Chapter 34

The maid by her side clearly had a very close relationship with her mistress, and continued to tease, "Isn't that how it's written in the storybooks? A wealthy young lady falls in love with a poor boy, is opposed by her family, and the two elope to wander the ends of the earth together."

Hearing this, the young lady couldn't help but roll her eyes, lightly tapping the maid on the head with her finger: "When we get back, I'm going to burn all your 'Red Persimmon' storybooks so you stop reading them all day long."

"Ah! My dear young lady, I was wrong! How can I live without my 'Red Persimmon' storybooks!"

The playfulness inside the carriage was naturally unknown to outsiders; Jiang Jinshi was still thinking about how heavy that hairpin was and how much silver he could get for it if he sold it.

As the donkey cart continued forward, Jiang Jinshi was so hot that he lay motionless on the wooden board, his conversation with the old man having long since ended, and at this moment, he missed the ice cream from his past life immensely.

Up ahead, the Tang family's carriage suddenly stopped moving as it passed a bend, and one of the two guards frowned deeply.

"Something is wrong here."

The other guard was puzzled, but still subconsciously drew his sword and gripped it in his hand.

"What is it?"

"Along the way, the sounds of birds and beasts have been constant, but it's so quiet here; I'm afraid there's a problem."

As soon as the words fell, over a dozen burly men surged out from both sides of the road, holding various items—some had broken blades with only half the length left, while others held axes or firewood knives.

Seeing this, the two guards breathed a sigh of relief; this wasn't because they could defeat these dozen burly men, but because their Tang family was a well-known name in Li City.

Ordinary mountain bandits wouldn't dare to act rashly upon seeing the Tang family's banner, and most importantly, the Centipede Stronghold on this road maintained a long-term cooperative relationship with their master.

To dare to rob their Tang family was to slap the face of the Centipede Stronghold, and they wouldn't be able to survive in this area anymore.

The guard took a few pieces of broken silver from his bosom, tossed them toward the dozen bandits, and spoke in a loud voice.

"Good fellows, we are from the Tang family of Li City, and we have had a long-standing cooperation with the Centipede Stronghold. The weather is too hot; take this silver to buy some tea for the brothers."

Hearing the name of the Centipede Stronghold, the leader hesitated; even though they had just arrived, they had heard of the Five Poisons Stronghold of Lianhuan Shan.

The two people in the carriage weren't nervous either; this wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, but the Tang family's name had made the other side back off every time.

The maid even excitedly lifted the curtain to watch the show, unaware that this action had plunged them into danger.

The bandit leader, who had just been prepared to let them go, suddenly saw the two women in the carriage, especially the one wearing the gold hairpin, and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

He no longer even glanced at the silver on the ground, shouting loudly to the bandits.

"Brothers, surround them for me."

The dozen bandits immediately obeyed the order, all gripping their weapons tightly and looking vigilantly at the two people on the horses.

The two guards drew their swords and held them across their chests, protecting the carriage from left and right, while still trying to negotiate.

"I don't know what the leader means by this?"

The bandit leader snorted coldly: "What do I mean? You're dressed in gold and silver, yet you give our brothers this little bit of stuff? Do you think we're beggars?"

The guard turned his head to look and realized where the problem lay upon seeing the half-open curtain!

The maid inside the carriage also knew she had done something wrong and hurriedly lowered the curtain, but it was meaningless to cover it now.

The guard was unwilling to start a conflict; if they really fought, the two of them would definitely suffer.

"Good fellows, this was my lack of consideration. If we stop here, my Tang family is willing to offer one hundred taels of silver afterward, just to build a connection with you all, how about that?"

As soon as these words were spoken, some in the crowd were moved; there were only a dozen of them in total, and one hundred taels of silver—even if the head leader took half, they could still split quite a bit.

But the head leader didn't give the order, so they still didn't put down their weapons.

The head leader let out a disdainful snort: "Trying to fool a three-year-old? If we let you go back, I'm afraid the next ones to come will be the people from the Centipede Stronghold!"

Seeing that this matter could not be resolved peacefully, the guard decided to use intimidation.

"If you make a move, you won't be able to run either. It's better to take one hundred taels and make friends; being an enemy of my Tang family is definitely not a wise move."

The head leader laughed up at the sky: "As long as you all stay here, who would know?"

"Brothers, attack! There are two women in the carriage; tonight, brothers, we'll have some fun together, and I'll be behind you."

Once these words were out, the two guards decisively took the initiative; one rode his horse straight toward the bandit leader, while the other decided to kill a bandit first to intimidate the others.

Just as the two sides were fighting fiercely, a figure not far away gently poked his body out from behind a tree.

This person was Jiang Jinshi; as for the old man pulling the donkey cart, Jiang Jinshi had already paid him and sent him away.

When he arrived, he happened to see the two sides confronting each other; as for what was said, he didn't hear it clearly, his mind filled only with that golden hairpin.

He retrieved the Ghost Head Knife, the previous mission reward, from the system; it felt heavy and substantial in his hand, the back of the blade thick with rings, the tip wide and semicircular, and the blade featuring a blood groove, resembling the head of an evil ghost.

This knife was far superior even to the swords held by the two guards, which added quite a bit of confidence to Jiang Jinshi.

The battle surrounding the carriage was still unfolding; the guards were clearly well-trained, their strikes swift and ruthless, each move aimed at the bandit leader's vital points.

The bandit leader could only be forced to defend, occasionally seizing gaps to counterattack, relying entirely on a fierce spirit to entangle with them.

But the increasing number of cuts on his body indicated that the bandit leader's defeat was only a matter of time.

The other guard was much more miserable; on one hand, he had to protect the safety of the eldest Miss Tang inside the carriage, and on the other, he had to fend off the attacks of more than a dozen people.

Having suddenly killed two people earlier, he thought it would intimidate this bunch of small fry, but who would have thought that this action would instead incite the anger of the bandits, and the successive attacks left him with quite a few wounds.

If it weren't for protecting the safety of the eldest Miss Tang, this bunch of people would definitely have no way to stop him if he wanted to leave; now he could only drag it out until the bandit leader was captured.

It just so happened that the bandits were thinking the same thing: hurry up and kill this person so they could go support their own head leader.

Now it all depended on when the two battlefields would decide a winner; the victor would be...

Jiang Jinshi, that old fox, was currently using the cover of the jungle to approach the battlefield, the Ghost Head Knife dragging along the ground and making a "swish-swish" sound, though unfortunately, no one heard it.

The two people inside the carriage were huddled together in fear; they had naturally heard what the bandits said earlier.

The maid was crying and constantly apologizing to her mistress, while Tang Rui took off the gold hairpin from her head and gripped it tightly; if the two guards died in battle, she would commit suicide—even in death, she would not let this group of bandits defile her body.

As time passed, the bandit leader's face grew paler; he was originally just a farmhand, relying only on a fierce spirit to hold on until now.

The guard, however, had undergone professional training, and both his moves and combat thinking were far superior to the bandit leader's.