After Transmigrating, My Younger Brother Always Tries to Seduce Me - Chapter 14

In an instant, arrows rained down like a dense storm. Song Heng raised the still-warm corpse before him as a shield. Within moments, the body was riddled with bloody holes, resembling a honeycomb.

But this gave Song Heng a crucial moment to catch his breath. Seizing the opportunity while the enemy reloaded their arrows, he kicked off the ground and soared into the air, using his light footwork to leap out of the narrow alley.

Clutching his wounded arm, Song Heng leaned back against the shadows, his head tilted upward as he gathered his thoughts.

Who had sent these men? Back at the stronghold, he knew Prince Jin was involved in the Ghost City affair, but he hadn’t revealed his true identity. No matter the circumstances, no one should be hunting him down at this critical juncture.

Song Heng drew out a silver needle and examined it closely. The needle itself was ordinary, but its lethality lay in his unique acupuncture technique.

He had learned this technique from a disheveled old man in the imperial prison during his previous life, when Prince Jin had driven him to the brink of despair.

The old man had warned that only members of the Song Family were qualified to learn this technique, and that it must never be taught to outsiders. Misuse would inevitably lead to a violent death.

Song Heng clenched his fist, the silver needle sliding against his skin and disappearing into a hidden pocket.

He tore a strip of cloth from his robe, bit down on one end, and swiftly bandaged his wound with his free hand.

Stepping out of the alley, Song Heng’s pupils constricted sharply. The men he had shaken off earlier were now guarding the entrance like ghosts.

They had been lying in wait, like hunters waiting for their prey to stumble into the trap.

Their crossbows remained drawn, the bolts aimed squarely at his chest. Their vigilance intensified the moment he appeared.

Song Heng surveyed his surroundings with a sidelong glance, mentally calculating escape routes, but none seemed viable. The crossbows before him could unleash a volley of bolts in a single breath, turning him into a human pincushion.

Suddenly, a rope was tossed at his feet. A crossbow bolt struck the ground beside it with a thud, its shaft still quivering slightly. Song Heng narrowed his eyes. Lu Yin was still in their clutches, and judging by the situation, these men didn’t intend to kill him—at least not yet.

Moreover, their numbers were far greater than what he had seen during the day. This suggested they were a force that had mobilized only after detecting his arrival. Who in Changding City could command such a large group?

The answer could only be the City Lord, that lackey of Prince Jin.

He obediently picked up the rope and bound his wrists, willingly entering danger. This would also give him a chance to gather evidence of Prince Jin’s plot to destroy the city.

He extended his bound hands forward, displaying the restraints from all angles.

His cooperation pleased his captors, who led him away like a prisoner.

No one noticed the bloodstained strip of cloth fluttering to the ground.

Soon, two figures, one tall and one small, approached from the distance.

Along the way, Zhu Zhenzhen noticed bl00d-stained crossbow bolts embedded in the walls and an utterly bizarre person lying motionless beside a corpse riddled with bloody holes, without a single wound on their own body.

It wasn’t until Yanagi picked up a tattered strip of cloth from the ground that Zhu Zhenzhen’s exceptional memory instantly pieced everything together. She had deduced most of what had happened to Song Heng that night, save for the mysterious, uninjured corpse.

Since Yanagi had first met Zhu Zhenzhen, he had never seen her angry. But now, her eyes were tinged with anger, and her delicate brows furrowed slightly.

She would not tolerate anyone harming her companions.

Zhu Zhenzhen took several deep breaths, but when she spoke, her voice betrayed none of the fury in her eyes, instead carrying an unexpected calmness

Yanagi, lead the way.

Yanagi knew she intended to confront those responsible at the City Lord’s Mansion directly.

Zhu Zhenzhen moved swiftly, her speed more than doubling under Yanagi’s guidance.

The vermilion gates of the City Lord’s Mansion loomed before them, flanked by two imposing stone lions.

The tightly sealed gates barred entry to outsiders, but this posed no challenge to Zhu Zhenzhen. Her movements were like a phantom’s no matter how high the walls, she effortlessly scaled them, landing gracefully with the ten-year-old girl in tow.

