Chapter 40: This Young Master Does Some Shopping

It was an awkward carriage ride to Clearsprings City’s market district. Lan Fen’s request had caught Chen Haoran off guard. It was just too unexpected after all. Not only that she wanted to publicly go out and about in the city but that she wanted to be seen with him.

“So…” he trailed off.

Lan Fen, head propped up on her hand, turned from the carriage window and looked at him. “Yes?”

“Is there a reason you wanted to go for a walk?” He was hoping it wasn’t another euphemism. Her hunting was devasting enough, he wasn’t sure he wanted to see what her walking could do.

“The Palace Exams are soon.”

That wasn’t really an answer to his question but he could roll with it. “They start at the end of the week right?”

“Correct,” she nodded. “Lan Yao must participate in them.”

Chen Haoran frowned in thought. “Would the Lan family let her? There’s too much attention on her right now.”

“There are benefits to it. If she participates then she is guaranteed to pass and join the Palace School. Once she does the Lan family will have an opportunity to breathe.”

“Because they’d have a future government official in their family?”

“Because the Palace School does not brook any interference with their students. The other families would have to be more cautious in their approach lest they offend the school or worse.”

“Which is what you don’t want,” Chen Haoran said, leaning back into his seat. “It sounds like her joining is good. Why do you make it sound like she won’t?”

“The Empire stations its officials far from the area of their birth so as to combat corruption. Were Lan Yao to join then it would be decades before the Lan family would see her again let alone make use of her.” Lan Fen smiled bitterly. “And a cultivator family guards their young talents jealously.” She turned to look out the window. “Even to their detriment.”

Thankfully for Chen Haoran they finally reached the market. He opened the door and jumped out of the awkward carriage. Lan Fen stood at the door of the carriage and didn’t move.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

She held out her hand. “You’re meant to assist the lady when disembarking the carriage.”

“Etiquette, right,” he sighed. He would have to make some time to study the finer points of upper-class manners. His predecessor's poor reputation shielded him from any faux passes he committed in ignorance but if wanted to put his best foot forward in the future then he had to learn it.

He offered Lan Fen his hand and she took it and stepped off the carriage. Not that she needed his help to begin with. This was just her reminding him of details he had to pay attention to.

“Have you come to this market before?” Lan Fen asked him as they entered a square littered with stalls, wagons being used as stalls, and simple carpets spread over the ground pretending to be stalls.

“Only when I had to dump money at the bars around here. I wasn’t in the mood for sightseeing.”

“I hope you see something that catches your eye then.”

He hoped so too.

The markets of Clearsprings City were just as varied as the tourists who came to bathe in its waters. According to Lan Fen, many merchants traveled here with their wares as a sort of working vacation, selling their products to cover their expenses while visiting the various bathhouses.

They wandered through the square and dipped in and out of connecting side streets lined with more permanent storefronts. Every so often Lan Fen would point out a specific person or group and name where they hailed from. Chen Haoran recognized some of the styles from the last time he entered the city with Song Yuelin.

Elegant folk with wide-sleeved robes in several different shades of white perused the stalls much like they were doing with casual grace. They were people of means that had traveled from the Central provinces. The wide sleeves were a fashion popular with the citizens of the Imperial Capital and through its cultural dominance, the style spread to the regions closest to it.

A troop of hardy men and women brushed past them. Their bone ornaments and sun-tanned skin marked them as being from the Southern region. A vast, secretive jungle filled with towering skeletons of fallen mega beasts. The natives wore those bones to indicate their prowess, with higher status determined by the quality of the monster the bones belonged to.

A merchant with three bees lined in a row along his collar called to them from his stall. The motif of three was some kind of cultural holdover of ancient tribal allegiances. Chen Haoran perused his wares, some interesting knick-knacks, and fine pottery from the Central region, and moved on.

“Let’s go over there,” he said, pointing to a shop with a stylized jewel on its signboard. There were two First-layer guards standing at the entrance. Whatever they were selling had to at least be expensive.

