Chapter 48: The Prefect of Qizhou (Beginning of Unit Two)

"Donkey meat fire! Delicious donkey meat sandwich! Steaming hot and fragrant, if it doesn't taste good, you don't have to pay!"
"Pancakes! Pancakes! Pancakes rolled with scallions!"
"Century eggs! Get a century eggs!"
...
Great Chu, Qizhou Prefecture.
The long street was bustling with noise and excitement. As it was just mealtime, the autumn sun was wrapped in a white mist, and diners hurried back and forth. The tree trunks along the road seemed soaked with the aroma of food, and peddlers carrying fruit and vegetable baskets passed by the center of the road from time to time.
A little further ahead, the smell of fish hit the senses completely. Looking up, a fishmonger was holding a lively, fat fish, swinging a big knife to kill and sell it on the spot. At the blacksmith's shop by the roadside, a bare-chested man was holding an iron hammer, beating out a crisp, rhythmic sound—indeed a fitting and pleasant melody for the moment.
The hustle and bustle of the mortal world, with autumn radiance lighting the return journey.
Without walking many steps, Cheng Ruyi slowed his pace as he stared at a tofu pudding stall nearby, and his stomach began to sing a little tune with rumbles.
Yan Kuang, following closely behind him, immediately understood. He sat down right at the stall, beckoned to Cheng Ruyi, and patted the empty seat beside him.
"Thanks to the official for treating me to a meal!"
Cheng Ruyi quickly sat down and said happily, "Boss, two bowls of tofu pudding, plus some rolled pancakes, and oil bean skin too!"
With good business, the boss was naturally pleased, but Yan Kuang said indifferently, "You ordered so much, see if you can finish it."
Cheng Ruyi raised an eyebrow and said, "Hey, most of this is ordered for the official..."
He leaned into Yan Kuang's ear, counting on his fingers as he spoke, "Lately, two assassinations at night, one ambush at a restaurant, and being hunted down twice right in the middle of the street... With the official working so hard, how can you not eat more?"
Yan Kuang fell silent. What Cheng Ruyi said was not much of an exaggeration; the journey had indeed been thrilling, with very few peaceful days when counted up.
Seeing Yan Kuang remain silent, Cheng Ruyi was afraid he would overthink, and quickly explained, "I was just joking... Please don't tell me again 'it's still not too late to regret this'..."
He said with a carefree attitude, "Cheng is just a lonely ghost, keeping company with the Lord of Hell to deal with the demons and monsters of this world. How can that not be accumulating blessings and making great achievements? Besides, with the Lord of Hell personally escorting me, I haven't even scratched a bit of skin. I am bound to come out unscathed and achieve complete merit!"
"You've said it all, and you've taken every reason." Yan Kuang couldn't help but smile helplessly.
Cheng Ruyi puffed out his chest, completely justified: "Anyway, you are not allowed to chase people away."
Yan Kuang shook his head. In fact, having traveled together this far and shared life and death, he had long since stopped thinking about driving Cheng Ruyi away.
However, could such destiny and affinity be controlled by oneself? Thinking of this, Yan Kuang involuntarily let out a soft sigh.
At this moment, the boss served two steaming bowls of tofu pudding. Cheng Ruyi eagerly pulled one bowl in front of himself and pushed the other bowl toward Yan Kuang.
The soup broth emitted an alluring aroma. As the porcelain bowl was moved, the tofu pudding at the bottom trembled three times. Oblivious to Yan Kuang's thoughts, Cheng Ruyi had eyes only for that bowl of pristine white tofu pudding.
The coriander leaves were half-crisp, mixed with chive flower paste and immersed in the slightly thick broth. After a few spoons, the tofu pudding trembled like a pool of cracked duckweed, and the deep, penetrating soup poured into the gaps, with the white, tender corners swaying in the broth.
Cheng Ruyi let out a breath of complete satisfaction, then turned to look at Yan Kuang, who was eating expressionlessly.
"Official Yan, you are a man from Shangjing. Do you think the Qizhou-style tofu pudding tastes any different from that in Shangjing?"
Yan Kuang's movements paused slightly. Having lost his sense of taste long ago, Cheng Ruyi's question had truly cornered him.
Cheng Ruyi continued, "I actually feel that the flavor here is richer than in Shangjing, and the ingredients are substantial enough. After this one bowl, I won't be able to eat much of the rolled pancake and oil bean skin..."
