Chapter 99: Two Sides of a Gentleman
Ten days later, Quanzhou.

Sikong Zhu and Bai Shuang returned to Lu Mansion, where Lu Tingxiang had been waiting for them for a long time. However, within these short ten days, rumors were rife in the martial arts world.

"I've met the young master!"

In the morning, in Chongwu Hall, the dusty Sikong Zhu and others greeted Lu Tingxiang and presented the "Wind and Rain" painting. After receiving the painting, Lu Tingxiang did not rush to open it, but walked straight to Bai Shuang, helped her up with his own hands, and said softly with gratitude: "Shuang'er, you have worked hard on this trip."

Thousands of words, full of sadness, and endless grievances, finally burst out at this moment. Under Lu Tingxiang's tender gaze, Bai Shuang could no longer suppress the sorrow in her heart. She fell into Lu Tingxiang's arms with a "woosh" and burst into tears.

Bai Shuang's sudden crying made Sikong Zhu and several other disciples from the Lu Mansion who were traveling with him all look embarrassed. They looked around, not knowing what to do.

"What's wrong?" Lu Tingxiang completely ignored the strange looks from others and directly embraced Bai Shuang's soft and delicate body in his arms. He reached out and gently wiped the tears from Bai Shuang's face, and whispered in her ear with great tenderness, "Tell me, has anyone wronged you?"

Hearing this, Bai Shuang cried even more sadly, and her tearful appearance made me feel pity for her.

Lu Tingxiang held Bai Shuang in his arms and looked towards Sikong Zhu and the others, with a look of scrutiny in his eyes that contained neither joy nor anger.

"what happened?"

Facing Lu Tingxiang's questioning, Si Kongzhu naturally did not dare to neglect it and hurriedly told Lu Tingxiang everything that happened along the way. As for what happened in Huodu City, Si Kongzhu didn't know much, so he could only pick and choose to report.

"Young master, Bai Shuang has fulfilled the mission and brought back the Picture of the Wind and Rain for you." Bai Shuang leaned on Lu Tingxiang's shoulder and said in a low voice with sobs.

"Well done." Lu Tingxiang smiled and comforted him, "Go down and have a good rest. I'll accompany you later."

Although Lu Tingxiang already knew that Bai Shuang and Liu Xunyi had been alone together for more than ten days, and even in the end, he did not hesitate to break the secret code he had made with Si Kongzhu in order to save Liu Xunyi's life, Lu Tingxiang did not mention a word about all this, which made Bai Shuang feel uneasy but also deeply moved.

In her opinion, Lu Tingxiang didn't mention this matter not because he didn't care, but because he was more willing to believe in her loyalty and affection for him.

After Lu Tingxiang comforted her in every possible way, Bai Shuang reluctantly left Chongwu Hall. Lu Tingxiang kept watching her with affection until she gradually disappeared from his sight, and then he slowly put away the gentle look on his face.

"Sir, we..."

"Snapped!"

Before Sikong Zhu could speak, Lu Tingxiang suddenly turned around and slapped Liuzi hard in the face, leaving Liuzi confused, with a burning pain on his face and a buzzing head, but he dared not say a word.

Just like that, under Sikong Zhu's complicated gaze, Lu Tingxiang slapped each of the Lu Mansion disciples who were traveling with him hard.

In a moment, except for Sikong Zhu, five deep red fingerprints appeared on the face of everyone else, and some even had traces of blood oozing from the corners of their mouths.

"A bunch of rubbish!" Lu Tingxiang shouted angrily, "If you can't even take care of one person, what's the point of keeping you around?"

Hearing Lu Tingxiang's scolding, Liu Zi and the others looked aggrieved, but they dared not to retort, and could only look at Si Kongzhu pleadingly. Si Kongzhu's old face changed slightly, and he bit the bullet and asked softly: "I wonder if the person you are talking about is Miss Bai or..."

"Of course it was Liu Xunyi!" Lu Tingxiang's face was as gloomy as water, and his voice was as cold as ice. "You followed him all the way from Yumen Pass to Pingliang Prefecture. How many opportunities did you have to take action? I don't need to count them one by one, right? Why did he escape after arriving in Pingliang Prefecture?"

"Sir, if Miss Bai hadn't refused to leave a mark as agreed..."

