Chapter 156
Chapter 156
After eating and drinking her fill, Jin Bao strolled around the courtyard.
Qi Family Fort stood halfway up the mountain. The entire fort followed the natural contours of the slope, making it very different from an ordinary residence.
Rather than emphasizing symmetry, its buildings spread outward in overlapping tiers like fish scales.
The fort was brightly lit that night. People moved between the courtyards, and guards patrolled in orderly formations.
A tabby cat leaped down from a roof and landed in front of Jin Bao.
Jin Bao had not brought her little squirrel on this trip out of the mountains and was bored enough to miss it. The plump tabby immediately caught her attention.
She crouched to pet it, but the proud creature turned its head and ran away.
Jin Bao did not touch so much as a single hair.
Her interest flared, and she chased the big cat out of the courtyard.
The animal seemed intimately familiar with Qi Family Fort. It chose isolated paths at every turn. Jin Bao did not meet a single person along the way. Before she realized it, the cat had entered a pitch-dark courtyard.
Focused entirely on the chase, Jin Bao failed to notice that she had entered the Lushan Qi Family’s inner compound. She and the cat had not followed ordinary paths either. One moment she scaled a wall, and the next she climbed a tree, always taking the most direct route.
As soon as the tabby landed, it raced toward the main bedchamber.
Jin Bao was about to follow when she heard footsteps at the courtyard gate.
She hurriedly found a large tree and climbed it.
No lamps burned in the courtyard, and no servants moved about. It looked like an abandoned residence.
By the bright moonlight, Jin Bao clearly recognized the newcomer.
She immediately stretched out along a branch, raised her little feet, propped her chin in both hands, and stared unblinkingly at the man below.
Wasn’t that the uncle she had seen earlier that evening?
Why had he come here?
Jin Bao made no sound. She watched thoughtfully as he paced the courtyard in hesitation. After a long while, he finally seemed to make up his mind and strode toward the main room.
He reached out and pushed the door, but it was bolted from within and did not open.
Knock, knock.
Qi Sihai tapped softly on the door, then straightened his collar, looking nervous.
A delicate female voice came from inside. “Who is it?”
“Sister-in-law, it’s me. Sihai.”
The woman answered, “Second Brother? Do you need something? I’ve already gone to bed. Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow.”
Qi Sihai refused to give up. “Sister-in-law, I received news about Elder Brother today. Someone brought back his jade pendant. Don’t you want to identify it?”
Silence fell inside. Then came a startled cry and the sound of something being knocked over. A warm yellow light soon appeared, and the door opened.
The woman was petite, nothing like the tall, sturdy women common in the Northern Frontier. Anxiety filled her brows. Her fair oval face held a pair of moist, almond-shaped eyes, and every glance carried a natural, alluring charm.
Her voice was plainly anxious, yet each note drew people in.
“Second Brother, do you truly have news of your elder…”
Before she could finish, Qi Sihai swept her into his arms. The woman cried out, and the oil lamp slipped from her hand. Qi Sihai stamped it out.
With a dull thud, the door closed again from inside.
“Second Brother, what are you doing? Put me down! I’m your sister-in-law. You can’t… Mmph…”
Jin Bao blinked and hurried down from the tree, deeply curious about what had happened to the auntie.
Her short legs moved in a blur, carrying her beneath the window in an instant. Unfortunately, she was too small to see inside. She could only faintly hear a man’s heavy breathing and a woman’s cries.
Jin Bao grew frantic. Was that uncle bullying the auntie?
She tried to push open the door, only to discover it was bolted from within.
The auntie’s cries had stopped and become low, muffled sobs. A rhythmic creaking also came from somewhere inside.
Jin Bao backed into the courtyard and looked up at the roof.
Without hesitation, she climbed onto it.
The roofs in Qi Family Fort were covered in overlapping slabs of stone.
Each thin slab still weighed dozens of catties, but that posed no problem for Jin Bao.
She began pulling the roof apart with her bare hands.
Despite the tremendous commotion, the people below did not stop.
Jin Bao opened a large hole, poked her little head through, and gripped the stone slabs on either side with both hands.
The room was pitch-black, and she could not see anything at first. Once her eyes adjusted, the scene became clearer.
Clothes lay scattered across the floor.
The room was elegantly furnished and differed from the rest of the fort. Instead of a heated platform, it contained a large canopy bed like the ones in their home in the Capital.
The bed was shaking violently.
The two people on it were naked and tangled together.
The auntie Jin Bao had seen earlier was sobbing softly. The uncle pinned both her arms and drove his body against hers.
Jin Bao grew anxious. The uncle was clearly bullying the auntie, and she could not fight him off.
The auntie was crying from the pain, just like the bad man’s mother Jin Bao had once seen being bullied in the cornfield.
Jin Bao lifted her little head and clenched her fists. She could not let the auntie be bullied.
But she was a guest and could not start a fight. Right! She could call someone to rescue the auntie.
Standing atop the roof gave Jin Bao an excellent view.
She soon spotted an auntie hurrying down the road ahead with two servants, all three carrying bundles.
Without hesitation, Jin Bao raced toward them.
“Auntie! Auntie! A bad man is bullying a pretty auntie in that courtyard. Hurry and save her!”
Zhou Wanting was startled by Jin Bao’s sudden appearance.
She had packed her belongings and prepared to leave, but in the end, she could not quite give up. She sent her nanny to the study to find out whether Qi Sihai regretted what he had done. Instead, the nanny returned and said no one was there.
Zhou Wanting’s heart had turned to ashes. The gentleness he had shown her all these years had truly been an act.
She stopped hesitating and left with two servants.
They had not gone far when a little girl blocked their path.
Zhou Wanting did not recognize Jin Bao, but the child was so adorable that she could not bring herself to scold her.
Her mood had been terrible, yet some of the anger in her heart seemed to fade at the sight of Jin Bao.
“Whose little girl are you? Why are you running around so late at night? Hurry home. It isn’t safe outside.”
Jin Bao ignored her words.
She took hold of one of Zhou Wanting’s fingers and pulled her directly toward the courtyard she had just left.
“Little girl, where are you taking me?”
Zhou Wanting felt as if the tiny child could drag an ox. She had no choice but to follow. Yet the farther they went, the more puzzled she became.
Wasn’t this the road to Elder Brother and Sister-in-law’s courtyard?
Only then did she remember what Jin Bao had said when they met, and her face changed.
Had Sister-in-law been meeting a lover and been discovered by this little girl?
No wonder Sister-in-law had dismissed most of the courtyard servants after Elder Brother disappeared and refused to let anyone attend her at night. Her behavior had always been difficult to understand.
Now there seemed to be a reasonable explanation.
Once Zhou Wanting reached that conclusion, her steps unconsciously quickened.