"Our princess has long been... You are not allowed to have any improper thoughts about our princess!!" Nianxue suddenly grabbed Lanqin's arm and shouted at the man called "Master." Nianxue was truly protecting Lanqin to the extreme.
"Princess~~" the man murmured, a smile playing on his lips. "So, young lady, you seem to be the daughter of a member of the royal family? I wonder which prince's concubine you are?"
Nianxue realized she had let slip Lanqin's identity, but it was too late for regrets. She felt that the aura emanating from the man in front of her was quite dangerous, but the princess remained completely unfazed.
"Who I am is none of your business. He said you wanted to talk to me, is that what you wanted to talk about?" Although Lanqin loved to eat, she was still a young girl after all. After eating a few solid pieces of goose meat and a few bites of fish and oysters, she was already a little full.
“I find you quite different from other women of the Qing Dynasty. You actually saw through my little tricks. Although they are just trivial skills, I am quite curious about your insight.” The man glanced at the burly man who had intimidated Lanqin.
They're all in cahoots, aren't they? Are they itinerant swindlers, traveling around scamming people? But this guy's demeanor is quite arrogant; he can't possibly be a conman.
"Hehe, this young lady enjoys reading miscellaneous books on esoteric arts and divination, and I just happened to see the design techniques for this kind of knife in one of them. Do you have any further questions, sir?" Lan Qin suddenly felt she couldn't see through the man's identity and had a gut feeling that something was amiss; it would be best to leave as soon as possible. Besides, she wanted to see some other interesting things happening; what was there to talk about with this strange foreigner?
"Miss, I feel an instant connection with you. Would you be so kind as to accompany me to the temple fair of the Great Qing Dynasty's Golden Festival?" The man seemed to have seen through Lanqin's thoughts.
Oh no, what's going on? Is this person trying to pester me?
"How can you be so rude? My princess is a young lady, how can she walk with foreigners like you? If people see this, it will ruin my princess's reputation!" Nianxue said anxiously when she saw the man's increasingly impolite demands.
"Oh dear, Nianxue, my stomach feels a little uncomfortable. Could you help me to the outhouse?" Before the man could answer, Lanqin suddenly touched her stomach, her expression showing even more pain.
"Gege, what's wrong? You were perfectly fine just now, why does your stomach hurt now?" Nianxue touched Lanqin's stomach and asked anxiously.
Lanqin winked at her slightly before continuing to complain of stomach pain.
"Princess, come on, let me help you out." Nianxue naturally understood and quickly continued to pretend to be in a hurry. She grabbed Lanqin and tried to walk out, but the man's several attendants blocked the exit like an iron plate.
"Get out of the way! I need to use the restroom. Why aren't you moving? Would you be okay with me doing this here?" Lanqin saw that Min Tuo and the others were blocking the doorway and seemed unwilling to let them leave without the man's permission.
"Min Tuo, let them go to the restroom." Sure enough, this had an effect. Although the man couldn't see the expression on Lan Qin's face at that moment, if he had, he would have regretted saying those words.
Min Tuo seemed genuinely afraid that Lan Qin would actually relieve herself here, and upon hearing the man's order, she immediately slipped away.
With Nianxue's help, Lanqin went down the stairs. When they looked back and saw that the group of people had stopped following, she immediately straightened her hunched back and said urgently, "If we don't leave now, when will we? Hurry up, Nianxue."
Although Nianxue knew that Lanqin must have had a reason for pretending to have a stomachache, she didn't expect that this was her real intention. She thought to herself: When did the princess become so clever? But now is not the time to ask her. Let's leave quickly.
The two girls immediately slipped away, making sure to leave through the back door so that no one upstairs would see them. Lanqin had already spotted the back door when she came in. At that moment, she grabbed Nianxue and rushed towards the back door.
The only way through the back door was to the tavern's kitchen, so when the two of them rushed in, the kitchen staff, seeing two beautiful young women suddenly enter, all showed a greedy look in their eyes, making Lanqin and Nianxue feel flustered.
"Young ladies, this is the kitchen. Have you come to the wrong place?" A fat man with a large belly asked kindly.
"We need to leave through the back door. Could you please show us the way? There are people chasing us at the front door." Seeing that the fat man looked kind, Lanqin put on an extremely frightened expression. Even Nianxue, who was standing next to her, had to admire her princess's superb acting skills.
"Then come with me." After saying that, he tapped the stove with a large ladle and muttered, "What are you looking at? Get to work. You're all acting like you've never seen a young lady before, a bunch of brats."
Clearly, this fat chef must be the head chef here. Lanqin glanced silently at the thick flesh on the back of his neck. His huge and thick back was the fattest person Lanqin had ever seen since she traveled to the Qing Dynasty.
The portly chef led Lanqin and her maid through the smoky kitchen, escorted them to the back door, and said with a menacing expression, "Young ladies, you can leave from here. Remember, don't wander around, especially not into the kitchen."
Lanqin nodded her thanks repeatedly, then quickly left with Nianxue in her arms.
"Princess, you're really clever to know how to escape this way. Those people were really scary; they seemed to exude a murderous aura." Nianxue was still shaken; Lanqin's performance today had caused her emotions to fluctuate wildly several times.
“Hehe, Nianxue, when you encounter problems, you have to think more carefully and not be stubborn. If one path doesn’t work, we can try another, right?” Lanqin said, turning her head to look at Nianxue. But she suddenly noticed that Nianxue’s expression had changed and her eyes were fixed on the front.
Lanqin quickly followed her gaze and looked ahead, only to see Mengdou and Mintuo standing at the corner with their hands clasped in front of them.
"What are you doing here?" Lanqin asked, trying to remain calm.
"Princess, you're going to the outhouse, how did you end up here?" Meng Dou said with a half-smile.
Lanqin pulled Nianxue and turned to walk back, only to see that the man had come up from behind with two other burly men, who had obviously also come from the kitchen.
"You suspected me from the very beginning?" Lan Qin said, her face grim as she looked at the man who still had a slight smile on his lips.
"So the women of the Qing Dynasty are cunning too. They are indeed quite different from the women of my grasslands." The man's starry eyes turned slightly cold.
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