Chapter 7 - 8-9: Rift
As it turned out, being a spendthrift was a skill in itself. Hee Lingchuan had done his best to burn through money, but he had only managed to spend two hundred taels in a month.
In a borderland like this, one hundred taels was enough for an ordinary family of four to live comfortably for five or six years!
Ying Hongchan cleared her throat. "Lingchuan, I was just about to speak with you. We spent far too much this summer and autumn, so the estate must tighten its belt. Starting next month, your allowance will be cut to eighty taels." She glanced at her husband as she finished.
Before Hee Chunhua could respond, Hee Lingchuan cried out, "Eighty taels? That’ll be gone after two trips to the Crane Building!"
Ying Hongchan’s expression darkened. "Your younger brother doesn’t even use twenty taels a month."
"Him..." Hee Lingchuan retorted, unconvinced. "He eats and drinks at home. What does he need money for? I have a retinue to support, and connections in the city to maintain. That costs money, and it’s not just for my own benefit!"
"Maintain what connections?" Ying Hongchan sneered. "Those people only fawn over you because they’re trying to get to your father. Do those kinds of relationships really need maintaining? Our family has no shortage of lapdogs."
She didn’t give Hee Lingchuan a chance to interject. "Times are turbulent. Our money and grain must be put to good use. Lingchuan, your father and I don’t expect you to solve the family’s problems, but please, try not to cause so much trouble."
The words were harsh. A knot of frustration and resentment instantly formed in Hee Lingchuan’s chest.
’But these weren’t his own emotions.’
In fact, every time the family ate together, he could feel a sense of "unhappiness" welling up from the depths of his mind. It was almost a subconscious, physical reaction.
’The body’s previous owner must have hated these situations. And since Hee Chunhua had always doted on him, this feeling must be directed at the lady of the house.’
"Father." He turned to him directly.
Hee Chunhua pondered for a moment before speaking. "Madam Ying is right, but eighty taels..." He trailed off, thinking it was a bit too little. "Let’s raise it to two hundred taels."
’A hundred taels would be plenty. Then I wouldn’t have to work so hard to spend it,’ Hee Lingchuan thought, but his face showed only displeasure. "That’s still too little! Three hundred taels!"
Mother and son haggled for a long time while Hee Chunhua chimed in from the side, playing the peacemaker. In the end, Madam Ying put her foot down, firmly setting the amount at one hundred and eighty taels.
Ying Hongchan shot her husband a reproachful look. She had wanted to slash her stepson’s allowance, but his soft-hearted father couldn’t bring himself to be firm. After all that bickering, they had only managed to cut it by twenty taels from the previous month!
’Truly, he who does not manage the household does not know the cost of living.’
"The six hundred-odd taels of silver we’re saving each month," Hee Yue said, blinking, "could buy dozens of sets of fine armor, or several high-quality warhorses. At the very least, we could recruit sixty men into the army."
As soon as he finished speaking, Hee Lingchuan slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "I’m full!"
Before striding out of the dining hall, he didn’t forget to grab a stewed pear from the brass basin, eating it as he walked.
The pear had been stewed for over an hour with rock sugar and Sichuan peppercorns until it was sweet and meltingly tender. It was said to calm the mind and dispel internal "heat," a perfect way to cool the body after a meal of mutton.
No one stopped him.
As he was leaving the garden, Hee Lingchuan glanced back. The other three were still sitting around the table, eating and talking, looking perfectly content together.
He shrugged and walked quickly back to his own residence.
To be fair, Hee Chunhua treated his eldest son quite well. Hee Lingchuan had his own courtyard, the largest, quietest, and most beautiful one in the eastern part of the estate. It had black pines and white peach trees, a meandering stream with a pavilion, and even a small training ground for martial arts.
Although Hee Yue’s residence was also in the east, it was only half the size of his older brother’s.
The courtyard’s lone servant appeared at the sound of his arrival, but Hee Lingchuan dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
Hee Lingchuan stripped off his shirt and practiced his fist forms under the moonlight for over an hour, stopping only when he was thoroughly invigorated and dripping with sweat.
