I'm a girl~ a pretty girl~
When the group burst through the door, Lu Juezhen was fast asleep, completely unaware of the danger outside. Hu Xingche went to the bedside, poured out some pills, and put them in his mouth. Cheng Junshi leaned against the door and chuckled helplessly, saying, "I really don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing."
"Being able to sleep and live is certainly a good thing," Tang Qi said with a smile.
After waiting for a while, Lu Juezhen slowly woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was stunned to see three faces approaching him. After a few seconds of reaction, he suddenly screamed.
"You scared me to death! Master, what are you doing!" Lu Juezhen patted his chest in lingering fear, looking at them with a resentful expression. But then he was surprised by what he saw: "Blood! Blood! Master! What's wrong with you!"
He jumped out of bed and stood in front of Cheng Junshi: "What, what's going on!"
“It’s alright, the blood is someone else’s,” Cheng Junshi smiled reassuringly at him before adding, “We were ambushed, you were drugged, and someone came to kill us, but they’ve already been dealt with.”
Cheng Junshi calmly summarized the situation, but Lu Juezhen was dumbfounded. So much had happened just from taking a nap? And he had been drugged?! No wonder he felt unwell when he woke up. Lu Juezhen moved his arm and glanced at Hu Xingche, asking, "Are you alright?"
Hu Xingche scoffed at his words, which were extremely disrespectful, but instead of explaining himself again, he walked to the door, whispered a few words to Tang Qi, and then stepped out.
Tang Qi strolled leisurely over to Lu Juezhen, raised an eyebrow, and said, "How was it? Exciting, wasn't it?"
Lu Juezhen nodded repeatedly with his mouth agape: "I won't dare to sleep in like that next time."
Tang Qi chuckled again and said, "You still need to sleep. With your master around, things won't get that bad."
"So what should we do now? Should we stay here?" Lu Juezhen asked, still feeling lingering fear.
Cheng Junshi looked at Tang Qi, waiting for his answer. Tang Qi simply shrugged and said, "I don't know either." However, Hu Xingche, who had just left, called out from the doorway, "Boss! We've brought the guy back!"
Tang Qi was the first to go out and glance at the person Hu Xingche had brought there, saying to him, "Your speed is good, you've improved."
The innkeeper was bound several times with ropes by Hu Xingche and forced in front of Tang Qi and the others. He looked terrified, his eyes darting around in a daze.
"No wonder you're charging such a high price for a single room. You were waiting for us here, weren't you?" Tang Qi squatted down in front of him and said with a deliberately fierce look in her eyes.
"Trying to gather us all together for a quick wipe?" Tang Qi drew a dagger from his waist and pressed it against the innkeeper's face: "Have you regretted choosing us as your targets?"
The innkeeper stared at the dagger pressed against his face, his voice trembling as he said, "I...I was forced into it...I had no choice!"
"Who forced you?" Cheng Jun asked calmly from the side.
"I don't know... I don't know! I really don't know!" The innkeeper looked at Cheng Junshi with pleading eyes.
"I...I was just an assistant. I really didn't know anything. Every night I would hide in the secret passage and come out again after they finished. I know they were killing people, but...but I couldn't help it! If I intervened, I would be the one to die. I don't want to die, I don't want to die!" The innkeeper's voice was choked with sobs, and he almost kowtowed to them.
Tang Qi looked up at Hu Xingche and only believed the innkeeper's words after seeing him nod. Then, sheathed her dagger, stood up, and her eyes returned to the darkness.
From the very beginning, Tang Qi noticed that there were two groups of assassins coming to kill him tonight. The first group was outside his and Cheng Junshi's window with crossbows. Those people were government officials and were most likely sent to obstruct Cheng Junshi. They were also the ones who released the sleeping gas.
