Guasheng, who was just passing by an alley at a leisurely pace, suddenly stopped.

Then he frowned his beautiful eyebrows slightly and turned to look at the alley beside him.

Guasheng and the others are currently located somewhere west of Yoshihara.

Because this place is quite far away from Nakano-machi, it is considered a deserted area in Yoshihara, with not many pedestrians on the road.

Because Gua Sheng paused, the four colleagues who were following Gua Sheng had to stop as well.

"Miss Gua Sheng?" the colleague closest to Gua Sheng asked, "What's wrong?"

"...it smells like blood." Gua Sheng said in a deep voice.

"The smell of blood?"

After hearing Gua Sheng's words, the four people sniffed vigorously.

However, they smelled nothing.

"Miss Guasheng, there is no smell of blood."

"Have you forgotten? I am very sensitive to the smell of blood." Guasheng said in a deep voice, while slowly pulling out the wooden knife from his waist, "Follow me."

After saying that, Guasheng held the wooden knife in his hand without hesitation, walked slowly through the alley beside him, and headed towards the depths of the alley.

These four colleagues of Guasheng looked at each other.

Although they couldn't smell the bloody smell in Guasheng's mouth just now, they still squeezed the long wooden sticks in their hands and quickly followed Guasheng's pace.

This is a fairly long alley.

There is a lot of garbage and sewage on the ground.

Gua Sheng ignored all the garbage and sewage on the ground. He only clenched the wooden knife in his hand, staring at the darkness ahead, and went deeper into the alley bit by bit.

It's not a sunny day tonight.

The moonlight passed through the clouds, which were neither thin nor thick, and hit the ground feebly.

Although the moonlight was not bright, Gua Sheng could still barely see the things in front of him clearly through the faint moonlight.

This alley is not only relatively deep, but also very winding.

After turning two turns in succession, like spring water gushing out from the cracks in the rocks, Gua Sheng gradually and bit by bit saw a strange bulge in front of him.

As Guasheng and others approached, the strange bulge on the ground in front gradually revealed its specific appearance under the outline of the moonlight.

is a person.

There is a man squatting on the ground in front of him.

However, before Guasheng could clearly see the appearance of the man squatting on the ground, the man suddenly ran away.

Seeing this man suddenly running away, Guasheng ran over quickly.

While chasing this man, Guasheng suddenly noticed that there was another person lying where the man was squatting just now.

It's a woman.

Judging from the clothes and decorations, this woman must be a wandering girl from a wandering girl's house.

The head of this wandering girl seemed to be injured, and a lot of blood dripped from the top of her head, dyeing her face with beautiful features bright red.

Although the chest is still rising and falling, the amplitude is quite small.

The clothes on her body were a bit unsatisfactory, and there was a nice-looking cloth bag lying next to her. A few coins were scattered out of the nice-looking cloth bag.

Robbery of wealth...?

Guasheng secretly said this in his heart with a heavy tone.

Gua Sheng, who had caught countless thieves, could tell what was going on at a glance.

The man who escaped just now attacked the poor wandering girl, then dragged her to this hidden place, and then rummaged through her body for money.

"Sanlang! Seungpachi! You two take care of this woman!"

"Tonosuke! Heisaku! You two come with me!"

After quickly giving instructions to his four colleagues, Guasheng clenched the wooden knife in his hand, lowered his body weight, increased his speed to the highest level, and chased the thief who had just escaped.

However, the thief was running extremely fast. Even though Guasheng was running at the highest speed he could achieve, he was unable to shorten the distance between himself and the thief.

After a while, the thief and Guasheng ran out of the alley one behind the other.

After leaving the alley, the surrounding light suddenly became brighter.

Thanks to the brightened environment, Gua Sheng finally saw the thief's face clearly.

A short, middle-aged man with a bald head.

He was wearing a tattered kimono and no shoes or socks on his dirty feet.

The kimono he was wearing was so dirty that even its original color could not be seen.

