Chapter 127 Good Friends
Chapter 127 Good Friends
Bazhenlou is located not far south of Meishan Village, in front of the cliff on the southwest side.
Bai Cen chose the location, saying that the scenery would be different at dawn and sunset. But at dawn, no one got up, and at sunset, everyone was busy...
Wang Sumo didn't go to the cliff at night either, because he was busier than before during the day. At night, Wang Sumo was reviewing and adjusting with Grandpa Weng, and also discussing changes to the dishes for tomorrow with Zhao Tong, so that Bai Cen and Zhao Tong could go to Meizi Town to buy the ingredients the next day.
Therefore, Wang Sumo always thought that the other side of the cliff was pitch black, with only the Eight Treasures Pavilion on the opposite bank shining with a faint light.
When Wang Sumo finally saw the old man at the edge of the cliff, she realized that there were lights on the other side of the cliff...
"People's thinking tends to be fixed. There may be villages on the other side of the cliff, but people always feel that the other side of the cliff is empty."
Wang Sumo carefully found a seat next to the old man and sat down.
"Aren't you busy?" Old Master Qu asked cautiously, worried that she might trip.
Wang Sumo landed steadily beside him: "If we're done with our work, and Bazhenlou is just busy from morning till night, then it's not Bazhenlou anymore."
The old man couldn't help but laugh.
The old man himself said this before, and the girl said it specifically to make him happy.
Wang Sumo continued, "I've found these past few days quite interesting. It's different from when it was just the two of us at the Eight Treasures Restaurant. It's a different kind of experience."
Wang Sumo smiled and said, "After we leave Meishan Village in a couple of days, we'll take a good rest for a few days. How we set up shop afterwards depends on our mood."
The old man looked at her and asked, "What did Bai Cen say to you?"
Wang Sumo: "..."
How did you guess it so easily?
Judging from her expression, the old man knew his guess was correct: "That girl Yutang doesn't talk much; Zhao Tong doesn't like to talk to you about these things either; it's Bai Cen who's a smart aleck."
Wang Sumo made a gesture of sealing her mouth and said seriously, "I'll sew it up for him with needle and thread tomorrow."
The old man laughed out loud.
Wang Sumo then said, "He was just concerned about you. He said that when we weren't open for business these past two days, he would often see you sitting alone on the cliff, lost in thought. That's when I remembered that I've been busy with the Bazhenlou business these past few days, and I was so excited that I forgot about you."
The old man muttered, "I'm not a child anymore."
Wang Sumo sighed softly, "So many things have happened recently, are you carrying a lot on your mind?"
The old man denied it: "No."
Well, Bai Cen is a smart aleck; the old man is the most stubborn.
We're evenly matched, so neither of us should look down on the other.
Wang Sumo went straight to the point: "Tell me about the old stories of Meishan Village too, I'd love to hear them..."
The old man paused, and Wang Sumo said earnestly, "I know everyone has things they want to tell others, and things they don't. You don't want to tell me about the Vajra Pestle, afraid I'll worry; but tell me about Meishan Village then."
Wang Sumo smiled and said, "You know I love watching and listening to excitement. We're already in Meishan Village, what can't we say? The stone is too heavy, so if we tell you, we can each carry half, and it will only weigh half a stone, right, Grandpa?"
"If you don't want to talk, I'll sit here with you for a while. I wonder what that bright spot over there is? It feels so lively. Grandpa, do you think there are people over there watching us and thinking that Bazhenlou is also very lively?"
"Girl..." Old Master Qu suddenly interrupted.
Wang Sumo looked at him.
In the darkness, the old man took a deep breath: "The Bazhenlou restaurant is doing very well now."
Wang Sumo's expression changed slightly.
The old man said in a deep voice, "I used to worry about you being alone, but now you have the old man, Bai Cen, Zhao Tong, Yu Tang, and Xiao Duan..."
Wang Sumo said gently, "But without you, Bazhenlou wouldn't be Bazhenlou."
The old man was slightly taken aback.
Wang Sumo continued, "Grandpa, if there's anything you want to do, we'll be there for you. Only when we're together can we truly be called Bazhenlou."
The warmth in the old man's eyes was palpable.
Wang Sumo leaned closer and said gently, "So, tell me first what exactly happened in Meishan Village back then, so I can hear it for myself."
Wang Sumo intentionally changed the subject.
