Return home

While waiting for Guizhi to come back with the information, Jiang Nian leaned back in his chair and was lost in thought for a moment, then stood up and called Yu, who was standing on the other side, to come over.

The silent guard landed beside Jiang Nian's desk. She lowered her eyes to look at the calm young man, paused in thought, and took a moment to formulate her words before asking, "Thank you for your hard work these days in preventing Sun Dun from returning to Pingzhou from his hometown."

"Now that I'm back from Cang County, you don't have to rush around like this anymore."

The young man in front of her was not good at speaking, and Jiang Nian didn't know what to ask him to answer. So after thinking for a second, she said, "Is the map I gave you still there? Please help me get it back."

She wanted to see where Sun Dun was now.

The rain stopped and Jiang Nian looked out the window.

The scene there was exactly the same and had not changed even though she had been away from Pingzhou for a while.

Jiang Nian looked at the pond for a moment before lowering his eyes helplessly.

Maybe it was because she had encountered so many things on the way to Cang County, she always felt that she had been away from Pingzhou for a long time, but in fact, even summer had not passed. How could she expect to see the passage of time?

Outside the tree, cicadas chirped, and through the overlapping leaves, she caught a glimpse of yellow.

—

Guizhi, who came from a distance, pushed open the door with loose pages in her hand, walked up to her, and handed the information in her hand to her.

"Miss, these are the data I recorded during your absence."

Jiang Nian took the loose leaf and nodded. Just as he was about to say "You can leave", he caught a glimpse of the inkstone on the table out of the corner of his eye.

"Wait, help me grind the ink, I'll need it later."

Guizhi nodded. Seeing that her young lady was about to lower her head and start flipping through the records, she stopped asking questions, picked up the inkstone, added water, stood beside the desk, picked up the ink stick, pushed and pulled it back and forth, and began to grind it.

The soft sound became the white noise in the room. Jiang Nian flipped through the pages, and the room fell into silence for a moment.

There are not many things recorded on the loose pages, and the income and expenditure are clear at a glance.

Fuling is very attentive to data recording and has obviously put into practice all the statistical knowledge she taught.

After looking at a few places he wanted to know more about, Jiang Nian looked up and saw Guizhi still grinding ink, so he pointed his finger at one of the places in the document and asked:

"Is this where the income and expenditure of those health products are recorded?"

Guizhi paused for a moment while grinding ink, raised her eyes and looked in the direction she pointed, then nodded and said, "Yes."

"Has anyone come here specifically to buy health products recently?"

Guizhi nodded immediately. "Yes, because Pingzhou has had a large influx of foreigners recently, everyone in the city is more or less aware of the epidemic in Cang County. Also, the border has been unstable recently, and it seems like something is about to happen. Anyway, people are panicking."

"But those foreigners didn't look like they were dressed like people from Huandu. They looked more like people from Donglan. Fuling told me that Donglan might have deliberately sent people here to say strange things to make us afraid and shaken, giving them an opportunity to take advantage of us."

Jiang Nian paused when he heard this.

Fuling's progress was really great, so great that she felt a little scared. Although she had reminded Fuling a few times before leaving, asking her to pay attention to the movements of the Wu Mi people, she did not expect that Fuling would be able to realize such a thing after a few days of investigation.

It’s not that she underestimated Fuling, but she was suddenly surprised to find someone she could talk to.

She nodded thoughtfully: "Did Fuling say anything else?"

"Ah, Fuling also told me to listen to Yunxiu. Since he's been guarding the pharmacy lately and helping us check for spies, I heard a lot about those outsiders from Yunxiu."

"Fuling said that following Yunxiu, one can learn a lot of good things."

“…”

Jiang Nian smiled and didn't answer, but his heart relaxed in vain.

She thought that Fuling had suddenly come to her senses and had her own ideas, but she didn't expect that when she left Pingzhou, some of Xiao Yingzhu's secret guards were deployed here.

In this case, it makes sense why Fuling would think this way. She thought Yunxiu was a quirky child at that time.

"Miss?"

Recovering from Guizhi's call, Jiang Nian met her worried eyes, and then glanced at the inkstone on the table. Even though he hid his fatigue, he smiled at her and said, "Thank you very much. If Guizhi has anything else to do, please leave first."

“…”

Knowing that the young lady didn't want anyone to disturb her while she was thinking, Guizhi nodded. But looking at Jiang Nian, who was clearly distracted by her words, she still tried to persuade him, "Young lady, don't you really need to rest for a while?"

Jiang Nian suppressed the emotion in his eyes, shook his head and smiled back: "No need, I know my physical condition well, Guizhi, just trust me."

“…”

It seemed that during these days when Jiang Nian was not around, Guizhi was able to stand on her own and had room to grow. She was not as easy to fool as before, but she could not resist Jiang Nian's insistence and walked out the door, looking back every few steps.

"In that case, miss, I'll be leaving first. However, if you feel unwell, please tell me."

Jiang Nian nodded without saying anything more. Taking advantage of the natural light while the sun was still setting, he continued to look through the report he had recently compiled on the operation of the pharmacy.

