Hehe, haha — and the wind going whoosh.
Xu Yao practiced earnestly along with them. He could feel the energy his eyes had absorbed slowly dispersing through his body — legs, feet, arms — and especially when he threw a punch or a kick, his limbs felt stronger still.
Ning Wuxia stood under the eaves to one side, hands clasped behind her back, watching. She gave a slight shake of her head. But the pointers everyone was hoping for never came.
Meanwhile, in brigade headquarters, Ning Weiyu sat quietly on a wooden stool, straight-backed, his gaze fixed on a compass hung on the front wall.
A demon-catching compass.
It monitored every mountain and stream within a radius of two hundred li. The moment a mountain demon was about to emerge, it would raise an automatic warning and display the general direction.
Whoever was sent to deal with it need only carry a small sub-compass to locate the spot without fail!
This very demon-catching compass had, for several centuries, been acknowledged as the single greatest invention of the Great Qin Empire's Demon Suppression Bureau — bar none!
Several hundred years ago, before there was any demon-catching compass, the number of people harmed by mountain demons and demon creatures each year across the vast territory of the Great Qin Empire ran as high as ten million. Ever since the compass appeared, that average had fallen to under a million a year.
In the lowest year, it even dropped below a hundred thousand!
And Ning Weiyu was staring hard at this demon-catching compass.
When lunch came around, the brother and sister did not appear, and only then did the atmosphere in the mess hall loosen up considerably.
Although these two "great ones" seemed most affable, without a trace of airs, and looked remarkably young, everyone still felt restrained.
The men of Third Squad especially, who had personally watched the pair "fly" straight up the mountain through the torrential rain, felt it all the more.
Flying! What did that even mean?! Weren't those the immortals of legend?
As he ate, feeling his empty belly begin to fill with comfortable fullness, Buck Teeth recovered his spirits and bared his teeth in a soft chuckle. "We've really struck it rich this time. In the time it took me to take a piss, I ran home and dropped off the silver — my wife nearly laughed her eyeballs right out of her head."
The married men all lived around the compound, most of them right next door to it, so they could be on hand quickly when needed, which made getting home exceptionally easy.
Niu Sibao said, disgruntled, "Relax, we're not going to drag you into gambling. Look at you — every scrap of your cleverness spent on your own brothers. Announcing ahead of time that you hadn't a coin on you, just so we wouldn't pull you into a game."
Bao Facai gaped. "You... that's pure slander. If you were willing to lend me some, I could still play a few hands..."
"Heh heh... So it isn't that you're afraid we'll drag you into gambling — you want to borrow money to gamble with..."
Everyone grabbed their bowls and hastily edged a few steps away from that shameless man.
Aside from the captain and Xu Yao, this jerk had drawn the most silver. No sooner had the silver been paid out than he'd rushed it home, and then he'd come straight back and started angling to borrow money for gambling — it honestly left everyone speechless.
In that situation, what was the difference between lending him money and tossing it into the sea? It would never, ever come back.
Bao Facai turned, teeth bared in a grin. "Big Fatty..."
"I don't have any money!"
Xu Yao kept shoveling rice, head down, and answered crisply, "Even if I had it, I wouldn't lend it to you."
"Uh..." Bao Facai said sulkily, "I hadn't even started asking to borrow money..."
Then, scraping about for something to say, he grinned. "Big Fatty's got his wife fund saved up now."
At these words Captain Liu Zhen abruptly remembered something; his brow furrowed and a worried look spread over his face. Clearly his old ailment — the habit of fretting — was acting up again.
He pondered a moment, then gave a cough and said to Xu Yao, most serious and proper, "Big Fatty, this business of finding yourself a wife — you've got to go about it carefully. None of that woolgathering, none of those wild fancies, you hear? Do you follow what I'm saying?"
Xu Yao was utterly lost. "Huh?"
What woolgathering? What wild fancies? And why couldn't he make sense of this?
"Good — better that you don't!"
Liu Zhen relaxed.
Then he shot his men a look; they winked and grimaced back, getting the message completely.
The time after a thunderstorm was when mountain demons and wood demons came out in the greatest numbers.
Brigade captain Chen Chong had not gone home either; he was lodging at brigade headquarters.
And Xu Yao, "personally appointed" on account of his eyes' special gift, had to stand night duty every evening as well.
For this reason Chen Chong gave him special instructions: "Make a trip home and let your family know — the compound will be busy this stretch, and you must stand night duty every night."
Xu Yao relished night duty — after all, his eyes went hungry every day.
Besides, there was that big bundle of silver. Unable to wait, he grabbed it and took it straight home the moment lunch was over.
