Chapter 655 The Money-Grubbing Darling! (Two Updates)

This reason left Mu Qingchen speechless.

While smashing something to cause a large bump may not be physically harmful, it is extremely insulting.

Mu Qingchen asked, "Since you knew he was General Nangong, you still dared to throw stones at him."

Gu Jiao asked, "Is the general so remarkable?"

"you……"

Mu Qingchen sighed.

They're like a newborn calf that's not afraid of a tiger.

Back then, the military power of the Xuanyuan family was divided into four parts, with the Nangong family holding the majority. Although the Nangong family is not currently among the top ten families in Shengdu, that is only due to its foundation. In terms of military power and strength, the Nangong family has long been far ahead of the competition.

Thinking of something, Mu Qingchen asked again, "By the way, how did you know he was General Nangong?"

Gu Jiao said, "I didn't know at first, but I overheard him talking to someone. He said his son fell off his horse and got injured during a polo match, so I guessed it."

Mu Qingchen no longer had any doubts.

Gu Jiao was quite disappointed. She hadn't brought any weapons or hidden weapons to the competition. If she had the Black Fire Pearl, she would have blasted Nangong Li into a pig's head.

Mu Qingchen turned her head and saw Gu Jiao frowning, looking like she hadn't performed well. Suddenly, she didn't know what to say.

The coachman who had been sent away by Mu Qingchen returned, carrying a string of candied hawthorns.

"Young master, there aren't many good snacks around here, so I only managed to buy candied hawthorns." The coachman handed the candied hawthorns to Mu Qingchen.

Mu Qingchen didn't really want to eat candied hawthorns. In his opinion, candied hawthorns were something that only girls and children liked to eat.

He was about to have the driver take it when he suddenly remembered something and handed the candied hawthorn to Gu Jiao: "Here you go."

"Oh, thank you." Gu Jiao didn't refuse.

On the way back to the inn, Gu Jiao unceremoniously ate the string of candied hawthorns. To guard against Nangong Li's counterattack, she did not take off her women's clothing, but only removed her veil.

Mu Qingchen looked out the window on the other side, occasionally glancing back at her unintentionally.

The way he munched on the candied hawthorn was somewhat similar to Su Xue's.

Mu Qingchen frowned.

What is he thinking?

Xiao Liulang was a man.

...

Gu Jiao and Mu Qingchen both escaped through the window. At that time, the street vendors downstairs had not yet arrived, but now a long line had formed, so they had no choice but to go back to the inn through the main entrance.

When Wu Fuzi saw the two people coming from the stairwell, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets!

When did you two leave?

I've been waiting here for nothing!

Wu Fuzi bristled: "Where have you been!"

Gu Jiao: "I just... browsed around."

Master Wu clenched his fists and looked coldly at Mu Qingchen: "And you!"

Mu Qingchen glanced at Gu Jiao: "I just accompanied him for a stroll."

The martial arts master was so angry he nearly fell backward!

No wonder he's a freshman who got two demerits in ten days; he started running around as soon as he arrived and even corrupted an excellent student like Mu Qingchen!

With the competition imminent, punishment was out of the question. Master Wu secretly noted this down: "If we don't win tomorrow, I'll punish you double when we get back to the academy!"

The two went back to their respective rooms.

Mu Qingchen planned to rest, but thinking about what had just happened, he found it hard to fall asleep. He had a feeling that Xiao Liulang was hiding something from him. This feeling was strange, as if he were trapped in a fog, and the truth was behind the fog, but he just couldn't shake it off.

Mu Qingchen decided to ask this classmate again.

Master Wu stood guard at the door.

Wu Fuzi wouldn't stop Mu Qingchen from visiting others openly, but for some reason, he chose to climb through the window; he couldn't explain it himself.

He hooked his hand on the window frame, nimbly flipped onto the roof, walked past Mu Chuan's room, and jumped in through Gu Jiao's window.

But Gu Jiao was nowhere to be seen in the house.

That's right, Gu Jiao went out again.

It's impossible to keep her in her room obediently; it's impossible for her to do so in this lifetime.

This time, however, Gu Jiao was more careful than the first time, and she didn't even alert Mu Qingchen, who was usually very vigilant.

Mu Qingchen frowned.

Why do I suddenly feel unhappy?

Gu Jiao used the same method, climbing from the window onto the roof, scaling walls and leaping down into the alley.

She returned to the vicinity of that pawnshop.

Nangong Li's guards had already left, and the pawnshop returned to its usual quiet state, with only a few pedestrians passing by occasionally, and not many going in to inquire.

However, Gu Jiao's focus was not on the pawnshop, but on the embroidery building across the street.

The carriage is gone.

Gu Jiao tilted her head slightly and continued walking towards the other side.

She took off her Sky Dome Academy uniform and put on a night outfit that would allow her to hide.

Just as she arrived at the entrance of the embroidered tower, a carriage suddenly drove up and stopped beside her.

