Huo Jiang tracked down Kong Songkang in a small village in neighboring Linzhou. He found a fake road somewhere and led him out of Raozhou, then ran to neighboring Linzhou through a remote mountain road. When he arrived in Linzhou, he did not go into the city, but hid in a small village nearby. He gave a few taels of silver to a villager and stayed in the villager's house.
Huo Jiang had a very good tracking ability. He knew that Kong Songkang, an old man, could not run very fast, and guessed that he would not dare to rent a car from a regular car dealership. After asking around in several villages and towns near Raozhou City, he found out that a family's carriage had been rented by someone and followed him all the way to Linzhou.
When Huo Jiang found him, he was squatting in a villager's yard eating noodles in fear. When he saw Huo Jiang, he was just a little wary. He didn't know Huo Jiang, and seeing that Huo Jiang was not wearing an official uniform, he naturally didn't think of anything else. He was just a little wary when he saw a stranger. It was not until Huo Jiang walked towards him that he realized something was wrong. It was too late to run away. When he was caught by Huo Jiang, he tried to bribe the villagers with silver and money to let the villagers help him trap Huo Jiang so that he could run away.
Huo Jiang was a skilled martial artist. He scared the others by knocking one villager away. Then he took out a wanted warrant and told the villagers that he was a serious criminal of the imperial court who had escaped. If anyone dared to shelter him again, they would be arrested and taken back to Raozhou City. The villagers were then silent and dared not say a word, watching Huo Jiang take the man away.
On the way back, Kong Songkang did not give up on escaping. He learned from Huo Jiang that he was just a guard hired by Xu Qinyu, and wanted to bribe him with money. He was willing to pay 20,000 taels of silver just to ask Huo Jiang to let him go.
Huo Jiang was naturally not that kind of person, and ignored Kong Songkang.
On the way to send Kong Songkang back, they ran into the officers and soldiers sent by the prefect. Huo Jiang was worried, so he personally followed him back to the prefect's mansion in Raozhou City. After being interrogated by the prefect, he returned to the restaurant.
It was three days later when they returned to Raozhou City, and six days later since Xu Qinyu's cooking competition ended.
Seeing Huo Jiang return, she asked, "Guard Huo, did you catch the man?"
Huo Jiang told her the truth, and Xu Qinyu finally felt relieved.
However, she was still a little worried. If Kong Songkang bribed the bandits to buy her life, not all of the bandits should have been dispatched, and there must be quite a few left. If they knew that these bandits had not completed their mission and had lost their lives, and that several of them were imprisoned in the prefectural prison, while she was still alive and well, she wondered if they would send people to the restaurant for revenge.
Aside from the twenty guards, the rest of the staff were ordinary people. Besides the female waiters, there were also dozens of male waiters. The restaurant also had swords and other self-defense weapons, but Xu Qinyu was still worried. She said, "Guard Huo, please patrol at night to prevent the remaining bandits from coming and hurting anyone."
Huo Jiang nodded, but did not tell the princess that he had already sent a pigeon message to His Highness to prevent the remaining bandits from coming to retaliate.
Although His Highness has been crowned king, the title of King Shu is a humiliating one, so most of them still prefer to call him His Highness in private.
Your Highness must have sent people to encircle and suppress the remaining bandits a long time ago. Those bandits killed innocent people indiscriminately after receiving money, and they must have committed many evil deeds in their daily lives.
After Huo Jiang left, Xu Qinyu was worried for two days. Someone from the prefectural government came to tell her that Kong Songkang had confessed that it was he who hired bandits to kill Xu Qinyu on the way. They also told Xu Qinyu that the death of Master Kong Songkang was not an accident, but man-made, and it was Kong Songkang who did it.
Kong Songkang confessed everything in prison. He knew he couldn't escape, so he took all the responsibility on himself, saying that what he did had nothing to do with the descendants of the Kong family, and that the descendants of the Kong family had no idea what he had done.
