Huo Jiang found Kong Songkang in a small village next door to Linzhou. He made a false road somewhere to lead out of Raozhou, and then ran to the next door Linzhou from a remote mountain road. When he arrived in Linzhou, he did not enter the city. , Instead, he hid in a small nearby village, gave a few taels of silver to a family of villagers, and lived in the villagers' home.

Huo Jiang's tracking ability is very good. Knowing that an old man like Kong Songkang must not be able to run very fast, he guessed that he would not dare to rent a car from a serious car dealership. After asking several villages and towns near Raozhou City, he found out that there is a family's carriage He was rented out and followed all the way to Linzhou.

When Huo Jiang found him, he was squatting in the villager's yard eating noodles in fear. When he saw Huo Jiang, he was just a little wary. He didn't know Huo Jiang, and seeing that Huo Jiang was not wearing an official uniform, he naturally didn't go anywhere else thought, just seeing strangers, was a little wary after all, until Huo Jiang came towards him, he felt something was wrong, and it was too late to run, when he was caught by Huo Jiang, he even tried to bribe the villagers with money, so that the villagers would help him. He trapped Huo Jiang so he could run away.

Huo Jiang's martial arts skills are so strong that if he blows away a villager, he frightens the others. Then he takes out a wanted warrant and tells the villagers that he is a felon who escaped from the imperial court. Only then did they remain silent, not daring to say anything, and watched Huo Jiang take him away.

On the way back, Kong Songkang didn't give up and escaped. He learned from Huo Jiangkou that he was just a guard hired by Xu Qinyu's side, and he wanted to buy him with money.

Huo Jiang was naturally not this kind of person, and he didn't talk to Kong Songkang.

On the way to send Kong Songkang back, he bumped into the officers and soldiers sent by the prefect. Huo Jiang was not at ease, and personally followed him back to the prefect's mansion in Raozhou City. He was interrogated by the prefect before he returned to the restaurant.

After returning to Raozhou City, it was already three days later, and it was already six days after the end of Xu Qinyu's cooking competition.

Seeing Huo Jiang coming back, she asked, "Huo Shouwei, did you catch him?"

Huo Jiang told the truth that the big stone in Xu Qinyu's heart finally fell to the ground.

However, she was still a little worried. If Kong Songkang bought those bandits for her life, not all of them would be dispatched. There must be quite a few of them. She is also living well in the prison of the prefect's mansion. don't know if someone will be sent to the restaurant to take revenge.

Except for the twenty guards in the restaurant, the rest are ordinary people, but apart from the female clerks, there are also dozens of male clerks. The restaurant also has self-defense weapons such as swords, but Xu Qinyu was still worried, so she said: "These days, I have to trouble Guard Huo and you to patrol at night to prevent the remaining bandits from coming over and hurting people."

Huo Jiang nodded, but did not tell the princess that he had sent a letter to His Royal Highness Feige, just to prevent the remaining bandits from coming to revenge.

Although His Highness has already been crowned king, most of them still like to call him His Highness in private on weekdays because of the humiliating title of King Li.

His Highness must have sent people to encircle and suppress the remaining bandits. Those bandits killed innocent people after taking money. They must have done a lot of crimes on weekdays.

After Huojiang went down, Xu Qinyu was in fear for two days. The prefect sent someone to spread the word, saying that Kong Songkang had recruited him, and he bribed the bandits to rob and kill Xu Qinyu halfway, and told Xu Qinyu that Kong Songkang's master back then His death was not an accident, but man-made, by Kong Songkang.

Kong Songkang was recruited in prison. He knew he couldn't escape, so he took all the responsibility on himself, saying that what he did had nothing to do with the children and grandchildren of the Kong family, and the children and grandchildren of the Kong family didn't know what he did.

He was already a little crazy in the prison, he laughed and asked the prefect, "What's wrong with me? I just want the Zuixian Tower to be famous all over the world, and I want the Zuixian Tower to be opened all over the country. I have managed to get here all my life. It took a lot of effort to make Zuixianlou a famous building in the southwest, and let everyone remember Zuixianlou. I finally got rid of my identity as a disaster victim, got rid of that poor identity, and finally got my current wealth. A little lady who is only eighteen or nineteen years old is about to ruin my life's hard work. I blame her for being too greedy. It doesn't matter if she just opens a small restaurant. Opening such a restaurant has robbed most of the Zuixianlou The flow of customers even came to participate in this cooking competition..."

