In the evening, with the red sun setting on Tiancha Mountain, Li Jingshu and Zhu Qingying from the Nanjing Group held hands and walked lightly down the mountain.

Zhu Qingying and Xie Jin came in the afternoon, carrying some thoughtful and exquisite gifts, including specialties brought back from Hexi and curios purchased in the capital. Among them, an ancient wooden folding fan was very much to Li Qi's taste. Li Qi saw them as a reward.

The virtue of helping me on the ship was not precious things such as gold, silver, jade, etc., so I accepted it with a smile.

They sent someone to say hello yesterday, so Li Qi and Zhu Yuluo made preparations in the morning to clean the house. When Zhu Qingying and Xie Jin came to the door, the guests and hosts exchanged greetings for a while, and then invited the guests into the study to have tea.

Narrative.

Nowadays, the fight between King Yan and Jianwen is too sensitive. Since it is a private gathering, everyone deliberately avoids this most sensitive topic and only talks about trivial matters. However, they are all laughing and joking, and the guests and hosts enjoy themselves.

Although Li Qi was a master of swordsmanship, he was essentially a scholar. He had endless topics to talk about with Xie Jin, who was also a scholar. It was extremely speculative to comment on the poems and writings of ancient and modern Confucian scholars.

Zhu Yuluo and Zhu Qingying chatted about some trivial matters within the royal family, such as which princess married which young master, which prince took a concubine or added children, what interesting things happened to which royal relative, etc. The woman was interested in this.

I was more curious about the changes in my family's life, and the two women giggled from time to time when they talked about it.

In contrast, because her parents were talking to the guests, Li Jingshu seemed a little lonely, grabbing flower petals boredly or running around after the cat in the yard.

Zhu Yuluo knew that her daughter wanted to talk to Zhu Qingying, so she stood up with a smile and said: "You guys stay here for dinner tonight, and I'll go prepare it first. You won't be visiting Jiangpu for a long time, so let Xiao Shu take you around."

Zhu Qingying originally planned to have dinner with Li Qi and Zhu Yuluo's family. Hearing this, he thanked with a smile and went out with Li Jingshu.

Li Jingshu knew that Zhu Qingying liked peace and quiet, so she took her to Tiancha Mountain and visited her tea garden. Then she pretended to be dissatisfied and said: "Why do my parents have gifts, but they didn't give them to me? Don't I deserve a share?"

?”

Although she was smiling angrily, under her "pretentiousness", she also looked pitiful and aggrieved.

"Yes, yes." Zhu Qingying smiled and said, "Stop pretending, I have your share, but I was too embarrassed to show it out just now in front of the princess and the consort."

"Sorry to take it out?" Li Jingshu glared.

"It's not that I'm embarrassed." Zhu Qingying said calmly, "To be precise, I'm afraid that you will be embarrassed after taking it out."

Seeing Li Jingshu's puzzled face, she was even more proud. She mysteriously took out a beautifully bound storybook novel from her arms: "Here, look, isn't this the storybook you always liked before? I saw that it has just been published recently.

A new volume is out, and it seems to be about a follow-up story. I thought you might not know it yet, so I bought it and brought it to you."

Li Jingshu took it and saw a row of big red characters written on the cover. She couldn't help but feel dizzy, and she actually blushed with embarrassment - "The Legend of Young Heroes: The Decisive Battle of Qinhuai Demon Girl".

A rough look at the plot shows that the main plot is about the male protagonist battling wits and courage with the demonic witch who incarnates as the oiran of Qinhuai, and finally makes the witch surrender and willingly be taken into the male protagonist's room.

Although there were still many details that didn't match up, they were vaguely based on the story between her and Lan Qiao. She recalled listening to Mr. Gu's storytelling in a teahouse in Peking, and secretly wondered if these stories were spread back from Peking and then adapted by others.

Bar.

Seeing Li Jingshu blushing and not knowing what she was thinking, Zhu Qingying smiled and said: "What? You don't like it? In fact, I also know that most of the story books like this are for those men who want to have fun, and poor people like the snail girl.

