Chapter 1011: Cunning and shrewd (I)

May 3rd, noon.

In Prince Xian's mansion, Ling Xiaoxiao, with a gloomy face, walked through the halls and courtyards, rushing to Qingfeng's residence.

Along the way, no matter if she met disciples from Xianwang Mansion or Wudang who saluted respectfully, or guests from Shaolin, Kunlun, Kongtong, or Tang Sect who greeted her warmly, she nodded and ignored them all. She never looked away from the beginning to the end, and walked away with big strides in the stunned and surprised eyes of everyone.

"Senior sister, why...why are you here?"

Upon seeing Ling Xiaoxiao, Zheng Songren and more than a dozen Wudang disciples guarding the courtyard were all stunned and looked surprised.

"Why can't I come?"

Ling Xiaoxiao looked at the crowd with an unfriendly look, and asked suspiciously: "The Xianwang Mansion is our territory, why do we need so many people guarding the door? Are you worried that Dad will encounter an accident?"

"Don't misunderstand, Senior Sister. The Xianwang Mansion is impregnable. How could anything unexpected happen? We are just... just following orders." Seeing that Ling Xiaoxiao "came with ill intentions", Zheng Songren couldn't help but feel uneasy, so he hurriedly evaded the question, "By the way! Senior Sister, have you had lunch? Do you want me to send someone to the kitchen..."

"Zheng Songren, stop playing dumb in front of me!" Ling Xiaoxiao interrupted Zheng Songren's concern without any hesitation, "I'm here to ask you for someone!"

"You want someone?" Zheng Songren's expression changed quietly, and he pretended to be confused and asked, "Who does Senior Sister want?"

"My personal maid, Huan'er." Ling Xiaoxiao went straight to the point. "Huan'er helps me get up and change clothes every morning, but I couldn't wait for her this morning. Huan'er has always been careful in her work, and she has never made such a mistake in all the years since she entered the mansion. I sent people to look for her for the whole morning, and I wanted to search every corner of the mansion, but still couldn't find any trace of her. Until just now, someone told me that you kidnapped her from the maid's room last night, and she hasn't returned since then. Zheng Songren, tell me the truth, what did you do to Huan'er? Where are you hiding her now?"

"I……"

Faced with Ling Xiaoxiao's aggressive questioning, Zheng Songren couldn't help but feel panicked. His face changed color and he stammered for a long time but couldn't say anything.

"What do you mean by 'I'?" Ling Xiaoxiao frowned and said angrily, "Are you tempted by Huan'er's beauty and want to do something indecent to her? Zheng Songren, you should know my temper. I hate lustful people the most in my life! How dare you have such evil thoughts in the Xianwang Mansion, and even set your sights on my maid, I..."

"Unfair! Such an injustice!" Zheng Songren was frightened by such a charge and his face changed. He quickly explained, "Although I am not a gentleman, I am not a despicable person. Senior sister, I swear to heaven that I have absolutely no bad thoughts towards Huan'er. If not, I will be struck by lightning and die a miserable death..."

"So... you admit that you kidnapped Huan'er?" Ling Xiaoxiao immediately seized on Zheng Songren's words and said unhappily, "If you weren't attracted by her beauty, why did you kidnap her? As far as I know, you and Huan'er have never met before, and it seems that you have no grudge against each other."

"me……"

Zheng Songren seemed to have something to hide. He wanted to say something several times but stopped himself and ultimately said nothing.

"Why are you hesitating?" Ling Xiaoxiao looked around and saw that the door was closed, so she carefully probed with a hidden meaning, "Looking at your situation today... Is this matter related to Dad?"

"Please forgive me, Senior Sister. I...can't say anything..."

"Could it be that Dad is against Huan'er..."

Thinking of this, Ling Xiaoxiao's face suddenly changed. She no longer cared about Zheng Songren's ambiguous words. She pushed away the disciples who were blocking her way and walked towards the room angrily.

