Chapter 177 – Come, let's go together to dig a mine
It was in the depths of the night, and the peaceful Prince Ying's manor now was a bit not so tranquil.
Above the high wall, more than ten black figures leaped up. The person in the lead was wearing all purple. His demonically charming eyes swept the hazy prince's manor which was somewhat illuminated by the lantern’s light. The corner of his mouth hooked into smile with an unclear implication.
The night was dark with high winds, perfect time to make one's move.
One only saw him lightly wave his hand, and those black clothed people following at his side were like arrows shot from a bow scattering towards every corner of the prince's manor. Floating about like demons, no one discovered their existence.
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu looked at the guards in the inner residence of Prince Ying's manor and realized that they were not as good as those from last time, he raised an eyebrow. Sure enough, he must take advantage of Xiao Xu not being present to come and search for her.
This time, he brought the hidden bodyguards under him that were best at airy martial arts. Their concealment abilities were extremely strong. So avoiding the guards inside the manor was a cinch.
As a result, his eyes swept a direction and he quickly leaped up and headed towards the study.
Success or failure will be determined in one move.
And at this moment, Chu Qing-Yan's group had already stopped to rest.
The bonfire was just in the middle of burning hotly.
Fire Spirit arranged the rotation of the imperial guards on guard duty. Now in this place that was in the middle of nowhere, safety was the most critical area, because it was said that there were often bandits that appear in this area. Moreover once night arrives, savage wild beasts would show themselves. Therefore Fire Spirit didn't dare relax his vigilance.
It was already late autumn. The night was very cold, so it wasn't suitable to sleep on the horse carriage. But Chu Qing-Yan had already made preparations, one only saw her order people to take down the things from inside the horse carriage. In the beginning no one knew what it was, but when Wood Spirit directed people to erect it on the ground, everyone was astonished to discover these stuff were supports that would become tents one after another.
Chu Qing-Yan nodded in satisfication, at that time in the prince manor, she only described what it looked like to Wood Spirit and the materials. Wood Spirit could actually understand, in a short time he made it. Sure enough, the people under Big Block of Ice had really formidable abilities.
These tents imitated the tents she used in the previous life when camping out in the wild. The materials used were from a special black wood in Western Xuan Empire. It was quite resistant to the wind and it was also lightweight and portable. It simply was an essential gear when leaving home for an outing.
The Retired Emperor had his hand at his back as he inspected everything once, and he stroked his beard. In an incomprehensible manner, he said to Chu Qing-Yan. "Yan girl, the stuff you guys have is pretty good."
Chu Qing-Yan blushed with shame. Grandpa emperor, is it really good for you to say this so offhandedly?
Xiao Xu heard this and turned to look at her. She immediately pretended to be dead!
"Good, tonight I would sleep in here!" The Retired Emperor simply didn't take note of Chu Qing-Yan's predicament. He chose a tent and immediately drilled in. He even gave a comfortable sigh.
Chu Qing-Yan and Xiao Xu each selected a tent, then entered into it to rest.
In the depth of the night. Outside, there was only the sizzling sound of burning firewood. The mountain wind pa.s.sed by with a whooshing sound.
The night was still peaceful.
Xiao Xu laid inside the tent, an embroidered quilt that had baked in the sun was placed on his body. He could still feel the warmth of the sun on it. His lips hooked up slightly, he had no choice but to say that the little fellow in just one short day had given him too many pleasant surprises.
Just when he was about fall asleep, the sound of footsteps slowly shifting came suddenly from the side. Then he saw a figure whose shadow was imprinted on his tent by the light of the fire. In the end, that figure hesitated for a while outside before lifting up a hand to lightly pat on his tent.
"Big Block of Ice, tonight can I sleep with you?"
And at the same time in Prince Ying's manor. The black clothed people were executing a carpeted search.
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu had just landed on the side of the study's window when two secret guards came down from the roof and waved their blades toward him.
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu never thought that when Xiao Xu brought away his elite troop, there would still be such powerful secret guards here. But he had prepared for it earlier.
