Chapter 113
Chapter 113
The news that the Saintess had disappeared instantly threw the City Lord’s Manor into chaos.
The Saintess was not only the City Lord’s daughter, but also the divine maiden who protected the entire city. She served as the voice of the Golden Tree. Without her, what would happen to the people of the city?
Mo Canglan hurried back from outside with a grim expression and personally took charge of investigating Mo Qingyi’s disappearance.
But everyone told the same story. After the Saintess returned to her room to rest, she never emerged again. No one had seen anyone enter her room. She had simply vanished without a trace.
Clearly, whoever abducted the Saintess was no ordinary person.
Mo Canglan ordered, “Close the city gates and strengthen the patrols. Until Qingyi returns, no one is permitted to enter or leave. Divide everyone in the manor into search parties. If someone deliberately abducted Qingyi, they cannot have gone far.”
Shangguan Lingxiao stepped forward. “The Saintess healed my wounds. By both reason and sentiment, I should do what little I can at a time like this. I can help search for her.”
Qiao Mianmian immediately stepped forward as well. “Yes. Lingxiao and I will help together.”
Mo Canglan nodded. “Then I thank you both.”
His own daughter was missing, and Mo Canglan could not bear to delay another moment. He led a group out of the manor to begin the search.
As Qiao Mianmian prepared to follow Shangguan Lingxiao, she could not help looking back.
“Qiao Ying, aren’t you going to help?”
Qiao Ying had been watching the commotion from a corner. When she was suddenly called upon, she looked rather bewildered. “Huh?”
Shen Qingyu stood guard beside her with his head lowered as he shelled peanuts. He and Qiao Ying truly seemed detached from the whole affair. Other people’s joys and sorrows could not affect them in the slightest.
Qiao Mianmian pressed her lips together. “You’re a guest in the City Lord’s Manor. Now that misfortune has struck your hosts, isn’t it rather discourteous to stand by and do nothing?”
Shangguan Lingxiao stopped as well and looked at Qiao Ying, his expression indescribably complicated.
Because their elders were close, the children of the two families had often visited one another. The three could be considered childhood companions. But while Shangguan Lingxiao was close to Qiao Mianmian, he had never known Qiao Ying very well.
It was strange. Qiao Ying had always felt distant to him. She never drew close to him or Mianmian, as if she were different from them, and naturally showed them little warmth.
As a child, Shangguan Lingxiao had found this difficult to understand. He was handsome and popular among the other children. Why did Qiao Ying never trail after him the way the other little girls did?
As he grew older, he stopped wondering. Perhaps Qiao Ying simply possessed an aloof temperament and grew close to no one.
But now, watching Qiao Ying wipe Shen Qingyu’s hands with a handkerchief, Shangguan Lingxiao felt something strange stir within him.
So Qiao Ying was capable of being this close to someone after all.
Faced with Qiao Mianmian’s challenge, Qiao Ying answered at her leisure, “Whoever carried the Saintess out of the heavily guarded City Lord’s Manor without alerting anyone must possess extraordinary skills. I can’t fight, and I have no talent for finding people. Even if I encountered the kidnapper, I couldn’t do anything to them. I might only put myself in danger, and then perhaps you would all have to rescue me instead.”
Shen Qingyu’s lips curved. He obediently offered his other hand and waited for Qiao Ying to wipe it clean.
Qiao Mianmian’s throat tightened at Qiao Ying’s perfectly righteous answer. She looked toward Shen Qingyu, wanting to point out that Qiao Ying had an exceptionally powerful fighter right beside her.
But the terrifying sight Shen Qingyu had presented that night still haunted her. She swallowed the words, too afraid to speak.
Shangguan Lingxiao said, “Everyone thinks differently, Mianmian. There’s no need to force her. Let’s go.”
Qiao Mianmian puffed out her cheeks and followed Shangguan Lingxiao outside. Their voices remained faintly audible.
“She was already unsociable when we were young. Losing her memory only made it worse. And now she’s grown so bold that she married someone of unknown origin. That man surnamed Shen has such terrifying methods. I truly don’t understand how the City Lord can feel comfortable letting him remain in the manor.”
“Enough, Mianmian. Not everyone in the world can be as kind as you.”
They gradually moved farther away until nothing more could be heard.
Only the young couple remained in the empty hall.
Qiao Ying stroked her chin. “I heard that Shangguan Lingxiao and Qiao Mianmian are staying in the City Lord’s Manor because they killed a Yaoguai on the road and helped Mo Canglan. They also happened to be searching for Luo Xuan, who ran away from home in anger, so they temporarily remained here.”
She looked up again. “Actually, Qiao Mianmian was right about one thing. We’re staying in the City Lord’s Manor and eating their food and using their things. Now that the Saintess is missing, shouldn’t we help in principle?”
Shen Qingyu smiled. “Should we?”
The curve of his lips was exceptionally beautiful and carried his wicked delight in deliberately teasing his beloved. If not for the white silk blindfold covering his eyes, she might have seen him smiling like a fox.
Qiao Ying hated it when he acted so mysterious. It always seemed as if he were deliberately putting on airs to keep others guessing.
“All right, stop smiling like that.”
Shen Qingyu pressed his upturned lips together and truly stopped smiling.
The next moment, Qiao Ying rose onto her toes. With perfect understanding, the young man had already bent down and lowered his head, as if delivering himself to her.
She whispered beside his ear, “I suspect Ming Caihua had something to do with the Saintess’s disappearance.”
Given Ming Caihua’s temperament, whenever trouble broke out in the manor and everyone “gathered together,” how could he possibly miss the chance to watch the excitement?
Yet Ming Caihua had never appeared from beginning to end. Something was wrong.
Qiao Ying remembered the way Ming Caihua had stared speechless the first time he saw Mo Qingyi. Her expression turned strange. “Could Ming Caihua really have lost control of himself and done something terrible to that young woman?”
Shen Qingyu’s interest stirred. “Something terrible?”
He had committed plenty of wicked acts himself, so hearing that someone else might do something no decent person would do immediately energized him.
With his eagerness to see the world thrown into chaos, the young man truly resembled a villain from a storybook.
Qiao Ying shook her head to drive away the strange thought. Without explaining further, she caught his hand and pulled him toward the door.
“We met Ming Caihua in Fangcun City and encountered him again in Yunling City. That makes us friends of a sort. If he truly intends to do something awful, we have to stop him.”
Shen Qingyu cared nothing about whether Ming Caihua counted as a friend. But he understood that Ming Caihua seemed to be planning something and that he and Qiao Ying were going to ruin it. Motivation instantly filled him.
After only a few steps, he moved ahead of her instead, leading Qiao Ying by the hand with a faint smile.
“Yingying, walk faster. We have to go help our friend.”
Qiao Ying looked thoroughly confused, unable to understand where his sudden enthusiasm had come from.