“Hey! Ah Zhao, why are you spacing out again?”
The noisy stable was filled with the grassy smell of piled hay and the faint stench of horses.
Zhao Yi’an was holding a brush with vacant eyes, cleaning the horse tack. Clearly, he had been lost in thought for a while.
A horse gang disciple was wiping sweat with a coarse cloth shirt he had taken off, leaning against the wall by the stable while teasing the foals and bantering with Zhao Yi’an.
“What, thinking about a woman?”
The young man was pulled back to reality by that voice. He blinked, his eyes full of confusion.
“Aiya! I told you, at your age still being a virgin is bound to get you laughed at. Look at you, so absent-minded!”
“Who said I was thinking about a woman!” Zhao Yi’an snapped back to his senses, blushing, and hurriedly defended himself.
‘…I just miss Master a little, that’s all.’
‘Come to think of it, what has Master been busy with lately…’
Two days ago, the girl had climbed over the wall in the dead of night and come to Zhao Yi’an, proudly announcing that her investigation had made great progress in just a few days, and that she had also found a job that could earn big money.
For this, Zhao Yi’an was genuinely happy for Liu Yao. After all, the investigation into the truth had made progress, and Master no longer had to worry about money—all good things.
However, after that night, Liu Yao’s figure hadn’t appeared again, and not even a word of news had come, making him unavoidably worried.
‘Although I should have faith in Master’s skills, but…’
Every time he thought of the girl’s smug and self-satisfied look, Zhao Yi’an couldn’t help but sigh.
“No? Really?” The horse gang disciple looked at Zhao Yi’an suspiciously. “I told you before, the brothers and I would take you to Dawn Spring Courtyard to have some fun and see the world, but you didn’t want to.”
“Now look at you, working away here like a good boy until you go insane.”
“I can’t… forget it, I don’t want to argue with you.” Zhao Yi’an shook his head, too lazy to continue debating.
Only he knew that Liu Yao had explicitly forbidden him from going to such places of pleasure.
She said that since he was already behind others in age, if he couldn’t even preserve his virginity, he might as well forget about ever achieving anything in martial arts.
‘I never knew there was so much to it… Good thing Master guided me, otherwise I might have gone astray.’
His rosy view of his Master made Zhao Yi’an automatically ignore the serious yet slightly guilty look on the girl’s face when she said that.
He shook his head, driving out those messy thoughts.
“Brother Zhang, you have the nerve to joke around with me here, you might as well go help out in the front yard.”
“Eh—I just finished training, it’s hot, so I came to cool off here, right? It’s not like you can’t grant me this small wish, Ah Zhao?”
The horse gang disciple surnamed Zhang looked at Zhao Yi’an with wide eyes, putting on a deliberate pitiful act.
‘…So disgusting.’
“Damn! That’s really low-class!”
“Alright, as long as you don’t show off your martial arts here and bother me while I work, anything goes.” Zhao Yi’an was amused by his act and shook his head. “Otherwise, I’ll add laxatives to your dinner tonight.”
“Hehe! That’s a deal!” Zhang Ge perked up immediately, plopping down onto the haystack nearby and crossing his legs. “By the way, Brother Zhao, have you heard?”
“Not to sound rude, but how do you guys always have so much gossip to talk about?”
“Who knows? Hey, do you want to hear it or not?” Zhang Ge was interrupted and glared angrily at Zhao Yi’an. “This time it’s a big deal.”
Zhao Yi’an pursed his lips, shrugged, and lowered his head to continue brushing the horse tack.
“Fine, fine, go ahead.”
Seeing that he would no longer interrupt, Zhang Ge lowered his voice and leaned in.
“You know that wanted notice the Yamen posted recently? The one those officers were announcing everywhere.”
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yi’an was startled, stopped his work, and furrowed his brow in thought.
‘Officers, wanted notice, announcement…’
‘Sigh! Could it be those people I encountered when I went to the medical clinic with Master?’
He had some idea, but Zhao Yi’an pretended to be calm and asked:
“Which one? I haven’t set foot outside the gate lately, when would I have seen any Yamen runners? Can’t you just say it directly?”
“No? Do you even know how to chat?” Zhang Ge frowned disdainfully at the young man, but sighed and explained, “Ah, a few days ago, there were a bunch of officers always blocking the road to announce stuff.”
“The wanted notice for that rebel Liu Yao!”
Hearing the somewhat familiar name, Zhao Yi’an’s brush stopped unconsciously.
He frowned. It took him a while to remember that the day he went to the medical clinic with Master, the Yamen runners at the door were announcing that very name.
‘Isn’t that the “Cloud Bright Swordsman” that Master admires?’
‘He appeared in our Xiang’an town?’
With a bit of curiosity, Zhao Yi’an couldn’t help but speak:
“Oh, I get it. What happened to that Liu Yao?”
“What happened? Let me tell you, I heard that Liu Yao’s whereabouts have been discovered recently! Right near here!”
Zhang Ge lowered his voice, leaned in closer, his eyes shining with the excitement of sharing a secret. Getting into the spirit, he even jerked his chin at Zhao Yi’an to show off.
“Ah? Is that so.”
Zhao Yi’an felt that it was just as expected, so he started working again.
“This doesn’t concern us, right? Things like this are too far away from us, I don’t really have a sense of it…”
He had no interest in the wanted criminal. Whether the guy was a rebel or a Jianghu bandit, what did it have to do with someone small like him?
His mind was full of his Master’s instructions and his longing for the future.
‘Liu Yao?’
‘I don’t really know him, okay.’
“Hey! That might not be certain!” Zhang Ge smiled mysteriously, teasing.
“Do you know why Leader Li has been so elusive lately?”
“What else? Busy.” Zhao Yi’an said without looking up, clearly uninterested in his words.
“Oh come on! Stop messing with your younger brother, alright?”
Zhang Ge was choked up and glared at him. “I say, what’s wrong with you? How can you be uninterested in everything?”
Zhao Yi’an rolled his eyes at him. He really couldn’t be bothered to listen to this guy’s gossip anymore.
He simply hurried to pack up his things, ready to leave.
But Zhang Ge’s next words made Zhao Yi’an freeze on the spot.
“I heard that the last time he was seen was at the Wang Family.”
“Are you sure you’re not interested in hearing?”
Zhang Ge looked at Zhao Yi’an with a mischievous expression, waiting for his next move.