Chapter 45: Dark Channel When the faint red color on the horizon was completely darkened...
He guessed that the ginseng here probably came from the thousand-year-old ginseng mentioned in the original book that saved the life of the emperor of Daqing Kingdom.
The two protagonists in the original book also became successful in Daqing Kingdom because of their meritorious service in rescue.
This medicinal soup really proves what Xing Wenhan said about it being a "magic elixir". Xing Wenhan might have brought out all of Huichuntang's 300-year foundation.
I'm afraid that all the ancestors of Huichuntang would like to crawl out of their graves and beat up this prodigal son.
"What's wrong?" Seeing Pei Yixue took the medicine but was reluctant to take it, Xing Wenhan couldn't help but ask.
"This medicine seems to smell a little different from the previous ones?" Pei Yixue asked tentatively, wanting to hear from Xing Wenhan himself how old this ginseng was.
Xing Wenhan was surprised for a moment, and said in amazement: "Oh? You can actually smell the difference? It's not easy, it's not simple. This prescription is exactly the same as the one you gave to the village doctor, the only difference is that the years of the medicinal materials used in the medicine are very different. It stands to reason that it is difficult to distinguish the tricks without being proficient in pharmacology. You can distinguish the little secrets hidden in it, which can be said to be a natural talent."
"But it's a pity that, except for this thousand-year-old ginseng, the rest of the medicinal herbs are only a hundred years old or even a few decades old. If I could have a thousand-year-old cultivation, I would be able to cure your illness."
Xing Wenhan showed a trace of regret on his face, and Pei Yixue almost blacked out.
I didn't expect that Xing Wenhan wanted to replace all other medicines with thousand-year-old ones. I'm afraid that if I feed them to a skeleton, the skeleton will be able to come back to life and dance.
"Millennial ginseng only exists in legends. How could Shopkeeper Xing have such a magical item in his hands?"
"Oh, that's serious. Thousand-year-old ginseng is just thousand-year-old ginseng. How can you say it's a magical object? In my heart, the thousand-year-old ginseng, hundred-year-old angelica, and hundred-year-old rehmannia here are not half as important as Shopkeeper Pei." Xing Wenhan said vaguely, with tenderness in his words.
Pei Yixue looked at the man. Since the hard approach didn't work, he was going to try the soft approach?
"I am confident that I can cure Shopkeeper Pei. I was reckless during the day." Xing Wenhan said affectionately, "But the world can see my feelings for you. Since the first time I saw you, I have never forgotten you. All I did was to seek you."
As he spoke, Xing Wenhan leaned forward a little, his eyes full of heat.
Pei Yixue was very familiar with the tone of these words. He often said this to Xie Yushu.
But only a simple person like Xie Yushu would fail to hear the tea flavor in these words and would listen to them.
But in order to avoid Xing Wenhan talking around him these past two days and causing trouble, why not let him be "Xie Yushu" for once?
Pei Yixue gave the answer Xing Wenhan wanted: "I know my physical condition well. If Shopkeeper Xing has such extraordinary ability to cure me, then what Shopkeeper Xing asks for is not impossible."
Xing Wenhan's eyes flashed with joy, and he asked hurriedly: "Are you serious?"
Pei Yixue replied, "Really." But with his illness, if he wanted, he could be sick until he died of old age, and Xing Wenhan only had two days left to treat him.
"Okay, okay." Xing Wenhan stood up and said a little excitedly, "It's settled! Don't regret it later."
Pei Yixue said firmly: "I will never regret it."
Xing Wenhan couldn't suppress his joy, and he didn't know where to put his hands and feet. Finally, he fixed his eyes on the medicine cup in Pei Yixue's hand: "Drink the medicine, don't worry about your illness, take good care of yourself, and leave the rest to me. Including the batch of black iron, if it can't be transported to Qixia Cliff in three days, it will take thirty days. I'll talk to big brother."
Pei Yixue's eyes darkened. He rubbed the medicine cup with his fingertips, tilted his head back and drank the medicine in one gulp. The bitter medicine flowed down his throat into his stomach, and he didn't even frown.
Who said he couldn't bring it? But what he brought was not just the black iron that Qixiaya wanted.
Putting the medicine cup on the pear wood coffee table beside his left hand, Pei Yixue asked about the mountain bandits storing food that he saw in the afternoon, and said with a worried look: "Today I was on the cliff road and saw 500 carts of food transported from the bottom of the mountain. The Seven Heroes Cliff seem to be hoarding food recently, but where did you get the news that there will be a famine year soon?"
