"It's a good thing I'm used to bringing medicine with me, otherwise, you wouldn't even be able to treat this."
"He Jiang and the others looked around today. There's no hospital in town, only a barefoot doctor. I heard he spent ages trying to set Zhao Dekai's hand back in place. He had to be carried back."
Zhu Xi Ning winked. "He fainted from the pain."
Nan Yue didn't care about the commotion on He Jiang's side. She first listened to Gu Xiang Kai talk about the madwoman, then shared the clues about the Blood Moon with them.
"So the days might get shorter and shorter over the next few days. And if the daytime was safe, the townspeople wouldn't stay indoors. There's definitely a catch."
Nan Yue agreed with Zhu Xi Ning. "That's for certain. It might not be instantly fatal, but the danger will increase. They can hide, but we can't."
Nan Yue looked at Zhu Xi Ning. "How about it? Did you find them?"
Zhu Xi Ning smiled like a little fox. She opened her bulging backpack, which was filled with steamed buns wrapped in clean cloth.
A rough count suggested about a dozen, barely enough to last them until the end of the mission.
"This is all there is. Luckily the weather is cold, otherwise, I'd be worried about them spoiling."
"Let's see how it goes. If we really can't manage, we'll have to eat at Evermercy Restaurant. We should be the ones least affected by that stuff."
Nan Yue didn't expect a few buns to last until the end; she just didn't know what was in the food yet, so the less they ate, the better.
The three of them ate a bit to fill their stomachs. By four o'clock, the sky began to darken, and by five, it was pitch black.
The town was silent. Once night fell, the locals seemed to vanish. Aside from the outsiders, there wasn't a sound.
"Since that madwoman said the townspeople killed her child, is it like Zhu Xi Ning thought? The child was a monster, but the mother didn't see it that way."
Gu Xiang Kai kept thinking about the madwoman. It would be great if he could get more information out of her. He wondered if Chang'an had found any other clues after watching her for three days.
Nan Yue pondered. "I think... there's something suspicious about that woman."
Gu Xiang Kai was stunned. He had seen the woman's state; she was indeed mad and clearly loved her child. He could tell her hatred for the townspeople was genuine.
"There's a problem."
"She's a mother. Like you said, she mistook a toy for her child and doted on it. If so, she wouldn't throw the toy aside even when she's acting out."
"After all, in her eyes, that's a living person. She shouldn't have done that."
"I suspect... she's faking her madness."
Gu Xiang Kai instinctively wanted to argue, but he realized Nan Yue was right. The woman's logic was communicative and smooth at the start.
Even when Gu Xiang Kai provoked her later, she didn't lose control to the point of being unable to communicate. That only meant the woman knew the toy wasn't her child; she was pretending.
Why?
"Next time, learn to be a bit sharper like others. You can get clues without saying a word or getting hurt."
Nan Yue looked at the blood seeping through the bandage, still feeling a bit uneasy.
Gu Xiang Kai's eye twitched. No wonder Chang'an had vanished the moment he looked back; he must have also realized the woman was faking it.
"Sneaky bastard!"
Gu Xiang Kai reached his verdict.
The others, lacking clues about the Blood Moon, were anxious about the suddenly shortened daylight.
He Jiang told Li Maocai to find someone to ask what was going on and to check where He Hongyun had gone. Li Maocai grumbled but had no choice but to go.
Nan Yue saw He Jiang make an excuse to call Bai Jun over.
Giving Zhu Xi Ning a look to signal her to stall He Jiang, Nan Yue slipped toward the inner residence.
When she reached Zhao Dekai's room, Dongfang Yuelai and Chang'an, who had been missing, were already there.
Nan Yue almost laughed. It seemed everyone had the same idea of being the oriole stalking the mantis.
So, when Zhao Dekai opened his eyes, he saw three people staring at him—one of whom had been the one to dislocate his hands.
Zhao Dekai instinctively tried to scream, but something cold and icy pressed against his neck.
The scream caught in his throat. He looked at the refined, jade-like man before him. His hands were clean and powerful, yet the knife in his grip was pressed against Zhao Dekai's throat.
"Don't scream. If you do, my hand might slip and slit your throat."
Zhao Dekai finally realized that Nan Yue wasn't the only scary person; there were far too many terrifying people in this mission.
After he nodded tremblingly, Chang'an withdrew the knife and made a "please" gesture to the two women.
Dongfang Yuelai looked down at Zhao Dekai, her voice very gentle.
"What happened last night?"
Zhao Dekai's expression shifted from panic to sheer terror. He scooted back, shaking his head. "I can't say. I can't say."
A silver flash darted through Chang'an's hand. "Have you thought it through?"
Zhao Dekai was on the verge of tears. "If I say it, I'll die."
Chang'an smiled. "If you don't, you'll die too."
Zhao Dekai: ...
Zhao Dekai said with a trembling voice, "Actually, I'm not entirely sure what happened. When that sound started, Jiang Ximing became extremely nervous. He even pulled a small knife out of his pocket."
"He was young and strong, and he wasn't afraid of He Jiang. He was worried He Jiang would use him as a scapegoat."
"But..."
At this point, Zhao Dekai looked dazed, as if he couldn't quite comprehend what happened next.
"He Jiang didn't make Jiang Ximing do anything, did he?"
Dongfang Yuelai's voice was pleasant, like a piece of driftwood for a drowning man like Zhao Dekai.
"Right, right! He... he poked a hole himself and looked outside..."
"I thought he was crazy at the time..."
Dongfang Yuelai's voice continued to lead him on. "But he didn't die. Jiang Ximing did. Did he use some kind of item to make Jiang Ximing die in his place?"
Under Dongfang Yuelai's guidance, Zhao Dekai's mind stabilized slightly. He shook his head. "No... no, I didn't see anything. I only know He Jiang was the one looking out, but the next moment, Jiang Ximing suddenly looked like his limbs were being controlled by someone, and he walked out..."
"He left the room, closed the door... and died."
Recalling the eerie scene from last night, Zhao Dekai's body began to tremble again.
When Jiang Ximing walked out as if controlled by an invisible force, He Jiang never once turned his head, as if he had known all along.
Only after Jiang Ximing had been gone for a while did He Jiang return from the window. He told Zhao Dekai with a smile that he knew what was outside and what this mission was all about.
Zhao Dekai was in pain and terrified then, scared out of his wits. Knowing He Jiang wasn't as cowardly as he appeared, he didn't dare say anything, fearing he would be the next one to die mysteriously.
"So, what is outside?"
The three of them focused their gaze on Zhao Dekai. They could see him struggling, reluctant to give the answer.
However, Dongfang Yuelai seemed able to use her voice to hypnotize and manipulate others, so he began to speak.
"Children."
"It's full of children outside."
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