Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 23: Confession under the Light
Returning to the room where she was staying in the inn, Liu Qiong'er took out a tinder, lit the lamp and held it up.
The flame of the lamp was very dim. There was nothing else in the room except a wooden bed with damp bedding, a suitcase, a rattan chair, and a wooden shelf for washing basins.
The mud ground was also bumpy and uneven.
Compared with her boudoir in Yuehonglou, the room in the inn could be said to be extremely simple, but at least it had blue walls and black tiles on the beams and rafters, and was much more spacious than a hut in the mountains.
Liu Qiong'er put the oil lamp on the suitcase, and saw Xu Huai dragging the only rattan chair in the room to sit down, and asked: "What should we do next?"
At this moment, holding the lamp and looking closely at Xu Huai's fair face, which had not yet completely lost its childishness, Liu Qiong'er still found it difficult to connect his actions over the past two days. She always felt that something was wrong.
Xu Huai had some ideas, but many things still required Liu Qiong'er's willing cooperation, so he asked in return:
"Miss Liu, have you ever thought about what it would be like after you redeemed yourself from Yue Hong Lou?"
"me?"
There was only one rattan chair in the room. Liu Qiong'er didn't want to be too casual in front of Xu Huai, so she stood in front of the window and said,
"For people like me, selling art but not body is just a cover. It is not only to show that we are different from other sisters, but also to show that Yuehonglou is different from other brothels. In Yuehonglou, most of the sisters can only engage in the flesh trade and have no choice. After I can no longer hold up this posture, I will eventually have to sell my body to receive customers. I don't know how many girls in Yuehonglou were like this before me. The best result I could think of before was that one day I would have to give myself to someone. If this person can remember the friendship and redeem me from Yuehonglou, I can be his slave or concubine for the rest of my life. As for redeeming myself, if it weren't for today, I would only think of waiting until the willows withered and the flowers withered to find an ancient temple to spend the rest of my life. The situation today is different from what I thought, but if you ask me what I can do in Tongbai Mountain at this time, I can't bear the hardship of men farming and women weaving. Maybe buying a yard in the market to run a music studio, buying a few maids and old women, and continuing to sell smiles to welcome and see off guests is the best livelihood I can think of..."
The oil lamp was dim, and Xu Huai couldn't see Liu Qiong'er's face clearly, but her words moved him secretly, and he began to hesitate.
"Perhaps in addition to using me as bait to lure the assassin to take the bait, this is also a reason why you must drag me into the fire pit?" Liu Qiong'er stared at Xu Huai in the dark with burning eyes and continued to ask.
Although Huaiyuan Town has no county seat, it is far from a rural market and its prosperity is not much inferior to that of Xinyang and Biyang.
Located in the middle of the thoroughfare, in addition to several larger brothels such as Yuehonglou, Hedong Street also has private shops and residences run by some older prostitutes who have redeemed themselves after being raped. In addition to relying on their old customers to support their business, they also buy beautiful little girls to train.
In addition to using Liu Qiong'er as bait, operating a place similar to a private bookstore in Huaiyuan Town and continuing to put up a sign saying "Selling art but not body" can indeed squeeze out more value from Liu Qiong'er.
However, Xu Huai was somewhat embarrassed when his thoughts were exposed so directly by Liu Qiong'er, and he denied it flatly: "Miss Liu, you are mistaken..."
"Maybe I really have misunderstood. What should we do next? Please tell me, Mr. Xu." Liu Qiong'er said in a somewhat cold tone.
"You go to bed first today. I will tell you what to do tomorrow." Seeing that Liu Qiong'er looked like she saw through him, Xu Huai said angrily with some shame.
He picked up his sword, pushed the door open and walked out. He could faintly hear Liu Qiong'er saying contemptuously behind him: "Oh, this is a man!"
"This wine is a bit sour right after I bought it!" Cheng Yi was originally strolling outside the yard out of curiosity. When he saw Xu Huai coming out, he raised the teapot in his hand and said in a pretentious manner, indicating that he was not here to peek out of curiosity.
