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Ogata was galloping along a deserted street in Edo with melons on his back.

Because Guasheng was injured and could not run fast, Ogata ran with Guasheng on his back.

Guasheng is not only petite, but also weighs very little.

For Ogata, whose strength is now up to 14 points, carrying a melon on his back is no different than carrying a cat.

"Are your feet cold?"

Ogata lowered his eyes and glanced at the melon's feet behind him.

Because Guaou was only wearing a thin white yukata, before Ogata left Yoshihara with Guaou on his back, he took off the dark blue haori he was wearing and lent it to Guaou.

But Haori could only protect Gua Sheng's upper body, but could not protect Gua Sheng's feet without socks.

"Well...fortunately, it's not very cold." Gua Sheng said softly.

Guasheng turned her gaze sideways and glanced at Ogata's profile, who was very close to her.

"Mashima-kun...why did you come to my house just now?" Gua Sheng said slowly in a hesitant tone.

"I just met an injured uncle by chance." Ogata told the truth, "He said that a girl named Xiu Guashou who works at Yoshiwara Shirobei Club is in danger and asked me to rescue you quickly."

"So I came."

"Are you injured?" Gua Sheng's eyes widened. She had instantly guessed who this uncle was, "Mashima-kun, is he okay?"

"My friend should have taken him to a safe place by now and called a doctor to treat his injuries."

Speaking of this, Ogata turned his head and looked at Gua Sheng lying on his back.

"Miss Guasheng, tell me how you got into trouble with the ninjas in Shiranui."

"Did you know that the group of people just now were ninjas from Shiranui?" Surprise appeared on Gua Sheng's face.

"For some complicated reasons, I am quite familiar with Shiranui. Like Enma, Shintaro and Jitaro of the 'Four Heavenly Kings', etc. I have heard of their names."

"...You actually know Ji Tairou." Gua Sheng bit his lower lip and remained silent.

After being silent for a while, Guasheng said softly in a calm tone:

"I used to be... the daughter of a swordsman in Kamakura..."

"I have a pair of kind parents and a gentle brother."

"Although life is not rich, I still have enough food and clothing."

"Then... four years ago, when I was 12 years old, something happened..."

"My father is a very helpful and enthusiastic person."

"When he went out one day four years ago, he met two young men who were chasing an old man."

"My father, who hated evil so much, fought off the two young men and saved the old man."

"I found out afterwards... those two young men... were ninjas from Shiranui."

"That old man was an assassination target who was entrusted by someone to assassinate the ninjas in Shiranui."

"My father fought off their ninjas and saved the old man, causing their mission to fail, which angered Shiranui..."

"In order to retaliate, they decided to kill this ungrateful guy and all his family members."

Although Gua Sheng's tone was still calm, Ogata could feel Gua Sheng's arms around his neck slowly tightening.

"The person sent by Shiranui to take revenge is Jitarō, one of the 'Four Heavenly Kings'."

"Jutarou is famous for his bloodthirsty. The other three of the 'Four Heavenly Kings' may not have killed as many people together as he did."

"That night...Gokutaro broke into his father's sword hall alone."

"My father and my brother... are no match for Kitaro."

"While my father and brother were holding Kitaro, my mother stuffed me into a cabinet."

"It was a special cabinet. There was a tunnel hidden at the bottom of the cabinet. It was an escape tunnel that my father had commissioned a friend to create out of fun."

"My mother told me at that time: 'You go first, I will follow you later'."

"But I could tell at that time that my mother was completely lying. After stuffing me into the cabinet, she also wanted to do her best to hold back Ji Tairou and buy me time to escape like my father and brother did..."

"As soon as my mother stuffed me into the cabinet, I passed through the gap in the cabinet and saw Kitaro walking into the room with a bleeding knife..."

"I saw with my own eyes how Ji Taro killed my mother..."

"I was completely shocked..."

"After seeing my mother being killed, I was completely stupid and got into the escape passage in the cupboard and ran for my life..."

Ogata clearly felt Gua Sheng's arms around his neck trembling slightly.

"After I ran away until I had no strength to run anymore, I realized belatedly that I had no family anymore..."

"But maybe it's because I shouldn't have taken my life... Not long after I saved my life, I happened to meet Mr. Shirobei who was on a business trip to Kamakura for some official business."

"I told Lord Shirobei what happened to me. Lord Shirobei sympathized with me for becoming an orphan, so he brought me to Edo."

"So I started working at the Shirobei Club..."

"Shirobei-sama changed my name for me in order to protect me from possible pursuit."

“The original ‘Gua Shenghui’ was changed to the current ‘Gua Shengxiu’.”

"Although I managed to survive in secret, I have never forgotten the hatred of my family being killed."

"I was practicing my sword skills while investigating who was the person who killed my family."

"The weapons used by the people who killed my whole family were two swords. Very few people use these weapons. In addition, I clearly remember the appearance of the murderer. It took me nearly three years until the end of last year to find out.

I finally found out that the person who killed my family was the 'Four Heavenly Kings' Gokutaro in Shiranui..."

"After learning that my enemy was a behemoth like Shiranui... To be honest, I was very desperate at the time."

A wry smile slowly appeared on Guasheng's face.

Melon's eye sockets were also slightly red at this time.

"Not long after I learned that my enemy was Shiranui, I met Gokutaro again."

"A few months ago, after Shiranui moved his base to Edo, Kitaro would come to Yoshiwara every night to have fun."

"I recognized this person at first sight as the enemy who killed my parents and brother."

"Every time I see him in Yoshiwara, I want to go up with a knife and kill him..."

"But I know this is just wishful thinking."

"I understand very well that even after four years of hard training, I still can't be the opponent of Kitaro who could easily kill his father."

"If you rush forward with a sword to take revenge, you will definitely die."

"While I was holding back, I was thinking about ways to take revenge on Kitaro and Shiranui."

"Then...I met someone by chance."

"A... shinobi from Shiranui who happened to be on a mission near Yoshiwara."

"Although he is a ninja in Shiranui, he hates Shiranui extremely."

"I met him by chance. After we got to know each other, he proposed to me that we should work together to help the 'Ku' in Shiranui escape from Shiranui."

"He always wanted to help those poor dirt."

"But he suffers from the lack of support from people outside the village, and it is difficult to completely send 'Ku' away from under Shiranui's nose."

"So he hopes that I, who also has a grudge against Shiranui, can help."

"Thanks to him, I found a way to take revenge on Shiranui."

A smile finally appeared on Guasheng's face.

"'Ku' is an important labor force in Shiranui."

"Once the number of 'Ku' decreases, the daily operations of Shiranui will be greatly affected."

"To reduce the labor force in Shiranui, destroy the daily operations of Shiranui, and free the people who are oppressed by Shiranui - this is the only revenge that I, who have no strength, can carry out."

"So that person and I started to cooperate and started our own unique way of revenge."

"That person found an extremely secret passage out of the village in Shiranui."

"He will first help Kuu take this passage out of the village and leave Shiranui."

"Then I, who is familiar with Edo and can move freely outside Shiranui, will help Kuu leave Edo."

"That person and I have helped a lot of 'Ku' escape in the past few months."

"It's a pity that the fact that we helped 'Zu' escape was exposed."

"After that person got wind of it, he defected from Shiranui before he was arrested, and then found me."
To be continued...