Baihe City was not very large.
It was not a highly-trafficked stronghold, but because Baihe Mountain Village was here, it was still very lively and prosperous.
Merchants all over the country came here to do business  – the value of the shops was even higher than the land they were built on, and the degree of cultural blending in the splendid decorations was comparable to the capital city of Wangcheng.


It was almost time for dinner.
The business in the restaurants was just right, and the teahouse storyteller was also preparing for a night show.
The streets were bustling with people, and there was a large group of scholars sitting on a flower terrace and laughing with a group of singers, composing new songs and poems and guessing which one would be popular all over the city, becoming the new trend.
The wine was hot and amber-bright.

Recently in Baihe City, similar scenes occurred every day, but this day was a little different when someone shouted: “Second Young Master Liu is here!”

“Ya!” The group of beautiful singers were the first to cheer.
They tossed down their wine cups and stepped barefoot over the brocade veil on the ground, holding the railing with hands adorned with painted nails as they drunkenly leaned over to peer out.
Other people also squeezed to the ralling, even a few big, burly men – they likely didn’t intend to appreciate the beauty of Dayan’s number one handsome man, and only wanted to join in on the fun.
In any case, everyone was full and had nothing better to do.

Under the eyes of the crowd, Liu Xian’an entered the wine shop.
The owner of the shop was quite business-minded.
From the moment Second Young Master Liu stepped into the store, he knew that his chance to make a fortune had come! Thus, he immediately ordered the little workers to half-close the door, blocking all the curious eyes from outside.
Concentrating on serving one person, he took out eighteen jugs of fine wine in one go.

The rich aroma rushed straight to the brain, and Liu Xian’an was already half drunk before drinking it.
He tasted and selected carefully, and finally selected two kinds.
One jug was as fierce as the scorching sun in the northwest, charging violently into the throat, while the other jug was slightly softer and sweeter.
The boss quickly sealed them: “There is no need for Second Young Master Liu to take them away personally.
I will send someone to Baihe Mountain Village straightaway.”

A-Ning asked in wonder: “Two small jugs of wine can be delivered to the door?”

The boss smiled and said: “I was going to deliver rice wine for medicinal use, so I happen to be going there.”

A-Ning no longer persisted, and after paying the money, he left with Liu Xian’an: “Young Master, shall we go home now?”

“No.”

“Ah?”

“Let’s stroll around more.”

Second Young Master Liu waved his jade fan, walking from east to west and north to south of the city with great interest.

A-Ning was stunned.
He had already arrived in Baihe City and didn’t have to work hard to practice medicine anymore, so why was he so diligent? Shouldn’t he immediately turn back into the lazy young master who was too weary to walk to the front hall to eat?

But in fact, Liu Xian’an really didn’t feel tired.
He wanted to see what Baihe City had become during these years his mind had been wandering, so that he could take His Royal Highness Xiao Wang around in the future as a host.

The sky was growing darker, and lights lit up one by one.
The entire city became warmer and full of life.
If you squinted your eyes, it looked like a river full of light and splintered gold.


Liu Xian’an slowly made a list in his mind, where to eat, where to appreciate scenery, and even outlined the circumstances of the two traveling together.

At the same time, the owner of the wine shop also ordered five carts full of wine to be pulled, squeaking all the way to Baihe Mountain Village – four of the carts were old rice wine, and the other held eighteen jugs of expensive fine wine.
Although Second Young Master Liu only picked two jugs, one might as well buy two and get sixteen free.

People crowded around and asked: “These are the wines that Second Young Master Liu likes?”

The young man had received the boss’s orders, and replied eloquently: “Yes, ah, these eighteen jugs of wine were all tasted by Second Young Master Liu, and he paid for them on the spot.”

This was not a lie.
He did taste them, and he did buy them.
As for the ratio of tasting to buying, it could be appropriately ignored.

Everyone rushed to the wine shop to snap up the same kinds.

The new popular poems and songs in the city had not been decided, but the new popular wines in the city seemed to be a certainty.

The wine carts entered the gate of Baihe Mountain Village just in time for Master Liu to return from abroad.
He looked at the last cart with its gaudy jars and asked with a frown: “Are these medicinal wines as well?”

The young man replied with a smile on his face: “No, Master Liu.
This cart is all the wine that Second Young Master Liu of your noble home just ordered.”

