Jiang Kai-shek deftly scooped a bowl of noodles for the Japanese man. Before she could add any seasoning, a clear voice said, "Sister Ning, give this little brother a bowl first. Add more chili oil. This little brother's stomach is about to shrivel from hunger."
Eldest Miss Jiang knew who it was as soon as she heard the voice. She didn't even raise her head as she coquettishly said, "You stinky brat. It's not like you'll starve to death if you eat later. Why do you have to come when there are so many people? Are you a hungry ghost reincarnated or something?"
Although she said that, she still put an extra chopstick of Pasta into the bowl, ordered some chopped green onions and chives, and drizzled a few drops of chili oil made from cornel. She stole a glance to see that her mother, who was burning the fire under the stove, wasn't paying attention. She quickly took out a small gourd from her blue apron, pulled out the stopper, and flicked some pepper into it.
Pepper was still a relatively rare item at this time, and it was also relatively expensive. Not everyone could enjoy it at the street food stalls, and the Japanese man beside her was extremely envious.
Pasta and Maqiao were the first two people Yang Fan met when he came to Luoyang. He settled in Luoyang, bought a house, bought land, and recruited workers. It was all thanks to these two people that Yang Fan had the best relationship with. Pasta loved him as if he were his own little brother. Yang Fan could vaguely see some of his deceased sister's charm in Pasta, and he sincerely treated her as his own sister.
Pasta quickly finished the process of secretly adding pepper. Seeing that his mother was immersed in adding firewood and didn't notice his little action, he playfully stuck out his tongue at Yang Fan and pushed the big bowl over. Yang Fan took the big bowl and thanked Jiang Kai-shek. He slammed the three coins on the table and shouted, "Three coins!"
Her pretty face tensed up and she glared at him reproachfully.
Yang Fan's salary as a shopkeeper was limited. As a single man, there was no one to take care of him, and he didn't have a plan to spend his money, so his life was even more difficult. Therefore, Jiang Xuning usually took good care of him. Yang Fan could manage three meals a day, and he often came to her stall to eat noodles. As long as his mother wasn't paying attention, Jiang Xuning wouldn't take his money.
Yang Fan didn't treat Pasta as an outsider. He gladly accepted his sister's kind intentions. But it was only recently that he learned from Maqiao that the reason Sister Ning worked so hard every morning to make snacks was to save for her dowry.
During the Tang Dynasty, the dowry of a woman's bride was very heavy. It was difficult for a poor girl to get married, no matter how beautiful she was. Unless she married a poor mountain man, if the dowry was too small, her husband's family would despise her and make things difficult for her.
Ever since Sister Ning's father passed away, the mother and daughter had been living off the mountain. Her family's circumstances weren't good. She was going to get married at the end of this year. Her husband's family was the Liu family of Yongkang Lane. Although they didn't have an official title, they were still a family of scholars.
The mother and daughter were afraid that their husband's family would look down on them if the dowry was too small, so they started to make money from the snack business three years ago. It was all so that she could have a decent dowry when she got married. It wasn't easy to run a small business, so how could Yang Fan take advantage of her? He purposely said it out loud to attract Jiang Xuning's mother's attention, so that Pasta sister wouldn't refuse.
Yang Fan understood his sister's good intentions, so he smiled apologetically at Jiang Xuning. Only then did he pick up the bowl of fragrant and hot Pasta soup, walk to a tree, and sit on a rock to eat noodles.
There were many rocks under the tree. The snack stall didn't have a place to eat, so the people who ate the noodles all held their bowls and ate casually. The people who ate the noodles were all neighbors. As they ate, they would chat about the mountains and the north. Yang Fan didn't speak much, but he listened attentively. He was a very good listener. In the past, Curly Beard's grandson, Zhang Kuo, broke into the Governor's Office in a rage and took the head of the Guangzhou Governor, Lu Yuanrui. He then left with his sword and went out to sea on a boat. He was famous for a while and became one of the famous wanderers in the history of the Tang dynasty. However, no one knew his name. The history books of later generations recorded this matter, but they all referred to him as Kunlun.
Zhang Kuo came and went without a trace. He seemed to be free and easy, but he was pestered by a little beggar, Yang Fan. Although Zhang Kuo was arrogant and straightforward, he valued his reputation the most in his life. He didn't want to harm the kid's life because of his own matters, so he could only bring him to Nanyang. Yang Fan lived in Nanyang for many years, learning martial arts from his master. When he made some progress, he couldn't wait to say goodbye to his master and return to the Tang dynasty.
After Yang Fan returned to the Tang dynasty, he first went to Guangzhou Prefecture and found a few petty officials who worked in the Governor's Office of Guangzhou. Unfortunately, the identity of Aunt Pei was too mysterious. Although the day when the Military Governor Of A Circuit personally sent Aunt Pei out of the mansion was the day his head was taken by Kunlun, some people still remembered this woman, but they didn't know her identity.
Yang Fan had no choice but to give up looking for Niuniu and went to Shaozhou Prefecture.
