Lost Soul Soup

  Fei Yi couldn't bear Mi An's muttering to himself, and suddenly let out a whistle. A white crane with shiny black eyes and long feathers swooped down from the front building, stirring up a whirlwind of sound. Its body was even bigger than an eagle's, and when it flapped its wings, it almost blew Mi An off the roof.

  Min An clutched at the tiles tightly and exclaimed: "Nie Yi pulled me up!"

  Fei Yi stood up straight, looking down at Min An from a high vantage point: "The roof to the wall corner is only two zhang high, you can jump down."

  Min An finally didn't hold on, and fell to the ground with a thud, severely bruising his buttocks. He hid in a corner of the house where he couldn't be seen, clutching both sides of his buttocks and hopping around on one foot, gasping for air.

  Fei Yi took down the white crane's foot ring and unfolded the letter in the bamboo tube to read, it was an order from Li Peinan: asking him to come see me.

  Fei Yi took a few steps and threw the paper tube down, hitting Min An's forehead. Min An unfolded the paper and read it, muttering: "We're so close, yet we need a white eagle to deliver messages, how strange."

  As Meng An walked back to the main building, he encountered an even stranger thing. A golden-haired cat with a money pattern was squatting in an iron cage, its pointed ears standing upright, staring at him with its bright yellow eyes, not blinking, and appearing very vigilant.

  Is it a leopard or a cat? Its body is just between the size of a leopard and a cat, with yellow and white stripes on its fur, which makes Min An think of Ah Hua's coat. He stares at it intently, sitting cross-legged in front of the big cat, taking out a piece of maltose candy to lick, and staring at it. The big cat sticks out a soft tongue, rolling around Min An's face. Min An didn't expect that the big cat had thorns on its tongue, his skin was scratched and painful, he quickly turned his head away. The big cat continued to lick him, he busily fended it off with his hands, in the chaos, he knocked over the hook, letting the big cat out.

  The big cat vanished out of the door in an instant, as fast as lightning.

  Min Andong looked around, saw no one was there, and slipped forward along the wall, forgetting all about Li Peinan wanting to see him. Just as he stepped out of the gate, a leopard emerged silently from the darkness behind the lamp post outside the building, its green eyes staring fixedly, its two rows of yellow whiskers bristling, step by step forcing Min Andong back into the corridor.

  This is indeed a leopard, and its appearance looks very unfriendly.

  Min An looked at the leopard's white teeth and red lips, his heart was bitter, thinking how unlucky it was that no one was around now. When he was finally pushed to the front of the cage by the leopard, he had nowhere to retreat, so he might as well satisfy its desire, bent down and crawled into the iron cage, and hung up the latch.

  Min An hugged his knees and sat in a ball, shouting at the low-roaring leopard: "Not convinced? Come bite me!"

  The leopard used its front paws to tap on the iron cage, making a series of sharp noises. Min An sat with her back against the wall, curled up and practicing her mouth skills: "I brought some midnight snacks, I won't go hungry, look, what a big piece of maltose, can you bite into it?"

  Li Peinan stood behind the curtain with his hands clasped behind him, observing the movements below without revealing any signs. Lijun covered the lantern to prevent light from escaping and whispered: "What does the young master think?"

  Li Peinan said: "Different from ordinary people."

  "Want to try him again?"

  "No need to try anymore. He neither cried for help nor shouted, he just knew that I had evacuated everyone in the building and came to deal with him on purpose."

  Li Peinan originally wanted to use the ferret he had caught in the afternoon to test Min An, to see if he was afraid of such a fierce creature. Because the next case reported by Wang Huaili happened to be related to the ferret. However, Li Peinan did not expect that Min An would indeed not be afraid of the ferret and even let it escape. On the other hand, the large leopard with an appearance similar to that of the ferret firmly pinned down Min An, scaring him motionless.

  Li Qun stretched his neck to take a look at Min An, who was shrinking inside the cage with a stern expression. He couldn't help but chuckle: "This little young master is really interesting, whatever he wants to do, he does it all according to his mood."

  Li Peinan walked towards the second floor bedroom, Lai Qun thought that since Gongzi didn't say anything, it meant that Min'an would be locked up for a night. After all, he had let go of the civet cat that Gongzi had spent so much effort to catch.

  Li Qun extinguished all the lanterns and left by the back stairs, leaving one man and a leopard in the corridor.

  After daybreak, Fei Yan practiced a set of sword moves and changed into his attire before heading towards the main building. As soon as he entered, he saw Min An curled up in a ball inside the cage, covering his face with his sleeve. The leopard was sleeping soundly outside the cage, its sharp claws splayed out.

  He was about to walk away like this, but suddenly thought that the man and the leopard seemed to be sleeping on opposite sides. He kicked the cage and asked: "What did you do to provoke him?"

  Min An and Baozi fought for half the night, sleeping soundly, but was kicked awake to see a man in fine clothes standing in front of him with his hands behind his back. "Who?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

  He curled up the corner of his mouth discontentedly: "Li Peinan."

  "Probably because I let out that fat cat he raised, so he didn't have any rabbit meat to eat."

  He didn't wear shoes, but stepped on the leopard's tail, waking it up. With a flick of his hand, he commanded it to rush out of the corridor and return to the stone house. He turned back and asked, "So he locked you in a cage?"

  Min An didn't want Li Peinan to think badly of him, so he hastily said: "It was I who crawled in myself."

  Fei Yi sneered and turned away with a flick of her sleeve.

  Min An saw that the leopard was no longer by the cage and had eliminated the danger, so he quickly climbed out of the cage and adjusted his collar. Outside the building, a group of guards and maids walked in one after another, their clothes colorful, each doing their own thing, as if they hadn't seen Min An at all. Min An stood against the wall, thinking that the young master wasn't going to receive him yet, so waiting here wouldn't be wrong.

