A Little Trouble in Dark Corners
At first, Jiang Ya Lin was going to explain the process before leading them to the magistrate but changed her mind. It would be better if she handled the process for them. Although she was a young miss of a noble family and not yet a madam with a household in her hands to care for, she was quite familiar with how these things worked.
Being that she was an orphan and not a true daughter of Commander Jiang, she felt the need to work twice as hard and be twice as diligent. Thus, Jiang Ya Lin studied everything she could get her hands on to be an outstanding young lady, hoping to make her father proud and not regret picking her up.
As they got to the gates to the Magistrate's Estate, they were met with a problem.
Honestly, Jiang Ya Lin felt they were being difficult on purpose. She didn't understand how, though noblemen wear them quite frequently, it suddenly became forbidden to wear a mask inside the Magistrate's estate.
Remembering Li Yu Rong's several warnings, Nastasia shook her head. "Can't take off."
Feeling a bit helpless, Jiang Ya Lin then asked. "What do you want to do?"
Thinking a moment, Nastasia replied. "I stay here," she pointed to the wall by the gate, "Paoxiao do it. He has the money."
Although Paoxiao did not want to leave her there, he agreed to it. With An Ying guarding her within the shadows, and Nastasia being within sight of guards guarding the gate, he felt that nothing should happen to her in the bit of time he would be gone.
Paoxiao and Jiang Ya Lin followed a guard into the estate. As soon as they went beyond her sight, Nastasia moved to the side of the wall, to lean against it. As she watched the people milling about, she fell into deep thought.
It would be nice if this all worked out. In the books she read, gathering information always seemed to come with ease in the cases of those who owned a shop and had workers diligent in collecting information. Therefore, she held on to the hope that by doing this, she would be able to find that guy who spoke English.
Perhaps, even, she would be able to repay Paoxiao a bit for all of his helping her by helping him to find his sister.
As Nastasia's thoughts turned, her face was drawn up into a thoughtful frown. Even if the shop she got wasn't the one they looked at in the center of the market, so long as she set things up right, even one at the edge of town would draw in the crowds. Although the location was generally everything when it came to a shop's livelihood, people would also go out of their way just to see the unordinary.
Whilst in her thoughts a young boy came stumbling towards her, tears streaming from his eyes. Seeing him fall to his knees, she snapped from inward thought and hurriedly helped the boy to his feet. The boy was filthy, because of that, his tears left dirt tracks down his cheeks making him look all the more pitiful.
Grabbing her robes, the boy's soft and sweet voice painfully pleaded. "Pleases help me, my grandfather is sick. I don't know what to do."
Though she didn't know exactly what "hàibìng (to fall sick)" meant, she understood that something bad had happened to the boy's grandfather. Thinking of her own beloved grandfather -whom she missed dearly- Nastasia did not hesitate in going to help the young boy.
"Where is he?" She asked.
The boy's sad expression lit up. Taking her hand, he eagerly led her to an alley not too far from the left side of the Magistrate's estate. After they walked in a bit, from the dark corners of the narrow path up against the walls, came several shifty looking characters to surround them on all sides.
Pulling the little boy to her side, Nastasia took in the armed ruffians, looking for an opening. Although her grandfather had trained her in martial arts, her skills weren't enough to see her past ten armed men whose arms were as thick as tree trunks. Especially while trying to protect a little boy.
The first thing to be done would be to open a path for the child to escape, and then she would try her best to do something about herself. As she prepared to make such an attempt, she couldn't help but wonder if this was the trouble the little boy's grandfather had gotten into. Also, if it were, why would he come to her rather than the police -or the equivalent for this world?
The answer was soon had as the head of these ruffians spoke in a deep snarling voice. "Good work Little Si," then he slid a look to the man beside him, "Luo Yang help the kid along to the Spirit Realm so that he may keep his grandfather company on the way to the Wheel of Reincarnation."
"What!?" Little Si cried out in horror. "You said that if I brought this girl to you, you'd give me money for grandfather's medicine!"
"Funny," the man chuckled, "I don't quite recall that."
As the man, named Luo Yang, reached out to grab the boy with one hand while the other prepared to slash him with a sword, Nastasia kicked the man's hand aside while pulling the boy close. The kick, being a solid connect with all her force behind it, cracked his wrist with an audible snap.
"Good for nothing, wench!" Luo Yang roared. Without bothering to look at his injured hand, he changed the grip on his sword as he swung it at both the girl and boy, vision hot with rage.
This was supposed to be a simple robbery and maybe a bit of fooling around with the girl; her body looked liked it'd feel good writhing beneath them. Yet, the girl had to go and injure the one among them with the fiercest temper. Though it was a pity, the girl shouldn't have fought back.
She was only getting what she deserved. So none of them made any moves to stop him as jeering smirks lit up their faces. Some were hoping for Luo Ying to show some restraint and not outright kill the girl. Even if she was only severely injured, they could still use her body for some fun.
A figure swiftly appeared, seemingly materializing from nothing, blocking the strike by single-highhandedly grasping the other man's arm. In a swift, fluid motion that grasped arm was twisted behind the man's back. The sword in his hand had been snatched up to split his neck flesh intwine.
Blood rushed from the wound as Luo Yang gurgled out an unintelligible noise, stunned over the sudden actions that took his life before his body dropped as dead weight to the ground.
The man that so swiftly intervened looked over at Nastasia. His eyes checked for any wounds, even a slight hair out of place, before switching his emotionless gaze back to the group of bandits. Seeing that face looking back at her, she recognized him as the ever quiet, always at the side, An Ying.
Though this girl wasn't his master, she was someone his master held dear. Though she was uninjured, these soon to be corpses had intended to harm her; their leering gazes spoke even further of the dirty designs they held. Though she wasn't his master, his bloodthirsty nature surged forward all the same, as if it were his master suffering the attempted harm.
"You little bastard, you'll pay-"
Before the words could finish, An Yin already took the sword with the man's comrade's blood and shoved it through his throat, effectively ending the sentence. The man fell into a crumpled heap. An Ying made no attempts to retrieve the sword.
The rest grew cautious after that, not daring to waste time on curses. Instead, they moved as one force to try and surround the darkly dressed man, hoping that their greater numbers would prove an advantage. It helped to bolster their confidence, the fact that this man didn't try to reach out for the sword stuck through their brother's throat.
An unarmed man was far easier to deal with.
Or, it should have been.
Reality proved otherwise. As the men reached out with their swords, attempting all at once to slice him to ribbons, An Ying's flesh was not graced with a single blade. Reaching out, he wrested a sword from a sturdy grip, slicing the arm from another before piercing the heart through the gaps in his the ribcage.
An Ying was like an Asura risen from the depths of hell. He killed with a single-minded efficiency that chilled the blood. After the third and fourth of their brothers fell, the remaining bandits fell into chaos as they were overtaken by fear. He killed with all the feeling of a man snuffing out an insignificant insect.
People gripped by the hand of fear were prone to foolish mistakes. It was due to this truth that the remaining bandits were killed with all the ease of plucking weeds from a garden.
After the last of them became a cold corpse on the ground, An Ying reached out toward the little boy...