Chapter 666 Recognition

The little maid had never seen a horse pull a cart by itself before. The horse was quite amusing, bouncing around happily.

She couldn't help but lift the curtain and keep looking.

Horse King is a maniac; the more people watching, the more it jumps around.

Gu Jiao sat in the carriage with her eyes closed, trying to rest, but the carriage kept swaying and made her dizzy.

She lifted the curtain and said to Horse King, "Pull your chariot well!"

Ma Wang immediately deflated, took a few steps obediently, and then jumped up again as if testing Gu Jiao's bottom line!

Gu Jiao: "..."

The little maid chuckled.

Gu Jiao glanced at her subconsciously. The maid seemed to realize that she had lost her composure, so she bowed slightly to Gu Jiao to express her apology, and then lowered the curtain.

Gu Jiao withdrew her gaze.

The two carriages passed each other.

For some reason, Gu Jiao felt something strange, a feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on.

She frowned, lifted the curtain and looked to the side, but the carriage had already moved ahead, and her carriage had turned into the alley.

That's right, this alley where Gu Chengfeng once fainted was the route they took to get here, and naturally they would have to pass through here on their way back.

If the middle-aged woman hadn't taken Gu Chengfeng away, Gu Jiao would have already met him by now.

Unfortunately, Gu Jiao was unaware of this.

However, as I passed through that alley, the strange feeling in my heart was amplified infinitely.

There are more puddles in the alley than on the street.

Horse King couldn't resist stepping into the puddle. It started jumping around again, repeatedly testing the limits of Gu Jiao's ability to beat it to death. However, this time it didn't jump around for long before it suddenly stopped.

The downside of letting the horse drive itself is that it sometimes goes off to do its own thing while it's running, but it will always bring the carriage back when it's done playing. As long as it doesn't last long, Gu Jiao usually doesn't say anything to it.

Gu Jiao waited quietly.

But this time the situation seems different; the horse king is very quiet.

The horse seemed to sniff around, then bit into something, before shaking off the harness, turning around, and sticking its head into the carriage.

"What's wrong?" Gu Jiao looked at the horse king that suddenly appeared in front of her, only to see that it was carrying a mask in its mouth.

The mask had been soaked in water and was covered in mud, but that didn't stop Gu Jiao from recognizing it.

This is Gu Jiao's mask.

Or to be more precise, it was Gu Chengfeng's mask. Gu Jiao robbed Gu Chengfeng of it, and later when Gu Chengfeng got a new one, she robbed him of that too, returning the old one to Gu Chengfeng.

The reason Ma Wang picked up the mask was probably because he smelled Gu Jiao's scent on it and thought it was Gu Jiao who had dropped it.

Gu Jiao took the mask.

She examined it over and over, confirming that it was the first mask she had stolen from Gu Chengfeng.

Actually, if it were just a mask, Gu Jiao might not recognize it, but Ma Wang wouldn't pick up something unfamiliar.

Thinking back to the figure I saw near the inner city gate that day, could it really be Gu Chengfeng?

So where are his people?

Where did they go?

...

The rain was pouring down, and the carriage struggled to make its way through the increasingly deserted streets. The horses were exhausted, but thankfully they had arrived at their destination.

The carriage stopped in front of a magnificent opera house with carved beams and painted rafters.

"Madam, we've arrived!" the coachman called out.

The middle-aged woman's snoring stopped abruptly. She sat up, wiped her drool with her sleeve, coughed lightly, and frowned, saying, "We're here, so what's all the fuss about!"

She got off the carriage and asked two servants to help carry the people out of the carriage.

The servants were used to this kind of thing and quickly carried the person into the theater. Normally, newcomers like this would be put in the woodshed, but after the middle-aged lady brushed aside the hair on Gu Chengfeng's face to look at his face, she immediately had a room prepared.

"Mother... Madam!" The maid called out the wrong name again, hurriedly correcting herself, "Why are you making him a room?"

The middle-aged woman snorted and said, "There aren't many men with this kind of looks anymore. Ever since a few vixens came to Chunfeng Pavilion, they've stolen all the business on the whole street! Your mother... cough! Your wife... has to take good care of him so he can bring me more business!"

