His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

"Xiao Yu’s little brother --- Qiao Qiao was alone when this servant went into the room. However, when this servant tried to save him, there was a sound in front of the room. Qiao Qiao was bound with a rope, so he couldn’t talk, but he was clever enough to shake his head. He looked at the door just to tell this servant that it was the captor that was coming. This servant quickly hid and jumped up to the roof beam. The captor didn’t come in alone but with a few people." Feng explained.

"Did you find out anything important from their conversation?" Yao Ying asked.

"Yes, Young Master. They said that they needed to find out about Liu Li’s condition. If she was crippled by the flogging, then they should discard her because she was already useless chess piece. If she was dead, then it was even better. Dead people couldn’t talk."

"Hah! So, they want to remove their sole witness, huh?" Yao Ying said in anger. She was actually feeling pity toward Liu Li, after all, she was following a heartless master.

All of them couldn’t fathom the cruelty of those people, after all, Liu Li was working under their master’s order. "Did they say something about the master’s identity? I know that they wouldn’t specifically say the name, but anything is fine... remember what they said slowly and tell me something that probably could become our clue."

Feng pondered for a little while, trying to remember every detail of the captors’ conversations. Bits and pieces of the conversations came into his mind. Feng excitedly said, "This servant remember something!"

Xiu looked at him in expectation and nudged Feng, "Quickly! Tell us!" He was so curious about the master behind those crazy people, especially because the master was the mastermind behind Xiao Yu’s pain. He wished to tear apart that heinous person.

Feng nodded and finally told them what he remembered. "It seemed like the master is a woman because one of the men had the expression of being infatuated to the master’s beauty and they jokingly compared it to Liu Li. It seemed like by their lecherous opinions, they didn’t really respect the master."

"Hmm... It seems like there’s another person behind the female master and these people are given to her, that’s why she doesn’t have their loyalty or respect. Or one other possibility, she hired those thugs just for a one-time purpose only." Yao Ying rubbed his chin, thinking. This was indeed a piece of interesting news.

"Other than that? What else?" Yao Ying asked once again. He needed to know more details to determine more conclusions.

"This servant thinks the female master is currently living in Wang Fu," Feng said confidently.

"How so?" Yao Ling asked, feeling interested in Feng’s conclusion.

"Because they said the usual messenger was Liu Li, but once Liu Li was unavailable. The one who came was another person from Wang Fu. However, it seems like the new messenger is a woman who is still new in doing this kind of things. They made a comment how that messenger was shaking in fear when saw them." Feng said confidently. One of the men even lecherously said that another pretty woman was coming to their way. It seemed like they treated women like some kind of dirt and only as their plaything.

"Did they say the name of the messenger?"

"Sadly, no," Feng answered dejectedly. "If we know who the messenger is, it will be easier for us to find out about the identity of their female master."

"It’s okay. We will find out about that female master sooner or later. At least, we already have clues," Yao Ling said. She suspected the Concubine Xi or Concubine Lan. There were other women, should she be careful around them... or not? Yao Ling didn’t say it out loud. The fewer people knew about her thought, the better.

Yao Ling finally remembered something. "How come you are injured?"

"Young Mistress, it’s because of this servant’s negligence," Feng answered her solemnly. "This servant didn’t dare to save Qiao Qiao when there were so many people, because it would create a ruckus. However, the next time they went back, they directly wanted to kill Qiao Qiao. This servant didn’t have time to ask for help, so directly jumped and fought with them. If it was only fighting, this servant would be able to defeat them easily, but they took Qiao Qiao as a hostage."

Feng remembered the scene that happened at that time. One of the captors took Qiao Qiao and put his sword on Qiao Qiao’s neck. Feng knew that the captor wouldn’t hesitate to kill Qiao Qiao, after all, it was their real purpose.

"Put down your sword," The one who took Qiao Qiao as hostage ordered Feng. By that time, Feng already killed two of the perpetrators and including the one who took Qiao Qiao, he still had five enemies left. Their martial arts skills weren’t really good and it pained him that he couldn’t beat them. His task was to save Qiao Qiao, so he had no other choice, but threw his sword to the ground. Feng gritted his teeth in anger, trying to see Qiao Qiao’s captors’ next move.

"Hah! How arrogant of you! Do you want to save this boy by relying on only yourself? Don’t make me laugh!" Judging from his arrogant tone, it seemed like the man was the leader. "Look! What can you do when I do this to this boy?" With a smirk, the man deepened the sword, making the sword scratch and pierce Qiao Qiao’s neck. The sword was tinted with a hint of blood.

What kind of moral did this man have? He was even able to hurt a little kid. With this kind of subordinates, the master must also be cruel and heartless. The others followed the leader’s lead and laughed along with him. They seemed to enjoy the whole ordeal.

The room where they kept Qiao Qiao was pretty secluded, so no one really paid attention to what had happened inside. The sound of a loud party, the laughing sounds of women and men altogether, not to mention the zither’s melodious sound from outside of the room also helped them masking the sound of the fight inside. Feng could see that because of their haughtiness, they paid him no mind and underestimated him. They thought he had nothing else to deal with them.

Feng smirked to himself. He wasn’t a hidden guard for nothing. Feng pulled out something from his sleeve and threw a small knife at the leader who already lowered his guard. The small knife directly landed on his forehead. Blood spurted out of the wounds and the leader was dead on the spot without a chance to do anything else. He fell down and brought Qiao Qiao along with him. He squeezed Qiao Qiao on the ground and fortunately, it was corresponding with Feng’s calculation, the swords that the leader held didn’t hurt Qiao Qiao.

Feng didn’t pay any attention to Qiao Qiao, but he didn’t forget to remind him, "Go! Hide!" Qiao Qiao quickly hid himself in the corner, shaking in fear.

After that, he took his sword and dealt with the rest of the captors easily. All of them were killed less than an incense stick of time. Feng quickly helped Qiao Qiao up and released him from the gag and the rope that bound his hands.

"Come on! We have to go now," Feng said hurriedly. He got a bad feeling about this and his instinct was always right.

Before they could jump out of the window, they heard a few loud footsteps outside of the room. "Ge ge... there are people coming," Qiao Qiao said hoarsely. He had been gagged for a few days and his captors didn’t give him the luxury to drink often, so his throat was dry and it hurt to talk.

Feng nodded and quickly scooped up Qiao Qiao into his arms. He took him and jumped out of the window in a flash. When they looked back, they were seen by the people who opened the door. At first, they were surprised by the bloody scene inside the room. They didn’t really care much about the kid, but their brothers were killed and they wanted to avenge them.

"Chase them!" One of the men said. They quickly jumped out of the window and chased Feng and Qiao Qiao, the last people who went into the room didn’t forget to look around and close the door slowly. They didn’t work under the hua lou and didn’t want to offend the mysterious hua lou’s owner, hence the secrecy. They couldn’t afford to pay the price if the hua lou’s owner found out what they did under their nose.

Unbeknownst to anyone, after all of them were gone, the door of the room was opened. Lin Jian stood there and watched what had happened coldly. "What a mess!" He shook his head in disdain. His expression didn’t match his usual liveliness.

Lin Jian said to his subordinate who stood beside him, "Clean this place up!"

"Yes, Young Master." The subordinate answered politely.

"Don’t leave any trace!" Lin Jian commanded them with a chilling voice.

After giving his order, Lin Jian turned around and left without a second glance. His subordinates worked efficiently and the room was cleaned perfectly without any trace that there had been a bloody fight in there. Everything was back to normal --- like nothing had happened inside the room.