Chapter 165 Meeting (Second Update)
When Gu Jiao walked out of the house, Xiao Liulang had not yet arrived.
Just across the street was a shop selling sweet soup and candied hawthorns; it was here that she had seen Gu Yan and Gu Changqing last time.
The candied hawthorns they bought were beautiful, clean, and came in many varieties.
Gu Jiao walked over and said, "Boss, give me three skewers of candied hawthorn, one skewer of candied oranges, and one skewer of candied yams."
Rock sugar yam is Xiao Jingkong's favorite; it's round, chewy, and you don't have to spit out the pit.
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Alright, young lady, that'll be one hundred coins in total."
Prices in Beijing are really high.
In the county town, a string of candied hawthorns costs only three or four coins, while in the capital, a roadside stall charges ten coins per string, but this shop doubles the price.
However, the candied hawthorn skewers in the capital are quite large, and it's almost the end of the year, so Gu Jiao felt relieved after thinking about it.
She paid for the candied hawthorns, wrapped them in paper, and put them into her little basket.
Gu Jiao thought it wouldn't be bad to wait for Xiao Liulang here, but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she realized that someone was watching her.
In my past life, I lived on the edge of a knife. If I hadn't noticed someone watching me, I would have died eight hundred times over.
Gu Jiao turned her head away. The other person clearly hadn't expected Gu Jiao's intuition to be so sharp. They didn't have time to hide themselves and had to quickly disappear into the crowd.
Gu Jiao thought he had left, so she ignored him. Xiao Liulang could come at any time, and she didn't want to miss him.
Unexpectedly, the other party was not giving up. A little while later, they opened a window on the second floor of an inn, drew their bow and aimed at Gu Jiao.
They even used bows and arrows.
It seems they really are determined to die.
Gu Jiao instructed the owner of the candied hawthorn shop, "Boss, if a very handsome young man comes looking for me later, the most handsome kind, tell him to wait for me here."
The best, the most beautiful?
The boss was a little confused.
Girl, you're being a bit too arrogant.
I've run this shop for over twenty years, and I've seen royalty and nobility. Who's the most handsome? Can anyone be more handsome than royalty?
The royal family of Zhao Kingdom has a pretty good bloodline. First of all, the emperor is very handsome, and the concubines he married into the palace were all great beauties. How could the princes and princesses born from them not be good-looking?
The boss didn't take it too seriously; eventually, someone would come asking about her, and he would just relay the information truthfully.
Gu Jiao entered the inn across the street.
The layout of this inn is a bit complicated, with many twists and turns.
Gu Jiao had an excellent sense of space and quickly deduced that it was the third room on the left after turning left in the east corridor.
Gu Jiao entered the house.
That person was quick to escape; he even climbed onto the roof through the window.
Gu Jiao leaned half her body out of the window, looked up, grabbed the window frame with one hand, and flipped herself onto the roof.
This time she finally got a general idea of what the other person looked like.
It's a man.
Dressed in black.
Gu Jiao lightly touched the ground with her toes, picked up a tile, and kicked it at the other person.
The man hadn't expected Gu Jiao to use such a move while chasing someone. He couldn't dodge in time and was knocked down onto the roof by the huge impact of the tile.
Gu Jiao heard a crisp sound, like something iron hitting the roof tiles.
It's... a mask?!
Gu Jiao had already guessed who he was.
Fei Shuang, the number one thief in the capital.
Gu Jiao narrowed her eyes and chased after him in a few steps.
It was too late to get up and run. The man glanced around, rolled over, and chased after them from the edge of the roof.
Hmm.
You have some brains.
Those idiots at the martial arts school are much tougher.
Having not encountered an opponent who could force her to make a second move in a long time, Gu Jiao curled her lips into a wicked smile.
Below is the courtyard of a music hall.
Gu Jiao jumped down.
The sounds of string and wind instruments in the music hall masked the other party's footsteps and breathing, making it difficult for ordinary people to determine the other party's exact location. However, Gu Jiao was the organization's top agent who could accurately identify footsteps from more than a hundred different sounds.
As she passed a small cubicle with a curtain hanging down, she suddenly reached out, pulled a dark figure out of the cubicle, and slammed it to the ground!
The man groaned, feeling as if his brains were about to disintegrate.
Who exactly is this girl? Her skills have improved so much!
But he's not one to be trifled with; he was just careless then, but he won't be like that now.
He scattered a packet of powder and, using it as cover, darted into the side passageway.
There are very few people who have escaped from Gu Jiao's clutches time and time again, both in past and present lives. It seems I haven't recovered my strength from my previous life.
Gu Jiao followed him all the way into a dimly lit basement.
The person seemed to have vanished into thin air.
strangeness.
Where did they go?
Also, isn't this a music hall?
