Chapter 2: Gu Shiyi and the Little Wretch

Baici Town is a border town of Daxia Dynasty.

The town abounds in porcelain, which, when combined with the local special white spring water and unique soil, can be fired into a one-of-a-kind porcelain.

Fine as jade, warm, smooth, and delicate like the skin of a beauty, it is thus named Beauty Porcelain.

Opposite the official kiln that fires Beauty Porcelain stands the Bounty Hall, a place specifically designated by the Daxia Dynasty for placing bounties on evildoers.

It is also a precious place for those wandering bladesmen and swordsmen of the jianghu to earn travel expenses.

Inside the Bounty Pavilion.

A young errand boy in a green hat continuously toyed with a few pieces of silver scraps.

His family had spent thirty taels of silver to finally secure him such a lucrative job.

In just three short days, he had already earned a full three taels of silver scraps.

If he kept working like this, he could recoup his investment in a month. In a year, he could earn over three hundred taels!

Over three hundred taels would be enough to buy a plot of land in the west of town, build a small courtyard with two side rooms, and marry a decent wife.

If he earned a bit more, he could even redeem Xiaoyu from Cuixiang Tower to take as a concubine.

Thinking of this, the green-hatted errand boy could not help but tug at the small, angled mustache at the corner of his mouth, beaming with satisfaction.

With a creak, the door opened, and a youth stepped out.

With a thud, he placed two bundles hanging from his bamboo pole onto the table, then pointed at the two portraits behind the errand boy.

“Mountain-Suppressing Tiger Wang Kui, Blade Maiden Luo Ying.”

The green-hatted boy untied the bundles, and sure enough, inside were two human heads. Tearing down the wanted posters to verify, he carried the heads to the back room.

Before long, he walked out holding a tray with silver on it.

“A total of twenty-two taels.”

The youth frowned. “Thirteen taels for the man, ten for the woman. It should be twenty-three taels in total.”

The green-hatted boy’s face turned cold as he reached out and picked up a piece of silver scrap.

“Now it’s twenty-one taels total.”

The youth stared at him, while the green-hatted boy lowered his eyelids and squinted back at him.

The Bounty Hall was official government business; who would dare cause trouble here?

Although he was not a government official himself, he was still working for the government to some extent.

Let alone this thinly clad youth, even if it were a burly, full-bearded man, deducting his pay was deducting his pay.

After staring at each other for a moment, the youth indeed lowered his eyelids, picking up the silver scraps and the small cloth bag on the table.

The green-hatted boy wore a smug smile.

Vagabonds were, after all, just vagabonds.

“Twenty taels is enough for me.”

The youth left another piece of silver scrap and put the rest into his pocket.

The green-hatted boy showed a look of joy; occasionally, sensible bounty hunters knew how to curry favor with them. They did this so that when new bounty notices were issued, they could get easy and lucrative missions at the first opportunity.

This kid wasn’t old, but he was quite shrewd.

The green-hatted boy reached out to pick up the silver scrap on the table.

In that instant, a sudden change occurred.

With a bang, a rusty blade pierced through the green-hatted boy’s hand, pinning his palm firmly to the tabletop!

Blood flowed down the table as the green-hatted boy screamed in agony.

“You! Aaaaah—”

A red-hatted errand boy hurriedly walked out from the back. Upon seeing the youth, his face changed slightly, and he hastily said, “You haven’t handed over your token yet.”

Missions at the Bounty Hall were divided into seven ranks from highest to lowest: Heaven, Earth, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron, and Wood, corresponding to seven different difficulty levels.

“Damn it.”

The youth cursed discontentedly, unclasped the token around his neck, and tossed it over.

On the gleaming silver token, two characters were carved: “Wang Wu”.

Seeing the token, the green-hatted boy’s face turned deathly pale.

A Silver-rank bounty hunter!

Baici Town was remote, and in past years the strongest hunter had only been Bronze-rank, yet in recent years as many as five Silver-rank bounty hunters had emerged one after another: “Sun Xuan”, “Zhang Hao”, “Liu Jian”, “Song Yi”, and “Wang Wu”!

The red-clothed errand boy hurriedly flipped open a ledger, registered the name “Wang Wu”, and respectfully pushed the token back.

