SWDnovel Chapter 166: Are You Acquainted With This Beggar? (2)
Chapter 166: Are You Acquainted With This Beggar? (2)
when people sleep in a warm, well-heated room, burying themselves comfortably on an expensive bed, they fall into a deep sleep akin to fainting or losing consciousness.
conversely, when closing one’s eyes on cold, noisy, hard ground with stones digging into it, sleep is as shallow as a puddle after rain.
such shallow sleep settles somewhere between sleeping and being awake.
you can’t tell if you’ve actually slept, whether you’ve just closed your eyes for a moment or simply passed a long time with your eyes shut.
qing, with her eyes closed, curled up even more.
it’s cold. it’s damp. only where the sun shines is warm.
she thought she had a good dream.
a dream where she met a good master and good friends, living in luxury, wearing nice clothes, eating delicious food, and traveling around.
hmm. was it a dream, or not?
qing opened her eyes groggily to check.
a world on its side, people passing by clicking their tongues as if they’d seen something they shouldn’t have.
qing closed her eyes again.
ah. it was all a dream.
no wonder such good things couldn’t happen in this damn medieval china.
i’m so hungry i feel like i’m being torn apart. please, let me have just one rat today, lord rat. i want to eat meat.
or i’ll go to pyeongchan chaeru and- ah right, those bastards said they won’t give out pork anymore.
ah. i don’t want to move.
in her first year, qing originally didn’t move.
moving unnecessarily only made her stomach emptier and nothing nutritious happened.
at best, if she caught the eye of beggars, she’d get beaten up.
she would only slyly look around and eat something when her body was so weak that she felt she might die if she didn’t eat anymore.
that’s when it happened.
a presence was felt in front of qing, who had her eyes closed.
qing opened her eyes slightly.
beyond the blurry texture of the face veil, she saw two feet standing suspiciously on the ground.
rolling her eyes as much as possible, she saw the owner of the feet bending at the waist in her slanted view.
as the arm moved carefully and delicately, she rolled her eyes until they hurt and saw a familiar-shaped sword hilt in that hand.
it was the hilt of moonlight sword (no. 8).
huh? moonlight sword?
in that moment, qing’s mind, which had been in a strange boundary between dream and reality, snapped back to its place.
wow, fucking hell. i thought i’d gone back to that time.
and, of all things, i happen to come across a sword thief?
“sword thief” is an unfamiliar term to murim practitioners.
“sword robber” might be more familiar and comfortable.
this is because a martial artist’s weapon is like a concubine (for chinese people, wives are mere family), so if someone else touches it carelessly, it literally leads to bloodshed.
therefore, a martial artist’s weapon is not something to be stolen, but something that can only be taken as a memento after killing them.
qing quietly watched, pretending to be asleep.
as the sword was slowly pulled out of its scabbard, the blade, which could hardly be said to be well-maintained, gradually appeared.
and finally, when it was completely out...
“where do you think you’re going!”
qing’s kick drew a line parallel to the ground about an inch high.
the thief’s ankles caught on it and he floated up into the air.
thud!
the sword thief landed on his shoulder, then his chin hit the ground second, and as his arched back returned, his pelvis was thrown to the ground third.
“haha, trying to steal a martial artist’s sword, you must have truly lost your mind!”
qing shouted as she jumped up and pinned the sword thief’s wrist under her foot.
her face was so bright it was almost as if she was greeting a long-awaited lover.
“aagh! hand! hand! hand!”
“according to the law, thieves are to have their hands cut off. do you dare defy the sacred rule of law?”
sacred rule of law? both the concepts of sacredness and rule of law would be deeply offended and curse at this.
throughout history, sacredness has never once been sacred, and the rule of law has been a high wall erected from birth to protect the interests of the privileged.
and the fact that she was spouting nonsense showed that qing’s mind was in a perfectly sound state.
