Chapter 1372 Untitled!

August 11, 15:30
A drizzle fell in Yijing at night. The people who had not yet slept were very happy about the arrival of the drizzle. It had been nearly half a month since it rained in Yijing and its surrounding areas. Although the government had organized people to divert water from the Yi River to ensure production, the crops in the fields were still at risk of poor harvest.

Therefore, the arrival of this drizzle can be said to be worth a thousand gold. At least it can give the crops in the fields a break and make countless farmers feel a little relieved.

However, no one noticed that under the cover of the drizzle, a dozen men in black quietly entered a remote brick factory in Mawang Town in the southern suburbs.

Yang Zecheng, the owner of the brick factory, was sleeping soundly in a room in the factory at this moment, but he was slapped in the face by someone. Yang Zecheng, who was awakened from his sleep, was very angry at the moment. He subconsciously wanted to curse out loud, but unexpectedly a familiar face appeared in front of him.

Feeling the murderous intent in the other person's eyes, Yang Zecheng could only swallow the dirty words in his mouth, then he skillfully showed a flattering smile and said:

"Brother Zhang! What brings you here?"

Zhang Xinjian, who was called Big Brother Zhang, ignored Yang Zecheng's words and directly ordered:

"Go find that doctor, and get some medicine for the cuts and bleeding! The more medicine, the better!"

As soon as these words came out, Yang Zecheng noticed that Zhang Xinjian was holding three cloth bags dripping with blood, and his chest was wrapped with a ball of bloody gauze...

Faced with Zhang Xinjian's instructions, Yang Zecheng was also confused, but feeling the unquestionable tone in Zhang Xinjian's words, he did not dare to ask anything. He could only nod repeatedly and agree to the task, then got up from the bed, put on his clothes, and went in the rain to find a doctor for Zhang Xinjian!
Zhang Xinjian, who was left alone in the room, lay directly on Yang Zecheng's bed. He had been highly concentrated due to continuous running around for some time. However, this was nothing for Zhang Xinjian, who was accustomed to living on the edge of a knife. He was still able to hold on.

However, the fierce battle an hour ago and the continuous blood loss caused by the deep knife wound on his chest that could see the bone were like the last straw that broke the camel's back. Zhang Xinjian, the number one killer under Queen An Miaoyi, was exhausted both physically and mentally at this moment, and a feeling of fatigue surged from his heart.

A few days ago, when Wang Shun was poisoned to death by Murong family's killer with a poison arrow, Zhang Xinjian was both angry and helpless!

Wang Shun’s death also meant that the mission entrusted to him by the Queen Mother to capture Wang Shun alive and uncover the secrets of Wang Shun had failed!
Zhang Xinjian was well aware of the Queen's style of clearly distinguishing between rewards and punishments. He had done countless things for the Queen over the years, and the Queen had enabled him to live the life of a wealthy man in Yijing, a place where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, from a poor escort in Yijing. However, as long as he failed in his mission, the Queen would never be absent from punishing him.

His mission had failed, and the Queen's punishment was inevitable. However, if he returned empty-handed, Zhang Xinjian would have to face the Queen's wrath. So in order to alleviate the Queen's anger and also reduce his own punishment, he had to give the Queen an explanation...

And what is this explanation?

There is undoubtedly only one answer, and that is the heads of Murong family's assassins!

These highly skilled warriors of the Murong family have ruined many of the Queen Mother's plans over the past few years, and are therefore regarded as thorns in the Queen Mother's side, who always want to get rid of them as soon as possible.

For this reason, Zhang Xinjian and others had spent a lot of effort to wipe them out completely, but unfortunately, under the strategy of breaking up the Murong family's death squad into small groups, Zhang Xinjian and others' actions had little effect.

Although no one knows what secrets Wang Shun is hiding this time, what no one expected is that the Murong family's ace killer named A Da was also sent out to hunt down Wang Shun!
Zhang Xinjian clearly remembered that this Ah Da had caused trouble for the Queen Mother in many cases and had even snatched away a jade ruyi that the Queen Mother had specially prepared for the old empress dowager.

For this reason, the Queen Mother even set a bounty of one thousand and two taels of silver for this A Da, but A Da appeared and disappeared without a trace, leaving Zhang Xinjian and others empty-handed.

