The sun was still hanging over the mountaintop, painting the world in a golden hue.
When the carriage stopped again, it had arrived at the city gate.
The city walls of Lingnan City are not as imposing as the Great Wall; they are only about two stories high.
The city gate, shrouded in dust and bearing the marks of time, appeared somewhat dilapidated.
The carriage stopped at the city gate for a routine inspection.
Zhang Yun jumped off the carriage and took out his master's imperial envoy token, along with the official seal and other tokens.
The startled gate guards quickly notified the city gate captain that the imperial envoy from the capital had arrived.
Imperial envoys are unlikely to be foolish enough to travel incognito, as it would be extremely dangerous.
In this era without cameras, you might just capsize in that ditch.
Therefore, the itinerary is communicated to local officials in advance.
Lingnan City received the notification last month, but after waiting and waiting for Zhang Jiadi, they assumed the imperial envoy wouldn't come and stopped waiting.
They came unexpectedly today, catching the city gate captain off guard.
He quickly arranged for his trusted confidant to inform the prefect, while he himself rushed downstairs to prepare to receive the belated imperial envoy.
When the captain arrived at the city gate, he immediately spotted the tall Li Chang'an, who was being led by the hand by Wang Zhongxian. Wang Zhongxian advised him, "Brother, you must remember me. I live in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If you have time tomorrow, be sure to come and visit me. I'll treat you to a drink."
Before Li Chang'an could speak, the captain cupped his hands in greeting and asked, "May I ask which one of you is the Imperial Envoy?"
"Ugh~"
Zhang Jiadi's head appeared by the window, and he vomited all over the floor as soon as he opened his mouth.
"Look," Li Chang'an said, pointing to Zhang Jiadi, "this is the imperial envoy you are looking for."
Captain: "..."
Holding the token, Zhang Yun explained, "My master had a few too many drinks with his friends today and can't come out. Please check if the token matches and let him through as soon as you've seen it."
The captain took the token, took out the document from his pocket, and checked it.
"This is a token of the imperial envoy. Please enter the city."
The captain waved to his men to remove the barricades, allowing the carriage to pass.
Zhang Yun accepted the token but didn't leave immediately.
Instead, he said to Li Chang'an, "Mr. Li, why don't you come into the city with us? Otherwise, when my master wakes up, he will definitely blame me for not keeping you here."
"There's no need for that. Li made an appointment with the villagers to meet at the city gate, and he will definitely keep his promise. You can go in first."
Seeing that Li Chang'an was determined not to follow them, Wang Zhongxian took out a token from his pocket.
"Brother, this is my warrant. Keep it safe. If anything happens, just bring this warrant to the Embroidered Uniform Guard headquarters and I'll definitely help you resolve it."
Wang Zhongxian handed the token to Li Chang'an and waved to the captain, saying, "Listen carefully, this is my half-brother and also the Imperial Envoy's distinguished guest. You better serve him well, or I'll take your head."
Just as the captain was about to speak, a token was smashed on his head.
The captain picked it up and almost peed himself.
The token read: Imperial Envoy, Superintendent of the Eastern Depot, and Eunuch in Charge.
Damn it, one of the three chief inspectors of the Eastern Depot.
The Eastern Depot was comparable to the Embroidered Uniform Guard of yesteryear, but its infamous reputation was even greater. It monitored officials with one hand and protected imperial power with the other.
With such immense power, even the prefect of Lingnan City would feel a chill run down his spine upon seeing this token, let alone a lowly city gate captain like him.
The captain immediately knelt down and banged his head hard on the ground.
"Yes, Your Excellency, I will certainly serve you well."
"Hmm, not bad."
Wang Zhongxian ordered his men to retrieve the token and said to Li Chang'an, "Brother, I'll be taking my leave now."
Li Chang'an waved to him and watched the carriage slowly disappear into the city.
"Get up, everyone's gone."
The captain, who was kneeling on the ground, only dared to raise his head after hearing these words.
The back of his official robe was soaked.
"Sir, you..."
The captain stood up, bowing obsequiously at Li Chang'an with a fawning expression on his face.
"Don't say anything yet. Find me a place to rest for a while, and while you're at it, buy me some food."
Li Chang'an tossed him two gold ingots and said, "Buy more good stuff, I'll make up the difference later if you need more."
He drank quite a bit, and when he came down and was exposed to the wind, the effects of the rice wine kicked in.
"Yes, yes, yes, sir, please follow me."
The captain held the gold ingot, beaming with joy, his face even more obsequious.
As expected of a high-ranking official from the capital, he is indeed very generous.
One gold ingot weighs one tael. Two gold ingots can be exchanged for twenty taels of silver.
My monthly salary is only two taels of silver, but this official gave me a year's salary in one go.
Tsk tsk tsk.
The captain led Li Chang'an to the city wall, found him a clean room, and said, "Sir, please rest here. Just call out if you need anything, and I'll prepare some food for you right away."
After receiving a wave from Li Chang'an, he left the room and instructed his men to guard the door so as not to disturb the master.
Su Xiao laid out the bedding, but Li Chang'an waved for her to put the blanket aside and took out a new duvet cover from his backpack and put it on top.
He prefers his own things; who knows how many people have slept on this blanket?
He didn't sleep, but sat on the bed with his eyes closed, trying to process the news he had received that day.
While Li Chang'an was processing the information, Wang Zhongxian was also sitting in the Jinyiwei's office, his eyes showing no sign of drunkenness.
"Someone come here!"
"Your subordinate is here!"
Two tall figures emerged from the shadows.
Wang Zhongxian wrote a letter, placed it in a bamboo tube, and handed it to the two figures.
"Give our letter to Eunuch Yu, and then have someone investigate that Li Chang'an. We refuse to believe he's really some kind of deity."
Wang Zhongxian looked up at the bright moon in the sky, thinking of the few jugs of wine that Li Chang'an had taken out of the carriage, and muttered to himself.
"You can take things from a distance and are surrounded by divine light. If you are truly an immortal cultivating in the mountains, I, Wang, would not hesitate to call you 'brother' or even 'godfather'."
After a while, Wang Zhongxian moved his foot, and a pebble flew through the window with a bang, as if it had hit something.
With a thud, a dark figure fell from the tree.
The guards rushed forward to check and saw a masked man in black lying motionless on the ground with a hole between his eyebrows that led to the back of his head.
Wang Zhongxian felt no unease whatsoever when he casually killed someone.
There have been countless people in the martial arts world who have tried to kill him over the years. If he doesn't even have this much vigilance, how can he be the third chief steward of the Eastern Depot?
Inside the post station, Zhang Jiadi was still vomiting. Zhang Yun quickly grabbed a spittoon and patted his master's back.
After vomiting, Zhang Jiadi lay on the bed and muttered to himself.
Eunuch Wang, Brother Haoran, let's keep drinking!
Ugh.
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