At that moment, those several figures scattered like butterflies and flowers, quietly leaving the house and climbing into trees.

Fengfeng peeked out from under the flower stand, patted his hands on the ground, glanced toward outside the house, and slowly crawled out. He crawled slowly along the house corner. The people outside had their view blocked by windows and couldn’t see him. Fengfeng slowly crawled from the hall into Liu Yan’s medicine room. After looking around for a while, there was nothing strange in the medicine room, only large medicine cabinets and tables and chairs. Supporting himself against a grand chair, he slowly stood up, pushed that chair with both hands, and with a “bang,” the grand chair fell down, pressing against the entrance to the secret passage.

The four people in the secret chamber suddenly heard a loud “bang” from overhead and were all startled. A’Shui exclaimed without thinking, “Fengfeng…” Fang Pingzhai listened intently and quickly covered her mouth, “Shh, silence! There are people!”

Someone had broken into Jihe Manor. Fengfeng was left alone above, which was very dangerous, but they couldn’t let people discover that Liu Yan was here. Fang Pingzhai and Liu Yan absolutely could not appear. Even if A’Shui and Yu Tuan’er went out, they couldn’t handle the enemies who had broken into the manor. What to do?

How many people were there above? How could they capture this entire group without letting a single person return to report? Fang Pingzhai thought and thought, but for a moment couldn’t think of any solution. Yu Tuan’er frantically operated the mechanism, but it was pressed down by the nanmu grand chair and wouldn’t budge at all. The four of them were trapped in the secret chamber by the mechanism. Unless they used force to break through the floor, they couldn’t get out at all.

The four looked up together. A’Shui trembled all over. Was Fengfeng above? Had he been discovered? Was he still up there? Was he still alive? Or had he already been taken away?

Fengfeng was indeed still above. The people outside were startled by the sudden sound. A baby’s breathing is weak and shallow – those without extremely acute hearing find it hard to distinguish. They looked at each other in the trees. Not long after, another “bang” sound came from inside the house. The purple-clothed leader spat, “Damn it, what the hell!” He flipped down and quietly slipped back in, crouching as he walked toward the medicine room.

Jihe Manor still looked completely empty without anyone there. The purple-clothed man followed the direction the sound came from, slowly approaching the medicine room’s main door.

The medicine room door was half open, with dim light inside. When he reached the door, he could easily see two grand chairs overturned on the ground, one pressing on top of the other.

Nothing else besides that.

Not a single person.

Empty tables, empty chairs. Though many medicine bottles were arranged on the medicine cabinet, obviously nothing could be hiding inside the bottles. The purple-clothed man entered full of doubt. There was a puddle of wet water stains on the ground, seemingly from spilled tea. He stepped over the water stains and lifted up one of the grand chairs, testing its weight. This was indeed an ordinary chair with no mechanisms inside, and it couldn’t have fallen over by itself for no reason.

Could there be supreme masters ambushing outside, using palm force to push down these two chairs? The purple-clothed man looked at the window in confusion. The medicine room’s window was tightly closed. If someone had used splitting-air palm force to tamper with things, the window would certainly be damaged too. Could there really be a skill in the world that could penetrate windows from several zhang away and push down two chairs?

If there really were such masters, why would they spend such great effort pushing down these two chairs? What was their intention? If it were Liu Yan’s group, they could have eliminated all six of them without anyone knowing. Why play tricks?

With a “creak,” he pushed open the window. Outside was forest, and looking up he saw his companions crouched in the trees. The purple-clothed man glared angrily, waving for them to hide farther away. Crouching outside the window – Fang Pingzhai wasn’t some third-rate fighter. If he had returned, how could he not have noticed?

The figures in the trees outside quietly withdrew. The purple-clothed man turned back, frowning at the strange chairs in the room. After thinking for a while without getting anywhere, he decided to leave the room. Just as he turned around, he suddenly heard a light “crack” behind him, as if something had fallen over and rolled away. He instinctively turned back and saw that somehow a small porcelain bottle had appeared on the ground. The bottle suddenly tipped over, rolled a few times on the ground, and colorless liquid slowly flowed out from within.

