The Yun family estate at the foot of Yushan was filled with festive joy. Starting from the memorial archway, the paulownia trees on both sides of the road were hung full of red silk lanterns. The Yun estate farmers working in Chang’an had all hurried back. Though giving up two days’ wages was painful, they still returned without exception. They dug out new clothes made only for New Year’s from home to wear. Though wearing winter clothes in the hot weather was somewhat improper, the Yun estate’s dignity couldn’t be lost. Who would be like Wang Shuan’s family, making new single-layer garments before May? Sweating, they urged their wives to grind the household’s best wheat into fine flour, select the whitest first-grade flour, pick out pigments, and prepare to make decorative steamed figures.

No one would laugh at wearing clothes poorly. For farming families to have new clothes was already good—not shameful. But if the decorative steamed figures weren’t made well, that would be a major matter of lost face. One’s wife wouldn’t be able to hold her head up walking through the estate.

Pomegranate flowers bloomed early. They had the children pick bell-shaped flowers from the pomegranate trees, but dared not pick the tube-shaped flowers—otherwise there’d be no pomegranates to eat this year. The picked pomegranate bell flowers were wrapped by the men in clean hemp cloth, placed in clamps, and wedges hammered with an oil hammer. Before long, bright red flower oil was pressed out. Mothers would dip a finger to dot a bit on their daughters’ foreheads. A beautiful beauty mark took shape. Skilled women would paint the beauty mark in flame shapes, or lotus shapes. The girls would run out satisfied to show off. Boys watching enviously wanted their mothers to dot them too. At this time, they’d typically be kicked away by fathers fuming from all seven orifices.

The dough was kneaded fine and smooth. At this time, all the household’s women would wash their hands clean and use clean combs, wooden strips, scissors, and fine toothpicks to make decorative steamed figures. Most common were dough tigers. Tomorrow the master’s family was marrying—they’d make several pomegranates symbolizing many sons and blessings, a pair of mandarin ducks symbolizing eternal devotion. The skilled could even make dragons and phoenixes. Finally, using black beans for eyes, they’d steam them in bamboo steamers, then paint on colors. A basket of decorative figures would be complete. Everyone waited for tomorrow when the bride entered the door—then the whole family could go to the master’s house for a great feast.

Gou Zi and Lengzi sat in the kitchen eating heartily. The Old Matriarch sat opposite with a smile, tearing chicken legs for the two strapping young fellows. A bamboo steamer of freshly steamed meat buns—in the blink of an eye, they entered their bellies. Lengzi ate until he kept hiccupping, still clutching a chicken leg in his hand without letting go.

Gou Zi’s face flushed with embarrassment. He dared not raise his head. After being scolded by the Old Matriarch, she still filled a bowl of soup for Lengzi, telling him to wash it down and eat more. If it wasn’t enough, when returning, they’d pack two more chickens.

Life-saving grace! The Yun family dared not be negligent. But Gou Zi refused to go eat in the dining hall no matter what. Even dragged, he wouldn’t go. He asked the Old Matriarch to give him a few buns—he’d squat on the doorstep to eat a meal then planned to go home.

Gou Zi most liked eating in the Yun family kitchen. The fragrance overflowed there. Last time he came, he ate once. He’d never forget the buns’ delicious taste his whole life. On the grasslands, he’d eaten meat until he wanted to vomit. Leek and egg-filled buns—Gou Zi believed he alone could eat a hundred. He didn’t eat a hundred, not even thirty, because he discovered braised pork and spare ribs seemed even tastier.

When the two emerged from the Yun estate carrying a large bundle of food, Lengzi nudged Gou Zi. Seemed they’d both forgotten to ask for rewards, and the Yun family seemed to have forgotten to give them. Sending them off with just one meal?

Asking this question in front of the Yun family steward, Gou Zi was embarrassed until his face turned bright red. He wished he could give Lengzi, whose nose still had plaster on it, a few more punches. Perhaps that would shut his embarrassing stinking mouth.

“Why be embarrassed!” Steward Qian said to Gou Zi with a smile. “You didn’t steal or rob. Things deserved, asked for openly and honestly. I most like such honest children.” After speaking, he even patted Lengzi’s head.

Looking at the cart full of things, bruised and swollen Lengzi grinned foolishly. That appearance made the Yun family servants and household guards burst into laughter, making Gou Zi gnash his teeth. Next time there was such a matter, he absolutely wouldn’t come with Lengzi—too embarrassing.

Bathing in the setting sun, Gou Zi and Lengzi sang folk tunes on their way back, constantly turning to look at their fully loaded spoils of war. The things there were enough for Brother Lengzi to marry and enough for Gou Zi to build a courtyard house. As for the use of those two bolts of silk—until now the two brothers still hadn’t figured out how to use them. Never mind—with many things, there’d always be uses.

Huang Shu gnashed his teeth cutting bamboo. No other reason—just to lash together another raft. His brother-in-law’s entire family had arrived. Naturally, he had to entertain them well. Boating on Dongyang River—this was something Ying Niang had long ago bragged to her natal family brother about, making the natal family yearn for it. Brother-in-law unexpectedly was also a refined person. Though generation after generation were butchers, hearing there was an opportunity to boat with cultured scholars and refined gentlemen, how could he miss it? No sooner had Huang Shu arrived home than brother-in-law’s entire family arrived on his heels, saying they wanted to experience the elegant interests sister mentioned. That very evening, they wanted to go on the river.

What river to go on an evening without even a moon? He finally got brother-in-law drunk with strong liquor, preparing to start the river tour early the next morning. Who could have expected—a bolt from the blue! His family’s bamboo raft tied behind the small shop didn’t escape Li Tai’s clutches. Li Tai wanted to salvage the iron frame sunk under the waterfall and insisted on using his family’s bamboo raft.

