Han Dongsheng also got out of the cab. When he saw the "blue-screened" Yu Lanchuan, he called out to him curiously, "Little Master Yu?"

Yu Lanchuan himself wasn't sure what happened. He only felt that Gan Qing's gaze just now had been very special, like there was a myriad of feelings intertwined within, looking over to him from across a very distant time and space, and even carrying with it the dust from the weary journey, making him feel—for a moment—a fear of the emotions it drew from him.

Fortunately, Gan Qing regained her usual composure quicker than he did. With a smile that was not quite a smile, she extended a finger, Yu Lanchuan's car key hanging from it, and said teasingly, "I heard that Little Master Yu was so amazing today… achoo!"

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Before Gan Qing could finish a single teasing line, she had already sneezed three times in quick succession. When that was over, a breath of air was stuck at the back of her nasal cavity, refusing to go down no matter what. As the ringing in her ears gradually drowned out the sound of the wind, she had a bad feeling—she was catching a cold!

Both Han Dongsheng and Yan Hao gave her looks of astonishment.

Between these two, one already had the "three highs" while the other only knew how to leap up walls, but people who practised martial arts since young were still physically more robust than ordinary people. Han Dongsheng felt that the last time he had a cold or a fever, he was probably around the age of his son now.

To think that even Wan Mu Chun could have a blocked nose, and could cough and sneeze!

Yu Lanchuan regained his senses and asked in disbelief, "You've already wrapped yourself until you're like a ball and you're still shameless enough to catch a cold?"

Gan Qing said in a very nasal voice, "Heaven sends me to my doom, what fault of mine-"

"Still saying nonsense!" Yu Lanchuan pulled the hood of her down jacket up and down over her head, pushing her whole head inside until only her lower jaw could be seen. "If you have a cold, why aren't you home and resting? Who asked you to interfere in something that's none of your business? Don't I know better than you how to act within limits?"

"I can't see anything." Gan Qing pushed the hood up and said slowly. "You sure do, don't you? Challenging the four sect elders of Beggars' Sect on your own, armed with a peach wood sword for Daoist rituals, you sure do know your limits."

Yu Lanchuan took the car key from her. He accidentally touched her ice-cold fingertips and immediately asked suspiciously, "Weren't you still perfectly fine during dinner? What were you doing just now? Your phone was switched off and Wang Jiake even ended up in your hands?"

"It's a…" Gan Qing sniffled hard. "...ai, long story."

Even though she was afraid of the cold, in the past she had stayed in basements and group rentals where the heating was almost nonexistent. Despite that, she had never been chilled until she fell sick. On the other hand, now that she was enjoying warm air every day in winter, curled up next to the heater, her immune system had weakened quite a bit. She had been spoiled by comfort.

"Forget it." Yu Lanchuan pushed her towards the corridor, out of the wind. He did some quick mental calculations; Zhang Meizhen was an old lady who lived for the moment and would definitely not keep any medicine on hand at home. He himself had moved in not long ago and had also forgotten to keep any at his place. At this hour, the pharmacies were all closed. Where could he go to get some cold medicine for her?

While fretting, his mouth did not remain idle. "Other people can strengthen their bodies by practising martial arts. You? Today your stomach hurts, tomorrow your head hurts. Other than causing trouble, your skills aren't good for anything. What kind of demonic skills are you practising?"

Yu Lanchuan's mind was entirely occupied with the question of where to get medicine while Gan Qing's hearing was severely impacted by the ringing in her ears. As for Han Dongsheng and Yan Hao, one of them wasn't good at qinggong and did not have good hearing while the other was not perceptive and frequently dwelled in a world of his own without paying much attention to his surroundings.

Hence, today, no one noticed that there was someone at the courtyard entrance.

That someone waited until they had all returned to their own homes before walking out of the shadow of the wall. It was none other than the little mute girl from the pet store, Qiao-Qiao.

When Yan Hao returned to the laundry shop, he accidentally tripped over a cardboard box at the entrance. Only then did he remember that this morning, before the pet store opened for the day, he had taken in a delivery on behalf of Qiao-Qiao. In the turmoil and pandemonium of the day, he had forgotten about this matter.

Qiao-Qiao would sometimes dig into her own pocket to order some imported canned pet food and give the little animals in the pet store better meals. Yan Hao took a look. On the entire street, the lights in the buildings were all dark.

It's too late now. I'll let her know tomorrow, he thought, not very bothered about it. He locked the laundry shop door behind him.

When buying something from across the national border, the package would have to go through customs when it entered the country. The buyer's real identification information would have to be uploaded and the recipient's name would typically have to be written in full. A name like "Qiao-Qiao" that was either a childhood name or a nickname would definitely not do.

