Gray patted his half-full stomach and felt something was missing. There was one thing he had dreamed of for years that he hoped to find here, the topic of Old Li's never-ending stories. Red braised pork!
He scoured the street market but found no stalls that sold the fabled dish. He accosted random people in the street and eventually got an answer. There was a restaurant called the Windy Lantern Inn. It was the fanciest and most expensive in the whole town. It served all kinds of high-class dishes, among them red braised pork.
“Leave!”
“Go away bum!”
Gray was stopped at the restaurant's doorstep. Four large men wearing the same uniform surrounded him and pushed him back onto the street.
"You can't come in!"
"You can't eat here!"
"Why not?” Gray said heatedly, “I got money, why can’t I eat here?”
He tried pushing back but the four of them together were more than a match.
One of them scoffed, “Are you lost? This is the Windy Lantern Inn! It’s not a place for people like you so hurry up and move your ass. Don’t make us move you by force!”
“Yeah! That’s right, you can’t even afford a single dish here. Take your dirty copper and go elsewhere!”
They thought he was poor or homeless or both. He was wearing the clothes to match so it wasn’t really their fault. He should have gone to the tailor first.
“Wait, wait!” Gray shouted them down.
He quickly dug into his money bag and pulled out a handful of coins, all gold.
“Is this enough?” He asked the hosts.
Their attitudes completely changed at the sight of gold. Only members of the wealthiest families could casually bring out so much money. They were merely workers at a restaurant, commoners who did not dare to offend the rich.
“Of course, sir!”
“Sir! We apologize!”
The men parted ways and one of them led him through the entryway and into the large dining room. It was spacious and filled with polished wooden tables and chairs that were separated from each other by partitions. Paper lanterns hung from the ceiling, covering the entire place in a fluttering light.
The place wasn’t full but it was busy. Guests were having a good time, eating and drinking. Strange dishes covered the nearby tables and they all looked delicious. They had a mixture of bright colors; red, green, white, black. The smell all around the room was heavenly and even better than the food market.
The host seated Gray at a small table near the back.
“Young master? What would you like?”
“Do you have red braised pork?” Gray asked.
“We do! It is made from the highest quality tumbling pig. Ours are all at least at the 5th Level of the Spiritual Strengthening Realm. The dish will be ten silvers.”
It was certainly expensive. It was a hundred times more than a pork bun on the streets. He hoped that it would be worth it. A spiritual beast at the fifth level certainly sounded tasty.
“Alright, give me two plates!” Gray said and handed over a gold coin.
The host bowed enthusiastically and disappeared briefly. He returned with the change as well a pot of tea and a porcelain cup.
“Please enjoy, the red braised pork will take a little time to prepare.” With that, the host left for good.
Gray poured himself a cup and leaned back in his chair. He had nothing to do except sip tea and observe the surrounding diners. The partitions didn’t block everything from view nor did they stop voices from traveling. There were people all around him, enjoying luxurious food as well as other’s company. Through all the noise that seemed to meld into one, he managed to pick up on a nearby conversation.
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“Brother, I tell you, the lord is the most unreasonable person I have ever met! Just for a little bit of gold, he dares to show us no face! Intolerable!”
“Hmph, the Southern Seas Trading Company is no pushover! He thinks a little gold mine in the King’s Mountains will allow him to overshadow our power in this town… Dream on! We won’t let that happen!”
“Hahaha! Well said, brother. Come, drink!”
Gray knew who that person was. He leaned back and peered over.
It was Amin Baba!
The trader was at a large table with several other people, two men and four women. Amin Baba had his arms around a woman that wasn’t either of his two servants. They were laughing and drinking and having a good time.
Gray grimaced. The last thing he wanted was to have his meal ruined by that unpleasant person. But before he could hide his face, Amin Baba looked up for some reason and their eyes connected.
Amin Baba’s face became ugly and he glared at Gray with cold fury. Gray merely sipped his sea mockingly. Amin Baba slammed his fists on the table and jumped up. After a quick conversation with the other men, the three of them walked towards Gray with gloomy, threatening expressions.
Gray sighed and stood up to face them. Since they wanted trouble, he wasn’t about to run away. He wondered idly why he was getting into so many fights since leaving the village. His luck seemed particularly bad.
“Lard face… you dare show your face around here?” Amin Baba said as he arrived in front of Gray.
