A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 385 Shadow
At this moment, a maid suddenly ran over from the other end of the corridor in a panic. Seeing that there were many people in the garden, she whispered something to Guan Kui.

Guan Kui's face changed and he immediately ran to the other end of the corridor with a lantern in hand.

Tang Wanhong looked at Guan Kui and the maid as they hurriedly left. Her eyes fixed and she had already guessed what had happened.

He looked at the guards who were still surrounding the garden, his face darkened, and he shouted coldly: "What are you all standing here for? Stay at your respective posts and do what you need to do!"

When the guards saw that Tang Wanhong's words were filled with hidden anger, they immediately dispersed and hid in the darkness.

The man in the felt hat was about to leave, but Tang Wanhong suddenly stopped him and said, "Xiong Yi, don't leave. Go to my room and wait for me. I'll be there in a moment."

After all, the man who broke into Shen Garden at night had fought with Xiong Yi before, so he must find out the situation clearly.

"Yes, Mr. Tang." Xiong Yi turned around and replied in a low voice, then turned and walked towards Tang Wanhong's room.

After giving Xiong Yi instructions, Tang Wanhong immediately walked quickly to the other end of the corridor. He was a little worried that Guan Kui might not be able to handle the situation well.

Sure enough, just as he reached the end of the corridor, Guan Kui rushed out holding a lantern. He saw Tang Wanhong walking quickly towards him, and was slightly startled. He immediately said, "Boss, the two county magistrates are clamoring to leave."

Tang Wanhong's face was cold and hard. "Just do your thing. Clean up the room."

Guan Kui turned sideways, lowered his head slightly, and said, "Yes."

Tang Wanhong walked quickly past Guan Kui and pushed the door into a room not far away.

The moment he walked in, his originally cold face was immediately filled with a subtle smile.

Inside the room, the two county magistrates had already put on their clothes. One of them sat on a desk, drinking water continuously, while the other was walking back and forth not far from the desk.

Both of them looked a little panicked.

As soon as Tang Wanhong entered the room, the two men's eyes immediately locked on him.

The person who was pacing immediately stopped, looked at him, and said, "Mr. Tang, what happened just now? Didn't you say that this place is safe?"

The person sitting at the table drinking tea spat out a piece of tea leaves in his mouth. "Yes! Who just broke in? Are we exposed?"

Tang Wanhong said with a smile, "Please calm down. It was just a petty thief, and he has been scared away by the guards. There is no need to panic, my lords."

"Frightened away?"

The two county magistrates looked at each other, and the one standing in front of the desk turned around and asked, "Hasn't the person been arrested?"

Tang Wanhong said: "He was not captured."

"Mr. Tang, hurry up! Find someone to take us away!"

Tang Wanhong said: "Yes. I will arrange it right away."

Tang Wanhong's mind was to send these two guys away as soon as possible, so that he could concentrate on investigating what happened tonight. He had a bad feeling in his heart that what happened tonight was definitely not simple.

Duan Rong took the long wooden box containing the "Autumn Clearing Picture" and walked alone in the dark night road, returning to the room where they had eaten before.

He walked slowly into the room.

In the room, Shen Mizhi had actually returned and was chatting with Xiao Yu at the dining table.

She had already taken off her nightgown and put on her original emerald green skirt.

Duan Rong glanced at Shen Mizhi, then calmly sat down at the dinner table.

Duan Rong noticed that the sweat on Shen Mizhi's forehead was shiny after being wiped. And there was a small piece of residual sweat on the right corner of her forehead, which was obviously not wiped away in a hurry.

When Duan Rong looked over, Shen Mizhi's eyes obviously avoided him.

Xiao Yu looked at Duan Rong and asked, "Why did you take so long?"

Duan Rong said: "I chatted with an old friend for a while."

As he spoke, he took the long wooden box and handed it to Xiao Yu, saying, "Keep this."

Xiao Yu picked it up and asked, "What is this?"

"A painting." Duan Rong said, "Keep it well. It may be useful in the future."

"Really?" Xiao Yu thought Duan Rong was just saying it casually and put the wooden box behind him without paying much attention.

She placed a plate of stir-fried beef in front of Duan Rong, saying, "You didn't eat much just now. This beef is good, you should eat some more."

Duan Rong nodded and put a few slices of beef into his mouth. It was indeed delicious and very tasty. It should be braised first and then fried.

Duan Rong was eating there, and Shen Mizhi and Xiao Yu started chatting about the past again.

Although Shen Mizhi smiled faintly, Duan Rong could see the shadow and resentment hidden deep in her eyes from her smile.

Shen Mizhi is actually a tragedy.

Duan Rong remembered a word he often heard in his previous life, called original family.

Although on the surface, her life is better than Xiao Yu's.

However, Xiao Yu and Xiao Zongting have a very good father-daughter relationship. Deep in their hearts, they highly recognize each other's existence.