On the box of canned food, Qiao-Qiao's real name was written in the section for the recipient's name: Zhu Qiao.

On this night, after sorting out the dispute among these Beggars' Sect members that they had to bend over backwards to please, the thoroughly wiped-out neighbourhood police officers at least reaped a small reward—after going missing for a few days, Wang Jiake dropped into their laps out of nowhere!

The entire online world was suspecting that she had been killed to prevent her from exposing secrets and all sorts of conspiracy theories were bubbling up. Even though the girl seemed to be in a rather miserable state, in any case, it was a good thing that she had returned unscathed and in one piece. The officers quickly reported it to their higher-ups and, at the same time, asked her where she had been during the time she was missing.

Who would have thought, if they hadn't asked, they would remain ignorant but once they asked, they were shocked out of their skins. The twists and turns she had experienced for several days running was no less fantastical than what people were cooking up online. There was a loan scam, a suspected kidnapping and illegal house arrest, and even an unsuccessful sexual assault attempt!

While this was happening, the news about Wang Jiake being taken away by "Wan Mu Chun" was delivered to Wang Jiusheng. After Wang Jiusheng heard the whole story, he stood on the luxurious open deck at the top of the building and smoked half a pack's worth of cigarettes in quick succession. Slowly, he took up his phone and sighed. "I'm not afraid of you guys messing things up. You're young after all. After a few more rounds of training, you'll naturally be more thorough when taking care of matters. I'm just afraid of this kind of person who acts without reason and gets carried away the moment he sees a girl who looks halfway decent. Such a disgrace!"

His subordinate hurried to admit their mistake. "It is my fault for not choosing the right person, North Branch Master-"

"That goes without saying. You have compiled the list of people involved in this matter, haven't you?" Wang Jiusheng cut him off. Then, in a meaningful tone, he added, "Have you taken care of their families?"

From the other side of the call, his subordinate said, "Please do not worry about this."

"Then that's good." Wang Jiusheng nodded. "In the first place, this matter was because I couldn't say no so I helped our friends from Beggars' Sect stand up in a crisis. Regardless of whether the result is good or bad, it should not be borne by our Travellers' Sect, am I right?"

"Yes."

"Go get it done," Wang Jiusheng said lightly. "When you're the one doing the work, I have never had to worry."

The moment he hung up, the smile of confidence and ease on Wang Jiusheng's face disappeared,

He rubbed his fingers together and carefully surveyed the open deck in his own home like he was checking for landmines. Wang Jiusheng lived in one of the rare low-density neighbourhoods in the city district. The entire neighbourhood only had four buildings. The security was tight and each building had a security room. There were people on patrol twenty-four hours a day in the neighbourhood.

He had bought the penthouse, the most luxurious unit in the entire building. It was on the thirty-second floor and was known as "The Courtyard in the Air." There was a large open deck from which a panoramic view of more than half of Yanning could be seen. The price was sky-high.

But right now, even the thirty-second floor could not give him a sense of security. Wang Jiusheng switched on the infrared intruder detector installed on the open deck but still did not feel reassured so he went back in and locked the door to the deck. Other than a decorative glass door, his open deck also had a very extravagant anti-intruder door. Once it was lowered, it was like locking himself into a safe made of steel.

Inside the "safe," Wang Jiusheng opened his laptop and obsessively and carefully checked all the nearby CCTVs three times. Done, he finally grabbed a few sleeping pills and lay down to rest.

However, even the "safe" and the sleeping pills could not make him sleep peacefully. Not long after he closed his eyes, he startled awake from a nightmare of bloodied, disfigured corpses. He shouted out, cold sweat dripping as he sat up. Scared out of his wits, he switched on all the lights in the room. Right at that moment, from the corner of his eye, he saw a shadow on the wall!

His hair stood on end all over his body. He reached back and took out a combat knife from under his pillow. In a hysterical voice, he shouted, "Who is it!"

There was no reply. It turned out to be only his own clothes rack.

Wang Jiusheng let out a shaky breath and his shoulders collapsed. He poured out half a bottle of mineral water from the minibar.

Wang Jiusheng was born in a period of turmoil. At thirteen years old, the first person he had killed with his own hands was someone from the same sect, a boy about his age who was more good-looking and more well-connected than he was but had actually been a hypocrite since young. The nickname of "coward" started from this boy's mouth. After he secretly killed this person, he stuffed him down a well, making it seem as though the boy had disappeared into thin air. For a period of time, people searched for the boy and they thought he had run off on his own. No one ever suspected the honest and obedient Wang Jiusheng back then.

