Min Hu feigned uncertainty and said, "Zhao Wu's mission is special, he probably won't be back before the end of the year..."

I was thinking, I definitely won't be able to return before the end of the year. Xixia is a long way away, and the old demon has been missing for over a year. It's not easy to find him, and I have to rescue him. At the very least, I have to bring back information...

Xu Lanyin would have preferred not to hear this explosive news. It turned out Zhao Wu had gone to Xixia to search for and rescue a missing person named Lao Yao, a far more dangerous task than investigating illegal mining. No wonder Zhao Wu had been so reluctant to reveal any information to her; he must have worried she'd become too anxious.

She was so angry that she sulked.

Min Hu saw Xu Lanyin's unhappy expression change unpredictably. He couldn't help but regret telling the truth. This girl was good at reading people's expressions and could guess the second half of a sentence just by hearing the first half. For some reason, he was a little afraid of this girl Xu, and he was especially afraid of her getting angry.

Minhu hurriedly explained, "It wasn't my idea to send Zhao Wu on that mission. It was... it was someone higher up." He blushed at his own irresponsibility, but he just didn't want Xu Lanyin to be upset. After a pause, he said soothingly, "He heard that Zhao Wu was a martial arts expert and meticulous, and especially when he learned that Zhao Wu was a lay disciple of Master Jie Chi, he admired him very much and specifically asked him to go. Don't worry, Miss Xu, there are more than a dozen people going with them, all of them martial arts masters, and there are people to pick them up. They will definitely return safely."

Zhao Wu definitely wouldn't tell anyone that Jie Chi was his master. That person above him knew Jie Chi. He not only knew how powerful Jie Chi was, but also knew that Zhao Wu was his disciple. He and Jie Chi must be very familiar with each other...

Xu Lanyin didn't even smile and started hypnotizing Minhu.

After Minhu fell asleep, she returned to Minjia's courtyard.

The children were all up, and from the small window in the upper room drifted the sounds of Xu Lanting and Zhao Xingchen's laughter. Xu Lanyin then remembered that she had been interrupted by Minhu and had forgotten to mention Zhao Xingchen. She'd better talk about it later when Minhu was not busy.

Xu Lanyin went directly to the west wing and sat at the head of the bed thinking about Minhu's words.

"Old Demon"—it's obvious from the name that it's not his real name, but an alias. And what intelligence could there be? So, Old Demon is most likely a spy sent by the Daming Dynasty into the Western Xia Kingdom, just as Xixia's Jin Zhanggui infiltrated the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps Old Demon possesses some top-secret intelligence, discovered by the Western Xia, and has gone into hiding. The Min Hu people sent so many experts to search for and rescue him. Even if he dies, he must bring back the information...

Xu Lanyin's heart tightened. She secretly blamed Minhu and his superiors. Zhao Wu was just a constable, why did he have to do the work of a death squad? This was not in line with the employment system and was a form of forced exploitation... It was so infuriating! When Zhao Wu came back this time, she would definitely let him work hard and get promoted to a higher position. Those who work hard rule over others, and those who are inferior to others will always be controlled by others...

Xu Lanyin was so angry that she almost lost her mind and started to have wild thoughts.

It was time for dinner, and she went out only after Zhangqi came to invite her.

Mother Liu noticed that she was in a bad mood and had eaten little, so she said, "What's wrong with Miss Xu? If you're not feeling well, go and rest."

Xu Lanyin shook her head and said, "It's nothing, I'm just a little tired."

The children were all sensible and played by themselves without bothering her.

That night, Xu Lan tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. When she finally did, she dreamed of Zhao Wu being hunted. In an unfamiliar town, Zhao Wu was desperately running with a man, pursued by a group of men with machetes.

They chased through streets and alleys, and in a blink of an eye, the man Zhao Wu was holding was Xu Lanzhou again. Xu Lanzhou was injured, half of his shoulder stained red with blood. They ran desperately, reaching a high wall. The man behind them had caught up, raised a gleaming sword... Xu Lanyin was so frightened that she suddenly woke up, her heart pounding.

She sat up, sweat coating her back and forehead. Her head was pounding, her heart pounding. Zhao Wu alone had already left her feeling overwhelmed, so why did Xu Lanzhou show up? Was he in danger too?

Xu Lanyin fumbled to hang the thick gauze curtains on the hook. The moonlight outside the window was exceptionally bright, illuminating the room dimly even through the thick window paper. Beside him, Zhao Xingchen was soundly asleep, snoring softly.

This scene completely pulled her out of the nightmare. It turned out to be a dream!

Xu Lanyin pulled a handkerchief from under her pillow and wiped the sweat off her face. She got up, put on her embroidered slippers, put on her clothes, and went to the window. She pushed the small window open a crack, and a cold night breeze blew in, and her mind finally cleared up a little.

A half-moon hung high in the sky, sparsely dotted with cold stars, making the chill penetrate even deeper into the bones. In another world beneath the night sky, I wondered what Zhao Wu was doing.

They say dreams are the opposite of reality. Xu Lanzhou was in Nanping County, so how could he be in Xixia? This proved that the dream just now was wrong. Zhao Wu was not being hunted. He might have already found the old demon and brought him out of Xixia, and was on his way back. Moreover, the high wall would be a dead end for others, but for Zhao Wu, it was a way to survive...

Xu Lanyin kept giving herself psychological hints, and her mood gradually calmed down. She closed the small window and lay down on the bed.

Under another sky, the moonlight was still bright. Zhao Wuzheng was pulling a large man along as they ran desperately. They ran through the streets and alleys, but a high city wall blocked their way.

The big man looked back at the pursuers, took out an oil-paper bag from his arms, handed it to Zhao Wu and said, "Run quickly, don't worry about me." As he said that, he was about to rush forward to fight the pursuers.

Zhao Wu took the oil-paper bag with one hand and put it in his arms, without letting go of the big man with the other hand. He said, "Follow me and survive."

He saw a towering tree not far from the wall, so he pulled the big man to the tree, held the big man's waist and jumped onto the high branch with three steps, then used the three-step skill again to kick the branch and jump onto the city wall.

If Zhao Wu had carried such a heavy man without any martial arts skills, his two-stroke three-kick skills would not have been able to be completed so beautifully, and he didn't know whether he could jump onto the wall. However, this big man was also very skilled in martial arts. While being carried, he also pushed hard against the tree and the wall, taking advantage of the momentum to move upwards, making it much easier for Zhao Wu.

The pursuers had already reached the city wall. Looking at the high wall and the two heads atop it, they all shot arrows upward. They had wanted to capture them alive, but they hadn't released their arrows, and had driven them here. They had thought the high wall would leave them nowhere to escape, but it actually hindered their pursuit.

Zhao Wu and the big man Su turned their heads to avoid the arrows and ran to the other side of the city wall.

It was not wartime at this time, and there was only one soldier standing guard on the city wall at a considerable distance.

By the time the soldiers saw them and ran over, they had already jumped off the city wall.