Yan Kuang was pondering a strategy, and hearing this, he simply followed Cheng Ruyi's lead: "Flavors everywhere are intimately connected to the local customs and practices. Qizhou's food is much more rustic compared to Shangjing, but Shangjing isn't as exquisite as Jiangnan. I suppose the further north one goes, the bolder the folk customs become."
Cheng Ruyi began to think about it seriously: "The folk customs are bold to the north, but people's hearts might not be... That's why I always feel Shangjing is a very contradictory place."
"People's hearts are complex to begin with, and that's true all over the world. We're just eating a bowl of tofu pudding, and only someone like you could come up with such reflections."
As Yan Kuang spoke, he took out a handkerchief and wiped away the broth stained at the corner of Cheng Ruyi's mouth.
Cheng Ruyi allowed him to do so, blinked, and said, "Perhaps my experience is too limited... If I had weathered the hardships like Official Yan, I wouldn't have so many reflections anymore, right?"
After days of life-and-death frights, which background lacked past experiences? There were too many secrets about Yan Kuang that piqued Cheng Ruyi's curiosity, so he couldn't help but probe further: "Does the official really not even want to... mention it at all?" Cheng Ruyi added another probing remark.
Yan Kuang said nothing and simply picked up the rolled pancake and took a large bite. He knew that Cheng Ruyi was curious about his background, his martial arts sect, and his past ups and downs in officialdom.
But those rotting accounts and bitter waters were useless to speak of; they would only needlessly add trouble to others.
Being able to live freely and comfortably for the remaining days was the most crucial thing.
Seeing that he refused to take the hint, Cheng Ruyi began to eat honestly, while silently remarking that Yan Kuang ate truly... truly like a dog. In just a few moments, a large bowl of tofu pudding, more than half of the rolled pancake, and the oil bean skin had all vanished into his stomach.
"Are you returning to Shen Manor after eating your fill?" Yan Kuang asked.
"Don't," Cheng Ruyi rubbed his rounded belly and said, "We're leaving tomorrow. Prefect Shen has after all sheltered us for many days. Shouldn't we give him a gift?"
Yan Kuang said indifferently, "No need, he only loves money."
Cheng Ruyi was stunned for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "I love money too... But as a proper prefect of a province, he certainly won't care about small change. Surely we can't give him all our traveling funds, can we?"
Yan Kuang glanced sideways and said, "You're overthinking it. Just taking a free meal and lodging is enough."
They had been hunted down too many times in Qizhou recently, inevitably alarming the local government.
Who would have thought that the Prefect of Qizhou actually had a personal friendship with Yan Kuang? Cheng Ruyi had naturally seized the opportunity to cling to an influential supporter, directly moving into the mansion and living in luxury for several days.
Thinking of this, Cheng Ruyi said somewhat troubledly, "As soon as we arrived in Qizhou, all sorts of monsters and demons nearly hunted us to death. Fortunately, we had your old friend, and by staying at his mansion, we enjoyed a few days of peace. Such great kindness and virtue..."
"Shouldn't we be slightly... courteous?"
As Cheng Ruyi spoke, his gaze began to wander around, and the crowd queuing not far away to fetch spring water instantly caught his attention.
Noticing Cheng Ruyi's gaze, Yan Kuang said incredulously, "You can't possibly want to..."
"A goose feather sent from a thousand miles away carries deep affection—has the official never heard of that?"
Cheng Ruyi raised an eyebrow with confidence and said, "Prefect Shen is no ordinary person. This spring water is clear, sweet, and endlessly flowing, perfectly matching the way of an official. It is definitely an excellent gift!"
Yan Kuang said with a straight face, "But this isn't a goose feather from a thousand miles away. From here to Shen Manor is barely a hundred paces."
Left speechless by this retort, Cheng Ruyi pursed his lips. The moment he raised his head to look at Yan Kuang, his affectionate eyes rippled slightly, adopting an innocent and aggrieved expression.
Yan Kuang: "..."
He simply couldn't withstand this expression from Cheng Ruyi, so he immediately turned around, went to a roadside shop, and brought out two brand-new wooden buckets.
"Two?" Cheng Ruyi was somewhat surprised.
"Good things come in pairs, would we only send one bucket?" With that, Yan Kuang carried the buckets over and joined the queue.
Cheng Ruyi also joined him with keen interest. To protect the spring water, the townspeople had piled stones high all around, requiring people to step onto a small platform and draw the spring water just like drawing water from a well.
Cheng Ruyi stood slightly on tiptoe and saw that the spring eye in the middle was bubbling with water, blooming like a green lotus upon the water.
When it was their turn, Yan Kuang tied the rope to the crossbar of the wooden bucket and threw it out with all his might!
