“What’s going on?!”
“Chen Jie? The General of the Northern Garrison?”
“Shunlong Gambling House? Someone from the Wei family has been caught?!”
After a stick of incense, Wei Changtian looked at the messenger in front of him with a puzzled expression.
Xiao Feng not being dead was something he could barely accept, but someone being taken away was another story altogether.
“Who was taken away?” he hurriedly asked.
“I don’t know,” the messenger replied.
The man opposite him shook his head: “The master has already gone there, Young Master… you…”
“I’ll go too!” Wei Changtian said without hesitation.
“I’ll go prepare the horses,” the messenger said.
As the messenger glanced at Yang Liu Shi, he turned around and went down the mountain first.
After he left, Yang Liu Shi, who had regained her composure, couldn’t help but laugh: “Hehehe, it seems like the Young Master’s plan has failed.”
“Sigh, yeah.”
Wei Changtian let out a helpless sigh, then glanced at her sideways: “But I really can’t understand what you’re so happy about.”
“Xiao Feng isn’t dead, do you think she’ll let you off?”
“I… “
Yang Liu Shi suddenly reacted, her smile freezing on her face.
However, Wei Changtian didn’t have the time to tease her, saying as he walked down the mountain: “Hurry back to the Fengzhi Pavilion, pack your things, and meet a person named Li Yang at the Chunshen Bookstore tomorrow.”
“You can hide there for a while, and I’ll tell you what to do later.”
“Since you’re helping me, I definitely won’t abandon you, don’t worry about that…”
The voice faded away, and Wei Changtian’s figure quickly disappeared into the night.
Yang Liu Shi stood there, dazed, before whispering to herself.
“Young Master, I trust you too.”
…
…
Stone Lane, Shunlong Gambling House.
The hot air was mixed with the smell of sweat and copper coins, with scattered silver coins on several long tables.
Although this place didn’t have the sensual bunny girls and free drinks of the previous life’s casinos, the small sieve alone was enough to drive every gambler crazy.
“Big, small, big, small…”
“Heaven bless me, I must win! This is the money I’m using to marry my wife…”
“Zhang Young Master, this land deed is worth three hundred silver…”
“Wow, Liu Boss has brought all his wife’s jewelry…”
The chaotic noise filled the entire room, making it hard to hear what the other person was saying unless they were face-to-face.
However, when the noise passed through several wooden doors and finally entered a secret room, it became almost inaudible.
“Big brother, the identities of these women seem to be quite unusual…”
In the small room, a scar-faced man’s expression was filled with apprehension.
Across from him, several people were bound hand and foot, including Lu Jingyao, Qiu Yun, and Wei Qiaoling, as well as a large black dog that had died.
“What’s with the identity?”
The bandit leader spat on the ground, sneering, “We only care about getting paid, and once we’re paid, we’ll be long gone. Even if they’re royalty, what can they do to us?”
“That’s right, big brother!”
The scar-faced man’s expression relaxed, and his gaze at Lu Jingyao took on a more suggestive tone.
But before he could say anything, he received a fierce slap on the head.
“Don’t be a pervert, old three!”
“Big brother, but this woman is really beautiful!”
“Can her beauty compare to our lives? Let’s wait for old two to get back before we talk!”
“Oh…”
The scar-faced man didn’t dare to make a move, and under the circumstances, he could only lean against the wall and start dozing off.
In the quieted-down secret room, Lu Jingyao and Qiu Yun, with their mouths gagged, exchanged a terrified glance.
They had been suddenly abducted on their way back to the Wei estate from the Chunshen Bookstore.
Since the Chunshen Bookstore opened, Lu Jingyao had found a way to help Wei Changtian with his worries, so she almost went to the bookstore every day to help out, sometimes even returning later than Wei Changtian.
Today was the same, and the two women had gone to the bookstore after lunch, not leaving until nightfall.
The only difference from usual was that they had brought Wei Qiaoling along for the first time, unable to resist her persistent requests.
