Chapter 148: Paying Tuition Fees

A goofy goose lifted its neck, honking loudly as it plunged into the boundless reed marsh. Pure white reed catkins danced lightly in the wind, while the pale yellow reed stalks stood proudly against the snow. Suddenly, a breeze swept by, stirring up sheets of white flakes in a way that made it impossible to tell whether they were falling snow or flying petals.

Zhang Xiaoman followed closely behind the goose until he reached the center of the reed marsh, where his expression instantly stiffened. In the middle of a circular clearing sat a large, blackened iron pot, surrounded by a flock of snow-white geese. Inside the pot was a bare-chested old man with white eyebrows, beneath which a bundle of reed stalks blazed fiercely.

The white-browed old man glanced sideways at Zhang Xiaoman, made a shushing gesture, raised his smartphone, gave a light cough, and said with high spirits, "Geese, geese, geese, bend your necks for the knife to seize, pluck the feathers and boil the water, iron pot stewed big goose! Ladies and gentlemen, watch closely—today we aren't stewing a goose, we're going to demonstrate stewing ourselves in an iron pot! Hit those little rockets!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the old man covertly tossed a handful of white powder into the iron pot. A moment later, the hot water inside began to bubble furiously.

"Oh... so hot! See that? The water's fully boiled, look at those bubbles..."

"Thanks to Sister-in-law Lin for the little rocket, muwah... Thanks to Wang Xiaoer for the yacht, the applause just won't stop..."

"Alright, family members, we've reached the most important moment of today!" The old man placed his phone onto a nearby stand, leaped abruptly out of the iron pot, snatched a plump goose off the ground, picked the phone back up, and announced in a resonant voice, "The product we're sharing with you today is the goose! These are no ordinary geese—just look at these wings, this pert backside, simply mouth-watering! I brought them back from the summit of the snowy mountain; they have superior bloodlines and first-rate texture. Ordinarily, people wouldn't even dream of serving them at the table; getting to lay eyes on them is a rare privilege. Today, I'm going all out! To thank you all for your support, I'm holding a massive clearance sale. Not 9,999! Not 888! Only 666! Limited to 50 geese! First come, first served!"

Casting a glance at Zhang Xiaoman, the old man lowered his phone, walked right up to him, stroked his two white eyebrows, and squinted as he said, "Lad Man, I need to borrow something from you..."

Zhang Xiaoman covered his pocket with a guarded expression. "I'm a bit tight on cash lately, no spare money to lend."

"Don't worry, don't worry, I'm not borrowing money..." The old man waved a hand, then suddenly threw a punch straight at the bridge of Zhang Xiaoman's nose. As two streams of blood began to gush from Zhang Xiaoman's nostrils, the old man dipped his right index and middle fingers into the blood and smeared them across his own face.

Zhang Xiaoman let out a miserable yelp, hurriedly clapped a hand over his nose, glared at the old man, and raged, "In short... you were determined to draw blood from me one way or another, weren't you!"

The old man made another shushing gesture, turned back to the iron pot, raised his phone once more, and put on a pitiful expression. "Family, you heard it yourselves. To get you a more affordable price, I just got into a brawl with the goose breeder!" He pointed to the bloodstains on his face. "Look at this blood flowing... But as long as I can secure a better price for you all, what's a little blood?! Family! Now we don't even need 666—for just 268, you can take home this plump, tender snow mountain goose!"

"For 268, you won't lose out and you won't get scammed. Bring the snow mountain goose home for 268! Hurry up and place your orders, family—just one last minute... Five, four, three, two, one! Alright, today's geese are completely sold out. Those who didn't manage to grab one shouldn't be discouraged; Little Bow-Bow will bring you even more surprise products later. See you tomorrow!"

The old man swiftly tapped the screen of his phone to check his earnings for the day, beamed happily as he put the phone away, picked up a large white goose, and shoved it into Zhang Xiaoman's arms. With a magnanimous air, he said, "I'm giving this to you as a welcome gift. Your blood didn't spill in vain."

Zhang Xiaoman's mouth twitched. He looked at the goose in his arms, then at the old man, and pouted. "A goose only costs about six bucks a pound on the market. Even a ten-pound goose would only come out to sixty yuan total. Isn't 268 a bit of a rip-off? Does anyone actually buy that?"

"You just don't understand," the old man said, digging into his nose with a lazy tone. "That's how live-streaming works nowadays. You inflate the price first, then pretend to go through all sorts of hardships to help customers haggle it down. As long as they feel it's significantly cheaper than before, that's all that matters. Very few people ever care what the real cost is. This tactic is called 'building up by putting down first.' Actually, it's nothing new; isn't that how all those e-commerce shopping festivals used to operate? I'm practically an honest merchant compared to the rest—some streamers sell geese on air, but ship ducks to their customers instead..."

Zhang Xiaoman carefully recalled Huang Xiaoxiao's online shopping habits over the years and realized it did indeed seem to be the case. Suddenly recalling something, he wore a peculiar expression and asked, "When did you change your name? And 'Little Bow-Bow'? You must be ninety-nine years old, practically a living goblin at this point. Isn't it a bit inappropriate to call yourself Little Bow-Bow?"

"What kind of talk is that... Your name has the character 'Little' in it too, are you little?" The old man puckered his lips. "If we measure by tree rings, I'm only about thirty-odd growth rings thicker than you. Trees take a decade to grow, but a hundred years to cultivate a person—and I'm currently flourishing with lush branches and leaves."

Zhang Xiaoman rolled his eyes. "Where on earth have you been all these years? I thought you'd perished..." He looked around his surroundings and asked with curiosity, "Where's the goose breeder? How come it's just you here?"

