chsdbacks Chapter 32 Two-Year Debt
Chapter 32 Two-Year Debt
The cleanup of Jimingling began that very night.
The accountant led the elderly, women, and children out of the hidden cave in the back mountain. Upon hearing that the group was disbanding, their expressions were complicated, but no one cried out in despair. In this world, they were used to the coming together and parting of people.
Xiong Kuo selected six people who were willing to stay; they were all young and capable, and they went deep into the mountains with him.
The rest of the people each received ten taels of silver.
They dispersed before dawn.
Chen was helped out of the wooden house by Lin Xiu and handed a bundle to Lin Yan.
"Your mother sewed it for you."
Her voice was still a little hoarse, and it was a bit difficult for her to speak.
Lin Yan opened it, revealing a newly made short outfit, its stitches meticulously done. Also included was a pair of cloth shoes with multiple layers of soles.
"My mother's eyesight is not good."
Lin Xiu whispered, "I got pricked by a lot of needles when I was sewing the soles."
Lin Yan retied the bundle.
"Mother, Xiuer, come with me to Qingzhou."
Ms. Chen was taken aback.
"When we get to Qingzhou, let's find a place to settle down first," he said. "I'll come back for you once things have calmed down."
Lin Xiu tugged at his sleeve: "Brother, where are you going?"
"I'm going out to run some errands. I'll be right back."
Lin Xiu lowered her head.
After a long pause, she said, "Brother, you must take good care of yourself."
"Know."
Three days later, outside Qingzhou City.
This Qingzhou City is the seat of Qingzhou Prefecture. The city walls are a full three zhang high, and the moat is wide enough for boats to sail on.
The checks at the city gate were ten times stricter than those in Qingyuan County.
Everyone entering the city has to have their travel permit checked, their identity verified, and their luggage searched.
Lin Yan used a fake travel permit that Xiong Kuo had prepared in advance to sneak into the city.
He rented a small courtyard in the depths of Liuxiang, south of the city, with his mother and sister.
The courtyard was cramped with only two rooms, but its location was excellent. At the end of the alley was the foot of the city wall, and there was a side gate leading directly outside the city, so one could escape at any time in case of trouble.
After settling his mother and sister in, Lin Yan left home early the next morning.
The morning market in Liuxiang was packed with people, with vendors selling tofu, vegetables, and all sorts of other things lined both sides of the street, creating a lively scene.
Lin Yan looked at each stall one by one.
Finally, we found the tofu stall under a crooked locust tree at the end of the alley.
The stall owner was an old woman with completely white hair and a severely hunched back.
When Lin Yan found the place, the old woman was carrying a slab of freshly pressed tofu onto the cutting board. Her hands were shaking so badly that the tofu was wobbling back and forth on the board, almost falling off.
Lin Yan quickly went over and reached out to support him.
The old woman was visibly startled when she saw the arm suddenly extended towards her. Then she looked up at Lin Yan with her cloudy eyes and asked in a muffled voice:
"Buying tofu?"
"I'm not buying tofu," Lin Yan said calmly. "I'm delivering something for someone else."
The old woman stopped what she was doing and subconsciously asked a question.
"For whom?"
"A man who died at Black Wind Ridge."
The old woman slowly straightened up.
She looked Lin Yan up and down, then put down what she was holding, wiped her hands on her apron, and looked at Lin Yan expressionlessly, saying:
"Come with me."
The two entered the low, tiled house behind them.
The room was dark, with only a small window through which sparse sunlight filtered through.
The old woman pulled open the cabinet in the corner and took out an old wooden box with peeling paint.
"This is what he owes me."
The old woman sat down. "Twenty years ago, he said he was going to do something important and would come back after he finished. I told him to go ahead and I would take care of the tofu stall. And I've been doing that for twenty years."
Lin Yan reached into his pocket, his fingertips touching the palm-sized piece of leather, but for some reason, he was hesitant to take it out.
"Where are the things?"
The old woman's voice trembled slightly.
Seeing the old woman's expression, Lin Yan sighed and took out the piece of leather that had turned black and placed it on the table.
The handwriting from back then is still legible today.
"Send this item to Qingzhou City and give it to an old woman surnamed Zhou who sells tofu in Liuxiang, south of the city."
The old woman picked up the leather and examined it three times, turning it over and over.
