“Achoo—!”
As soon as Xu Qinghuan stepped over the threshold, she was hit by a draught mixed with the smell of tobacco, making her sneeze violently.
The sound was particularly loud in this silent, rainy night.
In the lobby, several pairs of dark eyes turned around in unison.
They belonged to a few scattered customers. Some wore coir raincoats, their bamboo hats pressed low, revealing only a stubbly chin.
Some were dressed as traveling merchants, with a few large wicker boxes piled at their feet, chewing on dry steamed buns with their heads down.
Disturbed by Xu Qinghuan's loud sneeze, these people merely cast a cold glance, their eyes devoid of life, carrying a kind of chilling gloom.
“What are you looking at! Haven't you ever seen a drowned rat?”
Li Sheng, shivering as he wrung the water out of his sleeves, glared back fiercely.
Although his current appearance wasn't very intimidating—his hair plastered to his scalp, water still dripping from his clothes, looking utterly pathetic.
“Alright, don't cause trouble.”
Xu Qinghuan felt a chill seeping out from her very bones.
This wretched weather was no place for humans. Right now, she just wanted to find a spot to sit down quickly and drink a hot bowl of soup to warm her body.
“Guest, please come in—”
A hoarse voice sounded.
A hunchbacked old man emerged from behind the counter.
His back was so severely hunched that his face was almost touching the ground. He carried a long-spouted copper pot in his hand and walked silently.
“Are you two taking shelter from the rain?”
The old man's eyes rolled over Xu Qinghuan's soaked but fine clothes.
Xu Qinghuan nodded, her teeth still chattering.
“Bring... bring a pot of hot tea, boiling hot! And serve some food, anything hot will do!”
“Alright, there's a seat by the window, please take a seat.”
The old man pointed to a square table in the corner.
The seat was right next to a half-open window. Although it was a bit drafty, it was the only ventilated place in the lobby.
Xu Qinghuan didn't complain, lifting her skirt and sitting down.
Li Sheng looked around warily before sitting across from Xu Qinghuan, leaning his broken, skeleton-like oil-paper umbrella against the table.
“Miss, this place... why does it feel so eerie?”
Li Sheng lowered his voice, rubbing the goosebumps on his arms.
“I think it's weird too.”
Xu Qinghuan glanced out the window.
It was pitch black outside, the rain smashing against the window lattice with a crackling sound.
This Tingyu Pavilion was built on a river fork in the middle of nowhere, with no villages or inns nearby. Who in their right mind would run here in the middle of the night to drink tea?
Only unlucky bastards like them, who had a brain cramp and insisted on coming out to inspect work in the middle of the night.
“Since we're here, let's just make the best of it.”
Xu Qinghuan sighed, tucking her freezing fingers into her sleeves.
“When the rain lets up a bit, we'll leave. Even if I have to crawl, I'll crawl back to Liuyuan.”
Right now, she really missed that fat old man.
She missed the warm floor heating in Liuyuan, missed the late-night snacks made by Fatty Liu, and even missed her old man's money-grubbing nagging.
What exile, what Lingnan lychees.
When you're about to freeze to death, it's all bullshit.
As long as she could make it back alive, even if she had to listen to her old man bragging every day, she'd accept it.
“Tea's coming—”
With a shout, the hunchbacked old man drifted over silently again.
He tipped the large copper pot in his hand slightly.
Splash.
Boiling water poured into the coarse porcelain bowl, kicking up a steam that smelled faintly bitter.
That was the smell of tea dust being steeped.
It didn't smell good, but it was really warm.
“Take your time, guests.”
The old man put down the teapot and slowly turned to leave, his back looking hunched and lonely.
“Phew...”
Li Sheng picked up the tea bowl, burying his face in the steam and taking a deep breath.
“I'm alive again, this is a lifesaver...”
Before he could finish.
Li Sheng's hand holding the tea bowl suddenly froze in mid-air.
His ears twitched.
As someone who used to work in an escort agency and had been a guard in the Xu family for so many years, he had an instinctive sensitivity to certain sounds.
Even with the thunderstorm outside and the sound of people smacking their lips in the lobby.
He still heard it.
It was a very faint, discordant sound.
The crisp clink of metal buckles colliding, and the sound of heavy, deliberately suppressed breathing.
Li Sheng's eyelids, which had been enjoying the steam, snapped open a crack.
His gaze seemingly casually swept over the traveling merchants at the next table who were gnawing on steamed buns.
The boots peeking out from under the coir raincoats.
Although the soles were muddy, the uppers were clean black satin.
On a rainy night with mud everywhere, how could traveling merchants on the road have such clean boots?
And...
Those people's hands.
Although they were holding steamed buns, the thick calluses between their thumbs and index fingers were obviously left by years of gripping swords.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong!
A chill shot up Li Sheng's tailbone to the top of his skull, colder than the rain outside.
“Miss...”
Li Sheng's voice was very low, so low that almost only Xu Qinghuan could hear it.
His hand had already moved inconspicuously to his waist.
There was a short sword hidden there.
“This tea... seems a bit too hot to drink, let's let it cool down before drinking, okay?”
Xu Qinghuan's hand, which was about to pick up the teacup, paused.
She looked up, looking somewhat bewilderedly at Li Sheng.
“Too hot?”
She wished she could scald herself to death to get warm right now.
But when she met Li Sheng's eyes, which were staring intently at her, her heart skipped a beat.
The look in his eyes wasn't the usual foolishness and sycophancy.
It was fear and warning.
Although Xu Qinghuan didn't know martial arts, having been in the business world for so long, her ability to read people's expressions was top-notch.
Li Sheng was scared.
He was scared of the people in this teahouse.
Xu Qinghuan's heart, which had relaxed slightly, instantly leaped into her throat again.
