Chapter 24 What to Do

Hearing Yang Gong's rough explanation, what could Hu Ma say? He could only conclude that this kid's luck had indeed turned for the better.

Apparently, after that incident of eliminating the bandits, Yang Gong and his men returned to the mountains and were welcomed by countless mountain families. Several villages joined hands, offering fine wine and meat to serve them.

Even some families from deep within the mountains, from quite a distance, led donkeys, pulled carts, and brought gold, silver, cattle, sheep, wine, and food to reward them.

Yang Gong and the other Red Fragrance disciples had never seen such a scene and were all excited and happy.

At the banquet, the elders with status and seniority, or some landlords and wealthy people from the villages, kept raising their bowls to compliment them, asking about their identities, ages, and ancestral homes.

Many people expressed that their villages had suitable women and wanted to marry them off to them. Yang Gong and the others were very embarrassed and declined, not taking up the topic. But later, no one expected...

"You're quite the wild one, aren't you?"

Hu Ma was surprised when he heard this. "You just went to someone's village for a drink and ended up in the bridal chamber that very night?"

"It's not like that!"

Yang Gong immediately became aggrieved, waving his hands repeatedly, and said, "I don't know what happened. The mountain wine was easy to drink, but it was potent. Once I got drunk, I didn't know anything. When I woke up and wanted a drink of water, I touched something slippery and soft..."

"No need to describe the details."

Hu Ma quickly stopped him, also full of curiosity, and hurriedly said, "Then you got married?"

"I had to get married, she was a virgin."

Yang Gong looked embarrassed and said, "Besides, she was from a well-known wealthy family in the village, with countless fertile fields and a herd of mules and horses."

"They said that what's done is done, so she had to marry me. They also said that I didn't have a place to live, so they specially allocated a house and assigned several servants to serve me."

"..."

"Hiss."

Hu Ma found it bizarre. Such things weren't hard to understand, but Yang Gong now indeed had prestige in the mountains and had earned qi luck in the dark, but it shouldn't be showing yet.

Could it be that those mountain families had such a keen sense and started betting so early?

Just as he was wondering, Yang Gong sighed again and said, "Afterward, I felt something was wrong and asked her what was going on. She also said she didn't know, she was just muddled in her dreams and was pushed into my room by her deceased grandparents."

"Who knows if it's true or not."

"..."

"This..."

Hu Ma didn't know how to advise him. It seemed that the living didn't necessarily have this kind of vision, but the dead might.

Yang Gong was now famous and capable in the eyes of the living, maybe he was even more popular in the eyes of the dead!

He could only pat his hand and sigh, "In that case, accept it!"

"Listening to you, your father-in-law's family seems to have a solid foundation. You're just about to leave the Red Lantern Society, staying there to live wouldn't be bad, you'd have found a way to make a living."

"..."

"That's the crux of the matter."

Yang Gong suddenly became indignant, stood up abruptly, closed the door of the inner hall, and then turned to look at Hu Ma with a worried look. His attitude startled Hu Ma.

Then he heard Yang Gong lean close to him, lower his voice, and say, "I'm only telling you this, Brother Hu Ma. If you tell anyone else, I'll have to run outside and jump into the river. I..."

He hesitated, resentfully, glanced down, and whispered, "My body is weak."

"?"

Hu Ma was stunned and stared blankly at Yang Gong, blinking his eyes.

Yang Gong said, "It's just that, it's because we are fu ling (spirit bearers), we're usually too tired, so, that thing..."

Seeing Yang Gong gesticulating, trying hard to explain, Hu Ma suddenly held out his hand:

"Say no more, I understand."

"..."

Then he silently got up, went to the bedside, groped for two porcelain bottles, returned to Yang Gong, stuffed them into his hands, and sighed, "It's the lot of a fu ling person, everyone understands."

"Take these three Blood Food Pills, they are all good things from our Shou Sui Sect. After you eat them, don't use the old methods to refine them, just let them digest. I think they can always replenish you."

Yang Gong was immediately shocked: "This is possible?"

Hu Ma looked at him curiously and said, "As a Red Fragrance disciple, haven't you seen it before?"

"We only eat these to save our lives!"

Yang Gong said, "We risk our lives to earn half a pill, and we keep them to deal with tough situations. Who would use them on this?"

"Then now is the time to use them on this."

Hu Ma couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, patted his hand, and said, "Consider this my wedding gift to you. Just keep it and don't wrong the bride."

Looking at Yang Gong's tangled and excited look, he couldn't help but find it funny.

Fate, destiny, what to say about this thing?

Yang Gong's life essence, whether in the eyes of the Five Fiends or the Mountain Lord, was actually a very shallow type. Although, theoretically, he now had the fate of an emperor, but if he really wanted to compete...

