Chapter 20: The Embroidered Thief Returns?
Starting in the evening, all the people who came to ask Lu Xiaofeng for ribbons suddenly disappeared.
Although things were much easier, Lu Xiaofeng's intuition told him...
"No! Something must have happened!"
Lu Xiaofeng ran outside quickly, wanting to find the honest monk and ask him some questions.
The honest monk he always encountered seemed to have vanished; he couldn't find him anywhere.
"Xiao Feng is not a phoenix, she's a big stink bug."
A group of children were running around happily in the street, spinning in circles and singing songs they had heard from somewhere.
"Children, wait a moment."
Lu Xiaofeng looked around and bought a bunch of finished sugar figurines from a nearby stall.
"Children, tell me, who taught you to sing this song?"
"It was an old man."
"Grandpa?" Lu Xiaofeng chuckled to himself, "Has Sikong Zhaixing changed his appearance again?"
"Tell me where the old man is, and I'll give you these sugar figurines, okay?"
"I know, I know!"
Upon hearing that there were sugar figurines to eat, the children immediately started chattering away.
"The old man lives in the inn up ahead."
After distributing the sugar figurines to the children, Lu Xiaofeng was no longer in a hurry to find the honest monk.
Because he knew that since Sikong Zhaixing was reminding him in this way at this time, there must be some news she wanted to tell him.
Sure enough, when Lu Xiaofeng arrived at the inn...
Although I didn't see any old man, I received a package left by him.
There were two notes hidden in the package.
A note read, "Fake Embroidered Thief, Danger!"
The other one is an address.
Lu Xiaofeng's heart skipped a beat.
Wasn't the case of the Embroidered Thief already closed? How come it's involved in Jinghua again?
Seeing the large "danger" sign on the note, Lu Xiaofeng leaped out of the window.
He needs to find out about the extraordinary encounter as soon as possible!
*********
Showing off his extraordinary adventure, he sold the last ribbon and then strolled leisurely towards the palace.
Although the sword duel is still far off, she has nothing else to do, so she might as well go and AFK (away from keyboard) to avoid missing the appointed time again.
However, there were just too many people coming to her to buy ribbons along the way.
Even though she said the ribbons were sold out, some people still didn't believe her. Or rather, they actually believed her, but were confident they could snatch the one she had saved for them from showing off their extraordinary adventure.
However, those people were wrong. Just like the three great illusions of life, they thought they could defeat Xiuzhuo's extraordinary encounter, but in the end, they all lost to her.
Just after she repelled another wave of people trying to steal the ribbon, a green-named person appeared in the focus list.
It's Lu Xiaofeng.
Lu Xiaofeng: "Are you alright?"
Lu Xiaofeng spoke breathlessly, clearly having flown too fast earlier.
"I'm fine, it's just that I'm getting a little tired of fighting monsters."
"You're here so early too?"
Seeing that Xiu Chu's extraordinary encounter was going well, Lu Xiaofeng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Lu Xiaofeng: "What do you mean 'early'? I'm here to see you."
Lu Xiaofeng: "Some people are spreading rumors that I gave you all the ribbons, which has attracted those people in the martial arts world to come after you. I was worried that something might happen to you, so I came over at this time."
"Who's so mean? I haven't made any enemies."
Lu Xiaofeng: "I don't know, but I have their address. Since it's still early, why don't we go take a look?"
I glanced at the system time; there was indeed still more than an hour before the task started.
Showing off his adventure, he nodded: "Okay, let's go take a look together."
*********
Together with Xiu, they arrived at the location on the note, which was a remote house.
Just as Lu Xiaofeng was about to climb over the wall, a voice came from inside.
"The door's open, just come in."
Upon hearing that familiar voice, Lu Xiaofeng paused.
After a moment, he finally pushed open the door and went inside.
"I didn't expect it to be you," Lu Xiaofeng said, looking at Jiang Chongwei, who looked extremely haggard due to his blindness. He felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on his heart.
“I know that Lu Xiaofeng has always trusted his friends.”
"Why?"
Lu Xiaofeng's voice was somewhat hoarse.
Jiang Chongwei, sitting opposite him, smiled and said, "You know, Qingxia is my sister."
"I'm the one who wronged her, I ruined her life. Now that she's dead, I have to avenge her."
"Who is Qingxia?" After watching the plot for a while, Xiuchu didn't remember killing an NPC named Qingxia. "Why do you want revenge on me?"
"You don't remember?" Jiang Chongwei's voice trembled slightly.
Showing off her adventure, she shook her head; she never really remembered NPC names.
If Lu Xiaofeng hadn't repeatedly appeared in the task list, she wouldn't even have remembered his name.
Jiang Chongwei, on the other side, had no idea what Xiu Chuqi was thinking; he only felt even angrier.
"She's one of the Red Shoes," Lu Xiaofeng whispered to her.
"Ah, it's them!" Xiu Chuqi remembered.
She remembered being furious when she saw the news about the red boots, so she was determined to kill Gongsun Lan as soon as she saw her. She did indeed kill several other people with red names during the incident, though she couldn't remember their names anymore.
