Chapter 4

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The sky grew dark, and the wine houses on both sides of the Qinhuai River lit up their horn lanterns, with thousands of them on each street, illuminating the area as bright as daylight. People walking did not need to carry lanterns.

A half-moon hung in the sky, its light mingling with the lanterns on the river surface. Gondolas with fine singing and music glided by, their melodies melancholic and touching, stirring the soul.

The young women living in the houses along the river, dressed in light silk and adorned with jasmine flowers in their hair, all rolled up the bamboo curtains and leaned on the railings, listening quietly. Thus, when the drumbeats of the lantern boats sounded, the curtains and windows on both sides opened, and the incense of dragon's breath, agarwood, and sandalwood from the river houses mixed with the moonlight and mist over the river, creating a scene that resembled the celestial realm of the immortals.

The courtesans of the Sixteen Floors, dressed in new and dazzling attire, greeted visitors from all directions. This scene of drunken revelry and dreamlike existence might make some think of the lines: "The singing girls know not the sorrow of a lost nation, across the river they still sing of the flowers in the rear garden."

Perhaps these lines were not entirely fitting, as the Ming Dynasty had not yet fallen, right?

Qin Mu sat under a willow tree by the river, munching on a pancake he had obtained at the cost of his integrity, pondering what to do next. The first step was to get some money to solve the immediate survival issue. Without solving this, everything else was just talk.

Then, he needed to decide whom to join. In a year, the Qing army would invade, and Qin Mu did not want to shave his head and become a Qing slave.

With his status as a scholar, he would be quite valuable among the peasant armies. He could join one and look for an opportunity to seize power.

Of course, he could also form his own army, but given his current situation, that was difficult. This body was weak and incapable, and starting a rebellion would be too risky.

But who should he join?

Li Zicheng was too aggressive, chasing Emperor Chongzhen all the way to the underworld. If Qin Mu joined him, he might not even get a chance to seize power before things went south.

Zheng Chenggong was a better option. He was currently studying literature with Qian Qianyi and would only return to his hometown in Fujian after Beijing fell.

However, this posed a problem. If he joined Zheng Chenggong, he would have no opportunity to build his own power base before Zheng returned to Fujian, making it difficult to seize power later. Moreover, the Zheng family was a family business, leaving little room for development, and trying to infiltrate would be even harder.

Hmm, this was a problem to think about slowly. The immediate priority was to solve the issue of food and clothing.

After a busy day, Qin Mu had nothing to show for it. He must have been starving, and his strategy was flawed, like Bill Gates trying to compete for a waiter's job. Could he win?

What were his advantages?

Just as he thought this, a dirty little face appeared before him, indistinguishable as male or female, with messy hair like a bird's nest. But those eyes were particularly bright, like two stars in the sky.

Gurgle! A soft sound came, and Qin Mu knew exactly what it was. He instinctively protected the pancake in his hand, as he had been dealing with this sound all afternoon.

The bright eyes were still staring at his pancake, swallowing saliva continuously. The child, probably under ten, looked pitiful.

"Do you want to eat?" Qin Mu's heart softened.

The little beggar nodded vigorously.

"Are you sure you really want to eat?" Qin Mu extended a half-eaten pancake, hesitating. He hadn't forgotten how his integrity had shattered, and with thousands of refugees in Jinling, could he help them all?

But before he could decide to take back the pancake, a small hand darted out, and the pancake vanished.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look at you, so dirty. Don't you know you should wash your hands before eating?"

Seeing the small figure dart into the shadow of the willow tree, Qin Mu gave up on educating about hygiene and quickly finished the remaining half of the pancake.

What good was a fortune of over 300 million? At least, Yang Daxiong now understood a profound truth: only what you put in your stomach is truly yours.

This truth would become his lifelong motto.

After wandering all day, Qin Mu had not been entirely fruitless. He had chosen a place to stay for the night—a family temple behind the Wu Yi Alley. It was clean during the day, and it would be locked at night, but that was no problem.

A soldier who couldn't pick locks was not a good soldier, especially since he had vowed to become a great general in front of his kindergarten teacher.

"Why are you following me?" Qin Mu asked after walking a few steps, noticing he was being followed.

The bright eyes flickered in the moonlight, silent. Qin Mu guessed the child's motto was: silence is golden.

"Stop following me. I'm out of pancakes, and I barely filled my stomach by losing my integrity!"

The small figure, thin in the pale moonlight, remained silent.

"You're still following!" Qin Mu put on a fierce expression.

The small figure took a few steps back but followed silently after Qin Mu walked a few more steps.

"Are you still following? Fine, follow if you want. When I'm hungry, I'll cook you and eat you."

"You won't. You're a good person." The child finally spoke, deliberately lowering her voice to sound more masculine, but Qin Mu could tell she was a girl.

"A good person? Who told you I'm a good person? I'll tell you, I'm so bad that I have sores on my head..." Uh, he did have a big "sore" on his head. Qin Mu touched the back of his head, cursing the traitors. If he ever met them, he'd give them a good beating.

"You're a good person."

"Can you say anything else? I'll tell you, a gentle dog, once homeless, will become fiercer than a wolf to compete for food... Uh, spit, spit, spit! Although we've lost our home, we..."

"Will not be dogs!"

"Ha ha ha, good, for that, I'll take you on. What's your name?"

"I... I'm called Xiaqiao."

In front of the temple, tall pine trees blocked the moonlight, making the surroundings seem eerie.

Two black figures, one large and one small, moved like ghosts to the temple. The lock clicked, and the door creaked open, revealing darkness inside, with a cold wind making them shiver.

"Come in quickly..."

Qin Mu's voice cut off as a cold light flashed in the dark temple. "Whoosh!" A steel blade, carrying a fierce wind, slashed toward his neck, making Qin Mu jump and his legs go weak.

"Spare my life! I just wanted to stay here for the night, nothing more..."

"It's you!" The shadow in the temple exclaimed, the large blade stopping just before Qin Mu's neck, the cold blade making him step back.

At that moment, the silent little beggar, who had been following Qin Mu, suddenly darted out like a weasel, biting the leg of the shadow inside.

"Xiaqiao, get away, don't..." Qin Mu, startled, quickly grabbed the hand holding the blade and called out.

The tall shadow kicked Xiaqiao to the corner and pushed Qin Mu, who stumbled and sat on the threshold.

***

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