Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 294: Revisiting an Old Place

At sunset.

Cui Yuanyong kicked open the door to Zhao Changhe’s room. “You’ve been recuperating from those minor injuries for an entire day. Isn’t that enough? Get up and—”

The room was empty, with no luggage in sight.

“What the...?” Cui Yuanyong was dumbfounded. “Wasn’t he just lying down like a dead dog? He left without even saying goodbye? Didn’t he know we wanted to have a celebratory toast with him?”

He then realized who else was missing. “Damn, he’s all about girls now. Why wasn’t I able to see that he was such a person before?! If I don’t go back and badmouth you to Yangyang, my surname isn’t Cui!”

Cui Yuanyong angrily stormed off to the martial artist camp, where a raucous celebration was in full swing.

Deep down, he also knew that Zhao Changhe was exhausted and really wanted to avoid going to such an event, but...

Damn it, we could have at least had a private drink or two just between us! Fuck... Never mind.

Cui Yuanyong begrudgingly grabbed a drunken man and said, “You’re already drinking? Why didn’t you wait for me?”

The man, barely coherent, slurred, “The battle, the battle is over. Who the hell are you? Do you really think we give a damn about your Cui Clan...”

“Damn it,” Cui Yuanyong was infuriated, almost vomiting blood from anger. He did not want to argue with them, so he asked, “Where is Situ Xiao? Did he really run off to find Xue Canghai?”

Despite the man’s drunken state, he actually still respected Cui Yuanyong a fair bit and answered honestly, “I don’t know, but someone said he left the city.”

What would he head out for? To eat dirt?

Cui Yuanyong was confused. He ran to the top of the city walls and looked out. The sky was darkening, and indeed, there lay Situ Xiao, sprawled out on the half-snow, half-sand ground, holding up a wine gourd and chugging it down.

The battlefield was still littered with unburied corpses, scattered weapons, broken shields, and vultures circling above, painting a somber and tragic scene against the setting sun.

Cui Yuanyong shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”

Situ Xiao replied, “Drunken on the battlefield~ Don’t laugh at me... This is the fighting spirit of ancient times...”

“Did you fight this whole war just for this moment?”

Situ Xiao drunkenly raised his wine gourd and called out, “Brother Cui, you really know me well! Come, have a drink with me!”

“Drink with you, my ass! What the hell is with all this nonsense?!” Frustrated, Cui Yuanyong turned back to the city, only to have his ear grabbed.

So fast! Which expert is it?!

Cui Yuanyong turned quickly, only to see his father’s stern face. “Head back home and stay inside the ancestral hall for three months. You can come out when you stop cursing. Otherwise, your mother will really show you what a mother is.”

Cui Yuanyong, one of the heroes who stood against the barbarians and became an expert on the Ranking of Man after defeating the Golden Horde’s Prince head-on, received no celebratory drink after the war. Instead, he was dragged home by his father to be confined for three months, rewarded with a stack of scholarly texts, and a vaguely sentient Qinghe Sword.

The most tragic part was that the sword’s spirit remained elusive. It was uncertain if it would ever truly acknowledge him.

*

A few days later, in Beimang.

The mountain stronghold still stood, and interestingly enough, so did its people.

After Zhao Changhe cut people down and left, those imprisoned by Cui Yuanyong were locked up by the county magistrate until winter and then released.

Given that these bandits had not really committed any serious crimes under their former stronghold master, it seemed excessive to execute or exile them. But on the other hand, keeping them jailed and fed through winter was wasteful, so the county magistrate, seeing the shortage of food, decided to release them.

Upon being released, they found themselves aimless. They did not know anything other than banditry. When they realized that there were still supplies at the mountain stronghold, they naturally regrouped there only a few days after their release.

They did a headcount and funnily enough, other than their stronghold master and stronghold mistress from back then, not a single one was missing.

None of them had returned to normal life. It was a complete failure in rehabilitation.

Even their viciousness had not diminished. The first thing they did was to fight over who would be the new stronghold master, splitting into factions and making a huge fuss for days. It was only today that they finally agreed to hold a decisive duel.

They decided to hold the duel in the large training ground, where an infamous pit, once used by their stronghold mistress to capture the young lady of the Cui Clan, still stood as a notable landmark.

The two factions that had formed among the bandits were still hurling insults at each other, preparing to fight, when a voice suddenly echoed from outside the arena. “Hey hey~ A drinking challenge? Alright! Not a bad idea at all! You guys split into groups. I’ll add a reward. The winner gets money and the loser has to drink!”[1]

Everyone froze. The voice sounded awfully familiar, and the words were even more so, as if they had heard the exact same words before...

They turned to look at the source of the voice. Flickering firelight illuminated the figures of their former stronghold master and stronghold mistress by the pit. They were looking at them with smiles on their faces.

