"Lift the coffin!"
Eight married guards in embroidered outfits shouted and lifted the heavy coffin slowly to their feet.
Yang Ge, mourning in coarse linen, stood in front of the coffin, tightly embracing a pot for burning joss paper as if at a loss.
Seeing this, Liu Mang, who was leading the chant on the side, took three steps in two strides to reach him, held the pot high above his head, and shouted loudly, "Break the pot."
"Smash."
The pot shattered as it hit the ground.
With the breaking of the pot came the separation of yin and yang.
This lifetime’s fate was exhausted...
...
Three days later.
Yang Ge sat silently under his own grape arbor, perusing the secret tome of the "Five Elements Reverting to the Origin Qi."
A grapeleaf that had survived the winter silently drifted down in the gentle spring breeze.
He bent down to pick up the leaf and gently tucked it into the secret tome he was holding.
Huang, resting by his feet, stood up and gently nudged his palm with his wet nose.
"Hungry?"
Yang Ge patted its head, "I’m going to cook."
He placed the secret tome on a nearby table and got up, rolling up his sleeves as he walked towards the kitchen.
Huang, with his tail drooping, followed behind him but suddenly turned his head back towards the courtyard gate.
"Thump, thump, thump."
The courtyard gate was forcefully knocked.
Yang Ge put down the apron he had just picked up and walked slowly to open the courtyard gate.
Liu Mang stood outside, raising a string of wrapped oil-paper bundles and two jars of yellow wine, "Have you eaten?"
Yang Ge smiled, "Not yet."
Liu Mang stepped over the threshold, "Then that’s perfect!"
Yang Ge closed the courtyard gate and turned back towards the kitchen, "Make yourself at home, I’ll steam some rice... The secret tome on the table was given to me by a friend. Without his permission, I can’t show it to a second person."
Liu Mang, who had been curiously studying the secret tome’s cover inscribed with "Five Elements Reverting to the Origin Qi," sighed heavily upon hearing this.
He placed the prepared food and wine on the table and walked leisurely to the outside of the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe and said solemnly, "You are Yang Erlang, Zhang Mazi, right?"
Inside the kitchen, Yang Ge, who was focused on striking flint to make fire, responded distractedly, "Yes."
Liu Mang:...
He felt something was amiss again, but couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was.
After pondering for a while, he finally asked in confusion, "You’re finally willing to tell me now?"
Yang Ge smiled, "You never asked me that before either."
Liu Mang, "If I had asked you before, would you have admitted it?"
Yang Ge, "Definitely not."
Liu Mang, "Then weren’t you still just fooling your brother by playing dumb?"
Yang Ge shook his head, "If you had thought it through, you wouldn’t have come to ask me this question."
Liu Mang took a deep breath. He actually knew that he shouldn’t have come to ask.
But this question had been stuck in his throat for seven or eight days, and he simply had to get it out.
He sorted out his chaotic thoughts and still somewhat incredulously asked, "So, you really were a commander of the imperial guards?"
Yang Ge thought for a moment and replied, "I was before, not anymore."
Liu Mang, "So, all those grains from the three major grain merchants, it was you who took those?"
Yang Ge, "It was me who took them."
Liu Mang, "So, those corrupt officials in Jiangzhe were also really killed by you?"
Yang Ge, "It was me who killed them."
Liu Mang, "So, ’Death Bringer’ Duan Yu also died by your hand?"
Yang Ge, "He died by my hand."
Liu Mang, "So, that ’Eminent Holy Man’ Yang Erlang from the list of martial heroes, that’s really you too?"
Yang Ge, "It’s me..."
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As the questions that had been plaguing his mind for days were answered, Liu Mang only felt more confused.
Liu Mang scratched the back of his head frantically and asked in despair, "What’s going on? Who are you, actually? How can someone like you end up working as a waiter in Yuelai Inn?"
Yang Ge smiled, "Things aren’t as complicated as you think. When Old Shopkeeper took me in, I truly had nothing and nowhere to go. The kindness and favor of the Old Shopkeeper toward me were all real!"
He glanced at Liu Mang, whose face was full of despair, and continued before he could ask another question, "You remember the trouble Jiang Kui caused at our inn during the military exams at the Capital, right? That was when Old Shopkeeper asked you to go back to Lu Ting."
Liu Mang tried to get his thoughts running and nodded, "I remember."
Yang Ge bowed his head, sorting rice, "The leg technique left by Jiang Kui was the first martial art I learned."
Liu Mang shook his head vehemently, "Impossible, by the time I came home, your martial arts skills were already as strong as mine!"
Yang Ge, "There’s a type of physique in the martial world, naturally flawless bones and unobstructed veins, known as the ’Grandmaster Physique.’ Have you heard of it?"
Liu Mang stared, disbelieving, "Don’t tell me that you actually have the Grandmaster Physique!"
Yang Ge put the sorted rice into hot water and slowly stirred as he faintly replied, "I didn’t wish for this physique either. I just wanted to genuinely work as a waiter in our inn and live a peaceful life... but I unfortunately have it."
"Originally, Jiang Kui gave me that leg technique because I had this physique. The commander of the imperial guards who was escorting Jiang Kui to the Capital, Shen Fa, also recruited me into the imperial guards forcefully because of it."
He glanced at Liu Mang and said softly, "Do you think I had a choice in any of those matters?"
Liu Mang’s brain overloaded, and he couldn’t say a word.
Yang Ge stirred the boiling rice in the pot, "You probably know what happened next. The three major grain merchants were hoarding grain, inflating prices. As the chief standard-bearer of the imperial guards in Lu Ting, seeing the neighbors living in such misery, I took the grain from the three merchants and distributed it to them..."