No matter how many soldiers and horses you have, it won’t work.
The gunpowder smoke cleared, and inside the inn, people lay scattered in all directions.
The first arriving constables barely glanced inside, thinking they were all corpses, and immediately dared not enter.
“Is anyone alive? Is there anyone still breathing?”
“Yes! Save us, officer!”
Voices gradually responded from inside the inn, with the innkeeper being the first to tumble and crawl out.
In his haste, he tripped over the threshold, cracking his head open.
The constables recoiled in disgust, asking the attendant who followed, “What exactly happened?”
The attendant, still gasping for breath and unsettled, glanced outside instinctively. He had just seen that guest leave, how could he disappear in the blink of an eye?
Remembering the other two who came with that guest were still upstairs, the attendant swallowed hard and quickly said, “Officer, it was these villains… no, no, the jianghu bandits making trouble, fighting among themselves, then somehow causing destruction. It was a blur of chaos, just like in the stories told in tea houses! Throwing all sorts of things like locust stones and iron lotus seeds, look, there are even some hidden weapons stuck in the doorframe!”
The constables looked in the direction the attendant pointed.
Indeed, they were there!
The lead constable waved his hand, and someone immediately pulled out a cloth, trying to carefully remove the hidden weapon from the doorframe with the cloth. But the weapon was lodged too deeply, and pulling on it didn’t budge it, forcing the person to brace against the doorframe and pull with all his might.
The inn attendant was shocked; it was terrifying.
If that had hit someone, wouldn’t it have become the penetrating nail the storytellers talked about?
The more he thought, the more frightened he became, drenched in cold sweat. Just earlier, he and the innkeeper were downstairs, where a careless move could have led to accidental injury, literally walking a round in front of the King of Hell’s palace!
“What are you standing around for, keep talking!” the leading constable barked.
The attendant nodded hastily, and just then, the imperial guards came riding over, and the attendant raised his voice, “It was just a group of people wanting to stay at the inn, but there weren’t enough rooms, and somehow these people started fighting, swinging weapons and throwing hidden weapons. I was scared out of my wits, huddled under a wooden cabinet, only hearing a bang like thunder, and my ears are still ringing!”
The officials from the Taijing Prefecture didn’t doubt too much.
They knew that the Shenhuo Bureau outside the city, which manufactured fireworks and gunpowder, had accidents every couple of years, either killing three or five people, and the worst time, nearly half of the site was blown away.
These incidents were unknown to the citizens of Taijing, who thought it was thunder, or the Jingji camp firing cannons.
But the constables had only heard rumors and never seen such tragic scenes themselves, nor had they been on a battlefield. At most, they had seen a few people injured by firecrackers. Glancing inside the inn and seeing people scattered about, they assumed these people had met their own violent ends.
“Alright, take the people away…”
“Wait!”
The arriving imperial guards quickly noticed something amiss.
The smell of gunpowder was stronger in the street and fainter inside the inn, clearly indicating the explosion happened outside.
“Did anyone go outside?”
The inn attendant could only repeat the storyteller’s tales, the innkeeper had knocked his head and was dazed, clueless. People inside the inn, either afraid of the officials or loathing those troublemakers, hid in their rooms and didn’t go out.
“Forget it, take these people away!” the squad leader of the imperial guards said impatiently.
“But what if there are fugitives…”
“Are you able to withstand gunpowder, or can my brothers block hidden weapons?”
After the small leader of the imperial guards finished speaking, he left, leaving a group of constables grumbling as they moved the unconscious troublemakers inside the inn.
“Take them all back, lock them up in the jail!”
“But… the jail at the prefecture is already full!”
The lead constable glared, “If it’s full, squeeze them in, what about it? We’re not running an inn here, guaranteeing each one a spacious bed? We don’t care about feeding them; what, with all these jianghu bandits, heroes, and good fellows, starving for three days won’t kill them.”
Everyone meekly agreed, and they commandeered two flatbed carts from a shop to transport goods.
Then they lifted the people onto the carts, not caring whose foot pressed on whose head, stacking them up like corpses.
The inn attendant watched them leave, hurriedly got up, and ran to the back kitchen to check on the others in the inn, only to be urged back to look after the innkeeper.
The innkeeper was lying face down, his head bloodied.
“This is serious, where can we find a doctor?” Everyone was in a panic.
