Chapter 24: The Death of Lady Fan

  The old man who came at the sound looked at Xu Mingjin with an eye that was different from everyone else. He just stared at Xu Mingjin with his deep and bottomless eyes.

  Xu Mingjin was after all encountering this situation for the first time, and now she was being stared at by so many people, which scared her to the point of having goosebumps.

  "Do you want to play again?" This time, without waiting for the boss to say anything, everyone scattered instantly like birds and beasts, leaving no trace.

  "You're really something, actually making my subordinates afraid!" The boss said slowly.

  "I'm not someone who gives up easily." Xu Mingjin said, but he was so scared that he didn't know what fear was anymore. Being stared at by this person with those eyes that were emitting a cold and icy aura was like being stared at by a venomous snake, it was terrifying. Xu Mingjin saying he wasn't afraid was a lie.

  "But there is only one way to die!" The man said word by word.

  That man slowly drew out his sword, Xu Mingjin closed her eyes, because she knew that in front of this person, she was completely powerless. In this instant, Xu Mingjin thought a lot, her past life had big troubles but small troubles were piled up every day, after crossing over, she lived a carefree and leisurely life as a house girl, she had already enjoyed a lot. It seemed that dying like this wasn't so bad, isn't there a song that says "Let the heart die in brilliance!"? She was about to die with her heart still full of hope in this world where she had yet to bloom.

  Xu Mingjin closed her eyes for a long time, and finally heard the sound of the sword swinging over. She thought to herself, "I'm free!" But the pain didn't come, instead she heard a loud thud, the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. Xu Mingjin quickly opened her eyes, and met a pair of calm eyes. She exclaimed in surprise: "Zhe Gongzi, how is it you?!"

  It was Zē Gōngzǐ who stood in front of her, holding a sword. He smiled slightly and stretched out his hand to Xú Míngjǐn, who was so frightened that she didn't move. However, Zē Gōngzǐ only covered her with the cloak in his hand, covering up the torn opening of her garment. When Xú Míngjǐ thought about Zē Gōngzǐ seeing the torn opening of her garment, she couldn't help but blush and quickly stretched out her hands to wrap herself tightly in the cloak.

  "There's no time, let's get out of here!" Ze Gongzi pulled Xu Mingjin's arm and headed outside. Xu Mingjin stumbled and looked down to see that he had stepped on the old man who was lying on the ground, with a sword wound in his body and blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. He seemed to be dead already. It turned out that the thud he heard earlier was the sound of him falling to the ground! Xu Mingjin felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled the old man's sinister gaze, but fortunately, he was dead.

  Xu Mingjin responded with a "good" and then climbed over the old man's body to follow Zeyangzi to the window. It was only then that Xu Mingjin felt the choking smell of smoke in the air, and she clearly felt it getting hotter and hotter. "Is there a fire?" Xu Mingjin asked anxiously. "Yes," Zeyangzi said, before releasing Xu Mingjin's hand and preparing to jump out the window.

  "Zé Gōngzǐ!" Xu Mingjin hastily called out to him: "My several maidservants are still inside the house, please save them for me!" Zé Gōngzǐ nodded and said: "Don't worry, they will be fine." He jumped out of the window again, puckered his lips and shouted, immediately several black-clad men appeared, paying their respects to him. After giving them a few instructions, those people quickly climbed in through the window and rushed into the house. Only then did he say to Xu Mingjin: "They've gone to rescue them, you come out now!" Xu Mingjin also knew that it was not suitable to stay here for long, so she came to the window and prepared to climb up.

  A hand appeared in front of her, with distinct joints and even muscles, white and tender. At a glance, it was a well-bred and pampered hand. Xu Mingjin hesitated for a moment before grabbing the hand that was stretched out to her. Suddenly, a great force surged over, and before she could see what was happening, she had already left the room.

  As soon as she came out, Xu Mingjin saw that the room not far in front of her was on fire. Her heart skipped a beat, it was Xu Mingxuan's room! Xu Mingjin's eyes widened in horror, and she rushed forward like a madman, about to rush into the burning house. But was stopped by a hand, she turned back angrily: "That's Mingxuan! Don't stop me!"

  Zhai Gongzi said: "Do you want to go in and die with him?" He saw that Xu Mingjin had calmed down a bit, so he grabbed his shoulder with one hand and solemnly instructed: "You wait here, I'll go in and rescue people!" After finishing speaking, he immediately rushed into the room on fire.

  Xu Mingjin stood outside, pacing back and forth anxiously. At this time, all the guests in the inn were startled by the fire and rushed out of their rooms, rushing downstairs. Xu Mingjin was squeezed by the crowd, she struggled to squeeze out and find a corner of a room, standing there. However, in just an instant, Ze Gongzi came out carrying someone in his arms.

  Xu Mingjin hastily went forward, and saw that the young master Zhe was holding in his arms was indeed Xu Mingxuan. He had fainted, but on his forehead there was a fist-sized burn scar, with blood still oozing out. Young Master Zhe looked at Xu Mingjin's stunned expression and said regretfully: "When I arrived, he was already like this. I reckon he was hit by the falling beam."

  Xu Mingjin was heartbroken, but she still said to Ze Gongzi: "Thank you, if it wasn't for you, he would have died." Ze Gongzi shook his head and asked: "Miss Xu, do you still have any relatives here?"

