Chapter 360 – The Dark Sons

“When I was drinking tea just now, I observed that the soldiers guarding the city were particularly concerned about adult men traveling alone, not only did they check the road guide, they also touched their faces.” Xu Qi’an said.

“Touching the face?” The princess froze for a moment before responding, furtively lowering her voice, “Checking for disguises?”

Not too stupid. …….. Xu Qi’an nodded, “This is definitely not looking for you, because being taken captive by the barbarians is something that would never travel alone.”

No wonder he suddenly offered to have tea and rest his feet in the pergola …….. The Princess came to a realization.

Moreover, an area like Sanhuang County, which was close to Jiangzhou, would normally not be a target for barbarians, so such a strict inventory was unreasonable in itself.

“In addition, it can be seen from this matter that blood slaughtering 3,000 miles is definitely not an empty phrase. Otherwise, the Zhenbei King’s people wouldn’t have treated it so cautiously.” Xu Qi’an sneered.

If you don’t have a ghost in your heart, you won’t be so scornful of the legendary master case solver, the godly Xu Yinluo, who is as powerful as a prison.

The two of them found an inn in the city and asked for a superior room, and as soon as the door was closed, the Princess, who behaved so obediently outside, flared up and said angrily:

“You’re just trying to take advantage of me, aren’t you, just like the lecherous men in the talking books. Only one room on purpose.”

What is the name of the book you are reading, lend a piece of speech ……… Xu Qi An snorted, “If you are willing to take off the string, this official will be happy to spend the night with you, princess. As for your current appearance.”

He pointed to the dresser by the window and teased, “Look in the mirror first.”

Wangfei was furious and ground her teeth, she gave him a hard white look and sneered back with a cold smile: ”Okay, then tonight you sleep on the ground and I’ll sleep on the bed. If you touch me, you are an animal.

“Okay, I’m going to take a shower, so please get out.”

After so many days had passed, she actually wasn’t as defensive of Xu Qi’an as she was before, knowing that the odds were that he wouldn’t touch her. However, her arrogant personality and habit of quarreling made it difficult for her to get along peacefully with this Xu Ningyan fellow.

“I won’t be coming back tonight, go to bed early in the night.” Xu Qi’an waved his hand and turned to walk to the door.

“Where are you going?” The princess blushed slightly.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, the guy did give her a sense of security for a long time, and she was a little uncomfortable and unsettled by the sudden departure.

“When I came to Sanhuang County, I wanted to find out if there were any Sanhuang chickens.” Xu Qi’an replied.

When the princess heard this, she immediately smiled, “I’ll go too, I want to eat too.”

…… Xu Qi An said in no uncertain terms, “I’m going to the brothel!”

“…….”

The princess sat on the edge of the bed, gamely turned on her side, looked away, and gave him a backward glance.

…………

In the alleyway across the street from the inn, Xu Qi’an had been staring at the inn and monitoring it for half an hour, and had not seen any suspicious characters tracking it down, nor had he seen the crown princess sneaking away furtively.

“Actually didn’t run away, is this princess sick in the head?”

This result made Xu Qi’an quite surprised, and in his opinion, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to escape. From now on, the sky was high enough for birds to fly, and the sea was wide enough for fish to leap.

Get rid of the identity of the princess, no longer need to worry about becoming a “medicine”.

Is she unwilling to give up the glory and wealth that comes with the status of the crown princess? Eh, through the past few days together, she was actually more like a worldly girl, haughty and capricious, with no dusty air in her.

Besides, what’s more important than life?

Judging from her usual tone of voice when she mentions King Huai, she has no feelings for that nominal husband …….. Well, she sometimes stares blankly at night, displaying a negative, pessimistic attitude …….. Is it despair over a fate that can’t be fought against? What a miserable woman.

Xu Qi’an went on the road in the night, circled around the city for a long time, and finally stopped at the entrance of a green house called “Ya Yin Lou”.

As mentioned earlier (Chapter 21), the specifications of a green house can be judged by its suffix, with “courtyard, pavilion, and pavilion” being the main features of first- and second-class green houses.

The third and fourth grade green houses are often named “building, class, store”.

The “Ya Yin Lou” can only be considered as a middle or lower class youth center, but in a small county like San Huang County, it is probably the highest standard youth center.

