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Volume 1 | North Bird Does Not Return

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He spoke while opening the blindfold on his face slowly, a pair of eyes shining sharply like a cold shooting star, not a trace of blindness could be found in it.

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Chang Geng calmly replied, “Wait.”

He then closed the wooden door with a blank expression, leaned his back against the door, took a deep breath, tried to calm his nerves, and wrote to Gu Yun, “Yifu, the leader of the rebel forces wants to see you, what should we do?”

Ge Pangxiao was truly shocked, involuntarily holding his breath, and immediately turned his face into an eggplant.

Gu Yun’s reaction was very strange.

After Chang Geng saw him being a little surprised, he then revealed a smile as if he really held the victory in his hands, as if he had reached an understanding with one another.

“It’s like handing over a pillow as soon as you get sleepy,” said the Marquis of Order 一 who worried that the world wouldn’t be chaotic enough. “I have never seen a rebel leader who has lived for years.”

Ge Pangxiao was very easy to be fooled, seeing that Gu Yun was not very mindless, he also unconsciously relaxed as if he would not go to the rebel leader, but instead was a kind of rare treasure instead.

But Chang Geng refused to listen to his lies. His face stiffened with tension. The doubts that had accumulated and suppressed in his heart all this time appeared simultaneously, he asked again, “Where are the Jiangnan Navy and Black Iron Camp?”

At this moment, even a blind person like Gu Yun, one could still see the pale blue on Chang Geng’s face.

Even though Chang Geng didn’t know what ‘Lin Yuan Pavilion’ was, Marshal Gu’s dislike of the Hu Guo Palace was very famous among all. There was no need to mention other things, if Gu Yun could order people to destroy it, for what reason did he have to bring Liao Ran to be his bad sight?

The last time in Yanhui city, he still had a secret warrant from the Emperor, which allowed him to summon troops at will. This time, Gu Yun’s trip to Jiangnan was purely because he left his duty. Being able to bring a few Eagle guards with him alone is better, where else can he find an entire army?

And also just now, why did Gu Yun always have to be silent for a moment before each sentence, then after that rudely interrupted Liao Ran?

It might look as if he acts like that just to tease Liao Ran. But Chang Geng knew, even though he could be a bit vile personally, in serious matters, he really wouldn’t drag anyone into it.

For that brief moment, a frightening guess appeared in his heart; maybe Gu Yun didn’t act at all, but he really couldn’t hear it. He can only read Liao Ran’s sign language, only then can he deduce what others are saying?

With this thought crossed, Chang Geng first felt that it was too absurd, but then, all sorts of strange details in his behavior over the past few days quickly reappeared in his mind.

First of all, Gu Yun is not the quiet type of person, but for the past few days, whether they were alone, or together with others 一 Gu Yun did not ‘talk’ to him at all, all the communication required was only done through sign language only. Could it be that the Dong Ying people were so strict in looking after them?

Secondly, why does Gu Yun have to use the identity of a Fragrant Master to join this ship? There are countless ordinary fragrance experts in this world, for what reason should he insist on playing the role of a ‘Fragrant Master’?

When thinking about it carefully, not only does it not have many good effects, but it also brings many problems, the possibility of exposing yourself is very high. Chang Geng did not believe that Gu Yun chose to do this just to hone his acting skills.

Third, this is a small detail, when entering Gu Yun’s room, Liao Ran did not knock on the door 一 was that because the monk did not understand manners and had such great courage to do that? Or does he know that it will be futile even if he knocks?

Chang Geng should have been aware of this suspicious detail from the start, but Marshal Gu had been the commander of the army for years, he radiated an indescribable aura, making people irrationally convinced that he had everything under control. Other people just need to behave properly and follow their instructions. With that, Chang Geng had unwittingly ignored many unnatural behaviors.

Ge Pangxiao realized that Chang Geng’s expression looked different, he foolishly swept his gaze back and forth between them.

Outside, Di Song gently knocked on the door again and urged, “My General is waiting, Mr. Zhang, please hurry.”

Gu Yun tapped Chang Geng’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “The Black Armor Camp is here, don’t be afraid.”

After that, he took out the black cloth used to close his eyes and handed it to Chang Geng, showing Chang Geng to tie it.

Chang Geng took the cloth, his emotions hidden, and covered Gu Yun’s eyes.

In a blind spot where Gu Yun could not see, Chang Geng first shook his head at Ge Pangxiao.

Ge Pangxiao did not have time to react and understand what he meant but Chang Geng had spoken to him in a voice that was not loud or soft, “Yifu, if you continue like this, I will not recognize you anymore.”

Ge Pangxiao’s eyes widened, “Ah?”

