"Master Ouyang and esteemed guests, welcome to my humble establishment!"

A portly middle aged man with a ratlike face greeted the two Ouyangs and the group of scholars who just entered the restaurant.

"Ah! You've grown fat, xiao Jun! I see business is flourishing nowadays."

"Yes, yes! That's because I've received much help from Master Ouyang when I was starting out."

"Humble as always, Uncle Jun! What you have right now is because of your ability."

"I dare not accept lord lord's praise. This humble person is happy to serve the Great Han Empire."

"Haha! If only every Han is as loyal as Uncle Jun, Da Han will not be besetted upon by these greedy wolves from all sides."

"Oh my! How ungracious of me, please forgive this humble servant for this poor show of hospitality. Come, come! Let us head upstairs and get you all seated. Xiao-er, prepare the best room for our esteemed guests."

The group is currently climbing to the supposedly best room of the restaurant, and when they passed the floor where Lin Feng and his company are causing a ruckus...

"Tell this to the brother beside you. We'll be doing something tonight."

Lin Feng whispered to He, who also did the same to the others.

He also told the young and energetic retainer Lei beside him...

"By the way, we need to bring food to old Jiao and old Cao. See to it that you should secure the food as soon as possible."

After doing that, the retainer left, then Lin Feng made the eloquent retainer Huo shout...

"EAT AND BE MERRY TONIGHT MY FRIENDS! XIAO-ER, GIVE EVERY TABLE IN THIS FLOOR A JAR OF YOUR BEST WINE."

When retainer Huo shouted, Ouyang's group was currently passing the second floor, and there were even some scholars who were so absorbed in conversation and herd mentality that they indirectly blocked retainer Lei's passage to the ground floor. Upon hearing retainer Hou's shout, the imperial scholars raised their eyebrows and some even laughed.

"Hahaha! Lower class people are too funny indeed. Do they even have the money to pay for it?"

Hahaha! Good one, Mr. Gao, you rightfully deserved your place among Jingbei's 12 famous flowerpickers."

"Hahaha! I want to see their stupid faces once they find out they can't even pay."

"Look, this guy wears the same clothes as the man who shouted. They should belong to the same group. Let us humour ourselves with his presence."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The scholars who were just unconsciously blocking retainer Lei on the stairs, then stood their ground and this time, with malicious intent, are now consciously stopping retainer Lei's actions. Before, they ignored retainer Lei, so Lei was able to avoid them until he reached the middle of the group, and thus, because of that, retainer Lei is now surrounded by the imperial scholars in the stairs, unable to move forward or backward.

You have to know, retainer Lei is the youngest among the retainers in the group, about eighteen years of age. And you also have to know, in order to be a Tang family retainer, one must be not simple. And retainer Lei, as the youngest retainer accompanying Tang Feng's group, is certainly not simple. Beneath his youthful looking exterior is a confident and prideful heart. From where does his pride and confidence came from? He is the first of Lin Feng's many followers and among the firsts of his life, being the first there has its own benefits.

He has known Lin Feng ever since he was 11 years old. But he only started following Lin when he was 12 and Lin was 2. In the 6 years he stood behind Lin Feng, he has been the most zealous of Lin Feng's fanatics. He trains under Lin Feng everyday, and the current him now, is the prototype of what shall be known as the best troop under heaven someday. While the other people still has some fear or prejudice about Lin Feng, Lei has already trusted Lin Feng with all his heart. Whenever Lin Feng says to go East, he would never dare go West, or that's what would others say about him. That singleminded belief in Lin Feng has brought him to where he is currently now.

Don't be shocked for what I'm about to tell you, but all the retainers brought by Tang Feng, are at least middle guards. Among them, only Sergeant Hao can barely be considered an old guard, but he is a 50 year old veteran who has dedicated most of his life to the army, at his peak, he almost became a deathguard, but he was crushed by a soldier king and his condition deteriorated as the heart demon prevented him from becoming a deathguard ever again.

Enough of Sergeant Hao, lets talk about the other retainers. Amongst the retainers, the two old men left in the hotel reached middle guard without Lin Feng's help. But the 7 other retainers with Lin Feng now are all his confidants. These men are the ones he trained to middle guard rank in his 8 years of living. And not just ordinary middle guard rank, they are all trained to middle guard level in every proficiency there is, and they can be considered the alpha versions of the future powerhouse army under Lin Feng.

Let us return to retainer Lei, who by the way, is currently stuck in traffic on the stairway of the restaurant, surrounded by a group of scholars.

"Well, well, well! What do we have here? A country bumpkin blocking this lord's official business."

"I know! I know! Ask him the five questions!"

"Three questions."

"Yes, the three questions. Ask him the three questions!"

"Stop! Who would cross these stairs of death must answer me these questions three, 'ere the other side he see!"

"Hahahaha! Look at this dude!"

"Ask away, stairkeeper. I may be many things, but never afraid."

"What, is your name?"

"Why are you asking my name? What use could you have for the name of one such as I? What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, does it not?"

"Hey, this dude is pretty good."

"Yeah, someone else would tell his name straightaway and there's no fun in that!"

"What, is your quest?"

"I seek, something of value that will soon be forsaken, but I fear that I, may soon forsook this quest, should this thing of value, that I have sought for, will not be taken."

"Hmmm, passable."

"Yes, a little bit less and you would have failed."

"Third question, hurry, hurry, this lord have'nt got much time now."

"What, is the qi luck probability of seeing a purple cloud from the east?"

"For whom are we calculating, an African chieftain or European emperor?"

"What?"

"You know that? What about you?"

"Me? I, I did'nt know that!"

The scholars were so dumbfounded by retainer Lei's answer that they just left him be, as they pondered the intricacies of qi luck probability and its possible connection to the differences of African chieftains and European emperors.