Chapter 122: Chapter 99: Horse 5 and Sister-in-law 17
That night, Ma Wu slept on the first floor.
He had thought Li Qi would be sleeping on the second floor and planned to find him at daybreak to show him around Blue Poplar Village properly. To his surprise, there was no trace of Li Qi in the bedroom.
Where had he gone?
For an outsider to wander around Blue Poplar Village was very dangerous, and Ma Wu searched the village several tis over.
He couldn’t possibly find Li Qi because at that mont, Li Qi was sleeping in his Portable Residence.
Last night, Li Banfeng wandered the village all night. He not only accumulated enough cultivation for a Traveling Cultivator but also mastered the geography of Blue Poplar Village.
At the southernmost end of Blue Poplar Village, Li Banfeng saw the entrance to New Land. Standing upon treetops, he could faintly make out so lights, proving that people had successfully reclaid the land.
On his way back, Li Banfeng encountered two robbers. He extorted over three thousand pieces of money from them and then sent the robbers to his wife for a scolding lesson.
After the lesson from his wife, the robbers, now full of burps, promised that they would not offend again.
By dusk, the worn-out Ma Wu finally found Li Qi under the wooden house.
Li Banfeng was watching the excitent.
Below, two groups of people were brawling, their fighting thods crude, with hardly any technique to be seen.
The tactics were quite direct. The two factions charged at each other, with so falling and others running away.
The weapons were sowhat primitive. So wielded kitchen knives, while others didn’t even have knives.
The noodle shop owner also joined the fight. Initially, he carried a kitchen knife, but later switched to a rolling pin to avoid damaging his knife.
Ma Wu approached Li Banfeng and whispered, "Brother Li, where have you been all day?"
"Just wandering around," Li Banfeng replied evasively, continuing to watch the fight.
Ma Wu warned, "Brother Li, it’s better not to watch this ss."
Li Banfeng said sternly, "I have to watch. Our landlord is in there!"
Ma Wu glanced over and indeed saw Landlord Wei fighting in the crowd.
He was injured, his face covered in blood, wielding an axe with all his might.
In the lee, about five or six people were attacking him. They were clearly targeting him.
Ma Wu said softly, "Brother Li, it looks like your two months’ rent is going down the drain."
As they spoke, the landlord took another hit to his back. His body shook, and he nearly fell, almost unable to hold onto his axe.
The people around him waved their knives, hacking down without caution. The landlord’s consciousness blurred, his will to fight almost depleted due to his severe injuries.
Ma Wu stared at the landlord for a mont, and the landlord seed to sense Ma Wu’s gaze.
Like a person on the brink of death injected with adrenaline, under Ma Wu’s gaze, the landlord’s will to fight returned, and he wielded his axe to continue the desperate struggle.
After holding on for a little over three minutes, a shout suddenly ca from the alley: "Back up! Retreat!"
The group attacking the landlord quickly left the scene. The landlord, with a dozen n behind him, chased after them fiercely, "Brothers, don’t let those bastards run away! For each kill, I’ll give ten Ocean Dollars!"
Not far after the landlord chased out, another group of people burst out from the alley, seemingly reinforcents for the landlord.
Watching the chaos intensify, Ma Wu reminded Li Banfeng, "Brother Li, it’s ti to go. If soone recognizes you, things will get complicated."
Li Banfeng, startled by the comnt, followed Ma Wu back to the wooden house.
Last night, Li Banfeng paid Ma Wu his first day’s wage: one hundred and fifty.
Ma Wu bought so sauce-coated beef, pig’s ears, and a bottle of baijiu. The two of them ate and chatted together.
"Brother Ma, just now, that was you using a Technique on the landlord, wasn’t it?"
Ma Wu nodded. "Seeing him at a life-or-death mont, I gave him a boost of energy, just enough to preserve your two months’ rent."
Li Banfeng was surprised. "Lust Cultivation Techniques can actually give people energy? The Lust Cultivators I’ve t always cause heart palpitations and trembling hands."
Ma Wu said, "Actually, it’s all the sa Technique, but it has different applications. Like morning dew moisturizing everything, that’s Charm Art. Like a gentle rain being sprinkled, that’s Inspiration. Like a torrential rain pouring down, that’s Confusion. I haven’t reached the First Layer yet, so I can only use Inspiration. I haven’t learned the Art of Confusion."
