When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

When Xing Tianqi found that the second in command did not chase him, he realized that something was wrong and immediately turned around and ran back, but it was too late.

The sky was covered with dark clouds and there were bursts of thunder.

Li Weisheng's throat had been cut and he fell into the water.

He saw the jade pendant hanging around Li Weisheng's waist, and then he suddenly realized what was going on, and remembered that Li Weisheng had an unusual expression in the room.

Damn...

If I hadn't lost my mind, I would have discovered it in time.

The second in command knew that Xing Tianqi, who had fallen into the water, could not survive, so he did not stop, looked at the sky, turned around and left, starting to chase in the direction the other young man had escaped.

Heavy rain followed, pouring down.

Afterwards, the Second in Command searched the village and neighboring villages in the rain for a whole day and night but couldn't find any sign of the young man. He thought that the young man must have escaped to some other place. Not knowing his name, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. He had to bring back the news that Xing Tianqi was dead.

I don't think a young man who is afraid of death can turn the world upside down.

Xing Tianqi chased Li Weisheng's body along the river bank, trying to salvage Li Weisheng's body.

However, due to the rain, the river became more turbulent and the road was slippery. Even if Xing Tianqi caught up, it would be difficult to grab Li Weisheng's body.

With a "swish" sound, the clothes were torn apart, and Xing Tianqi was dragged to the ground, watching Li Weisheng's body rushing down and heading straight for the waterfall.

It was raining heavily. Xing Tianqi wandered around in the mountains for a long time before he finally found the Yulong Waterfall. He jumped into the water and searched at the bottom of the Yulong Waterfall for a long time, but he still couldn't find Li Weisheng's body.

Xing Tianqi leaned against the red bean tree in despair, looking at the waterfall in front of him.

Suddenly I remembered something I said to Li Weisheng one day when we were boating.

Although Xingjiazhuang is located in the south with dense vegetation, Xing Tianqi has stayed in Xingjiazhuang since he was born. He has no friends and has never gone out. He has heard many things from his parents but has never seen them with his own eyes.

So after moving to the town, every time Xing Tianqi encountered something new, he couldn't suppress his inner excitement.

The two men did not row the boat, but let the river water push the boat slowly forward on the river.

Although we had only known each other for a few days, it was a rare opportunity to meet someone of similar age and temperament, so we quickly became familiar with each other by exchanging names.

Xing Tianqi stood on the boat, opened his arms to feel the gentle breeze on the river, and said frankly with his heart open: "I didn't expect to feel so comfortable and happy when seeing mountains, rivers, lakes and rivers. It's even more magnificent than what is described in poems and books."

"In books?" Li Weisheng asked in confusion while sitting on the boat, with a hint of inferiority in his eyes. He felt that someone like Xing Tianqi, who was so confident and generous, must have seen the vast world. How could he have only seen it in books?

"Yes." Xing Tianqi sat opposite Li Weisheng and said without hiding anything, "My family used to live in a mountain valley. It was boring there. The only fun I had was probably listening to my parents tell me stories about the outside world. If they didn't tell me, I would read books or look at my father's paintings."

"My father is so annoying. I begged him many times, but no matter how much I begged, he refused to take me with him when he went out. My mother is the same. She always said that my father was doing it for my own good."

"and then?"

“Then…” Xing Tianqi laughed for a long time, then looked at Li Weisheng and said, “Then I believed it. I really thought that there were man-eating beasts outside the mountain.”

Li Weisheng lowered his eyes and murmured, "Maybe... your parents are right..."

"What did you say?" Xing Tianqi didn't hear clearly and asked.

Li Weisheng's eyes were a little evasive, and he looked at the scenery beside him and said, "I mean, there are many beautiful landscapes in this world, like where my family used to live, there are mountains, water, and waterfalls cascading down."

"When I was a kid, I was having fun with my friends and accidentally discovered a cave behind a waterfall." Li Weisheng smiled nostalgically and continued, "We played in it for a long time. Our parents were so worried when they couldn't find us that they thought we were captured by bandits. We got beaten a lot when we got home."

"But none of us told the secret of the cave. As we got older, no one mentioned the cave anymore."

As he spoke, the joy in Li Weisheng's eyes disappeared, replaced by loneliness.

'Snapped--! ’

With a mixture of rain and tears on his face, Xing Tianqi slapped himself hard in the face.

He shouldn't have always mentioned his parents in front of Li Weisheng. Now that he has lost everything he originally had, he finally understands... that is a scar that cannot be healed.

