Chapter 7: The lingering ghost
Xie Sui did not answer.
But everything is implied.
Xue Feiheng sighed and shook his head, scooping a wonton from the bowl to eat. He commented, "It's not as good as the one in Shaoping." Then he took out two pancakes, one for each of them. "If you ask me, forget it. We're just investigating the case. What does the magistrate's life or death have to do with us?"
"Xue Feiheng." Xie Sui said coldly, "The magistrate is the head of a county. He is an official appointed by the court after all. If he commits a crime, it should be handled by the court. If others hear these words, you..."
"Okay, okay, I was wrong. I won't say anything more." Xue Feiheng interrupted him, thus saving him from a long lecture. "I'm really scared of you. You're obviously younger than me, but your thinking is so old-fashioned."
Xie Sui frowned and was about to speak, but Xue Feiheng hurriedly stuffed the cake in his hand into his mouth.
"Don't talk while eating."
Xie Sui took the cake from his mouth and added it to the one Xue Feiheng had just given him. Now he had one in each hand. Seeing Xue Feiheng take out another one, he couldn't help but ask, "Where did you get so many of these cakes?"
"I bought it." Xue Feiheng took a bite. The pancake had been sitting around for too long and was cold and hard. The texture wasn't great. He sipped some wonton soup to soften it, making it easier to chew. "It's still better when it's fried."
Looking at the pancake in my hand, I couldn't help but think of Zhang Lengran's face. It was no less than the one next to him. He didn't look like a pancake seller at all.
"Do you think I can go back and fry her?"
Xie Sui ignored this irrelevant question, and Xue Feiheng didn't expect him to answer. He just said to himself, "I wonder if she will go out to the stall today."
Turning around, he saw a woman walking down the street carrying a wooden box. She was the one he had just been talking about.
Du Huaizhi was quick to notice Xue Feiheng's gaze, and in the blink of an eye, she met his gaze. Xue Feiheng didn't expect to be discovered so quickly, and was slightly startled, then smiled and waved at her.
This action attracted Xie Sui who was standing by to look over. Seeing that Xue Feiheng was looking at a young woman, he looked away and glared at him.
Mommy kiss...
Du Huaizhi cursed inwardly, thinking about how to disappear from their sight quietly and naturally, when a voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Sister."
Du Huaizhi: “…”
Why are these birdmen still haunting me?
Du Ruozhi trotted over to Du Huaizhi and said, "It's really you. I thought I had made a mistake."
Du Huaizhi: "I did admit my mistake."
Du Ruozhi: “Ah?”
"Why isn't your maid who yells at people in a shrill voice following you?" Du Huaizhi spoke to Du Ruzhi while turning around.
Du Ruozhi followed naturally and walked with Du Huaizhi, "Are you talking about Xiuzhu? She is still young and didn't sleep well last night. I thought I would go out for a walk and buy some breakfast to take back."
After a pause, he continued, "Xiuzhu has been with me since she was a child. She's just a little bit lively, but she's not a bad person."
Du Huaizhi didn't care what her personality was. The most urgent thing now was to stay away from those two birdmen. They were already suspicious of him, so he would avoid the people from the Dali Temple if he could.
But some people are born with thick skin like a city wall.
"Oh, what a coincidence, Miss Du is here too."
Du Ruozhi didn't expect that someone would recognize her in such a place. When she turned around, she saw a fairly familiar face, except that the skin seemed a few shades darker.
Seeing Xue Feiheng looking at her with a smile, Du Ruozhi bowed slightly, "Master Xue."
Xue Feiheng curled his lips and turned to look at Du Huaizhi, "Just now I heard Miss Du call this girl 'Ajie'."
"Yes, she is my elder sister. She ran away in anger four years ago, and I only found her yesterday." Du Ruozhi grabbed Du Huaizhi's sleeve, "I will bring my elder sister back to Beijing in a few days."
The next moment, Du Huaizhi pulled his sleeve out of Du Ruozhi's hand.
Xue Feiheng suddenly realized, "So you are the eldest daughter of the Du family. My surname is Xue and my name is Feiheng."
Du Huaizhi: “…” Actually, it doesn’t have to be.
Seeing the subtle atmosphere between the two, Du Ruozhi felt puzzled, "Do you two... know each other?"
"We met once."
"I don't know him."
Two voices sounded almost at the same time. Du Huaizhi looked at Xue Feiheng, who was smiling servilely, and felt murderous.
If someone paid to buy his head, she could chop it into eight pieces right now in the street.
Feeling the tension between the two, Du Ruozhi quickly stood in the middle to separate the invisible forces of the two.
"Um..." Du Ruozhi looked at Du Huaizhi cautiously. Seeing that she looked unhappy, she turned to look at Xue Feiheng, "Why is Lord Xue here?"
"Investigating a case." Xue Feiheng answered briefly, his eyes still fixed on Du Huaizhi. He raised the crescent-shaped pancake in his hand and said, "I'll pay you. Can you help me fry the pancakes I bought from you yesterday?"
Yesterday, when buying pancakes, Du Ruozhi grasped the key words and her eyes widened. It turned out that the wooden box Du Huaizhi was carrying was a pancake stall.
"I can't fry what I've eaten. It's dirty." Since he was surrounded and couldn't leave, Du Huaizhi simply gave up, put down the stall, unfolded it, and set up the stall on the spot.
He glanced at the three of them and said, "Make way. You're blocking my stall."
As for why there were three people, it was because Xie Sui came over at some point and handed the untouched cake to Xue Feiheng. The unprocessed cake was indeed difficult to chew.
The three men retreated to the side. Du Ruozhi seemed to have seen something terrible. She hid beside Du Huaizhi and stayed away from the two men.
Xue Feiheng explained, "It's not that. I have something else." He took out a few leftover pancakes and said, "They're cold and hard to chew. I just happened to see Boss Du setting up his stall. I'm a customer after all, so could you please give me some space?"
It seems that this guy will not leave until he achieves his goal. Du Huaizhi lit the charcoal fire and wiped the iron pot. "The processing fee is two cents."
"Two cents?" Xue Feiheng recalled, "If I remember correctly, I bought 13 pancakes from you yesterday. You charged me 28 cents for them. Even accounting for the oil used to fry the pancakes, that's three cents for the pancakes, two cents for the plain pancakes, and one cent for the processing fee. How come I'm being charged two cents for frying the pancakes I bought from you?"
Du Huaizhi: “…”
Du Ruozhi: “…”
Xie Sui: “…”
Xue Feiheng was an official in Beijing, but he was haggling over a penny difference in price with a woman selling pancakes on the street. Xie Sui really wanted to find a crack in the ground to stuff Xue Feiheng in.
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