The empty city was destroyed (23)
"It's curfew again." Zhao Yuxiao immediately became alert. The sound of the bell echoed in the fog, and people walked blankly into the houses like soulless puppets.
“Miss Ying’er, we have to…” Zhao Yuxiao was about to persuade her to return to the inn, but Ye Yingying pushed him into a house by the roadside.
Zhao Yuxiao didn't know what she meant. As soon as he turned around, he saw Ye Yingying close the door.
He peered into the room and realized it was a shop selling medicinal herbs, a faint aroma of which filled the air. Besides him and Ye Yingying, there were only two other people inside, who seemed to have suddenly lost consciousness and lay motionless on the floor. Zhao Yuxiao went to check on them and found that they were breathing evenly and were unharmed, seemingly just in a deep sleep.
He arranged the two of them in a supine position so they could sleep more comfortably. Then he got up and looked at Ye Yingying, who had been standing guard by the door, and asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Shh—" Ye Yingying gestured for him to be quiet, "I want to see what these 'prison guards' look like."
"It should be." Zhao Yuxiao also moved closer to her, bent down and looked out through the broken hole in the window together.
The chains rattled against the ground, the sound coming and going, as if they were patrolling aimlessly in the street.
The two stared for a while, but no prison guards passed by. Zhao Yuxiao felt his back getting sore from being bent over, so he straightened up and stretched.
He casually turned his waist to relax, but then noticed that the person lying on the ground had changed position and was lying on their side with their legs bent.
"Is it uncomfortable to lie flat?" Zhao Yuxiao wondered. He couldn't help but take a few more glances. Unexpectedly, the two of them opened their eyes at almost the same time and looked in their direction with lifeless eyes.
Zhao Yuxiao was startled. He grabbed Ye Yingying's shoulder and burst out of the door.
"What's going on?!"
"We can't stay in that room!" Zhao Yuxiao shouted.
Before Ye Yingying could react, the wandering prison guards seemed to suddenly lock onto their target, and the previously chaotic sound of chains immediately surged towards the two of them.
The two took off running, sprinting along the main road towards the inn they remembered. The clanking of chains grew increasingly rapid, echoing incessantly from all directions.
Their hearts pounded like drums, and the wind whistled past their ears, as if urging them to quicken their pace.
Suddenly, several blurry figures appeared ahead. They walked unsteadily, stumbling and staggering, each step accompanied by the sound of metal scraping.
The two immediately stopped and prepared to change direction, but no matter which way they went, they could only hear the sound of chains getting closer and closer.
Just as the two hesitated, a dark figure flashed out, grabbed them, and scurried into a narrow alley.
Ye Yingying looked closely and realized that the person was actually Shao Ling!
"Brother Shaoling!" Zhao Yuxiao called out his name in surprise.
Shaoling turned her head and greeted the two of them: "I'll take you to the inn."
His voice was somewhat muffled, suggesting he was in a bad mood, but his movements were anything but slow. He moved with the lightness of a wildcat, leading the two swiftly through several narrow alleyways until they reached a wide street. On one side of that street stood the inn.
Ye Yingying and Zhao Yuxiao strode inside, but when they turned around, they saw Shaoling standing outside the door, seemingly with no intention of coming in.
"Brother Shaoling, please come in as well," Zhao Yuxiao invited.
Ke Shaoling shook her head, her expression gloomy: "I'll just say a few words to Miss Ye, and then I'll be leaving soon."
“If you stand outside, you’ll attract the prison guards. How can I talk to you like this?” Ye Yingying frowned and beckoned to him. “Come in and talk.”
Only after receiving her permission did Shaoling cautiously step over the threshold.
"Speak, what is it?"
Shao Ling pursed her lips and said in a deep voice, "Miss Ye, you are right, she is indeed hiding something from me."
"Hmm." Ye Yingying wasn't surprised at all. She crossed her arms and calmly asked, "So what are you going to do?"
"I..." Shaoling looked somewhat confused, "I tried to persuade her, but she wouldn't listen, so I thought..."
"You want me to try and persuade them again?"
Upon hearing this, Shaoling paused for a moment, then nodded bitterly.
Ye Yingying sighed helplessly: "If you can't persuade me, how can I possibly persuade you?"
Then she saw Shaoling lower her head with a wronged look on her face, like a helpless child.
Ye Yingying blinked, then softened and asked, "Did you ask her what she's trying to do?"
