Li Banfeng knocked on the door. The person who answered was a man in his mid-thirties, not tall but fairly burly, dressed in a vest and trousers that were patch upon patch from top to bottom.
With swarthy cheeks, thick eyebrows, and fleshy lips, his entire face exuded an air of simple honesty.
Fatty had once told Li Banfeng that in Yaowanggou, once you went outside Ligou, restaurants became exceedingly scarce. If your belly grumbled on the road and you needed a bite to eat, you could ask at someone's home for a meal. Three or five dollars was enough to pay for the food, and ordinary households rarely turned anyone away.
Li Banfeng explained his purpose, and the man warmly welcomed him inside.
The host was dressed plainly, yet the courtyard was by no means small; judging by the size of the front yard alone, it was nearly as large as a basketball court.
In the yard stood three tile-roofed rooms and a storehouse. Though somewhat old, the buildings were kept impeccably tidy.
The reason it could be identified as a front yard was that, judging by the enclosure walls and the layout of the buildings, there was likely a fairly sizable backyard behind them as well.
As a Dwelling Cultivator, seeing such a spacious, tidy courtyard made Li Banfeng feel a twinge of genuine envy.
"There's only a bit of leftover rice at home, no real dishes. Hope you don't mind making do," the man said as he lit an oil lamp in the courtyard. A woman brought over a bowl of rice and a small dish of pickled cucumbers.
The woman wore a cloth blouse with a diagonal collar, also covered in patches. From her age, she seemed to be the man's wife. Li Banfeng didn't look at her closely, nor should he have.
After setting down the bowl and chopsticks, the woman hurried back into the house.
Li Banfeng pulled out thirty dollars in cash and thrust it into the man's hand. The man waved his hands frantically. "It doesn't cost nearly that much!"
Li Banfeng waved it off. "Keep it. Coming to disturb you this late, I'd feel bad otherwise."
The rice was coarse and had quite a few husks in it, but Li Banfeng didn't care. He was truly starving, shoveling big mouthfuls of rice with the pickled cucumber.
Clutching the banknotes, the man wore a deeply apologetic look, as if he owed Li Banfeng something.
He quietly slipped back into the house. Before long, a gray-haired old woman emerged.
Cradling a wine jug in her arms, the old woman came before Li Banfeng and said with a smile, "Young man, have a taste of our homemade sorghum wine."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "Old mother, I don't drink."
He wasn't merely being polite; Li Banfeng really couldn't get used to the wine here.
For a poor family like this, a jug of wine was precious. It had even drawn out the old woman. Since he didn't care for it, he shouldn't waste their good things.
Yet the old woman insisted on pouring him a bowl. "Young man, have a bowl. It's nothing fancy, so don't look down on it. My son took your money, and we truly feel terrible about it."
Since the old woman had personally poured it, Li Banfeng could hardly refuse again. He picked up the wine bowl and took a sip.
To his surprise, the wine was mellow and fragrant, much tastier than the wine at the steamed bun shop.
The bowl of rice was finished, the pickled cucumbers gone, and the wine bowl drained to the bottom. Li Banfeng let out a satisfied burp.
The old woman smiled. "Young man, have you found a place for the night? If not, why not stay at our place?"
"I've got a place to stay. I'll be on my way now. Thank you for your hospitality."
Having eaten his fill, he needed to leave right away. Li Banfeng was being pursued by the Jiangxiang Gang; he couldn't bring trouble upon this honest family.
The moment he stood up, Li Banfeng suddenly felt his head spin. The figures of mother and son bobbed up and down before his eyes.
Had he drunk too much?
No!
He had been poisoned!
The old woman watched Li Banfeng with a beaming smile. "Young man, don't run around. I think you'd better stay after all."
What was going on?
Li Banfeng spun around to dash out the door, only to see the man's wife blocking the doorway.
The woman looked up and drove a fist straight into Li Banfeng's chin.
Li Banfeng tried to dodge, but his body refused to obey. He couldn't evade it and took the solid brunt of the blow.
What formidable strength this woman had!
Stumbling back two steps, Li Banfeng crashed to the ground.
