...
At the Lu Family Mansion, Qiu Zhiheng was reading the newspaper in the small building when Zhang Huaiyi knocked on the door and entered.
Qiu Zhiheng looked surprised. "Young Master Zhang, when did you get here?"
Before this, Qiu Zhiheng would have called him Huaiyi, but now he addressed him formally as Young Master Zhang.
Zhang Huaiyi smiled and said, "My mother cooked a few dishes herself and is inviting you over for a meal."
"Lady Shao Hong is here?" Qiu Zhiheng deliberately brought up Duan Shaohong.
"What I meant was..." Zhang Huaiyi’s expression turned awkward as he looked at Qiu Zhiheng and said, "Uncle Qiu, I actually am..."
Qiu Zhiheng calmly waited for him to finish.
Zhang Huaiyi didn’t know how to begin.
...
Three days later, Li Banfeng and Little Lian Bud were sitting side by side in a canyon, each holding a roast chicken and chewing slowly.
This canyon was one of Little Lian Bud’s forehead creases.
Li Banfeng, clutching the roast chicken, scrutinized it many times but was still not entirely at ease. "This chicken, it didn’t grow on your face, did it?"
Little Lian Bud snapped angrily, "Have you ever seen a chicken growing on a face? I hunted this outside!"
To be fair, the roast chicken tasted pretty good, just a bit greasy.
"Got any greens? To cut the grease."
"What grease to cut?" Little Lian Bud became displeased. "When I was a kid, if I got to eat greasy food even once, I’d be happy for days. And here you are, thinking about cutting grease!"
Li Banfeng, nibbling on a chicken wing, asked, "Just because you couldn’t eat greasy food as a kid, you produced all this oil?"
Little Lian Bud sighed while biting into a chicken leg. "What’s wrong with oil? It’s fragrant and smooth. All the delicious delicacies in this world are found in oil. Oilless dishes have no place at a banquet, and ’oilless’ people can’t achieve prominence. As long as there’s oil on the table, life isn’t too difficult. Don’t you think oil is the best thing in this world?"
Li Banfeng nodded and said, "I never said oil was bad, but I really didn’t come here to steal oil."
Little Lian Bud nodded. "I believe you. We’ve been together for these three days, and I can tell that your character is quite decent. But you did something wrong: you shouldn’t have peed on my face."
Li Banfeng said, "I had no choice. It’s been three whole days; where else was I supposed to pee?"
Little Lian Bud still felt uncomfortable. "You could pee on my cheeks, but you shouldn’t have peed next to my mouth!"
"I only saw what looked like trees there. How was I supposed to know that was your mouth!"
"Those weren’t trees; that was my beard!" Little Lian Bud said, his face indignant. "I really want to let you go, but I just can’t rest easy."
Li Banfeng persuaded, "Don’t worry. If you don’t let me go soon, it’ll be about more than just peeing on your face."
Little Lian Bud stared at Li Banfeng. "You’re not crazy. You know my location. I’m worried you’ll leak information about it, and people from the Inner State will find me here. It’s not that I don’t trust your character. But what if you were caught by people from the Inner State and severely tortured? Can you guarantee you wouldn’t reveal my whereabouts?"
Li Banfeng replied, "You can rest assured about that; I definitely can’t guarantee it. But you don’t have to let me know where you are. You can just move after you send me away!"
"I can’t move; I can’t change places."
Li Banfeng was startled. "Why can’t you move?"
"I just... can’t move..." Little Lian Bud’s expression turned somewhat bleak.
The two silently ate their roast chickens. Once they were nearly half-finished, Little Lian Bud said to Li Banfeng, "You said you came here in a daze, and I believe you. I’ll find a way to send you out in a daze too, so you won’t know how you left. It’ll be as if we never met."
"Deal! After I leave, I’ll act as if we never met. I absolutely won’t tell anyone about this!" Li Banfeng put down his half-eaten roast chicken and promised, patting his chest.
Little Lian Bud heaved a sigh. "Are there still any disciples of my Taoist Sect left in this world?"
"You mean Oil Cultivators?"
Little Lian Bud nodded.
"Yes! I’ve met two of them."
Little Lian Bud blinked his small eyes, his face showing a little excitement. "Are they doing well?"
"They’re good! All of them are doing well!" Li Banfeng replied, based on his own understanding.
"As long as they’re well, and there are still disciples, that’s good enough!" Little Lian Bud stood up. "Later, when you see the Peddler, remember to tell him. Tell him to come and save me."
"Okay, I promise."
Little Lian Bud said angrily, "Didn’t you just say you wouldn’t tell anyone? And now you’re going to tell the Peddler!"
"But you’re the one who asked me to..."
Before Li Banfeng could finish explaining, Little Lian Bud charged at him, and Li Banfeng took off running.
Little Lian Bud pursued Li Banfeng all the way through the vast forest stretching for tens of miles.
There were many Oil Lakes in the forest, and Li Banfeng skirted the edge of each one.
Little Lian Bud shouted, "That’s my eyebrow!"
Li Banfeng was in no mood to appreciate the scenery and just kept running. Before long, a desolate wasteland appeared ahead.
No grass, no trees, nothing but wilderness. It was an expansive, mostly flat, yet slightly undulating barren wasteland.
"These are my eyes!" Little Lian Bud caught up from behind.
Li Banfeng kept running.
But he saw no ocean, just a boundless wilderness.
He ran for an unknown amount of time until the wilderness finally gave way to gradually rising terrain. A mountain appeared ahead—a place Li Banfeng had been to before.