Chapter 534

The 26th year of Jiajing, May 20th.

East Island, Kyoto.

On the streets, pedestrians were bustling.

Lu Wushuang frowned as she looked at the tray placed beside her. Inside were several skewers of vegetables, the skins slightly charred, coated with a layer of dark brown sauce, faintly emitting an unseemly, fishy, and salty odor.

From the side came the hawking of a vendor.

"Miso Dengaku~!"

Lu Wushuang pushed the tray away.

Miyoshi Ryota, who was sitting on the same long bench and burying his head in his own tray eating fiercely, looked up.

"Big Sister, are you not eating?"

Lu Wushuang clicked her tongue.

"Rotten vegetable leaves wrapped in fishy fermented bean paste, and who knows how many people have sucked on these skewers... It would be better to just eat someone's saliva; at least that would mean eating less rotten bean paste."

Nanao, who was nibbling on a skewer nearby, heard this description, her face turned pale, and she couldn't help but put the skewer down.

Seeing that she had stopped eating, Lu Wushuang took the opportunity to say.

"Are you sure your home is in this vicinity?"

Hearing this, Nanao's face turned pale.

"I... am sure..."

Miyoshi Ryota, who was eating a skewer next to them, heard Nanao's words and said while chewing.

"But... your family is a wealthy household, right?"

Nanao nodded.

"And the residence is not small, there are many servants, and you usually buy large quantities of goods from surrounding shops?"

Nanao nodded.

"And it is located right here on Muromachi Street?"

Before Nanao could nod, Miyoshi Ryota spread his hands.

"Then you must have remembered something wrong."

He reached out and pointed forward.

"Look, there are only a few Company Commander on this Muromachi Street, and if you count the heads, it's only a little over a thousand. Among them, the residences that are somewhat large, we have all visited, and not a single family recognizes you."

"And the surrounding shops, rouge and powder, coal and wood, we have asked them all, and there isn't a single household surnamed Sasakura. Since your family uses so much, how could not a single one recognize you?"

"Furthermore, you ran away because your family arranged a marriage, and it's been nearly half a year. No matter what, your family should have looked for you by now, so they must have described your appearance to others, right?"

"You even specifically changed into the same clothes you wore when you escaped, so how could not a single person recognize you?"

Nanao twisted the hem of her clothes with both hands.

"I... I don't know..."

"My home really is right here... My parents, friends, the guards of my house, and my maid... They should all be here..."

"I don't know... I didn't lie..."

Seeing Nanao on the verge of tears, Miyoshi Ryota knew he had said the wrong thing and hurriedly comforted her.

"I didn't mean that. You wealthy young ladies go out little and might have remembered the place wrong, or your family might have moved away due to some matter, or it's not impossible that we missed a spot..."

Lu Wushuang glanced at him.

"Heh!"

Just looking at Miyoshi Ryota's nervous tension, she knew he already had feelings for Nanao, and Nanao did not resist—this made her even more irritable.

"Ming Sect Leader... Ji Tianrui!"

She clenched her fist.

A formidable enemy, an unprecedented formidable enemy.

Whether it was martial arts, intelligence, speech, demeanor, appearance, or even her experiences with Li Miao, she had lost completely.

That day at Enryaku-ji, Li Miao and Ji Tianrui left together, while she stood there like a lackey, not even qualified to break Ji Tianrui's acupoint pressure to shout a word.

And she even had to rush to Kyoto according to her words!

Thinking again of the rumors in the martial arts world about "abandoning after the beginning, a fit of anger for Li Miao, assassinating the King to avenge the fickle lover, love-hate entanglements and mutual destruction"...

Although it seemed the source of the information was a famous habitual rumor-monger, but... there is no smoke without fire! Li Miao is not some chaste man who keeps himself pure!

And now, the two are alone together!