Discuss with you

Chapter 645 Characteristics
"Who did you get this from? Was it the culprit who stole your family's perfumery skills and killed people in your village?" Zhu Yu asked.

Mu Hong nodded without hesitation: "That should be the case."

In Lanzhou, the most common patterns are flowers and birds, and it's rare to see such fierce mythical beasts. I've never had any fabric with this pattern in my home.

I vaguely remember that when I was planning to sneak out, I didn't know what to bring. At that time, all I could think about was saving my life. I didn't even have anyone around me to discuss things with or give me any advice.

So I stole a lot of the sleeping incense that could help me get away, thinking that if I had the chance to help the people of our village seek justice, I couldn't just make empty promises. If people accused me of false accusation and framing, I wouldn't know how to refute them.

So before that, while I was preparing the spices, I secretly hid some of the flowers, herbs and medicinal materials that the man had brought. I was afraid that someone would find out, so I hid them on my body in small packets.

I had no more cloth to wrap myself in, so I stole a piece of cloth from the bottom of the box, tore it into small pieces, and tied it around myself. I didn't even notice whether there was a pattern on it or not...

Later, when I got here, I was afraid that if I climbed up to eat or get some fresh air, I might accidentally be seen by people outside, so I found something to seal up all the windows.

When I got upstairs, I couldn't find enough planks or pieces of wood, so I had to use the larger pieces of cloth I had taken off my clothes.

Could it be... that this thing belongs to your enemy?

“No, they’re not enemies,” Lu Qing shook his head, “they’re from my family.”

His words startled Mu Hong, who instinctively shrank back.

"My experience is similar to yours. My family was attacked by thieves, and my elders were all killed."

The thief who harmed my family fled elsewhere and has not been found to this day.” Lu Qing pointed to the pattern on the cloth, “and this pattern is unique to my family.”

If this thing hadn't been in the window of the small wooden house, we wouldn't have insisted on finding you and asking you about it.

Upon hearing this, Mu Hong was so frightened that his face turned pale: "So, that person is probably also the enemy who killed your elders."

Of course he recognizes this design! I actually sealed it up on the second-floor window for so long…

I knew it! Why was this inconspicuous, bare little wooden house searched by a large group of people countless times after I hid inside?

I was absolutely terrified back then. Every day I was worried they would find me and I would die here...

Looking back now, those people must have recognized the pattern on the cloth, which is why they suspected I was hiding nearby and searched the area many times!

I never even considered that all this trouble was caused by the pattern on this piece of cloth! After all, they didn't tear the cloth off and take it back to report. If I had known that this place was so conspicuous for this reason, I would have torn the cloth off long ago! Zhu Yu could guess roughly why the other party hadn't ordered someone to tear the cloth off and take it back.

For that person, Lu Qing's entire family had been brutally murdered, all dead, leaving no survivors. So, whatever his reason for bringing this piece of cloth with him was no longer important after he joined his new master. Therefore, his men used this to suspect Mu Hong's whereabouts. Since they couldn't find him, the piece of cloth was irrelevant.

The man wasn't worried that the pattern on the cloth appearing in a dilapidated, deserted wooden building in Landi would cause him any trouble.

Fortunately, Mu Hong was well hidden; otherwise, if this piece of cloth had revealed his whereabouts, he would have had no chance of survival once he was found.

It's likely that the large-scale search must have really frightened him, which is why he later resorted to using the stolen incense to scare away people around him, fearing that someone would come near the place again.

"Did that villain have any easily identifiable characteristics?" Lu Qing asked.

When his family was brutally murdered, he was just an infant who couldn't remember anything. When Emperor Jin investigated the servant who "luckily escaped" from his family, he couldn't clearly know the servant's appearance, only that the servant had a bluish birthmark on the side of his neck.

Later, they found the almost rotten corpse by the river. They could vaguely see a small blue mark on the neck, but it was too badly rotten to make out the shape of the birthmark. In addition, the corpse was wearing the clothes of a servant of the Lu family and the body shape was roughly similar, so it was considered to be the unlucky servant who had escaped.

As for this person's other appearance, neither Lu Qing nor Emperor Jin knew.

Mu Hong recalled carefully. Although the other party could be said to have a blood feud with him, and he never dared to forget that kind of deep-seated hatred, after all, he had been hiding in this dark and desolate place for more than 20 years. This long and desolate process had worn down his originally clear memory to the point of being somewhat blurry.

“He… was about… this tall…” He pushed himself up from the ground and compared his height to his forehead. “He was only in his early thirties at the time. His skin was a bit dark yellow. His eyebrows were short but thick. His eyes… were triangular, with a fierce look in them. He had a long philtrum and his mouth drooped down.”

This man may look thin, but he's actually incredibly strong. I wasn't as thin back then; I was in my early twenties, with a robust physique. But when my father initially refused to obey his orders and led men to arrest and imprison my grandparents, I rushed at him and struggled with him. He was strong enough to throw me quite a distance..."

As Zhu Yu listened to his description, he sketched out the person's appearance in his mind. Fortunately, Mu Hong's initial memory was a bit blurry, but as he tried to recall, it gradually became clearer, and in the end, he was able to describe a fairly detailed physical appearance.

At the same time, watching him reminisce and speak, Zhu Yu couldn't help but feel a little dazed.

This Mu Hong, who was clearly over fifty years old, had a white beard and was unusually pale and thin due to being in the dark for so long. However, because he had been hiding here alone for more than twenty years, without any contact with the outside world or experiencing anything other than hiding, he still had an expression on his aged face that was usually only seen on the face of a young man.

Zhu Yu sighed inwardly.

At the same time, she also realized another fact that contradicted her previous guess, which made her expression turn serious in an instant.

(End of this chapter)