No matter how far the road is, it has an end, not to mention that the fishing boat docked not far from Pingting. Along the way, we ate various delicacies, enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the mountains and rivers, and remembered all kinds of interesting things.
Five days passed in a blink of an eye.
Pingting, the largest city in the south of the Yangtze River, has also arrived.
Standing outside the city gate, Linglong looked at this ordinary city except that it was a little taller. She was a little curious and asked, "Is this Pingting? It seems that the security is good, and it is not as scary as recorded."
"The news recorded by the Lingya Guards states that there is no littering on Pingting Road. During the day, people are happy and friendly with their neighbors." Lu Ming shook his head, "But in reality, this city has developed new rules of survival. Under the whiteness,
, it’s all dirt, people here have learned to cheat.”
"If these rumors are true, then I understand a little bit that Wei Shengyan is a liar. It is indeed difficult to grow up normally if you grow up in this kind of environment without two distractions."
Linglong nodded slightly, agreeing. She was not the little girl who just left the mountain village, so she naturally understood that people's hearts are sinister and changeable.
At the city gate, an old man in brocade clothes held a portrait in his hand and looked for contrasting figures among the people passing by on the Chi Road. With a dazzling eye, he finally saw the man and woman looking at each other outside, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
, after careful comparison there are no errors.
The old man trotted towards the two of them, stood in front of them, bowed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, Lord God."
Lu Ming asked the old man who suddenly rushed over: "Are you from the Weisheng family?"
"Your Majesty, you have good eyesight. My master asked me to wait for you two at the city gate to welcome the two distinguished guests." The old butler crouched with a friendly smile. Lu Ming looked at it and felt that this action seemed to be similar to Wei Shengyan's.
The movements are somewhat similar, and I secretly sigh that they are indeed a family.
Pingting is no different from other places. When strangers come here, it is easy to attract attention. It is considered good to be deceived into penniless by some pitiful tricks among individuals.
You might even get pinched from your waist.
Lu Ming saw this from the information collected by Ling Yawei. He didn't know whether it was true or not. He was a little curious at the moment. After all, along the way in the Jiangnan area, the people he met were quite friendly, like Pingting.
The rumors are really just seen in the news.
Directly rejecting the old housekeeper's idea of taking the two of them directly to Wei Sheng's house, Lu Ming pulled Linglong towards the city gate, wanting to know for himself whether the stories here were true.
The old butler was speechless and silently followed the two of them, keeping a certain distance, because he knew that people's curiosity often dies out quickly, and this young king was no exception.
**********
After showing the directions and walking into the city gate, there are three intersections, one leads directly to the Pingjiang Marquis Mansion in the center, and the other two lead to other city gates at the end. Of course, there are other winding routes in the middle.
The street is still a bustling scene, with vendors holding cattail fans to fan the cool breeze while drinking steaming steamed buns that are soft and delicious. Next to them, there are clothing shops with several pieces of fine cloth outside, and colorful flower shops...
Food, drink, entertainment, basic necessities, housing and transportation are almost all covered in one street. Pedestrians on the street are all smiling, showing that their families are well-off and living a good life every day.
Prosperity seems to be the first impression this city gives people.
Linglong stopped outside a shop, which was an osmanthus cake shop. The food she ate along the way was much more ordinary, but her favorite was the osmanthus cake, which was soft and glutinous. It melted immediately when she took her mouth, leaving a fragrant fragrance.
I don’t know if the sweet-scented osmanthus cake will be different here in the largest city in the south of the Yangtze River.
Linglong stood on tiptoes, looking forward to it.
"Sister, let's buy a bouquet of flowers." A child who looked like seven or eight years old walked up to Linglong, grabbed her dress, and said timidly.
She knelt down and sniffed her nose gently. A refreshing fragrance hit her nostrils. There was faint dew on the petals. They must have been collected just in the morning. Linglong touched her waist and realized that she didn't have the habit of carrying money, so she reached out to the little girl to be intimate.
The dirt on his face, he said.
"My sister didn't bring any money, but you can wait a moment. When my brother comes out, I'll let him buy it."
"Well, let's forget it~"
The little girl seemed to be a little shy by the sudden brushing of her sister's face in front of her. She lowered her head shyly and held the flower basket in both hands. Linglong felt even more distressed and reached out to rub the little girl's hair.
It's really pitiful that someone at such a young age is selling flowers to make money.
"Sister, you are so beautiful. Let me give you one as a gift. It's free of charge." The little girl suddenly raised her head and said to her.
"Sister, I can't take advantage of you, just wait a while." Linglong scratched the bridge of the little girl's nose and said with a smile.
