dawn.
The sky was whitish and bluish, not quite bright yet.
Lin Xin rode on horseback and slowly walked along the khaki-colored road towards the huge city ahead.
The city wall is like a large block of building blocks densely placed on the hills and plains. Spire houses with red and yellow tiles are everywhere, and there are large square-shaped walls surrounding many flat-roofed houses between the houses.
Some smaller and shorter ones with pointed roofs are faintly hung with white silk.
On the bridleway where the three were riding horses, a funeral procession blowing trumpets was coming towards them, and a white flag was held high, with various symbols of resting the dead painted on it.
Two consecutive black coffins were dragged forward slowly by the bullock cart, and a group of family members beside them were crying and their eyes were red and swollen.
"This is the third team, why are there so many dead people?" Yu Chang frowned and said in a low voice. That's what he said, but his eyes kept turning around the beautiful women in the funeral procession,
"Something's wrong." Shu Luoyi nodded. This one was indeed carefully observing the funeral coffin.
Lin Xin rode behind the two of them without saying a word.
There is a huge city stretching for dozens of miles in front of it, but the closer you get, the more you see white silk hanging everywhere representing funerals, and most of the people who saw it looked dumb.
Looking at the huge Peacock City area in front of it from a distance, there is a faint feeling of depression and dullness there.
The three speeded up, and there were more and more houses on both sides of the road. From the simple wooden houses at the beginning, they gradually transformed into more and more white-walled courtyards.
Some carriages and horses also passed by the three of them from time to time, and occasionally there was a convoy of officers and soldiers.
Yu Chang took the lead at this time, leading the two of them towards his house.
Soon the three of them arrived in front of a red lacquered gate, with stone pillars and lions in front of the gate, and two officers and soldiers guarding it.
"Young Master is back!" Seeing Yu Chang get off his horse, the officer guarding the gate, Lao Youzi, took the initiative to come over, and the other turned around and opened the door and shouted to announce.
"Go and tell my father, just say that I will stay here for a few days when I come back this time, and I will be with my two friends from the sect, so we must treat you well." Yu Chang said with a smile in the tone of a young master.
"Okay. I'll call Little Six!" The officers and soldiers seemed to be very familiar with Yu Chang, and they turned around and entered the door with a smile. Soon, several servants ran out, leading the horses, and picking up things. They are all very attentive.
Lin Xin didn't want to disturb here, after all, he didn't know Yu Chang well.
"Brother Yu, I still have a friend who is going to visit, why don't we just part here, come back to bother me in two days, and act together."
Anyway, this mission is not difficult to find people and send letters. The three of them originally took this kind of mission to do other things, to see family and friends.
"Then I don't know if Brother Lin has a fixed residence? We can contact you if there is anything." Yu Chang smiled.
"You can find me at the Lai Lai Inn." Lin Xin reported his pre-determined address.
"Farewell." He cupped his hands.
"Farewell." Yu Chang and Shu Luoyi replied.
The three separated.
The Lai Lai Inn was the place Lin Xin had inquired about from Kong Yuhui, and it was also one of the two largest inns in Peacock City.
Randomly asked a passer-by to inquire, Lin Xin soon rode to the gate of the inn.
On the left, a luxurious house with the eaves of Suzaku is under renovation. There are jingling noises inside, and a pile of sandstone bricks piled up outside, with workers coming in and out.
After dismounting, the boy from the inn came up first, signed the horse, and gave him a horse tag with a mark on it.
"At that time, I will lead your horse with this." The boy explained.
Following this person into the inn, there is a large space inside.
It's like standing in a hollow venue, and you can see the rooms with one to three floors on both sides.
From bottom to top, every floor is covered with red lanterns.
Lin Xin looked up and saw that the ceiling at the top was a black-bottomed stone slab, engraved with a few big gilt characters on it: no fixed relationship.
There were people coming and going in the inn, but the business was good. The young man led Lin Xin to the counter to pay the money and put down the deposit, and the room was still ample. Lin Xin asked for a superior suite. Enough room for three people.
Another maid led them to the suite. The furniture was mahogany with silver edges, carved and hollowed out, and there were eight trigrams bronze mirrors hanging on the wall from time to time to ward off evil spirits.
You can also see large decorative vases, rockery, wood carvings, etc. at the corner.
"Send me a letter to Kong Yuhui at the Confucian Mansion at the Peacock Gate. This is a token." Lin Xin asked the maid to call the messenger from the inn, and put Kong Yuhui's contact token, a piece of red jade pendant, on the envelope.
In front of him, the messenger sealed the seal with drops of red wax, and left with the letter and jade pendant.
After closing the door, Lin Xin breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking at the luxurious ancient bedroom with lanterns hanging in front of him, he felt unreal.
There was a faint scent of incense in the room, I don't know what it was, but it smelled very elegant.
Lin Xin walked to the desk, and the three candles on the silver candlestick were as thick as wrists. There is also a pineapple wooden sign on the table below, with some words written on it. They are all words of wishing the guests a good sleep, paying attention to safety, and ringing the bell if service is needed.
