Yujia found herself sitting at a inn, looking with awe at the bowl of steaming noodles in front of her. The shop was technically an inn, but there were two floors to the building, and those who wished to stop by for a quick bite of food at the ground floor could also treat it as a restaurant of some sort, in modern terms.Hui"er told her that she was going to meet the commissioner here to finally settle some matters of how the commission was about to go. Yujia wanted to follow along, so she found herself sitting inside this building, a few tables away from Hui"er and enjoying the delicious scent radiating off the bowl of noodles in front of her.
The commissioner seemed to not have arrived yet, but Yujia found it a little strange that Hui"er claimed that Yujia should be "undercover" in order to watch what would happen just in case something went wrong. Hui"er advised her to not appear unless she had to, and although Yujia was wary, she decided to trust Hui"er and to listen for now.
She didn"t want to make it too suspicious by being just a girl dubiously watching two people converse either, so she decided to spend some of her money to buy herself a lunch of a wholesome bowl of egg noodles, which was the cheapest thing on the money— only a few copper coins— yet looked more delicious than anything that Yujia had tasted so far in this world.
Yujia picked up a pair of chopsticks to the right of her, ready to dig into the bowl, but her attention to her food was interrupted when she noticed that a man sat down in front of the table that Hui"er was at. She couldn"t catch a glimpse of his face because he was turned away from her, but based on how Hui"er acted, Yujia a.s.sumed that it was her commissioner.
The environment of the inn was not particularly quiet, but it wasn"t loud either. Yujia only sat a few tables away from them, so if she listened closely, she could hear their conversation quite well.
For the most part, it consisted of basic greetings and discussion, so Yujia zoned out after a while of listening to them, beginning to eat her bowl of noodles. Even though she did remind herself that the point of visiting this place was to settle the issue of the commission, the noodles just seemed like more of a priority as of right now. The last time she had non-instant noodles seemed like decades ago.
Besides, Yujia did tell Hui"er what she was supposed to say— about how she couldn"t do the Guilin painting, but she would be more than happy to paint something else— and she trusted that Hui"er would bring her point across.
As Yujia ate her noodles, a blissful smile appeared on her lips. The texture and taste of the dish was wonderful, noodles being neither undercooked or overcooked, and the eggs adding a wonderful aroma into the dish. The dish was simplistic, but it couldn"t be more tasty. Yujia could eat it for—
"Then, I guess, if your Old Master can"t paint Guilin, then I"ll have to cancel the commission."
Upon hearing those words, Yujia almost choked.
Cancel the commission?
Cancel the commission?
Cancel the commission?
How could that be? He couldn"t cancel the commission! That was a total of eighty-five taels that Yujia was absolutely unwilling to give up!
Yujia quickly swallowed down the noodles that were in her mouth and looked up at Hui"er, seeing what she was going to say. However, the other girl didn"t seem to know how to respond, looking back at Yujia with a frantic expression.
Did this mean that she had to step up and talk to the man herself? She couldn"t lose this customer. He was her only hope to get a lot of taels fast, and if she lost the opportunity, then she would have to figure out some other way…
With those thoughts echoing through her mind, Yujia decided on her final choice.
She set the half-finished bowl of noodles down at the table and stood up, walking next to Hui"er and turning to the man, finally getting a first look at his face. He was not as average or as old as she thought he would look, but rather a fairly young man that Yujia would even dare to call handsome. The proportion of his facial features seemed so standard that Yujia considered him to look like someone that came out of one of those "basic human anatomy" books that she used to own in college.
When the young man saw her approach, the look on his face could only be described as confusion at what she was doing and who she was.
"h.e.l.lo," Yujia greeted, "I"m the… Old Master of this girl." The t.i.tle seemed awkward to give herself, but she supposed that it would clear a little more confusion. Yujia pointed at Hui"er, and then at herself. "Can I convince you to… not cancel the commission?"
The young man blinked. "What?"