The little girl said nothing. She held the flower basket in one hand and carefully fiddled with the flowers with the other. After a while, she picked out the best blooming flower, picked it up and stuffed it into Linglong's hand, and then ran away.
Linglong was holding the flowers and just about to call out, she found that the little girl had been lifted up and her eyes were filled with tears. She looked over, full of pleading.
"Lu Ming, put me down quickly. These are just ordinary flowers. There is nothing wrong with them."
Passing the food box to Linglong, Lu Ming took out a silver coin from his arms and stuffed it into the girl's flower basket in the girl's frightened eyes. When he reached back, he picked up a pendant from the basket and then put the girl down.
.
The little girl touched the ground with her feet, grabbed the silver coins and ran away, leaving the flower basket on the ground.
Lu Ming put the pendant on Linglong, stretched out his hand across the fragmented crystal, and couldn't help but said: "You also said that this is your mother's thing, you should always keep it with you, you don't even know when it disappeared?"
"I...didn't I know that the children here are so good at lying." Linglong was confused. She almost lost the only thing her mother left for her by accident.
Only at this moment did she understand that the city of Pingting was not as harmonious as it seemed.
"But since you know that the child is a thief, why do you still want to give her money?" After coming back to her senses, Linglong couldn't help but ask.
"The old housekeeper of Weishengyan said that the girl's grandfather was seriously ill and needed money to buy medicine. In the city of Pingting, apart from cheating and cheating people and making real money, no one would care about being pitiful. People
I won’t pity her just because she is young..."
Sighing, Lu Ming picked up the flower basket that fell on the ground and handed it to Linglong, "No matter what, the flowers in this basket are real. As you said, there is nothing wrong with the flowers."
The old housekeeper once said that Pingting's rule of survival is not to trust anyone, including children and dogs.
Perhaps, if you think about it from another angle, it is the environment that allows children and dogs to adapt to survive. After all, they have no ability to change the environment.
But the Lord in charge of Suchuan seems to have this ability.
Inexplicably, Lu Ming felt as if there was an extra layer of responsibility on his shoulders.
After hearing the story, Linglong frowned, and subconsciously felt a flash of distress for the little girl. She opened her mouth to say something, but the old housekeeper quickly ran up from behind, carrying a bag of medicinal ingredients.
"In Pingting, except Mr. Hou, no one is more effective than Weisheng's brand."
The old housekeeper bowed slightly and said, "I have already made arrangements, so please rest assured."
The wealth of the Weisheng family is ranked among the highest in the entire Suchuan, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are the richest. Their businesses cover various industries, and the most concentrated one is in Pingting.
In this street, in this city, nine out of ten shops have a direct or indirect relationship with the Weisheng family. The only shop that has no relationship will definitely not be able to open its business for the next day.
Linglong put her mind down and You Zi angrily ate a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake.
Knowing that the girl had no intention of continuing shopping, Lu Ming motioned to the old housekeeper to lead the way.
The face of the old butler is already familiar to many shop owners on the streets of Pingting. After all, he is the butler of Wei Shengyan. As the saying goes, a good prime minister has a seventh-level official in front of his house. There is no barking dog in front of the house of a noble family.
The person in charge of most of Jiangnan's business life, even if he is just an old housekeeper in the family, his power will naturally not be that low.
When passing by the entire street, the owners of the nearby shops nodded to say hello. It was obvious that they were already very familiar with each other. Even pedestrians on the street would smile and say hello.
It seems...not as domineering as I remembered.
Lu Ming kept this strange phenomenon in mind and followed the old housekeeper. After a while, he arrived at Wei Sheng's house. There was no jade lion in front of the door, but he could see a long red curtain hanging from a distance.
, the word "happy" has overflowed throughout the mansion.
Weishengyan got married?
Suppressing their doubts, Lu Ming and Linglong followed the old housekeeper into the house. After entering, they made a lot of twists and turns before walking to the courtyard arranged by Wei Shengyan himself. The old housekeeper left immediately, saying that the head of the house would be back soon.
"Is Wei Shengyan married to sister Yinzhuang?"
Linglong asked.
"I guess we found out last time on Wei Shengyan's fishing boat. They have an engagement after all. It has been almost two months since the Yin sisters arrived here. They are familiar with almost everything they should be familiar with. Travel engagements are also normal.
." Lu Ming nodded lightly.
Linglong held on and thought for a while, "When you said that, I remembered that last time you seemed to have told Wei Shengyan that Yin Zhuang might have awakened the power of the Yin family and be able to see through other people's thoughts."
"So, Sister Yinzhuang is confident that she can take down the old fox Wei Shengyan?"
Lu Ming shook his head. He just wanted to plant a thorn in Wei Shengyan's heart last time. He originally thought it would be effective. However, this time he went south to see the prosperity of the entire Jiangnan and learned about Pingting's business environment.
