old grace

Waking up early the next morning, Lin Gu started to pack her luggage and prepare to move according to her previous plan.

Speaking of the inn, it is natural that the troubles at home have been resolved, and they are about to go home.She spoke with an authentic Wangdu accent, and no one in the inn doubted her identity. The guy who often came to deliver food and water also said a few words of blessing and asked if she needed help with moving things.

Lin Gu spent two small money to dismiss the warm-hearted man, brought breakfast back to the house, Xie Qinghe and Fu Chuan had already woken up.

"Hurry up and eat." Lin Gu laid out the food, two bowls of yellow millet porridge, a plate of steamed mushrooms, and a small piece of cut meat.

She put the plate of meat in front of Fu Chuan.

It is rare for ordinary people to eat meat these days, and the supply in restaurants and inns is also very limited.

After getting along with each other in the past few days, Lin Gu found that the "little girl" is very concerned about food, and she loves to eat meat.This dish of meat was bought specially by Lin Gu, who befriended the young guy in the inn and took care of the kitchen.

Fu Chuan poked the vegetable leaves wrapped with mushrooms with chopsticks, smashing the leaves with a bang, exposing the mushrooms inside.

"Vegetarian?" Fu Chuan was not interested, so he turned his head to pick up the meat.

Xie Qinghe asked Lin Gu: "I seldom see meat stalls in the capital. Nowadays, meat is rarely sold on the streets?"

"A few years ago, all the cattle and sheep from Enzhou were sold in the market. The supply was cut off a while ago, and they will not come again." When Lin Gu mentioned Enzhou, she glanced at Xie Qinghe without any trace, "There are also cattle and sheep in the city. There are three large families of meat and livestock. The Xu family is close to Enzhou. After the accident in Enzhou, the Xu family's management was not good, and the family business was dismantled and sold to the Mi family in the same city. Now the meat sold on the street, Most of them were provided by the Mi family."

"There is also a big livestock owner from the Fu family in the west of the city. Not long ago, he gave up his family business and left the city with his family."

"In the past, there were hunters who went out of the city to hunt some meat and gave it to inns and restaurants. Now that there is so little meat on the street, it is difficult to buy it with money. The city gate officials hold on to the hunters who return to the city. Ten kinds of prey will take away ten kinds of meat. Similarly, if you don’t comply, you will be in prison. Gradually, hunters don’t like to hunt outside the city, and there is even less meat on the market.” Lin Gu said.

Xie Qinghe thought for a while, and then asked: "Is the food, vegetables and fruits not much different?"

Lin Gu nodded: "The same is true for fresh fruits and vegetables. Every family has food in stock, and they can consume it for a while. There is one or two plots of land in the family, and they can survive by growing some vegetables and saving some money. Only when the meat animals are ready for slaughter. In the past ...the family also raises some dogs and rabbits, which grow fast."

Fu Chuan paused while chewing the meat, and after swallowing, he asked, "What kind of meat is this?"

"It's rabbit meat. It tastes like chicken." Lin Gu explained.

Fu Chuan couldn't believe it: "I've eaten rabbit." It doesn't look like rabbit meat at all!

Lin Gu smiled and said: "Rabbit meat is not as valuable as beef and mutton. Inns and restaurants will use some processing methods to make the taste of rabbit meat closer to that of beef and horse meat - it's not particularly similar. It's just that the processed rabbit meat It’s cheaper than beef and mutton, and ordinary people don’t care too much about it.”

"Rabbit meat is delicious." Fu Chuan suddenly felt that the meat in front of him was not tasty, "Why do you have to make it taste like beef and horse meat?"

Xie Qinghe picked a piece of shiitake mushroom from the vegetable leaves and gave it to him, saying: "Go eat rabbit meat later."

After breakfast, Xie Qinghe and Fu Chuan each carried a burden, and led Aunt Lin out to return the rent.

They walked along the long street all the way to the Prime Minister's Mansion. After Lin Gu's persuasion, Fu Chuan found out that the "prosperity" of the capital at this time was actually extremely empty.All the shops are open, and there are all kinds of goods in the shops, but few people come to buy them.Even if someone comes to the door, the business is difficult to close-either the shop owner's price is extremely high, or the shop owner claims to be out of stock.

Lin Gu explained: "I don't want to sell my daily necessities. I'm afraid that if I sell my house, I won't have anything. The court doesn't allow me to close down."

