Volume 1: Kyoto Wind and Cloud Chapter 42: Re-encountering Zhang Fei at the Millstone

  It was easy to save Zhao Lei and his sister, but Xia Houlan had left. However, Xia Houlan's departure only brought a faint sense of longing to Liu Zhang, without any other impact. Because Liu Zhang could see that although Xia Houlan's selfishness was hidden, it still existed. On the road ahead, there would definitely be many temptations, and with Xia Houlan's nature, he might not be able to resist those temptations. These brothers were all trusted by Liu Zhang, if Xia Houlan had stayed, Liu Zhang wouldn't have known how to treat him. Treating him well would have been a waste, treating him poorly would have led to betrayal, it was really a dilemma. Now that Xia Houlan had left, it actually freed Liu Zhang from worry.

  Zhao Lei was probably resisting fiercely when the bandits invaded, and by the time Liu Zhang found him, he was on his last breath. Zhao Yun's younger sister, Zhao Yu, who was only eight years old, had been taking care of Zhao Lei like a little adult until she saw Zhao Yun, at which point she burst into tears. Not to mention how heart-wrenching it was for Zhao Yun to see this, even Liu Zhang's heart felt as if it had been cut by several knives. However, Liu Zhang did not make things difficult for Zhang Jiao because of this matter. After finding the villagers from Zhaojia Village, Liu Zhang let Zhang Jiao leave and ordered Huangfu Song to return the 1,000 troops to the governor of Changshan Commandery, and also asked the Governor of Ji Province to lift the restrictions on the Yellow Turbans.

  With Zhao Lei severely injured, Liu Bei decided to head to Zhuo County. Zhang Fei was living there, and it would be better for Zhao Lei to recover from his injuries first; otherwise, he wouldn't make it to Ji County, and Zhao Lei would have to die. To be honest, Zhao Lei was able to make it to Zhang Fei's place only because Zhang Jue wanted to curry favor with Liu Bei. If not for Zhang Jue's intervention, Zhao Lei probably wouldn't have made it out of Julu County alive. This made Liu Bei feel sorry, and he thought that if Zhang Jue had focused on medicine instead of rebellion, he might have become as famous as Hua Tuo or Zhang Zhongjing.

  Nanyang County, in front of Zhang Fei's house. Liu Zhong looked at the gate of the mansion, which was no different from five years ago: "Huang Xu, go and call out."

  "Yes!" Huang Xu walked to the front of the door and gently knocked on the door ring.

  An old man opened the door and asked: "What's your business?"

  Huang Xuxing asked: "Old man, is your master at home?"

  "Not here!" The old man said: "He went to the market to sell meat! If you want to find him, you can go to the market and take a look."

  "Oh!" Huang Xu asked again: "Is your young master at home?"

  The old man looked at Huang Xue and said: "Who are you looking for? There is no young master in our house!"

  Huang Xu was shocked and immediately walked to Liu Zhang's side, saying: "Young master, he said that this family has no young master, and the old master went out to sell meat on the street!"

  "What?" Liu Zhang exclaimed in surprise: "Could something have happened to Zhang Fei? Let's go to the market and ask Zhang Xiong."

  Liu Zhang and his group went to the market, but when they arrived at the market, they found that there was not even half a piece of pork on the pork stall. Liu Zhang was very surprised and immediately asked Huang Xu to go and ask someone.

  Huang Xu saw a tea house opposite the pork butcher's shop, and an old man was sitting inside. He hurried over to ask: "Old sir, I have a question for you! Is that indeed Zhang Butcher's pork shop across the street?"

  "Exactly!" The old man laughed and said: "Young fellow, you're not a local, are you?"

  "Huh!" Huang Xu exclaimed: "Old man's sharp eyes!"

  "It's not that I have a keen eye, but it's just that the locals all know that Zhang Tufu's meat is hard to buy!" The old man laughed and said: "But coincidentally, Zhang Tufu is the most famous pig butcher in Zhuo County, so only outsiders who are new to the place would go looking for Zhang Tufu to buy meat!"