However, those two probably didn't intend to kill anyone at first, because they went to the next room first, and after drugging Lu Juezhen, they didn't kill him. The person who sent them probably just wanted to intimidate Cheng Junshi and dissuade him from going to Tianjin. As for why they suddenly changed gender, it's easy to guess—because they saw someone other than Cheng Junshi in this room, namely Tang Qi.
As for the other group, the ones who later took the longswords, they were the ones who had been lurking in this inn, waiting to take their lives.
Their target was not Tang Qi or Cheng Junshi alone, but anyone staying at the inn.
"How long have you been doing this kind of thing?" Tang Qi asked quietly.
"I...I..." The innkeeper lowered his head guiltily, his eyes darting around, not daring to look up at anyone.
Tang Qi was amused and annoyed by his appearance. She crossed her arms and looked at him again, saying, "Then let me ask you another way: how many people did you kill?"
The innkeeper swallowed hard but didn't dare to answer.
"Oh, so you can't remember how many people you've killed?" Tang Qi's eyes were fixed on the innkeeper's face. He brandished the dagger in his hand with little emotion and asked Cheng Junshi, "Shaoqing, do you think it would be considered doing a service to the people if I killed him now?"
"No! Young hero! Young hero, I'm innocent! I... I didn't kill anyone! I really didn't kill anyone! It was those people who killed them, I really didn't kill a single one of them!"
"You say you didn't kill anyone, so you didn't kill anyone?" Lu Juezhen strode up to him, grabbed his collar, and said angrily, "How many people have you harmed with this method! You knew about it but didn't report it, you aided and abetted the evildoers, and now you dare to claim innocence?"
Hu Xingche squatted on the other side, raising his fist and looking at the innkeeper with a threatening gaze, saying, "If you don't say something useful, believe me, I'll punch your face until it's bruised!"
"You killed people for money? Did you have any other motives?" Cheng Junshi finally spoke again.
Under the threat of Hu Xingche and Lu Juezhen from both sides, the innkeeper dared not hide anything and immediately nodded repeatedly, saying, "Yes, yes, it's all for making money! Every time they kill someone, they make me clean up the mess and take all the treasures and such from the dead body and send them away through the secret passage. But sometimes..." He suddenly stopped talking and fell silent.
"But what! Speak quickly!" Lu Juezhen became fierce again, and the innkeeper was startled, so he quickly continued, "But sometimes we also send people over!"
"Send people over? Who are you sending over?" Hu Xingche's expression was somewhat serious. The innkeeper's voice grew softer and softer until he finally managed to squeeze out the words: "Send some girls over."
Snap!
A crisp slap landed on the innkeeper's face. Lu Juezhen, enraged, glared at him and roared, "You are utterly heartless!"
"Where is the secret passage?" Tang Qi continued to ask in a low voice.
The innkeeper pointed shakily to a spot, and Hu Xingche glanced at it and said, "Is this the place where I just grabbed you?"
The innkeeper nodded. He usually hid in the secret passage and waited for the group to finish killing people before coming out to clean up the scene. But this time, he waited for a long time and no one came to notify him. So after waiting for a while, he timidly opened the secret passage and came out to check. As luck would have it, he bumped into Hu Xingche. Before he could even shout, he was tied up and brought over.
"Where does the secret passage lead?" Cheng Junshi asked.
"It's...it's on a small mountain road not far away. I'm only responsible for transporting the goods out there. There are people guarding it."
"Who are you trading for?" Cheng Junshi asked coldly, his eyes filled with displeasure.
"I...I don't know," the innkeeper said timidly again.
"Where does this place belong?" Cheng Junshi continued to ask. "With such a cannibalistic place existing, why hasn't the government intervened?"
"This area is under the jurisdiction of the Four Guards. How could we possibly know about the affairs of the local officials?"
Cheng Junshi understood the meaning behind his words—the local government was unwilling to get involved.
Tang Qi frowned and suddenly said, "Were you planning to send money over today as well?"
The innkeeper nodded, and then Tang Qi chuckled briefly and said, "How about I give you a chance to redeem yourself?"
