Upon arriving to the origin of the sounds, there was already a large crowed formed around, with murmurs of it looked like a huge commotion. As they got closer, sounds of an angry man soon could be heard too.
"You biao zi (婊子, whore/slut) how dare you, have you have no heart ?" the old man shouts. At Yi Rong's and Chi Meng's position, they could only hear what was going on, as the crowd had covered the view. Suddenly the crowd started to shout frantically.
"He's going to hit her !"
"She's doomed for !"
"God help her !"
The screams from the crowd alarmed Yi Rong and Chi Meng even more, Yi Rong tries his best to squeeze through the crowd, trying to get a good view of what's going on, but he constantly just keeps on getting pushed back and squashed. As the gets thrown back once more, he looks at Chi Meng pitifully, "Please help me..." he sobs, Chi Meng hesitates at first, "This is only your first task, and you can't even accomplish the first step." he taunts Yi Rong.
In the midst of chaos, someone from the crowd shouted, "He's going to whack her with his cane, someone help !" For a split second the crowd turned silent, before turning back into a wild circus. Just in that moment, Yi Rong tries again, as he squeezes his way through the crowd with all his might. At last, he finally makes it through and reaches to the front, but before he could stand up, he noticed a familiar pair of shoes... It was Chi Meng, who had long since stopped the man from hitting the maiden.
"What dreadful act had she done to you that you have to hurt her in front of a crowd shamelessly ?" Chi Meng furiously asks the old man while forcefully grabbing onto his wrist, not allowing him to lay a finger onto the maiden. Yi Rong then quickly acts and runs over to help the maiden up. But the crowd doesn't make the situation any better, they started to mock the old man's actions.
"Yeah that's right !"
"This man surely has no sympathy !"
"Should he even be considered human !"
The old man heavily embarrassed tries to release his hand from Chi Meng, but no matter how hard he pulls, he's unable to break free as Chi Meng's grip is too tight.
"Stop embarrassing yourself even more, explain what has this lady done to you." Chi Meng firmly, tightening his grip. The old man whines in pain, "I'll tell you !" he pleads, "Once you let loose of my wrist !" he negotiates.
Chi Meng reluctant at first, afraid that the old man will strike the lady and try to escape, until Yi Rong taps on Chi Meng's shoulder, signalling him to let go, reassuring him with such a big crowd, the old man won't be able to run far. Chi Meng finally lets go of the old man's hand, and strictly instructs the old man to explain the reason of hurting the lady.
"Okay, I'll tell all of you punks what she has done ! Soon, you all will stand by my side !" He boasts while laughing hysterically, "This filthy woman cheated on my son !" The old man screams in anger. "She herself promised herself to my son on his death bed, vowing that she will only be married to him, and will never look in another mans eyes !" He cries as he tries to keep his voice steady without breaking apart. The crowd turns speechless, the silence becomes louder than the cries of the old man.
The young maiden completely humiliatied sees the opportunity as Chi Meng and Yi Rong were busy in investigating the old man, she tries to take a run for it, but thankfully a man from the crowd catches her and pins her down.
" Little girl (小丫头), don't try to run away from your unjustified actions ! First, you leave this man's son and now you're trying to leave from being confronted, how cold-hearted are you !" he rebuked. As the young maiden's eyes start to pour out tears like a waterfall, something triggered Chi Meng, it reminded him of his mother pleading before his father as he used to abuse her...
Right as Chi Meng was about to tell the young man to release the young maiden, an imperial guard shouts, "Lord Wang Zhi Yi (王志义大人) has arrived !" The crowd turns their towards the direction of the imperial crowd, as they all fall towards their knees. But it seems that Chi Meng is the only remaining one standing.
The same young man whispers to Chi Meng, "Young man that guy is one of the gods from the heavenly realm, if you don't cease to bow, you'll be punished !" he warns him, but remains Chi Meng is unfazed. Soon, Lord Wang Zhi Yi arrived right in front of the crowd, as one of the imperial guard taunts Chi Meng, "Little mischief (小坏之), who do you think you are to not fall before the Lord of Harmony and Peace !" he says loudly, followed by insults calling him a brainless fool for not knowing who Lord Wang Zhi Yi was.
However, Chi Meng stood his ground, and was still reluctantly to bow before him, as one of the guards grew furious and had approached him with a spear, threatening him that if he weren't to yield at this very moment, he would be pierced through the chest. In this moment, the young man looks over to Yi Rong, but it seems that Yi Rong didn't care at all about Chi Meng's current situation, the young man thought, 'Is this guy really his friend ?'
