Chapter Thirty-Six: Sneaking into the Inspector's Mansion at Night

  Time flies, and it has been more than three months since Jiang Keyue started school. That afternoon, after class, Mr. Hong Dongguo came to the academy as usual, but his disciples found that he was a bit different from before. What's different? First of all, Mr. Hong had a gloomy face, which means he looked unhappy. Secondly, his disciples were surprised to find that there was nothing in his hands, not even a book.

  Everyone is puzzled, what's going on today? Are we not having class? Or... The disciples are guessing in their hearts, you look at me, I shake my head; I look at him, and he shakes his head too. Meaning, do you know? No, I don't know. How about him? He doesn't know either...

  Everyone was astonished and guessing, when the old man cleared his throat and spoke: "Disciples, today I have something that I must tell you, this is also taking responsibility for your lives!" Hearing the old man say this, everyone felt even stranger, their hearts racing with anxiety, thinking: Old master, stop teasing us, just speak quickly. Although anxious in their hearts, they didn't dare ask with their mouths.

  "The old master continued: 'Perhaps all of you know that today the rain is getting heavier and the rebel army has already reached the outskirts of Longtan City. Judging from this situation, it seems that the city will be breached soon, and when that happens, there will be chaos inside the city, and who knows what will happen. This year's imperial examination may not be held normally, and our studies cannot continue as usual. Everyone should prioritize their safety! After repeated consideration, I have decided to temporarily disband the academy from this afternoon onwards. You all need to hurry back to your hometowns; if fate permits, we will meet again in the future. This afternoon, you all need to prepare to leave; those who live nearby can return home today, while those who are far away must set off early tomorrow morning. Remember my words! Hurry up and get ready to go!"

  "Oh, everyone finally understood, it turned out that we were supposed to go home. Everyone was both happy and sad. Happy because they could go home, sad because they had been together for a long time and had developed deep feelings. This separation, no one knew when they would meet again. Many people's tears fell, the atmosphere in the academy was sorrowful. At this time, the old master urged again, "Hurry up and prepare to leave." The disciples had no choice but to bid farewell to the old master and their fellow students before returning to their dormitory to pack their luggage."

  Zhou Tianhao and Jiang Keyue packed up their belongings, bid farewell to their master and some of their fellow students, and rushed towards their residence. As they ran, they found the streets in a state of chaos, with people fleeing everywhere, some pushing carts, others carrying bundles on their backs, supporting the elderly, and women holding children... The streets were congested beyond capacity.

  Zhou Tianhao and Jiang Keyue walked quickly to their residence, a small courtyard, where they each went to their own rooms to pack some larger luggage. Shu Tong Aqi also fed the horses hay. Tianhao and Keyue discussed hiring a horse carriage, loading it with bigger items, and having Aqi escort it first to report back to their families, making it more convenient for them when they set off again. This would also help speed up their journey. Keyue agreed. After sending off Aqi, the two continued to tidy up, handling some minor matters. When everything was ready, the sky had already darkened. Due to the long distance, Zhou Tianhao decided to depart early the next day for Mingwu County.

  After dinner, the two returned to their respective rooms. Tian Hao looked around and found that only he and Li Yun Tian were left in the house, as the other fellow students lived closer and had gone back home. The two took care of each other, preparing the things they needed to bring, chatted for a while, and then went to bed early to rest, planning to set off early the next day.

  Maybe after a busy afternoon, Zhou Tianhao felt tired and lay down for a while before entering his dream. He didn't know how long he had slept, but he vaguely felt that there was a movement in the room. He subconsciously opened his eyes and touched the empty bed beside him, finding it still warm. Where did Li Yuntian go?

  Zhou Tianhao suddenly sat up, hastily put on his clothes, brought his treasure sword, and came to the courtyard. He saw that the sky was overcast with dark clouds and the moonlight was dim. He searched everywhere in the courtyard for Li Yun Tian but couldn't find anyone. It seemed he wasn't just going to the toilet; there must be something he was hiding from him. He arrived at Jiang Keyue's window, lightly knocked a few times, and fearing that Keyue might be scared, softly said: "Keyue, it's me."

  Jiang Keyue was sleeping soundly, when she suddenly heard someone calling her from outside the window. She woke up with a start and listened carefully, realizing it was Zhou Tianhao. "What's going on so late?" she asked.

  "Get up and talk again." Zhou Tianhao's voice was still very low.

  Jiang Keyue quickly put on her clothes, opened the door and walked out of the room, with a tired expression asking: "What's going on in the middle of the night?" After speaking, she stretched her waist.

  "Li Yuntian disappeared in the middle of the night," said Zhou Tianhao.

  "Where did it go?" Jiang Keyue suddenly seemed to wake up.

  "Yes, it seems like he just went out. We have to go find him, hopefully nothing bad happens!" Zhou Tianhao said with some worry.

  "I'll go get the weapons." Jiang Keyue turned around and went back into the house, bringing a knife with him as he followed Zhou Tianhao out of the courtyard gate. As they came out of the courtyard, just as they reached the crossroads in front of them, they suddenly saw a black figure about 100 meters away at the intersection ahead, dressed in dark clothing and holding a knife, running swiftly towards the west side of the city. Tianhao and Keyue immediately felt suspicious: "Is that Li Yun Tian? What is he doing sneaking out in the middle of the night?"

  "Go, follow him." Zhou Tianhao said.

  The two decided to follow and see what happened, so they secretly followed. When they arrived at a place called Liu Tao Garden in the west of the city, the black shadow disappeared. Zhou Tianhao thought: "Is the black shadow in front Li Yun Tian? What did he come here for? This is the most famous place in the city - Deng Ducha's Taiping Palace."

