The pitiable and innocent demeanor was no longer a pretense. Gu Qianying sidestepped the young man approaching her, directly leaping onto the carriage to gaze at the man lost in thought on the carriage.
"Xu Zichen!"
Xu Zichen, the second young master of the Xu family, a renowned family of pharmacology in the capital.
At a young age, Xu Zichen had already taken over the Xu family's pharmacy business, becoming the youngest head of the pharmacology family.
Furthermore, he was one of the disciples selected by his master after passing through successive examination stages.
He was also her only senior martial brother, skilled in medicine.
In her previous life, her involvement was that her master, while saving her, discovered her peculiar bone structure and her eagerness to learn poison arts, which led him to take her as a disciple as an exception.
Although she and her senior martial brother both studied medicine under their master, the difference was that she studied poison arts, which could be used to harm or heal, while her senior martial brother studied medicine.
She knew martial arts and possessed profound inner strength, but her senior martial brother, Xu Zichen, knew not a single martial arts move and was a genuine frail scholar.
"Does the young lady know me?"
Xu Zichen scrutinized Gu Qianying, feeling perplexed.
Upon hearing this question, Gu Qianying was instantly speechless.
She had forgotten that in her previous life, at this moment, she had not yet been seriously injured, fallen off a cliff, and been saved and accepted as a disciple by her master.
Therefore, Xu Zichen at this time did not recognize her.
The admission day for disciples at the Poison Doctor Saint Hall, held every three years, had not yet begun.
Thus, Xu Zichen had not yet become a disciple of her master.
Overcome with emotion, she suddenly remembered that she might have been a bit rash at the moment.
"I don't."
Although she and Xu Zichen were very familiar with each other in her previous life, in this reborn life, it seemed they did not know each other at this time.
"Then how does the young lady know my name?" Xu Zichen asked.
"Well, we met once before," Gu Qianying fabricated a casual reason.
"Hmm? Didn't the young lady just say she didn't know me, but now you say you've met a few times? It's not good for the young lady to lie. Mencius said, sincerity..."
Gu Qianying was quite vexed by Xu Zichen's subsequent rambling.
Her senior martial brother was kind-hearted and gentle, not easily angered, but his mouth was too talkative, constantly chattering endlessly.
In her previous life, on several occasions when encountering robbers, her senior martial brother had persuaded them to retreat without resorting to violence, even reforming them into honest merchants.
Therefore, faced with Xu Zichen's current prattling, Gu Qianying directly spoke to stop him: "Enough, be quiet!"
Gu Qianying suddenly grabbed Xu Zichen's arm and pulled him out of the carriage: "Quickly, come with me and help me save someone."
Nangong Mo was still hidden in the woods. She had no time to listen to Xu Zichen's incessant chatter.
Xu Zichen followed Gu Qianying out of the carriage. He had intended to use the horse block to dismount, but Gu Qianying had forcefully dragged him down, wrinkling his clothes and loosening his hair tie.
"What are you doing? Let go of my second young master!"
Xu Zichen's attendant rushed over, extremely nervous. He suddenly remembered the dagger he carried for self-defense.
Taking out the dagger, he pointed it at Gu Qianying.
Gu Qianying released Xu Zichen, then snatched the dagger from the attendant's hand, pressing it against Xu Zichen's neck, and said, "I'll borrow your person and carriage. If you don't cooperate, I'll kill you!"
While saying this, Gu Qianying only intended to frighten Xu Zichen.
But Xu Zichen was truly stubborn, insisting on quoting Mencius and Confucius incessantly.
In the end, Gu Qianying could only act like a female bandit and coerce Xu Zichen to follow her into the woods.
Nangong Mo waited for Gu Qianying for a moment. Seeing that Gu Qianying had not returned, he was about to use his inner strength to break open his acupoints when he suddenly heard footsteps approaching from a distance.
The inner strength gathered within him gradually dissipated.
Nangong Mo waited for Gu Qianying to appear.
"Quick, it's him! Help me lift this person onto the carriage and send him back to his residence."
When Gu Qianying, along with Xu Zichen and his attendant, saw Nangong Mo, they were all stunned.
Xu Zichen and his attendant hadn't expected Gu Qianying to ask them to help lift someone, and moreover, it was a frail man who looked fierce and difficult to deal with.
Nangong Mo also hadn't expected Gu Qianying, who returned, to bring back two men.
His chilling gaze swept over Xu Zichen and his attendant, finally settling on Gu Qianying's face.
His eyes were filled with command and warning, but Gu Qianying deliberately pretended not to see it, only unblocking Nangong Mo's acupoints, allowing him to move but still unable to speak.
Nangong Mo's face turned black, his expression extremely foul.
A moment later, Xu Zichen and his attendant, after much effort, managed to lift Nangong Mo onto the carriage.
Outside the carriage.
Xu Zichen's servant continued to drive the carriage.
His peripheral vision caught sight of the dagger inserted into the carriage door's armrest, close to him. The thought of dragging his master away instantly vanished.
They were all people not to be trifled with. He might as well obey his master and quickly send the man inside the carriage back to his residence.
Inside the carriage.
