At this moment, Yue Jin and Lu Fei realized that they weren't alone. However, neither of them felt embarrassed at all, and they still wore expressions that showed deep affection for each other while remaining indifferent to others.
"In that case, come with us."
Then, Yue Jin took Lu Fei's hand and prepared to leave.
“There’s one more person with us…” Feng Fei murmured, wondering if Jin Ming had also fallen into their hands.
Upon hearing this, Yue Jin merely raised an eyebrow, while Lu Fei, standing to the side, twitched his face.
"Could it be a young man in a brocade robe? Hmm, quite handsome, isn't he?"
"That's right..."
Chapter Seventeen: Song Jianchen
"If that person... has a bad relationship with the three of you, then let him go." Yue Jin said this and then went into the cave with Lu Fei and left.
Feng Fei hurriedly took two steps forward, but then stopped.
At this moment, Yuan Jue stepped forward, took Feng Fei's hand, and said to Manager Zhang, who had stayed behind, "Please, Manager Zhang, lead us out."
Manager Zhang nodded slightly and turned to leave, seemingly no longer feeling the fear he had felt towards "Mr. Yue".
The four walked quietly down the long corridor, still seemingly uneasy. Feng Fei finally spoke up, asking, "I wonder about our friend..."
Steward Zhang smiled slightly but did not offer any reply.
It was precisely this reaction from Steward Zhang that reassured Feng Fei. If Jin Ming had encountered something bad, Steward Zhang wouldn't have reacted this way. Thinking back to Yue Jin and Lu Fei's previous reactions, Feng Fei felt even more at ease.
Jin Ming has always been unreliable; he's probably enjoying himself somewhere right now.
However, this time Feng Fei was clearly wrong.
After Jin Ming collapsed under the vines from the poison, he was taken away by someone.
That person was none other than Yue Jin's advisor, Song Jianchen.
Come on, this Song Jianchen is quite an eccentric character. Because his family was poor when he was young, as the eldest son in his maternal family, he was castrated by his parents and sent to the palace of the Vermilion Bird Kingdom, becoming a lowly eunuch.
However, Song Jianchen was extremely clever and adept at scheming, and within a year he was working under the stewardess. But even with his intelligence, he was too young and inexperienced, so when he was framed, he was at a loss and helpless. This framing almost cost Song Jianchen his life; if it weren't for the stewardess who knew his background, she certainly wouldn't have helped him escape with his life.
Although Song Jianchen survived, he wouldn't make a living from it. He was a lowly eunuch, barely grown, and many skilled craftsmen were unwilling to take him in. Just when he was about to die of winter, he was rescued by Yue Jin's mother, who happened to be passing by.
From then on, Song Jianchen followed Yue Jin closely. He taught Yue Jin intrigue and how to scheme, sometimes using unorthodox methods, but they were also useful.
Come on, the Yue family is very different from other aristocratic families in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom.
In the Vermilion Bird Kingdom, women were traditionally in charge of households, but the Yue family had always been male-dominated. Even more strangely, their family had never had daughters, but all their sons had feminine features. Therefore, other female-dominated families allowed the Yue family to continue existing.
Song Jianchen's experiences in the palace may have instilled in him a madness and morbidity. When he's normal, he's alright, but when his illness flares up, he wants to torture people. However, over the years, he has never killed anyone. At least, they were all alive and well when he let them go.
At this moment, Jin Ming fell into Song Jianchen's hands.
Jin Ming was still unconscious. He had been poisoned in the flowerbed, and even the antidote was ineffective.
Jin Ming lay unsuspectingly in a pitch-black room, with only faint light filtering through the paper windows. Beneath him was a wooden plank bed, about two meters long and one meter wide, but without any blankets.
Jin Ming's hands and feet were tied to the wooden bed.
Suddenly, a man dressed entirely in a black robe emerged from a dark corner. He had high cheekbones, no white beard, and deeply sunken cheeks and eye sockets. His features were extremely striking; had he not been so thin, he would have been a handsome man.
Indeed, this person is Song Jianchen.
Song Jianchen was carrying a wooden bucket in his right hand, and the sound of water emanating from it could be heard as he moved. In his left hand, he was dragging a gray cotton bag, which was bulging and seemed to contain something.
Slowly walking to the foot of the bed, Song Jianchen suddenly placed the bucket on the ground with a dull thud. Some water dripped from the bucket, making a hissing sound as it hit the ground. This water was extremely corrosive.
Standing at Jin Ming's feet, Song Jianchen grinned maliciously as he slowly unfolded the gray cotton bundle in his left hand, revealing three daggers gleaming coldly inside.
With a few deft flicks of his right hand, Song Jianchen pulled out a dagger, and Jin Ming's trousers were scattered around him, revealing his pale thighs and his genitals, which he had just met with a stranger.
Seemingly because he was no longer covered by his pants, Jin Ming, who was in a coma, shivered involuntarily. He murmured a few words but did not wake up.
Song Jianchen inserted the dagger in his hand into the cotton bag and scooped out the middle dagger. This dagger was much smaller than the previous one, but the gleaming cold light made it clear that this dagger was much sharper than the previous one.
Song Jianchen held the dagger up to Jin Ming's genitals and carefully brandished it, then grinned maliciously and said, "This divine weapon has never seen blood before. You're really lucky today!"
Then, Song Jianchen slowly walked towards Jin Ming's waist.
After standing still, Song Jianchen gestured at Jin Ming for a while. The light coming through the window paper shone on Song Jianchen's face, but instead of making him look brighter, it made him look even more terrifying and ferocious.
Just as Song Jianchen had chosen the best spot to make the incision, Jin Ming suddenly woke up!
Jin Ming was originally a person of extraordinary background. If he didn't have something to protect his life, he wouldn't be allowed to run around like this.
