Xiaomei was already prepared for his attack and immediately pulled Baozhai and herself back. "I figured. You would have noticed," Zhou Haitou chuckled before continuing his attack. Xiaomei immediately pulled them back again to dodge his sharp sword again. At this immediate moment, Baozhai was overwhelmed and tried to rack her brain together. She didn't understand what her uncle was doing or why he was doing it.
Xiaomei didn't wait for Baozhai to understand what was happening, or they would be dead. She immediately pulled them toward the direction where the horses were. "You really do get in my way," Zhou Haitou said deadly, chasing after them and aiming his next attack at Xiaomei. Xiaomei was lucky enough to glance back to see his sword aiming to stab her. She quickly let go of Baozhai's wrist and pushed each other away as the sword stabbed the air between them. "You're really fast at dodging, but let's see about her. I'll save you for last so I can enjoy killing you," he said cunningly. He directed his attention to Baozhai and aimed his attack at her.
Baozhai was stunned as everything was happening too fast with the sword coming towards her. "Why?" Baozhai said, confused and overwhelmed as her body was frozen. Xiaomei's body already moved on its own with her trying to stop Zhou Haitou from attacking Baozhai. She reached her hand out to stop him, but she didn't see his eyes gleaming. At that moment, Zhou Haitou quickly turned back as his sword was planning to stab Xiaomei from the start.
The sword pierced through the air so fast that there was no chance that Xiaomei could dodge it or foresee it. The sharp blade was gleaming against the light and headed straight to her heart.
"Huang Daiyu!" Baozhai shouted as she awoke from shock and stretched her hand to stop him.
Xiaomei's eyes widened as her clothes were slashed open while Zhou Haitou's body was kicked away from her and stumbled onto the ground. A man in a black robe with small golden designs on his sleeves stood in front of Xiaomei. He threw his fur cloak at her to cover her exposed clothes. "Wear this. It's cold," he said.
"ZhangWei... h-how did he get here so fast? What about the others?" Xiaomei thought, pulling his cloak off her face.
"How did you get here so fast?" Zhou Haitou said in disbelief.
"Tsk," ZhangWei said before continuing, "I always felt it was funny when you disappeared to investigate the first assassination attempt. It didn't feel right how the blood trails disappeared into the room close to your room or how Daiyu would always look at you cautiously and entertainingly." Xiaomei was a little startled at the last part.
"He noticed," Xiaomei said in her head.
Zhou Haitou just laughed, "Of course. It wouldn't take you too long to figure out that it was me all along."
"Uncle, why?" Baozhai said in disbelief. She truly trusted him. Her body couldn't stop trembling in disbelief. The tip of her nose and cheeks were bright red from the cold wind, but because her eyes showed great sadness, it looked like she had cried her heart out.
"Why! Why do you think so? An outsider can see the great hatred I have for you and your father!" he said, baffled. "Oh, how I hated your father. How everyone thought he was best in everything he does, and I was just his untalented, useless brother. A nobody! And now, it is you who everyone wants because you are your father's daughter! After everything I had done for them and all the things I had to do to get where I am now!" Zhou Haitou said.
"W-wait... don't tell me y-you killed my p-parents," Baozhai stuttered.
"Of course not. I just used someone else's stupidity to do my work," he laughed.
Baozhai clenched her fist in anger. "Since you all know there's no point in keeping you all," Zhou Haitou said before whistling, and soon his men appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them.
"Do you think I wasn't aware of your men?" ZhangWei chuckled before ZhangWei's shadow guards also appeared around them.
Zhou Haitou gritted his teeth, "It's a shame. You were really useful to have." He lunged at ZhangWei. It was as if that was the signal to start the fight.
"Miss Daiyu, please stay behind me," Junfeng said, appearing in front of her.
"What about Zhou Baozhai?" Xiaomei asked, more concerned about her. "Don't worry. We have our men protecting her as well," Junfeng said. Xiaomei looked over to where Baozhai was and saw she was protected. Baozhai also joined the fight as well since she knew how to fight.
"Where Haoyu? Wasn't he the one who called for help?" Xiaomei asked.
"To answer Miss Daiyu, when Haoyu gave out our signal of help. We were lucky enough to be close by since ZhangWei was looking for you and was informed you went out with Baozhai and Zhou Haitou. ZhangWei didn't feel it was right for you or Baozhai to follow Zhou Haitou into the forest. We went after you, but when we saw Haoyu give the signal. We hurried over," Junfeng answered, blocking the attacks. It didn't seem like he was bothered by Xiaomei talking to him while he continued fighting. Xiaomei wanted to say something but kept her tongue quiet since she wanted him to force on fighting so neither of them would get wounded.
"Don't worry, Miss Daiyu. I am very capable. To inform you, Haoyu went to inform LiJie and them as ZhangWei ordered him," Junfeng said as if he read her mind. Xiaomei forced a nervous smile, refusing to talk as she pointed him to pay attention to the attackers.
Xiaomei saw ZhangWei attacking Zhou Haitou as it looked like Zhou Haitou was losing. It didn't take long before some of Zhou Haitou's men started attacking ZhangWei as ZhangWei was getting distracted by the other attackers. Zhou Haitou immediately charged toward Baozhai.
"Zhou Baozhai, watch out!" Xiaomei shouted. ZhangWei looked over to see that the people who were supposed to protect Baozhai were occupied by Zhou Haitou's men, and Baozhai was also fighting someone. Once Baozhai heard Xiaomei, she turned to see her uncle coming after her. She tried her best to defend herself, but his strength was greater than hers. He flung her sword out of her hand. ZhangWei immediately slashed and kicked the attackers away from him and rushed to Baozhai. Junfeng also kicked the attackers out of his way and tried to head toward Baozhai.