"There... there... there... there's shit!"
"My eyes aren't blind; stop crowding forward, are you going to eat that? Calling you stupid would be kind, but surely you're not that dumb."
"Gouwa, don't talk, there are people on the road."
"Heh heh, I'll listen to you, Brother Li."
Soon enough, Top Scholar Lv saw the people coming out of the forest.
When he saw what those people looked like, Top Scholar Lv immediately gasped in shock; no wonder his youngest son had said there were ghosts, they looked truly terrifying.
There was a skinny man with a patchwork of black and white on his face, a white-haired woman, a weird person with their legs looped over someone's back, and even one person whose face was covered in hair.
Top Scholar Lv, who had traveled widely, deemed himself knowledgeable, yet he was still frightened by the sight before him.
"Dad, I'm scared." Scholar Lv kept shrinking back, seemingly trying to make his body fit as much as possible behind his father's.
"Do you think I'm not scared if you're scared?" Top Scholar Lv inwardly cursed at his youngest son; if not for the presence of a handsome Taoist and a few normal-looking Taoist Boys among the group, he might have already turned around and run.
Top Scholar Lv shivered as he bowed to Li Huowang. "May I ask you, Taoist Master, are these... um... the spirits you've subdued?"
As soon as he said this, he instantly reaped a bunch of hostile glares.
"What is this old fool talking about! Asking for a beating, huh? Who are you calling a spirit?"
When Top Scholar Lv saw that the handsome Taoist gestured for the aggressive black and white-faced spirit to stop talking, he was even more convinced of his own thoughts.
"Elder, may I trouble you to ask where this road leads to?"
"Five Li Ridge! It's just ahead at Five Li Ridge, it's not far. Hehehe."
No sooner had he finished speaking, Top Scholar Lv secretly heated the horse's behind with his dry pipe; the horse neighed and ran down the forest path, pulling the cart.
"Hey! My horse! My horse! Hurry, follow it." With feigned urgency, Top Scholar Lv led the others to chase after the horse.
They ran quickly and soon left those beings far behind.
They ran for an entire hour; seeing his youngest son running to the point of vomiting, Top Scholar Lv finally whistled for the horse to stop.
After stopping, he didn't attend to his youngest son but instead immediately checked on the horse pulling the cart; in this troupe, horses were more valuable than people.
By then, the sky had slowly darkened, and it was nearly evening.
"Oh, my dear mother, what on earth were those things? That scared me to death." Lv Elevated Man, drenched in sweat, panted heavily.
Top Scholar Lv kicked him, "Can't you see it's getting dark? Hurry to the forest and gather some firewood!"
By the forest path, a warm fire rose, and the softened multigrain mantou were put in everyone's mouths; the sweet scent of food soothed their frightened hearts.
"Look at how scared you all were, acting like bears. When you're on the road, encountering something supernaturally odd is nothing to fuss about—the more you encounter such situations, the calmer you must be. Let me tell you," said Top Scholar Lv to the others.
"Dad, maybe those weren't spirits after all; they looked quite human, and that young Taoist even called you elder," said Xiu'er.
Hearing his daughter-in-law say this, Top Scholar Lv shook his water calabash in hand.
"Whatever they are, we should stay out of it. Remember, when you're out there in the world, if you want to live a long life, there are some things best avoided if possible."
This was indeed Top Scholar Lv's life philosophy; regardless, he'd lived to such an old age by adhering to this very principle.
Moreover, he also planned to pass on this knowledge to his younger son and eldest son, for when he grew old, the theater troupe would depend on them to take over and keep the shows running.
Passing the water calabash to his nephew beside him, Top Scholar Lv looked at his granddaughter who was lying in his daughter-in-law's arms.
Watching her gnawing on a small piece of mantou with her newly grown milk teeth, Top Scholar Lv's delight grew the more he watched her.
He turned around, took a salted duck egg out of a round pot on the cart, carefully cracked an opening, and brought the oily, sizzling yolk to his granddaughter's mouth. "Come on, Nannan, suck on this, it's delicious."
Seeing his granddaughter eagerly sucking on it, Top Scholar Lv's eyes immediately crinkled into a line with laughter.
Although it was a pity she wasn't a grandson, after all, a granddaughter was even dearer with the generation gap, and he loved this little granddaughter enormously.
Seizing the moment as a good opportunity, Luo Juannhua immediately spoke up, "Dad, look, Cui'er is getting so big now, shouldn't she have her own clothes? Wearing theater costumes all the time isn't proper."
As soon as his daughter-in-law mentioned money, the smile instantly vanished from Top Scholar Lv's face, and his features scrunched together.
Just about to refuse, but seeing his granddaughter in her baggy theater costume softened his heart again.
After taking a few puffs of his dry pipe with a "pat-dah, pat-dah" sound, he with even more wrinkles on his face walked to the front of the cart and took out a long brass lock to open a chest.
After fumbling inside for a while, he counted out fifty copper coins.
"Don't go buying fabric in town, it's expensive. Wait a couple of days until we reach Wuli Ridge, ask around which women there weave fabric and buy a few yards from them. Remember to check with several families, find the cheapest one."
"Also, remember to get cotton, not hemp. Xiu'er has delicate skin, hemp will chafe and be uncomfortable."
"I got it," Luo Juannhua said with a beam, taking the copper coins. She thought getting enough to buy hemp fabric would be quite good, yet unexpectedly, the stingy old man had loosened the purse strings this time.
Children are small, making clothes won't require much fabric; she might even be able to save some for herself this time.
Once he saw his granddaughter had finished the egg yolk, Top Scholar Lv divided the remaining egg whites among the adults.
Although everyone's share wasn't much, tasting the saltiness made them all quite happy—it was not easy to get a taste of meat.
It had gotten dark, and with no other activities after dinner, they listened to Top Scholar Lv tell a few old stories he'd heard from who knows where, and then it was time for bed.
The person on guard for the first half of the night was Lv Elevated Man; having walked all day, he was very tired, but he still forced himself to stay alert, keeping an eye on the fire to prevent it from going out.
"Son, go to sleep, I'll keep watch," Top Scholar Lv sat next to his son and started taking puffs of his dry pipe with a "pat-dah, pat-dah" sound again.
Yawning, Lv Elevated Man said, "Dad, I'm not sleepy, you go to sleep."
"Nonsense, go to sleep right now. I, an old man, need less sleep."
Just as the two were arguing by the fire, Top Scholar Lv suddenly covered his son's mouth with his hand and pointed towards the dark forest in the distance.
"Hee hee~" A sharp, thin woman's laugh suddenly rang out from their right.
Top Scholar Lv and his son instinctively looked over, but they saw nothing but darkness.
"Hee hee hee~ What do you think, do I look like a human, or like a god?" The pitch-black forest began to sway, as if something was about to emerge from within.
Top Scholar Lv was immediately covered in a cold sweat; knowledgeable as he was, he knew this was something asking for a "seal," or tribute.
One could not answer carelessly in such situations, as a wrong answer might lead to the ruin of one's family.
But the current problem was, what exactly inside the forest was asking for a "seal" from him?
The forest rustled rhythmically through the night, making a strange, rustling sound.