"Interesting," Jiang Wang smiled.
"Are you going?" Ling He asked.
"Why not?" Jiang Wang turned to An'an. "Elder brother will take you to eat and drink like kings. How about that?"
Jiang An'an nodded her little head very seriously.
So Ling He straightened his robes and, on a whim, picked up his sword.
"Hey!" Jiang Wang stopped him. "You needn't come. It's not like we're going to fight."
Meeting Ling He's gaze, Jiang Wang added: "Don't worry. The Fang clan aren't that stupid."
Ling He thought it over, found the reasoning sound, set the sword back down, and sat cross-legged once more. For a man like him, if nothing else demanded attention, he could cultivate the whole day through.
...
Walking toward the Wangyue Tower, An'an suddenly tilted her head up and asked: "Is the Fang clan a pack of bad people?"
"Oh?" Jiang Wang looked at her with keen interest. "Why do you say that?"
"I can tell even Brother Ling He wants to hit them," Jiang An'an said.
Jiang Wang burst out laughing. A temperament like Ling He's, indeed, rarely showed hostility toward anyone.
"Then let's not go eat," Jiang An'an said again.
"That won't do. We must go — and eat with style, and eat with skill." Jiang Wang said teasingly. "If we eat the bad people out of house and home, we'll be doing a good deed. Understand?"
Jiang An'an bit her thumb, lost in thought, then nodded once.
"Smack!"
"No biting your fingers!"
Wangjiang City had its Wangjiang Tower, a place of high standing and wide renown. The similarly-named Wangyue Tower within Fenglin City could only pale beside it.
The tower was not tall, a mere three stories. To bear the name "Wangyue" — gazing upon the moon — was to invite mockery for a name that fell short of its substance. Yet the dishes served within were unusually fine. And so in this Fenglin City, its business had always throve.
Jiang Wang carried Jiang An'an into the Wangyue Tower, and was at once led by the Fang clan's servants to a private chamber.
A middle-aged man of composed bearing and a face that could fairly be called refined rose to greet him: "My worthy nephew!"
His gaze fell on An'an, and his smile grew even warmer. "This is your little sister? How adorable."
Jiang Wang had met Fang Zehou before, back when his friendship with Fang Pengju had been close, Fang Zehou had more than once invited them both to dine. In those days Fang Zehou had treated his nephew with great care and looked upon him with deep expectations. After Fang Pengju's death, because that death had been so shameful, no one in the Fang clan had been willing to bury him.
His "worthy nephew" was a title Jiang Wang was loath to accept. He greeted him instead: "Greetings, Clan Head Fang."
"Not yet, not yet." Fang Zehou laughed, then raised a hand and took a string of gold beads from a servant, holding it out to Jiang An'an. "First meeting — uncle will give you a gift!"
Jiang An'an turned her head away, burying her small face in Jiang Wang's chest. In her little head she had long since fixed her mind that this was a bad man, and would not even speak a word to him.
Jiang Wang settled Jiang An'an into her seat before the table and said: "The little girl is shy with strangers. Don't take it ill. As for the gift, never mind it. Squire Fang, why not speak plainly — what is it you want of me this time?"
Fang Zehou had purchased the honorary title of squire, holding genuine rank and office. The address was not out of place.
"No rush, no rush." Fang Zehou's face showed not a trace of embarrassment. He waved for the servant to take away the string of gold beads, then said: "First sample the restaurant's signature dish, the Lotus-Leaf Chicken."
Jiang An'an had long been resolved to eat the villain into ruin, and was ready to begin at once, but Jiang Wang held her down with one hand. With his chopsticks he reached out and tasted each dish on the table one by one, savoring each in turn, and only then picked out a few plates and set them before An'an.
"Elder brother has tasted them for you. These few dishes are the finest."
Jiang An'an had meant to complain a little, but the fragrance of the Lotus-Leaf Chicken came drifting straight into her nostrils, and at that there was no time left for complaining. She reached out and tore off a drumstick, gnawing away.
All the while Fang Zehou's smile remained warm and cordial, as if he noticed none of Jiang Wang's wariness at all.
"Brother and sister are truly close," he praised.
"It passes. Barely raising her." Jiang Wang dismissed it with a casual word.
Jiang An'an shot him a furious glare, but her mouth was too busy to protest; all she could do was hatefully bite down on another chicken wing.
Jiang Wang paid it no mind and pressed on: "I wonder what the squire wants of me this time..."
Fang Zehou suddenly let out a long sigh, and his countenance turned grave. "In the matter of Pengju, our Fang clan owes you an apology."
Where Fang Pengju was concerned, Jiang Wang could not but grow serious. Whatever the course of events, Fang Pengju was dead; his enmities and favors had both wound down. Jiang Wang had neither the desire nor the need to hound the spirit tablet of a dead man.
