Chapter 276: Journey To Shaolin (7)

And then Seol Iri turns around again.

“No, where are you going now?”

“Fruit…”

As if knowing her words don’t make sense, her voice lacks confidence and trails off at the end.

“Can you tell which ones are edible and which aren’t? Wasn’t the Ice Palace just all ice?”

“I can at least distinguish apples.”

“No, this is ridiculous. Do you think apples just grow wild in the mountains? And it’s almost July, what apples are you looking for?”

Qing is an expert at picking things to eat in the mountains.

To be clear, she’s an expert at picking things to eat, not a survival expert.

Because of her constitution she’s an expert at just eating anything, but completely ignorant about toxicity or safe consumption methods.

Still, she roughly knows the difference between tasty and not tasty things, and for normal people “not tasty” often means “will die if eaten”.

“Then, what’s in season?”

“This time of year, hmm. Peaches? They might still be a bit unripe.”

“Peaches.”

Seol Iri swallowed and a faint smile appeared on her previously expressionless face.

It seems she likes peaches.

And then she tried to turn around again.

Qing was dumbfounded and grabbed her again.

“No, do you think peaches are just growing in the mountains? Delicious fruits don’t just grow wild in the first place.”

“No. I saw some on the way here.”

“Those are wild peaches. They’re sour and astringent and will probably give you a stomachache.”

At this, Seol Iri carefully examined Qing’s expression. She seemed unable to believe whether she was trying to deceive her or if it was true.

“Oh my, I’d be in big trouble if I let you go. Forget it and just eat dinner with me. No, how can you set out on a journey with no money? How can a person be so careless and reckless? And as a woman at that. How were you going to eat and where were you going to sleep, sprawled out on the street?”

Qing (flower beggar) clicked her tongue and said.

At this, Seol Iri’s eyes sharpened with a glare.

“What. Do you have something to say?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Then say it.”

“I don’t want to.”

What on earth is she trying to do?

At least I can tell she has no friends.

Even Miss Murong, who’s like a hedgehog shooting sharp spines in all directions with a thousand, ten thousand times more inferiority complex, has followers in the Participation Society or whatever No Woman Society.

“So, you won’t eat with me either?”

“No.”

“You mean you will?”

“Yes.”

A mischievous smile appeared on Qing’s face.

She was about to say “Then just say ‘I’m hungry, please buy me a meal’”, but thought it was too petty to hold food hostage so she stopped.

You shouldn’t be petty about food if nothing else. That’s too much.

“Let’s go. Let’s eat until we’re stuffed today.”

Which restaurant makes the best Buddha Jumping Over the Wall?

It was actually a very difficult question.

Buddha Jumping Over the Wall isn’t a dish you eat occasionally for nourishment, it’s one of the highest class dishes in the Central Plains that you might eat once a year on a very special day if at all.

So if you ask people, they only know the place they’ve eaten at, and if you ask the servers they’ll just say their restaurant is the best, so it’s not reliable at all.

But when it comes to fierce appetite, her brilliant mind spins, so there’s a solution for everything.

“Hey, server. How much does your Buddha Jumping Over the Wall start at?”

“Ah, miss! Ours starts at fifteen taels. If we seat you at an open table, from five taels…”

“Hmm. I’ll look around and come back.”

Seating at an open table meant they’d put her at the most visible table.

With two beauties, business would explode.

Qing rejected it for now.

“Ours starts at twenty taels…”

“If we seat you at an open table, we should rather serve you…”

“Our basic is twenty-five taels.”

Finally Qing found the right answer.

“Well, the main branch’s price is a bit high.”

“Sounds good. Will there be a cool seat left?”

“Oh my, how could there not be!”

So Qing took a seat with Seol Iri at a wide open corner on the top floor of the restaurant.

“Then how would you like our Buddha Jumping Over the Wall? We have Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, Premium Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, Special Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, One-of-a-Kind Ultra Special Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, and Supreme Ultra Special Selected Special Buddha Jumping Over the Wall.”

Somehow it feels like I should just pick randomly.

Qing suppressed the feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time and ordered the Supreme Ultra Special Selected Special Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, then additionally ordered some fried eggplant and a few vegetables for vegetable intake.

The server who had caught a big fish for once enthusiastically echoed the order with a volume rivaling a lion’s roar, shouting “Supreme!!! Ultra Special!!! Selected!!! Special!!!” as he hurried away.

So as they excitedly waited for the food with hearts pounding:

“……”

“Miss Seol? The weather is really hot these days, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“……”

“……”

She was a truly difficult type to be with, not initiating conversation, and when you try to start a conversation she cuts it off with one-word answers.

