On the Road

Plague? Li Huowang, who had been about to leave, was instantly drawn in by the idle chatter of the two men. His gut told him this might be exactly what he was looking for.

Completely ignoring the Lü Troupe performing on the stage, he hurried over to the pair—one tall, one fat—and waited for them to continue.

But to his growing frustration, the men had been chattering endlessly when he was only half-listening. The moment he focused his attention, they fell silent.

Li Huowang decided to cut the formalities. He walked straight up to the fat man and nudged his shoulder with his elbow. “Friend, what’s this about Pi County? A plague? I hadn’t heard anything about it.”

The fat man, who had been engrossed in the lewd opera on stage, scowled at the interruption. “What’s it to you? Who the hell are you?”

His eyes went wide, however, when he saw the two bits of silver Li Huowang held out. The rude retort died in his throat.

“Please, do tell. My own maternal uncle lives in Pi County. Hearing there’s a plague there has me worried sick. That’s why I was so forward.”

Whether the fat man believed the lie or not, the silver certainly made him eager to help.

“Hey there, brother, why didn’t you say so? I thought it was something serious.” A plump hand extended from within his sleeve and pocketed the two silver nuggets.

“Relax, your uncle’s fine. Pi County isn’t plagued. Everyone’s still alive.” The man in the watermelon-cap paused there, hesitating.

“But, brother, if you’re really close with your uncle, you’d better get him out of Pi County. That place has bad feng shui.”

He lowered his voice, as if afraid of being overheard by something.

“I’ll tell you, last time I was there on business, I noticed the people living there were all jumpy and skittish. Terrible complexions. No idea what caused it. It was such a ghastly sight, no wonder people started saying Pi County was plagued. Their faces looked worse than someone with the actual plague.”

“The whole county is jumpy and sallow?”

Li Huowang stood there, chewing this over, then pressed further. “Aside from that, was there anything else unusual about Pi County?”

In this world, anything was possible, but those two details alone weren’t enough to determine what the people of Pi County had encountered.

“That, I wouldn’t know. I was just passing through. Didn’t stay long before heading back. If you’re really worried, go see Pi County for yourself. It’s only about ten days’ travel. Nothing to it. Look, I made it back fine, didn’t I?”

“Ten days’ travel?” Li Huowang thought it over, then turned and walked back towards the inn.

When Bai Lingmiao spread the map out in front of him, he quickly located Pi County. It was on the same route as Ox-Heart Mountain.

After a moment of careful consideration, he decided to go have a look.

An entire county’s population acting strangely? That was no small matter. If he went there, he had a good chance of running into the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

And besides, it was his only option now. He didn’t even have a backup plan.

Just then, Lü Xiucai burst in from outside, full of excitement. He started to speak, but Li Huowang looked up at him and said, “Go tell your father. Stop performing after today’s show. We’re moving on tomorrow.”

Holding a copper coin in his hand, Lü Xiucai nodded rapidly and dashed back out.

The others were already used to Li Huowang’s sudden departures. They began preparing the ox-cart and the newly purchased horse-drawn wagon, loading up all their supplies.

They no longer bothered to ask where he was going or what he planned to do—or perhaps they no longer dared. All they had to do was follow.

If there was any difference this time, it was that the once-dejected Lü Troupe now wore a completely different expression.

Everyone’s face was flushed with excitement. The spirit that had been beaten out of them by their rivals had returned.

“Hehehe~ Little Daoist, Little Daoist~ As we agreed, this is your share, and this is mine.”

A beaming Lü Zhuangyuan extended his cupped hands, full of coins mixed with bits of silver, towards Li Huowang.

Li Huowang eyed Lü Zhuangyuan, whose face was crumpled into a grin like a chrysanthemum in full bloom. “Oh? You collected that much in tips?”

He knew that in the old days, the Lü Troupe’s dreary wailing wouldn’t have earned them half this much.

“Heh heh, well, this is the Great Liang, after all. These people have money, lots of money~”

Laughing cheerfully, Lü Zhuangyuan placed the coins and silver on the ox-cart.

Seeing that Li Huowang didn’t refuse, Zhao Wu, who was driving the cart, took out a length of thick string and began threading the scattered coins one by one.

Li Huowang naturally didn’t refuse. The silver wasn’t much, but it was a steady trickle that saved him from wasting time on these daily trivialities.

And at least, with this silver, everyone’s meals could be improved a little. “Take out that cured meat tonight. Make a cured meat and rice stew.”

No sooner had he said this than a clear sound of a throat swallowing echoed in Li Huowang’s ears. Having eaten so much meat on the Qingqiu grasslands, one would think they wouldn’t be this greedy.

“Whose voice was that? Didn’t eat today?”

Li Huowang turned his head and saw that the man wasn’t one of his own. It was a wiry, gray-haired migratory harvester. Beside him was a boy with a simple, honest face.

They also seemed to be traveling the same road.

As if sensing he was being watched, the old harvester deliberately looked away, staring at the harvested rice fields as if uninterested.

“Gurrgle~” His stomach growled. He lowered the carrying pole from his shoulder, grabbed the hemp rope that served as his belt with both hands, and pulled it tighter.

Li Huowang’s gaze swept over their patched, tattered clothes. He turned his head and continued on his way.

No one spoke during the journey, except for Gouwa’s constant babbling.

As the sun began to set, the ox-cart’s wheels creaked to a halt. As usual, everyone split up to prepare dinner.

“Senior Brother Li! Look, there are dandelions by the roadside! We can make a wild greens soup to cut the grease of the cured meat!”

Li Huowang, who was studying the map, didn’t even hear who had spoken.

His entire focus was on the map in his hands. Who knew if the scale was right? If they took a wrong turn, it could cost them several extra days of travel.

Soon, dinner was ready. That evening’s meal was cured meat and rice stew with wild greens soup.

Li Huowang looked at the large, oily bowl of rice in front of him, dotted with red and white slivers of cured meat, then raised his head to glance at the two harvesters crouching in the distance.

They were washing down the coarse grain cornbread they’d pulled from their packs with raw, cold water they had just scooped from the stream.

The young harvester’s eyes were fixed on the bowl of rice in Li Huowang’s hand, but the old man quickly pushed his head back down.

“Go get two bowls of rice and bring them over,” Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao, who was beside him.

“Mm,” she nodded, and turned to walk towards the pot.