Chapter 2 : Chapter 2
Chapter 2: I’m Taking This Escort!
“Am I somehow fated with old men? I sent one off up ahead, and now another one has come?”
While he was muttering to himself, the old man and the young girl had already come over, trembling as they walked.
Old Zhang hurried forward and made introductions for both sides.
“Chief... Chief Escort Chen...”
The old man shakily raised his head. A trace of urgency showed in his cloudy eyes as he struggled to cup his hands in greeting.
“This old man... this old man has come from Sanhua Town. I have already waited here for you for seven days. I...” Cough... cough cough cough!
Before he could finish a single sentence, another earth-shaking fit of coughing broke out, making his old face flush the color of a freshly steamed bun.
Seeing this, the little girl beside him immediately reached out with a pained expression and gently patted the old man’s back with her slender hand.
Chen Guan’s gaze fell on the little girl.
She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. She wore a coarse cloth dress that had been washed until it had faded white, yet it still could not conceal the graceful figure that had already begun to take shape.
Especially the skin exposed at her neck and wrists—it was pale and delicate, like the finest suet jade, so out of place in this poor mountain village of harsh land and bad water.
Her eyes were cool and calm. Even when facing the baleful aura that had built up around him over years of killing and escort work, they did not ripple in the slightest.
Moreover, Chen Guan sensed on this little girl a kind of bearing that did not belong to the mountains.
He had only encountered such bearing once before.
That time, it had been on a prefectural governor. Yet the air about this little girl was actually steadier than that governor’s had been.
He did not know whether that was only his imagination.
And listening to the old man’s refined, bookish way of speaking, he did not sound like a peasant who scraped food from the soil either.
After a long while, the old man finally caught his breath. A layer of deathly pallor surfaced on his face, the kind of white one saw on the terminally ill. Panting, he used all his strength to force out the rest of his sentence:
“It is just that... this journey is far away. The destination is... the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty, two thousand li from here.”
“Oh ho, this is crossing into another country.”
Chen Guan muttered inwardly.
No wonder this little girl carried herself that way. Added to her fine, tender skin and that old man’s genteel manner of speaking...
So they were not people of Great Yun after all.
The land beneath his feet belonged to the border region of the Great Yun Imperial Dynasty.
As for the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty, it lay to the northeast of Great Yun, and from here to the border alone was a full two thousand li.
That two-thousand-li road was no peaceful path.
They would have to cross countless wild mountains infested with demons and monsters, and pass through countless wastelands haunted by hungry ghosts.
The dangers along the way would not only come from savage bandits blocking the road, but even more from those unspeakable demons, monsters, and sinister fiends that pounced the moment they saw a living human.
He had indeed begun to think about getting out and seeing the wider world, but he had never imagined that his very first long-distance escort would send him straight out of the country.
The old man was shrewd enough to see the hesitation in Chen Guan’s eyes at a glance.
He forced himself through two coughs, then cast a look toward the little girl at his side.
The girl understood immediately. At once, she pulled out a heavy cloth bundle from her robes. With a pair of bright, clear eyes fixed on Chen Guan, she held it out to him with both hands.
“This old man knows Escort Master Chen’s rules...”
The old man steadied his breathing and continued,
“Here are twenty taels of silver as a deposit. As long as you safely escort my granddaughter to her uncle’s home, then once you arrive, her uncle will pay you another one hundred taels of silver!”
Hiss—!
One hundred and twenty taels?!
Beside them, Old Zhang, still carrying his hoe, sucked in a sharp breath.
Mountain folk like them spent the entire year clawing food out of the soil. If Chen Guan had not often helped them out by bringing back rations, whether they could even survive was another matter entirely. How could they ever have seen such a huge sum of silver?
One tael of silver was worth one thousand copper coins. In times like these, a single copper coin could buy two solid wheat cakes in town.
That much money was enough for an ordinary family of three to live on for most of their lives.
Still, Old Zhang had survived this man-eating world for many years. After his initial shock, he did not open his mouth to advise against it.
