Chapter 221

Pan Yun shook her head and said, "Only Seeing Miao Zhen understands me. Let's go surprise Third Senior Brother and Fourth Senior Sister."

Seeing Miao Zhen replied, "More like a fright, wouldn't you say?"

The two exchanged a glance and fell silent.

After all, they were juniors—they followed the elders. Little Master Aunt was the greatest, so naturally they followed her. Hehehe…

They made no effort to hide their joy.

Nanan County was small, and Ping'an Inn wasn't far from the county office; along the way, they found two grain shops and two herbal medicine shops.

After noting the locations, the three first drove the cart to Ping'an Inn.

The inn's attendant saw the three jump down from the cart, glanced at the horses, and immediately rushed forward with a smile, "Welcome, honored guests! Are you here to eat or to stay?"

Pan Yun said, "We're staying. Put the cart in the back courtyard, don't touch anything on it, and give the horses top-quality fodder."

The attendant happily agreed, stepped forward to feel the sack, and sighed in relief—it wasn't anything valuable.

Their inn loved guests like this—never stashing valuables in the back courtyard.

The attendant called the inn's driver to take the cart to the back courtyard, then led Pan Yun and the others inside.

Several guests were dining inside; most had heard the exchange at the door. Since the voices sounded young, they all looked up as the three entered.

They saw three girls in Daoist robes, carrying packs and holding a cat, their ages clearly very young; everyone was startled.

Pan Yun swept her gaze around the room, meeting every stare without flinching, returning their looks coldly; beside her, Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He also wore stern little faces, staring right back.

A group of adults met their gaze—and, strangely, looked away, none daring to hold eye contact.

Pan Yun was satisfied. She went with the attendant to book rooms.

"How many rooms do you need? Superior or standard?"

Pan Yun scanned the sign hanging behind the counter and asked, "Do you have any suites with inner and outer rooms?"

The Shopkeeper immediately smiled, "Of course we do. Would the Daoist lady like to stay in one?"

"How much per night?"

The Shopkeeper said, "Eight hundred cash per night."

Pan Yun pointed to the sign behind him and said, "Then give me one superior room—not at the front, not at the back. Hmm, the room named 'Cold Frost' looks fine."

The Shopkeeper: …

He forced a smile and said, "Ah, superior rooms are one hundred cash per night. How many rooms do you need? Actually, the suite is quite nice too—you could book three superior rooms, or just one suite. The suite includes all three meals, prepared with our inn's specialties."

Pan Yun gave a slight shake of her head. "Just one superior room."

The Shopkeeper glanced at the three, disappointed but still cheerful, took the key, flipped the "Cold Frost" sign over, and told the attendant to lead them upstairs.

The guest rooms were on the third floor.

This inn had strong Quanzhou local features: the front facing the street was the dining area, with the entire first floor filled with tables and chairs.

Besides guests staying overnight, outsiders also came just to eat.

The second floor directly opposite the entrance, and the second floor across the courtyard, were all private dining rooms and tables; Pan Yun quickly scanned them—upstairs and downstairs, roughly fifty tables in total.

This was a very large inn.

It looked like two circles pressed together: after climbing to the second floor and walking a few steps left, there was a door; opening it revealed a long corridor, with guest rooms lining both sides.

Following the corridor forward, after passing seven rooms, it turned into an even longer corridor.

Pan Yun scanned the signs on the room doors; the attendant led them forward another ten steps, stopped, unlocked the right-hand door, pushed it open, and gestured them inside.

The three entered. The room was small—about fifteen to sixteen square meters. In the center stood a table with four long benches. To the left was a bed with a mosquito net. To the right, a screen separated a washing area. Behind the table was a wooden platform about one meter two long, with a small low table on it; above the platform's right corner were two windows.

Pan Yun nodded. This room was more than enough for the three of them.

When traveling, safety mattered. Whether it was her, or Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, they had zero martial experience. From her years of watching dramas, she knew: staying together was far safer than splitting up.

Pan Yun dismissed the attendant, put down their luggage, and warned Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He, "Whenever you go out, always say so. Best to go in pairs—never go alone."

Seeing Miao Zhen nodded. "Strange. Everyone dining downstairs seemed to be cultivators—not ordinary civilians."

Pan Yun: "Right. They all carried weapons. Their clothes and footwear clearly meant they'd traveled far—they're not locals. So we must be extra careful."

Miao He: "I wonder if this has anything to do with what Master and the others are doing in Quanzhou."

Pan Yun tapped her forehead. "Clever girl. Whether it's related or not, we're going anyway. Don't forget—Huang's matter doesn't count toward your study trip assignments. We're still missing six tasks."

Just saying it makes me cry.

The assignments had limits: they had to relate to Daoist studies, and each had to be a unique practical task.

Right now, she had zero ideas.

Pan Yun sighed, climbed onto the wooden platform, and pushed open the window. A lush garden, dotted with colorful flowers, appeared below. She immediately spotted the rockery and stream, and beneath it, a green pond with chrysanthemums blooming in every color.

Yellow dominated, but occasional pink, multicolored, and… green ones appeared.

Pan Yun blinked, her gaze sweeping the rooms on either side of the garden, thoughtful. "If this is a suite, eight hundred cash a night with meals included… it's actually a good deal."

