It was over.
Alarms blared wildly in Lu Dantao’s mind, three bold words flashing warnings.
She instinctively took several steps back, her heart pounding violently, her mind going completely blank.
She wanted to ask if this was fake, and also wanted to ask whether the male lead was dead, but her lips moved a few times, yet not a single sound came out.
On the roof beam, Xue Yao’s gaze shot toward the fleeting pink hem at the doorway like a cold arrow: ……
‘Why is she here?’
‘Was it intentional… or intentionally unintentional?’
Lu Dantao’s gaze shifted from Liu Laosi, who stood rooted at the doorway, to Liu Jin behind him.
The old physician, who had still looked kind and benevolent yesterday, now had a very twisted expression on his face. “Little girl, why are you here?”
Lu Dantao silently took another step back, murmuring, “I was just passing by…”
The corner of Liu Laosi’s mouth curled into a cruel arc as he stepped forward, closing in.
“Passing by?”
Lu Dantao forced out a stiff smile. “Yes, I came to look for Yan Yun.”
“Have you seen Yan Yun?”
Xue Yao: ……
Liu Jin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Your brother wasn’t staying in the room?”
Hearing this, Lu Dantao felt a surge of relief. The male lead hadn’t been killed after all!
That being the case, either the male lead had escaped, or he had realized this was a shady inn and was now hiding somewhere in the room.
But the male lead would not run.
So—
She suddenly shoved away the bandit who was about to grab her and shouted loudly, “Yan Yun!”
“I know you’re hiding in the room, come out and save me! Help!”
After shouting, she turned and dashed toward the door—
‘Quick! When you’re in danger, run to where there are more people!’
Xue Yao: …………
‘This fool!’
He shifted toward the middle of the roof beam, concealing his figure.
Liu Jin and the others paused in their steps, their sharp gazes sweeping across every corner of the room.
Seizing that instant, Lu Dantao sped up desperately, the threshold right within reach.
Once she got out of the apothecary, she would be safe!
‘Run, damn legs, run!’
Suddenly, a round, chubby figure rushed out and slammed into her, knocking her hard to the ground.
Lu Dantao saw stars from the impact. Propping herself up on her elbow, she looked toward the stout figure.
“Well done, Xiao Liu.” Footsteps approached from behind.
Lu Dantao turned her head. The man had already reached her in three strides, bent down, grabbed her by the collar, and lifted her whole body up. After looking her up and down, he turned his head and bared a vicious grin at the old physician. “Kill her? Or sell her?”
Liu Jin first instructed two bandits to search the guest rooms and the backyard, then slowly paced over to Lu Dantao, his tone sinister. “I originally planned to keep you alive, let your lover bring down that man surnamed Huang for us, and then properly send the two of you out of Shouzhou.”
“But you just had to eavesdrop. In that case, we can’t keep you.”
A trace of ruthlessness flashed across his lips as he lifted his chin toward Liu Laosi. “Take her to the backyard and kill her. Don’t dirty the place, we’d have to wash it.”
Lu Dantao’s pupils shrank abruptly.
Then she only felt a sharp pain in her shoulder blades, her eyes stinging as tears instantly welled up.
Liu Laosi’s iron clamp-like hand tightly gripped her arm, dragging her outward. She struggled to pry his fingers apart, but they did not budge at all, and she could only let that rough palm haul her forward.
“I really was just passing by…” she shook her head desperately, her voice tinged with sobs. “I didn’t hear anything.”
But no one listened to her.
Her vision blurred with tears, her mind buzzing. She only heard Liu Jin’s cold voice. “That man surnamed Huang likes to abuse young girls. You just imitate his usual methods, then throw the body into the mass grave. Then the court officials will turn on each other like dogs.”
‘What court dogs?’
“What dogs? I don’t understand, let me go!”
Lu Dantao shook her head frantically. With her free hand, she desperately grabbed toward the nearby display shelf, but her fingertips only brushed past it. She grasped at nothing.
Only air slipped through her fingers.
She looked at the burly man dragging her in despair, then followed the direction Liu Jin had pointed. There was a dry well there, and on the edge of the well sat a knife.
Just yesterday, she had even asked Liu Da why there was a knife placed there.
At the time, Liu Da had told her it was for slaughtering geese.
Now, she was the goose that was about to be slaughtered.
No!
She didn’t want to die!
Lu Dantao’s blood ran cold to the bone.
She was wrong.
She had been too naive.
She had only treated this as a book, thinking the plot would proceed step by step. She thought that after reading analysis posts and saving the male lead, she could live the rest of her life in peace.
