56 Chao Xiaoshu! Chao Xiaoshu! (2/2)

In the fierce fights of past years, Chao Xiaoshu had those rumored fierce brothers as escort-servants at his side. But tonight, his brothers had all been locked down in their camps by the government officials. So he needed to find someone, someone he could trust and powerful enough to protect him at close range.

Therefore, he went to Lin 47th Street in the pitter-patter spring rain and entered into that calligraphy shop called the Old Brush Pen Shop, standing on the wet ground outside the threshold and looking at that lad who groaned a sigh and ate noodles. Then he said with a slight smile,

”I'm going to kill.

”I need a man at my side.”

Chao Xiaoshu only knew what Ning Que had done in the past but didn't know what kind of person he was. It was a gamble, no doubt, to randomly entrust his safety and even his life to Ning Que.

That gamble, or perhaps trust, made Ning Que feel a bit of pressure on his shoulders. He took a deep breath, tightly grasping his right hand around that hilt on his back aiming towards the sky, and slowly pulled out that gleaming podao that was shiny and had no scratches.

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The falling rainwater was quickly stained by the gathered dust on the ground, gradually changing into a stream towards the street sidewalk's gutter, and then quickly stank of the filthy dirt around. It was precisely the environment that Chang'an's rats loved the most. A rat with ulcers in its fur used its two filthy black claws to seize a chopped human finger and excitingly continued gnawing, occasionally resting to lick the blood off its fur. The rat had nothing to do with the people being slaughtered, each one above its horizon. It only hoped that the blurry shadow could cut off more fingers and that the rainwater could rush those fingers right in front of it. ”I Wish for Haotian Lord's blessings, for my whole family depends on your bestowments these days.”

With a clapping sound, a lump whizzed over, smashing to land just in front of that rat, splashing the filthy water and blood on the ground. ”Did Haotian Lord feel that I was too greedy so as to smash me to death?” The shocked rat quickly ran away, and when it was going back to the rat hole underneath the courtyard wall, it turned, a bit unwillingly, to glance at a finger nearly gnawed to bones, but firmly decided to flip its tail, and ran inside. But if it looked back again and discovered that the lump splashing filthy water and blood was a human's head, it would definitely regret its decision.

The rat drilled out of its rat hole and it didn't get a chance to regret it. The moment that the solid Tang military boot had stomped it into pieces, maybe it was regretting that it hadn't told its company how wonderful human flesh tasted.

A soldier in the elite troop of the Tang slowly pulled back his foot wearing military boots, glancing at the rat's bloody flesh by his foot. And hearing the voice outside the courtyard walls, he then slowly returned to formation to describe the battle situation outside to a colleague with hand gestures. He later bowed to glance at the crossbow arrow in his hands to verify that the rainwater did not bring problems to the machine's spring.

Wearing dark rain cloaks, several dozens of elite troops of the Tang silently stood at the rear of the courtyard wall and held crossbow arrows in their hands. Outside the shabby Spring Breeze Pavilion's wall was the sound of killing all around, shaking the heavens. But no one had discovered them, for these officers kept silent like a group of stone carvings, no slight facial expression change, regardless of wind and rain or a fierce fight.

Behind these elite troops of the Tang, two people were sitting inside a house on wooden floorboards covered by layers of rainwater. One was a middle-aged person with smart brows and eyes, with his whole body covered in a white robe, and beside his body was a calmly placed, somewhat small sword on the wooden floor. Another person wore a bamboo rain hat to cover his face, but he must have been a sadhu judging from the monk robe he was wearing, his wide, large, and filthy pair of bare feet, and the copper bowl that was in front of him, under the eaves.

The swordsman in the long robe slightly frowned, looking at the rain like a silk curtain in front of his eyes, and softly said, ”It must be a Sword Master, no wonder the two of us were needed.”

The sadhu lowered his head without uttering a word, faintly hearing the sound from outside the wall of a flying sword splitting the air and hacking the rain. He stared at the copper bowl below the wooden stairs, watching the rainwater in it as it was disturbed by newly incoming raindrops, and gradually felt that his own Ocean of Qi became a little disturbed. Thus, he then lowered his head more, but more slowly and firmly kneaded the ironwood prayer beads on his wrist with his fingers.

This estate was Chao Mansion, belonging to Spring Breeze Pavilion Old Chao. This open, wooden building was the Rain-enjoying Building for listening to the rain, where Old Chao occasionally came to act like a scholar and listen to the rain when he was idle. These elite troops of the Tang and two strong men were waiting for him to return here.

Outside the courtyard wall on another side of Chao Mansion, two horse carriages stopped at the opening of the lane where the spring rain kept pattering. In front of the horse carriages, one energetic horse was somewhat disturbed by the spring rain, who sometimes wanted to blow its nose but was unable to utter a sound or wanted to kick its two hooves forward but dared not move. One horse carriage turned into a deep silence, while inside another carriage came the sound of low, deep coughs from time to time.

No one knew who was inside these two horse carriages. But if Chao Xiaoshu now could see the middle-aged, fat person standing beside the horse carriage, he could certainly guess that the person inside the carriage was not an average one. Looking like a commoner, that middle-aged fat person wasn't famous in Chang'an. He didn't have any official rank identifications. However, many government officials would curry favor with him when seeing him, because they all knew that he always dealt with something that was inconvenient for the prince to do.

But even if this person, an even more awesome figure than Prime Minister Chamberlain, was drenched all over by ice-cold spring rain, he still dared not to enter and sit in the carriage to avoid the rain but only stood near the carriage with his back slightly bent, showing an exceptionally humble attitude.

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