After searching for a long while and finding no trace of anyone, the watermelon men returned to the front courtyard one after another.
One of the watermelon men was injured, its watermelon juice trickling out. Geng Zhiwei hurriedly ordered a clerk to bandage it up.
Standing nearby, Jia Quansheng said, "Brother, isn't that being a bit too careful? It's not like these things are living people."
Geng Zhiwei shot him a look. "Do you have any fucking idea how much one of these costs? If it weren't for your sake, would I have bled this much money?"
"Of course, of course," Jia Quansheng replied with an obsequious smile. "It's all for me."
Though he said so aloud, Jia Quansheng was disgruntled inside.
Geng Zhiwei acted as if he were the one getting the short end of the stick. But he had already pocketed Qin Xiaopang's ten snake-spot pills, and in the end, Yu Nan's Yu Family Cloth Shop would fall into his hands too!
When all was said and done, Geng Zhiwei had merely lost Rong Jin'an and spent money on twenty-some watermelons.
Jia Quansheng had met that Tillage Cultivator before. A watermelon man sold for only twenty thousand-odd yuan. Geng Zhiwei was getting a cloth shop in return—where exactly was the loss?
Besides, these watermelon men could last an entire year. If injured, pour a little water over them and they would heal themselves. To obtain such useful things at such a cheap price—where the hell was Geng Zhiwei getting cheated?
Naturally, these were thoughts Jia Quansheng kept to himself; he would never dare voice them aloud.
The watermelon men could not speak, but since one was hurt, they must have encountered an ambush. Geng Zhiwei led his men to the rear courtyard to inspect it personally. Finding no one, he simply ordered his men to set a fire and burn the Yu family's ancestral residence to the ground.
Amid churning flames, the entire compound was reduced to ashes.
Geng Zhiwei said to Jia Quansheng, "Tomorrow, post a notice in Ligou. A wretch like Yu Nan is never permitted to show her face in Yaowanggou again. If anyone sees her and keeps quiet, they will be Geng Zhiwei's sworn enemy!"
Geng Zhiwei shouted, "Move out!"
A crowd of subordinates followed behind him, and the watermelon men fell into a single file, trailing after them.
***
Inside the Portable Abode, Li Banfeng gently caressed the gramophone, asking in a soft voice, "Precious wife, what tier of Tillage Cultivator is needed to make watermelon men like those?
"I don't want to fight him. I'd like to make friends with him and buy some good things myself another day.
"Wife, what do you think of a cucumber man? The kind with prickles!
"Wife, say something to me. I'll be staying home for quite a while today. If you keep giving me the silent treatment, you'll bore me to death."
*Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!*
The gramophone spoke.
*Clang! Clang-clang!*
Gongs and drums began to sound.
The gramophone was singing opera.
"Su San leaves Hongdong County, stepping out upon the thoroughfare.
I hear Luoyang is lush with blooming flowers, yet I arrived only to meet frost and bitter snow!"
A familiar passage—*Yu Tang Chun: Su San Under Escort*.
The gramophone sang with deep emotion. After only two lines, its voice trembled as though it were weeping.
No, it truly was weeping.
Amid puffs of venting steam, fine droplets gathered on the horn and rolled down like tears.
Li Banfeng was no unfeeling boor; he was a tenderhearted man.
Seeing the gramophone weep so sorrowfully, Li Banfeng quickly stepped forward to console it. "Wife, why are you crying?"
*Hiss! Hiss!*
The gramophone gave a sob and launched into recitative: "My husband has brought no grain home for so many days; your servant's belly aches with hunger, unbearable, ah... ah... ah..."
The operatic note dragged on endlessly.
"Couldn't you just say you're hungry?" Li Banfeng said, rather disgruntled. "Back at that old lady's house, I fed you so much, and the day before yesterday you ate Rong Jin'an, completely fresh. Now you're hungry again?"
*Clang-clang-clang—*
The gramophone shifted its tempo and continued to sing:
"For a poor, humble couple, everything ends in grief. I know how hard my husband toils out in the world—a meal now, starving then. How could this humble servant dare utter a single word of grievance? *Wei-ya—*"
Reaching this point, the gramophone wept once more.
