Er Ya heard it too.
She was about to speak when Zhou Wanning clamped a hand over her mouth.
The people outside clearly didn’t want to alert them, so they were making very little noise, but judging by the creaking sounds, they’d have the door bolt pried open within fifteen minutes at most.
Zhou Wanning picked up Li Zhannan and placed him inside the cabinet. She whispered, “Don’t make a sound.”
Then she moved quietly to the outer room, grabbed a thick wooden stick as wide as a rice bowl, and also brought the cleaver back into the bedroom.
When Zhou Wanning had gotten up earlier that morning, Er Ya had followed her out of bed. Seeing the cleaver Zhou Wanning brought over, she reached out her hand.
Killing was against the law, even if it was self-defense. If she did it herself, it wouldn’t implicate Zhou Wanning.
Zhou Wanning shook her head at Er Ya.
The cleaver was her last resort. If a single blow from the stick didn’t knock them out, only then would she use the blade. This was the only cleaver in the house—she didn’t want to use it to kill someone, or else what would she cook with afterward?
Zhou Wanning scooped a handful of flour from the cabinet and gave it to Er Ya. She pointed at the door, then mimed throwing flour toward her own eyes. Er Ya immediately understood.
Just as she pressed the flour into Er Ya’s hands, she heard a clatter—the door bolt had fallen.
Zhou Wanning pressed herself against the doorframe, one on each side. A flash of lightning stretched the shadows of the figures in the outer room long and thin—there were two of them. Zhou Wanning began to sweat.
Judging by their builds, they were two men, and one held a dagger.
The one saving grace was that her and Er Ya’s shadows weren’t exposed to their view.
Zhou Wanning signaled Er Ya not to make any rash moves.
The two men in the outer room stopped at the doorway. Zhou Wanning gripped the wooden stick tightly, her other hand already reaching for the cleaver, when she saw one of them make a left-right gesture. The two split up—one heading toward their direction, the other going to the west room.
Zhou Wanning tightened her grip on the stick. The moment the man stepped through, the flour in Er Ya’s hand flew into his face. “Ah!”
Amid the scream, Zhou Wanning brought the stick down hard on the back of his neck. Thump!
The figure crumpled to the ground.
The man who had been fumbling toward the west room immediately turned back. Er Ya had no weapon in hand, so Zhou Wanning shouted at her, “Run!”
She swung the wooden stick fiercely at the incoming man.
Unfortunately, a second flash of lightning fell, illuminating the room brightly—letting the man see the situation clearly, and leaving Zhou Wanning and Er Ya nowhere to hide.
“No wonder Li Zhanye gave up his promotion to marry you. You really are a stunning beauty.”
The man licked his lips at Zhou Wanning.
Li Zhanye often made the same gesture at her, but somehow, this man in front of her made her feel disgusted. Deeply disgusted.
“Your man cost me ten years of hard work. Tonight I’ll bed you, so he’ll see you every day and think of me—he’ll never know peace for the rest of his life.”
With that, the man lunged at Zhou Wanning. At that moment, Li Zhannan, who had been hiding in the cabinet, suddenly stood up. He grabbed the man’s raincoat hood with all his might and flung the flour in his hand right into the man’s face.
Er Ya seized the opportunity and kicked the man square in the crotch. The pain made him buckle, clutching the injured spot as he dropped to his knees.
Zhou Wanning seized the moment, giving the man no chance to counterattack. She brought the stick down hard on the back of his neck.
Crack!
A crisp, dull thud. The man collapsed to the ground.
Zhou Wanning didn’t dare to be careless. She directed Er Ya to fetch some rope and directly tied the two men to the pillars on either side of the house outside.
One was tied to each pillar. The rain soaked the hemp rope, making it tight and sticky—there was no way they could escape.
Only after all this was done did Zhou Wanning finally let out a breath of relief.
She wiped the fine beads of sweat from her forehead and praised them without stint: “Well done.”
She carried Li Zhannan out of the cabinet and pinched his round little cheeks. “You were very brave too—a real little hero.”
Er Ya’s legs gave out and she collapsed directly onto the ground. That knife had grazed right past her pant leg—if it had been even a little more accurate, it would have cut into her flesh. Only now, thinking back on it, did she feel the lingering fear.
“Let’s all take a moment.”
Zhou Wanning leaned against the edge of the kang, slowly calming her nerves. “They can’t break free now. Let’s catch our breath first.”
Er Ya’s eyes sparkled. “Sister, you’re amazing. The three of us actually managed to take down two grown men.”
“You were amazing too—you didn’t even hesitate to lunge at them.”
“I didn’t want anyone to hurt you. No one, not anyone.”
Having spent these days with Li Zhanye and Zhou Wanning, Er Ya had gradually become more outgoing and had learned to speak her mind directly.
Zhou Wanning patted Er Ya’s hand.
When she had first arrived in this unfamiliar world, she had bought Er Ya as a maidservant. But after going through this ordeal, she felt Er Ya was more like someone close to her.
Because she had no family here, she had built herself a “home” with emotional sustenance—with Er Ya, with Li Zhannan, and also…
Well, Li Zhanye didn’t count. He was a dog.
Zhou Wanning always subconsciously taught Li Zhannan things, so Li Zhannan now carried a bit of Zhou Wanning’s influence in him.
Once they had recovered their composure, Zhou Wanning fetched some black electrical tape from the west room—the leftover tape Li Zhanye had used for wiring.
She had Er Ya wrap the two men’s hands with the tape as well, and only then did she feel at ease.
Having been drenched by the rain continuously, the two men had long since woken up, each cursing loudly into the air.
Er Ya felt uneasy hearing them, as if the two men outside might burst in at any moment.
“Sister, why don’t I find some cloth to stuff their mouths?”
Zhou Wanning picked up the dagger from the ground and tossed it onto the cabinet, unconcerned. “No need to stuff anything.”
“The clamor of the defeated is the victor’s symphony.”
Zhou Wanning placed Li Zhannan in the spot where Li Zhanye had been lying before. “Don’t you feel a sense of accomplishment, falling asleep to the sound of your vanquished foes?”
Hearing Zhou Wanning say this, Li Zhannan and Er Ya, who had been cowering in fear, suddenly weren’t so scared anymore.
“True… when you think about it that way, it’s actually pretty satisfying~”
And those were two grown men carrying knives, no less.
“Sleep now.”
Zhou Wanning closed her eyes wearily. “No one will come tonight.”
Li Zhannan’s little hand lifted the corner of the blanket and secretly reached out to hold Zhou Wanning’s thumb.
Zhou Wanning simply raised her hand and wrapped his little hand inside her palm.
A sweet smile curved at the corner of Li Zhannan’s lips. His restless heart finally settled completely, and he pressed close against Zhou Wanning as he drifted into dreamland.
BANG!
Zhou Wanning was startled awake by a loud crashing sound against the door.
Before she was even fully awake, she was scooped out of the bed by Li Zhanye, who looked her over from head to toe, his large hands roaming over her as he asked, “Are you hurt anywhere? It’s my fault for being too overconfident—I didn’t think they’d dare pull a trick like hiding right under our noses.”
After confirming that Zhou Wanning had no injuries, he took her hand and placed it against his own face, his eyes glistening with tears. “Go ahead and hit me. It’s all my fault.”