Lord Wang Zhi Yi was alarmed by the commotion going on, of the guard taunting Chi Meng and the huge crowd, glanced through the crowd while riding on his Lu Shu (鹿蜀, Chinese mythical creature — White horse head, tiger like body and a long red tail)and immediately recognise Chi Meng's face. He quickly dismounts, and heads toward the crowd.
"What is going on here ?" Lord Wang Zhi Yi asks with a firm voice. As he scans over Chi Meng's appearance, and crosses his arms. "General Heng, please escort this young maiden and gentlemen to my courtroom." He commands, as he takes a step closer, "I suppose this young man is your acquaintance ?" as he glances at Yi Rong's direction.
"Yes, he is." Chi Meng says with a blank face, "Very well then, follow along." Lord Wang Zhi Yi instructs as he strides away and hops back onto his Lu Shu. Chi Meng slightly gestures Yi Rong to move before he too hops onto one of the horse Lord Wang Zhi Yi had prepared for him. Yi Rong immediately springs up and quickly finds a horse, but to no avail.
"I sincerely apologise, I was only informed that... only one of you were down here, I hope the both of you won't mind sharing a horse." Lord Wang Zhi Yi says before taking off. Chi Meng stares down at Yi Rong, with an unsure reaction, he slightly opens his mouth, wanting to say something. But before he could, a big dark horse, almost the same colour as obsidian, who also appears to already wearing a saddle and a bridle, comes charging in like a lunatic, before stoping in front of Yi Rong. This makes passersby to stare at them even more !
"Don't worry, this was a horse I used to own back then." Yi Rong sneers, hops onto his horse and takes off, Chi Meng too takes off immediately, as he tries to keep up with the both of them. Soon, they seem to arrive Lord Wang Zhi Yi's residence. As the walk in, Yi Rong scans through extravagant designs of the walls, portraying the diagram of a Lu Shu across 9 wall panels, which was covered in gold lining. It seems that this art piece alone would cost more than a village ! As they walk further down, they've finally arrived at Lord Wang Zhi Yi's tea courthouse.
" Tai Zi Dian Xia (太子殿下, your highness), it has been a while since we've met one another. I've been informed you've just only descended yesterday... I suppose this young man is the one you're supervising ?" said Lord Wang Zhi Yi, while looking at Yi Rong.
"Yes, he is..." Chi Meng says, he seems nervous, Yi Rong notices and wonders why, why would the prince of Tian Tang be afraid of a Lord ?
"I heard this young man is one of a kind, over 500 years of imprisonment is quite absurd. I've only met 2 people that have gone this overboard..." Lord Wang Zhi Yi chuckles while sipping on a cup of tea. Hearing this, Yi Rong gets slightly red, Chi Meng couldn't contain himself but let out a small laugh, before immediately covering his mouth with one of his palms.
Chi Meng clears his throat, and gets serious again. "Lord Wang Zhi Yi, why have you decided to descend ? Looking at your palace, it seems like you've settled down in Zhou Yü City for quite some time. If so, you don't mind me asking, with such a intelligent man like you, how is Zhou Yü City still soo much in debt ?" Chi Meng asks with a confused look.
At first Lord Wang Zhi Yi gave a solemn look on his face, as if Chi Meng triggered something in him. Chi Meng took a step back, as Yi Rong prepared himself for the worst. Chi Meng was about to open his mouth to apologise to Lord Wang Zhi Yi, before Lord Wang Zhi Yi had burst into laughter.
Yi Rong and Chi Meng immediately looked at on another, had Lord Wang Zhi Yi gotten mad. Lord Wang Zhi Yi then brought himself back together and answered Chi Meng's question.
"Well, Zhou Yü people are very odd. Around 2 thousand years ago, I've been sent down here to help them as they were suffering from a famine, while travelling around wondering how could Zhou Yü City fall so much within the past few years, as before the famine they were the most successful city in this area, they were the top place for food, clothing, vacation and more. They were the main tourist attraction. After exploring for a while, I've collected information for the elders, turned out due to them being soo successful, the people in Zhou Yü City became selfish, greedy and spoiled, which made them starting to be ungrateful. With any sight of poor people, Zhou Yü people would stomp on them and curse them, chasing them away as they thought they would've bring their successful city bad feng shui (风水, harmony and balance with the natural world, focusing on the flow of life energy) Therefore, Wen Xun Ya (文循雅) Zhen Jun (真君) had decided to punish them..."
