The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#148 - Alerting the enemy

Things were becoming increasingly perplexing.

Like many others, Nada initially believed that the dark wizard Vulture was responsible, using his magic to bring disaster upon this oasis city.

However, the investigation led to the ancient family that originally founded Marasarkand.

Then, they discovered that the old registrar she admired had been involved seven months prior, seemingly knowing something but unwilling to reveal it.

Now, the situation has reversed again, with all fingers pointing to Yazdan, the city's second-in-command, who has been actively seeking a solution to the disaster, opposing the reckless Vulture, and being the hope of Marasarkand's residents.

The female shopkeeper was stunned for a while, but then heard Lu Jing ask, "You said earlier that the family had a little girl. Where is that little girl now?"

Kaff, after Nada translated, said, "Lost. And she was lost before her father died."

"Lost?" Nada found it hard to understand.

Marasarkand previously had a total population of only 30,000, now less than 20,000. Moreover, being a desert oasis, it's difficult to connect with the outside world, so there are no human traffickers in the city, and disappearances are rarely heard of.

"How old is the child, and when did she go missing?"

"Twelve or thirteen years old, maybe. As for when she went missing, I don't know," Kaff said.

"Because her father never reported it to the authorities. It wasn't until last week when a neighbor saw him drunk in front of his house and took him inside that they realized his house was empty. When asked, he said his daughter was already lost."

"That's too irresponsible," Nada said, dissatisfied.

"I don't know, that's just how drunkards are," Kaff said. "I've told you everything I know. Please, you must save Marasarkand and the people in this city. I'm young and don't want to die. Also…"

Kaff looked around again, "This matter involves people in the City Lord's mansion. You'd better not tell anyone that I told you, especially not my teacher, or I'll lose my current job."

Nada nodded and obtained the drunkard's address and his daughter's name from Kaff. Then, the young assistant hurriedly left before it got completely dark.

Afterward, Lu Jing and Nada went to the drunkard's residence to take a look, but found nothing except for all kinds of fine wine.

Even the money he had previously obtained had disappeared, clearly indicating that someone else had been there before them.

So, the female shopkeeper said to Lu Jing, "Maybe we should directly confront Yazdan."

"How do we confront him?" Lu Jing asked.

"Accuse him to his face of killing the drunkard, and ask if his people took the little girl away too?"

"We don't have any concrete evidence. What if he doesn't admit it?" Lu Jing asked again.

"Then… then we'll tell everyone else what he's done, let the people in the city know that this disaster is related to him," Nada said angrily.

"Although I also suspect him, we can't be sure if the current sandstorm is his doing, or how much he's involved," Lu Jing shook his head.

Two years ago, he might have agreed with the female shopkeeper's approach, even sneaking into the palace on the first night to find a way to force the Vulture to talk.

But now, Lu Jing has indeed become much more composed and mature. Zhang Sanfeng taught him to observe more and speak less, and not to rush to conclusions before things are completely clear, even if some answers seem very "obvious."

To this end, Zhang Sanfeng even told him a story about when he became a bodyguard not long ago. He took a seemingly shifty-eyed assistant with him on an escort mission. It was said that before working in this profession, the assistant was a thief.

As a result, halfway through the journey, another bodyguard's money bag was lost. Many people thought that the former thief assistant had stolen it, and even forced the assistant to hand over the money bag. Unable to bear the pressure, the latter committed suicide that night.

The bodyguard who lost the money finally couldn't bear the pressure and admitted that he had secretly gone to the gambling house the night before and lost the money. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to explain it to his wife when he got home, so he lied that he had lost it, never expecting that it would kill someone.

He had wanted to speak up several times to clear the other assistant's name, but he had backed down several times.

This incident left a deep impression on Zhang Sanfeng, and he blamed himself for it for a long time, telling Lu Jing to take it as a warning and to intervene immediately.

Of course, Lu Jing's inaction towards Vulture and Yazdan was not because he was afraid of wronging good people.

Especially Vulture, this guy was clearly not a good person. He just didn't want to make a move rashly.

In addition, with the previous lesson of the wedding dress, it was not a good choice to act rashly without knowing what kind of strange object caused the disaster.

For Lu Jing now, killing people was easy, and even if he was misunderstood by the entire population of Marasarkand afterward, he could just throw a note into the well and leave.

But if the disaster was not resolved after killing someone, the residents of the city would still not be able to survive.

"What do we do next?" Nada asked, "Go find the missing little girl?"

"You won't find her."

"Why, because Yazdan's people have already taken her away?"

"Yazdan's people shouldn't have been able to find her. After all, when she went missing, her drunkard father was still alive and well. There's no reason for Yazdan to target a little girl first.

"And judging from her father's appearance, he doesn't seem worried at all. I personally tend to think that she ran away on her own, and probably sensed the danger in advance and advised her father to leave with her, but her father didn't listen. She should be a pretty smart little girl, but…"

"Speaking of which, I have to thank Yazdan. He's helping me build momentum, making me the hero and new hope of Marasarkand. Otherwise, things might not have been so simple.

Lu Jing said, "And next, we just need to let her know that we are not in cahoots with Yazdan."