Yan Mo would never agree with what she said. He immediately retorted, "Miss Yao, are you still angry?"
Shi Muyuan was shocked yet again. What on earth was going on?
She felt her voice trembling as she asked Yao Kun. The little girl simply shook her head, while the man behind her replied with a contented "Hmm", deliberately dragging out his already lazy tone.
Goodness, there must be something going on!
Shi Muyuan felt it was not right to pry into a little girl's business, but her curiosity got the better of her. Knowing that Yao Kun wouldn't say anything, she immediately stared at Yan Mo with twinkling eyes. "If you tell me what happened, I'll forgive you for pulling my pigtails."
Yan Mo was speechless. "I haven't even blamed you for delaying my meeting with my friend, yet you're the one blaming me first. Miss, you're being rather unreasonable."
His last sentence was firm, and Shi Muyuan immediately felt guilty. The trick of shifting the blame had become second nature to her when she was a petty urban administrator.
"Fine, I have to go. I don't want to keep people waiting." Yan Mo flicked his sleeve and put away the stones. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the figure in the corner.
After taking two steps, he came back and tried to pull Yao Kun. The little girl nimbly dodged him, her face clearly showing her annoyance and a sign that she didn't want anyone to approach. Yan Mo wasn't bothered by missing his grasp. He simply looked at Shi Muyuan. "You have to compensate me. Otherwise, I'll go and see the national advisor."
Shi Muyuan scoffed. "Who would believe you? Do you think you can just go and see the national advisor whenever you want?"
Yan Mo looked at her meaningfully. "If you don't believe me, that's fine. You'll find out later." Then he turned around and left.
Shi Muyuan looked at Yao Kun. Even after Yan Mo had disappeared from sight, she still frowned and refused to relax. "What's wrong, Kun'er? This isn't like you."
Yao Kun hesitated for a moment before saying, "I had a fight with him."
Shi Muyuan didn't know what to say. She could only pat her on the shoulder.
Noticing that Yao Kun's hands were empty, Shi Muyuan's face fell. "Kun, where are the things?"
"I threw them away when I went to look for you."
Those were the little trinkets she had carefully selected after wandering around for a whole morning. Alas, they were gone.
Shi Muyuan resignedly took out the few hairpins left in her sleeve. She picked out a jade hairpin of bright green color and showed it to Yao Kun. Seeing the little girl's bright eyes light up, she knew she had made the right choice.
"Come on, let me put it on for you." Shi Muyuan motioned for Yao Kun to lower her head.
Yao Kun's previous vigilant look disappeared and was replaced by a look of joy. When she squatted down, the little bells on her hair ribbon tinkled merrily.
After Shi Muyuan put the hairpin on for her, she nodded in satisfaction and then put away the remaining hairpins. These were all to be taken back to the palace as gifts.
When they reached the Tianxiang Pavilion, the little girl was still happily touching the hairpin on her head.
Originally, she had sneaked out of the palace today just to try the dishes cooked by the new chef at the Tianxiang Pavilion and to watch the opera troupe outside. Although there had been some small interruptions, it shouldn't disrupt her schedule. And now, the first important stop of the day had arrived.
Tianxiang Pavilion
Huo Qizhou was sitting by the window. When he saw the familiar figure outside, the man sitting opposite him also leaned over to the window and looked at the two girls outside with a playful expression.
"Hey, it hasn't been long since you last saw each other, and now you meet again. What should we do? I remember that little girl always said she wanted to avoid you."
"You're not any better." Huo Qizhou withdrew his gaze.
Yan Mo snorted at him angrily. "It's all for you. Otherwise, why would I have offended that fierce little girl? She was so ruthless in the fight that I couldn't even leave the mansion for several days because of the pain."
Yan Mo propped his head up by the window.
During that time, Huo Qizhou had disappeared somewhere. When he came back, he was injured all over. Then he was targeted by Yao Kun and couldn't get rid of her no matter what. The national advisor couldn't drive the girl away either, so he had called Yan Mo over. Trying to persuade Yao Kun was of no use, and then he had fought with the little girl. As expected of the daughter of the great general of Huaihua, she was extremely fierce in the fight.
"Aren't you going to catch her?" Yan Mo asked.
"No need. She'll go back on her own." Huo Qizhou replied.
Shi Muyuan led Yao Kun into the Tianxiang Pavilion and chose a corner to sit down. She ordered a whole table of dishes. Seeing that Yao Kun was silent again, with a look of doubt between her eyebrows.
She had an epiphany and said, "It doesn't matter. Try a bit of each dish. It would be a waste of our effort to come out like this otherwise."
"Besides, we can also take some back for Xiaoxiao and the others to reward them for covering for us."
Yao Kun didn't really understand but still nodded in agreement.
In the private room on the upper floor, Huo Qizhou stared at the dishes in front of him without moving. "Why did you call me here?"
Yan Mo picked up his chopsticks and took a bite. "Eat. Why do you have such a cold face? Surely the national advisor isn't used to this kind of food?"
Huo Qizhou didn't respond. He just looked at him quietly.
Yan Mo put down his chopsticks in boredom. "Can't I just call you out for some fun, national advisor?"
"Yan Mo, I hope you can talk about something serious." Huo Qizhou tapped his finger on the table.
"Fine, fine. You're no fun at all." He took a sip of tea to clear his throat.
"Recently, there has been a lot of talk about that foreign opera troupe. My men got some information and found something strange. Some girls disappeared after watching the magic show. Among them, there were several young ladies from the families of important ministers of our Great Liang Kingdom. Their families reported the case, but when the officials went to investigate the opera troupe, they didn't find anything. This is not right."
"Let the vice-minister of the Ministry of Justice handle the investigation. Why did you call me here? Do you want me to investigate?"
"How dare I ask the national advisor to investigate a case?"
"I just found out some things that the national advisor might want to know. I came here specifically to tell you. But now the investigation has encountered difficulties and there's no progress. I don't even know if the information is accurate."
Only then did Huo Qizhou look at him seriously.
"You're getting bolder and bolder."
"Hey, the national advisor is overpraising me. I've just picked up some tricks after being with you for so long."
Huo Qizhou had been looking for something. No one knew what it was. The last time he was injured, according to reliable sources, it was because of that thing. That's why Yan Mo dared to come to him.
Although he had managed to suppress this matter to avoid causing panic and scaring the snakes, the pressure from above was quite high. After all, those girls were from the families of important ministers, and the young emperor naturally paid extra attention.
Huo Qizhou looked into his sly, silver - glinting eyes. "Does the vice - minister of the Ministry of Justice know what he's saying?"
"Of course I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't have come to the national advisor."
"Where did they come from?"
"I heard that they are people from several different countries who got together. They've been performing on the outskirts of Changjing City these days."
"How many girls are missing?"
"There are already three or four in Changjing City. I don't know how many are missing from other places. These people are so bold that they even dare to kidnap the children of court officials."
Huo Qizhou nodded. "Is the opera troupe still there today?"
"Yes. Do you want to go and take a look?" Yan Mo knew he had put Huo Qizhou in a difficult situation, so he asked carefully.
"Of course I'm going. How can I investigate the case without taking a look?" Huo Qizhou replied, looking at Yan Mo as if he were an idiot.