He had gone a bit mad in prison, laughing as he questioned the prefect, "What have I done wrong? I just wanted Zuixianlou to be famous, to have branches all over the country. I've worked so hard to get here, and I've worked so hard to make Zuixianlou a famous place in the southwest, to make everyone remember it. I've worked so hard to escape being a disaster victim, to escape poverty, and to have the wealth I have today. Why would a young woman of only eighteen or nineteen want to destroy all my life's work? Blame her greed. It would have been fine if she had just opened a small restaurant, but she's opened this one and snatched most of Zuixianlou's customers away, and even came to participate in this cooking competition..."
"That first place should have been mine. He should have won it. If he had won, Zuixianlou would have become famous, our Kong family recipes would have been carried forward, and I would have gotten what I wanted."
Ten years ago, his son was still too young, so he accepted the fact that he didn't win the championship. But ten years later, his son's cooking skills have improved a lot, and he is the one most likely to win the championship this year. But out of nowhere, a Cheng Yaojin appears, and the winner is such a young lady. How can he swallow this humiliation?
If Miss Xu was not from Raozhou City, and her restaurant was not opened in Raozhou City, but in other cities, he might not have taken the risk.
It was difficult for him to get here as a poor and helpless little pariah, so naturally he wanted a higher status and more wealth.
So no one could stop him. He knew that if Xu Qinyu won the championship, there would be no place for Zuixianlou to survive, and he would never get what he wanted. That's why he bribed those bandits to pretend to rob and kill Xu Qinyu on the road.
He would kill anyone who stood in his way.
Just like his master back then.
The master was indeed his benefactor, but the master wanted him to learn the craft until he was thirty, and pass down the recipe as the master's successor. The recipe was not surnamed Kong, and he would only be the master's apprentice and successor in this life. When the master passed away, everything would be over, and he would never be able to break free from the identity of the master's successor, so he created the accident. He waited until the master fell into a coma before entering the room. He was sure that the waiters from the restaurant would come to them, so everyone thought it was an accident. The master was dead, and he was the only successor of the master. The master had no children, so everything the master had belonged to him.
He sold all of his master's property and came to Raozhou City, where he finally had his own Zuixianlou and made his master's recipes his own.
He wanted to see the rise of Zuixianlou before he died, but he didn't expect to meet Xu Qinyu.
After listening to this, Xu Qinyu was silent for a while and asked, "What will happen to Kong Songkang?"
The officers and soldiers told Xu Qinyu that Kong Songkang would be beheaded in public in three days.
Xu Qinyu did not join in the fun that day as the restaurant was very busy. She was not surprised to know that Kong Songkang would be beheaded in public. For someone like him who had killed someone and had even killed her mentor, it would be impossible for him to be pardoned and sent to work hard in a coal mine. He would only have one way out, which was death.
After Kong Kangsong admitted his crime, the other members of the Kong family were released.
Kong Kun and his wife Chen had lost a lot of weight. Needless to say, their other children and grandchildren were all dirty and had dull eyes. They were unwilling to believe that such a thing would happen to their family.
They hated Kong Songkang because they knew what fate would be waiting for them.
The news of this case soon spread to Raozhou City. All the people knew that Kong Songkang had hired a killer to kill people and even attempted to murder his mentor. They talked about it and cursed Kong Songkang and Zuixianlou.
During the time when the Kong family was imprisoned, Zuixianlou was not open for business. After they were released, Zuixianlou was still closed. Sun Kun knew that Zuixianlou would never open again, and even the other members of the Kong family could not stay in Raozhou City.
On the day when Kong Songkang was beheaded in public, many people went to join in the fun. Among the descendants of the Sun family, only Sun Kun went to see his father off.
Kong Songkang was shaking violently before he left. He didn't want to die. When he saw his son, he begged his son to save him and asked Kong Kun to use all his family property to save him.
But how could Kong Kun save him?
Kong Kun watched his father's head fall to pieces. He collected the body for Kong Songkang and buried him on the mountain outside the city. He then sold all his belongings and left Raozhou City with his family.
Only Zuixianlou was not sold. Zuixianlou had not changed at all. It just sat there alone with its gate closed, which would never reopen.
After Xu Qinyu learned about it, she couldn't help but sigh. Some people allow themselves to become neither human nor ghost for the sake of profit.
