The first few steps the young cripple took were very labored and wobbly, but several steps later, although still slow, they became steady and firm.

It was as if a child was learning to walk. Although his gait was still unstable, it did not mean that he couldn’t walk.

A cripple could not walk. If you could walk, you are not a cripple.

Hu Gui heard the footsteps and turned around.

“Miss Jun, Young Master,” he greeted.

Miss Jun politely declined his help and supported Fang Chengyu herself. Hu Gui hurried over to the carriage.

“That one?”

The onlookers murmured as they peered into the teahouse.

Zhu Zan stood at the door, his expression calm under the crowd’s gaze, and looked at Miss Jun and the others who were now sitting in the carriage.

Miss Jun felt his gaze.

Zhu Zan looked at her and smiled.

Beautiful facial features, a bright smiling face, eyes like stars.

The people in front of the teahouse suddenly fell silent, then low murmurs of praise went through the crowd.

This was Zhu Zan. If you said that the Duke of Cheng was gentle as jade, then he was bright as a gem.

Such father and son were not like military commanders at all, but they were all natural military leaders.

Miss Jun dropped her gaze.

“Let’s go,” she said.

“Let’s go,” Hu Gui agreed and waved at the people around them somewhat exaggeratedly. “Make way!”

As he spoke, he grabbed onto the carriage, about to sit down.

Zhu Zan then leaped off the steps of the teahouse and bounded in front of the carriage. He pulled Hu Gui off and sat down himself.

He raised his arm and whistled loudly, not waiting for Lei Zhonglian to crack the whip. The horses immediately started forward.

“Hey you…” Hu Gui was stunned for a moment, then shouted out as he tried to catch up.

The onlookers laughed, while a few seized Hu Gui.

“What mess are you trying to make, the people are together.”

Hu Gui could only watch the carriage go down the street sadly.

When Zhu Zan boarded the carriage, Miss Jun and the others did not say anything against it. After the horses started moving, Lei Zhonglian only gently pulled the reins to direct the horses.

Zhu Zan leaned into the carriage.

“This is your hometown?” he asked, his voice casual and tone familiar.

“It is,” Miss Jun replied with a smile.

Zhu Zan went ‘oh’.

“No wonder you’re an overlord here, a true son of silken breeches ¹ ,” he commented.

Miss Jun smiled and did not say anything.

However, she still remembered that Zhu Zan was a chatterbox. Whether it was his true personality or if he was just playing the fool, but as long as he was willing, he could talk about whatever he wanted for all eternity, even without anyone responding to him.

“I just arrived in Runan today. You said it was a coincidence.”

“What’s so fun for you here in Runan?”

“You’re quite fleet of foot.”

“What are you going to do in Yangcheng?”

“Is it to gamble?”

“Ha ha ha ha, I’m sorry about that. You lost even your blood and flesh ² .”

“So, digging herbs up in the mountain?”

“Ha ha ha ha, I’m sorry about that too. You almost died trying to get the herb that you lost in the end.”

When Miss Jun heard this, she looked at him.

“It’s not lost,” she interrupted him.

Zhu Zan looked back at her.

“It is,” he insisted.

“Why did you say you were sorry?” said Miss Jun.

Lei Zhonglian sighed. He had been starting to feel that Miss Jun’s temper was very good, not as unreasonable as everyone said, but now it seemed that in reality her temper was not very good at all.

Not unreasonable, but stubborn for sure.

She couldn’t be thinking that this man who had just released the hand that could have claim her life was really harmless.

Why was she still so impatient and provocative?

Zhu Zan looked at her.

“Because I’m a good man, I’m very sympathetic to other people’s misfortunes,” he said. “I can’t help but say sorry for the blinded Old Heavenly Father.”

He said this and looked at Miss Jun with sympathy.

“I hope you won’t be sad. This kind of thing is just too much of a coincidence.”

Miss Jun looked at him, somewhat angry and somewhat amused.

How could the Duke of Cheng have such a son?

“Yeah, too coincidental,” she said with a smile.

She dropped her gaze, so she didn’t see a flash of suspicion in Zhu Zan’s eyes.

Miss Jun’s concession naturally did not stop this vein of conversation.

“You said you grew up in Funing. Can you speak the Funing dialect?” he asked suddenly.

Whether Jun Zhenzhen could speak Funing she didn’t know, but she could.

