Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 65: Feng Niang (First Order)

As winter approaches, Taipei becomes more lively.

The shop that was burned down some time ago has been demolished and is being rebuilt.

The blackened walls of the theater were also painted. When Gu Jingnian arrived, it was getting dark. On the stage, there was a bald black man performing a scene of being burned by fire. Although it was shocking the first time he saw it, it became boring after a long time, so there were not many spectators.

He went around to the backyard and climbed up the small building to look for Feng Niang. After all, she was an old acquaintance, so she was not stopped.

I knocked on the door and Feng Niang's lazy voice came from inside.

"Who?"

"Gu Jingnian."

"Wait a minute."

It took a long time to wait. The setting sun fell on the roof of a distant house. Lanterns were hung in the theater. There were even fewer spectators. The old black man on the stage performed a charcoal flipping with his bare hands, which aroused sparse cheers.

Gu Jingnian was getting a little impatient waiting, and the door finally opened with a creaky sound.

Feng Niang dressed up a little and her makeup was decent, showing just the right amount of casualness.

She held a round fan in her hand, without a smile on her face. She glanced at Gu Jingnian and asked in a businesslike tone, "Inspector Gu, what's the matter?"

"Go in and talk?"

Feng Niang reluctantly let him in and sat on a small stool, supporting her head with one arm. Her attitude was distant and cold, completely different from the smiling face she had last time.

Gu Jingnian closed the door and said, "I know what you are looking for when you stare at Master Ma."

"Oh?"

"Womin."

Gu Jingnian uttered these two words and waited for Feng Niang's reaction. He was sure that the caged man also valued this medicinal ingredient that might be able to concoct immortality.

However, Feng Niang murmured quietly: "It's all these things every day, it's annoying."

"what?"

Feng Niang said unhappily, "It's true that I'm a spy who's keeping people captive, but I also need to rest. If you want to talk about this next time, come to me during the day. I'm not in the mood to talk to you about 'slave' today."

Gu Jingnian had a plan in mind, but was stunned when he heard this. Feng Niang didn't care so much and spoke more freely.

"Did you see it? Business here is bad, and we have more expenses than income every day. It makes me angry just looking at it. I finally planned to go to bed early tonight, but you came over. You are not that bitch of Mei Chengzong, so how can I meet you with my hair disheveled? Do you know how troublesome it is for a girl to wash and comb her hair again? Damn it."

At the end, she pointed at Gu Jingnian with her round fan and said, "These are all fine, they are all trivial matters. The most annoying thing is that you drove all my birds away. Since you are always on guard against me, why do you come to discuss things with me? You just want to deceive me, you stinky man who is full of nonsense, it is better not to say anything."

These words disrupted all the speeches Gu Jingnian had planned, and he fell silent.

Seeing that he had the look of surprise of a young man and was not able to speak in a slick way, Feng Niang smiled with her hands covering her lips.

This smile is like a warm breeze blowing, melting the frost and snow on the branches, and bringing in the spring.

"Why are you so serious? I was just joking with you. Come on, show me how you want to trick me. Now you can start."

"It's not coaxing, but..."

"You've blinded me, and you come here with sweet words, and you still say it's not a lie."

Gu Jingnian said seriously: "Then I will tell you the truth. Master Ma and Womin are in my hands. I can hand them over, but there is a condition."

Feng Niang was the most well-informed and knew that Gu Jizu had dispatched a group of elite troops to the hunting ground and killed the great pharmacist.

But many things that happened that night were just guesses, and I didn't expect Gu Jingnian to take the initiative to confess.

She then asked with a smile: "Is it in your hand, or in your elder brother's hand?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is. It's easy to snatch from you, but it's hard to snatch from Gu Jizu."

"I'm here to negotiate with the Cage Man on behalf of my eldest brother. As you know, he doesn't need the Womin, he just wants to stand up."

"Take the Great Pharmacist in exchange."

Feng Niang asked, "Didn't you kill the Great Pharmacist?"

"I don't believe he died like this."

"Then I can't do anything about it." Feng Niang played with her round fan and sighed, "Gu Jizu and the Great Pharmacist are not people a little girl like me can afford to offend."

She said there was nothing she could do, but Gu Jingnian sat down in the house and waited for her to say more.

Now that he has the bargaining chips in his hand, he is qualified to know more rules.

Feng Niang was indeed willing to explain a few more words to him.

"The caged people exist to help the Northern Yamen find and capture aliens and protect the safety of the people of Rui Country."

"That's on the surface, but what about in reality?"