  Li Peinan finished washing up, had breakfast, and was served by the maids. He changed into a dark-colored long gown with narrow sleeves. After they tied his purple gold silk spider waistband, he ordered the removal of all accessories on him, indicating that he would travel lightly.

  Li Peinan wiped his hands with a hot towel and said to Li Qun: "Tell him to come up."

  Li Qun went downstairs to invite Min An. Min An smoothed out the corner of his clothes and asked nervously, "Am I going up like this?"

  Lijun smiled and said: "Does the young master still want to take a bath in the morning?"

  Min An said hesitantly: "Xun Xiang is also good."

  Li Qun fulfilled Min'an's wish and took him to the warm pavilion. Min'an had incense in the pavilion, then quietly asked the maid to bring water for him to wash his hair, and secretly poured two mouthfuls of fragrant lotion from the maid's perfume bottle into his mouth. He opened his mouth and let out a fragrant burp, smiling to himself.

  After laughing for a while, he found that his long gown and cloak were all fragrant, his hair, mouth and tongue also had fragrance, even his face was hot and red.

  Min An, with a dizzy head and flushed face, saw Li Peinan. Li Peinan turned around and saw his already scattered eyes, and frowned.

  Li Peinan's eyebrows and eyes were originally cold, making his handsome face even more majestic. Min An saw him frowning and knew he had been careless in his behavior, so he hastily tucked in his sleeves and bowed to him.

  Li Peinan asked: "What else did you do? Is your mind clear at this time?"

  Min An's face turned red as she smiled: "I think I'm going to be charmed by you."

  Li Peinan's face was cold as he circled around Min An, his eyes and nose extremely sharp. As he moved, he had already detected that Min An's clothes had been changed from the inside out, and the undergarments, outer robes, and waist pouch gifted by the Crown Prince's Manor were all gone without a trace. There were small wounds on Min An's face that looked like they had been licked by a civet cat, and his body still carried the scent of white sandalwood and Chinese eaglewood clothes, while the air he breathed out from his nose contained the intense aroma of mandrake flowers.

  Min An was still smiling: "You know, you can actually turn people upside down, whether they are men or women, and seeing you will surely make them fall in love."

  Li Peinan said coldly: "Xiangtang cannot be drunk recklessly, it must be diluted with water to eliminate the numbness. With your careless personality, you will eventually suffer a great loss."

  Min An rubbed his face with his hands and said anxiously, "Can you please back off a bit? My heart is racing wildly, I'm really about to be enchanted by you."

  Li Peinan stood two feet away from Min An, gazing at him coldly. Min An covered his eyes and whispered, "With the fragrance of your family's broth, it wouldn't be a problem to make any woman fall for you." After speaking, he fainted and collapsed at Li Peinan's feet.

  Li Peinan stood with his back to the group, hands behind him, staring at a spot on the ground. Lai Qun rushed out to fetch some sobering tea, but couldn't help giggling as he went downstairs. When he returned with the teapot, he found Min An leaning against the edge of the table and chairs, tugging on Li Peinan's hem and talking nonsense: "Linglong's little mouth is so fragrant... more fragrant than white sandalwood... her small hands are soft... softer than the young master's... and Ahua... Ahua looks the best... no, wait... Linglong is prettier than the young master..."

  Li Peinan originally wanted to have Min An thrown out, but suddenly heard the name "Linglong", suppressed his temper, sat down in a chair, and let Min An pull on his hem without letting go.

  Min An hummed a little ditty, compiled by the literati and gentry who frequented brothels. The tune was disjointed and not very clear. "Nose so fine, mouth so small, tongue so soft and fragrant... breasts so sweet, waist so slender, feet so tight... those things, don't even ask..."

  Li Peinan coldly said to Li Qun: "Splash him awake!"

  Ligang strode over, lifted up Min'an's upper body, and poured a mouthful of the contents of the jug into his mouth. Min'an felt uncomfortable and kept twisting his head, but Li Peinan, who was sitting behind him, simply pulled on Min'an's hair, holding his head in place as Ligang poured half a jug of tonic down his throat.

  Min An completely sobered up, wiped his face clean with his sleeve, retreated to the side, lowered his head and stood still, not moving or daring to make a sound.

  Li Peinan asked coldly, "Can you speak properly now?"

  Min An bowed his head and hastily replied: "It was my mistake, please calm down, Young Master."

  Li Peinan asked: "Do you have a private relationship with Liu Linglong?"

  "Ah?" Min An raised his head, looking at Li Peinan with a puzzled expression, then lowered it again. Lai Qun whispered from across the way, "When the young master was asleep, he kept muttering the name 'Linglong', could it be that he's very familiar with her?"

  Min An thought for a moment, somewhat recalling, and secretly glanced at Lei Qun opposite him, asking: "What else did I say... can you give me a hint?"

  Li Qun coughed, but didn't dare to say anything more. How could those frivolous words be mentioned again in front of the young master? Min An wished he had another head to figure out what exactly happened just now. After thinking for half a day, he still felt that apologizing was the wiser choice. "It's my fault, it's my fault, please forgive me, Young Master."

  "Where did you go wrong?"

  "Losing one's dignity in front of one's seat."

  Li Peinan looked at Min An's uneasy appearance, and the coldness on his face dissipated by half. He believed that he didn't intentionally want to make a discourteous move. After thinking for a moment, he asked: "Besides Liu Linglong, do you know any other woman named Linglong?"

  Min An was suddenly awakened and blurted out: "Liu Linglong of Flower Street!"

  The author has something to say: Thank you very much to Rong Meimei, Xiaoxianggua, Aying, and Zudou for the landmines, I love you guys -3-

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