Chapter 71: The Use of Fine Horses
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In these times, eating and running without paying wasn’t easy. At best, you’d get a beating; at worst, you’d get two beatings.
Of course, if you ran fast enough, you could eat for free.
“Who? Who! Who ate a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall, daring to eat and run at Plum Fragrance Tower!” Only then did Eight Fingers Wang snap out of his great honor. Hearing that someone had eaten and run, he swung his large wooden stick with whooshing sounds.
The person had long disappeared. Xu Yan looked helplessly at the guard captain performing like a monkey and sighed: “Brother Wang, you should stick to practicing with the staff. It’s more impressive than practicing with a blade.”
“Really?” Eight Fingers Wang grinned: “Then I’ll practice with the staff from now on. My blade is lost anyway, and buying a new one isn’t worth…”
Looking toward the end of the long street, Xu Yan thought to himself, ‘What kind of people are these?’ He didn’t know whose crazy girl wasn’t being properly disciplined, wanting to send everyone to become eunuchs. It would be a miracle if she could ever get married.
“Don’t let me see you in Great Pu!”
At the end of the street, the girl whose chest was still heaving with anger cursed furiously: “Once I encounter you, if I don’t send you to the palace to become a eunuch, I won’t be called Pang Hongyue!”
After two encounters that both ended unpleasantly, Xu Yan forgot about the girl who carried the scent of thousand-section flowers.
That made sense—every woman in Plum Fragrance Tower was fragrant. Without looking, just from three zhang away, Xu Yan could now distinguish who was standing behind him.
“Third Sister, did that old thief come? The Ghost King Gate people have all left.” Xu Yan turned and said. Mei Sanniang’s expression wasn’t very good.
The old thief Xu Yan mentioned naturally referred to Yue Chengfeng. Without Mei Sanniang saying anything, he knew that today’s opportunity was the best chance to beat the grass to startle the snake. If they missed it, there probably wouldn’t be any good way to deal with that Green Wood Hall master in the future.
With many people at the entrance, Mei Sanniang just shook her head without saying anything. She wore relatively formal dress, and the makeup on her face had been washed clean. Now she was bare-faced—she was preparing to go out.
“I need to return to the Mei family.”
Leaving behind these faint words, Mei Sanniang left Plum Fragrance Tower alone. She had no choice. Being targeted by a Ghost King Gate hall master wasn’t ordinary trouble. Especially today, seeing the way Yue Chengfeng looked at Plum Fragrance Tower, Mei Sanniang suddenly realized there was a kind of greed hidden in his gaze.
Yue Chengfeng’s gaze at Plum Fragrance Tower seemed even more greedy than his gaze at her.
Seeing that the other party not only wanted her person but also had designs on Plum Fragrance Tower, Mei Sanniang’s heart sank even deeper. Only then did she decide to visit the Mei family to see her father. Whether she got scolded or received cold looks, she had to try to find some solutions. Otherwise, once Plum Fragrance Tower fell into Yue Chengfeng’s hands, she truly would have no way out.
Xu Yan hadn’t been too worried about Mei Sanniang’s situation before, thinking that at worst, he and Third Sister could just leave together. Now, seeing Mei Sanniang’s somewhat dejected back, Xu Yan realized that woman had a pride that came from her very bones.
She never wanted to depend on others again—she only wanted to live happily her whole life through her own means.
Unfortunately, she was just a powerless weak woman, destined to be unable to escape the claws of those massive forces. Sometimes people who work hard don’t necessarily live well, while those who go with the flow might be carefree.
Xu Yan had a go-with-the-flow personality. He didn’t care about having more or less money, nor did he care about Plum Fragrance Tower’s fine clothes and food. But ultimately, Mei Sanniang didn’t have the same temperament as him.
Sighing secretly, Xu Yan was also helpless.
“Brother Yan, let’s go. Qingluo is still waiting for silver thread to embroider her belly band.” Beside him, the courtesan named Qingluo said in a crisp voice, pulling Xu Yan into the noisy street.
There were many thread sellers on Willow Street—every household had needlework, after all—but none sold silver thread.
