Seeing that she was about to refuse, Chu Yan said, "Master, please take it. I'll also give you a jade pendant. If you need anything, you can come to the restaurant to find me. If I'm not there, just give the jade pendant to Manager Tong, and he'll know that my master has come."
Li Mai looked at the two jade pendants in her hand. Chu Yan's was a Qilin jade pendant, and Zhong Hui's was a phoenix jade pendant.
She wondered to herself, "Is jade not valued in this era?"
Is it permissible for the son of the Prefect of Jingzhao to wear a phoenix jade pendant? Moreover, she has rarely seen a phoenix jade pendant.
As for the Qilin jade pendant, it's generally something only generals would wear. Would a young master whose family owns a restaurant dare to openly wear a Qilin jade pendant?
These two lads, Li and Mai, must have identities that aren't simple, unlike what they claimed.
The two apprentices looked to be about the same age as him, and there were two guards standing in the distance watching them; they were probably their personal bodyguards.
However, Li Mai felt that unless it was a matter of life and death, she probably wouldn't go to see them after going to the capital.
When she leaves, just quietly return the jade pendant.
"Okay, thank you!"
As for the master-disciple relationship, she was just leaving herself and Zhou Quan a way out when they were in the capital. After all, Sister Yu's matter was a bit tricky, and she didn't want anything to happen to her, so she had to make some necessary preparations first.
It was truly fate that I met these two lads.
Early the next morning, Li Mai and Zhou Quan drove their carriage away from Yongzhou City.
When Chu Yan and Zhong Hui woke up and went to pay their respects to their master, they learned that he had already left.
"Cousin, do you think Master will come looking for us after he goes to the capital?" Chu Yan asked.
Zhong Hui shook her head. "Probably not. If she comes looking for us, it's probably because she's in trouble."
Chu Yan understood. "Should we go somewhere else? Or should we go straight back to the capital?"
"Let's go back to the capital!" Zhong Hui thought for a moment. He had given away the jade pendant, so he had to go back and explain things to his family.
This was also one of their missions during their travels: to find a reliable master and hand over the jade pendant. It was also one of the tests their father put them to the test, to see if they could distinguish between good and bad people.
It was possible that they would each find a master, but honestly, after half a year away, they haven't met anyone they feel they can entrust with the jade pendant.
When those people learned that the two of them wanted to learn skills from them, they either asked them for a fee or demanded that they explain their backgrounds to see if they were worth taking on as disciples.
They encountered several such people, but they always felt that such people were not suitable to be their masters, so they did not become their disciples.
Feeling that they had finally learned a skill that their father and grandfather did not possess after learning Gomoku, the two immediately decided to set off back to the capital.
At noon, Li Mai and his group arrived at a small town and stopped in front of a steamed bun shop, intending to buy some steamed buns to eat on the way.
Unexpectedly, just as they were about to say they wanted to buy steamed buns, a child suddenly rushed up, grabbed two buns, and ran away while their carriage was blocking the way.
The boss turned around and saw it, so he quickly chased after it.
But the child has already run away, how can we catch up?
Before Zhou Quan could react, he saw the boss chase after him.
When Li Mai came out, she saw that two buns were missing from the basket, and she also saw the boss chasing a child. She roughly knew what had happened.
"Hey, boss, stop chasing us! If you run any further, we'll take the whole cage!" Li Mai shouted at the boss's retreating figure.
The boss stopped abruptly, turned around and ran back, his face flushed with anger, cursing, "You brat, you've stolen from me three times this month!" Li Mai and Zhou Quan exchanged a glance, suppressing their laughter; the boss's cursing was quite amusing.
They've been robbed three times already, and they still haven't learned their lesson. Why don't they cover the buns? Maybe he felt sorry for that skinny-looking child. Li Mai thought the boss's chasing after the child was just for show.
"Boss, give me two baskets of steamed buns," Zhou Quan said.
"Sir, we don't have enough for two steamers. Two have been stolen." The owner was a little discouraged; that was all he could make.
"It's alright, these are fine. Please pack them in clean food containers for us. Those two are mine too. Including the food containers, you can calculate the total cost," Li Mai said.
Upon hearing this, the boss hurriedly went to prepare. Selling steamed buns was a matter of small profits but quick turnover. His buns had large fillings, and if that little devil stole two, he would earn less today, which would reduce the money he could use to pay for his mother's medical treatment. But there were quite a few beggars there, and he absolutely could not give them to them openly, otherwise even these two baskets wouldn't be enough for them to rush up and snatch them.
The boss sighed inwardly. Even beggars knew how to bully the weak and fear the strong. Wasn't that how it was with the steamed bun vendor next door? He gave them some twice, but a group of beggars would always rush up and snatch it away. They knew the boss was kind-hearted and wouldn't chase after them to beat them up.
Later, having no other choice, the couple who made steamed buns moved away. Now, no one dares to rent that shop. This is a bloody lesson.
Fortunately, I met a kind couple.
Li Mai and Zhou Quan put away the steamed buns, paid for them, and asked which direction to go to the capital before leaving the small town.
Not long after they left, Chu Yan and her carriage entered the town. However, instead of eating steamed buns, they went to the best restaurant in town for a meal.
However, the food in this small town was really mediocre. After they finished eating, they left the town and continued to chase after Li Mai and the others, but they couldn't catch up with them.
As night fell, they encountered no more towns and had to find a secluded spot in the mountains to rest in the carriage.
However, in the middle of the night, they were surrounded by a pack of wolves.
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