Yu Lanchuan took a look at the fresh produce on the old man's three-wheeled cart, then at the direction he was heading. "If I may ask, are you the boss?"

The group who were fighting had blocked the intersection which meant that they had blocked the entrance of the shop. The knife-wielding hoodlum was right—this was indeed the old man's road and his front entrance.

"I'm also the main cook and sometimes double as the waiter." The boss slowly pushed his cart forward. Yu Lanchuan was just reaching out to give him a hand and hadn't even rolled his sleeves up yet when a young man around seventeen or eighteen years of age ran out from the small restaurant, flashing an incandescent smile at the whole world, and industriously helped the boss move the items.

Yu Lanchuan's gaze lingered on the teenager for a while. He realised that the teenager's features were not very symmetrical, both his eyes were set very far apart and when he started smiling, he couldn't stop. His long and slender limbs seemed rather uncoordinated, his movements exaggerated and clumsy.

"I picked up this child. He was unwanted." The boss straightened his back and caught his breath. He pointed at his own head. "He's not very quick-witted and he can't do very meticulous tasks… Do the two of you have reservations?"

"No." Yu Lanchuan was shocked. "This place of yours require reservations?"

"Oh, it doesn't. I was just asking. Sounds more trendy that way." The boss ushered the two of them inside. He faced the empty restaurant and sighed. "Students nowadays aren't like students back in those years. No one comes to unfashionable places… We haven't opened for business yet today. I'll let you two eat for free."

Yu Lanchuan looked at the sad little restaurant and felt rather unable to accept the offer. He was just about to turn it down when he remembered that this meal was Gan Qing's treat and it wasn't appropriate for him to make the decision for her. He turned to look for Gan Qing and only then realised that she hadn't followed them but was instead looking at the little shop front and spacing out.

Gan Qing hadn't been there in ten years. She thought that she had a bad memory and that she would need to spend some time wandering around before even finding the right place. But now that she was really there, she suddenly regretted her careless suggestion.

How could she forget this place?

At that time, Wei Xiao worked at a hotel. He was one of the head chefs and divided shifts with a colleague. When he was not on shift, he wasn't idle either. At the start, he tried opening a small stall of his own, planning to sell some snacks. But he really wasn't made of the right stuff for business and the small stall shut down not long after. Later on, he came to this restaurant opened by a friend to help out in the kitchen. He mainly dealt in flour-based foods.

He kept himself busy all day long and also had his reasons for that. According to Wei Xiao, the food preparation in the hotel was all standardised, that it was an assembly line with a process that never changed and he was always hurried and rushed. It was not as meaningful as working in this hole-in-the-wall restaurant where even something as simple as making a bowl of yang chun noodles and serving it to the customer was something he did with his heart.

His words really sounded like those of a chef obsessed with making food. Ten years ago, Gan Qing had just listened without taking it to heart.

Recalling it now, she could discern a different taste to those words—if the old man really felt that working at a small restaurant was good, why didn't he resign from his job at the hotel and focus his heart and mind into "making food from the heart"?

"Hey," Yu Lanchuan's voice summoned her mind back. "Why are you spacing out?"

Gan Qing suddenly looked up, coincidentally meeting the old shop owner's eyes. However, the boss's gaze did not linger on her; instead, he only glanced briefly at her before walking into the shop, age and experience in every movement.

That was to be expected. In a flash, ten years had passed. The teenage girl had grown into a miserable adult, the quick and dexterous boss had turned into a doddering old man under the pressure of the hardships of life; which of them would remember the other?

When she meddled in the affair just now, hadn't she also not recognised the old shop owner?

"Sit anywhere you like," the boss said. "I'm a bit slow, you two are not in a hurry, are you?"

Yu Lanchuan shook his head. "Why don't you hire a few people?"

"Can't afford it," the boss said. "The food here is old-fashioned, people don't like it anymore. If this shop wasn't my own and I didn't have to pay rent, I wouldn't be able to continue the business long ago. It's just to pass the time now."

Yu Lanchuan didn't understand. Such a small rundown restaurant that took so much painstaking effort to operate, what was the point of persevering? Couldn't he do something else to pass time? Rent out the shop or put it on the market, at least that would be enough to support his retirement. This area was so disorderly and he would even get caught in the crossfire when the little hoodlums got into a brawl. Why did he need to do this?

At that moment, Gan Qing gave him a light kick. Yu Lanchuan shot her a look and swallowed down his misgivings for the time being.

When there were sizzling sounds coming from the kitchen, Gan Qing finally said softly, "The boss's son used to attend No. 13. He didn't really study properly and spent his time getting into fights. One day, people cornered him and when he was running away in a panic, a car crashed into him and he died… It was many years ago."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is that why he opened this restaurant here?"

"Yeah." Gan Qing nodded. "At the start, he wanted an explanation from the school. After all, the incident happened during school hours. Buying houses was not a popular thing yet back then and coincidentally, the former owner of this place was in urgent need of money so they sold it to him cheaply, letting him settle here. Later on, all the wrangling and arguing came to nothing. The school only compensated him a token amount of money and the matter ended just like that. On the other hand, it was this small restaurant of his that became successful. It may look cold and desolate now but there was a period of time in the past when it was popular. It had many types of noodle broths and baked pastries that were famous."

