Chapter 653: Chapter 653: Knocked Out with a Brick
A single shout drew all the nearby villagers, who all rushed towards Zhan Er.
Zhan Er’s two servants were terrified and hurriedly said to him: "Young master, run! The rules in this village are strict. I heard that if outsiders come during the harvest, getting caught means getting severely beaten."
While the two servants spoke, they hurried forward to block the people chasing them.
Yet Zhan Er was a troublemaker. Seeing so many villagers chasing him, he was not only unafraid but also excited. He even looked up to the sky and howled, "Ah, such joyous pursuit, truly delightful!"
"Delightful, my foot, everyone catch that madman! He’s seriously ill and might hurt someone in the village. When madmen attack, they can be lethal," said a village woman. Then, she hurriedly told some children watching the commotion, "Quick, go to the village entrance and call for Uncle Dayuan. There’s a madman in the village."
"Okay, we’ll go now." Several teenagers from the village quickly ran out to summon He Dayuan.
Zhan Er’s servants were also very frustrated. One couldn’t hold back any longer, turned towards Zhan Er, and said, "Young master, run!"
If you don’t run, they’ll break your legs.
True to the word, a village woman, emboldened, picked up a large rock and smashed it onto Zhan Er’s foot, causing him immense pain and forcing him to start running.
However, he did not run back the way he came but darted around, ending up at the tail end of the village. Seeing a few green brick and black tile residences there, he was thrilled and exclaimed, "Such a quaint village, yet it houses such poetic dwelling places, truly elegant!"
"Where did that madman go? Did he run towards the end of the village?" The villagers split into two groups: one chasing Zhan Er, the other held back by the two servants.
The servants of the noble son, skilled in martial arts, although outnumbered, managed to take down some villagers with just a few moves and escaped to look for Zhan Er.
Hearing the villagers’ voices, Zhan Er looked around and hurriedly ran into a narrow alley between several residences. As the sounds grew closer and knocks reverberated, he panicked, climbed up the courtyard wall of a residence without much thought, and with a few kicks, agilely climbed over.
Zhan Er, skilled in horseback riding and sword dancing with some martial arts background, easily scaled the courtyard wall.
...
Bang, bang, bang!
He Sanlai, followed by villagers, knocked on several homes to inform them that a madman had entered the village, advising them to be cautious.
Sister Li, having keen hearing, heard the knocking and said to Jinxiu, "Sister Xiu, someone is knocking. I’ll go check it out; seems like something has happened."
At that moment, Jinxiu was in the kitchen heating charcoal, using tongs to place the charcoal into a brazier, planning to move it back to the room to keep the place warm for embroidery. Hearing this, she responded, "Go on, ask what happened."
"Eh, I’ll be back soon." With that, Sister Li hurried off to the front yard to open the door.
Not long after Sister Li had left, Jinxiu heard a loud crash, something had fallen. She frowned, walked out of the kitchen, and saw a person lying at the base of the wall in the kitchen courtyard.
The person, dressed in an extravagant fur cloak, had fallen from the wall but quickly got up, looked around, and upon seeing her, froze.
Zhan Er swore to the heavens, he had seen a fairy!
He had lived for twenty-three years and had never seen such a beautiful girl... Dressed in a lake blue long dress with a cotton-padded jacket over it, albeit looking a bit bulky, it did not detract from her elegance; her eyebrows were long and curved like crescent moons, her eyes bright with a misty moistness, as if tearfully coquettishly looking at him, igniting a burning desire in him.
Only her face was cold, devoid of any smiles. He wished she would smile at him.
"Miss, my name is Zhan Yuan, styled Hengzhi, passing by this place by chance and fortunate enough to meet you, may I ask miss..." Before he could even finish asking for her name, Jinxiu picked up a stick of firewood from beside the kitchen door and struck Zhan Er on the head.
Ding ding ding!
For the past few years, she had also been practicing martial arts daily under Xiao Yu’s guidance, and although she wasn’t as skilled as Xiao Yu and Hui Niang, she could still knock a rogue unconscious.
But Zhan Er had some martial arts skills too. After being hit on the head a few times, he didn’t pass out; instead, he dodged while shouting, "Miss, don’t hit me, I mean no harm, I just wanted to..."
Bang!
Gu Jinxiu grabbed an unused green brick from when their house was built and smacked it on Zhan Er’s head, finally knocking him unconscious.
Gu Jinxiu threw away the brick and turned around, kicked Zhan Er in the face, and called out: "Scoundrel!"
She was trembling with anger, never expecting a thief to break into her home, furiously she grabbed some firewood and fiercely beat Zhan Er with it, planning to tell her parents and Xiao Yu when they returned, to raise the walls of their home.
When Sister Li returned, she saw Gu Jinxiu beating an unconscious man with firewood.
"Sister Xiu, are you alright?" Sister Li was quite frightened, not expecting that a thief would enter the house just when she was out opening the door.
Gu Jinxiu stopped, saying, "I’m fine, this man climbed over the wall into our house. I knocked him out."
She then asked, "Who is knocking at the door? What happened outside?"
Sister Li replied, "It’s He Sanlai with the villagers knocking. They said a madman entered the village, and they are trying to catch him. It must be this one."
A wealthy madman in a large cloak, the villagers had been talking about him recently.
"I will let He Sanlai and the others come in to drag this madman away," Sister Li said.
Gu Jinxiu shook her head, "No, that would bring trouble to our home. Drag him out the back door, and then from the alley to the path leading to Dafeng Mountain. We can’t let the villagers know he was here."
Even if a strange man broke into the house and she knocked him unconscious, with the gossiping nature of village women, they could still spin unsavory tales.
She didn’t want to cause trouble for the family.
Sister Li, snapping back to reality, hurriedly said, "I thought too lightly; I’ll drag him out the back door."
When Sister Li was first sent by Jinli to be a maid for Sister Xiu, she was somewhat reluctant because she admired Jinli, not the gentle and frail Gu Jinxiu.
But after three years of getting to know her, she realized Gu Jinxiu wasn’t so bad; she was a person of internal strength and knew when to be decisive.
"First check if anyone is around? If no one’s there, then drag him away; don’t let anyone see," instructed Gu Jinxiu.
Sister Li nodded, "Yes, I understand."
Sister Li said this while grabbing Zhan Er’s hand, dragging him to the back door, opened it, checked for anyone in the alley, and finding no one, she dragged Zhan Er towards the back of the Qin Mansion, then to the road leading to Dafeng Mountain, finally dumping him on the pathway.
Jinli heard about a madman entering the village and worried about Gu Jinxiu, so he sent Xiao Ji to check on the house.
Gu Jinxiu didn’t want Jinli to worry, intending to let her finish collecting Mingya Grass first and tell her about the incident tonight, she said, "No, it’s just me and Sister Li at home, no one came in."
Sister Chahua is old, and at the beginning of the year after some matchmaking, she was affianced to Tong Dayu’s brother, so now she spends her mornings embroidering her dowry and only comes to help at the house in the afternoon.