After stepping down from his sedan chair, Hao Yongnian spoke with a hint of anticipation: "So this is the place?"
Eager to collect the remaining five taels, his personal attendant nodded again and again. "I hear the madam brought the girl up from Jiangnan. She's only twelve, and already bright-eyed and fine-toothed—a real beauty, alluring as anything. Today's her first day in business, and she's waiting for you to be the first, young master."
"Nothing's gone right for me lately. I've been meaning to find a virgin to wash away the bad luck." Hao Yongnian smiled. "And if the little lady really is as good as you say, I'll have a reward for you."
The attendant was secretly delighted. Doing one job and getting paid twice—what could be better?
Just then Chen Gang stepped forward, lowered his head, and asked, "Might you be Young Master Hao?"
Hao Yongnian gave him one careless glance and paid him no more mind, leaving everything to his attendant. After all, when had he ever spared a thought for a brothel keeper?
Chen Gang said, "Today is Miss Ruhua's first day open for business, so there'll be an extra charge."
The attendant was taken aback for a moment. Wasn't this supposed to be Chu Qiguang coming to make amends? Why was money being demanded? But the surprise passed at once—he simply assumed Chu Qiguang had botched something, and in any case he meant to act as though he knew nothing.
So the attendant pretended ignorance and blustered as he always did: "My young master's house has so much coin the scales tip past the Big Dipper and so much grain the storehouses rot. He's got the horns off a rhino's head and tusks from an elephant's mouth. Do you think he lacks silver?"
Chen Gang led the group toward the small courtyard, whose gate had already been opened by Qiao Zhi, who had slipped inside ahead of them.
…
Meanwhile, in the room where Lin Nan was staying, in the other small courtyard.
Qiao Zhi scrambled in through the window. Lin Nan, sitting cross-legged on the bed in meditation, snapped his eyes open and swept the orange cat before him with a sharp stare.
Qiao Zhi spoke first. "Boss! Boss, it's me, Ermaozi. I finally found you."
Lin Nan had long commanded most of the cat monsters in Qingyang County, so it was no surprise that one should come looking for him. He only wondered, "Ermaozi? How did you get so fat?"
Qiao Zhi did not like hearing that, but he said only, "The weather's turned cold and I'm shedding. The fur's all puffed out."
Lin Nan was puzzled again. "And why has your voice gone so rough?"
Qiao Zhi lashed his tail in annoyance, but answered, "I shouted myself hoarse calling for a mate lately."
Lin Nan nodded. He did find it a little odd, but he truly could not tell one orange cat's looks from another—to him they all looked the same.
"What brings you here?" he asked.
Qiao Zhi said anxiously, "Someone's going door to door nearby, searching for people. I was afraid it was the authorities, so I came to report to you, Boss."
Lin Nan's face turned grave at once. Just as he began casting about for a plan, he heard people approaching the door.
"This way, young master. Miss Ruhua is waiting in the room."
As the door opened, Qiao Zhi—at some point—had hidden himself in the blankets and rolled off to one side. "Boss, look out! It's them!"
Lin Nan's expression hardened, and a vicious light flared in his eyes before he forced it down. He still clung to a faint hope that he might bluff his way through.
Hao Yongnian opened the door and saw the man on the bed and the blanket rolling aside. His brows knit at once. "You stinking wild bastard! Fancy passing off a used-up whore on me and calling her a virgin!"
He pointed first at Chen Gang. "Seize this brothel keeper." Then he strode toward Lin Nan on the bed, hand reaching out. "I'll fuck your mother!"
Just as Lin Nan, still a little confused, was holding down the killing intent in his heart, Chu Qiguang shouted from outside the door: "Now!"
A chorus of shouts rose outside the courtyard—Da Tou the shar-pei and the dog monsters under him, yelling.
"Surround the courtyard!"
"Don't let a single monster get away!"
Lin Nan, who had been a powder keg all along, finally blew apart under the repeated provocation.
The vicious light in his eyes burst out fully. His tendons and bones cracked, his qi and blood surged, and with a boom he drove his fist at Hao Yongnian, who stood dazed by the noise from the courtyard.
Hao Yongnian was, after all, a martial artist who had reached the third stage under famous teachers since childhood. He reacted the moment Lin Nan punched and blocked the blow with both arms crossed.
But the instant he blocked, his face changed, and he thought: Not good.
Lin Nan was a monster who had taken human form and cultivated the martial arts to the fourth realm, and his physical strength surpassed even martial artists of the same realm. Under that single punch, Hao Yongnian felt as though a giant elephant had rammed him—his whole body seemed to come apart, his qi and blood thrown into chaos. One blow had left him with internal injuries.
His legs could not hold him. Thud, thud, thud—he staggered back three steps, and had barely steadied himself when he saw Lin Nan come at him again, swift as the wind chasing the moon, with another punch.
Their martial realms were a stage apart. Lin Nan simply overwhelmed Hao Yongnian with raw strength, with no fancy techniques at all—just one punch after another, until Hao Yongnian had no way to fight back.
"Rragh!" Hao Yongnian roared, and heedless of his internal injuries, forced out every ounce of his strength.
And Hao Yongnian was not alone. Seeing how formidable the enemy was, his guards charged in at the same moment.
The two men who had been about to seize Chen Gang abandoned him, and everyone piled onto Lin Nan in a clumsy rush.
In that tiny room, the most savage fighting erupted in an instant. Lin Nan, holding nothing back, was like a ferocious beast of the mountains: one punch burst a guard's face into a spray of blood; the next moment a claw wrenched another guard's arm apart, and he dropped to the floor screaming.
Both sides were out for blood now, fighting for their lives.
But in a room barely more than a dozen square meters, though Lin Nan's martial skill was the highest present, he had no space to dodge and weave. Being surrounded cramped his fighting instead.
Hemmed in by Hao Yongnian, the attendant, and the thugs, he could not avoid taking wounds: a heavy blow to his left knee, and a dagger stabbed into his lower back by the attendant.
While the two sides fought for their lives inside, Chu Qiguang, Qiao Zhi, and Chen Gang had quietly taken their places outside the door.
"It worked," Qiao Zhi said, looking at Chu Qiguang—and found his face twisted into something savage, a murderous air blazing in his eyes. He thought to himself: Shit, he's having another episode.
Chu Qiguang smiled a sinister smile. "Nobody's dead yet. What kind of success is that?"
Chen Gang felt nervous, and beneath the nerves a faint thrill: 'Hao Yongnian… the eldest young master of the Hao family, a man who'd never have spared me a glance, walked right into our trap just like that?'
In that moment a forbidden sort of pleasure welled up in Chen Gang, and he seemed to remember his old wish to make his way in the jianghu.
The killing in the small room had begun quickly and ended quickly. Soon all was silent, and only a fox, drenched in blood, came limping out.
The fox was none other than Lin Nan. He had fought to the very last, and his wounds were so grave that he had been forced back into his original form.
He glared hatefully at Chu Qiguang, Qiao Zhi, and Chen Gang before him. By now Lin Nan understood: this was plainly a scheme to borrow another's blade to do the killing. But he was badly hurt himself—one hind leg broken, and several puncture wounds through his back.
Above all, in fox form he could not use the human martial arts he had trained for so many years, and his fighting strength had fallen sharply.
And the backgrounds of Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi were unknown, and then there had been all that inexplicable shouting outside…
As Lin Nan weighed his situation, Chu Qiguang stepped back a few paces, clearing the way before him, and gestured for him to go ahead.
Chapter 51