For a moment, their minds seamlessly brought forward past memories, not realizing anything was amiss. A collective cheer erupted, “Since the boss said so, let’s start fighting! What’s the holdup? We shouldn’t embarrass ourselves in front of the mistress... Eh...”

The noise gradually died down, and silence took over.

Then, confusion ensued.

“Nice job on finding those oil-lit torches. Where’d you find them?” Zhao Changhe asked with a smile.

Someone replied naturally, “We had some left in storage, the county officials didn’t take everything.”

Zhao Changhe tossed a gold leaf and said, “Go buy more supplies from the city, I’ll make sure you all get through the winter.”

“Long live the boss!” The crowd surged forward, ignoring the two who were about to duel on stage.

No one remembered Zhao Changhe had actually abandoned them back then.

“We watched you climb the rankings from inside the jail every day, boss!”

“When the people in the jail heard we used to follow you, Boss Zhao, the looks they gave us were just... wow.”

“We always knew you were fucking amazing, boss!”

“Boss, boss, so our stronghold mistress really is Yue Hongling, right?”

Yue Hongling, who had been quietly smiling from the side, finally put on a stern face and said, “I’m fake.”

If it were not for you lot causing trouble, my relationship with Zhao Changhe would not have become so ambiguous, nor would it have... Well...

Yet, oddly, she did not feel much irritation. Instead, the feeling of reuniting across time and space was deeply moving, almost giving her a faint sense of enlightenment.

It was as if their journey had been plucked out of time for a year, only to seamlessly reconnect as if nothing had changed.

Zhao Changhe also pondered whether what Ying Five was searching for was something like this. And if he could find a way back home, choosing to return at the right moment, would he have the same feelings he had now?

It was profound and intriguing.

“Alright,” Zhao Changhe clapped his hands. “Has my hut been cleaned?”

The two who had been about to fight on stage sighed and said, “Actually, we just cleaned it. The bedding is all fresh, untouched. We were fighting over who was going to be the new leader, but it seems like fate knew that you’d come back and just had us prepare for that. Oh, and the stronghold mistress’ hut from before has not been touched yet.”

“What other hut?” Zhao Changhe glared as he wrapped his arm around Yue Hongling’s waist. “From now on, we share one hut!”

Bam!

The stronghold master was viciously thrown over the shoulder by the fierce stronghold mistress before being dragged into the stronghold master’s hut at the mountaintop.

Her scolding voice could be vaguely heard amidst the snow and wind. “You think you’re the boss? Tonight I’ll show you what it means to truly hold down a stronghold!”

The mountain bandits looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

The world truly was strange and amazing.

Inside the hut, the bedding was fresh, and the candlelight was warm. Even the furnishings had not changed.

Yue Hongling seemed lost in thought as Zhao Changhe, still being dragged by her, took the opportunity to break free and embrace her.

“What are you doing?” Yue Hongling pouted.

“In my hometown, people often get married in private first, then hold a ceremony with friends and family when they have time. Don’t you think this seems exactly like that?”

Yue Hongling thought that it really did feel that way.

Especially with the new bedding and lit candles... If someone told her that Zhao Changhe had come back early to set all this up, she might believe them.

But she knew that he hadn’t, and this was all just fate in play. Zhao Changhe’s sudden whim to revisit the mountain stronghold seemed to create a ceremony for the two of them.

Yue Hongling felt a bit strange.

She was willing to be with him in deserted secret realms, willing to wander the world hand in hand, but as a heroine, she had never thought about such traditional things as a wedding ceremony witnessed by friends and family.

That was completely different from the dark, desolate secret realms.

She lowered her head slightly and said softly, “What wedding? My sect doesn’t even know about us.”

Zhao Changhe leaned closer to kiss her and said, “Then shall we just come back and hold a ceremony when we have the time?”

“In your dreams.” Yue Hongling pushed against his chest, pretending to resist his kiss. “When did I say I’d marry you?”

Before she could finish her sentence, Zhao Changhe tightened his grip around her waist, lifted her up, and carried her toward the bed.

Although Yue Hongling spoke harshly, she did not struggle. She let him lay her gently on the bed, and muttered, “Fine, I’ll help you heal your injuries through dual cultivation. Traveling so many days while injured, you’re really silly.”

She made up her mind to not make a sound tonight.

He wanted to hear her moans? He could listen to ghosts instead

As the night deepened, the moon and stars faded.

A bird flew over the roof, hearing the suppressed sounds of some creature inside the hut.

The sound grew louder and louder, until it finally transformed into a voice of exasperated fury. “Change positions! I want to hold down the stronghold now!”

1. Same exact line as in Chapter 39. ☜