The Little Princess's Secret Guard - Chapter 28
Chapter 28: My Subordinate’s Body is Dirty
“Splash!”
A basin of cold water was abruptly thrown onto the Great Chief’s face.
“Which bastard…” He subconsciously swore. The next moment, however, a sharp pain shot through his thigh.
“Ah!!”
Lin Xiao released the foot crushing his thigh bone. “Awake?”
“You…” Seeing him, the Great Chief immediately recalled the scene of himself being severely beaten, and his body instinctively trembled.
“You, what do you want to do?”
“Tell me everything you know.” Lin Xiao bent down, one foot pressed firmly on his thigh, the other hand holding a dagger and patting his face. “Building a bandit den here, kidnapping the Princess, Li Chongshan, who instructed you to do these things?”
The Great Chief’s pupils sharply contracted. “You… How do you know my name?”
He had changed his appearance and name countless times to evade the government’s pursuit and wanted posters. He couldn’t even remember them all himself. Only Li Chongshan, his birth name, was something he never forgot and never told anyone. How did he know?
“Who exactly are you?” Li Chongshan swallowed hard.
“Who I am is not important. What is important is that you tell me everything you know. I can grant you a quick death, otherwise…”
With that, Lin Xiao fiercely stabbed the dagger into his shoulder.
“Ah!!!”
Lin Xiao pulled out the dagger, casually wiping the bl00d off the blade, and looked at him, his gaze cold as frost. “I will sever your fingers one by one until you speak.”
“If you still don’t talk, I’ll start with your hands and stab upward, one slice at a time…”
Li Chongshan’s pupils shook violently.
Where the hell did this Yama King come from?
He cursed inwardly but was outwardly submissive.
“I, I’ll tell you everything. Don’t torment me…”
Li Chongshan was about to comply but his eyes darted around, trying to make some noise for people to save him. Lin Xiao immediately saw through his intention.
He sneered, “Don’t bother. You’re the only Great Chief left alive in this stronghold now.”
Li Chongshan: “?!”
Only then did he notice the strong smell of bl00d in the air, and his voice changed in terror. “You slaughtered the entire mountain stronghold?”
Even the imperial court often offered amnesty or conscription to bandits. Unless there was deep, irreconcilable hatred, they would never easily order a full slaughter of a stronghold.
His stronghold had over two hundred people… He killed them all!
This guy was truly a lunatic. If he had known he would provoke a lunatic, he would never have done this.
A wise man submits to circumstances. Li Chongshan completely calmed down now.
“Two years ago, when I was a bandit in Lianzhou, suddenly someone approached me, asking me to bring my brothers to set up a mountain stronghold near the capital. At the same time, he promised me that the imperial court would grant us amnesty. Then, all the wanted warrants on me would be canceled, and I could even become an official.”
“But I was doing perfectly fine as a bandit in Lianzhou at the time. How could I agree to move? Especially under the Emperor’s nose. I’d have to be crazy to agree. So, I refused.”
“But who knew…” Saying this, Li Chongshan glanced at him secretly. “That person brought fifty highly skilled men in black and directly massacred my stronghold, forcing me to become a bandit on the outskirts of the capital.”
Thinking of this, Li Chongshan wished he could go back and slap his arrogant self twice.
He had encountered a ruthless man who carried out a slaughter once in his life, and he never expected to meet another one.
This was truly astonishing.
The people living in the capital were all demons in human skin. None of them were easy to deal with.
“Who was that person?” Lin Xiao asked gravely.
“I don’t know…”
In a flash, the blade descended, and Li Chongshan let out a pig-slaughtering howl. “Don’t… don’t… I really don’t know.”
Li Chongshan was drenched in cold sweat. “I really don’t know!! The person who contacted me always wore a mask. That mask was similar to yours, all black!! I’m a crude man, how could I tell the difference!!”
A mask similar to his?!
A Secret Guard.
Lin Xiao’s face darkened.
He was the Emperor’s Secret Guard. In this capital, only the Royal Family could maintain Secret Guards. Civil and military officials dared not do such a thing. Privately raising Secret Guards was equivalent to treason. Unless they wanted their entire clan executed, no one would dare.
The Secret Guard Camp constantly monitored civil and military officials. Most officials were honest, except for deeply entrenched noble families.
But even noble families wouldn’t dare to openly keep too many Secret Guards. Lin Xiao had a rough idea of how many Secret Guards they possessed.
In the capital, anyone who owned and could deploy fifty Secret Guards must be a highly influential person in the Royal Family.
Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes. He already knew who it was.
“Continue!”
Seeing his eyes suddenly turn cold as a blade, looking like he was about to kill him, Li Chongshan swallowed hard and said nervously, “I, I’ll tell you. Don’t kill me. I can serve you…”
He was always able to bend and stretch, otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived this long.
Lin Xiao: “Stop the nonsense!”
Li Chongshan trembled. “Yes, yes…”
“After that person ordered me to set up a bandit den near the capital, aside from requiring me to pay a monthly silver tribute and build up the stronghold, they never bothered me again.”
