Chapter 268: The Request

I boarded the train to Nanjing, which was inexplicably crowded. An old man next to me eating instant noodles kept shoving against me the whole time. I was terribly drowsy and didn’t feel like arguing with him, so I sat in a very uncomfortable position for an entire day. By the time I got off, it was already night. I pounded my legs for a long time as I walked out of the station before I finally recovered.

For someone like me who spent years scrambling around in places like the Northeast and Shaanxi, Nanjing was practically the far south. It was my first time in such a gentle place. The night breeze was cool without being bone-chilling, which felt very pleasant.

After the taxi dropped me off on a slope, I shouldered my pack and tilted my head back, struggling to make out the dark street sign. The road here in Baiziting wasn’t as wide as I’d imagined, but this narrower street actually gave me more of a sense of security.

I checked the house numbers one by one along the street until I finally reached the front gate of a small Republican-era villa. It was already late and the street was deserted. I double-checked the address; this was definitely it.

I walked around the perimeter wall of the building twice. High walls flanked both sides, hiding the interior from view, but the area was certainly not small. Did this villa actually have its own courtyard? In my mind, the Lu Clan was definitely not like this.

Standing before the tall gate, I took a deep breath. I wondered to myself if the damn Lu Clan was really this rich, living in such a stylish place. The whole building was set up like some secret base from the Republican era.

I grabbed the copper ring on the door and knocked twice. Someone answered from inside with a surprisingly familiar voice. When the door opened, the person on the other side and I stared at each other. It was that fucking little bastard, Lu Qianshan!

The moment Lu Qianshan saw it was me, he tried to slam the door shut. My reflexes kicked in; sensing trouble, I jammed one leg across the threshold. The door caught dead against me. Unable to push it closed, Lu Qianshan started cursing at me. “Are you looking to die? You just won’t give up, stalking us all the way to our doorstep! Have you no shame, breaking into a private home at night?”

“You little bastard, stop spreading fucking rumors about me! Your Young Master invited me here. I just got off the damn train! Is this how your family treats guests?” I strained against him with my leg, swung my bag forward, and used it to shove him aside, bursting right into the courtyard.

Lu Qianshan lost his footing from the impact and landed flat on his ass, immediately howling in pain. I ignored him, keeping my bag on my back as I looked over the old building. Lu Qianshan dusted himself off and scrambled up from the ground in disgrace, yelling that he was going to throw me out.

I put my hands on my hips, ready to trade more insults with him, when a voice sternly rebuked him from around the corner of the first-floor hallway.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Lu Qianshan shouted as I sprinted toward the hallway like I’d triggered some kind of mechanism.

I didn’t bother with Lu Qianshan behind me, taking the stairs two at a time into the building. The sound had come from a room at the end of the hallway. Just as I was about to run over and open the door, Lu Ayao happened to step out. The moment I saw him, the heart that had been hanging in suspense for days finally settled.

I threw my arms open and lunged forward to hug him. He stumbled back slightly under my weight. I was so happy I was almost in tears as I grabbed hold of him. “Thank goodness, thank goodness you’re still alive! No one came looking for you these past few days, right?”

Lu Ayao paused, not answering me immediately. Then his gaze swept past me, casting a look at Lu Qianshan behind me. Lu Qianshan shivered under his gaze, silently opened a nearby door, and went inside to prepare tea.

“Come with me.” Lu Ayao stepped back inside through the door behind him, and I hurriedly followed him in.

It was a room similar to a study. Upon entering, I could smell the faint fragrance of wood. The interior decor was extremely classical. Several walls were lined with cabinets filled with books. I did a quick scan; they were all ancient texts and old booklets collected from various places, things I usually couldn’t even get close to touching.

He led me to a wooden desk by the window and quickly cleared away the cluttered papers. As he tidied up, he said to me, “No one has come looking for me except you.”

I let out a long sigh of relief. This proved that those Lingshanmi hadn’t set their sights on the Lu Clan yet. Perhaps they had heard of Lu Ayao’s reputation, or perhaps they knew of the Lu Clan’s long-standing habit of living in seclusion. Moreover, the Lu Clan was full of experts; those Lingshanmi might not necessarily be a match for them.

Clutching my bag, I pulled out a chair and sat down somewhat awkwardly. I had been living in constant fear while carrying this copper piece. Once Lu Ayao sat across from me, I stood up again to pull the curtains shut. Finally, after confirming the environment was secure, I stealthily pulled the copper piece from my bag.

“Can you tell what this thing is used for?” I placed the cloth-wrapped copper piece on the table.

Using the cloth to hold it, Lu Ayao picked up the copper piece and turned it over in his hands. I saw his eyes flicker slightly as he traced the patterns. I couldn’t tell if he had recognized something, but after finishing his inspection, he placed it back where it was. “It was made relatively recently, but I don’t know its specific purpose.”

I had a faint feeling he wasn’t telling me everything, but I immediately dismissed the thought. At a time like this, it was hard enough to find someone willing to help; I shouldn’t start doubting him.

