SEHE Chapter 43.2

Pursuit and Escape (part 2)

These yamen runners came quite quickly – they must have been nearby just now.

“I am Fifth-rank General Jiang Yi of Ningyuan! Don’t arrest us – quickly capture these treacherous rebels!” Jiang Yi’s young, vigorous voice came through the clanging of swords and weapons.

“Ah!”

“How dare you rebel and attack government officials! Kill them all – don’t let a single one escape!”

The courtyard outside became even more chaotic. Pei Yanci looked through the small hole and saw that group of assassins not only wanted to eliminate Jiang Yi and his two companions, but had also attacked the officials.

The attendant gritted her teeth and said, “Get me out of this mansion first.”

“Let’s go.” With the current chaotic situation perfect for fishing in troubled waters, Pei Yanci opened the room door and pulled her outside.

One person saw the commotion here and raised his sword to slash horizontally at him.

That attendant had never seen such blade-light and sword-shadows. Frightened into screaming repeatedly, she covered her head and hid behind Pei Yanci. Unable to dodge in time and seeing the blade about to fall on him, it was blocked by a black bone fan.

“One favor,” Tang Xizhui said. With a flick of his hand, the sword along with its wielder was knocked back several steps. As the assassin vomited blood in shock, he gracefully turned to look at Pei Yanci.

The black satin folding fan snapped shut with a “pop,” and the fan ribs spun twice between his pale, slender fingers, so fluid it was pleasing to the eye.

“If I don’t force you to act, you’ll just keep hiding behind my back,” Pei Yanci said.

“Stubborn.” He was obviously scared to death.

“Where are your subordinates?”

“What subordinates? Just me alone.”

“You really came here to follow me, didn’t you?” Originally he hadn’t believed that the dignified Chief Overseer would be so idle.

“Xiao Pei is truly clever.”

“Clear the path quickly,” Pei Yanci called out, dodging a deadly strike from an assassin.

From the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a small fat man trying hard to hide behind a tree and pulled him along.

“Big brother!”

Seeing him again, Wuli was almost in tears, turning to call for Gu Xing.

“You go with Chief Steward Pei first, we’ll follow shortly,” Gu Xing said, finding him a hindrance and of no use, pushing him away with a shout.

With dozens of people in chaotic battle throughout the mansion, Pei Yanci seized opportunities in the chaos. By timing the three-way melee, he managed to pass safely through the eaves and corridors, finally getting them to the gate, only to see several yamen runners guarding outside.

They had surrounded this place.

Without thinking, Pei Yanci raised his arm and shot an arrow, but couldn’t aim properly. It was easily dodged, and they were quickly surrounded.

“Run!” he pushed the woman.

A beam of light illuminated his face. The woman beside him had already gone weak in the knees and fallen directly to the ground, her hand still desperately clutching Pei Yanci, clearly terrified senseless.

In a life-or-death moment, a brown figure flashed by. When it landed, several yamen runners had fallen to the ground, motionless.

“Two favors.”

Just as he finished speaking, Pei Yanci shot an arrow from his arm that grazed Tang Xizhui’s neck and hit someone sneaking up behind him.

“Returned one,” he said, lowering his arm and turning to slap the woman.

Tang Xizhui chuckled, wiping the blood from his neck and rubbing it between his fingertips before bringing it to his nose for a light sniff.

Quick learner.

“If you don’t want to die, pull yourself together!”

That attendant’s panic froze on her face. Her pale face instantly bore five bright red finger marks. She had never imagined that the person who had seemed so scholarly and easy to bully moments before had turned into someone like a desperado.

She seemed to have misjudged him.

“Quick, don’t let them escape! If Minister Zheng blames us, none of us can bear the consequences!”

Seeing the dozen or so yamen runners surrounding the mansion swarming after them, Pei Yanci had no time to say more and hurriedly pushed her and Wuli toward the outside of the small alley.

“Why am I so unlucky? Even watching a house, I encounter this kind of thing,” Wuli cried as he ran, wiping his tears and continuously lamenting.

“Should we go to another ward? It’s almost curfew!” The sound of wind whooshed past Pei Yanci’s ears – his legs were quite nimble at the moment.

“We must go. If we rely solely on our legs, I’m afraid we won’t make it there tonight.” Having been slapped, the woman didn’t dare complain of tiredness or grievance, answering whatever was asked.

The yamen runners behind pursued quite urgently, mixed with several assassins disguised as refugees. Both sides fought each other while chasing in his direction. Pei Yanci saw they were about to catch up when several more yamen runners appeared ahead, running toward them.

“Who dares cause trouble here? Catch them!”

With pursuers front and back, Pei Yanci led them around a corner and ran to the flower street in front of the tavern he had seen during the day.

The scene immediately became much livelier than before. Among the coming and going crowd, the two groups of pursuers were also slowly approaching.

The crowd blocked their approach but also hindered his own escape speed.

“What do we do?” Wuli asked, wiping either sweat or tears.

Pei Yanci looked toward the distance.

A young gentleman with red lip rouge marks on his neck was sitting in a carriage, arms around a girl, imperiously ordering his servants to drag another girl into the carriage.

