Yang Kai couldn't be bothered to pay them any mind. Others might have taken it as a joke, but he knew full well that the one perched atop his head was a bona fide god of wealth.
He looked up and spotted a few familiar figures — the other newcomers who had entered at the same time. He was about to call out a greeting when he saw them hurrying away under Fang Tai's lead. Miss A-Sun kept glancing back as she walked, her face full of worry as she stared at him.
Yang Kai scratched his head, wondering why these people seemed to be treating him like the plague. Old Fang was nearby, so he turned to look — but Old Fang heaved a heavy sigh, slowly shook his head with an expression of heartfelt anguish, and then walked off as well.
Yang Kai let out a snort of derision, ignoring the strange looks from those around him. His figure flickered as he headed toward the laborers' quarters.
Before long, he had returned to the door of his own room. But the moment they arrived, the Rooster General, who had been squatting on his head the entire time, spread its wings and fluttered down. Once it hit the ground, it strutted through the village with its chest puffed out and head held high, looking for all the world like it was surveying its territory.
Yang Kai immediately felt a great deal more at ease. Over the past month, the Rooster General had indeed given him quite a few Opening Heaven Pills, but having his head used as a roost the whole time had left his hair a disheveled mess with no time to tidy up — it wasn't exactly comfortable. Now it had finally left.
He turned and went inside, combing his hair back into order. He had just finished when he heard a rapid tapping at the door.
Yang Kai walked over and opened it. A graceful figure slipped inside, trailing a gust of fragrant wind.
"Die You?" Yang Kai looked at the visitor. "You've come at just the right time — I was about to go find you."
"Looking for me for something?" Die You asked. "Never mind that for now. What's going on with you?"
"What do you mean, what's going on?" Yang Kai blinked in confusion.
"The whole village is saying you offended the Great General and got punished for it. People saw the Great General perched on your head, using it as a roost — is that true?"
Yang Kai laughed. "That part is true, but it's not what everyone's making it out to be. I didn't offend that stupid chicken."
"Really?" Die You eyed him with some suspicion. They hadn't known each other very long and had spent even less time together, so she wasn't entirely sure of Yang Kai's temperament. But from the looks of it, he wasn't exactly the type to keep his head down, and she genuinely worried he might have rashly provoked the Great General without knowing his own place.
Yang Kai smiled at her. "You're quite concerned about me, Xiao Die."
Die You said, "I was a newcomer once too. I know how hard it is for new people. If someone had lent me a hand back then, things would have gone a lot better. After that, I decided that if I ever got the chance, I'd help newcomers whenever I could. You never know — maybe someday that newcomer will rise to prominence, and I'll get to benefit from it too."
"So that's how it is!" Yang Kai nodded gently.
Die You suddenly punched him on the shoulder. "And another thing — don't be so cocky for a newcomer, calling me 'Xiao Die' this and 'Xiao Die' that!"
"Names are no big deal," Yang Kai said with a smile, flipping his hand to produce something. "Take a look at this!"
Die You looked down and immediately covered her mouth with a gasp. "Where did you… where did you get so many Opening Heaven Pills?" The same exclamation, coming from Die You's lips, sounded entirely different from when Old Fang had said it.
"Returning them to you!" Yang Kai held them out toward her.
Die You eyed him warily. "How could you possibly have this many Opening Heaven Pills?"
Yang Kai grinned. "If I told you the Great General rewarded me with them, would you believe me? Forget about you — even I wouldn't believe it. But that's exactly what happened. These are all rewards from the Great General."
"How is that possible?" Die You was utterly astonished.
Yang Kai gave a brief account of how he'd encountered the Great General being chased and cornered into his orchard, and how he had then taken it out to find insects to eat. He naturally omitted the back-and-forth battle of wills he'd had with the Great General — that sort of thing was far too embarrassing to recount. When Die You heard that feeding the Great General could earn a one-to-one reward in spirit pills, her small mouth formed a perfect, lovely O.
The main reason he explained all this was that he needed to be transparent about where the Opening Heaven Pills had come from if he was going to return Die You's share. Besides, she had genuinely helped him quite a bit — first by freely answering all his questions, then by taking him to the market and lending him money for a set of insect-catching tools. And when she'd heard he was in trouble today, she had come running to check on him. When someone treated him with that kind of sincerity, Yang Kai felt he couldn't very well deceive her.
More importantly, this couldn't stay hidden forever. When he'd been taking the Rooster General out to catch insects before, several people had witnessed the General bestowing spirit pills upon him, so there was no point in trying to keep it secret.
"That's the whole story," Yang Kai said with a shrug.
"You're not making this up?" Die You still found it hard to believe. In all her years here, she had never seen the Great General treat anyone this favorably.
"You don't believe me? See for yourself… Actually, do you have any Azure Fire Silkworms on you?"
Die You nodded reflexively. "I caught two this month."
"Hand them over!" Yang Kai reached out his hand.
Die You passed her Spirit Wooden Box to Yang Kai. He immediately stepped outside, let out a sharp whistle, then turned and came back in. "Just wait a moment."
Before long, the area outside the door was flooded with golden light. The Rooster General had restored itself to its half-man-tall form and was crammed in the doorway, craning its neck to peer inside.
"Stupid chicken, come in — I've got something good for you." After a month of dealing with the creature, Yang Kai had grown quite familiar with the Rooster General and no longer needed to be as deferential as he'd been at first.
Die You, however, was startled, fearing the Great General would fly into a rage. But to her amazement, the Rooster General simply walked right in, utterly unconcerned by the way Yang Kai addressed it. She clicked her tongue in disbelief.
Yang Kai opened the Spirit Wooden Box and took out the two Azure Fire Silkworms. The Great General accepted them without hesitation, devouring both in two bites. Then it tilted its head and fixed one unblinking eye on Die You…
Die You shifted uncomfortably under that unrelenting gaze.