Chapter 114
The velvety blanket of night grew ever darker until the first faint streaks of dawn began to etch the horizon.
The flower houses and pleasure pavilions that had dominated this village through the inky depths of night now stood closed and dormant, their extravagant facades shuttered against the rising sun.
In their stead, humble tea houses and merchants' stalls had flung open their doors, the pungent aromas of fresh jasmine and heady perfumes yielding to the more prosaic scents of freshly brewed tea and sizzling skewers of street fare.
The once exotic village that had thrummed with the feverish pulse of nocturnal indulgences had seamlessly melted away, subsumed once more by the quotidian trappings of any ordinary provincial town.
Meanwhile, inside the ornately decorated flower house where Ji Wuye had spent the evening, the heavy wooden door inlaid with intricate carvings creaked open a sliver.
Ji Wuye emerged, a self-assured smile playing across his lips as he carefully cradled several long wooden boxes bound in silk cords.
"Thank you for your esteemed visit this night, Young Master," the flower house's host spoke, a strained smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Clad in an immaculate white hanfu with billowing sleeves, he dipped his head respectfully. Several attendants hovering behind him followed suit, bowing low with their palms pressed together.
"The pleasure was entirely mine," Ji Wuye replied smoothly, his gaze briefly flickering towards the courtesan who had been his company for the night. She kept her eyes demurely downcast, a flush of crimson staining her porcelain cheeks as she studiously avoided his penetrating stare.
Her delicate fingers reflexively twisted the shimmering folds of her ornate silk robe, eyes constantly darting towards the boxed winnings clutched protectively in Ji Wuye's arms and the tremor betraying the host's feigned nonchalance.
Yet this subtle interplay was utterly inconsequential to him. The moment Ji Wuye turned on his heel to depart, the world outside embraced him with the first warm caresses of the new dawn's glow.
'Well then, shall we head back?' he mused inwardly, glancing down at the neat stack of wooden boxes weighted with his considerable earnings.
He had arrived a mere few qián weighing down his coin purse, yet now that modest sum had swelled to over one guàn and several qián - a total of nearly 1,200 qián amassed in the span of this single night's revelries.
A respectable haul to be sure, though not exorbitant. Nevertheless, Ji Wuye's decision to cease his gambling was prompted by a far more insistent concern.
'They are shadowing my movements?' A slight furrow creased his brow as his sharp gaze detected several furtive shapes flitting across the tiled rooftops in his periphery, clearly tailing his unhurried strides along the winding village streets.
As for the furtive shadows that had tailed Ji Wuye's movements...of course, no reputable flower house wished to blithely surrender such a hefty sum.
'But this surely isn't an egregious enough loss for them to willingly court any undue risks,' he reasoned inwardly. True to his suspicions, those watchful presences had evaporated into the ether once he neared the outlying borders of Tianji Village.
Yet an unexpected sight awaited Ji Wuye there - the familiar horse-drawn carriage that had borne him to these tantalizing pleasurehouses still idled patiently at the village's ramshackle perimeter.
The reedy coachman slumped in a light doze atop the driver's bench, his wizened face lax in sleep, as the black stallion harnessed between the shafts rested one hind leg and flicked her tail lazily.
The rythmic clop of Ji Wuye's shoes against the hard-packed earth roused both horse and coachman in an instant, the animal's ears pricking forward as the old driver started awake with a grunt.
"Ah, greetings once more, Uncle," Ji Wuye called out affably, his expression open and disarming. "Might I trouble you for a return journey?"
...
The celestial tapestry overhead slowly deepened from the bruised hues of dawn into a radiant azure as the carriage bore Ji Wuye homewards across the endless sweep of grasslands.
A faint, thrumming energy seemed to emanate from the coachman's body, channeling through the very fibers of horse's muscles and the sturdy oak spokes of the carriage wheels as the rising winds whipped past in a rhythmic susurrus.
As they crested a low rise, the achingly familiar vistas of Kunlun Qiuxiu Village unfurled before Ji Wuye and the coachman's eyes.
At this moment, Ji Wuye - now clad in a crisp white martial robe with elegant aqua stirpes - allowed his aura to billow forth unrestricted, a self-assured smile gracing his unveiled features.
"We have arrived, hero of Kunlun," the coachman intoned, reining the stallion to a halt at the very boundaries of the village.
A kaleidoscope of emotions played across his deeply lined visage, yet the reassuring weight of fifty qián in his pocket kept his tongue prudently stilled as he watched the young hero alight from the carriage with effortless grace.
"My sincerest thanks once again for your hospitality this day, good Uncle. May your travels ahead be filled with boundless fortune," Ji Wuye replied, cupping his hands before him in a courtly bow of gratitude, that lazy smile still curving his lips.
With those parting words, he turned on his heel and strode through the village entrance.
...
The sleepy hamlet of Kunlun Qiuxiu Village had just begun to stir with the first rays of morning light. While many shopfronts and stalls still stood shuttered against the chill dawn air, the settlement itself hummed with an undercurrent of industrious activity.
Native villagers emerged from their modest dwellings, some making their unhurried way toward the nearby rivers and streams for the day's fishing, while others tended to the neat rows of medicinal herbs cultivated in patchwork gardens.
One such familiar figure - the stout, affable shopkeeper whose provisionary aided the heroes of Kunlun Sect - bustled along the main thoroughfare, deftly packing and sorting an array of large wooden crates and burlap sacks.
A sheen of perspiration beaded his brow from his exertions as Ji Wuye approached, Ji Wuye's footfalls stilled to an almost soundless tread.
"Greetings to you on this fine morning, Big Brother," Ji Wuye called out warmly, cupping his hands together in a respectful salute as a lazy smile played about his lips.
He deftly shifted the long lacquered box cradled in the crook of one arm, allowing the lid to fall open a brash coins and expose the tantalizing glint of meticulously stacked qián within. "Shall we perhaps conclude our dealings in a more discreet setting?"
A/N:
贯 (Guàn) - A unit of measurement for silver, with 1 guàn equaling 1,000 cash coins or a specific weight of silver.
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