Li Banfeng was demanding to be paid for his services, the one thousand yuan he had been promised!

"All right, all right..." Xiao Yeci muttered.

She quickly pulled out a thousand yuan in cash from a wicker box and handed it to Li Banfeng. He counted the money twice before tucking it into his inner pocket.

"I'll remind you once more. If you don't want to die, stay away from the He Family's old residence!"

With that, they parted ways. Xiao Yeci and her daughter did not head to the He Family's old estate. Instead, they made their way toward the train station.

Li Banfeng followed them from a distance until he saw them enter the ticket office.

So they went to buy tickets. I didn't expect them to actually have a travel permit.

It's good that they have a travel permit. Hurry up and leave. The farther you go, the better. It's good for you, and it's good for me too.

Li Banfeng returned to the Inner Gully. He first went to Feng's General Store, but seeing that the doors were still shut, he went into the cloth shop next door instead.

Yu Nan, the gorgeously dressed proprietress, stepped over to him. "Looking to buy some fabric? Take a look here. This is imitation satin, this is plain satin. Over here, we have Ningbo silk and patterned spring thread. Here's flower gauze and Hangzhou linen, and over here Hangzhou cotton and Lake crepe. Which one catches your eye?"

The shop specialized in silks and satins, but Li Banfeng wasn't looking to buy fabric, nor did he know how to cut or tailor it.

Yu Nan spoke at length but saw that Li Banfeng showed no interest. She then asked, "Perhaps you're here for ready-made clothes? We have a tailor. If the ready-made ones don't suit you, we can make something for you."

Li Banfeng shook his head. "I'm not buying clothes either."

Biting down on her slender cigarette, Yu Nan fell silent for a moment before smiling. "Then perhaps silk handkerchiefs?"

"No."

"Quilts?"

"No."

"Bed curtains?"

"No."

Yu Nan took a drag of her cigarette and frowned. "Then what are you here to buy?"

"Tobacco."

Li Banfeng sniffed the smoke and thought it smelled pretty good.

Yu Nan batted her large eyes in disbelief. "You came to a cloth shop to buy tobacco?"

"You're smoking right now, aren't you?" Li Banfeng said, thinking his reasoning was perfectly sound.

Yu Nan's expression darkened slightly. "Are you making sport of me right now?"

Li Banfeng didn't quite understand what she meant by "making sport."

He asked, "So, are you selling it or not?"

After a long silence, Yu Nan turned to her assistant and said, "Bring two packs of Fairy Lady cigarettes. A gift for this customer."

Fairy Lady was a well-known brand of ladies' cigarettes in Puluo.

The assistant brought the two packs of cigarettes over, and Li Banfeng slipped them into his pocket.

"How much?" he asked.

Yu Nan gave a graceful smile. "It's fine. They're on the house."

Yu Nan sure was generous, but Li Banfeng never accepted anything for free.

"Then make me a suit. Use one of the finer materials."

Yu Nan shook her head. "We don't sell Western suits here."

Her shop only sold traditional clothes.

Li Banfeng glanced around at the garments hanging in the shop and pointed to one. "I'll take that one... that very long clothing."

Yu Nan turned to look and laughed. "Ah, you mean a

changshan

?"

"Yes, a

changshan

."

"Old Eight!" Yu Nan called her assistant. "Fetch the measuring tape. I'll measure this customer myself."

Yu Nan took the tape and began measuring Li Banfeng. As she worked, she asked, "How should I address you, sir?"

"My surname is Li. I'm the seventh in my family. You can call me Li Qi[1]," Li Banfeng said, giving the name Li Qi out of habit. Then he asked in return, "And how should I address you, Boss' Lady[2]?"

"My surname is Yu, with the single given name Nan. Master Qi[3], if you don't mind, just call me Shopkeeper Yu."

Shopkeeper Yu didn't like being called Boss' Lady. She owned this cloth shop;the business belonged to her and her alone.

"So, it's Shopkeeper Yu. My apologies for the earlier mistake," Li Banfeng said, imitating the local manner of speech as he exchanged a few words of pleasantries with her.

Yu Nan got into a half-crouching posture as she measured Li Banfeng's waist. She lifted her head and smiled at him, her eyes gleaming brightly. "Master Qi, where do you live? Once the clothes are done, I'll have them delivered to you."