Xu Huaiyuan wanted to ignore Cheng Yi, but when he passed Cheng Yi, he suddenly remembered that his Seventeenth Uncle often complained that the wine sold by those wine merchants in Huaiyuan was often sour and hard to drink. He also said that Yuehonglou bought wine from the wine merchants and blended it, making it taste different from the others. Even if Deng Gui had no intention of visiting prostitutes, he would only drink Yuehonglou 's wine on weekdays.
In Dai Viet, salt, iron, tea, wine and other commodities were all sold under a monopoly system.
In Huaiyuan, only a few wine merchants designated by the government are qualified to brew wine, and these wine merchants must also purchase wine yeast from the state tea and wine monopoly envoys; Yuehonglou does not have the right to brew wine, and the wine that customers drink must be purchased from wine merchants, but it can blend and improve the quality by itself...
Xu Huai ignored Cheng Yi, turned around and walked back to Liu Qiong'er's room, and asked, "Do you know how to mix wine in Yuehonglou?"
"I know a thing or two about Yuehonglou's method of blending wine, but it is extremely complicated and the selling price cannot be low. How many jugs of wine do you think you can sell in a day without beauties to go with the wine?" Liu Qiong'er stared at Xu Huai and asked.
"No matter how much liquor we can sell, we now need a way to gain a foothold in Huaiyuan Town," said Xu Huai.
"Mr. Wang doesn't seem to know that you intend to use me as bait. Can you tell me the truth about how many people you have and how you plan to lure the assassin into the trap?" Liu Qiong'er stared at Xu Huai's face and asked, "Since you want me to cooperate in so many things, you can't ask me to guess everything, right?"
After Lu Xiong's reminder yesterday, Xu Huai figured out a lot of things.
The assassin was indeed intimidated by his bluff, but the local forces in Huaiyuan are united. They are now using Hutouzhai to cause trouble, possibly to alert the enemy or to lure them out of their hole.
Regardless of what the assassin was thinking, Xu Huai was very worried about Deng Gui.
Today, Deng Gui sent Uncle Seventeen and Xu Xin'an to scout the enemy situation near Hutouling, which should have been unintentional.
However, one day, Deng Gui guessed that the purpose of the assassins hiding in Hutouzhai to cause trouble was to target the old members and descendants of the Jingsheng Army in Tongbai Mountain. At that time, in order to quell the banditry, would he take the initiative to send them to die?
The information Liu Qiong'er overheard from the assassin was also crucial.
The assassins now even know that the head of the family, Xu Wufu, has a secret conflict with his Seventeenth Uncle. At the same time, they also believe that only the former members of the Jingsheng Army are involved in the matter and it has nothing to do with the entire Xu family.
If the situation continues to deteriorate, after Xu Wufu learns the hidden truth, will he abandon his own plan to save his own and deliberately sacrifice them?
Xu Huai didn't think he would be able to turn the tide, but he had to try his best before the situation became completely out of control.
And he broke into Yue Honglou yesterday and made such a big fuss. In addition to getting some information from Liu Qiong'er, another purpose was to use Liu Qiong'er as bait to lure the assassin into the trap.
What made him miscalculate was that he didn't expect Liu Qiong'er to be so smart.
Xu Huai pondered for a long time, stared at Liu Qiong'er and asked, "I want to say that all this is just an accident, Miss Liu, do you believe it?"
"Tell me about it..." Liu Qiong'er said.
"At first, I accidentally saw Mr. Wang being chased by someone at Yingzizui. In order to scare off the three bandits, I stood on the cliff and pretended that I was asked to wait for Mr. Wang at Yingzizui. I never thought that the three bandits were assassins sent by Cai Ying to hunt down Mr. Wang, and they believed my words. I also never thought that I and Xu's old soldiers of Jingsheng Army in Tongbai Mountain were involved with Mr. Wang, which led to a deeper misunderstanding."
