BB | Chapter 6

The Brother Who Is Not a Lover-Brother

After saying goodbye to the squirrel and its five ugly little cubs, Shen Canglan and Li Yaochen set off for Yunjian City.

Both of them walked quickly, and with Li Yaochen leading the way, by noon they could already see the shadow of the city in the distance.

Yunjian City was bustling beyond measure. Street stalls lined the road, hawkers called out nonstop, and the air was filled with the smell of food. It was lively and noisy, satisfying every bit of Shen Canglan’s imagination of a city.

After asking around, Li Yaochen found the location of the guild notice board, and the two of them made their way over.

It was easy enough to find. The board stood by the roadside, covered in posted notices, with cultivator-looking people guarding the area as others came and went.

Li Yaochen said, “Come on, let’s take a look.”

The quests on the board were divided into several levels by color, from low to high: green, blue, purple, and gold. By channeling spiritual power into the corresponding color, one could see the contents of that notice.

Curiously, Shen Canglan looked through them one by one:

“Missing husband, six months pregnant, anyone who finds him please contact immediately. Handsome reward.”

“I have a pair of crystal shoes. Whose feet can fit into them?”

“My second wife and eldest wife ran off, my third wife and fifth wife secretly had babies, I want to die. Can someone come talk me out of it?”

Shen Canglan: “…”

What in the world were these random quests?

Li Yaochen’s face also wore an expression of utter unreadability.

He shared his experience with Shen Canglan: “Don’t look at the content. Look only at the reward. If there’s a good one, we take it. Herbs and the like are best. Even if we don’t need them this time, they can still be used for refining other pills later.”

Speaking of alchemy, Shen Canglan remembered what Li Yaochen had said: for now, they should both eat fasting pills if possible, and avoid mortal food.

But right now, he was hungry.

He really wanted to eat mortal food.

He glanced at Li Yaochen. Noticing it, Li Yaochen asked, “What’s wrong, brother?”

Shen Canglan said rather embarrassedly, “Hungry.”

Li Yaochen slapped his forehead. “My bad. I never eat at fixed times either. Once I get busy, I forget.”

As he spoke, two long, jointed fingers reached into the storage pouch at his waist. After rummaging around, he took out a fasting pill.

Li Yaochen looked around, then walked over to a low stone nearby and squatted down. He took out a small wooden board and a delicate little dagger from the pouch, measured it a couple of times, then carefully cut the fasting pill into quarters, both horizontally and vertically.

He held up a quarter of the pill and offered it to Shen Canglan. “Here, eat.”

Shen Canglan said joyfully, “Thank you!”

[One pill actually has to be divided into four servings?]

The System sighed with emotion: [You can turn a romance simulation into wilderness survival? You guys are so poor.]

Li Yaochen snorted. “Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Don’t bully a young man for being poor.”

[.]

So it turned out his host was an old-school overpowered protagonist.

How rude. Truly, how rude.

—

Shen Canglan put the pill, not even as big as a fingernail, to his mouth and bit into it.

…

What a vicious taste.

Like mud after rain mixed with the greasy smell of oil used to fry dead fish—slick, nauseating, and hard to swallow.

No wonder it was called a fasting pill. After eating it, he felt so sick he didn’t want to eat anything, so of course it made one fast.

Luckily, the taste didn’t last. It soon faded away, and then a hollow filling sensation began to rise in his empty stomach.

He looked back at Li Yaochen again, and seeing Li Yaochen’s expressionless face, Shen Canglan felt a surge of admiration.

So this was what a strong person looked like?

He said reverently, “From now on, I want to become someone like you, brother—someone who can eat shit and not even change expression.”

Li Yaochen: “…………”

He patted Shen Canglan’s shoulder, feeling complicated as he encouraged him, “Brother, I believe you can do it too.”

The two of them chewed on their pills as they finally found a suitable quest.

It was a simple errand run. The person who posted the quest had broken up with someone and wanted everything the other party had left at his place sent back. The reward was a medicinal herb he had taken from someone else, and even he didn’t know what it was for.

Young men of seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen had plenty of strength, so moving things was quite easy.

Especially with Li Yaochen’s storage pouch, which could hold many things. A lot of the miscellaneous items were put there, saving them quite a bit of trouble.

It took less than two hours to move everything.

Seeing that it was still early, the two of them decided to take on another quest.

A few new notices had been posted, so they started reading from the new ones.

Shen Canglan stared at the one that said, “Move back the things my ex-boyfriend gave me,” and the more he looked, the more wrong it felt.

After taking the quest and checking the location, sure enough, it was posted by the same girl from before.

So Shen Canglan and Li Yaochen moved the things back again.

The man who had posted the quest first was unhappy. “I’ll give you another fifty copper coins—take them back to her place!”

Shen Canglan: “…”

He asked, “What if she asks you to move them back again?”

He wasn’t asking out of pure curiosity, though. He was being practical.

Moving things was fine. Anyway, he was already familiar with the route back and forth, but how many times could these two people still keep paying? If they kept moving things around until all their money ended up being squeezed dry by him and Li Yaochen, that would be so embarrassing.

Li Yaochen seized the moment to say, “Forget fifty each time. Let’s do a package deal. Within three days, however many times we move them, it’s two hundred copper coins. How about it?”

The man said fiercely, “Fine!”

When they moved the items back to the girl, Li Yaochen also said to her, “How about considering our package service? Within three days, however many times we move them, it’s two hundred copper coins. What do you say?”

The girl also said fiercely, “Fine!”

Shen Canglan was convinced. Completely convinced.

He praised Li Yaochen: “A genius at business!”

