The young man surnamed Zhao listened to his father's words, but was still reluctant. He put out his tobacco lazily, stood up, patted the dirt on his butt, and then ran out of the tea stall.
When Old Man Zhao saw his son run away, he did not sit idle. He counted the number of Qiu Yizhi's people, lined up fifteen tea bowls on the eight-immortal table, picked up a large spoon, stirred the pot full of tea, scooped a full spoonful, and poured it into a tea bowl. The capacity of this spoon was about the same as the tea bowl, and one spoonful filled the entire tea bowl.
Old man Zhao scooped another bowl and said to Qiu Yizhi, "Sir, please have some tea first."
Qiu Yizi had just talked a long way with Old Man Zhao and was very thirsty. When he saw the herbal tea in front of him, he could smell the cool scent of it in his nostrils. Without thinking much, he picked up the tea bowl and drank it.
The ten guards following Qiu Yizhi actually wanted to drink water a long time ago, but they resisted because Qiu Yizhi was still talking. However, when they saw Qiu Yizhi had already drunk the tea, they stopped talking and rushed to pick up the tea bowls and drank it all at once.
Seeing that the herbal tea on the table was almost snatched away by this group of rough guys, Yuchi Jiming quickly used his lightness skills to squeeze in front of the crowd, picked up three tea bowls in both hands, and walked to the carriage where Wu Ruofei and Yang Ying'er were riding with extremely light and quick steps. He gently lifted the curtain and said, "Sister Wu, Sister Yang, you should also have a cup of tea to quench your thirst." Not a drop of tea spilled from the three tea bowls in his hands.
Yang Ying'er moved her body to sit on the horizontal shaft in front of the carriage, took the tea bowl handed to her by Yuchi Jiming and took a sip, then said to Wu Ruofei who was still hiding in the carriage: "Miss Wu, this tea is very refreshing, you should have a sip too." After that, she took another tea bowl and handed it into the carriage.
But Wu Ruofei had been pampered since she was a child, and her food, clothing and utensils were all top-quality. When she saw that the farmer's tea set was very shabby, she felt a little disgusted from the bottom of her heart and said softly, "I... I'm not thirsty, you guys drink it."
After hearing this, Yang Ying'er had to take back the tea bowl in embarrassment.
The old man who poured tea saw this and said with a smile: "My tea is special. It's okay if the young lady in the car doesn't want to drink it, but the girl who brought the water has worked hard. Why not let her drink it." The "girl" he mentioned refers to Yuchi Jiming.
Yuchi Jiming was a martial artist with abundant internal strength. He could not stand the heat, so he reached out to take the tea bowl from Yang Ying'er's hand.
Unexpectedly, the "Iron-Headed Dragon" jumped out from the side and snatched the tea bowl from Yang Ying'er's hand.
Although Yuchi Jiming was a martial arts expert, she was after all a young girl who had just learned the art and had little experience in fighting against the enemy. She was caught off guard by the "Iron-Headed Dragon". By the time she reacted and tried to fight back, the "Iron-Headed Dragon" had already drunk up the whole bowl of tea.
Yuchi Jiming was very angry when he saw this, and shouted: "How dare you, Iron-Headed Dragon, to steal my things? I will break your legs!"
Qiu Yizi smiled and said, "Jiming, why do you have to be so kind? It's just a bowl of tea, why don't you just scoop another bowl?" He turned to Old Man Zhao and said, "Your tea is indeed quite special. It tastes very refreshing and seems to be different from other teas."
The old man grinned and said, "That's right. It contains jujube flowers and scutellaria baicalensis. It is a secret recipe my wife brought from her parents' home. Even my son doesn't know how she made it. Try it again, young master. It has a special flavor!"
Qiu Yizi nodded and took another deep sip.
But after taking this sip, I felt a strange feeling all over my body. The refreshing feeling I had just had when I drank the tea was gone. Instead, I felt as if my head was filled with lead and became dizzy.
Qiu Yizi quickly raised his head and looked around, only to see Lin Shuhan beside him also looking sleepy. He then heard a loud "bang" in his ear, and looking in the direction of the sound, he saw the "Iron Head Dragon" lying on its back, with its limbs spread out on the ground.
Qiu Yi thought to herself, "Not good." She suddenly remembered how she had been poisoned by Master Miao Zhen in the "Liaochen Palace." She shouted, "Be careful, the tea is poisonous!"
This shout actually drained all of Qiu Yizi's strength, causing his legs to go limp little by little. He quickly held onto the eight-immortals table beside him and slowly sat down on the dirt ground.
After he sat down, his mind seemed to be clearer, but he was still weak all over. It was extremely difficult for him to even turn his neck. He had to move his eyes up and down and left and right quickly to observe the situation around him. He saw that Lin Shuhan had already collapsed on the ground unconscious; the other personal soldiers were also sitting or lying in a mess; only Yuchi Jiming looked a little better, but he was also sitting on the ground weakly, with his eyes slightly closed, as if he was gathering his breath.
As a result, among the group, only Wu Ruofei, who did not drink the bowl of cold tea, was safe and sound. But she was a weak woman who was powerless. What could she expect in such a situation
Therefore, Qiu Yizi had completely lost all hope and just hoped that the old man who poisoned them was just trying to rob them of their money and not to harm their lives.
The old man, whose surname was not known, walked around the poisoned man with a smile, and then said to Wu Ruofei, the only sober person, "This girl is very pretty. I have never seen such a pretty girl in all my years of wandering around the world."
