Flashback
"......"
The weather was gloomy and the wind was howling. The people under the tree finished their conversation and then walked out of the chaotic gathering place.
Ai walked out from behind the building that obscured his figure and returned to the tree where they had just argued.
The prayer stick hanging above was not damaged and was still hanging there intact.
Except for the piece of prayer paper she took away, everything else was intact.
The line written by Jiang Nian was blown to the middle by the wind. Under the dim light, the words written with red ink were particularly clear and clearly displayed in Ai's pupils.
Simple and neat handwriting.
In this era of constant war, this wish becomes even more precious.
Everything goes smoothly.
If I can really fulfill my wish and successfully find out the matter of the medicinal herbs and suppress the Wu Mi people who are taking the opportunity to cause chaos, perhaps when the moment of war comes, I will feel more at peace.
There is no need to worry about internal chaos, and you need to defend both inside and outside.
The prayer note flipped over in the wind, revealing a neatly carved plum blossom.
When Qin Lan gave the prayer note to Ai and asked her to give it to Jiang Nian, he also explained the family to which the prayer note belonged.
Although the Cui family did not appear out of thin air, they had been silent for a long time due to the bishop incident in the past. Their traces were almost covered up by the turbulent years in recent years, and they were forgotten by people around them.
The only ones who can remember this symbol are the remnants of the bishop.
Meng Zheng's purpose of coming to Cang County this time was to clean up these people.
Do you want to tell Jiang Nian the background of this mission?
Before setting off with Jiang Nian, Qin Lan specifically told her not to tell Jiang Nian anything about Meng Zheng.
Before the conversation at the Princess's residence, Qin Lan had never been so defensive against Meng Zheng.
The expression she gave him at that time was as if he was afraid that Jiang Nian would be poached by Meng Zheng after knowing the source of the background card.
Ai stared at the prayer note silently for a moment, then looked away and quickly returned to the place where he had made an appointment with Jiang Nian.
—
I don’t know if it was Mercury retrograde or some misunderstanding between the two, but just as Jiang Nian left the agreed place, Ai returned to the rockery.
It was dark and Jiang Nian was nowhere to be seen. Ai turned around and looked around, then squatted down and keenly picked up the blood-colored powder.
It is a common thing.
What was faster than the thoughts in her mind was Ai's sensitivity to the changes in the surrounding things. Before she could connect the powder with Shichan Hall, she raised her hand and used the knife to block the sharp blade attacking from behind.
As the white light intersected, the sound of the sword vibrating and the muffled groan were heard, and the dull sound of the body falling to the ground stopped in the next second.
The unsheathed knife stopped silently in front of the attacker's neck, quietly revealing its sharpness that could take a life in his pupils that had shrunk to the point of a needle, waiting for its master's order in an extremely aggressive posture.
Ai, who had just been squatting on the ground checking the powder, had now stood up and looked down at the man sitting on the ground in pain.
"Intruders?"
Before Ai could say anything else, the attacker, seeing that the situation had reversed to the point where there was no room for struggle, immediately raised his hands, shook his head frantically for a while, then realized something and nodded immediately.
"No, no, I'm not in charge of this area—"
"Oh no, no, I am indeed a little person who escaped from that adult's hand. Because I was too scared, when I saw you, I thought you were in cahoots with the adult, so I wanted to - wanted to -"
"?"
The beginning and the end don't make sense.
Ai calmly shook the extremely sharp blade in his hand and looked at him: "Can you speak normally?"
The coldness of the sword's energy had already approached the attacker's fragile neck. The man who wanted to make a hassle and take the opportunity to escape was immediately frightened and trembled, giving up his idea of pretending to be smart.
"Yes, yes, just ask."
After a busy day, Ai had no interest in the interrogation. Rather than asking about the whereabouts of this mysterious person, she wanted to know where Jiang Nian had gone.
The backup plan stated that if they didn't meet, no matter which side they were on, they would gather at where Yan was.
But when Ai saw this red powder, he couldn't help but think of other things.
For example, in addition to Meng Yao, other Wu Mi people also intervened in the Flower Festival.
Even worse, the Wu Mi people have already discovered Jiang Nian's identity, even if they arrest her...
Her scalp tingled just thinking about this kind of thing. Ai calmed herself down, lowered her eyes and stared at the attacker's expression to determine whether he was lying, while asking questions that concerned her.
"How long have you been waiting here? Have you seen anyone else besides me?"
With the knife at stake, it was hard to tell a lie.
The attacker was timid, and the most outrageous thing he had ever done in his life was just trying to attack Ai and get something valuable from him.
After all, she was currently wearing the aristocratic attire of a certain family's eldest daughter. Although she looked tall, she was dressed beautifully and was thin, looking delicate and tender, making her easy to bully.
Who knew that before he could accomplish what he wanted to do, the other party would draw a knife with his bare hands and attack him catching him off guard.
"I, I just got here not long ago, so I haven't seen any people—"
Being stared at coldly by Ai, the murderous aura that he had not concealed after killing many people was directed at him. The attacker felt a chill all over his body when he was stared at by Ai. After a moment of silence, he said cautiously:
"I really didn't see it! I swear! I'll be struck by lightning if I lie!"
