Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Gu Changfeng and I once again reached a delicate balance.

With him holding the reins.

He wouldn’t report me for killing people and fleeing, and I would play deaf and dumb about his obviously abnormal situation.

The two of us returned to that small courtyard.

“If we don’t open the door after dawn, the neighbors will definitely get suspicious.”

Having learned from the overwhelming shock of leaving an entire courtyard full of corpses last time, after drugging them this time, I simply locked every room from the outside. Everyone was neatly arranged, dead in their beds. At a glance, it even looked rather peaceful.

“When the time comes, I’ll pretend you spent the night here, but didn’t bring enough money, so the madam told me to go back with you to get it. The neighbors might find it strange if they don’t see anyone else following along, though. After all, there’s no reason to leave the hired muscle unused and send a girl instead. Someone might come over to ask questions, so once we’re out the door and past the neighbors, we have to run fast.”

Gu Changfeng sat on the brick bed where I usually slept, watching the mess I’d drawn on the wall with charcoal.

“Is this…”

He paused, then chose a different way to phrase it.

“Something you wrote?”

I followed his gaze and glanced at the wall.

After dying through so many cycles, I knew the situation in these few alleys like the back of my hand. Things like how the night patrol worked and how the guards were stationed no longer needed to be written down.

Gu Changfeng was the accident among accidents. I hadn’t thought of how to deal with him at all, so naturally I hadn’t written anything about him.

It was just that last time, when he’d carried me over the wall, it had given me new inspiration. I really had considered whether it might be possible to hide in someone else’s courtyard and then slip out.

But I had quickly dismissed that possibility too.

If there really were such kindhearted people willing to take the enormous risk of sheltering me, they wouldn’t have stood by and watched those thugs sell me into this pit of fire in the first place.

I gave a perfunctory hum in response, my mind entirely occupied with how to patch the bugs in this excuse that was full of holes.

“While the neighbors haven’t fully opened their doors yet, I’ll deliberately talk toward the inside of the house. At that hour, the wife from the fried cake stall across the way will be busy setting up for business and won’t have time to pay attention to this place. As long as I make it seem like there are people inside, she probably won’t look into it. The butcher’s wife next door only opens the window to throw out water for a short while too. When the time comes, you can curse toward the doorway a couple of times about the madam only caring about money and not people, help me cover the lie, and it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“But very soon, the water delivery cart will pass by here. Everyone will open their doors to buy water. If this is the only place that doesn’t open, there’ll be a problem. So we don’t have much time. Once we turn out of the alley, we have to get out immediately, or we’ll definitely be blocked and forced back.”

The look Gu Changfeng gave me was a little hard to read.

I gritted my teeth.

“Yes, I killed everyone in this house. But it’s also a fact that you left with me in full view of everyone. I’m a prostitute being watched like a hawk by the madam. Where would I have gotten poison?”

“If you decide to burn the bridge after crossing the river, I’ll insist to the death that you’re my lover, and that you bought the poison for me and taught me how to use it. All so you could abduct me from this place-and while you were at it, get your hands on the madam’s private stash hidden in the courtyard.”

I forced myself to look at him.

“The authorities are after you, aren’t they? Once we end up in court, a fugitive’s crime is far worse than a runaway prostitute’s. At most, I’ll be judged as having been coerced by a criminal, take a beating with the paddle, and get sent to another brothel. As for what happens to you, well, that’s hard to say.”

This time, Gu Changfeng was silent for a very long while.

His gaze rested on my face, his pitch-black eyes filled with emotions I could not understand.

Only after a long time did the man smile again.

“My lady, how could you think that of me?”

He took my hand, his palm scorching hot.

“I merely thought that this plan of yours is truly ingenious.”