I formed the strongest swordsman group

Edo, somewhere——

Under the guidance of the "Samurai with angled eyes", Kanno stepped on the dusty stairs and walked into the dark underground step by step.

At the bottom of the stairs is a cellar full of history.

The cellar, which was supposed to be used as a warehouse and piled up a lot of things, is now empty, except for the dust on the ground, there are only some corpses of bugs.

Such a cellar, as dead as a cemetery, miraculously has the breath of life.

Whirring whirring……

Although it was very subtle, a faint sound of breathing could indeed be heard coming from the depths of the cellar.

Follow the sound of breathing... You can see two girls with their feet flat, their hands twisted behind their backs, and their buttocks sitting on the ground. They are tightly tied to a pillar at the corner of the cellar by hemp rope. superior.

These two girls are Sanako and Natsume Tsuki who are being anxiously sought by Qingdeng and the others.

The girls, shoulder to shoulder, were still unconscious with their heads drooping, with cloth strips tied around their mouths to prevent them from screaming when they woke up.

"...You guys really got into big trouble."

Facing Sanako who has not yet regained consciousness, Kanno said quietly, his tone was neither sad nor happy, making it difficult for outsiders to judge his current mood from his tone.

"I'm very sorry..." The "samurai with angled eyes" standing beside him lowered his head in shame, "According to the information collected, Natsume Tsuki always likes to go to that teahouse to eat wagashi alone."

"However, by coincidence, just today, Natsume Yue brought someone here... and the person she brought happened to be 'Chiba's Oni Komachi'."

"Because I've heard that Chiba Sakakichi of the Little Chiba Sword Gym has been kind to you, Mr. Kanno, so we don't know what to do with this Chiba Sanako."

"So, we can only tie her here first."

"...Forget it." Kanno sighed heavily, "It's not your fault. No one could have expected such an accident to happen."

After finishing speaking, Kano paused for a moment, and then softly repeated the name of the person mentioned by "Samurai with angled eyes".

"Chiba Dingkichi..."

A flash of reminiscence flashed in Kano's eyes.

"Oh, what a memorable name."

"Samurai with angled eyes" glanced at the reminiscing Kanno, hesitated for a while, and then asked:

"Mr. Kanno, does Chiba Sadakichi really have a lot of kindness for you?"

Kanno glanced at the "Samurai with angled eyes" as if paying homage, then nodded without knowing whether to say:

"Chiba Dingkichi from the Little Chiba Sword Gym has really been kind to me."

"The first swordsmanship I practiced was not Jingxin Mingzhiliu, but Beichen One Sword Style. Because I felt that Beichen One Sword Style was not suitable for me, I changed to Jingxin Zhiliu halfway through."

"The first sword gym I entered in my life was the Little Chiba Sword Hall."

"If you think about it carefully, this happened more than ten years ago... At that time, my name hadn't been changed to the current 'Kano Tatsugoro'."

"Mr. Chiba Singkichi is a veritable famous teacher who can preach and teach people. He gave me a lot of help and guidance when I first entered the kendo at that time."

"If it weren't for Mr. Chiba Singkichi who gave me the pointers...my swordsmanship definitely wouldn't be where it is today."

"...Then Mr. Kanno, how should we deal with Chiba Sadakichi's daughter?"

After quietly listening to Kanno's brief description of his past with Chiba Sadakichi, the "Samurai with Slack Eyes" turned his eyes back to Sanako who was still sleeping with a complicated expression.

Shenye's brows slowly frowned... Judging from his expression, it is not difficult to see that he is also having a headache now about how to deal with his mentor's daughter.

No need for anyone to remind him, Shen Ye also knew: Sanako Chiba was missing, and the Chiba family with such a wide and terrifying network would definitely not let it go.

Tomorrow morning... No, maybe tonight there will be a large group of people looking for the missing Chiba Sanako.

This will undoubtedly bring great trouble to their barbarians.

But Chiba Sanako couldn't just let it go.

They still can't let the outside world know that Natsume Sohachiro's daughter is missing.

As for killing Chiba Sanako, it is even more impossible.

Kanno has always regarded himself as a "real samurai".

Because he considers himself a "true samurai", he has always strictly demanded himself with bushido, and never did anything that would damage the image of a samurai, such as yawning in public.

