Young hero, stay put and don't be reckless.

Chapter 103 We Meet Again

Jiang Xun left the town's border government office; it was almost dark.

The evenings at Tiebei Pass are colder than the days.

The wind blew in from the north, cutting my face like a knife, stinging painfully.

The streets were much less crowded, and shops were closing one after another. Only a few inns and taverns still had dim lights on, with light leaking through the cracks in the doors and casting long shadows on the ground.

Jiang Xun followed Xu Zhe's instructions and headed west of the city.

Old Zhou's Inn is located at the entrance of an alley. The storefront is small, and the signboard is crooked from the wind. The paint on the four characters "Old Zhou's Inn" has almost completely peeled off, leaving only the characters "Zhou" and "Inn" barely legible.

Jiang Xun pushed open the door and went in.

The place wasn't big; there were four or five tables, but only two tables were occupied by customers.

At one table were several businessmen who were talking in hushed tones, as if afraid of being overheard.

At the other table sat a lone man with his back to the door, dressed in a gray cloth robe and wearing a straw hat pulled low over his head, obscuring his face.

Behind the counter sat an old man, about sixty years old, with a face full of wrinkles, holding a teapot in his hand, resting with his eyes closed, like a clay sculpture.

Hearing the door open, he slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Jiang Xun.

"Stay at a hotel or have a meal?"

"Check in, but let's eat first." Jiang Xun walked over and placed a piece of silver on the counter. "Just bring a couple of dishes."

The old man glanced at the silver, then gestured towards the corner with his lip: "Sit there and wait."

After saying that, he closed his eyes again, as if the silver coins weren't enough to keep them open.

Jiang Xun sat down in the corner, thinking to himself that this old man was different because Xu Zhe was protecting him; he didn't even flinch when business came in.

He ordered a pot of tea and sipped it slowly.

The tea was coarse, with an earthy smell, but it was hot.

Jiang Xun drank two cups, and finally felt a little warmer, and his hands stopped shaking.

The businessmen at that table chatted for a while before dispersing, their footsteps gradually fading into the distance.

The inn quieted down, leaving only Jiang Xun and the guest wearing a straw hat.

The wick popped with a "pop," the flame flickered, and the shadow swayed on the wall.

Jiang Xun sipped his tea listlessly, his mind preoccupied with the prospect of leaving the seclusion the day after tomorrow.

Although he promised Xu Zhe that he would investigate the smuggling of crossbows, he had no clue how to do it.

Lost in thought, I suddenly heard a commotion at the door.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

The curtain was suddenly flung open, and three burly men filed in, reeking of alcohol, which made people frown.

The leader was bald with a scar on his face that stretched from his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth, like a centipede crawling on his face, making him look fierce and menacing.

He slammed his hand on the table as soon as he walked in: "Boss! Bring me a pot of wine!"

With a single strike, the teapot jumped up and made a clanging sound.

The old man clearly didn't want to talk to them, and stood up indifferently: "This shop only sells tea, not wine."

"You don't sell alcohol?" The scarred man glared at him, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "Then what kind of shop do you run?"

He sat down at the table next to Jiang Xun, grumbling and cursing. The other two followed suit, their chairs creaking and groaning as they sat on them.

The scarred man's eyes darted around, then suddenly stopped on the guest wearing a straw hat.

"Oh, there's someone sitting alone here." He stood up, swaying unsteadily over, his steps faltering, reeking of alcohol. "Young lady, all alone? Want your brother to keep you company?"

Jiang Xun paused slightly in the hand holding the teacup.

young lady?

He then noticed that although the person wearing the straw hat was dressed in a loose gray cloth garment that obscured his figure, the exposed part of his neck was fair and slender, and he certainly did not look like a man.

Moreover, the man sat upright with his back straight, completely unlike the burly men.

The other two joined in, laughing and joking.

"Brother, this young lady looks quite nice."

"Come on, take off your straw hats and let your brothers see."

The scarred man reached out and lifted the straw hat.

Jiang Xun put down his teacup and stood up.

For some reason, he suddenly felt a strong urge to play the hero and save the damsel in distress today—perhaps he had been holding back a lot of anger lately and just wanted to find a place to vent it.

"Brothers," he said with a grin, walking over as if chatting with an old friend, "if they don't want to, let's not force them, shall we?"

The scarred man turned around and looked him up and down—skinny, wearing a sheepskin vest and a felt hat, looking like a small-time peddler, with hardly any flesh on his body.

"None of your business!" He frowned, his scars on his face contorting. "Get out of my way."

"It's none of my business," Jiang Xun said with a grin, his hands in his sleeves. "I just couldn't stand it."

"Can't stand it?" The scarred man sneered and threw a punch with tremendous force.

Jiang Xun dodged to the side, and the fist grazed his shoulder before slamming into the pillar behind him with a muffled "bang." Dust fell from the pillar, landing on the burly man's shoulder.

"Oh, you dare to fight back?" The scarred man's face darkened, his face turning red from the alcohol.

The other two also surrounded him, sandwiching Jiang Xun in the middle.

Jiang Xun sighed, looking completely innocent—"I gave you a chance, but you refused to leave."

The scarred man threw another punch, this time faster and harder, aimed straight for his face.

Jiang Xun neither dodged nor avoided, but raised her hand to block, and in the process grabbed his wrist and twisted it—

"Ouch!" The scarred man cried out in pain as he was twisted and bent over, his face almost touching the ground, his elbows making a "crackling" sound.

The other two burly men were stunned for a moment, then grabbed the teapot on the table and smashed it over.

Jiang Xun kicked one of them away, sending him and his chair tumbling to the ground, shattering the teapot. He then punched another man, who squatted on the ground, clutching his nose, blood trickling from between his fingers.

It took no more than three breaths.

The scarred man clutched his arm, his face deathly pale. He was mostly sober now, and his legs were trembling.

"You, you—"

"Get lost." Jiang Xun clapped his hands and glared at them.

The three burly men were startled and scrambled away, the curtain swaying loudly behind them.

The inn fell silent.

The old man stood behind the counter, holding a teapot, and looked expressionlessly at the broken porcelain shards on the ground, then at Jiang Xun.

"If you break something, you have to pay for it."

Jiang Xun breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much better. He didn't care about the old man's "inability to distinguish right from wrong" and took out a piece of silver from his pocket, placing it on the counter.

The old man took the money, turned around and went into the back room. A little while later he came out with a broom and swept the floor, as if nothing had happened.

Jiang Xun returned to his seat, picked up his teacup, and took a sip—refreshing.

"Thank you." A clear, crisp voice came from the side, like a mountain spring falling on a stone slab.

"No need..." Jiang Xun turned his head and saw the guest wearing a bamboo hat stand up and take off the hat.

He was stunned.

Beneath the straw hat was a face he had seen before—a face of ethereal beauty, cool and aloof like a painting.

Ye Qingying.