Chapter 43
"What?"
"Mr. Li has great taste. This dish is a famous imperial delicacy."
Shen Ling's voice overwhelmed Lin Xing's, and the two elder brothers just followed his words and said, "Who said it wasn't true? Two days ago, Master Li married another woman. At that time, anyone who came to the door of the Li Mansion could get free cloth and beef."
"So, Mr. Li is a good man?" Lin Xing deliberately pretended to be innocent.
The eldest brother who had been talking fell silent, then shook his head. The one who was still silent spoke up: "Not a good person, but not a bad one either. We two brothers make a living by doing odd jobs for the Li family."
Lin Xing suddenly grabbed Shen Ling's sleeve and pouted, "Brother, I don't want to eat sesame cakes anymore. I want to go back to sleep."
After saying that, she kept shaking Shen Ling's sleeves, as if she would lie on the ground and throw a tantrum if Shen Ling refused. Then Shen Ling had no choice but to agree, "Okay, let's go back now."
The two of them said goodbye and turned around. Although the eldest brother was puzzled, he did not stop them. The few of them said goodbye. They didn't know that Lin Xing and Shen Ling had secretly come to the door of Li's mansion again.
The two hid in the bushes next to Li's house, keeping an eye on the situation at the door.
"What should we do now? Neither of us knows martial arts, so forcing our way in is definitely not an option. But we can't just visit them directly, as that would easily alert them."
"wait."
Compared to Shen Ling's helplessness, Lin Xing looked calm, as if she already had a solution in mind. A quarter of an hour passed, people were coming and going at the door, but the two were still squatting there.
Seeing Lin Xing's serious face, Shen Ling didn't want to interrupt. After a while, he couldn't stand it anymore, "What are you waiting for?"
"Wait now."
Lin Xing suddenly stood up and grabbed a maid who was passing by the bushes, covered her mouth and pulled her into the bushes. Although Shen Ling didn't understand why someone suddenly kidnapped someone, he stepped forward to help.
Looking at the struggling maid, Lin Xing made a gesture to silence her, "Don't scream, I just want to ask you something."
The maid nodded tremblingly, and the hand covering her mouth was taken away, but the hand controlling her did not relax.
"Is your young lady called Zhao Qi?"
"How do you know?"
"Let me show you something."
As she spoke, Lin Xing took out the box that Zhou Feng was going to give her. In the box lay a Pisces jade pendant, exactly the same as the one hanging on the maid.
The maid's expression became agitated and she wanted to move, so Lin Xing signaled Shen Ling to let go. The maid immediately grabbed Lin Xing's hand and said happily, "Mr. Zhou asked you to come and save my young lady, right?"
Lin Xing shook his hand back, "Yes, let's find out the situation first, and then rescue your young lady when the time is right. Please tell me everything you know."
"My name is Xun Zhu, and I came here as my young lady's maidservant. A few days ago, my young lady tried to commit suicide but failed, and Master Li put me under house arrest. I am not allowed to leave the room, and I can only send people to buy the things I need."
At this time, Xun Zhu was already crying, "My young lady couldn't bear to see me suffer with her, so she gave in, and then Master Li agreed to let me go out of the house to make purchases."
She held Lin Xing's hand tighter, as if she had grasped the last straw, "You must rescue my young lady. She is not happy here at all. I have never seen her smile in the past few days in Quyang, and even her figure has become more frail."
"Don't worry, I will definitely take your young lady out of the Li Mansion." Lin Xing took out a letter with her movable hand and stuffed it into Xun Zhu's pocket. "Take this letter to your young lady. Remember not to tell anyone that you saw us today, except Miss Zhao."
Xun Zhu nodded firmly, wiped his tears and walked out. After watching her disappear, the two stood up and walked secretly to the street.
"Let's go. It's time for us to go back. County Magistrate Zhao will be looking for us soon."
"How did you know that girl would be there?"
"coincide."
Shen Ling laughed out loud, and Lin Xing gritted her teeth and said, "You don't believe it?"
"I didn't say that."
The tone and voice that deserved a beating made Lin Xing unable to help but point her finger at Chen Ling, "Hey, you..."
Unexpectedly, his hand was pushed back before he could finish his words. Shen Ling smiled and said, "I am your brother, and I am still on the street. How can you be so disrespectful?"
Feeling even more depressed, Lin Xing stomped her feet and took a few quick steps, expressing her protest by deliberately not walking in the same row with Shen Ling. Shen Ling followed her and deliberately fell behind a few steps, and they entered the county government office one after the other.
"Where have you been? The county magistrate is looking for you."
Liu Qichang must have been waiting at the door for a long time and was a little anxious. As soon as he saw the two people appear, he came over.
"Brother Liu, we're just going to buy some Quyang specialties. Is that okay?"
Lin Xing's attitude was so sincere that Liu Qichang felt a little embarrassed. He scratched his head and said, "It's nothing serious. The county magistrate found your lost money and ordered me to take you to see him."
"Great, Brother Liu, please lead the way."
Lin Xing jumped and skipped along the way, and the usually serious county government office became bright.
When they saw the county magistrate standing in the courtyard, he naturally noticed their arrival and greeted them with his signature smile, "You are finally here. I have good news to tell you."
"Did the county magistrate catch the murderer who murdered us?"
The county magistrate paused for a moment and said, "That's true. The thieves were too cunning. When we arrived, the house was empty and even the money was taken away."
