948 Not so Easy

"We best ask the chief first," Miao Changhong said. "Scum like that doesn't deserve to live."

In He County, Miao Chengtang, who had surrendered, seemed rather restless.

His current location was simply too close to the Valley of Thousands of Medicine. Furthermore, he had heard from Yang Guanfeng and Lu Xiufeng that there was someone in the village helping them with the cases. The people who came were likely the ones most trusted by Miao Xihe—Miao Qingfeng and Miao Changhong. If those two knew that he was in He County, they would come to "greet him," and they would do so in ways that were anything but conventional. Miao Qingfeng was still somewhat easygoing, but he knew Miao Changhong well enough to tell that he was very proficient in the art of poisons. Miao Changhong's proficiency in using poisons was so extraordinary that even Miao Xihe lauded him to be quite a genius. None of that was much of a secret back in the village.

There was a myriad of ways of dying. In Miao Chengtang's opinion, dying while being tortured by poisons was one of the worst ways to go.

As such, he anxiously looked for Yang Guanfeng.

"Leave this place? Where do you want to go?"

"Just somewhere far away from here," Miao Chengtang said. "Anywhere but southern Yunnan."

"Why?" Yang Guanfeng asked.

"I take it that Miao Qingfeng and Miao Changhong are still in He County, correct?"

"They are," Yang Guanfeng replied.

"They probably know that I'm here as well," Miao Chengtang said.

"How would you know? Anything related to you is highly classified, so only a few people know your whereabouts."

"You still know too little about Miao Xihe," Miao Chengtang said. "There might be people in the police force-feeding him intel."

"Is he that formidable?" Yang Guanfeng asked.

"Yes."

"Well, stay here for one more day," Yang Guanfeng said. "We'll figure out a suitable place to move you to."

"Yes, please hurry," Miao Chengtang added.

As soon as he left Miao Chengtang, Yang Guanfeng found Lu Xiufeng and discussed the matter with him.

"He really is scared. It doesn't look like he's putting up an act to me."

"Do you think that Miao Xihe really has such a huge network of eyes and ears? How did he even do it?"

"Didn't you hear Miao Chengtang saying that while the valley looked like a paradise away from the world and has no quarrel with the outside world, those people actually have connections outside? You saw it when we last visited the village. There are things that they are unable to hide, and those from the village are probably in the medical line of work outside."

"One way or another, we need to take care of this and ensure his safety."

"I agree with that much at least."

Both of them talked and reported to their superiors. Because Miao Chengtang played a vital role in making breakthroughs in the cases, they agreed to his relocation. They began preparing to move him to a nearby province to escape any troubles.

"Thank you." Miao Chengtang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing that.

"Relax, we'll keep you safe."

Hundreds of miles away…

A man wearing a baseball cap looked at the warrant for arrest posted on an electric pole. It did not look like a drawing. It looked more like a photograph.

He turned around and asked the man by his side, "What do you think?"

"Weird. It was still a montage yesterday, so why a photo now?"

A photograph and a montage were different concepts. Montages were drawn based on descriptions, which meant that they would have looked somewhat different from the real thing. That difference was often quite huge. Photographs, on the other hand, were the real thing.

"I sure didn't expect Miao Chengtang to hand me such a huge surprise!"

Those two were Miao Tianchuan and Miao Qingshan, who were in disguises. Even if one were to compare them right with the photographs, one still would not have been able to tell that they were the people in the photographs unless one looked really closely.

Miao Tianchuan felt unusually angry and pained. Betrayal by friends was much more painful than being set up by the enemy.

"Is Chengtang behind this?" Miao Qingshan was dumbfounded.

"Are you saying that he was the one who provided the photos?"

"Well, these are recent photos," Miao Tianchuan said. "Who else would be able to provide such things other than him?"

"Him? Why?"

"Just draw a clear line between him and us to survive," Miao Tianchuan said.

"Qingshan, if you want to leave, I'm not going to stop you."

"Leave? Where would I go? It's best if I stick around," Miao Qingshan replied.

He wanted to leave, but he had nowhere else to go. Unlike Miao Chengtang, who had been in contact with Yang Guanfeng and his people and had places to go to, Miao Chengtang did not have such options.

Miao Tianchuan patted his shoulders and said, "Relax. I'm still here."

He smirked as he stared at the photographs on the pole. No one knew what was he thinking.

Hundreds of miles outside of Valley of Thousands of Medicine…

"Miao Chengtang actually became a witness, eh? This is getting interesting. Very interesting indeed!" Miao Xihe smirked when he said that. He looked rather delighted.

"I think Tianchuan must be rather pissed right now."

"It gets on my nerves hearing this too, Master. I'm sure he has definitely been talking bad about us."

"Well, people like him think very highly of their own lives," Miao Xihe said. "Based on that alone, he's definitely nothing like Miao Tianchuan. He's not ruthless or brutal enough."

"We can't just let him off the hook so easily."

"Right, tell Qingfeng to keep him alive. If he doesn't want to die, we shall make him suffer so bad that he wishes he would have died."

"Yes, Master."

"Suffer a fate worse than death?" Miao Qingfeng was rather baffled when he received the news.

He turned around and asked Miao Changhong, "What does that mean?"

Miao Changhong smirked and said, "I know what that means. Poison and curse him. Both ways in one go. Keep him alive but make him wish he were dead." His smirk was one that could send chills down the spines of others.

"Leave it to him."

"Sure. Just be careful. He should be heavily guarded right now."

At a teahouse somewhere in He County…

"What brought you here today, Uncle Xu?"

"It's about that Miao Chengtang guy."

"What about him?"

"Someone I used to contact in the village wanted to get in touch with him, so he wants us to introduce him," Xu Xinyuan said.

"Introduce him? What good would that do?" Guo Zhenghe asked.

People like him had their uses. Guo Zhenghe knew that Miao Chengtang seemed worthless, but it was still a waste to just cast him away. He was unable to help them capture Miao Tianchuan, the man who had really gotten on Guo Zhenghe's nerves.

"He knows quite a lot about the valley."

Guo Zhenghe took a sip of the tea and said, "I don't want to know too much about that place, and I don't want to have too much to do with the people over there."

"Sir, I think we need to keep these people close," Xu Xinyuan said. "My analysis of the cases tells me that we'll very likely encounter those people from the valley in the future."

"In that case, you'll be the one to do the introductions, Uncle Xu, let Miao Qingyuan and him meet. Don't drop my name."

"Very well. I know what to do."

It was getting very late.

Miao Chengtang had just finished eating dinner when he received a phone call. The call quite surprised him.

"Is that you, Qingyuan?" Miao Chengtang was delighted to hear the other man's voice, due to both of them being rather close back in the village.

"Yeah, it's me. Are you still in He County?"

"How did you know that?" Miao Chengtang was frightened hearing that.

"All that talk about me being here being kept an absolute secret, yet here you are on the phone. Worse still, it's someone I never expected to hear from. How did they find out? Does that mean that more people know about this?"

"Don't bother with any of that. There's something I need to tell you. Think about it after that."

Miao Chengtang quickly realized what the other man meant.