Chapter 147: Vendor
Chapter 147: Chapter 147: Vendor
Wang Xi turned and headed back.
At first he walked, but soon he was running.
He wasn’t afraid.
He just wanted to get back to the martial arts hall for a good night’s sleep.
’I just arrived and I’m already running into trouble. You’re really something else, Profound Mysterious World,’
Wang Xi thought.
Kaos detected nothing, and the frog’s eyes couldn’t see any heartbeats. He had no idea what that funeral procession was, but it was far too uncanny.
As he passed the mouth of the alley, Wang Xi’s pupils contracted. He broke into a full sprint—not a single one of the scattered pieces of joss paper could be found.
Not even a speck of ash!
Wang Xi covered the twenty-minute walk in just a few minutes.
He didn’t see a single person the entire way.
Eerily quiet.
Wang Xi finally reached the main street where the Huo Family Martial Arts Hall was located. In the distance, he could faintly make out the newly rehung sign.
But just at this moment.
He suddenly heard the sobbing notes of a string instrument—the distinctive, hoarse voice of an erhu.
’Again?!’
The thought leaped into Wang Xi’s mind.
The sound of the erhu seemed to seep from the darkness along the road ahead.
At first, it was just a thread-like vibrato, flickering in and out with the night wind. Gradually, the notes deepened, becoming a still, dark pool of autumn water. Mournful cries and whimpers intertwined, tearing the melody to shreds.
With a solemn expression, Wang Xi silently activated Mud Howling Dark Frog and moved forward without a sound.
The erhu’s note suddenly slid downward, as if someone had stumbled in the dark. The bow began to dance across the strings in a spiccato, producing a series of broken sobs.
The two strings at times harmonized, at times clashed. The high notes were as faint as a mosquito’s hum, like the murmur of a wanderer separated from home by a thousand mountains and rivers. The low notes were as deep as an old well, like the sigh of a white-haired mother leaning on her doorframe.
A mist had begun to drift in, and the music seemed to grow damp, wrapped in water vapor. The final, long note trailed off with a trembling vibrato, the bow hovering over the strings, reluctant to leave, before finally vanishing into the sound of the Night Watchman’s clapper.
The sound of a clapper?
Wang Xi froze.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
Three sharp, dull thuds echoed from the distance, followed by a man’s cry: "Third watch of the Zi hour! All is well!"
Wang Xi felt as if he’d just woken from a short, bizarre nightmare.
The chirping of insects and the barking of dogs finally returned. He could hear a child crying in a nearby house, and a woman’s soft voice humming a lullaby to soothe them.
He peered into the darkness again and breathed a silent sigh of relief. He could finally see the red thread of a heartbeat.
It was a person.
Vendor · Xie Er (Neutral/Skeleton/Hero)
A silver-framed skeleton!
Where did such a powerful figure come from in a small town like this?
Besides, anyone who sits by the road playing the erhu in the dead of night is obviously not a normal person.
"Rouge and powder, needles and thread; rare treasures and strange oddities... Bronze mirrors to see your face, a compass to find your place. Buy now if you have the need, but do not touch, I plead. My stock is small, our meeting rare, on this day beyond compare—"
the vendor in the darkness called out.
It was a mature, deep male voice, magnetic and filled with a world-weary richness.
"Hey there, young man. Care to buy something?"
The question was clearly directed at Wang Xi.
Wang Xi took a deep breath and moved a little closer.
He saw a man in a long, gray gown sitting on the steps under the eaves of a house. His clothes were faded from washing, covered in patches, and dusty from travel.
He looked to be in his early thirties, tall and thin like a weathered bamboo pole. He cradled an old erhu in his arms.
He had plain eyes and brows, a straight nose, and thin, dry lips framed by a ring of stubble. His was the kind of face you wouldn’t be able to pick out of a crowd.
But Wang Xi did notice a few unusual things about him.
First was his belt, a palm-width strip of linen. It was covered in tiny, densely packed red script, resembling scripture or some kind of indecipherable symbols.