The maid pursed her lips: "What if he doesn't want to?"

The middle-aged woman scoffed, "Ha, can we just let him have his way?"

After the servant put Gu Chengfeng into the room, the middle-aged lady had someone change him into a dry set of clothes.

Gu Chengfeng lay on the soft bed, his clothes half-open, revealing half of his muscular chest.

He had been whipped, and there were whip marks of varying depths on his chest.

"Tsk tsk tsk, who did this?" The middle-aged woman sat down by the bed, happily undressing Gu Chengfeng and looking him up and down with satisfaction. "Oh my, look at this figure! I've struck gold today! Ginkgo!"

"Madam." A maid came over.

The middle-aged woman laughed and said, "Go and get the best bottle of wound medicine from my room, as well as the Jade Snow Ointment. I want him to be completely clean, without a single whip mark."

The maid hesitated for a moment and said, "But he seems to be sick. He hasn't woken up the whole way. Could he be dying?"

The middle-aged woman glared at her fiercely: "You're the one who's about to die! How dare you curse me like that?"

The maid whispered, "I...I didn't say anything about you."

The middle-aged woman snorted, "He's the cash cow I picked up. If you curse him to die, you're just cursing me to not make any money!"

The maid was speechless.

The middle-aged woman helped Gu Chengfeng adjust his clothes: "Don't just stand here, go and fetch Doctor Liu. Do you really want to see him die?"

Doctor Liu was a local physician, and he happened to be home at the moment, so the maid quickly invited him over.

Doctor Liu prescribed a medicine, and the middle-aged lady asked her maid to fetch it.

Gu Chengfeng woke up while the medicine was being prepared. His head was fuzzy and his consciousness was not as good as before, but he could still recognize that this was not the alley where he had collapsed.

There were some strange people in the room. They were strange for two reasons: first, their clothes were too flashy and extravagant; and second, they were doing something unusual.

"Is it ready yet?" the middle-aged woman asked.

"Almost there, almost there!" The maid said, pounding the medicine in the bowl with a pestle while taking two leaves from a basket and throwing them in.

She poured the medicine into a bowl to make a paste, took out a small jar, and poured the paste into it.

Before long, a black light seemed to flash out from the small jar, and the maidservant caught it with a porcelain bottle.

“The lady is out!” she said.

"Give it to him," the middle-aged woman said.

"Oh." The maid turned and walked towards Gu Chengfeng.

Intuition told Gu Chengfeng that this was no good. He steadied himself and used the little strength he had left to throw off the blanket.

"Oh! You're awake?" the maid exclaimed.

Gu Chengfeng suddenly stood up, but whether it was because he stood up too quickly or because he was too weak, he felt dizzy and slumped back down.

"Hurry up and use it on him!" the middle-aged woman said.

The maid reached out to grab Gu Chengfeng, but Gu Chengfeng pushed her away. The maid cried out and bumped into a pillar behind her.

Upon seeing this, the middle-aged woman frowned. How could someone so ill still push someone away with such strength?

She said coldly, "Guards! Hold him down!"

Two servants pushed open the door and entered, quickly walking towards Gu Chengfeng.

Gu Chengfeng was delirious with fever and weak all over. He could no longer exert his usual strength. After struggling for a few moments, he was pressed down on the bed by a servant who knew martial arts.

The middle-aged woman sighed slowly, looked down at him and said, "If you behave well, I won't mistreat you."

"Let me go..." Gu Chengfeng said weakly.

The middle-aged woman couldn't understand the Zhao language. She smiled and said, "I'm not going to poison you, so why are you running away? You're just a lowly slave. It's your good fortune to have caught my eye. Why are you resisting?"

Suddenly, the maidservant, holding a bowl in her hands, said, "Madam, the Gu worm is dying; we must feed it to him quickly!"

"Give it to me." The middle-aged woman held out her hand.

The maid handed the bowl to the middle-aged lady.

This insect is a common method used by their brothels... no, now we should say theaters, to control people; no one can resist its effects.

