They had only ever heard of tigers coming down from the mountains to injure people, never of so many wolves appearing in packs to attack people. Everyone present had already sensed something was wrong. Zhou Weizhao, Mister Qingfeng, and the others could still maintain their composure. Song Chuyi and Song Yan were also bold and experienced enough not to be afraid. But the fatal problem was that there were also ordinary maids and servants who had come along from the Earl’s manor—since the original plan was to lure the snake out of its hole, naturally the more meticulous the better. Therefore, Song Chuyi and Xiang Mingzi had brought sufficient servants to attend them. At this moment, where would these ordinary servants have seen such a scene? They were all scared witless.
Xiang Mingzi heard the commotion outside from inside the carriage. Although Qing Tao had come earlier to comfort her, she also knew that if they couldn’t enter the city even with Zhou Weizhao present, something must have happened. Now hearing the sudden cries of alarm outside, she was startled even more. She worried about Song Yan and Song Chuyi outside, yet staying alone in the carriage made her extremely uneasy. Unable to restrain herself, she opened the carriage door. Once opened, she stood frozen in place, dumbstruck—the coachman was still there, but the several servants who had been guarding the carriage up front had all scattered like birds and beasts. Never mind that Song Chuyi and Song Yan had always been able to keep people in line—now Grand Prince Zhou Weizhao was also present. Had these people eaten leopard gall? How dare they be so unruly?
But then Yusheng cried out in alarm and with a bang shut the door for Xiang Mingzi, saying urgently: “Miss, what is that?!”
Xiang Mingzi’s face turned pale, cold sweat seeping from her delicate nose. Both hands clutched at her chest as she shook her head fearfully. After a long moment, she finally said uncertainly in a trembling voice: “That… that’s a wolf?!”
She had once seen wolves that Song Jue had hunted when she went to the hunting grounds before. At night, the wolves’ eerie green eyes were truly frightening. Her fingers were clenched white, all color drained from her face, on the verge of collapse: “But how could there be so many wolves in this place?!”
After speaking, she hurriedly tried to get out of the carriage to check on Song Chuyi and the others—they were all outside! But her hand had just touched the carriage wall when the carriage was struck by something with a thunderous crash, followed by successive impacts. Intermixed with these were the terrible grating sounds of giant claws scratching the wall. Yusheng was so frightened she nearly burst into tears, grabbing Xiang Mingzi’s hand and saying with a sobbing tone: “Miss, the wolves are ramming us, aren’t they?!”
The long howls outside, one after another, seemed to confirm her words. The sharp claws scraping across the carriage walls made one’s hair stand on end, goosebumps rising one by one. Xiang Mingzi was at a complete loss. She wanted to get out to find Song Chuyi but truly didn’t dare. Unable to help herself, she too cried out. After all, she was a young girl who hadn’t experienced such things—she was truly terrified.
The carriage was rammed again and again. No matter how sturdy the carriage body was, it couldn’t withstand this repeated tremendous force. Seeing the carriage window already beginning to shake precariously, Yusheng screamed and hugged her head, curling up in the corner, tears and snot covering her face as she cried out for her young miss in terror.
The candlestick on the small table rolled and fell into the carriage compartment, quickly igniting the carpet laid on the floor. Xiang Mingzi frantically grabbed tea water to splash on it. Turning around, she happened to meet a pair of gleaming green eyes. Startled, she threw the tea water into the carriage.
What were all these things?! Yusheng’s hands reached backward, trying in her panic to grab something to use as defense. With this pull, she pulled out a drawer from the carriage wall. She reached in and grabbed randomly, then cried out in terror again. Two bloody hands pulled out a mass of something, crying in complete confusion: “Miss, what is this, Miss?!”
Xiang Mingzi looked at her blood-stained hands and the bloody mass of flesh beside her. Her entire body went limp against the carriage, unable to summon even the slightest bit of strength—the wall compartment that normally held tea utensils and incense burners, how could it contain so many bloody things?! She thought of something and reached to pull open other compartments. With this pull, the veins on her forehead protruded one by one as she uncontrollably bent over covering her mouth and dry-heaving—she couldn’t distinguish what the bloody mass inside was exactly, but anyone would know it wasn’t anything good—someone had done this deliberately! In a flash of insight, her face grew even paler. The appearance of these wolf packs and these things in the carriage were all someone’s deliberate doing!
Yusheng was already scared pale as a ghost, her cries for help growing louder and louder.
The wolf pack outside, perhaps smelling the blood, lunged even more viciously at Xiang Mingzi’s carriage. In no time, that carriage was already on the verge of collapse. Song Chuyi’s gaze turned cold. In her two lifetimes combined, she had experienced many absurd incidents and no shortage of bizarre events, but using a wolf pack to kill people—that she had never anticipated. This didn’t seem like the Crown Prince’s or Prince Gong’s handiwork, but rather somewhat resembled the preferences of Han Zhi, who took pleasure in perversion.
She stepped back two paces, as if seeing Han Zhi from her previous life in blood-stained clothes with bloodthirsty eyes. At that time, Han Zhi had been employed by the Prince of Dongping. So what about this life? With such similar methods of handling things, this scene before her eyes—whose idea was it, whose handiwork? If it was Han Zhi—it couldn’t be Han Zhi. He had already completely broken with the Crown Prince and the Eastern Palace. At this moment he was at sea being a pirate, a notorious sea bandit whom everyone wanted dead. How would he dare return? And how could he be driven by the Crown Prince again?
Then who was it?! Who had the same preferences as Han Zhi, who enjoyed watching people die miserable deaths? Song Chuyi bit her lip, watching as Qing Luo and Han Yan leaped lightly over the wolf pack like swallows and swiftly climbed onto Xiang Mingzi’s carriage. Watching as they awkwardly rescued Xiang Mingzi and her maid, then watching as the wolf pack pounced to devour the raw meat on the carriage, flames burning in her eyes.
Zhou Weizhao’s gaze likewise grew profound. Because of smelling the bloody scent, the wolf pack became increasingly frenzied. Those who ran slowly or had poor martial arts skills had many pounced upon, wolves biting at their throats. Those like them who stood relatively far back, who weren’t in the carriages, also became targets of attack. Mister Qingfeng looked as if his behind was on fire. His expression was grave, though his tone wasn’t as flat as his face: “Whether it’s the Crown Prince or Prince Gong, whichever one uses such methods to deal with people, once they gain power, they’ll definitely be like the tyrants Jie of Xia and Zhou of Shang!”
Song Yan protected him behind himself. Remembering when he had been trapped in Han Zhi’s gambling den in Tongzhou—Han Zhi truly didn’t treat people as human, most enjoyed watching man versus beast fights, dragging death row prisoners obtained from who knows where to face wild beasts, even betting on the outcomes—he couldn’t help but glance at his sister. He knew Han Zhi hadn’t died.