CH 111

Chapter 111: Xiao Jinglin

Although she talked about matters of life and death, Xiao Jinglin’s tone was still light, ”My first warhorse was one that I raised myself from a young age, named Snow Eagle, and it was also eaten. A warhorse that is considered a comrade in arms is still like this, let alone a camel. A camel can keep a fine party of two dozen men fighting for four or five days. Four or five days is enough to last until reinforcements are arrived.”

As Ren Yaoqi listened to Xiao Jinglin’s words, she immediately curious about her encounters over the years. Xiao Jinglin was just two or three years older than her, but when she chatted about these things, she looked calm and vicissitudes, very incongruous with her young and beautiful face.

Xiao Jinglin noticed Ren Yaoyi sizing her up seriously, she instantly stopped talking, “I’m sorry, you probably don’t like to hear what I said.”

Ren Yaoqi smiled and said, “How could that be? No one has ever spoken to me about things on the battlefield, I find it very novel.”

Xiao Jinglin, however, shook her head seriously, “Few people managed to return from war, things on the battlefield have never been anything but cruel.”

Seeing that Xiao Jinglin’s delicate cheerful face became a bit heavy, Ren Yaoqi smiled and changed the topic, “Has County Princess learned martial arts? Last time at the Bailong Temple you threw money to the blessed bell quite accurately. Every time I went to the temple to offer incense when I was young, my mother would also let me throw a few coins, but I never hit it.”

Xiao Jinglin nodded at his words, “Well, I started learning riding, archery, and close combat martial arts from Uncle Yuchi at the age of three.”

“Three years old?” Ren Yaoqi was slightly stunned, that was the age when you just learned how to run and jump, right?

“Is it hard?”

“Hard?” Xiao Jing Lin had some surprise in her eyes, as if she had never thought about this. She subconsciously stretched out her right hand to look down at her palm.

Ren Yaoqi also lowered her head to look at her palm. She found that her right hand, which was supposed to be slender and soft, had joints that were more distinct than the average woman’s, and there were thick calluses on the palm and in the middle of the fingers, indicating that Xiao Jinglin’s hand was clearly rougher than the common woman’s.

Xiao Jinglin slowly clenched her palms together. She raised her head again, her gaze was calm, but she shook her head, “It’s not hard.”

Ren Yaoqi suddenly did not know how to take this sentence.

The carriage was quiet for a few more moments, until Xiao Jinglin took the initiative to speak, “What about you, what did you do as a child?”

Ren Yaoqi was silent for a while before she said, “Writing, drawing, and reading books everyday.”

She was silent not because it was not a good answer, but because she was somewhat unable to remember what she did when she was a child, but it shouldn’t be anything more than these things.

Xiao Jinglin sniffed thoughtfully, “Why is it the same as Xiao Jingxi? No wonder you guys can converse together.”

Ren Yaoqi: “Well, there’s also doing embroidery and quarreling with my sister,” Ren Yaoqi added with a smile.

Xiao Jinglin froze and frowned in thought, “He definitely doesn’t know how to do embroidery or quarreling,” Xiao Jinglin shook her head.

“You don’t get along with your sister?” Xiao Jinglin asked.

This question made Ren Yaoqi think for a moment, “Maybe I’m jealous that she’s more favoured than me in front of my mother.”

Xiao Jinglin nodded rightfully, “I see. Xiao Jingxi is more favoured than me by the elders, but I won’t beat him up just because of that.”

Ren Yaoqi: “……”

At this time, Dongsheng, who was driving outside, yelled, and the carriage stopped steadily. Xiao Jinglin lifted the curtain and took a look outside, while Ren Yaoqi cast his eyes outside the carriage.

This is still outside the city, the carriage is driving on the mountain road, and there are gently rolling hills on both sides. But there is no village and no shop around this place.

Ren Yaoqi thought that she hadn’t asked them where they were going, so she was about to ask, but Xiao Jinglin said in a low voice, “Did the carriage behind still follow us?”

Dongsheng’s voice sounded through the curtain: “Return to the princess, they all have been thrown off.”

Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but be astonished: “Someone is following us?”

Xiao Jinglin didn’t speak, Ren Yaoqi suddenly seemed to think of something: “Is it from the Ren Family?”

Just now when they were going out, they met Old Master Ren. Old Master Ren must have rushed back deliberately when she heard that the princess was coming, but Xiao Jinglin rejected his idea of letting someone from the Ren Family be a guide. Is Old Master Ren really still sending someone to trailing them?

Xiao Jinglin nodded: “Well, they have tracked us since we left the house, but they didn’t very stealthy. It must be because they are worried about your safety, so they let people follow far behind.”

Ren Yaoqi didn’t take it seriously. The whole Ren Family must be thinking about how to climb to Yanbei Royal Family through Xiao Jinglin, they don’t have the time to worry about her safety. But of course, she would not say such words to Xiao Jinglin.

On the contrary, Xiao Jinglin explained slightly apologetically: “I don’t like people following, so I ordered the servants early on to find a way to get rid of anyone behind us.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded and said with a smile, “I forgot to ask, where are we going?”

Xiao Jinglin looked even more puzzled than Ren Yaoqi: “Didn’t I already said it? Let’s go strolling in the street.”

