Love Affairs in Chang'an - Chapter 223

Chapter 223 Lonely Fireworks
It was already late at night, and the backyard of the Prefecture of Governors, Li Ke’s residence, was still brightly lit, and many people had gathered.

In the past, all the private soldiers of the palace had arrived. Everyone held their breath and focused, looking like they were going to be killed. In the inner mansion, loud roars and loud bangs of tables and chairs could be heard repeatedly.

“Reverse! Reverse! Really reverse the heavens!”

When Qin Mubai walked into the courtyard and heard these few voices, he couldn’t help but be shocked in his heart, Li Ke? It was actually Li Ke roaring crazily? … I’ve known him for so long, but I’ve never seen him so angry before! If it was just because Zheng Anshun had disappeared, with Li Ke’s usually calm temperament, he would never have been so angry.

Yuwen Hongtai was also a little stunned as he whispered, “No way, why is His Highness so angry?”

One of the yamen attendants walked out. It was Mubai, whom Qin Zhou Laojiu had summoned to the inn before. He bowed first and then invited Qin Mubai to the side. He nervously whispered, “General Qin, something really big has happened this time!”

“What is it? Why did His Highness gather all of you yamen servants and soldiers from the royal palace?” Qin Mubai asked.

Zhou Laojiu nervously said, “A general from the palace has just returned. He reported that the princess was intercepted halfway!”

“What?!” Qin Mubai’s eyes widened in shock, “This …! There’s actually such a thing!”

No wonder!

At this moment, Qin Mubai did not have time to listen to Zhou Laojiu’s explanation and strode into the inner hall.

The hall was a mess, full of broken dishes, tables and chairs. Li Ke’s face was flushed red and his entire body was trembling with anger. The veins on his forehead burst out from tightly clenching his fists, and he was sitting in a chair panting heavily.

There were two other people in the hall. One was Changshi Quan Wanji, who was whispering something to Li Ke. The other one was kneeling on one knee with his entire body wet and his head lowered. It was actually Xue Rengui!

“Qin Mubai, you came at the right time!” When Li Ke saw Qin Mubai enter, he didn’t wait for him to speak. He rushed up and almost shouted, “Inventory the troops of your military manor immediately. Tonight, you will bring the West River Cao Water Ghost’s lair together with the Palace Personnel and Yamen Servants led by Xue Rengui!” I don’t believe that he will be able to turn the heavens upside down! If there are not enough men, I will immediately write to Li Ji and ask him to send an army to suppress him! “Reverse! Really reverse!”

Qin Mubai ignored Li Ke’s thunderous roar and remained silent, his expression unchanged.

Li Ke roared a few times, took a few deep breaths, and ran to the side of the table to take a sip of tea, as if he had calmed down again, and let out a long breath.

Quan Wanji sighed softly, “Your Highness, you have never been so impulsive.”

Li Ke turned his back to the crowd and waved his hand. He let out a long sigh again, as if he had let out all the depressed air in his chest. He sighed deeply and said, “What a shame! My princess and daughter were actually cut off by bandits!”

“It’s the general’s incompetence that humiliates the princess and princess!” Xue Rengui stood up and wiped her saber at her neck.

Qin Mubai’s eyes were quick and he sliced his palm into Xue Rengui’s wrist. With a whoosh, the saber flew out like a streak of light, piercing into the beam and pillar of the room with a buzzing sound and penetrating several inches.

“Rengui, what are you doing!” Qin Mubai shouted, “How can a man commit suicide!”

Li Ke was also shocked. He turned around and strode over. He looked at Xue Rengui’s neck in surprise. There was a wisp of blood cut by the blade. He hurriedly used his sleeve to wipe it and blamed, “Noble, Little Wang has never blamed you.” How can I blame you? The water ghosts had all sorts of thoughts. Even if they entered the palace, they could still capture him. How could you do such a suicidal foolish thing? If you are gone, who will help me save the princess and daughter? Tomorrow they will come back, and I will lose you. Doesn’t my left arm lose my right arm? ”

“Your Highness …” Xue Rengui looked ashamed and bowed down on one knee again. “The general is too incompetent. I really don’t have the face to treat Your Highness. I’m worthy of Your Highness’s kindness!”

“Get up quickly.” Li Ke bent down and helped him up. He held Qin Mubai’s hands and sat down, saying, “I was too excited just now. I haven’t even asked why. Rengui, Mubai has also come now. He has always been resourceful and has his own plans and ideas. Now tell us in detail what happened.”

“Yes.” Xue Rengui frowned and said.

It turned out that Xue Rengui and Yin Yang had been ordered by Li Ke to lead a group of palace guards to Anzhou to pick up Princess Wu and the one-year-old princess. Because the princess was too weak and sickly after giving birth, she chose to take a boat. Originally, it was smooth to fly down the river, but tonight, when the ship was less than 20 miles away from Xiangyang, everyone suddenly heard a strange “boom boom boom” sound coming from the bottom of the ship.

