Sui and Tang Dynasty Generals

Chapter 36: Scepticism and Doubt

"Looking for the Fu family, Fu Zihou?"

In the main hall of the Li family, Old Lady Li looked at the young man from the Cui family with a puzzled look on her face, then looked at the second son Li Jingjie and found that Li Jingjie was also surprised.

"How did my nephew know Zihou?"

Li Jingjie couldn't help but ask softly. He had just learned that Dou Jiande and the Cui family's children had arrived. He had always guessed in his heart that Dou Jiande and the Cui family's children were visiting him under the pretext of visiting his mother.

After all, everyone with a discerning eye knows that Dou Jiande's current reputation has far surpassed Gao Shida, and he will definitely achieve great things in the future.

Therefore, at the moment, Dou Jiande must be eager to get more talented people to assist him.

But when he learned that Cui Luxing was here to see Fu Zihou, Li Jingjie was both surprised and puzzled.

How did Fu Zihou know the Cui family’s children?

Could it be that even Dou Gong standing next to him came because of his father’s kindness?

how can that be!

"Uncle, you don't know that Xingxing and Zihou met in Huaiyang and had a very pleasant conversation. I heard that he and his family came to Xin County to seek refuge with the Li family! Xingxing also came to Xin County at the same time. When he learned that Lord Dou was also visiting the Li family, he came with Lord Dou!"

Cui Luxing and Dou Jiande looked at each other, then looked at Li Jingjie and bowed to explain.

When Li Jingjie heard Cui Luxing's words, he was stunned, and then looked at Dou Jiande.

"Today Jiande has an important matter to visit Brother Jingjie, please discuss it with Brother Jingjie! However, seeing that Xingren is so eager to see his old friend, Jiande can afford to spend a little more time!"

Dou Jiande looked at Li Jingjie, smiled and raised his hand.

At the moment Dou Jiande had to lie because Zhang Wu, Cao Zhan's confidant, did not discipline his subordinates strictly, which led to the leak of the news two days ago, allowing Gao Shida to know that he was looking for someone.

So when they arrived at Li's house, before meeting Fu Zihou mentioned by Cui Luxing, Dou Jiande asked Cui Luxing to ask in the name of a good friend, while he concealed their purpose by using the excuse of visiting Li Jingjie.

After leaving Li's Mansion, they would naturally go to Gao's house again.

"Oh! Never mind! Never mind!"

Seeing Dou Jiande say in person that he was coming to visit him, Li Jingjie quickly smiled and bowed in return, indicating that there was no need to rush.

After the ceremony, Li Jingjie couldn't help but stroke his beautiful beard with one hand, with a smile on his face.

In Li Jingjie's mind, it was just as he thought. Dou Gong came to Li's house to visit him specially. He must have encountered some problems and hoped that he could give him some advice!

"So it's an old friend. What a pity! The Fu family had already left Xin County a long time ago..."

When Mrs. Li heard what Cui Luxing said, she laughed and said to Cui Luxing somewhat helplessly.

"It's a pity indeed!"

Li Jingjie looked at his mother, saw her appearance, then looked at Cui Luxing and nodded.

Li Jingjie thought the same as his mother. Neither of them doubted Cui Luxing's identity. After all, Dou Gong was right next to them. But neither of them believed Cui Luxing's words.

If they were good friends, why would the Fu family specifically remind them that if outsiders came to the Li family to ask about the Fu family, they should not tell other people about the Fu family? The Fu family also specifically mentioned the names Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan.

"What! Left? Where did Zihou go?"

Cui Luxing was surprised when he heard what Mrs. Li said.

Cao Zhan standing by also straightened up suddenly. Madam Li looked at Li Jingjie and Dou Gong with confusion.

Half an hour later.

Outside the gate of Li's mansion, Dou Gong and his entourage signaled to Li Jingjie that there was no need to see him off. They turned around and walked to the horses and untied the horse reins.

"Just now the old lady mentioned the reason. Looking at her appearance, I always feel that it is a bit strange!"

"Brother Zhan, what you mean is that the old lady lied? But why would the old lady lie?"

"I don't know, but I have a feeling...either the reason the old lady said about the Fu family's departure is not true, or the Fu family is still in Xin County, but for some reason the old lady is unwilling to tell us!"

