Chapter 79 It's best not to read this while eating.

"Bang—"

"Ouch!"

"Big brother! Are you alright?"

Damn it, when did this tough nut to crack arrive at this run-down inn?

Standing in the warm sunlight, with the spring breeze caressing her face, she lifted a few strands of her long, unbound hair, gazing upon her ethereal beauty.

But she happens to be a beautiful, jade-faced Yama!

Seeing their crushing defeat, the shopkeeper felt much of the frustration he had been feeling for the past two months dissipate.

His opening remarks, though seemingly friendly, carried a hint of sarcasm: "Have you all made up your minds? Do you intend to continue forcing your way in, or would you like to have a proper talk with us?"

That damn shopkeeper!

The leader of the thieves cursed inwardly, but could only swallow his anger and grit his teeth, saying, "Talk, we'll talk!"

Even though he heard that one person had exchanged for such a large amount of rice, he wanted to beat him up again. It was clear that the Jade-Faced Yama standing guard was still throbbing with pain from the blows he had just received.

They admitted it!

"You leave ten people behind and take the five from before," the shopkeeper said with a sly smile. "If you don't take them with you, it'll be bad luck for them to die here."

Especially the big man who broke his leg last time, I don't know why, he didn't receive any treatment after breaking his leg, and he is still alive. Apart from being a bit haggard, he is no different from a normal person.

Even the others who had knife wounds looked much more serious than him.

However, just to be on the safe side, we should return him first.

"After all, the inn is short of food, so we can only let them go hungry for now. We would appreciate it if you could go and discuss this with Lord Huang as soon as possible, and then take the ordered food back to replace the people."

It is only natural that they lack the ability to select people.

The bandits were given the four most seriously injured men besides the big man, while the ten men left behind held varying positions in the stronghold, including the leader of this operation.

The men, driven out like spoiled dogs, took turns carrying the burly man with the broken leg, and hurriedly fled back to the mountain stronghold.

The men led the burly man to Lord Huang. The man, who had been holding back his words for two days, finally spoke: "Sir, a mysterious man arrived at the inn. He was incredibly skilled in martial arts, and with a long sword, he stopped our men—"

"Ahhh—"

"What?! Sir, he, he, he!"

The surrounding people pointed at him in terror. The burly man, puzzled, hesitated and stammered, "Sir, you must avenge our brothers..."

The big man didn't see it, but white maggots crawled out of his eye sockets and gnawed at his eyelids. His eye, which was originally only the size of a finger, was gradually enlarged. The maggots piled up until they were squeezed out of his eyeballs, and only then did everyone see the white maggots huddled together and wriggling inside, filling the eye hole.

A foul, rotten meat smell instantly filled my nostrils.

A terrified scream pierced the air. The burly man felt an itch in his eye socket, and something fell from it. Looking down, he saw a white, wriggling maggot.

One... crawled out of his body...

"M-Master? What is this...?"

His only response was a blinding flash of light, followed by his head rolling and his body separating from his body.

The others held their breath and no one made a sound.

Because his body was crawling with white worms, they couldn't imagine when the worms had emptied his body.

Some people couldn't bear it and covered their faces to vomit.

"Burn it clean..." A hoarse voice rang out, and Lord Huang, holding the knife, slowly looked at the other four people who had been exchanged with him, "You..."

"Sir, we're alright! We're all safe and sound, there are no bugs!"

The four of them yelled loudly, their voices instantly drowning out all other noises.

Lord Huang glanced at them and left with the words, "Put them in a separate room. Whether they live or die depends on your skills."

In a secluded corner of the stone wall, apricot blossoms from outside the wall have spread over it, creating a riot of color.

A person dressed in a crimson ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), with a green shawl wrapped around their body and jeweled earrings swaying, came toward the stone wall.

A passing guard saw her and asked, "What brings you here, Second Madam?"

The second wife stopped and turned to the side, her brows furrowed slightly, with a hint of sorrow: "My lord's newly acquired daughter, Xiaoqian, has lost her appetite because she misses home. I heard from the other sisters that Xiaoqian loves apricot blossom cake the most, so I thought of picking some apricot blossoms to make cakes to relieve her homesickness."

The guard scratched his head: "The Second Madam is kind-hearted. She'll have a good life with the Lord. Madam Xiaoqian will eventually understand."

The second wife smiled gently: "Indeed, I will find some time to persuade her properly."

"Then I won't disturb you any longer, Madam."

She nodded slightly, her demeanor dignified and impeccable.

The apricot trees outside the stone wall are in full bloom, their branches drooping into the wall, making it easy to break off branches without having to stand on tiptoe.

She carefully looked around to make sure no one was there before hiding behind a rocky hill near the wall. She lifted up her skirt and sleeves, parted the weeds along the wall, and moved a piece of rubble to reveal the small hole behind it.

She reached towards the top of the cave entrance, found a small, pointed object that was different from the stone, pulled it out forcefully, and quickly stuffed it into her sleeve.

He then neatly restored the wall to its original state, and only got up after verifying that everything was correct.

She casually broke off two apricot blossom branches, tidied her slightly disheveled sleeves, and went out the door.

Before they even turned the corner, a young maidservant came running up, anxiously saying, "Second Madam, something terrible has happened! Fourth Madam and Fifth Madam are arguing again!"

Where are they?

"After the two ladies finished arguing, they stormed out of the door in a fit of anger, and no one knows where they went!"

The second wife tapped her temple with her finger, saying with a headache, "Find them all for me, and also invite the first wife here so she can give them a good talking-to."

