Chapter Ninety-Three: I'm in

Brother Little Ding, once your manor is built, how about letting me work for you as both a guard and a cook?” Fan Three-Fat asked, looking toward the construction site to the west and the low hill beyond the open ground.

“You want wages? Er—what I mean is, compensation, or pay,” Little Ding asked with a grin.

Fan Three-Fat blinked, then said weakly, “Could you give me a little?”

“Forget it, then. If you want pay, I’ll pass. If it’s free, I might consider it,” Little Ding said, pretending to turn him down.

“Brother Little Ding, why are you so stingy?” Fan Three-Fat said bitterly, then sighed helplessly. “Fine. Who told me to be down on my luck now? I’ll take shelter under your roof for the time being. As long as you can keep me fed, that’s enough.”

“Keeping you fed is no problem. You don’t even have to wait until the manor is finished. You can start working tomorrow. The construction site at Uncle Niu’s place is short a cook right now...” Little Ding said with a smile.

In truth, the site was not short of cooks at all. Uncle Niu had already found Aunt Niu, his daughter-in-law, and several steady women from the village to handle the meals.

“Brother Little Ding, I’m a guest in your house now...” Fan Three-Fat said anxiously.

“Since you want to stay and work, then you’re already one of my laborers,” Little Ding replied unhurriedly.

“Huh? Well, all right. Then I’ll work for you from now on. If you ever make it big, don’t forget me!” Fan Three-Fat said with a long face and a helpless sigh. Yet in his heart, he was faintly pleased.

To Fan Three-Fat, Little Ding did not seem like an ordinary man at all. Just the boldness with which he had bought the land to the west of the village, together with the little hill, and the way he had planned the use of that land and hill—none of that was something an ordinary country bumpkin could accomplish. And although Little Ding was not a man of the martial world, he had gone alone into Falling Sunset Mountain, come down alive and unharmed, and even completed the purpose of his journey. That alone was far beyond what many people of the jianghu could manage.

So Fan Three-Fat had a strong feeling that Little Ding’s future would be boundless. If he followed him, he was sure to do all right himself.

That night, everyone finally got to drink fine wine as they had hoped. Zhao Laixi had bought the best wine available in Falling Sunset Town.

Though Little Ding felt this “best wine” was nothing special, the others were in exceptionally high spirits. In this era, wine generally had a low alcohol content, so even the women, including Mu Yiyi, drank quite a bit.

Little Ding’s home did not have a large table, so they brought over the wooden plank frame the workers used for meals at the construction site. Everyone was jubilant, raising and emptying cup after cup, drinking to their hearts’ content.

In particular, Sun Loud Voice, despite having taken two knives to the leg, was not affected in the least when it came to drinking. He spoke the loudest of all and repeatedly offered drinks to Tang Yunzhi as an apology.

Tang Yunzhi was also carried over to the plank table to drink with the others. After getting acquainted with Mu Yiyi, Yue Yurou, Luo Dafeng, and the Mei sisters, she was in a splendid mood as well, and no longer dwelt on her hatred for Sun Loud Voice.

That night, they drank until midnight before finally breaking up. Since entering Falling Sunset Mountain, only on this day did their taut nerves truly relax.

Thoughtful Second Niu and Little Ya and Little E had spread the newly bought bedding in the grass hut that had been put up temporarily in the afternoon. After the gathering dispersed, everyone went into the hut to rest.

The women, most of them still unmarried girls, had not drunk much. Only Luo Dafeng, thinking of her own troubles, had had several extra cups and was somewhat tipsy.

The men drank with unrestrained delight. Aside from Mu Hong, who had been injured and therefore drank less, the rest, including Little Ding, Zhao Laixi, and Tian Dabao, all had a slight buzz. Sun Loud Voice and Fan Three-Fat were thoroughly drunk.

After Second Niu helped Little Ding lie down in their shack, he only then felt the room start to spin a little. So even though the wine of this age was weak, drinking too much would still make a person drunk.

