Huamei quickly shielded the basket. “What are you doing! That’s ours!”
“Move!” a servant barked rudely, shoving Huamei aside.
Huamei staggered, nearly falling.
Su Jinse’s eyes instantly turned icy.
She stepped forward, blocking the servant, her voice low but carrying an unmistakable chill: “Take your hands off.”
The servant hesitated for a moment, then sneered, “Little lady, bold words! Do you know who we are? This is the son of Master Wang, the richest man in town!”
“Take your hands off,” Su Jinse repeated, her fingers at her side flickering with imperceptible green light.
“Ha! Refuse a toast and you get punishment!” The servant lunged, trying to grab her face and tear off her veil.
At that exact moment, an unexpected change occurred.
From the cracks in the stone-paved market, thin green vines suddenly sprouted like snakes, wrapping around the servant’s wrist and ankle with precise speed.
He stumbled and fell face-first onto the ground, yelping in pain.
“Oi!” He tried to get up, but his hands and feet were bound, unable to move.
Everyone around froze in shock.
No one saw clearly what had happened—they only witnessed the servant fall on his own.
The young Master Wang was stunned, then enraged. “Useless! Get up this instant!”
Another servant, emboldened, stepped forward to help his companion—but as soon as he took a step, he too was tripped by the suddenly sprouted vines, falling hard.
The crowd murmured in fearful awe.
“This is… unnatural!”
The young Master Wang’s face turned pale. Pointing at Su Jinse, his lips trembled. “Witch… what witchcraft is this?”
Su Jinse slowly lifted her eyes. Through the veil, her cold gaze pierced straight at him.
“Leave.”
One word, light but filled with invisible pressure.
Master Wang felt a chill crawl up from his feet, as if staying another second would cause him to collapse like his servants.
He stammered, voice wavering, “Y-you… just wait!”
Ignoring his sprawled servants, he fled clumsily after them, stumbling as he went.
With a thought, Su Jinse silently retracted the vines from the ground.
The two servants, relieved, scrambled to their feet, too afraid to even glance at her, and followed their master in disgrace.
The incident was over.
But the townspeople who had witnessed it now looked at Su Jinse with a mix of awe and fear.
“Could she… be a mountain spirit?”
“No wonder her vegetables are so miraculous…”
Su Jinse ignored the murmurs, pulling a still-shocked Huamei along and quickly leaving the market.
After buying salt, coarse grains, and other necessities, the two returned to Longji Mountain in haste.
Huamei remained in stunned silence for most of the journey, finally whispering in awe: “Miss… are you sent by the mountain goddess herself?”
In her simple understanding, only deities or spirits could possess such unbelievable powers.
Su Jinse did not answer.
A reputation of being “blessed by the mountain goddess” would certainly prevent future trouble.
What she did not know was that the entire market scene had been observed by a pair of eyes from a teahouse upstairs, taking everything in.