But who knew…
The two women turned to look at Wei Qiaoling, seeing the little girl motionless, her big eyes fixed on the large black dog that had been casually thrown into a corner, the sparkle in her eyes gone.
When they were kidnapped, the big black dog had been kicked to death by the scar-faced man while trying to save them…
It was just an ordinary dog,
although until the end, it had failed to fulfill Wei Qiaoling’s wish for it to suddenly transform into a god like the Monkey King.
But it had still fulfilled its duty as a dog—to die before its master.
Lu Jingyao and Qiu Yun didn’t know how much Wei Qiaoling was suffering, and they didn’t know what fate awaited them.
Would they die like the big black dog in this small room? Or would something even more terrifying happen…
“Creak…”
The secret room’s door slowly opened, and several bandits raised their knives in alarm, but quickly relaxed again.
“Old two! How was it? Did you see the employer?”
“Yeah, damn it.”
The newcomer closed the door behind him, muttering curses, “Big brother! We’ve been cheated! These three women are from the Wei family!”
“The Wei family? Which Wei family?”
“The suspending mirror department’s Wei family!”
“What?!”
The group of bandits instantly stood up, their faces filled with terror.
Although they had just been saying “royalty doesn’t scare us,” that was just bravado.
The more desperate the fugitives, the more they knew who not to mess with.
The room erupted in a chorus of curses, with only the bandit leader remaining calm, thinking for a moment before shouting:
“Shut up!”
“Old two, where did you get this information from? Did the employer say it?”
“He wouldn’t dare tell the truth.”
The sharp-mouthed, monkey-faced man sneered, “Outside, it’s all Wei family people, searching for these three women.”
“Did you settle the remaining money?”
“I did, and even gave an extra thousand taels.”
“What did you say about dealing with them?”
“We killed the two bigger ones and let the smaller ones go.”
“Good…”
After finishing the conversation, the bandit leader remained silent for a moment before speaking in a low tone:
“Brothers, it’s already done! Even if we release them now, the Wei family will never let us off!”
“Since that’s the case, we might as well follow the rules!”
“What do you think?”
“…”
The secret room fell silent for a few seconds before erupting into a chorus of agreement.
“Good! Let’s follow the big brother’s lead!”
“That’s what we’ll do! What can the capital’s Hanging Mirror Agency do to us anyway?”
“The big brother is right!”
“Let’s get moving quickly!”
“…”
Everyone knew that the more they delayed, the more danger they would face. Even the scar-faced man couldn’t bear to wait and was eager to kill, repeatedly urging them to hurry up.
“Good!”
The bandit leader didn’t hesitate, immediately standing up and walking to Lu Jingyao’s side, preparing to start with her.
“Miss, you also heard what we said earlier.”
“Taking people’s money to help them avoid disaster… I’m sorry!”
From noble mtl dot come
After saying these two sentences, he raised his fist high and ruthlessly struck Lu Jingyao’s abdomen.
There was a rule in this line of work – a single punch had to be fatal.
This was to minimize the victim’s suffering while leaving a complete corpse.
It was a contradictory rule in a profession that involved killing and plundering… really leaving one speechless.
“Boom!!”
In the blink of an eye, a fist with unstoppable force struck down.
After the loud thud, the woman’s delicate body slowly collapsed.
However, the one who fell wasn’t Lu Jingyao, but…
“Uh! Uh!!”
Lu Jingyao’s body went into a frenzy, her eyes wide with disbelief as she stared at Qiu Yun, who had fallen into her arms. Tears immediately flooded her eyes.
But Qiu Yun was already unable to respond, her mouth stuffed with a white cloth that was now completely stained red with blood, which continued to flow down her clothes.
“Why did you need to take the hit for her?”
On the other side, the bandit leader merely flinched before raising his fist again.
“It’s just to delay her…”
“Boom! Crash!!”
Before he could finish his sentence, the secret room’s wooden door suddenly burst open with a loud crash, shattering into pieces.
The bandit leader was terrified, trying to turn his head to see who had arrived.
But before he could see, his head was like a punctured balloon, instantly exploding into a bloody mist.