"Snapped!"

"You still dare to say that?" Facing Liuzi's defense, Lu Tingxiang slapped him again, causing Liuzi to see stars and his legs to go weak. Lu Tingxiang pointed at Liuzi and the others and said in a deep voice, "You have so many people and you couldn't even keep an eye on Liu Xunyi, and now you blame a woman? Aren't you ashamed?"

In fact, Sikong Zhu was deliberately reluctant to take action in order to prevent any accidents. However, due to Sikong Zhu's identity and current situation, none of the six sons would be stupid enough to put the responsibility on Sikong Zhu, so they had to bite the bullet and take it.

"Sir, no matter what, the map has been retrieved. Look..."

"Master Zhu, why are you so naive?" Lu Tingxiang interrupted Sikong Zhu without any hesitation, casually opened the bamboo tube, roughly pulled out the "Wind and Rain" inside, threw it on the ground with a "smack", and said angrily, "Do you really think this is the Wind and Rain? I can tell without even testing it, this picture must be fake!"

"What?" Si Kongzhu's ears were dizzy, and he asked anxiously, "Sir, why do you say that this painting of the wind and rain is fake?"

Lu Tingxiang sighed lightly, as if trying to calm himself down, and said in a deep voice: "Where did you get the picture?" "Bai Shuang stole it from Liu Xunyi." Sikong Zhu answered quickly.

"How did you steal it?"

"Just give Liu Xunyi a knockout drug and make him unconscious, then..."

"Where is Liu Xunyi?" Before Si Kongzhu could finish his words, Lu Tingxiang asked directly, "Since you said Liu Xunyi was paralyzed, where is he? Why didn't you kill him?"

Liuzi covered his burning cheeks with his hands and timidly interrupted, "He had already run away when we broke in. He's lucky..."

"Do you have a brain?" Lu Tingxiang got angry when he heard Liuzi's words. He reached out and hit Liuzi's head hard, saying angrily, "Can a drugged person run away? If he can run, it means he didn't fall into the trap at all. In other words, he knew from the beginning that Bai Shuang had drugged him, and he also knew that you would come after him to kill him, otherwise why would he run away?"

"That...that can only prove that he was not drugged, but it can't prove that this picture is fake..." Liuzi argued indignantly in a low voice.

"Bastard!"

Lu Tingxiang raised his arm and swung it hard at Liuzi's neck. Liuzi felt as if he was hit by a carriage. His body suddenly became light and he fell to the ground with a bang. Lu Tingxiang rushed forward and grabbed Liuzi's collar, sneering and asking, "If you were Liu Xunyi, would you still leave the real Jingfenghuayu Tu there waiting for you to steal if you knew you would be drugged and ambushed?"

"To be honest, I have been feeling very nervous along the way, doubting the authenticity of this picture." Sikong Zhu finally expressed the doubts that had been in his mind. He had not spoken just now because he was afraid of spoiling Lu Tingxiang's mood. However, he did not expect that Lu Tingxiang was not blindly happy after seeing the picture, but had already seen through everything.

"Master, you mean... the Jingfenghuayutu is still in Liu Xunyi's possession?" Liu Zi was shocked and didn't care about the pain in his body. He asked hurriedly, "Then let's go get it back."

Lu Tingxiang glanced at him coldly, but ignored him. Instead, he turned away with a dazed look and said quietly, "Before you came, I got a piece of news. The rumor in the martial arts world is that on the day when Mo Cen retired from the underworld, the traitor who collaborated with the men in black in the Lu Mansion was... Song Yu from Jinjianwu. And Song Yu also went to the Tianshan Jade Dragon Palace some time ago. I think he should have discussed with Ren Wuya how to divide the spoils!" At the end, there was an obvious bitterness in Lu Tingxiang's tone.

"Could it be that the Wind and Rain Map is not in Liu Xunyi's hands, and the map that Tang Afu stole that day was a fake, so that Bai Shuang has been mistaking the fake for the real one?" Si Kongzhu pondered thoughtfully, "That means the real map is still in Yulong Palace."

"It is also possible that he was taken back to Jinjianwu by Song Yu." Lu Tingxiang nodded slowly.

