Southern Zhanbu Continent, outside the city gates near the capital of Xuanwu Kingdom.
The area was far more lively than the solemn, strictly controlled core of the capital.
Carts of goods pulled by horses and donkeys streamed through the gates, with receiving merchants already waiting outside and others already inside the city, asking around for vendors who could take their goods.
Along with the dense crowds, various stalls had naturally sprung up.
Food and water vendors offered all kinds of services, with tea stalls being particularly popular.
Pushing carts and driving horses was exhausting work, so once inside the city, a cup of tea to refresh and rehydrate was especially sought after.
Cui Hao fiddled with loose silver in his hand as he strolled lazily and brazenly toward a tea stall—if described specifically, he looked like a complete street idler.
Chen Baiqing slowed her pace, following behind Cui Hao, perhaps feeling embarrassed to be seen with him.
Watching Cui Hao's smug demeanor ahead, she shook her head lightly and glanced at Li Xingtian beside her:
"Second senior brother, sometimes it's really hard to resist the urge to educate our fifth junior brother."
Li Xingtian nodded in strong agreement:
"These past decade-plus years have been hard on you, junior sister. Junior brother is indeed rather unruly."
Cui Hao was already at the super late stage of Golden Core—just one step away from Nascent Soul realm. The two weren't using divine sense or lowering their voices, so it was hard for him not to overhear.
He turned his head, rather dissatisfied:
"Senior brother and senior sister, talking about people behind their backs is very immoral. Hasn't spending all this time near the future Sub-Sage rubbed off any elegant thinking on you?"
Chen Baiqing's lips curved slightly, her tone gentle:
"From the way you talk, you'd prefer I say it to your face?"
Cui Hao naturally understood Chen Baiqing's real meaning: You want me to beat you up that badly?
But instead of quickly backing down like before, he tossed the silver in his hand, lowered his eyes slightly, and looked at Chen Baiqing with a suddenly very serious tone:
"Senior sister, sometimes you really need to trust your junior brother."
Chen Baiqing was slightly surprised inwardly but showed no change in expression, simply replying:
"That depends on your performance, not on your boasting."
Cui Hao gripped the silver in his hand, looking self-assured:
"Your fifth junior brother is a genius!"
Chen Baiqing's expression didn't change, but Li Xingtian beside her suddenly burst out laughing.
It was sudden and completely unexpected.
"Second senior brother?!" Cui Hao looked at Li Xingtian in shock.
If Chen Baiqing laughed at him, he could accept it, but why was the most straightforward Li Xingtian laughing at him?
Li Xingtian tried to keep a straight face but clearly failed, covering the lower half of his face with his hand as hearty laughter escaped from behind it.
This time Chen Baiqing couldn't control her expression either, looking at her second senior brother with confusion.
"I'm fine…" Li Xingtian forced back his laughter and took two deep breaths, but a trace of a smile still wouldn't leave the corner of his mouth.
Everyone's sense of humor was completely different, and even cold jokes had their audience.
Cui Hao understood this principle, but he never expected his second senior brother's sense of humor to be so strange.
Was him being a genius really funnier than a joke?
He still looked somewhat resentful:
"Fine, fine. I know I'm not a genius, alright."
Chen Baiqing watched Li Xingtian, who couldn't quite hold back his laughter, and though she didn't understand the joke either, she glared at Cui Hao, signaling him to tone it down and not say things he shouldn't.
Cui Hao's wronged expression shifted fluidly back to seriousness, as if nothing had just happened.
He strode into a small tea stall selling rough broken tea, with an awning overhead for shade.
Quite a few people were already seated inside.
"Hold on." Cui Hao called out to the waiter.
The waiter turned around only upon hearing the voice, then saw Cui Hao dressed in extremely fine clothes, and hurried over. The waiter looked at Cui Hao but completely ignored Chen Baiqing and Li Xingtian behind him, as if they didn't exist.
He quickly put on a flattering smile: "This lord…"
Cui Hao casually glanced at one person's teacup and found the tea inside so pale it was almost colorless—he couldn't even tell how many pots it had been brewed from.
"I'm covering everyone's tea today." Cui Hao tossed the silver he had been flipping at the waiter. "Switch to the best tea and brew the freshest leaves."
The waiter felt a blur before his eyes, and a heavy ingot of silver landed in his hand. Without asking any questions, he quickly pocketed the silver and spoke in a fawning tone:
"Lord! Just call for me if you need anything."
Cui Hao's voice carried full confidence, and the silver was eye-catching enough.
Quite a few people in the tea stall looked at this foolish rich kid with strange and cautious eyes.
People who drank at this kind of tea stall were uniformly poor—those with money went to proper teahouses.
A rich person showing off in front of poor people naturally didn't create a good first impression.
But no one was going to turn down free benefits, and a few people called out in agreement with words like "generous" before ordering more bowls of tea.
Cui Hao found a table with fewer people and sat down, showing no sign of disdain in his eyes—instead, he asked curiously:
"Everyone here comes from all over, right?"
Though Cui Hao looked every bit the wealthy young master, since he spoke first, some bold people dared to respond.
A dark-skinned, burly man holding a teacup laughed loudly:
"Anyone who can live in the capital has money. Would they be drinking plain water here?"
Cui Hao quickly locked onto the burly man who had answered, a warm smile on his face:
"Plain water has its own flavor. I'm treating everyone to tea not because I'm a foolish rich kid, but because my family is strict with me and I have a restless nature. I always want to know what exciting life is like outside the capital and what stories are happening beyond the gates. Of course, if I ask something I shouldn't, everyone can just tell me to shut up."
The burly man set down his bowl, looking at Cui Hao strangely. Rich people like this were truly rare, though… he just had nothing better to do.
After thinking for a moment, he laughed: "Life outside the city is just about scraping by. If there are real stories, those are for people who don't worry about food and drink to have time for. We're either driving carts or feeding horses—no stories to tell."
Cui Hao scratched his head awkwardly, then suddenly seemed to understand:
"Have you heard of Li Junzi from Junzi Mountain?"
The burly man's smile stiffened slightly, but he didn't dare speak up to respond.
This matter was already common knowledge throughout Xuanwu Kingdom.
Like a wind, before Li Junzi had even fully entered the borders of Xuanwu Kingdom, almost everyone already knew.
Cui Hao seemed not to notice the atmosphere in the tea stall, thinking he had found a topic and started talking:
"The current emperor has summoned Li Junzi to court as a secretary. New policies are probably going to be implemented."
"The vision of letting everyone who wants to read have books to read—some people say it's good, others say it's not. What do you think?"
The burly man looked at Cui Hao's innocent expression and instead asked:
"What does the noble young master think—good or not?"
Cui Hao's lips curved as he declared loudly:
"Since ancient times, officials have been the ones who can read."
"My father says that words are invisible blades, killing without drawing blood."
[
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