A Thought Through Eternity Chapter 11 - Hou Xiaomei

He was saved! This was the first thought that popped up in the horse-faced handyman’s head when he heard Bai Xiaochun’s words. However, he hesitated when he saw the two meat-hills standing behind Bai Xiaochun with malicious grins on their faces.
“You…”
Bai Xiaochun’s cute and tender face was now filled with a bright smile. He seemed like a person who wouldn’t even hurt a fly. He took a few steps forward, patted the horse-faced handyman’s shoulder, grinned and said.
“Congratulations, Brother! You’re about to become an outer sect disciple. Just like a fish leaping through the dragon’s gate, you will soar from here, making rapid improvements. Your future is absolutely limitless! However, your junior Brother here spent so much effort to come this far, do you mind giving me a little reward for my efforts?”
The handyman’s horse-like face immediately darkened. If he had not understood Bai Xiaochun’s meaning by now, his decades of life experience would have been in vain. He glanced at Bai Xiaochun then looked at Zhang Fatso One and Black Fatso Three, his facial expression constantly changing. He was quickly measuring the gains and losses, considering whether or not Bai Xiachun’s offer was worth it.
Soon, the horse-faced handyman gnashed his teeth. Indeed, he was unwilling to give up this opportunity, not because he had to wait for another month, but because he didn’t know if he could make it next month. Who knows? Next time he might encounter competitors better than him again. Not to mention that the three standing in front of him would probably take the next test too.
Most importantly, he longed to become one of the outer sect disciples, and the best opportunity was now right in front of him. He abruptly stomped his feet against the ground.
“How much do you want?!” said the horse-faced handyman while gnashing his teeth.
“Not much, not much. It’s just that I spent many months preparing for this test, so I’ll just take twenty spirt stones.” Bai Xiaochun was enraptured, he hurriedly gave an exorbitant price. The horse-faced handyman’s heart instantly quivered when he heard this price. Waving his hand, he was preparing to say no, but before he could open his mouth, Bai Xiaochun began to speak once more.
“I wasn’t being greedy, look at the three of us, you can’t just compensate only me. My Big Brother and Third Brother starved themselves for the sake of this test!”
Regarding this, Bai Xiaochun didn’t lie. By rushing all the way up to the mountain top, Zhang Fatso One and Black Fatso Three had indeed lost quite a bit of weight in order to raise their speeds.
The horse-faced handyman took a glance at the two fatsos, and started cursing in his heart. He then negotiated with Bai Xiaochun for awhile before they finally settled on the price of sixteen spirit stones. Bearing great heartache, the horse-faced handyman threw a small bag to Bai Xiaochun, his face filled with unwillingness.
“Are you satisfied now?” said the horse-faced handyman with a hoarse voice.
“We’re good. Dear Brother, please wait by the side. We will open the exit after the other two lucky handymen show up.” Bai Xiaochun said happily as he threw the small bag that contained spirit stones to Zhang Fatso One.
When he heard that they would wait for another two handymen to come, the horse-faced handyman’s face screamed schadenfreude. His facial expression was complicated, like he was hoping that others would feel as bad as he did.
Meanwhile, when the two outer sect disciples standing beside the exit saw what had happened in front of them, their eyes widened in disbelief.
“What…what are you doing?! How dare you sell the outer sect disciple positions!” The two outer sect disciples instantly yelled out in harsh and deep voices.
“Why are you yelling? We have climbed up here and are too tired to continue, so we decided to let others go ahead of us. What’s wrong with that? And since we have worked so hard, our dear Brother rewarded us for all of our efforts. Again, what’s wrong with that?” said Zhang Fatso One. He was happily counting the spirit stones when he became offended by the two disciples’ words. He turned his head and threw them a vicious glare.
His words rendered the two outer sect disciples speechless. They didn’t know how to refute him.
At the same time, seven to eight handymen were struggling to move forward through the stairs of the exam path, their heavy gasping was akin to rolling thunder. At the front of the group was a half-naked sturdy-looking man ariound thirty years old, walking towards the mountaintop step by step.
