Fourth Master walked briskly, and Su Peisheng could only keep up by running.
"Master, where are you going?" Su Peisheng noticed that the Fourth Master was heading in the direction of the main gate, not towards his residence or the place where Princess Yan Yu lived. Hadn't he just returned? Why was he going out again?
Therefore, he asked a question that a servant should not have asked.
"Go and greet her!" Fourth Master muttered these four words in a low voice, and had already arrived at the stables. Upon hearing these words, Su Peisheng immediately understood that Fourth Master was going to pick up Princess Niu. Without saying a word, he immediately followed Fourth Master, chose two horses, and the two of them mounted and rode out of the side gate of the Lu residence.
As for Lanqin, she stayed with Kangxi for half a day, and was then pulled back by Holland for a long talk before being released.
A crescent moon had already hung in the sky. Nianxue followed the sedan chair down the street, which was bustling with activity. Lanqin looked up at the street scene outside and couldn't help but say, "Nianxue, why don't we stop and take a stroll? Jinan Prefecture looks quite lively."
Upon hearing this, Nianxue was afraid that the Fourth Master would be displeased if they returned too late, so she said, "Princess, let's go back. The Master may have already returned and will be worried if he doesn't see you."
Lanqin pouted and said, "He won't. No, I don't want to go back now, stop the sedan chair!"
Upon hearing Lanqin speak, the sedan bearers lowered the sedan chair. One of them even said enthusiastically, "Miss, this is the most bustling street in Jinan Prefecture. Why don't you and Madam Niu get off and take a stroll?"
Nianxue rolled her eyes at the sedan bearers and was about to speak when Lanqin interrupted her, lifting the curtain herself and stepping out. "Nianxue, we have nothing to do back home anyway, why don't we stroll around here? Look, there seem to be a lot of snacks over there, shall we go and try some?"
Nianxue knew she couldn't stop Lanqin, so she took out a silver pouch from her sleeve, untied it, took out a few pieces of loose silver, and said to the two sedan chair bearers, "Take this money to buy some food. Leave the sedan chair here. Gege and I will come back here after we've finished our sightseeing. Do you understand?"
The two sedan chair carriers naturally nodded in agreement, eager to let them rest for a while, as they would have no trouble going back anyway.
Lanqin pulled Nianxue and squeezed into the busiest crowd. Along the street, there were all kinds of snacks and stalls selling all sorts of trinkets, a dazzling array that was hard to resist.
"There are some baked flatbreads over there, let's go buy some!" Lanqin was a native of Shandong before she transmigrated. Now that she's in Jinan, she really wants to explore this hometown from three hundred years ago. That's right, Lin Mengyao is from Jinan. Just now, on the way in the sedan chair, she lifted the curtain to look at the ancient buildings along the way, trying to find a sense of familiarity, but there was nothing. It was a completely unfamiliar ancient capital, completely different from the Jinan she remembered.
The two, master and servant, walked to the stall selling baked buns. Looking at the purely handmade buns, Lanqin waited expectantly, wondering if they tasted exactly the same as the baked buns her grandmother used to buy for her at the alley entrance when she was a child.
"Girl, here's your baked flatbread!" The old man selling baked flatbread handed the finished product to Lanqin, and Nianxue paid him a few copper coins.
Lanqin took a bite, and the taste buds of memory appeared in her mouth. Slowly, the taste of the ancient food blossomed on the tongue of Lanqin, a person from the future in the 21st century, creating a new flavor.
"Gege, is it delicious?" Nianxue asked, taking another baked bun from the old man.
"It's so delicious, it tastes just like the food I ate when I was a kid!" Lanqin said, describing the bustling street and comparing it in her mind to Furong Street in Jinan.
Nianxue remembered that Lanqin had never come here to buy this kind of baked bun when she was a child. Even if there were baked buns in the capital, they were completely different from those in Jinan.
"Nianxue, come on, let's go see what else is good to eat over there?" Lanqin pulled Nianxue, who looked puzzled, toward a shop that sold sweet rice porridge.
Meanwhile, Fourth Master rode his horse to the Jinan Prefectural Government. From the gatekeeper, he learned that Lanqin had already come out and was probably heading to the Lu family mansion. However, as Fourth Master rode slowly along the shortest road, he did not see Lanqin and her servant's sedan chair. Logically speaking, the sedan chair bearers were from the Lu family and should have known which road was the shortest.
“Master, why don’t we look again? Perhaps the sedan bearers didn’t take that route. I asked at the gatehouse just now, and there’s another road that goes through Jinan’s busiest snack street. Maybe Princess Niu and the others went that way,” Su Peisheng said.
After thinking for a moment, Fourth Master nodded and went with Su Peisheng to search for more food stalls.
As the two rode their horses into the snack street, they spotted the Lu family's sedan chair. Fourth Master was overjoyed and quickly spurred his horse to ride over. However, when he got closer, he found only one person standing next to the sedan chair, with no sign of Lanqin inside.
"Where is the Princess Niu you were carrying?" Fourth Master said, his face dark, almost shouting the words.
When the sedan chair bearers saw that it was a high-ranking official from the imperial court who had just moved into the Lu residence, they were so frightened that they could barely speak. They stammered, "Madam and Miss Nianxue, please go over there to have some snacks. I will wait here."
"Why are you all alone?" Fourth Master noticed that he was the only one there, while the other sedan chair carrier was nowhere to be found. Actually, the sedan chair carrier had made arrangements with this man, letting him guard the sedan chair while he went to buy some wine and roast chicken so they could enjoy them together when he returned.
"He went to buy something to eat." The sedan chair carrier lowered his head, not daring to look the Fourth Master in the eye.
"Hmph, I'll go find the madam. You all wait here and don't leave even a step!" Fourth Master roared, then dismounted and threw the reins to Su Peisheng, saying, "You stay here and lead the horse. I'll go in and find her myself."
The Fourth Prince, dressed in a long black robe and wearing the dragon-patterned boots unique to princes, stood out conspicuously among the peddlers and laborers. Passersby automatically gave him a wide berth, as if the Fourth Prince possessed some kind of magic, which immediately attracted pointing and whispering from people on both sides of the street. The Fourth Prince paid no heed to this; his sharp, hawk-like eyes searched for Lan Qin's figure in the crowd.
But no, that familiar figure never appeared! The more Fourth Master searched, the more anxious he became. He knew Lanqin was on this street, but a fear of not finding her slowly rose in his heart.
Suddenly, a commotion ahead caught Fourth Master's attention. He rushed forward, hoping to see if Lanqin was among the crowd. Sure enough, he wasn't disappointed; not only was Lanqin there, but she was also seen grabbing a man's braid and yelling angrily, "Quickly exchange my silver back!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