Because he considers himself a "true warrior", in order to protect the country from the barbarians and expel all the barbarians from the country, he will not hesitate to throw his head and blood.

Being disrespectful to the sons and daughters of your mentor... This is not what a samurai does.

After contemplating for a moment with a troubled expression on his face, Kano sighed heavily.

"...Let's tie Chiba Sanako and Natsume Tsuki here for now."

"Right now, it is the critical moment when the 'big operation' that our anti-barbarian team has been preparing for a long time is about to start...I don't want to waste my precious energy and time on other places now."

"After finishing all the major and important matters, then slowly think about how to deal with Chiba Sanako."

"Yes!" "Samurai with Angled Eyes" echoed loudly.

"Yaguchi, I'll leave it to you to keep an eye on Chiba Sanako and Natsume Tsuki."

"Strictly watch over the others, don't let them do anything wrong with Chiba Sanako and Natsume Tsuki."

"Our barbarian group is not a gang."

"We have been fighting until now to expel the barbarians and protect this country!"

Having said that, Kanno half-closed his eyes, raised his head slightly, and showed an intoxicated expression like a devout believer.

"We must not do anything that has nothing to do with 'expelling barbarians'."

"So, Yaguchi, if someone dares to violate this prohibition of mine and do something to Chiba Sanako and Natsume Tsuki... there is no need to report to me, just cut off his head."

"Yes." "Samurai with Angled Eyes" nodded solemnly and forcefully.

"Also, Yaguchi, let your wife come over and take care of Chiba Sanako and Natsume Tsuki's food and drink. I don't want some people to do something that violates our discipline of the barbarian group."

"yes."

After emphasizing certain matters with the "Samurai with the Angled Eye" again, Kanno turned around, and strode out of the cellar together with the "Samurai with the Angled Eye".

As soon as he returned to the ground with fresh air, Kanno saw a short, dark-skinned samurai rushing towards him with the wind on his feet.

"Mr. Kanno, something happened to Funahachi and the others."

"Funba?" Shenye's eyes suddenly became sharp.

The dark dwarf nodded solemnly, and then briefly outlined what happened at the reservation today.

After hearing what happened, Kanno's face became extremely ugly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's Juqingdeng again...!"

Shen Ye gritted his teeth, his eyes seemed to burst into flames at any moment.

"This national thief, why does he always spoil our affairs!"

Kanno resentfully punched the wall next to him hard, and the hit wall made a whining sound as if it was about to break.

"How about the loss?"

"7 people died on the spot, 2 people were seriously injured, and 3 people were missing from the horse farm that was in charge of breaking it down for everyone... Although the 2 people who were seriously injured were successfully carried back, their injuries were so serious that they probably couldn't survive..."

Racecourse—the surname of the "bearded middle-aged man" captured by Qingdeng today.

Missing... This is not a good word, which means that the horse farm and the others are most likely already reduced to Qingdeng's prisoners.

"Mr. Kanno, and—" the dark dwarf continued to report, "I have received definite news: Hanada Shichiro was also arrested by Ju Qingdeng..."

"..." Kano didn't express any thoughts.

He just punched the wall next to him hard.

After a moment of silence, full of murderous intent, Kanno took a deep breath.

"...Forget it. It's just a little accident that doesn't hurt anything."

"Neither Hanada Shichiro nor Bachang and the others have any important core information."

"The topographic map of the settlement and the list of residents are basically taken from Hanada Shichiro."

"Has Chuanba's base moved?"

"All the important things have been moved or destroyed." The dark dwarf replied, "After escaping from Juqingdeng's knife, Chuanba and the others immediately transferred their supplies."

"...I will report to you later: let everyone stay safe and calm. This small accident will not hurt the general body and will not affect our next actions."

"Let everyone act step by step according to the original plan."

"Also—let everyone meet the national thief Ju Qingdeng in the street corners or other places in the future, don't engage the enemy casually!"

"If Chuanba and the others avoided a direct confrontation with Ju Qingdeng today, they wouldn't need to die so many people!"

"Although I don't want to admit it, that national traitor is really not a fuel-efficient lamp!"

Kano's tone became cold.