Hearing this, Seeing Miao Zhen and Miao He immediately dropped their luggage and rushed over.

The window was large enough for all three to comfortably lean on the platform. Seeing the garden, the two girls, who'd never seen much of the world, gasped, "This is the most beautiful garden I've ever seen!"

Pan Yun didn't disagree. It was also the most beautiful garden she'd seen since arriving in this world.

Huang Shijian's garden was bigger, and he had money, but lacked depth—everything was planted haphazardly, no real beauty to it.

Mount Sanqing and the Academy? Forget it—did they even have gardens?

They had mountain grounds!

For the first time seeing such a comfortable garden, Pan Yun propped her chin and looked down, admiring it. As she watched, she began to sense something was off.

Seeing Miao Zhen leaned half her body out, gazing at the garden below, then up at the sky and the decorations on the opposite roof, exclaiming, "This whole building seems like an array—the garden appears to align with celestial patterns."

Pan Yun: "That's impressive. Such a huge inn, and Nanan County looks so small—how did such a powerful inn hide inside the city?"

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Pan Yun watched, watched, and noticed more details: "From our position, we can barely see the corners and walls of the rooms below—the doors and windows are mostly blocked by the garden. Is this only true for our room, or do all second-floor windows facing the garden, no matter where you look from, show the same view?"

Seeing Miao Zhen grew excited: "I want to stay!"

Pan Yun decided on the spot, "I want to as well. We'll go move into the suite tomorrow. Tonight let's seriously look from top to bottom, and tomorrow we'll look from bottom to top!"

Miao Zhen happily agreed.

Miao He stretched out a hand, "Then when you're studying the array and the celestial phenomena, can I go out shopping?"

Pan Yun and Miao Zhen turned to look at her, and after a moment nodded: "You may, but don't go too far. Take Pan Xiaohei with you."

Miao He hugged the cat in her arms tighter and happily agreed as well.

The more she looked at this garden, the more interesting it became; the more she looked at this inn, the more flavor it had.

Miao Zhen was seriously looking at the garden. Miao He greeted the two of them, then left hugging Pan Xiaohei, heading downstairs out the door — she was going out to eat and explore!

Pan Yun: "Remember to stop by the grain shop and ask around about the grain prices here."

Miao He: "Alright, I also want to stop by the medicine shop, to look at the local specialty medicinal ingredients and ask about medicine prices."

Pan Yun casually handed her a protective talisman and waved her off, "Go on, go on."

Once she left, Pan Yun also went out the door. She wanted to take a good look around this inn. Before leaving, she casually slapped a yellow talisman on the inside of the door.

Pan Yun closed the door, looked left and right, and decided to continue downward along the corridor.

After going down more than ten steps, she turned right — another long corridor.

Both sides of the corridor weren't all guest rooms; occasionally there were windows on either side, or staircases leading down. Every time this happened, Pan Yun would carefully note their positions, then push open the window to look down at the garden.

She had already noticed that the staircases only went to the left side, not toward the garden on the right, so from here one couldn't get down into the garden below, and from below one couldn't come up either.

Pan Yun stood by the window deep in thought, glanced at the not-too-big, not-too-small window before her, and couldn't help but quirk a corner of her mouth. She lightly patted the window frame — well, it wasn't that the official route couldn't go up and down; the unofficial route still could.

Pan Yun's lips curved up in pleasure. Just as she was about to turn and leave, she saw a person walk into the garden below with their back to her.

She couldn't help but pause her steps, slightly turning her body so the window completely hid her figure, leaving only a pair of eyes watching below.

He seemed to want to cross the garden to return to his room. Halfway there, he suddenly raised his head to look at the second floor. "Miss Sishui, you all are staying at this inn too?"

Pan Yun followed his gaze and looked up, faintly catching sight of Miao Zhen on the diagonally opposite side.

Miao Zhen was silent for a moment before coldly giving an "Mm," still leaning on the window looking at the garden, paying no attention to Song Bei.

Song Bei laughed it off without mind and asked, "Where are Miss Sanzhu and Miss Wuhuo? Since fate has brought us together like this, let me treat the three of you to a meal. I know which dishes at this inn taste the best…"

Pan Yun left the window, no longer looking down below, and continued walking downward.

After leaving that window by some ten meters, Song Bei's voice could no longer be heard. Even if she stopped and stood in front of a room door listening carefully, the sounds from the garden couldn't get through either.

She could be certain that this room also had a window facing the garden.

Just one window, one door — and yet it could block out such a large amount of sound?

Pan Yun patted the wall thoughtfully. Was it the material, or the construction technique?

Pan Yun kept walking forward. After turning three corners, she was back at the front of the inn — so this had been a loop back around.

Pan Yun's lips curved up slightly. She passed through the second-floor dining area, and just as she reached the staircase, she locked eyes with Song Bei, who was hurrying up the stairs carrying his robe.

Pan Yun was neither sad nor glad, but Song Bei's eyes shot out a bright light. Overjoyed, he said, "So Daoist Sanzhu is here. I was just coming up to invite the three little Daoists to a meal."

Pan Yun's expression was somewhere between a smile and not — calling Miao Zhen "Miss" but calling me "Daoist." Quite the talent for sizing people up and serving them accordingly.

Good night

(End of chapter)