In the past, the boss sold baked pastries from a cart. After getting a small shop, he fitted a large oven in the back kitchen specially for making baked pastries and made three types—sugar, salt and pepper, and meat. When customers came to order the pastries, he took them directly out of the oven and served them. Wrapped in grease paper, the sesame seeds falling at a touch, the delicious scent emitted even from the paper. But one had to be careful when eating. One small bite and the flakey outer shell would crack open and piping hot steam emitted from the inside. If the person eating didn't dodge in time, they would be scalded until they had to open their mouths wide and breathe in to cool down.

After Wei Xiao came and tasted his baked pastries, he said that he didn't want to make overly complicated dishes. It was fine to maintain their speciality. Baked pastries went best with soup noodles, so he helped to come up with a few signature noodle dishes. The cheapest, the one that tested the fundamentals of the chef's skills the most, was none other than the yang chun noodles.

Gan Qing said, "That's why, when he sees the kids fighting, he would always want to go over and do something."

Yu Lanchuan's brows furrowed. "He's already at that age. These little hoodlums don't know how to control themselves, what if they hit him?"

"When I was here, they didn't dare to," Gan Qing explained briefly. "Furthermore, back then, lots of people came here to eat and they were also aware of what happened to the boss's family. They didn't quibble with him and when they occasionally had fights to settle problems, when they saw him coming, they would disperse on their own. But it seems like no one cares about that anymore."

In the outside world, it was a large jianghu. Meanwhile, No. 13 High School was a small jianghu. A small jianghu was like a piece of farmland, the seedlings inside sprouting batch by batch, and then also cut off batch by batch. The speed at which the generations changed was like the wheat that matured twice a year.

The teenager from the shop finished moving the items and diligently came over to pour water for both of them. But his hands were unsteady and half the water landed outside the cup. If Yu Lanchuan hadn't dodged in time, his pants would be wet.

For the sake of maintaining his refined demeanour, Yu Lanchuan quickly took the water container from him. "Thank you, we'll help ourselves."

Like a large dog who loved an audience, the teenager eagerly and happily moved all the condiments and utensils on the table to their front, his eyes sparkling in silent request for praise.

Yu Lanchuan forced out a kindly smile. "...The service at your shop is really attentive."

It was only when the boss called for him in the back kitchen that the teenger reluctantly left them. The two customers he left behind exchanged looks, then moved the condiments and utensils back to their original positions.

"But I guess that even if he gets hit a couple of times, he won't take it to heart," Gan Qing said. "He probably just treats it as getting hit by his son."

Yu Lanchuan was doing the work of the server and when he heard this line that came right out of The True Story of Ah Q, he couldn't help laughing. But after laughing, he felt a little unsettled so he changed the topic and asked, "Hey, why is it that something as terrifying as escaping from under the noses of the Travellers' Sect people couldn't make you remember me but you could remember clearly a minor matter like fighting outside a small restaurant? Do you have selective memory?"

Gan Qing went along and spouted nonsense. "It was terrifying for you but not for me. Even when stripped bare, you barely had an ounce of meat on your bones, what was there to be shocked over? Compared to when you're an adult…"

Yu Lanchuan gave her a kick under the table. Gan Qing was already prepared for it and evaded him. "I'm complimenting you on how well you grew up!"

Yu Lanchuan gave her a fake smile. "Thank you but I do not accept your comment."

Gan Qing's fingers took hold of the tip of a chopstick and spun it around. She recalled for a while, then said, "Maybe it was because I happened to be unhappy that day… My academic results at No. 13 were still decent. After every exam, I could still enter the list of the top fifty achievers. But I didn't get into the list after midterms that one time because I skipped the exams for two subjects. After Wei Xiao—oh, he worked here at that time—found out, he lost his temper with me right in the back kitchen, in front of the boss."

On the other side of the wall, those annoying boys were so noisy that the shop seemed like a zoo. As they happily rehashed their strategies and tactics, they naturally also spoke contemptuously of their opponent's basketball skills and moral character.

On this side of the wall, Wei Xiao was scolding his little disciple in the kitchen. "This is not about whether or not the midterms are important, this is about whether or not your attitude is right. Do you understand what it means to have a sense of priority? You just muddle along every day, how many years can you muddle along at school? What about your future?"

The arrogant brats on the other side of the wall seemed to hear him and seamlessly continued this topic. The teenagers' smug voices slipped through the cracks of the wall. "All right, all right, let's not say so much. There's no need to lower ourselves to their level. It's just a basketball match. We won't bump into them in the future anyway."

"Who said that? If the pipes in your house happen to be clogged in the future, don't you have to get someone to fix it?"

"Then you should worry about the future prospects of the pipes in your house. I don't need to. I'll be taking the IELTS again at the end of the month and see how it goes. We've already contacted the overseas school."

