Heroine, don't turn back, I'm just a farmer.

After resting at a different inn for the night, Lu Guo got up very early the next day.

Han Qi, the famous general under Zhao Yuqian who destroyed ten kingdoms in the game, should still be struggling in Huaiyin City. He is going to go and find him.

Having changed into a frivolous and dissolute outfit, he climbed over the wall from the back of the inn and headed towards the region he remembered.

"What use is my birth? I cannot laugh; what use is my destruction? It will not diminish my arrogance."

"A master thief doesn't steal..." Lu Guo hummed a little tune, "He doesn't steal from women and children, he doesn't steal from the loyal and virtuous; he doesn't steal from the common people, he has the heart of a bodhisattva~"

With half a blade of grass dangling from his mouth and his hands tucked into his ripped sleeves, he walked with a relaxed and languid air, appearing incredibly frivolous, yet his footsteps were so light they were almost silent. As he walked, his eyes searched the market.

Under the influence of "telepathic connection," everything on the street was imprinted in his heart.

As I walked past a greasy-faced, fat merchant, the fat man was grabbing a vegetable vendor by the collar and yelling at him, saying that the vegetables were yellow and yet he dared to sell them. He spat all over the vendor's face, kicked over the vegetable basket, and the vegetables rolled all over the ground. The vegetable vendor was a thin old man who squatted on the ground picking up the vegetables, not daring to say a word.

Lu Guo paused for a moment, then walked past the fat man as if nothing had happened.

Three breaths later, the bulging money pouch at the fat man's waist was in his sleeve.

He opened his money bag in the alley, took out three copper coins, poured the remaining silver coins on the road the vegetable vendor would take on his way back, covered them with vegetable leaves, then put the three copper coins in his pocket and walked towards the dock.

Three copper coins were just enough to buy two steamed buns.

This doesn't count as stealing, Lu Guo thought; it's called helping him accumulate good karma.

As for those three copper coins—that was the wages.

The steamed bun was hot. Lu Guo tore off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth. He walked along the river embankment by the dock towards the south of the city. He didn't have much to do today, so he just planned to use his thief skills to explore Huaiyin City thoroughly. After all, Huaiyin City was much more interesting at night than during the day.

It was at this moment that he heard a burst of laughter.

Laughter came from the south end of the street, rough and crude. Lu Guo hadn't planned to join in the fun—he'd seen plenty of commotion in the city, nine out of ten of which involved bullying, and the remaining one involved mutual bullying. But then a muffled thud came from that direction, like something crashing to the ground, followed by a louder burst of laughter.

As he looked in the direction from which the sound came, [Telepathy] sensed an unusual energy.

Its color is crimson, and its aura resembles that of a dragon or python.

He stuffed the remaining steamed buns into his pocket and took a few steps over there.

A crowd gathered at the street corner.

In the middle of the circle stood several men who looked like butchers, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with their sleeves rolled up above their elbows, their arms still stained with blood that hadn't been washed off—they had probably just come from the pig slaughtering stall.

The leader was a burly, dark-faced man who was a head taller than the others, with a boning knife at his waist.

They were surrounding one person.

A young man dressed in a tattered scholar's robe.

He was about seventeen or eighteen years old, as thin as a bamboo pole. His clothes were washed until they were faded and the cuffs were frayed, but they were very clean. His hair was tied back with a hemp rope, revealing his entire face—his cheekbones were a bit high and his eye sockets were slightly sunken. He looked like someone who had been starving for years.

He had just gotten up from the ground, his knees covered in mud.

He had a sword slung diagonally across his back.

Lu Guo noticed the sword. The scabbard was made of wood, and most of the paint had peeled off, revealing the grayish-white wood underneath. The rope wrapped around the hilt was also worn and frayed. But inside was definitely a real sword, not some piece of iron that street thugs used to bluff people.

A person dressed like this, carrying a sword like this.

interesting.

"Crawl!" The dark-faced butcher spread his legs, patted his crotch, and wiggled his big buttocks. "Crawl through here, and I'll spare you today."

The idlers around got excited. Some whistled, some clapped, and some shouted "Drill, drill!" An old man selling pears shook his head, pushed his cart away, and more people squeezed in, craning their necks to look inside.

The young man stood still.

His expression was strange.

Many people who are bullied will either beg for mercy, their knees buckling and they kneeling down, their faces covered in snot and tears. Some will become fierce, their eyes reddening as they fight desperately, regardless of whether they can win or not; others will tremble and feel fear.

But the young man's face was devoid of any emotion, as if he were born with apathy.

I am not afraid, I do not ask for anything, and I am not angry.

He simply stood there, looking at the dark-faced butcher with very calm eyes.

The dark-faced butcher felt a little uneasy under that gaze and, enraged, shoved him, yelling, "What are you looking at! Are you going to crawl or not? If you don't, you'll crawl all the way back today!"

The young man staggered for a moment, then regained his balance.

