Chapter 322: Chapter 322 Glutton
Su Jin turned and entered the backyard.
Xingxing went to the small kitchen, gave some instructions, and then went to the garden.
She picked several lotus leaves and waited outside the small kitchen for a long while before the cook finally prepared the chicken as Xingxing requested.
Xingxing carried the chicken to the backyard.
The mud was already prepared; it was mixed with water into clay, wrapped the chicken with lotus leaves, and then coated with mud.
The mud-wrapped bundle was placed into the dug-out pit, covered with a bit of soil, and wood piled on top, then set on fire.
Inside Su Jin’s house, a painting was in progress.
Xie Jingchen was reading a book.
The Hidden Guard, curious about what Xingxing was doing, thought, even if it wasn’t very hot, isn’t the maid feeling hot from roasting under the sun?
Xingxing was earnestly sniffing the air.
It had been roasting for half a day, and she hadn’t caught even a hint of aroma.
Was the Beggar’s Chicken the girl mentioned really reliable?
She couldn’t afford to let two chickens go to waste.
Xingxing continued to watch the fire, adding a couple of sticks now and then.
Su Jin called the Hidden Guard over and handed him a brocade box, saying, "Take it to the Beauty Pavilion and give it to the shopkeeper."
The Hidden Guard took the brocade box and stepped out of the bamboo house.
Xingxing looked at him and said, "You’re delivering something?"
"Yes."
"Then bring me back four skewers of candied haws," Xingxing said.
"Hurry and come back; my chicken is almost done."
The Hidden Guard glanced over.
All he saw was the fire.
The chicken was nowhere to be seen.
This maid had been roasting for half an hour, hadn’t she?
Even an iron chicken would have turned to coal by now.
The Hidden Guard turned away and left.
Halfway there, he couldn’t resist opening the brocade box for a peek.
Inside was a picture of a lady, everything bare except for the vital parts discreetly covered.
The Hidden Guard, "...."
His face instantly turned red as if dripping blood.
What kind of picture was this?
Did the Eldest Young Madam deliver the wrong item?
The Hidden Guard wanted to turn back to ask but feared exposure of his sneaky glimpse.
The item was personally handed to him by the Eldest Young Madam; surely, it couldn’t be wrong.
He endured, letting the blush fade from his face, acting as if nothing had happened, and rode to the Beauty Pavilion.
The Beauty Pavilion shopkeeper blushed upon seeing the picture.
But after the embarrassment passed, he noticed the note Su Jin left in the brocade box and realized he had misunderstood.
This was just an illustration of a woman’s corset, albeit in a different style.
Su Jin had even drawn up plans to turn the unused space in the Beauty Pavilion’s backyard into a shop.
The shopkeeper had already seen Su Jin’s ability to make money, so he immediately set someone to make the items from the plans and sell them to the noble madams and young ladies.
The Hidden Guard bought four skewers of candied haws and rode back to Duke Zhen Country Mansion.
He had to pass the front of the Duke Mansion to lead the horse to the stable.
Duke Zhen Country Mansion—at the entrance.
A little girl wearing patched clothes stood by the stone lion, looking up at the grand plaque of the Duke Mansion.
She hesitated, not daring to approach.
The gate servant noticed her and reported to Manager Li.
Manager Li didn’t pay it any mind, "Give a hundred copper coins and send her away."
The servant did as told.
The little girl said, "I-I’m not a beggar."
The servant scrutinized her from head to toe, noting her shoes with two protruding toes—hardly unnoticeable.
If not a beggar, then close enough to one.
"Off you go," the servant waved her away.
"I-I’m looking for the eldest young master of the mansion," the little girl stammered.
"What?" the servant was stupefied.
"Looking for our eldest young master?" the servant thought he had heard wrong.
A little girl of several years wearing tattered clothes comes looking for their eldest young master; was she fooling with him?
These days, had little girls gotten so bold?
The Hidden Guard rode past the main entrance, and the servant recognized him as one of Xie Jingchen’s people, so he called out, "This blonde little girl is looking for the eldest young master."
The Hidden Guard, "...."
He had completely been relegated from a Hidden Guard to the eldest young master’s sidekick.
Wasn’t he supposed to be a shadowed Hidden Guard?
The Hidden Guard tightened the reins and looked at the little girl.
