled Lin Xiaodong behind him. In just a few breaths, a few more “corpses” with broken heads and flowing blood lay on the ground.

Under the terrified gazes of the crowd, the man in the ink-black long gown placed one hand behind his back, lowered his eyes, and asked them:

“Who else wants to come? Come at me together!”

“Murder—!!!”

A scream pierced the night sky. This group of rabble was scared out of their wits, dropping their farm tools and torches and fleeing in all directions.

Lin Xiaodong watched coldly as the flames followed the wild grass below the steps, spreading all the way up.

He didn’t stop it, only casting one last look back at the Gu family mansion standing in the raging fire.

“Let’s go.”

The man’s large hand pressed on his shoulder, the heavy weight feeling like comfort and a silent promise.

“Where to?” Lin Xiaodong asked him.

“To the outskirts of the capital,” Gu Xingzhai said. “I’m taking you to see my Master.”

“Useless!”

Chief Manager Xie threw his teacup to the ground and cursed loudly: “A bunch of idiots! Lowlifes! They could have done anything else, but they had to go and alert the target. Now look, everyone’s run away!”

He was trembling with rage, cursing both the incompetent Master Huang and the group of townspeople in Qingxie Town who were more hindrance than help. Finally, he simply ordered the town mayor to increase Qingxie Town’s taxes for the next year by thirty percent to “teach them a lesson.”

Meanwhile, Lin Xiaodong and Gu Xingzhai, whom he was obsessing over, had long since flown far away.

They bought a carriage and took turns driving, heading all the way toward the outskirts of the capital. To avoid detection, Lin Xiaodong specifically bought a bamboo hat to wear.

“If your Master is also a demon hunter,” he asked while sitting in the carriage, “will he be like that gray-robed Taoist, shouting for my death the moment we meet?”

“Definitely not,” Gu Xingzhai said with certainty. “Although Master is quite old, his thinking is very open-minded. In many aspects, even young people can’t compare to him.”

Lin Xiaodong glanced at him and suddenly curled his lips.

Gu Xingzhai asked in confusion: “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Lin Xiaodong sighed, saying meaningfully, “I just don’t quite understand. Since your Master is so open-minded, how did he teach such a stiff and upright disciple?”

Gu Xingzhai: “…………”

He pointed to himself in disbelief: “Are you talking about me?”

“Who else?” Lin Xiaodong suppressed a smile. “Or are you only upright on the surface? True, I remember when you first came home, that righteous and gentlemanly look of ‘I, Gu, have a clear conscience’… Tsk, tsk, tsk, I was almost really fooled by you.”

“Lin Xiaodong!”

Seeing the annoyance hidden under the man’s stiff expression, Lin Xiaodong couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

In his hand was a wuxia novel he had just bought on the road, and he was reading it with great interest in the carriage. When he got tired, he swapped with Gu Xingzhai to drive. With someone to chat with along the way, he didn’t feel bored at all; instead, he felt this kind of life had a different kind of fun compared to the unchanging routine of staying in a grand mansion.

“We can be considered martial arts world figures now, right?” he said with a serious face. “Should we come up with some nicknames? Something like ‘Jade Greenhouse’ or ‘Timely Rain’?”

Gu Xingzhai sighed: “What do you want to be called?”

“Hmm,” this question truly stumped Lin Xiaodong. “Let me think about it properly first.”

As a result, an hour later, he covered his face with the book and fell fast asleep in the carriage.

Nicknames and the martial arts world were all left to the God of Dreams to handle.

Gu Xingzhai had known it would be like this.

The man looked back, feeling that this small space of just a few square feet was like the entire world of his life. The corners of his lips curved slightly. He checked the time, parked and tied the carriage by the roadside, and prepared to go into the small woods ahead to hunt a couple of birds for a change of taste.

He picked up two pebbles from the ground and struck out with force toward a bird perched on a branch.

With a dull thud, the bird fell, but Gu Xingzhai frowned deeply—

Because what killed the bird wasn’t his pebble, but a white-feathered arrow shot from the east.

“Senior Brother?”

