Hidden Shadow – CH 066

Chapter Sixty-Six: Suspicion

An Jiu silently ladled out a bowl of noodles. There were no chairs in the room, so she sat cross-legged on the floor.

In the past, when on missions, it was common to be stationed at one location for half a month. Back then, there was no such thing as hot food.

No one else moved; the only sound in the room was the sound of her eating noodles.

Mei Tingyuan stepped forward and raised her hand to knock An Jiu’s bowl away, but An Jiu easily dodged.

“You are still eating!” Tears streamed down Mei Tingyuan’s face.

Seeing that she was about to make things difficult for An Jiu, Mei Tingzhu pulled her back. “Ah Yuan.”

Mei Tingyuan squatted on the ground and wailed.

The Konghe Army soldiers next door heard the crying and stopped what they were doing.

How long had it been since they’d heard such grief?

When they were not on missions, they would laugh and joke together; when they were lonely, they could find someone to keep them company. Everything seemed normal, but something always felt missing. She had initially thought it was the lack of sunlight, but it turned out that the more lives she took, the colder and harder her heart became. Without emotion, the world was like a colorless void, utterly tasteless.

“Girl, you must not cry,” the old woman said, helping Mei Tingyuan to her feet. “It’s the rule.” The neighbors here were all ordinary people; any disturbance would arouse suspicion, so loud noises were strictly forbidden in the camp.

“What ridiculous rule…” Mei Tingzhu quickly covered her mouth, taking a handkerchief stained with a sleeping potion from her pocket and pressing it against her lips.

A moment later, Mei Tingyuan’s body went limp.

There was no bed in the room, only a table and a few stools, with a small stove in the center.

Everyone squatted against the wall, fully clothed.

The snow had fallen heavily all night. Around dawn, a group of people from next door went out.

Mei Tingzhu guessed they were going to collect the bodies. Others had severed limbs, but what about her brother? The memory of that bloody, splattered scene filled her with a sharp, agonizing pain that made it hard to breathe. Mei Tingzhu buried her head in Mei Tingyuan’s neck, tears streaming silently down her face.

An Jiu leaned against the window, peering through the cracks at the silvery-gray light reflecting off the snow.

The ferocity of this battle was no less than the most brutal war she had ever experienced. She had never imagined that such destructive power could be inflicted in a place where firearms were not yet so advanced.

It seemed she needed to re-evaluate this world…

A while later, another old woman brought breakfast, the same noodles as the night before, and even the quantity was unchanged.

At first, only An Jiu ate. Later, several hungry people, seeing her enjoying it, could not resist taking a bowl themselves. But for them, accustomed to fine food, the noodles were difficult to swallow.

Just as everyone was struggling to swallow, the door was pushed open, and several neatly dressed members of the Konghe Army entered.

The person walking at the front was tall and slender with beautiful eyes; Mei Tingchun felt he looked familiar.

Mei Tingzhu looked up, paused, and said softly, “Deputy Envoy.”

Gu Jinghong raised an eyebrow slightly. “The fact that four survived is both expected and unexpected.”

He anticipated that with the Mei family’s reputation and strength, at least three or four would survive this trial. However, he had not expected the trial site to be attacked or that four members of the Mei family would survive. He certainly had not expected that the only one to die would be Mei Tingjun.

The group fell silent.

Gu Jinghong said, “Come back with me.”

“Where to?” Mei Tingchun asked cautiously.

“I will take you home,” Gu Jinghong said.

All the surviving trial participants in the room breathed a sigh of relief.

In the silence, the sound of An Jiu eating noodles was particularly clear. Everyone in the room turned to look.

Gu Jinghong looked at An Jiu, who was eating as if no one else was around, and felt a strange tightness in his chest. He was surrounded by people like this; when focused on something, they would completely ignore the reactions of those around them unless interrupted.

These people were like emotionless weapons.

Gu Jinghong could not understand why a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl could act like those veteran assassins who had been with the Konghe Army for over a decade.

“Fourteenth Young Lady!” Gu Jinghong called out.

An Jiu paused for a moment before realizing he was calling her. She put down her chopsticks, stood up, and quietly awaited orders.

Gu Jinghong scrutinized her from head to toe several times, his suspicions growing. Although her reaction had been slightly slow, the way she naturally entered a state of readiness was unlike someone new to the Konghe Army.

“Leave with me immediately.” Gu Jinghong turned and left.

Mei Tingzhu carried Mei Tingyuan and followed.

An Jiu realized Gu Jinghong was testing her, and considering her mechanical reaction, her feelings became somewhat complicated.

“Let’s go quickly,” Mei Tingchun whispered.

An Jiu hummed in agreement and followed.

They left the camp in the dark, reaching the outskirts before the city gates opened.

On the boundless snowfield, the group moved like eagles.

Gu Jinghong sensed that An Jiu had almost no internal energy, so he deliberately slowed his pace.

Only after boarding the Mei family’s carriage parked in the woods outside the city did he ask, “Are you not saddened by your brother’s death?” The carriage was silent. Only Mei Jiu could address Mei Tingjun as “brother,” so this question was clearly targeted.

“Saddened?” An Jiu murmured, repeating the word.

It could be said that An Jiu felt nothing at Mei Tingjun’s death, but remembering the unbearable grief of Mei Tingyuan and Mei Tingzhu, she recalled the slight emotion she had felt at the time.

“Perhaps,” she said.

It was fortunate that Mei Tingyuan had not woken up; otherwise, she would have definitely attacked her because of her nonchalant answer.

Mei Tingchun, immersed in grief and the joy of surviving a calamity, had no time to ponder An Jiu’s words. Mei Tingzhu, calmer, though still grieving for her brother’s death, knew that her Fourteenth Young Lady had only recently returned home and had little contact with them; it was normal that she felt no connection.

Gu Jinghong seemed to have realized this as well, so he abandoned the question and instead asked, “How was your experience of this kind of battle for the first time?”

“You do not seem like such a boring person,” An Jiu bluntly cut through his probing. “Just say what you have to say.”

Gu Jinghong pondered, “You are too different from the others; it’s hard for me to ignore you. This time, the Divine Martial Army of the Konghe Army suffered heavy losses, and I cannot help but suspect there’s a traitor within the Divine Martial Army or among the trial participants.”

“You underestimate me too much,” An Jiu did not directly refute.

“What do you mean?” Gu Jinghong asked.

An Jiu said, “How could I be an inside agent for those cowards?”

Gu Jinghong thought about it and felt it made a lot of sense. The enemy had archers at the Transcendent Realm, so many ninth-tier experts, and powerful crossbows with explosive capabilities, yet so many members of the Konghe Army and the trial participants had survived. From the enemy’s perspective, this was not a successful ambush, and the mastermind behind it must be furious.

“It must be the Divine Martial Commander’s skillful planning,” Gu Jinghong said.