But I already feel that it probably won’t have any effect.
A person who can start from scratch and build such a family business in decades, even though he has the support of Zhu Xi, is definitely extremely smart, but his belief cannot be shaken by just meeting him once and imprinting a few words on him.
The person Wei Shengyan believes in most is himself.
The two chatted in the courtyard. At the end of the corridor, there was a pavilion. There was a plate of fish food on the marble table. When the fish food was sprinkled, the koi under the pavilion jumped out of the water one after another.
, it is obvious that people often feed the fish and develop the habit of the fish, which causes such a scene.
After a while, the fish food on the plate had reached the bottom, and the sound of trotting footsteps could be heard outside the courtyard. Wei Shengyan, dressed in rich clothes, walked in with a smile on his face, and bowed very respectfully in front of the two of them.
"I should have gone to the city gate in person to greet you, but things are so busy. Wei Sheng Yan asks your Majesty and God to forgive me."
"Why didn't you call yourself a villain this time?" Linglong said jokingly. This old thief used to be a ship owner and behaved like a villain. If he didn't know his identity, who would have thought that he would be the richest man in Suchuan.
Where is Pingjiang Hou's money bag?
Wei Shengyan had a smile on his face, "The Lord of God was joking. Wei Shengyan didn't deliberately hide it from the two of you at the beginning. It was just the circumstances and he was forced to do so."
Lu Ming looked at the red stickers on the windows and the concierge and asked, "When did it happen?"
"The third day of next month is an auspicious day. I hope your Lord and God will bless me and Yinzhuang." Wei Shengyan said, with a smile that couldn't be hidden at the corner of his mouth.
He was indeed very attracted to that person. Although Yin Xiao didn't have much of a good face, he believed that time would smooth everything out.
"Giving blessings for marriage is a big deal, but I just issued an edict to confer marriage on someone. You have done a great job by going all the way to ask Wuyuan to send me messages and gifts. There is nothing wrong with issuing an extra edict.
OK."
When the conversation changed, Lu Ming stood up and looked at the central building in the distance and continued: "I have three things that I need you to answer one by one."
"Whenever your Majesty asks, Wei Sheng Inkstone will definitely tell you everything he knows, and he will tell you everything!" Wei Sheng Inkstone glanced at Lu Ming and put it down, then cupped his hands with a smile on his lips.
"First, regarding Pingjiang Marquis Zhuxi, you have to give me a plan for what to do next."
Frowning slightly for a moment, Wei Shengyan immediately replied: "Pingjiang Marquis has four sons. Since he was trapped in Zhaodu, the eldest son Zhu Zheng is now in power. The second son and the third son both have some ideas about the power of the Marquis Mansion. Jun
Shang Ke stood behind him and divided the different interests, letting them kill each other, and then let Zhu Xi's youngest son take over and smoothly accept his power."
Lu Ming turned his back to Wei Sheng Inkstone so that he could not see his expression, and continued: "Two, what was the truth seventeen years ago?"
Wei Shengyan lowered his head and did not answer immediately. He looked to the side and Linglong touched the pendant on his neck with a calm expression, as if he had not noticed her eyes.
Wei Shengyan then said: "Seventeen years ago, Pingjiang Hou Zhuxi got some ancient books from nowhere, which recorded the method of artificially creating a god master: using the monsters in the ruins as the source of the body's bloodline, and adding
A girl’s body…”
Wei Shengyan lowered his head slightly, "Your Majesty will know what happened next. The experiment failed. Pingjiang Marquis used the excuse of a plague outbreak in Pingting and killed hundreds of thousands of 'monsters' with his own hands... But after all, there were many, so,
It is inevitable that there will be some omissions..."
Linglong's mother, according to Huo Tu Xin, went to Zhihuo seventeen years ago.
Linglong looked at Wei Shengyan coldly: "You are lying!"
Wei Sheng Yan fell to his knees with a plop, "You deserve to die, you villain. You must have been involved in this. I am attached to Pingjiang Marquis and cannot stay out of it."
"Here comes the villain again?" Linglong smiled disdainfully.
Wei Sheng Yan kowtowed and remained silent.
"One last thing, about this painting." Lu Ming took out the blank scroll with no portrait on it from his arms and placed it on the stone table.
Wei Shengyan stretched out his hand and unfolded the scroll until he could see everything clearly. He unconsciously held his breath. In the quiet atmosphere, he stayed for a long time before closing the scroll.
He looked up at the young Junshang, with an inexplicable meaning in his eyes, and said softly: "That is the person Shenzong is looking for."
"I have been looking for the person for five hundred years."