"...She said she did all this for me."
"for you?"
"Yes, because this is the only place where I can live as a human being."
"I see." Ye Yingying stroked her chin, finally understanding the reason behind Gu Wusi's strange feeling.
She suddenly became curious and asked, "How did you and Gu Wusi meet?"
Shaoling was a little stunned, not expecting her to ask these questions, but she still obediently answered, "She is my savior. Without her, I would have died long ago."
A savior? This term doesn't seem to fit Gu Wusi's personality. Ye Yingying asked again, "But you're a spirit now, not really alive. How did she save you?"
“That was before I became a weapon spirit.” Shao Ling lowered her eyes. “I became a weapon spirit to save her.”
Interesting, Ye Yingying wondered. Was Gu Wusi trying to save him again using this method? But Gu Wusi was cold-blooded and arrogant. In Ye Yingying's opinion, she wasn't the kind of person who would be so persistent in saving people.
Shao Ling clearly had some connection with her. Ye Yingying gazed at the young man, who didn't look very old, and a playful smile appeared on her face.
"You and your Sister Gu..."
Before the words were finished, two more figures burst in from outside the door. The three of them were drawn to the door and saw that the newcomers were Wu Yue and Yun Yanqiu. Wu Yue seemed to have been dragged back by Yun Yanqiu. As soon as she entered the door, she collapsed to the ground, panting and covered in sweat.
Upon seeing this, Zhao Yuxiao immediately stepped forward, squatted down, and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Good for you." Wu Yue wanted to scold Yun Yanqiu for being such an incompetent guard, but she was out of breath and couldn't speak.
So all she could do was glare fiercely at Yun Yanqiu, trying to condemn his reckless behavior of showing no consideration for others with her eyes.
Ye Yingying's gaze also fell on Yun Yanqiu, and when she saw that the other person was looking at her, her eyes lit up.
"Didn't you go to find Zhan Yan? How did it go?"
"It wasn't very smooth," Yun Yanqiu replied. "The gates leading into the palace were heavily guarded, and unless you had a pass, you were not allowed to enter."
"So you're back?" Ye Yingying was quite surprised. "I thought Wu Yue would pester you to find a way to sneak her into the palace."
"Do you think I don't want to?" Wu Yue finally caught her breath. She rolled her eyes and said angrily, "Ask him why."
Ye Yingying then cast a questioning glance at Yun Yanqiu, only to see that Yun Yanqiu remained calm and unaffected by Wu Yue: "I asked her to give me some more time, I still have something to say to the shopkeeper."
Mentioning the shopkeeper, everyone couldn't help but look towards the counter where he usually sat, but it was empty, and the little girl who usually followed him was also gone.
“Perfect.” Wu Yue patted her clothes and stood up, saying seriously, “Although we didn’t see Zhan Yan, we still found other clues.”
"What clue?"
“That girl Yun is suspicious.” Wu Yue frowned slightly. “This illusion has returned to the first day of the celebration. The shopkeeper doesn’t remember us, but she does.”
"How did you know?" Ye Yingying asked.
"When she came in, the shopkeeper asked him to get the keys. At the time, only Yun Yanqiu and I were customers in the shop, and she gave us four keys." Wu Yue raised four fingers to show them.
Ye Yingying raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised: "How did she know about the group of us?"
Wu Yue shrugged: "I don't know about that, but this person is definitely suspicious. It would be best to arrest him and question him."
Her words were direct, leaving Zhao Yuxiao, who was standing next to her, speechless.
“But Yun Yanqiu wants me to wait.” Wu Yue said, then glared at Yun Yanqiu, “You’d better hurry up.”
Yun Yanqiu glanced at her but didn't agree. Instead, he brought up his observations from earlier that day: "The things in this illusion aren't completely fixed. When we came in last time, it rained heavily on the first day, but it didn't this time."
"You mean, someone can influence the changes within the illusion?" Ye Yingying analyzed.
Yun Yanqiu nodded in agreement: "That person must be Zhan Yan."
"It must be him!" Zhao Yuxiao suddenly exclaimed excitedly. "Miss Ying'er and I were hiding from the prison guards in a room when the two people who were sleeping on the floor suddenly opened their eyes and looked at us!"
"No wonder you were in such a hurry to pull me away." Ye Yingying realized.
"Yes, I reckon it was Zhan Yan who discovered our location through those two!"
