"Sister Tina!" Stone pleaded, wagging his tail like a puppy, "Where are we going?"
"The ultimate goal is the Crimson Forest, but the next stop is Kdor City." Tina finally stopped smiling, although her stern face didn't look much better, but it finally made Stone breathe a sigh of relief.
“It takes about half a day to get to Kedor City from here. You can rest for a while first.” Although Tina wasn’t a man, she was very gentlemanly.
"Thank you, Tina... Sister!" Without thinking, Stone almost called her brother again.
Tina squinted at the stone, then said nothing more. She simply took out a book from her spatial storage and began to read.
Stone didn't want to doze off for a while, and out of boredom, he began to examine the carriage.
To be honest, this carriage is far less luxurious than the Huo family's carriage, but it does have its own unique charm.
This carriage was enormous, more than twice the size of the Huo family carriage she had previously ridden in. The entire floor was covered with thick carpet, which felt exceptionally soft underfoot.
The carriage was divided into two sections. Near the front was a rest area with a sofa bed covered in thick fur, large cushions, and a neatly folded blanket. Near the rear was a low table where Stone and Tina sat.
After observing for a while, Stone started to get bored, so he moved to the car window, lifted the curtain, and looked outside. What he saw... was astounding.
"Urgent report! The second young lady of the Huo family, one of the six great families in the eastern part of the capital, has gone missing. We request all citizens of the empire to help find the second young lady of the Huo family!"
Shi Tou gasped, "You bastard, Yi Siyu! You really are no good!"
"The second young lady of the Huo family?" Tina suddenly spoke up: "Stop the car and call out to the messenger!"
Stone looked at Tina with a mixture of sorrow and despair. "My dear girl," he thought, "aren't you a little too curious? And even if you are the daughter of the city lord, you can't stop an imperial envoy!"
"Report! Soldier No. 0378 of the Imperial Capital Guard has arrived!" A voice rang out from outside the carriage.
The stone collapsed, and that was it—something had happened!
I thought Tina would let the soldier in, but to my surprise, Tina opened the back door and jumped out: "Say what you just said again."
"Urgent report! The second young lady of the Huo family, one of the six great families in the eastern part of the capital, has gone missing. We request all citizens of the empire to help search for her!" The soldier repeated himself, speaking fluently. He'd probably said the same thing more than once.
"How old is Miss Huo? What does she look like?" Tina's voice rang out from outside, and Stone cowered into a ball like a coward.
"Report! The second young lady of the Huo family is 12 years old this year. She is a very rare pure-blooded Easterner, and she is also an extremely talented Qi Master!" The soldier answered with a strong voice, but judging from his words, he had never even seen a stone before.
Shi Tou breathed a sigh of relief. There were plenty of people who met the criteria, even with just a few words!
"Should we search the city? If so, my father will make it convenient." Tina spoke again.
Stone, hiding inside the carriage, was about to cry. Girl! Don't be so nosy! Who cares if they search the city! Getting out of the city is the most important thing!
"Report! The imperial decree is to find the missing second young lady of the Huo family, and there is no requirement to search the city!" The soldier was honest and directly relayed the imperial decree, which greatly relieved Shi Tou.
"Alright, you can continue your search. I'll have my subordinates inform my father to cooperate with your operation." After saying this, Tina finally let the person go and got into the car.
Stone stared at Tina with trepidation, fearing she might suddenly say something else.
"Let's set off! Let's get to Kedor City as soon as possible." Tina said this to the coachman. After speaking, she picked up the book she had casually placed on the low table and continued reading, as if she hadn't taken the matter to heart at all.
Stone stared intently at Tina, his eyes wide. Did this girl really not suspect him?
"Hey, if you keep looking at me, I'll think you've fallen in love with me," Tina finally spoke, but her eyes remained fixed on the book, not even sparing a glance for Stone.
The stone trembled: "Tina... Sister."
“You can call me Tina, or you can call me Longaha.” Tina finally raised her noble head and rolled her eyes at the stone.
