Su Hua frowned as she looked at the chest. Since it was inconvenient to turn on the light in the room, she simply turned around, picked up the entire chest, and brought it to the window to look. Inside the huge chest, there was nothing else but a chest full of bibs of various colors.

The remaining two chests contained, one of which contained Heimu's clothes, and the other contained a chest full of bibs.

A quick glance reveals at least sixty or seventy, if not hundreds.

Some of the undergarments were already turning white, while others were stained with dried blood clots. The outermost undergarment even had a strong smell of blood.

Su Hua clutched her bodice, a sudden chill running through her heart.

She subconsciously thought of what Granny Niu and Granny Ma had mentioned in the cave about the woman who had escaped three days ago but was later caught.

If a bellyband represents a young girl, then how many vibrant lives are contained in these two trunks?

This Kuroki is far too ruthless.

If this Black Wind Stronghold is not eradicated, who knows how many more women will suffer as a result.

She had originally intended to find the person behind the scenes and leave, but now she was hesitant.

Just then, a weight suddenly came down on my shoulder.

Su Hua narrowed her almond-shaped eyes and gripped the short dagger tightly in her sleeve, but before she could make a move, A Zheng's clear and gentle voice rang in her ears.

"Why are you rummaging through my precious treasures so late at night instead of sleeping?"

Upon hearing this, Su Hua put away her short dagger and closed the chest. "I did want to find some treasure, but Black Wind Stronghold is so poor. Not only did I not find any great treasure, but I didn't even see a single piece of silver."

"Heh!" Ah Zheng chuckled, her voice still carrying a hint of intoxication. "I thought I was bold enough, but I didn't expect you to be even bolder than me. You even dared to covet the bandits' things when you were in their den."

"He's definitely an interesting person."

At this point, the girl put her hands on Su Hua's shoulders and leaned closer, "But little Hua'er, you're looking for treasure in the wrong direction. All the bandits' treasures are in the western cellar. There's nothing in this dilapidated house."

"The cellar on the west side?" Su Hua frowned.

This room certainly doesn't seem like a place where things could be hidden. We've searched the bed, the couch, the table, and the chests, but we haven't found a single piece of paper, let alone a portrait.

Azheng nodded gently, "Yes, Heimu was talking in his sleep at night. But there are about ten bandits guarding the cellar every day. Xiaohua, you'd better not get your hopes up. Otherwise, you might lose half your life there."

"Xiao Hua'er?" Su Hua's mind stirred slightly. "How does A Zheng know my name?"

“All the bandits in this den know your name, and I’ve naturally heard of you too.” A-Zheng chuckled softly and released her hand from Su Hua’s shoulder.

He stepped towards the black wood on the ground.

After rummaging around in front of the black-robed man's chest for a while, she pulled out a cylindrical object and tossed it to Su Hua. "Here, take a look. Isn't the person on top of this you?"

Su Hua took the cylinder and ran her fingertips along its texture. She immediately recognized it as coarse-fine textured paper, the same kind of paper she had used to paint at the Hundred Flowers Banquet.

Sure enough, upon opening the cylinder, a portrait of himself was clearly visible on the paper.

Moreover, it was none other than the image of her playing the zither in the Hundred Flowers Garden of Qichi Villa.

While the painting doesn't claim to be a perfect likeness of her, it's remarkably lifelike compared to the few wanted posters displayed below the city gate.

The portrait is exactly as it appears, down to the sky-blue dress she wore that day and the bamboo hairpin in her hair.

In other words, the person who painted this portrait must have been one of the people who attended the Hundred Flowers Banquet that day.

Thinking of this, Su Hua's clear black and white eyes turned cold.

Could it be that after destroying the rice seedlings, Liu Yuxian felt it wasn't enough and conspired with these bandits to harm her?

However, Liu Yuxian was arrogant and domineering, but not a deep-thinking person. Otherwise, she wouldn't have provoked him to offer his Zaozhuang as a prize that day.

The person behind the scenes, in order to abduct her into the bandits' den, began spreading news about her extensively from the day after the Hundred Flowers Banquet. Her elder brother had even told her to stay at home and not go out during those days.

Nine days have passed since that day. Liu Yuxian is the kind of person who gets easily provoked, so it's unlikely that it would take so much effort to harm her.

But if it wasn't Liu Yuxian, then who could it be?

Aside from Liu Yuxian, the only person Su Hua had a grudge against was Wei Jianjia. Thinking of this, Su Hua felt something was amiss.

Although her first meeting with Wei Jianjia was not pleasant, there was no conflict of interest between them. The headdress and other prizes at the Hundred Flowers Banquet were proposed by Wei Jianjia herself.

There was no deep-seated hatred between the two of them, so there was no need to go to such lengths to bring her to the bandit's den.

Moreover, the brushstrokes in this portrait are clearly not those of Wei Jianjia.

Although she didn't remember everyone's paintings clearly at the Hundred Flowers Banquet, Wei Jianjia's group was sitting right next to them, and their Hundred Flowers painting was extremely eye-catching, so she was quite familiar with her painting style.

Before Su Hua could figure it out, she saw the sleeping Hei Mu suddenly turn over, and the back of his head hit the soft wooden leg.

This bump, however, woke the person up.

The man covered the back of his head and started cursing, not in the official language of the Yu Dynasty, but in the gibberish she had heard when she passed by the open space earlier.

Su Hua rolled the portrait back into the cylinder, preparing to try the medicine powder to see if she could get any useful information out of Hei Mu, when she saw that A Zheng had already quietly stood behind the man.

Then, he picked up a stool from the side and smashed it down hard on the back of Kuroki's neck.

"Clang!"

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