Unable to hide himself any further, Bai Chenyi pulled back the cloak covering his head and walked forward. He then cupped both hand to salute the young female. “Tangjie,” he greeted. “It has been a while.”

“En. You look well. That is good or else, your father would roll around his grave in disappointment. Why are you here though? Are you not supposed to stay close to the Emperor?”

“I am under His Majesty’s order to be the personal guards of Lord Lin,” Bai Chenyi replied.

“Lord Lin?”

Bai Chenyi didn’t vocally reply and instead, simply gestured towards Lin Xiao. The woman, who turns out to be Bai Chenyi’s cousin, eyed Lin Xiao even more carefully now.

“I see. For His Majesty to place you as his personal guards, His Majesty must think highly of you, Lord Lin,” though the words were full of praise, but her tone was filled with playfulness.

“Tangjie, don’t cause trouble,” Bai Chenyi said in a warning tone.

His cousin glanced over at him, and seeing his serious expression, she merely scoffed. “I am not that rash. Now, where is my manner. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am called Sun Chengmei,” she introduced herself.

For politeness’ sake, Lin Xiao also introduced himself and even helped Long Yinlian with his introduction. Xia Yushen also introduced himself with an excited tone. His excitements were mostly because he is eager to see the duan jian that will soon be his. Only after the introduction did they took a seat by the table.

Not long after, a servant came over with a tray with few small cups and a teapot on top. Steams could still be seen coming out of the teapot’s mouth, showing that the tea was freshly made. The servant carefully placed the cup onto the table and gently poured the tea.

“Honoured guests, please help yourself,” the servant addressed them as soon as he finished his task.

Lin Xiao grabbed a cup and carefully handed it to Long Yinlian. “Be careful, it’s still hot,” Lin Xiao gently warned his master.

“You’re really treating your master like your ancestor,” Sun Chengmei couldn’t help but comment at Lin Xiao’s behaviour.

“Shizun isn’t simply just a master. Shizun is also my benefactor, and a father,” Lin Xiao replied.

At this time, the Shop Owner Mo whom Lin Xiao had forgotten his existence, spoke up. “That… Xiao Mei, how are you related to General Bai?” he asked in a nervous tone.

“Hmm? My mother and the late patriarch of Bai family are brother and sister,” Sun Chengmei replied. Then, she noticed that the shop owner’s expression turned pale with fear. Worried that it might be something wrong with the tea, she quickly asked: “Mo daren, are you alright? Is there something wrong with the tea?”

“No! No… nothing is wrong with the tea! Hahaha…”

At the nervous laugh, Lin Xiao couldn’t help but turn his face to the other. He discovered that the shop owner’s face was filled with nervousness. ‘Is there something wrong with being related to General Bai’s family?’ Lin Xiao wondered. ‘Did this man gave up in his pursue just because she’s related to General Bai?’

“Xiao Mei, thank you for the tea! I’ll take my leave now. If there are anymore customers that is in need of your shop’s specialty, I’ll send them over to you,” Shop Owner Mo says before he finished the tea in one gulp, then quickly rushed out of the door.

Seeing his disappearing figure, Sun Chengmei couldn’t help but let out a heavy sigh. It was so heavy that even Xia Yushen, the young boy, could sense the disappointment within it.

“Big Sister, what’s wrong?” Xia Yushen asked.

“Your big sister here has lost another suitor. I don’t know how many that makes now,” she replied before letting out another sigh.

Then, she looked over at Bai Chenyi with a wronged expression. “Biaodi, ah! Do you think I won’t ever get married in this life-time?” Sun Chengmei asked. “No matter who it is, as long as they hear that I am related to you, they all ran. Chenyi biaodi, you must take responsibility for this!”

“If they ran away after hearing your background, then they are not worthy. Tangjie, you are still young. Why are you in such a hurry to get married?”

“Aiya, biaodi, ah! You don’t understand. Although it was only recently that women have more freedom, in the end we’re still less than a son when it comes to worth. So if I don’t find someone to marry before the age of 25, father will definitely arranged a marriage for me!”

“There are still five years. The right one for you will come as long as fate wills it,” Bai Chenyi replied.

Sun Chengmei only huffed before she crossed her arm. “If father is going to force me to marry some stranger, I might as well take a wife of my own! Then let’s see if he would dare to go against the Emperor’s decree!”

Both Long Yinlian and Lin Xiao was confused as to why the Emperor was brought up in this conversation. Lin Xiao was the most curious, but before he could bring it up, another servant of Sun Chengmei arrived.

This servant has a larger built compared to the one that brought tea before. On both his arms, he carried a boxed crate that is around 2 chi long. He carefully placed it on the table then quietly excused himself.