Toward Li Tai, Huang Shu couldn’t generate half a bit of defiance. He obediently punted the bamboo raft over to Li Tai and even asked if he needed help. Li Tai looked at his weak body with contempt, indicating no need, telling him to quickly scram farther away. The look made one swell with anger.

Brother-in-law’s first visit—if the Xinfeng neighbors knew he hadn’t entertained well, who knew what they’d think? Huang Shu, who’d always been solitary, now cared greatly about relatives’ opinions. Having finally gained relatives, naturally he had to entertain them with full effort. Don’t even think about the academy’s rafts. Tomorrow the Marquis was marrying. Countless noble relatives from marquis households had come from Chang’an. The rafts had long been fully reserved.

Helpless Huang Shu could only shoulder his wood-cutting knife and go to the riverside, preparing to make another raft for refined brother-in-law’s river tour tomorrow. Fortunately, there was much bamboo by the river. As long as he was willing to work hard, there’d be a raft.

In the pitch-black bamboo grove, only Huang Shu carried a lantern, strenuously cutting bamboo. When he cut down a stalk of bamboo and laboriously lifted one end, pulling it out, suddenly his back took a kick. An agile black shadow pounced on him. A gleaming knife was placed at Huang Shu’s throat.

Huang Shu’s heart turned cold. He immediately relaxed his body and begged for mercy in a small voice. The black shadow relaxed and climbed off him, tossing over a cloth strip, making Huang Shu tie himself up. No choice—with the knife at his throat, he could only comply. Huang Shu tied himself up, leaving only one hand unable. The black shadow used one hand to pull the knot tight, only then putting down the knife and breathing a sigh of relief.

“Will the Yun family come out tomorrow? Speak honestly, and this master will spare your life.” Under the lantern’s dim light, a sinister black-clothed man asked Huang Shu, the knife in his hand constantly waving before Huang Shu’s eyes.

Hearing this sentence, Huang Shu breathed a long sigh of relief. Turned out it wasn’t his former enemies—this was directed at the Marquis. If he captured this fellow and sent him to the marquis residence, asking the Old Matriarch to arrange a good match for his daughter in the future shouldn’t be difficult, right?

His wretched face didn’t need pretending to know he wasn’t any good person. Huang Shu said repeatedly: “Good fellow, this humble one is a Yun family servant. The whole damned family bullies me! Making me cut bamboo here in the middle of the night. You want to rob the wealthy—excellent! I know the way—I can guide you. That Yun estate has strict guards. Just veterans from the military, there are over a hundred skilled fighters. If you force entry, it’s a dead end!”

The man laughed with a snort: “You think this master is stupid? Single-handedly confronting a military formation—that’s not doing business, that’s going to die. This master would never do such a thing. Just want to find a lone person surnamed Yun to kill, then it’s done. If you help this master, after the matter’s concluded, there’ll be benefits for you. This master alone, damn it, can’t easily make a move.”

“So you’re alone?” Huang Shu perked up his ears to listen around. Hearing no other sounds, he asked the black-clothed man quite boldly.

“This master is a lone ranger. This time the job’s too big—one person can’t succeed alone. So I’m finding you to partner up. How about it? After success, I’ll give you thirty percent. As long as you swallow this thing, we two brothers will be real brothers, getting rich together.”

Speaking, he pulled out a wax pill from his bosom and was about to put it in Huang Shu’s mouth. At some unknown time, the rope on Huang Shu’s body had actually fallen off by itself. A long, dark needle appeared in his hand and silently pierced into the man’s ribs.

A sensation of soreness, numbness, and pain extended from his ribs throughout his entire body. The man groaned and powerlessly knelt before Huang Shu. Huang Shu paid the man no mind. He was extremely confident in his own methods. That needle had already punctured the fellow’s kidney. Even if cured, he’d need to urinate blood for half a month. Tomb robbers always relied on clever tricks to make a living.

He picked up the wax pill from the ground, broke it open to smell, then casually stuffed it in his mouth. While chewing, he said: “This kind of qi-tonifying, strength-enhancing polygonatum pill—this master hasn’t eaten one in a while. Got any more? My wife just gave birth and needs nourishment.”

After cleaning out all the odds and ends from the man’s body, he found an evenly thick bamboo pole and tied the man’s hands and feet on one side to it, then forcefully bent another bamboo pole and tied the man’s other hands and feet. When he released his hand, the man’s body was stretched by the two bamboo poles into a spread-eagle shape. A few knife cuts later, the man was completely naked. Speaking of which, after experiencing last time’s painful experience of being surrounded and observed, Huang Shu always believed a man being completely naked was the greatest injury to him.

Huang Shu buried a sharpened bamboo spike at the man’s lower body position. As long as the man twisted even slightly, the bamboo spike would pierce his flesh. After completing all this, Huang Shu spat twice in his palm, picked up the wood-cutting knife, and continued cutting bamboo. The raft still had to be made—brother-in-law still needed to use it tomorrow.

When dawn broke, the raft was finally successful. The man who’d howled miserably all night was also taken away by Yun estate guards patrolling the mountain. Huang Shu didn’t care in the least about his fate. He only worried that the girl stumbling over to deliver food absolutely mustn’t fall.

Going forward to meet her, Huang Shu picked the girl up and used his stubble to poke her little face, causing the girl to try hard to dodge. When tired of playing, Huang Shu carried the girl onto the newly made raft and tossed a large bundle up as well. Cutting a section of bamboo for a pole, with just a light push, the bamboo raft silently slid into Dongyang River…