Do You Like Me That Much? Miss Villainess-Chapter 109 : Yes, Find Shen Yao to Arrange It!

'She's really seeking death.'
In the carriage, Mu Qinglan coldly curved her lips, amused that the assassin was so persistent.
She had thought the assassin probably wouldn't admit defeat, but would come later.
But unexpectedly, this person was so reckless?
In this short time, she couldn't have figured out Mu Qinglan's trump cards. Daring to challenge her at this moment—was it confidence in her own strength, or did she have some other reliance?
'Kill me?'
Mu Qinglan laughed softly, lowering her eyelids, stroking the head of the black cat quietly lying on her lap.
"Ah Qi," she called the cat's name softly.
"Mama!" The black cat happily responded, her little tail swishing back and forth. "She's not as powerful as Ah Qi. Shall I catch her for you?"
"Is that so? Going out to catch her might risk her escaping. Ah Qi, wait for her to come, just don't let her attack me," Mu Qinglan said.
"Knock her out?"
"No need to knock her out, just immobilize her body," Mu Qinglan said.
The cat murmured a confused "Oh," and continued to curl up on the white-haired girl's lap, diverting part of her consciousness to silently watch the assassin not far behind.
Mu Qinglan raised her hand and knocked on the carriage window.
"Shadow One?"
"I'm here, Miss." Shadow One heard the light knock and asked from the front of the carriage.
"Help me take a message to the Bai family. Tell them the previous arrangement continues, but in a few days, they can wait for my news to spread word about the assassin's capture," Mu Qinglan said lazily, propping her chin and looking out the window.
"Now?"
"Now."
Shadow One acknowledged the order and immediately vanished.
Mu Qinglan looked at the motionless curtain, sighing lightly. If Shadow One had stayed, the assassin might not have dared to take the bait.
But now that she had sent her guard away, the assassin should surely act.
Shadow One and the assassin were both sixth rank, but judging from the game's storyline, the assassin had only recently advanced to sixth rank, her strength far inferior to Shadow One, who had been at this level for three or four years.
When Shadow One used Shadow Hiding, the assassin probably couldn't detect her.
But when she departed, the ripples would be visible.
With a sixth-rank expert suddenly absent from her side, although the assassin certainly didn't know why she had left, this rare opportunity would be unforgivable to miss...
'Come quickly.'
Mu Qinglan thought, her gaze gradually darkening.
○
"Someone left?"
In the shadow of a wall eave, Yun Juan coldly watched the carriage ahead, uncertainly muttering to herself.
Just now, while following the target, everything had been normal, but suddenly she sensed a rapidly departing ripple.
Shadow Hiding at that speed obviously couldn't conceal one's form.
'Her guard left? Why now?'
Yun Juan pondered.
But soon, she stopped thinking about this, realizing that the guard's departure was irrelevant to her. The defensive gap created by the guard's absence was what she needed to consider.
That guard was sixth rank. If her assassination plan had even a slight flaw, she couldn't achieve her goal.
But now, it seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
'Should I strike now?'
Yun Juan looked around. People flowed on both sides of the long street, but she saw no one who could pose a threat to her.
The one who just left was probably the last defensive force.
'Now, before it's too late!'
Yun Juan made up her mind, accelerating her movement through the shadows, leaping from one wall eave to another, then using stalls as springboards to steadily advance forward, constantly reducing the distance between herself and the carriage ahead.
As the distance shortened, Yun Juan instinctively held her breath, growing tense.
'Be extremely careful, there might still be other experts in hiding.'
'Only one chance to act…'
Yun Juan muttered to herself, recalling her superior's earnest instructions to seize the opportunity while she was still young, to spare no effort to strangle this future genius in the cradle.
Honestly, she hadn't wanted to act now.
She had wanted to observe more.
But her superior's urgency, and the city papers' annoyance, had prompted her to seek a quick resolution, killing Mu Qinglan and leaving Heyang to conclude matters swiftly.
This would also teach a lesson to the small thief impersonating her identity.
—Look at who I kill and who you kill. You dare impersonate me? Let me take the blame?
If I catch you, you'll suffer.
And apart from her loyalty to Prince Li as a death warrior, from Yun Juan's own perspective, she wanted to kill Mu Qinglan.
Because of her sister.
Her sister, with healthy legs and even above-average physical condition, had died in that secret realm. Why should this rich young lady in a wheelchair survive?!
She felt it was unfair and redirected her anger.
Yun Juan knew, of course, that this anger was unfounded. Her sister's death and Mu Qinglan's survival were completely independent events, but she was still angry and unwilling to let it go easily.
The setback in the secret realm.
Barely surviving in the Earth Gate, luckily squeezing into the top two.
Failing her first assassination after emerging.
