The two boys suddenly understood; righteous indignation immediately filled their breasts!
Kou Zhong stood up suddenly, he cursed, "I'll go staking my life against that b1tch.”
Horrified, Susu pulled him back and cried out in grief, "It has nothing to do with Miss!”
With eyes shooting flames Xu Ziling said, "Then who did it?”
Susu forced Kou Zhong back into his chair first before speaking with a sob, "That time Miss has not returned yet, Laoye was entertaining his subordinates in the mansion, Duke Mi also came. That night I came out to serve, someone asked for me from Laoye. Laoye agreed …”
Speaking to this point, her sob turned into silent tears.
The two boys were seething in anger, but when they asked that man's name and surname, Susu was unwilling to tell them.
Quite a while later, the three people's emotion cooled down a little bit.
"Must be Li Mi, that son of a b1tch,” Kou Zhong angrily said, "Let us go and stake our lives against him.”
Susu's countenance changed, "It wasn't him!” she said.
Xu Ziling probed her, "If you don't tell us, we'll just assume it was him. Old fellow Zhai is not a good man either.”
Susu anxiously said, "Laoye had no choice either; since the great victory over Xingyang, everybody said the greatest meritorious service belonged to Duke Mi, the fame of Duke of Pushan soared even higher. Ay, I am not supposed to tell you.”
Gnashing his teeth in anger Kou Zhong said, "If we had known, Susu Jie shouldn't come back here.”
Susu wiped the tears using the corner of her sleeve, she forced a faint pained smile as she said in low voice, "Now you know why Jiejie didn't want to see Li Dage again. Besides, he regarded me as his little sister. After that matter happened, Jiejie did not wish to live anymore, but I always felt that you are always lucky and under Heaven's care, so I bore humiliation, hoping that there would come a day when I see you again. And now my wish is fulfilled.”
Xu Ziling seriously said, "Susu Jie must never have any thought of suicide. We are leaving tonight. As long as we can find some kind of hook and rope, we can bring Jiejie out. Afterwards we sister and brothers will not part anymore.”
Susu simply shook her head.
Kou Zhong sighed and said, "Why is Jiejie still reluctant to leave? Is it … hey …”
"Don't make random guess,” Susu firmly said, "I really wish to tear that traitor into ten thousand pieces, but I am thinking of Miss' kindness. Ay, how about this? After Laoye is back, and everything is made clear, Jiejie will entirely listen to your thought.”
Xu Ziling did not have any mood to stay; he resolutely said, "As soon as Zhai Rang hear it, he will immediately know whether this matter is true or bogus, there is no point in us staying here. If Jiejie is determined to follow us, tomorrow we will slip out of the mansion to procure the tools to escape. We'll leave in the dark.”
"The most critical thing is that we must avoid Shen woman's eyes and ears,” Kou Zhong added.
Under the two boys' expectant eyes, finally Susu nodded her head.
Zhai family's maids, servants, odd-job workers, guards, etc. numbered as much as around three hundred. Zhai Rang only had one daughter. His first wife died about two years ago. In Zhai Rang's absence, Zhai Jiao was in charge.
Zhai Rang had three concubines, but none of them dared to provoke Zhai Jiao, this female overlord; thereupon Zhai Jiao, one person, ended up monopolizing the affairs within the Mansion.
In Zhai Mansion, because Susu was Zhai Jiao's personal maid, although she did not like to stick her head in the mansion's affairs, but most people were more or less looking at her face and thus treated Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling well.
As a matter of fact, by this time the two boys were even taller, robust and magnificent compared to those mansion guards. Their eyes lively and showed their quick-witted, no servants in the mansion dared to provoke them.
But because Zhai Jiao was deliberately tormenting them, the two boys' job was heavy work of cleaning and other low-grade work in the kitchen. Naturally nobody dared to change this arrangement.
Since before dawn the two boys had been called to work and continued on until the kitchen finished preparing and serving breakfast. After being busy for two sichen [i.e. 4 hours] the two boys finally found the opportunity to slip out of the kitchen.
Kou Zhong laughed and said, "While washing the dishes, I did my best to practice. I never knew it could be so relaxing.”
Xu Ziling was also very pleased of himself; he said, "These past few days whenever I circulated the true qi within my body, more and more I was able to hear random things. Try it, send your true qi to the acupoint on your eardrums, we can even hear very clearly people far away gossiping about us in low voices.”
Kou Zhong was greatly delighted, "I will definitely try as soon as we go back, right now shopping is more important, this Da Longwan Fu [big dragon stupid mansion] is lifeless, it's not suitable for us to stay for a long time.”
Xu Ziling wrapped his arm around Kou Zhong's shoulder as they strode toward the front courtyard. He sighed and said, "When I think about our Big Miss, everything came to a halt, I just want to leave quickly.”
