Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 169 Coming
As a result, Jia Chuan gave up the idea of ​​going back to ask for reinforcements. If someone really came at this time, he would have to put up a fight.

Jia Chuan walked around and found a relatively thick tree branch, which he held in his hand and gestured with it a few times.

These few jokes almost made Mu Lian laugh so hard she almost passed out.

Jia Chuan had no choice but to throw away the branch and squat down to the side.

After Mu Lian finished laughing, she came over and comforted her, "You're going to die anyway, why drag the tree branches down with you?"

Jia Chuan didn't speak to Mu Lian again until he saw Gao Yunduo.

……

Gao Yunduo walked with a brisk pace, her face expressionless. Jia Chuan ran up to her, and she handed him the food box, saying, "Luckily, you haven't starved to death yet."

Jia Chuan's face lit up with a smile. He took the food box and asked in a low voice, "Do you know what it means to be in sync? I silently chanted in my heart: Duoduo, come quickly. And you came."

Before Gao Yunduo could say anything, Dong Yuanyuan asked, "Did Big Brother also miss Hanguang? When we went out, it insisted on coming with us. We locked it in the yard, and it kept barking. I've walked quite a few steps, and it's still barking. Does it know that Big Brother misses it?"

Jia Chuan coughed lightly and looked at Shunzi, asking, "You left Old Zheng alone in the yard?"

"There are two more in the side room who aren't breathing." Shunzi glanced at Mulian as she walked over, her face showing concern.

Jia Chuan glanced back, coughed lightly, and explained, "Before, everyone was only thinking about whether the tunnel was safe, what they would see if they went down, and if it was just a secret passage and not a secret room, where might the passage lead? Should we clear out the possible destinations first? The scene we saw in the cabin this morning was real, and well, we were all quite frightened. Our minds were a bit foggy. It wasn't until they all went down that I realized that if two people suddenly appeared and tried to kill me, I wouldn't even be able to run away."

“He asked me to go back and call you several times,” Mu Lian pointed at Jia Chuan, “I said that if I went back and forth like that, and he died here, I wouldn’t be able to explain myself no matter how hard I tried.”

Gao Yunduo looked around, and Shunzi said, "When Old Zheng and I went back, the hut was still there, but now it's just ruins. That's good, otherwise, people who go down there might not know what they'll see, but coming up, especially when they push open the hidden door, will take courage."

"Is it that scary?" Dong Yuanyuan asked curiously.

Shunzi glanced at Hanguang, who seemed to have caught a whiff of something. It stopped wagging its tail excitedly and began to sniff around intently. Shunzi shook its head and whispered to Dong Yuanyuan what was going on.

Jia Chuan was really hungry. He didn't care how far he was from the secret door. He squatted down, opened the food box, and started eating. Mu Lian was also hungry, so she squatted down as well.

The food box had three layers, but the two of them only opened the first layer before starting to eat.

Gao Yunduo looked around and said, "This area is rather open, unlike other places in the Herb Gathering Bureau which have many courtyards."

With her mouth full of food, Mu Lian explained through sobs, "If nothing had happened, I heard that they were going to build several more large courtyards in this area, combining all the smaller courtyards together, and moving people from other places over."

Dong Yuanyuan didn't react much to Shunzi's explanation, nor could she understand what Gao Yunduo and Mu Lian were saying. So she wanted to play with Han Guang. Han Guang liked the smell around it very much, and no matter how many times Dong Yuanyuan called, it didn't lift its head.

Dong Yuanyuan said angrily, "Han Guang knows its name now, so why don't you remember it?"

“There’s a bloody smell around here. It probably thinks there’s food and doesn’t have time to bother with you. Once it’s sniffed the whole area, it will come looking for you,” Shunzi said patiently.

Jia Chuan wolfed down his food, half full, then looked up at the sky. By then, the light was already dim. He glanced at the hidden door and said, "It's time to come back."

Gao Yunduo asked, "You think there's a secret passage down there that leads to the courtyards west of the herb-gathering bureau? Then this round trip will take some time. On the surface, the view is open, so it's naturally faster to walk. Down there, it's dark, and even though there are torches, I can't help feeling panicked, so I naturally walk slower... Why go west instead of east?"

"This is just a test, I don't know where the tunnel will lead." Jia Chuan said, then ate a few more bites of steamed bun.

"So you only cleared out the people in the west courtyard? What if they went east?" Gao Yunduo asked, puzzled.

