Chapter 36: Viper Traces
An ancient temple somewhere on the outskirts of Youzhou.

The lights in the temple hall were dim. Jin Mulan sat cross-legged on a cushion in the hall, facing the Buddha statue, waiting to meet Hu Jinghui.

After an unknown amount of time, Hu Jinghui, wearing Viper's clothes, quietly appeared behind Jin Mulan.

Jin Mulan saw the shadow on the ground and was surprised to find someone standing behind her.

"Why don't you say anything and just stand behind me?" Jin Mulan scolded and hugged Hu Jinghui.

"I also want to ask you, why did you send Liu Jin under Di Renjie's nose!" Hu Jinghui asked angrily.

After all, Hu Jinghui had interrogated Liu Jin for three years. As long as he heard his voice, he would naturally understand that Fang Qian and Liu Jin were the same person.

Hearing Hu Jinghui's question, Jin Mulan chuckled and patted Hu Jinghui: "Why are you so anxious?"

Hu Jinghui sighed: "If you place Liu Jin next to Di Renjie, and Di Renjie discovers his identity, then everything will be over."

Jin Mulan put away her smile upon hearing this and asked Hu Jinghui, "What else should we do? Hand over Youzhou, which we have worked so hard to build, to Di Renjie?"

Hu Jinghui's questioning made Jin Mulan very unhappy. She said sternly: "If there is no Youzhou, with the few troops we have, why would we cooperate with the Turks?"

"I just think this is risky." Hu Jinghui took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"What's the risk? Even if Liu Jin's identity is discovered, what can happen? He is not one of us, so if he dies, he dies." Jin Mulan said coldly.

"Once Liu Jin's identity is discovered, our plan will be completely exposed to Di Renjie." Hu Jinghui reminded.

"So what? Di Renjie has already confirmed that we are in Youzhou. Is he going to let us go?" Jin Mulan said disdainfully.

"But Liu Jin knows too many secrets. What if he betrays us?"

"This is why I'm looking for you. I want you to be responsible for the contact with Liu Jin. If anything happens to him, get rid of him immediately!" Jin Mulan's face was cold and she downplayed the murder to silence him.

Her original plan was to treat Liu Jin as a discarded pawn. If he succeeded, she would make a lot of money, and if he failed, she would not lose anything.

Hu Jinghui looked at the cold woman in front of him, closed his eyes and fell silent.

Since arriving in Youzhou, every time they met or delivered a message, he was either asked to kill someone or to silence him.

Hu Jinghui is not a fool. He has vaguely realized that Di Renjie no longer trusts him as much as before, and many things are not handled by him.

This is a dangerous sign.

The days of disguise have lasted too long, and Hu Jinghui has already been exhausted.

Jin Mulan didn't notice Hu Jinghui's strange mood at all. She was full of confidence and asked, "Is Li Er dead? This is the most important thing."

Hu Jinghui slowly shook his head and said hoarsely: "I have poisoned it again. Whether it succeeds or not, we will know the result soon."

Jin Mulan frowned: "No, you must see Li Er's body with your own eyes. As long as he is alive, he will pose a huge threat to us."

Hu Jinghui nodded slowly and said helplessly: "Okay, I will do it as soon as possible."
-
After meeting Jin Mulan, Hu Jinghui returned to the Governor's Mansion from the ancient temple outside the city. It was already late at night.

Without having time to change back into his usual clothes, Hu Jinghui went to the main hall where Di Renjie was first.

Zhao Ji had already left the main hall, and Di Renjie sat at his desk writing a memorial to Wu Zetian.

Hu Jinghui didn't understand what was going on, so he thought that there was nothing wrong with Di Renjie, so he felt relieved, turned around, flew onto the roof, and headed towards Fang Qian's room.

Fang Qian's door was closed and the bolt was inserted.

The lights in the room had been turned off long ago, and Fang Qian lay on the bed with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, Fang Qian opened his eyes, carefully got up from the bed, tiptoed to the door of the room.