"Ah...ah?" The innkeeper looked up at him.
"You will still give me the money today, but you need to give someone along with it." As soon as he finished speaking, four pairs of eyes turned to look at him.
"What do you want to do?" Cheng Junshi looked at him slowly, while Tang Qi shrugged and said, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Can you think of a better way?"
"Huh? Send someone in?" Lu Juezhen scratched his head and said, "Brother Zhengye, do you mean you want him to send one of us out of the secret passage and then go to their lair with the person waiting outside the passage?"
Hu Xingche looked at him and chuckled: "Did you just wake up and want to clear your head?"
Lu Juezhen gave him a resentful look and then asked, "So how are we supposed to pretend we've been caught?"
The innkeeper chimed in, "Yes...yes, young hero, I only send out the secret passage to young ladies. People like you...they don't accept you there."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at Tang Qi and the others several times guiltily. Tang Qi crossed his arms and asked again, "Does your inn have any girls' clothes?"
"Huh??" Hu Xingche stared wide-eyed at Tang Qi. Was he going to—dress as a woman?!
Cheng Junshi seemed to imagine it in his mind for a moment, then felt the scene was too beautiful and couldn't help but frown and hesitate before saying, "What they want is probably not an eight-foot-tall daughter."
Tang Qi choked for a moment. What he said didn't seem wrong. If the people guarding the secret passage saw him being brought out, they would probably be so scared that they would run away on the spot.
If he couldn't do it, then Cheng Junshi certainly couldn't either. After eliminating the two of them, several pairs of eyes all fell on Lu Juezhen, the shortest person present.
Noticing their slowly approaching gazes, Lu Juezhen crossed her arms and took a half-step back, resolutely declaring, "I don't want to!"
“Xiao Lu,” Tang Qi began his persuasive tactics again, slowly swaying to Lu Juezhen’s side, putting his arm around Lu’s shoulder and whispering, “This is a good opportunity to punish evil and promote good. If their kind of deeds are not completely eradicated, more people will be killed. Those girls who were sent away may be dead, but what if they are?”
"What if they're still alive? What if they're still struggling to survive? What if they're still waiting for someone to come and save them? With so many 'what ifs,' are you really not willing to give it a try?"
Lu Juezhen opened his mouth, as if a raging fire was burning fiercely in his heart. He slapped his thigh and said with unwavering determination, "Okay! I'll go!"
Tang Qi was the first to lead the applause, "Great! Xiao Lu is righteous!"
Under the constant adoration of Tang Qi and Hu Xingche, Lu Juezhen punched a fist and followed the innkeeper to the inn to change his clothes, seemingly ready to die.
As soon as he stepped inside, Tang Qi and Hu Xingche burst into laughter. Cheng Junshi watched them laugh calmly from the side, then raised an eyebrow with a hint of helplessness and said, "Following them secretly is just as good; it's not like this is the only way."
Tang Qi, clutching his stomach, finally straightened up and, still trying not to laugh, said, "But it's not as exciting as this. Besides, don't overvalue your little apprentice. You brought him out here for training. If he continues to be so naive, he'll get killed sooner or later. Isn't this opportunity perfect for him?"
Cheng Junshi pursed his lips. Although this method was not very ethical, it was indeed a good opportunity for Lu Juezhen to gain experience. Therefore, his master only felt slightly guilty.
They waited for a long time before Lu Juezhen finally emerged, awkwardly hiding behind the innkeeper. Three pairs of eyes stared at him, making Lu Juezhen's steps even more unnatural.
When he finally made up his mind and took a step forward to show them his whole body, Tang Qi and the others were first stunned for a few seconds, and then—
"Pfft, hahaha! What's that on your face?!"
"Lu Juezhen, have you lost your mind? This face... these eyebrows, hahaha!"
"You...you...why are you dressed as a female ghost?" Cheng Junshi exclaimed in shock.
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