As for other shop goods that are not related to life support, the shop owner really wants to sell them quickly, but few customers come to buy them.

Lin Gu told Xie Qinghe again: "Every day, people starve to death."

Xie Qinghe remained silent.

King Yancheng continued his life for Qin Ting, but cut off the livelihood of too many ordinary people.

Now that Qingxian is controlled by the Chen family, and the capital is isolated, even if there are still loyal ministers in the world, it is almost impossible to cross the defense line of the Chen family to help the capital.Speaking of the meat and livestock offerings in the capital, most of them come from Enzhou. After the trade route in Enzhou was cut off, there was not much meat to eat in the entire capital—there were a lot of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses in Huangzhuang. Do the untouchables eat?

A small and well-off family like the Chu family tried every means to escape from the city. The emperor even disregarded his dignity and issued a decree to prohibit his subordinates from fleeing. The people's livelihood is difficult, which can be seen.

At this moment, there is no large-scale civil unrest in the capital, mostly because each household still has food reserves, and they can barely get by on eating bran and swallowing vegetables.

In a few months, things will be different.

After staying in an inn near the Prime Minister's Mansion, it was the same set of excuses for being inconvenient at home.

The shopkeeper of this inn is a capable young woman who calls herself Song Nv.Lin Gu didn't elaborate on the "difficulties at home", she already showed sympathy, and said: "I have seen a lot in ten months, most of them were kicked out by my husband's family, and I just kept crying. You are also smart, and you have saved some private houses. I can still afford to live in a shop—this room is for you, the walls are attached to the walls and the windows are not so bright, just give me some money.”

This is being sympathized with.

Xie Qinghe and Fu Chuan entered the door and saw that the windows were opened against the wall. In fact, there were three windows in the room. The sun shines through.The furnishings in the room are very simple, but it is rare that it is cleaned very cleanly.

Before Lin Gu refused, Xie Qinghe had already put the luggage inside the house.

Lin Gu understood what he meant, and thanked the female shopkeeper a thousand times: "Thank you, sister. It's rare to meet a kind person."

After the female shopkeeper left, Lin Gu explained to Xie Qinghe while unpacking the luggage: "The livelihood is difficult now. Many families can't afford to support their wives, children and old mothers. Those whose mother’s family is self-sufficient can be regarded as being kind and righteous." Lin Gu said and shook her head, "There is also an Immortal Ascension Platform in the west of the city, and it is said that elderly people can become immortals and ascend to heaven if they go there."

Fu Chuan couldn't help raising his head: "Is there someone who sent the old man here?"

"I heard it's the old man who wants to go." Lin Gu said in a calm tone.

After settling in the inn for a while, Xie Qinghe brought a bag of silver melon seeds to Gu Lin, and after disguised with Fu Chuan, they turned through the window and left.

Fu Chuan dressed up as a beggar wandering in the market, broke up with Xie Qinghe at the corner of the street, and quietly went to the prime minister's residence.With his cultivation base, he can basically not bump into anyone when he enters the prime minister's mansion, and he disguised himself as a beggar to facilitate his escape.Xie Qinghe, on the other hand, dressed up as a young man in the royal capital looking for a way out. His clothes were old and clean, and he looked around on the road, asking everywhere if there was any work.

Xie Qinghe's original intention was to support Fu Chuan, and looking for a job was just a cover, so he circled around a few streets near the Prime Minister's Mansion.

At this time, the people's livelihood is in decline, and there is not much work to do on the streets.Seeing Xie Qinghe wandering along the street, there was a well-meaning person pointing out: "Everyone is buying sluts. If you really have no way to survive, you can live a few more days by selling yourself. If you are lucky and meet a good family, it is not a bad idea." A good death."

Xie Qinghe thanked him again and again, wondering why the wealthy families in the vicinity started buying slaves?

The current situation is difficult, and the aristocratic family spends a lot of money to raise servants. At this time, they should increase income and reduce expenditure. How could they buy slaves at the same time?

Xie Qinghe became suspicious, so he simply followed the instructions of the kind-hearted people to look around, the nearest one was Prime Minister Han's Mansion.He went to the door to inquire, and was thrown out by the door on the spot, and scolded him extremely impatiently: "The master only wants handsome boys and girls who are ten years old and above, and you dare to come to the door with an ugly bastard like you." Ask? Get out, get out!"

Buy beautiful slaves.Xie Qinghe had a clue in his mind, nodded and bowed back to the doorman.

