Chapter 292: A Good Person Is An Indefinite Variable
The once prosperous and mighty Chang’an that dominated the world has now become a prison for many people and hell for many others. For Wu Tong, the current Chang’an City is purgatory beneath hell.
Many times, Wu Tong fantasized about how good it would be if he went insane or died.
However, his always clear-headed mind kept stopping him from descending into madness time and again.
Although Wu Tong prided himself on being clear-headed and methodical in his actions, to others, he had long gone mad. It was these methods, his forbearance, perseverance, and hope that forced the upright Wu Tong into becoming a villain with no moral bottom line and no personal integrity.
In just two short years, he kept lowering his own moral bottom line. At first, it was just for the greater good. Watching the Grand Marshal fight with the Emperor, he felt that as long as they could decide a winner, the Great Han’s lands would stabilize from then on, and people could live without worry for food and clothing.
For this, even seeing so many human world tragedies in Chang’an City, for the sake of the future and hope, he chose to turn a blind eye.
Next, to keep the Panxing Tower group alive after the Grand Marshal’s victory, he was forced to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the Emperor’s remnant forces. Despite many of the targets not necessarily being bad people—on the contrary, many were formerly respected officials who simply insisted they were the Emperor’s subjects and refused to bow their heads—they were secretly executed by the secret agents in Panxing Tower, with many families wiped out.
At this point, Wu Tong already considered himself an extremely evil sinner. However, when He Junnian appeared in his public office and demanded to take over half of Panxing Tower for some small things beneficial to all humanity, intimidated by He Junnian’s power, for… he agreed.
Until he learned that He Junnian and the people he brought had collected many children with good roots and bones in Chang’an, and evilly nailed nails into the children’s heads to create the latest Tiger Guards warriors, the pain, indignation, despair, and shame in Wu Tong’s chest almost made him want to swing a knife at He Junnian…
Again, that damn calmness and rationality made him release the tightly gripped knife handle.
1 Even the hostility he unconsciously showed led He Junnian to casually crush the throats of two secret agents.
1 Watching the two brothers fall to the ground with large amounts of foamy blood surging from their mouths—the blood that had filled their lungs and then surged back out—they who had once sworn to live and die together, now he could only watch them die, and even had to respectfully see He Junnian off.
1 For the Great Han, for the people, for future prosperity!
1 Although Wu Tong appeared very calm at the time, after He Junnian left, he used a knife to smash all the furnishings in the public office. He felt these furnishings had witnessed his utmost humiliation.
1 Now, Panxing Tower has been burned, and the demonic lair created by He Junnian has been burned clean by a fire. Wu Tong thought this was an opportunity, an opportunity to kill He Junnian, and pleaded with the old divine official.
1 The old divine official refused to see him, no matter how much he begged. Wu Tong bit off his left pinky finger and swore on it, requesting the Grand Marshal to send troops to kill He Junnian.
1 Everyone thought He Junnian had left Chang’an, but Wu Tong knew he hadn’t. He was still in Chang’an City, hiding somewhere unknown. As long as he killed enough Gui Fang people hiding in Chang’an, He Junnian would surely appear.
1 Yun Ce was unaware of Wu Tong’s actions. If he knew, he would surely tell Wu Tong that when weak, one should hide well and slowly develop and grow stronger, rather than eagerly offering up one’s last bit of strength as a sacrifice to attach to a massive power.
1 The consequence of doing so is that your goal may not be achieved, but you and your bit of strength will absolutely be devoured clean by the great power, with nothing left.
1 Because from the day you attach to the great power, they make the decisions, not you. Once you hand over decision-making power, when they act, they first consider their own profit, not your nonsense demands.
2 So, after the Grand Marshal sent iron cavalry into Chang’an, the targets for extermination were not only Gui Fang people but also the disloyal ones who came to attend the Crown Princess Consort of the King of Changsha’s palace banquet.
2 The sounds of fighting outside were incessant. Due to its remote location, no one found this second-floor small building, giving Yun Ce time to give this little girl another bath.
2 It wasn’t that he wanted to bathe the child; it was that the child was just too filthy. The bloodstains had long soaked through her clothes, and since they weren’t cleaned up quickly, some had rotted, with a very foul smell.
2 Huo Wudi was very smart, but her smarts were all used on how to survive. As for a girl needing to be clean, a small matter like that, she did extremely poorly.
2 Yun Ce happened to be someone with some cleanliness obsession and couldn’t tolerate such a stinking dirty ghost sharing a room with him.
2 He found a pot to boil a pot of hot water.
2 While boiling the water, he first used cold water to wash the bloodstains from this little girl’s head and body. This stuff could only be washed with cold water; if hot water was used, the protein in the bloodstains would coagulate, and that smell…
2 “Are you going to wash me clean and then boil me to eat?”
