Carrying full heart of doubt and vigilance, Nan Zhu also followed along.
Entering the room and looking, the two martial brothers’ gazes met. Correct, the layout was indeed exactly the same as the room they had requested. Langhuan Residence had not deceived him.
Despite this, Nan Zhu still felt a pain in his flesh. He had forcibly spent fifty thousand taels to request a room for nothing, merely to familiarise himself with Wang Xuetang’s room layout in advance. Old Fifteenth’s actions might be very important, but he still ached for that large sum of money.
However, Yu Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this situation, his gaze quickly scanning the room for guards.
He quickly discovered the suite’s main hall was empty. Previously he had only seen Tu Xiukui who went out to show himself. That person did not look like a guard either. As for the possibility of guards being placed in the inner room, it was not great. In other words, under normal circumstances there should be no guards inside where Wang Xuetang lived. The guards should all be on alert outside the room. This suited his intentions very well.
Empty meant Wang Xuetang was also not present. Yu Qing immediately looked at Qing Ya. Seeing Qing Ya also seemed somewhat surprised, he followed Qing Ya’s gaze to the tightly shut door leading to the inner room, estimating the person was inside.
Qing Ya was indeed somewhat surprised. When he had entered earlier, Wang Xuetang had been in the main hall and had even spoken with him. Now he had withdrawn.
Tu Xiukui said nothing, did nothing, walked straight to a chair and sat down, crossing his legs and sitting there with an indifferent appearance, his gaze occasionally sizing up the two martial brothers.
Qing Ya, seeing this, already had a number in his heart. Someone was merely putting on airs. He immediately smiled and introduced, “Tanhua Lang, this is Elder Tu Xiukui of Zheluo Mountain.”
“Greetings, Elder Tu.” Yu Qing and Nan Zhu hurriedly bowed respectfully.
Tu Xiukui glanced lightly twice, without the slightest intention of responding. The two martial brothers looked at each other speechlessly.
Qing Ya smiled. With the host’s attitude, he would not say anything more. He walked to one side by himself, picked up a small basin for collecting miscellaneous items, placed it on a tea table, and sat beside it himself. He took off his wooden clogs, sat cross-legged on the chair, and leaned there peeling and eating his peanuts.
The blade on his back was still there. No one had confiscated his weapon.
Only the two martial brothers remained standing there awkwardly, with no one receiving them.
Yu Qing had no choice but to ask, “Is Sect Leader Wang present?”
He asked in vain. No one made a sound. Tu Xiukui remained silent, as if he had not heard. Qing Ya merely smiled faintly at him as before.
Seeing this situation, Yu Qing tilted his head towards Nan Zhu to signal, indicating to go sit and wait, using his gaze to designate the position where he should sit.
Nan Zhu naturally understood tacitly. What should be done had been communicated previously. He immediately walked towards the position Yu Qing indicated.
Yu Qing also found a place to sit. He had long been thoroughly familiar with the room’s layout. In his heart he had even made various deductions combining possible numbers of people, resulting environments, and various possible situations. How to deal with the present situation required almost no thought. He directly walked towards a position by the window and sat down.
Qing Ya sized up the two martial brothers with a glance, slightly surprised by their sitting arrangement, one in the east and one in the west, but he did not think much of it. Smiling, he continued peeling and eating his peanuts, not urging Wang Xuetang to come out and meet them.
Tu Xiukui, who occasionally sized up the two martial brothers from the corner of his eyes, made various small movements, sometimes tidying his beard, sometimes fiddling with his sleeves, sometimes trimming his fingernails, all appearing very bored.
Yu Qing did not know how long Wang Xuetang intended to leave him hanging, but he did not care about that much. Since he dared to come, he intended to act according to circumstances, to discover various opportunities, then decisively exploit them. Wang Xuetang’s deliberate behaviour of leaving him hanging was, for him, a very good opportunity that could save him quite a bit of trouble.
He had to seize this opportunity that appeared as soon as he arrived, to avoid the difficulty of finding another good opportunity after missing it.
Therefore he was unwilling to wait even a moment. Sitting there, he raised one foot and rested it on his other leg. One hand casually rested on his shoe, with a somewhat casual and carefree air, but the movement was very natural.
Both Qing Ya and Tu Xiukui noticed his movement. After paying slight attention, they no longer minded it.
Nan Zhu naturally also noticed. His gaze paused on Yu Qing’s shoes, only then discovering that Old Fifteenth was wearing a pair of thick-soled boots today. His eyelids subconsciously twitched, already faintly realising something.
He pretended to look around bored, but in reality the corner of his eye had been quietly paying attention to Yu Qing’s reactions, while simultaneously observing Qing and Tu with taut heartstrings.
Yu Qing was openly observing Qing and Tu. It was just that the hand on his shoe was somewhat bored, idly fiddling with nothing to do. As he played, he touched the heel of the shoe. After slightly lifting the heel inside the boot away from the sole, his fingers peeled at the back shoe upper like removing skin, lifting the shoe upper like a curtain to reveal a gap. His finger drilled into the shoe and hooked out, bringing out a section of the specially made fire starter he had prepared last night.
The fire starter smoothly entered his sleeve. The boot’s exterior also returned to its original appearance, and he put it on properly.
Qing and Tu’s line of sight was not easy to discover this, but Nan Zhu’s line of sight was relatively easier to detect it. Added to the fact that he already had expectations, he almost personally saw something enter Yu Qing’s sleeve. This truly made his little heart thump wildly.
