The sky turned white and bluish, not quite bright yet.
Lin Xin rode on horseback and slowly walked along the khaki horse track towards the huge city ahead.
The city is like a large block of building blocks densely placed on the hills and plains. There are red and yellow tiled spiers everywhere, and between the houses you can see large square walls surrounding many flat-roofed houses.
Some smaller and shorter spire houses have white silk hanging faintly on them.
On the horse track where the three of them were riding, a funeral procession with trumpets blowing and white flags held high with various symbols of resting the dead painted on them were coming towards them.
Two black coffins were being dragged slowly forward by an oxcart, and a group of family members beside them were crying profusely, with their eyes red and swollen.
"This is the third team. Why are there so many dead people?" Yu Chang frowned and whispered. He said this, but his eyes kept wandering over the beautiful women in the funeral procession.
"There's something wrong." Shu Luoyi nodded. This person was indeed observing the funeral coffin carefully.
Lin Xin rode behind the two men without saying a word.
In front of them was a huge city stretching for dozens of miles, but the closer they got, the more they saw white silk ribbons symbolizing mourning hanging everywhere, and most of the people they saw looked dull.
Looking at the huge Peacock City area in front of us from a distance, there is a faint feeling of depression and dullness there.
The three of them speeded up, and there were more and more houses on both sides of the road. From the simple wooden houses at the beginning, they gradually transitioned into more and more white-walled compounds.
Some carriages and horses also passed by the three of them from time to time, and occasionally there were convoys of officers and soldiers.
Yu Chang took the lead at this time and led the two of them towards where his home was.
Soon the three of them arrived in front of a red-painted gate. There were stone pillars and lions in front of the gate, and there were two officers and soldiers guarding the gate, creating a formidable scene.
"The young master is back!" As soon as he saw Yu Chang dismounting, the officer and soldier guarding the gate, Laoyouzi, took the initiative to come over, while the other one turned around and opened the door, shouting the announcement.
"Go and tell my father that I have to stay well for a few days when I come back this time, and that I and my two friends from the sect must be well entertained." Yu Chang said with a smile like a young man.
"Okay. I'll call Xiao Liuzi!" The officers and soldiers seemed to be very familiar with Yu Chang. They turned around and entered the door with a smile. Soon, several boys ran out, leading the horses and picking up things. They were all.
Very attentive.
Lin Xin didn't want to disturb him here, after all, he was not familiar with Yu Chang either.
"Brother Yu, I have a friend I want to visit. Why don't we say goodbye here and come back in two days to make some moves together."
Anyway, this mission is just a simple task of finding people and delivering messages. The three of them originally took this kind of mission as a way to do other things and see family and friends.
"Then I wonder if Brother Lin has a fixed residence? We can contact him if anything happens." Yu Chang said with a smile.
"You can find me at the Traveling Inn." Lin Xin reported the address he had set in advance.
"Farewell." He bowed his hands.
"Farewell." Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi replied.
The three of them separated.
The Lai Lai Inn is a place that Lin Xin inquired about from Kong Yuhui. It is also one of the two largest inns in Peacock City.
After asking a random passerby, Lin Xin quickly rode his horse to the entrance of the inn.
On the left, a luxurious house with red bird eaves is being renovated. There are clanking sounds inside, and there are piles of sandstone bricks piled outside, with workers coming in and out.
After he dismounted, the boy from the inn first came up to him, signed the horse, and gave him a horse tag with a number on it.
"This will be used to lead your horses when the time comes." the boy explained.
I followed this man into the inn, and there was a large space inside.
It's like standing in a hollow venue, with rooms on the first to third floors visible on both sides.
From bottom to top, every floor is covered with red lanterns.
Lin Xin raised his head and saw that the ceiling at the top was a black stone slab with several large gilt characters engraved on it: coming and going indefinitely.
There were people coming and going in the inn, but business was good. The waiter led Lin Xin to the counter to pay the money and deposit, and the room was quite spacious. Lin Xin asked for a superior suite, which was enough space for three people.
Another maid led him to the suite. The furniture was made of mahogany with silver edges and carved hollows. From time to time, there were bronze mirrors hung on the wall to ward off evil spirits.
You can also see large decorative vases, rockeries, wood carvings, etc. around the corner.
"Go to the Peacock Gate to deliver a letter to Kong Yuhui. This is a token." Lin Xin asked the maid to call the inn's messenger to put a red jade pendant on the envelope as a token of contact from Kong Yuhui.
In front of him, the messenger sealed the seal with drops of red wax and left with the letter and the jade pendant.
After closing the door, Lin Xin slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking at the luxurious ancient bedroom with lanterns hanging in front of him, he had an unreal feeling.
There was a faint scent of incense in the room, I didn't know what it was, it smelled very light and elegant.
Lin Xin walked to the desk. The three candles in the silver candlestick above were as thick as the wrist. There was also a yellow pear wood sign on the table below, with some words written on it. They were all wishes for the guests to sleep well and be safe.
If you need service, you can ring the bell and say something.