Strange! Without wind or people, how could the porcelain bottle fall over by itself? The purple-clothed man was extremely suspicious. Just as he was puzzled, the water flowing from the bottle slowly seeped into that puddle of water stains on the ground. In an instant, the clear water that had seeped in turned into rich blood color. After another moment, the entire puddle of water stains on the ground had turned to blood.

All the hair on the purple-clothed man’s body stood up. He couldn’t believe it and rubbed his eyes, but the puddle of blood on the ground was still there. It wasn’t his eyes playing tricks or a dream. His whole body stiffened as he backed out the door step by step. Just then, the ground suddenly made a series of strange “crack crack” sounds, like a zombie emerging from its grave. The purple-clothed man screamed loudly, turned and ran frantically outside, “There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost!”

“Big brother!” The several people in the trees outside all chased after him. The purple-clothed man screamed and shouted, “There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost—”

The underground secret passage door opened. Fang Pingzhai and the others finally managed to operate the mechanism and rushed out, “Fengfeng…”

The small cabinet door near the desk in the medicine cabinet opened, and Fengfeng crawled out from inside, laughing with crackling sounds. A’Shui picked him up, her frightened heart finally settling. Fang Pingzhai looked bewilderedly in the direction the purple-clothed man had fled, “Strange, I haven’t even started killing people yet. Why would he say he saw a ghost?” Yu Tuan’er pointed at the blood-red water stains on the ground, “There’s blood! There’s blood!” Fang Pingzhai saw that puddle of “blood stains” and was startled, “Aiya! I’ve seen a ghost! I’ve seen a ghost! Where did this puddle of blood come from? Could this house have vengeful ghosts? Could it be that Master, you secretly killed people in the secret chamber and received retribution? Could it be that even dead ghosts are lustful and have taken a fancy to Master’s beauty and youth, so—”

“Shut up!” Liu Yan said in a low voice. He pried open Fengfeng’s hands, saw there was no medicine water on his hands, and relaxed slightly, “Take the child out and give him a bath.” Though A’Shui didn’t know why, she hurriedly went out. Liu Yan looked at that puddle of “blood stains” on the ground. He naturally knew it wasn’t blood, just phenolphthalein meeting strong alkali and turning blood red. Both phenolphthalein and alkali were prepared by him for testing inhibitors. But how could Fengfeng know that mixing these two substances would turn red? He vaguely remembered that once when he was doing experiments, Yu Tuan’er had carried Fengfeng in. Could he have remembered just from seeing it once?

A child just over one year old – even if he remembered the color-changing medicine water, how could he think of the trick of pretending to be a ghost to scare people, and even push down heavy chairs? Liu Yan looked at the color-changing phenolphthalein on the ground. Perhaps Fengfeng was much more intelligent than ordinary babies. He didn’t feel happy about this, but sighed deeply.

Children much more intelligent than ordinary children – he had observed them for many years. He didn’t know if Tang Lici could pretend to be a ghost when he was one year old, but at least when Tang Lici was eight, he could already put pure sodium in shower heads to set fires, fight with gang thugs on the streets, and throw bottles containing ether into gang bosses’ rooms, nearly suffocating and blowing people up. All sorts of strange incidents happened because he was too intelligent a child.

When a person is too intelligent but lacks sufficient stable character to control themselves, the more intelligent they are, the more terrifying they become. He stared at Fengfeng. Would this be another Tang Lici? Fengfeng clapped his hands and laughed at him, the shallow dimples on his cheeks pure and adorable, occasionally making “mm-mm” sounds while staring at him.

He unconsciously smiled slightly. For some reason, he felt that A’Li wouldn’t have had such expressions as a child.

Because he had always been lonely, with no one to act spoiled toward.

