Qin Youran gently pushed away the two bandits and invited Hua Fushu in. He was alert and ready to escort them at any time. Although he was a prince, he protected the people he was supposed to protect like a bodyguard.
Rather than being a bodyguard, he looked more like a brother who cared about his sister. His face lacked the respect that a bodyguard should have, only doting and pampering.
The Tianyu Guards surrounding Sai Yuhuan voluntarily made way. Hua Fushu, escorted by Qin Youran and Yu Chisu, walked in front of Sai Yuhuan. Hua Fushu glanced at Sai Yuhuan coldly, then said, "My people can retreat, but your dog must retreat first. I am the only one who can scold my people. You have no right to do so. If you scold me again, I will turn you into minced meat!"
"You!" Sai Yuhuan felt that she was about to fall into this girl's hands.
Zhang Zhongjian looked at Hua Fushu calmly. He had already seen this girl's sharp tongue and unreasonableness in Dayi Hall, and now he saw her calmness and domineering attitude to protect her shortcomings. She really grew up and was no longer the little girl who needed to be comforted when she cried, helped up when she fell, and was easily fooled.
Hua Fushu said, "Why don't you let your dog back off?"
Sai Yuhuan was furious but had to suppress her anger and ordered her brothers to retreat. The bandits had no choice but to retreat due to the order from their leader.
The bandits all retreated, but Hua Fushu did not immediately let Cang Shu and others leave.
Sai Yuhuan was displeased with this and asked, "Why, my people have retreated, but yours won't move aside?"
"What's the rush?" Hua Fushu smiled. "Boss, we have to take the 100,000 official silver coins with us, otherwise no one will be able to leave."
Sai Yuhuan said angrily: "Don't push your luck."
Ye Zelin gently embraced Hua Fushu's small waist and said, "That's for the water conservancy project. Do you think the boss wants to take it for himself?"
Sai Yuhuan had heard the phrase "taking something for oneself" so many times that she was fed up with it. She said, "I didn't steal it, so what does it have to do with me? It was clearly Old Dog Cai who forced it on me and asked me to keep it for him. Do you think I want it? Who cares?"
Hua Fushu looked towards Cangshu and ordered, "Cangshu, step back."
Cang Zhu only glanced at Hua Fushu but did not retreat. Jiang Li and the other two, including San Qiao, did not retreat either. As for Mu Qing and Tianyu Wei, they were all Qin Youran's men. Without Qin Youran's order, they naturally would not retreat.
Hua Fushu became serious and said, "Four guards, why don't you retreat!"
Nanxing glanced at Jing Mo and Jiang Li, neither of them made any move to retreat. Finally, the three of them looked at Cang Shu. As the eldest of the four, Cang Shu knew that the young master's orders could not be disobeyed, so he nodded, and the four of them retreated.
Sanqiao did not retreat, so Hua Fushu said calmly, "Qiao'er, you should step down too."
"Miss." Sanqiao called Hua Fushu dissatisfiedly, and finally stepped back reluctantly and went to Hua Fushu's side.
Qin Youran glanced at Mu Qing, who understood and stepped aside with the Tianyu Guards.
Ye Zelin glanced at the bandits in the distance and said to Sai Yuhuan and Zhang Zhongjian, "Please ask the two bosses to have a few brothers carry those dozen boxes to Xiangshui Town."
Sai Yuhuan looked displeased, clearly unhappy. Did Ye Zelin actually want her brothers to do hard labor?
Hua Fushu looked at her coldly, as if threatening her. Sai Yuhuan remained silent and walked away with a flick of his sleeves.
Zhang Zhongjian looked at Sai Yuhuan, then at Ye Zelin and the other two, and finally followed Sai Yuhuan, with the Fifth Master and Zhu Fa following closely behind.
Ye Zelin looked at Zhang Zhongjian's receding figure and released his hand from Hua Fushu's waist. He said calmly, "Fushu, do you know this second-in-command? I think he looks at you strangely, but I can't put my finger on why."
"I don't know him." Hua Fushu didn't know why Ye Zelin asked this.
Ye Zelin said again, "Are you sure you don't know him, or maybe you have seen him before?"
Hua Fushu said, "I definitely haven't seen him before. I only saw him once by the stream a while ago. He even gave me a carp. Qiao'er made fish soup, and you had a share."
Ye Zelin remembered that this was indeed the case. He didn't expect that Zhang Zhongjian was the angler who sent Hua Fushu the fish. However, Dou Xi's words "Don't touch her, or the second in command will fight you to the death" really made him puzzled. Why did Dou Xi say that? Zhang Zhongjian's concern for Hua Fushu far exceeded that of a stranger he had only met once.
Hua Fushu said he didn't know Zhang Zhongjian. It seemed that he had to go and ask Zhang Zhongjian to clear up the doubts in his heart.
Nan Xing interrupted, "Our young master is as pretty as a flower, cute and clever. Who wouldn't like him?"
He nudged Jing Mo with his elbow, "Is that Jing Xiaomo?"
Jing Mo coughed lightly, ignored Nan Xing, and walked to Jiang Li.
Hua Fushu smiled and said, "You are poor."
Ye Zelin glanced at the four Cang Shu and said to Hua Fushu, "I see that these four brothers have extraordinary skills. Fushu, why don't you introduce them to me?"
Hua Fushu replied, "These are the four great guards my master found for me. Please introduce yourselves."
She looked at Ye Zelin and said solemnly, "This is my husband, Ye Zelin, the son of the National Defense General Ye Shiheng."
Cang Shu spoke first, and he bowed and saluted, "So you are the Major General, I am Cang Shu."
Jing Mo clasped his fists and said, "My name is Jing Mo, Jing means Dongjing, and Mo means pen and ink."
Ye Zelin returned the greetings one by one.
Nan Xing was the most outgoing and talkative of the four. He patted Ye Zelin on the shoulder and said:
"I'm Nanxing. If you marry our young master, you must treat him well. If you bully him or treat him badly, I will be the first one to not let you go. This time you hurt the young master, so I will forgive you this time. If you do it again, even if the young master protects you, I will poison you to death..."
Before he could finish his words, Jiang Li pulled him away from Ye Zelin. Jing Mo tactfully grabbed Nan Xing's other hand and pulled Nan Xing away together with Jiang Li.
Hua Fushu smiled awkwardly, "Well, Nanxing is good in every way, but she just talks too much."
She continued, "That really cool guy is called Jiang Li. We've known each other for several years. Cang Shu and the others also know Mu Qing. They heard I was in Yuezhou, so they followed me. You know, they're guards, right? Their duty is to protect their masters. Our wedding was rushed, and I didn't even treat them to wedding wine. I still owe them wedding candy."
Ye Zelin chuckled softly, "Yes, it was indeed rushed. Blame it on me for not thinking things through. I'll just invite people to any banquets I want to have in the future, such as full-month celebrations or hundred-day banquets."
Hua Fushu lowered his head slightly, as if feeling embarrassed.
Sai Yuhuan and his brothers moved more than ten large boxes filled with official silver out of the secret room. Ye Zelin went to check them out and he was very sure that the silver was from that batch of official silver.
Qin Youran also recognized that the batch of silver was official silver produced by the Silver Manufacturing Bureau, and guessed that this was the 100,000 official silver that Cheng Wenbo lost. However, he had never been interested in the affairs of the court and just pretended not to see it.
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