Jiang Hu’s Road is Curved Chapter 8

That night, Pang Wan had a not so peaceful dream, in her dream, there was a pair of lovers as beautiful as jade, walking towards her hand in hand, cheerfully chatting and laughing to one another, filled with tender affection.

“Wan Wan, I, Gu Xi Ju has finally found the love of my life, let us both say our farewells now!” That beautiful youth in white robes, waves at her in an extremely dashing manner, “Henceforth, forget ourselves within the Jiang Hu, never to meet again!”

Pang Wan felt very unwilling to resign, she takes large strides forward and grabs hold of the woman’s shoulders, wanting to see exactly who the h.e.l.l the third party is.

Nevermind this one look, she was utterly terrified into crying out loud —— that woman has no facial features, the entire head is a white lotus in itself!

With this one fright one jump, she had woken up, sitting up and looking out the window, the sun had already rose as high as three bamboo poles[1].

“Little Master has awakened? Would you like to have bath?” w.a.n.g Gang stands by the window side, hanging the clothes to dry, in a jolly good mood.

“Was I drunk last night?” Pang Wan rubs her throbbing head, “Must have caused you trouble right?”

w.a.n.g Gang was stunned, then hurriedly shakes his head: “Little Master’s matters are my matters.”

Pang Wan bursts out into laughter: “Since when were you such a doormat? Not like you sold yourself to me!”

Who knew w.a.n.g Gang would plop down to his knees: “This little one is wholeheartedly willing to sell myself to Master!” As he says this, he even takes out a piece of paper from his chest, “This little one has hoped for this day for a long time, hoped for such a long time, even the contract to sell myself has long been prepared!”

Pang Wan dazedly takes a peek at the contract, indeed clearly written with black ink on white paper, all that is missing is her signature.

“Not hurried when buying buns, but more hurried than anyone else when selling himself!” She mumbles a phrase, and does not accept the contract, “What’s so good about being a servant all your life?” Yawning as she gets out of bed, she lazily stretches her waist in an extremely ungraceful manner, “Don’t sell! Don’t sell!”

w.a.n.g Gang upon seeing her walk away without the slightest of care, disappointedly puts away the paper back into his chest.

After washing up, they move onto breakfast, w.a.n.g Gang brings over the steaming hot meat buns with eager attentiveness, Pang Wan’s eyes had even turned into crescents as she smiles at the sight: “The boy is worth teaching.”

w.a.n.g Gang takes the opportunity to reach into his chest, but sees the glare from Pang Wan’s almond eyes: “No insistent on selling!”

And so he bitterly retrieves his hand.

The two of them were eating breakfast, when w.a.n.g Gang suddenly asks: “Little Master has come out for so long, do you not miss your family?”

Pang Wan was just eating her ba bao congee[2], mouth vaguely mumbling: “They couldn’t wait for me to come out for real world training.”

w.a.n.g Gang’s eyes flickers: “Could it be Little Master is from a distinguished Wu Lin family?”

Pang Wan says nothing, just focused on eating her own congee.

w.a.n.g Gang sees her looking as usual, and further says: “Seems like Little Master is also a martial arts person, don’t know what sect your master comes from?”

Pang Wan was amused, grinning towards him, her two little canine teeth bright and shining: “Your nerves sure fattened up huh, trying to get words out of me?”

w.a.n.g Gang’s face made no change, looking very serious: “Following Little Master for so long, it’s inevitable to be curious ah, nosiness is part of human nature, Little Master mustn’t blame me.”

Pang Wan was not angry, nonchalantly eating the last mouthful of congee, taking out her handkerchief to wipe the grease from her lips.

“Heng, your little master’s name is too big, saying it out loud may very well scare people to death! In order for you not to be scared to death, it is best that I continue to reserve the answer for now!” She drops these words and marches away, leaving w.a.n.g Gang behind to fume on the spot.

After eating, w.a.n.g Gang originally thought Little Master would continue to practice that “Sang Chan Poise”, who knew Pang Wan would call him to a stop, telling him to go market to buy back the four treasures of study (writing brush, ink stick, ink slab and paper).

“Is Little Master planning to start practicing painting and calligraphy?” He places down the brush, ink stick and ink slab onto the desk one by one, heart feeling really curious.

“Will be bidding farewell to this little town soon, today I am in a great poetic mood.” Pang Wan firmly fixes her on eyes onto the rice paper, a peculiar look of decisiveness emerging on her face.

“Little Master is preparing to go travelling?” w.a.n.g Gang calmly says.

