Chapter 24: To Think They Actually Had People Kill Their Way In Here!

The layout of Dali Temple is shaped like the character "Hui"; the outer perimeter is a wall with a corridor, and each of the four corners has two to three rooms, while the center of the wall also has a room specifically arranged for sentry duty.

The room where Song Shijie resides is in the east corner, and when Lu Zhenting comes over on normal days, he often stays the night in the sentry room.

The central area mainly houses the courtroom and the evidence storage; the entrance to the prison is on the west side of the courtroom, where most are dungeons—some have windows, but the majority do not.

Criminals are arranged by gender; male prisoners are held on the north side of the courtroom, and female prisoners are held on the south side.

Through the dungeon windows, Lin Jiaojiao can vaguely hear the hysterical screams of the prisoners being tortured inside.

These screams and ravings make Lin Jiaojiao feel uneasy, so as soon as she enters the sentry room, she shuts the doors and windows tightly to block out the terrifying sounds from outside.

The sentry room is sparsely furnished, containing a bed that can barely fit one burly man; fortunately, Lin Jiaojiao is petite, so she can squeeze onto the bed with Guo Shi and the child.

Besides that, the sentry room also has a set of expensive tables and chairs confiscated from somewhere unknown, with strong tea for staying alert placed on top.

The walls are covered with various weapons, convenient for the Dali Temple guards to take and use.

Lin Jiaojiao has never seen so many weapons, and her eyes are full of curiosity and wonder.

After Guo Shi sits by the table and nurses the child, she gently places the sleeping Zhu Geer on the bed, turns to Lin Jiaojiao, and asks in a low voice, "Concubine, do you really not want to return to Pei Mansion?"

Lin Jiaojiao looks back and asks in return, "Do you want to go back?"

"Going back wouldn't be so bad," Guo Shi says quite naturally, "Going back means living a good life with people to serve us."

"Besides, you are a Concubine, and I see that the Master is very good to you; he doesn't go to the Madam's place all day, but comes to our side every single day."

"Furthermore, this young master bears the surname Pei, so he must stay at Pei Mansion..."

Lin Jiaojiao walks to the bedside and looks closely at the sleeping Zhu Geer, a trace of pity rising in her heart: "He won't want this child; their entire Pei Mansion, from the very beginning, swapped the child I gave birth to with the legal wife's."

She recalls the pain of childbirth that day, but ultimately the child is innocent; yet the Old Madam's actions truly show no regard for human life!

Thinking of this, a flame of hatred ignites in her eyes: "The 'freak' Pei Tiezhu that they swapped over has always been an abandoned child of their family!"

Guo Shi hears this earth-shattering secret and is left speechless: is this something a servant like her should know?!

This gossip shocks her so much that her jaw drops, "Concubine, are you saying this child is not yours?"

Lin Jiaojiao rolls her eyes, "Do I look like someone who would give birth to a freakish monster?"

"You kind of do," Guo Shi answers instinctively, but seeing Lin Jiaojiao glaring at her, she hurriedly changes her question, "Then the child at Pei Mansion with the Madam is actually yours—?"

"Of course! If it weren't for my low status in this world, I certainly wouldn't have compromised and given my own big, fat baby boy to the legal wife!"

Lin Jiaojiao yawns as she says this; she feels truly exhausted.

Moreover, she has been busy all day and even donated so much blood to that iron-faced rooster Song Shijie; she feels like she cannot squeeze out a single drop more!

If she doesn't sleep now, she feels like she will die here from blood loss and sleep deprivation.

So she urges, "Hurry and sleep; if we don't rest, my little life will be gone."

"Concubine, you do love to joke," Guo Shi retorts, but Lin Jiaojiao is too busy to answer and crawls onto the bed right next to Zhu Geer, preparing to sleep.

Suddenly, a sound of rapid footsteps comes from the roof!

Lin Jiaojiao pricks up her ears instantly and asks Guo Shi with her mouth, "What about the sentry?"

Guo Shi shakes her head; feeling that something is wrong, she hurriedly beckons Guo Shi over and holds a middle finger to her lips, "Shh."

In the middle of the night at Dali Temple, besides Lin Jiaojiao, the second person to hear the movement on the roof is Lu Zhenting!

"I didn't expect the bandits to follow us here so quickly!" Lu Zhenting whispers, draws the sharp sword at his waist in one motion, quietly walks behind the door, and focuses all his attention on listening to the movement outside.

The rustling sound approaches from afar; the night guards of Dali Temple, who were drowsy and nodding off, suddenly snap awake!

In an instant, twenty or thirty people mobilize from the sentry room, quickly surrounding the house where Song Shijie is located, staring vigilantly at the roof to search for the assassins.

"Whoosh!" With a sound, three men in black use the darkness to drill through a hole in the roof into the rafters of the room!

Once the men in black confirm that there is no one guarding the room, they jump down lightly from the rafters and stab wildly at the bed; the quilt is pierced, and the room is filled with floating cotton batting.

But the assassins do not smell the familiar scent of blood, so they flip the quilt over at once—there is no one on the bed!

