Luxi City, the Lin Family.
With eyes full of hot tears, Lin Xiao looked at the white cloth strips on the main gate and knelt down with a putong at the entrance, “Sixth Uncle! How could you just pass away like this? Your little nephew hasn’t even had the chance to show filial piety to you—”
Before his words finished speaking, he was kicked in the back from behind, causing his entire person to fall forward onto the ground.
That person rubbed the dust from the sole of his shoe onto Lin Xiao’s clothes, and spat, “What kind of thing comes to cry for my dad? There’s no money to give you, hurry up and roll out.”
Lin Xiao scrambled up in a wisp of smoke, turned around, and immediately shouted, “Cousin Lin Wei!”
Lin Wei seemed to have just returned from the streets. He held his arms in a slipshod, rogue-like manner, followed by four or five young servants behind him.
He was born thick-statured and crude, but his face wasn’t spirited in the slightest. His eyelids drooped, and a heavy fatigue sat between his brows; at a glance, it was clearly caused by long-term lingering in the flower buildings and over-indulging in lust.
Lin Wei’s eyeballs were one black and one grey. The grey one protruded outward, looking as if it might drop down at any moment. Combined with this burly frame of his and his exhausted face, anyone on the street who saw him would have to take a detour around him.
Hearing Lin Xiao make a sound, he raised his chin and narrowed his eyes, sizing Lin Xiao up closely for a round, “Are you that cousin from Third Uncle’s family?”
Lin Xiao nodded, “Correct, correct. Cousin, you still remember me?”
Lin Wei looked at him with an inquiring gaze for a while, then suddenly burst into loud laughter, stepping forward to clasp him, “Remember, of course I remember! I can forget anyone but I cannot forget my cousin Lin Zhi!”
Lin Xiao: “Lin Zhi is the youngest son of Second Uncle’s family; he was just born and can’t walk yet.”
Lin Wei’s loud laughter stagnated for a moment, and following that he delivered a fierce swat to his back, “Right! Right! Look at this brain of mine, I just heard Lin Zhi’s name not long ago, so I directly jumbled them up. You are”
He suddenly clutched his right eye, howling aiyo aiyo. Seeing this, the young servant beside him hurriedly extracted eye drops to drip it for him.
Lin Wei pushed him away with a hard shove, directly using his hand to pluck down that grey eyeball in his right eye, twisting open the small bottle of eye drops, pouring all the medicine fluid over it with a hualala sound. He then tossed the bottle away, and stuffed the eyeball back into his eye.
The young servant beside him looked at the floor full of medicine fluid with heartache, “Young Family Head, this Clear Precious Jade Liquid cannot be used like this; it—”
Lin Wei furrowed his brows, medicine fluid still flowing down from his right eye, as he squinted his eye to glare toward him, “Hm?”
Another young servant came up, delivering two heavy slaps with a pa pa sound to that young servant, “What Young Family Head, this is the Family Head! The Family Head can use it however he loves to use it, where is there any room for you to speak!”
“Yes, yes!” That young servant hurriedly knelt on the ground, slapping his own cheeks.
Lin Xiao fixed his eyes upon that eyeball of his for a moment, removed his gaze, and said tentatively: “Cousin, my Sixth Uncle he—”
“My dad,” Lin Wei rubbed his eye, squeezing out even more medicine fluid, looking as if he were shedding tears, “passed away a few days ago. Before leaving he specially exhorted me to bury him together with my mom. Ai, from now on only I am left alone in our family, Lin”
Lin Xiao connected: “Lin Xiao.”
“Right, Cousin Lin Xiao. Are you here in Luxi City to play, or did you come to my house for some business?”
“I indeed have some business, originally intending to look for Sixth Uncle, but now…” Lin Xiao left his words unfinished.
Lin Wei finished squeezing the water out of his own eye, and clasped him again, “I understand, Cousin Lin Xiao. Let’s go inside to eat a meal first, and whatever business there is we can speak over eating.”
Lin Xiao pointed not far away, “I also have a friend who came together with me.”
