It has been hundreds of years since the establishment of the capital of the Eastern Wu Dynasty. The Eastern Jin Dynasty moved to the south, taking the Yangtze River as a danger. It seems that it has isolated the troops and horses in the north. Jiankang has thus become the most prosperous city in the Central Plains and even the world. Here, wanderers pass by and come and go like a shuttle. In the daytime, there is an endless stream of dragons and horses. At night, the yarn lights are like weaving.
For example, Yecheng, Chang'an, etc., although it is also a capital, has experienced wars and turmoil, showing a little vicissitudes. An official of the Northern Zhou Dynasty like Yu Wenqing, although he didn't say it, might not have no longing and admiration for Jiankang City in his heart. The servants who came with him did not have to hide it. The officials were complacent, and couldn't help but give them a casual introduction to the scenery of the city.
After entering the city, Yu Wenqing and the others naturally stayed at the hotel provided by Chen Chao, and Yan Wushi was no exception. His status was there, and there was a life-saving grace. Yu Wenqing voluntarily gave up the main courtyard. He moved to a side yard by himself, and took pity on his concubine Yuzi. After being frightened that night, he couldn't afford to be sick. It was lingering for a while until he settled down in the city.
Hehuan Sect failed to assassinate, and there was no movement. Yu Wenqing was frightened at first, but then he thought about Yan Wushi, if the assassin succeeded, he, the Huanyue Sect Master, would be disgraced, this is more than life for Jianghu people For the important things, I gradually let go of my heart, and took my concubine to visit Jiankang City to the fullest, waiting for Lord Chen's summons.
On this day, Shen Qiao was listening to the maid reading in the house when someone came to report that Yu Wenqing was visiting.
Seeing Shen Qiao nodding, Ruru put down the book and opened the door.
Yu Wenqing walked in and first looked left and right: "Why, Master Yan isn't here?"
Shen Qiao said with a smile: "He and I are in different houses. If Dr. Yuwen wants to find him, he is in the wrong place, but I heard that Sect Master Yan has something to do today and went out very early."
Yu Wenqing laughed dryly: "It's just right, even if the young master is not there, he is very powerful, and every time I talk to him, I'm more nervous than meeting His Majesty!"
Ruru couldn't help but chuckle.
Yu Wenqing has always been tolerant towards beauties, so he didn't get angry when he saw this, but instead smiled at Ruru.
Ruru felt a little embarrassed.
Yu Wenqing smiled at Shen Qiao: "The weather is very good today, do you want to go outside for a stroll, Jiankang leans on the Huai Shui, I heard that there are many Huai Shui Jin ferry, and there are markets everywhere, why don't you go out and have a look , by the way, buy some fresh river fish and let them cook a meal at night!"
After speaking, he thought of something: "You are from a Taoist background, shouldn't you also abstain from meat and fish, and should be vegetarian?"
Shen Qiao: "That's not necessary, it's just that my eyes are inconvenient, and I'm afraid it will drag down your schedule."
Yu Wenqing smiled and said, "Young Master Shen also saved my life, but I was a drag on you at that time, so why be so polite?"
Shen Qiao didn't refuse again this time: "Then it's better to be respectful than to obey."
The hotel is not far from Jindu, so Yu Wenqing did not take a carriage, but walked out with Yuzi and others. He was worried that it would be inconvenient for Shen Qiao, but although the other party was leaning on a bamboo stick in his hand, The speed is not slower than them, and there is no need for anyone to help, walking side by side with Yu Wenqing, almost no different from ordinary people.
Yu Wenqing found that he went out without a sword: "Master Shen, where is your sword?"
Shen Qiao seemed to know what he was worried about, so he couldn't help but smile: "Doctor Yuwen, don't worry, if I meet an enemy, my bamboo cane can resist one or two, not to mention that this is Jiankang City, with Linchuan Academy in charge, Hehuan The people of Zong will not be so daring and dare to attack here!"
Yu Wenqing was stabbed at the center of the matter by him, and his old face flushed: "No wonder I feel much safer since I entered the city, and even the young master is relieved to leave to do business, so it is."