“I wish to compose a poem for the one who abandoned me, commemorating the pa.s.sing of love that happened here.” Pang Wan gives an irrelevant answer, her entire being shrouded inside a layer of a hazily dreamy glow.

w.a.n.g Gang was greatly shocked, thinking to himself, staying here for over a month, other than listening to the storytelling and looking in the mirror, Little Master has not spoken to a man any more than ten sentences in total, how was she suddenly abandoned by someone, and experienced the pa.s.sing of love?

In any case, he would never have possibly guessed, this experience of “unrequited love to mutually pa.s.sionate love then onto forsaken love” was something Pang Wan had gone through all on her own.

He only sees Pang Wan holding the brush, writing in one continuous breath “big hand holding little hand, walking under peach blossom trees” these ten big characters, signed with “dear Gu and I”.

The “Gu (顾)” character was written very scribbly, w.a.n.g Gang bends down, wanting to get a closer and clearer look.

But sees a toss of Pang Wan’s brush, and a few big drops of black ink stains his face.

“Aiya I didn’t mean it.” Pang Wan looks at him with an in particularly innocent expression, red lips jutting out as it gestures towards the corner, “There’s water over there, you go clean your face!”

w.a.n.g Gang smiles, taking the cloth from the rack, and rinses it before wiping his cheek.

Pang Wan watches his every move, suddenly saying: “There’s still that spot you haven’t cleaned!” As she says this, she takes the cloth from his hand.

She rubs it very meticulously, also exerting a lot of strength, not sparing even the tiniest of spots, continuing to rub until w.a.n.g Gang’s face slowly turns red, should she rub anymore, it will probably tear off.

w.a.n.g Gang endures the pain, not saying a word from start to finish.

“Forget it! Can’t clean it away no matter how much I rub at it, you go wash it with something!” Pang Wan throws away the cloth annoyed.

w.a.n.g Gang nods, he picks up the soap[3] and thoroughly washes his face in front of Pang Wan.

Pang Wan watches him, as though she cannot figure something out, her brows gradually furrows.

w.a.n.g Gang had just finished washing his face and is using the cloth to dry it, when he suddenly hears Pang Wan’s faint questioning voice.

“Say, should you have something extremely valuable, a treasure that the entire world has their eyes on, where would you place it?”

w.a.n.g Gang was stunned, then smilingly says: “If it cannot be taken along with me, then I will make a maze, find the most ferocious beasts and the most elite men to guard it, if the treasure can be brought along……” He pauses, then says: “Naturally, I would keep it at my side at all times.”

Pang Wan nods her head, seeming to find his words very reasonable.

w.a.n.g Gang curiously asks: “Is Little Master by chance, searching for some sort of treasure?”

Pang Wan opens her mouth wanting to answer, but sulkily bites onto her lower lip, such actions were repeated over and over again, as though there is ongoing conflict in her mind.

w.a.n.g Gang does not say anymore, only sounding a ho-ho laugh, as though he does not mind at all, as though he did not see all of this.

Two people two horses leave the inn that afternoon, heading towards the mountain valley outside the town.

“Right, let us both bid farewell now, go our separate ways!” Pang Wan wraps her fist in salute to w.a.n.g Gang.

“Little Master doesn’t want me anymore?” w.a.n.g Gang pales with fear.

“Not like I’m really your master.” Pang Wan laughs, “My trail in the Jiang Hu will inevitably provoke calamity in future, a physically very weak[4] storyteller like you, is better off not getting involved.”

“w.a.n.g Gang is wholeheartedly willing to take care of anything for Little Master! Never to hesitate even in face of millions of danger!” Didn’t think w.a.n.g Gang would strongly refuse to let go.

Pang Wan sighs, looking at his stubborn face, she takes out a silver ingot from her chest and tosses it over: “Take it, compensation for dismissal.”

w.a.n.g Gang reaches out to catch the ingot, but tosses it back, shouting out: “Gold and riches cannot buy my heart!”

Pang Wan smiles, she turns her head to the side, very seriously studying the person before her.

w.a.n.g Gang being stared at by such burning eyes, feels p.r.i.c.kly on his back, in order to ease his nerves, he takes a huge gulp.

“You’re not w.a.n.g Gang.” Pang Wan suddenly speaks up very leisurely.

The light within w.a.n.g Gang’s eyes slightly flickers, his expression imposing but unchanged.

“Although I don’t know where your disguising skills were learnt from, to actually have no flaws whatsoever, I know, you are not w.a.n.g Gang.”

Pang Wan firmly stares at him, the smile sitting at her lips growing larger and larger.

