When offloading goods, they naturally couldn't go through the Song family. Ma the Fifth had his own channels.
Li Banfeng followed Ma the Fifth to the village entrance. It was already late, and the steamroller's engine had been cut. A few workers were getting ready to clock out.
One worker spotted Ma the Fifth and slipped over quietly while no one was looking.
"Fifth Young Master, looking for me?" The worker's name was Qin Haichuan; Ma the Fifth called him Little Chuan.
Ma the Fifth nodded. Taking a locked wooden box from his coat, he handed it to Little Chuan. "Take this to the shopkeeper of Yufangzhai. When the job's done, you'll get a twenty-thousand-dollar reward."
Li Banfeng murmured from beside him, "Don't make him wait till it's done. Give him ten thousand up front as a deposit. I've got it ready."
At this, delight broke across Ma the Fifth's face. He took the ten thousand dollars and handed it to Little Chuan.
Little Chuan thanked them profusely, stashed the box out of sight before anyone could notice, and hurried out of the village.
On the way back, Ma the Fifth was full of gratitude toward Li Banfeng. "I wanted to give Little Chuan some deposit money just now too, but my pockets were simply too empty."
Li Banfeng took out another twenty thousand in cash and shoved it into Ma the Fifth's hands. "Take this and go cultivate."
Ma the Fifth pushed it back. "How could I? I'm drawing a wage from you and took your pill—I can't go spending any more of your money."
"I'm not giving it to you, I'm lending it to you. Give me an IOU tomorrow. When we make our profit, we'll split the accounts. Without money, how are you going to find any girls?"
Ma the Fifth pocketed the money, his expression growing slightly excited. In a low voice, he said, "Then I won't be coming back tonight."
Li Banfeng nodded. "Keep your guard up against the Songs, and keep an eye out for your own family too."
Ma the Fifth said, "Once the pearls sell, minus the middleman's cut, we should clear around two million. Brother Li, what are your plans?"
"Plans? Keep earning, of course! How much is that anyway?"
Ma the Fifth nodded. "We'll also need to prepare the supplies for our next haul in advance."
"Everything else is fine, but you'll have to find a way to get the rotten fish yourself." Li Banfeng glanced back toward the village entrance and asked, "Is that steamroller driver trustworthy?"
Ma the Fifth nodded. "Trustworthy. My family built this road in the first place, and Little Chuan and I go way back."
Li Banfeng asked, "Think he'd let me take the steamroller for a spin?"
Ma the Fifth blinked. "Brother Li, that's a bit..."
"What's wrong with a spin? It's not like I'll break it."
Ma the Fifth couldn't tell if Li Banfeng was joking, but he agreed for now. "All right, I'll mention it to them another day."
When they reached a fork in the road, Ma the Fifth pointed down the eastern path. "Brother Li, up ahead is the Jiqing Troupe. The place is a bit run-down, but they've got a few fine girls. Why don't we go together?"
Li Banfeng raised an eyebrow. "I'm not a Joy Cultivator. What would I go with you for?"
Ma the Fifth pursed his lips. "You don't necessarily have to be a Joy Cultivator to go."
Li Banfeng countered, "I'm a journey cultivator. Can I run around all over the place with a girl?"
Ma the Fifth pondered for a long while. "Well... no..."
"If I can't run around, I can't cultivate. And if I can't cultivate, what good is a girl to me?"
Li Banfeng turned and walked away.
Ma the Fifth shivered in the wind.
Somehow, the whole thing suddenly didn't seem very fun anymore.
Still, he was right—it was all for cultivation.
***
In the Lu family mansion, Lu Dongliang's face was livid as he glared at Zhuo Yuling.
"We've searched Yaowanggou for so many days—where is Li Banfeng? Xiaolan keeps insisting the bronze lotus is in his hands, and we've nearly turned all of Yaowanggou upside down! Has anyone laid eyes on this Li Banfeng?"
Zhuo Yuling lowered her head slightly and said in an even tone, "Xiaolan told me that Li Banfeng is deeply scheming. He might just be hiding too well. Let's search a couple more days..."
"Scheming? Now he's scheming? Didn't you say his life was cheaper than a cockroach's? And now you're talking to me about schemes?"
Zhuo Yuling bit her lip, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Master, do you despise us mother and daughter so much? No matter what the two of us say, you never believe a word of it."
Lu Dongliang threw on his yellow woolen overcoat, custom-tailored in the Kingdom of Ingrid, and stood up to leave.
Putting on this coat meant he was going to negotiate with powerful figures.
The pressure from the He family was mounting by the day.
As for the derailment of Train 1160, the Outer States were still waiting for an explanation.
With no word whatsoever on the Xuansheng Red Lotus, Lu Dongliang had offended the He family for nothing. He genuinely regretted ever trusting Zhuo Yuling and Lu Xiaolan.
"I'm trying to talk bloody business, and she's wiping away tears!"
The more Zhuo Yuling acted like this, the more irritated Lu Dongliang became.
Once Lu Dongliang was gone, Zhuo Yuling's brow furrowed tightly.
Daboyins still hadn't turned up any information on Li Banfeng.
