After Li Lanzhen and Xue Bao sat down, they drank the two bowls of tea that the waiter brought.
A short while later, two bowls of noodles were served.
"Here comes the noodles. Enjoy!"
The waiter called out and brought over two bowls of noodles and a small dish of pickled vegetables.
The pickled vegetables are probably made from pickled mustard greens, they are bright green in color, and they also contain fried peanuts, they look quite refreshing.
Li Lanzhen picked up two pieces of fatty meat from her bowl and gave them to Xue Bao.
"Eat more. If you're in good health, one bowl isn't enough. Let's have another bowl."
Xue Bao wanted to stop her, but then he remembered that Li Lanzhen also didn't eat this kind of white fatty meat when they were in Forget-Worry Valley. She would eat a little lean meat or braised pork, but she wouldn't eat any fatty meat at all.
Every time I cook fatty meat, I give the fatty meat from the bowl to the children.
He himself had eaten a piece of fatty meat that Li Lanzhen had given him.
I felt so happy at the time, and I thought that Li Lanzhen must have treated her like her own child.
So they didn't stop them at this point.
Nodding, she said, "Aunt Lanzhen, you should eat more too."
Li Lanzhen watched as two people at the table next to her ate noodles and a small dish of side dishes. On a plate beside them were two meat pies, each larger than a bowl, golden brown and emitting a fragrant aroma.
He said to the waiter, "Waiter, give us two pies."
The boy agreed and refilled their teacups with water.
Li Lanzhen and Xue Bao ate slowly, listening to the conversations of the other diners around them.
Li Lanzhen came here to eat for two reasons: one, to fill her stomach; and two, to gather information.
One person said, "The Prince Rong of Youzhou has ascended the throne and become emperor. I heard that the Prince Jin wanted to take Youzhou as his fiefdom, but the emperor did not agree."
Another person said, "Luckily we didn't agree. If we were under King Jin's control, we wouldn't have a good life."
Another person said, "Keep your voice down. If there are any spies from the King of Gold, your head will be on your hands."
The man stubbornly replied, "What's there to be afraid of? We have relatives in the Jinwang fiefdom. They say there will be natural disasters and man-made calamities for three years, and nine out of ten villages will be deserted."
The people were destitute and forced to leave their homes; almost everyone had fled.
The first person to speak up said, "I know that. They've almost all gone to the fiefdom of the Prince of Rong in Youzhou."
The three of them stopped talking about the topic and started slurping their noodles.
The two people near the door ordered a pot of wine and ate noodles while drinking.
They were talking quietly at the same time, but Li Lanzhen's ears were very sharp. Although they were far away, she heard everything they were saying.
"Brother, you'd better think this through. Leaving here for the capital might not be any better. You might as well stay in Youzhou City, where the emperor is far away, and continue doing your business."
The person opposite him took a sip of wine and ate a bite of snack.
Only then did he reply, "Alas, there's nothing I can do. My parents have already gone to the capital, leaving me all alone here. It's very difficult."
Besides, you have no idea, the emperor's brother-in-law is ruthless. I wouldn't dare do this business under his nose.
He spoke very softly, but Li Lanzhen heard him clearly. She thought to herself, "How come it's the emperor's brother-in-law again? This guy is really no good."
Suddenly, she thought of Su Chen and Linglong, the two children.
If these two children are related to the emperor, she had planned to go back to the Valley of Forgetfulness, tell the two children the truth, and see how they would choose.
If they were willing to come to Youzhou City to find their relatives, she was prepared to send them both to Youzhou City.
It seems best not to act rashly and to wait and see.
While she was pondering to herself, the two people started talking again.
"Now the emperor's brother-in-law has transformed into the Su Kingdom's brother-in-law, and his exploitation has become even more rampant."
Moreover, I've heard that he's already asked the emperor to give him control of Youzhou city; he wants to be the city lord! He's preventing the emperor from sending a prefect.
Another person slammed his hand on the table and said, "How can this be? Youzhou City has always had a prefect. Even when the emperor was here, it was the prefect who was in charge."
"That's right. After the emperor ascended the throne, the Grand Uncle Su sent the prefect back to the court. Didn't you know that?"
Li Lanzhen's heart skipped a beat. "The Imperial Uncle Su, Su Chen, both have the surname Su. Could it be that Su Chen is the Empress's son? And what about Linglong? Could Linglong be a princess?!"
"Don't you know? Su Guojiu is now arrogant and domineering, treating Youzhou City as his own territory."
Li Lanzhen looked up and saw another person pursing their lips.
"Hmph! Strictly speaking, what kind of imperial brother-in-law is he? The Empress is also unfortunate. Her own mother passed away early, and the day after her mother's death, her stepmother entered the family. The Empress and her younger brother suffered a lot at the hands of her stepmother."
Fortunately, she met the emperor and married into the Rong Prince's mansion, where she finally began to live a good life.
"That's right, I heard that the Su family's maternal uncle married into the Empress's family along with his mother."
She and her mother usually bully the Empress and her siblings.
Later, by a twist of fate, the Empress married Prince Rong, who is now the Emperor. After their lives improved, he fawned over her like a dog.
Another person said, "I think the emperor knows exactly what's going on. Otherwise, why didn't he agree to make him the lord of Youzhou City?"
Another person said, "I hope the emperor will not listen to his slander and will not hand over Youzhou City to him, otherwise we will live in dire straits."
The conversation between the two was so full of information that it made Li Lanzhen's heart tighten repeatedly.
After she traveled here, she fled famine all the way to the Valley of Forgetfulness, where she settled down and life gradually improved. Moreover, the Valley of Forgetfulness was very suitable for survival and even more suitable for her to retire.
She didn't want to encounter such a scoundrel.
The two groups of people ate and chatted for a while, and then both got up and left.
Li Lanzhen listened to their conversation, and when she saw the pies arrive, she picked up another pie and placed it in Xue Bao's bowl, gesturing for him to eat quickly.
Xue Bao didn't mince words, because he knew that Li Lanzhen was not stingy when it came to food, especially for the children. She was always worried that they wouldn't have enough to eat and encouraged them to eat more so they could grow taller and grow up quickly.
So they ate with gusto, their mouths dripping with oil.
Li Lanzhen broke off half of the pie, took a bite, and found the outside to be golden brown and crispy, while the inside was filled with minced pork mixed with scallions. The meat and scallion flavors were very rich and delicious, and she felt like she had eaten too much.
The remaining half was placed in Xue Bao's bowl.
"We've eaten. Let's go home after we've eaten."
Xue Bao looked up at the people in the noodle shop, nodded, and ate another half of the pie in a few bites without saying a word.
The two wiped their mouths clean, drank half a bowl of tea, and then shouldered their baskets, ready to go out.
After leaving the noodle shop, Li Lanzhen looked along the street and found the mark she had left behind in the corner of the wall in front of a tavern.
The number was still there, with nothing else around it except for some footprints and water droplets.
Li Lanzhen was a little disappointed; so far, there was still no news about Mingxiang and the other person.
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