Xing Wenhan sneered, his eyes filled with ambition, "Why are we welcoming a year of famine? We are welcoming the prosperous era of Daqing!"
"Welcome the prosperous era of Daqing?" Pei Yixue's heart skipped a beat, and he guessed what Xing Wenhan meant by this. Could it be that the Seven Heroes wanted to rebel?
"Don't ask any more questions about this matter. One day you will understand that our Seven Heroes Cliff has a bright future, which cannot be compared with those bumpkins who occupy the mountains and act as kings elsewhere."
After hearing this, Pei Yixue had made up his mind that even if the Seven Heroes Cliff did not rebel, what they did was almost the same as rebellion.
While Pei Yixue was deep in thought, Xing Wenhan couldn't help but ask, "Don't believe it?"
"The fact that Qixia Cliff has been able to stand till now in Lingyi Province is unmatched by any other strongholds." Pei Yixue forced a smile, but he couldn't laugh in his heart.
If the Seven Heroes Cliff were rebelling but said they were welcoming the prosperous era of "great celebration" and had no intention of overthrowing the Zhao royal family, then the power of the Seven Heroes Cliff must belong to someone in the capital.
He now has to help the government to eradicate the Seven Heroes Cliff and ruin the results of his years of painstaking efforts. If he fails to eradicate it together, he will definitely be hated.
Pei Yixue didn't want to get too involved with the royal family unless it was necessary. But now that he had joined the game, the arrow was on the string and had to be shot. He had to get rid of the Seven Heroes Cliff.
Pei Yixue sighed inwardly. He just wanted to open a simple store, so why was it so difficult?
After lying in bed all night with a heavy heart, Pei Yixue had already walked around the village twice when the sun rose.
According to what Xing Wenhan said, since the Seven Heroes Cliff were going to rebel, there must be a lot of people hiding in the cave. Judging from the rate at which food was being consumed, there were at least 10,000 people in the cave.
When Pei Yixue came here, he wanted to find an opportunity to start with food and drug the bandits of Qixia Cliff. But now the bandits of Qixia Cliff are divided into two parts, inside and outside the cave, with different sources of food and meal times, and he can't even get close to the one inside the cave, so he has no idea what's going on.
Pei Yixue frowned and sat sideways on the well circle, thinking in his heart how to drug these two groups of bandits at the same time.
Inadvertently, his eyes swept across the well, and a subtle difference caught Pei Yixue's attention. He leaned over and looked closely.
Under the sunlight, a circular hole is faintly visible on the underwater well wall.
"Clandestine channel?" Pei Yixue stared at the underwater cave entrance and tapped the well ring with his fingertips. If the clandestine channel led to the cave... then everything would be solved.
Where the secret channel leads to, we have to explore it to know. Pei Yixue can't do this, so he needs help, and Lin Feng is the best choice.
Under the thick night, Qixia Cliff gradually returned to calm.
"Squeak--" The window was pushed open lightly, and Pei Yixue on the bed opened his eyes.
Lin Feng jumped into the room and looked up and down at Pei Yixue who was sitting by the bed waiting for him. "Just as you expected, this underground channel leads to the cave, and ten meters ahead, it converges with several underground channels. I think it also draws water from other places."
"In this case, what Brother Lin needs to do next is to wait."
"Yeah." Lin Feng nodded, turned around and slipped out of the window without any hesitation.
Pei Yixue swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He thought Lin Feng wanted to ask more about his next plan, but it turned out that the other party didn't want to know at all.
"That's right. How can a person who doesn't even care about life and death care about these things?" Pei Yixue consoled himself.
Time quickly came to the fourth day, and Pei Yixue waited anxiously from sunrise to sunset.
Tonight is the time he agreed with the outsiders, and it is also the critical moment to determine whether he can take down the Seven Heroes Cliff.
In the past two days, Xing Wenhan would come here every mealtime and have meals with him.
The table was filled with a variety of dishes. They looked normal, but they were all cooked with well water that had been drugged by Pei Yixue. Xing Wenhan picked up a piece of bright red braised pork and chewed it carefully, looking very happy. Pei Yixue's lips curled up.
Then, Xing Wenhan turned to a plate of steamed sea bass, used chopsticks to separate the fish meat, picked it up and put it into his mouth.
Xing Wenhan was completely immersed in the delicious food of Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs, and did not notice anything unusual about the meal.
Witnessing Xing Wenhan eating the food mouthful by mouthful, this was the most satisfying meal Pei Yixue and Xing Wenhan had ever had.
