Chapter Fifteen Big Shot

  It was half a time when Mr. Chen came out, beckoned to me and turned back into the store. I hurriedly followed him to the back of the store.

  As I walked into the narrow path lined with sacks of grain, I was shocked. This wasn't a rice warehouse, it was Zhuge Liang's Eight Trigrams Formation! If Old Chen hadn't led the way, I would have gotten lost in this sea of rice for sure.

  After walking for a while in the grain eight trigrams array, he finally came out and followed him through a small courtyard to the front of a tall main house. He stopped and bowed at the door, saying: "Young Master, he has arrived."

  All he heard from inside was a voice saying: "Alright, let him in."

  I was shocked to think that the people inside had such a big attitude. Following Mr. Chen into the house and taking a look, there were 5 people in the room. Two old men over 50 were playing chess in the corner of the room, a man in his 30s was watching from the side, and a beautiful young girl was standing by the window arranging things on the table. On the chair in front of the table sat a handsome young man wearing elegant clothes, looking at this peaceful scene, all the hairs on my body stood up immediately.

  With a flick of my hand, the long knife at my waist flashed out and I turned to make a run for it. Just as I heard a shrill whistle, a chess piece shot towards my back. I dodged to the side, avoiding it by a hair's breadth. The second piece arrived, and I dodged again, barely evading it. I knew the third piece was on its way, and I had no choice but to dodge once more. If I could just make a few more strides, I'd be back inside the house.

  As I listened to the whistling of the chess pieces, I leapt up with my knife held behind me. The incoming piece slammed heavily onto the blade, producing a sharp clang. What a formidable opponent - it was an iron chess piece! My hand went numb from the impact, but I used the force of the blow to propel myself flying towards the wall of the courtyard.

  Just as I was about to jump, I saw a person standing on the wall, it was that young girl. In great surprise, my right foot kicked against the wall and my body turned around to rush back to the warehouse door. Just as I reached the door, I saw that man in his 30s come out from behind the door and stand inside, throwing a punch straight at my face.

  I steeled myself and charged forward, my long knife slashing down. The man was caught off guard and dodged to the side, but quickly counterattacked with a punch to my ribs. I didn't stop moving, ignoring the punch as I spun my upper body and swung my knife in a wide arc at him. He hastily retreated a step, avoiding the blade, and then charged forward again, punching me squarely in the back. I flipped my wrist and thrust my knife out from under my arm, stabbing at his fist. My feet kept moving, desperately trying to escape.

  After rushing into the grain array with all my might, I drilled back into the narrow path from which I came. Having run not far, I saw Old Master Chen standing in front of me, holding a knife in one hand and a shield in the other.

  I cursed silently and picked up a bag of rice beside me, running while throwing it at him in a flurry of wild swings. This move was quite effective, under my continuous rice attack, Old Man Chen was getting a bit overwhelmed. I took the opportunity to rush over, swinging my large knife at him with all my might, striking his shield with a loud crash. The force of the blow sent Old Man Chen tumbling to the ground, and I stepped on his shield as I leapt past him.

  Just ahead is the exit, and at the exit is a rice shop. Once you get there, it's easy to handle. Just as I was rejoicing, I saw a chubby old man standing at the exit with a smile on his face.

  I let out a sigh thinking this should be the last hurdle, swung my knife to cut open a bag of white flour and picked it up to throw it at his feet. The flour in the bag immediately made everything here invisible. I reached out to grab another grain sack, held it in front of me and rushed towards the fat old man's position. When I was about to reach him, with one hand holding the sack and the other hand holding a knife, I stabbed through the sack.

  A strong force came from the bag, the old man made his move, my knife also stabbed forward, only to hear a miserable cry and the obstruction in front disappeared. I threw the grain bag aside and shouted "Look at the knife!", then bent down, got on all fours and quickly crawled out of the granary.

  As soon as I got outside, before I could even get up, a big basin of cold water was poured over me without warning. My heart let out a startled cry and my eyes were blinded. The long knife in my hand made a false slash forward to help me gain momentum, then my feet pushed off the ground and my hands grabbed onto the roof beam, flipping myself up onto it where I froze, motionless.