Xu Zichen and Gu Qianying sat side by side. After a brief conversation with Gu Qianying, no longer under duress, Xu Zichen suddenly realized that he and the young lady of the Gu family had much in common.
They both had different views on medical skills. Although what Miss Gu said were all methods of using poison to make medicine, medical skills and poison arts were inherently related. As long as they could save people, they could be considered good physicians.
As they talked, someone became unhappy.
Nangong Mo watched the two people chatting and laughing opposite him with cold eyes, the chill in the corners of his eyes growing heavier.
"Get out."
Having used his inner strength to break open the mute acupoint, Nangong Mo's first words were this.
Xu Zichen was taken aback: "So, my friend, you're not mute?"
Gu Qianying looked at Nangong Mo.
Although Nangong Mo's legs were paralyzed, his inner strength was profound. If his mute acupoint was blocked, he naturally had ways to resolve it himself.
"Don't you understand human language? I told you to get out!" Nangong Mo looked at Xu Zichen as if he were looking at a dead man.
Xu Zichen sensed the anger on Nangong Mo's face and trembled. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Only then did he understand that the gentleman opposite wanted him to get off the carriage.
"This gentleman is quite unreasonable. This carriage you and this lady are sitting in is mine, yet you are so overbearing, wanting to drive me away. Confucius said..."
Nangong Mo lightly flicked his sleeve.
A surge of inner strength struck Xu Zichen.
Before Xu Zichen could finish his words, he rolled out of the carriage.
"Second Young Master!"
The servant outside was startled and quickly jumped off the carriage to help Xu Zichen.
Xu Zichen, with dirt smeared all over his face, was helped up by his attendant. He was utterly bewildered, not knowing how he had offended the difficult person in the carriage.
Despite his confusion, his expression remained unchanged, and he said, "My friend, Confucius said, he who gets angry..."
A cool breeze blew.
Nangong Mo raised his hand and, from a distance, pressed an acupoint, blocking Xu Zichen's mute acupoint.
Xu Zichen instantly became unable to speak.
However, the inability to speak only lasted for a moment before he could speak again.
Xu Zichen, who was physically weak, didn't understand why this was happening to him.
But the two people in the carriage knew very well.
"Ninth Imperial Uncle, Young Master Xu is our savior, oh, to be precise, he is your savior. Why are you treating him like this?"
In her previous life, Xu Zichen was the senior martial brother who doted on her the most. How could she stand by and watch her senior martial brother be bullied by Nangong Mo!
"What? You care about him?"
Nangong Mo's eyes were filled with coldness, his voice extremely cold.
"Ninth Imperial Uncle, have you misunderstood something?"
Gu Qianying felt Nangong Mo was being somewhat inexplicable. What was the reason for his sudden anger?
"Misunderstood? Heh! You two hit it off so well, and I've misunderstood?"
At this moment,
Dark guards in black, who had been searching everywhere, suddenly arrived and stopped the carriage. Half a meter away, they knelt in a line.
"Master, your subordinate arrived late to protect you. Please forgive me!"
Seeing more than a dozen men in black kneeling on the ground, Xu Zichen and his attendant were shocked.
Gu Qianying felt a sense of relief.
Nangong Mo's people had finally arrived. Now, Nangong Mo was safe.
"Guards, tie up those two men outside for me!"
Nangong Mo commanded coldly.
"Ninth Imperial Uncle, what are you doing?" Gu Qianying exclaimed in shock, speaking quickly.
"As you can see, I'm tying up the person who saved me. I will definitely repay him properly when I return!"
With that, Nangong Mo issued orders to the dark guards outside the carriage: "Call a carriage and send Miss Gu back to her residence. I am tired."
"Yes, Master."
Nangong Mo's subordinates acted swiftly.
After the carriage was called, two people escorted Gu Qianying back to her residence.
However, seeing Xu Zichen and his attendant being taken away with their mouths gagged, how could Gu Qianying leave?
"Ninth Imperial Uncle, you can't take them away!"
Gu Qianying stood directly in front of the dark guards holding Xu Zichen and his attendant, blocking them, and looked at the person with a very foul expression who had occupied Xu family's carriage.
"What? Are you going to oppose me for them?"
Nangong Mo's voice was as cold as ice.
"This humble subject dares not. This humble subject merely hopes that Ninth Imperial Uncle will not harm innocent people."
"I have never been a kind-hearted person. Today, I find these two displeasing to my sight, so I intend to wash them and chop them up to feed the dogs."
Just now, that scoundrel was chatting happily with his young lady. His tongue and his face could not be left intact!
Nangong Mo's words greatly frightened Xu Zichen's personal attendant, who immediately knelt down and begged for mercy, crying.
Although Xu Zichen did not kneel, he intended to use his scholarly knowledge to persuade the man who wanted to kill him to put down his butcher's knife, advocating for peace above all else.
However, neither Gu Qianying nor Nangong Mo could tolerate Xu Zichen's incessant prattling beside them.
Suddenly.
Gu Qianying raised her palm, using fifty percent of her inner strength, and repelled the dark guards. She then turned and lightly sprang, landing beside the carriage where Nangong Mo was seated. She leaned forward and crawled into the carriage, lowering the curtain, and said with her back to everyone, "No one is allowed to come forward!"