Li Yaochen accepted it very well and waved a hand modestly. “Too kind, too kind.”

Money from little resentful couples was so easy to earn.

Sure enough, when people hated someone, they never thought something was too much trouble.

Three days later, the two of them happily increased their earnings by four hundred copper coins.

Shen Canglan also added fifty copper coins, and Li Yaochen used those two hundred and fifty copper coins, along with a few herbs earned from other quests, to buy all the materials needed for fasting pills.

They were only missing a cauldron for alchemy.

Yunjian City did have places selling cauldrons. But the prices were outrageous. Even if Shen Canglan and Li Yaochen were sold together, they still couldn’t afford one.

They could also rent one, but the price was still outrageous, and there was a security deposit too. Even if Shen Canglan sold both his kidneys, he still couldn’t afford to rent one.

“Brother, don’t panic,” Shen Canglan said, thinking of something. “I do at least have some connections.”

He grabbed his waist token and sent Ye Xuezhu a message: “Shifu.”

Ye Xuezhu: ?

Ye Xuezhu: Have you finally caused trouble down at the mountain foot?

Ye Xuezhu: You didn’t mention your shifu’s name, did you?

Shen Canglan: “…”

He asked, “Shifu, can you lend me your cauldron?”

He remembered very clearly that Ye Xuezhu had a cauldron, kept in the corner of the cave abode and used like a storage cabinet, with clothes, books, and all sorts of things stuffed inside in complete disorder.

Ye Xuezhu: Easy.

Ye Xuezhu: Where are you? I’ll have someone bring it over.

Since he was asking a favor, Shen Canglan checked on Ye Xuezhu’s recent situation.

Ye Xuezhu sent Shen Canglan a clip through the image-recording function of the waist token.

In the dim light, Ye Xuezhu’s wrist was bound by a very thick chain.

Shen Canglan: “…”

He had only been gone a few days, and Ye Xuezhu was already imprisoned again. That was far too fast.

Then again, even while locked up, Ye Xuezhu could still reply to his messages. Truly dedicated.

His expression must have been far too hard to describe, because Li Yaochen asked, “What’s wrong, brother?”

Shen Canglan turned the waist token toward him.

Li Yaochen leaned in. “Hm?”

Recently, Shen Canglan had noticed that Li Yaochen had a rather pleasant scent about him, like grass or trees, making one feel close to him.

Li Yaochen lowered his head to study the image carefully. After a long moment, he praised, “This is actually a chain made of black iron? Such a long one, perfectly natural, with not even a seam. Truly excellent.”

The System shrieked in his mind: [That’s all you thought of?!]

Shen Canglan suddenly understood. “So that’s why the quality of this chain is so good. I tried several times to save my shifu before, and even using all my strength, I couldn’t cut through it.”

The System asked even more shrilly: [He only thought of that?!]

—

A day later, Shen Canglan received the cauldron Ye Xuezhu had sent over.

The person who delivered it was Qin Chun. Seeing Shen Canglan, Qin Chun was very excited: “Canglan, Canglan, Canglan, Canglan! Who is this person? Your… this?”

With a secretive look, he held out his little finger.

Shen Canglan pressed that finger down, then pulled out his thumb. “He’s my brother.”

Qin Chun blinked.

Shen Canglan was already very experienced. Seeing Qin Chun’s expression, he knew he had misunderstood.

With a righteous face, he explained, “Not the brother of a lover-brother, but Brother Guan’s brother.”

Qin Chun let out an “oh,” looking a little disappointed. “Oh, I get it.”

He greeted Li Yaochen, “Daoist Li.”

Li Yaochen nodded. “Oh. Daoist Qin.”

[Oh! You just say ‘oh’ and that’s it?!] the System said. [This is the uke protagonist of The Path of Love Cultivation!]

“Really?” Li Yaochen asked, then nonchalantly stepped a little farther away. “Then I’d better keep my distance. Don’t let all that falling in love and chasing after each other drag me into it, a poor innocent passerby.”

[… Host, if you keep acting like this, I’m really going to get fired.]

Li Yaochen comforted it. “Then that’s just right. What’s the point of taking a pittance and still being scolded? Better to pursue freedom in your heart.”

[…]

It had no way to explain to Li Yaochen that without money and only freedom, one wouldn’t survive. Even the beasts understood that and cried.

Holding back a sob, it changed the subject: [By the way, didn’t I show you the original text? Qin Chun—that’s the uke protagonist who was being chased by the other, running to the point of nearly going to heaven and earth just to escape.]

“Go to heaven and earth?” Li Yaochen suddenly became interested. “How exactly does he go to heaven? Fly to the upper realm? If I grab his leg while he’s flying, can I just ascend directly?”

[…………]

Exhausted, it said, [I’m so tired. I suddenly don’t want to talk anymore. Host, go play by yourself for now.]

On the other side, Shen Canglan was still chatting with Qin Chun.

He asked, “What have you been up to these past few days? You didn’t explain in detail. Everyone’s very worried about you.”

Shen Canglan then told Qin Chun how he had met Li Yaochen, what they had been busy with, and picked out a few things to share.

Qin Chun listened quietly, nodding from time to time.

When Shen Canglan finished, Qin Chun said, “I understand.”

Then he took out his waist token and left a message for the senior brothers and senior sisters who had asked him to inquire about things:

—Canglan found a sworn brother down at the mountain foot. The two of them fell in love at first sight, ate and lived together, and worked hand in hand. Canglan keeps the money, while that sworn brother carries all the luggage, probably afraid Canglan will get tired. Who is this not enough to make jealous? Heehee.