Chapter 635: Mad About Money (1/2)
The man with the big beard snorted out a gust of air from his nostrils and grumbled, “Heavenly Teacher, Heavenly Teacher! The great king has been bewitched by that fellow and believes that dribble about ‘immortality medicine’! How could a stupid teenage girl possibly know any arts to make immortality medicine? In my eyes, that Heavenly Teacher, who we have no background information on, is the one who is suspicious!”
“Second Brother, hold your tongue!” The person who spoke this time was a middle-aged man who had a graceful and elegant demeanor to him. His face was pale without any facial hair and he was dressed in scholarly clothes. However, his eyes shone with a crafty light, which completely destroyed his outward elegant appearance.
“Eldest Brother, I’ve already asked around. The guests here contain one royal prince and the other two youths and girls are all the children of high-ranking officials. From their appearances, it doesn’t look like our target is among them. It’s better not to act rashly in case we end up beating the grass and scaring off the snake!” The man with the knife scar on his face looked at the middle-aged scholar as he quietly stated.
When the big bearded fellow heard this, his eyes immediately lit up, “The children of high-ranking officials? I’m sure they have a ton of cash on them. If we catch any one of them, we can eat and drink merrily for the rest of our lives!”
The man with the scarred face glared at him and huffed, “Did you get addicted to masquerading as a bandit ah? Do you think the guards they brought with them are pushovers? What’s her name, the royal princess, is lodging not far from town. If a ruckus happens here, do you think they wouldn’t be able to find out? Perhaps there are even their spies here already. It’s better not to introduce a new twist in our plans without thinking it through!”
The man with the beard sneered and replied, “Old Three, I think you’ve spent too much time here in the Central Plains. Not only do you speak all fancy now but you’ve also become more of a coward too! In my opinion, we should have our fellow brothers ambush them when these guys leave town. After they’re dead, we can plunder the loot. By the time that whatever royal princess comes along, we would have fled long ago!”
Although the middle-aged scholar seemed a bit tempted by this proposition, in the end, he decided to say this instead, “Official business first! The rest we can all figure out later!”
The little divine stone waited in the dark, listening for a long time. When it knew that these people had no intentions of harming its master tonight, it eavesdropped for a bit longer to learn their plans. After getting the information it was looking for, it turned around and silently left.
These foreigners would have never expected that their carefully thought out plans had inadvertently been leaked out without them even knowing what had happened. When the little divine stone got back to Xiaocao’s room, it told its master everything that these fellows had outlined. As she had expected, the enemy had set up an ambush at Wild Wolves Slope with about a thousand men there. They were all waiting for ‘Royal Princess Jinan’s’ carriage and escort to walk into the trap!
Yu Xiaocao knew that there were countless eyes in town staring at them, so it wouldn’t be convenient for them to send someone out with this information. Instead, she wrote down all of the details on a piece of paper and asked the little divine stone to carry it in its mouth to the decoys outside of town.
The little divine stone was displeased with her plan.
“Then do you plan on morphing into a homing pigeon? I can tie the paper onto your tail instead.” Yu Xiaocao retorted.
The little divine stone thought about its beautiful and elegant tail with a stupid piece of paper bound to it. It was still better for it to carry it in its mouth. At least it’d look less dumb that way. It grumbled a bit as it unhappily headed out with the note in its mouth, jumping through the window. It disappeared silently in the darkness of the night.
Since the foreign enemy wasn’t planning on attacking them tonight, Xiaocao went to sleep with a light heart. She slept deeply without any dreams. The next morning, after washing up, she saw He Wanning come out of her room listlessly with a pair of prominent panda eyes.
“What happened? Did you go out last night to steal some needle and thread from other people?” Yu Xiaocao couldn’t resist the urge to make fun of the other girl.
“Don’t mention it! Didn’t you say last night that there were countless foreigners in town with ulterior motives ah? After hearing that, she was anxious the entire night and tossed and turned, disrupting the entire room! Didn’t you always claim that you were bold and brave ah? How come you’re so cowardly now?” Yuan Xueyan spared no effort in ridiculing her good friend.
He Wanning righteously stated, “I have some skill in martial arts, so if bandits appear I can at least defend myself for a few moves and stall for enough time for the bodyguards to come over. I was worried for you, okay. You’re a weak and delicate young maiden. I was the one who brought you out so the responsibility rests on me to bring you back safe and sound. Last night, the reason why I didn’t sleep was because I was trying to keep a night watch, okay? Argh...I’m so sleepy. I’m pretty sure I can fall asleep while riding my horse today!”
Yu Xiaocao remarked out of guilt, “I was the one who wasn’t thoughtful enough. I should have sent either Chunhua or Qiushi over to protect you guys!”
“No need! Among the maids I brought, two of them also have some martial arts skills. Although they’re not as strong as Chunhua or Qiushi, even ten of me wouldn’t be able to beat any one of them. The enemy’s target is you, so it’s better that Chunhua and Qiushi stay by your side to keep you safe.” He Wanning yawned again and rubbed her eyes with a hand as she spoke casually.
As they talked, the Ning Brothers also exited their rooms. The two men seemed to be in good spirits and Ning Donghuan was as cheerfully happy as ever. When he saw them, he said, “Let’s go and try out some special breakfast foods in this area. I’ve already investigated everything. Not far from here is a small shop that sells barbecued donkey meat and almond milk. It should be decent.”