There is a row of red ropes above the wooden sign, and above each rope is a small identification plate with words written on it.
'Breakfast', 'lunch', 'dinner', 'bathing', 'clothing', 'dressing', 'miscellaneous'.
There are seven brands in total.
Except that Lin Xin doesn't know what it means to change the medicine, he can understand the rest.
"As expected of a top luxury bedroom... eight taels of silver a day is really a luxury." He couldn't help but sigh.
Go to the low tea table and sit down on the wooden couch next to it. This wooden couch is like a wooden sofa, and it is placed around the low tea table. There is an incense burner in the middle, and there are matching flints on the side. Be well behaved.
Taking off the four swords and the ordinary long sword around his waist one by one, Lin Xin took off his coat and pulled the red rope for bathing.
ding ding..
There was a faint sound of copper bells.
In less than five minutes, two strong men knocked on the door carrying a large wooden barrel.
Opening the door, I watched the two people put the wooden bucket in the special bathroom in the suite, and someone brought buckets of hot water in and poured them in. Soon the barrel was full. Bath towels, prepared pajamas, towels, and fragrant rose petals, etc. The two quickly prepared everything and left just like that.
"Eh... Where's the person who took the shower?" Lin Xin was about to ask, when he saw four young and beautiful women walking in in only white tulle.
"Serve Master to take a bath and change clothes." Lin Xin felt a little weak in the neat and sweet Yingying voice of the four of them.
"This is really corrupt." He sighed in his heart. "Too corrosive!"
Looking at the four beautiful young girls in front of him, if he lived this kind of life every day, Lin Xin could suddenly understand why there were always so many swingers in costume dramas.
But after thinking about it, he still waved his hand and left a purer girl, he asked himself that he was not a sanctimonious person or a gentleman. It should be enjoyed or will be enjoyed.
It's just that the girl didn't have that kind of service, but waited for him to take off his clothes first and got into the water before coming in to rub his back and heat the water, but it was only limited to rubbing his back, just rubbing and touching him slightly ambiguously.
Lin Xin also happened to be planning to ask about some things here.
"Around this Peacock City, why can you see funeral processions everywhere? Has there been a plague recently?"
A white jade hairpin was inserted into the girl's hair, so Lin Xin simply called her jade hairpin.
"Really? I don't know if it's the plague or something. Many people got sick for no reason, and within a few days they became skinny. They starved to death after eating. People can't even fall asleep at night after seeing it." Yuzan mentioned the recent incident, still with lingering fear.
"But it's a plague, right? Several doctors in the city couldn't find the root cause of the disease. People who were close to the patient were fine, but people who had nothing to do with them got sick suddenly. I heard that the halls of Shengjitang were also driven from the capital. Come here and tell me what kind of insect sting it is."
"Insect stings?" Lin Xin sat in the barrel and straightened up to let her rub his back.
"Yes, I was bitten by a bug." Yuhan said softly.
"Have you studied before? Literacy?" Lin Xin asked casually.
"Yes, my family is from Lvtang Hongliu. I used to go to school when my family was in a good situation. I also studied as a child, but it's a pity that I didn't pass the government examination, and then I dropped out of school..." Yuhan replied in a low voice.
Lin Xin nodded understandingly. The Song Dynasty also allowed women to obtain fame. If they can learn from being a child, they would be a proper junior high school student in modern times.
Translated, it means that the girl dropped out of school after she reached junior high school. Because her family was in trouble, she came out to work by herself.
"Then you are only under eighteen years old?" Lin Xin asked again.
"That's right, my family only turns fifteen during Chinese New Year..." the girl replied in a low voice.
Lin Xin glanced at her breasts, which were not as plump as a fifteen-year-old's, obviously not believing it. At least a false report of two years old.
Yuhan waited for her to take a bath, and Lin Xin changed her clothes. Not long after Yuhan left the house, Kong Yuhui came.
"Brother Lin, you are here!" Kong Yuhui's face was still indifferent, but there was a little joy in his eyes.
The two closed the door and locked it, and sat on the wooden couch. Lin Xin poured him a cup of hot water.
Looking sideways at the sky, it was almost afternoon.
"Brother Kong, is there anything I can help you with?"
"It's not a big deal." Kong Yuhui relaxed and said with a light smile, "My Peacock Sect is the top sect in the hundreds of miles of Peacock City, and more than half of the government offices are the elders of my disciples. Even if there is a big event, There is no need for you and me to go out."
"What's the matter? I sent you a letter just after I settled down, and you came here in a hurry." Lin Xin smiled.
"It's just that I happened to have a few friends at home. They are all friends from the world that I made when I was away. I will bring you to drink and get acquainted with each other." Kong Yuhui obviously didn't have such a simple purpose.
Before Lin Xin came, he had inquired about the internal situation of the Peacock Gate.
In addition to Kong Yuhui, who opened the Peacock Sect, there are two other candidates for the heir of the sect, namely his younger sister Kong Xiushan and elder brother Kong Lei.
Both of them are also masters in the inner family, and they have a lot of friends. When they heard that they arrived, Kong Yuhui hurried over, probably to win him over and show them to the other two.