—

Qishan Mansion

Xiao Yingzhu sat in front of the study, reading through the documents piled up in the mansion as usual.

These people who sent letters from various places did not know that he had recently taken time out to go to Cang County to handle some matters, so they sent all the documents that needed his review to Qishan Mansion.

I was away for just over ten days, and when I came back, the letters here had piled up like a mountain.

Xinfeng and Qing stood aside, looking at the stack of letters in front of Xiao Yingzhu, and whispered in her ear where Xiao Yingzhu might not hear them.

"Do you feel that the master seems to be in a much better mood after returning?"

Qing didn't care about Xiao Yingzhu's affairs. He only cared about whether he could complete this mission perfectly. Therefore, he had been thinking about how to accomplish what Jiang Nian said, and was preparing to take another mission from Xiao Yingzhu - these days he was just tracking down Sun Dun's whereabouts, which was indeed a bit boring for him.

Therefore, feeling the burning gaze coming from the side, Qing looked at him calmly for a while and shook her head.

"No."

"?"

How could that be?

He clearly ran out of Jiang Nian's warehouse as soon as he heard that Xiao Yingzhu had returned, intending to observe Xiao Yingzhu's expression so that he could formulate a report about his recent guarding of Jiang Nian's warehouse.

But it seemed that he was lucky, as he happened to see that his master was in a good mood and his brows were relaxed after getting off the carriage.

He must have made some new agreement with Miss Jiang.

Xinfeng stood aside, looking aimlessly out the window. He was just beginning to fantasize about how Xiao Yingzhu and Jiang Nian were related, trying to kill his boring time, when he suddenly heard a voice calling from behind the stack of letters.

"Trade winds."

——!

"arrive!"

The voice was light and emotionless, and it sounded just when he was distracted. Xinfeng suddenly felt a little embarrassed as if he had been caught distracted, and immediately put on a serious expression and walked to Xiao Yingzhu's side.

He took a few steps forward, keeping a certain distance from Xiao Yingzhu's desk to avoid answering questions incorrectly and being stared at by Xiao Yingzhu, who then made him sweat. The person opposite him casually raised his eyelids from the paperwork and looked at him: "Briefly repeat the recent events regarding the warehouse."

"yes!"

When the time came for his master to examine whether he had done his job well, Feng did not hesitate and immediately said the lines he had prepared in his mind.

"According to the master's instructions, I inspected the warehouse according to the schedule and found no trace of spies there."

"At the same time, according to Miss Jiang's instructions, I also checked the staff members entering and leaving the warehouse every day against the portraits on the list. There is no sign of anyone replacing a staff member entering the warehouse."

Xiao Yingzhu hummed, then continued, "Is there any problem with Yunxiu?"

At this time, Yunxiu was still diligently watching over the medicine shop and had no intention of returning from there. He also didn't want to be the first to face Xiao Yingzhu. If Xiao Yingzhu was in a bad mood, he might be "affected by the consequences."

"Yunxiu was watching over the store as usual. Apart from occasionally catching a few spies sent by the Xu family's owner, there was no one else around."

The documents were casually placed aside where they had been processed. Xiao Yingzhu raised her hand to lift the hair that had fallen to her shoulders and continued to ask, "Song Chui went to send a letter earlier. He must have been investigating the Wu Mi people recently. Are there any signs of unusual activity among the Wu Mi people in Pingzhou?"

“…”

Oh no, the master wouldn't think that he had collected all the information from everyone and then reported it to him at once, right?

Although he and Matsukui took turns inspecting the warehouse, Matsukui was not a talkative person, so he usually did not talk to Matsukui. As a result, he did not know the progress of Matsukui's work.

Xinfeng stood before Xiao Yingzhu, feeling her cold gaze on him. The hair on his back suddenly stood up, and he shuddered. He closed his eyes and said, "I don't know Songchui's condition!"

“…”

Xiao Yingzhu's eyes passed behind Xinfeng, and her gaze paused when she saw Song Chui suddenly appear in the study.

He didn't say anything more to Xinfeng, nodded lightly, and let Xinfeng go: "Well, you leave."

?

Master, is this so easy to talk to today?

There is no punishment at all?

Xin Fengyun turned around in a daze, following Xiao Yingzhu's words. It would be good if he could avoid punishment. He was about to walk towards the door when he caught a glimpse of Song Chui staring indifferently ahead. He instantly understood something -

This was not about escaping a disaster, it was just that someone saved him when he was in dire straits!

Song Chui is indeed his good brother who shares the joys and sorrows with him!

—

After reading the message written by Song Chui in simple handwriting, Xiao Yingzhu had no intention of continuing to delve into the topic of "Pingzhou Wu Mi Zhong". He nodded again and his eyes moved directly to Qing who had been standing against the wall.

"What do you want?"

Qing stood up, took a few steps forward, and said calmly, "The young lady wanted to ask when the master's batch of medicinal herbs would arrive at the mansion, and...she needs the book."

Facing Xiao Yingzhu's thoughtful gaze, Qing spoke again:

"——Master, apart from her matter, is there anything else I can do?"