"In fact, although alchemy is banned by the court, there are always people who do it. Cage people also have the business of selling aliens behind the scenes. For example, it is like a drug dealer looking for medicinal materials. It is naturally a cooperative relationship with the great pharmacist. The Northern Yamen is supervising this matter. Although alchemy is banned, it knows that it cannot be banned, so it turns a blind eye."

"I understand. The caged people collect herbs, the master refines the herbs, and the Northern Yamen supervises. The boundary is that the pharmacist can refine the herbs for the Xiangfu, but he cannot refine them privately."

"That's it."

Gu Jingnian said: "But now the pharmacist has crossed the line, and you don't care?"

"You are the only one who said you crossed the line, and the herbs are in your hands." Feng Niang said, "You also want others to control the pharmacist. How unreasonable! You are bullying others."

"If we eliminate the pharmacist who crossed the line and give the herbs to the drug dealers, wouldn't everyone be happy?"

"But the Gu family plays a special role in this matter. Many of the medicinal materials and pharmacists currently in Ruiguo were collected by Gu Beiming from the battlefield."

"The Gu family is a herbal medicine farmer?"

"That's right. We are all in this together. If something goes wrong, you only want to use the Great Pharmacist to take the blame, leaving the Gu family without any responsibility. Isn't that too irresponsible?"

"Why?" Gu Jingnian asked, "Do you still want the Gu family to take the blame?"

"That's not what I meant." Feng Niang stroked her hair. "At the beginning, everyone was in the dark, only the Gu family was in the open, so naturally the Gu family should take the responsibility. Later, you dug the pharmacist out in the open, so the pharmacist should take the responsibility. But now, the best medicinal materials have been given to the Gu family, and the Gu family also plans to make the medicine for themselves, which is a big taboo."

"So, I came to you for a simple reason. Return the herbs to the pharmacist, and sacrifice the pharmacist to put an end to these matters."

"Who will make medicine from now on?"

"Still practicing?" Gu Jingnian asked subconsciously.

Feng Niang was silent.

Gu Jingnian's eyes became more sincere, and he said, "I am determined to get rid of the Great Pharmacist because I know that if he doesn't die, the turmoil will continue. You, me, and the people we care about will die in these things sooner or later."

The room fell silent.

Then you can hear someone shouting happily in the yard below, and then some chattering conversations can be heard over there.

"dinner time!"

"I'm starving. I'm so tired from playing."

"You should eat less. You only earned so little today..." Inside the house, Feng Niang sighed and said, "These things are not something I can decide."

"Then let the caged man consider whether to snatch the medicinal materials back from the Xiaoyi Army or hand over the real great pharmacist."

"I'll tell the cage owner."

"Okay, I'll come back in a few days."

Gu Jingnian stood up and said goodbye.

"Hey." When he turned around, he heard Feng Niang calling him.

He turned around and the beauty smiled and said, "Since you woke me up, I'll give you a chance to treat me to a meal."

"Ok?"

"Business is not good, and my private money has been stolen again." Feng Niang was a little distressed.

"It seems they are having dinner downstairs."

"The food they cook is terrible. Please treat me to a good meal and I'll give you some information."

"Well."

"Let's go."

The two of them walked down the small building together. In the courtyard of the theater, everyone was sitting around two large pots, eating happily. Gu Jingnian took a special look and saw that one of the two pots was filled with millet rice and the other was filled with bone and wild vegetable soup.

Gao Changgan was desperately trying to compact the rice in his bowl with a grin on his face. When he saw Feng Niang coming down, he quickly hid the bowl behind him, fearing that Feng Niang would ask him "How much money did you make today? You only know how to eat."

Feng Niang just shook her head, took Gu Jingnian's arm, and said to him: "I'm not lying to you, it doesn't taste good at first glance."

Gu Jingnian was a little surprised by her actions. He lowered his eyes and warned her to let him go.

Feng Niang let go of her hand and snorted, "It's nothing, can Pei Nian still kill me?"

"It has nothing to do with her."

"Let's go to Osmanthus House. It's famously expensive."

Gu Jingnian then asked something he had been curious about for a long time, saying, "You sell one piece of information for 10,000 yuan, isn't that very rich?"

"I'm kidding. How many fools are willing to spend 10,000 yuan to buy information?"

Seeing Gu Jingnian stop, Feng Niang turned around and pulled his arm again, saying with a smile: "I'm not saying you're stupid. I only get a few salaries working for the caged people and the Northern Yamen, and I also keep a bunch of money-losing people. It's rare to meet a handsome young man like you who is young and rich."

