Chapter 4: Xiao Family Disciple

Chapter 4: Xiao Family Disciple

Chapter 4: Xiao Family Disciple
The Xiao Mansion is located in the north of Jiangdu City. It is a large house covering an area of ​​about 30 acres, where the head of the family, Xiao Cong, and his three brothers live.

This mansion is also the center of the entire Xiao family, controlling the fate of hundreds of clansmen and countless dependents.

At this time, in the outer study room in the central courtyard of the mansion, the chief steward Liu Ying was carefully reporting his investigation results to the head of the family, Xiao Cong.

"Master, Xiao Qilang has indeed lost his memory. I have used various methods to test him, but he can't remember anything. He even forgot who the old man was. It's obvious that he is not pretending."

The head of the family, Xiao Cong, was a little depressed and asked again, "What did Imperial Physician Zhang say?"

"Imperial Physician Zhang said that there are cases where people lose their memory after being hit hard, but they usually become idiots. Cases like Xiao Qilang's are rare. He said that this is the first time he has seen it."

Xiao Cong nodded, "That's it! Don't try again."

"But. But he is different now. Should we give him a new place to live?"

Xiao Cong pondered for a moment and said, "Let him live there for the time being to see if he can recover his memory. If not, we will move him. Now everything remains the same."

"I understand!"

Xiao Cong said calmly, "Butler Liu, only three people know Xiao Qilang's secret. I don't want a fourth person to know it."

"Please rest assured, Master. I will keep my mouth shut!"

Butler Liu went downstairs, and the tea boy came in again to report: "Master, Chief Butler Zhang has been waiting for a while."

"Invite him in!"

After a while, the door opened and an extremely tall and burly middle-aged man walked in. He had a square face, a bushy beard, a pair of big eyes, and skin as dark as charcoal. He was the chief instructor of the martial arts school invited by the head of the family, Xiao Cong, a year ago. His surname was Zhang, and everyone called him Chief Instructor Zhang.

Xiao Cong trusted him very much.

Manager Zhang bowed and saluted, "Meet the Patriarch!"

"Please take a seat!"

Xiao Cong waved his hand and asked him to sit down, and asked: "How did the steward feel after visiting the deceased?"

Zhang Zongguan said in a deep voice: "The person who killed County Magistrate Ma should be the murderer on the passenger ship. The killing method is the same, and he killed him with one sword. He is an expert among experts."

"How tall is it?"

"At least he is at the eighth level of martial arts. I suspect he has already reached the ninth level."

"Ninth grade!"

Xiao Cong narrowed his eyes. He actually mobilized a ninth-grade martial arts master. The other party really spent a lot of money.

"But why can't a ninth-rank master kill Xiao Qilang?"

Manager Zhang shook his head. "I don't know either. Either Xiao Qilang is protected by the gods, or the other party doesn't really want to kill him."

Manager Zhang said worriedly, "I don't understand why they would attack a child."

Xiao Cong sneered and said, "The five dragons fought for the throne, and they used every possible means. The King of Jin fell because of this child. He is the cause and the result. How could the Crown Prince and the King of Han let him go?"

"I heard that the King of Jin is going to be restored to the throne?"

Xiao Cong nodded. "At the end of the year, the emperor will be inspecting Jiangdu. It is very likely that the King of Jin will be restored to the throne. Therefore, all kinds of strange things will happen this year. Xiao Qilang will be in great danger. Regarding his safety, what suggestions do you have?"

"Master, I strongly suggest that Xiao Qilang practice martial arts to protect himself."

Xiao Cong frowned, "Can practicing martial arts help you escape the assassination of a ninth-rank master?"

"Master, there won't be any more ninth-rank masters. Once a sixth-rank master appears, I will find him. I'm worried that they will use ordinary assassins, which will be hard to guard against. If Xiao Qilang can practice martial arts, at least he won't stand and die, and maybe he can escape death at the critical moment."

"Will practicing martial arts in a short period of time be effective?"

Manager Zhang smiled and said, "As long as I teach you personally, I guarantee that you will see miraculous results in two or three months."

Xiao Cong smiled and said, "Didn't you say that the kid has always hated you and refused to practice martial arts with you?"

Manager Zhang pondered for a moment and said, "This is a different time. Since he has lost his memory, I will try to persuade him again. Maybe he will agree. As long as he is willing to learn, I will teach him personally."

Xiao Cong paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, thinking for a long time, and said: "Since we are going to do it, we must succeed. Why not use a little trick to make him accept it willingly."

…………

Xiao Xia slowly opened his eyes. The wound on his head had scabbed over and the bandage had been removed. This was the third day since he returned to the Xiao Mansion. He successfully made everyone believe that he was seriously injured and had lost his memory.

But at the same time, his heart was filled with loss.

He originally thought that he was the son of a big family, living a life of luxury, with maids serving him, and a life of luxury. But in fact, his life was so miserable that he was even worse than the servants.

