Chapter Seven: The Trap

  A few people climbed to the middle of the mountain, where there were two paths, one leading to the back of the mountain and the other to the top. By circling around a patch of bamboo forest, they could reach the pavilion at the back of the mountain. Xi pointed with joy, urging the two little yellow gates to speed up, leaving Zhao Chu behind.

  "Who are you, and how did you get here?" Zhao Zhan had just walked through the bamboo forest when he heard Xiao Huangmen's fierce rebuke, although they didn't have much status in the inner courtyard, but to the miscellaneous servants in the outer courtyard, they were like gods, so naturally they wouldn't speak politely.

  Zhao Che heard the scolding voice, added a thought, slowed down his pace and hid in the bamboo forest to observe. He saw that the person was of medium build, with a fair face, wearing a short jacket and long pants, but on his feet were cloth shoes, dressed like a miscellaneous servant from the mansion. Zhao Che felt a bit familiar, as if he had seen him at the management house.

  Zhao Che, this prince, although not yet established his own estate, has been allocated personnel according to the standard of a princely estate due to his move out of the palace. Following the usual practice of the Song dynasty imperial clan, officials were appointed but not actually assigned duties. The positions of long history, marshal, and advisor were not regularly established, instead, two attendants and one record-keeping officer were appointed. These individuals held nominal ranks and belonged to the Imperial Clan Temple. They would only appear on important occasions such as weddings or funerals, otherwise they simply drew their salaries without taking part in any actual work. Zhao Che had not seen them for over a year since leaving the palace. In reality, all matters within the estate, except for the inner courtyard which was managed by eunuchs sent from the palace, were handled by the stewards of the outer courtyard. Currently, there are three stewards who hold real power and can be referred to as the masters of the household.

  "That person from the government" saw three people suddenly appear and seemed a bit tense, stuttering as he spoke.

  "Li Guanshi, you didn't report to us, how dare you come to the inner courtyard so casually? Don't you know the rules?" The small yellow gates of the inner courtyard didn't recognize the steward of the mansion, but they often dealt with Xi and naturally recognized this three-pipe household. They found his appearance and unseemly attire strange and said with dissatisfaction, their faces sullen.

  "Master Xi, I was passing by and caught a whiff of the fragrance from your garden. I unconsciously walked in and didn't mean to intrude upon you!" Li said with a bow and a smile.

  "Li, you're also an old man now. You know that Second Master is timid and afraid to meet outsiders, how can he come and go as he pleases? Hurry up and leave!" Everyone says that one shouldn't hit a smiling face, and it's not good manners to make things difficult for someone who is trying to be friendly, so he waved his hand and told him to hurry up and leave.

  "Oh, damn it, has Second Master also arrived?" asked Li the steward with his head lowered.

  "Yes, Second Master is right behind you, hurry up and make way, don't bump into him!" Xi replied casually, his mind still on the giant python, wanting to get rid of Li Guan Shi as soon as possible.

  "Haha, that's great!" Li Guanshi raised his head and said with a smile, although he was smiling, but the laughter was full of coldness, and his eyes revealed a hint of cruelty.

  "What do you want to do?" Li Guanshi suddenly changed his face, startling Jian Xi, and subconsciously raised the wooden stick in his hand, shouting.

  "Xian Xi is running fast, he wants to kill someone!" Zhao Ye, who was hiding in the bamboo forest, although still a few meters away from them, had already felt the strong murderous aura emanating from Li Guan Shi's body. If he turned around and ran at this moment, he might have been able to escape, but Xian Xi had accompanied him for so long, and he couldn't bear to see him lose his life, so he spoke out to remind him.

  "Ah?!" Jing Xi heard Zhao Che's shout and exclaimed in surprise, swinging the wooden stick in his hand towards Li Guan Shi, shouting to the two little yellow gates "Protect the prince!"

  Li Guanshi saw his plan foiled by Zhao Che, but he didn't panic. He dodged aside to avoid Xi De's club and suddenly had a short knife about one foot long in his hand. The two little yellow gates also reacted at this time, swinging their clubs to stab Li Guanshi, but they only felt a flash before their eyes, and the target disappeared.

  One little yellow gate wanted to shout, but only felt a flash of white light in front of his eyes, and a burst of bloody mist rose up. A mouthful of salty brine surged into his mouth, and his head tilted to one side, unresponsive. His body stiffened and fell straight down. Another little yellow gate saw his companion being killed, and was so frightened that the stick in his hand dropped to the ground. He wanted to move but couldn't budge, standing stupidly in place, staring as a short knife stabbed into his own chest. The intense pain made him unable to make a sound, and then he felt the blade twist, his heart being torn apart. The knife quickly left his body, and he felt cold, softly collapsing onto the ground.

  "King Wang!" Seeing Xi and Li Guan's swift and deadly movements, he was frightened out of his wits, his face as white as paper, staring at them in terror, his body trembling like a leaf. A foul odor suddenly wafted through the air, but he still didn't run, standing his ground on the narrow path, blocking Zhao Che's way.

  "Don't be afraid, I'm here!" Zhao didn't expect to see Xi thinking of him at this critical moment, and his heart warmed up. He took a step forward and blocked himself in front of him.

