Chapter 276: The Commotion

The Blind Man tore pieces from the flatbread in his hand, but his attention was on the people around him.

Several groups emerged from the guest rooms on the second floor. Their footsteps were light, clearly suggesting excellent movement techniques. Their faces remained natural enough, but their bodies had already shifted into a state of readiness.

The Blind Man sighed.

He looked down at the tiny pieces of flatbread he had just torn into his bowl. He had originally intended to ask the staff to add more hot soup, but now he hesitated.

Continuing to sit downstairs like this might become dangerous before long.

And yet he was strangely reluctant to abandon the fruits of his labor.

The Blind Man was not someone who enjoyed stirring up trouble, nor was he particularly fond of watching spectacles.

So in the end, he picked up the bowl, stood, went to the counter, found a waiter, and flicked him a piece of broken silver.

“Add more hot soup. Sprinkle in extra scallions and cilantro, then bring it up to my room.”

“Yes, sir! Just wait a moment. We’ll send it up shortly.”

Satisfied, the Blind Man dusted off his hands and headed upstairs.

At that moment, the man downstairs who had earlier called the baby a “bastard” burst out laughing after hearing the swordsman himself admit it.

“Brother, you’re wearing that green hat nice and proper, aren’t you? Don’t tell me your woman ran off with another man and left behind some bastard that isn’t even yours, just so you’d have something to remember her by?”

The swordsman did not answer this time.

The baby in his arms had already cried itself hoarse.

The swordsman turned to the waiter beside him.

“Do you have goat’s milk?”

“Oh, honored guest, we don’t keep any here. If you head farther east, you might find some. I heard there was fighting over there recently. Good heavens, they say they drove back more cattle and sheep from the snowfields than anyone can count.”

The swordsman shook his head helplessly.

Then he asked, “Do you have rice gruel?”

“Please wait a moment, sir. I’ll have the kitchen make some right away.”

“Why go through all that trouble?” the same man shouted again. “Just call one of those big-titted girls out from behind the red curtains and have her feed the brat. Problem solved!”

Someone at a neighboring table said, “There’s no milk in those fields.”

“No problem. I’ll go plow the field first, then she can nurse the brat afterward! Hahahahaha...”

The Blind Man, who had only just reached the second floor, shook his head slightly.

That level of provocation was painfully clumsy.

Trying this hard to manufacture hatred for the sake of manufacturing hatred was simply crude.

People of the jianghu really did handle things roughly.

The Blind Man instead turned his attention toward the group standing near the second-floor railing, seemingly keeping watch.

They were clearly a step above the first man.

But how should he put it?

They were still being a little too deliberate.

As for the swordsman holding the baby and trying to find something for it to eat, the Blind Man inexplicably began looking forward to seeing what he would do.

The baby itself did not matter to the Blind Man.

Nor did he care much about whatever affair was unfolding here.

He was merely a spectator.

A blind spectator.

Downstairs, the swordsman was still clumsily trying to soothe the child.

It was obvious he had never raised an infant before.

Even the way he held the baby was wrong.

Still, setting aside his earlier admission that the child was a “bastard,” there was no denying that he seemed to care quite a bit about it.

The Blind Man yawned.

Perhaps because the swordsman refused to take the bait, the troublemaker had no way to keep the exchange going.

For a moment, the scene downstairs fell into an awkward pause.

But soon, the man who had started everything left his table and strode over, roaring, “Cry, cry, cry! You’re giving this daddy a splitting headache! Get the hell out!”

As he spoke, the man reached for the baby.

The Blind Man shook his head and sighed.

Ruined.

Completely ruined.

If you were going to tear off the mask and start fighting outright, why bother with all that useless nonsense beforehand?

At the same moment, the Blind Man distinctly sensed the people beside the railing on the second floor slipping their hands into their sleeves.

There it was.

The Blind Man turned, pushed open the door to his guest room, and walked inside.

Then, through the closed door, he continued “watching the show.”

The man’s hand closed around the infant.

He simply took the baby directly from the swordsman’s arms.

The movement was rough and reckless.

Strangely enough, however, once the child landed in the man’s arms, it stopped crying.

The swordsman looked mildly surprised.

Then a trace of anger surfaced on his face.

He had been coaxing the child for so long, and it had never stopped wailing.