"Okay, okay! Since you can't say anything, I'll go ask someone who can..."

"Sister, the headmaster just ordered that no one is allowed to go in and disturb us!"

"We are also following orders. I hope Senior Sister won't make things difficult for us."

"Why don't you go back and rest first, Senior Sister? We will report to you promptly afterwards..."

Seeing Ling Xiaoxiao trying to force her way in, all the disciples looked frightened.

Qingfeng's strict order forced them to do their duty. However, due to Ling Xiaoxiao's status, they did not dare to use force, so they swarmed forward and tried to persuade her with kind words.

"Everyone, get out of the way!" Ling Xiaoxiao pushed everyone and shouted angrily, "Why are you stopping me? What is Dad doing in the room? Is Huan'er in there too?"

"Sister, you must not let your imagination run wild, and you must not humiliate the reputation of the headmaster. Things are not what you think..."

"If it's not what I thought, why bother being sneaky and hiding it?"

Because Ling Xiaoxiao was hurt so deeply by Luo Tianjin, she is extremely sensitive to "matters between men and women", even a little... paranoid.

Deep down in her heart, all men, regardless of their age or status, are "lecherous" people who are fickle and easily bored with the old and easily attracted by the new.

Because of this, when she realized that Huan'er's disappearance was most likely related to Qingfeng, the first thought that came to her mind was "lust for sex". Looking at the "strict preparations" in the courtyard, the "obstructions" of the disciples, and Zheng Songren's "unspeakable", all of them deepened Ling Xiaoxiao's suspicion.

Ling Xiaoxiao could not tolerate this kind of thing in the first place, and since the other party was her closest, most respected, and most relied-upon father, she felt an indescribable amount of suppressed anger in her heart.

For a moment, she felt a mixture of emotions and was filled with anger, which made her temper even more violent.

"If you don't get out of the way, don't blame me for being ruthless!" Ling Xiaoxiao glared at the people who were in a dilemma and asked word by word, "Do you want me to call Yan Bugui?"

"Senior Sister, we..."

"Xiaoxiao, is it true that your father is... so unbearable?" Before the flustered Zheng Songren could explain, an unhappy question suddenly came from the room.

"squeak!"

With a slight sound, the door opened. Qingfeng, with an expressionless face, walked out of the room slowly, accompanied by Gu Ri and Gu Yue, who were both laughing and crying.

"Dad? Two uncles? What are you doing..."

When Ling Xiaoxiao saw Qingfeng and the other two, she was stunned at first, and then she felt extremely regretful. She secretly condemned herself for doubting her father with such despicable thoughts.

"Xiaoxiao, with your current status, how can you yell here?"

"Dad, calm down. I just..." Facing Qingfeng's reproach, Ling Xiaoxiao seemed to make things worse, so she kept repeating herself and spoke incoherently, "Huan'er is my favorite girl. When I learned that Zheng Songren had kidnapped her, I got angry for a while and..."

"Yu'er is your biological daughter. She ran away from home for many days and you still lost your composure like this. Why did you mobilize so many troops for a servant girl? Xiaoxiao, it's obvious that you have a thorn in your heart and can't tolerate any love affairs around you."

"Dad is teaching me that my daughter...knows she is wrong."

"Ugh!"

Looking at Ling Xiaoxiao, who was haggard and listless, Qingfeng couldn't help but feel sympathy and couldn't bear to criticize her anymore. After hesitating for a moment, his eyes relaxed and he uttered a bitter sigh: "Forget it! Come in and talk."

"Yes……"

As soon as Qingfeng said this, all the disciples quickly made way for her and watched the depressed and haggard Ling Xiaoxiao quickly walk into the room.

"You continue to guard the yard!"

"As ordered."

After giving the order, Gu Ri slammed the door shut.

"Dad, Uncle Gu Ri, Uncle Gu Yue, what are you doing..."

