Streams of warm, bloody air wafted through the atmosphere.
Xiang Ye looked sharp and observant. "Sister Caiyu went out early this morning. She went to the shop to check the accounts and give out red envelopes to the clerks."
According to the northern custom, businesses would close on the morning of the Minor New Year. After the shopkeeper had checked the annual accounts and distributed red envelopes and silver to the clerks, everyone would return home and wouldn't resume work until after the Lantern Festival.
"Oh." After Han Fen asked, he took out a paper-wrapped package from his bosom.
Xiang Ye's eyes lit up. "Tanggua from Quan Guang Zhai!"
Han Fen glanced at Xiang Ye's drooling expression, waved the paper package in his hand, and said jokingly,
"Want some?"
Xiang Ye nodded like a pounding garlic.
Tanggua was a small sweet made of maltose and yellow rice. It was an essential offering when worshiping the Kitchen God.
It tasted sweet and glutinous, and was loved by both girls and children.
Han Fen stuffed the package of tanggua into her hands. "If you want it, here you go."
Xiang Ye stood there stunned, holding the paper package. "Isn't this for Sister Caiyu?"
"Why would I give it to her—" Han Fen blurted out without thinking, then quickly shut his mouth. With a complicated look on his face, he said, "It's from the prince. The prince said that Miss Caiyu is from the south and must never have tasted northern tanggua, so he asked me to bring a package for her."
Xiang Ye happily accepted it.
Since it was for Caiyu, she would surely get some too. She didn't mind.
Seeing Han Fen about to leave, Xiang Ye called out to him. "Wait. Sister Caiyu also has something to give back to the prince."
Xiang Ye ran into the house and came out again with a red paper-cut in her hand. She carefully placed it in Han Fen's hand and said,
"I saw Sister Caiyu cut a small figure when she was making window decorations with us yesterday. This must be for the prince. She left early today, and the prince also left early... But it's okay. Since the prince asked you to bring the gift, I'll take the liberty of asking you to return Sister Caiyu's gift to the prince."
Han Fen hesitated for a moment. He wanted to say that the tanggua wasn't from the prince, but in the end, he didn't explain.
He reached out to take it. A section of his left wrist emerged from his sleeve, revealing a red bracelet. Xiang Ye's eyes widened in surprise.
"Hey? Brother Han, the Buddhist bead bracelet on your wrist is also made of six-petal vajra bodhi seeds!"
Han Fen was startled. He snatched the paper-cut figure like he had been electrocuted and tucked the red string back into his sleeve.
But Xiang Ye refused to let it go and chased after him. "Let me take a look! I also have one on my hand. It looks just like your bracelet... What a coincidence..."
Han Fen's handsome face flushed bright red. He turned around and walked away in a hurry. "The Kitchen God is about to be worshiped. I'll go deliver the gift first!"
Xiang Ye: "…So stingy!"
---
The Yan region was in the north. On the evening of the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, the Minor New Year, every household closed their doors and had a reunion.
The lights were on in every family, but the streets in the city were extremely deserted. Almost every shop had closed. Yellow lanterns indicating closure were hanging under the eaves, casting dots of golden light on the snow tonight.
On Fucheng Street leading to the main city, the horses' hooves clattered. A carriage was slowly moving forward. The wheels left two long tracks in the thick snow, stretching into the endless distance.
Suddenly, the wheels seemed to be stuck in the snow. The horse neighed and stood still, nervously snorting.
The coachman, Lao Zheng, shouted a few times. The horse lifted its hooves forcefully, and snowflakes flew up behind it, forming a cloud of snow mist. But the carriage didn't move an inch.
A soft and gentle voice came from inside the carriage. "Uncle Zheng, what's going on?"
Lao Zheng replied, "Miss Caiyu, it seems that the wheels have hit some iron objects in the snow. The snow is too thick, and I can't see what's inside for the moment."
Caiyu was sitting inside the carriage. Suddenly, she was silent for a moment, and a string in her mind "buzzed".
Today was the Minor New Year. Before the festival, Guan Baishan, the magistrate of Yanjing City, had ordered the foremen of the water supervision department to clean the main streets of Yanjing City.
