The end of April and beginning of May in Fuzhou is a time of sweltering, humid rain.

The heavy rains brought by the typhoon had stopped for a few days, followed by a drizzling, incessant rain. This endless rain prolonged the post-typhoon cleanup. People on the roads wore raincoats, and the water rose and fell on the surface, making it muddy. The paving stones were washed to a shiny, dark-green.

Occasionally, old houses would even collapse.

However, for the people of Fuzhou, who experienced typhoons every year, this wasn't anything unacceptable.

"...Speaking of which, after the official arrived in our Fuzhou, he really did some great things...Several new roads in the city were paved with bluestone, old buildings were renovated, and many sewers were cleared. In the past, after a hurricane, it was a terrible sight, but better days are coming. The two young masters should know that there are quite a few people coming from outside recently...In a while, buying or renting a house won't be the price it is now..."

Ning Ji and Qu Longjun had just arrived and were temporarily staying in an inn in the west of the city, preparing to rent a house as a longer-term base. The two had a distinguished air about them, and Ning Ji was generous with copper coins as tips. Every day, they paid for a meal, and the landlord who was finding them a house had taken them around for several days, praising the new ruler who had come to Fuzhou and saying a lot of good things. The main point was that "housing prices throughout the city are rising."

Of course, for Ning Ji and Qu Longjun, who had made many friends and closed several deals along the way, this wasn't a problem either.

The only thing that was a little concerning was that the security checks in Fuzhou had been somewhat strict lately. The two had come with a pass issued at the Xianxia Pass, and they had encountered several checks in the few days they had been wandering around the city - and the questions were quite detailed, which was a little strange.

Several times they were questioned by the constables on the street. If they asked too many questions, Ning Ji would become impatient and give them some copper coins, and they would leave with the money. The accompanying landlord and Qu Longjun mostly thought he was being wasteful. But of course, the two of them didn't understand that Ning Ji didn't have much sense of belonging outside the Southwest, nor did he have high expectations. He came to Fuzhou partly to travel and partly to explore the possibility of causing trouble. At this time, he was both testing the other party's mettle and corrupting them as much as possible.

In his heart, he might even have a great demon king-like laugh: This is it! They're still "honoring the king and repelling the barbarians"! Still reforming!

--Weak!

He was even more confident in taking down Tie Tianying.

Of course, during this period, he couldn't be caught by the Zuo family.

Ning Ji was making such calculations in his heart. Seeing that he was generous, the landlord soon secretly told them the reason for the recent tense security in Fuzhou, mentioning a riot in Houguan County and the chaos during the recent disaster relief by the military.

Although Fuzhou already had newspapers, this matter had not yet been disclosed. Privately, rumors said that the army had messed up during disaster relief, or that the soldiers had been wronged, which led the court to begin searching for all kinds of ill-intentioned figures from the martial world.

Due to the lack of information, both versions of the story were possible. Ning Ji remembered them, but didn't bother to distinguish them.

In essence, the brokerage business was also a somewhat shady underworld existence. When talking about security, Ning Ji also asked about Tie Tianying's situation, only to find that this old man now had a very bad reputation among the Fuzhou underworld.

After the new ruler arrived in Fuzhou, Tie Tianying was the head of official security and Fuzhou's governance. He personally arranged the guards for the Fuzhou palace, and reformed the entire Fuzhou patrol system. Several assassinations against the new ruler in recent years had been foiled under his command. Several arrests of underworld thugs had caused a great stir. Huge hot air balloons had once risen above Fuzhou, with officers using telescopes to check the escape routes of the thugs. Some well-known figures of the martial world had been driven to despair in those roundups and died extremely tragically, which established Tie Tianying's "King Yama"-like status in the eyes of the underworld.

When speaking of Tie Tianying, the landlord with an underworld background even showed fear from the bottom of his heart. In Fuzhou, if you were targeted by him, underworld figures would probably not have a good end.

