Chapter 6 Return to Kyoto Wang Qinian was basically satisfied with the distribution result. It was someone else's mountain, so the prey naturally belonged to them. If the young master hadn't given him the opportunity, he wouldn't even be qualified to hunt. After the spoils were divided, each person loaded the goods into a truck. In the evening, Mei Cheng'an held a grand banquet in the village. In addition to Wang Qinian and Mei, Lan, Zhu and Ju, he also invited the guards, the housekeeper, and all the wealthy people in the village. First, I would like to thank everyone in the village for their care over the past six months. They have caused us a lot of trouble. Secondly, the New Year is approaching, so it’s time to celebrate the New Year in advance. So everyone had a big meal together, with glasses clinking and toasting, making the table very lively. Mei Chengan particularly liked this atmosphere. He watched with interest and even secretly drank a glass of wine. He spat it out as soon as it entered his mouth. It’s so spicy that it’s killing me. This lively atmosphere lasted until late at night before everyone dispersed.
Mei Chengan did not practice at night and went to bed early. The next morning, a large group of people set out from Shonai and headed for Kyoto. The team was so large because of the eight carts of prey. The farm also sent several young and strong tenants to escort the carts. The mules and carts had to be pulled back to the farm. The servants and guards he had brought to the farm did not return to Kyoto with them as they had other important arrangements. Mei Cheng sat safely in the spacious carriage with a few cushions under her buttocks. There was a layer of bedding in the carriage, which was particularly soft. The carriage was driving on the official road paved with stone slabs, and there was no sense of bumps at all. Mei Cheng'an sat cross-legged, tried several times and finally gave up. There seemed to be something wrong with his practice these past few days. He circulated his mental skills and his true Qi flowed through his internal organs. In the past, his true Qi would grow stronger with each circle, but in recent days, his true Qi did not improve at all. When flushing the meridians, there will be a slight swelling and pain in the meridians. But other than that, he didn't feel anything wrong, and his Qi flowed smoothly. He really couldn't figure out what went wrong. Every time this happened, he really wanted to have a famous teacher to guide him. Mei Cheng'an sighed and waved his hand, and Xiaozhu, who was serving beside him, immediately brought him a hand warmer. With his current level of Qi cultivation, he has long been immune to cold and heat, so this hand warmer is dispensable to him, but he suddenly had some free time and suddenly wanted to experience it. Without time to practice, the journey was inevitably lonely. He opened the thick car curtains, and the cold wind blew on his face. He squinted his eyes and looked at the green mountains whizzing past outside the car window, and the sparse pedestrians rushing to Kyoto. This winter morning suddenly became vivid. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Xiao Zhu shivering. He lowered the car curtain and handed her the hand warmer. "Sorry, sorry, I was careless and forgot that you, Sister Zhu, were here to warm the handle." Xiao Zhu took it and nodded, "Thank you, Master!" Mei Chengan smiled and nodded. The current situation is already very good, and this is the result of a year of training. A year ago, she would never dare to ask the young master to say sorry, let alone accept the young master's hand warmer. Mei Cheng'an picked up a book and started reading. After an unknown amount of time, the carriage slowly stopped.
Before Mei Chengan could open his mouth to ask, Xiaolan's voice was heard outside the car. "Master, we have arrived in Kyoto, and the convoy is queuing to enter the city." After a pause, Xiaolan's voice came again. "There are quite a lot of people coming into the city. Please be patient and wait." Mei Cheng'an replied, "I understand," and lowered his head to continue reading. He finished with only two pages left. It naturally took them only a short while to read two pages. Even after they had finished reading and put the book down, the convoy still showed no intention of moving. Mei Chengan felt bored and got out of the carriage. I took a deep breath, and exhaled the cold air heavily, feeling refreshed. There were quite a lot of teams entering the city, and the inspection was very strict, so the progress was really slow. After waiting for a long time and drinking a pot of tea, it was finally the Mei family team's turn. After entering the city gate, the convoy walked along the city entrance and turned east. The Kyoto government office is located on the edge of the eastern district of Kyoto, close to the city entrance. The area around the government office is relatively lively. Further east are the residences of various dignitaries, which is quieter. The three carts belonging to Wang Qinian left the team halfway. The convoy stopped at the back door of the government office. The housekeeper was stunned when he saw the blind bears and tigers covered with cloth. He reacted and called all the guards in the government office to help with loading and unloading, while Mei Chengan went straight to the inner courtyard. Mei Zhili got the news and waited here early. After greeting their parents in the main hall, they sat down and talked. After not seeing each other for almost a year, Mei Chengan has grown a lot taller and stronger. Before, he was almost as tall as his sister who was one year younger than him, but now he is more than a head taller than his sister. Mei Zhili was very pleased to see this. He held Mei Chengan's much stronger shoulders and said yes repeatedly. Mrs. Mei, who was standing by, finally saw her beloved son. She was so excited that her eyes turned red and her beautiful eyes were fixed on her son. The family talked for a while, and then Mei Zhili left. The end of the year was approaching, and people from various places were visiting frequently, and he had important matters to attend to. Mei Cheng'an held his sister who was clinging to him and talked to his mother for a while. Mrs. Mei felt that he was tired from the journey and let him go down to rest. He wanted to put his sister down, but the little kid held his neck and refused to let go. Mei Chengan had no choice but to let her go. His small courtyard had already been cleaned in advance, but Mei, Lan, Zhu and Ju were worried that something might be missed, so they insisted on cleaning it again. Taking advantage of this time, Mei Cheng'an took his sister to see the prey they brought back. He didn't dare let her see the bears, tigers and leopards for fear of scaring his sister, so he only took her to see the lively wild rabbit. The two of them teased the rabbit for a long time, fed it some carrots, and played for a long time, until Mei Cheng'an felt his arms were sore. The little kid was finally tired of playing and kept dozing off in his arms. Carry your sister to your mother's room. Returning to the place where the prey was displayed, Mei Chengan was thinking about how to deal with it. Bears, tigers and leopards must be skinned completely, but how to skin them is a problem, and what to do with them after skinning is also a problem. The butler was called in to ask, and the butler blurted out without even thinking that someone in the mansion would handle it. I continued to ask and found out, It turned out that his family also had a specialized fur shop, and there were experts in tanning furs in the shop.
