Faraway Wanderers

Chapter 9. In the Woods

Zhao Jing of Tai Hu, also referred to as the Swordsman of Qiu Shan, was once a renowned figure.

Before they got to Tai Hu, Zhou Zishu had been looking forward to meeting this elusive hero whose name preceded his appearance. The anticipation grew when he caught wind of the news that Yu Tianjie — the only son of Hua Shan Sect’s patriarch, along with Mu Yunge — lord of Duan Jian Mountain Manor and Sir “One-Eyed” Jiang Che would also be at the same place.

Zhou Zishu knew their status and background like the back of his hand — to avoid offense, Tian Chuang had a separate archive of every single event and figure in jianghu in the last fifty years.

For example, Zhou Zishu knew that Zhao Jing the heroic Qiu Shan Swordsman was once exiled from his family and spent his days in sufferings. For money, he had committed crimes not unlike what “Enchanted Song” Qin Song had done. He only started using his real name Zhao Jing again at twenty seven, marrying the only daughter of the Feng family that owned Tai Hu, using nepotism to build wealth. He also secretly killed off the ones who knew of his past, and was reaccepted into the Zhao family after the marriage.

Another example would be the famous young Sir Yu Tianjie: it was said that he once had a tryst with a maiden from E Mei Sect but betrayed her afterwards, resulting in the girl committing suicide with their unborn child of three months old — of course, she was honorable enough to never reveal the wretched lover’s name.

Zhou Zishu was deeply interested in them since he knew all too well the kind of people they all were; besides, he was weak to Zhang Chengling’s pleadings, so he agreed to stay at the Zhaos’ for one more night.

Despite his past, Zhao Jing did have a gallant aura to him; he didn’t look down on the ragged Zhou Zishu who couldn’t even walk properly. But he was also experienced, and through Zhang Chengling’s stories of the dangers he had to face on the journey, he became suspicious of this beggar-looking man’s background.

That day, after helping the two settle down, have a proper shower and food, Zhao Jing called Zhang Chengling to the study to tell him what had happened in the past days.

Zhang Chengling after all was still a child — it was hard enough for him to find someone he could call family; so he told the elder everything, even stuffs that he had yet to understand. Zhao Jing listened to him in terror; and after contemplation he couldn’t help but ask, “This… Zhou gentleman, do you know who he really is?”

Zhang Chengling told him what happened at the abandoned shrine without hesitation.

Zhao Jing narrowed his eyes and stroked his beard. He comforted the younger briefly before sending him to bed.

From the ten days of travelling together, Zhou Zishu had come to know this Zhang Chengling child. Despite lacking a lot due to being pampered from a young age, he was a good kid with a good heart, never complaining when facing hardship, to the point of being a little simple-minded. Since Zhao Jing wanted to talk to him, Zhou Zishu was sure that the sly old fox must have succeeded in tricking Zhang Chengling into revealing information about him without meaning to.

He laughed internally — it didn’t really matter whether he was Zhou Xu or Zhou Zishu, as both names were shrouded in mystery anyway. Even someone with vast knowledge and ample resources would know no further about Tian Chuang other than the general information about the organization itself, much less its leader.