"I did kill him, so you want revenge?"
He had only asked a simple question, but Jiang Chongwei on the other end seemed to have suffered a severe blow, and even his face turned pale.
"It's because I'm useless and can't deal with you, so I can only use the identity of a victim to tell my friends who trust me that you are the real master thief."
"The title of 'embroidery thief' alone is not enough to make them bother you, after all, they are not the victims. I can only use this once-in-a-lifetime martial arts competition to spread the news that you have the ribbon, and lure others to kill and steal it."
“However,” Jiang Chongwei smiled bitterly, “I underestimated your martial arts skills. I didn’t expect that the people who went to you to take the ribbon would die at your hands. I’m sorry to them.”
"don't want!"
Lu Xiaofeng suddenly exclaimed.
The next moment, Jiang Chongwei, who had been sitting upright in the center of the courtyard, suddenly collapsed.
Lu Xiaofeng leaped forward and caught him.
Why would you do this?
“I was already a cripple,” Jiang Chongwei spat out mouthfuls of blood. “My only thought was to avenge my sister. Unfortunately, I failed to avenge her and even lost my friend’s life. How can I have the face to live anymore?”
He glanced at Xiu Chuqi before turning his gaze back to Lu Xiaofeng: "I wronged this young lady, but I don't regret it. I'm just sorry, Lu Xiaofeng. You're a very good friend, but I lied to get revenge and ruined your reputation."
Lu Xiaofeng shook his head: "It's just reputation, why would I ever care?"
“It’s your business if you don’t care, but I can’t bring myself to wrong you like this.” Jiang Chongwei struggled to take out a letter from his pocket.
"This is my last words. After I die, please publish it to clear your name. It's the last thing I can do."
As he spoke, he completely lost his vitality.
*********
"How dare you!"
A cup shattered at the feet of the Prince of Pingnan, and shards of porcelain flew up, cutting his arm. He remained motionless, as if the cut was not his own.
"How dare you entrust such an important item to a woman of unknown origin? What if it delays our important mission?"
The Prince of Pingnan rebuked him sternly.
"What does it have to do with anything?" The heir of the Prince of Pingnan glanced at the Prince of Pingnan indifferently.
"It's just a few ribbons. Father, didn't you originally intend to use those江湖人 (jianghu people, people from the martial arts world) to attract the attention of the imperial guards? Wouldn't it be better to have more people?"
"Aren't you afraid she'll hand the ribbon over to Lu Xiaofeng? With his intelligence, he'll be able to figure out our plan if there's even the slightest clue."
“She won’t!” the Prince of Pingnan answered decisively.
"Moreover," the Prince of Pingnan said calmly, "if the plan succeeds, I will die of illness in the name of my cousin after a period of time, and pass the throne to you, Father."
"Even if we fail, it will only mean that I, the heir apparent, am unwilling to be mediocre and have joined forces with the Lord of Baiyun City to rebel. It will not involve the Pingnan Prince's Mansion, which has the imperial edict."
The heir of the Prince of Pingnan smiled to the side.
"Father, what are you afraid of?"
"You unfilial son!"
Upon hearing this, the Prince of Pingnan was furious.
A cup was smashed at the feet of the Prince of Pingnan.
"Is this how I taught you? To defy your father for a woman?"
The Prince of Pingnan grew angrier as he spoke: "You're willing to spend a fortune for her today and even talk back to me. Are you going to hand over the entire Prince of Pingnan's mansion to her tomorrow? Or even share the whole world with her?"
"I'm just stating the facts. What does it have to do with Miss Xiu? When has she ever asked me for anything?" The Prince of Pingnan's eyes suddenly sharpened.
“Father, I hope you understand. The core of this plan lies with me. Don’t involve irrelevant people. Otherwise, you’ll have to change your plan.”
Are you threatening me?
"If Father sees this as a threat, then so be it."
"I've never been able to make my own decisions since I was a child. All I did was give some material gifts to please my beloved, and it has already angered my father so much. Do I, the heir apparent of the Prince of Pingnan, not even have this much power?"
"This makes me wonder if, after it's all over, my father will really let me die of illness?"
"you!"
Whether it was because his innermost thoughts had been spoken out or because he was angry that his usually obedient child was no longer listening to him, the Prince of Pingnan's face turned extremely ugly.
"Alright, alright, you've grown wings, your father can't control you anymore."
“Now you are only thinking about that woman, and you won’t listen to the advice of your father, your master, or your confidants.”
"I'm waiting to see you get deceived by that woman, and then you'll know who truly cares about you!"
After saying that, he turned and left.
"What do you mean by deceiving the body and the mind..."
The Crown Prince of Pingnan blushed inexplicably.
Thinking that Showing off one's extraordinary adventures seemed to only interest him in gold, clothes, and jewelry, he couldn't help but mutter to himself.
"She wouldn't deceive you with her body or her heart," a hint of regret in her voice said. "At most, she'd just trick you into giving her some new clothes."
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