So could it be said… Fengfeng wouldn’t become like A’Li, because he wasn’t lonely?

Just as there was further progress on the antidote for the Scarlet Ghost Nine Heart Pill, Zhong Chunji led her fifty guards, departing from Haoyun Mountain toward Echun.

Echun was a sparsely populated small town. The several inns in town were just places for people to rest while traveling the official road. No more than ten guests came here each month.

But it was located between several major routes, very convenient for coming and going. Surrounded by plains on all sides, one could gallop a hundred li in a single day on horseback. This was one of the reasons the Fengliu Shop chose to exchange Xue Xianzi here. Exchanging people in Echun, they could come from any road and leave by any road. No one could guess the location of their lair from the Fengliu Shop’s route.

Tang Lici hadn’t traveled with Zhong Chunji, and initially hadn’t even sent anyone to accompany her to Echun. But when Zhong Chunji’s group arrived in Echun, he was already there.

He was drinking tea in Echun’s only teahouse. That teahouse was laughably crude, with only a thatched roof and two long benches. He was dressed in white like a painting, with elegant brocade shoes. Even his posture holding that inferior tea was so graceful and leisurely. In Zhong Chunji’s eyes, she felt both fear and love. This person radiated alluring charm at every moment, but was so terrifying. If she reached out, she would certainly be hurt until her hands bled.

She had no desire to risk danger for Xue Xianzi, but even less desire to match wits with Tang Lici. She lacked the courage not to come.

She also had another thought in her heart: if she could capture Tang Lici alive before the Fengliu Shop appeared and directly take him back to Bianliang, then Tang Lici would have no opportunity to expose her murder and silencing in jianghu. She could both get the person and escape the great calamity of being exchanged for Xue Xianzi and imprisoned by the Fengliu Shop.

However, this idea also had drawbacks. If she escaped this exchange, jianghu would certainly say she deceived her master and destroyed her ancestors, completely inhuman. And Tang Lici had vast supernatural powers – even if captured by her, the imperial relatives in Bianjing had close relationships with him. It wouldn’t be difficult for him to spread news of her murder and silencing. She looked at Tang Lici, slowly riding closer, reaching into her bosom to grasp a bottle of ice-cold medicine water, pondering in her heart.

If Xue Xianzi had already died before the exchange, that would be best. She wouldn’t need to take any risks or commit the great crime of deceiving her master and destroying her ancestors. And if Tang Lici became someone who remembered nothing and knew nothing, only recognizing her, Princess Langya, in the world, that would be even more wonderful.

In her hand she held a bottle of medicine – the poison Liu Yan had given her before she stabbed Tang Lici with the needle. It was said to make a person lose their memory and know nothing. When departing from Haoyun Mountain, she had fifty guards behind her. Now only thirty-three remained – seventeen had disappeared.

Tang Lici had been sitting in Echun’s teahouse drinking tea for some time. As Zhong Chunji led her group riding up, he observed all the various changes in her expression and the subtle decrease in her guards behind her, and sighed softly.

Perhaps he should slap this little girl to death on Xue Xianzi’s behalf.

Half a year ago, she had still been an innocent, kind-hearted girl. What had made her become like this?

Was it because of him?

“Young Master Tang.” Zhong Chunji rode close, dismounted, looked around, and bit her lip, “Haven’t they come yet?”

Tang Lici put down his teacup and handed the teahouse owner a bright pearl, “No.”

“Could it be they won’t come?” she asked in a low voice, tightly gripping the horse’s reins in her hand.

Tang Lici glanced at her clenched palm and smiled lightly, “They will.”

She bit her lip again, her face pale, whether from nervousness, worry, or perhaps disappointment.

“Nothing will happen. What should come will always come.” Tang Lici said gently, “Sit.”

Zhong Chunji sat down on the long bench beside him, still tightly gripping the horse’s reins and frowning. He was right in front of her, but she was so afraid she dared not move.