"Ge Ruitou is a scoundrel. He is accustomed to relying on the Tang family to run rampant in Liutiao Lane. He comes here every now and then to collect debts. I will give him more smiles, and he will not take away Miss Liu's makeup knife. You...
Hun boy, I slapped him in such a big way today, just because he has a grudge against me. If I come to trouble you in the future, Xu Wujiang may not be able to protect you, so what should I do?!"
"Jianxiong, don't rush over to join in the fun. Can Ge Laitou destroy this shop? If he does, they can no longer expect to squeeze anything out of me. You all go on your way now, don't stay here
Here in Hutou Village, there have been two major cases on the walking path this month. Business travelers traveling from east to west no longer dare to cross Tongbai Mountain as carelessly as before. If you are helping to make a living by running errands, be careful not to cut the knife.
If you get hit, don't make trouble with the Tang family - if you really want to offend the Tang family, which camel team would dare to hire you?"
"They are all playing tricks on Xiaohuan, Master, why are you being polite to them?"
"It's their business to decide what they want, and they didn't come to rob me, right? Besides, I owe them a debt. I haven't paid it off for several years, so I sued Mr. Deng. It's my fault."
Xu Wuliang looked at the embarrassed figure of the lazy man after being dealt with by Xu Huai. He was filled with worry and nagging Xu Huai and the three young men to cause trouble in Huaiyuan Town.
If it weren't for the powerful tendons between Xu Wuliang's arms, Xu Huai would have been hard-pressed to imagine that the muscular man in front of him was a soldier who had returned from the Jingsheng Army, something even the Bianjing assassins were deeply jealous of!
When Liu Qiong'er saw this scene, she secretly shook her head.
If the strong man in front of him has no fighting spirit, even if he is dragged over by force, how effective can he be expected to be in the fight against the Bianjing assassins who may have actually controlled the gangsters in Hutou Village?
The three young men all told Xu Wuliang to drive them away. Xu Huai and Liu Qiong'er looked at each other and neither mentioned the original intention of coming today. They just said that Liu Qiong'er had redeemed himself from Yuehong Mansion and wanted to settle down in Tieshi Lane and wanted to hire him there.
Help.
Xu Huai thought that the presence of Xu Wuliang on Liu Qiong'er's side would make the assassins wary and not dare to break into the house directly to kill. However, Xu Wuliang could not be expected to participate in ambush and other matters.
While chatting, Xu Huai knew that the three young men headed by Zhou Jianxiong were all from poor backgrounds. They lived with their families in a shanty to the south of Willow Lane. They had been apprentices in the blacksmith shop in the early days, and had also learned fists, kicks and sticks from Xu Wuliang for several years.
——Xu Wuliang couldn't even feed his family of three, and the blacksmith shop couldn't accommodate more people. The three of them found odd jobs in the market, carrying things on their backs or pulling fabrics, but they always treated Xu Wuliang as a master.
Xu Huai has not come to the blacksmith shop in the past few years. He has also deliberately avoided Xu Wuliang after arriving at the military camp in the past two years, so he does not know Zhou Jianxiong and others.
They still had to go find a tooth man to take down the yard in Tieshi Lane. After chatting for a while, Xu Huai left with Liu Qiong'er. Xu Wuliang said that after the silver makeup knife was ready and the handle was ready, he would send it directly to Tieshi Lane or Junzhai Posthouse tomorrow morning.
I didn't bother Liu Qiong'er or Xu Huai to go there again, but I didn't say that I was willing to help Liu Qiong'er.
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Liu Qiong'er is a smart person. In the past few years, she has come into contact with people from all walks of life in Yuehong Mansion. She is far more than an ordinary woman. After leaving Willow Lane, she first led Xu Huai to find two acquaintances who were expelled from Yuehong Mansion.
.
These two women said they were kicked out because they broke the rules of Yuehonglou, but in fact they were over sixty and had no value to squeeze out. Yuehonglou no longer wanted to support them, so they just found excuses to kick them out.
