First kiss
An eagle soared through the sky and quickly disappeared into the clouds.
The cold moon hung in the sky, and the smell of gunpowder from the fireworks still lingered in the air. The people who had set off the fireworks on the ground had vanished without a trace. The cold wind swirled up the scattered fragments, making a "sizzling" sound as they scraped across the bluestone slabs.
Upon hearing what Zhou Yanzhi had just said, a hint of shock flashed across Jie Xiangsi's eyes.
film.
The most mysterious assassin organization in legend, whose members are nameless and faceless, always dressed in black robes and veils, each with only one code name—Shadow.
A shadow can be one person, multiple people, or even the entire organization.
Given enough money, they could kill royalty, officials, and commoners alike, and they almost never failed.
As Zhou Yanzhi finished speaking, several shadowy figures slowly emerged from the darkness.
Jie Xiangsi turned her head and glanced around before counting: one, two, three.
There are three "shadows" in total.
One person held a xiao (a type of vertical bamboo flute), but a snow-white sword blade suddenly appeared at the end of the jade-colored flute; another person played with a short knife in his five fingers, the sharp weapon that could cut through iron like mud spinning rapidly in his hand, yet it did not harm him in the slightest; the last person held a sword in his left hand, but his right hand was empty, obviously, the long sword that had been stuck into the stone slab was his other sword.
Xiao, knife, sword.
It seems the person behind this really went all out, managing to gather all three Kage.
A bitter smile to ease the pain of unrequited love.
She didn't think she had the charm to make people spend so much money on her, so these three shadows must have come for Zhou Yanzhi.
Clearly, Zhou Yanzhi thought so too.
Having served as an official in the court for many years, I have handled countless cases and offended so many people that they could stretch from the capital to Jiangnan. I have never encountered an assassination attempt before, so this time it is probably someone who wants to kill me who hired me to kill him.
Thinking this, Zhou Yanzhi felt a pang of guilt.
He lowered his head slightly and quickly said to Xie Xiangsi, "These people are probably here to kill me. I'll hold them off for a bit, and you run back to the mansion. If you encounter any patrol teams, ask them to come here and help me."
A strange feeling of gratitude welled up inside her, and Jie Xiangsi quickly nodded, her tone very sincere, "Okay, cousin, don't worry, I will come back to save you as soon as possible."
Zhou Yanzhi smiled but didn't say anything, hoping that he would still be able to breathe when she arrived.
Sword Shadow walked to the long sword stuck in the ground, pulled it out with one hand, and Xiao Shadow and Dao Shadow followed closely behind and stood beside him.
Dao Ying twirled the exquisite short sword with a flourish. His black veil was lifted by the wind, revealing a section of his pale chin. He raised his head slightly, his voice surprisingly youthful, "Are you two discussing how to stall us? Sorry, but tonight, both of you will die."
Jie Xiangsi: "...Huh?"
Am I going to die too?
Seemingly noticing Xie Xiangsi's surprise, he smiled, revealing two tiger teeth, "Miss Xie, someone is paying to save your life, we have no other choice."
That's what he said, his tone laced with a hint of malicious mockery. There was no sense of being forced to do anything; Jie Xiangsi could tell he was clearly enjoying himself.
However, what surprised her the most was that someone actually paid money to buy a cure for unrequited love.
This was something neither of them had expected.
Jie Xiangsi is an extremely well-behaved girl; how could anyone possibly want to buy her life?
Looking up and meeting Zhou Yanzhi's complicated gaze, Jie Xiangsi whispered, "Cousin, should I still leave?"
Whether it was her imagination or not, Jie Xiangsi felt that Zhou Yanzhi was somewhat broken. She saw him sigh slightly and utter a sentence as if resigned: "I'm not leaving."
Since Jie Xiangsi is also someone they want to kill, there's not much difference between running away and not running away. Rather than letting her out of their sight, it might be safer for her to stay by their side.
Zhou Yanzhi tightened his grip on Xie Xiangsi's waist and said coldly to the three people below, "The Imperial Guard patrol will be arriving on this street soon. Are you really confident you can take our lives before they arrive?"
A long sword came flying through the air, its shadow and figure moving like the wind as it pierced the two people standing on the roof. It coldly replied, "Speak less and do more, and you'll be fine."
All that rambling is just a way of stalling for time, isn't it?
The two next to him are stupid, but he isn't.