Silver thread wasn’t silver-colored thread, but actual silver spun into thread. This kind of thread was ridiculously expensive, more than a hundred times costlier than ordinary thread. Willow Street had no one selling it. To buy it, you had to go to the west side of the city, because the west side had the most and largest commercial shops. Not only did they sell silver thread, they even had gold thread—if you could afford it.
Xu Yan didn’t often go to the west side because the things in the big shops were really too expensive. Those large horse markets and ship yards were built on the west side. It was said that the price of one fine horse equaled one wheeled ship.
Taking Qingluo to the west side to buy silver thread, Xu Yan wanted to return immediately. At this moment, from the entrance of a nearby horse market came neighing sounds and people stumbling as horses reared. Horses with coats as smooth as satin were being led into the horse market.
What fine horses indeed.
Xu Yan didn’t know much about judging horses, but anyone with eyes could see that these horses had glossy coats, strong legs, and bright, spirited eyes. These horses weren’t for pulling carts—each one was worth at least a hundred taels, possibly over a thousand.
Seeing the horses, Xu Yan’s heart stirred slightly.
It wasn’t that he liked horses, but he thought of the use of fine horses.
The trouble with Yue Chengfeng was no small matter. Xu Yan thought Mei Sanniang probably couldn’t handle it. The man was not only a three-meridian innate martial artist but also a Green Wood Hall master. If it came to fighting, wouldn’t that mean making enemies of the entire Green Wood Hall of Ghost King Gate? Since the trouble couldn’t be solved, naturally one had to plan an escape route.
An escape route was simple for Xu Yan—nothing more than the word “flee.”
Running away without horses wouldn’t work. Once things truly soured with Yue Chengfeng, Xu Yan was prepared to take Mei Sanniang and leave. The entire Fengshan City was Ghost King Gate territory. If they really had to escape, fast horses would be key.
“Horses from Horse King Town are indeed different. Look at the horses they’ve raised—no wonder they’re worth their weight in gold. Their appearance and endurance are both exceptional.”
Knowledgeable horse people on the street were chatting with each other.
“Exactly. These are still lower grade. If they were top-grade fine horses, one would be worth ten thousand gold—those are true thousand-li horses.”
“I heard Horse King Town’s fine horses are all raised wild in the mountains, full of wild nature. Even after training for half a year and transporting to Fengshan City, the prices naturally rise with the tide.”
“These days horses are more expensive than people. Who told Horse King Town to be famous? Even the royal family uses Horse King Town’s fine horses to pull their carriages. It’s said half the border army’s war horses come from Horse King Town.”
“If you really want good horses, you have to make a trip to Horse King Town. Although Horse King Town produces good horses, there are also fake ones mixed in. If you can personally pick out a thousand-li horse, not only is the price much cheaper than in Fengdu, you can even make a profit reselling it.”
Xu Yan listened to the passersby’s idle chat for a while before being pulled away by Qingluo, who was eager to return to Plum Fragrance Tower. On the way, Xu Yan kept thinking about the horse matter. He felt that preparing several good horses in advance was crucial.
As for escape routes, the earlier you plan, the more advantageous it is. He never wanted to use a pig to pull a cart again. Little Black ran fast enough, but running down from the snowy mountain nearly shook Xu Yan’s bones apart.
Touching the few taels of broken silver in his pocket, Xu Yan sighed.
After coming to Fengshan City, he had indeed made quite a bit of money at Zhuang Laosi’s gambling house—nearly a thousand taels of silver. This much money was enough for a little Taoist like him to spend. But if he really wanted to buy fine horses, he’d have to sell Plum Fragrance Tower and it still might not be enough.
True thousand-li horses might not be available even for over ten thousand taels.
Ordinary Horse King Town fine horses, costing several hundred taels each, were affordable for Xu Yan. But the escape route he was preparing was against a three-meridian innate martial artist, possibly the entire Green Wood Hall. If things really became irreconcilable and he wanted to escape Green Wood Hall’s pursuit, ordinary horses might not be sufficient.
He couldn’t afford good horses, but Xu Yan was afraid ordinary horses would fail him when needed. So after returning to Plum Fragrance Tower, Xu Yan remained torn.