Yet with a "clack," the wooden bucket landed sideways and floated flat on the spring surface.
"Official Yan... do you not know how to draw water?"
Cheng Ruyi was somewhat surprised. Suppressing a smile, he stepped closer to take a closer look, only to see the Jade-faced King of Hell looking utterly unyielding, fiercely pulling the wooden bucket back up, and then throwing it out viciously again—with results easily imagined.
The villagers queuing behind them to fetch water burst out laughing, and Yan Kuang's expression turned somewhat awkward.
Cheng Ruyi raised an eyebrow with a smile, took the water bucket from Yan Kuang's hand, and slightly raised his voice: "This kind of work shouldn't soil the master's hands; let the lesser one do it."
Easing the awkwardness with his words, Cheng Ruyi lowered the bucket tied with the hemp rope slowly and at a uniform speed until the bottom of the bucket met the water surface. Then he pulled the rope to press the rim of the bucket against the stone wall, gave a light tug on the rope, and with a slight flick of his wrist, the wooden bucket indeed flipped over entirely and submerged into the spring water.
Once the bucket was completely immersed in the spring water, he gently pulled the rope to draw it back up.
Yan Kuang took the water bucket, watched Cheng Ruyi bend down again, and skillfully draw up another bucket, and said sincerely, "Good skill, Yan admires it."
Carrying the other bucket of water, Cheng Ruyi walked side by side with Yan Kuang and said, "Ah, if anyone else said that, they'd most likely be laughing at me... But Official Yan won't deceive me."
Yan Kuang was momentarily stunned upon hearing this. Perhaps feeling a guilty conscience, he blurted out subconsciously, "How do you know..."
After finishing his sentence, Cheng Ruyi turned back and flashed a brilliant smile at him.
"I just know."
...
The two returned to Shen Manor and intended to pay their respects to Prefect Shen Nian, when a clamor suddenly erupted from outside the gate—
"I'm done! I'm done! Whoever wants to be this prefect can be it, this old man is quitting!"
Following the sound, they saw an official dressed in a red robe and wearing a black gauze hat walking with large strides toward the inner courtyard, shouting as he walked: "It infuriates me... It infuriates me! These unruly commoners!"
Cheng Ruyi and Yan Kuang were both completely baffled. Yan Kuang couldn't help frowning and muttered under his breath, "What kind of farce is this again?"
The man had regular facial features, was tall, and in his early thirties. At the moment, an indignant expression sat on his face, yet it could not conceal the righteousness between his brows. His pitch-black pupils were as deep as an abyssal pool, yet he clearly painted all his emotions across his face, making it hard for one to tell whether he possessed deep cunning or genuine sincerity.
And this "unbecoming" red-robed senior official was none other than the Prefect of Qizhou, Shen Nian.
"I'm not doing it anymore! Not anymore!"
As Shen Nian spoke, he removed his black gauze hat, but not daring to throw it away, he could only hold it in his hands angrily. A civilian-clothed young man beside him pleaded repeatedly, "My lord, calm your anger... My lord, choose your words... My lord, please stay calm!"
"Bah! Advisor, pack my things! Tomorrow I will... Ah! Old Yan! Old Yan!"
The moment he caught sight of Yan Kuang, Shen Nian rushed over to his side in a single bound and said repeatedly, "Old Yan! You're the only one with foresight! Tomorrow I'm submitting my resignation! I'll wander the rivers and lakes with you!"
Yan Kuang said helplessly, "What is it with you again?"
Cheng Ruyi was also somewhat amused and bewildered: "Why does Prefect Shen want to resign as well?" At the same time, he thought to himself: Shen Nian is clearly older than Yan Kuang, yet he keeps calling him "Old Yan." Truly... truly something else.
Hearing this, Shen Nian let out three sighs and flicked his sleeves three times before solemnly speaking—
"Old Yan, Master Cheng! The two of you might not know, but in Ginkgo Village on the outskirts of Qizhou, for reasons unknown, all the villagers have contracted a strange illness... They say that every now and then, they suffer from splitting headaches so agonizing they wish they were dead!"
"Isn't that strange enough? But what's even stranger is that they refuse to report it to the authorities! It was actually an unknown martial arts hero who reported it to the yamen... Upon learning of this, this official sent medical officers to Ginkgo Village. Who would have thought those unruly rabble! Not only did they refuse to cooperate and beat up the yamen officials, but they even detained the medical officers! Tell me, just tell me! Is there any reason left in this world? Is there any law left!"