Chapter 381 Armed escorts’ methods to extort a confession

Looking at Lu Jiangbei for a while, He Danggui still felt furious so she cursed loudly, “Imperial Guards are stooges of the emperor. You always bully the civilians and have done all kinds of evil. When you killed Prime Minister Hu Weiyong, you even couldn’t spare his three-year-old foster daughter. What’s wrong with my husband’s saving her? How can you keep me as bait to catch him? To be honest, he’s also a powerful man. Even if you can lure him to this place, you may not be able to subdue him. Even if you can bring him under control, you dare not to punish him!”

Lu Jiangbei nodded and replied, “I thought so. After having hidden for three years, he still can fight back fiercely. He should never be an ordinary man. I’ve also guessed about the relationship between you and him because that day, all the fierceness on his face was suddenly gone and gentleness filled up with his eyes after he saw a portrait of you. Logically, no one will act like that toward a portrait of a strange woman no matter how beautiful it is… Sure enough he is brilliant. He is a brave man who moves so swiftly and is good at archery. It turns out that such a young outstanding man is who you fall in love with. Huh, he’s indeed good enough for you.”

“Right!” He Danggui shouted, “I asked you for the antidote of the cold poison just because of him. It’s useless to keep me here because you don’t know who he is! Kill me if you can! I’ll haunt you after I become a ghost. Screw Imperial Guards! Screw Zhu Quan! Why did you bring me to Baisha Mountain Villa? I hate this place! There will be undercurrents in the waters of Yinma Town for the next six months. I curse your boats to break and you to become kelpies! Ah! There are ghosts in this icehouse!”

Finishing her words, she burned herself out and collapsed to the bed. Then, she began to shed tears silently. Why would it be? Why did her mouth suddenly get out of control? Why did she tell him all her secrets? What was she doing? Why did she suddenly feel furious? No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling and became so anxious that she even wanted to kill everyone in the world. Why?

Lu Jiangbei crossed his arms across his chest and looked down at her from a distance. He analyzed, “Actually, what I was most suspicious of was that he didn’t attack anyone but Mr. Duan. It seemed he didn’t come to us to take a sneak attack because we ‘had occupied that place’ but to vent his resentment after he got up early and felt bad. That afforded for thoughts. Now I guess maybe he and you have quarreled over Mr. Duan or something else so he vented his anger on Mr. Duan. However, he went back to you with wounds at last so you came to us for the antidote. Who on earth is he?”

He Danggui opened her mouth unconsciously and was about to say the name of “Meng Xuan”. She felt very regretful that she had provoked the men in Imperial Guards. She thought she could fool them as if they were stupid but finally she found she was the stupid one. She also felt helpless that Meng Xuan fought with Imperial Guards for no reason. Those men worked for the emperor and everything in the country belonged to Zhu’s Family. Why did Meng Xuan intend to accuse them of occupying that place? Did he realize he had put her in danger now?

While thinking about this, she saw at a glance part of the hilt of a dagger with a portrait of her on it below the pillow. Its sheath had been taken off and the portrait as big as her thumb was smiling at her on the glittering blade. She felt a bit frustrated. Would she be able to go back to Yangzhou City alive? She didn’t expect that Imperial Guards would torture her to death to extort confessions this life. But how could she be willing to die like this… She smelled some weird but familiar fragrance. Was he coercing her?

She couldn’t hold back the name of “Meng Xuan” anymore and it would only take a moment to say it. He Danggui made a prompt decision and picked up the dagger to cut her neck. Then, the dagger fell. That took less time than saying the name would do.

A sound was heard in the icehouse which might be of the skin being cut or the blood squirting from a human body. That was actually textured and pleasant to listen to.

Anyway, at the next moment, some blood fell into the Ice Pool next to the bed.

Lu Jiangbei stood a dozen zhangs away and didn’t expect an accident like this. He immediately became nervous and ran to her but what was done couldn’t be undone no matter how fast he moved.

“Ah!”

He cursed in front of He Danggui and held the back of her neck with one hand. However, after checking it in a hurry, he didn’t see any wound or blood. He seemed confused but then he figured something out. With no time to think, he poked the acupoints in her arms first to stop her from moving and then, he explained in haste, “I just took the easy option and never meant to force you to do anything. You should give up the idea of killing yourself, or other people will lose their lives because of you.”

“Clink!”

The dagger in her fair hand fell on the ice and rolled twice. The side of the blade on which the portrait of her was engraved faced upward and she saw that childish and timid smile again. Lying on the bed, He Danggui’s face was pale and she moved her lips. Lu Jiangbei hadn’t poked her mute acupoint but her voice seemed to have been blocked in the cold air inside her lungs. Sure enough it was him. Why did he do this? How did he feel now?

Turning his head in anxiety, Lu Jiangbei looked around the icehouse blindly and asked, “Come out. How about your injury? Can you show yourself, Gao Jue?”

No one answered. Except for the heavy breaths of He Danggui and Lu Jiangbei, the room remained in silence.

He Danggui slowly closed her eyes and the tears froze on her cheeks. Showed himself? Was anyone using invisibility here? She had heard in her previous life that the Dun Shu and ninjutsu used by people in Nihon was amazing and different from the martial arts of every kung fu school in the Central Plain. She didn’t expect that someone could really become invisible and Duan Xiaolou even grasped such a great skill in just two years.

Lu Jiangbei frowned and waited for a long while. He heard clearly his own heavy breathing and his heart was full of regrets. Why did he do this in haste? Gosh.

“Dripping.”

