“Young Master Lin, you’ve come at just the right time. This is what the Master asked me to give you. Take this token and go to the Black Forest, about two miles outside the town. Someone is waiting for you there.”
Master Bai looked at Lin Xiaofei and said with a smile.
Lin Xiaofei nodded and said,
"Is all Steward Liu asked me to do just deliver this token?"
“Young Master Lin, if it's just about delivering a token, anyone can do that.”
Steward Liu would naturally not let you do such a simple thing; the master would not do such a losing business.
Once you deliver the token, someone there will tell you what to do.
Bai Ye said.
Lin Xiaofei nodded, took the token, and walked out of the city.
After leaving the city gate, Lin Xiaofei walked for more than two miles and arrived at the edge of a dark forest.
Lin Xiaofei stretched out his hands and clapped three times. Soon, a group of people slowly walked out of the woods, escorting a horse-drawn cart loaded with goods.
Several strong, middle-aged men sat on the carriage, their skin dark from sun exposure, and they drove the carriage over.
"This is the token that Master Bai asked me to give you."
Seeing the leader approaching, Lin Xiaofei handed over the token in his hand.
The man took the token, examined it carefully, and after confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, he immediately smiled and said:
You've finally arrived! We've been waiting for you here for three days.
"Master Bai told me beforehand that you are a disciple of the Right Protector, with a high status, and that you would definitely be able to handle the interception and questioning by the disciples of the Five Mountains Green Peak Gang, thus ensuring that this batch of goods is delivered to its destination."
Upon hearing this, Lin Xiaofei immediately understood that the task at hand was to escort goods. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "
"What's loaded on your carriage?"
"Didn't Master Bai tell you that these truckloads of goods are all precious medicinal herbs?"
The burly man at the head of the group rolled his eyes and said.
“Rare herbs? May I see the herbs on the carriage?”
After thinking for a moment, Lin Xiaofei said.
"Young Master Lin, there's nothing interesting about the goods on the carriage. Let me put it this way: most of them are dried, common herbs, and the rest are some poisonous herbs that are prohibited from being transported by the government."
Young Master Lin, as you know, if it were just ordinary herbs, there would be no need for you to escort them. I'm sure you understand that.
This kind of forbidden toxic herb is strictly controlled not only by the government, but even your Qingfeng Gang does not allow the appearance of this forbidden herb. However, this business is very profitable and is very important to Steward Liu.
Moreover, this business requires urgent delivery, and we couldn't find a suitable person to escort it in time, so we asked you to escort it.
"Because of your high status, when we pass through Wushan Road, the Qingfeng Gang disciples will give you face. They'll only glance at the goods and then let us pass."
The man in the lead quickly explained.
Lin Xiaofei nodded.
He knew that Liu Shao would only ask him to do something that would greatly benefit him; he would never ask him to do something trivial.
After thinking it over, Lin Xiaofei decided to escort this batch of goods.
"Young Master Lin, if you're willing to escort this shipment with us, we can set off now!"
The man in the lead said something to Lin Xiaofei.
Lin Xiaofei nodded, took a step forward, and jumped onto the horse's back.
Then, the leading man waved to the burly men escorting the carriage, mounted his horse, and the group headed towards Wushan Road.
After galloping for an hour, we arrived at the entrance of Wushan Road. Looking into the distance into the mountains on one side of the road, there was a checkpoint that looked like a mountain stronghold, with a few people moving back and forth indistinctly.
"Young Master Lin, there are three strongholds in the Five Mountains, two of which belong to your Green Peak Gang."
Every time we passed through those three villages, we would be intercepted by disciples of the Qingfeng Gang who would inspect our goods, thus delaying our delivery.
Fortunately, with Young Master Lin here this time, I think their inspection time will be shorter, or they might just let us through directly, which won't delay our escorting time much.
The leader on horseback approached Lin Xiaofei and said with a smile.
"If it's one of my own disciples blocking the way, I'll handle it. I believe they'll give me some face."
However, if I remember correctly, one of the villages is under government control. If they are patrolling the mountains and I encounter them, my current status might not be of any use.
Lin Xiaofei said slowly.
He knew that the goods he was escorting contained forbidden herbs, and if he encountered government officials stopping him for inspection, he would be in trouble.
As for the leader beside him, he didn't believe a word of what the other man said about delaying the delivery of the goods. Judging from the other man's words and actions, he didn't seem to be in a hurry at all, nor did he seem worried that the goods would be delivered late.
“The government officials don’t need to be afraid. My men went to Wushan Road in advance and found out that those officials haven’t been patrolling the mountains in the past few days. So, for the past few days, the entire Wushan Road has been filled with Qingfeng Gang members.”
"It's Chen Er, the leader, saying with a smile."
Lin Xiaofei nodded and said nothing more.
As they passed the first village, they did indeed see Qingfeng Gang disciples patrolling some of the mountain peaks along the mountain path.
Lin Xiaofei and his group only escorted eight carriages of goods, which was considered a small caravan. The Qingfeng Gang disciples patrolling the mountain glanced at them from afar, ignored them, and let them pass directly.
Half an hour later, they came to a road in a mountain valley and found more than a dozen carts of goods hidden in a grove of trees.
Lin Xiaofei glanced at it from afar, his eyes lit up, and he suddenly had a sudden realization.
Then, from the woods, a group of people driving fifteen horse-drawn carts carrying goods gradually approached them, and then silently followed the cart procession behind them.
Lin Xiaofei turned his head to look at the fifteen newly appeared carriages, and then at Chen Er, the leader beside him. He saw that Chen Er was unmoved and completely ignored the newly appeared carriages.
"Chen Er, you should recognize that new caravan that's appeared behind us, right?"
After walking for another half hour, Lin Xiaofei couldn't help but say something.
Chen Er nodded, smiled, and said:
I knew you would ask me that.
As you can see, I ignored the newly arrived carriage procession behind us and didn't chase them away. I knew you'd be curious about that, but I didn't expect you to wait half an hour before asking me.
Let me put it this way, the group behind us is one of our own. That tall, burly man in the middle is my boss.
"Your boss?"
Turning his head to look at the burly man, Lin Xiaofei feigned a puzzled expression and said.
Half an hour earlier, he had been glancing at the procession of carriages that had appeared behind him from time to time, silently observing the people in his mind.
There were twenty-five carriages in total, carrying thirty-six people. These people all had dark skin, were strong and robust, and had exposed chests and breasts, with some obvious new and old scars on their bodies.
He realized that these people were definitely not ordinary strong men from the town; their behavior and mannerisms revealed the air of mountain bandits.
Yes, they were mountain bandits.
At the same time, he also discovered that among the goods in the wagon were not only herbs, but also many large wooden crates, which were not usually used to store herbs. Therefore, he suspected that there was something he did not know about among the goods in the wagon.
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