  "Haha, you two have a deep master-slave relationship, don't fight, I'll send you both on your way together!" Li the steward said with a flourish, flicking off the blood from his knife and teasing them like a cat playing with mice.

  "Heh heh, can you tell me why I should be killed?" Zhao Xiao raised his face and chuckled as he spoke to the killer god a few steps away from him.

  "Aren't you afraid?" Li Guanshi liked to see the look of panic on the faces of those who were about to fall under his knife. At this moment, he felt like the master of this world, and this feeling made him extremely pleased. But when he saw Zhao's calm demeanor, he became enraged, took a step forward and said.

  "You haven't answered my question, why should I tell you!" Zhao Chu hung his arm down, the gun in his hand had already cocked, he coldly said to Li Guan Shi who was still calm.

  "I'm just a killer, I never ask why I kill!" Li Guanshi took another step forward and suddenly felt that the little kid in front of him was emitting an aura that made his own heart skip a beat, causing him to grip the knife in his hand tightly.

  "You take people's money and goods, and you don't even know what's going on. You might as well die!" Zhao Che's voice suddenly turned extremely cold. The servant behind him seemed to be unable to withstand the pressure and collapsed to the ground, his eyes still fixed on Wang Ye. He didn't understand why this child, who was much younger than himself, had suddenly made him feel an intense fear that wasn't just due to their difference in status, but a deep-seated terror that had seeped into his bones.

  "Die!" Li Guanshi was a seasoned killer, he sensed the danger and his knife moved swiftly towards Zhao's neck without hesitation.

  "Bang", a burst of smoke rose before his eyes, Li's body shook violently, his chest felt like it had been struck by an iron hammer, all his strength was instantly drained, the knife fell to the ground with a "clang". "A bolt from the blue, how did I get hit!" He stumbled backward two steps and leaned against a rock, bewildered, clutching at the wound on his chest, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Clearly, he could have killed the child with one swift stroke of his knife, but suddenly he was struck by lightning.

  "You're really a fierce spirit from hell" Li Guan Shi suddenly thought of something, and his face, which had turned pale due to rapid blood loss, was filled with fear.

  "Your heart has gone astray!" These were the last words Li Guan heard in the mortal world, accompanied by a muffled sound from Wang Ye's voice. Another blood flower bloomed on his chest, and his arm, which had just been raised, fell limply down. His wide-open eyes, filled with doubt and terror, slowly slid down along the stone, and everything came to an end.

  Zhao Yi pointed his gun at the silent Li Guan Shi, slowly approached him, reached out to touch his neck, and found no pulse. The person was already dead. Only then did he put away his gun. "Your Highness, Your Highness, considering I've been serving you for so long, please don't eat me!" Just then, a pleading voice that didn't seem human came from behind him.

  "Are you going to eat me?!" Zhao Yi turned around, astonished at Jian Xi who was kneeling on the ground, knocking his head and begging for mercy. "Why would I eat you, a stinky pile of rotten meat?" He thought for a moment and realized that Jian Xi had taken Li Guan Shi's last words seriously, and since he had been facing away from him, he hadn't seen him shoot Li Guan Shi to death, only hearing the gunshot and seeing the smoke rise.

  "Yes, yes, a small piece of smelly meat, eating it will ruin your stomach!" Xī thought he could run away, but his legs cramped up and wouldn't work, struggling several times only to fall down.

  "Get up, you're so spineless! He was beaten to death by me, what are you afraid of!" Seeing Jianxi's flustered appearance, Zhao Yan kicked him twice with his foot and said with a smile.

  "What?! Second Master, you're not a monster?!" Seeing Xi heard Zhao Chen's words, the puzzled and smiling Wang Ye took a while to calm down and confirm that it was still the same Wang Ye he accompanied every day, saying: "Wang Ye, you scared me to death!"

  "Coward, get up quickly!" Zhao Da commanded with a stern face. Xi hurriedly got up and first walked to the deceased Li Guan Shi, kicking him twice, "You wanted to kill us, but you're dead first! Come on, get up and kill me now!" He was getting more and more agitated as he kicked and scolded.

  "Search him, does he have anything on him?" Zhao said. Jian Xi didn't mind the dead body, stretched out his hand to search his chest, and flipped out two strings of copper coins and a small black lacquered wooden plaque with blood stains on it, which he handed over to Zhao.

  "Is this token from our mansion?" Zhao Chu didn't have any bronze coins, so he took the small wooden token in his hand and examined it for a moment. On it were drawn strange symbols that didn't resemble Tai Chi or Bagua. He looked up and asked.

  "Second Master, this isn't from the mansion or the palace either. All we use are copper plaques and silver plaques!" Jian Xi immediately replied.

  Zhao Yan nodded and put the wooden sign back into his arms, asking: "Jian Xi, what did your family do before you entered the palace?"

  "Heh heh, don't be surprised, Second Master. My family used to sell coffins and collect unclaimed corpses for the government. Later, we suffered a big fire that ruined our family, so my dad sent me into the palace!" Xiqi said with embarrassment, rubbing his head.

  "Oh, I'm glad you killed the assassin this time, I'll reward you handsomely!" Zhao suddenly understood why Jian Xi wasn't afraid of death and also dispelled his own doubts. It turned out that Jian Xi was a Tongzi Gong, someone who grew up in a dead man's den. He changed the subject abruptly and said...