Swapping men
"We're leaving." Bai Miaoke said as she picked up a small bag, which was filled with almost all the weapons she had bought. She looked with some reluctance at the courtyard where they had lived for more than half a month.
Before leaving, Bai Miaoke went to find Yun Niang on purpose. This time, Lu Yu insisted on going with her, but when they arrived at Yun Niang's house, he just stood aside and watched.
Bai Miaoke told Yunniang that she was leaving, and quietly told her that she would come back to play with her if she had the chance.
Yunniang also held her hand, somewhat reluctantly: "Why are you leaving so soon? You haven't tried the people in my courtyard yet?"
"No, no, no." Bai Miaoke waved her hands repeatedly. After seeing Lu Yu for too long, those people were a little fed up with it.
Unexpectedly, Yunniang leaned close to her ear and whispered, "What a pity! I wanted to share the experience with you."
"Exchange?! Exchange what?" Bai Miaoke widened her eyes in disbelief, not quite understanding. She had heard of some powerful people exchanging concubines in the capital before, but exchanging men? She had never heard of it before.
Yunniang smiled and used her fan to cover Bai Miaoke's mouth, fearing that she would say something out of turn and displease her husband. It was strange to say that although he was just a poor scholar who was married into her family, she always felt that he had a kind of imposing aura that made people afraid to approach him. She was just thinking about exchanging with him.
Bai Miaoke also saw through her evil intentions, smiled, patted her hands and said, "Keep it for yourself."
Although this would never happen to a prime minister, she felt uncomfortable just thinking about it. Could this be the feeling of being jealous? It was Bai Miaoke's first time experiencing this and it felt quite novel.
Maybe someone had heard what they said, but Lu Yu, who had been silent since entering the room, suddenly said, "Let's go."
"Then let's go." Upon hearing this, Bai Miaoke immediately let go of Yun Niang's hand and trotted towards Lu Yu, successfully earning a roll of the eyes from Yun Niang.
Yunniang sent the two to the door, holding the door frame and waving her hand: "I wish you all the best, remember to come back and play~"
Bai Miaoke nodded vigorously. They would definitely come back. She also asked Yunniang to help take care of Xiaofeng and Xiaoyu, and promised to come back to pick them up after they had resolved their problems.
Lu Yu's injuries were no longer serious, so the two of them bought two horses and continued to head south after leaving the town. They did not forget to bring the young leader of the Eagle Claw Gang who they had captured back with them, tied up his hands and feet, and set off together.
After walking for a while, they arrived at Niu Village where the two of them first settled.
It was noon, and wisps of smoke were rising from the farmhouses, creating a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.
When they reached the entrance of the village, they both slowed down unconsciously, not wanting to disturb the tranquility here.
"Now that we've come this far, let's go see Erya." Bai Miaoke was still thinking about the cute little girl.
Lu Yu nodded, tied up the horse and followed her into the village. He thought to himself that she really liked children. After they got married...
The village was very small, and the two of them soon arrived at the small courtyard of Brother Zhang's house from the village entrance.
At noon when the sun was at its best, one could see the family having lunch in the yard through the low stone wall. They were still sitting around the stone table. Erya was sitting on a stone bench facing the gate, her short legs wiggling up and down.
Seeing the two people appear at the gate of the courtyard, the little girl jumped down from the stone bench and ran over quickly to open the door for them.
She was still shouting, "Sister, you're here!"
"Dad, Mom, the fairy sister is here!"
Bai Miaoke smiled and hugged her into his arms, and asked with amusement: "What did you call me?"
"Sister Fairy, I heard everything. Last time you came down from the sky like a fairy from heaven and chased away the bad guys." Erya said to Bai Miaoke, blinking her big eyes in admiration.
Bai Miaoke couldn't help laughing and touched the two little tufts of hair on her head.
Then he said hello: "Brother Zhang and Sister Zhang, we are leaving soon, so I came to tell you."
The two people at the table had put down their bowls and chopsticks when they saw them coming, and Sister Zhang went to the kitchen to add a few dishes for them.
Brother Zhang pulled Lu Yu aside to thank him for the crossbow diagram he drew last time. It not only made it easier to hunt prey, but also could scare off wild beasts in the mountains. Now, several hunters in the village have switched to this lightweight and easy-to-use crossbow.
When the few of them were chatting happily, the young leader of the Eagle Claw Gang who was tied up spat, "Bah, this is clearly the crossbow arrow that my father improved, and he is a stinky prime minister... Ugh."
Before he could finish his words, Bai Miaoke, who reacted very quickly, twisted his ear and pulled him aside.
"So those people on the boat were also from your Eagle Claw Gang. With all the old and new grudges added together, don't blame me for not reminding you. I can kill you at any time."
“Watch your mouth!” Then she patted his face seemingly lightly, but when she raised her hand there was an obvious red mark.
Lu Yu didn't seem annoyed by what he said. He just stared at one place silently, his eyes obviously blank, and no one knew what he was thinking.
In the end, Bai Miaoke still couldn't resist the enthusiastic Sister Zhang, and she had an extra bag of food in her hand, including homemade bacon and dry food that was easy to store.
Fortunately, Bai Miaoke was not unprepared. She took out several books from her bag, ranging from Three Character Classic to The Analects of Confucius, and stuffed them all into Erya's hands.
