It was precisely because she parted her lips to speak, that Qiao Xian
and Zhangsun naturally leaned forwards slightly; however Lady Miao
raised both her sleeves suddenly, and two slender arrows flew out
from them, their tips coloured with something blue and black as if
tipped with poison.
Both of them received a shock and immediately leapt away.
Zhangsun's reflexes were swift as he shot out a bead, intending to
stop Lady Miao, but the latter was more agile than he had imagined.
Drifting into the air, she rapidly disappeared from where she stood,
and in the blink of an eye, she was already a few miles away.
"Stop her!" Qiao Xian urged.
Without needing to be told, Zhangsun Bodhi flew over and threw a
palm, infusing all of his power. Lady Miao's back was facing him, so
she was wide open. The palm that Zhangsun threw, containing a
hundred per cent of his strength, hit her square on her back, but
surprisingly she did not fall; instead, she continued forwards.
Zhangsun's attack failed, so he caught his breath again to give
chase once more, but he had lost the opportunity. The other was
already out of his sights.
"What happened?!" swiftly, Qiao Xian rushed to him.
Everything happened in an instant, but both of them never thought
that something they thought was already in their hands would just fly off like that.
"Just now she was hiding her true strength," Zhangsun said in a low
voice. Ever since the other took his palm just like that, he had
already guessed the reasoning behind it.
"It cannot be!" Qiao Xian said without even thinking twice, "If that is
the case, why could she not win against the assassin?"
"There are two reasons. First, she knew about our presence and
wanted to bait us into exposing who we are and our origins, and who
sent us to save her, so there was no need for her to be afraid. Lastly,
we can be conversed with, and that we are not here to take her life,
so she would have leftover strength to escape from us."
It was rare to see Zhangsun speaking so much, but Qiao Xian would
rather him be scarce with words. At least they would not have to
watch such an essential lead running away like that.
But since Lady Miao ran away, it would be even more challenging to
look for her.
"Now we can only report back to the Commander." Qiao Xian said.
Zhangsun remained silent because he did not have a better plan.
He said, "Just now she took a hit from me, although she had
escaped, she is certainly injured."
Qiao Xian, "Even if she wanted to slip out of the city, it would not be
easy. If we wanted to arrange soldiers to patrol the city, we would
need to relay our identities to the Jiejian Bureau. It would affect the
Commander's scheme."
Zhangsun Bodhi, "It would not." Qiao Xian, "And why is that?"
Zhangsun Bodhi, "I heard that Khan Ishbara's number one fighter, Fo
Er, came here. He unmistakably came for the Commander."
Of course, they did not know that just tonight, minutes before, Fo Er
and Feng Xiao had recently fought a battle.
Qiao Xian, "Then we need to protect the Commander!"
Zhangsun Bodhi, "No need. With the Jiejian Bureau present, the
Commander should be safe. But with Fo Er present, the Khan's men
would have also arrived. We cannot give more trouble to the Jiejian
Bureau."
Qiao Xian inhaled sharply, "You mean that—"
The Jiejian Bureau and the Zuoyue Bureau had always minded their
own business. This time there would not be an exception. Since Cui
Buqu brought people from the Zuoyue Bureau to the City of Six
Crafts; naturally, he had no intention of getting in the way of the
Jiejian Bureau. On the other hand, it was only after hearing of the
murder of the Khotan ambassador and the jade's disappearance, did
Cui Buqu changed his plans and got involved in Feng Xiao's
investigation. If the Zuoyue Bureau could find the jade, then they
would have earned another score in their book.
However, ever since Fo Er's appearance, there had been a change
of situations. The pressing matters needed to be prioritized, and the
jade could be briefly set aside. Although Lady Miao had escaped,
this was still a lead. Instead of letting the Jiejian Bureau walk around
in circles, Cui Buqu would positively choose to use this piece of
information to trade terms with Feng Xiao and earn his cooperation.
What Zhangsun Bodhi meant was that, with Cui Buqu's
cunningness, it would be unquestionably more beneficial for the Zuoyue Bureau.
Qiao Xian nodded, "Then we should send word to the Commander."
Zhangsun Bodhi raised his head and saw wisps of grey clouds
screening the luminous light of the moon.
Dark shadows concealed their faces.
In front of them, their mission lay. Without speaking further, they
went their separate ways.
...
There were very few people who could wound Feng Xiao. It was
shocking that Cui Buqu, who did not know any martial arts and might
not even have the same strength as an ordinary person, could
accomplish such a feat. It made Pei Jingzhe open his eyes.
Feng Xiao could ignore whether Cui Buqu was hungry or not, but he
could not ignore the fact that he would be going with such a stain on
his clothes. In the end, he had no choice but to send Pei Jingzhe
ahead to the Lu manor, while he brought Cui Buqu back to the
Qiushan manor to change into a set of clean clothes.
On the way, Feng Xiao's footsteps were seemingly floating in the air,
as if he used all the skills he had learned in his life to rush back. He
was not even so determined back then when battling with Fo Er.
The gengfu prepared to hit the gong only saw a black shadow
passing by. He had not even managed to see clearly, and it was
already gone, leaving him shocked and astonished, feeling like he
had just seen a ghost.
Cui Buqu also did not feel any better. Just now he was held hostage
by the Yu Xiu Monk, earlier he had half his shoulder numb, and now he was held on his other side as they rushed on the road. He
practically lost all feeling on his other shoulder.
But in this kind of situation, being able to disgust Feng Xiao, Cui
Buqu felt that it was worth it.
"Looking very happy about yourself, aren't you, Master Cui?" Feng
Xiao smiled stiffly as his voice floated into his ear.
Cui Buqu took back the curl at the corner of his lips, "I am simply
happy for Commander Feng. You have found a new lead on the
case, needless to say; it will be solved soon."