Cao Zhan and Cui Luxing discussed that they were both helpless as they had not received any news about Fu Zihou.

"Is Fu Zihou really that important?"

Yingkai couldn't help but frown. He really didn't understand why Cao Zhan and Cui Luxing told Dou Gong so solemnly and repeatedly that Fu Zihou must be the person Dou Gong needed to accomplish his goal.

After hearing Ying Kai's words, Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan looked at each other.

"Although Lord Dou is famous now, he is also surrounded by dangers! In Gaojipo, Gao Shida is on guard against Lord Dou everywhere. If Guo Xuan, the governor of Zhuozhou, leads the Sui army south, Gao Shida will definitely take the opportunity to attack Lord Dou! In the north, Hao Xiaode and Wang Bo are eyeing him covetously, in the west there is Zhang Jincheng, and in the south, Zhen Baodong and Meng Haigong are not easy to deal with..."

When Cui Luxing said this, he shifted his gaze from Ying Kai's face to Dou Jiande standing beside him.

"If Lord Dou wants to realize his ambitions, he needs a scholar like Fu Zihou! I dare not guarantee to Lord Dou that Fu Zihou is a learned and talented person, but I am sure that Fu Zihou is thoughtful and thoughtful, and he must be what Lord Dou needs, and he must be a talent to assist Lord Dou in his career!"

Cui Luxing raised his hand seriously and said to Dou Jiande.

Cao Zhan was a little surprised to see Cui Luxing using his personal reputation to guarantee Fu Zihou's talent, but he remembered the young man's performance in Huaiyang!
"Cao Zhan agrees with what Brother Cui said. Although Fu Zihou is young, he is calm and composed in the face of danger. This kind of intelligence is rare! In the past in Huaiyang County, no one, whether it was the Xie family or the officials of the Sui Dynasty, noticed anything unusual. Only Fu Zihou saw through Lu Mingyue's plan with just one person's observation!"

Cao Zhan also looked at Dou Jiande and agreed with Cui Xingfa's words.

To this day, when Cao Zhan thinks back to his experiences in Huaiyang County, what he saw and heard, and that young man, he still gets goose bumps and feels frightened.

Cao Zhan was also eager to see again the young man whom he had met once outside Kuangcheng.

"But the old lady said that the Fu family has left..."

When Yingkai heard what Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan said, he no longer doubted it. He just frowned and looked back towards the Li Mansion. Thinking of the old lady's words just now, he felt helpless.

It seemed that the Li family of Xin County had offended someone very much. Unless they were looking for someone, they would not have been willing to come to the Li Mansion in the past, for fear of causing misunderstandings from the forces hostile to the Li Mansion. Just now, Lord Dou also said goodbye and left as soon as possible, not daring to stay for long.

"That's fine! You can ask Brother Yaxian to secretly help search for it in Xin County!"

Dou Jiande held the horse reins and looked back towards Li's mansion.

Hearing Cui Xingli and Cao Zhan's high praise for Fu Zihou, whom he had never met, Dou Jiande was extremely eager to see him in person. However, because the old lady said that Fu Zihou had left Qian County and went south to Pengcheng to seek refuge with his uncle, Dou Jiande didn't know whether it was true or not. He was also worried that Gao Shida would find out that he was looking for someone from the Fu family, so he didn't ask any more questions in Li's mansion.

At the moment, the only thing we can do is to look for Gao Yaxian and ask Gao Yaxian to secretly use his confidants to help look for someone in Xin County to see if Fu Zihou is still in Xin County.

If he is no longer there, we can only send people to Pengcheng to look for him.

However, Dou Jiande knew clearly that Pengcheng was not his territory, and the chances of finding the family were too slim!
Now Dou Jiande can only pray that Fu Zihou is still in Xin County!

"Let's leave here first and go to Gao's to see Brother Yaxian!"

Dou Jiande said this, then he took the horse and left Li's house with Yingkai, Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan.

Yingkai was following Dou Jiande and suddenly thought of Gao Shou and his son, so he hurriedly told Dou Jiande that he had heard that the people from the Gao family who went to attend the wedding banquet of the Xie family were Gao Shou and his son.

The two have been serving as officials in Luoyang, but they will definitely return to Xin County at the end of the year, and will definitely mention Xie's wedding banquet in front of everyone in the Gao family.