Gu Yun waved his hand at them, “Don’t talk anymore, don’t leave my side when we move there. This can also be a good opportunity for you to learn.”

Ge Pangxiao was astonished to hear the answer that was really distorted.

Chang Geng’s heart sank 一 Gu Yun really could not hear. He only knew that he was talking to Ge Pangxiao in several ways, then his eyes too …

But aren’t they still clear a few days ago?

Before he could think about it, Gu Yun had taken the lead in pushing the door open.

Chang Geng’s heart was beating fast and he ran to help him with panic. He no longer has the heart to feel ashamed and aware of their closeness. He nervously held Gu Yun’s hand using one hand, the other hand moved towards the man’s back, gently hugging him.

Gu Yun thinks that the sudden change has made Chang Geng feel uneasy, he casually patted Chang Geng’s arm.

Chang Geng, “…….”

Gu Yun’s behavior seemed to look mysterious even to his own people, he could not say whether his Yifu was really calm, or whether he was only pretending not to be afraid.

Di Song is waiting at the door. Seeing Chang Geng and Ge Pangxiao next to Gu Yun, he smiled. “Mr. Zhang, please come this way. Oh? The young lady and the other masters are not with us today?”

“Our young woman feels unwell, the teacher has stayed behind to care for her,” Chang Geng glanced at her, he focused all his energy on Gu Yun, but also took the time to smile and said, “Why, the general wants us all to be present so that he can you check thoroughly? “

Di Song politely replied, “What did the young master say?”

This place was originally a variety of remote islands, which are spread on the surface of the East Sea. For the island which is the biggest of them, only need one day to walk around it. The smaller island is only about one square hectare. Warships are anchored everywhere, connected to each other by metal chains that emit white steam. From a distance, they looked like cities floating on the sea.

While walking, Chang Geng wrote a brief description of their environment in Gu Yun’s palm. At the same time, the teenager could not help but think of one question 一 the location of this small island was indeed highly classified. Once they bring the smuggled Ziliujin here, the action will not be easily revealed. But this place has become a fairytale country, are all the Jiangnan Navy dead?

Or maybe the Jiangnan Navy had put their people in it?

When his mind was almost lost, Di Song, who led the way, suddenly stopped.

A group of people who looked like dancers swiftly crossed in front of them with light steps, walking on a long cable car. Combined with the surrounding white steam, they resemble a group of fairies.

The woman who led them dressed in white, holding a musical instrument in her arms, stopped to pay her respects when she saw Di Song. She could not be called beautiful, her face looked pale, as if they were hidden behind a layer of thread. From top to bottom, there is no part of him that stands out. He looks fun, but once he turns around, it’s hard for someone to remember what he looks like.

In Song, “I don’t dare, Miss Chen, please go first. Don’t let the General wait a long time.”

The woman did not refuse. He nodded, bowed again and walked away, the scent of sedatives filling the air.

Chang Geng looked at Gu Yun’s lips slightly curved upwards, showing a smile.

•••••

At the same time, Cao Niangzi who disguised himself as a Dong Ying boy ran into a boat with extreme caution. The guard is sleeping. Cao Niangzi put his hands behind his back, grabbed an iron bar, then slowly approached him.

His body was small and slim, his arms and legs seemed to be also faster than the others. Even when he approached the guard, the other party did not give the slightest response. Cao Niangzi used the moonlight by the sea to see the man who was sleeping while snoring. Seeing that his saliva was nearing his neck, Cao Niangzi immediately felt relieved and thought, “It’s really unsightly.”

The waves of the sea gently rolled, causing the boat to tremble slightly, the guard rolled, almost falling from his wooden chair. He woke up and was surprised to find that there was someone next to him. The guard turned and sat down, seeing a young teenager Dong Ying who used their language to greet him.

The guard relaxed and rubbed his eyes, when he wanted to see the person in front of him more clearly, Cao Niangzi had been swinging the stick behind his head.

The guard fell silently.

The perpetrator patted his own chest and whispered, “Scares me half to death, scares me half to death …”

Cao Niangzi was scared but his hands kept moving quickly. He quickly took the key from the guard’s waist and entered the cabin. Just as what had been explained by the person who told him to come here, there were indeed prison cells here, there were around twenty or thirty people who seemed to be craftsmen in them. After seeing Cao Niangzi appear, they shouted in a low voice, “The enemy is coming!”

“Shh 一” Cao Niangzi whispered, then boasted himself to the clouds. “I’m not a Dong Ying person. I was brought here by the Marquis of Order to defuse the rebellion. Let me release all of you first.”

•••••

Deep in the depths of the night, there was a layer of fog of light hanging above the waves of the sea.

Liao Ran and a man dressed in black quickly entered the cabin on the ship, dozens of steel armor neatly arranged inside.

