Chapter 758 - 657
The guard stood to the side, a bit dazed. Wei Group Leader was the head of the cultural troupe and always acted high and mighty, but this young girl, as beautiful and pure as a fairy, dared to defy her. She didn’t seem like someone to be trifled with. For her to be strolling so leisurely around the military region, she must have a powerful background. She was another person he couldn’t afford to offend.
Still, it was his duty to randomly question people entering and leaving.
The guard cleared his throat and shot a careful glance at Wei Group Leader. She was fuming, wanting to lash out but wary of the people coming and going. She glared at the guard. "What are you looking at me for? Just do your job!"
The guard replied with a "Yes, ma’am," and turned to Xiao Man. "Your name, please?"
Xiao Man answered, "Tang Manman."
"When did you enter? Have you registered?"
"I came in last night inside a car. Three vehicles entered at once, and you only checked the access passes. I didn’t get out to register."
"Whose car were you in?"
"Gu Shaojun."
"Gu Shao..." The guard’s eyes widened. He studied Xiao Man carefully, then looked over at the other guard across from him. That guard had heard everything. He pulled out a logbook, flipped through it, and quickly said, "That’s right! It’s a family visitor for Mr. Gu from Wancheng, name’s Tang Manman. Yu Haibo already registered her last night!"
The guard who had been questioning her looked at Xiao Man apologetically. "Just doing my duty. Sorry to have delayed you."
Xiao Man shook her head. "It’s alright, I understand. I’m not in a hurry. If you have any more questions, you can get Yu Haibo or just find Gu Shaojun directly."
Just as she said that, Xiao Yu came running over anxiously. "Sis... Sister-in-law! What’s wrong? What happened?"
The guard’s eyes widened again, his mouth agape. ’What? What did he say? I thought she was Mr. Gu’s sister or something, but she’s his sister-in-law? The God of War, Mr. Gu, known by everyone in the entire Southern Military Region, actually has a wife? And she’s such a delicate, young, beautiful, and charming girl! My goodness, it’s true what they say—beauty loves a hero. This news is just too explosive, too exciting!’
Standing nearby, Wei Group Leader also heard Xiao Yu clearly. She was startled and looked Xiao Man up and down again. Her expression flickered through several changes before, quite dramatically, a smile bloomed on her face, as radiant as the moon emerging from behind the clouds. She reached out to touch Xiao Man’s shoulder, her voice warm and gentle, as if she were a different person speaking.
"Oh, you child, why didn’t you say so earlier? So you’re family of Mr. Gu. You’re so young, you must be his sister, right?"
Xiao Man took a step back, avoiding her touch. She was sensitive to the deliberate attempt to cast her as "Mr. Gu’s sister" and felt that this Wei Group Leader was surely up to something. She immediately declared decisively, "I’m not his sister. I’m Gu Shaojun’s fiancée. We’re getting married soon!"
With that, she didn’t bother to look at the spectacular show on Wei Group Leader’s face and turned to walk away. The crowd of onlookers was growing, and she had no interest in being an exhibit.
Xiao Yu hurried after her. "Sister-in-law, where are you going? Should I go with you?"
Xiao Man waved her hand. "No, that’s alright. I’m just going to wander around a bit."
"It’s almost lunchtime. Why not go after you’ve eaten?"
"No thanks. I’d like to try some of the local snacks."
Xiao Yu could only stop and stand there, watching her walk into the distance.
Back at the main gate, Wei Group Leader’s face was grim as she turned and walked back into the military region.
Xiao Man walked along the street for about ten minutes, saw a public bus stop, and got on. The military region was located in the city, so getting around was quite convenient.
She wasn’t very familiar with the provincial city. Usually, to get to Beijing from within the province, one had to pass through the provincial city for a train or plane. But as it happened, her hometown of Wancheng had its own small airport, which couldn’t be more convenient, so there was never a need to make a detour here. The three times she had come to the provincial city before were back when she was studying in Ping County, and it was to get a better price for the "junk" she, Guan Ailan, and Mo Linghui had collected. As a result, she didn’t know which parts of the provincial city were the most fun or prosperous. ’It would be nice if Mo Linghui were here,’ she thought. ’Her school is here, but unfortunately, she went home for the holidays.’
Riding the bus onward, she saw a familiar stop sign and subconsciously followed the stream of people off. Standing on the roadside, she looked at a street not far away and found it amusing. ’Guess it’s best to stick to the old roads after all,’ she thought. ’Too bad I don’t have any antiques to sell right now. I’ll just treat it as a shopping trip.’
The shop that used to buy her "old junk" was still there, but the clerk was different. He greeted her and asked if she needed any help. Xiao Man smiled, shook her head, and pointed to the glass counter to indicate she was just looking. Seeing she was just a delicate young girl and probably not a serious customer, the clerk paid her no more mind.
There were four or five shops on this street in the same business. A few years ago, they had been secretive about it, but now they were operating openly with signs hanging out front. Xiao Man browsed from one shop to the next, and at the very last one, she had a stroke of incredible luck—she spotted a jet-black Mystic Iron Stone the size of half a millstone.
Mystic Iron Stone was the legendary Meteorite. It came from beyond the heavens and wasn’t produced on the Earth Continent, making it exceedingly rare and precious. Of course, very few people understood its true value. Among them were Cultivators, because the pure Xuan Iron contained within the Mystic Iron Stone was an essential material for forging Magic Artifacts and Magical Treasures.
A Mystic Iron Stone had to be refined through countless processes before the pure Xuan Iron inside could be extracted. Despite this stone being the size of half a millstone, the most pure iron that could ultimately be refined from it would only be about the size of an egg.
That year in the countryside of Ping County, Xiao Man had acquired a Mystic Iron Stone as large as a short pillar. She had given it to Gu Shaojun to refine, and even that had only yielded a piece of pure Xuan Iron the size of a soup tureen. Gu Shaojun had only been willing to part with a small piece to forge a Storage Ring with fifty square meters of space. He had saved the rest, saying he would forge a Flying Sword once he had collected the other necessary materials.
Now that she had encountered a Mystic Iron Stone again, Xiao Man naturally couldn’t let it pass.
After a round of haggling, she finally bought the Mystic Iron Stone for three hundred yuan. To the shopkeeper, three hundred yuan was a huge profit. ’I don’t understand why a delicate little girl would be interested in that ugly black ’iron ore,’ so I’ll just go with my gut and stubbornly refuse to lower the price any further. And it worked—I won. The girl is young, after all, and lacks the tenacity for haggling.’ The shopkeeper was delighted. In high spirits, he wrapped the Mystic Iron Stone in old newspapers as Xiao Man requested, then had his clerk go out and hail a flatbed cargo cart to help her load it on.
The Mystic Iron Stone, the size of half a millstone, weighed well over a hundred pounds. The middle-aged man pulling the cart was astonished and muttered nonstop along the way, "What is this thing? It’s dead heavy! How am I supposed to steer with this? It might as well just roll off!"
Xiao Man didn’t want to listen to his grumbling any longer. When they reached a crossroads with few pedestrians, she told him to stop, saying she would wait for a ride there. Without needing the man’s help, she picked up the Mystic Iron Stone herself and gently placed it by the side of the road.
The middle-aged man with the flatbed cart stared, dumbfounded. He had been thinking of asking for a little extra for the fare, but now he didn’t dare say a word. He took the money Xiao Man handed him without even counting it, grabbed his cart, and couldn’t have run away faster.