Chapter 398
Chapter 398
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 398
>Chapter Title: Lv Xiucai
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Surrounded by these people, Lv Xiucai swaggered into the Drunken Immortal Tower.
He paid no mind to the fact that it was still morning. Hearty dishes came piling up in seven platters and eight bowls. As soon as the carved fine liquor arrived, someone quick on the uptake immediately poured a bowl for Lv Xiucai.
Lv Xiucai raised the bowl and tossed back a huge gulp, drawing cheers from all around once more.
He completely ignored the disdain and annoyance from the other diners.
“Lord Lv has a bottomless capacity! Lord Lv is mighty!!”
“Hey hey, I’ve never had such a tolerance for liquor. Lord Lv, can you teach me how you trained it?”
“What’s this? Back in the day, when I went with my master Li Huowang to help the Qingqiu Emperor exorcise ghosts and catch demons, see that? A jar of booze that tall—I, Lord Lv, picked it right up and chugged the whole thing!”
“Lord Lv, tell us how you caught those demons in Qingqiu with your master back then!”
“So, in that Qingqiu, there were no evil spirits outside, but under the grasslands, it was dangerous as hell. If it weren’t for me watching out for Master back then, he might not have made it!”
As he ate and drank, Lv Xiucai spun tales of his adventures in Qingqiu—most of them stories he’d heard from Gouwa’s mouth, only with himself slotted in as the hero.
Amid the waves of cheers, a flush rose on Lv Xiucai’s face, and his tongue started to slur, but he still felt it wasn’t enough.
Once he’d eaten his fill, Lv Xiucai, riding high, waved his hand again. “Let’s go! To Rouge Alley! Put it all on my tab!!”
Cheers erupted even louder, nearly shaking the roof off. The people around him fawned even harder, treating Lv Xiucai practically like their own father, which gave him an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
By the time Lv Xiucai strolled out of Rouge Alley with a contented look on his face, it was already noon.
He wasn’t hungry. Rouge Alley’s specialty was that buying a girl came with donkey meat dumplings.
After messing around all morning, Lv Xiucai was worn out. He wandered lazily back toward his place.
By all rights, someone like him shouldn’t have been able to rent a place in Yinling City, but Kui Ye had connections everywhere and found a few guarantors.
With a “creak,” the door swung open. By the well in the courtyard sat a flower-clad girl washing clothes, her hands moving nimbly. She looked diligent enough.
This woman was one Lv Xiucai had bought with money. Her name was Tao’er—plain-looking, with a small rear end, and cheap to boot.
He’d originally planned to make her his wife, but after a few trips to Rouge Alley, he stopped touching her.
She just lay there on the bed like a log. How could she compare to the variety in the pleasure houses?
Now she just stayed home to wash clothes and cook—nothing more than a maid.
Lv Xiucai flopped onto the bed and started snoring right away.
Tao’er paused her scrubbing on the washboard, picked up the wooden tub, and fetched the hot water she’d prepared long ago from the pot. She took a facecloth and wiped Lv Xiucai’s face and body.
After wiping him down, she bent over to remove his shoes and socks and soak his feet.
Once everything was cleaned up, she covered him with the quilt. To keep out drafts on either side of the pillow, she draped clothes over them.
Only when the sky outside gradually darkened did Lv Xiucai slowly wake up. He sniffed the aroma in the air, rolled out of bed, sat at the table, and started on dinner.
While Lv Xiucai ate, Tao’er had no right to sit at the table. She had to wait until he finished before eating the leftovers.
Two dishes and a soup, plus a fried egg. The veggies were stir-fried in lard. A dinner like this had been beyond Lv Xiucai’s wildest dreams back then, but now he was starting to find it a bit lackluster.
After slurping down a big mouthful of winter melon soup, Lv Xiucai wiped his mouth with his sleeve and prepared to head to the casino to win some money. He needed to hurry, or he’d get stuck outside when curfew hit.
As he passed Tao’er, Lv Xiucai suddenly spotted some blood on her pants. Fury instantly twisted his face.
“Damn it! What the hell? Who ate a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall to lay hands on one of Lord Lv’s people? I’ll kill him!”
Tao’er shook her head slightly, her voice tiny. “No... it’s just my monthly flow came heavy. Couldn’t catch it all.”
“What monthly flow? I’m asking about the blood on your pants! Don’t talk to me about any monthly flow!”
After Tao’er’s quiet explanation, Lv Xiucai finally understood that women bled every month.
“Oh, so that’s how it is. No wonder when I was in the opera troupe, sis-in-law would get all secretive for a few days every month. When I asked her about it, the bitch chewed me out.”
Lv Xiucai patted his waist, shoved some loose scraps of silver from the bottom of his pouch into Tao’er’s arms, and turned to head out. “Tomorrow night, buy some meat. I don’t want to eat greens! I’ve been eating greens the whole way—I’m sick of the sight of leaves!”
Heading to the casino weren’t just Lv Xiucai and the gamblers. Yinling City had a night curfew, but as long as you holed up in the casino all night, curfew didn’t matter.
He’d just arrived at Kui Ye’s casino when Lv Xiucai pulled out the five copper coins Li Huowang had given him. He tossed them in his hand, a smug grin spreading across his face. With this skill, he’d never go hungry for life.
But just as he was about to head to his usual spot, Kui Ye—tattooed with a dragon over his shoulder—blocked his path. “Come on, come on, Lv lad. Don’t rush to make money yet. I’ve got something for you.”
The two of them went to the little courtyard behind the casino, where a purple copper hotpot bubbled away, and thin slices of lamb were already prepped.
Lv Xiucai sat down and started eating—he hadn’t filled up at home anyway. “What’s up, Kui Ye? If you’ve got something, just say it! You took me in back then—you’re my benefactor, Lv Xiucai!”
Kui Sanjin chuckled and poured Lv Xiucai a drink. “Lv lad, I hear you used to follow a master?”
“Of course! My master! Li Huowang!! A living immortal! Could chop his own head off and stick it back on! Any evil spirits or demons? They’re just appetizers for his booze!” Lv Xiucai thumped his chest with resounding thuds, sounding for all the world like he was talking about himself.
“Then a lad like you who followed such a great master must be pretty formidable himself, right?”
“Heh heh heh~” Lv Xiucai picked up a slice of lamb, scalded it in the hotpot, popped it in his mouth, and boasted proudly: “Not bad, I’d say. With my master’s skills, I’ve got four—no! Six tenths of his prowess!”
“Good! As they say, heroes come from the young! Impressive, impressive!”
Lv Xiucai grinned smugly. Even the infamous Kui Ye was treating him with such respect. At that moment, he felt like he had real face, already plotting how to brag about it over drinks with the boys tomorrow.
He didn’t notice at all how Kui Sanjin furrowed his brows in mock distress. “Lv lad, I’ve got a thorny problem here. Could you lend a hand?”
“It’s one of my sworn brothers, been through life and death with me. Don’t know what bad luck hit him, but he ran into something unlucky—gone all mad and crazy. Monks and Taoists haven’t helped a bit.”
“If you can really help me out, from now on, you take eight shares of the winnings!”
(End of chapter)