A youth wearing a black padded jacket held a longbow and stood in the woods not far away, looking at him in surprise. Gu Xingzhai was stunned and instinctively said: “Xiao Liu?”

“Senior Brother, it really is you!”

Xiao Liu shouted excitedly and ran quickly toward him. But before Gu Xingzhai could ask how he happened to be here, Xiao Liu suddenly knelt before him and wept bitterly: “Senior Brother, Master… Master is gone!”

“Master is gone?” Gu Xingzhai’s pupils shrank, and he said sharply, “What happened? Speak clearly!”

“It, it was shortly after you left. That eunuch sent people again to invite Master,” Xiao Liu was frightened by his expression and for a moment forgot to cry, stuttering through the sequence of events. “But they said ‘invite,’ when it was actually a threat!” He gritted his teeth, his eyes red with hatred. “For our sake, Master dragged his seriously ill body to the forbidden area once more. In the end, in the end, he never came out…”

Gu Xingzhai slowly closed his eyes.

Beside him, Xiao Liu’s sobbing voice seemed to be separated by a membrane, buzzing and indistinct. The hatred suppressed in his heart, which had slowly faded with the passage of time, now surged back once more. Fresh red blood slowly seeped from the man’s tightly clenched fists, and his eyes were bloodshot with hatred. He wanted nothing more than to charge into the capital immediately to avenge Master and those seniors who had died in vain.

“Who’s there?”

Xiao Liu suddenly raised his longbow and shouted, watching the entrance of the woods vigilantly. Gu Xingzhai finally regained his senses and quickly grabbed his wrist: “Stop!”

But that one arrow had already been shot. Lin Xiaodong, who had just woken up and come out to find him, gave a muffled groan, clutched his arm, and stepped back half a step. His face almost twisted from the pain.

“Xiaodong!” Gu Xingzhai hurried to his side. “Are you alright?”

“…I’m okay, just a flesh wound.” Lin Xiaodong pressed his lips tightly together and slowly lowered his hand.

Fortunately, Xiao Liu had only sensed a demonic aura just now and hadn’t aimed for his heart. The wound wasn’t deep, only grazing his left arm without even hitting the bone. It was just bleeding a bit and would be fine after being bandaged.

But Gu Xingzhai’s expression remained full of self-reproach. He glanced at the blood splashed on the nearby tree trunk, brought bandages and alcohol from the carriage, and carefully bandaged it for Lin Xiaodong, remaining silent the entire time.

Standing nearby, Xiao Liu looked at him and then at Lin Xiaodong. Although he didn’t understand why his Eldest Senior Brother was mixing with a demon, he also knew he had been too reckless just now, so he took the initiative to apologize: “I’m sorry, Senior Brother, I didn’t see clearly just now.”

“This isn’t about whether you saw clearly or not!” Gu Xingzhai suppressed his anger and rebuked him. “And the person you need to apologize to isn’t me, it’s Xiaodong!”

Xiao Liu’s eyes widened: “Why should I apologize to a demon? Senior Brother, are you serious?”

“I am,” Gu Xingzhai stood up and said coldly, “Apologize. Otherwise, you don’t need to call me Senior Brother anymore.”

Xiao Liu looked at him in disbelief. After a long while, he reluctantly said “I’m sorry” to Lin Xiaodong.

“It’s fine. Our values are different; you don’t need to force him.” Lin Xiaodong smiled and asked Gu Xingzhai, “Is this your junior brother?”

“Yes, he’s ranked sixth; I’m the Eldest Senior Brother. But Master’s health failed after he took in Xiao Si (Little Four), so I raised all of them myself. I’m practically half a master to them.” Gu Xingzhai was still somewhat dissatisfied with his attitude, so he didn’t give Xiao Liu a friendly face.

Lin Xiaodong, on the other hand, smilingly brought a jar of fruit candies from the carriage cabin, grabbed a handful, and firmly stuffed them into Xiao Liu’s hand.

“Don’t be shy. This is a meeting gift from your ‘Master-Father’. Take it.”

Xiao Liu stared at him blankly, dumbfounded.

“…What did ya say???”