Chapter 56: Early Morning Invites
Dawn hadn’t even fully revealed itself when a peculiar, utterly out-of-place sound broke the quiet morning peace of the guest villa within Lin Laifu’s estate.
Quack!
Lu Feng stirred beneath his heavy cotton blankets, his eyes snapping open. He stared blankly at the ceiling for a split second, wondering if his mind was playing tricks on him.
Quack! Quack!
There it was again.
Frowning deeply, Lu Feng threw off his sheets, swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and pulled on a light outer robe. He strode across the wooden floorboards of his room and pulled the heavy front door open, expecting to find a stray animal wandering into the courtyard.
Instead, sitting right on the stone step outside his threshold was a familiar, ridiculously bright pink duck.
It puffed out its chest, let out one final indignant little squawk, and proudly thrust forward its neck. Tied securely around its plump pink feathers with a neat red ribbon was a small, tightly rolled parchment scroll bearing a wax seal.
Lu Feng stared down at the bird, his expression a mix of profound disbelief and irritation. Of all the courier methods available in the vast, martial underworld—flying spirit-falcons, encrypted jade talismans, shadow couriers—Lin Laifu somehow managed to use a neon-pink domestic fowl.
"You really have a flair for the theatrical, don’t you, Laifu?" Lu Feng muttered under his breath, shaking his head.
He reached down, deftly untying the red ribbon and pulling the letter free from the bird’s chest. The moment the parchment was removed, the pink duck didn’t wait for a thank-you; it waddled backward, gave an obnoxious shake of its tail feathers, and waddled off toward the courtyard exit with surprising speed.
Lu Feng closed the door, walked back inside, and tossed the rolled letter carelessly onto the low mahogany table in the sitting room. He wasn’t about to let a ridiculous bird dictate his morning routine.
"It can wait until I’m clean," he said to himself, turning toward the bathing chamber.
For the next twenty minutes, Lu Feng immersed himself in a steaming basin of hot water infused with cleansing herbs, washing away the lingering fatigue of the previous day’s travel and the minor exertion of dealing with the alleyway thugs. By the time he stepped out of the bath, his dark hair damp and clinging loosely to his shoulders, he felt entirely refreshed and ready to tackle the estate inspections.
He picked up a clean set of dark robes, swiftly fastening them around his frame, and stepped back out into the main hallway.
Just as he reached the parlor, a sharp, polite rap echoed loudly from the front entrance door.
Lu Feng paused, raising an eyebrow. Both Han Lin and Ye Chenxue were already up, their doors standing slightly ajar as they prepared for the day’s outings. Hearing the commotion, both women stepped out into the hallway, matching Lu Feng’s look of mild curiosity.
"Are we expecting visitors this early?" Han Lin asked quietly, adjusting her sleeve.
"Not unless our pink-feathered friend brought a calendar," Lu Feng replied dryly.
He walked over to the heavy wooden door and unlatched it, pulling it open.
Standing on the threshold was none other than Lin Laifu. The portly, sharp-eyed merchant was dressed in a pristine silk brocade robe, flashing his signature oily, calculating grin. Behind him stood a pair of burly bodyguards holding heavy gift baskets filled with premium teas and candied fruits.
"Ah, Young Master Lu! Good morning to you!" Lin Laifu boomed jovially, bowing slightly before stepping across the threshold uninvited. "I trust you slept well in this fine villa? I came by as early as decency permitted because I had a wonderful realization—you must be starving, and I wanted to properly invite you and your esteemed companions out for a lavish breakfast at the Grand Crimson Pavilion!"
Lu Feng, Han Lin, and Ye Chenxue all exchanged a deeply bewildered look. The timing was entirely absurd, and the sheer audacity of the merchant showing up on their doorstep with breakfast invitations moments after the bizarre duck courier had delivered a message left them momentarily speechless.
The portly merchant stood in the doorway, his round face glowing with an expression of manufactured warmth that didn’t quite reach his calculating, obsidian eyes. He stood there for a beat too long, basking in the sudden, heavy silence that had fallen over the villa’s entryway.
Lu Feng slowly lowered his hand from the latch, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe with a cool, unreadable gaze.
"Breakfast at the Grand Crimson Pavilion?" Lu Feng repeated, his voice carrying a dry, mocking cadence. "That is quite a generous offer for this early in the morning, Master Lin. Especially considering you usually prefer to conduct your business behind closed doors in smoke-filled back rooms, rather than playing host at the city’s most expensive dining house."
Lin Laifu chuckled, waving a chubby hand dismissively as he stepped further into the hallway, motioning for his bodyguards to set the heavy gift baskets down on a nearby side table.
"Ah, Young Master Lu, you wound me!" Lin Laifu protested playfully, though his eyes darted quickly toward the sitting room table behind Lu Feng, instantly spotting the sealed parchment scroll resting there like a neon sign. "A host is allowed to show appreciation for valued partners, is he not? The Grand Crimson Pavilion serves the finest cloud-millet porridge and dragon-rib broth in all of Crimson Vale. It would be a crime to let such delicacies go unappreciated when we have so much to discuss regarding your integration into the city’s trade networks."