Yet she had never truly thought about it. Even if this was a book, it was still a melodramatic power struggle novel where human lives were as worthless as grass, and the powerful could cover the sky with one hand. In this book, everyone was native to this world, all tied together in a web of intersecting relationships.
Only she was an otherworldly soul who had borrowed the original host’s body to return to life, with no family, no background, no friends.
The only person she knew was that male lead she had dragged back from the mass grave, arrogant beyond belief.
And whether he was even here at this moment was still unknown!
Lu Dantao had lived an ordinary life for nineteen years, studying obediently since childhood, steadily getting into university, busy with assignments, and reading novels when she had free time.
She had once thought that maybe she would die from overwork, or perhaps be blown up when Mars collided with Earth.
But she had never imagined she would die like this!
All of this was the male lead’s fault, that irresponsible scumbag!
She used all her strength to try to break free from that iron clamp-like grip.
“Let me go, I want to go home… wuu wuu wuu…”
“I want to go home…”
Lu Dantao cried until her throat hurt, not caring whether Xue Yao was present or not. “Yan Yun, you bastard! You said the two of us were allies! And then you turned around and abandoned me to run away! Even if I die, I’ll come back on the seventh day after my death to drag you with me!”
“Drag her away!”
“Let go of me! If I die, Yan Yun, you’ll never be able to get your revenge in this lifetime!”
The girl’s wailing outside grew more and more shrill and pitiful.
Xue Yao lowered his eyelids. His temples throbbed faintly from Lu Dantao’s crying. He closed his eyes, and after several deep breaths, his figure drifted down from the roof beam like a hawk.
Lu Dantao was still useful. Once he used her to bring down Pei Di and clear the Xue family’s name…
He would be the first to kill her!
With a sweep of his long leg, the teapot on the table shot out like an arrow released from a bow, flying straight toward Liu Laosi’s wrist that was tightly gripping Lu Dantao.
“Pa—”
The teapot fell to the ground.
The restraint on Lu Dantao’s arm suddenly disappeared.
Everyone abruptly turned their heads.
Lu Dantao bit down hard on her lower lip. Through her tear-blurred vision, she stared blankly as the tall, slender figure of the young man slowly walked out from the inner room.
Only when the young man leaped over the bandits and swiftly arrived in front of her did Lu Dantao suddenly snap back to her senses, tears streaming down like noodles—
This bastard really had been hiding here!
As the male lead, did he have to show up at the very last second!
Her wrist was grasped by a warm and firm hand. With a steady pull from the young man, Lu Dantao followed the force, spinning half a turn and slipping safely behind Xue Yao.
She looked up. The young man’s back was slender yet straight, clad in a light pink robe, standing in front of her.
Like a solid wall, he completely blocked the ferocious bandits, shutting out the death that had suffocated her with fear.
Lu Dantao pressed her lips together, which she had bitten red, and raised her hand to wipe away the tears that kept welling up.
Her gaze fell on the ponytail swaying lightly behind his head. It brushed a few times, with several strands caught in the folds of his clothing.
After a moment, she slowly reached out, her fingertips carrying a hint of hesitation, and gently hooked onto the corner of the young man’s robe, then gripped it tightly.
Xue Yao noticed the slight movement at the hem of his robe and turned half his face.
Behind him, the girl’s two originally neat hair buns had already become a complete mess after the struggle.
Her small face was covered in tear tracks.
She looked extremely disheveled.
Only to see her staring at him with those reddened, tearful eyes, looking aggrieved, her tone even carrying a trace of reproach. “Why did you only come now?”
Xue Yao shot her a sidelong glance: ……
So in her original expectation, he was supposed to be following her at all times?
He had no intention of dealing with her for now and turned his head to look at the group of bandits surrounding the two of them.
“Third Granduncle, it seems your original plan won’t work anymore.” Liu Laosi shook the hand that had gone numb from being struck by the teacup.
Liu Jin stroked his long beard and spoke viciously. “Since that’s the case, there’s no other way.”
“Kill them all!”
The moment his words fell, the bandits surged forward at once, drawing the long blades at their waists and slashing toward the two of them.
Lu Dantao was so frightened that she shut her eyes tightly, her fingertips instinctively tightening as she tried to clutch that piece of fabric.
However, the hem of the robe was pulled away by a force and slipped out from between her fingers.
She secretly opened a slit of her eyes, only to see that the young man standing in front of her moved like a phantom. Before she could even see clearly, he had already struck and knocked those bandits to the ground.
He’s so good at fighting!
Lu Dantao thought.
The last time she had seen such amazing fight scenes was in Jackie Chan’s movies.
She raised her eyes, looking at the young man standing proudly in the room, and blankly, she subconsciously started clapping.
