Chapter 32 – Ru City’s Night Market, Bright as Day
“I have a sword,” Chou Bodeng said out of the blue.
“Huh?”
Zhou Ziyan was stunned, unable to process how the topic had jumped so drastically.
“Don’t use just any old piece of junk as the formation’s eye. Are you looking down on the heavens or on Ru City?” Chou Bodeng stood up and brushed past the bewildered Zhou Ziyan. “If you want to perform the Heaven-Worshipping Ritual, come and borrow my sword.”
The red-robed youth passed through the door and opened an oil-paper umbrella.
“Of course, whether I lend it or not depends on my mood.”
The paper umbrella parted layer after layer of the rain curtain. Chou Bodeng walked away along the corridor, disappearing into the depths of the misty rain, leaving only his last, seemingly nonchalant words, not yet washed away by the rain.
Zhou Ziyan stood in the waterside pavilion, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Telling someone to come and borrow his sword, then saying whether he’d lend it or not depended on his mood. Didn’t this Little Martial Ancestor of Taiyi find himself contradictory at all?
“I really want to go to the Taiyi Sect and see for myself,” Zhou Ziyan said to a Ru fish, head lowered. “See how they managed to raise such a little ancestor… It must be a very interesting sect, right?”
The Ru fish swam past, casting a faint rosy glow upon him.
It was vaguely reminiscent of his mother holding his hand when he was a child.
“Mother, is that you?” Zhou Ziyan asked in a low voice. “Father, and you too?”
The Red Ru fish circled around him.
The handsome young City Diviner gazed in the direction Chou Bodeng had left, his expression faintly resembling that of a child facing a difficult decision, hesitating and looking to his parents for an affirming glance from his father or a slight smile from his mother. So much time had passed, yet some images remained as clear as yesterday.
“I… I…”
I don’t know what’s right or wrong.
I miss you.
“Ziyan, Ziyan!” A clear voice called out as the little oracle maiden came running into the waterside pavilion. “Elder Tao wants to see you. He said he wants to see how much you still remember of what you learned back then.” She did her best to imitate Elder Tao’s gloomy, unfriendly tone for the latter half of the sentence, her large eyes squinting into crescents, clearly taking pleasure in his misfortune. “Ziyan, Ziyan, if you’ve forgotten everything, are you going to get spanked with a paddle?”
“Do you think I’m you?” Zhou Ziyan turned around, his expression back to normal, and tapped her on the head. “You’ve reminded me that I need to test you on The Collection. If you try to pull any tricks and use a cheat sheet like last time, watch your hide.”
“Oh—”
The little girl dragged out the sound, looking very displeased.
“Mean Ziyan.”
“Do you want me to double your punishment?”
“Mean Ziyan, mean Ziyan, mean Ziyan!”
“…”
The big one and the little one gradually walked away, with Red Ru fish swimming past them on either side.
***
The streets of Ru City were lined with shops, far more numerous than in Fu City.
Cloth and silk shops were the most common, mainly concentrated around Pan Street. Scarlet gauze and red silk took on endless variations in the hands of the people of Ru City. Some were stacked in bolts, some tailored into clothes and canopies, some embroidered with intricate patterns, and others fashioned into lanterns and pouches. They racked their brains to devise combinations of light and dark colors: silver-red with deep black, bright red with gold trim, carmine mixed with pomegranate, madder with pale peach… In the light, they shimmered with a fantastical glow.
“Combs and hairpins for sale! Combs and hairpins for sale!… Made by Old Granny Hu herself, with threaded beads! A round, bright moon, a shining crescent hook, a golden, eye-catching hairpin, two brightly swaying tassels! A fine jade for your chignon, a truly silver-snowy hairpin tip…”
“Freshly picked little flower branches, lifelike flowers made from silk and wax—lifelike flowers, hey!”
“Sharpening knives and grinding scissors, any difficulties, folks!”