Liao Ran took the bottle from her bag, turned and threw it at her friend. The two exchanged glances and began to pour fish ink into the steel armor.

Di Song took Gu Yun and the others to a normal-looking boat.

The cable car hasn’t reached the end, but they can already hear laughter and music in the square. Right when Di Song stepped onto the deck, it happened.

The roar that was too familiar to Chang Geng rang from the corner. Then, a stream of white steam exploded, and the iron puppet hidden in the darkness surged out and swung his sword at Gu Yun.

Even Di Song was caught off guard, he immediately screamed and fell on the ground.

Chang Geng instinctively drew his sword, but someone had pushed his hand back, pulling the sword back into its sheath.

In the next moment, his arms went blank, Gu Yun with uncomfortable eyes and ears had slipped beside the doll. His movements seemed almost relaxed, the tips of his feet carelessly tapped the shoulders of the monster, for a moment, the blade of the sword in the doll’s hand glowed with a thin, bright line on its face.

Chang Geng’s pupils are shrinking 一 Wait, isn’t his eyes closed and he can’t hear?

The beam disappeared after an instant. The next moment, Gu Yun disappeared behind the doll, a terrible scream pierced the night, then stopped abruptly.

Di Song trembled violently.

The doll’s movements stopped in its tracks, hanging in the air. Then, the body of a man Dong Ying was thrown out. Gu Yun’s robe fluttered along with making the sea breeze. He stood on the deck, holding the dagger of the Dong Ying man in his hand, he suddenly took out a handkerchief and rubbed the knife in disgust. Then without the slightest concern, he slightly raised his head and held out one hand.

Chang Geng’s throat moved, his heart beating like a drum, immediately stepping forward to hold it.

Gu Yun said, “If this is the general’s sincerity, we don’t need to enter.”

Di Song wiped the sweat that was dripping onto his face as much as he could, he only wanted to open his mouth when Gu Yun immediately interrupted him.

“You don’t need to explain it,” Gu Yun said casually. “This deaf man can’t hear.”

After finishing his words, he quickly turned to leave. At this moment, the cabin door with singing and dancing voices suddenly opened.

Two rows of private soldiers came out side by side, leaving an open hallway in the middle. Chang Geng turned and saw a middle-aged man without facial hair in the cabin. He looked at Gu Yun’s back and spoke in a loud voice, “Mr. Zhang please don’t leave!”

Gu Yun closed his eyes, Chang Geng wrote in his hand, “Their leader has come out.”

Gu Yun secretly thought, ‘My son, he is not a leader.’

The middle-aged man stood up and said, “I have heard of Mr. Zhang’s great reputation for a long time. The dog emperor has such talented people in his grasp but he does not know how to use it properly, really a sign that his fate will end soon. “

The more Ge Pangxiao listened, the more confused he became, thinking, ‘Isn’t’ Mr. Zhang ‘just an alias randomly chosen by the Marquis? What does it mean to ‘hear his name for a long time’? The gentleman’s polite praise is too much. ‘

Gu Yun did not care, he tilted his head to ask Chang Geng, “What did he say?”

“He said he had been waiting to see you for a long time. His Majesty did not use you well, basically trying to find death.” Chang Geng wrote succinctly. In a short amount of time, he had begun to put together this series of events together.

That’s right, at first, Gu Yun only pretended to be a Fragrant Master to get on board.

Fragrant Master, the crew, and the Dong Ying delivery ship are all the same. Although they also have to draw these people to their side, at the end of the day, they remain a minor character. Why would their leader want to meet him in person?

Either their identities had been revealed, or the monks had somehow falsified fake identities for Gu Yun.

Immediately, Chang Geng recalled Gu Yun’s smile after a few moments of surprise when he heard the leader wanted to meet him. His heart sank 一 Did he know at that moment?

After a year, he no longer had to look up to see Gu Yun. Iron wristband made especially for children, of course, can not be used anymore. He even felt that if Gu Yun removed all of his armor, he could hug the man with one hand.

However, the distance between those who could never be overcome, resurfaced in the boy’s heart.

Gu Yun did not look back, he nodded nonchalantly.

The middle-aged man put his hands together, “What just happened is largely because these Dong Ying people don’t know their manners, but Mr. Zhang and I also don’t know each other, seeing that your eyes and ears are uncomfortable, even though I immediately received a letter of recommendation, I still don’t know about your extraordinary expertise. Haha, this time I can really open my eyes 一 Qing Xu, pour a cup of wine for Master Zhang, to express my apologies. “

Chang Geng briefly conveyed the middle-aged man’s nonsense to Gu Yun. But before he finished writing, someone from the party had stood up. She is the woman in white they met on her way here.