The old man smiled faintly, feigning ignorance, and began to recount his experiences in Meishan Village decades ago…
Decades have passed, but because of the guilt, the memory remains vivid.
"So, after decades in the north of Meishan Village, they killed the remaining white tiger cubs. One of us couldn't bear it and saved the last one. The others said it was releasing the tiger back into the mountains. In the ensuing chaos and argument, that person was killed by someone who was eliminating the tiger threat. Everyone was stunned and forgot to chase after the white tiger cub; it escaped..."
"But no matter what, no one had ever imagined that the final outcome would be a dispute and a shirking of responsibility for the death of the last person. Then everyone tacitly fabricated a lie, saying that he was bitten to death by a white tiger."
Wang Sumo looked at him: "..."
The old man remained silent for a long time.
"In the end, I compromised, and this grand expedition into the mountains to eliminate the tiger threat was 'successfully' resolved. Everyone became heroes of Meishan Village at the time, and many others became chivalrous figures in the martial arts world because of this expedition. Later, they became well-known in the martial arts world, and some even became grandmasters..."
Wang Sumo never imagined it would end like this.
The old man said in a low voice, "I often think, if I had stood up back then, would Li Xu have survived? Or were those cubs destined to become a tiger menace and should have been exterminated? At the very least, should I have compromised and agreed to keep their secret?"
"In the end, I left without saying goodbye. The whole Meishan Village was celebrating the elimination of the tiger menace with gongs and drums, but I left quietly by myself. I never told anyone my name. But I remember that the person who died was named Li Xu."
“When we first went into the mountains, he was in my group. He was a chatterbox. He told me that his wife’s name was Li Qiuran, a disciple of the Randeng Sect. She was four months pregnant. He was in a hurry to go back from his trip and came to help when he saw that there was a tiger problem here. He thought he would do good deeds for his unborn child.”
"And so, I gathered his belongings and went to the Randeng Sect to return them to Li Qiuran. When I arrived at the Randeng Sect, Li Qiuran was in labor, and their son, Li Min, was born. Looking at Li Min's wrinkled face, I didn't know how to begin, how to tell Li Qiuran that Li Xu had been accidentally injured..."
"All I can say is that I met Li Xu in Meishan Village. We went up the mountain together to fight off the tigers. He told me that his son was about to be born and that I should remember to come. I don't know what happened, but when I arrived, he hadn't arrived yet. That was how it went until the baby was a month old. Suddenly, Li Qiuran asked me, 'Actually, Li Xu is no longer here, is he?' I didn't know how to respond or how to face her."
“Li Qiuran, however, felt relieved. He must have been thinking about accumulating good fortune for the child. He was always so warm-hearted and kind. People like that don’t live long…”
Wang Sumo was slightly surprised.
In fact, Li Qiuran, the leader of the Burning Lamp Sect, is the one who understands her husband the most...
The old man said softly, "I didn't know how to face her, but I felt guilty, so I didn't tell her the truth. This matter has always been weighing on my heart. That year, I received a letter from her saying that Li Min was going to have his first birthday celebration and she hoped I could go. Li Xu was a righteous man throughout his life, but after his death, he had few friends who stayed in touch with him. At least, Li Xu was with me in the end, and she hoped I could pray for Li Min on Li Xu's behalf."
"Did you go?" Wang Sumo asked him.
The old man's eyes darkened: "I went, and I told her the real cause of Li Xu's death."
Wang Sumo: "..."
Wang Sumo lowered his head and sighed softly.
She couldn't judge right or wrong in this matter.
Without being involved and unaware of the circumstances, one cannot easily judge right or wrong.
She knew what kind of person the old man was, and she wasn't surprised that he would eventually tell Li Qiuran the truth.
If the old man really would keep this secret, then he wouldn't be the old man she knew.
"And then what happened? Sect Leader Li..." She wanted to ask whether, given Li Qiuran's temper, she had made things difficult for him, or rather, under those circumstances, if Li Qiuran had been angry enough to take the old man's life, the old man probably wouldn't have run away at all.
Sure enough, the old man said in a deep voice, "She was silent for a long time, and then only said softly, 'Thank you for telling me.'"
Um?
Wang Sumo was surprised.
“She told me that I didn’t kill him. I could have kept it from her forever, but I chose to tell her the truth. She thanked me. But she also wouldn’t forgive me because I was in cahoots with those people. But she knows that Li Xu’s death will always be in my heart, and I don’t need her to do anything more!”