The person inside the carriage didn't speak, but the curtain was lifted slightly by the night wind, and a familiar scent drifted over. Gu Jiao jumped into the carriage almost without thinking.

Inside the car sat an adult and a child. The lights were off. The little one was so sleepy that he had fallen asleep in someone's arms, while the adult looked energetic and showed no signs of fatigue.

Gu Jiao sat down next to him: "Why haven't you left yet?"

Xiao Heng gave a faint smile: "And you? Why are you back again?"

Wait for you.

I'm looking for you.

One didn't know she would come back, and the other didn't know he hadn't left, but they both came here by chance.

"Did Nangong Li see you?" Gu Jiao asked.

"No." Xiao Heng sensed something was wrong when Gu Jiao threw a stone at Nangong Li. He didn't turn around, but quickly led Xiao Jingkong into the shop.

He didn't actually see Gu Jiao, only Nangong Li, but he knew that no one but Gu Jiao would distract Nangong Li.

"Are you injured?" Xiao Heng asked.

"No," Gu Jiao said. "They didn't catch me."

By the dim moonlight and the candlelight cast from the street, Xiao Heng looked Gu Jiao up and down, then opened her palm and gently ran his fingertips over it to see if she had any hidden wounds.

After confirming that everything was alright, he hummed in agreement.

Then, without pulling his hand back, he held Gu Jiao's small hand, gently stroking her palm with his fingertips.

A girl's hands are always soft, small and delicate, and his large palm can completely cover them.

Gu Jiao looked at the hand he was holding and felt the intimacy he was unintentionally revealing.

She knew her own story; those were hands stained with blood, hands that had dug through mountains of corpses and taken human heads.

His hands were clean, so clean that Gu Jiao didn't want even a speck of dust to get on them.

At that moment, this clean hand gripped her tightly, as if... trying to pull her out of the sea of ​​corpses and blood.

"Jiaojiao".

Xiao Jingkong's murmured words broke the brief silence inside the carriage.

Gu Jiao pulled her hand away from Xiao Heng's grasp, touched Xiao Jingkong's back, and found it was sweaty. She took out a handkerchief to wipe his back while saying to Xiao Heng, "Two things."

Xiao Heng looked at her withdrawn hand and frowned almost imperceptibly.

Gu Jiao said, "The person behind this who wants you dead is the royal family of the Great Yan."

"The royal family of Great Yan?" Xiao Heng asked thoughtfully.

"And another thing," Gu Jiao continued, "Chang Jing is the young master of the Dark Night Sect."

"He's actually the young master of the Dark Night Sect." This news was quite shocking, as Xiao Heng had always thought Chang Jing was just an ordinary bodyguard.

"What kind of place is Dark Night Gate?" Gu Jiao had wanted to ask this for a long time.

"An assassin organization that doesn't belong to any country." Xiao Heng didn't know much about it either. He paid more attention to matters of the imperial court, and only occasionally heard people mention the martial arts world.

A moment later, the carriage stopped in front of the inn where Gu Jiao and the others were staying.

Actually, Gu Jiao didn't say where she lived after getting on the bus, but if someone really wanted to, they could find out about the Sky Dome Academy by any means necessary.

So there aren't that many things in the world that you can't do, it's just a matter of whether you're putting your heart into it or not.

In the past, it was always Gu Jiao who accompanied Xiao Heng. When they were in the countryside, she would walk more than ten miles to take him to school in town. After they came to the capital, she would always take him to the Imperial Academy and the Hanlin Academy.

Gu Jiao felt strangely unaccustomed to being suddenly sent back by Xiao Heng.

She tugged at her little ear: "Well, I'm leaving."

Xiao Heng gently tugged at her sleeve: "Just like that, you're leaving?"

Gu Jiao, who could kill a bull with a single blow, was grabbed by two long, jade-like fingers of someone and looked over, puzzled: "Hmm?"

Xiao Heng looked up, the moonlight falling on his handsome, jade-like face. He slightly curved his lips: "Weren't there two things? What's the other one?"

Gu Jiao said seriously, "The mastermind behind it all is the Great Yan royal family, and Chang Jing's identity is the young master of the Dark Night Sect. These are two separate things."

Xiao Heng looked at her with a half-smile and said, "These are all news reports. Informing others of news only counts as one matter."

"Uh..." Can you really be so pedantic?

Xiao Heng's fingertips slid down her sleeve, pinched her slightly cool fingers, gently hooked them, and stood up.

The carriage wasn't very tall, so he had to bend over. He held Gu Jiao's hand with one hand and braced his other hand against Gu Jiao's side, lightly pressing down on her.

His unique aura instantly enveloped Gu Jiao.

A ray of moonlight shone through the gap in the curtains, casting a slanted light on his eyebrows and eyes.

I used to think Jingkong was just a person with long eyelashes, but looking at it closely, I realize Xiao Heng is too.

Gu Jiao was stunned again.

Xiao Heng was both annoyed and amused. He had mustered up so much courage to do such a shameless thing, but she was only interested in admiring his face.

Gu Jiao sat in the car seat, staring at him without blinking.

