Gu Xiang sighed, “Watery, shining eyes? He was just teary from yawning! And apart from that his nose was big, his mouth was big, his head was big, his ears…”

Wen Kexing’s voice left no room for arguments, “Gu Xiang, you are very blind.”

Zhou Zishu had nothing to do but to go check out Zhang Chengling’s well-being.

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Footnotes.

1 兄 (xiōng) in this situation is used to address a man with various degrees of familiarity.

2 Originally Bahuang Liuhe / The Eight Wastelands and Six Constituents (八荒六合), 八荒 refers to extremely remote areas beyond China; 六合 means the six directions (north, south, east, west, up, down), basically everything in the universe.

3 The acupuncture point near the hip joint.

4 Zhou Zishu referred to the five hang – five phases in Chinese philosophy: wood, fire, earth, metal, water; and five gen – five senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body.

5 The acupuncture point at the top middle of the head.

6 The acupuncture point at the highest point of the shoulders.

7 Used to describe the shoulder blades.

Translator’s notes. Another update today to celebrate the incoming December! I’m not good with action scenes, so hopefully this chapter is still readable ;; A ;; Also, now that all the main characters have been properly introduced, I hope you look forward to their journey!

Chapter 7. Setting Off

When Zhou Zishu made Zhang Chengling pass out, he did it out of fear that the boy would harbor too many bad thoughts; calming him down was a necessity. There was barely any force to it, so the boy woke up not long after the strange Wen Kexing arrived.

He opened his eyes, dazedly staring at the ceiling as if his soul had left the body. Until yesterday he was still the Zhang’s young master, pampered by many — even when his tutor told him that he was utterly stupid and useless, even when his martial art teacher was secretly disappointed that he was just bad mud, unable to plaster walls1 — his life was happy and content.

He got people dressing and feeding him, everywhere he went servants would follow, serving him diligently even with his mediocre studying until late night2. They would flatter him all day long, and even when Zhang Chengling knew his worth, it didn’t stop him from basking in the false praises sometimes. His life went by with such privilege for fourteen years.

Then he lost everything in a single night.

His home was gone, his parents killed along with all relatives and friends, his world turning upside down. He was terrified, but he didn’t know what to do.

Zhou Zishu was the type who knew how to fart better than to console people, so he stayed at his place silently. There was only a blank stare on Zhang Chengling’s face, tears streaming down from his eyes.

He heard Wen Kexing asking Gu Xiang, “Who’s this little thing?”

“He’s said to be Zhang Yusen’s son.”