A Clash of Gods - Chapter 83

Chapter 83 The Old House
Seeing that the villagers were panicked, Han Yi ran to them in a hurry and explained. After relaxing them, he told the crowd to scatter. Only three strong villagers were left, in case that the ugly man went crazy suddenly.

Yang Ning told Han Yi to go back home and bring a bowl full of rice and dishes. After Han Yi gave him the rice bowl, the ugly man stepped back immediately and stared at the village head, with hostility in his eyes, refusing to accept the bowl and chopsticks.

Yang Ning received the bowl and chopsticks from Han Yi and smiled gently. “You are hungry. This is food. If you eat enough, you won’t be hungry.”

It was surprising that the ugly man felt hostility toward Han Yi and the others, but hearing Yang Ning’s voice, he had less hostility even though he was still cautious.

Yang Ning moved closer to him, and the latter didn’t step back to dodge as he did to avoid Han Yi but received the bowl. However, he didn’t want the chopsticks. He just grabbed rice and dishes from the bowl and devoured them like a wolf, as if he had never eaten food. Yang Ning saw it and knew that the man behaved like this must because he was starving.

Earlier, this man had grabbed the cloak with his hands all the time, and his body was covered and couldn’t be seen. At the moment, he reached out his hand to receive the bowl, and the cloak was opened to show his naked body with only a pair of worn-out short pants. Gu Qinghan saw that and shouted before turning around.

While Yang Ning saw clearly that this man’s body was full of dirt, but the dirt all over couldn’t conceal the injuries on his body.

This body was as emaciated as a fowl, and the crisscross injuries were horrifying. They were not caused by a knife but were countless scars of tiny holes.

Yang Ning was naturally clear that the ugly man wandered everywhere especially on the mountains and would inevitably be injured by the stones or thorns, but he didn’t know how to deal with the wounds, so they became scars. There were sixty or seventy big or small scars from the upper part of his body to legs. He was like a run-away prisoner after being tortured.

The ugly man sat on the ground and swallowed the food with appetite, ignoring everything around him. Yang Ning seized the chance and observed carefully, thinking that if this guy was a member of a wealthy family who got lost as he guessed, he must have been missing for a long time. His beard was long and messy, which couldn’t have grown up in three to five months.

As for the valuable cloak made of bear skin he was wearing, the fur was sparse. Fortunately, the bear skin was solid, and although it was old, it was not broken.

He was wondering where this guy came from, but the ugly guy suddenly gave him the bowl and looked at him with expectancy, saying, “Hungry… Food…”

Yang Ning had to ask Han Yi to bring another bowl of food. After eating three bowls of rice, the ugly man seemed to want more. Yang Ning thought the village was not rich and every family had little grain, so he couldn’t let this guy continue to eat. Seeing that the ugly man’s stomach stuck out and he might eat too much, Yang Ning didn’t ask them to bring more food.

Seeing that Yang Ning didn’t plan to tell somebody to get food, the ugly man held his cloak simply and fell on the ground, falling asleep.

Han Yi told somebody to watch the ugly man first. It was late at night, so they couldn’t go to report to the government at this hour. He planned to send somebody to the government the next day.

Han Yi thought Gu Qinghan was a man, so he arranged only one room for the two guests. Gu Qinghan felt it was improper, but at midnight, she couldn’t disturb others. She had no choice, so she thought she didn’t need to sleep, and it was fine to stay awake for one night. As soon as the day broke, they would rush to the old house of the Qi family.

The two were in one room, but Yang Ning didn’t care. He slept on the floor. Although Gu Qinghan couldn’t bear to see him suffer, she couldn’t tell him to sleep on the bed, so she had to lie on the bed with clothes on.

Although the ugly man was strange, Gu Qinghan had nothing to do with him, so she didn’t care about his background. She just thought that there was such a big change in the fiefdom and the common people had a grudge against the family of the Marquis of Honor, which greatly influenced the Qi family’s prestige in the fiefdom, but she knew nothing in the past and was kept in the dark. If Yang Ning didn’t suggest dressing up and visiting in secret, she had no idea when she would know that, so she felt guilty in her heart.