Yet the moment someone else held it, the crying ceased?

It was hard to say whether the child simply disliked the swordsman, or whether it was already instinctively bullying the soft and fearing the hard.

The burly man held the infant and peeled open the swaddling cloth, seemingly checking the child’s sex.

Then he shouted at the swordsman, “Hey! This bastard of yours actually seems pretty attached to me. How about I raise the little bastard for you?”

With that, the man turned and started walking back toward his table with the baby in his arms.

The swordsman remained seated.

No one knew what he was thinking.

Inside the second-floor guest room, the Blind Man frowned slightly.

That was it?

After building the atmosphere for so long, this was all he got to watch?

Boring.

Utterly boring.

If he had known, he might as well have gone to sleep earlier so he could get back on the road sooner.

Just then, the waiter brought up the Blind Man’s bowl of soaked flatbread and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

The waiter entered eagerly and set the large bowl in front of the Blind Man.

The top was covered generously with chopped scallions and cilantro.

It looked wonderfully appetizing.

Just as the Blind Man was about to start eating, the door opened again.

An old man entered with a young girl.

The pair dressed better than beggars by just enough to retain a trace of nimbleness, yet compared with traveling merchants, they still looked distinctly shabby.

“Noble sir, this old man’s granddaughter is hungry. Might we perhaps...”

The old man pointed at the bowl of soaked flatbread in front of the Blind Man.

They had come asking for food.

The little girl even placed her index finger in her mouth and put on an expression that practically said, *I’m adorable, and I’m also a little hungry.*

Honestly, with most people, whether they were genuinely kindhearted or secretly harboring some ulterior motive, a bowl of soaked flatbread was just a bowl of soaked flatbread.

Giving it away would not cost much.

But this particular bowl contained the Blind Man’s own labor.

He had personally torn every little piece of flatbread into it.

The Blind Man reached into his sleeve, took out some silver, and placed it on the table.

“My apologies. I’m starving. Please take the girl downstairs and ask the innkeeper for something else to eat. Use whatever money remains to open a room and rest.”

At a time like this, anyone appearing here was almost certainly no ordinary person.

The Blind Man understood that perfectly well.

So courtesy was still necessary.

Unexpectedly, the old man shook his head.

“No, no. If we go downstairs later, I’m afraid we won’t be able to eat in peace.”

Without waiting for permission, the old man sat down, pulled a battered bowl from inside his clothes, placed it on the table, and looked expectantly at the Blind Man.

“Noble sir, take pity on this lonely old man and child. Life has not been easy for us.”

The Blind Man lifted the brim of his hat, allowing his sightless eyes to face the old man directly.

Then he said, “Please, old sir. Take pity on this cripple as well.”

“...”

The old man fell silent.

“Oh! You really are blind!” the girl exclaimed.

Then she climbed onto a chair and said to the Blind Man, “When I saw you come upstairs earlier, I couldn’t tell at all that you couldn’t see.”

Her voice was pleasant, bright, and lively.

The Blind Man sighed.

He divided off part of the soaked flatbread from his large bowl and poured it into the old man’s battered one.

“Many thanks, noble sir. Many thanks.”

The old man immediately thanked him, pushed the bowl toward the girl, then pulled a pair of chopsticks from his sleeve and handed them to her.

The girl did not stand on ceremony.

She lowered her head and began eating at once.

Clearly, she really had been hungry.

Then the old man pulled a wine gourd from inside his clothes.

He removed the stopper, took one of the teacups sitting upside down on the guest-room table, and poured two cups of wine.

One was pushed toward the Blind Man.

“Noble sir, you treated my granddaughter to a meal. I’ll treat you to a drink.”

Unfortunately, the Blind Man was not a bold and carefree sort.

When it came to cherishing his own life, he had always been neck and neck with Master Zheng Fan.

“Many thanks, old sir. But I need to rest soon, and afterward I must continue my journey. I won’t drink.”

“Afraid it might be poisoned?” the old man asked with a smile.

“Yes.”

“Fair enough. When traveling away from home, one really should be careful.”

With that, the old man began drinking by himself.

The Blind Man started eating.

During that stretch of time, the situation downstairs also quieted down.

The swordsman had brought the baby in, and now the burly man had taken the child away.