  Huang Xu asked in great puzzlement: "May I ask, old fellow, why is it so hard to buy meat from Butcher Zhang?"

  "In the past, buying meat from Butcher Zhang was easy as long as you had money. Nowadays, buying meat from Butcher Zhang requires skill!" The old man chuckled and said: "Have you seen the well next to the pork stall? Under the millstone at the mouth of the well is half a pig's worth of meat, just waiting for someone to move the stone. If you can move it, take as much meat as you want from the well, free of charge! But if you can't move it, not even a thousand pieces of gold will get you any!"

  "Thank you, old fellow!" Huang Xu immediately reported to Liu Zhang after hearing this. Liu Zhang thought to himself: "Isn't this something that Zhang Fei would do? Could it be that Zhang Yun has gotten into trouble?"

  He walked to the edge of the well and carefully measured the weight of the millstone, estimating it to be around 300-400 catties. With Zhao Yun's strength, he could definitely move it, but Liu Zhang wanted to try his own strength, so he stepped forward with a horse stance, grasped both sides of the millstone with his hands, and slowly exerted force from his dan tian, amazingly lifting the 300-400 catty millstone.

  Unfortunately, Liu Zhang didn't have the divine strength of Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, and his power was much weaker than Zhao Yun's. He moved the millstone away and threw it to one side, really not having the ability to hold the millstone and spin it a few times. Like this, Liu Zhang was very satisfied. It must be known that historically, Liu Zhang was a useless person, but now he could lift a 300-400 jin millstone, which was already a considerable achievement. Besides, martial arts weren't just about strength!

  After moving the millstone, Liu Zhang originally wanted to learn from Guan Yu and distribute the pork to the civilians. However, he suddenly saw a man with a face like a jade crown and lips like painted rouge not far away, this person's most distinctive feature was that his ears were bigger than ordinary people.

  "Liu Bei!" Liu Zhang's eyes flashed with a cold light, this man was his arch-nemesis. Liu Bei seemed to sense the murderous intent in Liu Zhang's eyes and involuntarily lowered his head, his hands trembling slightly as they were hidden in his sleeves, as if on guard.

  "Who! Who moved my millstone!" Under the leadership of a servant in Zhang's family, Zhang Fei strode over with big steps, his eyes still flashing with fierce battle fire.

  The soldier pointed at Liu Zhang and said: "It was he who moved the millstone!"

  "Is it him?" Liu Zhang was a bit taller and sturdier than the average person, but compared to Zhang Fei, except for their similar height, he fell far short in other aspects. Zhang Fei looked Liu Zhang up and down and said: "Can this pretty boy move a millstone of three or four hundred catties? Didn't several of them lift it together?"

  "It really is him!" The servant's mouth twitched twice. To be honest, if not for Zhang Fei's robust build, he would be more suitable to be described as a pretty boy.

  "Huh? Why do I feel like I've seen you somewhere before?" Five years had passed, and Liu Zhang's appearance had undergone significant changes. His daily martial arts practice had also allowed him to grasp the essence of Tai Chi, and even his temperament had changed from being overbearing to becoming more elegant and agile, giving off a somewhat ethereal and refined aura. Zhang Fei thought for a moment before saying, "Forget it! Since you can move the millstone, your strength should be decent. Let's have a match!"

  As soon as Zhang Fei spoke, the people around him were in an uproar. Liu Zhong felt a scorching gaze on himself and Zhang Fei, but when he turned his head to look, he didn't see anyone, only Liu Bei with his head lowered. Liu Zhong did not want to reveal his true strength in front of Liu Bei, so he smiled and said: "Zhang Fei, it seems that you still haven't been thrown around enough by your brother!"

  "Huh?!" Zhang Fei said in surprise: "I thought you looked familiar, but I couldn't remember where I saw you before!"

  Liu Zhang smiled and said, "Do you still remember Tai Chi Fist? In the past, we agreed that whoever won would be called brother. How is it that now when you see your brother, you pretend not to recognize him?"