"I don't want today's tragedy to happen again in the future!"

"Ju Qingdeng's national thief, we will kill him sooner or later...but not now!"

"Things have to be done one by one."

"When you free up time and energy in the future, killing Ju Qingdeng will not be easy."

"He can hit 18 by himself, but can he still hit 50 and 60 by himself?"

"Don't lose your time and precious manpower in vain because of a momentary conflict of emotions."

"I hope that everyone will learn from Chuanba and the others' experience today as a warning. If there is another similar conflict of spirits, I will definitely punish them severely!"

The dark dwarf who silently memorized all of Kanno's orders shouted to his toes: "Understood!"

I've said everything I wanted to say...Kano originally wanted to leave just like that.

But he suddenly remembered something important.

"By the way." Kanno turned his gaze back to the dark dwarf, "Have you contacted Natsume Sohachiro yet?"

"We got in touch this afternoon." The black dwarf said this, paused, and then showed a smug smile to Kanno, "Natsume Sohachiro has agreed to help us with all his strength."

"……Ah, very good."

Kanno, who had been gloomy because he had been hearing all kinds of bad news, now had a smile on his lips.

...

...

--Well……

Consciousness is cloudy...

- um...

confused mind...

--dizzy……

Whether it is memory or thoughts, everything in the mind is fragmented, making it impossible to grasp its specific shape.

In this chaos, Sanako felt that she had gradually regained control over her body.

The beautiful long and slightly upturned eyelashes trembled slightly... She raised her eyelids with all her might.

After opening his eyes, Sanako was surprised to find that what he saw in front of him was the same as when he closed his eyes... Thick darkness flooded into his eyes.

The dense darkness like ink poured into Sanako's eyes and nose.

——Where am I?

Sanako, whose consciousness was still somewhat confused, subconsciously twisted her arms while asking herself this question.

Then, she found that her hands were tightly tied behind her, and the only thing that could move her two white hands were only 10 fingers.

The strangeness of his hands made Sanazi feel as if a basin of ice had been poured on the back of his neck... The tangled balls of wool in his mind were quickly combed one by one to form a clear straight line.

The memory before coma revived in Sanako's mind bit by bit.

At the same time, Sanako's eyes adjusted to the darkness.

She hastily raised her head and looked around, and confirmed that she was locked in a cellar-like place... Natsume Tsuki was tied beside her, still sleeping soundly.

"Hmm...! Mmm...!" Sanazi, whose mouth was tied, could only utter some meaningless onomatopoeia. She twisted her delicate body, and pushed Natsume Yue beside her with her shoulders.

Under Sanako's pushing and shoving, a subtle whisper floated out from Natsume Tsuki's lips.

Immediately afterwards, the little girl finally woke up and slowly opened her eyes.

"?!" Xia Muyue, who woke up, was stunned at first, and then the "stunned" expression on her face changed to "frightened" at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Mmmmmmm...!" Natsume Tsuki, whose mouth was tied up with a cloth strip and who was also speechless, yelled "Mmmmmm" to Sanako.

Although they couldn't speak now, Sanako could see what the child wanted to say from Natsume Tsuki's terrified eyes.

Miss Sanako, where are we - Natsume Tsuki asked Sanako with her eyes.

Calm down—Sanako responded to Natsume Tsuki with a calm gaze.

Affected by Sanako's composure, the frightened look on Natsume Tsuki's face dissipated a bit...but her body was still trembling slightly.

In fact, Sanako is also very scared now.

Just one look at their current situation and review their memories before they were comatose can tell: they are kidnapped by someone now.

Being kidnapped... It was also the first time for Sanako to encounter such a terrible thing.

The strong fear made her heart beat so fast and hard now, as if it would jump out of her throat at any moment.

Who kidnapped us?

What is the purpose of kidnapping us?

for money?

Or...for something else...?

All kinds of bad conjectures flashed uncontrollably in Zuo Nazi's mind one by one... These terrible conjectures further aggravated the current heartbeat of Sana Zi.

The reason why Sanako can still maintain a calm expression now... all depends on her strong willpower.

Now she is completely relying on her own strong will to forcibly stifle the worries and timidity in her heart.