Shen Qiao: "Chen Chao formed an alliance with Zhou Guo, if you were assassinated in Jiankang City, wouldn't they be unable to explain to Zhou Emperor, and what kind of alliance would they talk about, so they will do their best to protect your comprehensiveness, and there are always experts around the hotel. , but you didn't notice it."
Yu Wenqing approached him and whispered: "Master Shen, I know you are not a pamperer, and I never dared to look down on you. Today, while the young master is away, I dare to tell you the truth, you Do you know how those people in Chang'an see you?"
Shen Qiao smiled but said nothing.
Yu Wenqing thought he didn't know, so he politely said: "They all said that you are now trapped in the shoal, and you have to rely on Sect Master Yan. In order to protect yourself, you don't even care about your integrity. Your life-saving grace, you naturally understand that you are definitely not like this, but everyone is talking about gold, accumulating and destroying bones! If you have the opportunity, you should stay away from Master Yan, why should you let others pour dirty water on you, and you will be humiliated. You, alas, those words make me angry!"
Shen Qiao knew that he must have said this because of the scene he saw on the carriage that day, but he couldn't explain much for a while, so he could only say: "Thank you for your kindness, but you misunderstood, I It's not that kind of relationship with Sect Master Yan, Sect Master Yan has a somewhat... capricious temperament, so he often does unexpected things."
Yu Wenqing: "I understand, I understand, of course you can't be a spoiler attached to Master Yan, and I'm not prejudiced against Long Yangzhi, but in your current situation, if you and Master Yan, that, ahem, like each other, I'm afraid it's you, not Master Yan, who is hurt by the rumors!"
Shen Qiao was helpless: "...We don't like each other, and I don't like Longyang either."
Yu Wenqing: "I understand, I understand, this can't be declared, let's just say it!"
Shen Qiao: "..."
He suddenly didn't want to say a word, and even if Yu Wenqing continued to say something, he just didn't hear it.
Jindu was full of people and there were groceries everywhere. There were many people like Yu Wenqing who came to go shopping on foot, some took carriages or horses, some came to see their relatives off, or came to the shore with boats. One after another, there was a lot of traffic, almost wanting to step on each other.
A horse in the back didn't know whether it was frightened or the owner was not well controlled. It rushed towards them. Everyone had to dodge around. Shen Qiao and the others were separated because of this, but he was not in a hurry. He walked slowly along the riverside stalls all the way back to the market. Sometimes he heard the stallholders shouting about things he was interested in, and stopped to touch them. The stallholders saw that his eyes were bad, but no matter how he dressed up, he didn't look like a beggar. He didn't dare to underestimate it, on the contrary, he enthusiastically promoted his goods.
"Langjun, look at me, but they are all made of good bamboo strips. There are baskets and chairs, and some gadgets. You can buy them back for the little Langjun and the little lady at home to play with!" He saw Shen Qiao squatted down, picked up a bamboo ball and stuffed it into his hand, "You touch it, it's very smooth, there's no bamboo thorns at all!"
"It's pretty smooth." Shen Qiao said with a smile, "Then I want one."
A milky child's voice came from the side: "Uncle, uncle, my little bamboo chicken was damaged by my brother. Dad asked me to come and buy another one!"
The hawker wanted to come and know her parents: "Your brother is naughty again, but there are no bamboo chickens here. The one I gave you last time is the last one. It will take more work to make up that one. Uncle is busy right now. , I'll make it up for you in two days!"
Little girl: "Then I'm here to help my uncle. If my uncle sells things earlier, can he help me make chickens earlier?"
The peddler laughed: "What can you do to help, just go home, your aunt and aunt can't see you and worry!"
The little girl snorted, full of disappointment, and she was about to cry.
Shen Qiao suddenly said, "Do you still have bamboo strips here?"
The hawker wondered: "Yes, Mr. Lang wants to buy bamboo strips?"
Shen Qiao snorted: "I borrow your bamboo strips to make something now, and I will give you the money back at the price, so that I won't make it?"
