Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 467: A Smile to Forget All Grudges
South of Cangzhou, beside the main road.

There is a Huaian Inn.

According to legend, when the inn was choosing a site, they chose the best piece of land with good feng shui, and there happened to be a century-old locust tree standing in the middle. Everyone felt that the tree was too old and it would be a pity to cut it down, but the project could not be delayed, so the boss and the craftsmen discussed it and came up with an idea: why not use the locust tree as the center, first determine a "atrium", and then build a U-shaped inn around this courtyard.

In this way, no matter the guests are staying in the hotel, taking a rest or having a meal, they can see the view of the ancient locust trees towering into the sky and the thick shades spreading on the ground in the atrium through the windows of the lobby or guest rooms, which is quite an elegant sight.

In this way, the inn was successfully built and its name was naturally decided as "Huai'an".

Today, this inn has become a local attraction and has been doing good business for many years.

However, recently, this inn, which has not been closed for at least a dozen years, and several shops around it, suddenly hung up signs saying "closed for a few days".

This is not the strangest thing... The strangest thing is: even though the shops have all posted signs saying they are closed, there are still many people busy working inside and outside these shops. There are even people who are specifically responsible for standing guard, and they are all unfamiliar faces.

There must be some curious people nearby who would go and find out what’s going on.

Upon asking, I learned that it was said that there was a "big customer" who spent a lot of money to book the Huaian Inn along with several small shops nearby, intending to entertain a few "distinguished guests" here.

As for how many days the store will be booked, that's hard to say. Anyway, they will leave when they have received all the guests. Before that, they will pay a booking fee of three times the normal business turnover of the store, one day at a time.

Not only that, during the period when they booked the entire store, they replaced everyone inside and outside the store, from chefs to waiters to security guards, with people they brought with them, and the original store owner didn't even have to pay for the wages.

Ladies and gentlemen, seeing this, I am sure many of you have already guessed that the "big customer" who can do things in this way is undoubtedly the Murong family.

They specially booked the inn beside the road and even cleared out the surrounding shops. Who were they planning to "entertain"?
We won’t keep you in suspense here, their “distinguished guests” are none other than Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai… or to be more specific, this entire set of measures is aimed at Sun Yixie alone.

Back then, Murong Ji wanted to expand his family business to the Jiangnan region, but he was tricked by Brother Sun in Hangzhou. Not only did he lose a lot of time and money, but he also failed to make the business and had to return to his hometown in disgrace.

As soon as he got home, he went to complain and make accusations to his father Murong Shu, saying that his failure this time was not due to lack of ability, and that if anyone was to blame, it was that Sun Yixie...that guy was so despicable, so cunning, and so hypocritical...anyway, it was basically all true, and he said a lot.

Unexpectedly, after Murong Ji finished speaking, not only did he not get his father's sympathy and forgiveness, but he was scolded instead.

Murong Shu told his son: "Whether it's the underworld or the business world... If you can't beat others, it's useless to say anything afterwards; you lost to others today, it doesn't matter, but if you can't afford to lose, and always attribute the reason for the loss to others, and always want your father to help you solve problems and get back your face, then wouldn't you be embarrassing our Murong family if you show your little bit of tolerance? Do you think everyone in the world is your father? There will always be someone to clean up your mess for you?"
Murong Ji was scolded so harshly that he was speechless.

On the surface, he accepted his father's teachings. After all, he understood that what he said made sense. But in his heart, he still blamed his father to some extent, and his hatred for Sun Yixie increased a little bit.

But this hatred was not a deep hatred. In a blink of an eye, it had been almost a year since the incident, and Murong Ji had gradually forgotten the experience. Unexpectedly, hey! It was at this time that he received the news that "Eastern Harmony and Western Poison" was heading to Cangzhou.

This is what they call enemies meeting on a narrow road!

In order to prepare for the negotiations with the Baquan Sect in half a month, the Murong family has recently mobilized a large amount of manpower and material resources to Cangzhou, and this time the head of the family, Murong Shu, is in charge personally, which is a true "strong dragon dares to suppress the local snake" momentum.

