The only one who could still move and speak was Champagne, but Champagne could only try her best to comfort her friends and persuade them not to resist, because she knew very well that her third uncle was ruthless when it came to killing people!
“That… Third Uncle…”
Champagne carefully walked outside, where her third uncle was standing by the dock, his hands behind his back, looking at the river.
"What? Trying to run away?" Uncle Three coldly turned around and glanced at Champagne.
Champagne gave a wry smile, her face filled with fear: "In front of you, how could I possibly run away? But..."
"Just what?" Uncle San's expression softened slightly. Champagne knew that this gentleness was something Uncle San rarely showed, and it was only when he was facing her or her mother.
"Could you... please let my friend go? I'll obediently go back with you," Champagne pleaded.
Uncle San thought about it seriously, glanced at Champagne, and said, "Alright, I won't make things difficult for them. However, I absolutely must have a match with that Mr. Tian. Not just to teach him a lesson for kidnapping you."
"But...it wasn't him who ran away with me, I ran away from home on my own!!" Champagne mustered her courage: "It has nothing to do with them, I was just reckless!!"
"It's the same, I'm going to have a go at him anyway." Uncle San said calmly, "Swords always have to clash. You don't understand this."
Champagne was in despair... She knew very well that the more her third uncle spoke in such a nonchalant tone, the more it showed that he had made up his mind and that it would never change.
“How long are we going to wait here?” Champagne seemed to be considering other ideas.
"We'll wait until he comes looking for us." Uncle San said calmly, "I left a note, and that guy surnamed Tian saw it. If he cares about you juniors, if he still has the dignity of a martial artist, he'll come looking for us soon."
“But…” Champagne suddenly remembered something: “Third Uncle, the words you wrote on the counter seem to… seem to… only say ‘meeting’, but don’t write down the location of the meeting.”
Third Uncle: "…………"
Looking at the empty, abandoned street, with only the old, dilapidated streetlights crackling and popping, Chen Xiao's face had become extremely gloomy!
Damn it! What do you mean by "Please come to see me!"? At least leave an address!! How am I supposed to find me if you don't tell me the location?!
Enraged, Chen Xiao couldn't help but punch a street lamp on the roadside, denting the lamp post.
Just then, his cell phone rang in his pocket. Chen Xiao took out his phone and saw that it was Xiao Qing calling.
"Hello?" After the call connected, Xiao Qing's voice sounded somewhat reserved and flustered. She lowered her voice and said, "Chen Xiao, are you asleep... I want to talk to you..."
Chen Xiao was in a state of utter confusion and sighed, "Xiao Qing... something's happened here. At the abandoned street..."
Two minutes later, after listening to Chen Xiao's story, Xiao Qing's tense and apprehensive tone disappeared immediately, and she said very decisively, "Wait for me, I'll come find you right away!"
Chapter 221 [You?]
Originally, Xiao Qing had been feeling uneasy all day since she got the private investigator's information. During the day, she met Chen Xiao at Lehu Lake and listened to Chen Xiao confide his feelings. In the evening, they had dinner together at the Xu family mansion. Although she tried her best to hide it and had cultivated her inner strength through martial arts since childhood, she was able to calm her mind and appear calm on the surface. But in reality, her heart was already in turmoil.
After Chen Xiao left, she talked with the old lady at the Xu family's house for a while. She was already a little tired, so she went back to her room to rest early. In her daze, she even forgot about her evening meditation practice, which she had never missed for many years. After returning to her bedroom, she lay down on the bed and covered her head with the quilt.
But he just couldn't fall asleep. He tried counting sheep in his mind, and even after counting more than ten thousand, he still couldn't feel sleepy at all. What was even more infuriating was that the sheep he had counted one by one in his mind all turned into Chen Xiao's smiling face...
Finally, unable to resist the overwhelming urge, he took out his phone and hesitated for a long time before dialing Chen Xiao's number. Because he was nervous, he pressed the wrong keys several times and dialed Chen Xiao's number three times before finally getting it right. As soon as the call connected, he panicked: What should I say to him? Should I say, "You are my fiancé"?
But then, upon hearing Chen Xiao say that something had happened there, Xiao Qing's anxiety suddenly turned into a feeling of relief. She immediately banished her worries, quickly hung up the phone, got up and dressed. Not wanting to disturb the Xu family so late, she simply ran out alone. Being highly skilled in martial arts, she ran directly down the mountain from the Xu family residence, hailed a taxi on the street, and hurried to the abandoned street.
When Chen Xiao arrived at the abandoned street, he was still searching frantically like a headless fly. He had practically turned the coffee shop upside down, but he couldn't find a single clue.