Although Zhang Xinjian was prepared to face the Murong family's assassins during the pursuit of Wang Shun, the appearance of A Da still surprised Zhang Xinjian.

At that time, for the reward of one thousand taels, Zhang Xinjian wanted to call on his men to surround and kill A Da together. However, after weighing the pros and cons, in order to ensure the smooth completion of the plan to hunt down Wang Shun, Zhang Xinjian gave up the plan to surround and kill A Da with some regret...

Now that Wang Shun is dead, Zhang Xinjian once again remembered his plan to surround and kill A Da!
Zhang Xinjian didn't know what kind of secret Wang Shun was hiding. The only thing he knew was that the Murong family might have given a death order to A Da and the others. Otherwise, A Da and the others wouldn't have been so persistent in wanting to kill Wang Shun even though they knew that Wang Shun was hit by a poisoned arrow.

Therefore, although Wang Shun is dead now, A'da does not know this news. Zhang Xinjian believes that under the order, A'da and others will definitely catch up like before!

This was exactly the opportunity that Zhang Xinjian could take advantage of. Zhang Xinjian believed that as long as he killed Ah Da and presented his head to the Queen, then even if he failed in his mission, the Queen would still be able to forgive him and reduce his punishment.

With this idea in mind, Zhang Xinjian set up an ambush, and just as Zhang Xinjian had imagined, a day later A Da arrived with three Murong family assassins. Although there was one more person than expected, Zhang Xinjian, who had no way to retreat, still led his men to launch an attack.

It was a life-and-death battle. Ada and four other Murong family warriors were caught in an ambush. Although they were outnumbered, they were not afraid. Relying on their superior martial arts, they risked their lives to fight with Zhang Xinjian and others.

The knife wound on Zhang Xinjian's chest was caused by a murderer of the Murong family named Asan. The knife missed Zhang Xinjian's heart by only an inch, which still makes Zhang Xinjian feel a little scared when he thinks about it now.

Although Ah Da, Ah San and others were very brave, Zhang Xinjian and others had more people, so they finally had the upper hand. Therefore, after discovering that Wang Shun was dead and Zhang Xinjian had not discovered the secret hidden in him, Ah Da, Ah San and others decided to use the best strategy of the thirty-six strategies to escape...
But Zhang Xinjian and his companions would naturally not let them leave easily. In the end, at the cost of seven casualties on their side, they killed all the other three Murong family assassins except A Da.

However, Zhang Xinjian's original target, Ada, escaped under the desperate cover of his three companions, and Zhang Xinjian was very frustrated and disappointed. Under the circumstances at that time, although there were three other Murong family assassins covering for Ada, Zhang Xinjian had a chance to catch up with the fleeing Ada alone!
However, facing that lightning-fast opportunity, Zhang Xinjian hesitated. Zhang Xinjian had been learning martial arts for more than 30 years since he was a child, and his skills in horizontal and short fighting had reached perfection. Even if ordinary people were holding cold weapons, it would take at least 20 to 30 people to get close to him!

It is precisely because of his excellent martial arts that Zhang Xinjian was able to become the number one killer under An Miaoyi!
But as the saying goes, the older you are in the martial arts world, the less courageous you become. After so many years of walking on the edge of a knife, Zhang Xinjian knows that there are always people better than you. This Ah Da's martial arts is far superior to his. If he rashly chases after him alone, he will most likely die tragically at Ah Da's hands!

If he was young, Zhang Xinjian would take the risk. After all, he was a poor man at the time, homeless and without a family. In order to stand out and be appreciated by his superiors, he was willing to risk his life.
Second, he didn't need to defeat Ada. He just needed to hold Ada back and wait for his men to catch up, and then rush forward to deal with this bastard.

But things are different now, Zhang is now a man with a family, and his daily life is very comfortable, so at this desperate moment, he is not as motivated as before...
For him, even if the mission failed and he was punished by the Queen, his life would not be in danger. After all, the Queen still needed a loyal dog to do some shady things for her.

Although he did not regret his decision at the time, looking back on it later, Zhang Xinjian still felt disappointed and frustrated that he failed to win over A Da.

Although he also killed three assassins from the Murong family, the heads of these three people combined were not as heavy as that of A Da!
Therefore, the possibility of success of Zhang Xinjian's previous plan to use the head of the Murong family's killer to calm the Queen's anger was undoubtedly reduced a lot.

