Chapter 140: The present king, Xiao Qidi, is a damned scoundrel

"Not……" Ning Jinli stared wide-eyed, "You didn't see that the horse is being led by the two of us?"

The county officer glanced sideways and gave a cold snort, saying nothing.

The colleague he had summoned also only cared about taking the horse away.

Ning Jinli rubbed her forehead, "I see, do we have to pay an extra tax for the horse?"

"You're sensible, hand over the money—ten wen." The county officer finally spoke, gesturing for his colleague to pause, then extended his hand to Xiao Qidi and Ning Jinli.

Xiao Qidi asked with a stern face, "Isn't having this bamboo slip enough?"

The county officer snatched the bamboo slip, held it in his mouth, and said, "If you didn't have this bamboo slip, you'd have to pay at least eight hundred wen to get through—cut the nonsense, hurry up."

Xiao Qidi was nearly speechless, he took out ten wen in copper coins and, addressing the earlier question, said, "Let's get this straight—ten wen for two horses, right?"

"Right, hand it over." The county officer lunged forward with his hand.

Xiao Qidi stepped back two steps, "Then you have to tell me: after we pay these ten wen, will we two plus this horse be exempt from any other taxes?"

"Exactly!" the county officer snapped impatiently, "Hurry up and pay!"

Only then did Xiao Qidi hand over the ten copper coins.

But just as he and Ning Jinli were about to pass the checkpoint, the county officer reached out again to block them, shaking his head and muttering four words: "More money is needed."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Qidi's eyes flashed with anger, "Didn't we just agree that we wouldn't have to pay any other taxes?"

The county officer took the bamboo slip from his mouth, waved it in front of Xiao Qidi, and said, "You don't have to pay the tax, but you still need to pay a fee for using this passage permit—just ten wen, not much."

"Heh, heh……" Xiao Qidi was utterly speechless, and instead burst out laughing from anger.

Ning Jinli could only sigh inwardly, the officials' maneuver here was truly impressive.

The county officer pompously declared, "Originally we were supposed to collect eight hundred wen from you, but now we're only taking twenty—you've already gotten a huge bargain, and you're still not satisfied? Or do you want to go reflect in the county office's jail?"

Xiao Qidi didn't want to say anything else, silently producing another ten wen and handing it over.

These past few days, he and Ning Jinli had traversed the barren desert, wind‑blown and dew‑soaked, utterly exhausted, just wanting to wash up and rest; now running into one bizarre incident after another, he was truly weary.

Ning Jinli was the same, her gaze turning numb.

"All right, take your time," the county officer said with a smug smile, letting them pass.

The two had just passed the checkpoint when a shout rang out from behind: "Get lost, get lost, get lost! Even if you're from He Wan County, if you can't pay the toll, you can't enter!"

Then came a woman's voice: "Sir officer, please have mercy… I… I had prepared the money, but on the way back I was robbed; could I make it up next time?"

Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi heard the conversation and turned toward the sound.

They saw a woman about thirty years old kneeling before the county officer, desperately pleading.

She wore a patched‑up coarse hemp robe and a pair of worn‑out straw sandals, a bamboo basket slung over her thin shoulders, containing some medicinal herbs.

"Stuff it!" the county officer swore, "Get out of the way, stop blocking the road, or I'll punish you!"

"Sir officer!" the woman cried, clutching the county officer's leg, "My husband is bedridden with illness, waiting for me to bring back these herbs to treat him—please, please help me, turn a blind eye and let me go home first… or… or I could offer some of the herbs as payment for the toll…"

The county officer instantly flared, "Who wants your rotten herbs! Are you trying to curse me into sickness, you bastard?!"

The woman was terrified, "No, no! Sir officer, I didn't mean it that way!"

"Men!" the county officer called to his subordinates, "Tie this wretched woman to the tree ahead, give her two lashes, then demand her family bring money to ransom her!"

"Yes!"

The two subordinates were about to act.

Seeing this, Ning Jinli and Xiao Qidi could no longer bear it; without needing to confer, they simultaneously charged forward in unison.

Before the county officers could react,

Xiao Qidi had already knocked them all to the ground.

Ning Jinli also shoved aside the officers' lackeys, helped the woman onto her horse, then leapt onto her own mount and galloped away.

Xiao Qidi mounted the other horse and followed closely behind.

By the time the woman recovered from her panic, the trio had already left the checkpoint far behind, and those county officers could no longer catch up.

"Don't be afraid, we're here to help you—where does your family live?" Ning Jinli asked while riding.

The woman calmed down, pointing ahead, "Turn right at the upcoming crossroads, then you'll see a lane; take the leftmost path and you'll arrive."