I thanked him and put the copper piece back, zipping the bag shut. Just then, Lu Ayao poured me a cup of tea and said calmly, “You came to find me. Is there something you need?”

I drank the tea to moisten my throat, moved my chair forward, and leaned slightly over the table. “To be honest, I’m in a difficult spot right now,” I said in a low voice. “I want to ask you for a favor.”

Lu Ayao looked at me. After a moment, he said, “I heard about your Fourth Brother. My condolences.”

Months had passed, and I thought I could remain rational when hearing about it, but the moment Lu Ayao mentioned it, that long-lost ache rose from the depths of my heart again. I shook my head, trying to shake off the grief.

“I have no foundation, and now the industry avoids me like snakes and scorpions. Aside from you, I really can’t think of a second person who would lend me a hand. I don’t know if you’ve heard of a group called the Lingshanmi. They’ve already infiltrated the Five Masters. My Fourth Brother and Yujingzi were killed by them. Of the entire team that went in, everyone is dead except for Tan Qiu, who has connections up top, and a few professors and scholars,” I told Lu Ayao.

All of this sounded like absolute fantasy. I thought Lu Ayao would be shocked to hear it, but he showed no reaction at all. He simply, calmly poured boiling water into the zisha teapot^[1], refilled his own cup, and said, “I already know everything you’ve told me.”

I felt a sudden wave of relief. “That’s great! Since you already know, I won’t have to explain everything to you step-by-step. What should we do next?”

He raised his eyes to look at me and countered, “What do you mean, what should we do? What are you trying to do?”

Thinking I hadn’t made myself clear, I grabbed his arm and repeated, “I want revenge. I want to avenge Fourth Brother and the rest.”

Silence began to grow wildly the moment those words left my mouth.

Lu Ayao lowered his eyes, picked up the teacup on the table, and took a sip before speaking. “The debt of three copper coins I owed the Gan Clan has been paid in full. There will be no further karma^[2] tied between us. If you want to stay in Nanjing to relax for a few days, I can put you up. But if you intend to keep acting so recklessly, I’ll pretend I never heard what you just said. Go back.”

Hearing those words, all the drowsiness from my train ride vanished in an instant. I sat in the chair staring at Lu Ayao for a long time, my head feeling numb and dazed. Pursing my lips, I shook my head and asked, “Are you saying that without those copper coins, you won’t help?”

The words had barely left my mouth when Lu Qianshan barged in from outside, shouting at me, “You’re asking what you already know! The Master only helped before to repay our debt to your Gan Clan. Once it was paid, we left. Isn’t that clear enough? We of the Lu Clan don’t entangle ourselves with unrelated people!”

Ignoring his noisy chatter at my side, I didn’t give him so much as a glance. I just stared straight at Lu Ayao across from me and asked him word by word, “Am I an unrelated person to you?”

Lu Ayao didn’t look at me, nor did he answer. I was about to fly into a rage, but I took a deep breath and forced down the anger filling my chest. Whatever the case, I was here to beg for help, and begging meant swallowing grievances. My situation was desperate; standing under another’s roof, I had no choice but to bow my head^[3].

With that thought, I softened my tone and forced myself to lay bare the thing that was hardest to speak of, the thing that made me most vulnerable. “He Yu is dead,” I said.

Lu Ayao’s fingers holding the teacup twitched slightly.

I lowered my eyes and continued, “His leg was injured. We were hanging off a cliff, and I couldn’t hold on to him. Those people blew up the mountain, and to keep from dragging me down, he cut the rope. Whether it’s for Fourth Brother, the Gan Clan, or He Yu, I have to settle this score. Whatever your Lu Clan wants, whether it’s money or rare treasures, I’ll find a way to get it for you even if I have to search to the ends of the earth, as long as you agree to help me.”

Lu Qianshan crossed his arms and let out a soft snort from the side, utterly contemptuous of my plea.

Lu Ayao still maintained his silence. When I finished, he set down his teacup, stood up from his chair, and walked around the table toward the door. Seeing that he was about to leave, I quickly dropped the bag in my hand and sprinted a few steps to cut him off.

“I’m begging you! Please, I’m begging you,” I cried, blocking his path. He tried to sidestep me again to leave, while Lu Qianshan kept obstructing me from the side. Seeing that I couldn’t stop him, I pulled on his hand and dropped straight to my knees. Neither of them had expected me to make such a move.

The moment Lu Ayao saw this, he stopped in his tracks. He turned back, trying to pull me up from the floor, but my legs were like nails driven into the ground. After a few failed attempts to tug me up, he said, “Get up first.”

Seeing that he was finally responding to me, I held onto him tightly. As my legs dragged across the floor, I felt the gunshot wound in my leg throbbing with pain. “If I could think of anyone else, I wouldn’t be begging you like this! Are He Yu and I really just complete strangers to you? Is there truly not a single shred of friendship between us?”