The road to Chengcheng is covered with snowy roads and horse hoof prints.
Wrapped in a winter robe and riding General Feng, Xu Mu looked up from time to time. Most of the defeated troops in the inner city were probably defeated by Xiao Qing, and even the Daping Kingdom had withdrawn from the inner city a few days ago. The originally dead official road also became lively with pedestrians.
In the carriage, Li Xiaowan was still embroidering a handkerchief. She had learned from Jiang Caiwei in the past two days and had three of her fingers pricked red.
Still... still looking very interested.
"Xu Lang'er." Li Xiaowan raised her head and her voice was so delicate and frightening.
"Call me Xu Mu."
Li Xiaowan pursed her lips, paused, and became happy again.
"Xu Mu, come here, I'll give you a good thing."
"don't want."
"You don't want it, I cried in the carriage."
Xu Mu rubbed his forehead, slowed his horse's hooves, and raised his hand to take the handkerchief.
"I asked Sister Caiwei for the handkerchief...the embroidery on it was made by me with great difficulty in the past two days."
"Li Dawan, why are you embroidering two sesame seed cakes? Are they still stuck together?"
"This, this is a mandarin duck!"
Xu Mu was speechless for a while, too lazy to look any further. He put the handkerchief into his sleeve and rode straight forward.
After traveling on the official road for more than a hundred miles, regardless of the frost, snow and cold weather, the figures of twenty or thirty riders, guarding a carriage, finally arrived at Chengcheng.
"Master Xu, how come there are no officers and soldiers guarding the city?" Fan Gu, who was accompanying the car, shouted with a trembling voice.
Xu Mu looked up, feeling a little strange in his heart. After some people entered the city gate, an old official came over. Seeing Li Xiaowan in the carriage, he gave way with a pale face.
A slightly ominous premonition enveloped Xu Mu's whole body.
Only then did he think that Li Xiaowan's visit to Horseshoe Lake had indirectly shown Dingyuan Hou's attitude and that he was already on Yuan Tao's side. In other words, he had to become the opposite of the treacherous prime minister in the court.
On the inner street outside Li's Mansion, there are still congealed blood scabs that have not been cleaned, like many bloody red plums blooming on the snow-paved streets.
Xu Mu stopped his horse and frowned for a moment. Behind him, more than twenty figures on horseback also stopped their horses and stopped in front of Li Mansion.
Only Li Dawan, who was on the carriage, noticed something was wrong and hurried inside without even putting on his fur robe.
"My boss must have committed a massacre." Wei Feng stared at him, "At least a hundred people died."
"more than."
Xu Mu raised his hand and pointed to the end of the inner street. There were about a dozen other officials washing the streets with their heads down.
There was no heavy snow these two days, and the sun came out again. The blooming bloody plum blossoms spread straight forward.
"My boss, who dares to touch Ding Beihou?"
Xu Mu remained silent. The fights in the court sometimes became more brutal. The young Marquis was unable to survive alone, but fortunately, he finally had a helper this time.
"Master, why don't you enter the Li Mansion?"
"I won't come in until Li Rucheng comes out to invite you."
"But my boss... you obviously want to marry someone else's young lady. This doesn't make sense."
"Do you think you are asking for help? That's not the truth."
Xu Mu's expression was calm.
He stayed out of both the court and the rebels, but that didn't mean that he was really an outsider. On the contrary, the people in both places had an inexplicable relationship with him.
"Master, someone walked out."
Xu Mu looked up and saw that it was Li Shuomo who was walking out of the mansion, so he calmly closed his eyes.
"I knew it, I knew it was you again, a little-known stickman, you want to climb a high branch!"
"Come on, I'll give you a chance. Kneel down in front of Li's house and crawl into the main hall. I won't let you be my little husband just because I'm confused."
Li Shuomo stood in front of the mansion and couldn't stop cursing.
"How much money do you make from brewing wine? It's incredible. Now you have used a good trick to charm Wanwan. All the little stickmen in the world are so dirty and stinking!"
Xu Mu opened his eyes, turned the horse's head, and stepped coldly towards the city gate.
Wei Feng who was standing by was puzzled, but seeing Xu Mu's appearance, he didn't dare to ask any more questions. He hurriedly urged the more than 20 riders beside him to prepare to follow him out of the city.
Unexpectedly, before the horse's hooves had taken a few steps, a hoarse voice came steadily.
"My dear boss, please stay and have a meal."
Xu Mu smiled faintly and turned around, "It's rare for the old Marquis to invite me, how can I be disrespectful?"
Li Shuomo, who was standing on the side, suddenly became angry and wanted to make some provocations, but he was grabbed and thrown away by his father.
"Come into the house, you and I will have a drink together."
"That's easy to say."
…
What Xu Mu didn't expect was that Li Rucheng's so-called drinking together was just a pot of drunken heaven paired with two wine bowls.
"Every time I kill someone, I abstain from eating meat for three days. Don't blame me for the habit I brought back from the northwest."
"It's such a joy to eat snow as food." Xu Mu clasped his fists slightly.
"That's a good saying about eating snow!" Li Rucheng's eyes flashed, "I should understand why the young marquis values you so much, you are calm and restrained, but you have murderous intent."
"If a person like you can't make a name for himself, there's no way he can be justified."
"The old Marquis is full of praise, Xu Mu is just a brewer."
"Don't fight with me. I only know what kind of person you are from the surname of Hou."
Xu Mu smiled dryly.
"You must have noticed something was wrong. Two days ago, someone broke into Li's house."
"Then what."
Li Rucheng didn't answer immediately. He opened the wine jar, picked it up and helped pour a bowl.
"In the entire inner city, I rarely serve people wine myself."
Xu Mu suddenly looked strange, why do these big guys always like to say such a thing.
"Drink a bowl of wine first."
"Honor the Marquis." Xu Mu held it in his hand and drank it all in one gulp.
"Tsk, feel good!"
Putting down the wine bowl, Li Rucheng bared his teeth.
"Two nights ago, eight hundred dogmen stormed into the Li Mansion with swords. I joined forces with the Silver Sword Guards and beheaded more than three hundred people."
"If it weren't for my old age and weakness, I would have chased them out of Chengcheng. Does my little boss believe it?"
"Trust, the old Marquis has been in the army for half his life. The sword will get old, but it will not rust."
Listening, Li Rucheng raised his head and laughed. The loud voice shook the branches beside the pavilion, and snow fell from time to time.
Xu Mu stood up calmly and helped fill the wine bowl.
"Come, little master, let's have another bowl of wine to meet you."
Xu Muping raised the wine bowl, continued to raise his head, and drank it all in one gulp.
"Okay! The little boss is domineering!"
After burping, Xu Mu slowly put down the wine bowl.
"I dare to ask my little boss, if the world is drunk, can the person who saves the country be called a hero?"
"White-haired fishermen and woodcutters on the Nagisa River don't ask where the hero is going, just a joke."
Holding the wine bowl, Li Rucheng's face suddenly turned red as he listened.
"Today's third bowl, there is no Marquis of Dingyuan in the northwest, and no owner of the Horse Tihu Lake." Xu Mu stood up steadily and held the wine bowl.
"I respect you, senior. In this world of drunkenness, you and I are both alcoholics."
"good!"
"Drink together."
…