From behind Lu Feng, Han Lin stepped into view, her sharp administrative gaze locking onto the merchant with clinical precision. Her posture remained impeccably professional, though her eyes narrowed slightly at the unexpected intrusion.
"Master Lin is exceedingly thoughtful," Han Lin interjected smoothly, her tone polite yet utterly guarded. "However, you must forgive us. We already have a rather tight itinerary scheduled for this morning. We were just about to finalize our plans for the day."
Lin Laifu’s smile flickered for a fraction of a second before he smoothly recovered, turning his attention to the elegant woman standing behind Lu Feng.
"Ah, Lady Han! Always the industrious one, I see," Lin Laifu said, offering a slight, deferential nod. "And I presume the silent, formidable cultivator is also accounted for?" He glanced briefly toward Ye Chenxue, who stood a few paces back, her arms crossed over her dark robes and her expression carved from solid glacier ice.
Ye Chenxue didn’t grace him with a response, merely fixing him with a stare so intensely cold that Lin Laifu instinctively swallowed hard and cleared his throat.
"Well," Lin Laifu continued, pressing forward despite the chilly reception. "Even if you have a busy morning ahead of you, surely a brief half-hour spent over warm tea and a light meal cannot disrupt your plans entirely? Besides, I brought these minor tokens of hospitality. These are rare snow-peak green tea and preserved mountain plums to help you settle into the district comfortably."
Lu Feng watched the merchant perform his little dance, his mind racing behind his mismatched eyes. Lin Laifu wasn’t here out of pure benevolence. The timing was entirely too convenient. The pink duck had delivered a letter just minutes ago, and now the merchant himself was standing on their doorstep, pushing hard for a face-to-face meeting outside the security of the villa.
’He’s either trying to get something out of us, or he’s trying to distract us from something happening behind the scenes,* Lu Feng deduced mentally.
"We appreciate the baskets, Master Lin," Lu Feng said calmly, straightening up from the doorframe. "And as for your breakfast invitation... it would be rude to refuse such a persistent host, wouldn’t it?"
Lin Laifu’s eyes lit up with genuine triumph, his smile widening. "Splendid! I knew a man of your discernment would recognize a proper gesture of goodwill. Shall we depart immediately? My carriage is waiting just outside the courtyard gates."
"We will be there shortly," Lu Feng replied smoothly, holding up a single finger. "Give us ten minutes to finish preparing ourselves and review our morning notes. You can wait in the courtyard or take your bodyguards back to the carriage to secure our table."
Lin Laifu hesitated for a moment, clearly wanting to push for an immediate departure, but seeing the unyielding look in Lu Feng’s eyes, he wisely relented.
"Very well, Young Master Lu. Ten minutes at the gate. Do not keep me waiting too long—the chef at the Grand Crimson Pavilion is quite strict about the freshness of his broth!" With a final, oily bow, the portly merchant turned on his heel, gesturing for his guards to follow him back out into the sunlit courtyard.
The heavy front door clicked shut, sealing them back inside the quiet sanctuary of the hallway.
Han Lin immediately stepped closer to Lu Feng, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper. "You don’t seriously intend to go eat with him, do you? This is clearly a staged encounter. He’s up to something."
"Of course he’s up to something," Lu Feng agreed quietly, a confident, sharp smirk touching his lips. "The man definitely doesn’t breathe without calculating a profit margin. But refusing him outright right now only forces him to change tactics in the dark. It’s much better to sit across the table from him, feed his ego a little, and find out what game he’s actually trying to play."
Ye Chenxue walked forward, her eyes drifting toward the low table in the sitting room where the pink duck’s letter still lay unopened. "What about the letter the bird brought? Aren’t you going to read it before we walk into his trap?"
"Right," Lu Feng nodded, turning back into the parlor. "Let’s see what kind of extortion or ridiculous demand our feathered friend delivered this time."
He walked over to the mahogany table, picked up the tightly rolled parchment scroll, and broke the red wax seal with a sharp flick of his thumb. Unfolding the thick paper under the morning light, his eyes scanned the messy, hurried charcoal handwriting scrawled across the surface.
"The local market inspectors are sniffing around the northern warehouses, and your name keeps floating to the top of their ledger. If you want my continued silence regarding your little ’business transactions’ in the lower river districts, meet me at the Grand Crimson Pavilion this morning. Don’t test my patience, Wolf."
Lu Feng stared at the message, a slow, amused chuckle escaping his lips.
"Well, what does it say?" Han Lin asked, leaning over his shoulder to read the lines.
"It seems our mysterious correspondent from the other side has conveniently decided to invite themselves to the exact same breakfast meeting Lin Laifu is dragging us to," Lu Feng murmured, folding the letter neatly and slipping it into his inner pocket. "It looks like our morning just got a lot more interesting."
Ye Chenxue’s hand drifted instinctively toward her lips. "Then we go on our own terms. If this mastermind wants a confrontation, we will give them one."
"Exactly," Lu Feng said, turning toward the hallway with a sharp, fearless grin. "Let’s go have some breakfast."