Xuanxia

Chapter 381 Priorities

"Come on, come on, serve the food~"

Tang Jiao exclaimed softly, holding a plate of delicious food in each hand, and placed it on the table with a smile.

At the table, Zhu Mei stared with excitement and rubbed her hands holding the chopsticks.

"It's been a while since I've tasted Jiaojiao's cooking." Fu Qingzhou said with a smile, "Hurry up and sit down."

"You guys pick up your chopsticks first~"

Tang Jiao put down the two dishes, rubbed some oil on her apron, and went back to the kitchen. She turned around and said, "I still have some soup!"

"Stop frying~" Qiu Chan stretched out her chopsticks and lazily picked at the braised pork in front of her: "If you don't come, your eldest brother won't eat."

But Tang Jiao didn't listen to her at all. She went into the kitchen and started making a lot of noise again.

"Gurgle——" Zhu Mei's stomach started growling.

But even though she looked very hungry, she never picked up her chopsticks.

Qiu Chan became curious, and with her hand on her cheek, she looked at Zhu Mei with a smile: "Sister, why don't you eat?"

"You can't eat unless everyone is gathered at the table!"

Zhu Mei's face suddenly became nervous: "Eat, eat once, I will...I will be hungry for a long time!"

Fu Qingzhou and Qiu Chan looked at each other and seemed to understand something.

"She seems to have no interest in anything except eating, and now she says something like this."

Qiu Chan blinked and said in a somewhat bleak tone: "It seems that he is also a poor person who has been starving since childhood."

As she said this, she suddenly looked at Fu Qingzhou: "By the way, you pervert, why didn't you ask Lao Yuan to come to the table for dinner?"

"I sent him out."

Fu Qingzhou smiled and said, "Although we have entered the capital, I don't believe that the assassins from Xiyu Pavilion will completely give up. I still have to go out and find out."

Hearing him say this, Qiu Chan suddenly narrowed her eyes: "Hey, do you really trust him completely?"

Fu Qingzhou looked at her deeply and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Come on, I'm not stupid."

Qiu Chan pouted and said, "Before Wu Yan left, there was such a strong killing intent coming from downstairs, but when we got downstairs, it was Old Yuan who had knocked down a group of people in the lobby. I still remember the strangeness of this."

Fu Qingzhou looked at her and asked with interest: "But haven't we already tested him?"

"No way, you call that a test?"

Qiu Chan rolled her eyes: "You had to come out and pretend to fight with Lao Gui until both of you were injured, and then let the rest of us pretend to be seriously injured to see what choice he would make... Isn't that right?"

Fu Qingzhou chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Qiu Chan frowned.

Fu Qingzhou laughed and said, "Don't you think about it? Old Yuan was recommended by Senior Brother Zhuang from the Wulin Alliance. When he set out from Luoyi, there was no such thing as Wu Yan... Even if he wanted to take action, it would be at most a spur of the moment move for the money. It's impossible that he is an insider ambushed by Xiyu Pavilion next to us in advance."

"At the same time, he also saw our strength clearly. With him being a fifth realm master, he has no chance of attacking us at all. Why should we do this thankless task?"

"There is indeed something wrong with him, but it has nothing to do with Wu Yan's matter."

"The form of the test is not important at all. What is important is to let the old ghost drive the carriage to attract the killer. For Old Yuan, he just needs to know that I am not completely confident in him."

After hearing his words, Qiu Chan was somewhat confused, but still asked, "So you don't trust him, why do you keep him around?"

"Apart from anything else, he is indeed a retired veteran of the Imperial Guards." Fu Qingzhou said with a smile: "With him here, wouldn't it be much more convenient for us to do things in the capital? What's more..."

He narrowed his eyes and smiled: "Old Yuan definitely didn't come to us for Wu Yan and Zhu Mei. I'm also very curious about why he came and what he wants. He may have some secrets, but he may not be our enemy."

"And don't think badly of him. Even if he had bad intentions when he first came, maybe we can make him our friend."

As they were talking, Tang Jiao came out of the kitchen with a bowl of steaming mutton soup in her hand.

"Eat, eat!"

Fu Qingzhou was so hungry that his stomach growled. When he saw Tang Jiao bringing the soup, he shouted out loud.

When they were on Langhuan Mountain, Tang Jiao took care of all three meals a day for the brother and sister. Although the fields and livestock pens on the mountain were supported by magic circles, which were enough for them to eat, the mountain was only so big after all, and no matter how delicious the food was, they would get tired of it after two years.

To this end, Tang Jiao forced herself to develop a variety of dishes. With the same few ingredients, she can easily create dozens or even dozens of different dishes!
For her, it’s a piece of cake to cook a fish in three ways or a beef in five ways.

At the moment, the dining table for four people was already filled with three meat dishes, three vegetable dishes, a soup, and two cold dishes!
You know, it has been more than an hour since they cleaned out the yard, and Fu Qingzhou didn't even know when she got these ingredients.

When Fu Qingzhou started to use his chopsticks, Zhu Mei was the first to reach out her chopsticks and poke the braised pork. She used the chopsticks like bamboo skewers, stringing up a few slices of meat and was about to put them into her mouth.

But the next second, her hand was slapped lightly or not!
Snapped!
With a crisp sound, Zhu Mei's hand loosened and the chopsticks with meat fell on the table.

She was startled and turned her head, only to see Tang Jiao looking at her with a cold expression. Although there was a smile on her lips, the smile was not as kind as before.

"No."

Tang Jiao said softly: "Chopsticks can't be used like this."

Zhu Mei looked at her blankly.

Fu Qingzhou said helplessly: "Okay Jiaojiao, she is like a three-year-old child, there is no need."

"That won't do." Tang Jiao pursed her lips: "How can we not have the most basic table manners? Don't worry about it, big brother. I'll teach you."

After that, she grabbed Zhu Mei's hand, stuffed a pair of chopsticks into her hand, and started fiddling with them: "Look, you have to hold it like this..."

Fu Qingzhou and Qiu Chan shook their heads, not wanting to care, and started eating.

On this side, Tang Jiao was instructing Zhu Mei, and at the same time she turned around and asked, "Brother, what are our plans for the future?"

"Yeah, that's what I was going to say."

Fu Qingzhou drank a mouthful of mutton soup and said softly, "Jiaojiao, go out and ask around in the next two days to find your father's former friends. Remember, they must be trustworthy friends."

"We must investigate your father's case, but it is an old case after all. We can't rush it. If we make a big fuss about it, it will easily attract attention. Let's get more clues in private first."

Tang Jiao nodded vigorously.

Having said that, Fu Qingzhou turned to Qiu Chan again.

Before he could speak, Qiu Chan swallowed the fish in her mouth and said leisurely, "I know. In the next two days, some sisters from the temple will come to Beijing. I will contact them and find out about Li Qing and Jinchan Temple."

"Well, be careful."

After Fu Qingzhou gave some instructions, he said softly, "I'll go to Mingjian Pavilion in a while... Now that we're in the capital, we have to pay our respects first..."

He was halfway through his words when the door to the yard was suddenly pushed open!

Yuan Ziping pushed the door open with a solemn expression, stepped into the courtyard and closed it again, then said in a deep voice: "Sir, Miss, the assassins have chased us to the capital!"

Fu Qingzhou was startled, and paused for a moment: "Tell me more."

(End of this chapter)