Chapter 99: Ma Wu and Seventeen's Sister-in-Law

That night, Ma Wu slept on the first floor.

He had assumed Li Qi was sleeping on the second floor. The next morning, he went upstairs to find him, intending to show him around Lan Yang Village, but Li Qi was nowhere to be found in the bedroom.

Where had he gone?

It was dangerous for an outsider to wander around Lan Yang Village, so Ma Wu searched the village several times.

He couldn't find Li Qi, because Li Qi was currently asleep inside the portable residence.

The previous night, Li Banfeng had wandered the village for an entire night. Not only had he accumulated enough cultivation experience for 'travel cultivation,' but he had also largely familiarized himself with the geography of Lan Yang Village.

At the southernmost tip of Lan Yang Village, Li Banfeng saw the entrance to the New Land. From a treetop, he could faintly discern some light, indicating that someone had successfully pioneered it.

On his way back, Li Banfeng encountered two robbers. He extorted over three thousand yuan from them, then handed them over to his Lady for 'criticism and education.'

After the Lady's 'education,' she burped and promised that these two individuals would not cause trouble again.

By dusk, Ma Wu, who had been searching all day, finally found Li Qi downstairs from the wooden house.

Li Banfeng was watching the commotion.

Downstairs, two groups of people were fighting each other. Their fighting style was rough, with barely any discernible technique.

Their tactics were direct: the two groups charged straight at each other. Some fell, others fled.

Their weapons were crude; some carried cleavers, while others had nothing at all.

The noodle shop owner also joined the fight. Initially, he wielded a cleaver, but later, fearing he might damage it, he switched to a rolling pin.

Ma Wu approached Li Banfeng, lowering his voice, "Brother Li, where have you been all day?"

"Just wandering around," Li Banfeng replied perfunctorily, continuing to watch the fight.

Ma Wu warned, "Brother Li, it's best not to watch this commotion."

Li Banfeng's expression turned serious. "We have to watch! Our landlord is in there!"

Ma Wu glanced over and indeed saw Landlord Wei fighting amidst the crowd.

He was injured, his face covered in blood, wielding an axe and chopping fiercely.

In the melee, five or six people were ganging up on him; this group was clearly targeting him.

Ma Wu murmured, "Brother Li, it seems your two months of rent might be wasted."

As he spoke, the landlord took another knife blow to his back, his body swayed, nearly toppling over, and his grip on the axe began to loosen.

Those around him continued to swing their knives, hacking downwards. The landlord's consciousness gradually blurred, and under severe injuries, he almost lost his will to fight.

Ma Wu stared at the landlord for a moment. The landlord seemed to sense Ma Wu's gaze.

As if a dying person had been injected with adrenaline, under Ma Wu's gaze, the landlord's fighting spirit returned. He swung his axe, continuing to battle desperately against everyone.

After persisting for more than three minutes, a shout suddenly echoed from the alley: "Someone's coming! Break it up!"

The group attacking the landlord quickly left the scene. The landlord, with a dozen subordinates, furiously chased after them: "Brothers, don't let these bastards get away! Kill one, and I'll give you ten silver dollars!"

The landlord hadn't chased far when another group of people rushed out of the alley, apparently the landlord's reinforcements.

Seeing the situation becoming more chaotic, Ma Wu reminded Li Banfeng, "Brother Li, we should go. If someone recognizes you, things will get troublesome."

Li Banfeng paused, surprised by the remark, then followed Ma Wu back to the wooden house.

Last night, Li Banfeng had paid Ma Wu his first day's wages: one hundred fifty.

Ma Wu had bought some braised beef, pig ears, and a bottle of liquor. The two ate and chatted together.

"Brother Ma, did you use a technique on the landlord just now?"

Ma Wu nodded. "Seeing him in a life-or-death situation, I gave him a boost of strength, at least to save your two months' rent."

Li Banfeng exclaimed, "The techniques of Joy Cultivation can also give people strength? All the Joy Cultivators I've met just make people feel anxious and shaky."

Ma Wu explained, "Actually, these are all the same techniques, but they have different uses. Like morning dew, it's enchantment. Like a fine drizzle, it's inspiration. Like a downpour, it's confusion. I haven't passed the first level yet, so I can only use inspiration. I haven't learned the art of confusion."

