Today’s events had left Yu Jiuling expecting a scene drenched in blood.

Instead, even the contest between Li Chi and that general of theirs hadn’t looked particularly dangerous.

And in the end, the determination of victory and defeat had come down to the fact that Li Chi had eaten one more bun than the other fellow.

Yu Jiuling thought: if things were going to end this way, why bother fighting at all — just come in and eat buns from the start.

—

“You changed your mind at the last moment?”

Shen Rujian looked at the bun in her hands, lowered her head, and sniffed it. To her, this thick, heavy meatiness was a touch strong.

But she decided to try it anyway. It wasn’t that she had never eaten buns before — only that she had never eaten ones this plain.

She approached life with great refinement — much like her standards for wine, if no one else’s suited her, she would brew her own. With clothing, she didn’t wear silk brocade because it was uncomfortable; her linen robes looked ordinary but every single one was meticulously made.

If she wanted to eat buns, she would probably have chosen costly fillings, not this simple pork and green onion — and light on the onion at that, packed mostly with meat, so that when you bit in, savory broth seeped out.

The broth filled the mouth — that was fragrance flowing between the teeth and lips.

“Are you hungry?”

Li Chi didn’t answer her question, but asked one of his own, entirely unrelated.

Shen Rujian shook her head slightly. “Not hungry.”

Li Chi reached out without ceremony, took the bun from her hand, and finished it in two or three bites.

He wiped the corner of his mouth and said to Shen Rujian: “If you want something like this, wait until you’re truly hungry first.”

Shen Rujian’s brow furrowed slightly.

She did not eat food that someone else had touched, nor did she like others to eat food she had touched.

Li Chi clearly didn’t care at all — because in his view, a person who wasn’t even hungry eating a bun like this was a disrespect to the bun.

For Shen Rujian’s part, had someone else eaten food she had touched, her expression would have gone cold already.

But Li Chi simply took it and ate, and she only furrowed her brow faintly.

Even Lu Qingluan found it strange. The moment Li Chi had reached for the bun, Lu Qingluan had already readied himself to pull Li Chi away.

“Ah—”

Li Chi still seemed somewhat dissatisfied, as though one bun hadn’t been enough. He returned to the table, sat down, and thought longingly of how nice it would be to have a hot bowl of dumpling-drop soup right now.

He appeared to have only just remembered Shen Rujian’s question, and looked over at her. “I did change my mind before the fighting started.”

Shen Rujian asked: “Because those men were battle-hardened veterans?”

“Yes.”

Li Chi said: “Even if we’d won, we would have lost quite a few brothers on our side.”

Shen Rujian asked again: “Yet by making acquaintances with a Yuzhou military general this way, when you actually get to Yuzhou, things will be even more dangerous.”

Li Chi said: “My luck is good.”

Shen Rujian said: “I don’t care for people who leave success and failure to luck.”

Li Chi said: “I’m not asking you to care for me.”

Shen Rujian’s brow creased again, and this time even Lu Qingluan’s expression shifted with a touch of anxiety. He genuinely dreaded the mistress losing her temper.

He had only ever seen Shen Rujian lose her temper once, but the impression that once had left was far too vivid.

Li Chi had no sense of the situation at all, and seemed completely unable to read that Shen Rujian’s emotions had begun to stir.

He sat there, as though speaking to himself: “Still, what you said is right — going to Anyang City this way may turn out more dangerous than expected. So you should head back.”

Shen Rujian regarded Li Chi with the gaze of a senior looking upon a young person who thought overly well of himself.

She realized she still knew far too little about Li Chi. She had always assumed Li Chi was sufficiently mature for his age.

Now she understood — he was ultimately still a youth. How mature, really, could he be?

Young people’s thinking tends toward simplicity and impracticality.

Li Chi noticed the changes in Shen Rujian’s expression, waited a moment, and when she said nothing, continued: “If you come along, it would be very troublesome.”

Shen Rujian continued to look at him with that same expression.

Li Chi couldn’t help sighing softly. “If you insist on going — have you considered what role you would play there?”

He said with genuine seriousness: “Right now that Yuzhou military general believes I’m the owner of Shen Medical Hall. And you are a woman who is beautiful beyond reason.”

