Chapter 15: Cleverness
Zhao Rong didn't pay attention to the tea, his focus was entirely on the little girl opposite him.
His suspicious gaze swept back and forth.
She looked to be about ten years old, wearing a thin emerald-green dress with a pink flower in her hair, and had snowy-white skin with a delicate and adorable face.
She held a teacup in her hands, her face brimming with an innocent smile.
Noticing Zhao Rong's gaze, she playfully blinked her eyes.
"Good brother, you've been staring at me for so long, is there a flower on my face?" she said, reaching up to rub her little face.
Zhao Rong felt a mix of emotions, as if he was punching into cotton.
No matter what, he couldn't think of...
That the formidable expert he viewed as a great adversary would have such a... cute appearance.
"Little girl, who sent you here, and are your parents around?" he asked unwillingly.
She didn't rush to respond to Zhao Rong.
She tipped the teacup, spilling out the tea, then rolled up her sleeve to reveal a section of her fair and tender arm, using her finger to write "Huiyan Tower" on the table, signaling Zhao Rong to look.
The handwriting was about seventy to eighty percent similar to the contents of the letter.
"Do the characters look familiar?"
Zhao Rong, deep in thought, silently nodded without speaking.
But soon, he was interrupted from his thoughts by her clear voice.
"Good brother, you can't call me little girl, only people of my grandfather's generation call me that. You're only five years older than me, you could call me little sister or sweet sister, but you definitely cannot add an unnecessary generation between us."
Zhao Rong was corrected and was momentarily stunned.
This little girl was witty and clever, her speech logical, and her eyes shone with intelligence, not at all like a ten-year-old child.
No wonder she dared to stay alone in Huiyan Tower.
He quickly dropped his playful and patronizing attitude and smiled at her in friendship.
He then introduced himself very formally:
"My name is Zhao Rong, I presume little sister is already aware. You can call me Rong, there's no need for formalities."
Seeing him get serious, the little girl also sat up a bit straighter.
"Rong, Grandpa calls me Feifei, you can call me that too."
As she mentioned "Grandpa," her face showed an affectionate yearning.
Little did she know...
Upon hearing her nickname, Zhao Rong, sitting across from her, jolted.
Feifei?
That name was so familiar!
Wait a minute...
Hengyang, Huiyan Tower, Feifei, Grandpa...
And add to that the clever and lively nature of the little girl, Zhao Rong's brain buzzed, and a name was on the tip of his tongue.
In an instant, he thought of a great amount of related information.
Feeling a surge of emotions within, Zhao Rong couldn't help but raise his teacup.
His nimble tactic of drinking water didn't let the clever girl catch anything unusual.
"Feifei," Zhao Rong murmured softly, and the girl hummed in acknowledgment.
"Your grandpa has been following me around these past days, will he come to Huiyan Tower today?"
The little girl paused for a second, her bright eyes drifting over, while Zhao Rong looked at the chrysanthemums in his teacup.
"Grandpa is at the qin studio on Xi Gu Street up front listening to the music. I heard that a player of the clear lute from Zhe County has come to play Ji Kang's 'Four Movements.' Grandpa treasures Ji Kang's compositions, not to mention a musician from faraway Zhe County—he might get to hear a bit of the Wei and Jin dynasties' homeland accent."
"Grandpa won't be coming to Huiyan Tower."
Zhe County and Suixi were the ancestral homes of Ji Kang.
The 'Four Movements' by Ji combined with the 'Five Movements' by Cai to form the 'Nine Movements.' Zhao Rong, having learned Xie Lin's Ancient Lost Sounds from Lu Shilai and because of his connection with Liu, was quite eager for news about Ji Kang's 'Guangling San' and other such pieces.
Thus, as soon as the little girl spoke, Zhao Rong was absorbed into the conversation.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly with satisfaction.
This was like a steel needle falling into an oil pot, sharp and slippery, and Feifei was unwittingly coaxed into speaking by Zhao Rong.
The girl was still young... no, she was still too immature.
He truly was a bit rascally, having lived two lifetimes, and taking advantage of a young girl hardly counted as a skill.