2 “Mm, lift your arm first so I can wash the blood from your armpit clean. That way, after boiling, there won’t be any weird taste.”
2 “Okay, there’s some in my butt crack too.”
3 “Wash that place yourself.”
3 “Why?”
3 “Because you’re a girl.”
3 “I saw you washing that fat kid’s butt.”
3 “That’s my son.”
3 “If you had a daughter, would you wash her butt?”
3 “No problem before three years old; after three, it’s her mother’s job.”
3 “My mother never washed mine.”
3 “No wonder you’re a dirty ghost.”
3 After washing for a long time, Yun Ce finally got the bloodstains off the child. Seeing the hot water was ready, he tested the temperature with his hand, found it just right, put away the Shehuo, and put Huo Wudi into the hot water pot.
4 Cold water could remove bloodstains but not dirt. After vigorously using half a bar of soap, Yun Ce looked her up and down and felt the child was salvageable.
4 He took out two unworn undergarments from the Dragon Pearl, put the four-footed underpants on Huo Wudi like a little skirt, and for the waist, Yun Ce sewed two straps and narrowed the waistband so it wouldn’t fall down. As for the top, it was modified from another of Yun Ce’s underpants.
4 This was simple: just cut an opening at the crotch, put the little girl’s head through it, and let her two arms come out from the leg holes, and the child would have both top and pants.
4 In early spring, such clothes weren’t warm. Seeing Huo Wudi starting to have a clear runny nose, Yun Ce had no choice but to contribute his bearskin vest.
4 Time flew while dressing the child, especially dressing Huo Wudi, this little girl who was already cute to everyone’s taste. The more Yun Ce dressed her, the more addicted he became.
4 Until the child put on the bearskin cloak, bearskin boots on her feet, bearskin hat on her head, and twisted around toward Yun Ce by the fire, Yun Ce laughed like a fool.
4 When Heng Ji had once smiled at him like this, he punched her hard. Now, when little Huo Wudi smiled at him, Yun Ce’s eyes were bubbling with delight.
4 This was charm on another level, the innate instinct of carbon-based creature cubs, specially used to deal with adults or adult beasts, ultimately using this charm to make adults and adult beasts willingly serve them, even sacrificing their own lives.
4 Yun Ce had plenty of time. After all, after burning Panxing Tower, seeing change required time. The current change was the Grand Marshal’s army entering the city. He hoped this variable would force He Junnian out.
4 The hidden He Junnian in the shadows was truly terrifying. Once he appeared in the light, no matter how terrifying, Yun Ce was confident he could find his weakness and exploit it.
5 When night fell, Yun Ce was hungry, and so was Huo Wudi. This time, Yun Ce wanted to use Shehuo to cook a hotpot, but Shehuo refused to come out, so he had to use an open fire.
5 Actually, using an open fire felt better than using Shehuo. Mainly, Shehuo floated ethereally licking the pot bottom, and with its somewhat bluish color, it always made the second-floor small building seem eerie and ghostly.
5 Using firewood had none of these issues; it brought only warmth and light.
5 The hotpot between Yun Ce and Huo Wudi was very rich in ingredients. Huo Wudi often shouted with joy when fishing out a piece of beef, a piece of tofu, or a section of sausage from the pot.
5 When it was almost dark, Chang’an’s spring rain fell again. When it was completely dark, the pattering of the spring rain sounded like monster footsteps.
5 “You actually found a meatball?”
5 “Yeah, very fragrant. One bite and juice bursts out.”
5 “Oh, that’s the piss beef balls I made when I had nothing to do before, pounding beef with two iron rods into mush. I thought they were all eaten, but there’s still one left.”
5 “It really is fragrant. I wanted to share half with you, but unfortunately, my mouth wouldn’t listen.”
5 “Oh oh, totally understandable. When I eat something delicious, I don’t want to share with others either.”
6 “Me too. I hid one piece of the flatbread you gave me in Yun City. Later, when Mother and brother had no food, I didn’t take it out.”
6 “They’re killing outside; aren’t you scared?”
6 “As long as they don’t come in, I’m not scared.”
6 “Well said. Survive moment by moment; who cares if the sky collapses next.”
6 Just as Yun Ce fished out a softened dried meat from the pot and chewed hard, a person fell from the big hole in the roof, landing with a splat not far from the fire.
6 When Zheng Tianshou, dizzy and bleary-eyed, lifted his head and looked at the big and small two people by the fire, he thought he might be seeing things. After rubbing his eyes hard and confirming he wasn’t mistaken, he crawled and rolled to the hotpot, fished out a large bone used as the soup base with his hand, and buried his head in devouring it.
