The scenes of the fight with Elodie just now flashed through Qingden's mind.

Only then did Qingden notice that Elodie was always smiling happily when she was fighting with him.

It was clear that his sword could not hit Qingdeng at all, but he was still smiling.

It seems that just being able to lift the sword and practice with others is something worthy of celebration...

Qingden now understood why Elodie asked him so abruptly to practice sword practice with her.

There are no other peers nearby, and neither her grandfather nor the maid can spare much time to spend with her every day. Only Mai Kinoshita can come over to play with her from time to time... Just listening to these descriptions from Leroy, Qingto's mind

It has already sketched out a picture of "a lonely blond girl who can only practice her favorite swordsmanship in front of the air every day".

Qingden pursed his lips and didn't know what expression to make for the moment. He raised his head with a complicated expression and looked upstairs, towards the direction of Elodie's bedroom...

Elodie's bedroom is located on the third floor of the top floor. Qingdeng is still on the first floor, so naturally he can't even see the door to Elodie's bedroom.

However, after raising his head, Qingdeng saw something else——

Dong dong dong dong dong dong…

A series of hurried footsteps came from the direction of the top floor.

Immediately afterwards, Qingden saw Todo hurriedly walking at the top of the stairs.

"Mr. Tachibana, we found the man with the beard that the reporter mentioned!"

…

…

As soon as Aoto and Todo quickly returned to the study one after another, Saito and others who were gathered around the window immediately came to greet Aoto.

"Has that bearded man entered that dim sum shop?" Qingdeng said without any nonsense and got straight to the point with a serious look on his face.

Nagakura nodded: "We saw it very clearly! Just now, a warrior wearing scarlet clothes and black hakama with a thick beard on his face entered the pastry shop!"

Qingdeng strode to the window, stared deeply at the dim sum shop not far away through the transparent window glass for a few times, then put his hand into his arms and took out a cuff.

Looking at the cuff in Aoto's hand... Saito and others understood what Aoto was going to do. They silently stretched out their hands and took out the cuffs they carried with them.

As if they had rehearsed in advance, the five people tightened the wide sleeves of their kimonos with cuffs in uniform movements.

"...You all come with me." Qingdeng held the two sabers on his left waist, his deep voice was neither sad nor happy.

Before meeting Elodie and the others on the street, Qingdeng and the others had already investigated the architectural style of the pastry shop and the layout of the surrounding buildings.

This dim sum shop has only 2 doors in total: the main door at the front and the back door at the back.

In view of the fact that the shop only had two entrances, front and rear, Ainoto quickly made arrangements - he and Nagakura were responsible for attacking from the front entrance, while Saito led Harada and Todo to guard the back door of the confectionery shop.

In this small team of Qingdeng and others, except for Qingdeng who is the unquestionable leader, the rest of the team has no clear distinction between superiors and subordinates.

However, although there is no specific hierarchical classification, everyone, including Aoto, has always assumed that Saito is their "vice-captain" and Aoto's "adjutant".

Nagakura and Harada Sora have brute strength and are simple and crude in doing things. Harada, in particular, barely understands Chinese characters and can even say stupid things like "Liu Bang and Liu Xuande committed suicide by the Pearl River" that would piss off a history teacher.

He basically said goodbye to the possibility of being entrusted with important responsibilities.

Todo, on the other hand, has too little experience, has not shed his childishness, is still naive in his behavior, and is not cautious enough in his actions. Although he is capable of literature and martial arts, he still lacks experience.

Among Aoto's subordinates... Saito is the only one who can stand alone.

Saito, who is serious in speech and expressionless in emotion and anger, is incredibly calm.

Mount Tai collapses in front but remains unchanged; elk rises to the left but does not blink - this classic saying is perfectly suitable to describe Saito.

Even Aoto, who has been friends with Saito for the longest time, has rarely seen Saito lose control of his expressions or emotions.

No matter what time he was, he was so calm and calm.

Because Saito is so mature and stable, Aoto and the others often subconsciously forget that Saito and Toudo are the same age. Both are only 16 years old this year. Saito is only a few months older than Toudo. It is Aoto and the others who

The second youngest person in a small team.

In fact, strictly speaking... Saito doesn't need to obey Aoto's words at all.

Because he is just Aoto's bodyguard, not Aoto's Okahiki like Nagakura and Harada.

"Absolutely obey Ainoto's orders" - this is the responsibility of Nagakura and others, but Saito is not like this.

His only mission is to protect Qingdeng.

He did not have a direct superior-subordinate relationship with Qingdeng, so he only had to try to ensure Qingdeng's personal safety.