Wang Sumo suddenly felt that Li Qiuran, the leader of the Burning Lamp Sect, had become distinctly different in his mind.
"And then what happened?" Wang Sumo continued to ask.
The old man's eyes darkened. "Later, I heard that she went to Meishan Village and then hunted down some people."
Wang Sumo was horrified: "It was from the tiger-eliminating operation before..."
The old man nodded: "What goes around comes around. Back then, they received the commendations from the villagers and the imperial court with great fanfare, so naturally their names were recorded."
Wang Sumo understood: "So Li Qiuran went to Meishan Village, learned about these people, and also learned that your name is not on the roster, Grandpa. She should understand now."
The old man nodded.
Wang Sumo sighed, "It was clearly a good deed of chivalry and eliminating evil for the people, so why did it end up like this?"
Wang Sumo suddenly understood why the old man was unwilling to go to Meishan Village with them tomorrow; it was because there were some things weighing on his mind that he couldn't get over.
"So later, did Li Qiuran kill all those people?" Wang Sumo actually knew the difficulty involved. In the chaos, it was impossible to say who did the work and who didn't. Everyone would just shift the blame and no one would take the blame.
Wang Sumo suddenly remembered: "It seems that the Burning Lamp Sect disappeared a long time ago. I wonder why. Grandpa, did you see Sect Leader Li again after that?"
The old man shook his head, recalling something from not long ago: "When I went to Shanhe Town to find Zhao Tong and Bai Cen, I saw a man who wanted to take advantage of the situation. Later, I realized that his martial arts moves were from the Randeng Sect, so I asked him about it. But he panicked and ran away. I found a Randeng Sect jade disc with his name engraved on it where he ran away. He is Li Min."
The old man just mentioned "Li Qiuran's son".
The old man nodded: "Li Qiuran has been gone for many years. Li Min must have suffered a lot to become like this. I left a note that he would see if he went back to look for that jade disc. I told him to come to Bazhenlou to find me, but he hasn't shown up yet."
Although Wang Sumo did not see it, Li Min must have grown into the kind of person that the old man would not want to see.
Wang Sumo comforted him, "We'll meet again eventually. The world isn't that big. When we do meet, I'll personally teach them. If Li Xu and Li Qiuran knew this in the afterlife, they would be pleased."
Take the old man to see her.
Wang Sumo said gently, "No one is perfect. Who could have predicted what would happen next? If it weren't for you, sir, Li Qiuran might have remained in the dark her whole life. As the leader of the Randeng Sect, she knew exactly what she was doing. The dead cannot be brought back to life. How can there be no regrets in the martial world?"
Wang Sumo looked at the lights in the distance. Li Xu's matter had such a great impact on the old man. Geng Hongbo was the old man's only apprentice. Geng Hongbo died so tragically. How much did the old man keep hidden in his heart...
*
The next morning, after finishing his morning exercises, Wang Sumo was preparing to go to Meishan Village with Bai Cen and Zhao Tong when the little girl from the previous night appeared.
She was a little scared, and also a little cautious, hiding behind the tree, as if hesitating whether to call her.
"Hey, you have a little tail now," Bai Cen reminded him.
Wang Sumo turned around and saw her. "Come out."
The little girl was a bit embarrassed, but since she had been discovered, she had no choice but to step forward.
"Did you need something from me?" Wang Sumo asked gently.
She nodded first, then shook her head, then thought for a moment, and finally nodded again.
Bai Cen and Zhao Tong both noticed his conflicted state of mind. Bai Cen patted Zhao Tong on the shoulder and said, "Let's go first, the boss has something to do."
Zhao Tong understood.
Wang Sumo smiled.
After Bai Cen and Zhao Tong left, Wang Sumo squatted down and asked seriously, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
The little girl looked at her, her face showing difficulty, and hesitated to speak.
Wang Sumo laughed and said, "Look, I've already given you my candied hawthorns and sesame seeds, and I'm even going to make you some lactose glutinous rice balls. Aren't we friends now?"
The little girl thought for a moment and nodded.
Wang Sumo continued, "Shouldn't good friends help each other?"
The little girl continued to nod.
Wang Sumo said gently, "Then you can tell me. Good friends listen to each other."
The little girl took a deep breath, tears welling up in her eyes: "My other good friend is dying, can you help me?"
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