In the Northern Border, a monk sat in a wayside teahouse by the official road, drinking coarse tea and eating flatbread while listening to the idle chatter around him.
The teahouse was quite crowded, most of them people from a small caravan. Some tables were already crammed with seven or eight people, yet no one came over to share a table with this monk.
Among the caravan was a burly man with a full beard who kept sneaking looks at the monk, glaring at him left and right, displeasure written all over his face. Suddenly he slapped the table and barked, "Hey, you Bald Thief, hurry up and eat, hurry up and get the hell out. Western Jin doesn't welcome you!"
Before he finished his words, an old man grabbed him, forcibly pushed him back down onto his seat, then turned to the Monk with a smiling face and said a few conciliatory words.
