Fang Ge
Before returning to the courtyard, Tao Yu took Jiang Nian to visit all the scenic spots in the sect.
When the sect was open, there were always people who would marvel at the scenery in front and behind the sect's guest house. Seeing the admiration in those people's eyes, and seeing Jiang Nian's nonchalant look, Tao Yu became curious.
"Except for Ah Qin and Xiao Yingzhu, you are the third person who didn't look surprised when I came to greet you. Why?"
Qin Lan and Xiao Yingzhu had experienced everything and were not surprised by the myriad changes around them. But if Jiang Nian had not learned from Qin Lan that she was a merchant's daughter, perhaps her serene expression at this moment would make people think she was a hermit who had traveled thousands of miles and had a peaceful soul.
The night grew deeper and the candles in the meeting room were extinguished. Tao Yu did not want to stay here, as she had to return to her own residence in the sect later, so she turned around and was about to send Jiang Nian to the dormitory.
The surroundings are quiet, with a bluestone path ending outside the bamboo forest. The nights are cold, and even the chirping of cicadas in summer has disappeared.
Jiang Nian stared at the dim window paper of the lattice door for a moment, then turned his head away when he heard Tao Yu's question.
Under the starry light, Tao Yu's eyes were clear and bright, without a trace of falsehood, full of thorough and calm sincerity.
Facing those eyes, Jiang Nian could not utter any words to deceive or lie.
Thinking of the true answer to this question, he stopped talking for a moment, then slightly modified his words and said, "Perhaps it's because of the opposite alignment of yin and yang that such a beautiful scene similar to a palace in the sky appears."
Tao Yu was startled, and suddenly looked a little lost, but soon, her expression recovered: "That's right, but I have a rare explanation here, it's about a name..."
These words piqued Jiang Nian's interest. It was as if she had a premonition that after listening to Tao Yu's words, she would be able to get some useful information from them.
Jiang Nian was about to tilt his head to listen carefully, but Tao Yu paused and took back his words.
?
His heart, aroused, was hanging in the air, awkwardly, about to fall. Jiang Nian feigned calmness and waited for a moment. Seeing that Tao Yu had no intention of continuing to speak, he was about to ask when he saw the tall figure at the door of his dormitory.
Her sight stopped at the familiar shadow, and even though she felt an indescribable sense of speechlessness in her heart, her gentle smile became a little uncomfortable.
Jiang Nian lowered her eyes gently, hiding the coldness in them. Then she heard Tao Yu take a step back behind her and waved at her.
"It seems that someone is waiting for you on your return from a leisurely stroll on a starry night... I'm late, go find him, girl. I'm leaving first."
The silver bell in Tao Yu's hand rang crisply, and her laughter was soon carried by the fragrance of bamboo in the wind and brushed past her ears. When Jiang Nian shifted his gaze from the wooden corridor and turned back to look for the sound, Tao Yu was no longer there.
…
Walking really fast.
Apart from the book in his hand tonight, the only sentence that seemed to contain some useful information was interrupted by this unexpected incident. It was like he had just missed the chance to get his desired item. No matter how Jiang Nian thought about it, he felt a little depressed.
Her arm was sore from holding the white paper in her hand, so she switched to the other side. Her eyes were clear and she walked calmly and stopped in front of the wooden corridor of her dormitory.
Xiao Yingzhu seemed to have never tied her hair into a bun properly.
His black hair, which had been tied up during the meeting just now, now flowed down to his shoulders, tied with a hairpin, and fell onto the wooden corridor like a waterfall.
Under the bright pearly sunlight, his long black hair was clearly reflected in black and white on his snow-white sleeves, and his bony knuckles were half exposed from the edge of his sleeves. He was sitting leisurely on the wooden corridor, admiring the moon, with a teacup decorated with plum blossoms in his hand.
Only when he saw Jiang Nian did Xiao Yingzhu withdraw his gaze from the full moon in the sky, and slowly looked towards her.
His smile faded, and his eyes seemed to conceal a deep and difficult-to-resolve desire. The pendant on his hairpin swayed slightly due to the slight deviation.
Jiang Nian was caught off guard when she saw his face. She was stunned by the alluring and affectionate gaze. After a moment, she came to her senses. What she had just seen seemed like a flash in the pan.
Xiao Yingzhu in front of him curled her lips again, looking as nonchalant as usual.
...This trick really works every time.
She didn't react before, but now she knows.
Xiao Yingzhu knew that she was beautiful, so she deliberately used her face to distract her attention so as to get rid of what she originally wanted to do or say and achieve her goal as quickly as possible.
Even though she reacted quickly this time, he still succeeded.
In the blink of an eye, the frustration that had built up in my heart because I couldn't ask Tao Yu the questions just now was gone. Now I couldn't get rid of it.
But this does not mean that Jiang Nian will forget that he is here and cause her unnecessary trouble.
If the news Tao Yu wants to tell me is unimportant, then forget it. But what if what Tao Yu is talking about is important? Is it related to the sect's internal intelligence?
People are like this, they let go of things they don't care about.
But if you care about it, no matter whether the result is good or bad, important or not, you have to listen to it, so that you can completely let it go.
This is where Jiang Nian is feeling conflicted and depressed.
If Tao Yu had not stopped the topic because of Xiao Yingzhu, no matter what the result was, she might remember it or forget it after a while.
But Tao Yu didn't say everything, so she remembered it deeply. If she hadn't heard it, she would have been scratching her heart.
Jiang Nian stared at the face pretending to be elegant, and her heart relaxed for a moment. She was about to ask Xiao Yingzhu why he was still sitting in front of her dormitory at almost night.
The other party took the initiative, his tone was gentle, but he could not be ignored by her.
"What do you have in your hand?"