Liu Fushu first asked his wife: “Xian’an is back?” Immediately afterward, he flew into a rage again.
“He went out and made no other progress, and obtained an alcoholism problem! Where is he?”

Liu-furen: “……Still out.”

A flurry of adjectives immediately appeared in Master Liu’s mind, for example, idle layabout, cockfighting dog-raiser,[1] hedonistic son of rich parents, unworthy descendant! As for Liu Xian’an, it was a coincidence that he came home drunk at this time – It couldn’t be helped, although he drank the wine more than half an hour ago, it went to his head slowly.

“Unfilial son!”

A-Ning’s eyes were sharp.
Seeing that the Master was looking for a stick again, he hastily dragged his weak-legged and dizzy young master and ran away.

Liu Fushu: “You come back!”


Liu Xian’an quickly slipped into his waterside pavilion.

The entire village was full of chickens flying and dogs jumping,[2] and the servants were all snickering.

But Liang Shu seemed to be in another world.

From Chixia City to Wanli City where the Wanli Escort Bureau was located, he followed the official road all the way.
The group encountered two batches of refugees in succession.
Although there were not many, according to their words, the impact of this year’s floods was truly not small.
Even if the Imperial court allocated food to each person, resources were always tight, and everyone had to find their own ways to live.

“Is there any way to survive?” Cheng Suyue said, “Those who have relatives can seek refuge with them, and those who have no relatives can move to another place to make a living, but more than three to five cities have been impacted by the floods and thousands of miles of fertile fields are devastated.
How far can people go with only their legs?”

Gao Lin sighed to himself.
Everyone knew that the Imperial court had to take action in the end to divert the river completely.
It was a big project, ah.
If it was done in a prosperous age, the people would still have to shed a layer of skin.
What’s more, Dayan had only just breathed a sigh of relief – but not complete relief.
Eighty percent of the national treasury floor was not paved with silver.

“Your Highness!” The team marched outside Wanli City, and two guards from Xiao Wang Palace returned on horseback.
They had been sent to the Wanli Escort Bureau previously in order to keep an eye on He Rao.
They had thought it was an ordinary task, but in the end were forcibly shown an emotional drama that included both moral principles and conspiracy.
The sight was so frightening that these young fellows didn’t even dare to get married in the future.

Liang Shu asked: “What is going on?”

“Answering Your Highness, on the first day we arrived in the city, it happened that He Rao had a tryst with the hall master of Hansong Hall.” The guard said, “They were discussing how to swallow the Wanli Escort Bureau step by step.”

Hansong Hall was considered a prestigious sect in the jianghu.
The master of the hall was called Han Sanyan, and he was truly ugly.
Hair would not grow in the places it should grow, and the places it should not grow were lush.
The whole person looked like a round purple eggplant with only the head peeled off.
Gao Lin had a toothache: “That He-furen is really not picky.”

It was honestly too easy to bring down an escort agency.
Han Sanyan first prepared a batch of jewels that were said to be priceless and handed them over to the Wanli Escort Bureau for escort.
According to regulations, if the goods were damaged, the customer must be compensated according to the price.
Chang Wanli couldn’t afford so much money at this time, so Han Sanyan became entangled with a group of people who came to the door every day to shout, throwing the entire escort agency into disorder.

“Where is He Rao?”

“She has been blowing pillow wind,[3] asking Chang Wanli to mortgage the escort agency to Hansong Hall,” the guard said.
“Chang Wanli’s internal strength is not low, and we dared not get too close, so we didn’t hear very much.”

The guards who could follow Liang Shu were all first-class masters.
If even they couldn’t get close, that was enough to prove that Chang Wanli’s martial arts could be ranked first among the central plains martial artists.
This time, he was transporting a serious delivery, and he must have brought a lot of escorts along.
Cheng Suyue was curious to know how he could still fall into the trap and lose his delivery in this way: “Were you there at that time? Who robbed him?”

“I’ve been following Chang Wanli, but the one who robbed him was a man in a mask.
That man’s moves were very strange and wicked, and extremely fast.
The mask fell off for a moment in the middle.
His face was pale, and his eyes tilted up like a fox demon in a painting.
He was about……sixteen or seventeen years old.”

Cheng Suyue marveled.
Was it possible to have this level of skill at the age of sixteen or seventeen?


“What about after the robbery?”

