Picking up a broom and sweeping the dust from the floor, the Head Waiter gestured invitingly to Master Chen. "Master Chen, please come inside. What would you like today? Our Shopkeeper has just unsealed a jar of Osmanthus Wine..."
The Head Waiter was about to continue his introduction when he saw Master Chen wave him off. "Not drinking today. I came to ask you about something."
"Ah! Please ask, Master Chen. This lowly one will tell you everything he knows."
"Find me a private room with no one in it first."
"Certainly. Please follow me."
Leading Master Chen to the inn's finest Sky-Class Private Room, the Head Waiter casually wiped the table. "Master Chen, is this to your satisfaction?"
Before the Head Waiter had even finished speaking, Master Chen drew the saber at his waist and placed it against his neck.
The Head Waiter was scared out of his wits and cried repeatedly, "Spare me, Master Chen! Spare me, Master Chen! This lowly one has elders above..."
"Shut up!" Master Chen roared impatiently.
The Head Waiter immediately clamped his mouth shut, but his legs would not stop trembling.
"Not a word of what I ask you next is to leave this room. If a third person learns of it... you understand what will happen, don't you?"
"I understand, I understand!" The Head Waiter nodded over and over.
"Good. Tell me, have any Sect Members of outstanding bearing checked into your inn recently?"
After pondering for a while, the Head Waiter shook his head. "There haven't been many guests staying here these past few days. Sect Members... probably not."
"What do you mean, probably not!? Are you toying with your grandfather?" Master Chen's eyes widened, and the blade in his hand pressed closer against the Head Waiter's neck.
The Head Waiter was so frightened he nearly wet himself. "There definitely weren't any! Definitely not! Among the guests staying these past two days, aside from several Young Masters from Eastern Young Manor, they were all ordinary folk dressed in Coarse Cloth Hemp Clothes."
"Fine. Go call all the Waiters under you. I have questions for them."
"Yes, yes, yes. I'll go right away."
The Head Waiter ran from the private room and shouted in the main hall, "Pockface, Little Six, Stone, all of you, come here! Quickly!"
The Waiters serving the tables first apologized to their guests, then hurried over to the Head Waiter. "What is it, Big Brother Liu?"
"Put down whatever you're doing and come with me."
"Huh? All of us? What about the inn's business?"
"Ah, there's no time for that. Hurry up and come."
Though the three Waiters were utterly bewildered, they followed the Head Waiter anyway.
Upon entering the Sky-Class Private Room, the Waiters understood something of what was happening the moment they saw Master Chen inside. They immediately bowed. "Greetings, Master Chen."
"Come stand over here." Master Chen glared at them.
Seeing the drawn Long Back Saber in Master Chen's hand, the three Waiters were terrified, and their feet seemed to stop obeying them.
"What? Do I need to say it a second time?" Master Chen glared at them.
The Head Waiter hurriedly kicked each of the three Waiters. "Get over there!"
Only then did the three Waiters stagger over to Master Chen. Before he could speak, they all dropped to their knees and kowtowed. "Spare us, Master Chen! Spare us, Master Chen! We really didn't do anything..."
"Shut up, all of you! Get up!"
The three Waiters hurriedly rose to their feet.
After threatening the three Waiters in the same manner, Master Chen asked, "Describe, one by one, the appearances of every guest you have received these past few days."
The three Waiters began describing the guests they had served. Whenever he heard of a woman wearing a straw hat, Master Chen questioned them in detail.
As soon as Pockface finished, Stone immediately said, "I... I only received six guests yesterday. All of them wore Straw Hats."
Master Chen immediately asked, "Tell me all of their physical characteristics."
"Y-yes." Stone began to recall them, only to discover that his impression of those six guests was extremely hazy. No matter how hard he thought, he could not remember what they had been wearing.
"What are you thinking about? Speak!"
Hearing Master Chen's roar, Stone hastily knelt on the ground. "This lowly one... this lowly one truly can't remember what they looked like."
After saying that, Stone's entire body tensed, terrified that a vicious beating would come at any moment.
Yet unexpectedly, Master Chen did not kick him. Instead, he frowned. "Guests who came yesterday, and today you already can't remember what they looked like?"
Stone hurriedly slapped himself. "This lowly one deserves death! This lowly one is useless! But I truly can't remember what those guests looked like."
Feeling that he had found his target, Master Chen suddenly kicked Stone in the stomach and bellowed, "Think carefully! Tell me anything you remember! Otherwise, I'll kick you to death!"
Stone was in pain and frantic, sweating profusely as he desperately tried to recall them. At last, his eyes suddenly widened, and he shouted, "That... that master tipped me five coins."
Master Chen held out his hand. "Where are the coins?"
"Here, they're here." Enduring the pain, Stone pulled five Copper Coins from his robe and handed them to Master Chen.
"You're sure these are the five?" Master Chen asked, looking at the Copper Coins in Stone's hand.
"This lowly one is sure. It's rare for a master to leave a tip, so I planned to keep them as lucky coins and hid them in the innermost place."
Nodding, Master Chen took the five Copper Coins from Stone and examined them carefully for some time.
Duanping Ruixiang...
Looking at the four characters engraved on the Copper Coin, then weighing it in his hand, Master Chen stroked his chin and pondered. "Three Treasures Coin from the Huainan Region..."
The primary value of currency lay in the trust behind it. Take a modern one-hundred-yuan note, for example. It might cost only a few cents to produce, but because the renminbi carried credibility, a paper note made for a few cents could be used as one hundred yuan.
But the Profound Dragon Continent had no unified, official currency exchange system, making purchasing power difficult to guarantee. In other words, currency's credibility value was practically zero, which meant a Copper Coin's face value was nearly equal to the value of its materials.
Precious metals were scarce on the Profound Dragon Continent—even copper was in short supply—so coins made of pure copper were almost nonexistent. Most were mixed with materials such as lead, which was cheap, heavy, and made minted Copper Coins dull and gray.
Nor were coins minted only by the authorities. Privately minted currency was plentiful as well. Thus, based on a Copper Coin's composition, one could determine roughly which region it circulated in, and even trace where it had come from.
Rolling the five Copper Coins over and over in his hand, Master Chen recalled whether he had recently heard of any Experts from Huainan Region sects.
At last, he stopped thinking and asked Stone, "Are those six guests still staying at the inn?"
"They already checked out. They left this morning."
"Is there anything else you haven't remembered?" Master Chen shouted sternly once more.
"There truly isn't anything else, Master Chen. This lowly one really cannot remember what those guests looked like at all. I wouldn't dare deceive Master Chen with lies. I truly don't remember."
"I didn't think you'd dare hide anything from me!" Master Chen said as he tossed the five Copper Coins in front of Stone, then turned and walked to the private room's door.
Before leaving, he turned back and glanced at the Waiters. "If I find out that any one of you dares to spread word of what happened today..."
"We wouldn't dare, we wouldn't dare, we wouldn't dare..." the three said in rapid succession.
"It had better be that way!" With that, Master Chen pulled open the private room door and left.
Only after Master Chen's footsteps gradually faded into the distance did the four Waiters let out long breaths of relief, thinking bitterly, What the hell was that supposed to be?