Seeing that the other party's actions did not seem fake, Ai continued to ask, "Why are you here?"
Hearing the impatience in Ai Qingdan's words, the attacker instinctively felt that he could escape after answering a few more questions, so he answered quickly:
"I heard from others that many wealthy people come here, so I thought of coming here to take advantage of the situation."
"Who knew that not long after arriving here, something unexpected would happen. I wanted to escape, but I kept encountering people asking me who I was, where I came from, and which side I was on—"
"I almost died several times! Look how bad my luck is..."
Ai was in no mood to listen to his rambling, so he picked out a few key points to ask him. After getting the answers he wanted, he quickly rushed to other places.
The thief who tried to attack Ai and get some valuable jewelry from him to sell for money wiped the sweat from his head, propped up his body which was weak from excessive fear, and immediately fled from this uninvited place.
—
According to the thief's description just now, at the time of the incident, in addition to the private army arranged by Meng Yao, there were also invaders and unknown strange "soldiers".
Those people stood on different sides and had different stances, which made the attacker's already slow brain even more confused. So when he finally saw a fat sheep that he could succeed and was about to "go on a killing spree", he found that he had hit a hard rock.
When the blade vibrated him, his nerves, which had been tense all the time, became frightened and he uttered a bunch of illogical sentences.
But what about the adult that the thief was talking about?
Although this invasion seemed reckless, the fact that the leader was able to force Meng Yao to sit down and have a serious confrontation and successfully demand an explanation meant that he had some talent.
But when she left the wishing tree, the invaders should have retreated.
Could it be that there are other invaders who haven't left here?
Ai no longer spent too much time thinking about this question that had no clue, and quickly landed on Yan's side.
—
Yan, who was leaning against a tree and waiting quietly, heard a noise behind him. He turned around to see who it was, and the corner of a soldier's clothes appeared in front of him in an instant.
“!”
Yan frowned vigilantly, looking at the soldier with suspicious movements.
The soldier had a pair of golden eyes that seemed to have a drowsy effect. Before Yan could even look him in the eye, his clear mind felt heavier.
The other party seemed not to notice the change in Yan, and asked him with a slightly indifferent expression of serving the people:
"Why are you here? The Huachao Club is about to be cleared. Unauthorized personnel please refrain from lingering here."
...Unrelated personnel?
What does this mean?
Yan blinked and tried to do something to wake himself up, but his eyes met the soldier's gaze unconsciously and he instantly became dizzy.
The next second, he looked at his hands that were on his waist to defend against enemy attacks, loosened them in confusion, and looked at the soldier who was still standing in front of him, hugging his chest.
The soldiers looked indifferent and their emotions seemed dull.
"It's the ordinary citizen's duty to cooperate with the investigation. Please answer quickly. I'm in a hurry to get off work."
Something seems wrong?
Yan couldn't figure out what was wrong with the words. His mind was blank. He stared at the soldier in a trance and answered:
"—I'm on a mission."
"What mission?"
“——” Yan opened his mouth and subconsciously wanted to answer, but an inexplicable feeling of resistance arose in his heart, preventing him from answering the question.
With great difficulty, he opened his mouth, followed his own heart, and asked the soldier in a different way: "Why do you want to ask this?"
The soldier remained silent and just narrowed his eyes.
The two stood facing each other under the tree. Xuan leaned against the tree, feeling that something was wrong.
I always feel that my heart is empty, as if something important has been forgotten.
I kind of want to leave this place...
It seemed that if they didn't leave here, something would be discovered by the soldier.
Fortunately, before Yan could come up with any countermeasures, the soldier calmly turned his gaze away. When Yan blinked again, there was nothing in front of him, without any sign of anyone.
“…”
After pausing for a moment, Yan blinked, put his hand on the hilt of the sword again, and looked around vigilantly.
Something seemed to have happened just now that he couldn't remember.
—
On the empty streets, under the dark clouds, everything was deserted.
The thief was running quickly on the crossroads outside the Huachao Club, looking panicked, as if he was being chased by something terrifying.
The perspective shook violently up and down as the body swayed, and the heavy breathing and violent beating of the heart rang in the ears.
As the dirty dust on the ground flew up, a dead end appeared in front of us, with no other exits on either side.
The high stone wall blocked his last hope of escape.
The slow and unhurried footsteps behind him were getting closer and closer to him. The sound of the soles of the shoes hitting the ground was ethereal and vague, making it seem that the owner was walking leisurely.
The thief bent over and gasped violently, the look of fear not yet spreading across his entire face, it instantly froze on his face.
The black pupils were blank for a moment, staring blankly at the blood spurting out from below. His head felt dizzy for a moment, and then his vision went black and he fell to the ground.
The young man brushed away the bloody chain whip with pity, and a few drops of splattered blood stained his gloomy face.
"You almost discovered my secret. This would have made my 'sister' lose face."
"I don't want my 'sister' to get hurt, so I'll let You do the cleaning up of the 'trash'."
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