After such an awkward time, the long wait in the awkward space between you and me finally came to an end, as the server opened the lid of the clearly luxurious pot with a flourish and the sweet aroma unique to Shaoxing wine spread along with all kinds of delicious smells!

“Whoa. It already smells delicious. Hmm. Miss Seol? You’re drooling.”

“I’m not.”

Seol Iri wiped her mouth with her sleeve.

What do you mean you’re not? Yet her gaze was still fixed exactly on the inside of the pot.

If you ask what Buddha Jumping Over the Wall is, you could say it’s just an alcohol stew with all delicious things.

There are a few things that must be included, like shark fin, sea cucumber, abalone. For meat, there’s huatui which is the Central Plains’ best dried meat.

Of course, being inland the shark fin is missing and the sea cucumber is dried so it’s a bit shriveled, but still seeing all the ingredients naturally makes you smile.

So first Qing served Seol Iri a very full bowl, and Qing also filled her own bowl generously, and they finally started eating their late dinner.

Qing originally eats well.

Because she’s the woman the expression “eating well” fits best in the world. To the point where it’s hard to even say she’s eating with nice words.

But Seol Iri ate well too.

As if unsure if it was her first time seeing the dish, she suspiciously poked around separating and turning things over to see what was in it, then as soon as she put a piece of century egg in her mouth-

Wow. What’s with that smile?

Qing blankly stared at Seol Iri’s blooming smile.

Her face was already to Qing’s taste, but with the flush spreading over it along with that alluring smile, even Qing forgot to use her chopsticks.

Of course, her body remembered so her left hand (her right hand was completely ruptured) moved automatically to shovel food into her mouth, startling her tongue and jaw into working to chew and swallow well.

“Haut, hat, huaa.”

People from the Northern Sea originally eat everything boiling hot. It means they’re very good at eating hot food.

Seol Iri started inhaling food throwing away her dignity, but it felt different from Qing’s eating, no what is this, why are you eating like that? She’s eating very, very sexily.

Diners eating on the same floor were startled by the woman’s suddenly echoing moans that weren’t moans and turned to look.

And then from the diners’ perspective, it was either a bolt from the blue, or the luck of catching a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.

Two peerless beauties eating together, but one woman is shoving food into her mouth like her cheeks will burst and chewing like it’s her parents’ mortal enemy.

Anyone would tsk tsk that it’s such an ugly sight of terrible table manners that even a pig wouldn’t eat like that, but because her beauty is her beauty, it somehow feels like a good sight to see which is a strange and wondrous experience.

And one woman is eating well and happily, but somehow every breath from her mouth and nose is mixed with affectionate moans.

Though unrelated to this, it’s truly strange how suddenly the diners crossed their legs or sat with them tightly together.

Regardless, Seol Iri was already in a state of having lost more than half her senses.

The Northern Sea Ice Palace’s circumstances are not abundant.

People of barren lands originally have few storehouses. Storehouses are built after filling people’s stomachs first.

So though Seol Iri set out for this southern land after receiving orders to capture a criminal, she didn’t receive a large amount of activity funds to begin with.

It was partly because of their circumstances, but also because they thought she would catch him quickly.

Anyway, Ice Palace people would stand out, so wouldn’t she catch him quickly by asking around after going to the Central Plains?

Ice Palace people are country bumpkins who can’t imagine that the Central Plains is this big and wide, with vastness approaching infinity.

How much more so when they think their ice field is the widest land reaching the end of the world?

So even while staying at the Murim Alliance, Seol Iri just ate Murim Alliance food.

When she occasionally wanted to eat something delicious, she went to the Dragon Phoenix Assembly to eat banquet food.

For reference, banquet food is, according to Peng Daesan’s evaluation, made assuming a completely cooled state, so it’s good to look at but hard to give a good evaluation for taste.

But Seol Iri found even that delicious, so she thought Central Plains people were petty for eating such things only among themselves. But isn’t there some hot, hooot food that warms your insides?

This was the reason Seol Iri occasionally showed her face at the Dragon Phoenix Assembly despite having no friends.

Moreover, since she completely blocked others’ approaches, she never got treated to meals by anyone.

So this is the moment Seol Iri is encountering proper special-grade cuisine for the first time since entering the martial arts world, and it perfectly matches Northern Sea people’s taste that it should be boiling like lava!

And so the two women’s militant eating continued, and they say customer turnover on the top floor with the restaurant’s highest grade seats completely stopped as the other diners couldn’t even breathe while watching the spectacle.

