Chapter Fifteen Exposed

  Wu Xie saw Tang Xiao Xia in this state and was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Brother Tang is indeed a high-ranking disciple of Qingyuanzi, and has already reached this point. It's surprising that he still has such a good mood! Lord Fei is also a person who loves talent, if the two of you are willing to surrender and work for Lord Fei, your future prospects will definitely be above mine."

  "You've indeed run into a small inn thinking of hiding temporarily, but you didn't know that your actions have been under my surveillance all along!"

  Luosi heard Wu Xie's words and unexpectedly had the meaning of surrendering two people. She thought of Tang Xiaoxia's previous words and thought: "With Tang Xiaoxia's idea of preserving her life, she might agree to surrender, who knows!"

  "But Ke Tang Xiaxia pointed to Wu Xie's left arm and said, 'I'm saying, Lord Wu, the wound on your left arm was self-inflicted, right?' His tone was not without sarcasm and ridicule, as if he hadn't taken Wu Xie's previous words to heart at all."

  Wu Xi seemed to have completely missed Tang Xiaoxia's sarcasm, and sighed, saying: "That was just a desperate move!"

  He slightly raised his left arm, glanced at it and continued: "Actually, I thought we were surrounded by soldiers in the room, you would come out to rescue us, and then we could attack you in the chaos and injure you. I already said that earlier. Who knew we fought outside for so long, but you all hid in your rooms and didn't come out? This is against common sense. I don't know if you received some information beforehand, so I had to change plans and pretend that the people I brought were captured, while I pretended to escape and observe the situation."

  Luosi didn't expect that she and Tang Xiaoxia would coincidentally avoid a disaster due to their inability to fight. But there was still something she didn't understand, so she asked Wu Xi: "Then why did you cut your own arm?"

  She heard Wu Xi say: "I've been monitoring you from outside, following you to that small inn, and finding that you didn't rush to escape but instead stayed there. So on the one hand, I instructed the waiter to send up food with added Qingzi, while on the other hand, I personally went to investigate. To avoid your suspicion, I even cut my own left arm with a knife. But I don't understand why you still didn't believe me? Didn't I remind you that there's poison in the food?"

  Actually, Luosi didn't know how Tang Xiaxiao had figured out that Wu Xi was suspicious. She heard Tang Xiaxiao say: "Actually, I started suspecting you from the moment we entered the inn. You were so many people but only booked one room for every four of you, and each room only had one bed. It would be very inconvenient for my sister and me to live together, let alone four people. Looking at your identities and spending habits, it's clear that you're not short on money, which is quite strange. So I guessed that you might not have planned to stay overnight at Yongning Inn in the first place. But since Yongning Inn is already the best inn in Kang City, where else could you possibly stay?"

  Tang Xiaoxia sighed and continued, "However, at that time I just thought it was strange, thinking you were all trying to discuss things together conveniently, or even prevent enemy attacks by having fewer rooms. So I also asked to stay in the same room as my master, but she very sternly refused me!" Tang Xiaoxia said this and actually glanced at Luosi Qi with a bit of mischief, making Luosi Qi feel a little embarrassed for misunderstanding her.

  Fortunately, Tang Xiaxia only glanced at him and continued to speak, otherwise she really wanted to find a seam in the ground to drill into. She heard Tang Xiaxia continue: "What made me feel completely wrong was the arrival of Lord Kangcheng. According to reason, the Wu family had already been ordered by King Chu to be searched, so it's normal for Lord Kangcheng to catch you. What's not normal is that Lord Kangcheng came too quickly, my master and I had just sat down for a short while before you started fighting, as if it was premeditated. This can't help but make me suspicious. Of course, there's another special reason why I didn't go out to save you, but I won't tell you that!"

  Luosi knew what Tang Xiaoxia's special reason was, that is, she and Tang Xiaoxia were both very poor in martial arts, and going out would be a futile death. Of course, this special reason cannot be told to Wu Xi, but if they really start fighting later, the fact that she and Tang Xiaoxia are not good at martial arts will probably be exposed!