After signaling Natsume Tsuki to calm down with her eyes and to be calm, Sanako took a few deep breaths to adjust her thoughts and mood, then raised her head again and scanned the surroundings, trying to deduce that they are now imprisoned by observing the environment location.

However, after a while, Sanako was disappointed.

Looking around, he could only see dust and the corpses of various small bugs. Apart from being sure that they were locked in a cellar, there was no other gain.

Sanako twisted her body and hands vigorously, trying to break free from the hemp rope on her body.

Seeing Sanako's actions and seeing what Sanako was trying to do, Natsume Tsuki quickly followed and twisted her body vigorously, trying to break free of the hemp rope with Sanako.

Then the face of the second daughter gradually showed disappointment.

The hemp ropes that bound her and Natsume's hands, as well as the two of them and the wooden post behind them, were tied quite firmly.

Relying on their female strength alone, it is really impossible to unfold the hemp rope tied to them.

Natsume Tsuki drooped her head dejectedly, perhaps because she was too frightened... A layer of water vapor gradually appeared in her eyes.

She sucked Yao's nose hard... She didn't want to cry so embarrassingly.

But the more she tried to hold back the tears, the thicker the moisture in her eyes became.

In the end—the water vaporized into bean-sized teardrops, rolling out from her eye sockets.

"Father...Father..." The girl, who was no longer cheerful in the past, repeated her name for the person who gave her the most sense of security in the world in a voice that became particularly vague due to crying.

When Natsume Tsuki was weeping silently, Sanako beside her... half-closed her beautiful eyes expressionlessly.

--What's this……?

Thinking of this, Sanako straightened her right middle finger.

Just now, when she twisted her hands and tried to open the hemp rope that bound her hands, her right middle finger accidentally touched a cold foreign object.

After stretching the middle finger of his right hand towards the direction where he just touched the foreign object, the cold touch reached Sanako's fingertips again.

It was a loose iron nail in a wooden post.

"..." Zuo Nazi took a deep breath, then stretched out his right thumb, clamped the loose iron nail with his thumb and middle finger, and twisted it bit by bit.

Sanako's slender fingers are very dexterous.

Sanako, who received the strictest "Yamato Nadeshiko" education since she was a child, can hold a sword and a naginata with her fingers, and can also perform fine work such as tailoring and embroidery.

Under Sanako's prolonged and powerful twisting, the iron nail was finally pulled out from the wooden post.

Senako took another deep breath, feeling the cold touch from the iron nail she was pinching on her fingertips.

She is still terrified.

Suddenly being kidnapped, suddenly locked up in a place where the exact location is unknown, who the kidnappers are, and why they were kidnapped...

She was afraid of these restless thoughts.

She is afraid of the uncertain future now.

Although she was afraid...but now she was even more afraid that she would just give up thinking and sit and wait to die!

Even if you are going to die, you have to do your best to survive and then die... Thinking of this, Sanako, her beautiful eyes flashed a sharp light.

She held the iron nail between the thumb and middle finger of her right hand, and rubbed the hemp rope that bound her hands with the sharp point of the nail.

...

...

Those words of Natsume Sohachiro... feel strange no matter how you think about it.

What the hell is such a coincidence!

Sanako just went out with Natsume Tsuki today.

Sanako just disappeared today.

Grandma Natsume Tsuki's letter informing her of her illness was delivered to Edo just today.

Natsume Tsuki just left for Osaka this afternoon to visit her grandmother.

Not to mention Qingdeng who is a "policeman", even Chiba Shigetaro felt weird.

So many coincidences superimposed together, when writing a novel!

However, no matter how Qingdeng and the others questioned him, Natsume Takahachiro insisted that "Natsume Tsuki is not in Edo, she has returned to Osaka".

Although Natsume Sohachiro's words were convincing and convincing... Qingdeng still listed Natsume Sohachiro as "the object of investigation that needs to be focused on".

The connections of the "Number One School in Martial Arts" Chiba Family are really not built.

Chiba Sadakichi directly approached Masanobu Ando, ​​who was then senior middle school.

What kind of official position is Laozhong?

Not counting the non-permanent position of "Tai Lao", Laozhong is the highest official position in the shogunate... the status is second only to the shogun, similar to the "prime minister" in China.

