Chapter 248: Awkward

It was late at night.

They had finished their walk.

They had finished practicing the sword.

The Little Sword Attendant had climbed back onto Fan Li’s shoulder.

One large figure and one small figure began walking back.

“Big Blockhead, what you said just now—my master once said something similar. He said that once you truly reach a certain height, you can start being serious with yourself.”

“Mm.”

“When you said you learned from yourself just now, is that what you meant?”

“Mm.”

“But you’re still far inferior to my master. My master may have died in a somewhat embarrassing way, but his sword really was very, very high.”

“Mm.”

“So you were just playing word games with me earlier?”

Fan Li stopped.

He looked up at the moon and thought for a moment.

Then he said, “Mm.”

“Big Blockhead! Stupid Blockhead! Dead Blockhead!”

The Little Sword Attendant grabbed Fan Li’s hair and raked it around until she had turned it into a bird’s nest. Only then did she stop.

“I want to grow up faster.”

“Mm.”

“I want to start truly practicing the sword sooner.”

“Mm.”

“I want to kill that man surnamed Zheng.”

“Mm.”

“You’re not angry?”

“Mm.”

“Isn’t he your Master?”

“Mm.”

“And you still agree with me killing him?”

“Mm.”

“Fine. He killed my master, but for your sake, I can at least leave him with an intact corpse.”

“Mm.”

“Or maybe I can leave him one last breath? But I’ll have to cripple him.”

“Mm.”

“Why do you look like you don’t care at all?”

“Mm.”

“I’m asking you—if the day really comes when I make a move against him, will you kill me?”

Fan Li paused.

Then, just as smoothly as before, he answered, “Mm.”

“You’d really have the heart to?”

Fan Li revealed his simple-minded smile.

“I would.”

“Dead Blockhead! Stupid Blockhead! Bastard!”

The Little Sword Attendant started ruining Fan Li’s hair again.

Up ahead, A’Ming’s figure came into view.

A’Ming sat atop the city wall, waterskin in hand, drinking alone beneath the moon.

The Little Sword Attendant leaned close to Fan Li’s ear and whispered, “I’ll tell you something. Out of your whole group, I think he’s the best-looking.”

Fan Li raised his head and seriously looked at A’Ming above.

A’Ming lowered his head, looked down, and asked, “What are you staring at?”

“She says you’re handsome.”

“…”

The Little Sword Attendant.

“Heh.”

A’Ming chuckled and paid it no mind.

The Little Sword Attendant’s face flushed crimson. She truly wanted to stab this big blockhead to death with one sword.

A’Ming really was handsome.

In private, the young women of the residence had once ranked the men by looks.

A’Ming had taken first place.

That ever-present air of melancholy around him was practically an intoxicating drug to young women.

That aloofness.

That indifference.

That silence…

In truth, the Blind Man was not the slightest bit inferior in looks. Strictly speaking, he should have been the most handsome one.

Otherwise, back in Tiger Head City, he would never have been sent to the residence of the Patrol Lieutenant Commander to deliver talisman water to the man’s wife.

But the Blind Man’s usual air of keeping strangers at a distance was a little too obvious.

It was not that he was unfriendly.

Nor was he lacking in composure.

It was simply that the way he seemed to “look” at you made people feel as though he could strip you completely bare with his gaze.

Not everyone could withstand that.

In the Little Sword Attendant’s mind, the Blind Man was the most terrifying one of all.

As for Zheng Fan—

Zheng Fan was actually quite good-looking too.

He could not exactly be called as handsome as Pan An, but he was the most relaxed man in the entire residence. Add the halo of being the Master, and it was practically as though someone had applied a beauty filter to him.

Naturally, he was still quite attractive.

It was just that the women in the residence all knew perfectly well who Master spent every night with.

Forget competing with Siniang for a man.

They did not even dare gossip privately about Siniang’s man.

“A’Li, how much longer will it take to finish repairing this city wall?” A’Ming asked.

“A long time,” Fan Li replied.

“Not enough slaves?”

“Not enough.”

“Then when A’Cheng comes back, we’ll go capture some more.”

“Mm.”

A’Ming rarely concerned himself with such matters.

The workshops he was responsible for were still under construction.

But because the city wall project had drawn away so much labor, the completion of his workshops now seemed indefinitely far away.

It was actually rather like the opening phase of a sandbox strategy game.

Building walls served military needs.

Building workshops developed the economy.

How to balance military development against economic development had always been an old and difficult problem.

At present, the only real way to ease the labor shortage was still to go into the mountains and capture more wild savages to use as laborers.

A’Ming continued drinking his wine.

Fan Li, meanwhile, asked the Little Sword Attendant on his shoulder, “Still looking?”

“Looking at your giant head!”

Fan Li grinned and walked into the city.

He and the Little Sword Attendant both lived inside the City Defender’s residence.

They shared a small courtyard, though not the same room.

The Little Sword Attendant climbed down from Fan Li’s shoulder and waved.

“Big Blockhead, I’m going to sleep.”

“Mm.”

The Little Sword Attendant returned to her room.

A short while later, she ran back out.

Beneath the loquat tree in the courtyard, Fan Li was still standing there.

“What’s that thing in my room?”

Fan Li looked up in confusion.

“Mm?”

“That thing. Come with me!”

