Chapter 54 It's You Again!

"It's you!" Mu Chenbi suppressed the joy in his heart.

Guan Ye was slightly taken aback, her cheeks flushed, and she responded softly before turning her back. The old woman urged Mu Chenbi to hurry up and get on the boat, which Mu Chenbi was more than happy to do. The man's weight made the wooden boat rock violently, and Guan Ye stumbled. Mu Chenbi quickly grabbed her arm, his eyes filled with undisguised concern, "Be careful."

Thinking back to how she mistook him for A-Jiu and held onto his hand, Guan Ye suddenly felt embarrassed and pulled her arm away, no longer looking at him. This thought did not escape Mu Chenbi's notice. Mu Chenbi stood with his hands behind his back at the bow of the ship, a hint of a smile on his handsome profile.

On a large rock in the lake, Wan Qixi sat cross-legged, with some items casually dangling in front of him. He chatted idly with the stall owner on the neighboring rock, occasionally picking at the corner of his eye and flicking large eye boogers into the lake. When he saw the wooden boat approaching, Wan Qixi lazily yawned and squinted at the person coming.

This is it. Guan Ye led the old woman toward Wan Qixi's large rock.

"Are you looking for him too?" Mu Chenbi asked in a low voice.

Guan Ye didn't have time to answer. Before the wooden boat was even close, she had already leaped onto it. Mu Chenbi followed closely behind and jumped onto Wan Qixi's stone surface. Wan Qixi straightened his body, which was wrapped in a long robe, and gestured that he would only talk business with one person at a time. The other person should go down!

"Wan Qixi." Guan Ye had barely opened her mouth when Wan Qixi was so startled that he took several steps back, gesturing as if to say, "You're making things up, don't talk nonsense."

"Wan Qixi," Guan Ye said without fear, "I can't worry about that today, I'll just tell you straight."

"Hey." Wan Qixi licked his dry lips. "Two hundred jin is more than two hundred jin, what? You've come to cause me trouble?" He looked Mu Chenbi up and down, sniffing and saying fiercely, "You're quite something, kid. You're clearly in cahoots, yet you came to see me twice. What, you want to take advantage of me?"

"It has nothing to do with him." Guan Ye spread her arms to shield Mu Chenbi. How dare a woman protect him in the Ghost Market? Mu Chenbi felt a warmth in his heart, and his eyes, beneath his phoenix-feathered eyelashes, grew even more ardent.

"I'm just asking you," Guan Ye bit her lip, "Do you have any Kunwu Stone?"

—Kunwu Stone? Wan Qixi and Mu Chenbi were both taken aback.

Wan Qixi looked around, somewhat at a loss, wondering what these two were up to this time. "Kunwu Stone..." Wan Qixi's dirty eyes swept over the silent Mu Chenbi. "Kunwu Stone... You're asking me?"

"I'm asking you," Guan Ye said urgently, "Why are you looking at him like that?"

Wan Qixi rubbed his eyes so hard he almost rubbed them out, "Aren't you two in cahoots?"

Guan Ye brushed his hand away. "I don't know him. Tell me quickly, do you have any Kunwu Stone?"

Wan Qixi had been in the martial arts world for many years and had never seen such a scene before. Was the girl in front of him crazy or stupid? She said, "I don't know him." He remembered her, so how could she "not know" him? Wan Qixi turned to look at Mu Chenbi and poked his head with his fingertip, implying that the girl seemed to have a serious mental illness.

"You're asking me if I have Kunwu Stone?" Wan Qixi just wanted to get rid of this person as soon as possible. "You bought my Kunwu Stone, and now you're asking me?"

"I only bought corundum..." Guan Ye suddenly stopped, stunned for a moment before realizing what she had said, and pointed at Mu Chenbi, "You bought Kunwu stone?"

The girl was adorable, and Mu Chenbi was already captivated by her. When she finally asked him, he suppressed a laugh and said, "You didn't ask me. I bought Kunwu Stone at the Ghost Market not long ago... but... the stone is gone, so I came back to him to buy some more."

"They've all gone mad." Wan Qixi sighed. "This world really can drive people crazy."