"All right, giddyap!" Ning Jinli kicked the horse's belly and sped up again.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick,

Following the woman's directions, a dilapidated thatched hut came into Ning Jinli's view.

Before the horse had fully stopped, the woman hastily dismounted and rushed into the thatched hut.

"Let's have a look too," Xiao Qidi said as he dismounted.

As they reached the threshold, they smelled a pungent medicinal odor filling the main room.

Looking around, the place was practically bare walls.

Even the floor was pitted and uneven.

On the other side of the main room was a door, covered with a tattered grass mat serving as a curtain, from behind which the sharp medicinal smell emanated.

"Mom, why did you only come back now?" a four‑ or five‑year‑old girl whispered, "I'm so hungry…"

The woman held her, saying, "Mom will make something for you and your father and grandmother; help me wash these herbs."

"Okay." The girl rolled up her sleeves, lifted the herbs from the basket, and toddled to the back door with her short legs.

Though she was tiny, her practiced movements showed she had done this countless times before.

"Mom! Come greet the guests," the woman called toward the curtain as she walked to the stove, "I'll start cooking first."

After shouting, she turned to Xiao Qidi and Ning Jinli with an apologetic expression, "You benefactors, please make yourselves at home… don't mind the poor conditions here…"

Ning Jinli jabbed her elbow into Xiao Qidi's waist and muttered, "Is this what you meant when you said the people of He Wan County live in peace and prosperity?"

Xiao Qidi's face turned ashen as he squeezed out through clenched teeth, "That's what the officials in the Royal City told me—these damned bastards!"

"Let me help you!" Ning Jinli hurried over to the stove.

Xiao Qidi walked to the edge of the tattered grass‑mat door curtain, lowered his head and lifted the curtain, and saw a stooped, skinny old woman, one hand holding a wooden stick, the other feeling her way forward, trembling as she approached.

Xiao Qidi noticed the old woman couldn't see, so he bent down and gently supported her arm, saying, "Granny, just rest in the inner room."

"Ah… you're the guest, aren't you?" the old woman said, taking tiny steps, "There's not even a stool in the main hall; if you don't mind, please sit in the inner room."

Xiao Qidi asked, "Who are you?"

The old woman said, "I'm Xiu Mei's mother‑in‑law."

The inner room was cramped, and the smell of boiled herbs was especially pungent to the eyes.

Xiao Qidi did not refuse; he supported the old woman and walked with her to the edge of a dilapidated bed.

"Son," the old woman whispered, "we have a guest at home."

Then Xiao Qidi saw, amid a pile of discolored, ragged bedding on the bed, a man reduced to skin and bones lying there.

Obviously this was the woman's husband.

The man slowly opened his eyes and, with effort, said, "You… who are you?"

Xiao Qidi replied, "I just arrived here, happened to meet your wife, and came along with her."

"Oh… I see… you're a guest from afar," the man said with an apologetic expression, "I'm really sorry, I… I can't get up to receive you."

Xiao Qidi's mood grew heavier and heavier.

He had wanted to find a place to sit and ask for details, but the inner room was too small; his large frame would squeeze the old woman into a corner if he entered.

Left with no choice, he told the man to rest first, then turned and walked out of the inner room.

Seeing Ning Jinli and the woman called Xiu Mei busy at the stove, he thought for a moment and went to the back door.

Outside the back door was a small courtyard.

In the courtyard grew a few scattered vegetables.

Xiu Mei's daughter was squatting beside an old wooden basin, carefully washing medicinal herbs.

Xiao Qidi rolled up his sleeves, squatted down, and said, "Let me wash them for you."

The little girl hurriedly said, "Big brother, you're a guest—how can I let you work? I can wash them myself."

"It's fine," Xiao Qidi said, glancing at the girl's chapped little hands, lowering his eyes and speaking softly, "How about we wash together? It'll be faster, okay?"

"Then thank you, big brother," the girl replied happily.

Inside the main hall.

Xiu Mei went to the corner of the wall, picked up a long stick, intending to take down the foodstuffs hidden in the beams that she usually hated to eat.

Meanwhile, Ning Jinli stood before a crude earth‑and‑stone heap that could barely be called a stove, saw half‑turbid water in a copper pot used for cooking food, plus an indescribable odd smell, thought it was dish‑washing water, picked it up and walked to the main hall door to pour it out.

Xiu Mei heard the noise, turned her head, and couldn't help letting out a sharp exclamation.

"What's wrong, Xiu Mei sister?" Ning Jinli asked.

Xiu Mei's eyes filled with distress, "Ning miss… that… that's the soup we were going to drink…"

"Soup?" Ning Jinli blinked, "You actually drink this stuff?"

Xiu Mei hurriedly said, "It's not for entertaining you; it's the leftover stew from the few small fish and shrimp I caught yesterday. I had planned to use half today with some vegetables to make a dish, and the other half to cook grain."