There is no essential difference between stories about suddenly getting help from fairies, they are all daydreams."

She curled her lips and said: "How can such a good thing happen in reality? You bullied other girls, beat them until they begged for mercy, and in the end you were willing to wait on the pillow mat. I think the heroine is also sick. If it were me, I would consummate the marriage.

I took the opportunity to kill him to satisfy my hatred."

"I...I don't like..." Li Jingshu explained in a whisper.

Zhu Qingying, however, seemed unable to listen, and said to herself: "I have been following Mr. Jie for a long time, and I have been immersed in it. I have also read some books now. The Qinhuai witch in this book should be the one I met before.

Hua Yuxi is the prototype, she..."

"Sister Qingying." Li Jingshu interrupted her with a smile, "Mom should have cooked the meal, let's go back."

Zhu Qingying was startled. He was about to say, "We just went up the mountain not long ago," but she took her hand and walked down the hillside through the neat tea fields.

Back one street away from Hongyi House, Li Jingshu suddenly stopped, her expression changed and she said, "Something's wrong."

Zhu Qingying was startled and lowered her voice: "What's wrong?"

"Look at the footprints here, they are all going to my house." Li Jingshu knelt down and pointed at several different footprints on the ground and said, "There were none when we went out just now, one, two... there were five of them, and

Look at the shape of this footprint..."

Zhu Qingying thought for a moment and said, "Do you have other guests at your house today?"

Li Jingshu shook her head: "I don't look like a guest, maybe I'm an enemy. My parents live here in seclusion and are not involved in any vortex of influence. If there are enemies, they might be here for Sister Qingying or Lord Xie.

"

When she said this, she grabbed Zhu Qingying's shoulders and said solemnly: "Sister Qingying, go back to the tea garden first and remember to sweep away the footprints. There is a tea cellar for tea making under the thatched house there. You can hide in it."

In the tea cellar."

"how about you?"

"I'll go back and take a look." Li Jingshu said decisively, "We must first find out what happened at home and who is coming."

"But you are a weak woman, what can you do if you really have an enemy?" Zhu Qingying said anxiously, "It's better for me to go, I can't let you be in danger."

"Be obedient." Li Jingshu didn't have time to explain to Zhu Qingying, so she patted her hard and showed the cross gold feather tied to her wrist.

On Jie Jin's ship, Hua Yuxi was captured. Zhu Qingying had seen this object before and knew that it was Hua Yuxi's signature weapon. When he saw her again suddenly, he was almost stunned. He pointed at Li Jingshu and said with dumbfounded words: "You...

Are you..."

"Yes, I am." Li Jingshu didn't want to explain too much at this time. She covered her wrist with her sleeves again, waved her hand and said, "Go quickly, don't worry about me."

Zhu Qingying's heart stirred up a thousand waves. She thought of the conversation she had just had with Li Jingshu in the tea garden, of the latter's strange expression when she got the storybook, and of her meticulousness when she observed the footprints on the ground. She nodded blankly and walked quickly.

went.

Li Jingshu put her mind down for a moment, moved lightly, and did not go straight to the main entrance of Hongyi House. Instead, she carefully walked around the outside of the backyard wall and peered in through a narrow brick crack.

Although she couldn't recognize all the footprints of the five people just now, she still got three key pieces of information from them.

First, these five people do not include people she is familiar with such as Lan Qiao, Feng Yeling or Bai Xueyin.

Second, the five people include four men and one woman.

Third, there is a person's footprints that look very much like Zhang Zhongjie.

With these three clues, she could almost conclude that the people coming were Zhang Zhongjie and his Four Symbol Envoys.

But why did they come to Hongyi House?

She saw no one in the brick crack, so she moved to a brick crack facing the side yard. As soon as she put her eyes closer, she saw a figure falling to the ground with a "bang", and it was Xiao Wuhen.

Li Jingshu suppressed the idea of ​​rushing in immediately, but she saw Xiao Wuhen rolling on the ground, holding his stomach in pain, and a finger-width knife mark on his left shoulder was dripping with blood, which was shocking.

