After a long, fruitless search, the waterlon n returned to the front courtyard. One was injured, and waterlon juice leaked from the wound.
Imdiately, Geng Zhiwei ordered a clerk to bandage the injured waterlon man. Beside him, Jia Quansheng said, "Brother, you're too cautious. They aren't even living."
Geng Zhiwei shot him a look. "Do you know what one of these costs? If not for you, would I be investing this much money?"
"Right, right," Jia Quansheng said with a fawning smile. "It's all because of ."
Jia Quansheng said the words, but bitterness rose in him. Geng Zhiwei acted like he was taking a loss, yet he had already taken Chubby Qin's ten Speckled-Snake Pills, and Yu Nan's cloth shope would end up his too.
In the end, he had sacrificed only one Rong Jin'an and bought a little over twenty waterlon n.
Jia Quansheng had t the Agrarian Cultivator before. Each waterlon man sold for just over twenty thousand. All the waterlon n that Geng Zhiwei bought would help him gain a cloth shop. How was this a loss?
Besides, these waterlon n could serve for a year, and if they were hurt, a splash of water would heal them. At that price for sothing so useful, how was Geng Zhiwei losing anything? Of course, Jia Quansheng kept all of this to himself and did not dare say it out loud.
The waterlon n could not speak. Since one was hurt, Geng Zhiwei assud an ambush had happened. He led his n to check the back courtyard himself. When he found no one, he ordered them to burn the Yu family's old residence.
The flas rolled through the residence, and it turned to ash.
"Post a notice in Inner Gully tomorrow," Geng Zhiwei said to Jia Quansheng. "Yu Nan is not allowed to show her face in dicine King Gully. Anyone who sees her and does not report it to
will be my enemy."
Geng Zhiwei shouted, "Walk!"
His subordinates walked behind Geng Zhiwei while the waterlon n ford a formation and followed.
Inside his Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng quietly stroked the gramophone and asked softly, "My dear wifey, what level of Agrarian Cultivator would it take to nurture waterlon n like these? I don't want to fight him. I just want to be his friend and buy sothing good back ho for you next ti.
"My wifey, what do you think of cucumber n? The kind with spikes.
"My wifey, say sothing to . I'm staying in today for quite a while. If you keep quiet like this, you'll bore
to death."
Pop… crackle… pop…
The gramophone started to speak.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Drums and gongs thundered, and the gramophone started singing opera.
"Su San! From Hongdong I set out, from Hongdong I set out…To the street front I arrived… I hear Luoyang's flowers gleam like brocade… Yet when I arrive… frost and bitter cold… greet
so cruelly… ahhh!"
The line ca from a well-known aria in The Jade Hall of Spring, specifically the scene where Su San is escorted.
The gramophone sang with feeling. After two lines, its voice trembled as if it were crying.
No, it was crying. Between puffs of steam, beads ford on the horn and slid down like tears.
Li Banfeng wasn't a hopelessly straight guy with no sense of romance or empathy. He had a soft heart. When he saw the gramophone crying, he hurried over to comfort her. "My wifey, why are you crying?"
"Sob… sob…" The gramophone choked back tears, then chanted, "My husband brings no rice… for many, many days… This lowly wife… holds a starving belly… Ahhhh… ahhhh… ahhhh…"
The drawn-out cadence lingered, echoing endlessly through the air.
"Couldn't you just say you're hungry?" Li Banfeng was displeased. "I fed you so much at that old woman's house. You even ate Rong Jin'an the day before yesterday and that was fresh! And now you are hungry again?"
Clang, clang, clang~
The gramophone shifted its rhythm and continued to sing, "Poor couple! Poor couple! All is sorrow! My husband labors outside, hardship upon hardship! One al hungry and one al full, I dare not complain. Heeey yaaa… ahhh yaaa… ahhh~~"
At that, the gramophone broke into sobs again. Li Banfeng let out a weary sigh. "My wifey, you stuffed yourself last ti and stretched that belly of yours..."
