Chulong and Liu E were both stunned because the Sword Qi Great Wall’s Second Shopkeeper had never been taken advantage of like this. It seemed he was always the one tricking others.

Tao Ban, such a stubborn child, protecting the wine shop’s business so Sister Diezhang and the Second Shopkeeper could earn money every day, was his greatest wish. However, even now, Tao Ban abandoned the chance to speak up righteously, silently carrying the dishes away from the table. He couldn’t help but glance back. The child felt that the tall, green-robed young man was truly amazing. He wanted to become someone like that in the future, and definitely not someone like the Second Shopkeeper. Even though the Second Shopkeeper often laughed and chatted with people at the wine shop, and made so much money every day, becoming famous at the Sword Qi Great Wall, when he was alone, he was like he was today, burdened with worries and unhappy.

Liu Xianyang released Chen Ping’an and sat down beside him on the bench that had been made available. He beckoned to Tao Ban, “Hey, little waiter, bring another pot of good wine and a wine bowl. Put it on Chen Ping’an’s tab.”

Tao Ban looked at the Second Shopkeeper, who nodded slightly. Tao Ban then went to fetch a pot of the cheapest Bamboo Sea Cave Heaven wine. Although he didn’t really want to become the Second Shopkeeper, the Second Shopkeeper’s business acumen, whether selling wine, hosting gambling games, or offering martial arts guidance, was unmatched. Tao Ban felt that he could learn these things, or else how would he compete with Feng Kangle for a wife in the future?

Chen Ping’an still had wine in his own pot, so he poured a bowl for Liu Xianyang and asked, “What brings you here?”

Liu Xianyang didn’t rush to answer. He took a sip of the wine, shivered, and lamented, “I really can’t get used to these so-called immortal wines. I have a humble life, and I’ve always found glutinous rice wine the most delicious.”

Chen Ping’an chuckled, “I did bring some of Dong Shui’s glutinous rice wine, but I’ve already finished it.”

Liu Xianyang jabbed Chen Ping’an in the shoulder with his elbow. “Then why the hell are you talking about it?”

Chen Ping’an rubbed his shoulder and continued drinking his wine.

Liu Xianyang took a big gulp of wine, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and pointed his thumb at the street behind him. “I came here with my classmates for a tour. I only found out on the way that the Sword Qi Great Wall was at war again, scared me half to death. I was afraid that the teachers would get a burst of inspiration and want to show us students a few pounds of righteousness from their well-read bellies, and then haul us to the city walls to fight demons. I actually wanted to hide in the Chunfan Study of the Four Private Residences on Upside-Down Mountain, focusing on my studies, and maybe catch a glimpse of the Ape Play Mansion, Plum Garden, and Crystal Palace, which are all as famous as Chunfan Study. But the teachers and classmates were all righteous and awe-inspiring, and I’m someone who cares a lot about face. I’d rather lose half my life than have my face slapped, so I gritted my teeth and followed along. Of course, I also heard a lot about your deeds in Chunfan Study, which is the most important reason. I have to advise you, you can’t keep throwing yourself around like this.”

Chen Ping’an remained silent, just drinking his wine.

The most long-winded person in the world was Liu Xianyang.

Chen Ping’an had known this for many years.

Back then, when the three of them were together, it was probably Liu Xianyang and Gu Can who would argue and curse at each other at the slightest disagreement. Chen Ping’an was too lazy to mediate; he would just listen. Anyway, one was big and one was small, and their arguments never went too far. Liu Xianyang seemed to never lose an argument because he didn’t care about winning or losing. He was always smiling and cheerful. Gu Can often felt more frustrated even when he had verbally won the argument, cursing Liu Xianyang’s ancestors for eighteen generations. In the end, Gu Can would chase after Liu Xianyang to hit him. When he got really angry, Gu Can would grab branches or throw stones. Even if Liu Xianyang was accidentally hit by a stone, he wouldn’t get angry. Gu Can once said that there was nothing good about Liu Xianyang. He had a poor life, a lowly life, and a bachelor’s life. The only thing that was acceptable was that he didn’t hold grudges and wouldn’t beat people just because he was stronger.

Back then, the three of them, who depended on each other for survival, each had their own way of life. No one’s reasoning was greater, and there were no clear rights or wrongs. Liu Xianyang liked to spout nonsense, Chen Ping’an felt that he didn’t understand reasoning at all, and Gu Can felt that reasoning was having great strength, hard fists, money, and many lackeys. Whoever had that had reasoning. Liu Xianyang and Chen Ping’an were just older than him. Two poor wretches who probably wouldn’t be able to get wives in their lifetimes, what reasoning did they have?