“…”
The street cries of the market were endless. The people of Ru City had a soft, gentle accent, and when they called out their wares, they drew out the final syllables, the rise and fall of their voices like singing.
Chou Bodeng held his umbrella, stopping and starting as he walked.
The stall owners and vendors saw his umbrella and knew he was an outsider, so they greeted him with extra enthusiasm. Chou Bodeng’s spending was so lavish it could be called profligate. He strolled from stall to stall, and whenever he saw something that caught his eye, he would toss down a gold ingot or a silver piece. He couldn’t even be bothered to wait for the vendors to frantically cut the money and make change; he would just take the item and leave.
“Aiya! Five copper coins is enough! Five is enough!”
The old granny with mobility issues watched over her comb and hairpin stall, waving her hands repeatedly. She was quite frightened by this young man who threw money around like dirt and refused to accept his payment.
Her stall was naturally not as grand as her sales pitch sang. The “bright moon” beads and “crescent hook” rings were not made of real jade, but rather a special type of carved stone. Common folk who couldn’t afford real jade would polish and grind these stones, calling them “secondary jade.” For someone like Chou Bodeng, the materials of these hairpins, combs, and chignon ornaments were so crude as to be an eyesore. However, the old granny’s craftsmanship was superb. Every item, regardless of size, was meticulously crafted with twisted threads and intricate floral designs. As Chou Bodeng passed by, he glimpsed a hair ribbon on the stall adorned with black carved stones and exquisite dark embroidery, and decided to buy it.
Chou Bodeng ignored her and continued walking forward with his umbrella.
“Hey, hey! Wait!”
The old granny called out anxiously from behind, but the red-robed youth vanished into the crowd in the blink of an eye.
At the end of Pan Street.
Lu Jing looked at this and that, the Young Master of Medicine Valley looking for all the world like a dumb, curious goose. Zuo Yuesheng had his sleeves rolled up, haggling with three vendors at once, his face red as he argued over a single copper coin.
“One less coin, and when I go back and sell these to my senior and junior brothers, I’ll put up the name of your Chen Family Shop!” Zuo Yuesheng’s spit flew. “Then your ‘brand’ will be out there! In the future, people from Qingzhou will know the Chen Family Shop when they want to buy carrying cages. I’m giving you free… free advertising! By rights, you should be paying me, yet you won’t even give me a one-coin convenience? That’s too unfair.”
You’re calling this fair?
Lu Jing nearly rolled his eyes into the back of his head.
“No way! Who’s as shameless as you, haggling over the price of a carrying cage? And what’s this ‘advertising’? Never heard of it.” The vendor wouldn’t budge an inch.
What was “advertising”? It was a term Zuo Yuesheng had undoubtedly learned from that Young Master Chou. Over the past few days, they had all learned many new words from Chou Bodeng. However, Lu Jing and Zuo Yuesheng’s areas of study were markedly different. For example, Zuo Yuesheng had mastered a pile of nonsensical terms like “mass psychology,” “hunger marketing,” and “herd effect,” while Lu Jing had learned a bunch like “villain,” “face-slapping,” and “cannon fodder.” In Lou Jiang’s words, it was “learning the bad but not the good.”
After a war of words, Zuo Yuesheng finally reached an agreement with the three vendors. They each took a step back: the vendors would reduce the price by one coin, and Zuo Yuesheng would buy all their remaining stock.
Once the deal was struck, Zuo Yuesheng’s face lit up with joy, the abacus in his mind clattering away.
He had bought some exquisite, small woven carrying cages shaped like Red Ru fish. These little things had no practical value and were useless for cultivation, but the problem was, like rouge and powder, they were items that generous female cultivators could never refuse… especially items with local character. They would definitely be a hit back home.
Zuo Yuesheng had even figured out how he would use Young Master Chou’s “hunger marketing” to sell them in limited quantities as “rare goods.”
As he beamed, Lu Jing yanked hard on his collar. “Fatty Zuo, Fatty Zuo, look, look! Chou Bodeng is over there!”