If a family or two buy beautiful slaves, it can also be explained that the main family is greedy for flowers and lust. If so many families buy beautiful slaves and maids together, it cannot be caused by selfish desires.Even Prime Minister Han followed suit, who is behind this covetousness is ready to be revealed.

——Besides the Son of Heaven, who else can work for Prime Minister Han to help collect beautiful slaves?

Xie Qinghe knew that Qin Ting's prime minister, Han Qu, was a sycophant for a long time, but he really didn't expect this person to be so limitless.When the prime minister sends a beauty to the emperor, he is really not afraid of the weight of the painting!

Not long after leaving the Prime Minister's Mansion, Xie Qinghe was hungry, so he bought a bowl of wheat rice from a nearby restaurant.

It's not that he doesn't want to eat something good, this place only sells wheat rice and wild vegetable soup!Xie Qinghe ate the wheat rice crawling around with his mouth full, thinking to himself, if the junior brother was here, he would complain about why he didn't grind the wheat grains into powder and make noodle buns... couldn't help but smile.

After he ate, there was no news from Fu Chuan, so he continued to wander the streets near the Prime Minister's Mansion.

When the sun was high, I suddenly saw a familiar figure running across the street.

——It was not easy for him to find Fu Chuan. After Fu Chuan came out from the Prime Minister's Mansion and found his whereabouts, the two of them would not meet in the street. As long as Fu Chuan ran past him, Xie Qinghe knew that he could go back to the inn to meet.

Xie Qinghe looked at the figure of his little junior brother running across the street, and the sadness he saw today seemed to dissipate in an instant.

If you climb out the window, you will naturally have to climb the window back.

Before Xie Qinghe climbed up the small building of the inn, he saw his junior brother climbing under the eaves with a dignified expression, and did not enter the window.

Fu Chuan had already heard him approaching, he stuck to the wall like a gecko, and shook his head at Xie Qinghe.Xie Qinghe made a gesture of breaking the window.Fu Chuan didn't hesitate at his order, he kicked open the window with a puff, and he rushed in.

Xie Qinghe stood guard downstairs with his hands behind his back, staring at the main entrance of the inn.If someone ran out, he would be knocked down in an instant.

Waiting and waiting, no one escaped.

Instead, Fu Chuan poked his head out of the window and made a "come up" gesture to him.

Xie Qinghe didn't doubt Fu Chuan's judgment, his figure flashed, and the person had already thrown in from the window.Except for the window that was broken by Fu Chuan, the rest of the house was neat and there was no mess. It can be seen that Fu Chuan defeated the enemy with one blow and did not give the opponent any chance at all.

The person whose jaw was removed and leg broken by Fu Chuan was actually the owner of the inn, Song Nu's husband, a middle-aged man named Zhao Er.

Fu Chuan said in a low voice, "Aunt Lin is gone."

Xie Qinghe is also a little confused about the current situation, this Zhao Er is just an ordinary person, there is nothing suspicious, and he doesn't look like a trained spy.Even if Zhao Er was a spy of Qin Ting, and found out his and Fu Chuan's identities, he should lead a heavy army to ambush them, why did he take Lin Gu away and ambush himself in the house alone?Did he think that taking Lin Gu away could threaten the two of them?

"Ask." Xie Qinghe turned around to check the traces left by Aunt Lin in the house, hoping to get more clues.

Fu Chuan put Zhao Er's chin back, and pinched Zhao Er's throat with his small hand: "Who are you? Why am I waiting in ambush?"

Zhao Er's face was pale with pain from a broken leg bone. Seeing Fu Chuan and Xie Qinghe's high-spirited skills, he guessed their identities and made himself tremble like a sieve. The newly installed chin made the corners of his mouth Drooling, words are not easy to speak: "Xiaoxiao... just... just... an inn..."

Fu Chuan slapped him on the face impatiently, and asked angrily in a low voice, "Where is my mother?!"

Zhao Er was so frightened that tears fell from his eyes, and snot dripped from his mouth: "It's, it's, it's... downstairs..."

Xie Qinghe stopped searching the house and opened the door: "I'll go find it."

Fu Chuan continued to press Zhao Er: "You took my mother downstairs and stayed in the house to ambush me. What are you trying to do?"

Zhao Er didn't dare to say it, let alone not to say it. He was forced to swallow his tears, and with a snort, a big bubble burst out in front of Fu Chuan.