If the antidote is not taken each month, it feels like being bitten by a thousand ants, a living hell.

"Pry open his mouth."

The middle-aged woman said in a cold voice.

The servant pried open Gu Chengfeng's mouth.

The middle-aged woman held the Gu worm and poured it into Gu Chengfeng's mouth.

Suddenly, Gu Chengfeng found strength from nowhere, kicked her away, broke free from the clutches of the two servants, got up, ran to the door, opened the door, and ran out.

The middle-aged woman clutched her aching stomach and gritted her teeth, saying, "This is my territory! You think you can run away, Zhao Si!"

At her command, a black-clad expert descended from the sky and sent Gu Chengfeng flying to the ground with a single palm strike!

Gu Chengfeng felt a sharp pain in his chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Zhao Si grabbed Gu Chengfeng by the collar, pulled him up from the ground, and raised his other hand to smash it hard against Gu Chengfeng's face!

That punch would have crippled Gu Chengfeng, if not killed him.

At the critical moment, the door to the lobby on the first floor was suddenly kicked down!

The enormous commotion startled everyone!

Zhao Si's fist stopped. He looked coldly towards the first floor and saw a young man dressed in the uniform of a certain academy appear at the door with an icy expression.

Lightning flashed behind him, and he exuded a murderous aura, like a demon emerging from purgatory.

"Let him go."

The boy said in a cold voice.

Zhao Si frowned. He admitted that for a moment he was intimidated by the boy's aura, but as soon as the other party spoke, he was sure that this was a living person. Where was this hellish demon?

He swung the weapon at Gu Chengfeng again.

With his palm facing down, the boy flicked his arm, and a dagger slid out of his hand, then was swung out by him with a sudden swing.

Zhao Si didn't see the trajectory of the dagger at all; he only felt a flash of silver light.

The next second, his right hand was stabbed hard, and the dagger pinned his entire palm to the wall with terrifying force!

His body slammed into the wall, and he inevitably let go of his other hand.

Gu Chengfeng fell to the ground.

Zhao Si endured the excruciating pain to pull out the dagger.

He couldn't pull it out!

It was only then that he truly realized how strong the boy was!

He finally managed to pull out the dagger with great effort and turned to attack the boy, but before he could even stand up, the boy, who had appeared in front of him at some unknown time, kicked him in the jawbone.

It was a spinning kick that sent him flying off the second floor.

He slammed heavily onto a table in the lobby on the first floor, shattering the table into pieces, and he was completely knocked unconscious.

This was the scene that the middle-aged woman saw when she came out, and she was completely stunned.

Who is this kid?

How did they manage to beat Zhao Si up like that?

You should know that Zhao Si was a bodyguard she bought at great expense, and he had never suffered a loss at the hands of any expert!

"Where did this brat come from, daring to cause trouble in my brothel? Do you even know who I am—ah—"

Before she could finish speaking, the boy had already walked over, grabbed her by the neck, and slammed her against the wall without any politeness!

She felt a sharp pain in her back, and wished she could vomit blood on the spot.

The boy looked up, staring coldly at her: "Who told you to touch him?"

he?

Which "him"?

That slave girl?

"Madam, are you still going to give me this Gu worm... Ah!" The maid, holding the bowl, froze in place in fright.

"Give it to me," the boy said to her.

The maidservant walked over, trembling, carrying a bowl.

The young man glanced at the middle-aged woman who was struggling to breathe and whose face was turning purple: "Feed her."

The maid was so frightened she was about to cry.

Should I feed them or not? Will they die if I don't feed them?

The boy said expressionlessly, "If I'm not going to feed you, then eat it yourself."

The maid gritted her teeth, stretched out her hand, and aimed the bowl at her mistress's mouth.

The middle-aged woman quickly turned her face away: "Young hero, spare me! Young hero, spare me! I didn't mean to! I didn't know he was your slave! If I had known, I wouldn't have dared to pick him up even if you gave me a hundred lives!"

"Madam! The officials are here! They're searching the tavern next door! It seems a slave has escaped from the Han family's mine!"

The middle-aged woman suddenly looked at Gu Chengfeng on the ground!