Ning Jinli was completely dazed.

"It's fine, it's fine," Xiu Mei said, forcing a smile while holding back her heartache, "Just let it be spilled; it's my rudeness for making you laugh."

Then she held up the ingredients she had just taken down, treating them like treasures to show Ning Jinli, and said, "Later I'll cook these for you—this is the pheasant my husband hunted in the mountains before he fell ill, plus some cleaned millet I prepared."

Ning Jinli's tears suddenly streamed down.

Xiu Mei hurriedly said, "Ning miss, don't cry; I can tell you're from a wealthy family's daughter… If these things really aren't to your taste, I… I'll go look for something else."

"No, no, no," Ning Jinli said, wiping her tears, "Xiu Mei sister, just wait a moment; I'll be right back."

She sprinted out of the thatched hut, quickly found a secluded spot, focused her mind and circulated her internal strength, and opened before her a Time‑Space Gate linking to the modern world's factory warehouse.

Xiu Mei didn't know where she was going, worried that Ning Jinli, unfamiliar with the area, might run around and be caught by the county officers, so she followed her outside, but seeing no trace of Ning Jinli, she began to worry.

However, after only a moment, Ning Jinli walked out from beside the thatched hut.

Xiu Mei froze; she had clearly walked around the area several times and seen no one—how had she just appeared out of nowhere?

"Xiu Mei sister, hurry inside," Ning Jinli said, holding a cardboard box, "I've brought you something to eat."

Xiu Mei followed, her head full of confusion.

Ning Jinli set the large cardboard box on the ground, pulling out items as she spoke: "This is napa cabbage and radish, fresh pork and fresh eggs, plus vermicelli, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar… I also brought two iron pots for temporary use."

Seeing these things, Xiu Mei was completely stunned.

"Ning… Ning miss," Xiu Mei said, rubbing her eyes hard, "Is this square, uniquely‑material box some kind of magical immortal treasure?"

In this era papermaking hasn't appeared yet, so the people here don't even know what paper is, let alone a cardboard box.

Ning Jinli tore the cardboard box, saying, "It's just a cardboard box, not a treasure."

"Then these…" Xiu Mei said, trembling, her hands hesitantly touching the things Ning Jinli had laid out.

Ning Jinli smiled, "I'll cook a dish and explain each step as I go."

Because conditions for cooking were limited, Ning Jinli used one iron pot to stew pork, cabbage, radish and vermicelli, and the other iron pot to cook rice.

Such an ordinary meal for modern people seemed to Xiu Mei like a divine miracle.

Not only were these ingredients exquisitely fine in her eyes, but even the seasonings, packaging bags and bottles exceeded her knowledge, let alone those two iron pots.

The shock in her heart could no longer be put into words.

Ning Jinli had long grown accustomed to such reactions; recall when she sent supplies to the soldiers and civilians of Lin Xian Village—who wasn't greatly shocked?

"Come, try it," Ning Jinli said, picking up a piece of meat, blowing on it to cool it, and bringing it to Xiu Mei's lips.

Even before the dish was done, Xiu Mei had swallowed countless mouthfuls of saliva at the unfamiliar aroma; now the meat reached her lips and the rich fragrance shot straight into her nostrils.

She couldn't help but bite into it.

In an instant, a deliciousness she had never tasted nor imagined spread throughout her mouth.

Two streams of tears also flowed uncontrollably at this moment.

"Ning Miss..." Xiu Mei, tear-blurred, suddenly dropped to her knees, "Ning Miss, you're an Immortal, aren't you?! Please, save my husband!"

"Ah? I've only just cooked a meal, and you already take me for an Immortal? Get up, get up quickly." Ning Jinli hurriedly helped her up.

Xiu Mei refused to get up, tears streaming as she said, "Ning Miss first rescued me, then conjured out of thin air so much food and treasure I've never seen before, and the dishes she made are absolutely not something the mortal world could produce. Besides being an Immortal, I really can't imagine what else you could be..."

"All right, I promise to do my best to save your husband," Ning Jinli said seriously, "but you can't stay kneeling like that. Get up and speak properly; tell me exactly what's wrong with him."

Xiu Mei eased her emotions, wiping her tears as she said, "He went to do corvée labor and was literally worked to death like that."

"He Wan County is really strange," Ning Jinli frowned, "never mind the inexplicable taxes, why is the corvée labor so heavy? Don't they treat laborers as human beings?"

Xiu Mei's eyes suddenly blazed with fierce hatred, she clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, "It's all the fault of that thunderstruck current emperor, Xiao Qidi! He's nothing but a beast! I wish I could hack him to pieces!"