Chapter 196 - Kill
As the leader of a theater troupe, Lu Zhuangyuan easily managed to reign in the chaos. He ran up the stage, stood in front of Lu Juren, and apologized to the customers with a smile on his face.
After that, he gave his younger son a look and immediately pulled Lu Juren to the back of the stage.
Lu Xiucai understood what needed to be done and quickly somersaulted onto the stage. He grabbed the gong and used it to quickly collect the money on the stage while performing.
“The Lu family... It seems that they have trouble...” muttered Li Huowang as he approached the carriage. He knew about what had happened to Luo Juanhua within the bandit camp, but there was nothing he could do.
When Li Huowang was close to the carriage, he saw Lu Zhuangyuan raising his smoke pipe and smacking it on his son’s head.
“She’s your wife! How could you say all that on stage?! You are embarrassing yourself and the entire Lu family!” shouted Lu Zhuangyuan.
Lu Juren suddenly grabbed the smoke pipe and pulled it out of his father’s hand, causing the latter to fall over with his eyes wide open as he stared at his son, shocked.
“Embarrassing? What do you mean I am embarrassing the Lu Family? We are performers! We are already the lowest of the low! We are already embarrassed enough! Even prostitutes have a higher status than us! Who else could we even compare ourselves with? Didn’t you see how she acted when she was within the bandit camp? She was laughing with them! She even... did that in front of the bandits! Father, I’ve had enough! Why is my life so miserable?!” Lu Juren kneeled on the ground and continued pounding his fist on it, despair evident in his eyes.
“Why do you think I was laughing with them? I did it for all of us! If I didn’t do that, then they would’ve killed Cui’er! You think you are the only one who is miserable?! I’M MISERABLE TOO! But I am not a noble... I’m only the wife of a performer. However, even while I’m miserable, I have to endure and pretend like nothing is happening. You think I’m a shameless woman who would sleep with just anyone? What choice did I have?” shouted Luo Juanhuan through her sobs while hugging her large belly.
Looking at this scene, Li Huowang sighed.
The root cause of this situation were the bandits. As long as bandits continued to exist, there would be many others who would suffer the same fate as Luo Juanhua.
The soldiers were supposed to suppress the bandits, but to think that they became the bandits themselves.
Wang Deqiu was right. Soldiers and bandits were more or less the same.
What a fucking horrible place this is.
There was nothing much Li Huowang could do. He whispered to the members of his group and told them to keep everything in mind.
Soon, Sun Baolu and Puppy huddled around Lu Juren while Bai Lingmiao and Chun Xiaoman approached Luo Juanhua.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang approached Lu Zhuangyuan and patted him on the shoulder. “Troupe leader Lu, don’t just sit there and stare. The performance has not ended.”
Lu Zhuangyuan looked tired; it was as if he had suddenly aged considerably. He walked toward the stage with empty hands. “Juren had never acted like that before...”
However, when he emerged from the backstage, he saw that all of the customers were gone, and the few remaining residents looked afraid as they congregated near the edges of the town.
Seeing this, Lu Zhuangyuan had no time to care about his family problems and shouted as he ran back inside, “Daoist! Daoist, quick, come out! We have trouble!”
Hearing this, Li Huowang ran out to check the situation while the others prepared themselves to escape. Knowing that something was wrong they quickly packed their belongings and prepared themselves.
“Wait here, I will go and see what’s wrong,” instructed Li Huowang.
Li Huowang immediately hid his sword within his robe and ran toward the entrance of the town.
On the way, he had to pass through a dense group of villagers and camels before he could see what was happening.
The entire town had been surrounded by soldiers!
The soldiers weren’t wearing their standard uniform. Instead, they were all wearing mismatched armors and holding a variety of weapons. Every single one of them had a green “Qiu” character tattooed on their heads.
When Li Huowang saw Hou Laoer within the group carrying a large spear, he immediately knew that they were here for him!
Hou Laoer and the rest of the Small-arms soldiers were all riding horses and carrying the same type of large spear. At this moment, all of them were encircling a massive general.
The general was huge, with a body that was at least four times as large as that of a regular human. The general was wearing full plate armor with a helmet while holding a massive halberd that was at least twelve feet long.
The general just stood there unmoving, but waves of oppressive aura was radiating from their body. Even standing as far as he was, Li Huowang still feel it.
Li Huowang had a bad feeling about it. If he had to describe the general, then he would say that the general was nothing short of a landmine that could blow up any moment.
Meanwhile, the residents of the town buzzed in fear. Even though they were people native to the country of Hou Shu, they looked more uncomfortable than Li Huowang.
“Heavens! It’s the outlaw soldiers!”
“What should we do? We need to run!”
“How can we run? They’ve already surrounded us!”
As he observed the situation, Li Huowang blended into the back of the crowd and thought about how to escape.
They are probably here for me, but most likely don’t know who I am. If they knew, then they would’ve rushed into the town to get to me by now. Should I wait for them to conduct an inspection or make a run for it? They don’t look very disciplined so maybe I can try bribing them...
While Li Huowang was busy thinking about how to escape, a fat man wearing silk robes approached the soldiers. When he got close to the general, he lowered his head and started saying something.
Looking at his outfit, Li Huowang deduced that the fat man was most likely the person in charge of maintaining relations with the outsiders.
This is a busy town where a lot of traffic intersects and numerous outsiders come and go. They probably can’t find me even with the help of the villagers.
But what happened next shocked Li Huowang.
The massive halberd rose and fell down.
Instantly, the fat man's body was split in half.
As this happened, a soft breeze blew past the faces of everyone within the town.
Then, the general stepped forward and removed their helmet.
Li Huowang saw that it was a man with a woman’s face... no, it was a woman! Her face also had a tattoo, just like the others; the words “Loyal to the nation” covered half of her face, making her look incredibly vicious.
“Everyone! There’s a spy from the kingdom of Si Qi within the town, so please forgive us!” shouted the general.
The general’s voice was melodious, but her words caused everyone who heard them to tremble.
After her declaration, she once again wore her helmet.
“Brothers! We will not sheath our weapons today until we kill them all! We need to ensure that the spies do not escape!” commanded the general.
“HA!” Immediately, the soldiers brandished their weapons and pointed them directly at everyone within the town.
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