"I only just arrived at the Inner Gully," Li Banfeng replied casually.

Shopkeeper Yu brought the tape down to measure Li Banfeng's legs. "A few days ago, I saw you buying quite a lot from Feng's General Store."

Her words implied that she was thinking,

You're not new here at all. I've been keeping an eye on you.

Li Banfeng didn't deny it. "I come and go. I don't have a fixed residence."

"Then how will I deliver the clothes to you?"

"I'll come pick them up in three days. Help me choose the fabric, then tell me the price."

Yu Nan picked out a sheet of fine silk, which was above average in quality. After working the abacus for a while, she asked, "Will you be paying in Huan yuan or silver dollars? We also accept half-and-half."

Li Banfeng didn't know what "half-and-half" meant, but he did have silver dollars. He was curious about the exchange rate.

"How much with silver dollars?"

"Labor and material included, one silver dollar."

"And in Huan yuan?"

Yu Nan blinked in surprise. "One silver dollar is equivalent to five hundred Huan yuan. Surely I don't need to explain that."

The one set of clothes cost five hundred yuan. For Li Banfeng, that was an extravagant expense, not just here in Medicine King Gully but even back in Yuezhou.

Li Banfeng produced one silver dollar along with two hundred Huan yuan and handed them to Yu Nan.

Yu Nan had been waiting for him to haggle. Instead, he was paying her two hundred extra. She asked, "What do you mean by this?"

She thought Li Banfeng intended to pay seven hundred yuan for two sets.

That wasn't acceptable. The price was far too low.

Li Banfeng said, "The silver dollar is for the clothes. The two hundred Huan yuan are for you to do me a favor. If there's any word of Shopkeeper Feng in the next few days, let me know."

Yu Nan chuckled. "That's a small matter. You don't need to pay me for that."

She returned the two hundred Huan yuan to him.

Li Banfeng waved his hand. "No, keep it. I'd like to be friends with you."

In Li Banfeng's eyes, if he didn't pay someone, he had no right to ask them to do anything for him.

Admiring his straightforwardness, Yu Nan accepted the money. Then she lowered her voice and said, "If you're dissatisfied with the clothes, I guarantee a full return or exchange. There's also something else, though I'm not sure if I should tell you."

"Please, speak."

"The friend who came with you to the Inner Gully previously has been begging for food in Tail Lane. I fear he won't be able to hold out for more than a few days."

The friend who came here with me?

"Which friend?"

"That honest and robust one."

Chubby Qin?

Li Banfeng froze.

Chubby Qin's family wasn't wealthy, but he wasn't so poor that he'd resort to begging.

Furthermore, Chubby Qin had obtained eleven Speckled-Snake Pills. In Puluo, unless it was something highly specialized, goods like the Speckled-Snake Pills weren't so expensive that there would be no buyers. One pill would sell for ten thousand yuan. That meant if Chubby Qin could sell his eleven pills, he would get a return of a whopping one hundred and ten thousand yuan. It was enough for Chubby Qin to live in luxury for quite a while.

So how could he possibly have been reduced to begging?

"What reason could there be for that?" Li Banfeng muttered, thinking the situation might be more complicated than it seemed.

Yu Nan glanced around, then she lowered her voice once again. "Master Qi, it seems your friend offended the Geng Family's medicinal trading house by selling pills.

"Their men threw him out onto the street and posted guards to keep watch, planning to let him starve to death. The Geng Family's trading house has ties with the Jiangxiang Gang. This is something they often do."

Li Banfeng fell silent in thought before asking, "Are the ones guarding him cultivators?"

Yu Nan nodded. "They are cultivators. I've even had run-ins with one of them before."

"What's their Daoist path and cultivation level?"

"His cultivation level isn't high, but he's got an unusual Daoist path." Yu Nan exhaled a puff of smoke toward the counter. The smoke formed the word "oil" before it dissipated.

This woman could control smoke freely. Li Banfeng lowered his voice and asked, "You're a Smoking Cultivator?"

Yu Nan merely smiled;she didn't answer.

Li Banfeng asked another question. "Did you initiate this conversation because you want me to help you get revenge?"

