The master said not to judge people by their appearance

The New Year is approaching, and the official roads are more lively than usual. Business travelers from all over the country are rushing home. This can be said to be the most important festival in the Great Summer. The common people are running around all year round, just to have a good time as a family. Year.

There is a market town [-] miles outside of Jeju City. The market town is just next to the official road. On both sides of the road, there are hawkers selling New Year’s goods. The shops and homestays beside the street are also hung with red couplets with the word "Fu", reflecting the white on the eaves. The falling snow, what a lively year.

Passengers passing by here sat in the lobby of the only hotel in the market town. They came from all over the world, and they didn't know each other. However, in this prosperous New Year atmosphere, they chatted lively.

"I haven't been to Jeju for several months, but it has really changed!" A passenger sighed while nibbling sunflower seeds.

"Isn't it?" Someone said, "Jeju bandits are too rampant. Every year when the new year is approaching, those bandits will go down the mountain to plunder. How can anyone dare to set up a stall on the street? They all shut their doors tightly, lest the bandits come to rob them." !"

"That's right! I used to avoid this way when I was a businessman. I would rather walk dozens of miles than enter Jeju!"

"How did it change this year?" Someone asked curiously, "Where did those bandits go?"

"Because a new eunuch has arrived in Jeju, and this eunuch has only been in Jeju for half a year, and he has wiped out all these bandits who have been in trouble for many years!"

"This new prefect is so powerful? Who is it?"

"It seems that the surname is Mu? Why is it called Mu..."

"Don't care about Mu, I said who his brother-in-law is, you must know!"

"who is it?"

"Xuanwuhou Xie Yunlan! How about it, do you know everything!"

"I said! So it's Master Xie's brother-in-law, so it's not surprising, bandits are nothing, Master Xie can even beat Yuanrong people away!"

"Not only that, Mr. Xie also subdued the monster dragon a few days ago!"

"I've also heard..."

As everyone chatted, the center of the topic turned to Xie Yunlan. No one remembered the name of the prefect who eradicated the banditry in Jeju.

When Wang Tai came down from the second floor of the hotel, he heard many people in the hall talking about his Lord Hou. He turned around and sighed to Xie Yunlan who was also coming down the stairs: "Master Hou, you are really famous!"

"Take your car." Xie Yunlan drove Wang Tai away, and asked others to pack up their things and prepare to leave.

After finishing the order, he knocked on Shen Fan's door again and asked, "Are you awake?"

"Hmm." A muffled voice came from the room, and Xie Yunlan pushed the door open and entered the room.

Shen Fan got up, but he didn't seem to wake up, he yawned sleepily while sitting at the table.

"Didn't get enough sleep?" Xie Yunlan said, "Will you sleep in the carriage later?"

Shen Fan shook his head, it's not that he didn't sleep enough.

All the way from Yazhou, the early winter turned into deep winter, and the weather became colder and colder. Dragons and snakes are actually very similar. They are both temperature-changing animals. Snakes have the habit of hibernating. Dragons don’t need to hibernate. They can maintain their body temperature with divine power, but In cold weather, he will become very lazy and don't want to move.

The only way to alleviate it is to be close to a heat source, such as a stove, or human body temperature.

There was a hand stove in the carriage, but Shen Fan thought it was too small, so he chose Xie Yunlan's horseback when he set out, hugged Xie Yunlan's waist from behind, put his head on Xie Yunlan's shoulder, and his body was also close to Xie Yunlan's. On the back, it feels like hugging a human-shaped stove comfortably, and the stove seems to be heating up.

Xie Yunlan tried his best to maintain calm. He secretly grabbed a handful of snow to calm himself down, turned around and said "sit tight", then raised his whip and led the team to set off.

There is still more than half a month before the new year, and they have plenty of time, but Xie Yunlan still drives the horse faster unconsciously. He hasn't seen Xie Yuzhen and Mu Qingyun for more than half a year. He misses Xie Yuzhen very much and doesn't know how well Xie Yuzhen is. After the lieutenant general had an abortion, Xie Yuzhen embarked on the journey before her health recovered. The journey was bumpy, and Jeju was so poor that even the climate was colder than the capital.

Before he left Yazhou, he specially bought some medicinal herbs and high-quality furs for body repair, and planned to bring them to Xie Yuzhen on this trip.

He is not worried about Mu Qingyun at all. He has seen Mu Qingyun's achievements along the way. Jeju is governed by him in an orderly manner, bandits are extinct, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and lively years can be seen everywhere.

Thirty miles is not too long, and within half a day, they had already seen the city gate of Jeju from a distance.

When approaching the city gate, a group of people came out of the city to meet them. Xie Yunlan saw at a glance that the leader was Mu Qingyun.

"Brother! Long time no see!" Mu Qingyun greeted with a smile.

"Qingyun!" Xie Yunlan also responded with a smile, "How do you know I'm coming today?"

He sent a letter to Mu Qingyun a few days ago, saying that he would come to Jeju for the New Year, but he didn't write a specific arrival date. After all, there was such an uncertain factor as Shen Fanfan, and he couldn't estimate how long the journey would take.

"I'm counting the days. The eldest brother will arrive in about two days. He specially asked someone to watch from the tower. When he sees you, he will go back to the house and inform me immediately." Mu Qingyun led Xie Yunlan and his party into the city, and said as they walked, "Brother I have heard about the deeds of the past six months in Jeju, how dangerous the Cangzhou and Yazhou incidents are, and the elder brother was able to subdue the monster dragon, really amazing!"

"Thanks to Shen Fan's help, I'm just a mortal, and I can't do anything without him." Xie Yunlan said with a smile.

When he mentioned the word "Shen Fan", it was extremely natural, he called it that way all the way, and Wang Tai and the others were used to it, but to Mu Qingyun and the others, it seemed particularly intimate.

