Kucaizhuang

His wife had hit the mark. In actual combat, the paper maiden Li Banfeng block-printed couldn't even last a minute before disintegrating. In truth, a minute was being generous. Li Banfeng had timed it with his pocket watch. Standing in place and doing nothing at all, the paper maiden could last fifteen minutes. Doing simple chores, she held together for three and a half minutes. Fighting hand-to-hand, she lasted roughly fifteen to twenty seconds. Fighting with weapons, she managed about ten to fifteen seconds. The duration was certainly short, but the paper maiden was undeniably capable of combat. Her exact prowess depended on Li Banfeng's conscious intent. When he infused his intent gently, the paper figure could perform basic moves like throwing punches and thrusting knives. When he poured it in vigorously, she could even display a respectable degree of martial skill—she simply tore apart all the faster. The pendulum advised, "Master, you should still study painting with me. Such shortcut tricks are far too flimsy." "I'll learn to paint, but this trick has its uses too." Li Banfeng bought a pile of paintbrushes and pigments. While learning painting techniques from the pendulum, he trained the block-printed paper figures, striving to squeeze the maximum combat power out of their limited time. Neither endeavor was easy. Having procured all his supplies, Li Banfeng headed into the newland to cultivate in seclusion. As he walked along the path, he suddenly began talking to himself: "Did you forget something?" "What would that be?" "Weren't you planning on going back to Yuezhou?" "There's no rush for that anymore." "Why not?" "He's still in Yuezhou, and who knows what his intentions are. If I went back now, I doubt I'd be a match for him." ... In Yuezhou, Dark Star Bureau agent Zou Guoming, nicknamed Big Head, was eating dinner at home—a meal cooked by his wife. Big Head's wife was named Miao Ruifang. She was a great cook, kept a neat house, lived frugally, and was deeply considerate. Yet ever since she lost her job, Miao Ruifang's temperament had shifted somewhat. Halfway through the meal, she abruptly set down her chopsticks and turned to Big Head. "Let's sell the apartment." "Why?" Big Head froze. In Yuezhou, owning a 103-square-meter apartment was Big Head's sole point of pride after all these years. Miao Ruifang said, "Our boy is starting middle school next year. We either need to buy an apartment in a good school district, or send him to a private school. We can't just scrape by like we did for primary school." The Dark Star Bureau paid well. Even with his wife out of work, their family lived quite comfortably. Yet the tuition at Yuezhou's private schools was enough to make a person shiver. As for an apartment in a key school district, the mere thought left one without the strength to shiver. Big Head looked at his wife. "I'll figure something out about the school spot." "What can you figure out? You said the same thing when he went to primary school. What did that get us?" Back when their child started primary school, the bureau had promised to apply for a spot at a key primary school for Big Head. The spot had ultimately been approved, but for various reasons, it never went to Big Head. The bureau's explanation had been that he needed to consider the bigger picture. Now, the bureau had promised once again to apply for a middle school spot. But what if they asked him to consider the bigger picture again? "I have the night shift tonight. I'm heading out." Big Head set down his chopsticks and pulled on his jacket. "Didn't you just work the night shift yesterday?" "Called in for overtime today." "I honestly don't know what kind of job you even have!" In over a decade of marriage, his wife had never set foot in Big Head's workplace or pressed him about his duties. All she knew was that he worked for an electronics company. Why an electronics company required so many night shifts, however, made no sense to her. If she didn't understand, she stopped asking. With a sullen face, she began clearing the dishes, and Big Head slipped out the door with his head down. He didn't have a night shift today. Big Head made his way to Flower Lake Park. Going behind the western-style manor, he saw the sobbing young woman once more. Hu Lishan, who had drowned herself in the lake—was she still here? She had long ceased to be here; neither her body nor her soul remained. All that lingered was a marker—a sign left by He Jiaqing for Big Head. Big Head was the only one who could see the weeping woman, and seeing her revealed the entrance to the newland. Following the woman, Big Head waded into the lake step by step. Unlike before, he had come prepared. He had brought an oxygen bag to ensure he could last twenty minutes. He knew how to leave the newland; if things got out of hand, he had ways to escape. Diving into the freezing water, Big Head found a loach buried in the silt along the lakebed. He carefully pulled the loach free from the mud. It looked to be twelve or thirteen centimeters long. This loach could give a man an extra five or six centimeters down below. No surgery needed—all one had to do was eat it. Big Head had once worked a case where someone smuggled loaches of this kind from Puluo Province to sell on the black market. A single loach could fetch eight hundred thousand notes. The case had eventually petered out with no resolution, but Big Head knew where the black market was and whom to contact to sell it. *I'm just doing a bit of business. I caught the loach myself, and selling it isn't any big deal.