Chapter 51: For Yi's Sake

  In the kitchen, a fragrance wafts through the air, a chef in his forties or fifties is stir-frying dishes, sweating profusely.

  When he was stir-frying, he would occasionally spit into the pot, wipe his nose and sometimes even scrape off some dirt from his body and flick it into the pot, making Wu Ming and others who entered the kitchen feel extremely disgusted.

  Although Ah Zhu was a servant girl of Murong Gongzi, at the Fragrant Water Pavilion she was the mistress, with other maidservants, cooks, boatmen and florists waiting on her.

  As the host, Ah Zhu saw this scene and couldn't help but feel both angry and amused, hastily calling out: "Old Gu, what are you doing?"

  Old Gu was startled and turned around in surprise, saying: "You... who are you? How did you get in?"

  Because Ah Zhu disguised herself as an old fisherwoman, Old Guo couldn't recognize her at all, but the voice was exceptionally familiar.

  "I am Miss Azhu."

  Ah Zhu often disguised herself as others, and Old Guo suddenly came to his senses after hearing about it. He exclaimed with joy: "Ah Zhu, you're back! There are many bad people in the Water Pavilion who forced me to cook and do chores. Haha, I wouldn't have done it willingly if I had a choice!"

  On the one hand, Old Guo also secretly picked his nose and threw it into the dish, chuckling to himself. The people behind him, including Wu Ming, felt a wave of nausea, while Wang Yu Yan and Ah Bi frowned in disgust.

  "A Zhu said with a smile: 'Old Gu, why are you cooking such dirty dishes.'"

  Old Gu hastily explained: "If it's for the young lady to eat, I, Old Gu, would never do this. When cooking, I must wash my hands clean and tidy. But for this bad person to eat, the more dirty the better."

  "Azhu said: 'If you do it like this, next time I think about it, I'll feel nauseous.'"

  Xiang Shuiyue's treatment was quite good, and Ah Zhu treated people well. Lao Gu didn't want to lose this job, so he hastily said: "Ah Zhu, this is different, absolutely different, completely different..."

  Seeing Old Gu's anxious expression, Ah Zhu couldn't help but laugh and say: "Alright alright, just don't do this next time. First tell me how many enemies have arrived?"

  Old Guo stroked his fingers and calculated: "First came a group of eighteen or nineteen, then another group of twenty or so came after, there should be more than forty in total."

  "Azhu exclaimed: 'So there are two groups of people! What kind of attire are these people wearing? What is their status? Where did they come from?'"

  "Damn it...!" Old Guo cursed, then suddenly realized he couldn't speak profanity in front of Miss Azhu, so he quickly covered his mouth and said with a smile: "Miss Azhu, I'm really sorry, I was momentarily confused. These two groups of bad people, one group is from the north, looking like robbers. The other group has a Sichuan accent, wearing white robes, don't know what they're up to."

  A Zhu frowned and said: "Did they say who they came looking for? Was anyone hurt?"

  Old Guo said: "The first batch of robbers came to find the old master, and the second batch of strange people came to find the young master. We told them that the old master had passed away and the young master was not there, but they didn't believe us. They even searched our place from front to back. These people are too fierce, all the girls avoided them, only I couldn't bear it, wanted to go up and reason with them, then...then I got beaten..."

  Wu Ming saw that Old Gu's cheek was swollen, his eye sockets were black and blue, it seemed he had indeed been beaten up a few times, no wonder he would spit in the dishes and blow his nose to vent his anger.

  "A Zhu Liu hesitated for a moment, then turned to Wu Ming and said: "Wu Gongzi, it seems we have to go over there ourselves to take a look. Old Gu can't explain it clearly.""

  Wu Ming smiled faintly and said, "Yes, it can only be like this."

  Under Azhu's lead, Wu Ming and the other three left from the kitchen side door, carefully passing through a flower bed, then going through two crescent-shaped doors to arrive outside the Flower Hall.

  Wu Ming's kung fu was good, his hearing was very sensitive, and he could already clearly hear the voices of conversation and drinking and eating meat inside.

  A Zhu let out a soft "tsk" sound, walked quietly closer, and gently poked through the window paper with her finger, peeking inside.

  The hall was brightly lit, but only the east side was relatively bright. There were about eighteen or nineteen burly men drinking and laughing loudly on this side. The tables were cluttered with cups and plates, the floor beneath them littered with trash, and the chairs were scattered all over the place.

  But what was happening in the west made Ah Zhu's heart feel hairy, these people were wearing white robes, their faces were wooden and expressionless, just like zombies, if it weren't for a few people occasionally moving their eyeballs, she would have thought they were all dead.

  Abi has always been very curious, so she followed Ah Zhu's lead and secretly peeked inside.

  When her gaze fell on the west, and met a person with a waxen complexion, that person seemed to have sensed something, and actually glared at her fiercely, which made Abi extremely surprised, and she suddenly let out a cry of "ah".

  Bang bang, the window shattered, and four people jumped out from inside almost simultaneously. The northern big man and the Sichuan strange guest each took up half of them, and they shouted in unison: "Who is it?"

  Wu Ming and others, although dressed up, could not change their speech and behavior, so they naturally couldn't speak out, and had to wait for Ah Zhu's command to act.

  "Ai Zhu said in a low voice, "This is terrible. We can only try to make the best of it now." So she quickly said: "We are fishermen from nearby, we caught a lot of fresh fish and shrimp, come to ask if Chef Gu wants them? Look, they're all still jumping around, so fresh!" Luckily, before coming over, Ai Zhu had everyone bring some fresh fish in their hands to make it look more authentic."

