Unparalleled Duo

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And so, Gan Feihong, in his confusion, acknowledged Sun Yixie as his elder brother.

Of course, Sun Yixie, being well-versed in the ways of the world, also knew how to secure people's loyalty. He promised Gan Feihong some benefits on the spot—saying to Gan Feihong that as soon as he met their elder brother Hao Jingyu, he would certainly put in a few good words for Mr. Gan. By then, not only would you be able to enter the "Dao," but no matter what, you would also be ranked in the "Zhou" generation within the "Universe Primordial" order.

This promise delighted Gan Feihong so much he almost knelt down to kowtow to Brother Sun.

He never considered... even if Sun Yixie truly were Hao Jingyu's brother, he might not be able to see Hao Jingyu for the next year and a half. And who knows what the situation would be in a year and a half? It's possible that by then, their band of river thieves might have been eradicated by the imperial court.

But at present, Sun Yixie was truly enjoying the treatment befitting a big brother.

These river thieves were indeed loyal; after acknowledging their new elder brother, not only did they not rob Sun Yixie, but they also didn't touch the other passengers on the ship. They returned to their small boat and escorted their large ship all the way to the ferry crossing on the opposite bank before dispersing.

After Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai went ashore, Gan Feihong even sent a few brothers who were responsible for shadowing others (water bandits often deployed sharp-eyed and quick-legged lackeys on shore in advance to find targets; it was because Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai looked like two rich second-generation heirs that they had been targeted earlier) to specially bring "Brother Sun" two brown brocade ribbons. Such brocade ribbons were a sign agreed upon by the water and land bandits on both sides of the Yangtze River; by wearing it, it signified you were one of their own, and the colleagues along the way who saw you would not lay hands on you.

With such a guarantee in hand, the journey became much smoother for Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai. They rode their horses north around Chao Lake, and after two days, they arrived at Lu Zhou City.

This place, belonging to Lu Zhou Prefecture directly under Nanjing, is a thousand-year-old city with numerous scenic spots.

After settling down in an inn, Huang Donglai suggested that since they were here, he'd like to take the opportunity to visit leisure land. Sun Yixie wasn't interested and told him to go if he wanted to.

Huang Donglai asked him, "Is it because something untoward happened to the Sun family here at the hands of Zhang Wen that you refuse to go?"

Sun Yixie replied, "Yes, I don't want to go to such a sad place."

But in fact, with Brother Sun's superficial knowledge of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," as well as his upside-down understanding of Chinese geography, he couldn't remember the anecdote of "Zhang Wen's might at leisure land," nor did he know that leisure land was located in Hefei (which is Lu Zhou), he simply didn't want to go, that's all.

Therefore, Huang Donglai decided to go alone for a stroll and to ask if the local "High-speed Train Gang" had any suitable tickets for purchase.

After Huang Donglai left, Sun Yixie waited a moment before locking the room door, went to the mirror in the room, and quietly took out a bottle of injury medicine.

What Huang Donglai did not know was that the place on Sun Yixie's back that had been slashed by Ma Si hadn't yet fully healed and there was still a lingering bruise.

Ma Si's ten years of sword skill practice was indeed not for naught. If it weren't for his idleness and slackness in training from his comfortable life in the mountain village, the slash he dealt at that time would have surely broken several of Sun Yixie's bones.

Fortunately, the injury Sun Yixie sustained wasn't too serious. He was used to being involved in large-scale fights with "blades and shadows" at the fish market back in the day, so such injuries were nothing new to him.

These past few days, Sun Yixie had been quietly treating his own wounds in his room. This was a long-standing issue for him; he sometimes had too much pride to admit injury. Although it would've been easy to ask Huang Donglai to use the Huang Sect's secret healing medicine, which could have healed him in three days, he felt embarrassed that despite wearing a protective armor, he was wounded by a bandit leader, so he never brought it up.

However, it must be said that the battle at Zouma Village served as a lesson for the inexperienced Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai as they stepped into the martial world.

Their prior experience in the martial world was almost nil. Needless to say about Sun Yixie; Huang Donglai had traveled from Sichuan to Jiangnan in the High-speed Train Gang's horsecart until he met Shen Youran outside Hangzhou City and fought someone for the first time, encountering only the weakest opponents.

In their minds, a "bandit leader" wasn't really someone to be taken seriously... however, Ma Si had shown them through his actions, on the martial world you should never take any opponent lightly, no matter how insignificant they may seem.

After all, there is always a higher mountain, someone stronger than you—you never know when you might be killed by a monk sweeping the floor or a serving boy in a brothel.

...

Meanwhile, let's return to Huang Donglai.