Chen Xiao probably couldn't figure it out even if he racked his brains. The one who caused this situation was actually his third uncle, the highly skilled martial artist who had kidnapped several girls.
That third uncle displayed the air of a mysterious master, elusive and unseen, and his parting words, "Please meet me," carried a hint of a challenge to a duel at the summit of Zijin Mountain. Unfortunately, while this third uncle was indeed highly capable, he seemed to have forgotten some mundane matters and details, most importantly: the location!
That's how this huge blunder happened.
Imagine if Ye Gucheng challenged Ximen Chuixue to a duel. His sword strikes from the east, a celestial being descending from the heavens—the tactics are dazzlingly brilliant, yet the location of the duel isn't specified. Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
Seeing Xiao Qing arrive so quickly, Chen Xiao had no time to express her gratitude. She simply nodded and said, "Come and see. I was afraid I might have forgotten something. But they only left a message on the counter, nothing else. What the hell! What meeting?! They didn't even leave a location, where am I supposed to find them?!"
Xiao Qing comforted Chen Xiao for a couple of minutes, then ran to the counter to look at the message. She glanced at it, and her delicate eyebrows furrowed immediately. She took a deep breath and exclaimed, moved, "Amazing!"
"What?" Chen Xiao leaned closer and asked, somewhat bewildered.
Xiao Qing stared blankly at the inscription carved on the counter. Hearing Chen Xiao's question, she regained her composure, pointed at the inscription, and solemnly said, "The person who left these inscriptions possessed such profound sword intent!"
Chen Xiao frowned: "What sword intent or saber intent? I can't see it."
Xiao Qing glanced at Chen Xiao, frowned, and said seriously, "Chen Xiao, you're not very skilled in martial arts. The person who left this message must be a master swordsman... no, probably not just a master, but a grandmaster! Look at this handwriting, every stroke is sharp and powerful, with sword energy flowing beneath the brush! As the saying goes, 'one leaf tells the whole story,' I think this person's swordsmanship is unfathomable! Even in my Xiao family, my second uncle is the best swordsman in the family, but compared to this person, he's probably not even a tenth as good..."
Chen Xiao rubbed his nose: "You can even see sword intent in writing? Isn't that just like in martial arts novels?"
Xiao Qing couldn't help but glare at Chen Xiao before patiently saying, "If you delve deeper into martial arts, you'll naturally be able to discern some of the intricacies. Sigh... Speaking of which, my second uncle was wholeheartedly devoted to swordsmanship. Last winter, after getting thoroughly drunk, he practiced a sword routine and, in his drunken state, took up a brush and ink and wrote a piece of cursive script. The head of the Xiao family commented that that cursive script was probably the highest level of sword intent my second uncle had ever achieved in his swordsmanship. Moreover, thinking about it carefully, my second uncle had already drunk quite a bit of wine before writing that cursive script..." He practiced a sword routine, the alcohol igniting his inner spirit. He then performed another sword dance, pushing his sword intent to its peak before writing that wild cursive script. In my opinion, it was probably an extraordinary performance by my second uncle; even when he was sober, he could never reach that level. But the lines this man wrote on the counter, seemingly casually, were all imbued with an irresistible sharpness. It was as if sword energy itself was about to dance within them! Such a master—I've probably never even heard of him before!”
As Xiao Qing spoke, she couldn't help but reach out her finger and gently trace the characters. After a few strokes, her face grew paler and paler. Finally, she let out a breath, but her expression was rather unpleasant.
Although Chen Xiao had some doubts, he still trusted Xiao Qing's words.
"Okay... even if it's some grandmaster of swordsmanship who suddenly appeared, what would he do here kidnap a few girls?" Chen Xiao suddenly had a thought: "Could it be the Japanese?"
When it comes to grandmasters of kendo, the first person he naturally thinks of is Takeuchi Bunzan, the most skilled kendo master among the people he knows.
“Not Japanese,” Xiao Qing said calmly. “Japanese swordsmanship is too trivial to express such profound sword intent! It must be the work of a grandmaster of Chinese martial arts!”
As she spoke, Xiao Qing focused her gaze on the line of words again, unable to resist running her fingers over the strokes, slightly lost in thought. After a while, Xiao Qing's expression turned somewhat strange: "This stroke... it seems familiar..."
Chen Xiao's eyes lit up: "You recognize this handwriting??"
Xiao Qing's expression was tinged with helplessness: "It just feels somewhat similar... Hmm, such profound sword intent, I seem to have seen it before..."
As she spoke, she held her head and thought carefully for a while, then her eyes suddenly lit up: "Ah! That's it!" But then her face became troubled again: "But... that's probably not possible."