From a refugee to a martial artist

Chapter 67: Nurturing
It was you, Miss Third, who asked me to learn from Dugu Kang. Now you are saying that Dugu Kang is not knowledgeable and needs to make friends with an expert. Where can I find an expert? Xiangling?

Anyway, whatever others say is what it is. Meng Yuan is an honest man and will not talk back.

Moreover, Meng Yuan had not eaten any meat during the ten days he had been away from home. He had been eating simple meals every day and was looking forward to returning home to enjoy the feast of fish and meat.

After receiving the order, Meng Yuan immediately went to find Nie Yannian.

Nie Yannian was obviously relieved. "I'll tell my old friends, go find your poetry friends, don't sleep in when you have to leave tomorrow morning!"

It was already midnight, the moon was high in the sky, the air was cold and quiet, and the sound of waves could be heard in the breeze.

Meng Yuan walked all the way to the gate of Chongxu Temple and saw a candle flickering in the guest room where Dugu Kang lived.

In the past ten days, Meng Yuan came to ask Dugu Kang for advice every day, and found that this prince had some talent for poetry, but not much.

Meng Yuan didn't see any flaws in Dugu Kang. And Dugu Kang was indeed not bad, he didn't say dirty words, and he didn't act bossy like a playboy, but was very polite.

Although he seemed a little impatient with Meng Yuan, he endured it in the end and even taught him some doggerel writing techniques.

He is always listless, without much energy, and rarely goes out.

Meng Yuan went forward and knocked on the door.

"Who?" Dugu Kang asked.

"It's me." Meng Yuan said through the door, "You will be back in the city tomorrow, so please make preparations early."

The door creaked open, Dugu Kang opened his eyes wide and asked, "Can we go back now?"

Meng Yuan smiled and nodded.

"Oh! Okay, okay!" Dugu Kang smiled from ear to ear and quickly invited Meng Yuan in for tea. Meng Yuan had nothing to do anyway, so he readily agreed.

As they were leaving tomorrow, they were both in high spirits. After drinking two sips of overnight cold tea, they went outside together to recite poems facing the bright moon.

Dugu Kang was an unparalleled poetic talent, so it was naturally him who started the inspiration. I only heard him recite the line "Suddenly I saw a jade plate in the sky. Could it be that the gods wanted to eat?"

Meng Yuan's talent in poetry is slightly inferior, but he has lived in a room full of orchids for a long time, and is definitely a different person now. He immediately responded with a line, "If you didn't want to eat, why is there a jade plate tonight?"

The two of them suddenly praised a few words, sang two songs together, and then left when they were tired.

"This prince really has no flaws at all. If it weren't for the princess and Xuanjizi, he would probably be running around the world having fun right now."

"In this case, I'd better not borrow money from him for the time being."

Meng Yuan did not deliberately test Dugu Kang, and he really couldn't figure out the other party's background, so he could only criticize him in his heart.

After returning to the princess' residence, Meng Yuan still stood in front of the door and began to think about business.

Now, after following Master Nie out, I finally got to see the princess and became familiar with her.

More importantly, at that time Master Nie asked her to call him "Third Miss" instead of Princess, and she agreed. It was clear that she was using Master Nie's face to become his confidant.

The princess is beautiful and intelligent, but also a little bit bad, so she is not easy to serve.

Although Xiangling's affairs were seen, the princess did not say anything and even gave some suggestions.

Meng Yuan thought to himself that the princess would probably assign him some tasks next. If he did a good job, he would probably be given an important position.

Another thing is the progress of martial arts. Now that I have the Hundred Herb Pill in my hand, I have to take some when I go back to see the effect. If it is really beneficial to nourishing the essence and fire, I might as well think of a way to get some more.

I also have to go and see Xiangling. She doesn't dare to go back home and can only study away from home. She is really pitiful.

Of course, with Xiangling's cheerful personality, she probably wouldn't feel sorry for him, but would study happily instead.

At dawn, the princess changed into a skirt again, but the style was different from the one she wore when she left the city before, and it was much more fashionable than Xiangling's. Xuanjizi escorted the princess out of Chongxu Temple, and the two of them chatted for a long time by the river before they parted.

By the time we returned to the palace, it was already past noon.

"Everyone is tired, please take a five-day rest. Go to the accountant to withdraw the travel money." When the princess returned to Jingyuan, Xunmei came to deal with the funeral. She smiled and waved to Meng Yuan, "Xiao Meng, come with me."

Meng Yuan agreed immediately.

"Don't run around. Come to Zuiyue Tower in the evening and have dinner together." Nie Yannian patted Meng Yuan and went to talk to the other guards.

Meng Yuan naturally obeyed, but Xunmei seemed unhappy after hearing this.

When we arrived at Xunmei's office, Xunmei said, "I know you've been working hard these days, and it's okay to drink and chat, but you must not be greedy for alcohol, and don't go to places of prostitution afterwards."

"Master Nie wanted to take me there several times, but I refused. I don't like watching those people who act coquettishly." Meng Yuan said.

"I feel relieved to see you are so sensible." Xun Mei praised him and took out a few banknotes from her sleeve, saying, "The princess knows about Luo's mother and praises you for getting rid of harm to the people. She asked me to give you some money to supplement your family expenses. Don't tell anyone else about this, especially Uncle Nie."

Meng Yuan took it, and it was clearly two hundred taels. He couldn't help but sighed: "Sister, the princess is so good to me, I really don't know how to repay you."

"Doing good work is the reward." Xunmei smiled.

After chatting for a while, Meng Yuan went home.

Jiang Tang was the only one at home. She didn't know the princess had returned and was studying at home.

Seeing Meng Yuan coming back, he was extremely happy, "Are you hungry? I'll prepare food."

"I'm not hungry." Meng Yuan held her down. "I haven't been here these few days. Is there anything going on at home?"

"It's okay, everything is fine." Jiang Tang looked up and smiled, staring at Meng Yuan.

She talked to Hu Qian's mother a few days ago, and she has become very sensible and a little more shy.

Meng Yuan took out a silver note and gave it to her, and reminded her not to save money.

"I won't be home for dinner. You go find Xun Mei first. She just came back and she probably has a lot of things to do. Any help you can provide is appreciated. She is a gentleman and there is no harm in learning from her." Meng Yuan squeezed her hand.

Jiang Tang nodded obediently, and just as he walked out the door, he turned back and said, "Brother, I made you new shoes and a shirt. They are right next to your bed. Try them on later."

Meng Yuan smiled and nodded.

As soon as Jiang Tang left, Meng Yuan returned to the room, sat quietly for a while, and then took out the Hundred Herb Pill.

After pouring out a pill and swallowing it, Meng Yuan felt that most of the nutrients in the pill were absorbed by the essence and fire.

The essence fire grew slowly, but not much bigger. It was roughly equivalent to Meng Yuan's three days of eating, but this was already pretty good.

According to Meng Yuan's estimation, if he only ate ordinary meat, it would take about five or six months for his essence fire to reach perfection for the third time.

But now with this elixir, the time can indeed be greatly shortened.

"One pill is equivalent to three days of normal meals. Twenty pills in total can save about two months of time."

Meng Yuan didn't plan to eat it all at once, but to eat it slowly. Of course, he had to keep some for backup, so that he could quickly recover in case of an emergency.

"I have to ask Master Nie again to see if there is any way to get some more Hundred Herb Pills. You can even buy them with money!"

Meng Yuan made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)