The peddler smiled and said, "Lang Jun is too polite, so naturally!"
He picked up a bamboo strip and handed it to Shen Qiao: "You have inconvenient eyes, can you make things up?"
Shen Qiao also smiled: "I made it up when I was a child, to relieve my younger siblings, I still remember some."
He said that he only remembered a few, but his movements were not slow. His fingers nimbly tied the bamboo and went around the back to insert the previously woven hidden buttons. In a blink of an eye, a chick was born alive.
The little girl said in surprise: "Chicken, chick!"
Shen Qiao handed the bamboo chicken over and said with a smile, "I don't know what your original one looks like. If you made up one, it might not look good."
Little girl: "Good-looking, good-looking! Thank you, brother! Brother is the best!"
The peddler was a little sour next to him: "I'm not a few years older than this Langjun. You call him brother, but you call me uncle!"
Shen Qiao laughed.
The little girl jumped away, and Shen Qiao squatted with some numbness in her legs, so she stood up and gave the money for the bamboo strips and bamboo balls to the hawker. "Excuse me, where do I go, can I go back to the foreign embassy?"
"So Lang Jun is an envoy who came to Chen State?" The hawker suddenly realized, "The hotel is not far from here, but there are many people, your eyes are inconvenient, you must not be able to find it yourself, I will take you there!"
Shen Qiao thanked him: "But your business...?"
The hawker smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, I carry these bamboo goods to sell every day, they are not worth a lot of money, I am familiar with each other, I will ask them to help look at it, you are a distant visitor, how can I let you in Get lost here!"
He took Shen Qiao back along Jindu: "There are many people on the main road, and it is easy to get lost. It is faster to walk through the alleys from here!"
The hawker supported Shen Qiao's arm and led him forward, smiling: "If Lang Jun stays here for a few more days, you might as well walk around the city more. Most of the food in the south is exquisite and small, and you are very careful. meeting… "
The sound of breaking the sky came, so subtle that it was almost negligible. The hawker didn't notice it and was still talking, but Shen Qiao's complexion changed slightly, and the bamboo stick swept away and the filigree needle disappeared into the wall in a different direction.
At the same time, the hawker's voice stopped abruptly and fell softly to the ground.
This was because when the other party was plotting against Shen Qiao, he also plotted against the hawker. Shen Qiao didn't have three heads and six arms.
"He Fang's friend is hiding his head and showing his tail?" He crouched down to check the hawker's condition, only to feel relieved when he saw that the other party just fainted.
"Shen Lang is so kind to a bamboo seller, why is he so fierce to the slave family?"
Accompanied by the delicate voice, a familiar aroma drifted.
Shen Qiao frowned slightly: "Bai Rong?"
Bai Rong sat on the wall with a smile, her legs were hooked to each other, swaying, and she was holding a peony that she didn't know where to pick.
"Long time no see!"
Shen Qiao: "Last time you assassinated Yu Wenqing in the middle of the night, I seem to have only met my wife once."
Bai Rong: "I haven't seen you for a day, do you understand every three autumns? How many autumns have passed!"
Whether it is Yan Wushi or Bai Rong, Shen Qiao is not used to dealing with such almost flirtatious words, so he has to keep silent.
Bairong rolled her eyes and threw the peony in her hand towards him: "Here, let's go!"
Shen Qiao caught it reflexively, thinking it was a hidden weapon, and when he touched it was a flower, he couldn't help but be stunned.
Seeing his expression, Bai Rong became more and more happy: "Do you think I will throw a hidden weapon for you? In your heart, I am such a vicious person?"
Shen Qiao shook his head: "No."
Bairong: "Not what?"
Shen Qiao: "When you wanted to assassinate Yu Wenqing, his concubine, master and servant could not escape originally, but you didn't kill them, which shows that you are not someone who kills indiscriminately without bottom line, I should thank you on their behalf Raise your hand high."
Bai Rong blinked: "How do you know that I'm showing mercy instead of being too lazy to do it?"
Shen Qiao smiled and did not argue with her.
