The flames of lanterns burned in clusters along the street. Beneath the old horse's corpse, blood had already formed a shallow pool. The ground was a chaotic mess of blood, fallen bodies, and scattered debris. As the black-clad woman darted down an adjacent street, the officers and constables armed with swords dared not hinder her in the slightest. Search: (¨Complete¨Book¨God¨Station¨) to read premium literature for free.

Ning Yi took a step, wanting to secretly follow her, only to realize that Xiao Chan was clinging to him tightly. Although they were only a head's height apart, Xiao Chan seemed rather short as she huddled beside him. When Ning Yi looked over, Xiao Chan was also looking up with a scrunched-up face. She had been calling Ning Yi for a long time, pulling and tugging without budging him, and looked on the verge of tears. When her eyes met Ning Yi's, her eyes and mouth suddenly widened, and she paused for a second with an adorable expression, before quickly lowering her head.

Ning Yi pursed his lips, then patted her shoulder, "Let's go."

"Oh." Xiao Chan quickly released her grip. Ning Yi walked towards the side street. Xiao Chan took a few steps, then came to her senses and shook her head, "No, Young Master, where are you going?"

"To watch the excitement..."

"No!"

Xiao Chan suddenly jumped up, grabbing Ning Yi's sleeve, "No, Young Master, that female thief is so powerful. Young Master, let's go eat something. Miss is still waiting for us..."

"It's okay, I'll just watch from afar..."

"No, that female thief has already run away..."

"It's not that easy... Uh, if she really ran away, I wouldn't be able to see her anyway..."

With a *thump*, Xiao Chan hugged Ning Yi from behind, her arms wrapped tightly around him. The spiced beans in her hands spilled all over Ning Yi. Her head shook desperately against Ning Yi's back, "No, Young Master, you're not allowed to go..."

Ning Yi stood there, speechless, looking up to the heavens. Then he looked around, "Xiao Chan, what kind of behavior is this, hugging me like this."

The situation had been chaotic just now, and everyone was watching the fight. Ning Yi had protected her, so not many people had noticed. But hearing Ning Yi's words, Xiao Chan reacted, her body stiffened, and she released him as if she had been electrocuted. But she still clung tightly to his sleeve, her face flushed. Ning Yi smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair, immediately messing it up. The headscarf of her bun fell off, and half of her hair fell into a ponytail. Xiao Chan's mouth turned down. Ning Yi took a step forward, "It's okay, it's okay, I'm just going to see what's going on."

"Young Master, don't go..."

At this moment, more soldiers of the Wu Lie Army in blue short outfits arrived at the end of the street. The little girl tugged at Ning Yi's sleeve, following him step by step, her expression anxious and tearful. The headscarf around her bun had also fallen off, and she held it in her hand, unable to tie it back on, looking utterly adorable.

The black-clad woman had been covered in blood from the fight. If she had continued running, it would have caused panic. However, the slightly chaotic scene only lasted for the next street. When Ning Yi and Xiao Chan passed to another street, the panicked expressions of the pedestrians were gone. Clearly, the female thief had either entered the surrounding shops and residences or had quickly found a way to change her appearance. However, when passing a teahouse, they heard people discussing the fight on Vermillion Bird Street.

"...I heard that the female assassin was assassinating the Wu Lie Army's Commandant Song Xian at Flying Swallow Pavilion. Although she didn't succeed, she killed more than a dozen people before leaving. Tsk tsk, the blood flowed like a river... There was a fight on Vermillion Bird Street just now, and now she's gone again. These high-flying greenwood heroes, how can they possibly keep them..."

The Wu Lie Army garrisoned the Jiangning area and didn't have a good reputation. Ordinary people naturally didn't know who Commandant Song Xian was, but officials were rarely good people. When people in the marketplace talked about it, they naturally felt a sense of great satisfaction. However, to say that these high-flying people couldn't be kept at all was impossible. Among the nearby crowd, they occasionally saw figures in blue short outfits. These should be the most elite of the Wu Lie Army. There couldn't be many of them, but they were still searching for the female assassin. Ning Yi occasionally observed their search routes and followed them casually.

