Nine-layer armor-breaking

Chapter 34 Yunchen Inn
As the guy in the armor shop was horrified, Jiang Xuan put on the armor and walked out of the shop.

The old man even lent a hand as Jiang Xuan put on the armor. This made the armorer even more confused: "Are these two working together to trick me? That's not right. If that were the case, why would the old man come to the shop so early to cause trouble? And why did this young man only come today?"

However, although the young man in the armor shop felt cheated, he felt relieved when he thought that the old man would not cause trouble in the store again. He smiled, shook his head, walked back to the counter and returned the money.

Jiang Xuan walked out of the armor shop, and the old man followed closely behind him. To outsiders, the two looked like grandfather and grandson in terms of age.

Seeing that the old man was following closely and had no intention of giving up, Jiang Xuan stopped and turned to the old man and said, "Thank you for what I did just now, old sir."

Observing the old man in front of him closely again, Jiang Xuan discovered that although the old man's eyes were not big, they were extremely bright, as if he could see through people.

The old man narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Good, you are a grateful child. Since you admit that I, Old Man Sha, have helped you, would you be willing to ask for some benefits from me?"

"Then what benefits can I get? You should have seen it just now, old sir. In order to buy this set of armor, I took out all the silver I had." Jiang Xuan adjusted the armor on his body. Obviously, he was not used to it yet, and he also showed a faint smile.

"Hahaha..." The old man stroked his beard and laughed. Then he leaned slightly closer to Jiang Xuan and whispered in his ear, "You're such an honest kid, why are you playing tricks on me? I've already spent all my money, but I still have some notes, right?"

Jiang Xuan seemed to have suddenly turned into a stone statue, frozen in place. The old man's words shocked him: "How did he know I had the banknotes? Those three banknotes were clearly not in the rag bag!"

Jiang Xuan tried hard to suppress the turmoil in his heart and said to the old man, "To be honest, sir, I do have some silver notes. Three of them are worth three hundred taels. However, these three hundred taels are used to repay a debt owed to a friend. Please forgive me for not being able to take these silver notes out."

The old man seemed very satisfied when he heard Jiang Xuan's answer, and his eyes looked at Jiang Xuan with a little more kindness.

"However, I am still very curious about how the old gentleman knew..." Before Jiang Xuan could finish his words, the old man interrupted him.

"Hehe, when you are out and about, you either deal in silver or banknotes. What's the difficulty? I can only guess." Then he laughed again.

It seemed that Jiang Xuan had been fooled by the old man in front of him, and a look of embarrassment appeared on his face.

"Since you can't move the banknotes, just pawn your armor from the Mandarin Fish Mercenary Corps. Exchange it for some wine and food so that I, an old man, can have a good meal, okay?" The old man looked at Jiang Xuan with his spirited eyes.

Jiang Xuan had been planning to pawn his mercenary armor, but since the old man had brought it up, he didn't hesitate any longer and immediately agreed to the old man's proposal: "Let's do as you say."

"There is a pawnshop not far ahead. You can pawn your suit of armor for at least ten taels." The old man found a cleaner corner and said to Jiang Xuan.

……

After two cups of tea, Jiang Xuan walked out of a pawnshop with a more solemn look on his face.

As the old man said, the armor of the Mandarin Fish Mercenary Group was indeed pawned for ten taels of silver. Jiang Xuan couldn't help but start to speculate about the old man's identity.

Was he some master who was pretending to be a pig but was actually a tiger? If so, why would he bother with a young boy like me who was so inexperienced in the world?
Or was he just an ordinary old man, so destitute he couldn't even afford to eat? If so, how could he explain his immediate appearance allowing him to buy the desired suit of armor at a remarkably low price? How could he simultaneously guess the existence of the banknote and the exact price offered by the pawnshop? Was this all coincidence?

Thinking this way, Jiang Xuan found it difficult to come up with a precise answer. His thoughts grew increasingly confused, and he had no choice but to put his speculation aside for the time being. "Let's wait and see what the old man says and does next," Jiang Xuan pondered.

"Pawned?" Just as Jiang Xuan guessed, when he walked out of the pawnshop, the old man appeared not far behind him.

"I pawned it." Jiang Xuan answered the old man's question, but in his heart he was thinking about the set of armor of the Mandarin Fish Mercenary Group that he had just pawned.

He considered selling the armor outright, which would have netted him more money. But after a brief consideration, he couldn't do that. While the armor was a simple set, it was a gift from a fellow soldier of the Mandarin Fish Mercenary Corps, with whom he had fought together. After careful consideration, he decided to pawn it temporarily, agreeing with the pawnshop on a two-year pawn term. Only then did he feel a little relieved.

"Ten taels?" asked the old man.

"Ten taels." Jiang Xuan replied.

The old man snorted coldly and said, "Still as stingy as ever."

The old man suddenly appeared in front of Jiang Xuan, and his dry mouth opened again: "Little kid, does what you said before still count?"

"Don't worry, old sir, it will work."

Stroking his graying beard, the old man swallowed his saliva and grinned, "Little kid, have you heard of Yunchen Inn?"

"Yunchen Inn?" The old man's words surprised Jiang Xuan again. This Yunchen Inn was exactly the meeting place that Xu An and he had agreed to meet.

"Hey, you kid from another state, have you also heard of the Yunchen Inn? Qizhou fish is famous throughout the Yuan Kingdom, and the fish cooked by the Yunchen Inn is the real specialty of Qizhou!"

Patting Jiang Xuan on the shoulder, the old man said to him with a hint of pride, "You're lucky this time. When the food is served, you'll have a share!"

The old man's words left Jiang Xuan speechless. He had clearly pawned his armor to treat this old man to a meal, but he didn't treat him as an outsider, even saying, "You have a share, too."

Jiang Xuan followed the old man and found a small inn closer to the City Lord's Mansion. Outside the inn, there were many signs, most of which were painted with various fish. Looking among the signs, he found a small plaque above the inn's entrance, with four neatly written characters on it: "Yunchen Inn."

The old man walked into the Yunchen Inn, looking very happy, like a child returning home. Realizing that Jiang Xuan had not caught up yet, the old man turned around and urged Jiang Xuan to come in and take a seat.

"Sir, would you like to stop by for a meal or stay overnight?" A neatly dressed waiter asked Jiang Xuan with a smile on his face.

"Of course we come to Yunchen Inn to eat fish." The old man found an empty table and sat down.

The guy looked at the old man, then looked at Jiang Xuan, as if waiting for Jiang Xuan's statement.

Jiang Xuan nodded to the waiter and smiled bitterly to himself. What was so magical about the fish in the Yunchen Inn that made this old man so obsessed with it?

(End of this chapter)