Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 190: Return to Yanmen Pass

It was already the Spring Festival when they arrived at Yanmen Pass, but what Xia Lin saw when he got off the car shocked him.

"My goodness, how long has it been? It has become a pearl on the border."

Standing at the city gate, you can see dozens of Hu caravans waiting for customs clearance in the distance. The Han-Hu market next to it extends more than two miles outside the city. Here you can see people wearing all kinds of clothes, some with blond hair and blue eyes, as well as classic black Indians. These caravans pour in from all directions to purchase what they need and sell their local specialties.

Outside the city wall, fireworks slowly rose up and bloomed in the night sky, and the bored people waiting exclaimed one after another.

"Stop, Lu Die! This is a critical checkpoint. You are not allowed to enter without a Lu Die!"

The soldiers at the city gate stopped Xia Lin as he was advancing. After looking him up and down, they curiously asked, "Han people?"

"Stop talking nonsense. Do you think I am a barbarian from my appearance?"

"Go, go, go." The soldier at the city gate waved his hand impatiently: "Han people, don't waste my time here, go in."

"Hey……"

Xia Lin wanted to say a few more words, but was pushed into the city by the crowds of people entering the city. Once he entered the city, he was amazed by how gorgeous everything was. The lights were as bright as day, and the city was bustling with people. In just two years, it had transformed from a desolate border checkpoint city into a pearl on the frontier. The cold weather could not stop the pace of these merchants.

"Eat something first."

Xia Lin brought Lao Zhang and Dong Niang to a small shop run by a Turkic person. This small place had started to serve up the menu. There were seven or eight kinds of food written on the small wooden sign, and each one looked pretty good.

"First, three mutton soups, then a mutton head, and two roasted mutton legs." Xia Lin looked around and raised his hand: "Another pot of wine, and three bowls of mutton noodle soup."

His generosity attracted many people's attention, and the boss quickly came over to collect the money and started preparing food.

It is said that the taste of this thing naturally improved after it entered the Han area. Thinking about the raw meat they ate a few years ago, it seems like a nightmare when I think back on it now. Now, even lychee wood is used to roast a leg of lamb. It's really a luxury.

"I'll take you to rest for a while, take a shower and have a good sleep. You two can do whatever you want tomorrow. I have to visit General Guo, otherwise it will be wrong. The Chinese New Year is the day after tomorrow, so I'll take you to buy new clothes tomorrow afternoon."

Xia Lin arranged everything well, but Dong Niang looked around curiously, as if she was not listening to what he was saying.

"What are you looking at? What are you thinking about when your boss is talking to you?"

Dong Niang turned around and said: "I'm just curious. I didn't know this fortress could be so prosperous."

"How do you think this prosperity came about?" Xia Lin straightened his back and said, "I planned it bit by bit."

"Do not believe."

The words "Dong Niang" broke Xia Lin's defense. He pointed outside and said, "Go ask around. If it weren't for me, how hard would their life be? How could they eat meat? You can't even chew on the bones!"

Lao Zhang had already finished a large bowl of mutton offal soup. He wiped his mouth and said, "Oh, you keep trying to prove something on her. Are you sick? She deals with corpses every day. Can corpses gossip about him?"

Xia Lin thought about it and agreed. There was really no point in telling about her great achievements to someone who spent every day touching corpses in the morgue. She was not one of those literary youths who liked poetry.

So Xia Lin finished the meal in a dull mood and took the two to where Tang Baoer lived. Tang Baoer had originally planned to go to Luoyang but was unable to go because of the rebellion, so she could only spend the New Year in Guanli for the time being.

This just happened to provide Xia Lin with a convenient residence. Although he could live in the post station or the inn in the city as an official, he really disliked the poor environment of the guesthouse. Living in Tangbao Courtyard was clean and comfortable, and he could even secretly go to play with Tangbao in the middle of the night.

When crossing the entire Guan Town, Xia Lin could actually feel a gorgeous and strange Chinese aesthetic style, low-saturation but exquisite decorations, low-brightness but numerous lighting fixtures, and the flickering light reflected by the decorations and headdresses on people walking through the streets. Compared to other places, this place is indeed full of a near-future style relative to this era.

When the Hu merchant passed him, the glances they gave each other, the tinkling of bells from the gorgeously dressed grassland women as they hurried by, and the smoke and noise filling the city, intertwined into a dreamlike scene.

"Lao Zhang, draw it. Draw this." Xia Lin turned his head to Lao Zhang and said, "I hope you will be remembered forever."

Old Zhang was also observing his surroundings at this moment. He was much more sensitive to colors and composition than Xia Lin. After hearing what Xia Lin said, he nodded vigorously: "Not during the day, it's better at night. A painting of a night banquet at the border will probably be enough for me, Zhang Zhongchun, to eat for the rest of my life."

Dong Niang, who was not understanding the situation at the moment, suddenly asked, "Why? Because this place is like the underworld?"

"You're dead!" Xia Lin cursed, "Can you please stop talking about the dead and focus on finding the beauty around you?"