Shi Tou hesitated for a moment: "Actually, I'd rather call you brother."
Tina's expression finally changed: "Do I really look that much like a man?"
Stone swallowed hard and asked cautiously, "Can I tell the truth?"
Tina's face contorted deeply, and she gritted her teeth, saying, "No!"
“Oh, then I’ll lie.” Stone readily agreed, “Tina, you don’t look like a man at all, you’re a purebred woman! An absolutely gentle, cute, soft, and petite little woman!”
Instantly, Tina's eyes flashed with a menacing glare.
The stone lowered its head, so we can't see it, we can't see anything at all!
"Ahem, I heard something happened in the capital." Tina was silent for a moment, then suddenly brought up something else.
Shi Tou was stunned. What was going on?
"It seems that the direct descendant of one of the six great families of the East has gone missing." Tina's voice remained calm, without a trace of anger.
Stone quickly glanced up at Tina, then quickly looked down again: "Really? Is that true?"
Keep pretending!
Tina gritted her teeth inwardly: "I've inquired. She's the second young lady of the Huo family, 12 years old this year, and of pure Eastern blood. She's also a Qi Master? Heh, Serena, I forgot to ask you, how old are you this year?"
To tell the truth would be a lie!
Stone pouted and said with certainty, "I'm 10 years old this year."
"Oh, that's really young. How could your parents bear to marry you off so early?" Tina raised an eyebrow, neither saying she believed it nor disbelieved it, remaining calm as ever.
Without even thinking, Stone said, "That's right! They're so unreasonable to give me away so early. That old man is so old! I don't want to get married!"
Tina squinted, her gaze never leaving the book: "So what's your last name? What's your full name?"
"Beth. My full name is Guer Beth. Sister Tina, I lied to you before, please don't send me away!" I'm going all in. Anyway, it's not like I'm the one who'll lose face!
Tina frowned, then finally looked at the stone again: "Beth?"
"Yes, it's Bess! I'm not a real legitimate daughter; my parents picked me up. Well, I should say I'm a illegitimate daughter from a collateral branch, but my adoptive parents took me in and raised me." Stone was quick to lie, without even blushing.
Tina hesitated for a moment, as if she was thinking about something.
Shi Tou secretly thought that things were looking promising. In fact, she hadn't wasted her years in the capital.
The Beth family, in Baozi's words, is a family with a long history, but in reality, it is just a family that has fallen into decline.
During an expedition into the Crimson Forest a few years ago, the Beth family lost most of their descendants. Although they later tried their best to find a few children from collateral branches, none of those children turned out to be successful.
In Shi Tou's memory, there was one girl who could be considered somewhat decent. She was Shi Tou's classmate and belonged to a distant collateral branch of the family. She was taken in and raised by the main family because of the accident that happened to the Beth family. Her strength was quite good; before Shi Tou left the capital, she had already become a one-star Battle Qi Master.
As for the other descendants of the Beth family, they are almost all ruined. It can be said that the Beth family will not be able to regain its former glory in the next hundred years.
Stone is currently impersonating her classmate, but instead of Serena Beth, she's called Gure Beth. Tsk tsk, this time she's impersonating the real person, let's see how you investigate! More importantly, this Gure Beth's biological mother is actually of mixed race with East Asian ancestry!
“Alright, I’ll take that as the truth.” Tina thought for a moment before finally speaking: “But I’ll give you a choice. You can choose to come with me to the Crimson Forest, or I can take you to Kdor City. Choose!”
“The Crimson Forest!” Stone said without hesitation.
If Tina had asked this question earlier, Stone might have considered it more carefully. But after seeing that the royal family had already issued a warrant for his arrest, Stone was determined not to stay in the Fallen Empire any longer.
Well, nobody wants to die too long, right?
Suddenly, Shi Tou felt the communicator Huo Xiaoxiao had given him respond. He quickly took it out and was surprised to find that it was flashing green.
What does this mean?
