Chapter Fifty-Seven: Returning with a Full Load

  Long County is the seat of Liangzhou, with hundreds of wealthy households in the city. The richest among them is naturally Liu Xuan, which is why he is called Liu Half City. In this era, merchants have a low social status, and most rich businessmen dare not show off their wealth, fearing that they will be targeted by officials who come to demand benefits every now and then. Even if one has mountains of gold and silver, it would be impossible to give them enough.

  Liu Xu's large mansion was an exception, built with great luxury and grandeur, almost on par with the governor's mansion in Liangzhou. Moreover, it was not far from the governor's mansion, only separated by three streets. However, no officials ever came to harass him at his doorstep. The reason was simple: everyone knew that Liu Xu had the powerful Hun king Liu Jiu as his backer, and Liu Jiu might become the Khan one day. With such a formidable existence backing him, no one dared to extort money from Liu Xu, no matter how wealthy he was.

  It's a wonderful thing that officials don't usually come to the door, it can fully show Liu Wei's different identity from others. But now that something has happened, it's very bad, without officials coming to the door, the government doesn't know that Liu Wei is playing a very interesting game, and Liu Wei is being watched closely, he dares not report to the authorities, the servants don't know what their master means, they are afraid of reporting to the authorities and making things worse, which leads Li Qin and others to become furious and harm Liu Wei's life!

  Thus, Li Qin and his men stayed in Liu Xuan's home for five whole days, living like big masters, eating and drinking lavishly, playing and having fun, seeing something good and packing it onto the car to take away, with no one daring to stop them.

  Liu Xuan was also busy, while having diarrhea, he ordered the servants to gather all the items on the silk book and load them onto Li Qin's carriage. Li Qin was quite easy-going and didn't ask for anything else, but that guy Jia Xiang kept adding things, asking for this and that, even wanting two large carts of cloth, and even asked for a camel.

  Liu Xuan had no choice but to agree to all of them. He didn't have the conditions to bargain, and could only prepare whatever Jia Yu wanted. His family's wealth quickly dwindled by half. In his heart, he was secretly resentful and determined to tell Liu Jiu, the king of the Xiongnu, about this matter so that Liu Jiu could deal with this guy named Li Qin!

  By the sixth day, everything was finally ready. The grain had increased to 400 dan, and when other items were added, it filled thirty large carts. There were also thirty camels with goods on them, plus two hundred horses. This was a bit too much, it was like they had looted Liu Xiu's family, leaving nothing behind!

  Things were gathered together, Li Qin let Wu Xiaosan grab Liu Xuan, and they went out of the west gate together, planning to rush back to Fuping.

  Li QIN looked at Liu Xuan, who was still lying on the cart, and said: "Brother Bancheng, don't make such a face. Money is just external wealth, losing it can avoid disaster. Although you lost these valuables, you preserved your life. As the saying goes, as long as one is alive, there will always be surprises!"

  Liu Xue thought: "What kind of saying is that? I've never heard it before. Since meeting you, there's no surprise, only fright!"

  Li Qian said, "Listen to me and I won't make things difficult for you. Here's half the antidote, and in a year, send someone to Fuping and I'll give you the other half. But remember one thing: during this year, you absolutely must not catch a cold, it's best if you don't go out at all, stay home with all doors and windows closed, lest the half-antidote be unable to suppress the toxicity and harm your life."

  Jia Yu nodded in agreement, thinking to himself: "Good idea, he's afraid of catching a cold, so he can't go out. Even if he wants revenge, he won't come personally. And if he doesn't come personally, sending someone else will be useless."

  Li Qin beckoned to Dian Wei and said: "Is the antidote ready? Bring it out and have Ban Chao take it."

  Dian Wei grunted in response, secretly amused. He had been prepared all along and was rubbing his belly in pain. From his bosom, he took out a black pellet the size of a grape!

  Jia Xun watched from the side and almost threw up. My god, how long hasn't this guy taken a bath? He's really a scoundrel!

  Dian Wei took a handful of black pills, pinched open Liu Bei's mouth and directly stuffed them into his throat. He felt somewhat regretful that although he had kneaded the pills all along the way, they were not round enough. After stuffing the black pills into Liu Bei's mouth, he also poured half a waterskin of water down his throat, only then was it done!

  Liu Xuan spat out two mouthfuls of water and thought: "What kind of taste is this? Could it be poison again, using poison to counteract poison?"

  Li QIN said to the followers of Ding DAO: "You help Half City brother back, take good care of him, if he catches a cold... Alas, Half City brother is such a good person, so generous, I hope to see him often in the future! Half City brother, you must take care of yourself, you must be happy!"

  Liu Xuan cried and laughed at the same time. I'm taking care of myself, I'm happy. You want to see me again, but I don't want to see you again!

  Li Qin sighed, and reluctantly watched as the servants escorted Liu Xuan back to the city. He kept waving at Liu Xuan, calling out: "Second Brother, farewell! We must meet again next time!"

  Liu Hen gritted his teeth and said: "If I see you again, I'll be a dead man! Send word to the Ninth King that his bowstring has been stolen, and the thief even wounded me. Tell him to avenge me!"

  The family members thought to themselves: "The Ninth King's temper is not very good, if you mess up his business, be careful he finds trouble with you first!"

  After sending Liu Xuan away, Li Qin's expression turned serious. He looked at the hired horsemen and wanted to take away so many valuable things. The few of them were not enough, so they had to hire people to help. They hired a total of 40 people. Among the horsemen, there might be spies sent by Liu Xuan. What if something unexpected happened on the way? He couldn't afford it.