Therefore, even if Cangzhou today cannot be said to be the home ground of the Murong family, it can be considered half of its home ground.

Murong Ji thought to himself: You, Sun, have brought yourself to my lips at this time, so you can't blame me for being rude.

I won’t say any more. I’ll host a Hongmen Banquet to welcome you. Just think of it as how you dealt with me in Hangzhou. I’ll learn from you and I’ll deal with you the same way.

So, we have the current drama of booking the entire Huai'an Inn and its surrounding areas.

On the other hand, Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai, the abbot, and the Niu brothers, a group of five people, were still unaware of this.

After bidding farewell to Haicang Peak, they bought a carriage and headed north along the official road.

They had a smooth journey along the way, and after ten days or so, they were close to the border of Cangzhou. The Huaian Inn was indeed a place they had to pass through.

It rained in the evening.

The spring rain is continuous and the mist is fragrant.

The carriage carrying Sun Huang and others was moving slowly along the muddy road.

When the outline of the inn appeared faintly in the distance, seven or eight people suddenly ran out of the fog ahead.

These people were all wearing straw raincoats. It was unknown whether they had any weapons hidden under their clothes, but judging from their running posture and breath, they were all martial artists.

The drivers Niu Youjin and Niu Youyin were both veterans. Seeing this, they immediately slowed down the speed of the carriage and were ready to jump up to meet the enemy at any time.

At the same time, the abbot in the car also noticed the unusual situation outside. He was sitting with his eyes closed, not moving, but he was muttering softly: "Don't fight, or we will be soaked to the skin."

It seemed that he was more concerned about getting wet in a fight than about whether he could win or survive an attack.

Fortunately, things did not lead to a direct armed conflict...

The seven or eight people ran to the front of the carriage and stopped. Then, the leader of them clasped his fists towards the Niu brothers who were driving the horses and said loudly, "Please stay. May I ask if the people sitting in this carriage are the abbot Fang Da Xia, Sun Yixie Sun Shao Xia, and Huang Donglai Huang Shao Xia?"

At this time, although it was raining heavily, the sound of the rain was relatively light, so when this person raised his voice and asked this question, even people without good hearing skills inside and outside the car could hear it clearly.

"I am Huang Donglai." After a moment, before the Niu brothers could say anything, Huang Donglai had already opened the curtain of the small window on the side of the carriage, revealing his face, and said to the man outside, "I wonder what you brothers want to see us for?"

The reason why Brother Huang answered so straightforwardly here was, firstly, because he saw that the other party's words were quite polite when he approached him to talk to him, and he thought that he was not here to kill people; secondly, because... even if the other party was here to kill people, they were not afraid because they had the abbot by their side.

"Young Master Huang, you are too polite. We are just here to pass on a message for our master..." The man opposite was very humble, not even daring to address him as "brother". "My master has booked the inn in front to welcome you all. I wonder if you would be willing to do me the honor of going over to have a chat with my master."

"Oh?" At this moment, Sun Yixie's face suddenly popped out from the small window, pushing aside Huang Donglai's face, and asked the man outside, "Is your master a man or a woman?"

"Uh..." This question was unexpected by the other party, "...male." After hesitating for two seconds, he could only answer truthfully.

"Hmph..." Sun Yixie snorted coldly upon hearing the answer, sat back in his original position, and immediately made a judgment, "The one at the Hongmen Banquet was either a traitor or a thief."

Huang Donglai glanced at him: "Eh? Brother Sun, if the other party is a woman, can you be sure that it is not a Hongmen Feast?"

"No." Sun Yixie answered confidently, "But the other party is a woman, at least I am not afraid of being raped, right?"

"Okay, okay... just pretend I didn't ask." Huang Donglai laughed dryly and turned his gaze back.

At this time, the faces of the errand boys who were delivering the message had changed color, and they wondered if they had recognized the wrong people - how did these two look like young heroes at all?
"Okay then, we'll go with you." Huang Donglai said immediately.

