Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Cycle?

The visitors were none other than Nie Qing'e and Lu Qing, the couple whom the Jun brothers had been searching for a long time!

At the sight of their two junior brothers, the couple's expressions were very complex. The most obvious emotion was anxiety, followed by worry and nervousness... Then, their gaze shifted to the man with the horse-like face who was talking to Bai Zhengliu and the others, and all those emotions turned into anger.

Under the couple's furious glare, the man with the horse-like face took a deep breath and, in the end, didn't directly clash with them. Instead, he raised his hands and left.

However, before leaving, he still couldn't help himself and said to Bai Zhengliu: “Whenever you want to gamble, come find me!”

Bai Zhengliu glanced at him, his eyes flickering slightly, but he didn't speak.

The man with the horse-like face saw this and seemed to want to say something else. But seeing that Nie and Lu were already approaching, he took another deep breath and quickly made his exit.

The Jun brothers paid no attention to these details. The only expression on their faces was the joy of having found their people. Without waiting for the couple to approach, they moved up to them, their faces beaming with smiles. One of them said: "You really are here!"

The other immediately followed: "Finally found you! Shijie, Shixiong, you two—"

Halfway through his concerned words, Nie Qing'e made a gesture to stop him.

"This is not the place to talk," the woman said softly, glancing toward the table nearby.

The people who had been sparring at the table had already stopped. Some, meeting Nie Qing'e's gaze, turned their eyes away, avoiding her sharp look, while others sneered back, clearly not taking the Nie couple seriously.

Nie Qing'e frowned. In front of her junior brothers, she didn't show too much emotion, simply saying, "Follow me."

The Jun brothers pursed their lips, exchanged a glance, and then looked at Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan.

Seeing both Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan nodding, they felt their hearts calm down a little. Without saying more, they closed their mouths and followed the Nie couple through the hall and into the back courtyard.

Unlike the bustling front yard, the back yard was much quieter. After confirming that there was no one around, Nie Qing'e stopped in front of the two junior brothers, her expression growing more complicated. "You... how did you end up here?"

Hearing these words, the Jun brothers immediately understood. "Shijie must also know about the issues with Tan Yuanwai's family."

As expected, without waiting for their response, Nie Qing'e added, "Do you know where this place is?" She furrowed her brows, then asked, "And who are these two?"

Seeing the attention of the Emei woman shift toward them, Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan both cupped their hands. "Nie Xianbei," they greeted, then the other added, "Lu Xianbei."

Nie and Lu sighed in response. After exchanging names, the couple finally learned the identities of Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan.Hearing that Bai Zhengliu was the one who severely injured the Blood Demon with his "Water-cutting Saber," the couple's faces already showed signs of concern. When they also heard that Mei Yinghan was the Grand Senior Brother of Mount Tianshan, and that the two of them had come to Tan Yuanwai's residence to help the Jun brothers find someone, Nie Qing'e and Lu Qing sighed several times, not knowing what to say.

The Jun brothers, seeing their Shijie like this, immediately understood what their Shijie and Shixiong were thinking. They quickly spoke up, saying, "Shijie, don't sigh. Now that we know you are safe, we can rest easy. From now on, let's work together and we’ll surely be able to leave this place."

"Exactly! Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan just went through a similar strange incident here not long ago and managed to get out safely. Shijie, Shixiong, if you don’t believe us, you should at least trust Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan," one of the brothers added.

Nie Qing'e gave a wry smile. "How does it matter whether I trust you or not?" She paused, and there was a hint of hope in her eyes. "Bai Lang, Mei Lang, you say you’ve experienced such things before. Is that true?"

Bai Zhengliu cupped his hands. "Indeed, it's true. Mei Xiong and I have come west this time to report this matter to Mount Tianshan."

Mei Yinghan also said, "We happened to meet these two junior brothers on the way, and after hearing about the seniors’ situation, we thought we might be able to help, so we came along."

Nie Qing'e let out a soft "ai" sound, as if lost in thought.

It was Jun Yang who urged her: "Shijie, we’ve just arrived here and don’t know what’s really going on with Tan Yuanwai’s family. Please tell us more, so that Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan can understand as well."

Nie Qing'e snapped out of her thoughts, slowly exhaled, and her expression became a little more composed. "Of course, I’ll explain. But wait a moment, I still need to introduce someone to you—Lu Lang."

She called out to her husband. Lu Qing nodded in understanding and walked to the side.

Everyone watched as he approached a room next to a covered house, raised his hand, and knocked on the door several times. The movement was obviously very deliberate, almost like a signal.

With the knocking, sounds gradually came from inside the covered house. After a while, someone opened the door and revealed themselves.

Only then did the group realize that there was a round, middle-aged man hidden inside the covered house.

When the middle-aged man saw the series of gazes directed at him, a look of caution appeared on his face. However, after a moment’s thought, he figured these must be living people; otherwise, his saviors wouldn’t have called him out. So, his chubby face broke into a slight smile.

