Logically speaking, given Ke Zhen'e's martial arts skills, dealing with those debt collectors would be trivial.
One stroke of his iron staff, and three months in bed would be a light punishment for them.
Yet the old man had a strange temper; he could be fierce in other matters, but he couldn't bring himself to be unreasonable in this one.
He believed:
Fighting and killing for the chivalrous code was a matter of life and death, where using ruthless moves was completely natural.
However, pushing pai gow at a gambling table meant a loss was a loss. Using force to renege on a debt was downright dishonorable.
Though he acknowledged the debt, he truly had no silver to pay it off.
In all these years of upholding justice, the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan had hardly accumulated any savings.
Besides, Ke Zhen'e loved to drink and loved to gamble.
The silver that Guo Jing usually gave him as filial respect was impossible for him to keep.
Thus, this fearless Flying Bat found himself in a dilemma.
He couldn't fight them, nor could he afford to pay them back.
After thinking it over and over, he finally gritted his teeth.
He simply went to Peach Blossom Island to find his disciple.
While he claimed he was visiting Guo Jing's family, in truth, it was more or less to lay low.
Of course, Ke Zhen'e himself would never admit to that explanation.
...
When Huang Rong found out, she didn't expose him at all.
She knew full well that this eldest master had a foul, stubborn temper and cared deeply about saving face.
So she did not mention a single word to him, but secretly sent a message by carrier pigeon instead.
She dispatched disciples from the Jiaxing Beggars' Sect sub-branch to settle all the old man's debts—principal and interest—completely and cleanly.
The gambling dens, the taverns, and a few scattered tabs Ke Zhen'e owed for liquor were all settled in one go. The total wasn't much anyway.
To Huang Rong, it really was nothing.
Yet after settling the accounts, she didn't say a word to Ke Zhen'e.
Because she knew clearly that if Ke Zhen'e knew his messy debts behind him were cleared, he would immediately grease his soles and sail back to the gambling den the very next day to turn his luck around.
Sure enough, over the next few years, Ke Zhen'e stayed obediently on Peach Blossom Island.
Whenever Guo Jing occasionally brought up Jiaxing, the old blind man's face would darken:
"Don't mention Jiaxing!"
"It's no good!"
Guo Fu was too young to understand:
"Grand Uncle, isn't Jiaxing your hometown?"
"They even have big meat zongzi to eat in Jiaxing. Why do you say it's no good?"
Ke Zhen'e's beard twitched, and after holding it in for a long while, he finally squeezed out a sentence:
"That place... its ley lines are crooked, and its feng shui suppresses this old man!"
Guo Fu listened with a serious look on her face.
"Grand Uncle, then I won't go there in the future either."
Sitting under the veranda peeling lotus pods, Huang Rong covered her mouth with a handkerchief, almost bursting her belly laughing.
In the blink of an eye, several years passed quietly.
Guo Fu was already nine years old.
The little girl grew more mischievous with each passing day.
Nearly everything on Peach Blossom Island that could be messed with had been tormented by her.
Huang Yaoshi hadn't returned to the island all these years.
The Beggars' Sect also had no news of Hong Qigong.
Guo Jing was worried about Chief Hong's advanced age, while Huang Rong also fretted over her father's safety.
And so, after some discussion, the couple decided to take a trip out—on one hand to let Guo Fu see the world, and on the other to search for the two elders.
When Guo Fu heard she could leave the island, she was so thrilled she almost flipped her rice bowl over her head.
"Mother!"
"I want to go!"
Huang Rong smiled and said, "We never planned on leaving you behind in the first place."
Guo Fu immediately ran off to pack her things—clothes, snacks, a wooden toy sword, and even a cricket she had caught from who knows where.
Huang Rong felt a headache coming on.
"Leave the cricket."
Guo Fu hugged the jar tightly.
"No."
"It'll miss me if it stays on the island alone."
Guo Jing looked toward Ke Zhen'e again.
