Volume 5: Kyoto Summer Campaign Chapter 288: Mucun was arrested! (Part 2)
"Oh?" Lin raised her eyebrows and cast a curious look at Ating, "You are Ating... Nice to meet you, I'm Kinoshita Lin." Lin, kneeling on the ground, gave Ating a standard greeting that was impeccable.
"Nice to meet you..." After returning the greeting in a flustered manner, Ating couldn't help but look Lin up and down several times with a strange look, "Um... I have a question for you."
"Just ask," Lin said generously.
"Excuse me...are you a woman?"
Ah-machi still remembers clearly that just now, Ogata called this person "Ms. Kinoshita".
"Yes." Lin nodded without hesitation, "For convenience, I disguised myself as a man."
Having said this, Lin suddenly paused.
While continuing to blow hard to cool the hot tea in his hand, he raised his head and looked around the area that had obviously just been cleaned, then whispered to Ogata and A-Machi:
"Were you two just helping Fuma-sama clean the house?"
"That's right." Ogata didn't try to be pretentious and nodded frankly.
"I see..." After muttering softly, Lin turned her head and whispered a few words to Makimura and Shimada who were sitting next to her.
After Lin finished whispering, Makimura and Shimada nodded seriously, then stood up and walked quickly out of the hall.
"Hmm?" Fuma cast a puzzled look at Makimura and Shimada who were leaving the table, "Are you going to the toilet? The toilet is in the yard."
"No." Lin shook her head gently, "I just asked them to go out and buy some things. They will be back soon."
"I see..." After nodding gently, Fuma cast his gaze on Komachi, "Speaking of which - Komachi, I haven't asked you yet, why did you come to Kyoto?"
"I'm here to carry out a mission." Ating answered without any hesitation, "But my mission is not very important, and there is no need to rush to do it. It won't be too late to do it tomorrow morning. So I plan to play in Kyoto until the next morning."
"I see..." Fengma nodded slightly.
After taking a sip from the teacup in his hand, Fuma looked at Ogata and Atachi:
"Brother Ogata, Komachi, didn't you say before that you had questions for me? Tell me your questions now. If I can answer them, I will tell you everything I know."
"Ah, if you want to ask me for the ninjutsu that has been passed down from generation to generation by the Fuma clan, I'm sorry to refuse."
Fuma said in a half-joking tone.
"I have made up my mind. I will never show the ninjutsu that has been passed down from generation to generation in our Fuma sect to outsiders again, nor will I pass this ninjutsu on to others."
After learning from Fuma that Ogata and the others actually had questions for Fuma, Lin and his group's expressions immediately became a little strange.
"We are not here to learn ninjutsu." Ogata smiled bitterly, "Lord Fuma, do you know the location of the prisons in Kyoto?"
"I know." Fengma said without hesitation, "There are two prisons in Kyoto, and I know the locations of both prisons."
"It's like this..." Ogata put down the teacup in his hand and said seriously, "I'm looking for a doctor named Xuanren now."
"But he was put in jail for committing some crimes a while ago."
"So I want to find out which prison he is in."
"Xuanren?" Fengmo raised his eyebrows.
"Hmm?" Ogata asked doubtfully, "Master Fuma, do you know him?"
"No, but I've heard of him."
"Xuanren, his master Xuanzheng, and his senior brother Xuanzhi are considered the most special doctors in Kyoto."
"They are the only three doctors in Kyoto who know Nanman medicine."
"They are the only three who are both Chinese and Orchid medicine doctors."
"I know that Hyun Jung and Hyun Jik of these three people disappeared a long time ago, but I didn't expect that Hyun In has also been arrested and imprisoned for committing a crime..."
Feng Mo smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's really fate that plays tricks on me..."
After hearing Feng Mo's words, Lin and his group all showed surprise on their faces.
