Chapter 378: Resolution

Yan Liqiang exited the manor and left Mount Longqi on his rhinodrake steed.

He was initially planning to meet Lu Peien at the Gan Provincial Guild Hall to inform him of the blindfolded contest he would participate in a few days time, but Yan Liqiang was worried that he would also implicate Lu Peien if he met him at a time like this. Hence, he didn’t go to the Gan Provincial Guild Hall and instead had Fang Beidou find a time and go on his behalf to keep Lu Peien informed.

The two men who followed Yan Liqiang were waiting outside the manor for him to come out. They were extremely haughty and didn’t even bother to conceal themselves. When they saw Yan Liqiang leave the manor on his rhinodrake steed, they also got onto their respective rhinodrake steeds and openly followed him.

When they reached the main road a few li away from the manor, Yan Liqiang cast a glance behind him before suddenly speeding Snowstorm Cloud up. When the two men saw that, they also whipped their steeds and chased after him.

When Yan Liqiang turned into the forest by the road, he suddenly slowed down and brought his rhinodrake steed to a halt beside a thicket at the roadside. He only had to wait a few seconds before the sounds of iron hooves caught up from behind.

The two men who tailed Yan Liqiang didn’t seem to expect the latter would stop at the turning corner. The moment they turned in, they came face to face with Yan Liqiang.

Since both of them were following Yan Liqiang, they also stopped when they saw that Yan Liqiang had stopped.

“Who are you guys? Why are you following me?” Yan Liqiang moved a few steps toward the two men on his rhinodrake steed and entered the Psychic Serpent’s reading range.

“Who are you kidding? The Imperial Capital city’s road is vast enough for us to travel on either side. The two of us simply felt like sightseeing on our steeds today, so we’ll go and stop wherever and whenever we want! What can you do about it huh?!” One of the men with tanned face looked at Yan Liqiang as he made up a lame excuse.

“That’s right! Is there any law in the Great Han Empire that states that only you are allowed to travel on this road? You claim that we are following you, but we can also claim that you are following us! Why don’t you try to report us to the authorities and see who is right!” The other slender-faced man at the side immediately chimed in. He looked at Yan Liqiang fearlessly and even had a sneer on his face.

As expected, both of them were from the Ministry of Justice. In just the blink of an eye, Yan Liqiang was able to obtain enough information from their minds through the Psychic Serpent. These two people had received orders to keep an eye on him outside of Deer Villa. There was also another group people with them, but they were keeping watch in another direction of Deer Villa so Yan Liqiang didn’t run into them today. The order they received was to keep an eye on him and report his whereabouts to the higher-ups. Not only that, these were only the people keeping watch during the daytime. The Ministry of Justice also assigned two additional groups of people to watch the road outside Deer Villa that led to different directions at night just in case Yan Liqiang decided to escape.

Needless to say, these small fries were not Yan Liqiang’s opponents. Besides, Yan Liqiang wasn’t going to fall into their trap. The person who sent these two here was probably waiting for him to beat them to death…

After obtaining the information he needed, Yan Liqiang snorted and no longer wanted to have anything to do with these two small fries. He made his way back to Deer Villa on his steed. The two men burst into laughter behind him and continued tailing not too far behind him. They followed Yan Liqiang all the way to Deer Villa, only stopping when they saw him moving from the public road to the road that led to Deer Villa.

When Yan Liqiang dismounted his steed, the group of soldiers guarding the entrance bowed to him. The officer also walked over to him with a smile. “You’ve returned quite early today, Deputy Manager…”

Yan Liqiang directly handed the reins of his rhinodrake steed to a soldier and had him bring it inside. A thought then struck him. He pulled the officer to the side and whispered a few things to him.

When the officer heard him, he immediately patted on his own chest and chuckled mischievously, seemingly eager to get into action. “Rest assured, Deputy Manager. I’m great at this kind of thing. It’s just two puppies from the Ministry of Justice. It will be easy as long as they are not in their official uniforms. Watch how I will take care of them and leave them to me! I will round up a few of our tough brothers to beat the sh*t out of them…!”

“Just don’t kill anyone!”

“Don’t worry, Deputy Manager. I know the limits. I guarantee that one time will be enough to put them on their bed for three months. Besides, those f*ckers from the Ministry of Justice are not qualified enough to put on airs with the Imperial Cavalry Unit. Even if they take things to the imperial court, we have nothing to fear…”

“Take the brothers that will be out on the job to get some wine…” Yan Liqiang fished out a silver promissory note worth of a hundred taels of silver while speaking, and shoved it into the officer’s hand.

“I can’t possibly accept your money, Deputy Manager! Our brothers are more than happy to do something for you!” The officer quickly refused the silver promissory note.

“An emperor will not let his soldiers go to battle on an empty stomach! Stop being so courteous with me. You are being a stranger to me!” Yan Liqiang directly shoved the silver promissory note into the officer’s belt. Seeing how courteous Yan Liqiang was, the officer stopped refusing. “Alright. Then I shall thank Deputy Manager on behalf of our brothers!”

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After leaving the task to the officer, Yan Liqiang entered Deer Villa.

