The next day at noon, while the family was having a meal, Black Glasses woke up. He found himself lying on a bed in an unfamiliar room. The furnishings were sparse and simple, suggesting the household was not well-off. There was nobody keeping watch around him, and he silently congratulated himself on winning his gamble—the person who brought him here must be a good man.
Only the back of his head ached slightly. Reaching up to touch it, he realized his head was wrapped in a thick layer of gauze, and his arm was broken.
He assumed he had been caught in a grenade blast, never suspecting he had simply bumped his head on the road.
Aside from that, whatever he carried on his back was resting quietly. Along with his gratitude, he felt a growing curiosity about the person who had saved him.
Stepping out of the room, he saw the family eating together. He pushed up the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, walked over, bowed to the three of them, and said, "Thank you all for saving my life. If I ever get the chance, I will surely repay this heavy kindness."
Zhang Qiling glanced at him and said nothing, but Zhang Xilin invited him to sit down and eat with them.
Zhang Xilin handed him a set of bowls and chopsticks, and after offering his thanks, Black Glasses sat down next to Zhang Qiling.
"What's the young fellow's name? Where are you from?" Zhang Xilin asked.
"My name is Qi Dane, and I'm from Beijing. I usually make a living doing odd jobs for people. May I ask how these two are related to you..."
Zhang Xilin slapped his forehead and said, "I was so busy asking questions I forgot to introduce them. This is my son, Zhang Yude, and this is my daughter-in-law, Mo Shanshan."
"Your son is so handsome, he definitely takes after you! And I can tell from your physiognomy that you're a man of great fortune—you're guaranteed to be holding a grandson by this time next year!" Black Glasses flattered.
This remark struck right at Zhang Xilin's heart, though holding a grandson next year was certainly out of the question. With this thought, he gave the couple an encouraging look.
Zhang Qiling and Mo Shanshan exchanged a glance and tacitly chose to keep their heads down and eat.
When the meal was finally over, both of them let out long sighs of relief.
After finishing, Black Glasses wanted to use the outhouse, only to be blocked halfway by Zhang Qiling.
Zhang Qiling stared at him intently, making Black Glasses's skin crawl, before slowly spitting out two words: "Return my saber."
"What saber?" Black Glasses tried to play dumb, though he had sharply caught the word "return." He clearly remembered that the only saber he had handled recently was the Black Gold Ancient Saber brought out from the Ancient Building.
Generally speaking, a person only used the word "return" when they considered themselves the owner of an object, and wouldn't the owner of that saber be...
"You're the owner of that saber, which means you're the Zhang Family's patriarch?" Black Glasses asked excitedly.
Zhang Qiling did not answer him, instead continuing to demand the whereabouts of the saber.
"I'm terribly sorry, but I sold the saber. I won't be able to buy it back anytime soon..." Black Glasses looked quite embarrassed, his voice trailing off into a murmur.
"Who?"
Zhang Qiling uttered only a single word, but Black Glasses understood his meaning.
"The buyer requested confidentiality, awfully sorry about that, haha," Black Glasses said with a thick-skinned grin.
Although he failed to pry out the whereabouts of the saber, Zhang Qiling did not do anything to him. The two struck a bargain: Black Glasses would do one task for him, and in exchange, he would no longer pursue the matter of the saber.
After freeloading there for a month, Black Glasses left, carrying several pairs of cloth shoes that Zhang Xilin had made for him.
Walking down the mountain path, Black Glasses looked somewhat forlorn.
He knew that old man was deep in thought, possessed methods that reached the heavens, and saw through human hearts all too thoroughly. Perhaps the kindness shown to him wasn't entirely pure either.
Yet ripples still stirred deep within his heart, constantly washing away the unease and loneliness rooted in his soul.
Because aside from that old man, no one else in this world would ever make a pair of properly fitting shoes for him, nor would anyone else care about him.
***
Winter, 1984
The flattery Black Glasses had offered back then ultimately fell flat. Ten years had passed, and season after season of crops had been harvested from the fields, yet Zhang Xilin still had no grandson to hold.
During these past few years, whenever spring plowing and autumn harvest arrived, Black Glasses would return to Shihu Mountain to toil alongside the family of three. At the same time, it was also a chance to reinforce the mental restriction carved deep into his soul.
Zhang Xilin had even planted Black Glasses's favorite green peppers in his own vegetable garden, and there was always a room reserved for him in the small courtyard on Shihu Mountain. Being able to eat egg fried rice made with homegrown green peppers during his breaks from working abroad had also become a comfort to his soul.
Ever since Black Glasses joined the labor force, Zhang Qiling's status as the pillar of the household had been in jeopardy; this fellow's farming skills were nearly on par with his martial prowess.
Yet even when his agricultural output surpassed Zhang Qiling's, he never bragged about it in front of him. That was because Mute Zhang could leave him completely speechless with a single sentence.
"I have a wife."
Damn it, having a wife made someone so great?
Although Mo Shanshan still failed to conceive despite Zhang Qiling's diligent efforts, her complexion grew healthier day by day. The lack of children did nothing to affect their affection for one another.
In truth, Zhang Qiling did not want children—at least not now. Because the matter of the Bronze Gate remained unresolved, and from Black Glasses he had learned that the Nine Gates had failed to uphold their agreement, he did not want his children to face these troubles, nor did he want any heavy burdens forced upon them.
If it were possible, he hoped to resolve all of this himself, but obviously, that was impossible.
Unusually, Black Glasses returned to Shihu Mountain in the winter, explaining that he needed to earn money to support a family, which was why he rarely came back except for the spring plowing and autumn harvest.
He brought back two pieces of news. First, Wu Sansheng was going to Xisha for an archaeological expedition, and the core members of the team were almost entirely from the Nine Gates.
Second, Old Dog Wu had actually discovered the existence of the Tenth Family long ago, but at the time he hadn't linked the Tenth Family to the organization known as "It," mistakenly thinking there were two separate enemies.
He had tried to fight against it, resulting in a disastrous defeat, and had no choice but to flee from Changsha to Hangzhou.
However, a project code-named 044 in recent years had made Old Dog Wu realize the connection between the two organizations.
Wu Sansheng's upcoming trip to Xisha would thoroughly corroborate all of this.
The Zhang Family had always known about the existence of the organization called "It" and had constantly fought against it. Yet right up until the moment of the Zhang Family's ruin, they had failed to notice the Tenth Family lurking in the shadows beneath its wings.
If all of this were verified, it would mean that the influence of "It" was far vaster than imagined, and its targets were not merely the Nine Gates and the Zhang Family, nor was its purpose as simple as achieving longevity.