Jin Ming wore a jade-colored pendant around his neck, given to him by his mother before her death. It had never been of any use to him before, and Jin Ming had treated it as just an ordinary piece of jade, but this time it helped him detoxify.
The origin of this jade is quite extraordinary. It has a calming and focused effect on the mind, and its effects are completely imperceptible. Those unaware of its value would never mistake it for some kind of rare treasure. Furthermore, since it was given to Jin Ming by his deceased mother, it possesses even greater significance.
Jinming's mother had locked a part of her soul and spirit inside this jade, usually remaining dormant within it. However, at a fixed time each day, she would communicate with Jinming's body; if there was no normal reaction, something terrible would happen.
This time, it was the soul from the two spirits that entered Jin Ming's consciousness, which helped Jin Ming neutralize the poison and allowed him to wake up.
Upon waking, Jin Ming felt a chill run down his lower body. At the same time, he saw a person holding a dagger grinning menacingly at his lower body. He was immediately terrified and shouted, "Who are you? What do you want!"
Song Jianchen seemed not to have expected Jin Ming to wake up. He frowned when he heard Jin Ming shouting, but a strange sense of excitement surged into his brain.
"Shut up, what are you yelling about?"
Although Song Jianchen wasn't worried about anyone disrupting his plans, the noise still made him quite uncomfortable.
Jin Ming tried to break free of the ropes binding him, but found he couldn't. He tried to circulate his spiritual energy, but felt extremely uncomfortable and stopped.
But this isn't a solution! Is he going to have his manhood cut off?
Jin Ming's eyes rolled around frantically as he desperately tried to think of a way to escape.
How could Song Jianchen not know what Jin Ming was thinking at this moment? Seeing Jin Ming trying so hard to escape made him even more excited, and he couldn't help but move closer and closer to Jin Ming with his dagger.
Just then, footsteps could be heard outside the house.
Immediately, Jin Ming shouted at the top of his lungs, "Help! Someone's going to kill us! Someone's going to die!" Then, realizing that many people would disregard other people's lives, he quickly changed his tune: "Fire! It's burning the next house! Come and put out the fire!"
Song Jianchen let Jin Ming call out to him. Everyone in the city lord's mansion knew that this room was his private property, so no matter what noise came from here, no one would come. But this time, however, Song Jianchen was surprised again.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open from the outside. The person who came in first was stunned when he saw Jin Ming, who was naked from the waist down. Then his face turned cold and dark. He turned around, blindfolded the person behind him, and said, "Mingfeng, put Jin Ming down."
It turned out that the visitors were Feng Fei and his two companions.
Feng Fei and the other two followed Steward Zhang to the front courtyard. As they passed this courtyard, they suddenly heard cries for help. They initially didn't want to pay attention, but Ming Feng said that the voice sounded very much like Jin Ming's, so they rushed over.
But the steward Zhang who had led the way for them had disappeared.
As soon as Yuan Jue kicked the door open, he saw an unbearable scene and immediately covered Feng Fei's eyes to prevent her from seeing it.
Mingfeng responded and waved her right hand, sending a whirlwind blade carrying flames slashing towards Song Jianchen.
Seeing that things were going badly, Song Jianchen rolled on the spot, but accidentally kicked over the wooden bucket filled with water at the foot of the bed.
Immediately, Song Jianchen let out a scream.
Feng Fei was startled and was about to leave Yuan Jue's cover when she realized that the hand blocking her eyes was now covering them even more tightly. At the same time, Yuan Jue pulled her back a step.
"What's wrong?"
Yuan Jue did not answer, because he was also stunned by the scene before him.
After Song Jianchen kicked over the bucket of water, and because he was on the ground, the water immediately soaked into his body. The next moment, the parts that came into contact with the water began to fester and ooze yellow fluid, and slowly, white bones became visible inside.
In an instant, Song Jianchen's voice ceased. It wasn't that he wanted to stop, but rather that he could no longer make a sound. He had turned into a pool of yellowish water, leaving only his clothes and scattered cotton bundles on the ground.
After a long while, Mingfeng finally came to her senses, skipping over the terrible water on the ground to reach Jinming and untie him.
As soon as she was untied, Jin Ming saw Feng Fei behind Yuan Jue. Although her eyes were covered, the thought of her lower body being completely exposed to the air made her scream, "Ah—!"
The strange noise echoed throughout the city lord's mansion, startling the people of Mochou City who lived nearby.
Chapter 18: The Painted-Faced Monster Appears Again
"I...I...I can't live anymore...My innocence, my chastity..."
"..."
"You all don't care about me! You all despise me because I'm unclean!"
"..."
"Kill me! I can't bear to do it to myself!" Jin Ming grabbed Yuan Jue, who was sitting opposite him, and made a pitiful request.
Yuan Jue coldly shook off his hand, glanced at him sideways, and stood up to walk out.
Jin Ming suddenly lunged at Feng Fei, startling her greatly: "Little Fei Fei, Fei Fei Fei—kill me! I can't live anymore!"
Feng Fei awkwardly turned his head away, then suddenly seemed to remember something important, and exclaimed with sudden realization, "Ah! I remember now, Da Bao is waiting for me!"
He then fled the room as if he were escaping.
Jin Ming turned to Ming Feng pitifully, while Ming Feng's face twitched slightly before she left the room without any expression.
"Ah—you are all heartless people—"
Jin Ming's accusations echoed throughout the entire inn, causing the people eating on the first floor to feel the whole inn shake. However, everyone was used to it; ever since this person returned to the inn two days ago, he had been putting on this kind of show from time to time.
And in the past two days, a major event has occurred, which is the reason why Mochou City suddenly has so many more people: meteors are falling from the sky.