But back then, climbing trees to steal birds’ nests, going down to the river to catch fish, planting rice together, and snatching sprouts from the cracks of the threshing ground, the three of them always had more happy times.

During Liu Xianyang’s drinking, Chen Ping’an finally asked, “How is it going, studying at the Chen Clan of Pure Scholars?”

Liu Xianyang laughed, “What’s going and not going? These ten years have passed anyway. Could it be worse than it was in our little town?”

Liu Xianyang didn’t seem to like this Bamboo Sea Cave Heaven wine; he mostly took small sips. “So I don’t regret leaving the town at all. At most, when I’m bored, I think about the scenery of my hometown: the farmland, the messy dragon kiln dwellings, the chicken droppings and dog shit in the alleys. I think about it, but it’s just a casual thought. I don’t have any deeper feelings. If it weren’t for some old debts that still need to be settled, and some people I need to see, I wouldn’t even think I need to go back to Treasure Bottle Continent. What’s the point of going back? It’s boring.”

Liu Xianyang shook his head and repeated, “It’s really boring.”

Chen Ping’an suddenly just said a name and then fell silent, “Gu Can.”

Liu Xianyang scoffed, “That little snot-nosed brat has wanted you to be his dad since he was little. Do you really think you’re his dad? Are you out of your mind? If you don’t kill him, then you don’t kill him. If you feel guilty, you brought it on yourself, so deal with it. If you kill him, then you kill him. If you regret it in your heart, then you can endure it as well. What’s going on right now? From childhood to adulthood, haven’t you always lived like this? What, now that you’re capable, have read books, are you a gentleman and a sage? Have you learned martial arts and cultivated the Tao, are you an immortal on the mountain?”

Liu Xianyang was annoyed and pushed Chen Ping’an on the head, “Gu Can? He doesn’t even want to call him ‘Little Snot-Nosed’ anymore?!”
Liu Xianyang grew increasingly indignant as he spoke, setting down his wine without drinking, and cursing, “It’s just like you, so fussy, always looking for trouble where there is none. If it were me, Gu Can left the small town and became so capable. Whatever he did, it’s none of my damn business. I only recognize the snot-nosed kid from Mud Bottle Lane. If he becomes a little demon in Book-Slip Lake, slaughtering innocents and courting death, then let him die. If he lives better than anyone else by doing evil, then that’s his skill, and Book-Slip Lake is a wretched place deserving of disaster. Who’s going to stop it? Have I, Liu Xianyang, slaughtered or harmed anyone? You, Chen Ping’an, have read a few books, and now you want to hold yourself to the standards of sages and worthies in everything you do? You weren’t even a proper student of Confucianism back then, and yet you’re so high and mighty. Wouldn’t the Confucian saints and gentlemen have ascended to the heavens long ago? I, Liu Xianyang, a genuine Confucian disciple, and those Chen ancestors who carried the sun and moon on their shoulders, wouldn’t we have come to this Sword Qi Great Wall to slay demons seven or eight hundred years earlier? Otherwise, wouldn’t we have tormented ourselves to death? I just can’t understand how you’ve become this Chen Ping’an. I remember when we were kids, you weren’t like this at all. You never cared about other people’s business, and you never said more than a word or two. Who taught you this? That Qi teacher from the school? He’s dead, so I can’t criticize him. Besides, the dead are to be respected. The Scholar Wen Saint? Fine, I’ll go scold him later. The Great Sword Immortal Zuo You? Forget it, he’s too close, I’m afraid he’ll hit me.”

Chen Ping’an finally spoke, saying, “I am still the same person I was back then.”

Liu Xianyang raised his hand, and Chen Ping’an subconsciously flinched.

Liu Xianyang rolled his eyes, picked up his wine bowl, and took a sip. “Do you know what the most unimaginable thing to me is? It’s not that you have the wealth you have today, looking ridiculously rich, and becoming one of the most successful people among us back then. Because I always thought that Chen Ping’an would definitely become rich, very rich. Nor is it that you’ve become this pitiful and unfortunate person who looks glamorous on the surface, because I know you’ve always been the type to get caught up in things.”

Liu Xianyang raised his wine bowl. “The most unimaginable thing is that you learned to drink and actually like drinking.”

Liu Xianyang picked up the wine bowl and put it back on the table. He really didn’t like drinking. He sighed. “The snot-nosed kid has turned out this way. What can Chen Ping’an and Liu Xianyang really do? Everyone has their own life to live. There are so many things that we can’t do well no matter how hard we try, and it’s always been like this, and it will probably always be like this. We survived those most pitiful years, didn’t we?”