Xiao Heng raised the hand that had been playing with her fingertips, gently pinched her chin, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Did you remember something else?"

After his voice changed completely, Xiao Heng's voice became more and more pleasant to listen to each day. It was youthful, clear, and had a captivating, magnetic quality that befitted a mature man.

Gu Jiao's soul was completely captivated.

Xiao Heng chuckled softly and lowered himself slightly: "Gu Jiaojiao, remember this, this is only the second thing."

After saying that, he tilted his head slightly and kissed her lips inside the carriage.

...

The following day, after having breakfast at the inn, the people from Tianqiong Academy rode their horses to Lingbo Academy.

The area around the polo field was already packed with people who came to watch the match, and the seats in the stands were almost all reserved.

The difference was that Gu Jiao actually found a small area of ​​blue and white stripes among a large pile of all kinds of college uniforms.

This is... students from Sky Dome Academy came to watch their match?

There were only a dozen or twenty people who came, which seemed particularly small compared to the academy groups that often had hundreds of people.

Master Wu was overjoyed: "Our students are here! Our students have come too!"

After playing so many matches, this was the first time he had his own people watching the game, and Wu Fuzi almost teared up.

Zhong Ding and Zhou Tong waved to each other.

Gu Jiao and Mu Qingchen had already ridden their horses towards the pavilion. Mu Chuan waved to them enthusiastically.

Zhao Wei missed the last match due to an upset stomach, so he was extra careful this time.

His polo skills are superior to Mu Chuan's. When he plays, Mu Chuan can only be a substitute. Fortunately, Mu Chuan has no objection to this.

After drawing lots, Wu Fuzi said, "It's the third round again."

Mu Chuan hurriedly said, "The third game is great! I wasn't fully awake for the first game, and the later games were too hot!"

Wu Fuzi wholeheartedly agreed: "That's right, the third match was the best one this morning. We've had good luck twice in a row."

Only Gu Jiao seemed to frown slightly in dissatisfaction.

"What's wrong?" Mu Qingchen asked.

"It's nothing," Xiao Heng told her before he left last night, adding that he was going to check some information this morning.

Mu Qingchen glanced at Gu Jiao, her gaze lingering on her neck: "Don't you close the mosquito net when you sleep?"

"Hmm." Gu Jiao tugged at her collar without changing her expression.

Mu Chuan continued to ask Wu Fuzi, "Which academy are we fighting against?"

Master Wu said, "Pingyang Academy."

The last competition lasted two days. Pingyang Academy was on the second day. They didn't see Pingyang Academy's performance, but being able to enter the second round shows that they have some strength.

Seeing that Mu Qingchen was keeping his thin lips tightly pressed together and not saying a word, Gu Jiao asked, "What's wrong? Is this academy difficult to beat?"

Mu Qingchen thought for a moment and said, "Pingyang Academy is a rare academy that emphasizes both literary and martial arts. Their polo teacher was once the most skilled polo player in the royal family, and Xu Ping was taught by him. After he was injured and could no longer play polo, he went to the academy to become a teacher."

He paused, then added, "Their overall level is very high, and their teamwork is excellent."

No polo player at Pingyang Academy could match Xu Ping's excellence, but the fundamental strength of a team is often not determined by the best player, but by the worst.

Xu Ping was indeed formidable, but unfortunately, Nangong Lin and the other two couldn't keep up with his pace. He was trying to carry three people at once, so of course he couldn't manage it.

Mu Chuan said bitterly, "Fourth Brother, I've never heard you praise anyone before, but you just praised them twice! Do you mean we're going to lose?!"

Yuan Xiao said, "Don't boost the morale of others and diminish our own before we've even taken the stage."

Zhao Wei said, "I agree."

Mu Chuan muttered, "Is this a question of agreement or disagreement? It's a question that could lead to a crushing defeat."

While wrapping her wrist with bandages, Gu Jiao casually asked, "By the way, what kind of reward is there for winning a polo match?"

"You don't know?" Mu Qingchen looked at her strangely.

"I don't know." No one had ever told her.

Mu Qingchen frowned and looked away: "I thought you were going for the reward. If you get third place, you'll get your own inner city token; second place is a thousand taels of gold."

Gu Jiao paused in wrapping her bandages. Gu Changqing had fought desperately at the border, but when he returned, the Emperor of Zhao only gave him a reward of one thousand taels of silver.

Is the ruler of Yan really that arrogant?

"What's the reward for first place?" Gu Jiao asked.

With a hint of awe, Mu Qingchen said, "The first place winner will have the opportunity to enter the palace and meet the king."

Gu Jiao instantly switched to battle mode: "How many more matches do we have left to play until the very last game?"

Mu Qingchen was taken aback by her sudden fighting spirit and said, "Including today, if we don't lose a single game, there are three games left."

But who can guarantee they'll make it to the final game?

Dry!

Gu Jiao grabbed her golf club and strode out with great pride!

I have a fever and feel unwell, please forgive my short post.

(End of this chapter)