The small door creaked as it was pushed open.
The old physician bent forward, his posture humble as he ushered the person behind him inside.
Xue Yao narrowed his eyes, trying hard to see clearly.
The visitor wore fine clothes, looking to be around thirty years old, clearly resembling a steward from a wealthy household.
Not Pei Di?
“You asked me to come late at night. This item had better be worth it,” the man said coldly.
The old physician plastered on a smile. “There is no mistake. This is the best one this humble man has ever seen.”
The man grew interested. “Oh?”
As they spoke, the group walked straight toward the room where Xue Yao and the other were.
Xue Yao’s brows furrowed. Without making a sound, he closed the door and quickly lay back on the bed, pretending to be asleep.
A few breaths later, with a creak, the door was pushed open.
Xue Yao’s eyelids lifted slightly. From the corner of his eye, he saw the man, led by the old physician, stop by the table. The man lowered his head, glanced over Lu Dantao’s face, and gave a slight nod.
“Mm, this one’s looks are quite good. Get her ready tomorrow and send her to my lord as originally planned…”
His words came to an abrupt halt.
He suddenly reached out and grabbed Lu Dantao’s chin, forcing her face upright. The moment he saw clearly, he shot to his feet, glaring at the old physician. “She… could she be…”
The old physician leaned in, his voice lowered to an almost inaudible whisper, tinged with hesitation. “…This humble man does not know either… It was just that two nights ago, this young girl appeared at my doorstep with that young man…”
The man raised his hand to interrupt him and quickly strode to Xue Yao’s bedside.
The instant Xue Yao’s eyelids closed, he felt a gaze as cold as a blade scraping inch by inch across his face.
After a while, the man finally spoke. “That’s right. It’s him.”
“I will return at once to report to my lord. Later…” The man paused briefly, then corrected himself. “No, tomorrow. Tomorrow my lord will personally come to take him. You must take good care of him.”
“Yes.”
The man seemed to sense something, his tone carrying a warning. “You know my lord’s methods.”
Xue Yao’s long lashes trembled slightly, his eyelids opening a sliver. He saw the old physician lower himself even more. “This humble man understands.”
“Don’t entertain any crooked thoughts.” The man let out a cold snort, flicked his sleeve, and strode away. The old physician followed closely behind, respectfully seeing him off.
The heavy, disorderly footsteps gradually faded into the distance, and silence returned to the room.
Time passed bit by bit.
After a while, Xue Yao slowly rose and looked out the window.
The night was thick, all sounds stilled, with only a faint trace of breathing lingering in the room.
He walked to the door and peered through the crack. The courtyard was pitch-black, with only one side room lit by candlelight.
From what those people had said earlier, the matter behind this seemed somewhat different from what he had guessed.
Xue Yao glanced at Lu Dantao, who was still slumped over the table in a deep sleep, then quietly pushed the door open and slipped out.
He melted into the murky night, walking along the corridor as he surveyed this small and ordinary courtyard.
His gaze passed over the main hall, the kitchen, and the west wing where the two of them stayed, before finally settling on the dark east wing.
He looked through the window. It was covered with thick window paper.
Xue Yao gave a light push, and the door actually creaked open a crack.
It was not locked?
He pushed the door open and slipped inside.
The dim room was filled with neatly stacked wooden crates. He drew out a dagger and pried one open. Inside, it was packed to the brim with blades and weapons gleaming with a cold light.
He opened several more crates. All of them were the same.
Xue Yao’s brow lifted slightly. He casually rummaged through one of the crates and pulled out a flag pressed at the bottom. On it were written three characters: Black Wind Stronghold.
He curled his lips faintly. So it really was a bandits’ den.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside. He instinctively hid behind the crates. He saw a figure carrying a wooden basin walk past. It was the very bandit who had stabbed him.
But the man did not stop in front of the room and simply walked on.
After the footsteps faded, Xue Yao quietly slipped out and followed behind the bandit, arriving outside the only lit room.
Through the window gauze, he peered inside.
In the room, the old physician sat upright on a grand armchair, soaking his feet in a wooden basin, while instructing the bandit squatting by his side attending to him, “Stop fussing around. Ride back to the stronghold right now and inform the boss to come at once.”
The bandit showed hesitation. “How about we wait a bit longer?”
