Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 223: Trust in partners

Lu Gaoxuan thought that women were indeed more cruel than men, but he still felt the need to remind her, "But if Song Qingshu doesn't give us Fukang'an's illegitimate children, we may not be able to escape the pursuit of Prince Bao's Palace."

"Lu Gaoxuan, where is your usual intelligence? Why should we be led around the nose by Song Qingshu? Why should we move based on his arrangement?" Su Quan smiled, but the tone of her voice had turned cold.

Lu Gaoxuan was startled, and hurriedly bowed as he said, "This subordinate is stupid, I ask Madame for her instructions!"

"Since we are going to use the twins in exchange for the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, why wait for Song Qingshu to give them to us? Why don't we find them ourselves?" Su Quan sneered.

"Does Madame mean that we should find another pair of twins to use as Fukang'an's illegitimate children?" Lu Gaoxuan asked.

"That won’t work. If Fukang'an's illegitimate children were not twins, it would be easier to handle. We could’ve just found a baby to replace it. Unfortunately, we have to deal with twins. It's not that easy to find a convincing replacement." Su Quan said, as lay on her side on the couch, and lightly tapped her fingertips on her thigh, obviously thinking about the problem very seriously.

Lu Gaoxuan glanced at her profile for a moment and hurriedly lowered his head, then thought, ‘The Cult Master's wife is really charming, and if I didn’t fear death, I might’ve taken a chance to…’

"Lu Gaoxuan, your eyes are darting around, what are you thinking about?" As Su Quan's faux-smiling voice came to his ear, cold sweat dripped down Lu Gaoxuan's back, and he hurriedly replied, "I'm thinking about how to find and take the twins from Song Qingshu's hands. There must be a clue."

Su Quan chuckled and said, "Yes, Song Qingshu has Fukang'an's illegitimate children in his hands, and naturally he won’t bring them to the Sifang Pavilion. The Sifang Pavilion is full of Hongli's spies. He is not so stupid.”

“And his subordinates are all men. The babies needs to drink milk every day, so he will definitely find a wet nurse for the twins. But, it would be too eye-catching to look for one in Shengjing City, and the chances of being spotted by Prince Bao's spies would also be very high. So it’s highly unlikely that he has brought the twins into Shengjing City.”

“But it seems that his plan of ??exchanging twins for the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters is not a thing he made on the spot. Since he has planned for a long time, the position of the twins cannot be too far away from him. Hmph, send down the order and let the brothers of the Cult look into the farmers on the outskirts of Shengjing, especially paying more attention to those who have just given birth. Find them as soon as possible."

"Yes!" Lu Gaoxuan and the others hurriedly withdrew from the room, secretly admiring this beautiful and charming Cult Master's wife. But when they thought of her ruthless means of getting rid of the old elders in the Cult, they couldn't help having mixed feelings.

*****

After Song Qingshu left the Wanhao Inn, he hid his tracks along the way, bought some weird things from several grocery stores in Shengjing City, and finally came to a house. Checking that no one was around, he quietly sneaked inside.

The owner of the house was a couple in their forties. Song Qingshu hid in the dark, as he silently observed the words and deeds of the two, until the sun set, and then he just quietly left.

Coming near the Sifang Pavilion, Song Qingshu didn’t enter immediately. Instead, he carefully looked at the buildings around the Sifang Pavilion, and finally locked his sight on a nearby inn. Hiding his tracks along the way, he used his movement technique to jump upstairs and glanced in the direction of the Sifang Pavilion. Suddenly realizing something, he pressed his hand on the window, broke the bolt inside, opened the window and jumped inside

As soon as he entered the room, he felt a gust of air from a palm strike coming in his direction, and it also carried the scent of a woman. Song Qingshu jumped back and quickly said, "Don't attack, it's me!"

The girl was obviously stunned when she saw him, but after a brief moment of panic, she calmed down, "Who are you?"

Song Qingshu was also stunned for a moment, and when he looked carefully, it turned out that there was an unfamiliar and beautiful girl in front of him. This woman was tall and slender with long legs.

"Xian'er, what's the matter?" Soon a handsome young man rushed in from next door, and was obviously also taken aback when he saw Song Qingshu.

The girl hurriedly said, "Brother, this person suddenly broke in from the window, could he be a thief?"

Seeing the girl's silent gesture, the young man also sobered up, and suddenly became furious, "What! A thief? How dare you attack my sister!"

Song Qingshu was also feeling quite embarrassed. He didn't expect things to turn out this way, so he had to explain while dodging, "It's really a misunderstanding. I thought a friend of mine lived here."

The girl coldly snorted, "That's quite convenient, what’s your friend's name? Call him out and we’ll confront him."

"I'm his friend, and I hope you two will forgive him." A gentle voice was suddenly heard from the door.

Song Qingshu looked up and saw that it was Ajiu, who was wearing a green men's attire. She stood at the door and frowned at everyone in the room.

The young man and the girl couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and Song Qingshu took the opportunity to jump out of the battle circle, came to Ajiu’s side, and quickly said, "I wanted to find her."