Ma Wu's examples were very apt, and Li Banfeng understood them clearly.

After a moment of silence, Ma Wu asked, "Brother Li, aren't you curious why I ended up like this?"

Li Banfeng nodded. "I am a little curious. When we met at the peddler's, you seemed quite straightforward. Now your speech is a bit... hesitant."

Ma Wu blinked, thinking that the question of whether he was straightforward or not wasn't the point.

*Shouldn't he be asking why I became a beggar?*

Ma Wu took a drink. "Actually, you could have seen some clues back at the peddler's. Logically, I shouldn't have gone to a peddler to buy medicine."

Li Banfeng ate a piece of pig ear. "Then where should you have bought medicine? Don't you have to go to a peddler to get started?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "The Ma family still has some roots in Pro Prefecture. Ma family members don't need to find a peddler to get started; they have medicine at home."

"The Ma family?"

"The Ma family from the Four Great Clans?"

Ma Wu nodded. "My name is Ma Junyang. I am the fifth son of the Ma family. The reason I went to the peddler to choose medicine was because I wanted to become a Joy Cultivator."

Li Banfeng pondered. "Because your family didn't have medicine for Joy Cultivation, you went to the peddler?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "It's not that we didn't have medicine for Joy Cultivation; it's that there simply couldn't be any Joy Cultivators in my family. The Ma family is a prestigious clan, and its descendants must possess proper cultivation. In Pro Prefecture, literary and martial cultivation are considered orthodox, especially within the Ma family, where orthodoxy is extremely important, and other paths are scorned. Joy Cultivation is the path my father most abhors. If I cultivated it, it would be a disgrace to the Ma family, a true shame upon our house."

So literary and martial cultivation are orthodox; no wonder there are more cultivators of these two paths.

For an aristocratic family, the reputation of Joy Cultivation might indeed be bad, but Li Banfeng didn't think it would cause Ma Wu to fall to such a state. "Just for this, the Ma family kicked you out?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "It wouldn't go that far. My father has many children; I have two older brothers and two older sisters above me, and they all have proper cultivation. With me being a 'degenerate' like this, it wasn't that big of a deal. Moreover, I was never destined to inherit the family business. My father gave me two dance halls, and I managed them well. I wasn't short on money, nor cultivation."

Li Banfeng was astonished. "Really not short? Ten times a day, that's quite difficult."

Ma Wu gave a bitter smile. "Back then, I could afford any supplements or medicines, so I could sustain it."

Li Banfeng shook his head. "I was worried your cultivation partner couldn't keep up."

Ma Wu laughed. "One cultivation partner naturally couldn't keep up, but ten cultivation partners, one time each, that's no problem at all. There are plenty of girls in Greenwater Bay; lots of them throw themselves at you. I truly never worried about such things. My butler, Chen Yupeng, would find me different girls every day. But then one day, my third brother came to my house, kicked the door open, dragged me out of bed, and gave me a severe beating. That's when big trouble started."

"What kind of big trouble?" Li Banfeng took a sip of his wine.

Ma Wu drained his cup. "The person sleeping in my bed was my unbetrothed sister-in-law."

Li Banfeng chuckled, "Were you and your sister-in-law childhood sweethearts?"

He had expected to hear a melodramatic story, but Ma Wu gave a series of bitter laughs. "Brother Li, you certainly know how to joke. My third brother has married sixteen sisters-in-all in total. I can't even recognize all sixteen of the ones who've passed through the door, let alone this unbetrothed one."

Hearing this, Li Banfeng frowned. "You didn't know this sister-in-law?"

"No!" Ma Wu said, his face full of bitterness.

Li Banfeng thought for a moment, then said, "You were set up!"

"Yes," Ma Wu nodded. "I was set up, by my third brother and my butler, together. They conspired to put this 'seventeenth sister-in-law' in my bed to frame me."

Li Banfeng put down his wine glass. "Why would your third brother set you up? What kind of grudge does he have against you? To go to such great lengths?"

Ma Wu took a sip of wine. "Third Brother set me up for my money. He is the legitimate son of the family; the Ma family's assets are all destined for him in the future. My father had already given him two casinos, two restaurants, and a department store. In Greenwater Bay, half a street belongs to him. He holds over thirty percent of the Ma family's assets, all given by my father."

