Free Web NovelChapter 16: Chapter 16: Assassins
Ye Lingyue’s pupils constricted. She hurriedly slipped into the camping area of the exile party.
She needed to wake up others before the raging flames reached the carriages!
The fire actually spread from a tree, heading to the place where people were sleeping. Ye Lingyue shook her mother awake first.
Shen Jingyi was from the Shen family, and she was naturally stronger than normal women, more resistant to drugs, especially when the amount was so thin.
As soon as Ye Lingyue shook her, Shen Jingyi gradually opened her eyes. The eyelids felt unusually heavy, however, when she saw the panicked look on her daughter’s face, Shen Jingyi’s sleepiness gradually faded away.
"Fire, fire!"
"Yue’er, there is fire?" Shen Jingyi lifted the carriage’s curtain and her pupils constricted. She immediately got out and tried to deal with the panicking horses.
The horses neighed sharply, stamping on the ground. A few guards were still trying to wake up the sleeping people and had no time to take care of them.
Leng Hai, the commander of imperial guards specifically assigned with escorting the exile, immediately ordered his men. "Pull the carts and carriages away!"
They instantly executed the order, pulling the ox carts filled with the Ye family’s items and supplies for the exile journey, as well as the the carriages filled people.
Just as the raging fire from a tree branch reached the top of the carriage, it narrowly missed. The imperial guards already pulled it away on time, saving the second branch’s brothers and the third branch’s twins.
The Ye family’s people sleeping outside were still quite disoriented from being abruptly woken up. The effect of the sleeping pills made them took a while to be sober.
Ye Lingyue glanced at the guard who had put sleeping drug on their food and gradually sensed something wrong.
Things wouldn’t be so simple...
At this moment, the guard had a guilty look on his face. He was shaking. A few people still received some burn injuries because they slept too deeply.
Not long after, something caught her attention. A few masked people suddenly appeared, targeting a few of the Ye family members.
Some guards already noticed them, engaging them in a fight.
The imperial guards’ commander, Leng Hai, immediately ordered his men to counterattack, telling them to fend off the Ye family’s members and capture the assassins.
Seeing one assassin targeting her, Ye Lingyue pretended to be frightened, backing away. Anyone who saw her would think that a young girl like her was no match for the assassin.
The masked assassin thought so too... however, soon, he found out that the girl was so hard to catch. She was extremely nimble.
At one point, it was him who stumbled instead, falling into the ground and before he could get up, something heavy pressed against him.
Ye Lingyue giggled as she stomped on the assassin’s head and called out. "Uncle!"
Uncle?! He was still young, why...
The next thing he knew, pain wrecked his entire body. Ye Lingyue had jumped on him, treating him like a trampoline. She repeated a few times until she made sure that he had some broken bones.
As the man was busy groaning in pain, Ye Lingyue scanned the surroundings. Her pupils constricted when she saw a few assassins aiming for Ye Lingrui.
Her twin brother was a weak young man. Although he had some hallucinogen powder, but...
Ye Lingyue jumped to her brother’s location and yelled worriedly. "Brother!"
He couldn’t really deal with so many assassins alone. It was one versus five or more.
Soon, Ye Lingyue’s scream caught other people’s attention and they went to help Ye Lingrui. She also pretended to be angry, smacking some assassins in their vital parts.
The force of her hand seemed small, almost harmless, but they immediately froze for a few seconds after she pressed their acupoints. Ye Lingrui retreated a little, a bit disheveled.
Although the men affected by the hallucinogen powder soon recovered, the imperial guards immediately captured them. Soon, every assassin was dealt with.
Since so many people were awake, it was easier to work together to put out the fire. They all went to get water from the nearest water source, which wasn’t that far, and splashed water on the burning trees.
Besides some injured people, no one actually died.
Ye Lingyue frowned and fell into a deep thought. Hiring such unskilled assassins... who would do that?
She wondered whether the person who did it wasn’t aware that most guards escorting them were imperial guards; they had better martial arts skills compared to normal guards.
"Yue’er," Ye Lingrui called out.
Her eyes scanned him, and subconsciously heaved a sigh of relief when she didn’t see any injuries. Then, he led her back to their mother’s side.
Shen Jingyi had subdued quite some assassins.
Even Ye Lanxi took care of some despite his injured state.
"Yue’er, Rui’er!" Shen Jingyi immediately grabbed their hands, leading them to the carriage.
Fortunately, thanks to Ye Lanxi’s great effort, Ye Zhiqiu wasn’t disturbed. With the help of the imperial guards, they couldn’t even touch him or disturb his wounds’ recovery.
Ye Lanxi finally collapsed on the carriage, relieved upon seeing his family members. Some of his wounds had been reopened.
"Mother, these assassins were only numerous in number, but they didn’t possess considerable strength or skill." Ye Lanxi winced after he explained his guess.
Shen Jingyi nodded. "Their aim wasn’t to kill us."
"Why would they do that?" Ye Lanxi wondered.
They could only think that the assassins, or rather... the person behind them who had an undeniable specific purpose. For now, they still couldn’t understand it.
Ye Lanxi tilted his head. "What do you think, third brother?"
Upon hearing his elder brother’s question. He began to think deeply. Not long after, he answered in a tone that absolutely made sense.
"We don’t lack people who don’t like us in the Capital. Perhaps it’s one of them who wanted to take revenge," Ye Lingrui answered.
"Who could it be?"
