Aoyama

Chapter 216 Cicada Wings
In the main room, Su Zhou sat weakly on the bed. Xiaoman poked her head out from behind Chen Ji. The dim, flickering candlelight kept pulling the shadows of the three people, just like their thoughts, which kept shaking.

Chen Ji said to Xiao Man, "You stay in the room, I'll be back soon."

Xiaoman pulled his sleeve and whispered, "Sir, this woman is too fierce. I'll go with you!"

Chen Ji comforted him, "Keep an eye on the door and don't let anyone in."

Xiaoman: "Oh..."

Su Zhou looked at Chen Ji coldly: "I advise you not to have any evil thoughts, otherwise your whole family will die."

Chen Ji said slowly: "Don't worry, I'm going to get you some healing items."

After saying that, he turned and went out. After closing the two wooden doors of the main room, he walked out to the courtyard.

Xiao Man said anxiously behind him: "Master, please come back soon. I am a little scared to be alone with this woman."

Chen Ji raised his eyebrows but did not turn around.

The moment the door closed, Xiaoman stood up straight and the panic expression on her face subsided a little.

She pushed the door open a crack as if nothing had happened, peeped out quietly, and said to Su Zhou behind her: "You must be mistaken, vicious woman. My young master would never betray Prince Jing. He proved it this afternoon at Zhang's house..."

Before she finished her words, Xiaoman turned around and found that Su Zhou had come behind her like a ghost.

Xiaoman used her fingers as a knife to chop at Su Zhou, but Su Zhou's body was as slippery as a loach, and he slipped behind Xiaoman while following the chopping arm.

The Emei Spear was placed against Xiaoman's jaw again. If she moved at the slightest, the poisoned Emei Spear would pierce into her chin.

Xiaoman was caught off guard and cried out, "Let me go, let's go find a place to fight."

Su Zhou whispered: "Don't shout, or I'll kill you too."

She observed Chen Ji through the crack in the door and saw that Chen Ji talked with the soldiers from the Bingmasi for a while. No one came in to arrest her, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

Xiaoman muttered, "Are you relieved now? My young master will definitely not betray you, nor will he betray Prince Jing."

Su Zhou said in a deep voice: "You can know a person's face but not his heart. Even the brothers who have been with the prince for many years can betray the prince, why can't he?"

Xiaoman said helplessly: "My son is not that kind of person. He has never had the heart to kill a chicken since he was a child. He once raised two chicks and cried for a long time when he accidentally killed one of them. He is very kind."

Su Zhou sneered: "People can change. Everyone in the martial arts world says that he has a close relationship with the princess and the prince, but I see that the Prince Jing's mansion has been in great trouble, and he is not sad at all. Doesn't this prove that he betrayed the prince?"

Xiaoman looked at Chen Hui's receding figure outside the door, and after a long silence, she said, "He is very sad. He just doesn't want others to see that he is sad, but I can see it."

Su Zhou sneered: "Are you the worm in his stomach?"

Xiaoman was silent for a moment, then said calmly: "Hey, we all work under the Lord, I saved you out of kindness, you must not be ungrateful. You put your Emei spear against my neck twice, what, can you really kill me?"

The candlelight in the room froze for a moment, the atmosphere became cold, and even the charcoal basin in the room seemed to be dimmer.

Su Zhou said calmly: "You are just a seventh-class candle master. How dare you talk to me like this?"

Xiaoman opened his mouth and said, "I... I just don't have as strong a murderous nature as you do. I just don't like killing people, that's why I can't get promoted. By the way, I saved you this time, but you haven't given me the copper coins yet."

Su Zhou thought for a moment, slowly put down the Emei Spear, took out a copper coin from his sleeve and threw it into Xiaoman's arms.

Xiaoman picked up the copper coin and examined it carefully. She saw that the words "Denghuo" were not engraved on the copper coin. Instead, they were engraved with the words "Denghuo". "So this is the Denghuo copper coin. Can it really be exchanged for 200 taels of silver?"

Seeing her expression, Su Zhou asked in confusion, "Have you never seen a copper coin?"

Xiaoman stiffened his neck and said, "Who said I haven't seen it? Haven't I seen it?"

Su Zhou was even more confused: "You really have never seen the Lantern Coin. Have you never accepted a mission before? Who brought you into the Lantern?"

Xiaoman pouted: "Who are you? Why should I tell you? By the way, did the governor tell us why we are called 'Lantern'?"

Su Zhou sighed, "How come you don't know anything? 'Light' means 'home'. When you go home, if there is a light at home, it means there is someone at home. 'Lights' means to give homeless people like us a home."

Xiaoman lowered her head and put the copper coins into the pouch on her waist: "No need, you don't have a home, but I do."

Su Zhou: “…”

Xiao Man pocketed the copper coins and warned, "I will save you, but I warn you not to hurt my son, and not to reveal my identity, and not to use the Emei Spear against me again... Hey you!"

thump.

Before Xiaoman could finish her words, Su Zhou fainted on the ground.

……

……

When Chen Ji returned, he was holding two red lacquered food boxes in his hands.

