Step Down, Let Me Come!

Chapter 32: Discussion

According to Qi Shan’s understanding of Shen Tang, this young master wouldn’t let others protect him. He was worried that Shen Tang would come up with a bad idea, so he hurriedly handled his own business and returned at once. The result - 

Person?

Such a big young master Shen?

Qi Shan stood in place, his face became black.

When he just thought that Shen Tang was abducted, or that she kidnaped abductors, he heard an unfamiliar, calm male voice in his ears.

“It is Qi Shan, young master Qi?” 

“Hello sir, indeed I’m Qi Shan”

Qi Shan took back his anxiety and proceeded to salute.

After that, he straightened his back, while secretly observing the appearance of the man – his hair was grayish-white, and he looked old, the marks of hardships were visible on his face. He was probably around 40 to 50 years old. He wore some yellowish old clothes and straw sandals. Only this, wouldn’t be able to arose Qi Shan’s interest, it was his cultured and scholarly disposition that left him amazed. His appeared gentle and fair. His dark eyes were too clear for a person his age. 

He dropped his eyes, he gazed at his hands.

His hands looked old and rough, they also had some traces of frostbite. He carried some meat wrapped in lotus leaves. He looked like a poor person, who did a lot of heavy manual work. At this moment, these complicated thoughts quickly passed through his mind, and he gradually cleared his doubts.

He calmly asked: “Sir, how did you know about the name Shan?”

The newcomer kindly smiled: “Young master Shen said that”. 

Qi Shan understood immediately who this “young master Shen” was.

The worry in his chest disappeared with this information. He asked again: “Did he leave any words?” 

“Yes. He said, ‘I have a matter to settle outside, I will be back in a moment’”.

Qi Shan didn’t know what to say. Young master Shen originally didn’t know the road. He had never been in this city before, what matters could he have here?

Qi Shan asked again: “Did he say what he had to do?”

Newcomer: “He wanted to uphold virtue and condemn evil on the behalf of heaven”. 

Qi Shan: “…???”

Qi Shan looked suspicious. These words seemed to be quite weird, they seemed exactly like something that folk would say about god in teachings of an evil cult, right?

The newcomer: “Young master Shen was worried that you won’t be able to find him, he especially requested that you wait here for him, so as to not worry you”. 

Qi Shan sighed without humor: “How can I worry? Even if I have to worry, I'm more worried about villains who offended him…” 

The newcomer unnaturally pursued up his lips and suppressed his knowing smile.

He had to say, his judgment was still pretty accurate.

After Qi Shan heard about Shen Tang’s “wonderful” experience in these 2 hours that he was gone, his expression went out of control – He just left for a little more than 2 hours and young master Shen already managed to provoke people? Merely, it already happened, so it was useless to say more.

Qi Shan chatted, while waiting for Shen Tang.

He didn’t reveal his questions on the surface, but inside his doubts grew. 

This old man was dressed like a poor commoner, but his words, manners, and his temperament was like he was soaked in incense all year round and raised in a noble and wealthy family. Even if he wore yellowish old clothes and his hands had traces of hard work, it couldn’t change his distinct style.

Finally, they started chatting about magic words.

Recently, he delved into some new battle formation magic words – “to walk right into the trap” and “cornered beast will still fight”. The former was used to deploy troops and deceive the enemy's forces, while the latter was mostly used to stimulate the momentum when in disadvantage, it was a magic word used for final struggle. But if the opportunity was seized correctly, it could give a chance to make a comeback.

The old man perceived Qi Shan’s frankness and assurance, and he seemed distracted for a moment. He didn’t know what to think, so he said: “To walk right into the trap, it is to court disaster… Young master Qi, the magic words you used were ‘Don't see the sparrows between fences, but see the hawks throwing themselves into the trap’, right? It’s not too good”. 

Qi Shan was a little surprised, so he asked: “Why is it bad?” 

“You could be easily targeted. If the enemy’s wenxin reaches you, he only needs to ‘Draw the sword to destroy the net and set oriole free’, that means easily break your formation”.