Before Jia Chuan could answer, Mu Lian interjected, explaining, "They left the herb-gathering bureau not far to the east. He was betting that those people were still causing trouble inside the bureau. If they had really left, how could I have seen them transporting the body? They disposed of the body outside; there's no reason for them to go back to the bureau. As for the south, you know the main courtyards of the herb-gathering bureau are all to the south. He figured those people wouldn't be so blatant, or perhaps there are more people in the south, and they'd be afraid of being discovered and wouldn't take the risk..."

"Do you need to explain? Besides, is that what I think?" Jia Chuan asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Isn't that what you think?" Mu Lian retorted.

Jia Chuan finished the remaining steamed bun in a few bites, stood up, pointed to the west, and said, "You're not blind, can't you see this direction is more open? Where do you live? You could see a group of people heading towards the north gate at night, what does that mean? Would they dare to carry the corpse around on the ground for a while? Your courtyard is a bit to the east, if they came from your direction, they would definitely choose the east gate. What's the most common thing in the Herb Gathering Bureau? Gates! I already said I was just testing, and the west has the highest probability, so I..."

"Why are you in such a hurry? I was just saying it offhand. I thought that's what you thought, so I said it. The west side has the most storage yards, the east side is mostly residential, and Zhou Cheng's yard is also on the east side. The south side is for receiving guests, handling government affairs, offices, drying clothes..."

Ignoring Mu Lian, Jia Chuan approached Gao Yunduo and asked, "Do you think I should go down and take a look?"

Gao Yunduo glanced at Mu Lian, who had been interrupted. Mu Lian quickly waved her hand and said, "Don't look at me. You've seen him alive. What happens next has nothing to do with me."

Gao Yunduo smiled and asked, "Don't you still need him to get rid of the Duke of Qian's mansion?"

Mu Lian paused for a moment, then stood up and said to Jia Chuan, "You'd better wait here. If there's only a secret passage down there, they'll naturally come back, and you can go down then. But if there's more than one secret passage down there, going down will only be suicide. You can't even gesture properly with a wooden stick, so going down will only cause more trouble."

Dong Yuanyuan was displeased and said, "Big brother never causes trouble. When we don't know what to do, he just shouts and we know what to do. Sister always says that even though big brother is clumsy, he's smart. He always understands things better than we do."

Mu Lian snorted and was about to make another sarcastic remark when she saw Gao Yunduo's expression suddenly change.

Mu Lian stared in disbelief as Gao Yunduo leaped into the air, drew her sword, and lunged toward the direction behind them. Mu Lian quickly turned around, gasped, and hurriedly hid behind Jia Chuan.

At this moment, Jia Chuan also turned around. Although it was not completely dark, it was still very dim. Jia Chuan saw several dark figures rushing towards them like cheetahs. The surrounding area was an open space, except for a few trees waiting to sprout new buds. Where did these people come from?
"I'm rooting for Jia Chuan!"

Gao Yunduo blocked their path, her long sword moving unseen in the dim light, only screams could be heard.

Jia Chuan breathed a sigh of relief. All these people combined were no match for Gao Yunduo. If they had arrived half an hour earlier, he would have been dead in the blink of an eye.

Dong Yuanyuan stood obediently beside Jia Chuan, and Shunzi stood obediently behind her. Even Han Guang stopped sniffing silently, as if knowing that Dong Yuanyuan was the most capable among them, and ran to his aunt's side with his tail between his legs, barking loudly towards the darkness. Jia Chuan felt that his biggest mistake today was being so focused on buying time that he hadn't properly calculated the time. If there hadn't been danger, everything would have been fine, but those people had even gone so far as to dismember the body… Who said that those people could only be clearing things out and cleaning up?
They might be waiting for someone!
Jia Chuan turned his head and looked around. Gao Yunduo could handle these people right now. What's next?
"Shunzi, go to the front yard and find Gao Yuntian. Tell him to bring the guards from the Prince's Mansion here. Mulian, find a way to light a few torches, the more the better."

Shunzi turned and ran. Mulian hesitated for a moment. She wanted to ask her if she would run into someone on the way to get the tinderbox and lose her life. But Shunzi ran too fast, so she could only swallow her question and run towards her residence. She could hear Dong Yuanyuan and Jia Chuan talking to each other.

"Are they in danger?"

"The truly capable person hasn't arrived yet."

Mu Lian felt relieved and quickened her pace.

……

Gao Yunduo quickly subdued all the men in black. She sheathed her sword and walked back, saying, "These people are too weak. I feel something is wrong."

"They were just the first group. They were probably lying in ambush. Seeing that we were idle, they thought they would kill us first."

"You mean there will be more later?" Gao Yunduo asked.

"These people... Han Guang!"