This made them real relatives and a bond that closely connected them. Therefore, Xiao Yu could get real warmth and happiness.

This experience will enrich her life and fill her heart with an inner vitality.

But Shen Mizhi was the opposite. Although Shen Yanliu was already an imperial censor, Shen Mizhi grew up in a lonely environment.

Emotionally, she does not identify with her father.

It was like there was a thorn in her heart. Based on this paranoid and cold life experience, she found it difficult to identify with this world.

In the inner garden, in Tang Wanhong's room.

The two of them have taken their seats, and Xiong Yi seems a little awkward.

Inside the room, the bright light illuminated Xiong Yi's face, with deep eye sockets and a straight nose.

Tang Wanhong glanced at the filthy felt hat on Xiong Yi's head. In fact, Xiong Yi looked like a handsome young man, but he was sloppy and drunk all day long, reeking of alcohol and bad smell, and everyone avoided him.

Perhaps, there is an abyss in everyone's heart.

Tang Wanhong originally met him by chance in the street market.

That day, he went to a shop to do some business, and suddenly a few hooligans were molesting a woman on the street.

People on the street just watched coldly.

Xiong Yi, who was sleeping on the street in ragged clothes, suddenly attacked and knocked those hooligans to the ground. The woman fled in panic without even saying thank you to him.

Xiong Yi didn't care and continued to sleep on the street.

When Tang Wanhong finished her work and left, she found Xiong Yi still lying there.

He thought for a moment and then walked over.

Tang Wanhong squatted down and patted Xiong Yi. "Hey! I have a bodyguard job for you. What do you want?"

He had seen Xiong Yi's attack just now. He was quite skilled and had a strong sense of justice. He felt that such a person was more reliable than those mixed people recruited from the underworld.

Xiong Yi glanced at him coldly. "I drink every day."

As soon as Xiong Yi opened his mouth, Tang Wanhong could already smell the strong smell of alcohol. He hesitated for a moment. "How much do you drink every day?"

"Keep drinking."

Tang Wanhong stood up and said coldly: "Drunkards are trash!"

"I've never been drunk since I was a kid."

"Really?" Tang Wanhong looked at Xiong Yi suspiciously and said, "Then let's go. I'll buy you a drink."

Xiong Yi immediately jumped up from the wall.

That day, in the restaurant, Xiong Yi drank three whole jars of strong liquor, but his face didn't turn red, he didn't breathe heavily, and he didn't stutter when he spoke.

From that day on, he became Tang Wanhong's bodyguard.

Tang Wanhong looked at Xiong Yi and asked, "Who do you think the person who just broke into the garden was?" Xiong Yi's eyes flashed with deep thought under his hat, and he answered in a low voice, "It could be someone from the Filthy Blood Cult..."

"What?!" The muscles on Tang Wanhong's face twitched noticeably.

Xiong Yi then told Tang Wanhong about the feeling of being instantly trapped in a different dimension.

The only thing Xiong Yi knew was the Dirty Blood Art, which was mysterious and unpredictable. Therefore, he guessed that it was probably the Dirty Blood Art that caused him to fall into the different dimension in an instant.

Tang Wanhong stood up and paced back and forth in the room.

He didn't expect that the Dirty Blood Cult would be involved in this matter.

Because of the special hobbies of some officials, several women were killed in this garden, and he asked Guan Kui to dispose of the bodies.

He had always known about the cultivation methods of the Filthy Blood Cult, which also required frequently dealing with the corpses of young women.

Maybe they found this place by following the female corpse.

They probably suspected that Shen Garden was a stronghold of the Filthy Blood Cult, so they ventured in to investigate.

If that's the case, then it's not a big deal, at least he's not here for their secrets.

Tang Wanhong suddenly turned around, looked at Xiong Yi, and said, "I'll go into the city later. I need to discuss this matter with Lord Shen."

Xiong Yi said: "Then I'll go with you."

Xiong Yi is Tang Wanhong's bodyguard. He basically follows Tang Wanhong wherever she goes.

Tang Wanhong said, "No need. The garden is not peaceful. You stay and pay more attention to what is going on in the garden."

"Yes!" Xiong Yi said with his head down.

Not long after, Tang Wanhong left the garden in a sedan chair.

Xiong Yi leaned over and lay on a roof somewhere, watching Tang Wanhong's sedan chair from afar as it disappeared into the dark night. Then he suddenly turned his head, his eyes emitting a bright cold light in the darkness.

After Duan Rong and the others finished their meal, they went to rest.

After traveling and climbing mountains today, they were all quite tired.

Xiao Yu had fallen asleep, but Duan Rong was sitting cross-legged at the head of the bed, dozing off.

He felt that this garden was quite strange, so he kept his spiritual awareness covering the surroundings and did not dare to let his guard down.

At this moment, not far from the room where they lived, a dark shadow suddenly jumped into a bamboo forest, and then jumped out of the tall courtyard wall from the bamboo forest.

