Cang Lan Dao - Chapter 23.1
Chapter 23.1
What Is Your Relationship With Zhang Jiuran?
When these words were out, Zhao Yuyan was stunned. Qin Jue glanced at Luo Wanqing, calmly moved back, and said: “You girls can team up.”
“This ……” Zhao Yuyan’s face showed embarrassment, turning her eyes to look at Qin Jue and Luo Wanqing, “Miss Liu is here too. How about the three of us team up together? We’re all from Yangzhou and know each other well. I don’t have any martial arts skills, and I’m stupid. I will drag Miss Liu too much if you’re alone.”
“Miss Zhao is so pretentious. Anyone who heard that would not dare to bring you.” Luo Wanqing glanced around and said gently, “Look, everyone wants to find capable people, and it’s only cost-effective to divide the keys equally after forming a team. If Miss Zhao doesn’t have the ability and still wants to form a team, there will only be one result.”
“What result?” Zhao Yuyan was puzzled.
Luo Wanqing looked at her and said calmly, “I’ll take you in and help you find the keys. Then, I kill you before I come out, so I don’t have to share the keys with you equally.”
When Zhao Yuyan heard this, her face was slightly pale.
Luo Wanqing eagerly raised her hand to hold Zhao Yuyan’s hand, soothing: “But you do not have to worry. I told you I would not kill you. You and I are both women, both from Yangzhou. I saved you in prison back then. Now, I will still help you. Team up with me, and I’ll keep you safe.” Luo Wanqing pulled Zhao Yuyan.
Zhao Yuyan pursed her lips, seemingly afraid. She twisted her head to look at Qin Jue and whispered, “Then …… I’ll team up with Miss Liu. If there’s anything you want me to do, Yuyan will go through fire and water. I’ll do whatever you want. But after you and I have teamed up, how about Young Master Qin?” Saying that, Zhao Yuyan turned back to look at Qin Jue: “Young Master Qin is injured. Is it okay to be alone? I remember Miss Liu and Young Master Qin had a good relationship on the road, so you two should have some friendship. Are you just going to ignore him?”
Hearing Zhao Yuyan’s words, Luo Wanqing then noticed that the young man in front of her had injuries, and his injuries were much heavier than what she had seen last night. She intuited that something wasn’t right, but thinking of Qin Jue’s instructions last night, she didn’t say much, only feeling that unresponding would be unnatural, so she looked up at Qin Jue and said gently, “What does Young Master Qin think?”
“No need.” Qin Jue coldly refused. He turned around and walked in.
Zhao Yuyan froze. Luo Wanqing stood beside her, smiling, “Yuyan, let’s go?”
Zhao Yuyan narrowed her gaze at the words and nodded, “Okay.”
With that said, the two of them followed Qin Jue towards the gate, and Luo Wanqing glanced at the woman beside her with lowered brows and drooping eyes, testing, “You seem to be paying a lot of attention to this gentleman, huh? How do you know his name?”
“I asked yesterday.” Zhao Yuyan’s voice was very soft. She raised her puzzled eyes, “I remember that Miss Liu and Young Master Qin disappeared together. I thought the two of you were on good terms. Is there any conflict?”
“A bit of a personal matter.” Luo Wanqing perfunctorily said to her, “By the way, how did Miss Zhao come to Dongdu? I remember on the night we separated, many killers were rushing in. I heard that everyone died. How come only Miss Zhao lived?”
Zhao Yuyan sniffed, and then her face showed sadness. She whispered, “I didn’t manage to grab a guest room that night, and I had to sleep in the courtyard. When I heard the sound of the killing, I was so scared that I jumped into the well, and then I passed out.”
Zhao Yuyan smiled bitterly, “I was lucky. When I woke up, I heard people’s voices. I called for help and let people fish me out. I climbed up and realized that everyone died that night.”
“And after that?” Luo Wanqing was curious, “The local officials sent you here? But if it’s not the officials from the Inspection Department, they won’t care about this, right? I’ve heard that in such cases, they usually put them in death cells to wait to be beheaded in the fall, so that’s why I didn’t enter the city and trekked to Dongdu.”