The Little Sword Attendant dragged Fan Li into her room.

In one corner, wooden boards had been used to partition off a small enclosed space with its own door latch.

Inside sat a toilet.

The toilet itself was made of wood.

Beneath it was a recessed trough, and beneath that trough ran a pipe leading through the wall into a large vat used specifically for collecting night soil.

After all, constructing some elaborate drainage system in this era was not realistic.

Unless they tore down the room walls and rebuilt everything from scratch so they could bury the pipes.

Above the toilet was also a large water tank.

The tank was filled with water, and a pull cord extended down from it.

“Is this… for bathing?” the Little Sword Attendant asked.

She had seen similar arrangements in military barracks.

Those had been used for soldiers to bathe, and this looked somewhat similar.

Fan Li frowned slightly.

An image appeared in his mind of the Little Sword Attendant standing on top of the toilet and bathing.

He shook his head.

Pointing at the toilet, he said, “Sit on it.”

The Little Sword Attendant sat down.

Fan Li reached toward his belt.

He hesitated.

In the end, he decided not to say what had first come to mind.

Instead, he said, “Sit on it when relieving yourself.”

Truthfully, Fan Li usually spoke very directly.

Making him use polite language was genuinely difficult for him.

“Relieving myself?”

The Little Sword Attendant looked confused for a moment.

Then understanding dawned.

Her face immediately turned red.

She spat, “Why did you make something like this, you idiot?”

Fan Li scratched his head.

He had made one for Master.

This was merely the first prototype, so he had installed it here.

Master’s was the second version.

That one even had decorative patterns.

“And what’s this?”

The Little Sword Attendant pointed at the pull cord.

“Pull it.”

The Little Sword Attendant tugged.

“Whoosh…”

Water poured down from the tank and flushed into the trough below.

“So that’s how it works!”

The Little Sword Attendant found it fascinating and pulled the cord again.

“Whoosh…”

“Heh. Interesting.”

“Whoosh…”

“Hahaha.”

“Whoosh…”

“Why is there no more water?”

Fan Li went out to fetch more.

Throughout the night in the little courtyard, the girl’s laughter kept ringing out, along with the sight of a hulking figure repeatedly going back and forth from outside carrying buckets of water.

…

“Husband.”

“Mm.”

“Siniang really is an extraordinary woman.”

“Yes.”

“Husband, how did all of you meet?”

“Fate, perhaps.”

“Then, Husband… do you like Siniang too?”

“Why are you asking this?”

“Siniang is so beautiful. Husband should like her, shouldn’t you?”

“The relationship between me and her is, in some ways, even closer than that between blood brothers or blood siblings.

“So the possibility you’re talking about does not exist.”

But after saying this, a strange question suddenly flashed through the Blind Man’s mind.

Following that explanation, the Demon Kings had all been born from the same studio, and all had been continued and extended by Master.

So the Demon Kings were connected by something even closer than “brothers and sisters.”

And then…

Master was essentially the father of all of them.

After all, creative works were often called the crystallization of their creators—their children.

Then if Siniang and Master were together, wouldn’t that mean…

“Anyway, I think all of you are amazing people.”

“Hehe.”

“Husband, I feel very fortunate to be your wife.”

“As long as you don’t feel wronged. I am blind, after all.”

“But in this world, there are hardly a few people who can see things more clearly than Husband.

“This concubine feels very happy.

“I’m very grateful that Grandfather chose this marriage for me.

“Because I know that under any other circumstances, Husband would never have taken notice of me.”

At that moment, the Blind Man suddenly sat upright in bed.

A cluster of silver needles appeared in his palm.

He fired them directly toward the roof beams!

Rapid footsteps immediately sounded above.

The Blind Man got out of bed.

A cloak fell over his shoulders.

Then the room door flew open.

In the courtyard, Xue San was kneeling on one knee.

Clearly, he had just dropped down from the roof beams.

Seeing the Blind Man come outside, Xue San showed not the slightest embarrassment.

He clapped his hands and said, “Aiyo, Blind Man, still awake this late?”

“Was my roof entertaining?”

“No, no. I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I was wandering around the rooftops, checking whether there were thieves or anything like that.

“Carry on. Carry on.”

“You used your stealth ability to listen outside my bedroom?”

“Hehehe. Turns out even you couldn’t detect me, huh? Hahahaha.

“What a pity. I kept waiting for the main event, but the curtain never rose.

“I got so bored that I was about to leave, and that’s when you noticed me.”

“Come back again next time and you won’t be so lucky.”

“Oh? You make it sound like I’m afraid of you.

“I can’t beat the others right now, but you?

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

“Want to fight?”

“Go back inside and fight with your wife.

“Grandpa here isn’t serving you!”

With that, Xue San flashed over the courtyard wall and disappeared.

After leaving the Blind Man’s residence, Xue San headed straight toward the rear residence where Master lived.

Carefully concealing himself in the darkness, he approached without making a sound and climbed onto Master’s roof.

He had suffered an enormous amount of stimulation today.

So naturally, he wanted to do something even more stimulating to improve his mood.

Xue San licked his lips.

Just as he was preparing to reach out and lift a roof tile, he suddenly froze.

He turned his head.

Beside him, a little child was sitting there.

The child wore a sinister smile and stared straight at him.

“Uh…”

[End of Chapter 248]