“Master Wang, congratulations. With just one more completed mission, you will be able to take on Gold-rank bounties. At that time, we will also distribute your portrait across all Bounty Pavilion in the Daxia Dynasty. No matter which Bounty Pavilion you visit, there will be someone dedicated to receiving you.”

The youth took back the token, turned, and started to walk away.

“Wait… your blade!”

The red-hatted boy forced a smile and pointed awkwardly at the green-hatted boy.

His hand was still pinned to the table, blood dripping onto the floor, his face pale as paper.

The youth suddenly smiled. “A gift for you.”

Saying that, he strode away.

The red-hatted boy’s smile looked worse than crying.

“Just give it to him?”

A rusty saber that no one would pick up even if thrown by the side of the road.

“Sigh, why did you provoke such a formidable person?”

The red-capped attendant sighed softly, reaching out to grasp the rusty saber.

_「He… was so young… who knew he was a Silver bounty hunter…」

_With a *shhhk*, the rusty saber was drawn, sending blood spraying upward straight toward the ceiling.

A flash of blade-light flickered suddenly, catching the blood droplets flying in midair as they landed squarely on the flat of the blade.

_The blue-capped attendant looked at the red-capped attendant in shock.

The red-capped attendant placed the rusty saber on the table and said, “People like us should just focus on honestly and dutifully earning a living. Why pick fights with desperadoes who value money over their lives?

_Besides, if you want to snatch a bite of meat from their mouths, you need to have sharp eyes. A biting dog doesn’t bark. If he says nothing, you just give it to him. If he actually says something…”

_「Then what?」

_「Either he’s a coward too spineless to pull up his pants, or he’s not a desperado at all. Either way, you can bully those two kinds all you want.」

—————–

Leaving the Bounty Pavilion, the youth followed the official road all the way to a medical clinic with a rusty sign in the west of the city.

_On the plaque were four large, flaking characters: *Revive the Dead*.

The youth pushed the door open and walked inside. Sitting within was a fat old woman, with a sign on the desk bearing her name: Yanwang Xi.

The old woman’s waist was as thick as a water bucket, her face crisscrossed with scars deep enough to reveal bone.

Seeing the youth, she grinned and casually pulled a bottle from a drawer, tossing it onto the desk.

“Three pills.”

The youth tossed a cloth bag onto the desk. “Twenty taels.”

_The old woman blinked in surprise. “That won’t do.”

With that, she reached for the medicine bottle, but the youth firmly clamped down on her wrist. “I’ll owe you for a few days.”

_「How about you lend me your life, and I’ll return it to you in a few days?」

She snorted furiously, yanked her hand free from his grip, poured out a pitch-black pill from the bottle, and tossed the bottle back to him.

“This will hold you over for twenty days.”

The youth’s face turned grim as he turned and walked out.

Yanwang Xi suddenly stood up and gave the youth’s rear a hard pinch.

The youth was furious, turning around to jab two fingers straight at her eyes!

Yanwang Xi held up her palm, blocking his fingers steadily.

She grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth, her eyes narrowing into crescents.

“Same as before. Whenever you run out of money, sleep with this old woman for a night, and I’ll give you three for free.”

“Get lost.”

The youth cursed angrily, leaving through the door with the last elixir.

Yanwang Xi shouted out, “Boy, come back whenever you have time!”

—————–

Passing through the bustling marketplace, he reached the horse ranch on the westernmost edge of Baici Town.

In a corner of the horse ranch stood a thatched hut.

The youth pushed open the hut’s door, where a young girl was standing on a small stool, stirring thin porridge in a pot.

“Gu Shiyi!”

The young girl cheered and ran over, her head wrapped in a thick layer of cloth that covered her eyebrows, revealing only her eyes.

The youth smiled, rubbed her hair, and fished two candies out from his clothes.

“Nie Nie, what are we eating today?”

“Porridge.”

“Are there any pickles?”

“Yes.”

The youth breathed a sigh of relief; the sole joy of drinking porridge was probably that mouthful of pickles.