She lay on the bed lost in thought and couldn’t fall asleep. In no time, she heard Yang Ning’s snore and then sat up. Seeing that he was lying on his side on the floor, she felt guilty. After a moment’s hesitation, she picked up the quilt and got up to cover Yang Ning with it. As he slept soundly, she smiled bitterly and whispered gloomily, “Ning, do you know that it might be not good as you have grown up? In the future, you need to take on heavy responsibilities. You are spoiled, and I don’t know if you can bear so many of them. Anyway, I will be always with you. No matter what happens, I will bear it with you.” Then she returned to the bed and lay down silently.

Yang Ning naturally didn’t fall asleep. He feared most that Gu Qinghan would suddenly think of what happened in the daytime and ask why he had martial skills, so he pretended to sleep early to avoid trouble.

Hearing Gu Qinghan’s whisper next to him, he was emotional.

At dawn next day, Yang Ning was awakened by Gu Qinghan. He got up and saw her tired face, asking in surprise, “Aunt, did you stay up for a whole night?”

Gu Qinghan shook her head and said softly, “Let’s not waste time here. Go to the old house as early as possible. We have a lot of things to do.”

They got up and certainly disturbed Han Yi. After washing up simply, they said goodbye to Han Yi. Han Yi was worried that Steward Luo would come again and harm the two, so he wouldn’t ask them to stay as they wanted to leave. After coming out, they saw the ugly man lying next to the door. He was still sleeping obviously.

Yang Ning said gently to Han Yi, “I will leave him to you. Luo left several horses. Just take them as the compensation for the losses of your village.” Han Yi thought it was not up to him. Even if all people in the village sold everything at home, they couldn’t buy one of the fast horses. Yang Ning didn’t say more and walked to loosen the rein on his horse. Afterward, he went out of the village with Gu Qinghan and then got on the horse’s back to leave.

The fast horses ran like flying. When they went several miles away, Yang Ning felt a figure flashing beside him. He was stunned and then saw the figure running in front of him. He found it was the ugly man at a glance.

Gu Qinghan was also astonished and asked, “Why did he follow us?”

Yang Ning stopped the horse, and the ugly man also stopped in the front, standing on the roadside and looking at him. Yang Ning looked back and the village couldn’t be seen. Then he looked at the ugly man, with surprise on his face. “How… how did he catch up with us?”

Gu Qinghan also asked in shock, “Did he… chase us with two legs?” She felt it was unimaginable. After they left the village, they made the horses run rapidly, and the two horses’ speed was high. They had been several miles away in an instant, and when they walked out of the village, the ugly man was still sleeping on the ground, but in the blink of an eye, he had caught up with them unexpectedly. If she didn’t see it with her own eyes, Gu Qinghan would never believe such a weird thing.

Yang Ning was shocked, too. He had heard that the ugly man walked extremely fast. This man was found stealing chickens for a few times, but thanks to his speed, he escaped from the villagers’ hunt, but Yang Ning hadn’t seen it. This time, he had witnessed and the ugly man’s speed was much higher than he imagined, beyond the human being’s limit, so he was amazed.

The ugly man was still covered with the cloak. He looked at Yang Ning and repeated, “Hungry. Food!”

Yang Ning came to his senses and told the ugly man, “Why did you chase us? Go back to the village now. The people there will give you food and help you return home.”

The ugly man seemed unable to understand what Yang Ning meant and just stared blankly at him, repeating the two words all the time.

Yang Ning thought that because of his kindness last night, the ugly man took him as a feeder. He pondered for a while and took out a piece of silver from his pocket, throwing it to the man. “Give this to them and they will give you food. Don’t follow us anymore.” He and Gu Qinghan had something to do and couldn’t take this weird ugly man with them.

The ugly man picked up the silver from the ground angrily and suddenly threw it to Yang Ning, grunting.

