Chapter 7: Rutaceae Pavilion

Where did all the people go?

Tang Doudou struggled to her feet, then looked around. It was extremely quiet, the only sound was that of candles burning in lanterns. All that could be seen in the room were the broken floor tiles. Other than that, not even the shadow of a ghost could be seen.

What the hell, say leave and really just left? Not even giving a little explanation, how horribly rude.

Tang Doudou touched her face. They’ve left, then she should leave too?

Hell, if she doesn’t leave now, how much longer was she planning to wait ah! Tang Doudou instantly became spirited. Who cares where they went? It doesn’t have a feather to do with her! Running for her life was more important!

Picking a direction at random, Tang Doudou ran two steps before stopping again. Crap, she’s not familiar with the people, the environment, or the culture here, which direction should she flee towards? And where to escape to?

Would that group of black-clothed men come back? What should she do if she came across them?

After thinking it over, Tang Doudou still decided to leave this place first!

With her mind made up, she rushed downstairs. In a few moments, she was already far away from the pavilion and had arrived at a place that resembled an outside courtyard. As she walked along a small path in the courtyard, she didn’t encounter anyone but she could hear faint ‘ping ping pang pang’ sounds of armed combat. She squinted her eyes but all she could see was a mass of black. Retrieving her gaze, she changed to a different direction and continued running.

She didn’t have to run for long before she saw that there were dim figures moving ahead. Even though the surroundings were brightly lit, her line of sight wasn’t very clear. Tang Doudou could only rely on intuition and continue running forward.

As Huai City’s largest pleasure quarters, once night fell, Rutaceae Pavilion became the liveliest place in the entire Huai City.

There were a lot of crowds coming and going. Looking down from the second floor, you could only see a sea of inky black heads. Shoulders rubbing shoulders, feet following feet, all those jostling about were guests going to Rutaceae Pavilion.

Of these guests, some were from Huai City, but the majority were outsiders that were attracted here by its reputation.

However, the guests that came tonight were a bit different from those of the past.

The expressions on the faces of those that were coming and going were serious. They were in groups of three and four and all kept some distance from one another. However, they had one common characteristic: when they walked strong wind would be generated. You could tell they were not ordinary citizens with one look.

This scene cause passersby to repeatedly cast sidelong glances. Could it be that something big was going to happen at Rutaceae Pavilion today?

At Rutaceae Pavilion’s entrance, two servants were currently busy checking the guests’ invitation cards. This scene was much different from the usual promiscuous aura filled with scantily clad prostitutes. On the contrary, it seemed like a prince or chancellor’s residence that was in the middle of entertaining guests. Actually, it even seemed a bit more strict than that.

“Hey, hey you! Stop!”

A drunk man had just staggered out of the crowd to the entrance and was blocked by the servant collecting the invitation cards.

“Do you have an invitation card?”

“Ha, have… card!” It’s unknown how much alcohol the drunk man had, but as he stood there, he kept sway-ing-and-sway-ing, and with his disheveled hair his appearance could not be seen clearly. The man felt about in his chest for a long time before pulling out a golden square card and handing it to that servant.

The servant’s expression became slight better seeing that the man had taken out an invitation card. He lowered his head to open the card, then his expression immediately changed as he exclaimed in surprise.

“Sangfroid Prince Xi Qiuyue!”

Hearing those five words, everyone around looked over. Everyone’s expressions were different; a small number of gazes carried hatred and shot over with ‘swishes’ like knives, but the expressions that the majority exposed were filled with expectation for an entertaining play.

This was a martial arts convention that they opened, what were the people from the Imperial Court coming here for?

And he even had an invitation, what did this mean?

Just these two factors were enough for the people present to speculate for a long while, and they began to look forward to this unusual martial arts convention even more.

“That’s right ah, tha, that’s ben wang*. What, hic… there a problem?” The person involved, Xi Qiuyue, didn’t feel self-conscious at all. Seeing that the servant was still in a daze, he pushed aside the servant impatiently and staggered towards Rutaceae Pavilion. “Res… room, where’s the restroom!”

本王 – “ben wang”a form of ‘I’, usually used by men that are of a royal/imperial family.

Noisily shouting like that, he got into the back courtyard of Rutaceae Pavilion.

The servant was just about to put down the invitation card when he suddenly recalled something and shouted in alarm, “Oh no!”