“Don’t believe me?” The young man pointed to a small mountain in the distance. “Look, there are houses there.”
Ruan Ning squinted, faintly seeing a gray roof among the trees. She asked, “Are you sure?”
“If you don’t believe me, forget it,” the young man grinned. “It’s you who wants to buy something, so you decide.”
Ruan Ning gritted her teeth, “Take me there.”
She wasn’t joking. It was better to supervise personally to prevent him from running off with her gold and silver.
She limped behind the young man towards the small mountain. He walked on rugged paths, and soon she was panting, her feet hurting. She had to stop and support herself on a tree trunk, calling out, “How much further?”
“Not far,” the young man supported her. “Let’s climb over this cliff, and we should be there.”
A cliff? Ruan Ning was stunned, leaning forward to look. Indeed, not far ahead was a steep cliff dozens of meters high.
On the other side of the cliff, a gray roof was vaguely visible.
It looked like a shortcut, if she could fly over.
Ruan Ning shook him off and turned to walk back, but the young man blocked her. “Hey, why aren’t you walking? It’s right across there.”
“Sorry, I don’t have wings. I can’t fly over,” she replied sarcastically.
The young man laughed, “I can’t fly either, but I know a small path that leads around to the other side.”
Ruan Ning frowned, wishing he’d be more straightforward.
He guided her to the cliff’s edge, pointing to a winding path on the left. “This path can get to the other side, but it’s not easy.”
Indeed, it wasn’t easy, barely better than climbing the cliff. Given her limp, she doubted she could manage it.
“Do you have enough money?” he asked skeptically. “I don’t want to go through all this trouble only for you to say you don’t have enough.”
Ruan Ning pulled out a dozen rings, displaying them in a dazzling array. “Enough?”
“Enough,” he said, leaning in to reach for them. But he lost his footing, stumbling and crashing into her, pinning her to the ground. A dozen rings bounced out of her hand, tumbling off the cliff.
