Martial King's Retired Life

“Like a turning wheel, life never stops moving. If all affairs and things in the world were painted onto a single scroll, it would lack flavour due to the different materials, colours, speeds, connections and disconnections. Every accident would have been more accurately defined as a manifestation than an accident, a synthesis of coincidence and inevitability that nobody foresaw, but the consequences of each event were already planted beforehand. Despite lacking the ability to view everything and mull over everything simultaneously, when the teeth of the gears turn and click, mankind can surprise the world even if not always in interesting ways.” – “The Wheel of Karma”, Black and White Reflection, 238th Edition.

Ming Feizhen took Elise back to Dongpo after waiting it out for a while.

Dongpo served customers from all walks of life, and everybody had to respect their policies, such as lining up obediently, regardless of their identity, but their business boomed from day one and was virtually universally reviewed glowingly.

The majority of netizens had no place knowing who backed the restaurant built so high up in the capital, but everyone knew that nobody with their head screwed on right should have tried to pick a fight with Dongpo.

It was believed that Dongpo’s proprietor had no connections to Emperor’s Entourage. Ye Yun started using it as a meeting point with people in the pugilistic world long ago, reserving the same room each time. He later leveraged his post to become an investor in the business. The proprietor basically turned a blind eye to him no matter the circumstances. After learning of its secret from Zero, Ming Feizhen decided he had to investigate the establishment, which was the impetus for his first free meal from them.

Ming Feizhen learnt that the reason Dongpo surpassed the long-standing Eight Deities and top restaurant in the capital because of their backer, positive reviews, or the proprietor being fantastic at business but simply because their dishes were unbelievably tasty! The more he ate, the merrier he felt. The more he ate, the less motivation he had to leave. Their chef was able to provide him with new and novel dishes every meal. Nevertheless, no matter how close they might have been as soulmates, the bills still needed to be paid. That triggered Ming Feizhen’s first serious – but not his most serious – debt crisis.

Upon finally checking his tab, Ming Feizhen discovered he had never seen a larger number in his life, although he managed to settle the tab in the end – not without a whole series of fiascos. Regardless, he continued showing up to eat pork shoulders whenever they were available. Thanks to his diligence and appetite, he was Dongpo’s second most frequent customer after Ye Yun. The reason Ming Feizhen was able to ban certain folks from entering the establishment was not thanks to blackmail or benefits he provided; the reason was solely attributed to him being a long-time-frequent customer.

Getting rid of Ye Yun was the same as getting rid of all the agents. While meeting with Ye Yun was not ideal, it was the marginally better alternative to confronting all the agents who convened in the restaurant. Ming Feizhen had the confidence to escort Elise out of the capital, but he had no means of explaining how he suddenly vanished from their sight. Rather than let people connect the dots between his disappearance and Elise’s appearance, having Ye Yun hush his own subordinates was easier – which was not to say that it was the perfect solution.

The toughest part about dealing with Emperor’s Entourage was that they were not unshakably loyal to Ye Yun. From their inception, they were a group loyal only to His Majesty – a fact that not even Ye Yun could change. A number of the agents already had their suspicions about Ming Feizhen, which meant that they would report his disappearance to His Majesty. As for how Ming Feizhen was going to explain it… Well, that could wait.

Ming Feizhen exhaled. Could he be blamed when he had done everything since arriving at Dongpo except for eating?!

“Proprietor! Serve the food up! I want a big crab and a big serve of pork shoulder! Hurry up.” Ming Feizhen started whistling after he made his order.

Tang Ye and Ling Jialan had trouble believing their eyes when they arrived to see Ming Feizhen holding a wooden bowl of steaming rice and lamb in his left hand and a big, juicy grilled pork shoulder in his right hand, mouth completely stuffed to the brim already. Sitting to his left, Feng Qizhi sat up when he tried to lie down with chopsticks in his hands, but it hurt too much to sit, so he lied back down. To his right was someone who had more money than he might have been able to waste in a lifetime performing calculations on an abacus with his subordinate whilst repeatedly groaning, “Another loss. Another loss. Another loss.” That was abnormal for Feng Jiutian, but it was still more normal than the other two.

Before Tang Ye and Ling Jialan remembered they were supposed to say something, Ming Feizhen finally finished eyeing the dozens of dishes on the table and noticed the two of them standing by the stairway. He looked at them with eyes that suggested, “Wow, what’s that delicacy? It looks like Tang Ye,” prompting the pair to retreat a step.

“Big Bro, it’s me.”

“Wow, it can talk? This chef sure has some high-tech, eh? Tang Ye?” Though Ming Feizhen looked happy to see Tang Ye after days of not seeing his colleague, he did not appear remotely happy compared to prior to recognising Tang Ye. “Tang Ye, Miss Ling, how did you two end up together? You two look good together. You hit it off with each other? Miss Ling, Tang Ye is a handsome guy that we call Liu Shan M-”

“No, we just bumped into each other and got acquainted. Can you stop speaking with a full mouth?! You’re getting grease everywhere! Hey, stay back! Don’t touch my hand!” cried Ling Jialan.

