Huo Jiang tracked down Kong Songkang in a small village in neighboring Linzhou. He found a fake road from 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, gave a villager a few taels of silver, and stayed in the villager's home.

Huo Jiang had a 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. He asked in several villages near Raozhou City and found out that a family's carriage had been rented by someone and followed all the way to Linzhou.

When Huo Jiang found him, he was squatting in a villager's yard eating noodles with fear in his heart. When he saw Huo Jiang, he was just a little alert. 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 alert 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 money to let the villagers help him trap Huo Jiang so that he could run away.

Huo Jiang was a skilled martial artist. When he knocked one villager away, he frightened the others. He then took out a wanted order 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 then became silent and dared not say a word. They watched 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. He wanted to bribe him with money and 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 soldiers sent by the prefect. Huo Jiang was worried, so he personally followed him back to the prefect's mansion in Raozhou City. He allowed the prefect to interrogate him before returning to the restaurant.

It was three days later when we returned to Raozhou City, and six days later since the end of Xu Qinyu's cooking competition.

Seeing Huo Jianghui, she asked, "Huo Shouwei, 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 those robbers to buy her life, those robbers should not have been dispatched all the time, and there must be many more. If they knew that these robbers did not complete the task, but lost their lives, and some of them were imprisoned in the prefectural prison, and she was still alive and well, she wondered if they would send people to the restaurant for revenge.

In the restaurant, except for the twenty guards, the rest were ordinary people. However, in addition to the female waiters, there were also about a dozen male waiters. The restaurant also had self-defense weapons such as swords, but Xu Qinyu was still worried, so she said, "I'm sorry to trouble you guards Huo to patrol at night these days to prevent the remaining bandits from coming and hurting people."

Huo Jiang nodded and did not tell the princess that he had already sent a letter to His Highness by pigeon to prevent the remaining thieves from coming to take revenge.

Although His Highness has been crowned as a 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 round up and wipe out the remaining bandits a long time ago. Once those bandits received the money, they killed innocent people indiscriminately, 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 he was the one who hired bandits to rob and kill Xu Qinyu. 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 had done had nothing to do with the Kong family's children and grandchildren, who had no idea what he had done.

He was a little crazy in prison, laughing and questioning the governor, "What have I done wrong? I just want Zuixianlou to be famous all over the world, and I want Zuixianlou to be opened all over the country. In my life, I have finally come here, and it has been hard for me to make Zuixianlou a famous restaurant in the southwest, and let everyone remember Zuixianlou. I have finally gotten rid of my identity as a disaster victim, and got rid of that poor identity. It has been hard to have my current wealth. How can she, a young lady of only eighteen or nineteen years old, destroy my life's hard work? It's her greed. It would be fine if she just opened a small restaurant, but she opened a restaurant like this and snatched most of the customers from Zuixianlou, and even came to participate in this cooking competition..."

"That first place should have belonged to my son. He should have won it. If he won it, Zuixianlou would be famous all over the world, our Kong family recipes would be promoted, and I would get 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 was the one with the greatest chance of winning the championship this year. But he unexpectedly killed someone like Cheng Yaojin, and she was such a young lady. How could 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 such a risk.

It was not easy for him to get here from a poor and helpless peasant, 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, Zuixianlou would no longer have a place to survive and he would never be able to fulfill his wish. That's why he bribed the 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 from him until he was thirty years old, and pass down the recipe as the master's successor. The recipe was not named Kong, and he would only be the master's apprentice and successor for the rest of his life. When the master passed away, everything would be over, and he would never be able to escape the identity of the master's successor, so he created the accident and waited until the master fell into a coma before he entered the room. He was sure that the waiters from the restaurant would come to find them, so everyone thought it was an accident. The master was dead, and he was the only successor of the master, with no children, so everything the master had was his.

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 and displayed to the 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 suffer in a coal mine. He would only die.

After Kong Kangsong admitted his guilt, the other members of the Kong family were released.