Just as Zhang Xinjian was lying on the bed thinking about something, Yang Zecheng returned to the room with a doctor. Zhang Xinjian immediately asked the doctor to change his medicine.

Looking at the deep knife wound on Zhang Xinjian's chest that was so deep that the bone could be seen, the doctor couldn't help but sigh at Zhang Xinjian's good luck. Then, under the coercion of Zhang Xinjian's fierce eyes, he began to change the dressing.

After a cup of tea, the doctor changed the medicine for Zhang Xinjian and wrapped him with clean gauze. When he was about to ask for money and leave, he heard Zhang Xinjian say coldly:

"You can't leave now! I have a few brothers in the workshop, go change the bandages and treat their wounds!"

After this was said, the doctor was about to say something, but Yang Zecheng, who was standing by, had been taught a lot by Zhang Xinjian, and knew what kind of temper this evil grandfather had, so he quickly said:
"Doctor Lin, just do as he tells you. I'll give you some extra money later..."

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The next day at noon, at the Yijing Palace

Although the drizzle last night dissipated a lot of the heat in Yijing, Yijing in August was still a bit stuffy, so Ye Mingsheng specially arranged for the imperial kitchen to make cold noodles at noon.

Although the chefs in the imperial kitchen were proficient in all kinds of dishes, they were completely confused when it came to cold noodles and had never heard of this kind of food.

For this purpose, Ye Mingsheng asked the chef to prepare a sweet and sour soup according to his memory, then soaked the cooked buckwheat noodles in cold water, and then added spicy cabbage, braised beef, eggs, cucumber, coriander and other foods.

Finally, Ye Mingsheng felt that the noodles were not cold enough, so he asked the chef to put ice cubes in the cold noodles to ensure that the cold noodles were icy and refreshing and could relieve the heat in the body in the summer.

When the imperial chef finished preparing the cold noodles, Ye Mingsheng tasted it and was very satisfied with the flavor. He then asked the chef to make more cold noodles and sent a bowl to his mother, Ye Cui, as well as to his concubines and children, so that everyone could eat something fresh to relieve the heat in their bodies.

When the imperial chef finished preparing all the cold noodles and sent them to the concubines, princes and princesses, Ye Mingsheng saw that the imperial chefs, the maids and the nannies who served the noodles were all sweating profusely, so he simply asked the imperial chef to make more cold noodles and give a bowl to each of the imperial chefs, palace maids and nannies in the palace so that everyone could cool down.

Facing Ye Mingsheng’s order, the imperial chefs initially expressed their gratitude to His Majesty for the reward, but they did not need to eat. As long as His Majesty and the ladies, princes and princesses in the harem were happy eating, they would be satisfied...
Ye Mingsheng was speechless about their remarks, but in the end Ye Mingsheng still insisted on his decision and asked the imperial chef to make a bowl of cold noodles for everyone in the palace, including themselves.

Ye Mingsheng's original intention was just to have fun with the people. Seeing that everyone was suffering from the heat in this midsummer, he just wanted to let everyone cool down.

But what Ye Mingsheng did not expect was that seeing Ye Mingsheng's insistence on doing so, the imperial chefs who were cooking were so moved that they all said that Ye Mingsheng was a benevolent monarch and saint rarely seen in history!

This sensationalism confused Ye Mingsheng. He didn't expect that a bowl of cold noodles would cause such a reaction from everyone. This also made Ye Mingsheng realize that his Daqian Dynasty still had a lot of work to do.

Perhaps it was because he hadn't eaten cold noodles for a long time, or perhaps it was because Ye Mingsheng was a little hungry after reviewing memorials in the imperial study for the whole morning, so Ye Mingsheng ate two large bowls of cold noodles for lunch.

Feeling a little full, Ye Mingsheng came to the Imperial Garden to take a walk to digest the food, and then return to the Imperial Study to continue his work.

However, after walking a few steps, Ye Mingsheng heard a laughter as loud as a silver bell near a swing.

"Aunt, please hurry up!"

When Ye Mingsheng heard the voice, he immediately realized that it was the voice of his daughter Ye Kexin, and thought that he had not visited his daughter for some time.

Feeling apologetic, Ye Mingsheng walked quickly towards the swing without thinking too much.