“Zhao Fifth, come in quickly. Where have you been all these days? Your sixth sister and I were so worried about you. We thought something had happened to you,” the man with the bare upper body said as he helped Zhao Fifth walk inside.
Li Huowang followed behind, feeling that things were not so simple.
“How did you come back?” When a man inside the house who was using an abacus spoke in an indifferent tone, Li Huowang knew that his suspicions were correct.
Zhao Fifth had just been very excited, suddenly lost the joy on his face. He spoke in a trembling voice, “Dad, I was kidnapped and blindfolded with a sack. They took me to a far away place, and it was my friends who brought me back.”
Looking at the people wearing bamboo hats at the door, Zhao Fifth’s father impatiently waved his hand repeatedly, “Disperse, disperse! You’re blocking the doorway. How can we do business?”
Li Huowang snatched the long sword from Zhao Fifth’s hand and lifted it up high. The sharp blade flashed with a cold light as it cut straight into the wooden cabinet in front, almost cutting it in half.
“What do you want to do?! The head constable in town is my relative!” Zhao Fifth’s father was scared and kept backing away.
Li Huowang pulled out one teal of silver with his right hand, slowly shaved off a small piece along the shiny edge of the blade, and then pushed it towards Zhao Fifth’s father.
“I want to buy rice!”
In the small backyard of the rice shop, Zhao Fifth was pouring tea for Li Huowang. “Senior Brother Li, don’t be angry. My father is just like that,but he actually has a good heart.”
Li Huowang drank the tea in one gulp. He didn’t care about other people’s family matters, and he didn’t just come to bring back Zhao Fifth.
“These notes are from this state, since you’re familiar with Jianye Town, find a reliable Escort Agency and deliver them to the families of the deceased,” Li Huowang said as he pushed eight notes in front to Zhao Fifth.
Zhao Fifth took the papers with both hands and nodded solemnly. “Senior Brother Li, rest assured that I will handle these things!”
“Okay, that’s settled then. You stay at home and take care of yourself. We’re leaving,” Li Huowang said as he stood up.
“Are you leaving so soon? Why don’t you come to my house for lunch?It’s all because of your help that I came back alive,” Zhao Fifth said with some reluctance. He might never see them again after this farewell.
“Forget it, let’s not bother,” Li Huowang said as he patted Zhao Fifth’s shoulder. The attitude of his father just now made him feel uncomfortable,and it wouldn’t be appropriate to stay for lunch.
“The characters I taught you these days, you must remember them, especially your own name. Being able to write your own name means you’re no longer illiterate.”
Just as Li Huowang finished speaking, a female medicinal herb with long hair all over her body suddenly rushed forward and whispered in Zhao Fifth’s ear, “When you get home, investigate carefully. You might not have been kidnapped, but rather sold by your father!”
This remark silenced everyone. When Zhao Fifth’s third brother came over carrying a sack of rice, Li Huowang waved his hand, had Plonker take the rice, and led the others away.
Walking on the busy street, Li Huowang and the others began to look for an inn to stay.
“Why do you think Zhao Fifth was sold by his father?” Li Huowang turned around and asked that female medicinal herb.
This woman with hypertrichosis had been very quiet all along the way and rarely spoke to anyone. It was surprising when she suddenly spoke up today.
“Even a vicious tiger will not eat its cubs, so maybe he’s not that bad,” Li Huowang said.
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman’s body trembled inexplicably, and her voice was full of sadness as she said, “Of course, but people are much more vicious than tigers! Because I was sold by my own parents!”
As soon as she spoke, everyone stopped and looked at her in shock.
“Two taels of silver, just two taels of silver! And they sold me like livestock!” she said with pain in her heart.
Feeling her pain, Bai Lingmiao walked over and gently hugged her, comforting her by patting her back.
After thinking for a moment, Li Huowang spoke again, “They sold you, so will you go back?”
“I’ll go back!” the woman growled through gritted teeth.
Seeing the rapid rise and fall of her chest due to excitement, and the extreme hatred in her voice, Li Huowang realized that her purpose for going back was probably different from that of Bai Lingmiao and the others.
“Let’s stay at Donglai Inn today,” Li Huowang pointed with his hand to a plaque on the left side of the street and walked in first.
“Hello, sir. Are you looking for a meal or a room?”
“Rooms. How much for one?”
“We have three types of rooms: A, B, and C. Room A is 90 copper coins and includes meals. Room B is 60 copper coins and does not include meals. Room C is 20 copper coins, but you will need to share it with others.
“Sir, there are seven adults and five children with you, twelve people in total. You can book four rooms of type B.The rooms here are spacious enough to sleep three people comfortably. It’s also safer for two adults to stay with one child.”
“Okay, just do as what you said,” Li Huowang replied.
“OK! We have 12 guests~Four rooms of type B~Please follow me upstairs, but be careful on the steps.”
At night, Li Huowang leaned against the window and watched the ancient people walking on the street outside.
After all the running around, he finally had some time to sit down and observe this world that was completely different from his past.
The strong man leading a horse, the scholar holding a fan, the child carrying a lantern, and the hunchbacked vendor carrying food on a shoulder pole. Everything here was so real, but also so incompatible with him.
Different faces flashed before his eyes, and as he watched, he suddenly became dazed. The next moment, all his muscles tensed up in an instant: he saw Yang Na on the street!
Her delicate face was already tear-stained, and her expression was so sorrowful that she couldn’t even catch her breath between sobs. “Huowang, wake up!”
“Ah!” Li Huowang was startled and took a step back in fright, but then quickly leaned forward to look down below.
Then he realized that the girl wasn’t his childhood sweetheart Yang Na, but someone who looked somewhat similar to her.
“Well, that makes sense. I’m all grown up now, so if Yang Na really existed, how could she still be a young girl…”
（The author did not provide an explanation, and there was no clear indication in the book. However, based on speculation, Li Huowang believed that he came from a modern world, but later traveled to this ancient and eerie world,and spent a long time there. Later, he developed hallucinations due to mental problems, believing that everything in the mental hospital was an illusion, not the world he came from.）
Li Huowang slid down the wall with his back against it, staring blankly at the wooden beams above. “Are the hallucinations starting again?”
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in, the door is not locked,” Li Huowang thought it would be Doggie who was staying with him, but he was surprised to see Bai Lingmiao walk in instead.
She smiled and handed a lotus leaf package to Li Huowang, which she opened to reveal several hot steamed stuffed buns.
“Senior Brother Li, are you hungry? Eat some buns,” she said.
Li Huowang reached for one and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing vigorously.
Bai Lingmiao held the buns and squatted on Li Huowang’s left side, quietly watching him. As soon as he finished one, she immediately handed him another one with care.
“This place is quite special, and there are buns for sale at night, “Li Huowang said.
“Isn’t it quite common to have buns for sale at night? If something special, it must be Plonker. He’s actually getting vinegar when eating buns.”
“Hehe, don’t know where he comes from, but he has this way of eating.”
Li Huowang suddenly remembered something while chatting with Bai Lingmiao, “I didn’t give you any money, where did you get the money to buy the buns?”
Bai Lingmiao’s gaze avoided his, but then she put the remaining buns on her lap and took out a few large pieces of silver from her waist, holding them in both hands and handing them to Li Huowang.
“Senior Brother Li, I pawned my golden foot ring. You’re working too hard on your own, and I can’t do anything else to help you. This is all I can do.”
