Chapter 9: Striking Objects from Afar

  "What requirements does Dian Zhuang have, but it doesn't matter, as long as Liu Mou can do it, he will definitely keep his word." Liu Xin understood that Dian Wei was a loyal person, and as long as he was willing to be his subordinate, he wouldn't worry about him being disloyal.

  Dian Wei saw Liu Xin's prompt response, and instead felt embarrassed, muttering: "This, this, I don't have any big demands, as long as there is enough food and drink to fill my belly."

  Ma Yun saw him talk for half a day, but it was such a request. She couldn't help but burst out laughing with a "pu" sound. Liu Xin glared at her and said seriously: "As long as the strong man is willing to come, I guarantee that there will be meat to eat every day. As for wine, you can drink it, but you can't get drunk. If we are on a military campaign or in battle, then no drinking is allowed. Can you do that?"

  Dian Wei heard that he could have meat to eat every day, and excitedly grasped Liu Xun's fist, saying: "From now on I will follow the master around, only looking up to the master! Master, please wait a moment, I'll go and come back."

  Dian Wei finished speaking and left in a hurry, without waiting for Liu Xin's response. Liu Xin shook his head helplessly and looked over at Ma Yun, only to see her rummaging through the bloody pile of internal organs where the old tiger had been killed. Ma Yun felt Liu Xin's gaze and walked over, with the flying dagger still in hand.

  Liu Xinqi asked strangely: "It's just a small knife, what do you want to find it for? Look, your hands are all bloody, go and wash them by the stream."

  Ma Yun washed his hands while saying: "The material of this knife is really special, I couldn't tell what it's made of for a moment, it would be a pity to lose it, so why don't you give it to me? In the future, will you teach me how to play with flying knives?"

  Liu Xin knew she wasn't an ordinary girl, let alone having studied at the police academy for two years and being from a family of police officers. She also had some martial arts skills. Hearing that she wanted to learn, he took out eleven flying knives from his waist and handed them over to her, saying: "I'll give you some more. Once we settle down in Hejian, I'll teach you properly. Although the world is still peaceful for now, it won't be long before chaos erupts, so having multiple self-defense skills is a good thing."

  Ma Yun took the flying knife without hesitation and said, "I just checked it out. The flying knife you shot has penetrated deep into the tiger's brain through its eyes, and those internal organs were indeed severely damaged by external forces. It's really hard to say whether this tiger died from the flying knife or your fist. However, your strength is quite impressive. How come I didn't notice it before?"

  Liu Xin said: "I also have this discovery, I feel that my strength seems to be getting bigger and bigger, is it because of the reason for crossing?"

  Ma Yun saw a large stone by the mountain stream, so she walked over and moved it, saying: "I've also crossed over, how come my strength hasn't increased at all, this reason seems to be unreasonable."

  At this time, a refreshing mountain breeze blew over, blowing away the bloody smell without a trace. Liu Xin suddenly realized and said to Ma Yun: "I understand, it's a problem with the air. Look, the air here is so fresh, not a bit polluted. I've been practicing breathing exercises recently, and I feel that my breath is much more comfortable than before, as if there's a flow of energy naturally circulating inside my body. No wonder my ancestors were getting worse and worse with each generation, it turns out that the air is getting worse year by year!"

  Ma Yun said in disbelief: "You're talking too much nonsense, I'm also breathing fresh air now, how come there's no effect?"

  Liu Xin smiled and said, "You haven't practiced the skills of this school, so it's no wonder you didn't get any results. Although you learned some grappling techniques from elementary school, they're not as good as my internal fist method, which emphasizes internal training of one breath, external training of tendons, bones, and skin. This splitting air fist also has a special feature - it can hit objects in mid-air. Don't believe me? Watch me try."

  Liu Xin took a few steps, about five meters away from a small tree, secretly mobilizing his internal energy, and swung a punch at the branches of the small tree. Suddenly, there was a loud "rustling" sound, and the small tree shook violently, with a large section of its branches really breaking off.

  "Good!" Before Liu Xin could even catch his breath, a loud shout came from the direction of the mountain stream. It was Dian Wei, who had rushed back with a pair of large iron halberds and happened to see Liu Xin punch and break off a tree branch five meters away. He had been skeptical about Liu Xin's ability to kill a tiger with his bare hands, but now he admired him immensely.

  At this time, Xu Huang also walked over and said to Liu Xin: "Sir, the tiger meat is cooked, please enjoy it together."

  Liu Xin heard this and called out to Dian Wei, "Dian Wei, you've arrived just in time. The meat is already cooked. Let's go have a taste together. I've never had tiger meat before, so I don't know what it tastes like."

  Zhang Dogzi saw them walking over, mysteriously pulled Liu Xin aside and said: "Liu Daren, I've left something good for you. Look, this is the tiger whip, if you eat it tonight, it's guaranteed to make your wife unable to get out of bed tomorrow."

  Liu Xin heard this, and the little eunuch was already without roots. How could his thoughts be so dirty? He thought of teasing him, wondering what would happen if he ate this tiger whip. So he said: "Thank you, Lord Zhang, for your kindness. To be honest with you, I have some capital, and I don't need to rely on this to boost my morale. If you eat this thing, it will be very beneficial for your body. Don't believe me? Just try it."

  Zhang Dog Er heard this and said: "Is there another saying that this thing is also good for our bodies?"

  Liu Xin patted his shoulder and smiled ambiguously: "What's the relationship between me and you, sir? Can't deceive you on this kind of thing."

