With the Blade

Moreover, his father really had carved out a piece of land.

This gave Yu Laosan endless aspirations.

Old Yu dug out some land, if he could do it in his lifetime, his son could continue, and his grandson could dig some more... By the time it reached his great-grandchildren’s generation, the land rented by the Yu family would have doubled. With grain in hand, they’d have money, and with a bit of money, they could find a teacher for their children. By then, perhaps the Yu family could produce someone literate, and maybe even someone like Li’s eldest son, who stayed abroad to see the wider world.

It was with this aspiration supporting him that Yu Laosan, carrying a hoe, walked towards the field, just like his late father.

It was still dark, and the road was somewhat dim, leaving Yu Laosan on the road quite afraid. Although strong aspirations supported him, he feared something might suddenly emerge and kill him—knowing he hadn’t married yet and naturally had no children. If he were to die this way, would it mean that the aspirations of the Yu family for these two generations would simply end?

Thus, when he saw something dark rushing towards him from a distance, Yu Laosan immediately hit the ground, trembling so much he even wet himself out of fear.

He was indeed very timid, and feared death terribly.

Fortunately, the dark thing didn’t seem to be a man-eating beast. At least when Yu Laosan got up, he could confirm he was not dead and did not see any blood—and as for that dark thing, it was already nowhere to be seen, as if nothing had happened except for his wet pants.

"Thank heavens, thank heavens."

Though he was embarrassed having wet his pants out of fear, Yu Laosan was only relieved he was still alive.

But soon, Yu Laosan felt he might not be able to survive.

Because another shadow was charging towards him, larger than the previous one, and its ferocious rush made Yu Laosan think he was facing a bear—except bears don’t stand on two legs like that shadow, nor are they as strong.

No, it wasn’t just strong, it was beyond Yu Laosan’s words to describe. The tall and sturdy figure in motion was two heads taller than Yu Laosan, with muscular limbs almost breaking the robe wrapped around it, and arms as solid and powerful as beams, while the large hands were larger than Yu Laosan’s head.

But what was most noticeable was the knife handle revealed on the figure’s back.

This exceptionally tall shadow had weapons.

"Spare me, strong man!"

Recalling rumors of bandits nearby, Yu Laosan turned and ran, terrified.

He knew he shouldn’t have come out; in the past, he thought however fierce roadside bandits might be, they wouldn’t target someone as poor as him. Who would have thought today, directly, the bandit was coming for him!

"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!"

Yu Laosan ran, faster than he had ever run before.

But no matter how quickly he ran, he couldn’t outrun those long legs that resembled pillars.

He had hardly taken two steps when one large hand pressed on Yu Laosan’s shoulder, lifting him effortlessly like a chicken—faced with such terrifying strength, Yu Laosan’s body utterly gave up resisting, and his mind was devoid of thought, leaving only interminable fear.

To Yu Laosan’s surprise, the burly man with a knife on his back didn’t kill him like he’d imagined bandits would but spun him around and placed him on the ground.

Then he spoke quite kindly.

"Did you just see a phoenix fly over here?"

"... A phoenix?"

Yu Laosan was stunned.

The phoenix... he’d heard of—an auspicious and powerful bird, but only figures of dragons and phoenixes adorned the possessions of nobles. Poor folks like him only heard of them, never seen such auspicious beings firsthand.

"Well..."

"My apologies, let me rephrase."

The burly man scratched his head, then spoke again.

"Did you just see a chicken pass by here?"

"... A chicken?"

Yu Laosan’s expression suddenly changed subtly.

"This... hero, there aren’t any chickens in the village, you’d have to go to the town to find one."

"I’m not talking about that kind of chicken."

The burly man patted his forehead.

"I mean a rooster, the kind that crows, a live chicken—it should’ve flown over just now; did you see it?"

"Oh, that kind of chicken."

Yu Laosan thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Didn’t see it."

"Oh, damn thing..."

Not getting any information seemed to disappoint the burly man, who swore in frustration.

"Do you have any water?"

"I do back home."

This time, Yu Laosan nodded.

He needed to go back anyway, at least to change his pants, and the man in front of him, through his words, didn’t seem like a bad person. Bringing him back for a bowl of water shouldn’t be a problem.

On the way back, through conversation, Yu Laosan learned that the burly man’s name was Du Chengfeng, and he’d come here solely to chase a wild chicken—Yu Laosan couldn’t figure out why one would pursue a wild chicken, thinking it through, he could only attribute it to having too much idle time on one’s hands.