Ma Wu’s analogy was apt, and Li Banfeng understood it clearly.
After a mont of silence, Ma Wu asked, "Brother Li, aren’t you curious how I ca to be this way?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I am a bit curious. Back when we t at the Peddler’s, you seed pretty straightforward, but now your words seem evasive."
Ma Wu blinked, feeling that the matter of being straightforward was not the key issue.
Shouldn’t he be asking why I’ve beco a beggar?
Ma Wu took a swig of his drink. "Actually, you could have guessed so of it back at the Peddler’s. Logically, I shouldn’t have been looking to buy dicine there."
Li Banfeng took a bite of pig ear. "Then where should you have bought the dicine? To get initiated, doesn’t one have to find a Peddler?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "The Ma Family still has so foundations in Puluo State. People from the Ma Family don’t need to find a Peddler for initiation; we have the dicine at ho."
The Ma Family?
"Are you from the Ma Family of the Four Great Families?"
Ma Wu nodded. "My na is Ma Junyang, the fifth son of the Ma Family. The reason I went to the Peddler to select dicine is that I wanted to be a Lust Cultivator."
Li Banfeng pondered. "Because your family doesn’t have Lust Cultivation dicine, you went to the Peddler?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "It’s not because we don’t have Lust Cultivation dicine, but because one simply cannot be a Lust Cultivator in my family. The Ma Family is a prestigious family, and descendants must have proper cultivation levels. In Puluo State, Literature Cultivators and Martial Cultivators follow the legitimate paths of cultivation. This is especially true for the Ma Family, which values orthodoxy extrely highly and scoffs at other Taoist Sects. Lust Cultivation is the Taoist Sect practice most despised by my father. By cultivating it, I effectively disgraced the Ma Family, becoming a true sha to our na."
Literature Cultivators and Martial Cultivators are the orthodox; no wonder there are more cultivators in these two sects.
To a wealthy family, the reputation of Lust Cultivation might indeed be poor, but Li Banfeng felt that this wasn’t enough to leave Ma Wu in such dire straits. "Just because of this, the Ma Family kicked you out?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "It wasn’t that serious. My father has many children: two elder brothers and two sisters above , all with proper cultivation levels. Having produced such a black sheep as myself didn’t seem to raise too much of an issue. This was especially true since I was destined not to inherit the family business. My father gave
two dance halls, which I managed quite well. I wasn’t short on money, nor worried about my cultivation."
Li Banfeng was astonished. "Really not worried? Cultivating ten tis a day doesn’t seem easy."
Ma Wu gave a wry smile. "Back then, I could afford all the tonics and dicines, so I managed to sustain myself."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I’m worried your Taoist partners wouldn’t be able to keep up."
Ma Wu laughed. "One Taoist partner certainly couldn’t keep up, but with ten partners, one session each, there was no difficulty. There were plenty of willing girls at Greenwater Bay, a whole lot ready to throw themselves at . I never worried about such matters. My butler, Chen Yupeng, was always finding new girls for
every day. That is, until one day my third brother ca to my place, kicked the door open, dragged
out of bed, and beat
up. That’s when the real trouble started."
"What kind of trouble?" Li Banfeng took a sip of his drink.
Ma Wu drained his cup in one go. "The woman in my bed was my brother’s fiancée, yet to be officially married into our family."
Li Banfeng laughed. "Were you and your sister-in-law childhood sweethearts?"
Expecting a lodramatic story, Li Banfeng instead heard Ma Wu laugh bitterly. "Brother Li, you really jest. My third brother has sixteen wives, and I can’t even recognize all of those who have married in, let alone one who hasn’t."
Li Banfeng frowned. "You didn’t recognize this sister-in-law?"
"Not at all!" Ma Wu said, his face bitter.
After a mont of thought, Li Banfeng said, "You’ve been set up!"
"Yes," Ma Wu nodded. "I was set up by my third brother and my butler. They conspired to put the Seventeenth Sister-in-law in my bed as a trap for ."
Li Banfeng put down his cup. "Why would your third brother set you up? What vendetta does he have against you to go to such lengths?"
Ma Wu took a sip. "The third brother sched against
for my money. He’s the legitimate heir of the Ma Family, set to inherit everything. My father has already given him two gambling houses, two restaurants, and a departnt store. In Greenwater Bay, he owns half a street—all these assets, over thirty percent of the Ma Family’s holdings, were provided by my father."
