A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

Gu Xixi quietly closed the door, turned around and looked towards the bed, almost bursting out laughing.

Little Flower was standing by the bed, its two front paws fighting a section of the mosquito net that had fallen to the edge of the bed.

When Xiaohua saw Gu Xixi come in, she stopped what she was doing.

Its paws were still hanging on the mosquito net, and it let out a pitiful and delicate meow. Coupled with its pair of watery black round pupils, Gu Xixi's heart softened immediately, and she quickly went over to rescue it.

She carefully removed Xiaohua's fingernails one by one from the fine holes in the mosquito net.

The furry cat's paws are free again.

Little Flower immediately leaped away, landing high on the cabinet, looking down warily.

Gu Xixi saw through the mosquito net, where a flattened mosquito corpse lay, that He Jinglan was still fast asleep inside.

It seems that when Xiaohua was swatting mosquitoes, she accidentally hooked herself on one as well.

Fortunately, Gu Xixi returned in time, and Xiao Hua hadn't run out of patience yet, so she didn't make any big movements to wake He Jinglan.

Gu Xixi quickly washed up, undressed, and went to bed.

Just as she pulled the covers over herself and was about to close her eyes, she heard a muffled whisper beside her:

"came back."

Gu Xixi said apologetically, "Did I wake you up?"

He Jinglan rolled over and lazily faced her. "No, I was just sleeping and waiting for you, so I could wake up as soon as you made a sound."

Gu Xixi was taken aback, then said, "Then go back to sleep."

To stop He Jinglan from continuing, Gu Xixi even deliberately yawned, "I'm sleepy too."

He Jinglan suddenly became clear-headed, "Xixi, you don't ask me why I'm waiting for you. You know exactly what I'm going to say, but you're just pretending to be confused!"

Gu Xixi kept her eyes closed and mumbled indistinctly, "What, what, stop pretending to be confused... It's the middle of the night, let's talk about it tomorrow... Go to sleep."

It's best to forget about it by tomorrow morning, never ask about it again, and completely move on!

It was quiet for a moment.

Just as Gu Xixi, who was pretending to be asleep, thought that He Jinglan had given up,

Suddenly, a cold, eerie voice drifted into my ear from beside my pillow, "The talks broke down?"

Gu Xixi opened her eyes with a start, and when she turned her eyes to the side, she saw He Jinglan's enlarged face.

"Can you please stop pretending to be a ghost in the dark, and stop standing so close to me?!"

He Jinglan lay on the pillow, propping her chin up with her hand, and said, "As expected, the talks broke down."

"I was already hungry when I saw there was food, but I had to endure it so as not to disturb your farewell. I went back to sleep and didn't feel hungry when I was asleep."

Seeing that she could no longer pretend to be asleep, Gu Xixi sighed helplessly, "Who told you to wrong yourself like this? You have food to eat but you can't go out, so you insist on peeking from inside the room."

“I wasn’t peeking,” He Jinglan objected. “I was looking openly, through the crack in the window.”

Isn't peeking through a crack in the window considered peeping?

Gu Xixi paused for a moment, then said, "You heard everything, so why are you asking me?"

He Jinglan said, "I only heard a few words, and I didn't hear them clearly."

"After all, martial arts practitioners have very sharp ears, and I don't want to be caught by Mu Nanzhao."

Gu Xixi closed her eyes again. "Ask whatever you want."

He Jinglan: "He's leaving soon? He didn't say when he'd be leaving?"

Gu Xixi: "It should be soon, but I don't know the exact time."

He Jinglan: "Didn't he tell you that he wanted to stay here and didn't want to leave?"

Gu Xixi paused, "...No."

They didn't say, but it seems like they've shown some signs of that.

Otherwise, why would he drag his feet, beat around the bush, and keep arguing, even deliberately picking a fight and throwing a tantrum?

Looking back now, could it be that the person surnamed Mu was suffering from post-holiday syndrome, which is equivalent to a working person not wanting to go back to work?

He Jinglan: "So you didn't try to stop him?"

Gu Xixi: "No. Who would dare to stop him at this time? Would you dare?"

He Jinglan: "I wouldn't dare, but that's not what I meant."

Gu Xixi: "Which aspect are you referring to?"

There was silence for a moment.

He Jinglan sighed, "...Go to sleep."

Before long, Gu Xixi's light and even breathing could be heard inside the bed curtains.

He Jinglan glanced at her from the side, then reached out and waved her hand over Gu Xixi's face to make sure she was really asleep. She couldn't help but sigh again.

She thought to herself that whenever Mu Nanzhao was mentioned, and the topic of romance came up, Gu Xixi was even more oblivious than Meng Chengping, who was like a block of wood. It was as if she neither understood nor could she sense anything.

But she grasps everything else instantly, clearly a very intelligent and perceptive person.

Thinking of this, He Jinglan took a deep breath and suddenly realized.

Gu Xixi, that little rascal, she's just pretending to be confused even though she knows the truth!

The next morning at dawn, when Gu Xixi got up, He Jinglan also got up.

Although she thought about it for a long time before falling asleep in the early hours of the morning and was still a little sleepy, she was really worried about what would happen when the two of them met later after their unpleasant argument last night.

If the two of them were to have a cold expression, He Jinglan, as their childhood friend and best friend, felt it was her responsibility to ease the tension.

As the door opened, a note floated down from above and landed on the ground.

He Jinglan bent down to pick it up and immediately recognized Mu Nanzhao's handwriting. "Oh, an apology letter arrived first thing in the morning, Xixi, take a look."

He then slipped the note to Gu Xixi.

The paper strip was not folded; it was a thin, light sheet.

"The peace and stability that you, my subjects, desire is merely a matter of convenience. You need not be too grateful. From now on, you can do whatever you want at home. Master Liu will continue to be a teacher and will no longer come to you to say those things you don't want to hear."

"Although I've kept the Shadow Guards, I've given them a break. They won't be following you around anymore. If you need anything, just go to Master Liu yourself."

"In addition, I don't like the smell of foreigners. I've changed the locks on the west room and taken the key with me."

He Jinglan, watching from the side, curled her lip in disgust. "He actually left without saying goodbye, and he still dares to be so arrogant and cocky?!"

Gu Xixi smiled and said, "That's just his style."

Although she felt a pang of sadness when she learned that Mu Nanzhao had left.

But she wasn't too surprised by the result.

Just like countless times in the past, he left and returned silently.

This time, finally...

Looking at the sunlight filling the courtyard, Gu Xixi felt cheerful and relieved.

“However,” He Jinglan looked at Gu Xixi with a playful smile, “judging from his expression, he will definitely come back in the future.”

The soothing melody in Gu Xixi's heart instantly changed.

Her face darkened, and she strode out the door, heading straight for the west room.

Sure enough, a new lock was hanging on the door of the west room.

The brass lock was as big as Gu Xixi's fist, and it was dazzlingly bright in the sunlight.

Gu Xixi pointed at the brass lock, her voice trembling with anger, "What is this?!"

He Jinglan looked closer and saw that the copper lock was shaped like a Ferghana horse, with intricate rollers on the horse's belly that could slide up and down.

Four rows horizontally and four rows vertically, with a Chinese character engraved in each small square.

He Jinglan straightened up and looked at Gu Xixi with sympathy. "This is a combination lock with hidden poems."

"I think he composed a four-line quatrain..."