Although her hands were still holding the teacup, her fingertips began to tremble uncontrollably.
How was this a teahouse?
It was clearly a slaughterhouse!
Gulp.
Xu Qinghuan swallowed hard.
She didn't speak, just extremely slowly, little by little, brought the teacup to her mouth, trying to use this action to cover up her inner panic.
She was thinking of a countermeasure.
Run?
Where to?
Outside was heavy rain, inside were ghosts of unknown origins.
Just at that moment.
A blinding flash of lightning suddenly lit up outside the window, illuminating the world in a ghastly white.
Immediately after.
Whoosh!
A sharp whistling sound tore through the noise of the rainy night, the sound of some high-speed flying weapon slicing through the air.
Before Xu Qinghuan could react.
She only felt a gust of wind brush past her ear, a few stray hairs at her temples cut by the strong wind, falling before her eyes.
Pfft!
A muffled thud, the sound of a weapon piercing flesh.
The traveling merchant sitting diagonally behind Xu Qinghuan, who had just been gnawing on a steamed bun with his head down and was about to get up to pay the bill.
Didn't even have time to groan.
His whole body was violently pushed back by a tremendous force.
A crossbow bolt pierced through the back of his neck and out his throat.
The arrowhead, carrying a mist of blood, was still quivering slightly.
The traveling merchant's eyes widened, a strange gurgling sound coming from his mouth, his body swaying.
Then.
Bang!
He slammed heavily onto the table.
Dead with his eyes wide open.
Time stood still at this moment.
The air in the main hall froze.
Even the thunder outside seemed to fade away.
Xu Qinghuan sat there blankly, still holding the teacup in her hands.
Everything happened too fast.
So fast that her brain simply could not process this sudden image of death.
She only saw.
The fresh blood gushing from the merchant's throat, tracing a parabola in the air.
A few drops of scalding liquid.
Dead on target.
Landed perfectly into the teacup in her hands.
Drip.
A faint sound.
The originally clear tea was instantly stained with a glaring splash of red.
That touch of scarlet quickly bled, spread, and bloomed in the hot water.
Seductively lethal, carrying a nauseating stench of blood.
Xu Qinghuan looked down, staring fixedly at the flower forming in her cup.
The steam was still rising.
A mixture of tea fragrance and the smell of blood rushed straight into her nose.
Fear.
A primal, near-death fear finally broke through her reason and instantly overwhelmed her.
Ah!!!
Murder!!!
The few guests in the hall who had been playing dead finally reacted, letting out screams as they scrambled and crawled under the tables.
Crash!
Xu Qinghuan could no longer hold the teacup in her hands.
It slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor.
The scalding tea mixed with blood splashed onto the hem of her skirt, blooming into clusters of red plum blossoms.
The crisp sound of shattering heralded the beginning of the massacre.
Do it!
A violent shout exploded from all directions at once.
Outside the windows, on the ceiling beams, and even in the corners of the hall.
The teahouse, which had been deathly still just moments ago, instantly turned into a bloodbath.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The main doors were kicked open by a massive force, the wooden panels flying far into the room and smashing two tables to pieces.
Wind and rain poured inside.
Over a dozen burly men in black, wearing coir raincoats and bamboo hats, rushed in wielding steel swords, enveloped in a murderous aura.
They completely ignored the fleeing civilians.
Those eyes hidden beneath the bamboo hats gleamed with a green light, locking dead onto the white figure sitting by the window.
Their target was clear.
Their killing intent was monstrous.
The burly man leading them was massively built. The raincoat on his chest was wide open, revealing a large patch of chest hair and a black dragon tattoo.
It was none other than the River-Churning Dragon of the Water Transport Guild, Duan Tiande.
He held two dripping water-parting daggers, closing in step by step.
With every step he took, the accumulated water on the floor splashed up.
Xu Qinghuan's face was deathly pale, her lips trembling so much she could not utter a single word.
It was not that she had not seen the world.
In the business world, she had seen deception and treachery, and the soft knives that killed without drawing blood.
But a scene like this with real swords and spears, where heads were about to be chopped off, she had never seen anything like it in this life, or even if she added her past life!
This was not a robbery.
Nor were these mountain bandits.
They were coming right for her!
This was a premeditated, inescapable death trap!
Orders from above.
Duan Tiande licked his lips, revealing a mouthful of stained, yellow teeth, and smiled ferociously.
Take the head of Xu Qinghuan!
As for the rest, anyone who stands in the way dies!
The last few words carried a chilling draft.
Kill!
The dozen or so men in black roared in unison, raising their blades to strike.
The glint of their blades reflected the lightning and thunder outside, illuminating the teahouse as bright as day.
Miss, run!!!
A hoarse roar exploded from Li Sheng's chest.
This lackey, who usually only knew how to flatter and cowed at the first sign of trouble, had turned into a completely different person at this moment.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his round face was filled with absolute resolve.
Up!
Li Sheng roared, his hands gripping the edge of the heavy Eight Immortals table.
The veins all over his body bulged, using every last ounce of strength he had.
With a loud crash!
That table, weighing hundreds of pounds, was forcefully flipped over by him, blocking the space in front of Xu Qinghuan.
Thud, thud, thud!
The instant the table was erected, three more crossbow bolts, whistling through the air, nailed deeply into the tabletop.
The tails of the bolts quivered violently, emitting a humming sound.
Had Li Sheng been a second later.
These three bolts would now be embedded in Xu Qinghuan's head!
Go!!
Li Sheng grabbed the terrified Xu Qinghuan and forcefully dragged her toward the kitchen behind the counter.
You sons of bitches!
As he dragged her, Li Sheng pulled out the short dagger from his waist and slashed it at the man in black rushing at the very front.