Dong Yuanyuan then noticed that Han Guang was actually pouncing on the wounded man in black on the ground. The man in black was still alive, and he screamed in pain as Han Guang tore at him. Jia Chuan shouted, and Han Guang stopped talking.

Dong Yuanyuan was furious. She stomped her foot and shouted, "Hanguang! Come back!"

Han Guang returned with its tail between its legs.

Jia Chuan frowned as he looked at the dog. He had seen many dogs, especially in his previous life, but he didn't know much about them. Whether they were police dogs or pet dogs, they were all well-domesticated by humans. Although he occasionally heard news of dogs attacking people, they were rare.

But Jia Chuan didn't have time to think about whether Han Guang was wild or not. He looked at Gao Yunduo and said, "We have to hold out until Chen Mo and the others come out..."

"Could those people be waiting at the exit of the secret passage? They know the herb-gathering bureau well; as long as they can get in, or rather, they're already at the herb-gathering bureau..."

“Chen Mo and the others wouldn’t turn back at the exit. Judging from the time, they should already be heading back. They hope I’ll waste more time standing on the shredded corpses. So, they must have come from outside, and their purpose should also be to kill me.”

"Big Brother is really lovable; he's remembered wherever he goes," Dong Yuanyuan remarked.

Gao Yunduo asked, puzzled, "What good would killing you do?"

"It depends on what they want to find out through me, and what they don't want me to find out. Judging from the current situation, I'm sure I'm on the right track. If they kill me, that track will be gone."

Dong Yuanyuan asked, "So we're just going to wait for them to come and kill us? Aren't they going to find out why they can't kill Big Brother before they come?"

Gao Yunduo and Jia Chuan both understood Dong Yuanyuan's meaning. Anyone with some connections in the government should know, to some extent, that Jia Chuan had bodyguards.

"The next person should be much stronger than these people, but I can't say exactly how much stronger."

"So you can rest assured to let Shunzi and Mulian make the trip; at least for now... they've arrived."

Gao Yunduo turned around, sword in hand: "Yuanyuan, keep an eye on him!"

Jia Chuan was a little nervous because he couldn't hear anything even when he strained his ears. This reminded him of the masters in martial arts novels, who, regardless of their weight, could approach without leaving a trace and with the stealth of a bird. The destructive power of that... Jia Chuan felt a chill run down his neck.

In Jia Chuan's mind, the quieter someone is, the more skilled they are in martial arts. But right now, only Gao Yunduo and Dong Yuanyuan are here. If more people come, will Gao Yunduo be able to handle it?

Just then, darkness fell completely, and the moon, as if unwilling to witness tonight's bloodshed, did not come to work.

In the darkness, Jia Chuan finally heard some noise, softly, as if afraid of disturbing someone.

"Are you sure he came from this direction?" Jia Chuan asked in a low voice.

“We come from the same place. You young man have quite a bit of patience. No wonder you couldn’t kill him several times.”

The voice was full of confidence, rough and powerful, not like that of an old man. In Jia Chuan's mind, martial arts masters, like traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, had to be older to be considered masters. He forgot that the Gao siblings were still young. However, in his panic, Jia Chuan still sensitively grasped the idea that 'no wonder he couldn't kill them several times'.

Gao Yunduo took a deep breath and whispered, "They... have people in all four directions."

Dong Yuanyuan immediately stood behind Jia Chuan.

Jia Chuan's strength was his quick wit and composure. He glanced at the surrounding darkness and shouted, "If you come back, hide first, don't come any closer!"

These words were shouted at Mu Lian. Judging by the time, Mu Lian would definitely arrive faster than Gao Yuntian. She was just going back to her residence to get a tinderbox, and if she was quick on her feet, she should be nearby by now.

Gao Yunduo snorted and didn't say anything.

Jia Chuan shouted again, "Who are you waiting for? Make your move! If you don't, my men will arrive, and you won't be able to leave."

"Why are you trying to persuade me, brother? Wait a little longer, Shunzi will be here with his men."

No sooner had Dong Yuanyuan finished speaking than Gao Yunduo's longsword slashed through the air with a clang. Jia Chuan was startled, and Gao Yunduo was no longer beside him.

Jia Chuan regretted throwing away that branch; at least it could have blocked a sword. Right now, everything around him was pitch black. Dong Yuanyuan's eyesight was already poor when she went mad, and now, with this kind of vision, Jia Chuan looked up at the sky. The dark sky pressed down on his head like a black curtain. At first, he didn't feel anything, but after looking at it, Jia Chuan felt a little breathless.

(End of this chapter)