After the meal, Pei Yixue went out to "digest the food" as usual.
"Wait." Xing Wenhan suddenly stopped him.
"Manager Xing, is there anything else?" Pei Yixue turned around. Now the bandits outside have swallowed the ginseng medicine meal, and the effect of the medicine will take effect in an hour, but those people in the cave have not yet been injected with the medicine.
Pei Yixue was in a hurry. He had to add some more ingredients to the water before dinner time in the cave.
In this way, after an hour, the village gate can be opened to welcome people.
"I'll go with you." Xing Wenhan stood up and followed him.
"Okay." Pei Yixue responded. It was convenient to move alone, but adding another person temporarily would not be a problem.
Pei Yixue had a clear goal and soon arrived at the well under the banyan tree.
There was no one by the well, only a few withered yellow banyan leaves drifting in the wind, making it seem particularly quiet.
Pei Yixue sat on the well ring, pretending to rest, looking at the lush branches and leaves of the old banyan tree.
"I was worried that the batch of black iron from Qingzhou wouldn't be delivered on time, and I had already thought about how to ask big brother for mercy."
Xing Wenhan followed suit and sat down. "I didn't expect that we have already reached the Seven Heroes Cliff. From now on, Shopkeeper Pei and I are truly on the same boat."
Pei Yixue glanced around and after confirming that no one was paying attention, he pushed the white porcelain bottle aside under his sleeve.
When you tap the bottle lightly with your fingertips, white powder pours out, dissolving in water and disappearing without a trace.
Pei Yixue looked down at the well water. The water surface was shaking slightly, as if causing the entrance of the culvert to twist continuously.
"What are you looking at?" Seeing that he didn't respond, Xing Wenhan followed his gaze into the well.
"There's a bug that has already flown away." Pei Yixue was in a good mood. He stood up, holding the porcelain bottle in his hand. "I'm going to the village gate to wait for the batch of black iron that the post station team will deliver. Do you want to come with me, Manager Xing?"
Without waiting for Xing Wenhan's reply, Pei Yixue walked straight towards the gate of the mountain stronghold. Xing Wenhan followed.
Not far from the mountain village gate, Pei Yixue and Xing Wenhan sat opposite each other in the pavilion. Xing Wenhan said, "It will probably take some time for them to get up the mountain. It's windy here, so why not wait inside? When they arrive, we can call us."
"It's nice to watch the sunset here." Pei Yixue looked calmly behind the gate.
As the sun sets, the noise from the village can be heard faintly, mixed with the shouts and laughter of bandits.
When the faint fiery red color on the horizon was completely swallowed up by the dark color, Pei Yixue's mouth curled up slightly, and he silently counted the time in his heart.
Sure enough, not long after, the noises in the village gradually became chaotic. Pei Yixue knew that the drug had begun to take effect and the bandits would soon fall one after another.
"What's going on inside?" Xing Wenhan stood up and looked into the village.
"Third in command, you can go and see what's going on." Pei Yixue said.
"That's not necessary. It's not my turn to worry about it." Xing Wenhan turned sideways and said to him.
Within sight, a man was walking towards the pavilion holding a medicine cup. Xing Wenhan took two steps forward and prepared to wait for someone to come and take the medicine cup, but the bandit fell to the ground without any warning as he was walking.
With a thud, the medicine spilled all over the floor.
"What are you going to do..." Xing Wenhan's voice became weaker and weaker, his body shaking involuntarily. He turned his head to look at Pei Yixue, his eyes full of doubt.
At the same time, the guards on the wall of the village gate not far away and the bandits guarding the gate all fell to the ground one after another.
Pei Yixue sat upright and said slowly: "Pei once said that kidnapping a good man requires a price. Do you remember, Manager Xing?" Not only Xing Wenhan has to pay this price, but the entire Seven Heroes Cliff has to pay it.
"You..." After uttering this word, Xing Wenhan fell to the ground unconscious.
The commotion in the village disappeared quickly as it came. In just ten seconds, the village returned to peace.
In the endless night, torches suddenly lit up on the wall of the village, and then the torches rose high and waved regularly to the left, five times in a group. This was the codeword that Pei Yixue and Lin Feng had agreed to meet with the outsiders.
Pei Yixue stood up, patted his sleeves lightly, and whispered to himself: "The time has come."
He walked towards the gate, reached the winch, and pulled the handle hard. As long as the gate was opened, the matter would be over.
The heavy gate of the village slowly opened under the drive of the winch, making a low "creaking" sound.
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