Perhaps it was because her face that said "Don't say anything, I know you are just jealous" was too irritating, Lou Hong turned away with a gloomy face.

After Lou Xiao swallowed the food in her mouth, she felt like laughing for some reason, but she couldn't help it.

Especially when she saw Jiubai walking in with a nervous look on his face, and asked her in a panic, "Miss...what did you do to Master Hong..."

She burst into thunderous laughter, and couldn't help but feel happy that she had made someone so angry that he almost vomited blood.

Lou Hong was not walking far. When he heard her laughter, he stopped and turned back. Veins on his forehead were throbbing, but he gritted his teeth and endured it. He told himself for the umpteenth time not to bother with her.

Jiubai, who was standing next to her, went from being nervous at first to being calm, and was convinced that the young lady had not changed because of her sudden wealth. As a result, she couldn't help but smile, although she had no idea what Lou Xiao was happy about.

"Nothing..." Lou Xiao wiped the tears from her eyes. Who asked Lou Hong to care so much? She just wanted to piss him off.

Who knew he would be so angry? Could it be that she was right?

After the fun, she and Jiubai set off for her own Yusheng Residence. After calming down, she couldn't help but think of the Mobei scimitar that she hadn't bought.

Maybe she shouldn't have let it fall into the hands of someone like that.

Another person who remembered the knife was Li Huaiqing. He saw clearly that when Lou Xiao dragged him around, the only thing that really caught her attention was the scimitar.

But he was confident that he was not mistaken. It was just a useless knife. It had no noble origin and its owner could not be a famous person.

Moreover, after the passage of time, it was neither beautiful nor usable as a weapon. He really couldn't understand why she liked it.

He could only attribute it to the fact that she came from a common family and had little experience, and the short time she was favored had not allowed her to develop any taste.

Despite this, he still asked someone to buy it at Xiyun Market. However, the mere three hundred taels of silver was much cheaper than the things he gave away.

However, when the female boss saw the well-dressed servant coming to buy something, she remembered the man and woman who had caused some unpleasantness before, and she suddenly realized that someone might have caught her eye with the knife.

Could there be some difference that she hadn't noticed, something important?

She refused to sell it even when the servant raised the price, and even put the knife away in an exquisite box and hid it carefully.

The servant was not a simple person either. She communicated with the female boss several times, but when she thought of the two men she had met, she refused to sell it.

In the end, the servant had no choice but to return to Li's house empty-handed. After being glanced at by Li Huaiqing, he immediately knelt down.

"...No rush." ​​He always finds a way to get what he wants.

────

At the same time, a dusty caravan of foreign merchants entered the remote west gate of the capital. The horses snorted tiredly as they waited for the gate guards to check them one by one, extremely carefully.

The leader of the caravan took advantage of the guard's inattention to stuff a banknote into his hand, but surprisingly, the guard didn't accept it. Instead, he was scolded, "Your Majesty's birthday is approaching. All people and goods entering the city must be strictly inspected! How can you be so lax!"

The caravan leader bent down with a smile and pushed the card forward again. "Inspect! We must inspect! But sir, can you please let us cut in line first? Look, we are exhausted from traveling all night, so we just want to take a shower and have a good sleep!"

The guard took the banknote very quickly, looked around and saw that no one remembered it, so he waved his hand.

"Come here! This team of people, follow me to check!" He shouted at the people who failed to control the carriage, "Don't move! Wait! Behave yourself! If you don't listen, you will all be thrown into prison!"

The leader of the caravan waved to the team to catch up. In an inconspicuous old carriage behind the team, the driver was wearing an old shorts and a patched cloak. He had a beard and was hunched over with his hands on the reins, like a driver who had worked hard for many years.

He had a hat that he had picked up from somewhere and draped it haphazardly on his head. His coarse, dry hair was sticking out from the brim of the hat and covered his left eye. His right eye was dark and lifeless, with his eyelid drooping and his long eyelashes drooping, looking completely inconspicuous.

As he passed by the guard, his body huddled even more, and he even trembled slightly, just like a timid country bumpkin.

Because they had paid enough silver, the caravan was allowed to enter the city after priority inspection. The one-eyed, timid driver looked up at the plaque on the city gate with an inexplicable expression.

If it weren't for chance, he wouldn't know when he would come to the capital.

The emperor was celebrating his birthday, and the city gates were strictly guarded, which was enough time for him to rest here for a while.

He wanted to see if that group of people dared to chase him!

"The capital of the Central Plains Dynasty is indeed fascinating." He remembered the girl many years ago who told him, by the campfire in the desert, about the water towns, farmlands and mountains that he had never seen before.

She said her hometown is vast, with mountains and rivers of various shapes and styles, which is the most beautiful.

This made him particularly envious as he had to follow the caravan because of war and poverty.

Now he stood on the land of her hometown, guarding the name she left behind but could not find her.

She lied to him.

The caravan slowly entered the Xiyun market, which was specially designated for foreigners to do business. The one-eyed driver threw away his tattered cloak when he jumped off the carriage. He no longer looked like a hunchbacked old man.

His tall stature, which could not be concealed by his plain and old clothes, was quite common in Xiyun Market.

He sat at a roadside stall carrying a bag, ordered a bowl of mutton soup and waited for the dish to be served. At the table next to him, some foreigners were discussing something, not in Chinese, but he could just understand it.

"I won't sell it. That person will definitely come back! Do you remember what that man and woman were wearing? I tell you, they are definitely rich!"

The woman took a sip of wine, stepped on the stool with her right foot, and used one hand to push away the pigtails in front of her eyes and threw them behind her. "Who cares what kind of official he is! If you want something, you have to give enough silver!"

Another much older man said earnestly, "Yunzhu, it's good enough. This is Zhongyuan. Your thing wasn't worth much when you got it."

Yunzhu followed the crowd and did business. She had no expertise in dealing in gems or spices, so she just traded some old items from the Northern Desert and sold them to people in the Central Plains who didn't know the value of them for collection. It was a very profitable business.

How could she listen to the man around her?

"Uncle Muqiao, you won't make money by doing business honestly. How much profit do you make from your delicious mutton? Those Han people have mountains of gold and silver at home, so why would they care about this!"

"You can't say that..." The fat uncle wiped his fat hands on his apron, "After all, this is someone else's place..."

Yunzhu smiled and said, "Anyway, once I make enough money, I'll go back to the Northern Desert, buy a pasture, raise a herd of cattle and sheep, and pick up a few slaves. It will be much more comfortable than here!"

When the word "slave" was mentioned, the one-eyed man tilted his head slightly and put his hand on the left side of his neck, where there seemed to still be a burning pain.

The red-hot iron with the word "slave" branded on it fell on his skin, making a sizzling sound. The distant memory brought back the smell of burnt flesh, making the mutton soup in front of him disgusting.

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