The room was empty, only about seven or eight square meters at most, with no windows. The light was dim, the floor was uneven and made of mud, and the walls were made of a mixture of mud and straw.

He was lying on a tattered wooden board with a few bricks at both ends. This was his bed. There was only an old quilt covered with patches on it. Even his pillow was a torn bag filled with chaff.

Apart from this, there seemed to be nothing else, and the house was completely bare.

Of course, Xiao Xia also vaguely guessed that the head of the family wanted to hide him.

The best way to hide a grain of sand is to throw it on the beach.

The best way to hide a person is to put him in the slums.

Xiao Xia turned over and sat up, and saw his long, thin legs. This was the only thing he was satisfied with. He was fifteen years old this year, which was his age in lunar calendar. He was actually only fourteen years old, and his height was over 1.7 meters, which meant that his parents in the Sui Dynasty were very tall.

By the way, he is still an orphan. Butler Liu told him that he was from the Xiao family in Luoyang, born in poverty, and his parents died when he was young. The head of the family felt sorry for him and brought him from Luoyang to Jiangdu to raise him. It has been four years.

Believe him, maybe his parents are gone, but why would a poor man sit on the same boat with the eunuch chief steward of the eldest princess Yang Lihua? There are four masters guarding him.

He was almost murdered in prison. Is this the treatment for being born in poverty?

Xiao Xia certainly knew that Sui Chao's identity was not ordinary, but he didn't know exactly how it was extraordinary.

The master of the house bailed him back from the county government office that day, and he never saw the master again.

At this moment, Xiao Xia suddenly thought of something. He quickly lay on the dirt floor and looked under the bed. Last night, the housekeeper brought a box. It was the luggage he brought to the capital. The county government returned it to him, and he had not had time to open it.

He leaned under the bed and dragged the box out from under the bed with difficulty.

It was a tattered bamboo box without a lock. When it was opened, it was full of old clothes.

When he turned to the bottom, he found a big bag of copper coins. Xiao Xia's eyes lit up and he quickly poured out the coins and counted them carefully. There were ten piles of one hundred coins in total. That was a whole set of money!
It was the first time he saw copper coins from the Sui Dynasty, and it seemed to be the Kaihuang Wuzhu coins.

There were a dozen loose coins nearby, and he quickly picked up the loose coins and put them in his pocket.

He continued to search the bottom of the box to see if there were any other good things.

"Hey! What is this?"

He felt something hard in the corner of the box.

The thing was not big, just enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and was wrapped in a piece of red silk cloth.

Xiao Xia opened the red silk cloth and recognized it at a glance. This was the jade pendant hanging around her neck!
He used this jade pendant to exchange for information from the old death row prisoner, but it was finally snatched away by the county doctor. Unexpectedly, the county doctor returned it to him.

Hey! The county doctor is a good man. He saved my life. I must thank him when I have the chance.

Xiao Xia looked at the jade pendant again. It felt very rough in the cell, but he didn't look at it closely.

Chapter 4: Xiao Xia, a member of the Xiao family, took the jade pendant to the door and looked at it carefully in the sunlight. It was of average whiteness, with a large structure and full of cotton spots. It was the low-end Qinghai Kunlun jade, and the carving was also rough. He thought it was a dog, but after looking for a long time, he found it was a Qilin.

This kind of stuff is only worth ten yuan on the street stalls in later generations. I don’t know how much it was worth in the Sui Dynasty, but it certainly wasn’t that expensive, right?

It should be a memorial left to him by his parents in the Sui Dynasty.

It turned out to be a worthless thing. Xiao Xia wrapped it up and put it back in its place. The quality of this jade pendant was too poor and he didn't like it.

At this time, the door opened and an old man with a hunched back walked in, carried in a toilet, put a large bowl of rice on the toilet lid, turned around and walked away slowly.

The hunchbacked old man was called Uncle Men, and as his name suggested, Xiao Xia hadn't heard him say a word in the past three days. It was the housekeeper who introduced him to him and had taken care of him for four years.

This is breakfast. Xiao Xia stepped forward and picked up a large coarse porcelain bowl. The rice in the bowl was very rough. It was just the wheat grains steamed directly without being ground into flour. It was served with a piece of pickled vegetable. Fortunately, the quantity was large, filling a large bowl.

Xiao Xia was in her growth spurt and would feel very hungry if she didn't eat. Although the wheat rice was very rough, it tasted particularly sweet to her.

He simply walked into the yard with a large coarse porcelain bowl, and looked around while shoveling rice.

The yard is very small, at most ten square meters, with a tattered gate, no well, no trellis, no chickens or anything like that. There is nothing at all, just a bare piece of mud.

"Koshichiro!"

Suddenly, a young lady rushed in from outside. She was about twelve or thirteen years old, wearing tattered clothes, and was thin and small. She had ugly teeth, and her big front teeth could not be covered by her lips.

This was the first woman he met in the Sui Dynasty, Xiao Jiuniang, whom Xiao Xia called the bucktooth girl.

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(End of this chapter)