The officer rubbed his chin after he watched Yan Liqiang leave. Then, he called over a nearby soldier and whispered a few words to him. Several minutes later, the officer led seven or eight tough soldiers who had changed into their casual clothes out of Deer Villa. Shortly after, the group arrived at the teahouse where the two lackeys from the Ministry of Justice were hanging out. Upon arrival, the officer scanned the place and spotted two rhinodrake steeds in the teahouse’s stable. There were two people drinking tea under the awning outside the teahouse and they had their eyes on the public road. Their appearances and clothes matched Yan Liqiang’s descriptions perfectly.

Both men seemed to have secretly put on their guards when they noticed the sudden arrival of so many people in the teahouse. Unfortunately…

There were neither prelude nor interlude for this show.

The officer pointed to the two men and yelled furiously, “THESE TWO ARE DOG THIEVES! BEAT THEM UP…!”

The soldiers, who came prepared, drew out their short metal batons from inside their sleeves at the same time. All of them then immediately pounced on the two men like ferocious tigers.

“We are from the Ministry of Justice, how dare you all..!” The two men yelled out in both surprise and anger.

“Bullsh*t! Both of you look just like the dog thieves wandering in the forest outside of Deer Villa last night! It just so happens that a few of our rare hunting dogs have gone missing too, must be your work…!”

The two people watching Yan Liqiang didn’t really seem like weaklings. Although they might be able to hold up against two or three soldiers, they could barely hold up for a minute after being suddenly outnumbered by four times. Not only that, two people among their opponents were actually more powerful than them. The short metal batons landed squarely on their shanks. The sounds of bones fracturing were heard and both men fell to the ground with blood-curdling screams. Their faces and bodies were then mercilessly trampled under huge stinky feet…

……

Yan Liqiang returned to the small courtyard he lived in. He silently sat under a big tree in the yard and watched the little birds chirping joyfully in the nest under the eaves. The birds he saved back then were now covered with feathers, able to fly out of their nest and hop around on the tree branches in the yard to practice flying…

Looking at the nest full of birds, thoughts ran through Yan Liqiang’s mind rapidly. Thinking about how he should respond to the perilous situation, his mind slowly came to life, much like those little birds on the tree branch.

He sat in silence for a few hours in the yard. It wasn’t until sunset when he finally steeled his resolve. With a plan in mind, he felt as though a heavy burden had instantly been lifted off his shoulders!

Yan Liqiang stood up and exited the small courtyard…

Shortly after he left the small courtyard, Yan Liqiang sensed something in his heart. He turned his head around and saw a little courageous bird flap its wings and fly out of the courtyard for the very first time…

……

“PREPOSTEROUS! THIS IS SO INFURIATING…!” Eunuch Liu angrily slammed his palm against the red sandalwood tea table in front of him. The tea table immediately shattered into countless pieces, jolting Little Li and Little Chun who were standing at the side. Eunuch Liu looked at Yan Liqiang with a scary expression as though his eyes were going to spurt fire. “That Gu is really daring, very daring indeed…!”

Yan Liqiang also looked indignant. He had an extremely solemn expression on his face, akin to that of a brave soldier standing and holding a bag of explosives in his enemies’ bunker. “A man would die with honor than live with disgrace! They think they can threaten my life to make me betray His Majesty and change sides! That will never happen! I, Yan Liqiang, may still be young, but I know loyalty! They want me to sell the publishing company to them for a tael of silver to pledge my loyalty to Lin Qingtian?! How can I possibly bring myself to do something like that? Even if I lose my life in the blindfolded contest, I will never agree to this! That is why I shall hand over everything in the publishing company to you today, Eunuch Liu! Present this to His Majesty and banish such thoughts from their minds! If really die in a few days time, this precious publishing company of mine will still continue to support His Majesty in the Imperial Capital city. Let it be the flags that wave and cheer for the Emperor, as a way to express my gratitude for His Majesty to think so highly of me…!”

At this very moment, Eunuch Liu was really moved by Yan Liqiang. He patted Yan Liqiang’s shoulders heavily. “As expected, the Emperor wasn’t mistaken about you, Liqiang…!”

“Eunuch Liu, we mustn’t let too many people know of this. I fear that once word about this gets around, some people will fly into a rage and take it out on the innocent people inside the newspaper office by destroying the manor. The workshop’s storage area is piled with flammable materials, so a fire can reduce everything into ashes…”

“Rest assured, I shall head to the palace and request for an audience with the Emperor at once. His Majesty previously mentioned this to me: that newspaper of yours may look like a little creative invention created by a group of wordsmiths in the city at first glance, but it is actually an incredibly useful tool upon careful consideration. Given your loyalty, His Majesty will definitely not sit idly and not be concerned. As soon as the Emperor nods, I shall personally deploy a troop from the Imperial Cavalry Unit to watch over that manor where your newspaper office is! Let’s see who still dares to make a move against it by then!”

“Thank you, Eunuch Liu…!”

Yan Liqiang was in a completely different frame of mind this time as he watched Eunuch Liu once again leave Deer Villa for the Imperial Capital city. From this very moment onward, he was no longer a pawn in someone’s game because he had begun paving the path of his own destiny…