Jiang Nan’s slightly upturned peach-blossom eyes were now filled with shock.
When Jiang Xu began to speak, he still hadn’t come back to his senses.
Alike. Too alike.
How could there possibly be someone in this world who looked so similar?
Those exquisite features, that otherworldly air, even the position of the small red mole below her earlobe—everything was exactly the same as his Great-Grand-Aunt…
Jiang Nan stared straight at Jiang Xu, a storm raging in his mind.
“You… you… you…”
He pointed at Jiang Xu, unable to get a word out for a long while.
Seeing this, Zhao Jianhua’s suspicions only deepened.
Some questions were better asked and settled early on.
“Comrade, how did you end up in the water?”
Jiang Xu turned her head and looked at Zhao Jianhua.
She answered with a completely earnest expression, “I was sleeping before that.”
“When I opened my eyes, I was in the water.”
So she didn’t know how she ended up in the water either?
Zhao Jianhua asked a few more questions. What was her name? Where was her home?
“Jiang Xu.”
Jiang Xu said, “My home is in Beicheng.”
“Beicheng?”
Zhao Jianhua’s voice suddenly rose, then he lowered it again. “Comrade, are you joking?”
Beicheng was over a thousand kilometers away from Jiangcheng.
She said she was sleeping when the water washed her out.
Was he supposed to believe that this groundwater, which had filled the reservoir, came rushing all the way from Beicheng?
Fine, suppose the groundwater did come from Beicheng—then how to explain how she, a young comrade, survived being swept underground for over a thousand kilometers by the water, completely unharmed?
She didn’t even have a scratch on her skin.
It was simply too absurd.
“Uncle.”
Gu Hanzheng spoke up. “Uncle, don’t get worked up yet.”
“Let’s not spread this around for now. Ask her carefully first.”
With that, he turned his gaze to Jiang Xu, who looked completely calm, as if unaware of what she had just said.
“Comrade Jiang Xu, you may not know this, but this is Jiangcheng.”
Jiang Xu blinked.
Waiting for what Gu Hanzheng would say next.
Meeting her gaze, Gu Hanzheng inexplicably found himself at a loss for words.
Her eyes were too dark—when she looked at someone, it was as if she could see right through their heart.
“Can you get in touch with your family?”
Jiang Xu raised her hand and pointed at Jiang Nan across from her.
“Him. He might be my descendant.”
“What?”
Zhao Jianhua’s eyes widened as big as copper bells.
Incredulity also appeared on Gu Hanzheng’s face.
But the most shocked of all was Jiang Nan.
His mouth hung so wide open it could almost fit a duck egg!
It took him a long while to come back to his senses.
He denied it immediately. “Don’t think that just because you look like our Jiang family’s ancestor, you can come here and claim kinship with us.”
“My Great-Grand-Aunt passed away sixty years ago.”
“If you’re trying to latch onto our family, keep dreaming!”
Not only did Jiang Nan deny it, but after saying this, he turned and bolted.
Jiang Xu’s brows furrowed slightly, a small unhappy expression on her face.
“Have Gou Wazi’s descendants become this rude?”
She muttered this, in no hurry to chase after the fleeing Jiang Nan.
Instead, she leisurely pulled a talisman out from her sleeve.
No one knew what she did, but the moment that talisman vanished, Jiang Nan—who had been sprinting away—came to an abrupt halt.
One foot planted on the ground, the other leg raised high, his hands still frozen in a running posture.
Only, he simply could not run forward.
Zhao Jianhua!!
Gu Hanzheng!!
Jiang Xu clapped her hands and slowly walked forward a short distance, arriving beside Jiang Nan, who stood there as if turned to stone.
“Didn’t Gou Wazi ever tell you that when an elder hasn’t finished speaking, a junior isn’t allowed to leave?”
The corners of Jiang Nan’s mouth twitched wildly. He found that he couldn’t summon any strength at all—his body was completely frozen.