The most dangerous profession in this world was that of an escort.
The more money one was offered, the more death warrants one would meet on the road.
A journey of two thousand li for one hundred and twenty taels of silver—one would likely have to trade one’s life for it.
After only a brief moment of thought, Chen Guan took the money pouch from the girl without the slightest hesitation and weighed it in his hand.
Everyone within these villages knew that he charged high fees for escort work.
Even so, only once in a while would he come across a wealthy outsider he could fleece hard.
Most of the time, the jobs he took were only scattered little errands worth a few dozen copper coins. After all, this was a poor and remote place. No matter how high a price he demanded, it could only go so high.
The coffin delivery he had done yesterday had already counted as a rare fat commission. If the price had not been enough, he would not even have bothered touching something that unlucky.
One hundred and twenty taels...
That was indeed a fair price.
When the little girl saw Chen Guan take the pouch so decisively, the fingers holding it stiffened ever so slightly.
The bright clarity in her eyes quietly dimmed.
Chen Guan was the tenth escort she had sought out.
The previous nine had all refused on the spot, either because the journey was too far or because they lacked the strength to make it all the way.
Of course, there had also been people like Chen Guan who accepted the money pouch without thinking.
But that was only greed at work. Once they truly encountered danger, such people would probably abandon their employer and run faster than anyone else.
However, every one of those people had been seen through on the spot by her grandfather, and the deal had never gone through.
Even so, Chen Guan was still the one who had agreed the fastest.
She could not understand why her grandfather had waited seven days for this sort of man.
Chen Guan tucked the pouch into his robes. His icy gaze swept over the old man, then finally landed on the little girl with lowered eyes.
“Since you know my rates, then you should also know the rules by which I conduct escort work.”
He raised three fingers.
“First: once the destination is decided, it cannot be changed midway.”
“Second: on the escort route, I make the decisions.”
“Third: everything must be set down in writing. If any one of these rules is violated, I have the right to walk away on the spot.”
“Yes! Yes! Of course this old man understands!”
The moment the old man heard there was hope, he seemed to have a flash of returning vitality. A trace of color even appeared on his deathly pale face as he hurriedly pulled the little girl beside him forward.
“Chief Escort Chen, you need only escort my granddaughter, Luo Li, safely to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor of her uncle Su Wenyuan in Shangjing City of Great Zhou. Once she arrives there safely, this escort will be considered complete!”
The instant those words fell, a line of golden characters surfaced before Chen Guan’s eyes once more.
【Escort Mission Triggered: Escort Luo Li to the Grand Preceptor’s Manor in Shangjing City of Great Zhou.】
【Mission Reward: Escort Points +200】
【Trait Draws Received: 2】
Hm?
Chen Guan’s heart stirred slightly.
The small errands he usually took mostly gave only single-digit Escort Points. Even yesterday’s dangerous coffin-delivery trip had only earned him 10 points.
Yet this long-distance escort was giving him 200 points right away?
It seemed that in the future, he really would have to take more long-distance jobs.
“Fine.”
Chen Guan agreed in a single breath and turned his gaze once more toward the little girl named Luo Li.
At that moment, Luo Li also raised her head and examined the escort who would soon be accompanying her on this journey.
Yet all she saw was a somewhat lazy smile.
She could not find the slightest trace of solemnity on that relaxed face.
It was as though the life-and-death journey ahead meant nothing more to him than a leisurely outing through mountains and rivers.
Luo Li turned her cool eyes toward her grandfather, her expression carrying a trace of questioning.
She did not believe that this man who cared only for money would be more reliable than the previous nine escorts.
Cough cough!
As though he had seen through his granddaughter’s thoughts, the old man suppressed the coughing surging in his chest, reached out with a withered hand, and gently patted the back of her hand. His voice was full of certainty.
“Li’er, when judging a person, you cannot judge only by appearances.”
“Chief Escort Chen is the most rule-abiding escort in all the surrounding villages. In ten years of escort work, he has never failed even once. Only with him here does this journey have any real hope...”