Chapter 29: Chapter 29: The Deserted Mansion
The fragrance vanished without a trace the moment Jiang Ran opened his eyes.
It left Jiang Ran unable to tell if it was a lingering echo from his dream, or if someone had truly been in the room.
He stared at the ceiling for a while.
He felt a little ashamed.
And also found himself a bit ridiculous.
Just from listening to a few nonsensical words from Tang Huayi, he had ended up having such a strange dream.
He shook his head, rolled out of bed, and turned to look outside, his brow furrowing slightly.
There was no one outside the door... When Tang Huayi brought him here yesterday, there were clearly maids around.
’How come... there’s no one here now?’
He got up, opened the door, and walked into the courtyard.
The old tree with its lush, shady canopy still stood there quietly.
Jiang Ran glanced at the tree, shook his head again, and opened the courtyard gate to walk out.
He passed through gardens, pavilions, and long corridors...
But the further he walked, the uglier his expression became.
Suddenly, he executed the Celestial Nine Steps and leaped onto a roof, the entire Tang family estate coming into his view.
No one!
There was no one anywhere!
Lord Tang, Lady Tang, Tang Huayi, Sun Fu, the servants, the maids, the Martial Artist guards.
Everyone had vanished overnight. The entire mansion was completely empty!
Jiang Ran couldn’t believe it. The Tang family was large and prosperous; how could they have just up and vanished overnight?
Never before had Jiang Ran felt so lost.
After all... he had only stayed for one night, and when he woke up, the Tang family was gone!
’Who... who could he even complain to about this?’
The martial world was full of bizarre tales, often recounted in teahouses and taverns as amusing anecdotes.
But surely none could be stranger than this?
He walked and searched, finally arriving at the main hall.
The main hall’s doors were open. He strode inside, saw no one, and was about to leave.
However, a glimpse of something caught the corner of his eye.
He immediately turned his head for a better look. It was a painting.
It was sitting on the table next to the host’s seat.
He slowly approached the painting.
In the painting was a small courtyard.
A bright moon hung high in the sky, and beneath it, in the courtyard, stood a tree.
Its lush canopy obscured the starlight.
Under the tree, a woman in white, her face veiled by thin gauze, was playing the zither...
In front of her stood a man, quietly appreciating the music.
The brushwork was delicate and soft, seemingly done by a woman’s hand. The technique was skillful, and the figures were lifelike.
It could be considered a rare masterpiece.
But as Jiang Ran looked at it, his expression turned extremely strange.
"...It wasn’t a dream."
He muttered to himself. The scene in the painting was the exact dream he’d had under the moon last night.
But if it had truly been a dream, how could it have been painted like this?
Now, why was this painting left here?
’To tell me... that everything last night was real?’
’But even if it was real, where did the Tang family go?’
’Could it be... they ran away?’
’But the thing is... people usually run away after taking advantage of someone.’
’And taking a step back, even if something did happen last night, it doesn’t seem like I was the one who got the short end of the stick.’
’What were they running from?’
Jiang Ran’s brow was tightly furrowed. He picked up the painting and set it aside.
He sat down in the grandmaster chair and began to carefully dissect and analyze everything that had happened since his arrival at the Tang Mansion yesterday.
As he thought it over, he realized something.
’Something’s wrong...’
’Everything is wrong!’
’When I first met Lord Tang, how did he recognize me?’
’Had he met me before?’
’Or did the old drunkard draw him a portrait?’
’But since when could the old drunkard paint?’
If he hadn’t thought about it deeply at the time due to a misunderstanding...
...then when Tang Huayi called him brother-in-law, why didn’t he stop to consider how she recognized him?
’If I had just thought about it, I would have remembered that the old drunkard can’t paint, right?’
’So why was my mind so clouded that I never once thought of it?’
After returning to the Tang family, Lord Tang had Tang Huayi dine with him alone.
A young woman who had just been abducted by villains and then rescued.
Her composure was a little too calm, excessively so.
Even setting that aside, she was an unmarried young lady, and he was a "brother-in-law" whom she had just met, based on a verbal agreement alone.
How could Lord Tang possibly have her entertain him?
And then, dining with Tang Huayi was even stranger.
No matter what she said or did, he found her charmingly naive and couldn’t help but feel a growing fondness for her.
This was absolutely not in Jiang Ran’s nature.
’But at the time... why didn’t I notice?’
Jiang Ran tapped his forehead lightly.
Although he didn’t know how the Tang family had managed it...
...looking back now, he had clearly been tricked!
’But... this is the strangest part of it all.’
’Where there’s a scheme, there’s a motive.’
’If the entire Tang family was really putting on an act to deceive me... what were they after?’
’My short lifespan? My Nine Deaths Meridian?’
"They can’t possibly be after my body, can they?"
Jiang Ran almost laughed at his own thought, shaking his head slightly.
"Absolutely not.
"But if that’s the case, what exactly did they get from me?"
Then Jiang Ran thought of the old drunkard’s letter.
The letter was in the old drunkard’s handwriting.
Even the tone was exactly the same.
That was something no one else could fake.
It was precisely because of this that Jiang Ran had harbored no suspicion toward the Tang family.
All his thoughts had been focused on how to break off the engagement.
Who would have thought that the engagement the old drunkard had arranged was unreliable from the start...
’Could the old swindler have been swindled by another group of swindlers?’
As Jiang Ran thought of this, he began to worry about the old drunkard.
If the letter was real, then perhaps the old drunkard had really left the Tang family, and even Cangzhou Prefecture, just as Lord Tang had said.
But if the letter also had a problem...
...then where in the world was the old drunkard now?
Jiang Ran could choose to ignore whatever plot the Tang family had.
And why they had suddenly vanished without a trace overnight.
But he couldn’t afford to ignore the old drunkard’s life.
Staying here would most likely yield no results.
After all, if they were determined to leave, why would they leave any clues for Jiang Ran to find?
"However, the Tang family has been in Cangzhou Prefecture for so many years. There must be some traces they left behind."
Thinking of this, he lingered no longer and turned to leave.
But when he reached the entrance of the main hall, he glanced back at the painting.
After a moment’s hesitation, he decided not to take it. He turned and strode away without a backward glance.
Not long after Jiang Ran left, a slender, jade-like hand reached out from the side and took the painting.
White robes fluttered, and a faint sigh seemed to sound, then dissipated like smoke and clouds...
...
...
The main gate of the Tang Mansion was locked, so Jiang Ran vaulted over a side wall.
He had just reached the main street, before he could even get his bearings, when he heard an animated discussion.
"What a tragedy... The Qinghe Gang was one of the three major gangs in Cangzhou Prefecture, after all."
"How could they be completely wiped out overnight?"
Jiang Ran’s steps faltered involuntarily.
’The Qinghe Gang... completely wiped out??’
"Isn’t it? I heard it was gruesome. Fan Yumou, several Hall Masters, and oh, Young Master Fan Jiwu too."
"They’re all dead, bleeding from all seven orifices. A truly gruesome sight."
Jiang Ran listened in silence, slowly turning his head to look at the deathly still gate of the Tang Mansion.
His gaze shifted again, and he was suddenly taken aback.
The noodle stall across the street from the Tang Mansion, and its talkative owner... where had they gone?