If this went on, Xiaolan would be in danger.
Zhuo Yuling went to check on Lu Xiaolan's quarters.
By Lu Dongliang's orders, no one was permitted to visit Lu Xiaolan.
However, the head guard watching the door, Zuo Wugang, made no move to stop her.
Zuo Wugang wasn't one to split hairs. With the master away and Zhuo Yuling being Lu Xiaolan's biological mother, turning a blind eye was easy enough.
Zhuo Yuling walked over to Lu Xiaolan. The moment she saw several cuts on the girl's wrists, her expression changed instantly. "Xiaolan, what are you trying to do?"
Lu Xiaolan looked bewildered. "Mom, I didn't do anything..."
Zhuo Yuling trembled slightly.
The child had actually tried to take her own life.
***
Late at night, Lu Dongliang returned to the mansion. He didn't want to sleep in the master bedroom; today's negotiations had gone very poorly, and he had no desire to listen to his main wife nag or Zhuo Yuling complain.
He had intended to find any spare room to rest for the night, but when he pushed a door open, he found Xiao Yeci reading beneath a lamp.
Seeing Lu Dongliang enter, Xiao Yeci quickly stood and curtsied. "Master, you've come."
She was doing her utmost to restrain her habitual way of speaking.
Lu Dongliang had forgotten that Xiao Yeci was staying in this guest room. He had intended to leave immediately, but after looking her over closely, he pulled up a chair and sat down.
Xiao Yeci's heart leapt straight into her throat.
Lu Dongliang frowned slightly. "You say thirteen years ago, you and I spent a night together at Yesong Bridge?"
The question was extremely blunt.
Xiao Yeci blushed at once. "Master, you... must not remember..."
"I truly don't," Lu Dongliang answered with utter candor. He wasn't a meticulous man; throughout his life, two things eluded his memory: the women he had bedded and the money he had spent. To him, there had simply been too many of both.
After a long silence between them, Lu Dongliang suddenly asked, "How old are you this year? Are you even twenty-five?"
"Of course I am, of..." Xiao Yeci accidentally let her verbal tic slip. Clearing her throat, she adjusted her tone. "I'm thirty-two this year."
"Thirty-two?" Lu Dongliang scoffed. "My eyes aren't blind. Your clothes are a bit matronly and your makeup makes you look older, but I can tell you're twenty-four or twenty-five at most.
"I've seen the child, Chunying. She resembles me, so she is indeed my flesh and blood. But she's twelve years old this year—how could you have given birth to her?
"How old were you the year she was born? As much of a scoundrel as I, Lu Dongliang, might be, I wouldn't touch a girl who was barely half-grown."
"Master, I really am thirty-two. Master, I'm not lying to you. You truly don't remember me."
"Fine, I believe you. Since you came seeking refuge with me, I'll make you my ninth concubine. In a few days, I'll set out a few banquet tables and make it official to give you proper status."
"Thank you, Master." Xiao Yeci hastily gave a curtsy.
"Since you're my woman, I'm sleeping here tonight." With that, Lu Dongliang took off the yellow woolen overcoat.
Xiao Yeci's face flushed red as a persimmon. She knew this had to happen sooner or later, and she neither could nor should refuse. Yet while her mind intended to agree, her mouth spoke entirely different words: "I'm... unwell today. I'll attend to you another day, Master."
"Heh-heh," Lu Dongliang chuckled aloud. "All right, another day it is."
He picked up his coat and walked out.
To say nothing of Xiao Yeci's reluctance, even if she had been willing, Lu Dongliang would never have stayed the night.
This woman was not Lu Chunying's mother.
Lu Dongliang still didn't know what motive brought her to the Lu family.
However, he was quite fond of Lu Chunying.
Once he got to the bottom of the matter, this woman calling herself Xiao Yeci would have to disappear.
Lu Dongliang went downstairs.
Zhuo Yuling scaled the wall and climbed onto the roof.
This was her specialty. She moved so quietly that even Lu Dongliang, a ninth-tier journey cultivator, failed to detect her.
Yet she knew she was no match for Lu Dongliang. She was only a fifth-tier body cultivator; Lu Dongliang could take her life in the blink of an eye.
Hanging upside down from the roof, she stared silently at Lu Dongliang's receding back, her eyes brimming with resentment.
In her mouth, she held a thumb-sized grub—a sleek, dark green worm.
Every shred of malice radiating from her body was devoured clean by the worm.
***
Li Banfeng and Ma the Fifth made several more trips into the newland. Over two months, they earned more than seven million dollars. Adding that to his prior savings, Li Banfeng drew closer and closer to twenty million.
But this money wasn't Li Banfeng's alone; he intended to give half to Ma the Fifth.
Moreover, money alone wasn't enough; buying a travel permit required connections.
When Li Banfeng asked Ma the Fifth about it, Ma the Fifth sighed. "If this were a few months ago, securing a travel permit to the Outer States wouldn't have been difficult for me at all.
"It wouldn't have taken twenty million. A lunch banquet at Dongzhuang Restaurant during the day, drinks at the Paramount at night, a few pretty girls called over, and some silver dollars thrown in—that would have just about settled it. But there's no point talking about that now.
