In the end, Jiang Longchi still ended up sitting at the dining table. Breakfast in the village was literally cooked rice; because everyone had manual labor to do in the morning, porridge or noodles wouldn't keep anyone full.
Besides the rice, there were boiled eggs, pickled vegetables to go with the meal, a dish of steamed pork with wine lees, and a bowl of salted duck eggs that had been boiled alongside the rice.
The flavors carried a faint sense of familiarity, and he could understand the local dialect. Jiang Longchi knew that after all the hardship of asking for directions along the way, he had probably reached the right place. Even so, he wasn't familiar with the shop before him.
This roadside shop run by the Han family would likely have been called a travelers' inn in ancient times, opened specifically for passing drivers and passengers. Because business was quite good, the shop had hired two or three helpers, all fellow villagers who also recognized Master Longchi.
The master was back. Around the dining table, the crowd chatted warmly and excitedly, everyone chiming in with old stories.
"The temple was torn down! Less than a year after you left, Master, it seemed like a heavy downpour made it collapse on its own, and it was never rebuilt."
"Where have you been all these years, Master? Speaking of which, when you left back then, you disappeared without a sound. It left a bad taste in our mouths, and we were worried about you."
"To be honest, Master, you were forgetful even back then. I even helped you look for that pretty little axe of yours once."
"Master..."
Setting down his chopsticks, Jiang Longchi waved a hand and said slowly, "I'm sorry. Old age brings forgetfulness. There's a lot I no longer remember."
From the villagers' general descriptions, Jiang Longchi gathered that during the years he had spent here, he had not actually had any relatives with him, nor the biological grandson he had thought existed.
It had all been stories spun from his own imagination, gradually fabricated from too much self-suggestion lately.
"Yet I vaguely remember... I seem to have often played with a child in the temple... a very young child."
Jiang Longchi gestured against the table leg. Tiny.
"Isn't that my Qingzi?" Zhang Jiexia gave an awkward smile and said, "Back then during the busy farming season, our whole family had to work in the fields, so we always dumped Qingzi with you, and he was happy to follow you around."
"Who told you to be on such good terms with Qingzi's grandfather? You were always conning us out of liquor to drink."
"Yeah, but sadly my dad passed away," Han Youshan sighed. "Otherwise, he'd be thrilled to see you again. He'd climb up the mountain to catch a snake to stew, then have a few more drinks with you..."
The vague flashback that accompanied the story suddenly snapped. Jiang Longchi's head buzzed. "Qingzi?!"
Lately, that name had sounded very familiar to his ears.
"That's right, Qingzi. Han Qingyu. My son's name was given by you, Master. That year, our area had a great flood..."
The master was truly old now. Zhang Jiexia recounted it patiently to help him recall.
"Does he have a scar on his face?" Jiang Longchi suddenly interrupted.
"No, not on his face, right here." Zhang Jiexia pointed just above her hairline, saying with relief, "Thank goodness it's hidden under his hair, or my Qingzi wouldn't look handsome and couldn't find a wife."
"Oh, is that so." Certain things were right on the verge of coming back to him, but suddenly didn't quite line up. Jiang Longchi responded absentmindedly while racking his brain.
"Yeah. Speaking of that scar, you were the one who caused it, Master. You carried him on your shoulders and bumped him into the door." Han Youshan laughed as he spoke, holding no grudge.
Bumps and bruises were normal for country kids. What was more, their son's health had always been poor in those years; if Master Longchi hadn't gone through so much trouble to help, even using qigong to nurture him, the boy might not even have survived.
"Then where is he? Can you call him out so I can see him?" Jiang Longchi asked suddenly.
Across the table, Han Youshan and Zhang Jiexia's eyes lit up at once. This was their favorite question to answer nowadays, though after the villagers had asked it for over a year, they had stopped asking recently.
The husband and wife beamed with pride:
"Our Qingzi joined the military!" Loudly.
"Special forces. The superiors told us not to say." In a whisper.
"He even received merits and awards!" Extra loudly.
"..."
Like a sudden flash of inspiration, the young man in an Azure military uniform bearing twin blades and the toddler playing in the temple who wet his pants finally overlapped in his mind. In an instant, every clue snapped into sharp focus, and his recent memories flooded back...
