Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 285: Surprise Pavilion

"conscription!"

"Enlist in the army to defend our country."

"The conscription has started. I heard the treatment is good. Look, it says that if one person joins the army, the whole family will not go hungry. Each person will receive three taels of silver per month, and ten kilograms of millet as a subsidy."

"There are monthly assessments, and as long as you complete the assessments, you can be promoted."

"What?? We are recruiting scholars and giving them five cents of silver when they join the army?? You are crazy, we are all scholars, who wants to be a soldier?"

"I heard that the new governor is a good person. He eliminated Lady Tieshan as soon as he took office. I have to say that without Lady Tieshan, I feel that my life has become more comfortable recently."

"Lets see."

People on the street looked at the conscription notice, whispered to each other, and discussed the content of this conscription.

"Sir, how come the Jiedushi wants even a scholar? He can't even kill a chicken, what is the use of that thing?"

In the teahouse, Xiao Ran was sitting by the window, and sitting together with him were several yamen runners.

Looking at the place where the notice was posted below, I also felt strange when I heard the discussions below.

Xiao Ran glanced at a few people and said, "You can learn how to kill chickens, and you can also learn how to kill people. If you are not in good health, just eat more and practice more. But learning to read is too time-consuming. We are short of time and don't have the time to teach slowly."

"Lack of time?"

Everyone looked at Xiao Ran in confusion, but Xiao Ran didn't bother to explain it to them.

He believed that Lu Cheng could do these things well, and all he had to do was to help Lu Cheng clear the obstacles as soon as possible.

"grown ups!!"

At this time, Yang Mingjie ran up panting.

"My lord, my lord...",

Yang Mingjie trotted up to Xiao Ran, his face flushed red, he was out of breath, and he reeked of alcohol, obviously having been drunk.

"Don't be impatient. Have some tea and talk slowly."

Xiao Ran had no intention of blaming him for this. Instead, she gestured to Yang Mingjie to take a breath and handed him her tea.

Yang Mingjie drank the tea in one breath, took a few deep breaths, and then took out an invitation from his arms.

"Sir, Yu Deng asked me to give it to you."

Yang Mingjie placed the invitation in his hands respectfully.

At this moment, Yang Mingjie has been completely convinced by Xiao Ran. If he had some personal purposes in following Xiao Ran before, now he has no distractions at all and is completely convinced by the adult in front of him.

At noon today, Xiao Ran called Yang Mingjie over and asked him with a smile, "Have you eaten?"

Yang Mingjie still didn't understand and shook his head.

So Xiao Ran gave him a box and asked him to deliver the box to Yu Deng, and also asked Yu Deng to set a table for him so that he could have a good meal.

At that time, Yang Mingjie was still confused, but he didn't think much about it and was about to go with the box. However, Xiao Ran specifically reminded him to wear official clothes, which scared Yang Mingjie.

Officials are not allowed to enter the West Quarter. Last time I went in without wearing this dog-skin uniform, I felt uncomfortable all over. When they revealed my identity, my heart started beating even faster.

Now I am allowed to walk in wearing the uniform of an official. Isn't this...

But after seeing Xiao Ran giving him an encouraging look, Yang Mingjie gritted his teeth and went in anyway.

He remembered that as soon as he stepped into the West Courtyard, he instantly felt countless pairs of eyes, focusing on him, both openly and covertly.

The further we walked, the more intense those unfriendly looks became.

Someone even took out a knife from his pocket and stabbed it into the table right in front of him.

Fortunately, these people seemed to be very restrained. Although their eyes were unfriendly, no one took any action. It seemed that they were waiting for some signal.

Until two whistles were heard, Yang Mingjie was so scared that his calves went weak. However, he didn't expect that not long after the whistles sounded, someone came to lead him inside.

When he saw Yu Deng again, Yang Mingjie was so panicked that his heart was about to jump out of his throat.

Yu Deng stared at him coldly for a long time before finally asking, "What are you doing here?"

It was only at this time that Yang Mingjie reacted. It turned out that he hadn't said a word since he entered the door. It was fortunate that Xiao Ran's influence was still there. Otherwise, if it were someone else, Yu Deng would have been impatient and wanted to throw the person out and cut him into pieces.

"Eat a feast!"

After saying this, even Yang Mingjie was stunned. Yu Deng looked even more weird, staring at Yang Mingjie with a fake smile: "Is your master making fun of me?"

"And... I'll give you something."

As he said this, he asked Yang Mingjie to put down the box in his arms.

Yu Deng frowned, and gently lifted the lid of the box with the knife in his hand, waiting for the box to open.

A bloody human head appeared in front of Yu Deng.

When looking at that familiar face, Yu Deng's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"Snapped!"

Then he quickly closed the box and placed his palms on it, the veins on his face trembling.

It took only a few seconds for Yu Deng's expression to gradually calm down. But when he looked up at Yang Mingjie, he was actually smiling, and it was a flattering smile. "Prepare some wine!!!"