‘The male lead is really amazing.’
She had to cling tightly to this thigh!
The bandits on the ground all raised their heads upon hearing the applause.
Xue Yao: ……
‘What is this fool doing?’
For some reason, he felt a bit embarrassed, the tips of his ears faintly heating up.
Without even turning his head, his gaze swept over the bandits sprawled all over the ground groaning in pain. Then he walked to the limp Liu Jin, crouched down, and pressed a blade against his throat. “If you want to live, answer me.”
“The dungeon. What’s going on with it?”
Liu Jin shook his head. “I don’t know either. I only know that one day, Lord Huang suddenly sent troops to search house by house. At first, they arrested those who had followed the Defender Duke to fight the barbarians back then. Later, they even arrested anyone who had served as soldiers. And after that… they started going after able-bodied men.”
Xue Yao: “Your son is one of them.”
Liu Jin fell silent for a moment, then gave a heavy “Mm.” “Hu Ge’er had nothing to do with the Xue family to begin with! Back when the Xue family was accused of treason, our stronghold even actively reported suspicious behavior of the Xue heir.”
He let out a cold sneer. “Who would have thought… that man surnamed Huang, just to make up the numbers, even dragged Hu Ge’er away.”
“Where is the dungeon?”
“…The government office dungeon.”
“Where is the government office dungeon located?”
Lu Dantao realized that Xue Yao wanted a map. She wiped away her tears and quickly ran to the counter, took the white paper and brush the old physician used for writing prescriptions, and handed them to him, her voice still tinged with sobs. “Draw it.”
Xue Yao shot her a surprised glance, then tapped lightly with his fingertip. “Draw.”
“When did they start arresting people?”
“More than a month ago, when you set out from the capital.”
Lu Dantao listened with a face full of confusion. When the male lead set out from the capital?
Which capital did he set out from?
Filled with doubts, she looked toward Xue Yao, who was crouching nearby. She saw his brow lift slightly, the corner of his lips curving into a cold arc. “How did you know I had arrived in Shouzhou?”
“That Constable Cai from the government office said it. You were sent by imperial decree from the capital to come suppress bandits, about to reach your coming-of-age,” Liu Jin paused, “and you were accompanied by a beautiful young woman.”
Xue Yao instantly understood why that man had been so shocked last night after clearly seeing Lu Dantao’s face.
So that was the reason.
He turned his head to look at Lu Dantao, who had at some point already retreated far away. His gaze lightly fell on the red mole at the center of her brow—
That was the mark those local snakes used to identify people.
In that case, the “imperial envoy” who had come from the capital to suppress bandits was most likely Pei Di.
He had concealed his movements precisely to lure him into the trap.
A mocking smile traced across Xue Yao’s lips. Sure enough, even though there had been some deviations along the way, he had not guessed wrong in the end.
Lu Dantao looked at the strange smile on Xue Yao’s lips, utterly confused.
What was this? Why couldn’t she understand any of it?
Then she saw a flash of cold light behind Xue Yao. Liu Laosi had picked up a long blade from the ground and was viciously slashing down toward his back—
“Be careful!”
Xue Yao’s wrist flipped deftly, and the sharp blade in his hand pierced straight into Liu Laosi’s chest with precision.
He turned around, half of his face hidden in shadow, like an evil ghost lingering in the mortal world. Liu Jin was so frightened that he scrambled backward on his hands and feet.
“Young master, he acted on his own, it has nothing to do with us!”
Xue Yao tilted his head. “Is that so?”
“Those travelers you cruelly killed and abandoned in the wilderness…” and the Xue heir you framed.
“Do they also have nothing to do with you?” he asked softly.
“No—”
Before Liu Jin and the others could respond, his blade rose and fell, and he cleanly slit the throats of everyone in the shop.
The moment Xue Yao swung his blade, Lu Dantao shut her eyes extremely quickly.
When silence returned, she cautiously opened her eyes. The corpses scattered all over the ground made her stomach churn, and she gagged a few times.
Then, seeing that Xue Yao had already stepped out of the apothecary, she turned pale. Pressing her body tightly against the wall, she carefully avoided the spreading blood on the ground.
At the moment she stepped over the threshold, she paused, secretly spat at the corpses on the ground, and muttered softly, “Serves you right.”
Then she hurried after Xue Yao and ran out the door. “Yan Yun, wait for me.”
Xue Yao halted his steps, his gaze strange as he looked at her. “What did you call me?”
“Yan Yun.”
“You’re going to the dungeon, aren’t you?”
“So what?”
“I’ll go too. I can help you.”
Xue Yao suppressed the words he had been about to say, one brow lifting. “Oh? What can you help me with?”