Chapter 66 Rematch with Zhao Zhiheng
Min Qiao led Wei Jia, Granny Fang, and A Jiu, a group of four, out.
As they walked, he asked Wei Jia, "Have you found out where the person was taken?"
Wei Jia quickly said, "After Rongrong was taken away by Young Master Zhao, Uncle Wu knew he couldn't stop her, so he gave two little beggars money to follow her and told them to come and tell him when they got there. He ran to the Marquis's mansion to ask me for help. Uncle Wu is at the gatehouse right now."
Min Qiao nodded. The lame old man was quite shrewd; he didn't follow along himself.
It would be good to know where the person was taken.
Upon arriving at the gatehouse, Uncle Wu was as flustered as an ant on a hot pan. Seeing Madam Min come out in person, he was so excited that he knelt down with a thud and kept kowtowing to her.
"Please, Madam, save my daughter, Rongrong. Please, Madam, have mercy and save Rongrong."
Before Madam Min could react, Uncle Wu had already kowtowed several times, his forehead turning red.
My little... Rongrong?
Madam Min Qiao keenly realized something: Was that old man Wu trying to say something about my young lady?
The master and servant pretended to be father and daughter. It seems they're two people with a story to tell.
However, now is not the time to explore this.
Suppressing her curiosity, Madam Min Qiao asked, while having Wei Jia help the person up, "Is there any news about the person's whereabouts?"
Uncle Wu nodded hurriedly: "I have bad legs and walk slowly. Not long after I arrived at the Marquis's residence, the little beggar came to tell me that Rongrong had been taken to a small courtyard in Guihua Lane at the southeast border."
"Knowing the place is enough."
Madam Min instructed the gatekeeper's servant, "Go find Steward Yang and tell him what I said. Tell him to take the Marquis's invitation and personally go to invite Grand Secretary Zhao to Osmanthus Lane."
"Yes." The servant replied and ran off to find Yang An.
Madam Min Qiao then led her entourage onto the Marquis's carriage and headed straight for Osmanthus Lane.
The north city is prestigious, the east city is noble, the south city is wealthy, and the west city is poor.
The northern part of the city was mostly inhabited by members of the imperial family and nobles; the residences of princes and princesses were mostly located in the northern part of the city.
Noble families and high-ranking officials in the court mostly resided in the eastern part of the city.
The residences of Marquis Xuanping and Grand Secretary Zhao are both located in the eastern part of the city.
Min Qiaoshi and her party found Osmanthus Lane in less than 15 minutes.
The alley was too narrow for the carriage to pass through.
Min Qiaoshi and her entourage disembarked from the carriage at the alley entrance.
A little beggar who had been squatting at the corner of the alley saw Uncle Wu getting off the carriage and hurriedly ran up to him with a fawning expression, saying, "Uncle Wu, Miss Rongrong was taken into the courtyard at the very end of the alley. I've been guarding the alley entrance ever since I got here, and no one has come out."
"Thank you so much." Uncle Wu said excitedly, reaching into his pocket and taking out a handful of copper coins, which he placed in the little beggar's hand.
The little beggar received the reward money and immediately turned and ran away.
Min Qiaoshi didn't dare to delay and led her people inside.
Reaching the deepest part of the alley, Uncle Wu impatiently went up and knocked on the door. After knocking for a long time, he finally heard a shout from inside: "Are you trying to kill me? Why are you knocking so urgently!"
As soon as the door opened, Ajiu kicked the servant who answered the door, knocking him to the ground.
At first glance, lo and behold, it was someone I knew.
The servant was none other than one of the two servants beside Zhao Zhiheng.
The servant clearly recognized Ajiu as well, and the memory of being severely punished at the Painting Corner Tower instantly flooded back.
The servant's face immediately turned pale, and he screamed like a pig being slaughtered, "Ah! It's you! Young master, something terrible has happened, that little girl is here again!"