Other than that, the old dog that had bitten him before, the cook who had beaten him with the stick for lighting fires, the girl who had embarrassed him to his face by calling him "a frog dreaming of eating goose meat"—they all quietly disappeared into thin air.

Heaven knew, Earth knew. He knew, the dead knew.

Later on, the times changed and his methods also followed suit and evolved continuously. From the simple "murder and dispose the body," it evolved into creating accidents. The flames from the "accidental" large fire at the warehouse thirty years ago cleared the way to the throne of the North Branch Master and also gave him the glory and wealth he was enjoying in the second half of his life.

Even later on, his method of "creating accidents" evolved and became the higher level "kill with a borrowed knife." Even a big demon like Wei Xiao could not escape from his hands.

Every single one of these incidents had been memorable works with a lingering taste that made him proud. But from some unknown point onwards, they started to quietly seep into his dreams. Every night when midnight struck, they transformed into monsters that clung incessantly to him.

This could not be because he had grown old, and had grown afraid.

Wang Jiusheng thought that it was all because he had overlooked some things when he took care of matters of those years ago. He did not clear the roots when cutting the grass, and had left Wan Mu Chun with a remnant.

He tightened his grip on the combat knife and opened the drawer on the bedside table. A small safe was hidden there. Upon entering the twenty six-digit passcode, the safe softly sprung open. Inside was a bloody item of clothing and a few old photographs.

If Gan Qing or Meng Tianyi were to see them, they would be able to tell that the photographs were taken at Mudpool Backlane before it was rebuilt, at the place where Wei Xiao had lived in hiding.

Every photo was taken from a different angle. Among them, a photo of Yang Ping was very eye-catching. In it, Yang Ping already looked middle-aged. He was standing at the foot of the wall at the backyard of a small courtyard, looking like he had just climbed over the wall from the inside, and was wiping his hands. The palms of his twisted hands had an odd purple hue to them and were stained with blood. There was a smile on his face.

That night, the cold wind howled. Wang Jiusheng was entangled by monsters, Yang Yifan was nervously waiting on the edge of her seat for updates on the emergency treatment, and Zhang Meizhen sat in a stupor in front of her dead-silent phone the whole night.

Those whose hearts contained guilt or worry or regret, those whose past laid behind them, they all tossed and turned through the night, unable to sleep.

The only exception was Gan Qing. Yu Lanchuan got some cold medicine from Han Dongsheng's home, mixed it with water, and forced a large bowl down her throat, after which she seemed to be knocked unconscious and slept until the afternoon of the following day.

When a person who was not frequently ill fell sick, their sickness would be exceptionally severe and their reaction to medicine equally strong. When Gan Qing was woken up by the doorbell ringing, she felt as though her head had been stuffed full of sticky paste. Zhang Meizhen had gone off to who knew where so she had no choice but to crawl out of bed on all four limbs and then drag her two noodly legs over to open the door.

Yu Lanchuan came in carrying a bag containing lunch and a bag containing medicine. "Why didn't you ask who it was before opening the door? Don't you know that this courtyard is a little unsafe recently? Hello?"

Gan Qing was holding onto the door frame for support, her head leaning against the frame to draw some of its coolness into herself. Her eyes were still unfocused.

Yu Lanchuan felt that her expression did not look right. He reached out a hand to touch and was scalded by her forehead. "You're burning up! Yesterday, I told you to take the medicine in the morning, did you do it?"

Gan Qing, "..."

"How did you survive until now?" Exasperated, Yu Lanchuan put down the things he brought and removed the down jacket from the coat rack, and grabbed a hold of Gan Qing with one hand. "To the hospital!"

Gan Qing wasn't very clear-headed. She subconsciously drew back her shoulder and swung her elbow across, hitting accurately on Yu Lanchuan's meridian point. Her limbs were feeble and the force was not very strong. Yu Lanchuan hissed in pain and grabbed her elbow but Gan Qing seemed unable to stand steady. She fell forward along with the momentum, her entire body, heated to an abnormal temperature, landing on his.

Yu Lanchuan's heart stuttered, his heart stopping for half a beat.

Then, the next second, there was a chill on his neck. Something cold and metallic was touching his skin.

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

It was only then that Gan Qing finally slowly realised what was happening. She asked fuzzily, "...Little Master Yu? Why haven't you gone to work yet?"

"I took time from my lunch break to rush back from the office and bring you food," Yu Lanchuan said slowly through gritted teeth. "May I trouble you to remove your claws from my neck?"