Chapter 39
Just as they were puzzled, Shen Ling's voice sounded from outside the carriage, "Two girls, please move."
"Chen Ling, Yu Hang, what are you doing?"
Having said that, Lin Xing still pulled Xiaomei out of the car, and they had already reached the outside of the city.
"Let Yu Hang explain."
Yu Hang immediately took over the conversation: "I have reported this trip to the emperor, and the emperor ordered us to stay in Dingzhou for half a month to resolve this matter."
Lin Xing's heart moved. The emperor was so sensible and the people were suffering so much. She thought that the emperor and the prime minister were in cahoots, but it seemed that this might not be the case.
"Then why stop?"
"The train we are taking now goes directly to the capital, and we will stop in Dingzhou."
"What about the luggage?"
"Follow our carriage, of course."
It was no problem. Lin Xing pulled Xiao Mei onto the newly replaced carriage, but before she could step onto the stool, she was stopped by Shen Ling.
"Manager Lin, would you like to introduce this girl?"
"I'm no longer the shopkeeper, just call me by my name." She hugged Xiaomei tightly, "This is my best friend who grew up with me, Xiaomei."
"Mr. Shen, just call me Xiaomei."
"In that case, you don't have to call me Master Shen. It's too distant. You can just call me by my name."
Xiao Mei looked at Lin Xing in panic, and saw that she nodded and smiled at Shen Ling, but in the end she was unable to call out his name.
"It's so cold, why don't we talk when we get to the post station."
Lin Xing shivered from the cold, and got into the carriage as if escaping, saying this and no longer paying attention to the three people behind her.
Nanru is not far from Dingzhou, only a day and a half's drive away. If we set out this morning, we can enter Dingzhou City at noon tomorrow.
Stars appeared in the sky and the carriage stopped outside an official post station. The post station was inconspicuous and even looked a little shabby. Only its name attracted attention.
"Hongciyi, what a strange name."
When a few people got off the carriage, the sign of the post station came into view. The name was not the strangest thing, but the sign was written in red. The combination of scarlet letters and the dark night really creates a special flavor.
The servant at the door had already seen the carriage. He waited until the four people got off before he went forward to lead the horse. Coincidentally, he heard Lin Xing's complaints clearly.
Seeing the four people's attire, the waiter had an idea and took the initiative to introduce the post station to them. "My dear guests, you may not know that Dingzhou is not far from the post station, and Dingzhou is most famous for its flower porcelain. Throughout the ages, many literati have compared flower porcelain to red jade. Flower porcelain is very famous, so the post station is named after it."
The servant was good at observing people's expressions. He noticed that two of the guests were quite interested in this, so he continued, "The words on the signboard of the post station were written by the late emperor himself. When the late emperor passed by this place during his southern tour, he wrote down this beautiful name."
After a proper pause, Lin Xing knew what he was expecting, so she took out ten cents and handed it to him. The servant then left satisfied.
After the servant disappeared, Shen Ling bumped Yu Hang with his shoulder and asked with a teasing tone, "Is what the servant said true?"
Yu Hang glanced at him, didn't say anything, and walked into the post station. Shen Ling was also asking for trouble and shrugged helplessly.
"It should be true. It makes sense that the late emperor passed through here during his southern tour." Lin Xing said casually as she passed by Shen Ling.
The wind blew even harder, and Shen Ling suddenly realized that the other three had already entered the post station, and hurried to catch up. After everyone entered the post station, only the spider silk on the plaque was left floating in the wind.
The atmosphere inside the house seemed even more terrifying than outside. There were quite a few people sitting in the lobby, but it was extremely quiet. After the four people went in, no one came to greet them and they just stood there at a loss as to what to do.
"Excuse me, where is the store owner?"
No one responded. Not even one of the guests in the room looked up at the four people. They just focused on eating and drinking. Lin Xing understood that this post station might not be simple.
She touched Shen Ling's arm, leaned close to him and whispered, "You'll start acting like a dandy in a while."
Shen Ling was puzzled, but still did as he was told. He walked a few steps into the house and shouted even louder, "I went to Dingzhou to do business, but I didn't expect to meet such a rude shopkeeper. Well, I might as well hurry into Dingzhou overnight."
"Sir, let's go."
The two of them sang in unison and made gestures to leave. Sure enough, a woman in red came out of the kitchen with a flattering smile.
"The kitchen is too noisy, so I neglected you all. To make up for it, I'll give you a few bottles of good wine. What do you think?"
"No need for wine. I have drunk everything. Give me two good guest rooms. The best ones."
For some reason, Shen Ling deliberately emphasized the last few words, perhaps to highlight his identity. When the boss heard this, he laughed even more happily, his mouth almost couldn't close, and he hurriedly led the four people and took them to the second floor.
Along the way, the boss kept introducing how great his own inn was, praising it from its cultural heritage to its infrastructure, but Lin Xing always had a bad feeling.
After introducing the two guest rooms, the boss smiled brightly, "Are you satisfied?"
Shen Ling nodded pretentiously, "Satisfied, these are the two I'll take."
"As long as the distinguished guest is satisfied, these two rooms only cost five taels of silver, and you can eat as much food as you want at the post station." The boss said as he extended his hand to Shen Ling and looked at him expectantly.
Shen Ling smiled to hide his feelings, and looked at Lin Xing naturally. Seeing Lin Xing nod, he took out the silver from his bag and gave it to the boss, "In this case, the boss must treat us well."
