Chapter 23: Finally Something Happens

  The following days were calm and peaceful. Madame Fan and the others, along with Nurse Zhou, got along fairly well on their journey.

  That day, the horse carriage arrived at a small town called Ping'an.

  Mrs. Fan had been exhausted from the long journey over the past half month and was on the verge of collapsing again, so they didn't rush to leave for a few days. Although Zhou Mama and others were complaining in their hearts, seeing Mrs. Fan's pale and weak appearance, they temporarily held back and didn't urge her to hurry. In their opinion, it didn't matter if Mrs. Fan fell ill or even died, which would be the best outcome for them!

  Xu Mingjin almost every day stayed in Mrs. Fan's room, serving her without taking off his clothes. She didn't notice the increasingly arrogant and rude attitude of Zhou Yaya and others, nor did she know their sinister psychology that they wished for Mrs. Fan to die from illness as soon as possible. Her heart and eyes were all focused on the ailing Mrs. Fan. Mingxuan was originally also staying by her side but was driven away by Xu Mingjin.

  Ming Xuan couldn't help but glance at the frail Mrs. Fan on the sickbed, and then at his equally frail sister. The words that Xu Mingjin had just spoken to him before chasing him out still echoed in his ears: "You should hurry back to your studies, you've already fallen behind a lot. Now that we're traveling, there's no way to ask a tutor to guide you, so you must work even harder. Don't disappoint the expectations of Mother and me, Ming Xuan, you must make a name for yourself!"

  Ming Xuan took a last look at Lady Fan and Xu Mingjin with lingering affection, then turned around and left the room to return to his own room to study.

  "Jin'er, in order to take care of me, you haven't closed your eyes for three days. Hurry back and rest for a while." Madame Fan weakly coughed several times, slowly persuading Xu Mingjin: "Mother feels a bit better today, hurry back and get some good rest!"

  "Mother, Jin'er is not tired." Xu Mingjin was about to say something when everything went black and she fainted. As she fell into a coma, the last thing she heard was Mrs. Fan's anxious cry.

  Waking up again, Xu Mingjin opened her eyes to find a pitch-black darkness, with an eerie silence all around. Judging by her instincts, she guessed it was already midnight. She didn't expect herself to sleep so soundly for so long.

  "Spring apricot!" Xu Mingjin shouted, and at this moment she felt dry mouth and tongue.

  However, the expected voice did not appear. Xuming thought to himself: Could it be that this girl is sleeping too soundly? He called out for Chun Xiang again.

  Still no one answered her this time.

  Xu Mingjin had a bad premonition in her heart, she hurriedly shouted again: "Qiuyun!" Still, there was no response.

  Xu Mingjin knew that something was wrong! She hastily got out of bed, felt her way in the dark, and after searching for half a day, finally lit the candle. Looking around, everything in her room seemed normal, but Chun Xiang and Qiu Yun were nowhere to be found. No wonder she couldn't hear anyone talking. Xu Mingjin felt strange, those two maids had always been inseparable, usually staying up late to keep watch outside, and even when she turned over in bed, she could hear their greetings, what was going on today?

  Xu Mingjin held a candle and lit all the candelabras in the room, for a moment the lights were shining brightly, and her heart was slightly calmer. She walked to the outer room where Chun Xiang and Qiu Yun were keeping watch at night, and as expected, the two were sleeping soundly. Xu Mingjin first relaxed, then became suspicious again. She had just gotten out of bed in the dark, tripped over two chairs, and almost fell herself, making such a big noise, the two must have been deaf or dead not to wake up with a start.

  Xu Ming Jin hastily suppressed this idea, it was too frightening! She trembled and stretched out her hand to touch Chun Xiang's nose tip, and immediately let out a sigh of relief. There was still breath! It meant that people were alive. She also touched Qiu Yun's, and found the same situation as Chun Xiang. It seemed that the two had either fainted or been drugged. What exactly happened? This matter must have something to do with Zhou Niang and her group! Xu Ming Jin tried hard to recall, but only remembered that she had fainted at Fan Furen's place, and after that, she didn't know anything else. Xu Ming Jin became tense, because no matter what, she couldn't guess the benefits of their actions?

  No good! She fell asleep, and his maids were all stunned. What kind of situation would it be on the side of Mrs. Fan? Xu Mingjin thought about this, and couldn't help but rush out, running to the door, Xu Mingjin pushed the door with force, but found that the door didn't move at all.

  It must have been locked from the outside! Xuming Jin is now certain that Zhou and the others are plotting something, and she is very worried about the safety of Fan's wife and Mingxuan. Xuming Jin blamed herself, she was too careless! Knowing that Xu's wife's people were not good, why didn't she alert? If anything happens to Fan's wife and Mingxuan, she will never forgive herself!

  Xu Mingjin struggled to push the door, but gave up after a moment. She rushed to the window and pushed it open with force, this time without encountering any trouble. Just as she was about to climb out of the window, she saw several lewd men's faces appear outside the window. Frightened, Xu Mingjin let out a sharp cry and stumbled backward several steps.

  Xu Mingjin stood still in the center of the room and only then looked at those few despicable men: "Who are you people!"

  Those people didn't say a word, they just looked at each other and one of them bent down and jumped in from the window. The rest followed suit, all within an instant. Not even giving Xu Mingjin time to close the window. Xu Mingjin's intestines turned green with regret! Why did she have to open the window? Now look what happened, what was she going to do?