After leaving the inn, his first stop was the pharmacy. A few days ago at Nanyuan Village, when teaching the villagers to concoct poison bombs, he mostly used materials from the village pharmacy. However, he still depleted some of his own supplies and hadn't had the chance to restock in Xuancheng due to the short stay.

Now that he was in Lu Zhou City, he definitely wanted to prepare some more medicinal ingredients and concoct pills in the inn that night in case of emergencies.

After placing his order at the pharmacy and leaving some deposit, he made arrangements with the shopkeeper to have his items ready in a few hours and then pick them up; afterward, Huang Donglai leisurely made his way to leisure land.

Leisure land had been privately occupied and renamed "Dou Pond" by a bureaucrat named Dou over a hundred years ago. After several generations, as the Dou family's influence waned, it went through several owners. Nowadays, during the Yong Tai era, it had fallen into the hands of a wealthy man named Zeng, whose mansion was built by the water and among the trees next to leisure land.

Of course, Huang Donglai was unaware of this. He thought the area around leisure land would be like a public park from his previous world. But upon arrival... he was blocked by a courtyard wall.

Although he could easily enter with his qinggong, in broad daylight, he didn't know whose land was behind the wall, and directly jumping in would mean trespassing into a private residence. Helplessly, he walked along the wall, trying to get a better view of the situation.

Soon, Huang Donglai arrived at the front gate of the Zeng Mansion.

Coincidentally, a crowd had gathered in front of the mansion, buzzing with different opinions and discussions.

Huang Donglai squeezed through the crowd to the front and saw several government officers carrying out a body wrapped in a straw mat from the mansion's gate.

Normally, if someone died in a large household, it shouldn't be done in this way...

If someone in a wealthy family passed away, there would usually be initial mourning, followed by reporting to the officials. The corpse would be placed in the family shrine and preserved for at least three days (especially with some embalming treatment during the summer) to wait for relatives and friends to mourn. Meanwhile, they would hurry to find a coffin-maker and a tailor for the funeral clothes. After confirming the person was indeed deceased after three days, they would dress the corpse in funeral attire and place it in the coffin, exiting through the back door for the funeral.

Only after burial, when the eldest son or grandson holding the ancestral tablet led the mourning procession back to the mansion for the tofu meal, must they enter through the front door, and they must take a different route from before. There were significant rituals involved in these matters.

In those days, especially in wealthy households, they were very particular about these rituals. Messing up any detail was considered ominous and disrespectful.

However, if a servant died, there wouldn't be as much fuss. They would usually be wrapped in a straw mat and taken out through the back door on the same day. If the household was kind-hearted, they would be sent to the village temple, placed in a cheap coffin, and buried with a simple tombstone. But for the heartless rich, they would just order their burial in a shallow grave in the cemetery, wrapped in the straw mat. For such burials, it would be unfortunate if wild dogs unearthed the grave that very night and left the body dismembered.

But the scene today was unusual.

Firstly, the presence of officials collecting the body indicated a murder case... but let's set that aside for now.

Secondly, the officers carrying the body exited through the main gate. Could it be that the local county magistrate intentionally disrespected Mr. Zeng?

Huang Donglai briefly listened to the villagers' conversations and realized that was unlikely.

According to the villagers, the county magistrate, Mr. Wang, esteemed Mr. Zeng as much as his own father, not to mention the numerous benefits he received annually from the Zeng family. Additionally, given Mr. Zeng's connection to a Chief of Staff in the court, that was sufficient for Mr. Wang to bend over backward and obey.

So what was going on here?

As Huang Donglai contemplated, the officers had already dispersed the onlookers and cleared a path. They proceeded to carry the straw-wrapped corpse directly to the Mingjiao Temple (also known as Mingjiao Institute or Mingjiao Platform), just two streets away from the Zeng Mansion.

"What's going on here, old man?" a curious person, Huang Donglai approached an elderly gentleman; indeed, he was just wandering leisurely today and upon seeing an interesting scene, he stopped an old man to ask.

"Young man, you from out of town?" This sort of elderly man, who stands around in broad daylight for entertainment, was actually hoping for someone to chat with. Upon Huang Donglai's question, he eagerly replied with excitement, "Ah... this matter is quite strange."

"Oh?" Huang Donglai played into the man's hands, showing an even more curious expression, "What exactly happened?"

"I'll tell you..." The old man even deliberately lowered his voice, adopting a mysterious expression, "This is already the third one carried out this month..." He looked around as if there were actually people interested in eavesdropping. "... Rumor has it that there's an unsettling presence in the Zeng Mansion."

"Unsettling presence?" Huang Donglai frowned slightly and tentatively asked, "You mean..."

"Come on, what more do I have to say?" The old man said in a hushed tone, "It's haunted."