Chiba Dingkichi directly found the "Prime Minister" and asked the "Prime Minister" to help them uphold justice...

What will happen next is not difficult to guess.

Masanobu Ando, ​​the old middleman, issued an order directly, and the southern and northern offices in Edo jumped up immediately.

In order to retrieve Sanako, the two branches dispatched an extremely large search team—3 from Yuli and 6 from Tongxin, and at the same time mobilized all the officials of their own branch in Edo.

Qingdeng was also included in this "search team".

In Edo, where the administrative office has been short of manpower for a long time, there is no such rule that "relatives and acquaintances related to the case cannot participate in the investigation".

Although the enforcement office has mobilized all the manpower they can to find the missing Sanako, the search progress is still very slow...

In an ancient society where there was no surveillance network or big data at all, and the means of investigation were basically visits and investigations, it was difficult to find a missing person in a big city with a population of one million... just thinking about it Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle.

What's more, the southern and northern administrative offices in Edo do not yet have a strong grassroots control.

The administrative office's management of the grassroots relies heavily on the help of "town self-government organizations".

In a word - the management of Edo's grassroots by the Executive Office is almost a mess. It is not even clear how many people and how many strong laborers there are in Edo.

Such a low grassroots control ability... directly increased the difficulty of the already extremely difficult task of finding people by several levels.

After learning that he was also transferred to look for Sanako, Qing Deng immediately applied to investigate Natsume Shohachiro, who he found extremely suspicious.

Natsume Sohachiro's weird words and deeds and his own intuition are frantically telling Qingdeng: There is definitely something wrong with Natsume Sohachiro, and he is very likely to be the key breakthrough to find Sanako.

The process of Qingdeng requesting permission from his superiors to investigate Natsume Sohachiro...was quite tortuous.

Because most of the superiors don't think Natsume Sohachiro is a target worthy of more attention.

They felt that instead of investigating Natsume Sohachiro, it was the right solution to concentrate their efforts on visiting and investigating every area that Sanako might have passed through on the day Sanako disappeared.

It is not difficult to understand why the superiors have such an idea.

Because for them, "merit" is secondary! "Don't make mistakes" is the most important thing!

No one knows whether "concentrating manpower to visit and investigate" will work. Those superiors in Qingdeng don't care whether this will work or not!

They only care about whether their own interests will be damaged.

It’s good to pretend that we are serious about investigating the case. In this way, although there will be no great merits, there will be no major mistakes. In short, it’s good to be able to give an explanation to the higher-ups—this is Qingdeng The common thinking of those superiors.

This kind of bureaucracy of this group of people... made Qingdeng feel sick with disgust.

His friend was kidnapped, but these government servants still only think of "don't make big mistakes" and "as long as they can do their jobs"...Qingdeng can't think of any words to describe his extremely disgusting mood.

Relying on the prestige and achievements he has accumulated so far, Qingdeng tried his best to persuade Susui and other superiors.

"Since you want to investigate that Natsume Sohachiro so much, then you can go by yourself"... The superiors who said so, sent Qingdeng to investigate Natsume Sohachiro, but without any helpers, Qingdeng could only rely on He followed himself and Saito's man under his command to investigate Natsume Sohachiro.

Regarding the arrangement of the superiors, Qingdeng sneered, and thought to himself: That's fine! No one who is senior or equal to me will participate in the investigation of Natsume Sohachiro, and I will be less restrained and shackled!

"Mr. Shigetaro, don't worry. I will definitely do everything I can to get Miss Sanako back." ——Before the official investigation started, Qing Deng used a firm tone to comfort Sanako because he was worried An Wei, Chiba Shigetaro seemed to have lost weight.

Although the relationship between Qingdeng and Sanako is not very close, and he hasn't even talked to her much, but she is Chiba Shigetaro's younger sister and Chiba Eijiro's cousin after all.

Chiba Shigetaro is Qingdeng's very good friend. Chiba Eijiro just gave him some advice on martial arts selflessly a while ago... These alone are enough to make Qingdeng go all out to find the missing Sanako.

Regarding how to investigate Natsume Sohachiro, Qingdeng had a rough plan.

He is now highly suspicious: Natsume Tsuki and Chiba Sanako were kidnapped by someone for some reason.