Following this topic, Ning Ji roughly mentioned the name "Tongfu Inn". The landlord looked at Ning Ji for a long time before smiling knowingly, "So Brother Sun is also a brother on the road..."

Then he secretly told them that after the incident with the soldiers in Houguan County a few days ago, Tie Tianying had led his henchmen everywhere, arresting some habitual offenders and bandits in the city who violated the law. The Tongfu Inn had been raided and closed down by the soldiers a few days ago.

Ning Ji recalled the information he had received near Pucheng County more than a month ago, and sneered in his heart.

Weak.

The local gangs are really disappointing, not a single one is any good.

But fortunately, he is now a peaceful person, and it's quite interesting to walk around with Qu Longjun and take a look. If he was still in Jiangning, stirring up trouble with Little Baldy, he would have been angered to death by this group of disappointing "comrades" in Fuzhou...

For the time being, he could only look forward to the next typhoon.

Ning Ji made a phased decision after inquiring about these things. As for the first day of May, the two rented a house in Huaiyun Ward, near the shipyard gate on the east side of the city. They signed the contract.

The house wasn't big, but it had a small courtyard in front, where they could park a carriage, and a stable next to it where they could feed "Baldy" (Tu Lv); Behind it was a small river, with bluestone steps leading down to wash clothes. Perhaps because no one had lived there for a while, the courtyard in front was overgrown with weeds and quite muddy, and the rooms were a bit dilapidated, but the two immediately liked the view of the river after opening the window.

In the following days, Ning Ji hammered and banged in the yard during the day, repairing the roof, renovating the walls, digging soil to drain water, and leveling the ground. He came from a warrior background and had also worked as a doctor, which required patience, so he didn't find the repetitive construction tasks tedious. Many times, he stood on the roof in the rain, looking around. The city of Fuzhou in the rain was old and quiet. Rows of houses and courtyards extended into the distance in the rain. People walked calmly or hurriedly on the streets in the rain. Occasionally, figures emerged from the alleys by the river. The trees and flowers in the rain were lush and green like ink paintings. All of this gave him a feeling that he had never found in Jiangning.

The young man's heart felt peaceful.

Of course, all of this might also be related to the person who was with him at this time.

After settling on the house, Ning Ji was responsible for the hammering and repairing work, while Qu Longjun took on the task of purchasing and logistics for the household. As a young girl, she seemed repressed and introverted when she appeared in the Southwest, but in fact, having been trained to become a "thin horse" (shou ma) from a young age and having read extensively, she had extremely excellent communication skills and was often even better and more discreet than the outgoing Ning Ji.

While Ning Ji was hammering and banging in the room, she went outside to buy some daily necessities. Sometimes, if things were too heavy, she would ask them to be delivered to the house. In addition, she also prepared laundry, cleaning, and three meals a day in an orderly manner. As time went by, the house looked neater and tidier.

Fuzhou was sweltering and humid, and it rained from time to time, soaking Ning Ji, who worked outside during the day. Every night, Qu Longjun would boil hot water, mix it with cold water in a wooden basin, and bring it to the room for Ning Ji to soak his feet. At this time, she would also take off her shoes and soak her fair feet in the water, not avoiding the possible awkwardness. Occasionally, their toes would touch in the water, and Ning Ji would feel soft and warm inside.

From the beginning of their reunion to their cohabitation in the mountains, and then to their journey here, they occasionally had this or that touch, and even hugged each other. All the intimacy seemed natural. They hadn't talked about it too much.

The rented courtyard wasn't large. Besides the living room, there was only one bedroom, so the two of them had also gotten used to living in the same room. There were two beds in the room, with a table in between. After washing up, Qu Longjun would light incense to drive away mosquitoes at night. She would curl up on the head of the bed and read by the oil lamp. They occasionally talked, and she would tell Ning Ji stories from the books, or topics that she found interesting that day. Sometimes, when Ning Ji talked about various stories from the Southwest and his own thoughts, she would listen very carefully. Sometimes, when she laughed, her eyes would be like crescent moons.

