Chapter 29

Chapter 29

From the moment Jin Bao climbed out the window, she was like a little fish slipping into water. The vast world outside could not hold her back at all.

Like a civet cat in the night, she moved with a light, nimble grace. In just a few bounds, she appeared beneath a large tree in the rear courtyard. The tree stood beside the woodshed, the woodshed was connected to the kitchen, and the kitchen sat next to the front courtyard.

Before Xiao Jingmo could call the little girl back, he saw that in the blink of an eye, she had already climbed onto the roof over the front courtyard.

Xiao Jingmo silently wiped away a bead of sweat. It seemed his coming out here had simply made him a burden.

Of the three brothers, Xiao Jingmo was the least skilled in martial arts. Xiao Che had sent him along because it was easier for him to move around, and because he was bold yet careful. Seeing that Jin Bao was not in any danger, he turned and felt his way toward the front courtyard.

Jin Bao lay flat along the roof ridge. This inn was a two-story building.

From above, she had a sweeping view of the street and everything around it.

The entire street in front of the courier station was lit by torches as bright as day.

Dozens of men came riding in on horseback, shouting excitedly. They swung down from their horses and kicked in the doors of every shop they saw.

Soon, startled cries and screams of agony rang out from inside.

A moment later, those men strode out of the shops as if they owned the place, some carrying sacks over their shoulders, some clutching bundles, some holding chests, and some with women tucked under their arms.

Under the torchlight, the blood spattered across their bodies could be seen clearly.

Jin Bao’s two little hands gripped the roof tiles tightly. Her small mouth pressed into a thin line, and two little flames of fury burned fiercely in her eyes.

“Bad guys. Big bad guys. Baby is going to beat people up.”

Jin Bao only felt the blood in her body boiling. A nameless rage climbed all the way up from the bottom of her heart and quickly filled her little head.

But she still remembered what Daddy had said. She had to hurry back and report what she had seen.

Jin Bao bit her lower lip, her little face full of hesitation. Just as she wavered, she suddenly saw a bandit carry another woman out of a shop.

He had just reached the middle of the street when a little boy rushed out from an angle behind him. He was only five or six years old, and he was holding a kitchen knife in his hand as he shouted, “Let go of my mother! I’m going to kill you bad guys!”

A vicious look flashed in the man’s eyes. He held a broadsword that gleamed coldly, and with one raise of his hand, he was about to chop the little boy in half.

Seeing this, Jin Bao remembered how, in her previous life, those people had spent every day wanting to chop open her head. Her eyes turned scarlet. Strength came from nowhere, and with a wild tug of her little hands, she pried up a green roof tile and hurled it down with all her might.

The tile happened to strike the eye of a horse in the street.

The horse was startled. It let out a long neigh, reared up on its front hooves, and kicked the man squarely in the head. The man’s skull burst open on the spot, and he rolled straight away.

The woman he had been carrying tumbled to the ground and escaped disaster.

The little boy was so frightened that he froze where he stood, right as he was about to be trampled under the horse’s hooves.

Jin Bao climbed down from the roof at lightning speed. Like a swift, powerful leopard in the night, she reached the little boy in a few breaths, grabbed him, and rolled with him to the side.

The panicked horse swept past the boy by a hair’s breadth, then charged into the crowd. Along the way, it frightened the other horses as well, and for a time, the whole street was filled with the screams of the Horse Bandits.

After saving him, Jin Bao did not linger. She got up and was about to run.

But the little boy tightly grabbed her small hand.

Jin Bao looked back in surprise, feeling a little anxious inside. She could not stay here for too long. Daddy was still waiting for her, and Second Brother must be worried too.

“Little sister, thank you. This is for you.”

The little boy took off the shoes on his feet and held them out to Jin Bao with both hands.

He had noticed that Jin Bao’s feet were bare, with nothing on them at all. There were also many old and new wounds on her feet. She must have gotten those fresh injuries while saving him just now.

Jin Bao blinked as she looked at the shoes in the little boy’s hands. They were new and very pretty. Jin Bao had never seen such beautiful shoes before. She could not help reaching out to take them. She thought shoes this pretty must be very soft.

“Thank you, big brother.”

Jin Bao was a little shy. Holding one shoe in each hand, her small ears bright red, she thanked him, then turned and ran off.

At this moment, Xiao Jingmo was still in the front courtyard, only hidden in a passageway.

He had originally planned to creep forward and take a look, to see whether the Horse Bandits entering town this time had anything to do with Zou Yong and Cui Jin. Unexpectedly, the moment he slipped through the passage door connecting the front and rear courtyards, he heard fierce arguing from inside.