Seeing him come, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes suddenly shone, and he hurriedly walked up to the man.
“This Brother here, you’re a bit late. But my Brother abruptly decided to give up on becoming an outer sect disciple, do you want his place?”
The sturdy man paused for a second. After hearing Bai Xiaochun’s words, and seeing all the people on the mountaintop, he instantly realised what was happening around here. He gave out a scorn-filled snort.
“How dare you little bastards to blackmail an old-timer?! Screw off!” growled the sturdy man. He suddenly waved his right arm in the air, releasing spirit pressure indicative of the peak of third-level Qi Condensation.
Bai Xiaochun yelped as he stepped back.
“Big Brother!”
Almost as soon as Bai Xiaochun let out those two words, a huge meat-hill came crashing from the heavens.
The sturdy man’s face instantly turned purple. He looked up in shock. Accompanied by a roaring sound, a huge meat-hill heavily crashed onto his body.
From beneath Zhang Fatso One’s body, the sturdy man screamed. Zhang Fatso One straight up sat on top of the poor man’s body. After struggling for a while, the man failed to extricate himself from underneath Zhang Fatso One’s body. If his constitution wasn’t so strong and robust, he would have long since run out of air and fainted.
When the seven to eight handymen who were following closely behind the sturdy man saw what happened to him, all of them were stunned and began to feel fear creeping in their hearts.
The two outer sect disciples beside the exit were standing there blanky, staring at the poor sturdy man whose body was nearly bent out of shape and crushed by Zhang Fatso One’s weight. They couldn’t help but feel sympathy in their hearts.
“Big Brother, we have an audience.” Bai Xiaochun, who stood beside Zhang Fatso One, said in a low voice as an idea popped into his mind.
Zhang Fatso One had been working together with Bai Xiaochun for a whole year so he instantly got Bai Xiaochun’s point. He immediately glared at the man, then raised his huge, hammer-like fists and began throwing punches at the sturdy man under his body, creating thunderous booms.
“Trying to freeload off this fat master? You have guts!” yelled Zhang Fatso One while throwing another heavy punch down at the man.
“We Brothers have spent so much effort getting up here since we were planing to become outer sect disciples. But now that we have given up, and kindly offered the place to you, is it too much for you to give us some compensation?!
“Fxxk your grandmother! How dare you refuse our kindness?!” While yelling, Zhang Fatso One didn’t just punch that man, but also lifted up his body and dropped it onto the man again. Letting out another series of screams, the sturdy man was nearly squished to death. When he saw Zhang Fatso One stand up again, his face instantly showed pure terror. He immediately thrust out an arm holding a small bag with all his remaining strength, while shouting.
“I’ll compensate you!”
Zhang Fatso One paused, then hurriedly stood up before helping the sturdy man to his feet. He grabbed the small bag from the man’s hand and peered into it. His face was instantly filled with happiness. He then faced the man, grinning from ear-to-ear, and gently patted the dirt off the sturdy man’s clothes.
“Haha, good Brother. Why didn’t you just do so earlier? Come, come, come, wait over there, just one more handyman, then we’ll open the way.”
The sturdy man‘s heart was now filled with endless grievance, but he did not dare complain. He could only carry a sour face and go stand beside the horse-faced handyman. Unlike him, the horse-faced handyman seemed to feel a lot better after seeing what happened to the sturdy man. He felt that he had been very wise earlier.
“Big Brother, you’re too damn good!” said Bai Xiaochun while laughing. He was so happy that his face looked looked like a blooming flower; he felt even happier when he saw that all of those handymen who had followed behind the sturdy man were now stunned, and staring at Zhang Fatso One in great fright.
Zhang Fatso One proudly and slowly walked back to the front of the exit before he sat down, blocking the exit once again.
The two outer sect disciples standing outside the exit speechlessly looked at each other. They thought that these three people were out of line before, for blackmailing the other test-taker, but now, they felt that what they did before was actually pretty nice.
“They…they…How could they rob other test-takers?!”