The little girl looked at him timidly.
The Hidden Guard dismounted and asked her, "Do you know our eldest young master?"
The little girl said, "Last time my second brother was beaten, it was two kind brothers who saved us. They said if anyone bullied us again, we should come to Duke Zhen Zhen Mansion for the eldest young master."
Two kind brothers?
Could she mean the Eldest Young Madam and Xingxing?
The Hidden Guard asked about those two "brothers" appearances—
The Hidden Guard’s face darkened.
It was unmistakably the Eldest Young Madam.
The Hidden Guard said, "Have they been bullying you siblings again?"
The little girl nodded, "They came again and hung my second brother on a tree. I couldn’t save him."
Last night her second brother had just mended her shoes, and after running all the way, they wore out again.
The Hidden Guard glanced at the Duke Mansion, debating whether to report to the Eldest Young Madam or rescue the boy himself.
He asked the girl where her brother was hung, gave her the four skewers of candied haws, and instructed the servant, "Arrange a carriage to take her back."
Finished speaking, the Hidden Guard mounted his horse and hurried to the rescue.
Near the girl’s home, on a large tree, a boy was suspended.
Not far from the tree, a table was set up with three servants cracking sunflower seeds.
"It’s been an hour already; why hasn’t anyone come to rescue him?" one servant said.
"What’s the rush?"
"Last time, didn’t someone come to save them after we left?" another servant said.
"The Flying Tiger Army’s families get sent money every year; I don’t believe no one will save him hanging from a tree," a servant said confidently.
He spat out a sunflower seed shell.
The servant picked up the whip from the table and lashed out fiercely.
"Let’s see how long you can keep your backbone!"
"Honestly tell us, who saved you last time?!" the servant pressed.
"I don’t know..."
The boy struggled to say.
Smack!
Another whip.
As the servant raised the whip again,
a pebble shot at him, knocking the whip from his hand to the ground.
The servant grimaced in pain.
The Hidden Guard rode over, and the other two servants grabbed sticks and charged.
Could they possibly be a match for a Hidden Guard?
With a kick each, the Hidden Guard rendered them incapacitated.
The Hidden Guard freed the boy.
The few servants tried to flee—no such luck.
They were strung up by the Hidden Guard with a rope.
The servant shouted, "Have you eaten a bear’s heart and leopard’s gall?!"
"We’re from Duke Chong’s Mansion!" the servant shouted.
So they’re from Duke Chong’s Mansion?
The Hidden Guard picked up a whip and handed it to the boy.
The servant, "...!!!"
The boy, drained of strength.
But still had enough to thrash the servant.
Returning every whip he received in kind.
Finally collapsing in exhaustion, fainting on the ground.
When the boy finished, the Hidden Guard looked at them, "Why trouble the siblings?"
The servant gritted his teeth, refusing to speak.
The Hidden Guard lashed out with the whip.
This lash wasn’t something the boy’s whipings could compare to.
One lash tore through the servant’s clothes as if sliced by a knife, skin and flesh exposed, sweat pouring from pain.
"If you don’t speak, I’ll keep whipping until you do."
As soon as he finished, the Hidden Guard cracked the whip.
The servant was in such pain he was about to call for his mother.
The feeling of being a fish on a chopping block wasn’t pleasant.
"Speak."
"We’ll tell."
The Hidden Guard stopped.
The servant said, "They are the Flying Tiger Army’s family from fifteen years ago. Over the years, someone has been secretly supporting the Flying Tiger Army. Our Duke wants to know if any of the Flying Tiger Army are still alive and ordered us to inquire."
"We’ve been asking for a long time, but they wouldn’t say. Afraid of being called useless by the Duke, we resorted to strong-arm tactics."
The Hidden Guard tossed the whip to the ground.
"Duke Chong is absolutely right."
"You truly are a bunch of useless fools."
The servants, "...."
Others show kindness to the Flying Tiger Army’s family, yet the one who should treat them best, Duke Chong’s Mansion, bullies them. Such behavior, if spread, would label Duke Chong as cold-hearted, a stain that couldn’t be scrubbed off his name.
The Hidden Guard hoisted the boy and took him to see a physician.
The servants struggled, "Let us down!"
"Don’t go!"
"Let us down!"
From afar, a group of children ran over, pelting them with stones.