* One loach couldn't buy an apartment in a good school district, but it was more than enough to cover three years of private school tuition. Clutching the loach, Big Head was about to swim upward when the docile creature suddenly unleashed an uncanny force. It wriggled free from his grip and bit down viciously into his flesh. After a jolt of sharp pain, numbness spread through Big Head's body. His head slammed against the lake's surface as if striking solid stone. He failed to breach the surface. He was trapped! Panicking, Big Head didn't know what to do. Though he had visited this newland before, such an environment was still far too alien to him. Suddenly, a hole opened in the lake surface. A hand seized Big Head's collar and hauled him out. It was He Jiaqing. "I'm an invalid! I'm supposed to be lying in a hospital bed, not constantly running out to save you!" Seeing the wound on Big Head's hand, He Jiaqing asked, "What are you catching loaches for?" "I wanted to earn some extra cash—enough for my kid's tuition." Big Head explained the situation with his child's schooling. He Jiaqing handed him an elixir pill. "A fifth-tier Martial Cultivator worrying over this kind of petty cash? You might as well just go to Puluo Province. Working as someone's head guard would pay far better than what you're making now." Big Head swallowed the pill and hurried to express his thanks. He genuinely wanted to see what Puluo Province was like, but he couldn't abandon his wife and child. "I'll try diving back in." As the medicine took effect, the numbness eased considerably. Big Head moved toward the water again, but He Jiaqing stopped him. "Running off to do business on the black market—aren't you worried someone will investigate you?" Big Head fell silent for a moment. "There are people in the bureau who deal with the black market too. None of them ever got investigated." "They didn't get investigated, but you're not them! You sell your goods today, and tomorrow you could end up behind bars! How would your wife and child survive then?" Big Head said nothing. He Jiaqing pondered briefly. "Your wife lost her job?" Big Head nodded. "What did she do before?" "Lobby manager at a hotel. The hotel went under, so she lost her job." "A friend of mine just opened a hotel and happens to need a lobby manager. Twenty thousand a month, bonuses on top, and it comes with an arranged school spot. Tell your wife to take the job." Big Head's position was sensitive. Giving him money directly would inevitably draw scrutiny, making this the safest way He Jiaqing could help. Big Head was stunned. He couldn't fathom why He Jiaqing was going out of his way for him. He knew He Jiaqing was someone capable of altering the course of his life; it was He Jiaqing who had shown him this newland in the Outer States, and the two would likely cooperate on certain matters down the road. Yet ever since they met, He Jiaqing had never probed him for information, nor had he asked him to do a single thing. "Why are you helping me?" "No particular reason. You have real capability, and someone with real capability deserves to live with dignity." He Jiaqing produced pen and paper and jotted down the hotel's address. He had just grabbed the paper and pen from a stationery shop; his movements had been too fast for Big Head to catch. "A fifth-tier Martial Cultivator ought to carry himself with some backbone. Why risk your neck over petty troubles like this?" He Jiaqing pressed the address into Big Head's hand. "If you run into trouble in the future, come find me." ... "Can you please stop coming looking for me?" Ma the Fifth looked helplessly at Chu the Second. "What happened at the Paramount is over and done with. I've already hidden away in the newland—why are you still clinging to me?" Chu the Second's expression carried a touch of sorrow. "I came to bid you farewell. I'm going to Kucaizhuang to cultivate." After the ordeal at the Paramount, Chu the Second had sobered up considerably. In Puluo Province, one's hardest currency was cultivation. Ma the Fifth nodded. "Going to Kucaizhuang is a fine idea. Do you lack a travel permit or traveling expenses? You don't need a permit to go to Kucaizhuang, and if you're short on funds, I can lend you some." Chu the Second rolled her eyes upward. "Ma the Fifth, we do share some history after all. There's no need to be so sharp-tongued." "There's no history between us, and there never was. Do you have anything else? If not, I won't see you off." Yanzi had warned Ma the Fifth never to talk of sentiment with an Ascetic Cultivator. Ascetics did not speak of feeling or love. If one truly yearned for it in her heart, she would never say a word; if she actually voiced it, she was purely putting on an act. Just like Zhong Desong toward Old Lady Han: no matter how much he yearned for her deep down, he never dared tell her. Chu the Second let out a sigh. "I actually do have a favor to ask. I want to see Li the Seventh." "What do you want to see him for? Do you even know him? You shared a single dance with him—don't you dare tell me there's 'sentiment' in that too!" Sentiment was something Chu the Second herself would hardly believe. Yet she knew that ever since Ma the Fifth met Li the Seventh, his