At this moment, the carriage moved again, and Ren Yaoqi noticed that the carriage started to turn around.

Could it be that they ran so far out of the city just to get rid of the blatant stalking of the people sent by the Ren Family? Wouldn’t it be faster to order the servants to go down and tell those people not to follow? Ren Yaoqi felt that she still couldn’t keep up with Xiao Jinglin’s train of thought.

So the carriage started back to the city again. Ren Yaoqi took a closer look at the scenery outside the carriage, and found that they were not on the same road when they left the city. Obviously, Dongsheng was also very familiar with the terrain of Baihe Town.

It was almost noon at this time, and many merchants who took the official road and passed through Baihe Town began to pour into the town. Although Baihe Town is called a town, it is much larger than an ordinary small town, and the main road is full of shops.Of course, it was the various restaurants and guest houses that occupied the most shops.

Xiao Jinglin’s carriage was passing by the “Phoenix Tower” mentioned by Old Master Ren before. She took a look and then looked away, obviously not interested in that place.

“It’s getting late, let’s find a place to eat.” Xiao Jinglin said to Ren Yaoqi.

Ren Yaoqi nodded. In her previous life, she also had contact with the market after leaving the Ren Family. But when she was in the Ren Family, except when she went to offer incense and eat vegetarian dishes in the temple, she had never eaten outside.

There are quite a few restaurants in Baihe Town, but most of them are for merchant travelers, and few of them are high-end. “Phoenix Tower” is considered to be a better restaurant in Baihe Town.

The carriage slowly drove through an alley and left the main street of the town. Ren Yaoqi found that the surrounding scenery became familiar because she had been there several times. This is an alley near Guangong Temple.

Xiao Jinglin said to Ren Yaoqi, “It’s a narrower walk further in, so take one or two maids with you, and let the rest of them wait in that teahouse.”

The teahouse that Xiao Jinglin mentioned was on the right side of the carriage, and it looked quite decent.

Ren Yaoqi didn’t object, and asked Dongsheng to go to the back and call Pingguo over, then asked the rest of them to follow Sangshen to wait in the teahouse.

After a while, Pingguo was brought into the carriage, and the carriage continued on its way.

Eventually, the carriage finally stopped. Xiao Jinglin got out of the carriage first.

Apple got off the carriage before Ren Yaoqi then turned around to help. Ren Yaoqi found that they had entered a relatively narrow alley, which was very long and deep, they could barely drive a carriage in. It was because Dongsheng’s superb skills that allowed them to enter smoothly.

As soon as Ren Yaoqi got off the carriage, she smelled a strong aroma of braised meat.

It turned out that in front of the carriage was a store that sell stewed donkey meat. That store didn’t look very big, and it didn’t even have an official plaque. It only used a bamboo pole to prop up a cloth curtain, and it was written neatly and without any distinctive features. “Braised donkey meat” three words.

After Xiao Jinglin got off the carriage, she went straight into this store. But when she entered the door, she remembered that Ren Yaoqi was still behind, turned around, then came out again, this time beckoning to Ren Yaoqi: “Come in, we have arrived.”

Because it was not time to eat, and the store was not very conspicuous, there were no people around. Seeing Ren Yaoqi approaching, Xiao Jinglin turned back and walked her own way, but at a slower pace.

Upon entering Ren Yaoqi found out that although this small shop is not big, it is very tidy and clean. There are only four wooden tables in front of the shop, and some unnamed wildflowers in earthen pots are placed on the tables, which added a few points of interest.

The curtain in the inner room was lifted, and an old woman in her forties pop out. Seeing Xiao Jinglin and Ren Yaoqi coming in, she hurriedly came forward to greet her with a smile.

Xiao Jinglin said to her, “Put the table in the backyard.”

The woman hurriedly responded, turned her head, and called inward.

A twenty-year-old woman with a married hair bun appeared with a seven-eight-year-old boy.

The old woman told her to set a table in the backyard.

The boy saw Xiao Jinglin and his eyes lit up, then immediately ran over: “General, you’re here. I have picked fresh mushrooms when I went flower picking with my sister-in-law in the morning, my mother will cook them for your soup later.”

Ren Yaoqi glanced at Xiao Jinglin in surprise, Xiao Jinglin knew them?

The old woman came over and patted his head, reprimanded in a low voice: “Why don’t you go set the table with your sister-in-law? Don’t scare the guests.”

The boy then saw Ren Yaoyi behind Xiao Jinglin, he didn’t recognize her, so grinned at Ren Yaoyi.

Xiao Jinglin said to him, “Didn’t I tell you, I’m not a general.”

The boy, however, stubbornly said, “You will be! When you become a great general, I will follow you into battle just like my father!”

The old woman felt her face sank, grabbed the boy’s ear and pulled him to the side: “Mo Xiaoliang, have you finished practising your calligraphy today? Is it possible that you want to learn your father’s big titles without knowing a single one?”

Mo Xiaoliang bared his teeth and wanted to cry out in pain, but when he saw Xiao Jinglin here, he held back and only muttered in a low voice: “What’s the use of recognising words? Didn’t we ask the fortune teller at the entrance of the alley to write our signboard? Why do you need me to read words? We don’t need ten or eight signboards in our shop.”