The boss smiled even brighter, but they couldn't smile. Isn’t this an official post? How dare she do such a shady thing? Lin Xing said, this is a shady shop.
Now that things have come to this, let’s eat first. After putting down the luggage, Lin Xing pulled Xiaomei and whispered, "Xiaomei, there is something wrong with this store."
"It's not as shabby as I thought, but why do you say that?"
"We were arguing for a long time downstairs, but not a single customer looked up. Isn't that strange? A normal person would definitely look up when hearing a strange voice."
"But why would they do this?"
Lin Xing shook her head, "But don't worry, everything will be fine with me here."
When the two of them went out, they happened to meet Yu Hang and Shen Ling, and the four of them went downstairs together. In less than a quarter of an hour, more than half of the people downstairs had left, and now there were only three tables occupied.
The boss was proactive this time. Before they even reached the first floor, she greeted them, "Please take a seat, my four distinguished guests. I have prepared food for you all."
Sure enough, the table was already full of food. Compared with the shabby table, the food looked like it was cooked by the Conch Girl.
Seeing that the four of them were seated, the boss picked up the bottle of wine at hand and said, "This is the best wine in the post station. I wonder if I have the honor to drink a glass with you guys?"
"Of course, the boss is so outstanding, it should be our honor."
Shen Ling made the boss laugh with just one sentence, and the laughter echoed in the post station, crisp and weird.
The boss poured wine for them and naturally sat in the empty seat next to them. After three rounds of drinks, the boss started talking more.
"What are you four doing in Dingzhou?"
Lin Xing frowned, and Chen Ling continued to laugh, "Doing business, my family's business in Nanru is very good, so I thought about going to Dingzhou to make a living."
"What business?"
"porcelain."
“This is really fate.”
The boss laughed out loud, and the four of them followed suit. Lin Xing pretended to be exhausted, and so did the other two, but Shen Ling was enjoying it.
I don't know what they whispered to each other, but the boss had already put his arm around Shen Ling's shoulder and said in a voice that everyone could hear: "I wonder if there are any family members of the young master here?"
"These three are all my family members." Shen Ling introduced them one by one, "This is my second sister, Lin Yin. This is my youngest sister, Lin Mei. And the other one is my brother-in-law."
"I wonder which sister's lover that gentleman is?"
"You might as well take a guess."
The boss's eyes swept across Lin Xing and Xiaomei's faces, hesitated for a while, and finally fell on Xiaomei.
"It must be the second sister's."
This statement was beyond the expectations of several people, and Shen Ling also became interested, "I wonder how the girl saw it?"
"Of course it's because..." The boss changed the subject, "Tell me your name first."
"Lin Ling."
As Shen Ling said this, he stared at the boss without blinking, showing no sign of guilt. Lin Xing beside him was nervous for him.
"Mr. Lin, I am Li Xiaxi."
"Miss Li, you haven't told me how you guessed it yet?"
Li Xiaxi covered her lips and smiled, then leaned close to Shen Ling's ear and whispered something.
Lin Xing stared at the boss's every move and didn't find anything unusual, but Shen Ling suddenly stood up and said, "It's late at night, you should go back and rest."
"Brother, what about you?" Lin Xing quickly got into the role.
"Miss Li and I have something important to discuss. Don't bother with me. You should leave now."
Although full of doubts, the three could only stand up and leave. Before Lin Xing entered the house, she looked down and saw that there were only two people left in the lobby.
Lin Xing closed the door and peeked carefully through the crack, and Yu Hang beside her did the same. Perhaps because there was no one downstairs, the two people's voices did not lower, but became louder.
"It's just you and me now. Miss Li, you can just speak frankly if you have anything to say."
"Really? I don't think so."
They were too far away and it was already the limit for her to hear clearly. Lin Xing couldn't even see the expressions on their faces. When she heard what her boss said, she quickly turned around and took two steps inside in an attempt to cover up her mistake.
By the time she crawled to the door, the man had disappeared and the lobby was empty.
There was no time to hide at this moment, Lin Xing hurriedly opened the door, and Yu Hang was already standing outside.
“Did you see where Shen Ling went?”
"I saw him follow the boss into a room on the first floor."
"Xiaomei, don't move around in the house. Let's go check out the situation first."
Without waiting for Xiaomei's reply, Lin Xing hurriedly pulled Yu Hang downstairs. Even though the two of them tried to lighten their steps, their footsteps were still loud in this quiet inn.
Following the direction that Yu Hang had just seen, they stopped outside a guest room. This room looked exactly the same as theirs. Lin Xing, who didn't see anything fishy, decided to crawl by the door and eavesdrop.
Lin Xing's expression became more serious as she listened, "Did you hear any movement in the house?"
"No."
The two looked at each other, Lin Xing stepped back, and Yu Hang went to open the door.
They thought there would be hidden weapons, but it turned out that they were overthinking. This was just a normal guest room. There were no hidden weapons. The room was very clean and there was not even a single person in it.
No, no one? Where is Shen Ling? Where is the boss? The two of them quickly entered the house and gave it a quick search, and indeed, no one was there.
"Did I see it wrong?"
“No, I just observed that there is only this one guest room on the first floor. Since Shen Ling entered the room, he will definitely not disappear.”
Thinking of one thing at the same time, they both said in unison, "There is a secret passage in the house."
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