The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 349 Keeping an Appointment
Just as Qin Hongyu was hesitating, she suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves on the street. She looked up and saw a group of people passing by the noodle shop. On the back of one of the horses sat a blonde woman with a slender and straight figure, long legs, a slender waist, and a proud bust. Her extremely hot pear-shaped figure was particularly eye-catching.

Qin Hongyu's heart was moved. At this time, the ugly slave also recognized her. He said in a low voice with a bad look, "Isn't this foreigner Jia Huan's maid?"

It turned out that the people passing by on the street at this time were Mandalin and Feng Ziying. They had just returned to Yangzhou from Jinling and were heading to the Salt Inspectorate. The ugly slave was not paying attention at the beginning and was thrown over the shoulder by Mandalin, almost breaking his nose, so he recognized the other party at this moment and was still resentful.

Qin Hongyu quickly glanced at the team and did not find Jia Huan among them. She only saw Feng Ziying, the captain of the Yunti Pass, and could not help feeling a little disappointed.

At this time, Mandalin had gradually walked away. Qin Hongyu hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Ugly slave, you guys go wait outside the city first. I'll be back soon."

After Qin Hongyu finished speaking, she stood up and walked out of the noodle shop quickly. The ugly slave knew his master's temperament very well. Once she made a decision, ten oxen could not pull it back, so he did not stop her. After paying the bill, he took the other two people and hurried out of the city to wait.

Mandalin and his party walked eastward along the street and soon arrived at Kaiming Bridge. Not far after crossing the bridge was the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen.

As the saying goes: The Bian River flows, the Si River flows, and flows to the ancient ferry of Guazhou. Under the Kaiming Bridge is the Bian River that passes through the city. The green willows on both sides of the river are very beautiful. Usually, there are many tourists here, and there are endless boats and pleasure boats coming and going, which is very lively. But now it is deserted.

Just as Mandarin and others were preparing to cross the bridge, suddenly a sharp cold light flashed past everyone and pierced into a willow tree beside the bridge with a puff.

Feng Ziying's face changed drastically, and he shouted sternly: "Be careful of enemy attacks!"

The ten personal soldiers behind Feng Ziying drew their weapons and gathered in the middle, looking around vigilantly. Mandarin also quickly took off the musket on her back, half-lying on the horse's back and looking around.

When pedestrians on the street saw this scene, they were so frightened that they hurriedly fled. However, Feng Ziying and others were on guard for a long time, but they did not wait for the attacker to take any further action, nor did they find the attacker's whereabouts. When they were wondering, Mandalin suddenly pointed and said in unprofessional Chinese: "Look, what is that?"

Feng Ziying looked in the direction he pointed and saw a dagger stuck in the trunk of the willow tree, and there seemed to be a small note stuck on the dagger.

"A letter delivered by flying knife?" Feng Ziying rode forward, bent down to pull out the dagger, took out the note on it and looked at it carefully. He was immediately surprised, turned his head and looked around for a moment, and finally put away the dagger and the note, and told everyone to move on.

…………

The Salt Inspectorate’s Yamen, Yuewei Hall.

Jia Huan and Lu Xiangsheng were reviewing their lessons in preparation for the upcoming provincial examination. They had planned to leave for Jinling three days later, on July 15th, to take part in the pre-examination examination.

"Third Master, Mr. Feng and Miss Man are back." Mu Ye suddenly came in to report.

On that day, Jia Huan asked Feng Ziying to dress up as himself and escort Xue Baochai and her family back to Jinling City. In order to conceal their whereabouts, he asked Mandalin, Mu Ye and Jin Bao to accompany them as well.

Two days ago, Mu Ye had already returned to Yangzhou to report the news, so Jia Huan knew that Mandalin and the others would be back today, so he nodded and said, "Got it, let Master Feng wait for a moment, I'll be there soon. Also, bring Mandalin to my place and let Ping'er settle down."

"Okay, I'll do it right away." Mu Ye agreed and left quickly.

Jia Huan put down his pen and said to Lu Xiangsheng, who was still writing furiously, "Jiandou, I'm sorry to be away for a moment."

Lu Xiangsheng nodded and said, "Ziming, please do as you please. I just came up with a brilliant topic and I can finish writing the article in one go."

Upon hearing this, Jia Huan left Yuewei Hall and went straight forward.

Due to the siege on the night of July 7, the Salt Inspectorate's Yamen was damaged in addition to the Buddhist hall being burned down, and other buildings were also severely damaged. Many craftsmen are currently repairing them.

These craftsmen obviously recognized Jia Huan. When they met him along the way, they stopped and greeted him respectfully, calling him "Third Master" one by one, as if they were treating him as the male owner of the Lin Mansion.