He was thinking about it. Since they had already booked the inn and were waiting for us, how could we refuse? Besides, we were originally planning to stay at the inn in front, so we should not refuse the toast and go to see how the Hongmen Banquet was arranged.

"Uh... OK, please come in." After receiving a positive reply, the people who delivered the message split into two groups. One of them ran back to the inn to report, while the others scattered around the carriage and trotted along, as if they were afraid that they would suddenly speed up and escape.

At this time, the abbot in the carriage spoke again: "I say, are there any problems with you two? Normally, when we travel around the world hear that someone is waiting to welcome us, we immediately think that it may be an old friend in the underworld who wants to receive us, but why do you two think it is a Hongmen Banquet as soon as you open your mouth?"

“Oh~” Sun Yixie curled his lips, “Brother Huang has many enemies.”

"Mao!" Huang Donglai's voice went up eight degrees. "You are the only one who has the nerve to say that to me?"

"Okay, okay, I also have a few enemies, okay?" Sun Yixie responded with a rather shameless look, raising his eyebrows.

"No need to count, just four." Huang Donglai said as he raised his hand and counted on his fingers to help Brother Sun, "male, female, old, and young."

"Then you are also four." Sun Yixie immediately retorted, "Human, ghost, demon, and devil."

"Okay, stop joking, I understand." The abbot had listened to a lot of their crosstalk in the past few days, so he quickly interrupted, "I think now... after I finish my job as a 'bodyguard', I will become your enemy."

While they were chatting, the carriage had already approached the inn.

I will not go into details here about how the Murong family helped them hold the horses and umbrellas.

To make a long story short, three minutes later, the five of them stepped into the gate of Huaian Inn.

At this time, the lobby of the inn was brightly lit and the banquet was ready; not far from the gate, a large group of people were standing waiting, including the master and retainers of the Murong family, as well as the attendants who were responsible for serving.

After Shuang Xie and others entered the door, the first person to greet them was not Murong Ji, but Murong Shu.

"My name is Murong Shu, nice to meet you, Master Fang." The first person that Murong Shu went to greet was not Shuang Xie, but the abbot.

What's going on?

It turned out that Murong Ji's father knew everything he had done in the past few days, but he didn't want to pay attention to it at first.

Because in Murong Shu's eyes, the things between his son and Sun Yixie were nothing more than a little feud between two juniors, not a life-and-death hatred - you guys can make trouble if you want, the worst that can happen is that my son will be bullied by that kid from the Sun family again, so what?
But just yesterday, Murong Shu learned a piece of information that even Murong Ji didn't know, that is, "Among the people traveling with Sun Huang, there is the abbot."

Then the situation is different.

The abbot's temperament is well-known in the martial arts world. It's hard to say what he will do when he is present.

Out of emotion, Murong Shu was worried that his son would be severely punished if he offended the abbot.

According to etiquette, if he wanted to welcome someone of the abbot's generation, Murong Shu had to go in person.

To sum up, the head of the Murong family thought: Forget it, things have come to this, I will go there myself... If conditions permit, I can help my son and also dampen the arrogance of that boy from the Sun family.

So, just this noon, Murong Shu suddenly appeared here and took over the command here from his son.

"Brother Murong, you are polite. I am just an idler in the world. I don't deserve to be a hero." Although it was the first time he met Murong Shu, since the other party was quite polite, the abbot also responded with courtesy.

This stunned Shuang Xie.

"Oh my god... so you can speak properly?" Sun Yixie immediately complained.

"Brother Fang, we're not used to you suddenly becoming so normal," Huang Donglai also said.

"Tsk..." Upon hearing this, the abbot turned around with a look of as if he had eaten shit, sighed, and looked at Sun Huang again, "You two really don't mind having too many enemies, do you?"

"Haha..." Murong Shu also smiled and looked at Sun and Huang, and quickly determined who was who by the description of "one has no eyes, and the other has no neck". "I guess you two are the famous 'Eastern Harmony and Western Poison'. You are both handsome and talented. Heroes emerge young."

