Chapter 125: Zhao Tie-zhu and Wang Gang-dan

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Chen Hao was startled when the proprietress suddenly blurted out an English exclamation. “Good grief! Is there really any need to get that worked up?”

The proprietress ignored him and smacked Guo Yunhai on the shoulder. “You actually got injured by an old man? Seriously? And you even said you couldn’t beat him?”

Guo Yunhai shook his head helplessly. “I told you long ago not to assume I was some incredible fighter. There are plenty of people in this world whose martial skills surpass mine, and even more who could beat me. You just never believed me.”

“I always thought you only said that out of modesty! I’ve seen what you can do. Back then, you single-handedly drove away so many street punks. In my eyes, you were the greatest!” the proprietress said earnestly.

Guo Yunhai gave a bitter smile. “You remember that they were street punks, right? How skilled could a bunch of street punks possibly be? Anyone who had trained in fighting for a year or two could deal with them, couldn’t they?

“I can tell you with absolute certainty that if Chen Hao had been the one to encounter you back then, he would have dealt with those thugs much faster than I did!”

“Really?” The proprietress looked Chen Hao up and down skeptically. “He doesn’t look like much of a fighter…”

Chen Hao neither agreed nor disagreed. It was hardly the first time anyone had doubted his abilities. Judging from his appearance, he indeed did not look particularly formidable. But Chen Hao was not someone who craved recognition. Whether others believed in his strength made no difference to him, so he could not be bothered to explain.

“If you ever get the chance, you’ll see what he can do,” Guo Yunhai said. “Enough. We didn’t come here to debate who’s stronger.”

“Oh? So you have something else to discuss? I thought you brought your friend here especially to meet me! I assumed you had bragged about my beauty in front of Chen Hao, and that he had come admiring my reputation. No wonder he seemed completely unmoved by my appearance!” the proprietress said smugly.

Chen Hao did not look down on her for saying that. On the contrary, he wholeheartedly agreed. “That much is true. The proprietress has absolutely unparalleled beauty—the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in my twenty-odd years, apart from my mother. No adjective could describe even one ten-thousandth of her beauty.

“If she changed the way she dressed, I’m afraid there would be no one in this world who could surpass her.”

The proprietress had heard countless variations of compliments about her appearance, so Chen Hao’s praise did not faze her. Instead, she asked curiously, “Oh? You’re saying your mother can be compared with me? You’re quite handsome yourself. Did you inherit that from your mother? Is she a great beauty too?”

Chen Hao shook his head. “I actually look more like my father, though my mother is indeed very beautiful. But when I said she could be mentioned in the same breath as you, I didn’t mean that her appearance was comparable to yours. In my heart, my mother will always be the most beautiful woman in the world. That is determined by the place she holds in my heart.

“Still, after seeing you today, I’ve realized that there really is someone whose beauty can shake my image of the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“Hahahaha!”

This time, the proprietress laughed heartily. Unlike ordinary women, who would often conceal their laughter behind shy, delicate giggles, her laughter was unmistakably hearty and masculine.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard a compliment like that. Not bad, not bad! I’m very pleased! Since you’ve made me this happy, I won’t hold it against you for beating up Big Guy. And everything you consume here today is on the house!”

“Damn!” Guo Yunhai said unhappily. “So you were actually planning to charge us? Have you no shame?”

“No, no, no!” The proprietress wagged her finger repeatedly. “If you had come alone, of course I wouldn’t charge you. But your friend isn’t my friend. Once there’s a third person involved, business is business. I’m not that foolish!

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“Besides, I originally intended to avenge you by fleecing him mercilessly! You should be thanking me!”

“Thank you…” Guo Yunhai said, his face covered in black lines.

“By the way, I still don’t know your full name, proprietress,” Chen Hao asked.

As soon as he posed the question, Guo Yunhai struggled desperately to hold back his laughter.

“Me? I have plenty of names. Sometimes I’m Zhao Tiezhu, sometimes Wang Gangdan, and sometimes Li Dajiao. You can call me whatever you like,” the proprietress replied with complete seriousness, showing no sign that she was joking.

Chen Hao stared at her in astonishment. “Your name isn’t Guo Degang, by any chance? Even if you don’t want to tell me your real name, you didn’t have to brush me off so casually…”

The burly man patted Chen Hao on the shoulder, barely suppressing his laughter. “Chen Hao, I can prove this to you. She really isn’t lying. Those are all genuinely her names.”

