Into the Jianghu
"Understood, Big Brother."
Even without Jiang Zhou's order, Yang Jeong would have been more than happy to deal with the bandits himself. He still carried the memory of a day long ago, when he had run into bandits on the road and nearly lost his life for it.
The moment he pressed the conversation a little further, men brandishing blades came bursting out of the brush. The bandits blocking the road waved their swords with plenty of swagger and shouted.
"Hand over the horse and cart, and everything you're carrying, and maybe we'll—"
Fweee...
The instant the bandits opened their mouths, Yang Jeong shot his body up into the air. And from that airborne vantage, he drove his heel straight down into the shouting bandit's face.
Thwack...!
Kuhak.........!
The bandit shrieked, went flying backward, and slammed into the dirt.
Then Yang Jeong hurled himself into the heart of the pack.
Thud-thud........! Whack......!
Kuhak...!
Kkaaaagh.......!
With every sweep of his fists and legs, another bandit crumpled with a death rattle. So blindingly fast were his movements that not one of the half dozen or so bandits managed to swing a blade even once.
Whack...! Crack...! Thud....!
"You bastards are lower than worms! Die, every last one of you... die!"
Yang Jeong stomped on the fallen bandits without mercy.
Kkaaaagh.....!
Kuhak...!
He beat them so savagely that the bandits began coughing up blood from their mouths.
"Spare us... please, spare us..!"
"Just our lives.........."
Screaming, they begged for their lives over and over.
If the cart had belonged to a wandering martial artist, he would have looked the other way and let them be. But a glance at the cart showed it loaded down with things like cast-iron pots, and they had taken its owners for simple folk moving house. That misjudgment was what had done them in.
Thud..! Whack...!
"Spare you? Spare you for what, you dogs!"
Kuhak...!
Kkaaaagh.....!
Seated on the cart, Jiang Zhou watched the whole scene from a distance.
'So the brat has a cruel streak in him after all.'
Samryong was a silly, chattering sort of fellow, but his heart had always been a generous one. Seeing him stomp away like this, there must have been quite a lot festering inside.
After working the bandits over for a good long while, Yang Jeong stripped them of their weapons—then stripped them of their outer clothes. Only after burning their undergarments too did he climb up onto the driver's bench.
Whew.........
"That hit the spot, Big Brother."
Rumble.......rumble........
The cart, stalled until now, rolled forward again, and behind it six naked bandits lay sprawled across the official road.
"That there is the Murim Alliance."
The middle-aged man pointed toward the halls visible in the distance. The Alliance's buildings rose above the high surrounding walls, imposing even from far away.
"And the plot on your land deed—that would be right over there."
He gestured toward the forest across the stream. Jiang Zhou and Yang Jeong stared at it with blank expressions.
Perhaps because no owner had tended it, trees large and small stood packed dense together. And here and there among them, the pale glint of a crumbling wall and the sagging roofs of leaning halls showed through.
"Big Brother. That looks like a haunted house that's been sitting abandoned for ages."
Just as Yang Jeong said, the place was unfit for human habitation. Above all, it was hardly the spot for an inn. It stood a fair distance from the Murim Alliance, and the nearest village was farther still—no customer would ever come calling.
The old man paid their sighs no mind whatsoever.
"Now hand over my fee. I'm a busy man."
"This is really the right place?"
At Jiang Zhou's question, the man answered with an air of offended disbelief.
"I've been in this trade thirty-five years. You think I can't recognize a plot of land in my own district?"
Left with no choice, Jiang Zhou fished a silver tael out of his pouch and handed it over. The man pocketed the coin, left behind a single piece of advice, and vanished.
"That ground is no place for the living. Long ago, heretical bands stormed through here and slaughtered most of the household that lived in that mansion, from the looks of it. In the end the owner gave up the land and the house to someone else and fled to some far-off place with the family he had left."
Once the middle-aged man had gone, Jiang Zhou and Yang Jeong crossed the wide stream and entered the forest. Thankfully, the Stone Bridge leading into it still stood. Inside the woods came the view of a gate missing its doors and walls in a state of collapse. Passing through that doorless gate, Jiang Zhou let out a long sigh.