Shen Rujian finally reacted. She sat there, one hand resting on the table, and it was visibly clear that her hand was beginning to exert pressure.

In that moment, Lu Qingluan grew infinitely tense.

Because Li Chi’s words could plainly be taken as an act of provocation — even if he understood what Li Chi meant.

A woman like Shen Rujian, as beautiful and composed as she was — going to a strange, dangerous place like Anyang City, the number of problems she might face could be considerable.

If she insisted on going, the only identity that might reduce those problems somewhat was… Li Chi’s wife.

Shen Rujian could take Li Chi’s words as provocation. And even if they weren’t provocation, this was Li Chi taking advantage of her.

Yet in Li Chi’s view, he was the one being put upon.

Li Chi genuinely felt he was getting the worse end of things, because she was not Gao Xining.

Lu Qingluan was deeply on edge — he glanced at Shen Rujian, then at Li Chi, thinking whether he should step forward or simply back out of the way.

Li Chi had not the slightest awareness of any of this, and didn’t notice at all that Shen Rujian’s emotions were gradually shifting.

He sat there, as though thinking aloud: “If I told others you were my wife, that would be the most practical arrangement — but I’m not happy about it.”

In this moment, Lu Qingluan’s eyes shot wide open.

Li Chi was suggesting that the mistress pretend to be his wife — and he was not happy about it?!

He wasn’t happy about it!

Shen Rujian, sitting at the table, suddenly let out a soft laugh. She genuinely didn’t seem angry, just a light, easy smile.

The moment Lu Qingluan saw Shen Rujian smile, he braced himself to sprint.

And yet Li Chi went on, perfectly self-possessed.

He said: “Besides, you’re a bit old for the part.”

In that instant, Lu Qingluan took one step forward — not to deal with Li Chi, but because he was already calculating whether he could actually save Li Chi’s life.

“Fine, then.”

Just as he had moved, he suddenly heard Shen Rujian reply.

She said: “Fine, then.”

Lu Qingluan’s movement stopped dead.

He looked at Shen Rujian in utter disbelief — an expression that suggested the Shen Rujian before him was a counterfeit.

Shen Rujian rose, turned, and left. Her hands clasped behind her back, her bearing entirely composed — as though she genuinely felt no dissatisfaction whatsoever.

She walked and spoke at the same time: “We’ll do as you say.”

Then she went upstairs.

Li Chi looked at Lu Qingluan. “Why did you suddenly get so warm? Your face is covered in sweat.”

Lu Qingluan looked at him, thinking to himself: boy, you don’t know how lucky you are.

He slowly turned to look at the spot where Shen Rujian had been sitting, as though a heavenly thunderbolt were hidden there, and approached with great care.

When he reached it, he extended his hand and gently touched the table…

With a crash, the table shattered.

Then another crash — the chair Shen Rujian had been sitting in shattered as well.

Li Chi’s expression changed. He seemed to finally sense that something was off.

Lu Qingluan pointed at the floor — the spot where Shen Rujian’s feet had been planted.

Two foot-shaped outlines. The stone flagging beneath each foot had been ground to powder.

Master Ye, who had been standing not far off watching the rain, turned and looked for a moment, then slowly exhaled.

Then he said to Li Chi: “I don’t think I could beat her.”

Li Chi blinked, and then exhaled too.

He looked at Lu Qingluan, offered a somewhat awkward smile, and asked: “When you go up — could you ask your mistress whether passing as mother and son might also work.”

Boom!

A thunderous crack from upstairs — followed by two doors flying off their hinges and sailing down.

Yu Jiuling ducked instantly behind Master Ye, his face gone white with fright.

He looked at Li Chi, thinking: head of the family, I think you’ve provoked a great monster.

—

Upstairs, sitting down in her room, Shen Rujian’s face had gone somewhat pale. Li Chi’s last remark — the one about passing as mother and son — had truly enraged her.

She was always so composed, always so warm and temperate — and no matter how confident she was, in many people’s eyes she was simply an accomplished woman.

Yet who knew why she had been able to leave her sect alone and walk the world.