The gap is not in the body, but in the heart.

Xing Tianqi wiped the rain off his face, swayed his body and stood up against the tree trunk, walked to the woods nearby, found several thick vines wrapped around the trees, and then wrapped them around himself.

He looked up at the towering waterfall, turned around and ran resolutely upstream of the waterfall.

The vine was very heavy. By the time Xing Tianqi finally reached the top of the waterfall, the vine had already worn through his clothes and his shoulders were bleeding.

In order to avoid being discovered, the vine cannot be tied to a tree. Xing Tianqi chose a protruding rock and wrapped the vine around the bottom of the rock.

The vine was not wrapped well at the beginning, and Xing Tianqi had never done this kind of work before, so it was washed down by the rushing water.

After trying several times, Xing Tianqi finally managed to wrap the vine firmly and securely.

Xing Tianqi pulled it and made sure it could bear his weight before he stepped on the rock and walked down. Every time he went down a certain distance, he would use his hands or feet to feel inside the waterfall.

Finally, when he was halfway down, Xing Tianqi discovered that there was indeed other space behind the waterfall.

Xing Tianqi let go of his hand without even thinking, and fell heavily to the ground, but it was not as painful as he had expected, and he could still smell the blood.

Xing Tianqi immediately understood what was going on and immediately turned over and climbed up. Although it was daytime, it was raining heavily outside and the light in the cave was very dark, making it difficult to identify the corpse in front of him.

Xing Tianqi, with trembling fingers, first touched the waist of the corpse, but did not feel the jade pendant. Xing Tianqi actually felt a little relieved, thinking that this was not Li Weisheng.

Xing Tianqi groped all the way to the neck of the corpse, and when he felt the blood still flowing out of the neck, Xing Tianqi's hands trembled even more violently.

"Wei... Weisheng, Weisheng, wake up... Weisheng... Wei..."

As he shouted, his voice got stuck in his throat and he could no longer utter a syllable. Even breathing became very difficult. When Xing Tianqi finally recovered, he sat there and cried loudly, his cries echoing throughout the cave.

When Xing Tianqi finally calmed down, he wanted to take Li Weisheng away from here, but as soon as he carried Li Weisheng on his back, he felt that if he took Li Weisheng out like this, it might attract the attention of those people again.

After much thought, I decided to hide Li Weisheng here and wait until this period of time is over.

It rained outside for two whole days, and it was not until the morning of the third day that the sky gradually cleared up. Xing Tianqi planned to leave here first, sneak back to the town to check the situation before making any plans.

Xing Tianqi grabbed the rock wall and reached his hand out of the cave to touch the vine outside. To confirm whether it was firm, Xing Tianqi pulled it.

After confirming that everything was correct, Xing Tianqi said to Li Weisheng's corpse: "Weisheng, wait for me to come back..."

Xing Tianqi grabbed the vine and went out of the cave. Just as he stretched out his feet, the joints of the vine that had been washed all night gradually loosened, and Xing Tianqi's body fell down.

At first Xing Tianqi was panicked and kept grabbing the rock wall with both hands, but the rock wall had become smooth and round after being washed by river water for many years, making it difficult to grasp.

But Xing Tianqi changed his mind.

Death is also a good choice.

Thinking of this, Xing Tianqi relaxed his body, gave up struggling and let his body slide down.

But God did not favor Xing Tianqi, and he did not die as he wished.

After choking on the water, Xing Tianqi instinctively tried to survive and swam to the shore. However, due to the bumps on his body, he had no strength left and passed out.

It was not until he heard the sound of a wooden barrel falling and running that Xing Tianqi regained some consciousness. He remembered the boy who threw away the swill bucket that day, the blood on the long knife, his family, and Weisheng...

"Wake up, are you okay?"

With the warm sunshine and gentle voices heard over and over again, Xing Tianqi finally opened his heavy eyes.

But the first words Xing Tianqi said when he woke up were not thanks, but a weak voice: "Kill... Kill me, kill me..."

The woman moved closer and finally understood what Xing Tianqi was saying. She had never killed anyone before and a look of shock appeared on her face, but the man dressed as a scholar didn't look like a bad person.

Are you talking nonsense because you have a fever?

The woman touched Xing Tianqi's forehead, which was burning hot, indicating that he indeed had a fever.

The woman said in a gentle but unyielding tone: "I will not kill anyone, and I will not kill anyone. If you really want to die, then go and find death yourself when you are well again."