If the net was destroyed by a sharp sword, how could it trap the oriole? 

Since the sky was high and the bird could fly away, the troubles could be endless.

“Then, in sir’s view, what’s the best?”

“Might as well ‘Sink into water and enter fire (commit suicide) and court disaster’”. 

Qi Shan “…”

If it is said that “to walk right into the trap” could still leave some leeway out, give an opportunity to “strike the net and destroy it”, the magic words that this old man mentioned meant a complete annihilation of the enemy. Qi Shan looked at the old man with some surprise, this man looked kind, but he said some deathly things.

“Then – in sir’s opinion, what about ‘a cornered beast will still fight’?

The old man lacked interest, his expression seemed indifferent, but then he said something amazing: “On the battlefield, if the enemy is dead, I will live. If you use 'a trapped beast will fight' magic sentence it may turn out unpredictable, you may not be able to win for a long time”.

Qi Shan: “…”

You can’t judge a man by his appearance, these words were really true.

He thought he already had enough unexpected winning moves, but he didn’t expect he could meet with a person even more outstanding than him. It was only that this old man… didn’t wait for Qi Shan to have more ideas. At this time, Shen Tang quickly came back on her mule. She jumped down and said with a smile: “Yuanliang, you’ve been waiting for a long time”.

Qi Shan suppressed his pointless thoughts and looked at Shen Tang’s clothes and hands with detail. They were perfectly clean, so could it be that she didn’t kill anyone? 

“You said ‘you wanted to uphold virtue and condemn evil on the behalf of heaven’, so what about the ‘condemn evil’ part?

Shen Tang leaned on a motor, radiant with delight: “They, they’re travelling so fast now, they may be able to ask for a soup from Meng Po (goddess who gives potion to the souls) right about now”.

Qi Shan: “…”

So, “Condemning evil” part was really carried out.

The evil tendencies of the young master Shen were not light.

After the old man saw that they’ve reunited, he bid his farewell.

Qi Shan hastily asked him where he lived now, so they could learn from each other if the opportunity arises, but the old man politely declined.

Seeing that the old man took the meat covered in lotus leaves and left, Qi Shan frowned and didn't come back to his senses until Shen Tang stretched out her hand and shook it in front of his eyes.

“What’re ya doing?” 

Angrily, he patted the back of Shen Tang's hand away. 

Shen Tang said: “If you look at him again, you won't be able to look back”. 

Qi Shan murmured: “It's a pity”.

Shen Tang took out two caramels, then trotted up to keep up with Qi Shan's pace, and asked curiously, “What's the pity?” 

Qi Shan said: “This person is not simple”.

Shen Tang thought that he wanted to say that even a blind person would be able to realize this, so she said: “It is certainly not easy to catch a person in the vast crowd at only one glance. Look at his temperament, he is not like an ordinary person, I don't know if it's because of his family or some accidents”. 

It’s not like she didn’t realize that this old man was “not an ordinary hermit who lives in the wild, but a true recluse that chose the city”, but the hermit still had his own pretentious style. Even if he was destitute, it was highly unlikely that he would eat something that even common people regard with disdain, wear wretched clothes and do so much heavy work.

Qi Shan didn’t answer, so Shen Tang asked again: “Looking at you talking so joyously, like you knew each other for a long time, I have to ask what did you talk about?”

“Magic words”.

“Does he have wenxin?”

Qi Shan drooped his eyes: “Perhaps, he had”. 

Shen Tang: “???”

He had, so it means that he doesn’t have now, right?

To let Qi Shan appreciate him so much, the two of them certainly were “birds of the same feather”, so Shen Tang couldn’t be more curious – Why did this old man lose his wenxin? 

Could it be that he was also banished like people from the Gong clan and his dantian was destroyed and wenxin crushed?

Qi Shan was walking, when he discovered that the footsteps behind him stopped.

He turned his head and saw Shen Tang running to a butcher's shop that was closing, inquiring about something with the butcher, then quickly running back.