"That's why they call it a mouthful of gold! It's a bit exaggerated, but it's not wrong. Do you know how much an ounce of pepper costs?"

Kou Yunyi held up seven fingers: "Seven strings of cash! One ounce of pepper costs seven strings of cash! One ounce of cumin costs ten strings of cash!"

One string of coins equals one thousand coins, which is equivalent to seven taels of silver for one tael of pepper and ten taels of silver for one tael of cumin.

It's worth as much as gold.

Jiang Fengshi nodded frantically: "Yes! It's too expensive! We can only come here occasionally to satisfy our cravings."

Ji Changying suddenly found that she seemed to lack common sense about this dynasty. Her original memories were confused, and after she came here, she had been busy in exile and struggling for life.

This caused her to have a misunderstanding.

"You know what! My family has always lived in the countryside, so there are many things I haven't seen or heard of. Why don't you tell me about our situation here? I won't be embarrassed if I go out one day."

Ji Changying chuckled and attentively picked up a piece of food for each of them with his chopsticks.

Kou Yunyi patted his steamed buns with a proud look on his face. "If you don't understand anything, just ask! My father has long since told me to look after you. I like you, too. We'll be friends from now on!"

Jiang Fengshi poured each of them a cup of tea: "Come on, drink this!"

While they were drinking happily, the atmosphere at Zhonglizhou's place was much more serious.

After Cui Hao was carried to the clinic by the guards, he was examined by four or five doctors. After taking his pulse, they all shook their heads and sighed, "We'll do our best to treat him, but you must be mentally prepared."

The leading guard looked panicked and angry. He drew his sword and put it on the doctor's neck: "If you can't cure my Third Master, I want you all to be buried with me!"

Kou Jiming became furious and was stopped by Zhong Lizhou just as he took a step forward.

The old doctor looked at the sword on his neck without any reaction.

Instead, he stood there, pointed at the guard's nose and cursed: "Anyone with eyes can see how badly this man is injured! I've been practicing medicine for many years and have seen all kinds of people. Don't threaten me here! Doctors are human, not gods! We don't have the ability to bring the dead back to life. If you don't want to treat him, take him away now!"

"If you still want to heal me, shut up! If I'm upset and the needle goes astray, I'll be collecting your master's body now!"

The guard's face turned pale and blue due to the old doctor's scolding.

He wanted to be tougher but didn't dare to take anyone away, so he could only hold his breath and retract the sword in his hand.

Kou Jiming felt refreshed watching from the side.

Zhong Lizhou pressed his lips together and looked at the doctor politely: "Doctor Lin, please don't blame me. I am also worried about this gentleman's condition. Please don't take my words too seriously. I will treat him as you say. If he cannot be saved, then he will die!"

The guard glared at him.

Doctor Lin snorted and looked at the guard: "Do you think I was scared after all these years at the border? If you dare to shout at me again, get your men out right now!"

He snorted and turned away.

The guard's face looked extremely ugly, and he clenched his cheeks to stop himself from going forward and chopping the doctor.

Zhonglizhou called out to Kou Jiming behind him, "Captain Kou, please ask Doctor Huang from the palace to come and see Lord Cui."

The guard's eyes lit up and he placed all his hopes on Zhongli Zhou.

The doctors employed by the palace must be better at medicine than those from outside, right?

Kou Jiming agreed in a muffled voice and turned to go to the palace to invite Mr. Huang.

Zhongli Zhou walked to the backyard of the clinic, clapped his hands, and a secret guard appeared silently behind him.

"Tell me, why did Cui Hao come out on horseback?"

The secret guard lowered his head and reported the results of his investigation to Zhongli Zhou: "The groom recommended that horse to Cui Hao for a riding test at the parade grounds, as instructed by the Crown Prince. However, Cui Hao's guards kept urging him to eat at this restaurant. The groom couldn't stop them, so he had to send someone to follow them. As a result, the horse went crazy halfway through the ride and ended up like this."

Zhongli Zhou frowned. "Why did Cui Hao's guards encourage him to eat here? Which restaurant?"

"It's Wanfulou! A few days ago, that guard dined there under the name of Cui Hao. The owner of Wanfulou came to him and offered him a bribe. He said that if he could just lure Cui Hao over for a meal and leave a message, he could get two hundred taels of silver for free. The owner of Wanfulou was just trying to use this gimmick to steal business from Shuiyunjian."

For a moment, Zhongli Zhou felt that Cui Hao really had a bad life.

Whether he goes out or not today, he is destined to die.

The horse was running like crazy along the way. Everyone else was fine, but he was trampled almost to death.

"Master! Do you need to take care of the grooms and horses?"

Zhonglizhou came back to his senses: "What are we dealing with? This was just an accident, what does it have to do with us?"

As for the horse frenzy?

The groom had already warned Cui Hao that the horse had a bad temper, but Cui Hao was so arrogant that he insisted on riding it.

What does it have to do with them?

No matter how hard they tried to search in Kyoto, they couldn't find anything.

As for saving people, it was just a show, and Mr. Huang knew it clearly in his mind.

Zhongli Zhou stopped smiling, turned around, and continued to watch the doctor treating Cui Hao with a worried look on his face.

——

"Let me do it! It's my treat!"

The three of them chatted and ate until they had finished everything without realizing it. They were so full that they held on to the handrails and walked down.

When it came time to pay the bill, Ji Changying remembered that he had agreed to treat everyone, so he refused to let the shopkeeper put the bill on Kou Jiming's account.

"Go away! There are plenty of opportunities. I'll eat you up next time. You didn't perform well this time!"

Kou Yunyi pulled her up and walked out without saying anything.

When the three of them said goodbye at the door, Kou Yunyi and Jiang Fengshi were still excitedly saying that they would come to play with Ji Changying again another day.

She waited until she reached the back door of the palace before she remembered what Ji Fengshou had said yesterday: they would be going home today!

"Please, please tell her, I really want to ask Miss Ji for something!"

At the back door, a woman was begging the doorman to help her pass on a message.

The doorman's face was full of impatience: "I told you that Miss Ji had already gone out this morning. How can I pass on your message if she hasn't come back yet? Go away! Get out of the way!"

"No! Maybe she has already returned but you just didn't see her. Please help me this time and just pass on the message!"

The doorman was a little annoyed by the woman's pestering of him. His expression turned fierce and he was about to lose his temper when he saw Ji Changying standing behind them.

His expression changed and he quickly put on a smile: "Miss Ji, are you done shopping?"

The woman turned her head and saw Ji Changying's face showing surprise: "Miss Ji!"

Ji Changying took a quick look before she remembered: "It's you?"

She was the bravest of the women brought back from the grassland.

"Great! You still remember me!"

The woman was obviously so excited that she was at a loss.

Ji Changying saw that she was blocking the way standing at the door, so she motioned for her to follow her in.

With her guidance, the doorman naturally didn't dare to stop them and watched the two of them enter the door.

As soon as they reached the gate of the courtyard, the woman knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Ji Changying: "Please, young lady, give us a way to live!"