“Husband, have you fallen asleep?” Second Niu said, stripping off her clothes and crawling once more into Little Ding’s quilt, nestling against his chest.

These past days, with Little Ding not by her side, she had worried about him every moment.

“Second Niu, go to sleep. It’s already late,” Little Ding said, reaching out to hold her lightly around the back.

He noticed that after several days apart, Second Niu’s face seemed to have filled out a little, and her skin had become a bit fairer too. It was far better-looking than those hollow cheeks she had before.

“Mhm.” Second Niu blushed and obediently laid her head against Little Ding’s chest. Yet her heart thudded wildly as she thought: My husband actually put his arm around my back today. Could he be hoping to take me while he’s drunk?

Second Niu had never forgotten about making their marriage complete. But after waiting a while, only Little Ding’s faint snoring could be heard.

Little Ding had already fallen asleep.

Over the next few days, Little Ding did nothing more than check the progress of each part of the construction site, chat idly with the others, lead them up the little hill, explain his plans, and so on.

Three days passed like this, and Luo Dafeng was the first to say she would leave. She was anxious to find her husband, and after resting for several days she could no longer stay put.

Seeing that she had made up her mind, Little Ding did not try hard to persuade her otherwise. Instead, he gave her a gold ingot for travel expenses and sent her to pick out two good horses by the hill so she could be on her way.

At first Luo Dafeng repeatedly refused, but when she saw that Little Ding insisted on giving it to her, she accepted it in the end. The road ahead was still a vast unknown, and no one knew how long it would take before she found her husband. It was always better to have more silver on hand.

She thanked Little Ding over and over again, bid farewell to everyone one by one, and then rode off.

Only after watching her disappear into the distance did the others return to the courtyard. Only Sun Loud Voice remained standing there on two sticks, still staring at Luo Dafeng’s receding figure, silent for a long time.

Sun Loud Voice’s knife wounds were only flesh wounds and had not reached the bone or sinew. He was strong, and after three days of recuperation he could already move about slowly with the aid of sticks. As long as he did not strain himself too much, the wounds did not hurt badly.

Seeing the look on Sun Loud Voice’s face, Little Ding thought to himself: Could this Sun Loud Voice have taken a liking to Luo Dafeng?

After instructing the bandits to keep an eye on Sun Loud Voice, he went into the courtyard. Just then, Zhao Laixi came over, tugged at Little Ding’s sleeve, and said, “Big Brother, come over here a moment.”

Little Ding followed Zhao Laixi to a deserted spot in the back courtyard, where Zhao Laixi lowered his voice and said, “Big Brother, how much gold do you still have? We’re running low on money for the house.”

Before entering the mountain, Little Ding had handed all the silver he had to Zhao Laixi, about eighty taels in all.

Over these days, between building the house, buying bricks, tiles, and other materials, purchasing food and drink for the workers, paying their wages, household expenses, and then the spending these past few days since everyone had come to Tian’s place, quite a bit of silver had already been used up. Zhao Laixi still had a little over twenty taels left in hand, and he was worried there would not be enough for the work ahead, which would delay the building.

Little Ding thought to himself that Zhao Laixi had done well to remind him. He had only tricked four gold ingots out of the giant ape in total, and today he had already given one to Luo Dafeng. That left three. If Zhao Laixi had not reminded him, he might have ended up giving them all away when the others left.

Just as Little Ding was about to hand over the remaining gold for the house, he suddenly heard a noisy set of footsteps approaching.

Turning his head, he saw the six men under Sun Loud Voice coming around from the front of the house.

“Brother Little Ding, so you’re here. We finally found you...” the six said in a noisy chorus.

“You’re looking for me? What is it?” Little Ding asked in surprise.

“Brother Little Ding, though we once had two misunderstandings in the past, that’s all behind us now. We’ve already decided to mend our ways and start afresh!”

“Oh, that’s a good thing. I already heard about it from Sun Loud Voice.”

“Brother Little Ding, we just talked it over with Second Chief Sun—oh, no, Brother Sun—and we’ve decided that from now on, we’ll work for you!”