Lin Wei cast a careless glance over, let go of him, and walked into the house first himself, “Fine, fine, all is fine. You call him along together, hurry up and enter.”
Lin Xiao gave an answering sound, and gestured with his hand toward the not far away distance, shouting: “Big Brother Hu!”
Hearing the sound, Jiang Zhou nodded his head to signal to him. Following that he took a step back, refusing the fifth girl who thrust a handkerchief toward him in front of his face, uttering his fifth sentence of the day, “Already married.”
The girl withdrew her handkerchief with regret.
He walked to the front of the Lin residence’s gate. Lin Xiao looked at the silhouette of the girl leaving and sighed with lament, “Not bad, Big Brother Hu, to be this inviting of people’s liking. If I grew a face like yours, I don’t know how happily I would live right now.”
Jiang Zhou ignored him.
Just upon entering the Lin residence, he furrowed his brows.
Lin Xiao sniffed his nose, “What smell?”
Hearing this, the young servant responsible for leading the way looked all around, and pointed at the woodshed.
“It’s estimated to be inside there; a schoolteacher is locked inside, who collided with our Family Head not long ago, and was beaten up and locked away. Perhaps his wounds have rotted, or perhaps it’s his excrement and urine. Our Family Head hasn’t been here these past few days, so nobody managed him. Ai, if you ask me, he is also unlucky.”
The young servant put on an appearance of possessing a great desire to express himself, waiting for the two of them to ask.
Regrettably, Jiang Zhou had no reaction, and Lin Xiao also took it as nothing out of the ordinary, nobody pursuing the question.
The young servant couldn’t hold it together, opening his mouth, “Do you two not want to know why?”
Lin Xiao had seen too many wretched affairs within the Qingxiao Sect since childhood; those young masters and young ladies were each more capable of creating messes than the last. Waving his hand, he said, “Don’t want to, don’t want to, no interest. Aren’t you afraid of being beaten for discussing your Family Head behind his back?”
The young servant proudly held his chest high, “How can this be called discussing? It is clearly our Family Head’s military exploits. It was he who commanded me that whenever I meet people I must speak of it a bit, in order to set up his tall and grand image.”
The Lin residence was very large. The young servant led them straight over to eat a meal, and there was still a long section of path to walk.
This young servant ran off at the mouth; the moment Jiang Zhou heard a person speak so many words he felt annoyed, walking a bit farther away from the two of them.
Lin Xiao was understanding. Seeing the young servant was this urgent, he said, “Then you speak of it a bit. Why would a schoolteacher provoke my cousin?”
The young servant first gave a cough, “This story goes back a bit far. Our Family Head, when he was a youth, once loved a woman. But because our old Family Head didn’t agree, he didn’t snatch… didn’t pursue her successfully. For so many years, that was thinking day after day and yearning night after night, being incredibly infatuated.”
Lin Xiao was surprised, “My cousin Lin Wei still has such an affectionate side?”
“Is it not so,” the young servant sighed. “Don’t you look at the fact that his nineteen chambers of concubines right now are each delicate, beautiful, and moving; he hasn’t forgotten his first-love woman even for a single day.”
Lin Xiao: “How many chambers?”
Young servant: “Nineteen.”
Lin Xiao smiled, “Cousin truly is so affectionate.”
Jiang Zhou walked at a distance from them, yet their conversation didn’t drop a single bit and was completely heard into his ears, not obtaining even a single bit of peace and quiet.
He couldn’t help but think: These people outside are truly annoying, annoying to death; this is what is truly annoying.
He shouldn’t have felt Ji Yunlang was annoying in the past; that wasn’t called annoying, that was called a sweet burden.
However, no matter how annoyed he was, he couldn’t leave the person.
Following this Lin Xiao, perhaps he could obtain the things he needed.
That young servant spoke again, “Fortunately, our Family Head suffered from lovesickness for over ten years, and finally his bitterness has ended and sweetness has come, managing to out-wait his dad can’t speak of it like this in short, he is immediately about to marry that first-love woman to be his twentieth chamber of concubine!”
