Song of Adolescence

Chapter 90 Dark Night Fireworks

Lei Wujie’s party fled all the way until the evening of the next day before they arrived at a city. The two yebei horses were finally frothing at their mouths, tottering on the verge of collapse.

Lei Wujie jumped down from the horse and turned to look back. “We’ve lost them, I hope.”

Xiao Se shook his head. “The Hidden River will never stop unless they’re dead. We can’t lose them.”

“What do we do then? We can’t beat them in a fight.” Lei Wujie scratched his head.

Xiao Se turned and looked up at the words above the city gate - Jiuxiao City. He frowned with a thought. “Jiuxiao City. Does Snow Moon City have allies here?”

Sikong Qianluo shook her head. “No. I don’t think Jiuxiao City has any large sects or families.”

Lei Wujie’s stomach chose that moment to growl embarrassingly loud. The three exchanged glances.

Sikong Qianluo huffed out loud. “Let’s get something to eat in the city. These two horses need a break too. But, I have a request.”

Lei Wujie asked, “What request?”

“Next time, the two of you share one horse, I will take the other!” Sikong Qianluo’s face seemed to be slightly flushed, but her voice rang with determination.

Xiao Se and Lei Wujie exchanged a look.

Lei Wujie thought about it and asked, “Xiao-xiong, do you sit in front or do I sit in front?”

Xiao Se flung his sleeves in a huff, brushed past the other two and strode forward. “Sit my ass. The two of you share one horse!”

Lei Wujie turned again and stared at Sikong Qianluo. Sikong Qianluo returned a glare and he quickly turned his head and whistled to himself.

Xiao Se walked ahead on his own, not caring about the two buffoons at his back yet he couldn’t do anything about them. Now that they’ve caught the attention of Hidden River, they could lose their lives any moment. These two could still care about who to share a horse with or argue about who is sitting in front or behind?

“Are the two of you idiots?” Xiao Se stood under the city gate and sighed, bleak just like his name.

The three of them led their horses and with heavy steps, they walked into Jiuxiao City. It was sometime in the evening and the entire city was filled with the fragrance of cooked food. Lei Wujie couldn’t control himself and exclaimed out loud. Even Xiao Se who saw the hot steaming buns couldn’t resist salivating.

However, Lei Wujie dug open the purse he’d brought with him and realised that at some point in time, the money purse had been cut open and it was completely empty now. He took out the torn money purse and looked at Xiao Se. Xiao Se blinked, then kicked Lei Wujie over. “You just scram!”

Lei Wujie got up from the ground and scratched his head sheepishly. “Su Changli’s sword was too big and accidentally cut the purse. What do I do…” Lei Wujie thought about it. The phoenix flame cloak he wore was worth some money, but was also torn to shreds by Su Changli. The right arm sleeve was even slashed to pieces. That it could still cover his body was already impressive, don’t talk about selling it for money. As for Xiao Se, rather than expecting him to take off that cloak of his to sell, it’d be easier to pawn off the Rainfall sword. And Sikong Qianluo… Lei Wujie glanced at Sikong Qianluo. Sikong Qianluo sensed his gaze, stared back blankly and said, “I have no money. I sneaked out this time.”

Suddenly, Lei Wujie remembered that Sikong Qianluo had arrived just in time and asked, “That’s right. Shijie, why did you sneak out on your own this time?”

“Can’t… can’t I come out for a stroll?” Sikong Qianluo stared back.

“How did you just happen to stroll to Xiao Se’s side?” Lei Wujie asked purposely.

Sikong Qianluo’s spear twitched and Lei Wujie immediately withdrew to hide behind Xiao Se. Xiao Se raised his foot and kicked him over again. “You, Lei, go pawn off your two useless swords now!”

Lei Wujie might as well just sit on the ground and not get up. “If I pawn off these two swords, once we step out of this city, we’ll be chopped dead by those assassins. Even if we escape by some luck, I’d still be chopped dead by shifu and jiejie.”

