Her guards

Chapter 124 The people in the portrait

“When the Liu family master and his disciples go out, someone always follows them.”

"They arrived at the riverside bookstore near the braised meat shop, and Miss Yang and Peach Blossom also came at that time."

"Mr. Liu suddenly got into an argument with a shop assistant, saying that a sentence was printed incorrectly."

"That fellow wouldn't admit it, saying he was right and Mr. Liu was wrong because he was uneducated."

"Mr. Liu and Mr. Cheng started arguing with the other party. The shop assistant said they had the original genuine product and asked them to verify it together."

"Mr. Liu and Mr. Cheng went inside. Miss Yang and Peach Blossom also came over when they heard the argument. Miss Yang was worried that Mr. Liu would be taken advantage of, so she went inside with him."

"Peach Blossom and she went in together."

"The rest of us didn't go in..."

"After a while, when I went back in, Mr. Liu and his apprentice, Miss Yang and Peach Blossom were all gone."

Standing in a teahouse on the street where the braised meat stalls were located, Hong Lin recounted what had happened.

A man dressed like a street urchin looked guilty: "It's my fault. I should have gone in too. I thought that since Peach Blossom went in, I wouldn't need to..."

“If you go in, you’ll just disappear along with it,” Mo Zheng said.

Looking out the window at the riverside bookstore not far away, although several people had disappeared silently inside, the bookstore was still operating normally, as if nothing had happened.

She had deployed people in the capital, but they had only been there for a few days.

Those who targeted her dared to launch a street attack near the capital, demonstrating that they had cultivated a deep presence in the capital for many years.

As for those who dealt with Yang Luo, needless to say, they dared to slaughter an entire town.

Are Mr. Yang Luotao and his disciple, Mr. Liu, dead or alive?

……

.......
No swords or blades fell on him.

Perhaps because he hadn't died instantly, Yang Luo's startled and stiff thoughts became active again.

How did they find her? Where did Ah Sheng slip up?

"Miss Asheng."

A male voice came from inside.

Yang Luo froze. Miss Asheng?

As voices rang out, the panels that had been blocking the room opened instantly, and Yang Luo shivered as he saw himself sitting in the cramped room.

Inside, you can see bare earthen walls on all four sides, as well as piles of abandoned bookshelves.

She was underground; she was still in this bookstore.

I wonder how Mr. Liu and his disciple Tao Hua are doing. Sheng You is outside and must have noticed something amiss. Has A Sheng come over yet?
Lost in thought, she watched as the old man in a green robe emerged from behind the abandoned bookshelf.

The old man looked at her and smiled kindly: "Miss Asheng, I apologize for the intrusion."

It was broad daylight, and this was a bookstore in a bustling market street. The person in front of me had a smile on his face and was not holding a knife...

Compared to the attack Ah Sheng experienced, she fared much better.

Ah Sheng has never been afraid.

She's someone who's already died once, so she can't be afraid.

"Is this how your bookstore treats customers who have questions?" Yang Luo said in a hoarse voice, struggling to stand up.

The old man said, "Miss Asheng, please forgive me. It's really not easy to talk to you."

The old man called her Miss Asheng.

He knew that she and Liu Chan had switched identities, but he didn't know that she and A Sheng had also switched identities.
Something's strange.

"Who are you! What do you want?" Yang Luo seemed to have recovered from the fear of being threatened by the bookstore owner and questioned angrily. Looking at the old man, he seemed to have discovered something. "Are you accomplices in the plot to murder Princess Heisei?"

The old man smiled and said, "You don't need to beat around the bush, and I don't have time to waste with you. Let's get this over with quickly."

As he spoke, he took out a scroll from his sleeve and unfolded it.

Where is this person now?

people?
Yang Luo's gaze fell on the painting, where she saw a boy quietly looking at her.

Yang Luo's eyes widened in surprise.

……

.......
"Master——"

"Although Miss Yang knows what the young master looks like, she is determined to use the young lady to replace herself. She also has secrets that she cannot reveal to others, so she will be wary of these people and will not expose the young master."

Seeing Mo Zheng turn to go downstairs, Hong Lin couldn't help but stop her, gritting his teeth as he squeezed out a sentence.

"It was agreed that she would take her place." "Since you took the danger for her, then she should too..."

To take the danger in her place, to die in her place.

