The performance was well underway when Kang Xian came down from the main building ship, returned to his own vessel, greeted some people on the first floor, then went upstairs and exchanged pleasantries with the younger generation he encountered. Looking towards the painted boat, he noticed something peculiar.

Two pairs of people were actually watching the performance and playing chess by the windows.

"It's strange, every time I see you, you're always the most relaxed, you young rascal, it's infuriating. The ladies below are performing their hearts out, and you're here dividing your attention, aren't you afraid of being called a waste of a good seat?" Kang Xian never missed an opportunity to needle Ning Yi, but when he saw the chessboard, he asked, puzzled, "Hmm, this game is truly strange..."

Turning his head to look at the window on the other side, the two siblings' chessboard was equally odd. The older sister frowned in annoyance, pondering over her pieces, while the younger brother looked gleeful: "Sister, if you don't block here, you're going to lose."

Kang Xian had never seen such a situation before. After Ning Yi explained the rules of this game of Gomoku (Five in a Row) with a smile, he suddenly understood, "You always manage to find things like this to play." Going over to take a look, the older sister had already lost. Upon seeing Kang Xian, one called out, "Grand-uncle." the other, "Grandfather-in-law." Kang Xian then smiled and introduced them to each other.

"It seems you've already met. This is Ning Yi, Ning Liheng, whom you often ask about... Liheng, these two are junior members of my family, the older sister is Xiao Pei, and the younger brother is Jun Wu, thirteen and eleven years old respectively. Xiao Pei is a famous talented woman in the family, and she's long been unconvinced by you."

Kang Xian introduced them happily, but the two children's faces darkened, especially the older sister, who turned her head away, quite displeased. The younger brother complained, "Grand-uncle, he tricked me earlier by saying he wasn't Ning Liheng."

Kang Xian was slightly taken aback, and after hearing the whole story, he laughed, "You started testing people as soon as you arrived, of course, it wouldn't end well. You should remember this lesson... Liheng as well, always acting like a child king, only thinking about how to amuse the children... Uh, Xiao Pei, Jun Wu, do you have any more questions you want to ask now? I guarantee he'll answer them."

The older sister named Xiao Pei turned her head and said, "Hmph, afraid people will test him, must be insecure about his lack of real knowledge. I've already come to a conclusion, so I won't ask!" She said, walking to the side to pack up the Go stones. Jun Wu then smiled as well: "Then I won't ask either, I'll go play chess with my sister." In the past, when playing Go, he always lost to his sister, but after learning this Gomoku, he had won several games in a row, and his dislike for Ning Yi had lessened. Xiao Pei's displeasure with Ning Yi probably came half from Gomoku, but she was also tenacious, and was now continuing to play Gomoku with her brother, wanting to master it and directly turn the tables.

Since someone had come to talk, Xiao Chan had already gotten up from her seat. Kang Xian smiled and sat down on the chair, looking at the remaining pieces of the Gomoku game and casually dropping one. He laughed, "It's quite interesting, Xiao Chan calls you 'Uncle-in-law,' they have to call me 'Grand-uncle,' and people used to call me 'Imperial Son-in-law,' now they call me 'Grandfather-in-law,' haha, this matter of seniority, just adding a word makes you a generation older..."

Then, remembering something, he signaled to the two children over there and lowered his voice: "Kang Wang Zhou Yong's two children, they always praise you to the skies, and have wanted to meet you for a long time. Pei'er is indeed a talented woman of the Zhou family, proficient in poetry, literature, and various skills that she masters quickly. The most amazing thing is her mathematics. Last year, when the family was balancing the accounts, the little girl casually grabbed a ledger and calculated all the numbers without using an abacus, with no mistakes. The younger brother, Jun Wu, is slightly less talented, and having such a capable sister, he's often ordered around, haha, quite amusing..."

Ning Yi looked back, the girl named Zhou Pei was facing them, frowning as she pondered her move, and couldn't help but glare at Ning Yi. Ning Yi smiled: "It seems she's found the only game she can beat her sister at."

The performance continued below, and Kang Xian naturally couldn't stay here with the younger generation all the time. After playing half a game of the remaining Gomoku, and roughly understanding what Gomoku was about, he left. Afterwards, Ning Yi and Xiao Chan watched the performance, while the siblings next to them continued to play Gomoku. The girl named Zhou Pei was quite strange, if she couldn't win a few games, she wouldn't suggest switching to Go or simply stop playing, but instead kept playing until, in the end, it seemed she had slightly turned the tide.

The night's performance came to a satisfying conclusion, and then the appearance of the four leading courtesans was announced with great fanfare. They were Feng Xiaojing, the previous Flower Queen, Qi Lan, supported by the Puyang family, Yuan Jin'er of Golden Wind Tower, and a newcomer named Luo Miaomiao. Lu Caicai, one of the four leading courtesans last year, had been dropped from the list.

Ning Yi was just there to watch the performance, and these rankings were irrelevant to him. In any case, he found the performance quite enjoyable, everything went smoothly tonight, and then the entire venue began to empty. Some people were still socializing and building relationships, while most were heading towards the exit. After Ning Yi and Xiao Chan disembarked, they faintly heard some commotion coming from the entrance. Hearing others talking about it, it seemed that a group of supporters of Lu Caicai were unhappy and had an argument with others, resulting in a small-scale brawl.