He discovered that this fellow Old Fifteenth truly had too much courage, daring to bring things in like this. If the previous inspection had been very thorough, it would certainly have been completely exposed.
Imagine, once something unknown was discovered in the shoe sole, the other party would certainly need to investigate what it was. After investigating and finding out, the result was easily imaginable.
Fortunately the other party had not investigated in detail. Otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable. Even now as he thought about it, he still had lingering fear.
Little did he know that Yu Qing, who had planned the operation, was not anxious at all. This matter was of great importance. He was such a stingy person, yet he did not hesitate to spend several tens of thousands of taels to stay one night at an inn, precisely for the sake of thorough repeated planning. It was impossible to be too rash when entering the tiger’s den.
He had initially wanted to bring the item in as a personal belonging. Later he could not help but overthink. What if the other party searched his body? This fire starter could not be opened. Once opened it would be exposed. After thinking thrice, for the sake of prudence, he had hidden the item to a certain degree.
If the other party wanted to search, let them search. Without careful searching they would not find it. If they truly wanted to search carefully, no matter how he hid it there would be no way to bring the item in.
He was also not afraid of the other party searching carefully. If the search truly reached the point of making him remove his shoes, he could pretend to be angry from embarrassment, falsely assuming the other party was deliberately humiliating him. He would put on the airs of a Tanhua scholar, refuse the humiliation, and thereby refuse to remove his shoes.
At worst he would storm off with a flick of his sleeves. He could not possibly truly let the other party pull off his shoes. He did not believe the other party dared to act forcefully at Langhuan Residence.
In short, he would rather not meet than let the other party search out that item.
Therefore the other party almost could not possibly search out what he had hidden. What did he have to worry about? He could completely respond generously and calmly.
Facts proved that this side had not strictly searched to that degree either, merely conducting a simple preventive search.
And at this moment, after taking the specially made fire starter into his sleeve, Yu Qing did not stop moving. Both hands were tucked into his sleeves. One hand pulled out a thread end from inside the sleeve, then quickly used small movements to gather the silk thread. On the surface it appeared his hands were boredly playing in his sleeves.
Constantly pulling thread from inside his clothes, and constantly gathering the thread. When reaching the end, he tied the tail inside the small ring at the top of the fire starter. Afterwards he pried off a steel nail attached to the fire starter, horizontally piercing through the tail end of the fire starter.
After finishing these small movements, he then put down the legs he had raised to provide cover. He released his hands and reclined in the chair. Paying attention to Qing and Tu, while the two were unprepared, he quickly gave Nan Zhu a meaningful look, nodding slightly to signal.
Nan Zhu blinked his eyes, indicating he understood. Afterwards he took a deep breath. One hand rested on the tea table. Glancing at Qing and Tu, he suddenly casually flicked it, and a tea cup directly fell to the ground.
The hall was relatively quiet. Only the sound of Qing Ya cracking peanut shells occasionally made “kaka” noises. A sudden clinking and clanging sound rang out, appearing very harsh and startling. Qing Ya and Tu Xiukui quickly raised their heads and stared over.
What was seen was an empty tea cup and lid falling and clanging together, smashing onto the carpet. This jade tea set had actually not broken.
Nan Zhu quickly stood up, bent down to pick up the tea set and place it back on the tea table, then with a fearful and trepid appearance apologised to Tu Xiukui, “My fault, my fault. I wanted to drink some tea. I picked up the tea cup and found it was empty. When putting it back I was not careful and lost my grip.”
Seeing it was only this, Qing Ya could not help but look at Tu Xiukui, not knowing whether the other party could tell that the guest’s meaning seemed to be asking for tea.
Tu Xiukui withdrew his gaze and continued sitting in meditation to nourish his spirit. Forget tea, he did not even intend to bring out a mouthful of water to entertain them.
Yu Qing timely spoke out, complaining, “Fatty, can you not be careless everywhere you go? If you disturb Sect Leader Wang’s rest, can you afford the blame?”
On the surface he had a cautious and timid appearance, but in reality, at the instant Nan Zhu created noise to attract others’ attention, at the moment the tea cup crashed to the ground, he successfully covered the tiny sound of the nail being pressed into the back of the chair.
Nan Zhu put on an appearance of being scolded into submissiveness, and honestly sat back down, also secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
This was still the first time he had experienced the feeling of being scolded into reassurance. Old Fifteenth’s scolding proved the hidden move had been accomplished.
And Yu Qing suddenly stood up again, actually showing some appearance of being quite impatient from waiting. He actively asked, “When will Sect Leader Wang see us?”
Tu Xiukui slowly turned his head to look at him, and gave a cold, indifferent sentence, “The sect leader’s affairs are busy. He is not someone you can summon and dismiss at will. If you are unwilling to wait, you may leave. No one is forcing you.” Having spoken, he returned to his meditative state.
Yu Qing and Qing Ya’s gazes met.
Qing Ya slightly shrugged his shoulders, indicating he was also helpless. He crushed a peanut shell, threw the peanut into his mouth and slowly chewed, boredly continuing his hobby.
Yu Qing took the opportunity to turn around, walked to the window, and viewed the garden scenery outside the window. He also saw Mu Aotie waiting in the garden.
He did not care whether there was anyone behind him watching him. He only focused on carefully observing the sporadic movements of people coming and going outside. The palm resting on the window sill revealed a mass of transparent silk thread. The palm slightly tilted, and that mass of silk thread immediately rolled out the window. One of his fingers lightly pressed, pressing the silk thread stretched on the window sill, and pushed it towards the corner of the window sill.