Chapter 213: Can't Be Fake!

Li Sihu felt that this new employer must be carrying out a very special mission; before setting out on a long journey, there were always people coming over for secret talks.

While the new employer was in secret talks with others, he, as an attendant, exchanged quite a bit with the guard. Since they would be working together for a long time, chatting more would help them get familiar. Only then did Li Sihu learn that the guard's name was "Rong Yi," not "Rong Yi" (easy).

Needless to say, one look at the surname and he knew it must be a family-raised guard of the employer!

This guard looked quite cold, but he was actually quite talkative once they started chatting.

For instance, right now, Guard Rong was leaning against a corridor pillar, still looking very casual, and asked: "Sihu, are there four lakes where you are from?" "Not at all. My hometown often suffers from droughts, so people like to choose names with 'water' in them," Li Sihu replied.

Rivers, lakes, seas, ice, snow, rain, and dew... they just cycle through those characters. Every time they call out a name, it's like praying for rain.

He had two older brothers and one older sister above him, and he was the fourth, so when choosing a name, his parents picked the character for 'lake' for him, hence the name Sihu.

Guard Rong empathized: "My family has many people too, and the naming is just as perfunctory. When we are at home, we are called by numbers; we only have names when we are outside." Li Sihu had a strong sense of boundaries; he would not ask about the other party's specific family background in detail, and only chatted about things related to their employer.

"Guard Rong, your task is heavier than mine. I only do some odd jobs by the employer's side, so I'll have to leave the safety matters to you! I heard that Deputy Envoy Wen encountered an assassination, and there are too many assassins outside..." As soon as Li Sihu's words left his mouth, he knew they were inappropriate. A person of Deputy Envoy Wen's rank was not someone he could talk about casually; he shouldn't bring trouble to his employer. Looking at Guard Rong again, sure enough, the smile on the other party's face faded:

"Do not speak of it."

Rong Yi thought to himself: How do you expect me to talk about it?

It's impossible to tell you that I was the one who assassinated him!

At the thought of this, Rong Yi had to curse his clansmen a few more times.

At first, when Lao Zhao looked for an assassin, the moment the Rong Clan Leader heard about it, he pushed him, the one with the best skills in the clan, out.

Who said an assassin must be lonely and have a miserable life story?

Perhaps it's because there are a lot of people in the family holding one back?

Since Lao Zhao wanted to use the Rong family's identity this time, the Rong Clan Leader immediately fawned over him and, without a second word, quickly made all the arrangements.

If Lao Zhao hadn't stopped him, the Rong Clan Leader would have even wanted to add the name "Rong Huan" to the genealogy to ensure perfection.

The Rong Clan Leader only thought Lao Zhao wanted to borrow an identity to plant a spy.

Rong Yi was full of complaints.

What kind of wishful thinking is that! Do you know who is borrowing the identity?

How thick-skinned can you be?

How could Lao Zhao possibly let you add that name?!

It is no exaggeration to say that if their family had produced a person like that, the Rong family would have been famous long ago!

When Lao Zhao assigned the task to Rong Yi, the Clan Leader and his family took turns urging Rong Yi: You must accept this task, what a great opportunity!

Rong Yi really wanted to mock them back.

Do you know what the Zhao Family asked me to do? Just accept, accept, accept!

We don't just accept any assassination mission!

Fortunately, it was just acting in a play, and the focus of the mission was later on: escorting this cousin of the Zhao Family to Shenyi Gu.

But to be honest, Rong Yi himself was quite happy to accept this mission.

He couldn't stay idle; if he didn't take this, he would take another mission.

The family had too many people; staying in the family, he was just a number in a sequence. Only by going out into the world could he build a reputation of his own!

He also knew why Lao Zhao picked him.

If he dared to betray them, Lao Zhao would immediately execute people based on the genealogy in Xinzhou.

But at the same time, if he successfully escorted him there and back, he would definitely make a name for himself!

Winter in Beidi came early; a light snow fell and then stopped.

The army heading to Shenyi Gu for a rotation was also about to set out.

They would also take a group of people going to Shenyi Gu to study medicine.

Every year, Xinzhou would send some people to Shenyi Gu to study medicine; they didn't expect them to become highly skilled, but they needed to understand more about epidemics. Medical skills and pharmacology, even if just a little bit, were extremely useful in this chaotic world of Evil Plague. Under the environment where the Evil Plague was a threat, one oversight could cause irreparable and huge losses.

Regardless of whether one was in civil or military service, if one wanted to climb up and hold power, one had to have this kind of awareness.

Some of the people sent to Shenyi Gu had talent in medicine, and their study time would be longer—according to the plan, basically three years or more. Others were just going for advanced training, ranging from one year to two or three years; once they finished, they would be assigned positions.

Although Xinzhou had set up a Centai Academy, it mainly involved governance and management. Going to Shenyi Gu to learn from a group of professional famous doctors was a different experience. Among those going for advanced training, many were from noble families; they were neither here nor there in their families and couldn't secure good positions in Xinzhou.

It was better to send them to learn from famous doctors for a year or two, add a qualification, get a certificate, and it would be easier to arrange things when they returned.

The Evil Plague would not end in just a few years; they had to find more paths for themselves.

This year was the same; the temperature had dropped completely, the Xianshou Army at the front had already cleared the road, and with the garrison escorting them, there was no great danger on the journey. Therefore, people with good family backgrounds were also willing to go for advanced training. The candidates for this year had all been screened, and they had not seen Wen Gu.

At this moment, the official in charge of this matter was conducting the final personnel verification.

They looked at the three people who had come over.

A very basic configuration—an employer, a guard, and an attendant.

The official looked at the three people's identity documents and credentials, then looked at the guard.