This kind of thing was not uncommon, happening in varying degrees almost every year, but the problem wasn't too big. The soldiers maintaining order had already rushed over and would probably quell it soon. On the main building ship, many dignitaries were exchanging pleasantries. In fact, for many people, tonight's excitement and revelry were not over yet, and there were still banquets to attend afterwards. Kang Xian was also saying goodbye to people over there, and when Ning Yi and Xiao Chan walked over, he smiled and told them not to rush off, "My ship is also going back, it wouldn't hurt to go together later. You two didn't drive here, if you walk back, you might get tired."

Groups of people gathered and dispersed in the distance, and the lights began to stretch from the road towards Jiangning City. After a moment, the crowd here thinned out, and another accident happened on the side of Ning Yi's vision. Perhaps because the weather was a bit hot, someone in a large tent behind the stage must have knocked over a candle, and a fire broke out on the riverbank, igniting the tent and the surrounding objects, burning fiercely.

People from the various brothels ran out from that side. Fortunately, there weren't many people in this area anymore. Those who remained were mostly socializing celebrities, officials, dignitaries, their followers, soldiers, and a few audience members who hadn't left, so there wouldn't be any stampede. Someone was giving orders: "Quick, put out the fire..." Many people went over there. Ning Yi thought of Nie Yunzhu, and told Xiao Chan to stay here for a while, and followed them. On the way, he met Nie Yunzhu coming towards them. As for Yuan Jin'er, she had become one of the four leading courtesans and was going to a celebration party. At this moment, she was surrounded by a large group of people on the other side, but she was fine.

"That's the Piao Xiang Courtesan's big tent, far away from us. It was just a little scary when I heard there was a fire. But actually, no one was burned, everyone ran out, but the tent is so big, it won't be easy to put out the fire now..."

From a distance, the fire on the riverbank looked alarming, mainly because the tent was large and there were many objects around. But it was unlikely to spread too far. At this time, it was just watching the magnificent scene of a group of people bravely fighting the fire. Ning Yi returned to the hillside, found Xiao Chan, and leisurely looked back to watch the show. Everything was normal tonight, and this fire wouldn't cause any impact. In that case, he would just wait to go back.

He stood there thinking, almost yawning, when a gust of cool wind rushed towards them, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind, causing him to pause for a long time.

His eyes looked down at the fire, then at the crowd here, searching for a target, and some clues became three-dimensional in his mind. That's right... When the fire broke out just now, the commander of the Wu Lie Army, Chen Yong, shouted: "You go put out the fire..." He was calling not only the yamen soldiers who were maintaining order, but also a part of his personal guards, who were now active around the fire...

The reason for calling them over was because the large crowd outside was leaving, and there was that brawl, the yamen's arrangements couldn't keep up for a while, and there weren't many soldiers here at this time...

"That's the Piao Xiang Courtesan's big tent..." Yunzhu had said. Piao Xiang Courtesan, earlier, this Chen Yong of the Wu Lie Army was supporting the top courtesan of Piao Xiang Courtesan, and at this time, that courtesan... Ning Yi turned his head to look... The top courtesan of Piao Xiang Courtesan was standing next to Chen Yong... That's why he called his personal guards over...

He couldn't find Song Xian, Song Xian probably had something to do, and was preparing to leave to handle it when the crowd dispersed. Then the fire broke out, Chen Yong ordered his personal guards to put out the fire, and Song Xian left a part of his personal guards, and had already left...

A strong wind blew over, and on the riverbank in the distance, the wind helped the fire, suddenly raising the flames. Ning Yi's face was dimly lit, last night when he was in the crowd, he had considered many plans, if he wanted to kill Song Xian, how should he do it. But the situation last night was different from now, he hadn't thought about these things tonight, but now that he thought about it, if he wanted to kill Song Xian, if these two small accidents weren't coincidences...

After a moment, he took Xiao Chan's hand and walked towards Kang Xian not far away. Xiao Chan's face was flushed red: "Uncle... Uncle-in-law..."

"Old Kang, do you have a carriage prepared here?"

"Liheng, is something the matter?"

"I remembered something urgent, I'm afraid I have to go back with Xiao Chan first."

"Alright." Kang Xian didn't say much and nodded, "I'll have Ah Gui take you over."

Soon after, a carriage with the emblem of the Imperial Son-in-law's mansion left the venue and turned onto the main road. Although there were many pedestrians returning to Jiangning on both sides of the road at this time, the center of the official road was still left empty, allowing the carriage to proceed at a medium speed. Ning Yi occasionally cracked the whip, his eyes looking towards Jiangning City at the end of the road. The front of this crowd dispersing from the gathering had already begun to approach the city gate...

Two carriages with the Wu Lie Army emblem drove into Jiangning City and traveled through the city.

At this time, the competition on Bailuzhou had ended not long ago, and most people had not yet returned to Jiangning. It was also getting late, and those who stayed in Jiangning had probably already gone to sleep. The two carriages passed through the brightly lit or dark city streets, heading towards the city gate on the other side of the city. The sound of wheels and horse hooves, clip-clop, scattered and rapidly left the brightly lit or dark road behind them. After about halfway there, this was a relatively open but quiet road, the shops on both sides had already closed, various racks, garbage, and signs, some rooms revealed light, and a few dimly lit lanterns hung on the street corners. The moment after the sound of the whip was heard, the driver of the carriage in front shouted sharply: "Who goes there!"

The answer came in the next moment, like two rays of light colliding together, tearing each other apart at the moment of contact!

Destruction, shattering, disintegration, blood soaring into the sky--

**************

Another all-nighter, asking for monthly tickets aaaaaaah--