His little sister lived in a wealthy family and didn't have to worry about food and clothing. Although she was a servant, Aunt Pei and her son didn't look like masters who treated their servants coldly. He expected that she would be safe for the time being. He couldn't find her for the time being, but he didn't have any worries because he still had another thing to do. The blood debt of the village that happened in the second year of Yong Chun!
The only clue he had about what happened that year was the appearance of the cruel official who stood on a high slope and coldly gave the order to slaughter the village. The man with deep wrinkles, sunken eyes, and an aquiline nose.
In Shaozhou, he still didn't gain anything. In these years, the various forces in the imperial court had been fighting against each other. Sometimes they lost power, sometimes they gained power. There were too many officials who lost their positions and even lost their lives. The Provincial Governor of Shaozhou who issued the announcement that a plague had broken out in Huanshan Village was implicated in Xu Jingye's rebellion and was beheaded.
At that time, the Chief Judge of Shaozhou Prefecture was implicated and returned to his hometown. Yang Fan chased after the Chief Judge to his hometown, but the Chief Judge knew nothing about the inside story of this matter. The only news he knew was that those people came from Luoyang and their background was so great that the Provincial Governor had no choice but to clean up after them. Even though he knew that the victims of the Huanshan Village murder case were all slaughtered, he could only use the outbreak of a plague to cover it up and didn't dare to report the truth to the imperial court.
As for the origin of the eleven surnames in Huanshan Village, Yang Fan's family never mentioned it to him when he was young. He also didn't doubt it. He had never left his small village, so he didn't feel that his village was different from other mountain villages. He always thought that he was just an ordinary mountain villager.
However, after he grew up and experienced a lot, Yang Fan gradually realized that the small mountain village he grew up in did have many suspicious points. It wasn't only because of the sudden massacre of the village, but also because of the many differences between the villagers he grew up in and the ordinary villagers.
There seemed to be too many secrets buried in that nameless valley. His parents, his neighbors, everyone's origins were shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately, it seemed that the household registration of every elder in the village had been tampered with. Yang Fan couldn't find out their earlier origins based on the household registration materials. Their identities, origins, and even their names were all fake.
The acceptance of them was handled by the Provincial Governor back then. Even the Chief Judge that Yang Fan found didn't know the details. It was strange that the Provincial Governor had to personally handle the resettlement of more than ten households of villagers. He didn't even dare to ask others to do it.
However, the people in the officialdom believed that it was better to avoid trouble, so no one took the initiative to inquire about these things. Yang Fan learned almost nothing from the Chief Judge. The only useful thing was to find out the origin of the army from the Chief Judge. It was the Longwu Army, the only all-cavalry army in the Tang dynasty's imperial army.
Therefore, he came. He spent money to buy a household registration and moved into the Xiuwen Workshop where many officials of the imperial court lived, becoming one of the workers. In the past six months, he had gotten used to his identity and the environment of Luoyang, but he still didn't get any results from the information he wanted to inquire about.
The one that left the deepest impression on him was the green-robed civil official, but the people he could come into contact with were limited, and the people he could come into contact with were not of high status. It was impossible for him to draw the unforgettable appearance of that official from memory and ask people all over the street. The more reliable clue to investigate was the army that he knew nothing about at the time, the Longwu Army.
For an army to be dispatched from the eastern capital, Luoyang, to travel thousands of miles to Shaozhou to massacre a village, there must be an important reason. There must be an ulterior motive, and there must be a high-ranking instigator behind it. But strangely, after more than six months of investigation, he still hadn't found a single clue. It was as if there had never been such a group of people who had done such a heartless thing.
He had once suspected that this bloody case was the work of the imperial court, but as he investigated step by step, this suspicion was gradually dispelled. There were no traces left, and any possible clues had been erased. With the boldness of the current imperial court's Empress Wu, she had killed so many princes of Li Tang's imperial family. Her entire family had been executed, and even the women and children had been slaughtered. She had never been bashful, so why did she need to cover it up?
These days, on one hand, he was investigating the government, on the other hand, he was investigating the people. There were many things about the officials that could not be found out from the government, but the common people knew in detail. Don't look at these common people's low status, some of them were servants in the rich and powerful families, some of them were guards of the houses of the officials, some of them had family members who worked as accountants in the rich and powerful families, and some of them had wives who worked as cooks or midwives in the rich and powerful families. Therefore, many things that outsiders could not know, could not be heard from others, but could be heard from their own mouths.
Xu Xiaojie, who was in a hurry, knocked his rice bowl twice and began to croak.
Xu Xiaojie was a "horse driver", and he had a donkey at home. Every day, he would bring the donkey to a bustling place or the city gate to wait. When someone hired his donkey, the hirer would ride on the donkey, or use his donkey to carry goods or luggage, and he would follow behind on foot. Thus, it was called a hurry.
Because the hurry came into contact with all kinds of customers every day and was experienced and knowledgeable, Xu Xiaojie would have some new stories to tell everyone every day. Every day, he would be the first to talk about what he had heard the day before. "Ahem! Yesterday, when I was in a hurry, I heard something interesting … "
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