"Master Fuma." Lin stopped blowing the hot tea in the cup to cool it down and asked Fuma urgently, "Are these three the only people in Kyoto who know the Southern Barbarian medical skills?"
"Yes." Feng Mo nodded. "There are very few channels to learn Nanman medicine, so there are very few doctors who know Nanman medicine. In the whole capital, there are only three of them who are both Chinese and Lan medicine doctors."
"...To be honest." A faint smile appeared in Lin's eyes, "Master Feng Mo, I came to you this time because I have some questions to ask you."
"The question we want to ask you is - which doctors in Kyoto know Nanman medicine?"
"Now it seems——there is no need to ask this question."
"...It seems." Ogata chuckled a few times, and then said in a joking tone, "The clues of our two groups have come to the same place."
Ogata had no idea what clues Huluya had about the master and apprentice.
But now he knew that the clues he and Huluwu held led to the same source.
Like Lin and the others, Ogata already knew about the existence of Xuanren who had been arrested and imprisoned.
"...It seems that it is true." After responding to Ogata in a calm tone, Lin asked Fuuma, "Master Fuuma, can you find out which prison Xuanren is imprisoned in?"
"It's a small matter." Feng Mo smiled slightly, "I haven't lived in Kyoto for nothing these decades. I have quite a few connections in this land."
"I can still help you find out where Xuanren is being held."
“It just takes some time.”
"Give me three days."
"Come back to me in three days. Three days is enough for me to find out where Xuanren is being held."
Originally - both Ogata and Rin had prepared for the worst, for example: Fuma didn't know the location of the prison, or couldn't find out which prison Xuan Renbi was imprisoned in.
But now it seems that they were worrying too much.
Things went more smoothly than expected, and Ogata and Lin both breathed a sigh of relief.
After drinking the almost empty cup of hot tea in one breath, Ogata turned his head and said to Atachi beside him:
"A-machi, let's continue. With a little more effort, we can clean Fuma-sama's house."
"Yeah!" Atachi nodded vigorously, drank the tea in the cup, and then stood up with Ogata.
Just as Ogata and Atachi stood up, Lin, who was still blowing hard to cool the hot tea in the cup, suddenly said:
"Wait a moment, you two."
After Ogata and Omachi cast doubtful looks at her, Lin cautiously touched the tea with her lips to test the water temperature.
Looking at Lin who was timidly testing the water temperature, Ogata couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and thought to himself:
——This thing… turns out to be a cat’s tongue…
It was only now that Ogata noticed that Rin had been blowing on the tea to cool it down since she took it from Fuma's hand.
Everyone else had finished their tea, but Lin was still blowing...
After testing the temperature of the tea, Lin nodded gently and drank the tea in the cup.
After putting the teacup back on the table, Lin took out her sleeve sash and tied up the sleeves of her kimono with skillful techniques.
"We'll clean up with you."
Whether it was Ogata and Atachi, or Fuma and Asai who stayed with Lin, they all looked stunned at this moment.
"Lord Fengmo, don't look at me like that. After all, you are my elder. Helping elders is what I should do. Just think of it as a junior showing filial piety to you." Lin said casually.
"I just noticed that."
Lin turned her gaze to a patch of dirt on the living room wall.
"Some of the dirt here can't be washed away with just water."
"So I just asked Makimura and Shimada to buy cleaning tools and chemicals."
Hearing Lin's words, Xu understood and said:
"So you were whispering in Makimura and Shimada's ears just now, asking them to buy cleaning tools and medicine..."
"Mucun worked in Kyoto for many years and is very familiar with Kyoto. It would be most appropriate for him to go shopping." Lin said softly, "They should be back soon."
As soon as Lin finished speaking, noisy footsteps were heard at the gate of the mansion.
With a look of intense anxiety on his face, Shimada, holding a bunch of new cleaning tools and chemicals, hurriedly ran along the corridor to the entrance of the living room and appeared in everyone's sight.
"You're back." Lin nodded with a faint smile on her face.
