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After the war, Lingguan City was in ruins, with more soldiers on the streets than civilians. Innocent people were often seen being unjustly taken away.
Even though Gu Chengfeng repeatedly reminded himself that he was a great thief and the lives of the common people were not his concern, witnessing these events happening before his eyes stirred up the anger within him.
He clenched his fists tightly, exerting great effort to resist the impulse to kill the soldiers of the State of Chen who were tormenting the civilians.
He couldn't expose himself.
It wasn't the right time... Not yet...
"Let's find an inn!" He turned around, afraid that if he looked any longer, he wouldn't be able to control himself.
"Okay." Gu Jiao replied calmly and indifferently.
She seemed indifferent to everything, as if the lives and deaths of others were of little consequence to her. Yet, she had come to this dangerous and frigid place for the sake of the one she called a fool and her brother.
Gu Chengfeng suddenly felt that he couldn't understand her.
The two of them found an inn nearby.
The inn bore signs of being ransacked and looted, and the innkeeper's face had a visibly shocking slap mark. As for the inn's employees, they were even more heavily wounded, bearing visible injuries and swollen eyes.
They were busy trying to set up the fallen chairs, and there were no other guests inside the inn, perhaps because no one had stayed there in the first place or because they had all been frightened away.
Gu Jiao and Gu Chengfeng approached the counter.
The innkeeper pulled himself together and looked at the two of them, his voice trembling after choking back tears, "Are the two guests here to eat or to stay?"
Gu Chengfeng said to the innkeeper, "Give us a room. If there's food, bring it to us. If there’s none, then forget it."
"Please follow me." The innkeeper suppressed his grief and led Gu Jiao and Gu Chengfeng upstairs. He pointed to a relatively clean and tidy room, saying, "This is the best room of our inn, one hundred wen per night, including two meals."
"One hundred wen?" Gu Chengfeng doubted if he had heard correctly.
The innkeeper quickly added, "Do you find it too expensive, sir? I can lower it to eighty wen for you."
Gu Chengfeng opened his mouth and said, "That's not what I meant."
One hundred wen was actually too cheap. They hadn't stayed at such an inexpensive inn on their entire journey, and it was even the best room on the upper floor with two meals included.
"One hundred wen it is." Gu Chengfeng decided not to haggle any further.
The innkeeper expressed his gratitude, "Thank you, sirs. Let me prepare your meal, but it might take a little while."
Gu Chengfeng understood his meaning. The soldiers had plundered the inn, and it was likely that they hadn't spared the kitchen either, so they needed to buy ingredients again.
Gu Chengfeng had mixed feelings in his heart.
Gu Jiao continued to eat and sleep, appearing carefree and completely devoid of any signs of worry or compassion.
Gu Chengfeng looked at someone sleeping soundly on the bed while hugging a red-tasseled spear, and he felt the corner of his lips twitching.
How could a little girl have a bigger heart than a man like him?!
After dinner, the two of them prepared to set out.
They changed into their night clothes and donned their masks, ready to leave.
However, as soon as Gu Chengfeng opened the door, he immediately closed it again.
"Someone's here?" Gu Jiao asked.
Gu Chengfeng's throat constricted slightly. He steadied himself and said, "It's a group of State of Chen soldiers, quite a large troop."
A large troop meant there were dozens of them, almost instantly filling the inn's main hall.
For a moment, Gu Chengfeng suspected that their whereabouts had been exposed, but fortunately, these people sat directly in the main hall, seemingly just there to enjoy a free meal and drinks.
Gu Chengfeng breathed a sigh of relief.
It wasn't that he was afraid of these soldiers. He could handle them alone if it came to a fight. However, if they really fought, it could alert the massive military force at the Prefect's Mansion, which wouldn't be good.
The room had no windows they could use to go outside, so they had to wait for the soldiers to leave.
The group of soldiers was unaware of the presence of other guests at the inn. They assumed everyone here was their own people, so they openly discussed sensitive matters without restraint. This led Gu Jiao and Gu Chengfeng to overhear some significant information.
As it turned out, Tang Yueshan had a ‘contribution’ to Old Marquis’s capture!
The Imperial Son-in-law had confined Princess Ning'an, and Old Marquis had sought Tang Yueshan's help to rescue her by sending a few archers to covertly infiltrate the Princess Mansion. However, Tang Yueshan had refused Old Marquis's request, saying he needed to deploy troops to eliminate the rebels.
Old Marquis had sensed that something was amiss and had cautioned Tang Yueshan not to rush into action as things might not be so simple.
However, Tang Yueshan believed that Old Marquis was trying to hinder his accomplishments. He disregarded Old Marquis's advice and launched a night attack on the rebels on his own. As a result, he fell into the enemy's trap.
