Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

The newly made golden hairpin lay on the snow-white silk, sparkling with dazzling brilliance. The hairpin used a wish-fulfilling pearl as the core, and was made of extremely thin gold foil into a double-petal lotus. The pattern of each petal was clearly visible, and a lapis lazuli bead as blue as a deep lake was embedded on it. The gold and green complemented each other, and the brilliance was dazzling.

Wen Jiao couldn't find anything she was dissatisfied with, and said happily, "Give him a high-quality envelope as a reward." At that time, when rewarding servants, people liked to wrap the corresponding amount of money in red paper, which looked nice and decent. The high-quality envelope of the Yin Mansion was ten taels of silver, enough for the goldsmith's family to eat and drink for half a year. It was a little gift from Wen Jiao as the first party to the second party who worked all night.

As soon as she put on the Ruyi Lotus Flower Hairpin, Wen Jiao felt a stream of fresh air pouring down from the Baihui acupoint, gently washing over her whole body. Her skin felt slightly hot, and she secretly thought it was not good. Sure enough, she saw a faint sweat stain on the back of her hand, the color was quite bad.

In the following days, Wen Jiao took a bath at least three times a day to clean the impurities discharged from her body. As time went on, the impurities discharged from her body became less and less, and she became more radiant. Her body, which had been slightly fat and swollen, also returned to its plump and firm figure of a young girl.

Not only that, she also found that the pure air on the Ruyi Pearl was still only sensed by her, and the absorption of the pure air varied according to her exercise. If she read, embroidered, or took a walk, the pure air would be like water drops sliding down the stalactites, moistening; if she ran horses, played Cuju, or skipped ropes - the third thing was called "Tousuo" at that time, the pure air would wash over her body like a tide. It can be seen that the more intense the exercise, the more pure air she can absorb, and the more vigorous her physical and mental strength will be. Until one day, she found that she could easily break a branch three fingers thick, and Wen Jiao's heart moved, and she begged Madam Yin to hire a swordsmanship instructor for her. She loved reading martial arts novels since she was a child, and practicing martial arts and swordsmanship could help her absorb spiritual energy more efficiently, and she could also take the opportunity to fulfill her dream of being a female knight, so why not?

Mrs. Yin disagreed: "Girls should just sit and embroider. It's not elegant to wield swords and guns?" She was born in a military family and was used to being rough. She was envious of those gentle and elegant ladies from noble families. She even raised her only daughter to be like that. Now this beautiful daughter who she carefully cultivated was going astray. How could Mrs. Yin bear to see her educational achievements destroyed?

Wen Jiao had no choice but to pretend to be sad and lower her eyes, fiddling with the jade bracelet on her wrist, her voice miserable: "My daughter often thinks that it is wrong to have met the wrong person to have come to that point with Chen Guangrui. But if my daughter had half of her mother's ability, she would not have let that dog thief Liu Hong succeed on the bow of Hongjiang." As she spoke, her shoulders shook and she was about to cry.

Madam Yin could not bear her daughter's revisiting of the past, so she hugged her tightly and said, "My dear, you are right. Let's practice martial arts well. If we encounter bad guys in the future, we can beat ten of them alone!"

Having said that, it is not easy to hire a swordsmanship instructor for your lady. First of all, she must be a woman, so that we don't get estranged from each other; secondly, we must know her background well, so that there won't be any political enemies who might send someone to do harm; and finally, she must be skilled in martial arts.

Mrs. Yin actually thought of a suitable candidate, Ye Si Niang.

Ye Si Niang was a former subordinate of Princess Pingyang Zhao, the daughter of Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty. She once served as a martial arts instructor in the women's army and fought with Princess Pingyang Zhao everywhere, making many military achievements. When the women's army was disbanded, she had been promoted to a guerrilla general of the fifth rank. She was not only skilled in martial arts, but also in swordsmanship, and was known as the "half-step sword fairy". Asking her to teach Wen Jiao how to learn swordsmanship, Madam Yin could rest assured.

