Hearing Qin Yunuan’s question, Yaqi was on the alert, and then she stayed calm. Slowly coiling her wet hair at the back of her head, she answered reverently, “Madam, it’s because I’m washing my hair.”
“Washing your hair?” Qin Yunuan raised her voice a bit and continued, “It’s dry in North Di, and people seldom wash their hair. We have no big event today. Why do you wash your hair?”
“Madam, today is my mother’s death anniversary. I want to pray for her, so I’m taking a shower.”
“Oh, really?” Qin Yunuan walked to her with a smile, making the log on the ground together with the felt creak. She reached out and put Yaqi’s hand on her palm. This seemingly gentle gesture, however, made Yaqi tremble.
“If you just take a shower, why are your fingers so pale? Yaqi, how long have you been in the bath? Two hours or four? Eh?”
Qin Yunuan’s words stabbed in Yaqi’s chest like a poisonous hook, and she couldn’t stand being sounded out by Qin Yunuan like this anymore. Her leader told her to conceal her identity, but now that she was found out, she had nothing to conceal.
Suddenly, Yaqi reached out, attempting to grasp Qin Yunuan’s neck. But Leng Changxi pulled Qin Yunuan back and stood in front of her to stab the spear in Yaqi’s shoulder. He was so fast that Yaqi had no time to shun the spear.
Yaqi grasped the spear and tended to pull it out. However, Leng Changxi was so strong. Yaqi had a few tries and finally gave up. Lowering her head, she said to Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan, “When did you suspect me? Eh? When did you find out that I spied on you to pry into information?”
“Long time ago.” Qin Yunuan said leisurely. She raised her hands to untie the white silk that covered her eyes. Under the bright moonlight, her eyes looked so sharp as if she could read one’s mind. No one would believe she couldn’t see everything clearly If she didn’t tell them about this. And, Yaqi didn’t believe this, either.
“Your eyes?” Yaqi pointed at Qin Yunuan and asked.
Qin Yunuan looked down and said, “I recovered a long time ago, about 2 weeks later when I met Lu Wuyi after leaving the Ghost City. If I didn’t recover, I wouldn’t see you secretly sent messages to your leader. I began to suspect you a long time ago, so I pretended to be blind to find out your true intention, your backer and your contact.”
“You can’t find out.” Yaqi wore a bitter smile. The blood flowed down from the big wound on her arm. She would die of the excessive loss of blood in no more than 30 minutes. Suddenly, Yaqi got up the courage as if she was not afraid of death anymore. “The God of the Sun will protect us and will help us to drive you who covet treasures in the Yeren Valley out.”
“It seems that you are a treasure guard.” Qin Yunuan crouched to look at Yaqi who lingered on because of her injury. “You believe in Gods, so you may come from an ancient tribe. You have a forehead narrower than those of North Di people. You are not a native here. Are you from Qi?”
Hearing that, Yaqi snorted with disdain.
Then Qin Yunuan made a correction at once. “You disdain Qi people, so you aren’t from Qi. You were hostile when we chose to encamp in that village. Did you have a fight with people there before? Is it because villagers there wanted to go into the valley?”
Yaqi knew well that Qin Yunuan was a terrifying mind reader. She didn’t have to talk to you. Simply by looking at your facial expression and gesture, she would know what you were thinking. It was so terrifying. Yaqi, therefore, lowered her head to prevent Qin Yunuan from reading her facial expression.
“You’re avoiding me?” Qin Yunuan turned her head a bit and said, “There are two cases when people avoid others. One is that you are sounded out, and you don’t want to reveal more. And another is that you know you can’t calmly deal with what I’m going to say next.” Qin Yunuan smiled and continued, “You’re from a mysterious tribe in the Yeren Valley, right? 50 years ago, when Qi built a mysterious arsenal there and drove you out of your homeland, you had a fight with Qi. However, you were defeated and were driven to a more deserted place. Later, you took revenge on them by using your magic witchcraft so that Qi found it hard to build the arsenal and even invited wizards to perform rites to help them. When Qi’s arsenal declined, you thought you could be better off. However, more people were attracted by the treasures. It was in part due to Sun Chengzhen’s array, but more importantly, it was your protection of the valley.”
“Ho, go on. I love your made-up story.” Yaqi looked up. Her face became pale because of the excessive loss of blood. At the beginning, Qin Yunuan didn’t notice this. But based on her daily observation on Yaqi, she found that she had a unique lifestyle which was different from that of people in North Di and the Central Plains. Even, Qin Yunuan had studied the culture of ancient Qidan and West Xia. At last, she concluded that Yaqi might grow up in a unique culture in which people had their own lifestyle and even characters. It was highly likely that the tribe she lived in was untapped. Qin Yunuan had seen many times that Yaqi prayed in a low voice to the flower-carved silver bracelet she wore. Therefore, she was more convinced that Yaqi lived in an untapped place.