Lin Xiao secretly rolled his eyes, already having no interest in listening, acting perfunctorily, “Mm mm, congratulations, congratulations. My Sixth Uncle just passed away yet he is handling a joyous event; Cousin Lin Wei truly is a grandly filial son.”
Hearing Lin Xiao speak, a thread of envy generated faintly in Jiang Zhou’s heart.
This person truly had a tongue that could bloom lotuses; if he could learn it, then coaxing a Ji Yunlang well absolutely wouldn’t be under discussion.
“Not right,” Lin Xiao’s brain turned the corner, asking that young servant, “You spoke so much, only revealing my cousin Lin Wei’s infatuation and filial piety; how does it again concern that schoolteacher?”
“Of course it concerns him. The first love our Family Head minded and thought about for so long was married by that kid first. If it were changed to you, could you endure it?”
He wanted to forcefully marry a woman who already had a husband, so he first captured her husband.
Lin Xiao understood.
He no longer picked up the conversation, moving farther away from that young servant, shifting his steps to front of Jiang Zhou, and saying in a small voice, “Big Brother Hu, my Sixth Uncle was a very good person; I didn’t expect his son loved to do this kind of hook-and-deal… I’m actually not familiar with this Lin Wei, only having seen him when I was a child.”
Jiang Zhou was puzzled, “Why with—”
He jumbled his words halfway and got stuck, smoothly extracting paper and brush to write: Why explain to me?
Lin Xiao let out a sigh, folding his paper up, “I’m afraid you will misunderstand, big brother. This is my relative’s house; after you finished listening to those words just now, wouldn’t you feel that I belong to the same category of people as them?”
Jiang Zhou thought about it, and unfolded his own paper again, writing: Which category of people?
Lin Xiao lowered his voice, “Just that kind despots who forcefully snatch ordinary women and run rampant through the village. Speaking this out loses too much face; I’m deeply afraid you will misunderstand.”
Jiang Zhou understood, saying, “Won’t.”
Having stayed together for so many days, with him speaking for a bit and writing for a bit, Lin Xiao certainly had long since discovered something was amiss, yet he asked not a single sentence, still normal in interacting with him.
Jiang Zhou wasn’t as sensitive as them, the Immortal Continent’s people, but starting from several hundred years ago he cherished his own face-skin very much. All people who dared mock him were fed to Tantan by him; as for those remaining who understood to respect him and look after his face-skin, no matter how bad they were, they wouldn’t be bad to where.
Seeing through yet not speaking through had forever been a grand virtue of them, the Immortal Continent’s people.
When they arrived, Lin Wei had already started eating, and had thoughtfully left two empty seats beside them.
Although the Lin Family Head had just had his dad die, he was immediately about to marry a new small concubine, unable to resist being successful and happy in the spring breeze—on one hand keeping the mourning, and on the other hand having a full banquet of imperial dishes every meal.
Lin Xiao introduced toward Lin Wei, “Cousin, this is my friend, Big Brother Hu Ye.”
Lin Wei gave an answering sound, yet didn’t rise, while chewing a duck leg oral-greeting the two of them, “Cousin don’t be polite, bring your friend to sit, eat at random, fill your stomachs first.”
While speaking, he tilted his head up to look toward the two of them. Upon seeing Jiang Zhou he narrowed his eyes, moving toward the side adjacent to the just-seated Lin Xiao along with the stool.
He nudged Lin Xiao, asking quietly: “This one, your friend?”
Lin Xiao also lightened his voice, “Correct. Does cousin have some doubt?”
Lin Wei let out a hiss sound, stroking his own chin to size up Jiang Zhou’s face, “Are the two of you familiar?”
Lin Xiao: “Not too familiar.”
Lin Wei let out a sigh of regret, and asked again: “Then do you know where this face of his was made?”
Lin Xiao: “Ah?”
Lin Wei pointed to his own eyeball, “I frequently change eyes, and know some technicians who can make human bodies and human faces. Once that face is made, tse-tse, it’s charming to death. It’s just expensive; this face of your friend must have cost not a little money, right?”