Some things cannot be explained clearly, so there is no need to say them, Xu Huai said carefully.
"The current situation is that the prefect Chen Shi, the county magistrate Cheng Lunying, Deng Gui and others should have guessed that the bandits encountered by Mr. Wang were assassins, but they only wanted to clear themselves of responsibility and did not dare to expose everything and offend Cai Ying. As for Uncle Seventeen, they are temporarily kept in the dark, and Mr. Wang mistakenly thought that I was in the same group with you, not knowing that all this was a misunderstanding..."
"..." Liu Qiong'er subconsciously wanted to pull her long hair and howl. What was going on? She stood up and said, "We need to explain this to Mr. Wang. Since everything happened by accident, why don't we explain it to Mr. Wang and Master Lu?"
"No!" Xu Huai pressed the sword and sheath against Liu Qiong'er's chest and said, "I'm telling you all this not to use you to explain it to Wang Bing and Lu Xiong."
"Why not?" Liu Qiong'er asked in confusion, without retreating.
"If I had explained all this clearly before, would you have had a chance to leave Yue Hong Lou?" Xu Huai asked, "And do you mean that you didn't feel lucky at all after leaving Yue Hong Lou today?"
"..." Liu Qiong'er fell silent.
"Mr. Wang has a strong character. He has the ambition to establish a firm foundation for the world and to plead for the people. This is worthy of admiration, but a strong character is easily broken, which is also his biggest flaw . Otherwise, Mr. Wang would not have been expelled from Bian Jing by Cai Ying for the crime of 'disrespect'; and Lu Xiong obeyed Mr. Wang in everything. If we really tell them all the truth, it will not only be of no benefit, but may also prevent us from getting the upper hand everywhere." Xu Huai said.
"Mr. Wang has been in the officialdom for decades. How could he not see through everything? He is not as good as you in everything?" Liu Qiong'er shook her head.
"I'm not saying that Mr. Wang is inferior to me, but I'm saying that Mr. Wang has something in mind, which restricts him," Xu Huai said, "Let's not talk about the dangerous trick I used to help you escape from Yue Honglou. Later, I wanted to use you as bait to lure the assassin out to ambush and kill you - do you think Mr. Wang would agree with me doing this?"
"..." Liu Qiong'er sat on the bed and couldn't help thinking about it.
"Miss Liu, do you think that after knowing all this, Mr. Wang will go to Uncle Seventeen and the old soldiers of the Jingsheng Army to clarify everything, and then everyone will join hands to fight against the assassins sent by Cai Ying? Miss Liu, do you think that Mr. Wang will definitely not choose to sacrifice himself and us insignificant people in order to avoid the situation from escalating and worsening, and thus damaging the foundation of the court, and finally let the whole thing end with 'Wang Bing was killed by bandits'?"
Xu Huai stared at Liu Qiong'er and continued,
"Miss Liu, you have to know that in the eyes of people like Mr. Wang, the sufferings of the common people are insignificant compared to the imperial court and the country! Not to mention the death of thirty or fifty common people, the death of thirty or fifty thousand soldiers for the country is nothing."
The businessmen and travelers Liu Qiong'er had come into contact with in Yuehonglou in the past few years were all of relatively high level, and she also boasted that she had an extraordinary vision. However, Xu Huai's words shocked her even more: "How do you know these principles?"
"Look, I know all this. Miss Liu finds it incredible. If I go to Mr. Wang and confess all this, will he suspect that there is a bigger conspiracy against him?" Xu Huai sighed and said, "What Mr. Wang said just now actually showed his suspicion, but I have no way to explain it - do you think I am willing to conceal all this?"
"Then why did you tell me this?" Liu Qiong'er asked.
"I thought Miss Liu was smart and reasonable, maybe she would believe it," Xu Huai said.
"You just think that whether I believe it or not, I have to be controlled by you!" Liu Qiong'er ruthlessly exposed him.
"Miss Liu, if you think so, I can't do anything..." Xu Huai said with his hands spread out.
