The meeting place specified in the letter was the Jinshui River.

After nightfall in the capital, there were two great bustling areas: one was Qingxing Street with its cluster of taverns, and the other was the Jinshui River where music and song continued through the night.

Countless pleasure boats floated on the Jinshui River, thick with the scent of powder and rouge. It was a gentle land of pleasure where countless men lingered, needless to say a place where dragons and snakes mixed together.

The person who had abducted Xiao Qi had set the meeting place there—they possessed a certain degree of cunning.

A woman stood anxiously at the shore, looking around in all directions.

The woman’s hair was grizzled—she should be rather old. Because her face was disfigured, it was nearly impossible to make out her original appearance.

Passersby didn’t give the woman a second glance.

In a place like the Jinshui River, there were many wealthy patrons who spent money like water, but there were even more poor people seeking to make a living. A woman who clearly came to earn her keep, like this one, was all too common.

The woman casually hailed a small boat, allowing it to drift aimlessly across the wide river surface.

This was the cunning of the other party.

They had designated the Jinshui River as the meeting place but required Xiu Yue to board a boat and drift randomly on the river. Every single boat on the river surface could potentially be where the other party was hiding.

With hundreds of pleasure boats and touring vessels large and small on the Jinshui River, confirming which boat it was would be utterly impossible. They could only passively wait for the other party to actively approach.

“Where does the lady wish to go?”

The vessel carrying the woman was a small open boat. The boatman was a young man wearing a straw hat. Seeing that the woman had not specified a destination, he couldn’t help but ask.

“Just… just getting some air first…” The woman suppressed her tension as she spoke, instinctively surveying her surroundings.

The boatman smiled: “Could it be the lady is searching for someone?”

The woman hesitated and nodded, then fell silent.

The boatman asked no more questions and slowly moved his bamboo pole.

A small boat selling late-night snacks approached. The elderly boatman asked with a cheerful smile: “Young man, would you like some eel buns?”

The young boatman waved his hand, indicating he wouldn’t eat.

The old man wasn’t offended and unhurriedly poled his boat away.

Soon another boat approached. A woman on the boat with painted brows and powdered face called out toward them: “Want to buy some soap cakes? There are also small snail pastries, all freshly made!”

The young boatman waved his hand again.

“Bah, poor wretch.” The woman spat and poled her boat toward a nearby pleasure boat.

The young boatman couldn’t help but ask: “Lady, where exactly are you going?”

“Just looking around randomly on the river. I’ll pay you…” The woman’s voice carried several traces of unease as she struggled to appear composed.

A boat slowly approached.

“Come aboard.”

Hearing this voice, the woman abruptly looked toward the approaching boat.

Like most boatmen, the person poling the boat wore a bamboo hat that obscured his brows and eyes, making his appearance unclear.

Judging by the voice, it was a middle-aged man.

The woman hesitated for a moment before standing up and stuffing several copper coins into the young boatman’s hands.

The two boats were separated by no more than two feet.

The woman kept her head lowered, lifted her foot to step across, and boarded the approaching boat.

The young boatman seemed somewhat puzzled and didn’t leave immediately.

That person said coldly: “This is my wife. I’ve come to fetch her. I advise you not to meddle in others’ affairs.”

Hearing this, the young boatman quickly poled away.

The woman stood at the bow, asking nervously: “Where is Xiao Qi?”

This was a boat without a canopy. It was clearly visible that there was no third person on the boat.

Xiao Qi was obviously not here.

“Don’t make noise.” The middle-aged man poled the boat forward rapidly, appearing quite relaxed.

The Jinshui River was extremely wide. The countless lights from pleasure boats and touring vessels made the entire river as brilliant as daylight—a magnificent sight.

But where there was light, there was shadow, not to mention it was originally night when darkness enveloped everything.

Further ahead was a small patch of reed marsh.

White reed flowers and golden stalks added another kind of charm to the magnificent Jinshui River.

There weren’t many boats coming to this area at night.

As darkness enveloped them, the middle-aged man stopped his poling motion and silently looked toward the woman.

“You are the cook from Youjian Tavern?”

The man’s voice was calm and low. Beside this reed marsh shrouded in hazy night, it was inexplicably somewhat sinister.

The woman nodded: “I am. Where is Xiao Qi? Where have you hidden Xiao Qi?”

The middle-aged man suddenly took two steps forward.

The small boat swayed because of his sudden movement, swaying in a heart-stopping manner.

“I came alone as the letter instructed. Quickly hand over Xiao Qi!” The woman watched the approaching middle-aged man with an anxious expression. “Do you want money? However much you want, I’ll give it—just release Xiao Qi—”

The bamboo hat the middle-aged man wore obscured his brows and eyes. From the woman’s angle, she could only see his lips slightly curved upward.

Cold and heartless.

“Where Xiao Qi is—” The middle-aged man suddenly raised the bamboo pole and viciously swung it toward the woman’s head. “You don’t need to know.”

The rapidly swung bamboo pole cut through the night air, bringing violent wind as it attacked.

The woman stood right at the bow. As if frightened senseless by this sudden situation, she didn’t move at all.

A loud thud sounded, immediately followed by a scream of pain.

On the Jinshui River, the sounds of strings and woodwinds, laughter, and hawking were ceaseless. This scream was quickly drowned among them without stirring the slightest ripple.

The boat swayed as someone jumped aboard.

The middle-aged man knelt, one hand covering his painfully aching arm, staring at the newcomer in shock.

It was actually the young boatman.

The young man wearing a bamboo hat walked closer step by step, the bamboo pole he had just used to strike the middle-aged man held nimbly in his hand.

The bow of the boat sank inch by inch into the water.

The woman quickly walked toward the stern. Only then did the unbalanced boat gradually recover.

“Were you frightened?” The young man spoke, his voice gentle and steady, completely different from before.

The woman shook her head and naturally stood behind the young man.

The two looked together at the middle-aged man sitting collapsed on the boat.

The middle-aged man’s bamboo hat had fallen off, revealing his true appearance.

He was an extremely ordinary man, appearing to be in his thirties, but his eyes were quite sharp.

The middle-aged man who had originally prepared to kill the woman with the bamboo pole and conveniently push her into the river to destroy the evidence looked at the young man and woman, understanding he had fallen into a trap. He struggled to jump into the water.

At this moment, ripples still spread across the water surface, caused by the bamboo pole the middle-aged man had accidentally dropped into the water after being suddenly attacked.

A cold bamboo pole pressed against his throat.

“Move again and I’ll take your life.” The young man said coldly.

These words seemed to remind the middle-aged man of something.

As his complexion changed slightly, a pebble flew toward him.

The middle-aged man opened his mouth and spat out blood, accompanied by a tooth.

The young man walked over and, cushioning it with a handkerchief, picked up the blood-stained tooth and examined it by the boat’s oil lamp.

His voice remained calm, but the words he spoke were shocking: “There’s poison hidden in the tooth. You’re a death warrior?”

The middle-aged man looked at the young man so close yet whose face couldn’t be seen clearly due to the bamboo hat’s obstruction, as if seeing a malevolent spirit.

No, this young man was a malevolent spirit.

Attacking him while he prepared to kill the woman was nothing, but just now when he had prepared to bite down on the poison tooth to commit suicide, that flying pebble had knocked out precisely the tooth containing poison.

Was this something a human could do?