Before noon, Qiuniang had already prepared the meal.

A bowl of water tofu, a bowl of pork head, and nothing else.

There is a small table in the hall, which is the place where people eat on weekdays. The table is very short, and the two pony stools are even shorter. After the food is served, Qiuniang immediately closes the door. The courtyard door is gone. She eats in the main hall, and people come and go in the alley.

You can see it just by turning your head.

Although Qiuniang did not feel inferior in front of the fat woman, Qiuniang would never accept it if the passing neighbors saw her eating with a strange young man.

Once the door of the room was closed, it was quite dark inside the hall.

Qiuniang seemed a little embarrassed to stay with a man with the door closed in broad daylight. When eating, she was too embarrassed to raise her head. She just held the rice bowl and ate in small bites, but she was obviously worried, and there were a few grains of rice in her mouth.

I chewed it for a long time.

Qin Xiao saw this and felt funny.

Although Qiuniang lives with his younger brother and does not seem to be married, Qin Xiao is not sure that Qiuniang has not been married before. After all, she is almost thirty, and there are many people who get married at the age of thirteen or fourteen in the lobby.

Yes, it is really unreasonable to have never been married at this age.

However, judging from Qiuniang's behavior, it seems that she has never been with a man before.

Logically speaking, Qiuniang is much older than me, so she shouldn't be so reserved.

He picked up the chopsticks, picked out a piece of pig head meat, stretched it out and put it in Qiuniang's bowl. Qiuniang raised her head, a little surprised, Qin Xiao said softly: "You haven't eaten vegetables. Is there something on your mind?"

"No...it's nothing." Qiuniang forced a smile.

She just felt that the current atmosphere was really embarrassing. If Gu Baiyi was at home, nothing would happen. But she was a woman, and she was living with Qin Xiao, a man and a woman. The key was that Qin Xiao, whom she only met yesterday, was not very familiar with him, and now he was...

Sitting at the same table to eat with this young man always seemed a bit ridiculous.

She felt quite conflicted.

She hoped that Qin Xiao would leave as soon as possible after dinner to avoid any gossip from the neighbors, but considering that Qin Xiao was still injured and had just arrived in Kyoto, she could not drive him away.

Qin Xiao only felt that Qiuniang was actually an honest person.

I asked her to go shopping before and bought some pork head meat. I gave her a few taels of silver, which was more than enough to buy a table of good wine and food. But this pretty girl really just bought a pound of pig head meat and the water tofu.

It is the cheapest dish and also the most common dish on the Gu family’s dinner table.

Although she values ​​money very seriously and does not spend money carelessly, she does not take advantage of others. All the money she has left over from shopping for groceries is given back to Qin Xiao.

"Is Sister Qiuniang from Kyoto?" The two of them were eating across from each other without speaking, and the atmosphere was so awkward that Qin Xiao asked as he had nothing to say.

Qiuniang shook her head and said softly: "I am from Tanzhou, but I came to Kyoto when I was very young. I was only four or five years old at that time. My father was a tea merchant...!"

"Tea dealer?" Qin Xiao said hurriedly: "Then Sister Qiu Niang must know tea very well?"

"I don't understand." Qiuniang shook her head and said, "My father died of illness within half a year of coming to Kyoto, leaving only my mother and my siblings. Later...!" At this point, she did not continue, her expression

Somewhat sad.

Qin Xiao thought that it turned out that the Gu family siblings lost their father when they were young, and couldn't help but said: "Then Sister Qiu Niang has been...always living with Brother Gu?"

Qiuniang was smart enough. She smiled softly and said, "You want to ask me if I've ever been married? I'm poor and ugly, but no one looks up to me."

"Sister Qiu Niang is not right." Qin Xiao said immediately: "Money is an external thing. Today you are short of money, but tomorrow you may be full of gold and jade. This is not a problem. If you are beautiful and beautiful, if you are even considered ugly, there is no such thing in Kyoto."

A beautiful woman."

He just wanted to praise Qiuniang, but as soon as he said these words, he felt that something was wrong. Being alone with a woman and praising her beauty seemed a bit frivolous.

Qiuniang was startled, then smiled sweetly and said: "There are so many beauties in Kyoto. If they know that you compare an ugly monster like me to them, they won't be able to spare you."

Qin Xiao could see clearly at this time that when Qiuniang smiled, there were slight dimples on both sides of her mouth, and the small bright red mole on her lower lip made her look even more charming.

Although she is no longer young and young, she is like a ripe fruit, with a mature charm that a young girl cannot match.

Qiuniang saw a trace of admiration in Qin Xiao's eyes, knowing that it was a man's reaction to being interested in a woman, and she suddenly felt a little unhappy. She thought to herself that this guy was young, but he had other thoughts towards her, so she put aside the topic and asked

: "By the way, what happened last night? Why...why did someone want to kill you?"

"I don't know who it was." Qin Xiao said: "I was riding through an alley, and suddenly someone shot an arrow in the dark. I couldn't dodge and was shot in the shoulder, and then...then I rushed over on horseback."

He didn't mean to deceive Qiuniang.

He was attacked last night. Qin Xiao not only killed the giant man, but also disemboweled him. If Qiuniang knew about this, she would probably be scared to death.

If Mei Jiao Niang sees herself in the future and thinks of being disemboweled, or even thinks of herself as a murderer, she will naturally be afraid of herself, and it will be difficult to get along with her again.

The most important thing is that Qin Xiao really doesn't want Qiuniang to be involved too much. The more he knows, the less good it will be for Qiuniang.