  He beckoned Shen Yi to bring over the wine pouch and several large bowls. He poured out the wine, smiling: "Everyone has worked hard, we're about to set off on our journey. The road ahead is long, and it will take many days to make the round trip. It's not easy for everyone to be away from home. Come, let me first toast each of you with a mouthful of wine, as a farewell drink. Just one mouthful per person, don't drink too much!"

  Among the horsemen, of course, there were people from Liu Xuan's side. Liu Xuan wanted to take revenge on Li Qin, but first, he had to figure out where Li Qin lived. He just said Fuping, but Fuping is a big place, or maybe it was a lie, and he didn't live in Fuping. There must be a specific location!

  Ordinary stablemen are all struggling to make a living and understand the need to listen to their master's words, so when Li Qīn told them to take just one sip, they really only took one sip. However, the two Liu family servants who were mixed in with them refused to listen, one secretly taking an extra sip, and the other taking two extra sips. Both of them thought to themselves: "What's the worst that could happen if I drink a bit more? See if you can even notice, I'll just drink a bit more and spite you to death!"

  Seeing everyone had finished drinking, Li Qin said: "Everyone, what I just gave you to drink was poisonous wine..."

  When they heard this, the horsemen were all shocked. How could this master harm people? Let them drink poisonous wine. They had seen Liu's appearance just now, half dead and unable to withstand the wind. But they had no feud with this master, why did he want to harm them? The two family members of Liu were even more frightened, trembling all over.

  Li Qin continued: "But drinking a mouthful is nothing, two days later, excreted with urine, toxicity will resolve itself, but if you drink more, it's not okay. Who among you has drunk too much, hurry up and say so, I'll tell you the antidote method, come on out, it's a matter of life and death, this is no joke!"

  The two Liu family servants heard this and almost turned green with fright, if they had known that learning from ordinary horsemen would only take a sip of wine to succeed, why did they have to drink so much? Isn't this looking for death?! Their lives were at stake, how dare they pretend to be tough guys, they quickly ran out, knelt down in front of Li Qian and begged for the antidote.

  Li QIN looked at the two of them and sighed, "You've brought this upon yourselves, you can't blame anyone else! I hired you, so you should listen to me, but instead you refuse to obey. This shows that you have ulterior motives... But since Ban Cheng sent you to escort me home..."

  The two Liu family servants were secretly bitter, but the romantic family saw through it and couldn't pretend anymore, so they had to desperately kowtow and admit to being spies.

  Li Qindao said: "Point out who is still your accomplice... forget it, no need to point out, my heart is like a clear mirror, I've been crystal clear all along."

  The two households, Ding, shook their heads together, saying they had no accomplices, and indeed they didn't. Sending two people was already not a small number, and any more would have easily exposed them. Of course, the two of them did expose themselves quickly, with great speed!

  Li Qin hummed a response, ignoring the two of them, and waved his hand at Wu Xiao San and the others, shouting: "Let's go!" Everyone took their positions, and the large team of horses and carriages set off in a northwesterly direction.

  The two family servants saw Li QIN ignoring them, frightened and disoriented, only constantly begging for mercy, asking Li QIN to pity them, because they still had an 80-year-old mother at home, and wives and children to support, and having heard Liu Xuan's orders, they were also helpless.

  Li QIN walked at the end of the team, seeing them begging non-stop, had to say: "Look at you two, not yet twenty years old, but both have mothers over eighty years old at home, and they were still able to give birth to you after sixty years old. The elderly are really not easy! Alright, I'll tell you the antidote method!"

  He paused, pointing to the black horse under him, and said: "The antidote is to use poison to attack poison. You need to find a medicine called Ma Du Ling. If you don't drink it before landing, it won't work. In fact, this medicine is just horse urine, and it must be the first urination of a male horse in the morning. The more you drink, the faster the poison will be eliminated. Remember, you must drink it before the horse urine touches the ground. You can't use a bowl or anything to catch it, that's also considered touching the ground. Whether you believe it or not, your lives are yours anyway!" After finishing speaking, he whipped his horse and followed the main team, leaving quickly.

  The two family servants stared at each other in dismay and exclaimed in unison: "Mazi, hasn't he fallen yet?"

  "Do you believe it?"

  Another face looked ugly and said, "Do you dare not to believe? Life is one's own, and I drank two more mouthfuls just now. Now my stomach is starting to hurt, isn't it the onset of poisoning?"

  The one in front exclaimed: "You drank more than me? Alright, let's find a public horse, you go first, I'll give way to you..."

  "No, no, you first..."

  "You go first..."

  Li Qinchao led the troops on a long march, traveling by day and resting at night, taking more than one day to cover the distance. With so many men and horses, although the road was not very peaceful, small groups of bandits did not dare to disturb them, and they did not encounter any large groups of bandits either, so they were able to travel safely without incident.

  On this day, he finally returned to the territory of Fuping. Li Qin obtained so many goods and naturally would not enter the city first, lest Tang Jie saw them and forcibly took some away. He led his men in a detour and rushed to Fu Jiao Village.

  As they were approaching the village entrance, a small figure was seen running towards them from afar. It turned out to be Xiao Ma Chao!

  Ma Chao's face was filled with joy, and he ran while shouting: "Uncle Li, you've finally come back! Little Chao has been waiting for you here every day!"

  ——

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