Liu Xianyang reached out and pressed on Chen Ping’an’s head. “You’ve helped the snot-nosed kid do so many things to make up for his mistakes. That’s great, as great as it can be. I’ve read a few books of sages, and I know that the world needs fools like you who take trouble upon themselves.”

Liu Xianyang gently lifted his hand, then slapped it down. “But you’re still so distressed, that’s very bad, it couldn’t be worse. I, Liu Xianyang, am first and foremost Liu Xianyang, and only then a half-baked scholar, so I just don’t want you to become that kind of fool. There’s no harm in this selfishness, so don’t be afraid of it.”

Chen Ping’an said, “I understand the principles.”

Liu Xianyang smiled bitterly. “But you just can’t do it, or you feel like you haven’t done enough, right? So you’re even more distressed?”

Chen Ping’an nodded. “Actually, I passed the Gu Can test long ago, it’s just that when I see so many lonely ghosts, I can’t help but think of the three of us back then. I can’t help but empathize, and I think of Gu Can being kicked so hard, a child so small, rolling on the ground in pain, almost dying. I think of Liu Xianyang almost being beaten to death in Mud Bottle Lane, and I think of myself almost starving to death, surviving on the charity of the neighbors. So in Book-Slip Lake, I wanted to do more. I didn’t harm anyone, and I could protect myself as much as possible. I wanted to do it, and I could do a little bit at a time, so why not do it?”

Liu Xianyang was also distressed, and slowly said, “If I had known it would be like this, I wouldn’t have left my hometown. I really am indispensable.”

A person often needs to leave their hometown to pursue their dreams.

After finally achieving their dreams, they inevitably miss their hometown in their dreams.

But Liu Xianyang didn’t have much nostalgia for his hometown, as he himself said, nor did he have anything difficult to let go of.

At most, he was worried about Chen Ping’an and the snot-nosed kid, but his thoughts for the latter were far less than those for Chen Ping’an.

For Liu Xianyang, living a good life was the best he could do for the Liu family. Every year, he offered wine at the ancestral graves, pasted door gods during the Spring Festival, and repaired the ancestral home. Liu Xianyang never paid much attention to these things since he was a child, doing them carelessly and perfunctorily. Every year during the first month and the Qingming Festival, he liked to freeload on Chen Ping’an’s ready-made paper money. Chen Ping’an would sometimes complain, but Liu Xianyang would always retort, saying that he was the only descendant of the Liu family, and that he would help the Liu family flourish and continue the family line. The ancestors in the underworld should be smiling happily. How could they expect anything else from a lonely descendant who was struggling to make a living? If they really wanted to bless him, Liu Xianyang, and remember any good deed of the Liu family’s descendants, then they should hurry up and send him a dream, telling him where several jars of silver were buried in the small town. If he made a fortune, he would burn not just a small pot of paper money, but several large pots of paper horses and paper figures.

Liu Xianyang has always had a big heart, so big that he could joke about the time he was almost beaten to death, and he really didn’t care if the snot-nosed kid Gu Can brought it up. The snot-nosed kid’s heart, on the other hand, was smaller than a needle’s eye. For many people, grudges eventually turn into insignificant things that are written off and forgotten, but for some people, grudges are things they stare at with wide eyes, flipping through the ledger over and over again, and feeling genuinely happy, without any sense of unease. On the contrary, that’s what makes them feel truly fulfilled.
Liu Xianyang said, “The more you demand of yourself, the more the world will demand of you. As time goes on, the number of idle people who are full and have nothing better to do than to pick on good people will only increase. The better the times, the more gossip there will be, because when times are good, people have the energy to criticize others, and society becomes more tolerant of selfish individuals. When times are truly bad, everyone shuts up. Just getting enough to eat is difficult, and in the chaos of war, who has the leisure to care about the good or bad of others when they can’t even take care of their own lives? Do you understand this principle?”

Chen Pingan nodded.

Liu Xianyang continued, “If you think being alone and virtuous is the most important thing, if you think Chen Pingan should become a better person, I won’t bother trying to dissuade you. Anyway, as long as you don’t die, that’s all that matters. So, I only ask you to do one thing: don’t die.”

Chen Pingan said, “There are too many unforeseen circumstances, but I’ll strive to achieve it.”