The kidnappers asked Natsume Sohachiro to conceal the fact that Natsume Tsuki was kidnapped, otherwise they would tear up the ticket, so Natsume Sohachiro would talk nonsense about "Natsume Tsuki went back to Osaka to see grandma".

Qingdeng went to Natsume Sohachiro alone in private, and whispered to Natsume Sohachiro in a cryptic tone: If Miss Natsume Tsuki is also kidnapped, please give me some information, and I will definitely send your daughter and Miss Sanako together. They were all found.

However, Natsume Takahachiro still didn't get into it...still kept saying "Natsume Tsuki is fine, she just went back to Osaka to see grandma".

Since Natsume Takahachiro is unwilling to disclose more than a half sentence of useful information no matter what... then Qingdeng can only start the investigation in another way.

Qingdeng found out 3 places where Natsume Sohachiro frequented, including Natsume's house, and then prepared to lead Saito and others to disguise themselves, and then squatted at these 3 places where Natsume Sohachiro frequented. Is there any suspicious person around Hachiro?

This is the last and most useful method that Qingdeng can think of in this era when investigation methods are extremely limited; at a time when clues are extremely scarce.

Naturally, Natsume Sohachiro's guard must be around the clock.

However... this brings up a new serious problem: Qingdeng's manpower is not enough.

Counting Qingdeng himself...Qingdeng, Saito, Yongcang, Harada, Fujido—Qingdeng's small team has only 5 people in total.

In order to avoid unexpected situations such as "mentally tired" and "want to go to the bathroom", at least two people are needed to guard someone and a certain place.

Natsume Sohachiro often haunts three locations. That is to say, if the "Qingdeng Squad" with a total manpower of only 5 people wants to guard these 3 locations, it will be short of 1 person...

Fortunately, Qingdeng quickly found someone who was willing to help.

And this person also happens to be very good at reconnaissance and concealment...

...

...

"Is that Natsume's house..." Looking at the luxurious mansion not far ahead, Kinoshita Mai murmured.

"En." Qingdeng nodded slightly to Kinoshita Mai standing beside him, "I'm sorry, Ms. Kinoshita, I actually asked you to help me investigate the case."

Qingdeng and Kinoshita Mai are currently lurking in a dark alley where they can observe the entire gate of Natsume's house.

"Mr. Ju, you don't have to be so polite to me." Kinoshita Mai smiled shyly, "I'm really embarrassed by your appearance."

The helper Qingdeng found who was willing to help was Kinoshita Wu.

Who else is more qualified for the task of "surveillance" than the famous cat monk who is extremely good at stealth, concealment and reconnaissance?

Kinoshita Mai is indeed a girl with a strong sense of justice who has been active as a "Phantom Thief and Cat Monk" with the goal of "doing her best to help the weak".

After Qingdeng found her and asked her to help find the missing Sanazi, she responded loudly without thinking: "Please let me help!"

When agreeing to Qingdeng's request, Kinoshita Wu showed an expression filled with righteous indignation...Qingdeng asked afterwards why he showed such a look, and Kinoshita Wu replied:

"What I hate the most is the human traffickers who kidnap people! Many happy families have been broken because of these scumbags!"

Kinoshita Wu's dislike for human traffickers...Qingdeng also understands very well - he himself also hates those human traffickers who have caused countless families to collapse.

Kinoshita Wu readily agreed to his request, which was actually within Qingdeng's expectation.

Because he guessed that Mai Kinoshita, who has a strong sense of justice, would never turn a blind eye to things like "someone was kidnapped".

Kinoshita Mai couldn't care less about the work of Qianshiwu when human life was at stake. In her eyes, finding the kidnapped and missing persons was far more important than the work of Qianshiwu.

Therefore, after responding to Qingdeng's request, she directly asked Boss Kiryu for a long vacation with an indefinite time limit.

Kinoshita Mai was still very worried that Kiryu's boss would not allow her leave... But she didn't expect Kiryu's boss to approve the leave this time. He didn't ask Kinoshita Mai why he suddenly asked for a long leave, and just nodded in approval.

With Kinoshita Mai's help, Qingdeng, who had more manpower under his command, immediately made the following deployment:

He and Kinoshita Mai squatted at Natsume's house.

