Mo Xi returned to Qingcheng Mountain with the main group, stayed for a few days, and took the opportunity to recuperate. Having received the largest reward of her career, she was flattered and accepted the young master's invitation to accompany her again, embarking on her journey home.
Perhaps having revealed his identity, and because the matter had concluded satisfactorily, the young master was noticeably more talkative on the return journey than before. Mo Xi, too, abandoned her indifferent attitude and adopted a fawning demeanor, eager to curry favor with the senior executive.
The guests and hosts enjoyed themselves immensely throughout the journey.
After enduring several days of patience, Mo Xi finally asked with a curious expression as they approached their destination, "How did you develop the ability to memorize anything you've read? I'm so envious." She was simultaneously flattering him and feigning refinement.
"I have been like this since childhood, and I did not learn it from anywhere. Others read books word by word and sentence by sentence in order, but I read them as if they were landscapes, flowers and birds, and I can capture them in my heart in an instant." The young master held an agate cup, poured a cup of tea for Mo Xi, and patiently explained.
"Then I can't learn it." Mo Xi immediately deflated and lowered her head.
Suddenly her eyes lit up, and she revealed a mischievous look. She asked Zishu to take out paper and pen.
Zi Shu had no choice but to agree. Mo Xi then turned his back to the two of them and furtively fiddled with the object for a full half-incense stick's time before presenting it like a treasure on the table in front of the young master, provocatively saying, "You shall draw it exactly as it is."
Zi Shu glanced at it only, then curled his lip in disdain and shrank back. What kind of nonsense is this?
The young master glanced at it intently, then gestured for Mo Xi to put it away.
With a wave of his hand, he wrote: "g!yidianshangqian!/k.php?novelid=1217829"
Mo Xi quickly snatched it and excitedly compared it; to her surprise, it was exactly the same word. She immediately exclaimed, "Young Master is mighty!"
His photographic memory was indeed genuine. To avoid being mistaken for another time traveler, Mo Xi deliberately added a string of gibberish after the prank. He actually wrote it all down. This provided strong evidence for Mo Xi's reasoning.
Mo Xi feigned a smile, but inwardly sneered. She recalled that harrowing night when her life hung by a thread.
Escape
( ) As soon as Lin Sen made his move, Mo Xi knew that she was doomed to defeat. She could only fight with all her might to buy herself a moment to speak.
Forced by circumstances, she could only say one sentence. Whether that sentence could temporarily persuade the other party to back down was crucial; it had to be concise and powerful.
So she asked, "Was Wu Hao injured by the black powder?"
In close combat, the worst thing you can do is lose focus. Mo Xi wouldn't give her opponent any chance to breathe, and Lin Sen certainly understood this principle as well. Mo Xi had no choice but to take a gamble. Most people are instinctively drawn to their lover's name. Even if Lin Sen wasn't a real wolf, the fact that they escaped together suggested a life-or-death bond, a brotherhood at play. She then dropped the crucial keyword "black powder." Even if Wu Hao wasn't actually injured by black powder, or even if it was just a feigned retreat to lure him into a false sense of security, those three words were enough to grab his attention.
As expected, the black powder ambush was a closely guarded secret. Lin Sen immediately concluded that Mo Xi was a core member of the organization who knew the inside story, and decided to keep him alive to extract a confession and find out their strength.
Mo Xi seized the opportunity and threw out another huge bait: "I can help you. If you don't believe me, you can first acupuncture my pressure points and then tie me up with the rope on the ground."
Fortunately, these words triggered Lin Sen's survival instinct. Having been driven to the brink, he decided to try anything, since he had already gone all out. He led the disarmed Mo Xi to a tree hollow where they could hide. Mo Xi breathed a sigh of relief.
Throughout the journey, Mo Xi tried her best to suppress her professional instinct to spy on her surroundings, hoping to make the other party feel her sincerity.
Mo Xi wasn't annoyed at being roughly thrown onto the muddy ground like a sandbag. Before Lin Sen could ask any questions, she stared into his eyes and bombarded him with a series of questions.
"Do you know of a very handsome young man among the scions of prominent families in the capital who can write with both hands? Which other important figures from the capital branch have come here? What were the last cases you two took on? Who were the targets? What went wrong?" She preemptively asked these questions to avoid a passive approach. Once Lin Sen began the conversation in an interrogative style, she would lose the initiative and find it difficult to guide him to provide information to corroborate her conclusions. Gaining his trust would be even harder. Therefore, she spoke clearly and rapidly, firing off these crucial questions without taking a breath.