Seeing that the goods has arrived, Xia Yushen’s eyes shone in excitement. He quickly tugged on Lin Xiao’s sleeves, urging him to hurry and ask for the weapons.

Understanding the younger boy’s intention, Lin Xiao just let out a small chuckle and turned to Sun Chengmei. “Sister Sun, my shidi is already excited. Can you please show us the item?” Lin Xiao asked in a polite tone.

“Of course,” Sun Chengmei then gestured for the servant who brought tea earlier to remove the lid. Inside the crate, there were only five different duan jian and each has their own unique designs and vary in length.

“So who will choose?” Sun Chengmei asked as he looked over at their group.

Lin Xiao and Xia Yushen eyed each other before turning back to face at Sun Chengmei. Then at the same time, they voiced out their answer.

“Shizun.”

Hearing this, Long Yinlian only let out a small chuckle as he shook his head. “I think Xiao-er should help me choose. This is a gift, and I cannot see how the weapon looks like.”

Long Yinlian thought that Xia Yushen would want something nice looking as his first weapon and since he cannot see, he was unable to do so.

“No. Ah’Shen wants Shizun to choose.”

To Long Yinlian’s surprise, Xia Yushen was adamant to have him choose. He wanted to ask his disciple if he was sure but Sun Chengmei beat him to it.

“Are you sure?” Sun Chengmei asked. Then, she playfully add: “What if your Shizun ends up choosing something ugly?”

“Whatever Shizun choose, Ah’Shen will accept. It is fine if it is ugly as long as Ah’Shen can use it well! Having a beautiful jian is useless if it will break after few swings,” Xia Yushen replied.

Xia Yushen’s innocent face as he said his words seemed to have touched Sun Chengmei’s heart. She then turned to Long Yinlian, and smiled. “Master Long is blessed with a good disciple. If my father knew, he would be extremely jealous,” Sun Chengmei expressed.

“Having Xiao-er and Ah’Shen as my disciple is also my blessing,” Long Yinlian replied. “I will trouble Sister Sun to help with handing the weapon to me and telling me of their origin.”

“Of course, then let’s begin with this one…” Sun Chengmei said as she took out one of the sword. Lin Xiao watched as the two started to get into a discussion then looked over at Xia Yushen whose eyes wouldn’t leave Long Yinlian.

“Excited?” Lin Xiao asked.

Xia Yushen only nods his head in return. “Big brother Lin, were you also this excited when you received your first weapon? When did you get it? Five years old? Six?”

Lin Xiao tried to think when he received his first weapon from Long Yinlian, but then, the image of a certain dagger that was taken by the Emperor flashed in his mind and he frowned.

In that short time, he saw a figure, dressed in a dragon robe handing over the dagger to him. At that time, he seemed to be only around Xia Yushen’s age, maybe slightly older. Following that image, Lin Xiao experience a slight headache and had to massage his temple to alleviate the pain.

‘What was that…?’ he wondered.

“Big brother Lin?” Xia Yushen saw Lin Xiao’s expression and started to become more worried.

“Hmm? Oh, yes. The first time I received my weapon was just over a year ago. Shizun gave it during the first anniversary of when I starts learning martial arts under Shizun,” Lin Xiao replied.

“Oh. It took big brother one year then Ah’Shen must be a good student since Shizun decides to give Ah’Shen one in just a month!” Xia Yushen said. “One year and one month, there is so much difference! Big brother Lin may need to be careful or else, Ah’Shen will-”

“Alright,” Lin Xiao flicked Xia Yushen’s forehead playfully. “You’re too ambitious. You are ten years too early to think that you can beat me,” Lin Xiao told the young boy.

“Then in next ten year?”

“No. By then, you’ll be one hundred years too early,” Lin Xiao replied.

“Big brother Lin, why did it become longer instead?”

“Because your big brother said so. Everything that you learn, came from me. So of course, as your senior brother, I will know every single move, habit and how you think. The only time you can beat me is when I can no longer lift up my weapon,” Lin Xiao said, lightly poking on Xia Yushen’s forehead which had now turned red from the flicking earlier.

“Big brother Lin, did I ever tell you that you’re a big bully?”

“You think I’m bullying you? Wait until we get home. Practice your stance for one shichen later!”

Xia Yushen showed a disbelieved expression before he quickly tugged on Lin Xiao’s sleeves and proceeded to beg Lin Xiao.

“Big brother, big brother… you’re the most magnanimous Shixiong one can ever ask! Ah’Shen is blessed to have Shixiong teach him. Please let Ah’Shen practice proper swordmanship with the duan jian later!”