As the longsword came at them, Zhou Yanzhi instinctively pulled Xie Xiangsi aside and kicked out before the blade could strike again, widening the distance between the three of them.
"You two idiots, come and help!" Sword Shadow missed its target, and instead threw Dao Xiao and Er Ying, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, away.
Two dark shadows drew two beautiful arcs in the air.
Xiao Ying was impatient. With a little force, the flute instantly split into several pieces in the air, with thin mithril connecting the jade pieces, making a rustling sound. Xiao Ying flicked the whip, and the sharp end grazed Zhou Yanzhi's sleeve.
"Oh dear, you're too impatient." The blade slammed heavily onto Xiao Ying's head, a flash of cold light in his hand, and with a "thud," the blade pierced Zhou Yanzhi's arm. "It has to be like this!"
Unexpectedly, the next second, Xie Xiangsi pulled out a hidden arrow from her sleeve, raised her hand and stabbed it into the boy's forearm. Then, Zhou Yanzhi kicked out, sending the boy back to the ground.
While leaning against Zhou Yanzhi's chest, Jie Xiangsi winked at the indignant boy on the ground and chuckled, "You're not much better."
Zhou Yanzhi pulled the short knife the boy had left in his arm, drawing a few drops of blood. He must have been in excruciating pain, but he just brandished the knife at the boy and smiled, "Thank you."
With weapons, they can fight back.
...
A cold wind howled as five figures moved swiftly through the street.
To be precise, it was three people behind chasing two people in front.
Once again, Dao Ying was hit in the face with chili powder thrown at him from the front. He couldn't take it anymore and turned to the other two people next to him, shouting, "You two, pull that girl down first!"
Jianying frowned. "Easier said than done. Go."
On one hand, they were puzzled: what kind of girl carries so much stuff when she goes out on New Year's Eve?!
Not only were there hidden blades, but they also had chili powder, onion powder, itching powder... and even poison!
What is she trying to do? Is she going to stage a New Year's Eve barbecue in the street to poison civilians?!
"My knife is gone, I'm not going, Ah Xiao goes." Dao Ying shook his head decisively. He was itching all over. Who would have thought that there was medicine on that hidden dart! Now every step he took felt like ten thousand ants were crawling all over his body!
"I'm not going either."
Xiao Ying also refused. These two had just called him stupid, and he wasn't going to do their bidding. Killing was just a hobby for him; he had no grudge against those two, so why would he torture himself to the point of near death just to take their lives?
Looking at the two unreliable people, Jianying muttered to himself, "Useless trash, if you won't go, I will."
Dodging Xiao Ying's nine-section whip, Jian Ying suddenly gathered his energy, stepped forward, and swung the whip in an attempt to entangle Jie Xiangsi and pull her off.
The blade was aimed directly at Xie Xiangsi's neck, but unexpectedly Zhou Yanzhi suddenly turned around and switched places with her. The whip then wrapped around his body, and the sharp blade cut open Zhou Yanzhi's collarbone, leaving a bloody mark on the side of his neck.
Jie Xiangsi suddenly looked up in surprise and exclaimed, "Cousin!"
Feeling the burning pain in his neck, and having run for so long with Jie Xiangsi, Zhou Yanzhi was exhausted and couldn't help but pant softly. However, he still patted Jie Xiangsi's back to comfort her, saying, "I'm fine."
Looking at the three men watching him menacingly behind him, Zhou Yanzhi whispered, "How much of your drug powder do you still have?"
Jie Xiangsi whispered, "There's one last pack of smoke bombs."
Zhou Yan's heart sank.
As early as when the three shadows appeared, he had asked Wu Goulang to find Su Feng. Logically speaking, Su Feng should have been able to come over after seeing Wu Goulang, but why did he arrive so late?
Su Feng couldn't possibly stand by and watch someone die, unless someone behind these three Shadows held him back, or Wu Gou Lang was knocked down.
In short, the person behind this either wields great power, forcing Su Feng to comply, or is very familiar with him, knowing not only that he raises eagles but also that he prefers to use the Wu Gou Lang (a type of courier) to deliver messages.
Looking around, we were already on both sides of the Ling'an River, surrounded by stalls that had not yet been removed.
The moonlight spilled across the river, seemingly able to penetrate the ice and reach the bottom of the riverbed.
As the three approached, Zhou Yanzhi leaned close to Xie Xiangsi's ear and whispered, "Can you swim?"