Fu Chuan calmly blocked the splashing snot with the True Yuan screen, feeling disgusted already, grabbed Zhao Er's clothes and wiped his snot vigorously: "You..." After only saying one word, he smelled it. An embarrassing stench.

Fu Chuan looked at the dripping urine stains on the ground in disbelief, he couldn't believe that urine could smell so bad!

This guy was so frightened that his shit flowed out.

Fu Chuan held back for a moment, feeling a little unbearable, and took a step back: "If you pulled it out on purpose, I will be convinced."

Zhao Er's face was as white as paper, and he was still shaking at this moment.

"Go outside. Don't stink up the house." Fu Chuan pointed at Zhao Er.

Zhao Er walked out tremblingly, and when he crossed the threshold, unfortunately something fell out of his trousers.

Fu Chuan almost died of anger, before he got angry, Zhao Er quickly crossed the threshold, lowered his head and wiped off the falling things with his sleeve, and swore to Fu Chuan: "It's gone, it's clean. The little one is washed with water!"

Fu Chuan has lost his temper.

If Zhao Er was a spy of the Qin court, everything in front of him was staged by him, and Fu Chuan was going to admit defeat, too dedicated!

the other side.

After Xie Qinghe went downstairs, Yunji listened attentively to the movement nearby.

Judging from his experience living in mansions and inns in the past few days, the mansions that receive caravans still have some business, while the business of inns that are purely residents has declined a lot. Many rooms in this inn have been rented out. Rarely lively.

Surprisingly, the windows upstairs were broken, but the residents downstairs were all quiet, and no one came out to join in the fun.

Song Nv, who was supposed to take care of her in front of the cabinet, was nowhere to be seen at this time.

It is not easy to knock on the door of a house with residents, Xie Qinghe can only listen to the movement in the house to find it.Passing by a row of wing rooms downstairs, and walking to the corner, there is a firewood stove inside. If you look carefully, there is a small door in the deepest part.Xie Qinghe took two steps inside and heard Song Nu's voice.

"...The husband sells his life, the woman sells her body, it's just the word 'to live'. When you put your legs aside, you can eat and drink, and you can support your two girls, so you can talk about the future. You don't think about yourself, you don't think about it Gotta think about your girl?"

"Why do you have to show a cold face to me. You and I are both women, I just looked at you and thought of myself, and wanted to give you a way to survive."

"I live here with a lot of sisters, all poor people who were kicked out by their husband's family."

"The world is difficult, our sisters and sisters must live on."

……

Xie Qinghe listened at the foot of the wall, and gradually felt that Song Nu was not a spy of Qin Ting, but was bewitching Lin Gu to stay in the inn to sell herself?

No wonder the business of this inn seems to be more prosperous than other inns. It turns out that it is not a simple inn, but a brothel.Those who live in the guest room on the first floor are not serious guests, but prostitutes gathered together by Song Nu?

At this time, Nu Song said again: "Okay, you just slept with my husband, and you are not a chaste woman anymore. Why pretend..."

Xie Qinghe was in a bad mood, and wanted to push the door in, but found that there was a lock on the small door.

The door is locked from the outside!

Song Nv in the house also heard the movement, and asked: "Erlang, is that you? Did the two girls catch it? I just heard the noise upstairs, didn't they smash something?"

Xie Qinghe kicked the lock open, and the small door opened.

Song Nv happened to be standing at the door, was slapped on the face by the wooden door, and fell down without a sound.

The wooden door bounced back, Xie Qinghe stabilized it with one hand, and looked at Lin Gu who was sitting calmly leaning against the wall.She had beating wounds on her head and face, and her long hair was messily spread all over her shoulders. The forehead that was cut by Chu Zhao a few days ago was missing a section of forehead hair. At this time, new scars that had scabbed over were exposed.Her dress was still on her body, wrinkled, but one pair of feet lost their socks, and they leaned against the wall naked.

Xie Qinghe's anger flared up in an instant.For so many years, the people he wanted to protect were rarely unable to protect them.

But who would have imagined that he and Fu Chuan had only been out for half a day, and the seemingly benevolent Song girl would do such evil things?

Lin Gu supported the wall and stood up, saying, "This place is unbearable."

Xie Qinghe nodded.Lin Gu calmly stepped over Song Nu and was about to go out when Xie Qinghe said, "Wait outside the door."

