Hidden in the city

Seeing the three soldiers escape and knowing that they were temporarily safe, Wen Weili collapsed to the ground exhausted. Her arms trembled unconsciously, and a tingling pain spread from her bones to her whole body. She was so tired, and her eyes were a little painful from the sweat. She wanted to just sleep soundly and put everything behind her.

But this was not the time to rest. Wen Weili bit her lips hard, and a hint of blood came out of her already cracked lips. This unpleasant smell made Wen Weili's mind unusually clear. She crawled up from the cold ground and turned around to continue cleaning up the traces along the way.

When the cleanup was almost complete, Wen Weili returned to the courtyard, gently closed the gate, and helped the unconscious Duanmu Huaixin into the wing room. Even though she was now covered in dust and her limbs felt as heavy as lead, she dared not move a muscle, fearing that she would disturb the neighbors.

Meanwhile, Wen Weili didn't dare close her eyes. Her nerves were stretched to the limit, and if she relaxed, she would fall into a deep, deep sleep. This wouldn't do; the follow-up work wasn't done yet.

Duanmu Huaixin had told Wen Weili that he had arranged for her to escape outside the city gates and that she would be free if she escaped. However, after careful consideration, Wen Weili decided to remain within the imperial city.

Wen Weili's first concern was Duanmu Huaixin's safety. She didn't have any martial arts skills, so she couldn't bring the unconscious Duanmu Huaixin with her out of the heavily guarded city gate. Secondly, she wanted to rescue Zhiyun. Once the search was temporarily over, Xinxin's secret guards would be able to contact her. With them, she could rescue Zhiyun and find out more about her in the imperial city.

Therefore, Wen Weili chose to live in the small courtyard she had once used for business, brought to her by Duanmu Huaixin. When Wen Weili was still the eldest daughter of the Wen family, she had bought a small courtyard here under the name of one of her mother's subordinates, using the pseudonym Xiaowen. She claimed to be a traveling merchant, going wherever there was something unusual, which also provided a suitable excuse for her frequent absences.

The summer night wind brought a hot chill. Wen Weili sat alone on the cold stone bench, nodding her head. Whenever she felt sleepy, she would pinch her palms with her fingernails or put her face on the stone table. The cold made her shiver and she would immediately wake up.

As she endured this agony, the sky began to lighten slightly. Wen Weili knew the city gates were about to open. The itinerant merchants now had a legitimate reason to return home. But that wasn't enough. What if the city gates were delayed, what if someone curious asked about it? Her cover would be completely shattered.

Wen Weili thought of her family's restaurant and had an idea in mind. She stripped off her clothes, donned a coarse cloth shirt, and carefully smeared paint on her face, making her look quite old-fashioned. She changed out of her lively gauze dress for sturdy linen trousers, and swapped her embroidered shoes for specially made merchant shoes that looked like they could be worn for many miles. She casually grabbed a handful of dust and shook it off her clothes. She combed her hair again, sloppily and unruly, and pinned it with a straw hairpin.

After changing her clothes, Wen Weili hung festive red lanterns and colorful flowers on the gate of the courtyard, and drove the disguised car and some goods in the yard back and forth on the street in a dignified manner, as if she had brought back a lot of things. She pushed and closed the gate of the courtyard with force, making the door creak and making a very noisy sound.

Soon, the lights in the small building next to them came on. A sleepy-looking boy poked his head out from upstairs and called out to Wen Weili, "Sister Wen, are you back?"

"Well, I'm back," Wen Weili lifted the yellow cloth hanging by her neck and smiled brightly, "Mr. Xiao, did I bother you? I'll treat you to a drink of apology today."

"Hey, neighbor, I don't want your wine at all," the boy muttered, yawning and sleepy. "I wish it was the regular wine."

Hearing the boy's mumbling, which was actually not quiet at all, Wen Weili was amused, "Brother Xiao, you are being so formal. When I come back, I always treat you guys to a few drinks."

"Okay!" The young man politely declined a few words, but when he heard Wen Weili gave him a way out, he immediately followed, "Sister Wen is really straightforward. Let's have two pots of tea at my house tonight."

"Of course," Wen Weili said with a smile. "Go to bed now. I need to clean up my little yard."

The boy waved to Wen Weili, closed the window and fell asleep.

Wen Weili felt relieved. With the publicity from Xiao Shusheng, the most enthusiastic and sociable man, the neighbors would also know that "Sister Wen" had done another good business and made a lot of money to go home.

Only then did Wen Weili dare to boil water in the kitchen in the yard. In order to prevent being tracked, Wen Weili stripped Duanmu Huaixin naked, including her inner and outer clothes, and threw them all next to the stove, ready to burn them as firewood.

After boiling the water, Wen Weili first wiped Duanmu Huaixin's body. While wiping, she stood still, as if she was not affected by what Duanmu Huaixin said at that time. She wiped Duanmu Huaixin clean with an expressionless face. Wen Weili poured out the water in the wooden barrel and was too lazy to move. She poured hot water in the room and took a comfortable bath.

It is said that men and women should not touch each other. Wen Weili glanced at Duanmu Huaixin who was unconscious beside her and sneered, saying, "If you have the guts, wake up first."