The experienced boatmen immediately cried out in panic, saying that there was a water ghost chiseling the ship!

At this moment, the ship was sailing in the middle of the river. It didn’t land on the shore, causing trouble for Xue Rengui and Yin Yang. They didn’t know how to swim. The boatmen were so scared of the water ghost that they lost all sense of proportion. Many people jumped into the river and escaped.

Only Xue Rengui, Yin Yang, the princess, mother and daughter, and the soldiers were left on the ship. They were like fish that had been cut on the chopping board and were helpless!

Very quickly, the bottom of the ship began to enter the water. Everyone hurriedly blocked their mouths, but it was useless. The ship finally began to sink. Everyone tried their best to remove the boats for the princess and her daughter to ride on, while the others were all submerged in the water. Seeing that the hull of the ship was tilting and sinking, more than a dozen dexterous small shuttle boats sailed over with their lights in their hands.

The other party seemed to know who fell into the water, but he wasn’t in a hurry to save her. Instead, he said that if he wanted to save her, he could only save the princess and her daughter. The others could give a few boats to escape by themselves.

This clearly meant that the water ghost was here to rob him!

Seeing that the thin ship was about to overturn at any moment, and that the lives of the princess and her daughter were in danger, Xue Rengui and the others had no choice but to adopt an expedient plan, allowing them to save the princess first. Xue Rengui and Yin Yang discussed, and each of them went their separate ways. One of them stayed behind to be a hostage with the princess. It was at least a care. One of them came back to report.

Just like that, the princess and Yin Yang were tied up together. More than half of the soldiers drowned. Xue Rengui and the others staggered back on the small shuttle boat with great difficulty. Because they didn’t know how to sail but didn’t know how to water, they were almost knocked over by the wind and waves several times along the way and were buried in the belly of the fish.

After hearing this, Li Ke and Qin Mubai exchanged a glance and said almost in unison, “This is obviously premeditated!”

Quan Wanji asked doubtfully, “It seems that the enemy knows our every move quite well. They have already set up an ambush on the surface of the river, first attacking the sunken ship, and then easily kidnapping the princess and her daughter without a single blade or soldier. With such a profound plan, it can be seen that the other party is not an ordinary bandit!”

“Then there’s no need to say.” Qin Mubai gently picked his lips and said, “We just met Yuwen Hongtai. I heard that Zheng Anshun is also missing. What’s going on?”

“I asked him to call you.” Li Ke waved his hand at him, “All of you, come as well!”

After saying that, Li Ke brought everyone to a guest room with two men lying flat on the bed. Qin Mubai frowned at first glance. Wasn’t it the two Hundred Cavalry bodyguards he sent to Zheng Anshun?

“A few days ago, Zheng Anshun and I agreed to meet today to discuss some matters. However, before anyone comes, I am suspicious. Send someone to his residence to take a look, and only these two people can be seen.” Li Ke said, “I have asked the doctor to show them. I was numbed by the drug used in Jianghu. My life is not in danger, but I can’t even wake up tonight. There is a letter left in the room. Look!”

Li Ke handed over a letter, and Qin Mubai took it and opened it. When he opened the envelope, he seemed to smell a faint fragrance. It turned out that there was a gardenia flower in the envelope.

There are only numbers in the letter–“The machine is done, what can I do? The willows in Chuiyang Alley, lonely fireworks.”

Everyone looked at it and shook their heads, “The first eight words are easy to understand. It’s just that the other party saw through the plan we and Zheng Anshun had arranged to kidnap people and shouted arrogantly. What’s the explanation for the last eight words? What do you mean by’lonely fireworks in Sunset Alley ‘?”

Qin Mubai frowned and shook his head. “I don’t understand for a moment …” Qin Mubai chomped on these words carefully in his heart and said, “It feels like I’m alluding to a brothel girl. What’s the explanation for this? Wait … Your Highness, I’ll go find someone to chat with. Perhaps I’ll get something out of it.”

“Who are you looking for?” Before everyone could finish speaking, Qin Mubai had already walked out and disappeared. Not long after, he brought a person. It turned out to be the chief of the yamen, Zhou Laojiu.

Qin Mubai asked, “Zhou Laojiu, I have a few questions for you. Are you a native of Xiangyang?”

“This lowly person lives in Xiangyang and has been from Xiangyang for generations.” Seeing that many important figures were present, Zhou Laojiu replied with trepidation.

“That’s good.” Qin Mubai said, “I want to ask you, where is the most famous place for fireworks in Xiangyang?”

“Well … the north of the city is near Pu Hua Long Street in Hong Kong City!” Zhou Laojiu replied, “There are seventeen or eighteen brothels, big or small, that specialize in the business of traveling merchants. It can be said that they are rich.”

