"Within a hundred li, there is only one checkpoint, but its location isn't fixed," Youtao said, explaining its peculiarities.
"If there's only one checkpoint, why wouldn't it be fixed?" Li Banfeng still couldn't understand.
Youtao explained patiently, "Those are the rules set by the Garrison Commissioner. The checkpoint's location changes every day. Anyone who wants to cross must take their travel permit to the police station early that morning to assemble, and then everyone crosses together at noon. Supposedly, it's done this way to keep smugglers from making preparations beforehand."
It truly was difficult to prepare for; Li Banfeng currently saw no opportunity to make advance arrangements.
After a moment's thought, he asked, "Do you have a way to get across?"
You Xuetao blinked. "What way do you need? Just have your friend bring his travel permit, and in a couple of days I'll take him to the police station. He can just walk right across."
Li Banfeng raised an eyebrow. "And how does one cross without a travel permit?"
"Crossing without a permit is just smuggling, isn't it? Just what kind of background does this friend of yours have?" Youtao stepped forward, teasingly hooking her finger under Li Banfeng's chin.
*Cough, cough, cough!*
The sound of a woman coughing drifted down from upstairs again.
You Xuetao shouted toward the upper floor, "I told you, he's just a friend!"
The coughing stopped. You Xuetao looked back at Li Banfeng and said, "This is extremely hard to pull off. Unless your friend's cultivation is absurdly high, he can forget about crossing the border without a permit."
"Cultivation matters for this too?" Li Banfeng thought the man riding the crane had possessed quite high cultivation, yet he hadn't made it across either.
You Xuetao nodded. "Of course it matters. Without a travel permit, if you want to cross the border, there are only two paths.
"The first is identity theft. If someone gets their hands on a travel permit, you can spend a hefty sum to buy it from them and cross by impersonating them."
Li Banfeng nodded. "That's a good method. Roughly how much does a travel permit cost?"
"I couldn't say. I've never done something like that. I've only heard that someone managed it because they happened to find someone with the exact same name."
Li Banfeng was puzzled. "Why does it have to be someone with the exact same name?"
Youtao explained, "The Garrison Commissioner possesses an artifact of a Virtue Cultivator. He will ask for your name, and before that artifact, you must speak the absolute truth, or you'll drop dead on the spot. Unless you share the exact name of the permit's holder, or your tier surpasses that of the artifact, there's no faking it."
A namesake?
That seemed like something one could only chance upon, never seek out.
Better to target the artifact itself; Li Banfeng was, after all, a tier-two Dwelling Cultivator now.
"What tier is that artifact?"
Youtao replied, "I've heard it's tier eight. As long as your cultivation is higher than tier eight, and you can suppress that artifact in a short span of time without showing the slightest slip-up from start to finish, you can cross smoothly."
Li Banfeng nodded. "Let's talk about the other path."
Tier eight?
How many tier eights were there in all of Puluo Province?
And one would have to be *higher* than tier eight!
That meant tier nine or tier ten.
Li Banfeng hadn't even heard of people like that.
Youtao said, "The other path is called the Peddler's Path. Supposedly, peddlers travel between regions using the Peddler's Path."
Li Banfeng's eyes lit up. "Where is the Peddler's Path?"
"A little over two hundred li to the west."
"Distance isn't an issue." To Li Banfeng, two hundred li took only a bit more than three hours on foot.
You Xuetao sighed. "This isn't a matter of distance. The Peddler's Path is merely a legend. Though I haven't seen much of the world, I've lived twenty-six years, and I've never heard of anyone finding the Peddler's Path, let alone surviving it to leave Yaowanggou.
"Rumor has it that finding the Peddler's Path requires sufficient means and destiny. What's more, countless monsters and ferocious beasts lurk within it, making it a hundred times more perilous than a newland. If your friend doesn't have that kind of ability, don't waste any thought on it."
Neither path was viable. Li Banfeng's expression grew solemn.
Having offered all her suggestions, Youtao asked carefully, "Why are you so determined to leave Yaowanggou?"
There was no need to keep pretending it was for a friend; by now, both understood the situation.
Li Banfeng didn't beat around the bush either. "To dodge an enemy."
The answer was simple, but You Xuetao could tell how severe the predicament was.
"Hide here with me for now. I doubt that enemy of yours would track you to such an out-of-the-way place."
Li Banfeng hesitated for a long while before shaking his head. "He hasn't come yet, but sooner or later he will. I can't hide here at your place. Take me to the police station to have a look."
You Xuetao shook her head. "Going there won't do any good. There are no loopholes to exploit, and the checkpoint is closed today and tomorrow. Wait until the day after tomorrow."
Li Banfeng checked the calendar. Today was Saturday.
Coming from the Outer States after all, the Garrison Commissioner still maintained the habit of taking a two-day weekend.
You Xuetao made a round through the village, bought plenty of ingredients, set up a stove in front of the bamboo house, and cooked a lavish meal for Li Banfeng.
Li Banfeng brought out salted fish and wine. After subsisting on canned goods for days, this meal felt immensely satisfying.
"Isn't your companion coming down to eat together?" Li Banfeng glanced upstairs.
You Xuetao shook her head. "She's afraid of strangers. Don't mind her."
Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, You Xuetao found a hammock and had Li Banfeng sleep on the ground floor.
After she headed up to the second floor, Li Banfeng overheard a few snatches of an argument; Youtao's companion was clearly upset.
"He's just my friend, and nothing happened between us! What are you throwing a temper for?" You Xuetao was chiding her partner.