"If that's the case, wouldn't he have known about our movements long ago?" Ye Yingying asked, puzzled. "Then why did he go through all this trouble to play hide-and-seek with us?"
"Who knows?" Wu Yue rolled her eyes. "Maybe he's just a crazy man who likes to play tricks on people."
Goodness, you really dare to say that. The group fell silent instantly, all turning to look at Wu Yue.
Wu Yue shrugged, saying matter-of-factly, "What's wrong? Would someone who isn't crazy do something like this?"
"He's already crazy for creating this illusion."
"Hiss..." Ye Yingying rubbed her chin with her thumb, feeling that what she said made sense.
"And another thing," Wu Yue raised her arm, pointing to Shao Ling, who hadn't spoken until now, "what's he doing here?"
The young man who was called out looked to Ye Yingying for help. Ye Yingying pursed her lips and explained for him, "I let him in to ask about things related to Gu Wusi."
"Oh? What did you find out?"
"If you want to know, just ask yourself."
"Tch, I'm not interested at all." Wu Yue slumped her face, impatiently walked through the group, and went straight upstairs.
Halfway there, she suddenly remembered something, stopped and called out to Yun Yanqiu downstairs, "Hey, Yun Yanqiu, hurry up and finish your mess, don't waste my time!"
She left those words behind and went into the room without looking back.
Yun Yanqiu sighed softly, feeling quite helpless about Wu Yue's temperament. He turned to the other three and said, "I'm going to find the shopkeeper. Wait for me here."
After saying that, he walked through the main hall into the backyard, and soon returned with the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper wore a thin coat and looked sleepy, clearly having just woken up from a dream.
He wasn't grumpy when he woke up. When he saw Ye Yingying and the others, he smiled kindly and greeted them, "Please wait a moment, I'll get you the keys right away."
Zhao Yuxiao felt something was off, so he quietly moved next to Ye Yingying and asked in a low voice, "The shopkeeper is different from the people in the previous shop."
Ye Yingying stared at the shopkeeper's movements. When she saw him take the key and walk towards her with a clear look in his eyes, she also felt that something was wrong.
Before she could say anything, the innkeeper had already handed them the keys: "It's getting late, please get some rest."
"You all go upstairs first, I still have some things to discuss with the manager." Yun Yanqiu also urged them to go upstairs.
Ye Yingying was a little surprised. Was he trying to resolve the issue of Wu Yue pressuring him?
"How about I wait for you?" Ye Yingying suggested.
"No need," Yun Yanqiu refused decisively. "You should go and rest first."
Ye Yingying didn't ask any more questions. Holding the key, she said to Shaoling, "You stay here too. Take us to find Gu Wusi tomorrow."
A hint of surprise flashed in Shao Ling's eyes. He had already given up hope, but Ye Yingying's words made him nod excitedly, and then he followed her and Zhao Yuxiao upstairs.
Ye Yingying sent them back to their respective rooms. After confirming that the doors were properly closed, she used the same trick again, squatting down by the secluded railing, holding her breath and listening intently for any sounds below.
"Is there anything else you need, sir?" the innkeeper asked politely.
Ye Yingying knew perfectly well what Yun Yanqiu wanted to see him about. Based on Wu Yue's words, he probably wanted to "awaken" this old friend.
As Ye Yingying expected, Yun Yanqiu asked directly, "Does the shopkeeper have a name?"
"Me?" The shopkeeper paused for a moment, then said, "I do have one, but I haven't used it in a long time and I've forgotten about it. Just call me 'shopkeeper,' that's what Yun'er calls me too."
Undeterred by the fruitless inquiry, Yun Yanqiu continued, "You look very much like an old friend of mine."
"Oh?" The shopkeeper's tone was clearly surprised. He looked Yun Yanqiu up and down and laughed, "The guest looks to be two cycles younger than me. What's up? Do you have a close friend despite the age gap?"
“No, he is only a few years older than me, and we are close friends,” Yun Yanqiu replied. “It’s just that later, I went into seclusion in the mountains and forests to cultivate myself, and my aging process slowed down; he went out into the world, and was entangled in worldly affairs, which gradually added many wrinkles to his face.”
The shopkeeper couldn't help but glance at Yun Yanqiu again, clicking his tongue in amazement: "It seems that cultivating immortality is good, it can even preserve one's youth. No wonder the Imperial Preceptor looks so young, I thought people were just joking when they said he was over a hundred years old."
"And your close friend, he..."
He married my older sister.
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