Fucheng Street was the main road leading to the Yan Prince's Mansion. How could there be iron objects buried in the snow at this time?
A feeling of uneasiness welled up in her heart.
Caiyu lifted the curtain and got out of the carriage. She said to Lao Zheng, "Uncle Zheng, abandon the carriage. Let's walk back."
Lao Zheng looked at the increasingly heavy snow and was extremely surprised. "Walk... walk back? The snow is so heavy. How about you wait in the carriage? I'll go knock on the doors nearby and ask a few villagers to help push the carriage out."
Caiyu had already jumped out of the carriage by herself and urged him, "Hurry up. All the shops here are closed. We have to pass through several small streets to find residents. It's getting late, and the snow is heavy. Let's leave quickly."
Just as she finished speaking, a group of people emerged from the dark and crisscrossing streets.
Each of them was wearing a black mask, exuding a murderous aura.
The leader only showed a pair of cruel and tyrannical eyes. His deep and harsh laughter sounded like it was coming from hell.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Lao Zheng saw that each of them was holding a bright long knife. He was so scared that his legs trembled, but he still summoned up the courage to plead for mercy.
"Kind sir, spare our lives! Spare our lives!"
The other side ignored Lao Zheng's plea for mercy and slowly approached Caiyu and the others step by step.
A cold wind swept across the ground, blowing the snow on the ground and merging with the snowflakes dancing in the sky. Caiyu stood against the wind. The wind blew her hair into a mess. She quietly held the hairpin she had taken from her hair bun.
"Heroes, are you here for money? If so, I just settled the silver at the shop today. I'm willing to give all my money to you. I only ask you to let us two go."
Caiyu forced herself to calm down and sized up the people in front of her.
They weren't dressed as agreed with Nanny Yu, and they hadn't reached the agreed hijacking location yet.
Who sent these people?
The leader let out a cold sneer. "We want both the money and the people!"
Hearing this, Lao Zheng's face turned pale immediately.
These weren't ordinary robbers!
"Who are you?"
Caiyu wanted to find out who they were, but after saying that, they remained silent and waved their hands to signal the others to surround them!
It seemed that they were going to kill them all!
Lao Zheng suddenly pushed Caiyu towards an alley and shouted loudly,
"Go! Hurry up..."
His voice suddenly stopped.
Caiyu stumbled forward into the alley. When she looked back in embarrassment, she saw Lao Zheng covered in blood, twitching and struggling on the ground.
The fresh blood was glaringly red, dripping down the blade of the long knife in the leader's hand, dropping onto the white snow and winding into a bright red stream.
"Clang!"
One of Caiyu's silver hairpins fell into the snow, making a slight dull sound. Her extremely beautiful face instantly turned deathly pale, her lips were blue and purple, and big tears fell from her eyes.
"Uncle Zheng! Uncle Zheng!"
Caiyu's voice lost its usual charm and was filled with extreme pain.
Lao Zheng was lying on the ground, his eyes wide open. In the darkness, Caiyu seemed to see his lips moving, as if he was saying,
"Go!"
But the group of black-clothed men had already chased after them, moving like shadows in the darkness.
Caiyu wiped the tears from her face. She threw a handful of snow in the face of the black-clothed man who rushed forward carelessly and arrogantly. Taking advantage of the moment when the other person was blocked, she rushed into the snow, snatched the long knife from his hand, and slashed hard at his chest!
Blood spattered everywhere, and large streams of warm, bloody air wafted through the atmosphere!
The girl's clothes and face were covered in blood, but she still kept swinging the knife. The sound of the blade chopping into flesh echoed everywhere, making people tremble with fear!
"She knows martial arts!"
The black-clothed men who caught up were stunned by Caiyu's crazy behavior. They stopped in their tracks for a moment and watched as she was like a lioness, opening her mouth wide and desperately biting the prey in her mouth. It wasn't until their comrade was hacked into a bloody mess and fell to the ground with a thud that they came to their senses.
The leader tightened his grip on the knife and shouted, "Attack!"
The black-clothed men rushed towards Caiyu like shooting stars...