"He was going to give you his, but if I took mine back, it would just sit there gathering dust for at least several months anyway, so you might as well use it first, Sister Zhang." The girl sat down on a stone stool nearby.
"...All right, then, thank you." To Zhang Junxue, Li Piaoqing was a complete stranger. She paused awkwardly, then turned to untie a heavy cloth bag and set it on the table. "This is the... money."
"There are a hundred and forty taels in here." As though afraid the girl might interject, Zhang Junxue immediately continued, "However much is still missing, I'll find a way to make it up to you within a month."
Then she pressed her hands together and looked at the girl.
To her relief, the girl nodded seriously. "I bought it for a hundred and sixty taels. Just another twenty will do, Sister Zhang."
Zhang Junxue immediately nodded and repeated in a muffled voice, "All right. I'll give it to you within a month."
Then she fell silent.
When there was nothing necessary to discuss, the woman came infinitely close to being mute.
Fortunately, the girl could always dig up a suitable topic, so the two actually managed to carry on a conversation, one sentence at a time. Meanwhile, Pei Ye, who ought to have helped smooth things along, had long since run over to Yang Yan.
Lu Yunsheng and Yang Yan had already been talking for a long time.
Lu Yunsheng had come in pursuit of this lead, while Yang Yan had escaped under a cloud of injustice after his home and sect were destroyed. The two had originally harbored some wariness and hostility toward each other, but now, with the boy and girl building a bridge between them, they had