After sending someone to obtain the consent of Ye Siniang, Madam Yin brought a plate of horseshoe gold as a gift and hired her to teach Wen Jiao swordsmanship. Ye Siniang was arrogant and did not want to live in the Prime Minister's Mansion. She bought her own house in Huaizhenfang with a spacious martial arts training ground. Wen Jiao had to get up early every day and take a car to learn from her. After a long time, she found out a lot of Ye Siniang's preferences. For example, Ye Siniang liked to eat Tonghua soft beef intestines, which is a kind of sausage stuffed with extremely fat sheep bone marrow and beef plus seasonings. The best Tonghua soft beef intestines are sold in Wei's restaurant in Guangfufang. Wen Jiao would buy a portion for Ye Siniang every time she came back. For the sake of delicious food, Ye Siniang treated her more and more. In addition to teaching martial arts, she also told her a lot of ways to travel around the world and the experience of fighting on the battlefield, which benefited Wen Jiao a lot.

On this day, Wen Jiao arrived at Wei's restaurant early as usual. Ming Xin, dressed in Hu clothing, jumped out of the car skillfully, walked around the diners, and called out, "Xiao Wei, where is the soft beef intestines ordered by our wife?"

The little Wei she was talking about was the young master of the Wei Family Restaurant. He smiled brightly when he saw Ming Xin: "It's here, it's here. The pot we just steamed was snatched away by those rough guys in a few seconds. Fortunately, our waiter was quick and grabbed a portion and kept it clean for you!"

The reason why the signature dishes are included in the list is that they are the most valuable bestsellers in the restaurant. As the signature dish of Wei's Restaurant, Tonghua Soft Beef Intestines is often eaten up by the gourmets who come as soon as the pot is opened. In order to avoid the dilemma of having to sell out the dishes when they arrive, Wen Jiao asked Mingxin to keep fifty strings of cash in the account of Wei's Restaurant in advance and asked the young master Wei to keep an eye on it. Every day, they would prepare in advance based on the time they were going to come, and as soon as they arrived, they could just take the packed dishes and leave. It would not waste time, and it would also ensure that Ye Si Niang could eat fresh and hot dishes as soon as she arrived at Ye's house.

As Xiao Wei spoke, he took out a square of soft beef intestine wrapped in a dry lotus leaf and handed it to her. He also wrapped a plate of hot cakes: "This is a newly made crystal dragon and phoenix cake. The jujube paste inside is very fresh. Take it and sweeten your mouth."

A noble like Wen Jiao, even if she is willing to collect protection fees, is respectful to them. What they are afraid of is that they will not come. Moreover, Wen Jiao was generous and did not let the Wei family restaurant suffer. Taking the opportunity to curry favor with her, sending a few dishes will not cost them anything. If a few dozen coins can leave a good impression in front of the young lady of the Xiangfu, there will be many benefits for the family in the future.

Mingxin had only taken a few steps with two bags of food when someone dodged and quickly caught up with her: "Lady, please wait! Can you give my master your slice of soft beef intestines? I'll pay you a hundred coins for it."

Ming Xin subconsciously hugged the food in his arms, his eyes alert: "Why don't you wait for the store to steam another pot before buying it?"

The man looked pale and said, "The store has sold out all the soft beef intestines today. This is the last portion, girl."

"This is what my master wants. I won't sell it to you." Mingxin refused bluntly.

The man begged, "My master has endured ten days without food or water, and now he is relying on this favorite food to survive. How about this, I will pay one tael of silver to buy it, is that all right?"

Several years later, Wen Jiao recalled this moment and couldn't help thinking: If she had taken the initiative to give this piece of soft beef intestines to Feng Ji, would she have met Yuan Tiangang earlier?

At this moment, she was just wondering: He just wanted to pick up some vegetables, why hasn’t he come back yet?