The Noodles

“Clop, clop, clop.” The sound of hoofbeats rose and fell as Li Huowang guided the cart farther and farther away from Cangshui County.

Besides the Black Tai Sui, the cart was now laden with a fair amount of dried goods that could be stored for a long time. Li Huowang took out a dried red date, popped it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.

“Sweet?” The monk leaned in, his face a mass of wrinkles bunching up as he asked.

“Sweet,” Li Huowang said, then took out a clump of walnut meat and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing. “Do you think they’re happy now?”

“They must be. If they weren’t happy, would they have given you all this stuff?”

“That’s good. This world has too much suffering. If there’s a little more happiness, that’s a good thing.”

Li Huowang murmured to himself. Struggling in this pain and oppression himself, but being able to help others escape the same fate he suffered—it didn’t feel so bad.

Hearing movement beside him, Li Huowang turned his head and saw Mantou wagging its tail, its paws scrabbling at a basket, its entire dog head buried in a large bamboo hamper, chomping away on something with a crunch, crunch.

Li Huowang pinched the scruff of its neck, lifted it, and tossed it onto the dirt path beside the road. “Get down. Run. Eat like that every day, and you’ll end up being butchered like a fattened pig.”

Mantou let out a low whine, seemingly expressing some displeasure, but seeing that Li Huowang showed no sign of waiting for it, it quickly stretched out its four legs and began to trot alongside.

Looking at the endless, undulating dirt road stretching ahead of the horse, Li Huowang loosened his grip on the reins and let the horse go on its own.

A cart was different from a car; you didn’t have to watch it every second. A horse was a creature with a brain, and a smart one at that. It would dodge danger and stop at a fork in the road.

With his hands free, Li Huowang pulled a primer from his bosom. When he touched his abdomen, the Black Tai Sui inside him stirred immediately. A black tentacle emerged from his navel, hooking onto his finger.

He looked down at the tentacle, seeming to ponder something. After everything that had happened before, he no longer felt the same repulsion toward the Black Tai Sui.

It had stopped him when he tried to kill himself. It had helped him at critical moments. Having something like this around to lend a hand wasn’t so bad. Of course, it would be even better if it weren’t always trying to take over his body.

With this thought, Li Huowang pulled the earplug out of his right ear. The clattering, crashing sounds amid the piercing, grating noise instantly became clear.

“Before. Eat. Hungry. I. Help you.”

“I know you helped me. You don’t need to bring it up every single moment. Now be quiet for a bit.”

As soon as Li Huowang finished speaking, the Black Tai Sui’s voice grew a little quieter. “Hungry now? Eat.”

“No eating. Study and learn characters. Your speech is too jumbled. You haven’t learned enough yet.”

Li Huowang held up the primer and began to read it aloud, word by word.

He didn’t know how much the Black Tai Sui inside him could absorb, but the more fluently it could speak, the less harm it would do to him.

He was still reading when a new tentacle emerged from his navel. Wrapped around the tip of this tentacle was a binocular eyeball.

The eye-stalk twisted and craned in all directions, looking at everything around. It looked very slowly, but with intense focus, its pupils brimming with curiosity.

Feeling two lines of sight from a single eyeball, Li Huowang stopped. He reached out, snagged the eyeball, and examined it closely. “Red Center? Isn’t this your eyeball? Why hasn’t the Black Tai Sui digested it?”

Red Center, who had been absent for a long time, rose up from beneath the rapidly spinning cart wheel. “This thing is a fine treasure. It took a lot of effort back then to trick someone into giving it to me.”

“Another fine treasure? Isn’t this your original eye?”

“Of course not. Go on, take a guess. Who did I trick into giving me this thing?” Red Center said, a proud smile spreading across its face.

Li Huowang shot it a glance, then completely ignored it. He took the eyeball and stuffed it back into the Black Tai Sui’s tentacle, resuming his reading.

No matter how Red Center tried to tempt him, he didn’t ask another question. Through his constant contact with it, Li Huowang seemed to have figured out how to deal with the Zuowandao’s tricks.

He taught for a while, and gradually, time reached midday. A rest stall appeared by the side of the dirt road, with a few wooden tables where a handful of travelers sat scattered about, wolfing down bowls of noodles.

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then tugged on the reins to stop the cart. He led Mantou, who was panting with its tongue out, toward the stall.

“What can I get you, sir?” The stall owner, who had a thin little mustache, asked cautiously, sensing the thick smell of blood on Li Huowang.

“What food do you have? Surprise me.” Since there was freshly made food available, Li Huowang certainly wasn’t going to eat his dry rations.

After all, dried rations, in order to last longer, never tasted that good.

“Right away, sir! Have a seat and drink some cold tea while you wait! I’ll get it for you right now!” The mustached man went over to the stove and began working alongside his heavily pregnant wife.

Li Huowang picked up the cold tea pot on the table and poured some for Mantou, who was panting beside him.

After watching the mongrel lap up a mouthful without any reaction for a long time, Li Huowang poured himself a bowl and started drinking.

Even though this place wasn’t far from Cangshui County, caution was the parent of safety. He didn’t want to capsize in a shallow ditch.

“I’ve got the alchemy furnace. Now I need to find the ingredients. The pharmacy in Yincheng City should have some, I think. If not, I can ask Tuoba Danqing.” Just as Li Huowang was thinking about this and that, he saw the mustached man walking over with a bowl of noodles.

“Your noodles, sir.” A bowl of steaming hot noodles was set before Li Huowang. Although the toppings were just some animal innards, wild greens, and dried radish strips, the combination smelled undeniably delicious.

After Mantou had its share, Li Huowang began to eat ravenously. The stall sold wide noodles, seemingly a blend of several types of flour, chewy and firm.

It was a quiet time for the stall, with Li Huowang as the only customer. After serving the noodles, the stall owner had nothing else to do, so he helped his wife sit down. Their distant conversation was caught clearly by Li Huowang’s sharp ears.

“Wife, rest a while. Don’t tire out our child.”

“Erlang, don’t fuss over me. Eat something yourself while there’s no one around.”

“Heh, I’m not in a rush. As long as I can look at my child, I’m not hungry at all.”

The stall owner crouched down, carefully stroking his wife’s belly, and spoke in a gentle, affectionate voice. “Little treasure, can you feel me? It’s your dad. Be good and call me ‘Dad.’”

The pregnant woman playfully pinched his arm. “Are you crazy? Whose child can talk before they’re even born? Silly.”

“Don’t interrupt. I’m talking to our child here. The fortune-teller said the more I talk to our child now, the more successful he’ll be in the future!”

With that, he pressed himself flat against his wife’s bulging belly, pressing his ear to it, his voice brimming with love. “Child, can you hear me? It’s your daddy. Call me ‘Daddy.’”

The moment the stall owner finished speaking, a vague, slurred voice rang out like a clap of thunder beside Li Huowang’s ears.

“Daddy...”