  After wiping the water off his face, he heard applause coming from below. A voice said: "Good, you're indeed a soldier of the Xuanjia Camp. Now, even if we call you down, you can't come down. Next, take a look at this." As the voice spoke, something was thrown up from below.

  I chopped down at the thing with my knife and it fell again. All I could hear from below was: "Good kid, Officer Jing wasn't wrong about you. Alright, stay where you are, there's another beam here, more than 16 feet away from the one you're on. I'll have someone hold it in their hand and you can take a look."

  No sooner had the words fallen than the big girl jumped up, and I saw that she was holding a letter in one hand and a palm-sized token in the other, smiling at me. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye and said, "Don't bother, I'm illiterate."

  The man below suddenly laughed and said: "Is there anyone in the Xiaoyi Army who can't recognize characters?"

  I coldly said: "I recognized the characters before, but I forgot them as soon as water was splashed on me just now."

  Everyone in the room burst out laughing. The voice said: "We'll all go out, and once we're gone, you'll remember." After a flurry of footsteps, the room fell silent.

  I stood on the beam for a while and it was quiet below. I stretched out my hand to hold up the knife and shone it downwards, indeed there was no one. At this time, that big girl spoke: "You're too cautious, hurry up and read the letter, my arm is getting numb from holding it up."

  I gave her a cold look and said: "Leave your things there and walk away, I'll take care of it myself."

  The big girl said: "You must return this sign to me after you've finished looking at it." After she finished speaking, she wrapped the sign in a letter and gently tossed it over.

  I used the knife to tap at the thing flying over, then stretched out the knife to catch it, and the thing was supported by the knife. The big girl let out a snort of laughter and flashed into the inner room.

  I carefully opened it and saw that the token had a large Tang character engraved on it. Flipping it over to the other side, I saw four characters: "As if I were present in person".

  After reading the letterhead, I almost fell off from above, and with a trembling hand, I opened the letter to take a look. The letter was written in the handwriting of Master Shang, which read:

  I've had enough of this, I cursed in my heart: "Treat me like a monkey".

  He then continued reading and saw in the letter:

  After reading the letter, I secretly exclaimed in my heart: "Oh my! Qin Wang is actually Li Shimin. What a great figure! I didn't expect it to be this matter."

  After finishing, I went into the granary again. As soon as I entered, I saw that big girl standing in front of me, twisting and turning through the grain stacks to come to the front of the big house. Standing at the door, I said loudly: "Yan Jiulang pays respects to Qin Wang."

  Only heard a loud laughter from a man inside the house saying: "Come in quickly!"

  After entering the house, I was about to pay my respects, but the young man quickly stopped me and said: "No need for such formalities, from now on, just don't do it unless we're in a temple."

  Saying so, he pulled my hand and asked: "Were you frightened just now? Don't blame us for being like this, it's also an unavoidable situation."

  I hastily said: "Your Highness shouldn't say that, a humble person like me is used to being in the midst of slaughter, such things often happen."

  At this time, the fat old man behind him spoke up: "You little rabbit, you have a big nerve, I'm an old man and I was actually injured by your hand, it's really unjust."

  That thin old man said: "How can you blame others for this? I saw with my own eyes that you slapped your palm on the tip of his knife, it's clearly your own fault, and yet you scold him?"

  That fat old man said: "Where did this gluttonous Upper Officer Jing find these worthless young whippersnappers? Last time it was his Dragon Unit's soldiers who almost caught me with a net. This time the martial arts skills are not great but better than that slippery one, and they actually made me see blood."

  That thin old man said: "As Shangguan Jing said in his letter, he is indeed brave, fierce and cunning."

  Only then did Li Shimin say from beside him: "These two are the Chess Freak and the Old Man of the Lute, two of the Four Masters of the Eastern Sea who are famous throughout the land."

  As soon as I heard what he said, my head immediately swelled up to the size of a rice sack, and my legs went soft, so I knelt down on the spot.