“Mm. Is there a famous woman named Gardenia among the brothels?”

“This … this …” Zhou Laojiu pondered for a while and shook his head. “There are plenty of Lotus Begonia and other things. There really aren’t any gardenias.”

“Really?”

“Really not.” Zhou Laojiu said confidently, “Although this lowly person can’t afford to go to that kind of place with a shallow income, but his duty is to always wander around there a few times a day. Therefore, it is clear which family has some slightly outstanding girls in their hearts. Absolutely no plan!”

At this moment, Li Ke said, “Is there a shop named Chuiyang, or Lane Willow, or something that goes with these four words?”

Elder Zhou Nine was stunned for a long time, but he still shook his head, “Still no!”

“This is strange!” Everyone cried out in shock.

Li Ke and Qin Mubai whispered, “Mubai, do you mean to say that the last eight words, Liu in Chuiyang Alley and Lonely Fireworks, are alluding to each other’s contact points? Why did he tell us?”

“The purpose is very simple. Of course, it’s to negotiate with us.” Qin Mubai said, “To tell you the truth, Your Highness, Pang Fei and Zuoying Navy General Zhao Chong also disappeared in Xiangyang this morning!”

“What?” Li Ke said angrily, “The other party is really daring!”

“Wait, calm down, calm down!” Qin Mubai waved his hand and said seriously, “I always feel that the other party has been leading us by the nose. He knows everything about us at a glance, and everything is up to us.”

“Are you saying that there are spies among us?” Li Ke said in a deep voice.

Elder Zhou Nine immediately panicked, “Little one, this lowly one is not! This lowly one knows very little, and does not have the courage to collude with the water ghost to target the prince and the general!”

“I know you’re not. Shut up!” Li Ke snorted impatiently and said, “Mubai, it seems like we’ve fallen into each other’s trap since we stepped onto the ground in Xiang Province.” Think about it. From the beginning, things had happened coincidentally. Now that you recall it, it seems that it was all carefully arranged. Ever since we encountered the water ghost disturbance at the Eight Ghosts Crossing, and until today when the princess, Pang Fei, and the others disappeared, there has always been a mafia behind the scenes plotting against us, grasping us tightly. Even the plan we plotted with Zheng Anshun was cracked by him, and he plotted against us in turn. Our opponent is really not simple! “It’s more than a hundred times stronger than those bastards I met back in Jiangzhou!”

“Yes!” Qin Mubai also nodded. “Right now, the other party’s goal is obvious.” The kidnapping of Zheng Anshun, the kidnapping of the princess, and the capture of Pang Fei and Zhao Chong were all directed at His Highness and me. Its purpose was simply to get rid of the grain and earn a lot of money. The Zheng Clan was the best buyer to accept such a large amount of grain. If you want to get rid of him, you must beat our hearts and hands and let us go. The other party’s guts aren’t small, and his appetite isn’t small either! “They are on equal footing and negotiating terms with us!”

Li Ke angrily grabbed the letter and said, “But now we don’t even know who they are or where they are! What do you mean by these willows and fireworks girls in Sunset Alley?”

Qin Mubai knitted his brows and said while deep in thought, “When we saw the word fireworks, we naturally thought of the place of fireworks. However, there are willows in Chuiyang Alley in front of us, and the fireworks were lonely before … Old Ninth Zhou, let me ask you, is there any willow tree-rich place in Xiangyang City?”

“Yes, there are. There are quite a few people living in the city, and willow trees are planted in their homes.” Elder Zhou replied, “From the time Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty Li Guang came down from Jiangnan, willow trees were worth a hundred times their value. Any wealthy family would plant some to show their sect.”

“Then is there a family that grows willows and gardenias?” Qin Mubai continued to ask.

“This, this needs to be considered carefully” Elder Zhou Nine tapped his forehead and thought, “Yes! There are several! The women of these families all love gardenias. When we patrol the courtyard, we often smell the scent of flowers. The scent of gardenias is the densest. When the flowers bloom in spring, we can smell them from afar.”

Qin Mubai raised his eyebrows and asked, “Is there a widow among these families?”

“What, widow?” Everyone was shocked at the same time.

“General Qin, you are a god! You really are! And you are the most famous little widow in Xiangyang City, a half-closed door!” Old Zhou Jiu was even more shocked.

“What does half-closed door mean?” Qin Mubai asked.

Li Ke said, “This is a unique romantic place in Xiangyang. Ordinary women from good families secretly take over some skin and meat business. To put it bluntly, they are private prostitutes.”