There is a row of red ropes above the wooden sign, and a small sign is hung above each rope with words written on it.
Except for changing the dressing, Lin Xin didn't know what it meant, but he understood the rest.
"It is indeed a top-notch luxurious bedroom... Eight taels of silver a day... It's really luxurious." He couldn't help but sigh.
I walked to the low coffee table and sat down on the wooden couch next to it. This wooden couch was like a wooden sofa. It was placed in a circle around the low coffee table. There was also an incense burner in the middle and matching flints on the side.
Have to behave yourself.
Taking off the four swords and the ordinary long sword from his waist one by one, Lin Xin took off his coat and pulled the red rope from the bath.
Ding ding...
The subtle ringing of a copper bell came.
In less than five minutes, two strong men knocked on the door carrying a large wooden barrel.
Opening the door, I watched the two people place the bucket in the special shower room in the suite, and someone else came in with buckets of hot water and poured it in. Soon the bucket was filled with bath towels, prepared pajamas, and towels.
, as well as incense, rose petals, etc. The two quickly prepared everything and left just like that.
"Um...where are the people taking a bath?" Lin Xin was about to ask when he saw four young and beautiful women walking in wearing only white gauze.
"Serve you, take a shower and change clothes." The sweet voices of the four neatly murmured, making Lin Xin feel slightly weak.
"This is so corrupt." He sighed in his heart. "It's so corrosive!"
Looking at the four pretty girls in front of him, if he lived like this every day, Lin Xin could suddenly understand why there were always so many swingers in costume dramas before.
But after thinking about it, he still waved and left a more innocent girl. He asked himself that he was not sanctimonious or a gentleman. He would still enjoy it when he should enjoy it.
It's just that the girl didn't have that kind of service. Instead, she waited for him to take off his clothes and get into the water before coming in to rub his back and heat the water. But it was limited to rubbing his back, just a slightly ambiguous friction and touch.
Lin Xin also happened to be planning to ask about some things here.
"How come you can see funeral processions everywhere around Peacock City? Is there a plague recently?"
The girl had a white hosta in her hair, so Lin Xin simply called her Hosta.
"Really? I don't know if it's a plague or something recently. Many people have become ill for no apparent reason, and then they have become skinny in less than a few days. They have eaten something, but they are still starving to death. It's like that.
People really can't sleep at night after watching this." When Yuhan mentioned this recent incident, she still looked frightened.
"But it's a plague, right? Several doctors in the city couldn't find the root cause of the disease. People who were close to the patient were fine, but completely unrelated people suddenly became ill. I heard that the attendees of Shengji Hall also came from the capital.
Come over and tell me what kind of insect sting it is."
"Insect sting?" Lin Xin sat in the barrel and straightened up, letting her help rub his back.
"Yes, I was bitten by an insect." Hosta said softly.
"Have you ever studied before? Are you literate?" Lin Xin asked casually.
"Yes, my family is from Lutang Hongliu. I went to school when my family was well off. I also studied Tongsheng, but unfortunately I failed to pass the government examination and later dropped out of school..." Yuhan replied in a low voice.
Lin Xin nodded in understanding. Here in the Song Dynasty, women were also allowed to take the exams for academic status. If they could learn from Tongsheng, they would be proper junior high school students in modern times.
Translated, it means that this girl dropped out of school when she was in junior high school. Because her family was in dire straits, she went out to work on her own.
"Then you're not even eighteen years old?" Lin Xin asked again.
"Yes, I have only turned fifteen during the Chinese New Year..." the girl whispered back.
Lin Xin glanced at her breasts, which were so plump that they didn't look like they were fifteen years old. He obviously didn't believe her. She had at least lied about her age by two years.
Hosta took a bath and Lin Xin changed her clothes. Not long after Hosta went out, Kong Yuhui came.
"Brother Lin, you are indeed here!" Kong Yuhui's face remained cold, but there was a hint of joy in his eyes.
The two closed the door and locked it, then sat on the wooden couch. Lin Xin poured him a cup of hot water.
I glanced sideways at the sky and saw that it was almost afternoon.
"Brother Kong, do you need my help with anything?"
"It's not a big deal." Kong Yuhui relaxed and chuckled, "Our Peacock Sect is the leading sect within hundreds of miles of Peacock City, and more than half of the government offices are our disciples and elders. Even if there is a big event,
There’s no need for you or me to intervene.”
"What's that? I just settled down and sent you a letter, and you came over in a hurry." Lin Xin smiled.
"It's just that I happened to have a few friends at home. They are all friends I made while traveling. I want to take you to have a drink and get to know each other." Kong Yuhui obviously did not have such a simple purpose.
Before Lin Xin came, he had learned about the internal situation of Peacock Gate.
In addition to Kong Yuhui, there are two other candidates for the sect's successor in the Peacock Sect, namely his sister Kong Xiushan and eldest brother Kong Lei.
The two of them were also masters of the family and had extensive connections. As soon as he heard that he had arrived, Kong Yuhui hurried over, probably to win over him and show him to the other two.