"The leader should have been my son's position, and he should have won the first prize. If he wins the first prize, Zuixianlou will be famous all over the world, and our Confucian family's recipes will be carried forward, and I will be able to get what I want."

Ten years ago, his son was still too young to admit that he hadn't won the first prize, but ten years later, his son's cooking skills are quite good, and he is the person most likely to win the first prize this year. Lady, how could he swallow this breath.

If Mrs. Xu was not in Raozhou City, and her restaurant was not opened in Raozhou City, but in another state city, he might not have taken the risk.

It was hard for him to come here as a poor and helpless little pariah, so he naturally wanted a higher status and more wealth.

So whoever can't stop him, he knows that if Xu Qinyu wins the championship, there will be no place for Zuixianlou to survive, and he can no longer get what he wants, so he bribed those bandits to pretend to be robbers and kill Xu Qin on the way Jade.

No matter who stops him, he will kill the killer.

Just like his master back then.

The master is indeed his benefactor, but if the master wants him to learn the art until he is thirty years old, he should pass on the recipe as the heir of the master. The recipe is not surnamed Kong, and he will be only the apprentice and heir of the master for the rest of his life. When the master passes away , everything is over, he can no longer shake off the identity of the master's successor, so he created the accident, and waited until the master passed out before entering the room, and he was fully sure that the staff of the restaurant would come to find them, So people thought it was an accident, the master died, and he was the only descendant of the master, with no children, and everything the master had belonged to him.

He sold all his master's family property, came to Raozhou City, and finally got his own Zuixian Tower, and made the master's recipes his recipes.

He wanted to see the rise of Zuixianlou before he died, but he didn't expect to meet Xu Qinyu.

After Xu Qinyu finished listening, she was silent for a while and asked, "What will happen to Kong Songkang?"

The officers and soldiers told Xu Qinyu that Kong Songkang would be beheaded in public in three days.

On this day, Xu Qinyu didn't go to join in the fun. The restaurant was very busy. She knew that Kong Songkang would be beheaded for public display. She was not surprised. He had a life in his hand, so he still killed his teacher and wanted to pardon him and send him to work in the coal mine. Suffering is impossible, only a dead end.

After Kong Kangsong pleaded guilty, the rest of the Kong family were released.

Kong Kun and his wife, Mrs. Chen, have lost a lot of weight. Needless to say, the other children and grandchildren are all dirty and have dull eyes. They don't want to believe that this kind of thing will happen to their family.

They hated Kong Songkang because they knew what their fate would be when they waited.

This case soon spread in Raozhou City. All the people knew that Kong Songkang had paid for murder, murdered his mentor, and there were many discussions. They were all cursing Kong Songkang and Zuixianlou.

During the period when the Kong family was imprisoned, the Zuixian Tower was not open. After they were released, the Zuixian Tower was also closed. Sun Kun knew in his heart that the Zuixian Tower would never open again. Even the rest of the Kong family couldn't stay in Raozhou City.

On the day when Kong Songkang's beheading was displayed to the public, many people went to join in the fun, and only Sun Kun, the descendants of the Sun family, went to see his father off.

Kong Songkang was shaking violently before leaving. He didn't want to die. When he saw his son, he begged his son to save him, and asked Kong Kun to save him with all his wealth.

But how did Kong Kun save him?

Kong Kun watched his father's head fall to the ground. He collected Kong Songkang's body and buried him on a mountain outside the city. Then he sold all his belongings and left Raozhou City with his family.

Only the Zuixian Tower has not been sold, and the Zuixian Tower has not changed in any way. It sits alone, with the gate closed, and it will never be opened again.

After Xu Qinyu learned about it, she couldn't help but sigh. Some people let themselves become inhuman and ghost for the sake of profit.

