The next morning, Zhang Touer was covered in alcohol and staggered back to the house, falling asleep. However, for a long time, he was already snoring like thunder. I guess he went to the Qinhuai River last night.

Jinling is still Jinling, but after more than two years of leaving, Li Qingcheng is familiar with this city and unfamiliar with the streets, while unfamiliar with things and people. When he comes back this time, he is full of dangers. He needs to master more information to gain the upper hand in the upcoming open and secret struggles.

Early in the morning, Li Qingcheng took Xiao Jinyan to Beicheng Gulou for breakfast. After a long time, he came to a small shop. The shop was not big, and the meal was over. There were not many people in the store. Most of the people living in the north of the city were ordinary people. Li Qingcheng often came here to eat in the past. He was very famous in Jinling City, but only in the upper class. Except for Qingcao, no one knew that he liked to come here, and he was not afraid of being recognized by others.

When the shop owner saw Li Qingcheng, he smiled and said, "Brother, I haven't been here for a long time."

"I just came back after a long trip." Li Qingcheng picked a seat casually, "It's still the third one, a plate of top beans, duck blood vermicelli soup, and assorted tofu to grab two servings."

Soon, the meal came up and the aroma was scented. The top-notch beans were five-spice broad beans. The owner of the shop introduced to Xiao Jinyan, "This top-notch bean is different from the ordinary five-spice beans. You know the Li family in Jinling. This recipe is the recipe passed down by Mr. Li. Later, the top-notch beans in high school came up with this title. The guy is a good person. He only ate it once and could tell the recipe for the top-notch beans. If he started a business, the old man would probably close the door."

Li Qingcheng smiled and said, "I found this place from the notes left by my ancestors. It's just that the idiots in the mansion have too exquisite materials to make the taste of the past."

Li Qingcheng was having a meal and chatting with the shop owner, and asked about some interesting things that happened in Jinling City today. As soon as the shop owner opened his chat, he started to talk endlessly, from the price of salt from 30 cents per kilogram to 50 cents. A few days ago, two gangs in the city fought for a street business, and two people died, and the government did not care about it, etc., all of which were trivial matters. Li Qingcheng was patient and chatted for half an hour before asking about the recent worship of the Li family in Jinling.

"Don't mention this, you'll get angry as soon as you say it." The owner looked angry.

"The more people there are in Jinling City, your business will be better," said Li Qingcheng.

The shop owner sighed, "It is because of this ancestor worship that since the beginning of the year, the monthly monthly money on this street has increased by five cents of silver. Their Li family worships ancestors, but it is not our ancestor worship. This money is so annoying."

Li Qingcheng looked embarrassed.

There are several major gangs in Jinling City. The Heat Gang and the Raptor Hall control the street business in the city, and the Evil Dragon Gang controls the hard work on the water transport terminal. Although this gang, although its name is not as good as the standard, are local snakes in the city. Nominally, they are independent of each other, but behind them are the forces supported by the Li family in Jinling. For example, the streets in the north of the city are all under the control of the Raptor Hall. This year, the Li family worships ancestors, and the expenses in the family will inevitably increase. Although the direct clan members are all invested by the government, it is difficult to protect the people below. They take this opportunity to make money, which only makes the people at the bottom.

Li Qingcheng was powerless to do anything about this, at least he had no choice but to listen to the old man's complaints. If he could take charge of the head of the family in the future, he might make some changes.

After dinner, the two of them learned the money and returned to the street.

Xiao Jinyan said that there was no useful news, but Li Qingcheng said, "There are still a lot of news. Some things are hidden between branches and leaves, such as the price of salt. Two years ago, thirty-one pounds, and now fifty. However, the salt office in Jinling City is controlled by the people of the three bedrooms, and the annual profit is about one hundred thousand taels. Now after the price increases, the income has also increased. When you return home and check the accounts, you will know if there is any trick in it."

Xiao Jinyan sighed, "Suddenly, I don't want to have money anymore."