“The last time they contacted me was three months ago. They told me to kidnap someone and bring her back to the stronghold. Once the imperial court’s bandit suppression order came down, I would naturally surrender, and hand over the woman at the same time…”
“Ah!! I told you everything, why are you still striking!!”
“You deserve to die.”
“You… you’re being unreasonable. You were the one who told me to speak…”
Lin Xiao seemed to hear something amusing, sneering in response. “When did I ever say I adhere to reason?”
This Li Chongshan was excessively lustful, indiscriminate of gender. That year, because he kidnapped a noble couple, the family asked the army to suppress him. Unexpectedly, he was extremely cunning and managed to escape, changing his identity to become a mountain chief again.
The Emperor knew about this, but since he hadn’t caused too much trouble and hadn’t created any major incident, the Emperor hadn’t forcibly suppressed him.
“What else do you know?”
Lin Xiao had no more patience for interrogation. Li Chongshan, feeling his stare, trembled. “You, don’t kill me. I’ll tell you a secret…”
Lin Xiao: “Speak.”
Li Chongshan: “Only if you promise not to kill me, I will tell you…”
“Ah!!”
Lin Xiao said coldly, “You are in no position to bargain with me now.”
With that, he directly crushed his leg bone with a kick, his voice calm and cruel. “If you continue to be disobedient, you won’t want to know my methods.”
Li Chongshan wailed: “I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you…”
“That person… that person seems to be raising private soldiers. Each time, they instruct me to transport the silver to a certain mountain ravine. I secretly observed the people who came to meet me. Although, although they were dressed to look like bandits, their steps were steady, and their eyes were clear. They were completely different from us genuine mountain bandits. Instead, they strongly resembled government soldiers.”
Raising private soldiers?!
Lin Xiao’s eyes narrowed. He fixed his gaze on him. “Where is that mountain ravine?”
“I don’t know either. The location we deliver to is different every time…”
Lin Xiao asked a few more questions. Seeing that he couldn’t get any more information, he completely gave up on the idea of further interrogation.
He delivered a kick that destroyed his ability to have children, and amidst his screams, he quickly and cleanly ended his life.
Putting his blade back into its sheath, Lin Xiao finally turned and walked toward where the Princess was.
He hadn’t forgotten the Princess’s disloyal maidservant, but he had been out for a while and needed to return first, lest the Princess be afraid alone.
However, as soon as he took a step, his body suddenly froze, his movements stiff, as if he had been nailed to the ground.
Not far away, a slender figure stood motionless, her eyes wide, tears still clinging to her long eyelashes, her face filled with terror and disbelief.
“P-Princess…”
Shen Panyan stood still, her voice very low. “Lin Xiao.”
Lin Xiao’s voice seemed to be squeezed out of his throat. “You… You saw everything just now…”
“…Mm.”
“This subordinate… this subordinate…” Lin Xiao stood blankly. It took him a long time to stammer out four words. “This subordinate admits his mistake…”
“If you wish to punish me, this subordinate will absolutely not…”
Shen Panyan looked at him, shaking her head, but her tears fell even more profusely.
She didn’t say anything.
“Princess, this subordinate…”
Lin Xiao didn’t know how to explain. He took a step closer to her. Even though he tried his best to contain the killing intent surrounding him, Shen Panyan instinctively took a step back.
“Lin, Lin Xiao, you… you don’t come over yet.”
Shen Panyan’s thoughts were chaotic. “I, I need a moment…”
Lin Xiao: “…Yes.”
He knelt down with a thud. “Please, Princess, punish me.”
Lin Xiao lowered his head, kneeling ramrod straight.
He wanted to explain, but the strong smell of bl00d in the air and the corpses with unclosed eyes nearby were all soberly reminding him of what he had done.
The Princess was not the Emperor… She was very kind. He had been too reckless, relying on the Princess’s tolerance… All words of explanation became pale at this moment.
Neither of them spoke again.
The night was cool like water. The moonlight stretched their shadows long. The air was silent, as if frozen, with only the sounds of the cool wind and the burning torches.
After an unknown period, just as Lin Xiao couldn’t help but look up at her, Shen Panyan suddenly moved.
Her steps were hesitant at first, then became firm, and faster and faster, almost running up to him. She squatted down and hugged him tightly.
“Thank you, Lin Xiao, thank you…” Her body trembled violently, and her tears soaked his shoulder.
Lin Xiao froze in place. He had not expected the Princess to do this. “Princess, you are not afraid…”
“N-Nothing to be afraid of…”
She was just not used to it.
She wasn’t someone who didn’t know gratitude. Lin Xiao did all this for her… These people were all bandits, notorious for burning, killing, and looting. Their deaths were well-deserved.
She… she had just never seen a scene like this. She would be fine once, once she got used to it.
She thought that being as ruthless and decisive as Lin Xiao was quite good. If everyone was as weak as her, that would truly be walking toward doom.
His tightly clenched fists released at some point. Lin Xiao’s hands hovered awkwardly in the air.
He stammered for the first time, “Princess… You, don’t touch me. My subordinate’s body is dirty right now…”