Lone Wolf and You Ming held on to their broadswords and long-handled scythes respectively. They stepped forward one on the left and the other on the right, and attacked Xiao Wuhen. Xiao Wuhen was injured in front of him, so he had to hold on to his sword and fight to retreat.

Two more injuries.

Li Jingshu felt a chill in her heart, secretly thinking that if even Xiao Wuhen was forced to end up in this situation, Hongyi House would be extremely dangerous.

Sure enough, I heard a long laugh, and two more figures flew into the side courtyard. They were Li Qi and Zhang Zhongjie.

Zhang Zhongjie has practiced the Four Symbols Wuji Kung Fu, and now his skills are so high that he no longer needs any external weapons. With his bare hands, falling leaves and flying flowers can kill people.

He broke into Hongyi House at dusk, expecting to find Zhu Qingying and kill him with one blow. Unexpectedly, Zhu Qingying was not in the courtyard, so he pressed Li Qi to ask about his whereabouts.

Li Qi adhered to the gentleman's way of being "powerful and unyielding", so how could he betray Zhu Qingying? He then drew out his sword and said "happy to each other" and angrily scolded Zhang Zhongjie for trespassing into the princess's mansion.

Zhang Zhongjie knew Liu Yueyao's plan, and thought that we could kill even the emperor, so why should we fear that we would break into your mere princess's mansion, and fight with Li Qi when the wind from his palm suddenly rose.

While he was fighting with Li Qi, he ordered the four elephants to search around the courtyard and not miss any corner.

Xiao Wuhen was forced to take action. At first, he relied on his exquisite swordsmanship to kill Lone Wolf and others, but in the end, he was unable to defeat the four hands with his fists. He was injured under the siege of many people from the Four Elephants, and was finally killed by Lone Wolf and Netherworld.

He was forced to flee to the side yard.

Li Qi's Qingqiu Swordsmanship is unparalleled in the capital, but in the end it is difficult to match the miraculous skill of Sixiang Wuji, which was passed down from the three great masters of the year. After the two of them exchanged forty moves, Zhang Zhongjie's palms were still swinging vigorously, but Li Qi was

Gradually, he was forced to be on the defensive. From being able to parry at the beginning, he later had to dodge left and right, fighting and retreating.

Zhang Zhongjie refused to let him go and chased him to the side yard. He saw Li Qi leaning against a rockery with a look of risking his life in a fight. Just as he was about to speak, he heard footsteps. Zhao Xueying had captured Jie Jin, and Fan Qingteng had captured Zhu Yuluo.

, pushed the two hostages over.

"A Luo!" Li Qi's expression changed when he saw Zhu Yuluo was captured, and he could no longer attack with the sword in his hand.

Seeing him like this, Zhang Zhongjie smiled, clapped his hands and said: "Okay, okay, Your Royal Highness, Prince Consort, I'm offended. I'm not here for your family today. As long as you tell me the whereabouts of Princess Nanping

, I will never embarrass you."

He then looked at Xiao Wuhen: "As for why Sister Xiao from Lingyu Hall appears here, I don't care. In short, it's up to you to say it or not."

Seeing Li Qi's lips move, Zhu Yuluo immediately said loudly: "Don't say it! How can we, the Zhu family royal family, be coerced by others?"

She straightened her neck and took another step forward, her eyes widened: "Kill me if you can. I want to ask questions from our husband and wife, but it's a dream!"

"If you don't eat the toast, you will be fined!" Zhang Zhongjie sneered and ordered Fan Qingteng, who was holding a thin-edged "Mantis Knife" on Zhu Yuluo's neck.

"Palm mouth."

Fan Qingteng was startled at first, thinking that he had heard something wrong. After Zhang Zhongjie repeated it again and heard clearly that he really wanted him to touch Princess Lin'an's mouth, he hesitantly took away the mantis knife, then waved his hand and threw it at Zhu Yuluo.

on the right side of the face.

"Snapped".

The crisp sound resounded throughout the courtyard.

Li Qi was so jealous that he staggered a step and cried out sadly: "Aluo!"
To be continued...