Li Banfeng’s thoughts lingered on the contrast between the village that had disappeared without a trace and the well-secured train ticket office.

This world was far too unfamiliar to Li Banfeng. There were too many things he still had to adapt to.

Xiao Yeci urged, “Benefactor, let’s hurry on. That old hag said she’s part of the Jiangxiang Gang. I don’t think she was lying about that, eh.”

Li Banfeng turned back and asked, “Just what is this Jiangxiang Gang?”

Xiao Yeci froze.

This man is both courageous and cunning, and he looks like a seasoned wanderer of the jianghu. How could he not know the Jiangxiang Gang?

Still, it’s just as well. I’ll give him a good explanation, let him learn something from me. It’ll make traveling together easier, eh.

“The Jiangxiang Gang is a powerful organization. They have disciples in Medicine King Gully, Greenwater Bay, and the Ridge of Bottomless Stomachs. But they almost never go to Girdle-Slipping Hollow. People there kill any Jiangxiang Gang member they see, eh.”

Hearing the familiar place names, Li Banfeng grew interested. “What grudge is there between Girdle-Slipping Hollow and the Jiangxiang Gang?”

“The Jiangxiang Gang has all kinds of people among its members. There are plenty like that old hag, bandits who murder people to steal their stuff. There are also many swindlers and frauds among them. The inhabitants of Girdle-Slipping Hollow turn a blind eye to people like them, but there is one kind of person they absolutely cannot tolerate.”

“What kind?”

“Human traffickers, people who abduct and sell other people. Girdle-Slipping Hollow has many Hedonism Cultivators. They cultivate by seeking pleasure, but they have special constitutions that make it hard for them to bear children. It is an immense blessing for them to give birth to even one child, so they treasure children above all else. Human traffickers make a living by selling children, so it’s only natural that Hedonism Cultivators cannot tolerate their existence. The Jiangxiang Gang, in particular, has many human traffickers. That is why Girdle-Slipping Hollow and the Jiangxiang Gang are mortal enemies.”

Knowing that the Hedonism Cultivators cherished children helped Li Banfeng see them in a new light.

Furthermore, he thought the stance that Girdle-Slipping Hollow held toward the Jiangxiang Gang was absolutely right. Anyone even associated with human traffickers deserved to be slain on sight.

Xiao Yeci warned, “Benefactor, you must be careful. Once the Jiangxiang Gang learns that the old hag is dead, they’ll surely investigate. If it leads back to us, they’ll definitely seek revenge.”

Li Banfeng could only give a bitter smile.

Even if I didn’t kill that old hag, the Jiangxiang Gang would never spare me. Their gang leader already wanted me dead before that!

Li Banfeng’s feud with the Jiangxiang Gang would not end anytime soon, and he had long been prepared for that.

But would the Jiangxiang Gang really care that the old hag’s dead? It’s a gang made up of villains. How could they have such close ties?

“That old hag stayed holed up at home every day. Would the Jiangxiang Gang really care about her?” Li Banfeng asked.

“They would. I read about it in the papers,” Xiao Yeci explained patiently. “The Jiangxiang Gang once had a Poison Cultivator who lived in hiding deep in the mountains, concocting poisons. He often abducted villagers from outside the mountains to test his poisons. Eventually, the village could bear it no longer. They scraped together some money and hired two swordsmen to go up the mountain and kill that Poison Cultivator. They thought life would finally get better afterward. But the Jiangxiang Gang came seeking revenge and massacred the entire village, leaving no one alive.”

Li Banfeng was horrified. “With a case like that, surely someone would have stepped in to deal some justice! I’ve seen men in uniforms! Don’t they do anything?”

“Men in uniforms…” Xiao Yeci thought for a long moment. “You mean patrol officers?”

Patrol officers? Not police officers?

Weren’t patrol officers only during the time of the foreign concessions?[1]

Li Banfeng didn’t dwell on the terminology and pressed on. “It’s such a major case. Did the patrol officers really do nothing?”

“They stepped in, but it was only for appearances. Patrol officers serve the Border Control. They only do what Border Control orders them to do. Border Control told them to check out the village, so they checked out the village, made a record of what happened, and closed the case.”

“And what’s this Border Control?”

“Border Control consists of people from the Outer Provinces.” Xiao Yeci studied Li Banfeng carefully. His ignorance of such basic knowledge left her even more astonished.