Feng Xiao snorted and felt lazy to pay him any more attention.
But to Cui Buqu, the snort sounded like it could mean a few
meanings.
First: Once I have changed my clothes, I will have my revenge.
Next: Now that you are in my hands, how dare you do this, are you
tired of living?
Lastly: I will make you beg for death and cry for your parents, and
make you regret that you rambled in the mortal world.
But so what?
Cui Buqu smiled lightly, not feeling the slightest bit afraid.
Once they arrived at the Qiushan mansion, Feng Xiao threw him
aside and quickly rushed into the manor to shower and change his
clothes.
Cui Buqu did not know any martial arts, possessing merely a sickly
body; indeed if he wanted to escape, he could not go far. Additionally, there were patrols of the Jiejian Bureau within the
manor. Feng Xiao did not even need to worry that Cui Buqu would
be so foolish as to try to run away — Cui Buqu, of course, would not
escape either. He went back to his own room, washed himself and
asked for some dumplings from the maids.
The fire was already put out, so it would be difficult to start another
fire. However, it was simple to make a few dumplings. The maids
were swift and skilled, and soon she brought the dumplings as well
as a piece of information for him.
"The lead you gave, Lady Qiao and the rest were unable to catch the
person; please give us new orders on what to do."
The maid was called Tang Li. It was after she joined the manor that
the housekeeper changed her name. Incipiently, she was called
Lady Tao. It suited her looks, one that did not make her stand out
among the others.
After Feng Xiao was sent by the capital to escort the Khotan
ambassador, Cui Buqu could speculate that the Country Magistrate
Zhao would empty this manor for Feng Xiao to use. So Tang Li also
feigned poverty and was conveniently sold into the manor to serve
as a maid.
At first, she was not the maid for Cui Buqu, but because the maid
that usually took care of Cui Buqu had stomach pain and vomited to
the point of not being able to leave her bed, the housekeeper
reassigned Tang Li, who was always dutiful and obedient, to Cui
Buqu.
As to whether she was loyal and obedient only in front of the
housekeeper, or whether she had always been dutiful and obedient,
was no longer relevant. Feng Xiao and Pei Jingzhe were busy investigating the case; they
would not have paid any attention to meticulous matters such as a
change of servant, so Tang Li could effortlessly bring news from
Qiao Xian to Cui Buqu.
As Cui Buqu contemplated, an ice-cold glimmer reflected on his
face, as if the news was quite attractive to him.
Tang Li only spared a glance before lowering her head.
Although the guests that came to this manor were elegant and
graceful, compared to thousands of phoenixes or peacocks, she had
instead found that people like Commander Cui were more pleasant
to the eye.
Although he looked a little sickly on the face.
"Did you sustain a wound? Do you want me to fetch some
medicine?" Tang Li asked.
Cui Buqu, "Do you know how to massage? Both my shoulders are a
little sore."
Tang Li, "I can try."
As she walked behind Cui Buqu, she tried to press her fingers lightly
on different spots of his back.
"You hurt your tendons, as for your bones, they are alright. The
massage would hurt a little bit."
"You only need to massage. I will take care of standing the pain." Cui
Buqu said in a relaxed voice.
Tang Li did not hesitate and began to massage for him as she
relayed the report. She reached the point where Lady Miao said something strange to
Qiao Xian and Zhangsun, before figuring out that they did not
understand and switching to Chinese when Cui Buqu told her to
pause.
"What did she say, did she tell you?"
"She did." Tang Li nodded her head. People who can become a
member of the Zuoyue Bureau were intelligent to a certain extent, so
she repeated the words that Lady Miao had said. Although the
sentence had been passed from Qiao Xian to her, she managed to
repeat almost eighty to ninety per cent of it.
Cui Buqu suddenly straightened his back, even when Tang Li
accidentally pressed too hard he had simply ignored it.
"Commander?"
"That is the language of Goguryeo." Cui Buqu said, "Qin Miaoyu is a
Goguryeon, and the Jade of Heaven's Lake is definitely with her."
Why would he think so?
Tang Li was very curious, but she did not continue asking, because
everything Cui Buqu did would have a reason, and if it was not her
place to ask, she would not ask in the first place.
Cui Buqu did not continue speaking. On the other hand, Feng Xiao
had finished showering and sent people to call for Cui Buqu. After
Cui Buqu ate a few dumplings and felt better about his shoulders, he
stood up and headed to where Feng Xiao was.
But Feng Xiao's face did not look any better just because he had
changed into a new set of clothes. He held a letter in his hand and a token. In the letter, only a few
words were written, mentioning that Pei Jingzhe was held hostage
and wanted Feng Xiao to head to the Huyang Forest. The token was
something carried by all members of the Jiejian Bureau; the same
one Pei Jingzhe took with him at all times. If the token was lost, then
it could only mean that the other party was not lying.
It was quite apparent that the enemy's target was not Pei Jingzhe,
but Feng Xiao, and perhaps even the Jade of Heaven's Lake.
"Never mind about failure, this is giving me trouble!" Feng Xiao could
not help but scold.
"Fo Er?" Cui Buqu offered.
"Perhaps." He swirled his fingers, turning that letter into dust and let
it disappear in the wind.
Cui Buqu, "You are planning to go?"
Feng Xiao, "Why not?"
Cui Buqu looked surprised, "Lord Feng you certainly don't look like
someone so benevolent; who knew, you would even care about the
life of a subordinate!"
Feng Xiao, "His father saved me once."
Cui Buqu shook his head, "It still does not seem like you."
Feng Xiao, "Then what should I do according to you?"
Cui Buqu, "Write a reply: If you want to kill him, do it."