Outside the gate of Mingquan Garden, six soldiers from the Military Department held torches. Chen Ji handed them food boxes and said, "Generals, it's not easy to be out on duty in this cold wind. I have asked the kitchen to prepare some food for you. Eat it while it's hot." The soldiers from the Military Department were flattered and said, "Third Young Master, you are too polite. We don't need to bother you to think about food."

Although Chen Ji was a bastard son of the Chen family, he was already a high-ranking figure to these soldiers, someone they could not reach even if they stood on tiptoe.

Chen Ji smiled and asked casually, "By the way, with so many of you coming to guard the Chen Mansion, how are we going to catch people?"

The leading soldier at the gate grumbled, "We in the Luocheng Military Department know our own strengths and weaknesses, and the Secret Service Department has to do the serious work of arresting people."

Chen Ji asked casually, "Are there any clues where the incident happened?"

The soldier smiled and replied, "You've asked the right person. We were the first group to arrive there. The streets of Xingluo were covered in blood. Only one of the Qiansui Army soldiers was killed, and General Wang's chest was stabbed like a sieve."

Chen Ji took a deep breath and said, "How many murderers killed so many people?"

The soldier said, "According to the Secret Service's Living King of Hell, there are two murderers in total, one is the female assassin of the lamp, and the other is an accomplice who controls the spirits."

Chen Ji smiled and asked, "Since it's the Secret Service, they will surely be able to catch them. Did the Secret Service say how and when they can be caught? After all, it's quite scary to see these murderers at large."

"Don't be afraid, Third Young Master. We are here to protect you," a soldier said with a simple smile, "The Secret Service is searching all the hospitals in the city right now. It is said that the female assassin was seriously injured. If she is not treated in time, she may not survive."

Chen Ji hummed, and walked into Mingquan Garden with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work, brothers. I will go back and rest first."

Several soldiers hurriedly nodded and bowed: "Thank you, Third Young Master. You can go back and rest now."

Chen Ji bolted the yard gate and returned to the house.

Su Zhou was lying unconscious on the bed. When Xiao Man saw him coming back, she hurried over to him and said in shock, "The young master has been gone for a long time. I was almost scared to death staying in the same room with this vicious woman."

Chen Ji smiled and didn't take it to heart.

The most strange thing about tonight's events is how Su Zhou was able to accurately find his room while on the run.

It is not difficult to find Chen's Mansion, but how can a female assassin who has just arrived in Luocheng and is alone find his location accurately in Chen's Mansion?
Su Zhou and Xiaoman both treated him as an ordinary person and thought he was easy to fool.

Chen Ji did not expose them and just watched quietly to see what they were trying to do.

He took out a palm-sized white porcelain bottle and a sewing box from his arms and handed them to Xiaoman: "The white porcelain bottle contains the strongest burning knife in the mansion. Use it to clean the wound of the person on the bed, and the wound will not fester."

Xiaoman looked at the sewing box: "What is this?"

Chen Ji took a look at the knife wounds on Su Zhou's body and said, "Roast the needle on the charcoal basin. After burning, sew her wounds like sewing clothes. As for whether she can survive, it depends on her luck."

Xiao Man's eyes widened. "I have heard of pouring strong liquor on wounds, but did you learn to sew human skin with needle and thread in the clinic? Why have I never heard of it before?"

Chen Ji hummed: "What I learned in the clinic is useful."

A sutured wound can prevent secondary infection and heal with granulation tissue in about ten days. If it is not sutured, it may not heal in one or two months.

Chen Ji left the house and let Xiaoman rescue him.

He sat at the stone table in the yard, looking at his palms quietly.

The next moment, he closed his palms, and when he opened them again, a black "sword seed" was suspended in his palms.

The black sword looked like a bamboo leaf, without a hilt or a tine, and as thin as a cicada's wing.

Chen Ji touched it with his fingertips. The surface was rough, as if it was made of black iron. Even the edges were not smooth and flat. It did not look very stylish no matter how you looked at it.

He pondered in his heart: "Why is Xuanyuan's sword so colorful and shining, like a meteor when it shuttles through? But my sword looks like an inconspicuous piece of iron... Is it because I haven't seized enough swords, or haven't kept them for long enough?"

Chen Ji tried to control the sword with his mind, but the black iron piece was shaking in front of him, always out of control, and couldn't go fast enough.

In an instant, he simply controlled the sword and flew towards the wintersweet tree in the yard.

His original intention was to penetrate a leaf, but when the sword reached the wintersweet tree, it deviated by several inches.

With a hissing sound, a wintersweet branch as thick as two fingers broke, and the sword returned to Chen Ji's palm intact.

Chen Ji walked forward and looked up at the plum blossom branch, which was smooth and flat, as if he had just cut a piece of tofu instead of a piece of wood.

He lowered his head to look at the sword. He had finally mastered the art of sword practice and was no longer a layman.

However, no one knows how many sword powers he has to seize and how many people he has to kill before he can achieve his goal.

With a creak, the door of the main room was pushed open.

Chen Ji put the sword back into his sleeve and asked calmly, "What's wrong?"

Xiaoman looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then said, "The wound has been sutured, please come in."

(End of this chapter)