"Thank you."
Xiao Ren didn't bother with formalities and walked to the rack where the swords were located. He was not a blacksmith, so he couldn't ascertain the swords' grade. But just from the appearance alone, they didn't look that bad.
"Hey, hey, you managed to fool someone to come into your store again, Old Hu?"
"Watch your mouth!" the middle aged man, Old Hu, snapped. "It's not like your brother's store is the only weapon store in the city!"
Turning his body around, Xiao Ren spotted a young man in his teenage age standing not far from the door. He was looking at the three of them with sneer on his face. It seemed that he had no interest to come in and only here to seek trouble.
The young man snorted. "Don't stay there, young man. Old Hu is nothing more than a scammer. The weapons he made are mostly defective products that can't even cut fruits."
"That's nonsense!"
Xiao Ren narrowed his eyes. Getting caught in the middle of battle between store owners were always unpleasant. He turned his head to the sword rack again and picked up one of them that suited his size.
'The weight is balanced and there's no obvious flaw.'
Feeling the weight and balance, Xiao Ren didn't think of the sword as defective products. He lightly swung it carefully with his right arm, away from Ye Ning who was standing at his left side.
"How is it?" Ye Ning asked curiously.
Xiao Ren narrowed his eyes and then looked at the shopkeeper. Old Hu flinched when he saw Xiao Ren's gaze. When Xiao Ren swung the sword just now, it didn't look like an amateur movement but rather an experienced one. That alone was more than enough to tell him that the person standing before him was not a rookie.
Not only Old Hu, even the young man was also curious. Not everyone could use sword well even though many of them learned it. After all, without proper teaching and only learning part time, they wouldn't be able to have proper skill.
"Isn't it defective?" the young man asked again.
Xiao Ren ignored the young man and pointed at the wood stack not far from the door. He wanted to test the sword sharpness if possible.
"Do you want to test it?" Old Hu asked nervously.
Xiao Ren nodded.
"Sure, you can."
Xiao Ren nodded once more. Internally, he started to feel that he would need another method to communicate now. Not being able to speak was truly a torture in the area where majority of people couldn't read.
Ye Ning stepped back to avoid getting hit as she watched curiously. She didn't know much about weapon, so she chose to adopt the stance of a bystander.
Swish!
Lightly swinging the sword, the wood that was placed there was cut cleanly. The shape was so sharp as if was only cutting through soft items.
Old Hu smiled brightly. "See, it's not a defective product!"
"That's not possible, you can't do the same when you test it before, Old Hu! Did you pick this sword somewhere?"
"Nonsense!"
Xiao Ren ignored those two and took out several bronze knives. He looked at Old Hu as if asking how much the sword was.
"Ah, it's 10 eh, I mean 7….6…"
Even without speaking a word, Xiao Ren managed to make the shopkeeper to lower his price. Scratching the back of his head, Xiao Ren felt that his appearance was not that scary, right? He left 7 bronze knife on the table then took the sword along with the sheath.
As he tied the sword to his side again, Xiao Ren felt much better. As he thought, having a sword around felt much safer than nothing.
"Wait a bit, Xiao Ren." Ye Ning rushed out. She looked at the sword in Xiao Ren's side. "Is it that good?"
Xiao Ren nodded.
It was not that bad. In fact, he had noticed that this sword was a bit different from the rest. Probably that shopkeeper had actually bought this sword from other people who was lacking in money then put it in the store along with the swords he made.
The others were subpar compared to this one.
"Where do you want to go now?"
Xiao Ren looked around and saw a small restaurant. He pointed there and Ye Ning clapped her hand happily. "What do you want to eat? I always wanted to taste the food in the restaurants in this city!"
Seeing how happy Ye Ning was, Xiao Ren smiled. This little girl truly needed to walk out more often in order to explore the vast world. Just staying holed up in her home didn't sound too good either.
The two of them walked into the restaurant and sat near the window. The restaurant was located at the open area with nothing covered the window. It would allow them to easily look outside with only a few pillars around.
"What would you like to order."
"Xiao Ren?" Ye Ning asked.
Xiao Ren waved his hand, allowing Ye Ning to order as much as she liked. He only handed a bronze knife to her so that she would be able to buy some food. In the end, Ye Ning just asked the waitress to give them food equivalent to the bronze knife.
"Sorry, I also don't know much about currency," Ye Ning said embarrassingly.
Xiao Ren nodded and wanted to say that it was fine, but he knew that he couldn't speak. He sighed and only smiled reassuringly. He was also often called as a fool by his comrades because he often lacked awareness about money.
It didn't take long for the waitress to return back with two bowls of noodle and tea.
"This is the food you ordered. We hope you like it."
"Thank you very much!" Ye Ning smiled brightly. She looked at Xiao Ren. "Let's dig in!"
Tasting the noddle, Xiao Ren felt that it was not that bad. He just continued eating while looking outside. When he was almost done, his eyes suddenly narrowed. There was a familiar person walking not far from their location.