On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

The chess and card Buddha was hugging a beautiful woman, drinking and flirting comfortably. When he saw Lin Zhen breaking in, he was not startled. Instead, he laughed loudly and grabbed the beautiful woman's swollen chest very naturally, causing the beautiful woman to scream before pushing her aside.

The old monk adjusted his flamboyant brocade robes and winked at Lin Zhen as he approached, his tone slick, "Hey! Isn't this the prince? You have a house full of beautiful wives and relatives, all as pretty as flowers, yet you have the heart to seek pleasure in this filthy place? Perhaps you're tired of home-cooked meals and crave a taste of wildflowers?"

His tone was teasing, his eyes full of amusement.

Lin Zhen's face darkened. He was too lazy to argue with him and frowned impatiently, "Old monk, stop talking nonsense to me! Follow me!"

After saying this, without even looking at the mischievous look on the chess and card Buddha's face, he turned around and walked straight towards the more secluded luxury box in the building.

The chess and card Buddha was not annoyed. He chuckled twice, picked up the wine glass and drank it in one gulp. Then he patted his butt and shook his shiny head to keep up with Lin Zhen's pace.

As soon as the two of them walked into the luxuriously decorated box with a scarlet Persian carpet on the floor, and before Lin Zhen even had the time to sit down on the soft rosewood armchair, Hou Chun, who had been his silent personal guard, quickly stepped forward, respectfully presented a secret letter with a wax seal with both hands, and said in a low voice.

"Prince! Urgent military reports have just arrived from the northern border, eight hundred miles away! Yanmen Pass has been completely captured! Our elite vanguard battalion has broken through the Yanshan barrier and is advancing westward, now completely encircling the capital of Northern Yan!"

"Yeah." Lin Zhen's eyes flashed, and although his heart was in turmoil, his face remained calm, and he just nodded slightly.

He took the heavy secret letter and knew the information in it was true.

He casually placed the secret letter on a small rosewood table beside him and waved to Hou Chun.

Hou Chun understood, bowed, and quietly retreated to the outside of the box to guard it, and gently closed the heavy door.

At this moment, only Lin Zhen and Chess Buddha were left in the huge luxurious box.

The air was filled with sandalwood and a luxurious sweet aroma.

Lin Zhen then sat down heavily in the large and comfortable armchair, his body sinking deeply into the soft brocade cushions.

He habitually took out his white jade pipe from his bosom, lit the fine tobacco inside with a fire stick, took a deep breath, and immediately the pungent smoke filled his mouth and lungs.

He looked through the rising green smoke at the chess and card Buddha who was sitting carefree across from him.

"Old monk," Lin Zhen's voice was hoarse and full of undisguised mockery, "You have a body like that, always wallowing in the world of women. Aren't you afraid that one day you'll die on the belly of one of these girls? Is that really true? Even if you die under the peony flowers, you'll still be a romantic ghost."

The Chess and Cards Buddha also took out his old pipe, which was carved with a Suanni and looked quite ancient. He slowly filled it with tobacco, lit it, and took a deep puff.

His cloudy eyes looked even more hazy in the smoke. He sighed in an unusually low voice, as if filled with endless vicissitudes of life: "Alas... If I could really die... I would have died long ago."

These words were like wisps of smoke, yet they carried with them a frightening, lifeless sense of helplessness.

Lin Zhen's hand holding the pipe paused, and his eyes in the smoke suddenly focused!

The strange message conveyed by these words suddenly made him feel an indescribable doubt and inquiry. "What do you mean by this?!"

The Chess and Cards Buddha just rolled his cloudy eyes and shook his head slowly. His wrinkled old face habitually wore that mysterious expression of "the secret cannot be revealed". He closed his mouth tightly, obviously unwilling to reveal anything more.

Lin Zhen stared at him for a moment, that strange feeling lingering in his heart, but the other party's clear attitude of keeping him at a distance made him realize that it was useless to ask.

Lin Zhen took a puff of his cigarette and decided to put the matter aside for now. He tapped his pipe against the edge of the ashtray, letting the ashes fall. His tone suddenly turned cold and stern:

"Stop playing tricks. Tell me, where exactly are the Xuanhe Sect's lair and that Harde Sect?! I'm going to wipe them out this time!"

The Chess and Cards Buddha exhaled his last puff of thick smoke, as if to expel the heavy emotions that had just been revealed. His face returned to his signature philistine and sly look. He spread out his hands, looking like a rogue who said, "I know nothing."

"My Lord, please understand. I am only a layman who eats vegetarian food, chants Buddhist scriptures, and enjoys the secular world. How could I know where these fighting and murderous martial arts sects are hiding?"

