Fusion I (Bonus Update-Please Support)

The Su Family's two shops that had been blocked by Garden Celebration Hall.

Once Jiang Jingnian led his men to clear the place, business immediately returned to normal.

Afterward, he led his men to hold the silk shop, drinking tea for over an hour. Only when it was nearly dinner time and Garden Celebration Hall still had not returned with anyone did he finally leave the shop with the escort agency men.

During this time, Su Wanzhi tried once again to persuade Jiang Jingnian and the others to dine with her at a nearby grand restaurant, thanking them for coming to the rescue.

However, Jiang Jingnian had long been eyeing the teapot he had just acquired like a tiger stalking its prey. How could he possibly want to waste any more time?

After refusing repeatedly, he led the others away without looking back.

Once they left the street.

Jiang Jingnian stuffed several silver dollars into Chai Li's hand. "You've all worked hard today. Take this money and have a meal at that old hotpot place across the street. Their sliced mutton is strong enough to hit the spot!"

Ordinary street stalls were also called "Water Eight-Coin Hotpot." They were cheap, originally costing one copper coin for eight slices of meat, and had earned their name from the foreign tin pots divided into eight sections. Most of their customers were laborers, boatmen, trackers, and other common folk at the bottom of society.

Back when Jiang Jingnian pulled rickshaws, he often ate Water Eight-Coin Hotpot. Its numbing spice reminded him greatly of Sichuan-Chongqing hotpot from his previous life.

But now that his status had changed, if he was treating his colleagues to a meal, naturally he had to take them somewhere nicer.

"Oh! All right."

Chai Li did not refuse. She accepted the money, then watched Jiang Jingnian turn to leave and called after him, "Escort Master Jiang, aren't you eating with us?"

"I still have something to do. Next time, definitely!"

Without turning around, Jiang Jingnian waved a hand. Carrying the teapot, his figure soon vanished into the streams of carriages and people beneath the night.

A young apprentice with a crew cut came over and could not help sighing. "Escort Master Jiang truly is a young hero of outstanding talent! Even his interests and hobbies differ from those of rough martial men like us."

They had been watching Escort Master Jiang while they drank tea earlier.

They had seen how unwilling he was to part with that teapot.

The Su Family's young lady had wanted to give it to him outright, but Escort Master Jiang simply would not accept it. After much persuasion, he had insisted on paying ten silver dollars for the teapot.

And he had bought only the teapot. He wanted none of the teacups, tea bowls, or tea saucers from the original set.

"Since ancient times, geniuses have always possessed peculiar habits that ordinary people cannot understand, much less match."

Chai Li nodded and said nothing more, merely calling her colleagues along for mutton hotpot.

Toward Jiang Jingnian, a colleague she had known for only a short while, she felt more numbness than shock.

After all, he had only recently broken through to Blood Tempering, yet the strength of his Iron Body Skill was simply beyond imagination. Forget Blood-Tempering Martial Masters of the same level—even most Bone-Tempering Martial Masters were probably no match for Escort Master Jiang.

Su Silk Cloth Shop, second-floor lounge.

"Mm..."

Qu Lanlan, who had been unconscious in Lu Zhishuang's arms, finally slowly woke.

"Yunyi, you're finally awake?"

Lu Zhishuang looked at the girl opening her bleary eyes, delight showing on her small face. "When I saw you faint earlier, I wanted to find a doctor to take a look! But Sister Qingyin wouldn't allow it. She said you'd simply fallen asleep and were in no serious danger."

As she spoke, she touched Qu Lanlan's arm. "When they grabbed you earlier, they didn't hurt your joints, did they?"

"Jingxi... I..."

Qu Lanlan sat up from Lu Zhishuang's embrace.

Her delicate, beautiful face seemed somewhat downcast. Her gaze wandered, and no one knew what she was thinking.

Seeing this, Lu Zhishuang stopped speaking. She merely lowered her head to arrange Qu Lanlan's loosened braid, smoothing the stray hairs before tying it again.

At that moment, Su Wanzhi entered from outside carrying a bowl of brown sugar water. She placed it before Qu Lanlan, who was staring blankly ahead. "Here! Drink something. Later, I'll take you two to eat, then have the household guards escort you home."

"Oh! Thank you, Sister Qingyin!"

Qu Lanlan accepted the brown sugar water and drank it in tiny sips, like a pitiful little kitten.

After drinking over half the bowl.

She set it down and looked up, only to find Su Wanzhi seated opposite her, watching her expectantly.

"Little Yunyi, tell me honestly. Did you know that young man Jiang before this? Don't tell me you didn't! This afternoon, your eyes were practically glued to him!"

Su Wanzhi stared at Qu Lanlan, her pretty face full of teasing amusement.

Could the two have been childhood playmates?

Then, after growing up, they had gone their separate ways, their statuses worlds apart, only to become a pair of bickering lovers?

Still.

If Young Master Jiang had remained the rickshaw puller he once was, then their statuses truly would have been worlds apart.

But now, he was an expert of the escort agency. Judging from his companions' attitudes, Young Master Jiang held no low position in Tongda Escort Agency, and he even had a formidable master.

What hidden circumstances lay behind all this?

"Yes! Yunyi, you know that white-clad young hero, don't you?"

Lu Zhishuang was still an innocent young girl, muddled about many things. Earlier, she had only felt that something was strange without knowing exactly what it was.

But upon hearing Su Wanzhi say this.

She immediately understood.

Faced with the questions of her two friends.

Complex emotions that could not be put into words showed in Qu Lanlan's refined eyes. She merely sighed. "I do know that Jiang Er... no, Jiang Jingnian."

Even now, her mind was a tangled mess, and she simply could not make sense of it.

How had that fallen household scoundrel, that mud-legged peasant who had let her scold and beat him at will like a servant for months, suddenly transformed into a handsome young hero who had saved her in the nick of time?

And Jiang Second Dog... Jiang Jingnian had left her household less than half a month ago, hadn't he?

In merely half a month.

Could such earth-shaking changes really happen?

There was an old saying: after three days apart, one should view a scholar with new eyes.

But Qu Lanlan had always believed it was merely a figure of speech, something that could never exist in reality.

The contrast was simply too great.

So great that whenever she thought of it now, she wanted to faint on the spot.

"Jiang Jingnian is my father's nephew from his old home in the Northern Lands."

Qu Lanlan's next words left the other two women stunned.

Lu Zhishuang then cried out, "Huh? That handsome young hero is your cousin? How come you never mentioned him before?"

Su Wanzhi said nothing beside them, though a thoughtful light filled her eyes.

After bidding farewell to his colleagues, Jiang Jingnian carried the teapot directly into the corner of a small alley.

He glanced around. Once he confirmed there was no one nearby, he lightly placed a hand over the teapot and directly devoured and refined it.

[Technique fusion requires Metal Nature (1/2)].

Looking at the altered words beside the technique column, Jiang Jingnian smiled in satisfaction. "Just a little more."

Neither the Copper-Mirror Iron Garment Technique nor the beginner-level Taiji Vajra Art contained any specific method for breaking through to the Inner Qi Realm.

Once the two techniques fused and advanced, it would be as though he possessed a ticket leading to the Inner Qi Realm.

Although the appearance of special items was full of randomness.

His luck had never been particularly bad.

Jiang Jingnian raised his head and saw that the night was still young. He casually touched the banknotes in his robes. "I have a little money on hand now. I can go browse those department store buildings opened by foreigners."