Chapter 30 - Performance
Li Huowang didn’t know what she was performing, but soon, he saw the farmers below the stage start standing up and taking out some coins before throwing them up onto the stage. They all threw a single bronze coin or two.
Since most of them were farmers, in addition to money, most of them also threw some food such as corn cobs or potatoes onto the stage. Some of the wealthier families even threw out some salted fish and preserved meat.
Meanwhile, Luo Juanhua did not decline anything, thanking everyone for their generosity.
Is that their way of asking for payment?
Li Huowang was quite surprised by this.
Meanwhile, Luo Juanhua was humbly kneeling on stage as she carried her crying child and sang, all the while picking up the items and placing them into the basket she was holding. She would even bow down toward the people below as a token of appreciation.
Li Huowang sighed as he saw how hard it was just to survive in this world.
As Luo Juanhua was happily picking up the money and food, a small chunk of silver was thrown up on the stage.
Her eyes lit up, and she inspected the chunk of silver. When she realized that it was worth at least 500 bronze coins, she started performing even better, thanking the fat old man who was wearing silk clothes.
“Great! Your singing is amazing!” The old man raised his head and threw out another piece of silver.
Feeling exhausted, Li Huowang yawned and rolled on the rice stalks. He told Zhao Wu, who was just beside him, “I’m going to sleep now. Help me keep an eye on everyone.”
“No problem, Senior Li.”
By the time Li Huowang opened his eyes again, it was already late in the morning. The others around him were chatting leisurely. It seemed that everyone had made do with the rice stalks and decided to sleep outside for the night.
Further down, the stage had already been disassembled by the Lu family as they kept it in their cart.
“Zhao Wu, how much food do we still have?” Li Huowang suddenly asked.
“Not much. If we ration it, then we would probably last only three days,” replied Zhao Wu.
Li Huowang took out the money he had taken from the guiding drug ingredients before. He counted tens of coins and one small blackened piece of silver and passed it to Zhao Wu. “Go and buy some food. We might need to travel for quite some time.”
There were quite a number of young people among their group, so they would need to eat a lot. They had initially taken quite a large amount of food from the Zephyr Temple, but most of it was already gone.
Zhao Wu perched on Simpleton’s back, and they were just about to enter the village when he thought about something before calling for one of the assistants. He entrusted the money to him and informed him of what to do.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang was staring at the Lu family’s stage from his makeshift bed.
“Old man, when will we depart?” Li Huowang asked Lu Zhuangyuan.
Lu Zhuangyuan replied quickly, feeling anxious, “Young Taoist, please be at ease. My daughter-in-law took her daughter somewhere early this morning. As soon as they return, we can depart.”
“Hmm? They went somewhere? Isn’t that her?” Li Huowang replied, feeling puzzled.
When Lu Zhuangyuan followed Li Huowang’s finger that was pointing toward the entrance of the village, he saw his daughter-in-law holding onto some fabric while carrying her daughter and walking toward them with a face full of smiles.
Looking at his daughter-in-law, Lu Zhuangyuan was angry at how carefree she was. He took his smoke pipe and went over to scold her.
In the face of his anger, Luo Juanhua said defensively, “But weren’t you the one who asked me to go buy some fabric in the village? You were the one who said that buying fabric in towns would be expensive.”
After scolding her a bit, Lu Zhuangyuan turned around and chuckled. “Young Taoist, we can depart anytime now. Let’s go.”
“Hold up! We can’t leave just yet. When I went to buy the fabric, I managed to get a hold of a business opportunity for us!”
Li Huowang and Lu Zhuangyuan asked at the same time. “What business?”
“What else? Of course, it's an opportunity to perform! Our employer would be the old man who gave us a lot of money yesterday! Why don’t you go and discuss it with him? He said he wanted to discuss the details with you.”
When he heard this, Lu Zhuangyuan didn’t move immediately. He slowly turned around, chuckling sheepishly at Li Huowang.
Even though he didn’t say anything, Li Huowang knew what he was thinking. “Don’t worry. It’s more important to earn money. It will just mean delaying our departure for a day.”
“Aiya! Thank you so much! I will quickly go and come back.” Lu Zhuangyuan happily followed his daughter-in-law into the village while holding his smoke pipe.
Li Huowang once again sat down on the rice stalks and took out the dented bronze bell from his sleeves. Due to his boredom, he decided to examine it closely.
If I can summon the Wandering Gods, I will be able to increase my fighting strength! But… I can’t summon them with this bell as it is now. I need to find a way to fix it.
After examining it, Li Huowang didn’t see any issues besides the dent.
If I can fix it, does that mean it will become usable once again?
Li Huowang thought about it before picking up a stone from the ground. He placed the bell on a relatively flat piece of rock before starting to pound it with the stone.
A sharp ringing sound rang out, immediately giving him an explosive headache—he could barely continue holding the stone in his hand.
No, I can’t do it this way. I need to ask if there’s a blacksmith in the village.
Li Huowang thought as he cradled his spinning head.
Just then, Li Huowang saw the assistants exiting the village with two sacks full of food.
He stored the bell and approached them along with Zhao Wu, who was perched on top of Simpleton.
“Senior Li, we were only able to exchange for these,” said the assistants sadly. While they were just children, they were extremely capable. If not, they would’ve long since been killed by Dan Yangzi.
Li Huowang opened the sack and saw they contained only dried sweet potatoes.
“Senior Li, these lack the nutrients that we need. At the same time, Simpleton would easily end up eating half a kilogram of these for every meal. Additionally, eating too many of these may also result in heartburn,” said Zhao Wu.
Zhao Wu’s statement caused Simpleton to lower his head in shame. “I… I… will… eat less. Don’t… don’t… abandon… me!”
On the other hand, since there wasn’t enough food, Li Huowang was desperately trying to think of a plan.
Lu Zhuangyuan had already told him that there would still be some time before they would arrive at Jianye village. If they were to run out of food halfway through, they might need to chew on tree bark for the rest of their journey.
He rummaged around in his robes and found a red threaded golden anklet.
He thought about it before passing it back to Bai Lingmiao, who had been holding onto him.
“Take this and exchange it for something.” Li Huowang took out the jade pendant that he had stolen from the previous Xuan Yang and passed it to Zhao Wu.
“Senior Li, I don’t think we would be able to exchange it. There’s no pawn shop here, and none of these farmers would be able to give us the change nor would they be able to realize the true worth of this pendant.”
Even the jade pendant can’t be used to exchange for food. Then what should I do?
Just as Li Huowang was trying to figure out what to do about the food crisis, he saw Lu Zhuangyuan bringing his daughter-in-law out of the village and toward him.
“Young Taoist… I might need a favor from you; we will need you to help us with this particular business opportunity. Would you be willing to help us?” Lu Zhuangyuan asked in a sheepish voice.
“Old man, I can’t sing or dance. I’m afraid that I might not be able to help you,” Li Huowang said, feeling bewildered.
Don’t tell me he wants me to go up on stage and perform a sword dance?
“No no! It’s something that you can definitely do.” Lu Zhuangyuan carefully glanced around him before whispering, “Old man Hu wanted us to perform for the dead.”
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