Chapter 2
A Cultured Man
It was a scorching hot day. Fortunately, there was a sudden downpour in the afternoon, so it was pleasantly cool as it approached evening.
Nangong Xue, as usual, was sitting at a place on the first floor in a corner by the window, eating a meal. She wasn’t and old jianghu, but she had long ago mastered her sectfather’s direct teachings. That of course included valuable jianghu experience. So she picked this seat so that she could watch everyone who entered and left the inn.
Maybe it was the location, maybe it was the old name; maybe it was the magnificent, delightful decor; maybe it was the cordial waiters; maybe it was the chef’s culinary excellence… In a word, the East Wind Inn that she was staying at was not only the best in the area, it was known all over the thirteen provinces.
A famed inn will naturally do especially good business. If business was bad, how could it be so famous? Just like a famous jianghu personage will definitely be a top martial artist.
Now, whether upstairs or down, there was not an empty seat in the entire East Wind Inn, but a stream of people still poured in like a surging sea.
“Miss,” the waiter said with a cordial smile to Nangong Xue, “would you mind allowing our guests to join you at your table?”
Accustomed for many years to being alone, Nangong Xue didn’t like to eat with strangers. She frowned, about ready to refuse, but then she saw the earnest plea in the waiter’s eyes and forced herself to nod.
The person joining her was a young man who was not only dressed in bright, new clothes, very fussily neat, but he was also incredibly mannered and looked to be a son of a rich family. However, he didn’t have that air of a spoiled, extravagant, idle good-for-nothing rich boy. Quite the opposite, he had a steady, mature air about him.
“Thank you, Miss,” the young man said in a gentle, polite manner as he sat down.
Nangong Xue just smiled.
Actually she was just about done eating and was really not used to eating with strangers, especially strange men, so she was ready to get up and leave when she heard someone at a neighboring table say, “I never imagined Xiong Batian, that bearlike man who insolently ran roughshod over the world would die at the hands of a little-known woman. It’s really fuckin’ strange.”
“Who says otherwise, I heard that the woman is ridiculously young, probably not even twenty, yet managed to singlehandedly teat apart Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy.”
“Wah, such a ferocious woman, what man would dare take her as a wife?”
Everyone at the table laughed.
Nangong Xue couldn’t resist looking over and seeing three young men seated two tables away talking away. Although it was noisy in the inn, they were speaking louder, so Nangong Xue could hear everything they said clearly.
“If you ask me,” said a genteel looking man in white cryptically, “that woman called Nangong Xue maybe have killed Xiong Batian, but her death is not far off.”
“Why is that?” The man who asked had striking features. His eyes, nose, and mouth were very small and close together, just two black, bushy eyebrows sticking up like brushes. Every time he spoke, those bushy caterpillar brows shifted. “ To singlehandedly rout Awesome Might Martial Arts Academy takes some skill, who would be able to send her to her death?”
“There’s one person who could.” This man wore a golden gown and was incredibly skinny. He had a pale complexion as if he never saw the son the whole year round. His mouth with its little mustache was especially bloodless, making you uncomfortable to look at, especially his expressionless face when he spoke. His unfathomable manner made people feel he was not a very cheerful person. “Nangong Xue’s martial arts is definitely no match for this person.”
“Who?” Bushy Brows asked, interested.
Little Mustache said, “Silver Sabre.”
“Shit, I forgot about him.” Bushy Brows slapped his thigh. “All those years Xiong Batian relied on his sabre to thunder across the jianghu he was invincible, except for one time losing to ‘Silver Sabre’ Tie Shibing, but they became bosom buddies. For a long time the two were inseparable and led a free, easy life in the martial world…”
Before he finished speaking, the food and drink they ordered arrived and the three stopped talking and started eating and drinking.
Nangong Xue took a sip of tea and lowered her head in thought.
Only now did she understand why Xiong Batian wanted to die.
If he didn’t die, aside from losing like a hero he had nothing. With him dead, naturally someone who come along to avenge him. A person like him naturally wouldn’t have ordinary friends, and whoever came to avenge him would especially be a first-rate masterhand.
Xiong Batian really was a cunning and crafty person.
Nangong Xue couldn’t help but admire Xiong Batian a bit. Anyone who could end his own life to wash clean the disgrace of defeat and at the same time create trouble for his surviving foe was no doubt a courageous and farsighted person.
The young man seated across from her was quietly eating. He didn’t strike up a conversation with her, nor did he even look at her.
Nangong Xue was a good-looking woman, especially when she smiled. Her charming dimples would show and eyes would narrow to slits like a slice of curved moon at night, making her all the more attractive.
So when she was out walking the streets, she often drew men’s stares which would wittingly or unwittingly betray an air of lust. Then an ineffable feeling of disgust would rise in her. Men were all a nasty piece of work.
But the man before her was serious, his eyes didn’t stray. He didn’t even make noise when he chewed. He was clearly a very cultured person. A young man like that was a rare sight these days, and Nangong Xue couldn’t help but give him a couple curious glances.
When she brought her tea cup to her lips she stole a furtive glance. Suddenly her heard was pounding and she broke out in a cold sweat.
She noticed that the fingernails on his hand holding chopsticks were all trimmed short. She also noticed that the joints of his fingers were especially thick, not at all like his otherwise fair, tender skin.
That was a hand that gripped a sword.
What scared her was that he was sitting in a position that was part of the martial arts’ most top-notch “No Opening Posture Technique”. This sitting position made it so that no matter what angle you went at, you could not find an opening. Which is to say, anyone who thought to attack him just then would have no chance of succeeding.
The No Opening Posture Technique had countless postures, but to be able to maintain it when eating was a rare sight. This young man was undoubtedly a supremely skilled masterhand.
Why was he sitting like that? Could he be on guard against Nangong Xue suddenly attacking him?
Nangong Xue didn’t know him, of course she wouldn’t attack him. Then, was he thinking of attacking her?
Nangong Xue didn’t dare move. Her sitting posture right now she was confident could allow her to deal with any outside attack.
