No, gentlemen also guard against

Chapter 723 Red Socks Fortune [Ask for monthly tickets! ]

The night is dark and windy.

Hukou County, on Phoenix Ridge.

In the darkness outside the red wall of a Zen temple, there were shadows of people.

"What is it that Manager Wang called me over here for?"

A young man with a paralyzed face and wearing a greasy Taoist robe came over.

He was carrying a peach wood sword on his back and a bag on his shoulder. He asked with his head slightly tilted, looking at the back of a short young man who was ready to deploy his subordinates in the darkness.

Wang Caozhi looked back at Lu Ya who was chased back, and seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master Lu, come with me, let's talk over there."

Lu Ya said expressionlessly:

"Why can't I bring a message? I might miss the night boat at the ferry port and won't be able to catch up with Duan Quanwu and the White Tiger Guards. This is Master Ouyang's order."

After hearing this, Wang Caozhi immediately waved his hand:
"It's a small matter. When I sent someone to call for Taoist Lu, I also sent a few trusted followers to follow him. They have prepared a boat and will follow Duan Quanwu and his official ship to replace Taoist Lu... Taoist, don't worry, stay here. The important matter at hand is more important."

Lu Ya shook his head and said frankly, "But I have to return to the palace the day after tomorrow morning, so I'm afraid I won't have time to stay too long."

Wang Caozhi was silent for a while, as if he had estimated something, and immediately made arrangements:

"If you rush back to Xunyang Palace, you'll have missed a boat. You can only take the earliest boat tomorrow morning, but you'll still be in time. There's still time. Come over here so you don't delay me. You can leave this way."

Lu Ya got the answer, which seemed to be a tacit agreement. He withdrew his gaze from him, walked forward with his hands behind his back, and looked around at the same time, and asked:

"Where is this going?"

"The back hill of Guanyin Zen Temple."

"I know. It's written on the plaque at the entrance of the temple. I'm asking where we are going in the back mountain and what we are going to do."

"Go arrest someone."

"Arrests?"

Wang Caozhi said succinctly: "The subject of surveillance has made unusual movements, as if he had contact with someone."

Lu Ya tilted his head in confusion and asked:

"Who is he contacting? Your people can't handle it? Don't you have a plan before? Do you need me to take action at the last minute?"

Wang Caozhi, who was walking in front, seemed to hesitate and answered:
"The latest news that came in the middle of the night is a little unexpected. It's safer to have Master Lu take action, otherwise there might be an accident."

Lu Ya became more and more confused, and after a pause, he reminded:
"It is not in Master Ouyang's plan to keep me here. Shopkeeper Wang, be prepared to go back and explain if anything unexpected happens."

The paralyzed young man shook off his sleeves, revealing a thin hand. He calculated with his fingers and continued:

"Also, I must board the boat tomorrow morning, otherwise I won't be able to return to the palace in time and won't be able to stay here for too long. Shopkeeper Wang, please pay attention to this..."

Wang Caozhi, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and interrupted Lu Ya's nagging with a low voice:

"Shh, we're here, Taoist Lu, right ahead."

Lu Ya stopped for a moment and looked around.

I found that the place where I stopped was a forest of stone tablets. There were stone tablets shaped like tombs. They might be solemn and dignified during the day, but at night, when it was pitch black, they looked eerie and strange. However, they were suitable for hiding.

If he hadn't known in advance that this was the back mountain of a Zen temple, he would have thought that Wang Caozhi had brought him to a mass grave.

It should be three o'clock now.
Lu Ya withdrew his gaze and looked in the direction indicated by Wang Cao's finger, which was one mile away in the northeast direction.

This forest of stone tablets was very large. They had just arrived at the edge of the southwest corner. A mile away in the northeast direction, it was roughly at the edge of another corner of the forest. The stone tablets there were tall and numerous, so they could not see clearly what was happening.

The two competent secret sentries who were waiting here saw Wang Caozhi and Lu Ya coming and sneaked forward.

"Boss, you are here!"

Lu Ya saw them whispering something in Wang Caozhi's ear.

Their voices were very low, but some intermittent words were faintly heard, floating into Lu Ya's sensitive ears with the night wind.

"...That skinny guy slipped out of the temple in the middle of the night...He's been in there for half an hour...There's still no movement...We didn't get too close...He probably didn't notice us..."

"Before you came, boss, a few strange men who were strolling in the mountains in the evening and were targeted by us also sneaked over and slipped in... It turned out to be a meeting place..."

Wang Caozhi, who was listening attentively, suddenly turned his head and asked in a heavy voice:

"Are you sure you saw that group of people clearly?"

The sentry nodded vigorously:

"You're right. I have very good eyesight. When I passed by pretending to be a passerby in the evening, I saw that he was definitely wearing armor under the collar of his black uniform. He was probably carrying a weapon. We were few in number and didn't dare to get close. It was obvious that he was not someone to be trifled with. We could only go and call the shopkeeper..."