fortunes had completely turned around. Li Banfeng possessed the knack for helping people rise above their stations. "I respect capable people. I just want to meet him once. Otherwise, I'm not leaving." "Even if you don't leave, there's nothing I can do. Li the Seventh isn't here." "He has a plot here," Chu the Second said calmly, looking at Ma the Fifth. "If I could find you, I can find him. But if I go looking for him on my own, there's no telling what I might do." Ma the Fifth scoffed. "What could you possibly do? You think I'm scared of you?" Chu the Second lowered her head. "You're welcome to take that gamble." Ma the Fifth fell silent for a long time before throwing up his hands. "Fine. I'll take you over for a look. But if Li the Seventh refuses to see you, don't blame me." The two plots lay ten li apart. Under Ma the Fifth's arrangements, a row of wooden cabins had been built on each. Arriving at the door of Li Banfeng's cabin, Ma the Fifth knocked, but received no reply. "Unlucky timing. Li the Seventh isn't around." Chu the Second sat down outside the door. "I'll wait for him here." "Don't bother. When he leaves, he might not be back for three to five days." Chu the Second waited for over half an hour. Truly seeing no sign of Li the Seventh, she left looking thoroughly despondent. Ma the Fifth didn't bother escorting her far, returning to his own plot to cultivate with Yanzi. Out of all the anomalies in the newland, Ma the Fifth treated Yanzi best, and his affection had not been wasted. Cultivating alongside an eighth-tier Madam Bagworm Moth had caused his own cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds, already reaching the second tier. If Chu the Second dared make trouble, he was more than ready to deal with her. What he had not anticipated was that Chu the Second hadn't gone far at all—she had circled back. She picked the lock on Li Banfeng's door and slipped silently into the cabin. The wooden cabin had only recently been constructed, and its interior was virtually bare, containing only a table, a bed, and several chests. Li Banfeng truly wasn't here. Chu the Second rummaged around the room and discovered a key wedged in a seam of the bed slats. What key was this? Had it fallen in by accident, or was it hidden here on purpose? Chu the Second pocketed the key, a faint smile touching her lips. *If this key isn't important, I'll keep it as a keepsake.* *If it is important, you'll definitely come looking for me!* ... When the train pulled into Kucaizhuang Station, Chu the Second prepared to alight. Yang Yanzheng and Wen Hongyan moved to follow her, but Chu the Second stopped them. "You both know the rules of Kucaizhuang. Go back, and unless it's an urgent emergency, don't come looking for me under any circumstances." Luggage in hand, Chu the Second stepped off the train. Wen Hongyan and Yang Yanzheng watched her with worried faces. "Old Yang, what if she stirs up trouble in Kucaizhuang again?" "Then she'll take her beatings and face her punishments. It all comes down to her own luck—what else can be done?" ... Controlling the paper maiden with his mind, Li Banfeng pitted her in combat against the Tang dao. As soon as the Tang dao struck, the paper maiden was cleaved in two. Li Banfeng was dissatisfied. "Didn't I tell you not to use lethal force?" The Tang dao said, "I only used thirty percent of my strength. This woman simply can't take a hit." "Then use twenty percent this time!" Even with twenty percent, the paper figure couldn't withstand it. After three strikes, the Tang dao went off to rest, and the pendulum stepped up to take its turn. Before the pendulum, the paper maiden still couldn't survive a single exchange. What was the point of having her, then? In a fight, it would be far better to just let the pendulum strike directly. No, she needed more practice! Li Banfeng didn't step out of the door for two days, diligently training his fourth-tier technique. His cultivation as a journey cultivator had lagged a bit, but the technique had genuinely improved. He controlled the paper figure to trade two rounds of moves with the pendulum. Though the pendulum deliberately held back, the paper figure managed to find openings to counterattack. The blank paper was almost exhausted, so Li Banfeng decided to ask Ma the Fifth for more. He pushed the door open, only to find himself not in his wooden cabin, but inside an earthen hut. The pitch-black earthen hut was dilapidated in the extreme, with nothing but a hole punched through the south wall to serve as a makeshift window. Where was this? Li Banfeng's mind buzzed as he realized someone had picked up his key. There were noises coming from the outer room. It sounded like someone chopping firewood. Li Banfeng stepped out into the outer room and saw an unpretentious peasant woman. A towel was wrapped around her head, and she wore coarse cloth garments. Axe in hand, she stared at Li Banfeng in astonishment. "You really did come looking for me!" The peasant woman looked overjoyed. Li Banfeng stared at her for a good while before asking, "Who are you?" Chu the Second unwrapped the towel from her head and wiped the grime from her face. "You don't recognize me?" *Do I know her?* *She does look a bit familiar.* "Where is this place?" Chu the Second was dumbfounded for a long moment before asking, "You came here yourself, and you don't even know where this is? This is Kucaizhuang!"