Li Banfeng couldn’t understand. "He’s not short on money. Why does he want yours?"
Ma Wu shook his head. "He’s desperate for money, truly desperate. He’s incompetent, and none of the businesses under his control have made a profit. It was almost autumn. According to Ma Family rules, we audit our accounts on the first day of autumn. His ledgers were in such poor shape this year, he couldn’t show them. He wanted support from my dance halls to cover his losses, but I refused.
"I only have two dance halls, which in the grand sche of the Ma Family’s wealth are negligible. But I have a knack for making money. From just these two halls, I could generate twenty percent of the Ma Family’s inco. The third brother wanted to force
to give him money. So, he staged a ploy, sending his fiancée to my bed to extort a large sum from ."
Li Banfeng felt there was a problem with how things were handled. "He extorts money from you; you could just give it to him. Even if the affair ca to light, your family had ans to quell the scandal. It’s unlikely your father would kick you out over this."
Ma Wu sighed with a bitter smile. "There are ways to handle it, but it depends on the situation. My third brother had just arrived when the reporters showed up. Our bare pictures were snapped, and the story got out! Old Five sleeping with the third brother’s wife—the Ma Family lost face in a big way, disgracing the whole Puluo State!
"Who called the reporters? Your third brother can’t be that stupid, right? Even if he was cuckolded, would he dare spread the word around?"
"Definitely not him," Ma Wu said with a laugh and a sigh. "It could have been my fourth brother, or maybe my eldest sister. My third brother sched against , and soone else sched against him from behind. I was driven out by my family, and my father has locked up the third brother. In a short ti, that person might take the third brother’s place as the heir to the Ma Family."
Li Banfeng asked, "Who wants to be the heir?"
"Still don’t know," Ma Wu shook his head. "That person is hidden deep, and I don’t even know if I’ll live to see him."
It was clear that Ma Wu’s health was in poor condition.
Li Banfeng asked, "Because the matter was reported in the newspapers, the Ma Family had you leave with nothing but the clothes on your back?"
At this, Ma Wu sighed repeatedly. "It wasn’t exactly leaving with nothing but the clothes on my back. When I left the house, my family gave
three hundred Ocean Dollars. Brother Li, I’m not bragging, but with those three hundred Ocean Dollars, I could have earned myself a new family fortune.
"But less than two hours after I left ho, I was robbed. The three hundred Ocean Dollars were taken clean; even my jacket was stripped from . I had hidden a jade pendant and exchanged it at a pawnshop for five silver coins. I ca to Blue Poplar Village to find a way to make a living. Within half a month, I had earned one hundred twenty Ocean Dollars. Guess what happened then?"
Li Banfeng took a sip of his drink. "You got robbed again?"
Ma Wu nodded. "You guessed it. Just ten days ago, the one hundred twenty Ocean Dollars were completely stolen. I couldn’t pay the rent, so I got kicked out and ended up sleeping in a makeshift shelter. Near New Land, I collected so trash to sell and scraped together about a hundred or so Huan Country Banknotes. Just when I thought of finding a place to stay, the day before yesterday, I got robbed again. They didn’t leave
a penny for food. That’s why I ended up picking garbage to eat."
Li Banfeng frowned. "Who did this? Who wants to push you to a dead end?"
"Who else could it be?" Ma Wu said with a bitter smile. "It must still be soone from my own family."
This made no sense.
Ma Wu was already cast out, posing no threat to the others. What good would it do them to tornt Ma Wu to death?
There seed to be another mystery here, but Ma Wu had been tornted so miserably that he couldn’t sort things out clearly at the mont.
Ma Wu took a big gulp of liquor and looked at Li Banfeng. "Brother Li, if it weren’t for the al you gave , I might have starved to death last night. I really don’t know how I can repay this kindness..."
Li Banfeng nodded. "You definitely have to repay the kindness you owe . Eat your al first, and then write an IOU. We can discuss the debt repaynt later."
Ma Wu shook his head with a bitter smile. "It’s not sothing that can be settled by eating a al. I haven’t cultivated for ten days, and my life is nearly at its end. Brother Li, I don’t have much ti left. I only want to do more for you. I’m looking for soone by the na of Li Banfeng. Do you know him?"
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