Chapter 41 Xie Baoqiong hadn't even had a chance to...

Before Xie Baoqiong could explain to the two of them, Su Xiaochun stared at the white figure in Xie Baoqiong's arms, her eyes turning into vertical pupils, and when she opened her mouth, her canine teeth became sharp:

"Small……."

Before he could finish speaking, his mouth was covered.

Su Xiaochun looked up at his "betrayed" friend, and Xie Baoqiong met his gaze and shook her head.

Su Xiaochun's eyes lit up as she realized what was going on. Her upturned fox-like eyes narrowed slightly. The fact that there was a secret among the three of them that belonged only to the two of them overshadowed the hidden unhappiness in her heart that her friend had made a new friend.

He brushed Xie Baoqiong's hand away, his tone rising and exaggerated:

“I know! This is a gift you brought back for me from down the mountain.” Su Xiaochun’s head nestled close to Qi Gui in Xie Baoqiong’s arms, her warm breath spraying onto Qi Gui’s downy feathers. “But I prefer pheasant to duck.”

The predator's scent sprayed over his body. Qi Gui shook his feathers, shrank his head, and snuggled closer to Xie Baoqiong, completely oblivious to the interaction between Su Xiaochun and Xie Baoqiong.

Xie Baoqiong held Qi Gui in one hand and stroked Su Xiaochun's hair, which had a different texture than fox fur, with the other hand, correcting her, "This is Qi Gui, he is Xueyan, not a duck."

“It looks no different from a duck, and it doesn’t fly very high, except that the color of its feathers is a little different.” Su Xiaochun said nonchalantly, then rested her head on Xie Baoqiong’s lap, and casually squeezed another patch of white outwards, “This size of duck is the tastiest.”

Xie Baoqiong silently lifted the trembling Xueyan in her arms a little higher, then turned to the fox sprawled on her lap and said, "I ordered a lantern for you in the capital, but I left in a hurry this time and didn't bring it with me."

He pretended to reach into his sleeve, but actually took out the voucher from his hidden pocket and handed it to Su Xiaochun: "Here, this is the voucher."

With a note in her hand, Su Xiaochun abandoned her plan to scare Qi Gui and unfolded the folded paper to examine it.

Seeing that Su Xiaochun's attention had shifted, Xie Baoqiong introduced him to Qi Gui, saying, "He is a good friend I met before I went to the capital. His name is Su Xiaochun. You don't need to be afraid of him; he won't eat you."

Qi Gui lifted his head from Xie Baoqiong's clothes, but still didn't look down at Su Xiaochun's vertical pupils. Instead, he raised his white head:

"Ah Qiong, what's with that person standing at the door?" He had been hiding in the corner and watching for a long time, but Ji Fei suddenly stood there blankly as if he had lost his soul.

Xie Baoqiong looked up at the doorway.

Ji Fei stood blankly at the threshold, his hands hanging limply at his sides. In the dim light, his tall, thin figure looked like a ghost from afar.

He gave a vague explanation: "Xiaochun knows some intimidating magic." Then he changed the subject: "By the way, how did you end up here? Didn't I tell you to hide in the shadows and wait for everyone to leave before going down the path to report to the authorities? Where are the others?"

With several questions thrown at him, Qi Gui didn't have time to think about them carefully. He stammered, "I hid the others behind the haystacks behind the dilapidated temple, and covered them with straw."

After answering that question, he shrank his neck, burying his head in the crook of his neck, and remained silent about the other two questions Xie Baoqiong had asked. The young bird's face was filled with human-like frustration.

Xie Baoqiong didn't care whether Qi Gui answered the other questions. Knowing that the others had been hidden, she urged Qi Gui to hide before Amei returned.

"Then go back and hide..."

"Little duckling, I'm asking you a question," a finger poked into the gray downy feathers, interrupting Xie Baoqiong.

The snow goose, its white and gray plumage mixed with the scent of gold, chirped as it sensed the unfamiliar touch and burrowed its head into Xie Baoqiong's sleeve.

The soft, dim environment enveloped half of Qi Gui's body, blocking the view of the two people outside.

His body was half-pressed against Xie Baoqiong's wrist, and he spoke in a melancholy, muffled voice:

“When I noticed that Ah-Qiong hadn’t returned, I went out to see what was going on, and I saw Ah-Qiong being guarded by two people outside.” After a long silence, he spoke again, his voice barely audible: “I also wanted to protect Ah-Qiong.”

Su Xiaochun realized that Qi Gui was a mere demon with no cultivation when he approached Xie Baoqiong, otherwise he would not have let Xie Baoqiong push his hand away.

But before he could utter the words, "He doesn't need your protection," a childish voice came from the doorway:

What are you doing standing here?

After Amei spoke, Ji Fei, who had lost his mind, seemed to suddenly come back to life:

"Master Xiaomei, I'm keeping an eye on those two boys."

Ji Fei turned around, bowed respectfully, and answered.

"Where are they? I didn't see them in the carriage outside," Amei asked imperiously.

Ji Fei's mind went blank for a moment. He looked up and around, and when he saw the two people behind him, he quickly pointed:

"Sir, everyone is inside and staying put."

He took a step to the side, revealing Amei's figure.

Before they could look over, Xie Baoqiong reached out and tucked Xueyan, whose body was partially exposed, into her sleeve, then stood up to shield Su Xiaochun.

After Amei got close, Su Xiaochun used the same trick again.

Standing three feet away, Amei was momentarily dazed, then walked unnoticed to Xie Baoqiong's side:

"Eat quickly, and then continue on your way."

Xie Baoqiong took the fruit, turned around and gave most of it to Su Xiaochun, while secretly slipping one into her sleeve.

After resting in the temple for a while, the four of them got up and left.

