Otherworldly Merchant

After hearing that, my heart sank. Gritting my teeth, I ran toward Liu Dali’s house. 

When I came to his door, I didn’t hear the dog barking.

Soon, I found the dog lying dead inside the courtyard. Its body was curled into a ball. I even saw a streak of blood on the corner of its snout.

I had a really bad feeling. I hurried into the house and saw Liu Dali lying unconscious on the ground. 

It was an emergency, so I didn’t have time to consider a lot. I directly scooped a bowl of water from the water tank and splashed it on his head. 

Liu Dali shivered and opened his eyes. “What happened to me?” 

“What happened after I left?” I asked. 

“Nothing. Where’s your friend?” Liu Dai didn’t care about the water on his face. He looked a little flustered as he looked behind me. 

I was surprised. “Didn’t you just call me?” 

“No, I just went to my room and felt a little tired. I sat on the couch and rested until now.” He shook his head, his face perplexed. 

“Damn it! We’ve been tricked.” I cursed under my breath and felt like a dummy running back and forth. I needed to go back! If that thing had tricked me into leaving the village entrance, it would mean that Li Mazi was there just recently! 

I rushed out again. On my way, I checked the donkey cart in the yard. The donkey looked dead as it lay on the ground, and the cart was next to it. Subconsciously, I ran toward the cart to check if the tofu was still there. I found nothing. All the tofu was gone. There wasn’t even a speck of flour. 

“Is that thing already here?” Liu Dali appeared behind me. Seeing the scene, his legs turned into jelly. He slumped onto the ground, his eyes looking spiritless. 

His words reminded me that the dogs in the village weren’t barking or howling anymore. 

I pulled him up. “It seems something ate the tofu and left. I don’t think it will show up again tonight. Uncle Liu, you should go back to your room to rest.” 

After that, I headed to the village entrance.

I felt bitter. The opponent had inaudibly captured Li Mazi and eaten all the tofu right under our watch. It had even tricked me into running back and forth. Sadly, I hadn’t gained any clues. 

While I was racking my brain to find a solution to rescue Li Mazi, he called me. I thought that Li Mazi was being manipulated, so I said coldly, “Who are you? What do you want?” 

“Little Brother Zhang, I’m Li Mazi. Where are you?” Li Mazi’s voice went through the phone.

His voice sounded real. “Brother, are you okay?” 

“I’m okay. I’m standing by the stone column at the village entrance. Come get me.” 

After I hung up the call, I dashed to the village entrance. Indeed, Li Mazi was standing by a stone column, holding the Holy Mother Scepter. When he saw me, he smiled. “Little Brother Zhang, I’m rich now!” 

“Stop spouting nonsense. Tell me, where did you go just now?” 

I heaved a sigh of relief as Li Mazi was still joking with me. I really cared about this man. 

Li Mazi didn’t talk. He produced an immaculate white jade from his pocket and gave it to me. “Hey, can you tell me how old this jade is?” 

The jade was square, and it felt warm in the palm. The main side was perfectly polished, while the other side had many small holes that looked like the cells on a honeycomb. 

I frowned and said, “It’s a good jade. Good to wear. From the color and texture, I’m guessing it’s from the Qin-Han era. It’s a little bad that it has holes on the other side. Otherwise, it would be worth a lot of money.” 

“Well done, Little Brother Zhang!” 

Li Mazi gave me a thumbs-up. Then, he kept fiddling with that jade, making me look at one side of the jade and then the other side. After a while, he asked, “What do you think it looks like?” 

“A block of tofu!” 

I answered instinctively since the cell-like holes on the other side looked like the bubbles in the tofu. Something suddenly flashed in my head. I felt incredulous. “Is it…” 

“You’ve got it!” Li Mazi interrupted me, then excitedly explained to me. 

It turned out that when he entered the village, the sky was already dark. He wanted to call me. Then, he saw a man wearing brocade clothes coming at him, asking him where he wanted to go. Since Li Mazi knew that I was in the Village Elder’s house, he asked the old man how to get to the Village Elder’s house, so he didn’t call me. The old man offered to show him the way. Li Mazi followed him without hesitation. The old man had walked for a long time, and the surroundings didn’t have any houses anymore. Li Mazi recognized that the situation was wrong. Gritting his teeth, he was ready to use the Holy Mother Scepter to attack the old man. 

“Kid, don’t be scared. I just want to tell you a story.” 

The man wearing brocade clothes gently raised his palm, and the Holy Mother Scepter automatically left Li Mazi’s hand. Li Mazi knew he wasn’t the old man’s equal opponent. Moreover, the old man didn’t want to hurt him. He decided to listen to what the old man wanted to tell him. 

The old man said that he had lived during the Han dynasty, which was two thousand years ago. He was Prince Li of Huainan, but he wasn’t interested in being a prince. He liked to make delicious foods. One day, while he was trying to cook something new with soybeans, he discovered that if he put a pinch of gypsum into soybean, he could create soft, white tofu. He was the one who invented tofu in China. 

The emperor wanted to compliment his invention, so he ordered people to make a jade that looked like tofu to reward him. Prince Li always wore the jade and never left it for even a day. However, his good days didn’t last long. The imperial court issued an order to cut the vassal and divided his governed land. Although he wasn’t interested in politics, he had become a sacrifice in the political war. He died with a grudge for a crime of treason he didn’t commit. 

“Liu An... He’s actually Prince Li of Huainan!” 

I was so excited that my body shivered. Prince Li of Huainan’s greatest achievement was his invention of tofu. It had become what he wanted to follow and develop for the rest of his life. It wasn’t hard to explain why he would appear when the tofu guy came to the village to sell tofu. And, to explain why the dogs barked, I thought they could sense the imperial blood from Liu An. They barked because they were scared. 

However, I was curious why Liu An had shown up these days, and why he wanted to give Li Mazi his tofu jade. I gestured to Li Mazi to continue talking. 

“I don’t know the reason. He told me the story then gave me the jade. Before he left, he said, ‘Wealth and pride, everything is predestined. When you die, you will have to reincarnate.’” 

I repeated what Liu An told Li Mazi in my mind. Suddenly, I felt warm inside. He meant that wealth and pride weren’t important. When people died, they couldn’t bring anything with them. 

He had vanished and was willing to let go of everything, including his glory. I thought that he wouldn’t come again. If we had brought him tofu earlier, this incident wouldn’t have happened at all.  

I recalled a line from a poem by Li Bai: When things are done, I take my merit and fame with me. 

Liu An had done that. He had slept for more than one thousand years underground. His mood wasn’t affected by the world outside. I admired and respected him! 

After a long time, I pulled myself together and asked, “Do you remember where he took you?” contemporary romance

Li Mazi thought for a while, then nodded. However, I interrupted him before he finished. “It’s all right. No need to tell me. Let him rest. We shouldn’t disturb him.” 

I wanted to go and see his spirit to compliment him. However, after thinking about it again, the best respect we could give him was to not disturb him. 

In this life, no matter how hard people competed for fame and wealth, no one would think that Prince Li of Huainan, the prince who had invented tofu, was buried in a remote corner of this small village. 

He had stayed here as though it was the Pureland, watching and laughing at this competitive mortal world. 

done.co