In this way, not only Gao Shida would know, but the whole Xian County would probably know about it. Even Old Madam Li and Li Jingjie from the Li Mansion behind them would definitely guess that the four of them came to the Li Mansion today to look for Fu Zihou.

"We can only ask Brother Yaxian to find this person as soon as possible!"

Yingkai's words made Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan frown. They looked at each other, while Dou Jiande sighed dejectedly and placed his hope on Gao Yaxian, whom he was going to meet later.

........................

In the county.

"My hairpin!!!"

In the shop of "Goguryeo Treasures", a woman in silk clothes stared at the empty branches with eyes wide open in horror. She seemed to have lost her soul and was shaking continuously.

"Who is it? Who is it? Who is it?"

The woman quickly raised her head, gasping for breath, and stared at the waiter like a lioness.

At the side, a 20-year-old man standing next to the woman also looked a little surprised. He never expected that during this time when his sister was struggling to raise money, someone would actually spend 13,000 coins to buy a hairpin.

Of course, he had also seen the hairpin. It was indeed made of extraordinary craftsmanship. In addition, it was a treasure from Goguryeo, so it was even more rare and precious.

"Miss Cui! It's a young man..."

The waiter gave a bitter smile and after asking the woman in charge, he only learned that when the young man came for the first time, he took a fancy to the hairpin and wanted to exchange it for his sword. When he came for the second time, he already had the money, but he didn't see the sword in the young man's hand.

Hear this.

Cui Wenjin quickly turned around and walked out of the store with his sword in hand.

"Little sister! Slow down!"

Seeing this, the man hurriedly took his servants with him and followed his sister to the nearby pawnshop to inquire if there was a young man pledging his sword.

The south gate of Xin County.

Fu Zihou, who was waiting for his father day after day, watched the people and merchants coming in and out of the city gate.

It was different from before. In the past, when he was rushing to Xin County, whenever he saw those fat and big-eared merchants holding young women in their arms, some of whom were even 20 or 30 years older than them, Fu Zihou would despise those merchants in his heart.

But these days, whenever he saw those merchants hugging the women in their arms, Fu Zihou felt more instinctively proud.

Because none of those women could be as pretty as Li Cha.

"Zihou! Zihou!"

When he was bored, he suddenly heard footsteps. Fu Zihou turned around and saw his cousin running towards him, panting.

Before Fu Zihou could ask, Fu Zhi told Fu Zihou that he had just been at Li's house and saw the rebel general and the scholar whom they had deceived in Kuangcheng. They all came to Li's house!

"What? Why are they coming to the Li Mansion?"

Fu Zihou frowned, looking ridiculous.

Impossible! Fu Zihou had seen people who held grudges before, but he had never seen anyone who held such a grudge. Moreover, it was just a trivial matter at the time. How could it be worth it for the other party to come all the way here?

"I saw it with my own eyes!"

Fu Zhi was panting and running all the way here desperately, fearing that if he arrived a little late, Fu Zihou would be seen by those people and something would happen to him.

"Cousin, please tell me clearly what is going on."

Fu Zihou hurriedly asked what had happened.

Soon, Fu Zihou learned from his cousin's breathless narration that Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan were both following a man named Dou Gong to visit Old Madam Li.

Fu Zihou knew that in Xin County, the only person who could be called Dou Gong was Dou Jiande, so after learning about this, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"It shouldn't be us!"

Fu Zihou looked at his cousin and told him not to worry too much.

Facing his cousin's puzzled gaze, Fu Zihou told his cousin that although he didn't understand why Dou Jiande suddenly came to the Li family, since Dou Jiande was there, the appearance of Cui Luxing and Cao Zhan was not so surprising.

Cui Luxing was a member of the Cui family, and Cao Zhan was a general in the rebel army in Huaiyang before, with a high status.

Something must have happened in Huaiyang County that caused these two people to leave Huaiyang and go north to join Dou Jiande.

When Dou Jiande saw the two people who came to him for refuge, one with a background and the other capable, he was naturally overjoyed, and it was no surprise that he brought the two of them with him.

Dou Jiande must have come to visit Li's residence today and brought the two of them with him.

"Let's go to the Li Mansion!"

Fu Zihou looked at his cousin, thought about it and nodded slightly. So, to be on the safe side, he decided to go to Li's house with his cousin first to ask the old lady and uncle.

(End of this chapter)