Hua Pingyang was momentarily startled by the ferocious intensity his niece erupted with — but he was a man, and her elder, and he had no business standing by watching while someone younger threw herself into the fray.
He was well versed in the six arts of a gentleman, and while he could not claim mastery of most, his archery and horsemanship were respectable — yet he had no bow and arrows at hand right now.
He scanned his surroundings and spotted a wooden rod near the alleyway entrance. Just as he moved to retrieve it, one of the men in black took him for fleeing and broke away to give chase. Hua Zhi would not allow it — she disengaged and cut across to intercept, calling out as she did, “Get inside!”
Hua Pingyang’s mind sharpened at once. He gave himself a hard slap across the face. These people had come for the Hua Family — what could possibly matter more than warning everyone inside and letting them prepare?
But clearly, the men in black had no intention of giving him that chance. Seeing him move toward the Hua Family residence, several of them broke off to surround him.
“Jia Yang!”
Jia Yang immediately disengaged and rushed over. His long whip cracked out. Naturally, the ones who had been keeping him occupied were not about to let him go spoil things — they gave chase at once.
Hua Zhi read the situation in an instant. While the man in black before her was guarding against her dagger, he failed to notice that her other hand had already drawn a long hairpin. Using the dagger to deflect his blade, she drove the hairpin hard into his throat. Without a second glance, she moved swiftly to intercept those now pursuing Jia Yang, cutting them off.
She was clear-eyed about her own limits — she alone could not save Fourth Uncle. Only Jia Yang could.
The commotion outside was considerable, and Hua Zhi had deliberately raised her voice — the Hua Family household had long since taken notice. Dong Zi and Liu Cheng, the guards who had accompanied her, peered through a cautious crack in the door, immediately grasped the situation outside, and reported to the assembled Hua Family members standing in the courtyard.
The moment Hua Pingyu learned his daughter was outside, he moved to go to her. Hua Yizheng stopped him sharply. “Don’t go out there and drag A’Zhi down.”
“But…” Hua Pingyu’s eyes reddened in an instant. He knew — they had learned from Shao Yao that their daughter had some self-defense skills — but this was a girl they had watched grow up right before their eyes. Skills or not, how much could she really know?
Hua Yizheng quietly clenched his trembling hands into fists inside his sleeves. “This old man stands right here. Every member of the Hua Family — we stand and fall together.”
Hua Pingchen stepped forward half a pace. “Should we perhaps have the younger ones find a place to hide? With this much noise, someone will come before long.”
“Even if every last person in the Hua Family dies here, the line will not be broken.” Hua Yizheng’s beard trembled visibly. “This old man wants to see just who is after the lives of our entire household!”
The elder’s words rang out as clear and resolute as the clash of blades outside. The younger Hua Family members not only did not retreat — they straightened their backs and stepped forward as one. Even the loyal servants who had come with them took up whatever could serve as a weapon — rods, spades, kitchen cleavers — and formed a protective barrier around their masters.
Dong Zi and Liu Cheng exchanged a look, drew the blades they never went without, and pulled the door open.
In the brief moment the door opened, the Hua Family inside saw plainly: their eldest young lady, covered in blood — whether her own or someone else’s, none could tell — was being pressed by three opponents. She glanced toward them as the door opened, and that look in her eyes — so fierce, so cutting — made every heart inside constrict.
It was precisely that split second of distraction that gave her opponents the opening they needed. Already at a disadvantage, Hua Zhi had a blade come slashing toward her face, and those surrounding her gave her no room to retreat, hemming in her every direction. The younger ones cried out in alarm; even the steadiest among them, Hua Yizheng, could not stop himself from lurching forward a step.
In a moment of desperation, Hua Zhi only twisted her body slightly — enough to let the blade fall on her shoulder instead. Taking advantage of the attacker’s momentum carrying him forward and leaving him briefly unable to draw back, she slashed her dagger hard across his face, then dropped low to dodge the strike from behind. As the man before her instinctively retreated from the pain of his wound, she pressed forward, driving the long hairpin straight into his eye. With a cry of agony, the man in black clutched his eye and writhed on the ground, and the ring of enemies around her broke open. Hua Zhi rolled along the ground and broke free from the encirclement.
All of this took a thousand words to tell, yet was over in an instant. Hua Zhi had no time to catch her breath — the moment she was free, another opponent locked onto her and pressed in.
And by then, Dong Zi had closed the courtyard gate.
Hua Yizheng pressed down the wild hammering of his heart. His voice carried a clear and unmistakable tremor. “Open the gate.”
Before a servant could move, Hua Pingyu had already run forward and pulled the gate open himself. Standing in the doorway, he saw with terrible clarity how much danger A’Zhi was now in.
He also saw his fourth brother scrambling to stay on his feet, and the two guards charging forward without regard for their own lives to intercept the pursuing men in black. Without a second thought, Hua Pingyu ran out, grabbed his fourth brother before he could fall, and hauled him back inside, guiding him to stand before their father.
“Father, the Hua Family is their target!”
Hua Yizheng had already suspected as much. What he could not fathom was how he — already a condemned official — could still pose a threat to anyone.
Someone suddenly spoke. “Where is Lu Yanxi?”
Yes — where was Lu Yanxi? That man clearly had a soldier’s build, and the men he kept with him had the look of capable fighters. So why was there no sign of him now?
Hua Pingyang gave a bitter smile. “Enemy forces raided the border. Lu Yanxi went to the front line — Jia Yang is the one he left behind to protect A’Zhi.”
Hua Yizheng’s eyes sharpened. Enemy soldiers harassing the border would draw away the soldiers normally on patrol, who would all be deployed to the front line — and it was precisely at this moment that the Hua Family was being attacked. He refused to believe this was a coincidence.
“Elder Sister!”
Hua Baili’s cry of alarm drew everyone’s eyes back to the door. Hua Zhi had been surrounded again.
Hua Zhi no longer dared to let her attention slip. She strained with everything she had to block the blade in front of her. She had braced herself to simply absorb the blow from behind — but Jia Yang’s whip arrived in time, coiling around the attacker and flinging him away, releasing Hua Zhi from danger.
But that interval was enough for the men in black to close in. At close quarters, the whip’s advantage was completely gone. Jia Yang took a hard slash to the back — yet seemingly feeling no pain at all, he discarded the whip and drew his sword, barely managing to parry the second blade coming down on him.
Hua Zhi’s breath came in labored gasps. Insufficient strength was her fatal weakness, and the men in black had identified it. They shifted from relentless offense to circling — intending to drain her of her remaining energy.
Hua Zhi was not about to let them have their way. If the mountain would not come to her, she would go to the mountain. When a man in black lunged, missed, and moved to retreat, Hua Zhi gripped the long hairpin, launched herself into the air, and hurled herself at him. The man instinctively raised his arms to meet her — but that strike was a feint. The true killing blow was not the hairpin but the dagger, which swept across his throat as he deflected the other hand. With a thunderous crash, the man in black fell.
Just as everyone thought she was about to collapse from exhaustion, she instead turned and pressed the attack on another opponent — again leading with the hairpin and finishing with the dagger. But this time, forewarned, the man in black guarded against the dagger — and this time, it was the hairpin that took his life.
Two enemies killed in the blink of an eye. Hua Zhi’s ferocity broke the men in black’s fighting spirit, and Jia Yang seized the moment to strike, aiming for kill shots with every move. By now only eight of the men in black remained, one of them still desperately tangled up by Dong Zi and Liu Cheng — though they were no match, they kept the man occupied long enough that he could not free himself.