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Kapitel 74

Little Pumpkin whispered to his master from behind, "Master, even a miser like you can't do this! Why are you charging annual interest on ten taels of silver?!"

Shu Jun didn't say anything.

It would be better if she owed him more, and the more she owed him, the less she would be able to repay. That way, she wouldn't fly away and never look back.

I want you to turn around and look at me.

For the first time, Shu Jun felt that lending out money that he couldn't get back was actually quite satisfying.

Chapter Ten

Northwest Yunnan has snow-capped mountains, some over a thousand feet high, rarely visited by humans.

Shu Jun's home was on that distant, shimmering silver mountaintop. Yi Chun doubted whether anyone could live there. Having grown up in the warm Hunan region, she was not used to the cold climate. She tightened her winter clothes as much as she could, but she still felt the wind seeping in through the seams and shivered from the cold.

Looking back at Shu Jun, he was wearing a mink cloak and directing Little Pumpkin to take clothes out of his bundle.

“Winter clothes aren’t just about having cotton padding inside.” He draped a fox fur cloak over her and put a fox fur hat on her as well. “Only wearing fur will keep you warm in the snowy mountains.”

“…Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Yichun straightened her hat and shivered.

Even if he had said so earlier, it would have been useless. With the meager amount of money she had, she probably couldn't even afford a dog skin, let alone a mink or fox fur.

The snow-capped mountains were completely silent, except for the crunching sound of felt boots on the snow and the occasional large snowfall sliding off the bare branches, which sounded particularly thrilling.

Shu Jun led the way, occasionally turning back to check on Yi Chun. She was clearly not good at walking in the snow, her steps uneven, panting heavily, her face shrouded in white mist.

She was thin, and the huge fox fur cloak stretched out a bit too far on her, trailing in the snow. Her face was almost completely covered by the fox fur hat, which gave her a unique and cute appearance.

"Are you cold?" He stopped and helped her up, taking her icy hand in his grasp without giving her a chance to resist.

Yichun climbed a slope and finally let out a long breath. Looking around, all he could see was a vast expanse of white, and the three of them were just three tiny black dots in the vast天地 (heaven and earth).

She laughed and said, "The scenery here is really nice, but it's too cold."

He simply took both of her hands in his palms. Her hands were hardly delicate; her fingers were long but not slender, her palms were calloused, and there were at least five rough scars on the back of her hands.

He held the hands up to his eyes and examined them repeatedly, looking very closely, until Yichun was completely baffled: "What's wrong with my hands?"

"No," he replied casually, taking her hand as they continued walking uphill.

At the top of the mountain was a courtyard completely buried in snow. Little Pumpkin took out his key to open the door, but it took him a while to turn the frozen brass lock. With a creak, he pushed the door open, and snow fell from the eaves all over Yichun.

She held her hat still, not bothering to dust it off, and looked curiously into the doorway—there was no golden house, nor a sea of jewels. The front yard was empty, with only a few cedar trees planted there. The row of side rooms at the back, with their vermilion corridors covered in snow, showed no signs of any magnificent splendor.

The strangest thing is that there is a grave under the cedar tree. It is usually taboo to build a grave under a tree in front of a house, but Shu Jun seems to care about it at all.

He strode over, raised his hand and pushed the snow off the tombstone, which bore only four characters: "Tomb of Shuchang".

"Dad, I've come back to see you." Shu Jun said insincerely, patting the tombstone as if to say hello. "It's very cold. I'll go inside and have a cup of hot tea before I burn money for you."

Yichun followed him into the house and asked in a low voice, "Is that your father's grave? Why... is it here?"

Shu Jun hummed in response, seemingly unwilling to answer the question.

The main hall door was opened, and unexpectedly, a warm breeze mixed with the elegant scent of incense wafted out. Yi Chun looked closely and saw that the scene inside was completely different from the desolation outside. A painting of Huang Ting Xianren was hanging on the wall, and except for the smooth blue stone floor by the door, the rest of the room was covered with soft white carpets.

A lilac-colored gauze curtain hangs down, and wisps of blue smoke rise from the jade dragon incense burner, sweet and refreshing, likely from the scent of green wood.

The precious Taihu stone he acquired before the Lunar New Year was placed on a shelf in the corner, clean and spotless, without a speck of dust in sight.

Yi Chun looked left and right, and couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Little Pumpkin brought out two pairs of soft, thick woolen slippers for them to change into, then asked her repeatedly, "What kind of tea does your sister like? Tieguanyin? Lao Jun Mei? Junshan Yinzhen? Or Lu'an Guapian?"

Yichun was a little confused: "I... I'll take anything..."

Little Pumpkin wrinkled her nose and laughed: "Now that we're home, it's naturally different from outside. Whatever you want to eat or drink, we have it here. Don't be shy, just tell us."

Seeing her puzzled expression, Shu Jun asked, "This is my home now. What are your thoughts?"

Yichun answered seriously, "Yes, very rich. It's just a little strange..."

"where?"

"No one's home, how come it's so clean?" And the incense burner is lit, and there's a brazier in the corner of the room, burning brightly.

Shu Jun smiled but didn't say anything. He just pulled her to sit down on a chair. After a while, Little Pumpkin brought tea and pouted, complaining, "Master, those short guys were lazy. There's still some ashes left in the kitchen stove!"

"A dwarf?" Yichun was bewildered again.

Little Pumpkin laughed and said, "Sister, you don't know, there are still many people living on this side of the snow mountain. There are a few dwarfs on the other side of the mountain who are quite famous in the martial arts world. They come to challenge Master to a duel every year. This year they lost again, so they have to come over every month to clean the house for Master and prepare firewood and other supplies."

Yi Chun laughed and tilted her head to look at Shu Jun: "If you lose, do you have to clean the house for them instead?"

Shu Jun rested his chin on his hand, looking lazy: "Of course I won't lose. They have five people and five rooms. No matter how you look at it, I'm the one who's at a disadvantage."

The room was warm. Yichun took off her fox fur cloak and hat, and brushed the damp strands of hair from her ears. The alternation between the cold and the warmth made her hands a little itchy, but she scratched them a couple of times without paying much attention.

Shu Jun put down the tea, stood up and whispered a few instructions to Xiao Nan Gua. Xiao Nan Gua nodded and left immediately. Shu Jun followed him into the inner room.

"I'll be right back. Xiao Ge, just stay put."

Soon Little Pumpkin came over carrying a bunch of things, complaining, "Why isn't Master coming out yet! It's so bad to leave Sister here all alone!"

She smiled, not caring.

Little Pumpkin gave her a squirrel skin hand warmer, with a hidden compartment inside containing a small hand warmer and probably some plum blossom-scented cakes, giving off a pleasant fragrance.