Lu Qianning and Luo Ling, dressed in men's clothing, had just stepped into the tavern when they heard the owner's words, and the two had no choice but to turn and leave.
Luo Ling still looked disappointed. "Mistress, I had already asked around. This tavern isn't the biggest, but it has a great reputation. The owner is a decent person. The dishes here range from a few coins to over a hundred, covering all kinds. Ordinary folks can afford it, and the food tastes good too. But why are they closing early for no reason?"
Lu Qianning shook her head with a smile. "Come on, a big city like Yao City won't run out of places for you to eat."
A quarter of an hour later, Lu Qianning and Luo Ling stood on the street, staring at each other speechlessly, feeling utterly exasperated.
"Mistress, fine, the tavern is closed. But on this street, the wonton shop has no wontons, the noodle shop has no noodles, the pastry shop is sold out, and the same goes for the steamed bun shop and the flatbread shop. We can't even buy a single roast chicken. Why are we so unlucky today?"
Lu Qianning murmured to herself, "That's not right. It wasn't like this when we passed by this street earlier."
Then she pointed toward another street. "Let's go. We won't go forward anymore. Let's switch streets."
The two walked through a small alley and soon reached another street. This time, they managed to get into a large tavern smoothly.
Sitting in a private room, they enjoyed a delicious meal and quickly finished more than ten dishes on the table.
As they were leaving after the meal, they overheard some chatter in the tavern.
"Hey, have you heard? Two little foodies have come to Yao City. They ordered all the dishes at Hongyun Tavern and finished everything. My goodness, two hundred dishes! They ate more than pigs!"
"I heard about that too. I went there earlier to eat and found it closed. After asking around, I learned that two little kids showed up, and the place closed shortly after they left. The oldest was only seven or eight, and the youngest was two or three. No idea where they put all that food."
"Speaking of kids reminds me of something. I was buying osmanthus cakes for my child earlier, and the pastry shop was sold out. Turns out two little girls had bought everything. Their ages match what you said, and they were driving a mule cart. Could it be the same ones you're talking about?"
Just as she was about to step out, Luo Ling nearly tripped herself. When she heard about the two children, she didn't think much of it, but when she heard about the mule cart, she started to feel uneasy.
After leaving the tavern, Luo Ling still found it hard to believe. "Mistress, could it be those two little brats?"
Their group had been chased like dogs by assassins and only managed to kill them all after reaching the mountain forest. If not for that, they wouldn't have made it to Yao City so quickly. If those two children were the sisters she was thinking of, how could they have gotten to Yao City so fast? They should have been behind them.
But Lu Qianning was thinking about another issue. She had used her light kung fu to sneak into the city, went to the county magistrate's study, left an arrow and a note as a threat, and quietly tossed a freshly killed chicken into the magistrate's room. The blood stained the bedding, scaring the magistrate into opening the city gate as the note instructed.
All that seemed like it didn't take much time. From the moment the city gates officially opened to the time Hongyun Tavern closed, not much time had passed. After entering the city, was it even possible to cook over two hundred dishes in that time?
Lu Qianning shook her head. "It shouldn't be them. Mule carts are everywhere. Come on, let's go back to the inn and rest for a while."
As the two were heading back to the inn, Xi Qingyue was pulling Xi Weilan into a teahouse.
Inside the teahouse, a middle-aged scholar was passionately telling folk tales, occasionally drawing cheers from the audience.
He was telling a story about a scholar who, to marry a high official's daughter, killed his own wife, buried her body under a locust tree in the yard, and fabricated a story about her running off with another man. Later, the wife became a vengeful spirit, driving the man to mental collapse and madness. He was eventually thrown out by the high official's daughter, became a beggar, and froze to death in a broken temple. The story had a satisfying ending that drew applause from the crowd.
Xi Weilan listened with shock on her face. "Big Sister, that man in the story is so evil! That woman was so pitiful. She died, and yet people still slandered her."
Xi Qingyue patted her head and patiently explained, "This kind of person is called a scumbag. He wanted to marry the high official's daughter, but he was afraid others would accuse him of abandoning his wife. So he killed her and ruined her reputation. People like that are the most hypocritical, acting one way in public and another in private. In the future, you need to keep your eyes wide open. Whether someone is praising or cursing others, don't judge them as good or bad based on one-sided words, got it?"
Xi Weilan nodded seriously. "Mm-hmm, Big Sister, I understand. Someone who praises isn't necessarily a good person, and someone who curses isn't necessarily a bad person."
"Not bad. You understand it well." Xi Qingyue smiled with satisfaction.
"Oh, you little one! You're still a small fry yourself, and you're already teaching your little sister. Aren't you afraid of leading her astray?" an old man nearby couldn't help but chuckle.
Xi Qingyue looked confident and shot back, "Let me ask you, old sir, is the county magistrate of Yao City afraid of death?"
The old man furrowed his brows at once. He glanced around, noticing many people watching him. How could he just say the magistrate was afraid of death?
If he said no, he would prove the child right.
His body wobbled as he clutched his forehead. "Oh dear, my vertigo is acting up. I need to head home."
With that, he covered his forehead and hurried away, feeling too embarrassed to stay.
Behind him, Xi Qingyue's voice clearly reached his ears as she continued teaching her sister.
"Lan'er, see that? When he couldn't answer, he made an excuse to slip away. In the future, if you're arguing or fighting with someone, or during a critical moment when someone suddenly 'falls ill,' you need to watch closely. It might be fake."
The old man's footsteps faltered for a moment before he sped up, even breaking into a run.
The teahouse erupted in laughter, with everyone curiously eyeing Xi Qingyue.
She picked up Xi Weilan and left the teahouse. Children needed to be taught slowly; as long as they weren't raised to be fools, it was fine to have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.
It was already dark, and it was about time for them to rest.
As they left the teahouse, Xi Weilan tilted her head curiously. "Big Sister, why did that old man pretend to be sick?"
"Of course, he felt embarrassed. The Yao City magistrate is definitely afraid of death. He didn't dare say it outright, but lying would have proved me right earlier about not trusting everything you hear. An old man losing an argument to a little kid is embarrassing, so he faked being sick and left."
Xi Weilan thought for a moment before asking, "Big Sister, what if I can't win an argument either? Should I run away?"
Xi Qingyue shook her head. "No. In a situation like just now, where everyone's just joking, you don't need to run. There's only one situation where you need to run."
"What situation?" Xi Weilan asked, confused.
"When someone wants to harm you or already has harmful intentions, and you can't fight back."
Just as the sisters were chatting cheerfully, two figures appeared head-on from the street ahead. They were none other than Lu Qianning and Luo Ling, who had just left the inn not long ago.
Xi Qingyue stared at the man with a small mustache ahead, feeling a sense of familiarity, while Lu Qianning looked as if she had seen a ghost when she spotted the two sisters.
Luo Ling felt as though she had returned to those days in the mountains, watching these two children appear and disappear like phantoms.
Xi Weilan also fixed her gaze on the pair across from her, her eyes full of confusion.
The two exchanged glances for a while before Xi Qingyue finally realized why everything felt so familiar.
Before she could even say hello, the two across from her, for reasons unknown, turned and ran away.