Yang Ning reached out his hand to catch it, while Gu Qinghan frowned next to him, saying, “Let’s ignore him. We don’t know where this man is from, so we can’t be with him randomly. If he can’t catch up with us, he will go back to the village.” She yelled and urged the horse to run away. Yang Ning didn’t delay and whipped the horse to move forward and walk around the ugly man. Then the horse ran rapidly.

The two horses sped away like flying and went far in an instant. Yang Ning looked back to see if the ugly man still followed up. As soon as he turned his head back, he saw the ugly man stride within reach behind his horse, at a speed no less than the fast horse. The cloak was whistling in the wind, and the ugly man seemed to fly.

Yang Ning stopped the horse once more and turned the horse around, shouting with a frown, “Go back now. If you don’t go back, I will beat you up.” He raised the horsewhip in his hand and tried to whip the ugly man.

The ugly man was scared and stepped back in a hurry, shrinking while looking at Yang Ning pitifully. Yang Ning roared, “I don’t have food. You will have food after going back to the village. Don’t follow us anymore.” He turned the fast horse back and patted it to leave again.

He urged the horse to run for a while and then looked back again, to see that the ugly man still tailed them, but he seemed to have been frightened by Yang Ning and kept a distance from them.

Yang Ning was helpless and ignored him, urging the horse.

The two headed to the south. In the beginning, Yang Ning looked back several times and saw the ugly man behind them. After they went more than ten miles away, the ugly man was far away from them. Yang Ning heaved a sigh of relief and thought that the ugly man couldn’t be as persistent as a fast horse. Although the ugly man could walk horribly fast, when he walked for long, he had no enough strength, so he would fall behind.

The horses went ahead without a stop, and the sun rose from the east. As Yang Ning estimated, it was a journey of less than four hours. Then he heard Gu Qinghan ahead say, “Ning, the old house is in the front.” She made the horse slow down and raised her hand to point forward. Yang Ning looked at the direction she pointed and saw a manor show up under the sky, with cyan bricks and red tiles in a row, which was conspicuous.

In front of the courtyard of the Qi family’s old house was a big pond with clear water. Around the pond were willows at intervals. The breeze and slender willows set off the antiquated house, with a strong ancient style. And behind the old house was a dense bamboo forest.

There were dozens of sparse houses to the southwest of it, but the Qi family’s old house was alone and no house was on the left or right. It appeared cheerless in solitude.

Decades ago, it used to be quite bustling here.

The Qi family was once a big family in Jiangling and originally had shops and estates everywhere in Jiangling, including Jingzhou City, but later the old Marquis of Honor followed the late emperor to battle and donated almost all the property, only leaving this old house. Afterward, the old Marquis of Honor and most of the family moved to the capital city, and the rest indirect descendants also moved from here.

The Qi family’s old house was here, so the others naturally didn’t dare to build houses near this house, which made it lonely. Only when the members of the Qi family returned to the hometown from the capital, the old house would become cheerful.

Although it was just a lonely old house, it stood for the Qi family, and nobody dared to show disrespect to this house.

The red gate was eye-catching, with an awe-inspiring stone lion on each side in front of the gate. Yang Ning and Gu Qinghan got off the horse’s back in front of the old house and looked up at the top of the gate. There were only two words “Qi Family” on it, with no decoration.

Yang Ning glanced at Gu Qinghan before stepping forward to knock on the gate heavily several times. In the beginning, there was no answer. He knocked a few times more and then heard the crack from inside. The red gate was opened, and an about fifty-year-old man’s head popped out. He looked at them and asked, “This is the old house of Marquis of Honor. Who do you want to visit?”

“Tell the chief steward Qi Hong that the heir of Marquis of Honor has come back.” Gu Qinghan stood next to Yang Ning. Her voice was cold, and her beautiful face was expressionless.

The old man was stunned and then looked them up and down in disbelief, shaking his head. “You won’t see the chief steward. He can’t see anybody now.”