Physician Xu was at home turning and sun-drying his medicinal herbs when he saw his son come tearing back in high spirits, one hand pressed over his chest, face glowing with excitement and happiness.
"Where's Mother?"
"Washing clothes in the back courtyard... Why?"
"Oh."
Xu Yao left his old dad standing there, hugged the silver, and dashed into the courtyard. "Mother! Hahaha, Mother! Hahahahaha..."
Physician Xu stared blankly. What had gotten into him? Did he swallow laughing medicine?
He hastily set down his work and followed.
Liu Taohua was washing clothes; with both hands covered in suds she was pulled by her son into the main room of the house. Rather bewildered, she hunted for a towel to wipe her hands while asking, "What is it, what is it? What's happened?"
"Look, Mother — what's this?"
With the mysterious smile of a boy waiting to be praised, Xu Yao pulled a cloth-wrapped bundle from inside his jacket.
He set it on the table, and it landed with a muffled "thud," like a great slab of iron settling onto the tabletop.
"What is it?"
Liu Taohua's eyes went wide.
"Guess." Xu Yao smiled mysteriously, shrugging his shoulders and grinning wide, dragging the suspense out for all it was worth.
"Heh heh."
Liu Taohua rolled her eyes and reached out to undo the bundle. The instant it opened — "Whoa! Good heavens!"
Xu Dashi, off to one side, eyes stretched huge, neck craned long, the tendons standing out on his throat, swung his head toward his son. "...Where!? Where did all this money come from?! Did you go out and rob somebody?"
Liu Taohua also turned to their son, her face full of worry. "Whose did you steal?"
"Think better of me than that!"
The veins stood out on Xu Yao's forehead; he felt like stamping his feet. "I earned it! Earned it!"
"Hahahahaha..."
Xu Dashi and Liu Taohua burst out laughing at once. Husband and wife exchanged a glance; having successfully played their trick on their son, both wore the look of schemers whose plot had come off.
Xu Yao's mouth pouted out, his face full of indignant grievance.
"One, two, three..." Liu Taohua began counting the silver, her face lighting up as she counted, radiant.
Watching his mother's joy, Xu Yao brightened again. "Heh heh heh..."
Of all things, Xu Yao most loved watching his mother count money — it was wonderfully vivid: she would pick up a silver ingot and turn it round and round, entranced. The lamplight, the silver's gleam, and the light in his mother's eyes gave Xu Yao an inexplicable feeling of perfect harmony.
After studying it a while she would wipe it, take a gentle bite, and beam. "It's real!"
Then, unhurried, she would pull out the savings box and set the silver inside with meticulous care. Even the broken silver was arranged with all its edges facing the same way, neat and orderly.
Only when everything was in place would she breathe a satisfied sigh and begin stroking the box with both hands. Whenever the silver filled half the space inside, she stroked it smiling every day; whenever it fell below half, she stroked it sighing every day.
Xu Yao stood by, his face full of contentment. What he loved most was watching his mother stroke the money box and smile.
Growing up had brought one thing after another — study, martial arts, the search for work — and the money box had long since emptied past half, while Mother sighed behind his back day after day. Now at last he was seeing again that smile, full of security, as she stroked the money box.
It made Xu Yao laugh from the bottom of his heart. That miserable feeling of yesterday's downpour hammering on him all day long — in this moment it all melted into passing clouds and a light breeze, not worth a mention!
Mother hugged the money box, thoroughly content, and declared proudly to Xu Dashi, "Your son doesn't need you — all on his own he's earned enough to take a wife, with some left over. You old thing only know how to take money out; you nearly drained your old lady dry. Heh heh — in the end, it's my son a family must rely on!"
Xu Dashi stared wide-eyed at this ally of a moment ago, nearly choking on his breath. "Why don't you mention that all these years it's been me bringing money home? If it weren't for me..."
"What man doesn't bring money home? It's only right and proper when you do it. But when a son brings money back, that's him honoring his father and mother — is that the same thing? Just looking at the money my son brought home makes my heart glad. Gladder than looking at what you bring home."
Liu Taohua glared. "...And you reek of medicine!"
Xu Dashi: "...Fine — your son's got talent, happy now?"
"What's this 'your son'? Isn't he your son too?" Liu Taohua slapped the money box.
"..."
Sure enough — once a woman stopped listening to reason, she could go on not listening to reason forever.
Xu Dashi surrendered on the spot and beat a retreat.
Xu Yao stood to one side, hands on his hips, chest puffed out, eyes crinkled with smiles, feeling so showered with praise that his very heart was drunk.
Chapter 13