The Flower Oasis wasn't that far from the city, so it didn't take them long to arrive.
They had set out early in the morning, so they arrived in the late afternoon when the sun was close to setting.
Since it was just an oasis town, the security wasn't as tight as the city. They just looked at their identities and then allowed them into the town without much of a security check.
As they were going through, they could even see that there were guards who were currently napping on the job.
It seemed that security really was lax in this place, but that wasn't a bad thing.
This meant that it would be easier for them to move around and do what they needed to do.
The mercenary group had already long entered the town and had already found a place to rest. It was an inn, but it wasn't the inn that 'Mu Bao Bao' was currently resting in, it was just a normal inn that they had found.
Most of them just chose to settle in this place, but the armoured man who was their leader didn't stay with the rest of them.
He took off his armour to reveal that he was a man with a large beard and he headed off alone into the town. The rest of this mercenary group chose to go to a restaurant to have a meal and some drinks.
Lin Fan of course followed the bearded man through the town.
The bearded man quickly made his way through the alleys of the town and soon he arrived at a place that was quite hidden.
This was a cafe that seemed to sell one thing, privacy.
That was because the door was heavily guarded and every single possible entrance to the building was completely locked off. But of course, that didn't mean a thing to Lin Fan and Greeny.
With the mosquito puppets, they had no problem following the bearded man in.
After they went in, they found that there was already another person who was waiting for the bearded man here. This person was already at one of the booths and when he saw the bearded man, he waved him over.
The bearded man quickly went over to this booth and sat down with that person.
Once he was in the booth with him, the curtains of the booth quickly came up and blocked them from everyone's sight.
But of course, that didn't matter at all for Lin Fan as his mosquitoes were already inside of the booth with them. He could already hear what they were discussing.
"Cousin, you really took your time." This was the person who had been in the booth who said this.
The bearded man didn't mind this at all as he said with a faint smile, "I couldn't rush it or it would have been suspicious."
The cousin gave a reluctant grunt of agreement after hearing this, but it was clear by the look in his eyes that he wasn't happy about this.
Then he looked around and asked, "Where's the rest of your group? Are you the only one here?"
The bearded man gave a chuckle and said, "We can't just all show up here can we? We have to create an alibi so that people won't be able to connect us to this matter. So I had them go out and have fun tonight."
Hearing this, the cousin narrowed his eyes to look at the bearded man before saying, "Are you even serious about this?"
The bearded man's smile disappeared as he revealed a serious look and said, "Does it look like I'm playing around? I'm setting up everything so that we don't seem suspicious and this doesn't come to bite us in the butt later. Do you really think that people will just ignore all the clues if we don't set up any alibis?"
The cousin gave another disgruntled grunt, but he didn't say anything else about this.
Instead, he said, "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even have this chance."
The bearded man revealed a taunting smile this time before saying, "If you're so confident, why don't you go do this yourself?"
The cousin's eyes shrank when he heard this, but he didn't keep arguing. He just gave a snort before falling silent.
Even a fool would be able to tell that there was some kind of grudge between these two cousins. However, Lin Fan didn't really care about this grudge that they held against each other.
He just waited for them to get to the main point.
After a bit of silence, the cousin finally said, "She's still at the inn, so you can go anytime you want."
The bearded man gave a nod before asking, "What room is she in? How often does she go out? When did she arrive in this city? What…"
He kept asking a bunch of questions about 'Mu Bao Bao', questions that almost seemed like they would be a violation of privacy. However, he didn't hold back at all with his questioning, even though his cousin was clearly overwhelmed by all of these questions.
Finally, the bearded man calmed down and waited for the cousin to answer.
His cousin looked at him with a strange look before saying in an annoyed voice, "What do you need to know all of this for? All you have to do is monitor her and find some kind of concrete evidence that you can bring to those people. There's no need for you to know all of this!"
The way that the cousin said this made it clear that…he didn't know
The bearded man shook his head with a sigh before saying, "This is only the basic information and you don't even know this. We need to know everything about the target so that we can properly monitor them and get the evidence that we need."
The cousin couldn't refute this and the anger appeared on his face again.
His face twisted with that anger until he finally couldn't take it anymore and exploded from his inferiority complex. He shouted at the bearded man, "You think that you're so great? You think that you're almighty just because you became a mercenary? In the end, Yi Xue chose me!"
The bearded man narrowed his eyes to look at his cousin before saying with a sigh, "You're still hung up over that?"
The cousin's face twisted when he heard this before he gave what was clearly a fake laugh and said, "Ha, just keep acting! I'm sure that it's eating you up on the inside that Yi Xue didn't want to go with you in the end!"
The bearded man didn't take this bait and just looked at his cousin with a look of pity.
That was because he knew that his cousin didn't know the truth.
He thought that Yi Xue had stayed behind because she had rejected the bearded man's request to go with him…but in reality, it was the bearded man who had rejected her request to go along with him.
It wasn't because he didn't love her, but rather…he knew that he wouldn't be able to give her the life that she wanted. He was someone who wanted freedom and adventure, which was why he had become a mercenary in the end.
If she had come along with him, all that she would have encountered was danger and instability because she wasn't a cultivator like him. She didn't even have the talent for cultivation, so it wasn't as if she could have become a cultivator later on.
So he knew that he couldn't bring her along.
In the end, facing the pressure of her family, she had no choice but to marry the cousin who was obsessed with her.
He had thought that he had won, but if the bearded man told him the truth…he was sure that it would crush him.
There was certainly a part of him that was tempted to tell him the truth after hearing the way that his cousin taunted him. However, he was also a man who had seen plenty of things and was able to stay calm when he needed to.
So he didn't say anything in the end as he listened to his cousin's boasting.
Finally, when his cousin was done and stopped to catch his breath, the bearded man suddenly asked, "Did you tell her about me coming here?"
The cousin was caught off guard by this sudden question from the bearded man.
He narrowed his eyes to look at him before giving a snort and saying, "Why would I tell her about a loser dog like you?"
The bearded man gave a nod when he heard this and said nothing else. He didn't even refute his cousin's insult of "loser dog".
As for the reason why he had asked this, it was because he didn't want to see her at all.
He didn't know how she felt after all of these years, but he didn't want to invoke the stories of the past and create new problems. He just wanted her to live the good life that she deserved and whether he was a part of that or not, it didn't matter.
After taking a deep breath to calm himself down, the bearded man stood up and said, "Find out about the questions that I asked you and come meet me tomorrow. Once I have all of this information, I'll start the investigation with my group."
Without even giving his cousin a chance to say anything, the bearded man suddenly turned around to leave the booth.
The cousin just glared as he left before also leaving with a snort.
Still, at the very least, it seemed like based on the look in his eyes, the cousin would do what the bearded man had asked.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l