Compared to Murong Yunshu, Chu Changge was much calmer. He raised the curtain and said, "Here we are." Then, he picked her up and went into the inn with his head held high.
A group of passers-by did not dare to look directly at the Heavenly Might, and no one noticed that the one sitting in the dragon carriage was Murong Yunshu. When the Killing Demons took the Imperial carriage away, they looked up and secretly searched for the Emperor, but they couldn't see the Holy figure. They couldn't help complaining in their heart: At least say 'rise' before you leave!
As soon as Chu Changge stepped into the inn, Li Wunai, who was counting his silver with great pleasure, greeted him with great enthusiasm while holding an ingot of silver that he had not been able to put down in his hand. "Older Brother Chu, I trust you have been well since we last met?"
"Uh-huh." Chu Changge's indifference contrasted sharply with Li Wunai's enthusiasm.
Li Wunai laughed dryly and said, "You and I are at least sworn brothers, so why is Older Brother Chu treating me indifferently?"
Chu Changge ignored him this time and spoke indifferently to the young man working there, "Number 1 top room."
A baffled Li Wunai could only chuckle a few times before asking Mister Shi Er, who was walking behind Chu Changge, "Mister Shi Er couldn't trap Older Brother Chu at last and now has to sell himself to the Mojiao Sect?"
Mister Shi Er smiled but did not say anything. The Chu's couple obviously disgusted with Manager Li. Thus, it was better not to treat Manager Li warmly to not suffer like a fish facing disaster in the moat.
Li Wunai sighed and lamented bitterly, "What a pity that the jianghu has lost another one of those with lofty ideals."
"My humble self has no virtue whatsoever, so it is a great fortune for me to have the chance to see with my own eyes that Manager Li will wail for me." Mister Shi Er responded with a very warm and gentle-like jade tone.
Li Wunai froze. "Mister......must be joking."
Mister Shi Er continued to smile without saying anything. Before joining the Murong Mansion, he also did not know that he could joke. If one wanted to live a good, happy life, one should find a good Master—especially the kind of Master who built her pleasure on pain of others. Of course, the premise was that 'others' was not him.
From the moment Chu Changge walked into the inn, Li Wunai felt the atmosphere had undoubtedly changed. And when he caught sight of Mister Shi Er's appearance waiting for a good show, it gave him......anything but reassuring. Could it be that Chu Changge was here this time specifically to bring him trouble? It didn't make sense. He had spent years in this place where chickens wouldn't take shit and birds wouldn't lay eggs, a place where they specialised in dirty money. It could also be said as a mediator between those who did dark deeds. Chu Changge wanted to find trouble with him for what? What was more, they had also bowed to heaven and earth......oh no, they were forced to bow. Whether Chu Changge was joking or serious with him, they did light incense to worship Master Guan as they became sworn brothers. How could brothers cause one another's death, right?
I can't. I really can't. Li Wunai shook his head and muttered to himself: Although I, Li Wunai, love to gain profit through dirty money, I don't do things like fighting with my brother.
Could it be that it was because of Shaolin Temple......that didn't make sense either! Chu Changge had promised Shaolin Temple that he would not use his martial arts moves against the temple.
Li Wunai pondered for a few moments, yet still unable to figure out why Chu Changge's attitude was so cold. He eventually said indifferently to the young man, his worker, "Lil Night, take Sect Leader Chu and Mister Shi Er to the backyard to check-in."
Lil Night? Young and as quiet as night. This name suited him very well. The corner of Murong Yunshu's mouth slightly hooked up. Intuition told her that to solve the mystery of Jianghu Inn, this young man named 'Lil Night' was the key.
*
Jianghu was a place of quarrels, and the Jianghu Inn was the epicentre of those quarrels. It was good that the inn was kept stable by a strong martial artist who presided over the situation. But this did not mean that there was no dispute happening here. On the contrary, the Jianghu Inn was an excellent place to watch fights and brawls. Although no one was allowed to bring trouble inside the inn, there was no such taboo outside the inn. Hence, you could kill or maim anyone you like. It didn't matter. Government officials wouldn't arrest or disturb these people. Any brothers of the dead men who wanted to take revenge by going against the rules of the jianghu would also attract other people from the jianghu to rise and attack them. In short, if you wanted to kill someone and didn't want to bear the consequences of killing them, choose to kill them at the entrance of the Jianghu Inn, but there was one prerequisite——the scene must be cleaned up after the killing. [+]
"You must be joking. Since I don't clean up the scene after they kill someone, you want me to help bury the body? I run an inn, not a crematorium." Li Wunai had a cynical look on his face.
