Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 369 Drunk Talk
Three meals a day, and each meal is different.

Lu Xiaofeng was very satisfied with his life here. He enjoyed plenty of fish and meat, and delicacies from land and sea. He thought that even the emperor's food was not as good as this.

As long as it was worth his fat body, he didn't mind doing work for others. Therefore, he worked very hard planting trees and grass, which earned him Shi Fei's high regard.

Day after day, one evening, the two of them were chatting in the courtyard.

The desert night was bitterly cold. The campfire crackled in the courtyard, sparks drifting in the inky night sky. Lu Xiaofeng added a few pieces of poplar wood to the fire, and the flames immediately leaped higher, illuminating his round face.

"You were already venturing into the world when you were seventeen or eighteen!" Shi Fei lay back in the rattan rocking chair, gazing at the huge bright moon in the sky. Its silvery light shone on the sand dunes, like a thin layer of frost.

“Not eighteen,” Lu Xiaofeng poked at the fire, sparks dancing on his fingertips. “He came out when he was fourteen.”

He picked up the iron kettle and poured the boiling water into the teacup; the steam condensed into white mist in the cold air. He didn't start his journey into the martial world at eighteen, but at fourteen.

Shi Fei turned his head, the moonlight casting varying shades of shadow on his gaunt face: "Why? Is the martial world really that great?"

Lu Xiaofeng warmed his hands with a teacup, the aroma of tea mingling with the smoke from the campfire filling his nostrils. Gazing at the flickering flames, he murmured, "The martial world isn't good. Wandering the martial world is just for eating."

"Have you eaten?"

"Correct!"

"Would even a great hero venture into the martial world just to have enough to eat?"

"A great hero wouldn't, but I'm not a great hero."

Shi Fei glanced at the chubby boy and said, "Who knows, you might become a great hero someday."

"Perhaps." Lu Xiaofeng forced a smile, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes. "But I think... being a great hero isn't all that great."

"Why do you say that?" Shi Fei asked.

Lu Xiaofeng fell silent, seemingly unwilling to discuss the topic.

Shi Fei smiled slightly and said, "Look how beautiful the moon is tonight, wouldn't you like to have a drink?"

"Wine?" Lu Xiaofeng's eyes lit up. Everything here was great, except for the lack of wine.

He hasn't had a drink in a long time.

"I have wine, do you have a story?" Shi Fei took out various kinds of wine from his black bag, including distilled spirits, rice wine, yellow wine, and grape wine.

Seeing so much wine, Lu Xiaofeng swallowed hard and said, "My benefactor should have brought out the wine earlier. With wine, I could work from morning till night."

"Haha~" Shi Fei couldn't help but burst into laughter.

The previous A-Gu was too cold-hearted, and A-Sha was too stubborn. Lu Xiaofeng is much more interesting.

Lu Xiaofeng smelled each type of liquor, then picked up a bottle of distilled white spirit: "The aroma is rich and complex, the color is clear, top-grade! Top-grade!"

Without any hesitation, he opened the bottle and took a swig!
"Tsk~" The strong liquor burned from his throat to his stomach, and his face immediately flushed. He smacked his lips and said, "So spicy! But so satisfying!"

He used to drink rice wine and yellow wine, rarely such a high alcohol content.

After a couple of drinks, Lu Xiaofeng opened up completely. Holding the bottle, his eyes began to glaze over: "When I was young, I loved listening to stories of great heroes."

"...You look like a teenager too!" Shi Fei said with a smile.

Lu Xiaofeng ignored Shi Fei. He knew his benefactor was rather talkative and always had to say something about everything he saw, otherwise he wouldn't feel comfortable. He continued, "Every time I hear a storyteller recount tales of the martial world, I'm always the first to arrive and the last to leave. Those legends of flowing white robes and wandering the world with swords always get my blood pumping."

His voice gradually lowered, "I thought that's what the martial arts world was like, and that's what great heroes were like."

"I just didn't expect this day to come so soon. When I was fourteen, my family suffered a misfortune. In order to make a living, I had no choice but to enter the world of gangsters."

"It was then that I realized that although those heroes were dressed in white and acted swiftly and decisively, something about them just felt off."

"There are chivalrous swordsmen who claim to be 'skilled with a single, breathtaking strike,' yet they haggle over a few taels of silver. There are righteous heroes who, after losing big in gambling dens, curse and swear. And there are aloof and proud swordsmen who secretly pawn their swords at pawnshops..."

The campfire crackled, and Lu Xiaofeng's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the firelight: "For things that bring fame and fortune, heroes fight tooth and nail; but for good deeds that bring neither fame nor fortune, no one cares."

"As I grew older, and even after being betrayed by those so-called heroes a few times, I realized that there are no true heroes in this world. They are just ordinary people who wear the cloak of legend and make a living in the martial arts world."

A night breeze swept by, scattering a few sparks. Lu Xiaofeng, his eyes blurry with drunkenness, gazed at Shi Fei: "You said...this martial world, right?"

Is this the right way to navigate the martial arts world? That was a question in his mind.

Instead of answering directly, Shi Fei picked up a dry twig and poked at the campfire, sparks flying like fireflies in the night: "What do you think the martial world is like?"

Lu Xiaofeng clutched the wine bottle, his eyes glazed as he stared at the flickering flames. The firelight cast shifting shadows on his round face: "I don't know, I really don't know."
He truly didn't know that there was a vast chasm between reality and his inner world, which led to him being brutally beaten down by reality. The betrayals he experienced were not as simple as he made them out to be; each time, they nearly killed him.

“Your impression of the martial arts world comes from storytellers,” Shi Fei said. “The martial arts world as described by storytellers is their own martial arts world, not the real martial arts world, nor the martial arts world you are looking for.”

"The martial world I want?" Lu Xiaofeng said with a self-deprecating laugh, "The martial world is so vast, what can I do?"

Only those who have truly been beaten down by the harsh realities of life understand that in this world, a person is as insignificant as a grain of sand. Those heroic legends are fragile and easily shattered in the face of reality.

"Since you can't stand them, why not start with yourself?" Shi Fei said, looking at the drunken Lu Xiaofeng.

"Start with me?" Lu Xiaofeng murmured to himself.

"Are you going to follow the crowd and become that kind of chivalrous hero?"

"I don't want to!"

"Then do as you see fit! The world is vast, there's bound to be a place for you," Shi Fei said.

“But…but they say I’m meddling in other people’s business,” Lu Xiaofeng said with a wry smile.

He always liked to do those trivial things that brought no fame or profit, which is why people said he was a busybody.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Shi Fei's eyes were filled with laughter. "If the martial world can't even tolerate people who 'meddle' in other people's business, then the martial world must be sick."

"Really?"

"Absolutely true!"

"Then can I become a chivalrous hero? A chivalrous hero who loves to meddle in other people's business?" Lu Xiaofeng was so drunk that he could barely keep his eyes open. He had already drunk almost the entire bottle of wine.

Therefore, he did not hear what Shi Fei said.

"Of course, it's the lovable and meddlesome hero Lu Xiaofeng!"

(End of this chapter)