Du Ci felt someone’s gaze on him and looked up at the tall man. The other party’s black hair scattered wildly, he had a long back and broad shoulders. Despite the cold weather, he was naked from the waist up, exposing the bronze skin along with taut muscles. Dozen of scars were etched on his back and abdomen, Du Ci also noticed a faint scar on the side of his face. Under the halo of the orange flames, that person looked like an Asura just crawled out from a nightmare.
At first, Du Ci didn’t pay much attention, however, after a few more glances, he felt something wasn’t right: This person is probably the one who came to the station late at night Douding was talking about. Really don’t look like the good type of people!
Du Ci threw another glance before quickly turning around and putting his shoes on. Then, he closed the door and walked to the end of the hallway. The burning stable could be observed clearly through the wide-open window.
One by one, the rooms behind the tall man also opened in sequence. Vice General Xu stepped forward and whispered, “General, those two…”
AD
They also heard that master-servant pair’s accent from within the room and immediately thought of Qi Nanke’s speculation. It was just…could there be such a coincidence?
Qi Nanke stared at the person standing in front of the window with narrowed eyes, and said coldly, “Go investigate.”
Vice General Zhou salute and bowed, “Yes.”
After cleaning himself up, Vice General Zhou changed into an ordinary outfit. With a piece of tiger skin wrapped around his back, a fox tail hung on his waist, and white fox fur circled his neck, he looked like a hunter. Vice General Zhou stroked his beard as he strode slowly towards the window and said gruffly, “Hmph, not sending people to keep watch on such a dry day, rural areas are just rural areas!”
Du Ci was watching people rushing to put out the fire. Hearing those words, he took a quick glance at the man next to him, then silently shuffled to the side to give room.
Vice General Zhou spoke up again, “Little brother, wearing so little, be careful of catching a cold.”
Du Ci tugged on his clothes and lowered his head, “Thank you for your concern, I’m fine.”
Vice General Zhou heard the accent in the other person’s speech, and thought to himself, “Damn! Could we really encounter them here? Heaven is helping me!”
Vice General Zhou evaluated the stature and clothes of the person in front of him: the inner robe’s high-quality fabric could be seen at first glance, it was not something ordinary people could use. His black shoes were embroidered with clouds and waves patterns, and also lined with gold threads. Normally, under a dim light, it wasn’t very noticeable, but at this moment, the bright orange flame light came pouring from outside the window, making the gold threads emit a faint glow.
AD
Dressing like this, plus having a servant by his sides, Vice General Zhou quietly concluded in his heart. However, just when he was about to turn around and reported to his family general, his ears suddenly twitched.
“Df mjgfoei!” Xfcfgji Itbe gfjmafv ja ilutaclcu rqffv jcv qeiifv atf qfgrbc rajcvlcu cfjg atf klcvbk ab atf rlvf. Pwwfvljafis joafgkjgv, j oijwlcu jggbk ktbbrtfv qjra tlr fsfr jcv qiecufv lcab atf ogjulif oibbg, rfaalcu la bc olgf.
“Memx, atfgf’r xfgbrfcf bc atf jggbk!” Nlmf Xfcfgji Itbe rcloofv atf jlg jcv rtbeafv, atfc qeiifv Ge Jl ab gec jkjs.
“You, what do you want to do?! Let me go!” Du Ci was scared and started struggling, “My people are still down there! Douding!”
“Someone intentionally set fire to the stable.” Vice General Zhou said, “The other party’s aim was this entire station, hurry up!”
“Who would be so daring?” Du Ci had never left the Royal City and couldn’t help feeling astonished, “Right under the Son of Heaven’sfeet, they, they…”
“Hmph!” Vice General Zhou felt this kid was a little amusing, however, this reaction matched his image as a naïve little prince in the rumor, “Anything can happen under the Son of Heaven’s feet.”
Since he was currently dissatisfied with this “Son of Heaven,” Vice General sneered, “Son of Heaven is also not a God, how could he know everything?”
Du Ci’s eyes widened. Right at this moment, Qi Nanke and Vice General Xu ran over. They didn’t have much luggage, and Vice General Xu already helped carrying Vice General Zhou’s bag. The three wanted to take Du Ci downstairs with them.