  "Is that all it takes for you to not believe me?" Wu Xi was quite surprised, he had to admit that he was a bit too hasty in his actions, but just because of this small unreasonable point, Tang Xiaoxia was able to guess that he and Kang Chengling were in cahoots. It was really hard for him to believe, after all, he was going under the banner of rescuing Wu Xuan and Wu Shang to find Qing Yuansi, it's not something an ordinary person would think of, that he had already betrayed them.

  "It's actually more suspicious that you found our new hideout so quickly." Tang Xiaoxia seemed very satisfied with his own reasoning, especially Wu Xie's expression made him enjoy it even more. He continued: "You've already escaped, how can you find us so quickly? The wound on your left arm isn't serious, but it's still bleeding non-stop, it's clearly a new cut, don't you know that people have platelets?"

  "Blood platelets? What are blood platelets?" Wu Xi heard this and was somewhat perplexed. For someone from his era, he would know what blood is, but the term "blood platelets" was as unfamiliar to him as a phrase from an ancient scripture.

  He saw Tang Xiaoxia proudly say to him: "Even if I explain it to you, you won't understand. In fact, your statement that you would rather give up your companions and go rescue Wu Shang first is very decisive, but you have made the biggest mistake!"

  "What's wrong?" Wu Xi really wanted to know where she had gone wrong, causing the entire plan to almost fall apart.

  "You're wrong because if you were willing to abandon your companions to rush and rescue Wu Zixu's father and son, why would you want us to wait until midnight to leave for the sake of safety? Don't you know that every moment we delay may cause us to be unable to save them, let alone half a night's time? Moreover, Kangcheng is no longer safe, and staying one more moment may lead to our discovery by the enemy. As for going ahead to scout the road, it's even more ridiculous - you clearly know that I and my fellow disciple are leaving the valley for the first time, and without you, we can't make it to the capital; yet you want to take risks to scout ahead. If you get caught, everything will be over; if you don't get caught, the time spent scouting would have been enough for us to leave together, and we would have already left the city!"

  Wu Xi heard Tang Xiaoxia's words and felt very annoyed, but still unwilling to say: "Even if your suspicions are reasonable, they are just suspicions after all. Is it too rash to treat me as an enemy based on these alone? Moreover, when Luo Niang wanted to eat the dish, I stopped her, can't this dispel your doubts?"

  Tang Xiaoxia smiled and saw that Wu Xi was very remorseful, but she didn't care about him. With a confident expression, she said: "Maybe you think you've done something clever, but you can't escape my eyes. You said there's Qingzi in the dish, which means you thought I wouldn't eat it and suspected you when Sister Wu ate it alone and fainted. After all, you haven't seen my martial arts skills before, so you're afraid that if I suddenly attack, you won't be able to escape!"

  "Good! Good! You're indeed a disciple of Qingyuanzi!" Wu Xie's original plan, which he had been proud of, was completely exposed by Tang Xiaoxiao. In front of everyone, he laughed angrily and said: "I was so proud of myself for setting up an escape route during the Zi hour, carefully laying out many traps, but you guys just walked in from the east with ease! My subordinates are all useless, they were intimidated by you and didn't dare to take action, only coming to report to me. Can you tell me why you went northeast? Are you not going to rescue Wu Xie's father and son? I thought this was just a disguise, and you would still lead people to search for them in the southwest."

  Luosi thought to herself: "Wu Xi, you loser, would never have imagined in your wildest dreams that Tang Xiaoxia and I are not actually disciples of Qingyuanzi. And even more unimaginable is that Tang Xiaoxia would abandon all emotions and morals and take me with him as he fled. For us, survival is the most important thing, who cares about Wu Xi's father and son?"

  However, Luosi looked at the many soldiers around her with weapons and still felt that even if Tang Xiaoxia saw through Wu Xie's sinister plot, it would be of no use, and they would still be unable to escape this time.