"It seems that the expert who secretly observed us the other day really was her grandfather."
"He Sanqi said that person had no ill will."
"Judging from her attitude now, He's assessment was correct."
Zhao Rong breathed a huge sigh of relief inwardly, as being watched by an unknown expert was indeed a heart-wrenching and exhausting matter.
"In that case, was it Feifei who specifically invited me here?"
"Yes."
When it came to serious matters, the young girl's eyes brimmed with great goodwill.
She tilted up her small face slightly and spoke with a crisp voice:
"Rong, do you still remember the incident from one and a half months ago?"
"Which incident?"
"That evening, on Wild Goose Pagoda Street towards the west city gate, in a narrow alley, where you fought with a bandit and killed him before leaving with serious injuries. At that time, I saw your staggering figure and wanted to chase after you to ask for your name."
"But you left in a hurry, and I twisted my ankle, couldn't catch up with you, and I was afraid to shout for fear it would attract other thieves..."
Feifei's small face was full of admiration, "Rong is the heroic wanderer of Jianghu my grandfather speaks of, who draws his sword to help at the sight of injustice and leaves without a trace or name after the deed is done."
"I truly admire you for that."
Zhao Rong's head buzzed, as memories of that time flared up like a revolving lantern.
"So you were the young girl that the bandits had cornered that day!"
He had a stroke of fortune, his pupils dilating as he looked the girl over carefully—she certainly resembled her!
Back then, to save this young girl, he had endured the man's vicious palm strike.
The overwhelming palm strength had nearly burned his insides.
He hadn't expected...
"Mhm, mhm, it was indeed me!"
"My grandfather and I were being pursued by our enemies. He held them off and told me to enter Hengyang first, but I happened upon a gang conflict. I've learned a bit of martial arts from my grandfather's instruction, though it was mostly theory, and I was no match for that person in real combat."
"If it weren't for the kind brother who took action to save my life, Feifei would not have had the chance to be here at the Huiyan Tower today."
"My grandfather didn't feel at ease leaving me alone before, but knowing I was meeting you, he went off to listen to music on his own."
Zhao Rong watched her face, brimming with joy, and couldn't help but crack a relieved smile.
All the puzzles in his mind suddenly cleared away.
He leaned back slightly in his chair and assumed a more relaxed and comfortable posture, taking another sip of tea, his heart filled with deep emotions.
Who would have thought such fate existed in this world?
After rescuing her that day, Zhao Rong had not given a thought to meeting her again by fate.
But he still had doubts...
"The gang turmoil in Hengyang was fierce, causing merchants and citizens to avoid it at all costs. Since Feifei entered the city to take refuge, how did you get involved in it?"
"Could it be that the man was so cruel and ruthless to attack a young girl like you without any reason?"
The young girl glanced around and whispered in a low voice:
"It's just because..."
"As I passed through the narrow alley by accident, I saw him colluding with a Hengshan Sect disciple. The man was wearing the attire of the Hengshan Sect, I couldn't have mistaken it. Therefore, he wanted to silence me by killing me. Luckily, he was overconfident, telling that Hengshan disciple to leave first; otherwise, Rong, you might have struggled against the two of them together."
Zhao Rong, who had just relaxed and was enjoying his lean against the chair, stiffened upon hearing this, and immediately sat up straight again.
What was going on?
Another... another mole!
That man clearly had the same martial arts style as the fake cook; they were both in cahoots with Hai Sha Gang from Sha Corner Island, causing trouble around Hengyang and jointly targeting Hengshan Sect. Now there was even a Hengshan Sect disciple as an insider.
This... the Hengshan Sect had become a sieve.
The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.
His heart immediately went topsy-turvy, and he almost wanted to run far away from the vortex of Hengyang, to become a disciple under Huashan Yue.
But... never mind, the waters of Mount Hua were even murkier.
Perhaps shaving his head to become a monk and sweeping the floors in the Shaolin Temple's scripture library was the safest route, a great opportunity to delve deeply into the Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture.
Such difficulty...
The paths of the Martial World are slippery, and the hearts of people complex.
...