Chapter 11 : Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Which Side Is This Little Aunt Even On?
Su Yue looked Luo Li over and saw that she was indeed safe and sound, so she could only nod.
But she understood Do Not Look Back far better than Luo Li did.
In order to resolve this trouble, the higher-ups had specially dispatched an elite squad from the Demon Suppression Bureau. By all rights, they should have arrived ten days ago, yet even now there had been no trace of them.
That could only mean that the squad had most likely met with disaster.
But this girl...
How had she managed to cross through safely?
Then Su Yue thought of something else and immediately asked,
“Li’er, half a month ago, I spent a great sum to have someone deliver a letter to your grandfather, telling you to delay your departure by one month. Could it be... that your grandfather never received the letter?”
Luo Li suppressed the relief of having escaped disaster and shook her head in confusion.
Her grandfather’s health had been poor for the past half year. He had practically never been without medicine, and she had stayed by his side every single day. How could any messenger have come without her knowing?
“Alas...” Su Yue let out a heavy sigh, and a trace of pity flashed through her eyes.
“It seems that the messenger I sent was, in all likelihood... doomed.”
At the mention of her grandfather, Luo Li was reminded again of the fine horse he had so carefully raised for three years. Her pretty face cooled, and just as she was about to start lodging complaints, Su Yue spoke first with an apologetic expression.
“Li’er, for the time being, your little aunt cannot set out with you after all.”
“I had originally written all of this in the letter. I assumed your grandfather had already received it. But the appearance of Do Not Look Back disrupted all of our arrangements at once.”
Luo Li froze, then asked in confusion,
“Didn’t we already agree that we would go to Great Zhou together? Why can’t we suddenly leave together now?”
Su Yue sighed and said slowly, “What else could it be but Do Not Look Back?”
“Our hide trade has been bleeding money these past days because Do Not Look Back is blocking the road. It is on the verge of coming to a complete halt.”
“Just a moment ago, I received a pigeon message. The two most important major clients of our Su Family Merchant Association both died outside the city, at the hands of Do Not Look Back.”
Su Yue rubbed her brow wearily, her face full of sorrow.
“I must remain here for a time and find some way to deal with this trouble. At the very least, I need to find a way to get our business back on track. Otherwise...”
Hearing that, Luo Li pushed the matter of Chen Guan selling the horse temporarily to the side, and a look of anxiety surfaced on her face.
The only reason they had been able to maintain such a comfortable life in this remote region was because of this trade in demon and monster pelts.
It was their only source of income!
This trip to Great Zhou was filled with uncertain winds and clouds ahead. There was no telling how much silver it would consume.
If this single source of wealth were cut off, then once they reached Great Zhou, even if one did not say their every step would be impossible, their road ahead would certainly become full of hardship.
But Grandfather had only just passed away. She had thought her little aunt would be her support on this journey, yet the road ahead stretched for several thousand li, filled with demon fiends and treacherous human hearts—
After a moment of silence, Luo Li circled around the point and asked, “Little Aunt, what if we notify Great Zhou first... and I wait with you in Wangyue City for a while?”
“Nonsense!” Su Yue’s face immediately stiffened.
“For the sake of escorting you, your grandfather spent a full one hundred and twenty taels of silver!”
“According to the rules of the escort trade, once a Route Contract has been signed, even if you decide not to go, that silver must still be paid.”
“And in order to be safe, I also made arrangements in advance. I spent a great sum to hire all the Escort Masters ranked within the top hundred of Pingyang Commandery to escort you together.”
“If we do not set it in motion, then all that money would have been thrown into the water for nothing.”
“But...” Luo Li still wanted to argue.
Yet what her little aunt said truly made sense.
Once money had been spent to hire escorts, even if one regretted it, what had to be paid still had to be paid.
One tael of silver was enough to keep a family of three clothed and fed for a year.
Especially these Escort Masters ranked within the top hundred of Pingyang Commandery—that was no simple figure. Even though she had helped her little aunt with business for years, losing that kind of sum would still wound them badly.
And besides...
At the thought of silver, Luo Li was reminded once more of that fellow Chen Guan. If she did not leave, it would mean letting him pocket the full one hundred and twenty taels for nothing.
If she did leave, she would very likely be angered to death by him halfway there.
Either way, she would lose.
