Chapter 22

After leaving Lian Mountain, they arrived at Tianshui City.

At noon, outside Tianshui City, four people arrived: two men and two women, including Gu Yang. Su Qingzhi and Zhixing were so beautiful that to avoid drawing attention, they both wore veils.

"Tianshui City!"

Gu Yang looked at the three characters above the city gate, and he had a deep impression of this city.

In one of his life simulations, he had rooted himself here and became the richest man in the city...

Zhang Xiaohai, standing beside him, asked, "Young Master, have you been here before?"

Gu Yang shook his head and said, "Let's go."

When they entered the city, they were not harassed, as they clearly looked like people not to be trifled with.

The four of them went to the largest inn in the city, booked two rooms, with Zhang Xiaohai taking one and Gu Yang sharing the other with the two women.

Su Qingzhi, being a maid, naturally had to share a room with her master.

And Zhixing, being Su Qingzhi's maid, naturally had to share a room with her mistress.

Gu Yang did this on purpose; he wanted to see how long the young lady could endure it.

For the past ten days, the four of them had been in the mountains, enduring the elements. Now that they were in the city, they naturally needed to rest and recuperate.

Gu Yang sent Zhang Xiaohai out to buy some daily necessities. When he returned to the room, he saw Su Qingzhi tidying the bed.

Zhixing, standing beside her, whispered, "Miss, let me do it—" She stopped speaking when she saw him enter, turned around, and faced away from him.

Ever since this little girl found out that he wanted Su Qingzhi to be his maid, she had been angry and refused to speak to him.

She had quite a temper.

Gu Yang walked up to Su Qingzhi and saw her lower her head, looking resigned.

She had actually endured this far, even when he said he would share a room with her, she did not object.

This really made him look at her differently.

Gu Yang reached out and took the jade hairpin from her head, saying, "I need to borrow this. I'm going out for a while, stay here and don't wander around."

With that, he turned and left.

"Hey—"

Zhixing called out, about to stop him, but was held back by Su Qingzhi.

She said urgently, "Miss, that hairpin is a keepsake from your mother..."

Su Qingzhi shook her head, "It's just an object, it doesn't matter."

"Miss, I'll beg Brother Gu to let you off. I'll be his maid instead." Zhixing did not want her to suffer such humiliation.

Su Qingzhi replied, "I want to live and learn martial arts, to avenge my parents. Now, only he can help me, so I must endure the humiliation."

"Miss—"

Zhixing's eyes welled up with tears, feeling that her mistress had truly changed. Before, after being captured by Guoshan Feng, she would rather die than submit.

Now, she could endure such humiliation at Brother Gu's hands.

The mistress used to be such a proud person, and now she was serving others as a maid.

Brother Gu was really going too far.

...

After leaving the inn, Gu Yang asked a passerby for directions and arrived at a pawnshop.

He took out the jade hairpin and handed it over, asking, "How much can this be pawned for?"

The old shopkeeper inside glanced at the hairpin and then sized up Gu Yang. Seeing that he was a hunter and hearing his accent, he knew he was from out of town. He had a plan in mind and said, "A green jade hairpin, it can be pawned for two taels of silver."

"Is that all? I won't pawn it then."

Gu Yang, upon hearing this, reached out to take the hairpin back.

"Wait."

The old shopkeeper grabbed his hand and smiled, "Young brother, would you like to come inside and talk?"

Gu Yang smiled and showed his white teeth, saying, "Sure."

Inside, the old shopkeeper had someone serve tea and asked, "May I ask, young brother, where did you get this hairpin?"

"That's none of your business. Just tell me how much it's worth."

The old shopkeeper chuckled, "Coincidentally, our pawnshop was robbed a few days ago, and a few items were lost. One of them was this hairpin. I suspect that if you were the thief, you wouldn't be so foolish as to pawn the stolen goods here. Let's assume you found it. Take these two taels of silver, and return the item to its rightful owner."

He spoke as if it were the truth.

Gu Yang didn't expect them to fall for it so easily. He had prepared several tricks, but they turned out to be unnecessary.

It seemed they were so used to cheating outsiders that they did it with ease.

Gu Yang "panicked" and said, "Nonsense, this is my wife's dowry. How could it be your pawnshop's property? Give it back to me."

The old shopkeeper's face turned cold, and he said, "It seems you don't know when to show respect."

Suddenly, two burly men with clubs appeared at the door.

"Take him to the authorities and accuse him of stealing a jade hairpin worth three hundred taels from our pawnshop."

"Yes."

The two men approached menacingly, ready to grab him.

Gu Yang looked at them and laughed, "You guys are really ruthless."

Two "Ouch" sounds.

While speaking, he kicked the two men to the ground, and they couldn't get up.

The old shopkeeper was stunned.

Clang!

A knife was placed at his throat, and he trembled, dropping the teacup, which shattered.

A light, teasing voice whispered in his ear, "What do you think we should do about this?"

The old shopkeeper inwardly cursed, realizing he had made a grave mistake and encountered a hard target.

He stammered, "Hero, spare my life, we can talk things over."

"Alright, let's talk."

Gu Yang stuck the knife into the table and said, "Send someone to inform your boss. If he doesn't come to see me within half an hour, I'll come to find him and have a good talk."

"Yes... yes..." The old shopkeeper dared not refuse and quickly sent someone to inform his boss.

...

A quarter of an hour later, Gu Yang was sitting with his legs crossed, leisurely drinking tea.

He had taken the jade hairpin from Su Qingzhi to set a trap.

He was so poor that he had to resort to this. Robbing directly seemed inappropriate, so he came up with this plan to target unscrupulous merchants.

It went surprisingly smoothly.

"Which little thief dares to cause trouble in Tianshui City?"

Suddenly, a young woman's voice rang out, and a figure flipped in from outside, wielding a knife and lunging at him.

The woman was a Ninth Rank practitioner.

Gu Yang casually waved his hand, sending her flying.

She felt a terrifying force and crashed into the wall, her body aching, and her knife clattered to the ground.

"Miss—!" the old shopkeeper exclaimed.

Gu Yang looked at the young woman, who was about seventeen or eighteen, with a rather delicate appearance.

"Is she the wife I married in that life simulation?"

He thought about it and felt a bit strange.

Indeed, the owner of this pawnshop was the father-in-law who had poisoned him in that life simulation.

Although it all happened in a simulation, he was a vengeful person and had to settle this score.

"Yuer!"

At that moment, a rough voice sounded, and the next second, a middle-aged man rushed in from outside.

The main character had arrived.