Two days later, the prefect sent someone to tell him that the bandits' lair had been found and all the robbers had been captured. What awaited them was almost certainly the death penalty. Those with lighter crimes would be sent to the coal mines to work day and night.
Being a prisoner in a coal mine is actually worse than death, and it is unlikely that you will escape in your lifetime.
After Xu Qinyu knew this, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The old gentlemen who came to the restaurant a few days ago have not left yet and are still living in the restaurant. The younger ones go to listen to books, soak in hot springs and fish after meals every day. The older ones who don’t like to listen find someone to play chess with. They are so free and easy that they don’t want to go home.
Xu Qinyu is also busy every day because she won the championship in this year's cooking competition. More and more customers come to Xu's restaurant, and Jinxiu Garden and Zizhu Garden are already full.
Xu Ji was short of staff, so Xu Qinyu recruited some female and male waiters, and had to arrange training for them before they could take up their posts. Therefore, during this period, the restaurant was very busy with the original staff, and she was unable to take care of everything. She could not take care of Ning Jie'er's renting a shop in the city, but she was worried about Ning Jie'er's safety, so she asked Lianhua to follow her every day when Ning Jie went out.
In addition, many kitchen helpers came to Xu Ji to work as kitchen helpers because of her reputation, and wanted to learn cooking skills from her. Xu Qinyu asked Huo Jiang to help investigate their identities. As long as their identities were intact and their character was decent, she was willing to keep them. So in a short time, the restaurant had a lot more chefs, but the main chefs were still the previous ones. Later, some kitchen helpers who came to Xu Ji also began to learn cooking skills from her, and they were able to get started one after another.
There is also a garden under construction, which should be open to guests by early spring next year. This garden is specially designed for those who bring their families with them.
The days passed by in a busy manner. Three months later, it was already the twelfth lunar month. Xu Qinyu also recruited a lot of people to pickle ham.
This year she pickled a lot of hams, more than double the amount from last year, and this year she pickled 5,000 hams.
The two thousand pickled fish from last year were also delivered to the restaurant. They were ready to eat, but not ready to be eaten raw. She kept one thousand of them to be eaten raw at this time next year.
The five-story house she built herself is very large, and she also specially cleared out a yard as a workshop. This year's pickled hams are all kept in her own house.
In the past three months, Xu's Restaurant has been full of customers, and many people from nearby provincial capitals have come here.
During these three months, Xu Ji's monthly net profit has exceeded 50,000 taels of silver, and even reached 60,000 taels during the peak period.
By the time the hams are pickled, it will be half a month before the Chinese New Year.
During this period, the fourth brother did not return home, but there were letters sent back from home. The fourth brother also said that the New Year was approaching and he was a little busy, so he asked Yu Niang and the family not to worry about him. Also, he might not be able to come back for the New Year this year and would have to wait until after the New Year to have time to return.
Fourth brother couldn't go back, but Ma Liu came.
Ma Liu knew last year that Miss Xu would open a restaurant in Raozhou City, so he came here directly this year. However, he was still shocked when he saw the large number of restaurants outside the city. It was almost the size of a small village.
He came here to escort prisoners to the border town, so naturally he also brought letters from the Cui family and some other things to Xu Qinyu.
Xue knew that her daughter was no longer short of money and would definitely not accept other valuable jewelry.
She went to the temple to pray for a peace amulet and asked Ma Liu to bring it to her daughter. In addition, there were two cloaks. She also had a middle garment and a small garment. However, it was not easy for Xue to entrust such close-fitting clothes to a man outside the family to bring to her daughter. She could only sew two cloaks herself. Both were made of rabbit fur, one thicker and the other thinner.
It's already a bit cold in the southwest, so wearing a thicker cloak is just right.
Xu Qinyu met Ma Liu after dinner. Wen recognized him and arranged a place for him to rest and brought him food and drinks.
Xu Qinyu was naturally very happy to see Ma Liu.
She first read the letters her parents wrote to her. Her mother was still nagging her, asking her to take care of her health and not to work too hard. Her father only had two simple words to say, saying that she had worked hard. Her younger brother, Li Ge'er, also wrote her a letter. Li Ge'er had already gone to school and told his sister about the interesting things that happened there. He also said that he had made two good friends.