"There are some things... Daddy didn't tell you because he didn't want you to worry." Qingfeng waved his hand to interrupt Ling Xiaoxiao's doubts and said calmly, "Unfortunately, the truth can't be hidden. Since you are the real owner of the Xianwang Mansion and one of the protagonists of this 'Eradication of Traitors Conference', Daddy can hide it from you for a while, but he can't hide it from you forever."

"This..." Ling Xiaoxiao was confused. "What are you hiding from me? What are you not letting me know?"

"Miss, have you noticed that things are getting more and more weird in the Xianwang Mansion recently?" Gu Yue asked for no reason, "Especially the 'conservatives' headed by Xie Xuan, are they acting more and more strangely? They have repeatedly disobeyed your wishes, and are they becoming more and more blatant? Let's not talk about the distant past, just take the matter of guarding the dungeon. At the beginning, Xie Xuan clearly agreed that the Wudang disciples would be fully responsible, but later Xu Heng and Ling Qing led people to force their way in. This situation has been getting worse in recent days..."

"It's getting worse? What do you mean? Is there someone else causing trouble?"

"They are not causing trouble, but interfering with the guarding of the dungeon under the pretext of 'being prepared'." Gu Ri explained, "Now, the dungeon of the Xianwang Mansion is guarded by two groups of people, one group is Wudang disciples, and the other group is Xianwang Mansion disciples. The interesting thing is that the two groups of disciples act in their own way and do not compromise with each other. When people from Xianwang Mansion want to enter the dungeon, Wudang disciples will do their best to stop them. When people from Wudang want to enter the dungeon, Xianwang Mansion disciples will not give way. When someone enters the dungeon with the hand order of the head or Xie Xuan, although the two groups of disciples dare not stop them, they will follow closely. At the moment, it is better to say... 'monitoring each other' rather than 'jointly guarding'."

"This..." Ling Xiaoxiao was shocked, "How come I don't know anything about it?"

"Dad didn't tell you because he didn't want you to worry and work too hard. As for why Xie Xuan didn't tell you..."

At this point, a frightening gleam suddenly flashed in Qingfeng's eyes. After a long silence, he finally made up his mind and spoke frankly, "Because Xie Xuan is a 'traitor', and he is not on the same page with you and me! He sent people to guard the dungeon to be 'prepared for any eventuality', but he was not 'preparing' for us, but 'preventing' for Liu Xunyi. It's called guarding, but it's actually... protecting."

"hiss!"

Qingfeng's blunt words made Ling Xiaoxiao's heart tremble, and her thoughts fell into chaos, and she couldn't recover for a long time.

"But... Dad said last time that Xie Xuan was 'smart, capable, experienced and knowledgeable, and a rare minister in the Central Plains martial arts world'. He repeatedly told his daughter to cherish him and reprimanded me for being suspicious..." At this moment, Ling Xiaoxiao was confused and asked questions one after another, "Why did you say he was a 'traitor' today?"

"In fact, it was Dad who deliberately praised Xie Xuan last time. One was to comfort you, and the other was to prevent the 'ghost' around you from leaking our plan."

"What?" Ling Xiaoxiao's eyes suddenly changed, she was shocked and stunned, "What does the 'ghost' around me mean? Why did Dad..."

Before she finished speaking, Ling Xiaoxiao suddenly had a flash of inspiration in her mind, and a terrifying thought flooded into her heart uncontrollably. Her face turned pale as paper in an instant, and the muscles on her face trembled slightly due to emotional shock.

"Could it be... Could it be that Huan'er..."

"Ugh!"

With a sigh, he waved his sleeves and his internal energy turned into a gust of wind, which immediately blew a screen in the room high into the air.

Behind the screen, a young girl with disheveled hair, bruised face, messy clothes, blood all over her body, and tied up with hemp ropes suddenly appeared in Ling Xiaoxiao's eyes.

This girl was none other than her personal maid, Huan'er.

……

(End of this chapter)