Chapter 60: Chapter 57: How About 50 a Day?

The Aurum Mountains were shrouded in clouds and mist year-round. The vapors drifted ethereally, making the range look as if it were veiled in a thin, white gauze—hazy and mysterious from a distance.

Sunstone was a small hill on the outermost edge of the Aurum Mountains, not even qualifying as a proper peak.

Its only advantage was a spring-like climate all year, with pleasant scenery perfect for plant growth.

Dean Morgan walked briskly along the path up the mountain. While he was recovering from his injuries, Beta and Benjamin Morgan had told him countless stories of Aurora Sinclair’s incredible feats. This made him eager to meet her master.

’If I could receive his guidance, perhaps I could break through to the level of a Martial Arts Master.’

But great masters often had strange eccentricities, and it wasn’t his place to simply ask. The budding hope in Dean Morgan’s heart was forcibly suppressed.

The village on the mountain was like a hidden paradise, serene and peaceful. Walking through it, one felt as if time itself had slowed down.

Following the simple map Beta Morgan had drawn, he quickly found Ronan Warner’s courtyard.

He took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock. After waiting a moment with no response, he knocked again. Still silence. Dean Morgan started to panic. ’He isn’t home, is he?’

He kept knocking. The door didn’t open, but a courtyard gate not far behind him did.

A young girl of about thirteen or fourteen walked out.

She had a cheerful look, with a round, baby-fat face, two small dimples at the corners of her mouth, and crescent-shaped eyes that seemed to be perpetually smiling. She looked quite likable.

She was very surprised to see him and muttered to herself, “You look so familiar!”

After studying him curiously for a moment, she suddenly asked, “Are you looking for Apothecary Warner?”

Dean Morgan, not a smooth talker like Beta Morgan, just gave a stiff nod.

“He’s not going to open the door if you knock like that!”

Leigh Miles shook out her wrists and ankles. With a running start, she used a rock outside the gate to leap effortlessly onto the courtyard wall. Grinning wide, she said, “You have to climb the wall to get into his place!”

Soon, an unfamiliar and rather grumpy male voice came from the courtyard.

“You little brat, don’t you dare trample my herbs!”

Leigh Miles flinched and pouted. “I didn’t… I haven’t stepped on anything yet!”

“You’re just as bad as your senior sister!”

“Hehe… I’m much more civilized than she is. She just breaks down the door…”

Leigh Miles deftly hopped down from the wall, opened the gate from the inside, and gestured for Dean Morgan to enter.

Dean Morgan’s gaze sharpened as he glanced at the courtyard wall, which was over two meters high.

Inside the courtyard, a figure in a conical hat and coarse cloth clothes was squatting by an herb garden, pulling weeds.

The faint fragrance of medicinal herbs filled the air.

As far as the eye could see, the courtyard was filled with lush, green medicinal seedlings, a delightful sight.

“The Morgan Family or the Warner Family?” Ronan Warner asked without looking up, his voice flat and detached as he continued his work.

Dean Morgan bowed respectfully. “This junior is from the Morgan Family.”

“The items are over there. Get them yourself.”

Dean Morgan followed the direction he pointed and saw a round stone table with a stack of Xuan paper on it, but no black leather notebook.

Dean Morgan went to get the papers. Each sheet was covered in dense, somewhat messy calligraphy.

“Take them and go. And don’t come back here unless you have to.” Ronan Warner’s voice was extremely impatient, full of disdain and rejection for the Morgans, as if they were some great nuisance.

“Layman Warner, my master also wished to ask a question. It’s about Miss Aurora Sinclair…”

Before he could finish, Leigh Miles, who was helping pull weeds nearby, interrupted him.

“You know my senior sister?”

Dean Morgan was slightly taken aback, then nodded and answered honestly, “She saved my life.”

“Hmm… You do look pretty weak. Here, this is for you!” Leigh Miles sized him up for a moment, her attitude a little warmer than before. She pulled a small glass vial from her pocket and tossed it to him.

Seeing this, Ronan Warner’s expression hardened. He shot her a glare. “You dare give people something you made at your level?”

“Hmph, it’s not like you’re teaching me…” Leigh Miles rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Hmph. With that level of comprehension, you want to be my disciple? Go memorize the ancient books first…” Ronan Warner pointed irritably at the stone table again.

’This girl has an excellent talent for pharmacology, but she just can’t settle down. She’s always acting like a little miser, just like Master Aerion taught her.’

“If I memorize them all, how about you write off the Radiant Void Sect’s debt?” Leigh Miles’s eyes darted around as she asked with a grin.

“In your dreams. Your master might have run off, but you can’t. Now go memorize those books—”

Leigh Miles’s smile fell. She stood up, pouting, clapped the dirt from her hands, and ran over to the stone table to study.

Dean Morgan clutched the glass vial, shock hidden in his eyes.

’Could this girl be…’

“Aurora Sinclair’s affairs are not for the Morgan Family to worry about!” Ronan Warner’s stern voice broke through his thoughts.

Dean Morgan’s expression sobered, and he bowed respectfully once more.

