CH 11

“What sect were you from?”

”I am not from any sect or following.”

”Where’s your home?”

“My ancestors hail from the northeastern area.” 

Hua Rong Yue was currently paying the dues for her impulsive decision from earlier. 

She was currently obediently and properly seated in front of Yan Sheng, answering every question of his about her background. 

Of course Yan Sheng wasn’t drilling her like a criminal, he wasn’t even in his official attire today. He was probably only just passing by, and dropped in when he heard the commotion, and hence just happened to witness the scene. 

Seated, he was currently quietly sipping away on his tea. He wasn’t particularly interested in interrogating, mostly because Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian had softly explained everything to Yan Sheng. The remnants of the counter was still piled on the floor, the ground was also covered in dust, so the explanation was very clear. Whatever the case was, the person at fault for this situation would not be Hua Rong Yue. 

Xiao Han had still been squatting at one side. After Wan Fu Lian shot him a hinted glance, he turned to leave.

He couldn’t exactly do anything about this just because Hua Rong Yue knew martial arts.

Why was that so? Because Hua Rong Yue had announced this on his very first day here. 

—“I’d roamed the jianghu for a period of time in the past.”

Everyone at the apothecary knew about this, Yan Sheng had also heard from Physician Qi before. Hua Rong Yue was transparent and clear about his background, and had no intentions of hiding it. Speaking of which, whenever this was brought up in the past, Physician Qi would always find it a little amusing, now however… he didn’t quite know how to respond. 

Of course, if Hua Rong Yue were to say even one wrong thing, Yan Sheng who was drinking his cup of tea wouldn’t be as peaceful as he was now. 

But this wasn’t exactly something easy for Hua Rong Yue to smoke through, after all, Yan Sheng was a professional in this field; it would be easy as drinking water for him to tell if someone was lying or not. Hua Rong Yue didn’t overestimate herself by attempting to lie straight in the face of the future head of the Doors of Six division, it’d be really too easy to see through, and what would follow suit would be questions about why she was lying. 

However, there was still some ambiguity for Hua Rong Yue to navigate her words — after all, she wasn’t the real Yi Ling Long, before transmigrating over, she was a mundane civil servant. 

Hence she was gonna mix her experiences of these two different lives, and pull out whatever was more suitable to answer the question.  

No matter what her reply was, it was something that had really happened before, and Hua Rong Yue herself too felt more grounded and confident to say it. This was also the first time she had such a smooth experience lying. 

Despite the fact that she was still a little nervous on the inside, Hua Rong Yue told herself to calm. ♢ CHRONOLOGY OF A HUNDRED HERBS, CHAPTER 11 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢ 

Yan Sheng looked down as he drank his tea; his face was expressionless, so Hua Rong Yue had no idea whether he believed her or not. Whatever the case was, Yan Sheng had not expressed any visible violent reaction, neither did he proceed to cuff Hua Rong Yue, so Hua Rong Yue understood it as all’s clear. 

”You mentioned previously that you weren’t interested in the jianghu?”

Hua Rong Yue replied: “Yes.”

”How rare.” Yan Sheng placed down his cup, “given your abilities, you definitely must have made a reputation for yourself in the jianghu, what brought you here then?”

This was a question probing her about her background. If she didn’t respond properly, things might take a downhill turn from here. So this was a question that she had to reply very very carefully. 

On the surface, this was a simple question, but it was also a very visible and evident trap.

Hua Rong Yue looked at the table, and sank into silence for a moment.

She didn’t say things like people had to work hard, or things like the jianghu was too dangerous and merciless. Her reply was instead something that sounded almost careless and unaffecting, “because I’m tired, I want to take a break.” 

After the reply, Yan Sheng suddenly swallowed all the follow up question that he had been preparing to ask.

He looked at Hua Rong Yue, poignant sentiments couldn’t help but surface on his forever stern face. Hua Rong Yue had no idea what it was that Yan Sheng had braincannoned about of her past for her. Yan Sheng looked down too, and sipped his tea in silence, 

There’s always something happening in the jianghu every day. There were many that join and many that leave, each with their own differing reasons. Among those that leave, “I’m tired” was not an uncommon reason, but it was a reason that would leave the curious person speechless. 

Not only so, this was also a rather common response from those that are relatively skilled but end up leaving the jianghu. 

As Hua Rong Yue and Yan Sheng clash full on in a “battle of wits”, Physician Qi and Wan Fu Lian were on the other side tidying up the collapsed counter, whispering away.

”What do you think is Hua Rong Yue’s background?” Even though Hua Rong Yue had been here for two months, the two of them seemed as though this was the first time meeting him.

”How would I know, I don’t know martial arts.”

”Don’t you read the illustrated books often? What do they write about in those books.” 

”Me? Yes I do read those but I haven’t travelled the jianghu and I’m not skilled enough to either.” Wan Fu Lian looked speechless. 

But she turned around and sneaked a glance at Hua Rong Yue before she said to Physician Qi: “I think Rong Yue’s must have hailed from somewhere established, do you recall back when he first came?”

”What about it?”