It was already afternoon when they reached Wang's inn. It was nice and quiet as Gale remembered, though there seemed to be a stillness present.
As they got off the carriage, Gale found a furious man opening the gate by kicking it violently. If not for the enhancement scripts put together in them, the gate would have broken with the force applied by the man, whose rank seemed to hover in the Iron rank.
The practitioner threw a glance in their direction and momentarily paused at Xiaolin before he went on his way.
Gale perked an eyebrow. "Who was that?"
"Gu Dong. Elder sister Wang Li's husband."
"She hadn't changed her surname." Gale blinked as realisation flashed in his eyes. "The Inn is owned by Wang Li's maternal family?"
The answer was obvious. What surprised him was that Wang Li hadn't changed her surname after the marriage, meaning it was the husband that married into the Wang Family, not the other way around.
Well, it was not that rare. This mostly happens to unaffiliated practitioners when they marry into a clan. It was also a way to tie down a talented practitioner into your clan. But that didn't seem to be the case here.
"Yes," Xiaolin said as they crept inside. "This place is very dear to Grandma Wang. While most people of the Wang family left for better places over the years, she only remained, until Elder Sister Wang Li came back a few years ago."
"You mentioned Grandma Wang a lot of times," Gale murmured. "Looks like I have to meet her soon."
"I'm sure she would like that, too."
* * *
Gale returned to his room, washed, and changed into trousers and a shirt which he was more comfortable with. It would look odd when most people wear thick robes, which are the traditional clothing of the eastern domain, but Gale cared little about that. His face was already a giveaway.
After throwing Vale the leftover raw meats, which were preserved inside the void lock, he came down for lunch. The ground floor remained silent. Bothering no one, Gale sat in a corner and started stirring his foot under the table.
There were no other customers other than him. Well, there had been a few before, not enough to make the business profitable, but there were enough to make it seem like an inn.
With nothing to do, Gale calculated how profitable this inn was. He had little information to calculate, but he could roughly guess the monthly profit hardly goes over a couple of thousand iron marks. Most of the business seemed to come from liquor as few tourists come to this town, lest lodge here.
Gale had seen another inn on the way in better shape than this. Nevertheless, he had no complaints about this one.
The sound of mild footsteps broke Gale out of contemplation as he turned to find a cute-looking little boy at the age of two walking into the hall. The boy halted at the very sight of him, blinking at the foreign face.
Gale smiled and waved his hand at the boy. "Come here."
The boy just stared at him, unmoving. Then he turned and went back the way he came from. Gale smiled and shook his head.
A few seconds later, Xiaolin came in, carrying the same boy with her. The little boy peeked at Gale, and finding the foreigner staring at him, he looked away instantly, snuggling into Xiaolin's embrace.
"Senior, I'll go prepare your meal," Xiaolin said, finding him sitting idly. She turned to the boy. "Rong'er, will you stay here like a good boy?"
The little boy shook his head heavily, peeking another look of Gale.
"He's not good with new people."
Gale could see that. However, Xiaolin didn't have to leave Rong'er anymore as the little boy's mother crept into the hall. Wang Li had a tired look on her face as she took Rong'er from Xiaolin. She seemed disturbed.
"How did your visit go?" She asked.
"Good," Gale answered. "There was a slight issue, but nothing to note of."
"So, are you ready for the purchase?"
Gale's eyes drifted towards Xiaolin whose intention was hovering between leaving to prepare the meal and stay right where she was and listen. Well, Gale couldn't blame her. Smiling slightly, he nodded.
"Looks like I'll be a farmer in the coming season," he joked.
"Senior . . ." Xiaolin's voice trailed off, full of emotions.
"I know nothing of how the paperwork works," he said. "How long do you think it will take?"
Even though Gale was almost clueless about this stuff, he was aware stuff like this takes a lot of time. Even though most of the people of this world are superhuman in some way, paperwork takes its time.
"About a week at most if you prepare fast," Wang Li answered. "Xiaolin, disclose this to Grandma. She will prepare everything needed. It would be easier with her at the mayor's office. Also, knowing her, she will probably want to meet you, Mr Gale."
Gale had no objection to that. After a slight exchange, Xiaolin went over to bring the meals.
"Looks like I have fixed myself with a lot of work," Gale murmured and started counting his fingers. Build a house. Clean the unwelcoming farm. Make an artificial fate-lock that works like a Qi storage.
For the first two, Gale could get it done spending some extra money, but he wanted to do most of it himself. At least building the house. As for the matter of artificial Fate-lock, that was a simple task, though he wasn't sure it would work.
He wasn't even sure how many trials and errors he had to get through to make it work, but still, the work would be worthwhile. 'Well, I don't have to stay bored.'
"Madam Wang, what kind of practice chamber does your inn have?"
Wang Li lifted her head to regard him. "The normal kind for cycling and there are a couple for alchemy which hadn't been put to use for months."
"None for craft and script?" Gale frowned.
"There aren't any script artists around. As for any crafter or artisan that comes, they tend to go for the Artisans' guild, as their work needs a lot of space and tools."
"There's an artisan guild." Gale took a mental note to remind himself to look. "I guess it will make things easier when I need to build the house."
She paused for a second. "Mr Gale, are you some crafter?"
"I have some skills," he admitted. "I would need the alchemy chamber for the evening."
The key feature of the alchemy chamber was that it kept all the things inside and protected the infrastructure from any sudden explosion. Yeah, those tend to happen pretty easily and frequently.
Gale only needed that. As for the tools, he had everything he needed inside the void-lock.
"What do you want to make?" Wang Li asked, curious.
"Just some idle experiment."
***