194: Extrusion

His gaze swept past the stairs to an old man in a silver-white robe with greying temples. Though he possessed an air of an immortal, he was currently nestled into Jiang Hanwen’s custom-made sofa like a bumpkin, his eyes blissfully narrowed.

The sofa was edged with high-quality rabbit fur, padded with bear hide, and its frame was steel on the inside with wood on the outside, making it both soft and supportive.

“If you like it, I’ll give you one,” Jiang Hanwen said.

The old man opened his eyes, his inky black gaze fixed on him, and shook his head in refusal.

“A tree is only a tree in the forest. Everything is best in its proper place.”

Spiritual water, fire, tea leaves, incense, and pouring the cups—the entire sequence of actions flowed like water. The old man inhaled the aroma, then took a sip, nodding in satisfaction.

“In City Name, your place is the only one where I can find some peace,” the old man sighed, handing over a teacup.

Jiang Hanwen only knew the old man’s surname was Tang and that his Realm was Jade Crystal Realm. Beyond that, he knew nothing.

He remembered their first meeting, which was a month ago.

The old man had said he wanted to drink tea, and if it was brewed well, it would cost one gold coin per cup.

Was Jiang Hanwen the kind of person who cared about a few paltry coins? Of course not!

Using his newest fire-control technique, combined with top-grade white hair needles, for one cup of tea, the old man directly dropped a gold brick, and from then on, he became a regular at Jiang Hanwen’s, coming over every three to five days for a few drinks.

“To speak of ‘hiding’ proves that you still haven’t let go.”

Faced with Jiang Hanwen’s incisive remark, Old Man Tang smiled without a word.

After a few cups, he directly closed his eyes for a nap.

Jiang Hanwen looked at the old man and couldn't help but think of Li Minzhong, whom he hadn't seen in over four months.

As for the fostered child, Li Nianchu, a month ago, he was sold to a human trafficker by that family for two taels of silver.

Because Jiang Hanwen had given instructions, Xia Zhijie, who had been monitoring the child, had his subordinates buy him. He was now being kept at a stronghold in a tavern in the north of the city.

Unbeknownst to him, the people around him had changed again.

After a hundred breaths, the old man woke up.

“Come on, let’s play a couple of rounds.”

The setting sun slowly dimmed amidst the placement of Go pieces, eventually swallowed by the night.

Jiang Hanwen was not a Genius, and his Go skills improved slowly. In the end, he still lost to the old man by twenty-three pieces.

“You won,” he said.

“You lost by three fewer pieces than before; your Go skill has improved,” the old man said meaningfully, looking at Jiang Hanwen with approval.

“It’s alright,” Jiang Hanwen smiled gently, neither humble nor arrogant.

Although he had never won against the old man, the old man had also never won against him by more than twenty-seven pieces.

In terms of results, he lost; in terms of progress, he won.

“Your mentality shouldn’t be limited to the Ningquan Realm. If you encounter difficulties, you can come to me in the future.”

Saying this, the old man took out a token with a bronze-wrapped edge and a ruby embedded in the center, placing it on the table, and added:

“It’s just that by then, your bookstore might not be able to stay open.”

The character ‘treasure’ was carved in the middle of the token. Jiang Hanwen roughly understood where this recruitment came from and why the old man was troubled.

“I thought it was something major. Wait!”

Jiang Hanwen went downstairs and returned to the table a quarter of an hour later, handing the other party a box of warm tea leaves.

The old man opened the box suspiciously. Inside lay neatly coiled, whisker-like tea leaves, with a lingering burnt smell.

The old man pulled out a strand and threw it into his mouth.

His eyes instantly widened, looking at Jiang Hanwen in surprise.

“Little fellow, this is tranquility tea that has only been diluted twice; it’s five times more effective than regular tea.”

After recovering his composure, the old man’s lips curved into a happy smile:

“I really like this, old man. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. The yamen people said that although it’s a bit far, the scenery around there is nice, so it’s not a loss.”

...The cold wind cut across his cheeks like blades. The old man left. Before leaving, he told Jiang Hanwen that his real name was Tang Jun.

The reason the old man seemed unwilling this time was simple: he had to go outside the city and couldn't continue to live leisurely inside the city.

Speaking of which, the source of the matter was himself.

After two months of exploration and negotiation, the star iron would officially begin mining in seven days.

At that time, the mining would be supervised jointly by the Zhuang family who discovered the star iron, the Xunwu Guard responsible for supervision, and the Treasure Pavilion responsible for sales.

No matter the quantity, the Treasure Pavilion would purchase it at 90% of the current market price.

Fifty percent would go to the yamen, and forty percent to the Zhuang family.

As for how much of the Zhuang family's forty percent would be taken by the Qinglan Sword Sect, who came to back them, that remained unknown.

The character ‘treasure’ on the token just now clearly referred to the Treasure Pavilion.

His identity was obvious: Tang Jun was the person sent by the Treasure Pavilion to supervise the mine this time.

Don't let the term ‘supervision’ fool you; it might seem like hard work.

But ordinary people simply weren't qualified to go; that was where income was collected on the spot.

As long as Tang Jun turned a blind eye, even for just a day, a large amount of silver could flow into his hands.

Becoming a supervisor required immense trust from the Treasure Pavilion to even get the opportunity.

But for the old man, he came to City Name precisely to avoid troublesome matters. Now that he couldn't be carefree, he wasn't feeling good.

“Rustle ~”

Goose feather-like snow continued to fall, quickly covering the ground in white.

Under the moonlight, silver light descended upon the human world, treading on patches of shadow.

It was another year of auspicious snow. Although it wasn't as cold as last year, and the snow was half a month late, it was still very thick, just like Jiang Hanwen’s progress.

Although no obvious difference could be seen, progress never stopped.

Little Tyrant’s pond had expanded by half a zhang, almost taking up half the courtyard.

The half-gray petals, unafraid of winter's cold, bloomed defiantly. To evolve from grayish-white to half-gray, besides the Spirit Rain Technique, Jiang Hanwen had to throw twenty thousand taels of silver worth of Spiritual Plants into the water each month.

Of course, the little fellow didn't just take; it delivered lotus seeds on time every month.

The Bai family's business hadn't stopped, bringing in thirty thousand taels of silver each month, which was quite good.

“Splash!”

A water arrow shot from the surface, flying towards Jiang Hanwen.

When it was only half a foot away, the water arrow burst, turning into a mist that brushed past Jiang Hanwen’s cheek, icy cold, like a maiden's finger gliding past, carrying a hint of body warmth.

“What’s wrong?” he knelt down and asked.

Little Tyrant extended a vine from under the water, placing it on Jiang Hanwen’s hand.

Amidst the confusion, an emotion carrying three parts comfort traveled up the vine.

“Nothing, I just suddenly thought of some people and felt a bit regretful,” Jiang Hanwen said.

The root coiled around his thumb, still comforting Jiang Hanwen to cheer up.

The snow fell thicker and thicker, pushing out the emotions that had been sealed in Jiang Hanwen’s memory.