Chapter 10: Hatred

Zhao Ying nodded after hearing this.

She had heard some Jianghu anecdotes from Zhao Dehua since she was a child, and she knew the ways of these things, but her experience was too little and her eye for things was insufficient. Being told by Zhao Dehua, she naturally understood.

"Then, what about the older one?"

Zhao Ying was most curious about Li Miao, who was too lazy to even be polite to Zhao Dehua. She kept asking.

"Him? I can't see through him. But he is the most powerful," Zhao Dehua said.

"Look at his breathing, it's no different from an ordinary person's level. It seems like an ordinary person who doesn't know Wu Gong."

"But this posture of leaning, pressing the chest, ordinary people have difficulty breathing, and their breathing will be more urgent than sitting naturally. But you listen carefully to his breathing."

Zhao Ying closed her eyes upon hearing this and carefully distinguished Li Miao's breathing.

After a while, she opened her eyes and said in surprise: "Why is his breathing so light? It can't even compare to that little girl, I almost couldn't hear it clearly!"

"That's right. Ordinary Jianghu people, the higher the Wu Gong, the longer and steadier the breath. But his breathing is both light and short; you have to pay attention to listen to it since you practiced ear skills since you were a child. If he takes advantage of the dark night, holds his breath, you won't be able to find his position."

"To achieve this, either he practiced a kind of internal energy I have never heard of, or his internal energy cultivation is extraordinary, already beyond the scope of ordinary Jianghu people."

"Look at his hands again."

Zhao Ying also put away her small thoughts at this time, just treating this as a test, and focused her peripheral vision on Li Miao's hands.

"No calluses, no deformation. Not playing with weapons or hard skills."

"Nails are neat and blunt, fingertips are long, middle finger is longer than index finger. Not practicing finger skills either."

Zhao Dehua shook his head when he heard Zhao Ying's muttering: "Don't learn my way of looking at the young man. You have to learn to find the most unusual places, not analyze these useless things."

"Look at what he is doing now?"

Zhao Ying replied strangely: "Peeling peanuts, what's wrong, Dad?"

Zhao Dehua said: "Silly girl, you only know that people are peeling peanuts, but you don't look at how they peel them."

"He is peeling roasted peanuts, the peanut shells are crisp, he peeled for a long time, have you seen a trace of debris on his hands? He pinches with his hands, the peanut skin falls off, but the two halves of the peanut haven't separated; can the skill on his hands be simple?"

Zhao Ying laughed when she heard this: "Dad, you said his breathing is different from ordinary people, I believed it. But how can you talk about peeling peanuts so seriously? Maybe people just peel them particularly well?"

Zhao Dehua also laughed: "Yes, I thought too much, a bit mysterious."

"But the three of them dare to share a room with us, that young man with good Wu Gong came up to greet us, but he lay there without moving, and didn't even stand up when he saw so many of us coming in, there must be something."

"Walking in the Jianghu, harmony is the best policy, and disputes of anger are the lowest. People just didn't look at me, but they returned the salute, don't have any dissatisfaction with people."

"Understood, Dad," Zhao Ying answered with a smile.

The father and daughter talked for a while, the fire warmed their bodies, and their moods gradually relaxed.

A group of people escorting darts, rushing on the road, were already a bit tired. Once they relaxed, Zhao Ying's head started to nod, and her eyes couldn't open.

Zhao Dehua spoke, pointed at a few people to guard the night with him, and the rest didn't care about the dust on the ground, so they found a place to rest.

The three Li Miao were also resting.

After the first half of the night passed, Zhao Dehua also felt a bit sleepy, estimated the time was about right, and patted a few people to change shifts to guard the night.

He also yawned, wrapped his outer garment, and closed his eyes leaning against the box escorting the darts.

After a while, the lying Wang Hai twitched his nose and opened his eyes in the dark.

He didn't move, quietly stuck out his tongue, tasted the air, and tasted it for a while.

"There's a sleeping incense. Someone is about to make a move on that group of escorts." He silently made his judgment.

Because the quality of this hypnotic smoke was not good, not bad, and not enough to deal with a Thousand-Household of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If they attacked the three Li Miao, the evildoers would have to use Gu from the Miao region or high-grade hypnotic smoke from the Tang Men.

Using this grade of hypnotic smoke to deal with a Thousand-Household of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was no different from sending a greeting card before acting.

At this moment, there were only a few people in the room, so it was either attacking them or attacking the Huwei Dart-Escort Agency group.

"It's late now, the Thousand-Household is probably sleepy, he should have fallen asleep long ago."

"I don't know the background of the people coming, it's really unwise to act rashly. I won't move first, see how the situation develops, and then make plans."

Wang Hai thought so, glanced at Li Miao's side, but was startled.

Li Miao was opening one eye secretly, staring at the Huwei Dart-Escort Agency side with great interest.

