Zhu Xi was already fast asleep when Lin Xiangzhi heard a familiar knock and got up to open the door.
After entering the room, Hei Bai closed the door behind him and pointed upstairs, saying, "The Governor-General of Water Transport, Guo Baoxian, should be upstairs."
"Yes, I've noticed. No one else should be living upstairs. He doesn't know me, so you don't need to worry about him."
Lin Xiangzhi then told Hei Bai to go back to the room to rest, and he closed the door and went back to bed.
As Lin Xiangzhi had predicted, he and his beautiful concubine lived on the third floor, along with maids and servants who attended to him, and several skilled martial artists.
Those martial arts practitioners were all dressed as servants; if you weren't a martial artist, you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from ordinary servants.
For two days in a row, Lin Xiangzhi and Zhu Xi did nothing but eat and sleep, while Hei Bai and Wu Chang occasionally went to stand on the deck for a while.
On the third day, around noon, Zhu Xi, as usual, ran quickly off the boat as soon as it docked.
When the boat docks, there is a quarter and a half hour to disembark and buy food.
In the morning, the ship had not yet docked, so the people on board either ate the dry food they had brought with them or went hungry because they couldn't afford the expensive porridge on board.
Zhu Xi knew that the cold steamed bun and bowl of porridge his master had eaten that morning were no longer enough. Hearing the servants on the boat calling for everyone to get off the boat to buy food, he was the first to rush off the boat.
As soon as the boat docked, the vendors at the pier rushed forward with their food.
They were calling out the prices of the food they were selling, and the people coming off the boat were dazzled by the variety, not knowing what was the best deal.
As usual, Zhu Xi bought some boiled eggs and steamed buns.
Suddenly, the shouts of a roast chicken vendor reached her ears. Zhu Xi didn't even hear the price clearly, but she raised her hand and said to the vendor, "Give me three roast chickens."
The vendor, perhaps having encountered a rare big buyer, quickly wrapped the three roast chickens in banana leaves.
"Alright, sir, here you go."
Zhu Xi paid the money and turned to walk back.
Just as I turned the corner of the stairs, I saw a figure leaping upwards.
Oops!
Could it be that the young master is in danger, which has drawn out the secret guards protecting him?
Zhu Xi was startled and almost dropped the roast chicken in her hand.
"Young Master!"
Just as Zhu Xi was about to run up the stairs, another figure rose from the ground and landed on the third-floor corridor.
Did something happen to the young master?!
Immediately afterwards, a roar came from the third floor.
It was just one sound, and then it was gone.
Zhu Xi was slightly taken aback, then ran back to her room in one breath. When she saw her young master lying on the bed with his legs crossed and swinging back and forth, Zhu Xi finally felt relieved.
"Young Master, it seems something has happened upstairs," Zhu Xi asked, putting down the food he was holding.
Lin Xiangzhi sat up and said calmly, "Sweep the snow from your own doorstep and don't worry about the frost on someone else's roof. They're the owner of this boat, what could possibly happen to them!"
"Young master, I just saw people fly up in a flash, and there was more than one. Could those people be...?"
Zhu Xi seemed to have discovered something extraordinary, and dared not utter the rest of her words.
Lin Xiangzhi had already heard everything that happened upstairs and naturally guessed what was going on.
He picked up an egg and peeled it, saying casually, "Yeah, that's right. Their mission wasn't just to protect your young master. They also accidentally discovered that there were people the Emperor valued, so they protected them as well."
"Protect...protect?" Zhu Xi suddenly realized, "Could it be that he..."
"Shh! Don't make wild guesses. Quickly send food to the Black and White Impermanence. Just pretend you don't know anything else."
In the next room, Wuchang heard the commotion upstairs and looked at Hei Bai.
Hei Bai paused for a moment, then understood. He quickly made a hand gesture, "They wouldn't attack without reason. They must have discovered that someone was trying to disembark and escape."
Suddenly realizing something, Wuchang asked, "Should we go up and take a look?"
"No need. They've already been exposed. We mustn't give ourselves away. If something unexpected happens, we can still lend a hand."
In a room on the third floor, Guo Baoxian was pressed down on a large bed, his mouth was stuffed with cloth, and his hands and feet were tied up.
His eyes were wide open as he struggled desperately, his whole body resembling a silkworm cocoon.
The more he struggled, the tighter the ropes tightened around him. After a few struggles, the cunning Guo Baoxian suddenly realized that the way the ropes were tied was called a "dead man's knot".
The so-called "dead man's knot" is when a person bound by it struggles violently, causing the rope to tighten naturally until the person's blood circulation stops and they suffocate to death.
If you lie still, there is still a glimmer of hope.
His beautiful concubine huddled in a corner of the room, trembling with fear.
"Who...who are you people? How dare you rob my master's territory? This is outrageous!"
Two agile men tied Guo Baoxian up and threw him down, then turned to look at the woman who had collapsed to the ground.
Without saying a word, the two men walked over and picked up the woman like a chick.
Then he picked up a rag from the table and stuffed it into the woman's mouth, repeating the same method to tie her up tightly.
Guo Baoxian stared at the two men with disbelief, his body motionless, making "woo-woo" noises.
The beautiful concubine assumed she had encountered a blind robber and gestured with her eyes to the package containing the silver notes in the wardrobe.
The two men inside acted as if they hadn't seen anything, closed the window, turned around, and left the room.
Hearing the door lock, Guo Baoxian's heart sank lower and lower.
It's over. He only realized something was wrong halfway through, and by then he was already far from his sphere of influence, having completely lost the initiative.
I just heard the ship dock, and my concubine said she was really bored after staying on the ship for a few days and wanted to get off and take a stroll around the pier, so I decided to accompany her.
The two had just reached the stairs when they saw a figure flash before their eyes, and were then covered in the mouth and thrown back into the house.
Meanwhile, the servants he brought with him had long since disappeared.
In a room not far from Guo Baoxian's residence, several maids, servants, and guards dressed as servants had been put to sleep by pressure points and were all lying stiffly on the floor.
Several men dressed in plain clothes stared expressionlessly at the masterpiece on the ground.
One of the men pulled a purse-like cloth bag from his waist and took out a white porcelain bottle from it.
The accomplice tacitly reached out and took the pills from the man's hand, pried open the mouths of the sleeping people on the ground, and flicked one pill into each person's throat.
A man finished feeding the last pill in his hand, stood up, and clapped his hands.
Turning to his accomplice, he said, "If we feed them this one dose of 'soft bone powder,' they won't be able to cause trouble for three days."
"It won't take more than three days. Someone will come to pick us up in two days," another man said, making a signaling gesture to his companion.
The entire third floor was under control. Because the secret guards suddenly appeared on the deck, a servant happened to see it and reported it to the ship's manager.
The steward, accompanied by several servants, headed straight for the third floor.
Just as they reached the stairwell, a man dressed in plain clothes blocked their way.
"The master has ordered that no one is allowed to go up and disturb us."
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