“Young master, be careful!”
The guard saw the direction of Houzi’s crossbow and his eyes widened in shock. While leaping towards Young Master Wen Yuan, he shouted a warning.
Young Master Wen Yuan had just clumsily climbed up from the ground. Hearing the guard’s shout, he instinctively turned his head to look.
He saw a streak of light flash by, followed immediately by a sharp pain in his leg.
Looking down, he saw an arrow embedded in his thigh.
“Ah…”
Young Master Wen Yuan, who had never suffered such an injury from childhood to now, lost all his usual elegance and let out a pig-like scream.
The guard arrived at that moment. Taking advantage of the time Houzi needed to reload, he grabbed Young Master Wen Yuan and pulled him behind the carriage to hide.
“You all protect the young master well!”
After instructing the family slaves, the guard leaped out straight towards Houzi.
Houzi’s goal was not to kill the guard, because he knew he was no match.
His goal was simply to hold the enemies here.
Once reinforcements arrived, he would win.
Seeing the guard charging towards him, Houzi ignored reloading the crossbow and turned to run like mad.
He deliberately weaved into the crowd, hoping to use the people to block the guard.
Unfortunately, the commoners were all terrified. As soon as they saw Houzi running towards them, they scattered in panic.
Hearing the guard getting closer behind him, Houzi had no choice but to discard the unloaded crossbow and draw his long sword with a clang.
Since he could not run, he would not run. Fight!
But even at his peak, he was no match for the guard, let alone now with one arm missing?
After just a few exchanges, he was kicked flying again for failing to dodge.
His black sword flew off somewhere.
This time, Houzi did not manage to raise his arm in time and was kicked squarely in the chest. He struggled a few times but could not get up.
On the other side, the mansion soldier squad leader discovered that among the four killed by the guard was his own younger brother. His eyes turned bloodshot instantly, and he led his men in a fierce attack on Young Master Wen Yuan.
The family slaves were fine at bullying people alongside Young Master Wen Yuan usually, but in a real fight with bloodshot-eyed mansion soldiers, they were no match at all.
Hearing the shouts of battle, the guard gave up finishing off Houzi and turned back to protect Young Master Wen Yuan.
He had killed earlier just to intimidate, but now he was truly intent on killing.
Seeing the family slaves about to be overwhelmed, the guard finally returned.
With an angry slash of his war sword, he struck at the squad leader.
The squad leader instinctively dodged.
But the guard’s speed was far superior. As the squad leader just moved, he felt a chill on his shoulder.
Turning his head, his sword-holding right arm was gone.
Before he could cry out in pain, the guard kicked him away, sending him crashing into the carriage.
The guard did not even glance at him and continued slaughtering the other mansion soldiers.
The squad leader fell from the carriage, feeling a burning pain in his chest.
Blood kept surging from his mouth.
Turning his head, he saw Young Master Wen Yuan, curled up in fear, sitting right beside him.
The squad leader cracked open his bloody mouth and smiled at Young Master Wen Yuan.
His parents had died long ago, and his brother was his only family.
He had spent all his savings to get his brother into the mansion soldiers, thinking they could enjoy life together. But his brother had been in less than half a year when he was killed.
The squad leader, who usually only bullied the weak and feared the strong, now erupted with bloodlust under the stimulation of his brother’s death and the intense pain.
Even if he died, he would drag this young master who caused his ruin down with him!
His sword was gone with his arm, so the squad leader could only struggle to pounce on Young Master Wen Yuan and strangle his neck desperately with his remaining left hand.
Young Master Wen Yuan was already scared senseless, but driven by survival instinct, he drew the decorative dagger from his waist and stabbed wildly at the squad leader.
He did not know how many times he stabbed until the squad leader slid off him. He was still mechanically swinging the dagger.
Until the guard grabbed his arm.
“Young master, go!”
The guard seized Young Master Wen Yuan’s shoulder and put him on the horse he had ridden earlier.
Then he untied the carriage ropes and mounted the horse that had been pulling it.
Seeing Young Master Wen Yuan still dazed, he shouted sternly, “Young master, snap out of it! We must leave now, or we won’t get away!”
At this point, of the squad guarding the city gate, aside from those who fled in fear, the rest had all become corpses.
There was not even a writhing wounded soldier on the ground, showing the ruthlessness of the guard’s strikes.
Young Master Wen Yuan was jolted awake by the shout. Looking at the mansion soldier corpses on the ground, his heart filled with bitterness.
He did not know how things, which had been going so well, turned into this.
But now he had regained some reason and knew he had caused a great disaster. Only by returning to the capital did he have a chance to survive.
He whipped his horse hard and galloped out of the city after the guard.
…
At the Zhao family inn, Jin Feng and Qing Mulam heard the signal arrow and immediately fired another one, summoning manpower at once.
But the manpower was too dispersed. After waiting a few minutes, aside from Qing Mulam and A Mei who were already at the inn, only Da Liu with two men from nearby returned.
As Jin Feng waited anxiously, a physician with a medicine box passed by the inn entrance.
Seeing warhorses at the inn door, he intended to step aside, but recognizing Jin Feng, he hesitated and walked over with his medicine box.
“What do you do?”
The startled Da Liu immediately blocked the physician.
“I have business with Mr. Jin.”
The old physician shouted to Jin Feng, “Mr. Jin, we have met before.”
Jin Feng turned and saw the weary-faced old physician looked familiar.
Then he remembered: this was Mr. Wei, who had treated Tang Xiaobei at the courtesan contest. He was said to be the best physician in Guangyuan.
Anyway, not everyone had arrived yet, so while waiting, Jin Feng had Da Liu let the physician in.
“Mr. Wei, do you have business with me?” Jin Feng asked curiously.
“Mr. Jin, I heard that someone provided clues about Miss Xiaobei’s kidnapping, and you rewarded them with three hundred taels of silver. Is that true?” the physician asked.
“Of course it’s true. Many commoners saw it, and the prefectural governor guaranteed it.”
Jin Feng said, “Mr. Wei should know the prefectural governor. If you don’t believe it, you can go ask him.”
The prefectural governor was not young; it would be strange if he had not seen Mr. Wei for treatment.
“If Mr. Jin says so, I believe it.”
After the physician spoke, a complex look flashed in his eyes. Then, as if making a great decision, he gritted his teeth and said, “I also have a clue to sell to you, sir. Would that be possible?”
“Mr. Wei, Xiaobei has already been found…”
“The clue I provide is for another matter,” the physician said.
“What matter?” Jin Feng frowned and asked.
“Soap,” the physician said. “A few days ago, someone came to me to analyze the soap formula.”
Hearing this, Jin Feng’s eyes narrowed slightly. He asked, “Who?”