Women in colorful dresses and rosettes were ushered in at the door, smiling and laughing.

The secret son of that night watchman was a seafood merchant from Ya Yin House, with the flower name of Cai’er.

The secret agents of the night watchman are spread all over Dabong, in all religions and professions, so that they can gather information in all directions.

Before leaving the capital, Wei Yuan gave Xu Qi’an a list with the contacts, names, and information of the secret agents from all over Chuzhou.

“Yo, this master, inside please inside please.”

As soon as Fang stepped into the hall, a pimp greeted him, his venomous gaze scouring Xu Qi’an’s body all over, dressed in ordinary clothes, but with a handsome and peerless appearance.

Looks are still secondary, the main thing is the bulging wallet around your waist, quality customers!

Bawdler surface enthusiasm, in fact, some constraints, because they are not clear about the other party’s level, so the degree of enthusiasm is a bit uncertain, afraid of inadvertently annoy the guests.

At that moment, he saw Xu Qi’an open his arms.

In a green house, this is a gesture for the pimp to hold his arm as a sign of closeness.

A look is an old colorful batch of ……… old pimp smeared with thick makeup face bloomed a smile, like seeing a family member, eagerly holding Xu Qi an s arm, daintily said:

“Officer, you first sit over here and drink some tea, slave will pick a few handsome sisters for you ………”

Before he finished his sentence, Xu Qi’an waved his hand to interrupt and said, “I’ve come to find Cai’er.”

“Aiya, you came at a bad time, Cai’er has a guest, can you take a look at the other girls?” The pimp’s smile remained unchanged.

“I only want Cai’er.” Xu Qi’an took off the purse and threw it to the pimp.

“This ……”

The pimp led Xu Qi’an up to the second floor with a difficult look on his face, but in his heart he was smiling, compared to the silver, what are the rules?

In the green house, there are too many examples of fighting over a girl, fighting is not a matter of fact, the big deal is to blow out the troublemaker. Of course, the ones who are blown out are those who pay less money or those who have no background.

The two came to the door of a room, from which came the sounds of men and women doing their business, and the “creaking” of a bed.

Xu Qi’an kicked open the door of the room, startling the men and women in the room, only to see that on the bed, an obese middle-aged man was pressed on top of a delicate and voluptuous woman.

The man’s face looked toward the door in horror, followed by a look of maniacal rage that was about to kill, and he shouted, “Get out.”

On the contrary, it was the voluptuous woman whose eyes lit up violently when she saw the handsome and peerless young man.

Don’t be angry ……. Well, this kind of thing, is a man will be furious. Xu Qi’an stepped forward, put on the posture of a playboy jealousy, picked up the man from the bed and beat him up.

“Brothers, brothers, have a conversation ……..”

The man received two punches and a kick, perceived that the other side of the strength of the frightening, they know that they are not a rival, and decisively begged for forgiveness and conceded.

“Get dressed and get out.” Xu Qi’an cursed.

The man hurriedly put on his undershirt and pants, then grabbed his jacket and pants and fled in a panic.

The pimp standing at the door of the room cast a questioning glance at Cai’er on the bed, who shook her head slightly.

She didn’t recognize the handsome man.

The old bawd was also too lazy to care much, and with a smile piled on her face, she said, “Not to disturb the two of you to spend the night together, Cai’er, serve the guests well.”

He said, closing the door to the room.

Xu Qi’an sat down at the round table, his hearing amplified, listening to the pimp’s footsteps moving away, then the sound of treading wooden stairs …….

Cai’er sat up, exposing her white upper body, her face still flushed, and said with a smile, “Little prime minister, what are you waiting for, slave is waiting anxiously in bed.”

As she spoke, she surveyed the handsome, unfamiliar man.

As far as she was concerned, the change of the man in her body from a pot-bellied old man to a top-skinned handsome man was heavenly.

Xu Qi’an, who had already confirmed that there were no abnormalities in his surroundings, stared at Cai’er and leisurely said, “The green-clothed attendant.”

Simple four words, but let the woman on the bed face changed greatly, hastily lifted the quilt out of bed, kneeling on the ground, whispered: “A hundred deaths without regret.”