Li Banfeng sighed. "That last feeding must have stretched your belly too wide, my wife."
The gramophone wailed miserably, its recitative growing shriller: "Your servant never complained of this hardship, yet how could my husband mock his humble servant? *Ya-ya-ya—*"
"Stop crying!" Li Banfeng was in no great mood.
By all rights, living under the same roof, feeding one's wife proper meals was only fair.
Li Banfeng was not short on cash. While he could not promise daily delicacies, starving one meal and stuffing the next was indeed improper.
Yet what his wife ate was extraordinary!
Ingredients so precious were hard to come by!
"Wife, how about I catch a watermelon man and bring it back for you to eat later?" Li Banfeng produced the remaining watermelon pulp.
*Hiss!*
The gramophone snorted.
"That is merely a watermelon grown by a Tillage Cultivator, devoid of any spirituality. How could your servant possibly stomach it—"
His wife did not like watermelons.
"Then I'll bring back some corpses for you to eat."
*Hiss, hiss—*
"This humble servant does not eat corpses!"
Li Banfeng frowned. "Why are you so picky? The lotus eats them with great relish."
"Husband, speak not of that cheap slut Red Lotus!"
*Red Lotus?*
Did she mean the bronze lotus?
The gramophone continued its recitative: "Husband dotes on that slut, giving her every fine treat and drink—yet cares nothing for this servant's life or death, ah... ah... ah—"
That was entirely unreasonable. Li Banfeng argued, "Wife, the corpses were right there. If you wanted to eat, you could have eaten too!"
*Pfft—*
The horn expelled a large plume of steam, seemingly spitting in disgust.
"How could this humble servant swallow such filthy dregs? Red Lotus eats nothing living, while this servant eats nothing dead!"
Li Banfeng grew irritated. "You woman, you're impossible to please!"
"Husband has no love for this servant, no love at all—"
*Sizzle—*
A vast cloud of scalding steam billowed out, scorching Li Banfeng red from head to toe.
Li Banfeng went silent, and the gramophone also ceased its noise.
*Red Lotus eats nothing living* meant that the bronze lotus did not consume living things; it fed on corpses, medicinal herbs, and extraordinary weapons.
*This servant eats nothing dead* meant that she did not consume dead matter; she fed on wronged souls.
Wronged souls were terribly difficult to procure!
Li Banfeng did have an idea, but it carried no small amount of risk.
***
Geng Zhiwei returned to the medicine shop and specially cleared out a sun-drenched room to house the watermelon men.
Over twenty buckets were lined up inside, one for each watermelon man. They stood stiffly with their feet planted in the buckets. Standing like this for a day and a night would restore their vigor, leaving them ready to fight again the next day.
During the day, the watermelon men basked in the sunlight, and all their wounds knit shut.
Come nightfall, clerks from the medicine shop came by specifically to top off the water.
At one in the morning, the belly of one watermelon man swelled up. Then, with a sharp crack, its entire body burst apart.
Clutching his key, Li Banfeng stood up from the basin full of watermelon pulp.
The Portable Abode followed the key, and the key had followed the watermelon man.
Li Banfeng had crawled out from the belly of the watermelon man and had now arrived inside the Geng Family Medicine Shop.
The shattered watermelon man remained completely calm, and the others stood silent.
Without fertilizer, they lacked any combat prowess. Even as Li Banfeng ravenously devoured chunks of the watermelon pulp, they showed no hostility toward him.
Having eaten the pulp and worked up a heavy sweat, Li Banfeng looked around the watermelon room and promptly crouched down.
The room had several glass windows that let in plenty of light, offering a clear view of the courtyard outside.
Two guards stood watch outside the door. Both were trusted subordinates of Geng Zhiwei, stationed here specifically because the watermelon men were of vital importance.
Having just heard the sound of the watermelon man bursting, the two were peering inside.
Fortunately, this particular watermelon man had stood in a corner, out of their direct line of sight from the windows.