Upon entering the store they were immediately greeted by the shopkeeper, a Third-Layer Qi realm. Glass display cases lined the walls of the store filled with jewelry and other accessories wrought from precious metals and gems.

“See anything you like?” he asked Lan Fen.

She shook her head. “I do not typically wear jewelry.”

Chen Haoran figured as much, Lan Fen struck him as the type to prefer steel over silk and silver. He picked up a silver hairpin and tested its point. “You could probably kill someone with this,” he said, presenting it to Lan Fen. “What do you think, shopkeep?”

The shopkeeper nervously laughed. “Of course, dear customer. Our shop only uses the finest materials.”

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“See,” Chen Haoran said to Lan Fen. “Quality assurance. Plus they’re not a bad way to store value. You could keep them and sell them for cash later in an emergency.”

“Do as you please,” Lan Fen sighed.

Chen Haoran smiled, he’d been waiting a long time for this. He pointed at one end of the display case and dragged his finger to the opposite end. “Pack up everything from here to there,” he ordered the shopkeeper. “You can have it sent to the Chen Manor.”

He could practically see the taels jingling in the merchant's eyes. “Right away Honored guest!” He rushed to carry out the purchase with a notable skip in his step.

“Is this really necessary?” Lan Fen asked.

“You should know by now that this is how I do things.” He paused. “Plus, I always wanted to do that,” he admitted.

The happy shopkeeper came back, noticeably more servile than before. “If the Honored guest is interested this humble merchant has a Mortal-rank artifact in stock as well.”

“Let’s see it then.”

The shopkeeper led them over to a counter and rushed to the back of the store. He returned carrying a black lacquer case. Lifting up the cover revealed a set of gold earrings sitting on a plush velvet cushion. Two orange and black striped gems were set into the earrings. They almost looked like eyes.

“Tiger’s Eyes,” he subconsciously murmured.

“You have keen eyes sir,” the merchant said. “These Hidden Tiger earrings are made from spiritual tiger eye crystals. They allow the wearer to give off a ferocious presence similar to a hunting tiger.”

He looked at Lan Fen. She nodded, confirming that they were indeed a proper artifact and not some fake. “How does a merchant come across a Mortal-rank artifact?” she idly asked the man.

Chen Haoran ignored the merchant’s long-winded story of how he acquired them and looked at Lan Fen’s ears. He looked back to the earrings.

“Would you wear these if I got them for you?” he asked her.

Lan Fen looked down at the earrings. “Do you want me to wear them?”

“I think they’d look good on you.”

“I shall wear them then.”

“I’ll take them,” he told the merchant, dropping a bag of gold taels on the counter. He picked up the earrings and handed them over to Lan Fen. The merchant rushed over with a mirror to help her put them on.

Received Hundred-Fold: Profound-Rank Crouching Tiger Earrings

Lan Fen channeled qi into the artifact and he felt gooseflesh prickle over his skin as the feeling of being stared down from all directions came over him.

He was right, it was a good look for her.

The sun dipped from midday into the evening when they decided they had enough of the market district. He didn’t find anything else worth gifting to Lan Fen besides a few wild spiritual herbs gathered from the Clearsprings Mountains.

“This wasn’t so bad,” he said. He got a Profound-rank treasure and had more rewards to look forward to once they got delivered. “It’s been pretty quiet though.” Despite so openly walking around he hadn’t seen anyone make a big deal out of seeing Lan Fen.

“It is a market after all,” Lan Fen said. “Many people come and go here, there are better places to reveal myself.”

“Then what did we come here for?”

“To enjoy ourselves before getting to business,” Lan Fen blithely replied. “What did you think this was?”

“I didn’t think you knew how to relax, much less do it this way.”

Lan Fen huffed a laugh. “Even I have days where I wish to unwind. There won’t be other opportunities until the Lan family is defeated.”

“What’s the plan then?”

Lan Fen smiled. It was one that was all too recognizable to him now.

“Shall we go eat?”

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