The code words are right ……. Portraits are also right …….. Xu Qi’an nodded and said in a deep voice, “Get dressed, this official has something to ask you.”

Cai’er collected her charming demeanor, picked up the floor’s robe and put it over her body, then began to wear a small coat, and in a short time, she was fully dressed.

This Cai’er, who was ostensibly a woman of the wind, but in reality was the secret son of a night watchman, saluted, gazed at Xu Qi’an, and said, “My lord, may I take a look at your waistplate?”

“Could be.”

Xu Qi’an took out the waist plate that belonged to him and placed it on the table, the waist plate was silver plated, the back was the anti-forgery pattern of the night watchman, and the front was engraved with the word “Xu”.

Cai’er pursed her lips and moved her eyes from her waist plate to Xu Qi’an, looking at him with an adoring gaze as she asked, “You, you are Xu Qi’an Xu Yinluo?”

Xu Qi’an smiled, “You know me?”

“Of course I know, if I don’t even know that the Yamen has produced a young genius like you, then my slave’s intelligence gathering skills are too low.”

Cai’er’s face was excited, said: ”I know everything about you, you are the Dafeng Poetry Leader, and you are as good as a god at deciding cases, in the year of the Beijing Inspection, the capital city was in a state of turmoil, and it was all thanks to you that you were able to save the day and this calmed down the storm.

“I also know that in the capital city, you forcefully defeated the Buddha Sect Rohan; as well as when you were in Yunzhou, you alone held off tens of thousands of rebels, and your reputation was outstanding ……..”

Xu Qi’an’s smile faltered.

Who the hell is blowing me off? It’s already spread to the North. In the eyes of the experts who really know what they’re doing, I’ve become a complete laughing stock, right?

“Ahem!”

He coughed and said, “Enough of the small talk, let me ask you, how has the northern realm been lately, has there been a large-scale war.”

Cai’er shook her head, “Although the barbarians have violated the border, they are all small groups of cavalry looting, robbing the east for a while and the west for a while. If there is a large-scale war, the people will flee to the south, and that will inevitably pass through Sanhuang County, the slave will not be unaware of it.”

Xu Qi’an nodded and asked, “Are there any peculiar phenomena in various places, such as, for example, sudden large-scale population disappearances.”

Cai’er frowned, thought for a moment, and said, “The slave did not gather the corresponding intelligence ……. However, after your reminder, the slave has remembered one thing that is very odd.”

Xu Qi’an raised his eyebrows and hurriedly asked after him, “What is it?”

“A while ago, my slave received a guest, a lord who owns his own merchant fleet, who sells goods all over Chuzhou all year round. That time, after drinking too much wine, he complained that Xikou County, as well as the three counties under its jurisdiction, had somehow been blockaded by the government soldiers, and that all the official roads had been closed.

“And he had to make a trip for nothing, all the way to eat and chew on the horse, lost a few hundred taels of silver.”

Xu Qi’an tapped his finger on the desktop, “Where is Xikou County?”

Cai’er saluted, “You wait a moment.”

She pulled the box out from under the couch, and at the bottom was a map of geomancy; she took it out, spread it out on the table, and pointed to a certain place, saying, “This is Xikou County.”

Xikou County is in the westernmost part of Chuzhou, and is adjacent to the territory of the Western Region Buddhist Kingdom; after Xikou County is the boundary of the Western Region, hence the name.

Sikou County does not border the north.

“The war can’t be fought over there unless the northern barbarians take a detour, but the Western Buddhist Kingdom won’t take the road ……. In that case, why blockade Xikou County?”

A bold guess surfaced in Xu Qi’an’s mind.

Without moving his head, he nodded and said, “What else do you have to add?”

Cai’er said, “I don’t know outside, but the defense force of Sanhuang County has been strengthened quite a bit, in the past there was no need for a road guide to enter and exit, but now it is checked extremely strictly.”

Xu Qi’an smiled, “Was it the last few days?”

Who knew that Cai’er shook her head and said, “It was like this a month ago.”

At those words, Xu Qi’an’s brows furrowed.

………..

PS: Corrections are made before changes are made, so remember to correct your mistakes.

This chapter is a bit short and feeble, not quite 4,000 words.