“Yes! There was a family that was originally very prosperous, and their wealth and fame rose far and wide. Their only son married a famous beauty in Xiangyang. Unexpectedly, more than a year ago, this only son drowned, leaving behind only a beautiful and golden widow. Afterwards, the little widow could not help but half-close the door, not for the sake of money, but to find some romantic young masters to accompany her! “Said Zhou Laojiu.” The woman is now living alone in a large family, the Xu Liang Clan, known as Hua Niangzi! ”

“Willow trees, gardenias, Hua Niangzi, willows of Sunset Alley; little widow, half-closed door, lonely fireworks-it’s her!” Qin Mubai punched his palm and said in a deep voice, “The contact point given by the other party is the little widow’s home!”

“Then what are we waiting for! Send troops to surround us and capture them!” Li Ke shouted.

“Slow!” Qin Mubai waved his hand and said with a grim expression, “Your Highness, since the other party dares to tell us the contact location so openly, he must be prepared. If we rashly lead the troops to capture someone like this, not only will the bamboo basket be empty, it may even harm the lives of the princess and the others!”

“Hateful!” Li Ke clearly realized this as well, but he was a little unwilling. He punched heavily on the wall with anger and shouted, “To think that this group of foolish bandits would tease him like this!”

“Mu Bai’s wisdom is outstanding. He is calm and capable.” Quan Wanji stood up and said, “This is a series of schemes. First, we captured Pang Fei and Zhao Chong, then Zheng Anshun and the Princess and Daughter, and left behind such a letter for us to contact on our own initiative. As soon as this ring appeared, it was seamlessly bound together. The other party’s mastermind was truly a top-notch smart person! Mu Bai, there’s no other way right now. He didn’t enter the tiger’s den and was so weak that he could only send someone to the Xu Liang Clan’s home alone to contact the other party. Let’s see what the other party wants. After knowing their intentions, we can also solve the problem head-on. ”

“Mr. Quan is absolutely right.” Qin Mubai took a deep breath and said coldly, “Originally, I came to Xiangyang to contact them. However, I didn’t expect that even Zheng Anshun and the princess and daughter would be robbed. It seems that the other party’s appetite is even greater than I imagined. There’s nothing more to say, it’s just a dragon pond and tiger’s den. I, Qin Mubai, will definitely make a breakthrough today!”

“I’ll go with you!” Li Ke said resolutely, “I don’t believe what kind of three-headed, six-armed opponent he is. What can he do to me?”

“Your Highness, you should stay in the secretariat’s mansion and take charge of the overall situation!” Qin Mubai said, “You and I cannot appear in the same place at the same time, nor can we take risks at the same time.” Don’t worry, they definitely won’t do anything to me, because they know that I can’t ignore the lives of the princess and the others, and they also want to let me come back and give orders to the military manor. If you stay here, everyone will have a backbone. Please calm down and wait for my news in the manor. ”

Li Ke frowned for a long time and nodded unwillingly, “Alright, I’ll do as you say! I’m not as resourceful and calm as you, but you’d better be careful. After all, we know almost nothing about them, and we don’t know what kind of tricks they will use.”

“I will.” Qin Mubai turned around and patted Xue Rengui on the shoulder. “Brother Xue, there’s no need to blame yourself. If it was anyone else, they wouldn’t be able to protect the princess today. If you help His Highness take charge of the Governor’s Mansion, what if there is a change? You still need to lead the QinBing and Yamen!”

“I accept your orders!” Xue Rengui cupped his fists gratefully and said, “Brother Qin, you need to take care of yourself! Now, it’s all up to you to turn the tide!”

Qin Mubai smiled confidently and mockingly, “It’s just a small matter. I’ve seen too many of them. Right now, my greatest hope is that the princess and her daughter will be safe and sound with the kidnapped people. In that case, I’ll go first. You don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll definitely come back unscathed!”

“Take care!” Everyone cupped their hands together.

“Zhou Laojiu, lead the way for me. Let’s go to the Flower Lady’s house for a walk!” Qin Mubai took Old Nine’s shoulder last week and strode out of the room.

Li Ke took a long breath and shook his head with a frown, “Every time there is a crisis, he always comes forward to solve the problem … I really don’t know if this is a blessing or a disaster.”

“What did His Highness say?” Quan Wanji asked in surprise.

“Fortunately, there’s no need to say. With such a friend, it would be a great blessing for anyone to be able to rest easy.” Li Ke said, “The calamity is … I’m too dependent on him.” Today, I have practically developed a bad habit. Something’s wrong, look for Mubai. It was as if I couldn’t think if he didn’t come. Take this letter for example. Not to mention going to the Hua Niangzi family to explore the Dragon Pool Tiger’s den, even the meaning of this letter is utterly impossible for me to decipher. With him, I feel like I’m back alive, like a child who hasn’t been weaned yet! ”

‘”Uh” Quan Wanji and Xue Rengui looked at each other speechlessly. At the same time, they thought in their hearts, “Didn’t we also not crack it? Could it be that we weren’t weaned?” …