The full moon banquet for the young master of the Wei family was not a martial arts competition to find a bride or something like that, so there were naturally no other extra programs except giving gifts and congratulating each other and having a meal. It was so cold that a baby could not be seen, so most of the people who had finished lunch and dinner left one after another.
Of course, if someone wanted to have some fun in Desheng Mansion, no matter if it was a restaurant, teahouse, brothel or memorial archway, all expenses would be covered by the Wei family. Even the best shops in the city, except for those that did not involve gambling houses and brothels, were actually quite a lot of Wei family properties.
Du Heng and his two cousins came out of the inn arranged by the Wei family early the next morning, preparing to go to the stable to get the horses, but they didn't expect that there was a groom waiting for them.
When the thin and small groom wrapped in a thick cotton-padded jacket saw Du Heng with the broken arm leading his men out from the back door of the inn, his eyes suddenly lit up and he rushed out of the stable.
"Is this Mr. Du?"
Du Heng was slightly surprised. Normally, he would deposit a number with the inn and ask the coachman to lead the horses for the three of them. But the other party shouldn't know him, right
The groom rubbed his hands and breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly reached out and led the way to the stable on the right.
"You must be right. The master of the family has instructed before that the horses you brought here were accidentally led by someone else, so he specially compensated you with a few more horses. There are also carriages over there. If you want to go to some counties and towns in Desheng Prefecture, I can also drive you there. In this cold weather, carriages are more comfortable!"
In the stable on the right, there were three strong chestnut horses. Judging from their shiny coat without any impurities, their lively eyes, their well-proportioned muscles and fat, and their tall bodies, they were definitely three good horses, at least much better than the three horses that the Du family had had before.
"Hey, Young Master Du, these three rouge horses are given to you as compensation by the owner. They have good endurance and can generate power quickly. They are docile to their masters and can kill a wolf with one kick to wild animals. They just eat a lot."
The coachman rubbed his hands and pointed to the carriage beside him.
"This carriage is covered with fur and has a heater. It's comfortable and warm to sit in. You won't feel tired at all after traveling two or three hundred miles. Hey, Young Master Du, do you want me to drive the carriage for you?"
Du Heng frowned and looked at the shrewd groom. He suddenly realized that although the groom was short and his fingers were red from the cold, his knuckles were thick and his hands were hooked like claws. He was obviously a good martial artist.
"Master Wei knows where I'm going?"
"Hehe, from what you said, how could Patriarch Wei know all this? I just thought you might be able to use it!"
The two Wei family disciples behind Du Heng had already been looking at the rouge horses with their eyes shining.
Just like the man who loved cars in Ji Yuan's previous life, the men here, especially those in the society, all love horses, especially good horses like Rouge Horse.
"Thank you for your kindness, Patriarch Wei. We can go there on horseback instead of taking a carriage!"
Du Heng was really not used to having such an outsider driving the carriage for them. Looking at the expressions of his two cousins behind him, he probably couldn't wait to ride the horses as well.
"Hey, okay, I'll put the saddle on for you..."
Everything was ready. The three rouge horses had been led out of the stable, and Du Heng and the other two were ready to mount their horses and leave. At this time, the groom rubbed his hands and spoke with a smile, and his expression was very much like his master Wei Wuwei.
"Oh, Young Master Du, the head of the family also mentioned it briefly, saying that if you are going to Ning'an County..."
Du Heng's eyes narrowed. This guy really knew.
The groom continued talking to himself, as if he didn't notice Du Heng's gaze.
"Well, the resident said that the jujube tree in your yard has some red fruits this year, and they are still not falling. The young man who looks after the garden neither picks them nor sells them... Since Young Master Du is an old acquaintance of you, I'm sure that young man will give you a few, hehe... The head of the family said that the Wei family is willing to pay a large sum of money to buy a few from you."
Buy dates
Du Heng was even more surprised. With the financial resources of the Wei family, how could they not get dates if they wanted to eat them? Is there something special about the date tree in Mr. Ji's yard
"We'll discuss this matter after Du comes back. Goodbye for now. Please thank Patriarch Wei for me!"