He lay quietly at the door and listened for a long time. There was no movement outside the door, and he was sure that no one was nearby.

Fang Qian then walked back to the bed and sat down with peace of mind. He gently took off his shirt, revealing the shocking wound on his back.

He took out a packet of white medicine and sprinkled it gently on the wound. The pain made Fang Qian grit his teeth and look grim.

Sweat rolled down Fang Qian's forehead, but he still held back and didn't make a sound.

After finally treating the wound, Fang Qian breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, there was a strange noise in the room. Fang Qian looked around and saw a viper coiled in front of the bed.

Fang Qian was shocked. He had already shut the door and windows of the room tightly. How could the viper get into the room? But when he looked outside, he found that the window of the room had been opened without him noticing.

When he turned his gaze back, another person appeared silently from the opposite side. It was Hu Jinghui.

"Ah!" Fang Qian let out a low cry of fear, and kept using his hands to hold his chest to breathe.

But after a moment, Fang Qian calmed down and asked, "Who are you? Why did you suddenly appear in my room?"

Hu Jinghui chuckled, walked forward, and said in a low voice: "Don't pretend in front of me."

Fang Qian then saw the Viper's clothes on Hu Jinghui and breathed a sigh of relief: "Viper, it's you!"

Hu Jinghui didn't say anything either, just nodded coldly.

Fang Qian's thinking was very quick, and he asked, "Did Jin Mulan send you to contact me?"

"That's right." Hu Jinghui said softly.

Fang Qian wanted to ask more questions, but Hu Jinghui suddenly waved his hand to stop him.

The two fell silent and heard some rustling sounds outside.

A figure vaguely appeared outside the door.

Fang Qian was terribly sad. He pointed at the door and looked at Hu Jinghui in horror.

Hu Jinghui signaled Fang Qian to stay calm, reached out and grabbed the viper coiled in front of the bed, and sent it out the window.

The viper crawled along the corner of the wall all the way to the door and crawled behind the servant who was eavesdropping outside.

The servant heard the noise behind him, turned around to check, and was immediately frightened by the poisonous snake and fell to the ground.

The viper was well-trained and immediately found the right opportunity to bite the servant's neck.

Hu Jinghui and Fang Qian hurried out of the room to check.

"What should we do with the body?" Fang Qian asked in panic.

"I'll take care of it. Don't worry, no one saw it. Go back. I'll come find you later."

Hu Jinghui carried the servant's body and disappeared from Fang Qian's sight.
-
The next morning.

Zhao Ji had just finished washing up when a guard came to report.

"General, a servant in the East Flower Hall was bitten to death by a poisonous snake."

Zhao Ji frowned when he heard this: "East Flower Hall? Take me to see it."

He immediately thought of this plot in his mind. It should be that Hu Jinghui and Fang Qian met, and were accidentally discovered by servants, and Hu Jinghui released the snake to kill people.

I followed the guards to the east toilet of the East Flower Hall and saw from afar that the guards were preparing to carry the body away for burial.

Zhao Ji hurried forward and shouted to stop them: "Stop, don't move the body yet."

When everyone heard Zhao Ji's shout, they stopped temporarily.

Zhao Ji rushed forward and asked, "What did the body look like just now? Restore it to its original state!"

Although the guards did not understand what Zhao Ji meant, they still put the body back as Zhao Ji said.

The head of the body was facing east, but it fell outside the east side.

Zhao Ji asked again: "Is this what you did when you saw the body?"

The guards nodded and said that this was what they saw when they saw the body.

Zhao Ji leaned over and pushed aside the collar of his serviceman's shirt, revealing three teeth marks on his neck from a poisonous snake bite.

"Go and ask Lord Di to come over." Zhao Ji ordered.

　I haven't been in a good state recently. I feel that what I wrote doesn't achieve the effect I want. Can you contribute your own ideas or suggestions? The author will refer to them as appropriate. I feel that my inspiration has dried up...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)