Chapter 638: Rich and Willful
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Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The people in the inn were secretly amazed.
Who were these newcomers that could frighten the seemingly kind but ruthless young man like this?
They turned their heads to the entrance, watching as a pair of man and woman walked in slowly.
The man was tall, with an ordinary appearance, but his eyes carried a dangerous aura.
His presence exuded a distant and indifferent air.
Standing beside him, the woman appeared pet.i.te but could only be described as breathtakingly beautiful.
Her face was as delicate as a lotus flower, untouched by makeup, and she wore a simple white robe that gave her an ethereal and untainted air.
The onlookers couldn’t comprehend how these two individuals could make the notorious young devil appear so terrified.
The man and woman were none other than Gu Qingluan and Feng Tianlan, who had arrived upon hearing the news.
When Gu Qingluan saw the young man, she also felt a hint of surprise.
However, the young man’s reaction upon seeing her exceeded her expectations.
She curled her lips and smiled at him, saying, “Young Master Yun, we meet again.”
The young man, who was Xiao Jingye, couldn’t help but shiver when he saw her smile.
It was as if he had encountered something eerie.
This woman was trouble, and he could feel it just from her smile.
Perhaps sensing Xiao Jingye’s wariness toward Gu Qingluan and Gu Lingxue, the innkeeper of Xin Yue Inn, with a cunning look in his eyes, quickly turned to her for help.
Xiao Jingye shot the innkeeper a sharp glance.
You old man, daring to plot against me right in front of my face!
The innkeeper, however, acted as if he were innocent, genuinely pleading his case.
“Young Master Yun, this is not your country of Dingyang. You can’t just kill people as you please here. Do you have no regard for the Holy Heaven Dynasty? It’s been many days since we last met, and your courage seems to have grown. Are you trying to provoke the Holy Heaven Dynasty?”
Xiao Jingye couldn’t miss the sarcasm in Gu Qingluan’s words, and he cursed his bad luck inwardly.
If possible, he wouldn’t want to have any dealings with Gu Qingluan.
However, his younger cousin had gone missing, and he couldn’t afford to be choosy now.
“First Lady Gu, I have important matters to attend to right now. Please don’t meddle.”
“Someone is missing?”
Gu Qingluan pretended not to hear his words and asked in a deliberate, slow manner, raising her eyes to survey her surroundings.
Xiao Jingye frowned and didn’t respond.
Did this woman suddenly show up here just to mock him?
“At night, several black-clad individuals appeared at the inn where we were staying, intending to capture someone.”
Upon hearing her words, Xiao Jingye’s expression grew serious, and he fixed his gaze on her. “Who did they want to capture? Was it you?”
He knew that recently, those who had gone missing in Yeyu City were all beautiful women and children.
Even though he didn’t want to have much to do with Gu Qingluan, he couldn’t help but admit that she was a rare beauty.
It would be strange if the people behind it didn’t target her.
He thought to himself, “Why wasn’t this woman taken?
If she had been captured and brought to their headquarters, she could have caused chaos there. In that case, even if my younger cousin was captured, he wouldn’t be in too much danger.”
Gu Qingluan didn’t want to say much more. She casually nodded and asked, “Who else is missing? Apart from the disappearance of individuals, was there anything else unusual at the inn?”
Xiao Jingye contemplated the possibility that she might uncover something and replied with a hint of annoyance, “It’s my younger cousin who has gone missing. He was sleeping in the room next to mine.”
“Where are the others? And how did you realize he was missing?”
Xiao Jingye explained, “Our guards were posted around the inn and outside the rooms, ensuring that not even a fly could get in. Worried about my cousin catching a cold at night due to his frail health, a servant went into his room to check on him in the middle of the night, only to find that he had disappeared without a trace.”
Gu Qingluan showed a hint of surprise. “No one else fainted?”
“Fainted? No! Everyone else was awake.”
That’s why he suspected foul play from the inn’s staff.
Otherwise, with so many guards watching, how could a person vanish right under their noses?
Xiao Jingye was quite clever. When he heard Gu Qingluan’s question, he guessed what might have happened on her end and asked directly, “Did anyone on your side lose consciousness? Could it be that someone drugged you behind the scenes?”
Gu Qingluan briefly explained the situation they encountered at Prosperous Guest Inn.
Xiao Jingye furrowed his brow. “Was there a problem with the charcoal used in the stove? I didn’t pay attention to that. My cousin’s health is delicate, and I was concerned about the quality of charcoal in the inn, so I replaced it all with our own supply.”
Gu Qingluan was speechless.
When you’re wealthy, you can be quite willful.
No wonder they didn’t notice any issues with the drugged charcoal, and no one lost consciousness.
However, this raised an even stranger question.
The people accompanying Xiao Jingye were elite members of the Dingyang Kingdom, and their strength was not lacking.
Without drugging them, how could those individuals have secretly abducted someone?
Xiao Jingye was also frowning, deep in thought about this problem.
After careful consideration, he believed that the inn’s staff were the most suspicious.
No one knew the layout and mechanisms of the inn better than they did.
So, he cast a cold glance at the innkeeper of Xin Yue Inn and questioned, “Are you colluding with those people?”
The innkeeper of Xin Yue Inn cried out in protest.
Xiao Jingye spoke in a deep voice, “Someone disappeared in your establishment, and you can’t escape responsibility!”
He drew his sword from his waist and pointed it at the innkeeper’s throat. “Speak up! What else are you hiding?”
The innkeeper, his face full of despair, said, “I’ve told you everything I know!”
Seeing that the innkeeper’s expression didn’t seem fake, Gu Qingluan had a thought and asked, “Is the charcoal that was removed still here?”