There was silence in the kitchen. The corner of one of Wei Xiao's eyes was twitching visibly.

The children were still carried away by the excitement of the match but the adults were already seeing the gulf between them in the future.

When Gan Qing sat for the senior high entrance exams, she had been over-confident and only applied to one school: No. 3. In the end, given the way she slacked off every day, she slipped up in the exams and was three marks short of the requirement.

At that time, Yanning had yet to go through an education reform. Some key senior high schools publicly accepted "paying students" and enrolled those whose marks were within ten marks of the minimum acceptance score. For every mark they missed, the students had to pay 15,000 yuan in "school selection fees."

Three marks short in addition to school fees came up to a total of 50,000 yuan. If Wei Xiao had that much money saved up back then, would he need to stay in Mudpool Backlane?

There was no other way. For the sake of this matter, Wei Xiao borrowed money from everywhere but sadly, the friends of a penniless person were also equally penniless. He scrimped and saved but did not manage to gather much money. It was only on the evening of the third day that Wei Xiao received a packet from an anonymous sender. When he opened it, he saw that there were five neat stacks of cash inside.

Then, before he could go to the school and hand over this money, Gan Qing nonchalantly told him that she had already forged his signature and signed the declaration of giving up the school selection. Ordinary senior high schools that were not as good could not fill up their enrollments and would accept students in the nearby districts who failed to get into other schools. Just like that, she went to the rubbish dump that was No. 13 High School.

This became a thorn in Wei Xiao's heart.

The voices coming from the other side of the wall jabbed ruthlessly at Wei Xiao.

"If I catch you playing with blades again when you're doing your homework, I'll maim your arm make you return your Paoding Jieniu." Wei Xiao gritted his teeth and forced out his words one by one. But after saying something so harsh, his heart ached. In the end, a child's starting line depended on their parents or guardian. If he could produce 50,000 yuan as easily as buying a candied nut, would this child have to be so stubborn? Hence, he sighed. "If you have gotten into No. 3 back then…"

These words instantly set Gan Qing off. She cut him off coldly, "It's a good thing I didn't!"

Wei Xiao looked at her in shock.

"Back then, I was afraid of making things difficult for you and it took a lot for me to make the resolve to sign it. When I came back and found out that we already had the money, I even secretly regretted it for a long time… Hah!" She let out a caustic laugh. "Later on, I found out where the money came from. If I had really used that money to go to school, I would feel so sick now that I would jump off from a tall building!"

"What are you…"

"The man who killed my father sent you the dirty money he earned from being a murderer for hire, wanting to score some points with me. Isn't that funny, Shifu?" Gan Qing said. "Is that why you're protecting him? You even bear the accusations of murder and arson for him. Were it not for… I wouldn't even know that you were named in the Alliance Leader's Command because of this person! Were you also so half-hearted when you taught him, afraid that your disciple would make a name for himself?"

Wei Xiao's entire body was frozen. "Who… Who told you this?"

Gan Qing's hand that was holding the wooden chopsticks suddenly paused. "That's right. I remember now. That day was the day I laid my cards out to Wei Xiao."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "About your biological parents?"

Gan Qing knew that she was adopted by her shifu but Wei Xiao had never revealed her past to her. He had only said that she was his neighbour's child when he stayed in another part of the country in the past. He said that her parents and relatives were no longer around and she seemed pitiful and since he didn't have children himself, he adopted her. She was also vaguely aware that she had a shixiong. When they prayed to the ancestors during festive occasions, she had seen the name "Wei Huan" in the list of disciples. He was in the same generation as her and his name had been scratched out. When asked, her shifu had only told her briefly, "Your shixiong does not walk the same path as us."

Yu Lanchuan said, "I've always felt that it was very strange. Logically, your elders would definitely want to bring the secret of your dramatic past to their graves. How on earth did you find out?"

"I was a busybody." Gan Qing waved her hands. "There was once when I came home after school and saw someone chasing a pickpocket on the streets. I stretched out my leg and tripped the pickpocket up. The victim whose wallet was stolen might have been a minor millionaire. In a moment of joy, he took out 1,000 in cash and gave it to the few people helping him chase the thief. Those people didn't manage to turn him down and also felt that the success was because I tripped the thief up so they insisted on sharing the money with me. I saw that they had quite a heavy jianghu air to them and that they also knew martial arts. Otherwise, they wouldn't dare apprehend a thief in the streets. I listened to them chat—they were people who roamed all over the land—and felt that we hit it off pretty well. And so, I had a meal with them… While eating, I happened to hear them talk about Wei Xiao."

"That was when I found out that Wei Xiao, who rode a women's bike every day to work as a cook, was actually named in the Alliance Leader's Command. Before I realised what was going on, they had already started to list out the people who had died under Wan Mu Chun's blade—there was the huge, sensational case of the flour factory in the neighbouring province, some unexplained minor cases… and also my dad's name. For every nine lies that he told, Wei Xiao said something true. He had never hidden my parents' names, birthplaces and where they had lived from me."