Simply Trading

"Trouble? Are they likely to take action against us, for what we did to that official earlier?" asked Qin Feng at once.

But Lin Liushui shook his head. "No. Not that sort of trouble. But I doubt that the official would be able to keep his mouth shut, now that he had seen my badge. Those coming over on that river boat will doubtless show him similar ones, and he will try to gain their favour by mentioning me. And that is what I am worried about!"

Li Changhai"s frown deepened as soon as he heard that. "Then ... I wasn"t mistaken? Those are really ..."

The handsome man sighed, and nodded his head. "Indeed. You were correct to have alerted me. If we move quickly, we may yet escape them. Otherwise, this could get very messy."

Then he turned to Qin Feng, and let the sour look on his lips turn into something far more bitter. "Those are from my family. And, as you can guess, I had left the Yang Empire all those years ago, just to get away from them!"
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Lin Liushui gave out another sigh, and pointed towards the road that led away from the harbour town. "Let us be away. Perhaps they will not be so eager, to find out who else from our family is about. Hopefully, that will be enough to give us a chance to get away from here before they learn who I am!"

*

Unfortunately, Lin Liushui"s family seemed as motivated to find him as he was to get away from them. And they did have the advantage of numbers. So it was no surprise that they managed to track him down by the time night fell. Or rather, a small part of the group did, which was bad enough.

At least the Lin Family had not managed to put the entire ship"s crew on the trio"s tail. Which would have caused serious problems, for both the Ducal Prince and his handsome adviser-c.u.m-close friend.

Even so, the ones that had been sent to track them were persistent. Or perhaps, they were not the only ones to have been sent out. The Second Ducal Prince knew that if he had been in-charge of such an operation, he would have scattered his command into small teams, and sent them in different directions to conduct the search for the trio.

Which meant that these Lin Family agents, or family members, had merely been fortunate, to catch them in this desolate spot. Lin Liushui had led them to this isolated inn in a small town that was a good distance away from any other settlement. Which told Li Changhai that his friend had already considered such a possibility, while they were fleeing. And he was even more certain of that when he saw that the only ones who caught up with them were a trio of young men, who were clearly too arrogant for their own good.

That meant that Lin Liushui had already some idea of who, and what, they were dealing with. On the other hand, Lin Liushui"s method of dealing with his relatives, once they had arrived, had left the Second Ducal Prince gaping. Nor did his surprise abate, by the time that they departed the place the morning in a hurry. While the trio who were also bearing the surname of Lin were left to recover from their injuries in another room at the same inn.

"I cannot believe that you broke their legs, just like that!"

Qin Feng was clearly not surprised by Lin Liushui"s methods, but Li Changhai clearly did not think that he would be so harsh on the trio. They were his nephews! Or at least, in that particular generation! He had discovered that, after the two groups had confronted each other.

"How could you just hit them like that? Aren"t you supposed to be their elder? Don"t you have some sort of image to uphold?"

Lin Liushui sniffed as he drew up his horse next to the Second Ducal Prince. A horse that he had taken away from those three youths as well! They were of much better quality than what they had managed to purchase, since they were in such a hurry to get away from the Ferry Crossing. And the gallant was not above s.n.a.t.c.hing the better mounts away.

"Exactly. And this is how I am upholding my image, to remind those three idiots of just how senior I am to them. To think that they actually dared to openly question my actions like that! They are lucky that they are from my same line of descent, so I am a little closely related to their fathers. Otherwise, I would be sending their heads home! In separate boxes!"

Then he seemed to calm down, and gestured at the road ahead. Without understanding how he could tell, Li Changhai just knew that Lin Liushui was going to change the subject. And probably bring up something regarding the road ahead, to distract the pair from his family troubles.

"This way leads directly to the Snow Swallow Mountain. It goes a little to the East, which is good. The Long Stair up to the Palace Gates will be a little difficult, but it is better than trying to jump up close to two hundred feet under your own power. And that would only bring us to the Lower Walls.

"And the guards of the Snow Swallow Palace aren"t too fond of those who barge onto their Lower Wall without a good excuse. I doubt that we can even produce a poor one, in any case.

"So we should stick to this trail here, and use Qin Feng"s admission badge once we are confronted."

He turned to the youngest in the group at that, and gave Qin Feng a grin. "Hopefully, that should be enough to get us into the place without too much trouble."

Qin Feng nodded back at him, as though accepting his story without any difficulty. Then the young man asked a question that made Lin Liushui lose his smile. And Li Changhai groan inwardly. Didn"t Qin Feng have any idea when to drop a subject?

"Your family are also headed this way. Do you think that they have anything to do with the Snow Swallow Palace? Or are they more likely to be just pa.s.sing through this area?"

The Second Ducal Prince was about to pull the young man aside, and leave Lin Liushui to mope. But he stopped when he heard Qin Feng"s questions. That was a good point. If they were also headed towards the Snow Swallow Palace, there was no way that they could avoiding meeting each other. So it was a little pointless to try to avoid the rest of the Lin Family members from hereon.

But Lin Liushui shook his head, and let out a long exhalation. As if he had been worried about the same thing. "No. I had questioned them last night, after I broke their legs for their impertinence. Apparently, my family has some issues further North, at the other end of the Yang Kingdom. So they are not likely to cause trouble for us at the Snow Swallow Palace.

"And no, I did not mention that we were headed there. I"m not that inexperienced with interrogations, you know? I wouldn"t give our own destination away. Right now, they are probably thinking that we are headed for the Inkstone Mines, to try to get our hands on some rare ores."

* * *