Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons

Time goes back to that day when Princess Xiangyang was having a flower-viewing banquet. Wen Jiao was wearing a goose-yellow dress, with no makeup on her face. She only had lightly drawn eyebrows and wore a few hairpins. She sat beside a magnolia tree.

The clean and lush magnolia and the graceful and pure beauty are hard to tell apart from each other.

The Princess of Xiangyang hosted this banquet, nominally to enjoy the spring flowers, but the actual purpose was to choose a husband for Yin Wenjiao, who had gotten out of an unhappy marriage. In addition to Li Chunfeng, several other young masters also guessed some of the inside story and looked at this beautiful woman who had been away from the social circle of Chang'an nobles for fifteen years. There was amazement in their eyes, but more of it was their desire and yearning for the power of Yin Xiang behind her.

Li Chunfeng felt that this woman had a unique sense of purity among the noble ladies who were all wearing rouge and powder and surrounded by pearls. This reminded him of his good friend Yuan Tiangang, who was in the secular world, but his pursuit of purity had risen to the level of a quirk. He wondered what impression they would have of each other if they were to meet by chance.

With an idea in mind, he secretly told a fortune and the result was very good.

"Yes, I deliberately arranged for Brother Tiangang and Lady Guichuan to meet. I wonder how the two of you are doing now? Are you getting along well?" Li Chunfeng asked curiously. It was his first time trying to be a matchmaker, and he was still very enthusiastic.

With a bang, blood rushed to his head. Yuan Tiangang's face was no longer blue, but red beyond control. He stammered, "How can I explain this?"

Seeing him like this, how could Li Chunfeng not understand? He couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Chang'an always rains a lot at the end of spring and the beginning of summer. It just rained last night, and this morning the sky was full of dark clouds, brewing rain again. The guard at the city gate wiped the moisture off his armor and said proudly, "Fortunately, my wife got up early and applied a layer of oil on this armor, otherwise it would have rusted in this bad weather these days!"

This guy is showing off his wife's virtue again. He secretly gritted his teeth and decided to give this dog man who loves to show off his wife a good beating, so he smiled and said, "I haven't tasted my sister-in-law's cooking for a long time. When I get off work later, brothers, buy two jars of wine and go to your house to drink a few cups?"

"Why not? I won't drink if the wine is not good." The guard agreed happily.

His response was a scornful boo from the crowd.

The commander said shamelessly, "My wife works so hard to cook for you, and you just bring two jars of inferior wine and expect to get away with it. How dare you?" As he spoke, he caught a glimpse of a person who looked familiar, and shouted, "Who's that over there? Stop!"

The man was about to pass them and enter the city, but he stopped when he heard the words, and his companion also stopped. Both of them were dressed in cloth, dressed like merchants, and their faces were yellow and black, obviously caused by years of business exposure to wind and sun.

"General, we are pepper dealers, and this is our pass." The man presented his pass with both hands, with a small ingot of silver tucked underneath, and his attitude was very sensible.

The guard did not take the silver, but looked at the portraits one after another. He took out a portrait from his bosom, looked at it, and then stared at the man's face carefully. This portrait was given by the Prime Minister's Mansion. The guards at each city gate had it, and they were told to look at it carefully. If they saw the person in the portrait, they would try to keep him for a while, and then notify the Prime Minister's Mansion to come and identify the person.

The young man in the portrait was dressed like a scholar, with a gentle and handsome face and a majestic look between his eyebrows. He was a successful and promising scholar. The pepper seller in front of him, although he also had handsome eyebrows and eyes, had a dark yellow complexion, faint wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and a face so thin that his cheekbones could be seen. He was obviously suffering from years of traveling and sleeping outdoors. Compared to his listlessness, the man next to him had a plump and square face, bright eyes, a slight beard, a sturdy body, and was a good man with a lively look.

Not quite, but a little bit similar.

The guard quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind and asked loudly: "Where are your goods?"

The man smiled humbly: "It's the big car at the back."

The guard nodded and strode forward to check. The cart was indeed filled with pepper, and the spicy and fragrant smell filled the air, almost making him unable to open his eyes. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, pepper was used as a spice and as a medicine to treat diseases. It was a rare commodity that was more expensive than gold. This cart was filled with at least a thousand kilograms of pepper, which was worth a lot of money.

However, the garrison commander was guarding the city of Chang'an and had seen many luxury merchants coming and going, so he didn't take it seriously. However, he still felt that the pepper merchant was somewhat similar to the portrait, so he dragged them here under the pretext of inspecting the goods. At the same time, he winked at his subordinates, indicating that they should notify the people in the prime minister's residence.

The man noticed the guard's actions, a sinister light flashed across his dull pupils, and he pulled the man next to him: "Brother Ao!"

The man immediately grabbed his arm and blew a gust of wind, which instantly blinded everyone. When the wind died down, not only the two suspicious people, but even the cart loaded with pepper disappeared.

Everyone was stunned, almost thinking they were seeing things. The guard was the first to react: "Quickly inform the prime minister, that man has entered the city! He has a helper with great martial arts skills, and we tried our best but couldn't stop him!

“At first I was just skeptical and wasn’t sure if this pepper seller was the person in the portrait, but now even a blind man can tell that there’s something wrong with this person’s identity!

East suburbs, Chen’s house.

A vegetable garden and two chicken coops.

The fledgling chicks were running around the vegetable garden with their thin long legs. Nenghong was expressionless, scattering millet to feed the chickens, and her feet were skillfully avoiding the planted vegetables. Biyu was carrying a clay pot to water the vegetables nearby. The mud from the vegetable garden had stained most of her embroidered shoes. The lotus pattern was covered with mud, leaving only half of it exposed. The silk thread was dim, and only if you looked closely could you make out the bright color of the petals.

A month after Chen Guangrui left, only Mrs. Zhang, three maids, and a cook were left to look after the house. This old woman, who had experienced the hardships of life, had a strong sense of crisis. She first personally counted the family property, moved all the valuables in Chen Guangrui's room to the large cabinet in her own room, locked it, and wore the key herself. Then she directed several servants to pry off most of the blue bricks in the yard, clearing a place to grow vegetables, raise chickens, and raise pigs. She also planned to find suitable fields nearby to buy, build a cowshed, and buy cows to farm.

Of the things her son left behind, the only treasures left from the Hongjiang Dragon King were the beads and a white jade pot given by an official as a bribe, which was worth some money. However, these dead objects could only be traded once, and once they were sold, they would be gone. Who knew how long she could live? She had already prepared to live on her own for the rest of her life, and she couldn't just sit there and eat up all her savings.

So the cook, the maid, and the two personal maids were all run around by her, and she transformed a fairly neat house into a modern farmhouse. Although Biyu and Nenghong had changed more than one master, they had a good life with each master because of their pretty appearance and smart personality. How could they have experienced such hard work? In just half a month, the two originally delicate and beautiful little beauties were worn out and aged ten years.