"Eldest Master, why don't you come out and take a stroll with us as well?"
Having lived a comfortable life for several years, Ke Zhen'e initially wanted to decline.
"This old man won't—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Guo Fu had already rushed over and clung to his arm.
"Grand Uncle is coming too!"
"If you don't go, I won't go either!"
The corner of Ke Zhen'e's mouth twitched slightly:
"Even if Grand Uncle doesn't go, won't you still have just as much fun?"
Guo Fu declared with absolute confidence:
"You still have to go!"
"Grand Uncle is the strongest!"
"Who will protect me if you don't go?"
Ke Zhen'e found this gesture quite flattering.
He patted Guo Fu's head.
"Fine."
"I'll go."
Guo Jing asked:
"Eldest Master, where should we look first?"
Without a second thought, Ke Zhen'e answered:
"Starting the search anywhere is fine. Eating sand in the desert is no problem either."
"Just don't go to Jiaxing."
In the old blind man's mind, if calculated using the gambling dens' predatory "nine-out, thirteen-return" compounding interest, the debt he had owed back then had probably ballooned to an astronomical figure by now.
Seeing the old man putting on a tough front to save face, Huang Rong really couldn't hold back her laughter any longer:
"Eldest Master, as for those gambling debts of yours, I already cleared them for you five years ago."
Ke Zhen'e's entire body froze stiff.
Clang! His iron staff almost crashed onto his toes.
The crisscrossing wrinkles all over his face instantly smoothed out, his beard twitched upward, and he smiled like an old chrysanthemum in full bloom.
Ke Zhen'e slapped his thigh heavily and let out a full-throated roar:
"Then what are we waiting for!"
"First stop!"
"To Jiaxing!"
This change of face was faster than flipping a page.
Guo Fu looked up and asked:
"Grand Uncle, didn't you say before that Jiaxing had bad feng shui?"
Ke Zhen'e coughed.
"It's been years... the feng shui has turned long ago."
...
A few days later.
The four of them arrived in Jiaxing and stayed in a quiet, large inn in the east of the city.
Returning here actually felt quite pleasant to Ke Zhen'e.
The familiar scent of wine.
The familiar street hawking.
Even the sound of people bickering on the street sounded so pleasant to his ears.
Of course, he didn't go to the gambling dens again.
Ke Zhen'e knew he had lost everything back then and had to rely on his disciple's wife to clean up his mess, so he felt somewhat embarrassed.
This time back, he set a rule for himself.
Gambling—he would never touch it again. It brought ruin upon people, far too much ruin.
However, alcohol was still a must.
When Guo Jing heard this, he quite agreed:
"It's naturally a good thing that Eldest Master can quit gambling."
Ke Zhen'e nodded and said:
"Gambling ruins things."
"Drinking elevates the mood."
"How can the two be lumped together?"
Guo Jing thought carefully about it:
"That makes sense!"
Huang Rong shot him a glance from the side, and Guo Jing instantly shut his mouth.
Ke Zhen'e continued:
"Quitting gambling is fine."
"Quitting alcohol is not."
"As the saying goes..."
"Washing hands in a golden basin doesn't mean washing mouth!"
Huang Rong said calmly:
"Then three bowls a day at most. Not a single copper coin more."
The corners of Ke Zhen'e's mouth twitched violently twice:
"Rong'er... how about five bowls? Three bowls aren't even enough to wet this old man's throat."
Without even looking up, Huang Rong stated directly:
"Then two bowls it is."
Ke Zhen'e hurriedly agreed:
"Deal! Three bowls it is!"
The blind hero of his generation was thoroughly managed by his disciple's wife in just two sentences.
Upon arriving in Jiaxing City, Guo Fu was like a wild horse unbridled, heading wherever it was liveliest.
Guo Jing and Huang Rong brought her through various streets and markets, taking a stroll while inquiring about the two elders' whereabouts.
Ke Zhen'e was originally a native of Jiaxing, so he had many old acquaintances here.
