However, as he bent down to check, the wan Lu Shijiu was roused by all the shaking and struggled to open his eyes.
Curled on the ground beside him, Old Man Liu also showed signs of awakening. Perhaps he’d dreamed of falling, for his feet jerked and his eyes snapped wide open. He stared blankly for a moment through cloudy eyes before slowly pushing himself up. Jiang Shining bent to lend him a hand, helping him to sit upright.
Lu Shijiu and Old Man Liu stared at each other for a while, then looked at the newcomers, their eyes bewildered. Perhaps they’d been in a daze for too long and their minds had yet to catch up.
Jiang Shining and Xuanmin studied Lu Shijiu’s actions. It was indeed uncanny; watching his movements, they’d never have guessed that he was blind.
Lu Nianqi suddenly slapped Lu Shijiu’s shoulder. “Have you gone stupid? Can’t you see my qi? You can’t even recognize me now?”
His forceful slap seemed to jolt Lu Shijiu back to his senses. “Nianqi?” he muttered hoarsely.
Lu Shijiu stared at his brother for a long time, his eyes unmoving. No matter how one looked at his eyes, they appeared untouched by illness. When fixed on Lu Nianqi, the depths of his irises seemed to shine. There was no difference between his gaze and that of a person who could see. Maybe his eyes were just a little darker, but that was all.
However, Jiang Shining began to notice that Lu Shijiu did exhibit some habits common among the blind. He was slow to recognize his brother: His pupils flickered as he looked Lu Nianqi up and down, over and over. Then he reached out and pressed his fingertips to his brother’s forehead and felt around.
Lu Nianqi sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth. “Don’t touch me there! I hit my forehead. You won’t be able to find the mole.”
At those words, Xuanmin studied Lu Nianqi’s face. Like he had said, the smattering of moles between his brows had been rubbed raw and scabbed over, changing the texture of the area significantly.
So Lu Shijiu grabbed Lu Nianqi’s hand and brought it toward his face, ready to read his palm. Lu Nianqi tugged his hand back and frowned. “Don’t touch my hand either. I cut it open on the boat here. Just when it was a bit better, I reopened the wound when I fell. Keep pressing on it like that and I’ll be injured forever.”
Lu Shijiu silently withdrew his hand and nodded, as if he’d confirmed that the youth before him really was his brother. “Lu Nianqi,” he said, sounding out each syllable. There was no question in his tone this time.
Back in the courtyard, Lu Nianqi had shed tears in his panic. However, now that he’d finally found Lu Shijiu, he reverted to his peevish attitude, acting like he hadn’t come to find Lu Shijiu of his own volition. The sight left Jiang Shining speechless.
He soon discovered that Lu Shijiu was no better. Once Lu Nianqi helped him to his feet, the first thing he did was shove Lu Nianqi’s hand off his arm, as though disdaining his assistance. There was no warmth in his actions—in fact, they were entirely callous.
What was wrong with them?
Jiang Shining stared at the two brothers in frustration. He understood what Xue Xian had meant when he’d said they weren’t close.
Still, Jiang Shining wasn’t oblivious. He could recognize sincerity when he saw it. The anxiety Lu Nianqi had shown back at their residence, the fleeting look of relief that’d flashed over Lu Shijiu’s face when he recognized his brother—neither of those were faked. So why, after Lu Shijiu got up, did they have to put on this show of uncaring coldness?
Once he was on his feet, Lu Shijiu asked Old Man Liu how he was doing, then busied himself with his bundle of twigs, ignoring everyone else. Xuanmin scrutinized him, then Old Man Liu, and his brows furrowed a little.
“Master, weren’t you and Xue-xiong looking for this young man, Shijiu?” Jiang Shining felt compelled to remind Xuanmin. He’d seen Xuanmin’s furrowed brow, even if he didn’t know what it meant.
Xuanmin nodded, then pulled the golden marble from his pouch.
Xue Xian’s head was spinning from all his rolling around in the pouch. When he’d been a paper doll, he could sense the subtle changes in the marble due to Xuanmin’s influence. Now that he was inside the marble, he realized that the changes were actually anything but subtle!
At first, he felt as if he’d been submerged in a hot spring, the waters beneath him bubbling with steam, leaving him warm and comfortable. However, over time, the temperature seemed to rise higher and higher, to the point of scalding him.
This isn’t a hot spring, Xue Xian realized with a jolt. I’m being boiled into a damn dragon-meat stew!
Alas, it was too late for regrets; there was no escape. The soup seemed almost viscous. As he continued to soak, his imagined limbs went limp, and he could barely lift them anymore.
With all this going on, he had barely paid attention to what was happening outside the pouch. Naturally, he was ignorant about what Xuanmin and the others were doing or whom they’d encountered, which left him little room to butt in.
Just as he was about to dissolve into broth, Xuanmin’s hand dove in to save him.
Xuanmin was rather unusual. While his fingers felt no warmer than an ordinary person’s—perhaps even slightly cooler—the region around his hip underneath the pouch had somehow managed to roast the golden marble to toasty perfection.
Gripped in Xuanmin’s hand, Xue Xian breathed a sigh of release. No more heat at last. His spirit cooled down as well, and the fog in his mind cleared.
He rolled in Xuanmin’s palm for a while to speed up the cooling process, then came to a stop and looked around him, his gaze filtered through the marble’s golden surface.
“Lu Shijiu?” Xue Xian said doubtfully. “You found him so easily?”
“Mm,” Xuanmin said.
With his mind still the consistency of molten soup, Xue Xian’s reactions were sluggish. It took a moment before he replied, “Oh, that’s wonderful. Perfect, you’re even carrying your sticks, so you can find someone for me.” He slowly rolled himself over, then spoke to Xuanmin. “Pay him, bald donkey.”
Xuanmin didn’t reply to that audacious comment, but eventually he pulled out several silver pieces.
“I’ll pay you back in gold later,” Xue Xian promised.
Lu Shijiu darted his eyes from Xuanmin and Xue Xian to his brother, then nodded. “Take the offer. Don’t fleece him.”
He looked seventeen or eighteen, not yet mature, but he had his share of eccentricities. Since he needed to support his family, charging for his divination services was a must, but he didn’t set a fixed price. His customers could pay in gold, silver, or copper—whichever they chose. Choosing copper meant the price was three copper coins. If using silver, it was three silver pieces. If you stupidly wished to offer gold, the price was still three pieces.