Clouds and Moon Shadow

Gu Qingyue thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"We'll depart in an hour," Gu Qingyue said, then took out the night clothes she had specially commissioned from her bundle.

“You must be careful. The Pan family definitely has a lot of people and power. Remember…” Rong Qingqing hesitated, knowing she couldn’t stop them. Her face showed obvious worry, but if she said that, it would seem like she cared too much about the two brats. So, she stopped halfway through her sentence, put on a cold expression, and stopped.

Gu Qingyue saw the change in her expression and smiled.

She said casually, "Don't worry, I've been running around in the mountains since I was a child. I've seen countless wild animals, and I've survived them all. I'm very capable." After saying that, she patted her chest loudly, and the lie was so smooth that she almost believed it herself.

Rong Qingqing rolled her eyes at her, "I'm not worried at all. In short, stay far away and don't go in."

After saying that, he waved his hand, slammed the door shut, and dismissed the two of them with obvious disdain.

Gu Qingyue and Wen Qinghong stood at the door, exchanged a glance, and looked a little confused.

Oh! Rong Qingqing's contradictory behavior is actually quite cute!

Gu Qingyue shrugged, signaling Wen Qinghong to hurry up and leave.

It wasn't until they exited the inn through a side gate, arrived near the Pan residence, and turned into a dark alley that the two took out black face masks and put them on.

Wen Qinghong imitated Gu Qingyue, putting on a face mask, her eyes looking somewhat vacant.

"Why do we need to wear face masks? Are we going inside?" He seemed a little bewildered.

Gu Qingyue gave him a look that said, "Are you stupid?" She wasn't going in; how could she possibly see anything from 200 meters away?

Just as he finished speaking, a carriage covered with a black felt canopy stopped at the small side gate of the Pan residence. A middle-aged man got out of the carriage, looked at the main roads on both sides, and gently knocked on the door a few times. The small side gate opened, and then the carriage drove straight in.

Gu Qingyue's eyes flickered as she watched the side gate close again.

"How about you climb over the wall?" Gu Qingyue asked, her eyes fixed on the gate of the Pan residence.

"Climb over the wall? I can do it," Wen Qinghong said, glancing at the tall wall in the distance with a slightly unfocused look. In any case, he was determined to investigate.

"I need someone to keep watch and keep an eye on things. You stay here, I'll go in and take a look. I'm best at escaping, are you sure you can handle it?" Gu Qingyue looked at his shifty little eyes and wanted to roll her eyes.

"Don't you want to save your brother anymore?" Gu Qingyue asked again.

"We must save them!" Wen Qinghong said firmly.

Gu Qingyue patted his shoulder, "It's all up to you now. You must see everything that's happening here clearly! Everything! Tonight, you're very important!"

Wen Qinghong was taken aback. Was he really that important?

Gu Qingyue gave the young boy a compliment, praising his kindness.

After saying that, Gu Qingyue slipped out of the alley and climbed over the side wall of the Pan residence in a few steps, then went inside.

Wen Qinghong was stunned by Gu Qingyue's nimble movements.

"This kid is so amazing!" After a moment, Wen Qinghong suddenly became very curious about Gu Qingyue and began to talk to himself, his eyes sparkling.

He recalled that when his parents were alive, they had hired martial arts masters to teach him and his younger brother kung fu. They practiced diligently, but they could never match the agility of this young man in front of them.

Suddenly remembering Gu Qingyue's words that his mission was very important, Wen Qinghong immediately straightened his back and looked around the Pan residence warily.

Pan Mansion.

Gu Qingyue was hiding in a corner of a corridor, peeking out to observe the situation in the courtyard.

The pavilions and towers, illuminated by the flickering lights, looked very tranquil, with an eerie sense of mystery, clearly not a pleasant place.

Suddenly, footsteps came from behind, which must have been the patrolling guards.

Gu Qingyue pressed herself tightly against the pillars of the corridor, hiding herself in the darkest corner and concealing all her presence.

Quietly wait for the guards to walk away.

Gu Qingyue tiptoed along the corridor, approaching a courtyard with lights on.

Before we even got close, we could hear laughter coming from a nearby courtyard.

"My little darling, come here quickly," came a man's lazy, playful voice, accompanied by a woman's charmingly angry tone.

That voice sounds familiar.

Gu Qingyue immediately realized that it was that human trafficker, Manager Qiu!

I'm still a child, how can I listen to such sounds?

This damn hearing ability to identify people by their voices!

How come Steward Qiu is at the Pan family's house? Does that mean he escaped last time?

Could he be one of Master Pan's men? Then could the master they mentioned last time be Master Pan?

Gu Qingyue was furious.

Regardless of whether it was true or not, Gu Qingyue decided that she would definitely teach this scumbag a lesson if she had the chance.

Gu Qingyue paused, then walked quickly past the gate of the small courtyard towards the front yard, but the increasingly unrestrained laughter of Steward Qiu and the woman still echoed in her ears.

Gu Qingyue really wanted to close her ears.

Approaching the side wall of the courtyard, Gu Qingyue leaned against it, listening to the sounds inside. There was no other way; the courtyard was guarded by too many guards, with at least two people on duty at the entrance of each courtyard. She had no choice but to find a solution by looking at the side wall.

How afraid of death must that scoundrel surnamed Pan be that he's surrounded his own house like an iron barrel?

After listening for a while, they still couldn't hear a sound coming from the courtyard, so they had to give up.

After circling around most of the courtyard, they finally stopped in front of an even larger courtyard. Gu Qingyue guessed that this must be Master Pan Xiang's courtyard. She saw eight burly and strong guards standing outside the courtyard and her eyes gleamed. She guessed that the person must be inside this time.

Actually, Gu Qingyue's arrival was rash, and she hadn't carefully analyzed the layout rules of this ancient courtyard. If she could have found a way to get the layout map of the courtyard in advance, she would have known that large courtyards in this dynasty were generally divided into front and back courtyards, inner and outer courtyards. The area behind the hanging flower gate was the inner courtyard, and the area in front was the front courtyard. The largest courtyard in the first section of the inner courtyard was usually the owner's residence.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have spent so much time wandering around the garden that connects the inner and outer courtyards.

Looking at the guards not far away, Gu Qingyue hesitated. Considering her current skills, it would be difficult to enter without making a sound. It seemed she would have to think of another way. This ancient mansion was really not easy to enter.

Unless they already know that Wen Qinghong's brother is inside, going in now might alert him, and they might not even find him. They could also get themselves into trouble, which would be a losing proposition.

After thinking it over, Gu Qingyue decided to give up.

I need to think of another way. That freak Master Pan has too many guards in the courtyard, and with my current thin physique, short stature, and novice skills, sigh!

Actually, it's a good thing she didn't go in. She's glad that her skills haven't recovered yet, otherwise, she might not have returned tonight, because a mysterious figure from the Nanzhao Kingdom is living in this courtyard, surrounded by experts.

Of course, Gu Qingyue was unaware of this; her rationality allowed her to narrowly escape disaster.

At that moment, she had only one thought in her mind: retreat!

Although she was exceptionally capable in her past life and always won, she was by no means an overconfident person. On the contrary, she was very good at assessing the situation, knew her own strengths, was skilled at analyzing the feasibility of tasks, and acted within her capabilities, striving for a decisive victory.

She won't force herself to do things that are currently beyond her capabilities.

Of course, now that she's in this world, she wants to live more freely and doesn't want to be as cautious and careful as she was in her previous life, putting pressure on herself.

Therefore, while recuperating in Rhino Town, she had already envisioned countless futures for herself, but none of them included putting herself in danger like in her previous life.