Sunflower

Sally puffed out her chest with a hint of pride: "I taught myself!"

"After leaving the orphanage, I put a lot of effort into learning this craft. After all, Crow's throat needs someone to treat it, and among the three of us, I'm the only one who can do it."

"Actually, it's not just me. Crow is an expert at setting traps and tinkering with gunpowder. He usually manages to bring back small animals like wild rabbits and marmots for us to supplement our meat intake, or to sell their pelts."

"As for that guy Silverback, he specializes in hunting. He's quite sensitive to the scent and tracks of animals and is often seen chasing after wild boar families all over the mountains."

"Is that so." Lude felt a flicker of interest in these three—it turned out they weren't entirely illiterate after all.

"Take this Evergreen Grass, for example." Sally seemed eager to impress Lude. She grabbed a stalk of Evergreen Grass and said, "One part Evergreen Grass, three parts Isatis Root, plus some Cave Moss, and you can make pills that invigorate the spirit and cure colds."

Lude listened quietly, committing Sally's somewhat crude methods to memory.

Sally's rough approach was that of a herbalist; an apothecary would choose to boil the materials into potions, while an alchemist would go further to extract the spiritual essence contained within the ingredients.

However, Lude currently knew nothing about the mystical world, so any knowledge was precious to him.

"And this one." Sally grabbed a bright green herb: "This is Green Mud Herb, which can be used to..."

"Used to extract the efficacy of herbs."

Lude spoke up: "Its scientific name is Hepa Grass, though it's actually a type of fern that grows in the mud."

"If you boil Hepa Grass at a low temperature until it forms a paste, it can be used to extract the medicinal properties of herbs. It's quite effective when making high-grade concoctions. In some backward regions, they even use the extracted Hepa Grass paste to cure meat, creating medicinal jerky."

Lude enjoyed communicating with capable people, especially those who had real substance.

When the sun moved to its zenith, Lude took out his pocket watch and glanced at it: "It's noon already. Would you like to grab a bite to eat together?"

"Hmm..." Sally's eyes darted around, and she smiled: "If Mr. Hastings is treating, then I'll go!"

As she spoke, she stuck out her tongue: "It's mostly because I don't have the money to eat at those restaurants... I'm sorry."

Clearly, after the events of the morning, the distance between Sally and Lude had diminished significantly.

"Alright." Lude laughed: "It's just a meal; I can certainly afford to treat you."

With that, Lude took Sally and retraced their steps back to the shopping street.

At the corner where the shopping street intersected with the central road, there was a cafe with quite exquisite decor.

In this era without mobile phones or computers, cafes served as the "second living room" for intellectuals, artists, journalists, merchants, and bureaucrats. They would read newspapers, discuss current events, write, play chess, or talk business here, sometimes staying all day on their days off.

The moment she stepped into the cafe, Sally shrank back in timidity.

Sally was not a child prone to cowardice.

Even though she had been so scared she wet herself when Lude pinned her against the wall, that was merely a physiological stress response; her mind had remained capable of calmly analyzing the situation and speaking up at the most appropriate moment to ease the tension.

Yet, at this moment, Sally felt timid because she realized that everyone sitting here was impeccably dressed.

This was the only cafe in the town, and because of that, those sitting here were the dozen or so most respectable people in the small town.

The moment Sally walked into the cafe, she sensed how out of place she was, and she couldn't help but take a step back.

It was at this moment that several of the guests cast their gazes over.

First, they glanced at Sally's delicate face, then at her coarse cloth dress washed until it had faded to white, and finally at her slender, bare feet stained with dust.

Consequently, some of these gazes were filled with curiosity, some with disgust, and others with mockery and derision.

Sally's face flushed red with embarrassment once more, her small toes curling tightly into the gaps in the floorboards.

This was the first time Sally had been stared at by so many people at once. Even on the few occasions she had been caught, it was usually just two or three people kicking her to the ground by the roadside, with perhaps a few onlookers, but their gazes were far less complex than this.

Moreover, compared to her own embarrassment, she was more afraid that she might be making Lude feel embarrassed as well.

"Um..."

She tugged at the corner of Lude's coat: "I'm sorry, Mr. Hastings, why don't we go somewhere else?"

However, Lude simply shook his head.

He reached out a hand and placed it on Sally's thin shoulder, guiding her straight into the cafe.

As Sally's figure was enveloped by Lude's presence, those gazes naturally shifted onto him; yet, the moment these eyes landed on Lude, the curiosity, disgust, mockery, and derision melted away like fine snow meeting the sun.

They recoiled as if burned by hot coals, hastily retracting their gazes.

Lude had long since changed out of the Obsidian Hall uniform that might cause trouble. Today, he wore a simple iron-gray wool suit coat, a gunmetal-colored tie knotted at the collar of his white shirt, and an iron-gray fedora on his head.

But even with such plain attire, it could not hide the chilling, sharp edge he carried.

Lude sat down with the still-restrained Sally at a sunlit window. The area around them had somehow become quiet; the loud conversations had quietly turned into whispers, and gazes shifted over repeatedly only to dart away in a panic.

A waiter walked over quietly and handed Lude a menu.

A cafe was not a tavern, so naturally, there were no heavy dishes like braised pork knuckles or smoked sheep heads. Lude simply ordered a cold-cut platter with cheese and pickles, two smoked salmon sandwiches, four boiled eggs, and a bowl of sour cream borscht.

Lude also ordered an Irish coffee, which was hot coffee spiked with whiskey and sugar.

"Um..." Sally's face was still flushed with shyness, her small, dust-covered toes intertwined as she whispered: "I'm sorry, Mr. Hastings, I've embarrassed you... but this is the best clothing I have, really..."

She felt she had never been so embarrassed in her entire life.

However, Lude just shook his head gently, picked up his glass, and said in a deep voice: "Those who only dare to speak loudly when dressed in finery undoubtedly still harbor cowardice in their hearts; if you cannot hold your spine straight, even in fine robes, you will only be treated as a monkey in a suit by others."

"A tiger or leopard that has left the pack need not care for the gaze of lambs; timidity and kneeling are never the etiquette of the strong."

Sally swallowed hard. She could hardly imagine the quiet power within Lude's words, nor could she fathom where this state of mind of his came from; but she knew she admired it, and from the bottom of her heart, she looked up to this calm and resolute demeanor of his.

Not only filled with reverence but also yearning, much like a sunflower desperately trying to grow into the likeness of the sun.

How wonderful, she thought to herself.