“So what if he is.”
Zuo Yuesheng replied casually.
Lu Jing forcefully turned him around. “No, look at Chou Bodeng. Why does he… why does he look…”
Zuo Yuesheng turned his head and saw Chou Bodeng walking ahead in the rain, holding an umbrella. The street was bustling with people, and his figure appeared and disappeared as the crowd parted and merged. He walked past stall after stall, spending money like water, looking lonely and solitary.
“What’s wrong with him?” Lu Jing asked in a small voice.
“Let’s go!” Zuo Yuesheng swiftly stuffed his purchases into his Mustard Seed Pouch and slapped Lu Jing on the shoulder. “Who cares what’s wrong with him! Let’s go find him for a drink!”
In the tavern.
“Goose-line, I bet big…” Lu Jing was dead drunk, hugging a table leg. “I… I’ll win it back! You, Chou, and you, Fatty Zuo, just you wait! Just you wait…”
“Can’t this guy hold his liquor any better?” A vein throbbed on Chou Bodeng’s forehead. “Let’s just throw him in the water!”
“Throwing him in the water probably won’t work either,” Zuo Yuesheng said, grimacing.
Lu Jing wasn’t a terrible drinker, but the problem was his behavior when drunk. Once intoxicated, he became a bona fide idiot, not only foolish but also prone to spouting shocking and self-sabotaging nonsense. Normally, Chou Bodeng and Zuo Yuesheng would often take advantage of this, tricking the boy when he was drunk, but drinking with him outside was just plain embarrassing.
They had originally planned to visit Ru City’s Fish Beam Tower after drinking, but with Lu Jing now drunk, that plan was off.
“Forget it, forget it,” Chou Bodeng said, pressing his temples. “Let’s just head back.”
“What about this guy?” Zuo Yuesheng pointed at Lu Jing, who had started gnawing on the table leg. “Damn it, the last time I carried him back, he puked all over me. I’m not carrying him again.”
“Hmm…”
Chou Bodeng fell into deep thought.
“Do you two benefactors require this poor monk to ferry this benefactor across?” A shiny bald head poked out from behind the curtain separating the booths. Monk Budu asked with a straight face, “This poor monk has a copy of the Tinghua Sutra, which can awaken the world and ferry people across. It’s only one hundred silver coins.”
Zuo Yuesheng didn’t even blink. “Go ferry your dreams.”
“Deal,” Chou Bodeng said instead.
Zuo Yuesheng turned to look at him, thinking, This can’t be right. Doesn’t Young Master Chou find this bald donkey unpleasant? Why is he suddenly being so generous? Just as he was wondering, he saw Chou Bodeng step over the low table, squat down next to Lu Jing, and with lightning speed, snatch the wallet from Lu Jing’s waist. He weighed it, pulled out a few gold ingots, and tossed them to Monk Budu.
“Benefactor Chou is truly generous!”
Monk Budu beamed and immediately lifted the curtain to enter.
The moment he entered, Zuo Yuesheng smelled that the bald donkey also reeked of alcohol. His eye couldn’t help but twitch. “Is the Buddhist Sect blind? Choosing a wine-and-meat monk like you to be the Buddhist Saint.”
“Aiyo, Benefactor Zuo, aren’t you getting caught up in appearances?” Monk Budu had a very good temper, or rather, he had the compassion of a Buddha for all well-heeled “fated ones.” “As the saying goes: ‘The Buddha sits in the heart, while wine and meat pass through the intestines.’ My Buddha seeks the great cause and great compassion of saving the world and its people, not these minor details. Besides, it’s a rare occasion to encounter this Ru City night market. Of course, this poor monk must enjoy it to the fullest. To encounter fate and not embrace it, wouldn’t that be a pity?”
“A rare occasion?”
Chou Bodeng lifted the gauze curtain. The wind carried in the cries and songs of the street vendors, mixing with the boisterous sounds of gambling inside the tavern, creating a lively atmosphere.
