20 A Rich Flavour of Wine

Huan Meirong was unaware that they were being tailed behind by one handsome but cold young man; even though all of her senses, minus her sight now, were sharp because of her past training, she couldn't notice it and that was with the fact that she was deepening them to be aware of her surroundings.

This noisy streets were perfect for her to know where to walk, she could hear the voices of the little store vendors at both sides of the streets, their customers and also the ones that were behind of the little street stores that from what she could hear were the stores that had an actual building to sell; the steps of the people there sounded different as those people were walking on the floor while the ones on the little stores walked around the ground as the stores on the streets where surely just a wide table with their things to sell on it. There were quite of them but not too many as not all the owners of the store buildings let another store, for smaller that it were, be in front of them.

Even so, she still let Zhi'er guide her all the way. Though she had more or less familiarized with the strangeness of her situation and wanted to give it a try by herself, it would be weird if she were to be found out. Moreover, without her soul sense, she had no way to find out the inanimate things unless someone made noise with them or had a strong scent so if she were to stumble upon a rock with so many people around, that would be disastrous.

Therefore, with a restricted urge to walk by herself, Zhi'er led her from one street to another until they finally arrived at their destination.

"Eldest miss, it's here. This way please, there are two steps so careful, eldest miss." Zhi'er helped her climb the couple of steps and they entered a simple one-floor wooden building.

There were no decorations inside but just two showcases to the left and right with some jewellery worth some silver and gold, and in front of the door entrance, at the back, was a wooden desk with and grey-robed old man seated behind it.

The old man raised his head when he heard someone entering and he saw two people coming towards him. He glanced at the two and noticed that the little kid was clad in a rather tattered servant robe while the young woman who was grabbing onto his shoulder dressed a worn out white gown, she also had her upper body shrouded by a veiled hat that seemed to be new; it was an odd sight that made him frown. He was so focused on their outfits and appearance that he didn't notice anything else, making him adopt an arrogant standing.

Huan Meirong felt a not-so-kind and haughty eyes looking at their direction. She had felt some inquiring eyes before on the streets but they had only given a glimpse before getting back to their businesses; even so, the majority of them had been like the old man, throwing a derisive look and smug poised before turning back.

"There is no food here for you to ask," the old man said with a rough and grumpy voice.

'An old man?' she wondered before nodding to herself, 'He smells like one, indeed.' She was more occupied on seeing with her other senses to know the things around her that she let pass the clear irreverence and mocking in his words. So before the old man and his arrogance spoiled her exploring mood, she calmly said as she assumed the old man was the counter, "If we were looking for food, we wouldn't have come here. Neither will us, if this were to be a big shop."

The old man was astounded with his last phrase. At first, he thought that she might not have understood but her ending sentence was implying the opposite. Moreover, the tone of the female before him had been so calm and steady that it didn't sound like a beggars' speech.

Huan Meirong wasn't going to let the old man ponder enough into her wording, hence she quickly added with the same calmness while taking out one of the twin hairpins and passed it to him, "How much can you gave me for this hairpin?"

"Woah, so beautiful," Zhi'er said after having waking up from his frozen state; he more or less understood what was going on but he wasn't as quick-witted yet to have a prompt reaction.

Huan Meirong felt it a bit funny; he was just a kid, after all. Even so, she had to find a good way to teach him properly.

The wonder of the old man had long stopped and was inspecting the fine bluish hairpin. He couldn't asses the material but he assumed it was jade; a kind of jade that must be too common for him to not know of it. The design was simple too and it has two little characters that said Mingxing.

"Twenty silver coins," he put the hairpin on the counter and said after giving it a thought. He has put it some worth because of how smooth and fine it was the work.

The corners of Huan Meirong's cherry lips twitched, it seemed that she had overestimated the poor eyes of the people running this store. She kept quiet mourning her delusion.

Not getting a reply, the old man was getting impatient.

He opened his mouth to speak but it wasn't his voice what he heard but the negative answer of the veiled female.

"That can't do, this hairpin is worth much more. Zhi'er we go," she said while taking back the hairpin, keeping it in her hand; she knew that if she were to bargain the rise on the price wouldn't be too much. Moreover, she wasn't used to do something like bargaining.

"Aye," Zhi'er nodded; he didn't know why his miss had declined but he thought that such beautiful hairpin must be at least worth many gold coins.

The old man didn't stop them and just furrowed his brows. He was displeased and wanted to curse for making him waste his time but he didn't do it.

"Hmph," he just harrumphed and crossed his arms to rest, forgetting whatever displeasure he could have had…

"Eldest miss, that old man must really be old. Eldest miss hairpin is obviously the best. If I could, Zhi'er would offer thousands of gold."

"Pff…" She laughed merrily like the birds and released Zhi'ers shoulder, saying amid her laughter, "It seems that Zhi'er had better eyesight than many."

Zhi'er smiled happily because of his miss praise but to his bad, he got distracted and Huan Meirong tripped with a stone.

She too was distracted as she was laughing, making her have a late response to manoeuvre her body and not fall. Even so, by instinct, she dropped the hairpin that was still on her hand and reached out both of her hands to hold onto whatever it might be in front.

*Auch* she exclaimed but she hadn't fallen onto the ground but bumped with a person, a person who had a rich flavour of wine.