Lüshuiwan held the largest city in Puluo Province.
Yet Lanyang Village didn't look much like a city.
In truth, Lanyang Village wasn't a city at all. The real city was Lüshui City; Lanyang Village was, at most, an outer suburb.
Li Banfeng stood by the roadside looking out into the distance. To him, the place didn't look like an ordinary village either. The houses were noticeably denser than in a typical village, and hardly any farmland was in sight.
If one were to call it a town, Lanyang Village didn't quite resemble Ligou in Yaowanggou either.
The buildings here were shabbier, dirtier, and more haphazardly built than those in Ligou. Many were stacked out of brick and stone and seemed reasonably sturdy, while quite a few were crude wooden shacks without even foundations, not to mention a fair number of thatched huts...
As Li Banfeng observed Lanyang Village's peculiar landscape, a sudden roar struck his ears.
*Chuff-clang! Chuff-clang!*
What was that?
Li Banfeng shuddered, thinking a train was bearing down on him.
Turning around, he saw that something was indeed rolling over, and it was a massive beast of a machine.
It wasn't a train, as there were no tracks.
Its silhouette looked very much like a locomotive: a cylindrical, pitch-black front section, eight or nine meters long, over three meters tall, with a diameter of more than two meters.
Yet beneath it were not train wheels, but two immense metal rollers.
Li Banfeng recognized those rollers—it was a road roller.
Only, he had never seen this particular model before: it was a steam-powered road roller.
A worker stood aboard the roller, shoveling coal into the boiler.
The boiler had just heated up and hadn't built enough pressure yet; steam puffed rhythmically from the valves, and the connecting rods had yet to turn.
A road roller near Lanyang Village?
The sight struck Li Banfeng as quite novel.
Li Banfeng was about to step closer for a better look when a young man in his early twenties, dressed in suspenders, carrying a walking cane, and sporting a thin mustache above his upper lip, came over to his side.
Judging by the mustachioed fellow's attire, he seemed like a respectable gentleman.
"From out of town?" the mustachioed young man took the initiative to greet him.
Li Banfeng nodded.
"First time in Lanyang Village?"
Li Banfeng didn't deny it.
The mustachioed fellow gave a warm smile. "Got any money?"
*Are the people of Lanyang Village always this cordial?*
*Starting right off with such a sincere question?*
*Is this how they greet people here in Lanyang Village?*
Li Banfeng nodded. "I do."
"How much?" The mustachioed fellow drew a dagger from his pocket and pressed it firmly against Li Banfeng's belly.
*Are the locals this straightforward?*
This was out in the open street, with pedestrians ahead and a road roller behind.
*He just casually pressed a knife to my gut like that?*
*Does nobody care?*
Up ahead, a woman saw Li Banfeng being mugged in broad daylight, promptly scooped up her child, and hurried inside her house.
*That lady is clearly tenderhearted; she couldn't bear to watch an outsider get bullied.*
A man standing nearby crossed his arms and watched Li Banfeng with a broad grin.
*That man is clearly friendly; he's using his smile to encourage me, giving me courage and confidence.*
A few workers on the road roller glanced in Li Banfeng's direction, then went back to their tasks as though nothing had happened.
*These workers truly love labor, love life, and stay dedicated to their craft.*
Pressing the dagger harder against Li Banfeng's belly, the mustachioed man barked, "I asked you how much money you have!"
*This mustache fellow certainly possesses great professional dedication.*
Li Banfeng replied, "I have plenty of money, but I might not give it to you."
The mustachioed fellow bared his teeth in a sneer. "You don't want to give it? Tired of living?"
Li Banfeng smiled as well. "It's not that I can't give it to you. Let me ask you first: do you have any cultivation?"
"If I don't have cultivation, you won't hand over the money?" The fellow glared, driving the dagger toward Li Banfeng's stomach.
Li Banfeng took a step back, dodging the blade, and snapped a kick right into the fellow's crotch. He scolded, "You don't even have cultivation and you're out here mugging people?"
The mustachioed man felt something crack. Turning pale with agonizing pain, he pointed his knife at Li Banfeng. "D-don't come near me! I have cultivation!"
"If you have cultivation, why didn't you say so earlier? Why did you lie to me?" Li Banfeng kicked him in the groin again.
The fellow felt something snap. Trembling, he looked up at Li Banfeng. "My cultivation is very high... I just didn't want to use it on you."
"Just how high is it? Make it clear first!" Li Banfeng delivered another kick right to the groin.
The mustachioed man felt the thing shatter. With a quavering voice, he gasped, "I'm... I'm about to reach a tier."
So he hadn't even reached tier one yet.
"Which pathway?" Li Banfeng kicked him once more.
This time, the fellow didn't feel much pain.
He felt as though the thing wasn't even there anymore.
"I'm... a Tillage Cultivator..."
"A Tillage Cultivator not properly tending the fields and instead coming out to rob people!" Li Banfeng kicked him yet again. Rolling his eyes back, the mustachioed man collapsed onto his knees.
Li Banfeng snatched the dagger away and, smiling, turned toward the onlooker who had been watching the spectacle.
"Brother, got any money?" Li Banfeng greeted him warmly.
The man didn't dare utter a word; he spun around and bolted.
*Why run? Isn't this how everyone greets each other in Lanyang Village?*
Li Banfeng dragged the mustachioed fellow into a deep alleyway. Confirming that no one was around, he sent him into the Portable Abode.
"My lady, dinner is served!"
The mustachioed man let out a wail and tried to flee.