When Jia Huan reached the second gate, he happened to meet Mu Ye and Jin Bao leading Mandalin towards him. The foreign maid was obviously attracted by the magnificent, luxurious and exquisite garden architecture in front of her, and was looking around with curiosity, but she didn't notice Jia Huan coming towards her.

"Third Master!" Jin Bao and Mu Ye stopped and saluted.

Mandalin came back to her senses and took a closer look. She saw Jia Huan wearing a brand new jade-colored scholar's robe and a square scarf on his head. He had sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, red lips and white teeth, and a smile on his face. He was standing a few steps away with a calm and composed demeanor. His temperament was gentle and elegant, as smooth as jade.

Mandarin's eyes lit up, and she happily took a few quick steps forward, her sapphire-like eyes flashing with joy, and blurted out: "——Jia!"

Although they had only been separated for less than ten days, Mandalin felt as if a long time had passed. When she saw Jia Huan again, she felt an inexplicable joy in her heart, as if they were meeting again after a long separation.

Jia Huan asked with a smile: "Jinling is the capital of our Great Jin, the land of gold and powder during the Six Dynasties, isn't it very prosperous?"

Mandarin shrugged and said, "It is prosperous, but it is not fun. It is even annoying."

Jia Huan was surprised and asked, "Why is that?"

Mandarin said in English with a bit of frustration: "There is a very annoying guy who always pesters me. Oh my God, if I wasn't afraid of your blame, I would definitely beat him up."

Jia Huan immediately guessed that this extremely annoying guy must be Xue Dashazi, who was lustful and lustful, and had no particular preference for sex. When he saw a top-notch girl like Mandarin, how could he not have evil thoughts? It seemed that he had to teach him a lesson in due time, otherwise this bastard would continue to push his luck.

Jia Huan comforted Mandalin with a few words, then asked Jin Bao and Mu Ye to take her to the residence in the back house and hand her over to Ping'er for settlement, while he continued to go to the front.

Mu Ye led Mandalin to Jia Huan's residence. A maid was sweeping the yard at that time. When she saw the blonde and blue-eyed Mandalin, her eyes widened as if she had seen something rare. She asked curiously, "Wild boy, this is the Western maid that Third Master Huan has just taken in. What's her name, Mantou?"

Mu Ye laughed and scolded, "Bullshit, Miss Man's name is Mandarin, have you not eaten lunch? You are just thinking about steamed buns."

"Hello, my name is Mandarin!" Mandarin introduced herself politely.

The woman cried out in embarrassment, obviously not expecting this blonde to speak Chinese. She slapped herself on the mouth and said with a smile, "Look at my stinky mouth. I offended Miss Man. I hope Miss Man will be magnanimous and forgive me."

Mandalin was a little confused, and obviously didn't understand why the other party had to apologize by hitting her own mouth. In her opinion, steamed buns were a kind of food, not an insult. Mu Ye smiled and said to the old woman, "Come on, Miss Man is not that petty. Is Miss Ping in the room?"

The old woman said quickly: "Yes, yes!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a pretty woman with a sweet face and fair skin walked out of the house. She was wearing a light green skirt and a pink lace vest. She had a slim and graceful figure. It was Ping'er.

Mu Ye bowed and smiled, "Meet Miss Ping. This is Miss Mandarin. The Third Master asked me to bring her here. Please settle her down."

Although Ping'er had been mentally prepared, she still couldn't help but be amazed at this moment, thinking: "This Western woman is really tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes, and is very pretty. And her breasts and buttocks..."

Ping'er quickly glanced at Mandalin's extremely sexy pear-shaped figure, and couldn't help blushing a little, and at the same time she felt a little jealous, but she recovered immediately, walked forward enthusiastically, took Mandalin's hand, and said with a smile: "Miss Man is here, Third Master and Yuanyuan often mention you, you are really beautiful."

Mandalin was a little flattered. She knew Ping'er was a person, and she also knew that she was Jia Huan's chief maid, who was deeply trusted by Jia Huan. She hurriedly said, "Hello, Sister Ping'er. You are so beautiful. Jia has often mentioned you to me."

Ping'er was surprised and asked, "You can speak Chinese?"

"A little bit." Mandarin said modestly.

Ping Er took out a bunch of money and gave it to Mu Ye, saying, "Little Mu, leave Miss Man's luggage to Madam Li, and you can go back to the Third Master."

Mu Ye hurriedly thanked her, handed Mandarin's bag to the old woman, then took his leave.

Ping'er led Mandalin to the house, saying, "Let's go inside and talk."

The woman looked at Mandarin's back and muttered in a low voice: "This is not a steamed bun, it's just a big meat bun. And this butt must be good for childbearing. Miss Ping is in trouble now."

