frightfiction Chapter 223 You have been as close to me as brothers
Chapter 223 You have been as close to me as brothers
Wu Meng casually glanced at a few lines and immediately cursed, "I didn't expect this Wei guy to actually engage in illegal transactions with other countries on the black market!"
He lowered his voice, but his anger was still obvious.
“These countries and tribes listed in the account books were defeated by us back then and should have submitted to our Great Abyss. I never expected that they would all secede from our territories one by one!
For more than ten years, that person has been guarding the kingdom you risked your life to build for him?"
Upon hearing this, Li Qingqing did not answer, but just smiled slightly and put the account books and letters on the antique shelf into the space.
Then she glanced at the stacked boxes, walked forward, grabbed the lid of a wooden box, and lifted it open with force.
"It's actually official silver?" Li Qingqing was a little surprised, and then opened another box.
Wu Meng's eyes were fixed on Li Qingqing. Seeing this, he became more and more indignant. "Why don't we just overthrow it! This world should belong to you. You have the general's order, commanding Qiu Wufeng--"
"No matter how corrupt Dayuan is, it is still my country. I cannot let the people of Dayuan fall into the flames of war." Li Qingqing interrupted Wu Meng and said with a smile,
"Help me open the wooden box and see what's inside."
Wu Meng's expression darkened upon hearing this, but he was still unwilling to accept it. "But Master, are you willing to keep enduring like this? Have you forgotten everything that person did to you?"
"Forget? Of course I won't forget. Every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt has its creditor, and I will settle all that's due."
Li Qingqing stopped what she was doing and looked at Wu Meng's hair which had suddenly turned half white.
"However, what I hope most now is that you can all live well.
Back then, I had no brothers or sisters, and my parents had passed away. The people I could trust with my life without any worries were you. To me, you all have long been as close as my brothers and sisters.
I don’t want anyone else to leave my sight...”
After Li Qingqing said this, she continued with what she was doing.
She actually wanted to ask directly: Will the sequelae of the forbidden spell that cost her life continue?
Will Wu Meng suddenly age again like he did just now one day in the future, or... suddenly disappear?
The air in the secret room was a little stuffy, so stuffy that her nose felt slightly sore.
Thanks to Wu Meng, she had the opportunity to travel through three lifetimes and finally returned to Dayuan, the country into which she had poured all her passion.
Her past friendship with the seven people gradually became clear after her memory was restored.
Hong Su's death and Wu Meng's sudden aging made her anxious.
This time, she was no longer a passing visitor in her previous two lives.
She will live a long life, and she will successfully pass through middle age, old age, and even old age.
Perhaps one day in the future, she will watch them leave one by one.
But at least not now! She just got back, no one is allowed to leave!
Li Qingqing remained silent, but secretly planned to return from here and ask Bai Ye in detail to find Bai Shuang as soon as possible.
Wu Meng was stunned when he heard Li Qingqing's words.
Seeing Li Qingqing struggling to open the lid of the wooden box, he remembered her injuries and walked over awkwardly, "Let me help you."
Dozens of wooden boxes were opened. In addition to official silver, the boxes were also filled with gold and silver ingots and various jewelry.
Li Qingqing didn't even count them, and directly put them together with the box into the space.
Leaving these things here will only make them cheaper for others, so it would be better for her to collect them first.
As the box disappeared, the secret room suddenly became empty.
Li Qingqing looked around and her eyes suddenly fell on one place.
Previously, there were many wooden boxes placed here. Now that the wooden boxes have been moved away, a gilded hairpin was revealed in the corner.
The hairpin was old-fashioned and covered in dust, but Li Qingqing recognized it at the first sight.
"How did it get here?!"
Li Qingqing was startled and ran forward quickly. She bent down to pick up the hairpin on the ground and carefully wiped the dust off it.
Wu Meng came closer curiously, "Do you recognize it?"
"This is what I gave to Bai Shuang." Li Qingqing paused slightly, with a hint of complexity in her tone.
