The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

28

"Impossible, that is impossible..."

"Mister Lu." Mu Yao appeared behind the young incense master at some unknown time. She had a faint fragrance of cold plum blossoms lingering about her, scaring him into taking a few steps back.

Her petite finger was pinching a small piece of the incense. She twirled it open between her fingertips and took a sniff. After falling silent for a moment, she asked: "If you're the most famous incense master of Chang An, how can you not smell the superfluous addition to the mix?"

Lu Jiu swallowed a mouthful of saliva and his lower lip started to tremble: "This commoner...this commoner..." He suddenly regained his bearings and replied, "There actually is something superfluous in there... but with this commoner's skill... it's hard... it's hard to distinguish."

"Lu Jiu, are you unwilling to speak?" Dowager Consort Zhao's voice was a little piercing to the ears, "Do you want this Dowager Consort to beg you?"

"Your highness, please don't get angry." Mu Yao calmly interrupted them as she naturally stood in front of the shaking incense master. "Mister Lu has been diligently playing the role he ought to play. It's perfectly understandable that he doesn't recognize it. Because he's never created or taken part in murder or other shady subterfuge."

She deliberately chewed on the word 'murder' as her gaze sharply ran over Guo Xiu's face.

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A creek flowed down from the rock, letting out a clear and crisp noise. The water split into countless rivulets as they separated and then recombined together in a rush into the distance.

"Sigh, everything has been destroyed." Ling Miaomiao was crouching atop the big rock and flipped the clothes in her hand around. The wooden bucket that contained the clothes was slightly pushed away by the charging water but she alertly shot out her hand to hold it in place and pull it to the side.

Many droplets of water in the form of mist hit her face and brought about a cool and refreshing feeling in the midst of this hot day. She paused her actions and pulled her red face close to the stream, causing her face to be covered with droplets of water. She then pulled up her sleeves in high spirits and also stuck her arms into the water.

"Whoosh—" When she suddenly pulled out her arms from the water, she could feel water travelling up her straight arms into her clothes, giving her an itchy feeling. It amused herself and made her feel joyous.

Her satin-like long hair was glimmering in a deep red color. Her hair was too luscious and a single hairpin was unable to hold it in place. More than half of her hair had escaped already so she simply just took off the hairpin entirely, allowing her hair to fall freely onto her back. She used her wet hands to run through them a few times and let it all fall at an angle onto her shoulder. She started to stare at the bucket in a daze: "I Ling Miaomiao was born pampered and never even had to wash my mother or father's clothes before. But now I have to wash the black lotus's clothes?"

She let out a very long sigh towards her reflection in the water: "After I complete the mission, I have to properly reward myself with good food. Then, I will definitely go and lodge a complaint against this terrible trash piece of a system."

Reaching out, she once again soaked the soaked robe into the stream and started another round of amusing herself.

It wasn't until the wind blew a corner of black clothes into her line of sight that she suddenly paused her movements. She raised her head and saw Mu Sheng's face above her. Who knows how long he had been standing there and listening to her.

Mu Sheng slowly crouched down and the look he gave her was full of ridicule: "Miss Ling is quite unwilling eh?"

As water flowed everywhere around them, he watched in satisfaction as her expression went from shock to fear.