Zhanzhan found herself in a predicament that was hard to describe by any other adjective than unfortunate, perhaps also unpleasant.

In fact, she’d never been so terrified in her life, and she promised herself that if she, by some miracle, happened to survive this encounter, she’d come back to Chenfei village and live a peaceful and mundane life there ever after.

Alas, the chance of this happening was even slimmer than the sharp tip of the blade pressing against her neck.

Mei Rulan was as Zhanzhan remembered her.
Except…she wasn’t. Although she was smiling just as before, there was now some new, terrible coldness nesting within her azure eyes, and there was a nasty scar running through half of her face.

What happened during these months?…What happened to her face?…What was she even doing here in the first place?…all these questions flashed through the catgirl’s mind, but were equally meaningless, as fear robbed her of clarity of thought, and her ability to produce anything resembling coherent speech was somewhat impaired, as well.

Perhaps sensing that her captive is on the verge of panic attack, Mei Rulan took out a small pillbox, and tossed a suspicious-looking white capsule.

“….?”

“A sedative drug. It should ease your mind and make you less likely to try anything funny. You’re no use to me if you can’t even talk normally.”

“….Don’t wanna…”

“Refusal isn’t an option.”

The cold blade pressed slightly harder. The white steel reflecting lunar radiance looked truly beautiful, and she had a feeling she saw that sword somewhere before, but couldn’t recall where…

“I know it’s a nice weapon” Mei Rulan noticed where Zhanzhan is looking at, and shot her a charming smug smile, then switched back to the serious tone “….But I’m in a hurry now, so if you would be so kind, swallow that thing already. Or are you one of the kids who can’t take their medicine without water?”

Zhanzhan gulped, nodded, and without further inquiry took the medicine. It was tasteless, and despite its rather prominent size, went in much more smoothly than anticipated.

“Rise. It’s going to be quite nasty here soon, and I need you to guide me to the Bai mansion. I believe its inner layout should be quite familiar to you….Don’t worry, by the time we’re anywhere near our destination, the drug will do its work…you will tell me everything whether you like it or not.”

Zhanzhan didn’t know if it’s something to be happy about, but nonetheless, the reassurance that she won’t be immediately disposed of calmed her a little bit. For a moment, she thought that the empty grave is going to be her new and permanent residence…

As they were exiting the graveyard, she eyed the corpses of some men wearing white robes engraved with characteristic pine symbols. They were stacked in a small pile just next to the main gate.

“W-what are these?”

“I’d love to answer none of your business” started Mei Rulan and laughed “but actually, I think it’s very much your business! These guys were trailing you all the time, and you were none the wiser!”

“…!”

“So now, I’d like to inquire about what you know regarding the major sect ruling over this town~”

“I don’t know, I just arrived a few days ago…”

So far, Mei Rulan displayed only two masks.

One was smiling widely, with a hint of mischief.
The other was serious and focused.

She always alternated between these two moods when talking to Zhanzhan, both in Chenfei, and here.
But now, a 3rd expression, unseen before, shot through her face.

It was an expression of barely controlled rage. Her blue eyes were burning, and an angry grimace distorted her already scarred face.

All of Zhanzhan’s cat instincts were screaming she was in grave danger now. Not willing to part with her life yet, she quickly changed her tune.

“I know, I k-know! Miss Bai Lianfei told me she’s distrusting of Songshu, and its leader, Yao Whatever is reincarnated! I mean, h-he recovered his memories, and is super dangerous!”

Choking on her own words, she spilled her beans about everything. Every little bit of knowledge her new master imprinted onto her, every little rumor she heard, and a summary of everything she did since the incident in Chenfei.

She also described in meticulous detail the inner layout of the mansion(at least to the extend she knew it), the gardens surrounding it (not failing to rant about how poorly maintained they were, much to her captor’s amusement), and the servant shifts.

“What, only two at night? Boooring~” Mei Rulan complained in an overly exaggerated voice and flashed her white teeth. Seriously, how does she even keep them like that..?

But it’s good she went back to her happy mood. Now all that’s left is to continue pleasing her and being all cooperative, and wait until an opportunity to escape presents itself.
That could probably be…when they reach the mansion. There got to be some kind of defense system, or maybe the other servants…will figure something out, yeah.

As they kept walking, Zhanzhan noticed that her memories are becoming progressively more cloudy, and it’s harder and harder to vocalize thoughts inside her own head. But at the same time, the suffocating feeling of panic went away, as well.

So that’s the effects of the medicine? That’s pretty cool..hey, maybe she should ask Mei Rulan for a recipe for it, the servants back at Shuangshan would love it, sometimes the work was really overbearing…

And so she started thinking back to the nostalgic times, somewhere far away from here, until a light elbow poke under the ribs knocked her out of this dreamy state.

Mei Rulan winked, and hugged her, then they slowly walked forward tethered to each other like that…

“Like a couple!”

“…Couple of what? Steps?”

“…That’s right, a couple of steps…really slowly…”

After about a dozen or maybe two dozen meters walked like that, she finally let go and shook her head, displeased. Zhanzhan titled her head, no longer afraid, but just curious, and pondering what she did wrong to earn such disapproval.

“Ah, no worries, it’s just the alarm system….you probably can’t see it, so forget it~”

The catgirl breathed a sigh of relief. So it’s not her fault. That’s good. She really didn’t want to let this person down….
….? This made no sense, why would she care about displeasing the enemy?
For now, let’s just focus on one thing at a time.

“Alarm?…..I thought alarms are heard, not seen. I don’t hear anything…”

That’s right, alarms are heard, not seen. Zhanzhan was really smart, and she was able to notice a whole hole in Mei Rulan’s remark. She deserved a headpat! Or a snack!

Mei Rulan looked at her weird, then shrugged and pointed her blade forwards.

“At any rate, we’re going to walk a little bit faster from now on~”

She seemed to really like that blade. How do they call people like that?

Sword maniacs? Sword lunatics?