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Chapter 50: A Bit Vague
“Knock knock knock!” A knock on the door interrupted the two’s line of thought.
“Xuanyuan! Yunlan!” Bai Yiran’s voice sounded from outside the door.
Gu Yunlan stood up at once to open up for Bai Yiran to be brought inside before closing the door.
Bai Yiran sat down at the same table Gu Yunlan was sitting before. He took out a wrapped object in his palm.
Gu Yunlan leaned in closer to see. A single leaf had a dried bloodstain on it, she asked in astonishment, ”This is…?’
“An Shufen’s nails were all broken, which meant she clung onto the murderer with excessive strength. However, there were no traces of blood in her fingernails. The blood on this leaf didn’t dry naturally either, but rather, most of it was sucked into the leaf!” Bai Yiran explained.
He took out a pair of tongs and held up that leaf. The leaf was held up to the moonlight outside the window, allowing the two of them see, “You see, there is blood inside!”
Gu Yunlan observed it carefully; indeed, the blood within the leaf was even circulating!
“The bones at the very tip of her fingers were broken, having snapped before her death. Her nails seemed to have scraped the murderer, but didn’t scrape off any flesh. Instead, her fingernails were completely broken. From what can be seen, this murderer…” Xuanyuan Ying drummed the table as he thought over it carefully.
“It doesn’t seem to be a human. The one who killed An Shufen really isn’t Yangjin!” Gu Yunlan stood by the table and said while looking at the leaf, “It could also be said that someone visited our home last night! Yet, we didn’t even notice. Thus, this person either has high cultivation, or possesses a concealing technique!”
Xuanyuan Ying’s pupils flashed, this word “our,” he likes it. That’s right, this is our home. He glanced at the standing Gu Yunlan, “That person seems to have secretly observed us, otherwise, how would he know that we weren’t paying attention to An Shufen. Only then did he pull off her death.”
“More importantly, since they were able to enter, it means that we completely lack security. He seems to be ahead of us by a whole level!” Bai Yiran put away the white cloth. A flash of interest passed through his pupils; to think even the Gu City had hidden dragons, crouching tigers!
“Those two left just now?” Gu Yunlan walked to another chair and sat down. Those two she mentioned were Yangjin and An Jiaona.
“That couple? Hah!” Bai Yiran laughed out loud, they’re like paper tigers! “They are truly stupid, not even a worthy opponent. They didn’t even look at a corpse carefully, didn’t even spare a second glance. Even more, they even fear your guards, and could only walk away dejectedly in the end.”
“Don’t relax now. If anything, we should be on guard. Another consideration is the recruitment and training of soldiers!” Xuanyuan Ying leaned back, looking at the two, “When there’s time, Yunlan should go to the troops to train too, plus the two little sisters of ours should also be thrown in! This way we can avoid some difficulties!”
Gu Yunlan nodded her head. She wanted to say something, but then there was a knock on the door, “Young Miss! Chief Officer Li has arrived!”
Mister Li? Gu Yunlan hesitated, then immediately said, “Let Mister Li in!”
“Aiya!” There was the sound of an opening door, followed by the quiet closing of the door. Li Yiteng’s tall and straighten figure appeared in their line of sight. He saluted towards the three of them, “General! Young Miss!”
“Please sit, Uncle Li, is something wrong?” Gu Yunlan beckoned for him to sit down.
Li Yiteng nodded his head and sat beside Gu Yunlan. With a bitter smile he said, “Yunlan, since you have taken over the position of Marshal, there are some matters you must personally deal with!”
“Please say, Uncle Li!” Gu Yunlan slightly creased her brows, “For Uncle Li to personally come over, the importance must not be small!”
“Ai! All these had been delayed for half a year. Our Gu City already had countless young men and women go missing.” Li Yiteng signed out a breath before continuing, “Then also, the Shing Wong Temple in the western district has become more and more vicious!”
“When was this? Why did you wait so long to report?” Gu Yunlan and Xuanyuan Ying looked at each other, Xuanyuan Ying shook his head, even he didn’t understand.
“It started half a year ago, it was reported to the Great Marshal back then, but was constantly turned away by Commander Yang. He said that such matters are too small to report!” Li Yiteng shook his head, he hasn’t even seen the Marshal in roughly half a year. Only when he saw Gu Yunlan come back yesterday did he know that the Marshal was sick and was heading out to the countryside to recuperate. So everything was handed to the Eldest Miss to deal with.
“Regarding those two matters, have there been any suspicious areas lately?” Xuanyuan Ying asked.
“Yes!” Li Yiteng thought for a moment, then said, “Among the disappeared young women, their age were all around sixteen years old, all of them are virgin, and have a pretty appearance. By the time they were found, they’ve already been dead for a while. The skin was gone, not a hint of clothing was left; even the deceaseds’ family found it hard to tell if they were their daughter.”
The three of them sunk into deep thought.
“Right! Up ‘til now, all this occurred under a round moon!” Li Yiteng thought for a bit before adding on.
Seeing that the two of them have sunk into deep thought, Bai Yiran asked, “Then what’s going on over at Shing Wong Temple?”
“This was also something from half a year ago, occurring a month after the matter with the young women. Some people said they heard someone crying in the temple every night, saying they wanted to return home. At first, it was one person but then turned into more and more sounds of crying. It was only at night in the beginning, but now it happens during the daytime too, ai! Now people would all take a detour in order to avoid walking near that place!” Li Yiteng’s brows creased deeply, for the entire half-year, he’s been suffering from insomnia because of these cases.
“You didn’t send anyone to take a look?” Gu Yunlan asked.
