"Young Master Jiang, with your level of ability, you should be drawing closer to some of the major powers here on Winter Yan Island. Why are you all on your own?" Xing Hui found this somewhat puzzling.
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "I haven't been on Winter Yan Island for very long. I'm still in the process of getting to know the place. Have you two—father and daughter—already become regulars here?"
Xing Hui smiled bitterly. "I wouldn't say we're regulars, but we've been scraping by here for sixteen or seventeen years. When I first came, my daughter was still an infant. Now, Tong'er has grown up this much."
Jiang Chen glanced at Xing Tong, seeing that the young woman had features as delicate as a painting, her gaze pure and kind. It was obvious she had grown up entirely under her father's protection, and had not been tainted by many of Winter Yan Island's bad habits.
Still, on Winter Yan Island, for a father to survive while raising a growing daughter was no easy feat.
Especially since Xing Tong had already entered the stage of growing into her own body—her figure had become gracefully poised, and with each passing day she grew more striking, already a thoroughly proper young woman.
If she were still a little girl, there would be far less danger.
The more she grew, the more attention she attracted, and the more trouble came her way.
Since ancient times, beauty had never been a crime—but beauty easily attracted far more trouble.
"Young Master Jiang, your bearing is extraordinary. One can tell at a glance that you're a prodigious talent with deep foundations. But I wonder—what circumstances led you to this Winter Yan Island?" Xing Hui asked out of curiosity.
To be reduced to Winter Yan Island usually meant one had suffered a stroke of terrible misfortune.
So Xing Hui was rather curious—with Young Master Jiang's bearing and presence, how could he have been exiled to Winter Yan Island? It simply didn't add up.
Jiang Chen smiled ruefully. "It's a long story. Better left unspoken. All I'm thinking about now is whether there's any way to leave this place sooner. Do you have any suggestions?"
Xing Hui's face filled with shock. "Leave? Once you've come to Winter Yan Island, leaving is virtually impossible!"
"Daddy..." Xing Tong tugged on Xing Hui's arm. "We don't have a way, but maybe Young Master Jiang does?"
Xing Hui came back to his senses and nodded. "Right, right, right. The chances of leaving Winter Yan Island are astronomically small, but it's not entirely without hope. With your talent, Young Master, perhaps such an opportunity might fall to you."
"You mean the selection of death warriors?"
"Yes—Young Master Jiang knows about it?" Xing Hui asked in surprise.
"That kind of opportunity is rare and can't be sought out. What I want to know is—aside from the selection, is there any possibility of escaping?"
"Escaping?" Xing Hui and his daughter stared in stunned silence.
This Young Master Jiang was simply too shocking. Once you arrived on Winter Yan Island, no matter how powerful you were, you had to behave yourself and stay put.
It wasn't that no one had ever contemplated escape—such things happened every year. But successful escapes were virtually nonexistent.
In all of Winter Yan Island's recorded history, there had probably been only a handful of successful escapes.
"Young Master Jiang, you can say things like that here, but outside—absolutely do not speak so freely. If word gets out, it could bring you a great deal of trouble," Xing Hui said in a grave tone.
Jiang Chen shrugged, knowing that to Xing Hui and his daughter, his idea was probably far too frightening.
But in Jiang Chen's heart, he had never abandoned this notion. He would leave—absolutely, definitely leave. No matter how difficult it might be, so long as there was even the slightest glimmer of hope, he would not give up.
Xing Hui saw Jiang Chen's expression and knew he hadn't taken a word of it to heart.
He let out a sigh. "Perhaps Young Master Jiang has his own reasons for needing to leave this place. I'm a man of little influence, so it's not my place to counsel you. But even if you do harbor such thoughts, keep them to yourself. Absolutely do not go asking around. If someone were to report you, the trouble would be enormous. And even if no one directly targets you, being watched would only work against your escape plans."
Xing Tong blushed and chimed in. "Brother Jiang, Tong'er knows you're a good person. But Daddy says there are lots of bad people in this City of Sin. You have to be careful when you're out there."
Hearing this, Jiang Chen also broke into a smile. "Don't worry—I know exactly who I can talk to and who I can't. You, little girl, with those pure and kind eyes of yours, would never betray me. Right?"
Xing Tong blushed but nodded firmly.
Xing Hui grew emotional. "Young Master Jiang, survival on Winter Yan Island is hard enough. Perhaps the way I've been sheltering Tong'er has actually done her harm. I didn't want her living in a world of deceit and treachery. I didn't want her to become a cunning, scheming child. But here on Winter Yan Island, I honestly don't know whether my kind of protection is right or wrong."
Jiang Chen could see that Xing Hui had probably been overprotective of his daughter. He hadn't let the young woman pick up even a trace of Winter Yan Island's ways.
But was his kind of conviction truly wrong?
Jiang Chen couldn't really say. To each their own. Perhaps for a girl like Xing Tong, living simply and purely was a hundred times more fulfilling than living as a cunning schemer.
Perhaps one day, her kind of personality would make survival impossible.
But at least, during the time she was alive, she could live a little more happily.
Knock, knock, knock!
They were chatting idly when a burst of knocking came from the hallway outside.
"Guest, I'm a worker from the inn. There's a distinguished visitor in the lobby who invites you to come down, saying he'd like to treat you to a drink."
Jiang Chen furrowed his brow. "What distinguished visitor?"