“Before you go, take this girl and that fool of a boy from across the way with you! I have no intention of feeding two freeloaders from the Radiant Void Sect.”

The words had barely left his mouth when a figure ran back, face full of delighted surprise. “You’re really letting us go?”

“In your dreams. Your master owes me fifty million for herbs, due by the end of this year. This is the IOU he wrote himself. He ran off, but that doesn’t mean the rest of you don’t have to pay.”

Ronan Warner pulled an “IOU” from his robes with a sneer.

“Hmph. Master’s gone missing again anyway. It’s your word against no one, isn’t it?” Leigh Miles muttered, unconvinced.

Ronan Warner put the IOU away and snorted coldly. “We of the Verdant School operate with integrity. Unlike your Radiant Void Sect, which is used to pulling off swindles!”

Clasping his hands behind his back, Ronan Warner walked toward the stone table. “You can choose not to pay,” he said as he walked. “But someone will come to collect the debt when the time comes!”

Leigh Miles froze for a second, as if she’d thought of something. She gritted her teeth and ran for the courtyard gate.

***

On the way back, Dean Morgan’s car was occupied by two children, one older and one younger. The car was stuffed with blue-and-white floral cloth bundles, and the strong smell of herbs was a bit overwhelming.

When Dean Morgan saw the small wooden cart in Titus Miles’s hands in the rearview mirror, he suddenly remembered seeing them before in Corvale.

’What a coincidence!’

Leigh Miles sat in the back, gazing out the window with unconcealable excitement. “Mr. Dixon, how long until we see my senior sister?”

Dean Morgan thought for a moment. “Five hours…”

“Ah! That long? I wish we could just fly there!”

“We are flying…”

Leigh Miles’s eyes went wide, her mouth forming an “O.” She asked dumbly, “Are you taking us on an airplane?”

An airplane. She had only ever seen pictures of one in a textbook and had always longed to ride one. In Sunstone Town, only the richest family had ever been on a plane.

The tycoon’s wife had bragged about it all over town for a long time after she got back.

Unused to being watched so fervently by a girl, Dean Morgan hastily nodded. “Yes…”

“Yay! Mr. Dixon, you’re the best!”

Next, Dean Morgan fully experienced what it was like to bring a little country girl and her tag-along into the city.

“Mr. Dixon, what’s this? Is it the high-speed train they talk about in books?” Leigh Miles asked, leading Titus Miles by the hand and pointing at the tracks inside the airport.

“No… this is the airport rail link.”

“Whoa! It’s huge! It’s bigger than the Route 2 bus in our town.”

Dean Morgan: …

After getting off the rail link, Dean Morgan led the siblings through the VIP channel toward the boarding gate.

Leigh Miles hummed a little tune she didn’t know the name of, looking around curiously like a country bumpkin who’d never seen the world. “Mr. Dixon, do not many people fly? Why have we been walking for so long without seeing anyone else?”

“This is the VIP channel. Other people can’t come in here,” Dean Morgan explained patiently.

“I get it! It’s the path for rich people! Only they can use it, and no one else can. Just as bossy as the tycoon’s wife in our town.”

Dean Morgan: …

“Mr. Dixon, is your family very rich?”

The question stumped Dean Morgan. He usually spent his days either on missions or training in martial arts and honestly didn’t know if the Morgan Family was rich. “I suppose so…” he said, uncertainly.

Leigh Miles’s eyes darted around, and she said with a grin, “How about I work for you? I can do anything—laundry, cooking, cleaning. I can even treat those internal injuries you have. My price isn’t high. How about fifty a day?”

Dean Morgan had never met such a talkative girl in his life. He was so tongue-tied he didn’t know what to say for a long moment, finally stammering out a stiff reply: “It’s… not allowed… to hire child labor…”

“That’s easy to solve. We’ll make it a private deal. If you don’t tell and I don’t tell, who’s going to know you hired me? I don’t need a contract, but I want to be paid daily. How about it?”

Leigh Miles chattered on, selling herself. If he hadn’t seen her come out of the mountains with his own eyes, he would have thought she’d hustled in some big city before.

Dean Morgan was speechless, his face flushing red. He finally beat a hasty retreat. “I’m going to get some drinks…”

***

「Five hours later.」

Mentally and physically exhausted, Dean Morgan led the energetic siblings into Alvin Morgan’s private residence.

“Dixon, you’re back? Huh? Are these… your relatives?” Reed Morgan asked curiously.

Dean Morgan shook his head emphatically. “The master invited them…”

Leigh Miles, loaded down with cloth bundles, looked around curiously in every direction, showing no signs of shyness around strangers.

Reed Morgan’s eyes widened in astonishment, the smile on his face freezing. His gaze swept up and down over them.

The girl was dressed in a sweatsuit, with several cloth bundles tied to her body and two more in her hands. The little boy next to her wore a smaller, matching sweatsuit, also with a small bundle tied to his back.

The two of them looked like a pair of naive country folk who’d brought all their belongings to the city to live with relatives.

’Could these two be the master’s long-lost children, come back to the Morgan Family to be acknowledged?’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep