Chapter 138: Plum Blossom Dart
Xiao Huan slept groggily and reached out to touch Yuan Yuan beside her, wanting to check if the little one had wet the bed, but her hand touched nothing.
She jolted awake, her hazy sleepiness completely dissipating.
She lit a candle and got up, searching every corner of the partition, even opening the boxes one by one to look, but she didn’t find that soft little bundle.
The door was closed, but Yuan Yuan was gone.
In an instant, thoughts of someone snatching the child, stealing the child, or selling the child flooded her mind, scaring Xiao Huan pale, and she hurriedly threw on her clothes to go look for the child.
Lu Chengjing was doing rehabilitation training for his right hand when he heard the movement and thought Shang Wan had returned, so he opened the door to look.
Seeing Xiao Huan’s panicked face, he frowned slightly, “What’s wrong?”
“Yuan Yuan, Yuan Yuan is gone.” Xiao Huan was so anxious her eyes brimmed with tears; she had searched every box where Yuan Yuan liked to hide, but found no one.
“The door was closed, and as soon as I woke up, Yuan Yuan was gone.”
“Don’t panic, Yuan Yuan probably won’t run off randomly.” Lu Chengjing said, “I’ll go check with Shi Tou, you go look in the wolf den.”
“Right, and the wolf den.” Xiao Huan opened the door and rushed out.
Lu Chengjing also quickly walked to the partition where Shi Tou slept, his gaze sweeping over; the door was closed.
His heart sank, but he still knocked on the door with a sliver of hope.
Shi Tou was startled awake by the knocking, rubbed his eyes, and got up to open the door, “Who is it—brother-in-law? Why haven’t you slept yet?”
Lu Chengjing didn’t have time for more words; his gaze swept over the dim partition and he asked, “Is Yuan Yuan in there?”
“Yuan Yuan?” Shi Tou’s just-woken brain was still slow, “Isn’t Yuan Yuan sleeping with Xiao Huan?”
They shouldn’t come looking for Yuan Yuan here with him.
Lu Chengjing said gravely, “Yuan Yuan is gone.”
“Oh, gone…” Shi Tou nodded halfway and froze, his eyes instantly widening as he exclaimed, “Gone?!”
Lu Chengjing nodded, “Light the candle and check if Yuan Yuan is inside.”
Shi Tou immediately did so.
His partition had few things in it, and with the candlelight, the interior was clear at a glance.
Yuan Yuan wasn’t here.
“Brother-in-law, Yuan Yuan isn’t in the wolf den, and Xiao Hui is gone too.” Xiao Huan ran in, her voice trembling with anxiety.
Not only the wolf den, she had even checked under the cows’ bellies and the sheep’s bellies.
Lu Chengjing closed his eyes tightly, comforting the two not to panic while rapidly thinking about where Yuan Yuan could have gone.
First, rule out the possibility that Yuan Yuan was abducted.
The partition had no windows, only ventilation holes; if an intruder came in to abduct Yuan Yuan, they could only go through the door.
The wooden door made noise when opened from outside, but not when going out from inside.
He had been awake the whole time; if someone really came in from outside the door, he couldn’t possibly hear no movement at all.
So, Yuan Yuan must have left on her own.
As for how, the little one had insisted all evening that Xiao Hui sleep in the shed, so she probably rode Xiao Hui and ran off.
The time she left was probably after Niangzi entered the mountains, otherwise she would definitely have been caught by Niangzi.
Thinking this way, Lu Chengjing’s taut nerves slightly relaxed, but then he thought of the assassins possibly circling nearby, and his just-relaxed nerves immediately tightened again.
What if Yuan Yuan ran into those assassins…
He didn’t dare think further, exhaled deeply, and said to the two, “Let’s check the field first; Yuan Yuan might have gone to see that owl.”
The owl, also known as an owl, had flown in a few days ago, and Yuan Yuan liked it especially.
The three people tidied up, had just picked up the lantern and stepped out the door when they ran into Shang Wan returning.
She asked puzzledly, “In the middle of the night, where are you all going?”
