Chapter Fifteen In the past there was a mountain

  Yang Fan gazed in the direction where the little palace maid disappeared, without saying a word.

  Ma Qiao didn't know why, but he knew a little about some of the imperial court's secrets and hidden affairs.

  He knew that beside Wu Zetian, who lived deep in the inner palace, there was a secret force called Mei Hua Nei Wei. The internal guard played a huge role in Wu Zetian's fabrication of evidence to kill Li Tang's clan and cut off some opposing forces that could not be publicly dealt with.

  Yang Fan had only seen some brief records of the Plum Blossom Inner Guard in official documents, and was not clear about their attire, specific duties. However, when he saw the small fairy's brow with a plum blossom between her eyebrows just now, for some reason, he thought of this mysterious organization.

  At this time, the two human shadows that had flashed across the wall and the two ghostly cries from Ma Bridge had already startled the patrolling Wu Hou. Someone shouted: "Who's walking on the street at night?" A cluster of lanterns was seen swaying in the distance. Yang Fan and Ma Bridge didn't have time to say much, they immediately dispersed like birds and beasts.

  The two of them were familiar with this alley, every blade of grass and every brick was under their control. They walked along the way, deliberately avoiding the main road, and soon got rid of Wu Hou. They arrived near their residence, waved to each other, and separately hid the stolen goods into their own courtyards.

  Ma Qiao slipped into his own courtyard, stood still, and looked around cautiously. He took out something from his pocket, which was a soft and fluffy bundle. When he shook it open, it seemed to be a silk undergarment.

  Ma Qiao walked up, took a deep sniff and muttered to himself: "So fragrant! Huang's wife is already over thirty years old, yet she still wears such a bright and beautiful skirt, humph!"

  Ma Qiao stuffed the woman's corset into his bosom, tiptoed forward and pushed open the door. The old lady had indeed left the door open for him. Ma Qiao slipped inside and lowered the bolt, and a sliver of light shone through the gap in the door.

  When the lights of Ma Qiao's house came on, a figure emerged from the small alley where Yang Fan lived, like a ghost. He was silent for a moment, observing the surroundings to his left and right, seeing that the intersection of the big street was quiet and soundless, then he swiftly ran across and entered another alley.

  This figure moved incredibly fast and was extremely familiar with the terrain of the alley, appearing and disappearing in the alleys between the houses. He soon returned to the wall where Ma Qiang and Yang Fan were earlier. He lowered his head to sniff the bloodstains on the wall, then began searching around as if looking for something.

  After a while, the man appeared beside the water cart, looking down at the ground and muttering to himself: "So clever! He actually went back and hid underwater. Unfortunately, human calculations are not as good as heavenly ones, and he lost too much blood and fainted here. In this way, by dawn, he will still be caught."

  The faint starlight shone on the person's face, and it was Yang Fan who had just left. At his feet, a black shadow was quietly lying down, with more than half of its body already out of the creek water, but its two legs were still hanging in the water. Judging from its clothes, it was obviously the assassin from just now, who was unconscious and motionless there.

  Yang Fan looked down at him, his eyes flickering with hesitation and struggle. But seeing the man's unconscious form in the water, reminiscent of himself being kicked into the creek years ago, Yang Fan couldn't bring himself to turn a blind eye. Finally, he took a deep breath, bent down, and scooped up the half-submerged night traveler from the creek.

  As soon as the person entered his arms, Yang Fan let out a surprised "huh" and seemed to have discovered something. However, his movements didn't stop; he just paused for a moment. A heavy person of over 100 catties was being held in his arms, yet his movements remained extremely agile. He leaped over the half-person-high earth wall and quickly disappeared into the night.

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  Lock the door and turn on the light.

  The light came on and water poured into the entire room like a flood, illuminating the person lying flat on the couch.

  Yang Fan held up the candle and slowly walked to the masked person he had rescued, squatted down, placed the candle on the table, and carefully examined "him".

  The dim light revealed a woman lying on the couch, her wet clothes clinging to her body, her curves clearly visible under his gaze. It was only now that he could see her true face, although he had just picked her up and felt something was off.

  The thin silk clothes and pants were soaked through, wrapped around the night traveler's slender and curvaceous body, completely failing to conceal anything. Those plump thighs, long, sturdy, and full, were right under his eyelids, with the wet clothes clinging to his body, even the lower abdomen was outlined in detail by the wet thin pants.

  Yang Fan's gaze quickly swept past, including the female assassin Wei Bi's chest curve, his eyes didn't linger for a moment. The female assassin's body was undoubtedly beautiful, especially more attractive to a young man, but he didn't use his eyes to profane this girl's body.

  He glanced at the wet towel stuck to the girl's face, slightly furrowed his brow, and lifted her neck to remove her hood. With the hood off, a head of beautiful black hair tied in a ponytail was revealed, and he laid her flat, using the lamplight to examine her appearance, estimating her to be around 15 or 16 years old.

  The girl's appearance was delicate and had a watery transparency like that of a Jiangnan Yue woman. At this time, she was still in a coma, her slender eyebrows were slightly furrowed in her sleep, giving off a somewhat stubborn feeling, but her pale cheeks also revealed a hint of helplessness.

  Yang Fan's gaze swept across her face for a moment, then moved to her shoulder, where there was a hole, and at this time, there was no more bleeding. The skin was faintly visible through the hole in the clothes, with a wound on it.