Jie Xiangsi nodded, then shook her head, "I know a little, but not very well."
Zhou Yanzhi chuckled, "That's fine too."
Then, Zhou Yanzhi turned around and faced the three approaching figures head-on. He grabbed Xiao Ying's whip with one hand and used his knife to leap away from one of the sword shadows' longswords, leaning back to avoid a palm strike from the sword shadow.
With a light touch of his toes, Zhou Yanzhi kicked out the blade shadow, and with lightning speed pulled the other two together. Ignoring the stinging pain in his palm from the blade, he shouted to Jie Xiangsi, "Release!"
Upon hearing this, Xie Xiangsi tacitly and quickly tossed out a small ball.
In an instant, a thick fog rose up, completely enveloping the figures of the group.
"thump!"
After a loud banging, a large amount of water splashed up on the river surface.
As the thick smoke dissipated, the three shadows fell silent, staring at the large hole in the middle of the Ling'an River.
After a long pause, Dao Ying spoke, "Should we give chase?"
Xiao Ying reassembled his whip into a bamboo flute. Hearing this, he raised the flute and pointed at the river surface covered with ice shards, sneering, "Are you crazy? Didn't you get enough of the water dungeon in the organization? Want to make things harder for yourself?"
"Forget it, in this cold weather, the chances of them surviving are slim." Jian Ying raised his hand to wipe the blood off his sword and said indifferently, "Besides, that kid also took a sword strike from me."
"If he survives, he's lucky."
...
In the dim river water, Xie Xiangsi swam hard, dragging the somewhat unconscious Zhou Yanzhi along. Feeling Zhou Yanzhi's body getting heavier and heavier, she couldn't help but feel anxious. She raised her hand to support herself, and Xie Xiangsi felt a chill in her heart.
It's all covered in ice; we can't break through it.
Zhou Yanzhi was clearly on the verge of falling into a coma, and her strength was also nearly exhausted, making it slower and slower for her to drag him forward. If they couldn't catch their breath, they would both drown sooner or later.
Suddenly, Zhou Yanzhi moved, breaking free from Jie Xiangsi's hand that was wrapped around his waist. He winked at her, a slight smile playing on his lips, before slowly sinking to the bottom of the riverbed.
Jie Xiangsi's heart skipped a beat. She reached out to grab him, but missed, watching helplessly as Zhou Yanzhi drifted further and further away from her.
"Knock knock—"
Suddenly, two knocking sounds came from the ice above.
Although she couldn't hear very clearly underwater, Jie Xiangsi still felt the vibrations emanating from the ice above her head, and a surge of excitement welled up in her heart.
Someone's there! Great!
As she reached out to touch it, the tremors of the ice became more pronounced. Jie Xiangsi hurriedly swam along the ice surface, getting closer and closer to the source of the sound.
"Choo choo—"
When her palm touched a spot that was trembling particularly violently, Jie Xiangsi tentatively tapped it.
The tremors on the ice stopped for a moment, then immediately began to accelerate again, the sound of the ice being struck interspersed with the cries of a few falcons.
It's Wu Gou Lang!
Jie Xiangsi was overjoyed, and then, in perfect unison, she quickly began to pound on that spot.
With the combined efforts of the man and the eagle, several cracks quickly appeared in the ice. Seeing this, the man and the eagle worked even harder.
Finally, when Jie Xiangsi ran out of the last bit of air in her chest, the ice was finally broken. She rushed out of the water almost impatiently, took a deep breath, gasped for air, and gratefully patted Wu Goulang's head.
"Good eagle."
After praising Wu Goulang, Jie Xiangsi took a deep breath and immediately dived into the water.
Zhou Yanzhi is still soaking in the water, please don't die!
She quickly swam to the bottom of the river. Because the riverbed was too dark, Xie Xiangsi could only see vaguely. When she saw a shadowy figure in front of her, she quickly swam forward, reached out and touched the person. She confirmed that it was Zhou Yanzhi. A surprising light shone in Xie Xiangsi's eyes.
She reached out and gently patted his face twice.
Sensing someone, Zhou Yanzhi slowly opened his eyelids a crack. Then, in Zhou Yanzhi's bewildered gaze, Xie Xiangsi grabbed Zhou Yanzhi's shoulders with both hands and pressed his head down.
Their lips touched.
At this moment, they were breathing in unison.
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