Li Banfeng raised the walking cane, broke the man's legs, and handed him over to the gramophone.
Steam billowed as the gramophone finished devouring the soul and stroked its long needle against the record.
*Is it brushing its teeth?*
Li Banfeng asked, "My lady, how was today's dish?"
*Hiss—*
The lady praised, "Crisp, sweet, and refreshing, with an endless aftertaste, though there's hardly enough of it~"
Not enough to eat was only to be expected; Li Banfeng had grown used to it.
While the bronze lotus tidied up the corpse, Li Banfeng looked over the mustachioed man's belongings.
Though he had taken up highway robbery as a trade, the man was actually quite wealthy.
His wallet held over eight hundred dollars in banknotes and six silver dollars.
Those six silver dollars alone were worth over three thousand dollars. With that much money, there was no need for him to be out robbing people; he could easily find an honest job or even start a small business.
The fellow's dagger was mediocre, so Li Banfeng tossed it out as trash.
His walking cane, however, was rather fine. Li Banfeng gave it a few swishes, suddenly reminded of something.
Every time he picked up the feather duster, he had always felt like a civilized gentleman.
Thinking it over carefully now, perhaps what he should have been holding wasn't a feather duster, but a cane like this.
That was it—a walking cane!
Li Banfeng remembered the patrons of the Xianle Dance Hall; they all carried canes.
In Puluo Province, anyone of status carried a walking cane.
A cane paired with a Western suit and a top hat—that was the true complete attire of a gentleman.
Once the corpse was disposed of, a red pill dropped. Li Banfeng took the cane, grabbed the trash, and exited the Portable Abode.
He needed to find a place to eat and take the opportunity to see what Lanyang Village was like.
Among the crowded houses, there were quite a few eateries. Li Banfeng found a noodle shop, saw that a bowl of mutton noodles was five dollars—a fair price—and ordered one.
After finishing the noodles, he went to settle the bill, only for the shopkeeper to ask for three hundred and thirty dollars.
Li Banfeng was taken aback. "Wasn't it five dollars?"
The noodle shopkeeper replied, "Five dollars a strand. We boiled sixty-six strands for you to symbolize everything going smoothly. That comes out to three hundred and thirty dollars."
Li Banfeng looked at the shopkeeper and asked, "You sell your noodles by the strand?"
The shopkeeper nodded. "Always have!"
Li Banfeng widened his eyes. "Always by the strand?"
Inside the eatery, the other diners looked over at Li Banfeng in unison, nodded at him in unison, and chorused, "This shop has always sold noodles by the strand! It's been an established establishment for decades, never changed once."
Li Banfeng glanced around and said to the noodle shopkeeper, "This whole room is full of shills, and I'm the only real customer?"
The shopkeeper frowned. "What do you mean, shills? Everyone here is a regular patron, and they're speaking fair words!"
The crowd shouted in unison, "We're all speaking fair words!"
Li Banfeng stood up. "Selling noodles by the strand, and you call that fair?"
The shopkeeper nodded. "By the strand is how we sell it, and fair is fair!"
"Then we'll have to settle this bill properly!" Li Banfeng swung his walking cane.
"Settle it then!" The shopkeeper swung his rolling pin.
"Let's settle it together!" The other patrons grabbed whatever makeshift weapons they could find and swarmed forward, surrounding Li Banfeng.
...
After more than ten minutes of fierce fighting, blood splattered across the noodle shop floor.
Several tables were shattered, and broken cups, bowls, and dishes littered the ground.
The shopkeeper's head was bleeding, and the other diners had all sustained injuries.
Li Banfeng's walking cane was snapped in two, but he and the shopkeeper had finally agreed on a price.
Twenty dollars per noodle strand, in the auspicious spirit of everything going smoothly, for a total of sixty-six strands cooked, making one thousand three hundred and twenty dollars for the bowl of noodles.
The other diners nodded in succession. "A fair price! That's the custom in Lanyang Village, let's leave it at that!"
Li Banfeng agreed as well. "Done and done!"
The shopkeeper counted out one thousand three hundred and twenty dollars and handed them over to Li Banfeng. "Count them yourself!"
Li Banfeng counted the bills twice, tucked them into his wallet, tipped his hat, and gave a gentlemanly bow. "I'll be back for noodles next time."
"Nekht time, we tharge by the bowl!" The shopkeeper's front teeth were knocked out, making his speech lisp and leak air.
Li Banfeng stepped outside the noodle shop and tossed the broken half of the cane onto a trash heap.
Looking all around, he couldn't help sighing in admiration. "Lanyang Village is quite a nice place. The folk are remarkably honest and simple."
*Since the folk here are so honest and simple, shouldn't I hire a guide to learn more about the area?*
In the midst of his sighing, he suddenly spotted a decently dressed man scrounging for food in the trash heap.
He was indeed dressed decently—his shirt, trousers, and the leather shoes on his feet were made of refined materials with exquisite craftsmanship.
As long as he pawned these clothes, he could easily get several meals in exchange. Why dig through a trash heap for scraps?
He searched earnestly, truly starved. Picking up half an apricot, he immediately shoved it into his mouth. Seeing a few grains of rice, he carefully scraped them up with his finger and popped them into his mouth.
He wouldn't pass up anything remotely edible.
Li Banfeng stared at the man for a moment and found him somewhat familiar.
"Ma the Fifth?" Li Banfeng called out.
The man had just picked up half a steamed bun. Hearing the name "Ma the Fifth," he stuffed the bun into his mouth, spun around, and ran for his life.
Chapter 97