Murong Shu's words are just a cliché. You can say these two sentences to any young man you meet, unless he is really ugly. In that case, replace "a handsome man" with "a majestic appearance" or something like that.

"Senior Murong, you are too kind. We are both young in martial arts. We are just given face by our fellow practitioners. This is just an unreal reputation." Huang Donglai also said these words casually and made a few humble remarks.

"Okay, okay..." At this time, Murong Shu shifted his gaze to the Niu brothers standing behind Shuangxie, "By the way, I haven't asked who these two are yet?"

Murong Shu really had no idea about the information about the Niu brothers, but he saw that the two men were tall and their looks and temperament did not seem like those of ordinary minions who were subordinate to others. He also saw that they had good leg skills, so he asked about them.

"I am Niu Nuowei..."

"I am Niu Siji..."

Niu Youjin and Niu Youyin spoke one after another, then they both clasped their fists and responded in unison, "Hello, Mr. Murong."

Obviously, Sun Huang helped them come up with these two new aliases...

To Sun Huang, these two names were chosen as a joke, but to other people in this universe, they really couldn't see what was so interesting about these words; the Niu brothers even thought that these two names were quite good, one meant to keep one's promise, and the other meant not to forget one's roots... They seemed more sophisticated than their real names, and were much better than "Ma Jin" and "Ma Yin" anyway.

"Okay, okay, thank you both for your courtesy." Murong Shu had never heard of these two names, but he would not show any contempt on his face, and he still returned the greeting politely.

And at this moment, Sun Yixie's expression suddenly changed.

It was not for any other reason, but because at that moment, Brother Sun and Murong Ji, who was standing in the crowd behind Murong Shu and had been staring at him silently... made eye contact.

"Hey!" Sun Yixie's reaction was so quick that he shouted in a weird voice like a brothel owner to conceal the change in his expression. He took a step forward and walked straight towards Murong Ji, "Isn't this Brother Murong? Long time no see! I missed you so much! Hahahahaha..."

As he spoke, he burst into laughter and walked forward to give Murong Ji a warm hug, then patted him on the shoulder. The whole set of movements went smoothly, as if he had really met a relative, with such joy on his face.

As for Murong Ji, he was dumb, so he didn't put up any resistance to Sun Yixie's moves. After being hugged, he stood there in bewilderment, thinking, "Did he mistake me for someone else? Or is there something wrong with my memory? Or is there some misunderstanding between him and me that I'm not aware of?"

Not to mention that he was stupid, Murong Shu was also stupid.

Murong Shu was also muttering in his heart at this time: "What does that mean? Didn't you, my son, become enemies with Sun Yixie in Hangzhou? Why is it that now it seems that his relationship with you is closer than that between you and your own brother?"

There is no doubt that Sun Yixie's unexpected move of taking the initiative... indeed succeeded in disrupting the opponent.

As the saying goes, "Don't hit a smiling person." Originally, Murong Ji wanted to find a critical moment to jump out and say to Brother Sun in a sinister tone, "Brother Sun, long time no see. I didn't expect that it would be me waiting for you here," to intimidate the other party, but now he couldn't say the words.

Even now, he seemed a little rude to be a little cold towards Sun Yixie...

"Ah...Sun...Brother Sun, how are you?" Murong Ji was stunned for a few seconds and didn't know what to say. He could only reply to the other party.

"Okay, okay, we're just friends." Sun Yixie saw that the other party was also in the mood, so he put his arm around his shoulder and said, "Today, we won't go home until we're drunk, hahaha."

Just like that, a Hongmen Banquet that should have been all about smiling but hiding daggers and being on guard at all times, somehow... really turned into a welcoming banquet.

By the next day when the Murong father and son came to their senses, rumors had spread throughout Cangzhou City that "the Murong family had invited Dong Xie Xi Du and Tian Xia Di Yi Qiang to help in their fight for the right to host the Young Heroes Conference"...

(End of this chapter)