Meanwhile, because of this bracelet, Qin Yunuan was sure that the mermaid in the pond was Yaqi. When she jumped out of the water, the silver bracelet had reflected the moonlight. An array could make a hill full of vipers or a foggy world, but it couldn’t make a mermaid. Yaqi, a scout who had lurked in the Wanyan Su’s mansion for a long time, finally was found out.
Qin Yunuan lifted Yaqi’s chin and said, “I don’t know why your clansmen drove you out. Maybe, the reason why you made all efforts to disguise yourself as a mermaid and kill people is to earn the credit and come back to your tribe. But now, you have to make it clear that you killed a man, and you are not innocent anymore.”
Qin Yunuan stood up, and Leng Changxi handed over a clean handkerchief for wiping the blood on her fingers away. When she turned around, she heard Yaqi sneer behind. “Even if your assumption is right, so what? You can never get to where you want to go because you only figure out the secret of one map. Let me tell you. In the Yeren Valley, you will die if taking any false step. Madam, I have served you for a long time so give you a reminder. We will have the same ending, and the only difference is that I take it earlier than you. I will wait for you in the hell.”
Qin Yunuan turned her head a bit and showed part of her face. “The flower carved on your bracelet is azalea, and a mark on the map found in the Sun Family is a sea of flowers. Your tribe is the nearest place to the arsenal so that map should be the last one. It’s true I only figured out the secret of one map before but now, thank you. I figured out two.”
Yaqi was surprised and then smiled bitterly. When Qin Yunuan looked back, she already fell down to the ground and killed herself.
People on the site were all Wanyan Su’s henchmen, and they cleaned the site quickly by dragging Yaqi away and burying her. Then they took away the fallen tent. Wanyan Su looked pale and blue, seeming perplexed.
“Your Highness, Side Concubine wants to see you.” Suddenly, a guard reported outside.
“Ask her to wait.”
“Umm…” Wanyan Su always thought highly of Yasu, and the guard didn’t know why he refused her this time.
“Ask her to wait! It’s not time for her to lose temper now. It’s all up to me whether we can live or die. If she wants to survive, stop being that superior lady in Bochaerji.” It was the first time for Wanyan Su to act so seriously. The guard was in a trance and then went back to report immediately.
Leng Changxi strode forward and said while looking at Wanyan Su, “If you acted like this at the very beginning, your men wouldn’t disobey your order. Once someone was injured or dead, in the viper hole and also near the pond just now, your men only cared about taking revenge. Your Highness, you truly are determined to run a country well, but you are not good at managing the army yet.”
“I know.” Wanyan Su said coldly and then added, “I will never let this happen again.”
True, he should allow a woman to lurk in the mansion as a servant girl for a long time. He thought she was obedient, so he chose her to serve Qin Yunuan. But he didn’t expect that this nearly ruined all their plan.
Seeing the mess, Wanyan Su ordered his men, “Get up before 5 tomorrow to search the Yingzui Mountain.” Then he went by Qin Yunuan. Seeing her bright eyes, he couldn’t help tittering. “You really got something, even keeping such a big secret from me.”
“I dare not.” Qin Yunuan looked down slightly and said, “You are just too confident about the efficacy of the drug you used. You thought, with that, my eyes could never recover. Although I know little about leechcraft, I can tell beneficial herbs apart from the harmful ones.”
Wanyan Su was a bit shocked. He indeed had added something into the drug he gave to Qin Yunuan, but he only did this in the journey from Qi to North Di. At that time, Leng Changxi insisted on going separately, so later, he couldn’t add more things into her drug. Then suddenly, he thought of Yasu.
Wanyan Su looked up at Qin Yunuan who wore a light smile. He stopped smiling and concealed his awkwardness rapidly. “There’s no need to talk about the past. At least, we are allies now.” After saying this, he left.
Lu Wuyi checked the site to make sure Yaqi didn’t leave any poison. After all, tribes that lived in the deep mountain and that believed in Gods always grew their own herbs and created their own spells. But it seemed that Yaqi was really kicked out of her tribe. She had nothing connected to the tribe on her except the silver bracelet she wore.
“We’re not even halfway yet. But you are already on the verge of fight. What if you really fight with each other later?” Lu Wuyi was a bit worried.
