The Feast

Translated by Gumihou

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When their thoughts reached this point, the Slaughter Dog Gang picked up their motivation again and were about to slash people up in all four directions when-

"Charge! Get every single bandits!"

The motivation the Slaughter Dog Gang had gotten hold of earlier dribbled out of their hands like water. They turned their fearful gaze towards the courtyard door, and saw a dozen people poured in, lead by a heroic looking young man. The young man must have been shocked by what he had seen. He suddenly stopped, and stood stock still right in the middle of the courtyard. It was not clear whether he was the one who gave the command just now. Looking at the way he just stood in the middle of the courtyard like a lost goose, probably not. So, who was the real leader?

Second Young Master Duan looked blankly around the courtyard at the remnants of the 'battle'. The thing mesmerized him with horror was a single woman blasting through the fierce bandits like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter. It was none other than the most feared and most loved sister-in-law who could basically turn regular metal into gold. Though he already knew that Su Nuan Nuan was a fierce, violent, shrewish woman, he never thought she was THIS fierce. The sight of her bashing a large group of bandits w.i.l.l.y nilly with a rolling pin would never leave Second Young Master Duan's mind.

While he was busy blanking out, a figure flew past him. Second Young Master Duan thought he was seeing things. He blinked and the number of bandits still standing had been reduced by more than half, the area around Su Nuan Nuan was conspicuously empty. Another blink and he thought: Oh heavens, when did elder brother arrived? Weren't he at the East Palace with the crown prince? It can't be that he'd just dumped the crown prince the moment he heard that Duan Tingye was on his way to a.s.sist sister-in-law, right? No matter how much you favour sister-in-law, you're still a court official of the country, you know? How could you do something so selfish?

"Duan Tingxuan?"

Su Nuan Nuan was so surprised that she stopped swinging her stick around. No matter what, she was still a woman with barely any martial arts training. Gasping for breath, she looked blankly at her rescuer. She hadn't actually managed to spot the moment when he arrived, he was basically like a destructive shadow, mowing down the bandits like a scythe through wheat. Yes, there was no doubt about it, this was Duan Tingxuan. That nominal husband of hers who seemed to do nothing but trip over cats and lounging around waiting to be fed of the time, was actually a powerful and efficient little marquis.

Though Duan Tingxuan made a habit of stealing food and appeared to be careless and indolent most of the time, when push came to shove, he was incredibly reliable in a crisis. Without bothering to negotiate or speak to anyone, he proceeded to ruthlessly beat up or outright kill. It was a testament to his skill that he managed to do all of this without shedding blood. Not that he was at all concerned about staining holy ground with blood, but he did not want Su Nuan Nuan to see him with his hands covered in blood. Therefore, instead of a sword, his weapon of choice today was a fan, which became an invincible weapon that seemed to literally sweep the enemies away.

Duan Tingxuan only put away his fan when not a single bandit remained standing. He finally turned to look at his wife, who had stayed where she was when he had arrived to her rescue, rolling pin still clutched firmly in her hand. She looked majestic and heroic, her posture straight and tall as she surveyed the scene before her. There was no a single line of defeat in her stance. She stood like a heroine from the ancient stories, like a general in a battle field. However, her eyes betrayed her true feelings.

A warm feeling welled up within the little marquis' heart. From the moment he'd received information about the bandits, his heart had frozen over with fear. It only came back to life now that he knew Su Nuan Nuan was safe. It took him less than three strides to reach her. Without a care for the eyes on them, he pulled his beloved wife into a tight embrace, his voice trembled, "Nuan Nuan, you… you really scared me."

"You're the one who scared me." Su Nuan Nuan muttered absent mindedly, clearly still in some kind of shock.

"It's alright now, everything is alright. There's no need to be afraid, husband is here now and will never let you be hurt again." Duan Tingxuan a.s.sumed that his wife must have suffered some kind of incredible scare and was doing his best to rea.s.sure her. "There, there, no need to be afraid."