“We did, but around a hundred meters away from the temple, it became impossible to enter! They said there was an invisible wall blocking them! Even I went over there a few times, and it was as they say! Inside was even more barren of people. We could only hear the cries of the people yet not the people themselves.” Li Yiteng shook his head, they really couldn’t do anything else he needn’t report to his superiors anymore!
“En!” Gu Yunlan wrinkled her brows and instructed, “Uncle Li, prepare the materials on these two places! I want to look into them this afternoon. Just hand these matters to me. As for the military, I’ll have to bother Uncle Li to worry about it!”
“No worries! Young Miss is so modest. Since Young Miss has been informed already, then I shall head towards the troops first!” Li Yiteng has said what he needed to say, then immediately stood up. He hesitated for a moment before looking at Xuanyuan Ying saying, “Right! General Xuanyuan, in the Northeast, we’re having a conflict with them again. However, this time the fight is worse, my troops could only retreat!”
“Uncle Li, I shall head over tomorrow, “Xuanyuan Ying nodded his head, paused a bit, “Right! Is Yangjin the Commander? Have him go too!”
“Yes! Then this servant shall withdraw!” Li Yiteng released a breath before backing out, the situation over there is much worse than he described!
Seeing him close the door, Gu Yunlan looked at him doubtfully, “For you to bring him along, is it because you don’t want him to mess anything up?”
“Right!” Xuanyuan Ying nodded, “He is a young master who doesn’t know his place. I’m only at ease if he’s close under my watch!”
“Ai! The matters at hand aren’t very clear, yet now there’s troubles over there too!” Bai Yiran stood up slowly, and walked out the door, whispering, “You two take your time to think about it, I’ll return to take a nap. Being dragged out so early in the morning by Xin’er to look at a corpse, truly is depressing!”
Xuanyuan Ying glanced at him coldly, only when the door shut did he sit up stright, “I shall leave tomorrow, I must not delay. You must be careful here by yourself, don’t even go to the Zi Family!”
“En! I know!” Gu Yunlan nodded her head.
“I’ll get Yangjin away and have Mengmeng protect you. This unknown assassin busniess, plus the missing ladies, you must be careful; stay low!” Xuanyuan Ying creased his brows. There are too many dangers, he can’t ever relax. He thought for a while then said, “Let Mengmeng move
“Xuanyuan…” Gu Yunlan had an odd look on her face, he tended to be brash! This is getting more troublesome, she said in a quiet voice, “To be honest I know martial arts, I even have some medical knowledge…”
“En?” Xuanyuan Ying looked at her coldly, Gu Yunlan fell silent immediately, “Others do not know this, so as your trump card, there’s no need to expose it. It may even be able to save you at a critical moment! Also, your medical knowledge can act as hexcraft too! Did you know?”
Gu Yunlan nodded her head. What he said was all right, these were all the trump cards used for saving her life. Her other master had passed down hexcrafts to her, only she didn’t care for them. Seems like, she needs to start caring for them now.
After dinner, Li Yiteng sent over a thick stack of materials. A group of people sat in the courtyard, slowly thumbing through them.
“Yunlan, look here!” Xuanyuan Ying sat next to Gu Yunlan, pointing at the papers in his hand. Gu Yunlan leaned over to see, on top was written; deceased, Xiao Lanzhi, female, sixteen years old, born in Yinyue. The alarming part is the missing Li Zhuting; female, sixteen, born in Yinyue.
Gu Yunlan’s pupils darkened, she immediately snatched it over! Zhuting is also missing? Why didn’t Uncle Li mention it this afternoon?
“It could be that he doesn’t want you to worry!” Xuanyuan Ying sighed out loud, “After you finish looking over the materials, I’ll go with you to the Shing Wong temple! As for the missing girls, you’ll have to rely on yourself!”
“En!” Gu Yunlan nodded her head. She also didn’t like the invisible wall they bumped into, it’s merely barrier, yet her strength is so weak, she cannot break it by herself.
“Yunlan!” Xuanyuan Meng called out, holding out some materials towards the two of them, “This place isn’t right!”
Gu Yunlan held out her hand and took it. On it was records of accounts by witnesses. The only thing was, that the wailing by day and by night was too different. The ones by night were gloomy and frightening, while the ones by day are like those of weeping women! The oddest part was still that invisible wall, which caused all the people in the city to feel alarmed.
Seeing this, Gu Yunlan’s brows creased even more. Her thoughts were in a mess, they all tangled in a knot as if every clue can connect to the other, yet don’t relate to one another at the same time! The main lead, right! The biggest clue, right! Just that the biggest clue, if only they can break through that invisible wall, then they’d know what exactly happened inside.
On the second day, the day was still young when Gu Yunlan stared carefully at the man wearing a martial uniform in front of her. Handsome and dashing, there seems to be a new look in his pupils, something glistening and twinkling.
Her heartfelt somewhat reluctant, what is this? When Papa went out in the past, she was only worried then.
”Remember to be more careful, don’t show off too much, run if you can’t win! Know this okay!” Gu Yunlan smoothed out his collar, “If you were to get hurt again, then no matter how much blood I have, it wouldn’t be able to save you!”
“Don’t make yourself seem so much like my savior!” Xuanyuan Ying glanced at her cooly, “I’m your savior!”
“Hmph!” Gu Yunlan harrumphed coldly, an awkward blush appeared on her face. She inhaled a breath, “Go then! I’ll send you off to the camp!”
Xuanyuan Ying held up her hand and walked in the direction of the courtyard exit. It was still early in the morning, as light has just barely colored the sky. There was no one outside the courtyard as he prodded her, “I’ll go now, you should be taking care of yourself. If you need anything then rely on Mengmeng!”
“En!” Gu Yunlan nodded her head, her eyes were a bit moist, “Come back quickly!”
“Alright!” The couple’s figures drew further and further apart…
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