The swordsman made no attempt to retrieve it.

Instead, he ordered food for himself and sat there eating and drinking.

When the inn finally brought over the rice gruel, the swordsman pointed toward the burly man’s table with his chopsticks.

So the staff carried the rice gruel over there instead.

Upstairs, after drinking two cups alone, the old man’s cheeks became faintly flushed.

He looked sideways at the Blind Man and said, “Noble sir, do you know this place won’t be peaceful today?”

The Blind Man shook his head.

“Nothing to do with me.”

“Ai. You didn’t drink my wine, so I still owe you a little favor.

“How about this?

“If something happens later, this old man will guarantee your safety.”

Trading half a small bowl of soaked flatbread for one’s life was an excellent bargain.

Yet the Blind Man replied, “Old sir, just sit here and don’t go anywhere.

“I still have some oranges. Take your time peeling them and eating them.

“As long as you do not leave this room, I can guarantee your safety as well.”

The old man frowned slightly.

For a moment, he genuinely could not decide whether this “blind man” was joking or whether there was something behind his words.

The jianghu was a mixed bag of dragons and fish.

There were charlatans from obscure schools who relied on mysterious talk and a glib tongue to thrive.

And there were also true hidden dragons who concealed themselves among ordinary people.

The girl, on the other hand, had recovered her energy after eating.

She called toward the Blind Man, “Hey, blind man, do you know who my grandfather is?”

The Blind Man had already lain down on the bed.

He answered, “An expert.”

The girl was instantly stumped.

Introducing her grandfather’s identity had always been one of her favorite things to do.

Watching the other person’s eyes widen and their expression become flattering was tremendously satisfying.

But this blind man had not even given her a ladder.

He had climbed it before she could.

“Ai.”

The old man sighed.

“Noble sir, this old man too is merely someone of the jianghu, unable to act freely.”

The Blind Man stopped speaking.

He could not be bothered anymore.

He turned onto his side, facing inward, and prepared to sleep.

He did not care that the old man and girl were still inside his room.

At that exact moment, the calm downstairs finally broke.

The burly man holding the infant rose with several companions.

They did not even intend to feed the child the rice gruel.

They simply prepared to leave the relay station.

Unexpectedly, a large, sturdy woman suddenly stood and slapped her own chest.

“I have milk.

“At least let the child eat something before you take him on the road.

“A baby this small can become seriously ill if he goes hungry.”

The man holding the child immediately cursed, “Get lost and go nurse your own man!”

With that, he moved to leave.

SHING!

In an instant, the people around the woman drew their weapons and surrounded him.

The man holding the baby swept his gaze around the room.

He showed no fear.

Instead, he snorted coldly.

“Oh? Looking for a fight?

“Come on, then! This granddaddy didn’t grow up being scared!”

Inside the guest room upstairs, the girl called toward the Blind Man, who appeared to be asleep.

“Hey, blind man! Things are getting lively downstairs. Aren’t you going to listen?”

The Blind Man waved a hand, signaling that he could not be bothered.

In reality, he had been “watching” the entire time.

But the girl refused to give up.

“Do you know who that loud man is?

“He’s a famous hero of the Jin lands—Ding Heng, the Decapitating Saber!

“He’s a Fifth Grade Martial Artist. His great saber techniques are said to have reached perfection.”

The Blind Man rolled his eyes inwardly.

What kind of ridiculous name was that?

“Do you know the woman who just offered to nurse the baby?

“Her name is Cui Linfeng.

“She’s the Second Chief of Xishui Stronghold.

“She specializes in paired throwing knives.

“And she’s especially good at having children too. I heard she already has eight!”

“Do you know—”

The Blind Man finally became annoyed.

He interrupted directly.

“Then do either of you know who the swordsman who carried the baby in earlier is?”

The moment he said that, the girl’s eyes widened.

Even the old man immediately turned toward him, suspicion and surprise appearing in his gaze.

For a moment, the guest room became so quiet that one could have heard a needle drop.

“If I told you, I’m afraid it would frighten you.”

The old man unconsciously swallowed.

The girl clenched her little fists.

The Blind Man let the silence hang for a moment before continuing calmly, “I don’t know either.”

“...”

The old man stared at him.

————

There will be another chapter tonight.

[End of Chapter 276]