"Ah? But Brother Liu said you would return our lost money to us?"
"As the county magistrate, I naturally cannot watch you suffer, otherwise it will chill the hearts of all the people in Quyang. So I will pay for you two to have enough money to settle down in Quyang."
This time it was not Lin Xing who spoke, Chen Ling finally said: "How can this be so embarrassing? The county magistrate has shown his gratitude by providing a place for my brother and me to stay, and he even went to look for our lost property. It is not reasonable for us to accept this money."
County Magistrate Zhao stopped talking nonsense with Shen Ling and directly stuffed the things into Shen Ling's hands. Naturally, he was unwilling and wanted to push it back. The two of them argued back and forth for a while, and finally even Liu Qichang stepped forward to speak for the county magistrate.
"Just accept it, otherwise how can you do business in Quyang?"
County Magistrate Zhao echoed, "If you really don't want to, just think of it as a loan from me. Return it to me when you make money in the future. How about that?"
Shen Ling stopped what he was doing, looked at County Magistrate Zhao with gratitude, and saluted him with Lin Xing.
"Do you have a place to live? If not, you can continue to live in the county government office."
"My Lord has taken too much care of my brother and me. We really don't want to cause trouble for you. We can go out and stay in an inn."
"If you have any trouble, come find me anytime." County Magistrate Zhao pointed at Liu Qichang, "Go and see them off."
Brother Liu escorted the man all the way to the outside of the county government office, and before leaving, he said, "You can also come to me for help, but don't try to be brave on your own."
"Thank you, Brother Liu."
"Thank you very much."
Lin Xing and Shen Ling turned and walked out. Liu Qichang looked at their backs and felt that they were walking faster and faster, as if they had something urgent to do.
The two of them headed east and stopped when they entered the inn. Yu Hang had already been waiting downstairs and took them upstairs directly.
After entering the house, Lin Xing looked around and found that someone was missing. She asked Yu Hang, "Where's Xiaomei? Why isn't she here?"
"She said she had some things to take care of and left early in the morning, so we don't need to look for her."
"Well, Yu Hang, what did Magistrate Wu say?"
"He's quite normal. I don't think he's in the same group as those people in the inn."
"It has been confirmed that County Magistrate Zhao is not a good person, but what should we do?" Shen Ling kept tossing the purse in his hand while speaking.
"We can then..."
"Bang!"
Lin Xing's voice was interrupted, and she rolled her eyes at Shen Ling, "Mr. Shen, can you put the purse on the table?"
Shen Ling nodded guiltily, picked it up and held it tightly.
"We have to go back to Hongciyi again, but before that we have to be prepared to take down the county magistrate and those people in one fell swoop."
After a careful discussion, they decided to return to Hongci Station the day after tomorrow. After an hour, everything was over, but Xiaomei still hadn't come back.
Lin Xing couldn't sit still any longer. Looking at the busy scene outside the window, she stood up and said, "I want to go look for Xiaomei. It's already so late. Why hasn't she come back yet?"
"Let's go together. More people means more care."
Shen Ling put away the money bag and walked out. Yu Hang beside him suddenly spoke, "How much money did the county magistrate give you? Why is Shen Ling so precious?"
"I don't have any, but I think it's better to take it for free."
Lin Xing said with a smile: "You have to ask Chen Ling. He has been holding the purse, so he should have figured out how much money is in it."
"This is ill-gotten gains. I'll keep it for you. It will definitely come in handy when the time comes."
In the short distance from upstairs to the door, there are a lot more people on the street, probably because it is warmer now.
The three of them didn't know which way to go for a moment. But it’s not a good idea to just stand at someone’s door and scare away the customers. They could only walk two steps to the side, as two people drying medicinal herbs not far away attracted their attention.
"Master, do you want this herb?"
"Yes, this is called Angelica dahurica. Pass it to me."
A white-haired old man and a girl of sixteen or seventeen years old. At first glance, both of them looked familiar. Lin Xing took a closer look and realized that it was no wonder that they looked familiar, they were all her own people.
"Little Berry?"
"Why are you working here?"
"You still call this person Master?
The three men saw the scene clearly. Their mouths opened wide in surprise and they asked three fatal questions in a row.
Xiao Mei, who had been busy all the time, heard the familiar voice and quickly looked up and came to Lin Xing's side. "Some things will be discussed in detail later. Doctor Li saved me today. In return, he asked me to become his disciple and learn from him, so that I can inherit his medical skills."
Lin Xingyi grabbed her sleeve excitedly, "You are not hurt, are you? I should have let Yu Hang go with you."
"I'm fine, don't worry about me, go do your work, I'll stay here with Master, and I'll come find you when I'm done."
While they were talking, Old Monster Li stared at them. He didn't look away until Xiaomei turned around, then he pretended to fiddle with the herbs as if nothing had happened.
"What is going on? Things are happening one after another. What should we do next?"
"Let's split up. Yu Hang will continue to start with the county magistrate as planned. If possible, send a letter to the prefect to inform him of this matter to avoid uncontrollable accidents. Let's continue investigating the Li Mansion."
Lin Xing finished making the arrangements in one breath and stood in front of the window, watching the two people busy downstairs without blinking.
"There may be more to Old Monster Li than meets the eye. Xiaomei's apprenticeship will help us figure this out more easily."
Xiaomei downstairs is saying goodbye to Li Laoguai.
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