Chapter 272

The original topic was diverged  because of the words just now,  Xu Ran returned to it and asked King Yan, “How’s the investigation of those people? Where are they now?”

King Yan said, “They are still outside the city. I have someone arrange a temporary place for them to stay in and not let them enter the city. As for their backgrounds, I’m not sure yet. I’ve already asked someone to investigate. I should have heard from them within a few days, barring accidents.”

Xu Ran thought for a moment and said, “I think you can find some trustworthy beggars to get close to them. As long as they are not too sophisticated, they will always give the game away. Those beggars are good at seeing which way the wind blows. I’m sure they are more useful than your men.”

After hearing Xu Ran’s words, King Yan started to think seriously. He said to Xu Ran a moment later, “You’re right. Whether it works or not, my men have already been sent out and the news will definitely come from them. As for finding some beggars to do these things, it won’t be a loss for me even if they can’t do it.”

Xu Ran nodded. “That’s the point. You have nothing to lose.”

King Yan cast an appreciative gaze at Xu Ran and said, “I really want to know where you learned all these crooked ideas. It’s not some harmful, but it can always trick people.”

Xu Ran rubbed his nose and thought to himself, “What kind of trick did I make to let King Yan think so?”

Before he could understand, King Yan spoke again, “As for the factory, I’m going to break ground on it these days, but we don’t know what to do exactly. I guess you’ll have to talk to the people who will build it.”

Thinking that he had nothing else to do except to start thinking about summer dishes, Xu Ran nodded in agreement.

It was a matter of once and for all to build the factory. It could also be used as a reference for other things in the future. What was more important was that the grass by the camp would soon be filled with cows and sheep. They will need a place for shelter in cold weather. They could have done it the same way to build the cowshed and sheepfold. It was not only a shelter for cows and sheep, it was also a kind of defense.

However, Xu Ran did not say it, and it was useless to say it now. King Yan would not believe it,  so he’ll have to wait until this is fixed before he can be convincing.

The two of them didn’t talk long before Lu Qi and the rest came over. They were already on the way to the Red Tower when they coincidentally bumped into Gao Quan, so they came over together, which saved a lot of time.

Afterall they all arrived, Liu Tong and Shao Yu brought the hotpot condiment up. They used the largest iron basin and it was filled with red hotpot condiment, which looked very delicious.

The food in the military camp was not too bad, but it was absolutely not good. In terms of taste, it couldn’t compare with hot pot at all, so Tangtang and Guoguo were very excited.

However, they could only feel the excitement in their hearts due to their age. After all, they still had to deal with Xiao Qingyun, Yan Lan and Yan Hao. Even Lu Qi and Du Xin came over to ask them about the military camp.

What was more, the most terrible thing was Du Xin’s eager appearance, which had obviously shown that he also wanted to have a try.

Lu Qi would never let Du Xin go to a military camp, so he gave him another good lesson. Du Xin was thick-skinned enough to feel nothing about it. But he was also smart enough to not mention it anymore. He just thouhgt that he could talk to him when they were alone.

No one knew about this at first, but Du Xin unconsciously muttered it to himself. Then everyone heard it, but everyone pretended not to hear it. Lu Qi was so angry that he really wanted to punch Du Xin.

Even Xu Ran felt that Du Xin was getting more and more stupid now. Although he looked stupid when they first met, he was worse now! He could still trick him when they were in Halfmoon Town. But for some reason,he had become like this now. Xu Ran could not help but cast a sympathetic look at Lu Qi.

Lu Qi lowered his head to eat himself, pretending that he didn’t see Xu Ran’s sympathetic gaze. But his heart was filled with bitterness.

There were a lof of people and it was the hot pot they were eating, and they would talk with each other while eating and drinking. In the end, this meal lasted for two whole hours.

All the dishes and meat were eaten, and they had no idea how many pots of tea they had drunk.

After the meal, Gao Quan and Shao Yu continued to work, while Xu Ran went home. King Yan and Lu Qi also had their own things to do, so only Xiao Qingyun took the two children with him to go to Xu Ran’s home.

They were in a hurry when they first moved here. And since they had just arrived, they did not have any banquet. So Xiao Qingyun and the rest had never been here. It was the first time they came, the three of them were so excited and Xu Ran showed them around the house.