"Search quickly!" the lead assassin immediately orders in a low voice, and the three of them rummage through the room, looking for their target.

At this very moment, Lin Jiaojiao, hiding under the bed, dares not make a sound, and Guo Shi is trembling with fear.

Her hand, wrapped around Zhu Geer, involuntarily tightens, stifling the child and hurting him; following a "waa" cry, the attention of the men in black is instantly drawn over!

"Hidden here!" the assassin shouts low, rushes to the bed, and yanks Lin Jiaojiao, who was hiding on the outermost side, out!

Lin Jiaojiao is shocked: this assassin must be coming for her!

That old woman actually managed to have people kill their way in here!

Her brain races, thinking about how she can avoid being killed by the assassin.

In her desperation, she says to the assassin, "Big brother, I see your forehead is dark, you are suffering from a terminal illness and don't have much time left; I am a divine doctor, I can definitely save you!"

The assassin grabbing her freezes for a moment; at the same time, the door is kicked open from the outside!

The person who enters is tall and shouts loudly, charging toward the assassin with an iron sword without a word!

The assassin has no choice but to let go of Lin Jiaojiao to fight back, but after only three exchanges, he cannot hold his own and his right shoulder holding the sword is slashed by Lu Zhenting!

Bright red blood flows down his black clothes; he hurriedly presses his wound and orders the other two assassins to grab Lin Jiaojiao and take her hostage!

The assassin holds his blade to Lin Jiaojiao's fair neck and threatens Lu Zhenting, "Stop! Or I will kill your little beauty!"

Lu Zhenting's heart tightens, and he has no choice but to stop fighting.

The wounded assassin signals the other assassin to search under the bed, where Zhu Geer's crying is coming from; the assassin sneers, "Everyone says you, General Lu, are deeply devoted and have no regrets; I didn't expect you to be hiding a little beauty here, and you've even had a baby."

Seeing the assassin with the blade about to reach under the bed—

At this critical moment, Lin Jiaojiao stomps her foot hard, stepping right onto the foot of the assassin holding her; the assassin cries out in pain, caught off guard, and Lu Zhenting attacks immediately.

Lin Jiaojiao seizes the chance to dodge to the side and rolls onto the bed, but unexpectedly, the other assassin charges toward her.

Lin Jiaojiao shouts "Pillow fight!", grabs the ceramic pillow on the bed with one hand, and smashes it fiercely toward the assassin's face!

The assassin doesn't have time to dodge and gets his head cracked open by the ceramic pillow, falling to the ground and unable to get up!

Seeing the assassin fall, Lin Jiaojiao jumps away from him and runs straight to the wall, wanting to grab a weapon to help.

"Good skills!" Even in the middle of the fight, Lu Zhenting doesn't forget to compliment Lin Jiaojiao.

Before Lin Jiaojiao could reach her weapon, the men from the Dali Temple arrived in an instant with blades drawn!

Seeing that the situation was dire, the leader of the assassins had no choice but to order, "Retreat quickly!"

Seeing the remaining two assassins leap onto the rafters to escape, Lu Zhenting threw the iron sword in his hand directly at them!

With a scream of "Ah!", the already wounded assassin was pierced through the heart from the back by the iron sword, fell from the rafters, and died instantly!

The remaining assassin could not care for his companion and had to hurriedly jump from the rafters out the window.

The men from the Dali Temple rushed to give chase, but the assassin took advantage of the night to jump into the thicket outside the wall!

The bailiffs could only scatter to search the thicket.

"Are you alright?" Lu Zhenting walked to Lin Jiaojiao's side; her face was deathly pale, and her heart was pounding wildly, as if it were about to jump out of her throat.

"Damn them..." Lin Jiaojiao looked down at the assassin who had his head cracked open and was fainted on the ground, still unable to recover from the shock.

Lu Zhenting roughly checked Lin Jiaojiao over and, confirming she was uninjured, finally set his mind completely at ease.

This was the first time he had seen Lin Jiaojiao from such a close distance, and he felt some kind of emotion stirring in his chest...

Lin Jiaojiao confirmed it was safe, then leaned down to look under the bed, "It's alright now, it's safe, hurry and bring Zhu Geer out."

Guo Shi was trembling with fear, but seeing that the person peering under the bed was Lin Jiaojiao, she finally crawled out from under the bed holding the wailing Zhu Geer.

As soon as she saw the two assassins lying in pools of blood, she shuddered all over: "My heavens! Why is it that every single day I see nothing but dead people!"

Lin Jiaojiao took Zhu Geer into her arms and sang the nursery rhyme "Little Star" to soothe him; feeling the warmth of his mother's embrace, Zhu Geer immediately felt a sense of security and soon fell asleep.

"What kind of villains are these," Lin Jiaojiao said, clutching the child and looking at the assassins lying on the ground, still feeling a lingering fear, "to actually be able to kill their way into the Dali Temple!"

Lu Zhenting leaned down, checked the breath of the fallen assassin, and immediately shouted to the others, "He's still alive! Someone come, drag him away to await interrogation!"