Her companion never spoke, only letting out one sob after another.
Li Banfeng didn't sleep in the bamboo house. He walked out to the fields beside it and slipped into the Portable Abode.
The moment he lay down on the bed, he heard a hiss from the gramophone: "Oh my, my husband! Why are you reeking of rouge and powder? Which slut have you been meeting in secret?"
Li Banfeng stroked the gramophone's front casing. "Not a slut, a good person."
"How can you say she is a good person?"
"She can help me leave Yaowanggou."
"Leaving Yaowanggou, where will my husband go?"
"To Lüshuiwan!"
*Clatter, clang—*
"To Lüshuiwan! What a brilliant scheme, my husband!"
Li Banfeng's eyes brightened. "You think it's a good scheme too, dear wife?"
*Ch-ch—*
"Your humble servant understands nothing of schemes. A woman follows her husband through thick and thin; whatever my husband plans, your humble servant thinks it grand!"
According to Li Banfeng's plan, he would go to the police station the morning after next to see who was leaving the territory.
Once he spotted a suitable target, he would duck into the Portable Abode and find a way to slip the key onto that person.
The move had to be covert, steady, and precise.
As long as that person made it across the border, Li Banfeng would be carried along with them.
This was different from sneaking onto the train.
Li Banfeng wouldn't need to worry too much about the timing.
If he emerged too early, at worst he would give the person a fright; he wouldn't run into a terrifying train conductor, nor would he face the hopeless predicament of being trapped on a moving train with no way out.
The next morning at dawn, Youtao came down to the first floor, but Li Banfeng was nowhere to be seen.
*Where did he go?*
*Did he feel uncomfortable hearing us argue last night and leave?*
*Leaving without even saying goodbye?*
When noon arrived and there was still no sign of him, You Xuetao grew anxious. Hearing footsteps outside, she thought Li Banfeng had returned, but when she stepped out, she found Patrol Captain Wu Jinming.
"Officer Wu? Are you looking for me?" You Xuetao swiftly concealed her disappointment and put on a bright smile.
Wu Jinming didn't smile. He had an important assignment. "Where is that godbrother of yours who came looking for you yesterday?"
You Xuetao laughed. "I'm looking for him too! That heartless man—I fed him his fill last night, and by early morning he'd vanished into thin air."
"What's his name?"
"His family name is Bai, called Bai Sha." Youtao didn't hide it. Regardless of whether the name was real or fake, she couldn't make something up, or their stories wouldn't match if Wu Jinming caught Li Banfeng.
"Named Bai?" Wu Jinming wasn't entirely convinced. He took a photograph from an envelope and handed it to You Xuetao. "Is it this person?"
You Xuetao took a look.
It was a photo of Li Banfeng from his university days.
At first glance, the resemblance wasn't obvious.
In the picture, Li Banfeng had a buzz cut and wore sportswear, his face carrying a youthful, tender look.
Now, Li Banfeng hadn't had a haircut in a long time; his hair had grown out, and with him often wearing a suit, he looked considerably more stern and mature.
Yet if one inspected his facial features carefully, traces of Li Banfeng could still be recognized.
Youtao feigned ignorance. "Looking at these clothes, is he from the Outer States?"
"Never mind which province he's from. Is this man your godbrother?"
Youtao shook her head. "No, he doesn't look like him at all. Bai Sha has a square face, while this young man has a long face. Bai Sha is already thirty-five or thirty-six, whereas this young man has barely turned twenty, hasn't he?
"Bai Sha has dark skin and small eyes, while this young man has big eyes and a fair complexion. They aren't the same person at all—not even close."
Were there really so many differences between the photo and the man himself?
Indeed there were, and this was Youtao's rhetorical skill.
Li Banfeng did have a long face, and during his college years with a buzz cut, his face had looked particularly long.
Yet when he had appeared in Mazhu Village yesterday, he was wearing a fedora, which made his face seem noticeably shorter.
Under the fedora's shadow, his skin looked darker and his eyes smaller, so Youtao was technically speaking the truth.
Add to that the full beard Li Banfeng had pasted on, instantly aging him by a full bracket, and the two truly did look like completely different people.
Under her psychological suggestion, Wu Jinming also began to feel that the man he had seen yesterday didn't look much like Li Banfeng.
Still uneasy, he turned and asked Youtao, "What line of work is your godbrother in?"
Youtao shook her head. "That I wouldn't know. Ours was just a passing fling for mutual pleasure. I never bothered to ask much about such things."
Wu Jinming kept his eyes fixed on You Xuetao's.
You Xuetao's gaze remained calm and natural, without the slightest hint of avoidance.
Wu Jinming frowned. "You Xuetao, in Mazhu Village, almost everyone with cultivation has been hauled into the police station at some point, but I've never made trouble for you. Don't bring trouble to me either.
"If that godbrother of yours comes back, report to the police station immediately."
You Xuetao's eyes flickered, and she shook her head repeatedly. "How would I dare let him back? Hearing you say all this genuinely frightens me. Officer Wu, what crime did this man commit?"
Wu Jinming said, "The man we're looking for is called Li Banfeng. Notices have already been posted at the village entrance; you can go take a look when you have time.
"I don't know whether this godbrother of yours is Li Banfeng or not. Li Banfeng offended the Lu family, and now the Lu family is searching for him across all of Yaowanggou. He's very likely trying to smuggle himself across the border.
"I'll say it again: if you get any news of him, inform me at once, or you'll be treated as an accomplice!"
Chapter 95