“Isn’t Ru City a big city? Shouldn’t night markets be very common?”
“Has Benefactor Chou forgotten?” Monk Budu said. “When we first arrived in Ru City, it was still the Fish Slumber Season. The night market only appears when the Divine Ru awaken. You benefactors are not long-term residents, nor can you come here often. To happen upon the Divine Ru awakening early and the night market opening ahead of schedule, isn’t that rare? And to celebrate the awakening of the Divine Ru, the people of Ru City have made tonight’s market even livelier than usual.”
“That’s true…”
Zuo Yuesheng squeezed to the window, gazing at the street where people and fish swam together. The thought that they would have to leave after the Heaven-Worshipping Ritual ended filled him with a momentary sense of melancholy.
Although there was a teleportation formation for travel, it wasn’t that convenient.
Qingzhou was vast. Ru City’s teleportation formation could only transport them from the border of Qingzhou to the vicinity of the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s main headquarters in the southeast. After that, they would still have to travel by flying boat. Unless one’s cultivation was high enough to come and go freely in the miasma fog, revisiting an old place was quite inconvenient. Moreover, given their statuses, where they went was often not up to them to decide.
“My mother was right. One really should get out and see more of the world.”
After a dose of Monk Budu’s priceless sobering scripture, Lu Jing sobered up and joined them, leaning on the windowsill.
“Otherwise, you’d never know how beautiful so many obscure places in this world are… I’d never even heard of Ru City before, and I didn’t know it was this beautiful.”
“Obscure?” Monk Budu chuckled upon hearing this. “That’s not necessarily true. Ru City once came very close to shaking the heavens and earth and becoming famous throughout the Twelve Continents.”
Lu Jing let out a surprised “ah,” and the three people by the window turned in unison to look at Monk Budu.
Monk Budu was sneakily trying to make off with their wine. Caught by the three pairs of eyes, his movements stiffened for a moment. He quickly asked Zuo Yuesheng, “Benefactor Zuo is the Young Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion. How could you not know about that incident?”
“What damn Young Pavilion Master am I,” Zuo Yuesheng muttered. “And what’s with all this ‘that incident’ and ‘this incident’? You damn bald donkey, you’ve already drunk the wine, so spit out what you have to say. Stop keeping us in suspense.”
“This is a secret,” Monk Budu said with a straight face. “So, Benefactor Zuo, why don’t you lend this poor monk your Silent Realm Stone?”
“Say it or don’t. I don’t care.” Zuo Yuesheng nearly jumped up. “Damn you, you damn swindler, stop eyeing my Silent Realm Stone.”
“A jar of wine for twenty taels of silver,” Chou Bodeng said, closing the gauze window. “Remember to pay for the wine.”
Monk Budu, who had just stuffed the wine into his robes, looked left and right. “This is a tavern, there are too many people, too many ears…”
Zuo Yuesheng took out the Boundary Stone inscribed with a “Silence” formation, activated the barrier, and held it tightly in his hand. “Alright, monk, you can talk now.”
“Let this poor monk think, how many years ago was it… Never mind, I don’t remember. Anyway, a long time ago, the great Taiyu Clan of the Hundred Clans had a young clan head. This young clan head of the Taiyu Clan was born with divine bones and was said to be able to resonate with the ten suns of the Fusang Tree. He was destined to be a great leader who would herd the heavens.” Monk Budu plopped down, sweeping through the remaining good food and meat on the table like a hurricane, speaking nonstop. It was a wonder he could speak so clearly while gnawing on a chicken leg. However, his posture made one highly suspect that his initial purpose in bringing this up was to scam a free meal.
“The Taiyu Clan?”
Lu Jing and Zuo Yuesheng frowned simultaneously.
Although the Hundred Clans were all descendants of ancient gods, there was a distinction between major and minor clans, strong and weak branches. And this Taiyu Clan was the head of the Hundred Clans—and also the one that most loved to boss the Immortal Sects around. But objectively speaking, the Taiyu Clan was extremely powerful, almost comparable to a slightly weaker Immortal Sect on its own.