"Okay, go down and call everyone over."

"Yes, from the shopkeeper."

The two secret sentries didn't dare to look at the expressionless young man in Taoist robe who was leisurely walking next to Wang Caozhi, and retreated quietly.

There were only two people left.

Wang Caozhi turned around and looked at Lu Ya.

The latter has a paralyzed face.

The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.

"Several people?"

"We have found seven people so far, including the man named Qian Chen."

After a pause, he added, "It is possible that there are other people lying in wait."

Lu Ya suddenly reached out: "Take off your socks."

"Socks? Here?"

Wang Caozhi stared blankly at the expressionless face.

But Lu Ya nodded and stretched out his hand expressionlessly.

Wang Caozhi felt a little embarrassed. He looked around, then quickly bent down to take off his boots and the red socks on both feet.

At this time, he took off his socks and realized that he had put on his socks backwards. He had received the news at night and hurried out, so he didn't pay attention...

After Wang Caozhi took off his socks, he hurriedly handed them to Lu Ya while they were still warm.

Lu Ya looked down at the sexy red socks, then looked up at Wang Caozhi whose old face was flushed.

The latter covered his mouth and coughed, looking away, muttering softly:
"A cousin gave it to me. She said something like, 'I'm in trouble this year and need to hide. Wearing this thing can not only hide, but also change my luck... Ahem, I don't know if it's in trouble, but it can change my luck... As expected, I met a good brother-in-law and sisters at the beginning of the year."

Lu Ya ignored him, took out a yellow talisman from his arms, threw it to him, and casually said:
"Stay here, and make some noise after half an incense stick of time. It would be best if the noise can be heard by the entire stone forest. If any fish that have escaped the net approach, throw this talisman and then turn around and run away."

As Lu Ya spoke, he took out a stick of incense and a fire starter from his sleeve. He folded the incense into two and lit half of each.

Half of it was inserted at Wang Caozhi's feet, and the other half was twisted between two fingers and put into his sleeve. Wang Caozhi nodded like a chicken pecking at rice: "Okay, by the way, do you want to wait until our people arrive... Hey, wait, don't leave yet, remember to leave someone alive, alive!"

Before he could finish his words, trying to keep his voice down, the figure of the expressionless young man next to him disappeared without a trace.

Took away his lucky pair of red socks.

Only half a stick of incense was left in the mud at his feet.

I don't know if he heard what he said next.

Wang Caozhi was speechless. He looked down at the yellow paper talisman. It was too dark to see the rune clearly. He just felt it was a little wet and sticky.

When he thought of Lu Ya's Taoist robe that was so dirty that it hadn't been washed for who knows how long, he, who had a mysophobia, pinched his nose with a look of disgust.

By the way, the Three Pure Ones Taoist priests should abstain from sex, so this sticky yellow talisman shouldn’t be dirty, right?

Wang Caozhi couldn't help but mutter in his heart.

But why did Taoist Master Lu want his warm socks? Was he attracted to them? Just like some men like women's feet? Could it be that Taoist Master has the opposite fetish? I should have asked earlier. If it was the latter, I would definitely not give it to him!

Although it was a critical moment, he still couldn't help but have a lot of thoughts.

At this time, the two feet that had taken off their socks and were wearing boots bare were suddenly chilled by the cold wind.

This made Wang Caozhi shudder and come back to his senses.

He lowered his head to look at the half incense stick that was about to burn out, and looked around, but still no one under his command had arrived.

Wang Caozhi looked towards the suspicious place a mile to the northeast. It was still dark and calm there.

Half an incense stick of time passed before the faint red star disappeared and burned out completely.

Wang Caozhi gritted his teeth and jumped high on the spot. When he landed, he stomped on the ground with all his strength, making a heavy sound. At the same time, he shouted loudly in a voice that could be heard throughout the forest of stone tablets:
"Hey, you whore! How dare you have an affair with a bald man behind my back? You have no shame! I told you to have an affair! I told you to have an affair! Someone, come and see this naked adulterer and whore..."

Along with the "pa pa" sound of applause, Wang Caozhi shouted indignantly, and his voice broke the silence of the entire forest of stone tablets. For a moment, he became the most eye-catching person in the dark night. Even the green forest in late spring behind him was not as conspicuous as his figure and color, and was inferior to him.

"Let me go, let me go! You bastard, you dare to fight back..."

In the open space, the short young man, whose boots had been kicked off accidentally, was holding his neck with one hand and fighting with the air in front of him with the other. His voice became shrill, as if his fate was being strangled, but he still screamed:

"Ah, you dare to hit someone, do you still have the law? Do you still have ethics? You bald donkey are really lawless, whore, you, you fucking get out of here, don't stop me, I will fight you, you adulterous couple..."

