Chapter 95: Misunderstandings and Miscommunications

  "Meng'er, Meng'er, come and take a look, your brother-in-law has brought you something good."

  Zhu Dian burst into Tang'er's boudoir, calling out her childhood name with a smile.

  "What good things did your brother-in-law bring?"

  Xu Miao Jin suddenly sat up from chatting with her sister on the bed, a pair of black grape-like eyes sparkling with some excitement.

  Zhu Dian raised his hand from behind his back, looking pleased with himself: "Hey, take a look, isn't it beautiful? Hehe, one is the skin of a dark fox, as black as ink, and the other is the skin of a white fox, as clean as snow. You see, last time you saw your sister's fur coat was beautiful, and you insisted on making one too. Your brother-in-law remembered this and gave these two pieces of fur to you, one white and one black, which will definitely make for a very beautiful garment."

  Meng Er's smile on her face disappeared, she pouted her small mouth and didn't say a word. She turned around and lay down on the bed, turning her back to her brother-in-law, completely ignoring him.

  "What's going on?"

  The King of Yan looked at his wife in a daze, and the Queen of Yan smiled with her mouth pursed up and gave him a glance, saying: "You, don't come to offer treasures anymore, what's wrong with you, taking out fox fur."

  The King of Yan was even more puzzled: "What's wrong with the fox fur, isn't this what Meng'er wanted? As soon as Old Han gave it to me, I immediately thought of Meng'er."

  The king of Yan's consort walked over and took the fox fur from his hand, saying in a low voice: "This girl Jiang has always been stubborn, once she likes something, she won't change it."

  She lay on the bed and whispered: "See, didn't I? Two days ago when we went to Xie's fur store, Xiaoyu fell in love with a fox fur coat at first sight. It was a fire fox fur, bright red like fire, really beautiful. Unfortunately, it had an owner, no matter how much money they offered, the family wouldn't sell it. Just as Xiaoyu had forgotten about this unhappy thing, you...

  Zhu Dian was stunned and muttered in a low voice: "I don't know, what to do now? You'd better go and coax her, I dare not provoke this little ancestor."

  The feelings between Zhu Di and his wife were very good. When they got married, one was 16 years old and the other was 14 years old. One was a prince of the current dynasty, and the other was a daughter of a general's family. The two people had been husband and wife since their youth, and it can be said that they were childhood sweethearts with extremely deep feelings. Although Zhu Di also had concubines, he only loved Xu Fei alone. Now Zhu Di has three sons and five daughters, all born to Xu Fei alone, which shows the depth of their feelings for each other.

  After hearing her husband's words, Empress Xu smiled and said: "This child is stubborn, unless she figures it out herself, I won't be able to persuade her. Hmm... how about we find some time to accompany her on a hunt? If we can catch a fire fox, that would be great; even if we don't, going out for a run and having some fun will make her happy, after all, she's just a child..."

  Xu Meng'er had been listening in with her ears perked up, quietly eavesdropping on her sister and brother-in-law whispering to each other. As soon as she heard that they were going to take her hunting, she couldn't pretend anymore. She immediately jumped up, clapped her hands and exclaimed: "Great, great! Then let's go tomorrow!"

  Peng Ziqi wore a man's suit and entered Beiping City alone with his sword.

  She came from Jinan, first went to Yanggu County, met Xiao Dong's wife, learned that Xia Xian and Ximen Qing had gone to Jinan, after inquiring about the name of their old hotel, she hurriedly rushed to Jinan again, but ended up empty-handed. Under duress, she directly headed towards Beiping. On the way, a big snowstorm was encountered, and she lingered at an inn for two days, barely entering the city today.

  Beiping was once the capital of a country, with vast territory and numerous population. Without an official identity, how could she find someone who had come from afar? After only half a day's search, Peng Ziqi realized that this approach was like looking for a needle in a haystack. By the time Xia Xiu finished his business and returned to Qingzhou, she might still be wandering around Beiping city with no clue.

  Helpless, Peng Qi Xi had no choice but to use her powers that she was reluctant to use. She found a restaurant that wasn't high-end, but reasonably priced and tasted good, with many customers, and sat down at a table by the door, ordering several dishes of wine and food, two cups, using one cup herself, and placing another on top of a pair of chopsticks, one horizontal and one vertical, in front of the meal, as if someone was eating alone, extremely bored and randomly arranging things.

  Soon, a loafer noticed him, sizing up Peng Ziqi from afar, then whispered a few words to a friend, and sauntered over, standing opposite Peng Ziqi, pulling over a stool to sit down, and with a sly smile, hummed in a low voice that only the two could hear: "The source of the muddy water is the primordial chaos."

  Peng Ziqi didn't even lift his head, took a bite of vegetables, and responded in a low voice: "Bai Lian appears once, the prosperous world is lifted."

  The loafer's expression eased a bit, and he asked again: "Brother, where are you from?"

  Qingzhou.

  "When the white lotus blooms with a thousand million flowers, which branch does it grow from?"

  One of them spoke while making a hand gesture, and after inquiring, the other person confirmed her identity and his expression turned friendly: "I don't know what business you have, brother, that needs the help of brothers from Beiping?"

  Peng Ziqi said: "I want to find two people, they should live in a certain inn in Beiping, but one of the brothers is really hard to find."

  "Uh, what's their full name?"

  "One was called Yang Xu, and the other Ximen Qing."

  "Friend or foe?"

  "This..."

