Tough Guy Sheds Tears

Watching Gu Yuxiao leave, Lin Xiao did not immediately go up the mountain, but instead took out Qin Jianghe's letter again.

Actually, the letter contained more than just the previous contents; it also introduced the background of this girl named Gu Yuxiao.

This Miss Gu was the daughter of Escort Leader Gu from the Luo Family Escort Agency, where Qin Jianghe had first stayed when he arrived in the neighboring Anfeng County.

Escort Leader Gu was one of the three top escorts at the Luo Family Escort Agency. He took great care of Qin Jianghe when he first arrived, and whenever Qin Jianghe accompanied him on escort missions, he offered much guidance. Thus, after spending some time together, the two became quite familiar with each other.

Escort Leader Gu's wife had passed away from illness a few years ago. Over the years, they only had one daughter, Gu Yuxiao. Since his wife's passing, even though matchmakers had nearly trampled their threshold, he had no intention of remarrying, so Gu Yuxiao remained his only apple of the eye.

However, unforeseen storms always arise. Escort Leader Gu encountered mountain bandits during an escort mission and lost his life in the ensuing struggle. He had been an orphan since childhood, and his skills were all accumulated from surviving on the streets. His wife's family situation was also quite complicated. In short, it was impossible for his wife's maiden family to take Gu Yuxiao in. Thus, Gu Yuxiao went from being the precious daughter of an escort leader to a helpless orphan girl.

When Escort Leader Gu's body was brought back by the companions who luckily survived, Gu Yuxiao came to claim her father's body and take him home to arrange the funeral.

Along with Escort Leader Gu's body came his dying words.

The companion who brought the body back relayed a message to Qin Jianghe, saying that before Escort Leader Gu died, he hoped Qin Jianghe could help take care of his only daughter.

In reality, though he said "take care of," everyone in the escort agency knew what it truly meant.

It was simply that Escort Leader Gu worried about his daughter's future and, seeing that Qin Jianghe was a decent young man, wanted to entrust his daughter to him.

After all, during Qin Jianghe's time at the escort agency, everyone had witnessed the competence of this teenage young man.

But Qin Jianghe did not know this.

He never thought in that direction.

After all, he was someone whose blind date had failed just a few months ago.

So when he heard Escort Leader Gu asking him to help take care of his only daughter, he felt the burden on his shoulders grow heavier.

From now on, not only did he have to find ways to earn money for the sect, but he also had to figure out how to earn money to raise such an old daughter.

If a girl was going to get married, she would need a dowry and rouge and powder. It was not like them men, who could be kept alive with just a few large steamed buns.

Sigh.

Reading Qin Jianghe's rambling in the letter, Lin Xiao could not help but chuckle.

The man wanted to give him his daughter as a wife, yet he wanted to raise her as his own daughter.

After finishing the letter, Lin Xiao put it away, closed his door, and went up the mountain.

When he arrived at the cultivation room, he learned that Tietou had been arranged by his family to do corvee labor.

Therefore, he immediately called Fuzi, Baldy, and Tietou—the three who lived in the village—out of the cultivation room. He took out the silver that Qin Jianghe had just sent back, told them where it came from, and distributed it among them. Tietou and Fuzi each got five taels, and Baldy got one hundred copper coins.

This time it was emergency relief, not distributing salaries, so Lin Xiao did not intend to divide it equally; it was all based on need.

As for Qin Jianghe's family, he planned to deliver it personally to Qin Jianghe's parents at noon.

Unexpectedly, Tietou looked at the silver handed to him, fell silent for a moment, and then gave him a simple smile, saying:

"Brother Xiao, I won't use this money. My dad isn't home, and even if I bring this money out, my family will definitely confiscate it later and still make me go do corvee labor. Let's not waste the sect's money on me."

Lin Xiao immediately retorted:

"Don't give it to them. We can just go to the village chief privately and pay the fee. Coincidentally, for these next few days, you should just live on the mountain. Your room is empty anyway. It would be best if you bring your mother up too, to save her from being isolated and helpless at home alone."

Hearing his words, Tietou pursed his lips and couldn't help but get red-eyed. He stepped forward, hugged him tightly, and started crying:

"Wuwu—Brother Xiao! It's not that I don't dare to do the corvee labor—but the way they are squeezing me and my mother makes me feel so terrible, wuwu—"

The usually honest and simple Tietou hugged Lin Xiao outside the cultivation room and cried grievously. His tall and sturdy figure made Lin Xiao look extremely thin by comparison.

Being fully embraced, Lin Xiao was a bit stunned for a moment.

Not because he was hugged, but because this was the first time in many years he had seen Tietou cry.

Jiang Youfu and Liu Yunan, who were standing to the side, were also a bit dazed. They quickly spoke up to comfort Tietou.

With the combined efforts of the three, they finally managed to calm down the crying tough guy, Tietou.

Lin Xiao patted his shoulder, telling him to hurry to the village chief's house to hand in the silver. He also handed him the five taels prepared for Qin Jianghe's family, asking him to take it along, and reminded him to avoid being seen by others and give it privately to his parents.

Tietou took the money, agreed to everything, and then quickly ran down the mountain.

Fuzi and Baldy entered the cultivation room to continue cultivating, but Lin Xiao did not go cultivate. He turned and walked to the Artifact Forging Hall, which faced the cultivation room from a distance.

Ever since he learned yesterday that the government was assigning extra corvee labor to repair the dam, he had felt somewhat uneasy.

Dams... he always felt that whenever it was said they needed repairing, nine times out of ten, they would likely burst.

The Guyue River was a large river. If the dam burst, even their remote Xiushui Village would very likely be flooded.

So he planned to see if he could make some useful magical artifacts or something similar.

Although he had an Item Synthesizer, he really wanted to try his hand at artifact forging himself.

After all, the Item Synthesizer was too mystical; mastering artifact forging techniques himself felt much more practical.

Besides, if the time came and he truly couldn't forge any suitable artifacts but was in urgent need, he could just use the Item Synthesizer then. The Item Synthesizer took very little time anyway.

Right now he was quite free, with nothing pressing chasing after him, so he felt it was a good idea to spare some time to practice artifact forging.

Stepping into the forging room, he first took out the Encyclopedia of Basic Artifact Forging Techniques, sat on a cushion to the side, and began to read it earnestly.

After reading through these basic techniques once, Lin Xiao had a rough understanding of artifact forging in his heart.

Basic artifact forging was relatively simple. It only required hammering and refining the materials, then shaping them, and finally carving spiritual runes onto them.

You could forge the item into whatever shape you wanted, as long as your skills were profound enough.

As for these basic spiritual runes, they were all in the book.

Lin Xiao also found the spiritual runes related to a spirit boat that he wanted to make.

He had already made up his mind. He was going to make a spirit boat that could travel on water and fly in the sky. Even if the dam didn't burst this time and the spirit boat couldn't be put to use, it wouldn't matter.