Returning to the room where she stayed in the post house, Liu Qiong'er took out the fire stick, lit the lamp and raised it.
The flame of the big lamp is very weak, and there is nothing else in the room except a wooden bed with damp bedding, a suitcase, a wicker chair and a wooden shelf holding a pottery basin.
.
The muddy ground is also very uneven and bumpy.
Compared with her boudoir in Yuehong Mansion, the room in the post house can be said to be extremely simple, but at least it has green walls and black tiles on the beams and purlins, which is much more spacious than the huts in the mountains.
Liu Qiong'er put the oil lamp on the suitcase, saw Xu Huai dragging the only wicker chair in the room and sitting down, and asked: "What should we do next?"
At this time, holding the lamp and taking a closer look at Xu Huai's fair, childish face, Liu Qiong'er still found it difficult to connect with what he had done in the past two days, always feeling that something was wrong somewhere.
Xu Huai had some ideas, but many things still required Liu Qiong'er's willing cooperation, so he asked in turn:
"Has Miss Liu ever thought about what will happen after she redeems herself from Yuehong Mansion?"
"me?"
There was only one wicker chair in the room, and Liu Qiong'er didn't want to be too casual in front of Xu Huai, so she stood in front of the window and said,
"In my line of work, being an entertainer or not selling one's body is just a pretense in the end. It not only highlights the difference between us and other sisters, but also the difference between Yuehong House and other brothels. But in Yuehong House, the vast majority of sisters are
I had no choice but to engage in the flesh business. After I couldn't afford this position, I eventually had to sell myself to pick up customers. I didn't know how many girls in Yuehonglou were like this before me. The best I could think of before.
The result is that one day I have to commit myself to someone. If this person can think of love and redeem me from Yuehong Mansion, I can live with him as a slave or concubine for the rest of my life. But when it comes to redeeming myself, there is no such thing as today, so I can only
I thought about waiting until I was old enough to go out and find an ancient nunnery to live out my remaining life. Today's situation is different from what I thought, but if you ask me what I can do in Tongbai Mountain at this time, I can't endure the poverty of men farming and women weaving.
Maybe buying a courtyard in the market to run a music studio, buying a few maids and wives, and continuing to welcome the smiles sent to me, is the best livelihood I can think of..."
The oil lamp was dim and Xu Huai couldn't see Liu Qiong'er's face clearly, but her words also made him secretly moved and hesitated at the same time.
"Perhaps in addition to using me as bait to lure assassins to bite the hook, this is also the reason why you must drag me into the pit of fire?" Liu Qiong'er's eyes stared at Xu Huai in the dark and continued to ask.
Although Huaiyuan Town does not have a county, it is not as good as Rural Wild Grass Market, and its prosperity is not much worse than that of Xinyang and Biyang.
Located in the main thoroughfare, Hedong Market, in addition to several relatively large-scale brothels in Yuehonglou, also has some private apartments run by old and ransom women.
, and also bought more little girls with decent faces to train.
In addition to using Liu Qiong'er as bait, running a place similar to a private studio in Huaiyuan Town and continuing to erect a sign saying that she is doing business but not selling herself will indeed squeeze out more of Liu Qiong'er's value.
However, Xu Huai was a little embarrassed when his thoughts were exposed by Liu Qiong'er so straightforwardly, and he denied it: "Miss Liu, you are mistaken..."
"Perhaps I have really gone astray. I would like Mr. Xu to tell me what to do next." Liu Qiong'er said in a cold tone.
"You go to bed today. I'll tell you what to do tomorrow." Seeing Liu Qiong'er's look of seeing through him, Xu Huai said with some embarrassment and anger.
He picked up the saber and pushed the door open and walked out. He faintly heard Liu Qiong'er saying contemptuously behind him: "Hey, this is a man!"
"This wine is a little sour just after I bought it!" Cheng Yi was strolling outside the yard out of curiosity. When he saw Xu Huai coming out, he raised the teapot in his hand and said pretentiously, indicating that he was not just out of curiosity to peep.