"You should study hard. I'll come and play with you when I'm done with my work!" After saying that, he pinched the little girl's hair.
After saying goodbye, we continued on our way.
Bai Miaoke was riding on her horse and thinking, wondering when Erya would find the banknote she had sandwiched between the pages of the book.
Before leaving, she specifically went to exchange all the money Lu Yu had recently earned into silver notes so that it would be easier to carry. Moreover, when she left this remote town and went to the nearby Zhou City, there was the Bai family's shop, so she wouldn't have to worry about money anymore.
According to the route planned in advance, they arrived at Jiangzhou in half a day. Jiangzhou is very close to Gusu. If all goes well, they will reach their destination in another three to five days.
Before dark, the two found an inn to stay.
There were two types of post stations in this dynasty. One was specially for officials sent by the court to stay in, also known as official post stations; the other was for civilians passing by, called civilian post stations.
The two men still traveled incognito and naturally lived in the private inn. However, the two inns here were very special. The official inn and the private inn were located in the same courtyard, separated by only a wall.
"Boss, please give me a guest room."
Lu Yu had a bag on his shoulder, which contained several pieces of clothes for two people and some weapons for self-defense. Bai Miaoke stood behind him with her hands behind her back and her big eyes staring at the surroundings.
"Let's have two rooms." Bai Miaoke said before the boss could reply, glancing out the door intentionally or unintentionally.
"Won't you be with me?" Lu Yu tilted his head and asked her. If it were in the past, he would have been angry silently, and even if he had complaints, he would never speak out and embarrass himself. But now that they are husband and wife, he is sure that Bai Miaoke really has him in her heart, and it is better for husband and wife to make things clear.
"Come in, do you want to sleep on a tree?" Bai Miaoke did not answer his question, but turned around and shouted outside the door.
Not long after he finished speaking, Xiao Heng, still dressed in black, walked in from outside the door under the puzzled gazes of the boss and Lu Yu.
Although his face was still gloomy, he did not speak harshly to Lu Yu like he did in the afternoon. He just said to Bai Miaoke: "I want three rooms."
Going to Gusu still requires the help of this great god. Bai Miao didn't want to anger him again, so he could only go along with him. So he looked at the dark-faced Xiao Heng and the stern Lu Yu helplessly, sighed and said to the innkeeper, "Three rooms."
"Okay. You all follow me." The boss looked curiously at the beautiful girl, the men standing on her left and right, and the young man with his hands tied behind her.
Even though he was scratching his head and was curious about the relationship between these people, he also knew the rule of not asking about things that he shouldn't, so he obediently led the three people upstairs.
Xiao Heng walked behind him, Bai Miaoke and Lu Yu walked at the end. When no one was paying attention, Bai Miaoke hooked his finger and winked at him.
The corners of Lu Yu's expressionless face finally showed some curves, and he let her hook his finger and move up.
The young leader of the Eagle Claw Gang was arranged to stay in Xiao Heng's room on the far left, Bai Miaoke slept in the middle room, and the innermost room on the right was Lu Yu's.
When everything was arranged and everyone was resting in the room, Bai Miaoke couldn't sit still, so she went downstairs to chat with the innkeeper.
"Boss, is the government post next door also yours?" She ordered a plate of melon seeds and asked while eating them.
"Of course not. Those are used to entertain officials, so naturally they are managed by officials." The boss said while wiping the table.
"Why is it so quiet over there? Does anyone live there?" Bai Miaoke asked casually.
"Of course there are. Just before you came, a group of people came here on horseback."
"Who could come here?" Bai Miaoke continued to ask.
"How would we know?"
"But I saw from a distance that they all carried knives." The boss said in a low voice.
"Wow, so scary!" Bai Miaoke shrank her neck in fear, giving her boss enough feedback.
Seeing her so flattering, the boss stopped wiping the table and leaned closer to say in a lower voice, "I heard you're here to collect the land tax, hey."
"Wasn't the land tax exempted for three years?" Bai Miaoke wondered.
"That was when the Prime Minister was still here. Now that he's gone, taxes have increased again." The boss said, shaking his head.
"The Prime Minister is dead?" Bai Miaoke's eyes widened. Didn't Lu Yu arrange for them to pretend to be sick when they left the capital? How could he just say that he was dead?
"Hush, I heard he was killed by a foreign assassin."
"Is this true? How could a foreign assassin sneak into the capital?" Bai Miaoke still felt strange.
"The Grand Tutor went to collect the body himself, how could it be false?" Seeing that she didn't believe him, the boss told her the news he had heard from others.
"Oh, what a pity." Bai Miao finally understood. Since the old man Ma Hongzhe couldn't catch Lu Yu, he directly released the news that Lu Yu was dead and took the opportunity to veto the new policy. Maybe he could even buy some people off. It was really killing two birds with one stone.
After chatting with the shopkeeper, Bai Miaoke turned around and knocked on Lu Yu's door next door.
After knocking twice, Lu Yu came to open the door after a while.
As soon as the door opened, Bai Miaoke couldn't wait to share the news she had found out: "Let me tell you..."
But he stopped abruptly when he saw Xiao Heng sitting in the room.
"Hey, what are you two doing?"
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