Chapter 9 : Chapter 9
Chapter 9: Did I Really Pass Out from Hunger?
“That’s right!” One of the men beside him clicked his tongue in amazement. “He’s the only person in the past half month who’s managed to reach the gates of Wangyue City alive!”
“Ah! In times like these, only ruthless men who live with a blade at their throat dare travel the roads at night.”
Once he was sure there was no problem, Wang Song did not dare delay. He personally led a squad of men quickly down from the battlements.
Rumble—!
The heavy city gate was slowly pushed open by four soldiers working together, letting out a dull, groaning sound.
Wang Song stepped forward at once and cupped his hands toward Chen Guan. “Escort Master Chen, you’ve had a hard journey. Please, come in at once!”
“You’re too polite.” Chen Guan cupped his hands in return as a courtesy. He pressed his legs lightly against the horse’s belly, and the white horse immediately started walking toward the city gate.
After only a few steps, Wang Song’s voice suddenly sounded from behind him, carrying a trace of probing caution. “By the way, Escort Master Chen, may I ask... did you happen to encounter anything strange on the road?”
“Something strange?”
Chen Guan frowned slightly, but he quickly understood.
The man was almost certainly referring to that thing—Do Not Look Back.
“No.”
A perfectly measured look of puzzlement appeared on Chen Guan’s face as he asked in return, “Why would the officer say that?”
“No?!” Wang Song froze.
Could it be that the uncanny fiend which had plagued Wangyue City for half a month had simply left for no reason at all?
He muttered to himself inwardly, but did not press the matter further. He cupped his hands once more and bowed.
“That is good, that is good! It seems I was worrying too much. My apologies for disturbing Escort Master Chen.”
“No matter.” Chen Guan waved a hand casually and continued urging the horse onward without even turning his head.
The only reason he was unwilling to tell the truth was to avoid trouble.
Among all demons and monsters, uncanny fiends were the most mysterious and the hardest to deal with.
If these people learned that he had ways to evade, or even handle, uncanny fiends, it was inevitable that someone would set their sights on him.
When that happened, all manner of requests, coercion, and even threats would come one after another.
That principle was a law of survival carved into the bones of every seasoned drifter of the jianghu—never reveal your trump cards.
In any case, that uncanny thing had already been injured tonight by his Soul-Pinning Nail. As long as it was not stupid, it would not return here to make trouble again.
...
The crisp clatter of hooves rang out over Wangyue City’s flagstone streets in the early morning.
This little border city was slowly waking.
Some vendors who had risen before dawn were already pushing their one-wheeled carts out from the branching streets and alleys, skillfully setting up their stalls by the roadside.
The clatter of pots and bowls mixed with hawking cries, filling the city with the lively breath of the human world.
Chen Guan led the horse to an open area and casually tied it to a wooden rail by the roadside.
Then he walked over to a steaming food stall, dropped onto a little stool, and called to the middle-aged vendor, who was heating oil in a wok.
“Uncle, give me three bowls of noodles!”
“Coming right up, sir! Please wait a moment!”
The stall owner answered warmly and immediately stoked the fire, boiled water, and dropped in the noodles.
...
“Hiss...!”
On the other side, Luo Li—who was lying sideways across the horse’s back like a sack—knitted her brows slightly.
She instinctively raised a hand to her forehead, feeling as though her head had been scorched through by fire, with waves of stabbing pain throbbing inside.
She rubbed her temples hard, and only then did that burning pain begin to ease somewhat.
After resting for a moment, Luo Li slowly opened her eyes, only to find that everything in her vision was a blur of white, swaying constantly.
She rubbed her eyes hard and focused.
Only then did she realize that what she was looking at was the furry belly of a white horse.
“How did I end up here?”
The moment she moved, the scene before her lurched with it!
Thump!
Before she could react, she tumbled straight off the horse’s back and landed squarely on her backside.
“Ow!”
She cried out in pain, rubbing the part that had taken the fall as she slowly climbed to her feet, lips pursed.
She lifted her head and swept her gaze around. Before her, merchants pushing little carts came and went, while cries of buying and selling rose unceasingly on all sides.
The air was filled with the scorched fragrance of fried dough, the savory aroma of meat buns, and the steaming scent of all kinds of noodle broth.
Grrr—
At that smell, her stomach growled on its own.
“Hm? How did I end up here?”
She held her still-dizzy head as her memory came rushing back, and her eyes gradually cleared.
The day before yesterday, her grandfather had brought her to find an escort named Chen Guan and paid a deposit of twenty taels to have him escort her to Great Zhou.