Ajiu also nodded, "I live in the room next to you. My friend seems to have remembered the wrong room, so I hope you two will forgive his transgression."

"So, that's it." The young man and the girl looked at each other, pretended to be impatient and said, "Be careful next time!" Then, they slammed the door shut.

Ajiu glanced at Song Qingshu with a faux-smile but led him to her room, "Do you always use such a sneaky method to break into a woman's room?"

"This was just an accident, I thought you lived there." Song Qingshu was feeling a little embarrassed after causing such a big scene.

"You thought I lived there?" Ajiu gently inquired, "What if I was taking a bath?"

"This…" Song Qingshu became embarrassed, "Why would you be taking a bath in the daytime?"

"When I lived in the palace, I would take a bath at any time I felt like. Besides…" Ajiu looked at the darkness outside of the window, "It seems to be dark now."

Seeing that Song Qingshu seems to be scrambling around for words, Ajiu showed a slight smile, "Alright, I was just trying to tease you on purpose. By the way, how did you find this place?"

Song Qingshu breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on a stool, "I wanted to contact you for something, but I didn't know when you would respond. I remembered that you said that I should tie a yellow silk to the tree in the yard. So, I boldly guessed that you should be hiding near the Sifang Pavilion. I looked around, and the location of this inn was just right. Then, based on the angle of the courtyard of the Sifang Pavilion, I guessed the location of your room, but I didn’t expect to get the room wrong.”

“By the way, do you know the origins of those two brothers and sisters? I just fought against them, and I feel that the two of them are not weak at all. At such an age, with their level of skill, they should not be someone unknown."

"You're obviously not that old either, why do you keep referring to yourself like that?" Ajiu gave him a blank look, "I don't know as well. The two siblings seem to be living alone. I heard from the innkeeper that the two of them seem to be here for some business and came to Liaodong to buy ginseng."

"For business?" Recalling the scene just now, Song Qingshu became thoughtful.

"Why were you looking for me in such a hurry?" Ajiu asked softly.

"The main purpose is to save Qingqing. I’ve thought of a plan. In the next two or three days, I need you to cooperate with me to enter the palace." Speaking of Xia Qingqing, Song Qingshu's voice became calm.

"The two of us will just break in like that?" Ajiu looked at him a bit suspiciously.

"Of course not, I thought of a way to distract the tiger." Song Qingshu said.

"That's it?" Ajiu frowned, "What should I do?"

"It's not the right time to say it now, you'll naturally know when that time comes." Song Qingshu didn't want to tell the plan right now.

Ajiu glanced at him blankly, a thin layer of anger appeared on her face, but soon it disappeared again, and she said, "You don't trust your partner and think that you can do everything alone, by yourself. Remember, even if Wu Jiang was able to kill Xiang Yu by himself, but he could not be Liu Bang, who founded the great Han Dynasty which ruled the land for four hundred years."

Song Qingshu fell into silence, looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, and let out a soft sigh, "You are a saintess of the Ming Cult after all."

"At least you are able to tell me your concerns now, which is also a kind of progress." Hearing him say this, Ajiu showed a smile on her face. She moved her body and leisurely leaned on the bed, "In order to gain the trust of others, you must first put your own trust in them. Since you won't trust me, then let me be the one to put my trust in you. I won't ask about your plan, and I will do whatever you ask me to do.”

“And…if you betray me, for example, if you capture me and hand me over to Kangxi, or take revenge on the Ming Cult. Then I guess it’ll be my fault for believing in the wrong person."

Looking at her smiling face, Song Qingshu suddenly felt that he had touched a field of thought that he had never touched before, ‘Is this the bearing of the imperial bloodline?’(G: Did I mention how much I like Ajiu? She just casually taught the MC the way of a monarch.)

Song Qingshu felt a little lost, and finally understood that regardless of his previous life or the present, due to the limitations of identity and status, he was just inherently lacking some valuable qualities as a leader.

‘And I laughed at Luo Bing and the Red Flower Society for having a narrow vision? Wasn’t I the same as them?’ (G: See…some real character development!)

"What, are you awed by me?" Ajiu jumped out of bed, bent over with her hands behind her back, and looked into Song Qingshu's eyes.

"I'm just wondering if the princess has ever considered choosing a prince consort." Song Qingshu raised his head and smiled.

Ajiu suddenly blushed, shrank back, and gently said, "Don't think too much of it. I will never get married in my life. It's getting late, Young Master Song, please take your leave."

Seeing that Ajiu was keen to evict her guest, Song Qingshu smiled bitterly. Although he was still a bit reluctant, he had to leave.

*****

Noticing that Song Qingshu had left the inn, Su Yin next door said in a deep voice, "Xian'er, why did you expose your martial arts just now?"

"I thought that it was a thief, how could I know it was that basta*d?" Yelu Nanxian pouted and said indignantly.

"Master Su, Xian'er can't really be blamed for reacting like that in that situation." Yelu Qi quickly supported her.

"Although we’ve not been exposed, I am afraid it has already aroused his suspicion. Let's change the inn." Su Yin said.

"But doesn't this make our identity more suspicious?" Yelu Nanxian exclaimed.

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