Chapter 373: 281. Dragon Fish and Dragon Lake_2
The old man chuckled heartily, “I’ve spent my lifeti working for the Li family, what’s wrong with speaking a couple of words about the Lao Lee household?”
Qing Chen frowned; he glanced over at a certain eave corner in the distance, and the Heartless Bronze Bell hanging beneath it with a red string, labeled as the forbidden object ACE-020.
“What, afraid that badmouthing the Li family will make that bronze bell ring?” the old man laughed, “That thing is a fake!”
“Ah?” Qing Chen was bewildered, “There are so many bronze bells hanging in the manor, they’re all fake? That can’t be!”
“Why not?” the old man shook his head and said, “In this world, truth and falsehoods, reality and illusion are intermingled—even the blood ties and affection between brothers could be false, let alone a forbidden object?”
“I don’t believe it,” Qing Chen shook his head.
...
“Hey, you don’t even believe what I say,” the old man’s eyes widened, “Let tell you, there’s only one true pair of Heartless Bronze Bells, so only the two hanging on the east side of Bao Pu Tower are real. After the Li family was given the Heartless Bronze Bells by the knights, the Master of the Li Family complained that it was too few, saying his manor was so big, how could two bronze bells be enough? That led to a dispute with the knights.”
Qing Chen was perplexed; what kind of bewildering behavior was this from the Master of the Li Family? To think soone would feel shortchanged receiving a taboo object…
Oh, he then reconsidered the situation; indeed, no one would consider having too many of such taboo objects.
The old man continued, “The knights said, ‘Damn it, there are only two Heartless Bronze Bells, take it or leave it.’ In the end, unable to dissuade the Master of the Li Family, they ca up with a suggestion: the outside world doesn’t know how many Heartless Bronze Bells there truly are; you could forge a few hundred more, and we knights will also say there are several hundreds, at least it could deter the villains.”
Qing Chen was speechless; that did sound like sothing the knights would do.
Previously, walking through the manor, he had been worried that he might accidentally do sothing to cause all the Heartless Bronze Bells to ring out together.
And they were all fake!
But as the old man told these secrets, it was as if he had been present when the Li family was bestowed with the Heartless Bronze Bells. Who was this old man then?
“Who are you, and why do you know these secrets? Moreover, why are you telling such confidential matters?” Qing Chen asked indifferently while removing a big and plump fish from the hook, “Is it that you have so sche in mind?”
The old man raised his eyebrow, “What ill intentions could I, an honest old man who’s just fishing, possibly have?”
“Fine,” Qing Chen replied nonchalantly, “I’ve caught the fish for you. Now, I will take my leave. Whatever you’ve told , I’ll act as if I never heard it.”
“Eh, you want to walk away clean after hearing the story?” The old man laughed, “Don’t you want to know why the knights gave the Master of the Li Family a Heartless Bronze Bell?”
Qing Chen thought for a mont, “Because the current Knight Leader, Uncle Li Dong, is from the Lee household? That’s not much of a secret; I knew that even without you saying it.”
“Nonsense,” the old man said, “Uncle Li Dong beca a knight when these Heartless Bronze Bells had already been here for over twenty years!”
“Oh?” Qing Chen’s interest was piqued.
“The Li family has been on good terms with the knights for generations because an ancestor of the Li family, who was also a knight nad Li Yingyun,” the old man, seeing that Qing Chen was unaware of this secret, imdiately felt gossipy excitent.
Li Yingyun, this was a na Qing Chen had seen on the sheer cliffs of Green Mountain.
He continued as if sharing town gossip with Qing Chen, “You don’t know this, but Li Yingyun himself wasn’t gifted in comrce, but his son was a business prodigy. Back then, the Northwest wasn’t cut off by the Taboo Land, and that prodigy of the Li family expanded their business bit by bit by traversing the Northwest and the Central Plains. Thus, the Li family has deep roots with the knights.”
All of a sudden, Qing Chen felt that the old man had told him so much today and only now was getting to the point: intentionally or not, he was conveying that the Li family had a good relationship with the knights.
This made Qing Chen cautious; could it be that the old man knew his identity?!
But who exactly was this old man?
“I’m off then, you enjoy your fishing,” Qing Chen turned and walked away.
But the old man grabbed his arm, “Take this Dragon Fish with you; it’s delicious when braised in soy sauce for dinner.”
Qing Chen was puzzled, “You caught it yourself, you’re not going to eat it?”
“The joy of fishing is in the mont the fish bites the hook, not in the eating,” the old man laughed heartily, “Take it. Oh, and if you want to hear more gossip, co find here in the afternoon. I know many secrets that can last a young man a lifeti.”
Qing Chen glanced at the monitor in the man’s hand and thought to himself that his high-tech fishing must have taken all the real pleasure out of it.
He hesitated for a mont, but ultimately accepted the Dragon Fish from the old man’s hands, “Thank you. Until next ti, if fate allows it.”
On his way back, he pondered the old man’s identity.
Firstly, there were two clues; one, the old man knew many of the Li family’s secrets, including the Heartless Bronze Bells.
Second, the old man did not seem to hold much respect when ntioning the Li family.
Initially, Qing Chen thought the old man might be the head of the Li family, but then he reconsidered; wasn’t the current head of the Li family frequently in critical health conditions? It couldn’t be him.
So, the old man could be the brother or the brother-in-law of the head of the Li family, confined to the manor after failing to seize the title of family head.
And because of harboring resentnt towards the Li family, he was divulging important secrets to an outsider; perhaps he wanted to use Qing Chen as a mouthpiece to debunk the rumors surrounding the Heartless Bronze Bells, to diminish the fear of this taboo object in the eyes of the world?
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