Chapter 9

Jiang Girl quickly served the Japanese man a bowl of noodles, but before she could add any seasonings, a clear voice said, "Sis Ning, serve me a bowl first, and put in more chili oil. My stomach is about to be starved to death."

Upon hearing the voice, Jiang Girl knew who it was. Without lifting her head, she scolded, "You naughty boy, you won't starve to death if you eat a bit later. You always come when it's busy to cause trouble for your sister. You must have been reborn as a hungry ghost."

Despite her words, she added an extra spoonful of noodle slices to the bowl, sprinkled some green onions and leek flowers, and drizzled a few drops of chili oil made from Chinese toon. She glanced to see if her mother, who was tending the stove, wasn't paying attention, then quickly reached into her blue apron, pulled out a small gourd, uncorked it, and sprinkled some pepper inside.

Pepper was still a rare and expensive commodity at the time, and not everyone at the street stall could afford it, which made the Japanese man beside her quite envious.

Noodle Slices and Ma Qiao were the first two people Yang Fan met after arriving in Luoyang. They helped him settle down, buy a house, and get a job as a ward laborer, so Yang Fan had a particularly close relationship with them. Noodle Slices treated him like her own younger brother, and Yang Fan, seeing a faint resemblance to his deceased sister in her, genuinely regarded her as a close sister.

Noodle Slices quickly finished the process of secretly adding pepper. Seeing that her mother was busy adding firewood and hadn't noticed her, she playfully stuck out her tongue at Yang Fan and pushed the bowl over. Yang Fan took the bowl, thanked Jiang Girl, and loudly slapped three coins on the table, shouting, "Three coins!"

Noodle Slices' face turned serious, and she glared at him.

Yang Fan's salary as a ward laborer was limited, and as a single man, he had no one to manage his expenses, so he often lived frugally. Jiang Xuning usually took good care of him, and whenever her mother wasn't paying attention, she wouldn't charge him for his meals.

Yang Fan didn't treat Noodle Slices as an outsider and gratefully accepted her kindness. However, he recently learned from Ma Qiao that Ning Sis worked hard every morning to make snacks to save for her dowry.

In the Tang Dynasty, the dowry was a significant part of a marriage, and poor families found it difficult to marry off their daughters. Even if a girl was beautiful, unless she married a poor farmer, a thin dowry would make her look down upon by her in-laws and lead to many difficulties.

After her father's death, Ning Sis and her mother lived in poverty. She was to be married at the end of the year to a family in Yongkang Ward, the Liu family, who, though not of noble birth, were a scholarly family.

Ning Sis and her mother were afraid that a thin dowry would make them look down upon by the in-laws, so they had been making snacks for three years to save for a decent dowry. Running a small business was not easy, and Yang Fan couldn't take advantage of her. He deliberately spoke loudly to draw her mother's attention, so that Noodle Slices wouldn't insist on not taking money.

Yang Fan understood his sister's good intentions and apologized to Jiang Xuning with a smile before picking up the steaming bowl of noodle soup and walking to a tree, where he sat on a stone to eat.

Under the tree, there were many stones, and the snack stall had no designated seating. People who came to eat noodles would sit wherever they pleased. The customers were all neighbors, and while they ate, they would chat about various topics. Yang Fan rarely spoke but was a good listener.

Once, Zhang Bao, the grandson of the bearded guest, enraged, stormed into the governor's mansion and beheaded the Guangzhou governor, Lu Yuanrui. He then fled by boat, becoming a famous knight in the Tang Dynasty, though no one knew his name. Later historical records referred to him as "Kunlun Son" without naming him.

Zhang Bao, though impulsive and rough, valued his reputation and didn't want to harm the young Yang Fan. So, he took him to the South Seas. Yang Fan lived there for years, learning martial arts from his master. Once he had made some progress, he eagerly bid farewell to his master and returned to the Tang Dynasty.

After returning, Yang Fan first went to Guangzhou and found some clerks who had worked at the governor's mansion. Unfortunately, the mysterious identity of Lady Pei made it difficult to find any useful information. Although some people remembered her because the day the governor sent her out of the mansion was the same day he was beheaded, they didn't know her true identity.

Frustrated, Yang Fan gave up on finding Niuniu and went to Shaoyang. His sister, though a servant, was well-cared for by Lady Pei and her son. He decided to focus on another matter: the massacre in Huanshan Village in Yongchun 2nd year.

The only clue he had was the appearance of the cruel official who had ordered the massacre from a high slope. The man had deep nasolabial folds and a sunken-eyed, hawk-like nose.

In Shaoyang, he found no leads. Over the years, political factions had risen and fallen, and many officials had lost their positions or even their lives. The Shaoyang governor who had announced the plague in Huanshan Village had been executed for involvement in Xu Yijie's rebellion.

The vice-governor at the time had also been implicated and retired to his hometown. Yang Fan tracked him down, but the vice-governor knew nothing about the incident. The only information he had was that the people who came from Luoyang were very powerful, and the governor had to cover up the massacre by claiming it was a plague to avoid reporting the truth to the court.

As a child, Yang Fan's family had never told him about the origins of the Huanshan Village residents. He had never left his village and never suspected anything unusual. He always thought he was just a common villager.

However, as he grew older and experienced more, Yang Fan gradually realized that his village had many peculiarities. The massacre was not the only strange thing; the villagers themselves were different from those in other villages.

The valley seemed to hide many secrets. His parents and neighbors all had mysterious backgrounds. Unfortunately, their household registers had been tampered with, and Yang Fan couldn't trace their earlier origins. Their identities, backgrounds, and even names were all fake.

The governor had personally handled their resettlement, and even the vice-governor he found knew nothing about the details. The fact that a governor had to personally handle the resettlement of a dozen families was highly unusual.

In the bureaucracy, no one wanted to get involved in such matters, so Yang Fan learned very little from the vice-governor. The only useful information was that the army that carried out the massacre was the Longwu Army, the only fully cavalry unit in the Tang Dynasty's imperial guard.

So, he came to Luoyang. He bought a household register and moved into Xiufeng Ward, where many officials lived, becoming a ward laborer. Over the past six months, he had adapted to his new identity and familiarized himself with Luoyang, but he still had no leads on the massacre.

The official in the green robe was the most memorable, but he had limited access to people of high status. He couldn't draw a portrait of the official and ask around. The most reliable lead was the Longwu Army, which he knew nothing about at the time.

An army sent from Luoyang to Shaoyang to massacre a village must have had a significant reason, a secret purpose, and a high-ranking mastermind. However, after six months of investigation, he found no clues, as if the incident had never happened.

He had initially suspected the court, but as he investigated, this suspicion faded. All traces had been erased, and any possible leads had been covered up. Empress Wu, with her resolve, had executed many princes of the Li family without hesitation, so why would she need to cover up such a massacre?

In recent days, he had been investigating both officially and unofficially. Many things about officials were not known through official channels but were well-known in the community. Despite their low status, some of the common people worked in wealthy households, guarded officials' homes, or had family members who were accountants or midwives in noble families. Many secrets that were not known to outsiders could be heard from them.

Xu Xiaojie, the mule driver, tapped his bowl and began to chat.

Xu Xiaojie was a mule driver, owning a donkey. He would take his donkey to busy places or the city gates, where people could hire it for transportation or to carry goods. He would walk behind the donkey, hence the term "mule driver."

Because he met many different people every day, Xu Xiaojie always had new stories to share. Every day, he would be the first to recount the various things he had heard the previous day: "Ah! Yesterday, while I was driving, I heard a funny story..."

p: New book, please give it a recommendation!

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