Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 1050: A Fury for a Beauty

Song Qingshu slammed his hand on the table: “Damn it! If you want to fight, go outside and do it, so as not to disturb my enjoyment of drinking!”

Hearing his sudden change of heart, Cheng Yaojia couldn’t help but chuckle. She subtly pointed her slender finger at the cup on the table, indicating that he was drinking tea, not wine.

Song Qingshu’s breath caught in his throat. He glared at her fiercely, thinking, “I’ll deal with you slowly when I have time.”

Having spent so much time with him, Cheng Yaojia was gradually becoming less afraid of him. As if guessing what he was thinking, she smiled and raised her chin, revealing her smooth, pink neck.

Song Qingshu was admiring the woman’s gentle beauty when he heard a burly man from the Loyal Army shout, “Who the hell do you think you are?!”

It turned out that Song Qingshu’s slam had startled everyone present, causing them to stop what they were doing and turn to look at him.

Hearing his subordinate’s curses, the middle-aged man inwardly cursed. His subordinate’s cultivation was insufficient; he couldn’t perceive that the seemingly simple strike from his opponent had rendered all the experts in the arena helpless. He, however, was perfectly aware of the level of skill required.

Just as he was about to apologize, his expression suddenly changed drastically, and he hurriedly reached out to pull his subordinate away. Those on the second floor only saw a blur before their eyes, followed by a piercing scream. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw the burly man who had spoken earlier, his mouth full of blood, a chopstick inserted into his chin and exiting below his nose, effectively sewing his mouth shut.

Song Qingshu sat calmly in his seat, casually picking up his teacup, and coldly said, “If I didn’t dislike killing, you would be dead by now.”

The crowd was horrified. In that instant, the other party had attacked, injured someone, and then returned to his seat as if nothing had happened—yet no one present had seen it clearly.

Just who was this person? This was the question on everyone’s mind: were they friend or foe? 

At this moment, who had the heart to fight?

The middle-aged leader of the Loyal Army stopped the bleeding by sealing his subordinate’s pressure points. He then said to Song Qingshu, “My subordinate was blind and disrespectful, offending you. He has now received his due punishment. Let’s leave this matter at that. Farewell.”

He knew that with such an unfathomable person by his side, it was impossible for them to cause trouble for the Mount Hua Sect again. However, the Mount Hua Sect couldn’t stay by this man’s side forever; there would be plenty of opportunities to strike.

After speaking, he gestured for his men to leave. 

Yue Buqun and his group, already at a disadvantage, now had a glimmer of hope and dared not detain these fierce men.

Unexpectedly, Song Qingshu spoke up: “You can leave, but this person must stay.”

Seeing him point at his son, the middle-aged man’s face changed drastically. Suppressing his anger, he asked, “I don’t know what my son has done to offend you, sir. I apologize on his behalf.”

Song Qingshu smiled slightly and took Cheng Yaojia’s small hand: “Your son hasn’t offended me, but he has offended this friend of mine.”

Being held by the hand in public, Cheng Yaojia was immediately filled with shame. She tried to pull her hands back, but he held them firmly, making her wish she could disappear into the ground.

The only saving grace was that no one present knew her. If people knew that the young mistress of their family was behaving like this with another man, she would rather be dead.

The middle-aged man glanced at his son with suspicion. 

Zhang Hongfan, looking embarrassed, leaned in and roughly explained the whole story.

Hearing his son’s words, the middle-aged man wanted nothing more than to slap him to death. His son was good in every way—intelligent, quick-witted, and even talented in battle—his only flaw being his womanizing ways, which had caused trouble several times already.

Then, he could barely clean up his son’s messes, but this time he’d run into such a tough nut to crack, and frankly, he wasn’t confident.

However, since he was his beloved son, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and step forward, saying, “My son is dissolute and has offended this young…madam. Fortunately, she is unharmed, not a hair on her head. Therefore, I hope you will be lenient and not hold it against a child. I will certainly prepare a generous gift to apologize when I return, and also to help this madam calm her nerves.”

“Madam it is, what young madam?” Song Qingshu snorted in dissatisfaction.

“I misspoke, I misspoke,” the middle-aged man groaned inwardly. He had initially assumed Cheng Yaojia was a young woman because of her delicate features, but his attention to her hairstyle immediately caused him to mistakenly call her “Young Madam,” a rather inappropriate title.

“Unfortunately, I don’t care for your generous gifts. Leave your son behind, and you can leave,” Song Qingshu said calmly. In truth, from both the Golden Serpent Camp’s and the Jin Dynasty’s perspective, he had no reason to show mercy to the Dabie Mountain Loyal Army. His leniency was solely out of consideration for their status as a Han Chinese righteous army.

The middle-aged man was both shocked and furious: “What if I don’t leave him behind?”

“If you don’t leave him behind, then none of you are leaving,” Song Qingshu said coldly.

“Your martial arts are not necessarily invincible. Do you really think we’re easy to bully!” the middle-aged man roared, thrusting forward with an overwhelming aura.

“So it’s Zhang Rou, the leader of the Loyal Army.” Song Qingshu had already suspected something, but he couldn’t understand why Zhang Rou would leave the main camp for Yangzhou, which made him uncertain.

“You’re very confident in your skills?” Song Qingshu didn’t rush to attack, but instead asked.

Zhang Rou replied in a deep voice, “Dozens of battles, large and small, I’ve never been defeated. Of course I’m confident.”

Song Qingshu shook his head: “Then you’re probably going to lose.” Before he finished speaking, he had vanished from his spot.

Zhang Rou was shocked. After his previous lesson, he had been on high alert, but in the blink of an eye, his opponent appeared before him. Fortunately, he was a veteran of countless battles and instinctively defended his vitals, saving his life.

Actually, his martial arts weren’t that bad; it was just that Song Qingshu was too fast. He hadn’t even had a chance to use his skills before he was defeated.

“He actually withstood one of my attacks?” Seeing his opponent cough up blood and retreat, Song Qingshu didn’t continue his attack. Instead, he glanced at the distant street and frowned.

A troop of Qing soldiers was approaching. It turned out that the Yangzhou prefect, Wu Zhirong, had recently disappeared without a trace, and the entire city was under martial law. Hearing of the disturbance, the patrolling soldiers had rushed over.

“Boss, the Qing soldiers are here!” Li Haotian noticed the situation outside and hurriedly reminded Zhang Rou.

“As long as we’re alive, we can always fight again. Let’s gather our men and then come back to rescue our young master,” Li Binan advised from the side.

Zhang Rou gritted his teeth. A man of his time, he made a decisive decision: “Let’s go!”

Song Qingshu frowned, unwilling to fight in front of the Qing soldiers, and let them leave.

“Father, wait for me!” Zhang Hongfan cried anxiously, quickly following them outside.

Song Qingshu wasn’t so polite to him. He casually picked up a chopstick and flicked it at Zhang Hongfan’s leg. Zhang Hongfan screamed and fell flat on his face, only able to watch helplessly as his companion disappeared without a trace.