Chapter 496: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

"So they haven't given up hope yet. As long as the time hasn't passed, they won't leave early." The mirror reminded him, "These are all your assumptions that Mr. Mai hasn't communicated with the person behind the scenes. What if they have already made contact?"

"There's no harm in trying; at worst, it's just wasted effort. Even if you wink at a blind man, what's the big deal?" Who couldn't afford this little bit of trial-and-error cost? It wasn't coming out of his pocket anyway. "Besides, based on my deduction, they shouldn't have met Mr. Mai at all."

"Why?"

"He doesn't even live here, yet all the clues obtained from him point directly to Baishaque. Isn't that quite interesting?"

The Soul-Capturing Mirror asked curiously, "Doesn't he live in Baishaque? Didn't the old man guarding the gate for him in Shuanglu Town say he always came over from Baishaque?"

"If he lived here long-term, why wouldn't he purchase a property?" He He Lingchuan said softly, "He only stays in inns in Baishaque, and he's stayed in quite a few; Lord Zhongsun Mou has records of all of them."

"So Baishaque is not his residence, but the long-term dwelling of the person behind the scenes."

The mirror felt it was inconceivable: "Wait a minute, are you saying Mr. Mai led us here?"

"Otherwise?" Ever since He He Lingchuan received the *Record of Worshipping Gods*, he had been suspicious, and this recent series of events further deepened his speculation. "He guided all the clues here; why would he bother to destroy them a step ahead of time?"

He paused, "Besides, we can verify it right now."

The mirror was puzzled: "What do you plan to do?"

He He Lingchuan put down the work in his hands and stood up: "Work's over."

……

The second quarter of the Wei hour had arrived.

The occupancy rate of the Chaohu Teahouse was down to only twenty percent:

That matchmaking session that wasn't high-end or impressive enough had already finished; both sides seemed to have parted on bad terms, each paying for their tea and leaving.

Only two tables remained occupied.

At this moment, a person in white walked up from downstairs, slowing their pace, their gaze sweeping across the tower as if looking for someone.

Including the tea drinkers and tourists, there were only seven people on the fourth floor, which could be taken in at a single glance.

They looked at people, and others looked at them.

But like the other tourists, they did not sit down, instead walking to the corridor at the edge of the pagoda and circling it, as if admiring the scenery.

They wore clothes the color of Yanghu white, were very tall, with broad shoulders and long legs, and wore a veil hat on their head. The design of this thing was basically a hat as wide as a bamboo hat with silk netting hanging around it to block the wind and shade the sun.

Baishaque had plenty of water, so there were many mosquitoes along the shore; fishermen and travelers often wore this kind of hat, so it was nothing unusual.

But the mesh of this veil hat was very dense, basically blocking the face and revealing only a slight outline.

This person walked a circle, then went to the tea counter, picked up two bags of dried sweet potatoes, weighed them, and took a small piece of loose silver from their waist, throwing it to the waiter.

While performing these actions, the red jade thumb ring on the white-clad person's right hand was revealed.

"I'll get your change."

Just then, two tea drinkers finished their conversation and were about to stand up when the waiter suddenly dropped a few coins on the ground. He squatted down to pick them up, inadvertently glancing from bottom to top.

This action was subconscious, but after he withdrew his gaze, he seemed to remember something and looked up again, his eyes fixed, forgetting even to stand up.

The person in white naturally would not ignore this action.

They stepped back, turned their head to sweep a glance across the tea room, and suddenly turned to head downstairs.

The waiter hurriedly scrambled up and shouted, "Hey, customer, your change!"

The person in white ignored them entirely and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The elderly man came over to settle the bill and asked the waiter: "What's wrong with you?"

"His, his face..." The person in white had already disappeared at the stairwell, but the waiter was still peering in that direction, "It looks a bit familiar; where have I seen it before?"

As they were speaking, two craftsmen from the repair team nearby came over to ask for a cup of tea.

After the person in white went downstairs, they stood at the entrance of the Chaohu Tower and looked left and right.

Just as several government runners were passing by, they took the opportunity to lower their head and reached out to press down on their veil hat before blending into the crowd on the street and heading quickly toward the east.

Several rows of low houses were circled around the Chaohu Tower, including residential homes and shops, making it stand out like a crane among chickens.

Only a dozen breaths after the person in white left the pagoda, three people emerged from the low houses opposite the Chaohu Tower, all dressed as commoners, walking at a steady pace and also heading east.

The person in white, however, walked faster and faster, slipping into a carriage and horse agency at the corner of the street.

In the blink of an eye, before the three people behind could catch up, the person in white had already led out a chestnut horse.

Clearly, this was one they had deposited earlier.

These carriage and horse agencies had rental services as well as storage and management, which was very convenient.

The Chaohu Tower was in the suburbs, and there were no traffic restrictions on the roads. The person in white vaulted onto the horse and trotted away, putting more and more distance between themselves and the three people tracking them.

This fellow was quite vigilant; as soon as they sensed something unusual in the tower, they intended to leave Baishaque immediately and would never linger.

Their behavior clearly exceeded the expectations of others.

Those three people did not know what they had encountered in the tower, but they had all accepted the mission and had no choice but to turn into the carriage and horse agency to buy horses and then hurriedly give chase.

They had wanted to rent three horses, but renting carriages and horses required paying a deposit and registering, which was troublesome and time-consuming. The three had no choice and stopped renting, throwing down silver to buy them directly.

That was straightforward.

However, one of them did not have enough silver, so they had to borrow from their companions to make up the amount before they could buy the horses.

With this delay, quite a bit of time passed.

