Exile is exile, is half of the capital enough as compensation?

One month later

Qingcheng

Leng Youran and his men dressed up as escorts and waited outside the city.

After a while, Huo Tong came out of the city. He whispered a few words to the guard and stuffed a bag of silver into the guard's hand.

Pointed in the direction of Leng Youran and the others.

Seeing that he was sensible, the guard said a few words to the soldiers next to him, and Leng Youran and others entered the city with the goods without being searched.

"Is Qingcheng so strict?"

After entering the city, Leng Youran recalled the scene he had just seen outside the city and asked this question.

It was really because those soldiers checked too carefully.

Not only the carriages passing by, but even the baskets in the hands of ordinary people had to be opened and inspected.

"Yes, Master, you don't know. There's no prefect here. All public security is managed by the soldiers guarding the city. Since there's no government office, they don't receive any salaries, so they focus all their attention on the merchants and the common people. Although they may be greedy for a little money, they manage public security very well. After curfew, they also send people to patrol everywhere to prevent scoundrels from taking advantage of the situation. Therefore, the common people here don't have any complaints."

Huo Tong explained it very clearly, and Leng Youran and others also understood it very well.

She didn't expect such a thing to happen. Just now, when she was waiting for Huo Tong outside the city, she was still wondering if the prefect here was a corrupt official, which was why he acted like this, and she was thinking of doing something to enforce justice.

Now, there is no place for her to use her abilities at all.

"That's right, it's rare. It's okay to be a little greedy. As long as they don't harm the people, they are good officials."

Huo Tong nodded in agreement. "To be honest, I feel more comfortable getting along with them than those officials. I give them some silver from time to time, and they tend to take better care of our shop. It's not like in other towns where officials have to give silver every now and then..."

As they were talking, the group arrived at the yard that Huo Tong and his friends had bought.

As soon as he entered the yard, Leng Youran was attracted by their three-story house.

Without waiting for Huo Tong to speak, he said:

"You can send Li Yi and the others to rest first. Tian Ze and I will go around."

"Yes, Master." Huo Tong took two steps and stopped again. He pointed to a courtyard in the southwest and said, "Master, that is the courtyard arranged for you and your husband. The scenery there is the best. You can go there if you want to rest."

Leng Youran nodded slightly, "Okay."

After Huo Tong left, Leng Youran and Li Tianze wandered around the yard, and eventually came to the southwest corner that Huo Tong mentioned.

As soon as the two entered the courtyard, they understood why Huo Tong said that this scenery was the most beautiful.

There is a garden in the small courtyard, and a small open-air pavilion is built in the center of the garden.

There are several lounge chairs in the pavilion.

Leng Youran walked over curiously, lay on the recliner and closed her eyes unconsciously.

Li Tianze also followed her example and lay down on the recliner with his eyes closed to rest.

The weather here is much better than that in the north city. Although it is autumn, the weather here is still warm.

As they rocked, their breathing became even.

When Huo Tong heard the servants say that they had come here, he was just about to come over to see if they had anything they were not used to, when he saw this scene.

Just as I was about to turn around and leave, I heard Leng Youran's voice.

"Have Li Yi and the others settled down?"

"Yes, Master, I have asked someone to prepare lunch. Would you like to rest for a while, Master and Master Husband?"

Leng Youran slowly opened his eyes and waved his hand, "No need. Let's just bask in the sun."

"Oh! By the way, did you find what I asked you to look for?"

Before they set off, Leng Youran wrote to Huo Tong and others and asked them to secretly check the distribution of Chu Weian's various forces in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Although we don't attack his people now, they will be useful in the future. Once they have dealt with Xihu, we can take action here.

The reason why she chose to attack Xihu first was because Beicheng was too close to Dongjin. She was afraid that if they attacked Chu Weian, he would become desperate and do something to harm Beicheng, which would be disastrous.

Huo Tong took out an account book from his arms.

"These are the information that I, my brothers, and Li Xiaoxiao have collected over the past few days. We investigated and thought Chu Weian had lost many people, but later we found out that it wasn't true..."

Huo Tong reported the information he had obtained to Leng Youran and Li Tianze one by one.

Leng Youran was listening to Huo Tong's words, but his eyes were not idle either, as he flipped through the account book Huo Tong gave him.

When he turned to the back page, his eyes changed.

"My third brother and the others went to Youzhou?" If she remembered correctly, wasn't he in Liucheng before?

"Yes, the Third Young Master came here two months ago, and the news from Youzhou was delivered by him."

Leng Youran glanced at Li Tianze subtly.

She always felt that Leng Yuning would not transfer the business directly from Liucheng to Youzhou. If he came here, he must have other things to do.

As for what could make him travel across several states, I guess...

"Has Third Brother sent anyone to deliver the message?" He said this to Li Tianze.

Li Tianze shook his head slightly, "No. By the way, Huo Tong, when the Third Young Master passed by here, was he alone or..."

Huo Tong clasped his fists towards Li Tianze and said, "The Third Young Master brought more than a dozen people with him."

Leng Youran and Li Tianze's expressions changed, and they both thought of the reason.

If he was doing business, he would not fail to bring Li Manrou with him.

"Let's head to Youzhou tomorrow!"

Early the next morning.

After getting Leng Yuning's address from Huo Tong, the group set off again.

With the address given by Huo Tong, they found Leng Yuning's shop shortly after entering the city.

Because it was not dark yet, the shop was still very busy. The two asked Li Yi to take his people back to Leng Yuning's courtyard first, and the two of them wandered around the city.

"Do you think Third Brother has tracked down where those people went?"

Li Tianze: "That must be the case, otherwise he wouldn't come without Manrou."

I have to say that the Leng family members have exactly the same personalities.

He had told Leng Yuning before that if he found the person, he would notify them.

It was a good thing for him. If they hadn't discovered it, he would probably have done it quietly on his own.

Although it was his duty to do so, Manrou was still his sister after all, so he still wanted to deal with some of the anger himself.

"Well, I just don't know how Third Brother is doing with his investigation, and I don't know if there's a chance for Li Yi and the others to try their hand."

Li Tianze chuckled, "It doesn't matter. If Third Brother doesn't find it, we'll stay for a few more days and investigate thoroughly."

Leng Youran also thought this was a good suggestion. After all, Youzhou was close to Xihu, so they were not in a hurry.