Kong Kun and his wife Chen had lost a lot of weight, and their other children and grandchildren were all dirty and had dull eyes, and 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. When the common people learned that Kong Songkang had hired a killer to kill people and even attempted to murder his mentor, they began to talk 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 in his heart that Zuixianlou would never open again, and even the other members of the Kong family could not stay in Raozhou City.

When the day came for Kong Songkang to be beheaded and displayed to the public, many people went to join in the fun. Among all the children and grandchildren of the Sun family, only Sun Kun went to see his father off.

Kong Songkang was shaking violently before his death. 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 the ground. 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 door closed, and would never reopen.

After Xu Qinyu learned about it, she couldn't help but sigh. Some people, for the sake of profit, allow themselves to become neither human nor ghost.

Within two days, the prefect sent someone to tell him that the robbers' lair had been found and all the thieves had been captured. Most of them would be beheaded, while 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 more miserable than death, and it is unlikely that one will be able to escape in this lifetime.

After Xu Qinyu knew this, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The old gentlemen who came to the hotel a few days ago have not left yet and are still living in the hotel. The younger ones go to listen to books, soak in the hot springs, and go fishing after dinner every day. The older ones who don’t like to listen just look for someone to play chess with. Their lives are so carefree and comfortable that they are reluctant 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's restaurant 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. So during this period, the restaurant was very busy with the original staff, and she was unable to handle everything. She could not take care of Sister Ning's renting a shop in the city, but she was worried about Sister Ning's safety, so she let Lianhua follow Sister Ning every day when she went out.

In addition, many assistant chefs came to Xu Ji to be assistant chefs, wanting to learn cooking from her. Xu Qinyu asked Huo Jiang to help investigate their identities. As long as their identities were intact and their conduct was acceptable, she was willing to keep them. So for a while, the restaurant had many more chefs, but the main chefs were still the previous ones. Later, some assistant chefs who came to Xu Ji also began to learn cooking skills from her, and they were able to get the hang of it 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 families to live here.

The days passed by in busyness, and in the blink of an eye, three months later, it was already the last month of the lunar calendar, and Xu Qinyu had recruited a lot of people to pickle ham.

This year she pickled a lot of hams, more than double the amount of last year, and this year she pickled 5,000 hams.

The two thousand pickled fish that were pickled last year were also delivered to the restaurant. They were ready to be eaten, but not ready to be eaten raw. She kept one thousand of them so that they could be eaten raw at this time next year.

The five-story house she built herself is very large, and she also set aside a yard as a workshop. This year's pickled hams are all kept in her own house.

During the past three months, Xu's Restaurant has always been full of customers, and many people from nearby provincial capitals have come here.

During these three months, Xu's monthly net profit exceeded 50,000 taels of silver, and even reached 60,000 taels during the peak period.

By the time the ham is pickled, it will be half a month before the Chinese New Year.

During this period, the fourth brother did not come back, 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 told 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 come back.

Fourth brother couldn't go back, but Ma Liu came over.

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 such a 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 had no shortage of money and would definitely not accept any other expensive jewelry.

She went to the temple to pray for a lucky charm, and asked Ma Liu to help bring it to her daughter. In addition, there were two ponchos. She also had an inner garment and an outer garment, but it was not easy for Xue to entrust such close-fitting clothing to a man outsider to bring to her daughter. So she could only sew two ponchos 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 hoodie is just right.

Xu Qinyu met Ma Liu after dinner. Wen recognized him and arranged a place for him to rest and sent 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 said two simple words, saying that she had worked hard. Her younger brother, Liger, also wrote her a letter. Liger had already gone to school and told his sister about the interesting things that happened in school. He also said that he had made two good friends.

As Xu Qinyu read the letters from the three people, a smile was always on her face.

Ma Liu also told Xu Qinyu, "Sister Xu, you don't know that your third sister seems to be 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 to the southwest, Xu Qinhui acted as if she regretted it. She wrote to her and urged her to go back and renew 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. Who knew that she had not given up and wanted to come to the southwest again.