He drew out the folded fan at his waist and effortlessly blocked it. One person's blade was stopped and avoiding to his side, he also dodged the other person's blade.
At this time, a sinister expression flashed through Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu's eyes. The fan that blocked the blade suddenly opened, by luck the night wind started to blow. Just like this, the powder on the fan rushed towards the two secret guards. The secret guards had no time to dodge and were directly trapped by this move and just like that, fell to the ground.
From the time they dropped down to the time the three people finished exchanging moves, it only took the blink of an eye.
Experts exchanging blows were just this lightning fast! It didn't alarm anyone else!
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu folded his fan and shook his head to say. "This young master hates to move swords and blades the most, it affects the elegance too much."
As a result, he crossed over the two people's bodies, with a flying jump, he entered the study through the window.
There was no candle lit inside the room, only the moonlight to differentiate the arrangement in the room.
He walked over to the desk, flipped through the papers on top and carefully searched. In the end, he turned around to approach the bookcase, and flipped through the books one by one.
He looked everywhere to see if there was a hidden mechanism or a concealed dead angle.
Although the fight just now was silent, it was possible that someone may wonder by. Then his actions would be exposed, so his hands and feet had to be a bit quicker.
But he searched for quite a while and came up empty handed.
He couldn't help but narrow his eyes, could it be it's not here?
At this moment, he sensed someone approaching and his eyes sank. He turned around and swept the papers back to their original place on the table.
When his finger touched a wooden box, he paused. Just now he only paid attention to looking for things, so he didn't notice what was inside. He only remembered it was a folded paper. As a result, he unfolded the paper and picked up the first piece of paper to read it using the moonlight.
'Hair lightly rolled up into a bun, using light makeup to adorn, gracefully covered in a light smoke like fog, a gossamer of hair flying that hasn't been fixed.
Seeing each other is like not seeing, too much affection is like being heartless, music and song dispersed as if waking up from wine, the moon in the deep courtyard tred a person's calm.'
Poet Si Ma Guang (1)?
The inscription of the date and content was written by Chu Qing-Yan.
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu felt this poem wasn't bad, only who was Si Ma Guan? How come he never heard of this person?
Only that this handwriting was less than impressive. He recalled that little face with a somewhat depressed expression when he teased her on the tree and couldn't help but laugh out loud softly.
And just at this moment, the footsteps neared and his expression stiffened. In pa.s.sing, he stuffed this poem into his sleeves and with a leap, he exited the study.
The person flashed out of the courtyard and then heard a burst of clamor. It could be a.s.sumed that they had discovered those two secret guards. Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu exhaled a light laugh, giving a feeling as if he had done something bad!
People floated and dodged around inside the manor and very quickly, they exited.
Finally, he stood firmly outside of the wall and the black clothed people had all come back one by one.
The head of the black clothed people took a step forward to say. "Reporting to young palace master, this person and his subordinates have already searched once through Prince Ying's manor and didn't find those things. Subordinate suspects that those things are not inside Prince Ying's manor."
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu lazily leaned on top of the tree, the folding fan hitting the center of his palm, as he said in a low voice. "Could it have been taken away by Xiao Xu?"
"This subordinate feels it's very possible!" The head of the black clothed people replied.
Dongting w.a.n.g-Yu gave a light sigh, pretending to be worried, he said. "Really somewhat of a headache. This young master hates running around busily the most!"
Eh——everyone of the black clothed people's forehead was full of black lines.
"But in order to take back those things, this young master should personally make this trip ah!"
Young master, if you want to go on a scenic tour, then directly say so ah. It's not like we'll say something!
"I heard this time Xiao Xu and the others went to dig a mine. The little girl is also present, hehe— thinking about it, I feel it's very novel!"
Young master felt novel? They had a bad premonition!
"Let's go together to dig a mine!"
They were already used to this kind of young master!
1) Si Ma Guang: A historian, politician and writer from the Song dynasty of China. Here is his wiki page if you want to know more.