Chapter 140 - Hunting

Feng Xuan could not get it off her mind. What was Qing Chen doing tonight? Was he going to scrub every inch of his body clean? What could cause him to be late? Was he going to catch up on his journal entries?

Now that she thought about it, she hadn't done those in a while. Her nights were filled with their readings together. She wasn't even surprised that she hadn't dreamt about the woods again ever since Qing Chen slept with her in the bedroom.

It was a hassle to share the bed. Her body was seeking every inch of space to rest, but those extra inches were taken over by Qing Chen body. Even though her body didn't feel fully rested in the mornings, she would take it than a night in another nightmare.

Feng Xuan was more than sure that it was also tasking for Qing Chen to sleep next to her in their small cot. Sometimes, only half of his body was on the bed. She could only imagine the soreness he must feel in the mornings.

She decided to sit down and write. She recounted all the other learnings she had picked up in the library. She talked about her daily woes and pains. When her wrist and fingers started to ache, she found that she wanted to tear the pages apart and write about the nice time she and Qing Chen had whenever the day was over.

She put her pen down and decided to come up to him and see what he was doing. She slipped her shoes on and carefully made her way to the wall. Only when she arrived there, she found his room empty.

**

Qing Chen was walking in the woods. It had taken some time to find the supply closet of the place. The flashlights were stuck in some corner—clearly making it impossible to reach and find to discourage wandering at night. It had been a pain to get and he was on very limited time. Master took a siesta time in the afternoon for a whole hour and Qing Chen took a little more than that to come find Feng Xuan and find the stupid flashlight.

He turned it on and the stream of light illuminated the path that he was walking on. He wasn't even sure this was the same way that Shao Fang had been walking on the night before. He had been too far to see on which opening the other guy went in. He was merely trusting his guts to find whatever it was he needed to find there.

Without an object in mind, it was certainly hard to do. There was nothing suspicious about the woods. It was dark and cold. The moonlight poured on small patches over the leaves and the trees swayed with the wind. It was eerie. Qing Chen had never learned to fear anything that was already dead or any creatures you could only read about in books, but the hairs on his arms was telling him otherwise.

There was something in here. He just had to find it. Why else would Shao Fang go here? It did not look like he was meeting with somebody and there were no other light if he recalled perfectly. Shao Fang was alone.

If he was going to do something in these woods, it would only be one thing. He had to be hiding something. What was it? A weapon perhaps? A bomb? But there were lots in the building. Surely, Master would not miss one of them with the enormous amount that this facility had.

What else were forbidden inside? Communication devices! He had to be hiding a phone here or something that could send messages without the need of electricity. A letter? Then that would mean that someone had to get it and leave a reply.

Qing Chen suddenly wished he paid more attention when they were being thought how to hunt. He knew that one of the most needed assassin skill was hunting. But in this time and age, did one really need to know about certain patterns at the floor or how disheveled a room was to know where the person was headed? They got cameras everywhere. If you would be patient enough, you would find what you were looking for.

Qing Chen was still chiding himself about his hatred for hunting when he saw something on the grass. There was nothing concrete on it. Just that some of them were pressed to the ground. Like they had been walked upon. He put his foot next to it and saw that it looked like a footprint. 

He pointed the flashlight on the surrounding area and saw more patches like the one he was standing on. He sent a silent prayer to his passed away trainer before continuing to follow the pattern. He had already unsheathed a small dagger from his back.

If someone had been walking here, they could cross paths sooner or later. Qing Chen was wishing that everything was just a hoax. That nothing was really here and that he was only dreaming when he saw Shao Fang enter here. That everything was well. Everyone knew they needed a short break. Another thing, he did not want to harm anybody else. He had reached his limit for this month when Feng Xuan had been kidnapped. He just wanted to keep the body count as lowest as possible.

But it seemed like the world was really trying him.

Qing Chen's eyebrows furrowed as the steps suddenly grew farther apart. Each one farther than the last. What was happening? Who had legs that long? Not even his legs would be able to match that pace. Then he realized how... jumping. The one walking suddenly started jumping.

He reached another patch and then lighted the area looking for the next one. It was only a split-second later when he realized where the person was.

The person was above him.