  Yang Fan furrowed his brow, walked to the corner of the house, opened a broken trunk, took out a small box from inside, returned to the girl's side, lifted the lid, took out a pair of scissors from the box, gently lifted the hem of the female assassin's clothes at the wound, and cut it off...

  Her wet clothes clung to her slender chest, and although she had the figure of a young girl, there was an inexplicable feminine charm about her. Yang Fan restrained his instinct to take another look at her, cut open the clothes near her wound with scissors, took out a neatly folded white gauze from the box, made a small incision on it with a small knife, and tore off a long strip with a "hiss".

  In this way, he tore out five white cloth strips and took out a small gourd from the box. He bit off the stopper of the gourd with his mouth, inserted one hand under the female assassin's body, lifted her up slightly and turned her sideways.

  The female assassin, who was in a coma, seemed to feel the pain and let out a low groan. Yang Fan aligned the gourd mouth with the bloody wound on the woman's back, quickly applying some brownish-yellow medicinal foam, then put down the gourd and gently applied a prepared white cloth strip...

  After putting the female assassin's body flat, Yang Fan applied medicine to her frontal wound as well. The female assassin had been pierced by a fine spear through her shoulder, fortunately without injuring her lungs, and with timely treatment, she wouldn't be in danger of losing her life. However, whether or not it would damage her tendons and affect her martial arts skills was still hard to say.

  Yang Fan applied the medicine, wrapped the bandage around in a circle, and then picked up the second bandage. When he wrapped it to the third bandage, his forehead had already faintly shown sweat marks. Although he adhered to the gentleman's etiquette and did not look at that exquisite exposed female body, his heart was one thing, but his instincts were another matter.

  He was still a vigorous young man, sometimes holding the girl's slender waist, sometimes lifting the girl's soft neck, and sometimes bandaging wounds. No matter how careful he was to avoid eye contact, the beautiful shape and curve of the jade rabbit's edge couldn't help but fall into his eyes, and his body had already started some instinctive reactions.

  "Hmm..."

  After all this commotion, the female assassin moaned and woke up.

  The female assassin's eyelids slightly opened, and when the light entered her eyes, she couldn't help but be greatly shocked. She hastily stretched out her hand, instinctively reaching for her sword!

  Yang Fan let out a stifled hum, and his whole body stiffened on the spot.

  "Who are you?"

  The female assassin's eyes were momentarily dazed, quickly clearing up, and she looked at Yang Fan with some sharpness.

  "I... am... the one who saved your life!"

  The female assassin quickly scanned the situation in the room, made sure it was not an official residence, and asked: "Is this your home?"

  Yang Fan's face showed a hint of discomfort and shyness: "This... way of speaking, is so awkward! Miss... please let go first!"

  "Huh?"

  The female assassin's eyes widened slightly, and her gaze dropped. Only then did she realize that what she was holding onto was hard, but it wasn't the hilt of her sword. Her hand was actually on the man's crotch. The female assassin's pale face suddenly flushed with a shocking red glow. Her small hand trembled as if stung by a scorpion and quickly let go.

  Yang Fan let out a long sigh, due to the angle issue, his "gun" was almost bent into a 90-degree angle by this female assassin's slender palm. Fortunately, the "quality of the gun" was excellent, and as soon as he relaxed his hand, it straightened up again. Yang Fan bowed slightly, somewhat embarrassed, saying: "I have no evil intentions, I just need to bandage my wound, can't help..."

  "Don't say that!" The female assassin lowered her eyelids, her face flushed with embarrassment, using a fierce tone to cover up her own shyness, quickly changing the subject: "Return my sword!"

  "Ah, okay!"

  Yang Fan shifted his body and rushed to the side of the cabinet, took out a long sword and came back.

  The girl took the sword in her hand and her expression became much more relaxed, as if with a sword in hand, she had the greatest sense of security.

  She let out a breath, the red glow on her face gradually faded away, raised her eyes to take a closer look at Yang Fan, as if she had discovered something, and suddenly said: "You are... the little one I just met..."

  "It's me."

  The female assassin's eyes flashed with a hint of suspicion, and she asked: "Why did you save me?"

  Yang Fan was taken aback and asked in return: "Why? Does saving someone... also need a reason?"

  The female assassin stared at him and said, "With this outfit and the wound on my shoulder, you should be able to tell that I'm not an ordinary person. You're just a thief, aren't you afraid of causing trouble for yourself?"

  The female assassin asked this, not because she was inhumane. The cases she handled were indeed extraordinary, and a person might be willing to lend a helping hand to someone lying wounded by the roadside, but would they dare to assist someone who had offended the law? Moreover, the one lending a helping hand was a thief; she didn't ask Yang Fan why he saved her, and she didn't dare stay there for another moment.

  Yang Fan seemed to hesitate for a moment and didn't answer.

  The girl's eyes flashed with a hint of murderous intent, her voice cold as she said: "Speak!"

  Yang Fan coughed twice, as if being forced to reveal a secret from his heart, and said awkwardly: "This is the Xiwen Lane, in our Xiwen Lane, at the east of the Ten Character Street, west of the Third Qu Alley, under the big elm tree, there is a family with the surname Xiao. The Xiao family has a son named Qianyue..."

  The female assassin looked bewildered and asked in surprise: "What does this have to do with my question?"

  Long ago, there was a mountain, on the mountain there was a temple, in the temple there was an old monk, striking a wooden fish to beg for recommendation votes...