Aoyama

Chapter 222: Er Dao and Pao Ge

"Ran?"

"You're running away now?!"

Chen Ji stood in a daze among the ox carts, feeling that it was absurd.

The moment he heard the names 'Daozi' and 'Chongzi', he was certain that these two were Erdao and Paoge, because when he was dying, Paoge had introduced himself as "My real name is Chen Chong, and my friends like to call me Paoge".

Joan Chen.

Punch.

No coincidence.

Thinking of this, Chen Ji felt an inexplicable joy. We are not familiar with each other, but I think you are particularly kind. When I saw you, even the wind was filled with news from my hometown.

But he never expected that Pao Ge would run away so easily.

When ordinary people face an unknown situation, most of them will try to hope for the best until the danger really comes. But what he didn't know was that Pao Ge and Er Dao's hope for the best had been completely shattered by the police when they went to jail seven or eight times.

In the cold wind, Chen Ji suddenly shouted: "Zao Zao!"

There was the sound of horse hooves in the stable.

Liang Biaotou looked back in surprise, only to see Miss Zhang's chestnut horse, holding its own reins, easily jumping out of the stable fence and stopping beside Chen Ji.

The breath of the magical horse was like two white arrows in the cold night. It lowered its head and let go, and the reins in its mouth fell into Chen Ji's hands.

"Captain Liang, wait for me here," Chen Ji stepped on the stirrup and turned over. He shook the reins lightly with his wrist, and Zaozao carried Chen Ji away like an arrow.

He rode his horse back and forth on the dirt road in the county town, chasing them from the south to the north, but found no trace of Erdao and Pao Ge. He also chased them from the west to the east, but still found no trace of them.

The people in the county town had gone to bed early, and not even a night watchman could be seen.

He searched back and forth in the county town alone, but he never saw Erdao and Pao Ge. He didn't know whether they had left the county town or were hiding in the houses.

Chen Ji slowly stopped his horse in the dark county town and his mood gradually calmed down.

Once upon a time, he thought that he was the only one who came to the Ning Dynasty from the Earth. From then on, he could not talk to others about "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Bright Sword" and "Soldiers Assault", nor could he enthusiastically talk to others about Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick in the 18 World Cup.

Because no one can understand.

Maybe Erdao and Paoge don't watch "Empresses in the Palace" and "Bright Sword", and don't like Cristiano Ronaldo. But it doesn't matter, everyone can always find some common ground.

The moment Chen Ji discovered Erdao and Pao Ge, he seemed to see a ray of light in the darkness, but the light soon went out.

Chen Ji patted Zaozao's back gently and said, "Let's go back to the post station."

Zaozao didn't gallop anymore. It carried Chenji back slowly, as if it knew that the person on its back was no longer so anxious.

Back at the post station, Chen Ji rode his horse to Liang Biaotou. Sitting on the horse, he calmly asked, "Liang Biaotou, these two men must be hiding some secrets, otherwise why would they run away?"

Liang Biaotou raised his head and looked at Chen Ji, but saw that the young third young master of the Chen family had a deep and unfathomable look in his eyes.

He is a man who has traveled all over the country. He can tell who is easy to mess with and who is not, who is easy to fool and who is not, just by looking at each other. In the eyes of a wandering man, there are only two kinds of people in the world: sheep and wolves.

No matter how fierce some people's faces are, their eyes are always wandering. Such people are just sheep in wolf's clothing. Some people may look weak, but their eyes are like knives, as if they can't wait to cut a piece of flesh from you. Such people are wolves in sheep's clothing.

The third son of the Chen family does not look like a scholar at this moment, but more like a lackey of the Imperial Household Department.

Escort Captain Liang smiled and said, "Third Master, maybe they just couldn't stand the hardship of escorting, so they ran away. You don't know that escorting is a hard job, and it is common for escorts to sneak away."

Chen Ji nodded, jumped off the horse, and walked towards the stable holding Zaozao's reins.

He just took two steps forward, stopped, and then stepped back.

Chen Ji stared at Liang Biaotou calmly: "The Zhang family's transport of wealth to Beijing is a big deal, but you let some unknown people in. What is your intention? Are the Dao and Chongzi bandits from Taihang Mountain? Are you, the Liang Escort Agency, planning to cooperate with the Taihang Mountain bandits to rob the Zhang family's property?"

Liang Biaotou's face turned pale, and he said guiltily: "Third Master, there are some things you can't say carelessly, or someone will die."

Chen Ji changed the subject and asked, "Captain Liang, I wonder what your relationship is with Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao'er?"

Liang Maoer and Liang Gouer had mentioned before that their father was a bodyguard, and that he was ambushed by bandits from Taihang Mountains, which caused him to fall ill and die early.