Apart from that, he can ignore everything else.

However, I don't know why... Saito has always listened to Aoto's words.

No matter what Qingdeng asked him to do for help, he basically nodded and agreed without hesitation.

Whether you ask him to help with some of the daily chores in the prison; whether you ask him to help with the arrest of certain prisoners or the execution of certain tasks... Saito is always open to anyone who comes.

Ayoto also asked Saito one day: Why are you so obedient to someone like him?

Saito only responded calmly: There is no special reason. I just did it because I wanted to do it.

Whether it is Saito's calm character or his powerful ability to kill countless people, Nagakura and others are very convinced, so Nagakura and the others are willing to submit to Saito and respect Saito as their "deputy"

team leader".

Qingdeng and his party quickly made a simple action plan of "splitting the troops into two groups" and rushed out of Elodie's house in a "long snake formation". Then they started to act separately according to Qingdeng's arrangements.

.

Of course, before leaving, Qingden did not forget to say "We have to leave temporarily" to Anthony, who was working in the bedroom, and Leroy, who did not have time to serve them black tea.

Qingden originally wanted to say hello to Elodie, but considering that Elodie was currently in class, Qingdeng did not want to disturb Elodie's study, so he had to give up this idea in the end.

Qingto and Nagakura stayed outside Elodie's house.

Saito led Harada and Toudo around to the back of the snack shop.

Counting the time silently in his mind, after judging that Saito and the others were already in place, Qingto waved his hand to Nagakura, motioning for Nagakura to follow him, and rushed towards the main entrance of the snack shop.

Qingden tilted his head and winked at Nagakura beside him.

Nagakura, who received the signal from Qingteng's eyes, solemnly nodded to Qingteng.

After completing a silent and brief exchange, the two men drew out the sabers at their waists at the same time.

Qingdeng, who was holding the Ding Guishen in his hand, took a big step forward and opened the door of the pastry shop with a "swish" sound——

"We are officers from the Edo Hokuban Station! We are on duty to conduct a search!"

There is no one on the first floor of this dim sum shop now.

Looking around the entire first floor... only behind the counter sat a middle-aged man with half-black and white hair.

Seeing Qingto and Nagakura rushing in with knives, the middle-aged man was immediately frightened and fell to the ground, stammering and asking quickly, "What's wrong?" "What's going on?"

Qingdeng ignored the middle-aged man.

He scanned every corner of the first floor with lightning eyes. When he didn't find the man with a beard, he immediately rushed to the second floor of the dim sum shop.

This dim sum shop has a total of 2 floors.

The first floor is used for receiving guests, while the second floor is an area specifically used for guests to sit and have dinner together.

At this moment, on the second floor of this pastry shop, customers in groups of three or three were sitting around small tables, sipping warm tea and tasting wagashi. There were many foreign faces among them.

Qingdeng climbed to the top of the second floor at lightning speed. With only a cursory glance, he found their target - a warrior with a very thick beard on his face, sitting upright in a corner of the second floor.

This bearded man was sitting opposite someone. Sitting opposite him was a young Kazuo who was dressed in a rather special way.

The reason why this young Kazuto is dressed in a special way is because he is not wearing a kimono, but a suit, vest, tie, leather shoes... everything is available, and he is also wearing a pair of thick-looking glasses on the bridge of his nose.

Black-rimmed glasses.

Nowadays, because Japanese society has not completely accepted Western styles, Kazuto wearing suits is still very rare.

Qingto and Nagakura, who rushed up to the second floor with dazzling knives, naturally attracted the attention of everyone on the second floor.

The man with the beard and glasses saw Aoshito and Nagakura... no, to be more precise, he saw the juju with a red tassel at the bottom of the handle worn by Aoshinobu on his right waist, and the handle on his right waist.

The next moment after hanging the seal cage of Fengxingsuo, his face suddenly changed!

Like a conditioned reflex, the two people jumped up from their seats and ran away in different directions!

The bearded man fled towards the east window.

The man with glasses fled to the west window.

Just run away when you see an official official...the suspicion level of these two people is already full!

The direction in which the man with the eyes jumped out of the window to escape was exactly the direction of the back door that Saito and the others were guarding.

Ayoto immediately lay down on a nearby window facing west, and shouted to Saito and others outside the window:

"Saito! Catch this man in a suit and glasses!"

Before Aoto shouted this order, Saito and others who were guarding outside the back door had already seen the bespectacled man jumping out of the window.

This bespectacled man's skills... are very poor at first glance. He doesn't seem to have practiced any martial arts, and his hands and feet are extremely stiff.
To be continued...