I'm the Farmgirl You Can't Mess With

Chapter 1410: Side Story: Fan Zijin (26)

Editor: Atlas Studios

The second thing Qi Xiuyuan wanted to do was to contact his two uncles to remove the bounty on Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin.

Even though the pugilistic world violated the law using martial arts, the Great Zhou Dynasty was faced with external enemies and constant internal strife, and thus did not have the mood to deal with the pugilistic world at all. Therefore, both sides had been minding their own business all these years.

While he was sure that Madam Wu would not dare to deal with Haoran and Zijin in his jurisdiction, he couldn’t be certain about those martial artists who had been bribed.

There was nothing in this world that those people did not dare to do.

Qi Xiuyuan wouldn’t risk his brother and cousin’s lives, so he went to the Zhu family to let them deal with those people.

Although the Zhu family had left the pugilistic world for decades, they still had some connections, so this matter was not difficult for them.

After receiving his uncle’s assurance, Qi Xiuyuan washed his hands of this matter and began to focus on exterminating the bandits.

As there were not many bandits on Lone Mountain, and they did not have many weapons, it was easy for the Central Camp to destroy them. However, the Imperial Court constantly owed them food and rations, and they needed rations to fight a war. Furthermore, the Central Camp was unwilling to lose too many soldiers to suppress the bandits. After all, Lone Mountain was easy to defend and difficult to attack. If they wanted to take it down, they had to pay a price.

Qi Xiuyuan was willing to expend the effort to do so and said that he would attribute half of his military merits to the Central Camp. Hearing this, the assistant commander of the Central Camp agreed without thinking.

If it was in the past, he would definitely not allow Qi Xiuyuan to interfere and would even suspect his motives. However, due to the commotion between the bandits and Qi Xiuyuan recently, he had already learned the whole story from the scouts.

Qi Xiuyuan was furious because of what happened to his younger brother.

If bandits had gone after his own brother’s life like this, he would definitely annihilate those bandits, too. Therefore, he kindly agreed.

In any case, he wouldn’t lose a single soldier, and could also get half of the military merits from eliminating the bandits of Lone Mountain for nothing. So, why not?

As long as they were determined, it was not difficult to eliminate those bandits. Although he would lose half of the military merits, Qi Xiuyuan would compensate them with the resources collected during this mission. He would use everything to reward the soldiers and compensate the soldiers who died during the mission.

Therefore, the soldiers of the West Camp overcame the mountain stronghold on Lone Mountain as if they were on steroids.

Shortly after the bandits obtained the 10,000 taels of silver, it was snatched away before they could even use it. This time, it was completely snatched away, and they didn’t even have a nest now. The chief stomped his feet in hatred and said in regret before he died, “If I had known that those two brats were Qi Xiuyuan’s younger brothers, no way would I have dealt with them.”

After all, he was a bandit and Qi Xiuyuan was a soldier. Why would he rush to court death instead of hiding from Qi Xiuyuan?

Because of this, the chief had a lot of opinions about the group of martial artists who had bribed them to kill Qi Haoran together. It was obvious that this group of people knew Qi Haoran’s identity. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have suggested that they must kill the duo before they entered Xingzhou Prefecture.

Unfortunately, he understood it too late!

When Fan Zijin found out that the bandits who had once come after them did not have a good ending, he was relieved and went out to play with Qi Haoran. Eldest Cousin had said that when he returned, he would hire a teacher for them. They would study and practice martial arts accordingly, and no one was allowed to slack off.

Therefore, Fan Zijin seized the time to play. Then, he accidentally bumped into that little girl again. This time, he found out her name—Mu Yangling.

Fan Zijin was very wary of Mu Yangling. It couldn’t be helped since the other party did not look like a nine-year-old girl at all.

Nine-year-old girls in the countryside tended to be muddle-headed, and spent their days either working or playing. How many nine-year-old girls could be as eloquent as her?

The other party only pursed her lips slightly and smiled. With her head bent slightly, she’d look at you with her ink-black eyes. Like a spring breeze, you’d feel as if you were the only one in her eyes. Case in point, the silly boy beside Fan Zijin could only see her whenever she was around.

When had Qi Haoran behaved like this in front of someone he had just met?

Fan Zijin would never admit that he was jealous of her.

He stopped Qi Haoran and did not let them interact too much, armed with a very good reason. “Those nine-year-old girls in the capital are not even as mature and smart as her even though they’d been educated since a young age. How can you simply treat her as the daughter of a hunter?”

Qi Haoran said happily, “That’s why I said that she’s amazing. Those girls only know how to cry, but look at her—she can even hunt in the mountains.”

At this point, he said sadly, “Hunting is too difficult. Just consider our situation in the mountains those past few days. I want to find an opportunity to ask her how to find prey in the mountains next time.”

Fan Zijin said solemnly, “But I suspect that she has ulterior motives. Don’t forget that her father is half a Hu person.”

Qi Haoran corrected him sternly. “Her father is a quarter Hu. Moreover, Big Brother has already investigated. They have lived in Mingshui County since her grandfather’s generation, and her grandparents sacrificed themselves to fight against the Hu people and protect the villagers. You don’t have to worry at all that her father has defected to the enemy.”

Fan Zijin said, “… Perhaps she saw that we have noble statuses, so she deliberately approached us to seek benefits.”

Qi Haoran scratched his head and asked, “Is our status very noble?”

Walking along the streets of the capital where royalty and nobles were aplenty, their statuses were naturally not considered very noble. However, this was Xingzhou Prefecture.

Not only was Qi Xiuyuan a general of the same rank as the magistrate, but he was also a general who controlled an army and guarded the borders. To a certain extent, he was equivalent to the local ruler.

Fan Zijin looked at him with his round eyes and asked with his gaze, “What do you think?”

However, Qi Haoran was still eager to play with Mu Yangling. Hence, he hesitated for a moment before saying, “As the saying goes, ’A drop of water should be repaid with a spring’. She did save our lives before.”

“Just because of that piece of flatbread, the rabbit and the pheasant?” Fan Zijin’s expression was very ugly.

Qi Haoran nodded solemnly and said, “If not for the things she gave us, we probably wouldn’t even be able to leave Chef Mountain. We would definitely have starved to death in the mountains. Hence, she did save our lives.”

Fan Zijin choked and stared at him speechlessly.

Ever since they were deceived and surrounded by the enemy, Zijin had been a little extreme. Qi Haoran frowned in distress and patted his shoulder. “Although there are bad people in this world, I think there are still many good people. Zijin, let’s not think of her as such a bad person.”

Fan Zijin snorted coldly and did not comment. Anyway, he just did not like Mu Yangling and could not stand her.

He originally wanted to do something about it, but then, he saw that Qi Haoran had to study, practice martial arts, and go to the military camp to learn how to train soldiers. In short, Qi Haoran was extremely busy. Not to mention Mu Yangling, he didn’t even have time to accompany Fan Zijin.

Fan Zijin reckoned that Qi Haoran would not even remember who Mu Yangling was, so he was happy not to mention her again and focused on his studies.

The north was not like the capital. Eldest Cousin had spent a lot of effort to help him hire a teacher who was a juren. Having long made up his mind to work hard to trample Fan Zixiao and his father under his feet in the future, he studied extremely hard.

With his mind immersed in the books, he quickly threw these disputes to the back of his mind.

Considering Xingzhou Prefecture’s prefectural capital was very far from Mingshui County, since Haoran had forgotten about her, Fan Zijin did not think that they would have a chance to meet again.

However, he did not expect their ill-fated relationship to be so deep. Through a heavy snowfall and a military disaster, not only were they reunited, but they might also have to meet often in the future.