She wept miserably, and her voice grew sharper with each word. "This little wife never complained of bitter rice, never complained of plain tea. Hard life, plain life, I endured without a word. Why does my husband mock ? Yaa… yaa… yaa… ahhh…"
"Stop crying!" Li Banfeng snapped. He was not in the best of moods. By rights, since they lived under the sa roof, he ought to give his wifey sothing decent to eat.
Money was not the problem for Li Banfeng. He could not promise delicacies every day, but it was unreasonable to let her go hungry at one al and full at the next. Unfortunately, his wifey only ate special things, and such precious ingredients were hard to find.
"My wifey, I'll catch a waterlon man for you to eat later. How does that sound?" Li Banfeng said as he pulled out the remaining waterlon pulp.
Tsk! The gramophone let out a snort.
"This waterlon was grown by an Agrarian Cultivator. It has no soul. How am I supposed to eat it?"
Since this little wife did not like waterlon, Li Banfeng said, "Then I'll fetch you so corpses to eat."
Tsk, tsk. "This little wife does not eat corpses!"
Li Banfeng knit his brows. "Why must you be so choosy? The lotus devours with joy."
"Husband, don't you ntion that wretch Honglian[1]!"
Honglian? Is she talking about the Arcane Crimson Lotus? Li Banfeng wondered.
The gramophone carried on with its aria. "My dear husband dotes, dotes on that wretch. All the best food, all the finest drink, you give to her. This little wife, ahhh, this little wife you cast aside. Whether I live or whether I die, you do not care. Ahhh… ahhh… ahhh~"
You make no sense. Li Banfeng called out, "My wifey, the corpses are before you. If you wish to eat, then eat."
Pfft! Steam burst from the horn in a sharp spray, as though she spat at him.
"How can this little wife swallow such filthy stuff? Honglian does not eat the living, ahhh does not eat the living! This little wife does not eat the dead, ahhh does not eat the dead!"
Li Banfeng grew angry. "Woman, you are too difficult to please!"
"My husband does not cherish this little wife… Does not cherish , does not cherish … Ahhh~"
Sizzle~
A sheet of steam surged out, scalding Li Banfeng until his whole body flushed red. He said nothing, and the gramophone fell silent.
Honglian did not eat the living, which ant that she fed on corpses, dicinal herbs, and even certain special weapons. The gramophone did not eat the dead. That ant she refused lifeless things. She fed instead on spirits who had died with resentnt still clinging to them. However, such vengeful spirits were not easy to co by.
Li Banfeng had an idea, but it was an idea with great risk.
***
When Geng Zhiwei returned to the dicinal trading house, he specially cleared a sunlit room to house the waterlon n.
The room contained more than twenty buckets, one for each waterlon man. They stood upright with their feet in the water bucket. Their strength would recover after a full day and night and they would be ready to fight the following day.
During the day, the waterlon n basked in the sun and all their wounds healed. When night fell, clerks from the dicinal trading house then ca by to refill their water.
At one in the morning, a waterlon man's belly swelled. With a sharp crack, its body split apart.
Clutching the key, Li Banfeng rose from a water bucket of waterlon pulps. The Pocket Dwelling followed the key, and the key had arrived here with the waterlon man.
Li Banfeng crawled out from the waterlon man's belly and found himself inside the Geng Family dicinal Trading House.
The shattered waterlon man remained calm, and the others stood in silence. They had not been fed fertilizer and lacked the power to fight.
Li Banfeng devoured the waterlon pulp in heavy bites. Around him, the waterlon n stood still, showing no sign of hostility.
After eating, sweat stread down his body. He glanced around the waterlon room, then quickly crouched.
This house had several glass windows with excellent light, allowing him to see the situation in the courtyard clearly.
Two guards stood outside the door. They were Geng Zhiwei's trusted n, assigned there because the waterlon n were very important.
Having heard the waterlon man explode, the two of them were peering inside. Luckily for Li Banfeng, the one that had the key in its stomach had been standing in the corner by the wall, just out of sight from the windows.
One of them whispered, "You keep watch here. I'll go in and take a look."
