Book 6 Chapter 4 – Confidential Matter That Is Not A Secret

Kou Zhong slipped out the window and came back. Dejected, he said, “Those two damn

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are really cruel, the security is so tight that even a fly can’t escape.”

The place they were staying was located in the garden at the southwest corner of Linjiang Palace, to the west and south of the place were open spaces with nowhere to hide. The walls were high with watchtowers everywhere. To the east was a big garden, to the north was about a dozen big bamboo groves with no passable path. Therefore, the only way out was through the garden.

Xu Ziling came back a step earlier, he also managed to obtain clear picture of the situation. Sighing, he said, “The only way is to charge through the high wall, killing our way out. It’s just that there is a thirty-zhang open space between the small garden to the high wall, I am afraid before we reach the foot of the wall, we’d be shot dead by the rain of arrows from the watchtower guards, or perhaps we’d be cutoff by the opponent’s martial art masters. How’s the situation at the flower garden?”

Kou Zhong smiled wryly and replied, “By looking at my expression, you ought to know the situation without having to ask me; there are hidden guards everywhere in the flower garden, plus it is brightly lit, thinking about escaping without the gods know and the ghosts detect is just lunatic ravings. This must be personally arranged by Dugu Sheng to prevent us from escaping.”

And then, with a wolf-viciousness he said, “If we cannot get away from a place like this, it will really damage our reputation as the Yangzhou Two Dragons. Those two damn

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will despise us even more.”

Xu Xiling mused, “Have it ever occurred to you that even if we manage to get out, we still need to crash our way through the city defense, and then once we are inside the city, it’s still unknown whether we will be able to find Su Jie or not.”

Kou Zhong chuckled lightly and said, “Don’t worry! Beautiful Shifu will not dare to deceive me; she has already agreed to leave secret marks all around the city, so that we can easily find their location. This is the benefit of using the ‘by hook or by crook’ method.”

Xu Ziling was dumbstruck and unable to reply.

Kou Zhong continued his analysis, “The security here seems to be incomparably tight, but we can clearly see that the imperial guards are undisciplined and their morale is low, everybody wants to shirk responsibility or even run away from here. Hey! Just think, if we suddenly gone missing, what would the imperial guards guarding us do?”

Xu Ziling’s eyes lit up immediately, “They would think that since Yang Guang ordered Dugu Sheng to keep watch over us, it would mean they are not fulfilling their obligations; it would be strange indeed if Yang Guang did not behead them all. Naturally the entire team will leave their job to join the rank of army deserters.”

Kou Zhong said, “Under normal circumstances, my stratagem might not be useful, but right now their heart is anxious, they have misgivings toward each other, they would not dare to lightly and rashly make indiscriminate action! We still have several sichen until daybreak anyway, we might as well wait for two more

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sichen, and then when those guards are cold and tired, we will commence our grand plan.”

The end of yin hour [3-5am], early mao hour [5-7am].

‘Whoo! Whoo!’ With two signals, one after another two shadows flitted out of the courtyard house where Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling stayed, toward the bamboo groves, while several wind lanterns in the vicinity went out at the same time. Followed by chaotic noise of snapping bamboo branches, which alerted the guards.