“Make way.”
Startled by the voice, the attendant looked up to find it was Mo Li.
The attendant, rubbing his eyes in shock, wondered where this person had been hiding. How did he come down from upstairs again?
At this moment on the second floor, Lu Min stood by the window, disbelieving that the imperial guards and the people from the Taijing Prefecture just left like that! The search in Peony Square was meticulous, not to mention his experience of nearly being blasted to bits by the imperial guards’ cannons while hiding in the palace.
Impossible! Master Meng and Doctor Mo’s martial arts were clear, but these people didn’t know of the imperial teacher’s existence, so why did they just leave?
Lu Min didn’t realize he looked utterly foolish at the moment, puzzled because he hadn’t been caught. Not only was his face full of confusion, he looked no different from the attendants who ran errands for the merchants with their bald head, old clothes, and hairless chin.
This was also why Meng Qi and the others only took two upper rooms without arousing any suspicion from the innkeeper.
Normally, attendants would just stay in the cheapest rooms, and in situations where there weren’t enough rooms and the master didn’t want to spend extra money, they had to make do and sleep on the floor.
As for Meng Qi and another person, even though they wore old clothes, the hands they extended were not those of someone who did heavy labor.
Merchants wearing old clothes to avoid robbery was a common sight—because of the straw hats, the innkeeper didn’t see their faces.
The second prince was still muttering, and Meng Qi, tired of listening, waved his hand, and Lu Min could no longer speak.
Lu Min tried to speak for a while before he sulkily shut up.
“If you want to know why they made light of it, it’s simple, there’s no profit in it, yet it’s dangerous,” Meng Qi couldn’t help but explain more upon seeing the second prince’s dumbfounded look.
Master Meng inwardly criticized, how did such a fool grow up in the palace?
The crown prince of the Qi dynasty really had it tough!
“On normal days, they could squeeze oil out of a stone, but now, seeing the innkeeper injured and the chaos everywhere in the capital, they can’t be bothered. With the city gates closed, they couldn’t even flee after making a quick buck…”
Meng Qi paused, muttering to himself, “However, the reaction of the imperial guards is indeed strange.”
The thunderclaps of the Thunder Hall are expressly forbidden by the court, and with the rebellion, it was unexpected for the imperial guards to let this slide.
Even as clever as Meng Qi was, he couldn’t immediately figure out the issue was with the Nanzhen Fusi.
The Jinyiwei and the imperial guards had started fighting, and the imperial guards who were searching the city were called back one after another. This squad of imperial guards came over after hearing the explosion on their way to Nanzhen Fusi.
“Seems like there’s been trouble,” Meng Qi said as he effortlessly carried Lu Min and flipped out of the window.
They couldn’t stay in this inn any longer.
Better wait outside for the doctor.
Meanwhile, Mo Li looked at the innkeeper’s wound, immediately had clean cloth fetched for bandaging, stating it wasn’t serious but required rest. It would be best not to move for the next month to prevent dizziness or any aftereffects.
The woman was extremely grateful, asking the attendant to fetch money.
Mo Li had to refuse; after all, it was an accident, and the innkeeper was just as unlucky.
“If it weren’t for you today, who knows how bad it could have been, how many might have died,” the innkeeper’s wife couldn’t stop her tears.
By this time, people from the second floor of the inn began to come out.
Seeing Mo Li’s appearance, most also felt that this doctor was not a bad person.
Whether they were jianghu bandits or young heroes, those who brawled in inns and restaurants and remembered to compensate were rare.
This time, nothing in the inn was damaged, and no one was injured. Those who had been traveling for years knew how fortunate this was.
So, they came over to express their thanks one after another.
Mo Li was somewhat surprised.
He had thought these people would continue hiding in their rooms, not showing themselves until he had left.
Avoiding calamity and seeking refuge is a natural human instinct.
“This gentleman, I was with my family, and I really dared not provoke those villains, so…”
A scholar stepped forward first, apologizing with a bowed fist.
Following him were several merchants, all bearing a look of guilt yet curious about Mo Li’s identity.
“Sir, may I ask where you are from and what has detained you in Taijing?” An elderly man asked with clasped hands, “I am of humble origins, not a native of Taijing, but I run a small carriage business in Qingzhou. I have some connections in Taijing and know some people from all walks of life. If sir has any difficulties, I will certainly assist.”