Jiang Longchi: *Holy crap, I left him out at sea.*
Han Youshan: "What? What did you say, Master? Who did you leave behind in Shanghai?"
Zhang Jiexia: "He said at sea! Master, how could you leave someone out at sea... The ocean!"
Right, the ocean. Jiang Longchi looked up at the couple. At this moment, with his memory exceptionally clear and his wits about him, Jiang Longchi hesitated before speaking.
*Can I tell them that their son actually joined Azure to chop down Great Spikes, that he now has a huge scar on his face, is being hunted down, has to go to a brutal place, and on top of that, was forgotten by me out at sea?*
Obviously not.
"Oh dear, then I have to hurry to the City of Iniquity."
While the old man was lost in thought, Han Youshan and his wife had stepped aside, murmured a few words to each other, and returned to the table.
The master was old—so old that he was growing increasingly forgetful and muddleheaded. He was all alone in the world, with neither family nor anywhere to go. He had probably come back looking for the old temple to settle down in, but the temple had already been torn down.
"Master, the two of us just talked it over, and we'd like you to stay with us. What do you think?" Han Youshan turned his head, gesturing toward their little shop. "We're able to make some money now. At this little shop, if you stay, you can sit inside when there's nothing to do, take walks outside, and help keep an eye on the place. We can't promise a life of luxury, but keeping you well-fed and warmly clothed is something we can certainly manage."
"That's right. With your ties to my father-in-law, and with our Qingzi, there's no way we could let you wander around out there alone again. If you ran off to that... whatever sea again, how terrifying would that be?" Zhang Jiexia added.
His train of thought interrupted, Jiang Longchi jerked his head up. *They mean they want me to stay, to care for me like their own elder for the rest of my days...*
"Thank you," the old man murmured.
"Oh, what is there to thank us for? Now that you've agreed, Master, our minds are at ease. Tell you what, I'll go fetch a couple of Qingzi's dad's clothes for you to change into first, then get a bedroom ready for you." As Zhang Jiexia spoke, she briskly set off to work.
Han Youshan sat back down. "From now on, I'll take my dad's place, and the two of us can share a drink when there's time. Ha! Oh right, Master, if you still want to wear monk robes, I'll go into the county town to buy fabric and find someone to make them for you..."
Suddenly feeling reluctant to let go of this warmth, Jiang Longchi thought it over and decided to stay for one day—stay just one day before leaving. Then he would have Azure dispatch a plane directly to the City of Iniquity to take good care of that boy on their behalf.
"Do you have a pen and paper here? Let me borrow them for a moment," Jiang Longchi said suddenly.
"Yes." Han Youshan went to fetch the ledger and pen used for bookkeeping.
When Jiang Longchi wrote, he didn't let Han Youshan look.
[Remember to hurry to the City of Iniquity and take good care of a boy named Han Qingyu. You have no family left, Jiang Longchi; he is the family in your memories. You are staying at his home now, and his parents want to care for you in your old age...]
Having finished writing, Jiang Longchi tore the page out, folded it carefully, and placed it into his pouch. His pouch was stitched directly onto his clothes with thread.
...
The next day.
The excitement in the small village caused by Master Longchi's return gradually subsided, and everything went back to normal at the Han family's roadside shop.
Except there was now an extra old man in the shop—an old monk wearing brand-new monk robes.
The old monk didn't stay idle. He told fortunes for passing drivers and passengers, picked auspicious dates, and chose names, charging anywhere from fifty cents to a yuan each time.
Or, if you preferred to give some melons and fruit, or two hairtails you were transporting to sell, those were acceptable as well.
The old monk remembered that he was General Jiang Longchi of Azure, peerless in the mortal realm, a super combat power, and that he had an old comrade named Chen Buer, the Legion Commander of Azure's Sole Witness Legion...
He was stationed here to watch for a primordial surge of source energy.
The days were the kind of days he liked. Occasionally, he would feel as if he had some urgent matter to attend to, but no matter how hard he tried, he could never recall the specifics.
Chapter 423