“Zou Yong, Cui Jin, are you two trying to pull the same trick again? Last time, the two of you secretly ran off and abandoned me and Brother San. Now you’re trying to slip away again today?”
Li Si thrust out an arm across the second-floor stairway, blocking the two men who had been trying to take the chance to slip downstairs.

Zhu Laosan had also moved in behind them, cutting off their retreat and trapping them in the middle with nowhere to go.

Annoyance flashed across Zou Yong’s face.

“Li Si, what time do you think it is? And you’re still in the mood to argue here? Those are Horse Bandits outside. The four of us only know a few half-baked moves. Who could possibly hold them off?”

“Besides, Horse Bandits hate government men most of all. Once they see us, we’ll be the first ones they cut down. If you want to be a target, that’s your business, but we don’t. Move aside. If we run now, we can still save our lives.”

Cui Jin’s brows were tightly furrowed as well.

He and Zou Yong had already discussed their plan for tonight. Once everyone was asleep, they would set fire to the rear courtyard and burn every last member of the Xiao Family to death. Who would have thought that before they even had time to act, the sound of hoofbeats would suddenly come from the street outside, followed by the cries of the common folk and the warning shouts of the defense team organized by the local gentry?

The two of them had panicked at once, grabbed their things, and prepared to flee.

But the moment they opened the door, they ran straight into Li Si and Zhu Laosan. Now neither side would give way.

Considering the unfinished task, Cui Jin felt this was not the time to completely fall out with them.

“Zou Yong, let’s be honest with each other. I’ll ask you this: are those Horse Bandits outside in league with you?”

“I know you want to get rid of the Xiao Family. Along the way, I turned a blind eye to plenty of things. If anything, blame yourselves for being useless.”

“But of all the things you could have done, you should never have colluded with Horse Bandits. You draw a salary from the imperial court, yet you betray it from within, joining hands with Horse Bandits to harm the people. I, Li Si, look down on you.”

Zou Yong grew anxious too.

“Li Si, don’t you dare slander me! I only just found out about the Horse Bandits myself. If we keep wasting time, we’ll all die here.”

Li Si was somewhat suspicious, but Zou Yong’s expression did not look feigned. It seemed he had wrongly accused him this time.

“In that case, I’ll believe you this once.”

Li Si turned to Zhu Laosan. “Brother San, what do we do now? This relay station is about to fall.”

He could already hear the Horse Bandits downstairs hammering at the main gate with earth-shaking force.

“While the Horse Bandits are still on the main street, we leave through the back door at once. Li Si, go check the back door first. I’ll take these two to escort the prisoners.”

Li Si nodded, glanced once more at Zou Yong and Cui Jin, then turned and went downstairs.

Xiao Jingmo heard the commotion. The moment Zhu Laosan gave the order, he turned and ran toward the rear courtyard, just in time to run into Jin Bao, who had been looking for him. He bent down, picked Jin Bao up, and quickly climbed through the window back into the room.

“Mo’er, good girl, what’s going on outside?”

When Pei Wanqing saw the two of them return, half of the anxiety weighing on her heart finally eased. She immediately rose from the kang and pulled Jin Bao into her arms.

“Father, Mother, I didn’t go outside. But I did find out that fifty or sixty Horse Bandits have come. This was planned in advance, though they aren’t here for us. The bailiffs are going to come take us out through the back door. There’ll definitely be a fierce fight soon.”

Pei Wanqing’s face went white with fright, and her calves trembled. Nanny Chen supported her as she sat back down on the kang.

Xiao Che gently patted Pei Wanqing’s shoulder. His voice was calm, steady, and reassuring.

“Don’t worry, my lady. Nothing will happen to us.”

Old Madam Xiao sat cross-legged on the kang and said evenly, “Sister Liu, when the time comes, all of you follow behind me. Also, every woman here must blacken her face. Any skin left exposed should be smeared with mud and ash as well.”

Madam Liu had never witnessed such a scene before. Just hearing the sounds outside was enough to make her blood run cold. And more than that, her son Xiao Han had died at the hands of mountain bandits. She feared these people more deeply than most, and hated them as well.

“I’ll do as you say, elder sister. At my age, it doesn’t matter whether I live or die. As long as my Shuang’er and Yu’er can survive, I can die with my eyes closed.”

“That won’t happen.”

Old Madam Xiao held Madam Liu’s hand, her gaze firm.

The women had just finished tidying themselves according to Old Madam Xiao’s instructions when the sound of a lock being opened came from outside the door. Xiao Jingmo knew it was Zhu Laosan arriving with the other two bailiffs.

At the same time, the relay station’s front gate in the front courtyard, already battered until it was on the verge of collapse, finally crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom. The sound was so loud that everyone in the rear courtyard heard it clearly.

Zhu Laosan and Xiao Jingmo’s expressions changed drastically at the same time.

The Horse Bandits had broken in!