Xing Qiushan, a junior pincher of the Ghost Hand Sect, stumbled along until he reached the gates of an old compound east of Houtang City God Temple. He pounded urgently on the wooden doors.
A gatekeeper called from inside, "Who is it?"
"The junior pincher of Yangting Road," Xing Qiushan replied.
A "pincher" was a boss in the Ghost Hand Sect, and a "junior pincher" was a squad leader. Yangting Road was where Li Banfeng had been mugged—it was Xing Qiushan's turf.
Xing Qiushan was the man in the Western suit from the previous night. He had led five of his men to rob Li Banfeng, never imagining they would cross paths with such a maniac. Three of his five subordinates were dead, the remaining two were wounded, and he himself had taken a blade.
Entering the main hall, Xing Qiushan dropped to his knees before Sect Master Xie Juncong and wailed.
"Chief, our brothers were foraging on our own turf, popped open a skylight, and pulled a leather skin. But that villain struck to kill! Three dead, two wounded out of five brothers! Chief, you have to stand up for us!"
In their underworld cant, he was claiming that they had only been minding their own business picking pockets on their turf, lifted a single wallet, and ended up with three dead and two injured, begging the chief to avenge them.
Xie Juncong was in his sixties and seemed somewhat hard of hearing. "Little Shan, what did you say just now? I didn't quite catch it. You popped a skylight and took a leather skin. By all rights, things shouldn't have turned into a brawl, should they?"
Indeed—how could a simple pickpocketing job turn into a bloodbath?
Xing Qiushan answered, "The man was an old hand. He caught us in the act while we opened the pocket."
Xie Juncong pressed, "Since he caught you, you drop the leather and bolt!"
Exactly. Why didn't you just drop the wallet and run?
"Chief, we ran! But he wouldn't let it go! He insisted on fighting to the death, and we couldn't get away!"
"Five brothers, plus you makes six, and none of you could get away?"
Xing Qiushan grunted affirmatively. "Chief, we were cornered in an alley. We really couldn't get out!"
"When you made your move, you didn't check your retreat? That can't be right, Little Shan. You're no greenhorn."
"We hadn't eaten for days, so we got a little hasty..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Xie Juncong shook his head. "Little Shan, I'm old and muddleheaded. Tell me the truth: did you go foraging, or did you go jumping a beam?"
"Jumping a beam" meant highway robbery.
The Ghost Hand Sect was a lineage of Thief Cultivators. Stealing was their livelihood, but mugging and robbery were strictly forbidden.
There was no way Xing Qiushan could admit to highway robbery. "Old Chief, it really was just foraging! How would we dare break sect rules? Old Chief, do you not trust me?"
Xie Juncong stared at Xing Qiushan, and Xing Qiushan met his gaze without flinching in the slightest.
After a long silence, Xie Juncong sighed. "Little Shan, I truly am losing my wits, but of course I trust you. How are the two wounded brothers?"
"Bedridden, both of them. Badly hurt!" Xing Qiushan wept anew.
"Give them extra leaves so they can recuperate properly. And the brothers who crossed the bridge—have their funerals been arranged?"
"We... we haven't had time yet..."
"See to their burials at once so they can rest in peace. Ah, I'm truly turning senile. I can't keep track of everything anymore. Think carefully for me and see if there's anything else we've missed, then go take care of it."
Xie Juncong seemed to say a great deal, yet said almost nothing at all.
Was he genuinely senile?
Not in the slightest.
Having spent his entire life in the Ghost Hand Sect, rising all the way from a street thief to sect master, what had he not seen? How could Xing Qiushan possibly deceive him?
Xing Qiushan had clearly gone out to mug someone, ran into a ruthless bastard, lost his crew, and barely escaped with his life.
By rights, sect discipline should have been brought down on Xing Qiushan with full force. But Xie Juncong turned a blind eye and let the matter slide.
As for revenge, he could forget about it. Xie Juncong had no intention of dealing with the aftermath, which was punishment enough in itself.
