Chapter 396 (1): Collecting Water and the Bright Moon With a Bamboo Basket

Chapter 396 (1): Collecting Water and the Bright Moon With a Bamboo Basket

Zhu Lian and Shi Rou exchanged a glance after detecting Chen Ping'an's unusual movement, and the former chuckled, "You go first."

Shi Rou forcefully suppressed the discomfort in her heart. It was very likely that this old pervert's gaze would still be as revolting as always even after another one hundred years. Her voice was low as she said, "I'm a yin entity, a being that's innately restrained by the capitals of nations. An entity that stirs up great unease within me has appeared in the direction that Young Master is looking. What about you?"

Zhu Lian nodded and remarked, "Young Master looked over after detecting something, and Lady Shi Rou immediately gazed over with an adrift expression as well. Your appearance was most charming."

"Even Pei Qian understands the concept of treating others with sincerity, so how does a shameless old man like you not understand this?" Shi Rou fumed.

Pei Qian felt slightly aggrieved after hearing this, and she quipped, "Big Sister Shi Rou, what do you mean 'even.' I'm also very sincere and diligent when I read and write, okay?"

Shi Rou had no option but to look at the little girl with an apologetic expression.

Pei Qian waved her hand and started to randomly jumble profound principles from the sagely texts together again, saying, "People aren't sages, so who can be without error? Everyone in the world can be forgiven..."

However, Pei Qian immediately felt a sense of unease after saying this. Sure enough, it wasn't long before she yelped in pain and stood on her tippy-toes, with Chen Ping'an dragging her forward by the ear.

"You barely understand the sagely principles right now, yet you dare to foolishly show off your so-called knowledge?" Chen Ping'an scolded.

Pei Qian immediately apologized for her actions.

Her ear was throbbing with searing pain.

After a baptism of fire, Pei Qian was already roughly aware of her master's various levels of anger. If she received a flick or a knuckle to the forehead, then that meant her master wasn't very angry, even if he used slightly more force. If he pulled her by the ear, however, then it meant that he was genuinely angry. If he pulled her ear very hard, then that would be a very bad sign showing that he was very angry with her. However, none of these punishments could compare to Chen Ping'an remaining silent when he was angry, neither scolding nor physically punishing her. Pei Qian was most afraid of this.

Chen Ping'an found an inn located in the Changle Region, one of the busiest regions in the capital. There were many bookshops in this area.

However, there was a huge shortage of rooms across all inns in the capital of the Azure Phoenix Nation, and there were only two unoccupied rooms remaining in the inn. Moreover, the two rooms were separate from each other and cost an absolute fortune. This was a clear rip-off, but the young inn attendant stood behind the counter with a haughty expression as if he were telling them to either pay up or piss off.

In the end, Chen Ping'an decided to pay up and stay in this inn. Of course, it was necessary to show the inn attendant their passports and travel documents first, as these needed to be recorded and checked by the relevant authorities in the capital afterward. When Chen Ping'an retrieved the necessary documents that Cui Dongshan had prepared for them beforehand, the inn attendant immediately changed his attitude after verifying their accuracy and authenticity.

The inn attendant respectfully returned the documents to Chen Ping'an with both hands after making a record, and he was especially polite and even apologized to Chen Ping'an for his earlier disrespect. He informed Chen Ping'an that the inn was genuinely unable to find any extra rooms at the moment, but he would immediately notify Young Master Chen once another guest left.

Chen Ping'an smiled and agreed to this offer, and it wasn't long before a young lady walked out at the inn attendant's behest and led Chen Ping'an and the others to their rooms.

Meanwhile, the inn attendant immediately ran off to look for the innkeeper, informing him that a group of travelers from the capital of the Great Li Empire had traveled south and settled down in their inn.

The innkeeper was a morbidly obese man whose eyes could barely be seen. He was dressed in the typical brocade robes of wealthy individuals, and he was currently sipping tea in leisure in a tranquil and refined building. After listening to the inn attendant's report, he saw his employee standing there with a foolish expression as if he wanted to hear an explanation.

A sense of anger immediately welled up in the obese innkeeper's mind, and he launched a kick at the inn attendant and scolded, "Why are you still standing there like an idiot? Perhaps you want me to pour you a cup of tea to alleviate your thirst? Hurry up and attend to them! Good heavens! The heavy cavalry of the Great Li Empire has almost charged to the Luminous Vermilion Empire, so what if our esteemed guest is genuinely a young master from the clan of an official from the Great Li Empire? Ah... Forget about it, I'll go myself, I can't trust you to do anything properly..."

The young inn attendant failed to receive any merit for his hard work, and not only that, but he had even been scolded and kicked instead. This caused him to grumble in dissatisfaction in his mind.

