Buck Teeth watched for a while, but unable to stand the driving rain any longer, he hugged his shoulders and said, "Let's go shelter from the rain in that corpse pit we just dug out."
With that, he made to crawl inside.
Once the corpse had been dragged out, a natural hollow was left beneath the cliff wall. It wasn't deep, but with the dirt and stones cleared from inside, two people could squeeze in well enough to keep out of the rain; prop a garment across the opening, and it would hold back the water.
Right now the downpour was hammering down without pause, and both of them were chilled through.
Xu Yao, though, immediately put out a hand to stop him. "Brother Buck Teeth, we'd... we'd better not go in. Before the captain left, he didn't clear out the hollow; and when he went, he told us all the more firmly not to touch anything."
Buck Teeth thought it over. After dragging out the skeleton, the captain had never touched the pit again. A sudden dread ran through him, and he said again and again, "You're right! Right!"
So he took hold of Xu Yao, and the two of them pressed as close to the cliff wall as they could and curled up.
Then his eyes went suddenly wide. "You call the brigade captain 'uncle,' so how come you call me 'Brother Buck Teeth'? The brigade captain and I are barely a few years apart—we're on brother terms! And yet you..."
Xu Yao coughed and explained in earnest, "Brother Buck Teeth, one thing is one thing and another is another. The brigade captain and my father are on brother terms—and you call my father Physician Xu. Me calling you 'brother' is already getting very close."
Buck Teeth glared at him for a good while, then bared his teeth in a wince. "...You really would have been better off not explaining!"
Then he looked at the clothing on the corpse.
"You're a kind-hearted kid, that's what you are. Covering a pile of bones with clothing—what for?"
That was what he said, but inwardly he sighed. He knew too that Xu Yao was doing it to scrape up whatever impression points he could for the brothers. Still, when it came to stripping off his own clothes in a rainstorm like this, he wasn't willing.
So Buck Teeth unfastened his own garment and spread it over both their heads.
"Big Fatty, that demon peach of the captain's—the way he talked just now, it was plainly meant for you. Why'd you play the fool and turn it down?" Buck Teeth asked, recalling what had happened.
Xu Yao shook his head. "I can't take it."
"If you don't take it, he'll just give it to someone else."
"Then I still won't take it."
"I only want the one that's mine," Xu Yao said earnestly.
"Why?" Buck Teeth couldn't make head or tail of it.
Xu Yao was silent a moment, then said, "Because once I've taken what's someone else's, then when others need something of mine, I won't have it to give."
Buck Teeth was startled.
Xu Yao gave a little heh-heh laugh, an indescribable flavor in his expression. "I went to school, and I spent time in a martial hall too. On the literary road and the martial road alike, I've met plenty of people my own age. And I found that even a single sentence, a single book, carries value beyond itself."
He didn't spell it out—and there was no need to.
Buck Teeth was quiet a good while, then asked, "Did your father teach you this way too?"
Xu Yao said softly, "My father once told me that on silver that isn't yours, there's a value beyond the silver itself, and that part is too heavy. Take it, and you can't pay it back. The old man gave me an example: sometimes, when he treated a wealthy household, beyond the medicine fees and the consultation fee, the family might add ten taels as a reward. If it came as loose bits of silver, he could take one part in ten—and afterward make one house call free of charge. But if it was a single, whole ingot of silver, then on no account could he take it!"
"Because... the favor in those ten taels would hang over you for years, and some illnesses can never be cured."
Xu Yao smiled. "The old man figured I wouldn't understand, so he spelled it out for me piece by piece, many times over. Truth is, I'd understood long ago."
Buck Teeth couldn't help himself: "Physician Xu is a capable man."
"'Capable' isn't the word. My father has simply lived wide awake. He knows that great riches and high rank aren't for the likes of us to enjoy; whatever goes beyond the fair price must be paid back."
"To ordinary people like us, the demon peach and ghost apricot are health itself. The value is too great—I can't afford them yet."
Light flashed in Xu Yao's eyes. "Maybe someday, when my own strength is equal to it, I can take the captain's demon peach. But right now, the only one I can take is the one that belongs to me."
Buck Teeth thought to himself: no wonder this kid lives so clear-eyed too—it runs in the blood.
But somehow he found he didn't know what to say. After a long time he said, "That makes sense."
Then he lowered his head and sighed—though what he was sighing about, even he couldn't have said.
