Chapter 16
Chapter 16
“Heh-heh… Xiao Che, because of you, we lost a brother. My brother and I have swallowed this grudge for days. Today, we’ll send your whole family to keep him company in death.”
“On the road to the underworld, when you see my brother, pass on a message for us. Tell him we avenged him.”
Ye Xiaotu and Li Duanjiang slowly closed in.
No one knew when, but the shackles on their feet had already disappeared.
Xiao Jingmo and Xiao Jinghao immediately stepped in front of Xiao Che.
“Father, Ye Xiaotu has never shown his true strength. The two times they acted before, it was always Li Duanjiang and Yousha Ke. One of them is skilled with poison, the other with theft. I’ve heard Ye Xiaotu is a giant of a man, and his true strength is unfathomable. We can’t take this lightly.”
Xiao Che had crossed hands with Ye Xiaotu before. The last time he managed to knock the three of them out in the woods, it was only because he ambushed them successfully. If they fought head-on, he had no confidence at all.
And now there was another tricky problem: Xiao Che’s leg injury could not be exposed.
The moment they started fighting, everyone would know that his legs had healed. Then the matter of the snakes released that night, and the trip into Zhu Laosan’s room, would be blown open.
Right now it was just the three Xiao Family men against those two brothers, and they still had to protect the Xiao Family women. They had no advantage whatsoever, let alone a chance of winning.
“Mo’er, try to buy us time. Best case, we hold out until Zhu Laosan notices something is wrong over here. Then we’ll still have a sliver of hope.”
Right behind Xiao Che was Xiao Jingxing.
Behind Xiao Jingxing were the women of the Xiao Family.
Madam Liu and the others still had no idea what was going on. They only felt that the atmosphere had turned strange.
“Old sister, what on earth is happening? Why aren’t we moving? The rain is getting heavier. If we don’t leave now, the children will be soaked through. They’re too young to get caught in the rain like this; they’ll catch a chill and come down with a cold!”
Madam Liu was frantic, shouting at the top of her lungs. The woods were already noisy, and with the rain beating down, anything said too softly was impossible to hear.
Old Madam Xiao looked at the road blocked ahead and knew there was no way to keep hiding it.
“Little sister, someone wants blood spilled. I’m afraid we won’t be able to leave just yet.”
Lu Shuangshuang was standing right beside them, both hands holding a bundle above Xiao Jingyu’s head.
But in this downpour, how could a single bundle possibly keep the rain out?
When she heard the two old ladies talking, she stood on tiptoe to look ahead, and sure enough, she saw two men standing at the very front.
From the moment those two men joined the exile convoy, she had felt something was off. Their eyes were enough to make one’s scalp tingle. So someone had deliberately sent them to assassinate the Marquis’s Mansion.
Lu Shuangshuang was very quick-witted. Her eyes flickered, and she immediately weighed the dangers and benefits in her mind.
If they abandoned the Main Branch now and ran for their lives on their own, these two men might spare the three women and children.
But could three women and children really make it all the way down the road by themselves?
If she didn’t run today and instead helped the Marquis’s Mansion people deal with those two villains, the mansion would surely remember the favor and treat Jingyu better in the future.
Lu Shuangshuang pressed her lips together, the hesitation in her eyes gradually hardening into resolve.
Just now, it seemed she had spotted a few aconite plants.
Untreated aconite contains aconitine, a highly toxic substance.
If taken by mistake, it could numb the mouth and tongue, cause nausea and vomiting, trigger arrhythmia, and even become life-threatening.
Lu Shuangshuang handed her son and the bundle to her mother-in-law, then turned back along the path they had come.
She hadn’t gone far when she found the medicinal herbs she was looking for.
With no proper tool in hand, she grabbed a random wooden stick and started digging.
The soil in the woods was already loose, and with the rain pouring down in sheets, it didn’t take much effort to dig up several plants.
She didn’t even know whether these things would be useful. With no time to clean them up, she hurried back.
“Eldest Young Master, take this.”
Lu Shuangshuang struggled over to Xiao Jingxing’s side. There were many dead leaves in the woods, and after being soaked by the rain, they were slippery. On top of that, she was still wearing the heavy shackles, so every step was careful and slow, and she was already gasping for breath.
Xiao Jingxing was on full alert, ready to strike at any moment, when his clothes were suddenly tugged.
He looked down and saw Lu Shuangshuang. In her pale palm lay a lump of something dark and muddy.
Xiao Jingxing looked startled.
“Aunt Lu, what is this?”
Lu Shuangshuang quickly shoved the raw aconite into Xiao Jingxing’s hand.
“Eldest Young Master, this is raw aconite. It’s highly poisonous. I don’t know if it’ll help, but if you coat something sharp with it and stab it into someone’s body, it can slow them down and numb their mouth and tongue.”
Xiao Jingxing had excellent hearing. Hearing that it was such a useful thing, he immediately gave Lu Shuangshuang a grateful look.
“Thank you, Auntie. You’ve really helped us a great deal.”
They were exiles, so there was no way they had weapons on them. All they could rely on were their fists. But now that they had poison, they had a much better chance of winning.
Xiao Jingxing’s gaze swept through the woods and finally settled on a tree branch.
He reached out and snapped off a few branches a little thicker than his fingers, deliberately breaking the ends into sharp points.
He roughly sharpened it against a stone from the woods, then smeared the sap over the tip of the branch.