Ning Ji, who was almost sixteen years old, couldn't summarize his feelings, but during this sweltering season, he didn't feel bored at all. In Fuzhou's windless nights, the girl's voice and smile only made him feel refreshingly calm. He had almost stopped thinking about Yu Xiao'er. Even without a typhoon, he was no longer anxious. Even after seeing Tie Tianying riding a horse with a group of cronies in the street not long after, and learning the other party's identity from others' words, Ning Ji just thought, "Oh, just that old white-haired thing."

And such feelings were actually the same for Qu Longjun.

This was a place they wanted to stop.

But of course, during the peaceful days for them, on the other side of the city, many other people and things were moving forward in the humidity and heat...

-----------------

The clouds in the sky were gloomy, and the rain was still falling, flowing over the green tiles of the houses, forming curtains.

The middle-aged steward walked through the courtyard corridor, leading the sisters Yinping and Yue Yun towards the room inside the courtyard.

Tonglixuan, this was the courtyard where the Confucian scholar Li Pin now lived in Fuzhou. It had a great reputation to the outside world, but for the Yue sisters at this moment, their hearts were filled with defensiveness and resistance. Even though Yue Fei and Li Pin had a good relationship, and even though Li Pin had once instructed them in their studies, at this moment, the two sisters didn't really want to have a face-to-face conversation with Li Pin.

In recent days, the two sisters had been running around to various government offices, seeking justice for Zhong Ergui's case, and suing the magistrate of Houguan County and the military's law enforcement team for injustice. The lawsuit had been submitted to Fuzhou Prefecture according to normal procedures - in fact, Yinping had already complained to Jun Wu - they were expecting a reversal of the situation. Presumably, the various parties above were now in a bit of a panic.

Li Pin had summoned them, and the two thought it was mostly to persuade them.

As the two who could even talk directly to Jun Wu, they understood to some extent the internal and high-level difficulties of this matter, but these days, facing the wrongful death of a soldier like Zhong Ergui, they didn't want to acknowledge the bigger picture. As for the ignorance and stupidity of the people they had seen in Houguan County that day, Yinping's heart was also filled with a flame, feeling like it could explode at any moment. She even wondered if it was worth it for the army to help such a group of things so seriously in disaster relief these days...

Before long, the two walked through the corridor and saw Li Pin in the study inside.

At this moment of hot and humid weather, Li Pin in the room was burning charcoal. The Confucian scholar, who was over fifty years old, looked thin. He was wearing a single garment, and was sitting by the stove, cooking tea while applying half a bowl of black mud with a medicinal smell to the joints of his legs. Perhaps because the medicinal mud was a bit hot from being roasted, his forehead was covered with sweat.

Many years ago, he had participated as an official of the Jinghan Dynasty in the battle against the grain shortage led by Qin Si yuan and Ning Yi. After that incident, he had been reused and promoted. In the first battle of the Jurchen's southward invasion, he and Qin Shaohe guarded Taiyuan for a year together.

After the fall of Taiyuan, Qin Shaohe was dismembered by the Jurchens. Li Pin survived by luck, barely escaping with his life. Many of the injuries he sustained at that time still had aftereffects. Hot and humid summers or cold winters would cause his rheumatism to flare up extensively.

"Uncle Li."

"Teacher."

The sisters reported outside the door. Li Pin turned his head and glanced at them, nodding with a pained expression, "Oh, you're here."

He waved at the two of them, letting them sit down casually and wait for a while, while he himself stood up and walked towards the room inside.

The two were considered close nephews and nieces, so he had told the outside world to bring them straight in when they arrived, but Yinping was a woman, so at this moment he struggled to go to the inner room to change into a single garment and tidy up his clothes before coming out.

After that, he got straight to the point.

"How's the lawsuit going? Any results?"