Escaping on a Rainy Night

  At this time, on a small road in the west of the city village, a black shadow was moving quickly forward in the rainstorm.

  The two sides of the path are lined with many narrow alleys perpendicular to the path, which are bottomless. It's raining so heavily that there are few people on the road, and more than half of the streetlights are broken, making it bright and dark all the way. The alleys on both sides have become big black mouths that seem to swallow everything at any time.

  On a night like this, except for those who can't be seen by people, no one wants to stay here for another minute. In an alley, there are several figures gathered in a heap, perhaps doing something illegal.

  Hei Ying habitually stopped for a moment at the entrance of the alley. Someone saw him, and a voice shouted: "What are you looking at? Want to die? Get out!"

  Heiying glanced at it hastily, such trivial matters, just leave it to the police to handle. But in this kind of weather, even the police have gone home, which is exactly when lawless elements do as they please.

  The black shadow seemed very familiar with this place, walking with his head down all the way, then turning into a narrow alley.

  The houses here are the oldest, and they were all inhabited by local fishermen. The simple houses have been weathered for over 30 years, and they are already dilapidated. Some developed fishermen went to other places to build houses, and the houses here were rented out. If they were too old, they would be abandoned altogether.

  The walls of the house are mottled, with a makeshift awning added on top to keep out the rain. The plastic tarpaulin has broken and only some rusty iron frames remain, hanging from the walls on both sides. Rainwater flows down the wall, drawing a strange map. Many cables crisscross overhead in the alleyway, weaving a frightening large net.

  There is no stagnant water in the alley, but the piled-up waste wood, trash cans, scrapped bicycles and rotten TV shells on both sides make the already narrow alley even more crowded.

  There were no streetlights in the alley, only occasionally a window would leak out a bit of light, indicating that there was still someone inside. The streetlight at the entrance of the alley, whether it was due to years of neglect or its original state, shone through the rain curtain and appeared blue and dim. In the corners of the abandoned objects on both sides, however, it was pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly.

  This small alley is usually deserted, and on a stormy night like this, it's even more desolate and eerie. This also allows the black figure to move forward quickly without worrying about attracting anyone's attention, head down and swift steps.

  The alleyway grew deeper and darker as I walked, fortunately there were few residents in the alleyway and not enough domestic waste to completely clog the drains, so there was no stagnant water in the alleyway.

  In the alley, there was only the sound of rain. Footsteps were muffled and couldn't see the face of the dark figure, only saw a black umbrella moving into the alley, and a string of water splashing from under the sandals.

  At the bottom of the alley, there was a window with a light on, facing the entrance of the alley. Standing upright in front of the door was an old wooden signboard. With the light shining through from inside the door, one could see that the signboard had four large characters written on it: "Fisher's Clinic". The person who wrote these words had some skill, and although thirty years had passed, the strokes were still clear and powerful.

  Heiying walked all the way without hesitation and directly entered the small door of the clinic.

  This is the back door of the clinic, inside is a pharmacy, but for such a small clinic, there are hardly any stocks of medicine, so this has been converted into a place to drink tea, with a root-carved tea table in the middle of the room.

  This is a delicate tea table, on which are carved winding paths and flowing water, fake hills and stone pavilions. On the highest rocky mountain, there is also an ancient pine tree, under which an old man sits cross-legged, seemingly gazing into the distance, yet lost in thought.

  He put away the black umbrella and placed it with another one he was holding in his hand behind the door.

  There is no one beside the tea table.

  " Ninth Uncle?" the dark figure called out softly.

  No one answered. The dark figure looked around the room in a circle and walked forward.

  This small clinic has only one entrance, but it has three rooms. The front room is the clinic, the middle room is a living room, and the back room was originally a pharmacy, but now it's been converted into a tea room. On one side of the living room and the tea room, each has a section partitioned off to serve as a bathroom and kitchen, respectively, which are so simple that they don't even have doors.

  A dark shadow passed through the tea room, and in the kitchen on one side of the tea room, some simple cooking utensils were placed. On the chopping board, a package of unfinished noodles was still left.

  A table lamp was lit in the living room, and under the dim yellow light, an old man lay in a chair, seemingly asleep. The old man looked to be around seventy years old, with white hair, a thin face, his eyes lightly closed, and his dry lips slightly open.

  "Old Ninth." The dark figure lowered his voice and called out again.

  The old man heard this time, slowly opened his eyes, turned his head, and looked at the black shadow with a somewhat drowsy gaze.

  "Little knife, you're here?"

  "Yes, Ninth Uncle. Where is he?" The black shadow spoke while lifting his hand to remove a mask from under his left ear, revealing the sharp-featured face of Yi Xiaodao in the dim light.

