Li Jing had no choice but to reluctantly agree to take the man Niang she met on the ferry to return to her hometown in Xiangzhou.

In fact, the reason why Li Jing reluctantly agreed to take Manniang with him was not because he was hard-hearted, had low emotional intelligence, and didn't know how to pity the poor and the old, but out of concern for Feng Xiaoxi's safety, lest the Manniang he met when crossing the river was Zhang Zhongjian's subordinate, and deliberately set a trap to lure Feng Xiaoxi to be fooled.

Out of this consideration, although Li Jing couldn't resist Feng Xiaoxi, and finally agreed to take Manniang with him, he racked his brains and took all kinds of precautions to avoid and reduce the opportunities for Manniang and Feng Xiaoxi to be alone.

For example, Feng Xiaoxi asked Li Jing to hire a pack cart in Jiangbei on the grounds of Manniang's old age and poor eyesight, and the three of them changed from riding horses to driving all the way north, and Li Jing took the initiative to ask him to ride with Manniang to avoid Feng Xiaoxi from sitting in the same car.

For another example, before the three of them were about to stay in the evening, Li Jing was always willing to pay more money to charter three guest rooms, and the three of them would live in one room each.

And all that.

Feng Xiaoxi gradually became suspicious of Li Jing's various abnormal and unreasonable behaviors, and repeatedly asked him why he was so careful about an old and half-blind woman like Manniang, whether marrying her Feng Xiaoxi was a trap in itself, but in fact he had other plans.

At this time, Li Jing simply followed Feng Xiaoxi's example of what he had done to him before, and ignored him.

Even though Li Jing tried all kinds of ways to avoid and reduce the intimate contact between Manniang and Feng Xiaoxi, he still couldn't stop Manniang from taking the initiative to approach Feng Xiaoxi and continue to ask her why Feng Xiaolian died and the relationship between Feng Xiaoxi and Li Jing.

At the first two times, Li Jing had made an excuse and deliberately got close to listen to the conversation between the two, and after staying twice, he found that Manniang did not talk about other topics except for caring about Feng Xiaolian and Feng Xiaoxi's sisters, so he relaxed his guard and allowed Manniang to chat with Feng Xiaoxi alone during the interval of horseback riding, and he no longer intended to come forward to listen.

Finally, under Manniang's repeated inquiries, Feng Xiaoxi told Manniang the truth that her sister Feng Xiaolian was forced to remarry to the family of Li Mu, a noble of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, after the Northern Qi Dynasty was destroyed by the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

Manniang listened to Feng Xiaoxi's story of Feng Xiaolian's forced suicide, wiped her tears for a while, and suddenly pointed at Li Jing and asked Feng Xiaoxi: "Isn't he also surnamed Li, should he be a family with Li Mu?" ”

Although Feng Xiaoxi has a love for Li Jing, he really didn't pay attention to where Li Jing is from, and was asked by Manniang, so he had a lot of things on his mind, and when he found an opportunity that day, he called Li Jing aside alone, and asked him where he was originally from, whether he was related to Li Mu, and he was very happy to run to tell Manniang: "Li Lang was born in Jingzhao Sanyuan, and he is not of the same clan as Li Mu." ”

When Manniang heard that Li Jing was also a child of Guanzhong, she snorted in her nose and said to Feng Xiaoxi: "Although they are not of the same race, the two Li families are both Guanzhong families, and the children of Guanzhong cannot be married. ”

Although Feng Xiaoxi is a very assertive girl, Manniang's words also left a shadow in her heart, and recalling the past when she learned of her sister's death when she was a child, she had stabbed Li Hun in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and inevitably had a trace of hesitation in her heart about whether she should marry Li Jing. Since then, the whole person has also become irritable and irritable, often ignoring Li Jing and Manniang, who are traveling with him, and riding a horse alone.

In the blink of an eye, the three of them had left Jiankang for three or four days, and rode to Xuzhou. On this day, when the three of them set off from the inn where they stayed the night before, the sun was still shining overhead, and when they arrived around the afternoon of the same day, the sky was suddenly cloudy, and it began to rain heavily in the blink of an eye.

Li Jing originally planned to stay in Xiapi City today, but when he saw that it was raining heavily, he ignored the dissuasion of Feng Xiaoxi and Manniang, insisted on hurrying in the rain and arrived in Xiapi City before dark.

The three of them rode in the rain in their robes, but the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and there was no sign of stopping, and the road was very muddy by the rain, which greatly slowed down the speed of the two horses.

Feng Xiaoxi was worried that after a long time in the rain, Manniang's elderly people couldn't bear it, so she kept looking around, trying to find a nearby place to stay to shelter from the rain, and rest for a night before leaving.

As a result, she really found that it was not far from the left of the three of them, and there were a few lights.

Feng Xiaoxi approached Li Jing on his horse, pointed to the left front and said loudly to him: "Li Jing, do you see if there are a few lights over there, we are afraid that we will not be able to catch up with the city tonight, so let's spend the night here, and then leave tomorrow when the rain stops." After that, without waiting for Li Jing to answer, he took the lead in pulling out the horse's head and ran straight towards the place where the lights were shining.

Li Jing looked up at the sky, helpless, so he had to ride his horse and catch up.

When Li Jing and the three of them rode close to the place where the lights were on, they were pleasantly surprised to find that this was actually an inn with a small scale, and the signboard on the façade was "Baishun Old Store", and the three of them turned over and dismounted outside the door, and instructed the guys in the inn to lead the two horses to the stable in the backyard, feed them with clean water, and then walked into the front hall of the inn.

The name of this inn is called "Baishun Old Store", the shopkeeper of the store is a shrewd young man, when he saw the guests, he greeted him from behind the counter with a smile, and asked the guys to prepare clean hand towels for Li Jing and others to wipe their faces and hands, while accosting and asking: "Look at this rain, as the so-called people do not keep people, the three old customers tonight is a coincidence, the store specially reserved two upper rooms for the three old customers, each room is only 100 Wen per night." If the three old guests want to take a hot bath before eating, I will go and tell the guys to prepare a variety of things. ”

Li Jing stretched out three fingers to the young shopkeeper and said, "Two rooms are not enough, we want three upper rooms." ”

"Ah, ah, that's the way it is." The young shopkeeper licked his lips and explained to Li Jing with a smile, "At noon today, a distinguished customer came to the store, and rewarded the small shop with three fine silk silks, and almost all the upper rooms in the store. Tonight, I will ask this young lady to be wronged and wronged, and I can only sleep with this old man for one night. ”

Li Jing asked Feng Xiaoxi to help Manniang go to the guest room to bathe and change clothes first, he stayed alone in the front hall, looked around, and asked the young shopkeeper: "I see how come there are thirty or forty guest rooms in your store, how many people have come to this distinguished guest, and they have booked almost all the rooms in the store?" ”