When Tang Doudou heard this, she responded with her prepared excuse. “His health is poor, so he’s currently recovering in Green Maple City.”
“Green Maple City is quite a distance away. Were you traveling on your own?” Xiao Siyuan seemed to be chatting casually, but every sentence contained deep probing.
Tang Doudou was made speechless. However, she couldn’t bring herself to dislike this upright young man.
“Haha, I found a trustworthy group of merchants and traveled with them. After all, how could a woman like me have the courage to travel so far away on her own?”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Siyuan nodded. After walking quietly for quite a while, he asked, “Aunt, when was the last time you came back?”
“It’s been several years. The roads seem completely different.” Tang Doudou’s eyes whirled as she quickly tried to figure out what Xiao Siyuan was trying to get at. What exactly was he suspecting her of?
Xiao Siyuan said, “It’s been several years since I’ve last come to Huai City as well.”
Tang Doudou stuck out her tongue at his back as she silently cursed. She had messed up.
Xiao Siyuan then said, “Huai City has been quite turbulent lately. Aunt, you should make sure to be very careful.”
Interesting. It was very interesting. Last time she had encountered Xiao Siyuan, he was as stern and inflexible as an old man, but this time he seemed as shrewd as a monkey.
Tang Doudou rubbed her chin without saying anything. However, when she glanced down and saw the mud she was walking on, she immediately realized how she had given herself away. She was currently disguised as an old woman that was around fifty, yet she had been able to keep up with a young man without any difficulty on a muddy road at night.
Anyone that was slightly observant would be able to notice that something was up.
When she didn’t respond, Xiao Siyuan turned around and asked, “Aunt, are you not feeling well?”
Tang Doudou hastily waved her hand. “No, not at all.”
After a moment, she walked up to pull Xiao Siyuan and said sincerely, “Young man, why don’t you just send me off here? It’s only a bit more until Huai City. If you really walk me all the way over to the door, I’ll feel bad.”
Xiao Siyuan’s eyes flickered slightly. “Alright.”
However, his quick agreement just made Tang Doudou even more nervous. She couldn’t help but feel that Xiao Siyuan was acting very strange, but she was more concerned about taking this chance to shake him off.
So she waved at him, then walked past him.
As she walked, all she could hear was the continued drizzling of the rain. Her heart was beating quite fast due to worry that Xiao Siyuan would suddenly do something to stop her. However, it seemed that she had been over-worrying since he didn’t make any moves.
She couldn’t help but laugh at herself. A lot of things have happened recently, but she had seriously turned into a scaredy cat. Perhaps he was actually just making casual conversation.
“Alliance Head Li!” Just when this thought emerged, there was a cold shout.
Tang Doudou stiffened and almost replied. However, although she had been able to stop herself from actually responding, she couldn’t celebrate because she had already given herself away. Xiao Siyuan was now certain of her true identity.
So she didn’t bother to try and hide things anymore. She laughed, then turned around. “Xiao gongzi, how did you realize?”
Xiao Siyuan had called out coldly on purpose. When he saw that she was no longer trying to pretend, his tone returned to being gentle like usual. “Alliance Head Li’s disguise wasn’t the smartest choice.”
“Oh?” Tang Doudou continued walking. “Please elaborate?”
Xiao Siyuan couldn’t see Tang Doudou’s current expression, but her tone sounded very calm with no trace of frustration or worry at being exposed. It was no wonder that she was the alliance head.
“I received the news back in Green Maple City.” After a moment of silence, he then said, “For the time being, it’s best if Alliance Head Li doesn’t go back to Huai City.”
When Tang Doudou heard this, she was shocked. This really had been Yun Hai’s scheme!
However, she didn’t let any of her emotions show. “Oh? So it’s like that.”
Xiao Siyuan continued, “Isn’t Alliance Head Li curious about who told me?”
“Isn’t it Yun Hai?” Tang Doudou didn’t even pause to think about it. After all, who else knew about her identity? Or was it really as Xiao Siyuan said, her choice in disguise was poor?
If it was truly poor, how would she have been able to safely travel all the way back here?
The only thing that wasn’t smart about it was that she had been so stirred up that she ended up forgetting about small details. It was these small details that confirmed Xiao Siyuan’s suspicions.
If he had been certain from the start, he wouldn’t have asked so many questions.
She thought Yun Hai had spread the news about her, but to her surprise, Xiao Siyuan shook his head. “I don’t know Yun Hai. In Green Maple City, I had encountered Senior Brother Xiao.”
“Senior Brother Xiao?” Who the heck was that?
“I mean Xiao Ziyu. Does Alliance Head Li remember him?”
Of course she did. Wasn’t that the seemingly dumb brat that was actually a little clever who had been with Nan Maner?
Since he was linked with Nan Maner, it’d be hard for her to forget him even if she wanted to.
But how had he found out?
Tang Doudou rubbed her chin. She moved closer to Xiao Siyuan and asked, “That Xiao gongzi and I aren’t very familiar with each other.”
“En. Senior Brother Xiao said that he had encountered you once.”
“Then how did he figure it out?”
“I’m not sure about this. However, he told me that if I encounter you, to make sure to warn you about not going to Huai City.” Xiao Siyuan looked around. “I didn’t link you to Alliance Head Li earlier either. Had you gotten off the Buddha statue just a little slower, perhaps I wouldn’t have recognized you.
“The foot of the Buddha statue is at the very least two meters off the ground. It would be difficult for an old lady at the age of fifty to get on, much less get off. In addition, you shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to leave. It’s completely dark outside. No matter what, an old lady wouldn’t travel at night especially when it was still raining…”
The more he said, the more alarmed Tang Doudou became. She hadn’t realized that she had made so many careless slips. She thought that her way of walking had been the only hint of her identity.
“Lastly, there was the fact that you walked too fast.”
“En. Youngster, you sure have strong observational skills.” Tang Doudou reached out and patted his shoulder. Light seemed to glint in her bright eyes in the night, then her hand quickly tapped past several points on Xiao Siyuan’s chest.
“Little Xiao ah, could it be that no one ever warned you to be on guard when an unfamiliar beautiful woman suddenly approaches you?” Tang Doudou tapped Xiao Siyuan’s chest as she continued, “However, since you don’t seem to have any bad intentions, this Alliance Head will just leave it at sealing your pressure points. Just wait for your brother to come to help undo it.”
After she said that, she turned around to leave. Xiao Siyuan hastily said, “Alliance Head Li, you must be misunderstanding!”
Tang Doudou paused. “What am I misunderstanding?”
Xiao Siyuan hesitated, so Tang Doudou made to leave again. He hastily said, “The Xiao family would never betray the Martial Arts Alliance!”
“Oh?” Tang Doudou was surprised. His words made it sound like there was an unspeakable secret between the Xiao family and the Martial Arts Alliance!
However, she was no longer that ignorant girl who had first come to this place. She would no longer believe everything that others say, nor would she believe that people would approach her without motives.