"What do you want to do with the Kunwu stone?" Guan Ye asked.

"What do you want with Kunwu Stone?" Mu Chenbi asked in return.

"I..." Guan Ye swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue, "Why should I tell you?"

Seeing that the two of them were exchanging words, Wanqi Xi simply sat cross-legged on the stone again, took out his money bag and counted the silver ingots inside.

"Wanqixi!" Guan Ye jumped in front of him. "Enough nonsense, do you still have Kunwu Stone?"

“Since you can name Kunwu Stone, you should know how rare it is.” Wan Qixi hid the money pouch in his pocket. “A treasure that takes ten or eight years to obtain, you just come here like that? And you.” Wan Qixi pointed at Mu Chenbi’s nose. “A rare treasure, and you… you actually disappeared? What a waste! If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have sold it to you.”

"Go away, go away," Wan Qixi waved to shoo the customers away, "Don't block my way to do business."

"Since you've opened your doors to do business," Mu Chenbi said with a smile, "why don't we talk business?"

Wan Qixi understood the underlying meaning, leaned forward a little, and winked, saying, "We need to show sincerity."

Before Guan Ye could speak, Mu Chenbi gently tugged at her sleeve and said calmly, "Last time, the Kunwu stone was a palm-sized piece weighing over three pounds, and you charged me ten taels of silver."

"Not bad, not bad." Wan Qixi perked up. "I regret selling it so much. It's a rare treasure, and you only paid ten taels. If there were more, it would cost at least... twenty taels."

"You might as well just rob it." Guan Ye's face flushed with anger.

"Why don't you go first?" Wan Qixi gestured for him to leave. "Don't keep me from discussing a big deal."

Mu Chenbi wasn't annoyed. He smiled and said, "Everyone knows that the person with the most connections in the Ghost Market is Boss Wanqi. Otherwise, I wouldn't always come here. This place is full of treasures, and only you can do that."

Wan Qixi was pleased to hear this and twitched his ears, signaling Mu Chenbi to say a few more words. Mu Chenbi nodded to Guan Ye and continued, "A rare treasure. If you can get it once, you can definitely get it again. I'll pay the deposit today, and you can come back to pick it up later. How about that?"

"Stop." Wan Qixi looked troubled. "You say what you want to hear, but Kunwu Stone... I'm afraid there really isn't another one for the time being. I can tell you're in a hurry. If I take your money and can't deliver the goods on time, it'll be my business that suffers. Forget it, this deal is off."

Guan Ye looked disappointed and gazed expectantly at Mu Chenbi, "Is that piece you had earlier really gone? Or... should we go look for it again?"

The girl before him was so touching that no one could say no to her. Mu Chenbi's heart softened. He would do anything he could, even reach for the stars and the moon, but a piece of Kunwu stone was gone... gone forever.

“Boss Wanqi…” Guan Ye squatted down, and Wanqi Xi rolled his eyes, as if waiting for her to come up with some tricks. “Boss Wanqi, large pieces of Kunwu stone are rare…” Guan Ye hooked her little finger and gestured with her fingernail to probe, “Do you still have the burlap sack you used to pack things before?”

Mu Chenbi was astonished to see Guan Ye, and immediately prostrated himself in admiration. He knew that Guan Ye had also come for the broken sword in Xingguo Ward. The two of them must have thought of the same thing, which was why they came to the Ghost Market to find out. Guan Ye thought what he thought, and even more than he thought. Large pieces of Kunwu stone were hard to find, but broken stones... should still be available.

Wanqi Xi first shook his head, then suddenly scratched his dreadlocks, remembered something, took off his dirty robe, and reached into each pocket.

Guan Ye's eyes rekindled with hope. She saw Mu Chenbi staring at her without blinking, his face overlapping with A Jiu's, as if they were the same person. Guan Ye's heart pounded, and she quickly turned away from him.

“Here it is!” Wan Qixi pulled out a cloth bag. “Last time he complained that my bag was dirty and smelly, so he wrapped it in his own silk. It’s a good thing he was so particular, otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to keep this bag.”