Li Miao saw Wang Hai startled by him, and felt funny in his heart.

He had been in the Embroidered Uniform Guard for twenty years, and Wang Hai had been by his side since he was under his command, and his habit of "eight-hour working day" had been deeply rooted in his bones.

Little did he know, there were few holidays in the feudal era, and these twenty years were almost all working days except for the New Year, and he had almost spent twenty years of working days.

In these twenty years, he was strengthening himself with the "eight-hour working day" every day, and was also limited in energy by the "eight-hour working day" every day, which made him always sleepy at sunset.

That's right, his golden finger is called "eight-hour working day." Li Miao named it himself, very appropriate.

But, this is his first business trip in twenty years.

As everyone knows, the time on the road is not counted as working hours.

Not working, naturally not limited by energy. Li Miao is now running internal energy, full of spirit, and is very energetic!

He couldn't wait to see his first real walk in the Jianghu, his first real encounter with Jianghu hatred and killing!

Li Miao and Wang Hai were speechless, waiting for the movement.

After a while, the arms Zhao Dehua had crossed over his chest slowly slid down, and his originally orderly breathing scattered, clearly losing consciousness.

Tired from the journey, the Huwei Dart-Escort Agency group had long been sleepy. Zhao Dehua finished the first half of the night, and his fatigue had accumulated to the extreme. The people who changed shifts just woke up from their dreams, and were the most unclear.

Choosing this time to release the hypnotic smoke, clearly the person acting had been observing nearby, and chose the most suitable time to act.

After waiting for a while, a person walked into the door lightly.

This person walked a few steps toward Zhao Dehua, and just as she was about to reach him, she suddenly stopped and retreated rapidly.

No movement.

Seeing Zhao Dehua had no reaction, she didn't step forward, but took a small bag from her bosom and threw it toward Zhao Dehua's side.

That small bag flew across the air.

Slap.

A big hand reached out, caught the small bag, and tucked it into his bosom.

"Hmph! Old thing, I knew you wouldn't be so easy to get!" the person said hatefully, the voice crisp and pleasant, actually a young woman.

Only her face was covered with a black scarf, and her appearance could not be seen.

"I've been escorting darts for over a decade, how could I not know when it's most dangerous at night? The girl also looks down on Zhao too much."

Zhao Dehua stood up, his eyes shining, not a trace of being unclear.

Other dart-escort men were indeed hit by the hypnotic smoke, but Zhao Dehua was an old Jianghu hand, sleeping with half an eye open, and had noticed something wrong the first time the hypnotic smoke was put into the room.

It was just that the old saying goes, only a thief for a thousand days, how can there be a defense against a thief for a thousand days.

Zhao Dehua could naturally wake up other dart-escort men while the hypnotic smoke hadn't fully exerted its effect, but the person acting would have run away. With such a person hanging behind him, he wouldn't be able to eat or sleep peacefully.

He relied on his high Wu Gong, simply acted as if he had been hit, wanting to lure the person acting to come over.

If the other party crashed in, maybe they would be violently subdued by him, and there would be no future trouble.

But the woman was not a reckless person, she retreated suddenly at the limit distance of Zhao Dehua's action, almost provoking Zhao Dehua to stand up and attack.

Zhao Dehua wanted to continue acting, but the shape of the small bag thrown by the woman was clearly a hidden weapon that would explode into a cloud of poison upon touching the ground.

Zhao Dehua didn't dare to bet whether his internal energy could withstand the poison, so he had to act to catch the small bag.

But it also exposed the fact that he hadn't been poisoned.

At this moment, it became a one-on-one, clear-cut situation.

Zhao Dehua looked up and down at the masked woman, and couldn't think of any similar figures.

So he frowned and asked: "I don't know what hatred there is with the girl? Is there any room for maneuver?"

He didn't ask if the masked woman was for the wealth they were escorting.

The hypnotic smoke used by the woman, although Wang Hai looked down on it, was also good goods that ordinary Jianghu people couldn't touch, and it was worth a lot of money; Zhao Dehua almost fell for it. If it were for money, it wouldn't be worth using such good things to deal with him.

And the woman's words seemed to know him, cursing him as an old thing, saying she knew he wouldn't fall for it.

This was clearly no common thief driven by greed, but a vengeful enemy coming specifically for him!

The woman didn't want to hide her purpose either, sneered: "Old thing, are you senile?"

"If a few fart words could put down the hatred, would I bother to act against you?"

"Without doing a round, would you let me, an enemy with a covered face, go?"

"If I really left, could you sleep?"

Zhao Dehua sighed.

"Sigh—the girl is right."

"The older the Jianghu, the smaller the courage, the bloodiness is all worn away, only thinking of settling things."

"Let the girl laugh."

"Let's—see the truth under our hands!"

Before the words fell, Zhao Dehua crossed a distance of a zhang in one step, and rushed up together!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 11 =====