"Why?"

"It's too tiring to live like you."

Li Qingcheng said disdainfully, "It's not that you don't want to be rich, but that you just want to get something for nothing."

Xiao Jinyan nodded vigorously and expressed his approval, "The one who knows me is Li Qingcheng. In fact, it is useless if you have too much money, you can spend it."

Li Qingcheng asked, "How much is enough to spend?"

"How do I know? When I was the leader of the martial arts world, my money was like flowing water, and I didn't feel that I could spend enough money. Later, in Suzhou City, I felt very happy, two or three taels of silver a month."

"The answer is endless. How much money is there to live."

The two of them discussed profound philosophical issues in depth, and unconsciously came to Yanzi Street. As Li Changfu said that day, there was a red tiled house on Yanzi Street.

The three sword servants of Fu Lu Shou were left to Li Xiaohua by Grandpa Li Qingcheng. They were nominally servants in the clan, but they had a very high status in the mansion. According to the rules of the clan, they served the family and swordsmanship all their lives and were not allowed to marry. If they violated, they would be punished the most severely in the clan.

Li Qingcheng stepped forward and knocked on the door.

"This is Li Changfu's house, right?"

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged lady, and she looked surprised, "Who are you?"

"I'm a junior of him."

The middle-aged lady said, "He went on a long trip to do business last year and has not come back yet. Really, I don't even ask anyone to bring back a letter from home."

Li Qingcheng felt sad. She probably didn't know about Li Changfu's suicide. After all, he was sent out by someone from the family to assassinate him. If the matter was exposed, the news would naturally be covered up.

"Can you go in and sit for a while?"

The middle-aged lady said, "I am a wife who says that there are no males at home, so it is not convenient to come in. If you have anything to say, just say it here so as not to cause neighbors to gossip about it."

Li Qingcheng asked, "Do you know what he is going to do?"

"It seems that Mr. Li from the second house asked him to go out. I don't know what to do. I just said it would take half a year.

It’s only two or three years.”

Li Qingcheng nodded, said a few more words, and then stepped out.

Xiao Jinyan said, "That woman is lying."

"How can I see it?"

Xiao Jinyan analyzed, "First, this woman looks in her thirties, Li Changfu is nearly fifty, and she doesn't look like a couple."

"Old and young wives are very common among wealthy families."

"Secondly, although the woman covered her breath, the string force in my body could sense the internal force fluctuations in her body, and she was not an ordinary woman."

"He is a sword servant of the Li family, and it is not too much to find a woman in the martial arts world as her wife."

"The most important thing is this third point. I wonder if you are paying attention, there is a stick in front of the gate of this yard."

Li Qingcheng said, "I saw it, what's wrong?"

"This kind of stick is called a soul-summoning stick. Only when a person dies in the family will put a willow stick at the door to commemorate the dead. It is said that when the souls of the dead are floating in the sky, they can find their home when they see this stick." Xiao Jinyan said, "This kind of commemoration is very common in the north. And the lady kept saying that she didn't know where Li Changfu was, and the theory of soul-summoning stick couldn't make sense."

Li Qingcheng also said, "I saw that there were children's clothes in their yard, but the lady said that she was the only one in the family. This is indeed a bit suspicious."

The two of them turned back the same way and knocked on the door again. No one answered. They climbed over the wall and smelled a bloody smell coming from the inner room. They pushed the door open and saw two corpses lying on the ground.

Li Changfu served the Li family all his life, but ended up like this.

On the same day, Li Changfu said that he had no choice but to assassinate Li Qingcheng. Is it because his family was threatened?

Just to kill him, innocent people saved their lives for it.

Li Qingcheng felt chill all over and was very angry.

Xiao Jinyan said, "The killer just now said that the second wife sent him to kill you. In this way, can the second wife be ruled out? The person who wants to kill you will be the third wife?"

Li Qingcheng said, "That's unknown. No matter who it is, if I find it out, he will definitely be worse than life and death."

