Chapter 21: The Silhouette of Little Yiyi (Part One)

Fish is delicious, but Master Ma would rather die than spend any silver; he’d give you his life as your disciple, but those few taels of silver must stay with him. Truly stingy—no wonder he can’t figure out why he doesn’t have a wife.

Tonight, they stayed at his house in Luyang. The locks on the courtyard gate were coated in dust, and two rooms were thick with cobwebs. Gu Yi never considered himself fastidious, but what was he supposed to do with all these webs covering the floor?

Inside, the four-legged stool had lost one leg and lay toppled by the door, surrounded by the droppings of some unknown creature. Such was the scene in the main hall.

“Master Ma, you brought me to this place—are we supposed to sleep here tonight?”

Master Ma shrugged helplessly. “I hadn’t planned for this, but all the money went on that fish, didn’t it?”

Gu Yi was speechless.

“Come on, come on, I’ll take you to stay at an inn.” He had money, not stolen, but sent by the emperor to the Little Garden Mountain.

Just as they were about to leave, a boy of sixteen or seventeen came running over. In this place where everyone dressed like people from ancient times, the boy’s short hair and simple cloth shirt stood out, his face glowing with youthful energy.

“Uncle Ma, you’re back!”

“Hey! Yang Mu, you’ve grown taller!”

Gu Yi quickly stepped aside. Did even children like this kind of fellow?

Ma Yuan hugged the boy and spun him around twice. “Not just taller, your arms are much stronger!”

“Uncle Ma, I always remember what you said—boys shouldn’t act like girls! We need to be tough and hard!” The boy flexed his biceps, showing off, his right canine tooth missing as he grinned. “Come, I’ll take you to see my grandma, she’s been looking forward to your return for ages. She asks me every day when you’ll come back.”

“Wait, wait.” Master Ma held the boy back slightly—there was still someone else here.

Yang Mu turned to look at Gu Yi, and was inwardly struck: Wow, this gentleman must be someone important.

“Yang Mu, this is my master. Master, I used to live here—Yang Mu and his grandmother were my neighbors.”

Gu Yi could guess as much, though he was a little surprised. Deceiving women and children—what a scoundrel.

“Uncle Ma’s master?” The boy murmured, then grew excited, “Then you must be an even greater cultivator! Are you from the Immortal Academy?”

In these days, there might be experts among the common folk, but the real masters clustered around the imperial-run Immortal Academy. For ordinary people, the most powerful were those from the Academy.

“I am not.”

Master Ma pulled the boy over. “Let’s not talk now. I want to see your grandmother—how is her health?”

Gu Yi said, “I’ll wait for you here.”

Before leaving, Yang Mu looked at him with envy.

Gu Yi stood with his hands behind his back at the mouth of the alley. Old friends reunited, it was no trouble for him to wait. Soon, there arose a commotion in the street.

“Make way! Make way!” a group shouted, clearing the path and sending stall owners and their wares scattering.

“Hyah!”

Two men drove horses, pulling a heavily laden cart.

“Hyah!”

Gu Yi didn’t understand and stepped back, his gaze landing on the object covered with black cloth. He felt a chill emanate from it.

The carriage sped past.

He heard the townsfolk discussing beside him, though there was little complaint.

“I heard Lady Ye has been suffering from a fever these days. Who knows if this ice will make her feel better.”

“How is it fever again? Wasn’t it chills just a few days ago?”

…

Gu Yi found it odd. Ordinary folk surely couldn’t afford embroidered perch, so why were they so invested in Lady Ye’s illness, treating her with such affection and tolerance?

And this talk of alternating chills and fever…

He kept feeling he ought to see for himself.

“Master! Sorry to keep you waiting. What are you thinking about?” Master Ma came up from behind.

Gu Yi’s thoughts had wandered, but he asked immediately, “Master Ma, you’re a regular at Imperial Delicacies and know Lady Ye well?”

Master Ma laughed heartily, puffed up with pride. “Master, that shouldn’t even be a question! Of course I know her well! Very well! We used to drink and chat together all the time.”

Gu Yi was delighted, “Then go visit her for her illness—I’ll go with you!”

Master Ma’s face turned rigid. “Uh…I’m a man, it’s not quite proper for me to enter a lady’s chambers.”

…

“Bang!”

“I’ll kick you, you bald rascal! I’ll kick you, you bald rascal!”

“You scoundrel, will you die if you don’t brag for a day?”

“That rotten mouth of yours is only good for eating! You’ve never spoken a true word!”

Ma Yuan was chased all over the street, pleading for mercy. “Master, I really didn’t lie, it’s genuinely not convenient!”

Gu Yi had to teach him why flowers are so red. “Tonight, sleep at your own house! I was going to treat you to the inn—scram!”

But Master Ma’s skin was thick. “Master, calm down. Even if…even if I exaggerated a tiny bit, it’s no big deal, is it? Lady Ye’s illness is most difficult—whether we visit or not makes little difference.”

Fool! Gu Yi was furious.

“I ask you, is she a cultivator?”

Master Ma shook his head. “No.”

“Really not?” Gu Yi’s brows lifted.

Master Ma hastily added, “Master, this is absolutely true! And I’ve no reason to brag. If you don’t believe me, ask anyone around.”

All right, that logic did seem solid.

“Fine. One more question—you said her alternating chills and fever have lasted two years?”

“Yes, to be precise, it began in the winter of the second year of the Peaceful Reign, when Lady Ye caught it fishing at Lake Fuxian. It’s been over two years now.”

Gu Yi flicked his sleeves, caught in confusion. The winter of the second Peaceful Reign—that was when little Yi Yi was still by his side.

Perhaps he was speculating blindly.

Master Ma watched his expression nervously. “Master, what’s wrong?”

Gu Yi replied, “I know of a strange illness that causes alternating chills and fever. Since Lady Ye isn’t a cultivator, someone else must have caused it. But you say she fell ill in the winter of the second Peaceful Reign—the timing doesn’t fit.”

Master Ma shivered inwardly. “Master, you know what’s wrong with Lady Ye? That’s wonderful! Please tell me what caused it.”

“I’m only guessing. Besides, I haven’t seen her, and I told you—the timing doesn’t match.”

“What does timing matter? If someone else caused it, there’s no issue with time.”

Gu Yi asked, “Why?”

Master Ma explained, “It’s simple! Master, you assume that whoever could make her sick wasn’t in Luyang that winter. But what if more than one person could do it?”

!!!

Of course!

That logic was sound.

But Gu Yi reconsidered—besides little Yi Yi, there should be no one else. Or was his own thinking too limited?

Impossible to figure out. If this was just an ordinary fever, not at all what he suspected?

“Ah, Master, don’t overthink it. Let’s go find Yue’er first!”