  The two of them stopped not far from the inspector's mansion and hid in a corner, carefully observing. They saw that the main gate of Deng Mansion was tightly closed, with only a faint light inside the courtyard, quiet and soundless. After a while, this black shadow appeared again, he came to the outside wall, looked around, then flipped his body and jumped onto the high wall head, lightly falling into the courtyard.

  Zhou Tianhao was surprised and thought to himself, "This person's martial arts skills are quite impressive. Instead of entering through the main gate, he jumped over the wall. There must be some ulterior motive." They exchanged a glance, quickly arrived at the edge of the courtyard wall, leaped onto the top of the wall, and hid behind a tall locust tree to observe what was happening.

  After a while, the courtyard suddenly lit up with flames and loud noises, and someone shouted: "Catch the thief! Get the assassin..." Under the bright light of the fire, Zhou Tianhao took a closer look and saw a young man wearing black clothes, holding a steel knife and fighting with Deng's housekeeper. "This person looks familiar, is it Li Yun Tian?" Zhou Tianhao was thinking, when Jiang Keyue suddenly recognized him, "It's Li Yun Tian!"

  When Li Yun Tian jumped into Deng Fu's room close to Deng Du Cha, this surnamed Deng's eunuch supervisor had not yet fallen asleep and was still frolicking with several small concubines in the mansion. Only to see Deng Du Cha lying on a reclining chair, several maids massaging his back, several small concubines feeding him food left and right, several small concubines constantly flirting with him, laughing and chatting sounds echoing far away. To say how the Ming Dynasty could have reached this precarious point today, it can be seen from this Deng Du Cha. Li Zicheng's rebel army had already arrived at the city gate, and as the top leader, he was still indulging in pleasure-seeking here. The emperor was also incompetent, not using so many talented people, but instead using his trusted eunuchs who didn't understand anything to direct the war. It was said that they were directing the war, but in fact, they were the ones actually commanding the battle.

  Li Yuntian kicked open the door, charged in with a single knife, and shouted angrily, stabbing directly at Deng Ducha who was lying on the chair. The people present were shocked and panicked. This old thief saw that there was an assassin, and a big knife was shining brightly towards himself, so he hastily pushed a small concubine beside him to shield himself. Li Yuntian saw that it was a woman coming towards him, and his knife had already been drawn, stabbing into the concubine's abdomen. The concubine died on the spot. When Li Yuntian raised his knife again to stab Deng Ducha, this old thief had quickly escaped through a secret passage in the room.

  At this time, the family guards in the courtyard had already surrounded them. They each held knives and clubs, lit lanterns and torches, and fought with Li Yun Tian. Li Yun Tian was fearless, swinging his steel knife, rolling up and down, beating these people to the east and west, and they fled out of Director Deng's house one after another. Not seeing Director Deng, Li Yun Tian let out a loud roar, jumped into the sky well to pursue and kill him. His steel knife swung, wounding countless family guards...

  At this time, the soldiers guarding Deng's mansion rushed over in a hurry, and more and more of them came, layer upon layer, surrounding Li Yun Tian so tightly that not even wind or rain could get through. Li Yun Tian fought off one group after another, but they just kept coming, and he managed to fight off three or four groups before his strength began to wane, his whole body drenched in cold sweat, and it seemed like things were about to take a turn for the worse.

  At this moment, a loud shout came from outside the circle: "Everyone stop!" The voice was very loud and could be said to have shaken the sky. Everyone quickly put away their weapons and looked outwards. At this time, two people suddenly rushed in from outside the circle, who were Zhou Tianhao and Jiang Keyue. Before the soldiers had figured out what was happening, more than a dozen people had already fallen to the ground. The two of them shouted "Charge outward!" Li Yuntian saw that they were reinforcements, regained his spirit, and charged towards the place where the two of them were, the three of them coordinating with each other, killing their way out, creating a bloody path, jumping over the wall surrounding Deng's residence, and running far away.

  The soldiers inside the mansion opened the door and chased after them, shooting arrows as they ran. Zhou Tianhao covered their backs, but for a moment he wasn't careful, and "clang clang" two cold arrows hit his left shoulder. Zhou Tianhao endured the pain and continued to use his right hand to deflect the flying arrows, covering the escape of the two in front. The pursuing sounds from behind grew closer and closer, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard. Zhou Tianhao took a look and thought it was bad - after all, people can't outrun horses, and if they kept going like this, they would eventually be caught. He told the two in front: "Quickly run into the willow peach forest!" The two understood and quickly dove into the willow peach forest, and Zhou Tianhao also took a look at the terrain before following them in.

  "What's next? Which direction should we run in? I'm not familiar with this place at all." asked Jiang Keyue.

  "Let's rest for a while before going ahead?" Zhou Tianhao said calmly.

  "Take a rest? The enemy soldiers are coming! Aren't you afraid of being caught?" Jiang Keyue asked Zhou Tianhao in confusion.

  "Worst comes to worst, I'll just have a showdown with them!" Li Yun Tian said nonchalantly.

  "It's unnecessary, these cowards, I don't believe they dare enter the Liu Peach Forest," Zhou Tianhao said confidently.

  The pursuing soldiers soon arrived at the edge of the willow forest, saw Tianhao and others enter the willow forest, and stopped. The soldiers asked if they should enter the forest to search. The leader carefully observed for a moment, thinking: Is there an ambush in the forest? It's not a big deal if you can't catch the assassin, but if you get ambushed, that's trouble. He waved his hand, "Withdraw!" The soldiers retreated with a "whoosh".