  A Zhu spoke like an old lady, Wu Ming listened and didn't feel any flaws, he couldn't help but admire her, indeed a genius of disguise. If he could complete his previous task and learn to disguise himself like A Zhu, then learn to be whatever he wanted, it would be great fun.

  Four big men saw that the five were indeed dressed as fishermen, and with the fresh fish in everyone's hands, they believed it. One of the big men snatched the fish from Ah Zhu's hand and shouted loudly: "Chef, chef, come out quickly and take these fish to make some fish soup for us."

  Another big man also snatched the fish and shrimp from Wu Ming's hands, looking at his flying and arrogant appearance, Wu Ming really wanted to give him a few slaps in the face, but in order not to ruin Ah Zhu's plan, he could only endure it.

  Actually, if Wu Ming's impression of Tian Long was deep enough, he shouldn't have continued to endure it, because Ma Bi would soon be exposed.

  But now Wu Ming has forgotten many details in Tian Long and naturally can't remember this matter.

  The other two strange guests saw that they were fishermen and didn't bother to pay attention to them, and immediately prepared to return to the flower hall.

  Abi had a cleanliness habit, when two strange guests passed by her side, the body odor on them made her frown and couldn't help but cover her nose with her hand.

  When covering her nose, her sleeves fell down, revealing Abi's jade arm as white as lotus root powder. It was caught in the eyes of one of the sharp-eyed guests, who immediately turned around and grabbed Abi with one hand, asking: "How old are you, Ge Laozi?"

  Abi was shocked and shook off the other person's hand, saying: "What are you doing with your hands and feet?" Her voice was soft and pleasant to hear, not like a middle-aged woman at all.

  As soon as the words were spoken, Ah Bi knew that things would go wrong. Wu Ming and others also suddenly understood that this disguise was about to be exposed.

  As expected, that Sichuan stranger stumbled and suddenly shouted: "They are not fishermen, they are spies in disguise."

  This revelation exposed Wu Ming and others' true nature, as four big men shouted loudly. Suddenly, more than a dozen people jumped out in the hall. Wu Ming quickly protected Wang Yuyan, A Zhu, and A Bi behind him, while Duan Yu stood foolishly to one side, his beard suddenly pulled off by a big man, revealing his true face.

  "Haha, as expected, you're a spy."

  "They are spies; all five of them should be disguised as spies."

  "Take them away."

  "Right, catch him and hang him up to beat him, interrogate him thoroughly."

  Seeing the crowd of big men approaching, Wu Ming immediately tore off his beard and shouted in a low voice: "You dare to be so bold, those who are not afraid of death can come up."

  Wu Ming's question was accompanied by a surge of internal energy, causing all the strong men to tremble and become stunned on the spot.

  Wang Yuyan said, "Dressing up as an ugly girl is no fun at all, I'm not pretending anymore." As she spoke, she immediately reached out and wiped her face a few times. The mud and flour fell off instantly, revealing her original beautiful complexion.

  Many men saw an ugly girl turn into a stunning beauty in the blink of an eye, and they were all stunned.

  Wang Yuyan scolded Ah Bi: "Ah Bi, it's all your fault, you leaked the mechanism. Alright, let's all change back to our original forms, or else it will look strange."

  "Sorry, miss. I'll take off this disguise right away." Ah Bi looked a bit embarrassed and immediately wiped off the makeup on her face.

  At the same time, A'zi and Duan Yu also returned to their original appearance.

  The crowd looked at Wang Yu Yan, then at Ah Zhu and Ah Bi, and were all extremely shocked in their hearts. They never thought that there would be such stunning beauties in the world.

  Just then, a group of tall men surrounded an old man with a majestic figure and came out. He shouted: "Where did the spy come from? What's the ghost doing? Want to do something bad?"

  Wu Ming heard this and immediately felt happy. These people broke into someone else's home, yet they still put on a master's attitude, it's really laughable.

  Just as he was about to speak sarcastically, Ah Zhu couldn't help but sneer: "Hmph, I am the master of this place. In your eyes, I've become a traitor. How ridiculous."

  The old man was startled and hastily asked: "Are you really the master of this place? That's great! So, I suppose you must be Miss Murong?"

  "A Zhu smiled lightly and said: 'I'm just a maid, how could I have the fortune to be Miss Murong? Who are you? What do you want by breaking into my place?' Her tone suddenly turned severe at the end."

  A' Zhu claimed to be a servant girl, but the old man was somewhat skeptical. After hesitating for a moment, he said: "Go and ask your master to come out, I can only tell him my purpose."

  A Zhu said calmly, "Our old master has passed away and the young master is out. Whatever you want to say, it's all the same whether you tell me or not. Besides, can't you tell me your name and where you're from?"

  The old man said: "I am the owner of Qin's village in Yunzhou, and I am Yao Bojun. Is your master really not at home? Sorry about that, we can only temporarily detain you, and when your master returns, I will let you go."

  Duan Yu hastily said: "Old man, this is not right, extremely not right..."

  At this time, Wu Ming really couldn't bear it anymore and shouted: "You with the surname Yao, you dare! Don't say you're just a small fort chief, even if the King of Heaven himself came, don't think about touching a single hair on their heads in front of me."

  A Zhu and A Bi's hearts warmed up, their eyes filled with gratitude as they looked at Wu Ming. Even Wang Yu Yan couldn't help but look at Wu Ming in a different light.