The other shook his head. "What's there to see? These things give
the creeps."
"You have things that you are afraid of? When Young Master Geng asked you to collect a debt from a family of several people last month, you killed all the n and slept with all the girls. Even ghosts would shiver at the sight of you. How are these waterlons scary?"
"How is that the sa? These are waterlons that have gained sentience. You saw it in the fight during the day. They are downright evil!"
"The young master paid a high price for these. We can't afford to have anything happen to it. How about we both go in and take a look?"
"You really are sothing…"
The two guards unlocked the door and edged into the room. A waterlon man lay in pieces, pulp and rind scattered on the floor.
Both of them were stunned and one of them asked, "What happened?"
The other one looked back at the other waterlon n and saw that each one stood in its bucket, neatly in place, with none missing.
Not a single one is missing. Then why is there a shattered one? Could there be an extra? How is that possible?
The thoughts flickered through this guard's mind. His hair stood on end as he scanned the waterlon n once more. That was when he realized that sothing was wrong.
In truth, one waterlon man was missing. With a blank expression, Li Banfeng stood upright in a water bucket and posed as a waterlon man.
As a Hobound Cultivator, he was often overlooked by people. And so, the two guards failed to see him at first glance.
The guard edged up to Li Banfeng, eyes widening in shock. "Isn't this—"
Pfft!
The sickle flashed, and Li Banfeng slit the man's throat in one clean motion.
The other guard was examining the shattered waterlon on the floor when he heard a faint noise behind him. As he began to turn, he felt a sickle brushing coldly across his throat.
"Don't make a sound. I'm a good man," Li Banfeng whispered in his ear.
The man dared not make a sound and Li Banfeng asked again, "Answer truthfully and I'll let you go. Where do you keep the valuable dicines in this trading house?"
"They are all in the dicine storeroom, which is located in the east-side room of the front courtyard."
"What good dicine do you have?"
"Do you an dicinal herbs or pills?" the guard stamred. "I can't identify all the herbs, but I do know so of the pills."
"Then tell
about the pills."
"There are dozens of Speckled-Snake Pills, though I don't know the exact number."
Li Banfeng did not believe him. "A dicinal trading house as large as the Geng Family's has only Speckled-Snake Pills? Don't lie to . I am a good man."
"The really good ones aren't on display. They're all kept at the master's residence."
The guard was not lying. A dicinal trading house generally did not keep very precious pills on site. If soone wanted to buy them, they had to set a ti in advance so the seller could fetch the goods.
Li Banfeng asked again, "Where is the money in the trading house kept?"
"There's so at the front counter. The larger sums are in the rear courtyard, in the young master's room."
"Where does your young master live?"
"In the rear courtyard. He sleeps in the third concubine's room."
"Are there guards in the rear courtyard?"
"There are. Usually ten."
"Do they have cultivation?"
"Yes. The top thug, Song Boming, is a second-level Physique Cultivator. Under him are two first-level Martial Cultivators."
There was one cultivator at the second level, two at the first, and seven lackeys. If Li Banfeng went out, the situation would beco difficult. This was not sothing he could handle alone.
Recalling that Geng Zhiwei commanded more than thirty n, Li Banfeng asked, "What about the rest of the guards?"
"The others are asleep in this compound. I'm telling the truth. You are a good guy. You promised to let
go. Please spare my life. I swear I won't alert the others," the guard cried. At this point, he was already in tears.
"Fine, I'll let you go," Li Banfeng said with a smile. "Actually, I heard it all earlier. You didn't even spare a single person in that family of more than a dozen."
With tears streaming down his face, the guard pleaded, "Good fella, it was the young master's order. We only do what he tells us. Don't believe that bastard's words. He is crueler than
and has killed more than I ever have!"
"More than you… I see." Li Banfeng glanced at the corpse on the ground. "It seems you two shared a deep bond. I'll send you off with him."
"Spare m—" The guard's plea broke off as his voice failed. Li Banfeng's blade had swept across his throat, silencing him forever.
1. This is basically a transliterated version of Crimson Lotus ??
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