Assuming a grieving and indignant look, he glowered at her and said, "Turns out that guy is Yang Xuyan!”
Shen Luoyan's delicate body shivered a little bit, her elegant eyes shot an incomparably complex expression, but immediately she collected herself as she said in heavy voice, "Don't lie to me. Xu Ziling is dead, isn't he?”
Kou Zhong indeed wanted to lead her to have this misconception, so that in her eyes, he was the only person who knew the secret of the Duke Yang Treasure.
Pretending to struggle hard in suppressing the pain and grief in his heart, he shook his head and said, "Don't make a random guess; the roster is precisely in his hands. If Su Jie and I can go back safely, I guarantee that he will immediately give you the roster back; otherwise, after certain time limit, he will immediately run away and hand the roster over to Yang Guang. If that happens, your Wagang Army will have your spy network broken, and you will become deaf and blind.”
Shen Luoyang hung down her pretty face, but she still pursued on, "Is Xiao Ling dead?”
Finally Kou Zhong detected her unusual expression. ‘Could it be that she is in love with Xiao Ling?' he mused. But then he convinced himself that that was not the case, because she had always treated them, the two boys, viciously and mercilessly. Even if he was letting his imagination running wild, he simply could not believe this aspect.
Displaying his perfect acting skill, Kou Zhong suddenly shouted, "Don't ask! Are you or are you not going to hand her over?”
Shen Luoyan slowly lifted up her pretty face; her eyes shot a deep, dense cold ray that made others shudder. But the tone of her voice was incomparably tranquil, "No need to lie to me, Xiao Ling is dead. If I catch you, I guarantee I will find the roster in your possession.”
Kou Zhong threw his head backward and laughed sorrowfully. From his pocket he took out the roster, which was rolled up and was bound with a piece of bloodstained cloth. Holding it horizontally across his chest, he said, "Do your worst! If you could retrieve an intact roster, I will change my name.”
Shen Luoyan's eyes fell on the bloody roster; her delicate body trembled again. "Where is his body?” she whispered.
Kou Zhong couldn't help but wonder, "When he was alive I didn't see you care about him, now that he is dead, you peppered me with questions. What is this all about?”
Shen Luoyan's phoenix eyes turned cold. "This is none of your business,” she coldly said, "Just give me back my roster, I will let you and Susu leave. I guarantee nobody will run after you. As for how you are going to go through Shiji's city defense, forgive Xiao Nuzi [little/lowly woman] for not being of any help.”
Kou Zhong said, "Where is she?”
Shen Luoyan recovered her usual calm; she said nonchalantly, "Hand the roster over first and then you can have her. Humph! Don't you forget that even if the roster is destroyed by you, we can always spend a little bit of effort to recreate it.”
Kou Zhong slyly said, "Since you are not afraid of losing all accounts of previous transaction, and you are not afraid of losing the opportunity, I might as well destroy the roster first before staking everything in life and death fight against you. Xiao Ling is dead anyway, there is no point in me and Susu to keep on living!”
This was precisely the most crucial point in the plan that Xu Ziling and Kou Zhong cooked up. They wanted Shen Luoyan to believe that since Xu Ziling was dead, Kou Zhong was starting to have suicidal thought, and thus giving pressure to Shen Luoyan. It would also lead the enemy into mistakenly assessing their strength.
The only thing they did not anticipate was Shen Luoyan's reaction upon hearing the news ‘Xu Ziling was dead'.
Shen Luoyan did have the intention of mistreating Susu to force Kou Zhong to surrender, but hearing Kou Zhong's last remark, she swallowed back whatever it was she was going to say. She only sigh and said, "Ay! So be it! But there are some things I find it difficult to make decisions.”
And then with her delicate voice she called out, "Get Susu out!”
Not too long afterwards, the ‘Old Man of the Field' Mo Cheng, who had once captured Kou and Xu, two boys, on the river using brilliant scheme, came out escorting Susu and brought her to Shen Luoyan's side.
Susu's tears were already flowing freely as she cried out sorrowfully, "Is Xiao Ling really dead?”
Kou Zhong had mouth, but found it difficult to talk; he did not dare to signal her with his eyes either.
With desolate expression Shen Luoyan said, "One hand deliver the book, the other hand deliver the person. I guarantee my subordinates won't pursue and attack you. Only one word ‘No' from you, Susu's corpse will lie horizontally on the ground, and we will go all out to kill you.”
Kou Zhong pretended to surrender. He lay the book down on the ground, but stretched his feet to step on it. "Release her!” he said.
Shen Luoyan nodded slightly. Mo Cheng grabbed Susu and tossed her high in the air, so that if he wanted to catch her, he would have to step back.
Kou Zhong was really obedient; he leaped backward to catch Susu, and then like a burst of wind they went away.
Mo Cheng picked the roster. With great difficulty he opened up the bind, and take a look. His countenance changed. "Miss, not good,” he said, "That kid has the guts to swindle us.”
Shen Luoyan took the book and looked. Other than the last two pages, the rest of the book was Old Master Kong's Analects of Confucius, which gods know where they stole it from. Her pretty face immediately turned deathly white from anger. Her eyes flashing with murderous intention, she said, "I want to see where can they run away?”
Immediately her jet-black eyebrows knitted as she softly said, "Could it be that he is not dead yet?”
Speaking to this point, she felt her pretty face was burning, she did not even know what she felt in her heart. Could it be that this little demon had somehow taken a place in her heart?
Xu Ziling hugged the laughing and crying Susu tight in his bosom; he said in great delight, "I did not expect Shen Poniang would really fall into our trick.”
Kou Zhong sat down with his back against the wall. "Your stratagem was indeed formidable,” he said, "First of all, you predicted that Shen Poniang was waiting for us to come back to rescue Su Jie. You even predicted that she would be willing to return Su Jie to us, to increase the difficulty of our escape effort. However, you still missed something.”
Xu Ziling was puzzled, "What thing?” he asked.
Susu whispered, "She seemed to be very fond of you!”
Xu Ziling scoffed. "I don't care whether she is fond or not fond of me,” he said, "That kind of woman, even if she is given to me as a present, I won't accept it.”
Turning to Susu, he asked, "Did Shen Poniang treat Jiejie badly?”
Susu shook her head and said, "She lied to me by saying that she has caught Xiao Zhong, and she pressured me into telling her what had happened in the last few days, so Jiejie had to tell her.”
Kou Zhong's countenance changed. "Jiejie did not mention anything about Daiqing Lou, did you?” he asked.
Susu sat up straight. "Of course not!” she snapped, "How could Jiejie not know the severity of this matter?”
Kou Zhong scooted over and wrapped his arm around Xu Ziling's shoulders. "You can be considered very lucky! Turns out that guy who injured you was the ‘Shadow Assassin' Yang Xuyan, who even dared to assassinate our Ol' Die.”
With hatred in his voice Xu Ziling said, "Were it not for I managed to promptly transfer my inner power to neutralize his inner power entering my body, an insignificant book would not save my life. Humph! If this time we can escape alive, I want to take a good look on him.”
Kou Zhong patted his chest, "Those who dare to offend us, the Two Dragons of Yangzhou, will not have a good end. Take Shen Poniang for example, I guarantee that these coming days she won't be able to sleep peacefully.”
Xu Ziling helped Susu up and said with a wry smile, "I am afraid for the next few days I won't be able to fight. Supposing Peipei cannot help us, we have no choice but to exchange the real roster with our freedom.”
Kou Zhong accompanied him in heaving a sigh.
Suddenly they heard faint barking of dogs in the distance.
The three of them exchanged glances. They knew that if they did not slip away now, they could forget about leaving forever.