By the time Cao Jinxing returned to the inn, the rain had eased considerably.
He walked into the lobby beneath an oil-paper umbrella he had casually drawn into his hand. At the square table by the window, Bai Yunxiu was asleep with her head on the tabletop.
Beside her, Xuan Yuan Fourteen sat in the middle of the table with narrowed eyes, leisurely licking a paw while staring sidelong at her neck with mismatched eyes, itching to pounce.
"Fourteen?"
"Meow!"
Xuan Yuan Fourteen startled and looked toward Cao Jinxing, its eyes instantly changing from ill-intentioned to sweet and docile.
It leaped toward Cao Jinxing.
Cao Jinxing caught it with a firm grip.
The little fellow was getting heavier and heavier. It now weighed almost eighty jin. A collision like that could have hurt an ordinary person.
"You're back too? Find anything?"
Cao Jinxing stroked its head, pretending not to have seen its earlier behavior. Fourteen was deeply hostile toward every woman around him, but it would not actually hurt anyone-Cao Jinxing disliked that, and that reason alone ensured Xuan Yuan Fourteen would never truly strike. At most, it would play a prank.
Xuan Yuan Fourteen pointed a paw toward the kitchen, where the mute servant was preparing ingredients. Even a cursory glance revealed plenty of good things.
"Impressive."
Cao Jinxing smiled and carried it over to sit at the table. "On the way back, I saw a pharmacy selling [Jade Flowers], so I bought you a few. They're not quite old enough, only about two hundred years, nowhere near the ones from Medicine King Valley. At least there are plenty."
He took seven jade boxes out of his Qiankun Bag. When he opened them, a floral fragrance wafted out.
Seven [Jade Flowers] lay quietly in the boxes, their roots and