Wu Ruofei was shocked and said, "You...you...what do you want to do..." She was so frightened that she couldn't speak clearly, and it seemed that her tongue was tied.
The old man smiled complacently and said, "Don't worry, young lady. I am also quite famous in the martial arts world and I never rape anyone. I just hope that this young lady won't move, otherwise I will have to be rude!"
Wu Ruofei quickly nodded in agreement.
Seeing this, the old man sat down at an octagonal table with confidence, lit up a pipe and started smoking it, while his eyes were still observing the situation of everyone.
Not long after, the young man who had just left came back.
Qiu Yi couldn't raise her head, and couldn't see the man's expression clearly, but she saw that the young man was indeed walking over with a woman. She only heard the woman yelling, "Haha! So many people fell down at once! Fortunately, I am very capable, otherwise where can I find such a fast-acting drug in this remote place?"
Qiu Yizhi heard the woman's voice and felt it was very familiar. He quickly raised his head with all his strength and looked at the woman who was speaking. It turned out that the woman was an acquaintance of Qiu Yizhi - Gu Erniang, the madam of the "Nuanxiang Pavilion" in the capital.
Qiu Yi was so overjoyed that she shouted at the top of her voice, "Mother Gu, it's me! Don't you recognize me?"
Gu Er Niang was stunned when she heard it, and she quickly bent down to look, and suddenly laughed: "Oh, who did I think it was! It turned out to be Master Qiu! This is really a flood that has flushed the Dragon King Temple." After that, she personally helped Qiu Yizi up and sat him on a chair beside the table.
Qiu Yizi finally calmed down and said slowly, "Mother Gu is really good at this. I was somewhat prepared, but I didn't expect that I would be tricked in the end. I'm sorry to make you laugh."
Gu Erniang was also very polite and said, "My medicine is colorless and odorless, no wonder you took the bait. It's all because I had to go out for a while, otherwise I would have given you medicine for anyone else, but not you!"
Qiu Yizi was feeling dizzy and was even more confused by Gu Erniang's sweet words. After a lot of effort, she calmed down and said, "Since this is a misunderstanding, please give us the antidote, and we can talk about it in detail."
Gu Erniang smiled but said, "No hurry. I have one more question for you: You are a noble man, and you helped the emperor ascend the throne. You have a bright future ahead of you. Why did you come back to this mountain valley?"
Qiu Yizi knew that Gu Erniang had a complicated background. She was not only a member of the underworld, but also had a close relationship with the Tianzun Sect. After thinking about it, his brain almost exploded, and then he said, "Well, the emperor thinks I am too young to hold a high position, so he wants me to start as a county magistrate and gain experience step by step. So, I am going to take someone with me to take up the post, so I passed by here."
Gu Erniang's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and she said, "So, you are the new county magistrate of Shanyin County?"
Qiu Yizi was having a splitting headache, and without thinking, he answered: "Yes, it is me. Please give me the antidote now, Madam Gu, I really can't stand it anymore."
Gu Er Niang sneered and said, "This is how I feel sorry for you, sir. You have offended someone, and hired me to take your life. You also know that we in the martial arts world value integrity the most. Since you have promised others, it is not good to break your promise."
Qiu Yizi was extremely shocked when he heard this - although Gu Erniang's martial arts were not as good as Yuchi Lianghong's, she was also a top-notch fighter in the martial arts world, especially her ability to poison was unparalleled in the world - if she intended to make things difficult for him, he would never be able to escape.
So Qiu Yizi tried to stay calm, pondered for a while, and said: "It is true that Madam Gu has an agreement with the employer, and it is also true that she has some friendship with me, so the two can offset each other. In this case, let's talk about the word 'profit'. First, let's ask Madam, how much money did my enemy pay to take my life?"
Gu Erniang didn't expect Qiu Yizhi to be so calm in such a disaster. She wanted to talk to him in detail, so she said frankly: "Your head is very valuable. Your enemy is willing to pay 400,000 silver to take your life. I have seen the world in the "Nuanxiang Pavilion" in the capital. I have never seen so much silver. I didn't care whether he was an official appointed by the court or not. I agreed without thinking."
Qiu Yizhi was shocked again when he heard this. He calculated the gold and silver on his body, Wu Ruofei's jewelry, and Lin Shuhan's calligraphy and painting manuscripts. He could not scrape together more than 150,000 taels of silver. However, his life was at stake, so he had to lie first: "It's okay. I took the gold and silver awarded by the emperor with me on this appointment. It's nearly 500,000 taels. It's barely enough to buy the lives of each of my team members. What do you think, Mother Gu?"
At this point, Qiu Yizi suddenly remembered that he had several important items hidden with him, including Emperor Zheng Rong's name card, a golden order that could mobilize troops from all over the world, and so on. If he lost even one of them, there would be endless troubles.
Gu Erniang laughed a few times and said, "Young Master is such a smart man, how can he not figure out this account? If I let you go, I can get his 500,000 silver taels; if I kill you, your 500,000 silver taels will be at your fingertips, and the 400,000 silver taels from the employer will also be at my fingertips. The total amount is 400,000 taels of silver, which is not a small amount!"
Qiu Yizi was used to being sharp-tongued, and had never hated her mouth so much before - why did her opening today make Gu Erniang even more determined to kill her
He looked at Gu Erniang's face, which was covered with rouge, and suddenly an idea came to him. If he could make it clear, he might be able to save his life today. (To be continued)