“really, these people are so mean. they couldn’t just warn me about someone stealing my sword? instead, they just watch?”
qing glared at the street.
because of the face veil, it just looked like she was scanning her surrounding, though.
qing looked at the spoils left behind.
“hehe, sweet, sweet.”
the money pouch had about a handful of coins.
and one silver piece, which felt like about a quarter of half a silver sycee when lifted.
although it was just small change not even amounting to one silver sycee in total, she was overjoyed to have obtained a travel bag.
the travel bag looked empty and sagged limply, seeming to have nothing inside at first glance.
but the bag itself was important.
she already knew from her first year how big a difference having a bag or not makes.
still, looking inside to see if there was anything, there was one dirty towel and something wrapped in an oiled broad leaf.
“ooooh, jerky.”
for jerky to be delicious, it needs to be a high-quality product made as a delicacy.
this was dried miscellaneous meat so tough that teeth couldn’t penetrate it, with questionable hygiene, the common and ordinary kind of rations that anyone would eat.
but it was at least something.
even if it’s smelly and tough to eat as is, if you soak it in soup for a long time, you can at least feel like you’re chewing meat.
grumble.
thinking about meat made her insides clamor, telling her to stop doing stupid things and put in some food.
“hmm. should i eat? i should have some dumpling buns and knock back a drink for the first time in a while.”
anyway, it was better to fill up on cheap dumplings and push down some strong alcohol rather than eating poorly cooked food.
the timing was just right.
looking at the sun, it seemed to be about the end of the horse hour and beginning of the sheep hour, around 3 pm in qing’s units of time.
what the heck? i slept quite a long time.
it doesn’t feel like i slept at all though.
anyway, at a time that’s neither lunch nor dinner, inns usually sell food even to beggars.
of course, they can’t eat inside, but have to sit in an unobtrusive spot in front of the shop.
human hearts are truly fickle.
when she thought all her jianghu adventures were a dream earlier, she felt heavily depressed and didn’t want to live, but now that she was about to act like a beggar again after a long time, it felt somehow familiar and nostalgic.
it was natural since she could escape this beggar status at any time.
come to think of it, she could just pretend to be a beggar and pass time, then go to kaifeng on the right date.
who would imagine the bounty in question would be a beggar on the roadside, after all?
qing scratched her head vigorously as she slunk around looking for a suitable restaurant.
if it’s too high-class, she’d be turned away at the door, and if business is too bad, they’d give out things that have gone bad from not selling, so those had to be filtered out.
so she had to find a decent place where the staff’s expressions were bright and the atmosphere was good.
there also needed to be a good place to eat in front of the shop.
at that, qing found a suitable place to eat.
xiliang eating house.
an eating house was just one grade lower than a restaurant.
qing pretended to be cautiously looking around at the entrance of the eating house.
as a server approached with a tense expression at the appearance of a sword-carrying beggar, qing deliberately spoke in a very subdued voice to order.
“um, five dumplings please. and do you have any really cheap but really strong alcohol...?”
beggars are originally just beggars, but beggars who know martial arts are esteemed beggar.
and here, the esteemed beggar in question was carrying not one but two swords, while politely placing an order.
moreover, even if she must be an ugly woman since her face is covered, her voice was strikingly beautiful.
the server’s self-esteem soared to the sky.
as the server’s shoulders rose, his attitude noticeably softened.
“where in this world would there be cheap but strong alcohol?”
strong alcohol is expensive.
because strong alcohol is made by compressing weak alcohol through evaporation or other methods anyway.
“even spoiled alcohol is fine...”
“hmm. please hand over one more coin. i shall bring you something suitable.”
the server’s tone of speech was extremely old-fashioned.
when else would a server get to use such an adult way of speaking?
this was all wisdom gained through life experience.
as a female expert of murim, qing would be considered an idiot. however, as a beggar, she had already surpassed any regular beggar and possessed wisdom worthy of being called a sage.
she was truly a beggar by nature.