“What?”

It was the first time Chen Hao had ever heard of one person having so many names. Did that mean she had several identity cards too?

“What exactly is going on?” Chen Hao asked in confusion.

Guo Yunhai glanced at the proprietress. She merely shrugged indifferently, signaling for him to explain.

“It happened like this…”

After listening to the burly man’s explanation, Chen Hao finally understood. The proprietress could not really be considered a local. Before she was even born, her parents had come to Kestall for work. She was born there, but at the time, they had not yet had a chance to give her a name.

They had originally planned to wait until their work was finished and they had returned home before deciding what to call her.

Unexpectedly, however, her parents encountered an accident at work and disappeared together, leaving behind their unfortunate child. Fortunately, because it had been inconvenient, they had not taken the baby with them. Instead, they had left her in the care of a small farming family.

After many days passed without anyone coming to collect the child, the farmers made inquiries and learned what had happened. Kindhearted people that they were, they raised the proprietress as their own daughter. The teahouse she ran now had actually been converted from that very farmstead.

The farming family who raised her had little education and had no idea what name to give a child. Moreover, they raised her entirely as a boy. That was how the proprietress developed the personality she had now.

The male head of the household was surnamed Zhao, so they named her Zhao Tiezhu. The woman of the house was surnamed Wang, so her childhood nickname became Wang Gangdan… As for “Auntie Li,” that was simply a self-mocking nickname the proprietress had given herself.

The name on her identity card was actually quite pleasant. She had changed it herself later to Zhuge Taxue. Zhuge was the only thing she knew about her biological father: his surname.

As for anything else concerning her parents, she knew nothing.

Unlike other orphans, the proprietress had never been particularly concerned about her biological parents. After all, they had disappeared immediately after her birth, and she had never formed any bond with them. She had never considered searching for them either. As far as she was concerned, her life was perfectly fine as it was.

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Whether they had disappeared or simply left, it no longer mattered whether she could find them. Even if she did, what difference would it make?

The proprietress appeared cheerful and forthright, but after hearing Guo Yunhai explain the story of the proprietress—Zhuge Taxue—Chen Hao’s first reaction was that her father might have been one of the researchers who had come to Kestall at the same time as his own father and Gu Mengyan’s father. Perhaps they had all disappeared together, or had died in some accident.

Given the proprietress’s age, that should have been the case.

What a small world this was. Could every random encounter somehow be connected to what had happened back then?

However, judging from what Guo Yunhai had said, Zhuge Taxue might not know much about those past events. It seemed unlikely that he could learn anything from her.

After hearing all this, Chen Hao unconsciously fell into thought once more. His unusual reaction did not escape Guo Yunhai’s notice. Guo Yunhai had already observed in the infirmary that whenever Chen Hao heard someone mention Kestall’s past, he would fall into deep contemplation, as though he had remembered something.

Thus, Guo Yunhai put away his joking expression and looked at Chen Hao seriously.

“Chen Hao! I asked you before—what exactly did you come to Kestall for? You seem awfully concerned about what happened in the past. Could it be that you came here to investigate those old events? And with skills as impressive as yours, could you be… a private detective?”

“Pfft!”

Chen Hao immediately sprayed out the tea in his mouth. “Cough, cough, cough!”

“That reaction of yours…” Zhuge Taxue shook her head. “Did Big Guy guess correctly or not?”

Chen Hao hesitated for a moment, apparently considering how to explain himself.

Guo Yunhai was in no hurry. He waited patiently, though his expression clearly showed that he intended to get to the bottom of the matter. Chen Hao figured that unless he gave Guo Yunhai a satisfactory answer, the man would not let it go.

Finally, Chen Hao sighed. “I’m not a private detective or anything like that. You may not believe me, but I was originally dragged to Kestall against my will to accompany someone on a trip. I never expected that, because of certain accidents, investigating what happened in Kestall both then and now would become extremely important to me.”

“What do you mean, both then and now? What’s happening in Kestall now? Why do you want to investigate it?” Guo Yunhai asked, staring at Chen Hao in bewilderment.

“So you still don’t know…” Chen Hao lowered his voice. “Zhuge…”

“Just call me Taxue!” The proprietress waved her hand. “Get on with it.”

“Can you arrange a completely quiet room? What I’m about to say may not be something we should let anyone else hear…”