Thankfully, he could still open his mouth and speak.
Jiang Nan opened his mouth and threatened fiercely.
“Who are you?”
“What do you want?”
“Let go of me right now!”
“I’m warning you—if you don’t release me immediately, you and I are not done.”
His voice sounded quite fierce.
Unfortunately, he failed to hide the trembling in it.
Jiang Xu circled around Jiang Nan once, as if she hadn’t heard a word he said.
Or perhaps she had heard, but simply didn’t care.
Right now, she only needed to confirm one thing.
Jiang Xu reached into her sleeve again and pulled out a dagger gleaming with cold light.
The corners of Jiang Nan’s mouth had already started spasming.
“You—you—you—what are you doing? What do you want?”
His eyeballs trembled slightly, and his legs kept shaking.
Yet he still couldn’t move.
All that remained was the flesh on his fear-filled face, twitching uncontrollably.
“Comrade Jiang Xu.”
Just as Jiang Xu raised the dagger in her hand, Gu Hanzheng stepped in front of her again.
“What is this?”
Confusion showed on his cold, hard face as well.
Zhao Jianhua had followed over too, and he also asked Jiang Xu what she was doing.
“Whatever you have to say, say it properly. You mustn’t take a person’s life, comrade.”
Jiang Xu blinked. “I’m just going to take a bit of his blood.”
She wasn’t going to take his life.
Jiang Nan cried out anxiously, “Captain! Captain! Don’t believe her, whatever you do don’t believe her!”
“She’s a demon, she’s definitely a demo—”
Before he could finish the word “demon,” the gleaming dagger sliced a cut across Jiang Nan’s finger.
It was so fast that even Gu Hanzheng, standing right in front of Jiang Xu, failed to react.
By the time he came to his senses, the blood from Jiang Nan’s finger had already dripped onto the yellow paper in Jiang Xu’s hand.
“Ah…”
Jiang Nan screamed in pain. “My—”
“Shut up.”
Jiang Xu shot him a glance. Her voice wasn’t harsh, yet it made Jiang Nan shut his mouth instantly.
His eyes went dark, and he collapsed.
“Jiang Nan!”
Gu Hanzheng reached out and grabbed Jiang Nan’s arm, keeping him from crashing to the ground.
Jiang Xu gave them a faint, indifferent glance and put away the bloodstained yellow paper.
“He really is Gou Wazi’s descendant.”
“But how long has it been? How did Gou Wazi’s life turn out like this?”
“The child is already this big, and he’s still wearing pants with his backside showing.”
She frowned, unable to figure it out.
Gu Hanzheng…
Zhao Jianhua’s mind had drifted far away as well.
Everything he had seen and heard in these short ten-odd minutes had already surpassed everything he’d witnessed in his entire life.
So much so that he didn’t know what reaction he should have.
Jiang Xu’s gaze landed on Gu Hanzheng.
“Carry him back.”
“I’ll give you a Peace Amulet.”
Gu Hanzheng asked instinctively, “Carry him where?”
Jiang Xu looked at Gu Hanzheng, her gaze seeming to say: is this young man a bit slow in the head?
Jiang Nan had fainted dead away—shouldn’t he obviously be carried back to Gou Wazi’s house?
Gu Hanzheng also realized that his question had been rather unnecessary.
He coughed awkwardly. “Well, that is…”
“Are we going or not?”
Jiang Xu cut Gu Hanzheng off.
Gu Hanzheng nodded.
Jiang Xu turned around. “Then let’s go.”
She set off first, heading toward the village.
Gu Hanzheng carried Jiang Nan on his back and followed close behind.
Zhao Jianhua, left standing where he was, watched them walk some distance before it finally registered, and he hurried to catch up.
“Hey, where are you all going?”
“We haven’t finished sorting out Comrade Jiang’s matter yet! How can you just leave like this?”
Zhao Jianhua rushed after Jiang Xu and the others. “Comrade Jiang, are you really a relative of the Jiang family?”