It’s early morning again. The weather is getting a little warmer now, and people also wake up earlier.
Chan Yi wanted to take advantage of the sun today to pack up all of Xu Hang’s thick clothes and then hang up all the spring clothes to dry in the sun to get rid of the musty smell.
While she was busy here, she heard a lot of noise outside. The noise startled Xu Hang, who was watering the flowers and plants in the yard.
Xu Hang leaned against the door and saw that it was a group of soldiers.
The soldiers’ uniforms clearly didn’t belong to Hezhou city. They surrounded a vehicle, guarding it as they moved forward steadily. The leader of the group was a man on horseback, and the insignia on his uniform resembled the rank of army commander, drawing significant attention as they passed.
But when he saw that face, Xu Hang narrowed his eyes.
Duan Zhanzhou, why is he here?
Duan Zhanzhou is the cousin of Duan Yelin and currently serves as the army commander in Liancheng. Xu Hang has met him twice. Duan Zhanzhou comes from a privileged aristocratic family. While he is decisive in battle and shows no hesitation in killing enemies, he is also stubborn, has a bad temper, and is hard to train or teach. He does things without considering other people’s feelings, so Xu Hang doesn’t like him very much.
Of course, Duan Zhanzhou still felt a little embarrassed in front of Duan Yelin.
The first time he met Duan Zhanzhou was at his wedding to the goddaughter of the chief of staff, and the second time he met Duan Zhanzhou was at the funeral of his newlywed wife, just ten days apart. This was also a story that went viral at the time.
It has been a year since Duan Zhanzhou last came to Hezhou City. Nowadays, people of their status cannot move around easily.
Chan Yi was also standing there watching the fun, so Xu Hang ordered, “Ask the kitchen to prepare more dishes for dinner.”
Chan Yi nodded. “Are there any guests coming?”
Xu Hang: “Yes, uninvited guests.”
Sure enough, at dinner time, not only did Duan Yelin came but Duan Zhanzhou also brought a bunch of people into Jinyan Tang. Chan Yi was shocked when she saw them. She didn’t expect that the person who was so ostentatious in the morning would come to their house.
Duan Zhanzhou was very rude. He took off his coat as soon as he entered the room, looked around, and pointed: “Hey, Xu Hang, is your Jinyan Tang running low on money? The decorations are terrible; they’ve completely ruined this beautiful garden.”
Without waiting for Xu Hang to answer, Duan Yelin choked him back: “If you don’t like it, just get out. Why do you have to follow me and eat for free?”
The three of them then sat down at the table.
“I’m here to escort the Military Control Commissioner. The Military Control Commissioner is very concerned about the Governor’s death, so he want to come and see it in person. He may stay in Hezhou for a while.” Duan Zhanzhou explained while drinking soup.
Duan Yelin picked up some food for Xu Hang and glanced at Duan Zhanzhou: “This is just one of the reasons. As for you, I’m afraid the position of army commander won’t satisfy you. Now that the position of governor is vacant, can you honestly say you’re not interested in it?”
“No one knows me better than my cousin. Yes, think about it, if I stay, won’t it be adding wings to you, a tiger[mfn]fyi, it’s to make DYL even more powerful[/mfn]?”
“I don’t feel like it’s adding wings to the tiger, but it does add to my troubles.” Duan Yelin was very disrespectful. “By the way, why is the Military Control Commissioner so concerned about the Governor’s death? I never thought that the two of them had any special relationship before.”
Duan Zhanzhou put down his chopsticks immediately: “Let me show you something!” He touched his body and remembered that he had taken off his coat outside, so he shouted outside, “Who has my coat? Bring them in.”
Soon, a youth in blue clothes came in from outside with his head lowered and handed over the coat.
But who would have thought that when Duan Zhanzhou saw this person, he immediately frowned, grabbed his coat, and kicked the youth hard, knocking him to the ground!
“Who allowed you to touch my clothes!”
Xu Hang and Duan Yelin looked at each other and were both shocked.
Looking at that youth again, he was very thin, and his skin was darker. Because he fell to the ground, one could see that there were old scars about an inch long on both sides of his mouth, as if he had been burned by something. He stood up quickly without much expression.
But the sharp-eyed Xu Hang saw that the youth’s arm was bleeding.
Duan Zhanzhou patted his coat, as if they were dirty because of being touched by this person, and then shouted, “Didn’t I tell you to stop touching my things? Don’t you understand human language?” He was so angry that he wanted to raise his hand to slap him!
“Stop!”
Xu Hang dropped the spoon, stopping Duan Zhanzhou’s action. Unable to slap him, Duan Zhanzhou frowned, clearly displeased, and raised his eyebrows. “Why are you interfering while I’m disciplining someone? It’s not like I’m hitting your servants!”
“This is my home. If you want to fight, don’t do it in front of me.” Xu Hang was obviously unhappy.
Duan Yelin then glared at Duan Zhanzhou and said, “Be more restrained.”
The two people confronted him, and Duan Zhanzhou admitted defeat and waved his hand impatiently: “You are lucky today; get lost, get lost, get lost!”
That youth’s eyes paused on Duan Zhanzhou, and he left without saying a word. Duan Zhanzhou then took out a photo from his pocket and handed it to Duan Yelin.
The photo showed a handwritten note in flamboyant handwriting, which says: “Be sure to find out the owner of this item. Remember to investigate secretly and don’t make it public.” And those words were all written in bright red.
“Who wrote this?” Duan Yelin asked.
Duan Zhanzhou: “The Military Control Commissioner wrote it, and I secretly took a photo of it. He asked a private detective to find out the owner of the golden hairpin. He was extremely concerned about this matter. When he saw the golden hairpin that day, even his complexion changed color!”
Duan Yelin paused with his chopsticks in hand. “Wang Ronghuo died because of this, and Yuan Sen was deeply disturbed. It seems he must know some inside information about who was behind Wang Ronghuo’s death.”
“He asked a private detective to investigate but didn’t let the police do it. This shows that he doesn’t want this to be known to others. There must be something shameful.”
“Let’s just wait and see what happens.”
The two chatted there as if no one was around, so Xu Hang lowered his head and ate seriously. When they had almost finished chatting, he raised his head and said, “You guys eat slowly, I’m leaving first.”
Duan Yelin smiled helplessly, held his hand, and said, “By the way, there’s no new room that has been cleaned in Xiaotong Guan for now. You have a lot of empty rooms. Why don’t you let them stay there for one night?”
Well, today is probably the busiest day in the history of Jinyan Tang.