Xiao Chan had calmed down by this time, following beside Ning Yi, occasionally jogging a few steps, while trying to fix her loose bun, and pouting in defiance, "Young Master won't find her, Young Master won't find her, Young Master won't find her..."

*****************

The assassination at Flying Swallow Pavilion and the fight on Vermillion Bird Street were just small episodes that happened that night, causing ripples only within a certain range and spreading only among a certain level of people. Even if the Wu Lie Army had a big name, they couldn't seal the city or close the roads to search for someone on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In this era when news mainly relied on word of mouth, the vast majority of people continued with their activities and celebrations.

The Old Rain Pavilion, located about a street away from Black Robe Lane, was one of the largest restaurants in Jiangning, owned by the wealthiest family, the Pus. It was five stories high and covered a large area. Although it was a restaurant, you could find almost any entertainment you wanted here. Since the Pu family had started to develop in the direction of a scholarly family, some of their businesses also incorporated a refined and scholarly atmosphere, and this building was the best-managed of them all.

The entire restaurant was a rectangular structure with a large central courtyard, so there were no lighting problems. In between were artificial mountains, pavilions, strange trees, and flowers, arranged in a small but exquisite manner. If necessary, these things could be moved away to build a temporary stage. Outside the restaurant, there was also a walled area with houses and landscaped vegetation, which was pleasing to the eye when viewed from above. Inside the restaurant were various literary calligraphy and paintings full of scholarly atmosphere, valuable screens, porcelain used as decoration, lacquerware, and so on.

The Pu family had spent a lot of money on this building, and the reputation they had built for it lived up to expectations. People with money, family background, and a sense of freedom and talent often took pride in hosting a banquet for their guests here. High officials such as the Prefect would often choose to come here if they were hosting a banquet outside their residence. But naturally, money was the hard truth. Scholars with empty sleeves could only come when they were invited. This building could be considered the best combination of money and elegance.

Today, the Pu family hosted a banquet for many talented scholars here. After all, the weather had not yet warmed up, and the wind on the river was strong, so it was not easy to arrange six boats connected together. This gathering was actually similar to another Pu Garden Poetry Gathering. Led by Pu Yangyi of the Pu family, they invited many people according to the standards of the Pu Garden Poetry Gathering, but this time no one brought their families, and the courtesan Qi Lan, one of the Four Beauties of the Qinhuai River, accompanied them. In the past two or three years, the famous courtesan Qi Lan could be regarded as the Pu family's signboard.

The atmosphere of the banquet was more casual than the Mid-Autumn Festival's Pu Garden Poetry Gathering, but everyone was still full of poetic inspiration. In addition to the talented scholars who already had a relationship with the Pu family and people like Xue Jin, there was also a very famous person who came today. This person was often as famous as the cautious and steady Cao Guan among the younger generation in Jiangning, but he had a carefree personality, and his poems were often imaginative and unrestrained, and he was known as having the legacy of the Tang Dynasty. He was the talented scholar Li Pin who participated in the Li Chuan Poetry Gathering during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Li Pin's reputation was greater than that of the people the Pu family could invite, but of course, they were all young people, and the difference was difficult to measure. When others mentioned the Pu family, they would at most deduct a few points because of the strong smell of copper, and they seemed to be several levels lower than the talented scholars of the Zhi Shui Poetry Gathering and the Li Chuan Poetry Gathering. Everyone was actually very surprised that he would come here to attend the banquet, but the main reason why they were able to invite him was not due to the Pu family's wealth, but because this guy had listened to several stories by Ning Yi at the Yu Mountain Academy before the new year. Su Chonghua and him knew each other, but no one would have thought that Su Chonghua's influence would be so great. It was nothing to host a banquet on weekdays, but being able to invite Li Pin on a day like the Lantern Festival made the Pu family feel proud.