…………

Let’s talk about Jia Huan coming to the side hall of the front hall. Feng Ziying was already waiting there. When the two met, they smiled at each other.

"Thank you for your hard work, Brother Feng. Did you have a smooth journey?" Jia Huan bowed.

Feng Ziying shook his head and smiled, "It's just a matter of hurrying on the road. Everything is going well, so it's not really hard. But it's you, brother Huan, that's dangerous."

"It was indeed quite dangerous." Jia Huan nodded and recounted briefly what happened on the night of July 7th.

After listening to this, Feng Ziying said sternly: "These guys are so cruel and crazy. Fortunately, Brother Huan prepared for the rainy day and left a backup plan, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous."

Jia Huan shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I can only say that I was lucky. If it weren't for Admiral Zhang's timely arrival, I'm afraid I would have failed this time."

Feng Ziying nodded and said, "It was indeed a bit of luck, but Brother Huan's luck has always been good. By the way, I heard that Zhang Yidong and Ji Jinxiao both committed suicide out of fear of punishment?"

Jia Huan did not answer, but asked meaningfully: "What do you think, Brother Feng?"

Feng Ziying's eyes flickered, and he asked in a low voice, "Brother Huan didn't admit to having seen the account book, did he?"

Jia Huan shook his head slightly, and Feng Ziying breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. Now that Lin Ruhai was recuperating on the pretext of illness, Yi Hong, the deputy imperial envoy, was in full charge of the case. The two most important criminals, Zhang Yidong and Ji Jinxiao, were dead. In this way, whether the case would implicate the prince or not depended entirely on Yi Hong's decision. At this time, it would be better to avoid it. Only a fool would get involved in it.

At this moment, Feng Ziying suddenly remembered something, took out the flying knife and the note from his bosom, handed them to Jia Huan and said, "Just now when we were passing by Kaiming Bridge, someone suddenly sent a letter with a flying knife. It seemed to be specially for Brother Huan. Take a look."

"Specially for me?" Jia Huan was curious and hurriedly took the dagger and the note. He looked at the dagger first and found that it was just an ordinary dagger without any special markings. So he put it aside and opened the note.

There were only a few words on the note: Jia Xiucai, Shili Pavilion in the south of the city, come before 3 p.m. if you have any, come. Signed by: Qin Hongyu.

A hint of surprise flashed in Jia Huan's eyes. It turned out that it was the female pirate Qin Hongyu who sent the message to him. However, Kang Dayong had been killed by him, so why would this female bandit look for him?
Feng Ziying looked at Jia Huan with some curiosity and said, "That lady Hong is quite courageous. She actually dared to come to Yangzhou. I just wonder what she wants to do with Brother Huan?"

Jia Huan frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "It may be related to Dulong Island, because last time I advised this girl to cooperate with the government to wipe out Dulong Island in order to atone for her sins, but she refused at that time."

Feng Ziying's mind moved and he said, "Could it be that this female bandit has suddenly come to her senses? But Brother Kang Dayong has been killed. With Qin Hongyu's prestige on Dulong Island, it should not be difficult to recover the remnants on the island. There is no need to seek cooperation from you, Brother Huan, right?"

Jia Huan nodded and said, "It's really strange. Well, let's go out of the city and meet her. It will save us from making blind guesses here."

Feng Ziying said hurriedly: "Okay, I'll go gather the brothers."

Jia Huan shook his head and said, "We don't need too many people. Just call Hu Zi and Xiao Dai to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings."

At that moment, Jia Huan, Feng Ziying, Tie Hu and Dai Shilin rode out of the south gate and went straight to the Ten-Li Pavilion. As expected, they saw three women dressed as peasant women guarding outside the pavilion. One of them was extremely ugly, and she was the ugly slave. There was another person standing in the pavilion, with his back to the official road, so his face could not be seen clearly.

Tiehu's eyes were as sharp as lightning. He glanced around and confirmed that there was nothing unusual. Then he winked at Jia Huan.

Everyone dismounted and was about to move forward, but the ugly slave drew his sword and shouted, "Only Jia Huan is allowed to enter the pavilion, the rest of you stay back."

"Get out!" Tiehu shouted coldly with disdain, and swung his iron rod, knocking the knife out of Chou Nu's hand. The latter was shocked so much that his knuckles were cracked. He subconsciously took two steps back, staring at Tiehu with fear and anger.

The man in the pavilion turned around and said, "Ugly slave, back off, you can't stop him!"

Chounu and the other two female bandits had to retreat in disappointment. Tiehu protected Jia Huan and walked proudly into the pavilion, while Feng Ziying and Dai Shilin stood guard outside the pavilion.

(End of this chapter)