"Thank you for riding a horse." Qiu Niang was still frightened and frowned, and whispered: "After you entered the capital, you offended Qingyi Tang. Those people are not good people. They bully the people and do evil, relying on the support of people behind them, and they are lawless.

You beat their people, but they are no match for you on the surface, so they attack in secret."

Qin Xiao nodded and said: "What Sister Qiu Niang said is absolutely true. I also believe that I am someone from Qingyi Hall who is doing something secretly."

"Hey, if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have offended them." Qiuniang said regretfully, "I shouldn't have stopped the boat next to you that day."

"Don't say that." Qin Xiao smiled and said: "I heard people say that after ten years of cultivation, you can cross the same boat, and a hundred years of cultivation, you can sleep on the same bed... Well, I can sit on Sister Qiu's boat because I cultivated it in my previous life.

In ten years, if there is no practice in the previous life, there will be no fate in this life."

Qiuniang said "Oh" without comment.

"But Tsing Yi Tang deceives people too much. He dares to behave like this in Kyoto. If he goes elsewhere, he will do many murders and arson." Qin Xiao thought to himself that if Tsing Yi Tang really sent someone to assassinate him last night, he and Tsing Yi Tang would not be the same.

Hui Hui gave up and asked softly: "By the way, Sister Qiuniang, Brother Gu said before that there is a backer behind Qingyi Hall, but he didn't make it clear. Do you know who the backer behind these people is?"

Qiuniang shook her head and said: "I don't know either. I only heard people say that behind them are high-ranking officials and powerful people. It is because of the backers behind them that Qiu Niang dares to act recklessly in Kyoto. When people from the government see the people of Qingyi Hall, they will

As long as no one is killed, we will turn around and leave without intervening."

Qin Xiao thought about that day on the banks of the Luoshui River, the officials clearly saw Qingyi Tang bullying the people, but ignored it. It can be seen that Qingyi Tang was able to survive in Kyoto because the backers behind them gave them a solid foundation.

"Those people in Qingyi Hall used to be just hooligans in the streets of Kyoto, making a living by extorting money in Kyoto." Qiuniang sighed softly: "But at that time, if these scoundrels bullied people too much and reported it to the government, the government would also come forward to arrest them.

I was caught and imprisoned for a while. Anyway, I didn’t dare to be too arrogant at that time. Later, I don’t know when, a Qingyi Hall came out and gathered all the gangsters in Kyoto together. These people seemed to be more disciplined than before, and they didn’t know how to behave.

It is easy to cause trouble, but if you offend them, they will be more vicious than before. They have to collect money in Kyoto's large and small shops, as well as waterways and many other places, saying that if you pay them, you can do business safely, otherwise these

People make trouble all the time, and customers don’t dare to come.”

Qin Xiao frowned, and Qiuniang continued: "The government has to collect taxes, and these people also have to collect money. Doing business in Kyoto is like paying two taxes. Fortunately, Kyoto has a large population and business is booming, but business is cold.

In places like these, these shops have long been closed.”

"Those businessmen didn't join forces to complain to the government?"

"In the beginning, many merchants signed a lawsuit against Tsing Yi Tang." Qiuniang said, "But the leading businessmen disappeared inexplicably, and the government ignored them. Everyone felt that those merchants were secretly harmed by Tsing Yi Tang.

If I die, I will never dare to complain again."

Qin Xiao sneered and said: "The emperor's feet are so rampant. This is not only the fault of Qingyi Hall, but the fault of those in the temple is even greater." He was confused and thought about the identity of the person behind Qingyi Hall who fell to the ground.

No one dares to provoke Tsing Yi Hall.

"There is more than just Tsing Yi Hall in Kyoto." Qiuniang said softly: "There is also the Taiping Society. Like Tsing Yi Hall, they are not good people. These two groups are incompatible in Kyoto. They fight with each other and seize territory, just to get rid of themselves.

Money is collected from the places under control. There are three rivers in Kyoto, Luoshui, Gushui and Raoshui. The Gushui waterway belongs to Qingyitang, and Raoshui belongs to Taipinghui. The remaining Luoshui used to be the territory of Qingyitang. Later, Taipinghui emerged.

Qing Yi Tang took half of it from his hands."

Qin Xiao was startled and found it even more interesting.

In Kyoto, there are not only faction fights in the court, but also gang fights in the city.

He knew very well that the struggle between gangs in the city was just an extension of the party struggle in the court. Behind both the Tsing Yi Hall and the Taiping Association, there were shadows of court officials.

"I was punting in Raoshui, and they asked me for money, so I ran to Gushui." Qiuniang said angrily: "When I got to Gushui, they also asked me for money. I went to Luoshui again, and they were chasing me anyway.

I wanted money, so I hid from them everywhere. When I got to the Taiping Association, Tsing Yi Hall had no control over it, and the Taiping Association came to find me, so I ran to the Tsing Yi Hall place and played hide and seek with them." At this point, a hint of laughter could not help but appear on the corners of my lips.

A proud smile.

Qin Xiao knew that Qiuniang's living environment was really bad.

It is not easy for a woman to support her family by punting a boat. It is really hard to avoid those scoundrels collecting money. I asked, "How long have you been punting a boat?"

"It didn't take long, less than two years." Qiuniang said: "I was in...!" Halfway through, she smiled faintly, but did not continue. Qin Xiao saw that she didn't say anything, and also

It was inconvenient to ask, so I picked up the chopsticks, picked up another piece of pig head meat and put it in Qiuniang's bowl.

Qiuniang said hurriedly: "No, no, you can eat it yourself, I...I don't like eating meat."
Chapter completed!