Xu Huaiyuan wanted to ignore Cheng Yi, but when he passed by Cheng Yi, he suddenly remembered that Uncle Seventeen often complained that the wine sold by several wineries in Huaiyuan was often sour and hard to drink, and also said that Yuehonglou purchased wine from the wineries.
After returning home, he blended it and the taste was different. Even if people like Deng Gui had no intention of hooking up with prostitutes, they would only drink wine from Yuehonglou on weekdays.
Dai Viet salt, iron, tea, wine and other items are all subject to a sale system.
In Huaiyuan, only a few winemakers designated by the government are qualified to make wine, and these winemakers must also purchase the wine koji from the prefecture's Tijuanchaque wine envoy; Yuehonglou does not have the right to make wine, and all the drinks consumed by the guests are prohibited.
You need to buy wine from a wine shop, but you can blend and improve it yourself...
Xu Huai ignored Cheng Yi, turned around and walked back to Liu Qiong'er's room, asking: "Do you know that Yuehonglou has a way to blend wine?"
"I know a little about Yuehonglou's method of blending wine, but it is extremely complicated and the price cannot be low. How many bottles do you think you can sell in a day without a beautiful woman to accompany the wine?" Liu Qiong'er stared at Xu Huai and asked.
"Regardless of how many drinks we can sell, we now need to have a name that will establish a foothold in Huaiyuan Town," Xu Huai said.
"Old Xianggong Wang doesn't seem to know that you intend to use me as bait. Can you really tell me how many people you have and how you want to lure the assassins into taking the bait?" Liu Qiong'er stared at Xu Huai's face and asked, "Since
You want my cooperation in many things, so you can’t ask me to guess everything, right?”
After being reminded by Lu Xiong yesterday, Xu Huai wanted to understand many things.
The assassin was indeed bluffed by his bluff, but the local forces in Huaiyuan were solidly unified. They were using Hutou Village to cause trouble, maybe to scare the snake, or maybe to lure the snake out of its hole.
Regardless of what the assassin thought, Deng Gui made Xu Huai very worried.
Today, Deng Gui sent Seventeenth Uncle and Xu Xin'an to reconnoiter the enemy's situation near Hutou Ridge. It was probably unintentional.
However, one day, Deng Gui guessed that the purpose of the assassins hiding in Hutou Village was to target the old troops and descendants of Jingsheng Army in Tongbai Mountain. At that time, in order to quell the banditry, would he take the initiative to send them to die?
The information Liu Qiong'er overheard from the assassin was also crucial.
The assassin now even knew that the family leader Xu Wufu had a secret conflict with his Seventeenth Uncle. At the same time, he also determined that only the old Jingsheng Army was involved in the matter and had nothing to do with the entire Xu clan.
Once the situation continues to deteriorate, after learning the hidden truth, will Xu Wufu abandon his car to protect his commander and deliberately sacrifice them?
Xu Huai didn't think he would be able to turn the situation around, but he had to try hard before the situation got completely out of hand.
And when he broke into Yuehong Mansion yesterday and made such a big fuss, in addition to getting some information from Liu Qiong'er, he also wanted to use Liu Qiong'er as bait to lure the assassin into taking the bait.
What made him miscalculate was that he didn't expect Liu Qiong'er to be so smart.
Xu Huai pondered for a long time, stared at Liu Qiong'er and asked: "I want to say that everything in front of me is an accident. Miss Liu, do you believe it?"
"Come and listen..." Liu Qiong'er said.
"At first, I happened to accidentally see Mr. Wang being chased at Yingzizui. In order to frighten the three thieves away, I stood on the edge of the cliff and pretended to be entrusted by someone to wait for Mr. Wang to come over at Yingzizui.
I never thought that the three thieves were assassins sent by Cai Qing to hunt down Mr. Wang, and they believed my words to be true; I never thought that I, the former soldier of the Xu family in Tongbai Mountain of Jingsheng Army, would be involved with Mr. Wang.
