Chapter 134 - Hide and Seek
Yuzu stared at the bottle in disbelief as Char Char flashed a victorious smile, “Now even if we don’t figure out how to deal with what’s inside the bottle, at least it can’t hurt my grandpa!”
It took all of Yuzu’s self control to stop herself from loudly berating Char Char right then and there.
“We need to get that bottle back into its spot!” Yuzu hissed.
“Why? That’s not going to fix anything.” Char Char said.
“Didn’t I tell you that someone set the bottle as a trap?” Yuzu facepalmed, “If they find out that their plan was foiled, they might start looking for us.”
“Then let them look for us.” Char Char struck a defiant pose, before frowning, “Who is ‘they’, anyways?”
“That’s not important-” Yuzu grumbled, but was suddenly interrupted as Char Char put her gloved fingers up to Yuzu’s lips.
“Shh! Someone’s coming!” Char Char whispered. Her eyes glanced at the corner of the wall as if she were looking through it into the main hallway beyond, then dropped to the bottle in her hand. “Oh no! We need to hide this somewhere!”
“Let’s go back to the cellar.” Yuzu activated her spiritual vision and saw that a white thread was indeed approaching them. She was about to turn around when Char Char grabbed her by the shoulder.
“There’s no time. Quick, sit down!” Char Char said, leading Yuzu to a chair that was next to a door. She crouched down placing the bottle of wine underneath the chair to hide it behind the layered folds of Yuzu’s dress.
Yuzu was about to protest when the pointy black shoes of a man rounded the corner. As soon as Yuzu saw the extra tall top hat on the man’s head she recognized him as Corbin Nao, one of the two Exalted that had come to Sansen’s aide in her vision.
Char Char dropped the hem of Yuzu’s dress and hurriedly stood up straight.
Corbin’s eyebrows raised in curiousity as he spotted them, “Oh? And what are you girls doing over here?”
“Ah, well. We’re just having a chat.” Char Char said.
“Away from the party? You know you shouldn’t be back here, it isn’t proper. As the host’s grand daughter you shouldn’t be hiding yourself away.” Corbin snuffed.
“No one asked you!” Char Char rebutted, crossing her arms.
Corbin glanced at Yuzu, who subconsciously sat up a bit straighter on the chair under his gaze. He looked down at the bottom of her dress, as if suspecting something, “Is anything wrong, miss Xing?”
“Just resting my feet.” Yuzu replied with a thin smile.
Corbin nodded, a thoughtful look on his face, “Are you unwell? I can have you escorted to one of the guest rooms if you need to leave the party.”
As an infrequent guest of the Zhaos over the years, Corbin was aware of Yuzu and her condition. He didn’t give a second thought to her claim of needing a rest.
“It’s fine.” Char Char interjected, “We’ll head back to the party soon, so go away.”
“Ah, but I was actually looking for you.” Corbin Nao ignored Char Char’s brusque manner, “Your grandfather wants to introduce you to some of his business partners. Come along, I won’t let you out of my sight.”
Char Char’s lips turned upward in a pout as she glared at the man, who had a glint of superiority in his otherwise neutral expression.
Yuzu had never interacted with Corbin Nao before, but the animosity between the two was clear as crystal.
“F-fine.” Char Char said, “Yuzu, you can rest here for a bit if you want.”
She met Yuzu’s gaze briefly, with the tiniest glance down to the bottle hidden beneath Yuzu’s dress. Yuzu read her intentions easily - If you get up now, Corbin will find out.
“I’ll just rest for a few more minutes, then.” Yuzu nodded, “Go on without me.”
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“Please pardon me for separating the two of you.” Corbin tipped his hat to Yuzu in a gentlemanly fashion, “If you need anything, miss Xing, just let any of the serving staff know.”
He then turned to Char Char with a grouchy expression and motioned sharply with his head toward the main corridor, “Go on, then.”
“Hmph! Don’t act like you’re my boss. I’m only going because grandpa is asking for me.” Char Char retorted as she quickly strode past Corbin, taking the lead.
Corbin rolled his eyes as he followed behind Char Char. Just before he turned the corner he gave another polite bow to Yuzu, who nodded her head in return.
In a subtle motion Yuzu took Corbin’s white string and twirled it around her finger, latching on to it. Even as he and Char Char walked away, by keeping a hold of his string she was able to keep track of him for later.
Yuzu tried to do the same with Char Char’s thread, but it turned smoky and passed through her fingers when she tried to grasp hold of it. Yuzu sighed, wondering how Char Char kept managing to mess everything up for her, even though she was supposed to be on The Maiden’s side.
