Chapter 756: *Thief Catcher 2* Extra Scene: "This humble one is Thief Catcher Jiang Rushu. Please enlighten me!"
Chapter 756: *Thief Catcher 2* Extra Scene: "This humble one is Thief Catcher Jiang Rushu. Please enlighten me!"
When *Thief Catcher 2*'s plot ended, many people on site still felt unsatisfied.
At the end, the Landlady's identity was finally unveiled in a mysterious corner. It turned out that the critically ill Old General Feng was actually her grandfather.
And her biological mother was merely a courtesan on a Jiangnan riverboat who shared a brief, fleeting romance with Old General Feng's son, not even qualifying as a mistress.
Unfortunately, that general later died on the battlefield, and her biological mother also passed away early. So, even though Feng Juan knew her own background, she never planned to return to claim her family.
If not for this time, when a courier from the frontier passed by their inn but died of severe injuries, she might never have gotten involved in this conspiracy or set foot in the frontier in her entire life.
But deep down, she still harbored a faint glimmer of longing.
Even though the frontier had stabilized, Old General Feng was indeed terminally ill and had no other descendants left. The Landlady simply couldn't bear to leave at this moment.
So, in the end, she chose to stay, while Jiang Rushu and Shen Jue decided to return to the ruins of Penglai Inn and rebuild it.
Hemiao watched this final plot, and the tension that had gripped her heart throughout finally eased.
Although it was a bit regrettable that the Landlady chose Old General Feng instead of leaving with Shen Jue, she knew they would meet again someday.When they met again, it would probably be the story of the third installment.
Then she could see their amazing fight scenes again. Hell yeah!
She just didn't know when the third installment would come out. Even the second one took so long to wait for…
Hemiao felt a twinge of regret again.
But the next moment, the back of her head was smacked hard by someone.
"You little brat, why did you lie to me earlier and say Shen Jue would die?"
Father He's gaze was gloomy, his palm radiating heat. His fatherly love was overwhelming, and at this moment, he just wanted to teach this kid who suddenly dropped spoilers halfway a lesson. She had made his heart hang in suspense the whole time, terrified that Shen Jue would die in battle. It was absolutely outrageous!
Hemiao shrank her neck, knowing she was in the wrong, and could only giggle sheepishly. Then, she quickly found an excuse to weasel out: "Oh, come on, that wasn't my words! I heard it all from the internet!"
"All day long, learning nothing but bad stuff from the internet. Why do you believe everything people say?"
Father He immediately found a point of attack and began to start his tirade.
Sensing danger, Hemiao was about to get down on her knees and apologize directly when the screen in front lit up again.
She immediately raised a finger to signal her dad to be quiet: "Shh, shh, quick, look at the extra scene. Don't miss it!"
Father He had no choice but to shut his mouth again and glared at her.
-
Jiang Rushu and Shen Jue returned to Penglai Inn.
It had been burned to a pile of ashes, but the general layout was still recognizable.
Shen Jue walked straight toward the back of the inn following the location in his memory, while Jiang Rushu picked through the rubble and barely found a relatively clean stone table and stone stool in the backyard.
Unfortunately, there had been an old tree here, but now it was withered. Most of its leaves had fallen off, and no one knew how much longer it could survive, much like the current court on the verge of collapse.
Footsteps sounded from behind. Shen Jue carried a jar of wine and tossed it to Jiang Rushu.
Jiang Rushu caught it immediately, casually opened the jar, and gave it a light sniff.
His eyes lit up. "Is this the peach blossom brew I asked about last time?"
"Yeah." Shen Jue nodded. "Thank you."
In fact, from the very beginning, Shen Jue knew the Landlady was going to wade into this muddy water. He also knew about the past and background that had always weighed on her mind.
The couriers from the frontier had been hunted down all the way to deliver the message. When they reached their location, the last young courier, who had explained everything, also breathed his last.
When the Landlady heard the news from that side, the normally calm ripple in her eyes finally stirred.
So, she wrote to Jiang Rushu, hoping he would come to help.
Because the matter was too serious and there was a risk of information leakage, she couldn't speak plainly. She was also worried Jiang Rushu might not dare to wade into this mess, so she ended up deliberately luring him back.
But what she didn't know was that when her letter was sent out, Shen Jue secretly added a copper coin inside the envelope.
He believed that when Jiang Rushu saw it, he would definitely understand.
And sure enough, when Jiang Rushu saw that copper coin, he instantly knew it was Shen Jue's silent consent.
The only person who could make Shen Jue keep silent was the Landlady.
But he never expected that Shen Jue had done all this silently without ever telling the Landlady.
Even when the Landlady finally chose to stay, Shen Jue remained composed and didn't choose to stay with her.
Jiang Rushu sighed, thinking Shen Jue was sometimes really a clam that wouldn't open up. He lazily leaned back, raised the wine jar, tilted his head back, and drank, not caring if the excess wine spilled on himself.
"Penglai Inn needs to be rebuilt."
Shen Jue didn't explain and simply said, "I'll wait for her here."
To Shen Jue, the Landlady was a life-saving benefactor and a family member he had already accepted.
And to Shen Jue, Penglai Inn was a place of stability, a paradise on earth he was willing to stay in during this chaotic world.
Even if it had been destroyed now, Shen Jue would fight tooth and nail to come back and restore everything to its original state.
It seemed only this way could his heart find lasting peace.
After listening, Jiang Rushu put down the wine jar, wiped his mouth, and with a mix of amusement and melancholy said, "You really haven't changed at all—remember back then…"
The young man's voice grew more and more distant, as if separated by a hazy wall, making it impossible to hear clearly what Jiang Rushu was saying. The camera slowly pulled back.
The final scene of the picture used the branches of the nearly dead old tree in front of the inn as a blurred foreground, while in the background before the ruins, two figures stood and sat. One threw a wine jar, and the other picked it up and drank heartily.
Further in the distance, the rising sun gradually ascended.
Sunlight spilled onto the withered tree, seemingly giving it a last shred of vitality.
But was it a final "flicker before death" or "a withered tree springing back to life"?
No one could tell.
In the end, for some reason, the scene suddenly darkened. The sky seemed ominous with a storm brewing, and dark clouds rolled in oppressively.
A bolt of lightning flashed, illuminating the young blade master's brow and eyes.
In an instant, the entire screening room lit up, along with his eyes, which filled the screen—
But that gaze was incredibly unfamiliar, colder than the current Shen Jue, and wilder, as if he were nothing more than a wolf that couldn't understand human speech.
Someone chuckled from outside the screen, but the voice sounded younger and more arrogant than the present one:
"Which path are you from, brother? Sending so many Thief Catchers to hunt you down?"
"This humble one is Thief Catcher Jiang Rushu. Please enlighten me!"
Unfortunately, the owner of those eyes didn't answer, and the story completely ended. Along with the sound of a blade unsheathing, a concept poster for *Thief Catcher 3* appeared on the big screen.
This poster didn't feature real people but was an ink painting made of red and black. The hero's silhouette in the middle was vividly outlined with red ink, while the three vertically written black brush-stroke characters "*Thief Catcher 3*" left a deep impression.
Instantly, everyone understood that this final extra scene was actually meant to lead into the content of the third installment.
And this third installment was actually going to be a flashback to the past stories of Jiang Rushu and Shen Jue!
Doesn't that basically make it a prequel to the *Thief Catcher* series?!
The viewers who had watched all the extra scenes immediately got excited.
"Damn, this really became a once-in-a-lifetime series!"
"Director Lin, you bastard! Hurry up and shoot it already?!"
Read Novel Full