When I put it down, my hand stopped shaking, and even my tone of voice gradually became calmer.
"Dead?"
"He's dead."
"How did he die?"
He was being chased and killed, and died in a cave after exhausting his strength.
The old woman sat on a low stool, her back becoming increasingly hunched.
After a long time, she stood up, walked to the stove, lifted the pot lid, and found a pot of freshly pressed tofu inside.
The old woman looked at Lin Yan and asked softly:
Are you hungry?
I'm not hungry.
"Then I'll serve you a bowl of soy milk."
She ladled out a bowl of soy milk and placed it on the table.
The soy milk was steaming hot, with a thin layer of soy skin forming on the surface.
Lin Yan looked at the bowl of soy milk, feeling a mix of emotions, and took a sip.
The soy milk tasted incredibly bitter.
Just like this damned world.
The poor have absolutely no way to survive.
The old woman sat opposite him. Although she tried to sound calm, Lin Yan could still tell that she was not calm.
Did he say anything?
The leather tag says, "This is a debt I owe you for twenty years."
"Twenty years."
The old woman repeated it softly, then took out an old hairpin from an old wooden box and stroked it.
Neither of them spoke.
The morning market outside the window is bustling with activity.
Sounds kept coming in from outside the small window.
"Young man."
The old woman suddenly spoke up to Lin Yan, saying, "You delivered something for him, so I'll return the favor to you."
She stood up, walked to the cabinet, and pulled out a cloth bag from the bottom shelf.
Opening the cloth bag, inside was a palm-sized black jade plaque, with the character "mountain" engraved on the front and two sword marks on the back.
"This is what he left with me before he left. He said that if he never came back, this would be given to the person who came back in his place."
Upon hearing this, Lin Yan subconsciously accepted the jade pendant.
The jade pendant was chillingly cold in my hand, but suddenly my blood and energy began to circulate more rapidly.
"This is the token of the Mountain Battalion."
The old woman said in a very serious tone, "The Mountain Battalion was once the most elite personal guard under the Crown Prince, but it was later purged, and few survived. He tried to escape for twenty years with this, but in the end, he still couldn't escape. Take it; it might be useful to you."
Lin Yan put the jade pendant into his bosom.
"What's his name?"
His surname is Gu, and his given name is Gu Changshan.
The old woman's voice suddenly softened, as if she were reciting a name she hadn't said in a long time, "The person he wronged in this life wasn't the Crown Prince, but himself."
After leaving the tofu stall, Lin Yan stood at the alley entrance for a while.
The morning market in Liuxiang was as lively as ever. No one knew that a person who had been dead for twenty years had finally returned the thing that had been weighing on his heart.
He returned to the courtyard, taking Zhao Yuanlang's sword and the book "You Shen Zhang" with him.
"Mother, Xiuer, I'm leaving."
Chen sat on the kang without saying a word, but sewed up the last loose button on his old clothes, and then nodded.
Lin Xiu ran over in quick steps, took a bamboo whistle out of her bosom, and stuffed it into his hand.
"Brother, if you miss us, just blow this."
Lin Yan took it and looked down at it.
The bamboo whistle was worn smooth, clearly scraped out bit by bit from broken tiles.
"When was it made?"
"Tonight, when you're asleep."
He hung the bamboo whistle around his neck.
"Brother is leaving. Take good care of Mother."
"I know."
Lin Xiu looked up, not crying, her eyes sparkling.
After leaving Qingzhou City, Lin Yan did not head directly north.
He walked along the official road for a while, then ventured into the wild woods by the roadside, found a secluded spot, and sat down cross-legged.
The booklet of "You Shen Zhang" lay open on my lap.
This palm technique is divided into three levels.
The first level corresponds to the Body Tempering Realm.
The Twelve Styles of Wandering Steps, combined with corresponding palm techniques, emphasize the changes in body movement, making it impossible for the opponent to touch the hem of their clothes.
The second level is the method of circulating qi in the True Qi Realm, which details how qi and blood are released and transformed into true qi and how to attach true qi to palm force to deliver a stronger attack.
The third layer consists of only a few pages, which describes a power generation technique called "Layered Wave Force".
By accumulating true energy layer upon layer, and then unleashing the combined force of the three palm strikes at once, the power is more than tripled.