Although Liang Hongjin received a beautiful sword she liked on her birthday yesterday and celebrated with Zhao Sishan that evening, she didn’t have the chance to eat the birthday noodles cooked by Wen Mingtang. Coincidentally, the Dali Temple’s kitchen had just delivered some crabs, so Wen Mingtang decided to make a bowl of xiè huángmiàn as belated birthday noodles for her.

It was already past lunchtime when Liang Hongjin came over. Wen Mingtang went to Ji Caimai’s takeaway stall to pay the money and then went behind the counter to knead dough to make the xiè huángmiàn.

There were only Tangyuan and a few others in the public kitchen at the moment. They were all old acquaintances, so Liang Hongjin sat down and started chatting with them without any hesitation.

“Why did General Liang come so late?” Tangyuan asked her, “Master Wen had waited for you at the entrance of the kitchen several times.”

“Don’t mention it!” Liang Hongjin rubbed her somewhat exhausted shoulder with one hand and said, “I lost my strength when I taught that lecherous Taoist priest a few days ago. It seems that I strained my muscles. I have not been able to exert my strength during the training these two days! Today I happened to have some free time, so I went to Jimin Hall in the west of the city to see a doctor who specialized in treating injuries and sprains. He prescribed several prescriptions!”

At this point, Liang Hongjin hurriedly looked up at Wen Mingtang, who was making xiè huángmiàn behind the counter, and said, “Xiao Mingtang, I need to make this clear to you: I, Liang Hongjin, am not the type to be afraid of death! Although those two bearded men didn’t seem very confident yesterday, the reason I didn’t step forward wasn’t because of fear—it was because of the injury on my shoulder!”

Without waiting for Wen Mingtang to reply, Liang Hongjin continued, “If I, with my 10 points of martial talent and shoulder injury, encounter someone with 5 or 6 points of martial talent, I will definitely rush over without saying a word. Even if it’s 7 or 8 points, I will definitely act like a chivalrous hero in front of you, Xiao Mingtang! But the two opposite me were probably 9 or 10 points of martial talent, which is equivalent to me. Even if I am not injured, I may not be able to knock them down alone! What’s more, there are people from your sword shop. If I really angered them, we will all be in trouble!”

Even though the swords sold by the people in the sword shop were pretty good, their sword-wielding skills were just mediocre. If a real fight came, they wouldn’t be able to help, and would probably just cause trouble.

Wen Mingtang hummed when she heard this, raised her head, and smiled at Liang Hongjin, “When you didn’t step up yesterday, I knew that these two people were probably tough guys!”

“Isn’t that right?” Liang Hongjin sighed, standing up and walking to the counter. While watching Wen Mingtang make the longevity noodles, she continued, “Let alone their breathing or the way they walked. But even if I explained it, you wouldn’t understand it anyway with your talent.”

Wen Mingtang, who was making longevity noodles, looked up at her and said slowly, “I really don’t understand!”

Just like Liang Hongjin couldn’t understand what Wen Mingtang said to her about the cooking temperature, she wouldn’t understand the breadth and pace even if she listened for a hundred years.

Liang Hongjin was not surprised by Wen Mingtang’s answer. She pointed to her wrist and said, “Didn’t you notice the tiger head tattoos on the sleeves of those two men?”

Well… She was only paying attention to the two men’s beards at the time but didn’t notice their hands.

However, for people like Liang Hongjin, it was probably out of the instinct of “martial talent”. When they heard the other person’s breathing, they thought he was a martial artist. Rather than looking at his face, they would instinctively look at his hands and feet to see his fist and kick skills.

“There’s a half tattoo on the wrist that’s exposed from the sleeve. It’s a tiger head.” Liang Hongjin said, “A few years ago, there was a group of desperate criminals with tiger head tattoos on their hands!”

When it came to these anecdotes about the underworld, Liang Hongjin knew them all like the back of her hand.

How could they have heard so many stories about the underworld? When Tangyuan and others who were originally sitting heard this, they hurriedly stood up and walked to Liang Hongjin to listen to her stories about the underworld.

Because everyone was gathered in front of the stage, no one noticed Lin Fei coming in.

“This group of people specializes in murder and robbery. As long as they are paid enough, there is nothing they dare not do!” Liang Hongjin said, “Those merchants who travel around the country and claim to have brought enough guards were still wiped out by those people!”

“Later, I heard that the government sent a lot of soldiers to cooperate with a businessman who took the initiative to stand up and use himself as bait to eliminate those people. However, because we know very little about these people, no one knows whether they were all strangled. The government waited for another two years, and since then, no one heard any news about these people, so they closed the case. This case was famous at the time, and people thought that even if there were fish that slipped through the net, they would have been scared away long ago, but they didn’t expect…”

“No one expected that the villain couldn’t be scared away, they just changed their business.” Lin Fei’s voice came from behind the crowd, and he said to the people who looked at him, “I stayed in the warehouse for a long time and forgot to eat lunch. Make some for me!”

Wen Mingtang, who was making longevity noodles, said: “…”

Never mind, it was fine. One portion was enough, and two portions were enough. Wen Mingtang poured more flour into the dough and listened to people talking about the case while kneading the dough.

“I have checked the case files.” Lin Fei said, “The businessman’s surname was Wen. He took the initiative to stand up not only because he was quite courageous, but also because those villains had previously robbed and killed a pair of children and his wife who had come from their hometown to visit him. His good family was ruined! He hated these people so much that he stood up.”

At this point, Lin Fei paused for a moment before continuing: “Many businessmen value profit, but this businessman did not! After helping the court rob and kill the criminals, he did not remarry, but adopted a son to take care of him in his old age and see him to the end of his life.”

“He is such a rare good man, and he finally had a good ending!” Liang Hongjin couldn’t help but sigh when he heard it.

Lin Fei lowered his eyes and did not respond to this conversation. Instead, he paused and said, “General Liang, if I give Zhao You to you, are you sure you can control those two people?”

Zhao You? Liang Hongjin, who always claimed to be “not inferior to men”, thought of that silly face, twitched her lips, and nodded affirmatively: “His talent in martial arts is higher than mine, so there is no problem!” At this point, Liang Hongjin rubbed her shoulders again, pointed to the medicine bag on the table, and said, “It’s just that, I need to heal my shoulder injury first.”

The three words “Jimintang” on the medicine package were very eye-catching. Lin Fei glanced at Liang Hongjin who was rubbing her shoulders and suddenly asked, “Can you open this medicine package and let me have a look?”

Hearing this, Liang Hongjin looked at Wen Mingtang who was kneading dough, and was quite puzzled: Why was he looking at the medicine bag? This Lin Shaoqing was not a doctor!

Although Liang Hongjin did not say anything, Wen Mingtang still understood what she meant from her eyes, and explained on behalf of Lin Fei: “Our Lin Shaoqing also knows a little about medicine.”

How could anyone with a little knowledge compare to the medicine plasters prescribed by the time-honored brands? Liang Hongjin complained in her heart. But when she saw the look Wen Mingtang gave her, she nodded, her attitude very reserved.

Why would a Dali Temple official who solved a case look at medicine? Could he find something wrong with the medicine prescribed by a doctor from a time-honored medical clinic?

Just as she was thinking this, she saw Liang Hongjin nod, and Lin Fei, who had already opened the medicine bag when he walked to the food table.

(End of this chapter)

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