Within two days, the prefect sent someone to tell him that the lairs of the robbers had been found, and all the robbers were caught and brought back. Those who waited for them were almost dead, and those who committed minor crimes would be sent to the coal mines. Here, working day and night.

The prisoner who entered the coal mine was actually worse than death, and it was unlikely that he would escape in his life.

After Xu Qinyu found out, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Those old gentlemen who came to the restaurant a few days ago have not left until now. They are still living in the restaurant. The younger ones go to listen to books and go fishing in the hot spring after eating every day. The older ones don’t like heard that, just find someone to play chess, don't mention how carefree life is, feel a little bit reluctant to go home, and don't want to go home.

Xu Qinyu is also busy every day, because she won the laurel of this year's cooking competition, and more and more guests came to Xu Ji, Jinxiu Garden and Zizhu Garden are already full of people.

Xu Ji didn't have enough manpower, so Xu Qinyu recruited some female and male clerks, and had to arrange for them to be trained before they could work, so during this period of time, the restaurant was still very busy with the same manpower, and she She has no skills at all, and she doesn't care about Ning's renting a shop in the city, but she is worried about Ning's safety, so every day Ning goes out, she let Lianhua follow her.

In addition, there are many help cooks who come to Xu Ji to be help cooks, wanting to learn cooking skills from her. Xu Qinyu asked Huo Jiang to help investigate their identities. As long as their identities are intact and their conduct is decent, she is willing to keep them. So all of a sudden, there were a lot of cooks in the restaurant, but the main ones were those from before, and some help cooks who came to Xu Ji also started to learn cooking skills from her, and they were able to get started one after another.

Another garden is also being built, and it should be able to accommodate guests in the spring of next year. This garden is specially for those who drag their families to live in.

The days passed by in such a busy way, and in the blink of an eye, three months later, it was already the twelfth lunar month, and Xu Qinyu had drawn a lot of hands to marinate ham.

This year she cured a lot of ham, more than double that of last year. This year she cured 5,000 hams.

The 2,000 pieces that were marinated last year were also shipped to the restaurant, and they were ready to eat, but they were not ready to be eaten raw. She kept 1,000 pieces to be eaten raw by this time next year.

The five-entry house she built herself is huge, and she has specially opened up a yard for a workshop. This year, all the cured hams are placed in her own house.

In the past three months, Xu Ji Restaurant has always been full of guests, and many people from nearby states have come here.

In the past three months, Xu Ji's monthly net profit has exceeded 50,000 taels of silver, and even reached 60,000 taels at the peak.

When all the ham is cured, the Chinese New Year will be in half a month.

During this period, the fourth brother has not returned, but there is a letter from the family back, and the fourth brother also said that the New Year is approaching, and he is a little busy, so that Yuniang and the family do not have to worry about him, and this year is the Chinese New Year, he may not be able to come back, he has to wait until have time to come back after a year.

The fourth brother couldn't go back, but Ma Liu came.

Ma Liu knew that Mrs. Xu would open a restaurant in Raozhou City last year, and she came here directly this year, but was a little shocked to see the large restaurant outside the city, which was almost as large as a small village.

This time, he was escorting the prisoners from the border city, and naturally he brought Xu Qinyu a letter from the Cui family, as well as some other things.

Xue knew that her daughter was no longer short of money, and she would definitely not accept other precious jewelry.

I went to the temple to ask for a peace talisman and asked Ma Liu to help bring it to my daughter. In addition, there were two cloaks, as well as middle clothes and small clothes, but Xue’s clothes were too close-fitting. It was not easy to entrust a foreign man to bring it to his daughter, so I had to sew two cloaks myself, both of which were rabbit fur cloaks, one thicker and one lighter.

It's already a bit cold in the southwest, so it's just right to wear a thicker cloak.

Xu Qinyu only saw Ma Liu after the evening meal. The Wen family recognized him and arranged a place for him to rest first, and gave him something to eat and drink.

Xu Qinyu was naturally very happy to see Ma Liu.

She read her parents' letters to her first, but her mother was still nagging, telling her to pay attention to her body, don't worry too much, her father only had two simple words, saying that she was working hard, and her brother Li Geer also wrote to her. After a letter, Brother Li had already gone to the school. He told his sister about the interesting things that happened in the school, and also said that he had made two friends.