Had it been two days ago, Mo Li might have inquired with the elder about where to find a craftsman who makes silver needles, but now it was no longer necessary.
Mo Li declined their kindness and was about to leave when the elderly man suddenly followed him out and whispered, “The capital is not very peaceful right now. I know that near the Yiguang Gate in the inner city, there are several empty residences. The owners of these official residences are serving as officials in other places. If sir really has nowhere to go and possesses skills, why not temporarily stay there to avoid the officials?”
Mo Li was slightly taken aback and couldn’t help but scrutinize the elder.
The elder lowered his head in embarrassment, “I once knew a few ‘gentlemen on the beams’ and had thought about targeting those places. Now, it’s neither the festive season nor the time for out-of-town officials to enter the capital for their appointments. Those places should be quite safe.”
Mo Li was not worried this was a trap.
Or rather, unless an army of a hundred thousand from the northern border were to come, there wasn’t much of a trap that could ensnare him.
—If the ground were filled with gunpowder, it wouldn’t escape Meng Qi’s notice.
The elder’s tone was sincere, and his expression genuine, so there seemed to be no issue.
“Thank you, elder.”
Mo Li thanked him, and after he left, the inn attendant suddenly felt something heavy in his pocket. Upon checking, he was stunned to find several dozen copper coins had appeared.
Meng Qi waited at the end of the alley for a while before seeing Mo Li come out.
“How is it, was the innkeeper’s injury severe?”
Meng Qi lightly kicked the squatting, daydreaming Lu Min, who dejectedly stood up.
—Now they had to hide again, without even a bite to eat, only two plum blossom cakes to fill their stomachs, and the inn’s money was wasted.
After Mo Li relayed the elder’s suggestion, Meng Qi immediately nodded in agreement: “That’s a good idea. Right, last night I saw an empty general’s residence near Yiguang Gate. There were hardly any servants, dark and without lanterns, but the backyard had a rockery and a lotus pond… Let’s go there!”
Author’s note:
The imperial teacher passes by the dark general’s residence on a moonlit night.
The general’s residence owner, Liu Dan, returns the next day: ???
No matter how many soldiers and horses you have, it won’t work.
The gunpowder smoke cleared, and inside the inn, people lay scattered in all directions.
The first arriving constables barely glanced inside, thinking they were all corpses, and immediately dared not enter.
“Is anyone alive? Is there anyone still breathing?”
“Yes! Save us, officer!”
Voices gradually responded from inside the inn, with the innkeeper being the first to tumble and crawl out.
In his haste, he tripped over the threshold, cracking his head open.
The constables recoiled in disgust, asking the attendant who followed, “What exactly happened?”
The attendant, still gasping for breath and unsettled, glanced outside instinctively. He had just seen that guest leave, how could he disappear in the blink of an eye?
Remembering the other two who came with that guest were still upstairs, the attendant swallowed hard and quickly said, “Officer, it was these villains… no, no, the jianghu bandits making trouble, fighting among themselves, then somehow causing destruction. It was a blur of chaos, just like in the stories told in tea houses! Throwing all sorts of things like locust stones and iron lotus seeds, look, there are even some hidden weapons stuck in the doorframe!”
The constables looked in the direction the attendant pointed.
Indeed, they were there!
The lead constable waved his hand, and someone immediately pulled out a cloth, trying to carefully remove the hidden weapon from the doorframe with the cloth. But the weapon was lodged too deeply, and pulling on it didn’t budge it, forcing the person to brace against the doorframe and pull with all his might.
The inn attendant was shocked; it was terrifying.
If that had hit someone, wouldn’t it have become the penetrating nail the storytellers talked about?
The more he thought, the more frightened he became, drenched in cold sweat. Just earlier, he and the innkeeper were downstairs, where a careless move could have led to accidental injury, literally walking a round in front of the King of Hell’s palace!
“What are you standing around for, keep talking!” the leading constable barked.
The attendant nodded hastily, and just then, the imperial guards came riding over, and the attendant raised his voice, “It was just a group of people wanting to stay at the inn, but there weren’t enough rooms, and somehow these people started fighting, swinging weapons and throwing hidden weapons. I was scared out of my wits, huddled under a wooden cabinet, only hearing a bang like thunder, and my ears are still ringing!”