Listening to the woman's words, Xing Tianqi's eyelids became heavy again.

"Can you still get up?" The woman looked up and down. Xing Tianqi had many scratches on his body, and there was a strange scar on his left shoulder. Even though it was obvious that the scar had been there for a long time, it still looked horrifying.

Xing Tianqi didn't say anything, and the woman couldn't take Xing Tianqi back by herself, so she stood up and ran while saying, "Wait for me for a while, I'll go back and find someone to save you."

Xing Tianqi is puzzled.

Xing Tianqi thought that the executioner had come to kill him. Did he hear it wrong? Why did he hear someone trying to save him?

When Xing Tianqi woke up again, he was already in the woman's home. He had changed into dry clothes and his wounds had been treated.

The woman's family was talking on the other side behind a cloth curtain.

"Let him go when he's better." The man of the house frowned and made the decision.

"Yes, daughter, you dare to bring him home when you don't even know who he is. What if he is a deserter or a bandit?"

"You are still a girl. How can you get married in the future if you bring a strange man home casually?"

"If you can't get married, then don't get married. Your daughter will always be at home with you."

The mother was shocked and asked, “What did you say?”

The girl took her mother's arm obediently and said with a smile: "Mom, look at his clothes and appearance, he is definitely not a thief. He must be a scholar who accidentally fell into the pond. He doesn't look like someone who wields a sword."

"Oh! Would a bad guy write the words "bad guy" on his face? What if he was chased here by his enemies? You know the world is so chaotic now. There was a vicious man in the village the day before yesterday."

"Oh, mother, as the saying goes, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda, and he is injured now." The woman released one hand and swore, "Don't worry, I will let him go as soon as he is well, that should be fine."

"Okay, okay, I'll do whatever you say. But if he's lazy and doesn't do anything, I'll kick him out right away. And..."

"Also, let's wait until he wakes up. I know my parents are the best. The medicine should be ready by now. I'll go get it."

"Hey, I haven't finished talking yet, old man, can't you take care of your daughter? You just let me talk here alone, and you have nothing to do."

The man sighed and said, "She is your daughter too. If you can't control her, how can I control her? No... Once her injuries are healed, I will go talk to that kid. That should be fine, right?"

"Don't bother, I'll leave now and won't cause you any trouble." After saying that, he coughed.

Xing Tianqi knew that he really had no right to stay here, so he forced himself to get up, walked to the door, lifted the curtain and spoke.

The two elders knew that Xing Tianqi had heard what they had just said, so they naturally felt a little embarrassed, but when they heard that Xing Tianqi was leaving, they couldn't hide the joy in their eyes.

The hostess poked the man, signaling him to speak. The man cleared his throat and said, "Since you can still leave and have made up your mind, we won't keep you..."

"No, what do you mean by no?" The woman looked at Xing Tianqi and said angrily, "You are so injured. If we let you go, you might faint before you can walk a few steps. We will have to take the trouble to carry you back."

"If people see this, they'll think it was us who did it. Do you want to bring bad reputation to our family?"

"I didn't mean that. I..."

The woman put the medicine on the table and said without giving Xing Tianqi time to explain or refuse: "Then drink the medicine. Either you drink it yourself, or I will force it into your mouth!"

Hearing that the woman's tone didn't sound like she was joking, Xing Tianqi obediently picked up the medicine and drank it all in the bowl.

"When you're done drinking, go back to bed! Remember, don't cause any trouble to my family! Just nod when you hear me, don't be like a log!"

Xing Tianqi felt a little dizzy from the burns and nodded woodenly.

After hearing what their daughter said, the two elders thought for a while and suddenly felt that there was some truth in it. They looked at each other and said nothing more.

While the two elders were not at home and were out farming, the woman came to Xing Tianqi's room a little embarrassedly, clasped her hands together and apologized, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to scare my parents, and I definitely didn't mean to be mean to you, please don't be angry."

Xing Tianqi sat on the bed, feeling guilty, and shook his head with an evasive look.

"By the way, I don't know your name yet." The woman thought for a moment and quickly changed her words: "No, it's not polite for me to ask like that. You have to tell your name before asking someone else."

The woman smiled and said, "My name is He Yuqing, what's yours?"

Xing Tianqi clutched the quilt beside him tightly, his eyes looking around anxiously.

He Yuqing felt that she had offended someone, so she chuckled a few times to hide her embarrassment and said, "If it's inconvenient for you or you don't want to say it, you don't have to say it..."

"Weisheng... My name is Li Weisheng..."