Yu Nan laughed softly. "I never said anything like that. But if you want to save that friend of yours, this little shop is willing to lend a hand."

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Li Banfeng frowned. "So, this would be cooperation, then? Why me?"

Yu Nan replied, "Because you're friends with Trader Qin, and you are clearly a capable man."

Li Banfeng didn't deny his friendship with Chubby Qin, but he did ask, "And how do you know I'm capable?"

Yu Nan exhaled another puff of smoke. "Anyone who can come back alive from Mount Bitterfog must have real skill."

Seems like this woman has had her eyes on me for quite some time.

Li Banfeng pondered for a long while.

Chubby Qin is in trouble.

Should he help him?

Li Banfeng didn't owe Chubby Qin anything. Even if he had once owed him, he had already repaid the debt.

However, Chubby Qin was now on the verge of starving to death.

Li Banfeng thought back to the time when he had been starving. Chubby Qin had treated him to two bowls of Yangchun noodles.

He couldn't just do nothing.

***

Tail Lane was a narrow lane tucked away in the Inner Gully. Both sides of the lane were lined with old houses, and the residents were all poor.

By day, people were busy with their affairs and few passed through the lane.

At dusk, the foot traffic increased. Chubby Qin was kneeling on the ground, on the verge of death. Sensing the increased foot traffic, he opened his eyes.

Dusk was his last hope of survival.

Seeing his tattered clothes and battered body, a passerby pitied Chubby Qin and tossed him half a flatbread.

Chubby Qin reached out to pick it up.

However, the man in a buttoned mandarin jacket[4] and felt hat standing beside him stamped his foot down on the bread.

"Did I say you could eat?" the man in the mandarin jacket snarled as he looked down at Chubby Qin, spitting onto his face.

Chubby Qin said nothing and withdrew his hand.

Feeling offended by the sight of such cruelty, a bystander stepped forward and said, "Hey, what's the harm in helping a beggar?"

The man in the mandarin jacket looked up, lowering his left eyebrow and raising his right one. He twisted his mouth into the classic crooked grin of a ruffian. "The fuck's it got to do with you?"

The passerby tried to argue, but a woman nearby pulled him aside. "Don't get involved. This is the Geng Family's medicinal trading house abusing its power. Hurry up and walk away."

At the mention of the Geng Family's medicinal trading house, the bystander fell silent and hurried away.

The man in the mandarin jacket stomped the flatbread to bits and kicked it away.

Chubby Qin bowed his head and closed his eyes.

He was a Gourmandism Cultivator. Going even just one day without food could mean starving to death.

The day before, he had managed to survive on half a bowl of cold, sour rice.

I haven't eaten anything the whole day today. I fear I won't be able to hold out for much longer.

Guess it's good if I can't hold out. If I die of hunger, at least that will solve my problem of not having food to eat.

***

Inside the Pocket Dwelling, Li Banfeng was waiting for the Arcane Crimson Lotus.

No one would ever forget the person who gave them food when they were starving.

Well, perhaps there were some who might, but Li Banfeng was not one of them.

Li Banfeng glanced at the gramophone. "My dear wife, I've given you food before. You mustn't forget me!"

Hiss, hiss~

The gramophone let out two sobs and then sang in a weeping tone, "Oh, my dear husband, when a woman marries, she marries for food and clothing. I have worked diligently to serve you. Don't tell me you feed me begrudgingly? Furthermore, those meals from before weren't even fresh."

Li Banfeng felt ashamed.

He needed to find a way to buy his wife some fresh food.

However, before buying food, he had to gather his equipment.

The Arcane Crimson Lotus had devoured the blood-drinking short blade, so it should produce a Corrosion Pill at the very least.

Li Banfeng already had one Corrosion Pill, but having an extra would put his mind at ease.

Strange. Why's the lotus taking so long to concoct a pill today?

1. Qi is the transliteration of the character for "seven." ☜

2. In Chinese, the term for a female business owner has the default meaning as the (male) business owner's wife. We've been translating this term as "proprietress" instead, but the direct translation is needed for this part. ☜

3. Not sure why the author is not using the surname, which is the usual format, but this is a recurring thing for other characters as well. ☜

4. See translator's thoughts for a picture. ☜