Zhang Laifu went over to the willow tree, peeled back the bark, and pulled a bundle from the hollow.
He opened the bundle to find a fedora inside.
Lin Shaocong stared at the fedora, his eyes glazing over for a moment. Then he glanced at Lao Liang's craft essence, silently weighing the value of the two items against each other in his mind.
Holding the hat, Zhang Laifu asked Lin Shaocong, "What is this?"
Lin Shaocong sorely wanted to say it was just an ordinary hat. Yet after a moment's hesitation, he told the truth after all.
"It's a bowl. A bowl that can grow good things." Lin Shaocong lived by his principles. Zhang Laifu was someone who had shared hardships with him, and he never harmed those who stood by him through adversity.
Still, if Zhang Laifu didn't even know what a bowl was, then Lin couldn't be blamed. He couldn't let such a treasure go to waste, and he would have had to find a way to claim the bowl for himself.
"A bowl!" Zhang Laifu's lifeless eyes suddenly lit up. "Is this the kind of bowl that can grow a train?"
"I've never seen a train, but it should be able to grow plenty of good things..." Lin Shaocong paused, surprised that Zhang Laifu knew what a bowl was.
Had this fool been to Wansheng Prefecture before?
Could he have been playing dumb, too?
Lin Shaocong kept his word. "The bowl is yours. There's also a horse over there. Let's talk about who gets it."
Zhang Laifu looked at the horse tied on the slope. "Is that a prop, or is it real?"
Lin Shaocong was at a loss again. Why was he talking about props again? Did this man still think he was acting in a play?
"The horse is real. And of course, it's also a prop."
"Since it's a prop, we follow the script!"
Lin Shaocong agreed that made good sense. "If we're following the script, my legs are in bad shape, so let me ride the horse."
Zhang Laifu glanced around the mountainside. "Can you even ride a horse in a place like this?"
"No, you can't ride here."
"Then why bring up the horse? Let's get moving! You don't want to go back to the hostage quarters to act, do you?"
Zhang Laifu was right; Yuan Kuilong would be catching up soon.
Yet Lin Shaocong was in no hurry to leave. Sensing the mud around him, he quickly detected an anomaly.
Where Lao Liang had fallen, he discovered a willow twig that Lao Liang must have planted right before dying.
Lin Shaocong coated the twig in mud and rolled it between his palms, rubbing continuously until he ground the willow twig into fine shavings and blended it into a ball of mud. Only then did he stop.
Zhang Laifu watched in utter confusion. "What are you doing with that willow twig?"
"It's a marker Lao Liang left behind. Mark my words: in Wansheng Prefecture, markers are nothing but trouble. Some can lure enemies, some can track us, and some can even harm people directly. Whenever you find a marker, you must destroy it. That's what the script requires."
Zhang Laifu said, "When does the script say we retreat?"
"Right now." Lin Shaocong pressed his palms together, rubbing them back and forth as though rolling a ball of mud.
The mud on the ground began gathering toward Zhang Laifu.
Zhang Laifu quickly dodged, but Lin Shaocong explained, "Don't worry, this is preparation for going down the mountain. Look, there's some at my feet too."
The mud gathered not only beneath Lin Shaocong's and Zhang Laifu's feet, but also around the horse's hooves.
Before long, the three patches of mud swelled into three large spheres, encasing Zhang Laifu, Lin Shaocong, and the horse entirely.
With his head still exposed, Zhang Laifu could still breathe, but his limbs were immobilized. "This prop... is for going down the mountain?"
"That's right. Are you ready?" Lin Shaocong's head, previously upright, began to tilt slowly to the right.
It wasn't just his head; the entire mud sphere encasing him was beginning to rotate.
Zhang Laifu seemed to understand how they were getting down.
"Is this... safe?"
"If you know a craft, you could divine a hexagram for yourself to see if it's sa—" Lin Shaocong's voice trailed off into the distance as he rolled down the slope.
Zhang Laifu couldn't move his body, but he could feel himself starting to roll as well.
The willow tree before him began to spin, and everything around him blurred into motion.
His vision grew increasingly chaotic, until he could no longer tell which way was up.
Even so, he could clearly feel the path he was traversing. The mud sphere wasn't as thick as he had imagined, and rocks and tree roots continually battered against his body.
With mud plastered over his face and dust flooding into his mouth, Zhang Laifu struggled for breath, feeling as though the descent down the slope would never end.
Only when the mud sphere slammed into a boulder did he finally come to a stop.
The mud around him hadn't broken away; coated in so much grit and sand, it had hardened into a solid crust.
Zhang Laifu couldn't crawl out. For that matter, even Lin Shaocong was trapped inside his own hardened shell. Lin's body had been weak to begin with, and after days of torment by the bandits followed by a desperate running battle, he was thoroughly exhausted and unable to perform many of his crafts.
The horse, however, had somehow managed to break free from its sphere and stood quietly watching the two men struggle.
Zhang Laifu shouted at the horse, "What are you staring at me for? Say something!"
How did it get out?
The more Lin Shaocong panicked, the harder it was to break free, and sweat poured down his face.
"There's water!" Zhang Laifu looked closely at the horse and noticed a puddle beside it.
Zhang Laifu and Lin Shaocong rolled toward the puddle, soaking the hardened crust until it softened and broke apart, finally freeing them both.
Lin Shaocong looked at the horse. It was truly a rare beast; rolling down from such a height hadn't spooked it in the slightest.
Zhang Laifu asked, "What's the next scene in the play?"
Lin Shaocong stared at him. This man was even rarer; Lin simply couldn't fathom what went on inside his head.
"Do you really think this is an act?"
Zhang Laifu nodded. "What else would it be?"
Lin Shaocong still felt something was off, so he pressed him once more: "Is that really what you think?"
"What else am I supposed to think?" Zhang Laifu wiped his cheek, which was still smeared with streaks of blood.
From the hostage quarters to Guaizi Slope, Zhang Laifu had killed three bandit soldiers with the clay dagger Lin Shaocong gave him.
Lao Liang didn't count as his kill; according to the script, Lin Shaocong was the one who killed him.
This had to be an act. If it wasn't, Zhang Laifu wouldn't even be able to stand on his own two feet.
Lin Shaocong sat on the ground, looking up at Zhang Laifu.
He couldn't understand the man before him.
He couldn't tell whether this man was brilliant beyond measure or hopelessly foolish.
According to Song Yongchang's description, he was merely an actor tricked into coming from another prefecture.
Yet when he swung that blade and killed men along the way, his hands had never trembled.
The main problem right now was that Zhang Laifu knew too many of his secrets.
If Lin Shaocong wanted to keep playing the fool in the future, the best course would be to kill Zhang Laifu to silence him, run back to the Lin family, and claim that Hunlong Stronghold had released him.
Killing Zhang Laifu would also let him take the bowl—all gain and no downside.
Yet Lin Shaocong hesitated for a long time and ultimately stayed his hand.
From childhood to the present, he had killed many people, but he had never betrayed anyone who shared adversity with him. That rule had never changed.
"Are you from outside the prefecture?"
Zhang Laifu didn't answer. He didn't quite grasp the concept of other prefectures yet.
Lin Shaocong didn't press the matter. He had never been outside the prefecture either, nor did he know the way. "We'll ride the horse together to Heishakou. Where do you want to go?"
Zhang Laifu thought for a moment. "I want to go to Qingxiang Garden!"
"That's a theater," Lin Shaocong said.
Zhang Laifu nodded. "I'm an actor. A theater is where I belong."
That theater was where the station was located. Once he boarded the train, he could return to Yuedong.
Chapter 8