Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 146 Jinyang Post Station

"Your Excellency is..."

Ye Shuyun politely cupped her hands in greeting and asked.

"I'm just a nobody, not worth mentioning, but you two look like martial artists, so you must be heading to the Martial Arts Tournament, right?"

The dark-faced man pulled out two gold-embossed invitations from his pocket and promoted them, saying, "Without invitations, admission to this martial arts tournament costs two strings of cash! Why don't you two buy two invitations from me? They're only five hundred coins each! You'll save one and a half strings of cash! What do you say?"

"Well... junior brother, how about we buy two tickets?"

Chang Ping'an was quite tempted upon hearing this—one invitation would save him one and a half strings of cash, and if he and his junior brother combined their savings, they would save three strings of cash! What a bargain!
Ye Shuyun couldn't help but close her eyes, then sighed softly and said, "Thank you for your kindness, young man, but my brother and I are going to the capital to visit an old acquaintance, and we may not even attend the martial arts tournament, so we don't need this invitation."

Upon hearing that Ye Shuyun wasn't buying an invitation, Chang Ping'an scratched his head, puzzled, but didn't say anything in rebuttal.

In a sense, they were indeed visiting "old acquaintances," and whether or not they participated in the martial arts tournament seemed... really unimportant.
The dark-faced man was not giving up and continued to sell: "Not buying an invitation? Well, how about a travel permit? It's cheap, only two hundred coins, from Shangdang to Jingzhao Prefecture. When the two distinguished guests leave Shangdang through Hukou Pass, they won't need to pay any more money!"

Ye Shuyun asked, "Isn't this Jinyang Post Station?"

"It's Jinyang Post Station, but isn't that just south of Shangdang and Hukou Pass? I can tell at a glance that you two are definitely not from Zhou! To be honest, I'm actually from the Taiyue Sword Sect. I've been traveling around these cities since I was a child. You two certainly haven't obtained your travel permits yet!"

At this point, the dark-faced man winked and said, "Of course, I'm not saying this as a threat. You two are martial artists, and if one sword strike comes down on you—ouch, I wouldn't survive! But having a travel permit makes things much easier! For example, if you two have a travel permit, the cost of your lodging at this post station can be reduced by 20%!"

Chang Ping'an was once again tempted by what he heard, and turned to Ye Shuyun: "Junior brother, shall we make this arrangement? It will be more convenient for us when we go to the capital."

Ye Shuyun smiled slightly: "Then I'll listen to my senior brother and get two travel permits!"

The dark-faced man had long since realized that the one who could make up his mind was the older "junior brother." So when he heard Ye Shuyun agree, he was overjoyed. He stuffed the two gold-embossed invitations haphazardly into his pocket and then pulled out two thin pieces of paper from who-knows-where.

The two sheets of paper were of poor quality, folded so many times that they left marks, and the handwriting on them was also illegible, not as neat as Chang Ping'an's. However, they were indeed two travel permits, and they were stamped with the seal of the Shangdang Party. The only problem was that the names were left blank, and the names had to be filled in by the travel permit holders.

The dark-faced man pointed to the blank space on the travel permit and asked, "Would you two like to take it back and fill it in yourselves, or should we fill it in right here by the roadside?"

Ye Shuyun asked, "What do you think, Senior Brother?"

Chang Ping'an thought about how the man in front of him said that if he had a travel permit, he could get a 20% discount on the price of a hotel, so he replied, "I'll just pick it up on the roadside!"

"What are your names? I'll fill them in right away!"

"My name is Yun Shuye, the Yun family. The 'Shu' in 'books' means family business."

Ye Shuyun spoke first, and only after she finished speaking did she look at Chang Ping'an.

Chang Ping'an was taken aback at first, then scratched his head and remembered the name he had heard when he first shamelessly begged Zhang Chengdao to be his disciple, so he said, "My surname is Chen, and my name is Chen Ping'an."

Ye Shuyun frowned slightly but said nothing, tacitly accepting Chang Ping'an's alias.

After all, the name "Ping An" is just like "Peng Zu" or "Yan Nian"—it's a very common name. If you change the surname, it won't stand out at all.

As expected, the dark-faced man didn't notice anything amiss. He immediately took a half-dry brush, breathed on the tip, and used his palm as a table to add the two names. Chang Ping'an then took half a string of coins, added another 100 copper coins, and handed them to the dark-faced man.

"Alright, Chenghui, now you two can travel freely throughout the Zhou Kingdom!"

After the dark-faced man finished speaking, he stuffed the two thin pieces of paper into Chang Ping'an's arms and hurriedly ran towards the next traveler in the distance, seemingly trying to sell some kind of invitation or travel permit.

Chang Ping'an looked at the simple travel permit again and again, and said with a smile, "Junior brother, this way we can save a lot of money when we stay at the inn!"

Ye Shuyun smiled slightly, but did not reply. Instead, she finally pushed open the wooden door of the post station.

The lobby of the inn was quite small, with only three sets of tables and chairs, but no one was sitting there. The clerk at the counter was dozing off, and drool was dripping onto the table.

"Young man, are there any rooms available?"

Ye Shuyun gently nudged the sleeping waiter and asked.

The waiter seemed used to being woken up. Before he even opened his eyes, he yawned and mumbled, "Um... yawn, yes, we have rooms available. Do you two have any travel permits?"

"Yes! Look!"

Chang Ping'an couldn't wait to slap the road permit he had just received onto the counter and look at the shop assistant.

The waiter rubbed his eyes, picked up the travel permit, looked at it with a strange expression, and said, "Hmm... Chen Ping'an... 500 coins for a superior room, 100 coins for a lower room, depending on which type you two choose! Does this gentleman have a travel permit?"

Chang Ping'an was taken aback upon hearing this: "So expensive!?"

The waiter seemed very impatient: "Where is it expensive? Isn't our Grand Preceptor holding a martial arts tournament recently? The house prices have gone up! This is already considered low. If you go to the capital, even a superior room would cost 800 coins!"

As he spoke, he added, "That's it. We only have two superior rooms left. That's all!"

Upon hearing that only two superior rooms were left, Chang Ping'an became somewhat anxious.

If he were to come out on his own, he would definitely stay in a regular room—that is, a large dormitory room would be fine. But his third junior brother is a noble young master of the Ye family in Jiangnan! He probably has never suffered since he was a child. How could he let his junior brother stay in a dormitory room with him?

So Chang Ping'an had no choice but to grit his teeth, take out another string of coins from his Qiankun bag, and place it on the counter with a thud, saying, "Then two superior rooms will do!"

Ye Shuyun was taking out the travel permit and placing it on the counter when she saw this scene, and she sighed inwardly.

No wonder Master gave my eldest brother fifty strings of cash before he left. At the time, I thought it was too extravagant, but I never expected...

Meanwhile, Chang Ping'an, who had already spent a considerable sum of money just by setting foot on Zhou Kingdom territory, was also feeling a pang of heartache—

If his junior brother hadn't insisted on coming along, he could have slept in the dormitory by himself!

(End of this chapter)