Chapter 341 — You Lie Better Now

CHAPTER 341

You Lie Better Now

The Valley party was packing at the crossroads when the cart came down the town road.

Shi Feng saw the green and white banners from far off. He was walking beside the wheel, because Lin Langtian was in the driving seat, sulking. Lin Langtian had made his own peace with Innkeeper Lou in the end: half the bill, paid in cash, and a sign saying APPROVED BY THE INSPECTOR. Lin Langtian considered this the worst deal of his life.

“I'm not speaking to you,” Lin Langtian announced to the sky.

“You were shouting at the gate,” Shi Feng said.

“That was a lesson. This is a silence,” Lin Langtian replied, turning his face away.

“How long?” Shi Feng asked, glancing at the road ahead.

“Until lunch,” Lin Langtian replied after a brief calculation.

Shi Feng nodded. At the crossroads the Valley horses were being tied to their poles, and a lone figure in a green cloak left the group and walked across the dust toward him. She walked at a steady pace. Nobody had asked her to.

Sima Lan, three steps behind the wheel with the ledger under her arm, looked up. Her gaze met Ling Qingzhu's for a single moment. Then Sima Lan became extremely interested in a loose strap on the cart.

Ling Qingzhu stopped in front of Shi Feng.

“You lie better now,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“I had a teacher,” Shi Feng said flatly.

“I noticed,” Ling Qingzhu said, glancing toward Lin Langtian’s exaggerated silence. “The lessons are billed to you, I hope.”

“They were free,” Shi Feng replied.

“Free lessons,” Ling Qingzhu repeated, pausing. “That's how you know they're expensive.”

Shi Feng didn't answer. The corner of her mouth moved up a very small distance, just enough to be seen, and began to go further.

She turned away before it finished.

“Your ankle,” Ling Qingzhu said over her shoulder, already walking.

“It’s better,” Shi Feng answered before she could finish.

“I didn’t ask,” Ling Qingzhu said, refusing to turn around.

She went back to her horse, mounted without looking round, and rode off at the head of the green-and-white line. Su Wanning twisted in her saddle and waved wildly with both arms, her mouth open in some enormous remark that the distance swallowed.

Sima Lan wrote a line in the ledger. Shi Feng didn't ask what it said.

“Su Wanning says the Valley left a jar of bone-salve in a cave,” Sima Lan said, to the strap. “She says it's missing. I assume it's in a sleeve.”

“In the ring,” Shi Feng corrected, seeing no point in denying that he’d kept it.

“Of course,” Sima Lan said.

Zhu Liu coughed behind them. “Senior Brother Shi, we should go. The eggs are cooling.”

Under the cart seat, in the covered basket, the toad gave a smug, warm croak.

They reached the sect gate on the seventh day. Gray Ear refused to hurry through the last li.

The outer court was already waiting. A Sky Pavilion courier had come through at dawn with news from three towns, and a crowd of disciples packed the road, shoulder to shoulder, with Wu Qiang climbing a post for a better view.

“There he is!”

“Shi Feng!”

“Is it true he billed the inn to the chief disciple?”

“I heard he took the seal!”

“And the serpent! A Golden Core-grade beast, by himself, in the dark!”

“And a Martial Palace token for a trap...”

“He never used to be like that.”

“He used to be so honest!”

Qiu Bao, carrying a bucket, stopped in the middle of the lane. “This is Lin Langtian's doing,” Qiu Bao said, in a voice of terrible grief. “I knew it. I knew when he came with the potatoes. As the saying goes, one who stays near vermilion turns red, and one who stays near ink turns black.”

“Lin Langtian has corrupted him!” Wu Qiang yelled from his post.

“Corrupted!”

“The pure junior brother!”

“That wicked chief disciple!”

“…”

Shi Feng walked through them. They parted for him. A boy at the front took one look at the Sword on his back, a second look at his face, and quietly moved his coin pouch behind him.

Lin Langtian climbed down from the cart and held both arms wide to the crowd.

“Hear me!” Lin Langtian said. “I have taught this boy everything he knows! I stand proudly beside the fruits of my work!”

“Which fruits?” Wu Qiang yelled.

“The bill-paying ones!” Lin Langtian shouted, and the crowd groaned.

Shi Feng kept walking. He did not deny it. Beside him, Sima Lan said softly, “Fool's tax. Free of charge today,” and Shi Feng was nearly sure he saw her smile.

On the gatehouse steps, Zhu Liu sat down on his trunk. He had been quiet since the crossroads. He opened the three ledgers from Qingtong, Jinsha and Cuiping on his knees and ran his abacus along the lines, over and over, with a frown that grew steadily deeper.

“Senior Brother Shi,” Zhu Liu said at last.

“What is it?” Shi Feng asked, stopping beside the trunk.

“I added the tribute from all three towns,” Zhu Liu said. “Every sack, every ingot, every herb bundle, in the towns' own books. Then I compared them with the tribute board in Duanyang City, which we passed yesterday.”

“How much is missing?” Shi Feng asked, watching Zhu Liu check the same figures again.

Zhu Liu was worried now. He’d compared the figures often enough to know it wasn’t a mistake in his own addition.

“It's a fifth short,” Zhu Liu said. “Whatever the towns paid, one part in five never arrived.”