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Gu Jiao made a trip to Qinghe Academy and fished Gu Chengfeng out of the men's outhouse.
Gu Chengfeng exploded with anger, "Can you please stop picking me up in places like this!”
If this happened a few more times, he would be unable to get it up!
Gu Jiao led him to a woodshed in the academy and forced him to wash his hands.
Gu Chengfeng: ...You still know to mind this!
Gu Chengfeng washed his hands slowly, taking his time. Gu Jiao found him slow and impatiently pulled him into the small woodshed.
"What is it this time?" Gu Chengfeng asked irritably.
Last time, he risked his life accompanying this girl to empty Ning Wang's small treasury, and yet he didn't get a single gold bar in the end.
He basically worked as a free porter for her!
After much difficulty, he managed to hide one gold bar, but it was snatched away by that falcon, namely Little Nine!
Even the falcon had the same character as her!
Infuriating, truly infuriating!
"I have something to ask you." Gu Jiao casually snapped a twig and squatted on the ground to draw a double blade emblem. "Do you recognize this?"
Gu Chengfeng was still sulking about the gold bars and harrumphed, saying, "Dual Blade Sect, what about it? You're not planning to rob them, are you? Have you gone crazy for money recently? Robbing all around without worrying about exposing yourself!"
"There’s no robbing this time." Gu Jiao said. "Are they powerful?"
Gu Chengfeng crouched down beside her and said nonchalantly, "That depends on who you're comparing them with. They can't be compared to old martial arts organizations like the Thousand Mechanisms Pavilion, but among the newly rising sects in recent years, they are relatively outstanding. Why on earth are you asking about this?"
Gu Jiao replied, "Oh, nothing. This sect might offend me in the future."
What do you mean they might offend you in the future?
Do you even know them?
Can you do divination or dream about the future?
Gu Jiao asked for the address of the Dual Blade Sect and got a rough understanding of it. Since the incident was still some time away, Gu Jiao decided to keep an eye on them later.
After leaving Qinghe Academy, Gu Jiao headed to the Hanlin Academy.
The road was a bit congested, and by the time she reached the Hanlin Academy, it was already past the time for dispersal.
Seeing that the bakery was still open, Gu Jiao thought for a moment and walked over to inquire, "Boss, do you still have dried vegetable pancakes?"
The boss smiled and said, "The last few dried vegetable pancakes were bought by your husband."
Due to their frequent visits, the people at the bakery already knew that Gu Jiao and Xiao Liulang were a couple.
"Did my husband buy them uncooked?" Gu Jiao asked instinctively.
Most people wouldn't buy them uncooked, so her question sounded strange, even to herself.
The boss simply assumed that she had instructed her husband to buy them uncooked, and she was worried that he might have bought it wrong, which was why she was asking.
The boss said with a smile, "Yes, he bought them uncooked!"
Gu Jiao thought to herself, could it be a coincidence?
The day he bought the uncooked dried vegetable pancakes in her dream was the day of the incident. But that would happen two or three months later.
Not every day that he bought uncooked dried vegetable pancakes would lead to an incident.
Despite this thought, Gu Jiao still visited the place where the incident occurred.
It was an old and established rouge shop, but its business had been taken over by the surrounding shops, and there were very few customers coming in and out.
Perhaps it was for this reason that the scene remained intact, with no one discovering or disturbing it.
Gu Jiao spotted the dried bloodstains on the ground.
She squatted down and carefully examined the traces and marks of the bloodstains. Images of Xiao Liulang stumbling and falling repeatedly involuntarily flashed through her mind.
Indeed, he fell twice.
The first time, he hit his lame foot on the door threshold, which caused cuts on the web between his thumb and forefinger, as well as his arm.
The second time, he fell a few steps ahead on the ground, leaving a bloody handprint where he had tried to support himself.
In her dream, he only fell once. He fell quite miserably in the snow and fainted on the spot.
"What's going on? Could it be that the events from the dream are happening earlier?"
Gu Jiao was facing this kind of situation for the first time, and she had no experience in dealing with it. She wasn't sure if her guesses were correct.
"The bloodstains might also belong to someone else. What if I'm mistaken..."
If she got it wrong, then so be it. She couldn't gamble with Xiao Liulang's life based on a "what if."
It would be best if it wasn’t Xiao Liulang. If it was, she couldn't risk delaying the opportunity to save him.
His hand must not be crippled, and his life must not be lost!
Following the bloodstains, Gu Jiao kept searching until she reached a sparsely populated old street, where the bloodstains suddenly disappeared.
There were two possibilities: either the bleeding had stopped, or he was abducted from here. Moreover, it seemed like he had been taken away in a carriage, not through qinggong.
Using qinggong techniques to fly over roofs and walls during broad daylight was easily noticeable by others, and it would also leave traces of blood.
Gu Jiao had searched along the exterior walls but found nothing.
Considering her husband's unlucky constitution, the possibility of the bleeding stopping wasn't very likely. The more probable scenario was that he had been accidentally captured.
Gu Jiao's guess was accurate. Xiao Liulang had indeed been captured by accident.
He had managed to shake off those assassins, went to a carriage rental shop to hire a carriage, and ended up on this old street he hadn't visited in a while. Since his memory of the street was hazy, he asked for directions from a passing carriage.
Ironically, it was the assassins' carriage he asked for directions.
This was what "after having worn out iron shoes searching in vain, it's acquired without any effort" exactly meant.
The assassins lifted the carriage window and looked utterly bewildered.
What the heck?!!!
And just like that, the unlucky and pitiful Xiao Liulang was captured by the assassins.
There were four assassins in total. Two were outside, driving the carriage, and two were inside, watching over Xiao Liulang.
Xiao Liulang was tied up and blindfolded with a strip of cloth over his eyes. They hadn't gagged him fully, mainly because the cloth they used was too thin; he could simply spit it out. But if they used something thicker, they were worried about suffocating him.
"Isn't his nose still free for breathing?" Assassin B asked.
Assassin A glared at him and said, "What if he gets a stuffy nose? Have you forgotten how that person died last time?"
Assassin B recalled a hostage they had captured before. His mouth was gagged and ended up having a stuffy nose. He died halfway through the journey, choking.
Assassin B fell silent.
Assassin A traced Xiao Liulang's handsome face with the tip of his blade and threatened, "Don't make a sound, got it? If you dare to utter a word, I'll cut off your tongue!"
Xiao Liulang leaned against the carriage wall and ignored him.
He couldn't see and he couldn't escape, but he listened to the sounds along the streets and caught whiffs of fragrances wafting from shops. He could roughly deduce that the carriage was traveling on Luoyang Street, heading towards the East City Gate.
Were they planning to take him out of the city?
Xiao Liulang's assumption was soon confirmed.
He heard an unusual sound of horse hooves—— this was the sound of horseshoes hitting the official road near the city gate.
As they approached, suddenly a squadron of iron-clad cavalry charged by. Judging from the sounds of horseshoes and the clashing of armor, it seemed to be the imperial guards of the palace.
The leader of the imperial guards announced, "All those leaving the city must undergo a strict inspection!"
"Big bro, why are they suddenly conducting such strict inspections?" Assassin B asked anxiously. "Could it be that we've been exposed? But it's too soon!"
Xiao Liulang also found it strange. Only His Majesty and the Empress Dowager could mobilize the imperial guards. Did they already find out about his abduction? But it hadn’t been long since he was captured.
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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