Seeing the letters from the three, Xu Qinyu's face was always full of smiles.

Ma Liu also told Xu Qinyu, "Miss Xu, you don't know something. Your third sister seems to be in a hurry. She still wants to come to the southwest and ask me about your whereabouts, but I didn't tell her."

Xu Qinyu frowned and didn't quite understand Xu Qinhui's brain circuit. Xu Qinhui finally let her marry the fourth brother. She wrote a letter and urged her to go back to the man who was close to getting married before, and even wrote a letter to her fourth brother.

However, since that time, more than two years have passed, and she has never received a letter from Xu Qinhui. Who knows that she has not given up yet, and she wants to come to the southwest again.

It's not possible for Xu Qinhui to want to come to the southwest. The edict written by the new emperor asked her to marry the fourth brother. It must be Xu Qinhui's efforts in it. In this case, the new emperor will definitely not allow her to have anything to do with the fourth brother. I thought that Xu Qinhui would go back to the palace to be a concubine, but she didn't go. She wanted to pester the fourth brother all day.

Xu Qinhui is indeed anxious, she sees that it has been four years, she is in her twenties, she has become an old girl, and she can't rely on the new emperor. She said that she would send a letter to King Shu every month, but Father Xu did not allow it, for fear of revealing any clues and letting the people in the palace know, and then the entire Xu family would be implicated. Xu Qinhui had no choice but to write a letter to the king and the second sister for half a year, but after more than two years, she did not receive a single letter.

These letters were also sent to the southwest by Xu's confidant, and every time they were sent to Pei's house.

It turned out that Pei Weixuan and the Wen family had told Ning Jie'er that if they received a letter from Xu Qinhui in the capital, they would all be burned, and there was no need to inform him or Yu Niang.

So Xu Qinyu never knew that Xu Qinhui still wrote to her.

Xu Qinhui even wanted to pretend to be dead, and when she was buried in the coffin, she could sneak to the southwest.

The southwest is so far away from the capital, and the Emperor Tiangao is far away, even if she temporarily changes her identity and stays by the side of King Shu, as long as King Shu can inherit the great lineage, her identity can be restored in the future.

However, Father Xu did not agree, saying that he should consider it carefully.

Xu Qinyu didn't want to hear about Xu Qinhui's news, so she just asked Ma Liu, "How about my parents and my brother? Can you gain some weight? You're still in good spirits, right?"

Ma Liu smiled and said: "It's not bad, especially the second lady, who is a little fatter."

Compared to the first time he saw Mrs. Xue, Mrs. Xue looked mournful. Now Mrs. Xue looks ruddy and has gained weight. Mr. Xu Er is also not bad, and Brother Li is even taller. cut.

Xu Qinyu felt more at ease after hearing the current situation of her family.

Ma Liu not only brought news of Xu's second room to Xu Qinyu, but also said that there was a lot of gossip in the capital for Xu Qinyu to hear.

He also told Xu Qinyu that last year, because of the case of the embezzlement of army salaries by King Handong, the minister of the household was exposed before his death by the imperial envoy who came to the southwest to investigate the case, and the minister of the household was dismissed.

Now the Minister of the Household has changed.

Of course, Xu Qinyu still remembers the matter of the imperial envoy, because she also cooked food for that person for several days.

At that time, it was still the prefect who asked the fourth brother to lead someone to kill the imperial envoy. didn't expect that there would be a second hand, and he also took down the position of the Minister of the Ministry of Housing.

I just hope that the Minister of Household, who takes office this time, is a good official who thinks about the people.

Ma Liu also secretly told Xu Qinyu, "Miss Xu, you don't know, that King of Handong is really not a gadget, he is even greedy for the summer palace he built for his own sister, the Queen Mother, just like he has never seen silver coins in his life. They are all the worst tiles and materials. Now that palace has collapsed, many people have died, and the whereabouts of the money has disappeared. Many officials in the court are very angry. After the title of King Handong was cut, the new emperor was just like a puppet, listening to the queen mother, and the queen mother was very angry, but she only passed the buck to other innocent officials."