On the road, that bastard had angered her half to death, and she had gone the entire day without eating.
Afterward, they had wound their way through the Wuyan Mountains, and just when they were about to arrive at Wangyue City... after that, there was nothing.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not remember anything that came after. Her mind was completely blank.
Suddenly, her brows drew together.
“Right, where is that escort?”
She looked around in all directions and immediately spotted Chen Guan not far away.
He was sitting boldly at a roadside stall, holding a huge sea bowl in his arms and noisily slurping noodles as though no one else existed. The sound of his slurping could be heard from quite a distance away.
Luo Li turned and looked again at the white horse behind her. She thought carefully for a moment, only to realize that after seeing the lights of Wangyue City last night, her memory was completely blank.
“Could it be that I really fainted from hunger last night?”
Once again, Luo Li looked toward Chen Guan, who was wolfing down noodles.
The more she looked, the more it really did seem like something he would do.
“That bastard! He actually treated me like cargo and threw me across a horse’s back, letting me jolt all the way here without a care in the world. Can that still be called being an escort?!”
Her face instantly turned cold. Anger, hunger, grievance—every emotion exploded at once.
Enduring the dizziness in her head, she stormed over and pointed at Chen Guan’s nose as she snapped,
“Chen Guan! You bastard! Are you even human?! Is this how an escort is supposed to behave?”
“Your employer fainted from hunger, and you just threw her over a horse’s back while you sat here eating noodles first?!”
That single shout immediately drew the eyes of the nearby vendors and the passersby eating breakfast all around them.
Even Chen Guan paused in the middle of slurping noodles.
He turned his head, only to see this foolish girl exploding at him first thing in the morning as though she had swallowed eight hundred jin of gunpowder, her whole face flushed red.
“What do you mean I starved you unconscious?”
One of Chen Guan’s brows rose. He set down his chopsticks and fired back with perfect confidence.
“You were the one who could not bear to spend money on food and insisted on enduring it. You were also the one who refused to believe in such things and insisted on turning ba—insisted on courting death. Then you scared yourself unconscious. How is that my fault?”
“You... you!”
Luo Li trembled all over from the outrage his twisted logic provoked, but at that exact moment, her stomach let out another long growl, leaving her standing there in equal parts shame and fury.
And the angrier she became, the hungrier she felt.
“Fine, fine, fine!” She could not even be bothered quarreling with Chen Guan anymore and hurriedly shouted toward the noodle-stall owner nearby, “Boss, give me a bowl of noodles!”
The owner had been amused by the quarrel between the young pair and quickly withdrew his gaze from the spectacle with a grin.
“Right away! It’ll be ready in a moment!”
But Luo Li could not wait even that long.
With a single glance, she noticed that there was still one untouched bowl of noodles on Chen Guan’s table, steaming with heat.
Without thinking, she staggered over, snatched up the bowl, then turned and ran to another empty table, where she lowered her head and began eating immediately.
All the gentle refinement and graceful bearing of a highborn young lady were cast beyond the clouds in the face of hunger.
Chen Guan curled his lip, but he could not be bothered arguing over a single bowl of noodles. He merely called calmly to the stall owner,
“Boss, just set her bowl over here.”
Luo Li shot him a fierce glare when she heard that, but her mouth was stuffed full of noodles, and she was too lazy to argue.
Once this young lady has eaten her fill, then I’ll settle the score with you!
On Chen Guan’s side, he swept through the bowl on the table like a gale through fallen leaves, then ordered two more bowls.
Only after five full bowls of noodles had gone into his stomach did he finally let out a satisfied belch.
As for Luo Li, though she looked like a slender, delicate young girl, she somehow managed to put away two huge bowls fit for a grown man before the dizziness left her completely.
Strangely enough, the moment she was full, that innate air of authority upon her surfaced once more, while her fiery temper was miraculously suppressed again.
She told herself inwardly that, in any case, they had already arrived in Wangyue City. To bicker with a coarse and shameless fellow like him would only demean her own status.
In a little while, she would speak with her little aunt and make him refund the money and leave.
If he really escorted her the whole way, she would likely be angered to death before they even arrived.
“Boss, the bill!”
“Right away, sir. Two copper coins in total.”
Chen Guan stood as well and took five copper coins from his robes, tossing them onto the table. “Boss, these noodles taste quite good!”
“Thank you for the praise, sir. Please do come again next time.” The middle-aged owner beamed with delight.
Luo Li did not so much as spare Chen Guan a glance. She walked straight toward her white horse.
But after only two steps, she suddenly thought of something.
“I clearly had two horses. Where is Chen Guan’s black one?”