This series of setbacks had already planted a belly full of anger in her heart, and her sixth-rank strength repeatedly encountering accidents only added fuel to the fire, making it burn more fiercely!
'This one, this annoying one, she must die!'
With these thoughts, Yun Juan's gaze toward the distant carriage changed.
It was the gaze of a hunter looking at prey.
Cold, merciless, looking down, as if gazing at livestock for slaughter.
Step on shadows, advance, lurk.
The three movements repeated cyclically.
Soon, Yun Juan used a slightly higher wall eave ahead to silently slip into the shadow directly beneath the carriage.
No one discovered her. Logically, at this distance, if there was someone of her level, they would definitely notice her movements.
But now it seemed she had truly sent away all her perimeter defenses?
Was it because she had summoned that divine dragon and became arrogant?
Regardless,
It was truly... stupid.
In the carriage, the white-haired girl was leaning against the window with one hand, looking outside. From the side, her expression was languid, as if she hadn't sensed the approaching crisis at all.
Seeing this, Yun Juan relaxed and laughed coldly in her heart, silently emerging from the other side.
However, just as she raised her newly replaced dagger, she suddenly felt her left shoulder become slightly heavier.
As if something was stepping on it.
?
Another expert?
When did it silently get behind me?!!!
Yun Juan screamed inwardly. Under the stimulus, her arm swung, about to throw the dagger to attract attention, then burn spiritual energy to flee frantically.
But all these actions were limited to imagination.
Because before she could act, after emerging from the shadow, her black night clothes were somehow stained with a faint black substance, adhering to her body like maggots to bone.
She didn't even notice it.
It was this substance that silently restrained her actions, making her like a clay figurine, unable to move her body.
Only her eyeballs rolled wildly, trying to see what was happening.
'Move!'
Yun Juan was anxious, exerting 120% of her potential, but still couldn't break free from the black substance's restraint. However, this allowed her to see what was on her shoulder.
This sight made her doubt her life.
Because the slight weight she felt on her shoulder wasn't the hand of an expert, nor a talisman from some unorthodox magician, but a cat.
A black cat.
The cat didn't even look at her, just quietly standing on her shoulder.
But the more it was like this, the more terrified she became, because she couldn't understand what was happening, why she couldn't move at all?
"I say."
The white-haired girl beside didn't turn around, just calmly said:
"You should recognize your current situation now, right?"
"???"
Yun Juan's expression froze, instantly understanding something, and exclaimed:
"You knew I was coming all along? You even prepared countermeasures in advance?"
"No, that guard who was sent away was also your doing. You wanted to bait me."
Her speech became faster, her mind clearer. In this moment, knowing that Mu Qinglan had known of her existence from beginning to end, many things seemed to be explained.
She gradually understood everything:
"Thinking about it this way, the person acting under my name might not be instructed by others, but most likely by you! But what about the assassination at the Jiang family? Did I previously expose my disguise skills to you? Why did you first think of this?"
Hearing this, the white-haired girl finally turned around, her blood-colored eyes devoid of emotion, indifferently saying:
"Why should I tell you?
And, shut up."
She extended her hand, her slender jade finger virtually tapping Yun Juan's upper lip, and so her mouth seemed glued shut by powerful adhesive, unable to make a sound.
This was Ah Qi's ability, but it didn't prevent Miss Yun Juan from trembling inwardly, wondering what kind of person she had offended.
'Wasn't she supposed to be sixteen? How could she be so strong?'
'—And if she's so strong, why does she need guards?!!!'
Mu Qinglan didn't know what she was thinking, she was just considering what she could do with this captured assassin.
Keep her?
There was definitely no reason to keep her.
She was a death warrior under Prince Li, who knew what inside information she had. There was no chance to turn her, and even if possible, Mu Qinglan wouldn't expend such effort.
A sixth-rank expert in her twenties, with decent talent, but just decent.
Not worth her time.
Thinking this way, apart from interrogating for game information she didn't know, this person seemed to have no use?
But as a death warrior, she probably didn't know any secrets.
No, her identity still had some use; she could be kept to kill a few more officials who deserved killing.
After killing enough, throw her body to the Six Bureaus for verification... After all, she was indeed the assassin who appeared at the Jiang family's full-month celebration. No matter how they verified, it would be the same person.
As for handing her over alive? Having discovered Ah Qi's existence, she couldn't be allowed to leave alive.
That's the plan then.
The air in the carriage was somewhat oppressive.
Outside, the sound of hooves continued, and the calls of street vendors were unceasing.
But Yun Juan only felt a chill creeping into her heart, like ice pressed against her on a hot day, making her heart cold.
"What do you think would happen if I spared your life and handed you over to the Six Bureaus?"
At this moment, Mu Qinglan's curious voice suddenly sounded.