Liang Biaotou said quickly, "These are my two younger brothers. We separated a few years ago and I haven't seen them for a long time."

Chen Ji nodded and said, "I am friends with Liang Gou'er and Liang Mao'er. For their sake, I can put this matter aside for now, but we have to get things straight first."

Liang Biaotou nodded hurriedly: "You go ahead and say it."

Chen Ji suddenly shouted, "Why are they running away?"

Liang Biaotou lowered his head and said nothing.

Chen Ji said nonchalantly, "It seems that you will only tell the truth if Lord Zhang interrogates you personally."

After saying that, he was about to leave, but Escort Leader Liang quickly stopped him and said, "Sir, these two were not my escorts, but escorts from the Lowe Escort Agency. It was just that something happened to the Lowe Escort Agency two months ago, and the escorts all fled, and the escort leader also disappeared without a trace. They both came here together, and because I was short of manpower, I arranged for them to work at the Liang Escort Agency."

Chen Ji smiled and said, "Don't you know what happened? Are you still going to pretend you don't know? Don't try to commit suicide."

Liang Biaotou's eyes flickered in the moonlight. The ox carts in the backyard of the post station were parked in layers, like a maze. In the darkness, an escort came quietly, put his hand into his sleeve, and touched the hilt of the dagger.

Chen Ji seemed oblivious to the crisis and continued standing where he was.

However, Liang, the escort leader, noticed the escort's movements and immediately yelled angrily, "Get back here, do you want to kill me?"

At this moment, a voice came from a distance: "Chen Ji? Where are you?"

Chen Ji smiled and replied, "I'm here." Zhang Xia and Zhang Zheng came together. Zhang Xia said, "I went to your room to play chess with you just now, but only Xiaoman was there... Why are you here in the middle of the night?"

Chen Ji explained: "I found that two people from the escort agency ran away secretly, so I came to ask something."

Zhang Xia exclaimed, "Run away? Why did you run away?"

At this time, Chen Ji saw that Zhang Zheng still had his black cloak draped over his arm.

Zhang Zheng put the cloak on his shoulders and reminded him casually: "The wind and sand are strong, don't catch a cold. If you are sick and travel, I'm afraid you will feel very uncomfortable."

Chen Ji thanked him in a low voice, and then turned to look at Liang Biaotou: "Liang Biaotou, I can forgive you for what you are thinking, but if you don't explain the matter of these two people clearly, I'm afraid you will not be able to escape the prison."

Escort Leader Liang sighed softly, "I'll tell you everything, Third Young Master, please don't alarm Master Zhang. The story is this: the Luowei Escort Agency escorted Mr. Yao and ten carts of goods to Jinling a while ago, but when they passed through Mount Langya, they encountered bandits. There were so many bandits that the escorts from the Luowei Escort Agency knew they were no match for them, so they left their employers in Mount Langya."

"So simple? If it was that simple, they wouldn't have to run away," Chen Ji wondered. "It's said that the escort agency has connections with both the black and white worlds. Since they dare to take this route, don't they know the bandits in Langya Mountain?"

Escort Leader Liang explained, "We knew each other before. The escort leader of the Lowe Escort Agency and the boss of Mount Langya are close friends. However, the flood in Yuzhou caused many people to be displaced. A group of victims fled to the south and drove away the original bandits in Mount Langya, and then they settled down there. These victims don't know the rules of the underworld, and they rob people whenever they see them. I'm sure they will be surrounded and suppressed by the government soon."

Chen Ji was puzzled: "Did the bandits kill anyone from Lowe Escort Agency?"

Escort Leader Liang whispered, "Third Young Master, you don't know that the bandits are after money, not life. If they can get along peacefully with the escorts, there is no need to fight to the death. It is said that the bandits gave Lowe Escort Agency two choices. The first choice is to kill each other to death. The second choice is for Lowe Escort Agency to leave, but they can take a box of Mr. Yao's property."

Chen Ji nodded: "So they chose to share the money... How do I know if you are bluffing me?"

Escort Leader Liang said in a low voice: "Third Master, please understand. There are still people from the Lowe Escort Agency in the team. I will capture them for you."

He blew a whistle, and saw several bodyguards between the ox carts drawing short knives from their sleeves and surrounding the corner.

After a while, they brought a young man to Chen Ji and said, "Third Young Master, this man is the escort of Lowe Escort Agency, responsible for calling escorts. You will know once you ask."

The young porter struggled hard, "Liang Zhu'er, you son of a bitch, you accepted our gift and you want to turn against us? We agreed that we would follow you through Linfen, and then we would go our separate ways. You go to your capital, and we go to our Guyuan. What are you doing, you son of a bitch?"

