Chapter 6: A Chance Encounter with Tang Ya
Lin Qinghan headed straight for the center of Tian Dou City.
Due to his current age, Lin Qinghan was quite playful. He walked while stopping frequently, snacking as he went. By now, he already had five or six meat skewers in his hand.
"Huh? There's candied hawthorn in Douluo Continent too?" From afar, Lin Qinghan spotted a stall selling something that looked like traditional candied hawthorn skewers.
Putting away his remaining meat skewers, he walked up to take a closer look. Indeed, it was a bunch of small red fruits skewered together and stuck into a bamboo tube, coated in a layer of clear syrup. It was definitely candied hawthorn!
This was Lin Qinghan's first time seeing this kind of treat in Douluo Continent.
"How much is this?" Curious, Lin Qinghan decided to buy a skewer to try.
"Seven copper soul coins for one skewer, young man. This is called honey candied hawthorn. I just invented it recently, and I'm the only one selling it around here."
"Only five left. If you buy them all, I'll give you a discount—thirty copper soul coins total."
Lin Qinghan nodded, handed over three silver soul coins, and accepted the candied hawthorn from the vendor.
Taking a bite, he realized it was quite different from the candied hawthorn he knew.
These red fruits weren't sour like hawthorn but sweet all the way through. They didn't have seeds, and even the stick used to skewer them was edible. Overall, it tasted pretty good.
Just as Lin Qinghan was about to finish the last skewer, a girl's voice called out.
"Hey! Little brother, leave that last skewer!"
Turning his head, Lin Qinghan saw a delicate-looking young girl squeezing through the crowd. She appeared only slightly older than him. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and her beautiful phoenix eyes were fixed intently on the skewer in his hand.
Lin Qinghan waved the skewer a bit, and the girl's gaze followed it, making for a funny scene.
"Hey there, handsome little brother. My name is Tang Ya. That skewer in your hand looks really tasty. How about selling it to me for one silver soul coin?"
Tang Ya swallowed hard and took out a silver soul coin.
"No need," Lin Qinghan said. "Since you're being so cute, I'll give it to you."
He figured making a good impression on a main character from the original story wasn't a bad idea. Besides, it was just a candy skewer—no big deal.
"Wow! Thanks, little brother!"
Tang Ya accepted the honey hawthorn skewer without hesitation and began eating it happily.
Watching her cheeks puff out like a hamster as she stuffed candy into her mouth, Lin Qinghan was sure this was the same Tang Ya from the original story.
In the source material, she was the one who gifted the protagonist with a qualification and cultivation technique right upon meeting, and even after her entire family was wiped out, she still remained pure-hearted. Her personality was already showing.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked.
In the blink of an eye, Tang Ya had finished the whole skewer. Maybe it was a sixth sense or just intuition, but she had noticed the way Lin Qinghan was looking at her—even before finishing her food, she mumbled the question.
Her cheeks still full, she tried to speak, which nearly made Lin Qinghan laugh out loud.
"Nothing. You're imagining it," Lin Qinghan said, rubbing his nose and turning his gaze away.
"Is this your first time out on your own? You haven't even told me your name yet, but I told you mine as soon as we met."
At this point, Tang Ya, who hadn't yet experienced the tragic events of her life, was clearly much more cheerful than in the original story. She mistook Lin Qinghan's shy demeanor as actual shyness.
"I'm Lin Qinghan. And stop calling me little brother all the time."
He was finding it hard to deal with her forwardness.
"Qinghan~ You bought me a snack, so how about I take you to the best restaurant around here?"
Lin Qinghan's lips twitched. It was obvious what Tang Ya wanted—she saw a young, rich kid who was easy to coax and decided to get a free meal out of him.
"You want me to treat you to dinner, don't you? Fine, but you have to tell me where the Tang Sect is."
Lin Qinghan had an idea. The Xuan Tian Technique could flow through the entire body's meridians. Observing it might help him create a new meditation technique. Of course, asking Tang Ya to directly demonstrate it would be impossible, but visiting the Tang Sect and observing its disciples in training would be easy.
"Why do you want to go to my house? Well, if you're treating me to dinner, I guess I can take you there."
Tang Ya's innocence was on full display. No wonder she was the type to grow into a strong woman who could go avenge her family at level 40 without hesitation. She didn't question Lin Qinghan's motives at all.
"Deal. Let's go to that restaurant. My treat."
As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Ya grabbed his hand and dashed through the crowd, heading straight for the restaurant with the biggest sign nearby.
Once they arrived, Tang Ya showed how familiar she was with the place. She grabbed the menu and started ordering dishes non-stop. Within half an hour, the table was filled with food.
Watching her gorge herself, Lin Qinghan felt like something was off with the scene.
This girl was way too comfortable with him.
But seeing that all the food was made from regular ingredients—no expensive spirit beast meat—the total cost wasn't too bad, maybe just a dozen gold soul coins. He didn't really mind.
"Why aren't you eating? I picked all of these dishes carefully. They're delicious!"
Perhaps realizing she had eaten everything while the one paying hadn't touched a bite, Tang Ya finally felt a little embarrassed. She picked up a chicken drumstick and placed it on Lin Qinghan's plate.
"I already ate quite a bit earlier. You go ahead."
At this point, Tang Ya's cheeks looked even puffier than before. Even as she held a drumstick with her chopsticks, she still had a pancake in her other hand.
"Hey, I'll let you in on a secret. My dad is the head of the Tang Sect. I'm the next heir. If you want to visit, having me around makes things way easier."
"So you're saying the Tang Sect is open to visitors now?"
"Our front courtyard has a statue of Ancestor Tang San. Only that part is open to the public—but it costs a fee."
It seemed the Tang Sect's downfall was near. The fact that they had opened their front courtyard as a paid attraction showed how far they'd fallen.
"I'll take you to the back courtyard later. You'll get to see a lot of Tang Sect hidden weapons."
After saying that, she buried herself in her food again.
During the meal, Tang Ya demonstrated what it meant to eat like she was reincarnated from a starving ghost. She didn't stop until every dish on the table was gone.
"You okay after eating that much?" Lin Qinghan asked, curious how such a small girl could eat so much and still only have a slightly rounded belly.
"I'm a martial artist. It's totally normal for me to eat a lot."
Wiping her mouth, Tang Ya led Lin Qinghan out of the restaurant.
(End of Chapter)
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