Placing the Taiyu Clan and Ru City together was like comparing the sun and moon to a firefly’s glow.
It was hard to imagine what connection the two could have.
“And then this future Heaven-Herding leader with divine bones was killed by the people of Ru City.”
Monk Budu bit one end of the chicken leg and, in one go, stripped all the meat off and swallowed it. With a “pfft,” he spat the clean bone onto the floor.
“Eh? Eh? Eh?” Lu Jing’s eyes widened. “How come I’ve never heard of this?”
“That’s why it’s a secret,” Monk Budu said, advancing on the remaining half of a beggar’s chicken. “One day, the young clan head of Taiyu was struck by a whim and ran off from the Hundred Clans to travel the mountains and rivers. As he traveled, he ended up in Ru City. And then, this young clan head did something in Ru City…”
“What did he do?”
Monk Budu let out a satisfied burp. “He killed a Ru fish.”
“What!”
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing exclaimed in unison.
Chou Bodeng tilted his head slightly.
“In short, the high and mighty young clan head killed a Ru fish with a single sword strike. After killing the fish, he said, ‘I’ll buy this fish for one hundred thousand taels of gold. Someone, come and scale it and make soup for me.’ After the people of Ru City surrounded him, he relied on the divine weapons and treasures on his person to slaughter his way to the city gate, and he didn’t forget to take the Ru fish he had killed with him.” Monk Budu tore at the meat on the leg bone. “It’s said he came to Ru City just to taste the Ru fish here.”
“I’ll eat his head!” Lu Jing slammed the table and cursed.
“You’re a step too late for that,” Monk Budu said. “Forget his head, not even a single rib of that guy was left.”
The monk stood the clean chicken leg bone on the table, placed a finger on one end, and pressed down hard. The chicken leg bone was crushed into dust from top to bottom.
“The moment the Taiyu Clan’s Dragon Horse celestial chariot arrived at the city gate, a flash of sword light flew out from the shadows of the gate and took his head… By the time the Taiyu Clan’s people arrived in Ru City, their young clan head had already been stripped of his flesh and his bones crushed, not even a speck of dust remained.”
Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing slammed the table and cheered, asking who did it.
“That, this poor monk does not know.” Monk Budu spread his hands. “The Taiyu Clan demanded that Ru City hand over the culprit, but Ru City refused. The Taiyu Clan was on the verge of mobilizing their forces to annihilate Ru City, but luckily, your Mountain Sea Pavilion, Benefactor Zuo, intervened and held them back. As for who killed the Taiyu young clan head, if even you don’t know, Benefactor Zuo, then there’s no way this poor monk would.”
“Why do I feel like you’re very familiar with the Ru fish?” Chou Bodeng asked suddenly.
Monk Budu poked the table with a finger and quickly laughed it off. “This poor monk has done a little research on the wealth and poverty of the various continents, just a little. Speaking of which, benefactors, shouldn’t we be heading back? The Heaven-Worshipping Ritual is terribly early tomorrow, but it’s also a grand spectacle. Don’t you all want to take a look?”
Lu Jing was still lost in thought, wondering who had waited at the city gate to deliver that sword strike. When he came back to his senses, everyone else was already at the tavern door.
“Hey, hey, wait for me!”
Lu Jing shouted as he scrambled to catch up.
“Freshly picked little flower branches, lifelike flowers made from silk and wax—lifelike flowers, hey!”
“Combs and hairpins for sale! Combs and hairpins for sale!… Made by Old Granny Hu herself, with threaded beads!”
“…”
The four of them stood at the entrance of the small tavern, looking together at the splendid, scroll-like night market of Ru City’s long street.
There were no lamps on the long street, yet the roaming Red Ru fish illuminated it with a magnificent glow.
