"Don't be ridiculous," Chu Huaixu rejected her outright.
A smile reappeared on his face, but that knowing look in his eyes seemed once again to be looking at a little idiot. This made Han Shuangjiang somewhat annoyed.
Chu Huaixu looked at her, not taking the wine jar she held up high, but just meeting her beautiful eyes. He said, "Do you know what will happen if you go home and I deliver the wine? You could very well be in danger."
Han Shuangjiang frowned and stared right back into his eyes, not backing down in the slightest. The ice mountain replied, "Of course I know!"
We've already talked about it so openly, I'm not actually stupid. Don't look at me with those eyes!
She knew there was danger, which was precisely why she chose to go home herself and have him go for help.
Seeing her stubborn appearance, the smile on Chu Huaixu's face grew wider.
"Do you think the danger a man faces and the danger a woman faces can be the same?"
After speaking, he even looked her up and down.
Meeting his gaze, Han Shuangjiang's delicate body tensed for a moment. She immediately understood what he meant. She hadn't expected Chu Huaixu to be so thorough in his considerations, to have even thought of this.
"But..." she still wanted to say something. No matter what, the matter had ultimately started because of her.
"Enough with the 'buts'. Just do as I say!" His attitude was incredibly firm, even a little fierce.
The cold-faced girl couldn't help but purse her lips. In the end, she could only yield, turning to leave with a hint of annoyance.
"Heh! You little housekeeper, you think you can call the shots?" Chu Huaixu thought, watching her back as she walked east.
He felt no pressure or nervousness at all, continuing home with a pile of groceries, even whistling a tune.
In his view, having some indirect contact with Niu Yuanshan was no big deal. But at this stage, it was best to have as little direct contact as possible. What's more, as fellow members of [The Organization], for him to take the initiative to go to the other's door for help would make him look cheap.
"And if I remember correctly, players have dug up that this [Organization] has a lot of bizarre rules."
"Every single one of them has been brainwashed, all acting like they're ready to sacrifice their lives for righteousness."
Thinking rationally with conventional logic, even if spies couldn't cover for each other, they should at least not cause trouble for one another. Chu Huaixu guessed that by not going to his door personally, he might be acting more in line with the [Organization's] operational logic.
Giving Niu Yuanshan a jar of wine from the Moon Kingdom was enough. Given the current trade situation between the two countries, this was unlikely to become a loophole. It was like on Earth, you couldn't just say I'm a "walking 500,000" just because I use an iPhone. (T/N: "Walking 500,000" is slang for a spy, referencing the 500,000 yuan reward for reporting one.) It wasn't that serious.
Of course, there was another, more important point.
Chu Huaixu was waiting for something.
After returning home, he placed all the ingredients at the entrance of Han Shuangjiang's bamboo hut.
"She said she would cook, so of course, it goes here. In any case, I'm not making a single meal!"
"Yup! Not washing the dishes either!" he resolved.
Just as he finished, a system prompt sounded in his ear.
"Here it comes!" Chu Huaixu's heart leaped with joy. He had no more experience points to use.
"[Ding! You have triggered a passive quest—Retaliation from Liu Chengqi!]"
"[Quest Difficulty: Grade A!]"
...
...
On the other side, Han Shuangjiang had already arrived outside Niu Yuanshan's small courtyard.
As one of the nine deacons of the outer sect, his small courtyard looked much more high-end and grand than their bamboo huts. How to put it? It was quite elegant. Chinese aesthetics were a luxury, and this small courtyard was likely quite expensive to build.
As she reached the front of the courtyard, Han Shuangjiang thought of something. "What if Deacon Niu isn't home?"
As a member of the outer sect's management, Niu Yuanshan also had duties to attend to. If he wasn't at home, he was most likely at the Deacon's Hall. The in-name disciple's handbook had a map, so Han Shuangjiang knew where the Deacon's Hall was, and it wasn't particularly far from here. But no matter what, it would ultimately take time.
She was already feeling a little regretful, thinking that she had spent too much time buying groceries just now. She was a little puzzled. "Why was he so unhurried the whole way?"
Little did she know that Chu Huaixu was waiting for a quest to trigger.
The young woman carried the wine jar and raised her hand to knock on the courtyard gate. Before they separated, Chu Huaixu had given her a few instructions, and she had been rehearsing her lines on the way here.
The courtyard gate opened quickly. It was a servant from inside.
"You are?" the servant asked.
"My name is Han Shuangjiang. I've come to visit Deacon Niu," she said.
The moment her voice fell, a gentle voice came from within the courtyard. "Ah, it's Shuangjiang. Come in."
Han Shuangjiang instantly breathed a sigh of relief. Although she had only met Niu Yuanshan once, her impression of the middle-aged man was very good. He seemed like an upright and kind elder, fitting her image of the management of a righteous and prestigious sect like the Dao Gate.
Old Niu the spy was currently tending to the flowers and plants in his small courtyard. It was a stalk
of Dragon's Blood Grass, the main ingredient for making Blood-Coagulating Pills. Blood-Coagulating Pills weren't particularly valuable, just a low-grade spiritual pill. He was growing it here not because he wanted to refine pills, but purely because he found this stalk of Dragon's Blood Grass to be good-looking, with a unique shape and a particularly true color—as red as blood!
Niu Yuanshan watched Han Shuangjiang approach, his gaze converging on the jar of Erlang Wine she was carrying. He smiled slightly at her and nodded, then turned his back to her again to fiddle with the Dragon's Blood Grass, but in the shadows, his eyes narrowed slightly!
"Erlang Wine?" Niu Yuanshan's eyes squinted.
He had always acted with extreme caution in the Dao Gate, possessing a high level of awareness and quality as a spy. He was a very typical, highly sensitive person. A jar of wine produced in the Moon Kingdom—it was impossible for him not to take notice.
His expression returning to normal, Niu Yuanshan put down his shears and turned to Han Shuangjiang. "You came all this way, why bring a jar of wine?"
"Erlang Wine? Isn't this wine from the Moon Kingdom?" he said.
Han Shuangjiang placed the wine jar on the stone table beside them and said, "Reporting to the Deacon, Chu Huaixu asked me to bring it. He said that to visit for the first time with empty hands would be too impolite."
Hearing this name, all the doubts in Niu Yuanshan's heart dissipated. He even felt a sense of relief, like an old man comforted.
Is this a jar of wine?
This is a tacit understanding between us two people from the Moon Kingdom!
"Good child, so thoughtful," he said with a smile, praising the person who wasn't present.
He had previously suspected that this newcomer might know his identity. Now, they were essentially playing with their cards face up.
Niu Yuanshan first sat down on the stone bench, then gestured for Han Shuangjiang to sit across from him.
"By the way, why did you come alone?" Deacon Niu naturally followed her words and began to steer the conversation towards the newcomer from [The Organization].
Han Shuangjiang remembered Chu Huaixu's instructions. No matter how anxious she was, she couldn't directly reveal the purpose of her visit. But she wasn't a stupid person; it was just that Chu Huaixu liked to look at her as if she were an idiot.
At this moment, a thought struck her. She remembered that Chu Huaixu had taken half a palm strike when he fought with Liu Chengqi. And so, Han Shuangjiang immediately found the best entry point:
"Deacon Niu, it's because he's a little injured."