"yes!"

The room was almost full of people, with all twelve of Lord Huang's wives sharing one room.

To outsiders, it seemed that the First Madam was trying to establish her authority by reprimanding the Fourth and Fifth Madams, who were often at odds with each other.

In fact, with their respective maids, dozens of people surrounded the Second Madam, while the Fourth and Fifth Madams took out secret letters that they had obtained under the pretext of discord and left to find her.

The second wife pieced together the secret letter. The words on the letter were not Da'an's handwriting, but rather delicate and graceful strokes, like those of a fingernail, which belonged to their "secret script".

"Reinforcements will arrive; do everything in your power to survive."

"On the day of the surprise attack by reinforcements, we entered the secret cave to protect ourselves."

"It will take at least three days, and at most seven days."

The First Madam lowered her eyes, her alluring gaze devoid of emotion, and calmly said, "If it's necessary to divert the attention of that scoundrel... I'll go."

"Eldest sister!" The second madam nearly cried out, "Let me go! I can definitely coax him and buy time for my sisters to hide!"

The First Madam smiled, her body trembling slightly: "Little Mo'er, your brother is waiting for you. As for me, I'm all alone, with no more attachments. Don't try to compete with me."

They all understood that staying behind to buy time, once discovered, would be tantamount to suicide.

Some of the girls in the hall were already in tears, their soft sobs echoing. The First Madam laughed and said, "Since everyone is crying, let's put on a show of being scolded and feeling wronged."

.

Quanshan, Fulai Inn.

The newly arrived bandits shouted and cursed, "The brothers we brought back last time died after returning to the mountain! Did you tamper with their bodies?!"

Shang Yuji put her hands on her hips and replied without backing down, "For an ordinary person, being seriously injured without receiving treatment would naturally be a matter of life and death."

"Then why didn't you save him!"

Upon hearing this, she laughed angrily, "They almost killed me. It's already merciful of us not to kill them on the spot. And you expect us to treat him? Dream on!"

"Just tell me, do you want the rest of the people?"

"Who knows if you'll tamper with things? If we rescue them and they die, wouldn't it be a waste of our efforts?"

"Save them or not, it's up to you." Shang Yuji rolled her eyes blatantly. "Anyway, if you don't save them and just leave them here, we won't give them a single bite to eat."

She scoffed, "I don't know if they'll die if you rescue them, but they'll definitely starve to death here."

That was awesome!

It feels so good to imitate the villain's sharp and sarcastic insults!

It's a pity that today's hairstyle is a "heart-to-heart" bun, which makes her look a bit too lively and lacks the aura of a villain.

"Big brother! Don't forget what the adults said!" The younger brother quickly grabbed him.

The bandit leader spat and beckoned for the grain to be brought over: "In exchange, everything is here, hand over the people."

"What's the rush? Let's check it. Who knows if you'll shortchange us?"

Knowing it was his turn to work, the shopkeeper stepped forward to inspect the rice and flour in the bag.

Taking advantage of this moment, Shang Yuji didn't forget to stab us in the back again: "You're still willing to exchange people, doesn't that mean that the people we exchanged last time didn't all die? I think you're just framing us for murder, right? If you ask me, maybe it's because your den of thieves has bad feng shui. Otherwise, the people were fine when we handed them over, but they died as soon as they got into your hands. You're the ones who brought them bad luck!"

"You, you!" The bandit, suffering a heart attack, pointed at her with trembling fingers. "You sharp-tongued wench, you're not even worthy to kneel down and lick our shoes! How dare you spout nonsense!"

A gust of wind swept by, and he felt warm water trickle down his throat.

The henchman next to him pointed at his neck in a panic: "B-Big Brother, blood...so much blood..."

He reached out and touched it, and when he looked again, his fingers were covered in thick, sticky blood.

Shang Yuji laughed viciously: "Keep talking. Want to guess whether the next stone will go through your head, pierce your throat, or pierce your heart?"

"Big brother, the person next to her is the Jade-Faced Yama they were talking about, the one who killed them without leaving a trace! We mustn't act rashly!"

Without needing their persuasion, having personally experienced the danger of near death, he fell silent, fearing that he might be the one to collapse at any moment.

"Why don't you just wait obediently? If we want your brothers dead, we'll just take them directly. Why go through all this trouble?"

Under the combined pressure of verbal and physical attacks, the bandits fell silent.

Having won the victory, Shang Yuji concealed his merits and fame, and stood aside supervising the work.

The shopkeeper checked and found nothing missing, then nodded to them.

After understanding, the waiter led the thief, who was tangled in a long rope and looked pale from being hungry all day, out of the inn and handed the end of the rope to the innkeeper.

The handover between the two groups was successfully completed right before their eyes.

Once the bandits had gone far away, the old man and the young women in the inn finally emerged, carrying the rice and flour back into the inn like ants carrying food back to their burrow.

Shang Yuji took Jiang Xi to help with the moving, which startled them instead.

The shopkeeper wiped away imaginary sweat and advised, "Miss, you are our honored guest, we can't trouble you any further!"

The girls behind him nodded in agreement.

They were all so thin from hunger that they probably couldn't match her strength even if several of them were combined.

"Hurry up and finish moving so you can get some rest; there might be a fierce battle later."

After saying that, Shang Yuji ignored the shopkeeper's next words and ran to the kitchen with the rice bag in her arms.

They didn't dare snatch the things from her; they'd better run away first!