Liu Qiong'er is also a caring person. These two women have served her. After they were expelled from Yuehong Mansion, they had little savings and made a living by washing clothes for wealthy people. She helped them several times.
Now that Liu Qiong'er had redeemed herself from Yuehong Mansion, she came to the door and offered to take them in. The two women immediately agreed happily; their kennel and thatched hut were not enough for them to look at with nostalgia.
One of the two mothers-in-law was named Zhou, and the other was named Xu; the woman named Xu was a woman married from the Xu family, and was sold to Yuehong Mansion by her husband's family in her early years.
The Xu family has spread in Tongbai Mountain. Over the past two or three hundred years, there have been thousands of people with the Xu surname. They are said to be members of the same clan. However, except for a few people who live in luxury, most people live in poverty, and it is inevitable that they will
Some people are extremely poor; some married women are even more miserable.
Aunt Zhou and Aunt Xu are both over sixty years old, but their bodies are still strong. However, they are more familiar with every corner and every trade in Huaiyuan than Liu Qiong'er, and they have taken over all the rental and purchase matters.
There is no need for Liu Qiong'er and Xu Huai to run errands again.
Xu Huai and Liu Qiong'er returned to the posthouse at noon and had just rested when they found Yaren.
Liu Qiong'er originally wanted to buy the courtyard in Tieshi Lane, but Xu Huai wanted to rent it first.
If Wang Zhen unfortunately dies at the hands of an assassin, Xu Huai still wants to run away to the end of the world. Then why not prepare some money in case he is killed by "a penny" on the way?
Of course, the money belonged to Liu Qiong'er. He was just eating soft food and was too embarrassed to say that he wanted to keep it to prepare for his future escape.
Xu Huai only said that whether the courtyard is rented or sold outright, he should pay for it, but he is really short of money now, and he has no shame to ask Liu Qiong'er to pay more than two hundred taels of silver to buy the courtyard all at once, so
I suggested renting it first with a small amount of money.
Besides, to take over the yard, you have to go to the county to find the county government office to transfer the title deed, the deed, and the procedures are complicated. You can't get it done in three to five days, and you will be exploited and blackmailed by the county clerks.
Finally, he decided to rent the compound. After making two more trips, the owner approved the rental price and got the lease in the evening.
Xu Huai hired another carriage and helped Liu Qiong'er with his two wives to transport the valuables such as music, chess, poems and books across the river, and moved them to the new courtyard in Tieshi Lane overnight.
Xu Wujiang, Xu Xin'an and the others still did not return to the military camp at night. Su Di was so worried that she had no time to pay attention to Xu Huai.
Xu Huai has been thinking about this matter in his heart, and asked the Xu clan members in the inspection department. No one in the military camp knew yet that Seventeenth Uncle and the others were going to Hutouling to investigate the banditry. They were sure that Deng Gui was still tight-lipped at this time.
, there is nothing to worry about for the time being.
If Deng Gui deliberately released the news at this time, he would have to be careful and vigilant. He might have to rush to Hutou Ridge to find Uncle Seventeen to report the news before he could rest assured.
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The two women were very quick with their hands and feet, and it didn't take them long to clean up the three-entry courtyard:
The main courtyard is naturally Liu Qiong'er's Qinzhai and living place, and it is also the most exquisite. The floors of the main house and the side rooms are covered with smooth polished bluestone. From this point of view, you can tell that this small courtyard is very beautiful.
The owner's offer of two hundred taels of silver cannot be considered a big ask by a lion.
The front yard with three reverse-seat rooms is simpler, but it is also paved with blue bricks. It is naturally the residence of Xu Huai and the helpers, servants and nurses he will hire in the future. The front yard is where guests pass by.
Enter the main entrance and go through the paved stone corridor to the hanging flower gate. There are small gardens on both sides that have been neglected for a while, and there is a rockery made of lakes and rocks in the corner.
