I took a deep breath. If not for the debt that Jinjing had incurred, I would have walked out already. "Then Lord Lan, please proceed."
He smirked and poured tea into a cup. "The tea here is excellent. You should try," he said in a calm and pleasant voice and placed the cup in front of me.
After his brief feat of anger, he was suddenly in a good mood. I could not help but wonder if this man had some mental issues.
"Thank you," I said and took the cup, but I hesitated to drink from it.
"What's wrong? You're afraid that I've poisoned the tea?" he taunted.
I swallowed. He was too clever to see what I had in mind.
I had been through some terrible experiences that I could hardly trust a stranger anymore. Only Jinjing had managed to gain my trust because I could not find any reason why she would help me out of a motive. She had seen my condition and she had no idea about who I was. She knew there was nothing for her to gain from me, so I could only assume that she had done so out of genuine kindness.
But this man here knew me, probably too well. Otherwise, he would not waste his time sitting here before me.
"Lord Lan, if you don't mind, I have a question," I said.
"Then ask."
"I had been secluded from the rest of the world since I was young. Not even half of the disciples in Frost Mountain had seen me. How did you figure out who I am?"
He smirked and sighed. "A-Fan, how could you forget me so easily? To think that I was the one who saved your life."
I frowned. He just called me A-Fan. Does that mean that I had known him all along but I just could not recognize his voice? And what did he mean he saved my life? As far as I was concerned, I had never needed any saving until recently, but this man had not come to my rescue.
"Can I trouble his lordship to remind me?" I asked.
He sighed again. "Once upon a time, I visited Frost Mountain to see your master, and while we were discussing important matters, a five-year-old sniveling boy entered the hall and cried so loud your master felt so embarrassed. No matter what he did, the boy did not stop crying. Some disciples came to take him out but the boy held on to your master's leg and would not let go. Until your master got exasperated and decided to take the boy to the orphanage because a crybaby is not suited to be a disciple of Frost Mountain."
I ignored the way he narrated his story as if he was reading me a fairy tale book and mulled over the important details instead, but I could not remember my master taking in a five-year-old crybaby. My master just could not stand a crying child. "I'm afraid I don't remember my master taking in a child. He had a minimum age requirement and that was ten."
"Oh, you have such a short memory," he said. "Most children usually already remember things at the age of five."
I pondered again until I realized that he must be referring to me. I remembered I was five when I was sent to Frost Mountain to be a disciple. "Lord Yan, were you… referring to me?"
He laughed deeply. "Who else?"
My cheeks turned hot. It was embarrassing to know that, other than my master, someone else had seen my pathetic childhood. It was true that I was a crybaby then. I had just lost my father then and my uncle had left me in the care of my master. So naturally, I clung to my master often, afraid that he'd also leave me.
If I remembered that event correctly, I had just woken up from a nightmare and I was alone. I had searched for my master everywhere but I could not find him. I had cried so hard until one disciple told me that my master was in the main hall entertaining an important guest, so I ran to the hall to make sure, and when I saw him, I cried even harder.
More heat burned my cheeks as I recalled that embarrassing event. "So that was you."
"Mmm. You just recalled?"
I nodded. "That was almost twenty years ago."
"Ahh… Has it been that long already? Time has flown so fast."
I nodded, but there was one problem. "However, if I remember correctly, my master's guest at that time did not look very young. He was an adult, and I recall my master addressed him as an elder, so I'd assume he must be older than my master who was already in his forties then. Almost two decades have passed since. At present, he should be in his sixties at least. His lordship's voice does not sound that old to me."
He laughed louder. "A-Fan, if a face can deceive, so can a voice."
I was unable to speak. Guessing a person's age just through a voice was a game that I had played with my sect brothers before, and I was good at it, so it's quite odd that this time, I was mistaken.
I knew that this man was a high-level cultivator, and I knew that the higher level a cultivator achieved, aging would slow down, but I had never heard of anyone in his sixties who sounded like he was still in his mid-twenties. Even the legendary Liang Hu who had lived for over two hundred years already looked old in his fifties, but he had retained a middle-aged look until his death.
If I were to believe this man, it's like I had placed him on the same pedestal as Liang Hu. There were not many grandmasters in the entire continent, so if he were one among them, I should have at least heard of his name before. I was certain there was no grandmaster named 'Lan'.