Chapter 71 Going Down to the Countryside

  He walked out of the door, and his attendants hurried to catch up with him to hold up lanterns to light the way. At this time, he was feeling anxious and annoyed, and couldn't help but shout: "Withdraw!" Then he turned over and mounted his horse, galloping into the vast darkness of night.

  Changping Prefecture had already implemented a curfew, and every household was asleep with their lights out. Wearing his clothes, he passed through the streets and alleys, arriving at the familiar courtyard. The three large rooms inside were all dark, and there was still no sign of Min'an.

  He was very distressed, how could he just lose Min An like that. On the way back, he kept a straight face and didn't say a word. Min An had wanted to say something to him, but seeing his unpleasant expression, she finally closed her mouth again.

  From Qingquan County back to Changping Prefecture, it was a long journey. The naturally lively Min An could only lower his head and remain silent, squeezing on the small horse-drawn carriage playing with dough. Min An casually pinched out a rabbit ear-shaped dough, held it in front of him and said with a smile: "Doesn't it look like?" But he suddenly remembered the rabbit's facial features, took the dough and threw it out the window.

  After that, Min An's head drooped even more severely, muttering something in his mouth, as if he had asked a question: "What's wrong with you?"

  Fei Yi couldn't help but rush forward and slap the forehead of the person in front of him: "What did I tell you earlier? What kind of person is the Crown Prince, and yet you dare to stay overnight in his room?"

  "Master Shizi brought me into the room, and I couldn't get out of his control. He also lit a night's worth of calming incense, so I overslept."

  Fei Yi had indeed guessed that there might be a cat hiding inside, but he couldn't suppress his own bitter feelings. He no longer responded to Min An's words and instead used an extremely cold expression towards him the entire way. Whenever Min An carefully approached him wanting to say something, he would stretch out his hand to block Min An's forehead and push him away.

  A bellyful of sour and astringent fire suddenly erupted on Min An's forehead, focusing on getting along with it.

  Min An pouted and said: "If you act like this, there's no difference between you and that unreasonable young master."

  "Shut up and reflect on your own actions."

  Min An sat on a small stool, twisting back and forth: "Before reflecting, I want to ask you, why are you so angry?"

  Fei Yi glanced over and said with a smile, "From now on, I'll listen to you the most. When we see the young master, let's avoid him from afar. Oh no, it should be when we smell that the young master is coming, we should turn around and run away."

  Min An raised his head and looked over with a flattering expression. Fei Yi saw him and felt a slight stir in her heart. He immediately thought that Min An was actually unable to escape Li Peinan's control, but he had a magic weapon to deal with Li Peinan, the only question was whether the one-month deadline would be enough.

  Fei Yi's thoughts were floating, and behind him was an even more unresponsive atmosphere. Min An realized that it wouldn't be good to continue the conversation, and he himself felt extremely uncomfortable in his heart. He then said a sentence: "Sir Xiao is urging me to hurry up and report to the prefecture, there are some pending cases that I need to investigate." And then fell silent again.

  This sentence became the only clue for Min An to find a way out. He remained expressionless, his eyes cold and distant, and Min An couldn't understand what was going on, so he just said one serious sentence and then bowed his head and retreated to reflect.

  Min An's introspection was very quiet, and when Fei Yi returned to his senses and looked back, he found that he had already fallen asleep.

  As soon as the carriage stopped, Min An became energetic and lively. He rushed into the courtyard and handed over to Wu Ren and Hua Cui, then turned around to go to the government office. Fei Yi called out to the coachman to send in gifts such as cloth, dried fruit, tea leaves, etc., reminding Min An to change his medicine first.

  Before long, a scolding voice came from the master's room. Min An lowered his head and listened, not daring to respond with a single word. Hua Cui looked at him with a pained expression, and also reproached him with a few words. "How is it that as soon as you're by the young master's side, you can't even take care of yourself? When you went to work in the three government offices before, I didn't see you ending up so miserable."

  Min An'nu said in a low voice: "Su Hua, don't nag anymore. It's my own fault that I'm not good enough, and it's not the young master's fault."

  Wu Ren let out a heavy hum, turned and walked out the door. Fei Yihou was standing outside the door, bowing and saying: "Last time I came to pay respects to Master, I didn't get to see the new junior brother's face either. When will Master call him over for us all to gather together?"

  Wu Ren rolled his eyes: "Xuan Xu is different from you, can't be considered a fellow disciple, he's my Daoist friend, usually busy, it's not easy to see him once."

  He could sense his master's partial and private taste, put aside other prying thoughts, and made a more respectful bow.

  Wu Ren couldn't withstand Min An's persistent requests, so he reluctantly accepted the half-baked Non-Clothing as his nominal disciple. He still remembered the lesson from the Li family about "unloading the millstone and killing the donkey", so he remained somewhat cautious around Non-Clothing. Min An had also asked the Li family members what exactly they did to deserve the "unloading the millstone and killing the donkey" treatment, which made his master unhappy. Wu Ren was thinking that Min An's mental illness was not fully cured yet, and he feared that revealing the details of the Min family's impeachment case eleven years ago would stimulate him, so he kept it hidden.

  But Wu Ren still liked to put on a stern face when facing Fei Yi, which was also the reason why Fei Yi didn't dare to thoroughly investigate the mysteries.

  After Wu Ren came to Changping Prefecture, he only saw Xuan Xu once, so even if Yi asked him to investigate something, he couldn't reveal more news.

  In the carriage, Min An asked about Xuan Xu's whereabouts. Hua Cui smiled and replied: "He went to the countryside to collect fruits and honey, made a lot of money, and will marry you."