"Even if I brought out twenty million today, those people wouldn't even meet with me."
Li Banfeng found this puzzling. "They won't meet even if you offer cash? Looks like you're just not offering enough."
"It's not about money, it's about status. I'm not on their level anymore, and they wouldn't deign to take my money."
"If you can earn back money, can't you earn back status just the same?" Li Banfeng took out another ten thousand in cash and handed it to Ma the Fifth. "Hurry up and go cultivate. If I haven't lost count of the days, after today, you'll pass the first gate."
Ma the Fifth nodded. "This is all thanks to you..."
Li Banfeng shook his head repeatedly. "Not me. You rely on the girls of the Jiqing Troupe, and you'll have to keep relying on them in the future."
Just as Ma the Fifth was about to go cultivate, he suddenly remembered that the bonding mud harvested last night had yet to be sold.
Goods had to be offloaded as soon as they were gathered, leaving as little as possible at home—this was Ma the Fifth's way of staying guarded against the Song family.
Bonding mud was an anomaly unique to the newland. It was called an anomaly because its existence defied explanation.
One could call it mud, or one could call it a living thing.
Yesterday, Ma the Fifth had ventured into the newland alone, found this blob of bonding mud in a mire, and brought it back in an iron canister.
Looking at the slightly foul-smelling mud, Li Banfeng frowned. "What use does this have?"
"Brother Li, you wouldn't know, but this stuff is immensely useful." Ma the Fifth earnestly explained the properties of bonding mud.
It looked like nothing more than a lump of clay, and inside the newland, it stayed as ordinary clay.
But once taken out of the newland, the clay changed.
It grew, as if endowed with life. If a tiny dab of bonding mud was placed on a road, it would soon turn the surrounding pavement several meters wide into a surface of extreme stickiness.
Strangest of all, the transformed surface looked identical to normal pavement, completely indistinguishable from the outside.
This adhesive surface could stick to soles, to socks, and to skin and flesh, but it could not stick to metal, nor could it grow on metal. For this reason, bonding mud had to be stored in metal canisters.
"Brother Li, bonding mud is one of the best materials for setting traps. Anyone who steps on it has their shoes stuck. Slip off the shoes and it sticks to socks; take off the socks and it sticks to the soles of the feet. Even chopping off your feet won't free you—as long as you touch the ground, there's no escape.
"To break out of a bonding mud trap, unless one has a special pathway, sufficiently high cultivation, or carries a unique treasure, one's only option is to wear iron shoes. But think about it—who walks around wearing iron shoes for no reason?
"Don't be fooled by this small canister; this bit of bonding mud can sell for a million."
Li Banfeng stared at the canister of bonding mud, deeply surprised. "If this stuff touches the ground, does that patch of pavement turn sticky forever?"
"Not forever. Assuming it doesn't rain, the spread-out mud will dry after a day and a night. Once dry, the sticky surface vanishes. That's why it must be sealed inside an iron canister."
A day and a night?
That was plenty.
Li Banfeng took the iron canister. "Leave offloading it to me. Hurry up and go cultivate."
"That's my job, how can I let you do it?" Ma the Fifth felt a little embarrassed, but from the look on his face, his heart had already flown off to the Jiqing Troupe.
Li Banfeng picked up the bonding mud. "Don't worry, I'm well acquainted with that steamroller brother now too. Nothing will go wrong."
"Brother Li, Little Chuan is timid. Don't go scaring him."
Li Banfeng nodded. "Relax, I definitely won't hijack his steamroller!"
Ma the Fifth thanked him repeatedly and sprinted off toward the Jiqing Troupe.
Believing that bonding mud was indeed very useful, Li Banfeng kept a portion for himself and took the rest toward the village entrance.
Seeing Li Banfeng, Little Chuan the steamroller driver slipped over and asked softly, "Where is Fifth Lord?"
"Something came up, so he couldn't make it today. Deliver this iron canister to Yufangzhai. You know the rest."
Little Chuan nodded, and Li Banfeng handed him twenty silver dollars.
Little Chuan paused in surprise, whispering, "Sir, there's no need to give so much."
"Keep it. By the way, let me take that steamroller for a spin."
"Sir, that really won't do."
"What won't do? Go shovel some coal."
"Sir, you can't do this!"
***
He didn't get to drive the steamroller; Little Chuan refused to budge no matter what.
Li Banfeng returned to the wooden house to study the properties of bonding mud. In the blink of an eye, more than five hours passed.
Covered in wounds, Ma the Fifth pushed open the door and stepped inside. Before he could even make it into the main room, he collapsed onto the floor.
Li Banfeng hurried forward to help him up. "Brother Ma, what happened to you?"
Ma the Fifth let out a chuckle and struggled into a sitting position. "Brother Li, thanks to your backing... I passed the first gate."
Li Banfeng asked in astonishment, "Aren't you a Joy Cultivator? Shouldn't you just do your business properly? Why did you get beaten up? Which girl has such heavy hands?"
Ma the Fifth shook his head. "Not a girl. Men. Four men showed up, robbed me of every cent I had on me, and beat me into this state."
Chapter 104