Haaa...............
The mansion was reasonably large and spacious. But not a single hall remained intact, and the broad courtyard was choked with weeds and wild trees. The only remotely usable structure was the small hall nearest the gate; the rest—half with broken beams and collapsed roofs, one burned outright—were beyond saving.
Haaa............
A groan escaped Yang Jeong as well as he surveyed the halls.
"Big Brother. It'd be far cheaper to tear it all down and build fresh."
Just as he said, the buildings were in no state to be patched up.
While Jiang Zhou stood there blankly dazed, Yang Jeong went on.
"Big Brother, why waste the effort? Sell the He Shou Wu and the Snow Ginseng we left behind and live comfortably for the rest of your days. If you won't do that, then come with me to the escort agency, at least."
If they sold off the spirit herbs they'd left behind on the mountain, they could lounge about for life in a mansion as grand as this one. They wouldn't even need to sell everything—a portion alone would buy them a life of ease.
Around then, Jiang Zhou finally managed to collect himself.
"The herbs stay. They're for my descendants—and yours."
"You're not wrong, Big Brother, but this place truly won't do. How is anyone supposed to live where ghosts come out?"
Despite Yang Jeong's protests, Jiang Zhou shook his head.
"If the cooking is good enough, customers will find an inn even if you build it on a mountaintop. Now hurry up and unload the cart."
Ugh..........
"Understood, Big Brother."
Yang Jeong heaved a sigh and walked back out the gate. His Big Brother did have a point. Famous inns were packed with customers no matter how remote their location. But it would take a long, long time before word got around.
Pulling weeds and felling trees in the courtyard alone would take more than a day. No—more like several days' worth of pulling and cutting.
While Jiang Zhou cleared the grounds, Yang Jeong made trips into the village to haul back lumber, saws, hammers, and the like. It took Jiang Zhou four days to finish clearing the courtyard, after which he and Yang Jeong set about fixing up the house.
"Big Brother. I really think we ought to call in carpenters. This is absolutely not a two-man job."
At his words, Jiang Zhou looked around at the buildings. True enough—repairing this whole estate by themselves would take years.
Jiang Zhou pointed at the small hall, the only one that still looked usable.
"We start small."
"But that hall is where you and I sleep, Big Brother."
"We tear out one room and make it the kitchen."
"Then where will the customers eat?"
It was a small hall—two rooms were all it had. Even converting one into a kitchen left nowhere for guests to dine.
"Tell them to eat outside."
Yang Jeong could only stare at Jiang Zhou's face in open disbelief.
"Big Brother. Even roadside inns put up a tent to keep off the sun and rain."
"Then we'll just build a new roof. What of it?"
"Big Brother.................."
Jiang Zhou's answers left him unable even to string a reply together. This business was no laughing matter. However good the food was, you couldn't serve a dish to a customer who had nowhere to sit down.
'I give up trying to understand. Let it be what it will be.'
Turning a room into a kitchen was no easy task either. Just tearing up the floor and building the firebox and cooking range took two full days.
The moment the kitchen was finished, Yang Jeong flopped flat onto the ground.
"Aaagh......... Big Brother. I'm so worn out I can't lift another finger."
The work had been hard, granted, but hardly hard enough to warrant collapsing on the floor.
"Quit the theatrics and move. Quick, quick."
At Jiang Zhou's words, Yang Jeong began eyeing him sidelong.
"Surely one cup of liquor wouldn't hurt?"
"Why, this little—"
About to snap at him, Jiang Zhou instead popped open the liquor jug and poured out two cups. Yang Jeong darted over faster than anyone could say when he'd been lying down a moment ago and accepted his cup, draining it in a single gulp.
Kuuuh........
The instant the liquor went down, he sat upright in a cross-legged position and began circulating his inner energy. Jiang Zhou emptied his own cup and clicked his tongue.
Tsk, tsk..
"Don't waste your effort. No amount of struggling will do you any good."
