An Jinyan looked at her mother, who was still in a state of panic, and suddenly found it funny. In the end, it was just a woman.
"Jinyan." Madam Qin was flustered by An Jinyan's gaze.
"I'm just like you," An Jinyan said to Madam Qin in a very low voice. Mother, do you know how hard it is to please His Majesty? Even if the crown prince works hard for a year, he still might not be able to win His Majesty's heart. "
At this time, a sound came from the bushes not far away. It wasn't loud, but An Jinyan and Madam Qin heard it clearly.
"Who?!" the mother and daughter asked loudly as they looked at the bushes.
The court ladies at the back heard An Jinyan's loud voice and hurried over.
An Jinyan looked at the bushes swaying in the rain. Her face turned pale in an instant. Did anyone hear what she said? " "Let's go take a look," An Jinyan ordered her own court ladies.
Just as the palace maids were about to approach, a large nocturnal bird flew out from the shrubbery, spreading its wings and flying directly into the sky.
Madam Qin legs became weak as she said to An Jinyan, "So it was a bird."
However, An Jinyan still said to the court ladies, "Let's go take a look."
"A maid bravely walked in front of a bush and plucked at the short, wooden vines. Then, she walked in." "Crown Princess, there's nothing here." The court lady heaved a sigh of relief when she saw no one in the shrubbery. At the same time, she stood in the shrubbery and reported to An Jinyan, "Niangniang, your servant has seen it. There's nothing here."
Only then did An Jinyan feel relieved. She couldn't keep the palace maids by her side, but she really didn't want to kill any more if it was absolutely necessary.
A gust of mountain wind blew, causing all the branches and shrubs in the forest to sway. The clashing sounds of the leaves and branches resounded through the entire mountain forest, causing mountains and seas to topple. It was like the angry roars of a divine being.
In order to seek peace of mind, Madam Qin put her hands together and began chanting the Buddhist scriptures.
An Jinyan, on the other hand, just stood in the rain with an oil umbrella. Those who didn't believe in gods and buddhas were the calmest, "Mother, you should stand under the umbrella." She pulled Madam Qin and said, "If it rains too much, what happens if you get sick?"
Aunt Xiu was running through the mountains when a sudden gust of wind covered up the sound she made when she stumbled. After hearing what Madam Qin and An Jinyan had said, there was only one thought on the mind of the angered Aunt Xiu. She was going to save her daughter. It was clearly a muddy, slippery mountain road, but it was not easy to walk on. However, she ran very fast.
In the old alleyway south of the capital, most of the people who went out to work for their livelihoods had already returned home. Every household had closed their doors, and the families that ate early had already finished their dinner and were preparing to rest. Shangguan Rui and more than a dozen farmers were still chatting and drinking at the table, the food and wine on the table had also been reduced by half.
Shangguan Ning, who had eaten in her room, had planned to wait for An Jinxiu and Zi Yuan to come back before sleeping. However, the little girl couldn't stay up all night.
The nanny carried Ping An and ate together with the ladies who came to help in the kitchen. The women chatted about family matters for a short time, and the meal was very enjoyable.
There was a knock on the door. Shangguan Rui put down the wine cup in his hand and smiled to the farmers. "My sister-in-law is back. Please wait here, I'll open the door."
The nanny also heard the knock on the kitchen door and thought that An Jin had come back. She came out of the kitchen with Ping An and with an umbrella in her hand, she went to greet An Jin.
At this time, Shangguan Rui had already reached the gate. He said to the person outside while opening the door, "It's raining so heavily, it's not easy to walk in the rain, is it?"
The person outside stopped knocking after hearing Shangguan Rui's voice.
Shangguan Rui opened the door a crack and was about to call her sister-in-law when a bolt of lightning struck down from above. Shangguan Rui saw that the person behind the door wasn't his sister-in-law at all, but a masked man with only a pair of eyes.
Shangguan Rui instinctively wanted to close the door, but the person outside acted much faster than him. After kicking the door open with a kick, the person knocking on the door sent Shangguan Rui flying along with the heavy wooden door of Shangguan family.
Shangguan Rui was pressed to the ground by the wooden door. He tried to struggle to get up, but the tip of a blade came through the door and stabbed into his shoulder blade. Shangguan Rui was still in a daze, and the sabre stabbed into his abdomen again. Shangguan Rui didn't even have time to scream before fainting under the wooden door.
The peasants who were drinking in the front hall saw a group of men wearing night clothes rushing in. When they saw that there were more than ten people in the front hall, they were stunned.
"You, who are you people?" Old man Wang stood up and asked loudly.
"What are you still standing there for?" One of the men shouted in a low voice, "Kill!"
Sometimes, killing people is really a simple matter, especially when a group of trained killers is facing a group of unarmed peasants. The farmers didn't understand what happened and didn't have the time to resist before they were chopped down by the black-clothed men one by one onto the ground. Their swords cut into their throats, and the people who killed them didn't give them a chance to live.