He had wanted to make a few more, but Xiao Jingmo could not stall them any longer.
Ye Xiaotu seemed to have seen through their plan. He sneered at Xiao Jingmo.
“You think if you waste enough breath talking, you can buy time until someone comes to save you? Stop dreaming. No one is coming to save you today. Be good and die.”
“Boss, stop wasting words on them. The sooner we finish the job, the sooner we can go enjoy ourselves.”
Li Duanjiang stared darkly at Xiao Che, standing beside Ye Xiaotu and itching to make a move.
Ye Xiaotu suddenly sprang forward, his fist wrapped in wind and rain as it smashed straight toward Xiao Jingmo.
Xiao Jingmo’s martial skills were already somewhat lacking, and with his movements restricted, he barely managed to dodge the first strike. But Ye Xiaotu’s assault was ferocious. Before Xiao Jingmo could even straighten up, a foot came kicking toward his chest.
If that kick landed, Xiao Jingmo would be one step from death.
At the critical moment, Xiao Che slapped the armrest of his wheelchair and shot up from where he sat. With one hand, he grabbed Xiao Jingmo and sent him flying out of danger. Xiao Che himself fell backward to the ground, braced both hands against the earth, and, drawing strength from his abdomen, whipped up his long legs. The shackles around his ankles instantly wrapped around Ye Xiaotu’s incoming foot.
Seeing this, Xiao Jingxing executed a Sparrowhawk Turnover and landed behind Ye Xiaotu. Without the slightest hesitation, he drove the poison-smeared branch in his hand toward the man’s neck.
Li Duanjiang had been dealing with Xiao Jinghao. Xiao Jinghao had taken a punch from him, and blood was streaming from his nose.
Li Duanjiang was about to finish Xiao Jinghao off when he looked up and happened to see Xiao Jingxing launching a sneak attack. His eyes nearly split with rage. Abandoning Xiao Jinghao, he charged straight at Xiao Jingxing.
Xiao Jingxing sensed someone coming up behind him and rolled across the ground, dodging the attack. But his sneak attack failed as well.
Xiao Jingxing tossed the branches in his hand to Xiao Jingmo and Xiao Jinghao.
“Catch! The branches are coated with poison. Use them carefully, and don’t hurt yourselves.”
Hearing this, the two brothers immediately gripped the branches tight. These were their lifelines now.
Li Duanjiang and Ye Xiaotu saw that their attack had failed, and now that the other side had poison-coated branches in hand, they were somewhat wary.
Their gazes instantly shifted to the women of the Xiao Family.
Pei Wanqing held Jin Bao tightly against her chest, while Nanny Chen spread her arms and shielded them both behind her.
Old Madam Xiao remained calm. Her eyes, which had seen all the world’s storms, looked at Ye Xiaotu and Li Duanjiang with imposing authority, without the slightest trace of panic.
Even in a prisoner’s uniform, even drenched and battered by the torrential rain, her spine remained straight and unyielding.
“You petty villains have martial skills, yet instead of using them to kill the enemy, serve the nation, and win honor, you bully the old and weak here. In this life, you are worse than pigs and dogs. Unless you step over this old woman’s body today, don’t even think of touching a single hair on anyone of my Xiao Family.”
Old Madam Xiao had been on the battlefield before. Now she stood alone before the women of the Xiao Family, facing down the thugs without a shred of fear.
“You old hag. What use was all that loyalty to the throne and the country? Didn’t they still exile you? And now they’ve sent us to kill you. How pitiful you all are.”
Li Duanjiang chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
Old Madam Xiao gave a mocking smile. “What the Xiao Family has always protected was never the ruler of this land, but the people of this land.”
“Second Brother, don’t waste time with this old hag. I’ll deal with her. You go grab the woman holding the child.”
As soon as Ye Xiaotu finished speaking, he rushed straight at Old Madam Xiao.
Seeing that he was about to succeed, Xiao Che could no longer keep pretending. He tapped the ground with both feet, shifted several times in rapid succession, and blocked Ye Xiaotu’s path. Then he struck Ye Xiaotu in the chest with his palm.
Ye Xiaotu was shocked. “You… you’re not crippled?”
“Since you’ve discovered it, I can’t let you leave.”
Xiao Che and Xiao Jingxing attacked Ye Xiaotu at the same time.
Ye Xiaotu struggled badly against them.
“Second Brother, don’t get tangled up in the fight. Run! Xiao Che was faking it. We’re no match for him. Hurry and report this!”
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Xiao Che shouted and went after Li Duanjiang.
Li Duanjiang suddenly flung a handful of powder behind him. Xiao Che instinctively dodged, but because of the heavy rain, the powder was soaked by the rain and fell before it could reach him.
Even with that brief delay, Li Duanjiang still managed to escape.
Without Xiao Che’s help, Xiao Jingxing alone was no match for Ye Xiaotu. After Ye Xiaotu struck him with a palm and forced him back several steps, Ye Xiaotu also broke free and fled.
“Father, what do we do?”
At this point, both Xiao Jingxing and Xiao Jingmo were a little panicked. If Zhu Laosan found out, everything they had done over the past few days would be ruined. It might even make Zhu Laosan think they had been playing him for a fool. Would he join forces with Zou Yong and the others to deal with them?
However, when Ye Xiaotu attacked Xiao Jingxing earlier, the branch in Xiao Jingxing’s hand had cut across his face. They just did not know whether it would have any effect.