Kaifeng Bistro

"Stay there! Mr. Chen has an explanation!" Xu Gan was walking forward with the steward of Sang's Wazi, when suddenly a fellow ran up behind him, shouting loudly as he ran.The manager quickly stopped and asked, "What's the matter?"

The guy said: "Our staff have said that the plan has changed, this time you lose another match with Duan Iron Tower, and you will be rewarded with an extra three hundred guan."

Xu Gan was wearing a mask, so he couldn't see his expression, but he stopped, and the manager and the guy immediately felt a sense of oppression like Mount Tai.

"Everything is done as agreed." He said a few words coldly: "There is no need to discuss."

The man seemed a little afraid of him, so he turned and ran away. After a while, Chen Yuwan found it himself.

"Come with me, Xu Gan." Chen Yuwan ignored Duan Tieta who had been waiting impatiently, and led Xu Gan into a nearby tavern. Looking out from there, the whole Wazi was crowded with people, even the street outside. The alley was also full of people.Cars and horses cannot pass.

"You can't beat him today!" Chen Yuwan said resolutely: "This is the biggest corner fight of the Sang family this year." He raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the old Caomen, there was also a tile there, but Sparsely, few people came in and out, compared with the current grand occasion of Sangjiawazi, it seemed extremely deserted and pitiful.

Chen Yuwan looked a little smug, stretched out his hand to caress his long beard on his chest, and said: "With the ring between you and Duan Tieta, it seems that Zhu Jiawazi is about to collapse! As long as you hold on one more time, After this battle, I, Chen Yuwan, will be able to buy Zhu's tiles and make them my property! At that time... At that time, you don't need to fight on the field, you only need to come out from time to time to make gestures , a lot of money is yours!"

After finishing speaking, he yelled out the door, just now the guy was holding a vermilion lacquer tray, on which were neatly arranged several pieces of paper, all of which were printed with the mark of the Great Song Bank.Chen Yuwan picked up one and said to Xu Gan: "Xu Gan, come and see, how much is this one?! You will not have to worry about food and clothing in your life. I heard that you want to study and have a son." Need to support, with this money, you can settle down and live a good life! You don’t have to run around for a bite to eat anymore! I know you have a backbone, but I value you not only because you can fight, but also because you are a smart person , you have fought all four games, I know you can win Duan Iron Tower, so what are you afraid of if you last one more game?!"

Xu Gan took off his mask, his eyes gleamed with obsidian light.He didn't look at the papers, but continued to look at the crowd in the distance: "Master Han, the seats in the restaurants around here are all over a hundred taels a night, and you still send people to guess the outcome and bet in the gambling house. How much can you earn from the people of Kaifeng in this match?"

Chen Yuwan's expression changed immediately, he turned around, snorted, and said, "Are you really unwilling to fight one more time?"

"I don't like negotiating deals with people who don't keep their promises." Xu Gan raised his head and put the mask back on his face: "Greed is not enough to swallow an elephant. Mr. Chen, you will never be satisfied."

After finishing speaking, he turned around, pushed the guy away and stepped out.A few sheets of paper on the Zhupan were scattered all over the floor.The steward came in in a panic and asked, "Master, we have all bet on Duan Iron Tower, what should we do now?"

Chen Yu Wanqi's facial features were a little distorted. He drank a little wine just now, and now that the wine is getting stronger, his eyes are red and angry.He sat at the table thinking for a moment, and immediately said: "Don't call Duan on the iron tower! Change to the new barbarian yesterday."

"Master, what... what if Xu Gan doesn't fight?" The manager was always a bit afraid of Xu Gan, and asked cautiously.

"Let that barbarian ignore Sanqi 21, just go up and beat him up! That kid surnamed Xu! Beat him up, at least let out the bad breath in my heart!" Chen Yuwan poured himself a glass of wine, and said: "When he beats him Once again, let Duan on the iron tower again, he is just a gangster outside the south gate, I am not afraid that I will not be able to beat him!"

……

Tan Zhifeng saw that those people circled back for some reason, and after waiting for a while, there was only a tall and slender figure walking quickly towards the corner. Under the moonlight, his upper body was bare, and his back was shining with white light. His heart was beating non-stop.

Zhan Zhao leaned over with the wine glass and stood beside Tan Zhifeng.He raised his hand and pointed: "That is Chang Yushan. Do you know who he is?"

"I..." Tan Zhifeng has never been good at lying.He didn't know if this was Zhan Zhao's temptation to him.

In case... In case Xu Gan was really captured by Zhan Zhao, Tan Zhifeng thought, he would definitely testify to Xu Gan, and he would tell them that Xu Gan was injured that night, and he was definitely not the one who killed him.

However, Tan Zhifeng wondered if Zhan Zhao had sensed his unnatural attitude every time Xu Gan was mentioned.Is it because of this that Zhan Zhao wants to test the relationship between them?

In fact, for now, there is no relationship between them.He was a cook who had just arrived in Kaifeng, and Xu Gan only met him once.

Tan Zhifeng's heart moved, and he suddenly caught something unusual among thousands of clues.He avoided Zhan Zhao's question, and asked instead: "Guard Zhan, I'm a little confused—a scholar of the Taixue died. Although it's a bit regrettable, there's no need to alert Kaifeng Mansion to search it? Is there anything in it? What about the secrets? If the question below is inappropriate, then...then you should just pretend that I didn't ask. But if there is anything I can help with, Lord Wang Zhan will tell you the truth."

Zhan Zhao looked at him sideways, his eyes were warm and bright, full of awe-inspiring righteousness.After a while, he thought about it, and took out a script book from his pocket.Handed it to Tan Zhifeng.