Yun Juan was stunned, instantly terrified.
What would happen?
Although she hadn't done what the papers claimed, the Six Bureaus wouldn't care about that! If she fell into their hands... she dared not even think about it!
"Don't worry, I won't do that."
Mu Qinglan smiled, glancing at her, explaining:
"Because you won't have the chance to speak."
"!"
Before she could say anything more, Yun Juan felt a delicate little hand gently covering the top of her head, like petting an animal, even rubbing it twice.
Yun Juan felt a chill in her heart.
But before she could think further, her thinking suddenly slowed down, like a rusty spring in a clock, each movement producing a creaking, laborious sound.
'What... is... happening…'
Yun Juan thought sluggishly.
Thinking slower and slower.
Slower and slower.
Until at some point, she stopped thinking completely, her head drooping lifelessly, hair disheveled.
But her body, under the shadow's restraint, still maintained its previous posture, appearing particularly eerie.
[Killed Sixth-Rank Warrior]
[Gained 89 Experience Points]
Mu Qinglan raised her eyebrows, 89 experience points? Considering normal sixth-rank warriors hovering around 100 experience points, this one must be on the weaker side of sixth rank.
But that makes sense, she had just broken through the Earth Gate.
Mu Qinglan took the dagger clutched in the assassin's hand, checked it with her system panel, confirmed it wasn't anything special, then lost interest and casually tossed it on the floor.
'Should I say, as expected of someone I've robbed once? Poor.'
Mu Qinglan pursed her lips, looking at Ah Qi:
"Clean up her body, put it in your shadow, don't damage it. In a few days, we'll give this person to the Six Bureaus as a favor."
The black cat leaped down from the assassin's shoulder, looking up with bright eyes:
"Okay!"
The moment she landed on the carriage floor, something like a black puddle silently spread out, centering on her, gradually filling the entire floor, finally gathering under the assassin.
The carriage suddenly darkened.
The assassin's corpse remained rigid in place, but as if being pushed into a swamp, it kept sinking.
In just a few seconds, no trace could be found.
Only the cat on the floor, elegantly stepping, placing her front paws on the girl's feet, quietly lying there to rest.
'Prince Li's side probably won't bother me for a while now…'
Mu Qinglan thought.
Losing such a sixth-rank assassin, they would know her side had abundant defensive power, and naturally wouldn't send someone to seek trouble.
And with the experience points graciously donated by Miss Assassin, her confidence in challenging the Earth Gate had increased.
Say, thank you assassin.
"But puppetry killing is really useful, at least from the outside, it's impossible to tell how they died. Even if a coroner came, they probably couldn't determine it, since it involves brain injuries."
'In a few days, I'll ask Shen Yao, have her keep an eye out for me.'
'When the body is sent over, it's another favor. Little Bai says she's practicing martial arts and won't see me, so I can only give this big gift to Miss Shen…'
The sun was high, they were already in the city.
In the distance, at a street corner, Prince Qi's mansion was faintly visible. Mu Qinglan returned from her thoughts, bent down, and gathered Ah Qi back into the shadow.
Time to get busy again.
○
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The cold wind of the twelfth lunar month blew through the treetops, extraordinarily chilly.
Only a few days into the twelfth month, the weather suddenly turned cold. The wind made people shiver, involuntarily returning indoors to add a few more cotton garments.
But outside, the market was much busier, perhaps because the New Year was approaching, and people needed to save money.
However, darkness fell early. Just after the You hour, around 5 PM, the sky was already somewhat gloomy. By 6 PM, it was pitch dark, and the streets were almost invisible without lanterns.
That night, the lights in Prince Qi's mansion remained unextinguished.
"You're back?"
In the study, Mu Qinglan, sitting upright and practicing calligraphy, looked at Miss Zhu Yan who had gently knocked on the door, her expression softening.
Zhu Yan nodded, peering at the paper on the table.
She saw the character "药" (Yao) written on it.
It wasn't exceptionally beautiful, but it was exquisite and proper, and with the added bonus of being written by the hardworking Sister Mu, its beauty score increased by one hundred points in Zhu Yan's heart.
But it was another woman's name, so minus one hundred points.
"Today is the last batch. Tomorrow, let's hand over that assassin. If we delay any longer, they might be displeased."
Mu Qinglan casually said, simply deciding the next day's schedule.
"We'll also need to fabricate a background for her, otherwise how she evaded the Six Bureaus' pursuit would be a problem."
"The Crown Prince would make noise if implicated, Prince Li has no evidence to implicate. So who to implicate? The demon clan? No need. Let's frame the demons. Give them some pressure first, otherwise people might think the previous assassination attempt on me is forgotten!"
"Yes, find Shen Yao to arrange it."