Nevertheless, Xiao Yeci did not deceive him. Along the way, she explained a great deal of things that were common knowledge in Puluo.

“External matters go to Border Control. Internal matters depend on the banners. That’s the rule in Puluo!”

That one sentence summarized the entire order of Puluo.

Puluo was made up of many cities and towns. How many exactly, Xiao Yeci could not say.

Affairs between cities and towns were called external matters, while affairs within a town were called internal matters.

Medicine King Gully was a town, a very large one. Its residents had to go through Border Control if they wanted to leave Medicine King Gully by legitimate means.

Border Control was an administrative division sent from the Outer Provinces. The duty of its members was to maintain order, and their primary task was to control the movement of people between cities and towns.

“If you want to go to Girdle-Slipping Hollow, you must have a travel permit. Without it, you can’t ride in cars, and you can’t board the boats. Even if you go on foot, you won’t get past the checkpoints!”

As Xiao Yeci explained further, Li Banfeng finally knew how to obtain a travel permit.

To get one, he would have to contact both the local Border Control personnel and the personnel at his destination.

He could only obtain a travel permit if the local Border Control approved his departure and the Border Control at his destination accepted his arrival.

Without a travel permit, he would have no legal right to leave Medicine King Gully. The Border Control and the patrol officers under it had the duty of enforcing this rule.

If Li Banfeng were attacked in the streets, the patrol officers might not interfere.

However, if he caused trouble at the train station, they definitely would. That was because the train station was a key area under the Border Control’s management.

Could Li Banfeng ever obtain a travel permit?

From Xiao Yeci’s explanation, it seemed it would be very difficult for him to get one.

Li Banfeng was from the Outer Provinces, a person of unknown origin. It was unlikely that the local Border Control would allow him to travel out of Medicine King Gully.

Border Control at the Outer Provinces might not necessarily allow his return either. It appeared that Li Banfeng’s chances of obtaining a travel permit were nearly zero.

“Without a travel permit, you can’t even leave Medicine King Gully?”

Xiao Yeci shook her head. “It’s not that no one can get out. The Peddler comes and goes as he pleases. No one can stop him.”

The Peddler roams throughout Puluo, seemingly unaffected by the Border Control’s restrictions. Just what sort of existence is he?

And he has all those initiation medicines… Where did he even get them from?

Li Banfeng understood the part about external matters being managed by Border Control, but what was that about internal matters depending on the banners?

Xiao Yeci explained, “Matters within a city or town are handled by the families living there. The stronger the family’s banner, the more influence and power they have. Last year, an incident occurred at the Ridge of Bottomless Stomachs. There was a tofu pudding seller surnamed Wang, and a fried dough stick seller surnamed Liu. Both were poor folk and should not have stirred up much trouble. Yet, one day, they quarreled at the train station, accusing one another of stealing their customers. The fight blew up and got out of hand.

“Old Wang, the tofu seller, struck Old Liu, the fried dough seller. Old Liu wasn’t willing to let it go, so once they were outside the train station, Old Liu retaliated and struck Old Wang. There were patrol officers inside the train station, so the two men had held back when they fought. But once they went outside, the patrols no longer cared. The two men went at each other savagely, and Old Wang was left gravely injured.

“The incident alarmed the Wang Family, a prominent household in the Ridge of Bottomless Stomachs. Although Old Wang was but a poor man, he still belonged to the Wang Family. They sought revenge on his behalf, and Old Liu ended up badly injured too. The Liu Family had great influence in the Ridge of Bottomless Stomachs as well. Conflict erupted between the two families and lasted an entire month, with heavy casualties on both sides. Ultimately, the Chu Family stepped in to mediate the conflict and restore the peace.”

“The Chu Family managed to rein in both the Wangs and the Lius?”

Xiao Yeci replied, “The Chu Family is different. They are one of the four most powerful families in Puluo. The other three are the Ma Family, the He Family, and the Lu Family.”

The He Family, the Lu Family? Could that be the families of He Jiaqing and Lu Xiaolan?

So, the part about internal matters depending on the banners refers to the banners of these influential families.

Li Banfeng shook off the thoughts and focused on listening to Xiao Yeci’s explanation.

The four large influential families held authority throughout Puluo, while smaller ones commanded influence within their own regions.