He spread his arms, lying sprawled out on the thatch, and casually pulled off the silver medallion from his chest, tossing it into the corner.

options In the corner were four identical medallions, carved with “Sun Xuan”, “Zhang Hao”, “Liu Jian”, and “Song Yi” respectively.

The youth sat cross-legged, regulating his body.

A gentle breeze surged from the youth’s dantian, stirring his body.

While simmering the porridge, Nie Nie looked at the youth and murmured to herself:

“All martial masters of Daxia enter the Heavenly Dao through martial arts, striving for the opportunity to become immortals. Martial masters are divided into ten ranks: the third rank nurtures qi and blood, the fourth rank generates true qi, and the sixth rank is the origin flow of qi. Brother, after so many years, have you still not broken through the bottleneck?”

“Just like Master said, to break through, one must have an opportunity.”

The youth opened his eyes. The girl had already set the old iron pot on the ground, fetching bowls, chopsticks, and a dish of pickled radishes.

A little millet and a few green vegetable leaves were settled at the bottom of the pot. The young girl ladled clear water into her bowl, then scooped the meager remaining millet into the youth’s bowl.

Gu Shiyi snatched the bowl of thin porridge from in front of her in one swift motion.

“Give it back to me!” Nie Nie hastily reached out to snatch it back.

Gu Shiyi held the bowl high and said, “I’m not hungry.”

“No, you’re still growing, and you have to go out and kill people. You should eat the rice.”

“I already ate.”

“When did you eat?”

“When I was killing people.”

“I don’t believe you!”

“It’s true!”

…

After eating, the youth carefully unwrapped the cloth strip around the top of Nie Nie’s head.

There was actually a third eye above her brow!

It grew slanted above her eyebrow, strange and sinister.

The eye blinked and suddenly turned crimson. Nie Nie clutched her eye and pressed her head to the ground.

Sweat, large as beans, dripped down one drop after another.

Gu Shiyi retrieved the bottle of elixir pills and handed it to her. Nie Nie swallowed one, and the red light of the third eye gradually faded away until it slowly closed.

Drenched in sweat as if she had just taken a hot bath, she lay on the ground and fell asleep just like that.

Gu Shiyi walked over to a corner, pulled out a short silver dagger, and lay down on the ground.

His surname was Gu. When his master picked him up, there was a jade pendant carved with the character “Gu” around his neck, and this silver dagger in his arms.

His master was fond of gambling and had pawned the jade pendant long ago. Had he not died early, this dagger surely would have been pawned as well.

Because, in his master’s words, for a home you could never return to, keeping anything was useless.

wretch was also picked up by their master.

Outside the courtyard of a wealthy family, a fat woman had brought her out, cursed her as a wretch, and thrown her by the riverbank.

Their master was drunk and taking a leak by the river, so he picked her up along the way.

So her name became wretch.

Their master had been dead for five years, and Gu Shiyi had taken care of Nie Nie for five years.

A small hand suddenly reached over. Gu Shiyi turned his head; Nie Nie was awake.

“Thinking about your life story again?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Then why are you staring blankly at the dagger?”

“This dagger is silver. Tomorrow I’ll pawn it, and the two of us can eat a good meal.”

“Don’t.”

“You don’t want to eat meat?”

“What’s so good about meat? Could it be better than my pickled radishes?”

Gu Shiyi smiled, reaching out to pull Nie Nie into his arms.

“The best thing in the whole world is the radishes Nie Nie pickles—salty and sour.”

Nie Nie hugged him back, revealing a smile.

“I killed someone from Meichang Palace today,” Gu Shiyi said suddenly.

Nie Nie’s hand tightened. After a moment of silence, she said, “Is it about to start?”

“Mm. In the end, I have to take back what belongs to me.”

“We… will die…”

“Everyone dies.”

The atmosphere became extremely suffocating. Gu Shiyi changed the subject, saying:

“You’re still short one pill for this month’s medicine. Tomorrow I’ll see if there’s any work in the city to earn some money.”

“…”

“I killed a horse today. If only I had dragged it back, then you could have eaten meat.

“…”

“Go to sleep early, Nie Nie.”

“Gu Shiyi, can’t we just run away?”

“We’ve been running for a long time. I don’t want to keep running anymore.”

“Can we… die together…”

“I don’t know.”