  Min An looked around at the bare walls and asked: "You said you were getting married, where are the wedding gifts?"

  Hua Cui smiled: "He has already prepared everything, no need for us to pay half of the dowry, and there is also a new house waiting for you. At that time, sister will follow and move in too."

  Min An lowered his head and asked: "Then what he said about the county below, where is it?"

  Hua Cui replied: "I don't know either, others haven't shown up, only when old dad sets up his stall, someone is sent to deliver a message, saying that once the one-month deadline arrives, they will come to pick us up."

  Min An furrowed his brow: "How can it be so urgent?"

  Huā Cuì laughed and said, "Is Mian An anxious in his heart?" Mian An was called a big red face. Mian An couldn't ask about the whereabouts of Xuan Xu, changed into good clothes, walked out the door, and bid farewell to Fei Yi and Shifu.

  Fei Yi followed up by saying: "I'll take you to the government office."

  In the late afternoon, Min An walked into the Changping Prefecture government office to report for duty, received the spare items for a probationary official, and packed them into his bag before leaving. Fei Yu asked, "Where do you want to go now?"

  Min An indeed had a place to go, but he didn't dare take Fei Yi with him. The reason was that he wanted to hand over Xiao Jiao to Xiao Bao'er and catch Wu Mei to intimidate and teach her a lesson. He scratched his head and said: "I'll go to the front market to stroll around, buy some small clothes for Cui Hua, and Fei Yi will return to the mansion to rest."

  Fei Yi was a young lady's personal maid, and it wasn't convenient to have her following him around, so he stopped the carriage at the street corner. The dark guard appeared once again, passing on messages from the Transmission Inn and the Crown Prince's residence to Fei Yi.

  Fei Yi waited for a moment, but didn't see Min An return. He felt surprised and ordered all the people around him to go to the market to investigate.

  However, all messages were fed back saying that no one had ever seen Min An's shadow.

  Min An disappeared in the crowded market like this.

  Fei Yi thought for a moment, then ordered the carriage driver to turn back and head towards the government office. He summoned the clerk from the criminal department and asked him about the locations of the pending cases that Min An had handled. The clerk dared not be vague and mentioned two or three places. Fei Yi could only prepare everything and plan to investigate each place one by one after dawn.

  Before he set off, he had to get Li Peinan's promise, so he went to the Crown Prince's mansion again that night.

  After coming out, Min An was still nowhere to be seen, like a bird flying away from its nest.

  At this moment, it was the third watch of the night, and Min An was hurrying to Baimu County with one foot light and one foot heavy. It was called a county, but in fact it was an ancient town, where Xuan Xu was said to have been stung by a bee and fell ill.

  Min An was able to find out about the whereabouts of Xuan Xu by chance. He sent Bao'er away and rushed to the tile house where Wu Mei often played, lured her out, and beat her up with a cloth bag. Wu Mei recognized his voice and begged for mercy repeatedly, finally saying that her family's young master was in trouble and asking Min An to go and take a look.

  Wu Mei had long been prepared to respond to Min An's questioning, answering flawlessly and naturally without revealing that his family's young master was hiding in such a deep place. The main reason for this was to avoid the search by the Crown Prince's residence, the government office, and the non-clothed ones. He originally wanted to wait until Min An returned to Changping and find an opportunity to tell him about the whereabouts of Xuan Xu, but unexpectedly, Min An took the initiative to come first.

  Min An was urged by Wu Mei, and he hastily parted with Wu Mei, bought a horse and rushed to Baimu County. The rural dirt road was bumpy, forcing Min An to abandon his horse in the end and could only walk through.

  After traveling half the night, Min An finally arrived in front of a mountain town. He climbed up the mountain, panting with exhaustion, and sat down on a stone tablet by the side of the road to wipe his sweat. Birds chirped behind him in the forest, he learned two sentences, feeling very happy.

  A tall figure passed through the forest of steles, wearing a snow-white undergarment and wrapped in a layer of cyan gauze outside, brushing away the faint morning mist, as if walking out of a painting, with every gesture exuding elegant charm.

  Min An jumped up and raised his hand in a salute, saying: "Excuse me, fellow villager, how do I get to the county's medical clinic?"

  The man in the blue robe removed the towel covering his face and smiled slightly: "It's been a long time, you don't even recognize me."

  Min Anxi was overjoyed: "Xuan Xu is actually here! Hmm, there's no swelling on his face!"

  "Without it, husband's face will swell up like a chubby child."

  Min An suddenly blushed and stammered: "Xuan Xu can't... be more polite... we haven't had a wedding ceremony yet... I don't dare to call each other husband and wife..."

  Xuan Xu smiled and said: "Let that little young master come with me to pick honey."

  Min An followed Xuan Xu, walking happily for a while, but suddenly remembered the responsibility on his shoulders. He had come to visit Xuan Xu and had rushed to Baimu County first, but the scene of the crime was not here. If he continued to follow Xuan Xu to collect honey, it would be considered dereliction of duty.

  Min An watched as Xuan Xu walked ahead, clearing branches along the way. He hesitated in his heart. Xuan Xu was a sharp person and saw Min An's hesitation, so he asked for the reason.

  Min An took out the porcelain bottle that Xiao Zhi had handed over and said, "The case that Lord Xiao wants me to investigate, the source of the poison is not here, I have to rush to the next county."

  Xuan Xu smelled the scent of the porcelain bottle and couldn't help but smile slightly: "You're wrong, you've come just in time, because the source of the poison is right here."

  Thank you very much, Xiaobai, Pig Ear, icree Xixi, and I'm Momo's landmine (*^__^*)

  Thank you for the hand grenade (*^__^*)