Why is there such a large basement?
Storage or—
As she pondered, footsteps came from the direction of the entrance, and Gu Jiao slipped behind a large cabinet.
Someone came in carrying an oil lamp, and by the dim light of the lamp, Gu Jiao was able to see the scene clearly.
There are two rooms in total. The outer one looks like a reception area, while the place where I am standing really looks like a storage room.
Two beautiful young women arrived.
One of them lit the lamp, while the other lifted the curtain to peek into the storeroom, seemingly as a routine check, but knowing that no one would be there, he did not go any further.
She lowered the curtain and said to the other person, "Light the lamps and serve the tea."
"Okay." The man lit the lamp.
Because the light outside was very bright, Gu Jiao's place seemed even darker, making it easier for her to hide.
After the two men had finished preparing the tea room, a woman wearing a light blue curtain and dressed in white entered.
The woman's face was obscured, but she was tall and slender with a graceful figure and delicate, exquisite hands, clearly the daughter of a wealthy family.
After she entered the room, she gestured to the two maids, who tactfully withdrew.
She was the only one left in the huge tea room.
Gu Jiao was hesitating whether she should walk out openly when a man wearing a heavy purple fox fur coat walked in.
From Gu Jiao's perspective, the man was too tall; his eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth were obscured by the door frame of the storage room, leaving only a delicate chin visible.
The man sat down opposite the woman.
Now Gu Jiao couldn't see him at all; the other side of the table was Gu Jiao's blind spot.
The only woman Gu Jiao could see was the one wearing a curtain.
However, with the curtains and veils covering her, everything about her was only partially visible.
"You've returned to the capital. How is Her Highness the Princess?" the woman asked.
Although she couldn't see her expression, Gu Jiao could still hear the respect in her tone.
If this woman's voice were in her previous life, it would probably be considered heavenly music.
The man opposite him spoke, his voice calm and measured, deep and reserved: "She is well, thank you for your concern, Your Highness."
These two are quite influential.
Meeting in such a place suggests that their whereabouts must not be known to outsiders.
Gu Jiao: So you were waiting for her here? You went through all that trouble to lure her here just so she would offend two important figures, so you could use them to silence her?
I wonder where that guy is hiding right now.
The woman spoke again: "I am relieved that the princess is well."
The man asked, "Your Highness summoned me out, is there something you need?"
The woman sighed and said, "Your Highness sounds rather unfamiliar. Please just call me Linlang as before."
The man replied, "Your subject dares not."
Gu Jiao thought to herself, "He says he doesn't dare, but his aura is clearly higher than the sky and wider than the sea."
The woman did not press the matter further, but instead pushed a bundle on the table toward the man: "Actually, there's nothing else, it's just that New Year's Eve is approaching, and my current status makes it inconvenient for me to go and pay my respects to him. Please help me burn these paper money and incense for him."
"Your Highness is very kind." The man's voice was devoid of any emotion.
The woman looked at him: "Are you angry with me?"
The man said, "Your Highness is overthinking it."
The woman said sadly, "I am very sorry and regretful that I was unable to call you father in this life. But in my heart, you are the same as my father, and I respect you even more."
The man said, "Your Highness is too kind."
The worst thing is when the air suddenly becomes awkward. The man doesn't seem to like talking much, and the room becomes quiet when the woman doesn't speak.
Suddenly, the woman lowered her head and coughed a few times.
The man finally spoke up: "Your Highness, are you feeling unwell?"
The woman shook her head: "It's nothing, just a slight cold."
The man said, "Your Highness, please take care of yourself."
The woman nodded: "I will."
Gu Jiao still sensed the man's concern for the woman.
“Speaking of health, I’m reminded of something,” the woman said thoughtfully. “Ever since His Majesty and the First Prince returned from their southern tour, they haven’t set foot in the inner palace. I heard that they met a Taoist priest during the tour, who taught His Majesty the secret to immortality. The priest instructed His Majesty to burn incense and pray every day and to abstain from women for two years. Even the Empress Dowager hasn’t seen His Majesty for a long time.”
Man: "Your Highness means..."
The woman said, "I suspect that the Taoist priest was arranged by the Crown Prince. This southern tour is not simple."
The man said, "I understand. I will have someone investigate that Taoist priest. It's getting late, and if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."
The man rose and performed the courtesies due to a subject and ruler, while the woman returned the courtesy of a junior.
After the man left, the woman sat in the tea room for a while before also preparing to leave.
However, at that moment, something unexpected happened. The roof of the basement cracked open with a loud crack, and the entire slab collapsed!
"Princess——"
Amidst the screams of the maids on the ground, the Crown Princess was buried under a pile of rubble, along with Gu Jiao from the storage room.
One more update at 8 PM.
(End of this chapter)
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