The two boys were wearing servant attire in which they worked, not only their clothes were stained with grease and patches of splashing water, their heads, hairs, hands and faces were not spared either. In fact, they did not look any better than when they were still in Yangzhou.
Kou Zhong proudly said, "That so-called ‘uncle manager' or ‘big kitchen manager' or what have you, I saw his technique in cooking dishes and seasoning; coming and going, he only uses several tricks, so I knew that the dishes he is preparing will all taste the same. If we brothers are in charge of his mother's cooking, I guarantee that those Madame and Miss' saliva will run over.”
By the time he finished talking, they have not crossed the wall surrounding the mansion yet, suddenly a cold snort coming from the front. At this point they were still walking along the corridor by the mansion, heading toward the large square in front of the mansion. Three mansion guards appeared from nowhere and blocked their way. The leader was one named Zhang Li, Susu has introduced them to him, hence they recognized him. This time he was confronting them arrogantly.
The two boys halted their steps and asked in surprise, "What's the matter?”
Zhang Li stood with his hands akimbo; casting a sidelong glance toward the two boys, he said, "Didn't anybody tell you? Inner mansion's servants are not allowed to go to the front mansion. Not abiding by the rules so soon, are we?”
Kou Zhong tried his luck; he laughed and said, "We are not going to the front mansion at all, we are going to the street.”
The other mansion guard said, "Who sent you to go outside?”
Kou Zhong's finger rubbed his own nose; he said, "Me.”
Zhang Li snapped, "Go back quickly. Without her order, you are not allowed to leave the mansion's door even for half a step.”
Xu Ziling laughed aloud and said, "This is the greatest joke. We are not prisoners, at most we only skip work. We insist on leaving.”
Zhang Li and the others, three men, immediately appeared angry. One of them thundered, "How dare you? Are you tired of living?”
Kou Zhong giggled and said, "This brother of mine is bad-tempered, three Dashu [great uncles] Daren [title of respect toward superiors] are Daliang [magnanimous], please forgive us this time.”
Pulling Xu Ziling along he turned around and left. He spoke in low voice, "Hero will not suffer loss frontally. If the entire Zhai mansion guards surround us, we, the two newly emerged martial art masters, will immediately fall from glory.”
And then he added, "Just now I tried the skill you told me about, focusing my energy on the ears, instantly I was able to hear soft even breathing, as if it was not there, from inside the main hall. This person is a lot more formidable than Zhang Li and those abysmal characters. Evidently he is the real martial art master in the mansion.”
Xu Ziling nodded and said, "Ol' Zhai is afraid his beloved daughter will be abducted again, naturally he dispatched martial art experts to protect her. Are we going back to our room to sleep now?”
With an air of complacency Kou Zhong said, "If the front door is impassable, we'll take the back door, and we'll leave immediately. People like Zhang Li and those lowly figures, it would be strange indeed if they don't sow discord by telling that female overlord. Therefore, after we buy our stuffs, we must hide it well inside the mansion, so that that evil woman will not snatch it to become her own ‘mother monkey climbing the tree' training tool. Ha!”
The two boys walked over the gravel path connecting the front and rear courtyards. A pack of five, six good-looking maids were walking directly toward them. Seeing the two boys, their eyes lit up. The bold ones even raised their eyebrows and made eyes with them, with a hint of smile at the corner of their mouth.
Although these maids were only slightly good-looking, they have given a big boost to the two boys' confidence of their own sex appeal, making the two boys felt like they were walking on air.
Kou Zhong sighed and said, "Too bad we are going to slip away tonight. Otherwise we may not need to go to the pleasure house to shed this ‘litter-of-the-nest, green-head' status.”
Xu Ziling admonished him, "Those are daughters of decent families, if we spoil them, we may not be able to feed them far and wide, and then we will be bored to death.”
Kou Zhong was shaken. "I have not thought about that aspect,” he said, "Looks like going to the pleasure house is more direct and efficient. Ay, but after this there will be Susu Jie watching on the side. On a lot of things we must be a bit more careful.”
In the meantime they have reached the big flower garden at the back of the mansion. Water was flowing in the little creek, the landscape was in good taste. Two good-looking maids were pruning the flowers and plants. Seeing the two boys coming, they whispered to each other and their pretty eyes stole a glance at them, a glance heavy with desire. However, the two boys could only avert their eyes as they walked straight pass them.
When the back door was in sight, they saw a middle age man wearing grey clothes was sitting quietly on a stone bench in the little pavilion on their left. The man was smoking pipe leisurely, swallowing clouds and blowing out fog, seemingly oblivious of these two boys.
The two boys did not give him any thought either; but as they were about to push the door and go out, the man in grey suddenly called out, "Two Xiao Xiongdi, please come here and speak a few words with me.”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling exchanged a glance; they knew something was not right, yet they did not have any idea how to deal with it, hence they could only brace themselves and walk over to the pavilion.