"Scholar Huang, Madam Lin! It's getting dark, shall we find a place to spend the night?"
As the last rays of the setting sun lingered on the horizon, Lin Xue stretched her feet out of the carriage, leaned against the carriage door, and admired the beautiful scenery of the sunset.
"Old Ma, you're more familiar with this route, see if we have a place to rest?"
Lin Xue thought, "I'll leave these things to Huang Dehai." She ate sunflower seeds while watching the sunset, feeling incredibly happy.
"Scholar Huang, there's a dilapidated temple not far ahead. It's a place where merchants or travelers rest. Shall we rest there tonight?"
After listening to Huang Dehai's words, Lao Ma immediately recalled them in his mind and then offered his own suggestions.
"Alright, Lao Ma, you make the decision!"
Huang Dehai had never been to Linzhou Prefecture, so he did not know where he could rest along the way.
"My lady, would you like some tea?"
After finishing his conversation with Lao Ma, Huang Dehai handed the teapot to Lin Xue.
"Pour me half a glass!"
Lin Xue smacked her lips; she was indeed a little thirsty after eating sunflower seeds for so long, so she turned to Huang Dehai and said...
"Here, Madam, please sit inside the carriage, lest you fall off!"
Huang Dehai handed the cup to Lin Xue, not forgetting to give her a word of advice.
"Don't worry, I won't fall!"
Seeing that the afterglow had disappeared below the horizon, Lin Xue withdrew her legs and sat back in the carriage.
They finally arrived at the location of the dilapidated temple before it got completely dark.
Contrary to what Lin Xue and Huang Dehai had imagined, the dilapidated temple was not actually that dilapidated.
There was also an old monk living inside, who was the abbot of this dilapidated temple.
If any traveling merchants want to stay in a single room, they only need to donate some merit money to arrange one for them.
If someone is penniless, the old monk will not drive them away, but will let them stay in the empty hall in front.
When Lin Xue and her group arrived, there were already several groups of people sitting or standing in the lobby.
There were also many horse-drawn carriages parked in the open space inside the courtyard, indicating that many traveling merchants stayed here.
Lin Xue and her group inquired and found out that if they wanted to stay in a single room here, they would have to donate at least one tael of silver.
After discussing it with Lao Ma, Lin Xue and Lao Ma decided to sleep in the carriage that night.
Then she gave Old Ma a coin. If he wanted to stay in a single room, he could add some donation money. If not, he could sleep in the main hall.
As Lin Xue expected, Old Ma was unwilling to donate the money and went directly to the lobby with his own package.
Lin Xue rummaged through her bundle and took out several sachets, which she then hung on the four corners of the carriage.
In the courtyard where mosquitoes were flying around everywhere, not a single mosquito came within a meter of Lin Xue's carriage.
Because of the hot weather, even Xue and the others didn't bring blankets, only a coarse cloth blanket to cover their stomachs at night.
After lowering the carriage curtain, Lin Xue and her companion had no other thoughts and simply lay down on the two long benches to sleep.
Two more groups of merchants arrived in the middle of the night, but neither group made a loud noise. Although Lin Xue was woken up, she drifted back to sleep after things quieted down.
Early morning of the second day.
After washing her face by the well in the temple, Lin Xue asked Lao Ma to buy three servings of morning tea from the old monks in the temple.
The three of them had a simple meal and then continued their journey.
However, just as the carriage was about to leave the temple gate, Lin Xue's eyes seemed to spot a familiar face.
What is he doing here?
Lin Xue watched the man's back, feeling a little curious.
This person was none other than the constable Lin Xue encountered when she first went to Huang Dequan and his wife's small eatery.
Unexpectedly, they ended up staying at the same temple last night.
However, when we went with the magistrate to suppress the bandits, we did not see the constable. Could it be that the constable was out on official business or that he was not a constable from Donglin County at all, but came from Linzhou Prefecture?
A thousand thoughts flashed through Lin Xue's mind!
"What are you thinking about, my wife? Did you not sleep well last night?"
Lin Xue's visibly dazed expression caught Huang Dehai's attention.
"Forehead?"
"It's nothing!"
"The dim sum was too bland, I want to eat meat!"
Lin Xue's words were not thought through, but they made Huang Dehai chuckle.
"Wife, if you can catch any prey, I'll roast it for you myself!"
He should have prepared some dried meat for his wife, but unfortunately he was just a weak scholar and had no hunting skills.
However, given his wife's skills in punching bandits and kicking horses...
Their hunting skills must be quite good.
"Really? My husband~"
Upon hearing Huang Dehai's words, Lin Xue's eyes immediately lit up.
"But husband, do you know how to grill meat? Don't burn it, it won't taste good!"
Thinking of this, Lin Xue became a little worried. As far as she knew, Huang Dehai had never cooked before.
"Don't worry, when we were kids, we followed our older brothers around and often went up the mountain to catch birds to roast and eat!"
"Most of the time, my eldest brother was in charge of catching fish, my second brother was in charge of catching fish by stealing them, and I was in charge of grilling them!"
"But ever since I passed the imperial examination, my older brothers have stopped playing with me!"
At this point, Huang Dehai still felt a little aggrieved.
His happy childhood ended far too soon.
"Alright, I'll see if I can hunt some wild rabbits or pheasants in the nearby woods around noon, and then you can roast them for me, my husband!"
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