Gu Kaizhi, Xu Miao, and the others in the third-floor study heard the commotion and came down to ask what had happened.
Chen Caozhi had no time to explain in detail. He told Xiao Chan and Qingzhi to look after his mother, Zongzhi, and Run'er, then hurried downstairs. Liu Shangzhi, Gu Kaizhi, Xu Miao, Ding Chunqiu, Chen Mo, and Chen Tan all followed.
The Chen Clan members had already gathered in the courtyard. Chen Man was ordering Jing Nu and Ran Sheng to close the heavy ring-cupped oak gates. Fortified buildings like Chen Family Cove had originally been built to withstand marauding soldiers and mountain bandits in troubled times. Once the gates were shut, even several hundred men outside could not break in anytime soon.
"What are we afraid of them for? Watch me beat them until they howl like ghosts and wolves-all by myself!" Ran Sheng shouted, refusing to close the gates.
Chen Caozhi stepped forward and asked, "Are they from the Lu Clan?" He strode to the gates and looked out. A large crowd of farmers armed with clubs and fishing spears was approaching with loud shouts, some forty or fifty of them, barely twenty-odd zhang from the Fortified Manor gates.
Lai Fu recognized several of them. "Young master, they're the Lu Clan's tenant farmers."
Clutching an oak staff, Ran Sheng cried excitedly, "Young master, watch me! I'll handle them alone."
Chen Caozhi knew that Ran Sheng possessed immense strength. Whether he had anything to do or not, he would swing a staff about, with Jing Nu offering pointers beside him. Though Jing Nu had lost an arm, judging by his manner, he seemed to know some martial arts.
Jing Nu stood to one side now, making no attempt to stop Ran Sheng, seemingly quite willing to let