A Red Ru fish as large as a giant whale flowed like an evening cloud above the street, carrying a child holding a stick of candied haws on its back. The child giggled and laughed. Some mischievous ones slid down the Ru fish’s back, only to be tossed up by its tail and land back on its back again. Smaller ones swam in schools, weaving in and out of the wooden poles and cloth curtains of the stalls.
All the people of Ru City, whether standing, sitting, or walking, always had two or three roaming fish by their side.
The scene of the “Returning to Water” ritual floated before Chou Bodeng’s eyes. He remembered Zhou Ziyan saying that the people of Ru City were all roaming fish, and death was just them returning to the school… They will not leave. Every time the people of Ru City turned their heads and their gaze swept over the Ru fish, they knew that the ones they loved and the ones who loved them were always by their side.
This was Ru City.
A city of people and fish.
The person who had hidden in the shadows of the city gate that night must have had endless anger and killing intent in their heart.
Their gods, their family, their friends, their sense of belonging, had been spoken of so contemptuously, so casually, becoming something to be “scaled and made into soup” in the mouths of some.
“If it were me, I would’ve fought to the death to kill that scum who’s worse than an animal,” Lu Jing said suddenly as a Red Ru fish swam past him.
“Me too,” said Zuo Yuesheng.
“Amitabha,” Monk Budu said, pressing his palms together.
“Mm,” Chou Bodeng grunted. “Let’s go.”
The four of them walked side by side onto the street, into the fine, dense rain.
No one held an umbrella. Like the people of Ru City, they walked through the rain.
After walking for a while.
Zuo Yuesheng cursed, “Damn it! I say! Who’s willing to go back and get the umbrellas! Damn it, this rain is freezing.”
“You go, you go,” Lu Jing said, pulling up his collar. “Hurry, hurry.”
“…Why should I go?” Zuo Yuesheng was unhappy. “When we went into the shop just now, you were the one who put the umbrella down.”
“Uh…”
Lu Jing was at a loss for words. They had already walked more than half the street. Turning back now would be a bit foolish—mainly because he vaguely remembered the tavern keeper shouting after them a few times, but they were so filled with righteous indignation at the time that no one paid attention and just stormed off. “I say! Let’s just run for it!”
No wonder Zhou Ziyan had been in such a hurry to deliver umbrellas when he saw a flying boat land.
The rain in Ru City was devilishly cold.
“Fine, fine,” Zuo Yuesheng said helplessly, rolling up his sleeves. “Run, then! Let’s run! Come on, last one there buys drinks—” Before he could finish, he shot off with a swoosh.
“You damn fatty, you cheated!” Lu Jing cursed as he followed.
“This poor monk will join too.”
Chou Bodeng didn’t find the rain particularly cold. Seeing the three of them darting and weaving through the crowd, he was speechless for a moment. After a long while, just as he was about to give chase, someone grabbed his sleeve.
He turned his head to see an unfamiliar child.
“Old Granny Hu asked me to give this to you.”
***
In the residence furthest from the City Divination Department, which met Elder Tao’s requirements.
“This is… Crimson Ru Scale Powder? Bestowed Red?”
Chou Bodeng examined the blue-and-white porcelain jar in his hand by candlelight. It was a small jar, and inside was a red paste like cinnabar, its color rich and vibrant.
“This is useless to me, isn’t it?”
“It can be used to dot the Life Scale.”
The small wooden puppet that had been quietly resting in his sleeve had, at some point, fallen to the ground, stretched out, and transformed into the figure of an adult man—Shi Wuluo appeared in the dim light of the room.
Shi Wuluo leaned over slightly, his hand covering Chou Bodeng’s as he held the porcelain jar.
He was already somewhat pale, more like a ghost than a human, and this avatar formed by shamanic arts was completely devoid of life, his fingers as cold as ice. Chou Bodeng shivered from the cold and was about to push him away when he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye and froze.
This person’s avatar was much more transparent than it had been the day before.
“Are you injured?”