The young master must be from a prestigious family. What kind of person is he? It's said that a true nobleman only comes along once every three generations, and this is no exaggeration. This young master travels in luxurious carriages and yachts, accompanied by a peerless master coachman. Even the servant boy beside him speaks with refined manners. The black tea he drinks is only nine taels produced annually nationwide. The ancient jade hanging at his waist is priceless. Not to mention the painting by Yan Qingqi hanging on the boat. This man is a contemporary master of calligraphy and painting, especially skilled in meticulous brushwork and line drawing. Although alive, due to his noble lineage, he doesn't make a living by selling paintings, but only enjoys painting. He is exceptionally arrogant, and his works are extremely rare, only obtainable by royalty and nobility. How could his painting be so easily acquired by a minor figure from a martial arts organization? And Chu Huaiqing would be insane to work for a martial arts gang; he's not some damned butler.
Mo Xi knew Lin Sen wouldn't answer her immediately, so she quickly seized the opportunity and said, "I know you didn't take any of those files at all. I'm afraid those people used the files as bait to lure you to Luoxia Pavilion, then detonated the black powder, trying to kill you." Although assassins don't care about innocence, speaking from their perspective is a form of flattery.
During her visit to the ruins of Luoxia Pavilion that day, Mo Xi realized that even the most intense fighting using only cold weapons wouldn't have caused enough damage to destroy half of the pavilion. The ruins and dust there could only have been caused by gunpowder explosions, especially since she found residual gunpowder in the dust. The gunpowder of that era wasn't as powerful as that of later periods, only collapsing half the building, and the blasting method was relatively rudimentary, making it impossible to completely burn all the gunpowder.
Lin Sen didn't answer. He just stared coldly at the expression on Mo Xi's face, not missing the slightest change, and asked, "Why should I believe you?" Mo Xi knew that Lin Sen had tacitly admitted his guess.
“Because I want to live. And my life or death is entirely in your hands.” Mo Xi shouted these words in a low voice with strength, then looked back at him with a resolute and calm expression.
"As far as I know, there is such a handsome man you mentioned who can write with both hands. His name is Chu Huaiqing." Perhaps out of a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, deep emotion) about his days on the run, Lin Sen strongly agreed with her words and finally believed her to some extent.
Twelve hundred light phoenixes, their spring robes slender yet loose. Leaning on the wind, they move with slightly haste, their words, though tinged with snow, seem chilly.
This is the young marquis. He can write with both hands and has a photographic memory, making him the envy of all the noble ladies in the capital.
"Who is Su Hou Chu Feng to him?" Mo Xi's heart skipped a beat. He was the only person with the surname Chu in that textbook; he might as well give it a try.
"Chu Feng is his father. A soul fallen by my sword." I actually guessed right!
"Is it the 'feng' of 'wind' and not the 'feng' of 'phoenix'?"
"It's the 'wind' of 'the sound of wind.'" Thus, it's undeniable that the young master is Chu Huaiqing. In ancient times, people would often deliberately misspell the strokes in their parents' names, or simply use other characters to show respect. Especially for aristocratic families, filial piety was meticulously observed down to the smallest detail, and Chu Huaiqing would certainly not be an exception. Why the young master wrote "phoenix" instead of "wind" in the textbooks circulated among them is self-evident. A difference of one character, whether subconscious or out of arrogance, is understandable. After all, being born into nobility, even the most cautious person would be limited by their status and the education they received from a young age, revealing a flaw.
"Chu Huaiqing is here too. We'll follow his lead in this operation." In return, Mo Xi took the opportunity to offer the information the other party wanted.
"What!" Even Lin Sen, with his exceptional composure, couldn't help but exclaim in shock. The organization had betrayed them both to Chu Huaiqing, who was now personally taking action to avenge his father's death. He instinctively gripped the hilt of his sword, which he hadn't parted from for a moment, his veins bulging, filled with extreme resentment.
"The top 35 people who were hunting you down have all come."
