CHAPTER 152: CHAPTER 139: SUCH A THICK STACK...

Qiao Yuxian had been in the basement of West Mountain Manor.

And she hadn’t rested at all.

Her clothes were soaked through from the inside out.

The shooting range was littered with spent bullet casings.

Just past eleven at night, the phone in her pocket rang, and it was only then that Qiao Yuxian paused to fish out her phone.

It was Qin Xia calling.

She casually wiped the sweat from her face with her arm and answered, "What’s up?"

Having not rested at all, she was breathing heavily.

Qin Xia listened to her panting, paused for two seconds, and hesitantly asked, "What are you and Gu Yanjing doing? Am I... interrupting something?"

Qiao Yuxian: "......"

"Sorry, carry on, carry on." With that, Qin Xia hung up the phone.

Qiao Yuxian wiped away the sweat about to drip into her eyes and expressionlessly called her back.

Qin Xia answered quickly and with an awkward, apologetic, hesitant, and cautious tone asked, "What? Did I disrupt Gu Yanjing... and now he’s out?"

Qiao Yuxian: "...I’m at West Mountain."

"You both went to West Mountain?" Qin Xia sounded even more apologetic.

Qiao Yuxian was so speechless she wanted to rush over and step on her. She calmed her breathing, gritting her teeth, and said, "I’m by myself at West Mountain."

"Oh oh oh oh oh." Qin Xia finally understood, sighing in relief, "You scared me. I thought Gu Yanjing was out of action. What were you going to do for the rest of your life then?"

Qiao Yuxian couldn’t be bothered to respond to her, she directly asked, "What’s up?"

"Since you’re not busy, why don’t you come over? I’ve got something to show you," Qin Xia said.

"What is it?" Qiao Yuxian asked, "Can’t you just send a picture?"

"It’s a bit large," Qin Xia said, "Unless I use a drone, but there’s a 99.9% chance it’ll get shot down to pieces."

"Address," Qiao Yuxian said bluntly.

"Number one, Jingyu Street," Qin Xia said leisurely.

Qiao Yuxian: "......What are you up to?"

"Don’t ask anything, just come," Qin Xia said mysteriously.

"Wait for me," Qiao Yuxian said.

Qiao Yuxian went upstairs, showered, changed clothes, put on a coat, and went to the garage to take a car.

It was very late at night, and there weren’t many people on the road. She took the highway from the outer ring, carefully maintaining the speed just at the limit.

In less than half an hour, she reached the vicinity of Jingyu Street.

But she didn’t drive into Jingyu Street, instead finding a place to park and messaging Qin Xia to ask where she was.

Jingyu Street is essentially a residential area.

But it has only one occupant.

The resident’s name is Gu Yanjing.

It’s said that Old Sir Gu bought this place a long time ago.

The area it covers is extremely large.

From when Gu Yanjing was quite young, it was built according to his ideas, and he moved there when he was eighteen.

Because of the vast area, after Gu Yanjing moved in, the rest of the villas and grounds took years to complete.

Jingyu Street got its name because of this place.

This street is long enough that you can’t see the end from one side.

This street also belongs to Gu Yanjing and is guarded.

Although people can pass freely during the day, Qiao Yuxian’s pink Ferrari is somewhat conspicuous at night, so she didn’t drive in.

Qin Xia quickly replied: [I’m up in the large willow tree outside the east wall of Jingyu Garden.]

Qiao Yuxian: "......"

Qin Xia sent another message: [Hurry up, hurry up. The view here is amazing.]

Qiao Yuxian avoided all the guards and found the large willow tree.

Once at the tree, without hesitation, she stepped onto it and easily climbed up.

The willow tree seemed to be old, unknown whether it had always been there or was transplanted later.

It had no leaves in winter, but the branches were dense. The tree was tall, and the sky was dark.

The two of them crouched up there without easily being noticed.

Qin Xia was crouching on one side of the large branch, and Qiao Yuxian was on the other side.

Like two street punks.

The view was indeed quite good.

But... the place was too large, even a great view could only glimpse about a tenth of Jingyu Garden.

"On a night in December, after midnight, what are we looking at from a tree?" Qiao Yuxian asked in a low voice.

"Take a closer look," Qin Xia said even more quietly, "Jingyu Garden is being renovated."

The night was too dark, and the lighting inside Jingyu Garden wasn’t plentiful, leaving it mostly black.

Qiao Yuxian looked closely.

Indeed, she could see some construction and renovation activities.

"And so?" Qiao Yuxian asked.

Qin Xia looked at her and after a few seconds said, "You really don’t get it."

Qiao Yuxian shot her a cold glare.

Qin Xia patiently said, "I just took a walk inside. I didn’t check out the other villas. The largest house in the front, which occupies an unquantifiable area—the one and only main residence of Gu Family’s head Gu Yanjing—it looks like most of it has been torn down, and half of it has been redone. At least, the half that I could see has been redone."

Qiao Yuxian frowned.

Qin Xia continued, "Guess what style it’s being refurbished in?"

Qiao Yuxian stared at her.

"Just a glance, and I knew it would definitely be a style you’d like," Qin Xia said, "There’s something even better. I sneaked into the study. On the desk was some rice paper. There was a stack of written sheets on the right-hand side. Guess what’s written on them?"

Qiao Yuxian listened, her eyelashes fluttered lightly.

Qin Xia laughed lightly and gestured with her hand, "A whole stack written with ’Xian’."

Qiao Yuxian lowered her gaze, rubbing her fingertips, hearing her heart thumping.

Qin Xia added, "Gu Yanjing really is something."

Qiao Yuxian looked towards Jingyu Garden, silently pondering for a while, then asked, "Why did you come here?"

"I got bored and needed some air," Qin Xia was twirling a willow twig in her hand, "I suddenly remembered Gu Yanjing asked you to stay in that small villa, and it irked me the more I thought about it. I figured he’s hiding someone here, so I had to come and see."

Qiao Yuxian chuckled.

"But then I thought," Qin Xia laughed, "aside from you, no one would foolishly dare to be with him."

Qiao Yuxian glanced at her.

Qin Xia shrugged and laughed. Just as she was about to speak, a light flashed before them, and a red dot landed on her.

Qiao Yuxian immediately moved to Qin Xia’s side and pulled her down from the tree.

"Who’s over there!"

"Alert!"

Before the voices could call out, Qiao Yuxian and Qin Xia had already darted away.

But the entire Jingyu Garden was put into a state of alert, and a thorough search began within and around the perimeter.

Qiao Yuxian led Qin Xia in avoiding the surveillance and circled back before getting into her own car.

Once inside, Qiao Yuxian glanced at her pants.

In their haste to get off the tree, her pants had caught on a branch, tearing a piece from the leg.

Qin Xia followed her gaze and said, "Is your leg okay?"

"It’s fine," Qiao Yuxian replied, "left a piece of cloth on the branch."

"Then no problem," Qin Xia said, "I’ll send you two boxes of pants."

Qiao Yuxian replied, "Where to? Drop you off?"

"The shopping mall next door, my car’s there," Qin Xia said.

...