  "Ah! Brother Liu!" Zhang Fei laughed and said: "It's been four or five years since we last met, how have you been? Since you've come to Zhuo County, why didn't you come to your brother's house, but instead came to this market?"

  "It's not like I came looking for you!" Liu Zhang smiled and said: "Just now, when I went to your house, the doorman told me that there was no young master at home. I thought something had happened to you, so I wanted to come to the market to ask Uncle Zhang Xiong about it. Unexpectedly, you set up a stage here. For a moment, my hands were itching, so I tried out my strength. Not bad, didn't lose face! By the way, where is Uncle Zhang Xiong?"

  Zhang Fei sighed and said: "There really isn't a young master in the Zhang family anymore. I'm now the old master of the Zhang family, my dad is gone!"

  "What?" Liu Zhang exclaimed in shock: "How did Uncle Zhang leave? Could it be that there is still someone who doesn't see clearly? You tell me, I'll go and eliminate him!"

  "Thank you, brother!" Zhang Fei said with a sorrowful face: "In the third year after your departure, my father unfortunately fell ill. All the famous doctors in Zhuo County were helpless. He struggled for two months before he passed away!"

  "Alas!" Liu Zhang sighed and said: "Heaven is jealous of heroes, you don't have to be too sad!"

  "Thank you, brother! Ah!" Zhang Fei shouted loudly: "Quickly invite him in! Brother Liu is our family's honored guest, how can he chat on the street? Come! Go to my place and have a few drinks with me."

  Liu Zhang burst out laughing and said: "This time I'm just here to bother you."

  "Hey! My elder brother is a noble guest whom I've invited in vain, how can you say he's bothering us!" Zhang Fei suddenly saw the few people following behind Liu Zhang and immediately asked: "Elder brother, who are these brothers..."

  "They are all my sworn brothers!" Liu Zhang pointed at Zhao Yun and Zhang Ren, laughing: "Shi Ah, Huang Xiu, you've both met them! This one is my elder brother Zhang Ren, that one is my younger brother, Zhao Yun, also known as Zilong!"

  "Brother, I also have a courtesy name! My master gave me the courtesy name Yide before he passed away. Zhang Fei, Zhang Yide!" Zhang Fei suddenly said with great disappointment: "Unfortunately, neither Master nor Father got to see me take my coming-of-age ceremony!"

  Liu Zhang patted Zhang Fei's shoulder and said, "Don't worry! As long as you can make a name for yourself, you will naturally be able to comfort the spirits of the two elderly people in heaven. They will be watching over you from above!"

  Zhang Fei and Liu Zhang chatted as they walked towards home. Upon returning to the Zhang residence, Zhang Fei only then discovered that there was another wounded man on Liu's carriage, so he hastily sent someone to invite a doctor to thoroughly examine and treat Zhao Lei. With the added benefit of being from a butcher family, under dual treatment of food and medicine, Zhao Lei's injuries began recovering at an almost miraculous speed. Zhao Yun naturally thanked Zhang Fei profusely, but Zhang Fei simply waved his hand saying: "Liu family brother's brothers are my brothers too, it's all just what should be done!"

  After staying for over ten days, Zhao Lei's wound was almost healed. Liu Zhang summoned Zhang Fei and asked: "Yide, what are your plans from now on?"

  "Ah..." Zhang Fei looked at Liu Zhong and said: "Brother, I'm a simple man, just speak your mind!"

  "You're not stupid, you're clever!" Liu Zhang smiled and said: "Your father should have told you about my identity, shouldn't he?"

  Zhang Fei nodded silently and Liu Zhang asked again: "Are you interested in going with me to do something?"

  "Besides... " Zhang Fei suddenly sighed and said: "Big brother, now that the imperial court is stable, except for the occasional invasion of Wuhuan and Xiongnu, what other great deeds can be done?"

  Liu Zhang smiled and said, "Isn't the Wuhuan our business? We defeat them so they don't dare to invade our borders, then recruit their cavalry for my use. After that, I'll help restore the Han dynasty and save the world. You should know, I'm a relative of the imperial family!"