Murong Yunshu pondered a little and asked, "Then, do you mind if I open a crematorium across the street?"
"Huh?" Li Wunai thought he must have misheard her.
"By the way, I also want to open a coffin shop next door."
? Did he really mishear her?
"Oh, I need to prepare hell money, wreaths, firecrackers, shrouds, etc..." Murong Yunshu took the cup and thought for a long time, then put down the cup and said, "There are many peripheral products, and the market potential is quite large."
Much like the traditional gold and silver paper, Hell Bank Notes serve as the official currency for the afterlife. Living relatives offer them to dead ancestors by burning (or placing them in coffins in the case of funerals) the banknotes as a bribe to Yanluo for a shorter stay or to escape punishment, or for the ancestors themselves to use in spending on lavish items in the afterlife. Hell Bank Notes are also known for their enormous denominations ranging from $10,000 to $5,000,000,000. The bills almost always feature an image of the Yanluo Wang on the front and the "headquarters" of the Hell Bank on the back. Another common feature is the signatures of both the Yanluo Wang and the Judges of Underworld, both of whom apparently also serves as the Hell bank's governor and deputy governor (as featured on the back). - Joss paper (Wiki)
きつね: For the video, the hell money is at 01:26. No English translation though.
Li Wunai didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Miss Murong, you even want to earn money from dead people?" She was simply even darker than him.
"Money doesn't come when you're born, and you can't take it with you when you die anyway. Death ends all one's troubles. So you might as well spend your money to bury yourself in such a big way. With an impressive burial, perhaps you will be able to have a good birth in your next life and live a little longer."
"......how can people pay for it when they are already dead?" Li Wunai's face was full of black lines.
"That makes sense." Murong Yunshu murmured and suddenly said to the two jianghu men who were duelling to the death outside the gate, "Two brave men, how about we talk about a business deal?"
The two brave men, who were physically wrestling fiercely outside the gate, both stopped when they heard this and looked at Murong Yunshu in unison. "What kind of business?"
Murong Yunshu offered, "You will each hand me ten taels of silver, and the one who wins can take the silver back. For the one who dies, I will use the ten taels of silver to bury him generously. What do you think of this deal?"
One of them said, "You better ask him. I'm not going to lose anyway."
Murong Yunshu responded, "Things are unpredictable, so you can’t say that."
The man's face suddenly changed, but he didn't dare to speak back in anger. It was better not to mess with Chu Changge's woman.
The other man was thinking about it and felt that it did make sense. Therefore, he pulled out his money bag and threw it to Murong Yunshu while saying, "Miss Murong's promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold, so I trust you."
Murong Yunshu weighed the money bag, took ten taels of silver out of it, and threw the money bag back to him, saying, "I'll only take ten taels."
"I know Miss Murong has always been charitable, so take the rest of the silver to relieve the refugees. I won't need it after I die anyway." After the man finished speaking, he threw the money bag to Murong Yunshu.
Murong Yunshu no longer postponed. After weighing the money bag with one hand, she leisurely said, "When you die, I will burn more hell money for you, and you will take it to bribe King Yan for a good reincarnation in your next life."
The man smiled bitterly and didn't say a thing.
Li Wunai pointed out, "You’re generous to irrelevant people. Truly generous, Older Sister-in-law."
Older Sister-in-law? This was a rare thing. She had been in the Jianghu Inn for a night and a half, but this was the first time Li Wunai had called her 'older sister-in-law'. As the saying went, the unaccountably solicitous one was hiding evil intentions. Li Wunai clearly had bad intentions. "I've always been so generous." Murong Yunshu answered indifferently, waiting to see what would happen next.
Li Wunai chuckled as he asked, "Then when I die, you will surely burn me a large amount of hell money too, right?" He deliberately put a heavier tone on the words 'large amount'.