“We lost the masked man, but the valuables were not taken away by him.
Instead, Han Sanyan hid them in a dangerous cave.”

“Who hired the masked man?”

“He Rao.
At the beginning, when she proposed the strategy of robbing the escorts, Han Sanyan said that it was not easy to rob Wanli.
He Rao then said that she had an old friend who was extremely skilled, to the point that he could defeat Chang Wanli.
This person happened to owe her a favor, and although the favor was not great enough to have him kill someone, it was enough for robbery.”

“Over and over, we can’t escape this escort lady.” Cheng Suyue asked, “Your Highness, what shall we do next?”

“There is no need to investigate secretly.
Just take her to prison.” Liang Shu tightened the reins.
“Where are those valuables hidden?”

“Not far from here, it is called Lingyun Peak.”

There were many mountains here, and Lingyun Peak was the highest of the high and the most perilous of them all.
After considerable thought, Han Sanyan chose this place to hide the valuables.
According to the guards, those people used dozens of wheelbarrows and went up and down dozens of times before everything could be transported to a cave on the cliff – unless Chang Wanli opened a psychic eye, even if he mobilized all the people in the jianghu, he might not be able to find the lost items.

Many disciples of Hansong Hall were guarding inside and outside the cave, and were presently yawning.
There was truly no entertainment to be found on the mountain, and not even a sound to be heard.
The birds fluttered their wings and flew away, and the emptiness was terrifyingly silent.
They had nothing else to do except sleep.

“Ai, do you think a fox fairy or a succubus will come suddenly in the middle of the night and take turns having fun with us brothers?”

The others roared with laughter.
They all joked, you’re not a scholar, why are you starting to learn from those pedantic bookworms with their red sleeves and perfume? As they spoke, the topic rushed wildly toward the path of obscenity, vividly depicting matters that went on between the legs.
It was as if a few peerless demons would descend from the sky in the next moment, leaving princes and generals behind to love only them, who had no money, no power, and mediocre looks, and insist on marrying them.
From then on, nephrite jade would be warm in their arms, and the great beauties would have babies and cook for them.

“Even if they are not so beautiful, ah,” some people tutted, “apricot eyes, cherry lips, smooth skin, and a good figure are just fine.”

Everyone laughed again, laughing and laughing, and suddenly there was thunder outside.

“See, the fox fairy is here, why don’t you hurry up and greet her?”

As this was said, a black shadow appeared at the entrance of the cave.
The group’s smiles froze on their faces and they drew their swords out of their sheathes, standing up from the ground.


Liang Shu stepped out of the shadows slowly, his expression as cold as frost.
Cheng Suyue followed behind him, gripping a sword in both hands: “I’ll give you two choices.
One, you immediately pack up your things and scurry down the mountain.
Two, you die.”

“Presumptuous!” Everyone gathered together vigilantly, staring at the unexpected guests who had suddenly appeared before them like ghosts.
“Who are you!”

“I’ll count to three,” said Cheng Suyue.
“One.
Two.
Three.”

Nobody moved.

Cheng Suyue took a step back: “It’s hard to persuade death-seeking ghosts.
I have already said it patiently.”

“Grab them!” Someone among the Hansong Hall disciples ordered loudly.

Everyone raised their swords and rushed forward.
Although they had been startled, they were not very frightened.
With many against two, they wouldn’t lose…..would they?

They stared blankly at the blood splattered before them.

Liang Shu’s sword was half-unsheathed.

Cheng Suyue looked at the people lying all over the ground, and said to the other half who could still stand: “Want me to count again?”

“…..Spare us, s-s-s-spare our lives.” They were terrified.
With one move, or half a move, dozens of people were killed silently and invisibly.
He was really a demon, or maybe a ghost.
In any case, he was definitely not an ordinary person, nor was he a compassionate immortal.

“Go down the mountain,” Cheng Suyue said.
“Carry these things and follow me to the Wanli Escort Bureau to meet your Hall Master Han.”

[1] ‘Cockfighting and raising dogs’ is an idiom that describes the pointless leisure activities of privileged children. ⮐

[2] “Chickens flying and dogs jumping” (鸡飞狗跳) refers to everything being in chaos/disarray. ⮐

[3] To “blow pillow wind” (吹枕头风), is to whisper ideas to one’s lover in bed. ⮐

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