Hu Ma could only shake his head secretly, far from it, too far.

He had learned a lot about the matters of the Dao, but he only had a vague understanding of this theory of fate, and could only roughly ponder it, so he couldn't help Yang Gong much. Now, everyone could only follow their own fate.

Perhaps one day, he would be able to understand this theory of fate, and if he had the opportunity, he could help him.

Of course, that was far away. He hadn't obtained the token yet, and he hadn't fully learned his skills. He didn't plan to get involved in such a bizarre and mysterious game of chess yet.

On this day, after solving Yang Gong's major problem and having some understanding of his whereabouts, Hu Ma felt relieved. He set up a banquet in the village and invited Yang Gong to drink. At night, he saw a fine horse and a red sedan chair arrive at the entrance of the village.

It was the mountain bride who was worried and personally brought people to pick him up.

"Some hide in the city, some hide in the mountains. Don't underestimate this small Ming Prefecture, there are many families with solid foundations."

Hu Ma nodded secretly as he watched their pomp. People of the Dao ultimately belonged to the martial world, and the ones who shouldn't be underestimated were them.

Speaking of which, the families in the mountains seemed relatively poor, but who knew how many villages were storing grain and raising horses, paying attention to the situation of the world? Perhaps, there were many aristocratic families who hid in the mountains when they saw changes in the world, waiting for the opportunity to arise!

The ones who had set their sights on Yang Gong might be such families. They were also good at betting everywhere, and they looked low-key, raising many scholars around them!

In this world, the government was low-key, and few scholars came out, but they all had knowledge and learning. If they were made to stay obediently, they were either brewing something bad or thinking about rebelling!

When it came to it, these things were really interesting and could better see the world clearly. But for him, of course, the matter of entering the mansion was the most important.

Hu Ma understood this in his heart, so after seeing Yang Gong off, he turned his attention back.

Now, the matter of entering the mansion was simple, as long as there was enough Blood Food to nourish it. However, although he had a lot of Blood Food on hand, it was only enough for half. So, the other half couldn't help but tempt Hu Ma.

Finding a time, he entered the city and found Hall Master Xu, bringing a pot of fine wine and two boxes of cured meat, putting them on the table, and said with a smile, "That Blood Food mine in the mountains that we talked about before..."

"I was just about to inform you, it's time to set off. If you don't go soon, something might change!"

Hall Master Xu also knew that the Red Lantern Society had been busy for a while before, he didn't know what they were busy with, but he had always kept in mind the matter that he had agreed with Hu Ma, and hurriedly piled the prepared contracts and documents on the table.

"When can you set off?"

"..."

"There's really a chance to go to the Blood Food mine?"

Hu Ma looked at the stack of contracts and documents, and was a little excited. He had already started flirting with Hall Master Xu about this matter last year, and was afraid that something would go wrong.

Unexpectedly, Hall Master Xu handled things properly. He hurriedly said, "I can go in these two days."

"But..."

Before taking the contracts and documents, he solemnly asked Hall Master Xu, "Uncle Xu, you also know that a Blood Food mine that has just been taken over needs a lot of things to be handled inside and out, and you have to appease everyone and take care of everything."

"I have no experience, and I have to adapt for a while, so the amount of Blood Food that this mine will hand over to the Society next year may not be enough?"

"What kind of place do you think our Red Lantern Society is?"

Hall Master Xu was directly angry when he heard this, looked coldly at Hu Ma, and said, "Are we so uncompassionate?"

"The Society let you manage this Blood Food mine because they trust you, so how could they care about these things?"

"Even the emperor doesn't want to starve his soldiers."

"..."

"Ah?"

Hu Ma looked at the serious Hall Master Xu and nodded solemnly, "I understand."

If I hand over even a little next year, consider me a loser.

"Before you leave, go visit Old Pan, agree on a time, and you can go together."

Hall Master Xu also instructed, "This going to the Blood Food mine is different from managing a village. You have to bring this old guardian, they've already greeted each other, and drank together, this old brother is also experienced, so nothing should go wrong."

"I know."

Thinking of Old Pan, who owed him at least two hundred pounds of Blood Food, Hu Ma felt that there was no pressure to bring him, so he simply went that day.

When he arrived, Hu Ma immediately bowed deeply, "Old Sir, from now on, the two of us will cooperate well."

"Don't!"

Old Pan grandly raised his hand to stop Hu Ma from saluting, "Just call me Old Brother, we're different ages, but our seniority is not different. I am the Society's guardian, and you are the Society's Hall Manager. When it comes to the birthday of the Goddess, we all sit at the same table!"

"You're pretending to be a junior in front of me now, so you can get more benefits at the mine later, right?"

"Let me tell you, this old man is not easy to fool."

(End of this chapter)