Chapter 71

It was just that Bao Gang had challenged him the first time he arranged a task, so even if Bao Gang's words were reasonable, he couldn't possibly agree, and he wasn't arranging things randomly either.

Bao Gang's face turned red instantly: "I… I didn't mean that."

Zhang Bo snorted coldly: "Put away your little thoughts. Although the Fifth Young Lady is not born of the main wife, she is quite favored by the head of the family. Even if she is to be used for a marriage alliance, it will definitely not be someone like you."

A look of anger flashed in Bao Gang's eyes, but he didn't continue to speak.

"Greetings, Fifth Young Lady!"

Xu Yang soon followed Cui'er to see the Liu residence's Fifth Young Lady, a woman who looked as if she had walked out of a painting—simply the model of an ancient young lady from a wealthy family.

Although she was wearing a training suit and holding a precious sword, she could not hide her gentle temperament.

Cui'er stepped forward and said: "Young Lady, this is the newly arrived Retainer Xu Yang from the residence, a talent from Weiyuan Martial Hall."

Xu Yang noticed that upon hearing his name, the Fifth Young Lady's calm, water-like eyes seemed to have ripples.

She first curiously looked him up and down, then politely said: "Trouble Retainer Xu to escort me to the Sunutang."

"This is my duty."

Xu Yang shook his head and followed behind the Fifth Young Lady with Cui'er, soon leaving the Liu family.

He had heard of the Sunutang, a noble martial arts hall in Qingyuan County that only accepted women; just the apprenticeship fee was ten taels a month, and those without some family background couldn't afford it.

Along the way, Xu Yang kept to his duties, just following behind, and no trouble occurred midway; they soon arrived at the Sunutang.

"The Sunutang does not allow outsiders to enter. Retainer Xu does not need to wait here for me; it is very safe here. In the afternoon, you can have the Retainer Hall arrange for someone to pick me up."

"Yes!"

Xu Yang cupped his hands and turned to leave.

"Back at the Retainer Hall, someone wanted to rush to escort you. I saw that this Xu Yang is quite handsome, so I let him come. Young Lady, how is my eye for talent?"

After Xu Yang left, the serious-looking Cui'er immediately became lively.

The Fifth Young Lady also changed her previous demeanor and laughed: "He is indeed quite handsome. In the future, you can get closer to him; if it works out, I will ask Father to set you free."

Cui'er shook her head: "He even refused the marriage alliance in the residence; he wouldn't take a fancy to me."

The Fifth Young Lady's face stiffened and she said: "Since you know, why are you still acting like a lovesick fool here? Hurry up and go."

Cui'er stuck out her tongue and hurriedly followed her into the Sunutang.

…

Xu Yang returned to the Liu family, and everyone from the Retainer Hall had gone out, even Zhang Bo was not there.

He followed Zhang Bo's instructions and did not practice, just conserving his energy in the Retainer Hall.

Near lunchtime, the people who had gone out began to return one after another.

"How was it? Is that Fifth Young Lady beautiful?" Wang Yun leaned over with a lewd smile.

Xu Yang thought for a moment and said: "Like someone from a painting."

Wu Yongfeng laughed: "I escorted the Sixth Young Lady, who is also a heavenly fairy-like person."

Wang Yun looked amazed: "Why doesn't such a good thing fall to me? I've been patrolling the perimeter of the Liu residence for half a day."

Bao Gang's face was somewhat gloomy; he also hadn't received the task of escorting the Liu family's young ladies and had been patrolling the Liu residence until now.

After eating at the Liu residence, the other shift came to change shifts. Xu Yang told Zhang Bo about the matter of sending someone to pick up the Fifth Young Lady in the afternoon, and returned to Weiyuan Martial Hall with Wu Yongfeng.

He saw that the inner courtyard, which used to be quite lively, now only had two people in it. Sun Tao, Lu Ren, and Jiang Ping and these people seemed to have agreed today, as none of them came to Weiyuan Martial Hall.

These two were none other than Zhang Yong and Zhang Hong.

"What's going on? Why are there only the two of you?" Wu Yongfeng asked curiously.

Zhang Hong stopped his stance training and said: "It's all because of that Jade Butterfly. All the senior brothers have been summoned back by their respective factions to protect the purity of the women in their respective factions."

A day passed quickly, and Xu Yang didn't hear any more news about the Jade Butterfly.

The next day, he arrived at the Liu residence and heard the latest news about the Jade Butterfly: yesterday, a woman from another wealthy family in the outer city had fallen victim to the Jade Butterfly's poison hand—it was the Huang family, and it was said that she had fallen victim at home.

The Liu family also made adjustments because of this: until the Jade Butterfly is caught, no young lady is allowed to go out.

So this day, Xu Yang did not escort the Fifth Young Lady to the Sunutang again, but was assigned by Zhang Bo to patrol a corner of the Liu residence. Even the other shift of retainers responsible for the daytime was transferred over, and both shifts patrolled together to prevent the Jade Butterfly from sneaking into the Liu residence.

This day he couldn't go to Weiyuan Martial Hall, and it wasn't until dark, when the retainer martial artists responsible for the Liu residence's night security came to take over, that today's patrol ended.

Treading in the moonlight, Xu Yang left the Inner City and hurried home.

When he was about to reach Bai Shi Square, he saw a person lying in the grass by the side of the road.

This person was half-lying, head down, and he couldn't see what they looked like. He thought it was a fellow villager from Bai Shi Square who had an accident and collapsed here, so he immediately stepped forward to see who it was.

As he got closer, he smelled a bloody scent. Looking carefully, he discovered that next to this person, there was a pool of vomited blood, in a spray pattern.

This blood hadn't dried yet; it looked like it had been vomited not long ago.

"Brother, wake up!" Xu Yang stopped three steps away, not daring to approach rashly.

He called out a few times, but the person lying there still didn't react, so he secretly raised his true qi and continued to approach.

Just as he took two steps, the person on the ground suddenly sprang up, his five fingers hooking toward his neck like an eagle's claw. ===== CHAPTER 72 =====