Chapter 44: A twist of fate

This is how Sister Liu shows her concern. She is not too enthusiastic, but just right to make people feel comfortable. I was touched, but also a little bit scared. I didn’t know how to control this bug at all.

Sixth sister put some liquid on my sleeve. After that, the longhorn beetle stayed obediently in my sleeve for three inches, not moving at all.

“Well, that’s good. Even if you crush it, it will stay there unless something happens. If something happens, you can break this and rub it in your hands, and it won’t fly away for a while. Then you can put it in here.” As she spoke, Sister Liu’s hand lightly waved, and a thin bamboo tube appeared in front of me.

I had the feeling that my sixth sister was a cat, and I felt a little embarrassed.

But to be honest, this is nothing. What really makes me feel the power of the gongmiao is not only their knowledge of various insects and plants, but also their hands. They are amazing hands, fast and precise. This is purely a technical thing. Without ten years of hard work, it is impossible to achieve perfection.

This handwork is amazing. Throwing a little hidden weapon is actually a simple thing. After all, sometimes the use of a hidden weapon also depends on throwing skills, and the skill is the same.

So, it is only natural that the flying dagger technique of the sixth sister has disappeared.

The “tian niu” (longhorn beetle) was lying quietly in my sleeve. If I couldn’t think about it, it really didn’t bother me. I had always liked the city of Kunming, and being able to go out and explore naturally made me feel a little happier.

I had just taken two steps when Sister Liu stopped me again and slipped some money into my hand. I didn’t know how much it was, but I guessed she was afraid I wouldn’t be able to accept it. She smiled and said, “Chengyi, the flower shop is doing well, as you can see, so I want to show you around Kunming as a host.”

This made me feel very comfortable, but I had been hanging out with Uncle Wang for two years, and with the money my parents had given me and the money I had earned from selling the meat, I really didn’t need much money. I firmly refused to accept her kindness, and I left.

After asking around, I learned that Cuihu Lake is a park that is well known to all locals in Kunming. After asking around, I found Cuihu Lake Park without much effort.

The park is very beautiful, with many pavilions and buildings built around the large Cuihu Lake. With the willow trees and the hustle and bustle of the city, it is truly a place of interest that people linger in.

But this is far from being a surprise. The surprise here lies in the overwhelming number of black-headed gulls in the lake. I thought that only at the seaside could I see seagulls and the like, but I never imagined that I could see such a sight in an inland city. The sight of tens of thousands of black-headed gulls spreading their wings is enough to be spectacular and shocking.

The gulls were not afraid of people either. When someone brought food to feed them, they stopped on the person without any hesitation and ate leisurely.

This scene made me very happy. The surprise that my sister had mentioned was indeed a surprise. While I was happily wandering around the Cuihu Lake, a small hand grabbed me. I looked back and saw that it was a little girl, only 7 or 8 years old, who was pulling me. Not far away, her parents were smiling and watching.

I didn’t know why the little girl was holding me, so I touched her hair and asked in Mandarin, “Little girl, what’s the matter?”

“Uncle, this is something another uncle wants you to have,” the little girl said in Kunming dialect, but it was not difficult to understand. After that, the little girl held up a letter in her hand and handed it to me.

I was stunned. How could such a ‘cynical’ thing happen to me? But I couldn’t help but ask. I thought to myself, what could a little girl possibly know? So I took her hand and walked towards her parents, then thanked them and asked, “Excuse me, have you seen the person who asked your daughter to give me this letter? Is there any distinguishing feature?”

The couple were very helpful. When I asked them, the man replied in Mandarin, “Yes, at first I thought the man was a human trafficker. It turned out that my daughter was asked to deliver the letter. As for the man’s characteristics, it’s hard to say. He had a big beard, but I couldn’t recognize him. He was about 1.75 meters tall.”

The man tried to remember and said to me, and the woman also chimed in, “Yes, a big beard is the biggest feature. I can’t remember what he was wearing. Take a look around. A big beard is still pretty easy to recognize.”

I knew that I wouldn’t get anything more out of them, so I thanked the couple and left. On the way out, I kept looking around, but I didn’t see any bearded men.

This feeling suffocated me. No matter how much I had experienced before, it was all on the surface. At least I knew the ins and outs of things, and even if I didn’t, I knew what I was going to do and what the purpose was.

In other words, the initiative is in my own hands! But in this case, except for the Chengdu incident, which was an accident, I feel like I am being pushed by an invisible hand. It has a strong sense of conspiracy, like a big net that is already closing in, overwhelming, and there is no way to escape. How can it not make people feel suffocated?

I didn’t want to read the letter in the surging crowd, for fear that it would contain news that would make me crazy. I’m actually prone to impulsiveness and not a very calm person, so who knows what I might do if I went crazy?

So, I took a deep breath and stuffed the letter into my pocket with the remaining bits of my sanity.

After this incident, I lost my desire to go sightseeing and instead chose to go straight back to the flower shop.

When I returned to the flower shop, it was 2:00 p.m. It was a slow time of day, and Sixth Sister was leaning against the door, smiling, eating melon seeds, and talking to the surrounding bosses. It was just her natural charm that made the male bosses’ eyes less innocent, and the proprietresses’ eyes naturally revealed a little bit of caution.

I think if it weren’t for the way she handles things, it would be difficult for her to get a foothold here.

Seeing that I had returned so early, Sister Liu’s face flashed with surprise, but it quickly subsided, and then she turned to the bosses who were bragging around her and said, “Everyone is sorry, but my cousin is back, so I won’t talk to you anymore.”

I knew that my sixth sister was saying that I was her cousin to avoid suspicion. It was impossible for the sixth sister, who was like a human genius, to not pay attention to these details.

After I entered the flower shop, I went straight upstairs and into my room. Sister Liu followed me up, but she couldn’t seem to get into my room, so she just leaned against the door and asked, “Chengyi, why are you back so early?”

“This, help me look at it…” I took out a letter from my pocket and handed it to my sister.

Sister Liu took the letter with some curiosity, but instead of opening it in a hurry, she asked me with a puzzled look, “What is this? How did it come about?”

I took out a cigarette and said, “Obviously, it’s a letter. A little girl gave it to me in Cuihu Park. She said someone asked her to give it to me. I don’t know who it was or what he looked like.

When I said this, I could hear the weariness in my own voice. I don’t know why, but I always get tired so easily when I’m not with my master.

Sister Liu probably sensed my fatigue and also sensed my intention of showing her the letter, so she didn’t ask any questions, but instead opened the letter directly in front of me.

There was only a thin sheet of paper inside, and the content was probably not long. At least, Sixth Sister finished reading the letter quickly. After reading it, Sixth Sister’s expression suddenly became solemn, and then she asked, “Can you recognize this handwriting?”

I took the letter and looked at it briefly, then said, “No.”

Because the handwriting on the letter was crooked and obviously written on purpose, it was not meant to be recognized.

When she heard that I didn’t recognize the handwriting, she smiled and said, “Read the letter yourself, because you have to read what’s written on it. I never thought that something that only happens in movies could happen to you.”

I heard what my sixth sister said, and I turned my attention to the letter, hoping not to see anything that would make me lose control of my emotions.