"It's all past," Jiang Wang said.
"Though my worthy nephew says so, our Fang clan cannot let it rest without some gesture." Fang Zehou pushed a small box across the table. "Here are a hundred taels of pure gold, a token of our apology."
"In the matter of Fang Pengju, he already paid for it himself." Jiang Wang had no mood to fence words any longer. He did not even glance at the gold. "If you have something to say, say it plainly."
Fang Zehou nodded. "Pengju was once the hope of our Fang clan, a future without limit. Slain by you in a death duel — though one might say he brought it upon himself, our Fang clan has never given you a moment's trouble over it. Is that not so?"
"It is." This was the truth, and Jiang Wang need not deny it.
"Now, uncle has a request of you."
Jiang Wang watched him, bidding him continue.
Fang Zehou said: "After Pengju's death, of the younger generation of our Fang clan, only Heling remains worth fostering. I could only swallow my grief and pour all the care I had for Pengju onto Heling. He has been a credit to us, too — his cultivation has even surpassed yours. But..."
Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow, knowing the meat of the matter had come.
"In your duel before, his confidence was shattered, and the whole person collapsed. He has shut himself in his room, drowning his sorrows in wine all day. If this goes on, I fear he... will become a complete invalid." Even speaking thus, a man of such guile as Fang Zehou let his voice tremble.
That was, after all, his only legitimate son.
"And so?" Jiang Wang asked.
"The words are somewhat hard to utter." Fang Zehou said: "Yet uncle is thick-skinned enough to hope that you will go and make an apology to Heling, tell him you used dishonorable means in the duel, and help him recover his confidence."
Jiang Wang almost laughed. "If I did nothing of the sort, how am I to admit it?"
"Not for nothing, not for nothing!" Fang Zehou said hastily. "When the deed is done, besides this box of gold, I will send another hundred taels! You have only to bow your head once, in pretense..."
Jiang Wang tapped the box of gold with a finger, and indeed laughed out loud. "The Fang clan has produced cultivators too. Fang laoyeye, as I recall, is an eighth-grade Zhou Heavenly Circulation Realm practitioner? What meaning do these so-called gold and silver hold for a cultivator?"
He pressed a finger down on the small box and gently pushed it back.
Fang Zehou at once drew a small brocade box from his bosom, opened it carefully, and set it before Jiang Wang.
The ripple of Dao essence within the brocade box almost instantly drew Jiang Wang's gaze.
"Here is a Dao Essence Stone. To a cultivator, I think this has meaning." Fang Zehou put on a most earnest expression. "Only bow your head a little, and it is yours."
The Dao Essence Stone was, of course, meaningful! Beside the gold and jewels of the mortal world, it was the true hard currency of cultivators — it could aid one's cultivation, and replenish one's reserves at need. What was more, this stone before him had never been used, its content whole, holding a full one hundred Dao essences.
For Jiang Wang, to absorb this Dao Essence Stone would all but immediately bring him to the threshold of Foundation-Establishing!
And he finally understood how Fang Heling had Established his Foundation so quickly, coming even near to completing a minor Zhou Heavenly circulation.
But Jiang Wang merely closed the box with a light touch. "Perhaps, as you say, my bowing of my head is not worth a penny."
He pushed the brocade box back as well. "But Fang Heling — he is unworthy."
He was the one who had been provoked all along; he was the one forced to accept the challenge. Where was the logic in his begging pardon? The loser had crumbled and collapsed — whom had that to blame but himself? Did the weak hold justice by mere right of weakness?
The Dao Essence Stone was important. But rightness was more important still.
"Think not of yourself, but of your little sister." Fang Zehou said slowly: "She still studies at the schoolhouse, I believe?"
At that moment Jiang An'an was still at work with both hands, head bowed in feasting, gnawing with oil smeared all the way to her mouth. She had no inkling of what the adults were discussing.
Jiang Wang's gaze drew tight all at once. This was the first time his killing intent had ever been so clear, and so utterly unsparing.
Fang Zehou forced himself to meet that gaze, and felt a sudden urge to leap from the window and flee. Only then did he realize the youth before him could not be more different from his own son: no delicate seedling raised in a hothouse, but a young beast that had weathered storms and struggled all its life to survive!
"Hahaha." Jiang Wang laughed loudly all of a sudden, scooped An'an up in his arms. "No more eating. We're going home."
However he may have thought of it, he would not play at bravado near Jiang An'an, would not place her in danger — for she was already in his arms, her hands and mouth still busy, eyes lingering on the dishes upon the table.
"Then... I beg you!" Fang Zehou's voice came from behind.
But Jiang Wang, his sister in his arms, had already shoved open the door and walked out without pausing.