Fortunately, the person in white was not galloping wildly, so as they vaulted onto their horses to pursue, the distance could still be slowly narrowed.

In the sky, a magpie was also chasing the person in white, occasionally landing on treetops or rooftops.

Seeing that the distance between the two sides was less than ten zhang, the three were about to increase their speed when, unexpectedly, more than ten riders burst out of the woods nearby, all dressed as soldiers. The leader pointed at the figure of the person in white and shouted: "Found him, that's him!"

Behind them, the sound of hoofbeats was chaotic. The person in white turned their head on the horse's back, and without a word, whipped the horse to hurry! "Don't run, or you'll be killed without mercy!" the pursuers yelled.

The person in white fled even faster.

By the side of the road was a sorghum field, growing vigorously, turning into an endless green curtain in this season.

The person in white simply spurred the horse and jumped in.

Baishaque was famous for sorghum wine, so this crop was widely planted in the countryside, with stalks reaching one to one and a half zhang (3-5 meters). As the person in white charged in with the horse, they only needed to lower their head, and the pursuers behind would find it very difficult to see them, able only to judge their position by sound.

This boundless field was a giant maze; anyone who entered would get dizzy and disoriented.

The three people deliberately lagged a few lengths behind the pursuers, arriving two steps slower.

The dozen or so pursuers naturally entered the sorghum field as well, disappearing into the green curtain in an instant, with only human voices and horse neighs to be heard.

The three stopped before the sorghum field, looking at each other.

Pursue, or not pursue?

Their superiors wanted them to keep a close watch and preferably bring the person back; if they couldn't bring them back, then...

The leader thought for a moment and said decisively: "Pursue!"

The pursuers might lose their way, but they would not, because that magpie demon had been leading the way. With eyes in the sky, this maze-like green curtain could instead help them find the target and intercept the pursuers.

One of them turned their horse around to go back and report first; the other two fixed their eyes on the black and white figure of the magpie fluttering in mid-air and chased straight into the sorghum field.

Having run only twenty-some zhang, a mountain of flesh suddenly appeared in front.

The two urgently reined in their horses, but one of them still couldn't stop.

With a "bang," the person and horse were overturned.

The mountain of flesh turned its head, its face full of confusion and panic.

It turned out to be a wild ox hiding in the green curtain to steal food, fully expecting the tall sorghum stalks to cover its tracks, never anticipating that two blind fools would charge in and crash into its rear.

The wild ox thought it had been caught in the act and was the first to be startled, so it kicked its hooves and ran off with a rumble.

Like a bulldozer, it flattened a large patch of sorghum as it passed.

Countless birds immediately flew down from the sky, competing to snatch the fallen sorghum ears.

"Damn it!" the two cursed.

There were too many birds, chirping everywhere, with small flying bodies everywhere; they suddenly couldn't see where that magpie was at all.

They could only chase in the original direction.

Having run another ten-some zhang like this, the birds in the field suddenly took flight in large numbers again, the sound of flapping wings particularly loud.

A goshawk swooped down and pinned some unlucky bird in the field.

The surroundings were in chaos, with the sound of wind, human voices, horse neighs, and bird calls, making it even harder for the two to judge the position.

The sorghum stalks on the left suddenly rustled, different from the sound of the wind, and immediately after, a burnt-brown figure pounced out, fast as lightning.

The horses neighed in alarm and reared up.

But the rider on its back had already been pounced upon.

Only then did the deafening roar explode in the humans' ears.

In the green curtain, there was actually a fierce tiger crouching! As soon as the tiger demon appeared, it bit the prey's shoulder and wouldn't let go, its giant claws pinning the collarbone, and the tiger head gave a slight twist.

With a crisp "crack," the man's shoulder joint was dislocated.

This scene happened too quickly; from the tiger's attack to success, it took less than one and a half breaths.

The person who had been pinned down hadn't even recovered their senses before losing the power to fight back, and then they saw a bloody mouth right before their eyes, sharp teeth flashing with cold light.

They were so scared they screamed loudly.

The other rider raised their blade to hack at the tiger's back, but who knew the tiger seemed to have eyes in the back of its head, dodging with a side roll without losing a single hair. Instead, the prey it was biting was dragged and forcibly twisted half a circle, screaming like a slaughtered pig in pain.

When the rider saw this, how could they not know they had been ambushed? They didn't even care about rescuing their companion and were about to turn their horse and flee.

But they saw people and horses approaching from all directions, surrounding them tightly in the middle.

The person in white they had been chasing stood at the very front, taking off their veil hat to use as a fan, fanning themselves twice: "Still not dismounting to surrender? Do you want to be missing an arm or a leg?"

This person, of course, was Young Master He.

Trapped in heavy encirclement, with the suppressed low growl of a tiger coming from behind, the man's eyes darted around, clearly having other ideas.

He He Lingchuan immediately said: "Don't have any crooked thoughts; your companion will confess, and if you die, you'll have died for nothing!"

The companion's groans of pain were still continuing, but they were quite vigorous, indeed not sounding like someone on the verge of death.

This person finally gave up, jumped off his horse, and raised his hands, saying, "I surrender, don't kill me!"

The soldiers swarmed forward and tied the two of them up like rice dumplings.

He He Lingchuan then stepped forward and asked, "Whose subordinates are you?"

Thanks to fellow reader juliscaesar for the enthusiastic praise, aiy-hai-hai, how could I be so embarrassed?

Thanks for the support from fellow readers Congcong Liu Baobao, Book Friend 20220830232530350, Pa Lou Pa Dao Tu, Hua Kai X Hua Luo, Jiang Tian Chen Yue, Xi Mian You Niao, and others.

(End of this chapter)