"Ouch!!"
I pushed Si Xirui onto the person who had just attacked me. She let out a scream and fell to the ground.
This commotion immediately caught everyone's attention. Si Jiangchen had left his friends and rushed over to me.
"Senior Brother Lu, what are you doing?"
Si Jiangchen stood in front of me. His tall body perfectly shielded me behind him.
The guy called "Senior Brother Lu" squinted his eyes and still stared at me hiding behind Si Jiangchen. "Xiao Si, there's a zombie in your place!"
It wasn't surprising that there would be highly - skilled Taoist priests at Si Jiangchen's welcome banquet.
After all, they were the orthodox lineage of the Zhengyi School. It was normal for them to be on good terms with other Taoist sects.
"Brother Lu, you said there's a zombie. Who is the zombie?"
Si Xirui got up from the ground. Ignoring the pain in her butt, she grabbed the good - looking Taoist priest and asked.
"Xirui, did you invite Senior Brother Lu here?"
Si Jiangchen's eyes had turned sharp. Originally, only people from the political and business circles in Jinling were supposed to attend today's welcome banquet. He had other arrangements for those reclusive and highly - skilled Taoist masters.
"No! I didn't know Brother Lu would come today."
Si Xirui didn't bother to ask the Taoist priest who the zombie was. Pouting aggrievedly, she said to Si Jiangchen, "Brother Lu is a master who appears and disappears without a trace. How could I get in touch with him?"
"Xiao Si, don't interrupt."
The Taoist priest surnamed Lu clearly had a bad temper. As he spoke, he took two steps forward, making hand seals. "Raising zombies is an evil act that goes against Taoist principles. Although your family practices Taoism while living a secular life, you can't do things that go against the will of heaven."
Si Jiangchen's eyes flickered for a moment. "Senior Brother Lu, come with me."
"No!"
The Taoist priest surnamed Lu had extremely sharp eyes and an unfriendly expression. "There are so many people here today, and you let a zombie roam among the crowd. What's your intention?"
"Let me introduce."
Si Jiangchen finally pulled me out from behind him and said to the Taoist priest, "This is Senior Brother Lu Tianchang, the next leader of the Qingwei School."
I looked at Lu Tianchang and tried my best to show my goodwill, because I found that Si Jiangchen seemed to respect this guy very much, although he looked as if he wanted to capture me alive.
"This is my wife, Du Xinghe, the little miss of the Du family from Du Yang Town." Si Jiangchen said in a deep voice, "Everything about her is out of necessity."
"The Du family that drives corpses?"
Lu Tianchang, as expected, also knew about my family. "I've never heard that they would turn their own daughter..."
"Senior Brother."
Before Lu Tianchang could finish his sentence, Si Jiangchen interrupted him. Only his father, Si Cheng, knew about my situation. If the Qingwei School, known as the "Thunderbolt Dharma", found out that the Si family wanted to use zombies to extend their lifespan, they would definitely publicize the Si family's evil deeds and make the Si family the enemy of all Taoist sects in China.
"Let's talk in private."
Si Jiangchen pointed to the lounge beside them and said to Lu Tianchang, "I don't want to cause panic."
"Xiao Si, are you threatening me?"
Lu Tianchang raised his eyebrows.
"Hehe, you can say so." Si Jiangchen confronted him.
They were about the same height, but Lu Tianchang looked thinner. He probably only focused on practicing Taoism every day and didn't have the strong physique of a military man like Si Jiangchen. However, he still looked imposing.
"Brother Lu, Brother Jiangchen, what are you talking about?"
Si Xirui didn't know what these two were up to. Staring at them with a confused look, she asked, "What zombie are you talking about? Is it related to Du Xinghe?"
My family had been driving corpses for generations. As soon as these things were mentioned, they would naturally think of me.
"No."
Si Jiangchen answered very quickly. "Xiao He, go to another private room with Xirui. I need to discuss something privately with Senior Brother Lu."
"No! She must..."
As soon as Lu Tianchang stretched out his hand that was making hand seals, Si Jiangchen reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Senior Brother, it's been a long time since we caught up. Let's go and have a drink while chatting."
I could see that Lu Tianchang's face instantly turned ashen. Si Jiangchen obviously wasn't feeling too good either, but he seemed a bit more powerful than Lu Tianchang. Holding Lu Tianchang's hand, he walked towards a small lounge beside the dance floor.
"Brother! Brother Lu!"
Si Xirui stamped her feet in anger. I could tell that she seemed to have a crush on Senior Brother Lu Tianchang, but at the same time, she was worried about her own "important mission". She took two steps forward to chase after them, then turned back dejectedly and glanced at me.
"Humph! Come with me! This time it's my brother who told you to come with me!"
She reached out and grabbed my wrist. Just like Si Jiangchen had dragged Lu Tianchang, she dragged me into the private room she had originally pointed at.
"Xirui, you've worked hard."
As soon as we entered the room, we saw Li Mingyue standing up from the sofa in the rest area.
The servants guarding on both sides of the door immediately retreated and closed the door.
I frowned and looked around the room. It was an ordinary private dining room. In the rest area, there were three velvet sofas, one long and two short. In the middle seat sat Li Mingyue's mother and two concubines. Along with Li Mingyue and Si Xirui who was holding me, there were five women in the room. It seemed that they really regarded me as their most important enemy!
"Du Xinghe, leave the Si family."
Li Mingyue's mother, the woman Si Cheng called "Zhu Qing", looked very gentle, but the words she said were sharp and mean. "This is not a place that a country woman like you can control."
"..."
I silently sized up the women in the room. They seemed like a group of birds kept in cages, unaware of the wind, snow, thunder, and lightning outside, only caring about the little food in their bird feeders.
Zhu Qing was sitting on the dark - red velvet sofa. Her sky - blue silk cheongsam had a very high slit. She elegantly crossed her legs, revealing a section of her calf in glass stockings. She looked extremely charming.
"Why don't you say a word?"
Zhu Qing tilted her chin and looked at me with a sideways glance. "You just want the money, don't you? I can give it to you..."
Saying that, she opened a small mahogany box on the coffee table in front of her. Inside were rolls and rolls of silver - colored paper. I had been in many places during my escape and had seen this kind of circulating banknotes. They were either called "legal tender" or "gold yuan notes".
In the northern cities where we had wandered, this kind of thing was like waste paper. A large roll couldn't even buy a box of matches.
"Yes! Miss Du, I think it's better for you to take the initiative to break off the engagement with A Chen."
The third concubine gently fanned a sandalwood folding fan in front of her face and said with a smile, "It's good for you and for us."
"Right. Only our Mingyue can support the Si family as the mistress. She has been learning how to be a mistress since she was a child. Only she is worthy of A Chen."
Zhu Qing looked at her daughter with a very satisfied and proud smile on her face.