Together, these families wielded varying degrees of influence and power across Puluo, using it to maintain order throughout the province.

Li Banfeng wondered if there was a connection between these families and Border Control.

Xiao Yeci told him that there was a connection, but she wasn’t sure what it was exactly.

As they walked, Xiao Yeci filled Li Banfeng in on more of the things that were common knowledge in Puluo. She talked for hours, until her voice turned hoarse.

A fifteen-kilometer trek through mud and rugged hills was nothing to Li Banfeng, but for Xiao Yeci and Lu Chunying, who had been exhausted before the journey even began, the trek was immensely torturous.

By the time they reached the Inner Gully, dawn had already broken. Li Banfeng first went to Feng’s General Store, but its doors were firmly shut. He knocked for a long while, but no one answered.

Where has Shopkeeper Feng gone?

Did he flee, fearing I’d come to settle accounts?

That shouldn’t be the case.

He wouldn’t just abandon a business worth over a hundred thousand yuan, would he?

Yu Nan—the proprietress of the neighboring shop, Yu’s Cloth Shop—was standing outside her shop. Dressed in a qipao and holding a cigarette for ladies[2], she took a slow drag, exhaled a plume of smoke, and approached Li Banfeng. “Their shop has been closed for days now. They probably went somewhere to have fun. No idea where, though.”

The proprietress had a long face, a high nose bridge, almond-shaped eyes, a full forehead, and a rounded chin. Her tight qipao barely contained her ample bosom and the curves of her hips.

Just as He Jiaqing had once said about his girlfriend, this woman looked just like a calendar beauty that had stepped straight out of a poster.

Nevertheless, Li Banfeng’s attention was not on the beauty standing before him. He was thinking about Shopkeeper Feng’s whereabouts.

He’s off having fun? What’s got him so happy?

Li Banfeng turned back at Xiao Yeci. “Where are you headed? I’ll accompany you to the door.”

He’d made a business deal with Xiao Yeci and her daughter after all. He had to deliver on his end of the deal and provide his services right until the end.

Xiao Yeci said, “We’re going to the He Family’s old residence, eh. I heard it’s on this street.”

The He Family’s old residence!

At the mention that the mother and daughter planned to go to the He Family’s old residence, Li Banfeng hurriedly tried to stop them. “You mustn’t go there! You’ll lose your lives if you do!”

Lu Xiaolan lived in the He Family’s old residence. More precisely, Lu Xiaolan was trapped there by a dwelling spirit.

The mother and daughter were weak. If they were to go to the He Family’s old residence, they would become the perfect replacement for Lu Xiaolan.

Hearing that the He Family’s old residence was dangerous, Xiao Yeci found herself in a dilemma. “Benefactor, what exactly happened there? We came all this way just to get there, but now you tell us we can’t go…”

Li Banfeng was silent for a moment, then he said gently, “I’m telling you that you can’t go because you’ll die if you do. Do you want to die that badly?

“If you truly want to die, why bother fleeing in the first place? Dying is the same regardless of where it happens. I can deliver you to death’s door too if that’s what you want.”

Xiao Yeci stared at Li Banfeng in stunned silence, unsure how to respond.

Li Banfeng watched Xiao Yeci with a calm gaze, warning her that he would really do it if she wanted him to.

Lu Chunying stood before him and said, “Benefactor, we won’t go. We will listen to you!”

Xiao Yeci, on the other hand, was hesitant to avoid going to the He Family’s old residence.

She knew Li Banfeng meant well, and she believed his words that the He Family’s old residence was dangerous.

However, the whole purpose of their trip had been to get to the He Family’s old residence. How could they not go there when they had already come all this way?

“We don’t need to go inside. Can we just stand at the gate and take a look?” Xiao Yeci asked.

She looked at Li Banfeng earnestly, hoping he would offer further advice.

Li Banfeng put on a small smile and said in an agreeable tone, “Sure. If you pay me.”

“Uh…“

“One thousand yuan. Are you not planning to pay me for my services?” Li Banfeng said sharply, no longer as good-natured.

1. Areas within Chinese cities that were administered and controlled by foreign powers, instead of the Chinese government, during the mid-19th to mid-20th century. ☜

2. Slimmer and shorter than standard cigarettes. ☜

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep