Chapter 49: Ups and downs

The room was unusually quiet, and only my breathing sounded a little harsh… The soundproofing in these rooms is exceptionally good, so I’m not worried that anyone can hear that there is someone in this room, but I also can’t hear any movement outside.

Time passed by, tick tock, minute by minute, and my master and I were silent, but every second felt so painful.

My master sat on the sofa in the room, looking more composed than I did… I sat with my back against the door, frowning and staring at my watch, counting the time. Somehow, the memories of that year were particularly clear in my mind.

I remembered that I had met Yun Baogen. That year, he was still a wild young man, and he looked to be no more than 17 or 18 years old? He was a few years younger than me.

That year, Yun Xiaobao also told me that Yun Baogen had been chopped and Lingyu broken, and that he wanted to buy a piece of Lingyu…

Now, he just told me that there was a crack in the spirit jade, and he told me and the master that Yun Baogen had planted a seed in his heart because of the spirit jade, and wanted to cultivate the Dao… My memory coincided with the scene of eating in Chengdu many years ago.

That unruly young man, how could he have the slightest intention of cultivating? He even argued with me and Su Rou.

Could it be that Yun Xiaobao was confused too… I unconsciously touched my face, and my mind began to think quickly. I felt my emotions with my heart and discovered that after hiding in this room, the uneasiness in my heart had turned into a faint premonition of danger.

I have always had a good memory, but everyone has this kind of subconsciousness, that is, for people and things that are not very important, the memory is like being sealed up. After all these years of traveling around, experiencing so many things, who would deliberately remember that little thing about fighting fakes that year? If it weren’t for this kind of stimulation, how could my memory be so clear that I remembered every single conversation? That incident happened more than 10 years ago…

It was really hard for me. I sighed, and the first thought that came to my mind was the vicissitudes of life. That unruly Yun Baogen had actually believed in the so-called “superstition” and embarked on the path of a cultivator… And the difference between the voice of a teenager and that of an adult was also great. I didn’t even recognize him.

Perhaps because he had been “reformed” by Yang Sheng, his voice had changed.

I only thought this subconsciously, but the dangerous feeling in my heart seemed to have turned into a sharp needle, which suddenly stung me… My forehead suddenly covered with fine cold sweat, a father who loves his children so much, the only child of the Yun family… I stood up abruptly and walked towards my master!

The master looked at me with some confusion, and then looked at the wall clock subconsciously, and said to me, “Chengyi, it’s only been three minutes. Calm down…”

I grabbed my master and quickly walked to the window of the villa and looked down.

This is the back of the house, and below is a backyard with a swimming pool. There doesn’t seem to be anyone here at the moment. I pushed open the window and said to the master, “There’s no time to explain. We’d better leave here now.”

I can’t say much about the structure of this house, but looking down, I can see that every floor has its own balcony or terrace, and even the windows have a kind of rain-blocking platform… If you’re careful, you can quickly climb down.

“You mean go down from here? You suspect Yun Xiaobao?” Master is such a person. Even if I don’t have time to explain anything, he probably guessed something. A sad expression appeared on his face. After all, the master and the Yun family have some friendship since the beginning.

And we have never wronged the Yun family… Even the year we sold the spirit jade, Master specially asked them to do good deeds in exchange for the spirit jade. From one perspective, it was also helping them to offset some of their karma!

It is said that for cultivators, spirit jade is not precious, but does it not take real time to cultivate?

I naturally understand my master’s sadness, but at this time, how can I comfort my master? I climbed out of the window, grabbed a decorative object on the side of the house, and used the force to jump to the balcony that extended downstairs…

With a ‘plop’, I landed on the ground. I was thankful that my physical training since childhood had always kept my coordination good. This jump was a piece of cake. My only worry was that I would end up jumping right outside Yun Baogen’s room.

As it turned out, I wasn’t that unlucky… When I stood up, Master had just jumped down, and we continued to climb down without saying a word… Some things, some tacit understandings, don’t need to be stated, and they will only turn into deep mutual trust.

We successfully reached the second floor, and in order to save time, we jumped directly from the second floor to the garden below… a few loud noises were made, which made me and my master not dare to move.

Fortunately, there were really no people walking in the backyard in the afternoon, and after a few seconds, there was no movement in the backyard.

My master and I stood up at the same time, patted the dust off our bodies, and then walked toward the front of the house, seemingly not in a hurry, but actually in a hurry.

“Chengyi, calm down,” the master said to me.

At almost the same time, I also said to my master, “Master, act calm.”

After saying this, in such a hurry, both Master and I couldn’t help but laugh a little, because this shows that the tacit understanding between Master and I has almost reached a level that is difficult for ordinary people to understand. We hardly had time to discuss it, especially since Master didn’t even have time to adjust to the possibility that Yun Xiaobao might have betrayed us, but at the same time, he thought of what to do?

Yes, we had to pretend to be completely unaffected as we got the car… The house was big, but with such a fast pace, it only took my master and I two minutes to walk from the back of the house to the front of the house via the shortest route.

Yun Xiaobao told us to wait for 10 minutes, and now there are only four minutes left.

The bodyguard standing outside the front door of the house saw us early and came over with a respectful attitude… Good professional quality allowed him not to ask how we got here, and in fact, there was no need to ask. When I jumped down just now, I noticed that this large house could be entered from the front and back.

As I watched the bodyguard walk away, a natural smile with a hint of restraint appeared on my face. This should be the expression of a person who holds himself in high esteem. I am grateful to the old master for giving me a vivid lesson at that time. People like us who wander in danger often really have to learn how to ‘act’.

In contrast, my master’s acting skills were not bad either. He looked calm, and his eyes did not deliberately focus on anything. At first glance, he looked inscrutable. It seems that he, too, has learned a calm acting skill after being in danger for so many years.

In short, I believe that our performance is such that the bodyguard will definitely not be able to tell that the two of us have escaped in a panic.

The only two things I’m worried about now are: first, does Yun Xiaobao’s big house have surveillance cameras in every room? I’m just betting that in such a private place, he wouldn’t be so insecure as to install surveillance cameras in every room. He also has to receive guests, and the guests he receives are all people of status, so they must also be guarding against this… So the possibility of installing surveillance cameras is fifty-fifty.

Anyway, unless this bodyguard is also an actor, pretending to be calm as he approaches us, then I’ll win the bet, and he won’t have installed any surveillance cameras… Because the bodyguard also has a pair of headphones hanging from his ear, it seems that he can receive any information at any time.

The second thing I was worried about was that Yun Xiaobao’s so-called car was just a way to deal with me and the master. When he was going downstairs, he told us that it was not at all believable to go to the door to get a car…

This worry is definitely not superfluous. I can only bet that Yun Xiaobao is acting the whole thing, afraid that I and my master will see anything, that he is really prepared for everything…

The footsteps of the bodyguard resounded in my ears, and my smile became more gentle, but with a hint of unreachable pride and arrogance. The master was even more calm, but a faint impatience came out on his face, as if there was something urgent and he no longer wanted to stay here.

“Sir, may I ask you…” the bodyguard said, and his respectful expression was not fake. I saw in the corner of my eye that the gates of the manor had already opened, and at least two black business cars were parked at the gate, patiently waiting for the servants at the gate to open the last fence to stop the cars.

Yun Baogen had indeed informed someone else, but I couldn’t figure out what was going on from beginning to end. My uneasiness had now all turned into a sense of danger, but compared to the time I met Yang Sheng, this sense of danger was much weaker.

It was this faint feeling that allowed me to maintain such a good state. The more calm I became, the more I realized that, from the moment the bodyguard opened his mouth, I knew that, first of all, my master and I had completely won the bet, and that we were still the honored guests of Yun Xiaobao, and there were no cameras or monitors in the room.

“Master Yun has prepared a car for us. Now we have something urgent to do and need a car… I’m in a hurry.” My tone was a little indifferent, just the right amount of urgency, but my peripheral vision was always on the two business cars outside, and the gate’s fence was slowly opening at this moment.

The sense of danger became more intense… The bodyguard said, “Okay, sir, I’ll go get the car for you now.”

“No, just take us there.” I lightly rejected him, looking unapproachable.

In fact, only God knows that I was very anxious not to expose myself and my master here again…