As Wan Qixi spoke, he reached into the bag, his eyebrows furrowing and relaxing, his expression fluctuating wildly. He kept glancing at the two men's faces as he worked, having already emptied the bag, but his hand remained stuck inside.

Mu Chenbi took out a silver ingot and waved it in front of Wan Qixi, "Did you find it?"

"Tsk." Wan Qixi pouted. "It seems... there isn't one."

Mu Chenbi looked regretful, grabbed Guan Ye's wrist and turned his back, "It seems there's no hope. Let's go and ask somewhere else."

"Wait!" Wan Qixi called out to them, "I've got it! I've got it..." As she spoke, she took out her hand, with a grain of rice-sized crumb on her index fingertip, "Take a look, is this what you wanted?"

Mu Chenbi calmly turned around, not in a hurry to take it, and took a closer look. "Huh? It seems... a little different from the one I bought."

"Nonsense!" Wan Qixi exclaimed. "This bag has only ever contained Kunwu stone. These fragments are Kunwu stone. Do you even know that? If you don't, let this girl take a look. She's an expert."

Guan Ye picked up the pebbles on Wan Qixi's fingertips. The Ghost Market was dimly lit, but this object shone brightly in the night. It was indeed the color of Kunwu stone. She rubbed it lightly between her two fingers. The stone was hard and firm, and it hurt her skin when she hit it. Its hardness was definitely no less than that of corundum. Guan Ye knew this and nodded to Mu Chenbi.

"Look at that!" Wanqi Xi wanted to applaud Guan Ye. "The goods are genuine. I, Wanqi Xi, never do anything fancy. The money, where's the money?"

Mu Chenbi tossed the silver ingot aside, and Wan Qixi caught it steadily with outstretched arms. "Alright!"

"Such a small amount of scrap, yet it's worth so much for a single silver ingot." Guan Ye carefully put it away, glancing at the large silver ingot in Wan Qixi's hand, her face showing distress. "I'll pay you back when I've raised the money."

Mu Chenbi's brows softened as he leaned down to examine Guan Ye's face, his hands behind his back. "Wait, I paid for it, but the things... are now yours?"

Guan Ye blushed and avoided Mu Chenbi's burning gaze. "I have an urgent need at home... consider this a loan from you. If you don't want the money, I'll return it to you after everything is settled, okay?"

Mu Chenbi suddenly leaned forward. Guan Ye thought he was going to snatch it, so she instinctively raised her elbow and bumped it into his chest. She was used to rough work and had a lot of strength. If it were anyone else, they would probably have been knocked over. Mu Chenbi swayed slightly, and Guan Ye thought to herself that something was wrong. She hadn't paid for it, and now he was taking the item and hurting her. She hurriedly grabbed his arm. Mu Chenbi was pulled like this, and the two of them were pressed close together, their faces almost touching. Mu Chenbi's breathing was heavy, his dark eyes were churning, and his chin was pressed against Guan Ye's forehead. His phoenix eyelashes lowered quietly, and he couldn't help but succumb to the sight of her.

"Consider the things as a loan." Guan Ye jumped aside. "I'll return them to you in one day, or at most three days. I, Guan Ye, am a woman of my word and will never renege on your promise. You can find me in Xingguo Lane, West Street."

"—Xingguo Ward, Guan Ye." Mu Chenbi murmured the name he already knew, "Guan Ye."

“We’re all family.” Wan Qixi listened intently, squinting at the fox mask Guan Ye was wearing. He turned around and pulled down some of the dirty cloth covering the mask to reveal his nostrils, picking at them as he looked. “What borrowing and returning? You’ve already got the stuff, and you’re still putting on an act for me? It’s really…the world is going to the dogs.”

On the canoe, both remained silent. When the canoe stopped at the shore, Mu Chenbi leaped ashore and reached out his hand to Guan Ye. For a moment, he seemed to see A-Jiu, but he wasn't. Guan Ye didn't take his hand, stubbornly getting off the canoe on her own. Mu Chenbi showed no embarrassment, his hand lightly clasped behind his back, and he and Guan Ye walked side-by-side into the dark tunnel, heading towards the sunlight.