Within Anchang Courtyard, enemies surrounded them on all sides.
After Ji Yunshu escaped, Qiao’er and Zhuang’er from her courtyard were captured, and Shi Zijin was also taken alive.
Madam Wen immediately sent people to give chase!
Only after seeing Ji Yunshu safely leave did little Xiyue release her grip, her eyes completely red as she looked at her own mother.
In disbelief!
“Mother, didn’t you say you really liked big brother? Why do you want to kill her?” Her voice choked with sobs.
However, Madam Wen paid her no attention.
“Why? Big brother treated me well. She’s a good person. Mother, why do you want to kill her? Why?”
Slap!
Unexpectedly, Madam Wen struck that delicate, fair little face with her palm.
“Causing trouble!” She rebuked harshly.
This was the first time in little Xiyue’s life she had been slapped.
On that face, the fingerprints were clearly visible. She sniffled, covering her face. In her large eyes flowed surprise and shock, along with tears. Looking up at the mother standing tall before her, she didn’t feel sad at all—instead, she felt very strange.
This kind of mother, she had never seen before!
After a long while, she finally spoke. “The Confucian and Mengzi texts say that among the virtuous, filial piety comes first, but the Ancient Scripture says that the Way distinguishes neither heaven nor earth, and is not bound by filial piety. Big brother did nothing wrong, yet Mother wants to kill her. What wrong has daughter committed in honoring the Ancient Scripture?”
Everyone said that the young Wen family’s Xiyue was clever and bright, having read countless books.
These words from her were not surprising!
Madam Wen’s eyes trembled, and the palm that had just struck someone was still shaking now.
Her sharp gaze softened.
“Xiyue…” Her voice was apologetic. “Mother didn’t mean to. This matter, you wouldn’t understand. Mother doesn’t want to kill her—Mother wants to protect her.”
“Lies! You’re lying!”
“Mother isn’t deceiving you.”
She wanted to reach out and touch Xiyue’s small body, but the latter dodged, looking at her as if looking at a demon.
Her sharp, thin voice rose high. “You’re a bad person.”
Throwing down these words, she covered her face and ran away.
Madam Wen was filled with remorse!
But—
Now was not the time for her guilt.
She walked before the captured Shi Zijin and said, “Rest assured, I won’t kill you. You’ve been protecting Master Ji in secret all along—I should be thanking you.”
Shi Zijin’s cold, sharp eyes were like swords, as if the sword points carried the most deadly poison under heaven.
“You don’t need to look at me with such eyes. Your master will be fine, and moreover, whoever in this world dares to kill her, I’ll be the first to kill that person.”
Who exactly was she?
This was the doubt now arising in Shi Zijin’s mind.
She remained coldly silent, still looking at the woman before her with those same eyes.
Madam Wen avoided her gaze and walked before Qiao’er and Zhuang’er.
Qiao’er and Zhuang’er were already scared out of their wits. Both trembled all over, cold sweat beading on their foreheads, their terror-stricken eyes widened involuntarily.
Who isn’t afraid of death!
But Madam Wen instructed the people guarding them beside her.
“Don’t harm these two lives.”
“Yes!”
Eh?
Qiao’er and Zhuang’er exchanged glances, their terrified expressions dissipating by half.
And up ahead.
Zuo Yao, leading his county yamen people and martial arts experts who had appeared from who knows where, had already captured everyone in Anchang Courtyard.
Those guards, unable to resist, were all bound together with ropes.
Tang Si was among them.
Only Muruo’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
Who would have thought that right after Jingrong left with his people, Zuo Yao would betray them, staging an internal revolt and capturing all of Jingrong’s people? Fortunately, he hadn’t taken their lives.
“You dog official! You’d better not let this young lady survive, or I’ll definitely take your dog’s life.” Tang Si roared angrily.
Zuo Yao’s previously obsequious, flattering, treacherous face now looked much more arrogant.
Ignoring Tang Si, he looked at the pile of people bound on the ground and demanded.
“Where’s the other person?”
He was asking about Muruo, of course.
No one answered!
“This official doesn’t have…” The word “patience” hadn’t yet been spoken.
Tang Si mocked him with raised eyebrows. “What ‘this official’? You’re just a dog thief—being torn apart by five horses wouldn’t be enough.”
“You still dare talk back?”
“Bah! This young lady speaks only the truth. Listen well—you’ve allied with those bandits and stolen the court’s disaster relief silver. You have no right to be an official. Just you wait. You people will definitely die ugly deaths.”
Zuo Yao was enraged, gnashing his teeth!
His deep-set eyes showed barely restrained fury.
He said, “Miss Tang, you’re not from Dalin and shouldn’t have been dragged into this dispute. This official will give you one chance. Tell me where exactly that fellow surnamed Mo is, and I’ll let you go.”
Tang Si’s eyes rolled.
She smiled.
“Fine, come closer. Come closer and I’ll tell you.”
Zuo Yao indeed moved closer.
“Closer.”
Closer.
“Even closer.”
Even closer.
“Ptui!”
Tang Si suddenly spat saliva at his face, then burst out laughing.
Zuo Yao was furious and quickly wiped the saliva from his face with his sleeve.
“You’re asking for death!”
He raised his hand to hit her.
But—
He lowered it again.
So angry his face turned completely red.
Tang Si said with great disdain, “Dog official, it’s me giving you a chance! If you release us now, there’s still time. When His Highness brings people to kill their way back, you’ll still have a chance to live. Otherwise, I’ll definitely tear you to shreds and throw you into the mountains to feed the wolves.”
“His Highness?”
A contemptuous laugh.
“Whether he can even return alive is still unknown!”
…
Ji Yunshu didn’t know how to ride horses, only that back then Ji Pei had taken her riding a few times, but she had remembered the technique.
After escaping, she rode straight toward the Si Family Silk Shop in the suburbs.
At this moment, outside the gate!
Heavy troops stood guard!
Those people all wore chilling black scale armor, with a tiger head on the left chest. The scale armor piled up on their shoulders, red cloth bound around their necks and heads, they carried long swords at their waists, and their eyebrows were like needles.
Stern and solemn with killing intent!
Heroic and vigorous!
But that attire didn’t resemble Dalin soldiers, nor border garrison soldiers.
Ji Yunshu came riding on horseback, pulling tight the reins and nearly falling from the horse’s back. The journey’s bumping had already exhausted her. Her stomach churned and her face was deathly pale.
Just like motion sickness!
She forced her weak body to support itself, dismounted, and walked with difficulty toward the main gate.
Those soldiers guarding outside immediately raised their sharp swords menacingly, pointing them at her.
But they didn’t immediately kill her.
Ji Yunshu pressed her pale lips together, clenched her fists tightly, swept her gaze in a circle, then took out an object from her sleeve, gripping it tightly in her palm.
She raised her hand, lifting it level with her shoulder!
Her cold, resolute gaze lowered and then lifted.
“Move aside!”
Her voice was cold.
Those people didn’t lower their long swords or yield. Instead, they pressed forward another step.
Ji Yunshu knew full well that if she took one more step forward, the swords in these people’s hands would pierce her full of holes.
She furrowed her slender brows high. The next moment, her tightly clenched fist opened. A blood-orange jade pendant fell from her palm, but because the tasseled cord caught on her finger, when the jade pendant dropped, the cord held it tight, dangling lightly at her waist.
Swaying in the air, below her palm.
The orange-red jade pendant had a tiger carved on one side and the character “Xu” engraved on the other.
When everyone saw that jade pendant, their long swords trembled several times. They involuntarily retreated several steps, looking at each other.
As if they had seen a mountain tiger!