“The real w.a.n.g Gang, is not capable of singlehandedly catching the silver ingot on horseback, nor is he someone who cannot be bought by gold and riches, you have overestimated him.”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ does not speak, only straightens his back, from within his sleeve, a beam of cold light silently flows down.

“Exactly for what reason, did you rack your brains to approach me for?” Pang Wan seems to have not detected the oncoming danger, only curious towards this person’s intent.

“I’m interested, in you.”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ finally speaks up, already switching into a compelling male’s voice, resonant like jade. Following the sound of his voice, the male figure on horseback grows tall and strong within a flash, no longer the short and scrawny body from before.

“……I, too, am greatly interested, in your disguising ability.” Pang Wan watches all this dumbfounded, mouth vaguely mumbling this.

“Lady is already able to see through my disguise at such a young age, you sure are highly capable.”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ smiles at her in admiration, right hand letting go of the reins.

In this very moment of lightning flashes and thunder rumbles, a silver light comes flying out of his sleeve, directly shooting straight towards Pang Wan’s chest —— that is an incomparably sharp eagle claw.

But that very moment the silver light flashed, Pang Wan who was still looking blank just now, had actually leapt up into a somersault from the horseback, the white silk thrown out from her sleeves firmly holding her still in mid-air, avoiding the attack completely unharmed.

“Can’t catch me, going to annoy you to death!” She pulls an ugly silly face at ‘w.a.n.g Gang’ in mid-air, extremely proud of herself.

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ presses his lips together, don’t know where from his waist he pulled out ten pins, shua-shua they all go spraying out towards Pang Wan’s vital acupoints.

“What kind of brave man uses concealed weapons?!” Pang Wan loudly cries, pulling at the white silk to swing through the tree branches, and actually avoided all ten pins deftly.

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ had once again launched an attack in vain, but was not in a hurry, and only sits on horseback rubbing his chin, as though absorbed in his thoughts.

Pang Wan seeing that this person does not seem to be in a hurry to kill her, between every gesture every motion, he seems to be even more focused on secretly studying her martial arts, with one flutter of her eyelashes, the white silk rolls up, her entire person gathered away on the big tree like a cat.

“Hey! Do you by chance want to know who I am?”

She calls out to ‘w.a.n.g Gang’ situated at a nearby spot, that soft and light childish voice echoes across the mountain.

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ sinks into silence for a moment, before asking with slight reservation: “Is lady willing to tell the truth?”

Pang Wan sees his att.i.tude with his back straightened, acting all high and mighty, and finds it very disdainful: “You must first tell me, why do you wish to know of my ident.i.ty?”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ thinks over this for a moment, saying: “Lady’s weapons, are not something the ordinary people can obtain.”

Pang Wan glances at the golden whip by her waist, and also touches the Blazing Needles inside her sleeves, unable to make out which one he is talking about, and could only rub her nose: “Which weapon is extraordinary?”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ casts his eyes onto the opening of her sleeves: “It is naturally that……”

Before he knew it, the final words had yet to come out his mouth, when a strike of the divine whip suddenly drops down from the sky, landing on his face with a “pa~”, the sound extremely crisp.

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ was genuinely stunned through and through, he had already used his internal energy to protect his entire body’s vital points, but had never thought, this person would directly land a sneak attack on his face.

The golden whip pulls away, accompanying a blast of wind in freshly tearing off half a face, revealing the real skin and facial features underneath.

This is an extremely comical scene. One person, two faces, left and right asymmetrical, one half is seawater, one half is crimson flames, and so the culprit had only caught a glimpse from afar and was immediately frightened out of her wits —— “Ghost ahh~!!!”

As though her b.u.t.t was set on fire, she dashes off and disappears into the forest.

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ sits on horseback, his back stiffened, five fingers fiercely curling into fists, even his knuckles had already turned white, sounding a crack.

Eyes seeing Pang Wan run off like a whirlwind, a masked man lurking in the forest finally comes out, kneeling before him as he gingerly calls out: “Young Master?”

‘w.a.n.g Gang’ does not say anything, only remaining silent, silently tearing down the other half of the fake skin on his face.

The masked person below the horse only feels he had been enveloped in a gigantic force of chilly air and looming dark clouds, even the slightest of movement, would have him shredded into flying flesh and blood.

A long time, after a long time.

The sun gradually sets in the west, a crisp whistle suddenly sounds within the mountain valley.

The stallion that was original resting on the ground, abruptly raises its head and climbs up, eyes like lit torches, sets onto the depths of the forest as it gallops ahead.