Second was the sandalwood cabinet beside him. It was square and about half a man tall. Its two shoulder straps, made of thick, woven hemp rope, were also covered in countless tiny red characters.
A string of bells and a single jade gourd hung from two of the cabinet’s corners, and its four sides were plastered with inscrutable Yellow Paper Talismans.
"Selling your wares this late?"
Wang Xi stopped four or five paces away and asked, testing the waters.
The vendor didn’t seem to mind. He smiled and explained,
"I’ve been traveling a long time and just got to town. Unfortunately, night fell before I knew it... I’d only just sat down to rest my feet when I saw you, young man. I suppose it’s fate. I’m Xie Er, and I sell my wares wherever and whenever I find the right person. To them, I’ll offer a few of my little trinkets."
Wang Xi raised an eyebrow.
So now *he* was the ’fated person’ this man was talking about.
"Vendor, sir, where do you come from?"
Wang Xi asked again.
But the vendor just shook his head.
"My shoulders have carried the world’s affairs, my bells have rung at the gates of hell. I’ve sold the willows of the south and peddled the autumn of the Northern Territory. As for now..." He coughed twice. "I’m just an empty vessel wandering the lands."
"Don’t ask where I’m from, young man."
"..."
Wang Xi studied the vendor, his face unreadable.
This man, Xie Er, exuded an air of mystery.
So he asked,
"What do you sell? Can I take a look?"
"Apologies, but you can’t look," the vendor said, shaking his head. He countered, "What is it that you’re looking for?"
"You’re an interesting man, vendor."
Wang Xi chuckled.
"Usually, a vendor displays his merchandise for the customer to choose from. Once they find something they like, they pay and the deal is done... But you won’t let me see your wares. Don’t tell me you can produce anything I ask for?"
"Not quite to that extent."
The vendor waved his hand dismissively.
"But my inventory is eclectic. Whatever a customer wants, my cabinet most likely contains. And if not, I’ll have a suitable replacement."
"Hmm..." Wang Xi mused, deciding to test him. "I’d like to buy a gift for my master, his wife, and each of my martial brothers and sisters. Do you have anything for them, vendor?"
"How thoughtful of you, young man," the vendor said with a smile. "Of course."
With that, he pulled the heavy sandalwood cabinet closer, opened the drawers in the second, third, and fifth rows, and took out six objects.
"What do you think of these items?"
So saying, the vendor used the top of the cabinet as a table and laid the objects out in a row.
A small porcelain vial, a bronze mirror, a ginseng rootlet, a string of copper coins, a stick of incense, and a box of rouge.
Wang Xi looked closer, his pupils contracting.
*Black Yudan*, *Separation*, *Duan’s Beard*, *Five-Cent Duck*, *Rain Prayer Incense*, *Graceful Glow*.
These six items were clearly no ordinary objects.
"How much?" Wang Xi asked, his voice low.
"Not expensive," the vendor said. "One hundred Treasure Notes, thirty silver coins, and one small gold bar."
"..."
A chill went down Wang Xi’s spine.
The price was, to the very coin, exactly half of the wealth in his leather pouch!
Coincidence?
Impossible.
There was no way such a thing could be a coincidence.
Wang Xi couldn’t help but wonder if the vendor was a master of a Divination Skill like Six Cycles Purple Star. Had he simply done a quick calculation and determined the exact amount of his wealth, then priced the goods to take exactly half?
It was too uncanny.
"Indeed, not expensive," Wang Xi said with a nod. He opened his leather pouch, took out the exact amount without a single coin’s difference, and placed it on the cabinet.
"My thanks," the vendor said, rising to his feet. He gave Wang Xi a cupped-fist salute and smiled. "Please inspect the items, young man. All sales are final."
Wang Xi nodded and made a show of picking up the items to inspect them, though it was completely unnecessary.
After a scan with Kaos, he was almost certain that all six were items imbued with Extraordinary Power.