“Wait? Waiting day after day, night after night. How long are we supposed to wait?” The old physician spat. “How long has Hu Ge’er been locked in the dungeon already?”
Liu Da’s face showed reluctance as he muttered, “…Third Granduncle…”
“I know you’re all afraid of stirring up trouble.” Liu Jin covered his face, only speaking again after a long while. “But Hu Ge’er only followed the Xue family back then to drive off the barbarians. The Defender Duke committed treason. What does that have to do with him?”
“How did he end up being arrested? Once someone enters the dungeon… can they even still look human?”
Xue Yao’s gaze turned icy cold.
The Xue Family Army. The dungeon.
“My Black Wind Stronghold has worked for that surnamed Huang for so many years, and this is what we get? If they want to arrest someone, they take my son to make up the numbers. If their boss can swallow this, then he shouldn’t be the stronghold chief anymore!”
The more Liu Jin spoke, the angrier he became. He no longer needed Liu Da to wipe his feet and waved the cloth to shoo him away. “Go! Hurry and go! Tell him to come see me immediately.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll go right now. Please don’t be angry.” Liu Da hurriedly stood up, carrying the wooden basin as he was about to leave, then turned back to ask, “What about the two in the guest room? How should we deal with them?”
Xue Yao raised a brow.
Liu Jin did not care in the slightest. “No need to deal with them.”
He seemed to have already regained his composure, his tone laced with mockery. “I checked just now. The bowls on the table and by the boy’s bedside are both perfectly clean. When the boss arrives, just give them another bowl of medicinal soup.”
“That foolish girl will drink it herself.”
Xue Yao: …
He could not help but glance toward the guest room, his thoughts drifting from the kitchen at dusk all the way to Lu Dantao’s bold and heroic manner.
He could not resist curling his fingers to rub his brow, then pressing his cheek, almost laughing out of anger.
So the elaborate scheme he had deduced was, in reality, just that fool being tricked?
The door was pushed open, and Xue Yao instantly melted into the darkness.
Liu Da carried the basin away into the distance. Inside the room, the old physician blew out the candle, walked to the bed, shifted the young medicine boy further inward, and then lay down beside him.
Xue Yao waited quietly for a moment. Hearing steady breathing from within, he took a few deep breaths to calm the frustration in his chest, then pried open the window and slipped inside.
After searching quietly to no avail, he flipped himself up and hid atop the roof beam.
Since these bandits were connected to the former subordinates of the Xue family, when the Black Wind Stronghold’s chief arrived tomorrow, he might be able to uncover more clues.
As for Lu Dantao…
He did not want to see her for the time being.
*
When Lu Dantao woke up, she felt as if she had been sitting on a hard seat in a green train for two days and two nights, her whole body aching.
She rubbed her neck as she sat up and looked toward the bed, where the quilt was piled up high. Yesterday, she had noticed that the male lead’s complexion had improved a bit. If he was even better today, maybe she could take him out for a stroll and conveniently run into that strategist.
She moved closer to the bed and leaned in to take a look, but could not even spot where the young man’s face was.
She raised her hand, intending to pat Xue Yao’s “shoulder,” but ended up patting the cold, hard bedboard instead.
Lu Dantao: ?
Lu Dantao: !!!
She hurriedly lifted the quilt. The bed was completely empty.
Where was he?!!
Did he secretly run off?
Lu Dantao only felt a chill shoot up from the soles of her feet in an instant, her hands and feet turning cold as she trembled.
She had spent so much money… In her short life of a little over ten years, this was the first time she had spent so much on a man.
Before this, she had always freeloaded.
She rushed out of the room and circled the courtyard, but there was no sign of anyone.
Arriving at the main hall, the old physician and the medicine boy were nowhere to be seen. Even the door of the apothecary was left half closed.
Lu Dantao stood in the hall as unease welled up from the depths of her heart, wrapping around it like creeping vines.
She looked toward the inner room. The door there was tightly shut, and faint sounds seemed to be coming from within.
Following the sound, she walked inward. The sounds of argument gradually became clear. “…Are we supposed to keep working like beasts of burden, letting others control us? You just don’t want to save Hu Ge’er. You’re afraid of getting involved with the Defender Duke!”