Could it be that everything is alright, and they want her to go back?
Seeing Stone staring blankly at the communicator in his hand, Tina's eyes narrowed. The Beth family? They really don't seem like it!
☆, Chapter 187: Falling Skin OR Exposing Buttocks
Intuition told Shi Tou that Huo Xiaoxiao wouldn't frame her given her personality, but thinking about what had just happened, Shi Tou felt sad.
Well, maybe Huo Xiaoxiao wouldn't harm her, but who knows, maybe even Huo Xiaoxiao was deceived! Fortunately, the power of the six major families in the East is great enough, Shi Tou thinks, at least she doesn't have to sacrifice herself to protect others like in that melodramatic TV series in her previous life.
With a heavy heart, she threw the communicator she always kept close to her body into her spatial equipment. Never mind, her most important thing now was to send the real dwarf princess back to the dwarf kingdom. She didn't care about anything else!
"Have you figured it out?" Tina suddenly asked.
Stone was startled and jumped back in fright: "You..."
"I said, have you thought it through? You really don't want to go back to that home?" Tina's gaze fell on the stone's hand. If she wasn't mistaken, the girl also possessed a spatial artifact. However, the Beth family had long since fallen from grace; they probably didn't have many spatial artifacts left.
“I’m not going back.” Stone shook his head decisively: “I definitely won’t be going back for at least a few years.”
Tina carefully examined the stone: "I really didn't expect you to have such a firm belief at such a young age. By the way, didn't you just say that you were adopted by the main branch of the Beth family? If so, have you ever thought about going to find your biological parents?"
Stone was taken aback at first; she had almost forgotten what she had just said. Fortunately, Tina's reminder brought her back to her senses: "I can't go back. They know where my biological parents are; if I go back, it will implicate them."
"You're quite open-minded," Tina said, glancing at the stone one last time. She then looked back down at her book and casually asked, "Have you thought about what you're going to do in the future?"
The stone blinked. Hey girl, aren't you being a bit nosy?
"I haven't thought about it in detail yet. But my sister gave me some money and food when I came out. It's not a lot, but it should be enough to live in the countryside for a few years."
Without looking up, Tina asked, "What level of fighting spirit have you reached?"
“Uh…” Shi Tou almost said three stars, but luckily she reacted quickly and stopped herself: “One star. I passed the one-star battle qi master exam in two months.”
In fact, the person who passed the one-star Dou Qi Master exam two months ago wasn't Stone, but the real Guo'er Bess.
"A 10-year-old one-star Dou Qi master. Hmm, not bad." Tina commented softly, "Since you want to come to the Crimson Forest with me, why don't we just stay in the town next to the Crimson Forest? There are quite a few towns and villages there that have supplies, and it's quite prosperous. With your abilities, you definitely won't have any problem with food and clothing."
Stone stared blankly at Tina, who was engrossed in her book. He never expected that this seemingly aloof girl would be so kind. It seemed she wasn't a bad person at all.
"Thank you... Sister!" Shi Tou pouted; she still wasn't used to calling a handsome man "sister."
"Honestly, you can call me Tina." Tina was also quite helpless. She had grown up like this since she was little, and countless girls had fallen in love with her. In the end, they all had their hearts shattered.
"Tina!" Stone thought it was so much better not to call her "sister"! However, the name sounded so weak, lacking any imposing presence, completely inconsistent with the amazing charm Tina exuded: "Tina, I want to talk to you about something, okay?"
Tina finally looked up, her face full of confusion: "You want to borrow money from me?"
puff!
My money could definitely buy the entire city of Kedor, okay?
Stone couldn't help but complain inwardly, but he didn't show it on his face at all: "Tina is too girly a name, it doesn't suit your temperament at all. How about I change your name?"
Tina looked at the stone intently: "This name was given to me by my late grandmother."
Okay, she was wrong.
It is never too late to admit one's mistakes and correct them. Shi Tou resolutely lowered his head and apologized: "I'm sorry, I didn't know."