It was also because of this incident that many innocent officials were implicated and their homes were confiscated and sent to border towns. This trip he sent other officials' family members to border towns.

Xu Qinyu felt a little bit embarrassed when she heard this, knowing that because of this incident, the capital must be in chaos recently, and people are panicking. She originally planned to ask Ma Liu to bring 10,000 taels of silver to her parents, and planned to double it again. What, with money by your side, you can also avoid most of your worries.

"Sixth brother, please stay at the restaurant for one night first, and I will write a letter to my parents in the evening, and then I will bring some bank notes back."

Ma Liu is used to it, so he is naturally willing to wait. He is also planning to go to the hot spring, and the food at the restaurant is really delicious. He rarely comes here. If Shangfeng and his colleagues are still waiting for him in Yuanbao Town, he want to stay for a few more days, but now see that it is good to live in the southwest, there is no attack from the Bin Kingdom, the people live and work in peace and contentment, the prefect and the county magistrates under his jurisdiction are also good officials, otherwise they would live in the capital. Just that puppet emperor and Empress Dowager Fu, who wholeheartedly favored his younger brother, got into trouble before they knew it.

Xu Qinyu arranged a room for Ma Liu to live in. After returning to the house, she wrote a reply letter to her family, nothing more than chattering about homework, telling Cui Shi, don't worry about herself, and said that her restaurant is not profitable every month. They don't need to save money, so they don't have to save money, so they can eat well and wear well.

Twenty thousand taels of silver is not too much, and it is not too little. Some aristocratic families do not have twenty thousand taels of silver in a year.

If he gave more, Xu Qinyu felt that Cui would definitely not accept it.

She was afraid that Mrs. Cui would not accept the twenty thousand taels of silver, so she entrusted someone to send it back to her.

After writing the letter, he stuffed twenty thousand taels of silver bills into the envelope and handed them to Ma Liu early the next morning.

When Ma Liu left, Xu Qinyu steamed a lot of steamed stuffed buns for him to eat on the way.

Ma Liu took the letter and the sauced meat buns to the pier of Yuanbao Town to walk by water.

Taking advantage of years ago, he hurried back to the capital and handed over the letter written by Xu Qinyu to Cui.

Xue received the letter in a thick stack, thinking it was the same as last year, and her daughter asked Ma Liu to bring home two thousand taels of silver notes.

When he opened the letter, he saw that there were 1,000 taels of large-denominated bank notes inside, a total of 20 pieces, a total of 20,000 taels of silver notes, Xue was shocked.

The annual income of the entire Dechanghou Mansion is less than 20,000 taels.

She doesn't have a dowry shop in her hands, the sisters-in-law of the first house and the third house have shops and dowries nearby, even if the two houses are added up, it is probably only ten thousand taels of silver a year.

But her daughter gave her 20,000 taels in one go, and Xue quickly put down the bank note, and went to read her daughter's reply first, and finally knew why Yuniang gave her so much silver. The profit of silver, even so, Xue does not want the silver money of her daughter.

This is all hard earned by my daughter.

Mrs. Xue hesitated, and after her husband came back, she discussed with him, and kept two thousand taels of silver notes as last year, and asked Ma to send the rest back to Yuniang six years later.

She remembered that Ma Liu had to go to the border town again in the next year.

Master Xu Er also had the same thoughts as his wife, the second room usually has no place to use money, his own salary is enough for a family of three to eat and drink, his wife's natal home also has a red seal every month, and Yu Niang returns two thousand taels of silver every year Tickets are enough.

So after a few years, Xue stuffed another 18,000 silver bills into an envelope and asked Ma Liu to bring it back to Yuniang.

The letter also said that two thousand taels of silver bills a year is already a lot, and that Yu Niang should keep the excess money well, and told her that the money is not revealed, and told her not to tell other people about the money she earned.

In fact, only the Pei family knew about it, and Xu Qinyu didn't reveal it to anyone else.

When Ma Liu came to the southwest again with this letter, spring had already begun.

But Xu Qinyu didn't know that she was also busy recently, the restaurant didn't have annual holidays, and the restaurant was busier than usual.