Lu Dantao froze.
They were arguing? Could it be the male lead?
“…Officials and bandits, officials and bandits. Officials first, bandits second. Isn’t it always like this?” another male voice retorted.
Lu Dantao’s steps halted: …?
This sentence sounded so familiar.
Where had she heard it recently?
She quickened her pace, glanced left and right to make sure no one was around, then, just like in TV dramas, she stretched out a finger, dampened the tip, and poked a small hole in the window paper. Leaning in, she peeked through—
There were quite a few people gathered inside the room. On the outermost side stood the servant from the kitchen. The old physician was surrounded by several burly men, craning his neck as he confronted a tall man opposite him.
That man wore short, fitted clothes, his body full of well-defined muscles…
Lu Dantao’s eyes suddenly widened—
Wasn’t this man one of the group who had been stabbing around with knives at the mass grave that night?
How had he ended up here?
She then saw the man step forward half a pace, supporting the old physician by the arm to help him sit down, lowering his stance as he spoke, “Third Granduncle, the boss is right. You’re gambling with the lives of all one hundred and eight people in the stronghold!”
Lu Dantao’s pupils shook violently!
Third… Granduncle?
How did he suddenly become a granduncle? Wait a second, they were all on the same side.
So, she had rescued the male lead from the bandits’ blades, only to go through great trouble to carry him right back into the bandits’ den…
No wonder, no wonder! Back then, when the old physician heard her say he had been stabbed by bandits, his expression had been so strange.
She rubbed her neck and suddenly thought of the bowl of soup from yesterday.
‘Ah, I want to die…’
Lu Dantao’s face was full of anguish. This was bad. The male lead would not have already been killed, would he?
At that moment, the old physician’s angry voice came from inside the room again. “A gamble? The one in the guest room is an imperial envoy sent by the court to suppress bandits! We are bandits. Doing nothing is what truly gambles with lives!”
“Only by pulling that imperial envoy over and toppling that man surnamed Huang, then taking his place ourselves, will we have a sliver of hope.”
An imperial envoy?
Behind the door, Lu Dantao and, up on the beam, Xue Yao both frowned at the same time.
‘…Are they talking about me?’ Lu Dantao touched her face.
‘…So that is how it is.’ A faint smile curved at Xue Yao’s lips.
The burly man, Liu Laosi, fell silent, seemingly somewhat persuaded. “But… if we want to bring them back, we came today riding the boss’s donkey and by ox cart. We need to come up with a reason to smoothly take them back to the stronghold.”
“Why make it so troublesome!” Liu Da cut in with a rough voice. “That scrawny little chick of a young lad is so injured he can’t even crawl. Just carry him onto the ox cart!”
Xue Yao: …
He silently lowered his gaze and looked at his own strong, well-built arms.
The old physician nodded in agreement. “As for that girl, it’s even simpler. I’ll have Ah Da go with you. Just make up any excuse for her, and she will naturally follow you obediently.”
Liu Laosi: “That easy to fool?”
Lu Dantao: …
This was something she really did not like to hear.
“Done!” Liu Laosi stopped overthinking, pushed himself up with his hands on his knees. “No time to lose. Let’s withdraw now, so we don’t run into the authorities.” Then he asked Liu Jin, “Third Granduncle, have you figured out what to say to the authorities?”
Liu Jin nodded. “You just take them away. When Lord Huang arrives with his men later, I’ll say those two youngsters ran off on their own…”
Lu Dantao leaned in closer, trying to catch the rest of what was being said.
“Sister Ah Tao?”
The young medicine boy’s voice suddenly sounded from behind.
Lu Dantao’s movements stiffened as she turned around in a panic.
The little medicine boy stood in the outer room, tilting his head, looking at her with an innocent expression. “You… were eavesdropping?”
His childish voice was tender, yet it made Lu Dantao feel as if she had fallen into an icy abyss.
Cold sweat slowly crept up her back. She opened her mouth and with difficulty squeezed out a few words. “No… no.”
Heavy footsteps approached from the inner room.
The next moment, the door was yanked open with force!
Lu Dantao stiffly, slowly turned her head.
The tall, burly bandit stood at the doorway, looking down at her from above. Behind him stood the old physician, who had appeared kind and benevolent just yesterday.
It was over.