  One sentence reminded Xu Mingjin, and she immediately tensed up, saying: "My mother! My mother is still in the room!" Ze Gongzi heard this and immediately called over a subordinate to instruct him to send Ming Xuan to the medical hall. Only then did he pull Xu Mingjin along with him towards the room where Fan Furen lived. Along the way, Xu Mingjin's heart was extremely anxious and uneasy, she had almost been killed, her younger brother had almost been burned to death, and as for Fan Furen... Xu Mingjin didn't dare imagine it further.

  Arrived at Mrs. Fan's room, inside was quiet and still, as if even a fire couldn't rouse the people inside. Xu Mingjin's heart kept sinking, standing at the door, seemingly without the courage to push it open.

  Zai Gongzi took her hand and gave it a gentle push, the door opened, he led her step by step inside until they reached Madame Fan's bedside.

  Xu Mingjin only took one look and fainted. Zé Gōngzǐ hurriedly held her body, looking at the scene in front of him, then looked at Xu Mingjin who had fainted, decided to first take her away from here, she had been stimulated too much today. He carried Xu Mingjin out with big strides, telling the subordinates guarding the door: "Take the corpse of that madam inside, find something to wrap it up and bring it along!"

  His followers dispersed at his command, and Zé Gōngzǐ carried Xú Míngjǐn away from the inn.

  He turned his head back to take a last look, the fire at the inn was getting bigger and bigger, flames shooting up into the sky. Countless people were running around, crying out in alarm, while he lowered his head to gaze at the woman who had fainted in his arms, his eyes filled with tenderness.

  ……

  The next evening, Xu Mingjin woke up and immediately shouted: "Mother!" Chun Xiang hurriedly pressed down on Xu Mingjin who was about to sit up, her eyes filled with tears as she said: "Miss, you must be calm, the madam...she's gone!" Xu Mingjin saw that Chun Xiang, Qiu Yun, Xu Nian, and Man Zi were all there. Xu Mingjin grabbed Chun Xiang's hand and trembled as she asked: "What did you say?" Chun Xiang's expression became tense: "Miss, are you alright?" Xu Mingjin said: "I'm fine! What happened to my mother?!"

  "The lady has left!"

  Xu Mingjin slowly let go of Chun Xing's hand, his mind full of that one sentence, echoing repeatedly: gone, gone, gone...

  Xu Mingjin finally remembered the last scene she saw before fainting yesterday: At that time, under the leadership of Ze Gongzi, she entered Madame Fan's room to find her, but saw that all the maids in the house were lying on the bed, bleeding from seven orifices. And when she looked at Madame Fan on the bed in shock and uncertainty, she found that she was also bleeding from seven orifices!

  Xu Mingjin's whole body trembled, she had only seen such a scene of corpses scattered all over and blood flowing like rivers in horror movies. It was imaginable how great the impact of Mrs. Fan's death was on her! Moreover, she had killed someone just yesterday! All this had exceeded her endurance!

  So Xu Mingjin fainted again!

  When she woke up again, Xu Mingjin finally accepted the fact that Mrs. Fan had passed away. She thought of Mingxuan who was also injured and wanted to go see him. Chun Xing hesitated and said: "Miss, why don't you go see Master in two days? The doctor said you were greatly frightened this time and need to rest well for a while."

  Xu Mingjin suddenly remembered to ask: "Where is this place?"

  "Miss, this is Ze Gongzi's private residence. We've been staying here for the past two days." Chun Xing said gratefully: "Miss, during the two days you were unconscious, Ze Gongzi came to visit you every day. He even invited a doctor to stay in the private residence, specifically to take your pulse and the young master's."

  Xu Mingjin thought for a moment and said: "What's going on with you guys last night, sleeping so dead, I shouted but couldn't wake you up?"

  Chun Xiang heard this and said, "I'm also very curious, I only remember that at the time, one of the four ayis who came with Zhou Ayi brought a large bowl of sweet soup. At that time, the young lady was already asleep, and I and Qiu Yun...just..." Xu Ming Jin interrupted her saying, "So you two just drank it? And then you both fainted?" Chun Xiang lowered her head in shame, Xu Ming Jin said angrily, "A bowl of sweet soup could knock out a few stupid pigs like you? Fortunately, what was put inside was anesthetic, not poison. Otherwise, you would have ended up like those maids by my mother's side!"

  Chun Xing's face was completely red, and Qiu Yun, who had been silent all along, also had a red face. They were too careless, if it wasn't for Ze Gongzi last night, they would have lost their lives. Just thinking about how Xu Mingjin almost got killed because of their carelessness last night made them feel guilty to death.

  Xu Mingjin finished training the two maids and then suggested that she wanted to go see Xu Mingxuan. Chun Xiang and Qiu Yun were frightened, their faces pale, and they repeatedly called her to rest well and take care of her body before going to see Mingxuan. Xu Mingjin looked suspiciously at the two maids, what medicine did they have in their gourd? Why didn't they let her go see Mingxuan? Could it be... "What's wrong with Mingxuan?" Xu Mingjin asked, changing color.

  Chun Xing looked at her determined expression and had no choice but to tell her: "Young Master's face was injured so badly, he hasn't eaten or drunk anything since waking up, smashing everything in sight, his temper is extremely violent, it's been a whole day already. He locked himself in the room and won't come out, nor does he allow anyone else to see him. I, I was afraid that Miss would be heartbroken if she saw him, so I stopped her from going to see Young Master."

  Xu Mingjin heard this and immediately got up: "Then I should go see him," Xu Mingjin looked at the two of them and said: "Because, he now only has me as his last relative. If even I avoid seeing him, he will only get worse."