"There is another possibility." Si Kongzhu calculated carefully, "It is possible that Liu Xunyi has two pictures hidden on him, one real and one fake. The one we got back is the fake one, and the real one has been sent to the Xianwang Mansion. And all this is Luo Tianjin's doing. The news that Jin Jianwu is secretly communicating with Yulong Palace is also a rumor deliberately spread by Xianwang Mansion."

Lu Tingxiang laughed in anger and said, "What makes me most angry is not that you brought back a fake map, but that you took the blame even though it was obviously a fake. Liu Xunyi knew that we stole a fake map, and Luo Tianjin would definitely publicize it. I believe that it won't be long before the whole martial arts world will know that the Jingfenghuayu map is in our hands. As for Jinjianwu, if the real map is in their hands or still in Yulong Palace, Jinjianwu will pretend to be confused and pretend to know nothing about it, and sit back and watch us make a fool of ourselves. But if they don't have the real map, they will inevitably point the finger of suspicion at us. In this way, we will really become Luo Tianjin's scapegoats."

"Humph! Jinjianwu and Yulong Palace are secretly colluding, causing unrest in my Lu Mansion. I haven't gone to settle accounts with them yet, so what right do they have to trouble us now?" Sikong Zhu said coldly, "Even if they don't come, I will go and have a good talk with them!"

"Whether this is true or not is unknown." Lu Tingxiang said in a serious tone, "What if it is just like the news that we stole the Jingfenghuayu Tu, and it is just a trick deliberately cast by the Xianwang Mansion? Then we will turn against Jinjianwu and kill each other, which is exactly what Luo Tianjin wants!"

Si Kongzhu was startled and asked suspiciously, "Sir, are you saying that Jin Jianwu might have been plotted against by Luo Tianjin?"

"It's possible, but we can't say for sure." Lu Tingxiang pondered, "For now, we can only remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing situations. We must not act rashly, because if we are not careful, we will fall into someone else's trap. Whether it's Jinjianwu or Xianwang Mansion, they may be the ones who are causing trouble. We have a close relationship with Jinjianwu, so now as far as the matter of Jingfenghuayutu is concerned, I suspect that Luo Tianjin is behind the fraud."

"Sowing discord." Sikong Zhu nodded without denying, "Since we have been used once, we must not be used a second time. Young Master, you are right. The only way for us now is to remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing situations. We must not act rashly." At this point, Sikong Zhu's eyes suddenly sparkled, and he turned to ask, "Young Master, should we send someone to Jinjianwu to explain the situation to them?"

"No!" Lu Tingxiang shook his head and said, "Jin Jianwu may not be a good person. Since there are rumors in the martial arts world that they are colluding with Yulong Palace, we have to be more vigilant. Even if it is just hearsay, there must be a basis for it. So now it is not for us to judge whether Jin Jianwu is good or bad, but for them to prove their innocence. We can think of this, and Jin Jianwu can definitely think of it. Let's see what they plan to do next, and it won't be difficult to guess who the culprit is."

"What if Jinjianwu remains unmoved?" Sikong Zhu asked.

"If Jin Jianwu does nothing, then he must be the thief who stole the Jing Feng Hua Yu Tu." Lu Tingxiang sneered, "Only a thief with a guilty conscience would allow rumors to spread everywhere without being moved."

"That means if they take any action, then Jin Jianwu will be wrongly accused?"

"Not necessarily." Lu Tingxiang narrowed his eyes slightly and said quietly, "If they make any move, it can only mean that Jin Jianwu has also fallen into someone else's trap and did not get the real Jingfenghuayu map. We have been busy in vain from beginning to end. However, if Jin Jianwu is really a traitor, then they must have paid a huge price for asking Yulong Palace for help, but in the end, not only did they not get the real map, but they also had their fig leaf torn off. It can be said that they lost miserably, and their situation is even a hundred times more embarrassing than ours. So why don't we guess what choice Jin Jianwu will make?"

"I would like to hear your opinion, sir?"

"It's very simple. Either you are guilty and unmoved. Or you are desperate and fight to the death with Yulong Palace, which means you are confessing yourself. Or you prove your innocence, explain to me, and wait for an opportunity to take revenge on the Xianwang Mansion! But no matter what Jin Jianwu chooses, we can no longer trust this friend... in the future..."

……

(End of this chapter)