Lin Xiao lifted the alcohol jar to pour alcohol for him, “Cousin, I feel Big Brother Hu’s should be a real face. Some people are just born handsome by nature, there’s no way around it.”
“Ai,” Lin Wei waved his hand, pushing away his alcohol, “What do you understand? Our Immortal Continent is only this tiny bit big; where are there so many tall and handsome ones for you to run into? This face of his has absolutely been altered.”
Lin Wei gave him a glance of disappointment, “You don’t know, then I will personally go ask Brother Yehu, to see exactly how he”
Lin Xiao: “Wait a moment.”
Lin Xiao: “Brother what?”
Lin Wei originally was about to rise, but hearing this he sat down again, saying with clear pronunciation, “Brother Yehu (Chamber Pot). Was it not spoken by you? This is your friend, Big Brother Hu Ye.”
Lin Xiao: “…”
Jiang Zhou, who had heard their quiet words from beginning to end completely and clearly: “…”
Lin Xiao, with good words and bad words, persuaded Lin Wei to stop, not letting him go to ask the face issue in person.
Lin Wei again pointed to that wrapped item on Jiang Zhou’s back, asking: “Then what is he carrying on his back?”
Lin Xiao: “I don’t know.”
Lin Wei: “He is your friend, yet you know nothing at all?”
Lin Xiao: “Correct.”
Lin Wei let out several long sighs,招呼 the two of them to drink alcohol and eat dishes.
Lin Xiao had long since been hanker-hungry, burying his head to eat wildly. Jiang Zhou sat without moving, staring at the alcohol just poured out in his cup, lost in thought.
Lin Wei noticed him, his eyeballs moving a bit, and asking: “Why does Brother Hu not eat?”
This had no need for Jiang Zhou to answer; while eating, Lin Xiao answered on his behalf, “This I have asked Big Brother Hu; it’s said that his wife’s cooking is exceptionally delicious, so he never eats outside.” Finished speaking, he squeezed his eyes toward Jiang Zhou, “Is it not so, Big Brother Hu?”
Jiang Zhou nodded, increasingly feeling that this Lin Xiao with a tongue that could bloom lotuses was truly useful.
Lin Wei reacted for a moment, and following that began to smile, “Oh, like this… then drink alcohol, drinking alcohol is always fine, right?”
Finished speaking, his eyes gestured to the young servant to the side to add alcohol for the two of them.
Following that, he again dirtily and greedily stroked his chin, whispering in a small voice with Lin Xiao: “What does his wife look like, have you seen her? The one who can match this face of his must she be exceptionally full of charm?”
Lin Xiao took it as if he hadn’t heard, burying his head to eat.
Jiang Zhou raised his alcohol cup and drained it in one gulp.
Lin Xiao ate for a long half-day and got choked. He raised his alcohol preparing to drink too, when suddenly he felt an invisible pulling force tugging him. Lowering his eyes to look, there was surprisingly nothing.
At this time, several fine, tiny pieces of black fur drifted into his alcohol cup, and in a single instant sucked the alcohol fluid inside the cup completely clean.
Lin Xiao still maintained the posture of tilting his head up to drink alcohol, the alcohol cup close to his mouth. He paused for a bit, made a swallowing movement, and with a normal expression placed the empty alcohol cup onto the table.
Looking again at Jiang Zhou, he was currently casting down his eyes若無其事 playing with the alcohol cup in his hand. The young servant stepped forward to add alcohol for him, and he nodded his head to signal, and then once more drained it in one gulp.
Lin Xiao swallowed his saliva, only feeling his mouth dry and throat parched, being choked until he couldn’t bear it.
Lin Wei’s gaze unceasingly shuttled between them. Seeing the two of them drink the alcohol cup after cup, he rotated his grey eyeball with satisfaction.
Not a single drop of Lin Xiao’s alcohol arrived in his mouth, truly being choked until he couldn’t eat down food. With a heavy placement of his chopsticks, he opened his mouth and said: “Cousin!”
Provoking a shudder in Lin Wei from the fright, he asked: “What’s wrong?”