Along the way, Dong Niang actually got used to Xia Lin's way of speaking, because she didn't care much. She had dissected Xia Lin thirty or forty times on the road anyway, but her underworld style had begun to erode Xia Lin in reverse.

Our General Xia has swum through all kinds of storms, seen the strong winds of Nima Laji and the waves of the East China Sea, but now she almost suffocates in the dead river of the Central Plains. She will definitely associate any place that may involve death, and then the area within ten meters around her will become spooky.

Several people came to Tang Baoer's courtyard. After knocking on the door, it was Tang Baoer's maid. When she saw Xia Lin coming in so exhausted, she immediately shouted loudly: "Miss! Lord Xia is here!" After a while, Tang Baoer came down in a charming manner. Xia Lin was not polite at all and picked her up as soon as she appeared.

"Put it down quickly, there are guests here."

"Old Zhang is nothing but a useless guest." Xia Lin said as he kissed Tang Bao'er on the neck: "Let me tell you, I almost died on the battlefield."

Tang Baoer glanced at Dong Niang next to her, her face flushed: "Put it down quickly, it's not decent...Have you eaten? If not, I'll ask someone to prepare some for you."

"Prepare two rooms, and then I need to take a shower."

"Two rooms?" Tang Baoer glanced at Lao Zhang and asked, "Who is this girl?"

"They should each have a room." Xia Lin put her down: "It's not good to let them sleep in the same room."

"Hmm?" Tang Bao'er was stunned for a moment: "What about you? Don't you live with me?"

After she finished speaking, she regretted it. Her face flushed as if she had been drinking. She reached out and hit Xia Lin, then stepped back and said to her maid, "Go prepare the room, and ask someone to prepare some hot water."

After she finished speaking, she pushed Xia Lin and said, "Go wash quickly. You stink so badly. You smell like sheep."

"I just went to eat mutton offal. I guess I got it there."

After taking a shower, Lao Zhang went straight into the house to sleep, while Dong Niang hesitated for a moment and went to rest. Only Xia Lin shamelessly lay in Tang Baoer's boudoir, swinging his feet and picking his ears with a small wooden stick.

"Who is that young lady? Why haven't I seen her before?" Tang Baoer came in from outside, changed into pajamas, and sat in front of the dressing table to comb her hair: "What new love have you gotten involved with?"

"What are you talking about? She's a coroner named Dong Niang. I got her from Luoyang. I wouldn't say her autopsy skills are the best in the world, but they're top-notch." Xia Lin said with a smile, "Why? Is my Tang Baoer finally getting jealous?"

"Humph." Tang Baoer chuckled, "I'm not really jealous, but I'm annoyed that you didn't keep your word. You promised not to take risks when you left, but you were very brave in the end. I heard from the general here that you led a thousand cavalrymen to raid Wang Shichong's camp and ambushed 120,000 troops. How dare you do that?"

"As the old saying goes, a risky move is always a good one. Look, we've won, haven't we?"

Tang Baoer turned around and glared at him: "This is a win. If you lose, you will be dead."

"Alright, alright." Xia Lin waved his hand. "By the way, you haven't dealt with the Luoyang branch of the Tang family yet, right? Do you want me to go back to Luoyang with you when the time comes? I am now considered a person who has the final say in Luoyang."

"let's discuss it later."

Tang Baoer sighed softly and walked back to the bed. As soon as she sat down, she was grabbed and dragged into the quilt.

"Don't let me, Tang Baoer, feel cold."

That being said, she had no choice once she got into bed. Xia Lin's claws became restless and soon he started to get serious.

But when the gun was about to go off, Tang Baoer suddenly said, "I want to leave the Tang family."

"Hmm?" Xia Lin said without stopping: "Then take it off. Wait a minute, I'll take off your bellyband that's in the way first."

"I mentioned it to them, but they disagreed. They also said that I got promoted by relying on the Tang family's resources, so I should return all the Tang family's things. Otherwise, I should just get married."

She raised her hand cooperatively while talking, but Xia Lin stopped: "What's the logic? You took over the industries in the south and here, why can they take them just because they want to? Marry? Who said that? I'll tear his mouth to pieces."

Tang Baoer sighed: "It seems that they have established contact with a senior official in the Ministry of Revenue, and they intend to let me marry that person's second son as a concubine."

"What the hell? A concubine?" Xia Lin sat up, revealing a dazzling white in the quilt: "Is there something wrong with the people in your family?"

Even Tang Bao'er started laughing at this moment: "They say that I have no future if I always hang around a county magistrate."

Xia Lin's eyes rolled at this moment, and he pinched Tang Bao'er's face: "Ah, I get it now, you are just trying to provoke me with words, right? Okay, I'll do this for you, just tell me how much of what you said just now is true and how much is false."

"Of course it's all true. I didn't intend to lie to you, and I know I can't lie to you." Tang Baoer sighed, "It's just that I'm unwilling to give up the foundation I built to those people, and they really plan to send me away as a concubine."

"I see. There's no rush. I just happen to have plenty of time these days." Xia Lin said as he lay down again, his hand on Tang Bao'er's belly and began to move upwards: "I've done such a big thing for you, so you shouldn't reward me, right?"

(End of this chapter)