Gu Chengfeng's body stiffened.

The middle-aged woman suddenly realized: "He, he, he's a runaway slave from the Han family?"

A murderous glint flashed in the boy's eyes, a glint of intent to silence him.

The middle-aged woman felt a chill run down her spine!

Yes, for a moment just now she did think that if the officials came and arrested them, she could be saved.

But that doesn't seem to be the case right now.

The middle-aged woman cried out in panic, "Don't kill me... I won't say anything... I won't say anything!"

The boy clearly didn't believe her.

The boy lightly touched the ground with his toes, picked up the dagger, grabbed it with his backhand, and held it against her neck.

The middle-aged woman's face turned pale with anger: "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I have a way to help you hide from the soldiers! If you kill me, you'll expose yourselves too! It's not worth it! Spare my life! I guarantee no one will find him!"

...

Half an hour later, the officials came over after searching the next room.

After a quick clean-up of the lobby, Zhao Si was taken away, but the door that the boy had kicked down hadn't been put back in place yet.

There were six officials in total.

It wasn't the one where they fought Gu Chengfeng, but another one.

Furthermore, upon discovering that Gu Chengfeng knew martial arts, the Han family mine sent several powerful Dragon Shadow Guards over; three out of the six were Dragon Shadow Guards.

The middle-aged woman's surname was Xu, and her given name was Fengxian.

She descended the stairs with captivating charm, smiling broadly as she said, "Oh, what brings you gentlemen here? Our Tianxiang Pavilion is truly honored tonight!"

The head constable took out a portrait and asked the middle-aged woman, "Have you seen this person before?"

Xu Fengxian glanced at the portrait and smiled nonchalantly, "Oh, such a handsome young man, what a pity, I've never seen him before."

The leading officer said coldly, "You really haven't seen it before?"

Xu Fengxian laughed and said, "My Tianxiang Pavilion can't find a performer with such a face. If I had seen her before, I would definitely remember her."

The lead officer ordered, "Search!"

Xu Fengxian's face paled as she exclaimed, "Hey! What are you doing? Don't you know that Young Master Nangong is a distinguished guest of our Tianxiang Pavilion!"

"Hmph!" The leading official scoffed dismissively.

Do the Nangong family members even deserve to be compared to the Han family?

The group searched the place thoroughly, inside and out. Luckily, Tianxiang Pavilion wasn't doing well and had few customers, otherwise they would have suffered a huge loss tonight.

"Boss, we couldn't find it!"

The officials returned to the main hall to report.

The head constable showed Xu Fengxian a portrait and said, "If you see this person in the future, remember to report to the Han family."

"Do you have any silver?" Xu Fengxian asked.

The head constable cast a cold glance at her, and Xu Fengxian shrank back, whispering, "Yes, I've got it."

The group turned and left.

Xu Fengxian watched them enter the gambling den next door before going to the woodshed in the backyard. She moved the firewood aside, opened the hidden door in the ground, and said to the two people in the cellar, "They're gone!"

Gu Jiao carried Gu Chengfeng up on her back.

Xu Fengxian actually had the opportunity to betray me, but she didn't because Gu Jiao told her, "If you betray me, I'll run away and then come back to kill you. You can gamble on whether I can escape or not."

The boy's bloodthirsty eyes when he said this didn't look like those of a living person, and Xu Fengxian didn't dare to risk her life for that sliver of hope.

Xu Fengxian arranged for Gu Chengfeng to stay in her room, not because she wanted to take advantage of him, but because her room had an escape route and was the safest room in Tianxiang Pavilion.

Gu Jiao placed Gu Chengfeng on the bed and planned to go to the carriage to get a first-aid kit to treat his injuries.

As soon as she turned around, a large, hot hand grabbed hers.

There are some things he wouldn't normally do, and some things he wouldn't normally say.

But his fever was so high that his brain was completely muddled, and he no longer had any of his usual inhibitions.

He held her tightly, struggled to open his eyes, looked at her with blurred vision, and said in a hoarse and weak voice, "Have I found you?"

Gu Jiao looked at him and nodded: "Yes, I found it."

(End of this chapter)