“The local governor is a good person,” Zhao Yuyan’s face showed gratitude, “He took pity on me and gave me some traveling money and a road guide and let me leave.”
“How could there be such a good person?” Luo Wanqing was surprised, “I should have returned then!”
“Yes,” Zhao Yuyan smiled, “A fool has a fool’s luck, Miss Liu is just too smart.”
The two of them talked and walked together to the front gate.
In front of the gate, there was a body examination. The staff searched and scoured extremely meticulously, especially the face, so there was a long line. When Luo Wanqing and Zhao Yuyan lined up, she pondered over Zhao Yuyan’s words just now.
According to Zhao Yuyan’s words, her luck was too good. Everywhere was good, and everywhere was good luck. She was such a weak girl, yet the assassins didn’t kill her, the government didn’t control her, didn’t encounter bandits and people who were interested in her, and she came to Dongdu without any problems with her traveling guide. This possibility was too small. Moreover, she had deliberately lied and deceived her about Jiu Shuang’s identity when she was in prison. She didn’t want her to find the real Jiu Shuang. Coupled with Qin Jue’s reminder —
Luo Wanqing glanced at Zhao Yuyan and roughly confirmed in her heart that this person should be Jiu Shuang. But, if she was Jiu Shuang, she could independently search for the keys, so why did she need to get close to Qin Jue?
Moreover, Qin Jue —
The assassination order for Qin Jue by the Feng Shui Pavilion was a heavenly order that would not stop until he was dead, so if Qin Jue had survived well enough to make it to Dongdu, would the assassination by the Feng Shui Pavilion ended? If it hadn’t ended, wouldn’t an occasion like the Inspection Department’s examination be the best opportunity to kill Qin Jue?
Luo Wanqing’s mind spun fast, but she soon figured it out. Qin Jue specifically came to remind her last night and was probably planning something. With Qin Jue’s skill and brains, she shouldn’t worry too much.
Thinking clearly, she settled her mind and raised her eyes to look at Qin Jue, who was walking ahead of her. She followed behind Qin Jue and watched as he stepped forward. The searchers came over and touched his face bit by bit, then wiped his face with special water to confirm that he hadn’t changed his face. They thoroughly scoured him before letting him go.
Then, it was Luo Wanqing and Zhao Yuyan’s turn. After the body search, they entered the Zhuang courtyard.
As soon as they entered the courtyard, Luo Wanqing saw a man being violently beaten by a group of people, pulling his clothes.
The man screamed, “There’s no poison on me. I told you, there isn’t!”
“Is that him?” Zhao Yuyan softly opened her mouth, seemingly puzzled. Luo Wanqing took advantage of the gap in the crowd to take a look and realized that this person was the one who asked about poison in the beginning. She inexplicably felt a bit weak.
Zhao Yuyan withdrew her gaze and turned her head, “How are we going to look for the keys?”
“It’s just starting, so there shouldn’t be any robbing. Let’s wander around.” Luo Wanqing led Zhao Yuyan to start casually wandering around.
Two hundred keys wasn’t a small number. The keys should be everywhere, but a key was a small thing that made the search difficult. Moreover, what kind of key?
Luo Wanqing pondered. Zhao Yuyan beside her tried to analyze, “They must hide those keys very deep. We can look for the places where ordinary people hide their keys, in boxes, under the bed, under the pillow ……”
Before she finished her words, Luo Wanqing’s footsteps stopped. Zhao Yuyan was puzzled: “What’s wrong?”
Luo Wanqing pointed to the lock on the doorway with a key inserted. She said, “There’s one here.”
When Zhao Yuyan looked at the noticeable key, her face sank before showing surprise. She hurriedly reached out to get it. Luo Wanqing grabbed her and frowned, “It might be poisonous.”
