Qin Dynasty: Ying Zheng is my brother, I am the Bad Commander

"Jing Ke... Gongsun Li..."

Ying Chen smiled, turned his head slightly, and his gaze fell on a display stand not far from Jing Ke and Gongsun Li.

The owner of that booth was a Western Region merchant with a full beard. On the booth, there were not only several strangely shaped curved knives, but also several ancient wine jars with their mouths tightly sealed with mud and beeswax in the most conspicuous position.

Ying Chen smiled faintly, took Yan Fei's hand, and led Jing Ni, seemingly casually strolling to the Western Regions merchant's booth.

He first picked up a Western Region scimitar inlaid with turquoise and lightly flicked the blade with his fingertip.

"clang--"

A clear but slightly thin sword cry echoed through the noisy weapons area.

Ying Chen shook his head, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, but just loud enough to reach Jing Ke and Gongsun Li nearby clearly: "It's all show and no substance. The quenching of the refined iron was a bit off, making the blade too brittle. It might be okay to deal with ordinary thieves, but if it encounters a true master, a single burst of internal force will shatter this blade into seven or eight pieces."

At this point, Ying Chen deliberately paused, his gaze seemingly casually drifting towards the short sword that Gongsun Li had just taken a liking to, priced at fifty taels of gold. His tone carried an undisguised mockery: "Just like that short sword over there, inlaid with a few broken stones, its spine is too thin, its center of gravity is unstable above the hilt. It looks sharp, but it's actually just a piece of scrap iron only good for decoration. Fifty taels of gold? Even if it were given to me for free, I'd find it cumbersome to hang at my waist."

Upon hearing this, the man selling the short sword flew into a rage. He was about to slam his fist on the table and curse, but when he saw Ying Chen's priceless black brocade robe and the two men behind him, Jing Ni and Yan Fei, whose auras were terrifyingly cold, he swallowed the curses that were on the tip of his tongue and could only glare at them with anger that he dared not utter a word.

Meanwhile, Jing Ke, who was still troubled by his empty purse, suddenly had a glint of light in his slightly drowsy, drunken eyes after hearing Ying Chen's words.

A true expert's skill is immediately apparent.

Jing Ke was an extremely skilled swordsman, so he naturally saw through the impracticality of the short sword at a glance. However, because his junior sister liked it, he didn't want to spoil her mood, so he didn't point it out.

Hearing a stranger point out the fatal flaw of the short sword so incisively, and even talk about the quenching problem of the Western Region scimitar in great detail, immediately aroused his great interest.

Gongsun Li was also slightly taken aback, turned her head, and looked at Ying Chen with some surprise.

Although her swordsmanship was not as good as her senior brother's, she was not an ignorant person who did not know the value of a sword. After Ying Chen said that, she looked at the short sword again and indeed felt that it was a bit frivolous.

However, Ying Chen's "performance" was not over yet.

He put down the scimitar and turned his gaze to the ancient wine jar in the center of the Hu merchant's booth.

"Boss, is this the legendary 'Ice and Fire Dream' that's made with Tian Shan snow lotus, Western Region fire bodhi, and century-old brewing starter, buried under an extremely cold glacier and fermented for a full thirty years?" Ying Chen asked the bearded merchant in a calm tone.

The foreign merchant's eyes lit up, as if he had found a kindred spirit. He immediately gave a thumbs up and excitedly said in broken Central Plains dialect, "Young master, you have a good eye! This is indeed our caravan's prized possession, 'Ice and Fire Intoxicating Dream'! You won't find another jar like it in the entire city of Xinzheng! However, the price..."

"This young master never asks about the price, only whether the wine is worthy of its name."

Ying Chen casually pulled out a flawless piece of top-quality mutton-fat white jade, about the size of a baby's fist, from his sleeve and tossed it onto the Hu merchant's display stand. The crisp sound of the jade striking the ground made everyone around gasp.

"Is this piece of jade enough to buy this jar of wine?"

The merchant from Hu stared wide-eyed at the priceless, exquisite jade, bowing and scraping repeatedly, "Enough! Enough! Young master, you are truly generous! This jar of wine is yours!"

Ying Chen smiled slightly, extended his slender, fair fingers, and gently tapped the mud seal on the wine jar.

With a soft "crack," the hard mud seal shattered instantly.

Immediately afterwards, Ying Chen casually brushed away the debris and slowly lifted the lid of the wine jar.

The moment the lid was lifted, an indescribable and unique aroma of wine burst forth from the jar like a volcano that had been suppressed for thirty years!

The aroma of the wine contained both the extreme cold and purity of the snow lotus from the Tianshan Mountains and the fiery intensity of the fire bodhi from the Western Regions. These two distinct aromas blended perfectly in the mellow flavor of the century-old wine, transforming into a fragrance that struck straight to the soul and instantly permeated the entire weapons area.

The originally noisy crowd fell into a brief silence under the impact of the aroma of alcohol.

Everyone couldn't help but sniffle, greedily inhaling the intoxicating aroma in the air.

The moment Jing Ke smelled the aroma of the wine, he froze on the spot as if he had been electrocuted.

The broken wine gourd he had once treasured fell to the ground with a "thud," spilling its inferior wine all over the floor, but he was completely unaware of it.

His eyes were fixed on the ancient wine jar in Ying Chen's hand, his Adam's apple bobbing violently as he swallowed hard. His gaze was like that of a starving wolf that hadn't eaten for three days and three nights seeing a piece of fresh, dripping meat.

"Good wine... top-quality wine..." Jing Ke murmured to himself, his legs already moving uncontrollably toward Ying Chen.

"Senior brother! Where are you going!" Gongsun Li was both angry and anxious when she saw Jing Ke's absent-minded appearance, and she quickly reached out to tug at his sleeve.

But at this moment, Jing Ke only had eyes for the jar of "Ice and Fire Intoxicating Dream," and he didn't care about his junior sister pulling him. He was like a puppet on a string, drawn by the aroma of the wine, and walked step by step to Ying Chen.

Ying Chen looked at Jing Ke, who had come to him of his own accord, and a triumphant smile flashed in his eyes. However, he remained calm on the surface and slowly took two white jade wine cups from the Hu merchant. He then slowly poured the wine, which had a strange icy blue color and was emitting a warm aura, into the cups.

The wine, when poured into the cup, shimmered like amber, a truly breathtaking sight.

"Gulp..." Jing Ke stood three steps away from Ying Chen, staring intently at the cup of wine. He swallowed hard again, rubbed his hands together, and put on an extremely bright, even somewhat ingratiating, smile.

"Young master..." Jing Ke cleared his throat, cupped his hands in a traditional knight-errant salute, but his gaze never left his wine cup. "I just heard your assessment of the swords, and your words were truly insightful and to the point. I am truly impressed. Young master... could you perhaps exchange this wine for a cup of mine?"