The book has a white cover and no words on its exterior.
Jiang Nian's gaze followed Xiao Yingzhu and swept across his hand.
"It's a book Miss Tao gave me."
She did not pause, not giving Xiao Yingzhu any more chances, her eyes smiling but looking extremely cold.
"Why is Master Xiao sitting outside an unmarried woman's room in the middle of the night?"
If you don't tell me your reason, you're dead tonight.
Xiao Yingzhu saw these fifteen words from Jiang Nian's smiling face.
Originally, he just saw that the light in her dormitory was not on, and thought that the sect was not a place he could control. If something happened, it would be difficult to deal with. Therefore, he calculated the time and waited here. By the way, he gave Tao Yu a clear message, telling her not to bother her for so long and to leave when she saw Jiang Nian.
But just now, when he saw Jiang Nian and Tao Yu talking and laughing, their brows were soft and their smiles were sincere and bright, without any scheming look in front of him. He sat alone in the cold moonlight and suddenly didn't want to leave.
He wanted to see again to see what other expressions Jiang Nian could show that he had never seen before.
—
Xiao Yingzhu's gaze slowly fell on Jiang Nian's calm face, as if she saw the displeasure and coldness behind her. She tilted her head slightly, and her eyes became more interested.
"Miss Jiang is so angry, is it because I have done something wrong?"
“…”
Previously, he was most persistent in calling her Xiao Yingzhu, and he wanted her to change the name the most to Xiao Yingzhu. Now, he was deliberately changing the words he used. Those who didn't know might think he was flirting, but those who knew the inside story could clearly feel that he was knowingly doing it and deliberately adding fuel to the fire.
She had done this deliberately in front of Xiao Yingzhu before, and now Xiao Yingzhu was following suit... Jiang Nian adjusted herself for a moment, and her expression returned to its gentle and peaceful state.
"Nothing, sir, is there anything else? If not, I'll take a rest."
Although she was unhappy, Jiang Nian did not call herself a "common woman".
Xiao Yingzhu, who keenly observed this, decided to stop while he was ahead. He stood up and patted his dust-free snow-white sleeves. A chill was approaching, and Jiang Nian could feel the coldness from his body through his clothes. His depressed mood of possibly missing out on the sect's intelligence eased a little, and he looked at him for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
"If you are worried about me, Master Xiao, you might as well tell me directly next time."
Xiao Yingzhu paused as she slowly adjusted her sleeves, as if she didn't understand the hidden meaning of Jiang Nian's words. She just glanced at her coldly with a faint tone.
"If Miss Jiang can return on time, I won't have to worry about her."
At the moment, Jiang Nian was full of energy and had enough energy to stand in front of him and argue with him. Seeing that her physical condition was indeed fine, he did not wait for Jiang Nian to reply and left the wooden corridor.
She is indeed a tsundere.
Although she didn't see Xiao Yingzhu's expression directly, her recent contact allowed her to understand why he might want to change the subject when he was careless, and there was a certain amount of secret competition in her heart. Jiang Nian's eyes fell on his slender white hand for a moment, then she smiled and watched him disappear into the darkness, then turned and walked in.
If it were any more intimate, it would be boring.
So just stop at the right point, no need to get too close.
The lights in the dormitory flickered on and off, and the valley was silent at night.
Xiao Yingzhu, who was hiding in the dark, turned away his eyes, chuckled, and then returned to his residence with a relaxed look.
—
Xuan Gui pushed open the door and saw Yan and Yan feeding the crows.
If everyone had gathered together in the past, Xinfeng would probably have jokingly said, "A big crow breeder."
The fat crow that had been slightly injured was well again, jumping nimbly under the withered branches of flowers in the wooden house like a nimble chicken.
Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, both Wei Ya and the others were familiar with the footsteps and did not raise their heads.
"Are you back?"
"Um."
Xuan Gui placed the sword on the whetstone in the corner of the wooden house and slowly sharpened the blade. He felt a gaze behind him and answered immediately.
"curling blade."
Xuan withdrew his gaze and stroked the crow's head.
"Why?"
Yan threw the remaining crow food back into the basin and went to dig a well outside the wooden house.
"...After you left, the Tongzhi's men surrounded me."
Even without producing any documents, we could still identify who he was.
——The whereabouts of the five people are uncertain, and I can accurately determine their locations because I have been watching them for a while.
Cang County is under strict control by the commander, so it is not easy to release the crows. Originally, they wanted to use a fishing enforcement method to save a series of verification troubles and let the crows fly away in a corner so that they can be delivered as soon as possible.
However, the commander's soldiers were pervasive and almost killed the entire network. At this point, Xuan Gui let Yan go first and he would cover the rear.
Finally, the group of soldiers under the command of the Tongzhi surrounded him, and seemed to have issued an order to kill without mercy. They drew their swords and killed each other at the first sign of disagreement.
It had been a long time since Xuan Gui had let the sword in his hand taste the bloodthirsty pleasure like drinking wine. He stepped over the corpses scattered all over the street and finally went to find the commander.
When he met the Tongzhi, the Tongzhi unexpectedly did not check the secret letter in the mailbox, but just held on to the token tightly.
Afterwards, after Xizhen showed up, Ya finally delivered the information written by Yan.
The road was bumpy and blood soaked the streets. Although Xuan Gui did not feel any sense of danger, looking at the number of soldiers killed, he was indeed a close call.
Yan listened to the whole thing and shook his head.
There have been frequent rains in Cang County recently, and the charcoal under the stove had to be lit several times before it could catch fire.
Several people were waiting for Xuan Gui in vain. Now that he came back, they could prepare food.
"Xizhen had lunch before leaving. Eat something first. We will tell you about the next action plan later."
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