His right hand twitched, as if he wanted to reach for the hilt of the sword at his waist. With Lu Guo's current cultivation level, he saw the young man's fingertips tremble slightly for a moment, but it stopped after a brief tremor.

Then his hand fell down.

Then he spoke, his voice not loud, but clear and distinct amidst the noise: "You think you can just let me leave after I crawled through?"

The dark-faced butcher paused for a moment, then grinned and shouted, "Drill! Drill and I'll let you go today!"

The young man nodded and touched the sword again.

Then he bent his knees.

The crowd erupted in even louder laughter. Some people stomped their feet excitedly, while others tugged at the people next to them, saying, "Look, look!" The dark-faced butcher, hands on his hips, laughed loudly, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, his fleshy face trembling.

The young man's knees fell into the mud.

Then it's the hands.

When he lay down, his movements were slow and steady, but his back was straight. The sword was close to his side, and the scabbard dragged on the ground, leaving a shallow mark in the mud.

He lowered his head and crawled between the dark-faced butcher's legs.

The laughter nearly lifted the roof off the street corner.

As the dark-faced butcher crawled through, he deliberately lowered his waist, pressing down on the young man's back. Then, with a sudden thrust of his hips, he sent the young man tumbling head over heels into the muddy water, splashing mud all over his face.

But he didn't utter a sound.

He climbed out of the mud, wiped the mud off his face with his sleeve. His already tattered scholar's robe was now completely filthy, with mud all over his chest and sleeves. He looked down at it, then looked up, still with that calm expression.

"May I leave now?"

The dark-faced butcher laughed so hard he bent over, waving his hands and saying, "Get out! Get out! I keep my word!"

The young man turned and left.

Seeing that there was no excitement to watch, the crowd dispersed, leaving only a few idlers still savoring the scene, clicking their tongues and muttering things like "Damn, he's really good at enduring things" and "This kind of person doesn't deserve to carry a sword."

Lu Guo did not leave.

He leaned against the wall at the street corner, a blade of grass still clenched in his mouth, his gaze fixed on the young man's back.

Too many people have knelt down for a bite to eat, for survival, or to avoid being beaten.

But the young man's eyes were different.

All his emotions subsided as he straightened up, and his eyes became calm, like a stagnant pool containing everything and nothing at the same time. His mud-covered figure walked step by step out of the street corner.

Lu Guo lifted his foot and followed him.

The young man walked slowly out of the city to the Huai River outside the city. He found a clean rock, sat down, stared at the water, and said nothing. His old sword lay across his knee, and his fingers tapped the scabbard on it intermittently.

Lu Guo stood behind him for a while.

Then he walked up, plopped down on the rock next to him, took out the remaining half of the steamed bun from his pocket, broke it in half, and handed over the larger half.

"Want some or not?"

The young man turned and glanced at him.

Those eyes remained calm, showing no disgust. She lowered her head, took a bite, chewed twice, swallowed, and then took another bite.

The two sat by the Huai River, watching the water flow quietly, each with half a steamed bun, and neither of them spoke.

After a long while, Lu Guo finally spoke.

"Just now," he hesitated for a moment, "why didn't you resist?"

Han Qi remained silent for a while.

The wind blew across the river, carrying the smell of fish and reeds, and the reed flowers fell like snowflakes.

"Killing someone is easy," he said. "This sword in my arms may be old, but it only takes three breaths to draw it, stab someone in the throat, and sheathe it. He can't withstand a single blow from me."

He spoke calmly, as if stating a fact, without boasting or anger, simply stating a fact.

"Then why don't you draw your sword?"

"Kill him, and then what?"

Han Qi turned his head, facing the landing face-to-face for the first time.

"According to the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, murderers shall die," Han Qi said. "If I kill him, the county yamen runners will arrive in half an hour. I can kill ten, but can I kill a hundred runners? Even if I manage to escape Huaiyin City, I will be a wanted criminal from now on. The world is vast, and it is on the verge of chaos, so there is naturally no place for me to hide."

"To kill in a fit of rage is the courage of a fool. To endure temporary humiliation for the sake of lasting glory—that is the path I want to take."

He paused, then turned his gaze back to Lu Guo, his expression a mixture of inquiry and curiosity.

"what you think?"

He asked Lu Guo, his tone neither humble nor arrogant.

"When a person has a higher mountain in their heart that they want to climb, they will not care about the mud under their feet, and they will face the pain that ordinary people cannot bear in the most peaceful way."

"Only by climbing to the top of the cliff can you appreciate the breathtaking view from the summit. All the hardships before the day of success are just a little bit of wind and frost."

Lu Guo looked at him with a smile, "However, what you did today will probably ruin your reputation."

Han Qi remained silent for a long time before asking, "I haven't had a chance to ask you yet."

"Lu Guo".

"Lu Guo..." Han Qi repeated the name, his lips twitching slightly, as if he were smiling, yet not quite. "A good name."

"And you?"

"Han Qi".