Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 629: Prince Liu An of Huainan

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 wascurled into a ball.I even saw a streak of blood on the corner of its snout.

I had a really bad feeling.I hurriedinto the houseand saw Liu Dalilyingunconscious on the ground.

It was an emergency,soI 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 shiveredandopened 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 hisface. He looked a little flusteredas he lookedbehind me.

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

“No,I justwentto 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 beentricked.” I cursed under my breathand feltlike a dummyrunning back and forth. I needed togo back! If that thing had tricked meintoleavingthe 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 deadas it lay on theground, and the cartwas next to it. Subconsciously, I ran toward the cart to check if the tofu was stillthere.I found nothing. All the tofu was gone.There wasn’t evena speck of flour.

“Is that thingalreadyhere?”Liu Dali appeared behind me. Seeing the scene, his legs turned into jelly. He slumpedonto the ground,his eyes lookingspiritless.

Hiswordsreminded methat the dogs in the villageweren’tbarkingorhowling anymore.

I pulled him up.“It seems somethingatethe tofuandleft. I don’tthink itwillshowup againtonight. Uncle Liu, you should go back to your room to rest.”

After that,I headed to the village entrance.

I feltbitter. The opponent had inaudibly captured Li Mazi and eaten all the tofu right under our watch. Ithadeven trickedmeintorunning back and forth. Sadly, Ihadn’t gained any clues.

While I wasrackingmy brain to find a solution torescueLi Mazi, he called me. I thought that Li Mazi was being manipulated, so Isaidcoldly, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“LittleBrother Zhang, I’m Li Mazi. Where are you?”Li Mazi’s voicewentthrough the phone.

His voice soundedreal. “Brother, are you okay?”

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

AfterI hungup 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.“LittleBrother Zhang, I’m rich now!”

“Stopspoutingnonsense. Tell me, where did you go justnow?”

I heaved a sigh of relief as Li Maziwas still jokingwith me. I reallycaredabout this man.

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

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

I frownedand said,“It’s a good jade. Good to wear. From the color and texture, I’mguessing it’s from the Qin-Han era. It’s a little bad that ithas holeson the otherside. Otherwise, it would be worth a lot of money.”

“Well done, LittleBrother Zhang!”

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

“A block of tofu!”

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

“You’vegot 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 comingathim, 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,sohe 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 recognizedthat thesituation 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 gentlyraisedhispalm,and the Holy Mother Scepter automatically left Li Mazi’s hand. Li Mazi knew hewasn’tthe 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 livedduringthe 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 makedeliciousfoods. 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 Lialways worethe jade and never left it for evenaday. However, his good daysdidn’tlast 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 inthepolitical war. He died withagrudgeforacrime of treason he didn’t commit.

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

I was soexcited 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 explainwhyhe 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 hadshownup these days, and why he wanted to give Li Mazi his tofu jade. Igestured to LiMazi to continue talking.

“Idon’tknowthe 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 mymind. 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. Ifwe had brought him tofu earlier, this incident wouldn’t have happenedat all.

I recalled a line from a poem by Li Bai: Whenthings aredone, Itakemy 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 togetherand asked, “Do you remember where he took you?”

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 ofHuainan, theprince 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.