The wet nurse carried Ping An to the front yard. The first thing she saw was Shangguan Rui being pressed down by the wooden door, while a man in black clothing stabbed Shangguan Rui three times through the wooden door. The wet nurse swallowed the scream that almost escaped her mouth. She carried Ping An and ran to Shangguan Ning's yard, wanting to escape through the back door with Shangguan Ning.
After the men in black rushed into Shangguan's house, they split into two groups. One group started a massacre in the front hall, while the other one went straight to the backyard of Shangguan's house. The order they received was that this family would not leave any survivors, so the women in the backyard were not to be let off.
The wet nurse heard screams behind her in the front hall, and voices behind her calling to go to the backyard. The wet nurse rushed to the door of the kitchen, wanting to make the women inside run away, but the black clothed people who entered the backyard had already rushed in a step ahead of her. In the dark courtyard, the nanny could not see the black-clothed people standing there. With nowhere to run, the nanny covered Ping An mouth and hid in the firewood fire outside the kitchen.
After the door of the room that Shangguan Ning lived in was kicked open, the black clothed man that rushed in didn't show mercy because the person who was still rubbing her eyes was only a little girl after being woken up by the blanket. With a cut of the knife, Shangguan Ning's neck was almost cut off.
The nurse hid in the firewood, listening to the screams die away in the kitchen. Blood gushed out of the gap in the kitchen door and mixed with the rain on the ground. The wet nurse could smell human blood on the floor, but she couldn't see that the floor of the yard was covered with it.
"Finished?" After the leader of the black clothed men confirmed that all the people in the lobby were dead, he came to the backyard. He looked at the corpses in the kitchen and asked his men, "Have you checked all the rooms?"
"Yes, I have checked. There is a little girl on the left. I have dealt with her."
The leader of the men in black walked in front of the firewood. He took a glance at it and suddenly stabbed the firewood a few times with a knife that was already stained with blood.
The wet nurse protected Ping An of her bosom with all her might. She was glad that An Jinxiu had bought two months' worth of firewood from the street yesterday. The pile of firewood was high enough and wide enough for her to hide in.
"Fire them, burn them all." The leader of the men in black poked the fire a few times. After hearing no sound coming from inside, he kept his knife and continued on his left and right.
It was not an easy thing to set a fire that could burn a house on a rainy day. The black-clothed people poured oil all over the Shangguan Family inside and out. After pouring the oil all over, a black-clothed person brought a torch to their leader.
The leader was currently standing in the yard in the front hall. He looked at the numerous corpses in the front hall and said, "Their last meal was pretty good. If they die like this, they'll be full and won't be starving corpses. These people are pretty lucky."
The fire engulfed the small Shangguan household.
The man in black standing in front of the door said, "Let's go."
The nine black clothed men disappeared at the mouth of the alleyway in the southern part of the city, soon disappearing without a trace.
The fainted Shangguan Rui was woken up by the pungent smell of smoke. He moved his body slightly, the pain from his wound almost made Shangguan Rui faint again. The instinct to survive made Shangguan Rui use all of his strength to push open the wooden door that was pressed against his body. What appeared in front of him was a patch of crimson red from the heavy rain.
"Ning!" "Ping An!" The crazy Shangguan Rui rushed to the backyard, but the wall fell and blocked his way. Just as Shangguan Rui was trying to climb over the burning ruins on his hands and knees, the antechamber behind him collapsed with a loud bang.
"Dead people, this place is full of dead people!"
Shangguan Rui heard the frightened screams of the neighbors who came to save the fire.
When Shangguan Rui rushed into the backyard, in the thick smoke that made him almost unable to breathe, Shangguan Rui saw the corpse on the ground in the front yard. His little sister was already wrapped in a ball of fire. The person who killed Shangguan Ning took the girl's body out of the house and threw it into the blood in the yard.
"All dead! The Shangguan Family is dead!"
"Hurry up and report this to the officials!"
"Put out the fire first!"
… ….
Under the shouting of the neighbors, Shangguan Rui found an iron plate, their family didn't have this kind of thing. Shangguan Rui, whose hands and feet were all burned, did not feel any pain, he only knew that his little sister and nephew were gone.
"Who are you people?" Shangguan Rui, who had lost his soul, heard the shouts of his neighbors, followed by miserable howls before he died.
The nine men in black came back and started killing the neighbors who had come to save the fire. Before the corpses in the fire were burned to ashes, they would not allow anyone to save the fire, even if the fire had already engulfed half of the southern part of the city.
Shangguan Rui didn't turn around to look at the murder scene behind them. He wasn't interested in who was the culprit, all Shangguan Rui could think of was that someone was going to kill their entire family while An Jinxiu was still outside. He had to find An Jinxiu and escape with her. Shangguan Rui stumbled out of the collapsed wall in the backyard.
The firelight illuminated the southern part of the capital. To the people of the southern part of the capital, this night was destined to be a sleepless night.
The leader of the men in black, seeing that the Shangguan Family compound no longer existed, said to his men, "Retreat."