Lin Gu walked out of the room silently and stood at the door, turning her back and not looking.

Xie Qinghe leaned over to take the money bag from Song Nu's waist, opened it, and picked out the familiar silver melon seeds one by one.

These days, Gu Lin is shopping for clothes, buying food, and eating meat closely, the money is long gone.Xie Qinghe gave her a bag of unmarked silver melon seeds. From what he thought, Gu Lin would not treat people who treat him badly.Sure enough, silver melon seeds were found from Song Nu.

After confiscating the silver melon seeds, Xie Qinghe put the purse back beside Song Nu and broke her neck.

"Let's go." Xie Qinghe handed the silver melon seeds to Lin Gu.

Go back to the second floor.

Fu Chuan tilted his head and asked, "Have you found it?"

Xie Qinghe had already caught a glimpse of Zhao Er who was kicked out by Fu Chuan, he didn't want Lin Gu to meet Zhao Er again, and he didn't feel at ease to let Lin Gu stay alone at the crossing, so he told Fu Chuan: "Leave immediately." While speaking, Gently swipe with your left hand, with your fingertips slanting slightly downward.

Fu Chuan's face became serious immediately, he grabbed Zhao Er and dragged him into the house, and punched Zhao Er neatly in front of him.

Zhao Er stood up.

Fu Chuan didn't care too much, and immediately packed the luggage in the house.

The elder brother said to leave "immediately", of course he just couldn't wait.When Lin Gu was dragged to the firewood room and threatened, Zhao Ersong and his wife had searched the house once, and the luggage was searched in a mess.Fu Chuan spread out the fur skin, quickly folded the clothes, and tidied up all kinds of things.

At this time, they already had a lot of luggage, big and small, and each of them had several clothes.

There are also various makeup powders and medicines that Xie Qinghe needs to change his appearance.

People were killed here, and I don't know whether Qin Ting will send someone to investigate, whether the investigation is thorough, in short, no clues can be left.Fu Chuan collected things very meticulously. After stuffing the important things into the bag, he suddenly found the cloth bag thrown in the corner by Zhao Ersong's daughter.

The cloth bag contained fried rice noodles brought from Qingzhou.It has been a month, and Fu Chuan thinks that they may have grown hair.

It's just that this thing can't stay in the inn.

Fu Chuan bent down to pick it up, but he didn't know that the cloth bag was opened but not fastened, and when he picked it up, rice noodles rolled out.Fu Chuan hurriedly picked it up with his hands, but fortunately the rice flour was damp and became lumps, only some powder fell out, and Fu Chuan caught the rest in his hand.

He breathed a sigh of relief.Fortunately, I didn't spill it on the ground. If such a trivial matter goes wrong, wouldn't it be laughed to death by the big brother?

Fu Chuan carefully picked up the powder in his hand, opened the cloth pouch, and was about to put the clumped rice noodles back... He thought he had misread, and weighed the pouch with the familiar human bone inside instead. Deep into the rice noodles.Fu Chuan simply stretched out his hand to pick it up, his fingertips touched the wet and coarse rice noodles, which was completely different from the white as jade tail phalanx, and he easily found the "tip".

Fu Chuan held a cloth bag full of rice flour in his left hand, and pinched the "tip" in his right hand that should be in Lianggu's hand, he was dazed.

How could it... be in the hands of the elder brother?

In Fu Chuan's mind, the elder brother is omnipotent.

Even though he ran fifty or sixty miles overnight, he chose to bid farewell to Long Gu after thinking that it was absolutely impossible for the elder brother who did not cultivate the physical body to catch up with Long Gu.However, when seeing the "point", Fu Chuan's first reaction was still that the elder brother found Liang Gu, executed Liang Gu, and got back the point?

Otherwise, how could this tip be in the hands of the elder brother?It wouldn't be so coincidental that there are two spikes in this world, right?

This guess made him feel cold all over.

I don't know how long it took for Fu Chuan to wake up from the shock.He looked at the things in his hand, quickly put the tip into the rice flour cloth bag, then hid the cloth bag deep in the bag, tidied up the traces in the house, and stepped out of the threshold with a few bags on his back.

"Okay." Fu Chuan handed Xie Qinghe the big bag with the rice flour bag.

At this moment, they are still pretending to be a mother and daughter. There is no reason why the mother and eldest sister are empty-handed and only call the younger daughter a backpack.

Xie Qinghe took his hand: "Let's go."