The interior of the City Lord’s Mansion was surprisingly unostentatious. Every three steps along the corridors, a tree stood, its verdant leaves intertwining with the red-tiled roofs, creating a shifting panorama that evoked a sense of leisurely elegance.

The City Lord of this Ghost City, which strikes terror into the hearts of all who hear its name, actually has the leisure to cultivate flowers and willows in his mansion? Zhu Zhenzhen couldn’t help but sneer.

The mansion wasn’t large, and Zhu Zhenzhen quickly searched every room.

Yet she found no living soul—a peculiar anomaly.

To hunt down a single person, three crossbow bolts at most would be enough to pin them down until they breathed their last.

The sheer number of arrows in the corpse suggested a simultaneous barrage, as if the body had been used as a human shield.

If such a large-scale massacre had occurred, the perpetrators could only be hiding within the City Lord’s Mansion. Yet her thorough search had revealed every room to be empty.

Adding Yanagi’s testimony—that the dying outsiders had all been carried out from the City Lord’s Mansion—only one conclusion remained

There must be a secret chamber within the mansion.

But where? The study? The bedroom? Or some other hidden location? What kind of mechanism would open it? Where would it be? These questions remained unanswered. Zhu Zhenzhen could only begin by searching the most suspicious rooms first.

Zhu Zhenzhen was calculating on her abacus, planning to check the study first. She turned to tell Yanagi to stay close, but when she looked back, the words caught in her throat. Behind her, there was no one.

The polite, humble, brave, and kind young girl had vanished.

Zhu Zhenzhen’s fury was beyond words.

She had promised to protect her, yet the girl had disappeared right under her nose. If anything happened to her, Zhu Zhenzhen would never forgive herself.

Stay calm, she repeatedly told herself. Don’t let anger cloud your judgment.

She steeled her resolve, focusing all her senses to their peak. She meticulously observed every blade of grass and every tree in the courtyard, knowing the enemy could be lurking in any corner.

Suddenly, her eyes sharpened. She whirled around and charged toward the house behind her.

She had heard it.

No matter how carefully the door was closed, the heavy panel would still make a dull thud—a sound like a pebble striking the calm surface of Zhu Zhenzhen’s heart, sending ripples through her mind.

But it also gave her hope.

Zhu Zhenzhen reached the door in an instant and kicked it open.

The repeated crashes of her kicks echoed through the empty courtyard, startling the fish in the pond into a frantic frenzy.

With her relentless efforts, the wooden door crashed open, revealing the interior to Zhu Zhenzhen.

Inside, there was nothing but a few bundles of firewood.

The sound she had heard earlier must have been her imagination. Her face cold, she stepped inside to search.

Zhu Zhenzhen roughly kicked over the bundles of firewood, desperate to find any clue, but her efforts yielded nothing.

As she retreated, a dark shadow flashed past her. She immediately gave chase.

Too much time had already been wasted. If she didn’t find something soon, the three others might already be dead, their bodies cold.

Steel herself, she hardened her resolve and poured every ounce of her strength into pursuing the shadow.

Zhu Zhenzhen chased him for a long time, the shadow maintaining a constant, tantalizing distance.

She was like a fish drawn to bait, knowing he was deliberately leading her into danger, yet unable to resist the glimmer of hope.

The corridor twisted and turned, its labyrinthine paths eventually leading her to a side chamber. The shadow vanished at the doorway.

Of the entire row of side chambers, only one had its door wide open. With no other options, Zhu Zhenzhen had no choice but to enter.

By the moonlight streaming through the doorway, she could make out the interior.

A section of the wall had been hollowed out, resembling the gaping maw of a monstrous abyss.

The opening was just wide enough for two people to walk through side by side, leading into a long, bottomless staircase.

The moon, obscured by clouds, couldn’t illuminate the path ahead, yet it continued to watch her until darkness enveloped her completely.

