Shen Huaiyu said, "My father wrote this plaque. Youpu Lay Buddhist was his sobriquet. While my father was still alive, he often remarked that he and Uncle Luo were fated to know each other. One was named Pu, and the other had Pu as his sobriquet. Both loved tending flowers and plants."
Cheng Lang said nothing. The two stepped over the threshold and entered. The tea house's decor was even more classically elegant. The fragrance of tea filled the air, accompanied by the lingering sound of a zither.
Shen Huaiyu asked the server behind the counter and learned that Luo Pu was waiting for them in a window-side private room on the second floor.
Shen Huaiyu and Cheng Lang went upstairs. At a glance, they spotted Luo Pu brewing tea by the window.
He was a middle-aged man in his early fifties. He had refined features and a lean build, dressed in a dark navy Tang suit. A string of small-leaf red sandalwood prayer beads circled his wrist. Cheng Lang had sharp eyes and could vaguely make out writing on every bead. They were likely inscribed with Buddhist sutras.
"You're Cheng Lang?" As Cheng Lang sized Luo Pu up, Luo Pu was also studying Cheng Lang closely. He had long heard of Cheng Lang. Luo Pu had even specifically looked up the debt-collection video that had once caused such an uproar online. Thanks to Cheng Lang, even now, the matter of Shen Chengan, president of the X City Calligraphy and Painting Association, coveting his elder brother's inheritance and spreading rumors to tarnish his nephew's reputation remained everyone's favorite topic of gossip.
Even more remarkably, after Cheng Lang exposed Shen Chengan's carefully laid scheme to seize wealth and ruin reputations, Shen Chengan had actually dropped the matter altogether. He had even