Xu Qinyu's face was always filled with smiles as she read the letters from the three people.
Ma Liu also told Xu Qinyu, "Sister Xu, you don't know that your third sister seems very anxious. She even wanted to come to the southwest to ask me about your whereabouts, but I didn't tell her."
Xu Qinyu frowned, not quite understanding Xu Qinhui's train of thought. Xu Qinhui had finally let her marry the fourth brother, but when she followed the fourth brother to exile in the southwest, Xu Qinhui seemed to regret it again. She wrote to her and encouraged her to go back and rekindle her relationship with the man she was almost engaged to before, and even wrote a letter to the fourth brother.
However, more than two years have passed since that time, and she has not received any letter from Xu Qinhui. Unexpectedly, she has not given up and wants to come to the southwest again.
It is actually unlikely that Xu Qinhui wants to come to the southwest. The edict written by the new emperor asked her to marry the fourth brother, and Xu Qinhui must have played some role in it. In this case, the new emperor will definitely not allow her to have any relationship with the fourth brother. I thought Xu Qinhui would return to the palace to be a concubine, but she didn't go. She wanted to pester the fourth brother all day long. Isn't she mentally ill?
Xu Qinhui was indeed anxious. Four years had already passed, and she was already twenty, a maiden. Unfortunately, she had no support from the new emperor, and she had no way to contact Prince Shu. She had originally said she would write Prince Shu a letter every month, but her father hadn't allowed it, fearing that any clues would be revealed and known to those in the palace, which would then implicate the entire Xu family. Xu Qinhui had no choice but to write a letter to Prince Shu and her second sister every six months. But now, over two years later, she hadn't received a single letter.
These letters were also sent to the southwest by Xu's father's confidants, and each time they were delivered to the Pei family.
It turned out that Pei Weixuan and Wen had told Ning Jie'er that if they received any letters from Xu Qinhui in the capital, they should burn them without informing him or Yu Niang.
So Xu Qinyu never knew that Xu Qinhui was still writing to her.
Xu Qinhui even wanted to pretend to be dead, so that she could secretly come to the southwest after her coffin was buried.
The southwest is so far away from the capital, and the emperor is far away. It doesn't matter if she changes her identity temporarily and stays with Prince Shu. As long as Prince Shu can inherit the throne, her identity can be restored in the future.
However, Xu's father did not agree, saying that he needed to think it over carefully.
Xu Qinyu didn't want to hear about Xu Qinhui, so she only asked Ma Liu, "How are my parents and brother? Have they gained some weight? They seem to be in good spirits, right?"
Ma Liu smiled and said, "They are all pretty good, especially the Second Madam, who has gained some weight."
Compared to the first time he met Xue, who looked so haggard, the current Xue looked rosy and had gained some weight. Second Master Xu also looked good, and Brother Li had grown a lot taller.
After hearing about her family's current situation, Xu Qinyu felt more at ease.
Ma Liu not only brought Xu Qinyu news about the second branch of the Xu family, but also told her a lot of gossip in the capital.
He also told Xu Qinyu that the Minister of Revenue was dismissed from his post last year because the case of Handong King embezzling military pay was exposed by the imperial envoy who came to the southwest to investigate the case before his death.
Now the Minister of Revenue has been replaced.
Of course Xu Qinyu still remembered the imperial envoy, because she cooked for him for several days.
At that time, it was the prefect who asked my fourth brother to take people to kill the imperial envoy, but he didn't expect that there was a backup plan and he also pulled down the Minister of Revenue.
I just hope that the new Minister of Revenue will be a good official who cares about the people.
Ma Liu also secretly told Xu Qinyu, "Sister Xu, you don't know, that Prince Handong is really no good. He was so greedy that he even built a summer palace for his own sister, the Queen Mother. It's like he's never seen money in his life. He used only the worst tiles and materials. Now that palace has collapsed, many people have died, and the whereabouts of the money are unknown. Many officials in the court are very angry and have submitted memorials to the new emperor, hoping that he will strip the Prince of Handong of his title. But the new emperor is like a puppet, listening to the Queen Mother in everything. The Queen Mother is also very angry, but she just shifts the blame to other innocent officials."
