Within moments, Huangfu Yue returned to the street she had previously walked down. The street was remarkably empty and quiet, with not a soul in sight, completely unlike the bustling and noisy other streets.
Huangfu Yue paid it no mind, thinking nothing of it.
This street had already been searched. Such quietness was normal. After all, at this hour, with the soldiers having searched, the residents of this street would naturally have gone to sleep.
It wasn't as if the street's inhabitants were so terrified by the search that they couldn't sleep even after the searching soldiers had left.
Huangfu Yue walked towards the end of the street, thinking that once she reached the end, she would turn and walk for a few minutes to reach a bridge. After crossing the bridge and walking a few more streets, she would be able to exit the inner city and reach the outer city.
Once in the outer city, if she walked quickly, it should only take about ten minutes to reach the city gate and meet up with Xiao Hei...
"Help—"
Suddenly, a woman's scream pierced the silence, coming from behind.
Huangfu Yue instinctively turned her head and looked behind her, only to find that the area behind her was as empty as the front, with no one in sight.
Huangfu Yue slightly raised her delicate eyebrows...
"Help—Murder—Help—"
The woman's screams rang out again. This time, Huangfu Yue could discern that the sound was coming from a residence about fifty zhang away to her left and behind her.
As they say, a life is precious! Upon hearing someone cry for help and scream murder, Huangfu Yue, having pinpointed the source of the sound, immediately ran towards it.
She moved at lightning speed and quickly arrived in front of the house from which the cries for help had come. Judging by its appearance, it was a very ordinary small courtyard house.
Huangfu Yue glanced at the tightly shut door. At this hour, the residents would surely have bolted the door. Others would probably have to break down the door to get in, but she...
Huangfu Yue curved her lips and walked towards the door, passing through it in the next instant.
Heh, the ability to pass through doors and walls is truly practical!
"Help... Murder... Help—Help—" The familiar voice echoed from the wing room within the house.
Just as Huangfu Yue was about to run into the wing room to investigate, she saw the wing room door suddenly open. A young woman, clutching her stomach and with her hair disheveled, ran out.
Looking at her stomach and lower body, which were covered in bright red, and seeing her clutching her abdomen, it was clear she had been injured in the stomach and had bled a lot.
"Bitch, you dare to cry for help again... It seems you really want to die—Watch me really butcher you today, you lewd, despicable slut, and make you wear cuckold's horns for me."
A fierce-looking young man, holding a blood-stained cleaver, chased out from the wing room, exuding murderous intent.
Seeing this, Huangfu Yue frowned.
Listening to it, it sounded like a husband who suspected his wife of infidelity was about to kill her with a knife. How cliché...
"Husband, I've told you many times, I was just a servant in Lord Chang's private residence, attending to those young ladies, and serving tea and water to guests. I never served guests... I am innocent, why don't you believe me... *wuwu*..."
The young woman cried as she ran towards the main door, turning back to speak to the man.
Upon hearing the mention of Lord Chang's private residence, Huangfu Yue narrowed her eyes. For some reason, upon hearing the words "Lord Chang," she immediately thought of Chang Qing.
"Bah! You're fooling a three-year-old... Anyone who knows about Chang Qing's private residence knows that place is a brothel, and the women in it are all for the pleasure of officials and dignitaries. How could any of them be innocent... Have you ever heard of an innocent woman in a brothel!" the man shouted angrily as he chased the woman.
Hearing this, Huangfu Yue's eyebrows slightly lifted. It really was Chang Qing!
She wondered if the residence the man was referring to was Chang Qing's residence on Sanyuan Street, or another residence?
She knew Chang Qing was "very corrupt," but she hadn't expected him to run a brothel in his private residence, catering specifically to officials and dignitaries. Truly "dirty" enough!
She also wondered how many more dirty deeds, how many more unspeakable bad deeds, Chang Qing had committed.
"You whore, who knows how many wild men you've been with in Chang Qing's residence, how many cuckold's horns you've made me wear, I must flay you alive today!"
The man cursed incessantly, waving his cleaver in anger with every curse. This made the young woman, who kept running and looking back to see how far he was chasing her, terrified and shed more tears of fear.
The young woman ran faster, but an ordinary woman's stamina could not match a man's. She couldn't outrun the man, and now that the young woman was injured, she was even less able to outrun her enraged husband. Soon, she was caught by the man, who was consumed by rage.
The man grabbed her hair and ferociously swung the cleaver at her. Just as the cleaver was about to slice off half of her head, something bizarre happened. The cleaver suddenly detached from the man's hand and flew out, embedding itself in a nearby pillar.
Both the man and the woman were stunned. They stared blankly at the cleaver stuck in the pillar, their faces filled with confusion.
How did the cleaver suddenly fly out and get stuck in the pillar?
The man was the most bewildered. How did it feel as if someone had kicked the cleaver, sending it flying?
But there was clearly no one around. In the courtyard, there were only him and this lewd, shameless, stinking woman...
There was no one, yet he truly felt as if someone had kicked the cleaver away... Could it be a ghost?
Thinking of a ghost, the man's face immediately changed. He exclaimed in terror, "Ghost!"
Hearing her husband suddenly shout about a ghost, the young woman paused. She realized that there were only she and her husband in the courtyard, no one else. But the cleaver in her husband's hand wouldn't have flown out on its own. Therefore, it could only be a haunting. A ghost had made the cleaver fly out of her husband's hand.
The young woman's face also changed dramatically in fear. She screamed in terror, "Ghost!" and even more fearfully rushed towards the main door, wanting to open it and escape.
Her husband, at this moment, was so terrified that he forgot about killing her. He also scrambled towards the main door, wanting to open it and flee.
Huangfu Yue watched from the side, extremely annoyed. Being mistaken for a ghost did not feel good!
But seeing the man's cleaver about to strike the woman, she couldn't stand by and do nothing, so she had to intervene... no, she had to use her foot to kick the cleaver away.
Seeing the woman unbolt the door, open it, and about to run out, Huangfu Yue quickly stopped her annoyance and decided to chase after her to stop her from leaving.
She wanted to ask her about Chang Qing's private residence, to clarify whether the house her husband called a brothel was the one on Sanyuan Street, and if not, where it was, and what exactly was the deal with that brothel.
However, just as Huangfu Yue was about to make a move, she saw a familiar snowy white appear in front of the opened main door. Leng Yusheng had descended from the sky, suddenly appearing at the door.
Huangfu Yue was stunned for a moment, slightly surprised, then frowned slightly.
This was uncanny! Was she bound to Leng Yusheng tonight? She ran into him again!
He must have heard the woman's cries for help on another street and immediately rushed over.
Huangfu Yue expected Leng Yusheng, upon seeing the young woman at the door looking panicked and frightened, with bloodstains on her and clearly injured, to immediately ask her what was wrong, what had happened. But Leng Yusheng didn't.
Unexpectedly, after glancing at the young woman and the man behind her, Leng Yusheng walked past them and headed straight towards her.
Yes, Huangfu Yue was not mistaken. Leng Yusheng was walking directly towards her, and he was staring intently at her.
Huangfu Yue's heart skipped a beat. What was going on? Why was he like this?
Could he have discovered her, seen her?