"Is that the hut with the purple roof?" Xiaolan pointed to the stilted building not far away.
"Yes," Jasmine lowered her hood and looked around, "Be careful, the patriarch's house is on the edge of the east-west dividing line of Moon Village, don't be discovered by the Mai clan."
Chief Langhui lives in the tallest purple-roofed bamboo building in the village. The small building stands quietly beside a low chasm, with no one around, and a bamboo ladder leading directly to the interior.
"Is there no door here?" Xiaolan walked in front, climbed the bamboo ladder, and went straight into the living room.
Seeing that no one noticed the whereabouts of the two of them, Jasmine breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Maybe it's a characteristic of this kind of building. Is there anyone in the house?"
The living room was quite empty.
"There is another floor above," Xiaolan discovered the small staircase behind the curtain, "Well, this is the staircase..."
Before they finished speaking, there was a "dong" sound right above their heads.
Xiaolan and Jasmine looked at each other.
"Did you hear it?" Xiaolan asked.
Jasmine nodded and raised her voice and shouted, "Clan Chief Langhui? Are you the Chief Langhui?"
No one replied.
Xiaolan raised her chin and stared intently at the roof beams above her head.
"Why don't you go up and have a look?"
"Good idea."
The two hit it off immediately and quickly climbed up the steep and narrow stairs.
At the end of the stairs is a square opening, which should be the entrance to the second floor. Out of politeness, Xiaolan poked her head in and planned to say hello first.
"Lang...hey! What are you doing?!"
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Jasmine behind her grabbed Xiaolan's trousers in a hurry.
Xiaolan couldn't care less and hurriedly climbed into the hole and ran to the middle of the second floor.
A tall and narrow wooden stool fell beside the entrance of the cave. Above the wooden stool, a young girl was hanging from the beam. At this time, she was clasping the hemp rope with both hands and struggling desperately in mid-air.
The girl was wearing gorgeous local clothes, and her hair was messed up by her struggle.
Xiaolan immediately rushed over and hugged the girl's feet.
Jasmine finally climbed up. She ran two steps and saw a sharp eyebrow knife made of green bamboo lying on the dressing table. She raised her hand and pulled it out, waving the knife out, and the blade flew towards the hemp rope in a spinning direction.
Swish——
Bang!
The girl and Xiaolan fell to the ground together.
The back of Xiaolan's head hurt from the fall, so she didn't even bother to rub it, so she got up and looked at the girl.
The girl's face was covered with gorgeous makeup, but it was blurred by the tears seeping out of the corners of her eyes. She covered her throat, coughing and crying.
"Girl, who are you? Why are you doing this?" Xiaolan squatted beside the girl and asked.
Jasmine, on the other hand, had a panoramic view of everything on the second floor, lowered her head to look at the girl's rosy look, raised her eyebrows, and said nothing.
The girl opened her mouth to speak, but as soon as she spat out the word "you", she started coughing again.
Xiaolan and Jasmine patted each other on the back while the other poured water. After a while, the tears in the girl's eyes finally stopped along with her coughing.
"You...who are you?" The girl wiped away the tears on her face, looking unhappy.
Xiaolan glanced at Jasmine, scratched her head and said, "Uh, we...we are Jin Xian."
"Lord Jin Xian?" The girl's eyes widened at first, then her shoulders slumped, her eyebrows twitched, and she was about to cry again, "Sure enough... this year's Lord Jin Xian is indeed..."
Xiaolan didn't want to see the girl cry, so she took out everything she could to wipe the girl's tears with a headache. Jasmine still stood aside calmly, and waited for the girl's mood to stabilize again before she said, "You are the daughter of the Langhui clan leader.
?”
The girl grabbed the sleeve Xiaolan handed her and glanced at Jasmine with tearful eyes, "My name is Lang Yuerong."
Xiaolan listened to the conversation between the two, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and looked around.
The furnishings on the second floor look like they belong to a girl's boudoir.
Since she is the daughter of the Langhui clan leader, it is not surprising that she would commit suicide at the Langhui clan leader's house.
Wait! It’s still weird!
"Why did you commit suicide?" Xiaolan asked her question again.
"I..." Lang Yuerong choked again, burying her face in her palms and choking, "I don't want to be sent away."
"Send away?"
Xiaolan instantly understood what Lang Yuerong meant.
"This...could it be that the person Lang decided to send away this year is..."
Lang Yuerong cried louder.
"Then why are you committing suicide now? Didn't you just play a set?" Xiaolan temporarily changed "lost a set" to "played a set", which sounded much softer.
Lang Yuerong's dark eyes looked at Xiaolan through the tears and the gap between her fingers, "But the ending is already..."
Upon hearing this, Xiaolan was not happy.
"The two of us are just keeping a low profile, that doesn't mean we are weak, especially you girl...Lang Yuerongha, in order to show your distrust of us, you actually plan to commit suicide before we lose? This is too heartbreaking for you.
, where is Patriarch Langhui?"
Lang Yuerong touched her neck aggrievedly, "My father has gone out."
"You also dressed yourself up beautifully and committed suicide," Jasmine sneered, "If we hadn't stopped you, think about what your father would think when he comes back later and sees your body?"
Lang Yuerong seemed to have just thought of this question. After being stunned for a few seconds, tears filled her eyes again, "Maybe... maybe it was the same reaction as when my sister left."
elder sister?
"What sister?" Jasmine asked.
Lang Yuerong glanced at Jasmine angrily and replied slowly, "Sister, I was sent there three years ago, at my age...and this year, it's my turn."
Xiaolan was a little shocked. She looked at Lang Yuerong and then at Jasmine, but she didn't say anything for a long time.
The dignified patriarch actually wants two daughters...
"Lord Jin Xian, you stopped me today. In a few days, I will still be sent to a more terrifying place and die in another way."
"To put it bluntly, if we really lose," Jasmine lowered her voice, "If you die now, wouldn't it mean that another girl would take your place and fall into an unreasonable disaster?"
Lang Yuerong's movements suddenly stopped.
"You didn't really think of this, did you?" Xiaolan answered.
But judging from Lang Yuerong's expression, she had indeed just thought of this.
"I thought..."
"That will only make Patriarch Langhui sad and blame himself." Jasmine added.
The two of them were talking about each other, and finally Lang Yuerong gave up the idea of committing suicide. The three of them finally sat together calmly and talked about Jin Xianlei.
"Lang's family has been defeated in Jinxianlei for five consecutive years." Lang Yuerong crossed her legs and took a sip of tea. "If we lose again this year, it will be the sixth year. Five girls were sent to the bamboo stream flowing far away.
No one, including my sister, has ever seen them again."
Lang Yuerong's eyes were distracted and drifted into the distance.