Du Heng bowed and said goodbye, and the coachman quickly returned the greeting.
Then the three Du family boys rode their horses out of the backyard of the inn.
The Rouge Horse was indeed a good horse, fast and obedient. The feeling of galloping made the three Du family sons extremely happy, especially after leaving the city, they no longer had to worry about pedestrians, and they felt as if they were galloping at the speed of lightning.
However, this feeling of joy only lasted for half an hour before it quickly faded away and was carried away by the cold wind that blew in my face.
The faster the horse ran, the faster its body would lose temperature. Even with their martial arts skills, the three of them were still freezing, especially as the temperature in Jizhou had dropped even lower in the past two days.
The straight-line distance between Desheng Prefecture and Ning'an County is about 150 miles, but the winding road took nearly 300 miles. We stayed in local houses or inns along the way, and arrived in Ning'an County on the third day.
"Oh... if I had known... I would have taken that carriage..."
One of the Du family members was sitting on horseback, holding the reins and rubbing his hands. The white air coming out of the nose of the strong horse under him was more than a foot long.
"Okay, stop complaining. I'll shamelessly ask Patriarch Wei to borrow a copper pot when I get back, and we'll eat that hot pot again."
"Hey, Brother Heng, you said this!"
"Yes, don't regret it!"
The three of them led the tall horses into Ning'an County, which also attracted the attention of some people in the county. At this time of year, there were not many outsiders coming to Ning'an County.
After a little inquiries, he found out where Mr. Ji lived. After all, only Lu Chengfeng had been to that small pavilion at that time, and the others only knew the name and the approximate location.
The villagers were enthusiastic and just showed Du Heng the way without charging him any money. When they arrived a hundred steps outside a small pavilion deep in Tianniufang, the man in a cotton-padded jacket, who was also from Tianniufang, pointed to a place where the branches and leaves were still green with a little red.
"That is Ju'an Pavilion. Mr. Ji used to live there. You can go there by yourselves."
After expressing their gratitude, Du Heng and the others led their horses towards the courtyard.
When I came here before, I heard the man say that this jujube tree was peculiar. Now in the freezing season, the tree is full of green, and the scattered red dots between the leaf veins are as bright as red flowers. It is hard to imagine that this is the scenery in the severe winter.
The gate of the courtyard was open, and the back door of the courtyard was also open. Through the back door, one could see a young man setting up a rack to dry quilts in the open space behind the courtyard. There were quilts left by Mr. Ji and also some belonging to the Yin family. The young man was Yin Qing.
Hearing the sound of horse hooves and footsteps, Yin Qing turned around and looked outside the front courtyard gate. He found three strangers. In particular, the empty sleeves of Du Heng's broken arm stunned him for a moment. Then he saw that they were all wearing swords, so they should be people from the martial arts world.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Du Heng quickly replied.
"My name is Du Heng. I am an old acquaintance of Mr. Ji. I came to visit you when I passed by Ning'an County."
"Du Heng?"
Yin Qing took a look at it and combined it with the broken hand, and suddenly thought of something.
"Ah! I remember now. You are a tiger-fighting hero. Mr. Ji has mentioned you! Come in, come in!"
Du Heng's broken arm was very recognizable. Yin Qing put down what he was doing and rushed from the wasteland in the backyard to the small courtyard in the front. He welcomed the three people into the yard and was also very curious about the three rouge horses.
He quickly took out a few more cups from the small kitchen, and then poured water from the kettle that was already on the stone table.
"Drink water, it's still hot. The tea leaves are gone. You came at an untimely time. The master hasn't come back since he went on a trip. When he was away, we helped him look after the yard. Now my father has gone to take the exam, so I'm the only one looking after it. A few months ago, there were more dates in the yard, but now there are fewer..."
Yin Qing chattered to Du Heng with excitement, and then asked how the nine people fought the tiger.
In fact, the so-called tiger-fighting process was completely a one-sided abuse by the tiger demon. Du Heng could not say anything at all. He could only try to talk about the preparations and the simple fighting process, and then used the siege to cover it up, but Yin Qing still listened with relish.