There was a wakizashi on his belt, and the wakizashi's handle and scabbard were covered in the same disgusting dirt as the man's clothes and body.

Looking at this person's appearance, a name emerged in Guasheng's mind.

It’s Ju Xiaoseng!

No matter from which angle you look at it, the thief's appearance is completely consistent with Ju Xiaoseng's appearance and features.

After Ju Xiaoseng rushed onto the road outside the alley, Guasheng noticed two colleagues standing guard at the intersection not far ahead.

At this time, these two colleagues also noticed the middle-aged man and Gua Sheng who were running towards them one after another.

There is no one in the Shirobei Club who doesn't know Guasheng.

After seeing Gua Sheng chasing a middle-aged man, the two club officials subconsciously thought that this middle-aged man must be another thief who had committed some crime, so they picked up the long wooden sticks in their hands and pointed at the man who was facing the court.

The thieves rushing towards them should go.

"Be careful!" Gua Sheng shouted at his two colleagues, "This person is Ju Xiaoseng!"

Guasheng’s reminder is quite timely.

Just now, after Shirobei learned that Kiku no Monk might be hiding in Yoshiwara, he immediately sent out personnel to patrol various parts of Yoshiwara, and the officers standing guard were on guard against Kiku Kosou.

These two officials had just learned that such a vicious criminal might be hiding in their Yoshihara.

After learning that this thief was the Ju Xiaoseng who alerted the Huofu thieves and rushed to Yoshihara, the two officers cheered up and tightened the long wooden sticks in their hands.

Although these two people have already tensed their nerves.

But...the gap in strength between them and Ju Xiaoseng is really too big.

After Ju Xiaoseng entered their attack range, the two men quickly waved the wooden sticks in their hands and swept towards Ju Xiaoseng.

Facing the two long wooden sticks in front of him that were being swept toward him, Ju Xiaoseng simply ducked his body and dodged the blows.

After dodging the attacks of the two officers, Ju Xiaoseng quickly pulled out the wakizashi from his waist, and then swung two swords in succession.

Kiku-chan was dirty all over his body, but the blade of his wakizashi was as clean as new.

The two sword lights wielded by Ju Xiaoseng swept across the bodies of the two officials in front of him one by one.

The light of the sword passed by, and the two officers screamed in agony and fell softly to the ground.

Perhaps because he was in a hurry to run away and did not have time to take good aim, Ju Xiaoseng's two sword strikes did not hit the vital points, so the lives of these two officials were not in danger for the time being.

Of course, it's just not life-threatening for the time being.

If the bleeding is not stopped in time and the blood is allowed to flow like this, death may still occur.

After seeing that Ju Xiaosheng had injured two of her companions, Guasheng's face darkened, and the hand holding the wooden knife tightened, and the joints began to turn slightly white.

After cutting down the two club officials who were blocking the way, Ju Xiaoseng turned around and turned into a rather deserted path.

And the place where this trail connects... is the bank of the Rashomon River.

…

…

at the same time

Edo, Yoshiwara, Shikiya.

"Eitaro, have you heard about the feat that Zentaro did yesterday?"

"I haven't heard of it, what's wrong with Zentaro?"

"Quintaro's body is very soft. He has been trying to lick his elbow recently. He finally succeeded last night."

Although Asai is responsible for talking, pretending to be like "of the couple, the woman is more talkative and the man is more taciturn", Asai occasionally listens to what Gokutaro is talking to his followers.

Kitaro's voice is very loud, and he does not deliberately control his volume, so even if his eavesdropping skills are not as good as Makimura's, Asai can clearly hear what Kitaro is saying.

Listening to the conversation between Ji Tairou and his follower just now, Asai frowned involuntarily, then lowered his voice and whispered to Makimura at a volume that only he and Makimura could hear clearly:

"Why do they always talk about such boring things...?"

"This is normal. Just continue to listen patiently. Maybe they will say something interesting later."
To be continued...