Urban Martial Saint

Lili stood at the doorway, and seeing the situation, she also felt very anxious. She took a few steps forward and quietly knocked on the door, whispering, ”Miss, no matter what, you still have to eat something. If you keep this up, you’ll star through yourself!”

”Don’t worry about me!” Shen Qingyi’s indignant voice came from inside the room, ”Tell Third Master that if he doesn’t release Ye, I won’t eat!”

”Miss, Third Master has sealed off our entire courtyard, even we can’t get out,” Lili said. ”Third Master knew you would threaten him like this, so he simply didn’t give us a chance to leave. Miss, not eating won’t threaten anyone except harming your own health!”

Shen Qingyi fell silent for a while before saying, ”When will Grandma return?”

”Third Master said Grandma won’t be back until tomorrow evening at the earliest,” Lili said. ”Both the eldest and Second Masters are not at the Shen Family, and now Third Master is in charge. Miss, you shouldn’t be at odds with Third Master. His temper is even more fiery than the eldest and Second Masters; the more you argue with him, the angrier he gets. It’s useless to do this!”

”Then I’ll wait until Grandma comes back!” Shen Qingyi retorted firmly, ”All of you leave, don’t worry about me. If Ye can’t eat, I’ll starve with him!”

The maids were suddenly very worried, and Lili anxiously said, ”Miss, how can you do this? Not eating will harm your body. Why not eat a little and discuss this with Grandma when she returns tomorrow? If you don’t eat, we... we really can’t explain this to Grandma!”

”You don’t need to explain; I’ll talk to her myself!” Shen Qingyi said.

”Miss, this really isn’t good...” Lili stood at the door, continuously trying to console her, but Shen Qingyi simply stopped responding. The maids were at a loss; they had followed Shen Qingyi for so long and had never encountered such a situation.

After a long persuasion with no effect, Lili also became very worried. She had grown up with Shen Qingyi and knew her character best. Shen Qingyi had grown up in Shen Family Manor, naive to the ways of the world, without a hint of guile. However, Shen Qingyi was also very stubborn; once she made up her mind, she absolutely wouldn’t change it. Plus, Ye Qing was essentially the first young man she had interacted with outside of the Shen Family. In Shen Qingyi’s heart, there was a lot of concern for Ye Qing, which is why she cared so much about his well-being. Lili truly understood why Shen Qingyi didn’t want to eat!

Standing silently at the door for a while, Lili suddenly gritted her teeth, waved to the several maids beside her, and said, ”You all go down first.”

”But, Miss hasn’t eaten yet,” a maid said.

”I’ll try to persuade her again; you go and heat up the food. In case Miss wants to eat later, it shouldn’t be cold,” Lili said.

The maids finally felt reassured, quickly cleaned up the things on the ground, and ran to the back kitchen to prepare dinner. Meanwhile, Lili watched as the maids walked away, then hurried to the door, gently knocked, and whispered, ”Miss, please open the door, I have something to tell you!”

There was still no response from inside, Lili helplessly sighed, ”Miss, I have a way to help rescue Ye!”

At this, there finally was a response from inside, and Shen Qingyi eagerly asked, ”You... are you serious?”

”Of course, I am!” Lili said, though her expression looked somewhat distressed. Third Master had issued a warning today that if she helped Shen Qingyi, he would break both her arms. She was really scared of Third Master, but she was even more worried about Shen Qingyi, after all, they had grown up together. In her heart, Shen Qingyi was her closest sister!

”Then... how can we rescue him?” Shen Qingyi asked urgently.

”Miss, at least open the door first,” Lili said helplessly.

Shen Qingyi then came to her senses and walked over to open the door. Lili, seeing Shen Qingyi’s tear-stained, swollen eyes, couldn’t help but sigh again and whispered, ”Miss, are you really that worried about Ye Qing?”

”Lili, he saved my life, I’ve told you before,” Shen Qingyi said. ”Ye is now being hung outside the Shen Family Manor, how can I not worry? Grandma always taught us that for a drop of water given, a burst of spring should be returned. Ye Qing saved my life, how can I just watch him suffer like this?”

”Ah!” Lili sighed and said, ”Miss, that Ye Qing might be an enemy of the Shen Family. He is the one who caused harm to Eighth Master and Ninth Master, don’t you hate him?”

Shen Qingyi shook her head decisively, ”That’s a misunderstanding by Third Master. Ye is a good man; how could he possibly harm our Shen Family?”

”Third Master does nothing without evidence. Since he made such a decision, it means he must have proof,” Lili said. ”If it really was Ye Qing who killed Eighth Master and Ninth Master, would you still let him go?”

Shen Qingyi was stunned for a moment and shook her head again, saying, ”Impossible, Ye would never do such a thing. I believe him!”