Soaking in the hot water, Wen Weili pondered how to justify Duanmu Huaixin's existence. Was it a husband-and-wife relationship? She was afraid it wouldn't work. The Crown Prince would definitely issue a notice to arrest them, and the notice would naturally state that they were a couple. She had to think of a solution they wouldn't easily come up with. Otherwise, she could just say Duanmu Huaixin was a gigolo she'd bought from outside. That didn't seem impossible.

After thinking it over again and again, Wen Weili came up with an idea and took the token that Duanmu Huaixin had mentioned at that time. It was a very ordinary peace locket, and the shape seemed somewhat familiar?

Touching the crack inside the peace locket, Wen Weili was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Wasn't this the birthday gift she had given to Duanmu Huaixin? He actually used this as a keepsake. When did this idiot start thinking about this?

Now in the imperial city, the prince will continue to search for her and Duanmu Huaixin. In order to cover up their activities in the imperial city, they must join forces with the secret guards to rescue Zhiyun and other captured people, create the illusion that she and Duanmu Huaixin are safe, and let the prince spread the search forces to farther places.

While the secret guards were luring the prince's men out, she had to first settle down in the imperial city and make a living like an ordinary citizen. So the question was, what kind of shop should she open?

The first thing Wen Weili thought of was a food shop. She has always loved delicious food and liked to prepare some food and drinks in the palace on weekdays. She lives here and has to cook three meals a day. Why not open a small restaurant and sell food at the same time?

After making a rough decision about what would happen next, Wen Weili finally let go of her worries. After a little mental relaxation, the fatigue she had felt for a hundred years could no longer be resisted. She half-leaned on the edge of the wooden barrel and fell into a deep sleep.

As she slept, Wen Weili's head gradually slid down and finally fell into the water.

"Gurgle gurgle gurgle..." Wen Weili choked on the water and woke up very quickly.

The water in the bathtub had already gone cold. Wen Weili stood up and wiped off the water. She felt both embarrassed and funny. Now that the environment had changed drastically, she thought she was in the Wen Mansion or the Prince Huai Mansion, and someone was cleaning up for her.

This choking on water was like a long nightmare that finally woke Wen Weili up. She felt as if she were in a dream since yesterday, as if as long as she woke up, she could still leisurely chat and laugh with Zhiyun or Xinxin in the courtyard of the mansion.

But at this moment, the room was so quiet, so quiet, with only the dust dancing in the sunlight filtering through the window. There was no one by her side. Even Xinxin, who had always relied on her, had fallen into a coma in order to save her. There was indeed no longer any sound of their cheerful laughter around her.

Wen Weili dried herself, changed into her underwear, and casually threw on a linen outer garment. She touched Duanmu Huaixin's face, which looked as if he were sound asleep, and slowly asked, "Do you regret this, Xinxin? If you were awake, you would surely find a way to remove the poison from your body very soon, right?"

Wen Weili laughed self-deprecatingly and continued, "But now... I'm here. I have no internal energy, no martial arts skills, and I don't even know anything about poisons. What can I do... to save you?"

Wen Weili had been evasive, vaguely ignoring the poison in Duanmu Huaixin's body because she knew nothing about it. She was like a bad person who deliberately poisoned his family, and even a doctor could not be hired to treat Duanmu Huaixin. She fell into deep self-blame and guilt.

But even if she felt depressed, she still had to live her life. Wen Weili stroked Duanmu Huaixin's hair and turned to leave the room. She wanted to drink with Xiao Shusheng next door and unobtrusively tell them a story that made sense yet was a bit bizarre. She wanted to convince them that she, a traveling merchant, wanted to settle down in the imperial city, open a restaurant and run a small business, no longer pursuing large sums of money.

As dusk fell, several candles were lit in Xiao Shusheng's small building. He specially brought salt-boiled peanuts, cold-mixed wood ear vegetables, cold-mixed water shield, boiled tofu skin and other side dishes from the most popular vegetarian stall in the West Market. One of his brothers brought hot dishes, the best roast duck in the East Market, the most chewy pork head, the most spicy stir-fried chicken shreds, and another brother bought the highest etiquette of side dishes - seafood, cold-mixed jellyfish, and garlic-fried kelp shreds.

Xiao Hanzi and his brothers sat down at the stone table in the center of the yard early in the morning and placed various cold and hot dishes on the table. They all looked at the wooden door of the small building eagerly, as if a peerless beauty would walk in from there.

Sure enough, the wooden door of the small building slowly opened, and Wen Weili, dressed to look older, walked in. She looked like a woman in her thirties or forties, and although her figure was somewhat graceful, the young men's eyes were not on Wen Weili's figure. They were eagerly staring at the two jars of fine wine in her hands.

When Wen Weili removed the wine cloth, a strong cold fragrance emanated from the jar. A group of drunkards stared at Wen Weili with their eyes wide open, holding their wine bowls and looking at her.

Wen Weili tilted the wine jar slightly, and a stream of honey-yellow wine rushed into the wine bowl. The wine was amber in color, and the unique fragrance was overwhelming. The wine made people drunk without them getting drunk.

While Wen Weili was pouring the wine, Xiao Shusheng took a sip of the wine with his chopsticks and touched his lips, and was immediately stunned.