Murong Yunshu smilingly said, "Don't worry. When you die, I will burn all the hell money in the world for you."
"You're not joking with me, are you?" Was the Murong Mansion a little too rich? At the drop of a hat, could they just buy everything in the entire world......her tone of utter disregard for money taught people like him how embarrassing it was to still earn profit from dirty money and save them like they were their wives! "It will cost a lot of silver to buy all the hell money from the whole world." Li Wunai said.
"I know." Murong Yunshu took another sip of tea and spat out the words accompanied with the fragrance of tea, "As long as you die, I'm willing to spend even more money."
"......this little brother doesn't seem to have offended sister-in-law, does he?" The corner of Li Wunai's mouth twitched slightly. [+]
"I don't think so, and even if you did, I wouldn't hold a grudge. For example, when I came to the Jianghu Inn the last time, you had enticed Lin Shuier to seduce Chu Changge. I have already forgotten about that."
"......" This was still called not remembering? Li Wunai deeply felt that the seemingly weak woman in front of him was even harder to deal with than Chu Changge.
When he thought of Chu Changge, Li Wunai stood up sharply, looked around and asked nervously, "Where is Chu Changge? Didn't you say before that he would come downstairs afterwards? How come he hasn't come down yet?"
Murong Yunshu smiled faintly and said, "Do you think I came downstairs to find you for tea and a chat because I was bored?"
Li Wunai suddenly realised that the person who didn't even look at him yesterday, but today took the initiative to move a chair to sit at the door to drink tea and chat with him, must have something fishy in it. "He went to the Shaolin Temple?" Li Wunai asked.
"Maybe." Murong Yunshu replied.
"You two...you two, these pair are really..." Li Wunai felt so suffocated that he became too lazy to waste even more of his breath. He immediately put his qinggong to use as he hurriedly went to the Shaolin Temple.
Since she had already been discovered, Murong Yunshu did not have the leisure to 'watch the play'. In fact, she had no interest in the kind of play happening outside the gate at all, especially after experiencing so much life and death.
"Let's go back to the room." Murong Yunshu said.
Soul Chaser and Suo Ming, who was instructed to stay in the Jianghu Inn, immediately lifted Murong Yunshu.
Murong Yunshu's leg was almost well enough, except for the limp that would make her unsightly when she walked. But what was not to like about having someone to serve you? Although sitting on the stretcher wasn't that comfortable, she enjoyed the envious and hated gazes of others. She especially enjoyed it, especially from those women of prestigious families who were obviously jealous but pretending to be noble. She didn't know whether they were jealous of her having a stretcher to sit on or of her having beautiful men to keep her company. If it was the latter, she was afraid they would only deserve to die of jealousy.
A beautiful man was like silver in a private bank. You knew it existed, and there was a lot of it, but not everyone could have it. Occasionally, when you saw someone holding it out, you could only watch from afar. Only the person who ran the private bank could see and touch it and take some of it for himself. Of course, she only took the shiniest silver. As for the rest, it was good to keep it by her side until she squandered it.
After returning to the guest room, Murong Yunshu threw the money bag to Soul Chaser and said, "Give it back to its owner."
"Yes." Soul Chaser received the order and left.
Murong Yunshu yawned and limped over to the bed. For some reason, she had been getting sleepy even more easily lately, especially on the way to Xi Province. When she thought about it, she was ridiculously exhausted these days......
Murong Yunshu thought of this as she lay down to prepare for sleep when she suddenly noticed Suo Ming approaching. He took a step towards the edge of the bed, stepped back a little, and then stood staring at her motionlessly at the edge of the bed. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously.
Suo Ming answered scrupulously and methodically, "Before the Leader left, he ordered that I could not leave Madam for half a step." After he finished speaking, he measured it again. He was precisely half a step.
"......" It was a good thing Chu Changge didn't say half a centimetre. Otherwise, where would he have stood?
－－－－－－ Off-topic (Author) －－－－－－
囧, I can't believe the word '美男' is banned even for the title......
Noob Translator's Musing
Suo Ming is so cute. 🤣 He follows Chu Changge's instruction to the T. What an innocent man. 🤣
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Black Belly Wife