Saito, Yongcura and the others are responsible for guarding the other two places where Natsume Shohachiro often haunts in groups of four.

Kinoshita Mai and Saito are not very familiar with each other. If Kinoshita Mai and Saito are paired up... only when she wears a face mask will she become outgoing and bold. This girl who is always afraid of being born badly , I'm afraid they won't even be able to communicate normally with Saito and the others.

Therefore, the only person who can partner with Kinoshita Mai is Qingdeng.

Qingdeng and the others watched Natsume Sohachiro almost continuously around the clock.

The sun in early summer rises in the east and sets in the west.

Silently overlooking Qingdeng and the others who were busy watching.

Silently overlooking the busy people in the town.

Silently overlooking... Edo, which is undercurrents that no one, including Qingdeng, has noticed yet.

...

...

In the first year of Wanyan (1860), May 20——

Edo, the settlement for foreigners——

"Miss Leroy, the hem of this skirt seems a little too long."

"Well...it seems to be a little bit, so let's change it."

After that, Leroy turned and went back to the closet, and took out a quite new and delicate white tutu skirt from the closet.

With the help of Leroy, Elodie, who changed into this new tutu skirt, walked to a large full-length mirror with happy steps, blinked her eyes, and looked at the neatly packed clothes in the mirror. Behind her, she smiled joyfully, and then happily spun around a few times, admiring the skirt gently fluttering under her rotation.

Boom, boom, boom, boom...

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside the room.

"Elodie, have you changed yet?"

"Yeah! Just changed it just now, grandpa, come in!"

Anthony, who got Elodie's permission to enter the door, twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open.

"Oh! Elodie, this dress suits you very well!"

Elodie, who heard Anthony's praise, turned around a few times happily.

Seeing Elodie's cheerful appearance, Anthony couldn't help relaxing his cheeks, and the corners of his mouth also relaxed.

Today is the 60th birthday of the old man of the Edo settlement: Mr. Bright.

In order to celebrate this rare and festive festival, old Mr. Bright, who likes to dance, will hold a grand ball in his mansion tonight.

He is very popular, and invited most of the residents of the settlement to come to the banquet, and these invitees basically agreed to the invitation—the Angoulême family was among them.

At this moment, Elodie is trying on the dress that will be worn at the dance tonight.

It is rare to have such a lively large-scale outdoor activity to participate in... This makes Elorti, who can only be bored at home for a long time because there are no peers who can play with her in the residence, very happy.

Although she doesn't know how to dance, for a child of her age, no one will dance with her at the ball tonight... But what does it matter?

For a child who can only be bored at home every day, just being able to feel the noisy atmosphere of these lively activities is enough to make her happy.

Elodie had been looking forward to tonight's dance several days ago.

Although there are still a few hours before the ball, but judging from Elodie's expression now... the child's mood is no longer here, and he has already flown to the ball in Brett's mansion.

Looking at Elodie's happy smile now, Anthony's ever-slack mouth finally outlined a soft smile.

——It is rare to have this kind of entertainment to participate in... Tonight I will have a good time with Elodie.

The old man, who was willing to give his all for his precious granddaughter who had suffered a lot since childhood, said so firmly in his heart.

...

...

at the same time--

Edo, somewhere at the junction between the settlement and the outside world——

A middle-aged man pointed to a donkey cart parked not far behind him, and spoke to two residence guards, both blond and blue-eyed, with flintlock guns, in slightly broken English. Loudly said:

"This is the drink that Mr. Bright bought from Mr. Natsume Sohachiro. These drinks are Mr. Bright's favorite sake, and they are all prepared to be drunk at the dance tonight!"

The donkey cart that the middle-aged man pointed to was dragging a small carriage.

There are a lot of wooden boxes piled up in the carriage, and the wooden boxes are filled with expensive sake.

Brett, who loves Japanese sake very much, would drink seven or eight bottles of sake every day before giving up.

Tonight there will be a ball in the name of "Celebrating his 60th birthday"... Such a grand event, how could his favorite sake be missing?

So, as early as 2 months ago, Bright ordered a batch of high-end sake with his old partner in the wine business: Natsume Sohachiro.