Lili looked at Shen Qingyi. She had raised all these ifs just to see Shen Qingyi’s reaction. Yet, Shen Qingyi trusted Ye Qing so much that she couldn’t believe Ye Qing would do those things, showing Lili once more how deep Shen Qingyi’s feelings for Ye Qing were.

”Lili, you said you have a way to save Ye. What is it exactly?” Shen Qingyi asked urgently, as what she was most worried about now was Ye Qing’s situation.

Lili was silent for a moment, seeming hesitant, but eventually, she steeled her heart and said, ”Miss, the people sent by Third Master only guarded the front and back doors; it’s impossible for us to exit there. However, there is a broken hole at the left side courtyard wall, caused accidentally by Second Master during his boxing practice a few days ago. To not be an eyesore, Second Master covered it with a wooden board, a fact unknown even to Third Master. Actually, we can get out from there.”

”Really?” Shen Qingyi was overjoyed and hurriedly proceeded to go outside, urging, ”Lili, thank you!”

”Miss!” Lili quickly grabbed Shen Qingyi, whispering lowly, ”Are you planning to go save him just like that?”

”Then... how else?” Shen Qingyi asked curiously. This naive girl only wanted to rush over to see Ye Qing and hadn’t thought much about anything else.

”He is suspended above the Eight Trigrams Array, which only people from the Shen Family can enter and exit. I won’t be able to help you,” said Lili. ”But going there like this, you might not be able to save him either. For one, he is severely injured, and even if you rescue him, he won’t be able to walk.”

”Right, you reminded me!” Shen Qingyi quickly ran to the table, took a small porcelain bottle from a box on the table, and said, ”I need to bring some medicine for Ye!”

Lili looked at the medicine bottle in Shen Qingyi’s hand, feeling a wave of emotion. The small porcelain bottle contained the Ziyu Chenxiang Pill, a holy medicine that was priceless, and Shen Qingyi was indeed willing to use it.

”Miss, you should at least bring a knife to cut the rope!” Lili said.

”Yes.” Shen Qingyi nodded promptly, but after searching around the room, she couldn’t find a knife or anything similar. Her boudoir simply didn’t contain such items.

”Miss, take this.” Lili handed her a pair of scissors, whispering lowly, ”Miss, if Third Master finds out about this, he would chop off my hands. So, you... you must go quickly and come back quickly, and absolutely not dally outside... ”

Shen Qingyi was stunned for a moment, turned her head to look at Lili, whose eyes were slightly red, and her own eyes couldn’t help but moisten. Shen San had said such things to Lili, yet she still wanted to help her save Ye Qing, which deeply moved Shen Qingyi.

”Rest assured, after I save Ye, I’ll come back immediately!” Shen Qingyi shook the small porcelain bottle in her hand and said, ”As long as Ye takes the medicine, he will be fine, and he can walk on his own. Lili, thank you! I won’t let anything happen to you!”

Lili nodded vigorously and didn’t say anything more. She led Shen Qingyi, while no one was looking, quietly to the courtyard.

By the courtyard wall, there was indeed a place covered by a wooden board. Lili lifted the board, revealing a hole through which one could crawl out.

Shen Qingyi looked at Lili, then resolutely crawled through the hole and ran straight toward Ye Qing under the cover of night.

Lili quickly blocked the hole with the wooden board, then went back and closed the door to Shen Qingyi’s room. She stood at the door, striving to keep calm so that no one would notice Shen Qingyi was no longer in her room.

At night in Shen Family Manor, there were many patrolling guards. However, having lived in the manor for over twenty years, Shen Qingyi was very familiar with the patrol patterns. She carefully avoided the patrollers, used the cover of night to leave the manor, and took a detour around before entering the pile of rocks.

From a distance, she saw Ye Qing still hanging above the pile of rocks, motionless, which made Shen Qingyi’s heart leap with concern. However, she did not head directly toward Ye Qing but instead took a circular route through the pile of rocks, seemingly aimless yet seemingly methodical. Though the pile of rocks was not small, from one side to the other was merely a distance of about half a mile. It took her nearly half an hour to reach Ye Qing, most of the time spent circling around.

When Shen Qingyi got to where Ye Qing was hanging, she quickly lowered her voice and softly called out twice, ”Ye, Ye...”

Ye Qing by then had lapsed into unconsciousness and did not respond. This made Shen Qingyi even more worried; she dared not hesitate, looked around, and quickly found where the ropes were tied. She hurried over and started cutting the ropes bit by bit with the scissors.

As the ropes that bound Ye Qing were made of sturdy cowhide, specially ordered by Shen San, it took Shen Qingyi quite a while to cut through all of them. Ye Qing, hanging from above, fell directly onto the rock pile.