Zhang Lan snapped back to reality and laughed, “No rush, I’ll drink some wine.”
Mo Hua passed a piece of meat to Zhang Lan, “Uncle Zhang, you should eat more!”
Zhang Lan appeared to have lost a lot of weight, probably from running around busy with the matter of Black Mountain Stronghold, which had tired him and made him thinner.
Zhang Lan was slightly stunned and felt somewhat touched.
Mo Hua then said, “Uncle Zhang, now you look much more serious, a bit like a Department of Ceremonies official.”
Zhang Lan’s face darkened again, his moment of being moved disappearing,
“What do you mean I look more serious now? I have always been a serious cultivator, not just now, always, a proper and serious cultivator!”
“Hmm hmm,” Mo Hua mumbled while eating beef, noncommittally.
Zhang Lan felt slightly indignant but then unsure, so he asked Mo Hua,
“How did I appear to you before?”
Mo Hua recalled the first time he met Zhang Lan and tried to describe him,
“You looked a little bit like a good-for-nothing, idle playboy…”
Fearing that Zhang Lan would be upset, he emphasized, “Just a little bit.”
Zhang Lan was speechless.
Where had he been good-for-nothing or idle?
Previously, him drinking here was to “understand the cultivators’ sentiments” in his time off duty, how can that be considered idle?
Just a little bit, if I really were a playboy, would I be lacking that tiny bit…
Zhang Lan sullenly took a sip of wine.
Mo Hua’s eyes shifted, and he asked, “Uncle Zhang, what were you like in your clan?”
It probably wasn’t like this weary appearance, right…
“In the clan?” Zhang Lan thought for a while and said, “I was like a graceful and handsome man, dashing and elegant, admired by thousands of girls. Many young female cultivators were queuing up, competing to be my Dao companion…”
Mo Hua whispered, “Uncle Zhang, it’s fine to fool others, but we are so close; no need to be so distant…”
Zhang Lan choked on his wine, unable to help himself, “Who’s fooling anyone?”
Mo Hua silently looked at him.
Zhang Lan sighed, “I’m not eating with you anymore; if I don’t get full, your words will fill me up.”
Mo Hua offered him another chopstick of meat, “Then Uncle Zhang, you better eat fast, otherwise you’ll be filled up with frustration and won’t be able to eat anymore.”
Zhang Lan, feeling both annoyed and amused, shook his head, “You kid…”
The two of them continued chatting and eating like this.
After sparring verbally with Mo Hua, Zhang Lan felt somewhat rejuvenated; it seemed he wasn’t so tired anymore.
These days, indeed, he had been running around quite a bit because of Black Mountain Stronghold and had a lot on his mind. In Tongxian City, there weren’t many cultivators with whom he could chat like this.
After eating his fill, Zhang Lan was about to leave when Mo Hua called out to stop him and asked,
“If the Daoist Court really sends the Taoist Soldiers, can I go have a look?”
The light shone brightly in Mo Hua’s eyes; he had long wanted to see what the Tao Cultivation World’s soldiers looked like.
After thinking for a while, Zhang Lan shook his head, “No.”