He was a man dressed in black, with his face covered and a black cloth wrapped around his head.

The moment Duan Rong captured the black-clothed man with his spiritual sense, he learned from his previous lesson of not checking Shen Mizhi from the beginning, and directly used his spiritual sense to penetrate the black cloth covering his face.

Duan Rong thought to himself, could it be that girl Shen Mizhi again?

Duan Rong "saw" the man's face clearly. His heart moved slightly, and his eyebrows twisted into a ball.

"Xiong Yi? The one wearing the felt hat."

This person's whereabouts were so mysterious. Moreover, he changed his clothes and sneaked out of the garden in the middle of the night. It was obvious that he had some unspeakable secret.

Duan Rong hesitated for a moment. He glanced at Xiao Yu who was sleeping beside him, then gently pushed open the window and jumped out of the house like a wild cat.

This person is Tang Wanhong's man. He is really curious about what this person is doing going out so late at night.
In the dark night, everything was silent.

Xiong Yi is swift and sneaks in the dark!
Duan Rong moved like the god of death, following him from a distance.

Under the lock of his spiritual consciousness, Duan Rong bit him from a distance.

Duan Rong's body movement and lightness skills were far superior to his, and the distance was so far that Xiong Yi couldn't find him at all!

Duan Rong's figure was as erratic as a falling leaf, and in the dark night, he moved like a ghost...

Next to the woods on the official road, there is a mountain god temple with a damaged corner.

The temple is only slightly larger than a tombstone and has no interior space, so one can only burn incense and make offerings.

Xiong Yi's figure paused in the night and then stopped in front of the temple. He looked down and found a newly lit incense stick in front of the temple. The incense head was a flickering red dot in the night.

He coughed and said, "It's me. Come out."

Then, a figure walked out from behind the shadowy mountain god temple.

It was a slender figure. As soon as he came out, he asked, "Is the back clean? Is there no tail following you?"

Xiong Yi laughed and said, "Can't you tell whether there is a tail or not?"

The reason why this person became his contact person was that he had mastered the skill of identifying positions by sound. In a quiet place, within a hundred steps, any rustling sound would not escape his ears.

Unfortunately, within a hundred steps, that was the range of Duan Rong's spiritual consciousness when he achieved the second level of the Taizang Sutra. Now that he has achieved the eleventh level of the Taizang Sutra, even if he has not completely released his spiritual consciousness at this time, it is still far beyond a hundred steps.

The man said, "If I heard someone, I wouldn't have come out at all."

After he finished speaking, he paused for a moment, then looked at the shadow in front of him and asked, "Didn't I tell you last time not to contact me unless it's something serious? What's wrong with you? It's only been a few days?"

Xiong Yi sighed and said, "I know."

The man said, "I spent a lot of effort to set up a trap to let you get close to Tang Wanhong. What if he finds you out so late at night?"

Xiong Yi said: "No. He went back to the city to meet Shen Yanliu."

"Oh?" The man's voice changed. "What happened?"

Xiong Yi said: "Someone broke into the garden at night and must have spied on something."

"Someone broke into the garden?"

"Yes."

"Who is it?"

"I don't know." Xiong Yi said, "I suspect it was someone from the Dirty Blood Cult."

"Someone from the Filthy Blood Cult?"

"Yes!"

Then, Xiong Yi told the person in front of him about the feeling of being trapped in a different dimension in a moment, and he described it in much more detail than he told Tang Wanhong.

The man was silent for a while, then said, "Okay. I understand. I will tell the higher-ups about this matter, and they will send someone to investigate. Don't worry about it."

"Okay." Xiong Yi said.

The man asked, "Where is the list and bill in Tang Wanhong's hand hidden? Have you found any clues?"

"Not yet." Xiong Yi said: "But I think he trusts me very much. Give me some more time, I should be able to find out."

"Okay. This matter is of great importance. We must be careful."

"I know!"

The man suddenly turned around, extinguished the half-burned incense stick in the incense burner, then leaped up and disappeared into the dark night.

Duan Rong hid behind a big tree, his heart trembling.

He had always thought that Xiong Yi was Tang Wanhong's man, but after listening to their conversation, he realized that Xiong Yi was actually a nail they had set up to plant next to Tang Wanhong.

It was because of the list and bill in his hand.

Duan Rong was almost certain that the so-called list and bill must be related to the various dirty transactions in Shen Garden.

"It seems that the water in that garden is really deep!"

Duan Rong had already decided that he and Xiao Yu would leave the garden early tomorrow morning. There was no need for him to wade into this muddy water. These people were investigating the transaction of Shen Garden through Tang Wanhong, and they were obviously targeting Shen Yanliu behind the scenes.

This might be the political vortex of Ruyang Prefecture. Why is he, an outsider, meddling in this? Get out of here!

(End of this chapter)