It was also because of this incident that many innocent officials were implicated, their homes were confiscated and they were exiled to the border town. This time he was sending the families of other officials to the border town.
Xu Qinyu felt a little upset when she heard this, knowing that because of this incident, the capital must have been in chaos recently and people were in panic. She originally planned to ask Ma Liu to bring 10,000 taels of silver to her parents, and planned to double it. Even if something really happened in the capital, having money on hand would save them from most of the worries.
"Sixth brother, please stay here at the restaurant for one night. I will write a letter to my parents and bring some banknotes back to you later."
Ma Liu was used to it and was naturally willing to wait. He was also thinking of going to the hot springs, and the food in the restaurant was really delicious. It was a rare opportunity for him to come here, and if his superiors and colleagues were not still waiting for him in Yuanbao Town, he would have wanted to stay for a few more days. Now it seemed that living in the southwest was not bad. Without the attack from the Bi Kingdom, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the prefect and the county magistrates under his jurisdiction were all good officials. Otherwise, if he lived in the capital, with that puppet emperor and Empress Dowager Fu who was biased towards her own brother, he would never know when trouble would come.
Xu Qinyu arranged a room for Ma Liu to stay. After returning to the house, she wrote a reply letter to her family, which was nothing more than nagging about family matters. She told Cui not to worry about herself and said that her restaurant made a lot of profit every month, so the money she brought back should not be frugal and they should eat well and dress well.
Twenty thousand taels of silver is not a lot, but it is not too little either. Some wealthy families do not even have an annual income of twenty thousand taels of silver.
If she gave more, Xu Qinyu felt that Cui would definitely not accept it.
She was afraid that Cui would not accept the 20,000 taels of silver, so she asked someone to send it back to her.
After writing the letter, he stuffed twenty silver notes worth one thousand taels into the envelope and handed it to Ma Liu early the next morning.
When Ma Liu left, Xu Qinyu steamed a lot of braised pork buns for him to eat on the road.
Ma Liu took the letter and the braised pork buns to the dock in Yuanbao Town and took the water route.
Before the New Year, he rushed back to the capital and gave the letter written by Xu Qinyu to Cui.
When Mrs. Xue received the letter, a thick stack, she thought it was the same as last year, as her daughter had asked Ma Liu to bring home two thousand taels of silver notes.
When she opened the letter, she saw that it was full of large silver notes worth one thousand taels of silver, twenty in total, a total of twenty thousand taels of silver notes. Xue was shocked.
The annual income of the entire Dechang Marquis Mansion is less than 20,000 taels.
She didn't have any dowry shops, but the sisters-in-law from the first and third rooms all had shops and dowries. Even if the two rooms were combined, they would probably only make about 10,000 taels of silver a year.
But her daughter gave her 20,000 taels in one breath. Xue hurriedly put down the banknote and went to read her daughter's reply first. She finally knew why Yu Niang gave her so much money. It turned out that the restaurant run by Yu Niang made a profit of tens of thousands of taels of silver every month. Even so, Xue did not want the money from her daughter.
This was all earned by my daughter through hard work.
Xue hesitated, and when her husband came back, she discussed with him and decided to leave two thousand taels of silver notes as she did last year, and let Ma return the rest to Yu Niang six years later.
She remembered that Ma Liu and others would have to go to the border town again after the New Year.
Mr. Xu Er naturally had the same idea as his wife. The second house had little use for money on a daily basis. His own salary was enough for the food and drink of a family of three. His wife's family also received a red envelope every month, and Yu Niang also gave two thousand taels of silver notes every year, which was more than enough.
So after the New Year, Xue stuffed another 18,000 silver notes into an envelope and asked Ma Liu to take it back to Yu Niang.
The letter also said that two thousand taels of silver notes a year was already a lot, and asked Yu Niang to save the extra silver. It also told her not to show off her wealth and asked her not to tell others about the money she earned.
In fact, only the Pei family knew about it, and Xu Qinyu never revealed it to anyone else.
By the time Ma Liu came to the southwest again with this letter, spring had already arrived.
However, Xu Qinyu didn't know that she had been busy recently. The restaurant did not have a New Year holiday, and it was even busier than usual.
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