As a result, the misunderstanding becomes deeper and deeper,"
Some things don’t need to be said if they are unclear. Xu Huai carefully chose his words and said,
"The current situation is that Chen Shi, the magistrate of the state, Cheng Lunying, the county magistrate, and Deng Gui should all have guessed that the gangster Mr. Wang met was an assassin, but they just wanted to clear themselves of the responsibility and did not dare to expose everything.
To offend Cai Zheng; Seventeenth Uncle and the others are all kept in the dark for the time being, and Mr. Wang mistakenly thinks that you and I are in the same group, and he doesn’t know that this is all a misunderstanding..."
"..." Liu Qiong'er subconsciously wanted to grab her long hair and howl twice. What's this? She stood up suddenly and said, "I have to explain this matter to Mr. Wang. Since everything was an accident, why?
Don’t you want to make it clear to Mr. Wang and Mr. Lu?”
"No!" Xu Huai held the knife and sheath against Liu Qiong'er's chest and said, "I am telling you all this not to use your words to explain it clearly to Wang Zhen and Lu Xiong."
"Why not?" Liu Qiong'er asked puzzlingly without retreating.
"If I had made all this clear before, would you have had a chance to leave Yuehong Tower?" Xu Huai asked, "And could it be said that you are not at all happy when you came out of Yuehong Tower today?"
"..." Liu Qiong'er fell silent.
"Old Xianggong Wang has a strong temperament. He has the will to serve the world and seek life for the people. This is worthy of admiration, but his strength is easy to break. This is also his biggest shortcoming. Otherwise, Mr. Wang would not be defeated by Cai Qing.
They were expelled from Bianjing for being 'disrespectful'; and Lu Xiong obeyed Mr. Wang in everything. If we really tell them all the truth, not only will it not be beneficial to the matter, but it will probably harm us in not being able to use things cheaply." Xu
Huai said.
"Old Prime Minister Wang has been in officialdom for decades, how can he not see through everything and be worse than you in everything?" Liu Qiong'er shook her head.
"I'm not saying that Mr. Wang is not as good as me, but that Mr. Wang has his own determination, which limits him," Xu Huai said, "not to mention the dangerous trick I used to help you escape from Yuehong Mansion.
I want to use you as bait to lure assassins out to ambush me - do you think Mr. Wang will agree with me doing this?"
"..." Liu Qiong'er sat on the bed and couldn't help but think about it.
"Does Miss Liu think that after knowing all this, Mr. Wang will find his Seventeenth Uncle and the old soldiers of the Jingsheng Army to clarify everything, and then everyone will join hands to fight against the assassins sent by Cai Qing? Miss Liu thinks that Mr. Wang will
In order to prevent the situation from expanding and worsening, and damaging the foundation of the imperial court, he would not choose to sacrifice himself and insignificant people like us, and finally let the whole matter end with 'the king was killed by bandits'?"
Xu Huai stared at Liu Qiong'er and continued,
"Miss Liu, you have to know that in the eyes of people like Mr. Wang, the injustice, suffering and life and death of us ordinary people are always insignificant compared with the imperial court and the state! Don't talk about the death of thirty or fifty ordinary people, because
How can it be justified if thirty to fifty thousand soldiers of the world are killed?"
The business travelers Liu Qiong'er had come into contact with at Yuehong Mansion in the past few years were all relatively high-level, and she also claimed to have extraordinary vision. However, Xu Huai's words shocked her even more: "How do you know these truths?
"
"Look, I know this, and Miss Liu finds it incredible. If I go to Mr. Wang to confess all this, will Mr. Wang suspect that there is a bigger conspiracy against him?" Xu Huaiqing
He sighed and said, "What Mr. Wang said just now was actually due to suspicion, but I have no way to explain it - do you think I am willing to deceive all this?"
"Then why did you say this to me?" Liu Qiong'er asked.
"I just thought Miss Liu was smart and reasonable, maybe she would believe it?" Xu Huai said.
"You just think that whether I believe it or not, I have to be controlled by you!" Liu Qiong'er ruthlessly exposed him.
"Miss Liu, if you think so, there's nothing I can do about it..." Xu Huai spread his hands and said.