The rest of the talented scholars originally thought that Li Pin might steal their thunder, but fortunately Li Pin was a low-key person. Today, he only wrote poems casually. Although they were also good poems, they did not overshadow everyone's brilliance. He was also polite in his jokes, and before long, he made people feel that they had become his friends rather than opponents, and they felt honored. Qi Lan was a professional socialite, so naturally she would not get close to Li Pin alone. Compared to others, she was a little distant from this talented scholar. With her skillful social skills, she was able to control the situation well, and the scene was lively and harmonious.

The poems that came out of the Li Chuan Poetry Gathering and other gatherings would continue to be collected for everyone to appreciate. The people here were also full of poetic inspiration. Although the poems were not as good as those of Li Chuan, Li Pin occasionally joked about the talented scholars of Li Chuan, and others felt that the talented scholars there were not that great. The banquet was filled with toasts and laughter, and occasionally they played drinking games and appreciated poems. Qi Lan sang and danced to a song, and when it was almost the third quarter of Hai time (around 10:30 PM), Pu Yangyi went over to talk to Li Pin, and also chatted and laughed with Su Chonghua and Xue Jin who had come over.

After a while, they talked about the "Water Melody" from last Mid-Autumn Festival, and then asked about Ning Yi. Pu Yangyi spoke casually, but in fact he had long wanted to invite Ning Yi to this poetry gathering to add to his reputation. Su Chonghua smiled and talked about some of Ning Yi's affairs in the Su family, and also talked about Song Mao's examination and praise before the new year. In fact, he used to have an indifferent attitude towards Ning Yi, but now he was wary of him. The main reason was that he was afraid that the other party would steal his title of Mountain Chief of the Yu Mountain Academy. After all, the academy that he had been running for so many years had not improved, and Ning Yi came and taught a group of good students. To him, this was no different from slapping him in the face. Seeing Su Taigong's importance to Ning Yi, he was naturally worried. But on the surface, he naturally made a show of discussing the younger generation and feeling honored.

"Fake, I don't believe it." The Xue family and the Su family had always been at odds, and Xue Jin no longer concealed much at this time, "I heard before the new year that he heard a Taoist chanting that "Water Melody", tsk... he stole it for his own use..."

"Haha, Brother Xue, you're bringing up this matter again." As Xue Jin's voice fell, another voice came from the side. This was someone from the Wu family. Among the three Jiangning cloth merchants, the Xue family and the Su family had always been at odds, but the Wu family, as the head of the industry, had a good relationship with both families. The person who came was Wu Qihua, the second young master of the Wu family. He knew Su Tan'er and Xue Jin. When Su Tan'er visited the Wu family during the New Year, Ning Yi had also met him once. At this time, he smiled and said, "The Taoist saying, when it's said, not many people will believe it."

Pu Yangyi smiled and said, "I don't believe it either, but I've really admired this Liheng brother for a long time, Mountain Chief Su, you must introduce me to him next time."

Afterwards, the topic shifted away from Ning Yi's name. Everyone laughed and joked for a while, and Qi Lan performed a song and dance. Wu Qihua looked out the window for a while, then smiled and turned back, "Brother Pu Yang, it's really a coincidence. The person we were just talking about seems to be wandering downstairs right now. Mountain Chief Su, Brother Li, Brother Xue, I've only met Liheng once before, and I'm not sure. Why don't you take a look..."

In fact, half the hall around him could hear his words, and people immediately gathered around with interest, "Brother Wu is so interested, who are you talking about?"

"Liheng? Could this person be..."

Before long, the discussion spread throughout the entire second-floor gathering hall. By the window on the inside, Wu Qihua and a few others stood there and looked at it a few times, pointing, "Everyone, take a look, it seems to be that person. The girl next to him, isn't she the maid Xiao Chan who is beside Tan'er sister?"

Near the artificial mountain in the courtyard downstairs, Ning Yi and Xiao Chan were strolling around somewhat bored, looking around among the lanterns...

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