Luo Wanqing broke a wooden stick under Zhao Yuyan’s surprised look. As she turned around, she heard a shriek. When she turned back, she saw a man shoved Zhao Yuyan to the ground before rushing to pull out the key.
Luo Wanqing didn’t have time to speak before the man pulled out the key, and when the people next to him saw him pulling out the key, they immediately rushed up. A group of people flooded the man. The fight was only a few moments, and the man suddenly spewed out a mouthful of blood and even fell to the ground in convulsions.
The surrounding people froze and watched. Then, a man with the tallest stature used a cloth to wrap the key as soon as he could and angrily said, “There are still more than a hundred of them. What are you snatching for!”
“That’s right!” Another tall man shouted, “If you all try to snatch it again, I’ll tear you apart!” These two men and the other four tall men grouped, looking menacing. No one dared to speak anymore. Everyone gritted their teeth and turned around.
Seeing this, Luo Wanqing walked over to the trembling Zhao Yuyan and extended her hand towards her, “Get up.”
“Dead,” Zhao Yuyan said in a panic, “Just now that ……”
“It’s not like you’ve never seen a dead person before.” Luo Wanqing interrupted her, and Zhao Yuyan froze.
Luo Wanqing looked at her calmly and only said, “Miss Jiu Shuang, it’s too much.”
Zhao Yuyan paused. She was bewildered, “What is Miss Liu talking about?”
“I have no intention of harming you. I only want to team up with you for the Inspection Department test. After the preliminary test, I will never hold you back in the retest.”
Zhao Yuyan quietly looked at Luo Wanqing, who looked back with a confident expression. After a long time, she was a bit puzzled, “How did you know?”
“If you don’t lie to me, I haven’t suspected you so quickly.”
“Why don’t you suspect that Jiu Shuang is dead?” Zhao Yuyan wondered. “After all, the ones who called themselves Jiu Shuang indeed die.”
“That would be my business.” Luo Wanqing didn’t tell the truth.
If Qin Jue had not reminded her that Jiu Shuang was female, she wouldn’t reacted so quickly. But it wasn’t necessary to let Zhao Yuyan know. As she thought about it, Luo Wanqing explained, then inquired, “Are we going to look for it together or separately?”
Zhao Yuyan fell silent before raising her head and placing her hand on Luo Wanqing’s, being helped up by her.
“It’s better to separate,” she smiled and said gently, “The way I look for the key, I’m afraid you won’t like it.”
As she said that, a gong sound followed by a door closing came from outside. Then, Zhu Que’s voice rang out, “Inspection Department Examination has officially begun.”
Zhao Yuyan touched the hair behind her ear and said gently, “I’m going.”
Luo Wanqing nodded and separated from Zhao Yuyan on her own. She didn’t rush to find the key. The first person to find the key now would be the easiest target. She went to the room to find teacups and sat by the well. After pumping some well water, she sat down like a tea drinker, watching everyone jostle around. Her position was convenient. She could see the movement from various rooms. The surrounding people came and went. Those people always needed water, so Luo Wanqing stood in the water well and counted them. She hasn’t moved and did not search for the keys. Everyone was watching her but was too lazy to bother her.
The sky slowly darkened, and most of the keys had been found. Some who didn’t have the ability gave up early and waited for the retest.
But there are some people —
Luo Wanqing glanced at the room. She hadn’t seen Zhao Yuyan all afternoon. She seemed to be hiding somewhere, and some people never appeared again.
Luo Wanqing looked at the sky and felt it was about time, so she turned around and went into the room to look for Zhao Yuyan. Tonight was dark and cloudy. The light in the room was not lit and was much darker than outside. She gazed at the room from the doorway before entering, stared for a long time before adapting to the light, and lifted her steps to go in while observing the surroundings.
With the magnet in her palm, she lifted her hand to touch all over. The key was iron. Although there shouldn’t be any left by now, she could take her chances. She felt around the walls and noticed some weapons meant for decoration in a few rooms were missing. It obviously had been taken. When she entered the innermost room, she smelled the heavy odor of blood.