Yu Deng shouted loudly, then took Yang Mingjie's shoulder and pulled him to have a drink.

Yu Deng not only poured him wine personally, he even treated him as a brother. Many masters in the West Square looked at the master of the West Square and were amazed at how polite he was to a constable.

In fact, not to mention them, even Yang Mingjie himself felt like he was dreaming.

As for what was in the box, I didn't see it clearly at the time, I just saw that it looked like a human head.

It was not until the way back that Yang Mingjie seemed to realize that the head belonged to the Southwestern Tiger of Ruzhou, Zhao Shixiong.

Now Yang Mingjie sobered up immediately.

Deep down in my heart, I was shocked.

Not to mention how strong this Southwestern Tiger is, just the distance between Ruzhou City and Wancheng is not something that can be rushed back in a day and a night.

But now the head was delivered to Yu Deng.

It's easy to imagine how shocked Yu Deng was. When Yu Deng made the request, he actually wanted to see how sincere Xiao Ran and the others were. He had the time and patience to bargain and negotiate slowly.

However, he did not expect that the development of things would exceed his expectations ten times, or even a hundred times.

When Yu Deng saw Zhao Shixiong's head, the first thing that came to his mind was not happiness, but fear.

Shocked by the strength displayed by Xiao Ran.

The condition I stated yesterday is that I will deliver the head to you today. If you are still ignorant, you may not be able to guarantee that it will be your own head in the box tomorrow.

Now, Yu Deng is more and more convinced that this elusive governor is definitely not an ordinary person. It is possible that the forces under his command have already infiltrated Ruzhou before he arrived. Otherwise, how could the affairs of his Tianji Sect be known to outsiders and take people's heads from a hundred miles away in just one day and one night.

After three glasses of wine, Yu Deng knew what he should do.

So he gave Yang Mingjie an invitation.

Xiao Ran opened the invitation and took a look. It was a family dinner, inviting Xiao Ran and the governor to attend the dinner at Yu's house.

Interestingly, the time of the banquet was not written on it.

Putting down the invitation, he said, "You guys go back first and inform the brothers that they will be walking around the governor's mansion at night recently."

"Yes!"

Everyone was confused, but Yang Mingjie seemed to understand something. He led everyone in a bow, stood up and walked downstairs.

After everyone left, Xiao Ran began to think in his mind that with Yu Deng's help, many things would be much easier in the future. Yu Deng not only had the Tianji Sect in his hands, but also those martial arts people in Xifang.

After these people surrendered, Lu Cheng's foothold in Ruzhou City was firmly established.

It seems that there is nothing else I need to do next, so I can go out for a walk and see what the world inside this mysterious city looks like.

But before that, there is one more thing I need to do.

Xiao Ran drank some tea, then stood up and walked down the teahouse, walking along the streets and alleys.

Not long after walking, I saw a two-story wooden building with a sign hanging on it that read: [Amazing Pavilion].

This is the inheritance that Li Jingqi left for himself.

Xiao Ran did not go in directly, but walked to the back, came to the back of the building, jumped onto the roof, reached into the mouth of the fish head on the top of the roof, stretched out his fingers and quickly pinched, and a small cloth bag wrapped in cotton thread was held in Xiao Ran's hand.

After opening it, there were two keys and a fish-shaped seal carved from chicken blood stone.

Not to mention these two keys, this seal is of great use.

Li Jingqi founded the Jingqi Pavilion, and it did not stop operating after he left. This seal was hidden here by Li Jingqi. Whoever gets the seal will be the owner of the Jingqi Pavilion.

If you don’t believe me, just look at it. It is clearly written on the cotton cloth wrapped around the seal.

I'm afraid that even the owner of the Amazing Pavilion could never have imagined that such an important thing was hidden inside the roof beast by his boss.

That is to say, it did not receive a major overhaul, otherwise who knows who would have gotten this thing.

Xiao Ran put away his things and walked into the [Amazing Pavilion]

There were quite a few things in the store, including various rare antiques on the counters, and even various exquisite items from the Western Regions.

Xiao Ran even saw a set of heavy plate armor here, which was quite interesting.

When the shopkeeper saw someone coming in, he just glanced at Xiao Ran and then concentrated on his own calculations, with no intention of receiving the person at all.

When Xiao Ran stopped in front of a set of red ruby coral, the shopkeeper raised his eyelids and said, "Sir, you have good eyesight. This red ruby coral tree was taken from the East China Sea. It is very difficult to find such a big one nowadays."

Xiao Ran nodded and said with a smile: "I want to find something more rare."

"More rare?"

The shopkeeper looked up at Xiao Ran and said, "To be honest, sir, this place is known as the Amazing Pavilion, so naturally there are rare treasures. But... I don't know what you mean by rare."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ran walked up to the shopkeeper and said, "Then take a look at this thing. Is it rare enough?"

As he said this, he raised his hand and placed the bloodstone seal he had just obtained on the table...

(End of this chapter)