"Old Qian," Nie Qing'e called, "Come here, let me introduce you. These two are the famous Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan of the Jianghu. And these two next to them are my fellow disciples."

After a few words, the middle-aged man’s smile became more sincere as he cupped his hands in greeting. "Gentlemen, it’s an honor to meet you!"

Nie Qing'e silently shook her head and then introduced to Bai Zhengliu and the others: "Old Qian was accidentally caught nearby and couldn’t leave. He arrived just two days before you. Now that you’ve arrived… sigh." She couldn't help but sigh again. "We’ve already lost, and now you’ve come to find us? And now, even you..."

Seeing the look of disappointment on their Shijie's face, the Jun brothers immediately spoke to comfort her. "Didn’t we already say? Since Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan managed to escape from the ‘Chang Mansion,’ they will surely be able to leave this place as well!""Oh?" Upon hearing the words from the two, Old Qian, also known as Qian Gui, immediately showed a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "So, you two heroes have encountered similar situations?"

Bai Zhengliu replied, "I would say we have some experience."

Qian Gui said, "That’s good! That’s good! These past few days, I’ve been uneasy during the day, but at night, I’m terrified and don’t know what to do. Thanks to the help of Nie and Lu heroes, otherwise, I’d have no idea how I’d die."

He wore an expression of someone who had just survived a calamity. The others in the room exchanged looks—how could they not know that the three in front of them had gone through incredibly dangerous situations at Tan’s residence?

Seeing everyone’s gaze shift back to her, Nie Qing'e rubbed her forehead and said, "Alright, alright, I’ll tell you everything from the beginning."

...

Nie Qing'e and her husband, Lu Qing, had been at Tan's residence for quite some time.

At first, both were filled with suspicion when faced with the forest they couldn’t leave, and they were on high alert due to the fact that what should have been a wild house was now hosting a lively wedding at Tan’s place.

But as time passed, the couple found that, although they couldn't leave, they weren’t in any real danger either. Gradually, their anxiety and vigilance faded, and they were left only with pure worry and questions.

Their worries stemmed from the fear that someone might come looking for them and get caught in the same repetitive cycle of feasts at Tan’s house. Their main question was: How had all this come to be? And... was there a way out?

Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan quickly grasped the key point: "Cycle?"

Nie Qing'e and Lu Qing smiled bitterly. "Exactly. We’ve been here for so many days, and we’ve seen Tan’s full moon banquet that many times. It’s not just the full moon banquet; there’s also what happens at night..."

Lu Qing put his arm around his wife’s shoulder and continued, "Every night, the place is invaded by mountain bandits. At first, Qing'e and I tried to rescue people, but later, we realized that no matter what we did at night, by morning, everything would return to the same scene, with the same people. Slowly, we gave up that idea and only focused on protecting ourselves."

Nie Qing'e continued, "Although we focused on self-preservation, we couldn’t do much. We wandered around the surrounding mountains, but we couldn’t find a way out."

Lu Qing: "Exactly. In the beginning, we thought, ‘Since we can come in through the mountain roads, we should be able to leave the same way.’ We spent a lot of effort exploring the roads, but unfortunately, there was no progress. We ended up exhausting ourselves instead."

Nie Qing'e: "Later, we thought maybe the way out was tied to the Tan family."

Lu Qing: "The Tan family and the Meng family have eight people in total. We didn’t manage to save all of them, but we’ve saved several. However, no matter how much they relied on us at night, come morning, they couldn’t remember anything from the night before."

Nie Qing'e: "We tried every method we could think of to explore the paths and rescue people... we tried everything." It was during this process that they encountered Qian Gui.Qian Gui was a traveling merchant. Normally, such people, upon arriving at a place, would first inquire about the local customs. Upon learning about the case at Tan Yuanwai’s house, it was impossible for him to blindly approach Tan’s residence.

However, Qian Gui had a hobby. It was fine when he was in the city, but when he was out in the mountains, every morning, he would wander into the nearby forests. Breathing in the air of nature, he believed it could prolong his life.

When he arrived at Tan’s village, although he had already steered clear of Tan Yuanwai’s house, the place where he practiced his "breathing in the air of nature" ended up being in the midst of this perilous situation. So, Qian Gui became yet another guest invited to the full moon banquet by Tan’s sons-in-law and uncles.

After explaining the general situation, Nie Qing’e looked at Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan with a bit more expectation in her eyes and asked, “Did you two gentlemen encounter a similar situation before?”

Lu Qing followed up, “How did you manage to leave that place? Qing’e and I, along with the two junior brothers and Brother Qian, will follow your lead.”

Under the weight of these trusting gazes, Bai Zhengliu and Mei Yinghan felt a bit of pressure.

The two spoke honestly: “The situation we encountered last time was completely different from this one—”

“No,” Bai Zhengliu suddenly added, “I can’t say it was completely different either.”