Chapter 723 Red Socks Bring Good Fortune [Seeking Monthly Tickets!]
The night was dark and the wind was high.
On Phoenix Ridge in Hukou County.
In the darkness outside the red walls of a Zen temple, shadowy figures could be seen moving about.
"What business does Manager Wang have with me?"
A young man with a stoic face, wearing a greasy Taoist robe, walked over.
He carried a peach wood sword on his back and a bundle slung over his shoulder. He tilted his head slightly and asked the question to the short young man who was deploying his subordinates in the darkness.
Wang Caozhi glanced back at Lu Ya, who had been brought back, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
"Master Lu, come with me and let's talk over there."
Lu Ya said expressionlessly:
"If there's anything I can't say, I might miss the night boat at the ferry crossing and fall behind Duan Quanwu and the White Tiger Guard. This was ordered by Young Master Ouyang."
Upon hearing this, Wang Caozhi immediately waved his hand:
"It's a small matter. While I'm sending someone to call Master Lu, I'm also sending a few trusted men along. They've prepared boats and will follow Duan Quanwu's official ship to replace Master Lu... Master, please stay here. The important matter at hand is more pressing."
Lu Ya shook his head and said frankly, "But I have to get back to the Prince's Mansion before the morning of the day after tomorrow, so I'm afraid I won't have time to stay for too long."
Wang Caozhi was quiet for a moment, seemingly making some calculations, and then immediately made arrangements:
"If you rush back to the Xunyang Prince's Mansion, you'll have already missed one boat. You can only take the earliest boat tomorrow morning, but that's still in time. There's still time. Coming over here won't delay you. This way, please."
Having received a reply, Lu Ya seemed to acquiesce. He withdrew his gaze from him, walked forward with his hands behind his back, and glanced around as he asked:
Where are we going?
"The back mountain of Guanyin Temple."
“I know, it’s written on the plaque at the temple entrance. I’m asking where we’re going to the back mountain and what we’re going to do there.”
"Go and arrest them."
"Arrest them?"
Wang Caozhi succinctly stated: "The person being monitored is behaving strangely, as if they are meeting with someone."
Lu Ya tilted his head, somewhat puzzled, and asked:
"Who are you meeting with that your people can't handle? Was there no contingency plan? Do I need to step in?"
Wang Caozhi, who was walking in front, seemed to hesitate for a moment before answering:
"The latest news that came in the middle of the night is a bit unexpected. It's safer if Master Lu takes action, otherwise something unexpected might happen."
Lu Ya became increasingly puzzled, and after a pause, he reminded him:
"It is not part of Young Master Ouyang's plan for me to stay here. Manager Wang, be prepared to go back and explain, in case anything unexpected happens."
The young man with the facial paralysis shook off his sleeves, revealing a thin hand. He made some calculations with his fingers and continued:
"Also, I absolutely must take that boat tomorrow morning, otherwise I won't have time to get back to the Prince's Mansion and won't be able to stay here for long. Manager Wang, please keep this in mind..."
Wang Caozhi, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and interrupted Lu Ya's rambling in a low voice:
"Shh, we've arrived. Master Lu is just ahead."
Lu Ya stopped abruptly and looked around.
The place where they stopped was a forest of stone tablets, with stone tablets resembling tombs. During the day, they might be solemn and dignified, but at night, when it was pitch black, they looked eerie and sinister, though they were good places to hide.
If he hadn't known beforehand that this was the back mountain of a Zen temple, he would have thought Wang Caozhi had brought him to a mass grave.
It should be around midnight now.
Lu Ya withdrew his gaze and looked in the direction Wang Caozhi was pointing, about a mile to the northeast.
This forest of stone tablets is very large. They had only just reached the southwest edge, about a mile to the northeast, roughly at the other edge of the forest of stone tablets. There were many tall stone tablets there, and they couldn't see what was happening.
The two competent sentries waiting there saw Wang Caozhi and Lu Ya arrive and stealthily approached them.
"Shopkeeper, you've arrived!"
Lu Ya saw them whisper a few words in Wang Caozhi's ear.
Their voices were very soft, but some fragmented words drifted into Lu Ya's keen ears on the night breeze.
"...That skinny man slipped out of the meditation hall in the middle of the night...and went inside for almost half an hour...and there's still no movement...we didn't get very close...he probably hasn't noticed us..."
"Before you arrived, sir, a few strange men we spotted wandering up the mountain in the evening also sneaked in... It really was a rendezvous..."
Wang Caozhi, who had been listening intently, suddenly turned his head and asked in a slightly stern voice:
"Are you sure you saw that group of people clearly?"
The sentry nodded vigorously:
“You weren’t mistaken. My eyesight is excellent. I spotted him when I was passing by as a passerby this evening. Underneath the collar of his black robe, he was definitely wearing armor. He was most likely carrying weapons. We were outnumbered and didn’t dare approach. He was clearly not someone to be trifled with. We could only go and call for you, sir…”
"Alright, you all go down and call everyone here."