Li Qingcheng turned around and came out.

“Where will go next?”

"Qinhuai River, drink flower wine."

Xiao Jinyan advised, "I know you are in a bad mood, so let's do the important things first."

Li Qingcheng said, "Just go and do the important business."

Xiao Jinyan looked up at the sun, "It's just after noon. Even if you go to the brothel, you have to wait for the door to open. Besides, I have Yuwenshuang and you have a little master. We can't do anything to sorry for them."

"Stop talking nonsense, go or not?"

"Not to be an example!"

...

Brothels, no matter where they are, are extremely beautiful. Brothels on the Qinhuai River are unique and have formed a unique brothel culture over the past thousand years.

The brothels in other places are built on land. Only the Qinhuai River formed a unique pleasure boat culture. It was noon, and several pleasure boats were docked on the Qinhuai River, carving dragons and phoenixes, and the colors were colorful. The size of the pleasure boats, the decorations and the flags on the boat also determined the identity of these brothel women.

The eight beauties of Qinhuai have their own merits.

Xiao Jinyan suddenly remembered that he met Li Qingcheng here.

At that time, he came to visit Zhao Ya, the leader of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai. Li Qingcheng was a playboy in Jinling and was also the "martial arts leader". Because of this woman, the two started fighting.

The battle was overturned. I don’t know how many pleasure boats were removed, and the winner was not decided. In the end, the two made a bet with whether there was a mole on Zhao Ya’s butt, and Xiao Jinyan lost 1,000 taels of silver.

Now, it's already year.

The Qinhuai River is still full of all kinds of styles, but the Yiren has changed over and over again. The famous Qinhuai ship is no longer there. However, Zhao Ya, who is said to have met true love, scattered all her wealth, redeem herself, and followed a scholar to Beijing to take the exam.

Instead, there are more gorgeous pleasure boats and taller tower boats.

A woman stopped them and said in a stunning manner, "Two young men, are you here to have fun? Why don't you come with me and be satisfied with you."

The woman was wearing a semi-new green dress, which looked excellent in texture, but there were obvious traces of repairs on the corners of the clothes. She had a good figure and was wearing heavy makeup on her face, but she couldn't stop a faint scar. Originally, she just saw a customer looking around the Qinhuai River and tentatively checking for business, but when she saw Xiao Jinyan and Li Qingcheng, her face froze immediately, and she turned around and left.

Xiao Jinyan and Li Qingcheng said in unison, "Zhao Ya!"

The woman said, "You recognized the wrong person!"

The two of them stood in front of her. Who was Zhao Ya? But the beautiful and graceful love at that time has become vulgar now.

Zhao Ya sighed and said, "If you are having fun, I am willing to accompany you. If there is nothing else, let me go there and don't delay my business."

Unexpectedly, I met an old friend here.

The last time Xiao Jinyan met Zhao Ya was at the Feast of Flowers outside Yangzhou City, but at that time he was fighting wits and courage with Yu Wenshuang and did not talk to her.

The three of them found a place, asked for a cup of tea, and sat down.

"Didn't you say that you went to Beijing with a scholar to take the exam?"

Hearing this, Zhao Ya's eyes showed a sense of hatred, "But another Chen Shimei, all the vows are lying. What about Hongxiu Tianxiang, what about death? He went to the capital and won the Jinshi. There were so many powerful people in the capital, and they all competed to curry favor with him and the same mansion.

Yin's daughter got up. She drove me out of the door with her own hands in front of the woman and sent someone to scratch my face."

As he spoke, Zhao Ya's forehead was exposed and she gritted her teeth.

Time is like a knife, life is like a play. No, it is even more bizarre than the script. Who would have expected that the Qinhuai courtesan, who was charming and proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and if everyone wants to meet, they have to spend money like money, has now become a woman who uses heavy makeup to attract customers on the long street?

Li Qingcheng said, "You can find me, or go find my book boy Qingcao."
To be continued...