bookbashuk Chapter 21 Medicine Rope
Chapter 21 Medicine Rope
Mo Qin raised his gun and pressed himself against it.
The first time, it didn't stick.
The gun barrel and the wooden stick collided and shattered.
Zhao Tou's practice stick struck his wrist in one go.
"You call this pestering? This is called giving someone a New Year's greeting!"
The second time, Mo Qin managed to stick to it, but his wrist stiffened, and the gun barrel was instead pulled along by Liu Gao's stick.
Zhao Tou was so angry he almost laughed.
"Are you clinging to a stick or your wife? Why are you hugging her so tightly!"
Liu Gao also grinned.
"Master, I dare not accept that."
"roll."
The third time, the fourth time, the fifth time.
It's still a bit loose, still a bit slippery, and still can't hold on.
Now, Mo Qin was so anxious that sweat began to appear on his forehead, and his hand holding the gun grew hotter and hotter.
At this moment, heat flowed from the dantian into the wrist.
This time, when Liu Gao swung his stick diagonally down, Mo Qin didn't even think, and his wrist trembled slightly.
The next moment, the white wax spear wrapped around the wooden stick, pulling it in...
"Snapped!"
The wooden stick in Liu Gao's hand flew out and rolled a long distance on the ground.
He looked down at his empty hands, then looked up at Mo Qin, his eyes wide with surprise.
"Brother Qin, did you put lard on your hands?"
Mochin himself was stunned.
Just now, my wrist seemed to know how to move on its own.
Zhao Tou stared at Mo Qin and said only one thing.
"One more time."
Taking a breath, Mochin readjusted his gun.
Liu Gao picked up the wooden stick, his face showing some disbelief.
"This time I really messed it up."
"Enough with the nonsense, come on."
The second blow came down.
But this time, the heat didn't come.
The gun barrel collided with the wooden stick, and the impact sent it flying, even numbing his wrist.
Liu Gao felt relieved and grinned foolishly.
"I knew it! I must have lost my balance just now."
When Zhao Tou practiced striking the ground with his stick, he simply said:
"Keep practicing."
Half an hour later, Zhao Tou put away his gun:
"That's enough for today, let's go eat."
Upon hearing this, Mo Qin bowed, turned around and left, not even bothering to be polite.
Liu Gao was laughing heartily behind him.
"Brother Qin is going to raid the kitchen again."
Evening, in the old shed.
Lin Jun squatted on the ground and used a piece of charred wood to draw a picture.
She painted more carefully this time than during the day.
From the kitchen, stables, archery range, firearms shed, and thatched huts, to the veterans' patrol lines and the central army's passageways, every single one was marked.
"Here, in the kitchen."
"This is the stable."
"This is the archery range."
"This is the weapons shed."
Liu Gao was also squatting on the side, scratching his head so hard he was about to burst.
"When I was moving hay today, someone kept staring at me. He was skinny, like a mouse. He'd look at me for a couple of seconds and then leave, but then he'd come back a little while later."
"He's not looking at you."
Lin Jun drew a line over the haystack. "He's watching where you start moving the hay, where you go after you finish, and how long it takes you to come back."
Yan Qi leaned against the pillar of the shed, holding his bow, and still spoke very little.
"West of the archery range. There's someone picking up arrows, but his eyes aren't on the arrows."
After listening, Lin Jun added another point, and the clue connection diagram gradually took shape.
Mo Qin stared at the map for a while, then pointed to the location of the weapons shed.
"Have you noticed that this place is receiving a lot of attention from them?"
Lin Jun slowly said, "An arms depot...?"
Liu Gao scratched his head again, "Then why don't they do it? What are they afraid of?"
Yan Qi suddenly spoke:
"Perhaps the guards were too strong, and they didn't have a chance to strike?"
Mo Qin looked at Yan Qi with a puzzled expression.
"Are these people afraid of Old Man Ding?"
"No way?"
Just then, footsteps came from outside, followed by the voice of a messenger.
"By order of the Central Army! Shen Weijing is approaching. All battalions are to prepare for battle and must not be negligent!"
The footsteps faded into the distance as they went by.
Shen Weijing is almost here; it seems we're getting closer to heading north.
Mo Qin stared at the map on the ground and suddenly smiled.
"OK."
"I'm going to return the medicine container tonight and keep an eye on things while I'm at it."
Having made up his mind, at 9 PM, Mo Qin went to the weapons shed to return the barrels as usual.
Ding Laozu was still alone at the stall, his right hand, missing two fingers, slowly stirring the tinderbox, sparks flickering.
Mo Qin gently put down the medicine bucket, glancing at Lao Ding out of the corner of his eye, and felt that he was no different from usual.
"Looks like I was overthinking it," Old Soldier Ding suddenly said, just as he was about to leave.
"You've been eating a lot lately."
Mochin stopped in his tracks.
"Growing up, that's normal," he replied casually.
Old Ding scoffed, unsure whether he believed it or not.
After a while, he said something as if to himself:
"One bundle of the gunpowder rope used to start the fire is missing."
Upon hearing this, Mochin turned around.
"In all the years I've guarded this shed, I've seen people steal gun barrels, tinder, and copper parts. But this is the first time I've ever seen someone steal the fuse."
This matter is of utmost importance, Mo Qin asked hastily.
"Do you know who took it?"
"If I knew who it was, I'd chop him up myself."
As soon as the fire folding device closed, Old Soldier Ding looked up at Mo Qin.
"If that thing is used in the wrong place, it will cause quite a stir."
"Aren't you guys pretty good at analysis?"
"Then analyze it more. Don't wait until it actually explodes to know where to run."
After saying that, he lowered his head again, as if he hadn't said anything at all.
Mochin did not ask any further questions.
He seems to be a riddle-maker, never revealing his true intentions.
It's already a lot if you're willing to tell yourself even half a sentence.
Back at the old shed, Lin Jun was still awake.
After hearing Mo Qin's words, she simply drew an X on the weapons shed.
"They're going to blow this place up!"
Mochin sat down against a pillar.
"I'm afraid this is just one of them. What I'm more interested in now is whether this is a feint."
Lin Jun stared at the picture for a long time before saying:
"I have no idea."
"But at least half of the space can be cleared out."
The two couldn't reach a conclusion, so they decided to rest first.
The shed gradually quieted down.
Liu Gao's snoring was deafening. Yan Qi leaned against the wall with her eyes closed, it was unclear whether she was asleep or not.
Mo Qin lay on the dry grass, his lower abdomen still faintly warm.
A private message popped up in the bottom right corner of the channel.
"Old Mo, I want to eat fish."