"Yes, shopkeeper."
The two sentries, not daring to look too long at the expressionless young man in a Taoist robe strolling leisurely beside Wang Caozhi, quietly withdrew.
Only the two of them remained.
Wang Caozhi turned around and looked at Lu Ya.
The latter has a blank, expressionless face.
The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.
"How many people?"
"We have identified seven people so far, including the man named Qian Chen."
He paused, then added, "It cannot be ruled out that there might be other people lying in ambush as lookouts."
Lu Ya suddenly reached out: "Take off your socks."
"Socks? Here they are?"
Wang Caozhi stared blankly at that expressionless face.
Lu Ya nodded and extended his hand expressionlessly.
Wang Caozhi felt a little embarrassed. He looked around and quickly bent down to take off his boots and the red socks on his feet.
It was only then, as he was taking off his socks, that he belatedly realized he had put them on inside out. He had rushed out the door that night after receiving the news and hadn't noticed...
After taking off his socks, Wang Caozhi quickly handed them to Lu Ya while they were still warm.
Lu Ya looked down at the flamboyant red socks, then looked up at Wang Caozhi, whose face was flushed red.
The latter coughed, covered his mouth, looked away, and muttered under his breath:
“A cousin gave it to me. She said I was in bad luck this year and needed to avoid it. Wearing this thing would not only help me avoid bad luck, but also change my fortune… cough cough, I don’t know if I’m in bad luck, but changing my fortune… sure enough, I met a good brother-in-law and good sisters at the beginning of the year.”
Lu Ya ignored him, took out a yellow talisman from his pocket, tossed it to him, and casually instructed him:
"Stay here and make a noise after half an incense stick has burned, preferably a noise that can be heard throughout the entire stone tablet forest. If any fish that slip through the net get close, throw out this talisman and then turn around and run away."
As Lu Ya spoke, he took out an incense stick and a tinderbox from his sleeve. He folded the incense stick in half and lit one half of each.
Half of it was tucked at Wang Caozhi's feet, and the other half was held between two fingers and tucked into his sleeve.
Wang Caozhi nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "Okay, okay, by the way, should we wait until all our men arrive... Hey, wait a minute, don't leave yet, remember to leave someone alive, someone alive!"
Before he could finish speaking in a low voice, the expressionless young man beside him had vanished without a trace.
They took away his pair of lucky red socks.
Only half an incense stick remained in the soil at his feet.
I don't know if I heard his later instructions.
Wang Caozhi was speechless. He looked down at the yellow paper talisman, but it was too dark to see the inscription clearly. He only felt that it was a little damp and sticky.
The thought of Lu Ya's filthy Taoist robe, which looked like it hadn't been washed in ages, made him, who was a clean freak, pinch his nose with a slightly disgusted expression.
Speaking of which, Taoist priests of the Three Pure Ones should abstain from lust, right? This sticky yellow talisman shouldn't be dirty, right...?
Wang Caozhi couldn't help but mutter to himself.
But why would Master Lu want my warm socks out of the blue? Did he have his eye on them? Like some men who like women's feet? Could it be that Master Lu has the opposite fetish? I should have asked him; if it's the latter, I absolutely mustn't give them to him!
Even though it was a critical moment, he couldn't help but be overwhelmed with thoughts.
At this moment, the bare feet, bare except for the socks, were suddenly chilled by the cold wind.
Wang Caozhi was startled and came to his senses.
He looked down at the half-burnt incense stick, which was about to burn out, and looked around, but still couldn't see any of his subordinates arrive.
Wang Caozhi glanced at the suspected location a mile to the northeast, where it remained dark and calm.
As the half-burnt incense stick at my feet disappeared, the faint red star disappeared, and it burned out completely.
Wang Caozhi gritted his teeth, leaped high into the air, and as he landed, he stomped his foot with all his might, making a loud thud. At the same time, he shouted at the top of his lungs in a voice that could be heard throughout the entire forest of stone tablets:
"Hey, you harlot! How dare you cheat on me with that bald monk! You have no shame! I'll teach you to cheat! I'll teach you to cheat! Guards, come and see this naked adulterous couple..."
Accompanied by the clapping sounds, Wang Caozhi shouted indignantly, breaking the silence of the entire stone tablet forest. In an instant, he became the most eye-catching figure in the dark night. Even the lush green mountains behind him in late spring were less conspicuous than his figure, and he had to admit defeat.
"Let me go, let me go! You son of a bitch, you dare to fight back..."
On the open ground, a short young man, whose boots had been accidentally kicked off, was clutching his neck with one hand and struggling against the air with the other. His voice had become shrill, as if fate was gripping his throat, yet he still screamed at the top of his lungs:
"Ah, how dare you lay a hand on someone? Is there no law? Is there no morality? You bald monk, you're truly lawless! You harlot, get the hell out of my way! Don't stop me, I'll fight you to the death! You adulterous couple..."