One whispered, "Keep watch here. I'll go take a look."
The other shook his head. "Look at what? Those things are bloody creepy."
"Since when do you know fear? Last month, when the young master sent you to collect debts, you killed every man in that family of over a dozen and bedded every woman. Even ghosts would shiver at the sight of you! What's there to fear from a few watermelons?"
"How is that the same? These are watermelons that turned into monsters! You saw them during the fight today—they're wicked as hell!"
"The young master paid a fortune for them. If anything happens, we can't take the blame. How about we go check together?"
"Look at you, honestly..."
The two guards unlocked the door and stepped cautiously inside, only to see a watermelon man shattered with pulp scattered all across the floor.
Both were startled. One asked, "What happened here?"
The other turned to look at the remaining watermelon men and found one standing in each basin, neat and complete, not a single one missing.
Not a single watermelon man was missing, so what was this shattered one on the floor?
An extra one?
How could that be...
The guard's hairs stood on end. He swept his gaze over the group of watermelon men again and realized something was off.
In truth, one watermelon man was missing. Li Banfeng was standing expressionless and rigid inside a basin, masquerading as one of them.
A Dwelling Cultivator possessed the trait of being easily overlooked, so the two sentries had failed to notice at first glance.
One guard walked close to Li Banfeng, his eyes going wide. "This one isn't—"
*Squelch—*
With a flick of his sickle, Li Banfeng slit his throat.
The other guard was still examining the shattered watermelon on the floor. Hearing the commotion behind him, he started to turn, only to find a sickle pressed against his neck.
"Don't make a sound. I'm a good man," Li Banfeng murmured in his ear.
The man dared not utter a peep. Li Banfeng asked, "I'm going to ask you a question. Answer honestly, and I'll let you go. Where does your medicine shop keep its valuable medicine?"
"In the medicine storehouse—the east wing in the front courtyard," the man answered truthfully.
"What good medicine is there?"
"Do you mean herbs or pills? I can't recognize all the herbs, but I know some of the pills."
"Then tell me about the pills."
"There are dozens of snake-spot pills. Exactly how many, I don't know."
Li Banfeng was skeptical. "A shop as large as the Geng Family Medicine Shop only has snake-spot pills? I'm a good man; don't lie to me."
"The truly fine medicine isn't kept at the counter. It's all at the old master's residence."
The man was not lying. Medicine shops generally did not keep excessively precious pills on hand. Anyone wishing to buy them had to arrange a time in advance, and the seller would retrieve the goods.
Li Banfeng asked again, "Where is the medicine shop's money kept?"
"A portion is in the front counter. The large sums are in the rear courtyard, in the young master's room."
"Where does your young master stay?"
"The rear courtyard, sleeping in the Third Concubine's quarters."
"Are there guards in the rear courtyard?"
"Yes, usually ten men."
"Do any have cultivation?"
"Yes. The chief enforcer, Song Baiming, is a Second Tier body cultivator, and he has two First Tier Martial Cultivators under him."
That made things tricky. One Second Tier, two First Tiers, plus seven lackeys—Li Banfeng could not handle that alone.
"What about the other guards?" Li Banfeng remembered Geng Zhiwei had more than thirty guards at his command.
"The rest are all sleeping in this courtyard. Good hero, everything I said is the truth! You promised to let me go. Spare my life, and I swear I won't alert anyone!" The guard was practically in tears.
"Alright, I'll let you go," Li Banfeng smiled. "A family of over a dozen, and you spared none of them. I heard everything earlier."
Tears streaming down his face, the guard pleaded, "Good hero, those were the young master's orders! We only do as we're told! Don't listen to that bastard's nonsense—he was far more vicious than me, and he killed far more people than I did!"
"Far more than you?" Li Banfeng glanced at the corpse on the floor. "It seems you two shared quite a bond. I'll send you along to join him."
"Spare me—" The guard tried to scream, but the cry never left his lips.
With a light flick of the sickle, Li Banfeng slit the guard's throat.
Chapter 65