In addition to the kitchen, the back room is the mother-in-law's and maid's dormitories. Beyond the yard, there is a small vegetable garden between the ditches, separated from the houses on the left and right by bamboo fences.
He slept directly in Tieshi Alley that night, but Xu Huai was still worried about Uncle Seventeen and Xu Xin'an. After waking up the next day, he wandered around Tieshi Alley twice. Seeing that there was no movement, he went to the military camp to investigate.
This was also the problem because he had no trustworthy manpower, and Xu Huai was unable to do anything else:
Xu Wujiang and Xu Xin'an didn't come back. After all, he was worried that Deng Gui might deliberately spread the news and harm them. He needed to come back from time to time to check what was going on, but Liu Qiong'er didn't dare to leave for too long.
When he arrived at Junzhai, Xu Huai first went to Di Niang's place to have a breakfast. After listening to Di Niang's worried and concerned nagging for a while, he confirmed that everything was normal in Junzhai, then took a knife and hurried to Tieshi Lane, where he was.
He was in a hurry, as if he was rushing back just for a meal.
Many acquaintances in the army camp laughed when they saw him and asked if he and Liu Qiong'er slept in the same bed last night. Xu Huai said with a confused look on his face that the two of them slept in a small bed. It would be so crowded and could always cause trouble.
Come laugh obscenely.
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"Why did you come back?" Liu Qiong'er saw Xu Huai rushing back from the military camp and hurriedly pulled him into the house.
"What's the matter? I just came back, and I didn't see any suspicious people around Tieshi Lane?" At this time, the sun had not climbed up to the treetops, Xu Huai asked curiously, "Before I came back, did you have any
What did you find?"
"Mother Xu went to the porcelain store early in the morning to buy dishes and bamboo chopsticks. When she came back, she said that Ge Laitou, a man who specialized in collecting bad debts from the Tang family warehouse, drowned in the smelly ditch pond in Maeda Lane and died last night. The Tang family did not think it was an accident and reported that
Not counting the officials, a notice was posted offering a reward to anyone with information - Did you go out while we were sleeping last night?" Liu Qiong'er peeked through the crack in the door to see what was going on in the yard. She had seen Xu with her own eyes in the past few days.
With many things in mind, she would no longer treat him as a sixteen-year-old boy, so she looked into his eyes and asked.
"I didn't..." Xu Huai took a breath. He knew that Liu Qiong'er didn't suspect him and ran to kill Ge Lezi without saying a word, but suspected Xu Wuliang and asked, "You mean we made a mistake yesterday?"
Already?"
"But what did he do to kill Ge Wentou? He can't cancel the debt owed to the Tang family! The Tang family now doesn't think Ge Wentou's death was an accident, and most likely still suspects him." Liu Qiong'er asked in confusion.
road.
"Uncle Wu Liang said he would send a makeup knife over today, has he been here?"
As soon as Xu Huaai asked, he heard Xu Wuliang shouting outside the yard: "Has Miss Liu moved here? I am Blacksmith Xu, and I will send you a beaten silver knife to Miss Liu!"
"Don't show your face yet. Let my mother-in-law ask Uncle Wu Liang to look for you in the backyard!" Xu Huai ordered.
Xu Huai went to the backyard first with the knife, and tiptoed behind the aisle of the ear room. After a while, when Xu Wuliang half of his body was exposed from the aisle, he stood up, and slashed at Xu Wuliang's head with the knife and sheath.
Xu Huai also had enough momentum. If Xu Wuliang was completely unprepared and slashed with great force, the blade might break out of the sheath and injure someone.
However, Xu Wuliang reacted very quickly. The sheathed knife was just a few feet away from his head. He was short and almost subconsciously avoided the blade. He opened his claws with his right hand and grabbed Xu Huai's chest, like a hungry tiger opening its giant claws.
Mouth, and at this moment, Xu Wuliang's eyes no longer have the slightest bit of timidity and cowardice of yesterday, but are shining brightly, as fierce as a tiger or a wolf...