The stone tablet forest a mile to the northeast was completely silent.
As Wang Caozhi called out, he glanced sideways, and before he could speak again, he suddenly heard a series of sounds coming from the other side:
"who!"
"ah!"
"Watch out! It's in the woods behind... Ah! You little rascal!"
"Bang--!"
"Thump!"
Shouts, the sound of flesh and bone slamming together, and what sounded like sandbags hitting the ground echoed one after another in the dark forest.
A moment later, all sounds disappeared, and the world seemed to return to peace.
The fugitives who Wang Caozhi had anticipated might escape and harm him did not appear.
All the strange noises inside the stone tablet forest disappeared completely.
He breathed a sigh of relief that the sticky yellow talisman in his sleeve hadn't been used, and immediately pulled his hand out, fanning himself with it.
After waiting for a while, Wang Caozhi saw a young Taoist priest with a stoic expression, wearing red socks, slowly emerge from the darkness ahead, without making a sound.
The young Taoist priest with facial paralysis walked along, re-tying his peach wood sword onto his back.
A liquid seemed to be dripping from the blunt tip of the sword, which he casually grabbed a handful of leaves and slowly wiped away.
Wang Caozhi's gaze was drawn to the pair of red socks Lu Ya was wearing.
Looking down for a closer look, I noticed that the red socks were worn over the boots, and they were stained with a lot of blood and bits of leaves.
Wang Caozhi immediately understood. In the transition from spring to summer, there were quite a few fallen leaves on the back mountain. Wearing socks over boots seemed to help to slightly reduce the sound of footsteps.
Just then, Lu Ya walked up to Wang Caozhi and asked:
"What is Manager Wang shouting?"
Wang Caozhi looked completely innocent, glanced around, then ran over and put his boots back on. As if nothing had happened, he asked:
"It's nothing, just imitating a friend of mine. By the way, Master Lu, what's the situation inside? Did they leave any survivors?"
Lu Ya shook his head:
"I'm sorry, I killed one of them. He was the only Qi cultivator. Judging from his physical strength, he should be a sixth-rank military expert. I only realized this when we started fighting. To prevent him from reacting and getting entangled, I didn't hold back."
"A Qi Refiner?" Wang Caozhi was taken aback.
When he came to his senses, he was covered in a cold sweat. He licked his lips, turned around, and ran into the stone tablet forest in the northeast corner.
Upon arriving at the scene, they saw six or seven unconscious men lying on the ground.
Wang Caozhi searched around and found that the thin-faced man named Qian Chen was among them. He reached out and checked his breath; he could still feel it.
His heart finally settled down; as long as there was a survivor, that was enough. This person was the key to their success.
Wang Caozhi shifted his gaze, looked around, and found a corpse under a tree ten meters away. The abdomen and lower abdomen were covered in blood, with a penetrating wound. Half a burnt incense stick lay on it.
The corpse's eyes were wide open, its death unfulfilled.
Wang Caozhi swallowed hard, looking at Lu Ya with newfound respect. As expected of someone sent by his brother-in-law, he was said to be a master from the Wang family.
As if remembering something, Wang Caozhi reached out and pulled aside the corpse man's wrinkled black clothes. By the moonlight, he saw that the man was wearing a tight-fitting back armor on his upper body and a short shirt and trousers on his lower body... This outfit looked vaguely familiar to him.
Wang Caozhi's expression changed slightly, and he lowered his head to carefully search through the items.
Lu Ya, carrying a peach wood sword, walked over and stopped behind Wang Caozhi, handing back the red socks that seemed to bring good luck.
"Here you go. There really is a big fish among this group. I don't know which side he's on. Luckily, this military man was careless and was alerted by the commotion you made outside. He was the first to react. To be on the safe side, I'll start with him... What's with that expression, Manager Wang? Do you know this person?"
As Lu Ya was speaking, he noticed that Wang Caozhi was squatting motionless in place.
"What's wrong with Manager Wang?"
He added, "That guy named Qian Chen isn't dead. He'll be unconscious for a while. You can interrogate him when he wakes up. Killing one shouldn't be a problem, right? Cough, I'm off to catch my boat..."
Wang Caozhi remained silent for a long time, making Lu Ya feel a little guilty when he spoke. Just as he was about to run away, he saw the short young man squatting in front of him suddenly turn around, tightly clutching a bloodstained white cloth strip that he had just found.
Wang Caozhi seemed to swallow hard, and asked:
"What time is Master Lu's boat tomorrow morning?"
Lu Ya looked puzzled. Before he could answer, Wang Caozhi had already swept past him. Lu Ya felt his hands go empty as Wang Caozhi snatched the pair of red socks from his grasp. Wang Caozhi hurriedly put them on and rushed out of the Stone Stele Forest.
Let's go back together!
...
(End of this chapter)
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