The corridor was busy with servants as Yuzu sat on the chair ‘resting’. They passed back and forth with trays, napkins and other items, giving Yuzu sideways glances but not disturbing her.
Yuzu observed the strings, not in a rush to stand up. In a few minutes the hallway would be clear again, giving Yuzu time to grab the bottle from under the chair and head back to the cellar. With Char Char occupied by her duties, surely Yuzu would be able to set things back without interruption.
Another trio of servants walked around the corner. Yuzu averted her eyes, continuing her act of resting, however one of the servants caught her attention. After discreetly glancing over to him she realized who it was - It was the wide-nosed servant who had been hypnotized by Markus Gantt!
Yuzu had a bad feeling as she quickly examined his string, peering into the near future. Sure enough, he was on a direct course to the wine cellar with the others. In the vision she saw him gather a number of wine bottles, then hang back afterward to quickly check the shelf where the bottle of Scarlet Ambrosia had been placed.
A look of panic struck the servant’s face as he checked the bottles on the shelf, looking for the special wine.
“Oh no, oh no…” He muttered.
“Peng, are you coming?” His companions called from halfway up the stairs.
“Be right there-” He called back, grabbing his tray of bottles as he glanced around one more time, cursing under his breath.
~
Yuzu released the vision.
The servants walked past her, barely paying any attention to her.
Yuzu’s first instinct was to grasp onto the three threads of the servants and pull them away, but as she did so her spiritual intuition rang out sharper than it had the entire evening. Yuzu felt that there was in incredible danger with altering the string of the wide nosed servant. Her hands clenched in anxiety as she watched the servants walk away.
If she changed the actions of the servant, Gantt would know. This is what her intuition told her. Furthermore if Gantt became aware of her here, she’d be in immediate danger. Otherwise her intuition would not give such an alarm.
However, if Yuzu didn’t stop the servant from discovering that the wine was missing, then Gantt would also know that something was wrong.
Yuzu found herself cursing Char Char under her breath.
But no, it wasn’t her friend’s fault. It was her own for letting things progress this way. She should have been more careful and not let Char Char follow her into the cellar. She should have noticed that Char Char hadn’t set down the bottle when they ran out of the cellar.
“I need to come up with a different plan.” Yuzu muttered, “He hasn’t discovered me yet… So there’s still a chance to avoid disaster.”
The good news was that at the very least, the planned assassination of Sansen Zhao couldn’t proceed normally. Since there was nothing Yuzu could do about the missing bottle being discovered, then the bottle itself was not important.
When the hallway was clear, Yuzu reached under the chair, taking out the bottle. There were a few wooden boxes along the walls holding various items that were being used for the party. Yuzu stuffed the bottle inside one that was filled with white table cloths and closed the lid.
Then she ran her hand along the bottle’s golden string, flicking off all the strings that had begun to wrap themselves around it. This effectively warded off people from finding it for the rest of the night.
Yuzu carefully examined all the strings in the area to make sure that the linen box wouldn’t be touched for the rest of the night. As far as she could tell the bottle would be safe, but the frown on her lips didn’t fade. Being able to see the future was incredibly powerful, but her powers clearly had limitations and blind spots.
After some thought Yuzu pulled the wine bottle out of the linen box with a dissatisfied frown.
“Surely, I can do better.” She mumbled.
She walked down the corridor, entering an unlocked door. Yuzu found herself in a long, cramped room filled with extra tables, chairs and other furniture. Yuzu had chosen this room out of the others in the hallway as it was a room that no one had entered or would enter for the rest of the night.
Yuzu opened the drawer of a cabinet stuffed in the corner of the room and stuffed the bottle in it. After closing the drawer she shifted a box to block the cabinet and stepped back.
Unlike the linen box in the corridor, there were no threads to manipulate in the room. The only thread in the room was her own.
It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do.
At a certain timing Yuzu left the room and headed toward the main corridor. She turned the corner into the conveniently empty hall, casually stepped past the ropes blocking off the servant’s wing. The next thing she planned to do was head back to the ballroom balcony to observe how the future had changed, now that the murder weapon was hidden away.
The sounds of the chatter and music grew as Yuzu rejoined the party, passing by guests who didn’t give her a second glance. As she walked she carefully watched the strings in the hall, keeping an eye out for any significant changes. As Yuzu approached a staircase heading down to the main floor she sensed that something was off with a group of four golden threads. Her eyes narrowed as she ran her fingers along the threads, quickly reading the future.
Her lips grew taut as she changed her plans and headed down the stairs after the strings.