  "Anyone with you?" Ninth Uncle sat up from his chair and looked at Yi Xiaodao, "You didn't bring her along?"

  Yi Xiaodao's heart skipped a beat as he said, "I'll lure the police away and let her come find you first. Hasn't she arrived yet?"

  Ninth Uncle shook his head: "Not yet."

  Yi Xiaodao hesitated for a moment, then turned around and walked towards the back door.

  "Little knife," Ninth Uncle stood up and followed him out, "Where are you going?"

  "I'm going to find her. Ninth Uncle, trouble you to prepare the medicine and equipment, I'll be back soon." Yi Xiaodao said as he went to the door to take an umbrella.

  "What kind of person is she?" asked Ninth Uncle.

  "A killer." Yixiaodao replied.

  "Was it Jia Anbang who killed her?" Ninth Uncle asked.

  Yi Xiaodao didn't answer, he just nodded his head.

  Ninth Uncle sighed and said slowly, "Xiao Dao, since your master let you come find me, you haven't visited my business once. It's because you never wanted to do this line of work. As for the matter of you cutting ties with your master, I've heard about it. I understand you just like your master does, and hope you can be a normal person. Just forget about this matter, okay?"

  Yi Xiaodao stopped the movement of his hand, turned around and said: "Jiu Shu, thank you for your kindness. But I promised her that I would save her. My master often taught me that a person's reputation is more important than their life. However, Jiu Shu, rest assured that this is the first time I've asked for your help, and it will also be the last."

  Ninth Uncle shook his head, bitterly smiling: "I'm just an old man with a solitary life, what am I afraid of? It's you that I worry about. Your master had nine disciples, but only you chose a different path. I hope you'll walk it well and not give up halfway. You should know, this matter isn't trivial, it might very well ruin your entire life."

  Yi Xiaodao lowered his head, thinking for tens of seconds, but still raised his head, squeezed out a smile and said: "Ninth Uncle, I promise you, as long as she is sent out of Nanhua City, I will never get involved in this kind of thing again."

  "Alas, okay." Ninth Uncle knew he couldn't persuade him and said, "From the moment you called me, I knew you wouldn't listen to my advice. Your path is yours to decide. Go quickly and bring her back soon, I'm worried something has happened to her."

  "Yes, Ninth Uncle." Yi Xiaodao opened his umbrella and rushed into the rainy night.

  It takes only twenty minutes to get through this village in the city, and it has been more than an hour since he started distracting the police on his way to the supermarket.

  After the police's first search, he expected that Qiao Zhenglin would not give up so easily. The hidden room in the bathroom was not discovered by Qiao Zhenglin for the first time, which was already a stroke of luck. So as soon as Qiao Zhenglin left, he immediately decided to lure Qiao Zhenglin away and let Baihe go find Jiu Shu. Firstly, they could avoid Qiao Zhenglin, and secondly, they could go to Jiu Shu's clinic to disinfect and inject tetanus shots for Baihe's wound.

  As for the underwear in the secret room, he had long been prepared to meet the needs of the moment. Although he had already cut off contact with his master, in the future one day, as long as his master or fellow disciples had difficulties, he would still lend a helping hand.

  Before going downstairs, he had already told Yuriko the address of Ninth Uncle's clinic in detail. With her skills as a professional killer, finding such a place should not be a problem. But now Yuriko still hasn't arrived, she wouldn't miss something big just to avoid getting wet, so something must have happened.

  But now the problem is what will happen to Lily and where is she now?

  Suddenly, Yi Xiaodao remembered when he saw a few people in a small alley, it must be Baihe!

  Yi Xiaodao's legs seemed to move faster than his thoughts, and as soon as the idea flashed through his mind, his legs were already sprinting out of the alley and running back down the road they had come from.

  The moment he started running, the umbrella in his hand had been thrown away. The heavy rain instantly soaked through his clothes, and the rainwater made it hard for him to open his eyes, gasping for air. But he seemed to be unaware of all this, only feeling as if his feet were off the ground, sprinting forward at an unbelievable speed.

  Rainwater splashed on his face, water droplets flew under his feet, and the empty road only had a vague black shadow flashing by.

  He didn't have time to think about why he was so anxious, so worried. Being an assassin wasn't a profession he could accept, and saving a stranger like Lily, who had no relation to him whatsoever, was just a matter of keeping his promise. If he couldn't save her, it would be fate. But at this moment, there was only one thought in his mind: no matter what, he had to save Lily.

  Lily, Lily, may her luck be as good as her name.

  ＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

  Today is a special case, I won't be home all day, so I can only update once.

  Wish you all a happy weekend!