“That’s daylight robbery!” yelled the two of them in anger. Deep down in their hearts, they felt more jealousy than anger as they blamed themselves for not thinking of this brilliant idea.
Contrary to the two of them who were having all kinds of complicated feelings, were the seven to eight handymen who came right after the sturdy man. They saw what happened to the sturdy man from beginning to end which had left them all stunned. However, a different kind of glow had gradually appeared on their faces.
Most of them were unlikely to have ever become outer sect disciples. However, what was happening now seemed to…offer them an opportunity…....
“Brothers, now we only have one place left. So how about this, whoever can offer the highest price will get this place!” Bai Xiaochun was a cunning kid. When he saw the expressions of the surrounding handymen, he immediately said so. His voice was shrill, and echoed throughout the surrounding area, triggering the excitement of those handymen. The sound of their heavy breathing instantly grew louder.
The glow that had appeared on the few handymen’ faces immediately grew brighter and brighter. Their hearts beat faster and faster, as the thought of joining the outer sect filled their minds.
“Ten spirit stones!”
“Eleven!”
“This place is mine! I offer fifteen!”
Within a short while, the shouts of bidding filled the air, as one faded and another rose. Bai Xiaochun and the other two fatsos were thrilled by these bids.
However, these bids that went into the two outer sect disciples’ ears were equivalent to oil poured onto a fire. They could tolerate the blackmailing, even the robbery, but right now, those three were actually running an auction here. Their minds churned chaotically, just like a stormy sea. They felt that this was ridiculous and unfair. They had finally realised that the most hideous one amongst the three of them was not Zhang Fatso One but the seemingly nice and innocent Bai Xiaochun!
“Too immoral! Too shameless!” yelled one of the two outer sect disciples while gnashing his teeth. Be it because of rage or jealousy, his eyes turned red. He turned around in flurry, intending to inform the sect about this.
The bidding had been going on for quite a while. However, Bai Xiaochun was dissatisfied with the current bids and yelled out again.
“My Brothers, please hurry! Don’t waste too much time, or others will catch up. To the other handymen in our department, this is a great opportunity that they would even trade their lives for!”
Once he let out these words, a girl’s excited voice suddenly came from the test-path behind the crowd.
“I, Hou Xiaomei, offer you thirty spirit stones! I come from a cultivator’s family. The last thing we lack is spirit stones! Don’t you dare bid against me!”
The owner of this voice was a young girl who had white, tender skin, and a slim body, looking pure and innocent. She was currently climbing the stairs while heavily panting.
Zhang Fatso One seemed dumbstruck when he saw this pretty young girl. He attempted to say something, but soon choked his words back. However, he could not resist taking a glance at Bai Xiaochun.
Following Hou Xiaomei’s bid, the others who had been bidding up against each other immediately started raising their bids. At the end, Hou Xiaomei, who claimed that she came from a cultivator’s family had offered a price so high that made the horse-faced handyman and the sturdy man feel like their hearts leaped out of their chests. They immediately felt that what they gave Bai Xiaochun was at a bargain price.
Soon after, Hou Xiaomei puffed out her well-developed chest and proudly walked out from the crowd. She glanced at the handymen behind her with disdain before taking the final step, along with the horse-faced handyman and the sturdy man who introduced himself as Mr. Wolf, hence completing the exam.
Bai Xiaochun cupped his hands and deeply bowed to the three of them.
“Congratulations, my Brothers and Sister, you are the fishes who have leap the dragon’s gate. You will all rise to greatness!”
The horse-faced handyman and the sturdy man stood on top of the mountain peak, in a trance. Although they had successfully become outer sect disciples, they were not as happy as they thought they would be. With Bai Xiaochun’s words still lingering in their ears, they glanced at each other, and let out bitter smiles.
Only Hou Xiaomei, who had bought her place with an unbelievably high price, was ecstatic at the moment. Her beautiful and delicate face was flushed.
“I never thought that I, Hou Xiaomei, would have this kind of great luck!” thought Hou Xiaomei proudly.