The hidden guard sighed in relief and prepared to go into hiding again in order to continue protecting Tang Doudou from the darkness.

  Tang Doudou, however, had spotted him the moment he walked in.

  “Hey, you! Stop right there!” Tang Doudou hastily got up and cried for him to stop upon seeing that he was about to run off.

  The guard had no choice but to stay upon hearing her displeased tone.

  Tang Doudou reached him with just a few steps. “What’s your name?”


  “This subordinate is Xiao Dao (aka little knife). My greetings, Lady Doudou.” Xiao Dao checked Tang Doudou’s expression out of the corner of his eye, puzzled as to why she had called out to him.

  “Xiao Dao?” Tang Doudou circled him. “You were the one following me earlier?”


  Xiao Dao nodded honestly. “Master has commanded this subordinate to protect Lady Doudou.”


  “En, I know.” Tang Doudou stopped walking. “Then do you know where Baili Yu and the rest went?”


  “Hasn’t Master already returned?” Xiao Dao was a bit confused. Master had headed back after sending him to follow Tang Doudou, so shouldn’t Master already be back in the Chamber of Commerce?

  “He did come back, but he left again. In addition, Qing He and those fellow hidden guards of yours are gone too……” Tang Doudou dragged him to a corner of the courtyard and asked him surreptitiously, “Could it be that they’ve already left Mist City?”


  “That’s not possible. Master said that he was going to stay in Mist City for a while, there’s no way he’d leave that quickly. Furthermore, if Master was going to leave, he’d definitely bring Lady Doudou along.” Xiao Dao shook his head like it was a rattle drum. “I think Master probably rushed off to deal with some urgent matter. There’s no need for Lady Doudou to worry, he’ll return very soon.”


  “Stupid!” Tang Doudou knocked his forehead with the back of her bent middle finger. “No matter how urgent the matter was, there’s no way he would bring the tea-serving maids along as well!”


  “Are you talking about Qing He and the others?” Xiao Dao felt wronged. He had been hit for no reason and it was so painful too! Not even Master had hit him like this before.

  “That’s right ah! Bringing along so many people - not only all the maids but also all your brothers as well - is he off to handle a matter or to have a fight ah?” Tang Doudou gave Xiao Dao a look of disdain for being so simple-minded. No wonder she had been able to shake him off with that little trick. What exactly was Baili Yu thinking, to dispatch such a dumb guy to protect her?

  “It is a bit strange……” Xiao Dao finally caught on to the oddity of the situation after Tang Doudou called his attention to it. “Lady Doudou, please wait a moment, I’ll go check if they left me any information.”


  In the past whenever they had to head out for a mission, if there was a brother that was busy with other matters and didn’t go with them, they’d leave a secret sign where they lived to let that brother know which way to go.

  The secret signs were invented by Master so the only people who could understand them were the brothers in the Chamber of Commerce.

  “Then what are you still waiting for, let’s go!” Tang Doudou hastily pulled Xiao Dao and ran towards the west side of the courtyard. She remembered Qing He had said before that all of the servants lived on this side.

  However, Xiao Dao pulled her to a stop. “It’s not this side.”


  As he spoke, he uncomfortably struggled out of Tang Doudou’s grasp and headed towards a different direction.

  Tang Doudou pondered for a while before moving to follow him.

  Only then did she find out that the hidden guards actually lived underground.

  Tang Doudou followed Xiao Dao into an extremely well-concealed basement in the courtyard. Xiao Dao searched through the place several times. In the end, he turned in disappointment towards Tang Doudou and shook his head.

  From the looks of it, no message had been left.

  “I think they probably encountered some extremely pressing matter and left in too much of a hurry to leave a message,” concluded Xiao Dao based on his experience.

  Fine. Since he didn’t know, there was even less hope for her to possibly know what was going on.

  Not to mention, that guy Baili Yu would probably be fine so there was no point thinking about it. She should just wait here for him to come back.

  “Oh, that’s right. Where do you usually lock up the people you capture?” Tang Doudou recalled that she had asked Baili Yu to bring Skinny back. She still had a lot of questions to ask Skinny. Since there was nothing else to do right now, she might as well go find Skinny and question him.

  Xiao Dao said, “It’s right behind this basement. What about it?”


  “Take me there for a look.”


  “This……”


  Tang Doudou glowered at him. “What, it’s not allowed?”


  “That’s not the case. It’s just that……” Xiao Dao exposed a bashful smile. “It’s just that I’m afraid Lady Doudou will be frightened.”


  “Tch, quit wasting time and lead me there.” Tang Doudou knuckle rapped his head again. As she looked at his bashful smile, she thought to herself, this Xiao Dao was actually pretty fun. Wonder if Baili Yu would agree to give him to her if she asked?

  As the grand Alliance Head of the martial arts circles, it was too demeaning to not even have a single attendant!

  Moreover, after experiencing the recent events and hearing what that old sir had said, she felt that, setting aside whether what he said was true for now, she really should build up her own power and influence. There’s no way she could continue to look for people here and there to help, that would be too unreasonable.

  __________

  Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Edited by Dray

  [Chiyomira's Corner]

  A Thanksgiving event submission from vivi!

  I find the Christmas/holiday season beautiful and quite thankful for this. People are a lot kinder, giving, and most of all the atmosphere is cheerful. You'll feel happy for no reason, and just hearing Christmas songs playing almost everywhere gives a nice feeling——

  vivi