Liu Zhen stayed at the top of the cliff to wait. He'd figured the brigade captain and the others would need until at least midnight to arrive; but just as he reckoned the pair who had gone back should have reached the compound only a short while ago, he saw several figures come 'flying' straight at him through the pouring rain.
Brigade captain Chen Chong was right there among them, along with two men in regulation Demon Suppression Bureau garb—only theirs were black robes, with thread of gold and jade embroidered at collar and cuffs; at a glance, big shots of the Demon Suppression Bureau. And besides them there were three others, two men and a woman, dressed all in white, drifting along like immortals.
It was precisely these three who had brought Chen Chong and the returning Niu Sibao, Zhang Sanping, and the rest 'flying' over.
Liu Zhen didn't dare stare; he lowered his head.
With a whoosh, the whole company came down on the clifftop.
The leading white-robed man swept his gaze around. "So it's here? Who found it?"
His eyes came to rest on Liu Zhen, and though Liu Zhen's head was bowed, he distinctly felt as if a blade had slashed across his body. Even his mind sharpened in an instant, and he answered hurriedly, "Right here—right below the cliff. Two more brothers are keeping watch down there."
The white-robed man drew a deep breath. "Down for a look."
The next moment he leaped straight off the cliff.
The other two white-robed figures jumped down after him.
Chen Chong grabbed hold of the Demon Suppression Bureau officer; the officer smiled and leaped down, taking Chen Chong with him.
Xu Yao and Buck Teeth were pressed against the cliff wall sheltering from the rain when a white figure flashed before their eyes—and somehow there were three white-robed people in front of them.
White robes like snow, yet in this downpour not the least bit wet, without a single speck of dust on them.
Their leader looked to be about forty; his face was like white jade, his brows swept up toward his temples, and he was very handsome, with an air that stood above the dust of the world. But just now his gaze was keen as a sword and his face stern.
The woman behind him had a slender, graceful figure and a white gauze veil across her face. Her bearing was exceptional—cold as frost, pure as snow, clear as moonlight.
Xu Yao and Buck Teeth took one glance and hurriedly lowered their heads.
Then brigade captain Chen Chong came down too, following the two black-robed men.
The three white-robed figures landed, and their gazes went straight to the white-jade corpse.
Only then did their leader lift his eyes and glance once over Xu Yao and Buck Teeth.
After that, the other two crouched down and began examining the corpse.
The woman, looking at the garment draped over the skeleton, turned her head. "Whose clothing is this?"
"Mine," said Xu Yao.
The woman's fine brows knit briefly. "Why did you cover it?"
"The rainstorm. I couldn't bear not to." Xu Yao lifted his head and said frankly, "And also to show some eagerness to please before you, sir."
"Honest, at least." The woman smiled a little. "Then I'm buying this clothing."
An ingot of silver flew over and landed in brigade captain Chen Chong's hand.
Chen Chong caught it and gave it a rather peculiar glance.
For disciples who claimed to be immortals beyond the world to know human ways and worldly manners so thoroughly—that was a genuine surprise.
Seeing this, the black-robed Demon Suppression Bureau official chuckled. He waved Xu Yao and Buck Teeth over and said pleasantly, "You've had a hard time of it."
Then he took out two cold-dispelling pills and handed one to each of them. "Swallow these; they'll drive out the chill. Otherwise you're bound to come down sick on the way back."
"Yes—many thanks..." Buck Teeth bowed humbly, unsure how to address him.
"Just call him 'sir,'" said Chen Chong.
"Many thanks, sir." The two of them bowed together.
Once the medicine went down, their whole bodies warmed through at once, as if a stove had been lit inside them. Not only did the cold vanish entirely—they felt filled with strength, and the strength kept on growing.
Xu Yao felt his eyes had truly been opened: What a fine thing.
And for this gentleman to hand out such a fine thing without the least pang—clearly, in his eyes, it was nothing worth counting.
"Mm. Keep behind your brigade captain."
The black-robed man said with a smile, "This affair was handled in a way that brings real credit. Third Sister, pass word to the brothers so they can rest easy—there'll be no lack of reward money."
At last Chen Chong heard the one nickname he had least wanted to hear in all his life. His face twitched and the three ridges of his brows knotted together. Angry yet not daring to say a word of it, face dark, he answered heavily, "Understood."
Chapter 6