The other two walked around and surrounded Gray from both sides.
Gray frowned but otherwise didn’t say anything.
“What? Are you mute now?” Amin Baba spat, “I’m telling you. Don’t fucking mess with me or I will make you pay!”
One of them picked up the teapot on Gray’s table and dumped it on his head. The hot liquid tickled his scalp.
“Peasants like you shouldn’t be seen here. Go back to the pigsties where you belong!”
“Yeah! Can you even afford a single plate here?”
They roared with laughter and took turns mocking him. A lot of the insults went over his head but their intentions were clear. He was bullied for many years in Blue Lake Village. These people were just like them… cheap, treated people like trash, and only cared about their self-importance.
The three around him were quite powerful. Their cultivation was greater than his by many levels. Amin Baba was probably at the fourth level while his cronies were at the third level. A normal person might have cowered in fear but not Gray. He was not intimidated because of his innate strength and the supreme cultivation art of the Fortune Sect. He wouldn’t back down in front of people like them.
He gathered energy from his spiritual sea and spread it to his fists and his feet. He remained still and silent until his body was ready. He wasn’t going to let them insult him for free!
Pop!
The first punch was launched without warning and landed squarely on Amin Baba’s eye. He stood too close to Gray and could not react in time. The fat merchant was sent flying into a large flower pot.
Crash!
The second move was a front kick that blasted the man to Gray’s right backward. That man landed on a nearby table, destroying it and drawing screams of fury from the patrons there.
“Bastard, get him!”
“Stop him!”
A pair of arms wrapped around Gray’s neck and tried to strangle him. At the same time, Amin Baba came back around and started punching wildly.
“Aaarrrrggh!”
Gray growled in pain as he suffered numerous blows across his face and upper chest. His legs shot out and kept the fat merchant at bay temporarily while he reached back and grabbed the head of the person behind.
He tugged and tore at the man’s hair but the man only tightened his grip around his neck. Now choking and almost out of breath, Gray’s hands found the man’s face and clawed at it. His finger found a squishy target and sank in viciously.
“Kkyyahhhh!”
The man behind let out a wretched scream and let go. The man clutched at his eye that was bleeding and crumbled to the ground.
Gray ignored that poor bastard and lifted a nearby table into the air. He found Amin Baba and threw it with all his strength. Amin Baba kicked the table in midair, which caused it to splinter into pieces. Using the distraction, Gray once again landed a punch squarely on the detestable man’s face.
“Gray! I’ll kill you!”
“Get him!”
Gray continued to throw chairs, plates, potted plants, and anything he could get a hold of. His enemies were more numerous and they were quite sturdy because of their cultivation. Amin Baba, in particular, was as strong as the guard he fought earlier. Yet, these merchants weren’t as difficult to deal with because they were untrained. They had brute strength but no finesse. They weren’t even as good Gray who had ample experience from street fights.
“Ahhh!”
“Fuck, stop!”
The yells of his opponents soon combined with the furious screams of nearby patrons as well as the restaurant hosts. More people joined the fight, some trying to stop it and some trying to get payback for wayward flying objects.
Gray was knocked to the ground multiple times and took countless blows from impromptu blunt weapons. He shrugged off the pain each time and kept fighting. He struck back and gave as good as he got, causing his opponents to suffer as well.
One of Amin Baba’s friends was already knocked out cold while the trader was now fighting against a random patron. He wasn’t about to let strangers take of his own problems and charged over. He ripped the stranger away and slammed his fists into Amin Baba’s face once more. The man’s nose broke and a fountain of blood sprayed out.
Gray could only celebrate his victory for a moment as he was promptly tackled by another.
More screams followed.
More yelling.
More destruction.
More blood was shed, until…
“It’s the guards!”
“Oh no!”
“Nobody move!”
“Stop fighting!”
Around twenty guards led by head guard Wuyi Bai arrived. They charged through the dining room, separating combatants by sword and spearpoint. They gathered up the miscreants, including Gray and even the ones that were unconscious.
Wuyi Bai stomped around the room in disgust. The floor was filled with broken plates, spilled food and drink, and broken furniture. The restaurant was completely trashed, it was a total loss.
“You people have a lot of guts.” He spat, “By the authority of the Jade Hill Lord, you’re all going to jail!”