Only his eyes were cold, seemingly filled with the icy moonlight.

"I ask, you answer."

After a moment, Wuxin and Tie Lin walked out of this courtyard.

Tie Lin seemed hesitant to speak, as Wuxin glanced at him, his tone calm and undisturbed, saying:

"Not here, we'll go to the next district market."

Tie Lin sighed inwardly, nodded, suppressing his thoughts and slight dissatisfaction for the time being, waiting until this matter was settled to confront Wuxin.

Wuxin had already walked briskly out, as Tie Lin lifted his gaze to look at the moon gradually rising high in the sky, letting out a breath, and thought of the bird that delivered the message to Wang Anfeng, he gathered his thoughts and followed quickly.

......

Wang Anfeng had just finished having dinner with everyone.

The name of Zhang's Inn was indeed mundane, essentially a common roadside inn, unremarkable to those refined scholars, and naturally nothing to intimidate peers with its reputation, but it had another characteristic, which was its ability to 'adapt to local conditions, eat seasonally'.

The dishes prepared daily largely depended on what vegetables were collected from the farmers that day, with no fixed menu.

For instance, the side dish for breakfast consisted of freshly picked vegetables still covered in morning dew, chopped and mixed with chili, scallions, and ginger, then drizzled with boiling oil, perfect for accompanying rice, a taste unattainable by those who insist on extravagance every meal.

Today at dusk, they happened to get a fat chicken, and the cook showcased his skills by preparing a unique spicy numbing chicken dish from the Sword Southern Route, both numbing and exquisitely delicious, leaving Wang Anfeng and others in a delightful mess at the table.

After eating, Wang Anfeng casually handed over some snacks he'd purchased to Dongfang Ximing, not mentioning that they were bought in Rongyue City; the latter didn't dig deeper, happily accepting the large package of snacks, their eyes sparkling brightly.

Having just eaten dinner, no one rushed to leave; though Liu Ling enjoyed his wine, he was also a seasoned foodie, loudly instructing the shopkeeper's young helper, a distant relative, to wash the fresh fruit purchased that day and cut it into perfectly bite-sized pieces, accompanied by freshly brewed good tea to cleanse the palate.

Having consumed rich food, a sip of hot tea felt increasingly comfortable, and once the lingering taste in the mouth dispersed, they then ate the fresh fruit.

This fresh fruit, soaked in deep autumn well water, provided a refreshing comfort with every bite, a delight only known to seasoned food enthusiasts of the Jianghu.

Wang Anfeng cradled the tea cup, letting his thoughts wander while reminiscing the taste of that dish, pondering the words of the Rong Yue Restaurant shopkeeper earlier, he couldn't help but subtly inquire Dongfang Ximing if there were any clever tricks used when making pastries?

The young girl pondered for a bit, then told him it was from a recipe she found in the Dongfang Clan's house.

She then, with a bit of pride, expressed that she followed everything written strictly, if it said to add a spoon of sugar, she wouldn't add even a bit more, it was precisely one flat spoon.

Wang Anfeng and Lv Baiping both had their mouths slightly twitch.

Lv Baiping felt a tumult within, almost dumbfounded to the point of exclaiming—

What?!

That thing was made according to the recipe?!

This... this... even following a recipe yielded such an effect, if given free rein with ingredients, wouldn't she concoct something on par with the world's deadliest poisons?

Though non-toxic, it could make even Middle Third Rank martial artists experience a moment of distraction, surpassing ninety-nine percent of known venoms.

Reflecting further, perhaps using a correct recipe resulted in poison.

While recklessly making anything willy-nilly might surprisingly yield something tasty.

With such 'strange talent', aside from being wide-eyed and in awe, she could only conclude that the world indeed harbored all sorts of wonders, and resolved never to eat anything made by Dongfang Ximing for as long as she lived.

Wang Anfeng, however, slightly twitched the corner of his mouth, finally realizing the crux of the matter, an absurd yet undeniable judgement forming within him—

Wait a minute, Dongfang Clan...

Could that recipe have been written by dad?!

Since mom was from the Dongfang line, surely dad must have visited the Penglai Island of the East Sea, and from what people said, that gentle and refined scholar, broad-minded with a love of laughter, wasn't as worry-free in his youth.

Back then, he was able to trick everyone from soldiers to kings into eating his pickled vegetables, finding joy in it. Believing in his 'talent', he wrote a 'recipe' for delicacies, stashing it away at his in-laws for 'descendants' to discover and propagate...

This type of thing definitely suited the youthful mentality of Wang Tiance, and he most certainly was capable of doing something like this.

Wang Anfeng couldn't help but twitch his palm slightly.

Looking at the earnest Dongfang Ximing, who seemed to genuinely regard the recipe found at her grandfather's house as sacred, he suddenly found it both amusing and perplexing, curious about what dad had written to so thoroughly deceive this young girl.

Recipe, recipe.

So that was considered the Wang Family's taste.

Perhaps having eaten pickles since childhood, he had grown accustomed to them, but the sweets caught him off guard and dealt a formidable 'Wang Family recipe' blow, nearly knocking him out, and thus understanding why martial arts experts were so terrified of his dad's pickles, even Uncle Li was no exception.

His mouth twitching slightly, Wang Anfeng felt a silent helplessness within, with deeper complexities surfacing.

The person's personality was so intense and seemed to have been too mischievous.

So intense that although he had been gone from this world for a long time, he could still unintentionally find traces of his existence, compelling him to think, that ten, twenty years ago, there was indeed such a vividly spirited young man.

At this thought, Wang Anfeng's expression unintentionally softened more, he stopped talking, simply holding his tea while watching Dongfang Ximing and Lin Qiaofu 'shout and cheer', savoring these leisurely days.

After renewing the tea a few times, Dongfang Ximing distributed the large package of sweets to everyone, and Wang Anfeng stood up, returning to his room early—

Exhausted from today, he intended to get some rest, otherwise, even though his body was fine, mentally he would feel fatigued.

With one hand on the smoothly polished yellow wooden railing, he slowly stepped on the wooden stairs, spiraling upward, his eyes gazing downward.

Lin Qiaofu and Dongfang Ximing were still sitting below, not in a rush to return to their rooms, only a few of them remained on the first floor, two young girls of similar age playing around, the shopkeeper was leaning against the counter, dozing off.

The windows were wide open, outside was the pitch-black night, adorned with endless starlight.

In the distance, there were sounds of footsteps, faint barking of dogs, and a melody sung from somewhere unknown, lingering and ethereal.

Such a serene scene always made one feel at peace, as Wang Anfeng raised a hand to rub his brows, murmuring internally:

No matter how big today's matter is, it doesn't concern me.

Once upstairs, the third room on the left was his guest room, Wang Anfeng walked there at a pace three to five times slower than usual, then calmly pushed open the door.

On the windowsill, a delicate little grey bird lifted its head, its two round, pitch-black eyes happened to meet Wang Anfeng's gaze.

Silence.

Long silence.

Suddenly, Wang Anfeng took a step back, his expression unchanged, as if having entered the wrong room, he instantly raised his hand and closed the door.

In one swift motion.

I saw nothing.

PS: Today's double chapter offering... 5,600 words, if divided, each chapter would be 2,800 words~