As the sound of the carriage faded into the distance, a corner of the curtain covering the offering table inside the temple was lifted, revealing a pair of bright eyes.

After confirming that the people in the temple had left, the person under the offering table cautiously crawled out, but instead of getting up, he reached under the offering table and rummaged around.

He touched a bamboo pole with his fingers and pulled it out.

A banner with the four characters "divine calculation" written on it appeared in the temple.

The man patted the dust off the banner, shook his head, and said, "Tsk, what a bad day." This deserted, dilapidated temple was where he had recently stayed; he had just returned today when someone broke in.

Fortunately, he dodged quickly; what those people were saying didn't sound like anything good.

He leaned the banner against the offering table, took out the dry firewood he had hidden in the corner of the wall, dragged it to the center of the hall, and sat down on the prayer mat where Xie Baoqiong had sat before.

Instead of lighting the firewood, he pondered the conversation he had just overheard. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He patted his head and muttered to himself, "Li Yi, Li Yi, mind your own business and you'll live a long life." Didn't he hear those people talking about magic or something? That's not something a mortal like him can concern himself with.

Li Yi took out a flint from his sleeve and approached the pile of firewood, only to find that he hadn't brought any dry grass to start a fire.

He got up and walked out of the main hall, intending to pick up some dried weeds in the courtyard.

There were many weeds in the yard. He bent down and picked up a handful. The words he had overheard while hiding under the offering table came to mind again: "I hid the others behind the haystack behind the dilapidated temple, and covered them with straw."

A cold sweat suddenly broke out on Li Yi's back. The night wind, which was about to turn into summer, made him shiver. He dropped the weeds he was holding, ran back to the palace to grab his eating utensils, and prepared to find another place to spend the night.

He dared not go through the main gate of the courtyard, fearing that Xie Baoqiong and her group would turn back again, and he remembered a dog hole covered by weeds.

Li Yi pushed aside the weeds, peeked out halfway, and saw that there was no one outside the wall. He then threw the flag out first.

Then he shrank back and squeezed out of the narrow opening that was just big enough for him to pass through.

He picked up the fallen banner from the wasteland, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and avoided the direction of the courtyard gate, heading in a random direction.

After walking for about half a cup of tea's time, several stacks of hay appeared in the distance.

Li Yi's light steps stopped abruptly, his whole body stiffening. Why was he having such bad luck today?

A gust of wind blew up the grass clippings on the ground. Li Yi glanced around and saw that there didn't seem to be anyone near the haystack.

He stopped in his tracks, wondering if the person had already left. If he went around now, he could only walk back to the main entrance of the dilapidated temple.

Thinking this, Li Yi continued walking forward. When he got close to the haystack, he circled around it, but his eyes couldn't help but keep looking at the haystack.

Just as he was about to pass the haystack, a child's shoe suddenly appeared in his eyes.

Li Yi suddenly stopped, unable to move at all.

Could the person hiding there be a corpse? A deserted temple is indeed a good place to dump a body. He was startled by his own thought. Reason told him that he should leave this place as soon as possible, but his feet involuntarily walked towards the haystack.

With three steps to go, Li Yi stopped and used the bamboo pole below the banner to lift the straw covering it, revealing the figure underneath.

Three or four children lay quietly on the ground, their fate unknown.

Li Yi cursed himself inwardly and quickened his pace.

Upon getting closer, he could see that the children on the ground all had rosy complexions.

Relieved, he dropped the banner and carried the children back to the dilapidated temple, hiding them under the offering table.

The only place to rest for miles around was the dilapidated temple. If he were alone, he could easily find a tree to lean against, but with these children who looked like they were unconscious, not only would the journey be slower, but he also couldn't carry so many people by himself.

We can only wait until the city gates open tomorrow, then take a child into the city and ask around to see if there are any lost children nearby.

...

After traveling for two days, Xie Zhuo and his group stopped to rest in Lian'an Town near Sishui Mountain.

Inside the inn's lobby, Xie Zhuo took out a compass. The red line on the compass, representing the continuation of his bloodline, was still appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Rong Feng tapped his index finger on the table, observing the compass in Xie Zhuo's hand. He had seen the red line on it, which was different from the others and appeared and disappeared several times in the past two days, and he still felt strange about it. He couldn't help but feel a little curious about the young master of the Xie family whom he had never met.

Is the flashing red line due to a damaged compass, or is there something wrong with the young master of the Xie family himself?

But the compass is in someone else's hands, and the son is also someone else's.

Rong Feng had no choice but to suppress his desire to explore and picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks.

"Hey, have you heard? The fox spirit has appeared again at that newly built temple outside town."

The noise coming from the next table caught Xie Zhuo and Rong Feng's attention.

Xie Zhu put away the compass, raised the teacup to his lips, and listened discreetly to the sounds around him.

"This is the third time this month, I think I'll find some time to go to the Fox Fairy Temple to pray."

"Brother, tell me quickly, why did the fox spirit appear this time?"

The person who had brought up the topic didn't rush to speak. Instead, he turned the empty wine jug over and sighed, "Why is the wine gone so quickly?"

"Waiter, quickly bring the wine to the person and put it on my tab."

After taking a sip of his drink, the man spoke slowly and deliberately: "You know the daughter of Butcher Wang in the west of town, right?"

Someone chimed in, "Isn't that the family that lost their child? Their daughter went insane after the child went missing, and they took her home to raise her, but I heard she's dying."

“That’s right, but guess what?” The man kept everyone in suspense and slowly said, “Today their family went to the Fox Fairy Temple to pray, and after they got home, their daughter got better.”

"Lost a child," Xie Zhuo repeated silently, lowered his eyelids, and took a sip of tea.

One of the people sitting at the next table asked, "Could it be that the fox spirit has found the lost child?"