Simply Trading 256 Cleaning House 1

The last stretch of the trip was smoother than Qin Feng had expected it to be. After almost twelve days of camping out and entertaining Yuan Qianlei's servant girls and such. he felt that he deserved a well deserved break. It had been a long and tiring journey, and he had spent most of it trying to figure out women. Which was a really thankless task!

Learning how to predict some of their actions and verbal responses were next to impossible, but he had figured out how to lead them with questions and such. That wasn't too different from men, although there were one or two subjects that still tripped him up.

But he was confident that he knew a little better, how to deal with Xu Yanzhi and the like, if he was to meet that sort of woman again!

"Qin Feng! Brother Qin! We are heading in!"

He looked up then, when he heard his name being called. And waved a hand back at Du Yan, to signal that he was heading over when he saw the big man beckoning him. It was no great mystery why he was being summoned. They had already arrived at Chuanshui Town, and the Du Family was one of, if not the only, power in the area. So they probably had a large party there at the Town Gate, waiting for them.

The rest of the Yuan Family soldiers gave him strange looks as he strode over to join the rest of the party, which was gathered around Yuan Qianlei and her maids. Qin Feng couldn't really understand why they all looked so concerned, but simply dismissed it as curiosity. After all, he had managed to fend off someone of the Snow Swallow Palace. So that might account for their awe.

As for Yuan Qianlei, her two maids, and her nanny, the soldiers had taken care to weave a tight net around the four of them. Du Yan had wanted them to be properly protected for many reasons. Not the least of which was the fact that he was desperately in love with her and wanted to keep her safe!

Which was probably why Li Changhai was wearing his lieutenant's disguise again, and pretending to be Wei Xuanran's subordinate officer. Qin Feng enjoyed a bit of laugh every time he saw that. Did he really think that he was able to fool everybody like that? Anyone with any experience in the military would realize that the soldiers were more respectful of their lieutenant than their Captain! And what Captain would stand for something like that?

Still, it would be sufficient to deal with the casual observer, and Qin Feng doubted that there could be so many spies in Chuanshui Town that they could cover everything that Du Yan and the party does. At least, not without their notice.

The town also had its own people watching the road, and it was obvious from the large crowd that approached the large square just within its gates that the arrival of Du Yan's group had not been unnoticed. Not to mention the fact that old man with the long white moustaches leading the townsfolk had a striking resemblance to Du Yan himself!

Surely he had to be a relative of one sort or another, Qin Feng told himself, as soon as he laid eyes on the White Moustaches. Even Du Yan's own father did not look as similar. Although neither of the two men had the sort of muscles, or the height, that Du Yan had been endowed with.

"Patriarch. Descendant Du Yan greets you."

Ah! Qin Feng understood the relations.h.i.+p between the two now. This was the Du Family Patriarch, which made him Du Yan's great-grandfather? And Du Chenyong's grandfather? Little wonder then, that they looked so similar.

The Patriarch simply smiled, and gave a grunt in reply. As if it was nothing out of the ordinary, for him to welcome one of his descendants back to Chuanshui Town.

Then Qin Feng noticed how the looks on the faces of the people behind the old man had turned slightly red, and there were quite a few pairs of eyes that were glaring at the tall, broad-shouldered fellow in front of him. Du Yan's greeting was a little too perfunctionary, he realized then. And it had effectively left everyone else off the list!

His words were supposed to convey a sense of respect towards his elders, after all. And only directing the same to the Patriarch, and no one else, Du Yan was basically telling everyone else that he didn't hold them in his eyes at all! So how could any of his elders forgive such a slight?

But he simply ignored the angry looks and made a gesture to include the whole army that was behind him. Du Yan's voice was still rumbling with strong emotion as he went on, to introduce the same:

"I have with me, as you can see, Patriarch, the daughter of the Yuan Family in the Shu Kingdom Capital. My bride-to-be, Yuan Qianlei. She has come to confront me, after there has been some rumors regarding my wish to break our agreement. To understand if there is any truth in such a story. Naturally, I have told her that there isn't."

Once again, the Patriarch's answer was a simple nod.

Which was enough to spark off a discussion at his back, among the generation just one step below him in seniority, among the uncles of the man standing across from them. And from what Qin Feng could hear, there were some rather ugly comments among the same.

But Du Yan merely shook his head, and lifted a hand. The whole of the family fell silent at once, as they waited for him to speak. His voice, when he began, was gruff.

"It has come to my understanding that there are members of our family who are unhappy with this earlier arrangement, and has recently claimed that our Du Family has suffered because of it. That the Yuan Family has not treated our Du Family as they should.

"Patriarch. As you are aware, Yuan Qianlei has been promised to be my bride since she was twelve. She is now seventeen, almost eighteen. In those five, coming to six years, why has no one mentioned my breaking our engagement? To me? In all that time, why has no one has brought up the indignities that the Yuan Family has thrown upon us?

"Perhaps, Patriarch, you should give me an answer regarding this?"

His questions resounded in the wide open square, and drew everyone's eye to the old man standing at the front of the family. His aged face remained calm, and the white beard and moustaches that hung to his waist wavered oh so softly in the mild breeze.

Then the old man turned, to the men who were on either side of him. "Those are good questions. Yikun, Leimo. You should answer them. If I am not mistaken, you two were the ones who had brought up the matter in the first place. Go on, tell Yan'er why."

The pair of middle-aged men who had confidently stood behind the Patriarch when he stepped out the door, suddenly blanched when they heard his words. By his I-couldn't-care-less tone of voice, it was rather obvious that the old man was just throwing them out to take the edge of Du Yan's anger!

Indeed, before they could even give voice to their protests, or claim that they were not the ones who had initiated the suggestion, Du Yan was already standing before the pair! He had gone so far as to exercise some sort of movement technique, that brought him right in front of them!

"So, you two are the ones who tried to push me into breaking off my engagement. And no doubt, you were the ones who had told all those so-called experts from the Martial Schools and Sects where to find me.
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"Well, let me show you what I think of your so-called opinion!"

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