  After those people all came in, they closed the window tightly. Xu Mingjin kept backing away, her palms were sweating and her forehead was also covered with sweat.

  "This little girl is really good-looking, although a bit small!"

  "Who says it isn't?! We brothers are in luck tonight!"

  Hahaha...

  Xu Mingjin's face turned whiter, and one of them said: "Miss, if you want to blame someone, blame it on why you are Fan Yuyu's daughter. You're lucky to have grown up this big, now get out of here!"

  Xu Mingjin heard this and didn't understand what was unclear. These few people were sent by Madam Xu! They wanted to kill them to silence them! However, killing the unarmed mother-daughter pair would be easy as pie, so why not do it in Liu City? Why did they have to come all the way here to kill them? This place is already less than ten days' journey from the capital.

  Xu Mingjin couldn't let his thoughts wander, as several people had already surrounded him. Xu Mingjin kept retreating backwards, but this was a guest house room, where could he retreat to? When there was nowhere left to retreat, a sharp knife was pressed against her neck. "Boss, let's have some fun first, killing her later won't be too late!" The others started discussing and arguing among themselves. Xu Mingjin really had the thought of wanting to die at this moment! She despairingly closed her eyes, her hands hanging down weakly, but in her mind, she recalled the last time someone had pressed a knife against her neck, and she couldn't help but think that she was extremely lucky that time! This time, there wasn't such good luck! Wait, thinking of the White Cloud Temple incident, Xu Mingjin suddenly thought of something. She slowly reached into her clothes with her right hand, and indeed felt something hard, her heart slightly calming down a bit.

  It turned out that after being hijacked by Ze Gongzi, she learned a lesson and prepared a small dagger on her body. That's why she was able to cope with such an emergency. Although she had prepared for it at first, there was also a playful attitude in her heart. Now, Xu Mingjin only regretted why she didn't prepare more daggers at that time? Why didn't she prepare a few sharper ones? Xu Mingjin regretted this and steeled herself, anyway, she could only make do with what she had. It's better to have something than nothing, right? They wanted to torture her to death, but she would never wait for death with her hands tied!

  At least one must be killed as a scapegoat!

  Those people were in an uproar, and the man known as Lao Da became impatient: "If you're going to play, then hurry up! The sky will be bright soon! Don't mess up Master's affairs!" After saying that, he withdrew the knife from Xu Mingjin's neck and stood far away with his back turned, not looking over here.

  The rest of the people sneered and rushed towards Xu Mingjin, but they squeezed each other, "Second Dog, don't push me!" "Wang San, your mother stepped on my foot!" "Ah, who gave me a punch?" Several people pushed each other, and as a result, no one could touch Xu Mingjin's clothes. Xu Mingjin saw the situation, quietly took out the dagger from his bosom, carefully grasped it in his hand, ready to give a knife to whoever rushed up first!

  A few people were still arguing, and the old man standing against the wall became impatient again: "Stop arguing! One by one! If you keep making noise, I'll kill her directly, none of you will be able to play!"

  After hearing his words, several people finally stopped arguing and seemed to be afraid of him. One by one, they retreated, leaving only one person standing in front of Xu Mingjin. Xu Mingjin immediately became extremely nervous. She was originally happy to see them preparing to kill each other, thinking that she might be able to escape unscathed. But unexpectedly, the old man's single sentence had ruined her plan. Xu Mingjin looked at the lewd face approaching her and felt nauseous.

  She didn't have time to think, that person had already picked her up and was holding her around the waist, ignoring her struggles and resistance. It seemed that the more she struggled and resisted, the more excited those people became. Xu Mingjin listened to the lewd voices of several people at once and really wanted a thunderbolt from heaven to strike her dead!

  With a ripping sound, Xu Mingjin's collar was torn open. The crystal clear skin inside was exposed, and the person became even more excited, leaning in to kiss him just as his smelly mouth was about to touch Xu Mingjin's neck. Suddenly, his whole body stiffened, and he looked down in disbelief to see a knife stuck in his belly, all the way in except for the handle. Before he could let out a scream, Xu Mingjin stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth. He struggled for a few moments before dying quickly, his eyes wide open with an expression of utter shock. It seemed that he had never expected to die at the hands of a twelve-year-old girl.

  Xu Mingjin's mind was a complete blank, her heart racing so fast that she could hardly breathe. She felt some guilt, having killed someone, something she had never thought of doing in two lifetimes. Xu Mingjin continued to tremble uncontrollably, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't muster the strength to pull out the dagger from the man's abdomen. Just then, the others began to feel that something was amiss. One of them laughed and said, "Old Zhang, what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and get it over with, brothers are getting impatient!" After finishing speaking, he saw that the person he called Old Three wasn't moving at all, and he was shocked, rushing over to check on him.

  "Ah!" The man let out a shrill cry, his face turning deathly pale, startling everyone. The leader of the group standing by the wall rushed over at the sound. Everyone who saw how Old Zhang died couldn't help but feel incredulous, and their gaze towards Xu Mingjin was no longer lecherous, but rather one of shock and doubt, as if they were still questioning whether it was really this young girl who had killed him? It didn't seem like it! This was what everyone thought. They didn't want to say that Old Zhang was killed by this trembling girl, but Old Zhang was usually timid and afraid of trouble, always rushing to the front for good things, but shrinking behind others when there was any danger. How could such a timid person possibly take his own life?

  Everyone's eyes on Xu Mingjin were different now.