Meanwhile, Tang Ye recounted the events he went through and what he knew about someone trying to harm Ming Feizhen.

“Oh, that’s fine. It’s all past tense now,” responded Ming Feizhen, licking the grease off his fingers before wagging his hand. “Tang Ye, Miss Ling, allow me to introduce. This is…”

Feng Jiutian loudly slammed his abacus onto the table. “I’ve had to cough up hundreds of thousands just for trying to fool him alone. I’ve never made a loss this significant before. Have fun on your own. I’m off to make money.” Before he left, he took the abacus and added, “Almost lost an extra twenty coins. Uncle Chi, send off the carriage first. We will walk to save money.”

“Young Master, might you be taking it too far?”

“Shoosh, or I’ll sack you, too, to save peace of mind and money.”

“… This way, Young Master. This old one could carry you as an alternative.”

After they left, Tang Ye queried, “That was… Feng Jiutian?”

Ling Jialan, after a questioning herself for a while, answered, “Seems so.”

“Doesn’t he view money as something that grows on trees? What’s with him?”

Replacing a speakerphone with his hands, Ming Feizhen yelled, “Hey, Shanshan, death is the only real concern in life. Money is just a material. Don’t give yourself a headache! Remember to pay the bill!” Upon hearing Feng Jiutian descend the faster, Ming Feizhen added, “Now that’s a good friend. Friends should be that enthusiastic about paying.”

Tang Ye decided against speaking his mind.

Ming Feizhen energetically introduced, “This is a new friend I made, Brother Xiangxiang. Say hello, Brother Xiang.”

Feng Qizhi stopped his groaning and moaning once he identified the duo and smiled. “We need no introduction. I know Miss Ling from a while ago, and I met Brother Tang at Liu Shan M-, ow. How did you two end up together? You two look good together. You hit it off with each other? Miss Ling is as wise as she is skilled. You should hold onto her tight. She, ow…”

Since he knew Feng Qizhi’s background, Tang Ye offered his hands up in salute. “You flatter me.”

Ling Jialan said, “Give it a rest. Recover from your injuries first, or you may not see another day if you keep talking.”

Tang Ye rubbed his temples. “Brother Feng, do you know Bu Xusan? I am not talking about the thief. I am talking about the who one who posed as Bu Xusan and fought Miss Ling.”

“Huh? That was me,” replied Feng Qizhi. “I was a little crazy at the time, but I won’t do it again. Brother Ming said I would be fine after taking some medication.”

Speechless, Tang Ye turned to Ming Feizhen, who had returned to wolfing down food as if his life depended on it, so he turned back to Feng Qizhi. “I will have to trouble you to make a trip with me. You destroyed numerous places outside the capital and injured over a dozen store clerks. We need you to assist in the investigations. Of course, should you be found guilty, you will have no problem paying the compensation. That said, based on your cousin’s reaction, the possibility of imprisonment for a few years is not improbable.”

Feng Qizhi flapped his eyelids. “I didn’t do any of that.”

“You cannot talk your way out of this one.”

“Exactly. You weren’t like this before. Own up to your own deeds, won’t you?” Ling Jialan started rubbing her fists and grinning. “Also, you shone at Nine Heavens, huh, beating me with those strange techniques. Since we have to run it back anyhow, how about we settle that rematch here and now?”

“It really wasn’t me… I remember now. I know what you’re talking about. My cousin did ask me to go.”

In order to ensure he incriminated Ming Feizhen with killing Orange Prince, Feng Jiutian instructed Feng Qizhi to sabotage the assets of the numerous outlaws who Orange Prince associated with. Owing to their link to Orange Prince’s plan, the blame would have been planted on Ming Feizhen. However, Feng Qizhi claimed to be innocent.

“… I don’t get it.” Tang Ye furrowed his brows.

“As I… It wasn’t me. I was told to vandalise some businesses’ warehouses and so forth, but those places were ruined by the time I arrived.”

Tang Ye didn’t expect the culprit to tell that sort of fib, but he did not have evidence that Feng Qizhi was the culprit, either. He based his judgement around the traces that he saw at the scenes. Since they were unlikely the work of a human being, he surmised it was the mutated Feng Qizhi who was responsible. Assuming Feng Qizhi told the truth, there was one more person they had yet to suspect, or said person was still hiding.

Feeling uneasy, Tang Ye went to consult Ming Feizhen. However, he figured Ming Feizhen did not know much about the matter, so he chose to broach another topic.

“By the way, Big Bro, Sir Zi returned to the capital due to concern for your safety, so he should have arrived before us. They should’ve arrived given even we know about what happened here. Have you seen them?”

“No. Who’s they?” asked Ming Feizhen.

“Sir Zi and his friend named Bu. Oh, and he claimed to be the real Bu Xusan.”

“What?!”

“Big Bro, did you think of something?”

Ming Feizhen slammed the table. “This is golden fried rice, isn’t it?! Chef Cai! Over here! Over here!”

Tang Ye went silent.

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