"Who's scared? If I'm really scared do you think I'll be able to last until now?" she looked past her husband's shoulders to the stupefied servants and the praying monks. When she caught sight of Second Young Master Duan, who was currently looking anywhere but at their direction and discreetly coughing into his fist, she frowned and though: It's one thing to be a thick face foodie, she was the last person to judge someone like that, but this? She pushed Duan Tingxuan away and frowned at him, "What are you doing here? What's the crown prince's situation?"

"The crown prince is fine." this time, it was Duan Tingxuan who frowned. "I'll tell you the details later, but Nuan Nuan, what about yourself? Are you hurt? Let me look at you."

Because of the adrenaline high, Nuan Nuan only thought about caving in skulls and beating the bandits up. At the very least, she was not going to make it easy for them to take her second chance at life away. It was only at Duan Tingxuan's prompting that she finally felt the aches and pains on her back and arms.

Naturally, Duan Tingxuan immediately spotted her discomfort and his face became so gloomy that it looked like he might cry any moment. Su Nuan Nuan's back and arms were covered with thin strips that were beginning to swell. It was likely that the bandits had struck her with the back of their swords to try and subdue her, Duan Tingxuan dared not think what the result could have been if the enemy had wanted Su Nuan Nuan dead… the terrible fear that came with this thought nearly choked him up once more.

"Amitabha, Lord Heir Duan please be at ease. The madam did not suffer any major injuries. This humble one have treated the injuries with ointment for bruises. Madam's injuries should disappear in a day or two."

The abbot of the temple had no martial skills, however, in order to protect the servants of the An Ping household, he too rushed out of the rear court to fight against the bandits. Perhaps it was thanks to the karma he had acc.u.mulated through prayers and meditation everyday in his long life, but he managed to survive the encounter. When he saw Duan Tingxuan looking anxiously over Su Nuan Nuan's injuries, he limped over to rea.s.sure the little marquis.

"Thank you great master for your trouble." Duan Tingxuan immediately thanked the the abbot. He was not an unreasonable man after all, and though the matter had happened at Pushan Temple, nearly half of his family would have died or kidnapped if the temple monks had not offered their shelter and a.s.sistance. No matter how strong or powerful he was, without them to buy time and give a.s.sistance, it would have been impossible to save anyone.

He cast his eyes around and noticed the eyes of the the An Ping servants looking up at him dazedly. They were suffering from a triple hit shock. It was already traumatizing enough to dash out after their reckless mistress into a fight for their life situation, then the lord heir had arrived, as though out of thin air, and started his killing spree. From the timing of his arrival, they could hardly imagine just what kind of strange power the lord heir must have possessed in order to arrive so quickly and still have the energy to dispatch a group of people so easily.

It was only Duan Tingye, who hated him like an old enemy, and Su Nuan Nuan, with her nearly telepathic intuition, who could understand what drove the little marquis to push himself to this level.

The servants, however, only saw an incredibly powerful and scary master. Who among them weren't a little frightened?

When Duan Tingxuan's eyes fell upon them, shivers ran down their backs, and they all automatically fell upon their knees. Some of them were finally conscious enough of their own mind to shed tears from the horror of it all. Even more had to step on their desire to scream 'Lord heir!' and threw themselves at his feet, already wondering what kind of major credit or punishment they might get out of this event.

Their thoughts were interrupted by Duan Tingxuan's mild, "It's been a hard on everyone, it's good that you all made it alive, otherwise I'd have a hard time explaining your fate to your family."

A warm feeling bloomed through the hearts of all the servants at these words. Duan Tingxuan then looked towards Duan Tingye and said, "Second brother, gather those bandits together. The Imperial Army will be here soon. Just hand the lot over to them when they arrived."

"Oh, alright." Duan Tingye finally recovered some of his senses enough to reply. Privately he thought, why do I have to do this? I'm not the one in charge of this matter, you know? I'm only the guy nominated by grandma to lead all these people here, alright? I've never handled official matters like this.

Also, since you're the oldest AND an actual court official, surely you should be in charge?

Author White Pear Flower: Ou! It's time for the little marquis to display some dog blood drama!

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Translated by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.

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