He asked around among his old friends.
An old boatman said that a few days ago, he had seen an elderly man in a green cloth robe at Yanyu Tower.
He was leaning against the carved railing alone, drinking gloomy wine, looking proud and aloof.
Hearing this, Ke Zhen'e realized the description sounded strikingly like Huang Yaoshi.
Overjoyed, he grabbed his iron staff and rushed straight to Yanyu Tower.
In the end, after asking around, he still couldn't get any definite news on Huang Yaoshi's whereabouts.
Thus, he sat sulking in the main hall, gulping down two bowls of rice wine in a row, feeling thoroughly frustrated.
As fate would have it, right at that moment, he encountered Little Shitou being dragged into the front hall by the collar by the tavern manager.
Only then did the rushed rescue mission at Lu Manor happen.
At this moment, Ke Zhen'e carried Da Wu and Xiao Wu on his shoulders, leaping along the rooftops as he sped toward Yuelai Inn in the east of the city.
The two brothers had not yet awakened, slung over his left and right shoulders.
Ke Zhen'e didn't stop once along the way.
It was just that his nose twitched from time to time, and his expression grew uglier and uglier.
"These two kids..."
"...really soaked through with urine."
...
East of the city, Yuelai Inn, second-floor top-grade room.
The candlelight on the table remained lit.
Huang Rong spoke gently: "Fu'er, it's so late, why aren't you resting yet?"
Dressed in a brand-new bright red embroidered dress, Guo Fu swung her legs back and forth under her stool:
"I'm not sleeping! I want to wait for Grand Uncle to return."
Guo Jing put down the teacup in his hand, shaking his head helplessly as he said:
"Fu'er, Father knows you're worried about Grand Uncle."
"But children only grow taller if they sleep early. Your mother and I are staying up here, so go on to sleep now."
Guo Fu pouted her small mouth:
"I'm not worried about Grand Uncle at all."
"I'm waiting for him to return so I can personally ask him—it's so late and he's still not back, did he secretly go to the gambling den again!"
Hearing this, Guo Jing frowned slightly:
"Fu'er, don't talk nonsense. Eldest Master promised to quit gambling, so he will definitely keep his word."
Guo Fu immediately pressed:
"What about alcohol then?"
"Mother set the limit at three bowls a day. What if Grand Uncle was greedy and drank more?"
"Father, do you dare use a cane to strike his palms?"
Guo Jing opened his mouth, completely silenced.
When it came to this, let alone striking palms, even if he were given three times the courage, he wouldn't dare say a single harsh word to his eldest master.
Sitting beside them, Huang Rong covered her mouth with a handkerchief, giggling continuously.
Seeing Guo Jing didn't answer, Guo Fu immediately grew spirited:
"Father."
"Why aren't you talking?"
Guo Jing coughed:
"Eldest Master knows his own limits."
Huang Rong spoke up:
"Fu'er, what your father means by that is..."
"...he doesn't dare guarantee it either."
Guo Jing said: "Rong'er."
Guo Fu huffed:
"I bet Grand Uncle was greedy for alcohol, eighty to ninety percent sure."
In the next moment.
A flurry of footsteps suddenly echoed from outside the door, followed by a gruff voice:
"Which little rascal..."
"...is speaking ill of this old man behind his back again?"
Guo Fu's eyes instantly lit up: "Grand Uncle!"
The moment the door opened, she pounced toward him like a red butterfly.
Ke Zhen'e said:
"Slow down!"
"Don't fall!"
Guo Jing and Huang Rong hurriedly stood up to greet him.
However, when they clearly saw the two unconscious children slung across Ke Zhen'e's left and right shoulders, both were dumbfounded.
Guo Jing said in astonishment: "Eldest Master, these two children are...?"
Guo Fu looked at the unconscious Da Wu and Xiao Wu:
"Grand Uncle, you didn't go to the gambling den and win someone else's children back, did you?"
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