Aiya, Bairong: "You look so good when you smile. You should have laughed more. You think of me so well, and I'm so overjoyed in my heart. Would you like me to kiss?"
Say it and move.
Shen Qiao thought she was really going to kiss her, so she subconsciously took three steps back, only to find that the other party was still sitting on the wall, just teasing herself.
Bai Rong couldn't help laughing, and almost fell off the wall: "Shen Lang, why are you so cute, the slave family really likes you more and more!"
Shen Qiao: "You came to me, is there anything wrong?"
"I can't come to you if I have nothing to do?" Bai Rong said with a smile, "Okay, it's okay to tell you, the slave family follows you from afar, and wants to take the opportunity to poison you, and then knock you out and drag you away, but unfortunately, you feel the police Very, I never found a chance to get close, until just now, I finally managed to talk to Shen Lang."
Her words were half-truths, true and false, Shen Qiao didn't know whether to believe them or not, so she could only raise her guard secretly.
Bai Rong: "The chick you made up for that little girl is so beautiful, why don't you make one for me too?"
Shen Qiao was stunned for a moment, then shook his head: "There is no bamboo stick at hand."
He thought about it for a while, and then handed out the bamboo stick in his hand: "This bamboo ball is for you to play first."
Bai Rong chuckled: "You coax the child!"
Having said that, he quickly took away the bamboo ball and threw it up and down in the palm of his hand.
Shen Qiao: "Has Lady Bai ever thought about leaving the Hehuan Sect?"
Bai Rong wondered: "Why suddenly..."
Halfway through the words, his face had completely darkened, but his tone was still casual: "Headmaster Shen must have heard something from Sect Master Yan, and I feel from the bottom of my heart that my Hehuan Sect is filthy and unworthy of your dignified headmaster Xuandu Mountain. Are you talking?"
At the end, she was already murderous, as if Shen Qiao's answer was not to her liking, she would do it.
Shen Qiao: "No."
Bai Rong turned her face faster than she turned a book, and she smiled like a flower in an instant: "Or do you want to say that men and women in the Hehuan Sect are both men and women, regardless of seniority, it is very unbearable, let me abandon the dark and turn to the light?"
Shen Qiao frowned: "I just think that you might not like to stay there either."
Bai Rong: "Hehuan Sect is where I grew up. If it wasn't there, where would I go? Go to Huanyue Sect? Or Fajing Sect? In your opinion, is it better to kill than Shuangxiu? The Hehuan Sect is a Demon Sect, isn’t the Huan Yue Sect not a Demon Sect? Don’t forget, Sect Master Yan has more blood on his hands than the slave family! If you are still the headmaster of Xuandu Mountain, are you willing to take me in? Even if you are willing, will the others in Xuandu Mountain be willing?”
Shen Qiao was slightly startled by her series of questions, and sighed: "Yes, you are right, I was the one who made a blunder."
He just asked that sentence, but he didn't think much about it. He just felt that people like Bai Rong and Huo Xijing were still different after all, and it was a pity to stay in the Hehuan Sect.
Bai Rong sweetly said: "I know that Lang Shen feels that I have been wronged in the Hehuan Sect. From the time you even pulled a horse, I can see that you are a gentle and good person, a good person like you. But not much, the slave family will cherish this piece of heart, but I have my own plans for these things, so I won't bother you!"
"I'll tell you another secret," she suddenly jumped off the wall, floated towards Shen Qiao, and reached out to pull his sleeve. Although the latter quickly avoided, she was not unhappy, but showed a hint of cunning, "Follow him. Yan Wushi has no good fruit to eat, and disaster will soon come, in order to avoid being affected by Chiyu, you should hurry up and stay away from him... "
Before he could finish speaking, Bai Rong's face changed suddenly, but instead of facing Shen Qiao, he looked forward, and suddenly dropped a sentence, "The slave family thinks that there is still something important, so Shen Lang doesn't have to send him away", and left. Without a trace, I am afraid that this light work has used ten percent.
Shen Qiaoyuan thought it was Yan Wushi's arrival that made her slip away, but the next moment she realized that something was wrong.
It wasn't Yan Wushi who came.