That little rascal would stand on a stool in the neighboring courtyard, yelling and blowing his nose, flicking it over to Song Jixin’s side. Song Jixin would retort that the stuff was too coarse, not worth giving away, and that making money off it would be too unconscionable. After that, Chen Pingan stopped collecting junk at Old Porcelain Mountain. He gave away the several framed embroideries he had made to Liu Xianyang, Gu Can in Mud Bottle Alley, and some neighbors whose children were attending the school.

Before the age of fourteen, the kiln apprentice, raised on the kindness of many families, seemed to have repaid all the favors he owed in his youth.

For some reason, the Prince, who had closed his eyes to rest, recalled a time when he returned to Mud Bottle Alley with his maid. He happened to see the straw sandal boy standing at his door. Before unlocking the door, the peasant quickly glanced at the neighbor’s door and wall. After opening the door, he couldn’t help but step back a few paces and look again.

Song Jixin felt a little regret that he hadn’t spent a few copper coins to buy that porcelain embroidery back then. He vaguely remembered that the craftsmanship was quite good and very elaborate, with flowers, birds, and insects representing all four seasons.

He remembered when he was a child, Song Jixin would occasionally leave Zhigui and wander alone. If he returned home late, Song Jixin, who was actually quite timid and afraid of ghosts, would run while calling out Chen Pingan’s name. The peer who never lit a lamp at night would creak open his door and respond from afar.

After Chen Pingan went to the Dragon Kiln to learn porcelain firing, Song Jixin grew older and learned some bookish principles about not speaking of the strange and supernatural, so he stopped doing that. He also felt embarrassed and was afraid of disturbing Zhigui. Later, after their falling out, even if one was willing to call out, the other wouldn’t respond. However, the little snot-nosed kid at the other end of Mud Bottle Alley replaced Song Bancai. Gu Can, for some reason, would always take a detour home whenever he went to the fields to fish for loaches. He would insist on going through the entire Mud Bottle Alley to get home. The little snot-nosed kid, with a small bamboo fish basket hanging from his waist, would run while shouting Chen Pingan’s name with all his might. As long as Chen Pingan was home, he would come out of the house, mostly standing outside the courtyard gate, and chat with Gu Can for a few words. Liu Xianyang, occasionally annoyed, would shout and curse, asking who was calling for ghosts. Before stopping, Gu Can would reply that he was calling for his ancestors, urging him to wake up the lazy Wang Zhu and burn incense together, praying that their ancestral graves would emit auspicious smoke… Song Jixin knew very well that if Chen Pingan hadn’t stopped the little snot-nosed kid, and somehow persuaded Gu Can, Song Jixin’s family would have to change the Spring Festival couplets and door gods every day. Song Jixin didn’t care about the money, but who wouldn’t be annoyed?

That little bastard, Gu Can, held grudges much more than Chen Pingan. He was truly capable of gritting his teeth and staying up late, enduring until the dead of night, and then running to his door to throw stones at the windows. What he found laughable back then, but the more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became, was that in the muddy and snowy lanes, the string of footprints left behind were those of an adult, and the slightly staggered pair of footprints only appeared in half of the lane. This meant that Gu Can braved the rain and snow, left his house, detoured to the other side of the alley, and then walked towards Chen Pingan and Song Jixin, throwing stones before fleeing back the way he came. To this day, Song Jixin is still curious about whose adult shoes Gu Can framed, whose house he stole them from, and how exactly the little snot-nosed kid “walked all the way.”

Keep in mind that Gu Can was only four or five years old at the time.

Now, Gu Can, who seems to be not yet thirty years old, has become the closed-door disciple of the City Lord of White Emperor City and is already a famous “reasonable person” in the Central Earth Divine Continent.

If Chen Pingan in his childhood simply couldn’t bear the trouble, so he became accustomed to it, becoming very unafraid of trouble, then Gu Can’s patience was truly innate.

Even if Song Jixin were to meet Chen Pingan again today, he would still feel that Gu Can was more like a pure cultivator, a natural wild cultivator, or a natural direct disciple of White Emperor City.

Moreover, Song Jixin was certain that within the next hundred years, Gu Can would definitely be one of the most outstanding geniuses in the Central Earth Divine Continent, or perhaps even the only one?

Thinking of this, Song Jixin smiled and said softly, “Our Mud Bottle Alley is a good place. I shouldn’t have been afraid of ghosts when I was a kid.”

On the banks of the Great River, Ma Kuxuan, alone, stretched his back, relaxed his muscles, and then interlocked his fingers, quietly awaiting a martial arts challenge he had been waiting for many years, one that was late in arriving, having made him wait.

But now, perhaps it could be changed to a sword challenge.

His half-friend, Yu Shiwu, had already left with good sense. Yu Shiwu had this one good point, he was willing to say those nice-sounding, unpleasant things.