Chapter 258 — The Dark Room

Suddenly a light set of footsteps sounded outside, mingled with a man's impatient muttering: "Why are we still keeping these two alive? I say we just finish them with one blade and be done with it, so we don't have to sit guard here day after day, unable to move, and keep checking whether the two of them have woken up..."

"We have to wait for Old Chen to get back," someone answered with a laugh. "Otherwise why go to all this trouble?"

As they spoke, there came a clang, and two tall, broad-shouldered figures appeared in the doorway, silhouetted against the light.

Tao Jun hastily shut his eyes and held his breath, lying utterly still as though unconscious.

The two figures walked over to the writhing dark shape, and one of them kicked it with his foot. "Old Lin, this fellow's about to come round. What do we do?"

"Give him another crack on the head," the other said carelessly. "Old Chen will be back by tomorrow morning. After he's put to interrogation, he'll be buried in the back garden to feed the Fourth Miss's flowers. So long as he's still breathing, that's enough."

The man gave an "oh," turned, found a stick, and brought it down on the dark shape.

The dark shape slumped there without a sound.

"You didn't beat the man to death, did you?" the other said anxiously. Then he reassured the one who had struck the blow: "But it doesn't matter much. He's only a servant; so long as his master doesn't die, that's enough." Then he said to the man, "Let's go. No one's been locked up here for quite some time. The Fourth Miss said that if a place where someone has died isn't aired out for a long while, in time it breeds miasma. A person who breathes it will fall ill..."

With a clang, the door shut again. The room sank into darkness, but Tao Jun, badly frightened, sat bolt upright.

His head swimming and his eyes dazzled, phrases such as "servant," "Old Chen," "the Fourth Miss," "no one's been locked up here for some days," and "a place where someone has died" flashed through his mind like figures on a revolving lantern, and he grasped his situation at once.

Tao Jun shivered uncontrollably.

That Fourth Miss of the Dou family was no gentle country girl, but a fiend who killed without batting an eye!

He had to escape before that fellow called Old Chen came back!

Otherwise his life was surely forfeit!

Ignoring the stars bursting before his eyes, Tao Jun gently shook his servant and called his name in a low voice.

The dark shape groaned and seemed about to wake, which sent a cold sweat over Tao Jun; he hastily covered the servant's mouth and whispered his name into his ear.

The servant came groggily to himself and let out a muffled whimper.

Tao Jun said quickly, "Don't speak." Only after a moment did he take his hand from the servant's mouth.

The servant was now fully awake.

He drew a deep breath and murmured, "Where are we?"

"Probably in a cellar of the Dou mansion," Tao Jun said, keeping his voice very low, and told the servant what he had concluded. "We were asking about the Dou family's Fourth Miss, and the Fourth Miss's people found out and seized us and brought us here. We're only waiting for a man called Old Chen to come back at first light tomorrow, and then they'll torture us to make us talk... We have to find a way out of here... See whether you can still move... They surely never reckoned on your skill... That's our only hope..."

The servant silently worked his hands and feet, decided he was not badly hurt, and stood up.

Tao Jun let out a long breath.

This servant had been bestowed on him by the Duke of England, and that was why he had dared come to Zhending with only this one servant in tow.

But he had still miscalculated the Dou family's influence in Zhending.

Even if they were lucky enough to escape, he feared they would hardly elude the Dou family's pursuit.

The only way was to seek help from the nearest guard garrison.

He could not help touching his waist.

The small seal that proved his connection with the Duke of England was still there.

These men, relying on their numbers and their strength and on being on their own ground, had acted roughly and had not even searched him.

That kindled boundless hope in Tao Jun all at once.

The servant, who had been feeling his way around the walls, also let out a low cry: "Sir, this is a stone chamber, and the door is on this side, but it's cast of iron..."

Tao Jun thought of the light that had come in when the door opened a moment ago and said, "Rest and recover from your hurts. In another three hours it will be full dark. Then I'll lie on the ground and groan, and you hide outside the door and find a way to strike down that big fellow. It's a plan full of holes, but apart from it there's no way at all to get us out of danger sooner. We can only stake our lives on one throw!"

The servant answered, and the two of them waited in the pitch dark for nearly three hours, until Tao Jun began to groan loudly.

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Sisters and brothers, I finally managed to post this before twelve o'clock!

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