"And there's Elder Weng, the head of the Beijing branch." Elder Weng's martial arts skills should be superior to any of theirs, so it's perfectly reasonable for him to take action. Hearing this, Mo Xi suddenly understood. She had met Elder Weng once before; he had come south to inspect the business when the Jinling branch opened. She had been guessing all along that the person driving the carriage might know her and be afraid of being recognized. Otherwise, since the other party was wary of her and feared she might harm Chu Huaiqing, he should have been by her side at all times for her safety. But along the way, the journey was far more than a hundred miles, and he hadn't shown his face to her even once. Originally, as the head of the Beijing branch, it was only natural for Elder Weng to travel with his steward; there was no need to hide it. But why would Elder Weng, the head of a branch, drive for his steward? Even if it could be explained by expediency, Mo Xi would probably see something amiss in Elder Weng's attitude towards Chu Huaiqing. Moreover, this also matched her initial guess: there were her colleagues in this group. Since Chu Huaiqing has been ruled out, and Zishu doesn't know martial arts, it must be Old Man Weng. Chu Huaiqing's claim that he only learned her identity from his servant is half true. As for inviting her to ride in the carriage, that was likely Chu Huaiqing's idea, and Old Man Weng had no way to object. Unfortunately, trying to cover it up is itself a flaw.
"What was the last job you two took?" Mo Xi asked, reminding her.
At this moment, Lin Sen realized that this unassuming young woman might actually be able to unravel the mystery of this series of assassinations for him. So, he no longer held back and began to recount: "The case I recently took on involved killing a wealthy merchant in the capital. His family kept special jewelry for the imperial concubines, nothing special." Perhaps suddenly remembering something, Lin Sen quickly continued, "Ah Hao, on the other hand, took on a big job: assassinating the seventh prince, Prince Duan, Li Qi. He did all this for me. We both wanted to pull off a big heist without the other's knowledge, and then retire from the underworld together." His tone gradually became tinged with sadness.
"It failed? Did he tell you what happened?" If the assassination had succeeded, something so big wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
"When I saw the message he left me, I was frantic, but I didn't know where he was making his move. By the time I arrived, he was locked in combat with a grandmaster-level expert and was already struggling. Not to mention, there were two groups of archers, taking turns attacking from the high ground. To catch the thief, you must first catch the king, so I had to launch a surprise attack on Prince Duan. Unfortunately, I only injured him and failed to capture him. But at least I got Ah Hao out of trouble. We fought together for a long time before we managed to fight our way out." He paused, then said bitterly, "In his later recollection, Xiao Hao realized that the other side seemed to have been prepared. The time and place of his attack were all based on information provided by the buyer. Not to mention, the archers had been lying in ambush for a long time. I don't know how the news leaked out." Lin Sen was clearly agitated about Wu Hao, and his speech quickened considerably.
"Were you alive when Wu Hao took on this job?"
"No," Lin Sen answered decisively.
"Then why did you go ahead of him in the queue but not choose this big job? Is there a job with a higher pay than this one?"
Lin Sen pondered for a moment, lost in his memories. Under Mo Xi's guidance, he gradually sorted out his thoughts and regained his composure. He affirmed, "No, this deal isn't in the register I was given. Xiao Hao said this transaction was worth 50,000 taels of silver, but the highest price in my register is only 20,000, which is that rich merchant."
Mo Xi sneered and said, "No one leaked the news. This was all a good show arranged by Prince Duan himself."
Lin Sen was too formidable, and Prince Duan, fearing he might overdo it, bypassed him and delivered the deal to Wu Hao. It seems the organization and Prince Duan had been in cahoots all along; otherwise, an outsider would never have tampered with the catalog. As for not using a lower-ranking assassin for the assassination, it's likely because a subpar assassin wouldn't be trustworthy, rendering the entire scheme pointless. The need for trustworthiness probably stems from the account books. Prince Rui held Prince Duan's weakness in his hands. For Prince Duan to clear his name, the smartest approach wasn't to appeal, as that would only make things worse. The only way was to take a risky approach, giving the emperor the impression that Prince Rui had hired someone to kill him. Once this impression was formed, even if Prince Rui had concrete evidence, the emperor might still perceive it as a frame-up. It remains to be seen whether it was only the capital branch that colluded with Prince Duan, or if Prince Duan had already infiltrated the organization's highest levels. But one thing is certain now: after the assassination attempt, even the main headquarters got involved; otherwise, the trap wouldn't have been set up in the Sunset Pavilion at the main headquarters.