Li Banfeng couldn't understand. "He's not short on money, so why does he want yours?"

Ma Wu shook his head. "He *is* short on money, very short on money, because he's useless. He controls over thirty percent of the businesses, and not a single one isn't losing money. It was almost autumn then, and according to our Ma family rules, accounts had to be settled on the first day of autumn. His ledger for this year was a mess. He wanted me to give him some money from my dance halls to cover his losses, but I refused. I only have two dance halls, and those two dance halls are insignificant within the Ma family's assets. But I'm good at making money. With just these two dance halls, I could bring in twenty percent of the Ma family's income. Third Brother wanted to force money out of me, so he staged a 'bitter scheme,' sending his unbetrothed fiancée to me, hoping to extort a sum from me through this incident."

Li Banfeng thought there was something wrong with how the situation was handled. "If he extorted money from you, you could just give it to him. Even if the matter came to light, your family would have ways to calm it down. Your father wouldn't kick you out for this."

Ma Wu gave a bitter smile. "There are ways, but it depends on the situation. My third brother had just arrived when the reporters showed up. Naked photos were taken, and the story made it to the newspapers! Fifth Brother slept with Third Brother's fiancée—the Ma family suffered an enormous loss of face, all over Pro Prefecture!"

Li Banfeng was puzzled. "Who called the reporters? Your third brother wouldn't be that stupid, would he? He became a cuckold; would he dare spread the news himself?"

"Certainly not him," Ma Wu sighed with a wry smile. "It could have been my fourth brother, or perhaps my eldest sister. Third Brother set me up, but someone else set up Third Brother from behind the scenes. I was driven out of the house, and Third Brother was locked up by my father. Before long, that person will be able to replace Third Brother as the Ma family's heir."

Li Banfeng asked, "Who's going to be the heir?"

"I don't know yet," Ma Wu shook his head. "That person is well-hidden. I don't even know if I'll live to see them."

It was clear that Ma Wu's physical condition was very poor.

Li Banfeng asked, "Because the incident was reported in the newspaper, the Ma family disowned you and left you with nothing?"

At this point, Ma Wu sighed repeatedly. "It wasn't exactly being disowned with nothing. When I left home, the family sent me off with three hundred silver dollars. Brother Li, I'm not boasting, but with just those three hundred silver dollars, I could have rebuilt my own fortune. But less than two hours after I left home, I was robbed. The three hundred silver dollars were completely stolen, and even my outer garment was stripped from me. I managed to hide a jade pendant and exchanged it for five silver dollars at a pawn shop. I came to Lan Yang Village to make a living, and in half a month, I earned one hundred twenty silver dollars. Guess what happened then?"

Li Banfeng took a sip of wine. "You were robbed again?"

Ma Wu nodded. "You guessed it. Just ten days ago, all one hundred twenty silver dollars were stolen. I couldn't pay rent, so I was kicked out and had to sleep in a shed. Near the New Land, I collected and sold some scraps, managing to gather about a hundred Huan Nation notes. I was just looking for a place to stay when, the day before yesterday, I was robbed again. They didn't even leave me enough money for food, which is why I started scavenging for scraps to eat."

Li Banfeng frowned. "Who did this again? Who is determined to push you to ruin?"

"Who else could it be?" Ma Wu gave a bitter laugh. "It must be my family again."

That didn't make sense.

Ma Wu had already been disowned and no longer posed a threat to anyone else. What benefit would they gain from tormenting him to death?

There seemed to be something else going on, but Ma Wu had been through too much; some things were difficult to piece together at the moment.

Ma Wu took a large gulp of liquor, looking at Li Banfeng. "Brother Li, if you hadn't given me this meal, I might have starved to death last night. This kindness, I truly don't know how to repay it..."

Li Banfeng nodded. "You definitely have to repay my kindness. First, eat your meal, then write an IOU, and we can discuss the repayment later."

Ma Wu gave a bitter laugh and shook his head. "This isn't something that can be solved by just eating. I haven't cultivated for ten days; my life is almost over. Brother Li, I don't have many days left. I just want to do more things for you. I want to ask you about someone. Do you know a person named Li Banfeng?"