"The world is so big, I just went out to take a look... The goose breeder... Ah! It's a long story!" The old man's gaze dimmed, and he let out a long sigh. "A couple of days ago, he accompanied me to a small island to go fishing. I don't know what got into his head, but he suddenly insisted on climbing a tree, claiming he wanted to catch a glimpse of the madman in the tree across the sea. As a result, he got blown away by a strong gale..."

Zhang Xiaoman immediately pictured the honest and reliable straw-hat-wearing old man fluttering away in the wind. He patted the old man on the shoulder and said, "My condolences. I hear there are certain birds born in the wind and dead in the wind, living their lives carefree, unrestrained, and loving their freedom..."

"It's fine, it's fine," the old man feigned wiping away tears. "I'm at such an age that I've long since taken life and death lightly. Over the years, haven't I done plenty of sending white-haired elders off to bury black-haired youths?"

Hearing the phrase "white-haired elders sending off black-haired youths," Zhang Xiaoman instantly grasped the subtext of the old man's words. He let out a deep sigh, his face filled with apology as he said, "I'm sorry, about Sima Bei..."

"It wasn't you who drove the knife into his heart, what on earth are you apologizing for..." The old man stroked his snow-white beard. "Life and death are determined by fate; for the sake of his own disciple, he gave everyone a fair accounting. To attain anything, how can one avoid paying a price? That is true justice!" His expression suddenly darkened. "But the blood of Changlong Nanming's disciple shouldn't have been so cheap. So much blood only traded for the life of that old bastard surnamed Chen—that's a terrible bargain. You were his partner for so many years, shouldn't you demand a bit more compensation for him?"

Zhang Xiaoman nodded firmly, his voice chilling. "Just watch, not a single one of those people will get away!"

"Alas, the disciple is dead, and the disciple's disciple is also dead..." Changlong Nanming gazed desolate at the sky with his hands clasped behind his back, sighing, "My lineage is truly unprecedented and without successors..."

"It won't die out!" A gleam came into Zhang Xiaoman's eyes as he rolled them. "I have a disciple..."

"That half-tongued detective who can't even speak properly?" Changlong Nanming curled his lip. "His talent is decent enough, but he's far too cold. With the weather this freezing, having an icy person by your side is just asking to catch a chill."

"I have another disciple..."

"That chatterbox really does have shades of Sima Bei—same endless nonsense, same playing the fool while actually being wise, both high-level masters of feigning stupidity. But precisely because he's so similar, wiggling before my eyes every single day, it would shatter my heart into tiny, miserable pieces! So... the tuition gift for becoming a disciple has to be doubled!"

Zhang Xiaoman froze, his eyes widening as he blurted, "You agreed?!"

"Pay ten years of tuition up front first—three thousand six hundred a year, thirty-six thousand for ten years..." Changlong Nanming extended his right hand, cleared his throat, and said, "Considering how well we know each other, I'll give you a friendly rate with a massive discount: a flat forty thousand, fair to young and old alike!"

"Who ever heard of a discount that drives the price up?!" Zhang Xiaoman's eyes popped, his face flushing red as he argued, "Besides... to put it bluntly, can you even live another ten years? Nine is the extreme limit of numbers, and you've got two nines; your time is almost up. If you don't teach long enough, where am I supposed to go to get a refund on the tuition? When regular training centers run off, they just vanish without a trace, but if you run off like that, you'll vanish straight out of existence!"

"There's a saying: the master leads you through the door, but cultivation depends on the individual. This forty thousand I'm charging is the admission fee," Changlong Nanming said unconcernedly. "With Li Jun's blockhead of a brain, it'll take at least ten years for him to fully digest all of my skills. Of course, the money is in your pocket, and you make the final call on whether to do this business or not. But as the saying goes, miss this village and you won't find this shop—in a few more days, I'll be leaving City A..."

Zhang Xiaoman hesitated for a few seconds, biting his lip. "Can we do installments? I'll pay for one year first, and see how the results are before deciding whether to renew."

"Don't try to pull that trick on me," Changlong Nanming scoffed. "Neither you nor I have much time left. Who knows which day we'll scatter into the wind just like these reed catkins... Besides, I don't mess around with consumer loans and spending tomorrow's money today. I've always run an honest business: one transaction at a time, collecting payment on the spot."

"Can't you lower it a bit?"

"Knowledge is priceless!"

Zhang Xiaoman smacked his lips together and let out a sigh. "Fine, I'll play the sucker. It's just that I don't have that much cash on me right now. How about this... I'll give you a deposit first, and once we get back to City A, I'll withdraw some from the bank and pay you the rest..."

"No need for all that trouble!" Changlong Nanming fished a card reader out of his pocket, pulled out his smartphone, opened a payment app, and smiled warmly. "You can swipe a card, or you can scan this magical QR code... Oh, that's right," he pointed to the dozing goose in Zhang Xiaoman's arms, "remember to add the price of this goose into the total as well. Unified global pricing: 268!"

Zhang Xiaoman's face turned livid. "Didn't you say you were giving it to me as a gift?"

"Right, I'm giving you a goose as a gift, shouldn't you reciprocate with 268?" Changlong Nanming glanced at Zhang Xiaoman as if looking at an idiot. "I thought you were pretty smart, how come you didn't grasp such a simple principle?"

Zhang Xiaoman took a deep breath, extended the goose in his arms toward Changlong Nanming, and enunciated every single word clearly: "I don't want it anymore, alright?"

"That won't do!" Changlong Nanming shook his head, showing no intention of reaching out to take it, and jutted his chin toward the goose. "Look at that—just a moment ago it was jumping around full of life, and now it looks half-dead. You must have tampered with it! No doubt the moment you walk away, it'll kick its legs up in the air. Who else am I supposed to sell it to? A goose given as a gift is like spilled water—it can't be taken back! It's bound to you for life now, so don't you dare abandon it halfway!"