The officials from the Taijing Prefecture didn’t doubt too much.
They knew that the Shenhuo Bureau outside the city, which manufactured fireworks and gunpowder, had accidents every couple of years, either killing three or five people, and the worst time, nearly half of the site was blown away.
These incidents were unknown to the citizens of Taijing, who thought it was thunder, or the Jingji camp firing cannons.
But the constables had only heard rumors and never seen such tragic scenes themselves, nor had they been on a battlefield. At most, they had seen a few people injured by firecrackers. Glancing inside the inn and seeing people scattered about, they assumed these people had met their own violent ends.
“Alright, take the people away…”
“Wait!”
The arriving imperial guards quickly noticed something amiss.
The smell of gunpowder was stronger in the street and fainter inside the inn, clearly indicating the explosion happened outside.
“Did anyone go outside?”
The inn attendant could only repeat the storyteller’s tales, the innkeeper had knocked his head and was dazed, clueless. People inside the inn, either afraid of the officials or loathing those troublemakers, hid in their rooms and didn’t go out.
“Forget it, take these people away!” the squad leader of the imperial guards said impatiently.
“But what if there are fugitives…”
“Are you able to withstand gunpowder, or can my brothers block hidden weapons?”
After the small leader of the imperial guards finished speaking, he left, leaving a group of constables grumbling as they moved the unconscious troublemakers inside the inn.
“Take them all back, lock them up in the jail!”
“But… the jail at the prefecture is already full!”
The lead constable glared, “If it’s full, squeeze them in, what about it? We’re not running an inn here, guaranteeing each one a spacious bed? We don’t care about feeding them; what, with all these jianghu bandits, heroes, and good fellows, starving for three days won’t kill them.”
Everyone meekly agreed, and they commandeered two flatbed carts from a shop to transport goods.
Then they lifted the people onto the carts, not caring whose foot pressed on whose head, stacking them up like corpses.
The inn attendant watched them leave, hurriedly got up, and ran to the back kitchen to check on the others in the inn, only to be urged back to look after the innkeeper.
The innkeeper was lying face down, his head bloodied.
“This is serious, where can we find a doctor?” Everyone was in a panic.
“Make way.”
Startled by the voice, the attendant looked up to find it was Mo Li.
The attendant, rubbing his eyes in shock, wondered where this person had been hiding. How did he come down from upstairs again?
At this moment on the second floor, Lu Min stood by the window, disbelieving that the imperial guards and the people from the Taijing Prefecture just left like that! The search in Peony Square was meticulous, not to mention his experience of nearly being blasted to bits by the imperial guards’ cannons while hiding in the palace.
Impossible! Master Meng and Doctor Mo’s martial arts were clear, but these people didn’t know of the imperial teacher’s existence, so why did they just leave?
Lu Min didn’t realize he looked utterly foolish at the moment, puzzled because he hadn’t been caught. Not only was his face full of confusion, he looked no different from the attendants who ran errands for the merchants with their bald head, old clothes, and hairless chin.
This was also why Meng Qi and the others only took two upper rooms without arousing any suspicion from the innkeeper.
Normally, attendants would just stay in the cheapest rooms, and in situations where there weren’t enough rooms and the master didn’t want to spend extra money, they had to make do and sleep on the floor.
As for Meng Qi and another person, even though they wore old clothes, the hands they extended were not those of someone who did heavy labor.
Merchants wearing old clothes to avoid robbery was a common sight—because of the straw hats, the innkeeper didn’t see their faces.
The second prince was still muttering, and Meng Qi, tired of listening, waved his hand, and Lu Min could no longer speak.
Lu Min tried to speak for a while before he sulkily shut up.
“If you want to know why they made light of it, it’s simple, there’s no profit in it, yet it’s dangerous,” Meng Qi couldn’t help but explain more upon seeing the second prince’s dumbfounded look.
Master Meng inwardly criticized, how did such a fool grow up in the palace?
The crown prince of the Qi dynasty really had it tough!
“On normal days, they could squeeze oil out of a stone, but now, seeing the innkeeper injured and the chaos everywhere in the capital, they can’t be bothered. With the city gates closed, they couldn’t even flee after making a quick buck…”
Meng Qi paused, muttering to himself, “However, the reaction of the imperial guards is indeed strange.”
