Chapter 87 From the Valley of Medicine Masters? (1/2)

As the best courtyard in Chuxiu Inn, it was much bigger than any of the courtyards that Ren Jiapei had in the Ren family household. Within, there were fifteen rooms: five master bedrooms and ten rooms for the servants.

The five master bedrooms were lined up in the middle of the courtyard, while the servant rooms were distributed in the two corners closer to the door. Ten servant girls stayed in the rooms.

“Welcome to the Chuxiu Inn.” As Zhou Donghuang and the rest walked into the courtyard, the ten servant girls stood in two rows and bowed in greeting. They then rushed forward to grab the bags from Fu and Aunt Mei. A few of them stepped forward together to take the black iron spear from Fu.

Clearly, they could tell that it was a spear made entirely of black iron and was immensely heavy. If not, they would not have come forward to take it together. This detail did not go unnoticed by Zhou Donghuang. “These servant girls have good judgement.”

But after a while, he realized: what kind of place this was—Chuxiu Inn, the best guest inn in the Chu royal city. Furthermore, since these servant girls had been sent to wait on the guest in the best guest courtyard, they must have gone through careful selection.

“No wonder it costs a thousand liang to stay here for a night… they really put on quite a show,” Zhou Donghuang muttered to himself as his eyes flashed. Of course, he was only mildly surprised to find such extravagance in the Chu royal city; in his past life, he had stayed in even more prestigious guest-houses as he had travelled around the universe. This inn could hardly hold a candle to those guest-houses.

The whole courtyard was split into the front and back yard, divided by the five master bedrooms in the middle. The servant girls spent most of their time in the front yard, sometimes going into the master bedrooms in the middle to clean them. They would not step a foot into the backyard unless the guest instructed them to tidy it up. This ensured the guest’s privacy.

This was all introduced to Zhou Donghuang’s party by a slightly older servant girl among the ten of them.

“In the past, I had only heard of how terrific the best guest courtyard in Chuxiu Inn is; this is my first time here… This is much better than the courtyard I have at home,” Ren Jiapei exclaimed. She turned to Zhou Donghuang and said with a cheeky smile, “Brother Zhou, look… the four of you will only take up four rooms. How about leaving the last one for me?” Ren Jiapei pouted as she looked expectantly at Zhou Donghuang.

“If you want to stay here, how can I stop you?” Zhou Donghuang replied with a laugh. If Ren Jiapei stayed here, Zixi would have a buddy; of course, he was happy to oblige.

That Yang Zixi was suddenly thrown into such a circumstance; he felt like comforting her, but he never did. After all, in his past life, he had traversed across the universe all alone for millennia. Clearly, he was not adept at dealing with women. Although he never lacked women, he was still never interested as he chose to focus on his practice.

Of course, if he was being honest, it was also because he had never met someone whom he had really liked, and he was not willing to settle either. Hence, he had stayed alone all the way.

This time, if I really meet someone whom I fancy and who is suitable… I don’t mind trying an intimate relationship. Zhou Donghuang had thought this way more than once before.

“It’s settled!” Hearing Zhou Donghuang’s words, Ren Jiapei’s eyes lit up as she called Yang Zixi, “Zixi, let’s take a look at the rooms.”

With that, she dragged Yang Zixi into one of the master bedrooms. But they had not entered the one in the middle. Of the five master bedrooms, the one in the middle was clearly the biggest, followed by the two on each side, while the two at the ends were even smaller. The smallest rooms had been taken by Fu and Aunt Mei. Both Yang Zixi and Ren Jiapei knew to leave the biggest room to Zhou Donghuang.

Settling down with a roof over their heads, Zhou Donghuang did not forget about the matter of standing up for the young girl. “Zixi, I’ve already asked the servants to prepare our meal… after eating, I’ll go with you to the Shi family.”

“Mm,” the girl replied. “Thank you, Brother Zhou.” She had already asked Aunt Mei to secretly ask Fu to confirm that Brother Zhou indeed did not fear the Shi family, so she was no longer afraid that he would be harmed by going there.

“I’ll come along.” Ren Jiapei’s eyes flashed, eager to be part of the fun.

…

The Shi family was a tycoon family. Even though they were considered to be among the bottom of the tycoon families, they had some status in the Chu royal city. Although the Shi family household did not occupy as much land as many other tycoon families, it was not small either and was situated close to the city center.

However, something had stirred the peace at the Shi family household today.

“Chief! Trouble!” A family disciple rushed into the courtyard where the Shi family chief, Shi Hao, was staying, and said hurriedly, “Someone has broken into our house!”