Zhu Zhenzhen descended slowly, step by step. With her only source of light gone, the dimness made her nauseous.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, she groped along the cold stone wall as she continued downward.

The staircase stretched endlessly. Zhu Zhenzhen quickened her pace, steadying herself as she moved from one step to two.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally reached flat ground, where a faint light appeared.

Iron rings were embedded in the stone walls on either side of the path, holding torches that cast long, distorted shadows of her figure.

About ten steps further, the path forked. Both routes looked identical, offering no clue as to which way to go.

With no time to hesitate, she randomly chose one path and followed the torches deeper into the tunnel.

Though there was only one path, it twisted and turned relentlessly.

As she ventured further, the faint sounds that had been barely audible grew clearer.

Unlike the dimly lit corridor, the path opened into a vast underground chamber.

Without a door to conceal the scene, Zhu Zhenzhen could clearly see what the group of black-clad figures were doing.

As she finally understood their purpose, a chill crept into her heart.

The specially excavated underground chamber held countless prisoners.

From a distance, Zhu Zhenzhen scanned the crowd, one by one. When she didn’t spot the three familiar faces, she breathed a sigh of relief and began to observe more closely.

The ceiling was studded with dense rows of iron rings, from which chains hung down, extending to the prisoners’ arms.

The prisoners were suspended by their wrists, their legs shackled to the ground, rendering them completely immobile.

Black-clad figures wearing thick masks surrounded the group, holding bowls of an unknown medicinal broth. They forced the non-coughing prisoners to swallow the food in their hands.

Clearly, the imprisoned knew what was coming. Every one of them resisted the bitter medicine, but their struggles were futile.

Their mouths were forcibly clamped open, and the entire bowl of broth was poured down their throats without spilling a drop. As if fearing they might vomit, the black-clad figures pressed a foul-smelling, yellowed rag over their mouths.

Those who coughed were met with kicks or slaps to silence them.

It was a scene straight out of hell.

Zhu Zhenzhen had steeled herself before descending, but now she realized her preparation had fallen short.

Who would go to such lengths?

Li Jiadong had contracted tuberculosis. Magistrate Li claimed that those previously captured in the city had also fallen ill, and now, more than half of the people before her were infected. What could be the reason for this?

A daring hypothesis formed in her mind.

Could these people be test subjects?

Zhu Zhenzhen wasn’t sure if the tuberculosis they had contracted was the same as the lung disease from her original world. If it were, then it would make sense.

The power behind the officials wanted to find a cure for tuberculosis, but due to the backward medical environment, they couldn’t treat it. So, they had been secretly capturing large numbers of people, infecting them, and conducting experiments in secret.

The terrifying part was that this power was so vast that it could destroy an entire city without the Emperor even noticing, turning the once-prosperous Changding City into a true Ghost City.

Judging by the current situation, a cure for tuberculosis hadn’t yet been found. Otherwise, Li Jiadong wouldn’t still be smuggling people here, nor would he have shown such disgust when he heard she was infected.

The current City Lord of Changding was also a puppet of this hidden power. Therefore, Cheng Jiuxiao, that detestable man, had deliberately led them into this city—a blatant trap!

A cold wind seemed to rush through a hole in Zhu Zhenzhen’s heart. She shouldn’t have trusted him.

All she’d done was say a few bad things about Li Jiadong that day, and now he was trying to completely destroy her.

Looking back on her time since transmigrating, Zhu Zhenzhen realized that in the adult world, only Old He was a truly good person.

Though these thoughts raced through her mind, the entire process took only an instant. She let out a bitter laugh and decided to look for someone on the other side.

By sheer coincidence, the moment she looked up, she met the eyes of a young man about to take his medicine.

Through the veil, Zhu Zhenzhen realized he couldn’t see clearly. She shook her head vigorously, trying to signal him not to reveal her position.

Unfortunately, he lacked the sense to understand.

The young man shouted at the top of his lungs, Someone’s spying on us from behind!

At his cry, the black-clad men stopped feeding medicine and halted their beating. A dozen pairs of eyes turned toward her in unison.