Master spoke many dialects. When she was looking at maps with Master, he would point to a place and say a few lines in the local language.

Naturally, these maps included Funing.

And Miss Jun could recall what he’d said.

She was silent for a moment.

“No,” she said.””My father and mother only spoke the official language at home.”

Zhu Zan smiled.

“Henan standard?” He raised an eyebrow.

Miss Jun looked at him.

“Noble Son, standard language has the Henan flavor,” she said.

The old capital was in Kaifeng, but the present capital in Nanjing had only been the capital for a few decades.

The officials in the south had already switched to Nanjing as the standard language, but many officials in the north still spoke Kaifeng. One of the major reasons was to flatter the Duke of Cheng.

The Duke of Cheng always believed in recovering lost territory and returning to the old capital.

As an official in the north, Jun Yingwen, even if he wasn’t trying to please the Duke of Cheng, was a man from Cai province, Henan.

This kind of answer was the most appropriate one.

Miss Jun finished speaking, then took a fan and looked at the world outside of the carriage, and did not notice Zhu Zan’s slight change in expression.

“What a coincidence,” he muttered.

Lei Zhonglian couldn’t understand what sort of coincidence was them speaking Henan standard.

Miss Jun knew why he said coincidence.

Her words, they were once spoken by the Duke of Cheng.

When her Father had met him in his study, the Duke of Cheng had spoken with a Henan accent.

Curious, Father had asked him about speaking the official language, because the Duke of Cheng was also from Nanjing.

The Duke of Cheng had said such a sentence.

When Miss Jun took the candied fruit from the Duke of Cheng, she had seen this man as an immortal, and she would always remember what the immortal said.

However, this was a very simple sentence. Just because the Duke of Cheng had said it didn’t mean that no one else could say it.

Especially an official from Henan, Jun Yingwen.

There were no issues with this answer. It was a perfectly reasonable response.

“Little kids do have a lot of preposterous arguments,” Zhu Zan said, continuing the topic. “What about your parents? They don’t mind that you being so domineering?”

Miss Jun stopped to look at him.

“My father is somewhat famous. Haven’t you heard of him?” she asked.

Zhu Zan laughed.

“There are many famous people, I…” he said, then stopped and looked at Miss Jun with sudden realization.

‘His reaction is really fast,’ Miss Jun thought.

Jun Yingwen was indeed well-known, but there were many officials who died in office every year. And he was just a seventh-ranked official.

For someone with a status like Zhu Zan, he was a nobody.

Zhu Zan’s quick response to the simple word “famous” showed that he was a person with a highly attentive memory which could process large amounts of information.

For an official to be called famous, there weren’t many reasons. And from this association, he could naturally find the related information.

Anyone who had a brilliant son would pour love and affection on them. The Duke of Cheng was no exception.

“How sad,” said Zhu Zan, looking at her sympathetically. “Miss Jun must be suffering.”

Miss Jun nodded at him in return.

The carriage stopped then.

“Young Lady, we are here,” said Lei Zhonglian.

The rain had stopped, but there were not many people on the street. Lei Zhonglian stepped forward and opened the door.

Zhu Zan also got out of the carriage and looked around.

“Open shop,” he said randomly. “Open what?”

As he spoke, he caught sight of the sign on the door and his voice stuttered, and his expression changed.

“Jiuling Hall,” he read slowly, “Jiuling… Hall.”

Zhu Zan read it again carefully.

“Miss Jiuling,” a voice said from the side at this time.

This phrase shocked him for a moment.

An old lady with an umbrella came in and rushed to bow to Miss Jun who was walking in with Fang Chengyu.

“Are you here for a consultation?” Miss Jun said. “Please come in.”

As she spoke, she noticed where Zhu Zan was looking.

He shifted his gaze to her.

“You’re called Jiuling?” he asked.

Miss Jun smiled.

“Yes,” she said, and turned to look at whoever was walking in.

The old woman rejoiced and followed them in. Lei Zhonglian removed the door shutters, letting light into the hall. The voices also became more loudly.

Zhu Zan still stood in the doorway, looking at the inside of the hall, then at the sign board.

“Jiuling.”

He repeated, a complex expression in his eyes. He immediately lowered his gaze and shaded his eyes from view, then looked inside again.

“What a damn coincidence,” he said.