Faraway Wanderers Novel (English Translation)

Escaping Danger

Chapter 39.

By the time Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing had hurried back, Gu Xiang and the others were no longer there. All that was left was a mess of corpses across the floor, which people from the Gao Family Manor were cleaning up. Surrounding them was a big ring of curious onlookers. Wen Kexing was still very unused to having something covering his face, constantly expecting the mask as thin as a cicada’s wing to drop at any moment. Then he witnessed Zhou Zishu, who had people hunting him down just moments earlier, swagger over as if he was not involved in the situation at all…as if he was not Zhou Zishu.

For the first time, Wen Kexing realised that it was possible for a person to be this outrageously brazen while harbouring a guilty conscience; indeed, Zhou Zishu’s face had become thicker after sticking another layer over it. Wen Kexing followed after him, clicking his tongue in amazement. A few people were examining the corpses on the floor. Mo Huaikong from the Qingfeng Sword Sect was amongst them, his expression grim, having obviously recognised Cao Weining’s work. Wen Kexing sized him up for a moment, then went close to Zhou Zishu to murmur by his ear, “Look at the expression of that old fart surnamed Mo, Cao Weining can’t have eloped with Gu Xiang, can he?”

Zhou Zishu said, “You’re too dirty-minded.”

He gazed at the corpses on the floor, his brows knitting, and had a slight premonition of doom. What kind of people were the suicide warriors of the Poisonous Scorpions? Could those two unreliable ones handle the situation, while bringing a half-grown child along with them? Were they dead or alive now? And where had they run to?

Wen Kexing thought about it, and said, “Now that whatever it is about the Lapis Armour and Poisonous Scorpions has incited a storm to brew within the city, if it were Gu Xiang, that silly lass, she should be running to somewhere isolated.”

Zhou Zishu glanced at him and speedily retreated out of the crowd, saying. “What are you waiting for, then? Find her.”

The two of them vanished as quickly as they had come, unnoticed by most. Wen Kexing reassured him, “There’s no harm, that lass Gu Xiang isn’t as useless as you think. Additionally, there’s still Cao Weining.”

Zhou Zishu glanced at him, frowning, and asked suddenly, “Why is Valley Master Wen so concerned about whether that little tyke lives or dies?”

Wen Kexing smiled, but once his mouth curved, he felt the mask on his face wrinkle a little and threaten to fall off. By hastily reaching up to press it in place, he started to appear strange to the onlooker. In reply, he asked, “Why, then, is Lord Zhou so concerned about whether that little tyke lives or dies?”

Zhou Zishu said, “He is my disciple.”

Wen Kexing continued, “Your disciple is my disciple, between the two of us, who’s following who?”

Zhou Zishu said, “…Between the two of us, you’re following me—cut the nonsense out, are you aiming to gain some information from that little tyke?”

“Give me a kiss and I’ll tell you.” Wen Kexing leered at him. Unfortunately, the human skin mask on his face was too unseemly to be human; what he thought to be a flirtatious, charismatic gaze he was shooting at Zhou Zishu was truly bone-chilling.

Zhou Zishu snapped his head around silently, repulsed. Feeling that he brought this upon himself, he asked, “Are you not afraid that you’ll grow sores?”