“Whew. I’m full.”

Qing leaned back and rubbed her protruding belly like she was in late pregnancy. It’s almost at the level of five or six months pregnant. She’s actually growing something inside so it’s an unexpectedly cute-looking parasite.

Seol Iri looked at Qing’s heavily pregnant belly with incredibly curious eyes, then bowed her head deeply.

“I ate well. Thank you.”

It was an unexpectedly polite greeting.

Is this meal bonding? Did her favorability increase a little from eating together? Qing smiled and tried some after-meal conversation.

“How was it? Did you like it?”

“Yes.”

Seems not.

“Now that we’ve finished eating, Miss Seol should stop following me around and return to the Alliance.”

“I don’t want to.”

She didn’t deny that she was following, so it seemed she had no intention of hiding it in the first place.

“You said you have no money. Where are you going to sleep tonight? Are you going to sleep on the street?”

At this, Seol Iri stared at Qing blankly for a while then dropped one word:

“I’ll go back to sleep and come back, so wait.”

“Ah. You’re saying you’ll go back to sleep now and come again? Well, if you leave now you’d arrive in the middle of the night, and if you eat breakfast and come back you could return before lunch.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s say that’s the case, then what about tomorrow? I’m going to Mount Zhongnan, are you going to go back to sleep and come every day?”

Seol Iri bit her lip.

“I’ll sleep outside.”

“Have you slept outdoors before?”

“Yes. A lot.”

Seol Iri just doesn’t know the ways of the Central Plains.

She’s from the strong Northern Sea people who forcibly put down roots and live in an uninhabitable land.

“Instead of that, since it’s getting dark now, how about staying in a room with me for one night before going back?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Are you planning to keep sleeping outdoors and following me all the way to Sichuan?”

“Yes.”

She’s really stubborn, an absolute mule.

Qing just gave up trying to persuade her.

Well, won’t she get tired and drop off while following?

“Alright. If that’s what Miss Seol really wants.”

Qing said this while slowly getting up thinking she should find an inn now.

“Where will Miss Ximen be staying?”

“I’m about to look for a place.”

“Then, when will you depart tomorrow?”

She wondered why she was asking, but it was to confirm so she could keep following.

Is this how you normally ask so blatantly?

Qing felt a bit mischievous and answered:

“Whenever I feel like it. You know, I can’t sleep alone? If I really can’t sleep I might suddenly leave in the middle of the night. So watch carefully. Make sure you don’t lose me.”

It wasn’t just mischief, she was telling her to stay alert and not let her guard down since she said she’d sleep outdoors.

Miss Seol is a master in her own right, hmm, is it an insult to masters to call a Peak Realm nobody a master? Intermediate, right. Since Miss Seol is an intermediate practitioner, she shouldn’t suffer anything terrible if she stays alert.

Since Qing was financially very wealthy, she got a high-grade room in a high-class inn, washed refreshingly and threw herself on the high-high-grade bed.

As expected it was worth the money, it was incredibly comfortable sinking into the bed.

It seems like I could fall asleep right away just lying like this. Hmm. Sleep. Sleep.

But sleep doesn’t come.

To be precise, her body is tired and her mind is exhausted so drowsiness is coming, but when she closes her eyes and lies down it’s uncomfortable everywhere so she absolutely can’t sleep.

She seemed to doze off occasionally, but she woke up with a terribly awful feeling, so only the awareness that the same content of a nightmare she couldn’t remember was repeating every time she dozed remained.

She still couldn’t fall asleep alone.

Finally, Qing sat up messing up her hair.

The bedroom alone is quiet.

Still, the sound of rain falling refreshingly outside the oiled paper windows transmitted, so it wasn’t completely silent which was fortunate.

Qing had liked rain that didn’t suit her since before entering the martial arts world in her homeland. Especially the sound of rain heard in a comfortable and peaceful state, how much it brings peace of mind and body.

Qing opened the window completely.

Shaaaa!

A refreshing sound of rain like frying tempura filled the room.

Wow, the sound of rain. I really like it. I want to eat pajeon.

Maybe that’s why.

Listening to the rain sound that refreshes your insides, it seems like her mind is gradually calming.

She has a feeling, or certainty, that she could sleep now.

So Qing quickly lay down on the bed to catch the drowsiness that had come after a long time.

And so shaaaa, such a refreshing sound of rain, it feels like all worries are being washed away, so it really feels good, sleep is coming, sleep…

Just as Qing was about to fall asleep.

Suddenly one thought flashed by. Her eyes snapped open and she had to sit up abruptly.

Ah, right! Miss Seol!