At this moment, the two guards who were busy negotiating with the middle-aged man on the routine "goods release" didn't notice at this time——the person responsible for driving this car was full of the goods that Bright had ordered from Natsume Sohachiro. The driver of the high-end sake... now has a quirky, intriguing smile.

...

...

Edo, in a dark alley outside Natsume's house——

"Whoa..."

Qingdeng heard Kinoshita Mai yawn cutely beside him.

"Miss Kinoshita, do you want to take a break?"

Glancing at Mai Kinoshita who was wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingers, Qing Deng raised his head and looked at the sky above his head.

As early as half an hour ago, the sky was covered with a thick layer of darkness.

The current time... is about 8 o'clock in the evening.

This time is changed to the modern day of the 21st century, but it is a time period before even the nightlife has started.

But in this day and age, that's a time when the roads are largely left with dingoes.

Tomorrow, during the daytime, the weather is pretty good. The sky was blue and cloudless.

But after nightfall, somehow, the weather suddenly turned bad.

The night was cloudy, as dark as thick ink, with only a little light shining through the cracks in some of the dark clouds.

The dense dark clouds condensed between the sky and the earth made the light extremely dim tonight, and the visibility was very poor.

Take this dark alley where Qingdeng and Kinoxia Wu are currently hiding as an example. The surroundings in the alley are full of twilight and completely dark. In the thick darkness that can't be seen to the bottom, it seems that a monster will pounce out of it at any time.

"I'm not very tired yet, so I don't need to rest."

Kinoshita Mai quickly wiped away the tears secreted from the corners of her eyes due to the yawn just now, raised her head, and smiled "I'm fine, don't worry" to Qingdeng.

"...You should take a break for now." Qing Deng was silent for a while, then smiled helplessly at Kinoshita Mai, "The secret of 'surveillance' is to know how to take turns to rest."

"Because my current energy is not bad, you should take a rest."

"Lest we both get tired later."

Anyone who has experienced it knows that "surveillance" is a very tiring job.

Staring at someone or a place for a long time... Although it doesn't take much damage to one's physical strength, it will bring a great burden to one's spirit.

Hearing what Qingdeng said, Kinoshita Wu was stunned for a moment, and after blinking her eyes a few times with hesitation, she tapped her head lightly:

"That's what you said...then I'll take a break now. Tachibana-kun, I'll leave the monitoring of Natsume's house to you for the time being."

After finishing speaking, Kinoshita Mai leaned back against the alley wall behind her, closed her eyes and meditated.

Today is May 20th. If it is converted into the modern Gregorian calendar, it is already June.

The weather this year has been quite abnormal. As early as the beginning of May, the temperature was already so high that even wearing only a single coat did not feel uncomfortable at all.

Using Japanese proper nouns to introduce... tonight is a veritable "tropical night".

There is also a high temperature of at least 26 degrees, making the air hot and sticky.

The sweltering weather caused Qingdeng to shed fine beads of sweat...and became irritable uncontrollably.

I don't know why... Since this morning, a strange feeling of unease has been lingering in Qingdeng's heart.

***********

***********

1.1W words exploded today!

Engaging in pornography is indeed the first productive force. In order to make Qingdeng pretend to be aggressive in front of Zuo Nazi as soon as possible, the author went crazy yesterday and successfully produced 1.1W characters

Today's chapter update is used to make up for the owed update to Baiyinmeng [Handsome Is My Handsome]. I still owe this book friend 10 update chapters.

The author still owes 12 chapters.

Today's chapter is so heartbreaking, with a lot of words, but also a lot of content, and the plot is unfolding like a storm. If you don't vote for the monthly ticket like this, it's really unreasonable (Leopard Head Crying.jpg)

The author continues to work hard today! Strive for a 1W+ tomorrow! The author wants to make Qingdeng pretend to be aggressive in front of Zuo Nazi more quickly than you.

Today I beg for a wave of monthly tickets, it’s not too much

Ask for a monthly pass! Ask for a recommendation ticket!

The author has opened a book friend group in Penguin!

Group number: 1162513690. You only need to answer a question that you will definitely know the answer as long as you read the book seriously, and you can join the book friend group.

The author Jun Suiyuan haunts the group~