When we arrived at the Osmanthus Tower, we found that its facade was indeed extraordinary. Outside were parked luxurious carriages and fine horses. Even the servants were dressed in silk and satin. They came towards us from afar with beaming smiles on their faces.

Feng Niang asked for a private room with familiarity and ordered everything from tea to main dishes and snacks.

"Bring me three more pots of viburnum liquid, but I want it to be stronger. Also, if it's not brewed with dew, I won't pay. Finally, I want a singer. I heard that Miss Yunxin here is an excellent pianist and has a good voice, too."

Gu Jingnian said, "If we find someone to sing, how can we discuss business?"

Feng Niang then remembered that she had promised Gu Jingnian to reveal more information, and said regretfully: "I'll listen to that song next time."

Gu Jingnian asked the price first, his face changed slightly, and he asked the servant for paper and ink, wrote a note, and said: "Go to Gu's house in Xiejing Lane and ask Gu Jiye for 3,000 coins, and the extra lunch box will be given to you as a reward."

After the servant left, Feng Niang poured two cups of tea and sighed, "It's so expensive here, but the business is good. It's a pity that I can't cook. I want to open a brothel, but I heard it's not easy to run."

"You are such a spendthrift. Oh, I just remembered my wallet last time..."

"There's never enough money to spend. This is the life of ordinary people." Feng Niang put her hands elegantly, and her tone was a little bit emotional. "If there is enough money to spend, wouldn't I be an outlier?"

Gu Jingnian had nothing to say, so he asked, "Do you know Jingxin Hall?"

"Yes, the civet cat there killed my sparrow."

"Where did Chu Danqing come from?"

Feng Niang beckoned him with her finger, asking him to come closer, and whispered in his ear, "Don't provoke him, he is a fellow disciple of our cage master."

"Your cage owner seems very mysterious?"

"Yeah." Feng Niang said, "I haven't seen it many times. I've seen the cage owner even more times than I have seen those hooks in the Northern Yamen."

"What is their school of thought?"

"Come to think of it, like you, we are all disciples of Chongjing Academy."

"Master's door?"

"No, they are just that old. They were born when our master was expelled from Chongjing Academy. They all passed the annual examination."

"Isn't your cage master an alien?"

"You are an alien, but you are also a student of the academy, right?" Feng Niang covered her lips and whispered, "I can't say too much about the cage owner."

"Then tell me about your caged people."

"No hurry, wait for the food and drinks to come, and then we can talk while we drink."

You wouldn't notice it usually, but Feng Niang is quite fond of wine. She especially likes the Qionghua Liquid from Guihua Tower, a kind of wine brewed from dew and flower petals. It tastes good, but is actually very intoxicating.

An ordinary person would get drunk after drinking one pot of this wine, but Feng Niang drank three pots and asked for two more.

When Gu Jingnian helped her back, she was still holding half a pot of wine in her hand.

"I'm in a good mood tonight, so I'm not going back... Oh, that bitch will interrogate me again tomorrow, it's annoying, I don't want to be a caged person anymore."

"Don't drink anymore. I don't know whether the news you said is true or false."

"It's true."

Feng Niang had completely placed her soft body on Gu Jingnian. Fortunately, she was not heavy, but her voice became more and more vague.

"Bao Zhen, Xu Yun, the Southern Court Commissioner, has a 19-year-old mistress, a tree full of pear blossoms..."

Until Gu Jingnian finally put her back on the couch in the small building, the pear blossoms on the tree that Feng Niang mentioned did not overwhelm the crabapple tree. Instead, it was she, the crabapple tree, who suddenly pulled the young man who was as elegant as cassia twigs.

"I don't want to be a caged man anymore."

The thorny hairpin fell sideways, clearly showing the charm of a mature woman, but Feng Niang pouted her lips in grievance like a little girl.

Her cheeks flushed, her beautiful eyes were blurred, she stared into Gu Jingnian's eyes, and whispered, "Take me away from Zhongzhou."

Gu Jingnian was slightly stunned when his secrets were touched upon again.

He seemed lost in those beautiful eyes and unconsciously moved closer, as if he wanted to kiss her alluring lips.

"Bad man, go away."

Feng Niang stretched out her hand and pushed him away, then fell on the couch, her black hair cascading down like a waterfall.

Gu Jingnian stood by and waited for a while. When he saw her curled up and fell asleep, he gently covered her with a blanket, turned around and left, closing the door.

After leaving Taipei City, he stood alone in the moonlight and spread out his hands. In his palms lay a wooden hairpin made of unique material.

　New book is on the shelves, thank you for your support! Now there are double monthly tickets, please give me a monthly ticket, thank you very much~ I wish you all a happy New Year and all the best~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)