Chapter 7.7 – Wedding Crashers

The two of them were running for their lives as they passed through the various streets and alleys of Potluck Capital. Fortunately, Zhang Qianjun Wanma was quite familiar with the roads.

They rushed through tea houses, dye houses, and other people’s homes until they ran across a stone bridge. The people who were chasing them suddenly stopped, but the two of them didn’t dare slow down. They kept squeezing through the crowd until they found themselves at a place where animals were slaughtered. There was nothing on the other side of the bridge, but there were a lot of slaughterhouses on this side of the riverbank.

There were all kinds of skinned animals hanging on the porches by the river. The smell of flesh and blood permeated the air as the blood flowed directly into the water under the bridge. The dirty water full of grease and internal organs was quickly swept away.

“It seems taboo for people in the wedding procession to be here, so nobody chased us here.” Little Brother Zhang stopped in front of a meat stall and looked at the people standing on the other side of the bridge in the distance. Those people were still looking at them.

“What about your mom?” Zhang Qianjun Wanma suddenly remembered Zhang Haiqi.

Little Brother Zhang looked at the meat stalls around him, feeling a little uneasy. Why did those people stop chasing them?

He saw people coming and going on the bridge, and the stalls here were open for business. It didn’t seem like a forbidden place. “She definitely got out of there quicker than us,” he said before grabbing Zhang Qianjun Wanma’s hand. “Do you know why they won’t dare come over here?”

“This side of the bridge is called Balianjie. The dignitaries on both sides don’t get along well and it’s inappropriate for a group of people to come here with blades drawn. But they’ll soon notify the dignitaries of Baliangjie, so we have to leave as soon as possible.” Zhang Qianjun Wanma pointed to the front. “The river is flowing in this direction today. Wuliangjie is just downstream. It’s where all the poor people live. They put out their nets to catch the animal organs in the river so they can eat them. The river often changes direction, so the people there run around a lot and there aren’t any dignitaries to keep them in line.”

In the end, the two of them followed the river and soon passed a not-so-prosperous bridge. Numerous old stilt houses began to appear and the simple lights weren’t as gorgeous as those in Potluck Capital.

What looked like hundreds of horizontal nets were fixed to various tree branches in the river. People with wooden barrels and oil lamps were also scattered across the river.

The two found a cooking stall by the water that had all kinds of food stewing in a big pot.

When they sat down, Zhang Qianjun Wanma immediately slapped the table, “What exactly is going on?”

Little Brother Zhang looked around and took a deep breath. “You’re also from the Zhang family. What have you heard about the patriarch?”

Zhang Qianjun Wanma looked at Little Brother Zhang’s expression, “This is a mess of your own making. What does it have to do with the patriarch?”

“That woman only stopped her horse after she saw my tattoo. She wanted me to save her. My tattoo isn’t ordinary, but she recognized its position at a glance and asked us for help. She seemed to know who we are,” Little Brother Zhang said. “This is our first time here, so if she knows about the tattoos, she must have learned about them from the patriarch. If the patriarch told others about his tattoo, it means that he has a special relationship with them. Otherwise, it means he told her about it after she saw it. If so, their relationship is even more extraordinary. How can his tattoo be seen by ordinary people? It must be—” Little Brother Zhang made a gesture, “—when they were making love. But—I heard that the patriarch is the type of person who doesn’t have many desires. He isn’t interested in falling in love and he doesn’t even eat much food. He has a perverse temperament, so I can’t believe he would talk to others about his tattoo after living in seclusion in southern Xinjiang. In this prosperous place, a girl has finally entered his heart. And she’s extremely gorgeous, too. The patriarch is truly a wild man if he got together with such a wonderful girl.”

Zhang Qianjun Wanma took a deep breath. He didn’t even know how to begin responding to all that.

Little Brother Zhang continued, “What’s even more outrageous is that this girl is asking us for help right as she’s getting married. That means she isn’t marrying the patriarch. Maybe her family doesn’t like him.”

Zhang Qianjun Wanma suddenly seemed thoughtful, as if he had remembered something. He had a distant look in his eyes as he murmured, “It turns out that the patriarch is just like me.”

“What was that?” Little Brother Zhang asked.

Zhang Qianjun Wanma immediately shook his head, “Nothing. I just feel that the patriarch must feel really sad.”

Little Brother Zhang suddenly stood up, took off the silver ornaments, and said to Zhang Qianjun Wanma, “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“To crash a wedding. This girl must have clues about the patriarch. And since she’s the patriarch’s woman, we have to save her first,” Little Brother Zhang said.

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