Du Ci noticed Douding had disappeared, he panicked and shouted in his mother language, “Let me go! Oh, oh no, my bag! I have to get my bag!”
“Is a bag more important than your life?” Vice General Zhou frowned, “Why is this kid so ignorant?”
“Impossible! My bag!” Du Ci was like a little chick in Vice General Zhou’s hand, no matter how hard he struggled, it was useless. He said in despair, “There’s something very important in it! You, you…Douding! Douding! Where are you?”
Qi Nanke threw his bag into Vice General Xu’s hand, picked up Du Ci, then ran upstairs.
At this time, most of the floor had been covered in fire, the guests screamed as they ran downstairs. Shoes, socks, hairbands, belts, and a few small bags were scattered everywhere on the unburned floor.
Someone took advantage of disasters to gain benefit, they bent down and searched for money inside the bags while covering their mouth and nose. When Du Ci saw this, he scowled and shouted, “Hey! What are you doing!”
Qi Nanke turned and glanced at this scene once, then indifferently carried Du Ci and arrived in front of the guestroom in only a few steps. He pushed the person inside and motioned him to hurry and pack up!
Du Ci rubbed his sore arm, mumbling aggrievedly, “You brute…”
Even though his mouth kept yapping, his hands and feet also got busy. With just a few movements, he had finished packing. Qi Nanke noticed Du Ci had to shove two or three times before he could stuff a white jade flute into the bag.
When the two were about to go out, they found out the fire had already crawled across the floor and along the door like a hungry snake.
The floor collapsed. The way to the stairs was gone. Du Ci was choked by the thick smoke until tears came out. His face crumpled as he said anxiously, “This big brother! What, what should we do now?!”
How could this little matter trouble Qi Nanke?
Without even so much as a frown, he dragged Du Ci to the window facing the inn’s backdoor. There were already many guests gathered there, including Vice General Xu and Vice General Zhou.
Seeing someone at the window, everyone exclaimed, Vice General Xu put his bag down and ran to the window, “Gen… Young master!”
Qi Nanke waved his hand, and Vice General Xu immediately stepped aside.
Du Ci opened his mouth in shock, “You, what do you want to do?”
Qi Nanke directly placed him on the windowsill. Du Ci sprawled out on the frame, holding it for dear life and howling like a dying pig: “I won’t jump! If I jump, I’ll die! I won’t! Can’t you brute think of other methods?! Don’t touch this daddy! Bring the bedsheet here!”
Du Ci planned to make a long rope with the bedsheet and used it to climb down. However, Qi Nanke only threw him a glare, grabbed his collar, stepped on the window frame with one foot, and jumped down with him.
“Aaah——!”
The Ah-ing in his mouth hadn’t finished when they already landed neatly on the ground. Du Ci’s mouth was still wide open, eyes closed tight. After awhile, he finally narrowly unfolded them, and felt embarrassed.
The crowd around applauded and cheered as if they just saw a wonderful performance,
Du Ci: …
Since people were still busy putting out the fire, Du Ci was too embarrassed to continue screaming. He rolled up his sleeves, intending to help out, but Qi Nanke grabbed his arm.
In the flickers of the raging fire, those gray eyes seemed to be stained with some peculiar colors, and he was staring at him quietly.
Du Ci patted his forehead in realization.
He straightened up his clothes, bowed in a formal salute, and spoke in his clumsy mandarin, “Thank you this big brother for helping out, if you have any difficulties in the future, please come under the Paulownia tree next to Du mansion in the North street of Yongge, and find someone named “Zhongbai” for help.”
Finished speaking, he patted his clothes up and down, then took out a thick money pouch and directly placed it into Qi Nanke’s hand without even looking, his expression seemed to say, “It’s your rewards.”
The Vice General Xu standing next to them couldn’t help feeling his teeth ached: It wasn’t like Du Ci was wrong in doing this, but isn’t he a little too dumb?
Revealing his personal information to a stranger he met for the first time, mentioning Du mansion, and even generously rewarding the money without looking at how much it was. What if that was all they have, then what were they going to do for the rest of the journey? Using air to replace food and drink?