The forest of stone tablets a mile to the northeast was completely silent.

When Wang Caozhi shouted, he glanced sideways quietly. Before he could continue speaking, he suddenly heard a series of noises coming from the other side:

"who!"

"what!"

"Be careful! It's in the woods behind...Ah! Villain!"

"boom--!"

"Boom!"

The roars of people, the sound of bones and flesh hitting each other, and the sound of what seemed to be sandbags falling heavily to the ground rang out one after another in the dark forest.

After a while, all the sounds disappeared, and the world seemed to have returned to peace.

The fish that Wang Caozhi expected might escape and harm him did not appear.

All the strange noises in the stone forest disappeared completely.

The sticky yellow talisman in his sleeve was not used, so he breathed a sigh of relief, immediately pulled out his hand and shook it like a fan.

After waiting for a while, Wang Caozhi saw a paralyzed young Taoist priest wearing red socks slowly walking out of the darkness in front of him without any sound of footsteps.

The paralyzed young Taoist priest fastened the peach wood sword back on his back as he walked.

Some liquid seemed to be dripping from the blunt tip of the sword, and he picked up a handful of leaves and slowly wiped it.

Wang Caozhi's attention was attracted by a pair of red socks on Lu Ya's feet.

Looking down carefully, I found that the red socks were worn outside the boots, and there was a lot of blood and broken leaves on them.

Wang Caozhi immediately understood. At this time of spring and summer, there were many fallen leaves on the back mountain. Putting a layer of socks on the boots seemed to help reduce the sound of footsteps.

At this moment, Lu Ya walked up to Wang Cao and asked:

"What is Shopkeeper Wang shouting?"

Wang Caozhi looked around innocently, then ran over to put his boots back on, and asked as if nothing had happened:

"It's okay. I'm just following my friend's example. By the way, Taoist Lu, what's the situation in there? Leave them alive, right?"

Lu Ya shook his head:

"I'm sorry, I killed one of them. He was the only Qigong practitioner. Judging from his physical strength, he should be a sixth-rank soldier. I only discovered this when we were fighting. I didn't hold back to prevent him from reacting and getting entangled."

"Is there a Qi Refiner?" Wang Caozhi was stunned.

When he came to his senses, his back was covered in cold sweat. He licked his lips, turned around and ran into the forest of stone tablets in the northeast corner.

When we arrived at the scene, we saw six or seven unconscious men lying on the ground.

Wang Caozhi looked around and found the thin-faced man named Qian Chen among them. He stretched out his finger to check and found that he was still breathing.

He finally put his mind at ease. As long as there was someone alive, it would be fine. This person was an important breakthrough in this trip.

Wang Caozhi shifted his gaze and looked around, and found a dead body under a tree ten meters away. The abdomen was bloody with a penetrating wound, and half a burnt incense stick fell on it.

The dead body's eyes were wide open, as if he died with his eyes open.

Wang Caozhi swallowed his saliva and looked at Lu Ya with some admiration. He was worthy of being the person sent by his brother-in-law. It was said that he was a master from the palace.

Wang Caozhi seemed to remember something, and reached out to pull open the dead man's wrinkled clothes. With the help of moonlight, he saw that he was wearing a tight back armor on his upper body and a short shirt and pants on his lower body... This outfit looked vaguely familiar to him.

Wang Caozhi's face changed slightly, he lowered his head and began to search carefully.

Lu Ya came over with a peach wood sword on his back, stopped behind Wang Caozhi, and handed back the red socks that seemed to bring good luck:
"Here, I'll give it back to you. There is indeed a big fish among this group of people. I don't know which side he belongs to. Fortunately, this soldier was careless and was discovered by the noise you made outside. At that time, he was the first to react. To be on the safe side, I will start with him first... What's the expression on Shopkeeper Wang's face? Does he know this person?"

While Lu Ya was speaking, he noticed that Wang Caozhi was squatting there motionless.

"What happened to Shopkeeper Wang?"

He added: "The guy named Qian Chen is not dead. He will be unconscious for a while. You can wait for him to wake up and interrogate him. It should be okay to kill one of them. I'm leaving first. I have to catch the boat..."

Wang Caozhi was silent for a long time, which made Lu Ya feel a little guilty when he spoke. Just as he was about to run away, he saw the short young man squatting in front of him suddenly turned around. In his hand was tightly grasping a blood-stained white cloth belt that he had just found.

Wang Caozhi seemed to swallow his saliva and asked:
"Master Lu, what time does the boat leave tomorrow morning?"

Lu Ya looked a little confused. Before he could answer, Wang Caozhi had already passed by him. Lu Ya felt his hands were empty. The pair of red socks had been snatched away by Wang Caozhi, who put them on in a hurry and rushed out of the forest of stone tablets.

"Let's go back together!"

……

(End of this chapter)