“It’s just a few buns, right!” Sikong Qianluo raised her spear, all ready to take down the dumpling stall by force.

“Shijie, don’t be rash!” Lei Wujie jumped to his feet and hurriedly pulled back Sikong Qianluo. “I have an idea.”

“What idea?” Sikong Qianluo looked at him with suspicion.

“We can…” Lei Wujie rolled his eyes. “Perform some martial arts and earn money!”

Sikong Qianluo stared at him for a long time and finally, she slowly spit out a breath and bit off each word in reply. “Lei Wujie, you want to die.”

An incense stick later.

The scene was Lei Wujie striking a gong that he’d borrowed from some roadside stall, yelling in a clear voice, “Come see, have a look. The three of us are from Unrivaled City. We’re just passing through and specially prepared this performance of spear arts for everyone. We invite those with money to support with your purse, those without money to support with your cheers!”

Standing behind him, Sikong Qianluo wielded her Silver Moon spear. Her spear’s shaft was like a dragon, her figure like a butterfly, and she displayed a set of spear techniques that flowed like clouds and water. In the end, the small audience which had been drawn in at the start, turned and ran over to the courtyard next door to cheer.

“Such pugilistic wankery, what’s so great!” A person flung his arm and walked away.

“Young miss, with your beauty like a goddess, are you perhaps married, this one is…” There were also a few who dallied behind; they were lechers allured by Sikong Qianluo’s looks.

Lei Wujie hurried to pull Sikong Qianluo back again. Otherwise, who knows which arm or which leg this lecher was going to lose. Xiao Se, who’d been observing coldly from the side, walked up to them, raised his foot and kicked that lecher out.

“Sigh. What’s so interesting in the courtyard next door? Why’s everyone going over there?” Lei Wujie moved closer to take a look, and saw a large man lying on the ground with a boulder half his size sitting on his chest. Another large man held up an incomparably huge hammer and swung it down in one move, breaking that boulder into pieces. The large man lying on the ground stood up, patted his own chest and everyone around clapped their hands.

“This is truly a frightening picture.” Lei Wujie thought pensively.

Sikong Qianluo raised up her spear. Speaking of a frightening picture, it’s not as if she can’t do it too. Xiao Se immediately held out his hand to stop her. “If you do that, you’ll scare off the entire street.”

“What then! I’m hungry!” Sikong Qianluo put down her spear and sat down dejectedly on the side of the road.

The most outstanding of Snow Moon City’s female disciples, Third Citymaster Spear Immortal’s daughter, actually complained of being hungry on her first day of wandering the martial world. The more Sikong Qianluo thought about it, the more angry she got. Xiao Se really had no ideas though. He touched his coat forlornly and thought, “Maybe I could sell this cloud-patterned brocade and buy something cheap to make do with…”

Over there, Lei Wujie seemed to have come up with something. He held up his bag, took out something and began trading it. After a while, he grinned and said, “Deal.” His eyes turned red for a second as he used his Blazing arts, then he used his hand to lightly touch the object in front of him.

The object suddenly flared into flames and flew into the sky. In the night sky, it exploded into a beautiful flower. Immediately afterwards, the flaming flower faded and a little flying star fell, a long tail trailing behind it, looking like a soaring butterfly descending from the sky.

“Beautiful.” Sikong Qianluo looked mesmerised by the sight of sudden fireworks.

Xiao Se glanced at Lei Wujie, and saw that Lei Wujie was grinning ear to ear. He used his hand to light another stick of fireworks. The spark of fireworks fell, its flower petals like rain, almost within reach.

Everyone around them raised their heads, staring at the sudden fireworks. There were children clapping their hands with delight, and there were girls who opened the windows of their rooms exclaiming softly.

Lei Wujie stood up and announced clearly, “Fireworks performance! Fireworks performance! If you have money, support with your purse, without money, support with your cheers.”