Just as he was putting the items into his sleeve pocket, he heard the vendor say in a meaningful tone,
"Young man, since you bought these as gifts for your master and fellow disciples, do not use them yourself."
"Oh?" Wang Xi replied. "And what would happen if I did?"
"The customer chooses the item, and the item also chooses the customer. There’s a certain fate at work in these things. I am merely following heaven’s will, acting as a matchmaker of sorts."
The vendor smiled and shook his head.
"If you force it... well, don’t come crying to me if something goes wrong."
Wang Xi was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled.
This vendor really was an interesting character.
He appeared to be a simple vendor, but in reality, he was choosing new owners for the "objects" in his cabinet based on the needs of his customers.
The two of them chatted a bit longer.
Finally, the vendor gave him specific instructions on which gift was for which person, warning Wang Xi not to get them mixed up.
...
...
The next morning, Huo Qiao’Er entered the wing room with a bucket and a rag, ready to start cleaning. She suddenly saw a figure sitting by the bed and let out an instinctive cry of alarm.
"Ah!"
A moment later, her surprise turned to delight.
"Senior Brother? When did you get back?!"
Wang Xi was sitting on the edge of his bed, flipping through a Handover Record. He looked up at the sound of her voice and smiled.
"I got back last night. You were all asleep, so I didn’t want to disturb anyone."
He said, beckoning her over.
"Come here, Qiao’Er. I brought you a gift."
The morning light filtered through the window lattice, casting his smile in an exceptionally warm glow, and Huo Qiao’Er couldn’t help but stare, mesmerized.
"S-Senior Brother," she stammered, her face blushing. She put down her bucket and rag and walked over obediently. "My parents, Brother Yu, and the others were all so worried about you yesterday... The Defense Bureau didn’t give you any trouble, did they?"
Huo Qiao’Er paid no mind to the gift her senior brother had mentioned, her voice full of concern.
"Commander Zhong Minghui is a reasonable man. He didn’t give me any trouble."
Wang Xi put down the Handover Record and smiled.
"Really?" Huo Qiao’Er asked hesitantly. "But... you killed Liu Mengzi in front of all those people, and you injured Captain Mao..."
"Don’t worry. It’s all taken care of."
Wang Xi said in a casual tone.
As he spoke, he took out a box of rouge and handed it to her. It was the *Graceful Glow* he had bought from the mysterious vendor the night before, a cream that could nourish the skin and give it a radiant luster.
"Wow! This box is beautiful!"
Huo Qiao’Er’s attention was instantly captured by the engraved metal box. She took it and examined it, unable to tear her eyes away.
"Senior Brother, this must have been expensive, right?"
"You don’t ask the price of a gift. All that matters is that you like it."
Wang Xi smiled.
A moment later.
In the martial arts hall’s courtyard, Master Huo Mingchuan and his wife, Yu Ruiyang, and Zhang Fuyun had all gathered. Wang Xi gave them a brief explanation of what had happened—a version that was, of course, three parts truth and seven parts fiction.
The main point, in any case, was to let everyone know they no longer needed to worry about the matter with Liu Mengzi.
When he finished, they all looked at each other in bewilderment.
"No wonder I heard the neighbors gossiping this morning. They said the Three Rivers Gang had a bloody falling-out over their spoils. Heavy casualties, and their Patriarch and Third-in-Command killed each other..."
his junior brother, Zhang Fuyun, said with a grin.
"And that Mao Xinrong from the Black Eel Army—I heard he was discharged and sent home because his hand was crippled."
"This is great! Now no one will come looking for trouble with the martial arts hall or Senior Brother Wang!"
"..."
However, everyone except for Zhang Fuyun looked solemn.
Things were never that simple.
Only someone as thick-headed as Zhang Fuyun wouldn’t get it.
"Xizhi, how did you get out of the Defense Bureau?"
After a long hesitation, Master Huo finally asked his second disciple in a low, serious voice.
"Commander Zhong and I hit it off immediately."
Wang Xi said with a smile.
Everyone was stunned.