In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 231 Long time no see

"Brother Li, it's been a long time!"

Xu Zhiwen opened his arms and hugged Li Qingyun.

Li Qingyun patted Xu Zhiwen on the back with both hands and murmured, "Brother Xu, it's been a long time!"

When people face difficulties, they always miss their relatives and friends. Therefore, when Li Qingyun suddenly saw Xu Zhiwen at his door, he was so excited that he could hardly speak. His voice was even a little choked up.

After a long while, the two parted ways, and Li Qingyun hurriedly said, "Brother Xu has come from afar, you must be tired, right? Come in and rest."

After saying that, Li Qingyun didn't forget Chen Dao and the others: "And these guests, please come in quickly."

So the group followed Li Qingyun inside.

As Xu Zhiwen walked, he looked at the scenery inside the mansion and chuckled, "Brother Li, your house is quite nice!"

"Hi!"

Li Qingyun waved his hand and said, "This isn't my house! It was left behind by the former magistrate. That former magistrate was a notorious corrupt official. He served in Ding'an County for several years and amassed no less than several thousand taels of silver. This house was left behind because he couldn't sell it when he left, otherwise..."

Li Qingyun gave a bitter smile: "With my salary, I'm afraid I couldn't afford such a big house even if I served as a county magistrate for a hundred years."

It turned out to be the case.

Xu Zhiwen suddenly realized that he had previously thought Li Qingyun had become a corrupt official, but it turned out that this was not the case. Instead, he had inherited the house left by the previous county magistrate.

"I am dissatisfied with Brother Xu."

Li Qingyun continued, "To me, this house is no different from a prison. As the magistrate of Ding'an County, the only people I can order around are the two servants in this house."

"Two servants?"

Xu Zhiwen and the others were taken aback. This house was so big, how could two servants take care of it?

While everyone was wondering, Li Qingyun had already led them to the living room and sat them down. Then he instructed the old man who had been following him, "Elder Xiang, make tea for Brother Xu and the others."

"it is good!"

The old man responded and quickly took out tea leaves, starting to brew tea for everyone.

Li Qingyun then looked at Xu Zhiwen and asked, "Brother Xu, what brings you here from afar?"

"Firstly, it's to see you."

Xu Zhiwen looked in Chen Dao's direction and said, "The second thing... is about young friend Chen."

Chen Xiaoyou?

Li Qingyun looked at Chen Dao in surprise. He had always thought that Chen Dao and the other two were Xu Zhiwen's subordinates, but now it seemed that this was not the case.

After all, Xu Zhiwen would not likely use a title like "Little Friend Chen" if he were a subordinate.

Seemingly noticing the surprise in Li Qingyun's eyes, Xu Zhiwen smiled and explained, "Brother Li, don't underestimate young friend Chen just because he's young. He's a truly capable person!"

Xu Zhiwen then recounted how he, Chen Dao, and Li Hu had joined forces in Taiping County to eliminate the Yuan family.

After hearing this, Li Qingyun looked at Chen Dao with a look of shock.

He could hardly believe that this seemingly immature boy, no more than 16 years old, was the key figure in Xu Zhiwen's words who had brought down a powerful family like the Yuan family!

As the magistrate of Ding'an County, Li Qingyun knew the strength of these powerful families all too well. The Yuan family, known as the number one family in Taiping County, might not be as powerful as the Sun family, but it definitely had a considerable number of martial artists in its ranks.

However, Xu Zhiwen said... when the Yuan family was wiped out, Chen Dao alone killed more than 90% of the Yuan family's martial artists, and even the head of the Yuan family was personally killed by Chen Dao (Xiao Yuan)...

This is like a 16-year-old boy wiping out the entire Sun family in Ding'an County, which is hard to believe and seems like a fantasy!

"Young friend Chen is truly a promising young man!"

Li Qingyun gave Chen Dao a deep look, filled with respect!

Xu Zhiwen said that the head of the Yuan family was a peak seventh-grade martial artist, and Chen Dao, who personally killed him, was probably... also a peak seventh-grade martial artist, or even a sixth-grade one!

"Magistrate Li, you flatter me!"

Chen Dao responded modestly, then added, "I have come to Ding'an County for the Fire Pattern Fruit. I wonder if Magistrate Li has any way to obtain it?"

"Fire-patterned Fruit?"

Li Qingyun frowned and said, "These Fire Pattern Fruits are hard to come by! The entire Fire Pattern Tree is kept within the Sun family's estate. Every year, the Sun family harvests the Fire Pattern Fruits that the tree bears. However, in order to cultivate their own martial artists, the Sun family will not sell the Fire Pattern Fruits, therefore..."

Li Qingyun paused for a moment, then said, "Obtaining this Fire Pattern Fruit is almost impossible."

The Sun family, a large and powerful clan, attaches great importance to the training of martial artists. They would rather earn less money than not give the Fire Pattern Fruit to their own clansmen to enhance the clan's strength.

Therefore, apart from the Sun family members, no one else has ever even seen what a Fire Pattern Fruit looks like, let alone obtained one.

"also……"

Li Qingyun hesitated for a moment, then said, "As far as I know, the fruits that the Fire Pattern Tree produces each year are distributed to the martial artists of the Sun family shortly after being picked. Therefore, even the Sun family probably doesn't have many Fire Pattern Fruits left."

Upon hearing this, Chen Dao frowned, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Isn't there still some Fire Pattern Fruit to be offered as tribute?"

"Yes, there is!"

Li Qingyun nodded and said, "However, this portion of Fire Pattern Fruit, which is offered as tribute, is intended by the Sun family to appease the imperial court and would not be handed over to outsiders."

"..."

Chen Dao was speechless and immediately abandoned the idea of ​​obtaining the Fire Pattern Fruit from the Sun family through peaceful means.

At this moment, Xu Zhiwen suddenly spoke up: "Brother Li, this Fire Pattern Fruit is very important to young friend Chen. Do you have any other ideas?"

Li Qingyun frowned and thought for a moment before saying, "I can go to the Sun family tomorrow to inquire, but I don't know... whether the Sun family will give me face!"

"I'll go with you!"

Xu Zhiwen smiled.

"Very well! With Brother Xu's help, the Sun family will surely be willing to give us some face."

"Brother Li, you're too kind to me!"

After the two exchanged compliments, Li Qingyun said to the old man called Xiang Lao, "Xiang Lao, could you please prepare a meal to welcome Brother Xu and the others?"

"Okay sir!"

Looking at Old Xiang's somewhat hunched back, Xu Zhiwen couldn't help but ask, "I was just about to ask, Brother Li, why are the servants in your household so old?"

Xu Zhiwen could roughly deduce that Elder Xiang was the steward of Li Qingyun's mansion, but Elder Xiang was so old that he was obviously unqualified to be a steward.

In addition, Xu Zhiwen also noticed that Xiang Lao did not seem to be familiar with entertaining guests. When he made tea for the group, his technique was extremely clumsy, which was obviously different from the steward of a typical wealthy family.