The medical clinic.
The lamps were still burning in the room where Hou Huai lay.
Hou Huai's condition had improved over the past few days, and he had shown signs of waking. So Xu Nanzhi stayed at the clinic every night, giving him acupuncture once every four hours.
Xu Nanzhi was giving Hou Huai acupuncture now, with Jiang Rong helping at her side.
On the bed, Hou Huai's fingers suddenly twitched.
"Doctor Xu!"
Jiang Rong was a little excited. "I think I just saw Old Hou's hand move?"
"Mm."
Xu Nanzhi nodded, still focused on placing the needles.
After she placed two more needles, Hou Huai slowly opened his eyes.
"Old Hou!!"
Jiang Rong cried out excitedly, her eyes reddening at once.
A smile appeared on Xu Nanzhi's face. She was about to ask Hou Huai how he felt when her gaze suddenly sharpened, and she turned sharply toward the window.
"Stay in the room. Whatever happens in a moment, don't come out."
Xu Nanzhi spoke to Jiang Rong.
Jiang Rong froze. "Doctor Xu, what's wrong?"
Xu Nanzhi stood up. "Remember what I said."
With that, she walked to the door, pushed it open, and went outside.
The two men who had just climbed over the wall into the clinic's rear courtyard were looking at the lit room, preparing to approach and investigate, when Xu Nanzhi suddenly opened the door and came out, startling them both.
Xu Nanzhi gave them a calm glance, then turned and closed the door.
The bright light from the room was cut off, and the courtyard grew dim once more.
The two exchanged glances, both a little surprised.
"Are you Xu Nanzhi?"
One of them asked.
Xu Nanzhi stepped into the courtyard and nodded. "I'm Xu Nanzhi. The Mist Hidden Temple sent you, didn't they?"
By the moonlight, the two men studied the woman before them.
She was indeed beautiful, just as their intelligence had said.
But her reaction was rather different from what they had expected.
Clang-
The two drew the sabers from their backs.
Xu Nanzhi remained calm, without the slightest trace of panic.
"I'll do it."
The man on the left charged at Xu Nanzhi and swung his saber down.
He had deliberately held back some of his strength, using the strike mainly to test her.
After all, their goal was to capture Xu Nanzhi and use her to threaten Wu Shuangren into leaving the city.
If she died, tonight's operation would be meaningless.
Facing the descending blade, Xu Nanzhi stood rooted to the spot, as though frightened witless.
The wind from the saber lifted the hair on her forehead. At the last moment, the man pulled back his strength, leaving the blade hovering before her forehead.
But the instant he held back, Xu Nanzhi moved!
"Watch out-"
With a flicker, Xu Nanzhi appeared at his right side and reached for the wrist holding his saber.
The man was shocked and hurriedly stepped sideways to dodge.
"She knows martial arts!"
"Together!"
The two swordsmen joined forces and attacked Xu Nanzhi.
One saber swept across from behind at an angle, its gleam like a crescent moon. Just as the arc was about to reach her, Xu Nanzhi leaned forward, her whole body like a reed bent down by the wind. The blade passed less than a palm's breadth above her back.
The second saber followed close behind, this time with three consecutive slashes, each cutting off Xu Nanzhi's escape to either side. She slid back a step, her feet moving as though they trod on water. Just as the blade was about to catch the front of her robe, she abruptly stopped, tapped her left foot against the ground, and doubled back the way she had come, passing almost flush against the blade.
"This one's a prickly customer!"
One man shouted in a low voice.
The two swordsmen no longer held back, driving their internal skills to the fullest.
They were masters of fighting in tandem. Though each man's martial skill was a notch below Wei Laohei's and Luo You's, together they were a match for a first-rate expert!
Hong Zhanming had sent the two into the city not to kill Wu Shuangren, but only to abduct a doctor. It was truly a case of "using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken."
But the two had encountered a slight surprise...
Under the moonlight, both men struck at once, their saber gleams weaving a net that swept down over her head from the front.
The wind from their blades howled through the courtyard.
Xu Nanzhi darted through the flashing blades, sometimes moving swiftly like scattered pearls falling onto a platter, sometimes slowly as though strolling through a garden. Time and again, a blade came within a hair's breadth of her shoulder, waist, or knee... yet at the most perilous instant, she always dodged with an inconceivable reversal, like waves crashing against a reef again and again.
The lamplight filtering faintly from the room fell across her face, flickering between light and shadow. There was no panic in her eyes, only composure and calm.