Liang looked at Chen Ji with an awkward expression, "Don't listen to his nonsense, Third Young Master. I didn't agree to take them with me because I was in need of help and they were experienced in escorting convoys."

Chen Ji thought: "Why do we have to go to Guyuan?"

Liang Biaotou whispered, "Although Guyuan is our Ning Dynasty military camp, there are more Jing Dynasty people living there than Ning Dynasty people. There are all kinds of people there, and there are many smugglers. Our Ning Dynasty border troops don't care much about it. I heard that there is an inn in Guyuan run by General Wentao's former subordinates, and they can send people to Jing Dynasty."

Chen Ji turned to look at the young porter and said, "Let me ask you, where did you go after leaving Langya Mountain?"

The porter held his neck with his hands and said, "I went to Jinling."

Chen Ji asked again: "Where is the money that was distributed?"

The porter replied: "We spent all the money on the Qinhuai River!"

Zhang Xia's eyes widened: "After this incident, you still have the mind to play?"

The porter said gloomily, "We thought that we would be punished by the government sooner or later, so we might as well be a playboy on the Qinhuai River before we die. But we didn't expect that the government didn't come to look for us at all."

Chen Ji counted the days. At that time, Lin Chaojing of Jiefanwei was transferred from Jinling to Luocheng, along with the Golden Pig, Bright Rabbit, Cloud Sheep, White Dragon, Dream Chicken, and Sky Horse. All of them were targeting the Liu family. Who would have the time to care about a member of the family...

He thought for a moment and asked, "Are you familiar with knives and punches?"

The porter spat on the ground and said, "I know him very well. He was my brother on weekdays, but he turned his face against me in the blink of an eye! I was blind to think of such a person as a good brother!"

Chen Ji asked curiously, "You turned your back on me?"

The porter sneered, "Of course I did. I ran out of money, so I went to Chongzi to borrow some. But that bastard forgot how he had borrowed money from me before, and he actually asked for nine out of ten and three back. He wanted to drink my blood! When I lent him money before, I never asked for such a high interest rate!"

Chen Ji was slightly stunned. Brother Pao had brought his old business to the Ning Dynasty.

But the porter continued, "Third Master, did these two people provoke you? If I tell you more about them, will you let me go?"

Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Are you going to betray them?"

"What's the point of betrayal?" The porter shrank his neck. "They all left me behind. Why should I cover up for them?"

Chen Ji nodded: "Tell me first."

The porter whispered, "They weren't originally called Daozi and Chongzi, but Li Baocheng and Wang Duo. When we returned to Luocheng from Langya Mountain, they suddenly said they wanted to change their names to Erdao and Chen Chong. It's inexplicable."

Chen Ji asked again: "Is there anyone else at home?"

The porter hurriedly said, "Yes, yes. Li Baocheng... is Erdao. He has a sister, and Chen Chong has a brother. These two bastards don't even want their own family."

Chen Ji knew that Erdao and Chen Chong came into this world with no family affection like himself, so he would not care about being an older sister or a younger brother.

He thought for a moment and asked again: "When did they turn against us?"

The porter recalled for a moment: "It was during the time in Langya Mountain when we first encountered the bandits. Many of us were ambushed. Daozi and Chongzi were knocked unconscious by the bandits with hoes. After that, they didn't recognize anyone and couldn't even remember their own names. We all said that their brains were damaged by someone's beating."

Chen Ji lowered his head and thought, Erdao and Paoge were just like him, they all fell on the bodies of deceased people. But he was smuggled down by Li Qingniao and his master, how did Erdao and Paoge come down? He even had the same name in his past life and this life, but Erdao and Paoge did not, what was the difference?

Beijing.

Chen Ji suddenly remembered what Pao Ge once said, that the capital city is prosperous, it would be a pity not to make a name for yourself.

As long as people like Pao Ge are not dead, I will probably see them again.

The porter said hopefully, "Third Master of the Chen Family, I have said all that needs to be said. I hope you will be magnanimous and let me go."

Liang, the escort leader, asked cautiously, "Third Young Master, do you know Mr. Yao and want to avenge him? If so, I will drag the porter to the cowshed and kill him. But... I have to say something for them, Third Young Master, you may not have been to the countryside. The people fled and the villages were emptied. They had no choice but to go to the mountains and become bandits. No matter how powerful we escorts are, we can't stand up to their numbers. Those disaster victims are so hungry that their eyes are green. For a bag of food, they dare to fight you with sickles and hoes. It's unreasonable."

Chen Ji waved his hand and said, "Let him go."

(End of this chapter)