At a roadside stall, four diners sat around one table. The old scholar had long since pulled a pair of bamboo chopsticks from a bamboo tube and waited eagerly. When the steaming vermicelli casserole was brought over, he picked up a huge bundle, blew on it a few times, then lowered his head and slurped it down.
After wolfing down his food, the old scholar raised his head and asked indistinctly, "Miss Xie, let me ask you something. What sort of person is Jiang She?"
Xie Gou thought for a moment and first respectfully addressed him as Literary Sage Master. "That fellow's temper can be good or bad, depending on the person. If he takes a liking to someone, even a Qi refiner who has only just set foot on the path of cultivation, he can run into them on the road, call them brother, and sincerely regard them as a Fellow Daoist. But if he doesn't like the look of them, that's another matter. He deliberately speaks in a booming voice and makes a great fuss, making people mistake him for a crude boor."
The old scholar said in sudden realization, "Then his temperament is much like mine. When I chat with him later, we'll surely hit it off."
Xie Gou froze.
Liu Xianyang said, "Literary Sage Teacher, Jiang She looks rough, but his mind is fine as a hair and his schemes run deep. The moment he boarded the ship, he used a move to strike first and seize the advantage. Chen Ping'an nearly fell for it."
The old scholar could not help laughing. "Throughout all of history, among those who wanted to establish a teaching and call themselves patriarchs, how many were easy to deal with? Which one lacked great perseverance, great bearing, great learning, and great