Mei Cheng'an quickly asked the housekeeper to call someone over. After about a quarter of an hour, the housekeeper came in with an old man who was about forty or fifty years old. The old man's eyes almost sparkled as he looked at Xiong Hubao. After hearing Mei Chengan's request, he patted his chest and said he would leave it to him. The old man was seen touching the prey, but was hesitant to take action, and was amazed. "Old Liu, what are you mumbling about?" The housekeeper at the side couldn't help but ask. "It's strange. The wounds of the deer, foxes and wild boars are visible to the naked eye, including knife and arrow wounds. But how come there are no visible wounds on the tigers, leopards and bears? My goodness, how did they kill them?" Mei Cheng'an touched his nose. This was his masterpiece, the product of his research on refined true Qi. The true Qi, thinner than a hair, pierced the prey's heart, and of course no wound was left. The butler looked at the young master, and seeing that he had no intention of explaining, he began to urge him. "Old Liu, why do you care how it died? Wouldn't it be easier for you to skin it without any wounds? Hurry up!" Although the old man was feeling emotional, he was very efficient in his work. His use of the skinning knife was so skillful and it was a pleasure to watch. In a short while, a complete leopard skin was peeled off. The next step was to cut off the bones and flesh, and the process was completed in less than a quarter of an hour. It is said that leopard bones can be used as medicine, but I don’t know if leopard penis has the same effect as tiger penis. After dealing with the leopard, the next step was to deal with the tiger. He still had to skin it and separate its bones. Even though he had seen it before, Mei Chengan still watched with great interest. There are many valuable things on a tiger's body, including tiger skin, tiger meat, tiger bones, tiger penis, and it is said that even tiger whiskers can be used as medicine. It is truly a treasure trove. The last thing to be processed is the bear. There are relatively few valuable parts on the bear, such as the bear skin, bear gall and bear paws. After watching Old Man Liu deal with these big guys, Mei Chengan's interest was almost gone. It’s freezing cold now, but there’s no need to worry about storage. He told the butler to invite Wang Qinian to look for him, and after giving him one of the pair of bear paws, he asked Old Man Liu to cut some bristles from the wild boar's back for him, and then returned to his own courtyard. Mei Cheng'an got the pig bristles because he wanted to try to use them to make toothbrushes. Nowadays, there are toothbrushes, but they are all made of horsetail bristles, which are soft in texture and always feel difficult to clean when brushing teeth. The difficulty of making this toothbrush was beyond Mei Cheng'an's expectations. It was not that the process was complicated, but that it was extremely troublesome. It was almost lunch time before he managed to make one. My fingers brushed across the neat and hard bristles on the toothbrush head, and the sense of accomplishment came up immediately. During lunch, Mei Zhili specifically asked a few questions about the prey and wanted to requisition a set of tiger bones and skins as well as a pair of bear paws. Mei Cheng'an had no objection, as these things were originally intended for Mei Zhili. Although it was not stated what it was going to be used for, Mei Chengan guessed that it was going to be given as a gift. As for who to give it to? The prince. I heard that the prince is 12 years old this year and is in poor health. I didn't expect that my dad would start taking sides so early. Mei Cheng'an thought about it. In his opinion, it was not important whether he was a disciple of the crown prince. Among the civil and military officials in the court, except for the top few, how many people did not take sides? The important thing was that he could not affect Emperor Qing's layout for Fan Xian. Mei Zhili had not just become the prince's disciple. If Emperor Qing wanted to deal with him, he would have done so long ago. His mistake was that he investigated Teng Zijing and sent people to arrest him. Is Teng Zijing important? Not important. The point is that the prince had Teng Zijing arrested in order to convict Fan Xian.
Good man, can Fan Xian, the bait used by Emperor Qing to fish, be convicted so hastily? The fish hasn't even been caught yet! So, the problem is simple. It is not difficult to save the life of Mei Zhili, the cheap father. However, it is still early for Fan Xian to arrive in Beijing, so there is no need to be so anxious. It will not be too late to figure out the specific operations after Fan Xian arrives in Kyoto. As the New Year approaches, the mansion becomes increasingly busy, with cleaning going on everywhere. Mei Cheng'an was busy organizing secret manuals and teaching plans. He planned to have several of his personal maids start learning internal skills after the Chinese New Year, and also arranged for them to learn light skills and swordsmanship. However, the nameless martial arts he practiced had an unknown origin, and the problem of his progress in cultivating true qi being inexplicably stuck had not been solved, so he did not plan to let the four sisters, Mei, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum, practice it. I just planned to pick out a suitable book from the six books that I didn't practice at the beginning and teach them. (End of this chapter)