  "Then thank you, Lord Liu!" Zhang Dogzi heard Liu Xin's words and immediately hid the tiger whip as a treasure.

  Liu Xin and Ma Yun found the tiger meat too smelly, so they each ate a little and then stopped. On the other hand, Dian Wei, Xu Huang, and a soldier who followed them were enjoying themselves immensely. Ma Yun pulled Liu Xin aside and whispered in his ear: "Tell me honestly, what were you and that little eunuch whispering about just now? Your expression looked very strange."

  Liu Xin was sweating profusely, it turned out that she had been under her surveillance all along! She had no choice but to repeat what she and Zhang Gou'er had said earlier, word for word, making Ma Yun's small face blush bright red.

  After eating the tiger meat, everyone continued on their journey. Along the way, Xu Huan couldn't help but covet Dian Wei's massive iron halberd, which was made of forged iron and weighed forty kilograms. He had always wanted to forge a large axe for himself, but he couldn't afford it. Liu Xun heard about this and asked Xu Huan to draw a design, promising to give him a large axe after they settled down in Hejian. These days, Dian Wei and Xu Huan often competed in martial arts, getting along quite well. Liu Xun observed carefully that without a suitable weapon, Xu Huan couldn't last more than twenty rounds against Dian Wei, but if he had a large axe in hand, he could hold out for over fifty rounds without issue.

  After hurrying along for five or six more days, they finally arrived at the border of Hejian in late July.

  Hejian belongs to Jizhou, a county with eleven counties under its jurisdiction, and the government is located in Lecheng County. Li Cheng, the governor of Hejian, and Zhang Jun, the long history, received the news early and brought a group of officials to guard the city gate. Liu Xin arrived at the mansion of the Taishou of Hejian, handed over the documents, and officially took office.

  Li Junxiang had originally arranged a welcoming banquet, but Liu Xin was extremely tired from the journey, and Zhang Gou'er was also in a hurry to bring the 2 million back to the capital. So the welcoming banquet was postponed for several days. After Li Cheng led the officials away, Liu Xin took out another 100,000 yuan to reward Xu Huang and the soldiers. Zhang Gou'er happily escorted the twenty large chests back to the capital with Xu Huang and the soldiers. Before leaving, Xu Huang repeatedly instructed Dian Wei to ensure his brother's safety.

  The Taishou's mansion was very large, but since the previous Taishou left office, no one had lived there. Recently, Li Cheng arranged for someone to clean it up, and not even a single servant was present, only two military officers were sent to guard the front gate. Liu Xin allocated a courtyard on the west side for Dian Wei to live in, while he himself took Ma Yun and wandered around the mansion.

  Ma Yun walked while calculating the accounts, and the expenses on this trip were really not small. Adding the reward money given to Xu Huan and others, a total of 3 million yuan was spent. Suddenly, she felt heartache and said to Liu Xin: "Husband, unexpectedly, in just a short period of time, the 10 million you mentioned has been reduced to only 1.7 million. I don't know how much the salary for the two thousand stones will be. In the future, we must be more frugal, otherwise, if you tighten your grip again, you'll have to go back to your old ways."

  Liu Xin couldn't help but laugh and said, "I didn't expect my wife to be so good at managing the household. Don't worry, 2,000 stones of salary is definitely not a small amount, you won't go hungry. I think this governor's mansion is too empty, what's most important now is to buy some servants back. Just now, I've already instructed Li Cheng to call over two aunties from the city, we'll discuss how many people we need to buy back, definitely both men and women."

  Ma Yun was shocked: "Husband, did I hear that right? You want to traffic people! You're not a thief now, you're an official of the imperial court, how can you...".

  Liu Xin interrupted her and said, "Hehe, wife, your thinking is still stuck in the 21st century. Now it's the 2nd century AD, you need to keep up with the times. As a governor, it's normal for our family to buy a few maidservants and slaves. And we also need to buy a cook. If we don't buy some servants back, in the future, you'll have to do all the cooking and cleaning of this big house by yourself, won't that exhaust you to death?"

  Ma Yun suddenly came to her senses, realizing that buying and selling people was not against the law in the Han Dynasty. She smiled awkwardly: "I almost forgot I've traveled through time, time really flies, it's been forty days already."

  Liu Xin listened to Ma Yun's words, and then leaned into Ma Yun's ear and whispered: "Yes, it has been more than 30 days since Father passed away. Let's take care of that big matter tonight."

  Ma Yun's face turned red with shame as Liu Xin mentioned that matter, and she rebuked him in a spoiled tone: "You, now that you're an official, don't think about benefiting the people, but only think of these bad things."

  Two people were talking when a soldier at the door came to report: The toothless old woman has arrived.

  Liu Xin was about to go out, but Ma Yun stopped him and said: "Husband, you just rest, this matter is left to me. Don't worry, you know what I do, whoever wants to be lazy can't escape my eyes, I guarantee that the ones I pick will all be diligent and honest."

  Liu Xin knew she couldn't win an argument with him, so she went to deal with the two old women herself, while he went to the study to look at the scrolls Li Cheng had sent over.

  Ma Yun ordered the soldiers to bring in Ya Po. The new governor wanted to buy slaves, and Ya Po naturally didn't dare to slack off, bringing over all the people who met the conditions on her hands. Seeing the people brought by Ya Po, Ma Yun, who was kneeling on the mat, only felt a surge of anger in his chest, "slap" slapped the case in front of him, and "thud" stood up.

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