Actually, it’s not really a gift.
That day when they were fighting outside, he saved Bai Shuang by accident. Seeing that Bai Shuang had good martial arts and had nowhere to go, he asked Bai Shuang to follow him.
One day, when she missed her mother, she took out the gilded hairpin that her mother had given her, but Bai Shuang mistook it for a gift and snatched it away.
Later, although Bai Shuang knew it was a misunderstanding, she never returned the hairpin to her. She just followed her example and started dressing as a man.
Unexpectedly, the hairpin was found here!
"Could it be that Bai Shuang has been here?" Wu Meng was shocked.
He had been unable to contact Bai Shuang at the beginning. Could it be that she was trapped in the hands of Wei Duhu?
Li Qingqing's expression also changed slightly. She quickly put away the hairpin and said, "Let's quickly look for an exit from the secret passage here!"
What the soldier had said in the secret passage earlier made her immediately guess that the person who broke into the secret room ten years ago must have been Bai Shuang!
If the secret room only has an entrance and no exit, Bai Shuang will most likely be caught.
Given Wei Duhu's character, if Bai Shuang were to find out that someone knew his secret, he would definitely be in great danger!
Wu Meng and Li Qingqing then began searching the walls of the secret room again.
Unexpectedly, the two of them actually found another secret door!
When the secret door was opened, revealing a dark passage, the two looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Let's see where this exit leads to!" Li Qingqing was a little expectant.
It would be great if we could find Bai Shuang's whereabouts through this passage.
The two of them did not hesitate and quickly entered the passage.
This rammed earth secret passage is relatively long and narrow, so two people can only pass through it one in front and one behind.
The road was still winding, but fortunately there was no danger along the way. The two groped forward for a long time and finally arrived at the exit of the passage.
After listening carefully to the noise outside for a while and finding nothing unusual, the two of them moved the stone slab blocking the exit and crawled out of the secret passage.
Li Qingqing looked around and found that she and Wu Meng were in a side room.
The side house was not inhabited and seemed to be designed solely for this secret passage.
The windows were closed, but sunlight filtered through the gaps between the wooden boards, revealing animal bones and colorful strips of cloth painted with various patterns hanging on the walls.
"Where is this?" Li Qingqing looked at Wu Meng and found that Wu Meng was also looking at her in confusion.
Li Qingqing slowly pushed open the tightly closed wooden door, revealing a wide open space outside.
After realizing that there was no one outside, the two walked out of the side house and found that it was next to a larger wooden building.
Low chanting and drum beats came from inside the wooden building. The two of them secretly followed over to check and found that it was a temple.
There were several people in the house worshiping the wooden statue they were offering sacrifices to. There was a huge totem painted on the back of the wooden statue.
"Ying tribe?" Seeing the attire of those people, Li Qingqing asked Wu Meng in a low voice with some uncertainty.
She remembered that when she fought against the Ying tribe before, their people wore such clothes.
"That's right." Wu Meng nodded in confirmation, "The pattern on the wall is exactly the totem of the Ying tribe."
After receiving a positive answer, Li Qingqing quickly recalled the location of the Ying tribe in her mind, and then she suddenly realized,
"Then the border black market must be nearby! Protector Wei built a secret passage inside the temple, firstly to facilitate his illegal transactions, and secondly to allow him to quickly escape to the Ying tribe if his plan failed!"
He did have a backup plan! However, now that he had found evidence against Wei Duhu, he probably wouldn't have the chance to use that secret escape route.
The Ying tribe is only separated from the border town by a mountain, but no one knows which road Bai Shuang took back then.
Li Qingqing was daydreaming when the worship was over and villagers came out of the house one after another.
The two exchanged glances and quickly moved away from the villagers.
Following closely behind were two lone villagers, Li Qingqing quickly pressed their sleeping acupoints while they were not paying attention, then stripped off their clothes, and quickly changed into one for herself and Wu Meng.
The two of them planned to observe the situation here for the time being, and then sneak back to the border city at night.