The thunderclaps of the Thunder Hall are expressly forbidden by the court, and with the rebellion, it was unexpected for the imperial guards to let this slide.
Even as clever as Meng Qi was, he couldn’t immediately figure out the issue was with the Nanzhen Fusi.
The Jinyiwei and the imperial guards had started fighting, and the imperial guards who were searching the city were called back one after another. This squad of imperial guards came over after hearing the explosion on their way to Nanzhen Fusi.
“Seems like there’s been trouble,” Meng Qi said as he effortlessly carried Lu Min and flipped out of the window.
They couldn’t stay in this inn any longer.
Better wait outside for the doctor.
Meanwhile, Mo Li looked at the innkeeper’s wound, immediately had clean cloth fetched for bandaging, stating it wasn’t serious but required rest. It would be best not to move for the next month to prevent dizziness or any aftereffects.
The woman was extremely grateful, asking the attendant to fetch money.
Mo Li had to refuse; after all, it was an accident, and the innkeeper was just as unlucky.
“If it weren’t for you today, who knows how bad it could have been, how many might have died,” the innkeeper’s wife couldn’t stop her tears.
By this time, people from the second floor of the inn began to come out.
Seeing Mo Li’s appearance, most also felt that this doctor was not a bad person.
Whether they were jianghu bandits or young heroes, those who brawled in inns and restaurants and remembered to compensate were rare.
This time, nothing in the inn was damaged, and no one was injured. Those who had been traveling for years knew how fortunate this was.
So, they came over to express their thanks one after another.
Mo Li was somewhat surprised.
He had thought these people would continue hiding in their rooms, not showing themselves until he had left.
Avoiding calamity and seeking refuge is a natural human instinct.
“This gentleman, I was with my family, and I really dared not provoke those villains, so…”
A scholar stepped forward first, apologizing with a bowed fist.
Following him were several merchants, all bearing a look of guilt yet curious about Mo Li’s identity.
“Sir, may I ask where you are from and what has detained you in Taijing?” An elderly man asked with clasped hands, “I am of humble origins, not a native of Taijing, but I run a small carriage business in Qingzhou. I have some connections in Taijing and know some people from all walks of life. If sir has any difficulties, I will certainly assist.”
Had it been two days ago, Mo Li might have inquired with the elder about where to find a craftsman who makes silver needles, but now it was no longer necessary.
Mo Li declined their kindness and was about to leave when the elderly man suddenly followed him out and whispered, “The capital is not very peaceful right now. I know that near the Yiguang Gate in the inner city, there are several empty residences. The owners of these official residences are serving as officials in other places. If sir really has nowhere to go and possesses skills, why not temporarily stay there to avoid the officials?”
Mo Li was slightly taken aback and couldn’t help but scrutinize the elder.
The elder lowered his head in embarrassment, “I once knew a few ‘gentlemen on the beams’ and had thought about targeting those places. Now, it’s neither the festive season nor the time for out-of-town officials to enter the capital for their appointments. Those places should be quite safe.”
Mo Li was not worried this was a trap.
Or rather, unless an army of a hundred thousand from the northern border were to come, there wasn’t much of a trap that could ensnare him.
—If the ground were filled with gunpowder, it wouldn’t escape Meng Qi’s notice.
The elder’s tone was sincere, and his expression genuine, so there seemed to be no issue.
“Thank you, elder.”
Mo Li thanked him, and after he left, the inn attendant suddenly felt something heavy in his pocket. Upon checking, he was stunned to find several dozen copper coins had appeared.
Meng Qi waited at the end of the alley for a while before seeing Mo Li come out.
“How is it, was the innkeeper’s injury severe?”
Meng Qi lightly kicked the squatting, daydreaming Lu Min, who dejectedly stood up.
—Now they had to hide again, without even a bite to eat, only two plum blossom cakes to fill their stomachs, and the inn’s money was wasted.
After Mo Li relayed the elder’s suggestion, Meng Qi immediately nodded in agreement: “That’s a good idea. Right, last night I saw an empty general’s residence near Yiguang Gate. There were hardly any servants, dark and without lanterns, but the backyard had a rockery and a lotus pond… Let’s go there!”
Author’s note:
The imperial teacher passes by the dark general’s residence on a moonlit night.
The general’s residence owner, Liu Dan, returns the next day: ???