Mo Zheng looked at him and shook her head: "No, I know the danger I'm taking on for her, but she doesn't know the danger she's taking on for me."

After saying that, he looked at Hong Lin and smiled.

“Uncle Hong, we want to live, but others also want to live. We can’t take away the lives of innocent people just because we want to live.”

After saying that, it put its hand to its mouth and let out a clear and long bird song.

As her bird song faded, bird songs echoed from afar in the street, stirring the winter market from all directions.

……

.......
Yang Luo's gaze was fixed on the scroll in front of him.

It seems like I can see it clearly, yet it also seems blurry.

Countless thoughts were swirling in my mind, creating a chaotic mess.

"It seems we've met before." The old man didn't miss Yang Luo's expression, and his smile deepened.

Yang Luo looked at the portrait and shook his head: "The painting skills are too poor. Apart from being able to tell that it is a person, I can't tell anything else."

The old man's smile froze, his eyes darkening: "When you were impersonating Miss Liu, wasn't there a young man among the servants of the Liu family you were using?"

Yang Luo looked at him and said, "Oh, you came to ask about this? If you had asked me a few days ago, I wouldn't have said a word to you. But now that the Emperor has pardoned my impersonation of Liu Chan, you want to use this to blackmail me? I'm not afraid."

He chuckled as he said this, glanced at the old man, and his expression carried a hint of arrogance.

"I advise you not to act recklessly. My young lady is a young lady from the Duke of Ding'an's mansion."

The old man interrupted her: "Shut up, don't play dumb with me. Where is the servant you had with you when you first arrived in the capital?"

Yang Luo seemed startled, but then shouted back, "You're the fool! If I'm a fake Liu Chan, then my servants are fake too. They're hired, just like the carriage I use!"

The old man scrutinized her face: "Hired? Where was he hired from? And where did he go?"

Yang Luo said irritably, "He was hired from outside the capital. Who knows where he went? I paid him and then I left him to his own devices."

As soon as he finished speaking, a hidden door on the right wall was suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man walked in.

He said to the old man with a gloomy face, "Those two people won't talk, they don't know anything no matter what we ask, and the woman is still unconscious."

"What have you done to Mr. Liu and his disciple?" Yang Luo asked hastily, stepping forward. "Let me tell you, this is under the Emperor's nose. Miss Liu and I are both students of the Imperial Academy, disciples of the Emperor..."

The old man seemed amused.

“Disciples of the Emperor,” he said, his smile fading as he looked at the middle-aged man. “Kill them to avoid trouble. We can’t afford the Emperor’s wrath.”

The middle-aged man responded with a "yes" and turned to leave.

"Stop!" Yang Luo shouted. "How dare you kill someone! Do you have no regard for the law?"

The middle-aged man paid no attention to her voice and continued walking forward.

The old man looked at Yang Luo and smiled slightly.

“We’re here to show our sincerity, but since you’re not the people we’re looking for, there’s no need to waste our time,” he said. “Unless you can say something we want to hear.”

Yang Luo looked at him, then at the middle-aged man who was about to walk to the wall and push open the door. She clenched her hands and opened her mouth: "I..."

Just as he opened his mouth, it seemed as if giant waves were crashing down from all around. With a loud bang, in Yang Luo's swaying vision, half of the opposite wall collapsed, crushing the man who had just walked past it.

A cacophony of noise and clamor rushed in as well.

"Stop them—"

Amidst the noise, countless figures were entangled together.

Yang Luo felt dizzy, and the next moment she saw out of the corner of her eye that the old man was rushing towards her, his knife flashing.

She instinctively closed her eyes, heard a clang in her ear, but felt no pain. She was then pulled and spun around.

Instead of falling to the ground, he was left behind by someone.

Even though it was just a view from behind, Yang Luo recognized Zhang Shengyou.

The old man's loud laughter rang out from the noise, "You won't talk even if you die, fine, then let's just die here in the capital, just like before! We won't lose out!"

Amidst the noise, a high-pitched, thin, and loud female voice could be heard.

"Wait a minute——"

At the same time, Yang Luo pushed aside the people blocking his way, looked at the old man holding the long sword and sneered: "Is this how you express your sincerity to my young master?"

Upon hearing the words "young master," the old man's expression hardened.

On the opposite side of the collapsed wall, Mo Zheng, who was descending through the crack, also paused, and the next moment her figure silently climbed back into the shadows.

(End of this chapter)