A Time-Traveling Mishap: I Became an Ancient Nobleman

Chapter 136 Building a Good Relationship with the Royal Family

General Gu's movements made Zhou Hanzhang dizzy. Just as she was about to speak, she saw Gu Qingfeng, who had just woken up, walking over.

"Huh? What are you all doing here?"

General Gu was already somewhat irritable, and seeing Gu Qingfeng wake up from his hangover only fueled his anger, so he attacked him directly.

Gu Qingfeng was inexplicably beaten up by his own father again.

After venting his anger, General Gu felt better and sat down next to Zhou Hanzhang.

Seeing Zhou Hanzhang so relaxed, Gu Qingfeng called out to her, "Why didn't you come and help me up!"

Zhou Hanzhang rolled his eyes. "I was already more than generous by carrying you back from Xianggui Garden yesterday. I advise you not to mess with me now!"

Gu Qingfeng had no recollection of his drunkenness the previous night. He looked at Zhou Hanzhang suspiciously, "Did you bring me back last night?"

"To be more precise, he was carried back. Last night you were so drunk you were like a dead fish, yet you still jumped into the river and pretended to be a carp, even performing the 'carp leaping over the dragon gate' for the townspeople to see."

Upon hearing these words, Gu Qingfeng seemed to recall something. "No, wasn't the story of the fish leaping over the dragon gate just a dream?"

Zhou Hanzhang chuckled.

"Take it or leave it."

He ran straight to Zhou Hanzhang and almost knelt down before her.

"No, I'm already in this state, why didn't you stop me? I even considered you my brother."

"If you're about to jump into the river, how can I stop you?"

"No, you can at least get me out of here, right?"

"I can't swim," Zhou Hanzhang said without any embarrassment.

"You can't swim?" Gu Qingfeng just couldn't believe it.

Zhou Hanzhang is indeed good at swimming, but there's no need for her to. She didn't want to continue arguing with Gu Qingfeng, so she could only say this.

Gu Qingfeng looked at her expression but couldn't discern anything unusual, so he gave up.

General Gu started cursing from the side, "You went to a brothel and fell into the water, and you still have the nerve to blame Hanzhang? If he hadn't brought you back, you would probably have drowned. Don't talk about your face anymore, you've made me lose all face too."

Gu Qingfeng felt a little guilty, but he also couldn't understand it at all. No matter how drunk he was, he wouldn't be unable to walk and fall into the water and get poisoned.

This town is toxic.

He silently made his own definition.

General Gu had already hit and scolded Gu Qingfeng, and didn't want to look at him any longer. "If you have nothing else to do, go wash up first. You smell bad."

"No, why do I smell like this again?"

"Are you going or not?" General Gu warned in his eyes.

"Go, go, go now." Although Gu Qingfeng didn't understand, seeing his father's expression, he could only resolutely carry out the order.

As soon as Gu Qingfeng left, General Gu asked, "How long will it take for Liu Niang to find out the news?"

"My master didn't investigate this personally. She arranged for Xiangxiang, the manager of Xianggui Yayuan, to investigate. As for the time, I don't know how long it will take, but I have already arranged for other secret guards to search the whole town. If they are still in this town, we should be able to find them soon."

Zhou Hanzhang didn't really have much confidence, but for now, he could only say these things to appease General Gu.

"The problem now is that people from Yunmeng Kingdom are still looking for them. We don't know why they are looking for them, but it probably isn't anything good. If the people from Yunmeng Kingdom find them before us, they will likely suffer a lot."

General Gu responded to Zhou Hanzhang's words, "If it's just a little suffering, it's nothing. But it's said that the people of Yunmeng Kingdom are extremely perverse, and they have endless ways to torture people. Moreover, Liu Niang once killed their king, so they hate the people of our Great Zhou very much now. Perhaps they found out from somewhere that His Majesty was coming here and are waiting here in advance."

“Sigh,” Zhou Hanzhang sighed, “I don’t know why they insisted on coming here.”

Just when Zhou Hanzhang thought it would take Xiangxiang at least a while to find out anything, Xiangxiang came to her door directly.

"How is it? Is there any news?" Zhou Hanzhang asked Xiangxiang, who had rushed over.

Xiangxiang nodded, and General Gu poured her a cup of tea with a friendly gesture, and even greeted her, "Hello, young lady."

Xiangxiang looked at the charming General Gu and smiled, "Greetings, General."

"Hey, okay, you're okay too."

General Gu showed no disdain for Xiangxiang being from a brothel and treated her with unparalleled enthusiasm.

Seeing that the two of them were very anxious and nervous, Xiangxiang immediately took out a stack of papers from her bosom.

One of the papers clearly showed the same route as the one Zhou Huaide had shown the Emperor of Great Zhou, except that Zhou Huaide's map was more detailed.

Zhou Hanzhang picked up the route map and looked at it, but couldn't figure it out. "Where is this map from?"

General Gu took it and examined it, his eyes widening in shock. "This...this is...a map of the Yunmeng Kingdom?"

Xiangxiang smiled broadly, "General, you have a good eye! That's right."

"Could their disappearance be related to the map of Yunmeng Kingdom?"

"It seems so. This map was drawn by Liu Niang many years ago when she went to Yunmeng Kingdom, based on the terrain at that time. This map was kept by another person in our family, but some time ago..."

Xiangxiang glanced at Zhou Hanzhang, "Your father bought it."

"What? My father bought this map from you?"

Xiangxiang nodded. "Do you remember the overseas merchant who went to the capital? The one from whom your father spent a lot of money to buy a talking parrot."

How could Zhou Hanzhang not remember? Because of this matter, Zhou Huaide had been dealt with by his beautiful mother for quite some time, so there must be something more to this story.

Seeing Zhou Hanzhang's expression, Xiangxiang knew that she must have remembered, so she continued, "Those overseas merchants are our people. At first, we thought of presenting this map to His Majesty of Great Zhou in order to build a relationship."

But your father somehow found out we had this item and insisted on buying it from us. Since he's a member of the royal family anyway, and we figured we could make a profit selling it to him, our men acted decisively.

Zhou Hanzhang: ...

The beating my father received from my mother back then was definitely worth it.

Why do you want to cultivate a good relationship with the royal family?

Xiangxiang smiled and said, "You should know that most of Liu Niang's businesses are in the Jiangnan area, but our young master is in the capital. Before she met you, she was thinking of developing her businesses in the capital so that she could be with our young master."

The capital is under the emperor's nose, and if we don't make a move, His Majesty of the Great Zhou might take notice. If he were to cause us even the slightest trouble, we wouldn't be able to develop. After much thought, Liu Niang realized that only this thing could catch your eye. She just wanted to find a way to make things easier, but who knew your father..."