Just when Lin was about to praise Makimura and Shimada for their quick action, Lin suddenly noticed that Makimura was nowhere to be seen...
Just when Lin was about to ask Shimada why he didn't see Makimura -
"My lord! It's bad! Senior Mucun has been captured by the government!"
Lin:Σ(°Д°;)“Huh?!!”
Lin, who always had very little expression, now had her eyes wide open, and it looked like her eyeballs would fall out of their sockets at any time.
…
…
Not long ago—
“…I feel a little disappointed.”
Shimada and Makimura were holding the cleaning tools and special dirt-removing chemicals that Lin had just asked them to buy.
"Why do you say that?"
While accompanying Makimura to the nearby market to buy things, Shimada kept looking around.
No...it should be said that since entering Kyoto, I have been looking at the surrounding scenery.
After buying everything with Makimura and returning to Fuma's mansion, Shimada suddenly said, "I feel a little disappointed."
After hearing Makimura ask him why, Shimada responded:
"I originally thought that Kyoto, as one of the three major capitals of our country, must be a metropolis that is as prosperous as Edo. I didn't expect that..."
Shimada didn't finish his words.
But even though he didn't finish his words, Makimura understood what he meant.
“…There is nothing we can do about it.”
Makimura said softly.
"The fire that broke out two years ago caused great damage to Kyoto. It seriously damaged the city's vitality."
"In recent years, the shogunate's finances have been quite difficult, and there is no surplus money to be allocated for the reconstruction of Kyoto, so the reconstruction of Kyoto has been quite slow."
"I don't know how many years it will take for Kyoto to return to the state it was in before the Tenmei Fire..."
Before Mucun could finish his sigh, the sudden cry of a child not far away attracted his attention, causing him to stop talking.
Mucun looked in the direction of the sound and saw a little girl, probably about 7 or 8 years old, crying loudly.
Surrounding the little girl were six young men dressed in shabby clothes.
The exposed skin of these six young men is covered with various tattoos, and it is not difficult to tell that these six people are Yakuza.
One of the six young men held a piece of konpeito in his hand and raised it high.
The little girl surrounded by the six young men jumped up and cried, trying hard to reach the candy in the young man's hand.
But because of her height, the little girl was destined to never be able to get the candy no matter how hard she tried.
The sight of the little girl crying and trying to reach the candy seemed extremely funny to the six ruffian youths, who kept laughing.
There were quite a few passers-by passing by.
Seeing this scene, many passers-by looked angry.
But after seeing the number of young people in this group, there was a bit of fear in the anger on his face.
After struggling for a while, he finally chose to pretend he saw nothing and hurriedly walked past the six young men and the little girl who was being bullied.
Even though no one explained to them what had happened, Makimura and Shimada were able to infer the cause of the incident from the scenes presented before them.
"...Shimada, did you see that?" Makimura sneered, "The Yakuza are such disgusting creatures."
"What they are best at is bullying ordinary people."
"For fun, they would even do something like snatching candy from children."
As soon as Makimura finished speaking, Shimada nodded vigorously as if he agreed with what he said.
Just as Shimada opened his mouth to say something to Makimura, he suddenly felt the weight of the pile of things in his arms suddenly increased a lot - Makimura stuffed all the cleaning tools and medicines that he was originally responsible for into his arms.
Then, Mucun strode towards the six young men without any hesitation.
"Hey, you six bastards, give the candy back to that girl!"
Mucun's loud shout instantly attracted the attention of the six young men.
When the six young men turned around and saw Mucun's tall and extremely strong figure, they swallowed uncontrollably out of shock and fear.
But the confidence and courage brought to them by the absolute numerical advantage of 6 to 1 quickly helped them to make up for this fear.
"Huh?" The young man holding the candy in his hand spoke first, "What does it have to do with you..."
From the beginning, Mucun didn't think that he could make the six people return the candy to the little girl with simple words.