Lin Zhen's eyes suddenly turned fierce, like two cold blades piercing the chess and card Buddha!

The temperature in the box seemed to drop several degrees!

"Don't play dumb!" Lin Zhen's voice was firm and resolute, with unquestionable determination, "Even if you don't tell me now, I can still uncover their nests of rats one by one! And then..."

Every word he spoke was like ice: "Pull them up by the roots! Leave no blade of grass behind! Not a single one will escape!"

Feeling the destructive murderous aura that had almost solidified and was sweeping over Lin Zhen, the slick smile on Chess Buddha's face froze, as if his neck was being strangled. A trace of solemnity flashed through the depths of his eyes. He smacked his lips and then slowly said:

"The prince has a murderous streak... well, the Xuanhe Clan isn't that mysterious. They used to be in Qingzhou, but have now moved south and settled in Southern Chu. Han Tianxing, the current Prime Minister of Chu, is just a figure pushed to the forefront by the Xuanhe Clan. As for uprooting them..."

He paused, a strange light flashing in his cloudy old eyes. "If Nanchu is destroyed, the Xuanhe Sect will naturally collapse. Oh, by the way, the current emperor of Nanchu, Chu Batian, is Han Tianxing's cousin by seniority. The Nanchu royal family and the Xuanhe Sect have a deep connection and can be considered to be of the same lineage."

He spread his hands again and said, "As for the Hardemen, I've only heard of them, but never seen them. They're cunning and secretive, hiding deeper than rats underground."

Lin Zhen listened, his face expressionless, but he secretly confirmed it in his heart.

The information the old monk revealed about the Xuanhe Sect, especially its roots in Nanchu and its relationship with the Nanchu royal family, was roughly consistent with the information he had mastered and inferred, and did not exceed his expectations.

This also further confirms the intelligence value of this old guy.

Lin Zhen nodded, picked up his pipe again, and spoke with the confidence of a master strategist: "The shipyard in Wuqing is now able to mass-produce new warships. Although the output is meager, barely one a month, as soon as the time is right, I will personally lead the fleet and march south! I will settle this blood debt with interest, with that dog-like Emperor of Southern Chu and the Xuanhe Sect!"

He obviously had a plan for the future layout of the navy.

When the topic came to this, Lin Zhen suddenly remembered a question that had been lingering in his mind for a long time.

He looked at the Chess and Cards Buddha again, his gaze sharp as a hawk, inquiring. "But before we settle this account, I have a question I must ask you. Before Qingxia gave birth, the child was still safely in her womb. Why did you so categorically assert that this child would be difficult to deliver, that heaven had prevented it? You even pointed out that the sun would be obscured? How did you foresee all this?"

Lin Zhen took a step closer, stopped smoking, and stared at the chess and card Buddha with a look of urgency, "Don't tell me, you really calculated it?!"

The Chess Buddha met Lin Zhen's intense gaze, but simply pulled the corners of his mouth, revealing an extremely mysterious and incomprehensible smile. He gently put down the pipe in his hand and slowly uttered two words:

"The secret of heaven...cannot be revealed." He still had that mysterious look that could infuriate people to death.

Lin Zhen looked at his expression of being as calm as a dead pig and felt a sense of suffocation in his heart!

He snorted heavily and was too lazy to talk nonsense with this pretentious old bald donkey.

"Why the hell would I come to you for no reason? It's so unlucky!"

Lin Zhen suddenly stood up from the armchair, put his pipe to his waist, and walked out of the box.

When he reached the door, he paused slightly, not even bothering to turn his head, but he raised his hand and a heavy brocade bag with a sound of breaking wind accurately hit the table in front of the chess and card Buddha. It was obviously filled with valuable silver cakes.

"Take it! I hope you get what you want soon and die on some girl's belly!" Lin Zhen's voice was filled with undisguised sarcasm and dissatisfaction. Then he opened the door of the box with a "bang" and strode out without looking back.

The chess and card Buddha sat there, watching Lin Zhen's disappearing back, then looked down at the bulging purse on the table.

The mercenary smile immediately appeared on the wrinkled old face. He took the brocade bag into his arms without any hesitation and even weighed it.

Instead of being annoyed by Lin Zhen's curse, he grinned from ear to ear, without even saying a polite word like "Thank you, Prince, for the reward", and just focused on getting the money.

Lin Zhen walked out of the gate of Qiong Yu Pavilion with a gloomy face, feeling a surge of anger at the chess and card Buddha's deliberate mystification.

The bright sunlight made him squint slightly.

He jumped on his horse, not even glancing at the women behind him. He gave a brief order to Hou Chun and the others who were waiting outside with their horses:

"go!"

The group whipped their horses and left the bustling city, heading straight for the north gate.