When Li Wanwan went to the silk shop, Pi Guang walked slowly alone and entered the rice shop on the south side of the market.
This shop is an inconspicuous place in the market, with a slanted door plaque and peeling old paint, but it is the place where Guanzhaozong Sect buys rice every day.
The shopkeeper is a worldly man and always looks at people with snobbish eyes. If the people from the sect are well-dressed, he will greet them with a smile; if they look shabby, he will treat them as dust on the street.
Pi Guang was wearing a faded grey cloth gown with frayed cuffs and broken straw sandals. Although the small bag on his back was embroidered with the seal of "Guanzhaozong Sect", it was weathered and the pattern was blurred and almost indistinguishable.
His shoulders were slightly drooped, his expression was as calm as water, and when he walked in, it was like dust falling to the ground, and no one looked at him.
The shop was neatly furnished, with white rice in the front row, brown rice and beans in the middle, and dried pork in the back row, and salted fish hanging like flags. Pi Guang was familiar with the route and went straight to the rice corner, without saying a word, as if he was in an empty place.
The waiters were chatting, and one of them saw him from the corner of his eye and sneered. "Isn't that the pagoda-sweeping disciple of Guanzhaozong Sect? Why is he here to buy rice? Judging from his appearance, he must be penniless and can only come to smell the rice."
Before everyone finished whispering, a thin old shopkeeper walked out from the inner hall, with eyes like a hawk. He stared for a moment and said coldly. "Sect Sweeper Pi Guang? Is it you?"
Pi Guang nodded slightly, neither humble nor arrogant. "That's right."
The shopkeeper looked him up and down, with a sneer on his lips. "Are you here today to get a few bags of rice for the sect? Why are you dressed so... shabby? Is there no food in the sect, or have you found another way to make a living?"
Pi Guang replied calmly, "Today's trip has nothing to do with the sect. I just want to take a portion of rice, a quarter of a bag."
"A quarter?" The old shopkeeper sneered, his voice gradually getting louder, "Hahaha... Do you know that the smallest bag in this store is half a bag? You look like this, and you claim to be a member of the sect, but you are reluctant to take even half a bag. Aren't you asking for trouble?"
When everyone heard this, they laughed like drums and started to discuss.
"It's really amazing to see a sect disciple fall into such a state."
"Did he sneak down the mountain to beg for food?"
"How can you talk about cultivation when you are so shabby?"
Pi Guang listened quietly, his face without anger, his eyes as still as still water. However, in his heart, he felt as if a rock was pressing down on the shore, heavy and hard to describe. He was not ashamed, nor angry, but just felt a familiar, numb chill.
He was disdainful to defend himself, because he knew that these people in the market did not know merits and virtues, did not know the moral character, and only looked at the skin to determine the nobleness and inferiority. Saying more would be a waste of breath.
He wanted to take out the silver, and wanted to leave the small ingot on the counter, and then give a few silver coins as a favor to them, but at this moment, the silver in his sleeve, he didn't want to take it.
The shopkeeper glanced at him coldly, and the corners of his lips curled again, and his words became more and more presumptuous. "If you come to make trouble, get out as soon as possible! Although our shop is small, we won't serve scabby dogs."
After saying this, everyone burst into laughter.
Suddenly, a clear female voice came in from outside the door like a spring. "How can you be so rude? He is the most pure cultivator I have ever seen, how can you insult him casually?"
Before the voice fell, the person had already entered the door.
The person who came in was dressed in green, with sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, wearing a jade pendant on her waist, and walking with a breeze. It was Li Rong, the second daughter of the rice shop owner.
She was known as a chivalrous woman, often hunting in the mountains with her brother, and she had also saved an injured disciple outside the Guanzhaozong Sect, so she had some respect for the sect.
She stood in the middle of the field, her eyes swept across the crowd, and everyone bowed their heads in embarrassment, and the laughter stopped abruptly.
She turned to Pi Guang and asked softly. "Are you here to get half a bag of rice for the sect?"
Pi Guang shook his head. "No. I am not here for the sect today. I am here for myself."
As soon as these words came out, Li Rong frowned slightly, as if in surprise, and then laughed lightly, with an indescribable meaning hidden in that laugh, like sarcasm, but also like pity. "So that's how it is... So you didn't come here on orders, but to humiliate yourself."
Before she finished her words, the shopkeeper laughed out loud, with a mixture of joy, contempt and long-suppressed superiority.
Pi Guang said nothing, his eyes were calm, as if he had sunk into a thousand-foot-high icy lake. He slowly stretched out his right hand, and the one silver ingot in his palm appeared in it, with a warm color, thick and silent, like an ancient jade in the mountains, reflecting the brilliance of half the room.
He gently placed the silver on the counter. "A quarter bag of rice, is it enough?"
The shopkeeper's eyes froze. The quality of the silver was not common in the market. It was the 'Yang Fire Silver' made by the alchemy in the sect, which was priceless in the market.
His Adam's apple moved slightly, and his expression was bright and dark, and he was speechless for a while.
No one in the shop spoke anymore.
It was now Pi Guang's turn to slap them in the face. "This world is never short of rice, but often short of eyes."
Soon, they looked at themselves one after another. They didn't know if to apologize or....
"You must have stolen it," the shopkeeper alleged, pointing a finger of disrespect at him. "You can look like a beggar, it cannot be hard to believe you stole it to show off. But today I will catch you and make sure you are taken away by the royal guards!"
The others reasoned this too. There was no way someone as shabby as this could have such in his possession as his own. That was why even with the gold, he only managed to want to buy a quarter bag. He may not even know just how important that gold is and that it could buy more than half a bag currently.
"Yes, I agree. He must have stolen it!" Another yelled, pointing at Pi guang.
"Thief! That's who you are!"
Pi Guang furrowed his brows, he frowned. Just how foolish could people be? They can't stand a poor man having gold?
Just before he was about to get dragged like a thief....
"Who dares speak ill words against him???!!!"