Chapter 18

Zi Li was tired and battered as he tumbled down his horse and into the ground. His whole body was covered with dirt and dried leaves, his knees and elbows are both grazed and bleeding, one of his shoes had gone missing without him noticing, half of his fake beard was dangling at the corner of his mouth, and the sweat on his face was making the glue on his fake human face mask stickier which was very painful. However, being confronted with four assassins getting closer and closer to him with their sharp gleaming swords, all of those doesn’t pay importance to him anymore.

“Y-you guys better not come near, I-I will use my secret weapon.” Zi Li threateningly said while stumbling backwards.

“Sure, we will open our eyes wide and see whatever you will throw at us!” The assassin snarled while staring at him with gnashing teeth. He didn’t expect that a lone wuss could singlehandedly take down seven of them expert assassins! The four of them raised their swords and ready themselves to strike down Zi Li.

Zi Li swallowed his saliva and pleads as his last resort: “You guys and I don’t have to be enemies. Why are you all intent on killing me? I don’t have a lot of money in me. How about this, I’ll give you all money I have so will you guys let me go?”

The assassin sneered coldly: “Money? We all are going to get paid after killing you!”

“Eh?!” Zi Li breaks out in extreme cold sweat. Wuu…they talk about it as if it’s just a matter of fact! It’s over! Could it be I will finally meet my end here?!

“Wait, wait, wait! B-before you kill me, please tell me who sent you to come and kill me?”

“You want to know?” The assassin laughed maliciously, “——then ask the king of hell after you get there!” As he said that, the assassins swung their swords towards Zi Li.

Unable to avoid the sharp blades, Zi Li could only close his eyes in fear and wait for his demise. He thought that he will hear the sound of his flesh pierced and feel an excruciating pain, but after waiting for a while, there’s no sword that struck him. Zi Li opened his eyes wide in bewilderment and saw an assassin groaned loudly before slumping down the ground, his heart was strucked with an arrow from behind.

Zi Li had already went through a lot of astonishing near-death experience in the hands of these assassins that after getting shocked, he recovered his senses fast. The rest of the asassins immediately turned around and surveyed their surrounding in vigilance.

“Whose there? Such a cowardly act against others, you better show yourself this instant!”

Once those words had been said, there were suddenly rustling sounds on the bushes on both directions and unknown projectiles shot out.

“Hold on, again?” The assassins cursed loudly, they really don’t know how to hack or block these things.

“Don’t touch it, dodge.” One of the assassins bellowed in a rush. The three of them swiftly got out of the way, and when they thought that they’re going to be fine, an unidentified ball unexpectedly rolled into the ground and suddenly exploded, emitting a thick shroud of white smoke.

“Cough, cough, cough, cough——Fuck, it’s just a diversion!”

“This is bad, quickly look for that boy and don’t let him get away.”

However, they were surrounded with thick smoke in all directions, they could only fumble about and looked blindly for Zi Li whose trace already disappeared long ago.

“Huhuhu, I’m exhausted! But I, I managed to keep my life!” Zi Li hopped off his horse and flopped down to the grass. He then turned towards the other who ran after him and said: “You guys, thanks a lot! Oh right, right, how did you guys get here?”

These two people are no other than the two boys who Zi Li ran into and asked him to help them meet the emperor. So how did they appear here? Well it will be a long explanation!

On that day, after they realize that old uncle was Zi Li, they quickly gave chase. It took them a while to travel on the next small town but they couldn’t find any trace. After running around in circles, they caught sight of Zi Li urgently going out of the city walls by horse. Before they could even have the time to catch up, troops came and handed down an imperial edict to close off the city gates. All people who went in and out have been heavily questioned, tons of guards roamed around the city searching. The people of the city was in state of alarm for two days before the ban was lifted. There was a rumor that the emperor ordered a man-hunt for a notorious criminal, however, they knew that it wasn’t that simple. However, they didn’t want to contest the emperor’s objectives so they just let the matters pass without a fuss. Nevertheless, the boys tried to go past the closed gates but failed, they could only go back to the starting point. That time, the two boys still didn’t know what to do, and while they were coming up for a plan, their enemies found out about their location. Bound to get assassinated, the two of them were left with no choice but to flee the capital and look for Zi Li elsewhere while getting chased by assassins. And so, the two of them relentlessly traveled, sleep, and eat outside to search for Zi Li’s whereabouts for days, until finally, they’ve heard of Zi Li lodging in an inn on a small town for a night. When they got this piece of information, they knew that the one they are looking for is not far ahead so the elder of the two immediately urges on with their travel. Who would have thought that when they found Zi Li, he was being pursued by more than ten assassins! Hence, the brothers decided to take a shortcut to get ahead and set up an ambush in the woods.

After hearing their explanation, Zi Li felt deeply moved and ashamed at the same time. He didn’t expect that the kids he had deceived would end up saving his life! Anyhow, he owes the boys a favor. Knowing that they looked for him to be granted an audience with the emperor, Zi Li pondered about it for a moment then took out a pen and paper to write a letter of recommendation. After that, he took a token proving himself and gave it together with letter to the boys: “I cannot go back to the capital with you, but you can give this letter and this seal to the ninth prince and ask him to let you meet the emperor. I am certain that he will do so. However, you must not let them know my whereabouts. If they questioned you two, just tell that I have given these to you two before I left the capital, understand?”

Zi Li looked at the two boys with dirty face but still filled with expectation, making him caved in at the end: “Fine! You two can come with me for now. But I want you two to correct addressing me. Later on, do not call me your highness, call me Su Zi Li, or better yet, call me big brother Zi Li, is that clear?”

“Yeah, boss Su!”

“No, its big brother Zi Li, but, I kinda like that title. You may call me boss Su then!”

“Okay.”

“Oh right, I didn’t know your names yet?”

“I’m Lin Cun Gong.”

“I’m Lin Cun Shou.”

“So its Xiao Gong and Xiao Shou, eh, why you guys have such strange names! Cough, cough, are you brothers?”

(Bonbon TN: Bwahaha, the author used Gong and Shou (top and bottom titles for chinese bl) as the their name, I just can’t!)

“Yeah, we are twins.”

“No wonder you two have such chemistry!”

“Hey, hey!”

“Well then, we better leave now or else those assassins will find us! Qu Zi, let’s go, hya——“

“Hya——“

And so the three of them moved onwards, side by side, and riding their horses towards the sunset——