Seeing the little one curled up asleep in her arms, the three all breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sis, where did you find Yuan Yuan?” Xiao Huan took big steps forward and hugged Yuan Yuan over, checking worriedly.
“In the mountains.” Shang Wan said, “She ran to the mountains to find me; don’t worry, she’s not hurt.”
Xiao Huan helplessly pinched Yuan Yuan’s rosy little face; she had nearly been scared to death just now.
Shang Wan said, “It’s the middle of the night; everyone go sleep. We can talk about anything tomorrow.”
Shi Tou yawned, “Then I’ll go sleep first.”
Xiao Huan also carried Yuan Yuan back to the partition.
Lu Chengjing didn’t move, standing at the doorway waiting for Shang Wan.
He had just smelled a faint smell of blood on Shang Wan.
After simply washing up with the still-warm water on the stove, Shang Wan pulled her own fox back to the partition.
Candlelight flickered, shadows swaying.
Lu Chengjing sat at Shang Wan’s side, using his fingers as a comb, starting from the scalp, gently and little by little untangling the knotted strands of hair at the back of Shang Wan’s head blown by the wind.
Shang Wan comfortably narrowed her eyes.
Lu Chengjing asked warmly, “Did you run into those assassins?”
“Mm, six of them, a lucky coincidence.” Shang Wan said, “Ran into them and dealt with them handily.”
“Did you get anything out of them?”
“They were all tough-mouthed.” Shang Wan said, “I deliberately left two alive, originally planning to interrogate them, but they had poison hidden in their teeth; I hadn’t asked anything yet and they poisoned themselves.”
Her tone was full of regret; at least spill some useful info before dying.
Lu Chengjing: “What about the corpses?”
“Buried them.” Shang Wan said, “Originally planned to burn them, but burning makes a lot of smoke and takes time; burying directly is faster.”
Lu Chengjing picked up the wooden comb and gently smoothed her black hair.
Shang Wan turned her head to look at him, “I searched their corpses but found no distinctive items. But I brought back their weapons.”
She reached out and swept in front of her; white light flashed, and instantly on the ground appeared five daggers, two triangular spikes, three long sabers, and a pile of plum blossom darts.
Lu Chengjing picked them up one by one to look; except for the plum blossom darts, the other weapons had no patterns at all, so ordinary that any blacksmith shop could forge them.
“Look here, doesn’t this look like a bat?” Shang Wan pointed to the pattern on the corner of a plum blossom dart, asking Lu Chengjing to look closely.
Lu Chengjing looked closely for a moment and nodded, “It does look like it.”
Shang Wan took out the jade pendant Chu Xu had given her and pointed to the two bats below the Chu character, “Both are bats; there shouldn’t be many families using bats as their emblem, right?”
Lu Chengjing frowned, “You mean these assassins were sent by Duke Dingguo’s Mansion?”
Shang Wan shrugged, “Who knows? If the assassins really were sent by Duke Dingguo’s Mansion, then this matter gets even more troublesome.”
Lu Chengjing lowered his gaze in thought, a shallow crease forming between his brows, but his combing of Shang Wan’s hair didn’t stop.
Shang Wan stored all the weapons in the space and tilted her head to look at him carefully; it had to be said, this face looked good no matter when she saw it.
How could someone grow to suit her taste so perfectly?
She reached out and pressed her finger to the center of Lu Chengjing’s brow, smoothing out that crease, and smiled as she asked, “Not afraid of getting wrinkles now?”
Lu Chengjing: “…”
He set down the wooden comb, gathered the smooth black hair by his hand, and said softly, “Tomorrow, show the darts to Chu Xu and see his reaction.”
Shang Wan had the same plan.
She opened her mouth in a yawn, lifted her hand to hug the slender waist of the person at her side, “Sleepy, let’s sleep.”
Lu Chengjing hummed in acknowledgment, blew out the two candles, lay down with the person in his arms, and pulled over the thin quilt to cover them.
Shang Wan closed her eyes and nuzzled into his embrace; the familiar ink scent carrying a hint of pine resin entered her nose, and sleepiness gradually surged.
