Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

The third day of the New Year was the day Jiang Shangxian and Manager Wang agreed to go on duty. She started thinking about what to do about this matter since last night.

To be honest, she now had some understanding that she was just unlucky. She felt uneasy about going to work alone. She packed up with a sigh, put her purse in her pocket, hung the puppy-shaped poison-repellent and plague-avoiding sachet made by Jiang's mother around her neck, and made sure that her sleeve arrows, boning knife, and compass were all on her. Then she decided to go out to the gate of the block to see the person who helped to deliver the message.

(It is probably made of herbs such as Atractylodes macrocephala, Acorus calamus, Angelica dahurica, Patchouli, Asarum, Mint, Cymbidium orbiculare cymbidium, and Borneol in a certain proportion. Its main function is to prevent diseases. The puppy embroidered on it is because the 12th year of the Zhenguan reign was the Year of the Dog. The pattern changes with each year.)

As soon as I opened the door, I bumped into three apprentices.

Jiang Shangxian:? ? ? ?

"Why are you here?" She blinked, and only realized when she saw that they were carrying large and small bags of things, that they were here to wish her a happy new year?

To be honest, although she has been a master for more than half a year, because they are of similar age and are even a little older than her, she usually never thinks about the rules between master and apprentice. The three apprentices suddenly did this, which made her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Why didn't you tell me in advance? What if I missed it?" As she said that, she reopened the door and welcomed the three people in.

Wang Wan rubbed his hands together, followed behind with a simple smile: "Master is on duty today, and we disciples all know it, so we thought we could come together to wish Master a happy new year, and then go on duty together later."

Zhou Ying jumped to her side like a nimble monkey, grinning playfully, "Master, my parents were going to come along, but I know you don't like socializing, so I told them not to come."

This explains why only the three of them came. Between master and apprentice, in order to show respect during the New Year, unmarried people are usually accompanied by their parents and elders.

Jiang Shangxian didn't feel that he was being neglected at all. Instead, he nodded vigorously and patted his shoulder: "Thank you!"

She really doesn't like socializing with strangers and elders! Even if they are her apprentice's parents, it's not okay to force them to be on the same level!

When Jiang's mother and the others saw Jiang Shangxian coming back with Wang Wan and the other two, their smiles immediately became much warmer. She had met these three disciples of her daughter before. Every time she went to Lexianlou to find Jiang Shangxian, these three disciples were very considerate and served her tea and snacks.

"Hey, why are you here today? Your master didn't even tell me you were coming!"

Mother Jiang glared at Jiang Shangxian in anger and ordered the two children to bring out tea and snacks. She then started to leave. "Since you're here, you can't leave at noon. Let's have a meal together and try my cooking!"

Zhou Ying had just put down the things he was carrying when he saw this and quickly stepped forward to stop them: "Madam, Master is on duty today, so we have to go together. We have to leave after putting down the things. Stop working."

Jiang's mother, who had originally planned that no one would come to the Jiang family for the New Year's greetings, came back to her senses after being overwhelmed by joy. She smiled and patted her head: "Oh, really? Look at my memory!"

The next moment, she became very embarrassed again: "You guys didn't even have a meal when you came home for the first time. This is unacceptable..."

"It's okay, auntie. Next time, when the master is not on duty, we will definitely come over to learn from your cooking skills." Wang Wan followed.

Old Madam Xia looked at them with a kind smile on her face. She had heard that her granddaughter had three apprentices, but she had never seen them before. Now that she saw them, they all looked good. At least there was no ulterior motive in their eyes.

But how many teenage boys can have so many bad thoughts?

She looked satisfied and spoke more gently: "Even if you are here, I can't let you go empty-handed."

As she spoke, she turned her head and looked at Xia Zhenying: "Go, pack some homemade fruits."

The three disciples wanted to refuse, but Jiang Shangxian said, "Every family makes this. It's just for the New Year's flavor. You can eat it while you have nothing to do."

Old Madam Xia also said, "The city has been in turmoil lately. I'd like to trouble you to send her back this afternoon."

After she said that, there was naturally no room for refusal. The three of them immediately agreed, thanked her, took the things, and went out to work with Jiang Shangxian.

As soon as they left the house, Zhou Ying couldn't hold it in any longer and tugged at Wang Wan's sleeve, "What's going on in the city lately? How come I don't know?"

In the small kitchen, Jiang Shangxian only worked one day during the entire New Year holiday, and his three apprentices had to take turns on duty. It happened to be Zhou Ying's turn on the night of New Year's Eve, and Manager Wang was not too unkind. Although he was on duty, it started snowing and no customers came, so he asked them to make some delicious food themselves and get together.

In addition, Zhou Ying was on holiday on the first and second days of the New Year, so he went home to celebrate the New Year. He really had no source of information - the place where he lived was too far south and there were very few people there.

Li Meng would definitely not know what Zhou Ying didn't know. After all, Zhou Ying still had some connections in the building, and all his connections were here.

Wang Wan did know something, but he wasn't entirely sure: "I also heard that a few dancers disappeared in Pingkangfang."

"Just a few missing dancers?" Zhou Ying thought he had missed some big news, but when he heard that only a few dancers were missing, he immediately lost interest. In Chang'an City, several dancers disappeared every year. Some were beaten to death by brothels, some ran away with men, and so on.

Jiang Shangxian did not participate in the conversation. She spent the day very relaxingly. Because it was Chinese New Year, not many people came to Lexianlou for dinner. If Cui Bianxu's guards had not come to buy a lot of food to take away, she would have felt that she was bored to death.

Early in the morning on the fourth day of the New Year, four guards from the Cui family were waiting at the door of the Jiang family, which scared Jiang Wangri who was out sweeping the snow. Since it was agreed to take this job, Jiang's mother went to buy vegetables yesterday. She didn't go far and asked the neighbors in Yong'anfang to buy them. If it was farther away, she wouldn't dare to go to any of the neighbors.

As for meat, she only used the meat that her family had bought and frozen before the New Year. Now she doesn’t dare to buy meat from outside at all. Who knows what she will buy?

When the group arrived at the Dali Temple, Cui Bianxu had stayed up all night again and was holding a meeting in the morgue. He had taken a nap yesterday daytime and started to investigate with Wang Leisheng those people who owed money to Hongluan as Hongdou said. Not only did they find nothing, but because the amount was too small, these people did not want to admit that they had borrowed money from Hongluan at first. It was only when he took out a stack of IOUs given by Hongdou that they reluctantly admitted it.

Everyone said reluctantly: "It's just such a small amount of money. Hongluan is really something. Is it worth reporting to the police? It's not like we won't pay it back, it's just that it will be later."