Liu Xianyang frowned. “Master Qi of the academy chose you to escort those children to seek education, Old Scholar Wen Sheng chose you to be his closed-door disciple, so many people in Luopo Mountain chose you to be their Mountain Lord, Ning Yao chose you to be her immortal dao companion. No matter how great or good these reasons are, they are not reasons for you to die here, to die in this great battle. To put it bluntly, none of these people who chose you want you to die on the Great Wall of Sword Qi. Who do you think you are? Does the Great Wall of Sword Qi become certain of defending with one more Chen Pingan? Does the Great Wall of Sword Qi become certain of falling with one less Chen Pingan? There’s no such damned logic. And don’t give me that crap about whether there’s a Chen Pingan or not, about doing a little more is doing something. Don’t I know you? You just need a reason to do something. Before, when you hadn’t read any books, you already had one reason after another. Now that you’ve read a little, you’re definitely even better at deceiving yourself. I’m just asking you one thing: have you been thinking about leaving here alive? Is everything you’ve been doing for the sake of leaving the Great Wall of Sword Qi alive?”

Chen Pingan remained silent.

Liu Xianyang asked, “So that means no. Relying on luck? Gambling that the Great Wall of Sword Qi will be able to hold, that Ning Yao won’t die, that Zuo You won’t die, that all the new friends you’ve made here won’t die? Do you, Chen Pingan, feel that things have gone too smoothly since you left your hometown, that you’ve finally turned your luck around and gone from being the unluckiest person to the luckiest? But have you ever thought that the more you possess now, the more you lose when you die? You’ll still be that unlucky wretch?”

Chen Pingan, uncharacteristically, roared, “Then what am I supposed to do?! If you were me, what would you do?!”

Liu Xianyang said calmly, “It’s simple. First, tell Ning Yao that even if the Great Wall of Sword Qi can’t be defended, both of you have to survive. In the meantime, you can do whatever you can, putting every ounce of your strength into your sword strikes and fist blows. So, you have to ask Ning Yao what she really thinks. Does she want to drag Chen Pingan down with her, to die here as doomed lovers? Or does she hope that one will die and one will live, that saving one life is a victory? Or do you two work together to try to leave with a clear conscience, willing to think about making up for any debts in the future? Ask her what she really thinks. Then, regardless of the temporary answer, you have to ask Senior Brother Zuo You what he thinks, what he wants his little junior brother to do. Is it to continue the legacy of Wen Sheng’s lineage? Or is it to die gloriously on the battlefield with the identity of a disciple of Wen Sheng? Senior brother or junior brother, it’s just a matter of who dies first and who dies later. Finally, go ask Old Sword Immortal Chen Qingdu if he would stop you, Chen Pingan, if you wanted to live. And if he wouldn’t stop you, could he help a little? Life and death are such important matters, what does face matter?”

Liu Xianyang pushed his wine bowl toward Chen Pingan, saying, “Have you forgotten? Back in our hometown, who among us had the luxury of caring about face? If you asked people for help, would they give it to you? If asking for help was useful, how many times do you think Little Snot would have kowtowed to stop people from insulting his mother? If you could learn the craft of porcelain making by kneeling on the ground and kowtowing, wouldn’t you do it? If I could get money and become a big shot by kowtowing and smashing my head in two, wouldn’t I make a big hole in the ground? What? Now that you’ve become successful, have you, the wretch from Mud Bottle Lane, the young Mountain Lord of Luopo Mountain, the Second Steward of the Great Wall of Sword Qi, abandoned your life for the sake of face? I can’t afford to drink this kind of wine. I, Liu Xianyang, have read many books, but I’m still shameless. I’m ashamed of myself and can’t measure up to Chen Pingan.”

Chen Pingan looked dazed and reached out to push the wine bowl back to its original position.

It seemed that this was all he could do.

Liu Xianyang reached out, grabbed the white bowl, and casually threw it on the ground beside him. The white bowl shattered into pieces. He sneered, “Damn ‘Safe and Sound from Broken Pieces.’ Anyway, I’m not going to die here. After I go back to our hometown, don’t worry, I’ll go to Uncle and Aunt’s grave and say, ‘Your son was a good man, and your daughter-in-law was good too, but they both died.’ Chen Pingan, do you think they’ll be happy when they hear that?”

Chen Pingan collapsed, his spirit, his fist intent, his energy, all gone. He just murmured, “I don’t know. In all these years, I’ve never dreamed of my parents, not even once.”

Liu Xianyang suddenly laughed and turned to ask, “Little Sister-in-law, what do you say?”

Behind Chen Pingan, a woman who had traveled a long and dusty road stood silently in the small world for a long time before finally speaking, “Those who want Chen Pingan to die, I’ll let them die first. If Chen Pingan wants to die himself, because I like him, I’ll only beat him half to death.”