The body’s previous owner hadn’t been gifted academically, but he had loved the martial arts since he was a child and was not afraid of hard work—a rare trait among the scions of Noble Families. The Hee Family had produced Military Generals in the past and possessed its own Body Refinement Cultivation Technique, which Hee Chunhua had passed down to his eldest son.
As his training reached its peak, a faint white mist began to envelop his sturdy, muscular frame, visible only in the moonlight.
This was the perfect moment. Hee Lingchuan immediately stopped his forms and sat down to regulate his breathing.
The white mist was reabsorbed, bit by bit, through his mouth and nose.
One cycle was now complete.
He was cultivating the Hee Family’s ancestral Divine Technique, called the "Traction Technique."
Hee Lingchuan used a Body Refining Technique to force his True Qi to the surface of his skin, allowing it to mingle with the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi—particularly the Moonlight. Then, through controlled breathing, he would draw it back in, purified and refined.
And thus, the cycle of movement and stillness, expulsion and absorption, pushing and pulling, was complete.
Of course, he could also use the Traction Technique by itself to complete a full Circulation, but starting with Body Refinement helped to expel the accumulated cold, grime, and illness from his body, making the purification of his True Qi even more effective.
Once he finished his meditation, Hee Lingchuan felt even more energized. He grabbed a white towel and went for a soak in the bath.
The hot water had been drawn by the servant, a simple, honest-looking man in his thirties.
Hee Lingchuan sank into the hot water and let out a long sigh. ’It would be amazing if someone could scrub my back right now,’ he thought. ’Pure bliss.’
As a major transportation hub, Black Water City naturally had its bathhouses. Besides communal bathing, services like back scrubbing and pedicures were standard. But that was at a public Bathhouse. At home, Young Master Hee couldn’t enjoy the back-scrubbing services provided by young women.
Because he had no maidservants.
Maidservants in their teens, their twenties, or even their thirties and forties... he had none at all.
To cultivate the Hee Family’s ancestral Martial Arts with maximum efficiency and reap lifelong benefits, one had to remain a virgin.
When Hee Lingchuan first began his training, he was too naive to understand the downside. It was only after he grew up and saw his degenerate friends enjoying their romantic escapades that he went to confront Hee Chunhua. In response, his father could only beat his chest and stamp his feet in regret.
Hee Lingchuan was devoted to the Martial Dao and couldn’t bear to abandon it halfway, so he had resigned himself to his fate.
Still, Hee Chunhua didn’t want to needlessly test his eldest son’s willpower, so he refrained from assigning any female staff to his courtyard.
Hee Lingchuan sat in the large wooden tub, thinking about the West Mountain Leopard Demon, the Donglai Prefecture Guard captured by the Red and White Dao, and the miscellaneous items hidden in the Leopard Fang.
’When will Donglai Prefecture realize the Guard they sent to Black Water City has gone missing?’
’How will they react?’
’And how will the Prefect respond?’
He subconsciously picked up the necklace on his chest again and looked at it, then suddenly tore it off and threw it forcefully toward the distant garden.
The necklace traced a parabola through the air, flying over the courtyard wall.
A few moments later, he felt a strange sensation on his chest. He looked down—
The necklace had returned, resting innocently around his neck.
’Just as I thought. No matter how many times I throw it, this thing always comes back on its own.’
He had examined it carefully many times. Though it looked like jade, it wasn’t. The material felt more like ivory.
At the end of the day, ivory and bone are composed of very similar materials.
On the day he fell from the cliff, he’d heard the leopard roar a new word:
Divine Bone.
’Could this pendant, the one that refuses to leave me, be that Divine Bone?’
...
After the meal, Hee Yue excused himself, and Hee Chunhua and his wife went back to their quarters to wash up.
Only then did Ying Hongchan have the chance to lecture her husband. "You spoil Lingchuan far too much. He alone accounts for the lion’s share of the estate’s monthly expenses! And did you see his attitude? Slamming the table and storming out!" she fumed. "The sheer arrogance!"
"He won’t be, starting next month," Hee Chunhua soothed her. "He’s just recovered from a serious injury, and now we’re cutting his allowance. It’s only natural he’d be upset."
Madam Ying was about to say more, but Hee Chunhua had already changed the subject. "Have you noticed any changes in Lingchuan recently?"
"Recently?" Madam Ying thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Other than spending a bit less money, I haven’t noticed any change."