Who knew how a young girl, alone in the martial world with no experience whatsoever, had not only come through unscathed, but had every year returned with more girls she had rescued.

Who knew how, having no experience of the martial world at all, she had managed to build Shen Medical Hall from nothing with her own hands.

It was enough to make her stomach hurt.

But just then, she suddenly recalled something Gao Xining had said — that thing is really quite fun.

Because she thought of that line, Shen Rujian suddenly let out a soft laugh.

Whether the thing was fun or not she still didn’t know — but it was truly infuriating.

—

Downstairs, Li Chi lowered his voice and asked Lu Qingluan with great caution: “She… mentally… is roughly… perfectly fine, right?”

Lu Qingluan looked at him with helpless resignation, thinking: you don’t even know how lucky you are.

So he offered a reminder: “The fact that you’re still standing here unharmed can only mean your luck is genuinely extraordinary.”

Worried that Shen Rujian might still be angry, he sighed, shot Li Chi another look, and hurried upstairs.

Li Chi wondered: was his luck truly that good?

Well then — what was there to fear…

Li Chi walked with studied nonchalance to Master Ye’s side, and stood there too, hands clasped behind his back, watching the rain.

Master Ye said: “Stop pretending. If you want to ask something, just ask.”

Li Chi smiled sheepishly, then asked: “You really can’t beat her?”

Master Ye narrowed his eyes and looked at Li Chi for a moment, said nothing, and went back to watching the rain.

Li Chi leaned back and peered sideways at Master Ye’s hands, then sighed. “Master Ye’s palms are awfully red.”

Master Ye snapped his head toward Li Chi.

Li Chi was already gone.

Yu Jiuling reflexively sidestepped out of the way, thinking to himself: people always say it’s him who deserves a beating — but compared to Li Chi, he really was a decent, trustworthy person.

—

About half an hour later.

Chen Dawei and Gang Gang came back from outside, both of them soaked through despite the rain capes they had worn — capes that, in a downpour like this, had done very little.

Chen Dawei came in, saw the smashed tables and chairs in the sitting room, and carefully asked: “Who lost their temper?”

Yu Jiuling said: “Nobody. The head of the family farted and the force blew it apart.”

Gang Gang crouched down to examine the evidence — looked at the two foot-shaped impressions, the shattered floor beneath each one.

And he believed it.

He was convinced this had to have been done while squatting.

Chen Dawei said to Li Chi: “We tracked them the whole way — they’ve pulled back. Not a single person left behind.”

Li Chi gave a nod. This Yuzhou military general — he might not have been a particularly upright man in all things, but he was certainly a man who kept his word.

“Among the Yuzhou medicine merchants waiting at the door as that man returned, we heard them call him General Ding.”

Gang Gang said: “With martial skill like his, and a general’s rank in Anyang City — it shouldn’t be hard to find out who he is.”

Chen Dawei said: “Head of the family, want us to grab someone to ask?”

Li Chi shook his head. “No need.”

He turned the man’s martial skill over in his mind, then spoke quietly, half to himself.

“Ding Shengjia — under the command of Anyang City garrison general Meng Kedi.”

Chen Dawei was taken aback. “How does the head of the family already know his name?”

Li Chi said: “After we returned to Jizhou, I asked one of the Yuzhou army’s men who besides Meng Kedi was worth keeping in mind in Anyang City.”

The man Li Chi had asked at the time had replied: under General Meng Kedi’s command, two of his war leaders had names worth remembering.

A malevolent one, and a butcher.

The malevolent one: Xue Chunbao. The butcher: Ding Shengjia.

—

Meanwhile, upstairs.

Lu Qingluan asked Shen Rujian carefully: “Mistress, are you… all right?”

Shen Rujian smiled and shook her head. “I’m fine.”

Lu Qingluan found this inconceivable, and added: “Li Chi… he truly has a way of getting under your skin, but I don’t think he means any harm.”

Shen Rujian walked to the window and looked out at the pouring rain.

“Li Chi did it deliberately. Do you really think he’s that oblivious?”

Shen Rujian said quietly: “If he didn’t test me first, how could he truly dare bring me along? That thing… is genuinely a little fun.”