After thinking it through, she suppressed the urge to keep negotiating and said coolly,
“Little Aunt, let us put that aside for now. I want to discuss something else with you first.”
“The escort Grandfather found is a complete fraud. Not only is he greedy and black-hearted, but when I fainted from hunger, he simply threw me across a horse’s back. In the end, he even secretly sold my prized horse.”
“I want to change escorts!”
Su Yue was taken aback by this, then asked in puzzlement, “Why would he sell your horse?”
It was the first time she had ever heard of an escort so greedy that he would stoop to such a thing.
And moreover, dismissing an escort midway through a mission was a tremendous insult to that profession. It was an open challenge to his ability. Once word spread, he might not be able to take another job in this region again.
Dismissing an escort was no trifling matter.
“Little Aunt, you have no idea about that fellow...”
Luo Li immediately poured out, like beans from a bamboo tube, all the grievances she had bottled up along the way and all her resentment toward Chen Guan.
Su Yue listened quietly all the way through. Not only did she show no intention of comforting her, she actually reached out with one finger and poked Luo Li on the forehead in annoyance as Luo Li stood there expectantly seeking sympathy.
“You, you... and you still feel wronged? If you ask me, you ought to be secretly rejoicing instead.”
“Hm?” Luo Li froze on the spot.
Then she widened those bright, watery eyes and stared at the little aunt who had loved her most since childhood in utter disbelief.
Which side is this little aunt even on?
“That fellow is greedy and heartless, and you are still telling me I ought to be secretly rejoicing?”
Su Yue gave a soft laugh and asked in return, “That demon wolf you mentioned earlier—do you know what is truly most terrifying about a demon wolf?”
Luo Li said indignantly, “That demon wolf was less than five feet tall, and from the look of it, its strength was only around the Xiantian Realm. Even I could have barely exchanged a few moves with it.”
“He is a grown man, and an escort at that, yet he still had to rely on trickery just to escape danger. Don’t you think he is just a complete fraud?”
“Oh, you foolish girl. Have you read so many books that you’ve turned stupid?”
Su Yue rolled her eyes at her, half irritated and half amused.
“What makes demon wolves terrifying has never been their individual strength, but their species!”
“You should know that wolves are pack beasts. Especially those demon wolves tainted with uncanny corruption—their pack nature is terrifying to the extreme.”
“As far as I know, even the smallest demon wolf pack on the edge of the Ten Directions Marsh numbers over ten thousand.”
“The one you encountered was most likely nothing more than a sentry wolf out on patrol.”
“Those wolves carry the mark left behind by the Demon Wolf King. Once one of them dies somewhere, the Demon Wolf King senses it immediately.”
“And when that happens, what you would have to face would be the frenzied siege of at least ten thousand demon wolves!”
“It is only thanks to your grandfather’s sharp eye that he managed to find such an experienced escort.”
“If you had been escorted by some slightly younger escort instead, whether a little girl like you could even have made it here would still be another matter. Yet you actually have the nerve to look down on him.”
“What?!”
The cool expression on Luo Li’s face instantly froze.
She thought back to what she knew of demon wolves, only to realize that she had truly never examined their habits in any depth.
And this had all happened at the edge of the Ten Directions Marsh... that was the world of demons and monsters. Who knew just how vast the demon wolf packs there might truly be?
Could it be that that fellow really did have some skill?
What her little aunt said was indeed true.
Ordinary younger escorts, in order to earn extra rewards, would usually fawn over the employer all along the escort route and go out of their way to put on a show.
If such a man had encountered that first demonic fiend, he very likely would have seized the chance to draw his blade and fight. And the consequences of that...
Yet that fellow had driven it off in the least glorious way possible, using nothing more than a lump of dough.
And yet that had put the employer’s safety first, choosing the safest and most reliable method to handle the problem.
What was more, when she had looked down on him at the time, he had acted as though he had not even seen it.
At that thought, an awkward look immediately surfaced on Luo Li’s cool, lovely face. But once she remembered all those inhuman acts of his besides the matter of the demon wolf, she hardened her expression again and lifted her snow-white neck stubbornly.
“Even if he... even if he does have some experience, that still does not excuse throwing his employer across a horse’s back without a care after she fainted from hunger, or privately selling my horse, does it?”