The guard was not the type of person who was particularly tall or robust; at first glance, he was plain and unremarkable, with no distinctive features.

But during this period, Xinzhou had been searching for suspicious persons, especially those who looked plain and unremarkable but possessed martial prowess.

Seeing the other party look at him several times, Rong Yi felt a lump in his throat. He looked at the sky and urged: "Hurry up, it's going to snow, we can't let our young master catch a cold!" Then he added: "Our documents and credentials are complete; they can't be fake!"

The fake documents Lao Zhao handled personally were truer than any document here!

Wait, could fake documents handled personally by the head of the Zhao Clan still be called fake documents?

At this time, a few people passed by not far away; with that fine armor and magnificent cloak, they were clearly people of high rank.

Wen Gu glanced over there and saw an acquaintance.

Commandant Gu, the commander of this batch of troops, was leading the troops to garrison at Shenyi Gu this time. He was also one of Lao Zhao's confidants and belonged to the core management personnel of Xinzhou. During Wen Gu's trip out this time, Lao Zhao had private talks with Commandant Gu several times.

As soon as he saw the other party appear, Wen Gu knew that Commandant Gu was worried and had come to check in person. But he still had to pretend to be someone just passing by. Wen Gu cupped his hands in a salute toward that side.

At this moment, Commandant Gu only felt a toothache; controlling his facial expression, he nodded slightly in response.

Seeing the person checking identities over there also look over, Commandant Gu made a gesture, signaling: The identity is not a problem, the weather is changing, hurry up and finish the verification so they can prepare to depart. With the highest-ranking officer speaking, the person in charge of identity verification naturally no longer doubted; he returned the identity documents and let the three of them join the team. However, after Wen Gu and the others left, several officials gathered together to gossip.

"Must be a junior from the family of Controller Gu's old friend."

"They might indeed know each other; that person just now was from the Rong family."

"The Rong family... the one quite active outside the passes?"

The Rong Family of Xinzhou does not have a prominent reputation inside the passes, but outside the passes, they have some fame; merchant caravans traveling through the border markets have heard of them to some extent. There are many rumors about the Rong family, but they are the kind of gossip that can only be heard in places near the border in Xinzhou.

An official historian born and raised in Xinzhou shares gossip with colleagues who are in the dark.

"A long time ago, there was a quite famous Rong family in the north. Later, as the tree grew large, the branches split, and coupled with the chaos of war, a portion remained in the north, but more migrated to the south..." With the flourishing of literary culture, the southern branch of the Rong Clan produced many famous ministers whose names could be recorded in history books.

As for those in the north, they were crude martial men, so they were directly ignored.

But the Rong Clan in the north was unwilling to be ignored, so they learned from others and tried to market their reputation. Unfortunately, what they ended up being famous for was still their martial prowess; their efforts to operate by escorting merchant caravans made no splash. However, in a poor place like Xinzhou, this bit of small fame could not spread far at all and was not taken seriously by the world.

"Now that the times are chaotic, it seems they have stirred up their ambitions again."

"I heard they learned from the Huwei Escort Agency and also set up an escort agency called the Rongcheng Escort Agency, terrified that others wouldn't know their family are the descendants of Rong Chengzi!" Who is Rong Chengzi?

The teacher of the Yellow Emperor!

Of course, there are also people who question the authenticity of the Rong family's ancestry.

These days, as long as one has a bit of status, one is keen on finding a formidable ancestor for oneself to raise one's own value.

But then again...

You question yours, I market mine.

Bad publicity is still publicity; what the Rong Family of Xinzhou wants to do is make a name for themselves and raise their prestige to seek more opportunities.

Everyone does this! Everyone is hyping themselves up, why can't I?

"Is their family really the descendants of Rong Chengzi?" someone asked.

"Who knows. Setting aside whether it's true or false for now, why use an ancestor's name to name an escort agency? This is just too lacking in decorum!"

A person who looked like a scholar nearby sneered: "Grandstanding!"

Wen Gu and his two companions joined the procession in their carriage, unaware of how the official historians over there were discussing them.

However, Rong Yi could guess a little bit.

He was used to it; their Rong family really wanted to make a name for themselves, and every time their Clan Leader saw Lao Zhao, he wished he could immediately fawn over him.

Rong Yi felt miserable whenever he thought about those matters at home.

The year before the chaotic times, his family learned from others to raise sheep, but they didn't raise them well and lost a fortune. All the money he earned from taking orders was poured into it.

They couldn't make money raising livestock; instead, it was the jobs the clan's younger generation took escorting merchant caravans outside the passes that earned some living expenses. The Rong family has been able to survive in the border regions for so many years because they have had contact with both legitimate and illicit businesses to some extent. When the Zhao Family took Xinzhou, the Rong Clan Leader felt the opportunity had come and led the way for Lao Zhao to raid many secret warehouses. Unfortunately, in these chaotic times, there are too many capable people, and the light of their clan is still not dazzling enough.

Rong Yi looked at Wen Gu.

For example, the person beside him, who with his own strength, obscured the light of all the young talents in Xinzhou.

This time, using the "assassination" to retreat behind the scenes was also an opportunity for more people to shine.

Their carriage joined the procession, and they could hear the discussions from the other carriages around them.

They were mainly chatting about the recent events in Xinzhou, discussing that young Deputy Envoy who was assassinated: Did he actually kick the bucket? Was he really saved by Master Huang Dashi? Who exactly sent the assassins? Rong Yi looked at Wen Gu.

"What?" Wen Gu asked.

"You don't care?" Rong Yi asked curiously.

"What does it have to do with me?" Wen Gu tapped the identity documents beside him.

What they are discussing is "Wen Gu," what does that have to do with me, "Rong Huan"?