He poured a bowl of wine with an empty expression 一 not a cup, but a full bowl.

The woman then walked closer slowly, she did not say a word, immediately handed it over to Gu Yun.

The aroma of sedatives combined with the scent of the sea breeze touches their noses. Even though he was just a musician whose job was to be an entertainer, there was not the slightest bit of charm or temptation in his manners, he gave him a certain kind of cold and seemed a little distant.

Gu Yun reached out and took the wine bowl from her hand and looked down slightly to sniff it.

He first revealed a smile and then whispered a ‘thank you’ note. Chang Geng didn’t have time to stop it when Gu Yun had downed the entire bowl.

The woman lowered her eyes in a down-to-earth manner, slightly bent her body and retreated to the side. The middle-aged man laughed loudly, “Mr. Zhang is very cheerful, I really like this kind of straightforward person.”

Chang Geng felt uncomfortable, he took Gu Yun’s hand and wrote in his palm, “What if there is poison?”

Gu Yun first assumed that this was a question from the traitor. He calmly replied, “Poison a Fragrant Master who cannot see or hear, you might have to work harder to find something that does not smell.”

Chang Geng, “…….”

Fortunately, Gu Yun’s attitude was very arrogant from the start. Although this sentence is a bit strange, it doesn’t seem out of place either.

At the same time, Chang Geng became increasingly convinced that Gu Yun really could not hear, and that was not acting at all.

Middle-aged man, “Please, please sit.”

This time, Chang Geng didn’t dare to fool around, relaying everything to Gu Yun in detail.

Their group of people entered the cabin, the cold woman then began to play an instrument.

Middle-aged man, “We are very fortunate, with such a disrespectful emperor, the circumstances have given us the opportunity to gather all the talents in this world. This is truly a lifetime honor.”

Gu Yun mocked, “But I feel that sitting on the same side as a group of foreign barbarians is not something that can be described as ‘lucky’.”

Every word intended to sting, the provocative ridicule he said seemed to inadvertently further enhance his image of an extraordinary genius.

Middle-aged man did not take heart. Of course, for the sake of the rebellion, he was prepared to meet all kinds of strange people in this world at all costs. He just laughed and said, “One must not think of small details in order to succeed, this Lord’s words are rather unfair. Since the time when Emperor Wu opened the sea route, there were many things from strangers who had poured into the Great Liang.”

“Only Jiangnan’s agricultural puppets already have a shadow of a foreign power behind them. As long as it can be done, whether they are Eastern or Western, is that important?”

As he spoke, he started blabbering, saying all kinds of crimes and mistakes from Yuan He County until now, his voice was sad.

People who regularly interacted with Chang Geng and Ge Pangxiao, if not the mysterious monk Hu Guo temple, then that was a great scholar who had to be invited by the manor with a stack of gold. This was the first time they had heard this kind of talk, feeling that it was a new incomparable thing 一 none of his words were able to hold back logic, he really just blurted out his mouth, said a lot of nonsense.

Gu Yun did not speak, only snickered.
After sitting for about one incense stick, he seemed to have run out of patience. He interrupted the middle-aged man and said, “This Zhang really came with the intention of joining, but Master sent a doll who could barely speak to cheer me up just for that sake. Really disappointing.”

The middle aged man’s expression immediately changed.

Gu Yun did not speak twice, he pulled Chang Geng to stand up, “If it’s like this, we have to go first.”

Middle-aged man exclaimed, “Stop! Mr. Zhang, please stop!”

Gu Yun closed his ears.

At this moment, the guard at the entrance suddenly broke away to either side, a tall and thin man wearing a long coat stepped in, “Mr. Zhang, is this Huang qualified to talk to you?”

The middle-aged man quickly came to the side of the tall man who had just come and said to Gu Yun, “This is our Mr. Huang Qiao, this matter is the most important, I must verify your identity first. Mr. Zhang, please forgive me. “

Chang Geng frowned, feeling that the name ‘Huang Qiao’ was quite familiar, he had just wanted to write it into Gu Yun’s hands, but Gu Yun gently squeezed his finger to stop it.

People who are deaf all this time can now really hear this sentence themselves.

“Mr. Huang,” Gu Yun whispered, “Navy Commander of Jiangnan … what a surprise.”

He spoke while opening the blindfold on his face slowly, a pair of eyes shining sharply like a cold shooting star, not a trace of blindness could be found in it.

He pulled his arm out of Chang Geng’s grip and waved his hand to the boy whose face was full of worry, his smile looked rather careless, “Hey Mr. Huang, that year when I followed Old General Du to be his errand boy, weren’t you still a soldier who ambitious? Separated for years, do you still remember me? “

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