The remnants of the previous dynasty and the State of Chen's large army surrounded them, resulting in Tang Yueshan's disastrous defeat and the loss of Ye City.
The State of Chen's army achieved a resounding victory in their first battle, boosting their morale. In contrast, the local forces of the State of Zhao, seeing that their Supreme Commander had been defeated, had very little morale left and offered little resistance. Thus, Lingguan City and Beiyang City were easily captured by the State of Chen's army.
Gu Chengfeng expressed his anger, "If Tang Yueshan had listened to my grandfather, he wouldn't have been captured, and the border cities wouldn't have fallen so easily!"
If his grandfather hadn't been captured, whether he joined forces with Tang Yueshan to confront the enemy or even if Tang Yueshan was defeated, his grandfather could lead the army to defend, and the border wouldn't have fallen so quickly.
Gu Chengfeng furrowed his brow suspiciously, "Do you think Tang Yueshan might have done it on purpose?"
"Done what on purpose?" Gu Jiao asked.
Gu Chengfeng said in a cold voice, "Losing the battle on purpose and letting my grandfather get captured! As the saying goes, like father, like son. He raised that wicked and twisted Tang Ming, which shows that he isn't a good person either! He might have somehow learned the truth about the assassination attempt on Tang Ming and grown to hate our Gu Family!"
Tang Ming had humiliated Gu Yan and faced violent retaliation from Gu Jiao, in which Gu Chengfeng was also involved. If Tang Yueshan learned the truth, he did have a motive for seeking revenge against the Gu Family.
Gu Jiao paused, not saying anything.
From the information revealed by that group of soldiers, it appears that Tang Yueshan disappeared after his defeat in battle. Currently, they are conducting a widespread search for Tang Yueshan, aiming to find him alive or confirm his death.
The more Gu Chengfeng thought about it, the more he found Tang Yueshan suspicious, to the extent that even his defeat in battle seemed to him like a calculated move by Tang Yueshan. "He's an ambitious man. If he first loses the city and then retakes it, making it look like he won a difficult battle, he could earn double rewards and the Emperor's favor when he returns to the capital."
Gu Jiao patted his shoulder.
Gu Chengfeng was in the middle of analyzing Tang Yueshan's intentions when he was abruptly interrupted and momentarily startled, "What's wrong?"
Gu Jiao gestured downstairs, saying, "They've left."
Gu Chengfeng opened his mouth, "Oh, then, let's go."
Gu Jiao glanced at him and said, "You can carry on with your chatter later."
Gu Chengfeng choked, "It’s not like I want to talk so much! I'm a man! I'm not so talkative!"
The man who claimed not to be so talkative proceeded to talk endlessly to Gu Jiao on their way to the Prefect's Mansion.
Gu Jiao: "..."
The Prefect's Mansion was heavily guarded, but for Gu Chengfeng, who could come and go freely under the noses of the Dragon Shadow Guards, it wasn't too challenging.
He effortlessly sneaked inside with Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao put on her flamboyant peacock feather mask.
Gu Chengfeng: Hey, isn't it meaningless to cover your face now?
The two of them didn't know where Old Marquis was being held. Gu Chengfeng decisively grabbed a soldier to question, and Gu Jiao administered a sedative to him. The soldier directly fell asleep.
Gu Chengfeng looked at her syringe: “...”
Your medicine doesn’t get the job done every time, does it?
Gu Jiao put the syringe away and said calmly, "Just find it ourselves."
Gu Chengfeng snorted, "In a mansion this large, how are we supposed to find it? Do you want to wait until it's morning?"
Gu Jiao casually clapped her hands, "We've already searched Ning Wang Residence, how can a mere Prefect's Mansion stop us?"
Gu Chengfeng wasn’t convinced, "It's not the same. Ning Wang Residence had only a few storage rooms, and they were all in Ning Wang and Ning Wangfei's courtyards. The Prefect's Mansion has the yamen office in front and the private residence in the back. We have no idea where they've actually kept my grandfather. It could be in a woodshed, a dungeon, or a hidden chamber..."
Before he could finish speaking, Gu Jiao pushed open the door next to her.
It was a wine cellar, used to store fine wines.
Gu Chengfeng shook his head, thinking this was no place to hold a hostage. There was no need to search here at all.
He glanced inside absentmindedly, and then he froze.
"Gr-grandfather?"
The elderly man, shackled and battered, lying unconscious on the floor, couldn't be anyone else but his grandfather!
Gu Chengfeng was instantly dumbfounded, "H-How did you know my grandfather is here?"
Gu Jiao shrugged her shoulders, "I didn't know. I just picked a place at random."
Gu Chengfeng's mouth twitched, wondering just what kind of luck this girl had! How could she just stumble upon it like this?
What happened to searching until morning?
And what about the hundred ways he had thought of to avoid the State of Chen soldiers' surveillance? Did all of it just become useless?
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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