Farewell Flower Festival

Han Lie and Mu Tianling were both locked up in a room, with their hands tied behind their backs on chairs.

When Mu Tianling woke up, he was still weak. He turned around and saw a person tied to the chair next to him. After seeing clearly that it was Han Lie, he shifted his gaze to search for Chao Yan, but there was no one else in the room except the two of them.

"No need to look for it, Xiao Lianzi is not here." Han Lie said.

Hearing the name "Xiao Lianzi", Mu Tianling's face darkened.

"The old man is so old, he shouldn't do anything to Xiao Lianzi." Han Lie said.

Hearing this, Mu Tianling’s face turned even darker.

At this moment, a light flickered on the door, and both of them looked towards the door. The door was pushed open, and the hunched figure came in.

As soon as the old man entered the room, Han Lie asked, "Where did you take my little girl?" The old man ignored him and walked to the table to put down the oil lamp in his hand. Then he sat down on the stool, looked at Mu Tianling with his old and cloudy eyes, and said, "I know where the person you are looking for is, but the little girl has to stay."

Mu Tianling asked back: "How do you know?"

The old man laughed and said, "If a rat got into this ghost market, I would know it."

Han Lie interrupted, "She is my little girl, you should ask me if I agree."

Mu Tianling asked: "When did that girl become yours?"

Han Lie said: "It will be soon."

Mu Tianling snorted and ignored it.

The old man took out a medicine bottle from his arms and put it on the table, saying, "This was originally prepared for the little girl. Who of you would like to try it?"

The two looked at the medicine bottle and did not give any answer.

The old man smiled, and the hoarse laughter from his throat sounded a bit harsh in the quiet room, as if mocking the timidity of the two people, "Since neither of them is willing, we can only let the little girl try the effect of the medicine herself." When the old man picked up the medicine bottle on the table and stood up, Mu Tianling gave his answer, "I'll do it."

The old man smiled with satisfaction, walked over to untie the rope tied around Mu Tianling's hands, and warned him, "Be honest, or you won't even know how you died."

The old man handed him the bottle of medicine and asked him to drink it all.

Mu Tianling opened the bottle cork and a strange fragrance wafted out.

"If you really want to drink it, what if it's poison?" Han Lie said.

When he heard the word poison, Mu Tianling's eyes darkened for a moment, then he smiled and said, "I'm lucky. I won't die."

"Do you really like that girl that much?" Han Lie asked.

Mu Tianling was silent for a moment, then said, "Since you don't want to, don't bother her anymore."

Han Lie smiled and said, "I do like Xiao Lianzi, but I'm not ready to risk my life for her. Maybe I will be willing to do so in the future." At this point, he said regretfully, "Your Highness is so emotional. I am really disappointed."

When he heard the word "Your Highness", there was no wavering in those old and turbid eyes.

"There is still a lot of medicine, save it and try it slowly."

The old man turned his hunched back and prepared to leave. Mu Tianling raised his head and drank the unknown medicine in the bottle.

"If you can survive, the girl will be returned to you."

This was the last sentence Mu Tianling heard before his consciousness fell into endless painful struggle.

His pupils suddenly shrank and then suddenly expanded, the veins on the back of his hands and forehead continued to bulge, and his eyes began to fill with bloodshot, as if the blood vessels in his body would burst in the next moment...

He strangled himself with his hands, as if he wanted to strangle himself to death. He had no idea what kind of crazy fantasy he had fallen into.

"If someone dies, everyone in the ghost market will suffer." Han Lie said.

The old man let out another hoarse laugh from his throat and waved his hand. Han Lie felt a strong sense of sleepiness and fell asleep.

......

An unknown amount of time had passed before the swollen blood vessels gradually calmed down, and the bulging blue veins on the back of Mu Tianling's hands and forehead gradually disappeared, leaving only a little scarlet blood in the depths of his eyes. However, his entire face was paler than paper, and there was no trace of blood on his lips. If it weren't for the fact that his eyes were still barely focused, he would have looked no different from a person who had been frozen to death.

The five senses have not yet recovered, and consciousness is floating in the gap between nothingness and reality.

He vaguely heard another person's voice, but couldn't make out what they were saying, until a faint scent drifted into his nose, very familiar, making him feel at ease... He thought of someone, and then he felt like he was being carried on someone's back. He lay on her shoulder and murmured two words, "What a nice scent..."

"I'm not edible, don't bite me. If you bite me, I'll throw you down."

Chaoyan walked out of the long and narrow alley with Mu Tianling's body weighing more than 100 pounds on her back with great effort. When the red lantern hanging at the entrance of the alley went out, the surrounding environment suddenly became bright, and it felt like the fog had dissipated.

Soon the two were discovered.

Qianfeng and Feiyu rushed to the two of them, and Chaoyan told them the suspect's hiding place. This was what the old man told her when he let her go. He also told her that the man was about to die and would not survive the night.

Qianfeng left Feiyu behind and went to meet Captain Yu first. The heavy burden of carrying Mu Tianling was handed over to Feiyu, and Chaoyan was responsible for finding a place to stay. There happened to be a small shop that looked like a tavern nearby, so the three of them went into the shop.

Chaoyan asked the boss if he had any rooms available, saying that her cousin had fainted and needed to rest for an hour or two. She stuffed a silver ingot into the boss's hand. The boss led the three of them to the house in the backyard with a smile on his face, and asked the only waiter in the store to go and get a doctor.

After a while, two of Captain Yu's men also came over.

Soon, the doctor came over.

Chaoyan saw the waiter coming in with an old woman who looked like a fortune teller. The old woman was holding a clay pot in her hand, and she didn't know what was inside. She thought, could it be that they were going to perform a shaman ritual?

The other party just looked at Mu Tianling's complexion without taking his pulse, then grabbed a handful of liquid from the pottery jar and sprinkled it on Mu Tianling's face.

Both of Captain Yu's men were shocked. How could they treat illnesses like this? !

The next moment, everyone in the room was choked by a pungent smell and started coughing. The effect was even more refreshing than a cool massage on the temples.

After she got used to it a little, Chao Yan found that Mu Tianling had woken up, and his face, which was whiter than paper, had some color. She thought to herself that this ghost market really was full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. . . . .

When it was time to pay the medical fee, the old woman held up three fingers. Chaoyan didn't understand what she meant. The waiter told her that it would cost three taels of silver. Chaoyan complained to the waiter in a low voice that it was a bit expensive. The doctors she had hired for Hongmei and Furong only cost one tael of silver. The old woman seemed to have heard her whisper and directly raised the price to five taels.

It is better to have less trouble than more. Chaoyan did not have enough change to pay five taels of silver, so she took out a silver note and gave it to the old woman.

The old woman shook her head.

Chaoyan didn't understand what she meant and thought that she didn't accept banknotes. Fortunately, the waiter was smart. He took the banknote to the boss and exchanged it for silver. He gave the old woman five taels of silver as a consultation fee and sent her away.

After the guy left, Chaoyan asked about Han Lie, and Mu Tianling simply replied with three words, "I don't know." Chaoyan saw that he was not happy and stopped asking and talked about the suspect.

Mu Tianling wanted to go and take a look in person, but Chaoyan couldn't persuade him, so she asked Qianyu to find a carriage.

The carriage met Captain Yu on the way, who was also about to go to Mu Tianling to report that the murderer had been caught.