Mu Qingyun remembered that when Xie Yunlan was in Beijing, Xie Yunlan used to talk about "Master". Now look at the two of them, Shen Fan is sitting behind Xie Yunlan's horse, with his arms around his waist, and his head is still resting lazily on Xie Yunlan's shoulders. He also believed that they were lovers.

He wasn't the only one who had the same thought, there was another person in the welcome team brought by Mu Qingyun who also took a second look at Shen Fan and Xie Yunlan.

Xie Yunlan has always been keen, he immediately noticed this person, he was a stranger, wearing a long gown of scribes, in his thirties, about the same as Wei Chengzhi, but his back was a bit bent, and the corners of his eyes hanging upside down made people think of those who wandered around corpses on the grassland vulture.

"Who is this?" Xie Yunlan had never seen this person beside Mu Qingyun before.

"Oh, this is Mr. Yin Wang." Mu Qingyun introduced, "He is from Jeju, he knows the local customs and customs of Jeju very well, and has helped me a lot in the past six months."

"I've seen Lord Hou, I've seen Master Shen Fan." Yin Wang clasped his hands and smiled at Xie Yunlan and Shen Fan.

Xie Yunlan nodded his head as a response. Just by looking at him, this person is a bit dark and ugly, but his ability should be good, otherwise he wouldn't have become Mu Qingyun's right-hand man in just half a year, and also assisted him in managing Jeju in an orderly manner.

He stopped paying attention to this person, and turned to Mu Qingyun, "By the way, where is Yuzhen?"

Knowing that Xie Yuzhen was coming, she must have rushed to the city gate to greet him, but now that she hadn't seen him, Xie Yunlan couldn't help being a little worried, is Xie Yuzhen still in good health?

Mu Qingyun's expression confirmed his guess. Mu Qingyun was still smiling just now, but when he mentioned Xie Yuzhen, he felt a little depressed. He sighed and said, "Brother, Yuzhen is ill."

"What disease?" Xie Yunlan asked immediately.

"It's a cold. I've been sick for a month and haven't recovered." Mu Qingyun said.

A group of people walked to the prefect's mansion while they were talking, and without time to put down their luggage, Xie Yunlan dismounted and walked to the mansion. Under Mu Qingyun's guidance, he went straight to Xie Yuzhen's bedroom.

Xie Yuzhen was lying on the bed, wrapped in a thick quilt, and the maid beside her was changing the charcoal fire in the charcoal basin to ensure that the room temperature would not drop.But even so, Xie Yuzhen's face was still pale and her fingers were cold. When she saw Xie Yunlan approaching, she was overjoyed. She wanted to sit up and talk: "Brother! You...cough cough."

She started coughing before she could say a few words, and the servant girl immediately came over to help her to pat her back.

Xie Yunlan hurriedly said: "Yuzhen, just lie down and talk."

"Brother, brother, you are here..." Xie Yuzhen lay back on the bed and smiled weakly, her face was apologetic, "I promised to make dumplings for my brother during the Chinese New Year, but now I have to renege on my promise."

"It's okay, big brother will pack it for you." Xie Yunlan stepped forward to check, and said distressedly, "Why are you so sick?"

"No, cough...it's not serious, brother, don't worry." Xie Yuzhen tried to make herself look more energetic, and said, "I will listen to the doctor carefully, drink the medicine for a few days, and rest more, and I should be fine."

"Okay, then you rest first." Xie Yunlan saw that Xie Yuzhen was trying to hold herself up in order to talk to her, and she didn't want to disturb her anymore.

"Hmm..." Xie Yuzhen urged, "Qingyun, treat your elder brother well."

"Don't worry, Yuzhen, you can rest." Mu Qingyun went to the bedside and shook Xie Yuzhen's hand, then went out with Xie Yunlan.

Just after leaving the courtyard, Xie Yunlan frowned and said, "Why is Yuzhen so ill? What did the doctor say?"

"The doctor said that it hurt her vitality during the abortion, and the climate here in Jeju is cold, and she didn't adapt to it, that's why she got so sick." Mu Qingyun sighed.

"I bought some medicinal materials in Yazhou, let's see if I can nourish Yuzhen's body..." Xie Yunlan was about to ask someone to bring the medicinal materials she brought over.

Mu Qingyun said: "Brother, it's useless, I've tried all the medicinal materials I can buy, and they are useless, unless I can get..."

He shook his head and didn't continue.

"What did you get?" Xie Yunlan asked.

"There is a kind of snow lotus on Kunlun Mountain. The doctor said it is very good for Yuzhen's body. After taking it, the typhoid fever may be cured immediately. However, this snow lotus grows on the snow-covered mountains, which is difficult for ordinary people to set foot on, and it will only grow in four or five years. Well, the flowering period is extremely short, and it will wither in less than a month after picking it off, and the efficacy of the medicine will be greatly reduced." Mu Qingyun said.

"What's so difficult about it? Just buy it from dealers who specialize in the medicinal herb business." Xie Yunlan said.

The Kunlun Mountains are vast and rich in resources, and it is said that they are the residence of immortals. There are all kinds of rare and rare grasses growing in the mountains, and every one of them can be sold for sky-high prices outside.Just like smuggling horses, as long as there are benefits, there will be people who dare to act without fear of danger, and the snowy mountains are nothing. As far as Xie Yunlan knows, there are special herb dealers who hire local mountain people to pick herbs from the Kunlun Mountains and sell them down the mountain. As long as the money is enough, Xuelian is not out of reach.

Of course Mu Qingyun knew about this, he smiled wryly and said: "Brother doesn't know, the Kunlun Mountain is now haunted, no one dares to go up the mountain to collect herbs.