"How is that possible... who are you?!"
Xu Nanzhi said nothing. She charged toward the blade, and when its tip was no more than half a foot from her throat, she tipped over to the right, braced her right hand against the ground, and hooked her foot upward to the left, striking the wrist of the man's saber hand.
Crack!
The man's saber flew from his grasp, spinning through the air. Xu Nanzhi used the momentum to spin to her feet and drove her left elbow into his ribs. With a dull thud, he flew backward and crashed heavily into the courtyard wall, smashing a great hole straight through it!
The remaining swordsman, shocked and furious, seized the chance to thrust his saber straight at the center of Xu Nanzhi's back.
An instant before the tip touched her clothes, Xu Nanzhi twisted her waist to the right. The blade grazed her back, slicing through a thin layer of clothing but leaving her flesh unharmed. She pressed her right palm against the back of the blade and pulled, using the force to propel herself forward, closing in on him like a swallow darting into a forest.
With the fingers of her left hand joined like a sword, she struck his Tanzhong acupoint as swiftly as lightning!
"Pfft-"
The man spat out a mouthful of blood. The Qi and blood surging through him like a tide were suddenly cut off, and he fell backward.
In the courtyard, the wind fell still.
One swordsman lay in the hole in the wall, struggling to rise. The other lay in the courtyard, blood still flowing from his mouth.
Xu Nanzhi stood in the middle of the courtyard, not a speck of dust on her. The moonlight draped her in a thin veil.
The tide could turn a thousand times, but the reef had shattered.
On the city wall, everyone was still watching the force outside the city with bated breath.
The enemy did not attack, approach, or send anyone to call out. They simply remained in the distance without making a move.
"Something's not right."
Wu Dongrong suddenly spoke in a low voice.
"Liao Yu!"
Just then, Xu Jing also gave an order. "Take a squad to patrol the city. If anything is amiss, sound the gong at once."
"Yes!"
Liao Yu left to carry out the order.
Wu Dongrong went with him, while Wu Shuangren called twenty veterans from the militia to join them.
The group quickly descended the city wall.
"Quick, to Mother's clinic!"
Wu Shuangren had also realized what was happening.
Since the enemy didn't dare attack the city, the great commotion they had stirred up tonight was most likely a feint to draw attention away from their real target.
What target in the city was worth their trouble?
Xu Nanzhi was the first person Wu Shuangren thought of.
"Go!"
The group ran swiftly through the streets.
Wu Shuangren, Wu Dongrong, and Liao Yu drove their internal skills and ran at the front.
Wu Shuangren had thought Wu Dongrong would be the most anxious of them, but for some reason, he seemed quite calm. Was he not worried about Xu Nanzhi's safety?
A little later, the three were the first to reach Xu Nanzhi's clinic.
"Mother-"
Wu Shuangren shouted, drawing his saber as he rushed into the clinic.
He soon found Xu Nanzhi unharmed in the rear courtyard, with two bound men on the ground.
"Shuangren."
Xu Nanzhi smiled at him. "Hou Huai is awake."
PS: The third update will be posted at noon.
51 Counterattack
The night was black as ink.
In a room in the clinic's rear courtyard, Wu Shuangren sat beside Hou Huai's bed.
After confirming that Xu Nanzhi was all right, Wu Dongrong and Liao Yu had taken the two swordsmen to the county yamen for questioning, while Wu Shuangren stayed behind to see Hou Huai.
"Uncle Hou, how do you feel?"
"...Not bad. I never thought I'd make a trip to the gates of hell and come back alive."
Hou Huai spoke weakly.
"Uncle Hou, I've killed those two!"
Wu Shuangren told Hou Huai.
"Hm?"
Hou Huai blinked.
Wu Shuangren gave him a rough account of what had happened that day.
He heard how Wu Shuangren had first killed Wei Laohei, then killed Luo You in front of Hong Fan, and finally even captured Hong Fan.
Hou Huai's face was full of surprise.
It took him a long time to digest it all. He looked at Wu Shuangren with a complicated expression. "Did you choose to fall out with Hong Fan because of me, Old Hou?"
Wu Shuangren was silent for a moment before slowly saying, "Not entirely because of you."
Hou Huai said, "Those two outside just now were sent by the Mist Hidden Temple to abduct Doctor Xu, weren't they?"
Wu Shuangren nodded. "Yes."
"Do you regret it?"
"What?"
"If you hadn't fallen out with Hong Fan, you wouldn't have all this trouble now."