“Young Master Zhao, though she works at our establishment, she only performs arts – she’s not a prostitute,” a madam said with a forced smile, waving her handkerchief while pulling away the servant’s hand that gripped the girl’s sleeve.

“I don’t care. If you obstruct me tonight, I’ll throw you into a pen of mad pigs.”

“Oh my, Young Master Zhao, don’t make things difficult for us.” The madam’s face turned pale, but her hands slowly let go.

The carriage driver suddenly swayed and was kicked flying to the ground.

Young Master Zhao felt the entire carriage shake, then several people burst in.

“Who are you people? Don’t you know this is my carriage!”

“Not anymore,” Pei Yanci said, grabbing one person with each hand and throwing both Young Master Zhao and the prostitute he was embracing out of the carriage.

“Oh my!”

“What are you standing around for? Chase them! That’s my carriage!”

Wuli cracked the whip, and the carriage charged through the crowd like mad, rushing toward another ward.

Several black shadows appeared on the black tiles of buildings on both sides of the street, moving so fast they were almost invisible to the eye.

Wuli looked up in panic and lashed his whip hard twice. “Big brother, someone’s catching up!”

“I know.” Pei Yanci kept watching outside the carriage, raising his arm and holding his breath to aim at a black shadow before shooting an arrow.

Suddenly there was a noise from the carriage roof, and the entire carriage shook heavily.

An assassin in tattered clothes hung upside down from the carriage roof, thrusting his sword into the carriage without thinking.

“Ah!”

Following a woman’s shrill scream, Tang Xizhui curved his five fingers into claws, gripped the man’s wrist, twisted it backward, then dragged him – the entire assassin was pulled into the carriage.

Then she heard the crunching sound of bones being crushed directly in flesh.

Tang Xizhui seemed to be serving someone, crushing every bone in his body thoroughly and decisively, striking ruthlessly and resolutely. When it was all over, he calmly took a cloth and wiped his fingers.

The assassin lay sprawled in the carriage, his eyeballs bulging, with a few hissing sounds still coming from his throat.

He was still alive.

Seeing Pei Yanci concentrating on shooting people outside the carriage, Tang Xizhui grabbed the man by the back of his collar and threw him directly out of the carriage.

Pei Yanci heard the carriage shake and seemed to have run over something. He withdrew his gaze to check if the people inside were alright.

Tang Xizhui sat by the window, not a single strand of hair at his temples disheveled.

“Don’t you know how to help!”

“I’m watching this side,” Tang Xizhui said with a smile, pointing to the window on his side.

When the person turned to look outside again, he opened his eyes and raised his index finger, making a shushing gesture toward the woman.

She dared not speak anymore.

A carriage came diagonally across, heading straight for their carriage.

Wuli cried out, nearly bouncing off the carriage.

Seeing that person raise his sword to strike, in a critical moment, his fat body twisted nimbly, whipping his lash toward the opponent.

Caught off guard, the man’s face was marked with a bleeding red welt, making his entire appearance even more fierce.

“It’s over, it’s over, I’m going to have nightmares tonight,” Wuli wailed, lashing at the man several more times. This time the opponent was prepared and easily dodged.

“Is now the time to worry about that!” Pei Yanci lunged out and shot. The man fell immediately.

The carriage crashed sideways into roadside steps and began running crookedly forward, actually shaking off their pursuers.

Pei Yanci watched the surroundings warily, finally lowering his arm with some relief.

****

That attendant was also shrewd. She consistently refused to reveal who that person was, only willing to give directions, afraid that once Pei Yanci knew, he would abandon her.

The carriage wound around through several wards before arriving at an unremarkable mansion gate.

The attendant got down from the carriage and knocked three times, then twice, then four times.

Just as she lowered her hand waiting for someone inside to open the door, her arm hurt and she collapsed to the ground with an “ah.”

Pei Yanci walked up from behind her and pulled the short arrow from her arm.

Blood immediately gushed from her arm, and the attendant’s face visibly paled.

“You!”

“Who are you?” He pressed the short arrow against the woman’s throat at a vital point and asked calmly.

“I’ve told you already,” the woman said, trembling all over from pain.

Wuli wiped sweat and looked up to see black shadows in the surrounding alleys, slowly emerging like spiders walking in the dark night.

Seeing the half-face masks on their faces, he nearly fainted.

Pei Yanci glanced at Tang Xizhui emerging from the carriage.

Dozens of black shadows knelt uniformly on one knee, silent and orderly.

“Big brother, we’re going to jail again,” Wuli swallowed. “Quick, use your pretty boy strategy.”

“……”

What kind of little brother are you—every time something happens, you make your big brother sacrifice himself.

That woman also looked over.

“You knew this ord’s identity long ago. Why look surprised?” Tang Xizhui laughed.

The mansion gate opened unsuspectingly, with people inside standing in orderly rows, obviously having prepared long ago.

The ragged assassins arrived from another street, now scattered and reduced to only a dozen or so people.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” both the assassins and the people from the courtyard knelt toward the woman.

At this moment, that attendant – or rather, the Second Princess of the Great Yu Dynasty – no longer showed any panic or confusion on her face. Instead, there was a kind of playful amusement.

Her eyes were seductive, as if countless threads of emotion were intertwined.

“Dugong Daren, do you wish to go to war with Great Xi?”