Xing Qiushan left the Ghost Hand Sect's compound in foul spirits. Just outside, one of his injured subordinates, Deng Jingcai, limped over with a photograph. "Boss, I got this from a flower-tongue broker. This man is named Li Banfeng. He's the one the Lu family is looking for."
Xing Qiushan frowned. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Boss, take a close look. Doesn't this guy look an awful lot like the maniac from last night?"
"Alike?" Xing Qiushan thought there was quite a difference. "Last night's guy had a big beard."
Deng Jingcai pointed at the photo. "Boss, a beard can be grown or shaved off whenever he likes! Look at these facial features, look at the eyes and brows—look how alike they are!"
Prompted by Deng Jingcai, Xing Qiushan looked again and had to admit there was indeed a resemblance.
Deng Jingcai added, "Boss, if we hand this photograph over to the old sect master, it'll surely count as a major merit."
"Hand it to the old sect master? Look how small-minded you are." Xing Qiushan lowered his voice. "What's the bounty on him?"
Deng Jingcai thought for a moment. "I heard they're paying twenty thousand for him alive, ten thousand dead, and three thousand just for a tip to the Lu family."
Xing Qiushan's brow furrowed. "That's all?"
"That's a fortune! I'm talking about silver dollars!"
"Silver dollars!" Xing Qiushan broke into a grin. "Brother, not only are we getting our revenge, but we're also about to strike it rich!"
***
Li Banfeng, his face still caked in heavy stage makeup, opened his eyes.
He rubbed his abdomen, feeling a dull throb of pain.
The wound had already scabbed over, and the blood on his clothes and bedsheets had been washed completely clean.
The gramophone rested quietly by the bedside, seemingly asleep.
Li Banfeng clicked open his pocket watch. It read ten o'clock.
Ten o'clock.
That was a bit inconvenient.
Li Banfeng had no idea how long he had been asleep.
His pocket watch was gold-plated and looked fairly upscale, but the actual craftsmanship was crude. It lacked even a calendar display, leaving Li Banfeng unsure whether it was ten in the morning or ten at night.
Normally, he would just step outside and check.
Now, however, he had to be cautious. He was still in Lüshui City.
Li Banfeng gingerly pushed the room door open.
If it was dark out, he would immediately set off for Lanyang Village and dedicate himself to repairing his wife.
If it was broad daylight, he would fix his wife right now and wait until nightfall before leaving Lüshui City.
Peering out, Li Banfeng saw bright daylight. It was ten in the morning.
He immediately retreated into the Portable Abode, opened a tin of food for a quick bite, and fetched a screwdriver and wrench, preparing to strip down the two gramophones and the movie projector.
It was a good idea, but execution proved far less simple. Li Banfeng had studied basic mechanics in college, yet his knowledge was utterly useless before these three machines.
Puluo Province's inability to use electricity on a large scale had driven its people to push mechanical engineering to its absolute zenith. Even professional engineers from Yuezhou might not make heads or tails of these three contraptions.
Wrench in hand, Li Banfeng was just pondering where to begin when a hiss of steam rose behind him.
"Husband~"
The voice called out, so sultry it made his bones melt.
Far too sultry.
Li Banfeng shivered, turning back toward his wife. "You're awake?"
"Husband, you have barely begun to heal from grave wounds. Do not wander about. Come rest beside your humble servant."
Li Banfeng squeezed into the front cabinet of the bellows gramophone, preparing to unbolt the connecting rod, but a gentle puff of steam blocked him.
"Husband, why must you busy yourself with such heavy labor? Fetch that Red Lotus wench over, if you please."
"Why do you need Red Lotus?"
"Husband~ just bring that Red Lotus wench to me."
The wife's voice still drifted off-key on occasion, but the sheer allure remained irresistible.
Asking no more questions, Li Banfeng quickly brought over the bronze lotus.
A faint glow shimmered around the bronze lotus; it was still refining Madam Bagworm Moth's corpse.
The wife spoke in a sweet, gentle tone. "Sister Red Lotus, your elder sister has a favor to ask."
Seeing the steam gramophone, the bronze lotus formed clear, glistening dewdrops across its tightly closed leaves.
Was she this excited upon seeing the wife?
