He had already been in this world, which resembled ancient China, for quite a few days. But from his observations, there were many strange things about this place.

At first, he thought he had traveled back to ancient times, but later he realized that wasn’t the case. The customs, festivals, and climate here were all vastly different from any dynasty or region he knew of.

Henry Walker was lost in thought, but the main door of the tavern opened once again.

A group of burly men in short, sturdy outfits walked in one after another and plopped themselves down at a table near the corner.

It was obvious at a glance that these men weren’t locals—their attire was more like that of people from the Central Plains, and their clothing and demeanor lacked the roughness typical of the northern region.

“Sigh.”

The leader of the group was bald, wore copper earrings, and had a face full of fierce lines, but at this moment he was sighing heavily. “Life is just impossible these days.”

“Big brother, what are you worried about? If we can’t get through Li Family Village, we can take the second route and detour through Zhang Village instead,” another man said with a frown.

“You don’t understand. When I came to meet up, I took the route through Zhang Village. The situation there is about the same as in Li Family Village—a lot of people have died.” The bald man’s fierce face twitched, looking even more troubled.

“What exactly happened? Big brother, tell us so we can learn something too,” one of the men urged.

The bald man sighed again. “I don’t know the details either. I just know that several fishing villages by Suiyang Lake have all had incidents. Seems like there’s a water ghost causing trouble.”

“A water ghost!? Seriously?”

Henry Walker’s table wasn’t far from theirs, so he could hear their unrestrained conversation. At first, he was just listening for fun, but he didn’t expect them to start talking about supernatural stuff.

In this life, the Lu family he belonged to was one of the top households in this northern ice city—saying they were wealthy was an understatement. If you compared it to Earth, they’d be at least billionaires.

These past few days, while drinking at the tavern, he’d heard plenty of rumors about monsters and spirits, but most were just legends. This was the first time he’d heard people talk about a personal experience like this.

So Henry Walker perked up his ears and listened carefully. Luckily, the group didn’t bother to lower their voices and continued loudly discussing the strange happenings in the fishing villages.

“That water ghost—I saw it with my own eyes! Over ten feet tall, green-faced with fangs, covered in water plants. I swear, if your big brother here hadn’t run fast enough, you wouldn’t be seeing me now.” The bald man still looked shaken.

“Big brother, is there really such a thing as a water ghost?” one man asked, skeptical.

“Are you sure you’re not just making this up?” another man laughed.

Henry Walker found this amusing too, figuring it was just another braggart spinning tall tales.

He’d met plenty of people like that lately.

After eating and drinking, he had his attendant bring over the song list from the singing girls and browsed through it casually.

The “Three Meetings” tune was nice, but not fitting for the mood—he wanted to pick something more cheerful.

Smack!

But just then, the bald man’s face turned red and he slapped the table.

“You really think your big brother Mr. Harris only knows how to brag!? Look, look at this! This is a bone the water ghost left behind! I secretly picked it up afterward!” He carefully took out a green stone, jade-like in appearance, from his chest and slapped it onto the table.

“That’s just a piece of low-grade jade!” one man laughed.

“Low-grade jade? This is low-grade jade?! Bullshit!”

The bald man’s face turned even redder.

“Brother, could you let me take a look at that thing?”

Suddenly, a gentle voice came from the side.

Henry Walker stood by their table with a smile, his gaze sweeping over the green jade on the table.

“You dare take this thing? It’s something the water ghost left behind,” the bald man said in surprise. He’d only taken it out to show off and planned to throw it away later. After all, it wasn’t something left by a human. If it really attracted a water ghost, it would be more trouble than it was worth.

“It’s fine. I just want to take a look.” Henry Walker didn’t believe in water ghosts—he just thought the jade looked nice and didn’t seem like ordinary low-grade jade.

Normally, you could buy low-grade jade anywhere in shops or street stalls—it was just scraps polished at random, extremely cheap. But for some reason, the moment he saw this piece, he felt something was off.

The bald man Mr. Harris looked at Henry Walker, noticing his distinguished air and luxurious attire.

A blue robe with a white fox-fur coat, a green jade merchant’s hat, and black boots embroidered with silver clouds. Just this outfit could pay for months of expenses at this osmanthus tavern—enough for an ordinary family to live on for over a year.

“If the young master wants it, that’s fine… uh, one tael of silver will do!” The man hesitated, then tried his luck.

“Deal.” Henry Walker had his attendant take out a tael of broken silver and place it on the table.

“It’s yours now.” The bald man decisively picked up the jade and stuffed it into Henry Walker’s hand. The group exchanged glances, then got up and left.

Henry Walker said nothing, watching them go as he held the jade, examining it closely.

“One tael of silver—if this were on Earth in China, that would be about a thousand yuan. Guess this is the only life where I can be so rich and spendy.”