"Hua Chu?!"
"Shh…" Aether quickly reached out and covered Hu Tao's mouth.
But unfortunately, it seemed they were still a step too late; the two people still turned their heads and looked over.
"Hua… uh, I think this painting shouldn't be released, it can't be released, it can't be released…" Aether quickly changed her posture from covering Hu Tao's mouth to patting Hu Tao's shoulder.
"Ah… ah, yes, yes, my friend, you're right. Then I won't release this painting…" Hu Tao also reacted, her expression slightly stiff as she spoke.
She didn't know if those two people had noticed or not, but they stared at Hu Tao for a moment before turning their heads back, seemingly no longer paying attention to the situation here.
Aether also breathed a sigh of relief at this.
"Looking at their reaction, maybe that girl really is Hua Chu," Aether lowered her head, pretending to drink tea, but actually whispered to Hu Tao.
"She seems to match the physical description we got, but who is that man?" Hu Tao also lowered her head, frowning as she spoke.
"Didn't De'an tell you that his daughter fell for a poor boy, and De'an always disagreed with the marriage, which led to Hua Chu trying to commit suicide out of despair…"
"Ah, you mean!" Hu Tao's eyes widened.
At this point, anyone should be able to figure it out.
It must be that seeing the marriage was impossible and without De'an's support, they came up with a plan to escape, eloping directly.
It's just that the origin of that female corpse is unknown. If they bought or stole it through some means, that would be relatively okay, but what if they deliberately murdered her…
In any case, these two people absolutely cannot be allowed to leave now.
"What should we do? Should we just go up and catch them both?" Hu Tao glanced at the nearby stall again, then asked.
This matter was still unclear, but if it really was the worst-case scenario, then these two people would be criminals. Apprehending criminals wasn't their duty, but since they encountered them, it was naturally their inescapable responsibility.
"Don't rush, we can't be 100% sure that person is Hua Chu yet. I'll find a way to greet them in a bit and ask about the situation," Aether shook her head.
Although from the reactions of those two and other small details, it could be confirmed that the girl was Hua Chu, it would be very awkward if they were wrong.
So it was best to confirm it.
"Okay," Hu Tao nodded, naturally having no objection.
The two drank tea for a while longer, and seeing that the time was about right, Aether decided to act.
She slowly got up and moved closer to the two people.
"Cough, hello, excuse me…" Aether hadn't finished speaking when the two people exchanged glances, a peculiar emotion flashing in their eyes.
Their hands, hidden under the table, quickly darted out, then threw something over, aiming directly for Aether's eyes.
"Aether, watch out!" Hu Tao's voice came from afar.
"!"
But Aether's reaction was also very fast. She instantly stepped back and pulled out her baseball bat, batting the two objects away.
However, what she didn't expect was that the moment the bat hit the objects, the two small things exploded, and a huge amount of smoke instantly billowed out, filling the entire tea stall.
"Let's run!"
"Hey, you… *cough, cough cough*!" Aether covered her mouth and nose, her brows tightly furrowed, but her vision was heavily obscured, and she couldn't see anything clearly.
At the same time, what was worse, the tea stall in front of her also fell into a certain degree of chaos due to the smoke. There were many customers at the tea stall, and in such chaos, Aether simply didn't have time to stop the two people.
"Wow! What happened over there?!" Paimon couldn't help but exclaim. That tea stall in the distance was completely enveloped in black smoke.
"Did it catch fire?" Lumine also frowned. Looking at such a large amount of black smoke, if it was a fire, the blaze would probably be very difficult to control.
"You all quickly go and control the scene," Yelan raised an eyebrow. She could tell at a glance that it was definitely not as simple as a fire.
"Yes!" A squad of Millelith soldiers beside them immediately rushed towards the distant tea stall.
"Let's go take a look too," Yelan then said to Lumine and Paimon.
"Mhm!"
"How could such a big tea stall catch fire…" Paimon flew beside Lumine, covering her nose to avoid inhaling the thick smoke.
"That's not a fire, but a smoke bomb deliberately thrown by someone," Yelan said slowly.
"Smoke bomb?"
"Mhm, the kind the Treasure Hoarders usually use to escape, but this one is clearly a version with an increased dose… Heh, interesting," Yelan's eyes narrowed slightly.
Could it be that the suspects already knew they had been tracked here, and deliberately created some chaos to delay their progress?
However, all investigations into this matter were conducted privately by them. Aside from asking De'an for some information, they hadn't revealed anything to anyone.
Even if those two knew, they absolutely couldn't have calculated their arrival time here.
It seemed some other situation had occurred.
Soon, the few of them also arrived at the scene.
It was a complete mess here.
Although it was just an oversized smoke bomb and not some harmful gas, the dosage was too large, causing a certain degree of chaos. In their panic, people still made this already small tea stall into a complete mess.
"This smoke bomb, I'm afraid it's going to cost that old man quite a bit of money."
Just as they were looking around, a familiar voice instantly caught their attention.
"Ah! It's Aether and Hu Tao!" Paimon was the first to spot the two.
Aether and Hu Tao's attention was also drawn by Paimon's voice.
"It's Lumine and Paimon, and there's an unfamiliar woman next to her…" Hu Tao looked over, an expression of surprise appearing on her face.
She had thought this squad of Millelith was just passing by coincidentally, but she didn't expect to find acquaintances.
However, Aether didn't reply. Hu Tao couldn't help but turn her head in confusion.
"Aether?"
Aether's eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the unfamiliar woman beside Lumine. Hu Tao tilted her head, but quickly understood what was going on.
"Aether, are you already looking for your second target in Liyue so soon?" Hu Tao put her hands on her hips, pouting as she spoke to Aether.
"Ah? No, no, I just feel like that lady looks a bit familiar…" Aether quickly shook her head and said to Hu Tao.
To be honest, the number of beautiful girls she knew seemed to have already exceeded two digits. No matter how good-looking the woman opposite was, it wouldn't cause her to stand there dumbfounded.
She truly had this inexplicable sense of familiarity, but couldn't pinpoint exactly why.
How strange…
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