"Even though I was already severely wounded at that time, Ding Ying still forced himself to wait until the very end before he showed himself. In reality, I could have killed him with ease if I wanted to, and doing so would have been no more difficult than killing a newborn chick. However, I decided to spare him, and I even gave him the Daoist hat that was left behind by an otherworldly immortal. For the next sixty years, not only did the young man not disappoint me, but his wild ambitions actually became even greater than mine."

Chen Ping'an smiled and remarked, "No wonder Ding Ying always kept this important battle a secret and never mentioned it to anyone else. As it turns out, he was probably too ashamed to boast, and he didn't want to expose his weaknesses to other people either."

Pei Qian huffed and said in anger, "You might not know, but that old geezer seriously caused my master to suffer quite a bit."

Zhu Lian smiled widely and asked, "If I had known this earlier, then I should have killed Ding Ying with a single punch back then, right?"

Having learned her lesson not long ago, Pei Qian looked at Chen Ping'an before taking a glance at Zhu Lian's punchable expression. It was clear that he had dug a hole for her, and he would even shovel dirt and bury her alive if she took the bait and jumped inside. Thus, Pei Qian immediately shook her head and replied, "No, that's not right."

Chen Ping'an showed no signs of rewarding her with a knuckle to the head, so Pei Qian knew that she had answered the question correctly.

She packed up the calligraphy brush, ink, and paper on the table before carefully placing them inside Chen Ping'an's bamboo bookcase. She then poured a cup of tea for herself and suddenly stood up, whispering to Chen Ping'an, "Master, I don't know why this is, but I suddenly feel like the characters in the books are much prettier now when I read them."

Chen Ping'an didn't take this seriously, and he asked with a smile, "How so?"

Pei Qian made sure to whisper and guard against Zhu Lian eavesdropping on their conversation, and she continued to lower her voice as she replied, "The small blocks of ink used to look extremely dark just like me, but when I look at them now, they appear completely different from before. Who do they look like now...?"

Pei Qian started to count on her fingers as she listed out a few candidates, continuing, "There's Huang Ting who taught me sword and saber techniques, Yao Jinzhi who has foxy and bewitching brows, Fan Junmao who has a fairly bad temper, and Jin Su who accompanies Aunt Gui. Also, let me clear something up first. It was Old Man Wei who said that Big Sister Jinzhi had foxy and bewitching brows and a stunningly beautiful appearance that could bring catastrophe to a nation and her people. I wasn't the one who came up with this description. In fact, I don't even understand what it means to have foxy brows."

Zhu Lian roared with laughter and threw the little girl under a bus, exclaiming, "Oh, you can piss off with that excuse..."

Pei Qian hurriedly ran over, trying to cover Zhu Lian's gossiping and rubbish-producing mouth with her hand. However, Zhu Lian naturally wouldn't allow her to succeed, and he immediately started to weave his head left and right. Meanwhile, Pei Qian bared her teeth and flailed around with her arms.

Looking at the old man and the little girl fighting with each other again, Chen Ping'an reminded them, "After purchasing what we want in the capital, we'll visit some famous sites and at most stay here for two more days. We'll then head to the immortal ferry station located in the eastern region of the Azure Phoenix Nation and directly travel to the Great Sui Nation's Mountain Cliff Academy."

While continuing to dodge Pei Qian, Zhu Lian nodded and said with a smile, "There's no need to worry about this old servant, Young Master. However, we should be careful about this unruly little girl who's like a wild horse without a rein. We need to keep an eye on her so she doesn't become the second ox-drawn carriage that charges headfirst into a thicket of reeds..."

"Zhu Lian, you're always jinxing things for me, so be careful that I get serious with you!" Pei Qian shouted in anger.

Zhu Lian was just about to tease the tanned little girl again, but Chen Ping'an unexpectedly said, "Indeed, you shouldn't jinx things for us anymore."

Zhu Lian immediately nodded and replied, "Young Master is correct."

Pei Qian finally found an opportunity to exact revenge on Zhu Lian, so sat down and clutched her stomach, pointing at the old man as she roared with laughter. "And you still have the face to accuse me of having flimsy convictions and swaying loyalty? Old Cook, you can piss off with that, hey?"

Zhu Lian put on a serious expression and explained, "Your actions are called sitting on a fence without solid convictions, while my actions are called adjusting to the circumstances like a wise individual. Indeed, a wise and handsome individual."

Pei Qian blinked and asked in curiosity, "I heard Master say that you were once a peerlessly handsome young master in our home world, the Lotus Flower Blessed Land?"

Before Zhu Lian could get started on his lengthy story about his incredible achievements in the past, Pei Qian had already clutched her belly with both hands and banged her head into the table, saying through laughter, "You can piss off with that nonsense, yeh? Hahaha, you're going to make me laugh to death! Ow, ow, ow, my tummy is starting to ache..."

Seeing that Chen Ping'an was also holding back his laughter, Zhu Lian couldn't help but feel slightly melancholy.