After Du Heng finished speaking, he took the opportunity to ask Yin Qing about Ji Yuan's situation. The villager who had led the way had also said that Mr. Ji was a strange man, but it would be more appropriate to ask the Yin family about the real situation.
Apart from the matters of ghosts and gods and the incident in which Wei Wuwei went to see the master to see the jade, which he was warned not to talk about, Yin Qing also talked about the other things with great enthusiasm, from rescuing foxes and releasing them to seeing the master dancing with swords and flowers and leaves like dragons, and also talked about the miraculous incident of the jujube tree bearing fruits overnight to see the master off on his long journey.
Even Du Heng was amazed when he heard these things. The two younger brothers of the Du family were a little unconvinced after hearing them, thinking that they were just kids bragging.
However, Yin Qing did not notice the two Du family members' pouting lips. Instead, he became more and more excited as he spoke.
"That's right! Wait for me, I'll go home and I have something to show you!"
As Yin Qing was speaking, he ran out of the yard and went home, leaving the three of them in the yard looking at each other in bewilderment.
"These dates are as red as fire. I wonder what they taste like. Brother Heng, shall we pick two to try?"
"Don't move!"
Du Heng glared at his cousin.
After a while, Yin Qing came back excitedly with a book.
"I'm back~"
Yin Qing entered the yard and put the book on the stone table, slightly out of breath. Because his hands were dry and it was difficult to turn the pages, he licked his saliva and turned to the middle part.
"Hey, this is what I wrote myself. I wrote down some interesting things that Mr. Ji told me because I was afraid I would forget them."
Yin Qing turned to this page. On it was Du Heng's name and a brief introduction as well as some unfamiliar people and things. Although he was young, his handwriting was neat.
"Hey, you see, Mr. Ji only told me about two one-armed heroes. One is you, and the other is this guy named Yang Guo!"
"Yang Guo? Who is this?"
"You don't know this, right? Well, he's not from my Dazhen, or he's not from this era. He should be an ancient person. Don't worry about who he is. Anyway, he's very powerful. Even Mr. Ji said he's powerful!"
Yin Qing flipped through the book and showed Du Heng some incomplete contents of his record.
Living under someone else's roof since childhood, being bullied, looked down upon, having his hand chopped off by his uncle's children, escaping alone, being poisoned and humiliated...
The content in the middle made Du Heng and his two cousins feel numb. This man is still alive, how can he still have the spirit to fight
Later, he trained hard for decades with the eagle as his friend. What's more rare is that he always had justice in his heart and did not lose his chivalrous heart despite his superb martial arts. He was known as the Divine Eagle Hero Yang Guo.
Taking into account that Yin was young at the time, Ji Yuan harmonized some of the adult love when telling this story, thus highlighting Yang Guo's martial arts journey and the justice of the world.
"Is there really such a person? Could it be that Mr. Ji made it up?"
Yin Qing became very unhappy when he heard what the Du family member said.
"Make up? Do you think Mr. Ji is a storyteller? Is there any need to make up Mr. Ji's stories? If you knew that he was Liancheng..."
When he said this, Yin Qing immediately covered his mouth and almost let the secret slip.
"Anyway, this is definitely true, believe it or not!"
Speaking of this, Yin Qing said to Du Heng excitedly again.
"Master Du, Mr. Ji only told me about two one-armed heroes. The first one was extremely powerful, and you are the second one!"
The sentence "You are the second one" made Du Heng stunned for a long time. He was speechless and laughed, feeling a little amused.
"By the way, since Mr. Du is here, I'll pick a few of these fire dates for you. The jujube tree will definitely agree, and I can also have a taste of them, hahahaha!"
Yin Qing became excited again and ran towards the jujube tree excitedly.
Does the jujube tree agree
This was another sentence that puzzled Du Heng and others, but Du Heng and the two Du family disciples did not think deeply about it. They just watched Yin Qing climb up the tree in a few nimble steps.