Martial Arts Crossover: My master tricked Huang Rong into becoming my wife!

Meanwhile, at the Beggars' Sect branch headquarters, the sun was high in the sky.

Lu Youjiao hummed an unknown tune, carrying a roast goose wrapped in oil paper and two jugs of aged Shaoxing wine, and stepped into the courtyard with a ruddy face.

"Yanzhou, the sun's already high in the sky!"

Lu Youjiao raised his loud voice and walked straight toward the stone table in the courtyard.

"Get up quickly, see what good stuff Grandpa Lu brought you! It's sure to suit your taste!"

As he spoke, he skillfully placed the food and wine on the stone table in the middle of the courtyard, and then went to the kitchen to get two sets of bowls and chopsticks.

The courtyard was quiet, and even Wangcai, the black dog that usually pounced on people, was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Youjiao set out the chopsticks, turned his head to look at the tightly closed door, and muttered to himself, "This kid, he usually sleeps very lightly, how come he's sleeping like a dead pig today?"

"Yanzhou? Dinner's ready!"

He shouted again, but still no one answered.

Lu felt a jolt in his foot, and an ominous premonition arose within him.

He rushed to the door in three strides and pushed it open.

"Squeak—"

The door opened with a click; it wasn't locked.

Lu Youjiao was dumbfounded when he saw the empty house.

No, where are they?

After taking a couple of steps inside, I saw a letter on the table being held down by a paperweight. I picked it up and immediately recognized that it was not Yanzhou's handwriting.

He squinted his old eyes and stared at those two lines of text for a long time, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.

The first two characters were too complicated for him to recognize, but he knew the last two characters by heart.

Back then, the old gang leader was elusive, and whenever he left a note before disappearing, he always liked to write these two characters before signing it. He even went to a private school teacher to ask about this.

"Don't...recite it?"

As Lu Youjiao read those two words aloud, his mind went blank, and the letter in his hand fluttered to the ground.

"No way! That damned little brat! He ran away again!!!"

"How come the master and apprentice are both such scoundrels?"

……

Meanwhile, twenty miles outside Xiangyang City, on the official road.

The sky was clear and the breeze was gentle.

With a blade of grass dangling from his mouth and his hands behind his head, Chen Yanzhou strode ahead with an air of indifference.

Although carrying the heavy Xuan Tie sword, it doesn't feel so heavy after a while.

Wangcai frolicked and darted in and out of the roadside bushes, occasionally startling a few wild rabbits, which would then bark and chase after it.

High above, the divine eagle circled like a dark cloud, occasionally letting out a loud cry that frightened passing merchants and travelers, who all shrank back, thinking that some kind of monster had been born.

Huang Rong held a tree branch in her hand, idly whipping at the wildflowers by the roadside, her eyes occasionally glancing at Chen Yanzhou.

"Hey, we've been walking all morning, can't we take a break?" Huang Rong rubbed her aching calves. "That silly eagle can fly in the sky without any effort, but I walked all this way."

Chen Yanzhou stopped, turned around and glanced at her, then smiled and said, "Tired already?"

"Alright, let's take a break." Chen Yanzhou pointed to a small river not far ahead. "There's water up there, and I'm thirsty too."

The two people and the dog arrived at the riverbank.

The river water was crystal clear and flowed gurglingly.

Chen Yanzhou scooped up a handful of cool water and splashed it on his face, instantly feeling refreshed.

Just as I was about to find a clean, large blue stone to lie down on for a while, a rustling sound suddenly came from the reeds not far away.

Wangcai perked up its ears and growled twice in that direction.

"Who?" Chen Yanzhou's gaze narrowed slightly, his hand already resting on the hilt of the sword behind his back.

The reeds were parted, and several ragged, emaciated figures emerged.

There were two men and one woman, with a child who was about half a year old. Their clothes were patched upon patched, and the original color was no longer visible. Their straw sandals were also worn out, with their toes showing.

Seeing Chen Yanzhou's extraordinary demeanor, the intimidating large sword on his back, and the large, snarling black dog beside him, the group was so frightened they almost knelt down.

"Hero, spare us! Hero, spare us! We were just passing by and asked for a drink of water; we have no money on us..."

The leading man had a hoarse voice and kept kowtowing while protecting the child behind him.

Chen Yanzhou loosened his grip on the sword hilt, his brow furrowed slightly, and stepped forward to offer a helping hand: "Get up and let's talk. I'm not a robber."

The man cautiously raised his head, and seeing that Chen Yanzhou indeed had no intention of making a move, he breathed a slight sigh of relief, but still dared not get up.

"Judging from their accents, are they from Henan?" Chen Yanzhou glanced at their chapped lips, took out two cold steamed buns from his pocket, and handed them over.

The child's eyes widened instantly, he swallowed hard, but dared not reach out, only looking up at his own parents.

The man's eyes reddened, and he trembled as he took the steamed buns, stuffing them into the hands of the child and woman. Only then did he reply with profuse thanks, "Replying to the hero, we are from Henan. The Jin dogs are not letting people live. They are conscripting men and stealing food. We had no other choice but to think of fleeing south."

"South?" Chen Yanzhou glanced at the direction. "This is the road back to Xiangyang from the north."

The man sighed, his face bitter: "I originally went south. But when I got there, I found that there was fighting everywhere, and the government wouldn't let us into the city, saying they were afraid of spies infiltrating. We refugees were driven around like ducks. Then I heard that Xiangyang City was taking in refugees and there was still a way to survive, so I gritted my teeth and went back."

Chen Yanzhou remained silent for a moment, then sighed. In times of chaos and turmoil, the people suffer whether the world is prosperous or in ruin.

"Have we encountered any teahouses or inns with the character 'righteousness' on them along the way?" Chen Yanzhou asked suddenly, pulling himself out of his thoughts.

The man paused for a moment, then nodded and said, "We've run into them. It's strange, those tea stalls don't charge us, and they even give us porridge. The shopkeeper also said that if we have nowhere to go, we can go deep into the mountains, where there are villages where we can stay and even get land to farm."

"Then why don't you go?" Huang Rong interjected, curious. "There's food and drink, and you get land too. Isn't that better than fleeing?"

A hint of fear flashed across the man's face as he shrank back. "Young lady, you don't understand. These days, there's no such thing as a free lunch. The old folks in our village say that's definitely a scam! They'll lure people into the deep mountains and forests, where they might make them do hard labor or even turn them into human flesh buns! We wouldn't dare go there. Xiangyang City seems much safer."

Huang Rong was stunned. She turned to look at Chen Yanzhou, only to find him calm and showing no surprise whatsoever.

Chen Yanzhou didn't say anything more. He took out some loose silver and dry food from his bundle and stuffed them into the man's hand: "Take these. When you get to Xiangyang City, go to a place called 'Yiyunsi' in the south of the city and give my name... never mind, just say that Elder Lu sent you there. You can get a job."

The man, holding the silver, was so excited that he trembled all over. He pulled his wife and children to kowtow again.

Chen Yanzhou waved his hand without saying anything more.