Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 30: The Challenge Lies with Me

Wang Heihou burst into the room in a panic. Seeing Lu Chang’sheng, he blurted out, "It’s bad, Mr. Zhao’s been detained by the Three Red Gang!"

"No rush, slow down and tell us." Lu Chang’sheng felt a faint heaviness in his heart, but looking at Wang Heihou, who was gasping for air, he still managed to act calm and collected.

Seeing this, everyone else instantly felt like they’d found their backbone, and their panic subsided quite a bit.

Wang Heihou took a deep breath and recounted what happened.

Turns out, today was rent collection day. As usual, Zhao Hu took the silver coins to the Three Red Gang’s headquarters to pay the monthly rent.

Earlier this year, Steward Li left the Traveler’s Inn—word was he’d gone into the city.

The four main gates’ gangs were just the outlying riffraff compared to those in the prefecture city, and their biggest dream was to make it inside. Steward Li heading into the city probably meant he’d made progress and needed manpower.

Plus, with the archery practice ground growing in business and size, they’d made it onto the Three Red Gang’s red list, so the rent-paying location moved to the Three Red Gang’s base.

At first, Wang Heihou didn’t think much of it. Only when he was getting ready to head out for work and noticed a bunch of sketchy-looking folks nearby did he even realize something might have happened.

That’s when their informant from the Three Red Gang passed along word and confirmed the whole mess. Without delay, he rushed to Lu Chang’sheng for advice.

"An informant?" Lu Chang’sheng shot Wang Heihou a puzzled look.

Wang Heihou scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Mr. Zhao said the Three Red Gang would set their sights on us sooner or later—easy pickings, right? So he found a chance to recruit a couple of informants. This way, if anything happened, at least we wouldn’t be in the dark."

"Mr. Zhao’s a long-term thinker," said Lu Chang’sheng, nodding.

You don’t survive this long in Black Mountain Prefecture without having a few tricks up your sleeve.

"Chang’sheng! What do we do now?" Wang Heihou asked.

Lu Chang’sheng narrowed his eyes. "Ever met the Three Red Gang’s boss?"

"Met him once!" Wang Heihou replied without thinking.

When Li Deyin first left, the rent location changed, so Zhao Hu took him there to put faces to names.

"What kind of guy is he?"

"Can’t tell." Wang Heihou thought about it, then shook his head.

"Idiot," muttered Li Nangua from the side.

Wang Heihou forced a dry laugh. If anyone else called him that, he’d have snapped back, but Li Nangua and Lu Chang’sheng were the two exceptions.

"Maybe that’s not Heihou’s fault." Lu Chang’sheng smiled gently.

Wang Heihou just looked lost.

"Chang’sheng, what are you thinking? I couldn’t size the guy up, and you’re still covering for me?"

Man, that’s just touching!

Lu Chang’sheng laughed aloud, grabbed an arrow from the table, and tapped it on Wang Heihou’s forehead.

Seeing this, Wang Heihou started grinning like an idiot. He realized things probably weren’t too bad after all.

Still, curiosity was eating at him. "You still haven’t said what we should do about this!"

Lu Chang’sheng nodded. "The hard part isn’t you guys—it’s me."

Him?

Not just Wang Heihou—even Li Nangua, who usually caught on quick, was baffled.

"Chang’sheng, you just found out yourself! You could say it’s got nothing to do with you—why say you’re the tricky part?"

"Take a wild guess." Lu Chang’sheng winked.

Wang Heihou suddenly felt every pore on his body tighten and the muscles on his face freeze up.

This was the last thing he wanted to hear right now—those two damn words.

Ignoring Wang Heihou’s pleading gaze, Lu Chang’sheng, still smiling, walked over to the balcony and took the bow and arrows hanging on the wall, slinging them onto his back.

"Nangua, help me pack up the necessities."

"Got it, Chang’sheng!"

Li Nangua’s mental gears switched instantly to Lu Chang’sheng’s orders—it was almost instinct by now.

"Hey, hold up! Chang’sheng, what are you planning?" Wang Heihou’s eyes went wide—this really looked like a jailbreak in the making.

But then Lu Chang’sheng said quietly, "Go back now. Tell the students not to come for archery practice for the time being, and stay out of sight as much as possible. Don’t let the Three Red Gang find their exact locations. Even better if you can send them to the other three gates. Here, leave one or two people tops."

"Okay!" At Lu Chang’sheng’s command, Wang Heihou nodded eagerly, "What about Mr. Zhao, though—?"

"He’ll be fine."

Lu Chang’sheng smiled.

It’s not that he was being deliberately mysterious—he just wanted to prod Wang Heihou into thinking for himself. Next time, he’d instinctively try to work things out, instead of running straight to Lu Chang’sheng for answers.

As for the solution, once everything blew over, they could always backtrack. Wang Heihou would learn a lot more that way than if he’d been told what to do up front.

"Nangua, once you’ve packed, wait for me outside."

Lu Chang’sheng said this as he walked out the door.

"Got it! Be careful, okay?"

"Relax! I’ll be fine!"

······

Lower Room.

The cramped space was stuffed with odds and ends; the air was filled with a faint, sour stink.

Now, with just over a month before the autumn exams, all the scholars were sacrificing rest and meals, burning the midnight oil with their study books.

So, all that talk you usually heard about "scholarly purity" had gone right out the window—for now. Only when the autumn exams drew near did people bother with their clothes or personal grooming.

Ma Xuncai was one of these many scholars, and since he was getting older, he treasured every chance at the autumn exams even more. He spent at least seven or eight hours a day buried in books.

Because of years of little exercise and lost sleep, every three or four hours of reading, he’d start nodding off. So, he hung a hemp rope from the rafters, tying it to his hair—if he nodded off, the rope jerked his head and snapped him awake.

"Just a pity, I’m still a few books short."

Last night he’d studied till nearly 3:00 AM, got up at 5:00 AM to start reading again. The exhaustion hit hard, and he couldn’t keep from yawning.

Spread across his desk were more than twenty old, yellowed books.

There were tons of books about the Child Scholar exam, but they cost a fortune. It’d taken him twenty years to collect just over thirty volumes.

He’d managed to sell off a few he’d mastered for some cash. Now, these twenty-odd books were his most treasured possessions.

"If only I could exchange books with other scholars, that’d be something."

He thought so to himself.

But that almost never happened.

Among scholars, everyone was a rival. There were only so many Child Scholar spots at Jixia Academy each autumn. The more others learned, the less you did, and the harder it got to win glory.

As for teaching Lu Chang’sheng, part of it was for silver coins, part just because Lu Chang’sheng was young—he wasn’t a direct competitor, but someone for later years.

By that time, Ma would either be a Child Scholar himself or have totally failed. Then he’d have to find some students to carry on his dream. That’s why Lu Chang’sheng could study with him so easily.

Just then, a loud knock came at the door.

"Coming, coming!"

Ma Xuncai untied the rope from his hair and got up to open the door. Right away, he saw the inn’s errand boy on duty.

"Ma Xuncai, the young master asks you to come to the main hall—says he wants to say goodbye to all of you." The errand boy rolled his eyes, about to be knocked out by the smell inside.

"Us? Say goodbye?" Ma Xuncai froze for a second, meaning to ask, but the errand boy couldn’t take it and turned tail on the spot.

"Well, may as well go! Free meal, after all." Ma Xuncai thought to himself, tidied up a bit, and headed out the door.

Meanwhile, a few other scholars at the inn got the message too. One by one, confused and curious, they headed for the front hall.

······