  "Are they enemies? What if they suddenly get excited and help catch people? Are they friends? Your own friend, but you don't know where he is. You've come all the way to chase him, what for? Can't say Miss Peng wants a man, can it?"

  Peng Ziqi hesitated for a moment before saying: "As long as we can confirm their address, the rest of the matters I can handle myself."

  That idle fellow smiled and said, "I'll report it to the chief immediately. Please instruct the brothers of this altar to help you find the person. Once there's news, where should we send it?"

  "I'll just stay at the inn across the street then." As he spoke, he flipped his palm and handed over a stack of treasure bills: "I've troubled the local brothers with their labor, I'm sorry to have caused them trouble, take this money and go buy some tea."

  That idle fellow was pressed by one hand, and his smiling face disappeared: "Everyone is of the same breath, brothers of the same family, and should help each other. If you do this, it's too much."

  Peng Ziqi smiled: "I know, this money is not a thank you gift. I know that brothers are not easy to come by, everyone has things to do, and they have to put down their own affairs to help me find people, which delays their livelihood. Moreover, finding people and inquiring about them requires some expenses. If the younger brother doesn't have money, then he would be taking advantage of others' kindness. Since the younger brother is well-off, if you decline, wouldn't that be considered impolite?"

  That idle fellow thought for a moment, then smiled and said: "In that case, I won't be polite. Brother Peng just wait for our news, as long as these two people are in Beiping, we will definitely dig them out, goodbye."

  "Have a good trip"

  Peng Ziqi slightly nodded his head, picked up the wine cup, and gulped it down. His starry eyes suddenly shone even brighter...

  Inside Ludongkou, Xiaojiao and Ximen Qing climbed up a mountain ridge.

  The two men were dressed in suitable outdoor clothing, old sheepskin coats, green woolen trousers, animal skin leggings, and dog-skin boots with crampons. They also held a jujube wood staff in their hands and wore a knife at their waist to defend against wild beasts. On such a snowy day, if they encountered wild animals that had come out to forage for food, it would be very difficult to deal with them.

  When we went up the mountain, it was snowing. Now the snow has stopped, and the fields are a vast expanse of white. The sky is filled with thick clouds. Standing at the top of the mountain, the strong wind howls, and as the wild wind passes by, the snowflakes blow straight into our collars. Although we're wearing dog-fur hats with ear protection and have cotton scarves covering our faces, the fierce wind still makes us squint our eyes.

  Standing here and looking out, the white mountains stretch continuously, forming a silver mountain range. The peaks are high and low, with different dangers and distances. Far away, it is indeed one mountain higher than another. Under the towering endless mountain peaks, the forest has all turned white, and there are no signs of human or animal life. This side is the vast land of China, while the other side of the mountain is a desolate wilderness, which is the domain of the nomadic tribes.

  "Look, there is Lulong Pass."

  Following Ximen Qing's direction, Xia Chuo narrowed his eyes and only then discovered that in the vast white mountain valley, a place was faintly revealing a bright flag. After carefully examining it for a while, he vaguely made out that the location, which had been covered with snow to the point of being indistinguishable from other places, was actually an artificially constructed pass.

  "The people from the Harra tribe will transport goods from there, our carts will leave the city separately and gather in this place to receive the goods. However, it's impossible to keep hundreds of carts of leather goods entering Beiping City a secret, so we need to find a place to station these carts and horses, then every day, 10-20 carts at a time, return to Beiping in batches. Afterwards, Xie Chuanzhong will help us arrange for the transportation of goods by land and water, and we'll stay in Beiping until the last batch of goods leaves."

  After listening to Ximen Qing's introduction, Xia Liu nodded: "So most of the vehicles and horses have to wait in the wild for three to five days. Food is easy to handle, can they withstand this weather?"

  Ximen Qing said, "No problem, those cart drivers are used to running long distances and know how to take care of themselves in the wilderness. The issue is finding a safe place that can hide so many vehicles, with some shelter from the wind, easy access, and where we won't be easily discovered if we make a fire at night."

  Xia Fu smiled wryly and said: "It's not easy to find a place like this, let's go and take another look around."

  After a long time, the two people walked along the mountain ridge and appeared on another mountain peak. As soon as they stopped, Xia Yu's eyes lit up, and he pointed forward: "Look, what's that over there?"

  Ximen Qing looked carefully and saw that in front of him was a wide mountain valley, shaped like a gourd, with a narrow entrance but extremely wide and flat inside. The ground was level, and it seemed to be an ice-sealed river. Three sides were surrounded by mountains, and the slopes were covered with towering ancient trees, all turned into ice sculptures, white and lifeless.

  Ximen Qing was overjoyed and said, "This mountain valley looks pretty good, very suitable. Let's go take a look and blaze the trail so we don't get lost in the dark when it's time to make the deal."

  Two people walked and talked, one foot deep and one foot shallow, towards the valley.

  At this time, on a higher mountain peak behind them, a group of people appeared. One of them was wearing a white fox fur coat, white fox fur pants, and a white fox skin ear hat, fully armed, looking like a fluffy little rabbit girl, hopping and jumping to the side of the peak and stopping suddenly, exclaiming in surprise, pointing at Xiaonan and Ximen Qing who were struggling through the deep snow: "Sister, look, there are two people over there, are they also here to hunt?"

  P.S. Some people say that the farthest distance in the world is between the mouse and the "Recommend" and "Monthly Ticket" buttons. Friend, please tell them it's not like that. The end of the month is approaching, come and cast your votes!