Yuan Kexin was a little afraid of Ye Sanniang. Seeing her walking in, he quickly came to Zhao Rang's side, looking nervous.
"Recovering well!"
Zhao Rang said happily.
Yuan Kexin nodded and said nothing. Her attention was still on Ye Sanniang.
"You know who she is, right?"
Zhao Rang asked again.
Yuan Kexin whispered:
"I know, let's go quickly! This female devil is moody..."
Zhao Rang smiled and said:
"It's true that she's moody, but she saved both of our lives last night."
Yuan Kexin knew that Zhao Rang valued loyalty and thought that it was for this reason that he was unwilling to leave, so he said even more anxiously:
"Brother Zhao, I know you are a kind person and want to return the favor... After we find my brother together, I will definitely ask him to prepare enough gold and silver to send to her! Doesn't she love money the most? Just treat it as our money. Money buys life, no one loses!"
Hearing Yuan Kexin's name for him, Zhao Rang was a little surprised, waved his hand and said:
"I can't be your big brother, so you should just call me by my name!"
"Besides, her side is different from what you think. I have already made an agreement with her!"
Yuan Kexin opened her mouth to say something else, but Ye Sanniang shouted from inside the room:
"The food is ready, come and eat!"
There are three sets of bowls and chopsticks on the square table, a basin of porridge, a few noodles, and some side dishes.
"Haha, here it comes!"
Zhao Rang was very satisfied with this breakfast.
I didn’t expect that Ye Sanniang was actually a good hand at doing this!
"Sister, I made it here after a long journey of wandering. If I hadn't had these two moments, would I have starved to death?"
Zhao Rang didn't know what to say, so he had to invite Yuan Kexin to come to dinner, but in his heart he felt that this woman Ye Sanniang was really extraordinary!
Only when you can tell this matter as a joke can it really be over. Zhao Rang didn't know how she did this.
"It's just like making porridge. When the heat is up, even the hard rice will turn into a paste!"
Ye Sanniang picked up a piece of noodle cake and took a small bite. The bright red lipstick left a crescent-shaped mark on the noodle cake.
Zhao Rang swept away the meal like a storm, and in the blink of an eye he had eaten three noodles and two bowls of porridge!
On the other hand, Yuan Kexin had no appetite. She only drank less than half of the bowl of gruel, then she put down the bowl and chopsticks and stared out the door in a daze.
Zhao Rang knew that she must be worried about the safety of her brother Yuan Mingkong.
Since the two decided to split up, Yuan Mingkong has been gone for more than eight hours.
Moreover, Yuan Mingkong did not know the identity of the innkeeper, nor did he know where Zhao Rang and his sister Yuan Kexin had left.
Even if he returned to the inn without any accidents, there would be no trace of the two of them.
"Well, I didn't tell you last night, and I guess you don't know me either. Now that you little... girl has woken up, you can ask her for details!"
Ye Sanniang remembered that Zhao Rang didn't like her joke about Kai Yuan Kexin, so she took it back mid-sentence, then took out an arrow from her sleeve and put it on the table.
"Is this the sword shot by the group of people last night?"
Zhao Rang asked.
In fact, he had always wanted to ask Ye Sanniang who the other great master was last night, but seeing that Ye Sanniang had no clear intention, he didn't ask. Anyway, Ye Sanniang has promised to save his life at the critical moment, and doesn't care about anything else.
When you know less, you are less burdened and can focus more on the things at hand.
"This is……"
Yuan Kexin took one look at the feather arrow and immediately turned pale...
"Do you recognize this arrow?"
Yuan Kexin took a deep breath and said:
"This is the standard issue of Shadow Guard... double hook light feather arrow."
Zhao Rang was shocked and speechless.
Among the three, only Ye Sanniang was calm and composed. After finishing the noodles, she patted the dregs off her hands and started to clear away the dishes on the table.
If this arrow is exclusively used by the Shadow Guards of the Investigation Division, it means that it was the Shadow Guards of the Investigation Division who intercepted and killed the two men last night!
Yuan Kexin obviously didn't accept this, but her lips began to tremble.
"No, it won't..."
"Then my brother..."
Zhao Rang looked at Yuan Kexin's reaction and sighed secretly.
This girl, like her brother, felt that her shadow guard would never betray him.
But the facts were in front of her, and Zhao Rang had nothing to say. She could only wait until she calmed down and figured it out.
There was no other way, Zhao Rang had to get up and go to the kitchen, and asked Ye Sanniang who was washing the dishes:
"Who was the person you fought with?"
At this point, he couldn't care less about what was going on between this man and Ye Sanniang.
Since that man acted together with the man in black who intercepted him and Yuan Kexin last night and found out his identity, he can also prove in disguise whether those people are shadow guards or not.
"That guy is just an old bastard!"
Ye Sanniang said contemptuously.
Zhao Rang asked:
"Who is it?!"
Ye Sanniang stopped what she was doing and glanced at Zhao Rang. Seeing that he was serious, she stopped teasing and said seriously:
"When he was in Dawei, he had a nickname called Lian Gongzi. Now he is a desperate charlatan. As long as you give him enough money, you can let him shoot his own mother to death!"
Zhao Rang has heard of "Lian Gongzi".
It can even be said to be thunderous.
Because he can be said to be the biggest rebel since the founding of Dawei!