It seemed the two of them got along quite well.
"Oh, my dear sister~ take a look at these machines. Such exquisite craftsmanship, such fine materials! Won't you please take them in?"
The bronze lotus could take in machines too?
The petals remained motionless. The bronze lotus appeared unwilling.
"Oh, my dear sister~ I know you look down upon such mundane contraptions, but you heard it yourself last night—Husband risked his life to bring these back."
A few more dewdrops formed atop the petals, poised and waiting.
She seemed to be speaking to the gramophone.
After listening for a moment, the gramophone replied, "That is no way to talk. Even though Husband did it for me, wasn't it also for our household? If the two of us start squabbling out of jealousy over this, wouldn't outsiders laugh at us?"
And an outsider was indeed watching the show.
Vaguely, Li Banfeng heard a voice chime in.
"Meteors shoot jade bullets, treasured blades shed autumn frost! Fight! You two must settle this properly—neither can yield an inch!"
It was the Tang dao.
Li Banfeng pulled the Tang dao from his pocket and kicked it aside.
The bronze lotus still gave no response, and the wife grew peeved.
"If you refuse me even this shred of face today, then I shall not beg! Husband, retreat to the outer room for a moment. I will have a proper fight to the death with this wench!"
Li Banfeng frowned. "You're injured like this, what fight could you possibly have?"
"Win or lose matters not, but dignity must be upheld! Husband, your humble servant will stake her life right here today and see whether Red Lotus dares battle me in this room!"
*Clang, clang, clang~*
Though the gongs and drums sputtered along with a stutter, the momentum was fierce. The wife was preparing for serious business.
Standing between them, Li Banfeng had no idea how to mediate the standoff.
After a long stalemate, the petals hissed, and Red Lotus bloomed.
The Tang dao sprang up in an instant, darting into the outer room like a bolt of lightning and slamming the door shut.
A blast of air surged from the lotus heart, sweeping up the two gramophones and the projector and pulling them all into its core.
Li Banfeng had always assumed the bronze lotus could not digest objects lacking spiritual nature.
Only now did he realize that not wanting to was entirely different from being unable to.
In less than a minute, the lotus blossomed once more. Two lotus seeds rested within its heart.
One was fully ripe; Li Banfeng plucked it free.
The other was unripe and firmly wedged; Li Banfeng could not budge it.
"Oh, Husband, that seed isn't fully ripe yet~ It will take a few more days. For now, feed this pill to your humble servant."
Li Banfeng cradled the seed in his palm as the bronze lotus closed its petals to resume refining.
Moments later, the seed in his hand cracked open, revealing a pale yellow pill tinged with bright silver.
What kind of color was this?
It looked like a blend of wood and metal.
Holding it up against the gramophone's firelight, he saw what appeared to be tiny gears turning inside, shrouded in swirling wisps of steam.
A mechanical elixir pill?
Li Banfeng swung open the gramophone's rear compartment and moved to shove the pill inside, but the wife cried out, "Oh, Husband, why are you stuffing it in there? Just feed it to your humble servant!"
So it just needed to be fed.
Li Banfeng dropped the pill into the horn. Cloud and mist immediately enveloped the gramophone as it murmured softly, "Your humble servant will rest for a while, and Husband must rest well too. When you awake, our injuries will surely be healed."
Steam soothed Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng held the gramophone close.
The two drifted into sweet slumber.
The bronze lotus produced two crystal-clear dewdrops, which landed gently upon Li Banfeng and the gramophone.
***
Inside the Lu family mansion, Lu Dongliang was compiling the rules of practice for Lu Chunying following her entry onto the path of the journey cultivator.
Head Steward Qiu Zhiheng approached Lu Dongliang and said in a low voice, "Xing Qiushan, a junior pincher of the Ghost Hand Sect, wishes to see you."
"I won't see him!" Lu Dongliang refused flatly.
He had no patience for guests today, let alone a petty nobody like Xing Qiushan.
Qiu Zhiheng added, "Xing Qiushan claims he saw Li Banfeng on Yangting Road."
Lu Dongliang looked up, startled. "Saw who?"
Chapter 113