A drop of blood was seen in the Ice Pool and it brought some steam, which indicated where the invisible man was and attracted the attention of He Danggui and Lu Jiangbei. Then, they saw something bizarre. It was like there was an invisible hand painting in the air. It held a Chinese bush with clear water and light ink first and drew the figure of a man. Then, it used another small brush made of weasel’s hairs with heavier ink to draw the details and color it.

The whole process took about five minutes and then, a man with an ice mask showed in front of them. It was his right fist that was bleeding. It seemed there was some poisonous needles in his eyes under the mask and his gaze on them was very scary.

Meanwhile, Lu Jiangbei and He Danggui were in a daze because of shock. Lu Jiangbei was shocked because the man wasn’t Gao Jue but Duan Xiaolou while He Danggui was shocked because Duan Xiao was staring at her with such a malicious look! She hadn’t believed people’s gossip at all before. Even until now, his resentful gaze was surrounding her and she still felt it was incredible.

The three of them remained in silence for a moment and Duan Xiaolou had an angry outburst first. He roared at Lu Jiangbei, “Are you insane? Why did you put the dagger there? Why did you leave it to her?”

“Sorry. It’s my oversight.” Lu Jiangbei walked to Duan Xiaolou in worries and wanted to check his wound. He continued, “This dagger made of dark steel is very sharp. How’s your wound? Are your sinews still fine? Let me check them.” Duan Xiaolou struggled for a while before Lu Jiangbei finally could look into his bleeding fist.

Duan Xiaolou glared at him savagely and scolded, “You even left her a dagger and put it below the pillow? Is it really an oversight? I’ve never seen you being so careless like this before! Good! You’re indeed my good friend!”

After poking his key acupoints, Lu Jiangbei led him to the front of the medicine chest with half compulsion. He said in worries while rummaging around those drawers before finding a bottle of Jinchuang ointment, “The sinew in your pinky was broken. You must stay still here and I’ll find some Sinew-reconnecting cream for you in the villa. OK, Xiaolou?” Lu Jiangbei looked up to check if Duan Xiaolou was still conscious and if he could leave He Danggui and him in the same room for about half an hour. However, he saw Duan Xiaolou’s eyes used to be like black jade now seemed to have swirls inside as if they were bewitched and was about to devour people’s souls.

Lu Jiangbei sighed in his heart and looked back at He Danggui who was too shocked to say anything. At the same time, he poked four key acupoints of Duan Xiaolou by surprise and helped him lean on the medicine chest and sit on the ground. He exhorted, “Don’t try to release your acupoints. Just sit still. I’ll be back soon. Just wait for me, okay?”

Duan Xiaolou cast a venomous glance at him instead of answering him directly and just regarded him as the biggest foe. Seeing this, Lu Jiangbei immediately explained with one of his hands cupped in the other, “I did forget the dagger. I just left it there when I gave the silver needles to her before. I never wanted her to die. I…” He took a deep sigh and continued with his hands spread, “In fact, I never expected the invisible man would be you. When He Danggui said there was a third man in the icehouse and her mind was obviously manipulated, I thought it was Gao Jue that tried to extort confessions from her with ‘that method’ secretly so I took the easy option. Mr. Duan, when did you breakthrough the Ninth Stage of internal force and grasp this skill? On the fourth day of this lunar month when we fought against that young man, you still didn’t…”

Before finishing his words, he stopped in time. There wouldn’t be anything good for him if he kept talking about Mr. Duan’s weaknesses in front of He Danggui. Shaking his head, he raised a hand to wipe his forehead even though there was no sweat on it but he could only touch the cold ice mask on his face. Every time they were injured, they put on such masks that could help them recover. First, they wanted to get better as soon as possible. Second, they could hide their expressions and emotions well. Actually, they preferred the second function than the first and also the main one.

After having stopped the two of them from moving by poking their acupoints, Lu Jiangbei thought that it was really an accident. He Danggui had been alright while she was sleeping these five days but as soon as she woke up, such tragedy happened. It seemed in some sense, the description of “Helen of Troy” for beautiful women did make sense. If there hadn’t been a woman named He Danggui in the world, at least five men would have slept better…

Lu Jiangbei said, “There will only be the two of you here so you can talk peacefully. I’ll be back soon.” Then, he ran out of the icehouse and immediately got into the water above. He jumped swiftly and disappeared.

In the quiet icehouse, He Danggui and Duan Xiaolou could speak freely but neither of them started to talk immediately. He Danggui just looked at Duan Xiaolou’s injured hand while he only stared at her face calmly. They remained looking at each other like this for a while. Then, with her arms stopped from moving by Lu Jiangbei, He Danggui struggled several times before sitting up. She walked to the medicine chest slowly and observed Duan Xiaolou’s wound.

His palm was cut from left to right and the deepest part was below the pinky. The sinew in it was partly cut and although some Jinchuang ointment had been applied on it, it was still bleeding. He Danggui frowned and intended to heal his wound but her arms couldn’t move at all. Alas…

Suddenly, Duan Xiaolou asked above her head, “Did you do that to protect him? Would you even kill yourself for him? Why did you treat him so well? He has left you alone for so long but you tried to die for him here. What can he do for you, then?”

He Danggui looked up at his face covered by the ice mask closely and said gently, “You looked thin. Mr. Duan, have you been eating regularly?”

Duan Xiaolou ground his teeth while glaring at her for a while. Later, he replied with a sneer, “Isn’t it too late for you to ask this after two years have passed? If I really couldn’t eat or sleep well because of you, I would die long ago. It’s late, Miss He.”