As the commander-in-chief of the Iron Armored Army, the strongest force in the frontier army, Lian Gongzi not only refused to listen to the court's orders and returned to quell the rebellion when the Chen family was in turmoil, but instead stood idly by and took advantage of the situation!
In the end, he embezzled 2.4 million taels of silver from the Iron Armored Army and left Yangguan with a few trusted lieutenants to seek refuge in the Western Regions.
The imperial court was furious about this and killed all his relatives and friends who were still in the country!
However, because the turmoil in the Chen family became more and more serious, there was no spare power to suppress it.
In Zhao Rang's childhood impression, it seemed that the streets were once full of portraits of Lian Gongzi and sea fishing notices, but the thunder was loud and the rain was light...
What's more, people are in the Western Regions, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, so in the end they can only let it go.
Unexpectedly, after so many years, this person is not only living well, but his martial arts cultivation has also improved, and he has reached the realm of a third-level grand master!
"He is not an old bastard, he is an old monster..."
"At least for me!"
Zhao Rang said dumbfounded.
If Zhao Rang had been born two years later, he would never have heard of Lian Gongzi's name.
A figure that has almost become a legend, but standing in front of him one after another, this feeling is probably no one can explain clearly.
But even if he knew who this person was, Zhao Rang still couldn't determine the identity of the group of men in black last night.
The "double hooked light feather arrow" alone is not enough!
After all, even the Admiralty Escort Bureau can build a huge fletching factory, so it is not too difficult to get the same feathered arrows.
Maybe this was a deliberate frame-up by a force in the royal city, including the fourth prince Anzuo, the princess Amani, and the one in Xiangteng who Zhao Rang had doubts about.
"Brother Zhao!"
While Zhao Rang was thinking about it, he heard Yuan Kexin suddenly calling him.
"What's wrong?"
Yuan Kexin took out a small iron box from his pocket, which was the second map Yuan Mingkong showed Zhao Rang that day.
Ye Sanniang is indeed well-informed. After seeing the iron box, she said:
"Oh! Hongge Boss Zhu's craftsmanship!"
Yuan Kexin frowned slightly.
She didn't want Ye Sanniang to know too much, but there was nothing she could do at the moment. Especially Zhao Rang seemed to trust her very much, which made Yuan Kexin even more puzzled...
"What happened to this map?"
Yuan Kexin put it together, took it apart, reassembled it into a map, and held it up to the light.
It's a sunny day today, so no candlelight is needed.
Zhao Rang feels amazing every time he sees these originally unrelated light points being transformed into lines, outlining mountains, rivers, lakes, and Gobi oasis!
Even though he had seen it several times, he still felt this way.
"Lukeqin!"
Yuan Kexin stretched out his hand and aimed at a piece of water on the map.
Zhao Rang remembered that Yuan Mingkong once said that this was the summer pasture of the tribe where the fourth prince Anzuo belonged. Lu Keqin should be the name of this oasis.
"Yes, Luqin Grassland! This is the summer pasture of the Gongchen tribe."
"Didn't Princess Amani tell you that Anzuo and his father have left the royal city and returned to the tribe? Then they are definitely in Luqin now!"
"Where are we now?"
Yuan Kexin said:
"The map is all due south and north, then up north and down south. The royal city is a little south of Lu Keqin's east, so..."
Yuan Kexin pressed her finger on the table outside the map.
"It seems that we are not close to Lu Keqin!"
Zhao Rang said.
According to the rules of Lanmo Kingdom, the land around King Lanmo City belongs to the owner of the kingdom, that is, the Guihanxing tribe.
The summer pasture of the Gongchen tribe can only be reached after leaving the royal city and heading west, crossing the entire Hanxing tribe's surrounding territory.
On the way, you have to climb a mountain and cross a long river.
Daban is the pass of the mountain.
In some Daban, mountain people live there, forming a relatively isolated town.
As for the Dilqiang River, it flows from the mountains further west than the Gongchen tribe's summer pasture - the Luqin grassland, and stretches all the way to King Lanmo's city.
Zhao Rang suddenly remembered a book he had loved listening to when he was a child. It told the story of a master who took three apprentices with different skills to slay demons and go to the land of bliss in the west to seek Buddha enlightenment.
At that time, he was very moved by the lonely smoke in the desert and the sunset over the long river in the Western Regions! But when all of this was really in front of him, Zhao Rang felt a headache...
Rubbing his temples, Zhao Rang turned to look at Yuan Kexin, waiting for her next words.
This girl would never take out a map and explain it to Zhao Rang in detail for no reason.
"If my brother finds out that the shadow guards in the royal city have betrayed him, he will rush here without stopping!"
"Lukeqin?"
Zhao Rang asked.
Yuan Kexin shook his head, held Zhao Rang's hand, and pointed to a town next to Lu Keqin Grassland.
"Here, Chagan Tologai."
These place names in the Western Regions are long and convoluted, and the meaning is not clear at all.
Zhao Rang repeated the name several times before he could barely remember it.
"Are you sure your brother will go here?"
Yuan Kexin nodded firmly:
"He told me!"
When Yuan Mingkong left the inn and went to the shadow guard to meet him that night, Zhao Rang was still preparing to go to bed for a night visit to Xiang Tengju, so he didn't know about it.