The servant shouted as he scrambled inside.
Hearing the commotion inside, Zhao Zhiheng quickly led his men out of the house.
This time, Zhao Zhiheng was clearly well-prepared.
He was followed by four burly men, while another personal servant was pulling at a woman.
The woman was none other than the blind Rongrong.
Because she couldn't see the road, Rongrong tripped over the threshold when she came out of the house and fell flat on her face.
The servant didn't care how badly the person had fallen. He roughly pulled the person up, grabbed their arm, and half-dragged, half-pulled them out of the house.
Seeing this, Uncle Wu's eyes instantly welled up with tears of heartache. "Rongrong! Rongrong! Are you alright?"
When they got closer, they noticed that Rongrong's cheeks were swollen and red, and upon closer inspection, her face was covered in handprints. Blood was also seeping from the corner of her mouth. Her wrinkled clothes were covered in dust and footprints.
Judging from his appearance, he had been severely beaten.
"You bastards! You beasts! How could you do this to my young lady! I'll fight you to the death!"
Enraged by this scene, Uncle Wu limped forward and tried to fight Zhao Zhiheng to the death.
Wei Jia was also furious, but she still rationally pulled Wu Bo back.
Seeing Rongrong's condition, Madam Min Qiao breathed a sigh of relief. At least the worst hadn't happened.
“Young Master Zhao, it is not the behavior of a true man to take your anger out on a weak woman who cannot even kill a chicken.”
Min Qiaoshi immediately saw through the key point: "You're here for this old woman, aren't you?"
Slapping someone in the face, kicking someone—isn't this the kind of beating Zhao Zhiheng received from Ajiu back in the Painting Corner Tower?
At first, she thought Zhao Zhiheng had taken a liking to the girl because she was pretty and had bad intentions.
When she saw that Zhao Zhiheng seemed to have been prepared all along, and looking at Rongrong's condition, Madam Min realized what was going on.
"No wonder she rose from a mere merchant's daughter to become the matriarch of a marquis's household! Truly remarkable!"
Zhao Zhiheng didn't mince words, offering only a flattering remark before coldly saying, "I still have the same request as before: Madam Qiao, kneel down and kowtow to me, admit your mistake, and give me this pretty girl next to you, and I'll release this blind man."
Madam Min frowned, utterly disgusted. Had Zhao Zhiheng lost his mind? He kept demanding she kowtow and apologize. She was a first-rank noblewoman, where did he get the audacity and confidence to force her to submit?
Before Min Qiao could figure it out, A Jiu had already rushed forward in a rage, kicking Zhao Zhiheng so hard he stumbled back several steps and almost lost his balance. Fortunately, several burly men behind him caught him.
Seeing that Ajiu was about to rush up and beat him up again, Zhao Zhiheng was terrified. He shrank back while shouting, "Useless trash, hurry up and attack! You have so many of you, and you can't even beat a little girl like her?"
The four burly men were handpicked from the Zhao family's servants; each of them was as big as four A-Jiu! He refused to believe that they couldn't defeat a little girl.
However, the truth always surprises people.
The four burly men did give Ajiu a slight disadvantage at first. There was nothing Ajiu could do; given their size and weight, no matter how strong Ajiu was, he couldn't kick them down in a short time.
But when the old methods stopped working, Ah Jiu stopped confronting people head-on and started resorting to dirty tricks. He kicked people in the groin, poked their eyes, kicked their calves... every move was aimed at people's vulnerable spots.
Before long, the four burly men were struggling to hold on and were on the verge of being overwhelmed.
Zhao Zhiheng was both anxious and angry. He cursed and dodged, and when he got close to the two servants and Rongrong, a plan suddenly came to mind.
He shoved the servant aside, grabbed Rongrong by the neck, and threatened Min Qiaoshi, "Old woman, tell that little girl to stop! Otherwise, I'll snap this blind man's neck! Do you hear me?"
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