The night passed in complete silence.
Liu Yan sat quietly in his chair, and having sat there for so long, his thoughts became hazy. He remained lost in reverie for a considerable time until he suddenly felt the room grow brighter – dawn had broken. Looking toward the corner where Tang Lici sat, he saw him leaning against the wall with his eyes closed, still completely motionless. Liu Yan exerted force with his arms and struggled to move himself down from the chair, then crawled inch by inch toward Tang Lici. “A’Li?”
“I’m fine.” Tang Lici kept his eyes closed. “In another half hour it will be fully light. Yang Guihua took them away, and they’ll be questioned for at least a night. I fear they’ll still come here for inspection early this morning.” Liu Yan sighed. “Can you stand up?”
Tang Lici smiled slightly and wearily opened his eyes. “I’m thinking about two things.”
Liu Yan frowned. “What things?”
Tang Lici spoke slowly. “Shen Langhun put you in this condition – where is he?”
Liu Yan replied flatly, “How would I know? He simply wanted to see me living a fate worse than death.”
Tang Lici said, “He put you in this condition, and according to common sense, he should be secretly following you. The more you suffer, the happier he becomes. At the very least, he wouldn’t let you die at someone else’s hands. But when the seventeen monks of Shaolin wanted to capture you for the Six Paths of Reincarnation, he didn’t appear.”
Liu Yan said, “Perhaps he left.”
Tang Lici smiled faintly. “I suspect he might have encountered trouble. More than one group is tracking you, and since everyone’s target is you, there’s bound to be open and hidden conflicts. In terms of martial arts and scheming, he’s no match for Miss Tao.”
Liu Yan fell silent. “Miss Tao? Xifang Tao?”
Tang Lici said gently, “Yes, the gentle, beautiful, clever, and intelligent Miss Tao. In the past, you confided in her completely and never doubted her. Don’t you understand even now that she schemed to make you lose at Haoyun Mountain, casting you out and reducing you to a homeless dog?”
Liu Yan listened and remained silent for a long time, then deeply exhaled. “Do you plan to save him?”
Tang Lici’s eyelids slightly lowered. “It’s still uncertain whose hands he’s fallen into. We’ll see.”
Liu Yan didn’t answer. After a while, he suddenly asked again, “Can you stand up?”
Tang Lici said, “The second thing – that newly accepted disciple of yours is no simple character. I don’t think the Dali Temple prison can hold him.”
Liu Yan asked again, “Can you stand up?”
Tang Lici paused, having no other words to evade with, and his face actually reddened slightly. Liu Yan suddenly felt like laughing – was admitting one’s helplessness really such a difficult thing? He raised his arm and barely managed to reach the teapot on the nearby table. He shook it and discovered the tea inside had dried up. He took the teapot and placed it on the ground, supported himself with both hands and crawled forward two steps, then picked up the teapot and placed it a bit further ahead, then crawled forward another two steps, slowly making his way toward the kitchen.
The kitchen wasn’t far from the main hall. Tang Lici sat leaning against the wall, listening to the slight crackling sounds of firewood in the kitchen and the sound of boiling water bubbling. He suddenly said, “Do you still remember that little alley near the Silver Gang during the Ghost Festival?”
Liu Yan’s voice came from the kitchen, his tone very calm. “You mean the little alley where you got beaten up by several Silver Gang lackeys? That day I helped you beat them back. Didn’t you later burn down that alley? Hard to imagine it was already over ten years ago.”
Tang Lici smiled. “That was the first time someone helped me fight. Before that, I’d been beaten many times, but others would just watch the group fights and run away. My parents never cared either.”
Liu Yan was pouring water into the teapot. “Why are you suddenly talking about this?”
“Nothing, just thinking… if I had known martial arts then, perhaps I would have killed people, and then I wouldn’t have met you.” Tang Lici said leisurely. “Perhaps I would have had everything, wouldn’t need to know anyone, and would never lose.”
Liu Yan placed the water-filled teapot on the ground and slowly crawled back step by step. “If there were ifs, I would also hope to never have known you, to spend my whole life as a resident singer in a small bar, playing a few guitars, making some ordinary friends – that would be better than anything.”
Tang Lici laughed. “Hahaha… Unfortunately, you are now the illustrious romantic Liu Yan. Even if time could turn back, you could never again be the good-tempered Brother Yan from the Romantic Bar.”
Liu Yan’s tone was slightly cold. He felt for the teacup on the table and poured a cup of hot water, placing it in front of Tang Lici. “You haven’t changed at all. You were a madman before, and you’re still a madman now.”
Tang Lici slowly extended his hand to pick up the cup, gently swirled the scalding water inside, rinsed the rim, and slowly poured the water onto the ground. He reached into his robe and took out a small, pale azure box. Opening the box revealed a pinch of tender green tea leaves. He tapped a small amount into his cup, and when Liu Yan extended his cup forward, he poured all the remaining tea leaves into Liu Yan’s cup and discarded the box.
Boiling water poured down, and an elegant tea fragrance rose, refreshing to the heart and mind. Tang Lici lifted the teacup and took a sip. His deathly pale cheeks almost immediately flushed with a layer of red. Liu Yan also took a sip. “You actually carry tea leaves with you.”
“I’ve always carried many things with me.” Tang Lici exhaled a breath, his brow slightly furrowed. “But I never carry food.”
Liu Yan held up a steamed bun. The two looked at the bun – it was leftover food that A’Shui had left in the kitchen. After a while, Liu Yan sighed. “If anyone knew that you and I would have to rely on this steamed bun to get through today, they would surely—”
Tang Lici smiled slightly. “Let’s split it in half. In a little while it will be fully bright, and this place is extremely dangerous.”
Liu Yan broke the steamed bun in half. Tang Lici tore off a piece and put it in his mouth, then suddenly coughed several times and covered his mouth to spit it out. Liu Yan was startled, seeing him continue to vomit blood and water. After vomiting for quite a while, his complexion turned deathly pale again.
“You can’t stand up, so I’ll take you with me.” He ate the remaining steamed bun in two or three bites. “I heard you have a friend who knows the Bright Moon Golden Doctor Shui Duopo. Do you know where he lives?”
“Cough cough… Bright Moon Golden Doctor Shui Duopo…” Tang Lici’s lips curved slightly upward. “Huijing Mountain, Bright Moon Tower.”
Not long after, on the main street within Luoyang city, passersby all stared in amazement at a strange person wrapped in gray cloth with disabled feet, crawling on the ground supported by his hands. Two ropes hung from his shoulders, and behind him he dragged a wooden cart with a large wooden barrel firmly tied to it. He held a brick in each hand, and every step required all his strength, as if all the bones in his body were creaking. The wooden cart behind him swayed with each step as he struggled forward. Passersby looked at this strange person with amazement. Some had hearts willing to help, but seeing his ragged clothes and face covered with gray cloth, not knowing his background, they truly didn’t dare approach. They watched him slowly crawl to a stable within the city, where he surprisingly produced a gold ingot to buy a horse cart, had people help him move the large wooden barrel from the wooden cart into the carriage, then took up the whip himself and drove straight eastward.
This person was truly too suspicious. Less than a quarter-hour after his departure, the military patrol station had already received word that such a person with such a large wooden barrel had appeared in Luoyang, and that this might be related to the recent murders in Kaifeng and Luoyang.