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Chapter 609 Boss Wife

The carriage moved slowly forward and stopped at the entrance of a large courtyard with an inn sign.

This courtyard is probably the largest in the entire estate. It was clearly not originally used as an inn, but rather as the residence of a wealthy family.

Inside a spacious courtyard is a two-story house, and it looks like there's more than just this one; there should be another courtyard behind it.

The courtyard was desolate. Weeds grew out of the gaps between the once neatly laid stone slabs, making them crooked and twisted. The two wooden doors outside the fence looked dilapidated, full of holes and damage.

As soon as the carriage arrived at the door, a woman ran out from inside.

The woman was wearing a narrow-sleeved, coarse cloth dress of mixed colors, the contents of which were indistinguishable. She had a dark red apron around her waist that hung down to below her knees.

Zhu Yu's gaze lingered on her dark red apron for a while longer, finding it quite eye-catching.

Generally speaking, whether in Jin Kingdom or Shuo Kingdom, ordinary people would wear a plain hemp apron when cooking to avoid getting oil stains on their clothes and to conveniently wipe their hands.

Or, butchers or meat vendors, to avoid getting their meat dirty with blood, would wear black leather aprons, which also made it easier to clean the blood off the meat after slaughtering.

Zhu Yu had never seen anyone wear a waistband of this color before. When the carriage got closer, she took a closer look and found that the dark red color was not very clean. There were some mottled stains that blended into the background color of the cloth, making it difficult to see anything clearly.

However, these stains were so obvious to Zhu Yu.

Those stains were clearly bloodstains! She had seen too many of those kinds of marks.

So, the woman deliberately wore this dark red apron to avoid the blood splattering on her body being too conspicuous.

While he was thinking about these things, the woman had already come to the car, her face beaming with smiles, and she greeted Fuwen Fulu with exceptional cheerfulness and enthusiasm: "Brothers, would you like to stay at an inn?"

Fu Lu glanced at the woman's face, which was dark and rough from the sun and wind, and the wrinkles that were faintly visible on her face. He estimated that she was at least forty years old. The woman's affectedly coquettish "Big Brother" made him feel disgusted and gave him goosebumps.

"Do you have any vacant rooms at your inn?" Fu Wen nodded to her. "I'd like to see if it's clean and comfortable inside."

Our master and mistress are very picky about where they live.

"Yes, we have plenty of rooms available. You've come at the perfect time, when things aren't busy. Feel free to choose any room you like in our inn!"
"Then come with me, and I'll show you around." The woman greeted her warmly, striking a charming pose as she brushed a stray hair behind her ear.

Zhu Yu's gaze swept over the calluses on her palms, then he looked down at his own, grabbed Lu Qing's hand, opened it to look at his palm, and laughed.

Her hands originally had calluses, but they were on the pads of her thumbs near the joints, and the tips of her index fingers had thin, long indentations that would never completely disappear.

Although her hands were now smooth and white without any calluses, the locations of the calluses and pressure marks were still etched in her mind. Lu Qing's hands were even more remarkable. The tips of his right ring, middle, and index fingers all had a thin layer of calluses, which were caused by the bowstrings when he practiced archery.

Lu Chao, that seemingly refined and reserved guy, actually had calluses on his fingertips even thicker than Lu Qing's. So Zhu Yu didn't need to ask much to guess that the guy, who looked weak, was actually a master of riding and archery.

Besides the calluses on his fingertips, Lu Qing also had calluses on his thumb, index finger, and the web between his thumb and index finger, as well as on the palm below the base of his fingers. These were from his daily sword practice.

The woman who looked like the proprietress had calluses on her hands in roughly the same spot.

In other words, this woman is not someone who usually does accounting or cooking in the kitchen; she is also someone who wields knives and swords.

That's a female bandit!
After all, a guesthouse owner who needs to attract customers outside wouldn't start addressing guests with informal pronouns like "you" or "you" without using any honorifics.

This is not a mistake that business people would make.

Fu Wen jumped off the carriage and followed the woman inside to check the guest rooms. Behind the carriage, several people were already quietly standing outside the courtyard gate, seemingly preparing for both scenarios. If they didn't like the rooms, they would forcibly stop the carriage, not wanting to let the fat sheep who had come to their door leave.

However, it was clear that with the sun shining brightly, these thieves didn't dare to be too blatant. So they peeked around outside the courtyard, pretending to be ordinary farmers. Although it wasn't very clever, it was at least clear that they were still somewhat cautious.

Clearly, they are trying to pretend this is an perfectly normal village and don't want to arouse suspicion from outsiders.

Knowing they intended to sabotage him in secret, Zhu Yu actually felt relieved.

She could guess Lu Qing's thoughts. If these bandits were too brainless and came up to rob her outright, then Lu Qing's plan would not be able to be realized.

Not long after, Fu Wen and the woman returned, seemingly having checked out the guest rooms. Judging from the woman's beaming expression, Fu Wen had naturally told her that they planned to stay.

"You have a good eye! Let me tell you, within a radius of ten or twenty miles, only our village has this inn!"
"If you all pass this village today, you won't find another inn! Even if you walk all the way from here, you might not find another inn to stay at until tomorrow morning!"

As she spoke, she added mysteriously, "I'm not trying to scare you, but I heard that about ten miles ahead... there are bandits!"

Fu Wen looked at her with a hint of nervousness: "Is that really true? We've already decided to stay here, don't try to scare me! If there are bandits ten miles away... then wouldn't this place be unsafe?"

"How could that be!" The woman was probably taken aback by the way the runes were presented, and quickly changed her tune, "Whether they exist or not, we've never encountered them in our village. It's just a legend, but we can't be sure."

In short, you can rest assured. Our young men are all strong and healthy. What kind of bandits would dare to come here and cause trouble?

You can all just settle in comfortably!