Tan Zhifeng looked at the familiar "Tiejiang Wang Fenghou Marries the Oiran", and thought Zhan Zhao was joking with him.But seeing Zhan Zhao's serious expression, he had no choice but to take the book.He still flipped through a few pages of this book in his spare time. There was a paragraph in it about Blacksmith Wang passing the martial arts exam and went to the frontier to make meritorious service. But still greatly damaged the enemy's power.It bought precious time for another general's counterattack.

Taking advantage of Tan Zhifeng to turn over the book, Zhan Zhao said from the side: "Poor Blacksmith Wang was trapped in the enemy camp, but he was falsely accused by the escaped lieutenant general of defecting to the enemy. In the end, it was two soldiers who rushed back to the capital from the border to clear his charges..."

He stopped talking, and after a while, he said in a low voice: "... Shopkeeper Tan, do you know about Liu Ping and General Liu's case?!"

Tan Zhifeng didn't have time to answer, he just heard the cheers from downstairs, dozens of lights were turned on at the same time, and someone in the front row threw a lot of copper coins and jewels onto the stage at the corner.Tan Zhifeng was completely dumbfounded.Amidst the boiling calls, "Chang Yushan" came up slowly from behind the stage.

Tan Zhifeng focused on two things, while looking at "Shang Yushan" standing proudly on the stage wearing a mask, while thinking about Zhan Zhao's question.Finally, Yi Yi came over to help him out: "That paragraph is too vague. And guard Zhan, don't tell us little people that you, a fourth-rank official, solve the case by reading the script."

Zhan Zhao turned around and looked intently at the cheering crowd. After thinking for a while, he answered Yi Yi: "Of course we won't judge the case according to the story, but if I tell you, after the battle of Sanchuankou, there are many The soldiers fled back to the Central Plains? Several adults in the imperial court have been trying to find people who can testify for General Liu Ping. A while ago, I finally found two people. Guess what? They are all outside Kaifeng City, northwest of Beijing Lu, a native of Yingchang Mansion."

Everyone else looked at Zhan Zhao suspiciously, the place name didn't mean anything to them.Zhan Zhao breathed out, and continued: "...If I tell you again, the old man Zhang who sells pancakes is also from Yingchang Mansion, and Zhang Shanchu who died by throwing himself into the river..."

"... is old man Zhang's son." Tan Zhifeng said to himself, "Now I understand a little bit."

Now it's Yi Yi's turn to wonder: "Tan Zhifeng, how do you know?"

Tan Zhifeng had no way to reveal in front of Zhan Zhao that when he met Zhang Shanchu that night, the regret and remorse he read from Zhang Shanchu's eyes, when he opened the book "The Oil Seller Enrolls in Repaying His Father's Favor", there was always something that made him He had a feeling that Zhang Shanchu was telling the story.

The scholar who was born as an oil seller refused to recognize his old father who had also sold oil all his life out of vanity, but after finally winning the first prize, he still came to the dilapidated oil workshop. Unfortunately, the old father passed away and left him a lifetime Accumulated, oil-stained thousands of copper plates.

"Liang Er, it doesn't matter if you recognize me or not, dad just wants you to live a comfortable life..."

Tan Zhifeng sighed: "Perhaps old man Zhang also said the same thing to Zhang Shanchu."

Zhan Zhao said sadly: "It's very possible. The tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop, the child wants to support but the relative is not there. Poor, sad."

"Wait!" Yi Yi suddenly interrupted them: "How could the Luobai Mountain Man be Zhang Shanchu?! When Zhang Shanchu died, the oil seller's book hadn't been finished yet!"

"I would like to thank you Yiyi and Shopkeeper Tan for reminding me." Zhan Zhao said: "I never read scripts. But Shopkeeper Tan you said this morning that Chun and Xi are very similar, but Chun is solid and fragrant, while Chun is sparse. But smelly. Only the root of the toon root can be eaten."

Zhan Zhao continued: "I borrowed these scripts to read, and found that the last few chapters of the oil seller's book, although there is no difference from the first reading, but I don't know where it feels wrong."

"I have learned the skin, but I can't learn the soul." Yi Yi said thoughtfully, "It's not that the book is unfinished, but the person who wrote it has changed."

Zhan Zhao didn't understand Yi Yi's words, but he understood the last sentence, and looked at Tan Zhifeng and nodded.

"Well, if you ask the shopkeeper of the bookstore, who exactly is Luoposhanren will be revealed?" Yi Yi said: "Kaifeng Mansion can't even think of this."

Zhan Zhao's face darkened: "The owner of the bookstore is dead."

"What about the other people in the bookstore?" Tan Zhifeng couldn't help asking: "Can't other people prove that Luobashanren belongs to Zhang Shanchu?"

"This is the rule of the bookstore." Zhan Zhao replied: "You have to know that there are not thousands of scripts circulated in Kaifeng Mansion every year, but hundreds of them. , down to the scholar who has repeatedly failed the rankings. After all, the script is not popular, some people only use it for entertainment, and the bookstore must keep it secret for them."

"So the problem is..." Yi Yi also fell into deep thought.

"...There are a lot of doubts." Zhan Zhao continued Yi Yi's words, and said calmly: "From the very beginning, Zhang Shanchu knew about the two deserters and wrote it down in his notebook. The scriptures have always been sold out as soon as they are printed in Kaifeng, and he hopes that the officials handling the case can find the two deserters as soon as possible to find out the truth."

"It's too risky, what if someone wants to kill them?" Yi Yi asked puzzled.