It is actually unlikely for Xu Qinhui 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 a 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 kept thinking about the fourth brother all day long. She must be crazy.

Xu Qinhui was indeed anxious. She saw that four years had passed and she was already twenty years old, becoming an old girl. Unfortunately, she had no support from the new emperor. She wanted to find Prince Shu, but she had no way. At first, she said she would write a letter to Prince Shu every month, but Xu's father did not allow it, fearing that it would reveal clues and be known to people 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 more than two years had passed and she had not 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.

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 even if she temporarily changes her identity and stays with King Shu. As long as King Shu can inherit the throne, her identity can be restored in the future.

However, Xu's father did not agree, saying that he would have to think it over carefully.

Xu Qinyu didn't want to hear about Xu Qinhui's news, 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 miserable and emaciated, Xue now looked rosy and had gained some weight. Second Old Master Xu was also not bad, 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 Xu Qinyu 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 the King of Handong embezzling military funds 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 what happened to the officer, because she cooked for him for several days.

At that time, it was the prefect who asked my fourth brother to lead people to kill the minister, but he didn't expect that there was a backup plan and the Minister of Revenue was also removed from his position.

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 King Handong is really a piece of shit. He was so greedy that he even built a summer palace for his own sister, the Queen Mother. It was as if he had never seen money in his life. He used the worst tiles and materials. Now the palace has collapsed, many people died, and the whereabouts of the money are unknown. Many officials in the court are very angry. They submitted memorials to advise the new emperor to strip the title of King Handong. The new emperor was like a puppet and listened to the Queen Mother in everything. The Queen Mother was also very angry, but she just pushed the responsibility to other innocent officials."

Because of this incident, many innocent officials were implicated, had their property confiscated and were exiled to border towns. 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 be in chaos recently and people are in panic. She originally planned to let Ma Liu bring 12,000 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 in the hotel for one night. I will write a letter to my parents and bring some banknotes back to you."

Ma Liu had gotten used to it and was naturally willing to wait. He also wanted to soak in the hot spring, 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 had not been waiting for him in Yuanbao Town, he would have wanted to stay a few more days. Now it seemed that living in the southwest was not bad. There was no attack from the Bi Kingdom, and the people lived and worked in peace. The governor and the county lords under his jurisdiction were all good officials. Otherwise, if he lived in the capital, with that puppet emperor and Empress Dowager Fu who only favored her younger brother, he would never know when trouble would come.

Xu Qinyu arranged a room for Ma Liu to stay in. 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 also said that her restaurant made a lot of profit every month, so she told them not to save the money she brought back and to eat and dress well.

Twenty thousand taels of silver is not a lot, but it is not a 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 bills 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 pier in Yuanbao Town and traveled by water.

Before the New Year, he rushed back to the capital and handed the letter written by Xu Qinyu to Cui.

When Xue received the thick stack of letters, she thought that just like last year, her daughter had asked Ma Liu to bring two thousand taels of silver notes home.

When she opened the letter, she saw that it was filled with large-denomination banknotes of 1,000 taels of silver. There were 20 of them in total, a total of 20,000 taels of silver. Xue was shocked.

The annual income of the entire Dechang Marquis's Mansion is less than 20,000 taels.

She didn't have any dowry shops, but the sisters-in-law in the first and third wives all had shops and dowries. Even if the two wives combined, they probably only had 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 her daughter's money.

This was all earned by my daughter through hard work.

Xue hesitated, and after 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 a year.

Mr. Xu Er naturally had the same idea as his wife. The second house did not have much use for money on a daily basis. His own salary was enough for the food and drink of the family of three. There were also red envelopes from his wife's family every month, and Yu Niang also gave him two thousand taels of silver notes every year, which was more than enough.

So after the New Year, Xue stuffed another 18,000 yuan in banknotes 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 that the extra money should be kept well by Yu Niang. She was also told not to show off her wealth and not to tell anyone else 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 the letter, spring had already arrived.

But Xu Qinyu didn't know that she had been busy recently. The hotel did not have a New Year holiday and was even busier than usual.