"Wen Xun Ya... as in Wen Xun Ya Zhen Jun the Goddess of Love ? " Chi Meng says "Yes, her." Lord Wang Zhi Yi confirms. "She punished them with eternal poverty with a famine, until Lord Wen Nian He (杨念禾), the previous God of Harmony and Peace, felt pity for them. At that time, he was my guoshi, he decided to send me down for training, if I could bring Zhou Yü City back into a stable condition then he would've step down and allow me to take his place. However, Zhou Yü City was odd, no matter how much I've tried to plan out, they would always chase me away or reject me. Halfway through this journey, my guoshi had passed away, as my guoshi had recently visited gotten an illness from Sheng An City (盛安), during that time, news spreaded around Sheng An City that an unknown disease had been introduced, unfortunately it had spread across the entire town like a wildfire within weeks. My guoshi was then sent down to patrol at Sheng An City, to find out what the disease was, after all, the immune system for us gods are way stronger than an average human's. But, to our dismay, the disease was so strong that it too had infected my guoshi. Since it was so dangerous, your father, the Heavenly Emperor had made the hard decision to burn down the entire city, as it was a hazard. My guoshi took the honours to be tide up onto a wooden plank, and to be one being set ablaze. After that, Lord Xin She Yan (辛赦言), the God of Equality, who at that time was my guoshi's closest friend, took the responsibility to descend down and report the news to me. It was heartbreaking, and I was in a very dark moment in that time, it was announced to me right in the middle of the night. I was really melancholy, and decided to take a stroll around the city, which made me even more depressed, everything was going wrong, nothin was working, my guoshi passed, the people hate me, and now I've become an official god, somehow I will have to fix the city before my coronation, which was going to happen in a month." Wang Zhi Yi says in a sorrowful tone, trying to not break down. "However, out of the blue, an elder suddenly sat beside me, and he told me..."
~ F L A S H B A C K ~
"Young man, don't bother wasting your energy on us anymore, you're just stressing yourself out for no change at all." said the old man, as Wang Zhi Yi gave a puzzled look. The old man chuckles, "If you wanted to change our city, you should've came right when we hit poverty."
"What do you mean ?" Wang Zhi Yi asked.
"When the famine hit us, we suffered a lot, many people started to die, and our city was crumpling. Halfway through, many couldn't handle it anymore, they tried to depart from the city, but mysteriously whoever left the city would die after a few days. So our previous leader, decided to make a change. He gathered everyone who was left in the city and announced them to change their ways. He first ordered us to bring all gold junks that we were idolising, and to only keep was was need. Once he gathered all of it, he set part to various cities, hoping to trade for daily needs. But it wasn't easy for him, as our city already had a bad reputation, therefore many cities were reluctant to interact with us. Many people even started to doubt him, they started to bad mouth him, thinking he stole their gold to runaway for a better life. After 2 months, he finally returned, with carts full of various kinds of vegetables, grains, spices and more. Before handling out, he made sure everyone vowed to not accept more that these, to avoid going back into their old spoiled days. Although, everyone screams and wails at the sight of shimmering gold, they always end up rejecting it. Many youngsters do crowd a god when they descends, hoping they will give out gold, but in the end of the day, they'll build a small shrine for that god to return all gold that they've taken." says The old man, while patting Wang Zhi Yi's back, trying to make him feel better.
"I never once doubted our leader, as he was my best friend, or even more... a family to me. He died young, as he was our last offering to the gods, he killed himself in front of everyone, as a form of surrender. An offering to the god that punished us that we will stop our ways, and a memory for us to remember to never go back to our old ways... Young man, we are more than glad to accept you here, but no matter how hard you try, no one will take your gold and expenses, as we're afraid of our old days, just like you we are opting for a change."
Wang Zhi Yi's eyes started to pour like a heavy rain, as he quickly covers his face with his cold palms, feeling embarrassed. But no matter how hard he tries, he couldn't stop crying, he didn't know why he was crying. The old man continued to sit beside him for the whole night. When Wang Zhi Yi woke up, his whole back ached as he slept on the bench, as he sat up, and cleared his vision, he saw that a whole crowed of young children were swarmed up around him, staring at him like he was a weird creature, as Wang Zhi Yi tried to stand up, all of the children ran away screaming. He thought to himself, 'Am I that hideous that I scared them away ?' But as he looked around, he realised that the old man was already gone...