Since Tangtang and Guoguo had already grown up, Xiao Qingyun didn’t have much to say to them, so she pestered Liu Tong to see the uniform of the staff of the Red Tower that was embroidered by him. It was designed by Lu Qi, he had drawn the styles so that Liu Tong could embroider according to it. Liu Tong accidentally let the cat out of the bag once when he went to pick up Baozi, so Xiao Qingyun remembered it and he had always wanted to have a look.

Now that he had finally come here, he would not let go of this opportunity.

Liu Tong thought that Tangtang and Guoguo had three days at home and agreed.

Xiao Qingyun handed Yan Lan and Yan Hao to Baozi and let Baozi take them to play. He followed Liu Tong and entered the house, and he was still muttering something.

On the other hand, Xu Ran could only get together with the two children, but it was just right. He was just about to talk to them, Guoguo and Tangtang also seemed to have something to say to him.

Instead of talking what he was about to say, Xu Ran asked Tangtang and Guoguo, “Tell me! What do you want to ask me?”

The two children pushed each other a little, and finally decided that Guoguo would speak first.

Guoguo took out the piece of paper that Xu Ran had written for them about the Thirty-Six Stratagems and put it on the table. “Dad, we still don’t understand a lot of it. I hope you can tell us about it.”

Xu Ran saw that they had drawn a lot of circle on it with pen, so he pointed at a drawing circle and asked Guoguo, “Is this what you don’t understand?”

Guoguo nodded. “Yes, Dad, I have been thinking about it with my brother for a long time but we can’t figure it out. As for the some of others, although we can understand the meanings of them but we don’t know how to use them. Do you have any ideas abou it?”

Guoguo frowned when he said this, he was obviously distressed. His wrinkled expression made Xu Ran laugh.

But Xu Ran didn’t laugh too hard. After all, his son was still waiting for his reply. Xu Ran saw the circle around “Relieve the state of Zhao by besieging the state of Wei”. He had written the words from his memory and had not changed them. There was no State of Zhao and Wei here, so it’s normal that they don’t understand it.

So Xu Ran told the two children the story of “Relieve the state of Zhao by besieging the state of Wei”, so that they could not only hear the story, but also remembered the essence of this story.

In fact, the Thirty-Six Stratagems was not very difficult to understand. You could tell the meaning of it from the name of each stratagem, but it would be a little diffifult to understand if no one explained them for you. In addition, they had never been through such things before, so Tangtang and Guoguo did not understand what they meant.

There were 20 circles on the Thirty-Six Stratagems. There was plenty of time, so Xu Ran explained every single one of them. The two children had good memories, so they remembered it after Xu Ran explained it once. As for the meaning of this, they just needed a little more time to think about it and understand it .

When he saw the last one stratagem “heney-trap”, Xu Ran was a little uneasy. He said, “Don’t you understand that this is the simplest and most useful one?”

Perhaps Xu Ran sounded too surprised, Tangtang and Guoguo were stunned for a moment, but they still shook their heads. The words looked simple but they didn’t know how to use them.

Xu Ran felt speechless and felt that his education had failed. People had already started to talk about love and marriage at their age,  but they didn’t even know what “heney-trap” was.

The two children stared at Xu Ran eagerly, waiting for his answer. Xu Ran had no choice but to give them a few examples.

After he said this, the two children looked at him strangely. In the end, Tangtang spoke first, “Dad, is this ‘honey-trap’ only for childe?”

Xu Ran looked at Tangtang seriously, then at Guoguo, who looeked exactly liked him, and said, “You two can also use it as long as you look good. If you raise your temperament again, you will definitely charm everyone.”

Although it sounded a little exaggerated, Xu Ran really thought that Tangtang and Guoguo had such potential, especially Tangtang.

Of course, it was not that he had a preference for Tangtang, but that ruffian aura from Guoguo was very unappealing!

What Xu Ran didn’t expect was that after he said that, Guoguo said something that shocked him, “Brother, I agreed with Dad. You look better than those childe.”

“Was he teasing him?” Xu Ran thought.

Tangtang said, “…”

“Don’t you forget, you look exactly like me.,” Tangtang said angrily.

Guoguo instantly looked bitter and didn’t say anything. Xu Ran smiled and looked at the two brothers, but he also knew that the two children must had understood what “honey-trap” was. The reason why they sayd they didn’t understand it was for Tangtang’s words.

Both of them knew each other the best, so they knew what words would hurt each other the best. This feeling of mutual harm made Xu Ran laugh and amused.

As for the wrong chapter name, it must  because I was mad…