Chapter 1 — The Miraculous Mission
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 3
Wei Zhao could never quite understand it. The missions he carried out were so perilous, his enemies were so formidable, and the gains of his clients were so lavish — and yet, once all was said and done, what found its way into his own hands was so pitifully little.
Where on earth did the old man dig up such top-tier missions for him, anyway? Every single one was a narrow escape from death, and the pay that landed in his hands was fifty or a hundred yuan — on the good days. There were even times when it was two or three yuan. Whenever he thought of all this, Wei Zhao wanted to cry.
Taking the two hundred yuan he had bought with his own life, what Wei Zhao wanted more than anything was to let out a curse — son of a bitch! Though he was an orphan, and had never had a mother at all.
He had trained in martial arts under Old Man Wei, who had raised him, for fifteen years, and had read books for fifteen years as well — by any standard, that made him a man of all-around literary and martial talent, didn't it? In ancient times, he would have been the number-one laureate on both the civil and military examination rolls. Yet he was ordered about like a common coolie... When would this life of his ever see an end!
He'd heard that people in the city who built houses for others could rake in several tens of thousands a year, while he, fighting between life and death every day, earned no more than eight hundred or a thousand yuan in a whole year...
"Old man, you're not trying to fool me, are you? Two hundred yuan? I have a strong suspicion you've been skimming off my pay." Wei Zhao had doubted this more than once, but the old man dressed in the same clothes and ate the same food as he did — he certainly didn't look like a man of means.
"Be grateful you're getting paid at all. You think money's that easy to earn these days?" Old Man Wei rolled his bulging eyes and said crossly, "What? You don't want it? Then give it back. It's been a long time since I treated myself at Widow Wang's little eatery at the end of the village."
"..." Wei Zhao very much wanted to beat the scrawny, shriveled old man into the ground, but he knew that if he made a move, he would be the one getting beaten.
Just how formidable Old Man Wei's martial arts truly were, Wei Zhao himself could not say. All he knew was that whenever the old man practiced with him, he never exerted his full strength. And just when Wei Zhao felt his own skill had risen a grade, he would suddenly discover that the old man had risen a grade as well — and that he, Wei Zhao, was still the old man's vanquished opponent.
"All right. You've been tempered and trained enough over these years. It's about time for that one great matter." Without even lifting an eyelid, Old Man Wei sat cross-legged on the heated brick bed, smacking his lips as he munched on a plate of anise-flavored beans before him. "Do this mission well, and you'll never worry about food or drink for the rest of your life!"
"For real?" Wei Zhao knew that ever since the age of three, when the old man had picked him up while scavenging through the rubbish, he had been learning martial arts, medicine, and knowledge of the outside world from the old man — all for the sake of carrying out one great matter. Yet he very much doubted whether the pay for this great matter was really as generous as the old man claimed: one mission to last a lifetime.
"When have I ever lied to you?" Old Man Wei tossed another anise-flavored bean into his mouth. "Are you going or not? If you're not, I'll find a replacement."
"I'm going, of course I'm going!" Wei Zhao thought to himself, with a deal this good, only a fool would turn it down! One mission to last a lifetime, and after that he would never have to go through death and resurrection again. Even if it was a dragon's pool or a tiger's den, it would be worth staking his life on!