45 Coming up with a new Plan

Xiao Qi was pleased by her words, "Wipe your tears, you don't want your grandfather to see you like this?"

Xi Xi immediately did so.

"Let's go back now, it's getting late."

Xiao Qi returned to the inn along with Xi Xi who held her hand. They didn't talk much, but Xi Xi was obedient and didn't cause any trouble on the way.

"Sister Qi has come back." The inn owner, greeted her when she arrived, then turned to Xi Xi who held unto Xiao Qi's hand in a well behaved manner. He smiled, "Xi Xi, did you have fun?"

Xi Xi looked up at her grandfather and spread her arms.

The old man was surprised at first, he turned to Xiao Qi. He had spoilt the little child so much, that even to get a hug from her was rare. He quickly picked her up. The girl wrapped her arms around his neck silently.

He was pleasantly surprised and looked at Xiao Qi, "I never knew sister Qi was good with children!"

Xiao Qi heard this and was immediately embarrassed. "Old man, what rubbish are you talking about?"

The old man laughed, but then he looked behind Xiao Qi and around her and wondered. "Eh, where are Sister Qi's friends? Didn't they come with you?"

"Eh?" Xiao Qi figured out Zhao Xing and Brother Mo hadn't returned and so she made up a lie casually. "Them? How am I supposed to know? Running around like kids, and probably got lost." After saying this, she left a puzzled old man holding his granddaughter in his arms.

Well, Xi Xi promised Xiao Qi to keep the running away secret. And so after this no one would mention it anymore.

Meanwhile.

"What do we do if we don't find the girl?" Brother Mo and Zhao Xing didn't dare return to the inn.

Zhao Xing turned to him and hit his arm, "Touch wood!"

During their search, Zhao Xing had seen Brother Mo in his various facades. And come to learn that this man could say a lot of silly things when he was panicking.

She wasn't calm either, but she looked at the sun that was getting cooler.

'It's getting late.'

"I think we should return first, let's just hope Xiao Qi has found her."

Brother Mo looked at her as if she was some ghost. "That…doesn't sound like a good idea."

Zhao Xing sighed, it's not like she had a better idea. "Let's just go, you don't want to stay outside for so long, the Inn Owner will get suspicious no matter what."

Brother Mo couldn't refute this. Zhao Xing saw him looking pitiful, and sighed for the hundredth time that day. "It's alright, the old man did say Xi Xi was a bit naughty. Not your fault at all."

Brother Mo couldn't help but think how scary children are! Had he known he wouldn't have approached that little cute devil, now he might receive punishment for being negligent. Meanwhile, all he ever learnt was how to stay away from trouble. How come he still ended up being the orchestrator?

In the end they did return and to their surprise Xi Xi was there. Brother Mo had never been so relieved.

That evening Zhao Xing met with Xiao Qi to discuss what they were going to do next.

"So, now that the first plan didn't work, what should we do?" She asked.

Xiao Qi was silent. She too thought about this. "The crown prince already sent people to investigate this before I was aware. Old man Su is truly a difficult man. He's also a man of many secrets. When the Crown Prince first investigated him, he wasn't in this city. But at the time I hadn't been involved in the matter, so I didn't know it was Old Man Su they were looking for. If I knew, I wouldn't have let them do what they did."

Zhao Xing wondered, "Is it because they used force?"

Xiao Qi nodded. "They were too stupid. I've already have them sent to receive their punishment. Old man Su isn't the kind of person that would agree just because you force him to. And now that I know his real identity, it's even more dangerous to use force on this kind of people."

When she got to know that the Crown Prince was actually looking for her own business partner, she quickly asked to help, since they knew each other pretty well. Who would have thought that those people treated the old man in such a way?

He was considered one of her people, so of course she felt it was unfair. But things have already escalated to this point. The Crown Prince told her he would send someone to negotiate and all she had to do was help find the man's granddaughter. And so she could only hope that the 'person' the Crown Prince was sending would be formidable enough to convince the poison master, using finding his granddaughter as the bait.

As Xiao Qi was deep in thought Zhao Xing also thought of a way they could make someone as difficult as the inn owner, Old Man Su to help them.

"Could it be that Old Man Su has other reasons for not wanting to agree?" Xiao Qi said, she seemed to be thinking out loud. Her words pulled Zhao Xing away from her thoughts, it caught her attention as she asked. "Why?"

"Is it not obvious?" Xiao Qi didn't explain further, she herself felt unsure. She just thought there should be a reason why he refused. He had been undercover, and even she didn't know who he actually was, yet he was the one that exposed himself after drinking so much. There was something fishy about it. So she had come up with such a conclusion.

Zhao Xing saw her bringing up that way of speech that was so annoying, and refused to enquire.

"…Xiao Qi ah" Zhao Xing put her hand on her chin with a serious expression, then continued when she had caught her attention. "What if we do it like this…Why don't we just kidnap his daughter, and then use that as bait?"

Her words shocked Xiao Qi who stood up and pointed at her. "You…how can you say this?"

Zhao Xing knew it sounded more like what a villain would say, but she thought about it, and this is what she got as a solution.

"We won't hurt Xi Xi, we'll just hide her some place far from here or something."

Xiao Qi was even more enraged. "How can you just say such words casually? Kidnap her? In your dreams."

Zhao Xing wanted to calmly convince her through arguments. But who would have thought that she'd flare up like this?

"Xiao Qi ah, don't tell me you haven't wounded people or even killed before." Zhao Xing asked as she felt Xiao Qi was being hypocritical.

"What are you talking about? I've never laid my hands on children and never will! Whoever died in my hands were people who were rotten to the bone! They had to die, ok?" Xiao Qi refuted.

"Then what are you whining for? Just to kidnap a child, if the old man still doesn't agree, then we'll just hand the girl back."

"Zhao Xing, have you lost your mind?"