Melodic House
Mu Yu couldn’t make out what the man mumbled. The man sat up and, in a bleary state, slowly did up his shirt buttons, albeit getting one wrong. He wore a dark green robe with the embroidery of an old man poking his tongue out whilst sporting a zany face. It was actually the man’s face himself. Amusing one, he was. The man rubbed his eyes and questioned, “Who are you?”
“This one is Ximen Buxing’s friend and is here for him. Would you be able to notify him?”
“Ximen Buxing? What’s that got to do with me, then?”
The man bent over to search for his shoe. One of them was on the stone board, but the other was nowhere in sight. Frustrated, he took off his shoe and hurled it into the water before strutting off on bare feet.
“He’s member of an unorthodox faction?” asked Mu Yu, unconvinced the man was an ordinary man given the place.
“Haven’t you noticed he’s no ordinary man?” Ku Mu remarked, in deep thought.
“Ever since coming to this street, I’ve yet to encounter anyone ordinary. If you were to tell me he had a thing for men, I’d believe you,” responded Mu Yu, watching the man walk out the door.
There were no aggressive guards or beasts. If anything, it was especially tranquil. It didn’t have the ambience of a place where the unorthodox faction gathered.
Mu Yu crossed the bridge to see if he could find anyone else to speak to. He arrived at a flower garden emphasising the autumn theme. The flowers were still in bloom. There were five kids wearing red dudous playing around in the garden.
There was a maiden in yellow yawning as she watched the three year olds play. She fiddled with a flower she plucked. She had the innocent air, but experience Mu Yu told him not to believe his mental heuristics and common sense.
“Miss, may I ask if Ximen Buxing is around?”
“No clue.”
She wasn’t wary of Mu Yu in the slightest, evident from the fact that she never spared him a glance. Since the maiden didn’t seem keen on helping, Mu Yu went on his way. He looked back to curb his curiosity, but she still didn’t spare him time of the day. It hardly made sense to Mu Yu for nobody to have any issue with him entering. After all, people would question who you were if you just strolled into their grounds, wouldn’t you?
Mu Yu came across a bearded man sunbathing, a scholar enjoying a book, a youth sleeping on a tree branch and a middle-aged woman knitting. The youth was a Primordial Infant Realm cultivator. The scholar was a Body Severing Realm cultivator. Mu Yu couldn’t determine the realms of the other two.
Mu Yu tried asking them to no avail. They either told him they didn’t know or didn’t even look back at him.
“What is this place? I’d rather someone challenge me to a fight or something at this rate. I’d use an explosion pill if there wasn’t the risk of freaks hiding around.”
“Yo, who wants to gamble? Zhuang Yuanlang, you want to play? If you win, I’ll do all your chores for you next month.” A lanky youth rolled three transparent dices in his hands as he excitedly approached the scholar.
“You owe me three bottles of yao wine, ten thousand spirit stones, two days of shifts, one of your underpants and two shirts. Settle your outstanding debts, and we’ll play,” replied Zhuang Yuanlang, returning to his book.
“Fine, fine, I’ll play with someone else. Brother Han, you want to play?”
The bearded man rolled over, giving the lanky youth his back.
“Auntie Xue?”
“That’s Sister Xue for you.” Auntie Xue threatened the youth with her needle. She was quite the beauty, but she had a few unfortunate wrinkles.
The lanky youth poked his tongue and mouthed, “Act your age.”
“Go and play with him,” instructed Ku Mu.
“All righty.” Mu Yu rubbed his hands.
The lanky youth seemed to be the only one they could have a conversation with.
Mu Yu never gambled before. He was far too naïve to play against someone from the unorthodox faction.
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