He looked closely at the woman's face.
By the candlelight, he saw clearly this time: around the person's lips was a ring of dark stubble.
This was a man.
This was a black inn!
Impossible. I didn't sense any danger earlier!
Li Banfeng held his forehead, rubbed his eyes, and wiped away the blood around his mouth and nose. Slumping limp on the ground, he slowly closed his eyes.
His eyes were closed, but he hadn't passed out. His mind remained lucid, and he could hear the conversation around him with absolute clarity.
The honest-faced eldest son looked at the old woman. "Ma, dealing with a white lamb like this, did we really need to waste a whole jug of my good wine? That dish of pickled cucumbers would've been enough."
So the pickled cucumbers were poisoned too!
Fury surged in Li Banfeng's heart. He had survived Bitter Mist Mountain, yet here in this gutter, his ship had actually capsized!
How strange. I can sense malice. Back at the station, I could sense Chu Yunlong's malice, so why couldn't I sense a shred of malice from this family while eating?
Could this entire family's cultivation be astonishingly high?
With cultivation that high, would they still resort to such underhanded tricks?
The old woman chuckled. "Silly boy, look closer. This isn't some white lamb. There's something odd about the way he walks. He's a journey cultivator, and one who's achieved rank at that."
"A journey cultivator?" The eldest son scratched his scalp. "I've never seen one before."
"If you haven't seen one, open your eyes and learn something today," the old woman said. "Journey cultivators are fast on their feet. This man has the Wind Rises on Level Ground ability, proving he's achieved rank.
"He just hasn't held rank for very long and hasn't learned to rein it in at will. If we hadn't knocked him out with poisoned wine, he'd have vanished in the blink of an eye.
"What's more, journey cultivators sense danger. If I hadn't made a move beforehand, he would've wised up the moment he walked through the door."
Wising up—thieves' cant for a dupe realizing they were being conned.
So it was the old woman who acted in advance, preventing me from sensing their malice.
What rank of cultivator was this old woman?
What tier of ability did she use?
Hearing this, the eldest son beamed with pride. "Ma, isn't my brewing getting better and better?"
The old woman snorted. "You reached the first tier year before last. A year and a half has passed since then. If you couldn't even take down someone with comparable cultivation, how could you have the face to make a living in this trade?"
From the old woman's words, Li Banfeng gathered that the man was a Poison Cultivator, his cultivation on par with his own—both at the first tier.
Li Banfeng tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were too heavy; after several attempts, he still couldn't pry them open.
The second son disguised as a woman said, "Ma, since he isn't a white lamb, why don't we just crop the gourd while he's down?"
The second son had never seen a journey cultivator either, but he felt that any mark who possessed cultivation was best killed outright.
Hearing this, Li Banfeng's heart clenched.
In his current state, he had few means to fight back.
Even with few options, he had to make a desperate gamble. He couldn't just die here!
The old woman prodded Li Banfeng with her walking stick. Seeing no reaction, she instructed her two sons, "Strip him of everything on him, lock his hands and feet, and put him in the mark room. We'll make our move at the Zi hour."
The second son didn't understand. "Ma, why do we have to wait until the Zi hour?"
Indeed, why did they have to wait until the Zi hour? Li Banfeng didn't understand either. He had already braced himself for a life-or-death struggle.
Did they want to strike when I let my guard down?
She was overthinking it; there was no way I would let my guard down.
"I told you to wait until the Zi hour, so do as you're told! Strip him clean first!" the old woman barked. The two sons stepped forward and took Li Banfeng's sickle, shovel, and wallet, and even confiscated the spicy gluten strips hidden in his clothing's inner lining.
Yet there was one thing they failed to take.
When Li Banfeng had wiped his mouth and nose earlier, he had slipped the key into his mouth.
He had originally wanted to open the Portable Abode immediately and flee, but under the watch of all three people, Li Banfeng had no confidence he could conceal the key, let alone turn it successfully.
For now, the old woman truly had no desire to kill Li Banfeng.
What was her real reason for waiting until the Zi hour?
Why, even now, could he still not sense the danger here?
Chapter 43