Whether it was him or Yang Jeong, no quantity of elixirs in the world could be converted into internal energy anymore. They had swallowed so many over the years that even their dantians now refused the stuff.
Haaa.......
Yang Jeong let out a long sigh and opened his eyes. He knew the truth perfectly well himself—but he'd tried, on the off chance.
"Figures. No good after all, Big Brother."
Bounding to his feet, Yang Jeong picked up a hammer. His body overflowed with energy that needed somewhere to go.
Reading him exactly, Jiang Zhou pointed at one of the halls on the verge of collapse.
"Tear down that hall."
"Why?"
"For the timber and the roof tiles. That's why."
"Ah—understood, Big Brother."
Belatedly grasping the point, Yang Jeong shot his body toward the crumbling hall.
Fweeee......
The moment his feet moved, his form flickered and reappeared beside the dying structure.
Thud.....! Crash....! Boom...!
As his hands and feet flew, the walls shattered and the roof began to cave in.
"Should have given him liquor from the start."
At the sight of him, Jiang Zhou couldn't hold back a small smile.
Using the timber and tiles salvaged from the hall, Jiang Zhou and Yang Jeong extended the eaves out long and wide. To bear the weight of the roof they raised pillars, forming an elevated wooden veranda.
The moment the last tile was laid, Yang Jeong flopped onto the ground again.
"There. Finally finished building it."
"Finished? Finished what? You planning to eat your rice standing up with the bowl in your hand?"
Jiang Zhou flared up and glared at him.
"I'm starving, Big Brother. Too hungry to even argue anymore."
"How long has it been since you last ate, that you're hungry already?"
"I've got no strength left at all."
"Why, this brat........."
Glaring at him a moment longer, Jiang Zhou gave in and started preparing a meal. First he washed the rice and set it to cook, then set about trimming the pork Yang Jeong had bought in the village.
Seated off to one side, the man who claimed to have no strength launched into chatter yet again.
"Big Brother. Aren't you making the inn far too small? Oughtn't there at least be somewhere for guests to sleep?"
Jiang Zhou answered while grilling the meat.
"Guest rooms can come later."
The guest quarters varied from inn to inn as widely as heaven from earth. Some places simply spread straw on the floor and packed in five or six guests at a time; others provided proper beds, one or two guests to a room. However long it took, Jiang Zhou wanted to build a clean establishment.
"Then just tell them to eat and be on their way."
Jiang Zhou shot him a glare over the grilling meat.
"Be honest with me. You're saying all this because you don't want to work, aren't you?"
His stomach jolted, and Yang Jeong hurriedly backpedaled.
"That's not it at all, Big Brother. I only thought it'd be less of a loss to build the guest rooms gradually, once customers start coming in numbers. It's absolutely not because I hate working. Trust me, Big Brother."
"Fine, fine—now shut your mouth, please."
"You know, the famous inns weren't big from the start either, Big Brother. They grew as more and more customers came. You could do the same."
"Shut your mouth already, you little—"
When Jiang Zhou's voice roughened, Yang Jeong hastily clamped his lips shut.
While preparing the meal, Jiang Zhou found himself bothered by the wall standing before his eyes. His old kitchen had been open-walled, letting him gaze outside even as he cooked. This one blocked the view and left his chest feeling cramped.
"After we eat, let's knock out that kitchen wall."
"Why tear down a perfectly good wall?"
"Because it's stifling, that's why. Stifling."
Yang Jeong accepted the declaration with obvious displeasure.
"It'll be cold in winter, though....... Well, come to think of it, the house we used to live in did have a breathtaking view. No wonder you feel boxed in."
The place where he had lived with his master was beautiful enough to be called the Immortal's Abode. Sheer cliffs walled it in on either sides, a clear stream ran through its valley, and the mountain rising behind it stood tall and dense with forest.
Jiang Zhou opened the pot, heaped steamed rice into bowls, and set out the Dongpo Pork on a plate.
"Big Brother. Mealtimes are the best part of my day."
Chopsticks in hand, Yang Jeong's eyes gleamed brighter than ever before.